SPORTS
May 21, 2012 | By Mike Bresnahan
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Andrew Bynum was right. Close-out games can be easy. The Oklahoma City Thunder stepped all over the Lakers in the fourth quarter of their 106-90 Game 5 victory Monday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena, ending the Lakers' season yet again in the Western Conference semifinals. It wasn't as bad as last season's 36-point blowout loss in Dallas, and there won't be any carry-over suspensions for next season, but the two-championship run the Lakers put together couldn't have seemed any further in the past.
ENTERTAINMENT
May 19, 2012 | By Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
Like a bad love affair, they kept it a secret from their families as long as they could. Because in 2012, who can admit the thing they want more than anything in the world is to open a bookstore? Now they know. Pop-Hop Books & Print is holding its grand opening on Sunday with readings, music, printing and refreshments. Located in Highland Park on a stretch of York Boulevard that sparkles with new shops and restaurants, the store is a celebration of books as print artifact, with used literary and art books for sale and, tucked behind movable shelves, a screen-printing salon.
SPORTS
May 18, 2012 | Bill Plaschke
OK, so I recognize that guy. Of course, absolutely, that's him. Still clutch, still fearless, still talented enough to throw his aging body in front of a defeat and almost single-handedly stop it, spin it on its axis, and turn it into a victory. Yeah, Kobe Bryant is still the one. Two days after giving away a second-round playoff game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Bryant grabbed one back for the Lakers on Friday night, controlling the momentum and creating the magic that gave the Lakers a 99-96 home victory in Game 3. With memories of Bryant's fourth-quarter collapse Wednesday still fresh, Bryant scored 14 points in this fourth quarter to give the Lakers new life, if only for 24 hours.
SPORTS
May 14, 2012 | Bill Plaschke
OKLAHOMA CITY - Is it over? It's just the first game in two weeks' worth of them, the earliest hours in a brawl that could last all day, but I know what everyone is thinking, so we might as well ask it. Is this first punch a knockout punch? How on earth can the Lakers peel themselves off the floor to win four of the next six games against an Oklahoma City team that just beat them by 29 points, two dozen sprints, a dozen floor burns, six dunks, five tongue-wagging celebrations, and one glaring Derek Fisher?
ENTERTAINMENT
May 11, 2012 | By Sheri Linden, Special to the Los Angeles Times
As self-consciously precocious teens go, the high schooler at the center of"Girl in Progress"is an exceptionally contrived example. But contrivance is the engine of this young-adult comedy, which pretends to deconstruct storytelling clichés while never really transcending them. The transparent postmodern manipulation of Hiram Martinez's screenplay revolves around Ansiedad (Cierra Ramirez), responsible daughter to an aimless mother, Grace (Eva Mendes), who had her when she was just a teen herself.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
May 10, 2012 | By Mary Rourke, Special to the Los Angeles Times
With one high-profile haircut on the Paramount Studios lot, Vidal Sassoon vaulted to fame in Hollywood. Flown in from London, he trimmed the tresses of Mia Farrow for her role in the film "Rosemary's Baby" - a $30 haircut that he calculated cost $5,000, including airfare. The 1967 event was staged inside a makeshift "salon" in a boxing ring. The film's director, Roman Polanski, looked on as Sassoon gave the actress a pixie cut that would be copied by women the world over.