Auditions

As part of a settlement with federal regulators, 13 lenders this week are starting to pay out $3.6 billion to more than 4 million troubled borrowers whose homes were in foreclosure proceedings in 2009 and 2010. A chart released Tuesday by the regulators showed that most of the borrowers would receive $300, the minimum allowed under the settlement terms. The maximum of $125,000 would go to 1,135 borrowers whose homes were seized while they were serving in the military or who were current on their payments.

Seven weeks after its auditor resigned in an insider trading scandal, Herbalife Ltd. retained major accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers as its new auditor. The Los Angeles nutritional products company said Tuesday that PricewaterhouseCoopers would begin "immediately" to re-audit its financial statements for 2010, 2011 and 2012. Former auditor KPMG withdrew its audits of those statements after it learned of the insider-trading allegations. Herbalife shares jumped on the news, gaining $1.33, or 2.7%, to $50.54.

Miles Teller almost died a few years ago. After spending a few days at a Connecticut music festival, he and two buddies were road tripping home to Florida. Cruising down the highway at 75 mph, Teller's friend tried to switch lanes and nearly hit another vehicle. He jerked the steering wheel back but lost control of the car, which went across three lanes of traffic, into a grass median, and flipped seven times. Teller was thrown 25 feet and awoke covered in blood. "I still have two rocks in my face," the boyish 23-year-old actor said, showing off scars on his chin, neck and shoulder.

Bell's finances have worsened considerably since its infamous corruption scandal, leaving the city unable to refund millions of dollars in taxes illegally levied on residents and businesses, an audit released Wednesday shows. The report by the state controller paints a troubling picture of the small southeast Los Angeles County city's efforts to recover from the 2010 scandal, which resulted in felony convictions against five former City Council members. The city's longtime city manager, Robert Rizzo, faces trial on corruption charges later this year.

Rachel Prieur and her brother Ryan were captivated by a radio commercial flooding the airwaves in Dallas. It offered children a shot at stardom — maybe even a part on a Disney show — and all they had to do was show up for an audition. The teenagers begged their parents to take them. Crammed into a hotel ballroom with 200 other children, they took turns reading short monologues in front of a judge. Their father, Bruce Prieur, said a representative for "The," the company that staged the event, told him his children had talent and had qualified to participate in a larger showcase at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, where they would meet top talent scouts.

For aspiring actors growing up in Great Britain, "Les Miserables" wasn't just a popular stage musical, it was practically required viewing - particularly for Samantha Barks and Eddie Redmayne. Barks spent much of her youth performing a one-girl version of the show on her karaoke machine while Redmayne became obsessed with the play after first seeing it when he was 7. Barks soon left karaoke behind and went on to join the cast of a West End production of "Les Miz" in 2010. And now, at 22 - having beaten out the likes of Taylor Swift and Scarlett Johansson - the actress makes her film debut in the role of the lovelorn street waif Eponine in the adaptation of the classic Victor Hugo novel from director Tom Hooper ("The Kings Speech")

This post has been updated. See below for details. The Church of Scientology and Tom Cruise are certainly laboring this holiday weekend. An explosive new report contends the organization auditioned potential brides for Cruise following his 2001 split from Nicole Kidman -- one that's been backed up by a famous detractor of the religion. On Saturday, Vanity Fair magazine released a cover story titled "What Katie Didn't Know," an expose claiming an effort on the part of the church to find and vet partners for Cruise, a title that eventually went to his now ex-wife Katie Holmes.

The blind taste auditions finally came to an end on Tuesday night's episode of "The Taste. " Typically, the auditions are the best part of any competition. Those shows highlight the wackiest, worst, no-business-being-on-TV people for your entertainment pleasure. But I got a little bored with "The Taste. " Watching judges Ludo Lefebvre, Nigella Lawson, Brian Malarkey and Anthony Bourdain wear the same clothing they did in the first episode, but pretend it was a different day, and send chef after chef home with no real reason left me wanting more, and frustrated with the show's premise.

On Wednesday, "The X Factor" left off on a cliffhanger. Adorable 13-year-old contestant Trevor Moran was nowhere near the stage when he was called to go on. Where was he? Did anyone have "eyes on" him? The crew finally tracked him down lying on the floor, looking weak and pale, with his head on his worried mother's lap. Paramedics were called in. And? Those of you who guessed he was maybe just a little dehydrated win a prize. A little water and Moran was up and walking around, worrying about getting another shot at an audition.

After several weeks of seeing one vocalist after another step onstage and sing in hopes of making Blake Shelton, Christina Aguilera, CeeLo Green and Adam Levine spin their chairs and beg, "The Voice" blind auditions have come to an end. Each coach started Monday night's auditions with 14 singers in his or her stable, leaving each with two slots to fill to complete a team of 16 with which to head into next week's battle bounds. After a night of hotly contested selections -- words were exchanged, loyalties were tested -- here are each coach's final two: Adam Levine: Caitlin Michele: This Boston 20-year-old has a funky look and a challenge she's fought to overcome: She suffers from extreme panic disorder, which often causes her to pass out cold.

LAS VEGAS - A Nevada state audit of practices by Clark County cab drivers has given new meaning to the term “being taken for a ride” - to the tune of nearly $15 million. Under scrutiny was a practice known here as “long hauling,” in which drivers take an extended route by freeway to the Strip from McCarran International Airport, when local streets could cut both the time and the cost. The practice added an average of $10 to each fare. A report by the legislative auditor, released Monday, found that in 2012 cabbies running up the meter by taking the scenic route to and from the airport cost nearly 1.5 million fares an estimated $14.8 million . Auditors warned the Nevada Taxicab Authority to crack down on the practice, which accounted for 614, or 22.5%, of the 2,730 airport trips that auditors reviewed.

As he campaigns to become the city's next controller, Councilman Dennis Zine said his first job in office would be to audit the Los Angeles Police Department's risk management division to find out why so many officers are involved in lawsuits. The city has spent as much as $50 million on legal settlements in recent years on cases it could have avoided if commanders did a better job supervising officers, says Zine, a former LAPD motorcycle officer who faces lawyer Ron Galperin in a May 21 runoff election.

SACRAMENTO -- California motorists can get specialized license plates with pictures of whales, firefighters and palm trees to benefit certain state programs, but the state auditor said Thursday the state has failed to collect up to $22 million owed for the plates. In addition, state Auditor Elaine Howle found that state agencies that receive money from the special plates have not properly handled the cash. "This report concludes that the State has not collected all revenue due from special plates and has spent some of the special plate revenue on expenditures that were unallowable or unsupported,” Howle wrote to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Aspiring astronauts and wannabe reality TV stars, take note: A nonprofit that aims to send the first human colonists to Mars by 2023 will start taking applications in July of this year. Mars One, the Netherlands-based organization that wants to turn the colonizing of Mars into a global reality television phenomenon, is encouraging anyone who is interested in space travel to apply. Previous training in space travel is not required, nor is a science degree of any sort, but applicants do need to be at least 18 years of age and willing to leave Earth forever.

As part of a settlement with federal regulators, 13 lenders this week are starting to pay out $3.6 billion to more than 4 million troubled borrowers whose homes were in foreclosure proceedings in 2009 and 2010. A chart released Tuesday by the regulators showed that most of the borrowers would receive $300, the minimum allowed under the settlement terms. The maximum of $125,000 would go to 1,135 borrowers whose homes were seized while they were serving in the military or who were current on their payments.

With the state about to tap a surplus from gun registration fees to increase enforcement efforts, a group of 31 Republican lawmakers called Monday for an audit of the account to determine whether gun owners are being overcharged. The legislators said the Dealers' Record of Sale Special Account should be looked at by the state auditor to determine whether the fee is set at a rate that only covers the state's cost to conduct the required background check of the gun purchaser. The fee was increased from $14 to $19 in 2004.

The first few minutes of "The X Factor" auditions in Greensboro, N.C., brought the revelation that Britney Spears does her own makeup (or at least applies her own unflattering pink lipstick, apparently while covering her fully dressed self with a hotel bathrobe), while Demi Lovato has someone do hers for her while she gets her beauty rest. Which explains some things, including, perhaps, Lovato's peculiar "Jetsons"-esque hairdo on Thursday night's show. We also learned that Simon Cowell really should put a sweater or something on over his trademark white T-shirt if he's going to stand up and give the camera a full-on chest close-up.

Local job opportunities for opera singers got a boost early this week, when Opera Pacific issued a casting call for apprentices and chorus members for the company's upcoming production of Puccini's "La Boheme." The Irvine-based company will present Puccini's beloved work, to be staged by composer Gian Carlo Menotti, at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on March 28 and April 1 and 4.

Are you an actor who suffers from depression due to constant rejection? Have you had nightmares about strangers looking you over as if you're meat? Do you break into a cold sweat at the words "open casting call"? Perhaps "Worst Audition Ever" can help. It's held once a month in the basement of Casita del Campo, a Mexican restaurant in Silver Lake. Tickets cost $20. And although that might sound like a splurge for a thespian who's more out of work than working, it's a bargain if you think of it as therapy.

SACRAMENTO - A catalog of recent misconduct cases in California's corrections system includes allegations that prison guards groped and grappled with inmates, brought them drugs, shared their booze and solicited them for sex. The two-volume report, issued this week by the independent Office of Inspector General, chronicles 278 disciplinary cases the watchdog agency monitored from July to December 2012. The report includes numerous allegations of prison workers delivering drugs and mobile phones to inmates, having sex with them and turning a blind eye to or even arranging inmate assaults.