Behavior

OK. So I know I'm supposed to be shocked to discover that Christian Bale cussed out the director of photography on the set of "Terminator Salvation" last summer. (You can listen to his tirade on my blog, but be warned: The language is most certainly R-rated.) But is it really a surprise that Hollywood actors -- even really gifted ones like Bale -- often act like bullies and idiots? After all, if you look back at the history of film, there is a long tradition of brilliant nut cases, from Marlon Brando and Peter Sellers and Rip Torn right through Nick Nolte and Don Johnson to Sean Penn, Joaquin Phoenix and Russell Crowe.

Some horror classics just keep on giving. The well-trod story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde gets its umpteenth dramatic makeover, this time from Theatre Movement Bazaar, which has reimagined the Robert Louis Stevenson novel as a quasi-dance, quasi-melodramatic performance piece. Titled "Model Behavior," this production at the 24th Street Theatre is a visual marvel, featuring 11 ensemble members enacting a highly choreographed interpretation of Stevenson's grisly tale. In terms of plain storytelling, however, the show is cursed with two left feet, unable to convey plot and character in an elegant way. Dr. Jekyll (Jacob Sidney)

A Dartmouth College student who was ridiculed as a "teeny-bopper" when she was elected county treasurer at age 20 has been missing meetings and is too reliant on e-mail, according to county officials who briefly considered removing her from office. Democrat Vanessa Sievers, a junior from Big Sky, Mont., was elected to the Grafton County position in November after targeting college-age voters with $51 worth of advertising on the social networking site Facebook. Sievers said that she was shocked by the allegations.

If you want to spend less, carry big bills. That's the latest research from the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. Researchers say if you carry a $20 bill, you're less likely to spend it than if you had 20 singles. And one Ben Franklin is more difficult to part with than five Andrew Jacksons. "In the face of the temptation to spend, you'll be more reluctant to break that $100 bill so you'll end up saving it," says Joydeep Srivastava, associate professor of marketing and co-author of the research.

An unruly airline passenger who was duct-taped to his seat by flight attendants during an international flight has been convicted of interfering with a flight crew. James Allen Cameron, 50, of Anaheim was convicted Monday for disruptive behavior during an April 23, 2008, United Airlines flight from Hong Kong to LAX. He was also charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly hitting an off-duty pilot during the flight, but the federal jury deadlocked on that count. Prosecutors said Cameron had been drinking and was so belligerent and verbally abusive that crew members, a passenger and an off-duty pilot restrained his hands with plastic handcuffs.

Honduras' foreign minister resigned after a video posted on the YouTube website showed him throwing punches at police following a traffic stop. Milton Jimenez acknowledged being intoxicated when police stopped him for driving without license plates, but maintained that he had been mistreated. He showed reporters bruises on his arms that he said were caused when officers tossed him roughly into a pickup truck. "I was wrong to have been driving while intoxicated . . . but I think the excessive actions don't help democracy," he said.

When it comes to wine tasting, pleasure is in the price. Using brain scanners to monitor the minds of wine drinkers, scientists found that people given two identical red wines got more pleasure from tasting the one they were told cost more. The study, reported Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrated for the first time how marketing tactics -- such as raising the price of a product -- can cause the brain to play tricks on itself.

When it comes to the glare of the paparazzi, age apparently has its advantages. Just ask actor Kiefer Sutherland, who walked out of the Glendale jail early Monday mostly to a collective shrug of tabloid indifference. He'd done 48 days behind bars without fanfare, judged uninteresting in the age of Britney, Paris, Nicole and Lindsay. Fame, a Santa Monica-based photo agency, sent a photographer, to little avail: Only one publication called with a request.

A prosecutor launched an investigation into allegations that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick lied under oath about an affair with his top aide. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said that her office would investigate reports that Kilpatrick and Chief of Staff Christine Beatty exchanged romantic text messages in 2002 and '03, despite testifying in a trial last summer that they did not have a physical relationship then.

Because of my deep family ties to the University of Oregon and my long-held sense of Eugene as an open-minded and tolerant place, the ugly, bigoted way that some Ducks fans behaved during the men's basketball home game last week against UCLA was an embarrassment. That feeling, and my outrage, deepened when a school spokesman said after the game that little could have been done to keep unruly fans from yelling whatever they pleased.