Biggest Fan

Call it the Parent Trap. An eager father, who loves his son and wants him to become a top athlete, constantly pushes him to achieve. Father yells at other players to pass the ball to his kid. He yells at his son to shoot whenever he gets it. Son tries to live up to the ever-escalating standard, to such an extent that his overall game suffers. Sonora's Chad Fister--and his father, Jerry--found that trap closing in on them this season.

This week the blogosphere has reignited with talk that a posthumous album from Aaliyah could be in the works, after a source revealed to HipHopDX that Canadian rapper-singer Drake had been recruited to executive produce the project. Fans of the the late R&B songbird are still patiently awaiting a disc of vaulted works from the singer who helped define and reinvent the sound of '90s urban music before her 2001 death in a plane crash in the Bahamas. The prospect of Drake being at the helm only further greased the wheels of the rumor mill.

Steven Smith's article on movie character names (Film Clips, Oct. 6) caused a verbal riot at my Sunday brunch. Everyone weighed in. My personal favorite is "Ball of Fire." As Billy Wilder's biggest fan, I still delight in the fact that he and Charles Brackett dared to name Barbara Stanwyck's character Sugarpuss O'Shea--and two of the dumb thugs Asthma and Pastrami. How did these names get past the studio brass? When my first screenplay went into production (the mind-numbing "Gnaw: Food of the Gods II")

The man who has it all, millions and millions and at least 40 more coming, is crying. He's sitting in the lobby of a fancy hotel here, his hands curled into fists to fight away the relentless tears. He cares so much he cannot speak. You know him, of course: "WELLS" across his back when he's playing and you might be booing. To everyone else in baseball, he's "Vernon Wells, the guy with the big contract who sucks. " And he understands. "That's my name," Wells concedes in acknowledging how it all runs together these days, seven years, $126million and he cannot hit. This year was going to be different, slow to start but coming on, he says, when he injured his thumb.

One great thing about baseball is that it can forge lasting bonds. Just ask Cal State Fullerton's P.J. Pilittere and Kurt Suzuki. They are catchers for the Titans. In essence, though, they are one. Each is the other's biggest booster, and where others provide the quiet leadership for this College World Series title contender, Pilittere and Suzuki provide the fire. "Those guys do not stop the whole game," freshman shortstop Justin Turner said. "They won't let us get down."

An obsessive fan worms her way into the life of a pop star in "Backstage," which could be characterized as a contemporary take on "All About Eve," only French, and with a more self-sacrificing ingenue. Emmanuelle Bercot's film features a platinum-blond Emmanuelle Seigner as the mercurial Lauren Waks, a diva who looks like Deborah Harry, sings like Vanessa Paradis and inspires fans to gather on the street in front of her hotel and yowl like a late-'80s Madonna.

Enough of football, basketball and badminton. Let's play a real game, sports fans, one that'll really scatter that gray matter. It's time for Name That Newsmaker! Read each selection carefully, then choose one of the multiple choice answers below. Use a No. 2 pencil, please, and no scribbling in the margins. And hey, cheat all you want! If prep sports were a game show, As they often seem to be. This man would be the host, He's the Blue Book Referee.

It might be the single biggest moment in franchise history , Chris Paul saying he really wanted to be a Clipper. No fingers crossed behind his back. And yet no one would have been surprised to see five or six big guys carrying a kicking and screaming Paul into the Clippers' practice facility. He was a Laker, then he was not, and then he was a Clipper. There are some people in the NBA who might consider that cruel and inhumane treatment. But Paul embraced the Clippers' experience saying, "I'm my biggest fan and I'm one of those people who think I have the ability to change things.

The man who has it all, millions and millions and at least 40 more coming, is crying. He's sitting in the lobby of a fancy hotel here, his hands curled into fists to fight away the relentless tears. He cares so much he cannot speak. You know him, of course: "WELLS" across his back when he's playing and you might be booing. To everyone else in baseball, he's "Vernon Wells, the guy with the big contract who sucks. " And he understands. "That's my name," Wells concedes in acknowledging how it all runs together these days, seven years, $126million and he cannot hit. This year was going to be different, slow to start but coming on, he says, when he injured his thumb.

The bad news is that the Oscars are just around the corner, and once again you have failed to be nominated. The good news is that if you are tired of waiting for those 15 minutes of fame, you can simulate the experience with a "fanning." For a fee, the women who run L.A.'s Rent-a-Fanclub will swoon. They will scream. They will cry, faint, photograph and paw at you. Unfortunately, they will also leave when it's over. But, hey, you can't have everything.

DETROIT -- Mike Trout met another member of his growing fan club before Monday night's game in Comerica Park, though this one has a lot more in common with the Angels' rookie phenom than most. It was Al Kaline, the former Detroit Tigers outfielder and Hall of Famer who as a 20-year-old in 1955 won the American League batting title with a .340 average. Trout, who turns 21 on Aug. 7, entered Monday with an AL-leading .349 average and 30 stolen bases, and he led the Angels with a .403 on-base percentage, 60 runs and 95 hits.

It might be the single biggest moment in franchise history , Chris Paul saying he really wanted to be a Clipper. No fingers crossed behind his back. And yet no one would have been surprised to see five or six big guys carrying a kicking and screaming Paul into the Clippers' practice facility. He was a Laker, then he was not, and then he was a Clipper. There are some people in the NBA who might consider that cruel and inhumane treatment. But Paul embraced the Clippers' experience saying, "I'm my biggest fan and I'm one of those people who think I have the ability to change things.

The wonderful Kathy Bates, lately seen around NBC in a recurring role on "The Office," settles into an office of her own Monday as the star of "Harry's Law," a legal dramedy from David E. Kelley. Once thought a man who could do no wrong — before he ushered "Snoops," "The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire" and "The Wedding Bells" into the world — Kelley returns here to his happy place, the familiar fruitful ground of "Ally McBeal" and "Boston Legal," mixing whimsical characters and situations with topical judicial thought-experiments.

Frederick K. Ohlrich, the warm-up act for the California Supreme Court, has some advice for nervous lawyers appearing before the seven robed justices. Don't call a justice by name. You'll probably get it wrong. Don't ask the chief justice how much time you have left. And when your name is called after the justices enter the chambers, answer "Ready," whether you are or not. Ohlrich, 67, known around court headquarters here as "Fritz," is clerk of the California Supreme Court — its keeper of records, its historian and its biggest fan. The avuncular administrator of the state's top court calls the cases for monthly oral argument — a hearing that signals a decision is coming soon — and preps the lawyers waiting to make their final pitch to the justices.

When Abby Berendt Lavoi graduated from college, she got a job in New York making television commercials as a full-time contractor for one of the largest media companies in the world. She was eligible for health insurance only after she had been working there for a year. Ten months into the job, Berendt Lavoi came down with painful stomach cramps. Terrified, she used Google to find a hospital that would accept patients without insurance, and underwent surgery to remove an ovarian cyst the size of a softball.

Square and loud, SpongeBob wasn't supposed to have much chance for success in Japan, a nation known for its love of more cuddly characters such as Hello Kitty and Pikachu. But the perky, bucktoothed American cartoon character is proving the skeptics wrong. SpongeBob SquarePants attracts nearly 1.9 million Japanese households to his TV show daily and is raking in a growing share of the $5 billion in annual retail sales for Nickelodeon, the Viacom Inc. unit behind the show.

This week the blogosphere has reignited with talk that a posthumous album from Aaliyah could be in the works, after a source revealed to HipHopDX that Canadian rapper-singer Drake had been recruited to executive produce the project. Fans of the the late R&B songbird are still patiently awaiting a disc of vaulted works from the singer who helped define and reinvent the sound of '90s urban music before her 2001 death in a plane crash in the Bahamas. The prospect of Drake being at the helm only further greased the wheels of the rumor mill.

The wonderful Kathy Bates, lately seen around NBC in a recurring role on "The Office," settles into an office of her own Monday as the star of "Harry's Law," a legal dramedy from David E. Kelley. Once thought a man who could do no wrong — before he ushered "Snoops," "The Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire" and "The Wedding Bells" into the world — Kelley returns here to his happy place, the familiar fruitful ground of "Ally McBeal" and "Boston Legal," mixing whimsical characters and situations with topical judicial thought-experiments.

An obsessive fan worms her way into the life of a pop star in "Backstage," which could be characterized as a contemporary take on "All About Eve," only French, and with a more self-sacrificing ingenue. Emmanuelle Bercot's film features a platinum-blond Emmanuelle Seigner as the mercurial Lauren Waks, a diva who looks like Deborah Harry, sings like Vanessa Paradis and inspires fans to gather on the street in front of her hotel and yowl like a late-'80s Madonna.

The mother talks to the son before every start. For 10 years, she has talked to him before every start. It's never deep, it's never original, but it's always Mom, and it always matters. Donna Tomko says, "Have a good game, honey." So on April 7, on the phone to Philadelphia, she talked to her son, Brett, before his first Dodger start. Only this time, it was different. Earlier that day, she learned she had breast cancer. She would have to undergo surgery. There was a chance she would die.