Bono

Sonny Bono did it right--he was a comic before becoming a politician. JOHN A. SELEINE Seal Beach

In exactly one week, Los Angeles will wake up with a newly elected mayor. The lucky leader of 4 million restless campers with cracked sidewalks could be Wendy Greuel, the business-suited Valley kid who worked for Mayor Tom Bradley and President Clinton and would be the first female mayor in city history. Or it could be Eric Garcetti, who seems to have done everything in his 42 years except pitch for the Dodgers and kayak to Borneo, and whose adopted daughter may one day celebrate both a bat mitzvah and a quinceañera . Last week, I wrote about a Greuel visit to Tolliver's barbershop in South Los Angeles, where she was relaxed and sharp in front of a crowd that thinks she's the one. Today I'll report on my outing with her opponent, who, like Greuel, helped create some of the city's problems but now promises to deliver peace and prosperity to one and all. L.A. ELECTIONS 2013: Sign up for our email newsletter When Garcetti walked into a Westwood Village pizza parlor late Monday night, he was not recognized until after he'd selected artichokes, olives, onions and peppers as toppings.

Since Rep. Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs) professes to walk, talk and quack like a Democrat (George Skelton, Nov. 16), perhaps she'd best bite the bullet and run as one against Sen. Barbara Boxer in the Democratic primary. Or is this just more Republican rhetoric? SHELLEY MILLS Studio City

Chaz Bono has starred in his own documentary ("Becoming Chaz"), appeared on reality TV (ABC's "Dancing With the Stars") and authored a book ("Transition: The Story of How I Became a Man"). He's now expanded his resume by appearing onstage in a short musical parody of the cult movie "Road House" at the Celebration Theatre near West Hollywood. "Road House: The Rock Opera" is a short -- about a half-hour long -- send-up of the 1989 Patrick Swayze movie.  Bono plays the role of Tinker, originally played by actor John Young. A spokesperson for the stage production said that Bono sings in the show.

A cover photo and one-quarter of an entire issue on a lug like Sonny Bono? Incredible! CHARLES F. QUEENAN Santa Ana

Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, and U2 frontman Bono will be guest editors of the British Broadcasting Corp.'s flagship radio news program this month. They will be among five guest editors of "Today" over the Christmas period, the BBC said. The guests will choose some of the stories to be tackled by the daily current affairs program. The shows will air Dec. 27-31. Ferguson has decided to focus on motor neuron disease, while Bono said he would highlight the global fight against poverty.

Nearly a decade ago, Luciano Pavarotti and Bono teamed up in a benefit concert for children in Bosnia after the war there. Now, the singers plan to perform together to help Iraqi war refugees. The U.N. high commissioner for refugees said Tuesday that Pavarotti and Bono will share the stage in a May 27 benefit concert in Modena, northern Italy, the Italian tenor's hometown. Pavarotti has given an annual benefit concert for the last 10 years.

Bono and Alicia Keys have collaborated on a new charity single, "Don't Give Up (Africa)," to benefit the Keep a Child Alive organization, which provides medicine to families with members who have AIDS or have been diagnosed as HIV-positive. The song is a new interpretation of the Peter Gabriel song "Don't Give Up," which appeared on his landmark 1986 album "So" and featured vocals by Gabriel and Kate Bush. The new Bono and Keys take will be offered beginning Tuesday on iTunes.

Faye Fiore's article, "The First 100 Days, Babe" (April 23), seemed like an attempt to smear Rep. Sonny Bono (R-Palm Springs), a hard-working congressman who really tries to speak for his constituents. What Congress needs is not another bright lawyer but is a tough businessman like Bono, a young and eager representative to help rein in out-of-control spending, fight foolish projects that eat up billions of dollars, speak up against an ineffective foreign policy and work to reduce a debt burden that staggers even the experts.

Bono said during his talk Tuesday at the TED conference in Long Beach that he was asked by TED organizer Chris Anderson to give an overview of the last 10 years of anti-poverty efforts. But the U2 lead singer and international activist was more interested in looking at where these efforts could go in the next two decades with the help of technology and social media.  "I thought, forget the rock opera, forget the bombast, the only thing I would be singing today is the facts," Bono said.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Feb. 17 - 23, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     CBS This Morning (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Martha Stewart. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Kelly and Michael Walt Disney World: Johnny Galecki; Chris Wallace performs. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Abby Lee Miller; Don Cheadle. (N) 10 a.m. KABC The Talk Benjamin Bratt; Drew Carey. (N)

A new U2 album is rattling (and humming) to life. In an interview with England's Sun newspaper, frontman Bono said the legendary Irish band is at work on the follow-up to 2009's "No Line on the Horizon. " "U2 have been back and they're really in fine fettle," he said, pushing the rock star's royal "we" to a curious extreme. "They're mad for it at the moment and they really want to make a new record. And they don't care if it takes 10 years -- they don't care if it never happens again, they just want to get it right.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Palm Springs) on Friday conceded defeat in her Coachella Valley congressional race against Democratic emergency room doctor Raul Ruiz. "Today, I called Dr. Ruiz and congratulated him on his impressive victory. Dr. Ruiz will do a fine job if he is guided as well by the people of the congressional district as I was. Please give him the opportunity to succeed," Bono Mack said in a statement. Ruiz said he thanked Bono Mack for her dedicated public service when the two spoke Friday, and he assured voters that he would strive to represent everyone in the district, no matter their party affiliation.

Bono could become the richest musician on the planet after Facebook Inc.'s first day of trading, according to numerous reports. Elevation Partners, the investment group of the lead singer of the rock band U2, owns 2.3% of Facebook, worth an estimated $1.5 billion based on the company's IPO, according to various reports on the Web. The Irish artist, who is listed as the 12th-largest owner of Facebook shares by Forbes , invested $90...

Though "The Hunger Games" relinquished the top spot at the box office after four weeks at No. 1, star Josh Hutcherson still brought the franchise some glory this weekend. Young Hutcherson, who played baker's son Peeta Mellark in "Games," cooked up a win at Saturday evening's GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles, where as we told you he was honored with the organization's Vanguard Award. Recognized as a person making a significant difference in promoting equal rights for the LGBT community - other recent winners have included Kristin Chenoweth, Drew Barrymore and Kathy Griffen - Hutcherson was a huge hit with the crowd as the Vanguard's youngest-ever recipient.

We already knew that Dropbox had an all-star lineup of investors. Now the hot San Francisco startup revealed in a tweet two more: Bono and the Edge , the singer and lead guitarist of the rock band U2. The pair apparently took part in Dropbox's $250 million funding round last year that valued the company at $4 billion. This was the first time that Bono was identified as an individual investor in a tech company, but he's no novice tech investor. He's a co-founder and managing partner in Elevation Partners, which has sunk money into Facebook and Yelp and is raising a new $1 billion fund.

While Jesse Bravo was being treated for schizophrenia at White Memorial Medical Center last year, his wife, Laura, called the hospital daily and visited him several times. But when hospital officials decided to discharge him, Laura Bravo said, they didn't notify her and instead left him outside a rehabilitation center in South Los Angeles. She said her husband, who is not homeless, never went inside and spent days on the streets before being found. "Not knowing where he was was very scary," she said.