Brian Greene

So Major League Baseball is about to sign an agreement with DirecTV for the rights to the MLB TV package that will disenfranchise 230,000 ardent baseball fans across the country. Has there ever been a baseball commissioner who has done less for fans? BRIAN GREENE Monrovia

In "Wedding Band," which premieres Saturday on TBS, Brian Austin Green, who was on "Beverly Hills 90210" for a decade, plays Tommy, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of an aging quartet available for weddings and bar mitzvahs in the rocktropolis of Seattle. (Local references in the script include Kurt and Courtney for the masses, the Tractor Tavern for the cognoscenti.) Spun a certain way, the premise might have produced a kind of younger musical companion to sister network TNT's late "Men of a Certain Age. " But this is not that.

Any evaluation of Fred Claire's tenure [March 21] should include this: Claire has presided over the Dodgers during their longest drought without a National League pennant since the 1930s. He has made extremely bad trades and personnel moves (dealing '96 World Series MVP John Wetteland, '90 AL Cy Young winner Bob Welch, Pedro Martinez, Juan Guzman, Eric Young and Henry Rodriguez) and compensated for these poor moves by signing free agents and filling gaps through late-season trades that never seem to pan out (Darryl Strawberry, Mike Blowers, Chad Curtis, Dave Clark, etc.)

Brian Austin Green pokes at a bowl of chicken and rice soup at the 101 Coffee Shop in Hollywood. The 39-year-old actor has a cold that he doesn't want to pass on to his 6-week-old baby son, Noah. "I'm too old for this sleeping three or four hours a night thing," says Green of having a newborn in his life. Noah is his son with wife Megan Fox, but Green also has a 9-year-old son with former girlfriend Vanessa Marcil. These days Green, who admits that he was quite the party guy in the past, says his priorities are to take it easy and to care for his family.

The Dodgers could have added Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn to the 2009 roster for $15 million with the potential to produce 60 homers and 200 RBIs and had $10 million left to spend on pitching. Instead, they're trying to sign Manny Ramirez for $25 million, who has the potential for 35 homers and 120 RBIs, and leaving the team with no extra cash to fill pitching holes on the roster. The economics of baseball just don't add up. Brian Greene Monrovia :: I am amused by the Dodgers' response to the possibility of lowering ticket prices for spring training games (currently $18-$100)

Laura Becher, graduate student: "The Men and the Girls" by Joanna Trollope (Avon). "Trollope's sumptuous detail--from the sights and sounds of a townmarket to the glint of sunlight off the heroine's red curls--envelops the reader from the start. Her books never fail to grant me a brush with a world beyond the bustle of my own life." **** Leslie Bartlett, actress: "Wake Up, I'm Fat!" by Camryn Manheim (Broadway Books).

So the Dodgers are going to fill the gap at shortstop by trading for the Expos' Mark Grudzielanek? A quick check of the stats reveals that over the past two seasons this player has made more errors than he has letters in his surname--59 to be exact. I hope the front office does some more homework before stepping off this cliff. BRIAN GREENE Los Angeles The rumor is, the Angels are offering Jim Edmonds for a starting pitcher. OK, maybe, but every time I hear something like that, I break out in a cold sweat.

Sasha Cohen wins the silver medal, yet The Times runs a picture of her falling down. Does this mean when Vladimir Guerrero hits three homers in a game, you'll run a picture of him striking out? BRIAN GREENE Monrovia Why all the mean-spirited nastiness directed at Sasha Cohen? Bill Plaschke's column was the worst. To suggest that she didn't deserve a medal is really hitting below the belt. Of course she did. After an inauspicious start, she rallied bravely and elegantly to skate a lovely program, racking up sufficient points for her unexcelled artistry and her technical skill.

Cypress took a wild ride behind reliever Brian Greene and hung on for an 8-6 victory over College of the Sequoias Saturday in the first round of the state baseball tournament at Fresno City College. Greene, who has three victories and a loss in the playoffs, entered in the sixth with the bases loaded and two outs. He struck out Johnny Estrada to end the threat. Greene (9-3) struck out the side in the seventh around a walk and a hit.

Night in and night out, these Dodger box scores look like a billion dollars. As in 000,000,000. Brian Greene Rolling Hills Estates Now that the possible trade of Odalis Perez for Trot Nixon has fallen through, here are a few other suggestions: Trade Perez to the Braves for Gary Sheffield. We'll even throw in Brian Jordan. Trade Todd Hundley and the millions we owe him in 2004 to the Cubs for .300-hitting Mark Grudzielanek and Eric Karros. Ask the Giants to just give us .300-hitting Marquis Grissom.

Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green are parents of a new baby boy -- actually, a not-so-new baby boy. Noah Shannon Green was born on Sept. 27, Fox announced Wednesday on Facebook after "a few peaceful weeks at home. " The baby "is healthy, happy, and perfect," she wrote. "We are humbled to have the opportunity to call ourselves the parents of this beautiful soul and I am forever grateful to God for allowing me to know this kind of boundless, immaculate love. PHOTOS: The Hollywood baby boom "Thanks to those of you who wish to send your positive energy and well wishes," Fox continued.

Science, which is confusing to many people — some to the point that they regard it as a form of superstition — has always needed its champions, its spokespersons, its interpreters, big brains who also function efficiently as celebrities and have a knack for taking impossible-sounding theories and making them sound, at least for the moment they're speaking, comprehensible. Here comes Brian Greene, again. (He is TV's favorite theoretical physicist.) Like Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking before him, Greene — whose "The Fabric of the Cosmos" begins a four-week run Wednesday in the framework of the PBS series "Nova" — is both mediagenic and a working scientist.

The roster of young celebrities allegedly victimized by the so-called bling ring expanded Wednesday as Los Angeles police detectives said the group targeted Brian Austin Green, Ashley Tisdale and Megan Fox as part of a string of at least 10 burglaries in the Hollywood Hills. So far, at least eight celebrities -- including Paris Hilton, Audrina Patridge, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel Bilson and Orlando Bloom -- have allegedly had property stolen by the gang that police said was made up primarily of teenage girls, most of whom attended the same continuation school in Agoura Hills.

The Dodgers could have added Bobby Abreu and Adam Dunn to the 2009 roster for $15 million with the potential to produce 60 homers and 200 RBIs and had $10 million left to spend on pitching. Instead, they're trying to sign Manny Ramirez for $25 million, who has the potential for 35 homers and 120 RBIs, and leaving the team with no extra cash to fill pitching holes on the roster. The economics of baseball just don't add up. Brian Greene Monrovia :: I am amused by the Dodgers' response to the possibility of lowering ticket prices for spring training games (currently $18-$100)

So Major League Baseball is about to sign an agreement with DirecTV for the rights to the MLB TV package that will disenfranchise 230,000 ardent baseball fans across the country. Has there ever been a baseball commissioner who has done less for fans? BRIAN GREENE Monrovia

Sasha Cohen wins the silver medal, yet The Times runs a picture of her falling down. Does this mean when Vladimir Guerrero hits three homers in a game, you'll run a picture of him striking out? BRIAN GREENE Monrovia Why all the mean-spirited nastiness directed at Sasha Cohen? Bill Plaschke's column was the worst. To suggest that she didn't deserve a medal is really hitting below the belt. Of course she did. After an inauspicious start, she rallied bravely and elegantly to skate a lovely program, racking up sufficient points for her unexcelled artistry and her technical skill.

Stephen Hawking admits his international mega-hit "A Brief History of Time" was a bit of a slog. Translated into 40 languages since its debut in 1988 and selling more than 10 million copies worldwide, the tome is probably the most unread book of all time. Hands up all those who got past Chapter 2. Be honest now. Notwithstanding the legendary arcana of book No. 1, Hawking's second effort at "popular" science writing, "The Universe in a Nutshell," is currently climbing best-seller lists.

Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green are parents of a new baby boy -- actually, a not-so-new baby boy. Noah Shannon Green was born on Sept. 27, Fox announced Wednesday on Facebook after "a few peaceful weeks at home. " The baby "is healthy, happy, and perfect," she wrote. "We are humbled to have the opportunity to call ourselves the parents of this beautiful soul and I am forever grateful to God for allowing me to know this kind of boundless, immaculate love. PHOTOS: The Hollywood baby boom "Thanks to those of you who wish to send your positive energy and well wishes," Fox continued.

A few years ago, Brian Greene, a mathematician and physicist at Columbia University, wrote a witty, deep, yet wholly accessible book on the remote subject of string theory, which deservedly became a bestseller and made Greene the closest thing to a rock star in his field. He was even the host of a TV show based on the book, "The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory."

Night in and night out, these Dodger box scores look like a billion dollars. As in 000,000,000. Brian Greene Rolling Hills Estates Now that the possible trade of Odalis Perez for Trot Nixon has fallen through, here are a few other suggestions: Trade Perez to the Braves for Gary Sheffield. We'll even throw in Brian Jordan. Trade Todd Hundley and the millions we owe him in 2004 to the Cubs for .300-hitting Mark Grudzielanek and Eric Karros. Ask the Giants to just give us .300-hitting Marquis Grissom.