Brian Mitchell

John Friesz played like a guy who plans on sticking around. Supposed to baby sit Washington's quarterback job until top draft pick Heath Shuler is ready to take over, Friesz threw four touchdown passes Sunday as the Redskins defeated the New Orleans Saints, 38-24. Brian Mitchell scored on a 74-yard punt return and set up another touchdown with an 86-yard kickoff return, helping rookie head Coach Norv Turner earn his first victory. Friesz completed 15 of 22 passes for 194 yards.

A federal jury in Salt Lake City, Utah on Friday morning convicted a self-proclaimed prophet and street preacher of kidnapping and repeatedly raping then-14-year-old Elizabeth Smart, rejecting arguments by the defense that Brian David Mitchell was insane at the time of the crimes. Mitchell, 57, could face up to life in prison. He and his then-lover, Wanda Barzee, took Smart from her bedroom in her Salt Lake City home one night in 2002 and brought her to a remote mountain camp, where she was shackled and repeatedly raped by Mitchell.

Local supporters of the Actors Fund did double duty on June 13, raising funds for entertainment professionals in need and getting an early look at the Tonys, courtesy of a satellite feed to the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. The evening of big-screen TV-watching also honored Brian Stokes Mitchell, star of "Ragtime," "Man of La Mancha" and "Kiss Me, Kate," with his high school chum, Annette Bening, bestowing the award. Between TV segments, the L.A. audience had its own live show, hosted by nine-time Tony winner Tommy Tune and scripted by "Desperate Housewives" producer-creator Marc Cherry and "CSI" producer-writer David Rambo.

World Boxing Assn. junior lightweight champion Brian Mitchell stopped Venezuela's Aurelio Benitez Saturday night in the second round of a non-title fight. Referee Stan Christodoulou stopped the scheduled 10-round bout after Mitchell knocked Benitez down twice in the second round with rights to the head. Mitchell won the WBA title in September from Alfredo Layne and retained it last month with a draw against Puerto Rican Jose Rivero.

The same week the World Boxing Council suspended a West German promoter for staging a West Berlin bout in which a South African boxer was a participant, the Forum revealed plans to hold a June championship bout involving another South African fighter. Forum matchmaker Tony Curtis said he wants to match Brian Mitchell of South Africa, the World Boxing Assn. junior-lightweight champion, against Hector Lopez of Glendale in June.

Most football fans -- even a lot of non-fans -- have heard of Jerry Rice, but how many have heard of New York Giant kick returner and running back Brian Mitchell? On Sunday, Mitchell moved ahead of Rice -- at least for a day -- as the NFL's all-time leader in combined yards. Mitchell had 95 combined yards -- 10 receiving and 85 on kickoff returns -- in the Giants' 24-21 overtime victory Sunday over the Washington Redskins. That gives him 22,379 total yards, passing Rice's 22,331.

Tony Lopez of Sacramento and Brian Mitchell of South Africa fought 12 exciting rounds, each trying to unify the junior-lightweight boxing championship Friday night at Arco Arena. When it was over, they had achieved nothing. The judges called it a draw. Lopez won the early rounds, but Mitchell was clearly stronger at the finish, winning the last four rounds on The Times card, which also had it even.

For the first time since her 2002 abduction by a self-proclaimed religious prophet captured worldwide attention, Elizabeth Smart spoke publicly about her ordeal today, testifying in federal court that Brian David Mitchell repeatedly invoked religion to justify sexually abusing her for months. Testifying in a hearing to determine whether Mitchell is mentally competent to face federal kidnapping charges, Smart, now 21, calmly detailed nine months of being shackled and repeatedly raped.

For the young Jessica Biel, taking voice lessons was like trying on her mother's high heels. One day Jessica's mother needed to go to a voice lesson, but couldn't get a baby-sitter. So she took 8-year-old Jessica along. Jessica wanted a crack at it too, so her mother gave her the appointment. And so Biel's love of singing was born.

It's as though these songs have always existed: "Some Enchanted Evening," "Younger Than Springtime," "There Is Nothing Like a Dame." As much a part of the postwar psyche as an open highway or a backyard barbecue, the music of "South Pacific" lives a hum away in most of us. Rodgers and Hammerstein's tuneful paeans to cockeyed American optimism sailed into the night air at the Hollywood Bowl this weekend in a buoyant concert production starring Reba McEntire and Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Most football fans -- even a lot of non-fans -- have heard of Jerry Rice, but how many have heard of New York Giant kick returner and running back Brian Mitchell? On Sunday, Mitchell moved ahead of Rice -- at least for a day -- as the NFL's all-time leader in combined yards. Mitchell had 95 combined yards -- 10 receiving and 85 on kickoff returns -- in the Giants' 24-21 overtime victory Sunday over the Washington Redskins. That gives him 22,379 total yards, passing Rice's 22,331.

WASHINGTON -- Brian Stokes Mitchell became famous among Los Angeles musical theater audiences for playing a character who is so distraught over the loss of the woman he loved that he takes drastic action against those forces in society that he believes were responsible for her death. We're talking about his mesmerizing Coalhouse Walker in "Ragtime." Coalhouse, move over. Mitchell is now playing another man who fits the above description: the title character in "Sweeney Todd."

Brian Mitchell never considered returning kicks until it became his only chance to play in the NFL. Mitchell, a quarterback from middle school through college, scored a touchdown on the first kick he returned, and hasn't stopped producing since. Now the Philadelphia Eagles' return specialist is on the verge of owning all the records. "They drafted me as an athlete.

Boxing's road warrior and a guy who rarely strays from home will meet in a rare unification championship fight tonight at Arco Arena. South African Brian Mitchell, the World Boxing Assn. junior-lightweight champion, fights Tony Lopez of Sacramento, the International Boxing Federation titleholder. Mitchell will earn $100,000 tonight, plus another $125,000 in marketing windfalls in South Africa--if he wins. Lopez will make $215,000. But for both, the stakes are considerably higher.

A white South African police captain was sentenced Thursday to hang for ordering the 1988 massacre of 11 black men, women and children at a home funeral vigil--and then attempting to cover it up with help from his police superiors. The 11 death sentences handed down against Capt.

He's in dressing room No. 1 backstage at the Shubert Theatre, as befits the star of a $10-million musical, but if you hadn't seen the show, you might wonder what he was doing there. In a city of stars, Brian Stokes Mitchell is as yet a new kid in town. His operatic performance as the tragic hero Coalhouse Walker Jr. in the recently opened, Broadway-bound "Ragtime" has theatergoers wondering at intermission, "Who is that guy?"