Consultants

Molly Murphy spent six years in the TV business, which is one reason she's among the most sought-after trial consultants in Southern California. Murphy also learned a lot about what makes people tick when she worked in marketing, as a business consultant and as a flight attendant. But she thinks her experience as a television script supervisor and producer is what gives her the edge. TV "taught me a great deal about what can be said from frame to frame," she says.

A former nun and conflict resolution expert is leaving Wal-Mart Stores Inc., just over a year after she was hired to help the world's largest retailer rally support from environmental groups and other nonprofit organizations in its battles with union-led critics. Harriet Hentges was hired in July 2006 to work with outside groups to develop Wal-Mart policies in areas including the environment and healthcare. Hentges will leave Friday for personal reasons, Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar said.

Consultants who recommend pay packages for U.S. corporate executives have pervasive conflicts of interest that appear to be inflating executive compensation, according to a congressional study issued Wednesday by the House Government Oversight Committee.

Seeking to shore up its flagging public image, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has retained a consulting firm known for creating controversies in media and politics on behalf of well-heeled clients. The alliance, which represents the Hollywood studios, said it had hired Mark Fabiani and Chris Lehane, who have served as senior aides and advisors to President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

It is not a response Justin Rudd expects from a would-be Miss America. But as he coaches Miss Nevada in his Long Beach living room, asking her mock pageant questions about cosmetic surgery and her diet of chicken fingers and fries, he is unfazed by this potential misstep: "What," Rudd asks Crystal Wosik, "do you dislike most about yourself?" Miss Nevada does not pause. "My back fat." Rudd gives no grimace. "And my nose," she goes on. Rudd doesn't blink.

The Angels unveiled a new star on their defense team Tuesday, a nationally renowned consultant perhaps best known for advising the lawyers representing O.J. Simpson how to select the jury that ultimately acquitted him of murder charges. As jury selection began Tuesday in the trial between the Angels and the city of Anaheim, Jo-Ellan Dimitrius joined Angel owner Arte Moreno and co-counsel Todd Theodora at the defense table. Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle sat with the city's lawyers.

The Los Angeles City Council awarded a $50,000 consulting contract Tuesday to the chief of the Animal Services Department who was fired by the mayor. The contract gives Guerdon Stuckey three months to file a report on several department issues, such as the spay-and-neuter program. Stuckey was fired in December by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had promised to do so during his election campaign.

The Labor Department is investigating possible conflicts of interest in the pension consulting industry, two lawmakers said. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) said he was pleased that the department was looking into an area already under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission. "There is a crisis in the pension marketplace, and sweetheart deals cut by consultants and concealed from pension plans may be contributing to it," Markey said in a statement.

Over the last two years, Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has used more than $1 million in grants to hire longtime friends and former business associates as LAPD consultants, and now refuses to tell the City Council exactly what work was performed. Bratton says he doesn't have to disclose much information because the money came through a private foundation -- not city coffers.

UC Irvine is beginning program-by-program reviews of its medical center, hiring consultants and launching its search for top healthcare officials, recommendations made by a panel of outside experts that reviewed the university's troubled medical programs. In an update e-mailed to faculty and staff Tuesday night, UCI Chancellor Michael V.