Dan

Dan Brown's new thriller "Inferno," starrring his tweedy hero Robert Langdon from "The Da Vinci Code," will be published May 14 in hardcover and as an e-book by Doubleday, the publisher announced Tuesday. In case you've forgotten "The Da Vinci Code" phenomenon, it spent more than a year -- 54 weeks -- topping the New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list after it was released in 2003. It has been translated into 51 languages and is considered the bestselling adult hardcover of all time with 81 million copies in print worldwide.

With "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown's news Tuesday morning that he would be releasing a new Robert Langdon adventure in May, we thought it wise to check in with the movie prospects for Brown's last Langdon tale, "The Lost Symbol," which resided on the New York Times hard-cover fiction bestseller list for 29 weeks and has 30 million copies in print worldwide. Sony's Columbia Pictures, which released the previous two films, "The DaVinci Code" and "Angels and Demons," owns the option to all of Brown's future projects involving Langdon, including "The Lost Symbol" and the upcoming "Inferno.

Change is coming to "Downton Abbey" -- British actor Dan Stevens is leaving the hit PBS drama. "From a personal point of view, I wanted a chance to do other things," the 30-year-old actor, who plays the handsome hero Matthew Crawley, told The Telegraph. "It is a very monopolising job. " Warning for fans: The Telegraph story contains a gigantic spoiler for American viewers, because this week "Downton Abbey" aired a Christmas special that wrapped up season 3 on Britain's ITV. However, the third season won't start airing on PBS until next month.

Twenty-nine years ago, representatives from each NFL team — there were 28 at the time — gathered for the draft in the ballroom of a Sheraton hotel in New York City. No hoopla. No fans with painted faces. Hardly any media. "It was nothing, a gathering of people," recalled Dave Goldberg, who covered the NFL for the Associated Press for 26 years. "There were all sorts of hangers-on from local television who would show up at dinner time for the free food. Other than that, nothing.

at No. 4 Syracuse 84, Long Beach State 53 : C.J. Fair had 16 points and a career-high 13 rebounds, and the Orange (7-0) beat the 49ers. Dan Jennings had a career-high 20 points for Long Beach (3-5). at No. 17 San Diego State 84, UC Santa Barbara 70 : Chase Tapley scored 23 points, make six of eight three-pointers, as the Aztecs (7-1) won their seventh in a row. Kyle Boswell scored 23 points for the Gauchos (3-5). Cal State Bakersfield 72, at Cal State Fullerton 70 : The Roadrunners (3-5)

Times NFL columnist Sam Farmer had a lot to say about this season's group of rookie quarterbacks during Thursday's NFL Slam with Mark and Sam, telling former radio personality Mark Thompson that this year's batch compares favorably with the group drafted in 1983. "There are three Hall of Fame quarterbacks taken in the 1983 draft," Farmer said. "John Elway, Jim Kelly and Dan Marino. "While it is wildly premature to make comparisons, this draft could be as good a draft as in 1983, if not better.

It looks like Dan Haren's short tenure with the Angels is over, as the right-hander agreed to a one-year, $13-million deal with the Washington Nationals. The deal probably means the Nationals won't sign pitcher Zack Greinke, considered the plum of the free-agent market, leaving the door open for the Angels or Dodgers to sign him. Haren, 32, went 12-13 with a 4.33 ERA for the Angels last season. He struggled with a sore back throughout the season, however, and the Angels declined to pick up his one-year, $15.5-million team option.

NASHVILLE - The Angels made an offer to a veteran starting pitcher that was essentially blown out of the water by the Washington Nationals on the second day of baseball's winter meetings. Lucky for the Angels, that pitcher was Dan Haren and not Zack Greinke. Washington agreed to terms Tuesday on a one-year, $13-million deal for Haren, a move that probably takes the well-heeled Nationals out of the running for Greinke, the jewel of this winter's free-agent class and a top target of the Angels.

Phil Jackson wasn't the only one who got a late-night call last month. It was early compared with the one Dan D'Antoni received. Mike D'Antoni's brother was sleeping peacefully in Charlotte, N.C., when the phone rang at 3:30 a.m. It was his son, Nick. He had some bewildering news. "Dad, you're going to L.A.," he said. Dan D'Antoni didn't believe it. "Mike had told me his name was being bantered about, but he said, 'We're not going to get it. Phil [Jackson] is going to get it,'" Dan D'Antoni said.

Not backing down Boston guard Rajon Rondo after he shoved Brooklyn's Kris Humphries in retaliation for Humphries' committing a hard foul on the Celtics' Kevin Garnett, earning Rondo a two-game suspension: "I don't think I did anything dirty. I didn't try to start a riot. I don't think it was more than just a pushing war. " Shoot the messenger Golden State General Manager Bob Myers, when asked whether he could understand how fans might feel deceived after only recently being told that center Andrew Bogut underwent microfracture surgery on his ankle last spring: "I can absolutely see their position and feel terrible about that.