Deep End

"First," he says, "we're going to float. " Float? Doesn't he know I'm terrified? I've never been able to float; I sink in water like a bag full of barbells. The tall, tattooed black man standing before me in his swimming pool has no patience for excuses. Our bodies, he says, are remarkably light. Our lungs are like life jackets. He lies back. Sure enough, he floats. "Your turn," he says. I hesitate. The hair stands on the back of my neck. Trying to keep calm, I lie back - but the next few seconds feel like forever.

Re "Nuclear talks with Iran stall," April 7 In Iran, the nuclear program has long been a point of consensus across the country's political spectrum, among both hard-liners and moderates. Being a nuclear power is a matter of survival for the ruling clerics. They didn't endure four rounds of sanctions and decades of isolation only to surrender their nuclear program. From their perspective, having nuclear capabilities will not only support their regional hegemonic ambitions but will also ensure their hold on power domestically.

ABC's "The Deep End" is being touted as a new "Grey's Anatomy" for lawyers, and frankly I think "Grey's" creator Shonda Rhimes should sue. Not for plagiarism but defamation. On the other hand, maybe the comparison was actually her idea because five minutes into the pilot of "The Deep End," you will find yourself longing for even the worst episode of "Grey's." Poorly conceived, badly written and indifferently acted, "The Deep End" is a jumble of terrible ideas from start to finish.

Re "Flattery really got him nowhere," April 6 Because The Times and other serious journalistic outlets have maintained professional objectivity, it becomes ever more interesting to observe how quickly the predictable opportunists of the right-wing media have attacked the president for his "best looking" remark - a misguided fragment issued when introducing California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris. Despite the fact we've suffered through the right's lambasting of a perceived "political correctness" as yet another deplorable affectation of the left, that same affectation seems now to be embraced by the right.

It went viral, all right. But in all the wrong ways. Now 13 city lifeguards and their supervisor in El Monte are fighting to get their jobs back - after being fired for making a video spoof of a widely popular Korean pop star's song. The "Lifeguard Style" video - a takeoff on the YouTube sensation "Gangnam Style" by rapper Psy - rocketed across the Internet, watched by more than 1 million YouTube viewers. Yet the audience that counted most - city officials - took a dim view of it. "We thought it was hysterical and we wanted to try something fun," said Michael Roa, a University of La Verne student who worked at the El Monte Aquatic Center for seven years.

Daytime TV fans know Jonathan Jackson as the handsome teenager who plays Luke and Laura's son, Lucky, on ABC's popular soap opera "General Hospital." Jackson has won two daytime Emmys, as well as two Soap Opera Digest Awards for his work. Jackson's face has graced the pages of Tiger Beat and he's the subject of several teen-driven Web sites. Still, despite his popularity on the drama, Jackson is barely known outside of the soap opera world.

Underwater, I gaze at the word deep on the side of the pool. It is a moment of ecstasy. It's hard to believe it's really happening. After a lifetime of hydrophobia, I am in the deep end of a swimming pool. I am here thanks to Paul Lennnon, head of the Glendale-based Adult Aquaphobic Swim Centers of Southern California. A former competitive swimmer and agoraphobic, he is the perfect teacher for anyone afraid of the water. "An aquaphobic feels out of control in the water," he says.

"The Deep End" is melodrama dressed up in its Sunday best. Exquisitely made with a mesmerizing sense of style, it shows the wonderful things that can happen when traditional material is both handled with care and adroitly updated. Writer-directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel understand the terrible power of melodrama.

Whenever Charlotte Rampling narrows her sly cat eyes in a movie, it's always a surprise that anyone walks away unscathed. Famous for her haughty cheekbones and a body that directors love to film unclothed, the British actress has built a screen persona playing intimidating, outwardly unattainable women.

Southern California in the summertime is famous for its pool parties, pool games and even its pool boys. But a pool opera? In 2008, the Long Beach Opera debuted a production of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Orpheus and Euridice" at the indoor Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool. The song cycle, which starred soprano Elizabeth Futral and clarinetist Todd Palmer, enacted the ancient Greek myth using a small boat that floated up and down the chlorinated "River Styx." Next weekend, the company is reviving the high-concept production with the same cast and an enhanced instrumental component — a larger string ensemble plus a slightly expanded score by Gordon.

Re "Playing the lunatic card," News Analysis, April 5 North Korea acts like it has nothing to lose - because it has nothing to lose. When you starve and horribly mistreat your own people, and when you keep repeating the same careless behavior and expect a different outcome, that is lunacy, pure and simple. We all know that lunacy can be dangerous and often lethal. The young and up-until-now untested North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will learn that his nuclear and long-range missile threats will have long-term consequences that will completely overwhelm his weak and undernourished nation.

Re "El Monte lifeguards still in the deep end," Sept. 20 This was my impression of El Monte: It is the town where novelist James Ellroy's mother was murdered in 1958, and it was the subject of an amusing song by Llyn Foulkes and the Rubber Band in the 1970s. Comes now a young, exuberant crew of lifeguards who enjoy their jobs, doing absolutely no harm and entertaining more than 1.5 million people worldwide. You can't buy that kind of positive publicity. And Mayor Andre Quintero's response?

It went viral, all right. But in all the wrong ways. Now 13 city lifeguards and their supervisor in El Monte are fighting to get their jobs back - after being fired for making a video spoof of a widely popular Korean pop star's song. The "Lifeguard Style" video - a takeoff on the YouTube sensation "Gangnam Style" by rapper Psy - rocketed across the Internet, watched by more than 1 million YouTube viewers. Yet the audience that counted most - city officials - took a dim view of it. "We thought it was hysterical and we wanted to try something fun," said Michael Roa, a University of La Verne student who worked at the El Monte Aquatic Center for seven years.

"First," he says, "we're going to float. " Float? Doesn't he know I'm terrified? I've never been able to float; I sink in water like a bag full of barbells. The tall, tattooed black man standing before me in his swimming pool has no patience for excuses. Our bodies, he says, are remarkably light. Our lungs are like life jackets. He lies back. Sure enough, he floats. "Your turn," he says. I hesitate. The hair stands on the back of my neck. Trying to keep calm, I lie back - but the next few seconds feel like forever.

When you gather five comedic actors to discuss their work, the conversation naturally turns to, well, pain. And anguish. And desperation. But thankfully, when the performers are as thoughtful as Laura Dern (who plays Amy, an aggressively well-meaning woman on HBO's "Enlightened"), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (who as Mitchell is raising a daughter with his partner on ABC's "Modern Family"), Ed Helms (the under-appreciated Andy on NBC's "The Office"), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who as Vice President Selina Meyer finds her ambitions thwarted on HBO's "Veep")

NEW ORLEANS - Pianist Jon Cleary has lived in this city all of his life: Even when he didn't. Long before he saw it. And even when he was in forced exile from it. A musician by trade, a storyteller by consequence, Cleary has deeply absorbed New Orleans' pace and idiosyncrasies and, over time, its distinctive stories and sound. "My ambition," he says, "has always been to come to New Orleans. " Cleary, whose genre-bending style is steeped in early traditional New Orleans R&B, soul and funk, is not a household name but he's recorded and toured with marquee artists such as Taj Mahal and Bonnie Raitt (with whom he worked for more than a decade)

Southern California in the summertime is famous for its pool parties, pool games and even its pool boys. But a pool opera? In 2008, the Long Beach Opera debuted a production of Ricky Ian Gordon's "Orpheus and Euridice" at the indoor Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool. The song cycle, which starred soprano Elizabeth Futral and clarinetist Todd Palmer, enacted the ancient Greek myth using a small boat that floated up and down the chlorinated "River Styx." Next weekend, the company is reviving the high-concept production with the same cast and an enhanced instrumental component — a larger string ensemble plus a slightly expanded score by Gordon.

SERIES American Idol: Last season's champ Kris Allen returns to perform on a new episode of the talent competition (8 p.m. Fox). SoCal Connected: A new edition of the newsmagazine profiles a former insurance broker who contracted cancer but was then denied medical coverage (8 p.m. KCET). Behind Bars: This new documentary series about America's jails debuts with three back-to-back episodes (8, 9 and 10 p.m. Discovery). Kitchen Nightmares: Chef Gordon Ramsay works his makeover magic on an Italian restaurant in Lancaster in this new episode (9 p.m. Fox)