Doors

In an odd yet understandable marketing strategy, the folks behind E!'s new reality show "Mrs. Eastwood & Company" have spent a lot of pre-premiere publicity time explaining what the show isn't. Which is to say, Clint Eastwood. The legendary actor and director will appear in but a few episodes and then only briefly. He will not, for instance, be slamming doors or engaging in filmed therapy sessions with his wife, Dina, around whom the show revolves (see title.) That doesn't mean the show is not about Clint Eastwood; it is. If the principal characters -- Dina, her 15-year-old daughter Morgan and 19-year old stepdaughter Francesca -- were not related to him, there would be Absolutely No Reason to watch this, which, by reality show standards, promises to be tame to the point of sedation.

OAKLAND — Mike Scioscia won't declare that Ernesto Frieri is his new closer — he'd still like the option of using veteran left-hander Scott Downs at the end of games — but the Angels manager's actions and Frieri's performance suggest the 26-year-old right-hander has assumed that key role. Frieri struck out three of four batters in the 11th inning Wednesday for his first big league save, nailing down the Angels' 3-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics that featured Alberto Callaspo's clutch two-out, two-run double in the top of the inning.

The most ballyhooed name change of the year became official Friday morning when a Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner approved the former Ron Artest's request to become Metta World Peace. Amid labor discord that threatens to delay, if not wipe out, the NBA season, there is World Peace. Photos: Famous name-changers He is 6 feet 7, wears No. 15 for the Lakers and once participated in the infamous "Palace brawl. " Anyone now making his acquaintance will be meeting Metta World Peace.

It was Richard Nixon who brought me into the Republican fold. He was running for president, and I had recently arrived in California from Austria, which I'd left because the European socialist mentality wasn't big enough for my dreams. Growing up, I was surrounded by kids whose greatest ambition was to one day collect a pension. I didn't intend to spend my whole life dreaming about floating on a government safety net. One day, when Nixon was talking on the television, my liberal friend Artie translated bits of what he was saying.

Hard-core Harry Potter fans who devoured the books, camped out for the movies and trekked through the theme park now have a new way to relive the boy wizard's adventures. PHOTOS: Making of Harry Potter studio tour Debuting Saturday, the Making of Harry Potter behind-the-scenes tour at theWarner Bros.studios in England will let wizards, mudbloods and muggles pull back the curtain on the movie-making secrets of the most successful film series of all time. Located 20 miles outside of London, the three-hour self-guided tour will take visitors past sets, props, costumes, models and special effects exhibits from the eight "Harry Potter" movies.

Although they're huddled close, the tens of thousands of cattle are remarkably quiet. The cowboys traversing the blocks-long boardwalk above hear only the occasional bellow below. In familiar hats, jeans and boots, the men ? and some women ? make their way toward the bustling auction arena. Some come to the Oklahoma National Stock Yards just to watch the bustle of cattle, but most come, checkbook in hand, to bid and to buy. This has been going on in Oklahoma City for 100 years, since cattlemen began bringing their critters to market here.

A small wooden cabinet went up for auction on EBay. Inside were two locks of hair, one granite slab, one dried rosebud, one goblet, two wheat pennies, one candlestick and, allegedly, one "dibbuk," a kind of spirit popular in Yiddish folklore. The seller, a Missouri college student named Iosif Nietzke, described the container as a "haunted Jewish wine cabinet box" that had plagued several owners with rotten luck and a spate of bizarre paranormal stunts.

Hollywood High School keeps its doors open 12 months a year to ease overcrowding. The year-round schedule allows the campus to run hundreds more students through its cramped classrooms. It also chips away at their education. Teachers skip pages of material, assign less homework and give fewer tests because their school year has been slashed by 17 days. Hundreds of pupils take the Stanford 9 exam shortly after returning from an eight-week vacation.

It could be something as easily ignored as an ordinary door. Maybe it's an elaborate setup that requires a secret password or talking to a brass owl. Or, as is the case at one Los Angeles club, La Descarga , patrons enter through an armoir full of clothes. Sure, you could call them gimmicky. But for many L.A. clubbers, it's an opportunity to revisit a glamorous bit of Prohibition-era secrecy or just add some magic to the night. The Varnish The dark door in the back of the legendary Cole's restaurant in downtown Los Angeles looks as ordinary as a door could be, blending into the surroundings of stained wood and sepia-toned photos that line the walls of the downtown fixture.

Paddle wheel tours and wine tastings will be part of the second annual Sample the Sierra  festival in South Lake Tahoe on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend (Sept. 4) . . . . Ceiba del Mar, near Cancun, is touting 24-hour room service, including “breakfast discreetly delivered to each room through a hidden door ” . . . . Sand Masters (Rusty, Kirk and the team) jump into the deep end at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach on the Travel Channel, Aug. 21 at 7 p.m. . . . Tickets start at $19.95 for Herman's Hermits and the Turtles , at the Cannery Casino in Las Vegas,  Sept.

In the pandemonium of people scrambling to escape the bloodiest shooting rampage in Orange County history, Kenneth Caleb saw a lone, limping figure possessed of a strange calm. Caleb was staring out the window of Patty's Place, the Seal Beach restaurant where he went for lunch that day in October. Moments earlier, a terrified employee at the Salon Meritage next door had rushed into the restaurant screaming one phrase over and over: "Call the police, he's shooting everybody!"

The national obsession with guns, and the lunacy of American gun laws that set different rules for gun resellers than new-gun dealers or that allow people to possess military assault rifles intended to kill cops rather than hunt deer or protect one's home, are frequent fodder for Times editorials. But things are different in California; not only does this state have some of the toughest gun restrictions in the nation, its largely urban and liberal Legislature sometimes treads unacceptably on 2nd Amendment rights -- in a way that offends even some gun-control advocates.

Whatever was said between first baseman Albert Pujols and hitting coach Mickey Hatcher in the wake of friction that arose between them Monday night remained private Tuesday. Pujols, who in April hit .217 with no homers and four runs batted in, the worst month of his career, was perturbed at Hatcher for telling reporters what he said during a closed-door hitters meeting Monday, even though Pujols' comments, meant to instill confidence in his teammates, were fairly innocuous.

Closing shortly after co-star Kevin McHale's nearby home purchase, "Glee's" Lea Michele has bought a bungalow in Hollywood for $1.4 million. The one-story house, built in 1920, sits behind tall hedges and has a gated driveway. The updated bungalow features French doors, an office, attic space, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. An outdoor dining pavilion includes a kitchen. Michele, 25, has played aspiring soprano Rachel Berry since 2009 on the television series. She will voice the part of Dorothy in the animated film "Dorothy of Oz," due out this year.

In preparation for the start of demolition this summer of the now-closed 936-room Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, the hotel will reopen its doors Thursday for the start of a massive sale of its furniture, plates, towels and television sets, among thousands of items in the building. Everything must go, including the kitchen sinks, which are priced at $350. "But our kitchen sinks are a little bigger than most," said Frank Long, president of International Content Liquidations Inc., the Ohio firm that is running what is expected to be a $2-million liquidation sale starting at 9 a.m. Long lines are expected.

There are fat cats, and then there is the totally over-the-top cat named Meow. The orange and white tabby was recently brought into the Santa Fe, N.M., animal shelter tipping the scales at 39 pounds. The  2-year-old feline is so fat he barely fit into his animal carrier, and he can't play for very long, because the extra weight makes him lose his breath easily. His feline weight roughly translates into a human weight of more than 600 pounds. Meow has already gotten caught in his share of cat house doors -- as if all of his nine lives are rolled into one rotund furry feline body.

An eerie specter haunts the opening scenes of the new Doors documentary, "When You're Strange: A Film About the Doors." Underneath a foreboding desert sun, a bearded and bedraggled hitchhiker wanders through the desolate Joshua tree expanse. He gets behind the wheel of a Mustang Cobra and switches on the radio to hear an announcer broadcasting the news of Jim Morrison's death. The scene creates a cognitive dissonance. Is this man a Jim Morrison doppelgänger, or have the filmmakers unearthed unseen archival footage of the deceased Doors lead singer?

The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years Greil Marcus Public Affairs: 224pp., $21.99

Angels right fielder Torii Hunter had a lengthy closed-door meeting with Manager Mike Scioscia before Thursday night's game against the Oakland Athletics, and among the subjects discussed was mixing in a few starts at designated hitter and an occasional day off to keep the 36-year-old's legs fresh. Hunter, who is batting .279 with a team-leading 13 strikeouts, no home runs and three doubles, said he requested the meeting, but he would not discuss anything else he spoke to Scioscia about.

Have the Yellow Pages outlived their usefulness as a door-stopper, a child seat and, on increasingly rare occasions, a phone book? AT&T Inc. seems to think so, selling off much of its stake in the company to a private equity firm. In a $950-million deal  - $750 million in cash with a $200-million note - an affiliate of Cerebus Capital Management will take 53% ownership in the newly created YP Holdings. That leaves AT&T with 47% ownership of the new entity, which includes the YP.com website, the YP advertising network, a related mobile app as well as the hard-copy books.