Doug

Often film sequels are slam dunks at the box office, a seamless continuation from where a previous hit left off. But as the new installment of the 15-year-old franchise "Men in Black" proves, getting to the big screen isn't always a cakewalk. One of the most troubled productions in recent Hollywood memory, Sony Pictures' latest movie in the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi-comedy franchise encountered multiple script rewrites, a discontented star and a three-month production shutdown as writers and studio executives scrambled to fix a project that nearly fell apart . By the time it was over, the studio had run up a tab of nearly $250 million - making "Men in Black 3" one of the most expensive releases of the summer.

The bizarre and complicated world of thoroughbred blood testing and sanctions reached the mainstream Thursday, when the California Horse Racing Board penalized the trainer who has won the first two legs of the sport's Triple Crown. The seven-person, governor-appointed board, ruling on a case that has been argued and litigated since the summer of 2010, suspended Doug O'Neill for 45 days and fined him $15,000. The penalty actually carried an additional 135 days of suspension, but that will be voided if there are no further findings involving O'Neill in the next 18 months.

The Sunstar is in an Oxnard boatyard, up on screw jacks under a canopy of sun-beaten tarps. The orange wheelhouse is peeling, with scraps of plywood standing in for missing window panes. The blue of the hull is scuffed off along the angles . Spots of fiberglass are coming off in brown lesions. The Herzik brothers are hunkered down in the hold, sanding the corners of two new gas tanks they built of plywood and fiberglass. Terry is the captain, 64 years old, solid, broad-shouldered, a bit craggy from the years of sun and sea. Doug is 61, leaner, smoother, with blond-gray hair and hooded, slightly wary eyes.

The fate of trainer Doug O'Neill, charged by California Horse Racing Board enforcement officials with a substance abuse violation involving one of his horses, will be addressed Thursday morning at a board meeting at Hollywood Park. These are usually low-profile procedural meetings, but the item on the agenda involving O'Neill, whose I'll Have Another will take a run at racing's coveted Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes June 9, has triggered much interest and speculation. Racing's enforcement officials ruled that an O'Neill-trained horse, Argenta, tested positive for high levels of carbon dioxide after a race Aug. 25, 2010, at Del Mar. High levels of carbon dioxide are considered evidence of the use of a "milkshake" to illegally boost a horse's stamina.

Doug and Susie Tompkins can't be found in Who's Who in America. They don't fly first-class. And when Forbes magazine dropped the couple from its list of the "Four Hundred Richest People in America" (last year's estimated worth, $350 million), Doug says he was relieved. "I hate the whole idea of that damn thing," he says. "It's a drag." The Tompkinses are a part of a new generation of entrepreneurs who have merged their counterculture ideals with their corporate identities.

Go (YOUR SCHOOL)! You stink, (YOUR SCHOOL'S OPPONENT)! In the latest evidence March Madness is more than a promotional slogan, two college basketball fans are selling their rooting services on EBay. They have tickets to this week's first-round NCAA tournament games in Columbus, Ohio -- among them Long Beach State versus Tennessee on Friday -- and are offering their allegiances to the school of the highest bidder.

Need a gift idea? Comedian Doug Benson might suggest his latest album, "Uneven Load," or maybe the DVD of his 2007 film, "Super High Me." And on Dec. 28, when you're all shopped out, he'd recommend kicking back and watching his new comedy special on the G4 channel, "The High Road." "It's a documentary-style film in which the camera follows me around while I'm on the road doing my stand-up act," explains Benson. "And that's really my life -- I'm a road comic. I live in L.A., but I'm out of town 47 or 48 weekends of the year.

Being a producer, Dorothy Lyman is finding out, isn't exactly a glamour job. "Most of the time," she said cheerfully, "I'm on my knees scrubbing floors, sweeping. And now that we're about to open, I've got all these other things to worry about: Are the walls the right color? Is the wrapping off the plumbing equipment in the basement?" The Emmy-winning actress laughed. "All this because I wanted to direct a play." It's a bit more than that.

The eye of the hurricane is at Lake Poway. On the far side, in the bush. Lee and April and Doug, sitting in the dappled shade of the scrub trees, on their slashers--big knives like the kind Crocodile Dundee flashed in Manhattan--to keep their bottoms off the mud. There is the sound of the odd jay in the trees. A far-off curse by a fisherman who's just dropped a fish from his hook. A nearby rustle of something small under the leaves.

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

BALTIMORE — In the midst of the greatest time of his professional life, horse trainer Doug O'Neill is being followed around by an asterisk. Reporters want to know about his Kentucky Derby-winning horse, I'll Have Another. They want to know about O'Neill himself — how he got started, who he is, what he thinks about any number of topics. They want to know about young jockey Mario Gutierrez, who should have been way too green to ride the kind of race he did at Churchill Downs. They want to know about owner J. Paul Reddam, who made his money in the loan business and who named the horse by reprising a scene at home, where he sits on the couch, eats a cookie and requests another one from his wife.

LA JOLLA - From Florenz Ziegfeld's synchronized showgirls toAndrew Lloyd Webber's roller-skating actors to aSpider-Man who flies, musical theater has often encouraged dance and movement extravaganzas. So imagine the anxiety of the team putting together the new musical, "Hands on a Hardbody," which has its premiere Saturday at the La Jolla Playhouse. The story's 10 characters are tied - figuratively - to a Nissan pickup truck. How do you take that reality and turn it into a show-stopping number?

Seldom has a horse been better named for taking the second step in pursuit of racing's Triple Crown than I'll Have Another. Doug O'Neill's Kentucky Derby champion has already moved in at Pimlico in Baltimore, site of the May 19 Preakness, and O'Neill applies simple logic to the unusually early arrival. "We really didn't have any opinion on the surfaces at either Churchill Downs or Pimlico," he said, "so we just decided to get him settled in at Pimlico. " O'Neill was back at Hollywood Park on Monday morning.

No. 31 Tampa Bay Buccaneers: RB Doug Martin, Boise State - - Compact and powerful at 5-9, 223 pounds, Martin rushed for 43 touchdowns in three college seasons, gaining a combined 2,559 yards rushing the past two years. He said he's frequently compared to Baltimore's Ray Rice. Comment: The Buccanners were too one-dimensional at running back, and if they couldn't get Richardson, Martin is a good alternative. MORE Photos: 2012 NFL draft picks First round of draft is a rush to judgment NFL considers suspending Pro Bowl after 2013     NFL draft: Buccaneers take Boise State RB Doug Martin at No. 31

Philadelphia 76ers Coach/psychologist Doug Collins talked about handling a team with young players. "The one thing about players today is that they're very sensitive and very fragile. They didn't grow up with tough coaches," he said. "I treat this team very much with kid gloves; I really do. And I'm still looked at as an ogre. It's terrible. I find myself during the games looking at a coach and saying, 'Was I all right during that timeout? Did I hurt anybody's feelings? Was I OK?

Kansas forward Thomas Robinson , who played through personal tragedy as a sophomore reserve, capped his junior season by being a unanimous selection to the Associated Press' All-America team Monday, a day after leading the Jayhawks to the Final Four. The 6-foot-10 Robinson averaged 17.9 points and 11.8 rebounds this season and he was a first-team pick by all 65 members of the national media panel that selects the weekly top 25. Joining Robinson on the first team were Jared Sullinger of Ohio State, the first repeat All-American in three years, freshman Anthony Davis of Kentucky, Draymond Green of Michigan State and Doug McDermott of Creighton.

J. Paul Reddam might not be the type of businessman for whom people suffering through the recession can bring themselves to root. Reddam, 56, is president of Anaheim-based CashCall, the mortgage refinancing and high-interest personal loan company who critics say has unfairly capitalized upon people's financial woes during the country's economic and employment crisis. But the Sunset Beach resident is also owner of Kentucky Derby winner I'll Have Another, who could provide horse racing with a huge shot in the arm Saturday with a victory in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico.

It's lunchtime at Van Nuys High School and students stream into the cafeteria to check out the day's fare: black bean burgers, tostada salad, fresh pears and other items on a new healthful menu introduced this year by the Los Angeles Unified School District. But Iraides Renteria and Mayra Gutierrez don't even bother to line up. Iraides said the school food previously made her throw up, and Mayra calls it "nasty, rotty stuff. " So what do they eat? The juniors pull three bags of Flamin' Hot Cheetos and soda from their backpacks.

Berkeley's police chief apologized Saturday for sending a sergeant to a reporter's house in the middle of the night to request changes to a story. Chief Michael Meehan sent the sergeant to Bay Area News Group reporter Doug Oakley's Berkeley home about 1 a.m. Friday to ask for changes to a story about a community meeting. The meeting had been called so that Meehan could address growing outrage over the department's response to an incident that ended with the beating death of a 67-year-old man. "It was just a big error on my part," Meehan said.

A few months after he was hired as El Segundo's city manager, Doug Willmore learned that his efforts to force Chevron, the town's oldest employer, to pay higher taxes had made him some enemies. He found a note on his car reminding him this was a Chevron town. "Beat it," the note concluded. Last week, a divided City Council took that advice and fired him, less than 10 months after appointing him to the job. Willmore said that the council gave no reason for his dismissal but that he felt the council had fired him "in retaliation about Chevron.