Entertaining

The investigation into ricin-laced letters addressed to the president, a U.S. senator and a Mississippi judge highlighted a personal feud Wednesday and an unusual cast of characters - starting with Paul Kevin Curtis, an Elvis impersonator who had pestered officials for years about his conspiracy theory that the federal government was involved in an organ-harvesting plot. Government plot or no, Curtis was, of course, glad that officials had decided to drop the charges against him. He had been arrested last week, days after the letters were sent, and was freed Tuesday.

Rupert Murdoch has settled on a new name for his soon-to-be-reconstituted film and television company: 21st Century Fox, a moniker with a guaranteed 87-year shelf life. That should be more than sufficient for the 82-year-old media mogul. Murdoch and senior managers had previously announced that the existing News Corp. would be renamed "Fox Group" when the media conglomerate cleaves itself into two separate publicly traded companies this summer. ON LOCATION: Where the cameras roll The newspapers and publishing assets will be given the News Corp.

Whatever Mike Scioscia is being paid to manage the Angels, it isn't enough. He has to watch them play every game. And as bad and disappointing as they have been, going on four years now, it's baseball. Have you tried watching it recently? Have you tried switching back and forth from a basketball game, football game or "Spartacus: War of the Damned" to a baseball game? I understand why Vin Scully doesn't watch the Dodgers or any other baseball game when not being paid to do so. At the very least the folks who run the sport should make it mandatory that any hitter stepping out of the box to adjust his batting gloves should be suspended a minimum of five games.

When John Cena beat The Rock in Wrestlemania 29 on Sunday night, it was big news for WWE fans. But just where should those fans go when trying to read about that news -- the sports pages or the entertainment section? Writers from around the Tribune Co. discuss which newspaper section should cover Wrestlemania. Feel free to join the discussion with a comment of your own. Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times In a perfect world, Wrestlemania would be covered in the entertainment section, but this is far from a perfect world, so let's put it in the sports section.

Sony Entertainment Inc. CEO Michael Lynton has renewed his contract. Lynton also is chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment. He joined Sony Pictures as chairman in January 2004. Lynton oversees Sony Pictures with Amy Pascal, co-chairman of the studio. He was appointed to the additional role of CEO of Sony Entertainment in March 2012. PHOTOS: Celebrities by The Times “I am grateful to work with some of the finest minds in the entertainment business, starting with my partner at Sony Pictures, Amy Pascal, as well as Doug Morris at Sony Music and Marty Bandier at Sony/ATV," Lynton said in a statement.

The lawsuit filed by Michael Jackson's mother and children blaming entertainment giant AEG for the singer's death is expected to take more than four months to try, the judge said last week. The length of the trial was the court's first concern as jury selection began April 2 in a downtown courtroom where Jackson's towering legacy will be pitted against a business enterprise that has had a profound influence on the entertainment scene in Los Angeles. Thirty-five potential jurors were brought into Superior Court Judge Yvette M. Palazuelos' courtroom and given a questionnaire to see who could take that much time from their personal and work lives.

Rising country singer Luke Bryan was named entertainer of the year and Miranda Lambert was singled out as a songwriter and a singer on Sunday at the 48th Academy of Country Music Awards. Lambert picked up significant honors from her collaboration with husband Blake Shelton on "Over You," a song they wrote inspired by Shelton's experience as a teenager when his brother was killed in an automobile accident. "I don't know what to say," said Bryan, who also co-hosted the show from Las Vegas with Shelton.

Swathed in gunmetal blues and grays and motored by a deliriously heaving pulp sensibility, the British gangsters-and-cops thriller "Welcome to the Punch" is derivative, dumb fun. Writer-director Eran Creevy shows himself to be well versed in the mythic sweep of Christopher Nolan's and Michael Mann's crime sagas, if not their intelligence with storytelling. Plotted like a British conspiracy miniseries (think "State of Play") that's been reduced to only the juiciest, silliest moments, it pits James McAvoy's dogged, renegade detective against Mark Strong's brooding criminal mastermind, and eventually the two together against a greater threat with - naturally - political connections.

Billionaire mogul Ron Burkle has invested in a new branded entertainment company, broadening his rapidly growing stable of Hollywood-related businesses. Burkle has partnered with publishing executive Richard Beckman and entertainment attorney Joel Katz of Greenberg Traurig to start Three Lions Entertainment, the company announced Monday. It will open headquarters in Midtown Manhattan in April, but is already operating out of temporary offices. Three Lions will produce network television programs that embed advertisers' products within the shows.

Though it's still - on some nights - the most-watched show on television, "American Idol" is by all accounts a smaller proposition than it once was, with fewer viewers, less cultural clout and a seemingly diminished ability to produce megastars on the order of Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. The retrenchment appears to be affecting veterans of the program too: At the South by Southwest music festival this month, Season 8 winner Kris Allen and Season 9 winner Lee DeWyze could both be seen sharing cozy club stages with the kind of up-and-coming acts SXSW was designed to spotlight.