Exceptions

The Lakers held pat at the trade deadline, sticking with their 14-man roster. With the deadline passing, the team will lose a pair of trade exceptions. The Lakers lose one for $854,000, gained when they traded Jason Kapono to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Ramon Sessions. Additionally, the $544,000 exception for Derek Fisher, traded to the Houston Rockets for Jordan Hill, will soon disappear from the books. Both trade exceptions don't technically expire until March 15, but they are unusable past the deadline.

DALLAS - If there's a line of sportsmanship that shouldn't be crossed, Ryan Getzlaf's judgment is that you shouldn't throw a left hook at a guy whose face is severely stitched up. Yet, that and other unwritten rules were fudged Monday night by the Dallas Stars, whose reward of a 3-0 Game 3 victory over the Ducks at American Airlines Center probably means the hostilities and punchiness will escalate. The Ducks' lead in the first-round Western Conference series was cut to 2-1 with Game 4 in Texas on Wednesday night.

Paramount Pictures reiterated to exhibitors this week its plans to embrace the digital format, but added that it would make exceptions for some movies. "In keeping with the digital direction of the studio's exhibition partners, we have moved forward with the conversion to primarily digital projection," Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures, wrote in a letter to exhibitors on Monday. "This resolve follows the successful release of Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-nominated film 'The Wolf of Wall Street,' and it is the first Paramount feature to be released nationwide entirely in digital.

This week's episode of  Cosmos  paid tribute to the mind-bending science behind some of the most popular tropes in science fiction, so it's only fitting that it also featured a special cameo by none other than Patrick Stewart. Stewart is best known to his legion of fans as  Star Trek 's Captain Jean-Luc Picard. (That high-pitched sound you hear is a collective “squee!” from my fellow geekerati.) Stewart voices astronomer William Herschel in an animated sequence set in 1802, as Herschel walks along the beach at night with his young son, John.

The Lakers were recently awarded a disabled player exception for the injured Jordan Hill (hip), giving the team an additional spending tool. The exception can be used to sign a player for up to $1,781,800 through the remainder of the season. It can be used to trade for a player in the final year of his contract, making up to $1,881,800.  In either case, the player cannot be under contract as of July 1. If the Lakers want to sign a...

Claudia Schiffer apologized, over a firm handclasp, for being a good half-hour late. The supermodel had been stumping all morning for the "Perfectly Fit" video series for arms, abs, legs and buns. With all of that out of the way, we relaxed at a corner table at the Four Seasons. While the waiter took Schiffer's order--"Do you have strawberry juice?"--it struck us that she is even prettier in person. Does she credit her parents, Gudrun and Heinz, who live in her native Rheinberg, Germany?

Like any sentient person, I was appalled by Missouri Republican Congressman Todd Akin's comments about "legitimate rape. " I was shocked by the Limbaugh-ian proportions of his ignorance about the female reproductive system ("in cases of legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down") and remain flabbergasted that he hasn't caved in to party pressure to quit his Senate campaign. But unlike the many people proclaiming their outrage on Facebook and Twitter, I'm actually grateful to Akin.

Donating your car can benefit a charity -- and your tax return. To maximize the benefit for the charity and for yourself, keep these things in mind: 1 - Make sure you're donating to a 501(c)(3) charitable organization if you want a tax deduction. You can look up the charity by searching its name on the Exempt Organizations Select Check at irs.gov or by calling (877) 829-5500. You can look up the group's tax filing at guidestar.org. 2 - You get the tax benefit only if you itemize expenses on your return.

With this latest in a litany of avoidable tragedies, President (Actor) Ronald Wilson Reagan has sealed his place in history. With very few exceptions, Reagan's legacy can be summed up in one word--death. VICTOR PETERSON Oxnard

"33 Variations" Where: Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles Music Center, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles, 90012 When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. (Call for exceptions.) Ends: Ends March 6 Price: $20 to $80 Contact: (213) 972-4400 or http://www.CenterTheatreGroup.org/33

MARINALEDA, Spain - It was a sweltering summer day at the height of Spain's economic crisis when the longtime mayor of this hardscrabble village decided it was time to grab the nation's attention. Most other politicians were on vacation, which looked a bit decadent to many, considering that the unemployment rate in southern Spain's Andalusia region was pushing 40%, among the highest in the nation. So Mayor Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo of Marinaleda - population barely 2,700 - led his trade unionist friends on a march to a supermarket in a neighboring town.

Urbanites have plenty of reasons to fear country folk, at least in the movies. Getting away for the weekend so often turn into a showdown with masked murderers that heading out to the country seems like a game of Russian roulette. In writer-director Jeremy Lovering's exceptional British thriller "In Fear," the needy, nebbish Tom (Iain De Caestecker) rolls the dice by booking a room at a remote hotel for himself and his maybe-kinda girlfriend, Lucy (Alice Englert), to celebrate their two-week anniversary.

UCLA's basketball team won the Pac-12 Conference regular-season championship last season and Coach Ben Howland was fired. With two games left in this conference regular season, the Bruins already know they will not repeat as champions, yet all is well. The change from Howland to Steve Alford has been a mostly lateral move. Entirely horizontal, in fact, according to the records. UCLA last season had a 22-7 record at this stage. As the Bruins prepare to play at Washington on Thursday and Washington State on Saturday in their final two games before this year's conference tournament, their record is … 22-7.

The Lakers received a traded-player exception of $2,789,920 on Wednesday in their trade of Steve Blake to the Golden State Warriors for Kent Bazemore and MarShon Brooks. A traded-player exception can be used to acquire a player in trade without sending out matching salary.  In the case of the Blake exception, the Lakers can deal for a player making up to $2,889,920 (including $100,000 of padding). Given the NBA's trade deadline has elapsed, the Lakers won't be able to use the exception until after the season.

Skating fans in Culver City were celebrating a temporary victory after city officials dug out an obscure document that advocates hope can keep an ice rink in the neighborhood. City officials informed the owner of Culver City Ice Arena of its findings last week. They said a use variance granted in 1960 prohibits the use of the property for anything except an ice rink. The new lessee, Planet Granite, plans to convert the 52-year-old rink into a rock climbing, fitness and yoga facility.

Paramount Pictures reiterated to exhibitors this week its plans to embrace the digital format, but added that it would make exceptions for some movies. "In keeping with the digital direction of the studio's exhibition partners, we have moved forward with the conversion to primarily digital projection," Rob Moore, vice chairman of Paramount Pictures, wrote in a letter to exhibitors on Monday. "This resolve follows the successful release of Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-nominated film 'The Wolf of Wall Street,' and it is the first Paramount feature to be released nationwide entirely in digital.

In regard to the Adolf Hitler/vegetarian debate (Calendar Letters, Dec. 7), with occasional exceptions, Hitler adhered to a vegetarian diet from 1931 on, but there were no exceptions to another Hitler rule--smoking was forbidden in his presence. He was so much opposed to what he called "nicotine poisoning" that he ordered cigarettes replaced with candy in the Christmas packages sent to German soldiers. Do we conclude from this that only monsters are opposed to smoking and decent people must go through three packs a day?

'The Subject Was Roses' Where: Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays (call for exceptions) Price: $20 to $65 Contact: (213) 628-2772 or www.centertheatregroup.org Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes

A whopping 41% of people who are transgender or gender-nonconforming have attempted suicide sometime in their lives, nearly nine times the national average, according to a sweeping survey released three years ago. In a new study released Tuesday, researchers dug deeper into that number, analyzing the results of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey to examine what puts transgender people at such "exceptionally high" risk. Researchers from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that the risk of attempting suicide was especially severe for transgender or gender nonconforming people who had suffered discrimination or violence, such as being physically or sexually assaulted at work or school.

Lessons learned Saturday from the Ducks' 3-0 victory over the Kings at Dodger Stadium: -- It's possible to play an NHL game outdoors in Southern California without the ice turning into a swimming pool. -- The Kings, who have struggled to score goals indoors, can't score outdoors, either. The event was a roaring success, though it could have benefited from less volume on the constant, deafening music played during stoppages and less pregame activity around the rink. Beach volleyball and soccer and Frisbee and yoga and bands playing and street hockey?