Fans

To reignite its creaky "Star Trek" movie series this weekend, Paramount Pictures must beam up young moviegoers who may have never heard of Captain Kirk, Spock or the starship Enterprise, and international audiences who have been indifferent. Paramount, despite having one of the most recognizable titles in entertainment, must overcome a perception that its new movie in the decades-old franchise will appeal only to aging Trekkies and not younger Twitter fanatics.

As the mood of the crowd outside the Staples Center turned quickly from jubilation over a Lakers victory to something more destructive, Los Angeles police knew they had to finely calibrate their response to avoid the public relations debacles of the department's recent past. Officers had to control a group of "knuckleheads," in the words of Los Angeles Police Chief William J.

In a fit of creativity, Nathan Holsey stayed up all night painting a 24-by-48 acrylic portrait of Michael Jackson, singing with a microphone in his hand. Like other heartsick fans of the pop star, he couldn't bear to show up empty-handed when he made his pilgrimage to the Jackson family's Encino home on Friday.

One of Michael Jackson's most famous lyrics proclaims, "It don't matter if you're black or white." But when it comes to the late singer's identification with African Americans, that declaration becomes much cloudier.

A 200-member choir sang "Man in the Mirror" in Culver City. Musicians on the red carpet at the BET Awards in South Los Angeles spoke of their admiration for Michael Jackson. And dozens of fans continued to brave the heat on Sunday to pay tribute to the music icon at his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and outside the Jackson family compound in Encino. "I grew up with his music," said Nancy Bingham, 25, of Glendale, who was among those at the scene in Encino.

Cars didn't have seat belts back in the 1940s -- but then, nobody was thinking too hard about safety when Charla Janacek and her pals from Glendale's Hoover High showed up for volunteer usher duty at the Hollywood Bowl with six to eight kids piled into one vehicle. As Janacek describes it, the scene was less traditional carpool than clown car. "Some of us were in the seats, some of us were on the floor," she recalls with a loud laugh.

A city accustomed to outsized public spectacles headed into uncharted territory today, uncertain how fans would respond to a carefully planned public memorial to singer Michael Jackson -- an event expected to cost nearly $4 million in city services alone. Authorities were throwing a wide cordon around Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, hoping that would keep away crowds who lacked tickets to a 10 a.m.

Manny Ramirez, you're not in San Diego anymore. Or are you? The Dodgers' left fielder sparked some boos Tuesday night during an abbreviated appearance, but he mostly generated indifference from a Citi Field crowd that displayed something resembling SoCal cool. The heckling was especially mild among those seated behind Ramirez in left field during the 4 1/2 innings he played before being ejected for scattering his bat, helmet and arm guard on the field after a called third strike.

In the first few days after Michael Jackson's death on June 25, bereaved fans downloaded nearly 2.5 million digital copies of his songs, setting a record that's likely to stand for years. Before that, no music act had ever rung up even 1 million digital tracks in a single week.

Did David Beckham bring the crowd down on his own head Sunday night by taunting, challenging and perhaps even insulting Galaxy fans at the Home Depot Center? That was the contention of several fans Monday in the wake of the Galaxy's 2-2 tie with AC Milan in a sold-out friendly match in Carson.