Gentleman

'How to Be a Gentleman' Where: CBS When: 8:30 p.m. Thursday Rating: TV-PG-DL (may be unsuitable for young children with advisories for suggestive dialogue and coarse language)

"I am one of the last of my kind," says etiquette columnist Andrew Carlson (David Hornsby) at the very top of "How to Be a Gentleman," a new series from CBS, where all comedies are multi-camera comedies, as in days of old, when "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" ruled the air. "I open the door for ladies, but I am not a doorman ... I put out cigarettes, but I am not a cigarette putter-out man. " What Andrew is is a throwback, an etiquette columnist at...

The 30th annual Ragga Muffins Festival takes over the Long Beach Arena for two days of reggae and roots music, plus crafts and a vendor village. Saturday's lineup includes Bunny Wailer, Rebelution, Gyptian and Half Pint. Sunday features Israel Vibration, Gentleman, I-Octane plus many more. Long Beach Arena. 300 E. Ocean Blvd. 2:30 p.m. Sat.-Sun. $47. http://www.raggamuffinsfestival.com.

Lisa Blount, who played Debra Winger's best friend in the 1982 movie "An Officer and a Gentleman" and later shared an Academy Award as executive producer of the live-action short film "The Accountant," was found dead in her home in Little Rock, Ark., on Wednesday by her mother. She was 53. Blount, the wife of actor and filmmaker Ray McKinnon, was found in bed holding a cellphone, which she had last used Monday when she told a friend she wasn't feeling well, according to Little Rock police.

Re: "Bills weak on denials of coverage," Oct. 19: It was discouraging to read that the healthcare reform bills being debated by Congress would do little to remedy the epidemic of insurance denials. I recently sat next to a gentleman at a flu shot clinic who told me he has good insurance and doesn't care about fixing other people's problems if that means weakening his own coverage. I told him my husband's insurer denied coverage for a chemotherapy drug to treat his colon cancer.

Like a fog-shrouded hill, "The Merry Gentleman" might slip by you unnoticed. Don't let it. This small gem of a movie is the first directed by Michael Keaton, who stars along with the exceptionally talented young Scottish actress Kelly Macdonald. We see in the film what Keaton has refined as an actor -- that ability to know exactly how to play each emotional note for maximum effect.