Godfather

Arnold Schwarzenegger is mourning the death of fitness impresario Joe Weider, who died Saturday at 93, calling Weider his mentor and the "godfather of fitness. " "He taught us that through hard work and training we could all be champions," Schwarzenegger, a Mr. Universe- and Mr. Olympia-winning former bodybuilder turned actor and former California governor, said in a statement released Saturday. "When I was a young boy in Austria, his muscle magazines provided me with the inspiration and the blueprint to push myself beyond my limits and imagine a much bigger future," he said.

"The amazing thing about James Brown, for me," says R.J. Smith, "is you can't figure him out. " That's not uncommon for a music journalist, but it reveals just how complex Brown was -- Smith was his biographer. Smith, the author of 2012's "The One: The Life and Music of James Brown," dropped by our video booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books to talk about his book and about James Brown, the godfather of soul. "He was a civil rights arbiter, and he was a Republican," Smith tells L.A. Times features editor Alice Short.

SAN DIEGO -- A civilian supervisor on construction projects at Camp Pendleton has been charged with bribery after being caught in an FBI sting, federal officials said Monday. Natividad Lara Cervantes, 64, a civilian employee of the Department of Defense, was arrested after accepting $10,000 cash as a down payment on a $40,000 bribe in exchange for helping a contractor receive a $4-million flooring contract at the base, officials said. Cervantes, a supervisor for construction and service contracts in the  inspection branch, used his position to "extort bribes from businesses seeking to do business" at the base and referred to himself as the "Godfather at Camp Pendleton," the FBI said.

SAN DIEGO -- A civilian supervisor on construction projects at Camp Pendleton has been charged with bribery after being caught in an FBI sting, federal officials said Monday. Natividad Lara Cervantes, 64, a civilian employee of the Department of Defense, was arrested after accepting $10,000 cash as a down payment on a $40,000 bribe in exchange for helping a contractor receive a $4-million flooring contract at the base, officials said. Cervantes, a supervisor for construction and service contracts in the  inspection branch, used his position to "extort bribes from businesses seeking to do business" at the base and referred to himself as the "Godfather at Camp Pendleton," the FBI said.

The children of Mario Puzo, author of the famed "Godfather" series, are trying to severe their family's more than 40-year association with Paramount Pictures after a bitter squabble that erupted earlier this year. On Thursday, Hollywood attorney Bert Fields, who is representing the Puzo children, told a federal judge in New York that Paramount had violated its 1969 contract with Puzo when the movie studio went to court this year to prevent the May publication of a new sequel, "The Family Corleone.

Irving Kristol, a forceful essayist, editor and university professor who became the leading architect of neoconservatism, which he called a political and intellectual movement for disaffected ex-liberals like himself who had been "mugged by reality," died Friday at a hospice in Arlington, Va. He was 89. He died of complications from lung cancer, said his son, William Kristol, the founder and editor of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine....

"The amazing thing about James Brown, for me," says R.J. Smith, "is you can't figure him out. " That's not uncommon for a music journalist, but it reveals just how complex Brown was -- Smith was his biographer. Smith, the author of 2012's "The One: The Life and Music of James Brown," dropped by our video booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books to talk about his book and about James Brown, the godfather of soul. "He was a civil rights arbiter, and he was a Republican," Smith tells L.A. Times features editor Alice Short.

If you think your boss is intimidating, imagine how Alister Grierson feels. The Australian filmmaker, who made his new movie, "Sanctum," under the guiding hand of "Avatar" creator James Cameron, had to present a finished cut to the famously exacting director in Cameron's Malibu home theater. "Every time he'd twitch, I wondered, 'Oh no, what did I do wrong?'" recalled Grierson, 41, who had previously directed only one other movie, a small Australian war picture. "It was like sitting with God at the pearly gates watching your entire life.

Authorities today intensified their manhunt for the "godfather" of a drug-smuggling voodoo cult that allegedly sacrificed and mutilated at least 13 people to make its members invulnerable. U.S and Mexican authorities were searching for Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a Cuban who police said orchestrated the ritual slayings on a remote ranch outside this Mexican border town. Constanzo is believed to have fled into the United States with Matamoros resident Sara Maria Aldrete, a 24-year-old, 6-1 brunette described by Texas Atty.

Malcolm McLaren, the London-born impresario whose cheeky intelligence, P.T. Barnum-esque flair for self-promotion and Dadaist sense of the artist as a wily agent-provocateur helped make him a godfather to the punk-rock and alternative music scenes of the late 1970s and early '80s, including a raucous stint as manager of the iconic British punk band the Sex Pistols, has died. He was 64. McLaren died Thursday in a Swiss hospital after a struggle with cancer. In managing and advising numerous musicians, running clothing boutiques on Chelsea's ultra-hip King's Road and writing music for TV ads, McLaren displayed a gift for always seeming to stay a step or two ahead of wherever fickle transatlantic youth culture was headed next.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is mourning the death of fitness impresario Joe Weider, who died Saturday at 93, calling Weider his mentor and the "godfather of fitness. " "He taught us that through hard work and training we could all be champions," Schwarzenegger, a Mr. Universe- and Mr. Olympia-winning former bodybuilder turned actor and former California governor, said in a statement released Saturday. "When I was a young boy in Austria, his muscle magazines provided me with the inspiration and the blueprint to push myself beyond my limits and imagine a much bigger future," he said.

ORANGE COVE, Calif. - When Victor Lopez was voted out after three decades as mayor of this small Central Valley town, his political nemeses took little time to dismantle what they considered a self-celebratory fiefdom. The Victor Lopez Community Center became the Orange Cove Community Center. Ditto the name changes planned for a street, park bandstand and day care center. As surely as the de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, Lopez was to be erased from Orange Cove. "Don't do this," Mayor Gabriel Jimenez, a political neophyte who defeated Lopez in a close 2010 election, recalls warning fellow lawmakers.

Oscar-winning writer-director-producer Francis Ford Coppola makes movies to understand himself. "When you make a film it is like asking yourself a question," Coppola said over the phone from his home in Northern California. "When it's finished, you know the answer. Ultimately with all of cinema, we are just trying to learn about ourselves. I have always used the opportunity to make a film to learn more about myself, which I am still doing. " Coppola, 73, is returning to the Paramount lot next year - the studio where he had enormous success with "The Godfather" trilogy and 1974's "The Conversation," and for which he just finished the first draft of an ambitious, multi-generational drama akin to his 1974 masterpiece "The Godfather, Part II. " But he was in a reflective mood last week chatting about the Blu-ray release of "Francis Ford Coppola: 5-Film Collection," arriving Tuesday.

The children of Mario Puzo, author of the famed "Godfather" series, are trying to severe their family's more than 40-year association with Paramount Pictures after a bitter squabble that erupted earlier this year. On Thursday, Hollywood attorney Bert Fields, who is representing the Puzo children, told a federal judge in New York that Paramount had violated its 1969 contract with Puzo when the movie studio went to court this year to prevent the May publication of a new sequel, "The Family Corleone.

Hatfields & McCoys Sony, $45.99;Blu-ray, $55.99 In the waning days of the American Civil War, a member of a West Virginia clan known as the Hatfields killed a member of a Kentucky family called the McCoys, touching off a bloody and world-famous feud that lasted the better part of a half-decade, costing a dozen men their lives. In May 2012, the History channel aired an original three-part miniseries about the feud - starring Kevin Costner as the head of the Hatfields and Bill Paxton as the head of the McCoys - which became the most-watched scripted program in the history of basic cable.

With a mouthful of grapes, Steve Nash somehow provides a great impersonation of Marlon Brando's Don Corleone in his latest video spoofing "The Godfather. " It appears to be the latest example of Nash overcoming the odds. After all, he somehow managed to accept a Keystone Light recently from a Lakers fan driving on the opposite lane of the 110 Freeway. Nash helped convince the Phoenix Suns to trade him to a Pacific Division rival in the Lakers. And even at 38 years old, Nash remains one of the league's best point guards.

The $1.5 billion Paramount Park in Spain hopes to rival Disneyland Paris as a European tourist destination when the movie theme park debuts in spring 2015. > Photos: Paramount Park Murcia theme park in Spain Located on the Mediterranean coast about 270 miles southeast of Madrid, Paramount Park Murcia will feature 30 attractions with an adjacent shopping center, hotels and casino. Construction is expected to begin in spring 2012 on a 100-acre theme park set around a central lake that will combine the themed lands of Disneyland with the movie backlots of Universal Studios . While not an investor, Paramount Pictures will license movie properties to the developer and provide design direction for the theme park.

The estate of the author of "The Godfather" has accepted an offer it couldn't refuse. Mario Puzo's estate tentatively settled a $1-million suit against Paramount Pictures over profits from "The Godfather: The Game," Puzo estate attorney Bert Fields said. Paramount did not pay money owed to the Puzo estate under the terms of a settlement from a prior dispute between Puzo and Paramount in 1992, according to the suit. Puzo died in 1999.

Tom Fuentes, whose forceful leadership of the Orange County Republican Party confirmed it as an epicenter of GOP fundraising and political clout, has died. He was 63. Fuentes died late Friday at his home in Lake Forest, family spokeswoman Kathy Tavoularis said. He had liver cancer that had spread to his lungs and lymph system. Fuentes, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County from 1985 to 2004, helped the party maintain its powerhouse status while boosting several candidates to victory.

"Carnage" production designer Dean Tavoularis also helped create the look of some of the classics of 1970s cinema. 'Carnage' He designed a comfortable but lived-in Brooklyn apartment for Roman Polanski's version of the dark stage comedy. 'The Godfather Part II' Tavoularis won an Oscar for his production design of Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 classic, creating Sicily and New York in the early 1900s and Cuba and Lake Tahoe in the late 1950s. 'Apocalypse Now' For Coppola's 1979 Vietnam War epic, Tavoularis designed sets that included a French plantation and Col. Kurtz's jungle command post.