Humor

Stored in a secure facility in the Cayman Islands, Mika Rottenberg's new sculpture will be sold in shares to collectors who have never seen it in person. The only public image of the work features a smiling New York art dealer, Mary Boone, holding the precious object: a raggedy cube made of raw latex, rotting lettuce and tins of blush. Whether you think this arrangement is brilliant or ridiculous probably depends on how you feel about the contemporary art market. Rottenberg, named one of the 10 most promising New York artists by New York magazine in 2007, is interested in the mysterious mechanisms by which art's value is created.

He had already been proclaimed "the Picasso of children's books" by Time magazine when Maurice Sendak, then in his 30s, wrote and illustrated "Where the Wild Things Are," a dark fantasy that became one of the 10 bestselling children's books of all time. Published in 1963, the book was a startling departure from the sweetness and innocence that then ruled children's literature. "Wild Things" tapped into the fears of childhood and sent its main character — an unruly boy in a wolf costume — into a menacing forest to tame the wild beasts of his imagination.

"Top Gear," the hit BBC car show broadcast in 170 countries and watched by 350 million weekly viewers, is a tough act to follow. Now, the fast-paced and intelligently humorous "Top Gear" is jumping the pond in an Americanized version that premieres Sunday on History. As the American take on the British classic model prepares for its debut, the Web has been abuzz with speculation that the made-in-the-U.S. version would be, at best, a bad imitation of the beloved original, which stars a trio of wizened auto enthusiasts.

Under Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's shy and reclusive personality stands a man gracefully taking center stage. He did that on the hardwood. Abdul-Jabbar won five of his six championships with the Lakers during the Showtime era. He finished as the NBA's all-time leading scorer (38,387 points). And he capped his 20-year career with a distinguishable skill-set with his famed sky hook. Abdul-Jabbar also has done that with acting. He grew up taking acting lessons at St. Jude Catholic School in Manhattan.

Poor Jeff Zaslow. In high school, some bully stole his favorite sneakers and wouldn't give them back. In college, his dream date confessed that there were only three guys she'd ever been interested in--and he wasn't one of them. He's painfully insecure. "All my life I've wanted to be liked," he confessed. "I'm not Willy Loman but I've always wanted people to think I'm a nice guy." This guy needs some advice. This guy needs Ann Landers. No, wait a minute, this guy is Ann Landers.

This year is nearly a wrap, dwindling to just a few days. It's also a quiet week at bookstores around the county, with the exception of buyers clutching gift certificates. If you have one of those, how about choosing something to make you laugh? It's been said comedy is tragedy plus time, but the timeline seems to be getting quite a bit shorter, especially if you're a news junkie.

There would seem to be no greater match of performer and project than Martin Lawrence in Columbia Pictures' "Bad Boys." For much of last year, Lawrence was the bad boy of comedy, where almost everything he touched became immersed in a whirlpool of controversy. * Lawrence's concert film, "You So Crazy," was considered so raunchy by the Motion Picture Assn. of America that it was given an NC-17 rating despite an appeal by Lawrence. Many theaters refused to show the movie.

In America's movie theaters, this has been the summer of women behaving badly: Kristen Wiig as an underachieving maid of honor who trashes her friend's bridal shower in "Bridesmaids"; Cameron Diaz as a pot-smoking middle school teacher handing her bra to a student in "Bad Teacher"; Jennifer Aniston as a sexually predatory dentist harassing her male assistant in "Horrible Bosses. " Still to come: Anna Faris as a hard-partying slacker with a long list of exes in September's "What's Your Number?"

It was a bittersweet homecoming of sorts when John McCain returned to this picturesque town on Wednesday. Peterborough was the site of one of his very first presidential campaign rallies in his unsuccessful 2000 bid to be the GOP presidential nominee, and the site of one of the last before he lost the 2008 general election to President Obama. McCain returned to endorse and campaign with Mitt Romney, with whom he fought a fierce primary battle four years ago, and who is a front-runner to win this year's Republican nomination.

Bob O'Sullivan's "How to Stay Ahead While Playing the Hotel Game" (June 26) was hilarious. You have to keep your sense of humor while traveling. KATHY NELSON Torrance

Who doesn't love election humor? A new free app for iPhones and iPads from Comedy Central aims to take palm-side the comedy of this political cycle. Indecision Election Companion includes posts from the comedy network's blog , occasional clips from both "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," and special features such as Guess the Quote: "The Hunger Games" or Tea Party Patriot. The user has to choose whether the excerpt is from the post-apocalyptic young-adult adventure novel or from the Tea Party Patriots' Facebook page.

With "Desperate Housewives" winding up its lucrative eight-season run on ABC, its creator took a moment last week to distill what he called the show's "original blend" of television genres. "Part comedy, part drama, part mystery," Marc Cherry said. To the audience he addressed, a Los Angeles jury in a lawsuit brought by a former actress on the show, the concept of watching something that was by turns funny, sad and confounding was not a foreign one. The two-week trial set for closing arguments Tuesday often seemed a black comedy about a black comedy.

A small, determined cadre approaches a location - be it a hospital, bank, symphony hall or power station - not with destruction in mind, but creativity. In each place, members of the group use objects on-site to perform musical compositions. The group's interruptions and shenanigans get its members labeled "terrorists" by the authorities, but their actual goal is anything but the spreading of fear: They want to turn the world upside down to find unexpected beauty in the mundane and everyday.

Analia Saban went to art school at the height of the recent market boom, when it was not uncommon for students, particularly in UCLA's prestigious painting program, to be fielding offers from galleries and selling work directly out of their studios. It had a significant impact on the direction of her career, though not because she profited by it at the time. Indeed, she had a rough go of it. Raised in Buenos Aires, she came to Los Angeles in 2002 by way of a small college in New Orleans, where she studied video art primarily.

Hoping to follow in the footsteps of National Lampoon, the digital-comedy company CollegeHumor Media is taking a stab at the film business. The firm has signed on to make a movie about thirtysomething underachievers called "Coffee Town," buying a script from former "Arrested Development" writer-producer Brad Copeland and hiring him to direct it. The low-budget movie, which will star a group of up-and-coming actors, is being financed by CollegeHumor and...

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Wednesday Chelsea Handler brings her salty brand of humor to network TV. ( Los Angeles Times ) Former Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry marries his girlfriend Amanda Sheppard. ( Los Angeles Times ) Halle Berry is tying the knot with French actor Olivier Martinez. ( Us Weekly ) Stacy Keibler says her beau George Clooney is "the best date in the whole world. " And who are we to argue? ( People ) Scarlett Johansson denies reports of a rift with her mom, Melanie Sloan, over money.

I was chagrined and dismayed by Angela Smith's comments (TV Times, May 2) about "In Living Color" (Fox). To me, the opening shots are symbolic and a statement of the fact that one of life's greatest gifts--humor--does indeed come in every color, and gives our hang-ups and hypocrisies a good airing. Anne Valentine, Glendale

Platoon Sgt. Vaughn Larson of the Wisconsin Army National Guard is the only current member of the Assn. of American Editorial Cartoonists serving in Iraq. His cartoons are published in the Plymouth Review and occasionally in Stars and Stripes. Interviewed recently by Rob Rogers, president of the cartoonists association, Larson said, "My overall opinion of the war has not changed. We need to finish the job we started.

It was a bittersweet homecoming of sorts when John McCain returned to this picturesque town on Wednesday. Peterborough was the site of one of his very first presidential campaign rallies in his unsuccessful 2000 bid to be the GOP presidential nominee, and the site of one of the last before he lost the 2008 general election to President Obama. McCain returned to endorse and campaign with Mitt Romney, with whom he fought a fierce primary battle four years ago, and who is a front-runner to win this year's Republican nomination.

As fans of the late Christopher Hitchens cycle through the five stages of grief, it's interesting to see which of his opinions can still inspire the kind of anger that is unlikely to ever fade into acceptance. There are, of course, the obvious candidates: his characterization of Bill Clinton as "a rapist" or his vilification of Mother Teresa as "a fanatic, a fundamentalist, and a fraud. " There is also his oh so chivalrous shout-out to the Dixie Chicks, whom he called "fat slugs" (or "slags" or "sluts" depending on your source)