Impersonators

The Securities and Exchange Commission said con artists were impersonating its employees and pressing brokerages and money managers to turn over records in "emergency" inspections. In other instances, investors have been tricked into giving impersonators private information, access to brokerage accounts or money, the SEC said. The regulator has been alerting investors of people posing as SEC staff since at least 2007, according to notices posted on its website.

Elvis impersonators can don their jumpsuits - and maybe their blue suede shoes too - as they hit the stage May 10-11 at Las Vegas ' Fremont Street Experience for a chance to perform at Graceland . The Las Vegas Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest kicks off at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday with a musical tribute to the King on the giant electronic canopy. Following a parade of “Elvi,” the contestants will get down to business, grinding their hips while belting out some of Elvis' many hits.

Michael Jackson's death has had an electrifying effect on business for those in Las Vegas who make their living imitating the self-proclaimed King of Pop in all his moonwalking, crotch-grabbing glory. One club proprietor hopes to launch a permanent Jackson show by the star's birthday in late August, and booking agents have seen surges in applications from would-be impersonators and calls for their services. In a town in which guys made up like Elvis will marry you, serve as emcee at your business conference or sing "Viva Las Vegas" at your private party, Royal Talent, a booking agency for impersonators, said its Michael Jackson act is now the most requested.

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. senator who was the intended recipient of a letter apparently laced with ricin said he had hired the suspected sender, an Elvis impersonator, to play at a wedding a decade ago. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), a quiet two-term senator who was trailed by security in the Capitol on Thursday, said he had hired Paul Kevin Curtis and "he was quite entertaining. " "I have indeed met the gentleman in question," Wicker told reporters. "He's an entertainer. He's an Elvis impersonator.

Danny Uwnawich, an Elvis Presley look-alike, was standing outside the house he is building in Northridge recently when a motorist drove by, leaned out his window and shouted, "All right! It's true!" Indeed Elvis lives, at least in spirit. Consider the house Uwnawich has under construction: an estimated $1-million scaled-down facsimile of Presley's famous Graceland mansion.

Call it the Klash of the Kardashians: Reality-star sisters Kim, Kourtney and Khloe, along with their mother, Kris Jenner, on Tuesday ran into the funny ladies who often impersonate them on"Saturday Night Live. " During the E! network's upfront presentations in New York, the "SNL" gals took the stage in character in front of advertisers and others on hand to see the channel's summer-schedule offerings. Nasim Pedrad (Kim), Abby Elliot (Khloe) and Vanessa Bayer (Kourtney) introduced themselves in character before noting how pleased they were to be there representing E!

Elvis impersonators can don their jumpsuits - and maybe their blue suede shoes too - as they hit the stage May 10-11 at Las Vegas ' Fremont Street Experience for a chance to perform at Graceland . The Las Vegas Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest kicks off at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday with a musical tribute to the King on the giant electronic canopy. Following a parade of “Elvi,” the contestants will get down to business, grinding their hips while belting out some of Elvis' many hits.

Investigators are searching for one or more people who claim to be police officers selling magic show tickets for $25 each to raise money for the department, authorities said Thursday. The department issued a warning Thursday that "neither the Costa Mesa Police Department nor the Costa Mesa Police Assn. sells tickets to magic shows, circuses, rodeos, etc.," Investigator George Johnson said. "There may be some magic show out there, but it's none that we know of," he said.

Police appealed to the public Tuesday to assist them in catching thieves known as "trash-can burglars" and another criminal called the "tool-belt bandit." Det. David Straky of the Los Angeles Police Department said thieves masquerading as gardeners are believed responsible for about 30 daytime burglaries across the Westside since February.

There's never been a better time to be Abraham Lincoln. This morning, John Kendall will groom his Quaker-style beard, brush off his stovepipe hat and drive to his dream job: posing as Honest Abe at schools throughout the Southland. He's been earning a respectable living this way for three years.

There is nothing like listening to Stephen A. Smith drop names, places and other various references to his many friends in the sporting world when he's on ESPN's First Take morning program or breaking down the NBA on various other broadcasts. A lot of people don't like his shtick, but let's face it, most of the big-time personalities on sports television mimic talk radio these days: the louder and more emphatic you say it, the better. You don't have to be right. Or wrong.

Blake Griffin is a serious competitor on the court, but as soon as he's done playing he often shows his lighter side, joking around with his teammates during their post-game interviews or playing with Chris Paul's young son, known as Little Chris. After the Clippers' 86-76 win over the Magic on Wednesday, Grayson Gregory of 810 CBS Sports Radio in Orlando apparently overheard Griffin impersonating former baseball broadcaster Harry Caray for teammate Lamar Odom. The reporter then asked Griffin to describe Ryan Hollins' 13-point, eight-rebound performance in his best Caray voice.

Last July, dozens of theatergoers in Aurora, Colo., survived a massacre. Now they have to survive the people who think they're liars. In a court filing this week, Arapahoe County prosecutors said the conspiracy theorists have been such a problem they think releasing more victims' names publicly could hurt the prosecution of James Holmes in the killings. "Since the time this case was filed, unforeseen events continue to adversely affect the daily lives of the victims and witnesses in this case," the filing stated, which opposes a move to unseal more court records.

The first day for California lawmakers to introduce bills in the new two-year session was Dec. 3, the day they took their oaths. The Legislature then immediately recessed for the holidays and did not reconvene until this week, but through December the desk remained open for bills to be submitted, and there are now hundreds that will be scheduled for hearing, examined by the Legislative Analyst's Office, or quietly killed by Assembly or Senate leadership....

California legislators and the state's top prosecutor said Friday that they would work to overhaul a law that makes it a crime to obtain sex by impersonating another only if the victim is a married woman. The 19th century law required a state appeals court on Wednesday to overturn the rape conviction of a Los Angeles County man who entered a darkened bedroom where a woman was sleeping and had sex with her. The 18-year-old woman said she initially mistook the defendant for her boyfriend, who had left earlier, but resisted when she realized it wasn't him. Police said the defendant admitted the woman probably wrongly assumed he was her boyfriend.

A man who impersonates someone in order to have sexual intercourse may be guilty of rape only if the victim was married and the man was pretending to be her husband, a state appeals court has ruled. The unanimous ruling, from an admittedly reluctant court, overturned the rape conviction of Julio Morales, who entered a sleeping woman's dark bedroom after her boyfriend walked out and began having intercourse with her. The woman screamed and resisted when she awoke and realized Morales was not her boyfriend, the court said.

Edward Moss, an L.A. actor who has been impersonating Michael Jackson since 1996, has been selected to play the pop singer in the dramatic reenactments of his trial on E! Entertainment Television. The channel's "The Michael Jackson Trial," based on testimony from the Santa Maria courtroom where Jackson faces child-molestation charges, will air nightly once jury selection is completed.

A Riverside man used his resemblance to Los Angeles Rams tackle Darryl Ashmore to steal jewelry from women and scam money from men, going well beyond bar-stool banter to virtually assume the NFL player's identity in local nightclubs, authorities charged Thursday. Darryl Bernard Nolan, 25, wore Rams jerseys and an NFL jacket, opened a checking account and rented a pager in the offensive lineman's name, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.

The very notion of Gary Oldman as an Elvis impersonator sounds like it alone should be worth the price of admission for "Guns, Girls and Gambling. " Alas, his turn is not as wildly committed as one might hope, and the movie overall is similarly a promising letdown. A strangely anachronistic crime and double-crosses picture - is there something more current to rip off than '90s Tarantino? - the film is needlessly flat, never much achieving the kick and surprise it aspires to. A man who introduces himself as John Smith (Christian Slater)

Retail giantWal-Martsaid that it has parted ways with a public relations firm whose employee was found to have posed as a reporter at an event staged byWal-Martcritics. Wal-Martspokesman Steven Restivo said in a statement Friday that his company and Mercury Public Affairs had mutually decided to end their "business relationship. " Mercury had received $60,000 to lobby officials at Los Angeles City Hall over a proposed Wal-Mart grocery in Chinatown, according to city records. "We take this matter seriously and have taken the appropriate steps to ensure this type of activity is not repeated," Restivo said.