Jimmy Dean

"Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean" at the La Habra Depot Playhouse is an intriguing theatrical suitcase stuffed with small-town secrets and spilling over with well-crafted performances under the deft direction of Barbara Covington. Robert Sessions' nostalgic set design creates an old-fashioned dime store in all its cluttered glory, immediately conjuring up a hot, dry September day in Texas as six friends gather for the 20th reunion of their James Dean fan club.

Karen Black, the bravely offbeat actress who burst into the public consciousness in such iconic counterculture films as "Five Easy Pieces" and "Easy Rider," has died. She was 74. Black, who was found to have ampullary cancer in 2010, died Thursday at West Hills Hospital, said her husband, Stephen Eckelberry. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article said Black died at the West Hills Health and Rehabilitation Center in Canoga Park. She died at West Hills Hospital.

Jimmy Dean's wife of 40 years wants a divorce from the country music singer and sausage tycoon and is seeking $612,000 a year in support. In papers filed in Superior Court, Mary Sue Dean accused her husband of having an affair with country music singer Donna Meade, 37. Mary Sue Dean, who lives in the couple's home in Tenafly, N.J., claims that her husband abandoned her in April after she spent years helping him with his career and social obligations.

UCLA Festival of Preservation Where: Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood Contact: (310) 206-8013 or http://www.cinema.ucla.edu Screenings at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted Thursday : "Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" Friday : "The Goose Woman," "Eve's Leaves" Saturday : "The Girl Who Dared," "Rendezvous With Annie" (2 p.m.); "Sleep, My Love," "Strangers in the Night" Sunday : Highlighting the Outfest Legacy Project (2 p.m.)

For those of us who avoid reunions and for those of us who wish we had, Ed Graczyk's drama "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" reminds us why bringing old friends back together can be a bad idea. When it is the 20th anniversary reunion of The Disciples of James Dean in the dusty town of McCarthy, Texas, things can quickly go sour.

Karen Black, the bravely offbeat actress who burst into the public consciousness in such iconic counterculture films as "Five Easy Pieces" and "Easy Rider," has died. She was 74. Black, who was found to have ampullary cancer in 2010, died Thursday at West Hills Hospital, said her husband, Stephen Eckelberry. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article said Black died at the West Hills Health and Rehabilitation Center in Canoga Park. She died at West Hills Hospital.

In many small towns, the center of community activity is the local diner or general store. Two plays set in just such a milieu are being performed in repertory by members of the California Lutheran University drama department. William Inge's "Bus Stop" opens tonight; last week, Ed Grazyk's "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" made its debut.

Ed Graczyk's "Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean," at Theatre District, is one of those hybrid plays that were popular in the '70s. The main character, Mona, speaks in a sort of ersatz-Tennessee Williams, while the other in habitants of the West Texas town of McCarthy do not. She's been living a Williams-style lie most of her life, about a night she supposedly spent with James Dean while she was an extra in "Giant."

Not to speak ill of the dead, but Robert Altman did poor service to Ed Graczyk's period comedy/drama, "Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean." Altman staged Graczyk's play in 1981, then went on to direct the claustrophobic and inappropriately campy 1982 film, which featured teeth-grindingly histrionic performances by mostly miscast stars, who reduced their small-town characters to drawling caricatures.

Jimmy Dean apparently doesn't kiss on the first date. He squirmed and squealed as Connie Smith, principal of W. R. Nelson Elementary School, took him in her arms Monday as about 300 delighted students watched. When Smith's puckered lips touched his quivering snout, Jimmy Dean shrieked in fright, sending the gathered students roaring in laughter. Then some students rushed to touch him. The excitement seemed too much for the 3-month-old Vietnamese potbellied pig.

When the Country Music Assn. announced in February that Jimmy Dean would be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later this year, Dean joked, "I thought I was already in there." "Seriously, it brought a huge grin to my face," he said in a news release. "I am honored." Dean already had been inducted into the Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Texas Music Hall of Fame in 2005. That's not to mention his 2009 induction into the Meat Industry Hall of Fame.

Not to speak ill of the dead, but Robert Altman did poor service to Ed Graczyk's period comedy/drama, "Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean." Altman staged Graczyk's play in 1981, then went on to direct the claustrophobic and inappropriately campy 1982 film, which featured teeth-grindingly histrionic performances by mostly miscast stars, who reduced their small-town characters to drawling caricatures.

The slouch is back. The sensitive, soulful, pleading eyes. The mumble. Everywhere I turn--billboards, buses, magazines, bookstore windows, TV--there he is, beckoning. Come back to the jive and crime, come back to Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. For more than 30 years I allowed his destructive power over me. Now I am a father of two, married, an executive who willingly labors in the world of responsibility. An adult at last.

For those of us who avoid reunions and for those of us who wish we had, Ed Graczyk's drama "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" reminds us why bringing old friends back together can be a bad idea. When it is the 20th anniversary reunion of The Disciples of James Dean in the dusty town of McCarthy, Texas, things can quickly go sour.

It might seem odd that the best plays about Southern women, such as "The Glass Menagerie," are written by men, but the fact that the characters are dealt with in such loving terms is a tribute both to the women and the playwrights. Ed Graczyk's "Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean," at the Long Beach Studio Theatre, is a perfect example.

Ed Graczyk's "Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean," at Theatre District, is one of those hybrid plays that were popular in the '70s. The main character, Mona, speaks in a sort of ersatz-Tennessee Williams, while the other in habitants of the West Texas town of McCarthy do not. She's been living a Williams-style lie most of her life, about a night she supposedly spent with James Dean while she was an extra in "Giant."

Like the easy-going, down-home characters they portray in their television commercials, sausage kings Jimmy Dean and Jerry Owens don't give the impression they are fighting whole hog for the fattest share of the market. It seems mostly a gentleman's competition for leadership in the breakfast sausage market between the two Dallas-based companies, whose officials praise each other's products as high quality. Jimmy Dean Meat Co.

Jimmy Dean apparently doesn't kiss on the first date. He squirmed and squealed as Connie Smith, principal of W. R. Nelson Elementary School, took him in her arms Monday as about 300 delighted students watched. When Smith's puckered lips touched his quivering snout, Jimmy Dean shrieked in fright, sending the gathered students roaring in laughter. Then some students rushed to touch him. The excitement seemed too much for the 3-month-old Vietnamese potbellied pig.

In many small towns, the center of community activity is the local diner or general store. Two plays set in just such a milieu are being performed in repertory by members of the California Lutheran University drama department. William Inge's "Bus Stop" opens tonight; last week, Ed Grazyk's "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" made its debut.