John Mclaughlin

There are a number of questions you want to ask John McLaughlin, not least among them if he has ever strained his throat yelling "Wrong!" at a shellshocked panelist on "The McLaughlin Group," the Washington, D.C.-based discussion show he produces and hosts, which will reach its 20th anniversary in April. In a conversation with McLaughlin, the responses come easily; it's getting a word in edgewise that's hard. McLaughlin was in Los Angeles last week, schmoozing donors for local PBS station KCET, which began carrying his nationally distributed weekly program (having already aired McLaughlin's interview show, "One on One")

Here's one tangible sign of the beneficial effect of Pacific Standard Time, the Getty-sponsored initiative to exhume the mostly under-recognized history of important Los Angeles art in the first generation after World War II: Southern California museums are now competing over the legacy. How high have the stakes quickly become? Let's just say the competition is so eager that it doesn't always mean a fair fight. One museum has publicly announced plans to organize a retrospective of a major but under-sung L.A. painter - even though officials knew that another museum already had the same show in the works for several months.

At last count, conservative TV pundit John McLaughlin had three regular shows, a nightly segment on a cable news-magazine program and was making occasional appearances on entertainment series. His "McLaughlin Group" public affairs series appears on public television stations as well as individual stations through syndication. "John McLaughlin's One on One" is also syndicated.

Rico Lebrun was probably the most famous Modern American artist working in Los Angeles in the decade following World War II. Yet, when the J. Paul Getty Museum opened "Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970" on Saturday, kicking off the mammoth, region-wide survey of Los Angeles art dubbed Pacific Standard Time, Lebrun's paintings were nowhere to be seen. Reputations rise and fall. Lebrun arrived in L.A. in 1938, worked at the old Chouinard Art Institute and got a job teaching Disney animators how to draw convincing animal motion for "Bambi.

EVENTS AKC/Eukanuba National Championship From pointers to Pomeranians, the prides of the purebreds will be on display at this year's championship. And although best in show won't be announced until Sunday night, the more than 2,500 dogs vying for the coveted title will be looking their best and be on their best behavior in preparation for the weekend's judging. Long Beach Convention Center , 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Through Sunday. Call for times. Adult day ticket for Saturday or Sunday, $20. Adult evening ticket for Saturday or Sunday, $20. (562)

Rico Lebrun was probably the most famous Modern American artist working in Los Angeles in the decade following World War II. Yet, when the J. Paul Getty Museum opened "Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970" on Saturday, kicking off the mammoth, region-wide survey of Los Angeles art dubbed Pacific Standard Time, Lebrun's paintings were nowhere to be seen. Reputations rise and fall. Lebrun arrived in L.A. in 1938, worked at the old Chouinard Art Institute and got a job teaching Disney animators how to draw convincing animal motion for "Bambi.

John McLaughlin, 70, a longtime political columnist, died Wednesday of cancer and Parkinson's disease at his home in Morris Township, N.J. McLaughlin, a native of Philadelphia, worked for newspapers in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, spending the last 24 years of his career at the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. In the late 1970s, McLaughlin was chief political correspondent for the New York Daily News.

In the 1950s and 1960s, when stylistic innovation was perhaps the most valuable artistic currency to be spent in the contemporary art world, John McLaughlin's paintings were utterly bankrupt. Built on the precedent of the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian and the Russian Kasimir Malevich, McLaughlin's stripped-down style added nothing to the established repertoire of flat, uninflected, rectilinear color-shapes painted on easel-size canvases. Stylistically, they were unimaginative.

In addition to being the first major Modernist artist to emerge in postwar Los Angeles, John McLaughlin (1898-1976) also fertilized the local cultural landscape in two fundamental ways. First, when the legendary exhibition "Four Abstract Classicists" (McLaughlin, Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley and Karl Benjamin) traveled from the L.A. County Museum to London in 1959, the show gave Los Angeles its first coherent claim to international significance as a center for modern art. And second, McLaughlin's elegantly spare geometric abstractions established a rigorous aesthetic of perceptual refinement, which became a hallmark of art produced in L.A. From the acclaimed Light-and-Space installations of the 1960s and 1970s to John M. Miller's luminous paintings today, McLaughlin is their great forebear.

EVENTS AKC/Eukanuba National Championship From pointers to Pomeranians, the prides of the purebreds will be on display at this year's championship. And although best in show won't be announced until Sunday night, the more than 2,500 dogs vying for the coveted title will be looking their best and be on their best behavior in preparation for the weekend's judging. Long Beach Convention Center , 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Through Sunday. Call for times. Adult day ticket for Saturday or Sunday, $20. Adult evening ticket for Saturday or Sunday, $20. (562)

A list of upcoming concerts across the Southland, with on-sale dates in parentheses. UCLA Live John Cale, Sept. 30; Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, Oct. 2; Laurie Anderson, Oct. 21; Taj Mahal, Oct. 22; Ornette Coleman, Nov. 3; Mavis Staples and Billy Bragg, Nov. 5; Gamelan Cudamani, Nov. 11; Dengue Fever, Nov. 12; Richard Thompson's Cabaret of Souls, Nov. 19; John McLaughlin & the 4th Dimension, Dec. 1; Alice Coltrane Tribute, Dec. 5;...

Composer John Debney is the man behind the music of the "Iron Man" films as well as the current Top 10 hit "Predators," but his skills extend far beyond the action-flicks realm. He's earned three Emmys scoring for television and got an Oscar nomination for his work on the 2004 biblical epic "Passion of the Christ." "I've always had broad musical tastes," said the Burbank resident, whose father was a producer with Disney for 40 years. "When I was growing up and playing in a series of garage bands, my guitar heroes were the usual suspects like Clapton and Hendrix, but I also liked Chicago's Terry Kath and John McLaughlin of the Mahavishnu Orchestra."

Based on first impressions, the '70s were back at Royce Hall on Thursday night. Led by two titans of jazz fusion, that controversial sub-genre that began with Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way," John McLaughlin and Chick Corea opened their North American tour with an ensemble dubbed the Five Peace Band.

John McLaughlin, 70, a longtime political columnist, died Wednesday of cancer and Parkinson's disease at his home in Morris Township, N.J. McLaughlin, a native of Philadelphia, worked for newspapers in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, spending the last 24 years of his career at the Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J. In the late 1970s, McLaughlin was chief political correspondent for the New York Daily News.

The veteran intelligence analyst who served as acting CIA director during a wave of criticism of the agency this summer announced his retirement Friday. In a statement, the CIA's deputy director, John E. McLaughlin, called his resignation a "purely personal decision" and said it was time to move on to other endeavors. He has worked with the agency 32 years. McLaughlin temporarily took over the CIA in July when former Director George J. Tenet retired, also citing personal reasons.

John McLaughlin, moderator of Washington's favorite TV shout-a-thon, "The McLaughlin Group, on the high visibility of the folks attending a capital party for him on Wednesday night: "If a massive calamity had struck the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and we were all wiped out, Bruce Babbitt would be our next president."

Christopher Knight's review of the Monet show is the thing that is myopic, not late Monet. Since Knight is an enthusiast of that boring artist John McLaughlin, one can understand where he is coming from when he knocks Monet. It might make more sense to have The Times send someone who is sympathetic to paint to review these painterly shows by the masters. ZOLITA S. RAPP Pasadena

The acting director of the CIA said Sunday that it was unnecessary to create a new level of bureaucracy to oversee U.S. intelligence functions and that his agency had taken steps to reform itself since Sept. 11 -- even disrupting a number of terrorist plots targeting the United States that were in the early stages of planning. John McLaughlin acknowledged that "a good argument" could be made for establishing a single Cabinet-level position overseeing the 15 agencies comprising the U.S.

Soon-to-be acting CIA Director John E. McLaughlin has achieved near-legendary status during his 32 years at the spy agency, and not just for his low-key intensity and reputation as one of its best-ever intelligence analysts. It's also the magic tricks. McLaughlin, 61, is a world-class amateur magician whose sleight-of-hand has dazzled U.S. presidents and foreign leaders as well as crowds of children at a rural Virginia fair where he performs every year. In CIA circles, his nickname is "Merlin."