Leaving

It was billed as a "shocking tell-all" and a "world exclusive," but the National Enquirer's March 26 cover story landed with a thud. TMZ, Page Six and other major players in celebrity gossip ignored the article in which a masseur claimed John Travolta offered money for sex. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article used the term "masseuse"; it should have said "masseur. " Five weeks after the issue left the checkout aisle, a DUI attorney from Pasadena put the anonymous masseur's tawdry tale in a lawsuit and it became an overnight pop culture sensation, topping Google News, trending on Twitter and meriting a segment on "Good Morning America.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Ryan Crocker, a respected diplomat who came out of retirement to become the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, is leaving his post this summer, a year ahead of schedule. U.S. Embassy spokesman Mark Thornburg on Tuesday confirmed Crocker's plan to depart. Rumors had swirled during the weekend summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Chicago, which Crocker attended. The 62-year-old Crocker had served as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, taking the diplomatic helm there during a crucial period, from 2007 to 2009, that coincided with a sharp increase in U.S. troop levels to tamp down escalating violence.

Often film sequels are slam dunks at the box office, a seamless continuation from where a previous hit left off. But as the new installment of the 15-year-old franchise "Men in Black" proves, getting to the big screen isn't always a cakewalk. One of the most troubled productions in recent Hollywood memory, Sony Pictures' latest movie in the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi-comedy franchise encountered multiple script rewrites, a discontented star and a three-month production shutdown as writers and studio executives scrambled to fix a project that nearly fell apart . By the time it was over, the studio had run up a tab of nearly $250 million - making "Men in Black 3" one of the most expensive releases of the summer.

A suspect has been detained in the fatal shooting of a Metro bus driver Sunday morning in West Hollywood, authorities said. Shortly after 9 a.m. the 51-year old bus driver on Route 105 was leaving an MTA layover area near the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and West Knoll Drive when the shooting occurred, said MTA spokesman Rick Jager. The driver was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and died at 9:30 a.m. The name of the driver, a five-year veteran of the agency, has not been released.

The alarm over potential bank runs in Greece and Spain this week has highlighted an often-overlooked fact: Europe's debt crisis is also, in many ways, a major banking crisis. In capitals such as Athens, Madrid and Rome, large portions of the sovereign debt racked up by spendthrift governments are owed to the countries' own banks, locking governments and the banks in an embrace so tight that disaster for one would almost certainly spell doom for the other. International bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have helped to keep not just their governments but also their banks afloat, as well as financial institutions in other parts of Europe with large exposure to those nations' debts.

When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

Gasoline prices are keeping up their record-setting ways. California drivers paid an average of $4.358 for a gallon of regular gasoline, up 6.6 cents from a week earlier, the Energy Department said Monday. That's a fresh record high for this time of year and is 48.4 cents above the year-earlier price. Nationally, the average rose 7.2 cents to $3.793, also a record for this week, according to Energy Department statistics. A year earlier, the average U.S. price was 27.3 cents lower.

Few rites of passage are more fraught with collective angst than the kids leaving home. Parents stare at empty bedrooms and brood over noiseless dinners. Young people discover that freedom brings unwanted responsibilities and challenges they may not be ready to handle. Relationships change. No blueprint sets forth how to break away or even when, since some children fly the nest at 18, some bolt in their 20s, and some never summon the gumption — or these days have the money or job — to go at all. "Nobody is correctly equipped to manage what's happening," noted Los Angeles-based author and psychotherapist Stacy Kaiser.

Arnold Nudell has resigned as president of Infinity Systems, a stereo loudspeaker producer in Chatsworth, which he co-founded 21 years ago with Cary Christie, the company announced Monday. Christie, 44, who had been executive vice president, was named to succeed Nudell, 52. Infinity, which is one of the biggest loudspeaker manufacturers in the nation, is owned by Harman International Industries, an audio products concern based in Washington. Christie said Nudell's reasons for leaving "are personal and we're leaving them that way."

Dear Amy: Recently I reconnected with a woman I knew more than 25 years ago. We e-mailed, texted and spoke by phone. A few months ago, I was in her hometown and she came to my hotel. We had a few drinks and spent the night together. We continued our conversations, and recently I was at a convention where she also was and we spent the week together. We virtually skipped the convention and just enjoyed each other's company. More recently, I was back in her town and we spent another few days together.

A Newport Beach woman who arranged for a former NFL player to kill her wealthy boyfriend in a 1994 plot to collect $1 million in insurance money was sentenced Friday to life in prison. But sentencing for onetime New England Patriot linebacker Eric Naposki was continued to Aug. 10 after he refused to leave his courthouse holding cell. The prosecutor called Naposki's actions "a final blaze of no class and cowardice" by the man who fired six gunshots into the chest of Bill McLaughlin, who died in his Balboa Coves home.

A rare "ring" solar eclipse is coming to California on Sunday evening - the first of its kind to be visible from the continental United States since 1994. From our vantage point in Southern California, the moon will block about 85% of the sun's diameter, leaving behind a crescent-shaped sliver. But those farther north will see the moon nudge its way into the center of the sun, leaving a ring of fire visible around the moon's edge. Scientists call this an annular eclipse. ("Annulus" means "ring" in Latin.)

Legal poker The stalemate is so stale, the one between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants, that it somehow became big news when someone asked Bud Selig last week whether the A's might move out of the Bay Area and the commissioner basically said, "Beats me. Go ask the A's. " The A's haven't given up on San Jose. The Giants haven't given up on blocking the move. Selig hasn't given up on brokering a deal, three years into the peace talks. Selig had better be wary.

It was billed as a "shocking tell-all" and a "world exclusive," but the National Enquirer's March 26 cover story landed with a thud. TMZ, Page Six and other major players in celebrity gossip ignored the article in which a masseur claimed John Travolta offered money for sex. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article used the term "masseuse"; it should have said "masseur. " Five weeks after the issue left the checkout aisle, a DUI attorney from Pasadena put the anonymous masseur's tawdry tale in a lawsuit and it became an overnight pop culture sensation, topping Google News, trending on Twitter and meriting a segment on "Good Morning America.

One problem with talk about the A's relocating is there is no obvious market for MLB to move into. Charlotte and Las Vegas are possibilities but the most viable is probably Portland. There's less talk about a third New York team with the Mets sorting through financial difficulties ? Miguel Cabrera was expected to be a monster with Prince Fielder behind him but has inexplicably expanded his strike zone. He recently went 17 games in a row without a walk, the longest stretch of his career ?

SAN DIEGO - This is not the stuff of which championship teams are made. The Angels had the chance to move within six games of the Texas Rangers for the first time in a month. Their starting pitcher was Dan Haren, a three-time All-Star. The opposing starting pitcher was Eric Stults, who last won a major league game three years ago. The opposing team was the San Diego Padres, with the worst record in the National League. The Angels lost, of course. It was not so much Saturday's final score - Padres 3, Angels 2 - that reflected the problem.

Heavy rains have caused severe flooding in the African nation of Djibouti, leaving 150,000 people homeless, the French Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

I'm working out harder now than I ever have, and I'm not doing that just to be part of rebuilding.' Karl Malone, on possibly leaving the Utah Jazz for an NBA title contender

Samuel L. Jacksonbrings a welcome world-weariness to his character in "The Samaritan," a man named Foley just released from prison after having served 25 years for killing his best friend in a con job gone wrong. But soon, Foley's found himself sucked back into a life on the grift, and Jackson launches into one of his many patented bellows and things take a turn for the predictable. (There's even an obvious twist lifted straight from a recent Asian crime film; to identify the movie would give it away.)

California's labor market stumbled in April as employers in a wide swath of industries trimmed their payrolls, shaking the state's long-sputtering economy. Employers shed 4,200 jobs last month from such diverse industries as construction and hospitality, ending eight months of employment gains, according to figures released Friday from the state's Employment Development Department. The unemployment rate, however, dipped last month to 10.9% from 11% in March, the result of discouraged workers leaving the labor force, according to the department.