Miranda

A sensitive adaptation of Katherine Anne Porter's short story "The Fig Tree" marks the fourth-season premiere of "Wonderworks" Saturday on PBS (airing at 7 p.m. on Channel 50, 8 p.m. on Channels 28 and 15). Performed by a first-rate cast, Porter's child's-eye view of death takes a young girl out of her shadowy world of repressed grief into sunlight and survival. A Texas family of 1903 has been crippled several years before by the loss of the mother in childbirth.

Some politicians wanted Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev declared an enemy combatant; many warned against reading him his Miranda rights. Discussing these calls in his Op-Ed article Tuesday, UC Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky offered a spirited defense of protections for criminal defendants. "The Constitution is not like a deck chair, to be brought out in good weather and then put away and ignored when the seas get rough," he wrote. "Tsarnaev is entitled to the same constitutional protections as any other criminal defendant.

As viewers of television crime dramas know, before questioning a suspect in custody, police must warn him that he has the right to speak to an attorney and to have an attorney present during questioning. Less well known is that in 1981, 15 years after its decision in Miranda vs. Arizona, the Supreme Court ruled that once a suspect asks for a lawyer, all interrogation must stop -- and can't be resumed even if the suspect subsequently waives his rights. If there is to be further conversation in the lawyer's absence, it must be initiated by the suspect.

WASHINGTON - The federal rules say a person making an arrest "must take the defendant before a magistrate without unnecessary delay. " And the Supreme Court has said the judicial process must begin within 48 hours. This rule aims to "prevent secret detention," wrote former Justice David H. Souter, adding that "no one with any smattering of the history of 20th-Century dictatorships needs a lecture on the subject. " Despite criticism from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill that the questioning of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was prematurely curtailed, legal experts say the only way to have avoided triggering that process once he was arrested a week ago would have been to declare him an enemy combatant.

STAGE Hana van der Kolk The renowned dancer, teacher and choreographer presents a new performance work that uses song and dance to merge theatrical movements with spatial explorations. Produced in conjunction with "Hammer Projects: Linn Meyers," the piece features performers working within a meditation process similar to Meyers' rhythmic, repetitive patterns. Hammer, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., 12 p.m. Free. (310) 443-7000. Hammer.ucla.edu. MUSIC WU LYF The mysterious Manchester indie band — whose name is an acronym for "World Unite!

When Ron Bloom joined a San Gabriel Valley language club to practice Mandarin, he figured he might be one of the few non-Chinese in the group. Then he met the club's leader: Victor Hugo Miranda Jr. "I was expecting a Taiwanese guy," said Bloom, 49, a radar scientist in El Segundo who studied Mandarin in college . "I've never met a guy from South America who speaks Chinese. I almost fell over." Miranda, 35, originally from Costa Rica, took the helm of Mandarin Friends two years ago and has helped transform it from a core membership of about 150 to more than 700 registered members, who interact with each other largely over the Web. Members are mostly young professionals and include Asians and non-Asians.

The Supreme Court today created a minor exception to the Miranda warning, ruling that a police officer's initial failure to advise a suspect of his rights does not necessarily invalidate a later confession. The court, voting 6 to 3, overruled the Oregon Court of Appeals, which had thrown out the burglary conviction of Michael James Elstad on the ground that his confession was improperly introduced as evidence at his trial.

Note to organizers of "Interview with the Vampire" premiere parties: Here's the rock band for you. Miranda Sex Garden. At the Troubadour on Tuesday, the English group's lead singer Katherine Blake wore a lacy nightgown, and the expression on her wide-eyed, doll-like face alternated between creepy grin and enigmatic smile. She looked all set for a stroll through the crypt. The soundtrack that Blake, co-frontwoman Donna McKevitt and their four musicians provided was a sort of Gothic punk cabaret.

Re "Court Gives Leeway to Interrogate," May 28: This Supreme Court decision clearly undercuts the Miranda decision and was fueled by the right-wing ideology that pervades our executive branch and our deliberative bodies. The stacking of the Supreme Court is nearly complete now, the Constitution and Bill of Rights have been relegated to the trash bin and, sadly, most Americans are too self-absorbed to notice or even care. The only thing that cuts through that haze is the vitriolic campaign of hate that seems to have taken over the airwaves.

In the movies of Todd Solondz, the world is a horrible place populated by miserable or unkind people. While there's plenty of misery and unkindness in the director's seventh full-length feature,"Dark Horse," Solondz also gives us something new, or at least less self-consciously misanthropic. "Dark Horse" is a glum little sort-of comedy brushed with melancholic sweetness; for once, Solondz seems less interested in scoring points off his characters than in creeping into their shy, sad interior worlds.

Federal agents had to end what they termed "an urgent public safety interview" with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev when a judge came to his hospital room, officials said Thursday, a disclosure that has renewed the debate over how the government should handle terrorism suspects. Tsarnaev has not answered any questions since he was given a lawyer and told he has the right to remain silent by Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler on Monday, officials said. Until that point, Tsarnaev had been responding to the interagency High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, including admitting his role in the bombing, authorities said.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen suspected of planting bombs at the Boston Marathon, was charged Monday with using a "weapon of mass destruction" against people and property, and he faces an aggressive prosecution and the possibility of the death penalty. But that's not good enough for Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.). Because Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, "were not common criminals … but terrorists trying to injure, maim and kill innocent Americans," the two senators would rather see Tsarnaev plucked from the judicial system, classified as an enemy combatant, deprived of a lawyer and placed in military detention.

Rumors recently swirled that Miranda Kerr wasn't going to continue under contract with Victoria's Secret. Kerr now confirms it is true, but says she has agreed to walk in this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. She just didn't want to remain under a contract that took so much of her time, because she has other priorities now, she told the Sydney Morning Herald. [SMH] Actor Ian Ziering, who came to fame playing Steve Sanders on the original "Beverly Hills 90120" in the 1990s, plans to spend the month of June dancing with the Chippendales  -- the famed male strippers -- at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

The rumor mill is in overdrive after a report that Victoria's Secret is dumping Miranda Kerr, one of its best-known lingerie modeling angels (and wife of hunky Orlando Bloom). Her contract was being terminated, according to some reports, because of her alleged "difficult reputation. " But a Victoria's Secret official said she is a "consummate professional" and that she has agreed to walk in the 2013 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. [Los Angeles Times] Leonard Lauder, chairman emeritus of Estee Lauder, announced plans to donate $1 billion of cubist artwork to the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, WWD reports.

Miranda Kerr isn't getting her Victoria's Secret Angel wings clipped any time soon, despite reports circulating Wednesday. Kerr's $1-million, three-year contract with the lingerie company reportedly "was not renewed" because of her "difficult reputation" and because she "wasn't a big seller," Us Weekly said . However, Victoria's Secret officials deflated those rumors. And we're still scratching our halos over what actually comprises said "difficult reputation"... PHOTOS: Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2012 "Miranda Kerr is one of the best models in the history of the business - and easily one of the most popular," president and chief marketing officer Ed Razek said in a statement via People.

Rising country singer Luke Bryan was named entertainer of the year and Miranda Lambert was singled out as a songwriter and a singer on Sunday at the 48th Academy of Country Music Awards. Lambert picked up significant honors from her collaboration with husband Blake Shelton on "Over You," a song they wrote inspired by Shelton's experience as a teenager when his brother was killed in an automobile accident. "I don't know what to say," said Bryan, who also co-hosted the show from Las Vegas with Shelton.

The Love of My Youth A Novel Mary Gordon Pantheon: 308 pp., $25.95 How many of us at middle age yearn for the opportunity to reencounter a long-lost love? We show up at school reunions, searching for the ghost of romance past. Or perhaps we settle for a mutual "friending" on Facebook and a tepid e-mail or two. The protagonists of Mary Gordon's intermittently affecting new novel, "The Love of My Youth," are more fortunate: They play out their second-chance fantasy against the backdrop of Rome's baroque splendor — a setting that conjures such classic film romances as "Roman Holiday" and "Three Coins in the Fountain.

How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for the Fifth from the decriers of Miranda? ANTHONY S. PARENT Los Angeles

Blake Shelton: Rumor demystifier. Miranda Lambert: Sidekick. The case: Have they called it quits? The answer: Nope, y'all. The country couple took to Twitter over the weekend to ridicule a Life & Style cover story alleging that the two were headed to splitsville due to Shelton flirting with 26-year-old singer Cady Groves. And something pretty adorable ensued when the two tore down the fourth wall with a sense of humor. "Hey @mirandalambert… I just read in a tabloid that our marriage is falling apart!