ENTERTAINMENT
July 27, 2012 | By Randy Lewis
Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong, the punk rocker turned 21 st century Stephen Sondheim, is joining NBC-TV's “The Voice” as a mentor on chanteuse Christina Auguilera's team, series officials announced Thursday. Armstrong, the mastermind behind Green Day's 2004 concept album “American Idiot” that subsequently became a hit on the musical theater circuit, confesses to being a fan of the show. He said he has no qualms about participating because: “It's not molding artists, it's just giving them a little bit of guidance and direction without giving them a complete makeover.” Not that he couldn't be a font of wisdom on that front: Since sprouting up as a pop-punk band in the Bay Area a couple of decades ago, Armstrong and the band have experienced quite an evolution.
SPORTS
June 26, 2012 | By Helene Elliott
EUGENE, Ore. — Maurice Greene , a four-time Olympic sprint medalist and five-time world champion, never lacked titles or ego. But he said a race to break the deadlock between Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh for the final U.S. women's 100-meter berth at the London Games would eclipse any of his grudge matches, including his 200-meter showdown against Michael Johnson at the 2000 U.S. Olympic trials. "This will supersede every other race," Greene said Tuesday, a day off in this year's trials.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
December 16, 2010 | By Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times
Neva Patterson, a character actress who portrayed Cary Grant's fiancee in the 1957 movie "An Affair to Remember" in a career that spanned six decades and more than 100 film and TV roles, has died. She was 90. Patterson died Tuesday at her Brentwood home of complications from a broken hip, said her daughter, Megan Lee. The actress was a veteran of Broadway when she was cast as Lois, the socialite who would not make it to the altar with Grant in "An Affair to Remember. " "She just loved the fact that she kissed Cary Grant the first day on the set," her daughter said.
BUSINESS
August 3, 2009 | Meg James
Not long ago, Jeff Gaspin was known inside NBC Universal as a "man without a country." The executive floated from job to job, collecting clunky titles such as executive vice president for alternative series, longform, specials and program strategy. No one can say that now. Last week, the man without a country gained an empire as the reserved 48-year-old executive was thrust into the No. 2 job at NBC Universal, directly under Chief Executive Jeff Zucker.
BUSINESS
July 28, 2009 | Meg James
One of Hollywood's juiciest television dramas came to a close Monday when NBC Entertainment chief Ben Silverman said he was leaving the network after two tumultuous years. In the end, NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker's big gamble to hand over the keys to NBC's storied legacy to an aggressive young television producer who vowed to revolutionize the network backfired.
BUSINESS
December 9, 2008 | Meg James, James is a Times staff writer.
Amid gloomy forecasts for continued deterioration of the advertising markets, NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker said Monday that the network was looking at scaling back the number of hours of television that it provided. "Can we continue to program 22 hours of prime-time? Three of our competitors don't. Can we afford to program seven nights a week?" Zucker said at a media conference in New York sponsored by investment banking firm UBS.