Paul Schneider

Every year, the ranks of Oscar nominees are filled with actors who spend months perfecting their accents and practicing their gestures to deliver note-perfect interpretations of historical figures, and their efforts tend to pay off. Seven of the last eight top acting awards have gone to actors doing their best to raise the dead. On paper, Paul Schneider's turn as Charles Armitage Brown in Jane Campion's "Bright Star" fits the criteria nicely. The story, which centers on the romantic poet John Keats, his friend and patron Brown, and Keats' lover, Fanny Brawne, is drawn from history, and Schneider transformed his body to fit the part, gaining a substantial potbelly, growing a thick beard and adopting a light Scottish brogue.

"The Babymakers" starts out as an agreeable, playfully off-color comedy of contemporary domestic manners and loses course to become a slack, tacky slapstick. After months of trying to get his wife Audrey (Olivia Munn) pregnant, Tommy Macklin (Paul Schneider) is told by a doctor that his sperm are "confused. " While reeling from this blow to his masculine identity, he hatches a plan to steal back a batch of semen he had donated to a fertility clinic years before. On their own, just talking at dinner or alone in bed, Schneider and Munn are a winning pair, her high-energy type-A vibe playing well off his low-key delayed responses.

Although he's collected plenty of critical acclaim for his roles in such movies as "Lars and the Real Girl" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Paul Schneider is still far from a household name. Even now, the raves for his role as John Keats' friend and patron Charles Brown in Jane Campion's understated period drama "Bright Star" -- a chorus that began at Cannes and escalated with its screening at the Toronto International Film Festival last week -- are unlikely to catapult him into the national spotlight.

Every year, the ranks of Oscar nominees are filled with actors who spend months perfecting their accents and practicing their gestures to deliver note-perfect interpretations of historical figures, and their efforts tend to pay off. Seven of the last eight top acting awards have gone to actors doing their best to raise the dead. On paper, Paul Schneider's turn as Charles Armitage Brown in Jane Campion's "Bright Star" fits the criteria nicely. The story, which centers on the romantic poet John Keats, his friend and patron Brown, and Keats' lover, Fanny Brawne, is drawn from history, and Schneider transformed his body to fit the part, gaining a substantial potbelly, growing a thick beard and adopting a light Scottish brogue.

"Something Special" (selected theaters) is an unassuming little comedy about sexual identity and role confusion. It's about a young girl, who, suddenly and magically, turns into a young boy. As Milly, she was a frustrated wallflower and amateur astronomer. As "Willy," she acquires a set of do-or-die buddies, a persistent female admirer, a gang of implacable bully-foes and a newly rejuvenated father who tries to indoctrinate him/her in the manly virtues of self-defense, swearing and swaggering.

"The Babymakers" starts out as an agreeable, playfully off-color comedy of contemporary domestic manners and loses course to become a slack, tacky slapstick. After months of trying to get his wife Audrey (Olivia Munn) pregnant, Tommy Macklin (Paul Schneider) is told by a doctor that his sperm are "confused. " While reeling from this blow to his masculine identity, he hatches a plan to steal back a batch of semen he had donated to a fertility clinic years before. On their own, just talking at dinner or alone in bed, Schneider and Munn are a winning pair, her high-energy type-A vibe playing well off his low-key delayed responses.

Go Down Together The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde Jeff Guinn Simon & Schuster: 468 pp., $27 Bonnie and Clyde The Lives Behind the Legend Paul Schneider Henry Holt: 384 pp., $27.50 -- Within minutes of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow's deaths from police gunfire in 1934, gawkers drawn by the sound of shots surrounded their bullet-riddled Ford and snatched gory souvenirs. Someone snipped a lock of Bonnie's hair and a piece of her bloodstained dress; a man tried to cut off Clyde's ear.

MSI Data Corp. said it expects to raise $13.7 million for possible acquisitions from its sale of 750,000 shares of common stock, offered last Thursday at $18.375 per share. The shares were offered at the closing market price for the company on Wednesday. MSI, which manufactures and markets hand-held electronic devices used for inventory counts, has 3.25 million shares outstanding.

Although he's collected plenty of critical acclaim for his roles in such movies as "Lars and the Real Girl" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Paul Schneider is still far from a household name. Even now, the raves for his role as John Keats' friend and patron Charles Brown in Jane Campion's understated period drama "Bright Star" -- a chorus that began at Cannes and escalated with its screening at the Toronto International Film Festival last week -- are unlikely to catapult him into the national spotlight.

Go Down Together The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde Jeff Guinn Simon & Schuster: 468 pp., $27 Bonnie and Clyde The Lives Behind the Legend Paul Schneider Henry Holt: 384 pp., $27.50 -- Within minutes of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow's deaths from police gunfire in 1934, gawkers drawn by the sound of shots surrounded their bullet-riddled Ford and snatched gory souvenirs. Someone snipped a lock of Bonnie's hair and a piece of her bloodstained dress; a man tried to cut off Clyde's ear.

"Something Special" (selected theaters) is an unassuming little comedy about sexual identity and role confusion. It's about a young girl, who, suddenly and magically, turns into a young boy. As Milly, she was a frustrated wallflower and amateur astronomer. As "Willy," she acquires a set of do-or-die buddies, a persistent female admirer, a gang of implacable bully-foes and a newly rejuvenated father who tries to indoctrinate him/her in the manly virtues of self-defense, swearing and swaggering.

Stoian Mladenov scored the winning goal in the 89th minute to give the Minnesota Thunder a 2-1 victory over the Zodiac in A-League soccer Friday at Blaine, Minn. The loss stopped a three-game winning streak for the Zodiac (11-8). The Thunder (15-5) moved to within three points of Central Division-leading U.S. Pro-40. Paul Schneider's goal gave the Thunder a 1-0 lead in the fourth minute, heading the ball off a defender and into the net.

A Tujunga man who threatened patrons of a Sunland bar was shot and killed by the bar's owner, Los Angeles police said Sunday. Robert Paul Schneider, 44, was thrown out of the Pit Stop Bar and Grill about 8:30 p.m. Saturday after he argued with other patrons, Sgt. William Figueroa said. Schneider returned to the bar, in the 7900 block of Foothill Boulevard, an hour later with a handgun, Figueroa said. The bar's owner, J. F.