Phillip

For all their emphasis on the youth market, American movies have never done a good job of portraying actual youth. The idea that young equals dumb prevails -- never mind that it's about the only time in life when reading Foucault or sitting through a Tarkovsky double feature is a viable task. What Hollywood tends to ignore is perhaps the central project of late adolescence and early adulthood -- the avid, voracious creation of identity through books, movies, music and cultural hero-worship.

A few minutes before a screening of "Filly Brown" last week, Oscar-nominated actor Edward James Olmos tried to explain why the new family drama about a female Los Angeles street poet "is the most hopeful film I've ever worked on in my life. " Olmos, 66, had gathered in a backroom at Universal CityWalk's AMC theaters with his costar and longtime friend Lou Diamond Phillips, 51, and Gina Rodriguez, 28, whose performance as an aspiring rap star helped land "Filly Brown" a spot at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

His hair was always black and thick. It somehow reminded me of an aerial view of Vermont. But now through modern technology his scalp clings to a few hairs that remain in a helter-skelter fashion on top of his head. My father never complained about anything in his life. And being the strong silent type, he's not about to start now. His eyes seem deeper in his face, and his color has turned from a deep Florida tan to an emaciated texture of yellow. He underwent chemotherapy a few months ago for an inoperable brain tumor.

A jury Friday acquitted a Los Angeles police officer and a former officer on charges that they lied about a drunk-driving arrest. After deliberating only a few hours, jurors found Phillip Walters and Craig Allen not guilty of the perjury charges, said Bill Seki, Allen's attorney. Allen also was cleared on an allegation of filing a false police report. The case stemmed from a DUI checkpoint in September 2010, where the two officers were working. The pair were dispatched to assist another officer who had stopped a drunk driving suspect.

At rush hour, it always seems like there's at least one person in every New York subway car reading a novel by Stephen King. And while a good scare may provide an effective release at the end of a long day, King on a crowded train at 8 a.m. adds new dimension to the concept of horror. But for all it's long-winded charm, King's oeuvre is exhaustible. (One person I know read seven of his novels in 10 days, while vacationing on Nantucket.) After King, to whom do horror fans turn?

She watched "The Silence of the Lambs" as a girl and so related to Jodie Foster's character that she wanted to become an FBI agent and go after psychopaths. Instead, Ally Jacobs became a police officer at UC Berkeley, handling mostly garden-variety cases until one day in August when she helped crack the case that ended the 18-year kidnapping nightmare of Jaycee Lee Dugard. On Monday, the 1994 Santa Margarita Catholic High School graduate returned for alumni career day and told students that her brush with fame stemmed from trusting that voice in her head that told her that something wasn't right about the man later arrested and charged with Dugard's kidnap and rape.

Reporting from San Francisco -- There are graphic details of her years as a sex slave, descriptions so unsettling that a judge has refused to make much of Jaycee Lee Dugard's grand jury testimony public. There are chapters dedicated to her life today — a mix of intensive therapy and simple pleasures, of healing from 18 years as a captive and seeing her teenage daughters blossom, finally, in freedom. But while Dugard's memoir "A Stolen Life" chronicles her growth from victim to survivor, from terror to strength, it also is an indictment of the parole system and a meditation on loneliness.

When I discovered I was pregnant with our second child, I pulled out the storage bin containing the maternity clothes from my first pregnancy and was instantly depressed. After nine months of wearing a Diane von Furstenberg maternity wrap dress and Lilly Pulitzer maternity shift in heavy rotation — and I mean heavy in every sense — I couldn't face another pregnancy in these same few outfits. But at $300 for designer maternity dresses I would wear another half a year at most, I wasn't prepared to splurge on an entirely new pregnancy wardrobe.

The American Library Assn. announced its 2013 book award winners Monday at its annual national conference, held this year in Seattle. While the best-known awards are the John Newbery Medal and the Caledecott Medal, there are dozens of awards, each of which helps librarians bring excellent books to the attention of young readers and their parents. The Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children was awarded to "This Is Not My Hat," written and illustrated by Jon Klassen.

Brit­ish roots mu­sic band Mum­ford & Sons took the top hon­or for its album "Ba­bel" at the 55th Grammy Awards ce­re­mony Sunday. The night mostly dis­trib­uted hon­ors broadly to an ar­ray of young­er gen­er­a­tion acts in­clud­ing New York in­die trio Fun., Aus­trali­an elec­tron­ic pop artist Gotye, rap­per-R&B sing­er Frank Ocean and Ak­ron, Ohio, rock group the Black Keys. See the complete list of 2013 Grammy winners and nominees below. #story-body-text h2 { font-weight: bold !

Gifford Phillips, a gentlemanly patron of cultural institutions and passionate advocate of contemporary art who played a leading role at museums on both coasts of the United States, has died. He was 94. Phillips died Wednesday of natural causes at a hospice in Palm Desert, said his daughter Marjorie Elliott. A member of a wealthy family - including his uncle, art collector Duncan Phillips, who founded the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. - Gifford Phillips was a partner in Pardee Phillips, a real estate developer of residential and commercial property in California and Nevada.

LAS VEGAS -- Here, in the place where his comedy franchise "The Hangover" began four years ago, Todd Phillips seems particularly at home. While the filmmaker wasn't nearly as inebriated as the protagonists of his raunchy film series, he admitted he was drunk on his second bottle of wine as he sat promoting his film in the bowels of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace on Wednesday. It had been only an hour before that when Phillips jumped on stage to show movie theater owners the latest trailer for "The Hangover Part III," freely using expletives and urging the crowd to loosen up. "Way to turn a ... movie presentation into the Detroit auto show," he kidded after the Warner Bros.

LAS VEGAS -- At CinemaCon, most studios charm movie theater owners by putting their best-looking stars center stage. On Tuesday, however, Warner Bros. went a different route, opting to promote its summer slate with the help of its most recognizable filmmakers. Zack Snyder was here to show off a new trailer from his take on Superman, “Man of Steel.” Guillermo del Toro spoke of his passion for his big-budget robot tale “Pacific Rim.” Todd Phillips, the director behind “The Hangover” franchise, was meant to talk about the third installment of the comedy series -- but he also took the opportunity to try to liven up the crowd.

  SEATTLE - A third major oil company has announced it is backing off from  offshore drilling in the U.S. Arctic, with ConocoPhillips saying it will put its planned 2014 operations in the Chukchi Sea on hold because of “regulatory uncertainty.” In a statement Wednesday, the company said that “evolving” federal regulations and permitting standards, put into play in the wake of Shell's troubled Arctic drilling debut last year, made...

Wilson Phillips singer Carnie Wilson has gone public with a disorder affecting the muscles on the left side of her face: Bell's palsy. But by Tuesday, she was already celebrating progress in recovering from the condition. "A beautiful day to you all," Wilson said on Twitter. "My smile is 70% back!! Except when kids make me belly laugh! Lol they keep me laughing !! Luv to you all. " She'd revealed her situation on Wednesday of last week: "Just wanted you all 2 know that I have Bell's Palsy on lf side of face right now. Scary, unfortunate, but it goes away.

Leroy 'Sugarfoot' Bonner Lead singer and guitarist for Ohio Players Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner, 69, lead singer and guitarist for the Ohio Players, a band that fused rock, soul and funk for a string of R&B hits in the 1970s, died Saturday in a Dayton suburb after battling cancer, his family announced. The Ohio Players, known for their brassy dance music, catchy lyrics, offbeat sound effects, flamboyant outfits and provocative album covers, topped music charts in the 1970s with hits such as "Love Rollercoaster," "Fire," "Skin Tight" and "Funky Worm.

For anyone who has felt exiled from the rest of the family while trying to soothe or feed a fussy infant, the new Brentwood nursery of Giuliana and Bill Rancic will be a welcome design. The nautical theme may have been inspired by the television personalities' love of the ocean, but their interior designer, Lonni Paul of Lonni Paul Design , knew from personal experience that the nursery needed to be more than just a pleasant place for a baby to sleep. “There needs to be a place for the family to get together," said Paul, the mother of 6-year-old twins.

What? Me crying?! No, I was just, uh… slicing some onions while watching “Downton Abbey.” You know how it is on Sunday night, the weekend is over and you just want to mindlessly chop vegetables watching your favorite British period piece. What? Doesn't everyone do that? OK, fine. So maybe I was crying. Can you really blame me? “Downton Abbey” is a show that triggers a wide range of emotions in its audience - frustration, fascination, amusement, titillation, boredom.

A pile of dried roses and burned-out religious candles sat on a Van Nuys sidewalk, reminders that a homeless woman was set ablaze there weeks earlier. The bus bench on which Violet Ellen Phillips, 67, slept when she was attacked Dec. 27 had been removed. The portion of the sidewalk once shielded by the bench was left exposed, a lighter shade of grime than the rest, scarred with four holes where bolts had anchored the bench. The assault, which authorities described as horrific, sent Phillips to the hospital with second- and third-degree burns.

Pauline Friedman Phillips , who wrote the "Dear Abby" advice column for decades using the name Abigail Van Buren, died Wednesday in Minneapolis at age 94. She had been afflicted with Alzheimer's. Her advice columns were collected in a number of books, many of which are available now on EBay. An autographed copy of the 1958 " Dear Abby " collection is listed at $29.99. A well-worn edition of 1983's " The Best of Dear Abby " can be purchased for as little as $5. You can get " Dear Abby on Planning Your Wedding " (1988, $11)