Podium

It appears this presidential race has passed Pete Wilson by. California's governor drew attractive odds in the paddock but stumbled out of the starting gate and hasn't closed ground. That's not the fault of the handlers or jockey; blame the horse. The candidate can shake up his campaign staff. He can break up the infighting by letting a longtime, loyal political adviser walk off in a huff. He can cut expenses and stop piling up debt. But he apparently cannot change himself.

The county's top prosecutor and other elected officials shared a podium with youthful offenders Friday to oppose state budget cuts that could cripple the state's youth camp system, particularly in Los Angeles County. The hearing, held at Camp Karl Holton, a juvenile probation camp in the Angeles National Forest north of San Fernando, was called by Assemblywoman Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) in response to Gov.

The auctioneer gazed out at the audience, knowing this was the moment they'd waited for. Next up, he said, was lot No. 23 -- a "wonderful, exceptional, 66-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as Samson." He gestured to the ferocious-looking skull sitting on a stand to his left. "There she is," he said. The people who had gathered in the elegant gallery at the Venetian hotel gasped. Samson is one of the three most complete T. rex specimens ever discovered, possessing the most intact skull in existence.

Lindsey Vonn says she's in a happy relationship with Tiger Woods -- "very happy," according to her Facebook post Monday announcing the romance -- but there was a time not so long ago when she had quite a bit of fun at the expense of the golfer and his numerous extramarital affairs. Of course, everyone was poking fun at Woods back in 2010, when he held a nationally televised news conference to address the cheating scandal that eventually led to the end of his marriage to Elin Nordegren.

Aaron Paul blinked back tears from the podium as he accepted his second supporting actor Emmy for his turn as the troubled Jesse Pinkman on “Breaking Bad.” Paul said he didn't expect to win, figuring his costar Giancarlo Esposito would take the trophy, as many predicted, for playing the drug kingpin Gus Fring. EMMYS:  Full coverage  |  Winners  |  Reactions  |  Red carpet arrivals  |  Timeline  |  Highlights  |  Best & worst “I cried in his arms and said, 'It doesn't make sense to me that I was on that stage and you're not,'” Paul said backstage.

An anti-nuclear activist who shattered a crystal eagle on a podium where former President Reagan was speaking pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor charge of interfering with the Secret Service. Rick Springer told U.S. District Judge Philip Pro that he did not intend to hurt Reagan, who was hit by flying glass, when he rushed on stage during an April 13 speech by Reagan to the National Assn. of Broadcasters. Springer, 41, a carpenter and former child welfare worker, is to be sentenced Jan.

Prancing on a makeshift podium, an energetic woman in a black jumpsuit leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Orchestra through a rehearsal of Act IV of Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro." Conductor Susan Davenny Wyner encourages her young charges with a wink, a smile or by telling yet another tale of operatic lore. Hard to believe that a few years ago Wyner's life was in shards.

Hordes of music lovers--well, hordes, at least, in comparison to what we've been seeing mostly in this summer of 2000--attended Itzhak Perlman's second conducting appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on Thursday night. The famous violinist's conducting turned out, again, to be pleasant but unexceptional, but the crowd loved it and cheered the performances.

In the good old days--at least we thought they were good--the world's finest instrumentalists and singers seemed content to be soloists. Now everyone wants to be a conductor. Ambitious intentions, unfortunately, do not ensure imposing achievements. Daniel Barenboim made the transition from keyboard to podium with ease. Christoph Eschenbach did not. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, that most poignant and intelligent of baritones, became a prissy schoolmaster when he took up the baton.

More than a decade after his last appearance here, Christoph Eschenbach returned this week, leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic through a standard orchestral program culminating in Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony. A hard-listening, only mildly cough-ridden audience greeted the German conductor and never even seemed to think about applauding between movements.