Props

IN the new movie "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day," Amy Adams plays an entirely delectable American starlet looking for love and fame in pre-World War II London. Her performance lives up to her character's name, Delysia (say it out loud: dee-LEE-see-ah), and indeed, the apartment she inhabits is as scrumptious as a box of fine, liqueur-infused French chocolates. "We used every beautiful texture you can get," production designer Sarah Greenwood, an Oscar nominee for "Atonement," says of the London set for "Miss Pettigrew.

SACRAMENTO - Twenty-two years after California became one of the first states to limit legislators' terms in office, voters are about to decide whether the rules should be changed. In 1990, voters limited lawmakers to three two-year terms in the Assembly and two four-year stints in the Senate, for a total of 14 years in the Legislature. Proposition 28, on the June 5 ballot, would limit lawmakers to 12 years in the Legislature but allow all of those to be served in one house. Proponents contend that existing law doesn't give people enough time in one office to fully master complex issues and the lawmaking process.

One of Hollywood's largest prop shops is closing, the latest sign that the falloff in local film and TV production is taking its toll on small businesses that serve the entertainment industry. 20th Century Props of North Hollywood said Thursday that it would shut its doors next month because of mounting business losses. The prop shop, which supplied the chandeliers in the blockbuster "Titanic" and futuristic furniture in "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," has been a fixture for two decades.

Proposition 28 proposes a tiny tweak in legislative term limits. But it could have a huge impact on legislative quality. Little changes sometimes can result in big improvements. No one knows for sure where Prop. 28 would lead, but simple logic strongly suggests a legislative upgrade. At least the original term-limits author, former Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, tends to think so. "I'm persuaded it's probably the right thing to do," Schabarum told me, stopping short of a formal endorsement.

AN actor's job is to defend his character, to find the emotional resonance driving that person and stay always in his story, no personal judgments allowed. The best of them pull from deep inside themselves to become their character. But, sometimes, they get a little help. Sometimes, it's not so inside-out. The addition of, say, a wine glass or a sweater or, yes, that haircut, can give an actor that little external nudge to full understanding.

L.A., vote no on Prop. 99. Don't let what happened in Massachusetts happen here. Matthew Thompson Chino

Props to California voters. They are smarter than most pundits and political consultants (and sometimes editorial pages) give them credit for being, as evidenced by two failed attempts to buy their votes in Tuesday's election. The conventional political wisdom suggested that Propositions 16 and 17 would be tough to beat, given that their corporate backers — Northern California utility Pacific Gas & Electric and Mercury Insurance, respectively — poured buckets of money into deeply misleading ad campaigns.

As the newly appointed chair of the state Senate Committee on Elections and Reapportionment, I found myself in general agreement with your Feb. 10 editorial regarding the current state of Prop. 208--expeditious resolution of the legal uncertainties will indeed keep chaos at a minimum for all ongoing and future election campaigns. However, I was somewhat bemused at one of your more optimistic comments. In reference to the legal challenges currently surrounding Prop. 208, you stated that "it will take months to settle these and any other legal issues that may arise."

The movie: an adaptation of Sara Gruen's 2006 bestselling novel "Water for Elephants," about a veterinary student who quits his studies to join a traveling circus. The scene: a group of students, circa 1931, on the campus of Cornell University. Jim Elyea's task: to make sure the briefcases the students are carrying look authentic when the film begins shooting this May in Santa Paula, Calif. The co-owner of the History for Hire prop house in North Hollywood combs through a 1931 Sears catalog in his 5,000-book library, finds the correct design and selects the appropriate model among his collection of 400 vintage briefcases.

Last week, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recorded spectacular quarterly earnings and set aside a huge sum for employee bonuses. On Wednesday, Morgan Stanley showed that a poorly performing Wall Street firm also will dish out the largesse. The big investment bank said Wednesday that it eked out a second-quarter profit of $149 million. But accounting for dividends that the firm owed on preferred stock turned that profit into a loss on a per-share basis.

SACRAMENTO — Let's begin with the basics: Tobacco companies are inherently evil. They peddle poison that causes cancer and addicts people to their killer products. Second, smoking is nuts. Smokers know that. Spare the lectures. Can't stop, they say. Nonsense. Millions have. They'll stop eventually when the nurse thrusts the ventilator tube down their throat. I've been blessed. Never smoked. But for much of my generation, lighting up was a rite of passage.

The concrete Indian on the forklift struck a precarious pose as he moved through a crowd of rummagers scouting the remains of Bud Hurlbut's workshop in Buena Park . From behind the wheel, Lonnie Lloyd waved everyone aside as he guided the 6-foot, 6-inch statue into a U-Haul van. Its new owners shimmied it against a wall. Toys, props, tools and memorabilia at Hurlbut Amusement Co. moved fast during the recent three-day sale, and Lloyd tried not to be sentimental.

What's to like about taxes? Most people view them at best as a necessary evil to help pay for robust government services - a public benefit. But cigarette taxes are an anomaly. In their case, the tax itself is a public benefit. Proposition 29, which would place a $1 levy on each pack of cigarettes sold in California, would serve the common good by making cigarettes more expensive. Economists have demonstrated conclusively that taxes on cigarettes are an effective tool for reducing smoking rates, which not only benefits the health of current and potential smokers but clears the air for people who would otherwise be exposed to secondhand smoke.

Has your 4-year-old contribution to an anti-gay marriage law suddenly resurfaced on the Internet? Then you know exactly what Brendan Eich, co-founder of Mozilla, inventor of JavaScript, and general developer hero, is going through when it recently came to light that back in 2008, he made a $1,000 contribution to support Proposition 8 . The record of the donation has been available since at least 2008, but it was rediscovered by the...

OAKLAND — Federal agents struck at the heart of California's medical marijuana movement, raiding the nation's first pot trade school and a popular dispensary, both run by one of the state's most prominent and provocative activists, Richard Lee. The raids in Oakland by the Internal Revenue Service and Drug Enforcement Administration sent a shudder through the medical cannabis trade and angered the plant's devotees, who believe the federal government...

If only these stage sorcerers could reach into a black top hat and pull out a home for their magical paraphernalia. Short of cash and abracadabra moments, the Society of American Magicians is struggling to find a public venue for its vast collection of antique stage illusions. After a freak accident forced the closure of the group's Hall of Fame and Magic Museum in Hollywood, the society moved its trove of tricks into a Pico Rivera self-storage center. "We'd love to reopen the museum.

Certain colorful props can add zip and visual vitality to your pictures. The straw hat with the bright pink ribbon worn by the blonde model in Vogue or Glamour is not there by chance. Some clever photographer, art director or fashion coordinator chose it to give the picture that special something. You can be an art director with your own pictures by choosing the right props. Several years ago we bought a bright red umbrella in a Paris boutique along the Champs-Elysees.

Small "mines" found in the San Antonio River were actually stage props and not explosive devices, city officials said Wednesday. The props were put there by convention workers who were experimenting with a new way to create a bang onstage without the usual gunpowder-based blast, said Yolanda Jensen, head of operations at the city's Municipal Auditorium.

Backers of California's ban on same-sex marriage urged a federal appeals court Tuesday to reconsider and reject a Feb. 7 ruling against Proposition 8, arguing that California voters did not express disapproval of gay people but simply wanted to preserve marriage. "That the traditional definition of marriage confers a symbolic benefit on committed opposite-sex couples does not 'dishonor' gays and lesbians as a class or express official 'disapproval of them and their relationships,' " contended ProtectMarriage, the sponsors of the 2008 ballot measure that reinstated a marriage ban. "It is simply not true that when the government provides special recognition to one class of individuals, it demeans others.