Rabbits

Beaten down by the recession? Want a sunny respite from the dreary weather? Need two hours to get away from the holiday stress? Hollywood has the answer: movies about a crumbling marriage, a 4-year-old's death in a car accident and a single father dying of cancer. The fall and winter movie seasons always deliver some demanding dramas, but the gloom factor this year feels so intense that "127 Hours" ? in which the lead character hacks off his own arm ? plays like a bubbly comedy in comparison.

'Rabbit Hole' MPAA rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material, some drug use and language Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes Playing: In limited release

A tragedy devastating to experience can feel generic when transferred to the screen, and that, despite everyone's best intentions and an outstanding performance by Nicole Kidman, is what happens with "Rabbit Hole. " Screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire's play about a married couple trying to cope with the accidental death of their 4-year-old son was nominated for five Tonys and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007, and it's likely that the intensity and intimacy of the theatrical experience was a factor in its success.

Australian microbiologist Frank Fenner, who headed the World Health Organization team that eradicated the smallpox virus globally and who played a key role in reducing the 1950s plague of rabbits in Australia, died Monday, according to the Australian National University, where he had spent much of his career. He was 95, and no cause of death was released. Fenner was a leading expert on three pox viruses: one that infects mice, one that infects rabbits and one that plagued humans.

Some cinematic rules are iron-clad: The man in the white hat wins the shootout, brunets are smarter than blonds, and Bugs Bunny always, always emerges triumphant. No matter the circumstances, no matter the opponent, Bugs is unruffled, chomping on his ever-present carrot like a cigar, another bon mot at the ready. As Chuck Jones observed of his most famous creation, "We are all of us Daffy, Elmer and Wile E. Coyote. We just wish we were Bugs. " Now, two new DVD collections of Bugs' best work, "Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire" and "The Essential Bugs Bunny," have been issued by Warner Home Video to remind viewers ?

There's a kind of morning-after intimacy between Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart on the morning after Monday night's Toronto film festival premiere of "Rabbit Hole. " As the actors talk about the raw and ragged emotional terrain they must inhabit as a long-married couple dealing with the death of their young son, there are shared looks, secret laughs, a sense that the day will be more bearable because the other is close at hand. Eckhart in a dark suit and tie, white shirt setting off what's left of a summer tan, lazes in his chair.

Before she became President John F. Kennedy's favorite blond birthday singer, Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson. Rapper Diddy was previously P. Diddy, Puff Daddy and before that plain old Sean Combs. By the time you finish reading this, he'll probably call himself "Did." Which brings us to the 2010 Volkswagen Golf 2.5. The U.S. version of the car, available in both two- and four-door styles, was formerly known as the Rabbit (2006-2009). Prior to that it was the Golf (1985-2005)

Although Arnold Schwarzenegger and I don't always see eye-to-eye, he was on to something when he described the Sacramento sausage factory like this: "Money goes in. Favors go out. The people lose." Case in point. Pasadena resident George Fatheree's 8-year-old son, Clayton, has had epilepsy since he was an infant. For the most part, medication controls the condition, but Fatheree and his wife live with the nagging worry that their son will one day have a damaging seizure when no one is around who is trained to help.

The Easter bunnies are out in force at Long Beach City College. And not in a good way. The college's liberal arts campus, with its large grassy areas, has historically been a dumping ground for people who no longer want their pet rabbits. School officials, saying that they have had enough, are starting a campaign to reduce the number of the furry creatures on campus. But not in a bad way. By the last count, taken several months ago, well over 300 rabbits were on the grounds, digging holes and chewing their way through thousands of dollars' worth of landscaping.

The bunnies sat in stacked cages on the downtown sidewalk. They nibbled on lettuce as passers-by stopped to pet them. How much? A young woman cheerfully named her price. ($20 is the going rate.) "No photographs," she said, passing a hand in front of a rabbit as a photographer snapped pictures. On a sunny Saturday, she scanned the throngs coursing along Maple Avenue toward 12th Street, en route to the Santee Alley shopping bazaar. Suddenly, she gasped. She and other vendors whisked black garbage bags over the cages, grabbed them and anything else they could carry and scurried off. In seconds, they were swarmed by half a dozen yellow-shirted Business Improvement District security officers and a Los Angeles police officer.