Ricky Jay

TELEVISION Making Amends: Kathie Lee Gifford sent her ex-football star husband to a grimy New York factory Thursday, carrying envelopes stuffed with $300 apiece for garment workers who claim they weren't paid despite producing 50,000 blouses for her clothing line. "I am really sorry," Frank Gifford told a sobbing 32-year-old illegal immigrant who said she worked a 60-hour week but received no overtime.

There are books that come along at just the right time. In a world that has become so sad, too savage, more somber than a species ought to inhabit without relief, the appearance of "Jay's Journal of Anomalies" offers the wary and heartbroken and deeply vexed rest, if only momentarily, from the terrible news of the day. These are divertimenti, crafted by a master and perfectly pitched in luxuriant bombast. "Superlatives arrest our attention.

Celebrations of Curious Characters Ricky Jay McSweeney's: 112pp., $26

One of the most amazing illusions in "Forrest Gump," a movie chock-full of special effects that opened Wednesday, has nothing to do with old newsreel footage--but with Gary Sinise playing a Vietnam veteran with both legs amputated. Sinise, 39, who has both legs, surprised even himself with his performance as Lt. Dan, a cocky Army officer who is wounded in the Vietnam War, losing both legs.

The Geffen Playhouse announced last week a return engagement of "Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants," July 9 through Aug. 26. But magically appearing with the sleight-of-hand master will be a $250 ticket -- a record-setting price for a sub-99-seat L.A. theater. The special VIP seats -- there will be 10 per show -- are the result of audience demand during the theater's sellout run of the Ricky Jay show in 2006, said Geffen spokeswoman Allison Rawlings.

The Irvine Barclay Theatre has announced the full lineup for its wide-ranging 1998-99 season. Musical events begin Oct. 14-15 with the "House of Blues: Highway 61 Tour," featuring Booker T. Jones, John Hammond, Billy Boy Arnold and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Feb. 5 will bring Mavis Staples' "Tribute to Mahalia Jackson." Theatrical events begin Dec. 29-Jan.

The 2013 Summer Movie Preview is a snapshot of films opening through the end of August. Release dates (for Los Angeles) and other details, as compiled by Oliver Gettell, are subject to change. FOR THE RECORD: Sneaks list: In the April 28 Calendar section's Summer Sneaks list of coming movies, the character name Themistokles was misspelled as Themistocles in an item for "300: Rise of an Empire" as well as in a caption under a photo of actor Sullivan Stapleton from that movie.