Ryan

It was billed as a "shocking tell-all" and a "world exclusive," but the National Enquirer's March 26 cover story landed with a thud. TMZ, Page Six and other major players in celebrity gossip ignored the article in which a masseur claimed John Travolta offered money for sex. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article used the term "masseuse"; it should have said "masseur. " Five weeks after the issue left the checkout aisle, a DUI attorney from Pasadena put the anonymous masseur's tawdry tale in a lawsuit and it became an overnight pop culture sensation, topping Google News, trending on Twitter and meriting a segment on "Good Morning America.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Ryan Crocker, a respected diplomat who came out of retirement to become the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, is leaving his post this summer, a year ahead of schedule. U.S. Embassy spokesman Mark Thornburg on Tuesday confirmed Crocker's plan to depart. Rumors had swirled during the weekend summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Chicago, which Crocker attended. The 62-year-old Crocker had served as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, taking the diplomatic helm there during a crucial period, from 2007 to 2009, that coincided with a sharp increase in U.S. troop levels to tamp down escalating violence.

A federal administrative judge ruled that pomegranate juice maker Pom Wonderful used deceptive advertising when it implied its products could treat or prevent serious diseases and other medical conditions. Judge D. Michael Chappell upheld much of a 2010 Federal Trade Commission complaint against the Los Angeles company owned by Lynda and Stewart Resnick. The judge said in his decision issued Monday that Pom used "insufficient" evidence to back its claims that Pom products "treat, prevent or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer or erectile dysfunction.

It is a ritual of the vice presidential audition: A contender for the role of running mate tries to profess just enough interest, but not too much. On Tuesday evening at the Reagan Presidential Library, it was Paul D. Ryan's turn to play coy when the Wisconsin congressman was asked whether he would say yes to Mitt Romney. "You know, that's somebody else's decision, months away, and that's a conversation I need to have with my wife before I have it all with you," Ryan told a crowd that filled an auditorium at the hilltop library in Simi Valley.

Staples Center is home to four professional sports franchises, the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks. Each team has a different set-up on the arena floor. It is up to the crew overseen by the Staples Center operations department to reconfigure the floor for each game. Several times a year they must make the changeover twice or more over one weekend in between games. Last Saturday afternoon, while fans were still heading for the exits after the Clippers' 103-100 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, 65 workers began transforming the arena for the Kings' game against the Calgary Flames that night.

Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry met at a selection camp for an under-18 team -- or so Perry recalls. Getzlaf thought it wasn't until after the 2003 draft, in which the Ducks chose him 19th and Perry 28th, that they began forming the bond that led to having their names engraved on the Stanley Cup in 2007 and on Team Canada's roster for the Vancouver Olympics. After a moment's thought, Getzlaf decided Perry was right. "He made that team and I didn't," the rangy center said, "so that's why he remembers it."

'Finding Sarah: From Royalty to the Real World' Where: OWN When: 9 p.m. Sunday Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children) 'Ryan and Tatum: The O'Neals' Where: OWN When: 10 p.m. June 19 Rating: TV-PG-L (may be unsuitable for young children with an advisory for coarse language)

The GOP's guy? Re "Run, Ryan, run," Opinion, May 24 What a brilliant idea to draft Wisconsin Rep. Paul D. Ryan for the Republican nomination for president. After all, he is responsible for this nonsense about privatizing Medicare to save it. He's like his fellow Republicans, who argue that our national debt demands it while they continue to add to the debt with tax breaks for oil companies and the wealthy. Meanwhile, the middle class will be hit with more taxes as the budget crisis is passed on to state and local governments.

Four decades after Broadway Joe Namath brashly predicted the New York Jets would beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III -- and then came through on that guarantee -- Rex Ryan's Jets have quietly pushed their own pile of chips to the middle of the table. In an itinerary for his players that somehow was obtained by the media, Ryan had set aside Feb. 9, two days after the Super Bowl, for a celebration through the middle of Manhattan. In a divisional playoff game today, under threatening skies, the San Diego Chargers plan to rain on Ryan's premature parade.

The countdown to the Vancouver Olympics will take another leap forward Wednesday, when Belarus will become the first of 12 competing hockey federations to announce its roster for the men's tournament. Russia, a potential gold medalist, will announce its powerful roster on Christmas. Defending champion Sweden will declare its entries Sunday. The parade will end with announcements by Canada on Dec. 30 and the U.S. on Jan. 1 during the Winter Classic. As the host nation and self-proclaimed inventor of hockey, Canada will face the most scrutiny and pressure in Vancouver.

Actors Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson have sold the Los Feliz house they bought together in 2010. The 1969 Buff & Hensman-designed Wong House sold for $3.5 million. The restored post-and-beam house features walls of glass, a library, video security and solar and high-tech upgrades. There are two bedrooms, three bathrooms and 2,835 square feet of living space. The nearly half-acre site features a saltwater swimming pool. Reynolds, 35, and Johansson, 27, were divorced last year after three years of marriage.

OAKLAND — What seemed like a routine slide into second base turned into a major injury for Vernon Wells , who will undergo surgery Tuesday to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb, a procedure that will sideline the Angels left fielder for eight to 10 weeks. "He thought it popped out and back in — that happens a lot, and guys usually work through it," Manager Mike Scioscia said of Wells, who was injured in the second inning of Sunday's 3-2 loss to San Diego. "But the next inning, there was no chance of him swinging a bat, and we knew it was significant.

SAN DIEGO - With the Angels scrapping for the run that might have won Sunday's game, Manager Mike Scioscia essentially took the bat out of the hands of his hottest hitter, Mike Trout . Trout had singled twice and homered as he waited on deck in the 11th inning. The Angels had one out, Bobby Wilson on first and Ryan Langerhans at bat. Scioscia called for a sacrifice. Langerhans delivered the bunt, Wilson took second, and the San Diego Padres took advantage of the open base by walking Trout intentionally.

Cyberspace was a-twitter this week with the news that Ryan Seacrest is buying Ellen DeGeneres' Beverly Hills compound for $37 million, and that she and spouse Portia de Rossi are moving no farther than a Hal Levitt-designed midcentury — also in Beverly Hills. DeGeneres' new 8,500-square-foot house, built in 1958, features walls of glass, soaring ceilings, multiple fireplaces, a library, a black-and-stainless-steel kitchen, a sunken living room, four bedrooms and six bathrooms.

Roger Penske's team ran out the clock on Michael Andretti's team, giving the Indianapolis 500 pole to Ryan Briscoe . The Australian won it with a daring late-afternoon run and a four-lap average of 226.484 mph. Then Briscoe had to wait, watch and wonder whether anyone else could beat it. Canadian James Hinchcliffe nearly did. But after going 227.009 on a warmup lap, the man who had the No. 1 seeding in the pole shootout slowed...

Cyberspace is a-twitter with the news that Ryan Seacrest is expected to close escrow this week on Ellen Degeneres' Beverly Hills compound, but there's been nary a peep about where she and spouse Portia de Rossi have decamped. Look no further than the Hal Levitt-designed midcentury in Beverly Hills that changed hands in April, according to area real estate agents familiar with that deal. The 8,500-square-foot house, built in 1958, features walls of glass, soaring ceilings, multiple fireplaces, a library, a black-and-stainless-steel kitchen, a sunken living room, four bedrooms and six bathrooms.

That DreamWorks' publicity department would want to elevate "Saving Private Ryan" to cult status goes without saying. That the L.A. Times would collaborate with them is dismaying and disappointing ("Contending With 'Private Ryan's' Legacy," by Robert W. Welkos, Aug. 5). Much is being made of the film's "grit and reality," when in fact we've seen all the spurting blood, oozing guts, missing limbs and twisted bodies countless times already. They're a staple of action-adventure films and have been ever since Sam Peckinpah first made a fetish of gore.

A Riverside County jury convicted a parolee Friday of first-degree murder for shooting a Riverside police officer in 2010, a brutal slaying that occurred after the officer pleaded with the killer. Earl Ellis Green, 46, faces a possible death sentence for the murder of Officer Ryan Bonaminio, an Iraq War veteran who had been on the force for four years. The jury deliberated for about three hours before returning with the guilty verdict with special circumstances that would make Green subject to execution.