Sean

Most voters have by now received their sample ballots, and those who plan to vote by mail are sending in their applications. The June 5 election is underway right now. It is noteworthy for several reasons. Los Angeles County voters will be selecting a new district attorney, and this is the first time since 1964 that there is no incumbent trying to hold onto the seat. The field is wide open. To win outright in this nonpartisan race, a candidate must get more than 50% of the vote.

Dear Everybody-in-the-World: Sean Penn is very, very disappointed. You never call, you never write – heck, when it comes to rebuilding Haiti, you probably never even cared in the first place. Penn spoke plainly Friday at the Cannes Film Festival just hours before a gala fund-raiser to benefit three charities working in the earthquake-ravaged country.

Two months ago, newly installed Walt Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross sank producer Sean Bailey's planned $150-million production of "Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." But that didn't submarine the relationship. On Thursday, Ross picked Bailey as the Burbank studio's new head of production, succeeding Oren Aviv, who was ousted this week after a disappointing spate of movies. Bailey, who has no experience as a studio executive, faces a steep learning curve in assembling slates of movies and managing dozens of executives and filmmakers.

The Los Angeles Superior Court is the nation's largest trial court of general jurisdiction, with at any one time about 450 judges hearing complex commercial lawsuits, landlord-tenant disputes, misdemeanor and felony prosecutions, divorce and child custody disputes, conservatorships and guardianships, adoption and foster care matters, traffic cases and plenty more besides. FOR THE RECORD: Superior Court: An April 22 endorsement of judicial candidates referred to the 10 years of State Bar membership required for a California trial judge and stated that Matthew Schonbrun "won't notch his decade until the day after the election.

Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn was charged Friday with battery and vandalism in connection with an attack on a photographer near Brentwood Country Mart last fall, officials said. Penn, 49, faces up to 18 months in jail if convicted of the misdemeanor charges stemming from the run-in Oct. 12. The charges were filed by the Los Angeles city attorney's office. "We are alleging he kicked a photographer, and we are also accusing him of breaking the photographer's camera," said Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the office.

Sean Payton could use a proper pillow. The day after coaching the New Orleans Saints to a 31-17 victory over Indianapolis in Super Bowl XLIV, Payton looked happy but bleary-eyed early Monday morning. Maybe it had something to do with him grabbing a precious few winks in his hotel room with the Lombardi Trophy in his arms. "This thing laid in my bed next to me last night," the coach said at the traditional victors news conference. "Rolled over [it] a couple times. I probably drooled on it. But man, there's nothing like it."

By the sixth night, David La Vau was convinced he was going to die. The 67-year-old father of six was trapped at the bottom of a cliff in the Angeles National Forest after his car plunged off the mountain. His car landed next to another vehicle with the decomposing remains of its driver inside. Too weak to scream for help any longer, La Vau walked to his crushed car and wrote on the dusty trunk: "I love my kids. Dead man was not my fault. Love, Dad. " A day later, his children were roaming the canyon road in a desperate search for their missing dad. They heard a weak cry from below the steep cliff.

"The Fluffer" begins as the light satire on the gay porn industry its title suggests, but then develops parallel stories of thwarted love and ultimately emerges as a coming-of-age odyssey of notable substance and honesty. That it is a fine example of modest-budget filmmaking, boasting first-rate acting, writing and directing, is not all that surprising.

THE EPONYMOUS London house is not only the locus for the events quotidian and life-altering that take place within its walls but also a nexus for the myriad strings of this uncommonly attractive novel. At its outset, the story seems deceptively simple: Two young women, close friends since college, occupy its two apartments. Abigail, who owns the house, runs a small theatrical company; Dara, her tenant in a garden flat, is a psychologist at a counseling center. Dara is having a difficult time getting her lover to extricate himself from his former girlfriend and their child and commit himself fully to her. Abigail, though, seems blissfully happy with Sean, having succeeded in luring him away from his marriage and erstwhile soul mate.

I'm riding along in my car against the background noise of a radio talk-show host working up her audience over the prospect that a sex offender might be living nearby. The discussion centers on the federal crime bill, which encourages police to pass out photos and addresses of anyone in the neighborhood who has been previously convicted of molestation. (California has gone further by dispensing names, ZIP codes and photos of sex offenders to any and all who might ask.

Sean Payton has long considered himself a fan of the NFL. And for the time being, that's all he is. The suspended coach of the New Orleans Saints cannot have contact with the team or anyone in the league, and he must contact the NFL's security arm within 24 hours if he happens to cross paths with anyone on the off-limits list. Payton began serving his one-year suspension Monday for his role in the Saints' pay-for-performance bounty scandal. His appeal of the suspension was turned down by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell last week.

A music industry business manager who has acknowledged failing to file income tax returns for the Black Eyed Peas and other clients has filed for bankruptcy. In a petition Sunday seeking Chapter 7 protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles, a lawyer for Sean Larkin estimated his debts at $500,000 to $1 million. The Peas stopped working with Larkin, 41, after learning that he had not filed state and federal returns for years. He is being sued by the group's guitarist and another client, a television executive, for breach of contract.

Actor Sean Astin - a.k.a. Samwise Gamgee in "The Lord of the Rings" - trekked across much of Middle-earth wearing hairy prosthetic feet. It's easy to be motivated with a legion of orcs on your tail. But on the streets of Los Angeles on regular old Earth, Astin must find the drive to run from within. On March 18, Astin ran the L.A. Marathon for the third time - but as he explained in a recent interview, he doesn't always find it easy to push himself to lace up those shoes.

Sean Larkin was a Cal State Northridge accounting grad trying to break into the entertainment industry when he met a hip-hop act that performed in local clubs. The Black Eyed Peas didn't need high-level financial advising in the mid-1990s, when they were often broke and handed out fliers to fill their shows. Larkin signed on as their business manager anyway and remained at their side as they became international superstars who routinely pulled in $1 million a night. What seemed a rare story of loyalty rewarded in the music industry has revealed itself as a cautionary tale in recent years.

There is an appealing nyuk, nyuk nostalgic spirit to"The Three Stooges. "To fully appreciate this paean to slapstick and silly nonsense simply requires that cynicism be temporarily shelved and the thinking side of the brain shut down. Starring Sean Hayes, Will Sasso and Chris Diamantopoulos as Larry, Curly and Moe, this affectionate update is a love letter to the Stooges from the filmmaking Farrelly brothers, Peter and Bobby. Though they may be best known for the R-rated "There's Something About Mary," there is a Stooge streak a mile long running through their work - the bumbling misfits with a heart of gold in their first film, "Dumb & Dumber," for starters.

It looks as if Bill Parcells won't return to the NFL to fill the New Orleans Saints coaching vacancy, and instead the team will likely promote an assistant coach to fill Sean Payton's job for a year. According to reports by ESPN's Chris Mortensen and Sports Illustrated's Peter King, Parcells has bowed out of the running to temporarily replace Payton, suspended for a year for his role in the Saints' bounty scandal. Multiple reports say the most likely candidate to replace Payton is Joe Vitt, the team's assistant head coach in charge of linebackers who also has been suspended for the first six games of the season.

Reporting from Sacramento and Los Angeles -- Millions of California shoppers and car owners are in for some rare good news from Sacramento: tax cuts. Starting Friday, the statewide sales tax rate drops by one percentage point — a penny on the dollar — and the annual vehicle license charge that drivers pay tumbles by 43%. The expiring increases, which were placed on the books in 2009 as California teetered toward insolvency, will provide significant savings for many people.

In ABC's new thriller "Missing," a former CIA agent whose child has been kidnapped springs out of retirement with guns, martial-arts skills and primal parental passion blazing. If that sounds familiar, well, it was also the plot of the 2008 film "Taken," which had Liam Neeson tearing through Paris to extricate his daughter from the clutches of a sex-trafficking ring. In "Missing," the gender roles are reversed. When Michael (Nick Eversman), a student studying abroad in Rome, goes missing, his mother, Becca Winstone (Ashley Judd)

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday upheld the original suspensions he slapped on New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton, General Manager Mickey Loomis and linebackers coach Joe Vitt for their roles in the team's three-season-long bounty program. Payton is banned for the season, Loomis will miss half the season and Vitt is suspended for six games. The commissioner has yet to impose penalties on the 22 to 27 players who reportedly participated in former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams' bounty operation, which offered cash to players who hurt opponents or knocked them from games.

Saints Coach Sean Payton is appealing his season-long suspension from the NFL for his role in New Orleans' bounty system. And he's not the only one looking for a little relief from the penalties handed down by Commissioner Roger Goodell . General Manager Mickey Loomis , assistant coach Joe Vitt and the Saints organization each decided to appeal on Friday. Payton will also ask NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for his guidance on the parameters of the suspension, which runs through next year's Super Bowl, a person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press.