Sean Penn

Up-and-coming hunks Shia LaBeouf Brawn factor, on a barbell scale of one to five Resume Star of the Disney Channel series "Even Stevens," performed sketch comedy on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," appeared in tween fare "Holes" and "The Greatest Game Ever Played" and in the edgier "I, Robot" and "Constantine." Upcoming films include "Transformers," "Surf's Up" and the fourth "Indiana Jones." In April, LaBeouf, 20, was named ShoWest's male star of tomorrow. Spiritual forefather Tom Hanks.

IT was surprising to read that Steve Zaillian, the writer and director of "All the King's Men," was shocked that his movie took a giant flop at the box office ["A 'King'-Sized Collapse," by Scott Martelle, Oct. 3]. Frankly, I can give him a few reasons: no character development; a superficial, confusing story line; and the unforgettable miscasting of Sean Penn as Gov. Willie Stark. JACK WOLF Westwood THE reason I did not go see "All the King's Men" is simple: Why spend $10 to see a remake of a movie that already won the Academy Award for best picture?

IF David Milch had his druthers, he probably wouldn't be strapped into a twin-prop plane at 10:30 on a Saturday morning, his aching back braced with a pillow as the aircraft scythes through the Central Valley haze. Milch, after all, has plenty of other claims on his time: projects to plan, Emmy Award-winning TV scripts to churn out.

It's one thing to write about history as Douglas Brinkley has done for more than two decades, often to much fanfare and acclaim. It's quite another to be swept up with your young family by its fast-moving and unpredictable currents.

Back in 1986, when the Iran-Contra scandal became news, Rhino Records reissued a Phil Ochs CD titled "A Toast to Those Who Are Gone." A fiery troubadour of the 1960s best known for "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore," Ochs was also a political activist who not only had denounced the Vietnam War at home but had traveled to Chile, South Africa and Tanzania to promote world peace, inspiring the FBI to amass a 410-page file on his six-string dissent.

Sean Penn isn't mad about how he's portrayed in the upcoming film "Team America: World Police." But he's ready to go to war with the filmmakers over some off-camera comments about voting. The film, a satire of the action genre featuring a team of butt-kicking marionettes, has already engendered criticism from figures on the right, who have claimed that it makes fun of the war on terror.

As Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn film "The Interpreter" on location at the United Nations, many ambassadors are mad -- because all the diplomats in the movie are impostors. "It was my dream that I was going to be in a movie with Sydney Pollack directing. He's one of my heroes in the movie industry," said Spain's U.N. ambassador, Inocencio Arias, who has appeared in many Spanish films and said he had lined up a part as a prime minister.

This handsome young lead of the successful WB drama "One Tree Hill" isn't much like his brooding alter ego, Luke. He loves having fun all around the Southland, indoors and out. Home I have a home in Sherman Oaks, so I'll get some exercise sometimes walking Joe -- he's a white half shepherd and wolf, but he's the nicest dog. He goes on the road with me. If I tell him to "stay in the trailer," he'll sit there; no matter how long shooting runs, he stays.

Sean Penn may be joining the press corps in Iraq. The actor, who made a controversial visit to Iraq last winter to speak out against the pending U.S. attack, is considering going back, and this time publishing his accounts of life in the war-torn country for the San Francisco Chronicle, according to the paper's editor, Phil Bronstein. Bronstein said the arrangement with Penn remains informal, since the actor has not yet decided if and when to return to Iraq.