Seymour

Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.) said Sunday that he will work in the Senate to see that "not one penny" of federal aid goes to anyone convicted of looting or arson in the Los Angeles riots. But unlike his two opponents for the Republican nomination for the two-year Senate seat, Seymour supports the aid bill. Seymour made the comment during a half-hour debate, shown statewide on public television, with his two major opponents: Rep. William E. Dannemeyer of Fullerton and U. S.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won the hearts of fans and fellow actors during decades of an award-winning career, accidentally died of a deadly mix of drugs, New York medical officials announced Friday. The office of New York's chief medical examiner said that Hoffman had died from "acute mixed drug intoxication" from substances including heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines and amphetamines. His body was found Feb. 2 in his apartment in Manhattan's West Village. Police have said that Hoffman was found with a needle in his arm and at least 50 packets containing heroin in the apartment.

My acquaintance with Ruth Seymour over the years had been fleeting. But inevitably when I saw the KCRW radio general manager, it would provoke reminiscences about the days long ago when I worked with her daughter, Celia, on the newspaper at Santa Monica High School. Maybe that obscure connection gave Seymour license to heap extra incredulity on me a couple of months ago. It was the last time I interviewed her, and I had deigned to ask whether, based on the latest Arbitron ratings, KCRW-FM (89.9)

Nearly a month after the untimely death of Philip Seymour Hoffman, the office of the chief medical examiner in New York City has released the results of his autopsy. The Oscar-winning actor died of "acute mixed drug intoxication" from a combination of substances including heroin, cocaine, amphetamine and benzodiazepines (prescription medication used to treat anxiety, insomnia and seizures, among other afflictions), it was announced Friday. The medical examiner's office ruled the death an accident.  The official news that Hoffman died of a drug overdose confirms what became evident in the hours after his death on Feb 2., when his body was found in a rented apartment in Manhattan's West Village.

Seymour's opposition to S-21 is yet another example of California's ineffective special interest legislators. Your editorial dramatically points out the folly of Seymour's stand on such an important issue. JOAN RICHARDSON San Clemente

I've outgrown J.D. Salinger, and I don't know where that leaves me. I was 10 when my father handed me "The Catcher in the Rye," and I found not just a voice for all the wild despair and sudden inexplicable elation of adolescence but an acknowledgement that these feelings did not occur in a vacuum. Salinger reached into the "vale of tears" catechism of my Irish Catholic upbringing and lifted me out by my hair — don't listen, he said, they're all phonies, just keep your eyes open for small moments of beauty, and you will find them between the lies and the obscenities.

I want to praise Whitney North Seymour Jr. for his courage in boldly speaking out against the unethical practices that have proliferated in Washington (Part I, Dec. 18) . I praise him for saying that he was disappointed to hear that the President was saddened by the perjury conviction of his dear friend, Deaver. I praise Seymour for criticizing the Secretary of State George Shultz for vouching for Deaver's honesty. So here's three hurrahs for Whitney North Seymour Jr., a man (and, I think, a rare Republican)

State Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) is again seeking legislative passage of a bill to help parents save for their children's college tuition. Seymour said his new bill is similar to one passed by the 1988 Legislature but vetoed by Gov. George Deukmejian. Seymour said he believes that the new bill has enough differences, however, to "avoid another veto by the governor." The current bill, which on Wednesday was approved by the Senate Education Committee, calls for creating a California Tuition Finance Authority.

In an effort to crack down on habitual truants, state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) is pushing a bill that would allow teachers to reduce a student's grade for excessive absences, even those excused by parents. "Since some parents are all too willing to simply write notes over and over again for their children, rather than insist they attend class, this measure was necessary so that our school system can complete the mission the people of California insist it do," Seymour said.

State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R--Newport Beach) is expected this week to enter the Republican primary for lieutenant governor. Another Orange County Republican, State Sen. John Seymour of Anaheim, has already announced that he will seek the nomination.

Philip Seymour Hoffman died of an accidental overdose involving a powerful cocktail of drugs, authorities announced Friday. Heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine were found in the actor's system, causing "acute drug intoxication," according to the report from New York's Office of Chief Medical Examiner. Hoffman's body was found Feb. 2 in the bathroom of his New York apartment with a syringe still in his forearm, so confirmation of an overdose wasn't unexpected, though the details shed some further light on the extent of the actor's drug use. Taking heroin with cocaine is known as "speedballing," which also killed stars John Belushi and River Phoenix.

One of the two friends who discovered Philip Seymour Hoffman's body in his apartment has withdrawn a lawsuit against the National Enquirer after reaching a settlement with the tabloid. David Bar Katz has come to an agreement with the Enquirer over a story that falsely claimed he and Hoffman were gay lovers who had  free-based cocaine the night before the actor died. Katz, a playwright,  told the New York Times  he will use the settlement to set up the  American Playwriting Foundation, which will give out an annual prize of $45,000 for an unproduced play. It will be called the Relentless Award, in Hoffman's honor.

Philip Seymour Hoffman had little love for L.A. -- at least as far as his last will and testament indicates. In his 2004 will, the Oscar-winning actor gave direction on where he wanted son Cooper, then his only child, to be raised in his absence. Missing from the list was the home of Hollywood.  “It is my strong desire ... that my son, Cooper Hoffman, be raised and reside in or near the borough of Manhattan in the state of New York, or Chicago, Illinois, or San Francisco, California,” he wrote in the document, obtained by outlets including TMZ and the New York Post , which has it posted online.

Now that we've had time to digest the news of Philip Seymour Hoffman's death from an apparent heroin overdose on Feb. 2, and to debate the nature of addiction, the conversation has started to shift to the country's surge in heroin use and how to prevent accidental deaths with naloxone. Naloxone, if you haven't yet heard, is a highly effective, nonaddictive drug used to reverse overdoses. Lynne Lyman, California state director for the Drug Policy Alliance, actually wrote an Op-Ed about it in last year's Opinion pages, making a persuasive case for expanding its availability.

Finally, instead of TMZ, is America saying TMI? Too much information about a celebrity? The NBC news accounts of Philip Seymour Hoffman's “secret diaries” - two volumes found in his apartment - are getting some surprising pushback. The Times' story on the NBC exclusive cites Twitter comments about the diaries - not their contents but NBC's revealing them - as “pretty tacky that anon police are offering news orgs Philip Seymour Hoffman's diary.” And so on: “simply nauseatingly intrusive” and “just despicable.” The Times' story itself attracted a comment in the same vein: “This is a ridiculous invasion of privacy ... he did not shoot up a school, murder his wife ... he killed himself, why do they need to know what's in his diary?

Philip Seymour Hoffman's death from an apparent heroin overdose on Feb. 2 has prompted a wave of news reports, think pieces and remembrances. But NBC News seems to be pushing things further. The network has published a story about the contents of the private diaries police recovered from Hoffman's home, which, in shedding light on the actor's struggles with addiction, also raise questions of privacy and propriety. According to the NBC report , the diaries "reveal a man who was troubled by 'demons' and struggled to control them with Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

The crowd-pleasing aspects of "Little Shop of Horrors" at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center gradually bloom, despite some deforestation and weeds along the way. Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman's evergreen 1982 musical about an extraterrestrial plant with a man-eating appetite closes Musical Theatre West's 56th season in agreeable fashion. Adapted from Roger Corman's 1960 B-movie, the original "Little Shop" ran 2,209 performances off-Broadway, spawning Frank Oz's 1986 movie version and so many regional editions that its 2003 Broadway premiere was deemed a revival by the Tony Awards committee.

The ad for "Tamara" last week warned: "Final Six Weeks!" It was reminiscent of a similar countdown-to-closing in 1989, which was halted shortly before a blast-off. "Tamara," an extravaganza in which audiences witness intrigues as they walk through a fascist-era Italian villa, is still with us today. This time could be for real, said producer Barrie Wexler. It isn't a "gratuitous" warning; "we're seriously analyzing the situation," which has been bleak in recent weeks, he said.