Smashes

NEW YORK - Ninth-seeded John Isner, who was called for a foot-fault during his serve and later angrily smashed a racket, was an upset loser to 19th-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, in a fourth-round match at the U.S. Open that began Sunday night and ended at 2:26 a.m. Monday in New York. As the second week of the biggest tennis tournament in the U.S. gets started, there is only 20th-seeded Andy Roddick and 23rd-seeded Mardy Fish left in the men's singles draw from the United States.

It didn't have to be like this. In the age of green screens and VFX houses, filmmakers responsible for the sixth installment of the "Fast & Furious" franchise didn't have to actually destroy hundreds of cars. They didn't have to run over a custom 1969 Ford Mustang with a tank. The 2008 BMW M5, one of several demolished, didn't need to be thrown through a building. And the 1970 Ford Escort Mark 1 - beloved in the United Kingdom - didn't need to be tossed 70 feet in the air over a freeway divider with a live stunt driver behind the wheel.

The Large Hadron Collider in Geneva succeeded early Tuesday in colliding subatomic particles at three times the highest energy levels previously recorded. Scientists gathered in a room at Caltech and in similar groups around the globe witnessed the achievement at 3:58 PDT. "There were cheers in all the control rooms," said Caltech physicist Harvey Newman. "As soon as we get the data, we're analyzing it. ... It's been a long time coming." Researchers were waiting for the promised flood of data that would come as protons from two particle beams from the 17-mile-circumference collider smashed into each other.

The idea came screeching into director Justin Lin's fuel-injected imagination in 2009: a fiery escape scene featuring a muscle car that crashes out of an airplane during takeoff. In production at the time on "Fast & Furious" - the fourth installment of "The Fast and the Furious" franchise that has grossed $1.6 billion in worldwide box office since 2001 - he commissioned digital "pre-visualization" artists to mock up a rendering even though the stunt did not fit the movie he was making and was too expensive to film.

Two casino patrons were killed and at least seven injured Wednesday in the southern Nevada resort town of Laughlin when a driver smashed through the glass doors of the Edgewater Hotel & Casino and plowed into several banks of slot machines. Driver Walter McGie, 70, of Kelso, Wash., was arrested late Wednesday on suspicion of two counts of reckless driving causing death, said the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which patrols much of Clark County. The crash remains under investigation.

As they passed time before the start of the 200 meters, Usain Bolt feigned a jab to the jaw of U.S. sprinter Wallace Spearmon, who ducked it with a little movement of his head. If only it were that easy to get away from Bolt's punch on the track. Like everyone else, Spearmon is nothing more than a sparring partner, real or pantomimed, for the Jamaican who is knocking out rivals, world records and concepts of human limits as if they were so many palookas. By setting a world record of 19.19 seconds in Thursday's 200-meter final at the World Championships, Bolt took the sport into FloJo territory, where a single sprinter is light years rather than hundredths of a second ahead of the past and the present.

Hmm. How to put this delicately? We'll simplify: Mime-like, stringy-haired man in black hat smashes food with mallet on stage for living. Man, who no espeakey no Spanish, hears Spanish, thinks Spanish good, Spanish muy muy dinero. Man spends one month learning important Spanish words such as cerveza, caca and culo (butt). Man invents Spanish words, such as "sperm-o" and "embarazamante." Man decides this is enough Spanish to put on show for Latinos.

Regarding Robert Riebling's diatribe (Letters, March 17) in which he characterized the outpouring of support and help for accident victim Angela Armstrong as "another self-serving story about Ojai's elite inner circle." Mr. Riebling doesn't seem to grasp the fact that when you devote time and energy to causes in which you believe--which Angela has done tirelessly--you establish connections with people. Then, when you're in trouble--say, because you're severely injured when some reckless driver smashes into your 30-year-old car, and you were unable to afford major medical insurance--people come to your aid. Maybe if Mr. Riebling spent more time doing something for his community, he wouldn't have so much energy to devote to finding fault in something that is good.

I, like most people, was shocked to hear about the disgruntled postal worker who massacred 14 of his fellow co-workers. But then I got to thinking: Our children are raised on cartoons that are often chock full of violence. Our shelves are stocked with war toys. We teach men not to feel. We make movies like "Rambo," "Dirty Harry," "The Terminator," and they become box-office smashes. We make a gun easier to obtain than a credit card. We slaughter, without batting an eyelash, millions of animals a year for every conceivable reason.

The United States, led by Steve Timmons and Karch Kiraly, won the 1986 World Men's Volleyball Championship Sunday in Paris, defeating six-time titlist Soviet Union 12-15, 15-11, 15-8, 15-12. It was the first world championship for the United States, which won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics. The United States was 13th in the last world championships in 1982.

Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes Click here to download TV listings for the week of April 14 -20, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies   SERIES Doctor Who The Doctor and Clara (Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman) land on a submarine in 1983 that has an alien on board. 5 and 8 p.m. BBC America Orphan Black Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) wants to leave town after learning she is a clone in this new episode.

"Smash" is going off Broadway to Saturday nights. NBC announced Wednesday it's moving the struggling musical drama to the unattractive programming night. Cue the reality series understudy for position! The peacock network will instead air new reality love competition "Ready for Love," from Eva Longoria, in the drama's former Tuesday slot beginning April 9, when it will get a two-hour premiere. It will be paired with the network's ratings linchpin "The Voice," which returns later this month.

Wuthering Heights Available on VOD beginning March 12 Having dissected class conflict in the U.K. in her acclaimed films "Red Road" and "Fish Tank," director Andrea Arnold now jumps back 200 years to provide a similar take on Emily Brontë's classic. Arnold's "Wuthering Heights" is grubby and elemental, telling the story of a doomed romance between a Yorkshire lady and her adopted brother - depicted as black in the movie, as opposed to Romany in the novel. As filtered through Arnold's sensibility, Brontë's tale is just a rough thread on which to hang impressionistic, dialogue-free scenes of muddy farm-folk, in conflict over what they consider to be their property.

Attention, rock stars: When Jimmy Fallon introduces you on his chat show as "one of the most legendary and influential musicians of all time," apparently you've got the run of the place. At least that's the message suggested by Prince's appearance Friday on "Late Night," where the Purple One dropped by to perform two songs, including his killer garage-rock single "Screwdriver. " It's one of a handful of tunes Prince is selling through a recently launched website, 3rdeyegirl.com , named after his new all-lady backing band.

This winter, NBC has learned the hard way just how fleeting victory can be. The network had its best fall in years. The new prime-time lineup got a welcome push from the Summer Olympics in London. The post-apocalyptic drama "Revolution" was a surprise hit after "The Voice," the singing contest that has turned into NBC's main entertainment draw. NFL games reigned supreme on Sundays. Mired in fourth place for years, NBC suddenly found itself No. 1 - a position it hadn't regularly seen in nearly a decade.

"Skyfall," "Anna Karenina" and "Mirror Mirror" won the 15th annual Costume Designers Guild Award for excellence in feature film Tuesday evening at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Jany Temime won for excellence in contemporary film for "Skyfall" and Jacqueline Durran earned the award in the period film category for "Anna Karenina. " Eiko Ishioka received the award in fantasy film for "Mirror Mirror. " On the television side, Molly Maginnis earned the award for outstanding contemporary television series for "Smash" and Caroline McCall received the award for outstanding period/fantasy television series for "Downton Abbey.

The story was dead. The story came alive. After USC's final practice before flying to Ohio State on Thursday, Pete Carroll suddenly announced that his plane-catching players didn't have time to talk to the media. I had come to talk to Stafon Johnson. He jogged away quietly. It was perfect. For four years, attention has sought him, controversy has nagged him, bitterness has chased him. He has jogged away quietly. In the last two seasons here, among USC's running backs, he has been the most consistent, and consistently ignored.

If fielders were allowed to play on the other side of the outfield fence, Tim Williams' hitting slump might still be alive today. Fortunately for Loyola Marymount's gifted freshman outfielder, no one could have reached his high rising line drive over the right field wall on Saturday in the second game of the Lions' double-header sweep over visiting St. Mary's. Williams' third-inning, three-run blast highlighted Loyola's 12-6 romp in the nightcap.

Feed Body & Soul is a new hyper-health-conscious restaurant and bar in Venice that isn't afraid to color outside the lines when it comes to indulgence. That's why it brought in barman extraordinaire Marcos Tello to concoct an all-organic list of cocktails. So you can wash down a plate of raw kale and cucumber salad with a Meyer lemon gimlet, or perhaps a savory dish of rotisserie pork loin with roasted squash sauce and wild rice with our favorite seasonal cocktail: the Satsuma whiskey smash.