Suits

The 131-character dispatch arrived mournfully within two hours of sunrise May 4, at 7:58 a.m. to be exact. "When u give Give GIVE and they take Take TAKE at wat point do u draw a line in the sand?" Kobe Bryant wrote on his Twitter feed, adding the hashtags "hurt beyond measure," "gave me no warning," and finally, "love?" Bryant's career with the Lakers has often been pushed aside by internal family matters, the recent court battle over his memorabilia the latest in a string of cheerless events.

Palmela Green sits amid hundreds of fabric rolls in her West L.A. swimsuit shop, surrounded by pink and red sequins, animal prints, knits and faux furs. A photo of one of her recent projects, a swimsuit in a Lexus ad, is proudly displayed on a wall. Green, who works by appointment, is one of only a few designers - the pool also includes Lissa Walker and Merrilee Madrigal, who are both based in Orange County - in the area who create custom swimwear. Green's customers pick a fabric and then choose one of her styles or order a one-of-a-kind pattern.

Now that a guy no longer needs a linebacker's physique, a Rat Packer's swagger or cartoon bags of money to justify the purchase of a made-to-measure dress shirt, here are a few local options - at different levels of wallet strain - worth exploring: Anto Distinctive Shirtmaker Anto has been a maker of truly custom shirts (along with neckties, robes, pajamas and boxer shorts - but no suits) for Tinseltown's well-heeled for more than five decades. Clients have included Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, Johnny Depp (at the recent Golden Globes)

A group of parents and students have filed a federal lawsuit against the Compton school district alleging a pattern of abuse and racial profiling of Latinos by school police. One family alleged that school police targeted a student's father for arrest and deliberately got him deported to Mexico after he filed a complaint against an officer. In another incident, school officers allegedly beat, pepper sprayed and used a chokehold on a bystander who was taking video of an arrest on his iPod, and erased cellphone videos taken by students.

Car dealers have found a new way to profit from people with money trouble: leasing them hand-me-down vehicles. The deals are pitched to customers as the cheapest way to drive a used car off the lot, with the added benefit of an easy escape for those who can't keep up with the payments. Few customers are told about the advantages on the other side of the trade. Leases can allow dealerships to sidestep interest rate caps, and there are fewer financial disclosures rules than with a conventional car loan.

If it please the court, let us stipulate to a few things upfront: First, Zsa Zsa Gabor does n ot look so fat that it would take three or four strong men to lift her onto a horse. And Elke Sommer does not resemble a bald-headed, Hollywood has-been who hangs out in seedy bars and has to sell hand-knitted pullover sweaters to eke out a living.

Seven states and two family planning groups asked a federal court to block a controversial federal regulation that protects health workers who refuse to provide care that they find objectionable. In three lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, the states and groups sought a court order preventing the regulation from going into effect Tuesday and a permanent decision voiding the rule. "The Bush administration has left a ticking political time bomb that is set to explode literally on the day of the president's inaugural and blow apart women's rights," said Connecticut Atty.

This is Beverly Hills?, I wondered, oh so many years ago when a friend took me to lunch in a sweet little house with a fireplace on South Beverly Drive. Chez Mimi later moved to Santa Monica, and Urth Caffé now dispenses soy lattes and iced green tea from that rose-covered cottage. Back then (and now), South Beverly Drive didn't seem fancy at all, more like a small-town Main Street where you'd find shops selling nightgowns and one-piece swimming suits, baseball cards and birthday gifts.

In the world of made-for-TV marriages, few seemed more solid than Martin and Gina. The couple at the center of Fox's "Martin" appeared to fit together like hand in glove. Their differences complemented each other. They had a healthy sex life. And though they regularly clashed, they were undoubtedly in love.

A jury Monday ordered Zsa Zsa Gabor and her husband to pay Elke Sommer $2 million for allegedly telling German publications that Sommer is a financially strapped Hollywood has-been. The Santa Monica Superior Court panel awarded Sommer $800,000 in general damages for statements attributed to Gabor and $1.2 million in general damages for statements linked to Frederick von Anhalt. The jury was scheduled to resume deliberations today to decide punitive damages.

To some, a Mother's Day getaway means a don't-look-back, tires-screeching hall pass for an escape with girlfriends. To others, it means an amorous sojourn with a husband or partner. Then there are those who want to take along their kids or even the family pet. Herewith, places to suit all preferences. A tip: You can sometimes get fantastic last-minute deals on websites such as http://www.hotels.com . Le Méridien, Isle of Pines, New Caledonia For the mother - or family - who has been everywhere.

What's to live for? The price of wine continues to skyrocket, and Warren Buffett is now tweeting. What's next for us culturally? Bingo night at the Louvre? Meanwhile, the criminal justice system insists on hammering on poor Lindsay Lohan. It's only a matter of time before her work suffers, and then who takes over as the freckled queen of American cinema? Leonardo DiCaprio? That's the obvious answer. Yes, I have issues with him as Gatsby, but more on that in a moment. For now, I'll tell you what's to live for. Summer, that's what.

Michael Jackson's diminishing figure - so thin that a costume designer claimed he could see the pop star's heartbeat through his skin - failed to even concern his own manager, according to testimony given Friday. "Get him a bucket of chicken," Frank DiLeo replied when told of the singer's dramatic weight loss, Karen Faye said. "It was such a cold response," said Faye. "I mean, it broke my heart. " Over two days on the witness stand, Jackson's longtime friend and hair and makeup artist offered dramatic and sometimes emotional testimony in a trial that will determine whether the music legend's mother and three children are awarded damages in the millions - even billions - for his death.

When he died, Michael Jackson had a cocktail of anti-depressant and mood drugs in his system as well as a level of the anesthetic propofol typical of a patient undergoing major surgery. The revelation came during testimony Monday in the lawsuit Jackson's mother and children have filed against AEG, the entertainment giant that was promoting the singer's comeback concert series in London when he died. Dr. Christopher Rogers, the Los Angeles County deputy medical examiner, testified that after toxicology tests found Jackson had used propofol, he consulted with an anesthesiologist.

Pale and emaciated, Michael Jackson lay on his bed in his $100,000-a-month Holmby Hills mansion looking like an end-stage cancer patient who had come home to die. The scene inside the house where Jackson lived as he prepared for a comeback tour was described Tuesday in stark detail by Richard Senneff, the lead-off witness in a wrongful-death case brought by the pop legend's mother and three children against entertainment firm AEG. FOR THE...

LAS VEGAS - Hotels open restaurants all the time. But a restaurant opening a hotel? That happens less often. But stuff happens in Las Vegas. The newest Nobu here is, indeed, a hotel. Not only that, but it's also a hotel within a hotel. And it's backed by two stars in their fields. Chef Nobu Matsuhisa and Robert De Niro first partnered in 1993, after De Niro dined at Nobu, Matsuhisa's flagship restaurant in Beverly Hills. The actor was impressed and persuaded the chef to open a Nobu in New York City.

Television actress Alyssa Milano recently won several legal skirmishes in her crusade to stop Internet sites from posting nude pictures of her. Two operators of nude celebrity Web sites have agreed to remove the pictures of Milano and settle suits she filed against them, according to Milano's attorney, Mitchell Kamarck. He declined to specify how much money the sites agreed to pay except to say that the total is "in the five figures."

In a nationwide crackdown on credit repair companies, the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday that 30 firms were being targeted, including a Woodland Hills company that had its assets frozen. Success Credit Services was accused in an FTC civil suit of violating the Credit Repair Organizations Act by contending that it could quickly clean up credit reports by removing legitimate negative items, such as late payments, bankruptcies and tax liens.

Two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies say the department hid an inmate working as a federal informant from the FBI, according to a lawsuit they filed this week. The allegations are the latest development in the ongoing question of whether top sheriff's officials obstructed an FBI investigation after learning that an inmate at Men's Central Jail was secretly collecting information on allegedly abusive and corrupt deputies. In the summer of 2011, sheriff's deputies discovered the inmate's cellphone with a history of calls to the FBI. In an unusual move, sheriff's officials responded by transferring the inmate, a convicted bank robber, to a different jail under aliases, including Robin Banks.

The state Education Department has ignored its obligation to make sure that thousands of students learning English receive adequate and legally required assistance, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. State officials said they had not studied the lawsuit, but insisted they are meeting their legal obligations. The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and others, focuses on an estimated 20,000 students who are receiving no help or inadequate services as they work to learn English and keep up academically at the same time.