Swimsuit Issue

Think men's synchronized swimming, and chances are you'll call back Harry Shearer and Martin Short as hopeless pool splashers in a classic "Saturday Night Live" bit. Director/co-writer Mans Herngren's Swedish import "The Swimsuit Issue," however, strives for "The Full Monty"-esque charm in its tale of a group of middle-aged, sad-sack weekend warriors who take up the female-dominant sport to compete for a world championship appearance in Berlin. While it may surprise moviegoers to discover — as jobless divorced dad Fredrik (Jonas Inde)

It is like having a “booth babe” come out of the print advertisement.  Overseas, Toyota has used a cross-dresser to sex up its advertising. Now the Japanese automaker, known for its conservative cars, is leveraging Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue published Tuesday and smartphone technology to juice up the advertising for its new Lexus IS here in the U.S. In a print ad it calls “Blend Out,” Toyota said it cast three swimsuit models to pose with the Lexus IS and “camouflaged the models within the scene - actually making them part of the set design.” Readers can use smartphones to scan a QR code on the ad so that “when they place their phones on the page, the models come to life, walking out from the background and revealing themselves in their swimsuits.” The QR code triggers a video of the sexy models cavorting next to the new IS. The viewer can slide the phone to the next model in the advertisement and see her dancing, too. It's pretty racy for a brand whose average buyer age is well into the 50s, especially considering that about half of IS sales are to women.

It is like having a “booth babe” come out of the print advertisement.  Overseas, Toyota has used a cross-dresser to sex up its advertising. Now the Japanese automaker, known for its conservative cars, is leveraging Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue published Tuesday and smartphone technology to juice up the advertising for its new Lexus IS here in the U.S. In a print ad it calls “Blend Out,” Toyota said it cast three swimsuit models to pose with the Lexus IS and “camouflaged the models within the scene - actually making them part of the set design.” Readers can use smartphones to scan a QR code on the ad so that “when they place their phones on the page, the models come to life, walking out from the background and revealing themselves in their swimsuits.” The QR code triggers a video of the sexy models cavorting next to the new IS. The viewer can slide the phone to the next model in the advertisement and see her dancing, too. It's pretty racy for a brand whose average buyer age is well into the 50s, especially considering that about half of IS sales are to women.

Sure, Kate Upton suffered through antarctic cold to deliver this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover - but she's not the only model in the mag who knows what it's like to freeze your bikini off. Palmdale native Alyssa Miller, who appears in the swimsuit issue this year in shots from Australia's Whitsunday Beach, learned that lesson in Iceland a while back, on what she said was the craziest shoot she's ever been asked to do. ...

Obviously jealous of Sports Illustrated, this column presents its first annual Swimsuit Issue, packed with stunning black-and-white photos of models taken at clever angles in such romantic locales as downtown L.A. and a plastic toy factory. (Note: If a friend or fellow office worker doesn't have a copy, please share yours before you clip it out and save it.) * NOW THAT WOULD STOP TRAFFIC: In the 1930s, the L.A.

Welcome to the annual Only in L.A. Swimsuit Issue! Hey, quit looking at those alluring photos for a moment and read the text here, will you? Anyway, you may have noticed that an obviously worried Sports Illustrated tried to undercut us by bringing out its swimsuit issue a couple of weeks ago. But S.I.'s will only suffer by comparison. For one thing, our collection is in stunning black and white! And we have models dating back to the 1930s. OK, let's get started.

It's the middle of winter, so it must be time for a swimsuit issue to liven up magazine reading. No, not that one. National Geographic is doing a swimsuit issue. It's a special newsstand-only issue that takes a detailed look at people wearing swimsuits but without quite the titillation some other magazines muster. Instead, National Geographic takes the reader on a historical tour of the swimsuit over the last 100 years. The issue goes on sale Feb. 1.

Musings while wondering if Ivana Trump would be my valentine ... The sports world is turned upside down these days. There's hardly anything left to count on. We thought baseball spring training would begin soon. It won't. We thought Mike Tyson would be the heavyweight champion forever. He isn't. We thought Dave Meggett could get a date for free. He can't.

The come-on of Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue remains unchanged--images of bikini-clad models arrayed on sun-splashed beaches. But the 33rd edition, which went on sale Wednesday, is the first to feature an African American model on the cover and the first to utilize the seaside and desert sands of South Africa as its setting. The model is Tyra Banks, a Los Angeles native and actress who has graced covers of Elle, Self and GQ.

Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue usually arrives with a splash of publicity, but this year the hype will be toned down because of the Persian Gulf War. That means no video news release for television stations. No interviews with the chosen cover girl after the magazine hits the newsstands today. No appearance on a pre-selected national morning show. Nothing.

Kate Upton looks [blank] on the cover of the 2013 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. While many adjectives might spring to mind, Upton filled in the blank herself Friday after the image used on the front of the annual issue was released to the public. "I look...Cold lol," Upton tweeted. No doubt that's how the model was feeling at the time of the photo shoot, which took place in Antarctica. "Took us 2 months to thaw out," she said in another tweet.  Upton and nine other SI swimsuit models will appear on "Late Night with David Letterman" on Monday night.

Will Brent Musburger get a finder's fee? Katherine Webb, whose claim to fame is the fact Musburger talked about how beautiful she is during the Alabama-Notre Dame BCS title game, has parlayed that attention into a cool new gig: Covering the Super Bowl for "Inside Edition. " Webb, the girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron, announced the news on her Twitter page . So, in return for Musburger's comments, Webb gets to appear in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue and cover the Super Bowl for a television show.

The Early Show (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Josh Groban; Giada De Laurentiis; Grammys; Janet Jackson. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America Liam Neeson. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Regis and Kelly Michael Caine; Diane Kruger. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Geoffrey Rush; Steve Harvey; guest co-host Patti Stanger. (N) 10 a.m. KABC The Doctors Questions; moles; memory loss. (N) 11 a.m. KCAL The Talk LL Cool J and his wife Simone Smith; Gretchen Wilson performs. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS The Oprah Winfrey Show Roseanne Barr.

Think men's synchronized swimming, and chances are you'll call back Harry Shearer and Martin Short as hopeless pool splashers in a classic "Saturday Night Live" bit. Director/co-writer Mans Herngren's Swedish import "The Swimsuit Issue," however, strives for "The Full Monty"-esque charm in its tale of a group of middle-aged, sad-sack weekend warriors who take up the female-dominant sport to compete for a world championship appearance in Berlin. While it may surprise moviegoers to discover — as jobless divorced dad Fredrik (Jonas Inde)

The athlete on the stage is talking about playing in pain. The babe on the website is standing on the side of a mountain in a white bikini and red snow boots. The athlete on the stage is talking about dealing with the pressure of a debilitating shin injury and suffocating Olympic hopes. The babe on the website is posing seductively in a white fur wrap too small for her chest and hot pants too tight for her bottom. Only in American women's sports would these two divergent creatures be the same person.

FINA, the international governing body of swimming, is attempting to put the genie back in the bottle. The genie would be the high-tech swimsuits, starting with the well-known Speedo LZR Racer, that dominated the run-up to the Beijing Olympics last year, and the next generation of controversial successors.

When the annual swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated hits the newsstands Wednesday, something besides body covering will be missing. Hyundai--a longtime advertiser--has decided to skip the issue that features revealing photographs of women in skimpy swimsuits. "If this particular issue (of Sports Illustrated) is of concern to some of our customers, we'd prefer to steer away from it," said Joe Corey, national advertising manager at Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America Corp.

Library patrons can check out books, but they can't check out the models in Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue. A magazine spokesman confirmed Thursday that the Time Warner Inc. publication withheld shipment of the Feb. 14 issue to libraries and schools after years of taking heat from critics who said the issue had become too risque.

Belpre sixth-grader Justin Reyes is serving a three-day suspension because he refused a lesser punishment for bringing the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue to school, school Supt. Tim Swarr said. Belpre Middle School Principal Kathy Garrison cited the 12-year-old for violating policy on nonverbal harassment and possession of lewd or suggestive material. "It's not like it's Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler," said Justin's mother, Nicole Reyes.