Youth

They show up with lunch sacks and stuffed bears, an occasional doll. On Wednesday morning, most simply walked up the sidewalk with their parents in tow to the green, wrought-iron gate. One arrived in a shiny, black Audi SUV whose driver popped out to open the huge door for his charge. After a moment, a pair of tiny feet clad in hot-pink Crocs sandals dangled out and another youngster headed into the First Presbyterian Nursery School in Santa Monica.

It was a seminar that top executives at Sony and Paramount couldn't afford to miss. Forty-six of them -- including Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton, co-Chairman Amy Pascal, Paramount Film Group President John Lesher and marketing teams from around the globe -- crowded around a table recently in one of Sony's conference rooms.

This is the time of year when, like a character from a bad sci-fi movie, I leap into the brains of a bunch of L.A. teenagers, eager to hear what they think about the nonstop onslaught of summer movies.

Everyone knows who Hannah Montana is. But perhaps only kids know she's been unseated as TV's reigning tween queen by one Carly Shay. When no one was looking, Carly, the plucky 15-year-old star of the Nickelodeon comedy “iCarly,” overtook Disney Channel's “Hannah Montana” -- and this year, "American Idol" -- in the ratings race for young audiences.

One Disney Channel star is gunning to take down another at the box office this weekend. Warner Bros. opens its Zac Efron comedy "17 Again" today in hopes of garnering much of the same young female audience that made Walt Disney's "Hannah Montana: The Movie" No.

The police were polite but firm as they arrested Shahin Felakat, a lanky teen whose mussed-up strands of dirty brown hair reach in all directions, and charged him with singing lyrics that threatened Iran's Islamic order.

On Saturday afternoon, under a cloudless sky, dozens of youths from several nonprofit organizations gathered at the Villa-Parke Community Center in Pasadena to demonstrate for peace and honor Cesar Chavez.

On Saturday afternoon, under a cloudless sky, dozens of youths from several nonprofit organizations gathered at the Villa-Parke Community Center in Pasadena to demonstrate for peace and honor Cesar Chavez.