Film focuses on remote museum in Uzbekistan

Back in 2000, USC film professor Amanda Pope and a former student, Tchavdar Georgiev, were traveling in Russia and some of its satellites, working on a series of short portraits of emerging leaders in the post-Soviet world. The two were in Uzbekistan when Pope heard about an amazing collection of Russian avant-garde art in a remote museum deep in the country's desert.

But when she excitedly mention...

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Matthew McConaughey, Michael Connelly talk 'The Lincoln Lawyer' over beers

Matthew McConaughey has just cracked open his second Corona when the man wearing Mardi Gras beads and a Village People policeman's cap approaches his car.

"Do you know Duane?" the inebriated-looking man asks with suspicion, poking his head inside the window and gestu...

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Hollywood Headlines

Charlie Sheen got the ax from "Two and a Half Men" this week, but he won't go down without a fight. Sheen's going after Warner Bros. and his nemesis, show creator Chuck Lorre, with a $100-million lawsuit. He's also got plenty to keep him busy, like his tour, "Sheen's Korner," cooking show and Twitter. Not to mention the custody battle with ex Brooke Mueller....

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BAHRAIN: Gates urges reform to keep Iran at bay amid renewed violence

I expressed the view that we had no evidence that suggested that Iran started any of these popular revolutions or demonstrations across the region," Gates said Saturday following talks with Bahrain's king and crown prince. Bahraini officials have repeatedly tried to discredit the anti-government protest movement by alleging links to Iran and the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, a claim the protesters deny.

"But there is clear evidence th....

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Energy released in an earthquake

The energy released on the Earth's surface only (ME, which is the seismic potential for damage) by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami was estimated at 1.1×1017 joules, or 26.3 megatons of TNT. This energy is equivalent to over 1502 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, but less than that of Tsar Bomba, the largest nu...

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Japan earthquake shifted Earth on its axis

Friday's magnitude 8.9 earthquake in Japan shifted Earth on its axis and shortened the length of a day by a hair. In the future, scientists said, it will provide an unusually precise view of how Earth is deformed during massive earthquakes at sites where one plate is sliding under another, including the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

The unusually rich detail comes fr...

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Japanese fearful as nuclear crisis builds

The government in Tokyo may be reassuring a nation already reeling from the worst earthquake in its recorded history that Japan is not about to experience a full-blown nuclear disaster.

But the closer you got to the Fukushima nuclear complex, where officials are struggling with the specter of meltdowns at two of its six reactors, the less people were buying it.

On National Road 4 on the city's outskirts, Mari Kano was crawling through congested traffic Sunday morning with her two young children in tow, baskets of cl...

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Japan faces soaring number of feared dead

Reporting from Tokyo, Koriyama and Fukushima, The number of missing and feared dead in Japan's epic earthquake soared Sunday as a reeling nation struggled to contain an unprecedented nuclear crisis, pluck people in tsunami-inundated areas to safety, quell raging blazes and provide aid to hundreds of thousands of frightened people left homeless and dazed.

A police chief in the battered Miyagi prefecture told disaster relief officials that he expected the death t....

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NFL owners express disappointment

A day after the NFL Players Assn. decertified as a union, and the NFL officially locked out its players, several team owners Saturday issued statements expressing their disappointment that the labor fight has gone this far.

"I am very disappointed that we were not successful in reaching an agreement," Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney II said, adding, "The NFL owners pu....

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Redevelopment reality:increased tax revenue generated by their projects

For decades, community redevelopment agencies have targeted blighted areas and encouraged investment in them by allowing developers to keep the increased tax revenue generated by their projects. The successes have been notable: One need look no farther than the south end of Los Angeles' downtown, where Staples Center and the surrounding commercial area sit atop what once were parking lots and crack houses.

But abuse of the system has been a proble...

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Let police pursue criminals, not immigrant

California reached a milestone late last month when federal immigration officials quietly announced that all 58 counties in the state are now participating in Secure Communities, a controversial program created to track and deport dangerous criminals.

Unveiled in late 2008, Secure Commun...

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Movie Projector: 'Battle: Los Angeles' will rule, 'Mars Needs Moms' will bomb

"Battle: Los Angeles" is expected to wipe out the competition at the box office this weekend, leaving "Mars Needs Moms" searching for any signs of life.

Sony Pictures' "Battle," an alien invasion story starring Aaron Eckhart, should open to domestic ticket sales of $30 million to $35 million, according to people who have seen pre-release audience surveys.

But the biggest news at the box office this weekend will likely be the disastrous debut of "Mars Needs Moms," a big-budget animated movie from Walt Disney Studios that is on track ...

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Darren Aronofsky returns to the drug world

Darren Aronofsky cemented his auteur status a decade ago with "Requiem for a Dream," a dark story of a murky drug underworld. Now he could be returning to that milieu in a different capacity.

The director of "Black Swan," along with that movie's producer, Scott Franklin, are putting their weight behind "Intricate," a story of a promising young athlete who finds himself caught up in the drug trade in 1990s New York, according to the new film's dire....

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'American Idol' results: One goes home, and one goes missing

Even before one finalist was eliminated on Thursday night's "American Idol," as the top 13 was about to shrink to an even dozen, one contestant was missing: Casey Abrams, who had been hospitalized for stomach pains just two weeks ago, was apparently back in the hospital. (Fox is not saying why, or whether Casey is expec...

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Public consequences of pop stars' private gigs:Mariah Carey

When pop stars Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Nelly Furtado and 50 Cent recently said they'd renounced millions of dollars they'd received for performing for members of Libyan strongman Moammar Kadafi's family, they drew attention to a growing and controversial cultural phenomenon: celebrity artists being hired by rich, powerful and sometimes disreputable clients to play at private or sem...

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Wisconsin Assembly passes union proposal

The Wisconsin Assembly on Thursday gave final approval to a GOP measure that sharply limits collective-bargaining rights for most public employees.

By 53-42, the Assembly passed the measure, an expected step after the state Senate OKd the propo...

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$6-billion solar industry logs another record year

The solar industry seems to have turned in yet another record-breaking year in 2010, as the total market value of the sector spiked 67% to $6 billion from $3.6 billion in 2009, according to an annual report.

Companies installed 878 mega...

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Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' condition improves by 'leaps and bounds'

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, shot in the head in a Tucson parking lot in January, "is making leaps and bounds in terms of neurological progress," doctors say, and there is "a good possibility" she will be able to attend the final launch of the space shuttle Endeavor, which her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, will comma...

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Obama to address Japan quake at news conference

Obama to address Japan quake at news conference

During a news conference today, President Obama is expected to detail the U.S. response to the major earthquake in Japan. Other likely topics are gas prices and the violence in Libya...

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LIBYA: Dutch marines captured in Libya appear headed to Athens

Thanks to a deal brokered by Greek officials, the Libyan government has agreed to allow three Dutch marines captured after a failed evacuation mission in Libya last month to leave Tripoli for Athens Thursday, according to the Associated Press, quoting a Greek defense ministry official.

The official, who was not identified, said a Greek milit...

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