A secret political deal has triggered claims of potential corruption against Attorney-General George Brandis and appears to shed new light on his toxic feud with former solicitor-general Justin Gleeson.

The Commonwealth and the states reportedly struck a deal allowing Western Australia to claw back $1 billion from Alan Bond's collapsed Bell Group earlier this year.

But the arrangement was torpedoed in the High Court following submissions by Mr Gleeson on behalf of the Australian Taxation Office, in defiance of a direct order from Senator Brandis, The West Australian reported on Friday.

Senator Brandis had reportedly instructed Mr Gleeson not to run a certain constitutional argument against WA but when the ATO later approached the solicitor-general he provided it to them.

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said if correct, it was "as clear a case of corruption as one could imagine".

"It's attempting to favour the West Australian Liberals over the interests of the Commonwealth," he told Sky News.

"That's the one thing that no commonwealth attorney-general should even countenance doing and that's why this story is so disturbing."

Mr Dreyfus vowed to use "whatever parliamentary processes are available" to uncover exactly what transpired.

Mr Gleeson's advice to the ATO was given just weeks before the attorney-general issued a directive demanding all requests for advice from the solicitor-general first be approved by him.

Senator Brandis was forced to drop the controversial directive earlier this month under immense political pressure from Labor, the Greens and crossbench MPs.

Mr Gleeson later resigned, saying his professional relationship with Senator Brandis was irretrievably broken.

Treasurer Scott Morrison on Friday flatly rejected Labor's claims Senator Brandis acted inappropriately.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann also leapt to the attorney-general's defence, describing suggestions he should be sacked as typical overreach.

"This is just another example of (Labor) getting way ahead of themselves," Senator Cormann said.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the only ethical thing the prime minister could do was sack Senator Brandis immediately.

"George Brandis is the most accident-prone minister in an accident-prone government," he told reporters in Canberra.

"How many lives does George Brandis have?"

Summary: A stymied High Court deal was reportedly a significant factor in the public breakdown between George Brandis and ousted solicitor-general Justin Gleeson.


Active fund managers, which aim to beat the market rather than simply track its rises and falls, came in for particular criticism over their stubbornly high fees for lacklustre returns at a time when cheaper passive funds have cut costs.

“Overall, our evidence suggests that actively managed investments do not outperform their benchmarks after costs,” the Financial Conduct Authority said. “We find that there is no clear relationship between price and performance - the most expensive funds do not appear to perform better than other funds before or after costs.”

Shares in fund management firms Jupiter Asset Management and Standard Life fell nearly 2pc after the FCA’s announcement, although other fund houses including Aberdeen Asset Management and Alliance Trust held steady.

The FCA noted that margins at asset management firms have stuck at around 36pc over the past six years, regardless of swings in the financial markets or rival offers from passive tracker funds, which have grown five-fold since 2005 and now represent 23pc of all UK assets under management.

The UK's asset management industry is the second-largest in the world, looking after nearly £7 trillion of savings. The watchdog identified £109bn that is kept in expensive funds that deliver almost the same returns as a tracker fund.

“In today's world of persistently low interest rates, it is vital that we do everything possible to enable people to accumulate and earn a return on their savings which can meet their lifetime needs,” said FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey. "To achieve this, we need to ensure that competition in asset management works effectively to minimise the cost of investment."

The costs of seemingly small differences in prices lead to significant losses for investors over time. The FCA said an investment of £20,000 in a fund with the same returns as the FTSE All-Share index would produce £14,439 more over 20 years if the fees were 0.25pc a year plus 0.1pc for transactions, rather than 1pc a year plus 0.5pc in transaction costs.

Many active managers cluster around the same prices for their services and told the FCA that competition on fees rarely brought in new business.

Summary: Fund managers must be clear about how much they charge investors and end the “price clustering” that is stifling competition and hiding poor performers, the financial watchdog has warned.


Indigenous children were overrepresented in every category of child or infant death in the Northern Territory last year.

The findings came from an annual report by the Child Deaths Review and Prevention Committee tabled to the NT parliament on Tuesday.

The report examined the 38 child deaths and 35 stillbirths which occurred in the territory in 2015, as well as the total 242 including the preceding four years.

It found Indigenous children and infants die at much higher rates than non-Indigenous infants and children in the NT, as do people living outside the capital city area.

Thirty-eight Northern Territory children died in 2015. Just over half were male, and more than 76% were Indigenous, despite only about 33% of the NT’s population being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.

Twenty-three of the deaths were infants, and most died at less than one month old. About 40% of the additional 38 stillbirths were Indigenous.

The minister for health, Natasha Fyles, said the information was important for government and agencies “to come up with key health and safety campaign messages” and would inform policy and research in the future.

The figures showed some improvement “but obviously 38 deaths is tragic for those families”.

She said children dying while in care were automatically referred to the coroner for further scrutiny because “we need to make sure that the system isn’t failing them”.

Making note of previous “horrific” coronial inquiries into deaths of children in care, Fyles accused the previous CLP government of ignoring recommendations.

“We’re making sure those recommendations from previous coronials and the board of inquiry are now being encompassed into our child protection system”.

The figures were broadly in line with the five year rates.

From 2011 to 2015 the child death rate in the NT was 76.5 per 100,000 children, comprising rates of 138 per 100,000 for Indigenous children and and 33 for non-Indigenous children.

Among infant deaths the ratio was much higher, with 1,479 deaths per 100,000 among Indigenous infants, and 284 per 100,000 for non-Indigenous. The infant mortality rate is more than double the national rate of 640 deaths per 100,000, as reported by the productivity commission earlier this month.

More than 25% of all deaths were children of families known to the Department of Children and Families.

In 31.7% of the 242 deaths the cause was considered to be in the category of “external causes of morbidity and mortality”, which are considered preventable.

About half the Northern Territory’s population lives outside the greater Darwin region, but more than 70% of child deaths occurred there.

“The death of any child is a tragedy and the members of the committee extend their sincere condolences to the family, friends and communities of the children and young people cited in this report,” said committee convenor and children’s commissioner, Colleen Gwynne.

“ln highlighting the circumstances relating to these deaths and by conducting research based on identified patterns and trends, the committee’s objective is to effect change that will prevent and reduce child deaths, accidents and diseases in the NT.”

The report noted 14 deaths were awaiting coronial findings.

Summary: Report examines 38 child deaths and 35 stillbirths which occurred in Northern Territory in 2015


The US will resettle only a few hundred refugees from Nauru, and only families, under the deal arranged with the Australian government, Sky News has reported.

The US and Australian governments earlier this month announced an unspecified number of refugees on Nauru or Manus Island would be resettled in the US, with the assistance of the UNHCR. There were reports about 1,600 refugees would be involved.

There have been consistent questions about how many would be accepted and whether the deal would even go ahead under an administration led by Donald Trump, who campaigned on a ban on Muslim immigration. Senior Republicans have also criticised the deal.

However on Tuesday Sky News, citing US government sources, said the US would take just 300 to 400 people, and only those in family groups.

According to the report, officers from the US Department of Homeland Security would arrive on Nauru this weekend to begin their own processing of applicants, and it was not expected to be finished until well after President-elect Trump is inaugurated in January.

If only families are accepted then none of the detainees on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island – all single men – will be eligible, and the Australian and PNG governments remain at an impasse about how to close the detention centre.

Australia’s immigration minister, Peter Dutton, dismissed the report and said the US had put a number to the Australian government but detailing any specifics could be used as “propaganda” by people smugglers.

“If you put yourself in a position where new arrivals are filling the vacancies, that is a nightmare scenario,” he told Sky News. “The reports about the 300 number are completely false.”

Sky News reporter Laura Jayes and cameraman Josh Brown spent three-and-a-half days on the island last week, becoming just the third Australian news outlet to do so since the Nauruan government clamped down on media visits.

Jayes said after the broadcast Sky News applied for the visa through normal channels, without assistance from the Australian government. She said the $8,000 visa fee was waived.

David Adeang, the Nauruan justice minister and acting prime minister, told Sky negative and “skewed” reporting by some Australian media outlets affected Nauruans and that was why the government had stopped media visits.

He said to counter the effect the Nauruan government “selectively” brought in other Australian media organisations “to provide a balanced report”.

According to Jayes’ report, there have been mixed reactions to the US deal among refugees, including widespread scepticism and fears among some Muslim men about going to “Trump’s America”.

When asked about those fears, Dutton responded: “Well, stay on Nauru for 20 years, that’s your option.”

Jayes reported Nauruan authorities were preparing for any increase in tensions or acts of protest and self harm as news of the US decision progressed. She reported claims that advocates had warned refugees not to sign the deal.

Hassan Sowaid, a senior engagement officer with Border Force, said they had also heard the reports, but more than 900 expressions of interest had been registered so far, from the 1,150 people on the island.

“This is a deal, it’s a one-off arrangement. If you don’t accept the US as an outcome then frankly you are not genuine about your case going forward,” said Dutton.

“If you have family in Australia we will help repatriate those people to be with you in the United States or a third country we enter into an arrangement with, but you are not coming to our country to settle.”

Jayes visited the accommodation centres as well as schools, hospitals, and other facilities, finding the tents to be hot, cramped and mouldy, and community housing to be basic but better than most Nauruan homes because it was comparatively newer. She interviewed asylum seekers, refugees, staff, service providers, Nauruan locals and authorities, and Australian officials.

One man, Adnan, alleged he was given paperwork for his family to accompany his wife to Australia for her medical treatment, but was told the next day she had already been sent on an emergency flight.

His 13-year-old son is depressed, on anti-depressants, and does not leave his bed except to go the the bathroom, Sky reported. His 20-month old daughter was born in detention. If his wife does not return to Nauru the family cannot apply for US resettlement.

Sky also reported a case currently being investigated by police of a 30-year-old male refugee who allegedly raped a Nauruan girl, under the age of 16.

Jayes also put to Nauruan police frequent claims that they were unable or unwilling to adequately investigate incidents of assault, abuse or theft against refugees and asylum seekers.

There have been a number of cases on Nauru involving people who say police have not adequately investigated or prosecuted such crimes, including the parents of a six-year-old who was allegedly sexually assaulted by another refugee.

In what appears to be the first case relating to alleged abuse of an asylum seeker that has made it to Nauru’s courts, police charged a man with the indecent assault of a six-year-old asylum seeker last month.

Deputy police commission Kalinda Blake said most accusations were fabrications, and that Nauruan police “tend to investigate right up until the end, and then the complainants themselves come and say they … don’t wish to go ahead, they don’t wish to give us their statement”.

“Without their statement we cannot go ahead.”

Summary: Australian immigration minister denies figure in Sky News report but won’t reveal any specifics for fear of helping people smugglers


Murray is a worldly type, who clearly understands the big picture, and my hunch is he would recognise the wider significance of a Farah triumph. In this of all years, the British public could strike a small, but warming blow for inclusivity and honour a black British Muslim who was born in Africa.

Yes, many will prickle at the argument that Farah has been excluded because of either a) the hue of his skin and/or b) his religion and/or c) his birthplace – and there will doubtless be those who raise the case that black athletes such as Daley Thompson and Linford Christie have prevailed in the BBC’s annual backslap.

There will be others, too, who point to the victories of Canadian-born Greg Rusedski or Belgian-born Sir Bradley Wiggins in defence of the voting viewers.

Whatever, if you truly believe that if Farah was a white, English-born Christian he would still not have been in the first three of SPOTY in 2012 or 2013 then I would be very interested to hear the theory as to why.

At the 2012 London Olympics, Farah won double gold in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres and yet attracted only a desultory eight per cent of the public vote. In 2013, he became the first British athlete to win two golds in a World Champion-ships. That year, his vote went down to seven per cent.

Summary: The BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist is released next week and, given how public votes have gone so far in 2016, you would not be surprised to see Tyson Fury picking up the award.


Families move for a wide variety of reasons. In one U.S. Census Bureau survey of Americans who had recently relocated, roughly half of all respondents cited

as the primary reason for their move, while 30% said they moved for family reasons and 20% moved for work-related reasons.

For parents, whether they are changing homes specifically to find a better environment for their children or for some other reason (like finding more affordable housing), their kids' best interests are usually a high priority. Safety, schools and health are primary considerations. Likewise, the cost of raising a child in that location can be an important factor.

Buying a house? Compare mortgage rates here.

To find the best cities for children, SmartAsset looked at data on 13 different metrics across the 200 largest cities in the U.S. We wanted to find cities that provided good environments for children in many ways.

The quality of local schools was a key factor in our analysis. We considered graduation rates and student proficiency in math, reading and writing. We also looked at air quality and water quality measures, infant and child mortality rates, the percentage of children with health insurance and intergenerational mobility. (Read more about our methodology below.)

-Happy campers in the Upper Midwest. Five Midwestern states – Iowa, the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Nebraska – are home to seven of the top ten cities for children. These areas all have good schools and relatively high rates of economic mobility.

-Connecticut too. Two metros in the Nutmeg State rank among the best cities for children: Norwich and Bridgeport. These areas rate very well for safety and environmental quality.

The second largest city in the Hawkeye State, Cedar Rapids is America's best city for children and by a fairly wide margin. The primary reason for the city's top ranking is its schools. They graduate 87% of students. 80% of the area's students test as proficient in math and 74% in reading and language arts.

Cedar Rapids also has the fourth lowest child poverty rate of any major metro in the U.S. About 11% of children in the Cedar Rapids area live below the poverty line. That's half the average among the 200 largest U.S. metros.

Located in the southeast corner of South Dakota, Sioux Falls has been growing rapidly in recent years thanks to its strong economy and low cost of living. Those factors both contribute to the city's high rate of intergenerational mobility.

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Researchers at Harvard found that children born in the 25th percentile of earners in the Sioux Falls area will, on average, rank in the 49th percentile as adults. That is the second highest rate of economic upward-mobility of any metro area in the country.

The Iowa capital is the country's third best city for children. The metro area has the nation's 17th highest high school graduation rate at 89%. The best performing public school district in the area is the Johnston Community School District. 92% of students in Johnston's public schools tested as proficient in math.

This Nebraska city rates extremely well for environmental quality and children's health. It is also generally a very affordable place to live. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the median home value in Lincoln is less than $150,000. That's good news for budget-conscious parents who want to buy an affordable home with plenty of space for the little ones to run wild.

According to data from the Harvard "Equality of Opportunity" project, children in Rochester, Minnesota enjoy the highest level of economic mobility of any major metropolitan area in the U.S. While parents should love the idea that their children have a great chance of economic ascension in Rochester, kids in Med City have a reason to rejoice as well.

SmartAsset's research found that 35 out of every 1,000 businesses in the Rochester area are kid-friendly entertainment venues. That's the seventh highest concentration of any major U.S. city. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the area is home to nine bowling alleys and two arcades.

A child's health and safety is the top concern for most parents and on that front the Norwich metro area, which includes the city of New London, rates very well. The area's child mortality rate ranks among the ten lowest in the U.S.

On average, schools in the Bridgeport metro area (which includes Stamford and Norwalk) rate very well, with graduation rates of near 90% and proficiency in math and reading over 80%. In the Norwalk School District, for example, 85% of students graduate from high school, 82% of students are proficient in math and 78% are proficient in language arts.

One exception to this is the Bridgeport Public School District, which is the largest district in the region. Proficiency in the Bridgeport School District is around 50% in both reading and math, while the graduation rate is 67%. Thus, while the metro area as a whole rates well for children, it is important to consider where exactly in the area your children will attend school.

Over the past decade and a half, the unemployment rate in Fargo has remained several percentage points lower than the national average. That isn't just good for working adults, it also benefits children. Thanks in part to the economic opportunities provided by the strong regional economy, Fargo ranks third in the country for economic mobility and has the 12th lowest child poverty rate.

Appleton is one of the "Fox Cities" in central Wisconsin. While Appleton itself has a population of around 76,000, the metropolitan area has a population of about 230,000. Kids in Appleton should have no problem finding ways to pass the time (assuming they can bum a ride from their parents).

The area has nine bowling alleys, four arcades and one of the country's best minor league baseball venues. That adds up to the fifth highest concentration of kid-friendly entertainment options of any major metro area.

Though York itself is quite small, with a population just over 40,000, the metro area has 437,000 people according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The region's schools rate especially well, with a graduation rate of 90% and high levels of proficiency in math and reading.

To find the best cities for children, SmartAsset looked at data on children's health, education and quality of life in every U.S. metro area with a population greater than 200,000 people. We considered 13 factors in all, as described below.

To gauge the schools in a metro area, we looked at the metro-wide graduation rate, weighting each school district's graduation rate based on the size of the student body. We also considered the percentage of students proficient in math and the percentage of students proficient in reading and language arts.

Next, we looked at data on health and environmental factors. We considered the infant mortality rate (deaths per 100,000 births) and child mortality rate (deaths per 100,000 children age 18 or younger). We looked at the percentage of children that do not have health insurance in each metro. To gauge environmental quality, we considered each metro's average EPA air quality index rating for the year 2014. We also looked at the frequency of water quality violations in each metro.

Lastly, we considered several economic and quality-of-life metrics. We looked at the child poverty rate in each metro and the intergenerational mobility (a measure of economic opportunity created by researchers at Harvard). To gauge the cost of living and cost of raising a child in each metro, we looked at the median home value. We also considered the percentage of each metro's population that is under the age of 20 and the number of kid-friendly entertainment establishments per 1,000 businesses in each metro area.

After gathering the data, we ranked every metro on each of the thirteen factors. We then averaged those rankings. The two environmental factors received half-weight and all other factors received full weight. Finally, we indexed that average, with scores ranging from 0 to 100. The metro with the best ranking received a 100.

Data on the graduation rate, math proficiency and reading proficiency in each metro comes from the U.S. Department of Education. Data on the infant mortality rate, child mortality rate, percentage of children without insurance and water quality comes from countyhealthrankings.org.

Data on the population percentage of children, the poverty rate, the concentration of entertainment establishments and the median home value come from the U.S. Census Bureau. Data on the average air quality comes from the EPA. Data on the intergenerational mobility in each city comes from Harvard's Equality of Opportunity Project.

Questions about our study? Contact us at blog@smartasset.com.

The post The Best Cities for Children appeared first on SmartAsset Blog.

Summary: Families move for a wide variety of reasons. In one U.S. Census Bureau survey of Americans who had recently relocated, roughly half of all respondents cited housing as the primary reason for their


By NANCY MILLS SPECIAL TO THE DAILY NEWS

Thursday, March 22th 2001, 2:20AM

HOLLYWOOD - Jason Lee's story sounds too good to be true. Seven years ago, he was a 23-year-old professional skateboarder growing bored with his sport. So he said to himself, "I like movies. Wouldn't it be interesting to play characters?"

"I didn't know anything about acting," he says, laughing at his innocence. "I just tried it on a whim because it seemed like it would be fun."

It worked. Lee's first audition was for independent film maker Kevin Smith, who cast him as a slacker in "Mallrats" opposite Shannen Doherty, then as Ben Affleck's pal Banky in "Chasing Amy." He hasn't stopped working since, including a star-making performance as an insecure rock singer in "Almost Famous."

Lee has five movies opening this year. Next month, he begins his first leading role in the comedy "Stealing Stanford." Right now, he's making the next Tom Cruise vehicle, "Vanilla Sky."

First up is "Heartbreakers," opening tomorrow. In this romantic farce, about mother-daughter grifters played by Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lee plays a bartender who falls in love with a young woman trying to set him up for a con. But the con goes wrong when the thief falls in love with her prey.

"The cool thing about Jack is that he's really intelligent," Lee says. "He sees right through them. He's very sweet and very understanding and forgiving. He likes the idea of doing the right thing and enjoying life. I'm like that, as opposed to the very cynical smart a---s I've played in other movies."

In person, Lee is a sleepy, laid-back guy. On three hours of sleep following an all-night shoot on "Vanilla Sky," he's sitting on a Beverly Hills hotel balcony, rubbing his eyes, chugging bottles of water and talking about the road that got him here.

"I was determined to become a professional skateboarder, and I worked very hard at it, and it happened," he says. "That was fun and fulfilling, but then I started becoming less passionate about it. A year after I made 'Mallrats,' I retired from skateboarding, very determined to become the best actor I could be. I wanted to get better and more confident and have a good time with it."

If stardom comes, he's ready to avoid the pitfalls.

"People are surprised that I'm not the typical young Hollywood actor," he says. "I'm not a wild man. I dealt with that as a skateboarder - being young and having money and being on tours and taking advantage of all that stuff."

Lee started boarding early, growing up in Huntington Beach in Southern California. "In school, I was hyper and goofy," he says. "I did my own thing and had a good time. But because I was funny at school, all the nonskaters, jock types and cheerleaders liked me."

Lee's skateboard prowess brought him money, his own company and product lines bearing his name. He met his wife of six years, actress-photographer Carmen Llywellyn, at an action-sports trade show.

"It was fortunate that I experienced pressure and limelight," he says of his athletic days. "I learned how to be professional at something and manage money. That definitely helped in this new adventure of mine."

Summary: HOLLYWOOD - Jason Lee's story sounds too good to be true. Seven years ago, he was a 23-year-old professional skateboarder growing bored with his sport. So he said to himself, "I like movies. Wouldn't it be interesting to play characters?""I didn't know anything about acting,"he says, laughing at his innocence. "I just tried it on a whim because it seemed like it would be fun."It


Sunday, January 6th 2002, 2:24AM

HOLLYWOOD - They come by car, by plane, by bus. Some struggle for years for a paycheck, while others get their break almost immediately.

What's the secret of making it in Hollywood? A pretty face or a buffed physique won't hurt. "'Leading man' is the ultimate category I want to be in," says one young hopeful, "but it's the most difficult to get the breaks in. The name 'Marc Blucas' doesn't greenlight a film."

Actress Kerry Washington insists that hard work is "a fraction of what it takes to be a survivor in this industry. It makes me laugh when people say my success happened overnight. After shooting 'Save the Last Dance,' I went back to work in a restaurant for six months."

A TV series can help sometimes, although "Two Guys and a Girl's" Ryan Reynolds complains: "I felt like a greyhound not being able to run. I couldn't begin to do what I'm capable of doing, although people got to sample some of my stuff."

Auditions are crucial. Paul Bettany, an emerging British star, auditioned for a film that never got made, but its director wrote him a key role in "A Knight's Tale." Auditions on tape were the secret for both Dagmara Dominczyk and Orlando Bloom, while sports skills helped Kelly Hu and Kate Bosworth get noticed.

There's no Yellow Brick Road to stardom in Hollywood, but every year a few new faces draw attention. Here are eight up-and-comers who are generating that indefinable quality known as "buzz."

A 19-year-old from L.A., Kate Bosworth takes the risky step of donning a bikini for her role in this summer's "Surf Girls."

"It's a girl's worst nightmare," she says, sounding embarrassed at first. "But my character's a strong, independent woman who's athletic and muscular, not a waif. It's a good message to send to young women."

Four years ago, Robert Redford picked the then-eighth-grade champion equestrian to play a supporting role in "The Horse Whisperer." She has acted sporadically since ("Remember the Titans," "Young Americans"), but decided a few months ago to delay her acceptance to Princeton for a year to see if she could forge a film career.

"My priorities are different from a lot of young people," she says. "Partying and clubbing sound alluring, but it's not me. I'm driven, and I work hard. I really wanted 'Surf Girls,' though I didn't know how to surf. So I started learning in Malibu two weeks before I got the part. My instructor said I had the knack."

The same with acting, apparently. "Robert Redford told me not to take classes," she adds. "He said I had a natural ability."

"My dad is very dramatic, and from him I learned to be passionate," says Dagmara Dominczyk. "He has no qualms about disagreeing with 20 people."

Twenty years ago, Poland's then-Communist government jailed her politician father. A year later, the Dominczyks came to America as political refugees. "We lived in the projects in Brooklyn," says the 25-year-old actress. She discovered acting when she accompanied a friend - who didn't want to take the subway to Manhattan alone - on an audition.

"I'd never read a play and hardly went to the movies," she says. "I thought actors were pretty people on TV. But I picked some monologues, auditioned and got in [to drama school at Carnegie Mellon University on a full scholarship]."

After understudying in the Broadway production of "Closer," she won her first sizable film role as the sultry PR woman in "Rock Star."

"The character was supposed to be hot," she says, "so I gave myself a sexy massage on tape. When they got it, they immediately flew me to Hollywood for an audition."

Dominczyk will play the heroine, Mercedes, in the latest remake of "The Count of Monte Cristo," opening in February.

"I had to show I was vulnerable and emotional," she says. "It was a pretty weepy audition. I had to be bold from the inside." She will also appear in "They," a thriller due in April.

"I remember, at 4, telling my mother that I was going to Los Angeles to be a superstar," says Kelly Hu. Thirty years later, after a roundabout route of beauty pageants and martial arts, she is at least working in the right business. In April, Hu can be seen playing the hostage of an evil Egyptian warlord in "The Scorpion King," a prequel to "The Mummy Returns" that has been designed as a vehicle for Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson.

A modeling agent discovered Hu at 13 in a Honolulu shopping mall but her mother wouldn't let her start working until she was 16.

"My agent told me if I were to get a title, they could promote me better," she says, "so I won the 1985 Miss USA Teen Pageant." Her winnings enabled her to move to L.A.

"Most of the early roles I was up for were Vietnam War stories," Hu says, "but now it seems Hollywood is willing to look at Asians for all types of roles. 'The Scorpion King' wanted someone who looked very different and exotic. I was one of the few Asian women who went in.

"They didn't know I used to be called 'the King Fu chick,'" she says of her brown belt in karate, which came in handy for the "Martial Law" series a few years ago. "When they found out, they added some shots of me fighting."

"There are so few good roles available to young people, females and blacks," says 26-year-old Kerry Washington, "and I'm all three. Yet I've played such an enormous range of parts." They include Lady Macbeth (at Collegiate), a shoplifter in the unreleased "Lift" and an inner-city teen in "Save the Last Dance."

Reared in the Bronx, Washington began acting professionally at 13 with the Education Theater Company, then based at St. Luke's Hospital. Her roles addressed sex education and self-esteem.

"I performed for the hardest audience - teenagers," she says. "It was during the AIDS epidemic, and I was on stage telling them to use condoms."

After graduating from George Washington University, she made her film debut two years ago in "Our Song." This year she can be seen as Chris Rock's girlfriend in the spy comedy "Bad Company" and as a heroin addict in "Sin," which stars Gary Oldman and Ving Rhames.

"The ['Sin'] director felt he needed someone smart and emotionally stable, willing to take big artistic risks," says Washington. "I think I bring to the table a lot of emotional truth and commitment."

A blond, 30-year-old Londoner, Paul Bettany is best known to American audiences for his comic (and often naked) turn as Geoffrey Chaucer in "A Knight's Tale" and as Russell Crowe's hearty roommate in "A Beautiful Mind." But he has already played leads in British films, and his portrayal of the icy gangland lieutenant who betrays his mentor in "Gangster No. 1" - due here this spring - earned him comparisons with the young Michael Caine.

Ambitious though he is, the principled Bettany turned down one high-profile role. Six months ago, he promised Lars von Trier that he would appear in the Danish director's "Dogville," with Nicole Kidman and Lauren Bacall.

"Then," he says, "I got offered 'Red Dragon' [the latest Hannibal Lecter drama]. That would have been my payday. It's a helluva thing to miss. But movies are a world where people don't have to keep promises, and I'll be darned if I'll be one of those people yet." (Ralph Fiennes took the "Red Dragon" part.)

Although he grew up in an acting family, Bettany used to sing and play guitar on the streets for a living. "I love writing songs," he says. "But I hate playing them in front of people because they're in the first person, and I don't want anyone to know anything about me."

He decided acting was his true calling and went to drama school at age 20, making his West End debut in "An Inspector Calls" and breaking into films with "Bent" in 1997.

"I was quite fearless as a kid," says Orlando Bloom, who is playing Legolas in the three "Lord of the Rings" films. "But I've had to realize I'm not invincible. That's what breaking your back does. It makes you grow up and reassess life."

Three years ago, when Bloom was 21, he fell three floors while trying to open the jammed door of a friend's apartment.

"I wasn't meant to walk again," he recalls, "but I had a miraculous recovery." (Ironically, he's the fresh-faced rookie whose fall from a helicopter precipitates the ferocious Somali attack on American forces in "Black Hawk Down.")

Born in Canterbury, England, Bloom quit school at 16 and moved to London to be an actor. "I never responded to teaching," he says. "I was more interested in what was happening on the playing fields."

After his accident, he realized he needed "some kind of education," so he went to drama school. Then "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson cast him as the agile archer elf.

Bloom has deliberately avoided teen films, he says. "I want to do work that has a message and casts a light over an area that's dark. But I'm fun and jovial, too. I bungee-jump, skydive, surf and snowboard. I still try to be fearless."

As long as Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt are snagging all the roles for handsome leading men, 6-foot-3-inch Marc Blucas reckons he'll have to be content with supporting parts. "I'll never even be cast as the best friend because I'm physically bigger than [most] lead [actors]," he says with a sigh.

A Wake Forest basketball star who played professionally in Europe for a year, Blucas, from Girard, Pa., gave up a law school scholarship because he became passionate about acting. "It was a little shocking to my parents," he says, though they might have guessed something was up when they saw their son play a marshmallow in "Hansel and Gretel" in third grade.

He moved to Los Angeles five years ago and eventually scored a two-day part in "Pleasantville" that extended to eight weeks. "That was the verification I needed," he says. "Then a year and a half on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' put me on the map."

Blucas, who turns 30 on Friday, should edge his way toward bigger roles this year after audiences see him in the Mel Gibson Vietnam War drama "We Were Soldiers," the Gwyneth Paltrow romantic comedy "A View From the Top" and as part of the ensemble in director John Sayles' Florida expose, "Sunshine State."

"My family is as strait-laced as they come," says Ryan Reynolds, 25, who broke the mold to become a comedy actor. "My dad was a cop and my brother just became a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman. For me, it's been an unending source of comedy material."

A regular on the now-defunct "Two Guys and a Girl," Reynolds grew up admiring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Jack Lemmon and Jerry Lewis. Ten years ago, even though he didn't make the audition cutoffs at his junior high, he talked his way onto Nickelodeon's "Fifteen."

He finds humor everywhere, even in "being picked on at school," he says. "Whatever causes you to cultivate other parts of your personality is good. The best comedy training I ever had was working the graveyard shift at a [Vancouver] grocery store for a year after high school," when he temporarily quit acting. "We wasted a lot of fruit, beaning each other with guavas and mangoes for eight hours."

It has all become grist for his leading role in March's upcoming "National Lampoon's Van Wilder," in which, he says proudly, "I make a complete and utter jackass of myself," and another spring comedy, "Buying the Cow."

Summary: A new slew of Hollywood hopefuls who are more than just pretty faces by NANCY MILLS HOLLYWOOD - They come by car, by plane, by bus. Some struggle for years for a paycheck, while others get their break almost immediately. What's the secret of making it in Hollywood? A pretty face or a buffed physique won't hurt. "'Leading man' is the ultimate category I want to be in,"says one young hopeful, "but it's the most


By MIKE CLAFFEY and VIRGINIA BREEN

Monday, May 17th 1999, 2:10AM

The NYPD's campaign to recruit more city residents hits the airwaves today, with a series of up-close-and-personal TV spots featuring cops and citizens.

"Our job isn't just about enforcing the laws and locking people up," says Sgt. Lino Minetto of the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights, Queens. The camera is in tight on his face, a soulful beat plays softly in the background.

"We're human beings with a superhuman job," he says. "We're just here to help you . . . We're here for you. You're where we work. You're our job."

The 30-second spot and six others like it produced for free by the SoHo-based Arnell Group begin airing today on local TV stations. They will be followed by more TV ads, radio and print ads and posters on buses and subways.

But even before a single ad aired, they were the focus of controversy, with the Rev. Al Sharpton and Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. (D-Bronx) blasting the city for not buying airtime from the city's black and Latino radio stations. Deputy Police Commissioner Marilyn Mode called the charge "flat-out wrong."

Police Commissioner Howard Safir said last week that the goal of the $10 million media blitz is two-fold: to recruit more city residents to the force and heal the relations between police and city residents strained by the Amadou Diallo shooting.

"I think they will go a long way toward bringing together the people of this city, and getting us the kind of candidates we want," Safir said after watching the spots.

One ad depicts the emotional response of a hard-boiled police commander, Deputy Inspector Joseph Reznick, to the murder of a young girl. One shows closeups of a domestic violence victim and the detective who arrested her husband.

Another features Detective Wally Salem, saved by his bulletproof vest when he was shot by a drug dealer at point-blank range in 1997. And one focuses on Minetto and 7-year-old Jeannette Duran, whose life he saved by rushing her to the hospital in his patrol car after her leg was severed by a truck last March.

The cops used in the spots were culled from 300 cases looked at by Peter Arnell, chairman of the agency responsible for eye-catching campaigns for DKNY, Tommy Hilfiger and Movado.

The 40-year-old Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, native said he offered to do the spots free because he wanted to give something back to the city.

He insisted the campaign isn't "advertising," but an effort to depict reality.

Safir said nine other ad firms that bid on the job were asking in the range of $1 million. All of the savings will be spent on the campaign, he said.

The campaign was announced in late February in part to respond to criticism in the wake of the Diallo shooting that the Police Department does not reflect the community.

Of 40,000 officers in the NYPD, 67% are white, 17.5% are Hispanic and 13.5% are black. The remainder are Asian and American Indian. The city population is about 38% white, 26% black and 26% Hispanic.

Sharpton said the campaign is clearly aimed at recruiting minorities but does not use minority media outlets.

"We do not feel it is in any way fair. . . . or prudent that you do not use minority media in a minority recruitment drive," Sharpton said at the Canaan Baptist Church on W. 116th St.in Harlem.

Sharpton said he met Friday with executives at such minority-targeted media outlets as WBLS (107.5 FM), WLIB (1190 AM) and La Mega (97.9 FM) radio stations, and newspapers including El Diario, the Daily Challenge, and The New York Amsterdam News. Sharpton said none had been approached by the city to book advertising time or space.

"The time hasn't been purchased yet," Mode responded, "but I absolutely know that we specifically plan to hit all the major ethnic radio stations and papers."

In devising the campaign, Mode noted the NYPD consulted the Urban League, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement and the Rev. Calvin Butts of Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church.

Mode said Butts and the groups focus on the positive. "This is Al Sharpton once again trying to be divisive," she said.

Summary: The NYPD's campaign to recruit more city residents hits the airwaves today, with a series of up-close-and-personal TV spots featuring cops and citizens. "Our job isn't just about enforcing the laws and locking people up,"says Sgt. Lino Minetto of the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights, Queens. The camera is in tight on his face, a soulful beat plays softly in the background. "We're human beings with a superhuman job,"he says. "We're just here


BY GEORGE RUSH AND JOANNA MOLLOY WITH MARCUS BARAM and MARC S MALKIN

Tuesday, June 22th 1999, 2:10AM

Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones are making the Spanish isle of Majorca hotter than usual this summer. We told you last week that the "Entrapment" beauty was headed to see Douglas, who has a cliffside mansion there. And, as predicted, they've been courting on the golf course.

When not on the links, the duo has been sailing on a yacht - and that's where the Spanish magazine Interviu reportedly snapped photos of them. Zeta was caught "playfully baring her breasts and lying across Michael's chest," says London's Star tabloid in a story headlined "Zeta's Topless Romp!"

No wonder Michael's father, Kirk, who was quite a swordsman in his day, is said by friends to be a big fan of Zeta-Jones.

Of course, the romance is still new. "Michael runs hot and cold," one source tells us. "I don't think anybody's talking marriage. But she's certainly the It Girl now."

Douglas' reps says simply: "They are dating and very happy."

Leonardo DiCaprio may have an offer Hollywood can't refuse. Or he may not.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the "Titanic" star is talking with director Francis Ford Coppola and writer Mario Puzo about starring in a fourth installment of "The Godfather." The young hunk reportedly would play the young Sonny Corleone, first brought to life by James Caan.

But DiCaprio's rep, Cindy Guagenti, cautions us: "This is all very premature. There's no script and no deal."

Coppola's rep also says, "Francis says he has no plans to film a part four. He's deeply enmeshed in an original screenplay. Paramount could make the movie without him. I don't know whether anyone would come to see it."

This is the second hoodlum role that DiCaprio has fancied this year. He has also been talking with Martin Scorsese about co-starring with Robert De Niro in the antique crime saga "Gangs of New York." Some reports claimed that DiCaprio had vowed never again to take part in screen violence after his "Basketball Diaries" was linked to the Columbine shootings. But it now seems like he's dying to be a made man.

Sean Penn's baby brother had a run-in with cops recently. "Rush Hour" star Chris Penn was charged with driving with a suspended license and possession of a loaded gun when Los Angeles police found a Glock semiautomatic with 13 rounds in the trunk of his Cadillac El Dorado, according to the L.A. district attorney's office. Penn is free on $1,000 bail and is scheduled to enter a plea on the charges in July.

Jon Bon Jovi gave his all for Doug Flutie last weekend. The rocker let the Buffalo Bill use his new mansion in Middletown, N.J., for a benefit for Flutie's autism foundation. The big-hearted Bon Jovi must be feeling flush after selling his Rumson, N.J. spread for around $1.25 million because he and his band agreed to auction off two performances "at your barbecue, bar mitzvah or wedding." Two guests paid $60,000 each for gigs.

More than $500,000 was raised at the bash, where single-again Matthew McConaughey did his "EdTV" chicken dance with most of the ladies. Also on hand were Heather Locklear and Richie Sambora (packing up their L.A. house this week, so she can move to New York for "Spin City"), Chazz Palminteri, Jets coach Bill Parcells, Sean Landeta, Phil Simms and single-again Tico Torres, who came with Elizabeth Vargas.

Vallone ready for his closeup

City Council Speaker Peter Vallone is due to do a cameo in Miramax' "The Yards" this afternoon at Bronx Borough Hall. The role's a stretch: He plays a city councilman. The flick stars Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Faye Dunaway and Charlize Theron. It's about a Queens borough president who's getting rich from handing out subway contracts to James Caan him again!

Somebody is bound to point out that the city is giving a $25 million low-interest loan to help Miramax build a studio at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. But a rep for Vallone points out that he did not vote on that deal. The speaker is "a clean politician," says the rep, adding that he's donating his $500 fee to charity.

Elsewhere on the political stage, Rep. Vito Fosella is making like Bob Hope next month. The Staten Island Republican is taking the buxom, scantily clad Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders on a USO tour of the Balkans. (Apparently, the recent Sarajevo appearance by Christie Brinkley only whetted their appetites for more.) Fosella will be onhand for the first five days of the 10-day trip beginning July 1. The cheerleaders "are as American as apple pie," Fosella's rep assured us.

SPIKE LEE fought his basketball blues by boogeying with the Knicks City Dancers at San Antonio's '70s-themed Polly Esther disco...

JERRY SEINFELD and Sarah Michelle Gellar caught Chris Rock's taping of his live HBO special, "Bigger and Blacker" Saturday night at the Apollo

MERCEDES RUEHL imitated some nearby geese to entertain her young son while they chowed at The Fish Farm in Amagansett ...

HOWARD STERN lead a group of five in a Central Park jogging jaunt yesterday morning .

THAT GUY accused of bilking an insurance company to get a penile implant apparently wants to prolong his court fight. Andre Dovilas pretended to be the husband of his lover, Jean Lewis, to cover the $15,000 surgery, prosecutors charge. Yesterday Dovilas, who sought emergency treatment when Viagra overstimulated him, turned down an offer of probation and restitution in Manhattan Supreme Court, The News' Barbara Ross reports

MARY WILSON knows how to time her hot flashes. The ex-Supreme was posing the other day for a photo shoot for Healthy Woman, a soy supplement for menopausal women, when suddenly she started feeling flush. Fellow "New Faces of Menopause" endorsers Valerie Harper, Joy Behar and Suzy (Chapstick) Chafee broke out in hysterics as Wilson fanned herself

PETS ALIVE Inc. celebrates the retirement of some of the city's carriage horses with a benefit bash tomorrow night at The Crane Club

BERNADETTE PETERS and "Dawson's Creek" creator Kevin Williamson are among those being honored at today's Lesbian and Gay Pride Awards hosted by Mark Green.

Summary: Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones are making the Spanish isle of Majorca hotter than usual this summer. We told you last week that the "Entrapment"beauty was headed to see Douglas, who has a cliffside mansion there. And, as predicted, they've been courting on the golf course. When not on the links, the duo has been sailing on a yacht - and that's where the Spanish magazine Interviu reportedly snapped photos of them. Zeta was caught


NEW YORK | Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:59am EST

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - If living without pasta and bread, or giving up cheese and bacon make losing weight difficult, the latest diet books may provide some incentive to drop that added holiday weight.

Instead of deprivation, restricting food groups or counting calories, new weight loss plans offer different approaches to slimming without feeling hungry.

"It's really a diet that brings food back on to the plate that people thought they were not allowed to eat," said Ellen Kunes, the editor-in-chief of Health magazine and a co-author with dietician and nutrition expert Frances Largeman-Roth of "The CarbLovers Diet."

Unlike other weight-loss plans that restrict carbohydrates, at least initially, the core of the CarbLovers diet is carbs and resistant starch, an ingredient in bananas, oatmeal, beans and lentils, wholegrain pasta, barley, brown rice, peas, polenta, potato chips and rye and pumpernickel bread -- foods the authors have been dubbed "carbstars."

"It acts like a fiber in the body and it does not get absorbed in the small intestine, and also at the same time it triggers fat-burning enzymes and helps to feel fuller," Kunes explained about resistant starch.

The 28-day diet includes a kickstart phase with carb-filled recipes totaling 1200 calories a day, followed by a 21-day immersion plan during which foods such as steak, french toast and chocolates are reintroduced.

Followers of the diet lost up to six pounds in the first week and 50 pounds over five months, according to the authors.

"The best thing you can do is to incorporate good carbs back on to your plate and that is the secret to losing weight and keeping it off," said Kunes.

NOT ALL CARBS ARE CREATED EQUAL

In "The Lean Belly Prescription," Travis Stork, an urgent-care physician in Tennessee and the host of the TV daytime talk show "The Doctors" and Peter Moore, the editor of "Men's Health" magazine, focus on losing excessive abdominal, or belly fat.

"It's that visceral belly fat that hugs your internal organs, causing diabetes, increasing your risk of stroke and even cancers," Stork said in an interview.

"The concept of 'The Lean Belly Prescription' is good protein, good carbs and enjoying the foods you love. With simple tweeks you can eat the food you love and still lose weight."

With his pick 3 to lean plan Stork helps readers cut out nutritionally empty food and replace it with healthier version of the same food.

Coupled with moderate exercise Stork said the four-week plan will result in a lean belly and weight loss of as much as 15 pounds in a month.

"The Lean Belly Prescription is all about a practical approach to eating foods that taste great, being active, doing the things you love and losing weight while doing it. That's a concept that is missing in most diet books," he said.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Paul Casciato)

Summary: NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - If living without pasta and bread, or giving up cheese and bacon make losing weight difficult, the latest diet books may provide some incentive to drop that added holiday weight.Instead


BURLINGAME, CALIF. -- The easy deals can be made by anyone. The big, meaningful ones draw on the experience of a lifetime--as well as lots of moxie and luck. Forbes is asking leaders in business and other fields about their pivotal "big deals." Share your thoughts and own stories in the Reader Comments section below.

In 1993 Richard Gelfond made the official transition from attorney to entrepreneur when he and business partner Bradley Wechsler bought IMAX, the entertainment company known for its big screens and latest hit, Avatar. They took it public just two months later, in 1994. Gelfond explains below how the big deal almost didn't get done.

I think the most important deal for me personally was when my partner, Brad Wechsler, and I bought IMAX. At the time IMAX was a private company. It was a difficult negotiation because it was owned by several founders.

I heard about the company when I was on vacation with my kids in Washington, D.C. We went to the Smithsonian and saw our first IMAX presentation. I thought it was fantastic. Coincidentally, the Monday I got back home an investment banker I knew sent me a book on IMAX. If I hadn't just seen the IMAX experience in person, I don't know if I would've even looked at the book. The stars were lining up.

My business partner and I looked through the materials and thought we'd found a unique way of looking at the company. There was kind of a mistiming between cash and recognized earnings. So, embedded in that was the idea that even though you couldn't predict the future earnings, there was a lot of inherent cash flow. And we figured out how to finance off that cash flow. So we had discovered a way to buy the business with very little capital upfront. Other people hadn't really seen that and figured it out.

We spent months working and negotiating with the IMAX founders. But at the end of the negotiations, we lost out on the deal because our financing was contingent. That was really upsetting for us because between the two of us, we really didn't have a lot of money and we invested about a million dollars in the process. But we quickly regrouped, and we continued to monitor what was going on with the person who had won the auction for the company.

In our minds, we never really accepted "no" as an answer. We kept trying to figure out different ways to finance it and pay a higher price. Our work paid off because two months after we lost out on the deal to a higher bidder we heard that the deal was having difficulty closing. We called the investment banker immediately and we offered a higher price without a financing contingency, and we went in and eventually we ended up owning it.

When we bought the company, the price was around $100 million and we put up about $18 million in equity. Two months after we acquired the company, we took it public through Goldman Sachs ( GS - news - people ), and the equity was valued at $150 million. Just like that. And we didn't take anything out. We just raised capital, reduced the debt and put in place a plan to grow the company.

So the process of acquiring IMAX wasn't without bumps in the road, but when you put it together, it was a really important deal. It was really related to not taking no for an answer, perseverance, being creative, and thinking outside the box. What's also important is that I didn't take the setback personally. I used it as a way to figure out how I was going to get to my objective. So, from $18 million in equity doing the deal to a billion is a pretty good ride. --As told to and edited by Kym McNicholas Follow the writer on Twitter: @kymbee See Also: Getting Personal: IMAX IMAX: Beyond Avatar's Success IMAX Goes Home

Summary: The deal that almost didn't get done.


A new independent film "A Virgin Mary" is slated to star former Disney queen Vanessa Hudgens, and promises to push the star even further from her good-girl roles of the past.

According to HollywoodLife.com, Hudgens has signed on to play the "slutty" friend of star Lily Collins, who plays Mary, a teeanger who makes a vow to have sex with her best guy friend if they’re still virgins by the time they are 18 years old.

And even though “A Virgin Mary!” isn’t set to start filming until the summer, it is already sparking controversy.

"The use of the title 'Virgin Mary' counts as a gratuitous insult to people who revere the figure of the new testament Mary – especially in a film with no apparent connection to the biblical story," media expert and syndicated talk show host, Michael Medved, told FOX411's Pop Tarts column.

Dan Gainor, VP of Business & Culture at the Media Research Center and head of the Culture and Media Institute is also deeply disturbed by the context in which the sacred "Virgin Mary" is being used.

"The very idea of the name of the movie is to offend so it gets to be 'edgy,' score points with some producer and get press," Gainor said. "It's this kind of film that shows why parents need to monitor everything their children watch."

The casting of Vanessa Hudgens to draw a teen/tween audience due to her Disney "High School Musical" fame has also raised eyebrows. A rep for Hudgens was not able to officially confirm the star's involvement in the project.

"There is this recurring theme in popular entertainment these days that virginity is a handicap, a plague, a burden you must rid yourself of before you turn 18," Melissa Henson, director of communications at the Parents Television Council said. "It’s a damaging message because it cheapens human sexuality and denies the value of true intimacy."

The controversy surrounding "A Virgin Mary!" comes just two weeks after we reported on ABC’s new pilot “Good Christian Bitches.” The comedy “Paul,” currently in theaters, has been criticized for Christian stereotyping with characters depicted as gun-toting creationists who believe the world is just 4,000 years old.

"Hollywood is ambivalent about religion in general and often stereotypes devoutly religious people of all faiths," Dr. Dionne Bennett, professor of pop culture and women's studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, explained. "I think this reflects classism as much as religious intolerance as devout Christians, for example, are often-depicted as out-of-touch with the world and lacking education, taste, and wealth."

But Bennett said it is important to wait until the film actually comes to fruition before condemning it.

"It is also important to make a distinction between the marketing of a film and the content of the film itself," she added. "Given award-winning writer-director Beth Schacter's, earlier film, 'Normal Adolescent Behavior,' it is likely that the content of the film will involve a thoughtful, complex, but disturbing representation of gender, friendship, peer pressure, and the difficult sexual choices today’s teens are asked to make in order to be accepted."

Deidre Behar contributed to this report.

Summary: New Film A Virgin Mary! About Friends' Pact to Lose Virginity by Age 18


Few things are more ephemeral than the picture postcard. So let’s hear it for ephemerality, since few shows this year are likely to offer more in the way of enchantment than “The Postcard Age: Selections From the Leonard A. Lauder Collection.” It runs at the Museum of Fine Arts through April 14.

Lauder is chairman emeritus of the Estée Lauder cosmetics empire (the namesake founder was his mother). The postcard has not lacked for distinguished admirers, from the poet Paul Eluard to the photographer Walker Evans. But Lauder has been acquirer as well as admirer, putting his money, and storage space, where his passion is. A demon collector, he has donated 160,000 of his acquisitions to the MFA. That figure is an estimate. With something so seemingly inconsequential as postcards, it’s hard to come by a precise count.

Note that “seemingly,” though. The 700 or so examples that are on display in “The Postcard Age” are almost without exception aesthetically pleasing, historically illuminating, or both. There are also a few books and posters. The show is smart, fun, lively, unpretentious, and wonderfully informative. Pleasure, as well as postage, is guaranteed. The MFA’s Benjamin Weiss, who curated the show with Lydia Klich, likens the selection to “a tasting menu.” So think of “The Postcard Age” as particularly delectable postal tapas.

The postcard era began in 1869, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire authorized the delivery of prepaid mail without envelopes. Thus was born the postcard. Soon enough illustrations began to appear on one side, and the postcard as we know it had arrived. Such was the postcard’s popularity that it isn’t all that much of an exaggeration to describe it as fin-de-siècle e-mail: a form of casual communication so often turned to as to be effectively indispensable. The exhibition’s website (www.mfa.org/exhibitions/postcard-age) allows users to e-mail a selection of postcards from the show.

The years between 1895 and 1915 experienced a postcard craze. In 1903, a billion postcards were sent through the German postal system. Some of the most amusing items in “The Postcard Age” are postcards not about people or places or any of the usual things we associate with postcards, but postcards about (yes) postcards. A woman can be seen in a postcard from around 1904 wearing a very fancy hat and holding up a sign that bears the words “La carte postale entrient l’amitie”: “The postcard maintains friendship.” Yes, it does.

The craze receded, as crazes do, aided in no small measure by World War I. But the popularity (and stylishness) of postcards remained strong enough that the postcard age continued for another two decades. World War II, followed by television and inexpensive travel and increasingly widespread color reproduction in print media, put an end to the age — though not, of course, to postcards.

Within these trim, unyielding rectangles, small miracles of imagination could be achieved. A commercial item, postcards were made to be sold. They did so by catching the eye and being attractive. Attractiveness can take many forms: elegance, comedy, familiarity, innovativeness, raciness (yes, there are a few examples of postcards in the ooh-la-la mode). Because of their size, postcard designs had to be clear, straightforward, and (relatively) simple. The artful use of blocks of color recurs throughout the show. Sometimes the image is a photograph, more often a lithograph. Sometimes the image is black and white, more often color (likelier to catch the eye). Often the card bears type, and the variety of fonts in “The Postcard Age” is an exhibition unto itself.

It’s in the nature of postcards that their creators are usually anonymous. This can make them all the more useful as an index of change in graphic design. Usually anonymous, but not always. The Vienna Secession, in 1898, and the Bauhaus, in 1923, promoted themselves by issuing postcards. It’s an art-historical lagniappe to see a Josef Hoffmann design featured on a postcard here, or one by Lyonel Feininger or Wassily Kandinsky.

Even the most appealing postcard can’t do much good undelivered. Virginia Durruty, the exhibition’s designer, has provided an irreproachable delivery service. Comprising so many items, the show must have been a bear to hang. But the layout is so inviting and legible as to seem inevitable. Frames contain multiple postcards, as few as two, as many as a dozen. The frames are angled out along temporary walls or on the gallery walls proper. The arrangement simultaneously accommodates such a large number of images and breaks them up into manageable groups.

To categorize postcards during this era is to categorize society, really, they offer such a window on social history. Some of the categories Klich and Weiss offer include Paris, fashion, celebrity, travel, World War I (some of the propaganda uses to which postcards were put are startling), sports, and the postcard craze. Along the way, much is to be learned. Who knew that the Michelin Man has a name (Bibendum) or that it derives from an ode by the Roman poet Horace (the name’s upshot being, “Now’s the time for a drink”).

Most of the cards are in mint condition, never having been mailed. One exception shows a photograph of a group outside of Les Halles, the Paris produce market. The sender affixed the postage in such a way that a woman seems to be holding the stamp in her hands. Makers could be no less clever. An all-access pass to the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition had a detachable portion that could be sent as a postcard. Similarly, menus on the Red Star Line of cruise ships had a detachable top half that could be mailed. Postcards produced by a Paris wallpaper company in 1925 do quadruple duty: as card, as ad, as design sample, and as attractive image in its own right.

Summary: Few shows are likely to offer more in the way of enchantment than “The Postcard Age: Selections From the Leonard A. Lauder Collection.” It runs at the Museum of Fine Arts through April 14. Lauder is the former head of the Estée Lauder fashion empire (the namesake founder was his mother). The postcard has not lacked for distinguished admirers, from the poet Paul Eluard to the photographer Walker Evans.


NEW YORK — A corner apartment in Harlem: air conditioning on high against the blazing heat outside, African art objects and concert posters on the walls, incense wafting through the living room.

This is the temporary command post of Diblo Dibala, Congolese bandleader and guitarist extraordinaire, as he readies for a one-month North American tour spreading the gospel of soukous, one of the most compelling and contagiously rump-shaking styles of music ever invented, yet one rarely performed in these parts nowadays.

Musicians stop by, make coffee, log on to the computer. Like many Congolese artists, Dibala, who founded iconic groups Loketo in the 1980s and Matchatcha in 1990, has long lived in Paris, where work conditions are vastly better than back home. But he has a parallel crew here, among New York’s large pool of African talent, who back him at his US shows, including Friday night at Boston’s Bastille Day party on Marlborough Street.

One is Ngouma Lokito, superstar bass player from another essential 1980s band, Soukous Stars, now based here. Others come from Cameroon, Nigeria, Kenya. They include the female dancers without whose dexterous moves, heavily focused on hips and rear end, no self-respecting soukous show is complete.

“I might have to settle here,” says Dibala, 58, in French. “People in the US still have fun the right way.”

This contrasts with Europe, where, he says, the economic doldrums have people withdrawing into their shell. Meanwhile the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he made his name as a guitar wizard in the 1970s, is prey to authoritarian rule in the capital, war in the east, poor infrastructure, and a corrupt atmosphere.

“Musicians back home are singing praises of governors and ministers just to get money,” Dibala says. “That isn’t real music!”

Most of all, soukous — in which songs open in rumba tempo, with lyrics in the elegant Lingala language, then accelerate and erupt into dazzling guitar polyrhythms in a section known as the sebene — is itself a victim of changing times.

Twenty years ago it was arguably the dominant African pop music, heard in bars and taxis from Abidjan to Nairobi, and in hip clubs frequented by Africans overseas. Many soukous players of that time are now scattered, often struggling. Younger artists de-emphasize the guitar in favor of bass, synths, and effects. Nigerian hip-hop, Angolan kuduro, Ivorian coupé-décalé are among the blunter new genres with continental sway.

“There aren’t as many people anymore who make soukous,” Dibala says. “And yet it’s one of the greatest styles of music Congo possesses.”

Dibala himself was one of the music’s innovators in his time. With Loketo in the early 1980s, he helped pioneer a style that abbreviated the slow rumba section that the great earlier bands, led by the likes of Franco and Tabu Ley Rochereau, so relished.

The new style was to get quickly to the sebene — and keep accelerating. From their base in Paris, Loketo and others had less use for long Lingala lyrics that many in their audience wouldn’t understand. They reduced these and added more “animation” — calls and exhortations to hype the crowd higher and higher.

“I added my stone to the edifice,” Dibala says. “When I solo, it’s faster, higher notes — to touch people and make them dance.”

He’s not insensitive to new tastes: “You have to adapt to the time you live in,” he says. “We have some synths, for example. I change things up a little, but I remain myself. Without my guitar, it wouldn’t be me.”

He has also started playing some folk songs from his home region, Kasai, both in soukous versions and in traditional style.

A conversation with Dibala naturally turns to politics. The stagnation back home exasperates him, as does the endless war for resources in Africa’s Great Lakes region, which has engulfed eastern Congo in a spiral of conflict and atrocities.

Last year’s election that incumbent president Joseph Kabila won was widely seen as flawed. “It wasn’t even an election,” Dibala says. When change comes, he says, he would love to organize a big concert in Kinshasa featuring all the soukous diaspora.

Until then, he’ll keep playing overseas, sharing a sound that, for all its travails, never fails to prove its relevance where it counts: on the dance floor.

“Wherever we go, people acclaim us for this music,” Dibala says. “Soukous is still here.”

Summary: Like many Congolese artists, Diblo Dibala, who founded iconic groups Loketo in the 1980s and Matchatcha in 1990, has long lived in Paris, where work conditions are vastly better than back home. But he has a parallel crew here, among New York’s large pool of African talent, who back him at his US shows, including Friday night at Boston’s Bastille Day party on Marlborough Street.


Two years ago, the executives of software startup Mendix elected to relocate to Boston to better tap the region’s well of investors and tech workers. On Thursday, that decision paid off with a $25 million investment from Boston venture capital firm Battery Ventures.

Mendix helps businesses make their own mobile apps, and the additional funding will allow it to add to its local workforce and become a larger player in the technology economy.

The company has grown quickly since arriving from the Netherlands in 2012. It is moving into a new office in Boston’s Innovation District in February that has enough room for the company to double its staff of 35 during the next year, said chief executive Derek Roos. So far, Mendix has raised a total of $38 million and has about 150 employees globally.

Mendix was one of the first software companies to help business customers develop and deploy mobile and Web apps. For instance, Liberty Mutual Insurance used Mendix to build an app for its customers to update insurance information. Other Mendix clients include Genzyme Corp., Sprint Corp., and Dun & Bradstreet Inc.

While smartphone users are accustomed to the rapid pace of mobile app development, corporations increasingly want to innovate and release new digital products at the same speed, said Michael Brown, general partner at Battery Ventures, who is also becoming a member of Mendix’s board of directors.

“The expectation of the business users is that development should move as fast as the App Store does,” said Brown.

Companies such as Mendix offer businesses tools that speed up the development of software applications, and get them into the hands of employees or customers much faster.

Even though Mendix has already established itself in Europe and is just beginning to break into the United States, it faces competition from big software companies such as IBM Corp. and Microsoft Corp., according to a recent report on the sector from Gartner Inc., a research firm.

The Boston area is a top choice of many European-born software companies looking to expand stateside. Another Battery Ventures investment, the French marketing software company Neolane Inc., did the same thing when it opened in Newton in 2007. Last year, it was sold to Adobe Systems Inc. for $600 million.

Summary: A decision the software startup Mendix made two years ago to relocate to Boston from the Netherlands has paid off in a big way. The company that helps businesses make their own apps just raised $25 million in venture capital funding from the Boston investment firm Battery Ventures, giving it enough money to continue building up its local workforce and become a larger player in the local technology economy. Mendix was founded in the Netherlands in 2006 and moved its headquarters to Boston in 2012 to tap intothe US market and gain access “to talent, to capital, and customers,” said Mendix chief executive Derek Roos.


An asthma drug has shown promise in relieving itchiness for patients with chronic hives who do not get relief from traditional antihistamine treatment.

The drug, omalizumab, known by its brand name, Xolair, is a monoclonal antibody approved to treat allergic asthma. In the Phase 3 trial, published online Sunday in The New England Journal of Medicine, a monthly injection of the drug significantly reduced hives and itchiness.

“This is the magic bullet that patients have been waiting for for the last 40 years,’’ said Dr. Marcus Maurer, the lead author of the study and a professor of dermatology and allergy at Charite-Universitaetsmedizin in Berlin.

Maurer has received consulting fees from several drug companies, including Genentech and Novartis, which financed the study and are developing the drug.

Dr. Jonathan Bernstein, a professor of medicine and an allergy specialist at the University of Cincinnati, who was not associated with the study, said that it was well designed and that the results were encouraging.

“The drug is not a cure, but it will advance our ability to manage these patients,’’ he said.

If approved, omalizumab could bring relief to those who suffer from chronic idiopathic urticaria, which for unknown reasons causes hives, itchiness, and often the swelling of lips, tongue, and other soft tissues. The symptoms can last for months or often years.

Studies suggest that 1 in 1,000 people suffer from the condition, though some experts believe that estimate is low. Currently, only nonsedating antihistamines are approved to treat it, and fewer than half of the patients respond to these drugs when prescribed at the approved dosage.

If treatment fails, doctors increase the dosage up to four times the licensed dose. Or they prescribe off-label medications, including steroids and immunosuppressant drugs, which come with a risk of serious side effects.

Thirty to 50 percent of patients do not respond to any treatment. ‘‘These patients are miserable, left with welts over their body,’’ Bernstein said. ‘‘It can be quite debilitating.’’

In the study, researchers enrolled 323 patients with moderate to severe chronic idiopathic hives who did not respond to antihistamines. Participants were randomly assigned to receive a monthly injection of 75 milligrams, 150 milligrams, or 300 milligrams of the drug, or a placebo for 12 weeks. They were followed for four months after treatment.

The group treated with 150 milligrams experienced a 57 percent reduction in itching, while those treated with 300 milligrams had a 71 percent reduction. The placebo group had a 37 percent reduction in itching. The group that received 75 milligrams had 41 percent less itching, which was not significant compared with the placebo group. The study participants who took the two higher doses also experienced less swelling, and the severity of their hives was reduced.

The drug is thought to deactivate Immunoglobulin E (IgE), an antibody that plays a crucial role in allergic response. These patients may have higher levels of IgE, which binds to immune cells, signaling them to release proteins that cause allergic inflammation, said Dr. Karin Rosen, a coauthor of the study and medical director for Genentech.


Martina McBride has one of those proverbial “could sing the phone book” voices.

Fortunately, the country star has chosen much richer material for her second covers album, “Everlasting.’’

After reverently dipping into the classic country songbook on 2005’s “Timeless,” the thematically similar “Everlasting” — produced by Don Was and her first self-release on Vinyl Recordings — finds the mighty-voiced McBride deftly tackling a clutch of pop, soul, and blues tunes complete with horns, a sultry Southern organ sound, and heavenly harmonies from the McCrary Sisters.

Unsurprisingly, McBride offers solid renditions of well-known ballads like “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” the latter an intimate confessional. As gifted as she is, there is occasionally a reserved quality to her vocals and the production, with Van Morrison’s “Wild Night” not quite having the requisite boogie woogie.

But just when you’re longing for a little more grit and urgency, McBride amps and vamps it up on tunes like the finger-snapping good “My Babe” and “In the Basement,” a swinging barnburner of a duet with Kelly Clarkson. Letting their hair down, the pair bring out the best in each other, making you wish you’d gotten an invite to the party. (Out Tuesday)

Summary: Martina McBride has one of those proverbial “could sing the phone book” voices.  Fortunately, the country star has chosen much richer material for her second covers album “Everlasting,” out Tuesday. After reverently dipping into the classic country songbook on 2005’s “Timeless,” the thematically similar “Everlasting”-- produced by Don Was and her first self-release on Vinyl Recordings-- finds the mighty-voiced McBride deftly tackling a clutch of pop, soul, and blues tunes with complete with horns, a sultry Southern organ sound, and heavenly harmonies from the McCrary Sisters.   Unsurprisingly, McBride offers solid renditions of well-known ballads like “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” the latter an intimate confessional. As gifted as she is, there is occasionally a reserved quality to her vocals and the production, with Van Morrison’s “Wild Night” not quite having the requisite boogie woogie.


In this viral video, watch Charlie the beagle help a mom change her two-month-old daughter’s diapers. The dog picks out a fresh diaper for the baby Laura Olivia with his mouth and gives it to her mom Julia. When she is done with the changing, the dog picks up the dirty diaper with his mouth and brings it to the trash can.

Don’t think for a minute that the dog gets off easy because it doesn’t have to change the diaper: do you know any humans who would carry around a dirty diaper in their mouths?

Summary: Good dog


You never quite feel comfortable in a place like this. Your eyes and your ears never allow you to.

There's the sight of smashed homes, crushed buildings, and burnt out cars everywhere you look. Streets are empty, businesses are closed, people are too frightened to step outside. It's deadly, it's eerie, it's reality.

The destruction of Gaza by Israeli shells has left hundreds of Palestinians dead. (Getty)

Then there's the unmistakeable sounds. The buzz overhead, and man is it constant. Angry hornets are the best way to describe the swarm of drones that circle Gaza's skies. Always loud, always threatening.

Sometimes it's interrupted by the roar of its bigger brother - the powerful F-16 fighter jets that drop the heavy artillery. A building that just had five levels blown to pieces was probably the victim of a warplane.

Palestinian children sheltering in a UN school in Gaza line up for water. (Getty)

When you've been here long enough, you start to tell the difference between the different sounds. Just now, as I write, I hear a triple thud of missiles launched from the sea that whistle past my window, and spear into a compound across from our hotel. Immediately afterwards, dozens of pieces of shrapnel spray against my balcony.

Rockets have also been launched nearby. The ones on the way to Israel. They rumble on take off and soar loudly into the sky. Most of them are intercepted by Israel's high-tech missile defence system. But some of them aren't. Which is part of why Israel has responded with such force.

Israeli soldiers grieve for a comrade killed during the latest round of Gaza violence. (Getty)

This is life in Gaza during times of conflict, and it's had plenty of that over the years. Three wars in six years to be precise. I've covered all three of them, but this one feels like it's the worst.

I have spent several days reporting from Gaza's main al Shifa Hospital, which has been overloaded with the dead and injured. A sight that is still difficult to process, even for someone who saw the worst of it after the earthquake in Haiti.

An Israeli tank fires a shell during the latest round of violence. (Getty)

I ask my fixer, who has three young children, how she describes to them what is going on. She keeps them inside in times of war, and tells them the loud noises are fireworks from a party outside. It seems to work.

Electricity is sporadic, and fresh water is another problem. There is a salty taste to it, because none of it is clean. It's there in the showers, and in the taps when you clean your teeth.

These aren't meant to be complaints, it's just how life is here. I will eventually leave, but the people will remain. With those sights, and those sounds.

Palestinians inspect rubble in Gaza for anything useful. (Getty)

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Summary: "It's deadly, it's eerie, it's reality": Foreign correspondent Peter Stefanovic shares his inner thoughts on the devastation in Gaza.


A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC Though it’s best known for “Send in the Clowns,’’ this 1973 Stephen Sondheim musical about romantic misadventures at a country estate in turn-of-the-century Sweden abounds with other gems, including “The Glamorous Life,’’ “You Must Meet My Wife,’’ “Every Day a Little Death,’’ and “The Miller’s Son.’’ Featuring Kate Baldwin, Gregg Edelman, Penny Fuller, Graham Rowat, and Maureen O’Flynn. Directed by Ethan Heard. June 30-July 19. Berkshire Theatre Group. At Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield. 413-997-4444, www.berkshiretheatregroup.org

SMART PEOPLE Lydia R. Diamond’s splendid new Cambridge-based play sifts through the implications of research that suggests racism might be hard-wired into the human brain, while showcasing a quartet of complex, flawed, intriguing, and, yes, smart people who register as much more than delivery systems for polemical freight. Directed by Peter DuBois. Through July 6. Huntington Theatre Company, at Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org DON AUCOIN

I AM A CAMERA Ruby Wolf dazzles as a pre-“Cabaret” Sally Bowles. Go, so you can say you saw her when. Through July 19. Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Wellfleet. 508-349-9428, www.what.org

AMALUNA is back with its big top, this time performing a female-centered spectacle (pictured) that combines Las Vegas razzle-dazzle with refined art. Directed by Diane Paulus, who is also artistic director of the American Repertory Theater, the production is based loosely on “The Tempest,” with a female Prospera who manipulates the natural world. This outing is more plot-based than previous Cirque shows, which gives it an intimacy and ties the circus acts together. Yes, you can expect the usual Cirque derring-do, with Spandex-clad performers swinging perilously through the air. But one new act is not to be missed: A character called the Balance Goddess makes a sculpture out of giant palm leaf ribs, and the effect is at once graceful and gripping. Through July 6. Boston Marine Industrial Park. 800-450-1480, www.cirquedusoleil.com/amaluna

Summary: Globe reviewers offer their recommendations for the best in local theater, including “Smart People,” “A Little Night Music,” and “I Am A Camera.”


What: Green architect and self-building guru

I looked into green architecture a little bit when I was studying: it was the 1960s and all these ideas, such as domed cities, were floating around. Once I had finished and was practising in Knightsbridge, none of that thinking was realised. But I wanted to get my family out of London - we fancied a bit of the Good Life stuff, self-sufficiency and all that - so we moved here to Powys in 1974, and it was just about the same time that the Centre for Alternative Technology (Cat) was getting under way in Machynlleth. They asked if I woud get involved and I said yes.

If you're using locally sourced timber, you're improving the bio-diversity of a landscape, bringing work into the local economy, and you have a low energy-embodied material - it hasn't been transported miles and miles. On top of that, certain woods - larch, cedar, oak, sweet chestnut and douglas fir - have their own wood-preservatives in them, so you can bypass the worrying timber-preservative industry.

I was also interested in low-energy housing. At Cat, Walter Segal used to give courses on his self-build method until he died in 1989, but although the houses are brilliant, his preoccupation was providing them as cheaply as possible. He was this tough Swiss who thought, if you're cold, put another jumper on. But most people don't work like this, so I started to explore ways of improving insulation and using solar panelling. In 1999 I designed a zero-CO2 building for the Cat shop and I have just finished a concrete and PVC-free design for the Wales Institute for Sustainable Education. I like working out if these things can be done. There are so many people paying lip-service to these ideas now, awareness is very high. It's the doing we're short of. And I don't really think we can afford to be.

· Send your Good Lives nominations to ethical.living@guardian.co.uk

Summary: The people making a difference


09/17/2014 AT 09:20 AM EDT

This is El Pulpo Mecanico. It is, just as the headline to this article indicates, a 25-ft. mechanical octopus that shoots 30-foot gouts of flame from its tentacles.

began life as a 1973 Ford 250 4X4 and was constructed in Arcata, California, after

The creature's fire effects and electrical were built by Jerry Kunkel. The whole thing took around three and a half months, with the finished project debuting at the Burning Man festival in Black Rock City, Nevada, in 2011.

Since then, El Pulpo, whose show consumes 200 gallons of propane per night, has had a successful return to Burning Man in 2012. It also recently lit up the Calgary, Alberta, Canada, art festival Beakerhead, described by its founders as a "place where engineers show their creative sides, and artists get technical, where science hits the street, and everyone gets ingenious."

As you can see, El Pulpo fit right in.

Summary: Its name is El Pulpo Mechanico, and it hails from Arcata, California


Meg Ryan and John Mellencamp

10/17/2014 AT 08:00 AM EDT

were spotted together in New York City on Wednesday – a sign that they may be rekindling their romance.

Looking comfortable and relaxed together, Ryan, 52, and Mellencamp, 62, strolled through Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, stopping by the Scholastic children's bookstore.

As it is, the "Jack and Diane" singer had seemed to be holding out hope that he and the

star would be working things out.

Hinting that he and Ryan, who

, the rocker told the Associated Press on Sept. 26: "I'm very happy with the time I've spent with Meg Ryan. She's a beautiful girl and I know that I will never, ever, ever be with a funnier girl than her. Not gonna happen. I'm grateful for the three and a half years we've been together."

He also left the door open to the possibility that they could work out their differences. When asked if he and Ryan might reunite, he replied, "Nothing's over. I never say 'die' for anything. Do you ever quit on anything?"

On Sept. 25, on NBC's

to promote his new album,

, Mellencamp again talked about Ryan, telling Matt Lauer, "She's an angel sent to me, and I'm very happy. And, you know, nothing's over 'til it's over."

It's a sentiment he clings to. Just a day earlier, on SiriusXM's

, he called Ryan an angel "sent to me at the right time. We tried to have a relationship for three years – long distance. We'll see what happens."

Reps for Mellencamp and Ryan could not be reached for comment.

Summary: The rocker has said, "Nothing's over. I never say 'die' for anything. Do you ever quit on anything?"


FORTUNE — With exquisite predictability, the U.S. response to Russia’s stealth invasion of Ukraine has become a partisan issue in Washington. On Monday, the Obama administration levied a third round of sanctions intended to punish Russia and deter further Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The effects in Moscow remains unclear, but Senate Republicans seemed quick to question why the U.S. isn’t being tougher on Russia, even while sanctions targeted another seven individuals and 17 entities whose assets in the U.S. were ordered frozen. “Without being overly partisan,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said, “I am deeply disappointed with the tepid response to Russian aggression.”

McConnell and others may have hoped for more, but sanctions are incredibly complicated, and America’s response is more strategic than critics might think.

The latest sanctions targets two of Putin’s closest cronies who are the heads of two of the crown jewels of the Russian economy: Igor Sechin, who’s the president and chairman of the management board of Rosneft, Russia’s leading petroleum company; and Sergey Chemezov, the director general of Rostec, a large industrial conglomerate that includes weapons, cars, and metals. U.S. officials describe the sanctions as a slowly tightening noose around the Russian leadership, including President Vladimir Putin. They believe they are conducting a calibrated attack against Putin’s inner circle, allowing de-escalation if Russia decides to back down, while keeping some economic weapons in reserve should Russia take further escalatory steps, such as moving military forces across the Ukrainian border. This calibration also ensures that U.S. and European efforts remain tightly coordinated, which is necessary if sanctions against Russia are to be effective.

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Going forward, the bigger issue might be that no one really knows what the economic effects of broader sanctions will be – not just on Russia, but also on the U.S. and global economy. Those factors are likely what Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are weighing, as the two leaders on Friday warned that Russia would face additional costs if Moscow disrupts this month’s presidential elections in Ukraine.

And as they continue discussing how to form the next round of sanctions, it’s worth understanding why careful calibration is appropriate. In recent years, sanctions have become America’s weapon of first resort. They have been used against dozens of countries, from Burma to the Central African Republic to Iran. In the case of Iran, in particular, sanctions have been viewed as enormously effective, having nearly crippled the Iranian economy and forced Iran to the negotiating table over its nuclear program at relatively little cost to the global economy.

Senate Republicans may think that if broader sanctions worked in Iran, they could work in Russia. However, administration officials understand that Iran’s precedent tells us very little about Russia.

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True, U.S. officials contend that U.S. actions are already having a profound effect on Russia’s economy. Markets have priced in the possibility of further sanctions, and capital of over $60 billion has exited Russia so far this year, exceeding outflows from last year. This has contributed to sharp declines in the Russian stock market and Russia’s currency, the ruble. On April 25, ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Russia’s credit rating to BBB-, just one step above junk status. Both Putin and Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev have admitted that the sanctions are having an effect, while the Russian government has conceded that its economy will see little if any growth this year.

But the issue is not the effect of sanctions on Russia — it is their potential effects on everyone else. The $2 trillion Russian economy is bigger than the size of all other economies the U.S. has ever sanctioned combined. The Russian economy, particularly its big banks, are deeply interwoven with the global economy and international financial system. Russian commercial entities have tentacles everywhere from music venues in Finland to sports teams in England to investment funds in Switzerland, many of which are hard to map in advance.

For this reason, it is not simply that broader sanctions against Russia will be expensive for the West; it is that no one knows how expensive they will be. And the dirty little secret of sanctions is that once they are deployed, they are very hard to undo as market actors will be reluctant to re-engage with the Russian economy for fear of legal liability.

Broader sanctions against Russia would thus be a step into unknown territory, akin to allowing the Lehman Brother investment bank to fail in 2008. Such a risky step might be necessary to defend the global order against Russian lawlessness, but it is not to be taken lightly.

Jeremy Shapiro is a fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. Prior to rejoining Brookings, he was a member of the U.S. State Department’s policy planning staff and Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.

Summary: It’s not simply that sanctioning Russia will be expensive for the West, but rather it is that no one knows how expensive it will be. FORTUNE -- With exquisite predictability, the U.S. response to Russia’s stealth invasion of Ukraine has become a partisan issue in Washington. On Monday, the Obama administration levied a third round…