"Q1 GDP growth tends to be the lowest of the four quarters," said Tom Stark, manager of the Real-Time Data Research Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Stark was one of three economists who duplicated CNBC's results. He said that statistically, "the results seem fairly robust over a number of alternative samples."

Officials at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which tabulates and compiles the GDP data, initially declined to comment to CNBC. But after the story was published, Brent Moulton, associate director for national economic accounts, said even though the data is adjusted for seasonal patterns, it can still show so-called "residual seasonality."

"BEA is currently examining possible residual seasonality in several series, which may lead to improvements in....the regular annual revision to GDP scheduled for July," he added.

"I find it odd," said UBS economist Drew Matus, whose own work confirmed the CNBC findings. The data, over the three-decade time span, "should have corrected or been corrected." He added, "We have to be cautious in reading too much into data and/or delaying policy because of data that exhibits a bias over long periods of time."

Read More Even after first rate increase, policy will remain easy: Fed's Dudley

Wall Street seems unaware of the phenomenon, or at least does not appear able to anticipate the Q1 effect in its forecasts. An analysis of separate data by CNBC shows that Wall Street has underestimated Q1 GDP 80 percent of the time since 1985, the most for any quarter and with often substantial misses.

The implications for policymakers and investors are potentially significant. CNBC's Rapid Update, a running average of GDP forecasts, shows the first quarter tracking at only 1.2 percent, a full point below the fourth quarter. As the Federal Reserve considers its first interest rate hike in nearly a decade, some Fed officials have said the recent weak economic data give them pause.

The reason for under-performance in the first quarter is ultimately unclear. GDP totals the value of all of the nation's production and is revised multiple times over years. It is seen as a less-than-perfect measure. Data are seasonally adjusted by individual category while the number as a whole is not. It could be that some events that happen fairly regularly in the first quarter—such as really severe weather or declines in defense or business spending—don't happen quite regularly enough to be picked up by seasonal adjustments.

First quarter data since 2010 has been especially depressed, averaging a paltry 0.62 percent while the economy grew 2.3 percent. Those are numbers more like Europe since the recession, not the U.S. The average is heavily affected by two quarters of negative growth, including a 2.1 percent decline last year. That decline was blamed on harsh weather across the nation, but economists still had trouble explaining its recession-like severity, coming after two quarters of strong growth and preceding two quarters of even stronger numbers.

Read MoreGasoline, shelter costs lift US consumer prices

And while economists could look out their window and see the lousy weather, they couldn't predict the plunge in GDP in the first quarter of 2014 to minus 2.1 percent: The consensus estimate looked for a positive 1.1 percent, but that was a whopping miss of 3.2 percentage points. The Street was even worse in 2011, looking for 1.9 percent growth in the first quarter compared to minus 1.5 percent.

Summary: A CNBC analysis of 30 years of gross domestic product data suggests a longstanding problem of under-reporting first quarter growth.


The numbers tell the tale.

The average monthly payment was down to $460 in fourth-quarter 2012, versus $468 a year earlier, according to a report by Experian Automotive. It also found that the average auto loan length for a new car was at an all-time high of 65 months.

Orman cautions buyers to factor in the additional costs associated with owning a car, such as insurance and gas prices, which have skyrocketed.

"You can see yourself spending up to $1,000 [in overall car costs], and unless you make serious money, you cannot afford it," she said.

Summary: Auto lenders are relaxing terms and offering an average of more than five years for borrowers to pay. Here's what Suze has to say about that.


Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate owned by billionaire Warren Buffett, announced plans Monday to acquire aircraft equipment maker Precision Castparts in deal valued at $37.2 billion, including debt.

Buffett told CNBC's "Squawk Box" he made a bid for Precision during the Allen & Co. Sun Valley conference last month. "This is right up there at the top" of expensive deals, he said. "This a very high multiple for us to pay."

Berkshire's offer of $235 per share is a premium of 21.2 percent to Precision's Friday close of $193.88. Berkshire already owned 3 percent of the company, and is its largest shareholder.

"We'll probably borrow about $10 billion and use about $23 billion of our cash," Buffett said.

Precision's stock price zoomed more than 19 percent in premarket trading Monday. Berkshire's was down slightly.

Read More10 top brands Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns

Buffett said the deal started with his portfolio manager Todd Combs, who manages $9 billion. "Three or so years ago, he added Precision to his portfolio. I had never really heard of the company before that."

Founded in 1949, Oregon-based Precision makes components such as fasteners and turbine blades for aircraft companies including Airbus and Boeing, and has annual sales of $10 billion. It also makes equipment for power stations and the oil-and-gas industry.

"We're going to be in this business for the next 100 years," Buffett said. "Perhaps a slump in oil and gas has helped us in this case." But over the long-term, energy prices do not matter in terms of this deal.

PCC will remain headquartered in Portland and will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire. Mark Donegan, PCC's chairman and chief executive officer, will continue to run the business. "Mark is running this company," Buffett said.

Read More Warren Buffett: THIS is key to valuing stocks

As for as Berkshire going forward, Buffett said, "This takes us out of the market for an elephant," referring to a big deal of this size.

"We'll be left with over $40 billion probably of cash when we get all through [with PCC]. But I like to have a lot of cash at all times. This means we have to reload over the next 12 months or so," he said.

He added, however, that he will probably make some smaller deals in the next six months.

Berkshire said Friday second-quarter profit fell 37 percent, reflecting a significant decline in investment gains and an underwriting loss from insurance.

Read MoreWarren Buffett: Trump won't be a flash in the pan

—CNBC's Javier David and Reuters contributed to this report.

Summary: "This takes us out of the market for an elephant," Warren Buffett tells CNBC about the $37.2 billion deal for Precision Castparts.


The number of selfie-related deaths now exceed fatal shark attacks in 2015.

The recent freak death of a Japanese tourist at India’s iconic Taj Mahal is the latest in a string of fatalities linked to selfies.

Technology site Mashable reports the total number of deaths attributed to mishaps while taking selfies has now risen to 12 after the man’s death.

The 66-year-old tourist fell down a staircase at the iconic mausoleum last week while attempting to take a photo.

It followed the death of a Texas teen who accidentally shot himself in the throat while taking a selfie with a loaded handgun this month.

Meanwhile, the Russian government was moved to start a publicity campaign urging happy-snappers to urge more caution, after a 21-year-old woman fell to her death from a bridge in Moscow.

As a comparison, there have been at least eight fatal shark attacks across the world this year.

Two of those were in Australia, following the deaths of Ballina surfer Tadashi Nakahara in February and Tasmanian scallop diver Damian Johnson in July.

Taronga Zoo’s Australian Shark Attack File has records of a further 27 non-fatal encounters here in 2015.

Do you have any news photos or videos?


"Any reduction in crude oil processing as a result of the tropical storm should really lead to lower oil prices because it means that crude oil stocks increase," Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said.

"On the other hand, it would drive up the prices of oil products as the lower production would result in destocking."

U.S. RBOB gasoline rose 1.84 cents to $2.1175 a gallon, bolstered by last week's government inventory data showing the bulk of the 2.9-million-barrel drop in the week to June 5 occurred on the East Coast.

Read MoreEnergy stocks stuck in a range? Here's how to profit

Helping U.S. crude outperform Brent is the expectation that this week's U.S. inventory data will show another draw.

U.S. crude stocks are forecast to have fallen 1.8 million barrels last week, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.

That would be a seventh consecutive draw recorded by the government, with the next Energy Information Administration report due on Wednesday.

Unsold North Sea and West African crude barrels building up in tankers offshore in the Atlantic Basin are weighing on physical prices. Supply is increasing even as European refiners run hard to take advantage of strong margins.

Read MoreOil supply to cause a pullback in short run: Expert

"The amount of crude oil afloat on the water off the coast of the UK is increasing, and that is putting considerable pressure on the North Sea price structure," Petromatrix oil analyst Olivier Jakob said in a note.

"The last time we had a North Sea structure as weak was in July of last year, a move that preceded the big flat price dump," he warned.

Summary: U.S. crude oil prices edged up Tuesday on warnings a tropical storm was about to hit the coast of the oil-producing state of Texas.


JAKARTA, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Indonesia's economic growth in the second quarter dropped to its slowest since 2009, with prices for commodity and energy exports remaining weak and President Joko Widodo unable to push badly needed infrastructure projects past bureaucratic snarls.

Southeast Asia's largest economy expanded 4.67 percent in April-June compared to the same period a year ago, better than a Reuters poll forecast of 4.61 percent, but still below the revised estimate of 4.72 percent growth for the January-March quarter.

Falling commodity prices and the government's strict regulation on shipments of ore weighed on the mining sector, the head of the statistics bureau Suryamin said, resulting in the sector contracting 5.87 percent in the June quarter.

Consumption, investment and imports were all weaker.

Meanwhile, the government's contribution to GDP failed to show much improvement on the first quarter. The government said it spent less than 40 percent of its budget up through June, with capital expenditure particularly weak.

"We expect growth in the second half to pick up on the back of investment, although we don't think government infrastructure spending will be as big as we initially expected," said Leo Putra Rinaldy, an economist at Mandiri Sekuritas in Jakarta.

"The government is facing challenges in revenue collection, which mean there could be spending cuts to control the deficit. Those spending cuts could come from infrastructure spending," he added.

Widodo's nine-month-old administration has failed to deliver significant economic reforms, and the central bank is poorly placed to boost the economy, with inflation rising and the rupiah vulnerable to outflows once U.S. rates rise.

On Tuesday Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo said authorities were closely watching the risk of a further slowdown, while noting the uncertainties posed by an anticipated rise in U.S. interest rates that will probably suck money away from emerging markets like Indonesia.

Although the government had not succeeded in improving spending in the second quarter, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro still believes GDP growth will rebound significantly on the back of higher fiscal spending.

"(Capital spending) may reach 80-85 percent which would make growth in the second half better," he said on Tuesday.

Brodjonegoro also said some fiscal policies were more effective in the second half, including tax incentives to attract investment, and a hike in the threshold of income tax to drive up people's purchasing power.

"Looking ahead, while we don't think growth will slow further, we don't see scope for much of a rebound either. Lower commodity prices, which have led to a slump in export revenue and a sharp deterioration in Indonesia's terms of trade, will continue to weigh on the economy," said Gareth Leather, an analyst with Capital Economics in London.

The government expects GDP growth of 5.2 percent this year, whereas the median forecast from a Reuters poll of analysts was for growth of 4.9 percent.

(Additional reporting by Hidayat Setiaji and Fransiska Nangoy in Jakarta and Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Summary: JAKARTA, Aug 5- Indonesia's economic growth in the second quarter dropped to its slowest since 2009, with prices for commodity and energy exports remaining weak and President Joko Widodo unable to push badly needed infrastructure projects past bureaucratic snarls. Southeast Asia's largest economy expanded 4.67 percent in April-June compared to the same...


Abundantly, gloriously fleshy, the paint gathered in great gobs and whorls, the detail of the skin tone picked out in loving, virtuosic detail, Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping is a mighty thing, in every possible sense.

Next month, the work, painted in 1995, and now on public view in the UK for the first time, is predicted to become the most expensive painting by a living artist sold at auction, with an estimate of £12.7m-£17.7m. The current record for most expensive piece by a living artist to be sold at auction is held by Jeff Koons' Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold), which made £11.3m in November 2007.

According to Pilar Ordovás, head of postwar and contemporary art at Christie's, Freud's high prices are due to the sheer uncompromising quality of the work, which sees the painstaking, detailed techniques of the Old Masters applied with a thoroughly modernist sensibility.

"His appeal is completely global and completely timeless," she says of the 85-year-old painter. "He appeals to both contemporary art lovers and collectors of Old Masters. He has clearly made a huge contribution to the history of art of the 20th century, and his output is quite small, perhaps producing just five paintings a year."

Despite the judders in the markets, particularly in the US, where Benefits Supervisor is to be sold in May, Ordovás said the art market was holding up strongly, particularly for very rare works at the top of the range. The current auction record for a Freud painting is £9.3m, set in November 2007 for IB and her Husband (1992).

The portrait's sitter, Sue Tilley - now promoted from benefits supervisor to manager of a Jobcentre Plus in central London - is delighted. "My life's changed overnight," she says. "I'm beside myself, but then lovely things are always happening to me. Still, I'm not surprised - in a way, I always thought this might happen. I love that painting."

Is it not a little, well, exposing to have one's magnificently generous breasts and lolling stomach revealed to the world? Tilley laughs: she was nervous, she says, about first stripping off, but quickly got used to it. Though, she adds: "I know it sounds weird, but even though there'd be no one else there I'd get dressed or put something round me just to go to the loo. I didn't want to become a regular nudist."

Of course it was a different thing for the paintings - four were produced during their four-year working relationship - to go out into the world, and to be gawped at by all and sundry. "The first painting he ever did of me [Evening in the Studio, 1993] was finished while there was a big show of his paintings on at the Whitechapel gallery," she says. "So they put it up for the last week of the exhibition. I went in there one day and there was a man giving a talk in front of the picture, saying, look at this revolting woman, she's so fat and disgusting, there's obviously something wrong with her skin. I just started laughing. The man stopped and asked if there was anything wrong. I said: 'That's me you're talking about,' and he just looked like he wanted to die. After that I didn't really mind what people said.

"I'm not the 'ideal woman', I know I'm not. But who is? And he never made the skinny ones look any better. He picks out every single little detail."

Tilley and Freud were introduced by a mutual friend - Leigh Bowery, whom Tilley had met in a nightclub in the early 1980s, and whose biography she wrote. Bowery's name for Tilley was Big Sue, and she was one of several sitters the performance artist recommended to the painter.

The first work had her posing, in great discomfort, prostrate on the studio floor - "and he made me look so horrible. I'm shaking now as I think of it."

For Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, however, Freud bought the sofa for her to rest on. "It was lovely and comfy, and I just lay on it, really, for nine months."

For this work, painted in daylight, Tilley showed up at Freud's studio early to catch the first light. "I might arrive at 7am. Then we'd sit in the kitchen, have a little chat, have breakfast, a snack. The first session would be quite long, when we were both quite fresh and there weren't many interruptions.

"Sometimes he'd take me out for lunch, which I liked, and we'd work again in the afternoon. It was quite exhausting, just lying there. I know it sounds silly, but it was."

Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping is on view at Christie's, London SW1, until April 15.

Harry Diamond Freud's friend featured in Interior in Paddington (1951), part of the Festival of Britain. Though he complained about sitting, Freud painted Diamond several times.

Francis Bacon Bacon had painted a portrait of Freud in 1951, and in the following year Freud painted Bacon's portrait in oils on a small copper plate.

His mother Freud painted his mother many times, and the day after her death he drew The Painter's Mother Dead.

Leigh Bowery A transvestite performance artist, Bowery was an experienced model, and he sat frequently.

The Queen Freud's portrait created controversy among the media and the public. Sittings happened at St James's Palace in 2001 and 2002. Freud asked that the Queen wore the diamond crown seen on banknotes and stamps.

Kate Moss Moss is one of the few Freud models who have suggested themselves for the job, which she did in a magazine article.

Summary: Lucian Freud's portrait of fleshy woman predicted to become most expensive painting by a living artist at auction


* Q2 GDP f'cast -1.9 pct annualised vs +3.9 pct in Q1

* First contraction since July-Sept 2014

* Weak exports and consumer spending hurt economy

* GDP data due on Aug 17, 0850 JST (Aug 16, 2350 GMT)

TOKYO, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Japan's economy probably shrank in April-June due to weak exports and floundering consumer spending, a Reuters poll showed, though the central bank stuck to its view on Friday that activity would improve later in the year.

The world's third-largest economy likely shrank at an annualised rate of 1.9 percent in the second quarter, the median forecast in the poll of 21 economists showed, after expanding by 3.9 percent in the first quarter.

That would translate into contraction of 0.5 percent from the previous quarter.

The latest forecast was more pessimistic than a similar poll just a few weeks ago, in which the median forecast was for annualised growth of 0.7 percent.

While growth is expected to rebound in the current quarter, some analysts warn that sluggish demand in China and tame wage growth at home will keep any pick-up modest.

"Worrying factors remain for July-September," said an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities in the poll.

"An adverse impact from China's economic slowdown will likely continue, which is expected to drag down exports," he said.

He did not rule out a possibility that the economy may contract for a second straight quarter in July-September.

The Bank of Japan maintained its massive stimulus programme and upbeat view of the economy on Friday, unfazed by recent batch of weak data that clouded the prospects for hitting its ambitious 2 percent inflation target.

BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said consumer spending may have bounced back in July, while exports will gradually recover.

Among key components for the GDP, private consumption, which accounts for about 60 percent of the economy, is forecast to show a quarterly fall of 0.4 percent in April-June, the first fall in four quarters, according to the poll.

Capital spending is expected to show a 0.3 percent quarterly fall, following a 2.7 percent gain in the previous quarter and marking the first fall in four quarters.

External demand probably shaved 0.3 percent point off GDP growth in the second quarter, after it trimmed 0.2 percent point off GDP in the previous quarter.

The Cabinet Office will announce the GDP data at 8:50 a.m. on August 17 (2350 GMT August 16).

Separately, the nation's leading indicator of capital spending probably fell 5.6 percent in June from May, its first decline in four months.

From a year earlier, core machinery orders likely rose 16.4 percent. The highly volatile data series is regarded as an indicator of capital spending in the coming six to nine months.

"Companies' willingness for capital spending remains solid and there is no change to our view that the machinery orders are on the rise," said an economist at Mizuho Research Institute in our poll.

The Cabinet Office will announce the machinery orders at 8:50 a.m. on Thursday (2350 GMT, Wednesday).

Separate data will show the current account surplus probably stood at 773.6 billion yen ($6.20 billion) in June, the 12th straight monthly current account surplus, after a 1.88 trillion yen surplus in May.

The poll found the corporate goods price index (CGPI) is seen to have fallen 2.9 percent in July from a year ago after a 2.4 percent fall in June.

The finance ministry will announce the current account data on Monday and the Bank of Japan will release CGPI on Wednesday.

Summary: TOKYO, Aug 7- Japan's economy probably shrank in April-June due to weak exports and floundering consumer spending, a Reuters poll showed, though the central bank stuck to its view on Friday that activity would improve later in the year. While growth is expected to rebound in the current quarter, some analysts warn that sluggish demand in China and tame wage growth...


What got you started?Being born in north Wales was quite a good start. And having grandparents and parents who loved music, and prodded me in the right direction. I was given a scholarship to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Who or what have you sacrificed for your art?For the first 10 years you sacrifice absolutely everything. You're away from home and your loved ones. You have to sing in the best concert halls with the best conductors and directors.

What one song would feature on the soundtrack to your life?One I've sung since I was seven years old, called My Little Welsh Home. There's a word in Welsh, hiraeth which is all about longing. Travelling performers and businessmen are all like little birds wanting to fly home.

Do you suffer for your art?I missed the births of my first two children. My wife and I knew this would happen. Living in hotels isn't exciting, even if it's a 20-star hotel in Dubai - but the positives far outweigh the negatives.

What's your favourite film?Citizen Kane. If I wanted to change a film into an opera, it would be the prime candidate.

What's your favourite museum?The Frick on New York's Upper East Side, right by Central Park. On my days off I go and pay my $7 and sit in front of the Gainsboroughs or Whistlers.

What work of art would you most like to own?I would cherish an original, hand-written score of any work by Mozart.

In the movie of your life, who plays you?It would have to be a Vinnie Jones who's put on weight, or Gérard Depardieu. I'm mistaken for Depardieu in Paris, and for Meatloaf in New York.

Complete this sentence: At heart I'm just a frustrated ...Sommelier. I love wine.

What's the best advice anyone ever gave you?Grow your hair. I looked like a farmer early on in my career.

What's the biggest myth about singers?The fat lady sings. They're not fat; they're beautiful and slim, and they can wear their dresses.

What's the worst thing anyone's ever said about you?When I cancelled the Ring Cycle [in 2007] because my son had had a dreadful accident with his finger. I wouldn't like to meet the guy who wrote it. I made a family-orientated decision.

Born: Lleyn Peninsula, North Wales, 1965

Career: Made his stage debut with Welsh National Opera in 1990. Received CBE in 2003. Performs at the Last Night of the Proms, Royal Albert Hall, London (0845 401 5040), this Saturday.

High point: "Singing Wotan in the ROH's Ring Cycle. It was my Everest."

Low point:"The most frustrating point was singing with Welsh National Opera 10 years ago, before they got their new opera house."

Summary: 'I'm mistaken for Gérard Depardieu in Paris, and for Meat Loaf in New York'


After decades in the television news business,

says he remains a journalist who seeks the truth.

The venerable former CBS News anchor's reputation was forever altered when he tussled with his longtime former employer regarding a story that questioned then-president George W. Bush's military service. That struggle is now being dramatized on the big screen with

After the Bush administration questioned the accuracy of the story – and questioned the authenticity of the documents at the heart of the report – an independent investigation concluded that the piece disregarded "fundamental journalistic principles" even as it stopped short of deeming the documents relating to his military service as forgeries.

Rather was given a diminished role within CBS News after the scandal and

less than two years later – afterwards filing a $70 million lawsuit against his former employer, claiming they mishandled the investigation. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.

shines a spotlight on Rather's struggle.

, out Oct. 16, casts Redford as Rather and

as his loyal producer Mary Mapes, whose television news career was also permanently tarnished by the scandal.

In a wide-ranging new interview with

, the 83-year-old Rather says he has no qualms about the accuracy of the now-infamous report.

"We reported a true story," he said. "There wasn't any doubt then, and there is no doubt in any reasonable person's mind now, the story was true."

CBS, meanwhile, is blasting the new film for what it deems its "many distortions."

"It's astounding how little truth there is in

," CBS said in a statement to

. "There are, in fact, too many distortions, evasions and baseless conspiracy theories to enumerate them all. The film tries to turn gross errors of journalism and judgment into acts of heroism and martyrdom. That's a disservice not just to the public but to journalists across the world who go out every day and do everything within their power, sometimes at great risk to themselves, to get the story right."

Robert Redford as Dan Rather in Truth

Despite their seemingly permanent clash, Rather says he still regards his 44 years with CBS News with a sense of reverence.

"CBS has a great history of backing its reporters, Ed Murrow with McCarthy, Cronkite with the Vietnam War, myself and others during Watergate. The movie has brought it back into focus," he said. "I have been and still am trying to be deep into humility and modesty, grateful for being able to make a living at this. I mean, CBS may have correspondents and anchors who are better at it than I've ever been. But they haven't had anybody who worked harder and cared more about the people and the place that CBS is – its history, its traditions – than I did. And still do."

The movie is based on Mapes' 2005 memoir about the incident,

was "one of the most difficult things I've ever gone through in my life."

However, she credits Rather with remaining loyal as they weathered the storm together.

"Dan never turned on me, he never blamed me, he never made me feel bad, he never made me feel like a failure," she said. "Of course, I did all that to myself, on some level. But Dan was incredibly loyal."

Redford, who famously played journalist Bob Woodward in

, told the trade publication he took on the role of Rather because, "This is another example to me of [the Bush] administration worried about what was going to be exposed about a reputation that had holes in it. And so they tried to discredit the journalist. And to me, that's a story about where the truth is. And that's a worthy story to go after."

Today, Rather works for AXS network and pitches projects through his production company, News & Guts. He says he has no regrets about the lawsuit he admits was "very expensive."

"I wanted to find out what really happened, as opposed to what I had been told happened," he said. "Some things are worth fighting for, even if you lose."

Summary: Rather, who is played by Robert Redford in the film, says he has no regrets about the $70 million lawsuit he filed against CBS News after his departure


As part of the 10-year deal, Celgene will also pay an upfront payment of $150 million in exchange for the rights to become the commercial partner on a range of Juno's products. It will take a seat on the company's board and has the option to purchase another 20 per cent at a later date.

Car-T is part of a class of medicines known as "immunotherapies", which aim to turn the body into a weapon against cancer rather than relying on traditional approaches like chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Juno's technology has had some stunning successes, most notably in the treatment of blood cancers, but there are some who fret that it will not be as effective in the treatment of solid tumors, which account for the majority of cancer cases. Others worry it will prove too expensive to roll out on a large scale.

Those fears have led to a high degree of skepticism among some investors and a choppy ride for companies developing the technology. Before Celgene announced its stake, shares in Juno had fallen roughly 11 per cent since the start of the year.

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Hans Bishop, chief executive of Juno, told the FT: "Celgene is a world class oncology company that is investing a billion dollars in our company, and I do think that reinforces our belief in the potential of using Car-T in solid tumors."

"It's clearly a very significant deal financially, but more important is the potential of the science and the potential together to be a broader leader in the immuno-oncology space," he added.

The deal will be seen by Car-T's backers as a broader sign of confidence in the sector. Shares in Kite, a rival biotech company developing similar technology, jumped almost 10 per cent in after-hours trading.

However, the size of Celgene's investment in Juno took some analysts by surprise. It values the company at roughly $8 billion, around double its market capitalization when markets closed on Monday.

"This deal comes as a surprise to us given the very limited validation for Car-T cell approaches" outside some blood cancers, said Geoff Porges, an analyst at Bernstein, who also argued the large number of competitors in the area would ultimately erode the partnership's value.

"Juno's management and investors are to be congratulated for securing such favourable early financing for their company, well in advance of the delivery of much value from their platform," he said.

Founded in 1986, Celgene is seen as one of the cornerstone companies in the US biotech sector and ranks alongside Gilead, Amgen and Biogen as one of the "big four" groups with a market capitalization of almost $100 billion or over.

More recently, the company has become known for its big bets on experimental drugs, such as a deal worth up to $2.6bn to get access to a treatment for Crohn's being developed by Nogra Pharmaceuticals, a private biotech group in Dublin.

In April, it unveiled a deal with AstraZeneca, which saw it pay an upfront fee of $450 million to collaborate on one of its most promising immunotherapies. That partnership will be excluded from the agreement with Juno.

Summary: Biotech giant Celgene has invested $1 billion in Juno Therapeutics in a move to that backs experimental cancer treatments, the FT reports.


Cramer said that now investors can focus on investing in the companies that are doing well. September is a historically rough month for markets, and a possible government shutdown could make things trickier, he added. "I always worry about a government shutdown because it has always knocked stocks down about 8 percent."

Cramer said that the Fed should not raise rates because it could harm the auto and housing sectors, which are doing well. "Is there something that says when something is strong we got to make it weaker?" he asked. "Because that is what a rate hike would have done."

Summary: The Fed avoided a market selloff by not raising rates in September, CNBC's Jim Cramer said on Friday.


A surge in dorm construction is helping Boston to add housing this year at its fastest clip in 15 years.

New city figures released Thursday say Boston added just shy of 3,300 new homes and apartments in the first nine months of the year, with nearly 10,000 more that have been approved but not yet built.

That pace is fast enough to keep the city on track to hit Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s aim of creating 53,000 new housing units in the city by 2030 — a goal city officials hope will ease surging housing costs for many Bostonians. A key piece of their effort is easing a student housing crunch that ripples out through many Boston neighborhoods.

So far this year, construction has begun on nearly 1,200 dorm rooms in the city, the most in one year since 2007.

Walsh stopped by the ceremonial groundbreaking for one of those projects — a $60 million, 380-bed dorm that Emerson College is building at 180 Boylston St. — on Thursday to applaud the progress.

A six-building cluster would include apartments for graduate students and low-income tenants, stores, and a tree-covered plaza.

“This is a big part of our overall plan,” he said. “The more student housing we can build, the better.”

In many parts of the city, Walsh noted, students who can’t find a home in on-campus dorms are doubling, tripling, and quadrupling up in apartments and three-deckers, enabling landlords to charge more than many locals can afford.

With a student population that has grown by a fifth since 1995, it has become more and more of a challenge.

“We see it in Allston-Brighton. We see it in parts of Dorchester. We see it in Mission Hill,” the mayor said. “Every room that gets created on campus eases pressure on these neighborhoods.”

So the Walsh administration has pushed universities to add housing, setting a target of 16,000 new undergraduate beds in dorms by 2030, with 2,500 more for graduate students. That’d be enough to free up 5,000 apartments, city officials estimate.

But even with recent projects like the one at Emerson, along with newly approved dorms at Boston College and New England Conservatory, there’s not enough building going on to hit that student-housing target.

Many universities say they want to build more, but need to balance pricey housing development with other academic and staffing needs.

Now the city is also hoping to draw more private developers to build student housing in Boston. Privately built student housing is common in many parts of the country, but rare here — despite Boston’s nearly 170,000 students — because of high costs, neighborhood concerns, and scarce land on many local campuses.

City officials say several big Boston schools are talking with private developers about off-campus housing for their students. They expect plans to come forward in the next few months.

Sheila Dillon, Walsh’s housing chief, wouldn’t name specific schools, saying neighbors should hear first from the universities. But she said at least a half-dozen are exploring the idea.

Northeastern University has launched one such partnership. Its new GrandMarc Hall on Huntington Avenue was built by Dallas-based developer Phoenix Property Co. for $75 million, then leased to the school.

UMass-Boston is also exploring deals with private developers. And John Nucci, vice president for government relations and community affairs at Suffolk University, said several builders have approached his school with proposals, including the concept of a “student village” that would put students from multiple schools in the same dorm.

No deals have been finalized, he said, but it’s an idea that appeals to Suffolk.

“We would be open to a plan in a non-downtown neighborhood that would help get students out of private housing,” he said.

Summary: So far this year, construction has begun on nearly 1,200 dorm rooms in the city, the most in one year since 2007. The city hopes the new building boom will help ease Boston’s housing crunch.


NEW YORK, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Options contracts on shares of U.S. burger chain Shake Shack Inc will begin trading on Friday for the first time since the company's initial public offering early this year.

Shake Shack's shares, which fell precipitously on Thursday, have been quite volatile since their market debut in January, trading between $38.64 and $96.75. That should help boost demand for its options, strategists said.

"It will probably see some interest due to the volatility and the new listing," said Fred Ruffy, options strategist at WhatsTrading.com.

On Thursday, CBOE Holdings Inc and Nasdaq OMX Group Inc said they will list options on the company on Friday.

Other U.S. options exchanges, including the International Securities Exchange Holdings' ISE and ISE Gemini, are expected to list the options soon.

The listings will allow traders to start using the contracts to place bets on where they expect the shares to trade in the future.

But given that trading volume of the stock has averaged about a million shares a day - which equates to about 10,000 options contracts - there might not be a great deal of volume, he said.

The shares started trading on the New York Stock Exchange at $47 and nearly doubled to a high of $96.75 by May 22. Since then, however they have fallen significantly.

The shares ended regular trading on Thursday down 15.7 percent at $54.61, after the company said it had priced a 4 million-share offering at $60 per share, well below a $64.79 closing price on Wednesday.

"There is plenty of volatility and action, which usually attracts options traders," said J.J. Kinahan, chief strategist at TD Ameritrade in Chicago.

High-profile IPOs usually generate a lot of demand for options on the new stocks but exchanges have to wait until minimum thresholds for the number of freely tradable shares are met.

Until now, Shake Shack did not meet the minimum float requirement of at least 7 million shares, but the expiration of a post-IPO lockup at the end of July and the secondary offering helped boost the company's float.

Shake Shack, known for its indulgent hormone- and antibiotic-free burgers and sides, on Monday reported stronger-than-expected quarterly profit and sales.

(Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed)

Summary: NEW YORK, Aug 13- Options contracts on shares of U.S. burger chain Shake Shack Inc will begin trading on Friday for the first time since the company's initial public offering early this year. Shake Shack's shares, which fell precipitously on Thursday, have been quite volatile since their market debut in January, trading between $38.64 and $96.75.


Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

San Francisco 49ers' DuJuan Harris rushes in 4th quarter against St. Louis Rams during Niners' 19-16 win in overtime in NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, January 3, 2016.

San Francisco 49ers' DuJuan Harris rushes in 4th quarter against St. Louis Rams during Niners' 19-16 win in overtime in NFL game at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, January 3, 2016.

49ers’ DuJuan Harris impressive in win

Journeyman running back DuJuan Harris was on the roster of five teams during the 2015 season, but he’ll stick with one team in 2016 if his 12-day audition with the 49ers was a preview of coming attractions.

Harris, who was signed to a two-year deal Dec. 22, finished his two-game stint with a career-high 153 total yards in the 49ers’ 19-16 overtime win over the Rams on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.

Harris rushed 67 yards on 16 carries and added 86 yards on eight receptions. In two games, he averaged 5.2 yards on 27 carries and ripped off runs of 22, 25 and 47 yards.

On Sunday, he had receptions of 31 and 21 yards and became the first 49ers running back to lead the team in rushing and receiving yards since Frank Gore on Oct. 18, 2012.

Harris, 27, was signed off the Ravens’ practice squad and also spent time with the Vikings, Saints and Seahawks this season. He previously was with the Jaguars and Packers.

“He ran like heck,” said Jim Tomsula, shortly before he was fired as head coach. “… The personnel department did a nice job.”

Brooks briefly benched: Outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks was benched for the final five minutes of the first half after he drew an unnecessary-roughness penalty for shoving St. Louis center Tim Barnes in the face mask.

After the penalty, which gave the Rams a first down when they were facing a 3rd-and-12, Brooks immediately went to the bench and remained there with his helmet off until halftime. Brooks, who played limited snaps in the second half, finished with one tackle.

Tomsula said his message to Brooks after his penalty was: “Just calm down.”

It likely wasn’t the first time such words were offered to Brooks, who was benched twice in 2014, once for yelling at Tomsula on the sideline over his playing time.

It’s possible Brooks, 31, played the last game of his seven-year career with the 49ers. He shared for team-high honors with 6½ sacks, but will count $9.7 million against the salary cap in 2016.

Top tackler: Inside linebacker NaVorro Bowman had nine tackles and finished with an NFL-high 154, four more than Indianapolis linebacker D’Qwell Jackson.

After missing the 2014 season with a severe knee injury, Bowman made all 16 starts and rarely left the field.

“Probably since Week 8, I’ve put the pressure on myself to go into this offseason and get back to the form I was once at,” Bowman said. “This body will be put through a tremendous workout every single day.”

Schedule set: The 49ers’ 10-game, non-division schedule is set for 2016. At home, they will face the Buccaneers, Jets, Patriots, Saints and Cowboys. They will visit the Bears, Falcons, Bills, Panthers and Dolphins.

Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

Summary: Journeyman running back DuJuan Harris was on the roster of five teams during the 2015 season, but he’ll stick with one team in 2016 if his 12-day audition with the 49ers was a preview of coming attractions.  Harris, who was signed to a two-year deal Dec. 22, finished his two-game stint with a career-high 153 total yards in the 49ers’ 19-16 overtime win over the Rams on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.  Harris rushed 67 yards on 16 carries and added 86 yards on eight receptions.  In two games, he averaged 5.2 yards on 27 carries and ripped off runs of 22, 25 and 47 yards.  On Sunday, he had receptions of 31 and 21 yards and became the first 49ers running back to lead the team in rushing and receiving yards since Frank Gore on Oct. 18, 2012.  Harris, 27, was signed off the Ravens’ practice squad and  also spent time with the Vikings, Saints and Seahawks this season.  Outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks was benched for the final five minutes of the first half after he drew an unnecessary-roughness penalty for shoving St. Louis center Tim Barnes in the face mask.  At home, they will face the Buccaneers, Jets, Patriots, Saints and Cowboys.


Bernie Sanders and John Kasich

02/09/2016 AT 04:40 PM EST

The New Hampshire Primary is off to a strong start for Vermont Sen.

and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Sanders and Kasich won the vote in the tiny New Hampshire hamlet of Dixville Notch, which traditionally hosts the first vote of the election season's first primary. Of the nine total votes cast at midnight on Tuesday, Sanders beat

4-0, while Kasich scored a 3-2 win over

, who, along with Sanders, is currently leading in the New Hampshire polls.

Tom Tillotson, the longtime moderator for Dixville Notch's tiny primary, told

that "it's fun" to continue the tradition of the midnight vote, which dates back to the 1960s.

"This is an example of American democracy where 100 percent of the voters come out and vote," Tillotson said. "It's also a part of a primary process where it's sort of an endangered species where the candidates actually go out and talk to the voters, and anything we can do to keep that alive helps our political process."

More substantial results of the New Hampshire primary will be revealed Tuesday evening as votes from the rest of the state's districts are counted.

In the most recent statewide polls, according to

, Trump leads the GOP candidates with 31.2 percent of the vote, a far cry ahead of Marco Rubio, who is in second place with 14 percent. Sanders, too, has a

: Polls show that he has 54.5 percent of the vote to Clinton's 41.2 percent.

Summary: The two candidates won the first votes of the day in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, when nine votes were cast at midnight


In his candid new book, CEO Howard Schultz tells what went on behind the scenes in Seattle, and what he learned from the company’s mistakes.

FORTUNE — Sometimes, it’s the little things that drive you crazy.

In the summer of 2007, Starbucks SBUX was in the middle of its worst year ever.

Having stepped aside as CEO 7 years earlier to become a Bill-Gates-like, hands-off chairman instead, founder Howard Schultz often peered wistfully through the windows of closed-door conference rooms, “feeling like an outsider looking in,” he writes in his new book (with co-author Joanne Gordon), Onward.

That would probably have been tolerable if the decisions cooked up in those conference rooms weren’t so disastrous. But they were. Starbucks’ day-to-day store traffic was “in free fall,” Schultz recalls, tumbling to levels not seen in the company’s 40-year history. The coffee leviathan had spread itself too thin, opening too many stores too fast, expanding willy-nilly into alien territory like the music business, and neglecting to build an online presence that could have given the company a way to explain some of its actions to its many critics.

Starting in February 2007 — when Schultz wrote an infamous memo complaining about the “commoditization of Starbucks,” which promptly got spattered all over the Internet — the company’s once-stellar stock began to slide, losing 42% of its value by the end of the year.

The last straw, however, was a small, irritating detail: The smell of burnt cheese.

“People who have known me for years will tell you that few things had ever piqued my ire as much as that smell,” Schultz writes. “I could not stand it.”

Having opposed the idea of selling breakfast sandwiches from the get-go, he hated the way “singed Monterey Jack, mozzarella, and, most offensively, cheddar” from the sandwiches overwhelmed the aroma of coffee.

“Where was the magic in burnt cheese?,” he writes, adding, “The breakfast sandwich became my quintessential example of how we were losing our way.”

Yet when Schultz issued a direct order to Starbucks’ head of global products — “Get the sandwiches out!” — then-CEO Jim Donald countermanded it an hour later. The debacle, more than any other single problem Starbucks faced, made Schultz decide to step back into the role of active CEO. In January of 2008, he did.

Most of Onward, which is subtitled How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul, is a play-by-play account of what happened next. There may be more detail here than most readers really want, as when Schultz describes the weather outside his kitchen window while he wrote the “commoditization” memo (rainy), or what he wore to an important meeting with employees (“blue jeans and a dark gray sweater”).

But for anyone looking for insights on how to turn around a troubled giant brought low by overconfidence in its own success, Onward is essential reading — and not only because Schultz’s recipe is clearly working. (The company reported record earnings for fiscal 2010, with earnings per share up 138% on a 15% gain in revenues, and then broke its own record in the first quarter of fiscal 2011.)

Schultz comes across in these pages as a genuinely, even disarmingly, nice guy, so that, while he’s recalling his angst and recounting his struggles, you find yourself cheering him on. But the real value here is in his willingness to put his own shortcomings under a microscope, shoulder much of the blame for his company’s missteps, and draw conclusions that reach far beyond Starbucks.

“If not checked, success has a way of covering up small failures,” he muses. “This is why, I think, so many companies fail. Not because of challenges in the marketplace, but because of challenges on the inside.”

A crucial lesson he learned while tackling those challenges is one that’s all too easy to lose sight of: “Growth, we now know all too well, is not a strategy. It is a tactic.”

Summary: In his candid new book, CEO Howard Schultz tells what went on behind the scenes in Seattle, and what he learned from the company’s mistakes. By Anne Fisher, contributor FORTUNE -- Sometimes, it’s the little things that drive you crazy. In the summer of 2007, Starbucks was in the middle of its worst year ever.…


updated 02/19/2016 AT 02:35 PM EST

•originally published 02/19/2016 AT 10:25 AM EST

may have famous singers –

– as parents, but the 24-year-old has taken a decidedly different path.

The Duke University graduate is a lifelong equestrian, now a professional show jumper, and she does it in style: Springsteen was previously an

Here are five things to know about Springsteen and her equestrian passion.

"I started riding when I was really little. My mom had always wanted to ride so when we moved to New Jersey she started taking lessons," Springsteen tells PEOPLE. "Our home is right across the road from one of the top junior training barns – and I went right into that when I was a teenager."

Springsteen adds: "I started competing and doing the jumpers – then I turned professional. It all really happened pretty naturally."

Springsteen is competing in Wellington, Florida, for 12 weeks at the Winter Equestrian Festival, where she just won a prestigious 1.50-meter jumper classic on Sunday.

Jessica Springsteen at the 2016 Winter Equestrian Festival

Aaron Gilbert / Icon Sportswire / AP

"We compete Wednesday through Sunday so you're pretty much there all day," Springsteen, who also does two to three shows per month during the summer, explains.

"When I'm not competing, I'm usually at the barn for maybe four hours," she adds.

, a gray gelding and

A photo posted by Jessica Springsteen (@jessicaspringsteen) on Jan 14, 2016 at 7:18am PST

"They're completely different," Springsteen says of her horses' personalities. "We joke about Tiger Lily because she's either like a tiger or a lily."

"She can definitely be a little frisky," Springsteen adds with a laugh. "Cynar is much more cool-headed. He's much more even and focused. You kind of know what you're going to get with him a little bit more."

A photo posted by Jessica Springsteen (@jessicaspringsteen) on Feb 13, 2016 at 10:42am PST

And Springsteen admits the two are "so spoiled."

"I brought my parents to meet Cynar for the first time and I opened his stall – and he almost ran out looking for treats," says Springsteen, who will bring peppermints and carrots for them along with an occasional banana for Tiger Lily who is "a little bit more picky."

"They will mow you down trying to get food out of your hand," she adds.

"They make it to the shows as often as they can," Springsteen says. "When they're not here, they're watching online. I love having them with me."

"I think it's important to have your family support you," she continues. "It's definitely fun to have them around. They're the best supporters. They're always happy no matter how I do, which is nice."

Springsteen made a bid for the Olympics four years ago while she was still in college and had "an amazing experience."

As for the future she says, "We kind of have to see how it goes." (Another professional show jumper with a famous last name and Olympic aspirations:

Jessica Springsteen at Longines Global Champions Tour in August 2015

Koen van Weel / AFP / Getty

Says the equestrian, "It's so much about timing and having the right horse at the right time, and have everything going well, so it's definitely something that I'm working towards – and will continue working towards until I get there."

Summary: Meet Bruce Springsteen's daughter Jessica and her equine partners


Lawyers for Julian Assange have asked a Swedish court to overturn an arrest warrant for the WikiLeaks founder.

The move follows a ruling by a United Nations panel that the Australian's confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy in London amounted to "arbitrary detention".

His lawyer, Thomas Olsson, said a number of "new circumstances" had arisen that meant there was reason to review an earlier decision.

Stockholm District Court spokeswoman Camilla Murray said the court won't consider the request - made in a letter by Assange's two Swedish lawyers - because it was not made in the correct manner, the Associated Press reported.

Assange is wanted for questioning in Sweden over a sex allegation, which he denies, but believes that if he goes to Sweden he will be taken to the United States for questioning over WikiLeaks activities.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said earlier this month that Assange should be free to leave the embassy in London.

Authorities in Britain and Sweden have rejected the finding, saying Assange has detained himself by seeking refuge in the embassy.

Assange has been living in the embassy in central London for more than three years after being granted political asylum by the Ecuador government.

Summary: Julian Assange's lawyers are seeking to have a Swedish arrest warrant for the Australian overturned, saying a number of "new circumstances" hae arisen.


02/22/2016 AT 11:15 AM EST

Come Feb. 28, Hollywood's brightest talents will be competing for one of those

But the awards for best fan grammar are already here – and they don't quite align with our Oscar predictions.

A study from Grammarly analyzed movies reviews and IMdb comments, and determined which films and actors have the least amount of errors in their posts – plus, the words they use the most.

When it comes to Best Picture nominees, it's

reviewers who are the most grammatically correct, with just 2.3 mistakes per every 100 words. Fans of frontrunner

come in second place, with 2.5 mistakes. Rounding out the top three is

, with 2.6 mistakes per 100 words.

Things start to fall from there: in fourth place is

, which has 3.2 mistakes per 100 words. The reviews with the worst grammar are those of

As for what they're tweeting about, some of the words are obvious: performance pops up as a favorite in nearly every tweet.

But some are less expected: While Jacob Tremblay is garnering a lot of the attention in

, ironically, his costar (and Oscar frontrunner) Brie Larson's name doesn't appear in the top three most frequently used words in reviews. Same with

's Leonardo DiCaprio, who may be likely to receive the Best Actor trophy, but fails to work his way into the top three most frequently said words in reviews, while his costar Tom Hardy does.

When looking at IMdb comments on the pages of the acting nominees, there are a few surprises, too. Of course, everyone is quick to call Leonardo DiCaprio "amazing," with that word landing in his top three most frequently said terms â¦ but "desperate" ranks up there, too. His BFF, fellow nominee Kate Winslet, fares a little better: Her words are "talented," "versatile" and "legend."

Then, of course, are the responses that make us shake our heads. Nominees Sylvester Stallone and Charlotte Rampling are the same age, but "aging" only appears in her top three words – while he gets "iconic."

However, if it's any consolation, when people talk about Rampling, they have the least amount of errors – just 3.9 per 100 words. On the other hand, Stallone fans rank at the bottom of the list, making 8.9 mistakes per 100 words. Keep reading to see more grammatical goodness:

Summary: They may not win an Oscar, but at least people are speaking properly about them


03/03/2016 AT 12:55 PM EST

The jury in the $75 million lawsuit filed by

over a secretly-recorded peeping tom video will hear a pre-recorded deposition Thursday afternoon from

– a former professional football player and onetime star of

who is currently an ESPN analyst.

Palmer will testify for the defense, a Nashville circuit court spokesperson confirms to PEOPLE. Palmer was initially scheduled to testify in the morning, but due to "equipment issues" the video deposition will be held in the afternoon, the spokesperson says.

Erin Andrews walks into the courtroom Tuesday afternoon

Michael Barrett, Marriott International and others for $75 million after Barrett took a nude video of her in 2008 while at the hotel chain.

Earlier this week, Andrews told a Nashville judge that the footage, which Barrett distributed online, still haunts her.

"I think about it every day," she said. "One of the worst thoughts I have is when I walk around a stadium â¦ there's always that thought, as I walk right by the stands, and I think, 'My God, everyone in this stadium has seen that video.' "

Summary: Jesse Palmer will testify in a video deposition on Thursday


The PIRG report, "Fixing the Broken Textbook Market," suggests that students who are already struggling to afford college may do things that undermine their education to deal with the rising costs of their books.

(Read more: Paper or email? Pros and cons of digital receipts)

That conclusion is based on a survey of more than 2,000 students from more than 150 different campuses across the country conducted last fall.

"Not only are students choosing not to purchase the materials they are assigned by their professor, but they are knowinglyaccepting the risk of a lower grade to avoid paying for the textbook," the study concluded.

(Read more: Colleges with the most bang for the buck: Survey)

PIRG says publishers use "a set of tactics to drive prices skyward," such as releasing new editions every three to four years regardless of changes in the subject material.

"They price these new editions quite high, which in turn dictates the price of used books and rental books," said Ethan Senak, higher education associate at U.S. PIRG. "Even as they move into e-textbooks, publishers incorporate paywalls, expiration dates and printing restrictions that further continue the practices they've used to control the traditional market."

(Read more: Consumers have had enough, 'rage survey' says)

The publishing industry says PIRG got it all wrong.

"We feel this report is highly distorted and biased," said David Anderson, executive director for higher education at the Association of American Publishers. "Comparing online open source content with textbooks is not a fair comparison."

The association said that students can use a website called CourseSmart to rent their textbooks for $200 a semester.

"Digital textbooks are the wave of the future and publishers are adjusting to that in a way that is very affordable for students," Anderson said.

Samantha Zwerling, student body president at the University of Maryland, College Park, sees the cost of textbooks having a negative impact on her classmates.

"Students might not be taking a course with the best professor or a course that they'd really like to take because the materials cost so much," she said. "Textbooks are not only hurting their wallets, but also their grades and their academic decisions."

(Read more: Americans need financial education, report says)

Consumer advocates believe the solution is to expand the market for "open textbooks." These books are written by faculty and peer-reviewed, just like traditional books, but they're free online and to download. They're typically available in print for between $20 and $40.

Irene Duranczyk, a University of Minnesota professor, uses an open textbook for her statistics course. She said the online material is high quality and can be customized to fit her teaching style. The traditional book is $180; the open source one is free.

"Students are very, very appreciative of being assigned a textbook that didn't break the bank," Duranczyk said.

Several major universities have invested in supporting and developing high-quality open textbooks for their students, but the percentage of the market is still minimal.

"Open textbooks have the potential to change education for the better and I plan to use them in my classroom in the semesters ahead," Duranczyk said.

—By CNBC contributor Herb Weisbaum. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter @TheConsumerman or visit The ConsumerMan website.

Summary: The average student in this country now spends around $1,200 a year on books and supplies. A single book can cost as much as $200.


CAMBRIDGE — The Hypocrites are back. In 2012, Saugus native Sean Graney’s Chicago-based troupe brought its adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” to Oberon, with the setting shifted from Cornwall to the Caribbean and beach balls bouncing among the tiki lights. Last year, the Hypocrites turned “The Mikado” into a three-ring circus, with balloons filling in for the beach balls. Now they’re weighing anchor with the last of the three most popular G&S operettas, the nautical parody “H.M.S. Pinafore,” trading in those smart British Navy uniforms for multicolored pajamas and fuzzy slippers. It’s a fun evening if you don’t expect too much original G&S.

These Hypocrites adaptations do come with some constants. The evening runs 80 minutes, with a single, precisely timed one-minute intermission, and the bar is open from start to finish. The show is presented “promenade style,” which means you’re in the same space as the performers, and though you’ll probably find a bench or a bed to sit on, you may have to move from time to time. There’s no separate orchestra; the 10 talented singer-actors play their own instruments, which include guitar, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, violin, clarinet, flute, concertina, accordion, two-octave toy piano, and spoons. Some nimble performers double their parts.

What’s different this time out is that the gender of every character is reversed. Captain Corcoran, the beloved commander of the “Pinafore,” is now Captain Cat Coran (Emily Casey), and the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., First Lord of the Admiralty (even though he’s never been to sea), is Admiral Dame Jo-Ann (Christine Stulik). In William S. Gilbert’s class-spoofing libretto, Sir Joseph has stooped so low as to set his cap at the captain’s daughter, Josephine, but she’s stooped lower still, having fallen for one of the ship’s able (if ignobly born) seamen, Ralph Rackstraw. Here Dame Jo-Ann, sporting a Napoleonic bicorne, has her eye on the captain’s son, Joseph (Doug Pawlik), but he’s smitten with “sail’ress” Ralphina (Dana Omar).

At Oberon, the centerpiece of the set is an octagonal sandbox-like structure filled with pillows and audience members. It’s accessed from the ship’s bridge by a metal slide that everyone is encouraged to try. Tiny stuffed animals get thrown in every direction during the preshow; later, larger stuffed animals appear, and the stage manager, Miranda Anderson, turns up in a teddy-bear suit. The performers wear pajamas with little animals and flowers on them; Joseph, we learn, has named his puppy-dog slippers “Tabitha” and “Gertrude.”

Much of the book has been updated, and the result is not always as funny as what Gilbert wrote. Some of the best songs fall flat as well: Stulik’s Dame Jo-Ann gabbles her way (impressively, to be sure) through the final two verses of “When I Was a Lass,” and the patriotic “He Is an Englishman,” completely rewritten, doesn’t register at all. On the other hand, it’s hard to knock the Hypocrites’ energy, or their discipline. (On Tuesday, it was a good 40 minutes before the first pillow fight broke out, and even then some audience members were complicit.) Pawlik’s Joseph and Omar’s Ralphina are lovely in their “nightingale” duet, accompanying themselves on clarinet and flute; then they get down with Bruno Mars’s “Marry You.”

Casey is a sweet-tempered captain, Stulik an aptly arch Dame Jo-Ann; Kate Carson-Groner is surprisingly upbeat as Dot Dead-Eye. The clever original touches include an appropriate new profession for Li’l Buttercup (Matt Kahler) where, in his tell-all “A Many Years Ago,” “obstetrician” rhymes with “condition” and “patrician.” Three cheers for this “Pinafore”? Well, two at least.

Operetta by William S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. New adaptation by Sean Graney, Matt Kahler, and Andra Velis Simon. Directed by Graney and Thrisa Hodets. Presented by the American Repertory Theater. At Oberon, Cambridge, through March 20. Tickets: $25-$35, 617-547-8300, www.americanrepertorytheater.org

Summary: The Hypocrites’ anything-goes aesthetic is on full display at Oberon in another of the troupe’s Gilbert and Sullivan reinventions.


Behold the New Balance 990 running shoe. Or better yet, don’t — which is probably what the 990 would prefer, anyway.

Square as a pan of brownies, plain as a prison dinner, the 990 — that gray doorstop of sensible American footwear — has built a 33-year career by offering no hint of personality. Deliberately mundane, endearingly dorky, it is that rare piece of fashion that seems to go out of its way to remain unnoticed.

But on the eve of a rare high-profile public appearance — a spokeswoman for Boston-based New Balance confirms that the 990 will be making a cameo in the upcoming Steve Jobs biopic, set for an October release — let us pause to consider this unlikeliest of icons.

Has a piece of footwear ever so discreetly infiltrated the American wardrobe?

A quick stroll through popular culture reveals the extent of its reach. Apple cofounder Jobs, perhaps the world’s most revered computer nerd, helped put the shoe on the map, wearing it frequently during company presentations. Ben Affleck donned a pair to play middle-aged schlub Nick Dunne in the 2014 film “Gone Girl,” a guy who loses his New York magazine job, moves to suburban Missouri and, apparently, buys himself a pair of 990s — before his wife turns up missing.

The 990 has made a foray into national politics, where it seems to enjoy bipartisan support. President Obama, a Democrat not known for adventurous sartorial choices, has owned a pair — custom-made with his name adorning the sides. So has Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who according to the Associated Press wore a variation of the shoe while running the Firecracker 5K in Little Rock, Ark., back in 2004.

You can find it throughout greater Boston, on the feet of the weekend tourists unfolding their maps over on Boylston Street, and the middle-aged father moving his kid into Harvard’s Kirkland House on a recent Saturday, a rug tucked under one arm, a box under the other, wearing his in that all-American-dad kind of way: with shorts and white socks.

Here it is right now, as a matter of fact, anchoring the outfit of 81-year-old Fred Reis, who, as I write this, has just wandered into the Boston Public Library’s Bates Hall wearing a well-worn version of the shoe.

What is it about that shoe, anyway? you ask, catching up to him in the hallway.

Reis, who owns four pairs, pauses to consider the question.

“I guess I can’t give you a good answer,” he says, finally.

For its part, New Balance credits the shoe’s ubiquity to its timeless simplicity, its made-in-the-USA reputation and carefully crafted quality.

“The layperson may look at it and say, ‘It’s just a gray shoe,’ ” explains Jen Lynch, a senior product manager with the company. “But there’s so much more to it than that.”

Maybe, but it’s not always easy to tell.

On the vast wall of athletic shoes inside City Sports in Chestnut Hill, the 990 is barely noticeable amid the flash and fluorescence of today’s most popular running footwear. From its color (gray, the same as fog and sidewalks) to its existential ambiguity (Is it a running shoe? A dress shoe? A casual loafer?), the shoe seems to boast no distinguishable characteristics. It lacks the attitude of Converse’s Chuck Taylor All Star, the stateliness of Sperry’s Top-Sider boat shoe, and the wholesome perfection of an all-white pair of Keds.

Its sensible reputation has grown so pervasive, in fact, that it has occasionally found itself the butt of jokes. “Saturday Night Live” tackled the 990 a couple years back (“New Balance: Shoes made for running, but worn by chubby white guys in their late 30s to early 40s”). And at the website Stuff White People Like, the gray New Balance sneaker checks in at No. 96, behind rugby and graduate school but ahead of scarves and Frisbee sports. White people, the site tells us, have long been known to discard their foot-based fads almost as quickly as they adopt them: Uggs, Birkenstocks, Crocs.

“There is, however, one exception,” the site notes. “New Balance running shoes.”

Even on the occasions it has reason to let its hair down a bit, to get a little crazy, the 990 comes across stiffer than a new pair of Levi’s. When it debuted in 1982, it came with a marketing slogan: “On a scale of 1000, this shoe is a 990.”

You see that? It left itself room for improvement.

And yet, as the years have gone by, as flashier models have come and inevitably gone, the 990 marches on — with no signs of slowing.

Though New Balance declines to provide sales figures, senior product manager Eric Vassall acknowledged recently that the 990’s current iteration, the 990v3, is among the company’s top sellers. And while multiple variations and even customizable options are now available, the gray version, which retails for around $155, is easily the most popular. The company is slated to release a new edition of the 990 next spring, with an advance release set for the Washington D.C./Baltimore area.

All of which makes you wonder whether you might be missing something. Maybe we’ve got the 990 figured all wrong. Maybe there’s a method to its mundane-ness. Maybe the 990 knows exactly what it’s doing. Maybe it always has.

Look closely. There, on the side of the shoe, the letter “N” stitched inconspicuously into the suede — tilted just a bit, knowingly.


ON May 30, the Heronswood Nursery gardens in Kingston, Wash., the horticultural paradise that Daniel J. Hinkley and Robert Jones started 19 years ago with a single truckload of rare plants  which eventually grew into a collection that would change the face of American gardening  were closed by W. Atlee Burpee & Company, the nursery's corporate owner.

Andrew Councill for The New York Times

Heronswood was created by Dan Hinkley, on left, and Robert Jones.

Mr. Hinkley said in a telephone interview that George Ball, Burpee's C.E.O., and three of his staff members came that day from Burpee's Pennsylvania properties to dismiss Mr. Hinkley and most of the nursery's 24 employees. He and Mr. Jones, who was retained until the end of June as a consultant, said they spent most of that Tuesday afternoon comforting distraught employees at the home they share in nearby Indianola, Wash. (Although it is perhaps surprising that Mr. Jones should stay on, even for a few days, he said it was in the interest of Heronswood and all concerned that he do so.)

Mr. Hinkley said that there had been early signs of trouble after Burpee bought Heronswood six years ago, but that the nursery had continued to operate pretty much as it had. Still, he said, he and Mr. Jones spent "six years waiting for the crash you know is coming."

Mr. Ball said the move is a business matter. "We are moving the nursery, not closing it, because it was losing money," he said by phone on Saturday from Fordhook Farm, the Burpee homestead and testing grounds, in Doylestown, Pa., where 1,000 of Heronswood's 6,000 plants had been moved over the past few years. Thousands of others will be moved to a 50-acre site in Willow Hill, Pa., and a 30-acre site in Selbyville, Del.

Thomas C. Cooper, the former longtime editor of Horticulture magazine, who has known Mr. Hinkley and Mr. Jones for years, said he sees Burpee's decision as a mistake. "This is not a brand like Tide, where you can swap out C.E.O.'s and move corporate headquarters and the brand goes on," he said. "There is no Heronswood without Dan and Robert."

It is an increasingly familiar story, in this industry and others: a small specialty nursery known for unique plants is bought by a larger company hoping to take advantage of its cutting-edge appeal and to get new plants for mass marketing. What ensues is invariably a loss of diversity  as the new owner narrows the selection of plants, choosing mainly those it thinks will have mass appeal  and, often, a loss of the vision that made the nursery attractive to begin with.

For example, in 1993, Shepherd and Ellen Ogden sold Cook's Garden, a mail-order house in Londonderry, Vt., known for the seeds the couple found in Europe, to the Park Seed Company, a larger mail-order house in Greenwood, S.C., which later sold Cook's Garden to Burpee. Cook's Garden has gradually lost its ahead-of-the-curve reputation. And in 1988, Renee Shepherd sold Shepherd's Garden Seeds, a small mail-order nursery in Felton, Calif., with unusual vegetable and flower seeds, to White Flower Farm, a much larger mail-order nursery in Litchfield, Conn., which eventually abandoned the line as a losing proposition. She later started a new mail-order seed business, reneesgarden.com.

Heronswood, with its lushly planted grounds, was a magnet for serious garden people. "It was like visiting the Holy Grail," said Deborah Nevins, a New York garden designer. And it was very influential.

Mr. Hinkley and Mr. Jones "refashioned American horticulture," said Wayne Winterrowd, a garden designer in Readsboro, Vt., who, with his partner, Joe Eck, created the famous five-acre North Hill garden in Readsboro. "There are so many plants here that simply never grew in America, or England either, until Dan collected the seed."

The Heronswood catalog, a 250-page list of thousands of plants with cliffhanging reports of Mr. Hinkley's latest plant-collecting adventures in the Himalayas or South America, had a huge cult following. "His experience was so fascinating and real, like reading Julia Child's," Ms. Nevins said.

Summary: On May 30, the Heronswood Nursery gardens in Kingston, Wash., the horticultural paradise of rare plants, were closed by W. Atlee Burpee & Company, the nursery's corporate owner.


If you had told fourteen-year-old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not-too-distant future he would be considered one of the top hundred movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to become a priest. None the less, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in July 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become Tom Cruise, one of the highest paid and most sought-after actors in screen history. Tom is the only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer, both originally from Louisville, Kentucky. He is of Irish, German, and English descent.Tom spent his boyhood eternally on the move, and by the time he was fourteen, had attended fifteen different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next fifteen years of his life are the stuff of legends. He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences. Within five years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top grossing films of the decade including Top Gun; The Color of Money, Rain Man and Born on the Fourth of July. By the 1990s and 2000s he was one of the highest paid actors in the world earning an average fifteen million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, Mission: Impossible, Mission: Impossible II, Mission: Impossible III, Vanilla Sky, Minority Report, The Last Samurai, Collateral, War of the Worlds, and Jerry Maguire - for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor.In 1990, he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church Of Scientology, stating that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. He has been married to actresses Mimi Rogers (from 1987 to 1990), Nicole Kidman (from 1990 to 2001), with whom he has two children, and Katie Holmes (from 2006 to 2012), with whom he has a daughter. A kind and thoughtful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth. See full bio on IMDb »

Summary: Tom Cruise on TMZ, your go-to source for celebrity news, photos, & videos. Latest Story: Tom Cruise -- Cutting Ties With L.A. ... Sells Beverly Hills Mansion


are DONE ... the two gorgeous people have announced they're splitting up after 3 years of marriage.

O & M -- who started dating back in 2007 -- released a joint statement through their reps saying, "They have been amicably separated for the past few months. After six years together, they have recently decided to formalize their separation."

"Despite this being the end of their marriage, they love, support and respect each other as both parents of their son and as family."

The couple has one kid together -- their son Flynn, who was born in 2011.

The announcement is pretty shocking considering Miranda and Orlando were spotted out in public together -- smiling and laughing on October 7 in NYC.

And just a couple of months before that, Orlando and Miranda were joking about each other to the media -- with Miranda claiming O has a foot fetish.

We shot Orlando back in July and asked him about it -- and he

It's unclear what went south between then and now.

The divorce could get messy when it comes to money -- since they have a ton. According to Forbes, Miranda is the second highest paid model in the world -- raking in more than $7 mil in the past year. And Orlando Bloom's got "Hobbit" money.

It's unclear if the couple has officially filed for divorce at this point -- but it seems like that's just a matter of time.

Summary: Orlando Bloom and Miranda Kerr are DONE ... the two gorgeous people have announced they're splitting up after 3 years of marriage. O & M -- who…


The wacko wanna-be music exec accused of harassing Ashanti will be able to defend himself at his upcoming trial, a judge ruled Thursday.

Devar Hurd will get to play “quarterback,” the judge ruled — allowing Hurd the chance to possibly confront the sexy singer at trial.

“You’ll be the quarterback. He’s the running-back. That’s it,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon said after a long back-and-forth in which the weirdo and the jurist started referring to the attorney role as “quarterback.”

“It’s the Super Bowl,” the grinning defendant said after getting his way.

Hurd’s actual attorney, Glenn Hardy, will take a backseat and become his “legal advisor.”

Solomon tried to convince Hurd to stick with Hardy, an experienced lawyer, when it came time to run the show.

Hurd managed to prove he was competent enough to exercise his right to self-representation at his upcoming trial for felony stalking and related counts.

Hurd’s first legal cameo will be at pre-trial hearings in his case, which are set for Wednesday. Hardy didn’t represent him “the way I want, pointing things out that I want him to point out,” Hurd griped Thursday.

In spilling the alleged details of his life to Solomon, Hurd talked up his credentials.

“Currently I’m a songwriter. I do stage and entertainment. I do shows all over the place,” Hurd said.

He said he became an audio tech after getting out of jail in 2010 for harassing the star through raunchy text messages and unwanted calls by sending them to her mom.

“I’ve done Rockefeller Center, I’ve done BAM ... that’s the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I worked at the Barclays Center, numerous shows and events... That’s what I do. I’m an audio tech,” he said.

He was arrested last year in the most recent case for allegedly tweeting at Ashanti, in violation of orders of protection.

Summary: Devar Hurd will get to be the "quarterback" at the Manhattan Supreme Court stalking trial, Judge Charles Solomon ruled Thursday.


NETTIE GEFFNER has talked her way into dozens of Broadway premieres, so there was no way she was going to miss opening night of ''The Lion King.'' She positioned herself outside the New Amsterdam Theater, on 42d Street, observant, patient, determined. With a winning smile and grandmotherly sweetness, she methodically queried the black-tie swells stepping out of their limos: ''Pardon me, any extra tickets?''

A well-dressed man noticed. He counted his stack of tickets, one by one, then the number of people in his party, then the tickets again. Ms. Geffner held her breath. He handed her one. She was in.

The 76-year-old grandmother is perhaps the most guileless member of New York's community of the self-invited. She's at the other end of the spectrum from, say, Joseph Dell'Amore, who heads out nightly armed with fake press tags, a camera and enough chutzpah to fill a Champagne bucket. In between them lie an oddball collection of poseurs, wannabes and freebie artists inhabiting a murky world of faked letterheads, copious begging and old-fashioned gate-crashing.

In New York, with more concerts, openings and parties per hour than almost anywhere, getting in without being asked has become a cottage industry. It's marked by competition, cunning and a cadre -- security guards, doormen and press agents, to name a few -- who are paid to keep the unbidden at bay. Many consider it a point of honor as well as a livelihood; they can be as gritty and determined as their nemeses.

The uninvited are drawn by the limelight's glare, the elbow-rubbing with stars, the tinkling of cocktails, the platters of shrimp and the sheer thrill of being somewhere they're not supposed to be, all for free.

These two sides have drawn a line at the velvet ropes. It's a battle that shows no signs of letting up.

The Learning Annex even offers ''Gate Crashing 101,'' which promises to instruct novices in the fine art of getting on ''the 'A' list at celebrity parties, movie premieres, concerts, opera and theatrical events,'' and getting ''past bouncers at hot nightclubs, restaurants and bars'' to ''enjoy gourmet cuisine -- for free!''

Why are the uninvited so ubiquitous? ''It's about identity, boundaries and fame,'' said Gina Luria Walker, chairwoman of the New School's social sciences department. ''New York is where tensions in the culture are most vivid. People think that by rubbing shoulders with a famous person, you have somehow become part of the Great Culture.''

''Andy Warhol was more predictive than anyone knew,'' Ms. Luria Walker said. ''With so much going on today, there are many more ways to get 15 minutes, and many more people who feel entitled to 15 minutes. Who decides who gets in and who doesn't? Some people are now saying, 'I choose me.' ''

A Manhattan psychotherapist, Mark Sichel, sees a strong streak of low self-esteem in most crashers. ''It all comes down to narcissism, and all narcissists have poor self-esteem,'' he said. ''Poor self-esteem masks itself in feelings of entitlement, grandiosity and exploitiveness.''

Be careful, though, whom you call a crasher. Ashak Rawji, a photographer whose work has appeared in The Daily News and Country magazine, is well known in party circles. But Hamptons Magazine last August published a photo of him with a female friend at a Bridgehampton charity benefit. The caption called them ''party crashers.''

''I am no crasher,'' Mr. Rawji said. ''I'm a legitimate photographer.'' At the benefit, he said, he was a paying guest. So he filed a lawsuit accusing Hamptons Magazine of defamation and slander and seeking $25,000 in damages. Calls to the magazine were not returned.

Howard Girsky, who teaches the Learning Annex's crasher course and is a reporter for The Queens Courier, a weekly, tells students how to get assignments and credentials from news organizations to cover concerts, plays, parties, etc. He has high hopes: ''I want them to take their skills and go international. You know, the globalization of freeloading.''

Sometimes getting into an exclusive event comes down to asking. Nettie Geffner has no problem with that. At ''The Lion King,'' she sat in the fifth row, near Kathie Lee Gifford. She adored the show. At curtain call, the gentleman who had given her the ticket appeared onstage, next to Elton John.

''Who's that man?'' she asked the woman next to her. ''It's Tim Rice,'' one of the show's lyricists, the woman replied.

Mr. Rice, interviewed by phone in London, said he remembered the evening, and Ms. Geffner, well. ''There were many people outside asking for tickets, but that nice old lady caught my eye,'' he recalled. ''The world is full of scroungers. Fine. I'm a scrounger, too.''

At the opening of ''The Capeman'' on Jan. 29, three people were spotted seeking free tickets. One was Nettie Geffner. A man in a tuxedo obliged. ''I'm glad it's in the orchestra,'' she said. ''I don't like to sit upstairs.'' A woman with silver hair scurried by, heading for a free seat. She didn't want to talk. ''She's sort of a competitor,'' Ms. Geffner said. ''She's at all these things, but I don't know her. She gets in 100 percent of the time. I only get in about 80 percent. But, of course, I'm much more charming!


06/05/2016 AT 06:05 PM EDT

Pass us the peanut butter and Oreos, please.

just took us back to the '90s.

Lohan, 29, took fans on a trip down Memory Lane when she revisited one of the homes from

over the weekend. In the Instagram photo, a smiling Lohan is dressed in a white blouse, ripped jeans, moccasins and sunnies.

The classic white house is located in London and does not seem to have aged a bit. The one big difference? The address shows the number "23," but Lohan reminds her Instagram followers, "but it was number 7 in the movie."

Lohan has been splitting her time between New York and

in recent months. Since the move, the actress has started dating Russian business mogul

and a source told PEOPLE she is is in much better spirits since leaving Los Angeles.

"She sounds more humble and much more calm," says the source. "I think it was good for her to get away from her family – and she has said [moving to London] was the best thing that ever happened."

Summary: The now-London-based actress just Instagrammed an epic throwback.


Johnny Cash's three enduring obsessions are summarized in the title of a Cash retrospective released by Sony in 2000: "Love, God, Murder." But "Walk the Line," the film about his life, deals prominently with just two of those three themes: it is a love story about Mr. Cash and June Carter that takes place before they were married, and it shows Mr. Cash onstage ripping through some of his songs about brutality and its consequences.

Johnny Cash at a Campus Crusade for Christ concert in the 70's.

For a movie that is so scrupulously accurate in so many respects, "Walk the Line" makes surprisingly little of the abiding faith that Mr. Cash always credited, along with Ms. Carter, for saving his life.

"That dimension of Cash's life, which was present all the way through, was absent," said the Rev. C. Clifton Black, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, who criticized the film for that reason in a review for the magazine The Christian Century. "I was stunned."

The film  whose star, Joaquin Phoenix, and co-star, Reese Witherspoon, are up for the major acting Oscars tomorrow  does show Mr. Cash auditioning by playing a gospel song for Sam Phillips at Sun Records and, as he kicks drugs, attending church with Ms. Carter. And the events portrayed in "Walk the Line" took place when Mr. Cash was gorging on amphetamines, before he became more vocal about his beliefs and began appearing at crusades with the Rev. Billy Graham.

But faith had been a vital part of Mr. Cash's life since he answered an altar call as a boy, according to "The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash" by Dave Urbanski, and his beliefs gave a moral weight to his songs about outlaws and outcasts. He performed gospel music all his life and left Sun Records for Columbia in 1958 partly because Mr. Phillips would not allow him to record an album of hymns. At the famous Folsom Prison concert that serves as a framing device for the movie, Mr. Cash is shown performing "Cocaine Blues," but Mr. Black pointed out that the show concluded with "Greystone Chapel," a devotional song written by an inmate in the audience.

"He was a really committed Christian all his life," said Patrick Carr, who co-wrote Mr. Cash's 1997 autobiography. (The film was partly adapted from that book, but Mr. Carr was not part of the deal.) Mr. Cash even saw his drug addiction as his metaphorical years in the wilderness. "As he was going further into addiction, he knew he was traveling away from God; that's how he thought about it," Mr. Carr said. "He was feeling that he was completely separated from God, and that was the worst thing."

At the nadir of his addiction, Mr. Cash went to Nickajack Cave in Tennessee, crawled in as far as he could and essentially lay down to die. When he did, he had the sensation that "I was going to die at God's time, not mine," he wrote in his autobiography. When he walked out, he told his mother that God had prevented him from killing himself.

It is not surprising that the scene is not in the film, if only because an internal monologue in a pitch-black space is hardly the stuff of which onscreen drama is made. But several Christian writers have criticized the film for omitting the role of Mr. Cash's beliefs in delivering him from his demons.

"His faith was primary in getting him over that problem," Mr. Urbanski said.

Mr. Black and others have suggested that the role of religion in Mr. Cash's life was minimized because Hollywood generally shies away from such subject matter. But the issue could have just as much to do with the practical limits on making a satisfying film. "I wanted to make a movie about Johnny Cash and June Carter and the birth of rock 'n' roll," said James Mangold, who directed "Walk the Line" and wrote it with Gill Dennis. So, he explained, he tried to use Mr. Cash's love for Ms. Carter as a symbol for various forms of redemption.

"June was a figure of redemption," Mr. Mangold said, "beautiful in the way that God's light is beautiful."

Certainly, the movie presents an image of Johnny Cash that would appeal to a secular, urban audience: that of an outlaw who struggled to control his worst impulses. It's the same sort of image conveyed in Mr. Cash's "American Recordings" albums, produced by Rick Rubin late in the singer's career. "The portrayal of Cash in the movie is in keeping with the way he was marketed during the Rick Rubin years," said Bill Friskics-Warren, the author of "I'll Take You There: Pop Music and the Urge for Transcendence" and a music journalist (and occasional contributor to The New York Times) who interviewed Mr. Cash toward the end of his life. "He felt that he had contributed to the narrowing of his legacy  not that he didn't embrace the outlaw hero persona, but that it may have removed a dimension or two, such as his devotional side or his humorous side."

Perhaps Mr. Cash's life is simply too big for one movie. He accomplished and stood for so much that when he died in 2003, at 71, different fans could remember him in different ways. In Nashville, he was seen as a dignified patriarch. To baby boomers, he was a country icon who identified with the values of the counterculture. To some younger fans, who discovered him through "American Recordings," he was a consummate outlaw whose lyrics about violence influenced gangsta rap. (Hardly anyone chooses to remember that most of his murder ballads and love songs were not nearly as popular as the comic novelty song "A Boy Named Sue.")

"People remember Johnny Cash differently depending on where they encountered him," said Richard Maltby Jr., the director and creator of "Ring of Fire," a Broadway show based on Mr. Cash's music. Mr. Maltby shows several different sides of Mr. Cash, including his cornpone humor in "Flushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart" and his faith in "The Man Comes Around," a haunting song about the end times that Mr. Cash wrote toward the end of his life. But it could be argued that he underplays the bad behavior that makes up a major part of "Walk the Line."

It is hard to know what Johnny Cash would make of any debate about his legacy, though he was obviously happy enough with the movie's script to approve it. But he was far too complex a figure to be claimed by either side in the culture wars. Although he was guided by faith, he never cared much for organized religion; he had a sense of himself as deeply flawed, but not beyond hope of redemption. Those contradictions, as much as the compelling story in "Walk the Line," are what make him fascinating.

"Even when he was taking amphetamines," Mr. Urbanski said, "he was doing gospel songs."

Summary: "Walk the Line" makes surprisingly little of the abiding faith that Johnny Cash always credited, along with June Carter, for saving his life.