It's No. 1 St. John Bosco vs. No. 2 in made-for-ESPN Vegas showdown

Television has been embracing the idea of giving national exposure to high school athletes ever since ESPN2 let the nation know about a teenager named LeBron James back in 2002 with a telecast of a high school basketball game.

The latest national broadcast is set for Friday at 6 p.m. from Las Vegas, where unbeaten Bishop Gorman (5-0), ranked No. 2 by USA Today, is hosting No. 1 Bellflower St. John Bosco (3-0) in a football game specifically arranged for ESPN.

Illinois-based Paragon Marketing Group, which is collaborating on 24 high school football games to be shown on ESPN networks this season, put the two schools together months ago and is paying transportation and lodging costs along with a four-figure rights fee for St. John Bosco's participation in what figures to be one of the best high school football matchups of the season.

Rashid Ghazi, a partner at Paragon, helped put together the basketball game featuring James and his St. Vincent-St. Mary high school team of Akron, Ohio, in 2002 that attracted 2.2 million viewers and a 1.6 rating, one of ESPN2's biggest basketball audiences to that date.

Since then, interest has only risen for any kind of information about top teenage athletes who could be future college and pro prospects.

"College recruiting has gone from a local story to a national story," Ghazi said. "It's letting people see future college players."

ESPN's strategy is to highlight high schools with top college prospects so that fans of the college teams that are recruiting those prospects will tune in.

St. John Bosco is the ideal candidate for a national broadcast because its quarterback, Josh Rosen, has signed scholarship papers with UCLA, and his presence will help attract viewers curious to see what kind of skills he'll be able to offer next season at the collegiate level.

It doesn't hurt that among Bishop Gorman's players are the son of rapper Snoop Dogg (receiver Cordell Broadus) and the grandson of boxing legend Muhammad Ali (running back Biaggio Ali Walsh). Also, standout tight end Alize Jones is a UCLA commit.

Bishop Gorman expects a packed stadium of 7,000, and, being in Las Vegas, the Gaels know how to put on a good show.

"I'm sure it will be crazy," Bishop Gorman Coach Tony Sanchez said. "We've played so many of these games. It's a pretty awesome environment. It's as good as it gets for high school."

St. John Bosco is used to traveling. It went on a trip to Utah in 2012 and went to Hawaii last month. The Hawaii trip saw Coach Jason Negro and football operations director Jessie Christensen serve as travel agents, having to arrange airfare and organize the trip.

"I'm going to get my master's in travel," Negro said. "It's certainly a lot of work to put 105 people together for a six-day trip to Hawaii."

This time Paragon is taking care of everything and the team will be riding on a charter bus to Las Vegas and staying at the Palace Station Hotel for two nights.

"We're trying to give our kids an opportunity to play against different people," Negro said. "It generates a lot of energy and excitement around campus."

St. John Bosco is already planning a trip next year to New Jersey.

Ghazi said televising high school football nationally also opens a window on the unique rivalries and traditions of individual schools and communities.

"In order to attract viewers, we need compelling stories and great players who will play at the next level and great teams," he said.

Everything appears to have come together for the matchup of Bishop Gorman and St. John Bosco.

Except, do they have a TV blimp in Las Vegas?

Follow Eric Sondheimer on Twitter @LATSondheimer

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Man accused of abducting Virginia woman is held without bail in Texas

A man wanted in the case of a missing University of Virginia sophomore briefly appeared in a Texas court on Thursday morning and was ordered held without bond while he awaits extradition, officials said.

Jesse Leroy Matthew Jr., 32, appeared briefly via video link before a Galveston County judge to hear the charges on which he was arrested Wednesday, a Galveston County deputy sheriff told the Los Angeles Times. Matthew is charged with a fugitive count and with giving false information to an officer.

Judge Mark Henry set bond at $1,500 on the false information charge but held Matthew without bond on the fugitive count.

Matthew is wanted in connection with the disappearance of Hannah Graham, 18, a sophomore who went missing on Sept. 13 in Charlottesville, Va. Virginia police this week announced they had probable cause to arrest Matthew on a charge of abduction with intent to defile.

Matthew fled but was arrested in the sparsely populated community of Gilchrist, Texas. Police received a call reporting a suspicious person and a deputy found a man who had pitched a tent on the beach with his car parked nearby, the Galveston County Daily News reported.

In his court appearance, Matthew wore a dark green jumpsuit and handcuffs. Matthew asked the judge a few short questions and expressed concern that his clothes were taken from him when he was booked into the Galveston County jail. "I should be able to have some kind of clothing," he said.

Henry told him that his jumpsuit was sufficient clothing and that his personal items would be returned later.

After the court session, Henry told KPRC-TV that he expected Matthew would be extradited to Virginia in a day or two.

Follow @latimesmuskal for national news.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Kids get free admission to San Diego museums, theme parks in October

If you plan to explore San Diego with your children, go in October. The city's Kids Free in October program provides free tickets for children at more than 30 museums in the area.

The San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld are also taking part in the month of freebies. Adults pay their way, but it's still a nice break for the little ones at some of the city's biggest attractions.

The deal: The promotion lets two kids enter participating attractions free with a paid adult ticket. The San Diego Museum Council and Time Warner Cable are partnering to present the promotion, now in its fourth year.

Here's how it works: Two children 12 years old and younger receive free museum admission for every paid adult ticket. You must present a coupon at each museum you want to visit, but you can print out as many as you like.

Participating museums include the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla (usually $12.50 for kids), the San Diego Air & Space Museum (usually $9 for kids) and the Marston House Museum & Gardens (usually $4 for kids).

When: The museum offer is good Oct. 1-31.

Info: San Diego Museum Council Kids Free in October

More freebies: Amtrak and other San Diego attractions get into act too, but the rules are different from the museum program. Check out these offers below.

--Kids ride for free on Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner rail service to three San Diego destinations during October. Children 2 to 15 years old receive free tickets with each adult paid fare to and from stations in Oceanside, Old Town and Downtown. You can board in San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles or any stop in between. Info: Kids Ride Free to San Diego.

The San Diego Zoo and Safari Park gives free admission to children 11 and younger at both locations. Tickets to each usually cost $36 for children; 12-and-older tickets cost $46 per person. Info: San Diego Zoo and Safari Park Kids Free in October.

SeaWorld San Diego allows children 3 to 9 years old free entry with a paid adult ticket during October. The special applies to Dine With Shamu and Dolphin and Beluga Interaction Programs too. Info: SeaWorld San Diego Special Offer.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Vintage Sears & Roebuck Craftsman for sale in Venice

A 1923 Craftsman-style home from Sears & Roebuck is for sale in Venice at $2.495 million.

The catalog company sold houses, complete with precut and fitted materials, through its Modern Homes mail-order program from 1908 until 1940, according to Sears Archives. Although this house has been updated and adapted over the years, it maintains many period details.

In recent decades the two-story home has changed hands several times, selling for $825,000 in 2002, $600,000 in 2000 and $82,000 20 years ago.

A rosebush-lined brick walk through the yard leads to the front porch, which opens to a living room with a fireplace. The kitchen features a vintage stove and custom cabinets. French doors at the back of the home open to a rear garden.

The 2,330 square feet of living space also includes a den, a dining room, a central hall, three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The upstairs master suite has a second wood-burning fireplace and a claw-foot tub.

Winston Cenac and Golda Savage of Bulldog Realtors are the listing agents.

Twitter: @LATHotProperty

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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How the Dodgers have fared in the NLDS

The Dodgers clinched an appearance in the National League Division Series with their win over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday -- the ninth time they will appear in the NLDS. Here's how they fared the other eight times:

1981

Dodgers 3, Houston 2

In the first NLDS -- held because the season was split in two by a players strike -- the Dodgers rallied from a 2-0 series deficit to win the final three games at Dodger Stadium. Jerry Reuss outpitched Nolan Ryan, 4-0, in Game 5. Steve Garvey was the batting star, hitting .368 with two home runs.

1995

Cincinnati 3, Dodgers 0

The Reds outclassed the Dodgers, outscoring them 22-7. The lone bright spot was Eric Karros, who had two home runs in Game 2.

1996

Atlanta 3, Dodgers 0

The Dodgers wasted a strong pitching effort by Ramon Martinez in Game 1 when reliever Antonio Osuna gave up a home run to Javy Lopez in the 10th inning of a 2-1 Braves victory. Ismael Valdez and Hideo Nomo were the losing pitchers in Games 2 and 3.

2004

St. Louis 3, Dodgers 1

After failing to win a playoff game since 1988, the Dodgers finally broke through against the Cardinals when Jose Lima pitched a five-hit shutout in Game 3.

2006

New York 3, Dodgers 0

The tone for the series was set in Game 1, when Jeff Kent and J.D. Drew were thrown out at the plate on the same play -- after a double by Russell Martin -- in a game the Dodgers lost, 6-5.

2008

Dodgers 3, Chicago 0

The Dodgers finally won a division series, with the key blow coming in Game 1 when James Loney hit a grand slam to center field in the fifth inning. The Dodgers never trailed in any game after that.

2009

Dodgers 3, St. Louis 0

The Dodgers rallied with two runs in the ninth of a 3-2 Game 2 victory when Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday lost a two-out liner hit by Loney in the lights and dropped the ball for an error.

2013

Dodgers 3, Atlanta 1

After splitting the first two games in Atlanta, the Dodgers came home and routed the Braves, 13-6, behind homers from Juan Uribe and Carl Crawford, then won the series with a 4-3 Game 4 victory. Crawford hit two homers in Game 4, but the key blow was Uribe's two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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More 'Maze Runner': James Dashner penning prequel for 2016

Author James Dashner is writing a prequel to "The Maze Runner." The book, slated for 2016 with publisher Random House Children's Books, will be titled "The Fever Code."

Dashner has already written four books in the series -- "The Maze Runner," "Scorch Trials" and "The Death Cure" as a trilogy, plus one prequel, "The Kill Order." But he has more of the story to explore. 

"From the very beginning, I've always wanted to write a prequel about Thomas, Teresa, Newt, Minho, Alby and all the Gladers that leads up to the very moment Thomas enters the Box," Dashner said in a release. "There are so many things hinted at that will be fun to reveal in depth. For years, fans have made it abundantly and enthusiastically clear that they want the same thing, so now seems like the perfect time to give readers the story of how the Maze began."

The news comes as Dashner may be garnering even more readers. The movie adaptation of Dashner's "The Maze Runner" led the box office last weekend, taking in $32.5 million.

Before the weekend was out, the movie sequel, "The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials" was announced.

Because film will arrive in September 2015, before Dashner's prequel, it's possible the films will steer even more readers to the book series.

Book news and more; I'm @paperhaus on Twitter

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Freddie Mac: Mortgage rates drop a notch; 30-year averaging 4.2%

Mortgage interest rates eased slightly this week amid mixed housing data, with Freddie Mac's survey showing that lenders were offering 30-year fixed-rate loans to well-qualified borrowers at an average of 4.2%, down from 4.23% last week.

The average rate for 15-year fixed-rate home loans edged down from 3.37% to 3.36%, while the start rates for adjustable loans with the first five years fixed rose to 3.08% from 3.06%.

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac's chief economist, took note of the mixed picture in the housing markets in announcing the survey results Thursday morning.

While sales of new single-family homes surged 18% in August, sales of previously owned homes dropped by about 2%.

Meantime, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, reported that house prices rose just 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis in July, and were up 4.4% over a year earlier.

Freddie Mac, which buys home loans from lenders and guarantees payments to investors in securities backed by the mortgages, has been a ward of the federal government since the financial crisis.

It asks lenders each week about the terms they are offering to low-risk borrowers on mortgages up to $417,000.

The borrowers in this week's survey would have paid 0.5% of the loan amount in upfront lender fees and discount points. Many borrowers pay additional points to lower their rates.

Third-party expenses usually paid by the borrower, such as for appraisals and title insurance, are not included in Freddie Mac's weekly snapshot.

Follow @ScottReckard for news about banks, home loans and related topics

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Atty. Gen. Eric Holder to step down

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr.  plans to resign, a White House official said today.

Holder has served in President Obama's Cabinet since the start of his presidency.

Holder had been rumored to be mulling an exit for months and many expected him to have already departed.  But Obama, a longtime friend, made a personal appeal for him to stay on. Holder revealed in a recent  interview with The Times that he wrote Obama a lengthy memo outlining "a second-term agenda for the Justice Department."

But many predicted Holder would leave by the end of the year , while Democrats remain in control of the Senate, to make it easier for Obama to replace him. Democrats are at risk of losing control of the Senate in the upcoming midterm election.

Holder has had a rocky tenure  as the nation's first African American attorney general. He has faced near-constant calls for his resignation from conservative lawmakers, who most recently accused him of dragging his feet in investigating allegations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted tea party groups. But some progressives also feel let down by what they see as his failure to more actively pursue civil rights policies.

A Justice Department source confirmed Thursday that Holder was expected to go to the White House later in the day for a formal announcement.

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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'Pride's' Bill Nighy sees similar struggles for gays, striking miners

When Bill Nighy was a young actor at the National Theatre in London, older gay cast members would talk to him about the country's harsh policies, which forced them to stay in the closet.

Being gay, recalled the rangy 64-year-old British actor, "just stopped being an imprisonable offense in my lifetime. They could get seven years for any public display of affection. One of the things I don't understand is why [the government] should feel they should get involved in anybody else's sex life."

Even when the fear of imprisonment ended, the discrimination didn't. "It was only 30 years ago that a national newspaper in England could describe the gay community as the slime of society and no one commented," said Nighy, who became a favorite with American audiences in such films as "Love Actually" and "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."

He spoke earlier this month from Toronto where his latest movie, "Pride," was screening at the film festival. In the true-life drama, which opens Friday, Nighy plays Cliff, a gay, shy former miner who has kept his sexual orientation a secret out of fear that coming out will leave his life in shambles.

Set during the yearlong national miners' strike in 1984, "Pride" revolves around the birth of the Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners movement and how these activists help the mining community of Onllwyn in South Wales. Though many of the union members and townspeople are initially antagonistic to the group, Cliff and several of the women in the town — led by Imelda Staunton's spirited Hefina — warmly embrace the activists.

Thirty years ago, according to Nighy, the miners were being treated as badly as the gay and lesbian community. "The miners' strike was for the most part misrepresented at the time," he said.

"It's beyond refreshing to get a movie that treats these decent men and women who worked in the mining community with dignity and respect," said Nighy, who comes from working-class roots. "They were being beaten up by the police and being invented as enemies of the state."

The conservative government, led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Nighy added, "wanted to crush the trade union movement and they started with the miners because they were the strongest."

If it wasn't for Nighy and Staunton, "Pride" might not have been made. "The film couldn't be green lit until it had some recognizable actors," noted Matthew Warchus, who directed the CBS Films release.

Ben Schnetzer, who plays gay activist Mark Ashton, said working with Nighy was a "master class in film acting — getting to watch him work and craft his character."

Since his real-life counterpart is dead, Nighy got some insight into Cliff from chatting with surviving members of the mining community. There was some heartening news that Nighy discovered.

"Apparently subsequent to these events he found a partner," he said.

One of the most poignant scenes in "Pride" is when Cliff comes out to Hefina while they are making sandwiches and she tells him matter-of-factly she's known his secret for nearly two decades.

The actors, said Warchus, didn't need any direction for that sequence.

"I set up the camera," Warchus said. "I said, 'Do you want to rehearse?' And they said, 'No, let's give it a go.' And that was that. What you see is the first take."

Nighy said he often has to "pinch himself" over his good fortune of working multiple times with such noted writers as Richard Curtis, Tom Stoppard and especially David Hare.

"I've worked with David Hare all my life," he said. "I think he counted the other day and it comes up to 10 times."

Three years ago, Nighy starred as the cool and rather sexy — at least to the over-40 crowd — master spy Johnny Worricker in Hare's thriller "Page Eight," which aired on PBS' "Masterpiece Contemporary." This November, Nighy returns to PBS as Worricker in two new thrillers written and directed by Hare: "Turks & Caicos" and "Salting the Battlefield."

Nighy gets to work opposite Christopher Walken in "Turks & Caicos," with the latter playing a quirky character who may or may not be a CIA operative. "He is a hero of mine," Nighy said of Walken. "I think probably he is the funniest man I ever met in my life."

Nighy also teamed up with Hare this year in the London West End revival of Hare's romantic drama "Skylight," which the actor originally did 17 years ago. That production, which also stars Carey Mulligan, is heading to Broadway in the spring.

He'll also be returning next year with Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in the dramedy "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel." Richard Gere is checking into the sequel to the surprise 2011 breakout hit "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel."

Though Nighy worked steadily in theater, TV and movies, his career didn't achieve international recognition until his award-winning turn as a washed-up rock star in Curtis' 2003 comedy "Love Actually."

Nighy, who was 53 when "Love Actually" was released, acknowledged he really doesn't know if he could have handled that type of success as a younger man.

"I wasn't very good at being young," he noted. "I made a bit of a meal of it. If I had known if things were going to work out, I would have arranged to be more cheerful along the way."

susan.king@latimes.com

Copyright © 2014, Los Angeles Times

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Wild architecture makes German cinema come alive at LACMA

Movies can be great. Art can be great. But put them together in a museum exhibition, and the combination can be not-so-great. In fact, it can be downright tedious: acres of wall space jammed with photos and film posters, all punctuated by dim projection rooms displaying bits of film. Enter the screening areas and you often find yourself groping around in pitch darkness. Leave them, and you're blinded by the glare of museum lighting.

A new exhibition of early 20th-century cinema at the L.A. County Museum of Art (LACMA), however, rethinks that equation. Certainly, "Haunted Screens: German Cinema in the 1920s" features all the standard-issue bits: photography, concept sketches and film clips from some of the most iconic films ever made, from early horror movies like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" to the industrial sci-fi of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis."

But it does so in a meticulously designed architectural installation that evokes the feeling of entering the gritty, surreal universe of the German Expressionist movies, complete with sloping walls, jagged forms and geometric cone structures that descend from the ceiling.

"That was really something that we asked ourselves during this whole process," says Britt Salvesen, who heads up LACMA's prints and drawings department, and curated the show. "How do you get away from all of the expected spatial relationships: the dark room, the black curtain, the row of framed objects that seem to stretch into infinity?"

Well, they did it. Designed by Amy Murphy, a professor of architecture at USC, and Michael Maltzan of Michael Maltzan Architecture, the exhibition design is the antithesis of the traditional framed-stuff-on-a-wall model.

A single undulating form, like a series of rolling hills, connects the space — as if a gigantic carpet had been bunched up to create a set of waves. The top of the form is white and holds all of the ephemera: photos, concept drawings and various film-related objects. The under-layer is dark, and it is in these tunnels where clips of the various movies are screened at sharp angles, giving the whole thing a hallucinatory effect.

Arched cut-outs pierce the carpet, allowing viewers to migrate from light to dark and dark to light; moving picture to still ones, and back again.

"We wanted to engage the dramatic juxtapositions you see in these films," says Murphy, a designer who has studied the relationship between cinema and the field of architecture. "The chiaroscuro of the dark and light, as well as the anxiety that is present in the work."

"When you see 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,' you know what that feels like and looks like," says Maltzan, who has done exhibition design in the past. "Instead of replicating those forms in space, we were looking to take the same spirit and the same motivations and reinterpret them in a contemporary way."

In this regard, they've been wildly successful. The installation is cinematic without drawing attention away from the work. Case in point: the stair-like structure that is lined with pieces that explore the psychological ways in which stairs were used in the cinema of the time.

And there's the final curved form, at the rear of the gallery, which features a replica of the robot from "Metropolis," a figure meant to incite the masses, looking down upon us from her elevated perch. The architecture suits her filmic role perfectly.

These types of features also allowed the museum to play with the lighting.

"It liberated us to create more unconventional sharp angles," Salvesen says. "We talked about the types of shadows that could be cast by the architectural forms, which is not the sort of discussion you have with a typical art show. It worked out better than we could have hoped for with the 'Metropolis' statue. Her hands cast this incredible shadow on the structure below her."

To be certain, the show isn't a one-off for LACMA. Over the last couple of years the museum has begun to rethink the experience of exhibitions about cinema, and it's made for some pretty engrossing shows. 

A retrospective on the work of director Stanley Kubrick in 2012 seamlessly wove in works of art in between the film ephemera — including a shiny black sculpture by John McCracken that bore an uncanny resemblance to the monolith from the director's "2001: A Space Odyssey."

And last year's (seriously underrated) exhibition on cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa created viewing chambers centered around themes. One piece of the exhibit contained a whole sequence of clips that focused on the way Figueroa presented death in his movies; another emphasized landscape; yet another dealt exclusively with the surreal qualities of the human eye. Rather than just dabbling in Figueroa's work, the viewer became immersed in it.

In the current show, it is the architecture that makes this period of filmmaking in Germany come to life. 

"Germany was such a petri dish of culture during that period," Murphy says. "It was isolated after World War I. It had closed off its film industry and stopped allowing the importation of foreign film. So these films came about in this very unique time and space in terms of creativity, but also anxiety about Germany's place in the world."

"The collaboration between painters and sculptors and set designers and filmmakers and composers, it just created this cultural and social richness," concurs Maltzan. "I think we both felt that this was something that you had to spend time immersed in so that it would begin to reveal itself. You needed a longer engagement."

With its daring architectural installation, LACMA is certain to encourage viewers to linger, to take another look at a drawing, examine that photo a bit more closely or review that scene from the murderous "M" once again.

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