Rupert Murdoch says Los Angeles Times purchase not a sure thing

Now that Rupert Murdoch is spinning off News Corp.’s publishing properties into a separate company, media observers have identified the Los Angeles Times as a likely target for acquisition.

Murdoch isn’t one of them.

"It won’t get through with the Democratic administration in place," Murdoch said during a break in the Golden Globes ceremony Sunday night in Beverly Hills.

PHOTOS: Golden Globes 2013 red carpet

Murdoch was alluding to federal regulations that seek to limit media consolidation. A Federal Communications Commission rule adopted in 1975 bars the same company from owning newspapers and television stations in the same market. News Corp. owns two television stations in Los Angeles: KTTV-TV Channel 11 and KCOP-TV Channel 13. Adding the L.A. Times to the portfolio would put Murdoch in violation of the cross-ownership rules.

News Corp. is expected to split into two publicly traded companies this summer.  The more profitable Fox television and movie studio properties will become one company called the Fox Group. Newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Times of London and the Australian, along with HarperCollins book publishing, will make up another stand-alone company called News Corp.

Murdoch will be chairman of both entities.

Jack Goodman, a communications lawyer and former attorney with the National Assn. of Broadcasters, said Monday that separating the newspapers from the TV stations will not get Murdoch out of the cross hairs of FCC cross-ownership rules. Murdoch and his family are expected to retain their voting control in both the Fox Group and News Corp.

Under the FCC’s current rules, because Murdoch would be a common officer of both corporations, the assets of one would be considered owned by the other.

Murdoch could apply for a waiver to those rules. Tribune currently holds such a waiver because the company also owns KTLA-TV Channel 5 and The Times. Murdoch holds one because News Corp. owns the New York Post and two TV stations in the New York metropolitan region.

Murdoch received the FCC waiver for the New York Post in 1993, after a hard-fought, months-long battle with the FCC. The waiver -- to help rescue the tabloid from bankruptcy court -- came five years after Murdoch was forced to sell the Post to comply with the cross-ownership rules.

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The FCC rules would not be an immediate roadblock. The Fox Group will not need to seek renewals of its licenses for its two Los Angeles stations until mid-2014. That's when the issue would become a problem (although Murdoch would not want to spend hundreds of millions of dollars buying an asset, only to be forced to divest the same asset within a year).

Two other media companies, Belo Corp. and Cox Communications, also have waivers. Although Belo's TV stations and newspapers – among them the Dallas Morning News and the Riverside Press-Enterprise -- operate as two separate companies, Robert W. Decherd serves as chairman of both.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has recommended an effort to "streamline and modernize" media concentration rules as the Internet has made concerns about media monopolies less of a factor.

Some reports indicate that Genachowski has proposed new rules to allow common ownership of a daily newspaper and a TV station in the 20 biggest U.S. cities, which should allow Murdoch sufficient wiggle room.

Times staff writer Joe Flint contributed to this report

ALSO:

Golden Globes 2013:  Bill Clinton touts "Lincoln" but Argo wins

News Corp. declines to hint on possible purchases

Rupert Murdoch, other potential suitors eye the Los Angeles Times

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Watch the Entirety of <em>Toy Story</em> as a Live-Action Remake

How much do uber-geeks Jonason Pauley and Jesse Perrotta love Toy Story? Enough to spend two years filming a DIY feature-length stop-motion remake of Pixar’s entire 1995 blockbuster shot for shot, using little more than cardboard boxes, string and toys.

It’s hardly the first time DIY auteurs have used action figures to make fan films about iconic movie characters, but the Live-Action Toy Story Project represents extraordinary fan devotion, and even used of the original soundtrack dialogue from Tom Hanks and company along with the original Randy Newman score.

That’s usually the part where lawyers usually start firing off cease and desist orders, but in this case, the project managed to make its own happy ending. After Pauley, 19, and Perrotta, 21, trekked to Pixar headquarters in Emeryville last week and passed out DVDs of their homespun homage, they received the studio’s blessing, and Live-Action Toy Story Project can now be seen in its entirety above.

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Natalie Wood may have sustained bruises before drowning death: report

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actress Natalie Wood had bruising on her arms and wrists and scratches on her neck when her body was pulled from the Pacific Ocean in 1981, suggesting she was injured before she hit the water, according to a report released by Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office on Monday.

But the report, written in June 2012, said there was not enough evidence to say that her death was definitively “non accidental.”

The body of the “West Side Story” star, 43, was found floating in a Santa Catalina Island cove off the coast of Southern California in 1981 after she had spent a night of dining and drinking on the island and on a yacht with her husband, television star Robert Wagner, and actor Christopher Walken.

The case has been surrounded by mystery and suspicion for decades and Los Angeles homicide detectives reopened the investigation into Wood’s death in 2011.

In June 2012, authorities changed Wood’s death certificate to “drowning and other undetermined factors” from the original finding of accidental drowning, but did not explain why.

The change was based on a 10-page document, drawn up as an addendum to the original autopsy report, that said Wood died shortly after she entered the water.

“The location of the bruises, the multiplicity of the bruises, lack of head trauma, or facial bruising, support bruising having occurred prior to the entry into the water,” the supplemental coroner’s report states.

“This medical examiner is unable to exclude non-volitional, unplanned entry into the water … Since there are many unanswered questions and limited additional evidence available for evaluation, it is opined by this medical examiner that the manner of death should be left as undetermined,” it adds.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said on Monday the case was still open but declined to discuss any new evidence that may have been discovered.

The Sheriff’s Department has said that neither Wagner, now 82, nor Walken are suspects.

Wood starred opposite James Dean in the classic 1955 film “Rebel Without a Cause,” and later in musical “West Side Story” and “Splendor in the Grass.”

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Well: How to Go Vegan

When I first heard former President Bill Clinton talk about his vegan diet, I was inspired to make the switch myself. After all, if a man with a penchant for fast-food burgers and Southern cooking could go vegan, surely I could too.

At the grocery store, I stocked up on vegan foods, including almond milk (that was the presidential recommendation), and faux turkey and cheese to replicate my daughter’s favorite sandwich. But despite my good intentions, my cold-turkey attempt to give up, well, turkey (as well as other meats, dairy and eggs) didn’t go well. My daughter and I couldn’t stand the taste of almond milk, and the fake meat and cheese were unappealing.

Since then, I’ve spoken with numerous vegan chefs and diners who say it can be a challenge to change a lifetime of eating habits overnight. They offer the following advice for stocking your vegan pantry and finding replacements for key foods like cheese and other dairy products.

NONDAIRY MILK Taste all of them to find your favorite. Coconut and almond milks (particularly canned coconut milk) are thicker and good to use in cooking, while rice milk is thinner and is good for people who are allergic to nuts or soy. My daughter and I both prefer the taste of soy milk and use it in regular or vanilla flavor for fruit smoothies and breakfast cereal.

NONDAIRY CHEESE Cheese substitutes are available under the brand names Daiya, Tofutti and Follow Your Heart, among others, but many vegans say there’s no fake cheese that satisfies as well as the real thing. Rather than use a packaged product, vegan chefs prefer to make homemade substitutes using cashews, tofu, miso or nutritional yeast. At Candle 79, a popular New York vegan restaurant, the filling for saffron ravioli with wild mushrooms and cashew cheese is made with cashews soaked overnight and then blended with lemon juice, olive oil, water and salt.

THINK CREAMY, NOT CHEESY Creaminess and richness can often be achieved without a cheese substitute. For instance, Chloe Coscarelli, a vegan chef and the author of “Chloe’s Kitchen,” has created a pizza with caramelized onion and butternut squash that will make you forget it doesn’t have cheese; the secret is white-bean and garlic purée. She also offers a creamy, but dairy-free, avocado pesto pasta. My daughter and I have discovered we actually prefer the rich flavor of butternut squash ravioli, which can be found frozen and fresh in supermarkets, to cheese-filled ravioli.

NUTRITIONAL YEAST The name is unappetizing, but many vegan chefs swear by it: it’s a natural food with a roasted, nutty, cheeselike flavor. Ms. Coscarelli uses nutritional yeast flakes in her “best ever” baked macaroni and cheese (found in her cookbook). “I’ve served this to die-hard cheese lovers,” she told me, “and everyone agrees it is comparable, if not better.”

Susan Voisin’s Web site, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, offers a nice primer on nutritional yeast, noting that it’s a fungus (think mushrooms!) that is grown on molasses and then harvested and dried with heat. (Baking yeast is an entirely different product.) Nutritional yeasts can be an acquired taste, she said, so start with small amounts, sprinkling on popcorn, stirring into mashed potatoes, grinding with almonds for a Parmesan substitute or combining with tofu to make an eggless omelet. It can be found in Whole Foods, in the bulk aisle of natural-foods markets or online.

BUTTER This is an easy fix. Vegan margarines like Earth Balance are made from a blend of oils and are free of trans fats. Varieties include soy-free, whipped and olive oil.

EGGS Ms. Coscarelli, who won the Food Network’s Cupcake Wars with vegan cupcakes, says vinegar and baking soda can help baked goods bind together and rise, creating a moist and fluffy cake without eggs. Cornstarch can substitute for eggs to thicken puddings and sauces. Vegan pancakes are made with a tablespoon of baking powder instead of eggs. Frittatas and omelets can be replicated with tofu.

Finally, don’t try to replicate your favorite meaty foods right away. If you love a juicy hamburger, meatloaf or ham sandwich, you are not going to find a meat-free version that tastes the same. Ms. Voisin advises new vegans to start slow and eat a few vegan meals a week. Stock your pantry with lots of grains, lentils and beans and pile your plate with vegetables. To veganize a recipe, start with a dish that is mostly vegan already — like spaghetti — and use vegetables or a meat substitute for the sauce.

“Trying to recapture something and find an exact substitute is really hard,” she said. “A lot of people will try a vegetarian meatloaf right after they become vegetarian, and they hate it. But after you get away from eating meat for a while, you’ll find you start to develop other tastes, and the flavor of a lentil loaf with seasonings will taste great to you. It won’t taste like meat loaf, but you’ll appreciate it for itself.”

Ms. Voisin notes that she became a vegetarian and then vegan while living in a small town in South Carolina; she now lives in Jackson, Miss.

“If I can be a vegan in these not-quite-vegan-centric places, you can do it anywhere,” she said. “I think people who try to do it all at once overnight are more apt to fail. It’s a learning process.”

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What are your vegantips? We’re collecting suggestions on ingredients, recipes and strategies.

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In Hollywood Movies for China, Bureaucrats Want a Say

20th Century Fox

The film “Life of Pi” went through the approval process largely unscathed, but received some resistance over a line of dialogue.

LOS ANGELES — When “Kung Fu Panda 3” kicks its way into China’s theaters in 2016, the country’s vigilant film censors will find no nasty surprises.

Zade Rosenthal/Walt Disney Pictures

The makers of “Iron Man 3” arranged for bureaucrats to meet its star, Robert Downey Jr.

After all, they have already dropped in to monitor the movie at the DreamWorks Animation campus here. And the story line, production art and other creative elements have met their approval.

The lure of access to China’s fast-growing film market — now the world’s second largest, behind that of the United States — is entangling studios and moviemakers with the state censors of a country in which American notions of free expression simply do not apply.

Whether studios are seeking to distribute a completed film in China or join with a Chinese company for a co-production shot partly in that country, they have discovered that navigating the murky, often shifting terrain of censorship is part of the process.

Billions of dollars ride on whether they get it right. International box-office revenue is the driving force behind many of Hollywood’s biggest films, and often plays a deciding role in whether a movie is made. Studios rely on consultants and past experience — and increasingly on informal advance nods from foreign officials — to help gauge whether a film will pass censorship; if there are problems they can sometimes be addressed through appeal and subsequent negotiations.

But Paramount Pictures just learned the hard way that some things won’t pass muster — like American fighter pilots in dogfights with MIGs. The studio months ago submitted a new 3-D version of “Top Gun” to Chinese censors. The ensuing silence was finally recognized as rejection.

Problems more often affect films that touch the Chinese directly. “Any movie about China made by outsiders is going to be very sensitive,” said Rob Cohen, who directed “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” among the first in a wave of co-productions between American studios — in this case, Universal Pictures — and Chinese companies.

One production currently facing scrutiny is Disney and Marvel’s “Iron Man 3,” parts of which were filmed in Beijing in the last month. It proceeded under the watchful eye of Chinese bureaucrats, who were invited to the set and asked to advise on creative decisions, according to people briefed on the production who asked for anonymity to avoid conflict with government or company officials. Marvel and Disney had no comment.

Another prominent film, Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi,” which was nominated last week for 11 Academy Awards, made it through the process mostly unscathed, but got some pushback over a line in which a character declared that “religion is darkness.”

“They modified the translation a little, for fear of provoking religious people,” Mr. Lee said.

Hollywood as a whole is shifting toward China-friendly fantasies that will fit comfortably within a revised quota system, which allows more international films to be distributed in China, where 3-D and large-format Imax pictures are particularly favored.

At the same time, it is avoiding subject matter and situations that are likely to cause conflict with the roughly three dozen members of a censorship board run by China’s powerful State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, or S.A.R.F.T.

In addition, some studios are quietly asking Chinese officials for assurance that planned films, even when they do not have a Chinese theme, will have no major censorship problems.

The censorship bureau did not respond to a list of questions submitted by The New York Times seeking information about its process and guidelines.

Studios are quickly discovering that a key to access in China is the inclusion of Chinese actors, story lines and locations. But the more closely a film examines China, the more likely it is to collide with shifting standards, unwritten rules and unfamiliar political powers who hold sway over what can be seen on the country’s roughly 12,000 movie screens.

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California's debt still a heavy cloud over state's future

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown proclaimed last week that California, which now has enough cash to pay its day-to-day bills, can no longer be described by naysayers as a "failed state."

But even though it appears to be free of the deficit that dogged the Capitol in recent years, the state is no model of financial health.

Sacramento is legally obligated to pay many billions of dollars withheld from schools, local governments and healthcare providers as lawmakers struggled repeatedly to balance the books. It owes Wall Street more per resident than almost every other state. And it has accumulated a crushing load of debt for retiree pensions and healthcare, now totaling more than taxpayers spend each year on all state programs combined.

The budget Brown proposed Thursday addresses only a small portion of the overall debt, which stems from the same types of bills that drove cities like Vallejo, Stockton and San Bernardino into bankruptcy. The state is likely to find its debt consuming an ever larger share of money meant for the basic needs of government.

"Every year we fail to acknowledge or fix these things, it just makes the cost bigger," said Joe Nation, a former Democratic assemblyman who teaches public policy at Stanford University.

When he released his budget plan, Brown vowed to knock down the state's "wall of debt." He presented a timeline for repaying nearly $28 billion the state owes to government programs that it raided for cash or deprived of funds over the years, as well as some bonds sold to balance the budget.

Payments of $4.2 billion would be made in the budget year that begins in July. Subsequent payments, growing to as much as $7.3 billion a year, would continue into 2017.

At that point, Brown says, $4.3 billion in debt would remain, mostly for delayed payments to healthcare providers and money owed to municipalities and schools for implementing state mandates.

"By paying down the debt, we've put ourselves in a stronger position when things go bad, as they inevitably do," Brown said.

But numerous reports by state agencies, think tanks and academics have shown the wall of debt to be many stories higher than $28 billion — hundreds of billions of dollars over the next few decades. Brown's repayment plan does not significantly reduce the sizable debt to Wall Street or account for promises the state has made to its current and future retirees but is not setting enough money aside to cover.

"If we just ignore these longer-term pressures, we're going to be back in the soup soon," said Mike Genest, who was budget director for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

State officials must grapple with a major shortfall in the retirement fund for teachers. Fund officials have warned that Sacramento needs to immediately start contributing about $3 billion annually to keep the pension system solvent.

Sacramento could kick the bill to school districts, requiring them to start paying more pension costs from their own budgets. But the money needed now to stabilize the fund is enough to wipe out the $2.7-billion budget boost the governor is proposing for schools after many years of cuts.

"That is a demand that will have to be met," said David Crane, who advised Schwarzenegger on pensions and the economy. "Even if there is an increase in funding for schools, the districts may have to use that — and more — to meet that demand."

So far, lawmakers have taken no action to fill the gap. They have opted, for now, to let it grow. (The changes legislators made in public pensions last year do not fix the problem.)

They have taken the same approach with the escalating cost of retiree healthcare.

State employees on the payroll 10 years or more are guaranteed insurance coverage for life — a benefit bestowed decades ago, before the cost of medical care exploded. Now, the state is facing a bill of $62.1 billion for those employees over the next 30 years, according to state projections. Sacramento has set no money aside to cover the payments, and the tab grows each year.

Brown proposed that lawmakers confront that cost last year. Lawmakers balked and excluded his plan to limit the number of state workers eligible for retiree healthcare.

The cost of closing the gaps in California's major public pension funds would be considerable. The State Budget Crisis Task Force, a bipartisan think tank based in New York, reported in September that every Californian would have to contribute $3,635 to cover the shortfalls. Paying for retiree healthcare might add a couple of thousand dollars to that tab.

The state's borrowing from Wall Street in recent years also comes at a cost. According to the state treasurer's office, it will cost $2,559 per Californian to pay that back. Texas, by contrast, has taken on just $588 of debt per resident.

Genest said California undeniably has made major strides since the darkest budget days of recent years. "We've finally got through the worst of it," he said.

But the mess is far from cleaned up, he cautioned: "We can't jump for joy."

evan.halper@latimes.com

chris.megerian@latimes.com

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Watch the All-New Corvette Debut Live at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT

The Detroit Auto Show kicks off tomorrow, but Chevrolet is unleashing its next-generation Corvette tonight at a special event in the Motor City. We’ll be on hand for the reveal, but if you want to get a leg-up on the rest of your gearhead friends, Chevy is live-streaming the pre-show reveal at 7 p.m. Eastern/4 p.m. Pacific. We’ve embedded the video above, so start refreshing this page to get an eye-full, and look for our live coverage of the show starting at 8 a.m. Eastern on Monday. And if you’re really impatient, the first details of the all-new ‘Vette have already leaked out, including some exterior pics that are sure to whet your appetite.

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Waltz wins supporting-actor Globe for ‘Django’

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Christoph Waltz has won the supporting-actor Golden Globe for his role as a genteel bounty hunter who takes on an ex-slave as apprentice in “Django Unchained.”

Sunday’s win was Waltz’s second supporting-actor prize at the Globes, both of them coming in Quentin Tarantino films. Waltz’s violent but paternal and polite “Django” character is a sharp contrast to the wickedly bloodthirsty Nazi he played in his Globe and Oscar-winning role in Tarantino’s 2009 tale “Inglourious Basterds.”

“Let me gasp,” Waltz said. “Quentin, you know that my indebtedness to you and my gratitude knows no words.”

Show hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who co-starred in the 2008 big-screen comedy “Baby Mama,” had a friendly rivalry at the Globes. Both were nominated for best actress in a TV comedy series, Fey for “30 Rock” and Poehler for “Parks and Recreation.”

“Tina, I just want to say that I very much hope that I win,” Poehler told Fey at the start of the show.

“Thank you. You’re my nemesis. Thank you,” Fey replied.

Poehler also had a quip about television vs. film at the Globes, where the small-screen category typically takes a backseat to the big-screen nominees.

“Only at the Golden Globes do the beautiful people of film rub shoulders with the rat-faced people of television,” Poehler said.

An unusually chilly day in southern California left Globe guests looking glamorous but feeling frigid.

Debra Messing from “Smash” came in a strapless black gown and goosebumps. Asked how she was coping with the cold, she replied, “Not well.” Melissa Rauch of “The Big Bang Theory” also shivered in her strapless red gown. “I’m absolutely freezing!” she said.

Claire Danes of “Homeland” in Versace and Zooey Deschanel of “New Girl” in a strapless Oscar de la Renta gown walked near heat lamps as the mercury stayed in the high 50s. “I’m so cold. My legs aren’t cold but my arms are,” said Deschanel.

Not everyone was grousing. “I’m totally comfortable,” Glenn Close, whose Zac Posen dress was paired with matching jacket, told NBC. “Usually, it’s really hot, so I’m having a nice time so far.”

The Globes are in a rare place this season, coming after the Academy Award nominations, which were announced earlier than usual and threw out some shockers that have left the Globes show a little less relevant.

Key Globe contenders lined up largely as expected, with Steven Spielberg‘s Civil War saga “Lincoln” leading with seven nominations and two CIA thrillers — Kathryn Bigelow‘s “Zero Dark Thirty” and Ben Affleck‘s “Argo” — also doing well.

All three films earned Globe nominations for best drama and director. Yet while “Lincoln,” ”Argo” and “Zero Dark Thirty” grabbed best-picture slots at Thursday’s Oscar nominations, Bigelow and Affleck were snubbed for directing honors after a season that had seen them in the running for almost every other major award.

The Globe and Oscar directing fields typically match up closely. This time, though, only Spielberg and “Life of Pi” director Ang Lee have nominations for both. Along with Spielberg, Lee, Bigelow and Affleck, Quentin Tarantino is nominated for directing at the Globes. At the Oscars, it’s Spielberg, Lee, “Silver Linings Playbook” director David O. Russell and two surprise picks: veteran Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke for “Amour” and first-time director Benh Zeitlin for “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”

That forces some top-name filmmakers to put on brave faces for the Globes. And while a Globe might be a nice consolation prize, it could be a little awkward if Affleck, Bigelow or Tarantino won Sunday and had to make a cheery acceptance speech knowing they don’t have seats at the grown-ups table for the Feb. 24 Oscars.

That could happen. While “Lincoln” has the most nominations, it’s a purely American story that may not have as much appeal to Globe voters — about 90 reporters belonging to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association who cover entertainment for overseas outlets.

The Bigelow and Affleck films center on Americans, too, but they are international tales — “Zero Dark Thirty” chronicling the manhunt for Osama bin Laden and “Argo” recounting the rescue of six U.S. embassy workers trapped in Iran amid the 1979 hostage crisis.

Globe voters might want to make right on a snub to Bigelow three years ago, when they gave their best-drama and directing prize to ex-husband James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar” over her Iraq war tale “The Hurt Locker.”

Bigelow made history a month later, becoming the first woman to win the directing Oscar for “The Hurt Locker,” which also won best picture.

Globe voters like to be trend-setters, but they missed the boat on that one. Might they feel enough chagrin to hand Bigelow the directing trophy this time?

Spielberg already has won two best-director Globes, so that might be a further inducement for the foreign-press members to favor someone else this time.

Their votes were locked in before the Oscar nominations came out. Globe balloting closed Wednesday, the day before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its awards lineup.

The Globe hosts had a wisecrack at Cameron’s expense. Poehler noted that she had not been following the controversy over “Zero Dark Thirty,” which has drawn criticism for indicating torture was pivotal in producing the tip that led to Bin Laden.

But “when it comes to torture, I trust the lady who was married for three years to James Cameron,” Poehler said.

The Globes feature two best-picture categories — one for drama and one for musical or comedy. Most of the Globe contenders also earned Oscar best-picture nominations, including all of the drama picks: “Argo,” ”Lincoln,” ”Life of Pi,” ”Django Unchained” and “Zero Dark Thirty.”

Yet only two of the Globe musical or comedy nominees — “Les Miserables” and “Silver Linings Playbook” — are in the running at the Oscars. That’s not unusual, though, since Oscar voters tend to overlook comedy. The other Globe nominees for musical or comedy are “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” ”Moonrise Kingdom” and “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.”

Globe acting recipients usually are a good sneak peek for who will win at the Oscars. All four of last season’s Oscar winners — Meryl Streep for “The Iron Lady,” Jean Dujardin for “The Artist,” Octavia Spencer for “The Help” and Christopher Plummer for “Beginners” — took home a Globe first.

Jodie Foster will receive the Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the 70th Globes ceremony.

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City Room: Cuomo Declares Public Health Emergency Over Flu Outbreak

With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.

There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.

“We are experiencing the worst flu season since at least 2009, and influenza activity in New York State is widespread, with cases reported in all 57 counties and all five boroughs of New York City,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.

Under the order, pharmacists will be allowed to administer flu vaccinations to patients between 6 months and 18 years old, temporarily suspending a state law that prohibits pharmacists from administering immunizations to children.

While children and older people tend to be the most likely to become seriously ill from the flu, Mr. Cuomo urged all New Yorkers to get vaccinated.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said that deaths from the flu had reached epidemic levels, with at least 20 children having died nationwide. Officials cautioned that deaths from pneumonia and the flu typically reach epidemic levels for a week or two every year. The severity of the outbreak will be determined by how long the death toll remains high or if it climbs higher.

There was some evidence that caseloads may be peaking, federal officials said on Friday.

In New York City, public health officials announced on Thursday that flu-related illnesses had reached epidemic levels, and they joined the chorus of authorities urging people to get vaccinated.

“It’s a bad year,” the city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, told reporters on Thursday. “We’ve got lots of flu, it’s mainly type AH3N2, which tends to be a little more severe. So we’re seeing plenty of cases of flu and plenty of people sick with flu. Our message for any people who are listening to this is it’s still not too late to get your flu shot.”

There has been a spike in the number of people going to emergency rooms over the past two weeks with flulike symptoms – including fever, fatigue and coughing – Dr. Farley said.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mr. Cuomo made a public display of getting shots this past week.

In a briefing with reporters on Friday, officials from the C.D.C. said that this year’s vaccine was effective in 62 percent of cases.

As officials have stepped up their efforts encouraging vaccinations, there have been scattered reports of shortages. But officials said plenty of the vaccine was available.

According to the C.D.C., makers of the flu vaccine produced about 135 million doses for this year. As of early this month, 128 million doses had been distributed. While that would not be enough for every American, only 37 percent of the population get a flu shot each year.

Federal health officials said they would be happy if that number rose to 50 percent, which would mean that there would be more than enough vaccine for anyone who wanted to be immunized.

Two other diseases – norovirus and whooping cough – are also widespread this winter and are contributing to the number of people getting sick.

The flu can resemble a cold, though the symptoms come on more rapidly and are more severe.

A version of this article appeared in print on 01/13/2013, on page A21 of the NewYork edition with the headline: New York Declares Health Emergency.

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Condé Nast Contracts Cut Author’s Share in Film Deals

It’s a dream tucked in the backs of many journalists’ minds: the article they write becomes a blockbuster movie and they reap a healthy share of the profits, a walk on the red carpet and — who knows? — maybe even an Oscar.

Fred Prouser/Reuters

Dawn Ostroff, president of Condé Nast Entertainment.

At Condé Nast magazines like Wired, Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, that wish has become reality for a small but steady number of writers. Condé Nast articles led to the movie “Argo,” which so far has generated $166 million in worldwide box-office sales, “Eat Pray Love,” which made $204 million in global sales and “Brokeback Mountain,” which brought in $178 million.

But now, Condé Nast, whose magazines are battling a punishing business environment, wants to capture more of the film and television profits, which previously went to writers who owned the rights to these works. The new contracts have angered writers and their agents who argue that it’s another cut at their already rapidly shrinking compensation.

“It doesn’t give authors the option or the alternative to go elsewhere for their movie and television rights, and therefore there’s no competition,” said Jan Constantine, general counsel for the Authors Guild who recently advised an agent negotiating one of these contracts.

According to copies of the various contracts provided and described to The New York Times, those exclusive rights ranged from 30 days to one year. The contracts also show that if Condé Nast decides to option the article, writers receive $2,500 to $5,000 for a 12-month option. If an article is developed into a major feature film, writers receive no more than 1 percent or $150,000 toward the purchase price.

Television programs and made-for-television movies are capped at even lower amounts, especially for less experienced writers. These arrangements are agreed to before an article has even been published.

“This is bottom-of-the-barrel pricing,” said one agent who refused to allow writers to sign the new contracts, but declined to be identified for fear of retribution toward the agent’s clients. “There’s no reason my clients who are the premier writers in the country should be shackled by this agreement that forces them to accept very low prices and also take their project off the market.”

Many writers for Condé Nast magazines like The New Yorker work under one-year contracts that lack basic employee benefits like a 401(k) retirement plan or health insurance, but they are allowed to keep the rights to their work. (By contrast, newspapers typically own the full rights to articles published by their employees.)

Some agents have warned writers not to sign the contracts because they chip away further at their income. But other writers have signed the agreements because they don’t want to lose the chance to have their byline appear in The New Yorker or Vanity Fair.

Writers interviewed for this article who have contracts with Condé Nast emphasized that in this economy they can’t simply go out and get a contract with another magazine.

One longtime contract writer used the proceeds from an option to pay for medical bills resulting from an injury caused during reporting in the Middle East.

Some writers predict that these contracts will create an even wider divide between Condé Nast’s most celebrated writers and its stable of lesser known but productive contributors.

“The people who really get the big options are not going to sign, and the people who don’t get the big options are going to be railroaded,” said one Condé Nast writer who asked not to be identified because of fears of retribution from the company. “What you are really taking is people’s self-respect.”

The plans to secure more of these rights started in late 2011, when Condé Nast formed an entertainment group to help it secure some of the profits its writers received when their articles were developed into film and television programs.

In the past, Condé Nast struggled to profit from many of the programs made about its publications. For example, it did not receive any of the $6.4 million made at the global box office for “The September Issue,” a documentary about Vogue.

In late 2011, the company hired Dawn Ostroff, previously president of the CW television network, to run the entertainment group. While a Condé Nast spokesman declined to talk about the specific contract negotiations, the spokesman said the company hopes to offer its writers more development options through the new entertainment group.

“As we expand into digital, film and television entertainment, we are excited to bring the extraordinary work of our writers and photographers to these platforms, showcase their content in new ways, and create expanded opportunities for their work to be enjoyed by new audiences,” the spokesman said.

But writers and agents remain skeptical of how many projects will actually be developed. Although Charles H. Townsend, chief executive of Condé Nast, said in October that the division is developing 15 projects, the entertainment group has not officially announced any of them. Some agents said they fear that Condé Nast does not have enough muscle in the entertainment world to make these deals happen.

“They’re not a film company,” the agent said. “There are many other companies who are not in the movie business who tried to do a land grab and it doesn’t work.”

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