From ‘Frasier’ to Filthy

Kelsey Grammer is talking, of all things, about dismembered ears. Never mind whose ears they were; it’s what Grammer’s latest TV iteration does with them that counts. With cool confidence, the mighty mayor of Chicago he plays on his new TV series, Boss, shoves the pair down his garbage disposal and then casually mentions to his wife that they need a plumber.
Ruthless and twisted? Sure. But this is the kind of role the comedy giant has coveted for a decade. The scene, which comes early in the new Starz show (premiering Oct. 21 at 10 p.m.), leaves no room for conjecture about who his character, Mayor Tom Kane, is as a human being or a leader. He also stomps around with rage, shouts at his enemies, and is impenetrable to his underlings. As a man who has overcome formidable personal demons himself, Grammer says he is careful not to let Kane (seen below with his wife, played by Connie Nielsen) bleed into his psyche.

“I’m not one of those guys that draws on his personal experiences to fill a character,” Grammer says during a recent interview at Casa del Mar in Santa Monica, Calif. “I kind of just let my imagination grasp what it would feel like and then try to play it. I do worry, though, sometimes, like when I played Macbeth [on Broadway], because he’s so dark that it can affect your personal life.”

Just in case, before Grammer filmed the pivotal kitchen scene in the first episode, he stopped and “prayed a little bit.” After admitting that, he bursts out laughing and adds, “Of course, it’s always a little fun, too.”
As you might expect, the man who played Frasier Crane for 20 years enjoys a good laugh, and his is full and robust. But Grammer possesses a profundity that departs widely from his TV-sitcom persona and is in step with a human being who has faced several life-changing traumas. By the time he turned 25, Grammer had lost his estranged father to murder; his younger sister to rape and murder; and his two half-brothers to an accidental drowning. Turbulence followed him well into adulthood and middle age, even as he hit career gold with Cheers and its spinoff Frasier. Grammer, now a recovering cocaine addict and alcoholic, was arrested twice in the ’80s and ’90s for possession and drunken driving. At 56, he’s been married four times and has four children.

“Usually what f--ks up somebody or messes them up is enough for them,” Grammer says. “Everybody’s got their things that shape them, shift them, or turn them one way or another. And I had plenty of mine.”

In 2008 a heart attack shook his personal and professional worlds. The combination of the stress of a failed TV show (Fox’s comedy Back to You) and marital problems had taxed his system, he says. As he recovered, Grammer assessed the rest of his life, which led to the revelation that he no longer wanted to be married to his third wife, Camille Grammer, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star and mother of his two young children. Their divorce and subsequent custody fight has kept the Grammer family in the tabloids for more than a year, as Camille learned of Grammer’s wishes and new relationship while filming her Bravo TV show.

“I realized that for the years we were together, it was functioning, it worked, but there was something missing. I realized it was not going to change after my heart attack,” says Grammer, who married Kayte Walsh last year, a couple of weeks after his divorce was final. “I stayed another two years, but I realized at that point that it wasn’t the last story I wanted to tell with my life. It just took me some courage to finally get the gumption up enough to make a move and change things.”

A sense of honesty also attracted Grammer to his new role. In playing the power-addicted Chicago mayor who learns he is dying from a degenerative brain disease, Grammer says he had to shut off all self-awareness. The opening scene of the series focuses entirely on Mayor Kane as he receives the devastating news from a doctor who monotonously runs down the litany of symptoms. Designed by creator and executive producer Farhad Safinia to erase all traces of Frasier Crane from the minds of viewers, the scene elicits a stirring performance by Grammer.

“It’s the first time I’m not really concerned about how I look when I do it,” Grammer says. “I hate it when actors start talking about their emotions and their equipment like we know the answers to all the world’s problems. This is just my job, and this job asked that I not watch myself. I never borrow from my personal life to perform. What happens if everything is good and things are firing on all the right cylinders, my personal life will just come along for the ride ... But if you can’t separate yourself from your character, then you’re probably crazy.”

This, from the man who readily admits that Frasier Crane is not completely gone.

“I’m still that way around the house,” he says, laughing. “There are times when my delivery to the dogs reminds me of Frasier.” He looks down at the floor, imagining he’s speaking to his pups: “‘Oh, really? Did we have to do that today?’ I’m still him.”

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Maria Elena Fernandez is a senior entertainment reporter for Newsweek/The Daily Beast. She previously covered television and nightlife for the Los Angeles Times and spent many years on the crime beat, writing for The Washington Post and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She also worked at the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, where she covered the AIDS epidemic. Her children's book, The Secret of Fern Island, was published in 1996 under a pseudonym so that she wouldn't be stalked by screaming children.

Romney: China must respect the free-trade system

The feckless economic policies of the Obama administration have resulted in a 10 percent decline in our median income, persistent unemployment above 8 percent and collapsing home and asset values.

Understandably, some ask whether we should abandon the economic principles behind our historic prosperity. Should government redistribute wealth? Is free enterprise a flawed system? Should we abandon free trade? No, no and no. Redistribution is what once impoverished China and the Soviet Union. Free enterprise is the only permanent cure for poverty. Free trade has the demonstrated ability to make the people of both trading nations more prosperous.
ut for free enterprise and free trade to work their magic, laws and rules that guide the participants are essential to prevent distortions and abuses. If the rules are modern and dynamic, enterprise can thrive. If they are burdensome and antiquated, enterprise will stall. For rules to be effective, of course, all players must abide by them. The incentive to cheat can be enormous. So is the harm that cheating can cause.

China is a case in point. Having embraced free enterprise to some degree, the Chinese government and Chinese companies have quickly divined the benefits of ignoring the rules followed by others. China seeks advantage through systematic exploitation of other economies. It misappropriates intellectual property by coercing “technology transfers” as a condition of market access; enables theft of intellectual property, including patents, designs and know-how; hacks into foreign commercial and government computers; favors and subsidizes domestic producers over foreign competitors; and manipulates its currency to artificially reduce the price of its goods and services abroad.

The result is that China sells high-quality products to the United States at low prices. But too often the source of that high quality is American innovations stolen by Chinese companies. And the source of those low prices is too often subsidies from the Chinese government or manipulation of the Chinese currency.

Some argue that access to quality goods at low prices are good for our consumers. But like the predatory pricing prohibited under our antitrust laws, China’s underpriced products lead to an undesirable and inefficient elimination of competing businesses, with serious long-term consequences. And in this case, the businesses killed are often our own. Meanwhile, American companies do not even get the supposed benefit of the free-trade bargain: When they try to do business in the Chinese market, they find policies designed to shut them out.

Candidate Obama talked tough about China’s trade policies; President Obama has whispered about them. China smiles, diverts attention by criticizing the United States and merrily continues to eat our economic lunch. Who can blame the Chinese for ignoring our timid complaints when the status quo has served them so well?

Actually doing something about China’s cheating makes some people nervous. Not doing something makes me nervous. We are warned that we might precipitate a trade war. Really? China is selling us $273 billion per year more than America is selling China — why would it possibly want a trade war?

And what is the alternative to confronting China? It is allowing the Chinese to take by trade surrender what we fear to lose in trade war.

Consider, too, that cheating is contagious. What China gets away with, other emerging economies may emulate. As these countries account for an ever larger share of the global economy, the consequences for the rule-following nations would grow even more intolerable. The result could be permanent damage to the international trading system.

In short, if one is genuinely committed to free trade, one must also be genuinely committed to ending abuses of its principles.

If I am fortunate enough to be elected president, I will work to fundamentally alter our economic relationship with China. As I describe in my economic plan, I will begin on Day One by designating China as the currency manipulator it is.

More important, I will take a holistic approach to addressing all of China’s abuses. That includes unilateral actions such as increased enforcement of U.S. trade laws, punitive measures targeting products and industries that rely on misappropriations of our intellectual property, reciprocity in government procurement, and countervailing duties against currency manipulation. It also includes multilateral actions to block technology transfers into China and to create a trading bloc open only for nations genuinely committed to free trade.

Free trade is one of the most powerful forces for peace and prosperity the world has ever known. Free trade forges stronger relationships between nations and their peoples. It connects new business ideas with willing consumers. And it strengthens the competition that leads to innovation, efficiency and, ultimately, economic growth and job creation. When one nation is allowed to game the system, however, significant harm can outweigh the expected benefit. To preserve free trade, we must have the courage of our convictions to defend not only its principles but also its practice.

The writer was governor of Massachusetts from 2002 through 2006 and is a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.

Eight killed in massacre at Orange County hair salon as crazed gunman 'targets hairdresser ex wife'

Eight people have been killed in a shooting at an upmarket beauty salon in California.

The gunman, believed to be the ex husband of one of the stylists, shot a total of nine hairdressers and customers at Salon Meritage, a beauty salon just blocks from the Pacific Ocean in the upscale seaside resort of Seal Beach.

Three people, including a 73-year-old woman, were initially rushed to hospital in critical condition, but two of them have since passed away. One of the victims is thought to be the salon owner.
Orange County authorities rushed to the scene and seized the white male suspect, believed to be 42-year-old Scott Dekraai, in a traffic stop a half-mile from the shooting.

The alleged shooter, who lives locally, was thought to have been wearing body armour during the attack.

When officers raided his car they found multiple weapons, police said.
He didn't offer any resistance when he was arrested.

Seal Beach Police Sergeant Steve Bowles said: 'We believe he is the only shooter. He was taken into custody without injury.'

Witnesses said the gunman was embroiled in a domestic dispute over custody with his ex-wife, Michelle, who worked as a stylist at the salon.

The pair are thought to have a seven year old son.

Dekraai is said to have moved to the area two years ago after being honourably discharged from the military because of a work-related leg injury.

Police in Seal Beach would not confirm any relationship between the man and any of his victims.

'There are victims throughout the entire salon,' Sergeant Bowles added.

'There are survivors from inside the salon. A crime of this magnitude is not something Seal Beach is familiar with.'

Among the victims is thought to be the owner of the salon.

Randy Fannin died in the shooting, according to his niece, Tami Scarcella, 39.

'Randy is dead,' she said while hugging a friend. 'Randy is dead for sure.'

Police confirmed that one of the victims is male.

A middle-aged woman called Cindy was having her hair done by Mr Fannin when the gunman opened fire.

'We thought it was maybe firecrackers,' she told the LA Times.

'But he just didn’t stop. Anybody he saw he was shooting.

'It went boom, boom, boom. I was afraid he was going to shoot everybody.'

The one remaining injured victim is being treated at Long Beach Memorial Hospital.

Some of those inside managed to escape without harm, police said.
Bowles said the bodies of the killed and the wounded were scattered throughout the salon.

One wounded man was found outside the building. It wasn't clear if he was trying to flee when he was shot.

'We're unsure at this point if he shot from the entrance and people, as they were shot, ran in seeking cover or seeking shelter, but we have fatalities throughout the salon,' he said.
'From my observation, it did look like people were seeking shelter at the time.'
He said the salon was busy, with every hair-dressing station in operation.
Salon employee Lorainne Bruielle, who wasn't working Wednesday, told the Long Beach Press-Telegram the gunman was the husband of another employee.
Bruielle said she talked to the husband of one of the employees involved, who said one employee locked herself in the salon's facial room and was unharmed while another man locked himself in a bathroom but was wounded.
The shooter was spotted fleeing from the scene when police arrived and gave himself up after a short car chase.
Lydia Sosa, who used to work at the salon, said the suspect had gone through a bitter divorce with one of the women who worked there.
'They were never happy for a long, long time,' she told the New York Times.
'She said he was bitter. He was very bitter.'
Workers in neighbouring businesses said they hid in the bathrooms after hearing shots.
One woman said she was working at a nail salon and hid with about six other people for 15 minutes until they heard the gunman was caught.
The three people who were not killed instantly were rushed to hospital in critical condition.

Introducing Lady McCartney! Nancy and Sir Paul can't stop smiling as they emerge as husband and wife

While she might have looked excited on the way to wed Sir Paul McCartney, Nancy Shevell emerged holding hands with her new husband displaying a look of pure delight.
As she left Marylebone Register Office as Lady McCartney, Nancy couldn't keep the smile off her face as she beamed alongside Paul.
The couple were greeted on the steps of the building by friends and family who covered the newlyweds in rose petals.
And the Beatles singer and songwriter looked equally as ecstatic as they waved to the crowds of fans and well wishers.
The pair got into a car with Paul's daughter Beatrice who had acted as bridesmaid and made their way to their North London home for the reception.
Sir Paul and Nancy, 51, became man and wife in front of just 30 guests at Marylebone Register Office.
Ahead of the nuptials and with her groom by her side Nancy, who was wearing an ivory flower in her hair, had looked happy and relaxed as they got in the car.
The former Beatle was seen acting the perfect gentleman offering his wife-to-be a helping hand as they got into the car.
As they arrived at the venue, the couple posed together and waved at fans.
Nancy had opted for a demure ivory knee-length gown, thought to be designed by Paul's daughter Stella, which boasted button detail down the front and on the sleeves.
The bride was carrying a simple bouquet of mixed coloured roses while Sir Paul wore a smart navy suit and a light blue tie.
As the couple made their way up the steps Nancy turned around to the crowd and beamed, showing her delight at the day.
The pair were met at the top of the steps by Paul's daughter Beatrice, who took on the role as flower girl.
The eight year old, whose mother is McCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills, looked gorgeous in a pretty dress, a rose pink coat ballet slippers and a floral headdress.
Earlier today the couple indulged in a pre-wedding workout and were seen leaving a gym together.
Sir Paul is set to perform a new song as a gift to his new wife at his wedding reception at their home later today. 
The former Beatle will unveil the song at the reception on what would have been John Lennon's 71st birthday.
He will also sing -the iconic Let It Be, which he wrote for the Beatles, and Let Me Roll It, which he wrote for his band Paul McCartney & Wings, reported the Daily Record.
He apparently sang Let It Be to Nancy during one of their first holidays together in Morocco three years ago.
The second song was picked because it is American heiress Nancy’s favourite and contains the lyric: 'You gave me loving in the palm of my hand.'
The couple, who boast a combined fortune of ￡700?million, decided to marry in front of just 30 guests at Marylebone Register Office where Sir Paul married Linda in March 1969.
Instead of spending the morning getting hair and makeup done, Nancy took her fiance to the gym for an early morning work out at the gym ahead of their nuptials.
The pair looked relaxed and sporty in matching dark tracksuits.
Sources close to the star also say Sir Paul will also lovingly refer to Linda – mother of three of his grown-up children – who died from breast cancer in 1998.
But there will be no mention of his second wife, Heather Mills, whom he divorced acrimoniously in 2008, despite their daughter Beatrice, seven, acting as bridesmaid.
Yesterday, Paul and Nancy, 51, who is Jewish, visited the Liberal Jewish Synagogue near his home in St John's Wood, to mark Yom Kippur.
The couple left the singer's home in a chauffeur-driven Lexus just before 5pm, with Sir Paul winding down his window to say: 'Hi guys. Thanks for coming. We're looking forward to it. See you guys.'
The service was conducted by Superintendent Registrar Alison Cathcart and cost ￡1,540.
The couple were thought to have exchanged rings from Los Angeles jeweller Neil Lane and back at his home Sir Paul showed off his simple gold band.
Yesterday, final preparations were getting under way at the house before the arrival of guests who are expected to include Sir Paul's five children – adopted eldest daughter Heather from Linda's first marriage, photographer Mary, fashion designer Stella, son James, and youngest daughter Beatrice.

British pensioner, 73, circumnavigates the Arctic Circle

A British pensioner has become the first person to -circumnavigate the Arctic Circle by boat clockwise... even though he only took up sailing when he retired.

Jeffrey Allison, 73, set off from Hartlepool in June, -sailing to Iceland, Greenland, around Alaska, Russia and Scandinavia in his 52ft craft.

He made the voyage with Australian crewmate -Katherine -Brownlie, 28, and is now on his way home to -Middleton Tyas, North Yorks.

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The voyage was made -possible by receding ice in the Arctic Circle, thought to be due to climate change.

Mr Allison is the first Brit to make the journey in either direction. He has made -several -attempts, and was almost sunk by -Russian coastguards in 2009 for

sailing over the Barents Sea without permission.

Daughter Fiona Cook said: “He just said he’d deal with it if he got in trouble again. The whole family is so proud.”

Services Let You Rent a Car Out of Your Neighbor's Garage

Renting a car can be a frustrating business, involving long waits for vehicles and tedious paperwork. What if renting a car was more like borrowing one from a neighbor?

A growing number of companies are now offering peer-to-peer auto rentals, where regular folks rent out their own wheels. While currently many services are limited to single markets, some have ambitious multi-city expansion plans. General Motors Co. unveiled Wednesday an alliance with RelayRides, a San Francisco peer-to-peer car-rental company. Under the pact, GM plans to modify its OnStar system to let RelayRides members use cellphones to unlock rented cars.
To find out how well leasing a car from a stranger works, we tried services in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle and New York. We learned that the convenience of renting from an individual is in some cases undercut by concerns about insurance and safety. In most cases, details like pickup and gas were left to the discretion of the car owner. Since owner-participation levels determine the rental inventory, and the services are still new, what you get varies widely.

Getaround.com, which mainly operates in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego but has national expansion plans, was the only service we tested where full insurance coverage through Berkshire Hathaway and roadside assistance were included in the price of a rental. For owners, a late fee of $30 an hour means renters behave well.

Joining is free and took just a few minutes. Members must be 19 or older, have two years' driving experience and minimal traffic violations. The company requires a driver's license number to run a background check as well as Facebook membership to help it detect any fraudulent users, according to its website.

When we looked, hourly, daily, and weekly rentals ranged from $3 an hour for a 2003 Hyundai Accent GL Hatchback to $50 an hour for a 2000 Porsche Boxster.

A search on our address yielded three results, but a ZIP Code search, which included surrounding areas, yielded dozens of results. The site lets users search for cars by distance, price, rating and popularity, but not make.

We submitted a morning request for a same-day afternoon rental for a Prius in Berkeley, about a 20-minute drive from our home, and were denied because the owner had left for work and couldn't meet us. Next, we arranged to rent a 2006 Prius in Emeryville, about 15 minutes from home, for $6.50 an hour, provided we met the owner to get the keys. (Getaround offers owners a car kit that lets renters unlock cars via a smartphone app, but not all owners use it.)

Steve, the Prius owner, said he had been renting it via Getaround for three months because he didn't use his car much. The car was clean and drove well.

Though meeting with a stranger at his doorstep and driving off with his wheels felt slightly awkward, we appreciated the convenience. We also felt more anxious with the car than we would have with a regular rental. We made sure to park Steve's car away from others in the mall lot and felt relieved when we handed the keys back to him.

In New York, we tried to set up a rental with Jolly Wheels, which offers peer-to-peer car sharing as well as traditional rentals. The website said it operated in Brooklyn, but most cars we saw listed were far away and would require a pricey cab ride to get to them. The closest option for renting involved about half a dozen cars at a single location without a specific address and with ZIP Codes and neighborhoods that didn't match.

The other downside was pricing: Fees for rentals ranged from $53 a day for a Smart car to $156 for a Dodge Caravan station wagon. Rentals also required a refundable deposit of as much as $500. All this just made us were leery of using the service.

Jolly Wheels founder Aaron Naus said employees putting the information on the site don't always know the local area. The company is moving toward listing the nearest major cross streets, Mr. Naus said.

On pricing, the service "is still a new concept, so as an incentive for people to join we let them set their own pricing," he said. His goal, he said, is as providers and renters become more comfortable with the concept, volume and trust will go up, allowing for lower prices and smaller deposits.

In Seattle, we found two options from national providers: Zilok, which provides peer-to-peer rentals of many products including cars in the U.S. and Europe, and RentMyCar.com, which specializes in car rentals. But there weren't many vehicles available.

At the time we searched, Zilok had only a handful of listings in Seattle, although some were within three miles of our residence.

The problem: Pricing and deposits are at the owner's discretion. The listings we saw required a $1,500 deposit by check made out to the car's owner so we skipped Zilok. Renters and owners also are left to negotiate over any problems encountered over a rental contract.

Gary Cige, co-founder of Zilok who lives in Paris, said that cars as well as personal electronics and infant products are among the service's most popular rentals. As for insurance, he said many auto-owner policies in the U.S. already include "third party" use of a vehicle, but he added that the company is in talks to offer insurance for peer-to-peer rentals in the U.S.

At RentMyCar.com, there was only one car available, at $45 a day payable in cash, check or Paypal, and listed as available on Saturday and Sunday.

We emailed the owner for a Sunday rental, and she said we had to pick it up before 9 a.m., when she'd leave for church. Then on Friday night, the owner emailed that she and her husband disagreed about renting their car because they hadn't yet contacted their insurer. So she wasn't "prepared" to rent yet.

Hugh Grant: 'The phone-hacking scandal has only just scratched surface'

 Hugh Grant: 'The phone-hacking scandal has only just scratched surface'

Corrupt policemen tipped off journalists about celebrity victims of crime before other officers had time to respond to their calls for assistance, the actor Hugh Grant claimed yesterday.

In an escalation of the allegations facing the police Mr Grant told The Independent he had personal experience of reporting crimes and discovering the first person who turned up on his doorstep was a tabloid journalist.

Mr Grant suggested he would be raising the issue when he is called to give evidence before Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into phone hacking.

In an interview ahead of a meeting with David Cameron to discuss phone hacking yesterday Mr Grant said he had become aware of untoward practices involving the police and tabloid reporters long before the issue of phone hacking came into the public domain. "There were little things," he said. "You knew if you ever called the police for burglary or mugging or whatever the first person to come round was not a policeman but a journalist.

"For years you would think very much twice about calling the police over anything. I want Leveson to uncover the full extent of the relationship between tabloid papers and the police because I think we have only scratched the surface of that."

Mr Grant also suggested there was more to be revealed about the relationship between senior politicians and the Murdoch press. He said: "The more that comes out about all this the more we will learn about the true nature of the Prime Minister's relationship with the Murdoch organisation. What I hear on the Cotswold grapevine is that the relationship was sinisterly cosy to a deeply unhealthy and unattractive degree.

"It wasn't just Cameron it has been every Prime Minister since Thatcher with the possible exception of John Major – who made a stab at standing up to the tyranny and look what happened to him.

"I am very keen to try and gauge whether there is any real appetite on behalf of the Prime Minister for the kind of media reforms that they were talking about in July (after the Milly Dowler revelations) or whether their instinct is to push the whole thing into the long grass and go back into the nice cosy old routine of being in bed with Murdoch."

Mr Grant also insisted that most privacy orders made by the courts under the Human Rights Act were justified and that newspaper defences of public interest were spurious.

"The vast majority of the public interest defence is coming from the popular press and is specious. When they say 'oh but he's a role model' they (the papers) are trying to find a moral hook to hang the privacy invasion on.

"You have to recognise when the arguments are real and when they are protecting a highly lucrative racket."

Mr Grant, who is taking part in a seminar being organised by the Leveson inquiry tomorrow, added that he hoped the his inquiry would establish that phone hacking practices extended beyond the News of the World.

"I'm dying for him to reveal it wasn't just phone hacking it was all these other methods. It was not just the News of the World, a huge number of newspapers were up to these dirty tricks. I want him to establish that the intimidation of those elements of the popular press over politicians – by keeping dossiers on their private lives – was effectively blackmail."