'Argo,' Lawrence, Day-Lewis win at SAG

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The CIA thriller "Argo" continues to steamroll through awards season, winning the top honor for overall cast performance at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

SAG's lead-acting honors Sunday went to Jennifer Lawrence for her role as a troubled widow in a shaky new relationship in the lost-souls romance "Silver Linings Playbook" and Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War epic "Lincoln."

Anne Hathaway of "Les Miserables" and Tommy Lee Jones of "Lincoln" won the supporting-acting honors.

"It occurred to me — it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln," said Day-Lewis, a solid front-runner to join an exclusive list of three-time acting Oscar winners. "And therefore, somehow it is only so fitting that every now and then an actor tries to bring him back to life again."

It was a brisk, businesslike and fairly bland evening as the actors union handed out honors to a predictable lineup of winners who generally had triumphed at earlier Hollywood ceremonies or past SAG shows.

The SAG cast win came a day after "Argo" claimed the top honor from the Producers Guild of America, whose winner often goes on to claim best picture at the Academy Awards. "Argo" also was a surprise victor two weeks ago at the Golden Globes, where it won best drama and director for Ben Affleck.

The awards momentum positions "Argo" for a rare feat at the Feb. 24 Oscars, where it could become just the fourth film in 85 years to be named best picture without a nomination for its director.

"To me this has nothing to do with me, it has to do with the incredible people who were in this movie," said Affleck, who also stars in "Argo" and accepted the SAG prize alongside his cast.

Affleck plays CIA agent Tony Mendez, who masterminded the daring rescue of six U.S. embassy workers in Iran after the 1979 hostage crisis erupted. The Americans were brought out of Iran masquerading as crew members of a fake Hollywood sci-fi movie scouting locations.

A directing nomination at the Oscars usually goes hand in hand with a best-picture win. When Affleck was snubbed for a directing slot, awards analysts initially were counting "Argo" out for the best-picture Oscar, along with Kathryn Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty" and Tom Hooper's "Les Miserables," which also missed out on directing nominations.

Only once in modern times has a film won best picture without a directing nomination, with 1989's "Driving Miss Daisy." The other two times came in the show's early years, at the first Oscars in 1929 with "Wings" and for 1932's "Grand Hotel."

But "Argo" has proven a resilient crowd-pleaser, dominating at awards shows since then over Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln," which leads the Oscars with 12 nominations.

The cast prize at SAG adds some weight to the Oscar prospects for "Argo," though the guild honor has a spotty record at forecasting eventual best-picture winners. Only eight of 17 times since the guild added the category has the cast winner gone on to take the best-picture Oscar. "The Help" won the guild's cast prize last year, while Oscar voters named "The Artist" as best picture.

The next playoff round before the Oscars is Saturday's Directors Guild of America Awards, where Affleck, Bigelow, Spielberg and Hooper all are nominated, along with Ang Lee for "Life of Pi." The winner there typically goes on to triumph with directing and best-picture Oscars, but only Spielberg and Lee are nominated for both the Directors Guild and Oscar prizes this time, throwing the awards picture into a muddle.

Sunday's acting prizes solidify those categories, though. "Silver Linings" star Lawrence won a Golden Globe and has become one of Hollywood's hottest talents, with part two of her blockbuster franchise, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," due out in November.

"Now I have this naked statue that means some of you even voted for me, and that is an indescribable feeling," Lawrence said after explaining she earned her SAG card at age 14 by filming a spot for MTV.

Hathaway won for her role as a doomed single mother forced into prostitution in the adaptation of the stage musical based on Victor Hugo's epic novel. Her win came over four past Oscar recipients — Sally Field, Helen Hunt, Nicole Kidman and Maggie Smith.

"I'm just thrilled I have dental," Hathaway said. "I got my SAG card when I was 14. It felt like the beginning of the world. I have loved every single minute of my life as an actor. ... Thank you for nominating me alongside incredible women and incredible performances."

Jones, who was not at the show, won for his turn as abolitionist firebrand Thaddeus Stevens in the Civil War epic. The win improves his odds to become a two-time Academy Award winner. He previously won a supporting-actor Oscar for "The Fugitive."

Day-Lewis, a two-time Oscar winner for "My Left Foot" and "There Will Be Blood," could become the fifth actor to earn three Oscars, along with Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan. Katharine Hepburn has the acting record with four Oscars.

Backstage at SAG, Day-Lewis was hardly ready to predict a third Oscar win.

"There's a good chance I won't. I feel the same way at all these occasions. Mostly, we're traveling as a group, the fellow nominees, give or take one here or there," Day-Lewis said. "I would happily recognize any single one person whose name is called."

On SAG's television side, with "30 Rock" ending its run, its stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin won the SAG awards for best comedy performers. It was Baldwin's seventh-straight win, while Fey earned her fifth SAG prize.

"Oh, my God. It's ridiculous," Baldwin said. "It's the end of our show, which is sad. Everybody is sad about that. It was the greatest experience I've ever had."

Fey gave a plug for the show's finale airing Thursday, noting that it's up against "The Big Bang Theory."

"Just tape 'The Big Bang Theory' for once, for crying out loud," Fey said.

"Modern Family" won for best overall cast in a TV comedy show. Accepting for the cast, "Modern Family" co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson offered thanks to the makers of "30 Rock" and another departing series, "The Office," saying "you all have set the comedy bar so high."

The TV drama acting awards went to Claire Danes of "Homeland" and Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad." ''Downton Abbey" won the TV drama cast award.

Julianne Moore's turn as Sarah Palin in "Game Change" earned her the TV prize for best actress in a movie or miniseries. Kevin Costner won for best actor in a movie or miniseries for "Hatfields & McCoys."

Receiving the guild's life-achievement award was Dick Van Dyke, who presented the same prize last year to his "The Dick Van Dyke Show" co-star, Mary Tyler Moore.

After waiting on stage for a prolonged standing ovation to end, Van Dyke said, "That does an old man a lot of good."

___

Associated Press writers Beth Harris, Christy Lemire and Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.

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Well: Keeping Blood Pressure in Check

Since the start of the 21st century, Americans have made great progress in controlling high blood pressure, though it remains a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes, congestive heart failure and kidney disease.

Now 48 percent of the more than 76 million adults with hypertension have it under control, up from 29 percent in 2000.

But that means more than half, including many receiving treatment, have blood pressure that remains too high to be healthy. (A normal blood pressure is lower than 120 over 80.) With a plethora of drugs available to normalize blood pressure, why are so many people still at increased risk of disease, disability and premature death? Hypertension experts offer a few common, and correctable, reasons:

¶ About 20 percent of affected adults don’t know they have high blood pressure, perhaps because they never or rarely see a doctor who checks their pressure.

¶ Of the 80 percent who are aware of their condition, some don’t appreciate how serious it can be and fail to get treated, even when their doctors say they should.

¶ Some who have been treated develop bothersome side effects, causing them to abandon therapy or to use it haphazardly.

¶ Many others do little to change lifestyle factors, like obesity, lack of exercise and a high-salt diet, that can make hypertension harder to control.

Dr. Samuel J. Mann, a hypertension specialist and professor of clinical medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College, adds another factor that may be the most important. Of the 71 percent of people with hypertension who are currently being treated, too many are taking the wrong drugs or the wrong dosages of the right ones.

Dr. Mann, author of “Hypertension and You: Old Drugs, New Drugs, and the Right Drugs for Your High Blood Pressure,” says that doctors should take into account the underlying causes of each patient’s blood pressure problem and the side effects that may prompt patients to abandon therapy. He has found that when treatment is tailored to the individual, nearly all cases of high blood pressure can be brought and kept under control with available drugs.

Plus, he said in an interview, it can be done with minimal, if any, side effects and at a reasonable cost.

“For most people, no new drugs need to be developed,” Dr. Mann said. “What we need, in terms of medication, is already out there. We just need to use it better.”

But many doctors who are generalists do not understand the “intricacies and nuances” of the dozens of available medications to determine which is appropriate to a certain patient.

“Prescribing the same medication to patient after patient just does not cut it,” Dr. Mann wrote in his book.

The trick to prescribing the best treatment for each patient is to first determine which of three mechanisms, or combination of mechanisms, is responsible for a patient’s hypertension, he said.

¶ Salt-sensitive hypertension, more common in older people and African-Americans, responds well to diuretics and calcium channel blockers.

¶ Hypertension driven by the kidney hormone renin responds best to ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers, as well as direct renin inhibitors and beta-blockers.

¶ Neurogenic hypertension is a product of the sympathetic nervous system and is best treated with beta-blockers, alpha-blockers and drugs like clonidine.

According to Dr. Mann, neurogenic hypertension results from repressed emotions. He has found that many patients with it suffered trauma early in life or abuse. They seem calm and content on the surface but continually suppress their distress, he said.

One of Dr. Mann’s patients had had high blood pressure since her late 20s that remained well-controlled by the three drugs her family doctor prescribed. Then in her 40s, periodic checks showed it was often too high. When taking more of the prescribed medication did not result in lasting control, she sought Dr. Mann’s help.

After a thorough work-up, he said she had a textbook case of neurogenic hypertension, was taking too much medication and needed different drugs. Her condition soon became far better managed, with side effects she could easily tolerate, and she no longer feared she would die young of a heart attack or stroke.

But most patients should not have to consult a specialist. They can be well-treated by an internist or family physician who approaches the condition systematically, Dr. Mann said. Patients should be started on low doses of one or more drugs, including a diuretic; the dosage or number of drugs can be slowly increased as needed to achieve a normal pressure.

Specialists, he said, are most useful for treating the 10 percent to 15 percent of patients with so-called resistant hypertension that remains uncontrolled despite treatment with three drugs, including a diuretic, and for those whose treatment is effective but causing distressing side effects.

Hypertension sometimes fails to respond to routine care, he noted, because it results from an underlying medical problem that needs to be addressed.

“Some patients are on a lot of blood pressure drugs — four or five — who probably don’t need so many, and if they do, the question is why,” Dr. Mann said.

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First subject: Paying for college

Several websites can give loan and college cost information to parents. Above, Cal State Long Beach students head to classes as the spring semester gets underway. (Christina House, For The Times / January 28, 2013)

By Reid Kanaley

College acceptance letters are starting to arrive, and families now must figure out how to pay the tuition. Here are some sites that offer guidance to the world of financial aid:

•The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. A relatively new federal agency, the bureau has a beta site on college finances. One of the bureau's goals is to make students' borrowing costs clearer. Near the top of the page is a college-prep timeline showing the steps from researching schools to repaying college debt. Along the way, one presumably gets an education.

•Federal student aid. The first step in requesting federal aid for school is to fill out the Federal Application for Student Aid. You have to do it only once a year, no matter how many colleges you apply to. And the earlier the better. As soon as you file the electronic form, you'll see what is likely to be a shocking ballpark number for the education expenses you're expected to pay out of pocket.

•U.S. News & World Report college roundup. The section on paying for an education is meant to explain some of the terminology and procedures that students and families will encounter. Take note of the "overlooked ways to pay for college," which include getting an early start on college savings accounts called 529 plans and digging around for otherwise-overlooked community sources of scholarship money.

•College Board. This group, which runs the SAT college-entrance examination system, also offers advice on financing your higher education. This page includes a link to the board's scholarship-search service. Many scholarships have obscure criteria, so how would you even find all the ones that might fit you? Fill out a questionnaire that can help match students to what the board says is $6 billion available in scholarships through 2,200 programs.

Kanaley writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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'Argo' wins Producers Guild award

Ben Affleck, George Clooney and Grant Heslov won the the Darryl F. Zanuck outstanding producer of motion picture for "Argo," besting "Lincoln" and other contenders in the category.

It was the latest triumph for the film, which won the Golden Globes motion picture-drama earlier in the month. With the win, the film establishes itself firmly as a solid contender for Oscar best picture after earlier being thought out of the running when Ben Affleck was snubbed for best director by the motion picture academy.

"Searching for Sugar Man," the story of the forgotten '70s singer Rodriguez, snagged the prize for documentary theatrical motion picture. Also in documentaries, the school-bullying film "Bully" won the Stanley Kramer award for illuminating social issues.

On the animation side, "Wreck-It Ralph," a story of a disenchanted video-game character, took the prize for best animated feature at the PGA's.

In television categories, "Modern Family" took home the prize for TV episodic comedy, "Homeland" won for episodic drama, while the outstanding longform TV prize was scored by HBO's Sarah Palin pic "Game Change." "The Amazing Race" walked away with competitive-television honors.

Meanwhile, "The Colbert Report" won for live entertainment/talk and "American Masters" for nonfiction television.

J.J. Abrams, who's had a busy week since being hired as director of the new "Star Wars" film, received a lifetime achivement award; a milestone award went to Harvey and Bob Weinstein. The Visionary Award for Work of Uplifting Quality or Vision went to Russell Simmons.

The PGAs are considered a bellwether of the best picture prize at the Oscars and can turn a race in a movie's favor. Two years ago, for instance, "The King's Speech," facing a challenge from "The Social Network," picked up the top prize at the PGAs en route to its Oscar triumph.

"Argo" beat out nine other contenders for the Darryl F. Zanuck producer of the year award for theatrical motion pictures. The other nominees were: "Beasts of the Southern Wild"; "Django Unchained"; "Les Miserables"; "Life of Pi"; "Lincoln"; "Moonrise Kingdom"; "Silver Linings Playbook"; "Skyfall"; and "Zero Dark Thirty."

The PGA award, handed out at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, is considering one of the leading indicators for the best picture Academy Award. For the last five years, the PGA winner has gone on to win best picture. One reason: The 5,400-member PGA and academy use the same preferential system to count final ballots.

PHOTOS: SAG Award nominees

The last time the PGA and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences didn't agree was six years ago when the PGA chose "Little Miss Sunshine," while the best picture Oscar went to Martin Scorsese's"The Departed."

ALSO:

Sundance 2013: What's it like to secretly film at Disneyland?

Sundance 2013: Documentarians turn to writers to shape narratives

Bawdy CAA party at Sundance shocks guests, clients

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Canada denies Randy Quaid's request to stay

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian immigration officials have denied U.S. actor Randy Quaid's request for permanent resident status in Canada.

A Canadian government official confirmed late Saturday his request for permanent status has been denied. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Quaid can appeal the decision to the federal court.

U.S. officials last year refused to seek extradition of the actor and his wife from Canada to face felony vandalism charges in Santa Barbara, California, but authorities in the coastal town say they'll still have the couple arrested if they return to the states. 

Quaid has sought to stay in Canada, claiming he was being hunted by "Hollywood star-whackers" who had killed his friends David Carradine and Heath Ledger. 

Quaid's trouble began in 2010 when he and his wife were arrested for causing more than $5,000 damage at a hillside home they were renting. 

Randy Quaid is the older brother of actor Dennis Quaid and is best-known for his roles in films such as "National Lampoon's Vacation" and "Independence Day." He won a Golden Globe award for his depiction of President Lyndon Johnson in a TV movie in the late 1980s.

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Well: Ask Well: Squats for Aging Knees

You are already doing many things right, in terms of taking care of your aging knees. In particular, it sounds as if you are keeping your weight under control. Carrying extra pounds undoubtedly strains knees and contributes to pain and eventually arthritis.

You mention weight training, too, which is also valuable. Sturdy leg muscles, particularly those at the front and back of the thighs, stabilize the knee, says Joseph Hart, an assistant professor of kinesiology and certified athletic trainer at the University of Virginia, who often works with patients with knee pain.

An easy exercise to target those muscles is the squat. Although many of us have heard that squats harm knees, the exercise is actually “quite good for the knees, if you do the squats correctly,” Dr. Hart says. Simply stand with your legs shoulder-width apart and bend your legs until your thighs are almost, but not completely, parallel to the ground. Keep your upper body straight. Don’t bend forward, he says, since that movement can strain the knees. Try to complete 20 squats, using no weight at first. When that becomes easy, Dr. Hart suggests, hold a barbell with weights attached. Or simply clutch a full milk carton, which is my cheapskate’s squats routine.

Straight leg lifts are also useful for knee health. Sit on the floor with your back straight and one leg extended and the other bent toward your chest. In this position, lift the straight leg slightly off the ground and hold for 10 seconds. Repeat 10 to 20 times and then switch legs.

You can also find other exercises that target the knees in this video, “Increasing Knee Stability.”

Of course, before starting any exercise program, consult a physician, especially, Dr. Hart says, if your knees often ache, feel stiff or emit a strange, clicking noise, which could be symptoms of arthritis.

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Hackers take over sentencing commission website

This screen shot shows the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission after it was hijacked by the activist group Anonymous early Saturday. (Associated Press / January 26, 2013)

Associated Press

January 26, 2013, 4:40 p.m.

The hacker-activist group Anonymous says it hijacked the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide. The FBI is investigating.

The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch, was taken over early Saturday and replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago “a line was crossed.”

The hackers say they've infiltrated several government computer systems and copied secret information that they now threaten to make public.

Family and friends of Swartz, who helped create Reddit and RSS, say he killed himself after he was hounded by federal prosecutors. Officials say he helped post millions of court documents for free online and that he illegally downloaded millions of academic articles from an online clearinghouse.

The FBI's Richard McFeely, executive assistant director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch, said in a statement that “we were aware as soon as it happened and are handling it as a criminal investigation. We are always concerned when someone illegally accesses another person's or government agency's network.”

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Venezuela prison riot leaves dozens dead

A handout photo by El Informador newspaper shows emergency crews tending an injured person at the Barquisimeto city hospital in northeast Venezuela after a prison riot that left dozens dead. (Misael Castro / EPA / January 25, 2013)

From the Associated Press

January 25, 2013, 10:31 p.m.

CARACAS, Venezuela—

Venezuelan media reported Friday that dozens were killed in a bloody prison riot, and the government said it was investigating.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro called the violence tragic early Saturday on television and said the authorities had launched an investigation.

He and other officials did not give a death toll from the riot at Uribana prison in the central city of Barquisimeto.

The newspaper Ultimas Noticias reported on its website that 54 were killed. The television channel Globovision reported about 50 killed. Both cited Ruy Medina, the director of Central Hospital in the city, who also said that dozens were hurt.

Penitentiary Service Minister Iris Varela said earlier on television that the riot broke out when groups of inmates attacked National Guard troops who were attempting to carry out an inspection.

Varela said the violence had affected a number of prisoners and officials, but said the authorities would hold off until control had been re-established at the prison to confirm the toll. She said the government decided to send troops to search the prison after receiving reports of clashes between groups of inmates during the past two days.

The death toll provided by Medina rose late Friday after he had initially reported four killed and dozens injured.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles condemned the government's handling of the country's overcrowded and violent prisons.

“Our country's prisons are an example of the incapacity of this government and its leaders. They never solved the problem,” Capriles said on his Twitter account. “How many more deaths do there have to be in the prisons for the government to acknowledge its failure and make changes?”

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How Facebook Passive-Aggressively Dismissed Twitter’s New Vine App

Facebook has now clarified why it blocked Twitter’s new video-sharing app Vine, suggesting on its developer blog Friday afternoon that Facebook didn’t think much of Vine’s integration — or lack thereof — with the social network. Basically, Twitter’s pseudo GIF-maker thing connected with Facebook, but only so you could “find Friends” — presumably because Twitter wants people to use the app on Twitter. But for the privilege of its people, Facebook wants apps to give back to the network.

RELATED: Facebook Is Already Trying to Break Twitter’s New Toy

Without mentioning Twitter or Vine explicitly, Facebook’s Justin Osofsky explained in the blog post that some apps “are using Facebook to either replicate our functionality or bootstrap their growth in a way that creates little value for people on Facebook, such as not providing users an easy way to share back to Facebook.” How’s that for passive aggression?

RELATED: Uganda Threatens to Shut Down Social Networking

Osofsky points developers to a policy page updated today, which reflects that sentiment by stating: 

Reciprocity and Replicating core functionality: (a) Reciprocity: Facebook Platform enables developers to build personalized, social experiences via the Graph API and related APIs. If you use any Facebook APIs to build personalized or social experiences, you must also enable people to easily share their experiences back with people on Facebook. (b) Replicating core functionality: You may not use Facebook Platform to promote, or to export user data to, a product or service that replicates a core Facebook product or service without our permission.

In short, if apps want access to Facebook’s massive user base of 1 billion-plus friends, they better bring people back to Facebook. And the war raged on.

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Disney says JJ Abrams to direct next 'Star Wars'

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It's official. The force is with J.J. Abrams.

The Walt Disney Co. issued a statement Friday night confirming reports that had been circulating for two days that Abrams, Emmy-award-winning creator of TV's "Lost" and director of 2009's "Star Trek" movie, has been pegged to direct the seventh installment of the "Star Wars" franchise.

"J.J. is the perfect director to helm this," said Kathleen Kennedy, the movie's producer and president of Lucasfilm, which was acquired by Disney last month for $4.06 billion.

"Beyond having such great instincts as a filmmaker, he has an intuitive understanding of this franchise. He understands the essence of the Star Wars experience," Kennedy said in the statement.

The movie will have a script from "Toy Story 3" writer Michael Arndt and a 2015 release.

Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" in the original trilogy, will work as a consultant on the new project.

Abrams has already headed the reboot of another storied space franchise, "Star Trek," for rival studio Paramount Pictures. The next installment in that series, "Star Trek: Into Darkness," is set to hit theaters May 17.

But he has long been known as a "Star Wars" devotee. Abrams spoke about the plot of the original "Star Wars" in the lecture series "TED Talks" in March 2007, and reportedly became enamored of "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof partly because Lindelof was wearing a "Star Wars" T-shirt when they first met.

In 2009, Abrams told the Los Angeles Times: "As a kid, 'Star Wars' was much more my thing than 'Star Trek' was."

In Friday night's statement he called it an "absolute honor" to get the job.

"I may be even more grateful to George Lucas now than I was as a kid," Abrams said.

Lucas himself said in the statement that "I've consistently been impressed with J.J. as a filmmaker and storyteller. He's an ideal choice to direct the new Star Wars film and the legacy couldn't be in better hands."

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