Duo's lofty idea yields film spotlighting downtown L.A.

Former film and television producer Leonard Hill was having lunch at Church & State bistro, on the ground floor of the Biscuit Company Lofts, when he spotted an old colleague.

Screenwriter Wendy Kout, who had worked with Hill years before, was visiting a friend who had moved into a loft in the arts district in downtown Los Angeles. Kout had created the ABC show "Anything But Love," starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis. After its four-season run ended in 1992, she became a playwright.

Hill, a former independent television producer and vice president of movies for ABC, gave Kout a tour of the lofts and a run-down area along Industrial Street that he and his partner had redeveloped.

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Kout, who lives in Sherman Oaks, was struck by the theme of transformation, both of a downtown she never knew existed and of Hill's own post-Hollywood career.

When Hill suggested they might work together again, a light went on in her head.

"I said, 'Here we are two repurposed people looking at this repurposed downtown,'" Kout said. "I said, 'Wouldn't that be a great idea for a film?' He said, 'You write it and I'll produce it.' And that's what we did."

The result is the independent feature "Dorfman in Love," a romantic comedy about a young suburbanite (played by Sara Rue, of the ABC comedy "Malibu Country") whose life is transformed when she leaves a dreary existence taking care of her father in the San Fernando Valley and moves into a downtown loft to cat-sit for a friend.

Along with the 2009 indie hit "500 Days of Summer," "Dorfman in Love" is one of the few films to spotlight the changing face of downtown L.A., which has attracted thousands of new residents over the last decade, many of them moving into new lofts and injecting new life into a city not known for having a vibrant downtown.

The film, which was directed by Brad Leong and co-stars Elliott Gould, will be released nationwide March 22 by Brainstorm Media in a limited number of theaters, including at Laemmle Theatres, and will also be made available on the same day on video-on-demand through Direct TV.

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"Dorfman in Love" was filmed over 20 days in the Toy Factory Lofts (using Hill's office as a location) and various downtown sites, including the Central Library, the Los Angeles Flower Market, Little Tokyo, Santee Alley, Pershing Square, Angels Flight Railway, Chinatown, Union Station and a subway line.

"We were really trying to give L.A. its due," said Hill, who became a real estate developer after a long career in the film and TV business. He began as a writer on the very L.A.-centric TV series "Adam-12."

He produced more than 50 network television movies and dramatic series, but after struggling to make it as an independent television producer he embarked on a radical career change.

In 2001, Hill and a partner acquired a former toy factory on Industrial Street and converted it into lofts. After the units were sold, they did the same to a former Nabisco bakery building across the street.

But seeing Kout again rekindled his desire to get back in the film game.

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"The truth is, old producers die hard," Hill said. "Making movies is more fun than making buildings. I really missed the creative aspect of the business."

Hill served as the film's producer, location manager and also worked with Kout on the idea for the script. He initially pitched Kout on a story called "The Loft," inspired by the classic Billy Wilder film "The Apartment."

Instead, Kout suggested an original story, partly based on her own impressions of growing up in the Valley.

For inspiration, she spent a week in Hill's loft at the Toy Factory building to soak up the neighborhood and visit downtown sites.

"I was a bit like Alice in Wonderland," Kout said. "I discovered all these places that I never knew about, like the Central Public Library, L.A. Flower Market and Angels Flight Railway."

Without glossing over the edgier side of downtown, the film attempts to highlight less familiar aspects of downtown life, such as the public transit system and the diversity of residents, Kout said.

"I was living in the San Fernando Valley, and I came to a place that was magical," she said. "I fell in love with downtown."

richard.verrier@latimes.com

Where the cameras roll: Sample of neighborhoods with permitted TV, film and commercial shoots scheduled this week. Permits are subject to last-minute changes. Sources: FilmL.A. Inc., cities of Beverly Hills, Pasadena and Santa Clarita. Thomas Suh Lauder / Los Angeles Times

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Friends, investigators seek answers in killing of O.C. couple

They met in college, two highly regarded basketball players who seemed to have the same winning touch on the court and off.

After blazing through high school and college with her outside shot, Monica Quan became the assistant women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. Keith Lawrence, whose highlight shots are still there on his college website, became a campus officer at USC.

Now police in Irvine are scrambling for an explanation — and friends are looking for a way to express their shock — after Quan and Lawrence were found shot to death in their parked car on the top floor of a parking structure in an upscale, high-security condominium complex near UC Irvine.

The two had just announced their engagement and had recently moved into a condominium complex near Concordia University, where they played basketball and had gone on to earn their degrees.

Late Sunday, after a passerby noticed two people in the parked car, police said they found Lawrence slumped in the driver's side of his white Kia. Quan was next to him, also dead. The couple were shot multiple times, and authorities said they have tentatively ruled out the possibility of it being a murder-suicide or motivated by robbery. Nothing in the car, police said, seemed to be disturbed.

The couple's friends and family said they were shaken by the violent deaths of two people who seemed to have so much to offer.

Quan was a 2002 graduate of Walnut High School in the San Gabriel Valley, where she set school records for the most three-pointers in a season and a game. She played at Long Beach State and at Concordia, where she graduated in 2007. She went on to earn a master's degree before becoming the assistant coach at Fullerton.

Quan's father was the first Chinese American captain in the LAPD, and went on to become police chief at Cal Poly Pomona.

Quan was known for pulling students aside to offer encouragement, said Megan Richardson, a former player. Marcia Foster, the head basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton, described her assistant as a special person — "bright, passionate and empowering," she said.

Quan shared a love of basketball with her fiancee, Lawrence, whom she met at Concordia.

He too had been a standout basketball player, starting at Moorpark High, where he played point guard and shooting guard, said Tim Bednar, who coached Lawrence.

Bednar said that Lawrence, who came from a family of athletes, was talented, yet quiet and humble. After Lawrence graduated in 2003, he continued to participate in summer youth camps

When he returned for the camps, Bednar said, he was known as the "best basketball player that ever came through" the school.

"He was awesome with the kids," Bednar said. "They all wanted to be around Keith Lawrence."

Bednar heard from Lawrence when he needed a recommendation to become a police officer after graduating from the Ventura County Sheriff's Academy. In August, he was hired by USC's public safety department.

John Thomas, the executive director and chief of the department, said that Lawrence was an "honorable, compassionate and professional" member of the community.

"We are a better department and the USC campus community is a safer place as a result of his service," Thomas said in a statement.

On Monday night, Quan's friends gathered outside Walnut High School. One clutched a heart-shaped balloon, another carried a collage of her basketball playing days. Still another held a basketball.

Lawrence's friends and family put up a Facebook page. "RIP Keith Lawrence, you will be missed," it said simply. Within hours, 840 had left comments or indicated they "liked" it. Concordia put up a link to Lawrence's game-winning shot that carried the school into a post-season tournament.

Michelle Thibeault, 27, said in a Facebook message that she had known Quan for more than a decade. The two were on the same athletic teams and went to junior high and high school together. "Monica was loved by everyone," she said.

During a somber gathering at the Cal State Fullerton gymnasium Monday, Foster read a brief statement from Quan's brother Ryan.

"We just shared a moment of incredible joy on her recent engagement," he wrote, and then added: "A bright light was just put out."

nicole.santacruz@latimes.com

kate.mather@latimes.com

lauren.williams@latimes.com

Times staff writer John Canalis contributed to this report.

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NJ Gov. Christie, Letterman laugh about fat jokes

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and David Letterman have shared some laughs about the many fat jokes the comedian has made about the lawmaker's ample girth.

Christie has termed his plumpness "fair game" for comedians. And during his first appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman" on Monday, the outspoken Republican and potential 2016 presidential contender read two of Letterman's jokes that he said were "some of my personal favorites."

The governor also drew loud laughs when he pulled out a doughnut and started eating it while Letterman asked him if he was bothered by the digs that have been made about his weight. Christie said he wasn't, noting that he laughs at the jokes if he finds them funny.

"Late Show" airs on CBS at 11:35 p.m. Eastern time.

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The New Old Age Blog: In Blended Families, Responsibility Blurs

Every year, Fran McDowell waited for the summer week when she would sing in a choral festival in the North Carolina mountains, then spend a few days in a lakeside cabin with close women friends.

That getaway grew more complicated to arrange — but perhaps more necessary — after her husband, Herb Beadle, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. They had a “gloriously happy” marriage — her first, his second — for 11 years, and she was more than willing to care for him in sickness as in health. But he could no longer manage alone in their Atlanta home.

For a few years, other family members pitched in to allow Ms. McDowell her cherished vacation. Eventually, though, she had to ask her husband’s daughter, a medical professional in another state, to take him into her home for a week.

She said no, then yes. Then, the day before Ms. McDowell was to drive him there, her stepdaughter again refused, leaving no time for alternate arrangements. If this had been her biological child, “I would have said, ‘Come on, don’t do this to me,’” Ms. McDowell said. Instead, reluctant to make waves, she canceled her trip.

“I think confrontation is riskier for stepparents,” she told me. “I was the compliant one who would bite my tongue rather than say what I thought.”

Ms. McDowell never told her stepdaughter, or anyone in the family, how angry and disappointed she was, or how difficult it was becoming to care for their father, who died three years ago at 86. She told the members of her dementia caregivers support group instead.

It was that group’s leader, Moira Keller, who e-mailed me to suggest this topic. A clinical social worker with the Sixty Plus program at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, she wrote that “one of the biggest challenges I have is blended families in later life.”

Though I’ve written about the way the 1970s’ spike in divorces could complicate caregiving for adult children — more households to sustain, more siblings to either help or hinder — I hadn’t considered the impact on the older people themselves.

But Ms. Keller seems to be onto something. “The generation most likely to have stepchildren” — the boomers — “don’t need much care yet,” said Merril Silverstein, a Syracuse University sociologist co-editing a coming issue of the Journal of Marriage and the Family on stepfamilies in later life. “The crunch will come in 10 or 20 years.”

Initially, many adult children whose divorced or widowed parents remarry seem delighted, Ms. Keller said when we spoke. “They’re thrilled that Mom or Dad isn’t alone,” she said. “It’s a wonderful thing — until somebody gets sick.”

Then, she has found, “it gets really blurry. Who’s going to do what?” Grown children don’t have much history with these new spouses; they often feel less responsibility to intervene or help out, and stepparents may be unwilling to ask. Perhaps it’s unclear whether children or new spouses have decision-making authority.

“Older couples in this situation fall through the cracks,” Ms. Keller said.

Research shows that the ties which lead adult children to become caregivers — depending on how much contact they have with parents, how nearby they live, how obligated they feel — are weaker in stepchildren, Dr. Silverstein said. Money sometimes enters the equation too, Ms. Keller added, if biological children resent a parent’s spending their presumed inheritance on care for an ailing stepparent.

Adela Betsill, another of Ms. Keller’s support group members, married her longtime partner five years ago — her second marriage, his third. She has since given up her interior design business to care for Robert who, at 72, has also developed Alzheimer’s disease. His two children have had little involvement — perhaps because she’s just 49 and presumed able to handle everything.

Thus, though Robert’s son works from an office in their home, if Ms. Betsill needed to go out and asked him to remind his father to eat lunch, “he might, or he might not,” she said. “I don’t think he realizes it’s a burden.” So she has not asked.

Would it be different if she were his biological mother and he saw her wearing out under the strain? She thinks so, but it’s hard to know. After all, biological families also experience plenty of conflict and avoidance as elders age.

Still, that sense of reciprocity we often hear from caregivers — she took care of me when I was young, so I need to help out now that she’s old — doesn’t apply in late-life stepfamilies. Ms. Betsill didn’t raise this man, or his half sister.

Older couples who marry or remarry often discuss their finances, Ms. Keller has found. (An elder attorney, Craig Reaves, discussed the legal consequences here.) But illness and dependence may prove even more difficult subjects to broach.

“If I could yell one thing from a mountaintop,” Ms. Keller said, “it’s to talk about this stuff, too. Who’s going to take care of you if you become sick? Talk about that while you’re still healthy.”

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Paula Span is the author of “When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions.”

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Secondhand designer clothing at discount prices is in fashion

Jaclyn Shanfeld moves from garment to garment with the unbridled joy of a little girl rummaging in her mother's closet.

From the "wall of Chanel" Shanfeld retrieves a light pink and lavender jacket that once fetched $3,200 but was priced for resale at $750. She shows off the unmarked soles of a pair Nicholas Kirkwood boots, originally purchased for $1,500 that are now offered for $700. She unveils a sheer black, sleeveless Alaia gown bought for a special occasion — but never worn. It set back its first buyer $5,400, but it's now available for $650.

These Rodeo Drive castoffs are among the luxury clothes and accessories offered for resale in the digital consignment store Shop-Hers. The online marketplace offers shoppers the opportunity to buy previously owned designer fashions at a discount. Sellers, meanwhile, can create room in their closets and pocket a higher percentage of the proceeds than consignment stores typically offer.

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"I dreamt of a site that catered to secondhand luxury, a site where one could find women all over the country that were just like them aesthetically in order to have the experience of shopping one another's wardrobe," Shanfeld, 29, said.

The online store re-creates the airy shopping experience of an upscale boutique, with fashions from such designers as Alexander Wang, Hermes, Manolo Blahnik, Tom Ford and Zac Posen. Shanfeld and co-founders Jenna Stahl and Thanh Khuu added an element of social networking to help women browse the virtual closets.

First-time users furnish a profile picture and their measurements to ensure that women of similar size can fit in the items purchased from the seller's digital closets. Then, they select their favorites from among 20 designers. The sizing and fashion preferences help the site recommend "style soul mates," women whose tastes and dimensions most closely match the shopper's own.

When an item is purchased, the seller receives an e-mail alert and has three days to ship the item to Shop-Hers. Upon receipt, the site inspects the item for authenticity and verifies that its condition is as depicted on the site. If it meets expectations, Shop-Hers ships the item to the buyer and sends a follow-up notification to the seller, indicating that the sale is complete and payment is on the way. Shop-Hers keeps an 18% transaction fee.

"I love the site," said Diane Nagler, a publicist who owns her own firm in Denver and was among the site's earliest users. "My first purchase was this amazing, emerald green patent leather Max Mara clutch. I got it for $70 but it retailed for $600 to $800."

Secondhand shops once carried the taint of the declasse, said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Assn. of Resale Professionals. But now the resale industry accounts for annual revenue of about $13 billion, according to First Research. Online, EBay alone enabled $7.9 billion worth of sales last year of new and used clothing and accessories.

STUDY: Majority of consumers watch TV and surf Web simultaneously

The digital consignment market is showing momentum. In 2011, e-commerce veteran Julie Wainwright launched the RealReal, a members-only website that acquires new and vintage luxury apparel from stylists in Los Angeles, with backing from well-known venture capital firms. Other ventures caught the attention of Silicon Valley's investment community, including Threadflip, Twice and Thredup, which specializes in children's clothing. Poshmark offers an app that allows iPhone users to resell items from their closets.

Shanfeld launched Shop-Hers.com in November, backed by such notable investors as Brian Lee, founder of Shoedazzle; David Lee, a Silicon Valley angel investor who also backed Twitter; and Shana Fisher, managing partner of High Line Venture Partners, a New York fund that was an early investor in Pinterest.

"Jaclyn's a really extraordinary person, as a founder," Fisher said. "She stands out among the best of them."

Shop-Hers had its genesis when Shanfeld left her job at Vision, a modeling agency where at age 23 she was scouting talent, developing the models' careers and booking jobs.

"Once I left the agency, my salary plummeted. I wasn't making money, but I was used to being able to buy designer clothes," said Shanfeld, who grew up in Beverly Hills, the daughter of a screenwriter and real estate developer — and granddaughter of the late comedian Phil Silvers.

Shanfeld found herself attending a series of weddings and recycling the same dresses. A catty remark from someone she knew — "I saw that dress before. Where did I see it? On you, at a wedding last weekend!" — prompted Shanfeld to explore ways to refresh her wardrobe.

Shanfeld began developing the concept of a high-end online resale store where the women who shop runway shows and designer boutiques could sell the unwanted items crowding their closets — and keep as much as 82% of the proceeds. A mutual friend introduced Shanfeld to Stahl, who had overseen the design of Nordstrom's website. Stahl flew down from her home in Seattle, and they worked for a week designing a mock-up of the site. As Stahl and Khuu, the company's chief technical officer, worked on the site, Shanfeld began assembling the inventory.

"I started thinking who in my life has the kind of closet I would love to tap into," Shanfeld said. "So I made a list of every woman that I knew of that had a fantastic wardrobe."

Through emails and in-person appeals — sometimes she would show up at homes with cupcakes and a bottle of wine —– Shanfeld began finding sellers. Among the first was noted Los Angeles art collector Rosette Delug, whose wardrobe includes Balenciaga, Givenchy, McQueen, Maniac and LJB. For years, she would visit family in Turkey, bringing suitcases of clothes, shoes and purses for her sister and nieces. Then, her daughter began mining for treasures in her mother's closet.

"Now with Jaclyn, I get to clean the rest of my closet and get paid for it!" Delug said in an email interview. "She took the items with her, professionally uploaded, labeled and priced images onto her website. Next thing I know, I was receiving steady deposits of money for items I didn't even miss."

As soon as the checks began arriving, Delug said, she celebrated — by buying a new Chanel leather biker jacket and boots.

dawn.chmielewski@latimes.com

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Suspected child molester left L.A. archdiocese for L.A. schools

A former priest and suspected child molester left employment with the Los Angeles archdiocese to work for the L.A. Unified School District, officials confirmed Sunday.

The former clergyman, Joseph Pina, did not work with children in his school district job, L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy said. He added that, as a result of the disclosures, Pina would no longer be employed by the nation's second-largest school system.

Over the weekend, Deasy was unable to pull together Pina's full employment history, but said the district already was looking into the matter of Pina's hiring.

"I find it troubling," he said of the disclosures about Pina. "And I also want to understand what knowledge that we had of any background problems when hiring him, and I don't yet know that."

L.A. Unified itself has come under fire in the last year for its handling of employees accused of sexual misconduct.

Pina, 66, was laid off from his full-time district job last year, but returned to work episodically to organize events. One event he may have helped organize was a ribbon-cutting Saturday for a new education facility. School district officials over the weekend, however, could not confirm that. Pina did not attend the event, and the district could not confirm payment for any help he may have provided.

Pina's name emerged in documents released by the archdiocese to comply with a court order. His case was one of many in which church officials failed to take action to protect child victims and in which first consideration was given to helping the offending priests rather than their victims, according to the documentation.

A just-released, internal 1993 psychological evaluation states that Pina "remains a serious risk for acting out." The evaluation recounts how Pina was attracted to a victim, an eighth-grade girl, when he saw her in a costume.

"She dressed as Snow White ... I had a crush on Snow White, so I started to open myself up to her," he told the psychologist. "I felt like I fell in love with her. I got sexually involved with her, but never intercourse. She was about 17 when we got involved sexually, and it continued until she was about 19."

In a report sent to a top Mahony aide, the psychologist expressed concern the abuse was never reported to authorities.

Pina's evaluation also includes a recommendation "to take appropriate measures and precautions to insure that he is not in a setting where he can victimize others." Pina continued to work as a pastor as late as March 1998.

School district officials could not verify Pina's hiring date over the weekend, but he took a job with L.A. Unified as the school system was carrying out the nation's largest school construction program. His job involved community outreach, building support for school projects, while also finding out communities' concerns and trying to address them, officials said. Such work was crucial to the program, because even though communities wanted new schools, their locations and other elements could prove controversial. Such projects frequently involved tearing down homes or businesses, environmental cleanups, and the blocking of streets and other disruptions.

"His duties were to rally community support and elicit community comments regarding schools in a neighborhood," district spokesman Tom Waldman said.

Pina's work did bring him into contact with families, frequently at public meetings organized to hear and address their concerns.

Projects that Pina worked on included a new elementary school in Porter Ranch and a high school serving the west San Fernando Valley, Waldman said. The high school, in particular, generated substantial public debate as a district team and a local charter school competed aggressively for control of the site.

The $19.5-billion building program is winding down, and, as a result, many jobs attached to it have come to an end. Pina's was among them.

The dedication he may have helped organize Saturday was for the Richard N. Slawson Southeast Occupational Center in Bell. Participants told KCET-TV, which first reported Pina's school employment, that he had assisted with community outreach on that project. The adult education and career technical education facility has 29 classrooms as well as health-career labs and child care for students. The school opened in August 2012.

Pina "was slated for some additional temporary work when the issue came to our attention last week and that work was canceled," Deasy said.

It may have been Pina who first alerted district officials that his name appeared in disclosed documents, Deasy said. Pina called a senior administrator in the facilities division. So far, no untoward issues have emerged regarding Pina's work for L.A. Unified.

howard.blume@latimes.com

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Estonian pleads guilty in U.S. court to Internet advertising scam

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An Estonian man pleaded guilty on Friday in U.S. federal court for his role in a massive Internet scam that targeted well-known websites such as iTunes, Netflix and The Wall Street Journal.

The scheme infected at least four million computers in more than 100 countries, including 500,000 in the United States, with malicious software, or malware, according to the indictment. It included a large number of computers at data centers located in New York, federal prosecutors said.

Valeri Aleksejev, 32, was the first of six Estonians and one Russian indicted in 2011 to enter a plea. They were indicted on five charges each of wire and computer intrusion. One of the defendants, Vladimir Tsastsin, was also charged with 22 counts of money laundering.

In U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Friday, Aleksejev pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. He faces up to 25 years in prison, deportation and the forfeiture of $ 7 million.

The scam had several components, including a “click-hijacking fraud” in which the malware re-routed searches by users on infected computers to sites designated by the defendants, prosecutors said in the indictment. Users of infected computers trying to access Apple Inc’s iTunes website or Netflix Inc‘s movie website, for example, instead ended up at websites of unaffiliated businesses, according to the indictment.

Another component of the scam replaced legitimate advertisements on websites operated by News Corp’s The Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com Inc and others with advertisements that triggered payments for the defendants, prosecutors said.

The defendants reaped at least $ 14 million from the fraud, prosecutors said. However, Aleksejev’s lawyer, William Stampur, said in court on Friday that Aleksejev has no assets.

Estonian police arrested Aleksejev and the other Estonians in November 2011. One other Estonian, Anton Ivanov, has been extradited, and the extradition of the other four is pending, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan. The Russian, Andrey Taame, remains at large, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Aleksejev told Magistrate Judge James Francis he assisted in blocking anti-virus software updates on infected computers. Francis asked Aleksejev if he knew what he was doing was illegal.

“I thought it was wrong,” Aleksejev said in broken English after a long pause. “But of course I didn’t know all the laws in the U.S.”

Francis set a tentative sentencing date of May 31 for Aleksejev.

The case is USA v. Tsastsin et al, U.S. District Court in Manhattan, No. 11-00878.

(Reporting by Bernard Vaughan; Editing by Dan Grebler)

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Beyonce electrifies at Super Bowl halftime show

If naysayers still doubted Beyonce's singing talents — even after her national anthem performance last week at a press conference — the singer proved she is an exceptional performer at the Super Bowl halftime show.

Beyonce opened and closed her set Sunday belting out songs, and in between, she danced hard and heavy — and better than most contemporary pop stars.

She set a serious tone as she emerged onstage in all black, singing lines from her R&B hit "Love on Top." The stage was dark as fire and lights burst from the sides. Then she went into her hit "Crazy in Love," bringing some feminine spirit to the Superdome in New Orleans as she and her background dancers did the singer's signature booty-shaking dance. Beyonce ripped off part of her shirt and skirt. She even blew a kiss. She was ready to rock, and she did so like a pro.

Her confidence — and voice — grew as she worked the stage with and without her Destiny's Child band mates during her 13-minute set, which came days after she admitted she sang to a prerecorded track at President Barack Obama's inauguration less than two weeks ago.

Beyonce proved not only that she can sing, but that she can also entertain on a stage as big as the Super Bowl's. The 31-year-old was far better than Madonna, who sang to a backing track last year, and miles ahead of the Black Eyed Peas' disastrous set in 2011.

Beyonce was best when she finished her set with "Halo." She asked the crowd to put their hands toward her as she sang the slow groove on bended knee — and that's when she the performance hit its high note.

"Thank you for this moment," she told the crowd. "God bless y'all."

Her background singers helped out as Beyonce danced around the stage throughout most of her performance. There was a backing track to help fill in when Beyonce wasn't singing, and there were long stretches when she let it play as she performed elaborate dance moves.

She had a swarm of background dancers and band members spread throughout the stage, along with videotaped images of the singer dancing that may have unintentionally played on the live-or-taped question. And the crowd got bigger when she was joined by her Destiny's Child band mates.

Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams popped up from below the stage to sing "Bootylicious." They were in similar outfits, singing and dancing closely as they harmonized. But Rowland and Williams were barely heard when the group sang "Independent Woman," as their voices faded into the background.

They also joined in for some of "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," where Beyonce's voice grew stronger. That song featured Beyonce's skilled choreography, as did "End of Time" and "Baby Boy," which also showcased Beyonce's all-female band, balancing out the testosterone levels on the football field.

Before the game, Alicia Keys performed a lounge-y, piano-tinged version of the national anthem that her publicist assured was live. The Grammy-winning singer played the piano as she sang "The Star-Spangled Banner" in a long red dress with her eyes shut.

She followed Jennifer Hudson, who sang "America the Beautiful" with the 26-member Sandy Hook Elementary School chorus. It was an emotional performance that had some players on the sideline on the verge of tears. Hudson also sang live, her publicist said.

The students wore green ribbons on their shirts in honor of the 20 first-graders and six adults who were killed in a Dec. 14 shooting rampage at the school in Newtown, Conn.

The students began the song softly before Hudson, whose mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew were shot to death five years ago, jumped in with her gospel-flavored vocals. She stood still in black and white as the students moved to the left and right, singing background.

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Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin

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The New Old Age Blog: Therapy Plateau No Longer Ends Coverage

Ellen Gorman, 72, a New York psychotherapist, can’t walk very far and gets around the city mainly by taxi, “which is really expensive,” she said. Twice since 2008 her physical therapy was discontinued because she wasn’t progressing. But after a knee replacement last year, she is getting physical therapy again, exercising with her therapist and building up her endurance by walking in the hallway of her Manhattan apartment building.

“Before this, I was getting weaker and weaker, and I just kept caving in,” she said.

Because of an action by Congress and a recent court settlement, Medicare probably won’t cut off Ms. Gorman’s physical therapy again should her progress level off — as long as her doctor says it is medically necessary.

Congress continued for another year a little-known process that allows exceptions to what Medicare pays for physical, occupational and speech therapy. The Medicare limits before the exceptions are $1,900 for physical and speech therapy this year, and $1,900 for occupational therapy.

In addition, the settlement of a class-action lawsuit last month now means that Medicare is prohibited from denying patients coverage for skilled nursing care, home health services or outpatient therapy because they had reached a “plateau,” and their conditions were not improving. That will allow people with Medicare who have chronic health problems and disabilities to get the therapy and other skilled care that they need for as long as they need it, if they meet other coverage criteria.

The settlement is expected to affect thousands, and possibly millions, of Medicare beneficiaries with chronic health problems like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. It could also help families, as well as the overburdened Medicare budget, delay costly nursing home care by enabling seniors to live longer in their own homes.

“Under this settlement, Medicare policy will be clarified to ensure that claims from providers are reimbursed consistently and appropriately and not denied solely based on a rule-of-thumb determination that a beneficiary’s condition is not improving,” said Fabien Levy, a spokesman for the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the Medicare program.

The lawsuit was filed by the Center for Medicare Advocacy and Vermont Legal Aid on behalf of four Medicare patients and five national organizations, including the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Parkinson’s Action Network and the Alzheimer’s Association. A tentative settlement had been reached in October and on Jan. 24 a federal judge in Vermont approved the deal.

For seniors getting skilled services at home under a doctor’s order, the settlement means Medicare’s home health coverage has no time limit, Margaret Murphy told lawyers attending the annual meeting of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys in Washington, D. C., shortly after the then-tentative settlement was announced.

The coverage “can go on for years and years, if your doctor orders it,” said Ms. Murphy, the center’s associate director, who added that patients must be homebound (though not bedbound) and need intermittent care — every couple of days or weeks – that can only be provided by a physical therapist, nurse or other trained health care professional. When physical therapy is provided as part of Medicare’s home health benefit, the therapy dollar limits may not apply.

The settlement ensures that nursing home residents will also get coverage for skilled care regardless of improvement, but does not change the duration, which is still limited to up to 100 days per “benefit period.” That begins when a patient is admitted as an inpatient to a hospital or a nursing home for skilled care and ends after 60 days without skilled care. The agreement preserves the requirement that they must also have spent at least three days as inpatients in a hospital.

Federal officials say the settlement is not a change in Medicare coverage rules, but that statement may surprise many beneficiaries and providers.

“If someone isn’t making progress, I say, ‘Listen, I’m sorry but Medicare’s not going to cover this so you can come in for a few more sessions but then I have to let you go,’ ” said Greg Babiec, a physical therapist and one of the owners of Evolve, a private therapy practice with offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn. He had not heard about the settlement.

Beneficiaries also often lose Medicare coverage for outpatient therapy because they hit the payment limit. But under the exceptions process Congress continued for another year, the health care provider can put an additional code on the claim that indicates further treatment above the $1,900 limit is medically necessary. When treatment costs reach $3,700, the provider can submit medical documentation to support a request for another exception to cover 20 more sessions. (A Medicare fact sheet provides some additional details, but has not been updated for 2013.)

In 2011, nearly five million seniors received therapy services at a cost of $5.7 billion, and about one out of every four received an exception to the then-$1,870 limit, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an independent government agency that advises Congress.

Just a few hours before the settlement was approved, Rachel DeGolia learned that her 87-year-old father in Chicago was going to have to stop therapy because he stopped showing improvement — again.

“Every time he stops going to physical therapy, he starts to backslide in terms of his balance, his strength and his mobility,” said Ms. DeGolia, executive director of the Universal Health Care Action Network, a national advocacy group in Cleveland. His physical therapist did not know Medicare will cover therapy to prevent her father’s condition from getting worse.

Under the settlement, Medicare officials have until next January to straighten things out by notifying health care providers. Beneficiaries are not among those to be contacted, and so far the federal officials have not issued a formal statement on the settlement.

But patients don’t have to wait for their provider to get the official word, said Judith Stein, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs and executive director of the Center for Medicare Advocacy. “This isn’t a clandestine settlement,” she said.

The center’s Web site offers free “self-help” packets explaining how to challenge a denial of coverage that is based on the lack of improvement. Ms. Stein also advises beneficiaries to show a copy of the settlement — also available from the Web site — to your health care provider at your next physical therapy appointment if you are concerned about losing Medicare coverage. (If you follow this advice, let us know what happens.)

The Web site also explains how beneficiaries can request a review of their case if they received skilled nursing or therapy services in a skilled nursing facility, at home or as outpatients and were denied Medicare coverage because of a lack of progress after Jan. 18, 2011, when the lawsuit was filed.

Dean Lerner relied on the settlement last month to ensure that his brother-in-law would continue to receive Medicare physical therapy coverage.

“My brother-in-law in St. Louis suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and has for many years, and my sister is having a devil of a time helping him as his disease progresses,” said Mr. Lerner, a retired lawyer and state health official in Des Moines, who is also a Medicaid consultant.

A physical therapist teaches his brother-in-law to stand, turn and use a walker and maintain what little strength he still has. But because his condition hasn’t improved, the therapist said Medicare would not pay for additional sessions.

“But for my being an attorney, the outcome may well have been very different, and that shouldn’t be,” he said. “Why should you have to fight?”

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U.S.-Mexico trade war over tomatoes appears to have been averted

American and Mexican tomato growers appear to have avoided a trade war — the U.S. Commerce Department has released a draft of an agreement governing the price of tomato imports from Mexico.

U.S. growers in Florida had accused their Mexican counterparts of selling their tomatoes below fair market value, a practice known as dumping.

The new agreement, which sets a minimum wholesale price for tomatoes, would replace a trade pact that went into effect 17 years ago.

Francisco Sanchez, the undersecretary of commerce for international trade, said in a statement Saturday that the agreement puts in place "robust enforcement that will allow American workers and the U.S tomato industry to compete on a level playing field."

In the last decade, U.S. growers found themselves competing heavily with Mexico. That country's exports of tomatoes to the U.S. reached $1.81 billion in 2011, more than quadruple the $412 million in 2000.

Eager to continue exports and sales of their tomatoes, Mexican tomato growers and importers worked with Commerce Department officials on drafting an agreement.

The plan, open to public comment until Feb. 11, would raise the wholesale price for tomatoes and strengthen anti-dumping enforcement.

One provision of the agreement, expected to take effect March 4, creates a reporting mechanism to monitor the price of production by Mexican growers.

Martin Ley, a Mexican tomato grower involved in the negotiations, said the agreement was made possible by steep concessions on the part of Mexican tomato producers.

"Getting to this moment no doubt required significant compromise by the Mexican growers," he said in a statement. "Even though no dumping or injury to the U.S. industry was demonstrated by our competitors, over the last year our growers worked with our government to overhaul the whole Mexican industry, broaden the coverage and develop tough enforcement schemes.

"While concessions on price will impose hardships on our industry, we are hopeful that over the long run we will be able to continue to supply the United States with what are acknowledged to be the best tomatoes in the market."

Late last month, a study, paid for by a Mexican tomato trade group, predicted that the price of winter tomatoes would have doubled if Mexican imports were excluded from the U.S. market. The study, released by the Fresh Produce Assn. of the Americas, projected that the price of hothouse round tomatoes, for instance, would have risen from $2.02 a pound to almost $4 a pound.

U.S. growers appeared to back the agreement but held firm to their assertion that Mexico was dumping its tomatoes.

With the agreement, "we're hopeful and optimistic that we'll be able to compete under fair trade conditions," Edward Beckman, president of Certified Greenhouse Farmers, said in a statement. "Much work remains to have the agreement fully and faithfully implemented, and continuous monitoring and enforcement will be critical."

ricardo.lopez2@latimes.com

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