Today on the show, we'll take a look at the life of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was found dead over the weekend. Why do so many celebrities suffer from drug addiction? Then, California got some rain over the weekend, but not enough to relieve the drought. What can people do to conserve water at home? Plus, a look at the latest entertainment news in On The Lot, restoration of Medi-Cal dental coverage comes too late for many, and much more.
Why do so many celebrities suffer from drug addiction?
Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was found dead in his Manhattan home over the weekend.
While authorities are still working on the official cause of his death, the 46-year-old was found with a syringe in his arm and five empty packets of what appeared to be heroin in the trash. Hoffman had been open about his struggle with drugs for years.
For more on the struggles many celebrities face with addiction and a look at the current state of heroin use in this country, we're joined by Dr. Howard Samuels of The Hills Treatment Center here in Southern California
Which Super Bowl bets paid off big time?
If you missed it, the Seattle Seahawks pretty much demolished the Denver Broncos in last night's Super Bowl.
RELATED: Will Anthony Kiedis go shirtless at the Super Bowl? There's a bet for that
Final score was 43 to 8. To find out if anyone bet on that being the final score, or if any other bets paid out big time, we called up Johnny Avello, director of Race & Sports operations at Wynn Las Vegas.
17 communities in California in danger of running out of water
As California faces its driest year on record, rural communities are facing tough shortages of water.
This week, the state identified 17 communities that could run out of water within 60 to 100 days. One of those is Brooktrails in Mendecino County.
Last week, we spoke to Denise Rose, she’s the general manager for Brooktrails. She told us that the typical year brings 60 inches of rain. Last year, 2013, the area got just five inches. And the effects are obvious -- especially in the local reservoirs.
But it’s not just Brooktrails that is hurting. The communities are spread across 10 counties in the state.
For more on just how bad it is and what's being done to alleviate the situation, we turn now to Mark Starr, deputy director for the Department's Center for Environmental Health.
CA Drought: Co-showering and other creative ways to conserve water
You may have been enjoying the rainy weather this weekend, but despite those few — and much needed — drops of water, the state remains parched.
So what's a Californian to do in these dry times? Patt Morrison of the LA Times stopped by to share some of her ideas for conserving water.
Kettleman City faces tough decisions over clean water
For decades, the small farmworker community of Kettleman City in California has been home to the largest toxic waste dump in the western United States. It's also home to a water system polluted by arsenic.
But now the landfill is seeking permission to expand, and it's making residents an offer they might not be able to refuse. From the California Report, Rebecca Plevin has this story.
On The Lot: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Dylan Farrow's open letter and more
As you've probably heard by now, actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died yesterday in New York. He was 46. An accomplished actor, he is perhaps best known for his roles in movies including "Capote," "Boogie Nights" and "The Master."
Here to talk about his legacy and other news from the entertainment industry is Rebecca Keegan, film writer for the Los Angeles Times who joins us every Monday for our regular chat about the film biz, On the Lot.
Let's start off with the biggest news from this weekend - Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away. It's been speculated that it was a drug overdose, but that hasn't been confirmed. What sort of hole is left in Hollywood?
Moving on to other big news this weekend: Dylan Farrow, Mia Farrow's daughter, wrote an open letter in the New York Times about being sexually abused by Woody Allen when she was a child. What's the reaction to the letter been like? Can we expect anything from Allen in response? Since these allegations resurfaced fairly recently, has public opinion shifted at all towards him?
On the business end, could this impact Allen during award season?
Speaking of awards season, last week The Academy disqualified one of the nominations for best song. It's called "Alone Yet Not Alone" and it's from the movie of the same name.
Not everyone is happy with The Academy's decision to do this. Does this set any sort of precedent when it comes to ethical campaigning for Oscars?
There were two more awards events this weekend: The Writers Guild of America Awards and the Annie Awards, for animated films. How did those shake out?
Hollywood Jobs: Animated feature directors
This is one in a series on Hollywood Jobs — not acting or directing, but rather the tasks you haven't heard of. You can read other segments in this series at the links below the story.
"The Croods" is the story of a prehistoric family, led by a father named Grug, voiced by Nicolas Cage. When they're forced to leave the cave they call home, they head out into the great unknown — something which terrifies Grug, but excites his eldest daughter Eep, played by Emma Stone.
As part of our series Hollywood Jobs, we had the chance to visit the Dreamworks campus for a chat with the creators of, "The Croods," Kirk DeMicco and Chris Sanders, who both wrote and directed the film.
Interview Highlights:
On how directing an animated film differs from a live action film:
Kirk DeMicco: "Our main task…is to come in and make sure the story is on track. A lot of times we're just running from department to department letting people know where the story is, where it's going, what we need for it. But if you picture live action set, imagine some guys, they're out in the middle of the prairie, somewhere in the West. You got John Wayne on a horse, you got the cameraman, you got lighting guys, you got the guys that are going to be pushing the dollies, imagine taking all those groups of people and just separate them. And that's how we do it."
On how they come up with ideas for stories:
Chris Sanders: "We knew from the very beginning, this is planet Earth. It's a fictitious time in planet Earth's past, so we want to break lose in having the expected saber-toothed tiger, mammoth and at one point one of our developing artists did a drawing of a creature that was actually a combination of two different animals put together. We both thought, 'Hey, that's it.' Our theory will be the farther you go back in time, the more you're going to find the animals we know today were actually combined.
"That said, when you look at the natural world we thought, 'OK, we're going to need a few flying creatures, we're going to need some things that swim, we're going to need some predators, we're going to need some creatures that are a little bit more like prey animals.' We had a fish cat, which was a huge underwater creature that we really were very fond of this thing. He was in there until the last second and then we had too much stuff already, we just had to cut him. So maybe the second movie we'll see."
Where do you see this world of animation headed?
Chris Sanders: "The biggest change for animation that's on the horizon is the types of stories you're going to tell. I think animation in the United States is going to broaden. More sci-fi kind of stuff for an older audience, certainly things for families is going to be a main stay. I think technically things are going to get a little bit easier.
"So more and more things are going to become more doable. Maybe a little bit more cost effective. Water is extremely expensive. If we had a whole scene where people were racing in the water, we would have blown the budget. We just can't do it. There are things that are just prohibited. That kind of stuff is going to change, but I think again, it's going to be the types of things we make films about. More stories. That's what we have to get into."
Check out the other entries in the Odd Hollywood Jobs series:
- Odd Hollywood Jobs: Military liaison
- Odd Hollywood Jobs: US-China film ambassador
- Odd Hollywood Jobs: Dialect coach
- Odd Hollywood Jobs: Music supervisor
- Odd Hollywood Jobs: Science adviser
- Odd Hollywood Jobs: Looper
- Odd Hollywood Jobs: Set teacher
- Odd Hollywood Jobs: Costume designer
- Odd Hollywood Jobs: Vintage prop master
Affordable Care Act reaches second milestone
There's another milestone in the rollout of the federal health care law passed this weekend. On Saturday, policy took effect for those people who enrolled in health insurance plans between late December and January 15th.
KPCC's Health Care correspondent Stephanie O'Neill joins the show to discuss how things are going.
Restoration of Medi-Cal dental coverage comes too late for many
The Affordable Care Act has expanded medical coverage for people of all ages, but dental coverage is a different story.
The federal law requires it be made available only to children. That means in California, millions of adults — many of them poor — do not have dental care. That'll change in May when the state restores a low-income dental program it cut a few years ago.
But KPCC's Adrian Florido reports dentists say a lot of damage has been done in the meantime.
Low performing Pasadena middle school transforming itself into arts magnet
There are high performing public schools with waiting lists and stellar test scores, and then there are the places we don't want our kids to go. The places where success may seem impossible.
KPCC's Mary Plummer went to a campus on that second list, a middle school in Altadena that's been struggling for years, and is now trying to re-imagine itself.
NFL owner buys 60 acres in Inglewood, adds another wrinkle to possible NFL team in LA
Sunday's Super Bowl may mean the end of the season, but that doesn't mean that there won't still be a lot of football talk here in Los Angeles.
Last week, after news surfaced that the St. Louis Rams owner Stan Kroenke bought 60 acres of land near The Forum, a lot of people started buzzing — yet again — about football coming back to LA.
Kroenke's company did not say what that land will be used for but the city's football fans like to keep hope alive. It's been almost 20 years since there was a professional team in this town, and every year since there've been efforts to bring one back.
But the city's tumultuous history with the National Football League makes it easy to understand why some are skeptical about its future. Arash Markazi of ESPNLA.com joins the show with more.
US vs. South Korea: Nearly 30,000 fans show up for pre-World Cup match
The Superbowl wasn’t the only sporting event this weekend. The US national men’s soccer team beat South Korea 2-0 in a match played in Carson, California.
Nearly 30,000 fans turned out to what is the final at-home game for the national team ahead of this summer’s World Cup in Brazil. Take Two Producer Dorian Merina was there and spoke to some of the fans.
Research shows sports may be key to keeping kids in school
Students who complete high school are more likely to succeed financially. There's plenty of research to back that up.
That research has also found that kids who drop out are far more likely to live in poverty and struggle with substance abuse. But keeping kids in school can be difficult. Educators have experimented with financial incentives and technology. Now, they may be giving sports a shot.
New research from the University of Kansas suggests that athletic participation might be the key. Professor Angela Lumpkin conducted the research and joins us to discuss.
Can Wikipedia's Voice Intro Project solve name pronunciation debates for good?
One of the biggest challenges for a radio host is getting people's names right, especially in Hollywood.
The director of "Wolf of Wall Street" is Martin Score-SEZZ-ee, Not Score-SAY-see. And that award-winning South African actress Charlize Theron? Did you know her last name is pronounced "Thrown" not "There-On"? Don't even get us started on the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull.
Luckily, Wikipedia is here to help. The non-profit recently announced something called Voice Intro Project, an audio database of celebrities, scientists, and other notable people introducing themselves in short audio files posted to the website. The project is in its very early stages right now, but eventually it could help create a permanent record of correct name pronunciations.
For more on why something like this might be really helpful, we're joined now by Kee Malesky, who served as librarian at NPR for three decades.
Bruno Mars delivers a raucous Super Bowl halftime performance
Pop star Bruno Mars took the stage, danced like James Brown and hugged a shirtless Anthony Kiedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But he also did something that other half time acts haven't done in a very long time: he put on a thoroughly entertaining, show-stopping performance.
Joining us now to talk about the half time show is Shirley Halperin, music editor at The Hollywood Reporter and regular contributor to Tuesday Reviewsday.