Andre 3000 isn't in a rush to record new album

NEW YORK (AP) — In order to capture his best version of Jimi Hendrix for an upcoming biopic, Andre 3000 said he had to think of him as a regular dude and not a rock star.

"I didn't look at him as an icon because when you're in it, you don't know you're an icon. You don't know you're an icon until another people say you're an icon," the 37-year-old said in an interview Tuesday.

"So I had to take it as a person, you know what I mean? And I just tried to say, 'Well, what would Jimi want people to know that they can't get off of YouTube?' And that's how I approached it," he said.

Hendrix died at age 27 in 1970. He was ranked No. 1 on Rolling Stone magazine's greatest guitarists of all-time list. His band, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, is known for iconic albums such as "Electric Ladyland" and "Are You Experienced."

"All Is by My Side," which focuses on the early days of Hendrix's career, will be released next year. Andre 3000 is excited to see the film, which he's finished shooting in Ireland. He believes the public "will be pleased."

Andre 3000, one-half of OutKast with Big Boi, has been out of the music scene in recent years, although he's been featured on songs by Beyonce, Frank Ocean, Rick Ross, Ke$ha and Young Jeezy.

OutKast's 2006 platinum-selling album, "Idlewild," which accompanied a film of the same name starring the duo, was their last album. Their 11-time platinum "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" won the 2004 Grammy Award for album of the year.

Big Boi, who released a solo album two years ago to welcoming reviews, will release a new solo disc, "Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors," next month.

But Andre 3000 isn't in a rush to record an album.

"Some days I feel like I'll do it, some days I don't. Some days I feel like I don't need to, some days I feel like I want to do it before I die. So, I don't know where to fall. I am just hoping one day I get that inspiration," he said at an event for Gillette's eMO'gency Styler Tour, which supports men's health and prostate cancer programs. The tour kicked off in New York, with stops scheduled in Chicago and Houston.

"It's a feeling for me. Like, I can't just throw out an album to be rapping," he said. "And I don't even know if it will be rap. I don't even know what it will be."

However, he could find the inspiration and complete an album in just a few days: "It could be a rush situation. Like if I feel that feeling and I record an album in three days and I'm like, 'This is what I want to say right now' — that can happen, too."

He also says he's constantly writing songs.

"I write all the time. ... I actually stopped typing it in my phone because like a cloud is basically reading every thought that I have and I don't like that," he said. "So I went back to my paper and started writing."

He's not sure fans want a new OutKast album for the right reasons.

"Man, we've had a great ride. ... Like when we got into it when we were high school kids and we just wanted to do something fun and push it, and if it's not that then why do it?" he said.

"I'm not the type that prescribes to nostalgia, and most people say they want an OutKast album because they used to love it. Y'all don't even know if y'all still love it. You just know you used to love it. But you may not like it now, who knows?"

___

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

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I Was Misinformed: The Time She Tried Viagra

I have noticed, in the bragging-rights department, that “he doesn’t need Viagra” has become the female equivalent of the male “and, I swear, she’s a real blonde.” Personally, I do not care a bit. To me, anything that keeps you happy and in the game is a good thing.

But then, I am proud to say, I was among the early, and from what I gather, rare female users.

It happened when the drug was introduced around 1998. I was 50, but after chemotherapy for breast cancer — and later, advanced ovarian cancer — I was, hormonally speaking, pretty much running on fumes. Whether this had diminished my sex drive I did not yet know. One may have Zorba-esque impulses when a cancer diagnosis first comes in; but a treatment that leaves you bald, moon-faced and exhausted knocks that out of your system pretty fast.

But by 1998, the cancer was gone, my hair was back and I was ready to get back in the game. I was talking to an endocrinologist when I brought up Viagra. This was not to deal with the age-related physical changes I knew it would not address, it was more along the feminist lines of equal pay for equal work: if men have this new sex drug, I want this new sex drug.

“I know it’s supposed to work by increasing blood flow,” I told the doctor, “But if that’s true for men, shouldn’t it be true for women, too?”

“You’re the third woman who asked me that this week,” he said.

He wrote me a prescription. I was not seeing anyone, so I understood that I would have to do both parts myself, but that was fine. I have a low drug threshold and figured it might be best the first time to fly solo. My memory of the directions are hazy: I think there was a warning that one might have a facial flush or headaches or drop dead of a heart attack; that you were to take a pill at least an hour before you planned to get lucky, and, as zero hour approached, you were supposed to help things along by thinking beautiful thoughts, kind of like Peter Pan teaching Wendy and the boys how to fly.

But you know how it is: It’s hard to think beautiful thoughts when you’re wondering, “Is it happening? Do I feel anything? Woof, woof? Hello, sailor? Naaah.”

After about an hour, however, I was aware of a dramatic change. I had developed a red flush on my face; I was a hot tomato, though not the kind I had planned. I had also developed a horrible headache. The sex pill had turned into a bad joke: Not now, honey, I have a headache.

I put a cold cloth on my head and went to sleep. But here’s where it got good: When I slept, I dreamed; one of those extraordinary, sensual, swimming in silk sort of things. I woke up dazed and glowing with just one thought: I gotta get this baby out on the highway and see what it can do.

A few months later I am fixed up with a guy, and after a time he is, under the Seinfeldian definition of human relations (Saturday night date assumed) my official boyfriend. He is middle aged, in good health. How to describe our romantic life with the delicacy a family publication requires? Perhaps a line from “Veronika, der Lenz ist da” (“Veronica, Spring Is Here”), a song popularized by the German group the Comedian Harmonists: “Veronika, der Spargel Wächst” (“Veronica, the asparagus are blooming”). On the other hand, sometimes not. And so, one day, I put it out there in the manner of sport:

“Want to drop some Viagra?” I say.

Here we go again, falling into what I am beginning to think is an inevitable pattern: lying there like a lox, or two loxes, waiting for the train to pull into the station. (Yes, I know it’s a mixed metaphor, but at least I didn’t bring in the asparagus.) So there we are, waiting. And then, suddenly, spring comes to Suffolk County. It’s such a presence. I’m wondering if I should ask it if it hit traffic on the L.I.E. We sit there staring.

My reaction is less impressive. I don’t get a headache this time. And romantically, things are more so, but not so much that I feel compelled to try the little blue pills again.

Onward roll the years. I have a new man in my life, who is 63. He does have health problems, for which his doctor prescribes an E.D. drug. I no longer have any interest in them. My curiosity has been satisfied. Plus I am deeply in love, an aphrodisiac yet to be encapsulated in pharmaceuticals.

We take a vacation in mountain Mexico. We pop into a drugstore to pick up sunscreen and spot the whole gang, Cialis, Viagra, Levitra, on a shelf at the checkout counter. No prescription needed in Mexico, the clerk says. We buy all three drugs and return to the hotel. I try some, he tries some. In retrospect, given the altitude and his health, we are lucky we did not kill him. I came across an old photo the other day. He is on the bed, the drugs in their boxes lined up a in a semi-circle around him. He looks a bit dazed and his nose is red.

Looking at the picture, I wonder if he had a cold.

Then I remember: the flush, the damn flush. If I had kids, I suppose I would have to lie about it.

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McDonald's USA president to step down; successor named

The head of U.S. operations for McDonald's Corp. is on her way out amid the burger chain's efforts to counter intense competition and a string of uncharacteristically sour financial results.

Jan Fields will depart Dec. 1 as president of McDonald's USA, a position she has held for more than two years. She will be replaced by Jeff Stratton, currently McDonald's global chief restaurant officer. Both are 57.

"The time was right for this leadership change," company spokeswoman Lisa McComb said. She called it "a business decision by our senior management team" and said it was "not related to one isolated thing or a short-term viewpoint."

Quiz: How well do you know fast food?

McComb said Fields is "looking forward to spending time with her family and friends."

Most industry analysts doubted that Fields was directly responsible for the company's financial misses, but they believed that top management and directors had lost confidence in her ability to turn around the U.S. division of the world's biggest burger chain.

"There weren't any major alarms, any perception of management problems," said Nima Samadi, a restaurant analyst with IBISWorld. "There's no fire or even that much smoke. This looks more like a preventive measure than anything else, a recognition that McDonald's needs someone more aggressive."

Fields backed efforts to modernize the chain and make its food more healthful. But many of those programs — once considered innovative — have since been copied by competitors, and, worse, consumers' enthusiasm didn't last.

Last month, McDonald's same-store sales tumbled 2.2% in the U.S. and 1.8% globally compared with a year earlier, the company's first such slide in nine years.

The numbers spooked investors already wary over the chain's slumping profits, which fell 3.5% in the third quarter, to $1.45 billion, and sank 4.5% the previous quarter compared with the same periods last year.

Shares slipped 57 cents Thursday to $84.05. The stock has fallen more than 16% so far this year. Before this year, though, it had soared about 60% during Fields' tenure.

Analyst Andy Barish at the brokerage Jefferies & Co. recently said the stock probably would continue its decline as investors question how quickly McDonald's can regain momentum globally and in its U.S. business.

The U.S. region is the company's largest by number of restaurants; Europe is the chain's top region by sales. Five years ago, McDonald's U.S. operations accounted for 60% of the company's operating profit, a percentage that fell to 40% last year.

Analysts doubt that McDonald's can outperform last year's strong sales, which were aided by unseasonably warm weather. They also think the chain's global expansion plans and multibillion-dollar remodeling push may have stretched its cash thin.

Fields, who started out making French fries at McDonald's 35 years ago, rose through the ranks and has been called one of the world's most powerful women on lists compiled by Forbes, Fortune and other financial publications.

In 2010, she replaced Don Thompson as president of U.S. operations. Thompson became McDonald's chief executive five months ago.

Fields was credited with helping to expand McDonald's McCafe premium beverage menu, updating its restaurants, reworking the Happy Meal to be more healthful and disclosing calorie counts at the chain's 14,000 American outlets.

All were "universally successful initiatives" and often the first of their kind in the industry, analyst Samadi said.

In recent months, McDonald's rolled out its popular Monopoly promotion, pumped up Dollar Menu advertising, teased the upcoming return of the McRib and launched new products such as the higher-end Cheddar Bacon Onion sandwich.

But the Oak Brook, Ill., burger behemoth has struggled to overcome the competitive pressures that have emerged since the recession, losing ground to rivals ramping up their efforts to refresh their brands.

Burger King, for instance, unveiled a menu mirroring many of McDonald's more healthful, higher-end options, such as salads, smoothies and wraps. Wendy's, under the leadership of its new chief executive, has taken similar steps.

Coffee and breakfast chains such as Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts have boosted their marketing dollars, threatening to poach customers of McDonald's McCafe line.

Kids meals with toys — a McDonald's mainstay at a premium price — are losing their clout as young families pinch pennies and children turn more to digital games, according to a report this year by research firm NPD Group.

"Kids are so advanced in terms of technology that the premium that comes with a kids meal today isn't as appealing to them as it once was," NPD analyst Bonnie Riggs said.

McDonald's recent efforts to disclose more nutritional data met with mixed reactions from parents and health advocates and have become "a double-edged sword" by making it "more obvious that the food is not that good for you," said Jason Moser, an analyst with the Motley Fool.

The weaknesses have allowed upscale fast-casual brands such as Smashburger and Five Guys Burgers and Fries to draw customers away with promises of sustainably sourced ingredients and more well-rounded meals.

"For a long time, McDonald's was the only one consistently innovating and introducing new products," IBISWorld's Samadi said. "They were far and away ahead of all their competition.

"But that gap is starting to close, and now there's much less differentiation for McDonald's."

tiffany.hsu@latimes.com

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October home sales hit 3-year high; prices up 17% year over year

Consumer columnist David Lazarus talks with real estate reporter Alejandro Lazo, DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage and Bill McBride of the Calculated Risk blog about the strong October real estate numbers.

Southern California's real estate market bucked the typical fall slowdown last month, with buyers snapping up pricier homes and sales roaring up 18% over the prior month.

Sales hit a three-year high for an October, rising 25% from the same month last year. The median sale price for a Southland house last month was $315,000, equal to September and up 17% from October 2011, according to real estate research firm DataQuick.

A decline in the number of foreclosed homes has caused a shortage of inventory in entry-level neighborhoods, pushing up home prices. Demand from investors also remains strong, with these buyers snapping up a near-record level of homes last month.

"There is a growing appreciation of the fact that we've come to a sort of a point of inflection in the housing market," Stuart Gabriel, director of UCLA's Ziman Center for Real Estate, said. "The housing market, for a large number of factors, is perceived as having turned a corner."

The region's median hit bottom at $247,000 in April 2009 and has slowly crawled its way up since. The median is the point at which half the homes in the area sold for more and half for less.

Quiz: Test your knowledge of business news

The rebound stems from more people chasing fewer homes. Interest rates remain near record-low levels, luring buyers. Investors with cash have poured into the market looking for cheap properties to flip or rent. And foreclosure resales have sunk to a five-year low, tightening the supply of cheap homes.

An estimated 21,075 newly built and previously owned houses and condominiums sold throughout the region last month. Coastal markets saw the biggest increases in sales — though every county posted double-digit gains compared with October last year. Orange County saw the biggest surge, with sales up 41%. Ventura rose 35%, San Diego, 31%, Los Angeles, 25%, San Bernardino, 18% and Riverside 13%.

Absentee buyers — investors and some second-home buyers — snapped up a near-record 28% of homes throughout the Southland last month. These investors paid a median $245,000, a 23% increase from October last year.

A recent report by real estate website Zillow showed that many investors and others are paying market value for foreclosed homes in the region, erasing the discount between foreclosed homes and regular properties. Discounts were marginal on bank-owned homes in September, with the discount in the Inland Empire just 2% and in the Los Angeles area 4% in September, Zillow said.

Bruce Norris, president of Norris Group, an investment company in Riverside that buys foreclosed homes, said he expects prices to increase in coming years as the Obama administration has encouraged banks to curtail foreclosures. That will push up prices, he said.

"It is policy driven," Norris said. "Since the policy is going to continue … you are about to see a pretty substantial price increase within the next two years."

Indeed, the high level of affordability ushered in by the housing crash could erode quickly in California. This week the California Assn. of Realtors reported that homes in the state are getting less affordable as property values rise. The group estimated that 49% of home buyers in the third quarter could afford a median-priced house in California, a decline from 51% last quarter. The rise in prices is offsetting the benefit to home shoppers from low mortgage interest rates.

Christopher Thornberg, a principal at Beacon Economics and one of the first to call attention to the housing bubble, said home shoppers should expect expensive housing in the Golden State for the foreseeable future. The reason: Construction of new homes remains highly expensive for builders.

"Why would it stop?" he said. "The economy is growing. Short of a fiscally led second recession, there is no reason in the world that it's going to do anything but to continue."

The region's lowest-cost areas — often those the most starved for inventory these days — posted the weakest sales numbers last month, according to DataQuick. The number of homes that sold below $200,000 in the region dropped 11% from October last year. Sales in these markets have slowed because of the drop in foreclosures, while increased demand has pushed up prices.

Sales of previously foreclosed-upon homes made up just 16% of the resale market last month, a drop from 17% last month and 33% in October 2011. Foreclosure resales peaked at 57% in February 2009.

In the meantime, sales surged in several mid- and higher-cost neighborhoods throughout Southern California in October, DataQuick said. Sales of homes between $300,000 and $800,000 increased 42% year over year. Sales of homes costing more than $500,000 were up 55% and sales of homes more than $800,000 rose 52%.

Bill McBride, lead writer for the housing blog Calculated Risk, said that with the upswing in prices homeowners are encouraged to keep their homes off the market.

"Why is there no inventory? I ask every real estate agent that, just to hear what they tell me. And they say people don't have enough equity in their homes and so they aren't listing them," McBride said. "That is a solid argument. But I also think the people are sensing that prices are going up and there is no urgency to sell."

alejandro.lazo@latimes.com

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Shania Twain makes horseback arrival for Vegas gig

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Country music star Shania Twain arrived on horseback Wednesday for a two-year headline gig at Caesars Palace, parading up the Las Vegas Strip with a herd of 40 horses.

Promoters called the event a stampede, but hooves were kept to a steady, slow gait by nine wranglers who escorted Twain to a reception crowd of several hundred people in front of the famous Caesars fountains. Dozens more people watched from the sidewalk of the Flamingo resort across Las Vegas Boulevard.

"We could either lose a few hundred dollars inside or come out and see what kind of spectacle she puts on," said Steve Huffman, a UPS manager from Charleston, W.Va., who watched with his wife, Debi, from an overhead pedestrian walkway.

The couple was in town for his 52nd birthday and learned through a Twitter message that Twain planned to arrive on a horse. They identified Twain's hit, "Man, I Feel Like a Woman," as the country singer rode up the street, and they said they'll plan to see the show next year.

"Still The One" blasted on speakers as Twain stepped onto a temporary outdoor stage near fountains made famous by events including daredevil Evel Knievel's motorcycle crash during a stunt on New Year's Eve 1967.

To some, Twain's arrival echoed singer Frank Sinatra's heralded arrival on a camel at the old Dunes hotel in September 1955.

Twain's show titled "Shania: Still the One" opens Dec. 1 at the nearly 4,300-seat Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The venue also hosts entertainers Celine Dion, Elton John, Jerry Seinfeld and others.

Twain, 47, is touted as one of the best-selling female country artists of all time. The Canadian singer-songwriter has sold more than 75 million albums worldwide.

Las Vegas police, including several on horseback, diverted traffic on the busy casino corridor for about 30 minutes for the spectacle.

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F.D.A. Seeks More Control Over Drug Compounders

Susan Walsh/Associated Press

Barry Cadden, chief pharmacist for the company that made the contaminated drugs, at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday called on Congress to empower the agency to better police compounding pharmacies like the one at the center of a national meningitis outbreak. But Republican lawmakers pushed back, arguing that the agency has enough authority, leaving it unclear whether the House would support efforts to increase oversight.

In a contentious hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, testified that a tangle of conflicting court decisions and the lack of a clear definition of compounding in the law had limited the agency’s ability to build a case against compounding pharmacies that fail to meet basic safety standards.

“There is an enormous lack of clarity, and we should seize this opportunity to address it,” Dr. Hamburg said.

In many cases, such pharmacies are not required to give investigators access to their books, agency officials say. Federal regulators sometimes have to appeal to local courts to gain access to the pharmacies or their records, although, by law, large drug manufacturers must submit to regular inspections. Compounding pharmacies are now regulated primarily by the states.

Dr. Hamburg’s remarks signaled that the Obama administration will press for new legislation in response to the meningitis outbreak, which was caused by contaminated pain medication made by a compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts. So far, 461 people have fallen ill, and 32 of them have died.

The central question is whether the F.D.A. has enough power to crack down on large-scale compounding companies that behave more like drug manufactures than the neighborhood pharmacies that mix medicines for individual patients — the traditional purview of compounders.

Republicans on the committee said the outbreak appeared to have been preventable under existing regulations.  

“After a tragedy like this, the first question we all ask is, ‘Could this have been prevented?’ ” said Representative Cliff Stearns, Republican of Florida, who is chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. After reviewing documents, he said, “The answer appears to be yes.”

The agency’s critics maintain that the 1938 Food Drug and Cosmetic Act provides it with plenty of authority, but that the F.D.A. failed to use it to shut down the Massachusetts pharmacy, the New England Compounding Center.  

Barry Cadden, the chief pharmacist at the company, and one of the principal owners, invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent in response to every question posed to him during the hearing.

The agency has had dealings with the compounding center in the past, including an inspection in 2002 after reports of problems and a warning letter to the company in 2006. The agency argued that those steps failed to head off the meningitis outbreak in part because the company took advantage of gray areas in the law to elude oversight.

 “Throughout this time, N.E.C.C. has repeatedly disputed F.D.A.’s jurisdiction over its facility,” Dr. Hamburg said in her written testimony.

Republicans on the committee repeatedly cited the 2006 warning letter and the agency’s recent criminal investigation, which involved federal agents seizing computers from the company’s offices.

“We’re just not buying it, doctor,” said Representative Michael C. Burgess, Republican of Texas. “You lack the authority to do anything, yet you send a letter like this?”

Democrats came to Dr. Hamburg’s defense.

 “We need to work together to come up with a solution, but instead what I’m hearing from my Republican colleagues is they want to prosecute the Food and Drug Administration,” said Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California. “If there’s any ambiguity, it’s our job to clear it up. Why are we looking for anybody to blame other than the company?”

Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, who has proposed legislation to close what he calls regulatory loopholes, said he believed the committee would eventually come together and pass a bill.

Dr. Hamburg proposed requiring large-scale compounders to register with the F.D.A. and report any problems with their products to the agency. She also recommended new labeling requirements that would make clear the origin and the risks of compounded drugs.

Large-scale pharmacy compounding has greatly expanded since the early 1990s, partly because hospitals are increasingly outsourcing the making of the compounded drugs that they need and also because of widespread shortages of medicines made by the big drug manufacturers.

Jess Bidgood contributed reporting from Boston.

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Forever 21 opens new headquarters in Lincoln Heights

Los Angeles Times

November 15, 2012

Top executives at Los Angeles-based clothier Forever 21 underscored the company's plans for expansion in Latin America as they formally opened a new corporate headquarters in Lincoln Heights.

The cheap-chic retailer, which has more than 500 stores worldwide, said it's planning its next expansion in Costa Rica and Brazil. The company has one store in Bogotá and has plans for seven more throughout Colombia.

As hundreds of employees stood outside the new headquarters on Wednesday, Forever 21 founder and Chief Executive Don Chang said, "Together we can make Forever 21 No. 1."

He recalled opening his first store, then known as Fashion 21, on Figueroa Street in nearby Highland Park in 1984.

The vast changes the company has made since then have been "humbling," Chang said.

On hand for the ribbon cutting were bankers, community religious leaders, Councilman Ed Reyes and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

"This is good for L.A.," Villaraigosa said. Los Angeles is the fashion manufacturing capital of the United States, with fashion-related companies employing more than 100,000 people and generating more than $13 billion in annual revenue, Villaraigosa said.

Chang will be joining Villaraigosa on a trade mission to South America on Nov. 24.

In addition to housing Forever 21's headquarters, the 1.9-million-square-foot Lincoln Heights facility will include distribution, e-commerce and warehouse space.

The headquarters was previously in Vernon.

adolfo.flores@latimes.com

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Hormone may help protect monogamous relationships

If retired Army Gen. David H. Petraeus had gotten an occasional dose of supplemental oxytocin, a brain chemical known to promote trust and bonding, he might still be director of the Central Intelligence Agency, new research suggests.

A study published Tuesday in the Journal of Neuroscience has uncovered a surprising new property of oxytocin, finding that when men in monogamous relationships got a sniff of the stuff, they subsequently put a little extra space between themselves and an attractive woman they'd just met.

Oxytocin didn't have the same effect on single heterosexual men, who comfortably parked themselves between 21 and 24 inches from the comely female stranger. The men who declared themselves in "stable, monogamous" relationships and got a dose of the hormone chose to stand, on average, about 6 1/2 inches farther away.

When researchers conducted the experiment with a placebo, they found no differences in the distance that attached and unattached men maintained from a woman they had just met.

Even when an attractive woman was portrayed only in a photograph, the monogamous men who received oxytocin put a bit more distance between themselves and her likeness. But when the new acquaintance was a man, administration of oxytocin did not prompt attached men to stand farther away than single men, the researchers reported.

The latest findings suggest that oxytocin, which floods the body in response to orgasm, early romance, breast-feeding and childbirth, may act more subtly in humans than has been widely understood.

A mounting body of recent research suggests that boosting oxytocin in the human brain will indiscriminately promote trusting, friendly behavior. Research on female prairie voles has suggested the chemical might play some role in pair-bonding, and in humans playing games of risk and power, it increased empathy and trust in males and females alike. Injected into the cerebrospinal fluid of male rats, oxytocin causes spontaneous erections.

Accordingly, researchers examining oxytocin's effects on people — including the authors of the latest study — assumed that men under its influence would draw closer to women, not farther away.

"This was quite surprising," said Dr. Rene Hurlemann, a psychiatrist at the University of Bonn in Germany, who led the study.

At the same time, the new findings make evolutionary sense, Hurlemann added: As human societies evolved to give men an increasing role in safeguarding and supporting their mates and offspring, it appears that oxytocin may have taken on a more discriminating role in human interaction by favoring staying over straying behavior among men who've already found a mate.

Paul Zak, founding director of Claremont Graduate University's Center for Neuroeconomics Studies, said the new findings squared nicely with research, including his own, suggesting oxytocin doesn't merely make people friendlier — it makes them more empathetic, more attuned to social cues, and more inclined to adjust their behavior accordingly.

But the study also suggests something important about the ways in which the human brain differs from those of other animals, said Zak, who was not involved in the German experiments.

"The finding that one's relationship status affects how oxytocin affects the brain provides some evidence that our brains evolved to form long-term romantic relationships," Zak said. "Hugh Hefner is the exception, not the role model for men."

Inhaled oxytocin was marketed until 1997 in the United States under the name Syntocinon as an aid to new mothers having difficulty with breast-feeding. (It was withdrawn for business reasons unrelated to safety concerns.) In recent years, it has been under investigation as a drug that may help those with autism or schizophrenia to strengthen social skills.

Oxytocin's effects in women are quite clear. It plays a pivotal role in childbirth (its infused synthetic form, called Pitocin, is used to induce labor) and in breast-feeding, where it facilitates the "letdown" of milk.

For men, however, the chemical's effects have been mysterious. High levels of testosterone, for instance, inhibit the release of oxytocin.

Asked whether an oxytocin nasal spray might be used to help philandering males resist temptation, Hurlemann chuckled and asked whether any drug could be so powerful. At the same time, he underscored that high levels of oxytocin — or its more masculine counterpart, the hormone vasopressin — are produced by the body in response to sexual activity, cuddling or even the touch or close physical presence of a mate.

"What we actually simulate is a kind of post-coital posture" with the nasal administration of oxytocin, Hurlemann said. "And why should you actually approach another women when you're in a post-coital situation? It doesn't make much sense."

For women whose partners seem to get a little too friendly with new female acquaintances at parties, he said, the effects of inhaled oxytocin might be achieved by other means.

"It might make a lot of sense to remind him of the relationship, and sexual activity might be one means of achieving this," Hurlemann said. "I'm not sure it's politically correct to say so, but from a biological point of view, it makes sense."

melissa.healy@latimes.com

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Man who accused Elmo puppeteer of teen sex recants

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who accused Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash of having sex with him when he was a teenage boy has recanted his story.

In a quick turnabout, the man on Tuesday described his sexual relationship with Clash as adult and consensual.

Clash responded with a statement of his own, saying he is "relieved that this painful allegation has been put to rest." He had no further comment.

The man, who has not identified himself, released his statement through the Harrisburg, Pa., law firm Andreozzi & Associates.

Sesame Workshop, which produces "Sesame Street" in New York, soon followed by saying, "We are happy that Kevin can move on from this unfortunate episode."

The whirlwind episode began Monday morning, when Sesame Workshop startled the world by announcing that Clash had taken a leave of absence from "Sesame Street" in the wake of allegations that he had had a relationship with a 16-year-old.

Clash, a 52-year-old divorced father of a grown daughter, swiftly denied the charges of his accuser, who is in his early 20s. In that statement Clash acknowledged that he is gay but said the relationship had been between two consenting adults.

Though it remained unclear where the relationship took place, sex with a person under 17 is a felony in New York if the perpetrator is at least 21.

Sesame Workshop, which said it was first contacted by the accuser in June, had launched an investigation that included meeting with the accuser twice and meeting with Clash. Its investigation found the charge of underage conduct to be unsubstantiated.

Clash said on Monday he would take a break from Sesame Workshop "to deal with this false and defamatory allegation."

Neither Clash nor Sesame Workshop indicated on Tuesday when he might return to the show, on which he has performed as Elmo since 1984.

Elmo had previously been a marginal character, but Clash, supplying the fuzzy red puppet with a high-pitched voice and a carefree, child-like personality, launched the character into major stardom. Elmo soon rivaled Big Bird as the face of "Sesame Street."

Though usually behind the scenes, Clash meanwhile achieved his own measure of fame. In 2006, he published an autobiography, "My Life as a Furry Red Monster," and he was the subject of the 2011 documentary "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey."

He has won 23 daytime Emmy awards and one prime-time Emmy.

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Online:

http://www.sesamestreet.org

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‘Dream Team’ of Behavioral Scientists Advised Obama Campaign

Chris Keane/Reuters

DOOR TO DOOR Ricky Hall, an Obama volunteer, in Charlotte, N.C., last week.

Late last year Matthew Barzun, an official with the Obama campaign, called Craig Fox, a psychologist in Los Angeles, and invited him to a political planning meeting in Chicago, according to two people who attended the session.

“He said, ‘Bring the whole group; let’s hear what you have to say,’ ” recalled Dr. Fox, a behavioral economist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

So began an effort by a team of social scientists to help their favored candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Some members of the team had consulted with the Obama campaign in the 2008 cycle, but the meeting in January signaled a different direction.

“The culture of the campaign had changed,” Dr. Fox said. “Before then I felt like we had to sell ourselves; this time there was a real hunger for our ideas.”

This election season the Obama campaign won a reputation for drawing on the tools of social science. The book “The Victory Lab,” by Sasha Issenberg, and news reports have portrayed an operation that ran its own experiment and, among other efforts, consulted with the Analyst Institute, a Washington voter research group established in 2007 by union officials and their allies to help Democratic candidates.

Less well known is that the Obama campaign also had a panel of unpaid academic advisers. The group — which calls itself the “consortium of behavioral scientists,” or COBS — provided ideas on how to counter false rumors, like one that President Obama is a Muslim. It suggested how to characterize the Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, in advertisements. It also delivered research-based advice on how to mobilize voters.

“In the way it used research, this was a campaign like no other,” said Todd Rogers, a psychologist at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a former director of the Analyst Institute. “It’s a big change for a culture that historically has relied on consultants, experts and gurulike intuition.”

When asked about the outside psychologists, the Obama campaign would neither confirm nor deny a relationship with them. “This campaign was built on the energy, enthusiasm and ingenuity of thousands of grass-roots supporters and our staff in the states and in Chicago,” said Adam Fetcher, a campaign spokesman. “Throughout the campaign we saw an outpouring of individuals across the country who lent a wide variety of ideas and input to our efforts to get the president re-elected.”

For their part, consortium members said they did nothing more than pass on research-based ideas, in e-mails and conference calls. They said they could talk only in general terms about the research, because they had signed nondisclosure agreements with the campaign.

In addition to Dr. Fox, the consortium included Susan T. Fiske of Princeton University; Samuel L. Popkin of the University of California, San Diego; Robert Cialdini, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University; Richard H. Thaler, a professor of behavioral science and economics at the University of Chicago’s business school; and Michael Morris, a psychologist at Columbia.

“A kind of dream team, in my opinion,” Dr. Fox said.

He said that the ideas the team proposed were “little things that can make a difference” in people’s behavior.

For example, Dr. Fiske’s research has shown that when deciding on a candidate, people generally focus on two elements: competence and warmth. “A candidate wants to make sure to score high on both dimensions,” Dr. Fiske said in an interview. “You can’t just run on the idea that everyone wants to have a beer with you; some people care a whole lot about competence.”

Mr. Romney was recognized as a competent businessman, polling found. But he was often portrayed in opposition ads as distant, unable to relate to the problems of ordinary people.

When it comes to countering rumors, psychologists have found that the best strategy is not to deny the charge (“I am not a flip-flopper”) but to affirm a competing notion. “The denial works in the short term; but in the long term people remember only the association, like ‘Obama and Muslim,’ ” said Dr. Fox, of the persistent false rumor.

The president’s team affirmed that he is a Christian.

At least some of the consortium’s proposals seemed to have found their way into daily operations. Campaign volunteers who knocked on doors last week in swing states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada did not merely remind people to vote and arrange for rides to the polls. Rather, they worked from a script, using subtle motivational techniques that research has shown can prompt people to take action.

“We used the scripts more as a guide,” said Sarah Weinstein, 18, a Columbia freshman who traveled with a group to Cleveland the weekend before the election. “The actual language we used was invested in the individual person.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 14, 2012

An article on Tuesday about the role of social scientists in President Obama’s re-election campaign omitted a word from the title of the book by Sasha Issenberg that examines data-driven campaign strategies. The book is “The Victory Lab,”  not “Victory Lab.”

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