Ariel Winter's dad opposes actress's guardianship

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The father of "Modern Family" star Ariel Winter said Monday he is willing to care for his daughter and does not believe she should be placed in a guardianship after allegations that her mother has been physically and emotionally abusive.

One day before a hearing in the case was scheduled to convene, Glenn Workman filed an objection to a petition that would strip his estranged wife, Chrisoula, of custody of the 14-year-old.

Winter has been living with her adult sister, Shanelle Gray, since Oct. 3 when a judge created a temporary guardianship for the actress. Court filings described Chrisoula Workman as abusive to her daughter, including slapping her and calling her derogatory names. The judge ordered her to stay away and not contact the actress until at least Tuesday, when the guardianship will be re-evaluated.

Glenn Workman's objects to the contention in Gray's initial court filing that he is not in a position to care for the teen actress.

His filing does not address the abuse allegations against his wife, although he previously signed a handwritten declaration stating that the allegations were false and his daughter hadn't been beaten.

Glenn Workman acknowledges in the filing that problems with his wife have stymied his relationship with Winter at times, but he said he has been a caring father who is willing to care for her. He states that he does not need Winter's money to care for her.

"I want to provide for her a calm loving home environment that is a retreat from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood; a place where she can think and relax without any distractions," Workman's filing says.

Gray's attorney, Michael Kretzmer, declined to comment on the filing.

Glenn Workman wrote that he objects to Winter remaining in the care of Gray, who he claims has alienated the actress from her parents. "This whole situation has turned into a circus and places Ariel in a position she should not have to be in," he wrote.

"I ask this court to allow me the chance to function as a healthy parent and help Ariel through this ordeal," he wrote.

Winter has been acting since age 7, appearing in several TV series, including "ER" and "Phineas and Ferb," and movies such as "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," ''Ice Age: The Meltdown" and "ParaNorman." She plays middle child Alex Dunphy on ABC's "Modern Family."

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Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .

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Ecstasy Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Shows Promise

Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times

ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT Rick Doblin of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which is financing research into the drug Ecstasy.

Hundreds of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with post-traumatic stress have recently contacted a husband-and-wife team who work out of their home in suburban South Carolina to seek help. Many are desperate, pleading for treatment and willing to travel to get it.

The soldiers have no interest in traditional talking cures or prescription drugs that have given them little relief. They are lining up to try an alternative: MDMA, better known as Ecstasy, a party drug that surfaced in the 1980s and ’90s that can induce pulses of euphoria and a radiating affection. Government regulators criminalized the drug in 1985, placing it on a list of prohibited substances that includes heroin and LSD. But in recent years, regulators have licensed a small number of labs to produce MDMA for research purposes.

“I feel survivor’s guilt, both for coming back from Iraq alive and now for having had a chance to do this therapy,” said Anthony, a 25-year-old living near Charleston, S.C., who asked that his last name not be used because of the stigma of taking the drug. “I’m a different person because of it.”

In a paper posted online Tuesday by the Journal of Psychopharmacology, Michael and Ann Mithoefer, the husband-and-wife team offering the treatment — which combines psychotherapy with a dose of MDMA — write that they found 15 of 21 people who recovered from severe post-traumatic stress in the therapy in the early 2000s reported minor to virtually no symptoms today. Many said they have received other kinds of therapy since then, but not with MDMA.

The Mithoefers — he is a psychiatrist and she is a nurse — collaborated on the study with researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina and the nonprofit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies.

The patients in this group included mostly rape victims, and experts familiar with the work cautioned that it was preliminary, based on small numbers, and its applicability to war trauma entirely unknown. A spokeswoman for the Department of Defense said the military was not involved in any research of MDMA.

But given the scarcity of good treatments for post-traumatic stress, “there is a tremendous need to study novel medications,” including MDMA, said Dr. John H. Krystal, chairman of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.

The study is the first long-term test to suggest that psychiatrists’ tentative interest in hallucinogens and other recreational drugs — which have been taboo since the 1960s — could pay off. And news that the Mithoefers are beginning to test the drug in veterans is out, in the military press and on veterans’ blogs. “We’ve had more than 250 vets call us,” Dr. Mithoefer said. “There’s a long waiting list, we wish we could enroll them all.”

The couple, working with other researchers, will treat no more than 24 veterans with the therapy, following Food and Drug Administration protocols for testing an experimental drug; MDMA is not approved for any medical uses.

A handful of similar experiments using MDMA, LSD or marijuana are now in the works in Switzerland, Israel and Britain, as well as in this country. Both military and civilian researchers are watching closely. So far, the research has been largely supported by nonprofit groups.

“When it comes to the health and well-being of those who serve, we should leave our politics at the door and not be afraid to follow the data,” said Brig. Gen. Loree Sutton, a psychiatrist who recently retired from the Army. “There’s now an evidence base for this MDMA therapy and a plausible story about what may be going on in the brain to account for the effects.”

In interviews, two people who have had the therapy — one, Anthony, currently in the veterans study, and another who received the therapy independently — said that MDMA produced a mental sweet spot that allowed them to feel and talk about their trauma without being overwhelmed by it.

“It changed my perspective on the entire experience of working at ground zero,” said Patrick, a 46-year-old living in San Francisco, who worked long hours in the rubble after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks searching in vain for survivors, as desperate family members of the victims looked on, pleading for information. “At times I had this beautiful, peaceful feeling down in the pit, that I had a purpose, that I was doing what I needed to be doing. And I began in therapy to identify with that,” rather than the guilt and sadness.

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Stocks soar as 'fiscal cliff' fears subside

NEW YORK — As goes the "fiscal cliff," so apparently goes the stock market.

The Dow Jones industrial average notched its best gain Monday in more than two months on optimism that feuding lawmakers can avert a potential fiscal crisis before it harms the U.S. economy.

The blue-chip indicator rose more than 200 points and stocks rallied around the globe, easing at least momentarily the selling pressure that had weighed on share prices over the last month.

It didn't seem to matter that investors' optimism was based on the faintest of hope — mild comments from lawmakers that they can stave off the dreaded spending cuts and tax increases that would kick in automatically Jan. 1. And President Obama said he believes that a deal can be struck in time.

But the president and congressional Republicans only had their first post-election meeting Friday, and the broad contours of a deal have yet to take shape.

More than anything, the rally demonstrated the extent to which the market is taking its cue from Washington, even though the presidential election is over.

"Until a deal is struck, the market is vulnerable to both positive and negative headlines and any rumors swirling," said Todd Salamone, senior vice president of research at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "It's going to be a very headline-driven market."

The Dow Jones industrial average soared 207.65 points, or 1.7%, to close at 12,795.96. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 27.01 points, or 2%, to 1,386.89.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq, which had entered correction territory by falling 11% from its mid-September level, gained 62.94 points, or 2.2%, to 2,916.07.

Investors were buoyed by better-than-expected data reinforcing recent reports showing that the long-troubled housing market is gaining strength.

Sales of existing homes increased 2.1% in October from the previous month, the National Assn. of Realtors said, and a measure of home-builder confidence jumped in November to its highest level since 2006.

The rally was driven mainly by "a little bit of optimism on the fiscal cliff and certainly housing numbers," said Joe Hermes, managing director of Knight Capital Group.

Shares of Apple Inc. surged more than 7% after a story in the financial magazine Barron's said shares of the technology giant look cheap.

Stocks in general have slid over the last month, partly as investors left the market to avoid feared tax hikes on capital gains and dividends that could come next year. Despite Monday's uptick, major U.S. indexes are still down as much as 3% from the Nov. 6 presidential election.

Fear of gridlock in Washington is likely to dominate Wall Street in the final six weeks of the year. That could be exacerbated by light holiday trading volume this week.

Lower volumes of buying and selling on Wall Street can fuel greater volatility in stocks, magnifying perceptions of progress — or deadlock — in fiscal-cliff negotiations.

"It's pretty quiet today and it's probably only going to get worse into Thanksgiving," Hermes said.

Once the fiscal cliff is revolved, other issues are expected to emerge from the background. The November employment report, expected Dec. 7, will shed more light on the labor market's gradual recovery.

Corporate earnings remain a drag on Wall Street. Analysts' pessimism can be seen in their reduced estimates of fourth-quarter growth.

Outside the U.S., the Eurozone debt crisis remains unresolved, with Greece and Spain struggling as the currency bloc fell into recession last quarter.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, if it escalates, also could rock markets.

"If Israel starts invading Gaza, the market's going to take that as a big negative," Hermes said.

Larry Palmer, managing director of private wealth management at Morgan Stanley in Los Angeles, said the market's recent swings indicate that investors are nervous.

But he took Monday's rally as a sign that some investors may believe that worry over the fiscal cliff is merely noise. The real news, he said, was Monday's upbeat housing data.

"People are starting to figure out that if the world doesn't in fact come to an end, that equities really aren't that overpriced," Palmer said.

andrew.tangel@latimes.com

Times staff writer Jim Puzzanghera contributed to this report from Washington.

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In L.A., inexperienced teachers more likely to be assigned to students behind in math, study says

A new study has found that inexperienced teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District are disproportionately more likely to be assigned to lower-performing math students, perpetuating the achievement gap.

The study also found that L.A. Unified teachers "vary substantially" in their effectiveness, with top teachers able to give students the equivalent of eight additional months of learning in a year compared with weaker instructors.

Such findings raise "deep concerns," said Drew Furedi, the district's executive director of talent management, who oversees teacher training. "For us, it's a call to action."

The study by the Strategic Data Project, which is affiliated with Harvard University's Center for Education Policy Research, analyzed the performance of about 30% of L.A. Unified teachers and presented findings based primarily on students' standardized math test scores from 2005 through 2011 in grades three through eight. The study's authors acknowledged that test scores were only one measure of teacher effectiveness.

The study also found that teacher performance after two years is a fairly good predictor of future effectiveness. That finding could be used to challenge moves to overturn laws that let teachers gain tenure after just a few years — a growing effort by those who argue that administrators need more time to make that decision.

"Two years gives you a substantial amount of information," said Jon Fullerton, the research center's executive director.

Fullerton said L.A. Unified teachers varied more than those in three other school districts studied in North Carolina and Georgia. More so than in the other districts, Los Angeles schools also disproportionately placed newer teachers with less-proficient students: Their students were, on average, the equivalent of six months behind peers assigned to more experienced instructors.

The study did not explore the reasons for the situations it found, but it was aimed at providing "information and insight" to the district to craft responses, Fullerton said.

The study also found:

•The performance of math teachers improved quickly in the first five years, then leveled off.

• Those with advanced degrees were no more effective than those without, although L.A. Unified pays more to teachers pursuing such degrees.

• Long-term substitute teachers — who have been employed more frequently to fill in amid widespread layoffs — have positive effects in teaching middle-school math.

No single finding can produce a strategy to erase the district's substantial achievement gap between white students and their black and Latino counterparts, the study said, noting that the difference in performance on fifth-grade math tests was roughly equivalent to more than 1 1/2 years of learning. Multiple strategies would be needed, the study said.

Furedi said one key area of action would be the placement of effective teachers with lower-performing students. District Supt. John Deasy has made it clear that principals should strive to "understand where teachers are and place those with success in front of kids who need them most," Furedi said.

teresa.watanabe@latimes.com

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Bieber, Swift, Minaj and Carly Rae Jepsen win AMAs

Justin Bieber thanked his haters after winning the first award at the American Music Awards, while Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift performed their new singles.

The 18-year-old won favorite pop/rock male artist in the first award handed out at Sunday's American Music Awards and gave a shout-out to those who didn't think he would last on the music scene.

"I want to say this is for all the haters who that I was just here for one or two years. I feel like I'm going to be here for a very long time," he said, also thanking his mom, manager, family and his "beautiful, beautiful fans."

Usher kicked off the three-hour show with green laser lights beaming onstage as he performed a medley of songs, including "Numb," ''Climax" and "Can't Stop, Won't Stop," which featured a smoky floor and a number of backup dancers, as Usher jammed in all black, with the exception of his red shoes.

Swift won her fifth consecutive award for favorite country female artist.

"This is unreal. I want to thank the fans. You guys are the ones who voted on this," she said.

Swift gave a masquerade-themed performance of the pop song "I Knew You Were Trouble." She sang onstage in a light dress while dancers wore mostly black. But then she changed into a red corset and black skirt, matching their dark mood. She even danced and sang on the floor as lights flickered throughout the performance.

Minaj was also a consecutive winner, picking up her second trophy for favorite rap/hip-hop album for "Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded." She was in an all-white get-up, including fur coat and pink hair. The scene was ghostly and snowy, as a choir — also in white — joined her onstage. One background singer stole the performance, belting semi-high notes as Minaj looked on.

Party girl Ke$ha was glammed up on the red carpet, rocking long, flowy blonde hair and a light pink dress. She switched to her normal attire when she performed her hit single "Die Young." It was tribal, with shirtless dancers in skin-tight pants, silver hair and skeleton-painted faces, who also played the drums. Ke$ha was pants-less, rocking knee-high boots and rolling on the floor as she finished up the song.

Minaj and Christina Aguilera were blonde bombshells, too: Minaj's hair was busy and full of volume and she sported a neon strapless gown to accept her award. Aguilera wore a blonde bob in a purple dress that matched her eyeshadow.

Kelly Clarkson also hit the stage, making a nod to her "American Idol" roots with a number on her dress and three judges looking on as she sang "Miss Independent." Then she went into "Since U Been Gone," ''Stronger" and "Catch My Breath." It's worth noting that "Idol" judge Randy Jackson introduced Clarkson, the first-ever winner of the show. He also advised people to donate through Red Cross for Superstorm Sandy victims.

American Music Awards nominees were selected based on sales and airplay, and fans chose the winners by voting online. At this award show, even the stars were fans: Pink said on the red carpet that she'd like to collaborate with Lauryn Hill. Cyndi Lauper said her musical playlist includes Pink, Nicki Minaj and Carly Rae Jepsen, who performed "Call Me Maybe" and won new artist of the year. Boy band The Wanted said they were excited to see "Gangnam Style" star PSY, and Colbie Caillat wants to watch No Doubt.

"What makes the American Music Awards special is the fans choose the winning artists," said Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, who won for favorite artist alternative rock and will perform at the show.

Along with Rihanna, Minaj was the top nominee with four nominations.

"I don't do music for awards," the 29-year-old said in an interview. "It's so crazy because people always have to remind me that I'm nominated for an award when I go to award shows."

"I know they're going to come. I'm sitting here looking at my awards right now," she continued with a laugh. "I never stress it. I think of myself as 'I'll have a career long enough to get all those different awards.'"

Minaj isn't up for the night's top award, though. Rihanna, Maroon 5, Drake, Katy Perry and Bieber will battle it out for artist of the year.

But the American Music Awards are all about performances, and Sunday's show was no exception. The three-hour program broadcast live on ABC was set to air performances by Carrie Underwood, Bieber, Ludacris, Chris Brown and Swizz Beatz. And Stevie Wonder is set to provide the soundtrack for a tribute to the late Dick Clark.

"I'm really going there to perform 'Freedom,'" Minaj said of her new single. "I'm very, very proud of the record and I'm happy that people are going to get to hear it. I'm performing a hip-hop song on the AMAs, and I think . that's just a big look for hip-hop."

Other multiple nominees include Usher, Bieber, Drake, Maroon 5 and One Direction, who have three nods each. Perry, Underwood, Brown, Clarkson, Pitbull, fun., Gotye, J. Cole and Luke Bryan are all double nominees.

The 40th anniversary show will also include the tribute to Clark, its creator.

"Dick changed the face of music back in the late '50s," producer Larry Klein said. "Dick is the one who made rock 'n' roll acceptable to come into people's homes... We're paying tribute to Dick because of the legacy that he's left everybody and also the creativity of what he did on this show."

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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen contributed to this report from Los Angeles. Follow (at)APSandy's American Music Award updates at www.twitter.com/APEntertainment.

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Online:

http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/american-music-awards

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Daniel Stern, Who Studied Babies’ World, Dies at 78

Dr. Daniel Stern, a psychiatrist who increased the understanding of early human development by scrutinizing the most minute interactions between mothers and babies, died on Nov. 12 in Geneva. He was 78.

The cause was heart failure, said his wife, Dr. Nadia Bruschweiler Stern.

Dr. Stern was noted for his often poetic language in describing how children respond to their world — how they feel, think and see. He wrote one of his half-dozen books in the form of a diary by a baby. In another book, he told how mothers differ psychologically from women who do not have children. He coined the term “motherese” to describe a form of communication in which mothers are able to read even the slightest of babies’ emotional signals.

Dr. Stern, who did much of his research at what is now Weill Cornell Medical College and at the University of Geneva, drew inspiration from Jay S. Rosenblatt’s work with kittens at the American Museum of Natural History in the 1950s. Dr. Rosenblatt discovered that when he removed kittens from their cage, they made their way to a specific nipple of their mother’s even when they were as young as one day old. That finding demonstrated that learning occurs naturally at an exceptionally early age in a way staged experiments had not.

Dr. Stern videotaped babies from birth through their early years, and then studied the tapes second by second to analyze interactions between mother and child. He challenged the Freudian idea that babies go through defined critical phases, like oral and anal. Rather, he said, their development is continuous, with each phase layered on top of the previous one. The interactions are punctuated by intervals, sometimes only a few seconds long, of rest, solitude and reflection. As this process goes on, they develop a sense that other people can and will share in their feelings, and in that way develop a sense of self.

These interactions can underpin emotional episodes that occur years in the future. Citing one example in a 1990 interview with The Boston Globe, Dr. Stern told of a 13-month-old who grabbed for an electric plug. His alarmed mother, who moments before had been silent and loving, suddenly turned angry and sour. Two years later, the child heard a fairy tale about a wicked witch.

“He’s been prepared for that witch for years,” Dr. Stern said. “He’s already seen someone he loves turn into something evil. It’s perfectly believable for him. He maps right into it.”

Dr. Stern described such phenomena in 1985 in “The Interpersonal World of the Infant,” which the noted psychologist Stanley Spiegel, in an interview in The New York Times, called “the book of the decade in its influence on psychoanalytic theory.”

In recent years, Dr. Stern ventured beyond childhood development to examine the psychology of how people thought about time. In one experiment, he interviewed people in depth about a single brief moment at breakfast and found that it took them a full hour to describe all that went through their minds in 30 seconds. This resulted in the 2004 book “The Present Moment: In Psychotherapy and Everyday Life,” which called for people to appreciate every moment of experience and discussed the nature of memory.

In 2010, he published “Forms of Vitality: Exploring Dynamic Experience in Psychology, the Arts, Psychotherapy and Development,” which used new understandings of neuroscience to explain human empathy.

Dr. Stern, who wrote hundreds of scientific articles, also painted, wrote poetry and had friendships with important artists. He gave Jerome Robbins, the choreographer, the title for his “Dances at a Gathering.” His friend Robert Wilson, the avant-garde director and playwright, said Dr. Stern’s slow-motion baby films helped inspire his seven-hour “silent opera,” “Deafman Glance.”

“So many things are going on, and the baby is picking them up,” Mr. Wilson said.

Daniel Norman Stern was born in Manhattan on Aug. 16, 1934. He graduated from Harvard and completed his medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After conducting psychopharmacology research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., he did his residency in psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He later trained as a psychoanalyst at the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research at Columbia.

Dr. Stern is survived by his wife, a physician who collaborated on much of his research; two sons, Michael and Adrien; three daughters, Maria, Kaia and Alice Stern; a sister, Ronnie Chalif; and 12 grandchildren.

Dr. Stern pointed out how the evolution of the human body bolstered mother-child interaction. He noted that the distance between the eyes of a baby at the breast and the mother’s eyes is about 10 inches, exactly the distance for the sharpest focus and clearest vision for a young infant.

“Her smile exerts its natural evocative powers in him and breathes a vitality into him,” he wrote. “It makes him resonate with the animation she feels and shows. His joy rises. Her smile pulls it out of him.”

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A John Lautner-designed home in L.A.

Known for his forward-thinking engineering, architect John Lautner designed the Foster Carling house with a retractable wall of glass separating the outdoor part of the swimming pool from an interior portion in the living room. External steel beams support the hexagonal living space, which is free of internal columns.

Location: 7144 Hockey Trail, Los Angeles 90068

Asking price: $2.995 million

Year built: 1950

House size: Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, 1,999 square feet

Lot size: 16,002 square feet

Features: Redwood planking, raised fireplace, polished concrete floors, built-in furniture, bar, basement, alarm system, carport, skyline views.

About the area: In the third quarter, 86 single-family homes sold in the 90068 ZIP Code at a median price of $930,000, according to DataQuick. That was a 3.8% price increase from the third quarter last year.

Agent: John Galich, Rodeo Realty, (310) 461-0468

—Lauren Beale

To submit a candidate for Home of the Week, send high-resolution color photos on a CD, written permission from the photographer to publish the images and a description of the house to Lauren Beale, Business, Los Angeles Times, 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. Send questions to homeoftheweek@latimes.com.

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Pasadena considers whether to host NFL team at Rose Bowl

Many Pasadena residents who live near the Rose Bowl complain that the city's proposal to host an NFL team for up to five years would invite massive traffic jams, unleash rowdy fan behavior and displace recreational users from the Arroyo Seco.

The Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and others say the prospect of millions of dollars in public revenue and game-related local spending is a windfall well worth the inconveniences.

On Monday, the City Council will hold a public hearing to decide what course the city may pursue.

Both the disaster and money-making scenarios are speculative. No NFL team has committed to Southern California despite years of talk, and the Los Angeles Coliseum is another option as a temporary home while a permanent new NFL stadium is built.

But if talks with the NFL are to begin, Pasadena leaders must pass an ordinance to increase the number of large events allowed at the Rose Bowl from 12 to 25 each year, approve an associated environmental study and adopt a "statement of overriding considerations" that pro football's potential benefits outweigh its downsides.

A Nov. 5 report by Barrett Sports Group, a Manhattan Beach consulting firm hired by the city, estimates that NFL games would raise $5 million to $10 million a year for the city-owned stadium, where costs for an ongoing renovation have spiraled to nearly $195 million. The gap between the funds Rose Bowl officials have and what they estimate they need has reached $30 million.

City Council members declined to say how they would vote on Monday, but several said the renovation cost was a factor.

Councilwoman Margaret McAustin said the city would seek to reduce impacts on Rose Bowl neighbors if it decided to go ahead with the plan.

"It's not that we'll do this at all costs … [but] we have to keep in mind that the Rose Bowl is a football stadium," she said. "We're not spending $200 million to preserve it as a museum."

Mayor Bill Bogaard, who opposed a 2005 plan to bring pro football to the Rose Bowl permanently and give the NFL control over stadium renovations, said he was giving this plan serious thought. "That funding gap would be relieved if we were to strike the right deal with the NFL," he said.

But the right deal remains elusive, said Linda Vista-Annandale Assn. President Nina Chomsky, an opponent of the plan.

"They are trying to more than double the amount of events at the Rose Bowl without any contract or deal that tells us what the full impacts will be, so any attempt to mitigate those impacts is speculative," Chomsky said.

The city's 688-page environmental study found that NFL games would result in "significant and unavoidable" traffic congestion, emissions, noise and disruptions in the central Arroyo Seco.

The arrival of more than 25,000 vehicles during eight home games, two preseason games and possible playoff matches would disrupt joggers and prompt the Kidspace Museum, Rose Bowl Aquatic Center and Brookside Golf Course to go dark on those Sundays.

Chomsky added that back-to-back college and pro games would clog the area for entire weekends.

Sixty-four letters and two petitions were submitted as public comment on the environmental study, most against the proposal.

Several writers expressed fears that NFL games would attract alcohol-fueled and criminal mischief, with one Arroyo resident imagining "ever-expanding cultural crassness" on game days.

Contemporary Services Corp., which handles security at the Rose Bowl and stadiums throughout the country, countered in a Nov. 5 report to the city that "our experience has indicated that NFL fans are generally more orderly than college football fans."

joe.piasecki@latimes.com

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Lady Gaga tweets some racy images before concert

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Lady Gaga's tweets were getting a lot of attention ahead of her Buenos Aires concert Friday night.

The Grammy-winning entertainer has more than 30 million followers on Twitter and that's where she shared a link this week to a short video showing her doing a striptease and fooling around in a bathtub with two other women.

She told her followers that it's a "surprise for you, almost ready for you to TASTE."

Then, in between concerts in Brazil and Argentina, she posted a picture Thursday on her Twitter page showing her wallowing in her underwear and impossibly high heels on top of the remains of what appears to be a strawberry shortcake.

"The real CAKE isn't HAVING what you want, it's DOING what you want," she tweeted.

Lady Gaga wore decidedly unglamorous baggy jeans and a blouse outside her Buenos Aires hotel Thursday as three burly bodyguards kept her fans at bay. Another pre-concert media event where she was supposed to be given "guest of honor" status by the city government Friday afternoon was cancelled.

After Argentina, she is scheduled to perform in Santiago, Chile; Lima, Peru; and Asuncion, Paraguay, before taking her "Born This Way Ball" tour to Africa, Europe and North America.

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Well: Meatless Main Dishes for a Holiday Table

Most vegetarian diners are happy to fill their plates with delicious sides and salads, but if you want to make them feel special, consider one of these main course vegetarian dishes from Martha Rose Shulman. All of them are inspired by Greek cooking, which has a rich tradition of vegetarian meals.

I know that Greek food is not exactly what comes to mind when you hear the word “Thanksgiving,” yet why not consider this cuisine if you’re searching for a meatless main dish that will please a crowd? It’s certainly a better idea, in my mind, than Tofurky and all of the other overprocessed attempts at making a vegan turkey. If you want to serve something that will be somewhat reminiscent of a turkey, make the stuffed acorn squashes in this week’s selection, and once they’re out of the oven, stick some feathers in the “rump,” as I did for the first vegetarian Thanksgiving I ever cooked: I stuffed and baked a huge crookneck squash, then decorated it with turkey feathers. The filling wasn’t nearly as good as the one you’ll get this week, but the creation was fun.

Here are five new vegetarian recipes for your Thanksgiving table — or any time.

Giant Beans With Spinach, Tomatoes and Feta: This delicious, dill-infused dish is inspired by a northern Greek recipe from Diane Kochilas’s wonderful new cookbook, “The Country Cooking of Greece.”

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Northern Greek Mushroom and Onion Pie: Meaty portobello mushrooms make this a very substantial dish.

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Roasted Eggplant and Chickpeas With Cinnamon-Tinged Tomato Sauce and Feta: This fragrant and comforting dish can easily be modified for vegans.

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Coiled Greek Winter Squash Pie: The extra time this beautiful vegetable pie takes to assemble is worth it for a holiday dinner.

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Baked Acorn Squash Stuffed With Wild Rice and Kale Risotto: Serve one squash to each person at your Thanksgiving meal: They’ll be like miniature vegetarian (or vegan) turkeys.

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