Sundance heats up with a slew of sex-themed films

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The Sundance Film Festival has never been sexier.

The annual independent-film showcase has featured a slew of sexually themed movies in its various categories this year. There are stories about women using sex to work through their mid-life crises, narrative and documentary examinations of pornography and its players, and coming-of-age stories in which sex plays a central role.

Festival founder Robert Redford says the on-screen sex of today is often devoid of the romance that was essential in late 1960s, when he first started making movies.

So what has inspired the Sundance sexual revolution? Stars and filmmakers weigh in on their sexy fare.

— "When I got in the film business in the early '60s, it was a romantic time. Sex and romance were pretty well tied together; sexuality was pretty well expressed through romance. Times have changed, so now, 40, 50 years later, we see that sexual relations have moved to a place where it doesn't feel like there's so much romance involved. The romance is not part of the equation, because relations have changed, and they've changed because of changing times, and because of new technology. People are texting rather than dating and all that kind of stuff. So what we do, we just show what's there." — Sundance founder Robert Redford.

— "It's relevant because people just started having sex. So I think because of that, because everyone just started having sex, it's extremely relevant right now." — Kristen Bell, star of dramatic contender "The Lifeguard."

— "Sex is trendy." — Actress Mamie Gummer, who co-stars in "The Lifeguard."

— "It's provocative. ... Filmmakers, I think you want to take people out of their comfort zone, and I think sex does that when you talk about it." — Tony Danza, who appears in the premiere film "Don Jon's Addiction."

— "I wanted to tell a story about how we work as human beings, and let's face it, that's what drives a lot of us. And what I was trying to get at with 'Don Jon's Addiction' is, yeah, let's talk about sex but let's really talk about it and not just go through the same cliches that we always go through. ... Those of us (who) — and we all do — consume this media, whether it's movies or porn or the news or, you know, the Bible, we consume these pieces of media and we form these rules for ourselves, these notions of how things are supposed to be. And to me, there's nothing less sexy than trying to fit in what you think you're supposed to be. What's sexy is when you're just being yourself and you're connecting in the present." — Joseph Gordon-Levitt, director, writer and star of "Don Jon's Addiction."

— "It's funny isn't it, because it's this great taboo, really. And yet it's something that is in all of our lives, if we're lucky — some of us three or four times a day. Ugh, exhausting." — Matthew Goode, a star of the premiere "Stoker," which blends sex and violence.

— "People's acceptance of new representations of sex is — I think it's a gradual thing that happens from all of these different kinds of outlets. Sundance is just one place, a nodal point in that trend." — James Franco, who produced the documentary "kink," produced and starred in "Interior. Leather Bar.," which explores leather-sex clubs and plays Hugh Hefner in "Lovelace."

— "I think there's a sexual revolution going on, maybe. ... It's kind of moving in that direction, I would like to think. I would love if America kind of appreciated sex the way Europeans do. I feel like it's really not that big of a deal. There's so much stigma attached to it. I think it's better than violence. It's better than making movies about guns and people shooting each other and blood and stuff. ... It's a huge part of our culture. It's a huge part of every day. We all do it! So why are we not talking about it and why are we not portraying that in movies? I know why, actually. There are a lot of reasons. But I personally think that we need to see more of it. I mean, it's not that scary." — Amanda Seyfried, who plays pioneering porn star Linda Lovelace in the biopic "Lovelace."

— "Sex is a part of life, and to shy away from it would not be very truthful, especially if it's a movie about Allen Ginsberg and the beat poets. I mean, to me it's a part of becoming who you are as a person. The first time you have sex is a very important part of every person's life, so I think when you're making a movie about Allen Ginsberg becoming Allen Ginsberg, probably the first time he had sex is a very important, defining moment in his life." — Actor Dane DeHaan, who co-stars in dramatic contender "Kill Your Darlings."

— "If I track what might be the source of it now, it's that the civil rights movement of our era has to do with sex and sexuality. And so there's been this sort of repositioning of it as a central issue as opposed to a titillating side issue. It's a core issue to do with what and who we are. And to speak of it as anything but that is to diminish our humanity, really. And once that is cracked open, it applies to absolutely everyone, which is why the movement that starts with a gay and lesbian movement is actually a movement that is everyone." — Robin Weigert, who plays a woman who becomes a prostitute as a way of working through a mid-life crisis brought on by a baseball to the head in the dramatic contender "Concussion."

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AP Entertainment Writer Ryan Pearson and AP Movie Writer David Germain contributed to this report.

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AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy .

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F.D.A. to Vote on Restricting Hydrocodone Products Like Vicodin

Trying to stem the scourge of prescription drug abuse in the United States, an advisory panel of experts to the Food and Drug Administration plans to vote Friday on whether to toughen restrictions on hydrocodone products like Vicodin, the most widely used narcotic painkillers in the country.

The recommendation, which the F.D.A. would likely follow, would limit access to the drugs by making them harder to prescribe, a major policy change that advocates said could help ease the growing problem of addiction to painkillers.

The change would have sweeping consequences for doctors, pharmacists and patients. Under the new rules, refills without a new prescription would be forbidden, as would faxed prescriptions and those called in by phone. Only written prescriptions from a doctor would be allowed and pharmacists and distributors would be required to store the drugs in special vaults. The vote comes after similar legislation in Congress failed last year, after intense lobbying by pharmacists and drugstores.

Prescription drugs account for about three-quarters of all drug overdoses in the United States, with the number of deaths more than tripling since 1999, according to federal data. Since 2008, deaths from overdoses have outpaced deaths from car accidents.

The F.D.A. convened the panel, made up of scientists and other experts, after a request by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which contends that the drugs are among the most frequently abused painkillers in the country.

“This is the federal government saying, ‘we need to tighten the reins on this drug,'” said Scott R. Drab, associate professor of pharmacy and therapeutics at the University of Pittsburgh. “Pulling in the rope is a way to rein in abuse, and consequently, addiction.”

At a two-day hearing at F.D.A. headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., many speakers opposed the change, including advocates for nursing home patients, who said older, frail residents needing pain medication would be required to make the arduous trip to a doctor’s office to continue using hydrocodone products. Other experts questioned how effective the change would be. Oxycodone, another highly abused painkiller, has been in the more restrictive category since it came on the market, but the limited access does not seem to have stemmed abuse, they said.

But others including parents who had lost their children to prescription drug abuse, as well as doctors and pharmacists, testified, sometimes emotionally. . Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat of West Virginia, where the scourge has been particularly deadly, made an impassioned plea for tougher restrictions.

“When I go back to West Virginia, I hear how easy it is for anybody to get their hands on hydrocodone drugs,” Mr. Manchin said on Friday. “For underage children, these drugs are easier to get than beer or cigarettes.”

He added that the current, less restrictive status “is fueling the prescription drug epidemic today.”

Dr. James P. Rathmell, chief of the division of pain medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, said hydrocodone products have similar biological effects as oxycodone products, and should unquestionably be in the same category of restrictiveness.

“Knowing what we know today, it was a mistake,” Dr. Rathmell said, referring to hydrocodone products being placed in the looser category when they came to market. “It should be corrected.”

Dr. Timothy Deer, chief doctor at the Center for Pain Relief in Charleston, W.Va., said that he feared for older patients, particularly in rural areas, who would have to drive great distances to get prescriptions renewed. But, he said, hydrocodone products have been by far the most widely prescribed painkiller because the restrictions were so loose. And on balance, particularly in a hard-hit state like his, the public health benefits of a recommendation to toughen restrictions on the drug probably outweigh the harm of additional burdens on legitimate pain patients.

“At the end of the day, the benefits of reducing abuse will outweigh the harm to legitimate pain patients,” he said. “This will likely reduce the amount of drug falling into the wrong hands.”

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Exxon surpasses Apple as world's most valuable company

The king is, well, not exactly dead. But Apple's stock has taken a pretty serious knee-capping this week, compounding a slide that began in  September. And as a result, Exxon is once again king of the stock markets. 

On Friday, Exxon became the world's most valuable company as Apple's stock fell $10.46, or 2.32%, to $440.04.

In midday trading, Exxon boasted a $417.59 billion market cap; Apple's  was  $412.36 billion. The days of August, when people were debating whether Apple had set the record for the most valuable company in history, now seem like a dream from another era. 

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Apple's stock has now dropped 37% since its September high of $702.10. In just the last two days, the stock is down 14.6%. 

The question now facing Apple investors is just how far the stock can tumble before it reaches equilibrium.

While there has been a touch of schadenfreude as people watch analysts rein in bullish estimates and large Apple shareholders count their losses, it's worth noting that the company's stock is one of the most widely held in the world. It might be hard to find anyone with a pension fund or 401(k) who has not at least been affected a little by Apple's stock decline. 

Investors will now likely be waiting anxiously to see if the stock could approach the next psychological barrier of $400 per share.

Beyond that is another interesting milestone to note: Tim Cook's massive stock grant. When Cook officially replaced Steve Jobs as CEO in August 2011, the company awarded him 1 million shares of restricted stock units. Their estimated value at the time was $383 million, which assumed the grant price was about $383 per share. 

The RSUs are set to vest in two chunks: Half on Aug. 24, 2016 and half on Aug. 24, 2021. That means Cook can't sell them until those dates. RSUs are not options, which come with a strike price. That means that no matter what the ultimate price of the stock, Cook would make money when he sells. 

Still, if Apple has lost all the value Cook had created for investors since he was hired, investors might be less than pleased. 

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'California did the impossible,' Brown says in State of the State

SACRAMENTO -- In a strident and sweeping State of the State address, Gov. Jerry Brown declared Thursday morning that "California did the impossible," bouncing back from the precipice of fiscal collapse to emerge as an economic leader.

With references to the Bible, the history of the California republic and Irish poet William Butler Yeats, Brown mapped out a vision for the state that includes big investment in its water and rail systems and schools free of regulations that he says inhibit flexibility and creativity.

Brown also called a special session of the Legislature for implementation of President Obama's healthcare law, "to deal with those issues that must be decided quickly if California is to get the Affordable Care Act started by next January."

But he stressed that his top priority is keeping the state from falling back into financial chaos.

"We have promises to keep," Brown said, alluding to his successful campaign last fall to persuade voters to raise taxes by billions of dollars. "And the most important one we made to the people if Proposition 30 passed: that we would guard jealously the money…. Fiscal discipline is not the enemy of our good intentions but the basis for realizing them."

He praised lawmakers for helping the state dig out of its fiscal morass but also called on them to show restraint. "What we need to do for our future will require more than producing hundreds of new laws each year," Brown said.

He warned of the dangers of "constantly expanding the coercive power of government by adding each year so many minute prescriptions to our already detailed and turgid legal system."

The governor cited schools as an area where the deluge of laws has undermined good policy. Returning to one of his favorite themes, he urged lawmakers to consider the "principle of subsidiarity … the idea that a central authority should only perform those tasks which cannot be performed at a more immediate or local level."

Brown repeated the call he made earlier this month to free local districts from dozens of state mandates for school spending and to shift more state money to districts with poorer students and non-native English speakers.

He said the steady tuition hikes at the state's institutions of higher education need to stop.

"I will not let the students become the default financiers of our colleges and universities," Brown said, to standing applause in the packed Assembly chamber that held the entire Legislature.

In calling a special session on healthcare, Brown said the state will next year begin providing insurance to nearly 1 million Californians under the federal law and in the coming years will steadily reduce the number of uninsured.

But he warned of attendant risks: "The ultimate costs of expanding our healthcare system under the Affordable Care Act are unknown."

The governor also used his address to tout his ambitious plans for refurbishing the state's water systems. He acknowledged that it will be costly. But inaction, he said, would likely prove more expensive, leaving California exposed to an economic disaster on the scale of that wrought elsewhere by Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy.

The governor also made a plug for his other costly infrastructure initiative, high-speed rail. He said the United States is lagging far behind other countries in this sector, saying that even Morocco is building a high-speed train system.

He called the state's bullet-train plan, which would eventually link San Francisco and Los Angeles, bold, like "everything about California."

The governor also announced will lead a trade mission to China to strengthen California's economic ties with that country and officially open the state's new trade and investment office in Shanghai.

evan.halper@latimes.com

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Women in Combat Stoke Twitter Debate

The Pentagon’s decision to allow women in combat has elicited some strong and controversial words from opponents of the move.

First, Tucker Carlson. Last night, the Daily Caller publisher tweeted: “Feminism’s latest victory: the right to get your limbs blown off in war. Congratulations.”

This drew some swift criticism on Twitter, and a counterpoint from The Week’s Marc Ambinder, who noted that one woman who lost limbs in combat, Tammy Duckworth, is now serving as a Democrat in the House of Representatives.

Then, Politico reported that Allen West, the former GOP congressman and Army lieutenant colonel, tweeted this morning: “Women in combat billets? Another misconceived lib vision of fairness and equality.”

West is already getting trashed on Twitter by users who took offense. After the controversial remarks made by Newt Gingrich in the mid-1990s and Rick Santorum last year, it’s no surprise that the Pentagon’s decision is stirring debate.

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New Mutations Discovered in Melanomas

In a leap forward in understanding the basic science of one of the most lethal cancers, two groups of researchers have found mutations in most melanomas that are unlike any they have seen before in cancer. The changes are in regions that control genes, not in the genes themselves. The mutations are exactly the type caused by exposure to ultraviolet light, indicating they might be among the first DNA changes in a cell’s path to melanoma.

The discoveries, published online Thursday in two papers in the journal Science Express, do not immediately suggest new treatments or ways to prevent melanoma, researchers said. But the findings help explain how melanomas — and, possibly, other cancers — develop and what drives their growth, insights that may be critical to long-term efforts to develop ways to prevent or stop the cancer.

For years, cancer researchers have searched for mutations in genes, but this time, they looked for — and found — mutations in a region that regulates genes. They did it by examining the entire DNA of multiple tumors, studying not just genes but also what has been called the dark matter, the 99 percent of the DNA that includes regions that control genes.

“You could think of this as one glimmer in what has been called cancer’s dark matter,” said Dr. Levi A. Garraway of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and M.I.T.

The complete DNA sequences of 70 malignant melanomas led to the new discovery. A small control region was mutated in 7 out of 10 of the tumors, and also, the investigators found, in liver and bladder cancers. The cancer cells had one of two tiny changes that together were more common than any mutation ever found in the genes of melanoma.

A team led by Rajiv Kumar of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg and Dirk Schadendorf of the University of Essen looked for the mutations in a family whose members tended to get melanoma. Four relatives who developed melanoma had inherited one of them, while four who remained melanoma-free did not have it. They also found the mutation in a 36-year-old member of the family who had not developed melanoma but had had many moles, often a sign of risk in families prone to melanoma.

Their findings indicate that those who inherit the mutations might be born with cells that have taken a first step toward cancer.

The mutations spur cells to make an enzyme, telomerase, that keeps cells immortal by preventing them from gradually losing the ends of their chromosome, the telomeres. When telomeres erode, a cell dies. But the enzyme also has other, poorly understood functions that are thought to keep cancer cells alive, said Robert Weinberg, an M.I.T. researcher who studies telomerase and cancer and was not involved with the research. “The paradigm that it does nothing but extend telomeres is a gross oversimplification,” he said.

Abundant telomerase is so important to cancers that it occurs in 90 percent of them, said Immaculata De Vivo, a Harvard Medical School researcher who studies telomerase and cancer and directs a DNA sequencing program. She, too, was not involved with the research.

The results of the two studies presented in the papers “are like a court of law — it’s the preponderance of the evidence,” she said. “We all knew telomerase was important for cancer, but now we are finding the mechanisms, the machinery.”

Scientists were surprised that the mutations in the dark matter of melanoma tumors were so commonplace. Dr. Garraway and his colleagues had the entire DNA sequences for a collection of melanomas — genes as well as the rest of the DNA including areas that turn genes on and off.

“We said, ‘Let’s just take a look and see if there are any mutations in a regulatory region,” Dr. Garraway said.

At first, they looked at the DNA sequences of 19 tumors. They were amazed to find one or the other of the two mutations in 17 of them. So the researchers decided to look at 51 additional melanomas and a handful of bladder and liver cancers. The mutations popped up again.

“It was really quite striking,” Dr. Garraway said.

But it’s not clear how to reverse the mutations’ cancer-causing effects, Dr. Garraway said. And although people have long wanted to block telomerase production in cancer cells, they have not found a drug to do it.

Still, the findings are highly significant, experts said.

“We have always known that just looking at genes alone would provide a limited number of answers about why cancer develops,” said Elaine Mardis of Washington University, who was not involved with the research. “The brakes or the gas that control the genes that cause cancer are as important as gene mutations,” she said. The new papers, Dr. Mardis added, “show where additional answers may lie.”

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Apple shares tumble after relatively unimpressive earnings report

Apple Inc. may still make products customers love, but its latest earnings report appears to have broken investors' hearts.

For the third quarter in a row, Apple reported revenue and profit that were impressive by normal standards, but short of what analysts had expected. Investors reacted harshly, driving Apple's stock price down more than 10% in after-hours trading Wednesday.

If that trend holds when trading opens Thursday, Apple will have lost almost $50 billion in market value in the blink of an eye, and its stock will have given up almost all the extraordinary gains it had made in the last year. Investors' and fund managers' belief in one of the world's most widely held stocks will be severely tested in the coming days.

More fundamentally, despite upbeat talk by Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, the performance is unlikely to quell growing worries that Apple's remarkable run of dominance might be over.

"Overall, compared to other companies, it's impressive. But for Apple's standards, it's not great," said Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. "I do think this somewhat fuels the perception that Apple is slowing down a bit.... And it's driven by the fact that some of its competitors are catching up, and in some markets have already caught up."

Apple executives did their best during an hourlong conference call with analysts to project optimism and excitement about both the last quarter and the months ahead. They noted that the company had trouble meeting demand for both iPads and Macs, and could have sold many more had they been able to build enough.

They also pointed to a growing business in China and the expansion of iTunes, which is now available in 119 countries.

"Apple is in one of the most prolific periods of innovation in its history," Cook said. "We continue to believe our fundamentals, our remarkable people, our clear and focused strategy will serve us well in the coming months and years ahead."

Cook praised the record numbers posted by Apple. For the three months that ended in December, Apple said revenue increased 18% to a record $54.5 billion. Profit also set an all-time high but was up only slightly from the year-earlier quarter, rising to $13.08 billion, or $13.81 a share, from $13.06 billion, or $13.87.

Apple said it sold a record 47.8 million iPhones last quarter, up from 37 million iPhones in the same quarter of 2011. Despite that massive figure, some analysts had hoped to see stronger demand with sales exceeding 50 million.

"Meeting expectations is not enough for Apple," said Colin Gillis of BGC Financial. "So that's a little bit of a disappointment…. International sales were a little weaker than people expected. So we'll see how that shakes out."

Last quarter saw the introduction of the iPad mini, a 7.9-inch version of Apple's popular tablet computer. The Cupertino, Calif., company said it sold a total of 22.9 million iPads in the quarter, also a record, up from 15.4 million a year earlier. The company didn't break out iPad mini numbers from its total tablet sales, but Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer told analysts that the smaller version has been a hit and that the company experienced significant backlog getting the product to store shelves. The 22% lower average selling price for Apple's tablets suggests the mini has performed well but probably cannibalized some sales of its 9.7-inch version.

Historic comparisons were challenging this year because the most recent quarter had only 13 weeks, compared with 14 weeks for the same quarter of 2011.

Like many retailers and consumer electronics companies, the quarter from October to December is typically Apple's largest because of the holiday shopping season. Last year, Apple managed to stun investors by beating its own revenue estimates by more than 25% and earnings forecast by nearly 50%. That sent the stock soaring.

But even as Apple extended its lead as the world's most valuable company, and set a record in August for most valuable company ever when not adjusted for inflation, doubts began to creep into the minds of analysts and investors.

Shares have plummeted 27% in the last four months. On Wednesday, shares rose $9.24, or 1.8%, to $514.01 during regular trading.

Apple reported strong earnings in both the third and fourth quarters last year, but the numbers missed analysts' consensus estimates. Gradually, analysts began lowering their forecasts for Apple's earnings for the current fiscal year. At the same time,

Apple experienced some uncharacteristic gaffes. The new Apple Maps app that replaced Google Maps on iOS 6 devices had reliability problems, prompting a rare apology by Apple. And the iPhone 5 that went on sale in September faced long shipping delays as Apple suppliers struggled to adapt to the new, longer screen size.

The dismissal of iOS chief Scott Forstall, a favorite of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, raised eyebrows. But so did a new strategy for launching products: Whereas Apple updates to products used to be few and far between, the company has lately begun increasing the number of products as well as the introduction of new versions.

The first quarter saw one of the busiest product launch cycles in the company's history. The quarter was the first full quarter of sales for the iPhone 5, a new iPod Touch and nano, the fourth iPad, a new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, and, of course, the first iPad mini.

Observers have pointed to this accelerated pace as an indication that Apple is facing more competitive pressure from rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co., which is now the world's biggest seller of smartphones, with its Galaxy series of phones. The concern is that the faster upgrade cycle plus the smaller iPad mini will cut into Apple's historically high profit margins.

Such fears over lower profits have also been stoked by the debate over whether Apple plans to release a cheaper iPhone aimed at capturing market share in emerging economies and the concern that Apple has not been able to strike a deal with China's largest carrier.

Now that the first-quarter numbers have been released, analysts will be busy recalibrating their projections over the next couple of days. But the focus is also likely to shift to renewed speculation about new products that investors are hoping will drive another big run for the stock.

chris.obrien@latimes.com

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House approves short-term suspension of debt ceiling

WASHINGTON – House Republicans approved a temporary suspension of the $16.4-trillion ceiling on the nation’s debt Wednesday, allowing the federal government to continue borrowing through spring while Washington shifts to more ambitious budget battles.

Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) convinced his rebellious majority to go along with the new strategy by promising them the opportunity in the months ahead to extract deep spending cuts to Medicare and other domestic programs.

The approach was a seismic political shift for Republicans who in the past had pressed for simultaneous cuts, which House Democrats dismissed as “irresponsible” and a “gimmick.”

The vote was 285-144, and despite the robust support it would not have passed without Democrats -- 33 Republicans opposed it.

QUIZ: Test your knowledge about the debt limit

“We know with certainty that a debt crisis is coming to America,” said Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the former vice presidential nominee, who helped lead the debate on the House floor as chairman of the House Budget Committee. “We have a moral obligation to fix that.”

Republicans are preparing an extraordinary fiscal plan, due in April, that would bring federal budgets into balance in 10 years – an austerity measure far more severe than last year's budget from Ryan that slashed the safety net.

After President Obama won modest tax hikes on the wealthy in the year-end "fiscal cliff" deal, Republicans say the next round of savings must come from the spending side of the ledger.

“Whatever new taxes the president is going to get, he got,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican, said this week. “We’re now going to focus on the real problem, which is not that we tax too little, but that we spend too much.”

The White House, and Democrats in Congress, disagree and say more tax hikes – especially closing corporate tax loopholes – must be part of the equation. Two deadlines in March will force the issue.

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“Democrats are eager to contrast our pro-growth, pro-middle class-budget priorities with the House Republicans,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. She said the GOP budget under Ryan “would end Medicare as we know it, gut investments in jobs and programs middle-class families depend on, and cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations.”

The vote Wednesday puts the White House and Congress on another collision course in the budget battles that are expected to consume the first months of Obama’s second term.

On March 1, the federal budget faces $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts that both sides want to alter. Later, on March 27, Congress will need to approve funding for routine government operations, or risk a shutdown.

By May 18, the debt ceiling would need to be raised again after this suspension expires, though the Treasury Department could take measures to extend borrowing into summer.

Failure to raise the debt limit to cover the nation’s already accrued bills would send the country into a large-scale default – what Obama has compared to dining and dashing out on the bill.

PHOTOS: President Obama’s second inauguration

Democrats in the House complained that Republicans were simply setting up another "fiscal cliff."

“House Republicans continue to play with economic fire,” said Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.)

The bill approved Wednesday now goes to the Senate, and the White House has said the president would not oppose it.

Even though conservatives off Capitol Hill remain divided over raising the debt limit, Boehner sweetened the legislation to attract Republican support by attaching a provision that would temporarily withhold the pay of senators or representatives if their chamber fails to produce an annual budget by the mid-April deadline.

The “no budget, no pay” provision was particularly popular with conservatives, and was aimed squarely at Senate Democrats, who have declined to approve a formal budget in recent years.

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lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Twitter: @LisaMascaroinDC

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Why the Future of TV Still Isn’t Here Yet

As content providers continue to intimidate tech companies with a seemingly endless couch-potato conundrum, the latest innovation in the war to win your living room isn’t some new gadget from Apple or Netflix, or even that exciting à la carte content delivery system from Intel — it’s a protocol that helps our screens better communicate with one another. YouTube and Netflix have teamed up to create something called DIAL, a competitor of sorts to Apple’s AirPlay, which, as GigaOm’s Janko Roettgers describes it, ”helps developers of second-screen apps to discover and launch applications on smart TVs and connected devices.” Basically, it turns your phone into a kind of wireless super-remote for your TV, as Roettgers explains: 

With DIAL, the Netflix app on your phone will automatically discover that there is a device with a Netflix app connected to your TV. It will fire up that app, and then the two apps are free to do whatever they want — which presumably involves some healthy binge-viewing.

This solves a “big problem” because it makes using those apps on your smart television a lot easier.  As of right now, controlling the Netflix app on a PlayStation still requires the console remote to open up the app on your television before controlling it from a phone or tablet. This eliminates a step — and that, ladies and gents, is the biggest thing actually happening in TV tech right now. Instead of letting us pay just for the content we want, the cable industry’s aging model is still forcing tech companies to help us sift through all the extras were forced to buy. Because with the big media companies refusing to budge on innovative content deals so far this year, “content discovery” tools like GIAL and AirPlay remain one of the only ways everyone can get along. 

RELATED: Netflix Is Winning the Internet

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, of course. Many expected hardware like a supped-up Apple TV or the Roku streaming stick to “fix” television — instead of some protocol that makes finding stuff on our TVs easier. But, as Netflix discovered when it tried to get in the hardware business, the total package can alienate the other key players. Back in 2007, the streaming company had a set-top box in the works that would transform Netflix into a cable competitor, reports Fast Company’s Austin Carr. But CEO Reid Hastings scrapped the idea because it was too competitive. “We could not be competing against Sony, LG, and Samsung,” says Steve Swasey, then the company’s VP of communications. On top of the potential loss of support from hardware makers, this separate Netflix box scared away the content owners, with which Netflix has worked so hard to get streaming TV deals. 

RELATED: The Future of Streaming Video Looks Like TV Reruns

The old-school media industry’s fear of tech-world competition has driven the future of television in a spiraling direction. When one of the too-many entities gets offended, the future falls apart, as we saw with Google TV in an experiment that ultimately scared off content providers as well. A protocol like DIAL is the politically correct solution: It doesn’t change how we pay for content — but it sure does work within the comfortable way we’re used to sitting down and watching TV!

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Sundance stars sound off on gun violence in film

PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — The Sundance Film Festival isn't home to many shoot-em-up movies, but action-oriented actors at the festival are facing questions about Hollywood's role in American gun violence.

Guy Pearce and Alexander Skarsgard are among those who say Hollywood shares in the blame.

Pearce is in Park City, Utah, to support the family drama "Breathe In," but he's pulled plenty of imaginary triggers in violent films such as "Lockdown" and "Lawless." He says Hollywood may make guns seem "cool" to the broader culture, but there are vast variations in films' approach to guns.

"Hollywood probably does play a role," Pearce said. "It's a broad spectrum though. There are films that use guns flippantly, then there are films that use guns in a way that would make you never want to look at a gun ever again — because of the effect that it's had on the other people in the story at the time. So to sort of just say Hollywood and guns, it's a broad palette that you're dealing with, I think. But I'm sure it does have an effect. As does video games, as do stories on the news. All sorts of things probably seep into the consciousness."

Skarsgard, who blasted away aliens in "Battleship," says he agrees that Hollywood has some responsibility for how it depicts violence on-screen.

"When (NRA executive director) Wayne LaPierre blames it on Hollywood and says guns have nothing to do with it, there is a reason," he said. "I mean, I'm from Sweden. . We do have violent video games in Sweden. My teenage brother plays them. He watches Hollywood movies. We do have insane people in Sweden and in Canada. But we don't have 30,000 gun deaths a year.

"Yes, there's only 10 million people in Sweden as opposed to over 300 (million) in the United States. But the numbers just don't add up. There are over 300 million weapons in this country. And they help. They do kill people."

Ellen Page, who co-stars with Skarsgard in "The East," noted that gun restrictions are much more pervasive in her home country, Canada.

"You can't buy some crazy assault rifle that is made for the military to kill people. And like that to me is just like a no-brainer," she said. "Why should that just be out and be able to be purchased? That does not make me feel safe as a person."

Skarsgard says it may be time to revisit the Second Amendment.

"The whole Second Amendment discussion is ridiculous to me. Because that was written over 200 years ago, and it was a militia to have muskets to fight off Brits," he said. "The Brits aren't coming. It's 2013. Things have changed. And for someone to mail-order an assault rifle is crazy to me. They don't belong anywhere but the military to me. You don't need that to protect your home or shoot deer, you know."

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AP Entertainment Writer Ryan Pearson is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ryanwrd .

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