04/21/05

LC050421

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

It's a political rematch and the prize is the Mayor's office.
So far, the challenger is ahead. Then again --

Ron Kaye>> I wouldn't write Hahn off and I think many of the
people inside the game wouldn't. He's won six straight city-
wide elections. He has a very tough campaign team. They have a
strategy.

Val>> And then, he's been giving frank advice to teenagers for
twenty years. We hear from Dr. Drew on drugs and sex.

These stories and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and
Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> It is a political rematch. Two men who ran against each
other four years ago are fighting it out again. They are Los
Angeles Mayor James Hahn and challenger Antonio Villaraigosa.
Both men want to be the man to lead Los Angeles into the twenty-
first century. The polls favor Villaraigosa, but experts say
don't count James Hahn out. Kevin Smith goes to the San
Fernando Valley where both candidates are running hard to
capture the crucial Valley vote.

[Film Clip]

Kevin Smith>> City Councilman, Antonio Villaraigosa, toured a
biomedical research company called Second Sight, but his sights
are set on becoming the next mayor of Los Angeles. Second Sight
is located in Sylmar, part of the hotly-contested San Fernando
Valley.

[Film Clip]

Kevin Smith>> This was a good day for Villaraigosa. He
received the endorsement of Bob Hertzberg, the former Assembly
Speaker. Hertzberg finished a strong third in the March
primary, thanks largely to support from his home base in the
Valley.

Robert Hertzberg>> "You know that he has the energy. You know
that he puts together good people. You know that he has what it
takes to make it happen. So I made the choice to endorse
Antonio in this election."

Kevin Smith>> At Second Sight, Villaraigosa repeated his
criticism that Mayor James Hahn had a vision problem.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> "Bob and I got into this race for the
same reason. We were tired of seeing the city that we love, the
city we were born in, the city that gave us so much, adrift and
mired in scandal and headed by a mayor who doesn't have the
vision or the energy to lead Los Angeles."

Kevin Smith>> Second Sight has developed technology to help
some patients who have lost their eyesight see again.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> "We're here today at Second Sight
because this is a place that gives people a second chance and
hope, but this business is also a part of the future of Los
Angeles's economy. We understand how critical biomed and
biotech are to the creation of good jobs, to the creation of new
opportunities."

James Hahn>> "Today in Los Angeles, violent crime is down city-
wide, almost twenty percent."

Kevin Smith>> In another part of the San Fernando Valley over
in Van Nuys, Mayor Hahn sounded a very different theme. He
insists that he's tougher on crime than Villaraigosa. He picked
a shopping center at the corner of Blythe Street and Van Nuys
Boulevard, an area once overrun by gangs, to make his point.

James Hahn>> "We're not going to allow gang members to
intimidate, threaten, ruin the quality of life, for people in
their neighborhood. When I was pioneering the use of gang
injunctions as the City Attorney, Antonio Villaraigosa was
leading the ACLU who were in court trying to stop this effort."

Kevin Smith>> To that, Villaraigosa fires back. He says he now
supports court injunctions against gangs and blasts Hahn for
raising police salaries instead of hiring more officers.

Antonio Villaraigosa>> "Four years ago, Jim Hahn said that I
promise to put a thousand new police officers on our streets.
Four years later, he's failed to keep that promise."

William Bratton>> "We'll be back again asking for your
consideration for additional personnel."

Kevin Smith>> At nearly every stop, Hahn hammers his anti-crime
message, touting his recruitment of popular Police Chief,
William Bratton. Hahn and his supporters like former District
Attorney Robert Philibosian say the best way to create jobs in
Los Angeles is to reduce crime.

Robert Philibosian>> You're not going to have business like
these businesses coming into this neighborhood if it's full of
crime. You're not going to have jobs if you don't have
businesses.

Kevin Smith>> Ron Kaye is Managing Editor of the Daily News,
the Valley's newspaper. He says the crime issue plays well for
Hahn in the Valley.

Ron Kaye>> Well, I think it's his strongest guard. I think
it's the one thing where he's got statistics and facts and
change that says he did a good job and made progress.

Kevin Smith>> Hahn won a clear majority of voters here in the
San Fernando Valley in his race against Villaraigosa four years
ago, but few expect that scenario to repeat itself this time
around. Hahn alienated a number of voters here by his
successful, but very tough, campaign against the efforts of the
Valley to secede from the city of Los Angeles. In the March
primary, it was favorite son Hertzberg who finished first among
Valley voters, so his endorsement is a major coup for
Villaraigosa, but the two have not always seen eye to eye. In
Sacramento, where both have served as Speakers of the Assembly,
they reportedly had a falling out. Now they've put that feud
behind them and are talking about a partnership if Villaraigosa
becomes mayor.

Robert Hertzberg>> "I will stand with Antonio. I will give him
everything that I got. I will give him every idea, every memo,
all the internal stuff that I did, so that he can be the best
mayor of Los Angeles."

Ron Kaye>> They were a great team up in Sacramento when Antonio
was the Speaker and Bob was his right-hand guy. They were
roommates. They were a good match. Mr. Outside and Mr. Inside.
Villaraigosa has all the charm in the world, very persuasive
guy, and Hertzberg's a volcano of ideas.

Kevin Smith>> And how did Hahn react to Hertzberg endorsing
Villaraigosa? He called it backroom politics.

James Hahn>> "Look, he's part of the same Sacramento mentality
that I've been fighting against for four years. It's no
surprise that he and Antonio patched up their differences.
They're Sacramento politicians cut from the same cloth."

Kevin Smith>> For some residents of the Valley, Hertzberg's
endorsement carries weight. Greg Lippe is on the board of VICA,
the Valley Industry and Commerce Association. He supported
Hertzberg in the primary and considers Hahn's performance
lackluster.

Greg Lippe>> Now what we need is somebody who's dynamic,
energetic, proactive, somebody that has charisma and charm who
can work together with the businesses and negotiate incentives
to keep businesses here and to attract new business here.

Kevin Smith>> But not every Hertzberg supporter agrees. VICA
Chairman-elect, Bob Scott, is now backing Hahn.

Bob Scott>> I totally agree that we need to bring more business
back into Los Angeles, but I'm afraid that having somebody who's
got the history that Mr. Villaraigosa has is not going to
attract business in terms of his relationships with labor
unions, his relationships to trial lawyers and lawsuits and sort
of anti-business type interests.

Kevin Smith>> Valley residents aren't the only swing voters
being courted by the candidates. Black voters gave Hahn eighty
percent of their ballots four years ago, but this time he may
get less than half. Many are still angry at Hahn for
recommending the removal of African-American police chief,
Bernard Parks, to make way for Bratton.

Lawrence Tolliver>> I have no problem with Chief Bratton, but
it's the way that Hahn did it.

Kevin Smith>> Parks, who ran for mayor in the primary, has also
thrown his support to Villaraigosa, but Hahn is unrepentant
about his controversial decisions to remove Parks and to fight
Valley secession.

James Hahn>> "I don't apologize for decisions to keep the city
together. I don't apologize for saying that we needed to move
in a new direction in the police department. Those two
decisions were absolutely correct decisions."

Kevin Smith>> Another major issue in the campaign is ethics.
Hahn is facing an ongoing investigation into corruption within
his administration over allegations that city contracts were
awarded in exchange for campaign contributions. Hahn in turn
has resurrected a charge from the 2001 campaign. He chastises
Villaraigosa for seeking a pardon for a drug kingpin who is the
son of a major contributor.

James Hahn>> "Nobody has lived up to a higher ethical standard
through his political career than I have. But the only person
who has ever violated the public trust is the other guy on this
stage when you wrote a letter to ask for a pardon for a
convicted drug dealer."

Antonio Villaraigosa>> "I wrote a letter nine years ago. I
made a mistake. I took responsibility for my actions. I think
it's time to take responsibility for your actions and admit that
you made a mistake when you put your chief fundraiser in charge
of the chicken coop."

[Film Clip]

Kevin Smith>> Hahn clearly faces an uphill battle for a second
term. The incumbent mayor only received twenty-five percent of
the primary vote.

Ron Kaye>> I wouldn't write Hahn off and I think many of the
people inside the game wouldn't. He's won six straight city-
wide elections. It's even money on whether Villaraigosa wins by
twenty points or Hahn wins by two points.

Kevin Smith>> Villaraigosa was stunned by Hahn's upset victory
four years ago and knows the scrappy mayor will be fighting hard
to keep his job right through election day. I'm Kevin Smith for
Life and Times.

Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and
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Val>> He's been dispensing sex advice to teenagers for more
than twenty years and they know him by name: Dr. Drew from the
nationally syndicated radio show, "Loveline". But Dr. Drew
Pinsky is also an expert on drug addiction and he treats addicts
at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena. Vicki Curry talked to Dr.
Drew Pinsky at the Meridian Hotel where he was a guest speaker
at Town Hall Los Angeles.

Vicki Curry>> Drew Pinsky, you've been working on addiction
issues for, what, over fifteen years now?

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> Over twenty years, really, yeah.

Vicki Curry>> So over your experience, where do you see us now
in terms of addiction as a society?

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> Well, I believe it's become really the health
problem of our time. I mean, we live in a time when we are
conquering many diseases and addictions and psychiatric problems
have emerged as such common issues and so much that is left
undealt with that destroys lives, destroys careers. What people
don't understand is that, in our culture, these things are taken
very casually and the fact is that this is a disease and there
is a treatment and the treatment works.

Many people don't know how to identify the disease. They don't
have an understanding of what this thing is that sort of usurps
the motivational priorities in the brain where everything else
becomes secondary to the pursuit of a drug. Sometimes it's very
subtle and very slow in how it takes over, but once it does, it
takes over everything even when the person is not really aware
of it. It's just something, a tone, that they're constantly
driving them in a particular direction whereby the usual
motivational priorities in one's life, family, work, these sorts
of things, take a back seat to the pursuit of a drug.

People don't see it coming. They don't know when it's there and
they don't know what to do about it once it is there. We have
very effective treatments now. We understand this disease. We
understand the biology of it and people need to understand it
and take advantage of it.

Vicki Curry>> So, as you say, it's a disease of the brain. So
do you see that perhaps there is a slow and better understanding
coming about for addiction issues?

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> Absolutely. There are whole entire
institutions dedicated to this now and, as a result of our
biological understanding, we now have sort of pharmacological
and/or behavioral kinds of interventions to go specifically at
that biology. And, of course, they're more effective. When we
understand what we're dealing with, we can create very targeted
kinds of treatments. Depending on what the drug of choice is,
we have things that we can do now that really help people with
this disease.

Still, I think fundamentally any worthwhile treatment program is
still going to use Twelve Step as its core. It's a very
complex, biological process, so the kinds of things that we are
assisting people with are really just that: assistance. They're
not going to take the disease away. They're not going to be
able to make that person be able to drink normally again, but it
will sort of help with that biological grip so they can do the
hard work of the Twelve Step recovery program.

Vicki Curry>> Do you find that most addictions start at a young
age with teenagers or young adults?

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> Well, yeah, a lot of people do start in
teenage years and the more severe forms of addictions start
earlier. People that are going to be poly-drug addicted, people
that are going to be more severely addicted start when they're
young. When I see somebody starting with pot under the age of
fourteen, I know we're going to have a problem. That's a common
thing.

You know, one of the interesting things that's happened now in
inpatient treatment for chemical dependency -- I run an
inpatient program in Pasadena at Las Encinas Hospital -- I know
now, if you are sick enough or if your addiction is severe
enough and you're in inpatient treatment in my program, there is
essentially a one hundred percent probability that you had
childhood trauma, sexual abuse, physical abuse or neglect.
Those are the sort of inciting influences on this disease.

It's a genetic disorder. I'm talking a little bit about that
tonight. But the gene is not everything. The gene is
responsible for about sixty percent of this disease. Forty
percent is environmental. And if it's a severe addiction, that
forty percent is usually made up of some set of trauma.
"Loveline" has become all about that now. It's essentially all
we talk about on "Loveline" now, kids that are dealing with
childhood trauma and then acting out or re-enacting their
traumas with their relationships with their peers. That's what
"Loveline" is right now. That's what it's become.

Vicki Curry>> So you've been co-hosting "Loveline" now for over
twenty years. How has that changed over the time?

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> Well, I have Adam Carolla to contend with now
(laughter). It has changed quite a bit because with Adam
there's a lot more sort of improvisational comedy in it. It
also has a national audience now, which has certainly changed
over twenty years. Obviously, the drug and alcohol stuff has
become more pervasive and more intense and more scary because
the drugs they're using are more dangerous and more toxic.

Vicki Curry>> Have the kids changed?

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> You know, what I have seen, particularly in
the last seven or eight years, is a growing sort of rift. There
are kids that are being really well parented and are turning out
so healthy. They're almost perfect. They're almost too perfect
(laughter). And there are kids that are just not getting what
they need. I don't know quite what it means and both
populations seem to be sort of growing and the distance between
them is certainly not narrowing. The other kids are the ones
going to the great schools, getting the good jobs, and the kids
that are trying to survive horrible abusive systems are getting
pregnant and disease and off they go to whatever they can do to
survive. I'm very concerned about that.

What I'm concerned about is that we don't really talk about that
as a culture. I mean, what's happening. As we say on our show,
it's screwed up people having screwed up kids. It's like let's
be careful. Let's really pay attention to that whole parenting
process and support it and particularly, I think, support women.
That's the thing that we've sort of missed because we don't
really give women what they need to be able to take care of
their kids, support their kids, if they're alone particularly
and be a quality parent.

Vicki Curry>> So Life and Times did a profile of you and of
"Loveline" back in 1992 and, back then, you were expressing some
concerns about was your work doing any good? Was it the right
forum? How are you feeling now twenty years later?

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> I probably still have the same concerns
(laughter).

Vicki Curry>> But you're still there.

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> It seems to have been sort of become part of
the cultural landscape for young people and they're much more --
what I hear back from them is that they learn and they're
listening and it's a way of reaching them, that they don't get
information -- they never have an opportunity to get information
this way anywhere else and it seems to reach them. They don't
always still make great choices even though they've got the
information, which is the other thing our culture does. We
assume that, if we can educate kids, they'll behave properly.
No, no, no. We've got to nurture them far differently in terms
of our relationships with them as adults.

This program seems to reach them in a way that other things
don't and it seems to help them make good choices. I hope it
still does. It certainly is wonderful that they let us in
still. I mean, now I've got gray hair and I'm older and they
still let us in. I'm so grateful that I get to see what their
world looks like and to try and offer them something to help
them.

Vicki Curry>> So now having teenagers and having this show, are
you glad that there's a show like this available for them?

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> Bottom line?

Vicki Curry>> Yeah. I mean, granted, they're probably not
going to listen to dad's show.

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> They're not going to listen to dad's show
(laughter). I actually believe that kids under fifteen should
categorically not be listening to my show, in my opinion.

Vicki Curry>> You do get a lot of kids at that age, right?

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> We do get a lot, absolutely, and we
discourage them. We say, hey, come on, we yell at their mom and
dad. But kids get onto stuff, you know. We try to keep it so
that it doesn't get too dangerous for that age group. I hope my
kids listen when they're fifteen and sixteen. I'd like them to
know that I understand what's going on there. It's beginning to
come into focus for them what I do.

Vicki Curry>> Right. Now we get it.

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> Yeah, it's getting weird.

Vicki Curry>> Dr. Drew Pinsky, thank you so much for taking the
time to speak with us.

Dr. Drew Pinsky>> My pleasure. Thank you.

Val>> Dr. Drew Pinsky was a guest of Town Hall Los Angeles. If
you'd like more information on future speakers and panels, you
can go to their website at townhall-la.org.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
by mail at this address:

Life and Times
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You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Larry Mantle>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm
Larry Mantle of 89.3 KPCC. Our first film this week is the
thriller set at the United Nations, "The Interpreter". It stars
Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn in a film directed by Sidney
Pollock.

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> I'm joined this week by critics Jean Oppenheimer
of New Times and Andy Klein of City Beat and Valley Beat. We
begin with "The Interpreter", Jean Oppenheimer.

Jean Oppenheimer>> I really liked this film. It's a really
taut political thriller sort of in the vein of some of Alfred
Hitchcock's films like "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and "Rear
Window". One of the things I liked best about it actually was
that it really focused on character even though it was, you
know, this thriller. And Nicole Kidman, I thought, was just
terrific, giving a really fiercely honest and intelligent
performance. Now her character and Sean Penn's character have a
very antagonistic relationship and I felt that they really did a
really good job of conveying that.

I think that some people might say that the two actors have no
chemistry together, but I really think that that is how the
characters are supposed to be in this. The plot is complicated
in the way that sort of big mainstream film plots are. You
know, where this character is hiding something and you're not
sure if this one is playing both sides of a situation or not.
It keeps the viewer guessing, but overall I really, really liked
it.

Larry Mantle>> Andy Klein?

Andy Klein>> I'm much less sympathetic. I can't believe that
you invoked the sacred name of Alfred Hitchcock in describing
this. The plot of this is driven by coincidences so monumental,
you know, where the one person in a million who has to be at the
one moment in the right place to overhear the right thing is
what the entire plot is built on. The lack of chemistry, I
agree that it was intentional. I still found it off-putting.
Nicole Kidman's character was supposed to be in her POV for a
lot of the film and yet there's all kinds of information about
her that she's got that we're not told which makes it very hard
to identify with her. Unfortunately, Sean Penn who's playing a
character who is so unlikable for half the film that I just felt
cold and distant from the whole thing.

Larry Mantle>> Next up this week is the documentary "Double
Dare" which takes us into the world of female stunt doubling.

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> "Double Dare", Andy Klein?

Andy Klein>> This is a documentary about stunt women and we
don't even get that many documentaries about stunt men, and
stunt women have a whole set of special problems in their
careers, a lot of which have to do with sexism and, even worse
in Hollywood in general, the particularly macho subculture of
stunt people. Not surprising that they would be that way. The
film focuses on two women, one who's sort of at the end of her
career. She's in her sixties and she's been doing this for,
whatever, forty-five years or something, and the other is a
woman who is still in her twenties who doubled for Xena for a
couple of seasons. The older woman doubled for Lynda Carter in
"Wonder Woman", so there's sort of this nice bond between them.
There's tremendous camaraderie between them and you get all
these issues about being a woman in this particular field and
the problems of aging in particular.

Larry Mantle>> What did you think, Jean?

Jean Oppenheimer>> There's nothing wrong with this film, but
for some reason, I could just take it or leave it. Everything
Andy says is true. One thing that's very interesting is that
the women, of course, because actresses wear much skimpier
clothing, aren't able to pad themselves in the way that male
stunt men can. It's interesting in terms of that and I agree
that both personalities are very nice people like that, but I
don't know. It was just sort of like okay.

Larry Mantle>> And finally this week, we have the futuristic
Hungarian drama, "Kontroll".

[Film Clip]

Larry Mantle>> "Kontroll", Jean Oppenheimer?

Jean Oppenheimer>> Boy, this film has real counter-culture
appeal. I mean, it's worth the price of admission just to see
the cinematography. This is one of the most atmospheric films I
have seen in ages and it's by a first-timer, a young American
who has immigrated to Hungary -- his parents are actually
Hungarian -- whose name is Nimrod Antal and, boy, does he ever
have a vision for this film, which takes place completely in the
Budapest subway, completely underground. It has a sort of
futuristic feel. It's very sort of grungy and grimy. There's a
lot of fast motion, a lot of color.

I mean, all this stuff works great. The trains are like these
great lumbering dinosaurs, like these living creatures, and
there's a wonderful sense of menace and threat that's created by
these really eerie grinding sound effects and this wonderful
rock score in the visuals. I'm not sure whether the film is
intended as a parable or an allegory. In a way, I sort of hope
it is because, even though it's pretty obvious that it's like
this man's in purgatory, I think it really helps the film. If
not, I still like the film, but I sort of go, well, what's it
for?

Larry Mantle>> Andy, what did you think of "Kontroll"?

Andy Klein>> I agree with Jean that this is one of the best
films this week. There have been some other subway movies and I
think this is probably the best of them. There was the subway
which sort of went for the same building this whole underground
world, but that was sort of shallow, I think. This one really
does have more interesting character stuff going on. The lead
actor, whose name I'll mispronounce, Sandor Csanyi, as my best
guess, is tremendously charismatic and does a great job. There
is the symbolic aspect of it which I actually think was the
weaker part. They did back off from it being totally heavy-
handed symbolism, which was a good move, but it's great to look
at. It definitely has tons going on in it and you couldn't
really do better this week.

Larry Mantle>> Well, thanks so much for joining us for another
edition of FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Larry Mantle of 89.3
KPCC joined this week by critics Andy Klein of City Beat and
Valley Beat and Jean Oppenheimer of New Times. Please join us
again next week at this same time for our next FilmWeek on Life
and Times.

Val>> KPCC airs a full hour of FilmWeek every Friday morning at
11:00 a.m. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For
everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you
tomorrow.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times --

As baby boomers become golden-agers, who decides when it's time
to take away the car keys?

>> Like teens who are over-represented in terms of crashes,
when we get in the eighties, eighty-five, we begin to see
seniors more over-represented in terms of crashes.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.