Byline: By danny hakim section: Section B; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1 Length

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: MUSEUMS & GALLERIES (90%); MOVIE REVIEWS (90%); FILM (90%); ART & ARTISTS (89%); ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (89%); ARTS FESTIVALS & EXHIBITIONS (79%); PAINTING (79%); SCULPTURE (79%); VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS (79%); QUILTS & QUILTING (79%); ACTION & ADVENTURE FILMS (78%); EXHIBITIONS (74%); CHILD LABOR (74%); WEATHER (65%)
COMPANY: VOGUE MAGAZINE (55%)
GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, NY, USA (53%) NEW YORK, USA (53%) UNITED STATES (53%)
LOAD-DATE: April 25, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Schedule
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

833 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
April 25, 2008 Friday

Late Edition - Final

Iris Burton, 77, an Agent for Child Actors
BYLINE: By DENNIS HEVESI
SECTION: Section B; Column 0; The Arts/Cultural Desk; Pg. 7
LENGTH: 504 words
Iris Burton, a chorus girl in the 1940s and '50s who later started a talent agency that represented many of the top juvenile actors in Hollywood, including River and Joaquin Phoenix and Henry Thomas, the wide-eyed little boy in ''E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,'' died on April 5 in Los Angeles. She was 77.

She died of pneumonia at the Motion Picture and Television Country House, a retirement home, said David Permut, a movie producer and longtime friend.

''I hate to say it, but kids are pieces of meat,'' Ms. Burton said in a 1984 People magazine article about child stars. ''I've never had anything but filet mignon. I've never had hamburger. My kids are the choice meat.''

The tough tone was a put-on. In the estimation of Heart Phoenix, the mother of River, Joaquin, Rain and Summer Phoenix, all of whom Ms. Burton represented, ''She was like a mother bear when it came to protecting these kids -- not just my kids, but all the talent she represented.''

Among the other clients (when they were children) of the Iris Burton Agency were Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen; Tori Spelling; Corey Feldman; Kirk Cameron; Candace Cameron; Hilary and Haylie Duff; Kirsten Dunst; Jaleel White, better known as Steve Urkel of ''Family Matters''; and Fred Savage of ''The Wonder Years.''

Ms. Burton started her company in 1977, at a time when few women held high-ranking positions in talent agencies.

Talent agents have a reputation for being pushy, wanting their commissions, demanding that clients take the job, Ms. Phoenix said. But, she added: ''We were never pushed into doing anything by her. Iris respected the soul of the child.''

Mr. Permut said Ms. Burton ''plucked kids out of obscurity,'' adding, ''It's pretty unbelievable how she dominated the world of kid actors in Hollywood.''

Iris Burstein was born in Manhattan on Sept. 4, 1930. By the time she was 16, with Burton as her stage name, she was dancing on Broadway and earning $75 for eight performances a week. In 1951 she danced on Milton Berle's television show for $125 a week.

Ms. Burton moved to Hollywood in the early 1950s and appeared in several movies, including ''Top Banana,'' a 1954 musical comedy starring Phil Silvers. In 1956 she was one of the sultry Egyptian dancers in ''The Ten Commandments,'' starring Charlton Heston.

In the late 1950s she married Sidney Miller, an actor and director. They later divorced. She is survived by their son, Barry Miller, who won a Tony Award in 1985 as best featured actor in Neil Simon's ''Biloxi Blues.''

With her dancing career waning, Ms. Burton managed to get a job in the office of a Hollywood talent agent. Having dealt herself with the auditions, the rejections and the derailed childhood, she gravitated toward representing youngsters.

She was also aware that the careers of most cute children end when they become gangly teenagers.

''Put away for a rainy day,'' she advised starry-eyed stage parents in that 1984 People interview. ''If you don't, plan on buying an umbrella. You'll need it.''

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: MOVIE INDUSTRY (89%); DEATHS (89%); THEATER & DRAMA (84%); DANCE (84%); CELEBRITIES (78%); MUSICAL THEATER (78%); CHILDREN (78%); MOVIE & VIDEO PRODUCTION (76%); ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS AWARDS (73%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (73%); TELEVISION PROGRAMMING (71%); PNEUMONIA (56%); ACTORS & ACTRESSES (91%); DEATHS & OBITUARIES (90%); FILM DIRECTORS (77%)
COMPANY: MOTION PICTURE & TELEVISION FUND INC (57%)
PERSON: MARY-KATE OLSEN (55%)
GEOGRAPHIC: LOS ANGELES, CA, USA (92%); NEW YORK, NY, USA (52%) CALIFORNIA, USA (92%); NEW YORK, USA (52%) UNITED STATES (92%)
CATEGORY: Popular Entertainers
Iris Burton
LOAD-DATE: April 25, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Obituary (Obit)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

834 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
April 25, 2008 Friday

Late Edition - Final

A Nation At a Loss
BYLINE: By EDWARD B. FISKE.

Edward B. Fiske, a former Times education editor, is the author of the Fiske Guide to Colleges.

SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Editorial Desk; OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR; Pg. 27
LENGTH: 1304 words
DATELINE: Durham, N.C.
TOMORROW is the 25th anniversary of ''A Nation at Risk,'' a remarkable document that became a milestone in the history of American education -- albeit in ways that its creators neither planned, anticipated or even wanted.

In August 1981, Education Secretary T. H. Bell created a National Commission on Excellence in Education to examine, in the report's words, ''the widespread public perception that something is seriously remiss in our educational system.'' Secretary Bell's expectation, he later said, was that the report would paint a rosy picture of American education and correct all those widespread negative perceptions.

Instead, on April 26, 1983, the commission released a sweeping 65-page indictment of the quality of teaching and learning in American primary and secondary schools couched in a style of apocalyptic rhetoric rarely found in blue-ribbon commission reports.

''The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and as a people,'' it warned. ''If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.''

To his credit, Secretary Bell, a moderate Republican who had been hoping for some political relief from critics on his right, stood by these unexpected words from his commission -- and thereby became the unwitting father of the modern school reform movement.

Secretary Bell's boss, President Ronald Reagan, was also taken aback by ''A Nation at Risk,'' although for different reasons. He took office in 1981 with a three-fold agenda for education: abolishing the Department of Education, promoting tuition tax credits and vouchers and restoring voluntary prayer in the schools. Using the bully pulpit and purse of the federal government to promote ''excellence'' in teaching and learning was not on the list.

When members of the White House staff saw an early copy of ''A Nation at Risk,'' they were distressed to find no mention of their political agenda and threatened to cancel the ceremony in which the president would receive the first copy. Secretary Bell and commission members replied that such topics were at best tangential to their assigned topic of excellence in teaching and learning.

Eventually a compromise was reached. The president agreed to receive the commission and accept the first copy of ''A Nation at Risk'' at a White House ceremony, and he used his remarks to reaffirm his political objectives -- none of which were mentioned in the report. Several members of the commission later confided that they left Washington that day in a depressed mood, convinced that they had been ''used'' and were destined to be ignored.

Then came the biggest twist of all. ''A Nation at Risk'' resonated with Americans, who seemingly agreed that there was indeed something ''seriously remiss'' in their schools. White House pollsters picked this up. The president began visiting schools all over the country, usually in the company of Secretary Bell, who until then, as head of a department scheduled for elimination, had never seen the inside of Air Force One.

The most important legacy of ''A Nation at Risk'' was to put the quality of education on the national political agenda -- where it has remained ever since. The last 25 years have seen a succession of projects and movements aimed at increasing the quality of American primary and secondary schools: standards-based reform, the 1989 ''education summit'' that set six ''national goals'' for education, the push for school choice and, most recently, the No Child Left Behind legislation. Proponents of each have taken pains to portray themselves as the heirs of ''A Nation at Risk.''

The apocalyptic rhetoric of the opening section of ''A Nation at Risk'' isn't the only element of the report that has had a lasting impact. One of the main ideas enshrined in the document -- that quality of schooling is directly linked to economic competitiveness -- has also shaped the way Americans think about education. This particular theory, however, hasn't been borne out by history.

In 1983, the causal connection between education and the economy seemed obvious. Americans were living in awe of the Japanese ''economic miracle'' and assumed that it was made possible by a school system whose students consistently routed ours on all those comparative international achievement tests. But then the Japanese economy soured -- even though it still had the same education system -- and we began asking ourselves another question: If American schools are so bad, why is our economy doing so well?

With the wisdom of hindsight, it is clear that the link between educational excellence and economic security is not as simple as ''A Nation at Risk'' made it seem. By the mid-1980s, policymakers in Japan, South Korea and Singapore were already beginning to complain that their educational systems focused too much on rote learning and memorization. They continue to envy American schools because they teach creativity and the problem-solving skills critical to prospering in the global economy.

Indeed, a consensus seems to be emerging among educational experts around the world that American schools operate within the context of an enabling environment -- an open economy, strong legal and banking systems, an entrepreneurial culture -- conducive to economic progress.

To put it bluntly, American students may not know as much as their counterparts around the Pacific Rim, but our society allows them to make better use of what they do know. The question now is whether this historic advantage will suffice at a time when knowledge of math, science and technology is becoming increasingly critical. Maybe we need both the enabling environment and more rigor in these areas.

But while the theory behind ''A Nation at Risk'' may no longer hold (mediocre education inevitably leads to a weak economy), the report's desperate language may be more justified than ever, for American education is in turmoil.

Most troubling now are the numbers on educational attainment. One reason that the American economy was so dominant throughout the 20th century is that we provided more education to more citizens than other industrialized countries. ''A Nation at Risk'' noted with pride that American schools ''now graduate 75 percent of our young people from high school.''

That figure has now dropped to less than 70 percent, and the United States, which used to lead the world in sending high school graduates on to higher education, has declined to fifth in the proportion of young adults who participate in higher education and is 16th out of 27 industrialized countries in the proportion who complete college, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

The striking thing about the performance of American students on international comparisons is not that, on average, they are in the middle of the pack -- which was also true in 1983 -- but that we have a disproportionate share of low-performing students. We are failing to provide nearly one-third of our young people with even the minimal education required to be functioning citizens and workers in a global economy.

This is particularly distressing news at a time when the baby boomers are aging and a growing proportion of the future work force comes from groups -- members of ethnic and racial minorities, students from low-income families, recent immigrants -- that have been ill served by our education system. The challenge today is to build access as well as excellence. That's the new definition of ''a nation a risk'' -- and ample reason for a new commission to awaken the nation to the need to educate all our young people.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: EDITORIALS & OPINIONS (91%); EDUCATION SYSTEMS & INSTITUTIONS (90%); EDUCATION (90%); ANNIVERSARIES (89%); EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS (89%); PRIMARY & SECONDARY EDUCATION (77%); US PRESIDENTS (73%); TUITION FEES (72%); PLATFORMS & ISSUES (70%); POLITICS (70%); TAXES & TAXATION (67%); SECONDARY SCHOOLS (55%); EDUCATION REFORM (72%)
PERSON: RONALD REAGAN (54%)
GEOGRAPHIC: NORTH CAROLINA, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (94%)
LOAD-DATE: April 25, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: DRAWING (DRAWING BY BRIAN AND ANDRES STAUFFER)
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Op-Ed
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

835 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
April 25, 2008 Friday

Late Edition - Final

Learning on the Job About Birthing Babies
BYLINE: By MANOHLA DARGIS
SECTION: Section E; Column 0; Movies, Performing Arts/Weekend Desk; MOVIE REVIEW 'BABY MAMA'; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 915 words
In the new comedy ''Baby Mama''Tina Fey plays a 37-year-old single career woman who, desperate for a baby, hires a womb of her own in the dizzy, slap-happy form of Amy Poehler. The film never comes fully to term, as it were: the visual style is sitcom functional, and even the zippiest jokes fall flat because of poor timing. But, much like the prickly, talented Ms. Fey, it pulls you in with a provocative and, at least in current American movies, unusual mix of female intelligence, awkwardness and chilled-to-the-bone mean.

Ms. Fey is of course best known for working in television, on ''Saturday Night Live'' and ''30 Rock.'' Until now her biggest movie role was the uncomfortable but earnest high school math teacher Ms. Norbury in the comedy ''Mean Girls,'' which she also wrote. (''You all have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores,'' Ms. Norbury warns the mean girls and their female prey. ''It just makes it O.K. for guys to call you sluts and whores.'') Like a lot of comedies ''Mean Girls'' has its devilish cake and eats it too, wagging an unpersuasive finger at the very cruelty it skillfully deploys. Ms. Fey may not want girls to call one another sluts, but she's all too happy to call them that herself.

There's often a degree of sadism in this kind of comic one-two punch, and while some performers appear to direct the cruelty inward -- think of Jerry Lewis and Ben Stiller wringing squirmy, uneasy laughs out of the humiliations rained down on their characters -- that doesn't seem to be Ms. Fey's style. Certainly it isn't what she's called on to do in ''Baby Mama,'' in which she plays a snappy, sardonic individualist who, much like Ms. Fey herself, works in a male-dominated industry (here, as an executive in an organic grocery chain similar to Whole Foods) and favors the kind of sexy librarian look (high-heeled shoes, low-cut blouses and dark-frame glasses) that signals there's a hot body to go along with that feverishly smart brain.

''Baby Mama,'' which was written and directed by the newcomer Michael McCullers, yet another ''Saturday Night Live'' alumnus, opens with Ms. Fey's character, Kate Holbrook, eyeballing babies like a hungry wolf. Everyone has a pitter-pattering Tater Tot but Kate, who lives alone in her generically appointed Philadelphia apartment (the film was also shot in New York) and has few contacts outside her job, extended family and wisecracking doorman, Oscar (Romany Malco). Basically she's Rhoda with thinner thighs, which I guess means that she's Mary Richards. But this being 2008 and not the women's-liberated 1970s, it isn't enough for Kate to be a swinging single: she wants a baby and she wants it now. Enter Angie Ostrowiski (Ms. Poehler).

At 36 Ms. Poehler is at least 10 years too old for the role, as the softly focused close-ups suggest, but she's a pip. She's the ball that bounces against Ms. Fey's formidable wall, a nonstop, joyfully watchable whirligig. Drawn in broad, often crude strokes, Angie is dumber than the usual dumb blonde so beloved of the movies largely because she's also coded as white trash, a kind of urban Daisy Mae, complete with short shorts, wads of chewing gum and a tag-along buffoon, Carl (Dax Shepard). If Angie works at all, it's because Ms. Poehler puts a sweet spin on her character's gaffes, whether she's yelping in horror at the unfamiliar taste of water or squatting in a sink when nature makes an untimely call.

There's more, though not much, mostly some amusing nonsense from Steve Martin as Kate's boss, a belligerently New Agey entrepreneur with an unkind ponytail. Greg Kinnear also shows up now and again as Kate's inevitable love interest, perhaps so things don't overheat when Angie moves in. Not that anyone need worry about this female odd couple, given that Ms. Fey, who doesn't have the acting chops that might invest her character with some personality, has been forced to play it straight and narrow. The close-up medium of television is more forgiving of those comics who tend to stand in the middle of the frame as if they had just been planted. But unlike Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, Ms. Fey doesn't even have a funny voice.

That's too bad, because she is genuinely funny. And if there's anything the movies could use it is funny women, especially those who earn laughs by keeping their clothes on and their dignity (more or less) intact. Under the old Hollywood system, the studio boss might have ordered up a dance coach for Ms. Fey, maybe a few lessons on how to walk across a set or move her upper body once in a while. She might not have been able to rip loose as a writer-performer, which makes the idea of her developing a simultaneous on-and-off-screen presence all the more tantalizing. Real funny women -- Mae West, Elaine May -- come along every few decades, so the timing seems right. But the clock is ticking.

''Baby Mama'' is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Some gentle raunch.

BABY MAMA

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Written and directed by Michael McCullers; director of photography, Daryn Okada; edited by Bruce Green; music by Jeff Richmond; production designer, Jess Gonchor; produced by Lorne Michaels and John Goldwyn; released by Universal Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes.

WITH: Tina Fey (Kate), Amy Poehler (Angie), Greg Kinnear (Rob), Dax Shepard (Carl), Romany Malco (Oscar), Steve Martin (Barry), Maura Tierney (Caroline), Holland Taylor (Rose) and Sigourney Weaver (Chaffee Bicknell).

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: WOMEN WORKERS (90%); CHILDREN (90%); ON THE JOB TRAINING (78%); FILM (77%); MEN (73%); VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS (73%); PRIMARY & SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS (68%); MATH & SCIENCE EDUCATION (68%); GROCERY STORES & SUPERMARKETS (64%); HEALTH FOOD STORES (60%); ORGANIC FOODS (60%); LATE NIGHT TELEVISION (74%); FILM DIRECTORS (77%)
PERSON: BEN STILLER (53%); TINA FEY (94%)
GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, USA (69%) UNITED STATES (69%)
TITLE: Baby Mama (Movie)>; Baby Mama (Movie)>
LOAD-DATE: April 25, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: Baby Mama: Tina Fey, left, and Amy Poehler star in a comedy opening on Friday nationwide.(PHOTOGRAPH BY K. C. BAILEY/UNIVERSAL STUDIOS)(pg. E1)
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Review
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

836 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
April 24, 2008 Thursday

Late Edition - Final

League Plans to Open in '09 as Complement to the N.F.L.
BYLINE: By KATIE THOMAS
SECTION: Section D; Column 0; Sports Desk; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 410 words
From the United States Football League to the XFL, alternatives to the N.F.L. have traditionally fizzled not long after the first kickoff.

But Marvin Tomlin, the founder and chief executive of the prospective United National Football League, says he can beat the odds with a league designed to complement the N.F.L., not compete with it.

''I tell everyone that there's one professional football league, and that's the National Football League,'' Tomlin said. ''But in the same place, the N.F.L. does not have a developmental system.''

The league, which plans to play its first game in January 2009, would serve as a ''minor league'' to the N.F.L., Tomlin said, offering a second chance to college players who show promise but are not selected by a team in the N.F.L. or the Canadian Football League. The new league's season would run from January to April and would serve as a showcase for N.F.L. recruiters, said Tomlin, an entrepreneur based in New Haven. Games would be played in college stadiums, he said.

Tomlin said that the league had solidified deals with three owners and that he expected eight teams to be in place by the end of next month. He would not disclose which cities have teams. Buying a franchise costs $1.5 million, which includes salaries for 60 players. The league is expected to announce Thursday the selection of the retired N.F.L. player Joe Cribbs as its commissioner. Cribbs was an All-Pro running back for the Buffalo Bills from 1980 through 1983, when he joined the U.S.F.L., which folded in 1985.

Cribbs said the league would allow N.F.L. recruiters to evaluate players.

''We feel that our league will give them the opportunity to see players over a longer period of time,'' he said.

A spokesman for the N.F.L. declined to comment on the emerging league. Tomlin said he was negotiating with the NFL Network about televising the games, but an N.F.L. spokesman would not confirm that.

The U.N.F.L. is one of three alternative football leagues in development.

The six-team All American Football League plans to play in spring and summer in college stadiums using recent college graduates who have not been selected for the N.F.L. That league announced last month that it was postponing its start until next year.

The eight-team United Football League, an N.F.L. competitor founded by William R. Hambrecht, the chief executive of the financial services firm WR Hambrecht & Company, is planning to make its debut in August.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: AMERICAN FOOTBALL (91%); SPORTS (91%); ATHLETES (78%); STADIUMS & ARENAS (78%); COLLEGE & UNIVERSITY SPORTS (74%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (74%); SCHOOL SPORTS FACILITIES (73%); FRANCHISING (58%)
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE (94%)
GEOGRAPHIC: UNITED STATES (93%)
LOAD-DATE: April 24, 2008