Magazine seasonal spending Community Post Gazette  Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Section
The Urge
to splurge
Americans are spending again - whether they can afford it or not.
By Stefan Theil
Newsweek
“N
o interest until 2014,” read the
massive red sign outside Big’s
Furniture in Henderson, Nev.
It beckoned Diane Lewis to the
store’s year-end liquidation sale.
“I had to pull in,” she said as
her sons frolicked on mattresses
nearby. “We really need to get us a new bedroom set; their
old one is kinda beat up. If we can get that financing deal,
we can make it work.” As with most in this hard-hit region,
the economy hasn’t been good to Lewis, whose husband
just got a new job after being laid off for eight months.
They’re two months behind on their mortgage, “but
we’re gonna catch up,” and she figures the family prob-
ably owes about $20,000 on various credit cards. “I know
I probably ought to wait a little longer,” said Lewis, a hair-
dresser, “but this is a pretty good sale, so I think we might
buy something if they’ll approve us. I mean, 2014 is a long
way off, you know?”
Old habits die hard. It was only last year that shell-
shocked consumers were pledging their allegiance to the
“New Frugality.” Chastened by the brutal lessons of the
worst economic downturn in decades, Americans swore
off conspicuous consumption and resolved to embrace the
Battle Ground public servants will serve breakfast
By Marissa Harshman year than last,” said basket organizer John Idsinga.
The Columbian, Vancouver, Wash. (MCT) “I wish I didn’t have to say that, but it’s the truth.”
Last fall, Idsinga spoke to the
Nov. 30--The seven members of the Battle city council about the com-
Ground City Council will take a break from estab- munity need and shortage
lishing city policies to don aprons and flip pancakes of food bank donations.
Saturday morning. The food bank had a list of
The event will raise money for the North County people requesting food bas-
Community Food Bank’s Christmas food basket kets and a waiting list of doz-
program, which provides fixin’s for Christmas ens more.
meals to families in need. “It really struck me that
Last year, the food bank prepared boxes for there are so many needy
about 260 families. In addition, local organizations families in our communi-
adopted more than 100 families, purchasing gifts ty,” said Councilman and
and meals for each family. In total, the food bank Deputy Mayor Phil
helped about 400 families in the Battle Ground area, Haberthur.
which includes Amboy, Yacolt, Brush Prairie and So Haberthur
Hockinson. This year, the food bank anticipates the approached his fel-
number to be closer to 450. low council mem-
“Every year I tell people the need is greater this bers about a fundrais-
Naughty or Nice
Credit Sco
Rick & M re
aryann: 7
Gene & 20
OnlineMoviesHut.com
Michele Natalie Portman stars as Nina, an uptight
Mark & : 675 dancer.
Jill: 42
0
Bill &
David
Nancy:
350
‘Black Swan’
& Carl
Sean
& Be
thany
a: 745 proves trying
Nick : 690
Stev
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egan
: 300
on actresses’
Lynn
Jose
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Bria h & Rac
: 410 relationships
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Nor ael: 700 By Amy Kaufman
a: 2 Los Angeles Times (MCT)
LOS ANGELES _ After pirouetting
for hours on the set of “Black Swan,”
Natalie Portman would sometimes re-
move her pointe shoes, towel the sweat
off of her brow and be met by a disap-
proving critique from director Darren
Aronofsky.
“He’d say, ‘Oh, Mila is doing really
well on her stuff. She’s so much better
than you,’” the 29-year-old actress said,
referring to her costar, Mila Kunis. “Dar-
ren would tell us things about each other
to try to make us jealous. I think he was
trying to create a rivalry in real life be-
tween us.”
That Aronofsky may have tried to
stoke competition between his lead ac-
tresses is understandable _ envy is at the
core of “Black Swan,” a mystical ballet
thriller in theaters Friday about an up-
tight dancer named Nina (Portman) who
becomes obsessed by the threat posed by
blithe new company member Lily (Ku-
Photo by Kevin Haislip, Illustration by Kelly Lipovich
nis). The young women are vying for the
lead role in “Swan Lake,” and while Nina
can perfectly encapsulate the virtue of
the white swan, she struggles to convey
the sinister, sexual nature intrinsic to the
black swan that seems to come naturally
to Lily.
Although Portman and Kunis were
longtime friends _ they often hung out
together in Los Angeles, watching “Top
Chef” or sifting through vintage wares at
the Rose Bowl Flea Market _ the direc-
tor kept the two apart for nearly the entire
42-day filming process.
“We were really great friends before
production. We are really great friends
now. And during production, we were
working together,” Kunis, 27, explained.
Aronofsky denied fueling a rivalry
but said he distanced the actresses so that
they couldn’t discuss their respective act-
company. That’s one reason retailers expect this holiday- ing approaches.
shopping season to be the busiest since at least 2007, with a
“The story everybody wants to tell is that we’ve
gain of 2.3 percent over last year’s sales. Retailers are bet- See’Black Swan’ on C-3
learned our lesson and will be thriftier going ting on pent-up demand for electronic gadgets, clothes, and
forward. But I don’t feel we have.” luxury goods, not just the tightfisted bargain hunting that
drove sales all during the downturn, says Cohen. Only 56
- Karen Dynan, a
percent are offering heavy markdowns on their products,
household-finance economist at the Brookings Institution.
versus 96 percent a year ago.
It would be premature to herald the triumphant return
of the American consumer as the engine of renewed eco-
thrifty ways of their grandparents who lived through the nomic growth, which is what happened during the recover-
Great Depression. But as any dieter can tell you, resolu- ies following the 1990 and 2001 recessions. There’s still
tions are made to be broken. too much economic uncertainty—between unemployment
Even as Americans are still struggling to meet mort- that’s nearly 10 percent, the rising cost of basics like medi-
gage payments, pay off credit cards, and replenish savings, cal bills and child care, and the renewed slide in home pric-
they’re also starting to spend again—whether they have the es that began in recent weeks.
money or not. Last week, fresh numbers showed household Video muted: click volume for sound Mark Fiore’s
spending rising for the fifth month in a row and consumer ‘Economic Fun Fair’ The cartoonist on continued jobless-
confidence reaching its highest level since June. Per capita ness.
retail sales are now back up to where they were in the fall But neither are we witnessing the renaissance of the fru-
of 2008, just before the collapse of Lehman Bros. tore the
bottom out of the economy. If you factor out spending on
cars, which is still 18 percent below its 2005 peak, Ameri-
gal American. Even though 89 percent of Americans tell
Gallup they’re watching their expenditures very closely,
spending is heading back up anyway. “The story every-
This week’s
cans’ total spending on goods and services has now passed
pre-crisis highs.
body wants to tell is that we’ve learned our lesson and will
be thriftier going forward,” says Karen Dynan, a house-
best-sellers
“People are going through frugality fatigue,” says Mar-
shal Cohen, chief analyst at NPD Group, a market-research See Splurge on C-2 from
Publishers
Weekly
er, which is not sponsored by the city. They decided and former Deputy Mayor Alex Reinhold shaved Publishers Weekly
on a pancake breakfast, accepting donations for the their heads since the event raised more than $1,500. McClatchy-Tribune News Service (MCT)
hot meals. Last year, they raised $4,800. Haberthur is trying to come up with a stunt for this
The council members footed the bill, year. HARDCOVER FICTION
and received donations from The money raised will purchase perishable food 1. Cross Fire. James Patterson. Little,
stores, for the pancake mix and for the baskets, such as turkeys, butter, cheese, and Brown, $27.99
to rent the community center. potatoes, as well as brown sugar and stuffing. Clark Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
That means every dollar raised County Dairy Women will again donate milk. The 2. Hell’s Corner. David Baldacci. Grand
at the breakfast benefited the baskets include about 70 pounds of canned food and Central, $27.99
program, Haberthur said. 11 pounds of dry goods, such as cereal and pasta. Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 2
This Saturday, the council The canned food is collected through a drive at 3. The Confession. John Grisham. Dou-
members will again spend the Battle Ground schools that began Monday and runs bleday, $28.95
morning in the kitchen. through Dec. 13. Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 4
Santa and Mrs. Claus will Each year, the food bank spends about $7,000 4. Full Dark, No Stars. Stephen King.
appear at the breakfast, on the baskets. Any leftover money is used for the Scribner, $27.99
and Portland Winter- following year’s baskets. Recipients sign up at the Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 2
hawks players will food bank for the boxes, which go out on Dec. 18. 5. Towers of Midnight. Robert Jordan &
visit with kids and Brandon Sanderson. Tor, $29.99
sign autographs. Last Marissa Harshman: mharshman@postgzett.
year, Mayor Mike Ciraulo com or 330-555-9019 See Best Sellers on C-2
c-2
Shoppers walk up New York's Fifth Avenue on Black Friday in 2009.
Splurge: Consumers say goodbye to the
“New Frugality” approach of last year
Continued from C-1
hold-finance economist at the Brookings
Institution. “But I don’t feel we have.”
Yes, American households have
pared their debt—from $12.5 trillion in
2008 to $11.6 trillion at the end of Sep-
tember, a drop of 7.6 percent. But the
lion’s share of the decline has come as a
result of home foreclosures and defaults
on credit-card debt—hardly an indicator
of improved habits of personal finance.
Yes, Americans are now putting away
more money: 5.7 percent of disposable
income, compared with just 0.8 percent
in 2005. But that’s already back down
from 7.6 percent in early 2009, and still
far below the 10 percent or more that
Europeans and Asians save. Relative to
income, debt is still near record levels,
and twice as high per family as it was in
the 1980s.
If, as we’ve all been told, the nation’s
long-term economic health depends on
boosting savings and paring debt—both
at the personal and government level—
then we haven’t made very much head-
way. But how do we get back on course,
or even agree on one? President Obama’s
fiscal commission set off a firestorm with
its recent draft report proposing to elimi-
nate the federal deficit by cutting entitle-
ments and subsides while raising taxes.
You can expect the controversy to flare
up again when the final report is due out
this week.
The truth is that spending may be
hard to contain. Entire generations of
consumers have grown up with the idea
of instant gratification and the credit cul-
ture that comes with it. Ever since Henry
Ford popularized the installment loan
to sell his newly mass-produced cars,
the idea of saving to buy something has
nearly disappeared from the American
financial vocabulary. “People change
very slowly or not at all,” says Claudiu
Dimofte, a consumer-behavior professor
at Georgetown University. “More often
than not you just revert to your routine as
soon as you get the chance.” That’s been
the case for Harry Dugan, a respiratory
therapist in Allamuchy, N.J. Dugan, 50,
is underwater on his mortgage and has
tried for two years now to be thrifty. But
he’s had a bit of a relapse, buying a $900
Community Post Gazette  Tuesday, December 7, 2010  www.cpostgazette.com
Jeri Reichanadter / The Star Press-AP
50-inch plasma TV and a $21,000 Toyota els. In October, BMW’s U.S. sales were of the practices that got Americans into
Prius. “It was an impulse buy,” he says. up 17 percent over the same month in trouble either don’t exist or are expressly
“If I could go back, I’d get something 2009, Porsche’s up 61 percent, and Lex- outlawed in most other countries, she
cheaper.” us’s up 8 percent. Saks Fifth Avenue and says, including the home-equity loan, the
The New Austerity is easier to talk Neiman Marcus reported sharp gains in zero-down mortgage, and the little-doc-
about than it is to practice—and not just October same-store sales of 8.1 and 11.5 umented subprime mortgages that were
because Americans are hard-wired to buy percent, respectively, compared with the targeted specifically at the poor. Those
stuff. For middle-class people already same month in 2009. Even plastic sur-
leveraged to the hilt and facing rising geons are seeing an uptick in nip-tuck.
costs, where would they cut back? The Park Avenue doctor Michael Fiorillo
countries with similar “financial innova-
tion” in lending, like Britain, also ended
up with a U.S.-style credit bubble, along
mortgage is still due every month, as are says clients who spent the last couple of
the car payment, the doctor’s bill, and years away from his office are now com-
with a buy-now-pay-later consumer cul-
ture. In thrifty Germany, on the other
the college tuition. Some of the biggest ing back to get work done. “People were hand, banks offer low-income households
rises in consumer spending in 2010 have really cutting back on the big stuff like a “mortgage-savings contract” that com-
been on health care and education, hardly face-lifts and nose jobs and doing the less bines a savings plan for a down payment
costs that can be slashed. And with all expensive procedures like injectables and with a follow-on mortgage. “People love
that money going out the door, how can a laser treatments,” says Fiorillo. “Now to make moral judgments, but in coun-
family even begin to squirrel away some I’ve personally noticed it’s coming back. tries where there is less access to credit,
cash? Five years ago, Crystal DiLuzio, People are job hunting, and they want to consumers save more to buy the things
43, and her hus- look and feel better. I that they want,” says Steve Blitz, chief
band, Carmen, 50, “People change very think that after such a economist at ITG research in New York.
had about $50,000 long time of cutting Before the viral spread of the home-
in their savings ac- slowly or not at all. back, many people equity loan, paying off a mortgage on a
count, and they were More often than not you are tired of depriving house—and having it all paid for after 30
easily able to meet themselves.” years—was another way to save that’s
just revert to your
the $1,300-a-month It isn’t just the largely disappeared, says Richard Thaler,
mortgage on their routine as soon as you rich who are indulg- a behavioral economist at the University
three-bedroom home ing in a spending fix. of Chicago. Some of these incentives are
in Wilmington, Dela.
get the chance.” Impatience with the now beginning to change, following this
But things have painfully slow pace year’s legislation on Wall Street reform,
gone downhill since - Claudiu Dimofte, of economic recov- including tighter lending standards and
then. Carmen lost a consumer-behavior professor ery has, ironically, the establishment of the new Consumer
his job and decided at Georgetown University. also sent some people Financial Protection Bureau.
to get his trucking who can least afford What’s more, America’s tax code has
license, which cost it back to the malls. massively promoted consumption and
$5,000, but the work he’s landed since “I keep waiting for things to get better debt while punishing savings and invest-
has paid considerably less than his old and they just don’t,” says Maria Diaz, ment, says David Rosenberg, chief econ-
job. Crystal took a full-time job at an el- a 30-year-old cocktail waitress at a Las omist at Gluskin Sheff. For most gov-
ementary school but then lost it last year, Vegas casino who was evicted from her ernments around the world, the biggest
cutting the family’s $50,000 income apartment for not paying her rent in 2009 source of revenues is the consumption
in half. Since the start of the recession, and is now living with her mother and tax, while America puts a heavier burden
the DiLuzios have racked up more than stepfather. “After a while, I just decided, on income. The home-mortgage-interest
$15,000 in debt—much of it from her ‘Screw it. I need some new clothes. I’m deduction, which most other countries
husband’s schooling and medical bills to going to get them.’ My mama’s not hap- have abandoned without damaging the
treat their 9-year-old daughter’s immune py, but I don’t care. You stop spending rate of home ownership, literally rewards
deficiency. They’re looking at refinanc- and you stop living.” Americans for accumulating outsize
ing their mortgage in order to afford the Although Americans have saved less, debt. If some of these incentives aren’t
monthly payments. “I don’t put anything spent more, and racked up more debt changed, then frugality will last only as
in savings anymore,” says Crystal. “I than most Europeans or Asians, the urge long as the memory of the crisis, says Re-
don’t even look at my bank statement. to splurge isn’t about innate cultural dif- inhart, whose ironically titled book This
It’s too stressful.” ferences or moral turpitude. Habits of Time Is Different chronicles 250 credit
If anything, there’s a rising class di- spending, saving, and credit are all about bubbles and financial crises in economic
vide between savers and spenders. Upper- incentives, says Carmen Reinhart, a Uni- history. If that history is any guide, she
income confidence is rising fast. Luxury versity of Maryland specialist on debt says, the next wave of easy credit will
sales have jumped far above their crisis and financial crises. “When easy credit is inevitably come—and inevitably lead to
lows, if not yet to their pre-recession lev- given, it is usually taken,” she says. Many trouble.
Best Seller: Top hardcover fiction and
nonfiction reads to pick up
Continued from C-1
Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 3
6. Crescent Dawn. Clive Cussler & Dirk
Cussler. Putnam, $27.95
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
7. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s
Nest. Stieg Larsson. Knopf, $27.95
Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 26
8. American Assassin. Vince Flynn.
Atria, $27.99
Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 6
9. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk. David Se-
daris. Little, Brown, $21.99
Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 8
10. The Help. Kathryn Stockett. Putnam/
Amy Einhorn, $24.95
Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 76
11. Fall of Giants. Ken Follett. Dutton,
$36
Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 18
12. I Still Dream About You. Fannie
Flagg. Random House, $26
Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 2
13. Indulgence in Death. J.D. Robb. Put-
nam, $26.95
Last Week: 8; Weeks on List: 3
14. Safe Haven. Nicholas Sparks. Grand
Central, $25.99
Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 10
15. Worth Dying For. Lee Child. Dela-
corte, $28
Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 5
16. Moonlight Mile. Dennis Lehane.
Morrow, $26.99
Last Week: 15; Weeks on List: 3
17. In the Company of Others. Jan Karon.
Viking, $27.95
Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 5
MONEY
Tips to Stay in Control
Keep your credit score in check.
If you’re planning to use your
credit card this holiday sea-
son, consider how purchases
may affect your credit score.
You certainly don’t want to
go over the limit, or charge
too much on one card. A tip
from the credit bureau Tran-
sUnion: Put a Post-it in your
pocket: “Before starting your
holiday shopping, obtain your
credit report and make note
of your account balances and
available credit. Take a Post-
it note, place it on the back of
your card and at the top write
how much you’ve allocated to
spend. Maintain your credit
Watch out for Red Tuesday.
What’s that you say? Red
Tuesday is the phrase coined
by the Association of Indepen-
dent Consumer Credit Coun-
seling Agencies for the day
after too much shopping on
Black Friday and Cyber Mon-
day. It’s no fun, but sit down
before heading out to the
stores and take a hard look
at your bank balances. Then
consider the amount of money
coming in between now and
when your credit card bill is
Shave your gift list this year.
According to a recent Visa
holiday spending survey, 42
percent of people are consid-
ering gift exchanges this year.
This is the first time that Visa
asked this question. But Visa
personal finance expert Ja-
son Alderman said he thinks
exchanges (such as drawing
names to give one gift rather
than buying something for ev-
eryone) and other frugal mea-
Study return policies carefully.
The blanket policy for most
products at big-box stores is
90 days but may be shorter for
electronics. Some merchants
extend the return period for
holiday purchases, but they
reserve the right to refuse to
take back anything without
an original or gift receipt, es-
pecially if the item was bought
with cash.
Even if a store agrees to
take an item back without a
receipt, it may only issue you
a gift card or store credit slip in
exchange. And shoppers will
get back the value of the low-
18. The Distant Hours. Kate Morton.
Atria, $26
Last Week: 16; Weeks on List: 2
19. Valley Forge. Newt Gingrich. St.
Martin’s, $27.99
Last Week: 19; Weeks on List: 2
20. Side Jobs. Jim Butcher. Roc, $25.95
Last Week: 18; Weeks on List: 4
21. Freedom. Jonathan Franzen. Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, $28 Last Week: 17;
Weeks on List: 12
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
1. Decision Points. George W. Bush.
Crown, $35
Last Week: 1; Weeks on List: 2
2. Decoded. Jay-Z. Spiegel & Grau, $35
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
3. Unbroken. Laura Hillenbrand. Ran-
dom House, $27
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
4. Life. Keith Richards. Little, Brown,
$29.99
Last Week: 2; Weeks on List: 4
5. Broke. Glenn Beck. Threshold, $29.99
Last Week: 3; Weeks on List: 4
6. I Remember Nothing. Nora Ephron.
Knopf, $22.95
Last Week: 5; Weeks on List: 2
7. Barefoot Contessa How Easy Is That?.
Ina Garten. Clarkson Potter, $35
Last Week: 4; Weeks on List: 4
8. Earth (The Book). Jon Stewart. Grand
Central, $27.99
Last Week: 7; Weeks on List: 9
9. Autobiography of Mark Twain. Ed.
by Harriet Elinor Smith. Univ. of Calif.
Press, $34.95
Last Week: 9; Weeks on List: 5
card account balances below
30 percent of your available
credit limits.” (Get your credit
report free at www.annual-
creditreport.com.) An online
survey from credit-scoring
company FICO found only a
sliver of respondents -- just 5
percent -- use as much as 75
percent or more of their total
credit limits over the holidays.
Like me, 35 percent of con-
sumers say they charge all of
their holiday purchases. But
I always pay mine off come
January and save the rewards
I earn to redeem gift cards for
next Christmas.
ocregister.com
due. Ask yourself how much
you can really afford to spend.
The hottest gadget isn’t worth
the headache of a credit card
bill come the new year.
sures are here to stay. “Even
as the economy slowly recov-
ers, a lot of the fast-found
habits we’ve learned in the
last couple, three years we’re
keeping,” he said, adding that
he has instituted more gift ex-
changes in his family and is
considering one on his wife’s
side this year. “It used to feel
like being a cheapskate. Now
it feels like being sensible.”
Shuttershock
est price the item actually sold
for, not necessarily the value of
the price paid for it. Receipts
are needed to take advantage
of warranty services.
- Kara McGuire, Star Tribune
10. My Passion for Design. Barbra Strei-
sand. Viking, $60
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
11. All the Devils Are Here. Bethany
McLean & Joe Nocera. Portfolio, $32.95
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
12. 121Getting into the Vortex. Esther &
Jerry Hicks. Hay House, $24.95
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
13. Unbearable Lightness. Portia de Ros-
si. Atria, $25.99
Last Week: 6; Weeks on List: 3
14. The Last Boy. Jane Leavy. Harper,
$27.99
Last Week: 14; Weeks on List: 6
15. The Emperor of All Maladies. Sid-
dhartha Mukherjee. Scribner, $30
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
16. Cleopatra. Stacy Schiff. Little,
Brown, $29.99
Last Week: 11; Weeks on List: 3
17. Now, Build a Great Business! Mark
Thompson & Brian Tracy. Amacom,
$24.95
Last Week: -; Weeks on List: 1
18. Pinheads and Patriots. Bill O’Reilly.
Morrow, $27.99
Last Week: 12; Weeks on List: 10
19. Me. Ricky Martin. Celebra, $26.95
Last Week: 10; Weeks on List: 3
20. They Call Me Baba Booey. Gary
Dell’Abate with Chad Millman. Spiegel
& Grau, $25
Last Week: 13; Weeks on List: 3
Guinness World Records. Guinness,
$28.95
Last Week: 21; Weeks on List: 10
21. The Christmas Brides. Linda Lael
Miller. HQN, $7.99 Last Week: 16
Book Review:
Jeff Kinney’s
‘Kid’ series is
no wimp in
sales
department
By Megan Roth
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Today was the first day of school. I
don’t want to jinx things, but it’s looking
like this could be a great year for me,”
hopes Greg Heffley, the hero of Jeff Kin-
ney’s wildly popular “Diary of a Wimpy
Kid” series.
Little does Greg know, like every
other kid in middle school he is about to
transition into a new era -- puberty. It’s
time for him to grow up and be more re-
sponsible, or so his parents suggest.
The series’ fifth novel follows Greg as
he embarks on a train to manhood. Read-
ers are along for the ride as we witness
Greg attending boy-girl slumber parties,
having to wake himself up for school in
the morning, being forced to wear head-
gear to school -- obviously ruining his
social life and facing “the ugly truth” that
someday he’ll have to grow up.
Mr. Kinney said in a recent interview
with the Post-Gazette that he felt com-
pelled to make the characters age. He
thought he had to wrap up Greg’s child-
hood, but he came to the conclusion that
“young readers aren’t necessarily looking
'Black Swan': Natalie Portman and Mila
Kunis' friendship is put to the test
Continued from C-1
“I knew it might be really hard to
keep them apart because they’re friends,
but I just didn’t want them to know each
other’s motives,” he said. “I didn’t want
them to compare notes. I wanted them to
come from different places.”
Aronofsky, the filmmaker behind
“Requiem for a Dream” and the 2008
Mickey Rourke comeback picture “The
Wrestler,” had his own foes to overcome
to get “Black Swan” made. He decided
nearly a decade ago that he wanted to do
a film about the ballet world, but several
ideas and scripts bogged down in devel-
opment and the project lost and regained
financing numerous times.
The director first met with Portman
when she was 20. She had taken ballet
classes as a girl and had always imagined
she’d be a dancer if she weren’t an ac-
tress, so she was struck by Aronofky’s
idea. As “Black Swan” remained in
limbo, she acted in other movies, such
as Zach Braff’s “Garden State” and two
“Star Wars” films.
While Portman was long slated for
the movie, Kunis (best known for her
role on the long-running sitcom “That
‘70s Show”) was brought in only months
before production began.
Portman, who knew that Kunis had
dance experience, recommended her
friend to Aronofsky. He had seen Ku-
nis in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,”
and the two met via iChat. A few on-
line video conversations later, he had
hired her.
But from that point forward, the
actresses had little interaction. Their
lack of conversation is particularly
interesting, considering they largely
play the same character for much of
the film. As Nina becomes paranoid
about Lily stealing her role, she be-
gins to have delusions _ sometimes
she believes she’s looking at Lily,
only to realize she’s visualizing a
darker and more liberated version of
herself. The fluidity of that relation-
ship culminates in a heated sex scene
between the young women, which is
teased in the movie’s trailer and has
for months been the subject of media
fascination.
It was one of the few scenes the
actresses shot together, and Portman
_ whose character also masturbates in
the film _ described it as “super awk-
ward.”
“I remember the first time we did
it, we were both sort of embarrassed
Top
movies
at the box office
BOX OFFICE: Weekend ticket
sales totals at U.S. and Canadian
theaters, accordning to Hollywood.
com:
1. “Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows, Part 1”.......................$49.1 M
2. “Tangled”..............................$48.8 M
3. “Megamind”........................ $12.6 M
4. “Burlesque”...........................$11.9 M
5. “Unstoppable”.......................$11.4 M
6. “Love and Other Drugs”.........$9.7 M
7. “Faster”...................................$8.5 M
8. “Due Date”..............................$7.2 M
9. “The Next Three Days”..........$4.7 M
10. “Morning Glory’...................$3.9 M
Community Post Gazette  Tuesday, December 7, 2010  www.cpostgazette.com
“A lot of times when adults write for kids they create protagonists that are miniature
adults. I wanted to try and create a character that is relatable to kids,” author Jeff
Kinney says of Greg, the main character in his “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series.
for a conclusion.”
Like Greg, middle school students
might “not [be] in a big rush to grow up
right now,” the author said.
Greg continues to mess up and make
mistakes, and that is what makes him
such a fun character to follow. He is a
role model for imperfection. “He is a role
model in a way that’s saying it’s OK not
to get everything right,” Mr. Kinney said.
“I wanted to create an imperfect char-
acter in Greg. A lot of times when adults
write for kids they create protagonists
that are miniature adults. I wanted to try
and create a character that is relatable to
kids.”
In order to make the books continue
to be interesting and relatable to young
readers, he writes about the funny stuff
that happens when you’re growing up.
Young readers will laugh with Greg as he
stumbles through life.
and not going for it,” she said, sipping
vegetable broth at the Polo Lounge in
Beverly Hills. “And Darren was like,
‘Listen. If you go for it, you’re not going
to have to do it again. If you get all em-
barrassed and hesitate, you’re gonna have
to do it 400 times.’”
Kunis said Aronofsky promised the
actresses the film wouldn’t leave his
hands until it was released so that the
scene wouldn’t go viral on the Internet.
Crew members had their cellphones con-
fiscated so that they couldn’t take any
photos of the steamy segment.
Meanwhile, Kunis, who with the rest
of the “Black Swan” cast has spent the
last couple of weeks promoting the film,
said she was irritated that she had re-
ceived so many questions about the racy
moment.
“How people walk away from a movie
like this and the first question out of their
mouth is ‘Is it uncomfortable making out
with your friend Natalie?’ _ it’s unfortu-
nate,” she said in a separate interview a
few days later. Reporters have also been
asking both Kunis and Portman about
their trysts in their next films, which are
strikingly similar, centering on women in
casual relationships. (Kunis is starring in
“Friends With Benefits,” while Portman
is in “No Strings Attached.”)
Both women would prefer the inter-
est be focused elsewhere _ like on the
rigorous physical preparation they put
Mr. Kinney claims that he’s “not a
great storyteller, but more of a gag writ-
er.”
In the book, when things go terribly
awry at the boy-girl slumber party at
school, an event made up of “90 percent
boys and 10 percent girls,” Greg says:
“Something tells me this whole Lock-
In idea was just a scheme set up by the
parents and teachers to turn us kids off to
boy-girl parties. And if that’s true, then
mission accomplished.”
The series appeals to a large audience
because of its characters and humor. On
its first week on sale, it sold more than
825,000 copies, even outselling former
President George W. Bush’s memoir,
“Decision Points.”
The 2010 movie adaptation of “Diary
of a Wimpy Kid” grossed more than $75
million worldwide, and there will be a se-
quel in March.
into transforming into near-professional
ballerinas. Even as the film struggled to
get off the ground because of financial is-
sues, Portman began training five to eight
hours a day with a ballet instructor. She
spent time in barre class, swam a mile
each day, did toning and muscle strength-
ening exercises and sharply reduced her
calorie intake.
“Darren claims he never said this, but
he definitely was like, ‘How thin do you
think you can get without being sick?’”
Portman said. She apparently took that
order so seriously that the director later
began to fret over her shrinking frame.
“At a certain point in the middle of the
ballet stuff, I thought she was getting way
too skinny and I started to make her eat. It
started to get scary, and she was starting
to look too thin,” Aronofsky admitted.
“But when you work in the world of bal-
let, these women are so tiny. I just didn’t
want her to get hurt, so we surrounded
her with the right health people.”
Both she and Kunis, already short and
slight, lost 20 pounds before production
even began.
“I looked like Gollum,” Kunis joked,
referring to the emaciated, bug-eyed
creature from “Lord of the Rings.” She
said she got down to 98 pounds. “I did
not veer off the diet. I got one day off
on my birthday, and I did have a root
beer float. My ballet instructor was like,
‘Here’s your present!’”
Kids’ pain kept in check by specially
trained team at N.C. hospital
By Sarah Avery
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
RALEIGH, N.C. _ Two surgeries on
Christina Shaban’s legs, just 10 months
apart, were worlds different in terms of
the pain the Chapel Hill, N.C., teenager
endured.
After a procedure last May at UNC
Hospitals in which her femur was bro-
ken to begin lengthening the bone,
Christina, now 14, writhed in agony.
Narcotics made no dent.
For the procedure this past March, in
which the femur was again broken and
the knee reconstructed, Christina hurt,
but nothing like before.
“It was soooo much better,” she said.
The difference was the involvement
of a pediatric pain team, established a
year ago at UNC Hospitals _- the first
such team in North Carolina. Its mission
is to manage aggressively the pain chil-
dren feel from surgeries and traumas.
While all hospitals take care with
children, the UNC Hospitals’ pediat-
ric pain team consists of nine specially
trained anesthesiologists who work in
an around-the-clock service dedicated
exclusively to children. They use nerve
blocks, epidurals along the spinal col-
umn, opiate medications and other
techniques to ease pain throughout their
young patients’ hospital stays and be-
yond.
Although new to North Carolina, the
pain unit approach is gaining in popular-
ity, ending the last vestiges of the bizarre
myths that children either don’t feel pain
as acutely as adults, or somehow can’t
communicate it. Anyone within earshot
of a child with a skinned knee can attest
to the fallacy of such notions.
“Pediatric pain for many years has
been very poorly understood,”
said Dr. Peggy McNaull, one of
the pain team specialists. “People
are frightened and timid about
pain control in children, primarily
because of the lack of understand-
ing.”
A 2004 clinical report by the
American Academy of Pediatrics
noted that inadequate sedation
and pain control can cause lasting
problems for children.
“Post-traumatic stress disor-
der can occur after procedures or
stressful medical experiences that
are not accompanied by appropri-
ate pain control or sedation,” the
authors wrote.
Yet aggressive pain management is
not always pursued. Many fear children
can be over-sedated, hampering efforts
to discover the source of pain or trauma.
In addition, heavy use of opiates such as
morphine can cause respiratory distress,
severe constipation and other problems.
Dr. Mark Piehl, medical director
of WakeMed Children’s Hospital, said
such fears are easing, and hospitals are
changing the way they approach pain
care for children.
“There’s a lot of literature and talk
about it,” Piehl said. He said his staff,
while not part of a formal pain unit,
strives to eliminate all pain, and is rated
on how well they succeed. Even simple
procedures such as drawing blood are
done with a local numbing agent.
“We can’t promise 100 percent pain-
free, but that’s my goal,” Piehl said. He
said his team is also aggressive using
sedation during procedures that are not
painful, but anxiety-provoking. Imaging
technologies such as MRIs, for exam-
ple, can cause great distress, so a mild
sedative can be useful.
“It helps us take better care of chil-
dren, frankly,” Piehl said.
Dr. Karene Ricketts, a member of
the pediatric pain unit at UNC Hospi-
tals, said it’s important to manage pain
early and aggressively in children, just
as it is in adults.
“If we can manage acute pain, then
we can hold off the development of
chronic pain,” Ricketts said, noting that
by staying ahead of pain, nerve path-
ways are less apt to become stuck in
pain mode.
The UNC Hospitals group believes
children recover more quickly with bet-
ter pain management.
c-3
Christina Shaban’s experience sug-
gests such an outcome. Born with a
condition in which her right leg was sig-
nificantly shorter than the left, Christina
underwent an initial surgery last May.
Doctors cut the long bone in half, then
attached a device that made tiny adjust-
ments each day, pulling the bone apart
to prompt constant growth until the de-
sired length was achieved.
After that first surgery, Christina was
in the hospital for a week, and pain was
excruciating.
“I saw the terror in her eyes,” her
mother, Tina Shaban, recalled. “She was
screaming for me to help her ... the IV
pain medicine was not doing the trick.”
Shaban said the pain slowed Chris-
tina from tackling the physical therapy
she needed to gain strength.
For the second procedure, needed to
straighten the leg and rebuild her knee,
the pain team was in place. This time,
Christina had an epidural anesthetic
administered through a catheter in her
back, and it was left in place long after
surgery.
McNaull said the team can keep an
epidural for up to five days to numb pain
when regional anesthesia is warranted.
Such efforts diminish the need for mor-
phine.
“It offers better pain control by in-
fusing the nerves that are activated by
pain, and minimizing intravenous opi-
oides. Kids are more awake and more
alert,” McNaull said.
Christina left the hospital after five
days, and felt as if her recovery was fast-
tracked. She hopes to begin high school
this fall without the braces and crutches
she’s worn for a year.
“I mean, it still hurt, but it was just
a lot better than the first time,” she said.