| THURSDAY • NOVEMBER 12, 2009 |
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 LBN-INVESTIGATES: Women who reads romance novels have sex twice as often as those who don’t.
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REPORT: OBAMA REJECTS ALL OPTIONS: A BOMBSHELL FROM THE WHITE HOUSE: A senior Obama administration official tells MSNBC that the president will reject all of the options that have been presented to him by his national-security team, and that instead he will demand clarifications on when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility for the country to the Afghan government. The sticking point appears to be timelines: President Obama wants to make clear that the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan is not open-ended. Consequently, the options presented to Obama will be amended.
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 U.S. ENVOY URGES CAUTION ON FORCES FOR AFGHANISTAN: The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, three senior American officials said Wednesday. The position of the ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired lieutenant general, puts him in stark opposition to the current American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who has asked for 40,000 more troops.
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CHINA IS OBAMA’S KEY CHALLENGE: President Obama departs for Asia Thursday, with Chinese economic relations at the top of his agenda. Obama - who will also address North Korea and Iran with Beijing - warned of “enormous strains” if the U.S. and China did not correct current economic imbalances. China, as well as South Korea, may push against the president’s agenda, worried that the U.S. has hurt economic relations by insisting on industry tariffs and through White House ties to labor. President Obamas visit to Tokyo on Friday will come at a time when relations with Japan are strained.
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 INTEL WILL PAY RIVAL CHIPMAKER AMD $1.25 BILLION TO SETTLE ALL LEGAL DISPUTES: The giant chipmaker Intel agreed on Thursday to pay its rival Advanced Micro Devices $1.25 billion to settle antitrust and patent disputes between the companies. Intel said it had also agreed to abide by a set of “business practice provisions.” In return, A.M.D. is dropping suits in the United States and Japan, and withdrawing complaints to antitrust regulators worldwide. The two companies announced the agreement in a joint statement.
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THE TALIBAN PROPAGANDA MACHINE: The Taliban may reject modernity and have banned the Internet and television, but the Islamic fundamentalist group is using the Web to propel an online propaganda machine that NATO has been largely unable to combat. Now, NATO has 120 people working in Kabul trying to address the problem. “Information is everything. This is a war of perception played out in the minds of the Afghan people,” a U.S. Navy communications expert told The Times of London Thursday. “The Taliban blow stuff up to create an event that they can then market to the media and that will shape public perceptions,” he said.
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 LBN-NOTICED: ***Power music attorney Fred Goldring having lunch yesterday at The Grill in Beverly Hills. ***Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Jon Perlman and his 4 year old son Justin having dinner at the Beverly Glen Deli hear Mulholland. Also at the restaurant Connie Stevens, her daughter Tricia and Laine Kazan along with other family. ***Former LAPD chief Bill Bratton and wife Rikki Klieman being welcomed back east by well-wishers at Primola in NYC. ***John McEnroe getting off a downtown D train at Rockefeller Center in NYC. ***Whippet-thin “Star Trek” starlet Zoe Saldana digging into a huge plate of fried quail at Animal in Los Angeles. ***BE AN LBN CORRESPONDENT Send your celebrity sightings to LBNElert@TimeWire.net.
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 CLINTON TO KARZAI: END CORRUPTION: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered a blunt piece of advice to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday. Clinton said the U.S. was “looking for measures of accountability and transparency that will demonstrate a clear commitment to the kind of government and outcomes the people of Afghanistan deserve,” adding that “the corruption issue goes to the heart of whether the people of Afghanistan feel the government is on their side.”
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LBN-BUSINESS INSIDER: ***Bank of America may not meet its own deadline of finding a replacement for CEO Ken Lewis, who on Sept. 30 abruptly announced he was leaving the bank. The Bank of America board had said it would pick a candidate by Thanksgiving, but the Financial Times reported Thursday that its search has been slowed down by the absence of a clear successor and fear that the bank’s choice may not meet the approval of the Federal Reserve. ***Influential former American ambassador Peter W. Galbraith “stands to earn perhaps a hundred million or more dollars as a result of his closeness to the Kurds, his relations with a Norwegian oil company and constitutional provisions he helped the Kurds extract,” according to The New York Times.
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FINAL HOUR LAP DANCES FOR HASAN: Like the Sept. 11 hijackers who spent their some of their final moments in a Las Vegas strip club, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan repeatedly visited a lap dancing club near the Fort Hood base in the days before he allegedly killed 13 soldiers. One day, Hasan spent six hours watching women pole dance. Said one woman who works at the club, called Starz, “He came in on his own about 7.30 p.m. and was here until 2 a.m. He wasn’t like our normal crowd which is young solders. He seemed older, more mature, a bit shy and reserved and a little out of place but not abnormal.”
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LBN-MEDIA INSIDER: ***Forbes’ inaugural list of the world’s most powerful people has News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch at No. 7, ahead of figures like Pope Benedict XVI at No. 11. Murdoch, however, is bested by Google guys Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who rank at No. 5. President Obama is No. 1. ***Lou Dobbs, the longtime CNN anchor whose anti-immigration views have made him a lightning rod, is leaving the Time Warner cable news channel, effective immediately. CNN chief Jon Klein says: “Lou has decided to carry the banner of advocacy journalism elsewhere.” ***Current TV, the cable and Internet video channel co-founded by Al Gore, is cutting 80 workers and announcing a big shift in programming strategy. The company will move Current TV away from short-form programs and toward industry-standard 30- and 60-minute formats. ***YouTube is adding a “skip” button to some pre-roll ads, in a test it hopes will improve user experience and lead to better ad creative. The ultimate goal, says YouTube, is to create a scenario where advertisers pay only for ads users watch in full or engage with some other way. ***Twitter’s value is somewhere between $526 million and $674 million, rather than the most recent valuation of $1 billion, says a study by Next Up Research. Also, Twitter’s growth momentum is likely to be stunted as it rolls out a revenue model, which may alienate some users. ***Newsweek editor Jon Meacham is informing staff that about a dozen positions will be eliminated do to the “economic climate in publishing.” Meacham, in a memo, notes that the magazine is taking a different direction, and claims that it “continues to appear promising.” ***Don Shirley, a theater critic in Los Angeles for many years, including many at the L.A. Times, is now writing for L.A. Stage. ***John King will replace Lou Dobbs as the host of the 7PM hour on CNN, the network announced Thursday. King will anchor a nightly political program beginning early next year, the network said.
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 IS THE ART MARKET REBOUNDING?: It looked like it was only worth $200, but it fetched $43.8 million. A 1962 Andy Warhol painting of 200 dollar bills fetched the primo price at an auction for London-based art collector Pauline Karpidas, who bought the painting for a mere $385,000 in 1986. The sale underscores buyers’ returning confidence in the art market, which the world financial crisis nearly destroyed.
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A SIMPLE QUESTION FOR ALL READERS: Do you have the guts to forward this LBN E-Lert to your friends, family and associates? Do you? Do you?
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LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: ***Rich Ross’ new team is taking shape at Disney. A month after taking the reins as chairman of the Walt Disney Studios, Ross on Wednesday unveiled an overhaul of the company’s marketing, distribution and operations arms that looks more like the upper ranks at a TV network than a studio. With four senior execs overseeing key divisions and reporting directly to Ross, it’s a model that the former head of the Disney Channel is certainly familiar with. It also reflects the mindset of Walt Disney Co. president-CEO Robert Iger, whose background is in TV and who has frequently introduced ideas to shake up traditional studio habits.
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SMART PEOPLE READ THE LBN E-LERT: Beverly Hills dermatologist Dr. David Charles Rish along with approximately 317,000 other “influencers” understand that information is power and the LBN E-Lert is a power-tool.
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LBN-BRUTAL FACT: Longest hot spell in the world: Marble Bar, W. Australia, 100 F (38 C) or higher, for 162 consecutive days, October 30, 1923 to April 7, 1924. The world’s highest official temperature is 136 degrees recorded at El Azizia, Libya, on September 13, 1922.
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ARMY CHARGES ACCUSED FORT HOOD SHOOTER WITH 13 MURDER COUNTS: Military officials say the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 and wounding 29 in last week’s shooting rampage at his military post in Texas will face 13 charges of premeditated murder under the military’s legal system. The decision makes him eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
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LBN-HEALTH WATCH: ***Neuroticism may increase the risk of developing asthma in middle age. Animal studies have shown that chronic stress can affect hormone levels, which can lead to inflammation of the airway and cause breathing difficulties. Researchers believe that the excessive worrying and emotional ups and downs associated with neuroticism may have similar effects on human health. According to a recent study, individuals who were highly neurotic were three times more likely to develop asthma than those who were less neurotic.
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LBN-COMMENTARY By MARTHA ZOLLER (Syndicated Radio Talk Host): Are you in favor of reinstating the military draft? Why? The draft should not be reinstated but I do think there should be a requirement for all college students to participate in ROTC their first two years in college. At that time they could decide if they want to join or not. This was the way it was at most land grant colleges until the early 1970s. I believe the camaraderie and discipline that would be gained and love of country and of causes greater than your own self interest is something missing from this society now.
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 MIKE TYSON’S AIRPORT BRAWL: Photographer Tony Echevarria, 50, says that heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson struck him once at the Los Angeles airport in a scuffle that ended with both men being booked and released on suspicion of misdemeanor battery Wednesday. Echevarria went down after the strike, and a hospital treated him for a cut to the forehead. Tyson alleged through a spokeswoman that the photographer behaved aggressively and attacked him while he was traveling with his wife and 10-month-old child.
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LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: ***The soon-to-be ex-wife of Los Angeles Dodgers head honcho Frank McCourt says she never hooked up with another man before their marriage fell apart — but she does plan on stripping Frank one last time … with a plan that would make her the sole owner of Frank’s beloved baseball team.
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 LBN-RECOMMENDS By ROSIE PEREZ (Actress and Activist): Irene Vilar is the author of a book called Impossible Motherhood. She is the granddaughter of political activist Lolita Lebraun and she had such a crazy turbulent adolescent and young adulthood. It was very honest. It’s an amazing book. You should pick it up!
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LBN-COMMENTARY By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS: Lately, a parade of celebrities has attributed their postpartum slimming to nursing, bringing this age-old topic back into the spotlight.
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 ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: England is just one of the 24 foreign countries with daily LBN E-Lert readers.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By GEORGE WILL: One of the many television commercials exhorting viewers to buy gold says solemnly that it is an asset whose value “has never dropped to zero,” a boast that surely sets a record for minimalism. Still, the world’s appetite for gold as an investment option is intensifying.
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 LBN-COMMENTARY By GAIL SHEEHY (Best-selling author): How am I going to get people to focus not on tragedy, but on resilience? Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum asks rhetorically as we sit in her Pentagon office. The question is now Gen. Cornums mission: She is charged with teaching the Armys warriorseven in the wake of the homegrown tragedy at Fort Hoodto persevere in the face of any crisis. Cornums program represents a historic shift in the Armys training philosophy. Instead of lavishing resources on those warriors who have succumbed to post-traumatic stress, depression, drug dependency, DUI, or sought the ultimate escape of suicide, the Army this week began training its healthy soldiers in emotional and spiritual fitness.
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 LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:….
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LBN-OVERHEARD: ***Carrie Prejean’s ex-boyfriend — the guy to whom she sent the XXX solo video — tells TMZ Carrie and company called him last week and tried getting him to “lie” and say she was 17 when she shot the video.During an audio interview with TMZ, the man — who asked us not to reveal his identity — says Carrie sent him the video when they were involved with each other in 2007. He says Carrie sent him numerous explicit videos and insists the one in question was shot when she was 20. ***Mick Fleetwood just had the dreaded pig virus, A.K.A. swine flu.
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LBN-RECOMMENDS: NYC Restaurant Nobu Fifty Seven. For reservations please call (212) 757-3000.
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DID YOU KNOW: ***Mid-men, the male versions of mid-wives, are called accouchers. ***The device used in alcohol distilleries for freeing the spirit from water is called the dephlegmator. ***Ducks are never male. The males of the species are called drakes. ***Another name for a shoemaker is a cordwainer. ***The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.
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LBN-QUOTE: “If I’m a gay icon, so be it. I guess it’s a compliment” — Levi Johnston.
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LBN-HISTORY: On Nov. 12, 1942, the World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal began. The Americans eventually won a major victory over the Japanese.
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LBN-VIDEO LINK: