It's all-hands-on-deck for final retail push

FREEPORT, Maine (AP) — With the final retail push under way, L.L. Bean CEO Chris McCormick is playing Santa's helper against a backdrop of conveyor belts and beeping front-end loaders as he boxes up slippers and shirts. But there's little time to reflect on the holiday cheer those gifts will bring because he's busy concentrating to make sure no shipments go astray.
At L.L. Bean, top executives are abandoning their desks to work in the shipping department and to answer customers' phone calls as part of an annual all-hands-on-deck approach to ensure last-minute purchases arrive at their destinations before Christmas.
This season, the deadline for orders with guaranteed Christmas delivery is the latest ever, with L.L. Bean offering free shipping as late as noon Friday.
"Consumers are going to buy when they want to buy. There's no changing that, so we have to be ready," McCormick, his sleeves rolled up, said during a break inside the busy 1-million-square-foot distribution center where nearly 200,000 orders are shipped daily in late December.
There's never been a better time to be a procrastinator because retailers continue to offer later guaranteed delivery, and in some cases retailers are offering same-day delivery in select cities, said Al Sambar, a logistics and retail strategist at the consulting firm Kurt Salmon.
Thanks to improved shipping logistics, many online and catalog retailers established Christmas delivery deadlines on Thursday and Friday, with some like Amazon extending the deadline for one-day shipping until Saturday.
And shoppers can expect the trend to continue.
Retailers are increasingly focusing on speed. Following Amazon's lead, other retailers are experimenting with regional warehouses to get the product closer to potential customers, said Raj Kumar, a retail partner at A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm.
Macy's, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart are testing pilot programs in which stores themselves are utilized as shipping hubs as retailers push for next-day and same-day delivery, he said.
Unlike Amazon, L.L. Bean's worldwide shipping hub is centralized, about a mile from the corporate headquarters, and features seemingly endless aisles of flannel shirts, L.L. Bean boots, camping supplies, and other items, along with a labyrinth of conveyors and chutes that transport them, and a fleet of trucks.
The company hired 4,700 seasonal workers to help with the holiday rush, doubling the workforce, and 500 administrative employees are expected to get into the act during crunch times.
Earlier this week, McCormick was boxing goods in the shipping department with the company's financial controller, Kierston Van Soest. Nearby were the company's chief financial officer and other executives. In Bean parlance, they're dubbed "day hikers," since they're on a temporary daily assignment.
Pulling items from a shopping cart, McCormick and Van Soest scanned the products with a bar code reader, printed shipping labels and order forms, and then boxed up the items, tossing in catalogs for good measure. On this day, popular items included headlamps, Wicked Good slippers and shirts.
In the past, McCormick worked on a product-sorting conveyor line, in the retail store stockroom, and in a recycling area, breaking down empty cardboard boxes. The worst job of all, he said, was one stint working in the part of the call center that deals with angry and frustrated customers, attempting to set things right.
"It's hard because you've disappointed people and you don't want to disappoint anybody, especially at this time of the year," McCormick said. "I wouldn't want their job."
The company does its best to keep customers happy. On that day, hundreds of shipments were being upgraded free of charge to UPS air to beat the first major winter storm in the Midwest.
McCormick said it's nice to get out among the workers but there's a practical purpose for having everyone pitch in, including the men and women at the upper echelon of the company.
On this day, the distribution center was behind schedule because snow had kept many workers home the day before. Administrators were called in to help get back on schedule.
Like most retailers, L.L. Bean makes half of its annual sales in the last two months of the year. And retailers are more than happy to oblige late shoppers, especially since holiday sales haven't been especially strong going into the final shopping weekend before Christmas, according to Michael McNamara, vice president for research and analysis at MasterCard Advisors' SpendingPulse.
Nationwide, the final retail push on Friday and Saturday is expected to yield $34 billion in total sales, accounting for roughly 8 percent of the $400 billion in December sales, McNamara said.
After Christmas, and the ensuing returns, the entire planning process starts anew.
"It's interesting being a retailer. You plan all year for four weeks. This is where we make most our sales and most of our money. After Christmas, you feel like you just ran a marathon and now you get back on the treadmill and you've got to do it again," McCormick said.
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AP IMPACT: Big Pharma cashes in on HGH abuse

A federal crackdown on illicit foreign supplies of human growth hormone has failed to stop rampant misuse, and instead has driven record sales of the drug by some of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies, an Associated Press investigation shows.
The crackdown, which began in 2006, reduced the illegal flow of unregulated supplies from China, India and Mexico.
But since then, Big Pharma has been satisfying the steady desires of U.S. users and abusers, including many who take the drug in the false hope of delaying the effects of aging.
From 2005 to 2011, inflation-adjusted sales of HGH were up 69 percent, according to an AP analysis of pharmaceutical company data collected by the research firm IMS Health. Sales of the average prescription drug rose just 12 percent in that same period.
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EDITOR'S NOTE — Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the second of a two-part series.
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Unlike other prescription drugs, HGH may be prescribed only for specific uses. U.S. sales are limited by law to treat a rare growth defect in children and a handful of uncommon conditions like short bowel syndrome or Prader-Willi syndrome, a congenital disease that causes reduced muscle tone and a lack of hormones in sex glands.
The AP analysis, supplemented by interviews with experts, shows too many sales and too many prescriptions for the number of people known to be suffering from those ailments. At least half of last year's sales likely went to patients not legally allowed to get the drug. And U.S. pharmacies processed nearly double the expected number of prescriptions.
Peddled as an elixir of life capable of turning middle-aged bodies into lean machines, HGH — a synthesized form of the growth hormone made naturally by the human pituitary gland — winds up in the eager hands of affluent, aging users who hope to slow or even reverse the aging process.
Experts say these folks don't need the drug, and may be harmed by it. The supposed fountain-of-youth medicine can cause enlargement of breast tissue, carpal tunnel syndrome and swelling of hands and feet. Ironically, it also can contribute to aging ailments like heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
Others in the medical establishment also are taking a fat piece of the profits — doctors who fudge prescriptions, as well as pharmacists and distributors who are content to look the other way. HGH also is sold directly without prescriptions, as new-age snake oil, to patients at anti-aging clinics that operate more like automated drug mills.
Years of raids, sports scandals and media attention haven't stopped major drugmakers from selling a whopping $1.4 billion worth of HGH in the U.S. last year. That's more than industry-wide annual gross sales for penicillin or prescription allergy medicine. Anti-aging HGH regimens vary greatly, with a yearly cost typically ranging from $6,000 to $12,000 for three to six self-injections per week.
Across the U.S., the medication is often dispensed through prescriptions based on improper diagnoses, carefully crafted to exploit wiggle room in the law restricting use of HGH, the AP found.
HGH is often promoted on the Internet with the same kind of before-and-after photos found in miracle diet ads, along with wildly hyped claims of rapid muscle growth, loss of fat, greater vigor, and other exaggerated benefits to adults far beyond their physical prime. Sales also are driven by the personal endorsement of celebrities such as actress Suzanne Somers.
Pharmacies that once risked prosecution for using unauthorized, foreign HGH — improperly labeled as raw pharmaceutical ingredients and smuggled across the border — now simply dispense name brands, often for the same banned uses. And usually with impunity.
Eight companies have been granted permission to market HGH by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which reviews the benefits and risks of new drug products. By contrast, three companies are approved for the diabetes drug insulin.
The No. 1 maker, Roche subsidiary Genentech, had nearly $400 million in HGH sales in the U.S. last year, up an inflation-adjusted two-thirds from 2005. Pfizer and Eli Lilly were second and third with $300 million and $220 million in sales, respectively, according to IMS Health. Pfizer now gets more revenue from its HGH brand, Genotropin, than from Zoloft, its well-known depression medicine that lost patent protection.
On their face, the numbers make no sense to the recognized hormone doctors known as endocrinologists who provide legitimate HGH treatment to a small number of patients.
Endocrinologists estimate there are fewer than 45,000 U.S. patients who might legitimately take HGH. They would be expected to use roughly 180,000 prescriptions or refills each year, given that typical patients get three months' worth of HGH at a time, according to doctors and distributors.
Yet U.S. pharmacies last year supplied almost twice that much HGH — 340,000 orders — according to AP's analysis of IMS Health data.
While doctors say more than 90 percent of legitimate patients are children with stunted growth, 40 percent of 442 U.S. side-effect cases tied to HGH over the last year involved people age 18 or older, according to an AP analysis of FDA data. The average adult's age in those cases was 53, far beyond the prime age for sports. The oldest patients were in their 80s.
Some of these medical records even give explicit hints of use to combat aging, justifying treatment with reasons like fatigue, bone thinning and "off-label," which means treatment of an unapproved condition
Even Medicare, the government health program for older Americans, allowed 22,169 HGH prescriptions in 2010, a five-year increase of 78 percent, according to data released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in response to an AP public records request.
"There's no question: a lot gets out," said hormone specialist Dr. Mark Molitch of Northwestern University, who helped write medical standards meant to limit HGH treatment to legitimate patients.
And those figures don't include HGH sold directly by doctors without prescriptions at scores of anti-aging medical practices and clinics around the country. Those numbers could only be tallied by drug makers, who have declined to say how many patients they supply and for what conditions.
First marketed in 1985 for children with stunted growth, HGH was soon misappropriated by adults intent on exploiting its modest muscle- and bone-building qualities. Congress limited HGH distribution to the handful of rare conditions in an extraordinary 1990 law, overriding the generally unrestricted right of doctors to prescribe medicines as they see fit.
Despite the law, illicit HGH spread around the sports world in the 1990s, making deep inroads into bodybuilding, college athletics, and professional leagues from baseball to cycling. The even larger banned market among older adults has flourished more recently.
FDA regulations ban the sale of HGH as an anti-aging drug. In fact, since 1990, prescribing it for things like weight loss and strength conditioning has been punishable by 5 to 10 years in prison.
Steve Kleppe, of Scottsdale, Ariz., a restaurant entrepreneur who has taken HGH for almost 15 years to keep feeling young, said he noticed a price jump of about 25 percent after the block on imports. He now buys HGH directly from a doctor at an annual cost of about $8,000 for himself and the same amount for his wife.
Many older patients go for HGH treatment to scores of anti-aging practices and clinics heavily concentrated in retirement states like Florida, Nevada, Arizona and California.
These sites are affiliated with hundreds of doctors who are rarely endocrinologists. Instead, many tout certification by the American Board of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine, though the medical establishment does not recognize the group's bona fides.
The clinics offer personalized programs of "age management" to business executives, affluent retirees, and other patients of means, sometimes coupled with the amenities of a vacation resort. The operations insist there are few, if any, side effects from HGH. Mainstream medical authorities say otherwise.
A 2007 review of 31 medical studies showed swelling in half of HGH patients, with joint pain or diabetes in more than a fifth. A French study of about 7,000 people who took HGH as children found a 30 percent higher risk of death from causes like bone tumors and stroke, stirring a health advisory from U.S. authorities.
For proof that the drug works, marketers turn to images like the memorable one of pot-bellied septuagenarian Dr. Jeffry Life, supposedly transformed into a ripped hulk of himself by his own program available at the upscale Las Vegas-based Cenegenics Elite Health. (He declined to be interviewed.)
These promoters of HGH say there is a connection between the drop-off in growth hormone levels through adulthood and the physical decline that begins in late middle age. Replace the hormone, they say, and the aging process slows.
"It's an easy ruse. People equate hormones with youth," said Dr. Tom Perls, a leading industry critic who does aging research at Boston University. "It's a marketing dream come true."
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Associated Press Writer David B. Caruso reported from New York and AP National Writer Jeff Donn reported from Plymouth, Mass. AP Writer Troy Thibodeaux provided data analysis assistance from New Orleans.
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AP's interactive on the HGH investigation: http://hosted.ap.org/interactives/2012/hgh
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The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate(at)ap.org
EDITOR'S NOTE _ Whether for athletics or age, Americans from teenagers to baby boomers are trying to get an edge by illegally using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, despite well-documented risks. This is the second of a two-part series.

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Hostess expects to split up snack cakes in sale

NEW YORK (AP) — Twinkies, Wonder Bread and Devil Dogs are likely to return to shelves in coming months, but probably not under the same owners.
Hostess Brands Inc. said in bankruptcy court Friday that it's narrowing down the bids it received for its brands and expects to sell off its snack cakes and bread to separate buyers. The testimony came from an investment banker for Hostess, which is in the process of liquidating.
A likely suitor has emerged for the namesake Hostess brand, which includes Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos, along with Dolly Madison cakes, which includes Coffee Cakes and Zingers, said Joshua Scherer of Perella Weinberg Partners. He said another viable bid was made for Drake's cakes, which includes Devil Dogs, Funny Bones and Yodels. That bidder also wants to buy the Drake's plant in Wayne, N.J., which Scherer said is the country's only kosher bakery plant.
Additional bids have been submitted for its bread brands, which include Wonder and Home Pride. Hostess expects to file binding "stalking horse" bids for many of its brands in January. Those filings would be followed by a four-week auction process to allow competing bids. Scherer said the auctions could be very active for some of the brands, given the number of parties that have expressed interest. Sales could be completed by as early as mid-March.
About 30 plants could also be sold with the brands, Scherer said, with six plants, several warehouses and a fleet of trucks likely to be closed or scrapped.
Hostess has hired a firm Hilco to act as a sales agent for those additional assets; the firm will also give Hostess a $30 million loan to maintain operations during its liquidation, which is expected to take about a year.
Hostess, based in Irving, Texas, has said potential buyers include major packaged food companies and national retailers, such as big-box retailers and supermarkets. The company has stressed it needs to move quickly in the sale process to capitalize on the outpouring of nostalgia sparked by its bankruptcy.
To begin winding down its operations late last month, Hostess had said it would retain about 3,000 workers to shutter plants and perform other tasks. On Friday, an attorney for Hostess said in court that figure was down to about 1,100 employees. The liquidation of Hostess ultimately means the loss of about 18,000 jobs, not including those shed in the years leading to the company's failure. CEO Greg Rayburn, who was hired as a restructuring expert earlier this year, is earning $125,000 a month.
The company's demise came after years of management turmoil and turnover, with workers saying the company failed to invest in updating its snack cakes and breads. Hostess filed for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy in less than a decade this January, citing steep costs associated with its unionized workforce.
The company was able to reach a new contract agreement with its largest union, the Teamsters, the bakers union rejected the terms and went on strike Nov. 9. A week later, Hostess announced its plans to liquidate, saying the strike crippled its ability to maintain normal production. Although Hostess sales have been declining over the years, they still clock in at between $2.3 billion and $2.4 billion a year.
When asked how much the brands are expected to fetch from buyers, Scherer said he would rather not say.

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Planned News Corp spin-off lost $2B in fiscal 2012

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said Friday that the news and publishing unit it plans to spin off next year posted a $2 billion net loss in the fiscal year through June, mainly due to one-time charges and restructuring costs in its newspaper division.
The details of the split were revealed Friday in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission. It confirmed investors' suspicions that the spun-off company — to be known as News Corp. — will be smaller and less profitable than the TV and movie business that will form Fox Group Inc.
The "new" News Corp. posted $8.7 billion in revenue last fiscal year, about a quarter of the company's total. Charges amounted to $2.8 billion, mainly due to declines in the value of newspapers and a drop in advertising at its in-store flyer business. The charges included restructuring costs of $156 million, most of which came from shutting down The News of the World, the tabloid at the heart of a hacking scandal in Britain.
News Corp. CEO Murdoch, 81, will be executive chairman of the spun-off company and remain CEO of Fox Group. He'll end up controlling both entities through the nearly 40 percent of Class B voting shares he controls through a family trust.
Robert Thomson, managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, will be the CEO of News Corp. with an annual salary and target bonus totaling about $4 million, not including stock awards.
The filing of the plan "is another important step forward in the evolution of our company and in the establishment of two independent global leaders," Murdoch said in a statement.
Shareholder approval is not needed for the split, but is required for the way it happens. The company plans to issue shares in the new News Corp. to existing shareholders in proportion to their current holdings of nonvoting Class A shares and voting Class B shares. If shareholders don't approve the split plan, the company may have to come up with a different way to enact it. A special shareholder meeting will be held sometime next year.
According to the filing, the smaller entity will be made up of Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal; newspapers such as The Herald Sun in Australia and The Times in Britain; digital real estate services; book publisher HarperCollins; pay TV channel Fox Sports Australia and a 50 percent stake in Australian pay TV provider Foxtel; and Amplify, its fledgling for-profit education business.
The remaining Fox Group will house pay TV channels that include Fox News Channel and FX; 20th Century Fox movie studio; Fox broadcast TV stations and network; satellite TV provider Sky Italia; and its 39 percent stake in British Sky Broadcasting.
Shares of News Corp fell 57 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $24.86 in afternoon trading amid a broad market decline.

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Oil drops as US 'fiscal cliff' approaches

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices fell as much as $2 a barrel Friday as doubts grew about whether political leaders in Washington could reach a deal on the budget before a package of tax hikes and spending cuts automatically kicks in with the new year.
If Republicans and Democrats don't work out a compromise in the next 10 days, the U.S. could go over the so-called "fiscal cliff," a reference to hundreds of billions of dollars in tax increases and government spending cuts that take effect if a budget deal is not reached. Many economists fear that would eventually push the U.S. back into recession, a situation that would likely mean less energy demand.
Benchmark crude for February delivery fell $1.47 to finish at $88.66 per barrel in New York, the contract's lowest point in three weeks. It dropped to $87.96 per barrel at one point Friday.
Late Thursday House Republicans abruptly put off a vote on an alternative plan offered by House Speaker John Boehner that would prevent scheduled tax increases from taking effect on Jan. 1 on all income under $1 million. President Barack Obama wants the cutoff point to be $400,000.
On Friday both signaled that talks are still open.
Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, fell $1.23 to end at $108.97 per barrel in London.
In other energy futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange:
— Natural gas lost a penny to finish at $3.45 per 1,000 cubic feet.
— Heating oil fell 4 cents to end at $3.02 a gallon.
— Wholesale gasoline fell 2 cents to finish at $2.73 a gallon.

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Erdrich, Boo win U.S. national book awards

(Reuters) - Author Louise Erdrich won the National Book Award for fiction for "The Round House," a moving novel about a woman raped in a Native American community, at the annual awards ceremony in New York on Wednesday.

Competition for the prize included such well-known authors as Junot Diaz and Dave Eggers, as well as Ben Fountain and debut novelist Kevin Powers.

The gala ceremony at which the awards were announced was designed to bring buzz to an industry that has been shaken up in its efforts to transition to the digital marketplace.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo won the nonfiction award for her first book, "Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity," which sheds light on the lives of India's poor as well as government corruption.

Boo, a former Washington Post editor and New Yorker writer who between November 2007 and March 2011 spent time in a Mumbai slum to experience life in contemporary India. She was praised widely for the book, which some critics said read more like a novel.

Boo told Reuters in March that her biggest barrier in the slums had been the "many, many languages spoken," and she gave credit to a group of translators. "I also needed someone to work with me the way I worked - slowly and patiently," she said.

David Ferry's "Bewilderment" won the award for poetry and William Alexander's "Goblin Secrets" won the young people's literature award.

Novelist Elmore Leonard and New York Times publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. received lifetime achievement honors.

The National Book Foundation, which administers the awards, nominated five writers in each of four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature.

The four winning writers each received a $10,000 prize.

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"The Last Man" shoots to top spot on U.S. bestseller list

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "The Last Man" soared straight to the top of Publishers Weekly's bestseller list on Wednesday in its debut week.

The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide.

Hardcover Fiction Last Week

1. "The Last Man" by Vince Flynn (Atria, $27.99) -

2. "Merry Christmas, Alex Cross" by James Patterson (Little, Brown, $28.99) -

3. "The Racketeer" by John Grisham (Doubleday, $28.95) 1

4. "Poseidon's Arrow" by Clive Cussler (Putnam, $28.95) 2

5. "Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper, $28.99) 3

6. 5. "The Casual Vacancy" by J. K. Rowling (Little, Brown, $35.00) 5

7. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn (Crown, $25.00) 7

8. "Sweet Tooth" by Ian McEwan (Doubleday/Talese, $26.95) -

9. "The Panther" by Nelson DeMille (Grand Central, $27.99) 6

10. "The Sins of the Mother" by Danielle Steel (Delacorte, $28.00) 4

Hardcover Nonfiction

1. "Killing Kennedy" by Bill O'Reilly (Henry Holt, $28.00) 2

2. "Barefoot Contessa Foolproof" by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter, $35.00) 1

3. "Thomas Jefferson" by Jon Meacham (Random House, $35.00) -

4. "Guinness World Records 2013" (Guinness World Records) 5

5. "No Easy Day" by Mark Owen (Dutton, $26.95) 3

6. "How to Create a Mind" by Ray Kurzweil (Viking, $27.95) -

7. "My Year in Meals" in Rachael Ray (Atria, $29.99) -

8. "Help, Thanks, Wow" by Anne Lamott (Riverhead, $17.95) -

9. "I Declare: 31 Promises to Speak" by Joel Osteen (FaithWords, $21.99) 4

10. "The Signal and the Noise" by Nate Silver ( Penguin, $27.95) 7

Week ended November 18, 2012, powered by Nielsen BookScan (c) 2012 The Nielsen Company.

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"Breaking Dawn - Part 2" reviews: is this the best "Twilight" ever?

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2" hits theaters Friday, and reviewers are weighing in about whether the vampire finale is bloody good or a lifeless mess.

Regardless of the critical consensus, Twi-hards are almost certain to show up, but based on the early notices "Part 2" is more likely to be shortlisted for Razzies than Oscars come awards time. The film scored a lackluster 52 percent "rotten" rating on critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, with many reviewers breaking out the garlic and stakes to condemn the film's sluggish pacing and wooden performances.

"Part 2" focuses on Bella (Kristen Stewart) as she adjusts to life as a mother and a vampire. Robert Pattinson returns as the brooding bloodsucker Edward Cullen and Taylor Lautner is back as the oft-shirtless, part werewolf Jacob.

On TheWrap, critic Alonso Duralde was largely positive, praising director Bill Condon for bringing some bite to the franchise. Where the film falls short, he argued, is in its source material - the series of novels by Stephenie Meyer that started a phenomenon but were derided for their tortured prose.

"Credit Condon with putting these cardboard characters and their loony dilemmas into a rich atmosphere; whether we're running through the woods with those ridiculous wolves or following Bella through a lit-for-Christmas Seattle, the director and cinematographer Guillermo Navarro ('Pan's Labyrinth') give the wintry settings a palpable sense of chilly foreboding," Duralde wrote.

The best thing that Peter Travers could say about "Breaking Dawn" deux was that it signaled the series was finally over. TheRolling Stone critic acknowledged that it was better than other films in the franchise but struggled to find much else to praise.

"You're going to hear a lot about 'Breaking Dawn Part 2' being the best of the Twilight movies. That's like saying a simple head cold is preferable to swine flu," he wrote. "They'll all make you sick."

Also left filled with bile was Dana Stevens. The Slate critic said the film ends on a suitably shocking climax, but getting there takes way too long.

"Splitting the last book in Stephenie Meyer's teen-vampire series into two separate movies may have been a wise business decision - with guaranteed throngs of adoring Twi-hards willing to go back for multiple viewings, why not eke out an extra sequel? - but it leaves the last film in the series with no place to go," Stevens wrote.

The movie is so dull, complained San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle, that audiences might contemplate doing bodily harm to themselves an hour into the latest visit to Forks, Wash.

"One final question: If they've been alive for 800 years, why does every female vampire sound like a Valley Girl? Are they endlessly adaptive, or did they all really stand out in Victorian England?," LaSalle wrote. It wasn't all pans. A few critics, such as the New York Times' Manohla Dargis found herself on Team Breaking Dawn. Though she griped about its languid pace, Dargis said Condon and his supple stars evoke the glamor of classic Hollywood screen couples. In the process she becomes probably the first critic to compare "Twilight" to the films of George Stevens.

"From the first extreme close-up of Bella fluttering open her dark, feathery eyelashes, Mr. Condon makes this 'Twilight' an intensely tactile and intimate experience," Dargis wrote. "Taking his cues from the Golden Age of Hollywood -- the close-ups of Bella and Edward bring to mind those of Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift in "A Place in the Sun." He bathes his stars in a gleaming light that gives their pale faces a luxurious alabaster sheen. This is one movie that should have been shot in 3D if only to allow the fans to caress the air."

Owen Gleiberman was similarly enraptured by Bella, Edward and their toothsome friends. The Entertainment Weekly critic said that the series benefits from a showstopper of a twist ending.

"It made me realize that, as narratively lumpy as they can be, I like the Twilight films because they're really about the eternal movie romance of vampires at play," Gleiberman wrote.

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Book Talk: The Swinging 60s, as told by a Cher-lookalike

SYDNEY (Reuters) - It is the 1960s and rock journalist Lola Bensky finds herself deep in the heart of the music scene in London and New York, interviewing emerging stars like Mick Jagger and Jimi Hendrix.

But the 19-year-old Melbourne-born Lola of the eponymous "Lola Bensky," by Lily Bent, is no ordinary rock journalist. The Jewish child of two Holocaust survivors, she prefers to ask interviewees how they got on with their mother and wins praise from Cher, who tells her they look alike.

Bent, who like her heroine originally hails from Australia and in fact still bears a strong resemblance to Cher, spoke with Reuters on a recent visit from New York, her home of 23 years, about her semi-autobiographical novel.

Q: For a young reporter, you were very comfortable around these rock stars. Why?

A: "If you've had two parents who have been imprisoned in ghettos and Nazi death camps, idolizing rock stars almost seemed absurd. My life was not centered around being alone with Mick Jagger in his apartment, it was to make sure my reel to reel tape recorder wasn't screwing up."

Q: Born to survivors of the Auschwitz death camp, Lola was fixated with losing weight, and as a teenager your ambition in life was to lose weight? Why is weight such an issue?

A: "This is a very complicated issue (and) there are many aspects of it. However, in the ghettos and the camps anyone who had any excess weight was doing something at someone else's expense, aiding the destruction of other people. My mother admired slimness above all, you could have won the Nobel prize for nuclear physics and if you were fat, she would have said ‘what a fatty'!

"I think my act of rebellion which I thought would upset my Mother was in the end destructive to me. Rebellion is the need to dement your parents and it worked."

Q: There is a strong Jewish theme throughout your book and it's as if you almost make fun of it. Is that risky?"

A: "I think it's very important not to hold any culture or religious belief as sacrosanct, as something that can't be talked about, something that you can't find something funny about. If you ask a Jew how they are they would never say ‘excellent' because who knows what could happen two seconds later. When people ask you, I want to say, ‘well I don't know because there are so many things that have to function in your body simultaneously, how do you know they're all working.' It's such a very complicated question."

Q: At the 1967 Monterey Festival you were surrounded by people taking drugs of some sort, in fact throughout your career, yet you always declined. Why?

A: "I had to explain - my parents are really really upset that I didn't become a lawyer so I can't become a junkie. I was always saying no thank you to drugs at the Monterey Pop Festival. I was so relieved when someone passed carrots along the row (instead of drugs)".

Q: Death surrounds Lola, when the ghosts of the past merge with names like Jim Morrison, Mama Cass, Brian Jones, Janis Joplin and Keith Moon, who all die during her time as a reporter. Does Lola Bensky/Lily Brett finally find out what it means to be human?

A: "That's one of life's really really complex questions. I think that maybe it means to care about other people and not just the people around you. To have compassion."

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"Twilight Saga" ends with movie love letter to fans

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Twilight" fans bid an emotional farewell this week to Bella, Edward and Jacob in "Breaking Dawn-Part 2," the romantic book and movie franchise that ignited a pop culture infatuation with blood-sucking vampires and werewolves.

The tumultuous love triangle between human girl Bella Swan, vampire Edward Cullen and werewolf Jacob Black, that has gripped avid fans known as "Twi-hards" for seven years, comes to a tantalizing end as "Breaking Dawn-Part 2" hits movie theaters around the world.

The "Twilight" film franchise, based on a series of novels by Stephenie Meyer, rocketed the three main stars, Kristen Stewart (Bella), Robert Pattinson (Edward) and Taylor Lautner (Jacob), into the spotlight and the first four films have grossed more than $2.5 billion at the worldwide box office.

For director Bill Condon, who shot both parts of "Breaking Dawn" together and split into two movies post-production, the fifth and final film was all about the fans - who get a surprise twist to the ending.

"The real challenge was to make sure it was a satisfying climax," Condon told reporters. "The film opens with an overture of all the main scenes from all five movies, and at the end, I...brought (it) back to the spirit of the old movies."

The movie pays homage to the angst-ridden teenage romance between Bella and Edward that was underscored by the off-screen real-life romance between Stewart, 22, and Pattinson, 26.

"Breaking Dawn-Part 2" shifts the action from a love story to a family story, as the Cullen clan recruit their extended vampire family to protect Bella and Edward's daughter Renesmee from an ancient vampire coven.

"I think it's very sweet, especially the ending of it, I think it's very close to the book as well. It seems to be that it's really made for the fans," Pattinson told Reuters.

GOING OFF BOOK

While the past four films have stayed true to the books, author Meyer and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg came up with a plot twist that adds a major scene that may surprise movie-goers.

"(The action) is off screen in the novel because we only see what Bella sees, and this was just a way of making visual what some of the other characters might have seen," Meyer told reporters.

"It does feel very surprising. There's something new to see but to me it doesn't seem like it's going hugely off the page," she added.

While the fourth film saw Bella's human life draw to a conclusion when she died giving birth to a human-vampire hybrid baby with new husband Edward, "Breaking Dawn-Part 2," sees Bella as a mother and a newly-transformed vampire.

"The coolest thing about vampire Bella is that I got to play her as a human for so long, and the special parts of each vampire are always informed by the great things that they were as a human and so I got to walk in those shoes," Stewart told Reuters.

"Everything made total sense to me. I waited for so long (to play a vampire), once I finally got it, it was so comfortable, I couldn't wait," the actress added.

"The Twilight Saga," first published in 2005, kicked off a wave of vampire or supernatural-themes books, films and TV shows including HBO's "True Blood," the CW TV network's "The Vampire Diaries" and Richelle Mead's "Vampire Academy" series of young adult novels.

As the sun sets on the franchise Meyer brought to life, the author said that while she didn't rule out the possibility of finding more stories in the vampire-werewolf universe, she had closed the chapter on the Cullens.

"I don't know if I'll ever get back to these (stories). Someday I'll write down what was going to happen next. It's sad knowing I don't have another party with the kids again, I really hope I have a chance to at least see my friends again," she told Reuters.

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