White Collar 2013 Jeff Eastin Interview

The explosive (how cool was that fire thing Neal did with the kiln?!?) White Collar season premiere may have answered one big lingering mystery -- Sam Phelps a.k.a. James Bennett is Neal's father and is not a cop killer -- but set up countless new questions.

In an attempt to gain some season 4.5 clarity, I caught up with EP Jeff Eastin to find out who's coming back, who's leaving for good and what the finale holds for our White Collar crew!

ETonline: Neal ended the premiere by hugging his father. Where does that relationship go from here?

Jeff Eastin: Since season one, we've been working off this idea that Neal doesn't know who he is because he didn't know who his family was. There was a line early on where he said, "If I'm not my father's son, who am I?" Now, he's had the chance to meet his father and it's very much a case of be careful what you wish for. He finds a shadowy reflection of himself in James and that’s hard for him to deal with. This season is about Neal starting to fall back in love with his father.

RELATED - Matt Bomer Designs White Collar-Inspired Clothing Line

ETonline: We've also watched Peter realize that sometimes you have to do bad things to yield good results. Will he continue to struggle with straddling that line this season?

Eastin: That's very much Peter's journey in these episodes. He's been flirting with that, and I can say that this season, Hughes [Peter's F.B.I. boss played by James Rebhorn] is forced out of his job and that makes everyone realize they're dealing with forces that are stronger than anything they've faced in the past. But when Hughes leaves the office, he doesn't leave the show -- he becomes a clandestine mentor for Peter and he factors in heavily to Peter trying very hard to go back to the right and wrong morality he's used to. With Hughes being forced out, Peter realizes the bureau has kind of turned on him. As much as he's told to be careful or he'll turn into Caffrey, it's the realization that to restore law and order, Peter has to basically become Neal -- that's his big arc this season.

ETonline: The fans love when Elizabeth gets in on the caper, and in the exclusive season-long teaser we posted, Elizabeth was seen wielding a gun. Does she continue to get more involved with Peter's job this season?

Eastin: Yeah. There's a couple good episodes for her this season. On the emotional side, she factors heavily into Neal accepting his father and Peter accepting that he needs to do evil to do good. But we've also got a great episode where Peter and Elizabeth get kidnapped together. Elizabeth definitely has a much bigger part in this season than she ever has before.

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO - First Look at Jeff Eastin's New Show, Graceland

ETonline: With Neal re-evaluating everything about himself in light of meeting his dad, will we see Sara Ellis (played by Hilarie Burton) return?

Eastin: I always thought it was so funny that when I first introduced Sara, the fan reaction was decidedly negative. I think she brought a lot of baggage from her last show [One Tree Hill]. One time I straight up asked her, "What did you do over there? Geez!" [laughs] There seemed to be a lot of negativity, but when I moved away from that relationship, suddenly all the hate turned into love, so Hilarie will be back for several episodes this season. It all goes back to Neal wanting Peter's life. It's like Goldilocks in a way: Kate was too pure, Alex was too far on the criminal side, but Sarah is just right. She could enjoy Neal's dangerous side, but at the same time, she had a great moral compass of her own. This season, they've learned friends with benefits is a good place to be, which takes a lot of the pressure off since both were resistant to anything heavier. But Sterling Bosche will offer Sara the chance to head up their UK office and that suddenly puts the pressure back on because it's like, "Wow, this could be the end for us."

ETonline: You always seem to try and top your previous season finale, so what can you say about this year's ender?

Eastin: I'm really excited about our finale, it's big this year. We shot it in The Empire State Building, up on the 103rd floor, which is the secret top deck that only celebrities can see. It's pretty intense. We got to shoot Neal and Sara up there, for good reasons -- it starts out as part of the con they're running, but it ends with the two of them up there and it's really beautiful and emotional. We can always come back to those two if we want, but it's also a fantastic summation of their relationship. As for season five, it's very much a continuation of where season four ends. Once that carry over wraps up, Peter does help Neal answer the question of who he is. In Neal's mind, it's always been about meeting his father and learning who he is as a result of that. But Peter is able to convey to Neal that your father doesn't define you, you define you. That realization allows Neal to look forward in season five.

White Collar airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on USA.

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2 NJ men suing Subway over shorter footlong sandwiches

MOUNT HOLLY, NJ — Two New Jersey men have sued Subway, saying the world's biggest fast-food chain has been shorting them on its so-called footlong sandwiches.

The filing made Tuesday seeks compensatory damages from the company and a change in practices.

Plaintiffs' lawyer Stephen DeNittis says the company should either make their sandwiches 12 inches long or stop advertising them as footlongs.

He said he's measured sandwiches from 17 area shops and not one has been 12 inches long.

The issue got widespread attention last week when a man posted a photo of a sandwich and a ruler on the company's Facebook page.

Brian Zak

This subway footlong only measures about 11 inches.

Milford, Conn.-based Subway did not immediately return a call to The Associated Press.

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Miami Dolphins slam Norman Braman, Marlins Park deal

The Miami Dolphins ramped up their public campaign for a tax-funded stadium renovation this week, buying full-page ads against their top critic and trying to distance the plan from the unpopular Marlins deal.

The team bought an ad in Tuesday’s Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald knocking auto magnate Norman Braman’s criticism of the Sun Life Stadium deal, which would have Florida and Miami-Dade split the costs with owner Stephen Ross for a $400 million renovation. The Dolphins would pay at least $201 million, with taxpayers using state funds and a higher Miami-Dade hotel tax to pay $199 million.

In a fact sheet sent to media Tuesday morning, the Dolphins listed ways their deal differs from the 2009 Marlins deal. First: Ross, a billionaire real estate developer, would use private dollars to fund at least 51 percent of the Sun Life effort, compared to less than 25 percent from Marlins owner Jeff Loria. Second, Sun Life helps the economy more than the Marlins park does.

“Just because the Marlins did a bad deal doesn’t mean we should oppose a good deal where at least a majority of the cost is paid from private sources and more than 4,000 local jobs are created during construction alone,” the fact sheet states. And while the Dolphins’ Miami Gardens stadium has hosted two Super Bowls since 2007 and is in the running for the 2016 game, “Marlins Stadium does not generate the ability to attract world-class sports events -- other than a World Series from time to time depending on the success of the team.”

NFL teams play eight home games a year if they don’t make the playoffs, while baseball teams have 81.

Miami and Miami-Dade built the Marlins a $640 million stadium at the site of the Dolphins’ old home at the Orange Bowl in Little Havana. The Marlins contributed about $120 million and agreed to pay between $2.5 million and $4.9 million a year for 35 years to pay back $35 million of debt the county borrowed for the stadium. As a publicly owned stadium, the Marlins ballpark pays no property taxes. Most of the public money came from Miami-Dade hotel taxes, along with $50 million of debt tied to the county’s general fund.

Sun Life is privately owned and pays $3 million a year in property taxes to Miami-Dade. It currently receives $2 million a year from Florida’ s stadium program, a subsidy tied to converting the football venue to baseball in the 1990s when the Marlins played there. The Dolphins also paid for a second full-page ad with quotes from leading hoteliers in Miami-Dade endorsing the stadium plan. Among them: Donald Trump, whose company recently purchased the Doral golf resort. “Steve Ross’ commitment to modernize Sun Life Stadium -- while covering most of the construction costs -- is the right thing for Miami-Dade,’’ the ad quotes Trump as saying.

Also on Tuesday, Ross and team CEO Mike Dee sent a letter to Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez and county commissioners requesting negotiations over the stadium deal. The letter said the deal Ross unveiled last week is a “baseline for debate” and asked for talks. The letter also urged the commission to adopt a resolution proposed by Commissioner Barbara Jordan endorsing the state bill that would allow taxes for Sun Life. The resolution is on the agenda for Wednesday’s commission meeting.

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Growers want state to give them 30-year no-bid access to Everglades land

TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet will be asked on Wednesday to agree to a no-bid contract to allow two major agriculture companies to farm on Everglades land for another 30 years, a deal that would include pouring tons of phosphorous-laden fertilizer onto the site the state is spending billions to clean-up.

The request from Florida Crystals and A. Duda and Sons is supported by the state Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel Vinyard and South Florida Water Management District officials. But environmentalists aren’t happy.

“The State of Florida is putting 13,952 acres of state land off the table as a possible solution to future problems,’’ said Charles Lee, director of advocacy for Audubon of Florida at a meeting of the Cabinet aides last week. “It is passing up an opportunity.”

Environmentalists have agreed to allow Florida Crystals to continue sugar farming 7,862 acres in the Everglades Agricultural Area because they believe the company is “holding the state hostage” and won’t allow a crucial next step to go forward in the Everglades clean-up plan if they don’t get the deal.

But environmentalists strongly oppose the Duda deal, which would allow that company to continue to grow vegetables farm 6,089 acres of land and pump 339 tons of fertilizer each year into the Everglades, exacerbating the clean-up problem the state is spending billions to fix. They want the state to require Duda to reduce its phosphorous run-off in exchange for the favorable no-bid contract.

According to emails obtained by the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times Tallahassee bureau, Tracy Peters of the Division of State Lands initially suggested that Florida Crystals reduce its pollution levels in exchange for the lease extension. But the attorney for the company, Silvia Morell Alderman of Akerman Senterfitt, responded that such requirements “would be deal breakers” because the company has been improving its phosphorous levels for 17 years.

Peters then backed off and, on several occasions, asked Alderman’s permission to make other minor changes to the proposal, the emails show.

Under a 1994 Everglades Forever Act, the companies were to give 20-year leases to farm land in the Everglades Agricultural Area in exchange for reducing polluted run-off that is choking the Everglades. The proposal to be voted on by the governor and Cabinet Wednesday will extend five of those leases, which are set to expire between 2015 and 2018, and allow them to continue for another 30 years.

In September, Scott formally signed off on $880 million worth of Everglades cleanup projects that will expand efforts to stem the flow of polluted farm, ranch and yard runoff into the famed River of Grass. The agreement between the state, sugar growers and the Environmental Protection Agency, would allow the state to move forward with building stormwater treatment projects and meet a series of discharge limits beginning in 2018.

Lee told the Cabinet aides that the state may not have the legal authority to negotiate the lease renewal in the first place but, if it does, it should attempt to reduce phosphorous loads onto the land. A similar deal was cut three years ago when the state renewed agricultural leases as part of a land-purchase deal with U.S. Sugar and the company agreed to reduce phosphorous levels on the land in exchange for the deal.

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Is Facebook envy making you miserable?

LONDON (Reuters) – Witnessing friends’ vacations, love lives and work successes on Facebook can cause envy and trigger feelings of misery and loneliness, according to German researchers.

A study conducted jointly by two German universities found rampant envy on Facebook, the world’s largest social network that now has over one billion users and has produced an unprecedented platform for social comparison.

The researchers found that one in three people felt worse after visiting the site and more dissatisfied with their lives, while people who browsed without contributing were affected the most.

“We were surprised by how many people have a negative experience from Facebook with envy leaving them feeling lonely, frustrated or angry,” researcher Hanna Krasnova from the Institute of Information Systems at Berlin’s Humboldt University told Reuters.

“From our observations some of these people will then leave Facebook or at least reduce their use of the site,” said Krasnova, adding to speculation that Facebook could be reaching saturation point in some markets.

Researchers from Humboldt University and from Darmstadt’s Technical University found vacation photos were the biggest cause of resentment with more than half of envy incidents triggered by holiday snaps on Facebook.

Social interaction was the second most common cause of envy as users could compare how many birthday greetings they received to those of their Facebook friends and how many “likes” or comments were made on photos and postings.

“Passive following triggers invidious emotions, with users mainly envying happiness of others, the way others spend their vacations and socialize,” the researchers said in the report “Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users’ Life Satisfaction?” released on Tuesday.

“The spread and ubiquitous presence of envy on Social Networking Sites is shown to undermine users’ life satisfaction.”

They found people aged in their mid-30s were most likely to envy family happiness while women were more likely to envy physical attractiveness.

These feelings of envy were found to prompt some users to boast more about their achievements on the site run by Facebook Inc. to portray themselves in a better light.

Men were shown to post more self-promotional content on Facebook to let people know about their accomplishments while women stressed their good looks and social lives.

The researchers based their findings on two studies involving 600 people with the results to be presented at a conference on information systems in Germany in February.

The first study looked at the scale, scope and nature of envy incidents triggered by Facebook and the second at how envy was linked to passive use of Facebook and life satisfaction.

The researchers said the respondents in both studies were German but they expected the findings to hold internationally as envy is a universal feeling and possibly impact Facebook usage.

“From a provider’s perspective, our findings signal that users frequently perceive Facebook as a stressful environment, which may, in the long-run, endanger platform sustainability,” the researchers concluded.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Russell Crowe Compares Costume To Britney Spears' Toxic

A fan of Russell Crowe's noticed something pretty amazing about the tough guy's Les Miserables costume -- it greatly resembles Britney Spears' stewardess getup in her video Toxic.

Crowe, 48, retweeted Boris Prso's split pic of the celebs in costume on Monday, with Boris writing: "hey @britneyspears did you see @russellcrowe in #lesMis maybe he is fan of you."

RELATED: Worn Out? Stars Step Out In Same Style

The tweet was a hit, getting nearly 500 retweets.

Check out Spears' super-fun Toxic video below and let us know: Who wore it best: Britney or Russell?

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Tuiasosopo apologized to woman whose picture was used to portray fake Te'o girlfriend

The woman whose photo was used as the "face" of the Twitter account of Manti Te'o's supposed girlfriend says the man allegedly behind the hoax confessed and apologized to her.

Diane O'Meara spoke to NBC's "Today" show Tuesday. She says Ronaiah Tuiasosopo used pictures of her without her knowledge in creating a fake woman called Lennay Kekua. Te'o asserts he was tricked into an online romance with Kekua and, until last week, believed she died of leukemia in September.

O'Meara went to high school with Tuiasosopo, but she says they're not close. She says he called to apologize Jan. 16, the day Deadspin.com broke the hoax story, but "I don't think there's anything he could say to me that would fix this."

Photo of the image used to portray Manti Te'o's imaginary girlfriend Lennay Marie Kekua.

The 23-year-old O'Meara is a marketing executive in Los Angeles. She says that for five years, Tuiasosopo "has literally been stalking my Facebook and stealing my photos."

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Brickell Avenue drawbridge stuck in up position

Traffic chaos spread throughout downtown Miami Tuesday when the southbound span of the heavily traveled Brickell Avenue drawbridge became stuck in the up position after the locking mechanism sustained damage during a test operation at dawn.

Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) officials said they did not know how long emergency repairs, now in progress, will take but indicated it could be several days before the southbound lanes reopen. The northbound lanes remained open.

“Oh my God. It was awful,” said Therese Gagné, a commuter who was near the Brickell Avenue Bridge returning home in Key Biscayne from Miami Beach. “Cars were cutting each other off. I was stuck for more than 15 minutes before I was able to loop around and head north on U.S. 1 and then get onto I-95 to avoid the mess. I’m never taking this bridge again.”

Transportation officials said southbound traffic on the on the bridge was being re-routed to eastbound SE 4th Street.

Drivers were asked to proceed north on SE 3rd Avenue, west on SE/SW 2nd Street, south on SW 2nd Avenue, east on SW 8th Street and then back to Brickell Avenue.

Drivers could also bypass the area by staying south on I-95 and then circling back to Brickell Avenue northbound from the Key Biscayne exit.

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Cuban exile mother of inaugural poet Richard Blanco now in spotlight

At first, Geysa Blanco thought her son was kidding.

"He said, ‘Mom, I have news for you,’ " Blanco said, recalling the telephone call from her son a few weeks ago.

"Between English and Spanish, he told me that they had chosen him to write and read a poem at the presidential inauguration,” she said.

But Richard Blanco, a child of exiles who was raised in Miami and graduated from Florida International University, was serious.

The Barack Obama inaugural committee chose the 44-year-old Cuban-American civil engineer and author to recite an original poem at Monday’s inauguration.

Richard Blanco has also been speechless. “It took me 10 minutes to remember what the word for inauguration is in Spanish," he said in a telephone interview Sunday from Washington, D.C., less than 24 hours before taking center stage.

Blanco, who now lives in Maine, will become the first Hispanic inaugural poet and the first openly gay one. He is also only the fifth and youngest poet in the exclusive club of poets.

The first was Robert Frost, who in 1961 wrote a poem for the inauguration of John F. Kennedy.

Then in 1993, Bill Clinton chose the African-American writer Maya Angelou. William Miller was chosen for Clinton’s second inauguration, and Elizabeth Alexander wrote the poem for Obama’s first ceremony.

In a statement, Obama said Blanco’s work represents "the great strength and diversity of the American people."

This diversity and strength could be reflected in the story of the poet’s Cuban exile mother.

"She is a very brave woman and has worked hard all her life for my brother and me," Blanco said.

During an interview at her Westchester home, Geysa Blanco, 75, said that it still seems surreal that a woman who grew up in a sugar refinery in Cienfuegos will stand in front of the National Capitol, watching her son recite a poem for the nation and the president of the United States.

“My son said reporters might want to interview me and I said, ‘Me? What for?’ ” Geysa Blanco said. Indeed, local reporters and TV cameras have come knocking and the proud mother has given several interviews.

Geysa Blanco has also become a celebrity among her neighbors, friends and customers at Regions Bank on Bird Road, where she has worked for more than 30 years.

The roots of Richard Blanco’s writing began in 1968 when his parents fled the Communist island and went into exile in Spain. At the time, Geysa Blanco, a teacher, was pregnant and she and her late husband Carlos, already had an older son, also named Carlos.

"We decided to leave Cuba because the government was becoming more and more difficult to live under," she said. "But it was very painful for me because I left my mother and brothers behind and came here virtually alone and with nothing."

After five months in Spain, where she gave birth to Richard, they emigrated to New York.

As a boy, she said Richard always had an interest in exploring his Cuban roots.

"I always had questions about Cuba, about the family we left there," he said. On his website he refers to himself as being “made in Cuba, assembled in Spain, and imported to the U.S.”

That sense of not belonging and trying to belong seeps through his books of poetry, which often feature his family and their efforts hold on to their traditions.

When Richard was about 5 and Carlos 11, the family moved to the closest place to Cuba – Miami. His mother went to work in a supermarket and later landed her bank job.

"We lived three generations in one house, my husband’s parents, my husband and I, and Charles and Richard," the poet’s mother said. "Sometimes it was hard because grandparents are not accustomed to the modern ways of young people.”

Today, she laments that those family members are gone. “I wish Richard’s father and grandparents were here to enjoy this day,” she said.

Richard Blanco did get to visit the homeland his parents yearned for when he was growing up.

"Everyone thought he wasn’t going to speak Spanish and was going to feel uncomfortable," Geysa Blanco said of her relatives on the island. "But they were surprised because he picked yucca in the fields, jumped in the canals and danced a lot, just like everyone else.”

That trip as a young man would shape the poet’s future work, his mother said. "I think that’s where he caught the bug to write about his roots," she said.

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Atari US files for Ch. 11 to separate from parent

NEW YORK (AP) — Video game maker Atari’s U.S. operations have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in an effort to separate from their French parent company.

In a statement, Atari says the move is necessary to secure investments it needs to grow in mobile and digital gaming.

Atari’s U.S. operations have shifted to focus on digital games and licensing, including developing mobile games, and have become a growth engine for its owner. France’s Infogrames Entertainment first took a stake in Atari in 2000. It acquired the remaining stake in 2008 and changed its name to Atari S.A.

But the U.S. operations have been better performing than the rest of the company. In fiscal 2012 digital and licensing revenue both grew significantly and contributed 70 percent of revenue, while sales in bricks-and-mortar stores declined.

In December, Atari S.A. said a credit agreement it entered into with investor BlueBay would lapse at the end of the year and the company was seeking other ways to raise capital. It added that it expects to report a “significant loss” for fiscal 2012.

Atari, which turned 40 last year, was a videogame pioneer with games like “Pong” and “Centipede,” but has changed owners several times amid financial problems. In its filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, Atari said it had $ 1 million to $ 10 million in assets and $ 10 million to $ 50 million in debt. It is seeking approval for $ 5.25 million in debtor-in-possession financing from private investment firm Tenor Capital Management.

Atari said it expects to sell its assets or confirm a restructuring plan within the next three to six months.

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