Notorious

"Notorious," by Donald Spoto. HarperCollins. 496 pages. $27.50. Two years before her death in 1982, Ingrid Bergman asked to be remembered for her work: "I hope they will put on my gravestone, 'She acted to the last day of her life. Here rests a good actress.' " By naming his new life story of Bergman after her 1946 film "Notorious," Donald Spoto glances at her work, but chiefly invokes the scandal that has long overshadowed her career in the popular imagination.Forget the hard-sell title: The substance of Spoto's absorbing and artful biography puts the emphasis back where it belongs, on Ingrid Bergman's creative accomplishment.

Michael Kenneth Williams is feeling lucky these days. The 44-year-old performer known to fans of HBO's "The Wire" as fearless stickup man Omar Little says there is nothing he's wanted more since the Baltimore-based drama ended than to "just continuously stay working" as an actor. And as the new TV season rolls out, evidence of his eminent employability is hard to miss. Williams returns to HBO tonight as a 1920s African-American community leader named Chalky White in the critically acclaimed drama series "Boardwalk Empire.

NEW YORK -- When it comes to playing Biggie on the big screen, size matters. Take it from De'Andre Neal, a 6-foot-3, 315- pound bouncer with fingers as thick as Twix bars. The Brooklyn native was one of more than 100 hopefuls who turned out this past weekend for an open casting call on a soundstage in Manhattan's meat-packing district, trying to fill the size-13 shoes of Christopher Wallace, a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G., in Notorious, a new biopic about the slain rapper. "Seriously, I saw people who shouldn't even be here," said Neal, 29, his voice so deep it could give you the bends.

Check out this video from the MIAA high school lacrosse playoffs in May of an announcer named Booker Corrigan calling a game between Boys' Latin and McDonogh. The goal by Boys' Latin's Greg Pyke is pretty standard, but the call from Corrigan -- inspired by Biggie Smalls -- was not. [ Via Awful Announcing ]

Joseph T. Maskell, a retired Baltimore police lieutenant who was shot in a 1964 robbery that began the notorious Veney brothers case, died of lung cancer April 10 at his Mount Washington home. He was 73.Lieutenant Maskell joined the Police Department in 1946 and, after recovering from his wounds, retired in 1966. He became an adjuster for an insurance company and was appointed vice president of marketing at Freestate Adjusting Co. in 1979. He retired again in 1986 and was a rental car salesman until 1990.

DURBAN, South Africa -- The South African government released notorious killers from opposite ends of the political spectrum yesterday in the name of political reform and reconciliation.The most notorious former guerrilla released yesterday was Robert McBride, who planted a car bomb in 1986 that killed three white women. He walked out of prison here to a hero's welcome from dozens of activists from the African National Congress.They shouted "Viva Robert McBride" and "Long Live," the usual chants of the black liberation movement, as the 29-year-old former guerrilla fighter stepped past the iron, sliding gate of Durban's Westville Prison, his right fist held high in the air.He was flanked by his wife, Paula, a human rights activist from a wealthy white family who married him while he was on death row, and Walter Sisulu, an ANC veteran who spent 25 years as a political prisoner.

GALWAY, Ireland -- As an unsupervised young chief trader in Singapore in 1995, Nicholas W. Leeson lost $1.3 billion in frenzied trades in Japanese stock futures and bonds, destroying his employer, the 233-year-old Barings Bank, which had Queen Elizabeth II as a customer. Now, Leeson, having served four years in prison and survived a bout with colon cancer, has managed to turn those money-losing bets into a money-making enterprise - warning bankers of their continuing vulnerability to rogue traders.

DORADAL, Colombia -- Ramon Isaza, a small, handsome, dark-skinned man with a crown of curly black hair, greets a visitor to his second-floor patio wearing black Topsiders, black jean shorts, and a black-and-white T-shirt. As the sounds of Colombian music float in from the living room, his wife, Estermila, walks around in a red-checkered dress with cups of coffee for him and his guests. Everyone around Ramon Isaza, 59, addresses him with the title of Don, as a sign of respect. An admirer tells a visitor how Doradal, a village of 3,000 people in the mountains of northern Colombia, loves Isaza.

This week, one of Baltimore's most vociferously aggressive defense lawyers, Warren A. Brown, stood in a circuit courtroom shouting and preaching to a judge about his right to shout and preach. A city prosecutor had filed a motion to gag Brown, saying his public rhetoric in the headline-making case of a 10-year-old boy shot in the neck could endanger a witness. The motion was temporarily denied by a judge, but not before Brown, who has a diminutive stature and a booming voice, got up on his soapbox.

The star of Notorious, Jamal Woolard, who plays the straight-out-of-Brooklyn rap giant Christopher Wallace - known as Biggie Smalls, Big Poppa, the Notorious B.I.G. or just plain Biggie - possesses a marvelously malleable presence. He's as ominous as Mike Tyson and as lovable as Fat Albert. He's perfect for the fact-based story of Biggie Smalls, shot down at age 24 in 1997, because Woolard can make the rapper's evasiveness as well as his brutal honesty seem charismatic and attractive. Sometimes his friends can't penetrate to his core because he loses himself in deep emotion, as when he discovers that his super-strict yet loving mom (Angela Bassett)

Justin Verlander seemingly has been mediocre, with the Tigers winning only two of his six April starts, but his 3.64 ERA is actually a good sign. This is the first time since 2007 that he has finished the first month with an ERA below 5.50. … Manny Ramirez's retirement allowed the Rays to slide Sam Fuld onto the All-Star ballot, and manager Joe Maddon expects him to get a lot of support. Maddon said Fuld has been just as good in left field as Carl Crawford . … The Giants are playing Brandon Belt in the outfield at Triple A. He will go to an outfield corner when he returns rather than unseating Aubrey Huff at first base.

"Mickey One" is a runaway movie and a wild curiosity. It's a gorgeous, infuriating American art film from an era when our best moviemakers tried to take the pulse of the nation rather than merely guess the emotional weight of their next-door neighbors. It's weirdly exhilarating to see it on the same screen at the Charles where "mumblecore" and other minimalist aesthetics sometimes rule. Instead of kitchen-sink comedy-drama, it gives us everything- including -the-kitchen-sink comedy-drama.

A 21-year-old man was sentenced Monday in Anne Arundel County to five days in jail for a probation violation related to his role in a murder his mother committed. Matthew Haarhoff pleaded guilty in 2008 to being an accessory in the murder of Tony Fertitta, his mother's boyfriend. Haarhoff's mother, Cindy McKay, was sentenced to 30 years in the killing of Fertitta, whose body was found ablaze beside a Millersville road in February 2006. Haarhoff received a suspended sentence followed by three years of probation for his role in disposing of Fertitta's body.

Ranking the Baltimore area's top 10 crime stories of the past two decades is a daunting task, and this list is far from complete. I tried to choose stories that fit certain categories - the most heinous, for example - or ones that can speak to broader themes, such as witness intimidation. I agonized over ones that dropped off the list, but more details on these crimes and others that didn't make the cut can be found on my blog. Dontay Carter kidnapped two downtown businessmen in 1992, killed one and later escaped custody by leaping out of a second-floor courthouse window, sparking a sweeping manhunt.

This has been a great summer for Maryland books and authors, and just in time for mountain, beach or backporch reading is Ed Okonowicz's True Crime: Maryland. The State's Most Notorious Criminal Cases, published by Stackpole Books. True Crime is a departure for the Elkton author, folklorist, semiretired University of Delaware professor, freelance journalist and storyteller, who with his wife, Kathleen, has published more than 20 books of ghost stories and regional folklore since 1994. "I got to the point I was ghosted out and I needed a change," Okonowicz said.

Coraline : (Focus Features) The makers of A Nightmare Before Christmas tell an animated story of a young girl who walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life. With the voices of Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher. He's Just Not That Into You: (New Line Cinema) The lives of desperate Baltimore singles intersect in a loose adaptation of the popular self-help book. With Jennifer Aniston and Drew Barrymore. The Pink Panther Deux : (Columbia Pictures)

St. Mary's City -- Nezia Munezero and her 10-member family spent years running from one East African refugee camp to another, staying one step ahead of death in a world torn by ethnic warfare and genocide. In 2002, they were resettled in Baltimore. At age 16 and with no knowledge of English, she enrolled at the now-shuttered Southwestern High School and lived in a grim neighborhood beset by urban crime. It was a stepping-stone to a better life, but also another place to flee. "Students at Southwestern weren't friendly toward immigrants," said Munezero, 22, a slight woman with a lilting accent.

To get the city to clean up a notorious drug market, write a best-seller about it.If they built a proper convention hotel, the Convention Center would never book safety hearings.Al Gore befuddled everyone in Kyoto. A triumph.The stock market is booming because the U.S. is the least bad economy in which to park your money.Pub Date: 12/10/97

The star of Notorious, Jamal Woolard, who plays the straight-out-of-Brooklyn rap giant Christopher Wallace - known as Biggie Smalls, Big Poppa, the Notorious B.I.G. or just plain Biggie - possesses a marvelously malleable presence. He's as ominous as Mike Tyson and as lovable as Fat Albert. He's perfect for the fact-based story of Biggie Smalls, shot down at age 24 in 1997, because Woolard can make the rapper's evasiveness as well as his brutal honesty seem charismatic and attractive. Sometimes his friends can't penetrate to his core because he loses himself in deep emotion, as when he discovers that his super-strict yet loving mom (Angela Bassett)