Study: Drug coverage to vary under health law

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new study says basic prescription drug coverage could vary dramatically from state to state under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

That's because states get to set benefits for private health plans that will be offered starting in 2014 through new insurance exchanges.

The study out Tuesday from the market analysis firm Avalere Health found that some states will require coverage of virtually all FDA-approved drugs, while others will only require coverage of about half of medications.

Consumers will still have access to essential medications, but some may not have as much choice.

Connecticut, Virginia and Arizona will be among the states with the most generous coverage, while California, Minnesota and North Carolina will be among states with the most limited.

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Online:

Avalere Health: http://tinyurl.com/d3b3hfv

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Huston's "Infrared" wins Bad Sex fiction prize

LONDON (AP) — It's the prize no author wants to win.

Award-winning novelist Nancy Huston won Britain's Bad Sex in Fiction award Tuesday for her novel "Infrared," whose tale of a photographer who takes pictures of her lovers during sex proved too revealing for the judges.

The choice was announced by "Downton Abbey" actress Samantha Bond during a ceremony at the Naval & Military Club in London.

Judges of the tongue-in-cheek prize — which is run by the Literary Review magazine — said they were struck by a description of "flesh, that archaic kingdom that brings forth tears and terrors, nightmares, babies and bedazzlements," and by a long passage that builds to a climax of "undulating space."

Huston, who lives in Paris, was not on hand to collect her prize. In a statement read by her publicist, the 59-year-old author said she hoped her victory would "incite thousands of British women to take close-up photos of their lovers' bodies in all states of array and disarray."

The Canada-born Huston, who writes in both French and English, is the author of more than a dozen novels, including "Plainsong" and "Fault Lines." She has previously won France's Prix Goncourt prize and was a finalist for Britain's Orange Prize for fiction by women.

She is only the third woman to win the annual Bad Sex prize, founded in 1993 to name and shame authors of "crude, tasteless and ... redundant passages of sexual description in contemporary novels."

Some critics, however, have praised the sexual passages in "Infrared." Shirley Whiteside in the Independent on Sunday newspaper said there were "none of the lazy cliches of pornography or the purple prose of modern romantic fiction" — though she conceded the book's sex scenes were "more perfunctory than erotic."

Huston beat finalists including previous winner Tom Wolfe — for his passage in "Back to Blood" describing "his big generative jockey" — and Booker Prize-nominated Nicola Barker, whose novel "The Yips" compares a woman to "a plump Bakewell pudding."

Previous recipients of the dubious honor, usually accepted with good grace, include Sebastian Faulks, the late Norman Mailer and the late John Updike, who was awarded a Bad Sex lifetime achievement award in 2008.

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Online: http://www.literaryreview.co.uk

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United Dreamliner makes emergency landing in New Orleans

A brand-new United Airlines "Dreamliner" airplane bound for Newark was diverted Tuesday morning, making an emergency landing in New Orleans because of an undisclosed mechanical problem.

The highly acclaimed Boeing 787 Dreamliner recently began service in North America in a debut last month with United Airlines. United and Boeing are both based in Chicago.

On Tuesday, the 7:30 a.m. United flight 1146 from Houston to Newark was diverted to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and landed safely there at 9:25 a.m., the airline said. The plane, the third delivered to United recently, carried 174 customers and 10 crew members. Neither United nor Boeing would describe the problem except to say it was a "mechanical issue."

"We are reaccommodating the customers on a different aircraft to Newark," United said in a statement. "United will work with Boeing to review the diversion and determine the cause."

The Federal Aviation Administration "is looking into it," an FAA spokesman said.

Flights can be diverted for many reasons, from serious problems to a simple malfunction of a cockpit warning light. And flight diversions are not exceptionally uncommon. There were 816 diversions among large U.S. carriers in September alone and double that number in July, for example, according to federal statistics.

The 787 Dreamliner, a new-model aircraft that features greater passenger comforts and fuel efficiency compared with similar planes, is a big deal for both United and Boeing and has been highly touted by both the airline and the aircraft-maker.

However, any hint of a problem with a 787 is noticed. The plane has gotten mostly rave reviews, but is being delivered more than three years late because of design and production problems. The Dreamliner is different because instead of being made mostly of metal, half the plane, including the fuselage and wings, is made of strong, light composite materials.

gkarp@tribune.com

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Daley nephew indicted in '04 death of David Koschman

Chicago Tribune reporter Jason Meisner talks about how a Cook County grand jury indicted former Mayor Richard Daley's nephew on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of David Koschman.

A special Cook County grand jury indicted former Mayor Richard Daley's nephew on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of David Koschman in a drunken confrontation on the city’s Near North Side, the special prosecutor said today.

The grand jury found that Richard J. Vanecko "recklessly performed acts which were likely to cause death or great bodily harm to another" in Koschman’s death in 2004, according to the indictment.

Koschman, 21, had been drinking in the Rush Street nightlife district early on April 25 2004 when he and friends quarreled with a group that included Vanecko. During the altercation, Koschman was knocked to the street, hitting the back of his head. He died 11 days later.

Former U.S. Attorney Dan Webb, appointed special prosecutor in the case last spring, noted that at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, Vanecko towered over Koschman, who was 5-foot-5 and 125 pounds. There is no statute of limitations on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Koschman’s mother, Nanci Koschman, told a news conference that she planned to visit her son's grave and "I'm going to tell David tomorrow that he can finally have peace."

She said she refused to believe, over the years, that the fight was her son's fault, as detectives had told her. "You have to find the strength to go on," Koschman said. "I wanted his name cleared."

Koschman said she never sought vengeance, but accountability. "I want to thank the grand jury," she said. But she added, "It doesn't bring David back. And that's all I wanted."

Vanecko’s attorneys issued a statement saying they were disappointed by the indictment. According to the lawyers, Koschman’s blood-alcohol content was nearly three times the .08 legal limit for motorists – though he was on foot at the time of the confrontation.

Koschman “was clearly acting in an unprovoked, physically aggressive manner,” Vaneckos’ legal team said. “We are confident that when all the facts are aired in a court of law, the trier of fact will find Mr. Vanecko not guilty.”

Vanecko’s lawyers defended the work of police and prosecutors, saying “these agencies professionally investigate these types of incidents on a daily basis.”

“These decisions were not because of favoritism but because the facts did not warrant felony charges,” the lawyers said.

Vanecko, who currently lives in California, is expected to appear for arraignment at 9:30 a.m. Monday at the Leighton Criminal Court Building at 26th Street and California Avenue. Plans call for him to post $10,000 cash bond and be released pending trial. He faces 2 to 5 years in prison, or probation, if convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Lawyers for Koschman’s mother sought a special prosecutor last year after an investigative series by the Chicago Sun-Times raised questions about whether police and prosecutors intentionally concealed evidence for political reasons.

In a statement released this afternoon, Webb said the grand jury continues “at a vigorous pace” to look into how authorities handled their investigation of Koschman’s death.

Locke Bowman, an attorney with Northwestern University's MacArthur Justice Center who represents Nanci Koschman, said he was encouraged that the investigation was continuing.

"Why has this taken so long?" he asked, wondering if the the clout of the powerful Daley family was at work. "Clearly, we need to have answers."

Webb said thousands of documents have been reviewed and more than 50 witnesses interviewed so far in the seven-month investigation.

Among the  issues Webb was tasked to sort out were whether clout tainted the original investigation in addition to whether Vanecko, now 38, should be charged criminally in connection with the death.

Judge Michael Toomin took the rare step of appointing Webb as a special prosecutor in April after concluding that Chicago police and county prosecutors mishandled the investigation.

The charges mark a dramatic twist in a case that seemed to fizzle out in 2004 as the investigation went nowhere.

Police initially said that witnesses gave conflicting accounts of what occurred and some claimed Koschman was the aggressor in the confrontation.

Almost two weeks after Koschman died of his injuries, a top prosecutor in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office was called to the Belmont Area headquarters on the day detectives put Vanecko in several lineups, all of which police said ended with witnesses failing to identify him as the assailant.

Vanecko had come to the station with his attorney, Terence Gillespie, who told police his client would not answer questions.

Dan Kirk, chief of staff for current State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez told the Tribune in an interview earlier this year that there was no admissible evidence that could have been used to file charges at the time.

Kirk said police had no positive identification from any of the lineups they conducted, no statements from the main suspect, no statement from the victim and no physical evidence.

jmeisner@tribune.com

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Yahoo sees several flaws in $2.7 billion Mexico ruling: source

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc believes it has "numerous" grounds to appeal a Mexico City civil court's $2.7 billion preliminary judgment against the company, including both errors in procedure and in application of law, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday.

The ruling in the case, which involves allegations of breach of contract related to an online yellow pages listings service, was made by the 49th Civil Court of the Federal District of Mexico City, Yahoo announced on Friday.

The lawsuit was brought by Worldwide Directories S.A. de C.V. and Ideas Interactivas S.A. de C.V. against Yahoo and Yahoo de Mexico, Yahoo said.

The plaintiffs could not be reached for comment.

The details of the suit remained unclear on Monday. Documents from local courts in Mexico are not available for public consultation. Yahoo declined to comment.

Yahoo signed a commercial relationship with the two companies in 2002, the person familiar with the matter said. Yahoo terminated the relationship with the companies in 2009, the person noted.

Yahoo's appeal is expected to be heard by a panel of three judges in a superior court in Mexico City, the person said who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. It was not clear when Yahoo might file its appeal.

The case has perplexed many investors and tech-industry observers since Yahoo disclosed it on Friday, particularly given the large value of the "non-final" judgment.

Yahoo's most recent 10Q filing, which lists major ongoing legal proceedings, makes no mention of the lawsuit.

"We believe the $2.7 billion figure appears high based on the seemingly small size of Yahoo's business in Mexico, but we believe shares could trade off modestly on the news," wrote JP Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth in a note to investors following Friday's announcement.

"It's not clear how the Mexican court arrived at the $2.7 billion figure, but it would represent 40 percent of our projected 2012 year-end cash balance for Yahoo," and equate to about $2.30 per share, he wrote.

Shares of Yahoo closed Monday's regular session down 1.2 percent, or 22 cents, at $18.55.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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Heisman finalists: Manziel, Te'o and Klein

NEW YORK (AP) — Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o and Kansas State quarterback Collin Klein are the finalists for the Heisman Trophy.

The three players invited to attend the presentation ceremony in New York were announced Monday on ESPN.

Manziel is the favorite to win college football's most famous player of the year award on Saturday night in Manhattan. He would be the first freshman to win the Heisman and the first Texas A&M player since halfback John David Crow won the school's only Heisman in 1957.

The closest a freshman has come to winning the Heisman was Adrian Peterson of Oklahoma in 2004, when he finished second to Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart. Peterson was a true freshman. Manziel is a redshirt freshman, meaning he attended school last year and practiced with the team but did not play in a game.

Michael Vick of Virginia Tech came in third in 1999 as a redshirt freshman and Herschel Walker was a true freshman for Georgia in 1980 when he finished third in the Heisman balloting.

Nicknamed Johnny Football, Manziel quickly became a national sensation this season, putting up huge numbers in first-year Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin's spread offense. He led the 10th-ranked Aggies to a 10-2 record in their first season in the Southeastern Conference.

With a knack for improvisation, Manziel racked up an SEC-record 4,600 yards of total offense, including 1,181 rushing to lead the conference. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Manziel zoomed to the front of the Heisman race on Nov. 10, when he passed for 253 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 92 yards as the Aggies upset then-No. 1 Alabama 29-24 in Tuscaloosa.

Manziel and Texas A&M will play Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl.

Te'o is trying to become the first defense-only player to win the Heisman. The Fighting Irish have seven Heisman winners, tied for the most with Ohio State and Southern California, but none since Tim Brown in 1987.

He became the face of the No. 1 team in the country and leader of a defense that has been the toughest to score upon in the nation. The senior intercepted seven passes, second-most in the country and tops for a linebacker. He also led the Fighting Irish with 103 tackles, and earlier Monday won the Butkus Award as country's best linebacker.

Te'o and the Irish face No. 2 Alabama in the BCS championship game on Jan. 7 in Miami.

Klein would be the first player from Kansas State to win the Heisman. He seemed to be the front-runner for several weeks until Manziel's late push. When Klein threw three interceptions in the Wildcats' late-season loss to Baylor, Manziel moved to the front of the race.

Klein is a multitalented quarterback like Manziel, but with a different approach. The 6-5, 226-pound senior is a bullish runner who scored 22 touchdowns and threw for 15 more, while leading the seventh-ranked Wildcats (11-1) to the Big 12 title. Earlier in the day, Klein won the Johnny Unitas Award given to the top senior quarterback in the nation.

Kansas State plays Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl.

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UK’s Prince William and wife Kate expecting a baby

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain‘s Prince William and his wife Catherine are expecting a baby, destined to be the country’s future monarch, although the mother-to-be is in hospital with a type of very acute morning sickness that sometimes indicates twins.

“Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby,” the prince’s office said in a statement on Monday, adding that Queen Elizabeth and the royal family were delighted.

The couple, officially known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, married in April last year, amid a global media frenzy and there has been much speculation, particularly in U.S. gossip magazines, about a possible pregnancy.

“It’s only been a matter of time. Everyone has been waiting for Kate to announce that she was pregnant,” Claudia Joseph, who has written a biography of the duchess, told Reuters.

A spokeswoman for the couple said 30-year-old Catherine, widely known as Kate, was in the King Edward VII Hospital in central London suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum, an acute morning sickness which causes severe nausea and vomiting and requires supplementary hydration and nutrients.

Professor Tim Draycott, a consultant obstetrician at the University of Bristol, said the condition was common in the early weeks of pregnancy but did not put the baby at any increased risk, although in extreme cases it can lead to the baby being born with a slightly low birth weight.

Draycott told Reuters it may also indicate more than one royal baby may be in the offing.

“Hyperemesis is slightly more common with twins,” said Draycott, explaining that the condition affected around one in 100 to 200 pregnant women.

William, a Royal Air Force helicopter pilot, was at her side and she is likely to remain in hospital for several days. There was no detail about when the baby was due, although the prince’s spokesman said she was less than 12 weeks pregnant.

“I’m delighted by the news that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting a baby,” Prime Minister David Cameron said on his Twitter website. “They will make wonderful parents.”

BABY WILL BE KING, OR QUEEN

William, Queen Elizabeth’s 30-year-old grandson, is second in line to the British throne, and their first child will become the third in succession when he or she is born.

Last year Britain and other Commonwealth countries which have the queen as their monarch agreed to change the rules of royal succession so that males would no longer have precedence as heir, regardless of age.

The agreement also means an end to a ban on a future monarch marrying a Catholic, a stipulation dating back some 300 years.

Britain’s royal family are currently riding the crest of popularity on the back of William and Kate‘s wedding and the queen’s diamond jubilee this year which has witnessed nationwide celebrations.

“It’s something everyone can look forward to, just like their wedding brought the whole nation together,” said Johanna Castle, 25, a sales assistant in an east London homewear and fashion store.

The young royal couple have become global stars after some two billion people tuned in to watch their glittering marriage ceremony and the sumptuous display of pageantry that accompanied it, and barely a day goes by without a picture of Catherine appearing in the pages of Britain‘s royalty-obsessed newspapers.

The duchess, the first “commoner” to marry a prince in close proximity to the throne in more than 350 years, is now a fashion icon, with her attire scrutinized every time she steps out in public and followed by legions of women around the world.

U.S. President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were one of the first to send congratulations, an indication of the young royals’ popularity across the Atlantic.

“I know they both feel that having a child is one of the most wonderful parts of their lives. So I’m sure that will be the same for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

With their fame has come unwanted attention, and there was anger in Britain when topless photos of Kate relaxing on holiday were published in a French magazine in September.

The pictures rekindled memories of the media pursuit of William’s mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997 while being chased by paparazzi.

“I will be very surprised if this isn’t handled with the utmost tact and sensitivity,” said media commentator Steve Hewlett. “Newspapers realize there’s a huge amount of goodwill towards Will and Kate, and they take their cue from their readers.”

“DADDY’S LITTLE CO-PILOT”

Kate made her last public appearance on Friday when she returned to her old school – a minor event that nonetheless generated live television coverage on news channels – when she looked healthy and joined in a game of hockey with pupils.

Earlier in the week William had hinted at a pregnancy during a visit to Cambridge in central England when they were given a home-made baby suit emblazoned with the words “Daddy’s little co-pilot”, a reference to William’s job.

“When I gave it to him he said ‘I’ll keep that’, and handed it to his aide,” said Samantha Hill.

Joseph, author of “Kate: The Making of a Princess”, said she believed the couple, who currently live in north Wales where the prince is based as a search and rescue pilot, had been waiting for the right moment to have a baby.

“My feeling has always been that they were not going to take the spotlight away from the queen in her Jubilee. But now 2013 is going to be William and Kate’s year,” she said, adding the couple would make wonderful parents.

“We have seen her with children and she is lovely with them, she’s got the natural touch, and her parents run a party business and she has spent a lot of time with children,” Joseph said. “(William) he has always talked about wanting children, so I am sure he is delighted.”

(Additional reporting by Tim Castle, Peter Schwartzstein and Natalie Huet in London and Steve Holland in Washington; editing by Paul Casciato)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Fossil fuel subsidies in focus at climate talks

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Hassan al-Kubaisi considers it a gift from above that drivers in oil- and gas-rich Qatar only have to pay $1 per gallon at the pump.

"Thank God that our country is an oil producer and the price of gasoline is one of the lowest," al-Kubaisi said, filling up his Toyota Land Cruiser at a gas station in Doha. "God has given us a blessing."

To those looking for a global response to climate change, it's more like a curse.

Qatar — the host of U.N. climate talks that entered their final week Monday — is among dozens of countries that keep gas prices artificially low through subsidies that exceeded $500 billion globally last year. Renewable energy worldwide received six times less support — an imbalance that is just starting to earn attention in the divisive negotiations on curbing the carbon emissions blamed for heating the planet.

"We need to stop funding the problem, and start funding the solution," said Steve Kretzmann, of Oil Change International, an advocacy group for clean energy.

His group presented research Monday showing that in addition to the fuel subsidies in developing countries, rich nations in 2011 gave more than $58 billion in tax breaks and other production subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. The U.S. figure was $13 billion.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has calculated that removing fossil fuel subsidies could reduce carbon emissions by more than 10 percent by 2050.

Yet the argument is just recently gaining traction in climate negotiations, which in two decades have failed to halt the rising temperatures that are melting Arctic ice, raising sea levels and shifting weather patterns with impacts on droughts and floods.

In Doha, the talks have been slowed by wrangling over financial aid to help poor countries cope with global warming and how to divide carbon emissions rights until 2020 when a new planned climate treaty is supposed to enter force. Calls are now intensifying to include fossil fuel subsidies as a key part of the discussion.

"I think it is manifestly clear ... that this is a massive missing piece of the climate change jigsaw puzzle," said Tim Groser, New Zealand's minister for climate change.

He is spearheading an initiative backed by Scandinavian countries and some developing countries to put fuel subsidies on the agenda in various forums, citing the U.N. talks as a "natural home" for the debate.

The G-20 called for their elimination in 2009, and the issue also came up at the U.N. earth summit in Rio de Janeiro earlier this year. Frustrated that not much has happened since, European Union climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said Monday she planned to raise the issue with environment ministers on the sidelines of the talks in Doha.

Many developing countries are positive toward phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, not just to protect the climate but to balance budgets. Subsidies introduced as a form of welfare benefit decades ago have become an increasing burden to many countries as oil prices soar.

"We are reviewing the subsidy periodically in the context of the total economy for Qatar," the tiny Persian gulf country's energy minister, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, told reporters Monday.

Qatar's National Development Strategy 2011-2016 states it more bluntly, saying fuel subsides are "at odds with the aspirations" and sustainability objectives of the wealthy emirate.

The problem is that getting rid of them comes with a heavy political price.

When Jordan raised fuel prices last month, angry crowds poured into the streets, torching police cars, government offices and private banks in the most sustained protests to hit the country since the start of the Arab unrest. One person was killed and 75 others were injured in the violence.

Nigeria, Indonesia, India and Sudan have also seen violent protests this year as governments tried to bring fuel prices closer to market rates.

Iran has used a phased approach to lift fuel subsidies over the past several years, but its pump prices remain among the cheapest in the world.

"People perceive it as something that the government is taking away from them," said Kretzmann. "The trick is we need to do it in a way that doesn't harm the poor."

The International Energy Agency found in 2010 that fuel subsidies are not an effective measure against poverty because only 8 percent of such subsidies reached the bottom 20 percent of income earners.

The IEA, which only looked at consumption subsidies, this year said they "remain most prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa, where momentum toward their reform appears to have been lost."

In the U.S., environmental groups say fossil fuel subsidies include tax breaks, the foreign tax credit and the credit for production of nonconventional fuels.

Industry groups, like the Independent Petroleum Association of America, are against removing such support, saying that would harm smaller companies, rather than the big oil giants.

In Doha, Mohammed Adow, a climate activist with Christian Aid, called all fuel subsidies "reckless and dangerous," but described removing subsidies on the production side as "low-hanging fruit" for governments if they are serious about dealing with climate change.

"It's going to oil and coal companies that don't need it in the first place," he said.

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Associated Press writers Abdullah Rebhy in Doha, Qatar, and Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report

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Karl Ritter can be reached at www.twitter.com/karl_ritter

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'Twilight' wins weekend, 'Skyfall' trails closely

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Holdover films remained tops at the weekend box office as the "Twilight" finale finished at No. 1 again with $17.4 million and the James Bond tale "Skyfall" ran a close second with $16.6 million.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:

1. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2," Summit, $17,416,362, 4,008 locations, $4,345 average, $254,598,866, three weeks.

2. "Skyfall," Sony, $16,555,894, 3,463 locations, $4,781 average, $245,585,083, four weeks.

3. "Rise of the Guardians," Paramount, $13,388,852, 3,672 locations, $3,646 average, $48,836,105, two weeks.

4. "Lincoln," Disney, $13,376,696, 2,018 locations, $6,629 average, $83,566,169, four weeks.

5. "Life of Pi," Fox, $12,151,853, 2,928 locations, $4,150 average, $48,512,994, two weeks.

6. "Wreck-It Ralph," Disney, $6,948,550, 3,087 locations, $2,251 average, $158,184,813, five weeks.

7. "Killing Them Softly," Weinstein Co., $6,812,900, 2,424 locations, $2,811 average, $6,812,900, one week.

8. "Red Dawn," FilmDistrict, $6,500,245, 2,781 locations, $2,337 average, $31,272,953, two weeks.

9. "Flight," Paramount, $4,479,067, 2,603 locations, $1,721 average, $81,465,903, five weeks.

10. "The Collection," LD Entertainment, $3,104,269, 1,403 locations, $2,213 average, $3,104,269, one week.

11. "Silver Linings Playbook," Weinstein Co., $3,090,131, 371 locations, $8,329 average, $10,740,112, three weeks.

12. "Anna Karenina," Focus, $2,245,570, 384 locations, $5,848 average, $4,106,921, three weeks.

13. "Argo," Warner Bros., $2,010,349, 1,043 locations, $1,927 average, $100,990,766, eight weeks.

14. "Talaash," Reliance Big Pictures, $1,638,706, 172 locations, $9,527 average, $1,638,706, one week.

15. "Taken 2," Fox, $467,975, 496 locations, $943 average, $137,163,554, nine weeks.

16. "Hitchcock," Fox Searchlight, $408,692, 50 locations, $8,174 average, $787,574, two weeks.

17. "Pitch Perfect," Universal, $387,070, 403 locations, $960 average, $63,099,243, 10 weeks.

18. "The Sessions," Fox, $333,315, 226 locations, $1,475 average, $4,582,181, seven weeks.

19. "Cloud Atlas," Warner Bros., $243,338, 194 locations, $1,254 average, $26,181,455, six weeks.

20. "Here Comes the Boom," Sony, $224,797, 334 locations, $673 average, $42,352,250, eight weeks.

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Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Heat is on Groupon's Andrew Mason

In June 2011, Groupon Inc. Chief Executive Andrew Mason took the stage at a conference hosted by influential technology blog AllThingsD.

When co-executive editor Kara Swisher asked him whether an initial public offering was coming soon, he shot her what she later dubbed his "death stare."

The audience laughed and broke into applause.

The tone was decidedly more subdued last week, when Mason found himself at another tech industry confab, fielding questions from Business Insider's Henry Blodget, this time about whether Groupon's directors were going to fire him at their meeting the next day. AllThingsD had reported a day earlier, citing anonymous sources, that Groupon's board of directors was considering replacing Mason with a more experienced CEO to lead the Chicago-based daily deal company's turnaround.

The contrast between those two appearances underscores the swift and dramatic tumble of Mason's standing in tech and business circles within a few years. The young founder and CEO graced the cover of Forbes in 2010 and was named Ernst & Young's National Entrepreneur of the Year in the "emerging" category a year later.

Those accolades are a far cry from the cloud hanging over Mason, 32, and the company he launched four years ago. The leak to AllThingsD appeared to be deliberately timed to embarrass the executive, forcing him to field questions about his own competence at a scheduled appearance. This public hint of internal strife has fueled speculation around Mason's fate even as other public tech companies, such as Facebook and social game-maker Zynga, have also seen their stock prices drop since their IPOs.

Groupon's board met Thursday and took no action on the CEO's job, with company spokesman Paul Taaffe saying the board and management were "working together with their heads down to achieve Groupon's objectives."

Markets, however, seemed unconvinced. Groupon's beleaguered stock closed slightly higher Thursday but dropped 8.7 percent to $4.14 Friday. Shares debuted at $20 in November 2011.

Investors "want experience in leadership," said Raman Chadha, a clinical professor at DePaul University and co-founder of the Junto Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, a training program for startup founders. "And as a result, where Andrew's background was cool and sexy — and maybe even bordering on amusing — when Groupon was a pure startup, that's in the mindset of those of us who are observers and supporters … and fellow entrepreneurs. I think in the minds of the investor community and Wall Street, (it's different) because now the company has a lot more to lose. And if it's going to fall, it's going to fall really hard and really far."

For Chadha, Mason's unconventional pedigree as a music major-turned-startup-founder was part of the appealing, media-friendly story of Groupon's origin. The company was launched as recession-weary consumers were eager for deals, and it achieved rapid growth while earning a reputation for antics like decorating a conference room in the style of a fictional, possibly deranged tenant of Groupon's headquarters who had lived there before the startup moved into the offices.

The scrutiny of Groupon was tremendous given the "high-flying" nature of the company, said David Larcker, a corporate governance expert at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

"You have a founder as CEO," he said. "He's the public face of the company. He has set the culture. All of that stuff."

That culture, driven in large part by Mason, turned from a lovable quirk to a major liability as the company ran into controversy over its poorly received Super Bowl ads in February 2011 and a series of missteps in the run-up to its IPO. Then, within months of its public debut, it disclosed an accounting flaw that forced it to restate financial results.

The larger question surrounding Groupon is the long-term viability of its basic business model. The company has been expanding offerings beyond its core daily deals, which have seen growth rates tail off. It's also dealing with a recession in the key European market as well as continued competition in the U.S.

But the biggest challenge facing Mason now is probably his own performance, or rather the perception that he isn't up to the task of running the global, publicly traded business worth billions that he founded but that now needs a turnaround. The stock is down 80 percent from its IPO price.

"It's an oft-told, oft-expected story that the genius entrepreneur steps aside when he or she succeeds at building a company big enough to need an experienced CEO," said Erik Gordon, a business professor at the University of Michigan.

The example Gordon and others cite is Google, which flourished after its co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin made way for a more seasoned executive in Eric Schmidt.

"The Google guys did it, and the results were spectacular," Gordon said.

Chadha said many startups tend to become more corporate in outlook, and less quirky, as they grow, because they bring in experienced executives from large companies that may have difficulty adapting to an entrepreneurial culture or reject it outright as not professional enough.

"I think that's where Google is very different," Chadha said. "(The company) sought out entrepreneurial, startup types — people that became part of their management team." That free-form element of Google's culture comes out in such things as the Google doodles — the offbeat tributes to notable anniversaries or famous people that pop up on the main search page.

Mason has acknowledged areas where Groupon needs to improve and has hired senior executives with experience at more mature tech companies. That hasn't always worked either. Margo Georgiadis, who came from Google as chief operating officer, returned to that company after five months.

Whether there's still room for Mason on the top management team remains to be seen. He was direct in his interview last week with Blodget, offering a minimum of jokes as he focused on discussing the job he and others at Groupon must accomplish.

"I care far more about the success of the business than I care about my role as CEO," he said.

A year ago, when he spoke to author Frank Sennett for his book "Groupon's Biggest Deal Ever," Mason was unapologetic about his management style.

"You only live once, and all I'm doing is being myself," he told Sennett. "I think a normal CEO is trying to appear in some way that's not actually them. That's probably not what they're like."

In the same book, former President and Chief Operating Officer Rob Solomon offered this blunt assessment of his ex-boss: "Andrew at thirty-five and forty is going to hate Andrew at twenty-nine and thirty; I guarantee it."

Melissa Harris and Bloomberg News contributed.

wawong@tribune.com

Twitter @VelocityWong

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