A cut Wednesday in the Federal Reserve’s federal funds rate from 2 percent to 1.5 percent may not pack the consumer-friendly punch it used to, because of the nation’s deep-seated economic problems.

Usually, a lowering of the federal funds rate eventually trickles down and helps ease interest rates that consumers pay on credit cards, adjustable-rate mortgages and auto loans.

But this time, economists say, only those with stellar credit ratings likely will see their credit-card rates drop.

Also, banks aren’t making very many loans at any rate right now. So any decrease in rates will have a limited effect on the economy.

“People who couldn’t get loans yesterday . . . can’t get a loan today,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist for High Frequency Economics, a consulting firm.

Borrowing costs, however, could drop for consumers with variable-rate home equity and other loans that are tied to the prime interest rate, which JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and other banks cut by a half point Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve’s action dropped the federal funds rate to its lowest level in more than four years — another in a chain of efforts to keep credit moving and avoid a deepening financial crisis.

Central banks in England, China, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland and the European Central Bank also cut rates after a series of high-stakes phone calls over several days between Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his counterparts.

Indiana Bankers Association President Joe DeHaven said the rate drop will be more significant for business borrowers than for consumers.

“Whatever impact there is, it will probably just affect the short-term environment” for business loans that are quickly paid off, he said.

Sugato Chakravarty, professor and head of consumer sciences and retailing at Purdue University, doesn’t think the rate cut will have much impact on consumers or the economy.

“The problems are just too fundamental right now” for a rate cut to be an effective antidote, he said.

Normally, a cut in the key rate fans inflation pressures by putting more money into the economy. But the Fed said a significant drop in the past several months in energy and commodity prices has reduced inflationary risks.

Even so, the Fed’s move amounts to a gamble and could be inflationary, said Matt Will, finance professor at the University of Indianapolis.

“They’re kind of going in the dark. None of us has seen this kind of environment before. The flow of money has slowed down dramatically, and everybody is confused.”

The Fed typically uses the flow, or velocity, of money as it passes from banks to businesses or consumers and into wide distribution as a key gauge of how much money to put into the economy. But the flow is a trickle, with banks reluctant to lend and consumers unwilling to spend much.

“God bless Bernanke, I wouldn’t want his job at the moment,” Will said.

In an attempt to revive Japan’s depressed economy then, the Japanese central bank cut Japan’s federal funds rate to zero, with little gains to show for it, Will said.

“They were giving free money to their member banks,” which were saddled with commercial loans that had lost much of their value, much like the crisis from devalued residential loans that’s bedeviling the U.S. economy today, Will said.

Chakravarty said the U.S. is less reliant on industry than Japan and might be better able to weather the storm.

Tags: amp, china, federal reserve, financial crisis, loans, money, nfl

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A new Walt Disney film about a rapping chihuahua that mixes Aztec warrior history and romance jumped to the top of the US and Canadian box office over the weekend, figures showed Sunday.

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” a computer-animated production featuring a dog cast set in ancient Mexican ruins, took 29 million dollars on its debut weekend, according to preliminary figures from box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Second place with 17.7 million dollars was taken by “Eagle Eye,” a futuristic thriller about a Big Brother-style villain who infiltrates phones, TVs and computers.

A new romantic comedy called “Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist” featuring the hottest geek in Hollywood at the moment, Canada’s Michael Cera, opened in third place with 12 million dollars.

In fourth place, with 7.4 million dollars in sales, was romantic drama “Nights in Rodanthe” starring Diane Lane and Richard Gere, set against the seaside backdrop of North Carolina’s Outer Banks.

The movie, the third time Lane and Gere have co-starred together, tells the story of a doctor who falls for an unhappily married woman.

One of the surprises of the week came from “Appaloosa,” which leapt from number 36 to fifth with takings of 5.0 million dollars.

The film starring Jeremy Irons and Renee Zellweger features two gunslingers who take on a bullying rancher but see their job complicated by the arrival of a young widow.

Samuel L. Jackson’s latest movie, a dark thriller called “Lakeview Terrace,” slipped from third to sixth, taking in 4.5 million.

Seventh was “Burn After Reading,” the latest movie from Oscar-winning film-making siblings Joel and Ethan Coen, with 4.08 million dollars in receipts.

Tags: box office, disney, edy, futuristic thriller, hollywood, ins, movie, villain

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Although Anne Hathaway’s career has gone from strength to strength in recent years, the star admits she didn’t think she’d ever make it into movies.

“I didn’t ever think I’d have a movie career, I always thought I’d be a theatre actress and so just the idea now that I’ve gotten to play so many different roles, I’m really having a blast doing that,” said the star who went from costume drama Becoming Jane to playing a special agent in new film Get Smart.

“I like things that frighten me. I like doing things I don’t believe I can do and sometimes I can’t do them and they don’t turn out well, and sometimes they do connect and that’s always good, that’s always such a relief.”

Tags: get smart, movie

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 He has also shown great form and fitness, as well as an admirable attitude in training and it is believed that that was the reason behind Marcelino’s change of mind as the ex-Racing Santander begin the task of helping the Aragon side return to the top flight after last term’s relegation.

The former Borussia Dortmund frontman will now travel with the team to Teruel to face Villarreal before moving on their second stage of pre-season preparations in Villalba. Zaragoza will kick off their Segunda campaign against another former La Liga outfit, Levante.

Tags: amp

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For most people, the attraction of a Hollywood or television acting career is a distant dream originating from the comfort of a couch or recliner attached to a remote.

It wasn’t always bright lights and big city for this Spindle City man though. Silvia, 48, has been a private investigator for the past 18 years. Four years ago, he began a side gig searching for famous people he could photograph to sell pictures to high-profile magazines. But the closer Silvia got to the celebrity limelight, which included a photograph of former 80s singer Bobby Brown coming out of Dedham Probate Court taken from atop a nearby Dumpster that was printed in a number of national magazine, the more he wanted to get closer to the action.

When his PI work allows him some rare free time, Silvia is traveling to Boston or Providence in hopes of landing parts in another television series or movie. It’s hard to argue with some of his extra work going back to 2006 with small roles in TV shows like “The Bronx is Burning” and “Waterfront” and movies like “Hard Luck,” “Stiffs,” “Gone Baby Gone,” “Townies” and more recently, “Shutter Island,” a film by Martin Scorsese now being filmed in Boston.

Along his four-year journey, Silvia has been able to rub elbows with dozens of famous people starting with Scorsese, Matthew Broderick, Calista Flockhart, Ben Affleck, Jimmy Fallon, Lawrence Fishburne and others.

Two years back, he auditioned for a small part in another Scorsese film, “The Departed,” at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, losing out to an East Providence police officer, though he would secure a small role as a Chinatown extra in the film. Silvia would land on his feet weeks later as a SWAT team member in the movie “Underdog.”

Silvia started out without any union representation but after missing out on a number of roles due to that fact has since become a member of the Screen Actors Guild over the last two years. Silvia said he regrets that fact that he got involved in the business so late, wondering if things may have turned out better for him if he had went after this line of work in his 20s rather than his mid-40s. But considering he has never taken an acting class before, he certainly could have done a lot worse.

With four years dabbling in the industry under his belt, he said you tend to learn the do’s and don’ts the hard way.

One lesson Silvia has learned is to not mix it up too much with the actors or actresses on the scene, despite the fact that most of them are very down to earth.

Whether he’s just showing off his elbow in a scene from “The Last Shot” with Matthew Broderick and Alec Baldwin to posing as a restaurant patron in the “Pink Panther 2,” Silvia tries to juggle his personal life. He’s getting married in July and has a 16-year-old son  along with his full-time private investigation career and some acting mixed in. Silvia said it’s hard finding time for acting roles but keeping his actor portfolio database up-to-date and reaching out to a number of casting agencies in Boston and Providence helps people find him.

Tags: china, hollywood, movie, television, television series

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The Dark Knight has recorded the biggest box office movie release in history with amazing earnings.

The Dark Knight beat out the old record-holder, Spider-Man 3, which took in $151.1 million just last year.

The Dark Knight has proven to be the movie to see this summer, starring Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, and others.

It topped openings of other big summer blockbusters such as Hancock, Iron Man, Indiana Jones, and others.

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Jack’s back, at least for a two-hour real-time movie. 24: Exile, Nov. 23, tees up the seventh season, due in January. Kiefer Sutherland and the cast returned from Africa last month and immediately went back to work on the series.

Producers scrapped plans to film part of the regular season in Africa, finding it unworkable to explain the time lapse of a long flight to Washington. But the story line “was current, it was emotional and it really centered around children affected by these wars, from Rwanda to Zimbabwe,” who are recruited as fighters, Sutherland says in an interview.

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The Screen Actors Guild is in a tough position as it prepares to make a statement on film studios’ final offer for a contract that the union has already indicated does not give actors enough money for new media.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists announced this week that its members approved a separate but similar contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. SAG had tried to get that union to vote down the contract in order to gain more leverage and show that its members who belong to both unions do not support the work agreement. Instead, the approval strengthened the studios’ argument that the contract is reasonable.

The AMPTP issued a statement saying its member studios hope the agreement “demonstrates to SAG’s Hollywood leadership that there is support for the new economic relationships we have built with writers, directors and actors and not much support for a strike, whether de facto or real.”

In a recent conference hosted by Wachovia equity researchers, Handel explained that the formulas change depending on whether the content is produced for film or television, then made available on the Web or whether it’s created for the Internet. Formulas change based on whether viewers pay for downloads or watch free, ad-supported streaming clips, whether content is based on an existing or old show, whether it’s prime time, and the list goes on.

In addition to hurting a state that depends on entertainment, driving, and real estate, the issue highlight’s a north south divide over new media, entertainment, and the Internet, Handel said.

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The Orange County Great Park Corporation Board today moved several priority Park Programs into the next phase of the planning process.

Programs moving forward are: Agriculture and Food; Arts and Culture Exhibition Space; Aviation Museum; Cultural Terrace; Fire Museum; Sports Park and Visitors Center. Additional programs advanced, subject to identifying potential partners, include: Amphitheatre; Botanical Garden; Library; Multi-Cultural Center; National Archives and Water Science Park.

The Center for Community Organizations and the Demonstration Garden will proceed when a memorandum of understanding with funding partners are negotiated.

Study of the Equestrian Center will take place in the future. The Orangewood Academy program study was suspended at the request of the Orangewood Foundation.

“Development of the Great Park continues to move forward as we refine this complex planning and design process,” said Larry Agran, Chair, Orange County Great Park Corporation Board. “This next phase of planning will identify and resolve issues related to program funding, land use compatibility, building and facilities requirements, and entitlement issues.”

Tags: academy program, amp, aviation museum, demonstration garden, entitlement issues, exhibition space, fire museum, food arts, funding partners, garden library, larry agran, memorandum of understanding, orange county, orangewood academy, orangewood foundation, potential partners, science park, space aviation, sports park, water science

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IT’S THE hottest day of the year 91 degrees and Phil Rosenthal is stacking almond wood kindling in the pizza oven of his Hancock Park home. In little more than an hour, a cook from Pizzeria Mozza will arrive, as he does most Sunday nights, and begin kneading dough and sprinkling cheese for the 25 to 30 guests who come for movie night.

But now, instead of sending out for pizza from Fivo’s on 187th Street and watching “Tootsie” on a 12-inch television set, the couple shows DVDs in the screening room of their Tuscan-style villa and serve Mozza pizza made in the same oven you’ll find at the restaurant, if you can get a reservation.

It also explains why he can finagle Mozza pizza cook Gustavo Canseco into coming to his house to cook for his friends.

Every half hour or so, Rosenthal pushes the kindling to another spot on the oven floor; when the soot burns off the oven ceiling and turns it lunar white, the chamber will be hot enough to slip in the pizzas.

IT LOOKS like Italy out the window. The late afternoon sun dapples the olive trees in the garden as Canseco arrives with crates of provisions and sets up at the L-shaped kitchen island. On the golden marble countertop, Canseco arrays balls of pre-measured pizza dough and clear plastic containers full of ochre squash blossoms and yellow pineapple, bright green scallions and rapini, rosy prosciutto, bacon and guanciale, lipstick-red marinara sauce, and ashen Taleggio mozzarella and sottocenere, a black truffle cow’s milk cheese.

Gilma Repreza, who helps out on Sunday nights, puts wineglasses, utensils and paper plates on the counter along with Silverton’s chopped salads, served right out of their plastic takeout containers. Rosenthal grabs a few bottles of wine “whatever we happen to have or whatever people bring,” he says tonight a selection of bold reds from France, Italy and Napa.

Gourmet hot dog purveyor Sue Moore of Let’s Be Frank regales event planner Kathleen Sacchi with stories of her days as a meat forager at Chez Panisse as she watches Canseco take pies from the oven and place them directly on the marble counter. If having his boss here this evening makes Canseco nervous, you’d never know it. Mozza executive chef Matt Molina isn’t even paying attention, it turns out. It’s his night off, and he’s here with his girlfriend.

AFTER Sprinkles cupcakes and chocolate éclairs, the guests wander down the hall, past the dining room with its 16th century Dutch chandelier, past the Cartier-Bresson black-and-white photograph of Matisse and his white doves. Outside the screening room, popcorn tumbles from the kettle in an old-fashioned cart.

“The first night I did this in this house, I was as emotional as I could be,” Rosenthal says as friends, sated from pizza and mellow from wine, collapse into their seats. “It’s the culmination of something I’ve been doing for 25 years. I’m the luckiest man alive.”

“It’s part of the NYU film school extension program,” he quips. “It’s less than a minute long, so don’t get scared.” Then he introduces Kasdan.

Tags: black truffle, canseco, chez panisse, clear plastic containers, coo, dvds, forager, gilma, hancock park, hottest day, inch television, kindling, lair, marble countertop, marinara sauce, milk cheese, movie, mozza pizza, phil rosenthal, pizza dough, pizza oven, rage, regales, squash blossoms, television, tuscan style

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