Study: DVRs now in half of US pay-TV homes

NEW YORK (AP) — A new survey finds that digital video recorders are now in more than half of all U.S. homes that subscribe to cable or satellite TV services.

Leichtman Research Group‘s survey of 1,300 households found that 52 percent of the ones that have pay-TV service also have a DVR. That translates to about 45 percent of all households and is up from 13.5 percent of all households surveyed five years ago by another firm, Nielsen.

The first DVRs came out in 1999, from TiVo Inc. and ReplayTV. Later, they were built into cable set-top boxes. The latest trend is “whole-home” DVRs that can distribute recorded shows to several sets.

Even with the spread of DVRs, live TV rules. Nielsen found last year that DVRs accounted for 8 percent of TV watching.

Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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The Famous Monsters & Aliens of Rick Baker

Rick Baker is being honored with a well-deserved Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today, and the multiple Oscar-winning special makeup effects artist talks to ETonline about his first big break, how An American Werewolf in London would look onscreen today, the inspirations for his wild Men in Black 3 creatures and more.

Video: Will Smith Keeps Swingin' at 'MiB'

"I was part of the first generation of kids that grew up in front of the TV -- I was really attracted to the horror films that they'd show on Friday or Saturday nights," the 61-year-old Baker tells us. "I was so fascinated by those monsters. … I just thought, 'That's what I want to do when I grow up.' I was like 10 years old, and I just set my mind to it. And I started teaching myself how to do it. There weren't schools then, and there was very little information then, but I figured it out."

The surprisingly humble California native has won seven Best Achievement in Makeup Oscars (for such films as American Werewolf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Ed Wood and Men in Black) out of a total of 12 nominations, and will also be entered in the Guinness World Records Book for most Oscar wins and noms in that category. In fact, the category was created by the Motion Picture Academy in honor of Baker's extraordinary work on 1981's American Werewolf.

One of Baker's first big breaks came from American Werewolf director John Landis, who hired the talented young artist to create a monster for his low-budget 1973 horror movie Schlock after well-known Planet of the Apes make-up artist John Chambers turned him down. Legendary Halloween mask maker Don Post also turned Landis down, but recommended Baker, who would regularly buy latex and polyurethane foam from Don Post Studios to fabricate homemade creations.

"[Landis] wanted basically what he kept saying was a crappy gorilla suit," says Baker with a laugh. "John called me up out of the blue, drove out to Covina, and went into my little bedroom workshop -- I grew up in a very lower-middle class, little teeny bedroom where I made all my stuff -- it was full of monsters, and he basically flipped out at the stuff that I had. He said, 'I've seen the stuff that the professional guys are doing, and your stuff is as good as them, and you're like, how old are you?' So I did John's first movie."

Pics: Our 10 Favorite Fright Flicks

Ten years later Landis had become a name director with such movies as Animal House and The Blues Brothers, and secured the financing for American Werewolf. Baker recalls, "[Landis] said, 'I want to do a transformation unlike what's been done before. It just doesn't make sense to me that when your body was going to transform like that, that you would sit in a chair like [original Wolf Man] Lon Chaney, Jr. and be perfectly still until he transformed.' He goes, 'I want to show the pain, I want to show what this body is going through, what's happening, and it's going to be my next movie and I want you to do it and you've got to figure out a way to do it.' It's like, okay! … And it's what really changed things."

Baker became a pioneer in his field, but has of course had to adapt with the changing technological times. "If American Werewolf was made in this day and age it would all be CGI," he says with a hint of resignation. "It's definitely taken away the animatronic part of my job, even though we did make some animatronic stuff in Men in Black. … I embrace the technology, but what I don't like about it is I think it's just made for sloppy filmmaking. The fix-it-in-post attitude is so prevalent in moviemaking now. It makes people not have to think about things. In American Werewolf we thought about everything in advance, we planned it out, we made storyboards, so I knew what to make."

Perhaps Baker's biggest crowning achievement, even more than winning multiple Academy Awards, was the first time he saw himself in the magazine that first got him interested in the craft behind the camera as a young boy: Famous Monsters of Filmland. "I really felt like I made it, you know?" says the silver-ponytailed artist with a child-like smile. "I still think that's the most excited I've ever been about any article that's been written on me, because it was my magazine, and it was the one that I was so fond of."

Related: John Landis Talks 'Three Amigos' and More

Baker's Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located right next to friend and Oscar-winning Visual Effects icon Dennis Murin's star, which he finds "really exciting. … [Dennis, visual effects colleague Ken Ralston and I] were all like these teenage kids that found each other with similar interests and hoped that someday we could work on a movie, and we managed to all work on some pretty amazing movies, you know? … I've had so many surreal experiences in my lifetime pursuing my hobby."

For Men in Black 3, director Barry Sonnenfeld pretty much gave Baker free reign to create a rogue's gallery of aliens and creatures to populate both the foreground and background action. Designing a total of 127 creations gave the artist an opportunity to pay homage to the favorite B-movie baddies of his youth.

"You could basically name any film that was done from 1950 to 1970 or beyond that was a science fiction film and we paid some kind of homage to it," he says, "And a lot of them were films that people wouldn't even know unless they read Famous Monsters, or grew up in front of the same movies on TV as I did: Invasion of the Saucer Men, This Island Earth, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Invaders from Mars, Outer Limits, you name it."

Related: Watch 'Men in Black 3' in a Whole New Way

So what’s next for Rick Baker? He designed Angelina Jolie's makeup for the upcoming Malificent, and he's been doing a lot of painting: "I've really been having fun; I'm kind of at the point in my career where I only want to work when it's something I really want to do," he says. "I've painted a lot of things in my life. … I decided I really should paint all the classic monsters that inspired me. So I did 13 paintings for [an upcoming] show. I'm really excited about them. And I'm really looking forward to see people's response."

Baker's Classic Monsters show (a group effort alongside close to 30 artists, including Rob Zombie) debuts this weekend through the end of December at Halloween Town in Burbank, CA, while his latest onscreen creations can be seen on the Men in Black 3 Blu-ray, out now.

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Pressuring GOP, Obama takes his fiscal plan to Pa.

REUTERS

President Obama gestures next to Michael Araten, right, President of Rodon, and Joel Glickman, Vice Chairman, at the Rodon Group, a manufacturer of toys in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, Friday.

HATFIELD, Pa. — President Obama argued Friday that allowing taxes to rise for the middle class would amount to a "lump of coal" for Christmas," while Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared that negotiations to surmount a looming fiscal cliff are going "almost nowhere."

Obama took his case to an audience in a Philadelphia suburb, saying that this move would present a "Scrooge Christmas" for millions of wage-earners. Speaking at a toy factory, the president said Republicans should extend existing Bush-era tax rates for households earning $250,000 or less, while allowing increases to kick in for the wealthy.

On Capitol Hill, Boehner argued that Obama's latest offer — to raise revenue by $1.6 trillion over the next decade — would be a "crippling blow" to an economy that is still struggling to find its footing. The Ohio Republican told reporters he would continue working with Obama to avoid hundreds of billions in tax increases and spending cuts that will take effect beginning in January if Washington doesn't act to stop it, but gave a gloomy assessment of the talks so far.

"There's a stalemate. Let's not kid ourselves," Boehner said. "Right now, we're almost nowhere."

Obama's speech came a day after his administration proposed $1.6 trillion in new taxes over 10 years, new spending for the unemployed and struggling homeowners and savings of about $400 billion in entitlement programs like Medicare. The proposal amounts to requests that were already d in Obama's Fiscal 2013 budget plan. Republicans rejected the offer as unreasonable.

Obama said he believed both parties "can and will work together" to reach an agreement to get its long-term deficit under control "in a way that's balanced and is fair."

"In Washington, nothing's easy so there is going to be some prolonged negotiations and all of us are going to have to get out of our comfort zones to make that happen," he said. "I'm willing to do that. I' hopeful that enough members of Congress in both parties are willing to do that as well."

White House officials hoped Friday's trip would build momentum for the president's case, even as Republicans describe the outing as an irritant and an obstacle to fruitful talks. The road trip was part of a dual White House strategy of having the president's team meet with members of Congress while Obama travels the country to pressure Congress to act.

Republicans have said they are open to new tax revenue but not higher rates.

Obama spoke at the Rodon Group manufacturing facility, showcasing the company as an example of a business that depends on middle-class consumers during the holiday season. The company manufactures parts for K'NEX Brands, a construction toy company whose products include Tinkertoy, K'NEX Building Sets and Angry Birds Building Sets.

The president joked that he's keeping his own "naughty and nice list" for members of Congress — and only some would get a K'NEX set for Christmas.

Administration officials said the offer, presented to Hill Republicans by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, constituted much of what Obama has previously suggested in budget proposals.

One new feature in the Geithner plan is a call for increasing the nation's debt limit without the need for congressional approval. Under last year's debt ceiling deal, Obama simply had to notify Congress that he was raising the debt ceiling, a move that could be blocked only if both houses of Congress approved resolutions of disapproval that Obama could veto. The administration wants a permanent extension of the debt ceiling with a similar legislative arrangement and with no offsetting spending cuts, as demanded by Republicans.

"Unfortunately, many Democrats continue to rule out sensible spending cuts that must be part of any significant agreement that will reduce our deficit," Boehner said after meeting with Geithner Thursday.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday that the proposal for $1.6 trillion in tax revenue was presented in context of a "balanced approach" to deficit reduction throughout the campaign.

"This is the way that we can ask the wealthiest Americans to pay a little bit more to deal with our deficit challenges," Earnest said aboard Air Force One as Obama flew to Pennsylvania.

"This was what the president has campaigned on for a long time and that was what president pushed for in context of the discussions with House Republicans," Earnest said.

Earnest said the proposal laid out by Geithner should not come as a surprise to anyone. Referring to comments by House Republican staffers who expressed surprise at Geithner's proposal, Earnest said, "This morning I was surprised they were surprised."

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Banking regulators release Helm Bank’s and Great Eastern Bank’s enforcement actions agreed to in October

Helm Bank USA, based in Miami, signed a consent order with federal and state banking regulators Oct. 17, according to information on October enforcement actions released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday.

Helm Bank must deveop a Bank Secrecy Act compliance plan, implement internal controls and a training program, revise its strategic plan and develop a plan for managing interest rate risk, among other requirements, according to the 19-page consent order.

Banking regulators also modified Miami-based Great Eastern Bank of Florida’s consent order on Oct. 25. The consent order was originally issued in July. The modification includes a requirement that the bank submit a written capital plan to boost its capital and a plan to reduce its classified assets. It must also revise its strategic plan and its plan to improve earnings, and submit a Bank Secrecy Act compliance plan, among other requirements outlined in the 19-page modification.

INA PAIVA CORDLE

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Email effort fails to end state secrecy

TALLAHASSEE --
Bad news and controversy are routine in the vast state government under Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s control. But don’t look for clues in Project Sunburst, Scott’s program of email transparency.

That’s because Scott doesn’t use email as a primary form of communication, and neither does his top aide, chief of staff Adam Hollingsworth.

Workers at state agencies also are wary of using email to alert Scott’s inner circle (and consequently the media) to impending trouble.

Anyone can access the email of Scott and his top aides at www.flgov.com/sunburst . But if Sunburst was designed to end secrecy in state government, it hasn’t.

“It’s been a disappointment to say the least,” said Barbara Petersen of the First Amendment Foundation, who had high hopes because the search for email from Scott’s office had been costly and time-consuming.

“The manipulation of content and lack of substantive communications — there’s simply not much there of any real value to the public,” Petersen said.

Hollingsworth, who puts a premium on accessibility, said his days are filled with meetings and he has no time to access email. He said Sunburst is a catalyst for better communication in Scott’s office.

“We actually enjoy getting together,” he said. “That sort of interpersonal communication is probably more productive and purposeful than an email system.”

The result is that Sunburst, promoted by Scott as an “open and transparent window into how state government works,” is in reality a vessel for the mundane work of government: meeting notices, routine reports, personnel moves and news releases.

Sunburst is so bland that partisan Democrats, ever eager to find negative material about Scott, pay little attention to it.

“I haven’t had the time, the inclination or the interest,” said Mark Hollis, spokesman for Democrats in the state House.

Hollingsworth and Scott’s communications director, Melissa Sellers, say they do not use private email accounts for official business.

Another of Sunburst’s unfulfilled promises: Scott has not expanded the system to include other agencies under his control as he promised to do “in the coming months” when he launched the system May 3.

Scott himself often poses a question that’s ripe for Sunburst: “Is each program achieving what it is intended to?”

What Sunburst does best is serve as a tip sheet for reporters burrowing deep into the bureaucracy and as an online town square where people air their grievances with Scott on everything from property insurance premiums to President Barack Obama’s policies.

“Overall, I’d rather have it than not have it,” said David Royse, editor of the News Service of Florida.

The brainchild of former Scott chief of staff Steve MacNamara, Sunburst was launched with the promise of unprecedented access to email of Scott and his top aides.

Integrity Florida, a nonpartisan watchdog group, tracks Sunburst daily and finds irregular compliance with Scott’s stated goal of making most messages available within 24 hours.

“That’s not happening,” said Dan Krassner of Integrity Florida.

Integrity Florida also found that some staffers did not comply with Scott’s policy to post emails within seven days of receipt.

Governor’s staff members are responsible for moving their mail to the Sunburst folder. Some email is necessarily delayed to allow time to redact information that is confidential under state law.

As of 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, emails sent to Scott and Hollingsworth were posted within 24 hours, the group said.

But the group found that it had been nine days since any email to Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Finkbeiner was online; 10 days for Sellers; and 14 days for Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll’s chief of staff, John Konkus.

“Sunburst has been just a small burst of sunlight through the big clouds of government secrecy,” Krassner said. “We’d like to see the governor’s office deliver on the original promise of Sunburst and meet the governor’s expectations of 24-hour disclosure.”

Hollingsworth said every employee must obey the Sunburst policy and that every Friday all Sunburst accounts are reviewed to be sure people are complying.

Hollingsworth, who arrived two months after Sunburst, quickly fixed the system’s most embarrassing failure: the posting of pro-Scott emails and the absence of those critical of him. All are now accessible.

Asked if Scott’s people are reluctant to use email to avoid Sunburst’s public glare, Hollingsworth said: “I’m going to leave that for you and others to characterize.”

Conta ct Steve Bousquet at bousquet@tampabay.com or (850) 224-7263.

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Margo Martindale Interview Steel Magnolias

Most people learned to love Margo Martindale thanks to her powerful and Emmy-winning turn as Mags Bennett on the second season of FX's Justified.

But the beloved actress first began winning over audiences with the first staging of Steel Magnolias in 1987 when she originated the role of Truvy. Now, she's returning to The Lucille Lortel Theater for a 25th Anniversary reading of Robert Harling classic play (benefiting The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) on December 3 -- although this time, she's tackling the role of Ouiser!

ETonline caught up with Martindale to talk about the 25th Anniversary, what it means to be re-staging this play and what happened when Steel the play met Steel the film and she met Julia Roberts!

ETonline: Is it crazy to you that it's the 25th Anniversary of Steel Magnolias?

Margo Martindale: Well, I must say, I didn't think much of it when they first asked me to do it since I'm not playing my own part. But I read over the script yesterday and sobbed the whole way through. My husband asked, "Why are you crying so much?" And I said "Because this was so much a part of our lives." My daughter was conceived during my last time on stage in New York and she is almost 25.

VIDEO FLASHBACK - Julia Roberts Wins A Golden Globe For Magnolias

ETonline: You are playing Ouiser for the first time. How does that compare to playing Truvy?

Martindale: Honestly, it's not radically different. It's just the flip side. Truvy is so big-hearted and just so funny but sweet. And Ouiser is not. And I think I'm more like Ouiser now than I was like Truvy. So it's kind of perfect.

ETonline: What do you think it is about these women that has kept audiences under their spell for 25 years?

Martindale: I think that originally with the play we didn't know what we had. We played that first show so seriously. It was a serious play and it was all about business. We had no idea it was so funny. When we put it in front of an audience, they just loved it. I think people love it because we were real people, with real feelings and real hearts. That's what people saw in the play and, in turn, I think that's how the movie was made.

ETonline: What did you think of the movie?

Martindale: I was actually doing the national tour of the play when the movie came out. You kind of want to criticize. It was vastly different from the play in that it's so open. The thing that I missed in the movie, which you can't do in a movie,is that in the play, everything takes place in one room. All the emotions were so huge in that room and you couldn't escape it, so you had to confront the pain of the loss of Shelby. I believe that all happened in the cemetery scene, which actually worked beautifully but it was very very different. For anybody who wasn't part of the play or hadn't seen the play first, I think the movie was perfectly beautiful.

PHOTO - Roberts & Field Celebrate Magnolias' Anniversary

ETonline: You've now tackled two roles, is there anyone in Steel you wouldn't want to play?

Martindale: I don't think I'd want to play Shelby or Annelle. I'm soooo not right for it. But all the others I can play I think.

ETonline: You're currently expericning the other side of the coin, working on the cinematic adaptation of August: Osage County. How much of that play has been "movie'd up?"

Martindale: It's beautiful. So beautiful. I think it really retains the spirit of the film. Tracy Letts (who wrote the play) wrote the screenplay so he kept it really close to the play. He's opened up some of it, but most everything takes place in the house. I absolutely loved working with Chris Cooper, Meryl [Streep], Benedict [Cumberbatch], Julia [Roberts]; everybody was wonderful.

ETonline: Did you and Julia ever talk about your shared Steel connection?

Martindale: We talked about it. She was just so sweet about that. She said "Steel Magnolias gave me everything. I owed it to the people
that kept the play going for the movie to be made."

ETonline: I've been a fan of yours for so long, but I'm curious, do you have a role like that? One you feel like "gave you everything?"

Martindale: It was only two years ago, but I do think Justified really changed my career. It made everybody a little more aware of me and what I could do. It also brought me to the public eye and made people more aware of how long I been doing this.

ETonline: You've worked on a lot of shows and played a lot of supporting characters in big films. Is there any character you'd love to revisit in a bigger capacity?

Martindale: Well, I loved Paris, Je T'aime. It's like my top two favorite things I've ever done and I think it was a beautiful. I think it was a perfect seven minute movie, or whatever it was. I don't know how that would work in a bigger movie, but she was an interesting character I would have loved to have been with longer.

For more on The 25th Anniversary reading of Steel Magnolias to benefit The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, click here!

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US prisons could handle Guantanamo detainees: study

WASHINGTON — The controversial detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, could be closed and the 166 detainees being held there could be absorbed safely by US prisons, a government report says.

Many of the detainees are accused of plotting terrorist acts against the United States.

"This report demonstrates that if the political will exists, we could finally close Guantanamo without imperiling our national security," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman who released the Government Accountability Office study Wednesday.

The GAO study shows that US prisons already hold 373 prisoners convicted of terrorism in 98 facilities across the country.

"As far as I know, there hasn't been a single security problem reported in any of these cases," Feinstein said. "This fact outweighs not only the high cost of maintaining Guantanamo — which costs more than $114 million a year — but also provides the same degree of security without the criticism of operating a military prison in an isolated location."

The study said there are six Defense Department prisons and 98 Justice Department prisons that could take the detainees, but it does say that existing facilities likely would need to be modified and current inmates may need to be relocated to make room for the new arrivals.

President Barack Obama ordered the closing of the Guantanamo's detention facility when he took office in 2009, but that was blocked by a Republican-led bill that cut off funding to move the detainees to the US The lawmakers cited security concerns, saying the presence of the detainees would encourage terror attacks in the states or cities where they were being held.

Feinstein commissioned the study in 2008 to find out where the detainees could be held, if the White House was able to move ahead with Guantanamo's closure.

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Miami-Dade pending home sales spiked in October

Despite a dearth of homes and condos on the market in Miami-Dade County, pending sales rose 67 percent in October with 4,172 residential properties going under contract compared with 2,488 a year earlier, according to the Miami Association of Realtors.

The number of pending sales rose 18 percent in October from September.

In a statement, Martha Pomares, chairman of the board of the Miami Association of Realtors, said “The Miami real estate market is poised for another record year that would suprass the all-time sales record set in 2011. Strong demand persists despite the shortage of housing inventory, and listings are increasingly selling at a more rapid pace, driving in significant price appreciation.’’

With strong demand and little on the market, properties are selling for closer to their asking price and sellers aren’t inclined to offer discounts. For October, single-family homes in Miami-Dade sold at 95 percent of the original listing price, while condos went for 97.1 percent of original listing price on average, the Miami Realtors said. In October 2011, single family homes fetched 91 percent of listing price on average and condos got 93.6 percent of listing price.

Pending sales are a forward indicator based on the number of contracts signed over a given period.

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Convicted al-Qaida recruit Jose Padilla faces resentencing in Miami

Jose Padilla, the convicted terrorist who once called the Fort Lauderdale-area home before joining the ranks of al-Qaida, faces up to life in prison at his resentencing Monday in Miami federal court.

But his defense attorney hopes a judge Wednesday will postpone the sentencing until January, so Padilla can improve his mental health by visiting with family members in the meantime at the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami.

Padilla, 42, is serving a 17-year prison at the maximum security prison in Florence, Colo.

“Since his arrest in May of 2002, the government has systematically attempted to destroy Jose by psychologically torturing him and imprisoning him under the severest of conditions,” Federal Public Defender Michael Caruso, who represented Padilla at his 2007 trial, wrote in court papers.

“Not surprisingly, this psychological torture has taken a toll on Jose.”

Federal prosecutors voiced strong opposition to the delay, unless Padilla’s defense lawyer were to request a competency examination of his client.

Last year, a federal appeals court ruled that the one-time “enemy combatant” — perhaps better known as the “dirty bomber” — should receive harsher punishment reflecting his extensive criminal record.

The appellate court found that U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke was too lenient when she “unreasonably discounted” his criminal history before lowering a potential 30-year-to-life sentence.

Padilla, born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, was a former Chicago gang member with 17 arrests and a murder conviction before becoming a recruit for al-Qaida, according to federal prosecutors.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the controversial case back to Cooke to resentence Padilla, who trained with al-Qaida the year before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, according to trial evidence.

Caruso appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying Cooke “imposed a fair and reasonable sentence.” But the high court declined to hear his petition.

The appeals court in Atlanta, in a 2-1 ruling, upheld the terrorism convictions of Padilla and two others: Adham Amin Hassoun, a Palestinian who had met him at a Broward mosque in the 1990s; and Hassoun’s colleague, Kifah Wael Jayyousi, a U.S. citizen of Jordanian descent. They were sentenced to 15 years and eight months, and 12 years and eight months, respectively.

All three defendants, convicted of conspiring to support Islamic extremists overseas, sought a new federal trial based on claims of improper testimony by the lead FBI agent and a terrorism expert, along with insufficient evidence and other allegations. Padilla also challenged Cooke’s decision to reject a motion to dismiss his indictment based on “outrageous government conduct” while the former enemy combatant was held in a Naval brig before his transfer to Miami to face terrorism charges in 2006.

Padilla was held without being charged in the South Carolina brig for 3 1/2 years — time that the Miami judge cut from his sentence.

The appellate court, in an opinion written by Chief Judge Joel F. Dubina and joined by Judge William H. Pryor, sided with the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami. Prosecutors, who were seeking life imprisonment for Padilla, appealed Cooke’s 17-year sentence. They argued the judge’s prison term was 13 years below the low end of sentencing guidelines — 30 years.

The appellate court wrote that Cooke’s punishment “reflects a clear error of judgment about the sentencing of this career offender.” The court noted that his codefendant, Hassoun, had no prior criminal history but received a sentence that was “only” 20 months less than Padilla’s.

Cooke “attached little weight to Padilla’s extensive criminal history, gave no weight to his future dangerousness, compared him to criminals who were not similarly situated, and gave unreasonable weight to the condition of his pre-trial detention,” Dubina wrote.

In a dissent, Appellate Judge Rosemary Barkett countered that Padilla’s sentence “should not be disturbed.” Barkett said “doing so simply substitutes sentencing judgment for that of the trial judge” with the inherent authority.

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Lucy Hale Pretty Little Liars Interview Duracell Event

We're less than six weeks away from the Pretty Little Liars season premiere, and to help make the wait pass faster, I caught up with star Lucy Hale to talk all about season 3B!

RELATED - 10 Best Dressed TV Stars

We met up at P.S. 64 in NYC where Hale had partnered with the Duracell Power Holiday Smiles program, benefiting Toys for Tots, to gift the students with some early Christmas presents ... batteries included!

VIDEO - First Look at PLL's Season Premiere

In addition to watching the kids freak out upon seeing the adorable actress, Hale revealed the best Christmas present she's ever gotten and told me that fans can expect a drastically different tone in the 2013 episodes of Pretty Little Liars! Watch!

Pretty Little Liars premieres January 8 at 8 p.m. on ABC Family, and for more information on the Duracell Power Holiday Smiles program, click here!

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