Nadal leads solid Spanish in Davis Cup final

Rafael Nadal leads an unchanged Spain squad in next month's Davis Cup final against Argentina, which will count on Juan Martin del Potro and David Nalbandian to lead the South Americans to a first title on their fourth attempt.

The second-ranked Nadal helped Spain beat France 4-1 in the semifinals to set up the Dec. 2-4 final on the hosts' favoured clay surface at Olympic Stadium in Seville.

Fifth-ranked David Ferrer is set to play singles alongside Nadal, while Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco should team-up for doubles, although Spain captain Albert Costa also included recent Valencia Open winner Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez as playing partners.

Aside from the 11th-ranked Del Potro and Nalbandian, Juan Monaco, Juan Ignacio Chela and Eduardo Schwank are also in Argentina's squad, although captain Tito Vazquez will need to trim his team to four players before the Dec. 1 draw.

The Argentines beat a Novak Djokovic-led Serbia 3-2 in Belgrade in the semifinals.

Spain has won 20 straight series at home since going down to Brazil in 1999. On clay, Nadal and Ferrer are a combined 25-0.

The final is a repeat of the 2008 decider, when Spain won 3-2 on a hard indoor surface in Argentina despite missing Nadal to injury.

"When we went to Mar del Plata, the Argentine public was absolutely belligerent," Costa said on Tuesday. "I'm not going to ask the Spanish fans to repeat that belligerence but they do need to be passionate and show fire in defending the Spanish team, because that will be a prime factor if we want to win."

Spain is vying for its fifth title since 2000 and third in four seasons. Argentina was also runner-up in 1981 and 2006.

Spain begin training in Seville on Saturday, with Nadal and Ferrer are set to join the team after the ATP World Tour Finals. Argentina has already started practicing on clay at the Tenis Club Argentino in Buenos Aires.

Nadal helped Spain beat the United States to capture the 2004 title at Olympic Stadium.

On DVD: Of Looney Tunes, ‘meep meep’..

Cartoon completists should be salivating at the newest release of Looney Tunes on Blu-ray. In addition to dozens of shorts featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, the three-disc set includes every classic Marvin the Martian cartoon (there were just five) and every one featuring the Tasmanian Devil (again, only five!).
There’s also the complete runs of such lesser-known characters as Witch Hazel (four cartoons), Marc Anthony (three), Ralph Phillips (two) and Michigan J. Frog, who made a single, memorable appearance in 1955’s One Froggy Evening. (Yes, he did reappear 40 years later in Another Froggy Evening — and it’s included — but we’re talking about the classical canon here.)
In a brief making-of feature, it’s revealed that the name Michigan J. Frog was coined by director Chuck Jones decades after the cartoon was made, in response to endless questions from fans. (The character’s signature song, The Michigan Rag, sounds like a classic ragtime number but was actually written specifically for the cartoon.)
Another famous short on the set is Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in the 1957 Wagnerian comedy What’s Opera, Doc? The origins of the cartoon remain shrouded in mystery, but a clue can be found in a wartime Bugs cartoon in which the rabbit is being chased by a Nazi when both break into a kind of Wagnerian two-step. Jones is also fond of quoting Mark Twain: “A lot of Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.”
The set, which carries the promising title of Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume One, features many commentaries and documentaries about their golden (or should that be platinum?) age. Mel Blanc talks about getting carrots stuck in his teeth while providing the voice of Bugs, adding: “The only thing that will make a sound like a carrot is a real carrot.”
Other sound effects were equally simple and serendipitous. The Road Runner got his “meep meep” when an animator named Paul Julian was calling out while walking down the Warner Bros. hallway, his vision obscured by a tall stack of paper.
Jones cheekily explains that drawing Bugs is “pure simplicity. Learn how to draw a carrot and then you can hook a rabbit on to it.” He also provides a simple summation of the rabbit and the duck: “Bugs is an aspiration. Daffy is a realization.” In other words, we all know we carry Daffy’s pettiness in our souls. But we hope we embody a little of Bugs’ charm as well.
A ‘REAL’ ROM-COM
Some actors hit their early-retirement years and decide to take chances. Tom Hanks, 55, took a working vacation with Larry Crowne, a featherlight romantic comedy he directed, co-wrote with Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) and starred in with Julia Roberts. “We’re not making a romantic comedy; we’re making an authentic romantic comedy,” he says in the controversy-free making-of on the new DVD. It’s a sweet, harmless movie, and the DVD also includes deleted scenes and a short feature called “fun on set.” You can tell them apart because the deleted scenes are of sad moments that didn’t make the final cut, while “fun on set” is pretty much what it sounds like.
NEW DVD RELEASES
Inni ★★½
Larry Crowne ★★