Names and faces

From left, Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Terry Jones of the comedy group Monty Python pose for photographers during a photo call in London Monday, June 30, 2014, to promote their reunion for a series of concerts. The group had its first big success with the Monty Python's Flying Circus TV show, which ran from 1969 until 1974, winning fans around the world with its bizarre sketches. (Photo by John Phillips Invision/AP Images)
From left, Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Terry Jones of the comedy group Monty Python pose for photographers during a photo call in London Monday, June 30, 2014, to promote their reunion for a series of concerts. The group had its first big success with the Monty Python's Flying Circus TV show, which ran from 1969 until 1974, winning fans around the world with its bizarre sketches. (Photo by John Phillips Invision/AP Images)

• The members of Monty Python are aiming to move like Jagger in their live farewell shows. The five surviving Pythons have reunited for 10 dates at London's 15,000-seat O2 Arena starting today. It's a fast-paced comic revue that requires the septuagenarian comedians to act, sing, dance and pull off rapid-fire costume changes. Michael Palin said the group drew inspiration from Mick Jagger, still gyrating at 70. "A kind of madness takes over," Palin told a news conference Monday. "You just leap about at a certain point." Fellow comedian Terry Gilliam added: "Our version of 'Brown Sugar' is far better." Eric Idle, who has done much of the work assembling the shows, said fans can expect old favorites, back-catalog gems and a few new twists. "Our motto has been: Leave them wanting less," he said. As well as Idle, Palin, Gilliam, John Cleese and Terry Jones, the show features a dance troupe, singing lumberjacks, Spam-loving Vikings, a dead parrot and much more. The troupe last performed together at the Hollywood Bowl in 1980. The show is titled "One Down, Five to Go" in honor of the sixth Python, Graham Chapman. He died of cancer in 1989 but will appear onscreen.

• The bong-tossing case against Amanda Bynes was dismissed Monday after the actress complied with the judge's orders to stay out of trouble and go to counseling. Bynes, 28, was charged last year with reckless endangerment and marijuana possession. Building managers called police because they said she was smoking marijuana in the lobby of her Manhattan residence. When officers entered her 36th-floor apartment, they said they saw her heave a bong out the window. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Lori Petersen sealed the case after the dismissal. Bynes' lawyer appeared in court; she was not present. The court previously had said the charges would be dismissed if Bynes stayed out of trouble and went to counseling twice a week. Attorney Gerald Shargel submitted an affidavit saying Bynes had complied with the court's requirements. In February, Bynes pleaded no contest to alcohol-related reckless driving for clipping a Los Angeles County sheriff's office patrol car in April 2012. She was sentenced to three years of probation and three months of attending alcohol education classes. She received psychiatric treatment last year after authorities said she set a small fire in the driveway of a home in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

A Section on 07/01/2014

Upcoming Events