The TV Junkie says "welcome back" to you all, to a new year and a new "Winter Season" of TV. Premieres we are looking forward to this month are "Nip/Tuck" (FX 1/6), "Damages" (FX 1/7), "24" (Fox 1/11), "Battlestar Galactica" (SciFi 1/16), "Big Love" (HBO 1/18), and "Lost" (ABC 1/21). more ›

The TV Junkie's picks for the night: 8:00-9:00pm Big Brother 8 CBS - LAist's editor-in-chief's fave (only on Sundays perhaps), but here it is, a new episode - is the Tommy Lee-wannabe gonna dis the hottie some more? 9:00-10:00pm American Chopper TLC -David Letterman's fave. The boys were just on his show and they were pretty darn entertaining. Lemme guess, the younger brother does something stupid. 10:00-11:00pm Mad Men AMC - A collection of... more ›

Wednesday Night "NBA Basketball" (ESPN, 6:00 p.m.) Grizzlies @ Kings "NHL Hockey" (Fox Sports, 7:00 p.m.) Flyers @ Ducks "Office Space" (IFC, 7:00 p.m.) Unwind from humpday with the unedited neo-classic. "College Basketball" (Prime 42, 7:30 p.m.) BYU @ UCLA "Dancing With the Stars" (ABC, 8 p.m.) The moment of truth. Season finale. "Jericho" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) The town comes up with a plan to repel "intruders" (use President Bush pronounciation on that word)... more ›

- NO! The nude photos of 41 yr-old Cindy Margolis' fake boobies in Playboy have hit the Interwebs! - Drunken Stepfather - NO! Flava Flav preparing for his Seventh child - People - NO! Angelina is expecting againgelina - Star - NO! Shanna Moakler is getting paid to throw a Divorce Party at the Bellagio on Friday - Perez Hilton - OMG NO! Pete Doherty wears Kate Moss' clothes and shoes - Entertainmentwise -... more ›

- "I think that blogs should die a sudden death," Jared Leto said while wearing mascara. - Best Week Ever - "I'm not sure I can stomach continuing to read National Review." - The Corner - The mid-term election has hit an all-time low when Al Franken's face is photoshopped on the body of a man wearing adult diapers. - Think Progress - AZ GOP Congressman one of the Foleyish men with a Page Problem?... more ›

- In Touch has photos of Mel Gibson partying it up and posing for pictures at Moonshadows on PCH an hour before his infamous arrest. Yet somehow TMZ has more In Touch pix of Mel than In Touch does. Mel TMZ really does own Malibu this story. - LA Times entertainment columnist Patrick Goldstein gives the Hollywood execs hell for not piling on Gibson's drunken slurs. Maybe the suits still remember the billions that... more ›

We didn't make it to the debate between Al Franken and Ann Coulter last night at The Gibson (and sponsored by the University of Judaism) but Franken talked on his show (live from San Francisco) this morning about the remarks they each made during the sponsors dinner before hand. more ›

Unless you spent the $225 for the series that includes Al Franken and Ann Coulter tonight at The Gibson, you’re out of luck. Rather, we recommend you check out local celebrity politico Eric Garcetti at the Improv Olympic on The Blank Blank Show in Hollywood. more ›

While we scratch our heads figuring out how to increase civic engagement here in the city of LA, the restless lefties at MoveOn.org are thinking nationally. Monday they launched a Flash animation contest To Stop the Republican Social Security Scam. There are 16 days left for you to submit your wickedly funny, wierd, politically persuasive Flash animation. Al Franken and Arianna Huffington (of course) are among the judges, plus Richard (Slacker) Linklater, Aaron McGruder (The Boondocks cartoons), and John Cusack (LAist loves Grosse Pointe Blank). The winner, in addition to a few seconds of fame, will get an Apple G4 laptop. LA's genius deserves to represented in the final 10. more ›

Los Angeles airports are wonderful places for evesdropping- so many fascinating people, so many interesting stories, and all under one proverbial roof... While casually browsing the books in the United terminal of LAX, right next door to Wolfgang Puck’s Pizza joint, LAist observed this exchange: more ›