If you totally dug the soundtrack to American Beauty (not the orchestral score by Thomas Newman, which is amazing too), then you must know that KCRW DJ Chris Douridas was behind it. His choices in music for that movie led to a Grammy nomination, but that is only one of many movies and accomplishments under his belt. As a DJ, Douridas hosts New Ground on Saturdays at noon for three hours. In September, we......

Several weeks ago, LAist Editors put out a call for nominations for the coolest Angelenos under 30. We received many submissions and we are grateful. So grateful that we promise to publish a special edition of the LAist Interview, which we've named "20 Under 30," not once, but three times a week until June 29th. The 20 young people featured in the series confirm the notion that our region nurtures people with talent and......

Thora Birch turns 24 today. She was great in American Beauty, but perfect as the movie version of Enid in Ghost World. Don't worry, be happy: musician Bobby McFerrin celebrates his 56th. And a handful of hyphenate birthdays: Oscar-nominee Terrence Howard is 37, Jackass-actor Johnny Knoxville is 35 and actor-director Peter Berg is 42. And Long-Island-lover-turned-porn-dude Joey Buttafuoco is 50 today. Supreme Court watchers may be interested to know that Antonin Scalia turns 70......

So when we heard that KCRW's Chris Douridas was arrested, we figured it was for the usual Hollywood fare -- drug possession, drunk and disorderly, etc. But Douridas, who's been with KCRW 15 years, was arrested on Jan. 6 outside the Circle Bar in Santa Monica for allegedly drugging and trying to kidnap a 14-year-old girl. That one we didn't expect. According to the LA Times story this morning: Douridas, 43, was arrested shortly......

LAist knows that writers are paranoid about other people stealing their ideas, yet some don't think twice about discussing their newest epics out loud at local LA establishments to people they're trying to impress. We're not saying they're good ideas and we're not saying they're bad ideas — we're just providing you a glimpse into the minds of LA writers whose latest projects could very well turn out to be the next Academy Award-winning......