Let hyperboles of excitement fly: the greatest annual book festival in the country is only a week away. Our beloved Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is set to take over USC’s campus next Saturday, where some of the greatest names in the book world will congregate for LA’s most literary weekend of the year. more ›

On October 30th, Los Angeles will play host to a satellite event of Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity". The gathering will be held at the Levitt Pavilion at MacArthur Park near downtown L.A. - more details are available on the event's Facebook page. more ›

The TV Junkie Plan: @aots, "Community", "Parks and Recreation", "The Office", "30 Rock", "Important Things with Demetri Martin", "The Sarah Silverman Program", "Chelsea Lately", Letterman, Fallon (Hot Chip performs). more ›

Millions of moronic teenagers pushed The Final Destination to the top of the weekend box-office chart as it snagged a richly undeserved $28.3M (largely due to the inflated price of tickets to the 3D showings). Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds managed to hold onto second place despite forecasts to the contrary ($20M | $73.8M). In a bit of good news, the worthless Halloween II came in below expectations ($17.4M). Surprise hit District 9 continued to perform well ($10.7M | $90.8M) while G.I. Joe rounded out the top 5 ($8M | $132M). more ›

Before diving into a review of the wonderful Paper Heart, allow me to relate an episode from last night's screening. I think it provides a key insight into the whimsical mind of Charlyne Yi. Following the screening, Charlyne and director Nicholas Jasenovec sat down for a Q&A. Ten minutes in, Charlyne excused herself to the restroom. Moments later, she returned. Except she didn't. A man dressed exactly like her entered the theater and continued the Q&A as her. It's just that sort of innocent guile that makes Paper Heart so winning. more ›

Late night news: TBS is building a late night show around comedian/actor George Lopez (whom we have loved as Mayor Hernandez on "Reno 911"). The hour-long show will air at 11pm, Monday through Fridays but we're not so sure that it's a good move to go head to head with local news. We'll see what happens when the show launches. TBS has dabbled in late night comedy, with the Frank Caliendo vehicle, "Frank TV", which has not been renewed, and the admirable "10 Items or Less", headed by John Lehr, which is up for renewal now. more ›

Ad spending in the US dropped by 2.6% in 2008, with only cable increasing ad revenue for the year. TV and cable still retained a leadership position as the preferred media, taking more than 60% of all ad dollars. more ›

Tonight NBC is going to attempt to out-Gordon Ramsay FOX with Chef Marco Pierre White's new show, "Chopping Block". Our guess is that White will not have as foul a mouth as Ramsay but will have all his other TV-worthy qualities: intimidation, rage, and viciousness. May the most evil bastard chef win. more ›

Today NBC launched a 24-hour cable channel in New York called "New York Non-Stop", replete with expanded news coverage, on-location stories, and interactive elements. When can LA expect the same investment? more ›

Critics are being rather forgiving of Jimmy Fallon's (only slightly shaky IMHO) "Late Night" debut: they brought out DeNiro who is always a tough interview and Fallon kind of made it work, and Timberlake kind of saved the first show - not sure why they had Van Morrison on, are they trying to reclaim the age 55-and-up demographic? more ›

It looks like Andy Richter will be returning to the side of Conan O'Brien when he fires up his version of "The Tonight Show" starting on June 1st. Richter will be the announcer for the show and will appear in comedy sketches but it's not clear if he will be a fixture on the guest couch a la Ed McMahon. Now that the Academy Awards are over with and Conan has shut down production, late night TV is a wasteland this week other than Jimmy Kimmel. more ›

Last week we went to a sneak preview of Demetri Martin's new show on Comedy Central, "Important Things With Demetri Martin", which premiere's tonight at 10:30pm. The show has been in the works since last Spring so we are happy to see it make it on air. more ›

Truth is stranger than fiction - or life imitates fiction? Something like that: Anna Torv and Mark Valley, the stars of FOX's "Fringe", have married in real life. Fringe also did pretty good in yesterday's Nielsen numbers, with a 10+% increase in viewership over last week, but that increase is getting attributed to the popularity of its lead in, "American Idol". more ›

Demetri Martin has taken the deadpan one line style of comedic greats Steven Wright and the late Mitch Hedberg and added his own twist, upgrading the number of comedy accessories from one (just a mic) to three with the addition of a guitar and a large pad (creatively titled, "Large Pad") to his routine. Tonight, the former Daily Show correspondent who wrote a song about his 9,000 friends on MySpace headlines at the Improv. Tonight's... more ›

The Daily Show's Demetri Martin examines the legality of watching him discuss the legality of watching The Daily Show on YouTube. For the full effect, watch it illegally via this embedded YouTube player before Viacom submits its takedown notice. If the YouTube video doesn't work, watch legally via Comedy Central's videoplayer, embedded after the jump.... more ›