Actress and adult entertainer Sasha Grey was on "The View" this morning to serve as a "living Hot Topic" to talk about the whole reading to school kids debacle. The hosts managed to not impersonate a henhouse and pressed Grey on her decision not only to pursue a career in porn, but to participate in a program that had her reading to youngsters at a Compton elementary school. more ›

Ari Emanuel might be an arbiter of great superstardom, but apparently he was way off the mark when it came to predicting the success of his own fictional doppelganger: The Daily reports that the William Morris Endeavor CEO thought that "Entourage" would go nowhere. more ›

HBO had a set of finales last night: what did you think of them? --- Fall TV will feature mainly wimpy/clueless male characters and guys seem too wimpy to write about that. --- Spongebob is bad for the 4 and under set say pediatricians. --- All this and the TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan. more ›

The Tour de France wraps up Sunday, the same day that "Entourage" begins its final season. We hope NBC resolves the issues around its online access and mobile apps by next year. --- More TV news and the TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan for your weekend in the full post. more ›

Resigning New York Congressman Anthony Weiner might be out of one job, but has a couple of new offers that could find the not-so-camera-shy politician going Hollywood. A couple of high-profile gigs are dangling like proverbial carrots in front of Weiner, including a working for porn king Larry Flynt, and taking a turn in front of the cameras for TV's "Entourage." more ›

The second season of FX's "Justified" comes to a close. Please check out our video interviews and other coverage of this great series in today's post. The capper is that KCRW's "The Treatment" has an interview with series star Timothy Olyphant that went live today. --- All this plus other news items & the TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan. more ›

Thousands of miles, 12 set visits, 4 award shows, 2 conventions, 2 colleges, and 1 benefit. Those were the statistics for LAist last year in covering the adult industry, headquartered in the San Fernando Valley. more ›

We all know Adrian Grenier from his role as superstar Vincent Chase on HBO's "Entourage" but not as many know of Grenier the documentarian and more should. Grenier's Shot In The Dark, his documentary about fatherhood and the search for his biological father adeptly brought us into an intensely personal story. We've waited a while for another feature-length documentary from Grenier and again he's again delivered a story with a personal connection - the connection he made with 14 year-old paparazzo Austin Visschedyk... more ›

We snapped pics of many of the people we interviewed as well as other attendees of the premiere of HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" at the Ziegfeld Theatre in NYC on Wednesday, September 15, 2010. Included are cast members of "Boardwalk Empire", "The Sopranos", "Entourage", and "True Blood". more ›

On Wednesday we went to the premiere of HBO's new series, "Boardwalk Empire" at the Ziegfeld Theatre in Manhattan. We spoke with plenty of people associated with the show as well as several who have worked with HBO in the past ("True Blood", "Entourage", "The Sopranos", "John Adams"). "Boardwalk Empire" does deliver on the hype - it's beautifully shot on amazing sets with great performances set to exceptional writing. more ›

HBO's "Entourage" has been throwing around topical Los Angeles references all season and last night it all came to a head (If you haven't seen Sunday night's episode, be warned, there are spoilers!). more ›

The TV Junkie Plan: "Top Gear", "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" (Dubai), "Chelsea Lately", Fallon (Jason Bateman). more ›

Just like in last week's episode, "Entourage" on HBO continues to comment on local L.A. news topics, most notably the prospect of bringing a NFL stadium to Los Angeles. In Sunday evening's episode, Hollywood power agent Ari Gold brings together high rolling potential funders to back his stadium proposal in downtown Los Angeles, next to L.A. Live. Seen in the group is Casey Wasserman, who in reality is actually proposing a stadium in that location. "The Downtown proposal is up against Staples Center partner Ed Roski's plan to put a stadium in the City of Industry," notes Eric Richardson at blogdowntown. "While Roski's efforts had a significant head start, the race really comes down to who can be the first to get a team to commit." more ›

In the "Entourage" season premiere, it was a nod to the food truck trend. In the second episode ("Dazed and Confused") Sunday night, it was the prospect of the NFL coming back to Los Angeles (spoiler alerts coming). more ›

A quick scene on last night's season seven premiere of "Entourage" showed off one of L.A.'s trendy food trucks (Yes, Hollywood's fictional elite loves them). more ›

Weekend Edition Sure, this weekend is all about the World Cup (USA vs. Ghana tomorrow at 11am!) but Sunday is all about HBO. With its premieres of both "Hung" and "Entourage", HBO pretty much seals the deal as the Sunday night TV destination from now until the end of July when "Mad Men" premieres on AMC. more ›

Weekend Edition When it comes to late night TV, Letterman is definitely pulling ahead in terms of sheer numbers, about 800k more viewers per night than Conan. But Conan is scoring much higher in the coveted 18-49 demographic, to which NBC is saying, "I meant to do that". We mentioned a few weeks ago that "Futurama" might be coming back, but now rumor has it that if it returns it will be without the original cast of voices, to which, we would say, what's the point then? more ›

Weekend Edition The big deal this weekend is the return of the juvenile and entertaining "Entourage" - "True Blood" returns after a holiday break as well as the positively-reviewed "Hung". HBO owns Sundays, no doubt about it. | If you're following the Tour, get your fill this weekend because Monday is a rest day. more ›

On April 10, Mandy Moore turned 25. With a new album, a tour, volunteer work, and upcoming film projects, she really knows how to keep busy. If you want to try to keep up with Mandy, you can follow her on Twitter, check out her blog, and see her play at Largo. LAist talked to Mandy last month as she was putting the finishing touches in her new album Amanda Leigh. She was home recovering from having wisdom teeth removed, gushed on and on about her collaborator Mike Viola, and didn't let on even a hint that she and Ryan Adams were about to tie the knot. We asked Mandy about her new album Amanda Leigh, her long list of collaborators, and what she has planned for her show at Largo on April 25. more ›

LA has a diverse cast of characters. Whether it's the characters with stirring stories or interesting occupations or the people who are just simply characters, this town has them all. In an effort to get to know some of those characters a little better, we've created "Seven Questions with..." more ›

A couple season finales happen this Sunday on HBO. Ironically, "True Blood" finishes its first season on the weekend that the film "Twilight" premieres. Somehow the hype machine has ensured that "Twilight" will be a big hit this weekend even though it is nothing more than a teen romance movie with marginal acting and poor writing. In contrast, "True Blood" has been a rollercoaster with some great character development and performances, ensuring that we will eagerly await its return. more ›

Looks like "60 Minutes" scored the first post-election interview with President-elect Barack Obama - it will air on Sunday at 7:00pm on CBS. more ›

Looks like HBO will buy a documentary on president-elect Barack Obama and will air it in 2009. The documentary was produced by actor Edward Norton's production company, Class 5 Films, and was bought "in the seven-figure range". A nice bet by Norton paid off evidently. more ›

Senator Barack Obama's Wednesday night appearance on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" scored the show's biggest audience ever. Let's see what tonight's appearance by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin does for ABC's "20/20" as well as tomorrow night's Senator John McCain cameo effect on NBC's "Saturday Night Live". more ›

It's a Jon Hamm/"Mad Men" weekend: on Saturday, the man who plays Don Draper will be hosting "Saturday Night Live" and Sunday brings us the season finale of the mult-Emmy-winning show from AMC. Both are a must watch. more ›

If you're not heading home to hit the bottle hard after this week, more power to you. I'm not sure what solace TV will provide this weekend, what with "The Starter Wife", that, despite all the heavy hype, looks less than funny. more ›

This weekend it's all about the Emmies. Being the elitist anti-populists, we are hoping that critical faves win out over the dreck. For drama, it would be nice if Emmies went to "Mad Men", "Damages", "Breaking Bad" and "The Wire". For comedy, some of the following should be winning winged statues: "Flight of the Conchords", "The Office", "Weeds", "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia", and "30 Rock". more ›

Recession? What recession? NBC reportedly has almost sold out of ad spots for the 2009 Super Bowl and are selling the spots at prices at least 11% higher than last year. more ›