This week reports surfaced that someone had posed in a photo with the human head found in the Hollywood Hills this week. Professional dog walker Lauren Kornberg told Gawker that although she and her mother discovered the human head in Bronson Canyon, neither of them snapped any photos of the head—neither even had a camera or cell phone. more ›

You've probably heard that in other parts of the country they are digging out from under massive snow banks and freezing their butts off. Hmm. Bummer, huh? We're enjoying a streak of temps in the low- to mid-60s right now, which is just about average for us. That's why Los Angeles is one of the cities picked by Gawker as a place you might want to move to in order to escape those winter blues. more ›

Remember earlier this month when Gawker named Girls Gone Wild founder and USC alumnus Joe Francis as the Douchebag of the Decade? Francis apparently isn't denying his doucheyness, but he is seeving about these lines written in Gawker's post: "But this coked-out amoral direct-marketer (and a rapist!) is basically a zillionaire, various tax liens against him notwithstanding... Joe Francis! You have made the world a worse place! You have assaulted and raped!" more ›

A Gawker poll has named Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis as Douche of the Decade. He edged out Tucker Max and overwhelmingly beat everyone else, including American Apparel's Dov Charney. Francis, who completed a Business Administration degree and Entrepreneur Program at USC, has been a societal blight, from general douchecanoe-ness to underaged porn to tax evasion to asking the federal government to bailout the porn industry. But, really, you don't need to go beyond much other than his interview with Rolling Stone to understand why he earned this: "More than anything else, Girls Gone Wild started off as a product of my sexual fantasy... Girls look really good from age eighteen to twenty-five. It's just a fact that that's the best time for girls. Afterward, things start to happen — bad things." more ›

Say goodbye to Hollywood, baby. Defamer, the loved--but not loved enough--celebrity gossip blog has been folded into its parent blog, Gawker. more ›

Molly's become notorious in the blogosphere for her wry and ridiculous riffs on pop culture: Lindsay Lohan? Beyonce? Elizabeth Hasselbeck? Molly's got words (and impressions) for them all. She's often joined by special guest stars Ed (the gay husband), Alexis Hyde (the fantastically hip-but-funny BFF) and Wagandstuff (the squirmy Chihuahua). Unfortunately, she was made redundant by Gawker Media's latest round of lay-offs, a sad but apparently necessary move to streamline the blogging behemoth in this newer, braver, but more somber media world. more ›

Today it became official. Mark Lisanti, the Editor of Defamer since mid-2004, is done as of this Friday:

Of the 9 or 10,000 posts I've done since we started this site, this one is the hardest to write. After almost four years here at Defamer, I've decided it's finally time to move on. In an effort to keep this short and sweet, I'll be climbing out of the blogging hamster-wheel this Friday, and though I wish I had exciting news about where my next paycheck will be coming from (or some great story about why I'm leaving other than "it's time"), I'll probably just be taking a little hiatus to figure out what's next and work on some projects I haven't had the time or energy for...

Beware of the Google Gawker... more ›

How much Britney coverage is too much? Whatever it is, it's not enough. In an e-mail memo, obtained by Gawker, sent this morning from Frank Baker, Assistant Bureau Chief, Los Angeles, he tells staff that "virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal." more ›

more ›

Cardinal Roger Mahoney revealed that he had been assaulted in July outside of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral; the attacker was "enraged by the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal within days of a record settlement with hundreds of victims." Karl Dorrell will not be coaching UCLA in its upcoming Las Vegas Bowl game. Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker will coach in the interim. If the world weren't already all shook up by Jakob Lodwick's departure... more ›

The man responsible for killing a woman and her two young children in a street-racing accident last month has been tracked down and arrested in Mexico; Martin Marones is expected to be charged with three counts of murder. So many questions! Has "Heroes: Origins" been shelved? Or just "postponed" due to the writers strikes? Will we ever find out who's been offing the group of twelve? And what's up with this ADAM guy??? Two... more ›

What are your favorite food memoirs? Ruth Reichl shares her picks with NPR, and we definitely agree that these are must-reads, especially Jeffrey Steingarten's hilarious and informative essays. Still haven't taken the $20 Farmer's Market Challenge? Now Slashfood and the Washington Post are polling readers to see how much loot they can get at their local markets for only twenty bucks. Jonathan Gold and Pat Saperstein over at EatingLA are both reporting on Jitlada... more ›

Some people say that blogging on Sundays is worthless. Most of our favorite Gawker sites take the weekends off, for example, as do many of our favorite gossip blogs, as did the Lord. And even fewer people have any love for the old fashioned liveblogging, in all its nerdy glory. Two Sundays ago we were invited to liveblog the MTV Movie Awards. LAist Movie Editor Elina Shatkin did the majority of the liveblogging, and... more ›

- Hugh Hefner said, "I am very saddened to learn about Anna Nicole's passing. She was a dear friend who meant a great deal to the Playboy family and to me personally. My thoughts and prayers are with her friends and loved ones during this difficult time." - Playboy.com - Playboy photo editor Gary Cole blogged, "And now she is suddenly gone, like with Marilyn and Jayne Mansfield, taken too quickly. Perhaps Billy Joel... more ›

The 7th annual Bloggy Awards announced their nominees today. Leading the way were the usual suspects: BoingBoing, Dooce, and Blogger. But long overdue for love were our sister sites Gothamist and Torontoist. Torontoist is nominated for Best Canadian Weblog. They're up against Regret the Error, Photojunkie, Kill the Goat, and Drawn (mysteriously missing is the recently crowned Raymi the Minx who won the Canadian Blog Awards for Best Blog and Best Diarist.) The mothership... more ›

more ›

STARTERS & DIPS Was the MTV President NEXT-ed? Mutiny at Music Television. [via Gawker] 50 Cent condoms will cover your wankster. [via Stereogum] Slash loses his hat. Big whoop. [via Idolator] EARLY BIRD SPECIAL The Shins' new album, "Wincing the Night Away" + iTunes glitch = download early. [via Retro Music Snob] ENTREES Money talks. And now it spies on you too. [via BoingBoing] eBay buys scalper website. This article comes w/ a side... more ›

Do you hear the wind howling his name? Ken Layne is coming back to Los Angeles. That's why the gods are washing off the streets and blowing the smog aside. Wonkette's West Coast Bureau Chief began this year at the helm of the ridiculously funny and mindbogglingly weird Sploid. Instead of burning bridges, Nick Denton shuttered Sploid and moved the hilariously cranky Layne over to Wonkette in a rare move by the Gawker head,... more ›

Kyle Bunch watches the blogosphere every day as head honcho of Blogebrity. Prepare as he breaks down the top 10 Blogebrities and sneaks in an eleventh when noone's lookin: more ›

- Our good friends at Gawker seem to have some unwelcome guests - Wired more ›

"I don't care if Mark Foley had been asking boys to describe their penises because I have some sad news for you: Your kid is so larded out on Cheetos and Yoo-hoo, he can't even see his penis." - Bill Maher, today on Salon.com "You're wankers, but really important wankers. Even you, Robert Joseph at Earthlink, who has sent me consistent hatemail for two years straight. You, sir, have been impressive." - Jessica Coen... more ›

If you drool at DVD, love laptops, and go nuts over i-pod nano, you will die and enter heaven at Gizmodo. Another beauty from the folks at Gawker Media more ›

One of LAist's favorite blogs is Kevin Roderick's LA Observed. His news and media posts and LA insights are always straightforward and right on. Today we found out that LA Observed is expanding its universe -- and Roderick's recruited some heavy-hitters as contributors to offshoot Observed blogs. more ›

After breif stint off the Interwebs, stereogum returned today saying that yes they were hacked but no the hackers did not leave the clever ha ha message that we wrote about the other day.

Kids, I wrote that. The intention wasn't to punk the blogosphere -- what hacker correctly uses 'whom' and posts a Bob Dylan MP3? -- but to amuse you while we were pwned. I see how it would appear a hacker wrote it. Sorry for the confusion. (Well, not that sorry. Gawker love's hard to find if you're not Crazy 'Us Weekly' Guy™.)

The Gawker empire puts Sploid up for sale, reshuffles lineup. Fishbowl NY summarizes some of the many changes that Nick Denton's blogworld incurred this weekend.

# Chris Mohney moves from Gawker Media's Gridskipper to Gawker, assuming a new managing editor role. TMFTML's Alex Balk replaces Oxfeld as co-editor alongside Jessica Coen. more ›

So Southern California-born Trader Joe's goes to Manhattan, and Manhattan, in the words of a Gawker poster, is "wetting pants in anticipation of bargain-basement wasabi peas." more ›

We're looking for new interviewers. We're also giving away a signed poster from The Chumscrubber. We opened a merch store as well featuring LAist branded American Apparel shirts (amongst other things). And we talked about... more ›

Hmmm, what better day to start what will probably become our weekly look around the local blog soap operas than the morning after The Huffington Post/Yahoo!/Gawker Media love fest that was billed as a night celebrating Defamer's Mark Lisanti but really was to celebrate and launch the syndication agreements between the three parties. While we generally hovered next to the go fug girls, the Mister Zero you don't want to !@$* with, Defamer's Employee of the Month and Marissa of Terra Non Firma, we did spend a little time with the boys of Martini Republic and several Yahoo! content kids who are transitioning from the bay area to the West side and were very serious about getting some In-N-Out burgers before heading back to the Viceroy for the after party. more ›

Upon reading about the publicist's efforts on Greisman's behalf, we felt an odd sense of recognition. Why, last week we'd just read a profile of Sam's (half?) brother Peter Craig, in the March 27, 2005 issue of the Los Angeles Times about his career as a successful novelist. more ›