It started, as many good things do, with the internet. In the early aughts (what all the cool kids are calling the ‘00s these days), a group of people assembled in an imaginary space to collect and trade cheesecake photos taken in the late nineteen forties to the early nineteen sixties. As the site describes it, this is not pornography; it is “young ladies in various modest states of undress.” (Though let’s not fool......

Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford didn't exactly set the box-office on fire when it landed in theaters. Something tells me, though, that this superb, meditative neo-Western will enjoy a long life on DVD. Across the Universe is the world's longest music video and a treat for any Beatles fan (and only for Beatles' fans!). Elizabeth - The Golden Age was unexpectedly ripped by critics.......

"No Country For Old Men," "There Will Be Blood," "Juno," "Michael Clayton," and "Atonement" all received nominations for Best Picture this morning, as the Academy Award nominations were announced in Beverly Hills. "No Country" and "There Will Be Blood" are the front runners with eight noms apiece, including a Best Actor nod for perennial Oscar fav Daniel Day-Lewis, and directing nominations for the Coen Bros. and Paul Thomas Anderson. While Javier Bardem was recognized......

We're sad to learn that actress Suzanne Pleshette has died in Los Angeles from lung cancer at age 70. Although she appeared in film very early in her career in such high profile projects as Jerry Lewis' The Geisha Boy and Hitchcock's The Birds, the vast majority of her time was spent in television. She's best known for her role as Bob Newhart's wife, Emily Hartley, in "The Bob Newhart Show" from 1972-1977 but she......

The Romans are often bagged on as being the Borg of the ancient world: assimilating barbarian cultures left and right, stealing the style and grace of the Greeks, tossing the odd Christian to lions. Yet, you must admit they did know how to PARTY, especially during those barren winter months. In antiquity, the feast of Saturn or “Saturnalia” was celebrated from about December 17th through the 23rd. It was a winter solstice festival in......

"Atonement" leads the pack of nominees for the 2008 Golden Globe Awards with seven nods, including top actor nominations for both leads, Keira Knightly and James McAvoy. "American Gangster," "No Country for Old Men," and "Sweeney Todd" also garnered nominations; you can read a partial list of the nominees here at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association website. Hayden Panettiere, Dane Cook, Ryan Reynolds and Quentin Tarantino read the list at the Beverly Hilton at......

Monday Maggie Nelson presents The Red Parts: A Memoir 7pm @ Pomona College, Claremont Rich Eisen presents Total Access 7pm @ Book Soup Sue Grafton signs T is for Trespass 7:30pm @ Barnes & Noble, 3rd Street Promenade Tuesday Sue Grafton signs T is for Trespass 6pm @ Vroman's Steve Schapiro presents Schapiro's Heroes 7pm @ Book Soup Christine Pelosi presents Campaign Book Camp 7pm @ Book Soup Deborah Landis presents Dressed: A Century......

Mathieu Schreyer, the KCRW host of "On the Corner" was born in France. Maybe that explains why he didn't include Radiohead on his top ten list like most of his cohorts did. Voici: 1) Little Dragon - Little Dragon (Peacefrog) 2) Andy Bey - Ain't Necessarily So (12th Street Records) 3) Cinematic Orchestra - Ma Fleur (Domino) 4) Various Artists - Colombia!: The Golden Age of Discos Fuentes (Soundway Records) 5) Trus'me - Working......

We couldn't do a proper tribute to Late Night Eats in Los Angeles without a visit to the original Late Night Eats establishment, the one that started it all, the restaurant that embodies the very essence of car-hopping, car-worshiping SoCal burger culture: Bob's Big Boy. The Big Boy Burger was born in Glendale in 1936, the brainchild of Bob Wian (I know, the alliteration is getting a bit much for me too); the Burbank branch......

In a shocking upset, Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married easily topped the box-office with a much higher than expected $21.5 million haul. Ordinarily, I'm on the side of the underdog, but Perry's movies are so aggresively mediocre that I'm not looking forward to the glut of his product that is now certain to follow. Then again, Why Did I Get Married is hardly worse than The Game Plan which finished second in......

It's a strong weekend for new releases. After a long break, Jim Gray is back in the director's chair with We Own the Night. Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix star as brothers on opposite sides of the law. Reviews have been 50/50, but critics were equally blase about Gray's last flick, The Yards, which I loved. Cate Blanchett is back as Queen Elizabeth in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Reviews have been weaker than those......

There are a lot of places you can go to feel "LA." For most people, it’s a surface thing--to see the glitz and the glamour, maybe eat alongside some celebrities. You can go to Mozza, Katsuya, Geisha House and see the stars and eat great (well, except at Geisha House), but for some of us, Hollywood is a past as well as a present. And for us, Musso & Frank’s perseveres. As the diners......

After weeks of trying to see it at screenings around town, I finally got the chance to see The King of Kong. My expectations were high as I walked into the theater, and I'm thrilled to say they were not only met, but exceeded. Seth Gordon has made one of the most ridiculously entertaining documentaries in years. Sure, it's about Donkey Kong and the genuinely weird subculture of Golden Age Arcade Game competition, but......

Yup, it's what you were thinking -- razors. The baron of a clean shave himself, King Camp Gillette, bought this land off of the now Mulholland Hwy in 1926 after making a fortune in the early 1900s off of the safety razor. Today, his home and ranch are open to the public for the first time. Near the entrance of Malibu Creek State Park, the 588-acre park was collaboratively purchased for $35 million by......

Monday: Duke it out! A few hours from now, "Vanity Fair columnist Christopher Hitchens debates political theorist Andrew Arato of the New School for Social Research on the war in Iraq and its impact on the present and future of America" at REDCAT (8:30 p.m.) Tuesday: Brain, meet Heart. Zócalo at Central Library presents Understanding Emotions and the Brain with world-renowned neuroscientist Antonio Damasio at 7:00 p.m. Damasio will discuss "his latest research on......

We ran from our very last SXSW event - the It Takes a Nation of Millions to Make this Panel panel - and straight to the airport to return to Los Angeles. Mena Suvari was on the plane and we wanted badly to chat her up but didn't; we got caught up in traffic on the 101 (no shock) because of a Sherman Oaks lockdown while the police searched for a bank robbery suspect......