Remember that episode of I Love Lucy where Lucy and Ethel get a job in a chocolate factory? Of course you do! Along with the grape-stomping scene, it is one of the classics of physical humor. The conveyor belt in the Edelweiss Chocolate Factory, located right in the center of downtown Beverly Hills, was the inspiration for that scene. Edelweiss has a huge selection of chocolate-dipped fruit, including some unusual selections like mango and......

Mayor Villaraigosa serves the city in "dineLA Restaurant Week's Big Kickoff" / Photo by Elise Thompson We always encourage you to press that little recommend button at the bottom right hand corner of every post if you enjoyed it. For one, it tells us what you want more of here at LAist. So here's this week's three most recommended and commented posts, as recommended and talked up by you: Most Recommended What is That......

Cranes along Vine St. in Hollywood | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Today, Councilman Eric Garcetti delivered the annual State of Hollwood address at an event organized by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. He dedicated the address to Johnny Grant, who passed away earlier this month, and spoke about what makes a great neighborhood, at-risk youth tragedies and all that has been great and to be great for Hollywood. Here are excerpts from the address......

I should hate Pinkberry for a million different reasons: what it does to neighborhoods, the mom & pops it shuts down in its wake, its fake-yogurty ingredients that are likely very, very bad for me and its off-putting, sour flavor that foodies abhor and I, strangely, adore. I know and I agree and I held out as long as I could....

Yesterday LAist was invited to watch a taping of The Florence Henderson Show on the AARP's new network, Retirement Living TV. It was a bonus that they shoot it on the same soundstage where they filmed I Love Lucy. Blogger Donna Lethal's presence was required for her sense of irony, incredible database of old Hollywood trivia, ability to spot someone famous at 20 yards, and long red hair that men find irresistible. We watched......

In its first weekend of wide release, The Bucket List charged to the top of the box office. Its tally of $19.54 million ($20.9M) just edged Ice Cube's First Sunday which debuted with an even $19M. There was some talk that upstart Juno might win the weekend crown, but it had to settle for a still healthy $14M ($71.2M). It now seems certain to reach $100M while holiday stalwarts National Treasure: Book of Secrets......

National Treasure: Book of Secrets ($20.2M/$171M) and I Am Legend ($16.3M/$228.6M) continued to rule the box office, but the weekend's big news belonged to Juno. In its first weekend of wide release, the sly comedy raked in $16.2M ($52M) and has now eclipsed the gross of last year's indie-ish* hit Little Miss Sunshine (*both films were produced by major studios). Alvin and the Chipmunks was a hair behind at $16M ($176.7M). Crappy newcomer One......

LAist has polled a number of our favorite LA locals to find out their New Year's Resolutions! In the spirit of fairness, here is mine: I'm cutting up the credit cards! Let's see what everyone else has to say: Pamela Des Barres: To live right smack dab in the NOW! Neil Hamburger: I want to try and put all the years behind me. Keith Morris: 2 try & not B a DICK!!!! Not 2......

Whats even more shocking than Jamie Lynn Spears being preggers? That it may not be Casey Aldredge's baby. Thats right, reports are that the real daddy is an older man that would surely be charged ith statutoryw rape charges if revealed - Showbiz Spy Stacy Ferguson aka Fergie and her boyfriend of over three years, actor Josh Duhamel are engaged - TMZ Our favorite heiress's fortune has just been pulled out from right under her......

In a crowded weekend of new movies, it was National Treasure: Book of Secrets that topped the box office with a haul of 45.5 million dollars. I Am Legend showed good strength in it second weekend ($34.2M/$137.4M) as did Alvin and the Chipmunks ($29M/$84.8M). Charlie Wilson's War managed fourth place in its debut ($9.6M), just ahead of fellow opener Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ($9.3M). P.S. I Love You had a......

OOOwww! Good evening Los Angeles! Wooo! How you all fee-ull? People. You know! I don't believe the LA Forum has a chimney... so if y'all want Santa Claus to come pay us a visit you're gonna need to raise the roof off this mother!! And I think if all twenty thousand of you flick your lighters in time with the beat we can turn this place into the biggest Christmas tree in the world!......

We've driven by the Whole-Foods-to-be site for months now. Waiting. Wishing. While we don't shop at Whole Foods all the time (we love you Whole Foods, but your prices on many common items are just short of outrageous) there are a few grocery items we're partial to that we just can't get anywhere else. When we run out of these particular food items, the trek to the really far-away Pasadena or Glendale Whole Foods......

A dead blue whale washed up on the shores of a beach near Ventura today; scientists from all over the state are at the scene to examine the body and determine why it beached. Lucille Ball and Larry King had streets renamed in their honor this week: the block surrounding the CNN building in Hollywood will now be known as Larry King Square, while the intersection of Melrose and Plymouth Boulevards has been rechristened......

In the last year, HBO has lost four of my favorite shows for various reasons--The Sopranos, Extras, Deadwood and Rome. Do you hear that sound, HBO? That sound is Showtime creeping up on you. At least the second season of Rome is now available on DVD. If you like gratuitous sex mixed with your gratuitious violence (and who doesn't?), then Rome is the show for you. One of the last great seasons of The......

Guest Day Editor LA City Nerd will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout the day. Read the introductory interview here and check out the nerd's blog. Now, we know that LA has an official slogan, but did you know that LAX - the Los Angeles International Airport - has an official song? It's not I Love LA by Randy Newman or Bob Segar's Hollywood Nights - no, the airport has a song all......

Though Westwood is now a smoking ruin, I am happy to announce that Optimus Prime and his heroic Autobots have defeated Megatron and his dastardly Decepticons. For those of you now whining "spoiler!"--come on. Does anyone really not know how Transformers is going to end? Don't worry. They left plenty of room for sequels. I just want to take this time to personally thank the programmers of the LA Film Festival for finding a......

Get this, there's another sequel coming out today. You're surprised, I know, I was too. Alas, in a summer of recycled story lines, the comedy genre takes center stage today with "Evan Almighty. With "The Office" on hiatus, I'm itching for some Steve Carell. He arrives, riding an ark, in time for your weekend. Evan Almighty - It's the most expensive comedy ever (there are reports that Universal has been recruiting churches to try......

Last night I put on a white “I Love WeHo Dykes” t-shirt, merged with the throng of Dyke March 2007 attendees, and paraded down Santa Monica Boulevard, a street coincidentally named in honor of the patron saint of abused, victimized, and neglected women. It may seem strange to some that I would do such a thing given that I am not Dyke, Lesbian, or Queer. But as a woman, a West Hollywood resident, and......

Monday Portia Iversen & Jane Kaczmerek present Strange Son 7pm @ Vroman's Christopher Hitchens discusses God is Not Great 7pm @ Central Library Diane Lefer signs California Transit: Stories and a Novella 7pm @ Dutton's Larry Doyle presents I Love You Beth Cooper 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Tuesday Ron Carlson signs Five Skies: A Novel 7pm @ Dutton's Larry Doyle presents I Love You Beth Cooper 7pm @ Book Soup Aurelia Scott presents Otherwise......

You know what I hate? Birthday cake. I've hated it for years. In fact, I really don't remember a time that I DID enjoy birthday cake, or any kind of layered cake with that icky sugar icing and stupid tasteless sugar sprinkles. Problem is, I don't really like pie either. Or pastries, or muffins, or chocolate-anything (maybe a bite of dark chocolate every now and then). When I get ice cream, I usually get......

Let’s be real. Finding good Indian food in LA is kind of like finding good Mexican food north of LA. You all have that friend from some Midwest town, who swears that King Taco has nothing on the burritos he knows back home, where the closest he’s had to a Mexican experience is watching Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy. No matter what ethnic fare strikes your own palette, you’ll inevitably suffer through at least......

Most would think that a five-year-run on a tv series on a major network would be a huge success. Five years would especially seem successful for a show that no one ever talked about, cared about, or even noticed. One that got walloped when put up against the likes of American Idol, and had to be moved to four different time slots. Indeed, one might think that the fact that the George Lopez show......

With a name like Fraiche, (um, “fresh” in French), I was kinda expecting some “fresh” new flavours, a psychedelic mouth adventure where few palates have gone before, where even an Iron Chef could learn a thing or two… well, I exaggerate. Let’s just say, my expectations were up there. And while it wasn’t quite as wild as I had hoped, there were still a number of plates that left my taste buds tingling. Fraiche......

LAist gets and listens to a Lot of music. You can see the bands we like in the concerts that we review, the Tonight in Rock listings that we compile, and in the cds that we review. But we realize that we listen to way more music than we review so we figured we make a list once a week letting you know what we're into. week ending 4/06/07 Charlie Louvin - "When I......

Earlier this week we checked out El Perro Del Mar and opening act Rosie Thomas at--well, here's the problem: We're not sure where we were, because we weren't where we were told we'd be. In what in the end was a serendipitous turn of events that brought us to a cool venue, we began our evening searching for the Rec Center Studios in Echo Park, only to find first a sign taped behind a......

Experience has taught us there is no such thing as a cheap weekend in Park City. But Laker forward Vladimir Radmanovic learned his weekend is going to cost and extra $500,000. You see, he had never been snowboarding before and thought it sounded like a fun way to spend All Star weekend with his friends. Several little problems crept up, however. First, Radmanovic had never snowboarded before and, as anyone who’s done it can tell......

The Oscars go down in just a few hours, so this is the last call for Oscar Picks! Just go to this post and choose who you think will win in ten big categories. Here are the AMAZING prizes we have for the winners The Grand Prize Winner (person with the most correct picks) will get a copy of the just-released Luscious Jackson's "Greatest Hits", tickets to the Hotel Cafe on March 29th to see......

The Oscars are right around the corner, everyone's an expert, so let's see what ya got. After the jump we have ten big categories for Sunday's award show. To enter out your picks in the comments and leave your real email address so we can contact you. Please follow this format: 1. Penelope Cruz 2. Jennifer Hudson 3. Forest Whitaker etc... Here are the AMAZING prizes we have for the winners The Grand Prize Winner......

Soul sisters reigned supreme during last night’s American Idol. It was time for the 12 girl finalists to step up to the mike – and five women blew the rest of the girls – and all the guys –out of the water. Judging from last night’s performances, here are our front runners for the competition. If they keep it up, one of these five women could be your next American Idol: Jordin Sparks has......

To my dearest City of Angels, On this Valentine's Day, my thoughts turn to love. I want to whisper sweet nothings in your broadcast booths. I want to serenade you with Randy Newman's, "I Love LA." You have blessed me with your balmy weather and sunny skies. Other cities may act like ice queens and dump (11 feet of snow on) their lovers, but you never fail me. You always get me excited. You give......