The paparazzi's extreme Britney coverage is costly to taxpayers | Photo by pointnshoot via Flickr It took the LAPD nearly "two dozen police officers, a helicopter and a special team" to block roads and escort Britney Spears in an ambulance with covered windows from her Mulholland Drive Studio City Home to UCLA Medical Center early yesterday morning. They even had a code name, The Package, for her so paparazzi listening to police scanners would......

Forget Malibu. Forget the Hollywood Hills. Forget Mulholland Drive. Downtown is the new hot LZ for A-list celebrities, at least for the beloved Johnny Depp. He looked and bought into the $2-million property six months ago, but still hasn't moved into the Art Deco Eastern Columbia Building on Broadway, which has reportedly been having problems selling all the units. To that, the LA Times gives you the hard sell:It's not too late to become......

This photo of Britney Spears has nothing to do with tonight's incident, but is still ridiculously funny CBS 2 11 O'Clock News Live is reporting that six LAPD units, one ambulance and a fire engine were dispatched to Britney Spears' Mulholland Drive home at 8:00 p.m. tonight over Spears and Kevin Federline's ongoing custody battle (earlier today, we reported that Spears' lawyers gave up on her). We've learned Spears has refused to turn her......

You may think he’s a brilliant director, with Twin Peaks, The Elephant Man, and Mulholland Drive among his long list of film and TV projects, not to mention four Academy Award nominations. Or you may think he’s got a few screws loose with his strict adherence to transcendental meditation and the generally bizarre nature of his work. Whatever the case, you can’t deny that he’s interesting. Now you get the chance to decide for yourself......

New Beverly Cinema owner Sherman Torgan died yesterday, unexpectedly, of a heart attack. Two local film blogs, Hollywood Elsewhere and Cinema is Dope are reporting it, and LAist has confirmed the sad news with the revival movie theater. Projectionist Jeff Nowicki of the New Beverly said on the phone with us that Torgan had indeed died in Santa Monica yesterday of a heart attack while on a bike ride. While the theater will be......

When a celebrity moves next door, so does the parking and traffic problems caused by paparazzi. So who do you call to solve the problem? Well, the city of course. And in this town, local politicians are no stranger to loving or hating celebs, whether it be Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and most recently, City Councilman Jack Weiss: An embattled city councilman who has been accused of making the gut-wrenching Los......

With 268,138 millionaire households, our county, the largest in the nation, holds 3% of the nation's millionaires, or 23% of the state's. And California, that's just for starters: 1. L.A. 2. Cook (Chicago) 3. Orange 4. Maricopa (Phoenix) 5. San Diego 6. Harris (Houston) 7. Nassau 8. Santa Clara 9. Palm Beach 10. King (Seattle) From CNN Money Photo by Kristo via Flickr......

We sort of chuckled after finishing this hike. We stood at the trail head 15 minutes after we started. So much for a big adventure (hehe). However, there is still value in this eighth-mile hike at an odd cul de sac surrounded by expensive hillside condos just north of Mulholland Drive in Studio City. We're sure the residents of the street do not appreciate so much the public park outside their door, but also......

Apparently, no one told Scott Michaels not to play with dead things. Especially celebrities. For the past decade Scott has made a most unusual career out of the stories, death locations, and objects of celebrities who have sauntered off to that great Swifty Lazar after party in the sky. He started with a small business selling celebrity curious (he owns a brick from the Manson Murders a piece of the Hindenburg and a John......

by Kevin McCollister A very accessible relic of the Cold War is to be found at the western end of Mulholland Drive. In 1954 the government considered the San Vicente Mountain, at an altitude of nearly 2,000 feet and with views in every direction, to be the perfect location for a radar site and observation post. If an enemy missile was spotted, a NIKE missile would have been launched from the Sepulveda Basin to......

Part of an on-going series of posts by people who have never been to our fair city but who want to. This is what they think of when they daydream about LA, this is what they think it's all about. by JustAGirl, 27, Holland When I think of LA and I have to tell you what comes to mind first I'd say LA is you. After that I think of sun and, it pains me......

and they're off! Tune in as early as 2pm our time to watch the Kentucky Derby and its hoopla today (the race is scheduled for 3pm). If it saddens you that it's not easy being a jockey, we suggest a traditional mint julep or two to lighten your mood. get out! The LA Times' most e-mailed story is a political OpEd by retired Lt General William E. Odom that says it's time for us......

Speaking of driving, last night's episode of The Closer -- TNT's new police drama starring Kyra Sedgwick and based in LA and the LAPD -- opens with Sedgwick's Captain Brenda Johnson on a sunny hillside street, Thomas Guide in hand, trying to figure out the difference between Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Circle and how one street can have two different names depending on how far in a given direction you take it. We know......

During today's morning commute down Sunset, heading west, we passed a long, long line of film geeks wearing Vulgarthon 2005 T-Shirts outside of the Cinerama Dome. It's only now that we remember that Kevin Smith and his merry crew have assembled at the Dome for their first West Coast Vulgarthon, a marathon day devoted to the films of Smith and other like-minded fimmakers, plus Q&A with special guests. You can read the View Askew minion's......

LA Fired Department Blog relays info of street closures as of early Monday morning as a result of this weekend's storms. Mulholland Drive is closed to through traffic between Laurel Canyon and Coldwater Canyon. ** Coldwater Canyon is closed to through traffic between the Beverly Hills city limits and Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. ** Beverly Glen Boulevard is closed to through traffic between the San Fernando Valley and Bel Air. ** Burbank Boulevard is......

LAist is not only a daily weblog of all things Los Angeles, but also an avid friend to animals great and small. This, of course, includes our friend the dog. But here in a metropolitan monolith of steel and brick our furry friends don't have as many places to romp freely. There are dog parks, this is true — but which ones are worth visiting and which ones are, no pun intended, a bunch......