The much-maligned, oft-hated James Frey, author of the fictional memoir A Million Little Pieces and the man most well-known for being dissed on national TV by Oprah Winfrey, is back. While many now agree that blame for the whole Frey-affair rests with both Frey and his publisher, Frey got the bad end of the deal and has been vilified ever since. This time, he's sticking with fiction instead of peddling fiction-as-truth. His new novel, Bright......

Caption this in the comments section. All photos by Kelly C. Gallamore for LAist Stevie Wonder was the first of two surprises led to the Pauley Pavilion floor by Michelle Obama at yesterday's Get Out the Vote for Obama Rally. After a short explanation of his history as a Clinton supporter turned Obama believer, Wonder led the crowd in a rather difficult vocal exercise based on the candidate's name (see video below). Caption #2......

(l-r) Caroline Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey, Maria Shriver, Maria Elena Durazo, Michelle Obama "If Barack Obama was a state," California's First Lady said, "he'd be California." The ecstatic crowd at the 3/4-full Pauley Pavilion punctuated each of Maria Shriver's follow-up descriptors with a resounding "YEAH!" "Diverse, open, smart, independent, bucks tradition. Innovative. Inspirational. Dreamer. Leader." Michelle Obama's lengthy introduction for Maria Shriver had everyone looking around. The crowd erupted when Shriver appeared (see the video......

LAist News Editor Andy Sternberg is inside the Barack Obama rally which is scheduled to kick off at 1:30 this afternoon at Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus. The event will feature Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and Caroline Kennedy, but will be missing Mister Obama himself. In warming up the crowd, California Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero has declared to the gathered supporters: "YOU are the real Giants and Patriots of America today!" (Get......

OK so now Oprah wants her own network and she's going to get it. Remember that she is one of the four founders of the Oxygen Network, you know, that paragon of programming that now includes: The Bad Girls Club, Snapped, and the Oxygen Original movie Husband for Hire. Now she's distancing herself from that loathsome swamp of bad TV because of her new altruistic endeavor, the modestly named OWN (The Oprah Winfrey Network) which......

This weekend marks the height of the "celebrity" dog-and-pony shows for the Democrats: Hillary Clinton brought daughter Chelsea (we wondered where she was) and her momma Dorothy Rodham on the campaign trail in Iowa. And Barack Obama brought out the big gun -- Oprah Winfrey -- to Iowa and South Carolina. But Republicans have friends in Hollywood, too. Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, also has his own celebrity endorsement: Chuck Norris. Yup. Walker......

Last minute plans? Try some culture via ExperienceLA's calendar. Or try our picks for tonight: Canon at Union Station, Pee Wee's Big Adventure at Angel City Drive-In, or Tonight in Rock. Toady, Oprah Winfrey held a swanky fundraiser for Barack Obama south of Santa Barbara expecting to raise $3-million. Hot chick boards Southwest plane, finds her seat, gets kicked off for being too sexy. The LA Triathlon is tomorrow morning. Find out if you'll......

8:00pm Going Back to New Orleans UPN/KCOP - Music icon Deacon John Moore documents the unique culture of the Big Easy. 9:00pm Against the Tide: The Battle for New Orleans CNBC - The business side of the New Orleans recovery effort. 10:00pm Still Waiting: Life After Katrina PBS/KOCE An African American/Creole family returns to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, hoping to hold on to their bayou culture. 10:00pm DIY to the Rescue: Katrina Rebuild......

A Word Or 46: The Oscars blew its big TV wad all over the place so let's get on with our lives. The Daily Show and Colbert Report are back from hiatus -- did they think they were doing the Oscars again? What's their excuse? Lots of new TV tonight. Tonight - Monday - February 26th, 2007 Lakers @ Jazz (KCAL, 6:00 p.m.) Bobcats @ Clippers (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) How I Met Your Mother/The......

A Word Or approx. 60: Goodbye O.C., a shame that the show is better now than it has been for the last couple seasons. Hey, who is the amazing Thai girl that was in Lost last night? Lots of new shows tonight, am going to have to order that second Tivo. Tonight - Thursday - February 22nd, 2007 Ben Hur (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) Saddle up for the long haul with this epic classic, cast......

Look what the fucking cat dragged in. All five commissioners of the FCC will be at USC today and El Segundo High tonight (addresses and times after the jump) discussing media ownership. But LAist believes there's some unfinished business that the public needs to press these speech nannies on. A little more than two years ago Howard Stern, who at the time was the #1 morning radio personality here in LA was fined by......

NPR broadcast a story the other day about the new great white hope of the GOP: black evangelicals. It seems that many of the reverent and religious in the African-American community are paying attention to the morals and family values stressed by conservatives. Can you guess which issue (that dare not speak its name) is top on their list? Some black affinity for the GOP is understandable. Law and order would do wonders for......

Paramount Pictures announced this week that they are ending their 14-year relationship with Tom Cruise and his Cruise/Wagner production company. The relationship between Cruise's production company and Paramount disintegrated into name-calling after Sumner Redstone, chairman of Paramount parent company Viacom Inc., said Cruise's recent behavior, such as jumping on Oprah Winfrey's couch and pushing his Scientology agenda, was "creative suicide." Redstone said such displays cost his studio up to $150 million in lost ticket......

Oprah Winfrey and her friend Gayle King want to be clear: they’re not gay. - MSNBC The campaign is part of what the network is calling its "Outernet strategy," an effort to reach viewers "outside their homes as they go about their daily lives," the network said in a statement. - AP "See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this sh*t and......

In 1999, Los Angeles writer Janet Fitch's first novel White Oleander became a national bestseller, aided in part by its selection as a title read by Oprah Winfrey's influential book club. Deemed an "overnight success" at the age of 43, Janet obtained fame and recognition after spending more than 20 years quietly honing her craft as a writer. White Oleander showed readers unique and underexposed aspects of life in the county of Los Angeles......

Oprah Winfrey closed her broadcast today with a plea for everybody to stop calling Katrina survivors "refugees." She reminded us, "They are Americans." While this may be a bit of a technicality to many people, we get her drift. She's trying to humanize and personalize this disaster, so more people can relate. Looking at the photos, it seems like this is in a third world country. Sadly it's here. That's the point. LAist shed......

Let’s be honest. The New Year really couldn’t start until Mr. Blackwell crawled out of his hole and brought us his sartorial critique of Hollywood in the form of his 45th Annual Worst Dressed Women List. Or, as we here at LAist like to call it, the 45th Annual “Who the Hell is this Mr. Blackwell Guy Anyway?” List. This year, the great and noble Mr. Blackwell (as far as we know, he has......