Many people in Los Angeles consider a trip downtown as practical as visiting the moon, which may explain why it was never a big deal to Buzz Aldrin. "I used to come down to the Midnight Mission, I had a lot of friends working there," recalled the astronaut. Another charitable cause brought him back on Monday night, a fundraiser gala that generated over $300,000 for Virgin Unite and the Eve Branson Foundation. The charitable arm of Sir Richard Branson's empire supports social and environmental causes, including health care in rural parts of Africa. more ›

Oh, this is good. FOX has landed a deal with talk show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres to become the newest American Idol judge, replacing Paula Abdul who quit the reality show this summer over salary issues. “I’m thrilled to be the new judge on American Idol,” said DeGeneres in Fox's news release, via The Wrap. ”I’ve watched since the beginning, and I’ve always been a huge fan. So getting this job is a dream come true, and think of all the money I’ll save from not having to text in my vote.” Har, har, Ellen, har... har. more ›

TMZ follows up on the now identified dead woman found outside "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul's Sherman Oaks home: "The woman found dead in front of Paula Abdul's house last night was a featured contestant on 'American Idol.' Paula Goodspeed appeared on Season 5 in 2006. During her audition she said she's an artist and the first pic she ever drew was of Paula Abdul. 'Idol' produced a 3 minute and 40 second featurette on Goodspeed and her passion for Paula. She did not make the cut, after Ryan Seacrest proclaimed, 'And the love affair is over.'" more ›

Last night around 6:00 p.m., LAPD officers found the body of a missing woman in a car next to the home of Paula Abdul's Sherman Oaks home on Beverly Ridge Drive. The woman's identify has not been released, but police say it is definitely not Abdul. TMZ reports that "the parents of the victim believe their daughter was a 'big fan' of Paula's" and that her death may be from a drug overdose. Additionally, the woman, who is in her 30s, "had an unnatural obsession" with Paula Abdul, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department who tipped LAPD off to the woman's possible whereabouts. Her license plate read "ABL LV" and a lanyard hanging from the rear mirror had a photo of Abdul on it. more ›

Everyone is in a tizzy about The Wire coming to a close yesterday - it's one of the few shows that decided to go out while it was on top so kudos to them. The TV Junkie is barely keeping his head above water with the deluge of new shows coming out in the next week, tonight it's Julianna Margulies' return to the little screen with Canterbury's Law (that's a mouthful, say: Julianna Margulies in Canterbury's Law 10x fast). Stay tuned for more shows this week, including the fabulous Lewis Black (right) in Lewis Black's Root of All Evil which premieres on Wednesday at 10:30pm - I hope he does "the finger thing" a lot. more ›

Alex & Sam may be a duo in title, but their fairly large band, sometimes up to twelve-members on stage, is quite a force of music that just puts a smile on your face. You can't really corner them into a jazz-blues rock or straight rock category. All we can say is that on stage, they've got it going and they are making their way to becoming a household name in Los Angeles. more ›

I was kind of unhappy at how PBS dropped off Super Tuesday coverage fairly early in the evening. Political sickos pretty much had to rely on CNN which was all tech-ed out: did you see that crazy stage Wolf Blitzer was on? How about the map with _way_ too much information? They didn't even know where to look on that thing and neither did I. Was I looking at specific precincts reporting, or was it statewide? Etc. The pack of political neanderthals they gathered for us was also uninspiring - can they not find some people _without_ political agendas to put on their programs? Who would ever want to hear anything from (the now morbidly obese) Bill Bennett? He's George Wendt without the humor. One thing's for sure, Super Tuesday is now too close too the Super Bowl and makes for an overwhelming 72 hour period, which is fine if you're a TV junkie. more ›

Unless you've been in a coma for the past few weeks, the Super Bowl is on Fox tomorrow afternoon around 3ish. But we heard an annoying tidbit the other day and just needed to ask, "Why?" As in "Why is Ryan Seacrest drawn to red carpets like my dog is to the patch of grass at the end of my street?" more ›

Most people who don't know me are surprised when they learn that I am a born again Christian. I don't know why they're surprised. I think I'm a nice person. For example, even though for the last decade or so I've been writing article and post and column about how the Conservatives are evil and untrustworthy and now I am telling people how excited I am to be voting for the most conservative presidential... more ›

So after LAist got over the initial shock of Melinda Doolittle (the best singer this year) getting the boot from American Idol last week, we had to sit through tonight's reality -- one hour of two OK performers, their three songs and packaged childhood retrospectives. Tonight's second-to-last show pitted the beatboxer (Blake Lewis) against the 17-year-old power singer (Jordin Sparks). They each sang their favorite song from a past show, a cover song they'd... more ›

A Word or 76: CBS lineup tonight is wiped out by the CMAs and unless you are up for a Sir Laurence Olivier marathon on TCM then there's no movies on. I'm getting kind of sick of the parade of authors on late night TV, particularly Comedy Central - who the eff has time to read when there's so much bad TV? Speaking of bad TV, we're down to the final 3 on both... more ›

Björk - Volta (Atlantic) Bone Thugs -N- Harmony - Strength & Loyalty (Interscope) Barbara Streisand - Streisand: Live In Concert [2 CD] [LIVE] (Sony) Keren Ann - Keren Ann (Blue Note) Brakes - Beatific Visions (Rough Trade) Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls (Too Pure / Beggars) Elliott Smith - New Moon [2 CD] (Kill Rock Stars) The Clientele - God Save the Clientele (Merge) Page France - Page France and the Family Telephone... more ›

A Word or 49: Iggy Pop redeems Jimmy Kimmel tonight. For petessake when is the stupid 'house' gimmick ever gonna end on House? (new one tonight) I'm rockin' the slot with the Shield tonight though - now that Vic seems to be in the clear perhaps we're just back to some stellar violence. Today - Tuesday - April 24th, 2007 Rita Hayworth Marathon (TCM, 5- p.m.) Starting with Pal Joey, then Salome, etc. Check... more ›

Tonight on American Idol, octogenarian crooner Tony Bennett coached the remaining nine contestants. While we were semi-excited to hear the Idols take on the standards, LAist was really anticipating what form Sanjaya’s shape-shifting hair would take on this week? Maybe a salt and pepper gray in honor of Mr. Bennet? No such luck. This week, Sanjaya wore a ’do that was much tamer than the faux-hawk: just the simple slicked-back crooner look. But we... more ›

There's five hours of American Idol on TV this week. And last night's two-hour singing competition that was supposed to separate the men from the boys -- at least the American Idol contenders from the poseurs -- felt like all five wrapped up in one show. That's not a good sign. But we realized why we do these recaps (despite some naysayers): It's so you don't have to lose two hours of your life... more ›

A Word or 48: House was pretty good last night and the timing was great what with the blizzard hitting New England today. With the semifinalists declared on Idol and Paula Abdul declaring that she's never been drunk in her life, I get the feeling that show is really coming along now. Today - Wednesday - February 14th, 2007 Breakfast at Tiffany's (TCM, 4:05 p.m.) Holly Golightly, not the band Beauty and the Geek... more ›

A Word or 36: Hopefully the jerkoff session over the Aqua Teen Hunger Force is winding down and we can get back to real topics like: is Paula Abdul getting replaced by Courtney Love on Idol? And other such ilk. Tonight - Thursday - February 1st, 2007 College Basketball: Oregon @ UCLA (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) Ugly Betty (ABC, 8:00 p.m.) With cameos from Tim Gunn and Katharine McPhee My Name Is Earl/The Office/Scrubs (NBC,... more ›

NYC did not disappoint us in last night’s American Idol. The cup runneth over with the number of contestants to fly their freak flags high, which made for an entertaining two hours. While the other audition cities had their share of weirdos, the Big Apple had plenty of FWAs – freaks with attitude – East Coast style. The show opened with Ryan Adams’ “New York, New York” being used under Ryan Seacrest’s opening travelogue... more ›

Greetings from Drip City! -- The land where Jimi tread, Pearl Jam spread, and Kurt got dead. Watching last night’s Seattle auditions was like watching nine thousand Nells emerge from the forest only to be greeted by a cold and critical society. These hopefuls were awkward and fascinating and odd. You wanted to laugh, but it was more painful than funny. One could speculate that the bizarro-fest of talent was the toxic byproduct of... more ›

Everyone’s favorite game of public humiliation is back! American Idol kicked off a new season from Minnesota last night, with thousands cheering, millions watching, and an odd use of Teenage Wasteland in the opening montage. As expected, Season 6 began with a self-congratulatory flashback/recap/where-are-they-now session for the previous winners and also-rans, as well as a self-masturbatory highlight reel of the A-List talent that has giddily participated in this bizarre hazing ritual of fame seekers.... more ›

A Word or 44: The first 1/2 of the "24" season premiere was quite good even though I don't understand how Jack found the terrorist dude before his house got blown up. Also, was there some anal play going on between Jack and the first terrorist guy? Kinky. Tonight - Monday - January 15th, 2007 "Lawrence of Arabia" (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) Quite possibly the best movie ever made. "Hamlet" (IFC, 6:00 p.m.) Classic Shakespeare... more ›

The "Idol" judge canceled several interviews after the above video hit YouTube, featuring Abdul appearing drunk -- or something -- in a morning news interview. "It's a wild party where you are," said the ex-Laker girl-cum-pop songstress while doing her best imitation of a dashboard bobblehead. But her agent says she doesn't drink. Is Paula simply "lost in a dream?" We hope to find out Tuesday. more ›

For a little perspective on what lies ahead for the next 30 days for this season’s Lakers, let’s drift back in time to 1988, the year when Jerry Falwell and Larry Flynt were battling each other in court, Nirvana was formed and Paula Abdul was forever our girl. In the NBA, a young Michael Jordan was scoring 35 points a game and dragging his Chicago Bulls teammates close to the top of the league. So... more ›

Rarely do we present a 4:20 Video at 4:20am, but tonight we were just re-watching Lost and while searching for "los angeles" on YouTube, we stumbled across this nicely shot, perfectly edited video of Laker owner Dr. Jerry Buss produced, apparently by laphoto2006. laphoto2006, we don't know who you are but we love ya. more ›

There were more signs that Rockstar: Supernova is becoming as cheesy as American Idol. First, fans voted and brought back kicked off rocker Ryan Star to sing his original -- and very romantic -- song "Back of Your Car." For his trouble, Ryan won a new, fully loaded Honda CRV. Hostess Brooke Burke then had to channel her inner Bob Barker to explain all the car's features since it was just sitting there in... more ›

In 1985 Prince played there and they bathed the place in purple lights. Nirvana played there with the Butthole Surfers and someone threw a shoe at Kurt that almost hit him. Eminem played there with Mix Master Mike opening as snowboarders had an indoor exhibition. more ›

It just occured to us that we like the new Paris Hilton single “Stars Are Blind” (Heiress Records/WB) better than the entire new Pearl Jam record cleverly titled "Pearl Jam" (J-Records). more ›

Quick -- what happens when you want to put on an American Idol-esque show during the summer TV doldrums, and Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest are busy spending the bizillions they earned during the regular TV season? more ›

Anyone who saw American Idol last night was probably scratching their head over Paula Abdul's bizarre failed anecdote about a moth finding a melon and/or a cornflake. What the hell was that all about? A quick Google search for "moth", "cornflake", and "melon" yielded a bunch of very odd hits, but no ancient bit of Chinese wisdom that would have dovetailed nicely into the show and made one of the leaving contestants understand the universe a bit better. more ›