Photo from the Getty by Rick O! via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Students, faculty, staff, and parents associated with Lincoln Elementary school in Santa Monica are trying to come to grips today with the weekend arrest of Thomas Beltran, who taught ESL at the school. Beltran, 60, has been charged with molesting four young girls who were his students. An auto fire turned into a brush fire late this afternoon near......

Still the champ but diminished | Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema It's usually good news for a movie when it wins the weekend box-office race. When the movie severely underperforms expectations, however, that win feels like more of a Pyrrhic victory. Such was the case with Semi-Pro this weekend as it only brought in about half of what was expected--a lowly $15.3M. Last week's champ, Vantage Point, held up well and took second......

A shy Will Ferrell covers his shame | Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema I'll go on the record and say that I think Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is the funniest movie in the last ten years. Will Ferrell's subsequent pictures--most of them amusing to varying degrees--have never lived up that early, brilliant standard. Semi-Pro is his latest picture and if its previews are any barometer of its quality, it looks like......

Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks. Have you ever wondered why the very people that have tons of cash to drop at swanky stores can be such fashion trainwrecks? Often celebrities have the nerve to flaunt both their big paychecks and free designer clothes. Lucky for us, it's always fun to watch. That's where you'll find Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan of the super-popular Go Fug Yourself. Every day they skewer the super famous and......

Marking the first Los Angeles appearance since 1998 (when legend has it members of the Scottish alternative rock band decided to part ways), last night The Jesus and Mary Chain headlined after opening acts Evan Dando and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Earlier this year the band reunited, playing a show at Coachella that seemed to elicit more mentions about Scarlett Johansson on stage than the actual music. If the performance at the Wiltern yesterday......

We don't like to post rumors but we know you'd hate us if we sat on our hands as juicy stuff filled our In Boxes and we didn't let you know that something could be excellent. So now that Coachella has come and gone, we can admit to being wrong about Gwen Stefani being there, but be pleased that we told you that Scarlett Johansson would be singing with the Jesus and Mary Chain......

The Jesus and Mary Chain, Giant Drag @ The Glass House Stephen Marley, Damian "Jr Gong" Marley @ House of Blues Tapes & Tapes, Harlem Shakes @ Spaceland Jet @ The Troubadour Vast @ El Rey The Shys, Dirty Sweet, Lords of Jack @ Viper Room Vow of the Repentent, Artistic Expression, The Circuit, The New Colony @ Roxy Xu Xu Fang, Stephenson Ranch Davidians, Ludger @ Silverlake Lounge Elliot Randall Band, Pete Hopkins,......

The best thing about last night's Saturday Night Live was neither Scarlett Johansson hosting nor Bjork singing - both were disappointing to say the least. Indeed the only saving grace of the whole night was the TV Funhouse cartoon "Torboto". "The Prince Show", was ok, we guess, or was that the week before? They're all so disposable and interchangeable. If you didn't make it an hour and twenty minutes into the show and missed......

What could be better than Thursday's upcoming "secret" pre-Coachella show at the Glass House with the Jesus and Mary Chain? How about if busty actress Scarlett Johansson was going to be there singing background vocals for the gloomy band? Stereogum, in a tiny aside on a Bjork post, linked to a blog called Cat Dirt who claimed to be the first to correctly announce that the JAMC were going to play the tiny club......

Tonight - Monday "Monday Night Football" (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.) Panthers @ Eagles "College Basketball" (ESPN2, 6:00 p.m.) USC @ Kansas "NBA Basketball" (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) Pacers @ Lakers "The Girl With the Pearl Earring" (IFC, 7:50 p.m.) Peter Webber's flick about Dutch painter Vermeer, and Scarlett Johansson before it was all about her boobs. "The 2006 Billboard Music Awards" (FOX, 8:00 p.m.) Fergie shakes her thing, the Killers rock, and unfortunately, Celine Dion......

- Over the last few days two very odd, small blogs have reported a sex tape being released starring an actress who allegedly gave oral pleasure to her boyfriend while on a hot set with her mic still on. The actress's name was never revealed. Only the hint that she had a deeper voice.... and the actress could be known by a red letter A. So either it's Lindsay (because everyone thinks shes a......

- George Bush cuts n' runs from "Stay The Course" - The Australian - Tan Nguyen stays the course in his controversial race for Congress - NBC4 - Warner Bros. cut n run from their plan to provide limbs to Africans - Defamer - Get an 80 hour Tivo with 1 year of service for just $125 - zatznotfunny - Set your Tivo to record Madonna on Oprah this Wednesday - People - Bush......

In what could be the best cd in a long time, or the most laughable, Fox News is reporting that Esquire's Sexiest Woman Alive is negotiating with Rhino Records to record an album of Tom Waits covers. Scarlett Johansson, who earlier this month fell from a horse while filming "The Other Boleyn Girl" in England, is going to jump into the ring with the likes of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, J-Lo, and Juliette Lewis......

Even though Beck is #1 this week, due in part to his headlining the LA Weekly Detour Festival, we present to you the video of Bob Dylan's 'When The Deal Goes Down', not just because it stars our girl Scarlett Johansson, but because Bob has somehow stayed in the Amoeba Top 25 ever since he debuted there early last month. Who says the kids don't have any taste? 1. Beck - Information 2. Killers......

How LA Observed gets these LA Times internal memos is beyond us, but we love it. Today Kevin Roderick printed an email whose subject line was: "The Times' Innovative Pre-Awareness Promotional Campaign for 'The Black Dahlia'." Now we realize the times they are a-changing but we feel a little creeped out with our local paper getting all giddy about being in bed with a movie studio over a summer movie. Isn't the job of......

What do Jason Biggs, Zach Braff, Adam Brody, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio, Scott Foley, Scarlett Johansson, Danny Masterson and Rachael Leigh Cook all have in common? LAist was surprised and intrigued to find out that they're all Honorary Committee Members for the Kerry/Edwards Campaign and probably have, really, no involvement whatsoever in the Saturday, October 2nd event "An Evening with Kerry/Edwards" featuring musical artists such as the Black Eyed Peas. The list of supporters......