Less is more, Shia! Less is more! | Photo courtesy of Paramount A few weeks ago we ran a story called "Irksome and Insufferable: The Ten Most Annoying Singers". Given that actors are just as capable of being annoying as musicians, I thought it would be worthwhile to throw out 10 names for public review. I avoided the easy ones (Jessica Simpson, Lindsay Lohan, etc.) and tried to cobble together a list of actors......

Kaki King plays the Roxy Tonight Artist: Kaki King Album: Dreaming of Revenge Label: Velour Music Group Release Date: 03/11/2008 Listen to "Pull Me Out Alive": The Kaki King show at the Roxy will be great - we will be treated to a live performance by a guitar virtuoso whose combination of hammerons, finger-picking, and fret-slapping, results in very haunting and beautiful melodies (Joe Satriani, go eat your heart out). King's instrumentals have garnered the......

How do you say "circling vultures" in Spanish? | Photo courtesy of Paramount Vantage I'm still a bit surprised that Into the Wild was so completely overlooked during awards season. Sure it meandered a bit, but the acting and directing were all top-notch. And how on earth was Eddie Vedder's "Hard Sun" skipped over by the Academy in favor of three--three!--songs from Enchantment? This may sound weird, but I liked everything about Mr. Magorium's......

"No Country For Old Men," "There Will Be Blood," "Juno," "Michael Clayton," and "Atonement" all received nominations for Best Picture this morning, as the Academy Award nominations were announced in Beverly Hills. "No Country" and "There Will Be Blood" are the front runners with eight noms apiece, including a Best Actor nod for perennial Oscar fav Daniel Day-Lewis, and directing nominations for the Coen Bros. and Paul Thomas Anderson. While Javier Bardem was recognized......

Tribune Company CEO Dennis FitzSimons will be stepping down at the end of the year, letting Chicago businessman Sam Zell take over the company. The Tribune Company owns the Los Angeles Times. President Bush signed a huge Energy Bill yesterday, in hopes of "reducing our dependence on oil, confronting global climate change, expanding the production of renewable fuels and giving future generations of our country a nation that is stronger, cleaner and more secure."......

Those who believe we shouldn't be covering Orange County, cover your eyes for a few seconds: okay! O.C. Sheriff Mike Carona, his wife, and many others used the Sheriff's office as a cover to accept gifts, loans, and other compensation totalling $350,000. Carona has been indicted on ten separate federal counts of corruption. That big rig crash on the 405 at La Tijera was a real doozy -- the accident wasn't cleaned up until......

Third times a charm? After being married to Tommy Lee and Kid Rock, Pamela Anderson made it official with Paris Hilton's sloppy seconds, Rick Soloman at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas this weekend - Dlisted Although STILL no official announcement has been made, Christina Aguilera and husband Jordan Bratman registered for baby - People After a long Saturday of discussions with her family who were desperate to make this intervention successful, Britney Spears stormed......

Check out late night TV, lots of good stuff including an appearance of Juliette and the Licks (photo via Juliette's Myspace) on the Late Late Show. Tonight we also present the guilty pleasures of Steve-O's new show Dr. Steve-O, USA @ 11:00pm. Steve-O's sidekick is the lovely Trishelle of Real World fame who was interviewed here on LAist a couple months ago. The premise is that Steve-O and Trishelle subject "wussies" to various humiliations......

First of all, if you haven't seen the wonderful Into the Wild make plans to do so right away. It is one of the rare films that exploits the full power of cinema to transport you into another world and into the consciousness of another person (my enthusiastic review of it is here, tickets here, preview here, music here). After seeing it, I imagine you'll be ready to go on a little adventure of......

To no one’s surprise, the awful Resident Evil: Extinction claimed the weekend box office crown, debuting with a surprisingly robust 24 million dollars and spanking the equally vapid Good Luck Chuck ($14M). While discerning patriots were sad to see Paul W.S. Anderson’s “vision” further validated, they were somewhat cheered by the continued deterioration of "comedian" Dane Cook’s film career. Also, failed starlet Jessica Alba is one flop closer to what now seems an inevitable,......

It’s rare that a movie can change a hardened opinion and yet that’s exactly what Sean Penn has done with his sublime adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild. When I originally read the book in 1997, my view of Christopher McCandless was essentially in-line with those—largely Alaskans--who considered him an ill-prepared, arrogant fool who died needlessly. The romance of his life and death was entirely lost on me. But no longer. Penn’s film......

The fall tradition of releasing prestige films continues tomorrow as Resident Evil: Extinction opens wide. Milla Jovovich stars as the beneficent Alice, a latter-day Tess of the d'Urbervilles who is charged with the stygian task of killing armies of the undead--and the joke is now over. Anyone dumb enough to see the latest chapter of this awful series probably didn't notice anyway. At least there's nudity. But not from Ali Larter. Dang! Into the......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers......

Bukowski in LA, LA in Bukowski. The man was quintessential LA and our fair city informed every word, every rant, every foul-mouthed rush of brilliance that he created. In honor of Bukowski's birthday, Nobody Reads in LA will be reading from his novel Post Office. The ranting kicks-off at Charlie O's Bar in the Alexandria Hotel tonight @ 7pm. In true Buk style, drinks are served until 2am. If you can't make it out......

A Word Or 78: Last night I didn't watch anything that I had listed or even Tivoed. I ended up watching "Monster In a Box" on IFC because I had the privelege of seeing Spalding Gray a couple times and there he was again on TV. Wile watching the movie I found it extraordinarily sad to both hear this amazing person talk about his mother's suicide as well as allude to committing suicide himself.......

- Just like Mel Gibson, Judith Regan allegedly has a Jew problem too - LA Times - Sean Penn accepts award by asking for the impeachment of President Bush to begin - E&P - The prosecution calls The Vice President of the United States - CBS - Don't call it a comeback: Inflation returns with a bullet. Two percent jump is largest spike in 30 years. Heck of a job, Bushie - Breitbart -......

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 Jane, 22, Panama I think of an Imaginary LA Tall palm trees lining a very expensive, very exclusive, very ritzy area of perhaps Hollywood Hills or Bel-Air (what the hell do I know?......

Hey, have you heard? Andy Mitch Hurwitz says he's leaving the job of Show Runner for Arrested Development behind. If you haven't heard, apparently this is the only blog you read as we've seen more notices about this non-story on more blogs today than maybe anything else. AD was cancelled months ago, the 4 part series finale gave a fitting end to the show and, really, we're sorry to tell you, that no matter......

The National Film Preservation Board on Tuesday announced the next 25 films that were being added to the National Film Registry. Here’s the selection that makes us want to jump up and order a pizza in the middle of our posting: Fast Times at Ridgemont High. No matter how hard he tries to distance himself from the role, Sean Penn’s ultimate surfer-slacker dude Jeff Spicoli has now joined a cast of memorable characters from......

LAist wasn't quite sure what to make of Trey Parker, Matt Stone and their patriotic puppets when we first got wind of Team America: World Police earlier this year, but after catching an early screening last night at the Paramount lot, we may just have to take one for the team. In addition to the language, violent situations, and insensitive commentary most will expect from the creators of "South Park", Team America: World Police......

It's going to be a busy night in Los Angeles—the weather has cooled off and fall is creeping in, so LAist recommends going out and partaking of all the fine entertainments the city has to offer before everyone gives up on their sunny summer dispositions. Tonight at The Echo, LA's own (increasingly popular) Rilo Kiley will play a final date in town before hitting the road on their fall tour. Doors open at 8:00......