There's No Place Like Home: One of four authentic pairs of ruby slippers used in the 1939 film "The Wizard of Oz" will soon be a permanent fixture at the planned Oscars museum. more ›

Paramount partnered with Twitter to offer not-so-secret screenings of "Super 8" in over 300 theaters nationwide this Thursday -- one day before its official release. Fueled by the promoted trend #Super8Movie (i.e. ad) on Twitter, anyone who wishes to see the J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg flick on Thursday can purchase advance tickets now. The movie officially opens nationwide Friday. more ›

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson have teamed up for the motion-capture 3D collaboration, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn. The trailer for the widely anticipated film has pushed into the media vein seven months before the movie is set to premiere. more ›

Forbes presented its annual roster of Richie Rich Americans this week naming OC mogul Donald Bren (real estate) and his $12.2 billion the winner for Southern California. more ›

It was almost two years ago to the day when a fire broke out on the backlot of Universal Studios in Hollywood that tore through historic sets used in countless productions and seen by millions of tourists over decades. more ›

You would think it was at least 2010 yet. No, it's still 2009. You would think that Attorney General Jerry Brown has at least announced he is running for governor. And no, he filed paperwork Tuesday to form an exploratory committee. Yet still, Jerry Brown yesterday received endorsement from some powerful Hollywood folk, according to Variety. more ›

Look to the skies! The flying saucers will always be there! Not even your local cinematheque is safe when evil extraterrestrials & suave spacemen invade Santa Monica. Should our valiant heroes survive these "Far Out" encounters, they must still contend with a Martian militia, led by none other than our governor himself! I heard it through my magick Tesla Coil! more ›

Now that E3 is over we have had a moment to catch our breath and look back on the week. The most talked about announcement was Project Natal. We asked Ali Miller to describe her impression of the Natal unveiling more ›

Japanophiles unite! This week marks not one, but two free previews of Tokyo!, a new anthology work featuring contributions from Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind), Bong Joon-ho (monster-masterpiece The Host) & Leos Carax (The Lovers On The Bridge). Opening later this month at the Nuart, use these screenings to get the jump on your otaku buddies & save a few bucks along the way. For the purists, perplexed by the lack of a single Japanese name amidst that trio, take heart in LACMA's premiere of Tokyo Sonata, featuring the writer-director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira) as special guest, or any of a number of programs featuring experimental video artist Takahiko Iimura. more ›

Barack Obama bested the Presidential campaign by reaching across all places and people. It seems only fitting that his inauguration week bears a similarly dynamic platform: from the earliest cinematic pioneers to the latest digital technologies, from campy cult comedies to maverick macho westerns, from classic actors to Jean Claude Van Damme, from sea to shining sea. This is why I love L.A. Nay, this is why I love America! more ›

According to Cassandra LaValle at coco + kelley, Los Angeles-based designer Michael Smith, has been selected to design the White House interiors for the Obama family. Smith's California mixes classic European influences with a more casual California sensibility. more ›

Cue six degrees of Kevin Bacon game now... Three more victims of Bernard L. Madoff's Ponzi scheme were announced, including the Hollywood couple that is Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. Madoff is accused of running a reportedly $50 billion Ponzi scheme in which investment money from new clients was taken to pay off earlier investors. Hollywood is no stranger to playing victim to Madoff--Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, business manager Gerald Breslauer and Eric Roth (screenwriter of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) are among those swindled. more ›

Plenty of people were disappointed by the latest Indiana Jones adventure, but I thought there were enough vestiges of the original character to make it worthwhile. Note to George, though: you should have stuck with the Darabont draft. Small, foreign films need critical attention to draw in audiences and the AMPAS really blew it by not recognizing . more ›

Taking a cue from Brad Pitt, who donated the same amount last week, Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw donated $100,000 to oppose Proposition 8, the November ballot initiative that seeks to eliminate same sex marriage in California. "By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation," their statement said per the Mercury News. "Such discrimination has NO place in California's constitution, or any other." Still, the Yes on Prop 8 side is some $5 million ahead in fundraising, but No on Prop 8 was the first to launch a television commercial which aired yesterday. more ›

While with a haul of $25.6M ($257.8M). more ›

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By now you've probably read everything you want to read about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. All I'll add is a few interesting stats: the total domestic box office of all the films that Harrison Ford has appeared in is a staggering $3,094,851,491. That's just ahead of the films that George Lucas has produced ($2,977,630,768) and behind the movies that Steven Spielberg has directed ($3,447,944,266). did $25M on Thursday alone so those totals will rise to even more insane levels over the next few months. more ›

Let's get this out of the way right at the top--yes, it's very good and, yes, it is every bit an Indiana Jones movie. Is it another . If it's the last Indiana Jones movie, then Ford, Spielberg and Lucas have all gone out on a very high note. Of course, there are broad hints--both within the movie and from outside interviews with the creative elements--that new adventures might yet be forthcoming. For now, though, let's forget about all that and go back to the New Mexico desert of 1957. more ›

Boom Blox, the newest children’s release title from Los Angeles-based EA Games. LAist recently got a chance to play around with the cute little block-shaped animals in what’s called in modern tech parlance, the “casual entertainment” sector of the gamersphere. more ›

If you're as excited as I am about was only a half-success. more ›

• A steady stream of Koreans moving into the northwest San Fernando Valley suburbs is giving the traditional K-Town in LA City a run for its money. Now you Valley-ists might not have to travel over the hill for karaoke bars.
• Japanese and Los Angeles police detectives solved a 26-year-old case of a Japanese business man who allegedly shot his wife while the two were on vacation here. Apparently, the long arm of the law uses chopsticks.
• Following Steven Spielberg's diss to the Chinese government when he refused to work with them in the run up to the Beijing Olympics, the state-run media there is returning the favor.
• So much pork was secured by California state legislators last year you would be remiss if you thought Sacramento was a meat packing town. More than $1 billion in pork barrel spending was set aside for pet projects by California lawmakers last year who funneled money to their district. Thirty-five Democrats collectively secured about twice as much money as California's 19 Republicans, but many of the state's individual GOP lawmakers received more money than their counterparts in the majority.
• A man fired a gun into his neighbors home in North Hollywood today, killing him. While the gunman was subdued, a witness stabbed him. How's that for poetic justice?
• Is Hillary Clinton losing it? At a rally today in Ohio, a "visibly angry" Clinton chided Obama for putting out materials she said he knows are "blatantly false." She also derided Obama for having "speeches and the big rallies." "Hillary knows it's over," LA Daily Blog said. The polls are very close in Texas while Clinton maintains a larger lead in Ohio, where both states will vote March 4, which Bill Schneider of CNN called "an end-game" for Clinton.
• Tonight SNL's newest cast member, Casey Wilson, who honed her skills at the Los Angeles Upright Citizen's Brigade, will make her debut, and just in time to play Hillary Clinton. Good Luck Casey!

Lakers 117, Timberwolves 92 - The Lakers sent a major sign to the rest of the NBA on their long road trip, finishing with a 7-2 record, acquiring Pau Gasol, and seeing Kobe pour in 29 points last night even with a dislocated finger. Against Minnesota, the Lakers got another solid performance from Gasol, who shot 9-of-11 for 19 points and blocked three shots. The team is off through the All Star game (Sunday) and will return to Staples Center next week. more ›

It’s kinda quiet on the event front, a perfect day to reflect on Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy. But if you're into going out tonight: more ›

The media is certainly getting a little whacky. Today, the Chicago Tribune has an interview with Hizzoner, the former and now deceased Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago. deceased or not, here's what's up:

He's bothered by news reports that Steven Spielberg is planning a movie of the disastrous 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention, starring the guy from "Borat" as leftist protester Abbie Hoffman. more ›

After playing Signor Adolfo Pirelli in the recent movie release of "Sweeney Todd", it looks as Sacha Baron Cohen (of Borat fame) might be becoming a choice pick for directors, or maybe just the soup du jour. more ›

Who has been the most potent force in filmmaking over the last twenty years? Steven Spielberg? Tom Hanks? Tom Cruise? Joel Silver? How about John Lasseter? His Pixar films have enjoyed unparalleled critical and commercial success since the debut of Toy Story in 1995. Tonight at the Egyptian you can see the whole story of Pixar unfold when the American Cinematheque screens The Pixar Story. Featuring never-before-seen material from the Pixar library, archival animation... more ›

You know you're in the Valley when real estate options are that old porn studio over there or the former sex toy manufacturing plant over there. Well, the LAPD went for the latter in a $37 million project to build a new station in Canoga Park on Schoenborn Street between Owensmouth and Canoga. The station is tentatively called Northwest Area Division. The reason for this new station in the West Valley is getting officers... more ›

Transformers would have been perfect as a 20-minute demo reel for ILM. Instead, it's a long, dull live-action cartoon. And I still don't understand all the fuss about Shia LaBeouf. He's good. Not amazing. Good. No one saw A Mighty Heart at the theater, but it's worth a rental. Angelina Jolie the Actress has been replaced by Angelina the Star, but she doesn't get in the way of a gripping, horrifying story. No one... more ›

It's just a rumor, so don't really hold it too close to heart, but it goes something like this: The LA River Plan's recreational and commuter bike trails are being held up because Spielberg does not want people rolling by his office window. I don't even know where his office is and I doubt that he is a Grinch that stole LA's river (I imagine him as a gregarious gentleman ready to sign a huge... more ›

A review of the Fox Searchlight movie, Sunshine. The movie is directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, and stars Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Cliff Curtis, Michelle Yeoh, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rose Byrne, Benedict Wong, Troy Garity, and Mark Strong. more ›