Fairfax Avenue is the Bomb!!! Declining enrollment and rising costs means less expansion and construction to help relieve overcrowding in LAUSD schools. The LA Times reports that "since the fall, the school system has canceled plans for 19 new schools and additions to existing campuses in South Gate, Bell, Van Nuys, San Fernando, Sun Valley and central Los Angeles, among other areas, citing new enrollment projections." Kids, you don't mind sharing that book, do......

Cardinal Roger Mahoney revealed that he had been assaulted in July outside of Our Lady of the Angels Cathedral; the attacker was "enraged by the Catholic Church's sexual-abuse scandal within days of a record settlement with hundreds of victims." Karl Dorrell will not be coaching UCLA in its upcoming Las Vegas Bowl game. Defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker will coach in the interim. If the world weren't already all shook up by Jakob Lodwick's departure......

In a bid to save late night television programming as we knew it, the Carson Daly show will jump the gun on production in the coming days; WGA strike settlement or no, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The late night talk shows have taken a big hit since the Writers' Strike began three weeks ago as insomniacs nationwide discover that Nightline never actually went off the air. Viacom's Comedy Central is losing its late......

Although it might be "understood that Hollywood sells Californication", the boys who wear tube socks on their magic johnsons are headed to court to argue that you can't just steal it. Showtime has found itself on a little roll with "Weeds", "Dexter", and now the sexy/dickish David Duchovny series "Californication", but someone forgot to ask the Red Hot Chili Peppers if it was kosher to use their word for the show. The Hollywood Reporter's......

700 extra hours -- yes, you read that correctly -- from David Lynch's Inland Empire have been culled into a documentary about David Lynch that is titled Lynch and is being pimped to international buyers at Cannes by Lynch himself. -Cinematical Comic book author/graphic novelist Frank Miller will write and direct the live-action feature film adaptation of the Will Eisner comic book series "The Spirit" about a man who fakes his own death so he......

Last week all you had to do was stroll down to Hollywood & Highland or take the subway there, then stand in line for a short while and you'd get to hold a real Oscar trophy. Every day we kept forgetting to mention it and then kicked ourselves when it was over. And now The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz blog has posted video of regular people holding the award and mugging for the cameras.......

Overheard at the Golden Globe Awards: "'Everyone's drinking,' said Weeds star and supporting-actor nominee Justin Kirk. 'You sit at a table and they feed you and drink you.'" -- AP "Cameron Diaz was probably the worst dressed at the entire awards show." -- Worst Dressed List at HollyScoop "I love gay. I wanted to be gay," said Grey's Anatomy's Isaiah Washington on the red carpet. "Please let me be gay." -- AP. "Washington took......

As if the ghetto birds weren't enough, now the LA Sheriff is checking out unmanned drones for survelliance. Farewell privacy! The long-awaited Biggie Smalls retrial pushed back to 2007, American Airlines red-eye flight from LA to Chicago lands at O'Hare this morning without its nosegear lowering and locking. Pilots are amazing. The editors of the LA Times are bashing their parent company's CEO today. Hugh Hewitt says "This is a classic hit piece, standard......

LAist has been an avowed trial watchers for many years now. We've seen crazies wash in and out of the Los Angeles court system; Sometimes they are the the plaintiffs, sometimes they are defendants and sometimes they are officiants. But the weirdest have to be the jurors and the spectators. To wit, we've learned that a juror who helped acquit actor Robert Blake of killing his wife is promoting a six-song recording he produced during......

Beleaguered creative types stuck in the Angeleno food service industry, take note. An item in the 3/16/2005 issue of The Hollywood Reporter just confirmed the Hollywood cliche that you can work your way up the industry food chain by serving the right people. The trade reported the sale of a spec script "This Bill Smith" to Columbia Pictures after first-time writers and University of Illinois grads Ben Brandstrader and Jonathan Sadowski reconnected while working......