There are two movies that are being scandalously left off the year-end best lists. The first, Rescue Dawn, is already out on DVD. The second, Once, is available today. Simply put, this is one of the best musicals and love stories in years. Buy it and watch it immediately. The Simpsons Movie was much better than I expected. If only the same care was put into the TV series. Why did Stardust bomb? It......

What's better than spending your Friday night among free donuts and over 85 pieces of art from The Simpsons? Yeah, that's right, nothing. Starting at 6 p.m. tomorrow night, Every Picture Tells A Story on Montana Ave. will have an art opening showing off and selling 40 original production drawings from The Simpons Movie, over 25 original production cells from TV show and limited edition prints and treatments from film. Many of the prints are......

MUSIC: Machine Project is back with an evening of experimental folk music mix. The evening features the sounds of Ryan Fuller, Julie Carpenter, Laura Steenberge, Ruthann Friedman, rickyricky, Pilar Diaz, Pawko and Marshweed. 8 pm // Machine Project // 1200 D. N. Alvarado, Downtown // Free. THEATRE: The Anteus Company presents two nights of eight Noel Coward plays. Night Two takes place tonight featuring the plays: Come The Wild - Red Peppers, Fumed Oak,......

1. The Obvious- My parents and sister are the most important people in the world to me. They support me in every boneheaded endeavor I partake in, and believe me, there are tons. It's astonishing how many, actually. 2. My friends. Once again, totally obvious. Once again, they're totally awesome. Much love to Porter House, SLC, Shalhevet, AU, and everyone who fits into all, some, or none of those categories. World rockers, each and every......

Exceeding even the most optimistic of expectations, Superbad hauled in a huge 33.1 million dollars to top the box office this weekend. Seth Rogen can do no wrong right now. The terrible, awful, unfunny Rush Hour 3 dipped precipitously in its second weekend, pulling in 21.8 million and bringing its total to 88.1M. The Bourne Ultimatum stayed strong in its third week, finishing third at 18.9 million and now standing at 163.8M. The Simpsons......

Even though Rush Hour 3 did top the box office this weekend, I take some solace in the fact that it underperformed at 50.2 million dollars. Considering that New Line gave away so much profit to get the movie made, there's hope that we've seen the last of the never-funny pairing of Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. Bourne Ultimatum had a solid second week, adding 33.6 million to raise its cume to 132.3 million.......

Before catching The Simpsons this past weekend, this LAist poster had to sit through -- not just one -- but four lame ass trailers. Usually, you get a 50-50 chance of seeing at least one good trailer...because, now call us crazy, but isn't the purpose of a movie trailer to entice people to actually go see the film? At the very least, aren't we supposed to say, "Yeah, the trailer's the best part of......

In the last year, HBO has lost four of my favorite shows for various reasons--The Sopranos, Extras, Deadwood and Rome. Do you hear that sound, HBO? That sound is Showtime creeping up on you. At least the second season of Rome is now available on DVD. If you like gratuitous sex mixed with your gratuitious violence (and who doesn't?), then Rome is the show for you. One of the last great seasons of The......

In what the Wall Street crowd might call a flight to quality, North American audiences made The Bourne Ultimatum this weekend's box office champ by spending 70.1 million dollars on the superb third installment of the Matt Damon franchise. Expect across-the-board great reviews and excellent word-of-mouth to keep Bourne afloat for the rest of the summer, especially now that the release schedule is lightening up a bit. The Simpsons Movie nose-dived 65% after an......

For what seems like the first time in years, The Simpsons actually exceeded expectations. The first movie of America's first animated family took in a whopp(er)ing 71.8 million dollars at the box office this weekend, demolishing even the most optimistic of estimates. Credit Fox's clever marketing campaign and the opportunity to finally see Bart's shrimpy doodle. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry finished a distant second, making 19 million bucks to raise its......

Civic Center developments still struggling amidst Downtown construction boom. Nothing like a good Saturday scandal story: a manager for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles was found to have illegally steered almost $800,000 in contracts to family members and corporate allies. One begets another: an inmate serving a life sentence for the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989 was stabbed 11 times by another inmate. Taking animal cruelty to a......

Of course Supervisor Yvonne Braithwaite-Burke lives in her district. Or maybe not. (Los Angeles Times) Nicole Richie appears at the Glendale courthouse, reporter gets elbowed in the head (East of the 5/Daily News). As for Nicole, she gets 4 days in jail. (KCAL) Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out, Paris. The Hilton heiress' Hollywood home is for sale. (Curbed LA) How much do you love your botox?......

I don’t believe in spoilers, I just believe in me. And Homer. While The Simpsons have never faded from public view, the last few years have seen their franchise popularity wane ever so slightly; their eighteen year marathon hitting something of a plateau. So when I first heard murmurs of a feature film, my worst fears surfaced -- What if no one cares about The Simpsons anymore? What if the entire campaign gets ignored......

OUT TODAY: Tegan and Sara - The Con (Sire) Juliette and the Licks - Four on the Floor (Hassle) UNKLE - War Stories (Surrender All) Mexican Institute Of Sound - Pinata (Nacional Records) Robbers on High Street - Grand Animals (New Line) Manu Chao - Rainin In Paradize [EP] (Nacional Records) Prince - Planet Earth (NPG) VHS or Beta - Bring On The Comets [Single] (Astralwerks) Hanson - The Walk (Cooking Vinyl) Manic Street......

The Simpsons Movie global-dominance-marketing-crusade marks another notch in the bedpost of ruffled feathers. Who knew that Pagans had no sense of humor? I would have guessed the symbol superstars to be down with the whole why don’t we "Do It In The Donut” message of pastry love. This promotional, biodegradable, painting was unleashed on a hillside near the very old and very naked fertility carving in Southern England. Doh! Eight days and counting... AP......

Although South Park is shocking and The Family Guy delivers more jokes per minute than ever thought possible, neither show would be around without The Simpsons, the longest-running animated television series of all time. Part of the show's universal charm and unparalleled stamina is its rich tapestry of lovable characters -- many of whom are criminals and deeply flawed. Somehow LAist got our hands on two movie passes (each pass admits two people), and......

For a tv show thats been around forever, and no longer relevant (some say) thanks to the likes of Adult Swim and The Family Guy, The Simpsons still got it, as evident from the raging success of the various 7/11s that were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts. According to this Fox 11 report people were buying up as much Buzz cola, Krusty-O's, and Squishees as possible. And we also hear that Kwik-E-Mart uniforms are being sold......

Kwik-E-Marts popped up all around the US yesterday and if you missed it, LAist contributer Elise got a bunch of pics at 4am in Burbank and then went again in the daytime. Our pals over in DC took pics of their Kwik-E-Mart and someone tried to show us pics of another location in LA, but their link didn't work. D'oh! So here's a short little vid from the famous Simpson's episode where poor Apu......

The 7-11 at the intersection of Olive and Verdugo in Burbank has temporarily been converted into a Kwik-E-Mart. It was re-done late Saturday night and will remain a Kwik-E-Mart for the next month to promote the upcoming Simpsons movie. Eleven 7-11s in the United States and two in Canada have been converted into Kwik-E-Marts as part of the promotion. DCist has their very own Kwik-E-Mart in Bladensburg, MD. Golam, Burbank's friendly counterman, was having a......

Dear London. Why hast thou forsaken us? We realize that you hate us for our freedoms and for our superior dental hygiene. But why would you take the innocence and intellect of Lisa Simpson and do that for her just so that you could sell a few more million 2012 Olympic t-shirts? We could have sworn that they have The Simpsons across the pond, was there nobody in the room who snickered when this......

Say what you will about traffic in LA, people driving while texting, and tailgaters boiling over with road rage, but according to AutoVantage, a Connecticut-based auto club, similar to AAA, Miami is home to more road-ragers than LA, so take that Florida. For the second year in a row Miami has claimed the dubious crown of having the meanest, worst, angriest, and dumbest commuters who run red lights, talk on their phones, and slam......

But it was for a good cause, right? LAist watched the entire two hours of American Idol's telethon tonight, which was broadcast at both the regular Idol studios and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. And while we admire Ryan Seacrest and company for trying to do something good for kids living in poverty in both America and Africa (checkout myspace.com/idolgivesback or the Idol Gives Back page for ways to donate), we felt cheated and......

Many things make it into the LAist email box. But when anything is sent from Springfield we mark it Spam immediately. Somehow this slipped through the filter. We keeeed. The Simpsons have been on the air longer than most of you could pee straight and apparently this year they have decided to agree on some resolutions. Here they be... In preparation for the New Year, Homer, Marge and many of their fellow Springfieldians vow to......

- The Simpsons have their Tire Fire, LA has its Tire Store Fire - LAFD blog - Some Hollywood women too Busy to shave their armpits? Say it ain't so! - Reuters - Martini Republic asks "who's the bigger idiot, Instapundit or Bill Kristol?" Which makes us finally understand that IT WAS A CONTEST ALL ALONG! - Martini Republic - Mom calls cops on her 12-year-old son for opening his videogame before Christmas -......

Because it took The Simpsons so long to make a movie might mean that it will actually be really great. However, the fact that the show has been on the air for so long might mean that it has run out of edgy ideas. It already gets way less hype than shows that it opened the door for like "South Park", "Family Guy", "Futurama", and our favorite, "Drawn Together", but we're keeping our fingers......

In Mrs. Warren's Profession, George Bernard Shaw wrote "If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance." For the past 8 years, Rick Polizzi, an animation producer from The Simpsons, has brought his extended family out for this twisted Coney Island in his front yard. Thousands of families have massed together at Polizzi's suburban house at the corner of Morse Ave. and Sarah St. in a quiet......

The Simpsons still got it.......

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation released a study today about the decline of gay characters in network television, the LA Daily News reports, and the results are shocking. Apparently GLAAD does not consider long-time Simpsons regular Waylon Smithers a homosexual man! Colorful pie charts and detailed lists that complain that there are only two gay lead characters on broadcast tv (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, The CW and MyNetworkTV), just seven supporting characters......

Some called it a disappointment, some called it a success, but last night's airing of the Miss Universe pageant held at the Shrine was the most-watched program in the US among viewers 18-49. On a night where the competition were animated comedies and reruns, the contest judging the most beautiful women in the world won the night while beating off heavy weights "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons". Fortunately, even though 18 year old Zuleyka......

The Simpsons is a show that proves there is longevity in Hollywood -- as long as your looks don't change. Right, Michael Douglas? Matt Groening's cartoon of loveable misfits has been around since 1989, and now someone's created an ultimate homage to the show: a live-action, shot-for-shot tribute of the opening credits. Just watch. Thanks to Lost Remote for the heads up. And Fox for the photo.......