There's a lot of confusion out there about Los Angeles City Council President, Eric Garcetti, these days. He's a superdelegate for Barack Obama (which leads to people throwing out the "cabinet position" question), it's often brought up that he has congressional aspirations, there's a viral website to elect Garcetti for D.A. of Gotham City (ah, yes, the new Batman movie), Mayor Tommy Carcetti is a character in HBO's The Wire (you can buy reelection t-shirts)......

Everyone is in a tizzy about The Wire coming to a close yesterday - it's one of the few shows that decided to go out while it was on top so kudos to them. The TV Junkie is barely keeping his head above water with the deluge of new shows coming out in the next week, tonight it's Julianna Margulies' return to the little screen with Canterbury's Law (that's a mouthful, say: Julianna Margulies in......

Tonight we say goodbye to McNulty, Bunk, Freaman, Greggs and the rest of the cast of The Wire Back in June 2002, a crime drama from the minds of former Baltimore Sun writer David Simon (who spoke at USC earlier this week) and former Baltimore police officer Ed Burns made its debut on HBO. The Wire was more than just another cop show, it was an examination of both sides of the Baltimore drug......

So can fans really make a difference? Word has it that enough fans got through to NBC for them to keep the high school football-romance-drama "Friday Night Lights" on the air through a partnership with DirecTV. This gives one hope that a group of people can make a difference but then disappointment that truly great shows like "Arrested Development" couldn't make the cut. Speaking of which, Will Arnett is on Jimmy Kimmel tonight - Arnett......

WGA Bests: Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Comedy Series, Drama Series The Writer's Guild of America (WGA) didn't hold a gala ceremony this year (who can afford a gown when you're not getting paid?) but they did take a break on the East coast from discussing the possible end of the strike to announce the winners of their annual awards. This year's very informal and somewhat unusual gathering "was decidedly looser than past ceremonies and......

Bright Umbrellas in Chinatown for a Less than Bright Day Crews are still working to restore power to some 3,600 Edison and DWP residents that lost power due to heavy rains and winds over the past two days. North Hollywood, Granada Hills, Porter Ranch, Pomona, Torrance, Stevenson Ranch and - gasp! - Beverly Hills residents were affected. Candles, people. More rain is on the way so gather ye umbrellas while ye may. Tons of......

Torchwood is a guilty pleasure and its new season starts tonight on the BBCA. If you've ever been in a foreign land and seen a slightly dated American TV program come on and felt that queasy embarrassment then you know what watching Torchwood is like. It's cheesy and over-the-top science fiction with British accents and the odd dashing American thrown in. Everyone is hyper-sexed and they don't seem to discriminate between whichever sex they are......

Artist Rendering Courtesy of Union Restaurant & Lounge Even more restaurant news is coming down the wire -- earlier today, we checked out some early reports on Bond St in Beverly Hills, and now we hear that developers The Valencia Group will be transforming Downtown's historic Union Bank building into The Union Restaurant & Lounge (it's all about the restaurant-slash-lounge concept nowadays, isn't it?). So, yes, Downtown will have another fancy-schmancy dining space; the......

As Reuters mentioned yesterday, CBS is going to broadcast the entire first season of Dexter starting in February. The network is also considering borrowing Weeds from its sister network Showtime. Other networks are considering similar reshuffling of shows from their cable-only partners. It took me a day or so (I know I'm slow) to dwell on this. Initially I was very pleased that more people will have the opportunity to see this gem of a......

How much Britney coverage is too much? Whatever it is, it's not enough. In an e-mail memo, obtained by Gawker, sent this morning from Frank Baker, Assistant Bureau Chief, Los Angeles, he tells staff that "virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal." "That doesn't mean every rumor makes it on the wire," he continues, "But it does mean that we want to pay attention to what other are reporting and seek to confirm those......

I vaguely remember the '80s so the return of American Gladiator to the screen presents me with a nauseating wave of nostalgia that I want to boogie board to the fullest. Then again, I vaguely remember the '70s and the relaunch of the Bionic Woman left a lot to be desired. But hey, we live in America, and with enough boobies and violence, American Gladiator could have the required recipe for success. Friday 8:00pm Flash......

For those us who don't have HBO on Demand, we are just two days away from the season premiere of the fifth and final season of The Wire. Today, we're closing out our series of interviews, which has included Tristan Wilds and Andre Royo, with Jamie Hector who plays the king of the drug game on Baltimore's West side, Marlo Stanfield. Are you going to miss working on this show? Definitely, I have enjoyed......

We continue our series of interviews with cast members of HBO's The Wire with Andre Royo. The actor born and raised in the Bronx plays Bubbles, a junkie/entrepreneur/informant who has been a central character to the show since its beginning. Royo, who recently moved to Silverlake, took time to speak to LAist about working on what he calls, "the most intelligent show on TV." This season is about the media, what did you think......

Sunday marks the return of HBO's The Wire. To get you ready for the premiere of the fifth and final season of a show that TIME, Entertainment Weekly, Slate and the San Francisco Chronicle have all called "The best on television" LAist has lined up interviews with three members of the show's incredible cast. Be sure to check back tomorrow and Friday. Our series begins with Tristan Wilds, who we were introduced to in......

I know a lot of people who have the very best intentions of getting their holiday shopping done e-a-r-l-y every year who wind up failing miserably at making good on their noble plans. Some, like an estimated 40% of Americans, in fact, get wise to the internets and do their shopping online--but even that takes some advance planning. Earlier this week, if you'd forgotten to shop, or had that typical "oh, Christmas isn't for......

The Guardian has an irritating blog post about LA writers. The gist: LA poet and novelist Rob Woodard wonders where all the good novelists in LA have gone. He points to the well-known "great" LA writers (Chandler, Nathaniel West, John Fante, Bukowski) and a few others, then deems LA literature mostly dead for the past thirty years. His reasoning? Would-be novelists have been lured by Hollywood into screenwriting and joke-writing for the late night shows.......

The LA Times reports that copper thieves have been stealing the wire from streetlights in areas across the city where they think they can get away with it. Scratch that, where they can get away with it. The bikepath along the LA River was such a target that the City of LA's Department of Public Works welded the boxes at the base of the streetlights shut. Didn't work. The copper thefts continued. At at......

So, yeah, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Superbad are the big releases this weekend. Honestly, I liked both movies well enough, but neither deserves the #1 slot in the weekly rundown like Battlestar Galactica: Razor does. Since new episodes of the best show on television won't air until March 2008, we'll have to make do with this 2-hour movie that follows the adventures of the Pegasus after the treacherous Cylon attack against the......

Phil Jackson, Tuesday - "We call this a 'Brokeback Mountain' game, because there's so much penetration and kickouts ... It was one of those games." Phil Jackson, Wednesday - "If I've offended any horses, Texans, cowboys or gays, I apologize." Lakers 93, Rockets 90 - The Lakers split their Texas two-step, taking down Houston after Tracy McGrady had to leave with an injured elbow. Kobe Bryant led the way with 30 points in a game......

It started out with innocent users (like me). Now it's extended to entire countries. Flickr's filtering system has now prevented users from Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong or Korea from viewing any photos considered "unsafe." Compounding this problem is the fact that the filter system has so many glitches in it, that even photos of dogs and kittens can be considered "restricted content." From the Flickr FAQ: SafeSearch is a feature that allows you to......

Venerable French magazine Cahiers du cinema (yup, it's still in existence) today launched its first English language edition, which will be available both in print and online for an annual fee. For $45, English-language readers will now be able to subscribe to a year's worth of the magazine (11 regular issues + 1 special issue). Cahiers will also offer free online supplements. Currently featured on the publication's Web site is a diary about the making......

With all the hype over the upcoming iPhone, we probably shouldn't expect an announcement for the next iPod until MacWorld 2008. However, we can make many good bets about what's in store for the 6G model just by looking at all of the buzz currently traveling through the wire. The 6G iPod will use Flash Storage. This is almost a certainty. Not only are leaps and bounds being made in flash memory technology, but......

Before we get down and dirty with Saturday night's game, here is a little "audio postcard," if you will, that features some play by play action and Scientology bashing by the game announcers: You know you're missing something when celebrities start coming to an event that a few years ago used to be held illegally in warehouses in Chinatown. Last Saturday's game brought out John C. Reilly (pictured left) and Patricia Arquette (interestingly enough,......

We got some breaking news in from over the wire this evening that we thought we'd share with you. It appears that only a few weeks after we showed you the homemade video of Eric Schwartz's "Clinton Got a Blowjob, he made one himself. Apparently the hype created by LAist and other news outlets really got the ball rolling. However the video appears unfinished, and the director seems to be asking for help. Sorta......

Yes folks it that time of year again when people make lists of the top whatevers that did something, didn't do something, inspired them, made them laugh, cry, sick or any number of other things. For better or worse, I'm no different and am caught up in the whole list thing. So, I will be providing a list of my own for your enjoyment, distraction, derision or otherwise perusal. My list is the top-ten......

Lots of cross-town and intrastate rivalry in sports this weekend but precious little else. If you like dogs, check out the dog show on Discovery Saturday and Sunday Tonight - Friday "White Christmas" (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) Miracle Legion had it right about the wish to be Danny Kaye, a whole night of his flicks on TCM including "Wonder Man" and "Up In Arms" "Ice Wars 2006: USA vs The World" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) US......