Of course there's tons of Halloween stuff this weekend ("Walking Dead", FEARnet, etc.) but you can see the cast of HBO's "The Wire" interviewed live online tomorrow. --- A widely acclaimed stage production of "I Love Lucy" is in town. --- All this plus The TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan. more ›

LA has a diverse cast of characters. Whether it's the characters with stirring stories or interesting occupations or the people who are just simply characters, this town has them all. In an effort to get to know some of those characters a little better, we've created "Seven Questions with..." If you have a suggestion for a future Seven Questions subject send us an email. more ›

The Copenhagen Ring: The Complete DVD Set more ›

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) and lastly, the most confusing: an Eric Garcetti for Mayor website launched last week. more ›

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 Canterbury's Law 10x fast). Stay tuned for more shows this week, including the fabulous Lewis Black (right) in Lewis Black's Root of All Evil which premieres on Wednesday at 10:30pm - I hope he does "the finger thing" a lot. more ›

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 trade - the organization profiting off of the projects' heroine addiction and the police department trying to stop them. The gritty, realism and complexity of the show helped the show win over critics coast-to-coast. However, that very same gritty, realism and complexity that won over the press might be the reason why nobody outside of the people who were being paid to watch television were watching the show. The American public, including myself, didn't want to jump into a fictional world that was as depressing and bleak as our actual world. more ›

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 mentioned on Conan a couple weeks ago that perhaps there is an "Arrested Development" movie in the works, wouldn't that be something? more ›

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 peppered with references to the likely strike settlement. 'WGA on Strike' signs filled the ornate lobby of the Hudson Theatre in Times Square, and writers gathered by the open bars, comparing notes about the membership meeting earlier in the day when they finally heard the details about the tentative deal." more ›

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 attracted to at a particular moment and despite all the sexiness and the fact that it's a Euro import, I'm always a little dismayed at the lack of skin and even more dismayed at some of the gay-'80s hairdos. Still, it's well shot, good for a few laughs, and the way things are going with US licensing of UK shows, you'll be seeing it on one of the big four before you know it. more ›

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 website is promising "2 Floors of Entertainment, Upscale Dinning [sic] and Cocktail Bar, The Vault Lounge & Bar." more ›

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. more ›

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." more ›

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. more ›

Definitely, I have enjoyed this journey. more ›

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." more ›

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. more ›

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 days and days! I've got plenty of time!" thought pass through your mind, you could have still gotten it in under the wire on the web. But with shipping times, and the clock ticking, I feel I must make mention of a scary fact: Christmas is in four days! more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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,... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›