Suri Cruise, the stylish 5-year-old daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, attended her first day of school last week. Aside from the obvious fact that she'll reap from the best of the best in academia, Suri's school is extraordinary. Thanks to her famous Scientologist parents, Suri has been enrolled at the New Village Leadership Academy in Calabasas. more ›

There are celebribaby blogs, and then there's Suri's Burn Book, a Tumblr that finds the stylish and somewhat judgmental progeny of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes "posting" pictures of her celbrikid peers with cheeky commentary. more ›

Tom Cruise is set to star in the film version of the musical hit Rock of Ages that began its Los Angeles run at the Pantages Theater last week. Rock of Ages is a heartwarming, eye-lining, hair-spraying, tight pants-wearing, arena-rock love story about a small town girl and a big city boy who find each other on the Sunset Strip in 1987, all told through a mega setlist of 70s & 80s rock hits from Journey, Foreigner, Bon Jovi, Night Ranger, Poison, Whitesnake, Styx, and lines and lines more. more ›

Pixar's Toy Story 3 enjoyed a very strong second weekend and easily claimed the weekend box office crown with a hefty haul of $59M ($226.5M). The terrible Grown Ups was a distant second with $41M, but that was still twice as much cash as the disappointing Knight and Day ($20.5). The Kung Fu Kid continues to do well ($15.4M | $135.6M) while The A-Team will struggle to hit the magical $100M barrier ($6M | $62.8M). more ›

So let me get this straight: take Adam Sandler (not funny), Kevin James (not funny), David Spade (once funny), Chris Rock (once funny) and Rob Schneider (once sort of funny) and you get a summer comedy blockbuster? I would almost see Sex and the City 2: Venality Reigns before seeing Grown Ups. What I will see, though, is Knight and Day. Cruise and Diaz were solid together in Vanilla Sky, and they look finely matched in this over-the-top actioner. Still think that we need troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? Watch Restrepo and ponder the reality that Americans are dying for virtually nothing every day overseas. 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 ›

Joe Dante returns to the New Bev, and this time he's brought company! Living legend Roger Corman joins Dante for a double-feature of his films St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Corman's first directed for a major studio) & Not Of This Earth (far from his first directed for a schlocky drive-in). The inferno rages all-day Saturday, with a screening of The Movie Orgy, a cut-and-paste epic of found footage & cinematic anarchy. Best of all, to quote Dante, "admission is free because even I don't know who owns the rights to all this found footage". It all climaxes with a 25th anniversary screening of Dante's classic Gremlins. You will have to pay for that, but Gizmo's so cute! Just keep your popcorn away...it's a midnight show. more ›

Here's the damn shame of it all: Bryan Singer is a super filmmaker and the "Valkyrie" story is a fascinating piece of German history. That said, Tom Cruise should never have been the cornerstone of this film. A potentially great movie was rendered into something that was merely okay. Then again, "merely okay" would have been a triumph for the awful Paul Blart: Fat Guy Acting Stupid. I originally saw Made in America at Sundance in 2008. It is a must-see documentary that details the rise of gangs in South Central Los Angeles. Stacy Peralta may not have the chops of an Errol Morris, but he is a consistently engaging documentarian. more ›

In a bit of a surprise, ($13.4M/$39M). more ›

The one question most people will ask about is that it's probably better than you expect it to be. more ›

What A-Rod, Michael Phelps, Kobe, and Tony Hawk like to do in their spare time. No word on if Tom Cruise wants his shirt back. more ›

After four weeks at the top of the box-office world, had a less than stellar debut ($15.5M) as fans continue to reject George Lucas' new vision of the historic saga. more ›

• Are you smarter than the governor of California? State Sen. Dean Florez has proposed a bill calling on Gov. Schwarzenegger to take the high school exit exam to show him how important education funds are. The state is mired in a$8 billion debt and some have called for cuts to educating as a way to get California out of its fiscal crisis.
• Bet your sexual frustration never looked like this: A fur seal, in an an unprecedented move of cross-mammal coitus, tried to have sex a king penguin in Antarctica. And the cameras were there! Is it not voyeurism if it's for science?
• If you think that Cinco de Mayo is the big event Monday, think again. Tom Cruise (or some variation there of) is set to launch a website on May 5, Hollywood Newsroom reports. The countdown is already on at TomCruise.com, and theories about who runs the site and what it will look like abound.
• Sean Combs hasn't ruled out suing the crap out of the Los Angeles Times for what turned out to be a false article on Tupac that accused Diddy of orchestrating the hit. "It's not personal, just business," Combs said.
• Details are murky, but LAPD officers reportedly shot and killed a man late last night in South Los Angeles.
• A 17-year-old Long Beach woman gave birth in a shower Friday. Alone. Then walked to the hospital to have the umbilical cord cut. Both the child and mother are OK.
• A man was dragged 75 feet to his death this morning in Orange County. The driver was a man who had been asked to stop peeing on a wall moments earlier "out of respect."
• Lock your doors, Valley-ites. The Daily News reported that home burglary rates have jumped nearly 20 percent in some parts of the San Fernando Valley, something that could be chalked up to the withering economy. At least we taxpayers have our stimulus checks to look forward to. That's going to solve everything.

If you somehow missed both had top-drawer casts and the imprimatur of quality. Both were also awfully dull. Tom Cruise takes another step down from his previous perch of box office invincibility. more ›

Yes, we know that rainy days and Mondays can get you down. And doubly so today. But you can turn that mood around by stepping out tonight to one of these great events. Just watch for puddles. more ›

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"Would you want others to achieve the knowledge you now have?" more ›

At this point my whole week is focused on getting to AMC's Breaking Bad which debuts this upcoming Sunday. AMC scored a couple Golden Globes with Mad Men, let's see if they can repeat the success. On face value Breaking Bad is more interesting than anything the Big Four have planned for us. more ›

Photo by Tom Andrews via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
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The deed is done. The first large production company, United Artists (UA), has made a deal with the WGA and is going to get back to work, according to the AP (via LA Times). UA's parent company, MGM, is not included on the deal.

"United Artists has lived up to its name. UA and the Writers Guild came together and negotiated seriously. The end result is that we have a deal that will put people back to work," said Patric M. Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, West. more ›

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Legend holds that after seeing . I'm not sure if it's Paul Thomas Anderson's best film, but I'm certain that it's his most peculiar and ambitious. more ›

Watch out for 'dem coyotes in 'der Valley hills, y'all. The Daily News is reporting a man driving on Dona Pepita Place spared a coyotes life by driving into a home instead of plowing over the animal when it jumped out in front of his car late last night. 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 ›

With one very notable exception, it's a fairly dull weekend in the movie world. That exception, of course, is the sterling No Country for Old Men. After several misfires (Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, The Man Who Wasn't There), the Coen Brothers are back with their best film since The Big Lebowski. Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones all give superb performances in this adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel of the same name.... more ›

This is why we do all of our Christmas shopping online: first the FBI reported possible terrorist threats to Chicago and Los Angeles malls this holiday season, then took it back. Hey kids! You too can grow up to be a pervert with a social conscience! Dov Charney just signed on for a deal with American Apparel's partner company that could net him millions per year. A Small World it's not: Disneyland is remodeling... more ›

Somehow "The Tonight Show" scored a trifecta of controversy tonight as they were able to book the most punk rock of punk rock bands, the most conservative member of Congress, and the wackiest Scientologist all to appear on its air in the same hour. Tonight the Sex Pistols, Ron Paul, and Tom Cruise will all be in Burbank to tape the late night chat show. Strangely, whatever wire service the LA Daily News used... more ›

Anti-war protesters have been gathering in Downtown Los Angeles this afternoon; the CHP has blocked off two ramps on the 101 because of the protest. Huge meat recall: Topps Meat Company is recalling over 20 million pounds of hamburger patties that may be infected with e.coli: more than a dozen people have gotten sick. The man who threatened Tom Cruise with extortion for stolen wedding pictures was found dead in his home, an apparent... more ›