City parks not nice enough for you? Dislike the neighborhood strip joint's employees dancing in their skivvies? Want your street to be renamed? Have beef with big time Hollywood actors? You could go ahead and file a steaming pile of lawsuits and demand cash, which is what one Huntington Beach lady has been busy doing. more ›

Allegedly, while filling up his car at a Pacific Palisades gas station, Hanks came face to face with a man and a woman who, "expressed disappointment at his latest film," according to the National Enquirer says the The Guardian. more ›

Actor Colin Hanks (son of Tom) could have begged dear ol' dad for a loan to get his movie made, but instead has turned to the crowdsource cash flux of Kickstarter, raising the money he needs to make a documentary on the now-defunct Tower Records music store chain. more ›

Today's video lunch is a double header in honor of tonight's SUPERMOON! Tom Hanks suffering from a "brain cloud" sails his steamer trunks to the edge of the world in search of orange soda and mineral rights while halfway around the world Cher loses her head and her gray hair when she falls in love with the one-handed brother of her mama's boy fiance during the return of Cosmo's moon. La bella luna! more ›

Last night the winners of the 2010 Television Critics Association Awards were handed out a a presentation at the Beverly Hilton. Dax Shepard of NBC's "Parenthood" did a very capable job in his first capacity as host of an awards show. Highlights of the night included: a spectacular speech by Tom Hanks, accepting the Outstanding Achievement in Miniseries award for HBO's "The Pacific"; the entire audience singing Happy Birthday to "Modern Family" star Rico Rodriguez; and the characters of kids show "Yo Gabba Gabba" coming out to accept the award for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Programming. It was a great and intimate evening, perhaps because the proceedings were not on TV - kind of a paradox to have an awards show for TV programs picked by TV critics not broadcast on TV. more ›

After a summer of mostly lackluster debuts, Toy Story 3 demolished the competition this weekend, setting a Pixar opening record of $109M. Surprise powerhouse The Kung Fu Kid finished a distant second ($29M | $106.2M), well ahead of the mediocre and disappointing The A-Team ($13.7M | $49.7M). The unexpectedly funny Get Him to the Greek showed good legs in its third weekend ($6.1M | $47.8M) while Shrek Forever After continues to print money against all sound judgement ($5.5M | $222.9M). more ›

To tell the truth, we didn't even remember what the heck "Toy Story 2" was about when we agreed to take our 5 year-old son Calvin to an advanced screening of "Toy Story 3" this week but in doing a bit of research we thought it was nuts that there hasn't been a "Toy Story" movie since 1999! That being said, we were less than sanguine when we went to the theater to absorb what we thought would be another phoned-in installment of this Hollywood franchise but we ended up being more than pleasantly surprised. more ›

It isn't like we needed a Toy Story 3, but there's no doubt it will be awesome. Pixar's perfect string of massive commercial and critical hits continues with seemingly no end in sight. Barring the last minute addition of a full-frontal nude scene from Megan Fox, expect Jonah Hex to sink quickly to the bottom of the box-office charts. Who exactly is interested in seeing this movie? It still astonishes me how deeply the influence of religious weirdos runs in our society. In 8: The Mormon Proposition we see how a small group of devout lunatics prevents gay Californians from equally participating in society. People who supported Prop 8 hate America. more ›

The Shakespeare Center is taking a break from their Shakespeare Summer Festival after 24 consecutive years of free public shows in downtown. They will instead focus on their nationally-recognized arts enrichment program Will Power to Youth. Director of the Shakespeare Center Ben Donenberg stated they had to take $100,000 from the summer festival budget to fund their spring show, according to Los Angeles Downtown News. more ›

If you're able to put aside the anti-Semitic | uber-Catholic ravings of Mel Gibson, he can still be a very effective actor, particularly when cast in his wheelhouse role: a crazy cop bucking the system. Edge of Darkness is a pitch-dark drama about a father hell-bent on avenging his daughter's death. Sure, it's overly plotty, but I dug it. The same can't be said for Legion -- a silly meditation on angels and prophecy and farts (okay, I was tuned out by the end so maybe that last part didn't actually happen). Will the vampire craze just die out already? Daybreakers was a needless addition to an over-supplied genre. I don't miss Daria as much as I miss the ground-breaking Beavis & Butthead, but it's still funnier than anything currently being broadcast on MTV. more ›

You know it's a slow day at the DVD counter when the highlight of the week is a Blu-Ray release of a fifteen year-old film. Sure Apollo 13 is a solid flick -- maybe even Ron Howard's best -- but the prospect of seeing it again doesn't particularly get my juices going. As a fan of Richard Curtis, I wish I could recommend Pirate Radio, but the comedy in it just seems a little forced and dated. Woody Harrelson is, of course, a demigod in my eyes so Defendor was required viewing when it originally hit theaters. Check it out. more ›

Still not quite sure why so many branded Funny People an unmitigated disaster. Sure, it wasn't as big of a box-office performer as your standard Apatow or Sandler joint, but it was hardly a huge bomb ($51M). Plus, the reviews were fairly solid across the board (68% positive on RT). Something tells me that this is a film that people will find on DVD and VOD, and it will eventually become a basic-cable classic. It's not saying much, but Angels & Demons was a hell of a lot better than The Da Vinci Code. If you want to see a great movie that takes place in the same basic neighborhood, try out the fascinating Gomorrah. 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 ›

Kogi-schmogi! "One of the true great things about Los Angeles is In-N-Out Burger," endorsed Tom Hanks, when asked for tips to help the Tonight Show's Conan O'Brien acclimate to his surroundings (although this isn't O'Brien's first time as an Angeleno). more ›

While it didn't approach the monstrous financial heights of the poorly-conceived The Da Vinci Code, Thomas de Hanks' Angels & Demons ($48M) tricked enough Americans into theaters to hold off the sturdy Star Trek ($43M/$143.6M) to capture the weekend box-office crown. X-Men Origins: Wolverine had a reasonably good third weekend to place, uh, third ($14.8M/$151M) while Ghosts of Matthew McConaughey's Bangbus Girlfriends ($6.8M/$40M) and Obsessed with White Chicks ($4.5M/$40M) rounded out the top five. more ›

Dan Brown's quickly-paced novels seem tailor-made for the big screen, but The Da Vinci Code was a lumbering dud. Here's hoping that Angels & Demons is edited at a much brisker pace (with less exposition). At least they fixed Tom Hanks' weird hairdo from Da Vinci. If you want to see something that will just fill you with joy, try The Brothers Bloom. Rian Johnson's superb debut Brick was clearly not a fluke. In fact, he may have the best cinematic style since Wes Anderson. Management continues Jennifer Aniston's slow descent into irrelevance. How did such a once-cheery actress become so damn sour? At least the great Steve Zahn is in it. more ›

He might have played a big box book retailer in 1998's You've Got Mail, but in real life, actor Tom Hanks is pitching for the little guy, namely Pacific Palisades' Village Books. Local blog Tabloid Baby explains that Hanks is trying to help efforts to save the store by signing books there tonight. more ›

• For those who thought oil spills only happened when big tankers in Alaska collided with icebergs, may I point you to the South Bay? Crews were busy Saturday cleaning up about 5,500 gallons of oil that spilled into the wetlands area around Machado Lake. The oil apparently overflowed from an oil-and-water separator at the Cooper & Brain Oil Co. field near PCH at the 110 Freeway. You might remember Machado Lake as the former home of Reggie, the beloved alligator who now lives at the zoo. Good thing, because I've never heard of a black alligator before.
• A mysterious crash in Sherman Oaks early Saturday left one person dead that CHP officials said might have been a burglar being chased by the people whose homes he allegedly robbed. The motorist died when he skidded into a concrete wall on the Sepulveda Boulevard offramp after being chased by the CHP. Four others were hurt.
• For the first time in its history, the SWAT training unit has accepted a woman into its program. Jennifer Grasso, 36, is one of 13 officers selected for the department's 12-week training school, which starts Monday. Congratulations, Grasso. Just remember what Tom Hanks advised another female who was competing in a man's world: there's no crying in SWAT school.
• According to Paid Content, pop culture-focused social media site Buzznet has acquired indie-music blog Stereogum for $5 million. What this means for the future of Stereogum is unclear, but its owners are reportedly staying on to run the site. Now that's what I call indie.
• A change for Disneyland's It's a Small World ride are reportedly in the works. Disney apparently plans to add its name-brand characters to the anonymous cast that currently populates the ride. It has caused a huge uproar among the original artist's family. There is something so poetic about controversy at the so called Happiest Place on Earth.
• Jazz lovers in Long Beach are praising a judge's decision to open the Backstage jazz and blues supper club. An apartment owner had sought an injunction to halt construction, saying the music would force tenants to move. Noise studies did not bore out the owner's claims as the judge kind of blue jazz owners away with his decision.
• Add cantaloupe's to the list of food items being recalled. On Friday, Dole asked consumers not to buy or eat their beige melons picked in Honduras for fear that they were contaminated with salmonella.
• Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said he will not pay his California baristas more than $100 million in tips a San Diego judge said is owed to them after several employees sued the company. Schultz said there is no money to be refunded from the tips that are usually shared with shift supervisors. Last year, Starbucks was named the 16th best company to work for. Hundreds of disgruntled employees might disagree. more ›

I've managed to avoid watching NFL playoffs and college bowl games but I'm getting worn down, I'm tellin' ya. If I got the Fox Movie Channel I would watch Less Than Zero tonight at 7pm because I'm just about as strung out as Robert Downey Jr.was in that flick. I'm not begging for the writers to capitulate, I want them to win, I'm just begging the networks to send me some shite to write about. Didn't you guys put stuff out on DVDs for the holidays? I'm sure that there's plenty of folks walking around with unused balances on their gift cards that would drop some cash on some of your repackaged programming. more ›

In a crowded weekend of new movies, it was zeroed in on $100 million ($4.1M/$98.3M). more ›

One day the golden touch of Judd Apatow will fade and one of his films will bomb (--but I'll be piling into the theater along with everyone else this weekend to marvel at the daring of John C. Reilly. more ›

, Hilary Angelo jumps off the screen as one of the girls who catches Charlie's roving eye. more ›

Like tells a fascinating and (mostly) true story that's so improbable you wonder what's taken it so long to reach the big screen. If you don't already know, Charlie Wilson was a fairly nondescript Congressman from Texas (known more as a hedonist than a legislator) who almost single-handedly provided the money and weapons that the Afghan Mujahideen used to defeat the seemingly invincible Soviet Union. Wilson would ultimately (and secretly) funnel hundreds of millions dollars to the Afghan fighters and many credit his involvement as the turning point in the Soviet-Afghan War. 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 ›

This weekend marks the height of the "celebrity" dog-and-pony shows for the Democrats: Hillary Clinton brought daughter Chelsea (we wondered where she was) and her momma Dorothy Rodham on the campaign trail in Iowa. And Barack Obama brought out the big gun -- Oprah Winfrey -- to Iowa and South Carolina. But Republicans have friends in Hollywood, too. Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, also has his own celebrity endorsement: Chuck Norris. Yup. Walker... more ›

In the world we live in now, Pixar is nothing less than an institution. Every film it releases is an event and each of them receive excellent reviews and make piles of money. Of course, Pixar wasn't always so admired and ubiquitous. It was once a money-losing division of LucasFilm that was sold off to Steve Jobs for a paltry 5 million dollars. All of this is laid out in a behind-the-scenes feature on... more ›

We know on Sunday that we can watch people bumpin' uglies on HBO as well as the randy exploits of a Hollywood posse on HBO as well as all the other junk on HBO because Sunday is an HBO kind of day. But I think that there's something else worth checking out that starts Sunday. The much anticipated and hugely overhyped new series from Ken Burns, The War, starts on Sunday night at 8:00pm... more ›

Photo by Lush.i.ous via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

It's been a busy summer for 'wild and crazy guy' Steve Martin. From writing a children's book with cartoonist Roz Chast, to finishing his memoir Born Standing Up, and getting ready for an August start date for filming the Pink Panther II, he found time to squeeze in a life changing event. After inviting Tom Hanks, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Carl Reiner, Ricky Jay, and about seventy other friends for a party at his Los Angeles home, the guests were surprised with a wedding. Martin married writer and former New Yorker staffer Anne Stringfield. The ceremony was officiated by former Nebraska senator Bob Kerrey. SNL head honcho Lorne Michaels served as the best man. The bride wore Vera Wang while Martin donned his Inspector Clouseau mustache. more ›

- Crew member hurt on the set of the new Julia Roberts / Tom Hanks film in Downey - ET more ›