POP IDOL Remember Paul Potts? (See above video if you don't.) The portly car phone salesman from England who surprised everyone with an operatic voice on Britain’s Got Talent? and YouTube? Well, he’s singing at the Wiltern tonight to promote his debut album One Chance. 8 pm // Wiltern Theatre // 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles // $35-$50. TEEVEE LIVE Calling all X-Files aficionados, series creator Chris Carter and executive producer Frank Spotnitz will......

PaleyFest08 announced today that they’re hosting an X-Files retrospective with series creator Chris Carter and executive producer Frank Spotnitz on March 26. But if that doesn’t bust out your inner Mulder or Scully, then how’s this? Attendees will also get a sneak peek at The X-Files sequel planned for a summer release. Now in its 25th year, The William S. Paley Television Festival, is one of best television events of the year. Fans can......

Pixar's long streak of superb movies is starting to feel vaguely satanic, but I'm willing to keep embracing evil as long as it's this rich and funny. Ratatoille is the latest and resides in the very top tier. Michael Moore's Sicko didn't rouse as much rabble as Fahrenheit 9/11, but it's a better movie. Interesting that Seinfeld: Season 9 is dropping on the same day as Flight of the Conchords: Season 1 since Murray......

The top e-mailed story from the Los Angeles Times website today was "Mythical Chupacabra Found in Texas?" Some of us know exactly what a chupacabra is thanks to a 1997 X-Files episode "El Mundo Gira." Sort of: It's a creature that supposedly either looks like a weird wild dog or a lizard-like alien. First reported in Puerto Rico, there've been spottings in Mexico and the U.S. The name translates to "goat sucker," and it......

A Word or 146: It was fun to watch Molly Shannon on SNL. In general it was a great broadcast and she was just as funny now as she was then but who could really care about Linkin Park? Less fun is reading about the continuing poor decision-making by the networks in their upcoming program development. NBC is trying to cover all it's bases milking Heroes, their only good horse in the running, by creating......

Phil Jackson has a gift for getting his teams to play well at the end of the season. In his 15 seasons as an NBA coach, the worst one of his teams has done in the last 10 games heading into the playoffs is 6-4. But that was before your 2006-07 Lakers. These Lakers are 2-4 in their last six, with four games left in the season. Sure, they could go 6-4 in those last......

A Word or 52: Some people hated last week's "useless" Lost because it didn't further the storyline but I thought it was a humorously macabre and welcome break that reminded me of some of the better tangential X-Files episodes from 10+ years ago. If looks like we're going back to that story line tonight, oh well. Jericho (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Roger goes off the deep end, and who can blame him Friday Night Lights/Crossing......

Some people have already been eulogized here on LAist, for example, Robert Altman, so I've done my best not to repeat anyone who has been mentioned recently. As someone who studied film in college, I always try to look over and remember people who changed the industry, improved their art, or who changed/improved me. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and I'm sure I've missed some people. Feel free to add and......

Weekend Edition OK, so the TV Junkie completely missed Friday, this was because of a 50 mile backup on the MassPike so that's unlikely to happen in the near future. Now the TV Junkie is quite drunk in San Francisco which doesn't mean he doesn't want to be drunk in LA with you wonderful people. This doesn't mean it won't happen again, we're only somewhat human. College Football (ABC, ESPN and wherever else, at......

Remember the days of Heather Graham's Emily's Reasons Why Not? That was the show ABC pulled after one airing. But that was oh, so last season. It seems the networks are taking a little more time to help series build their followings -- giving them at least two episodes before moving them around the primetime schedule. For example, NBC's Kidnapped has already been moved to Saturday nights and FOX's Vanished has gotten a coveted......

One Hollywood star. One latenight talk show host. A sold-out audience full of rapt fans. And what was it all for? A book. Craig Ferguson's book, a novel called Between the Bridge and the River. The Tuesday night event was part of the excellent interview series Writers Bloc. Last night they presented Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes) with Ann Taylor Fleming. You might know Craig Ferguson as the host of the Late Late Show on......

This season's latest entry into the supernatural-sci-fi-detective-story genre, Night Stalker is a weak successor to one of LAist's favs, The X-Files. Inevitably, comparisons are made because former X-Files executive producer Frank Spotnik takes the lead in producing and writing this show. Set in a dark and brooding Los Angeles, Stuart Townsend plays an also dark and brooding, new hotshot investigative reporter Carl Kolchak at the "Los Angeles Beacon." His enemy-turned-ally is Gabrielle Union's character......

First things first: It is a little weird seeing David Boreanaz walk around in the day time without beginning to smolder and from the first words that came out of her mouth, we were completely in love with Michaela Cronin's Angela Montenegro. We can't help it, LAist has a thing for quirky, brainy chicks that do cool things with computers. Emily Deschanel as 'Bones' is a passable heroine and it seems likely that she......

A new season is here. And we’re not talking about the crisper fall-ish weather of late. Or even football. LAist is ready for the fall TV lineup. So bring it on. We’re psyched that new scripted shows outnumber the mind-numbing “reality TV” pilots. Martha Stewart is the only reality show to make our list. And we’ve noticed a few other trends. There’s more sci-fi and suspense with new shows like Supernatural, Threshold, Surface and......

Last month, LAist reported on a protest going on to save 70 electric cars from certain death at the hands of their parent company, GM. Yesterday, the 27-day protest in Burbank heated up when several big, black, car-carrying trucks pulled up to ship off about 15 of the cars to be destroyed. (If they ever make another X Files movie, they should use these trucks. Very scary!) Pro-electric car actvists blocked the trucks' way......