Chris Ullrich

Does this really come as a surprise to anyone who follows the ins and outs and trials and tribulations of Hollywood? Or, for that matter, to anyone who has been to a movie theater lately? A new survey of internet chat rooms and online message boards reveals the shocking truth that has seemingly eluded the big brains that currently run the major Hollywood studios. The quality, or rather, the lack thereof, is what is...

Hollywood studios filed a new batch of lawsuits against file swappers on Thursday mostly targeting those who frequently use Bittorrent technology. And, for the first time, the studio's lawsuits used the peer-to-peer file sharing companies' own data to track down individuals accused of trading movies online. The Motion Picture Association of America said it filed 286 lawsuits against people around the United States based on information acquired from file-trading sites shut down earlier in...

It happened over the weekend. Crusing into our local Mobile station at Laurel Canyon and Riverside to fill up the not so fuel efficient SUV that is currently our mode of transport, we were met with a very disturbing site. As we gazed up at the white and blue sign it hit us "Gas is almost three bucks a gallon!" This was our first time filling up after being out of town for about...

The major Hollywood studios want to put an end to film. Well, at least an end to distribution of movies on film to theaters. Recently, representatives of the major studios that had formed the Digital Cinema Initiatives, a group created in 2002 to unify studios, theater owners and tech manufacturers in planning the shift to digital, released their requirements and specifications for digital cinema. One of the main motivations behind this collaboration is, of...

The controversy surrounding the so-called "Hot Coffee" mod that allows you to see sexy material in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has come to a boiling point. In an unprecedented decision, the Entertainment Software Rating Board Wednesday changed Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' rating from M for "Mature" to AO for "Adults Only" and advised retailers like Wal-Mart and GameStop to stop selling the game. This change came after an investigation by the ESRB,...

Over at BoingBoing, Cory Doctorow showcases some really sharp reasons why Hollywood is dying. The most important part of all this is that piracy of movies isn't mentioned at all. Although, the MPAA would have us believe that piracy is the holy grail of a slumping box office. We hear this kind of thing all the time and people always have one opinion or another. Some of them are informed and insightful. Others, less...

We know we're not supposed to really care about this sort of thing but this is LA and many people here do care about this sort of thing. So, as a public service, in case you didn't know already, the Emmy Award nominations were announced on Thursday. No surprise, HBO led the pack with an industy leading 93 nominations, 11 for the outstanding series "Deadwood". More of a surprise was the re-emergence of the...

At the risk of sounding, well, a little too geeky, we want to make sure you know about a TV show that deserves a look. More than one look, really. You may have noticed the billboards around town with giant pictures of Edward James Olmos or Mary McDonnell and wondered, "What the heck is this "Battlestar Galactica" thing anyway?" Well, wonder no more because we are going to tell you. First off, "Battlestar Galactica"...

While not always on the top of our Tivo to do list, David E. Kelly has come up with some pretty good televsion shows over the years. "Ally Mc Beal", "The Practice" and "Boston Legal" were all solid, if somewhat overly-dramtic tv that served to cement his popularity and his reputation for quality programming. What does a man like this do for an encore? Why get into reality television, of course. Following the "if...

First, we are not accusing anyone of anything. It would really be hard to believe. Please, we are just a little website with some moxy and often clever writing and insight. The Los Angeles Times has hundreds of reporters, many devoted to entertainment. Maybe it's just that the problem is out there so everyone is getting into the act and taking notice. After all, this is Los Angeles. And Los Angeles is a company...