The brains behind the Boeing plant conversion–from aerospace manufacturing to film production, from airplanes to Airplane!–is Jack O’Halloran, a former boxer and actor (that was him, as Non, in Superman II). We met Jack at Boeing this morning, under a kind of Palm Springs sun, impossibly bright light bouncing off the 75 or so acres [...]

Seminal skater Jay Adams–a member of the Dogtown crew that revolutionized the moribund sport in the 1970s–is a free man again, the New York Times reports, having been released to a Garden Grove halfway house “where he will serve the final months of a four-year sentence for his role in a major drug shipment scheme.”
“Although [...]

We’re still a few weeks shy of May Day, but labor doesn’t wait: tomorrow will mark the end of Hollywood to the Docks, a 28-mile march from Hollywood to San Pedro in support of the hunt for good jobs within the county. According to the organizers’ own numbers, about 5,000 people are expected to attend [...]

Remember Johnie’s Broiler–the landmark Downey drive-in, pillar of 1950s modern architecture and key cruising spot that was illegally demolished in January 2007?
Downey City Council passed a one-year moratorium on any development out at the site, immediately after a bulldozer allegedly hired by a lessee knocked down most of the 1958 drive-in.
But now, Wave newspapers reporter [...]

I’m serious. I don’t care about the Hollywood sign and neither should you. If rich extortionists want to try to milk a cool $22 million from LA, let them develop. Actually, this is more than extortion, this is kidnapping. They have kidnapped the virgin chaparral around the sign and now they want a 22 [...]

Seriously, for those that didn’t venture outside yesterday, it was one of the most crisp, clear beautiful days I may have ever seen in Los Angeles. The kind of day that makes athiests weep for answers and people with cameras drive through the mountains for hours with their jaws dragging on the ground.
And the only [...]

Okay, let’s just call the Oscars now and give “There Will Be Blood” the Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Best Cinematography awards–and give “No Country For Old Men” Best Picture of the year.
Why? Not because Javier Bardem is so cute with his Beatle bob–NCFOM is a better picture. Because it’s about people.
NCFOM is the lesser [...]

To all those living under rocks: following in Britney’s trail of unwanted children, her 16 year-old sister, Jamie Lynn, has officially announced that she is three months pregnant . The father is her equally as juvenile boyfriend (whom she supposedly met at church in Lousiana). As the star of a Nickelodeon show, Jamie Lynn lives [...]

One man’s solution to the writers strike
TO: Steven, Jeffrey, Les et al.
FROM: Michael
RE: Idled production
OK, guys, listen up. Here’s a foolproof way to monetize the strike while developing a totally unique franchise with endless hours of syndicatable programming.
You’re all scrambling to put on low-cost, writer-free reality shows, but you’ve overlooked the obvious. You see, all [...]