L.A. Times - Entertainment News

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• 'Youth in Revolt': A different teen-virginity film?
• A low-key Tina Brown stares down a new beast, daily
• Cable TV standoffs leave consumers to pay more for programming, risk losing shows
• Fox and Time Warner Cable reach a deal
• Cher to sell her luxury compound in Kona, Hawaii
• Is 'Bitch Slap' empowerment or exploitation?
• Katharine McPhee is having more fun as a blond
• RZA's new rap: filmmaker
• History channel pursues updated look

'Youth in Revolt': A different teen-virginity film? Posted: 03 Jan 2010 12:00 AM PST With its erudite references and absurdist humor, the comedy is more 'The Graduate' than 'American Pie,' says its director. With its erudite references and absurdist humor, the comedy is more 'The Graduate' than 'American Pie,' says its director.

A low-key Tina Brown stares down a new beast, daily Posted: 03 Jan 2010 12:00 AM PST A queen of old media resolves to profitably adapt it to what's new. It's possible that she's hard on herself in private, but in public Tina Brown has never been one for self-doubt. A precocious magazine editor who breathed new life into the fusty Tatler (at age 25), Vanity Fair (at 30) and the venerable New Yorker (at 38), Brown's success was notable for many things, among them the envy it inspired and her prodigious talent for self-promotion. And then came Talk, the magazine, book and entertainment venture that was supposed to secure her place in the cultural firmament, starting with the scandalously decadent launch party she threw at the foot of the Statue of Liberty in August 1999.

Cable TV standoffs leave consumers to pay more for programming, risk losing shows Posted: 02 Jan 2010 04:01 PM PST CHICAGO (AP) — Many questions remain for cable TV viewers nationwide even after Fox and Time Warner Cable settled their noisy spat with a New Year's Day agreement.

Fox and Time Warner Cable reach a deal Posted: 02 Jan 2010 12:00 AM PST A new contract ends the loud financial dispute that threatened to deprive customers of numerous stations. The first big media showdown of 2010, which threatened to break out in war, ended with a peace treaty.

Cher to sell her luxury compound in Kona, Hawaii Posted: 02 Jan 2010 12:00 AM PST This will be the first time she's attempted to sell a residence by auction. This will be the first time she's attempted to sell a residence by auction.

Is 'Bitch Slap' empowerment or exploitation? Posted: 03 Jan 2010 12:00 AM PST Exploi-powerment? Will it even matter during what director Rick Jacobson claims is 'the greatest chick fight in cinema history'? Following the year-end onslaught of high-class commercial releases and ritzy awards-competitive films, it is easy to feel the need for something basic, less rigorous and more freewheeling -- a cinematic sorbet, as it were, a palate-cleanser along the lines of the retro-exploitation homage "Bitch Slap."

Katharine McPhee is having more fun as a blond Posted: 03 Jan 2010 12:00 AM PST The onetime 'American Idol' finalist has a new 'do and a Nashville jones. In 2006, Katharine McPhee was Adam Lambert minus the black nail polish -- a California-bred contestant who made it all the way to the final two on "American Idol" and lost (to Taylor Hicks). Three years later, signed to Verve as a newly bleached blond, the Sherman Oaks native is set to release her second album, "Unbroken," a metaphor for McPhee's own undeterred will and a back-to-basics approach to pop music.

RZA's new rap: filmmaker Posted: 03 Jan 2010 12:00 AM PST After years of tutelage under Tarantino and other masters, the student is ready to direct his first movie. Call the RZA hip-hop's foremost alchemist. The self-professed former drug dealer-turned-Grammy-winning rapper-producer has defied all odds to spin not lead into gold, but démodé pop culture and arcane philosophical beliefs into platinum disc upon platinum disc.

History channel pursues updated look Posted: 03 Jan 2010 12:00 AM PST The cable network is adding reality series and more-recent events to its coverage of the past. History channel President Nancy Dubuc knows what she's up against running a cable television network devoted to events from long ago in an age of real-time tweets and quirky videos that go viral instantaneously. ¶ "History, people automatically say, is black and white and fuddy-duddy," she said matter-of-factly. ¶ But not according to Dubuc. Since taking over History three years ago, the young executive has sought to recast the network in Technicolor. To do so, she's undertaken a provocative strategy: severing the cable channel's tether to the past. ¶ Once referred to as "the Hitler channel" for its seemingly endless stream of dusty World War II documentaries, the network now crackles with modern-day adventures, many in the guise of unscripted shows so common now on television. Big-rig truckers brave the frozen tundra in "Ice Road Truckers," while the brawny loggers of "Ax Men" dodge falling timber in the Pacific Northwest. History's newest hit is "Pawn Stars," a flashy "Antiques Roadshow" set in a Las Vegas pawnshop. This year, the network will introduce "Top Shot," a reality contest that will pay $100,000 to the marksman who can best replicate the aim of Annie Oakley and other famous shots. ¶ Even its more sober-minded specials have taken on contemporary topics, some still raw to recount. In its Emmy-winning 2008 documentary "102 Minutes That Changed America," the network documented the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in real time through amateur footage. A companion piece, "9/12: The Day After," is set to air this year.

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