L.A. Times - Entertainment News

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• New media: YouTube creative artists pride themselves on being a separate breed
• Reporter's Notebook: 'Waiting for Superman' and American education reform
• HBO bets big on Prohibition-era 'Boardwalk Empire' series
• Coping with zombies in 'The Walking Dead'
• These women like to kick some tail
• The Sunday Conversation: Sela Ward
• 'Undercovers' and race
• Networks jockey for best time periods with new fall lineup
• Critic's notebook: Museums building on a renewed civic life

New media: YouTube creative artists pride themselves on being a separate breed Posted: 19 Sep 2010 12:00 AM PDT Popular series have gone subscriber-only, and Hollywood has come knocking, but independent spirit reigns. Popular series have gone subscriber-only, and Hollywood has come knocking, but independent spirit reigns.

Reporter's Notebook: 'Waiting for Superman' and American education reform Posted: 19 Sep 2010 12:00 AM PDT 'An Inconvenient Truth' filmmaker Davis Guggenheim once again taps into a crucial issue with a building consensus. In his previous Oscar-winning documentary, filmmaker Davis Guggenheim handled Al Gore, manmade climate change and imminent global peril.

HBO bets big on Prohibition-era 'Boardwalk Empire' series Posted: 19 Sep 2010 12:00 AM PDT Cast against type, Steve Buscemi rules Atlantic City as a powerbroker in the lavish series about the beginnings of organized crime. NEW YORK — Steve Buscemi does not bear much physical resemblance to Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, the tall, broad-shouldered political boss whose 30-year rule of Atlantic City inspired HBO's new Prohibition-era drama "Boardwalk Empire."

Coping with zombies in 'The Walking Dead' Posted: 19 Sep 2010 12:00 AM PDT Frank Darabont's new TV series takes a page from the best of the undead films but takes them a step further by following survivors as they battle the creatures over an entire season. In a nondescript office building on Cahuenga Boulevard, Frank Darabont is putting the finishing touches on the end of the world. The writer-director, famed for such Oscar-nominated feature films as "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile," is now masterminding the zombie apocalypse with his new television series, "The Walking Dead."

These women like to kick some tail Posted: 19 Sep 2010 12:00 AM PDT The heroic action figure gets a feminine touch this season, with Kelli Giddish's U.S. marshal, Maggie Q's assassin and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's spy leading the brawls. Kelli Giddish is downright confident the gal she calls "Queen Bee" — the flesh-and-blood U.S. marshal training her to trail fugitives for NBC's new Jerry Bruckheimer drama "Chase" — means business.

The Sunday Conversation: Sela Ward Posted: 19 Sep 2010 12:00 AM PDT The actress quickly ramps up for a return to TV after a new character is added to 'CSI:NY' and she gets the casting call. The actress quickly ramps up for a return to TV after a new character is added to 'CSI:NY' and she gets the casting call.

'Undercovers' and race Posted: 19 Sep 2010 12:00 AM PDT Never mind J.J. Abrams' involvement in the new NBC espionage series. What's creating a huge buzz is the casting of two black actors in the lead roles of a drama — still a rarity in TV today. The outdoor cafe on a quiet street in "Florence, Italy" looked inviting with its checkerboard tablecloths and centerpieces, but the group of spies huddled in an alley across the street was preoccupied with other concerns, such as locating a biological weapon and saving the world.

Networks jockey for best time periods with new fall lineup Posted: 19 Sep 2010 12:00 AM PDT While shows like CBS' 'Big Bang Theory' shift to another night, new dramas like Fox's 'Lone Star' and ABC's 'No Ordinary Family' try to be breakout successes, and comedy blocks hope to draw bigger audiences. At some point in the future, the broadcast networks will stop losing viewers. The alternative, that they wither away to nothing, seems unlikely, however much some haters of old media may be rooting for that day.

Critic's notebook: Museums building on a renewed civic life Posted: 19 Sep 2010 12:00 AM PDT The Pompidou's intriguing new outpost illustrates the current phase of museum design in which architects are hands-on participants of urbanism. The new outpost of the Pompidou museum, which opened in the spring in Metz, a city of 125,000 in eastern France, is not what you would call a conventionally handsome building. Designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban and France's Jean de Gastines, the museum has a translucent, Teflon-coated roof that appears to have melted over the top of its long, tube-shaped galleries. Inside it is full of cavernous spaces, some dramatically scaled and others merely bloated.

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