L.A. Times - Entertainment News

---

• Wrestlers tag-team from ring to film
• Sienna Miller, Alexander Skarsgard open 2010 Esquire House
• Essay: On TV, it's ideal friends, all the time
• Barbara Billingsley, mother on 'Leave It to Beaver,' dies at 94
• Cultural Exchange: Israeli city reviving itself as an arts attraction
• The Monitor: 'The Buried Life' and 'World of Jenks'
• Working Hollywood: Lisa Brown keeps Secretariat — all of them — in line
• Indie Focus: Bill Plympton and animation for grown-ups
• Staff Benda Bilili's Congolese rhythms hit global scale
• A Second Look: 'Apocalypse Now'

Wrestlers tag-team from ring to film Posted: 17 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT WWE stars are taking center stage in a way their fans have never seen them: emoting opposite Oscar-caliber actors. The day after one of the biggest professional wrestling events of the year, Randy Orton, the heavily tattooed, frequently sneering, six-time World Wrestling Entertainment champion, is standing in the bowels of the Staples Center confessing a lack of self-confidence. Not about his most recent performance in the ring, where he administered the requisite body slams, clotheslines and backbreakers to his rival, Irish wrestler Sheamus. This is about channeling his inner Humphrey Bogart more than his inner Hulk Hogan.

Sienna Miller, Alexander Skarsgard open 2010 Esquire House Posted: 16 Oct 2010 03:11 PM PDT Sienna-miller-esquire British import and fashion plate Sienna Miller did her part to celebrate bachelors everywhere on Friday evening -- and not just by leaving Jude Law at home.

Essay: On TV, it's ideal friends, all the time Posted: 17 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT Everywhere you look on TV, there are crowds of friends and extended families all together all the time. What does it say about viewers? With the new television season upon us, here are a few things you are virtually certain to see again and again and again: lots of folks spending the better part of their day surrounded by their friends and family in happy conviviality; folks wandering into the unlocked apartments and homes of friends, family and neighbors at any time of the day or night as if this were the most natural thing in the world; friends and family sitting down and having lots of tearful heart-to-hearts; Little League games, school assemblies and dance recitals, all attended by, you guessed it, scads of friends and family.

Barbara Billingsley, mother on 'Leave It to Beaver,' dies at 94 Posted: 16 Oct 2010 02:52 PM PDT As June Cleaver, Billingsley was the model 1950s mom, clad in dresses, high heels and pearls even while vacuuming. 'She was the ideal mother,' Billingsley said of her character.

Cultural Exchange: Israeli city reviving itself as an arts attraction Posted: 17 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT The Tel Aviv suburb of Holon has rebranded around kids and digital arts, with a dozen new museums, theaters and other centers, and more are in the works. Even residents of this sand-blown suburb — once known for crime and middle-class flight — used to joke that the best part of town was the road to neighboring Tel Aviv.

The Monitor: 'The Buried Life' and 'World of Jenks' Posted: 17 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT The stars of the MTV shows use privilege for access to mostly benign effect. How porous are our borders? Consider the four Canadian stars of MTV's "The Buried Life." This season, they've streaked at a pro soccer game (and gone to jail for it) and infiltrated the Country Music Television Awards by filching passes. All of this in the name of demonstrating the power of positive thinking, "The Secret" as executed by the choirboy version of "Jackass."

Working Hollywood: Lisa Brown keeps Secretariat — all of them — in line Posted: 17 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT The horse wrangler used a brush and non-toxic paints so they looked uniform for the film. Self-professed " California cowgirl" Lisa Brown is hoping audiences won't notice that multiple horses played the title role in Disney's new fact-based drama "Secretariat." As the horse continuity wrangler on the film, it was her task to disguise any physical differences among the six or seven animals — using a brush and a set of non-toxic, water-based paints — so that they would appear identical over the course of the movie, starring Diane Lane as owner-breeder Penny Chenery.

Indie Focus: Bill Plympton and animation for grown-ups Posted: 17 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT Sure, 'Toy Story' is cute. For kids. The filmmaker wants to bring 'Quentin Tarantino-kind of topics' to his animated work. His latest, 'Idiots and Angels,' is about a bitter old guy who grows wings. Animated features have long been the favored medium for telling kid-friendly stories about princesses and cuddly creatures. But if New York-based animator Bill Plympton were to have his way, moviegoers would also see more hand-drawn offerings depicting hard drinking, fooling around, murder and deception.

Staff Benda Bilili's Congolese rhythms hit global scale Posted: 17 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT With shows at Cannes and other stops and the documentary 'Benda Bilili!' due out, the Kinshasa band of mostly disabled musicians is riding a life-changing wave of popularity. In the long history of music, there have been improbable success stories. But even in such company, as a drunk man in the French documentary "Benda Bilili!" argues, there has never been anything like the Congolese "street-orchestra" Staff Benda Bilili.

A Second Look: 'Apocalypse Now' Posted: 17 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT The war movie arrives on Blu-ray, flaws and all, in the original and longer versions as well as a behind-the-scenes documentary and other featurettes. An art movie made on a blockbuster scale, Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" is a cult film for the ages, an imperfect classic whose force and stature have only grown with time. Released in summer 1979, having premiered a few months earlier in an unfinished version at the Cannes Film Festival, it was a monumental work of momentous import: Hollywood's much-trumpeted attempt to close the book on the national nightmare of the Vietnam War and in retrospect, a tombstone that marked the end of American cinema's 1970s golden age.

You are subscribed to email updates from L.A. Times - Entertainment News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610