L.A. Times - Entertainment News

Box Office: 'X-Men: First Class' is No. 1 but comes up short in the superhero franchise
Film directors are embracing TV
Photos: 'Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer' premiere
'X-Men: First Class': Meet the mutants
Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries: Will they sign a pre-nup?
Cultural Exchange: Bassem Youssef is a kind of Egyptian Jon Stewart
Perspective: An animation producer says performance capture is not true animation
Television review: 'Teen Wolf' on MTV
The Sunday Conversation: Barry Manilow
New on DVD: 'True Grit'

Box Office: 'X-Men: First Class' is No. 1 but comes up short in the superhero franchise

Posted: 05 Jun 2011 09:24 AM PDT

The mutant movie was the only new film in wide release and grossed $56 million, according to an estimate from studio 20th Century Fox.

Film directors are embracing TV

Posted:

Let the major movie studios have their superheroes and pirates. Cable TV has become more innovative, and top moviemakers such as Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann and Gus Van Sant are taking advantage.

Let the major movie studios have their superheroes and pirates. Cable TV has become more innovative, and top moviemakers are taking advantage.

Photos: 'Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer' premiere

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 06:01 PM PDT

Heather Graham, Jordana Beatty and more on the "Judy Moody" red carpet.

'X-Men: First Class': Meet the mutants

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 10:34 AM PDT

There are a lot of new faces, so we've put together a photo gallery that explains some of the connections to the four previous films.

Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries: Will they sign a pre-nup?

Posted: 04 Jun 2011 01:10 PM PDT

While Kim is a bona fide mogul worth a reported $35 million, her fiancé isn't bad off either.

Cultural Exchange: Bassem Youssef is a kind of Egyptian Jon Stewart

Posted:

Youssef created mock Arabic newscasts of the Egyptian revolution for YouTube. The comedy clips were such a hit that they led to a production deal with Egypt's ONTV.

Bassem Youssef is barefoot, pacing around the dining room of his apartment in the tony Maadi neighborhood where he has assembled a crack team of twentysomething bloggers and activists. They are hunched over their laptops in Conan O'Brien and "Family Guy" T-shirts, plotting Egypt's comedy revolution.

Perspective: An animation producer says performance capture is not true animation

Posted:

Steven Spielberg has made it known that he would like his upcoming 'The Adventures of Tintin' to compete in the Academy Awards' animated film category. But it doesn't conform to basic definitions of animation, writes Steven Paul Leiva.

It seems that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is in a quandary. Steven Spielberg, a not inconsequential member, wants his upcoming performance capture (or motion capture, as it's sometimes known) film, "The Adventures of Tintin," to compete in the best animated picture category for next year's Academy Awards. That's understandable; there's less competition, and it's doubtful that an adventure film based on a European comic book would be nominated by the academy for best picture. Not that it might not deserve it, but it's unlikely given academy history.

Television review: 'Teen Wolf' on MTV

Posted:

MTV's new werewolf series about a high schooler's sudden hairy turn is seriously lacking a creative bite.

As a Michael Fox-loving member of the demographic it targeted, I most certainly saw the 1985 film "Teen Wolf," but I don't remember much save it was a comedy and not very good.

The Sunday Conversation: Barry Manilow

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The singer-songwriter's '15 Minutes,' his first album of original songs in a decade, is inspired by his 'American Idol' stints.

Barry Manilow's first album of original songs in a decade, "15 Minutes," hits stores June 14. The 67-year-old crooner is based in Las Vegas, where he's the resident headliner at the Paris Las Vegas.