L.A. Times - Entertainment News

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• Funny or Die on a mission to live large
• Kristen Wiig, so weird on 'SNL,' goes (somewhat) normal for 'Bridesmaids'
• Paula Abdul may hold up the show on 'The X Factor' with last-minute contract talks
• Critic's Notebook: 'Treme's' collection of beautiful moments
• Library of Congress builds the record collection of the century
• Working Hollywood: Even puppets have their own stylists
• Nonfiction film: 'Hey, Boo' spotlights the 'To Kill a Mockingbird' sensation
• Indie Focus: 'The Arbor' puts words in actors' mouths
• Paul Feig is indebted to 'Leave It to Beaver'
• School opened up a class conflict for David Lindsay-Abaire

Funny or Die on a mission to live large Posted: The comedy website spreads its wings far beyond the Internet, with projects on TV, film and in publishing. There's a pig. And it's wearing a Donald Trump wig.

Kristen Wiig, so weird on 'SNL,' goes (somewhat) normal for 'Bridesmaids' Posted: Producer Judd Apatow says he had to convince her to take more of the jokes for herself. She co-wrote with Annie Mumolo. Kristen Wiig has just come off an average Saturday night, one that required her to wear a 2-foot-high wig, shuffle lethargically around a stripper pole and bury her face in Helen Mirren's cleavage.

Paula Abdul may hold up the show on 'The X Factor' with last-minute contract talks Posted: 07 May 2011 08:59 PM PDT Simon Cowell wants her for the final judging spot on Fox's "The X Factor." Simon Cowell wants her for the final judging spot on Fox's "The X Factor."

Critic's Notebook: 'Treme's' collection of beautiful moments Posted: New Orleans, in all its messy splendor, is the star of this fantastic series set in the Crescent City. Every city has its own singular character — just ask Minneapolis about St. Paul — but there is perhaps no American city as singularly singular, as stubbornly exotic, as attached to its difference as New Orleans, that funky little cosmopolis set down in a bowl between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. A blighted town with a tourist economy, stuck in time and outside of time, conservative and anarchic, vulnerable and violent, it is the City That Care Forgot but sometimes also the City That Forgets to Care.

Library of Congress builds the record collection of the century Posted: The sounds of everybody from Duke Ellington to Jelly Roll Morton to obscure surfer dudes are preserved at a Library of Congress facility in Virginia. Access is limited, but that is about to change. About an hour south of Washington, D.C., deep beneath rolling hills near the verdant Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, lies a storehouse filled with bounty.

Working Hollywood: Even puppets have their own stylists Posted: For Mel Gibson's 'The Beaver,' a wrangler maintained and handled the beaver puppets throughout the film shoot, which has its own challenges. The new film "The Beaver" stars Mel Gibson as a mentally ill man who begins to speak through a battered hand puppet that he retrieves from a dumpster in a moment of despair. Although the controversial star made a point to puppeteer the beaver himself, on the set, puppet wrangler Anney McKilligan Ozar was tasked with grooming the creature's fur and even brushing its prominent teeth.

Nonfiction film: 'Hey, Boo' spotlights the 'To Kill a Mockingbird' sensation Posted: Mary McDonagh Murphy's documentary, which features interviews with Harper Lee's sister and friends, explores the story behind the novel beloved by millions. Harper Lee was working as an airline reservations agent in New York City, struggling to write a novel tentatively titled "Atticus," when a close friend gave her enough money to take time off and finish her book. Published in 1960 with an initial print run of just 5,000 copies, "To Kill a Mockingbird" became an instant phenomenon: a critically acclaimed bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winner, followed by a multiple-Oscar-winning 1962 film featuring the iconic performance of Gregory Peck as courageous Southern lawyer Atticus Finch.

Indie Focus: 'The Arbor' puts words in actors' mouths Posted: In the documentary about playwright Andrea Dunbar, performers lip-sync interviews by the film's subjects. In the documentary about playwright Andrea Dunbar, performers lip-sync interviews by the film's subjects.

Paul Feig is indebted to 'Leave It to Beaver' Posted: Inspiration Point: Writer-director Paul Feig appreciates the sitcom for the way its young actors talk and act like real kids. Writer and director Paul Feig ("Freaks and Geeks," "The Office," "Nurse Jackie," "Bridesmaids") on a TV series that influenced him.

School opened up a class conflict for David Lindsay-Abaire Posted: The playwright, son of working-class parents, got a chance as a kid to attend an exclusive academy. What he experienced there is the basis of 'Good People,' about a class divide that has yawned open. Reporting from New York —

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