30 Rock

Picture Getting Clearer With Each Losing Day and Don Mattingly Needs to Go

You don't need me hurling the "nice guys finish last" cliché anywhere near this post, but it's utterly unavoidable after the latest series of Dodger disappointments and I just can't help it. So apologies all around. Yes, Don Mattingly is a good guy, ostensibly supported "to a man" in the clubhouse ... More >>

Musicals and Chilean Political Advertising: Your Weekly Movie To-Do List

See also: *More L.A. Weekly Film Coverage *Our Calendar Section, Listing More Great Things to Do in L.A. Friday, Jan. 25 Inspired by true events, No gives a behind-the-scenes look at the political advertising during the 1988 Chilean national plebiscite. The film flawlessly incorporates the real " ... More >>

Hot Tub with Kurt & Kristen Makes Its L.A. Debut, After Becoming a Hit Stand-up Show in Brooklyn

A standing crowd of 200 welcomed L.A.'s newest alternative-comedy offering, lauded New York City transplant Hot Tub with Kurt & Kristen, to The Virgil cocktail bar Monday night. Nattily-dressed titular duo Kurt Braunohler (IFC's Bunk, Chelsea Lately) and Kristen Schaal (30 Rock, Flight of the Conc ... More >>

Funny, You Don't Look Newish

Beth Lapides of the UnCabaret on Her Upcoming Father's Day Show

Beth Lapides and her much-loved comic storytelling series UnCabaret have a new(-ish), swanky home downtown at First and Hope. Not a bad idea for a night out with Dad on Father's Day this Sunday, when it performs at 8 p.m. Here's our interview with Beth:

Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin' Rock Opera Arrives in L.A., Co-Written by Danny Franzese (aka the Gay Friend in Mean Girls)

You probably know him as Damian, the flamboyant scene stealer from the 2004 film Mean Girls, where various quips ("I want my pink shirt back") earned Danny Franzese a modest cult following consisting primarily of tweens and queens. While his film cohorts Tina Fey and Lindsay Lohan graduated to 30 Ro ... More >>

Ryan Adams - Disney Hall - 2/17/12

Ryan Adams Disney Hall 2-17-12 See also: Why Ryan Adams Isn't Allowing Photos Better than... Listening to Love Is Hell in its entirety on Valentine's Day because Heartbreaker just wouldn't be depressing enough. Unless that's your thing. I guess I'd consider myself in the 90th percentile of Ryan ... More >>

The Nerdist Writers Panel

Is This the Golden Age of Television? A Zocalo Event Asks the Question

Considering the airwaves are cluttered with dejected bachelorettes, fist-pumping and wars over things as trivial as cupcakes, it's difficult to imagine this as a time when television should be revered. Or is it? That was the prompt at hand during last night's Zocalo Public Square event: "Is This t ... More >>

Tracy Morgan Hospitalized After Becoming Unconscious During Reportedly 'Intoxicated' Appearance at Sundance Event

Updated at the bottom with Morgan saying that he's fine. First posted at 11:42 p.m. Sunday. Tracy Morgan, the comedian who has fostered an image of himself as being on the edge of crazy, became unconscious during an awards ceremony during the Sundance Film Festival weekend in Park City, Utah and wa ... More >>

Ben & Jerry's Releases Schweddy Balls Ice Cream

Ben & Jerry's​Back in June, those of us whose love for ice cream is rivaled perhaps only by our love for Alec Baldwin were intrigued by the rumor that Ben & Jerry's was coming out with a Schweddy Balls ice cream flavor. Too good to be true, we thought. Just like the rumor that Baldwin was goin ... More >>

Jonathan Gold: Ban Shark Fin Soup

Guzzle & NoshA model of a hammerhead shark hangs above the bar at Maui & Sons in Hollywood.​Like Tracy Morgan on "30 Rock," we try to live every week like it's Shark Week. We don't, however, live every week like it's Shark Fin Soup Week. In today's Los Angeles Times, Jonathan Gold pens an op ... More >>

Community Gathering

Donald Glover: He Says Whatever He Wants

Community Gathering: Interview With Show's Creator Dan Harmon

Gillian Jacobs and Joel McHale in Community​ Do you watch Community? You should, if you like funny, ensemble-based shows like 30 Rock and Parks & Recreation. Or even if you enjoy Two and a Half Men. Community creator Dan Harmon and the Nerdist folks invite fans and would-be fans to Meltdown C ... More >>

Five Nerd Heroes From LA Weekly's New People Issue

Patton Oswalt and Grumpus​ LA Weekly's brand new People Issue, out on newsstands Thursday, has enough nerd heroes to fill a whole, err, nerds don't know sports. But they do like systems and categorization, and so we put them in a list: 5. James Urbaniak

Funny, You Don't Look Famous

Foodies: The Web Series (It Was Only A Matter Of Time)

Thanks to Eater and @amateurgourmet for this one. You knew this was coming, right? That at some point the current trend of considering food as, well, a trend rather than a daily requirement would spill over into outright parody. Thank god. Coming March 9th is a web series called Foodies, a dramati ... More >>

R. Kelly Interviewed by Will Oldham/Bonnie Prince Billy (No, Really): The Highlights

​The current issue of Interview magazine--the celebrities-talking-to-other-celebrities journal invented by Andy Warhol--features an interview with Aziz Anzari-impersonator (and strangest person in the whole music industry) R. Kelly. The interviewer?: indie man of many hats Will Oldham (aka Bon ... More >>

Top 10 Women With Fruit Names

We've brought you the Top 10 Men With Meat Names and the Top 10 Men With Salad Names. But what about women? And what about fruit? Well, now is the moment for both, as pomiculture and nomenclature come together for the debut female-themed edition of our "People with Food Names" series. Of course, the ... More >>

Catch a Risen Star

Fifteen Minutes of Fame, Like It or Not

Grappling with accidental YouTube notoriety in the comedy-documentary Winnebago Man

Patina Caters the Emmy Awards Governor's Ball: 180 Cooks, 4,416 Bottles of Wine, 3000 Lbs. of Chickpeas An Elaborate Brownie Recipe

Patina Restaurant GroupChocolate decadence​ Going to 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards Governor's Ball? Well, even if you're not either, about 3,500 elaborately overdressed people will be. This year's Emmy Awards will be held August 29th, and following the event, Joachim Splichal's Patina Restaurant ... More >>

The Empire Gives Back: Red Carpet 30th Anniversary Screening of 'The Empire Strikes Back'

Erin BroadleyHarrison Ford (Han Solo) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) together again​ Last night, stars and fans of The Empire Strikes Back gathered at Hollywood's Arclight Theater for a one-night-only screening of the classic film. The Empire Gives Back, a benefit for St. Jude's Children's Hospi ... More >>

Top 10 Fictional T.V. Food and Drink

Previously, we gave you our Top 10 Fictional Movie Food and Drink list. Now we're taking on the T.V. version. Not surprisingly, there were a lot of options to choose from and some of you, we're sure, will feel that a few of your favorites are missing (feel free to let us know). So with apologies in ... More >>

THAT TRACY MORGAN -- HE'LL SAY ANTHING!

Movie Reviews: Women Without Men, The Square, After.Life, Phyllis and Harold

Also, La Mission, Godspeed, Mid-August Lunch and more

61st Emmys: Deja Vu All Over Again

Winner-watching with cynicism and subversion

Moving Up

SAM TRIPOLI'S NAUGHTY SHOW: HOW LOW CAN YOU BROW?

GO LA: Dead Poets, Dead Writers and Denis Leary

Plus lots more to mourn and celebrate in town (not necessarily in that order), April 3-9

SAM TRIPOLI'S NAUGHTY SHOW: HOW LOW CAN YOU BROW?

Watchmen Postmortem

Too close to the novel to work on the screen

Snarking the Awful Golden Globes

... because they have zero integrity and credibility

Top 10 New TV Shows From 2008: Hillary & Barack, Gavin & Stacey, Bernard & Doris

The way we watched

The TV Crank's Wish List

A DVD gift guide for curmudgeons who think there's nothing good on TV anymore

NBC's Kath & Kim: Glamour Girls Gone Kitsch

The other O.C.

Fall-Time Yuk-Fest: Time Travel With Patton Oswalt and Comedy's Finest

Deep in the heart of Echo Park, surrounded by taco trucks and fruit vendors, cash-only dive bars and my ex-boyfriends, there exists a Time Travel Mart off Sunset Boulevard that supplies an array of collectibles one might need (or want) from the past or future; collectibles like human emotion chips f ... More >>

Nobody’s Baby

Tina Fey’s stillborn surrogate- mommy comedy

Movie Reviews: Body of War, Four Minutes, Shotgun

Plus, Baby Mama, Deception and other April 25 releases

The Kids of 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights Are All Right

These season premieres don't disappoint

Christina Applegate Erases Bundy Past

Samantha Who?

Mothers, Gangsters and the Usual Boobs at the Emmys

Shout outs and murmurs

That Zucks!

NBC’s CEO screws up network shakeup

Dennis Haysbert

The first black President

Andy Richter Controls the Spreadsheet

But can his number-crunching P.I. conquer TV ratings’ top 10?

Sit Up and Watch

The best TV of 2006

Voters Unguided

Battle of the Network Stars

It’s East Coast 30 Rock against the West Coast heavyweights of Studio 60

How Deep Is Your Fried Avocado?