Oprah Winfrey

LYFE Kitchen Review: This Would-Be Chain's Heart Is in the Right Place, But Its Food Isn't

Inc.: Employing the Grateful Dead's Business Model

Out today, No World is the first full-length album from the L.A. duo Inc., and not unlike John Henry racing the steam-powered hammer. Brothers Daniel and Andrew Aged, are incredibly proficient at their instruments -- they've worked as session musicians for Beyoncé, Cee-Lo, and Elton John -- and so ... More >>

Madonna Impersonator Nadya Ginsburg Chats With Us (as Madonna)

Actress, writer for E!'s Fashion Police and Madonna impersonator Nadya Ginsburg (she does a hilarious, spot-on Cher, too) will be doing her one-woman show, Madonnalogues, at the Cavern Club tonight and Oct. 23. Ginsberg, in perfect character as Madonna, sat down to talk with us about the pop diva's ... More >>

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: Food-Related Stories From Elizabeth Berg

Ladies, are your brains too fried from the summer heat to get through a hefty book club tome? Then put that one aside and instead spend a few days reading Elizabeth Berg's collection of short stories, The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation. Sorry, guys, don't mean to ex ... More >>

Whitney Houston's Sparkle: A Guide to the Diva's Checkered Film Career

In anticipation of the remake of the 1976 girl-group melodrama Sparkle -- Whitney Houston's posthumous film appearance and her return to movies after a 15-year absence -- we look back at the handful of celluloid performances by the woman once known as "the Voice." Houston's pipes certainly get a w ... More >>

Top Chef Masters Recap: Take the Cake, Please

It was not chef Art Smith's best day, to say the least. What, you ask, could have happened to cause him such shame -- worthy of a melting forehead slap? Last night on Top Chef Masters, it was a case of letting his mouth write a check his baking skills couldn't cash, so to speak. More on that in a mo ... More >>

Time Machine Chefs: ABC's New Food Show Debuts in August, or Top Chef Meets Dr. Who

If you're tired of all the repeating chef reality shows out there, then ABC's latest foray into the genre will be worth checking out. The series pilot of Time Machine Chefs will air on August 16. No, this is not a food reality show with industry neophytes getting yelled at by Gordon Ramsay dressed u ... More >>

5 Valentine's Day Surprises That'll Get You Laid - For the Ladies

There's less than a week til that holiday we love to hate and much of what makes Valentine's Day difficult to bear is the pressure put on guys to be "the man" and get their chicks some kind of boat or pony to show they love them fo' realz. But spending big bucks on a present that may or may not mak ... More >>

Victoria Jackson's Excellent Tea Party Adventure

Michael Doven, Tom Cruise's Personal Assistant, Spied on Him For Church of Scientology -- Report

Oprah​If you wonder how the creepy Church of Scientology keeps tabs on its superstar converts (and -- perhaps -- digs up a little dirt?), Tony Ortega, editor-in-chief of our sister paper, Village Voice, might have found out. His mega-scoop today: Between 1991 and 2005, Cruise's personal ass ... More >>

Occupy L.A: Top 5 Would-be City Giveaways That Might Inspire Occupiers to Give up The Lawn

Leave it to L.A. leaders to make a half-assed offer to Occupy L.A. in an attempt to extract demonstrators from the City Hall lawn. The city said occupiers could take over the old old B. Dalton Bookstore space in the nearby, subterranean L.A. Mall if they gave the lawn a permanent break. Occupiers pr ... More >>

Finding Joe Review

How Many Adult Swim Musical Tie-Ins Can You Name?

MC Pee Pants​Adult Swim is integrating all sorts of hip music folks into its late-night shows: Odd Future shot a pilot for the cable channel, and word is that Major Lazer has something in the works. But the cutting-edge programmers have long been musically inclined. MC Chris came to prominen ... More >>

Q & A With Govind Armstrong: Post & Beam, His New L.A. Restaurant, Why 8oz. Closed Coming Home

Vanessa Stumpchef Govind Armstrong​ Govind Armstrong has a long history in this town, dating back to when he worked as a 13 year-old apprentice for Wolfgang Puck in Spago's kitchen. Armstrong, who is still maybe younger than you are, went from Spago to City to Campanile, with time spent time i ... More >>

Ali Wong: L.A.'s Raunchiest Vietnamese-Chinese-American Standup Comic

​ Ali Wong is a cutesy-pie, potty-mouth, Vietnamese-Chinese-American comic. What more do you need to know? Here's our Q&A with her: You're hilarious. Were you funny as a kid? I constantly peed in my pants up until the 8th grade and wore an extra-large sailor uniform from kindergarten to 8t ... More >>

There's No Center Like PEN Center

Marilyn Monroe's $5 Million Subway Dress and Debbie Reynolds' Ginormous Hollywood Auction: An Official Bidder's Insider Account

​ Debbie Reynolds held Hollywood's largest garage sale at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills on Saturday. In case you missed it on Oprah, Ms. Reynolds had one of the largest private collections of classic Hollywood memorabilia and most of it was up for grabs this weekend in front of a ... More >>

The USDA's New Food Desert Locator: Map Your Bad Food Day

Screenshot of Food Desert Locator map of area food deserts, in pink​ If you live in Los Angeles, you may sometimes feel like you're in a food desert. It is often maddeningly hot. You may find yourself bereft of food trucks, or good ones at any rate. You may be reading this right now from the o ... More >>

Cookbook Review: Good Meat, A Good Idea While Oprah Goes Vegan

​When we decided to circle back to Good Meat: The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat by Deborah Krasner this week, we didn't realize that Oprah and her staff of 370 would be simultaneously announcing their week-long vegan cleanse. More maple sugar walnut pie made with a b ... More >>

The Daily Meal's 50 Most Powerful People in Food

Listmania continues (David Letterman's cultural legacy, perhaps, along with Velcro suits) but this time The Daily Meal has come up with something more compelling than a list of Top 10 Cupcakes. Theirs? America's 50 Most Powerful People in Food. It's a good list, as it would be: The Daily Meal is h ... More >>

Your Zodiac Sign Has Probably Changed as a Result of the Earth's Realignment: New, 13th Sign, Ophiuchus, Created

ranjitDouble check your sign. It might have changed.​The 13th Sign was a (bad) movie. (Slogan: There is a place where evil lives. Yeah, it's called Fontana). Now there really is a 13th category for you lonely women people who believe in astrology. That's right Oprah, check your birthday, beca ... More >>

Shannen Doherty on Being a Badass, Her New Book, Plus the 'Badass vs. Bitch' Quiz

​Shannen Doherty has been called a lot of things: wild child, bad girl, and seemingly most often, bitch. It's a label she's carried around for decades, mostly stemming from the antics of what she calls her "Terrible 20s." As far as what she's best known for, it's a toss-up. On one hand she' ... More >>

Best Selling Author Jonathan Franzen: 10 Takeaways From His L.A. Appearance

​Jonathan Franzen appeared in L.A. at what must be close to the crest of a wave of a strange Franzen mania. His book Freedom, his first novel since 2001's celebrated, The Corrections, has twice been reviewed favorably by The New York Times. He was on the cover of Time. President Obama took Fre ... More >>

Fast Food Using Slow Food?: Talking With Chipotles' Steve Ells

Lucy LeanChipotle Opens New Restaurant in Hollywood​ With the opening of Chipotle on Vine and Sunset this month and another being built on Sunset just west of Fairfax it seems like these fast food restaurants are popping up like mushrooms all over Los Angeles. But did you know this might actu ... More >>

Oprah Beats Obama To L.A. For High School Appearance

​Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale announced this week that it is one of six national finalists, and the only one west of the Mississippi River, competing to host President Barack Obama for spring commencement. School boosters are asking Angelenos to vote for the campus in the Whit ... More >>

ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT (THURSDAY NIGHT, THAT IS)

Band of Horses, Tom Morello, and BRMC strip down for Pablove

View more photos in the Pablove Benefit slideshow. Anna Webber​The Pablove Foundation has found a pretty hip way to raise money for kids with cancer by throwing benefit concerts with talent like Silversun Pickups, Neon Indian, Peter, Bjorn and John, and Avi Buffalo. Most of the performers hav ... More >>

Top 140: L.A. Twitter Conference's Greatest Hits

Tweeps took over Hollywood & Highland's Kodak Theater for the 140 Character Conference, the second edition of Jeff Pulver's global Twitter initiative (first in New York, next in London) that explores the effects of the real-time web on business, media, and culture. Here are our Top 140 (or so) twee ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Oprah/KFC Backlash, Lebowski Fest, Video Game Girls Burlesque, Anthony Kiedis Gets Iggy Pop's Sweat in His Eye

Mother's Day may already be a Hallmark holiday but that didn't stop Oprah, KFC and El Pollo Loco from turning it into a full-blown, corporate flame (grilled chicken) war over the weekend. Is nothing sacred? As Gendy Alimurung reported on Saturday, "The latest installment in our continuing coverage o ... More >>

Filming Snoop's Dogg After Dark: Behind the Scenes at The Kress

We members of the press are gathered on the roof of The Kress in Hollywood, four floors of elaborate clubby terrain beneath our feet, and menacing gray clouds above. It's cold and Snoop Dogg is late by almost an hour. Down on the sidewalk, the doormen are screening and waving through a slow line ... More >>

Octuplets' Mom: No Welfare -- Just $2M for My Story

Several sources are reporting that Nadya Suleman, the Whittier mother of octuplets born in a Bellflower Kaiser Permanente hospital last week, is hoping to rake in $2 million from TV interviews and product sponsorships. The 33-year-old woman has been under increasing fire by letter writers to newspap ... More >>

Reporter, Examine Thyself: The Night of the Gun

David Carr fact-checks his own life with unflinching seriousness . . . and that's the problem

Maria Shriver for Obama

Maria Shriver, the first lady of the state of California and cousin of Caroline Kennedy, has endorsed Senator Barack Obama. Shriver made an impromptu appearance at an Obama rally at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion Sunday, where Michelle Obama, wife of the presidential candidate, Oprah Winfrey, and Carolin ... More >>

The (Ugly, Nasty, Pissed) Men Among Children

With Deerhunter, The Horrors and Pissed Jeans

$50,000-worth of Nasty Shoes Stolen

Apparently thieves broke into a truck and stole $50,000-worth of Taryn Rose shoes destined for the designer's Beverly Hills boutique. $50,000? I went to Taryn Rose's website and some of her stuff is plain nasty. The shoes even have names like 'Shakira', 'Tyra' and 'Britney'. How about 'Pay ... More >>

The Year Blogs Got Lame, Business Got Hip and Nostalgia Was King

En Vogue

Prada probes the Wintour of a former assistant’s discontent

Some Very Excellent Books

15 writers share their must-reads

Destination: Freedom

Remembering our Ms. Parks

Let’s Roll!

Fun with gravity on our city’s finest grassy hills

They’re Back!

Why the new Backstreet Boys album should be killed gently

Baby, It’s Cold Inside

Oscar at 77

A Considerable Town
Baby, It’s Cold Inside

Oscar at 77 — film . . . fashion . . . warm bodies

Baby, It’s Cold Inside

Oscar at 77

Call me Nostradamus

10 signs of the apocalypse

Big Beef’s Dirty War

Meat industry has resisted cleaning up its act for decades

Revisionism Revisited

The Civil War and Ours

The Feminine Mistake

Between a lark and a hard place

The Divine Child