Pirates of the Caribbean

What Was it Really Like to Work for Walt Disney? New Book Spills Details

Love him or hate him, there's no escaping the impact that Walt Disney had on the film industry and, with Disneyland, Southern California lifestyle. The lord of the Mouse House died from lung cancer in 1966, but that hasn't stopped the stories (both good and bad) of what it was like to work for him ... More >>

Behind the Masks of Hollywood Boulevard's Famous Characters

There are lots of characters in Los Angeles, but not many of them struggle into hot costumes, hover near the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in 90-degree heat and charge tourists to take their pictures. You see them hamming it up as you gamely review the Walk of Fame with your latest out-of-t ... More >>

The Lone Ranger Is Such Disney Overkill That It Even Wastes Johnny Depp

Club 33: Disneyland's Secret $25,000 Dining Club

Club 33 may just be Disneyland's worst kept secret. In fact, depending upon who you ask, there are staff that will give you directions to the "hidden" entrance and others that still adamantly deny its existence. Try calling Disneyland for an official comment on the club and you will be told that the ... More >>

Hollywood Blacksmith Recreates Classic Pop-Culture Weapons in a New Web Series

Walking onto the set of the new web series Man at Arms, released today, it soon becomes clear that the Sword and the Stone, Tony Swatton's shop of goods, is every (convention-going) boy's dream. There are Roman soldiers, scantily clad female mannequins in leather and metal costumes, and very familia ... More >>

I Rode the Entire L.A. Metro in a Single Day

I once dreamed of being a transportation planner: fast-roping into jungles, skirting ancient booby traps to snag gilded idols, natives and Nazi occultists in hot pursuit. Sadly, urban planners do none of those things. The most daring thing most of them will ever do is Sharpie "Fuck you, Robert Moses ... More >>

Claudene Christian: HMS Bounty Crew Member Was USC Grad, South Bay Local

A crew member whose body was found after the HMS Bounty sunk in hurricane Sandy off the North Carolina coast was a local woman who attended USC and co-owned a defunct Hermosa Beach bar. Claudene Christian's body was recovered by the U.S. Coast Guard yesterday afternoon after the vessel, a Hollywood ... More >>

HMS Bounty, Pirates of the Caribbean Tall Ship, Sunk By Hurricane Sandy; 2 Missing (VIDEO)

Updated at the bottom with a body recovered. First posted at 12:22 p.m. A Hollywood treasure known for its roles in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Treasure Island and Mutiny on the Bounty has sunk off the coast of North Carolina, a victim of hurricane Sandy. Two crew members were missing ... More >>

Kater-Crafts Bookbinders Practices an Ancient Art While Feeding the Hollywood Beast

In the workshop of Kater-Crafts Bookbinders, Bibles from the 19th century, calculus textbooks and medical journals on digestive diseases sit in stacks, reinforcing the reputation of books as arcane, unsexy, packed with esoteric information. But two shelves tell a different story. Lined up here ... More >>

I'm on a Boat: Why So Many Places in Koreatown Have Nautical and Pirate Designs

At the center of the city, there is a 100-foot-long ocean liner dry-docked in a parking lot. It would seem out of place in many if not most L.A. neighborhoods. Except here. Landlocked Koreatown is bobbing with nautical-themed restaurants, and you can't walk the length of a plank without stumbling in ... More >>

Hypocrisy in Hollywood: The Rich, White Males in the Film Industry Are the Real Pirates

"Pirates of the Caribbean," one of the most pirated movies ever, still raked in billions.​It's no secret -- rich white guys in Hollywood were the No. 1 reason why scary copyright bills SOPA and PIPA almost made it through Washington this year. Yet the film industry is sort of the original pir ... More >>

Santasia

Theater Anecdotes, Anyone? Also, New reviews of Stations, Santasia and Camp Sunday

Rich Sofranko"Stations"​Boom Kat Dance Theatre's production of Stations at Santa Monica's Miles Memorial Playhouse landed this week's stage Pick; ​also recommended are the Whitefire Theatre's Santasia in Sherman Oaks, and the Groundlings' Camp Sunday. See all the reviews after the jump.Call for ... More >>

The Rum Diary: Johnny Depp's Hunter S. Thompson

Q & A With Katherine Tidy: Buttering Up the Food Stylist From BBC Films Toast

BBC Films' coming-of-age food comedy Toast, which is directed by S.J. Clarkson and opens at the NuArt today, might have trouble plucking heartstrings as effortlessly as it did when it aired in the UK last Christmas as a made-for-TV movie. In the first place, it's based on Toast: The Story of a Boy's ... More >>

Music Picks: Linda Perhacs, Joni's Jazz, L.A. Phil, the Go-Go's

Also, J*DaVey, the Decemberists, Dragon Head, Wye Oak and others

Marco Brambilla at Santa Monica Museum of Art

"The Dark Lining" heralds the future of video installation

Top 10 Rock Books of 2010

​With the year coming to a close, we're heading off the inevitable barrage of "best" lists coming your way with one that will actually be useful and problem solving (a holiday gift guide for the music lover in your life, that's not actually music... or a t-shirt). Buy 'em a book! iPad and Kin ... More >>

Break-In Burglar Takes $2,000 In Coins From Manhattan Beach Wells Fargo

Way more than $2,000 in coins... but not everyone can have hustle like Scrooge​It's the season for artistic public thieving in L.A. County. First, on Oct. 27, there was the guy with the Obama mask who stuck up an El Pollo Loco branch in Duarte with a toy knife. A week or so later, there was t ... More >>

An Evening with Hans Zimmer

Movie Reviews: After the Cup, Shrek Forever After, Prince of Persia

Also, Sex and the City 2, Survival of the Dead and more

Shawn Strider: Labyrinth of Jareth

John Millei at Ace ... and Ace

DISNEY DOWN AND DIRTY

Lord of the Fireflies: Inventor Gives Life to Circuit-Board Insects

Day for Night

The annual goth gathering at Disneyland

Aging Stormtroopers, Bland Blockbusters and Ingénues

Things to chew on this Memorial Day weekend

How to Cure Hollywood’s Summertime Blues

12 Steps to better box office

The Dwarf Got Dissed

Why this year’s Oscars suck more than usual