Simon Cowell

Morgan Spurlock Destroys the Definition of a Documentary With His One Direction Commercial

YouTube/MakingOfPop quiz: Define "documentary." It's a film stitched together from actual events. If a cameraman records a clutter of nervous kids at a spelling bee competition, or a pack of fiends stabbing dolphins in Japan, congratulations, that's a documentary.Or is it? What if a documentary isn' ... More >>

Barely Scratching a Boy Band's Surface in One Direction: This Is Us

Quit Disrespecting the Taste of Teenage Girls and Start Appreciating Justin Bieber

By Brittany Spanos At what point did teen girls suddenly just become wrong? "Serious" music fans have little patience for any artist who willingly sells to the rabid teen girl market. It's why we non-teen-girls only divulge our love for Justin Bieber and One Direction with a "self-aware" laugh. Se ... More >>

Anthony Bourdain Is Not Selling Out, Even if The Taste Is a Little Cheesy

Anthony Bourdain describes himself as an "enthusiast," though strangely, as we watch him globetrot across our televisions eating some of the world's most exotic and delicious foods, living a life many would trade their first born for, his demeanor is rarely all that enthusiastic. Known well for his ... More >>

Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher Swatting Cases Net Arrest Of Suspected Juvenile Prankster

Cops today said that the big bad wolf responsible for some of the celebrity mayhem known as "swatting" has been arrested. This would-be hardened criminal wreaked havoc on the LAPD when officers rushed to the homes of Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and possibly others based on false reports of home ... More >>

Swatting Celebrities, Political Enemies Is High-Tech Vengeance

Swatting is officially a thing. It made the front page of the Los Angeles Times today. Not that the Times hasn't covered the phenomenon before, but this time it's real. The report on people who call the police and say horrible crimes are in progress at the homes of celebrities like Simon Cowell, J ... More >>

Elimination Night by Anonymous: Our Book of the Week

According to the people who track these things, there are roughly 170,000 new books published each year in the United States -- an alarming percentage of which arrive, unbidden, at the L.A. Weekly office. Each week, we'll offer a snapshot of a newish book that's caught our attention. Just as there ... More >>

Natasha Leggero Has Words With Friends

He's Randall

Kelly Clarkson - Nokia Theatre - 4/3/12

Kelly Clarkson Nokia Theatre 4/3/12 Better than...a Taylor Hicks concert She was once a doughy waitress longing for a chance at stardom, appearing on an unheard-of contest show to make her dreams to come true, but now Kelly Clarkson is a bonafide superstar. After 10 years in the public eye, the wi ... More >>

MAKE US LAUGH, FUNNY GIRL

NATASHA LEGGERO

5 Most Fashion-Forward Muppets (Sorry, Miss Piggy)

As you know, in fashion, one day you're in and the next day you're out. How then to explain the cheerful ubiquity of Miss Piggy? Last August, the porcine mop/puppet turned up at Opening Ceremony to promote a muppet-themed apparel line. This month, she graces a spread in InStyle magazine sporting J ... More >>

Stage Raw: Furious Theatre Company and Pasadena Playhouse part ways

COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSNEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE ON SPIDER-MAN, ON BROADWAYFURIOUS AND PASADENA PLAYHOUSE PART WAYSFor reasons having to do with Pasadena Playhouse's needs to lease its second space, The Carrie Hamilton Theater, and the need of Furious Theatre Company for a space with h ... More >>

Stage Raw: Fairy Tale Theatre: 18 & Over

NEW THEATER REVIEWSSTAGE FEATURE on Circle Mirror Transformation and Me, As a PenguinCOMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGSPUZZLER​Padraic Duffy's noir drama of East German Spies opens this weekend at Sacred Fools Theater Company. Photo by C.M. GonzalezFAIRY TALE THEATRE: 18 & OVERJ. Michael Feldman's ... More >>

Theater Reviews: Chinese Coffee, Daddy, Love, Sex and the IRS

Also, Fatigued, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Greedy and more

News Haiku: Buy Ronnie James Dio's House, Bad Religion Turns 30, Far East Movement Goes National

News Haiku: Buy Ronnie James Dio's House, Bad Religion Turns 30, Far East Movement Goes National

Nightranger: Bringing Sounds to the Sea

Street Drum Corps and 30 Seconds to Mars Wrap Tour at the Greek. What's Next? American Idol. We Go Backstage and Get the Scoop

View more backstage and concert photos in our "Street Drum Corps, 30 Seconds to Mars @ The Greek, Pt. 1" and "Pt. 2" slideshows. Erin BroadleyStreet Drum Corps' Adam Alt, Bobby Alt and Frank Zummo on the VIP patio at the Greek​It's late. It's cold. Our ears are ringing and everyone is tired, ... More >>

U2 Producer Steve Lillywhite Debases Himself To Be the Next Simon Cowell

Esteemed producer Steve Lillywhite makes an 'Idol' plea and embarrasses music nerds

Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson and the Lizard People: The Incredibly Strange World of Music Conspiracy Theory

​Last month we reported on the persistent Internet rumor that Lady Gaga is actually a puppet of occult forces. That post was extremely popular and our amazing readers used it as a springboard to engage in a lively, still ongoing debate in the comments section (44 and counting!). Well, this mo ... More >>

American Idol Petition Drive: Simon Cowell's Replacement Should Be Steve "Jonesy" Jones

We going to go ahead and say out loud what a few friends have been mumbling privately: Jonesy. We'll say it again, more clearly: Steve Jones, former guitarist for the Sex Pistols, former host of Jonesy's Jukebox on Indie 103.1, honest, no-bullshit music fan, should take Simon Cowell's retired posi ... More >>

Rage Against The Machine Win UK Chart Upset, Issue Statement, Plan Free 'Thank You' Concert

"No [sour] grapes!"​Typically, your standard-issue Christmas miracle concerns such causes as peace on Earth, but willfully launching a nearly 20-year-old single with "Killing" in its title to the top of the charts during the holiday season? Well, we're not quite sure what to call that, but Rag ... More >>

Today in "Man Bites Dog" News: Simon Cowell Calls Rage Against The Machine Fans "Stupid" and "Cynical"

Young, strapping, sweaty Morello action​Rolling Stone reports that The Nighwatchman himself, Tom Morello, has endorsed his UK fans' attempt to make Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" (their incendiary 1992 single) the number one song in the country for Christmas week. A little b ... More >>

Robbie Conal and the Art of Character Assassination

Guerrilla pop

Fallen Idols of All Shapes and Sizes

Jailhouse Rock

Singing for supper in the Alcatraz of Arizona

Kelly Clarkson New Face of NASCAR

That's right the American Idol winner was just chosen to be the "it" girl for the racing sport. But you're not really surprised are you? (Not that there isn't a special place in my heart for NASCAR.) According to the press release I just received: "Nearly 50% of NASCAR fans are female and with the ... More >>

Breaking Glass

Nazis do lunch after Kristallnacht

A Fan's Notes

A salute to a new season for American Idol — and the Dodgers

Gods and Idols

Chefs Under Fire

Is Hell’s Kitchen’s Gordon Ramsay merely the Simon Cowell of haute cuisine?

Babbling Idols

And the L.A. 5 can’t be humiliated

Yet More Lists

The Sound of One Hand Hacking

Zatoichi is violent, funny — and kind of Zen

American Idolatry

The Sopranos of the Renaissance

And the idols of today

Clothes Ponies

Paradise Glossed

The loopy Paradise Hotel, plus queer make-overs for straight guys, and the demented new pseudo-Japanese series, Banzai

George of the Jungle

Full Metal Jeer

God, the Marines and American Idol

Buck Fushers

Edited by Kateri Butler

A Moment Like This

Salesmanship or Snake Oil?

Punitive dreaming, post-Enron

American Idols