Though I remember being assigned to sing "I've looked at life from both sides now" in the third grade choir, it wasn't until purchasing 1991's Night Ride Home (on cassette!) when I fully jumped aboard the Joni Mitchell train. I'm proud to say I own every album she's ever released...

Her hits have been the soundtrack for many of our lives (the theme from Friends, "Boogie Wonderland," "Neutron Dance," "What Have I Done To Deserve This," "Lead Me On," and many others) and now Grammy winner, and Detroit homegirl, Allee Willis, is taking her gift for songwriting and her devotion...

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Kitt Shapiro, only child of trailblazing entertainment legend, Eartha Kitt, who passed away from colon cancer on Christmas Day, 2008. With Mother's Day upon us, Kitt has allowed me to share with you personal memories and photos of her relationship with her...

Much more intense and jolting than the famous film adaptation starring Ewan MacGregor, L.A. based director Roger Mathey's latest revival of Irvine Welsh's cult novel about a circle of heroin addict friends in Edinburgh, Scotland, Trainspotting, is one of the most visceral, blood and guts stage dramas I've seen in...

She is the celebrated writer of Wicked, My So Called Life, Once and Again, thirtysomething, as well as Huge (cowritten with her daughter, Savannah Dooley). He is the acclaimed veteran actor from Breaking Away, Sixteen Candles, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and hundreds of other TV and film roles. After decades in...

Last week, Oscar-nominated producer/director/actor/writer, Rob Reiner, shared funny and personal stories of his career at Syracuse University's annual Comedy Tonight event at Los Angeles' Writer's Guild Theatre. Moderator Jeff Garlin's relaxed, hilarious rapport with Reiner set a familial tone for the packed house of Syracuse students studying in L.A.

Regular viewers of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno will be familiar with the hilarious and surprising Candid Camera-esque segments featuring The Magic Clerk a.k.a. actor/magician/improv artist, Michael Carbonaro, who is making his mark by bringing something fresh into the world of magic, specifically television magic for the masses.

There are not many people who know much about Hattie McDaniel these days beyond her role as Mammy in Gone With The Wind, and her being the first African American to take home an Academy Award, but actress/singer Vickilyn Reynolds aims to expand the public's knowledge and appreciation of her...

When Charles Eliasch was two-years-old, his mother took him to Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Vienna Opera House. Thinking he'd be fed up by the intermission, she started to exit, but the opera-loving toddler threw a huge tantrum insisting they stay to watch the final act. Even at two, Eliasch...

On a nondescript Hollywood corner (Selma and Wilcox) in what used to be Joni Mitchell's 1980s recording studio is littlefork (with a lower case "L"), an intriguing new restaurant celebrating the delicacies of New England and Montreal. Opened in January 2013, and already a bustling hit, littlefork (named for the...

A native of Italy's Adriatic coast (near Bologna), Iginio Straffi's journey to becoming an entertainment mogul began with drawing comics at six years old and selling them to friends. He grew up to become a comic book artist before taking his talents to television and feature films.

Today, Straffi is...

During the first twelve years of the Oscars, the Academy released the winners' names to newspapers before the start of the ceremony. That way, the winner's list would be published and on stands immediately after the Oscar ceremony in the newspapers' evening edition. Believe it or not, that actually worked...

L.A. Theatre-goers are in for a treat because for four successive Wednesday evenings from February 20th to March 13th, acclaimed actor/writer David Dean Bottrell takes to the Acme Comedy Theatre stage in a tour de force show about his many varied careers in David Dean Bottrell Is Working: One Man's...

If you're looking for an unconventional night out over Valentine's weekend (Feb 15 - 17), Los Angeles theatre doesn't get more hilarious, or warped, than the Xanadu-inspired drag-musical romantic adventure, Connie Loves Juice. In this chapter of the Connie saga, the eponymous Flashdancing damsel in undress (performance artist/actor, John Cantwell)...

The Italian government has declared 2013 as "The Year of Italian Culture in the United States," and the west coast's celebration is highlighted by L.A. Italia, also known as the Italian Film Festival, which rolls into the Chinese Theatres on Hollywood Boulevard from February 17 - 23. It is a...

Though it should've been implemented since at least Janis Joplin's first solo record (1969), for whatever reasons, Best Female Rock Vocal Performance didn't make the cut as an official Grammy category until 1980. And though solo female artists continue to release great rock records every year, The National Academy of...

For hardcore movie lovers, like myself, there is no month quite like January. Amidst the frenzy of Hollywood's movie award season, the snowy, scenic hamlet of Park City, Utah simultaneously hosts two of the world's finest independent film festivals, Sundance (since 1981) and Slamdance (since 1995). This year both scored...

Horrified, disgusted, and fed up when the news broke about the Newtown, Connecticut shootings, New Yorker Staci Sarkin immediately took to her Facebook page, and posted a petition for safer gun laws for her friends to sign. She expected a couple hundred signatures, but then her friends shared it with...

I'm a pop song junkie, and I owe it all to 1983 -- the year I started buying music. Hard to believe 30 years have passed. 1983 was a rare year where many of the finest singles actually ended up at #1: "Billie Jean," "Every Breath You Take," "Total Eclipse...

'Tis the season for awards nominations, and rightfully, The Impossible made the grade for its leading lady, Naomi Watts, in both the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors' Guild Awards, but a crucial element of movie making that stirs the audience's soul without them even knowing it, and all too...