HOLLYWOOD NEWS

Laserium finds a vintage Hollywood home

 (Ken Hively, Los Angeles Times)

The rocking light show is revived at the Vine Theatre after its long Griffith Observatory run ended in 2002.

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By Chris Willman

Los Angeles Times

June 25, 2009

Marla Maples has what appears to be an extremely bright green mole on her cheek. Actually it’s just a benign laser beam, straying onto her features as she stands inside the lobby of Hollywood’s venerable Vine Theatre. Technicians are hurriedly turning the 1937 movie house into the new permanent home of Laserium, which is returning to Los Angeles beginning Friday after seven years of being officially unplugged.

Maples was never among the hundreds of thousands of people who took the laser light show in during its 1973 to 2002 run at the Griffith Observatory’s planetarium. She’s stopped by the Vine to discuss a program she’s spearheading that will kick one-fourth of group-ticket sales back to charities. But she’s well aware of Laserium’s former reputation as L.A.’s most infamous stoner rite of passage. “I promise there’ll be no smoking going on,” she laughs.

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ACADEMY NEWS

Academy Awards, in bid for populism, doubles Best Picture nominations to 10

Los Angeles Times

June 24, 2009

The Academy Awards just grew twice as crowded at the top. For the first time since 1943, 10 movies — instead of the current five — will be nominated for the best picture Oscar.

The surprise announcement today by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences means that some acclaimed genres that typically don’t make the shortlist for the top Academy Award — animated movies, comedies, documentaries and crowd-pleasing spectacles such as “The Dark Knight” — will now have a much better chance of being invited to Hollywood’s biggest party.

The number of nominees in other major categories will remain at five.

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UPDATE

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GRAUMAN’S CHINESE PREMIERE

Bruno

The American premiere of the comedy

   
   Bruno

   
   Grauman’s Chinese
   6925 Hollywood Boulevard
   Hollywood, CA
   
   Thursday, June 25, 2009
   5:30 PM    Press Call Time
   6:30 PM    Celebrity Arrivals
   7:30 PM    Screening Begins
  
  

Bruno opens in theaters on Friday, July 10, 2009.

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OBITUARY

Ed McMahon dies at 86; well-known ‘Tonight Show’ sidekick

The TV pioneer had been in poor health for some time. McMahon appeared on Johnny Carson’s late-night show for 30 years and hosted ‘Star Search’ for 12 years.

By Dennis McLellan

Los Angeles Times

June 24, 2009

Ed McMahon, a television pioneer who warmed “The Tonight Show” couch for nearly 30 years as Johnny Carson’s jovial sidekick and announcer, died today. He was 86.

Click here to continue reading the Los Angeles Times obituary for Ed McMahon

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WALK OF FAME

Cameron Diaz Receives Star On Walk Of Fame

 Cameron Diaz poses during a ceremony honoring her with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Cameron Diaz was honored with the 2386th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today in front of Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater.

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100th BIRTHDAY

Mike Todd

AMERICAN FILM PRODUCER

• BORN: June 22, 1909, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• DIED: March 22, 1958, Grants, New Mexico
• CAUSE OF DEATH: Airplane crash
• BURIAL: Waldheim Jewish Cemetery, Forest Park, Illinois

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REAL ESTATE

Frank Lloyd Wright home in Los Feliz is for sale to the right buyer

(Dale Kutzera / For The Times)

The 1924 Ennis House, heavily damaged in the Northridge quake and by rains, is being offered for $15 million. It’s the largest of the architect’s experimental ‘textile block’ houses.

By Martha Groves

Los Angeles Times

June 19, 2009

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Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House, a Los Feliz hilltop masterpiece composed of patterned and smooth concrete blocks that has been mightily threatened by man and Mother Nature, is being offered for sale at $15 million by the private foundation that has been restoring it.

Eric Lloyd Wright, the architect’s grandson and a member of the nonprofit Ennis House Foundation’s board, said that, given harsh economic realities, private ownership would be the best way to save the house and honor his grandfather’s intentions.

“My grandfather designed homes to be occupied by people,” he said in a statement to The Times. “His homes are works of art. He created the space, but the space becomes a creative force and uplifts when it is lived in every day.”

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TRIBUTES

A century after his birth, Errol Flynn is in again

Sigh — our hero: Flynn with his schnauzer Moody on the set of “Never Say Goodbye” in 1945.

By Nick Thomas

Special to The Washington Post

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Movie audiences have always embraced their swashbuckling screen heroes, and this year marks the centenary of arguably the greatest, Errol Flynn. Mostly, Flynn is remembered for portraying a free-spirited adventurer who dispensed swift justice to oppressors, while extending a gentle hand of chivalry to ladies in need. Born on June 20, 1909, in the southern Australian state of Tasmania, Flynn lived life hard off-screen, too. In just 15 short years, from 1935 until his death 50 years ago, he racked up dozens of classic performances and a professional legacy that endures.

These days, swashbucklers are more likely to be called “action heroes,” who trade in their sabers for guns, bullwhips or light sabers in franchises such as “Indiana Jones,” “The Mummy” or “Star Wars.” More recently, after plundering almost $3 billion at the box office worldwide, the success of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy suggests that sword-wielding adventurers have retained their charm. But whatever their title or weaponry, these characters are little more than reincarnations of dashing screen legends, such as Flynn.

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100th BIRTHDAY

Errol Flynn

AUSTRALIAN-BORN ACTOR

• BORN: June 20, 1909, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
• DIED: October 14, 1959, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• CAUSE OF DEATH: Heart attack
• BURIAL: Forest Lawn-Glendale, Glendale, California

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