Author Archives:

By Stephen Richardson As a budding young bookworm, Michael Silverblatt was attempting to wriggle away from reality, rather than toward enlightenment. But since 1989, he has hosted KCRW-FM’s "Bookworm," a weekly program in which he speaks with contemporary authors. Beginning this month, the show will be broadcast nationally, and this former recluse finds his lifelong […]

By Lael Loewenstein In 1895, when future MGM mogul Louis Mayer was in grade school and Warner Bros. scion Jack Warner in diapers, a young French visionary named Léon Gaumont took over a photographic equipment firm and created what was to become one of the world’s foremost film companies. A sampling of Gaumont’s films is […]

By Jennifer Richmond Daily Bruin Staff Death can be a scary thing. But the revelations about oneself and one’s family that come with impending demise can be the most wonderful experiences in life. In Scott McPherson’s play "Marvin’s Room," Bessie (Mary Steenburgen) discovers the importance of these life lessons. Bessie has been taking care of […]

By Judith Newman The New York Times NEW YORK — Worried that the Menendez brothers’ trial, violent movies and talk-show depravity have numbed the nation’s sense of moral outrage? Worry no more. It’s there. If you have any doubts, just walk into a bookstore and request a book about modeling geared toward prepubescent girls. "You […]

By Colburn Tseng Writer-director Rory Kelly slouches in a chair at the Westwood Marquis Hotel munching on cookies when he makes a surprising disclosure. The topic of conversation is the UCLA film school graduate’s employment history before directing his debut feature "Sleep With Me," which recently opened in New York and Los Angeles. After working […]

By John Sabatini With a new album released in June and an enviable opening spot on Metallica’s U.S. arena tour, this has been a colossal summer for Suicidal Tendencies, the veteran Venice surfer metal/punk band which has been scaring parents and evangelists for years. But don’t expect Suicidal to achieve "breakthrough" or pop status any […]