Peter Lorre

Barry Nelson, a Broadway leading man who launched his career at MGM in the 1940s and earned a niche in show-business history as the first actor to play British secret agent James Bond — as an American named Jimmy Bond — in a live television...

WHEN it comes to neighborhood restaurants in L.A., it's all about the micro-climates -- the prevailing winds can be so different in different parts of town, you can't just plant a bistro any old where and have it flourish. The Del, an 8-month-old spot...

You've heard the expression "Tofu for brains?" Well, you should've. That's the anchor and premise of Zombie Dearest, an animated short starring Tofu: The Vegan Zombie. This Florida-filmed farce (computer-assisted 3-D animation) from Lee Stringer pops...

Today, Breitbart and Ehrenstein wonder whether Hollywood is relevant in American politics. Previously they debated whether Tinseltown conservatives are in the closet, attempted to define Hollywood values, discussed the role filmmakers should play in the...

Himan Brown, the pioneer radio producer and director of "Grand Central Station," "Inner Sanctum Mysteries" and other popular shows of the 1930s and '40s who returned to the airwaves three decades later with " CBS Radio Mystery Theater," has died. He was...

Monday December 25, 1995      Alexandre Rockwell, who came up with the idea for the anthology comedy "Four Rooms," says of the characters in his segment, "They are walking the line, and when you walk the line, sometimes you fall into hell and sometimes...

Friday September 10, 1999      At the beginning of Hampton Fancher's eerie, quietly compelling "The Minus Man" a young man washes his pickup truck and takes off from a rural area, and after driving a spell, pulls up to a roadside tavern, looking for...

Who loves his job more than anyone else in Hollywood? Nicholson? Hefner? Sajak? As I sat in the back of a small, egregiously air-conditioned tour bus one recent Friday afternoon, climbing Foothill Road in Beverly Hills, soaking in a stream of celebrity...

But if Grace was at times lordly, he was also respected, and at no time was that respect greater than during World War II. As the ultimate steel production man, he gave the country and its allies what they sorely needed: a rapid outpouring of steel in...

"Tim Burton's Corpse Bride" doesn't really need the first two words in its title. After all, who else's corpse bride might this be confused with? "Garry Marshall's Corpse Bride"? "Chris Columbus' "? It doesn't seem likely. For better and worse, this...

Oscar Wilde said it and everyone repeated it: "Oh, would that I could live up to my blue china!" They're having a hard time living up to the green Astro-turf at the Court Theatre. On Saturday the Court opened a provocatively strange and uneven revival of...

This adapted excerpt is from "OOPS: 20 Life Lessons From the Fiascoes That Shaped America," by Martin J. Smith and Patrick J. Kiger, which will be published on March 14. Copyright 2006 by Martin J. Smith and Patrick J. Kiger. Published by arrangement with...