It’s fitting that Elvis Costello and his Imposters pulled out the impassioned rocker “(What’s So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding” Friday night at Royce Hall, in Costello’s last series of performances as Artist-in-Partial-Residence. Read more...

Memorable moments from the 75th annual Academy Awards held March 23: “¢bull; “The Pianist’s” surprising triumph in Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay Miramax’s dual campaigning for “Chicago” and “Gangs of New York” may have split the Best Director vote for Rob Marshall and Martin Scorcese, clinching the award for the infamous Roman Polanski. Read more...

Guilt is an emotion that often feels inescapable. We may wish that our past actions had been different, but opportunities to assuage those feelings can seem hopelessly out of reach in the present. Read more...

Best Picture will win: Chicago should win: The Hours The race is essentially between “Chicago” and “The Hours.” Though “The Hours” is full of great performances and simmering emotion, “Chicago” looks a lot more like what a best picture should be: a box office success, full of applause-worthy great performances, and it’s a respectable period piece hailing from a time-honored Broadway musical. Read more...

Read more...

This guy can stand the heat. Louis Horvitz, UCLA alumnus, will direct the Academy Awards for the seventh time this year. He may feel pressure from the breakneck production schedule and the impending telecast’s 3-hour time frame, but experience keeps him cool. Read more...

Bending and twisting, shaking and shouting, 38-year-old actor and comedian John Leguizamo’s mother is spanking him with her chancleta (a flip-flop sandal). With a backdrop of hundreds of twinkling lights, his jerking body moves to a danceable beat. Read more...