Grammy Awards

First Grammy host: A review of the Grammy Awards telecast in Monday's Calendar section said that Andy Williams had hosted the first Grammy Awards. Williams hosted the first live telecast of the Grammys, not the first award ceremony.

Should they need to get away from "The Office" from time to time, actor John Krasinski and his movie star wife, Emily Blunt, have bought a country home in Ojai for $2.15 million. Once the site of the Ojai Foothills Hotel, the 5-acre-plus property centers on a 4,177-square-foot main house with high ceilings, four fireplaces, four bedrooms and 51/2 bathrooms. There is solar power, a swimming pool with spa and a three-car garage. Krasinski, who turns 33 on Oct. 20, has starred on "The Office" since 2005.

Latin Grammy Awards infobox 11/10/11 'The 12th Annual Latin Grammy Awards' Where: KMEX When: 8 p.m. Thursday Rating: Not Rated

Happy New Year! If you're a Grammy voter, today marks the start of a brand new year. The Recording Academy's annual industry gala the Grammy Awards recognizes albums and singles released through Sept. 30, meaning any remaining 2012 releases will have to wait all the way to 2014 to get their Grammy spotlight.  Yet Pop fans know what this means: Grammy season has officially begun. To celebrate (excited, aren't you?), Pop & Hiss is offering an early look at those artists and releases likely to contend for a Grammy on Feb. 10. First is a look at 10 albums sure to be heavily considered for album of the year.

A rundown of nominations for the music industry's annual Grammy Awards, the winners of which will be announced Feb. 24.

Winners of pop music's 33rd annual Grammy Awards can be found in Section A.

Our special Grammy Awards issue: Will the pop drought ever end--or does it really even exist? . . . Plus Santana, Anne-Sophie Mutter, critics' picks and more.

George Lopez will make his second appearance as host of the Latin Grammy Awards, CBS is announcing today. The ceremony will be televised live from the Shrine Auditorium on Sept. 1.

Grammy for Breakfast: The nominees for the 35th Annual Grammy Awards will be announced at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday at the Universal Hilton in Universal City. The Grammys will be held at the Shrine Auditorium on Feb. 24.

Could "Dancing With the Stars" be losing its luster? Monday's premiere of the long-running ABC competition series was down 32% from last year, despite months of heavy promotion and an "all-star" cast including Bristol Palin and Pamela Anderson. The dance show also finished well behind NBC's "The Voice" in key demographics, but the news for "Dancing" wasn't all bad: The show drew 14.6 million viewers, versus 11.9 million for "The Voice," easily making it Monday's top entertainment draw.

Reese Witherspoon is banking on her own brand. The Oscar-winning actress listed her Libbey Ranch in Ojai for sale this week at $10 million and lent her name to the marketing materials. Designed by architect Wallace Neff, Witherspoon's ranch was originally built in 1923 as stables for glassware titan Edward Libbey. Details include original hardware, turrets, wrought-iron railings, original stonework, original plank floors, arched windows and alcoves and colorful Spanish tiles. The two-story main house features beamed ceilings, an oversized fireplace in the two-story living room, a library loft with a fireplace, four bedrooms and 31/2 bathrooms.

The list of guest presenters at Tuesday's Latin Grammy Awards nominations has been announced, including Juanes, Maria Barracuda, Shaila Dúrcal and Kany García. If Pop & Hiss were a betting blog, I'd gamble my mortgage that some of those presenters also will be among the winners when the Latin Grammys are handed out in Las Vegas in November. In 2011, the presenters provided a pretty good tip-off as to who was going to carry home a statuette. Residente and Visitante of Calle 13 headlined last year's group, earning a record 12 nominations themselves, and a few weeks later the Puerto Rican duo ended up carting off practically everything that wasn't nailed to the floor, including "Album of the Year" -- and deservedly so. This year, Juanes, a 17-time Latin Grammy winner, is a shoo-in nominee for his disc "Juanes MTV Unplugged," which reached No. 1 on Billboard's Latin Albums chart.

Rihanna took a financial hit last year when she sold her water-damaged home in Beverly Crest. Now an industrious flipper is trying to make back some of the millions the pop star lost and has listed the newly improved place at $9.95 million. The multiple Grammy Award winner paid $6.9 million for the property in 2009 and sold it two years later for $5.03 million. When listed then, the gated house was described as a "major fixer" with "extensive damage from moisture and water. " But that's all water under the bridge now. The 8,520-square-foot contemporary and a swimming pool sit on about three-quarters of an acre with unobstructed canyon and city views.

The recipe rarely changes: Buy a property, invite high-profile designers to tackle specific spaces, create a publicity phenom and sprinkle the entire endeavor with a healthy dose of feel-good charity appeal. Voilà , another showcase house is born when the House of Rock launches in Santa Monica on Saturday night. There may be no better attention-getting way to flip a property like the 1926 that designer Elaine Culotti purchased two years ago. The 10,000-square-foot home, on almost 2 acres of golf-course-adjacent real estate, was designed by Elmer Grey (architect of the Beverly Hills Hotel, among other places)

Stately, cool-eyed David Hidalgo took his place at the front of the stage, cradling an electric guitar. "There's a few little problem children in this album," he told the audience at the Grammy Museum's Clive Davis Theater in downtown L.A. A trickle of laughter ran through the crowd. Then Hidalgo and his Los Lobos bandmates - guitarists Louie Pérez and Cesar Rosas, bassist Conrad Lozano, saxophone-keyboard player Steve Berlin and drummer Enrique "Bugs" Gonzalez - hoisted their instruments and stroked the first notes of "Dream In Blue," a jaunty, sharply syncopated blues-rock tune that jitterbugs across a spooky, oddly exhilarating nightscape: PHOTOS: Celebrity photos by the Times "I flew around with shiny things/ And when I spoke, I seemed to sing/ High above - floating far away.

Simon Cowell's "The X Factor" has a problem, and it has nothing to do with new judges Britney Spears or Demi Lovato. It's those ratings. The singing show on Fox premiered its second season on Wednesday to shockingly low numbers compared with last year - which was itself considered a ratings disappointment. The two-hour extravaganza averaged 8.5 million viewers, swooning 32% compared with last fall's series premiere. And that's not all. In head-to-head competition during the 8 p.m. hour, Fox lost - in both total viewers and the key 18-to-49 demographic - to NBC's rival singing contest "The Voice" (10.7 million)

Poncho Sánchez, the master conguero, band leader and salsa singer from Southern California, will be among those honored with lifetime achievement awards by the Latin Recording Academy during the week leading up to the Latin Grammy Awards show in November. Sánchez, a beloved and ubiquitous figure on the L.A. jazz and Latin music scene for decades, will be joined at the Nov. 14 ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas by Luz Casal, the Spanish singer-songwriter; Argentine singer-songwriter Leo Dan; Rita Moreno, the legendary Puerto Rican-born singer, dancer and actor; Milton Nascimento, one of the founding fathers of contemporary Brazilian popular music; Daniela Romo, the Mexico-born singer-actress; and Brazilian composer-singer-guitarist Toquinho.