Casablanca (movie)

It may seem strange that anybody would pass on financing a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. But when Baz Luhrmann was trying to make “The Great Gatsby,” with the “Titanic” star cast in the lead role, every studio in town said no...

Last Remaining Seats film series, which shines the spotlight on historic movie palaces in downtown Los Angeles, is kicking off June 1 at the Orpheum Theatre with Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 romantic thriller, "To Catch a Thief."" border="0" width="65" height="36" title="The Los Angeles Conservancy's Last Remaining Seats film series, which shines the spotlight on historic movie palaces in downtown Los Angeles, is kicking off June 1 at the Orpheum Theatre with Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 romantic thriller, "To Catch a Thief.""/>The Los Angeles Conservancy's Last Remaining Seats film series, which shines the spotlight on historic movie palaces in downtown Los Angeles, is kicking off June 1 at the Orpheum Theatre with Alfred Hitchcock's 1955 romantic thriller, "To Catch a Thief."...

Ellen DeGeneres' discovery on YouTube of two British cousins -- who loved to sing and dance in pink frilly dresses -- marked "the beginning of a beautiful friendship," to borrow from Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca." In this case, the friendship that...

Jar hosts guest chefs: Israeli chefs Assaf Granit and Uri Navon of Machneyuda in Jerusalem will be paying chef Suzanne Tracht’s restaurant Jar a visit April 13 for a one-night-only dinner collaboration. In honor of Israel’s 65th Independence Day, Granit, Navon and Tracht will prepare a four-course dinner comprised of dishes such as sea fish tartare; shikshukit, cooked minced beef and lamb in a Mediterranean spice mixture with tahini and yogurt; calamari with dates, honey, pomegranate concentrate, porcini mushrooms, harissa, cherry tomatoes, confit of onion and garlic with tahigort and burnt aubergine paste; and basbousa, a wet semolina cake with tahini ice cream and fresh fruit. The event costs $125 per person and includes dinner and wine pairings. Proceeds will benefit Ultimate Peace in the Middle East Sports Camp, a program in Israel that unites Jewish and Arab youth. Call for reservations. 8225 Beverly Blvd., L.A., (323) 655-6566, www.thejar.com." border="0" width="65" height="36" title="Jar hosts guest chefs: Israeli chefs Assaf Granit and Uri Navon of Machneyuda in Jerusalem will be paying chef Suzanne Tracht’s restaurant Jar a visit April 13 for a one-night-only dinner collaboration. In honor of Israel’s 65th Independence Day, Granit, Navon and Tracht will prepare a four-course dinner comprised of dishes such as sea fish tartare; shikshukit, cooked minced beef and lamb in a Mediterranean spice mixture with tahini and yogurt; calamari with dates, honey, pomegranate concentrate, porcini mushrooms, harissa, cherry tomatoes, confit of onion and garlic with tahigort and burnt aubergine paste; and basbousa, a wet semolina cake with tahini ice cream and fresh fruit. The event costs $125 per person and includes dinner and wine pairings. Proceeds will benefit Ultimate Peace in the Middle East Sports Camp, a program in Israel that unites Jewish and Arab youth. Call for reservations. 8225 Beverly Blvd., L.A., (323) 655-6566, www.thejar.com."/>Jar hosts guest chefs: Israeli chefs Assaf Granit and Uri Navon of Machneyuda in Jerusalem will be paying chef Suzanne Tracht’s restaurant Jar a visit April 13 for a one-night-only dinner collaboration. In honor of Israel’s 65th Independence...

The scene is a devastated Japan, August 1945, as "Emperor," the new historical drama starring Matthew Fox and Tommy Lee Jones, begins. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are little more than smoking rubble and stone-faced survivors. Emperor Hirohito has officially...

City Beat: Chaplin hat among Hollywood treasures on auction block...

Norma Shearer's silk sheets sat for years in a Los Angeles garage, with no one to admire the embroidered monogram: NST, for Norma Shearer Thalberg. The starlet's Louis Vuitton steamer trunks waited in vain to voyage. One was dedicated solely to...

Two offbeat comedies dominated the 28th annual Film Independent Spirit Award nominations Tuesday morning. David O. Russell's quirky "Silver Linings Playbook," starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, and Wes Anderson's charming coming-of-age...

The piano on which Sam (Dooley Wilson) played the haunting love song "As Time Goes By" in the 1942 Oscar-winning movie classic "Casablanca" is going on the auction block. Sothebys in New York will put the iconic instrument up for sale on Dec. 14. The...

Gene Morphis keeps busy online. He has, it seems, more than 100 friends on Facebook, about 400 connections on LinkedIn and nearly 600 profile views on his personal Blogger site. But one of those sites may have gotten him fired. Morphis was removed...

The most famous supervillain in comic book history — the Joker –  returns to the pages of “Batman” in a ......

It took five months and two meetings for Amy Kiser to convince Kurt Schemper she was interested in more than his status as the supervising producer of A&E;’s hit series “Intervention,” which Kiser admits is her favorite show. “I...