For better or for worse, “Runaway Jury” is an extremely historic film, even if it’s not an extremely good one. In the same way “Heat” paired Al Pacino and Robert De Niro together for the first time (They were never in a scene together in “The Godfather, Part II.”), “Runaway Jury” does the same for Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman. Read more...

I love Katie Holmes, but she’ll always be Joey Potter, the sweet, preternaturally pretty girl next door who was forever torn between Dawson and Pacey. Holmes, fearing that she would be pigeonholed by “Dawson’s Creek,” has long sought to challenge her good-girl persona by taking on edgier roles in films like “Disturbing Behavior,” “Go” and “The Gift.” In “Pieces of April,” Holmes takes perhaps her biggest leap of all. Read more...

Although it upset him, Charlie Chaplin felt he had to cut the opening scene of his 1931 film “City Lights.” In it, Chaplin’s Tramp finds a stick stuck in a crack in the sidewalk, and spends almost seven minutes of screen time trying to remove it, running into humorous challenges along the way. Read more...

Belle and Sebastian “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” Rough Trade In his diary for the liner notes of its new album, “Dear Catastrophe Waitress,” Belle and Sebastian front man Stuart Murdoch rather awkwardly uses the word “indie” to describe the feeling of his native Glasgow in the summer. Read more...

Filipino American novelist, playwright, poet and screenwriter Jessica Hagedorn has been a key figure in Asian American literature since the release of her 1990 debut “Dogeaters.” The piece garnered wide acclaim and a National Book Award nomination upon its release. Read more...

One of the hottest new bands in Los Angeles owes a lot to some of the oldest. Keith Slettedahl is the lead singer and songwriter of The 88, who perform at noon today in Westwood Plaza. Read more...

Carlo Ginzburg is a great showman. The renowned UCLA history professor knows how to keep the audience guessing by limiting the details of his upcoming speech on replication. Read more...