Recently in Hollywood Category

I awoke, as I usually do, to the witticisms of the L.A.-based Adam Carolla Show -- only to find Carolla and his sidekicks Teresa Strasser and Bryan Bishop discussing the imminent demise of their show, due to CBS Radio's desire to switch to a cheaper, musical format.

Carolla's common-man, common-sense comedy has been one of L.A.'s greatest natural resources in recent years, going back to his many years as co-host of KROQ's Loveline. His radio show had some rough patches (you could imagine this move as karmic retribution for his overuse of people like David Allen Grier, who is hysterical in all the wrong ways), but the show was at its best when Carolla, Strasser and Bishop simply bantered about the small and great events of the day. When no guests, or callers, or Danny Bonaduce, were there to step all over their subtle and perceptive humor, they shined best.

Carolla will say hard things that others are too timid to say -- out of sincerity and intellectual honesty, not out of a ratings-driven desire to shock. Strasser is a genuine public intellectual, a bright writer who managed to succeed in morning radio in a venue beyond NPR. (Now that is a shock.) Bishop is a sound-drop master and a foil who can add humor with perfect timing, by pressing a button or making a quip. Their ratings were solid and profitable -- yet they and other KLSX personalities have been forced off because CBS Radio felt a need to search for a still-better profit margin.

The word is that Carolla and his gang will continue to podcast in some form at AdamCarolla.com, which takes away some of the sting. Carolla will also get to spend more time at home while enjoying a contract payout, which will take away much more of the sting for him personally. But he could do well to add Loveline back to his routine, as his replacement there has been brainlessly circling the lower rings of Dante's radio inferno. Given how the digital video generation has no idea how to relate authentically with real human beings, Carolla's funny, spot-on relationship wisdom is crucial.

As for Strasser and Bishop, they deserve other new platforms soon for their many talents. Stay tuned to see what happens next in their careers.

HONG KONG -- I continue to soak up the economic news here, in this finance-obsessed city, and ponder whether traditional capitalism is being forged into something new in the crucible of global economics.

Just a few years ago, smart people claimed that states are becoming less relevant than markets. But now that the markets are collapsing, all the businesses in Asia and America and Europe are begging states to bail them out. After all, GM can't force you to buy its car; but GM can beg Uncle Sam to tax you in order to bail out GM. It's happening around the world, as China and other nations are readying massive bailouts and job-creation programs.

The premise of libertarians and small-government conservatives is that the market should run free, unfettered by government policies, taxes or regulations. The rub is that, when industries in Country B are getting a boost from Country B's tax coffers, you're no longer in a "free market." You can have a market that's regulated to a larger or smaller degree, but you no longer can claim to keep government "out."

Chinese officials are apparently worried that their investment in America's massive debt could be threatened if other nations start pulling out of investing in America's debt. I'm not sure exactly how that would work, but I could imagine some market forces or political forces pushing money from Dubai, Russia and elsewhere away from America, causing the U.S. to suffer and leaving China holding the bag.

It's a lot of things, but it's not a "free market" anymore. Governments run economies. Our government has run a debt-ridden economy -- and thus is now even more beholden to various to outside forces than would otherwise have been the case.

I'd never have guessed that The Dark Knight would rise to #3 in the all-time domestic box-office chart in just a month, with a chance to move into #2 by next weekend. After the film spent three weeks at the top of the charts, I might have imagined that the country would run off instead to see Pineapple Express this past weekend for some comedic catharsis. But Batman topped the charts again.

It is a decent comic-book movie, but I disagree with the critics who see it as so much better than the rest of the lot. It is quasi-profound, but not profound in fact.

I also quibble with the notion that Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker is Oscar-worthy. Jack Nicholson played a far more compelling Joker some two decades ago, with more range and charisma and convincingness. Ledger's Joker is just creepy, and creepy is one of the easier roles to play. The overwhelming and irrational human sentiment that gushes up when a life ends prematurely has much to do with the acclaim he is getting. There, I said it...

Yet I suspect that the sullenness of The Dark Knight, the despair of Ledger, and the morose quality of Christian Bale must in some way tap into something happening in our culture at large. We need to get our nation on a couch.

Also known as what I did at the beginning of Chris' vacation while helping fill in for him and the news desk computer system was crashing down around our ears: Read about my Monday night (we're talking till midnight) at the Academy screening here at Pajamas Media. The tidbits offered by Tarantino and company afterward were, as I write, juicier than a Big Kahuna Burger!!

Could one love L.A. any more???

My column from a few weeks' back about Ben Stein's "Expelled" -- which posited that the movie should be taken as satire -- has been affirmed by none other than its screenwriter, Kevin Miller, who calls my review "brilliant."

This is, I think, a remarkable endorsement, considering that I called the movie's tactics "nasty" and "unfair," and described some of its main arguments "a stretch" and "a cheap shot."

That Miller doesn't take offense to these descriptions suggest that I was right in my understanding of the movie:

Stein's film is part parody of, part rebuttal to, the crusading atheists who have risen to prominence in recent years - such as Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. And it employs the same nasty tactics they have perfected.

By the way, some have asked where they can find the video I wrote about in my column's lead. Here ya go:

Well, technically I'm an Inglewood girl, but I am a fan of "No Country for Old Men," so I'm not disappointed at Sunday night's Oscar results. It was an edge-of-your-seat film, Javier Bardem was amazing, and all in all the film was truly great.

But hopefully soon, soon, soon it will be native Valley son Paul Thomas Anderson's chance up on that Oscar stage. I was really hoping that "There Will Be Blood," which is no less than a work of art, would get more Oscars than for Daniel Day-Lewis and cinematography. Goodness, the mining and drilling scenes should have garnered the sound statue as well, but I thought the direction on "Blood" topped "Country." Then again, I'm a PTA fan since "Boogie Nights" (aka the Valley's biopic), so I might be a tad biased...

That's Michael Moore and his junior prom date... er, wife going into the Governors Ball on Sunday night. That's also officially the worst Oscar dress of the evening. The pink taffeta frock I had to wear in my best friend's quinceanera was more fashion-forward. Somebody get a dress doctor, stat!

As Bridget observes, Mike Huckabee has the endorsement of Chuck Norris, and now John McCain has picked up the backing of Sylvester Stallone. All of which has me wondering -- what candidates are the other action heroes of yore supporting? Some guesses:

• Jean Claude Van Damme -- John Kerry (he's French, you know)
  
• Arnold Schwarzenegger -- Mitt Romney (human who played a robot admires robot who can play a human)
• Steven Seagal -- John Edwards (it's the hair)
• Jackie Chan --- Hillary Clinton (it's the Norman Hsu connection)
• Sigourney Weaver -- Anyone but Kucinich (Sigourney hates aliens)
• Keanu Reeves -- Barack Obama (sympathy for people with un-spellable first names)
• Will Smith -- Al Gore (both stars of scary movies in which they pretend to save the earth)
• Lou Ferrigno -- also Al Gore (because big, angry green dudes gotta stick together)
• Harrison Ford -- Rudy Giuliani (both made a fortune through Patriot Games)
• Tom Cruise -- Ron Paul (both are creepy, yet have an inexplicably devoted fan base)

The hate-filled Westboro Baptist Church -- you know, that scruple-less group that stands outside soldiers' funerals with signs declaring that the deceased is in hell because America tolerates gays (I think that's the seven degrees of separation excuse, anyway) -- plans to protest Heath Ledger's funeral:

"Members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., are trying to find out where the 28-year-old actor's funeral will be held and have already made signs to hold outside the Oscars that read 'God Hates Fags and Fag Enablers,' 'Heath in Hell' and 'Mourn for Your Sins,' Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of the church's controversial founder Pastor Fred Phelps, told ABCNEWS.com.

Though Ledger was not gay, the church believes he 'misused the giant megaphone given to him by God Almighty to speak the truth about fags,' Phelps-Roper said, and instead 'used his position of prominence to say God is a liar and that homosexuality is not an abomination.'"

Rumor has it the funeral will be held in Ledger's native Australia, so if the Westboros can figure out where that is in relation to Topeka, I hope they meet with a few well-aimed boomerangs.

More on Heath's death from our entertainment guru Greg Hernandez at Out in Hollywood...

In the latest episode in the sordid, public spectacle that is Britney Spears' life, do we have the latest instance of celebrity justice -- Los Angeles style?

According to the Daily News' Greg Hernandez, the Friday-night standoff began when Spears "refused to turn over one of her sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline's bodyguards when her court-monitored visitation was over." The result was a three-hour standoff, which ended with Spears being taken away in ambulance to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

Now, do most Angelenos -- when refusing to honor a court order and entering into a hold-off with cops -- end up in Cedars Sinai? Or county jail?

Meanwhile, the biggest victims in all this, of course, are Spears' kids, whose lives know no semblance of normalcy. Imagine being picked up by dad's "bodyguards," while mom gets dragged away by the fire department, with paparazzi surrounding you -- and you're two years old.

Somehow I can't imagine these boys' fame or wealth provides much consolation. These poor children have a mother and a father, but -- best as I can tell -- not one parent. How incredibly sad.