Oprah this morning spoke to Rob Lowe on the phone about the "Tea Fire" burning two miles from her home in Montecito near Santa Barbara. Lowe, who also lives in the neighborhood, was home last night when the fire began, but knew nothing of it until his wife called. "This thing came on so fast, you wouldn't believe it... I walked out [my door] and my jaw just dropped," he explained to Oprah. He did......

TMZ follows up on the now identified dead woman found outside "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul's Sherman Oaks home: "The woman found dead in front of Paula Abdul's house last night was a featured contestant on 'American Idol.' Paula Goodspeed appeared on Season 5 in 2006. During her audition she said she's an artist and the first pic she ever drew was of Paula Abdul. 'Idol' produced a 3 minute and 40 second featurette on......

Last night around 6:00 p.m., LAPD officers found the body of a missing woman in a car next to the home of Paula Abdul's Sherman Oaks home on Beverly Ridge Drive. The woman's identify has not been released, but police say it is definitely not Abdul. TMZ reports that "the parents of the victim believe their daughter was a 'big fan' of Paula's" and that her death may be from a drug overdose. Additionally, the......

Mr. Blackwell, the Los Angeles fashion critic and designer known for his annual list of the worst dressed celebrities, died Sunday at age 86 from an intestinal infection. In early August, Blackwell was reportedly unconscious in an undisclosed Los Angeles-area hospital. "I was sick of the ugly clothes that were being presented in the fashion industry and as dress designer I wanted to express my opinion," Blackwell, whose first name is Richard, told LAist in......

Hollywood legend Paul Newman died last night at his home in Connecticut after a lengthy battle with cancer. The actor was 83. Newman, who was born and raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, served in the Navy during World War II before completing his college degree and embarking on a career in acting. His first jobs came on the New York stage in the early 1950s, but Hollywood soon called and his roles in films of......

Pop songstress Gwen Stefani can deliver the goods...and an 8lb 5oz baby boy. Zuma Nesta Rossdale was born yesterday afternoon here in Los Angeles at Cedars Sinai Hospital, according to CNN.com. Mom Stefani and baby are reportedly doing well. Zuma joins big brother Kingston, 2, and former Bush frontman and rocker Gavin Rossdale to make one more in the growing family of music and fashion movers and shakers.......

Woody Allen's latest movie, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, made $3.7 million this weekend. But he was in town a couple weeks ago for the world premiere and we happened upon him and his family while riding our bikes in Beverly Hills. LAist is not all about being the paparazzi, but when the moment presented itself to cruise up to Woody himself, snap, shoot and pedal away, we had to do it. Woody's face was a mixture......

Reports out of Beverly Hills say that comedienne and talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, 50, and her partner, actress Portia de Rossi, 35, were married last night. The Associated Press is calling this "perhaps the highest-profile gay marriage since California legalized the unions." US Magazine predicted that the nuptials would take place this weekend, and that the couple, who've been together for 4 years, were planning to hold "a small, intimate ceremony with only a few......

Bernie Mac, star of the popular 2001-2006 Fox series "The Bernie Mac Show" and of several top films, has died, according to his publicist Danica Smith. Mac was 50. He died early this morning in the Chicago hospital where he'd been receiving treatment for pneumonia; Mac had a condition known as sarcoidosis, according to KNBC.com, which is "an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs," although the comedian said......

Oscar winning actor, Morgan Freeman has been injured in a car accident. The actor who currently appears in "The Dark Knight" is in the hospital and is listed in serious condition. ABC News reports, "Morgan Freeman is in serious condition at the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn., after a car accident, Ben Williams, Mississippi Highway patrol sergeant, told ABC News today. 'Mr. Freeman was involved in an accident around 11:30 p.m. yesterday. The vehicle......

The paparazzi's extreme Britney coverage is costly to taxpayers | Photo by pointnshoot via Flickr As Councilman Dennis Zine's paparazzi motion (what we like to call the Britney Spears law) fumbles around in a City Council committee, he's also convening a regional task force on the issue, which will have a public hearing tomorrow morning to "hear testimony from key stakeholders to develop proposals to consider in the legislative process," according to a statement......

Photo by Roby Ferrari via Flickr Joe Dolce, former editor in chief of Star magazine, blogs at the Huffington Post about the increasing reported skirmishes between celebrities and the paparazzi. Dolce leaves the blame, not only on the paps, but on the magazines that pay for the photos and the celebs themselves. He offers suggestions for each involved party while knowing full well that it's all easier than said. Here's his thoughts on how......

Direct to our e-mail inbox, one pubic relations person at a well known firm got a little sassy about what she found in Sam Zell's LA Times today: "I thought it was hilarious. Even though the LA Times is going to hell and laid off a ton of people last week, I am so glad it doesn't mean that I will be deprived of 'The Hills' coverage that helps me get through the day. (You......

This image made from video provided by WWW.HOLLYWOOD.TV shows the overturned vehicle of actor Shia LaBeouf in Los Angeles on Sunday, July 27, 2008 (AP Photo/WWW.HOLLYWOOD.TV) Actor Shia LaBeouf (Indiana Jones 4, Transformers) was arrested on suspicion of a DUI early yesterday morning after he and two others were hurt in a crash at Fountain and La Brea in West Hollywood. According to LA County sheriff's deputies, the actor made a left turn instead......

A lot of us grew up with The Golden Girls, from their unprecedented success on NBC's Saturday night sitcom lineup to the now-ubiquitous Lifetime reruns. It was a show that probably shouldn't have been a hit--four elderly women sharing a home in Miami in the mid-1980s--but thanks to its incredibly sharp (and still funny) dialogue and the talents of its four leading ladies, the show has earned its place as a pop culture icon. One......

Good job, boys! Here's what the LAPD sent out in an e-mail today: "At 6:00 p.m. [Monday], police verbally warned Alexander Passos, 35, and Eduardo Ravalha, 35, for loitering on city owned property near Mulholland Drive and Cold Water [sic] Canyon and asked them to leave. About 45 minutes later, the officers learned the pair had returned to the location and arrested them. Passos of Canoga Park and Ravalha of Los Angeles were arrested and......

Photo by David Hudson Floyd via Flickr The names of the twenty-five 2009 honorees to receive stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame were released today by the Walk of Fame Committee of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The group considers hundreds of annual submissions and the final recipients are ratified by the Board of Directors. The Committee aims to pick folks who will "appeal to the masses" according to their press release. How'd they......

Mrs. Dogg (aka Shante Broadus) has reportedly been arrested overnight in Fullerton for a DUI. According to cbs2.com (who got the scoop from this town's real news powerhouse, TMZ), the 32-year-old Broadus was stopped by police "near the area of Highland and Orangethorpe Avenues at about 12:15 a.m." No information about what led authorities to pull over Broadus, however it has been made public that she "was given a citation and a notice to appear......

Photo by the Associated Press "Our California dream is reality. Brad Altman and I can now marry. We are overjoyed! At long last, the barrier to full marriage rights for same-sex couples has been torn down. We are equal with all citizens of our state!" wrote actor George Takei in his blog: Brad and I have shared our lives together for over 21 years. We've worked in partnership; he manages the business side of......

After being involved in an accident that turned into a hit-and-run in West Hollywood yesterday afternoon, Drew Barrymore followed fleeing vehicle obtaining the license plate number. The incident occurred near Gardner Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, according to Sgt. Kristin Aloma at the West Hollywood Sheriff's Station. Barrymore was not injured by the accident and the police are trying to find the driver. In other celebrity news, comedian Mike Epps nearly got into an unprovoked......

Previous cop, current actor, Dennis Farina was arrested yesterday morning at LAX in the United Airlines terminal after he allegedly forgot that he had a gun in his suitcase as he went to through security. "I apologize to anyone and everyone that I have caused any embarrassment or inconvenience to," he said in a statement quoted by KCBS. "It is my own stupidity to find myself in this embarrassing situation. I'll be spending the next......

Yesterday, the 65-year-old actor Stanley Kamel died in his Hollywood Hills home of a heart attack. In the hit TV show "Monk," there was an episode where Monk and another patient were competing to show who was the most insanely devoted (and stalkerish) patient to Dr. Charles Kroger played by Kamel. A partular running gag is how Monk is incapable of functioning without Kroger and unfortunately, he will have to do just that -- at......

In his recent blog post on friendsorenemies.com Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, with his girlfriend Ashlee Simpson in the background, announced that they plan to make something that cannot be illegally downloaded: a baby. In the video the two of them, who've dated since mid-2007, say that the "release date" is july 2008, and then pose with Simpson's baby bump. It will be interesting to see how Ashlee's father Joe Simpson handles the news.......

Live, from in front of our television set, it's LAist's Oscar night liveblog extravaganza. I've spent the hours preceding tonight's telecast half-assedly getting ready by drinking beer, making brownies, and marveling over how few movies I actually saw this year (yet again.) I've stocked the larder with movie-going snacks, like popcorn, junior mints, and Twizzlers (sorry, this Canadian cannot do Red Vines; they taste like candles). Last night some amped up pitch gal with a......

Imagine you're a little kid minding your own business (wait, what kid minds their own business?) and playing on the school yard when a rambling, confused, and chain-smoking woman shows up in a skimpy outfit looking for her kids. No, scratch that--looking for her lawyer's kids. Oh, and that woman just happens to be Britney Spears. That was the scene earlier this month at an elementary school in Beverly Hills, as described this week by......

In Britney We Trust! Despite the fact that Britney Spears seems only able to produce crappy albums and awkward shows, have very public meltdowns, eschew court dates, check in and out of rehab, vacillate about her religious affiliation, flash her nether-regions to eager photogs, and drink away her liquid assets in Starbucks Frappucinos, the truth of the matter is, the business of being Britney is extremely profitable...for everyone else in her world. An article......

With yesterday's revelation that all 72 actors nominated for the upcoming Golden Globes are expected to not attend the January 13th ceremony, the appeal of the telecast comes sharply into question. The decision was made by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in order to show solidarity to their fellow strikers, and was announced by their union president Alan Rosenberg, who said: "After considerable outreach to Golden Globe actor nominees and their representatives over the......

After a year of working together, it appears that Adam Carolla and Danny Bonaduce do not get along, resulting in Bonaduce's removal from morning radio, and reassignment to an affiliate station in afternoons, Perez Hilton says. Radio-info.com posted the following chronology of events:- On 12/10, there was a lead in bumper that said "Only four more days of Danny Bonaduce .... for us at least" - On 12/11, Carolla and Bonaduce threw small shots at......

Speaking of TV, LAista Julie Wolfson interviewed E!'s Soup host Joel McHale so be sure to check that post out as well as The Soup Presents... tonight for a review of 2007's "best" talk show moments. 8:00pm Clash of the Choirs NBC - The first of four parts Premieres Tonight and it is what it says it is. Choirs headed by celebrity choir leaders like Nick Lachey, Patti LaBelle, Kelly Rowland and Michael Bolton go......

Okay, so in case you haven't heard, Green Day now has a new side project to tack onto the list, right smack under The Network. (You remember the Fembot song. Billie Joe's vocals did sort of give them away, but it was still exciting.) This one was reportedly leaked in a Green Day blog (are we talking "The Idiot Club" or what? I can't get in there, you have to pay), and is titled Foxboro......