Map of New Pizza & Italian Places in Sherman Oaks | View Larger Map More and more, Sherman Oaks' eastside along Ventura Blvd. is being referred as one of Los Angeles' premiere restaurant rows. News came out Monday on Eater LA that two Italian restaurants will be opening. In the old Orange Delight space (they moved a couple storefronts down to expand), Vitello's (of Tujunga and, well, yes, that Robert Blake thing too) is......

Christian Brando, the troubled son of legendary actor Marlon Brando, died from pneumonia early this morning at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. Christian Brando, an actor like his father, was known less for his movie roles and more for the trouble he found himself in. In 1990 he pled guilty to the charge of manslaughter in the death of his sister Cheyenne's boyfriend, Dag Drollet, at his father's Mulholland home. In 2001, Robert Blake accused Christian of......

Even OJ didn't lose custody of his children, yet somehow Britney Spears has to turn her spawn over to K-Fed. An LA court commissioner today ordered that Spears' ex, Kevin Federline, will be granted full physical custody of their two young sons beginning Wednesday - which we believe is still Prince Spaghetti Day. What did the commish have to look at regarding Britney's behavior over the years? Well lets see - she shaved all......

In a deft version of doublespeak, LA County Sheriff Lee Baca spoke out of both sides of his mouth today as he prepped the press and paps about what they can expect when Paris Hilton goes to jail on Tuesday. In one breath Baca said that Paris will be treated like any other inmate at the Century Regional Detention Center in Lynwood, saying that her food will be the same as the other women's......

Veteran's Day Weekend Edition Today "The O'Reilly Factor/Hannity & Colmes/On the Record With Greta Van Susteren" (FOX, 5:00/6:00/7:00 p.m.) Watch Fox pundits continue to spin Tuesday's election results "NBA Basketball" (ESPN, 5:00 p.m.) Miami Heat @ New Jersey Nets "College Football" (ESPN2, 5:00 p.m.) Watch red-staters pour their anguish and disappointment into the Friday night lights: Texal-El Paso @ Alabama-Birmingham "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" (Nickelodeon, 5:00 p.m.) Toddlers and college stoners rejoice "College Basketball"......

Last night LAist caught a newsbite on TV about a man who believes the charred remnants of sauce on the dish of manicotti he ate at Studio City's Vitello's show the image of Christ, complete with the crown of thorns. Call us skeptics, but when he held up the plate to the camera we weren't convinced. We've eaten at Vitello's, and while it was indeed quite tasty, it was not exactly a religious experience.......

Transcripts of conversations between Robert Blake and his attorney have fallen into the hands of the LA Times. Other than the creepy feeling we get from this (Law & Order tells us those conversations are privileged, right?), the snippets, give us a, well, creepy window into the mind of now-acquitted Robert Blake. He and his lawyer hatched a brilliant plan: have '70s TV stars visit him in jail and speak well of him to......

LAist has been an avowed trial watchers for many years now. We've seen crazies wash in and out of the Los Angeles court system; Sometimes they are the the plaintiffs, sometimes they are defendants and sometimes they are officiants. But the weirdest have to be the jurors and the spectators. To wit, we've learned that a juror who helped acquit actor Robert Blake of killing his wife is promoting a six-song recording he produced during......

There were some stories we missed this week, like the same-sex marriage ruling, the return of our favorite show based in Los Angeles, "The Shield" or the murder at Locke high school amongst others but what can we say...we were at SXSW! Here's what we did catch: - We found our own little Hobbit Hollywood in Austin. - We explored g-d's web presence. - We tried to figure out if we are ever going to......

Tonight, every media outlet in Los Angeles will lead with the news that Robert Blake was acquitted of charges that he murdered or conspired to murder his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakely, because he feared that she would be a terrible mother to their daughter. Coincidently, Scott Peterson was sentenced to death for killing his wife and their unborn son in Northern California. Both cases played out in a blaze of publicity and circumstantial evidence. We......

LAist hasn't done much in the way of covering trials featuring celebrities or the pseudo-celebrity: do you care? If something interesting happens, like Corey Feldman goes on TV and actually says something relavent (and, just so you know, his 20/20 interview had none of that), of course we'll have something to say about it here but otherwise, well, we're just not that into it. Unless, of course, you're just clamoring for it. So tell......

The Robert Blake murder trial has reached its half-way mark as the prosecution portion of the trial wraps up while the defense makes its case in the coming days. February seems to be filled with legal cases involving murderous spouses. In Whittier a woman faces retrail for in the death of her wealthy husband. Prosecutors insist she hired her cousins to kill husband in carjack attempt. A state appeals court said Rebecca Cleland and......

The Academy Award Nominations were announced this morning and with it brought a special gift: a free peek into Calendar Live for the article. It's been so long since we've actually seen the news website, we'd forgotten what it looked like. Apparently they have a section called The Envelope which covers all the entertainment industry awards ceremonies. Free Calendar Live! Free Calendar Live! The Times seems to have the LAPD on the brain this......

According to the prosecution's first witnesses, Robert Blake isn't that great an actor. Despite his years as the popular television cop, Baretta, and his over 130 other film and TV appearances, people at the scene of his wife's murder weren't convinced by his odd behavior after she was shot, and the anguish that he seemingly turned on and off depending on who was in front of him. Sean Stanek, who was the first on......