David Belle: District 13: Ultimatum

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SuicideGirls Wins LA Weekly's Sexiest Site Award

SuicideGirls were among the winners of the LA Weekly's 2009 Web Awards. The groundbreaking pinup and social media company was honored for being LA's Sexiest Site.

Co-founder Missy and model coordinator Radeo braved the chubby rain to pick up SG's plaque at a soiree held at Bardot on Thursday night. Other winners in SuicideGirls's extended family included SG columnist Wil Wheaton, who won Best Personal Blog, and SG photographer Zoetica and SG designer Courtney Riot, who picked up Coilhouse's prize for LA's Best Designed Site Aesthetic.

Hit my photo gallery for more images from the night.

Thanks to the LA Weekly's Erin Broadley for organizing and hosting the event -- and for making sure the open bar was open as soon as we arrived.

A Pearl of Wisdom

Hit the House of Blues in West Hollywood last night to watch Pearl and her hubby, Anthrax's Scott Ian, raise the roof. The pair were celebrating the release of Pearl's awesome new album, Little Immaculate White Fox, which comes out today.

Those that like to rock should do themselves a favor and buy it from iTunes immediately. And while you're at it, I'd also recommend that you set your TiVos to record Jimmy Kimmel tomorrow night (Jan 20th), since Pearl will be the show's musical guest.

Check my photo gallery for more shots of last night's show, which also featured L.A. metal pranksters Steel Panther and Seattle's Witchburn.

Who Are You Honking For?

As someone who was never a huge fan of Leno or Conan (Craig Ferguson and Chelsea Lately are more my style), I still backed Team Coco when the shit hit the fan. When a David is battling a Goliath, I'll support the little guy (or girl) every time. However, now that it looks like Conan has settled his differences with NBC, and Leno is getting some instant Karma for his part in the debacle, it's time to talk about the real victims of late night TV.

In this day and age it's pretty pathetic that there's not a single network late night chat show hosted by a woman. And the sole female late night representative on cable got her gig in-part due to her special relationship with her E! TV boss. Add to that the recent Letterman intern debacle, and the fact that women (who choose not to schtup their bosses) are conspicuous by their absence even behind the scenes on late night TV, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out who the real underdog is.

I live not far from Conan's Universal City home, and as I drive past the body of curbside Conan supporters I've "honked for Coco" multiple times a day to show my support. But now his $45 million settlement package is sorted, can we honk for all the women that don't even get a shot at NBC's 12.05 time slot?

(Thanks to Scott Ian for the YouTube link.)

Peter Jackson: The Lovely Bones

Transforming a beloved book into a film is always a huge risk. Alice Sebold's tale of tragedy, loss, and renewal is such a novel and Peter Jackson is the brave filmmaker who volunteered for the job.

The task was even more challenging since the book doesn't conform to any standard structure. The story is told from the point of view of Susie Salmon, a teenage girl who is brutally raped and murdered at the outset. Despite coming to such a violent and ugly end, as Susie watches her family from a place beyond death, she sees beauty in the connections and new beginnings the demise of her earthly body creates. It's this juxtaposition, that Sebold somehow made work on paper, which created such a strong reaction in readers. Many took great comfort in the author's vision of the afterlife, though Sebold wrote it from an agnostic perspective, which caused the devout to complain about her seemingly godless (and judgment-less) heaven. Others rejoiced in her ability to subvert the darkness of humanity, and in her capacity for finding light where there should be nothing but night.

There was therefore a difficult balancing act that was intrinsic to the success of the movie. The book was criticized by some for being too saccharin, yet if Jackson departed too far from its strangely uplifting tone he risked alienating its large and loyal following. Conversely, graphically depicting the rape and murder of a teen could easily be perceived as being gratuitous on screen, yet acknowledging that such a cruel and tragic event had happened was essential to the core of the piece.

Jackson worked on the screenplay with Lord of The Rings collaborators Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh (who's also his partner in life). Though the psychedelic dream/afterlife sequences allowed the team to draw on their familiar fantasy filmmaking background, the gritty, true-to-life segments, set in the suburbs of Philadelphia in the 1970s, have overtones from Jackson's earlier work - namely Heavenly Creatures (a period movie released in '94 that Jackson co-wrote with Walsh, which explored the 1954 Parker-Hulme murder).

Thus the movie will not necessarily appeal to Jackson's Lord of The Rings film fans, nor will it sit well with all who loved Sebold's book. Jackson is prepared for a mixed reaction however. Here he talks about The Lovely Bones' journey to the big screen, and his reasons for making the choices he did.

Click through to read SuicideGirls' Q&A with Peter Jackson.

Sinner Takes All At AVN 2010

This past weekend, I drove out to Las Vegas for the parade of plastic toys and silicon playthings that is the AVN Expo and Awards.

I was there to support the launch of my friend Carrie Borzillo's book, the Tera Patrick memoir, Sinner Takes All. After stopping by the main stage at the Sands Expo Center on Saturday afternoon to take a few snaps of the Sinner Takes All co-authors doing their thing, it seemed churlish not to check out what else AVN had to offer. Hence, at around 5.30 PM I headed over to the Palms Casino Resort where the 27th Annual AVN Awards was being held.

Above is an image of Female Performer of the Year, Tori Black. You'll find oodles more red carpet images in my AVN Awards photo gallery.

After the awards I hit the Hard Rock where Tera Patrick was hosting a late night soiree at Wasted Space. See separate gallery for more images of Tera's book signing and afterparty events.

Matthew Broderick: Wonderful World

In Wonderful World, Matthew Broderick's character Ben Singer may think he's fighting "the man," the soulless god of faceless corporations, but in reality he's his own worst enemy. With his folk music career behind him, having lost his family and his copywriting job, he may be down on his luck, but it's his inability to see the light at the end of the tunnel, even when it's shining right in his eyes, that renders him impotent and leaves him without hope.

Written and directed by Broderick's longtime friend Josh Goldin, Wonderful World is a low budget film on very limited release. Its small price tag however belies its true value. With fully realized characters, a quietly powerful plot, and a solid ensemble cast, the full-of-heart film features one of Broderick's most nuanced performances to date.

I met up with Broderick in a non-descript room at West Hollywood's Standard Hotel, which had been converted into an ad hoc press suite for the day, to talk about this very special movie.

Hit the link to read my exclusive interview with Matthew Broderick at SuicideGirls.