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Underground guerrilla graffiti artist Banksy showcased his work over the weekend at his Barely Legal: vandalised warehouse extravaganza exhibition located in a Los Angeles warehouse. The highlight of the show, which focused global poverty and injustice, was a 37-year-old elephant completely painted, from head to tail, to exactly match the wallpaper in the roped off re-created living room it was standing in. The literal “elephant in the room” was meant to represent the big issues in life, such as poverty, that some people choose to ignore.

There are 65 pictures from Banksy’s LA show mirrored after the jump (image source)…

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Catch-up post #3: Shortly after guerrilla artist Banksy hacked Paris Hilton’s album, he quickly set his sights on a new target, Disneyland. Over the weekend the underground artist smuggled a life-sized replica of a Guantanamo Bay detainee into the theme park. It was placed inside the Big Thunder Mountain ride where it remained in place for 90 minutes before the ride was closed down and the figure removed. According to Banksy, the stunt was intended to highlight the struggles of terror suspects that are being detained in Cuba.

Banksy will be holding a three day vandalised warehouse extravaganza in Los Angeles this weekend.

If you’re a fan of Penthouse magazine and happen to find yourself in the neighboorhood of Hollywood and Highland today, you might want to head on over to the Virgin Megastore where Aria Giovanni is scheduled to host a signing for the magazine’s July issue from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. today.

Unless, of course, you’re already attending the celebrity All In for a Cure Celebrity Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament over at the Loews Beverly Hills Hotel scheduled for around the same time.

source and source

When you think of where you could find designer knock-offs, the first place to come to mind would probably be street vendors. Well, Wal-Mart just added themselves to the list. The retail giant has been sued by Fendi for selling fake handbags, wallets and key chains at Sam’s Club stores in states including New York and California.

Fendi contests that the fake goods were being passed off as the geniune article and being sold at hugely discounted prices. One example cites a Sams Club in Las Vegas selling a handbag with a retail price of $925 for a mere $295. Wal-Mart had nothing to say, natch.

If you’re hoping to see smoking hot, scantily clad booth babes at this year’s E3 expo, think again. The organization has announed that they will be dealing out fines for over-exposing their, ahem, booth models.

Rules prohibiting the use of scantily clad young women to peddle video games are nothing new, but the handbook for this year’s show in May outlines tough new penalties, including a $5,000 fine on the spot for the booth owner if the “booth babe” is semi-clad.

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The handbook from the Entertainment Software Association, the show’s promoter, says: “Material, including live models, conduct that is sexually explicit and/or sexually provocative, including but not limited to nudity, partial nudity and bathing suit bottoms, are prohibited on the show floor, all common areas, and at any access points to the show.”

As with all things surrounding “indecency,” the show promoters maintain that they alone will determine what is, and is not, acceptable.

[via AP]

After moving to LA 4 years ago, following the filming of Pearl Harbor, Kate Beckinsale is ready to call it quits and return to the UK to raise her daughter.

She is quoted in Britain’s Daily Star newspaper as saying: ‘I’ve bought a house in Notting Hill. It’ll be nice to come back and do a play.

‘I feel like I’ve been down a particular sort of rabbit hole for a while, mainly motherhood, and I’m just sort of popping out of it. After all I’m not doing a very good job at conquering Hollywood.’

Conquering Hollywood is all about getting the formula right — you have to be hot, you have to get drunk, you have to party, and you have to let the paparazzi take revealing photos of you … or, you have to talk a lot about your boobs … or, you have to marry Jessica Simpson. Kate has the hot part down better than most, (un)fortunately she’s missing the other elements — which is a good thing, but that also means she’ll never conquer Hollywood.

[via Monsters and Critics]

Here’s a recipe for success, take beautiful blondes, put them in bikinis, miniskirts, or lingerie, and then send them off to valet luxury cars for the rich and famous.

“Given the option of hiring acne-riddled teenage boys in red vests, or beautiful and sexy models and actresses trained in safety and hospitality, we’re betting our success that restaurants, boutique hotels, clubs and private parties will prefer the latter,” company founder Brad Saltzman said Wednesday.

Saltzman said the privately held company expected 2006 sales in excess of $3 million, rising to $14 million by 2010.

Clients, most of them movie stars and producers, can request a variety of uniforms, including lingerie, bikinis, capri pants, camisoles and miniskirts.

“If it is legal, we will do it, but we draw the line at nudity or topless,” Saltzman said.

[full article after the jump]
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The plane is currently flying towards LAX for an emergency landing where fire and medical crews are standing by. The aircraft is flying low in order to try and burn fuel, and is scheduled to land by 6:00pm on runway 25-Left (the southern most runway closest to Imperial Highway).

A Jet Blue airliner was dumping fuel over the ocean Wednesday afternoon as officials tried to determine how to make an emergency landing with the plane’s front wheels turned sideways and unable to retract.

The plane left Burbank Airport after 3 p.m. for New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Donn Walker.

Jet Blue flight 292 was circling the Long Beach Airport, about 30 miles south of Burbank.

Walker said the Airbus A320 was dumping fuel over the Pacific.

Correction: Due to the type of aircraft, it is unable to dump fuel and has instead been circling for the past two hours in hope of burning fuel.

I can’t even imagine what has been going through the passengers’ minds — circling for over two hours knowing that you’re about to go in for an emergency landing…

– UPDATE –

After almost three hours, the plane came to a safe (and smooth) landing at LAX around 6:20pm. The front landing gear didn’t fail, but the tires were completely burnt off.

[via CNN and ABC7 News]

Due to a major f##k up utility workers connecting the wrong wires together, major portions of Los Angeles were without power for the better part of this afternoon — including this site.

Hundreds of thousands of people were affected by the resulting power surge and outages, which were reported from downtown west to the Pacific Coast and north into the San Fernando Valley.

Several workers who were installing an automated transmission system hooked up the wrong wires, according to Ron Deaton, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

“They connected it to another line that was not expecting that much electricity,” he said. No injuries were reported.

But, it appears as though everything is finally working again as advertised; which is to say, I’m back…

[via CBS2 News]

Los Angeles has come a long way in cleaning up the air, but experts say that trouble still remains.