Defending Your Life News

An attractive brunette with angular features, Lee Grant began her career as a child performer with NYC's Metropolitan Opera.

The Invention of Lying . Directed and written by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson.

While catching up with "Zombieland" this afternoon--decent, if a tad overrated, and not remotely in the same league as "Shaun of the Dead"--I peeked into "Invention of Lying" and was pleasantly surprised to see a nice crowd for the 2:00 matinee.

For those interested in movies with a message, Westminster Presbyterian Church is presenting a Sunday evening Faith and Film Series.

Brit-comic Ricky Gervais stakes a serious claim to the title "the British Albert Brooks " with The Invention of Lying, his droll, witty and thoughtful comedy about the thing that really makes the world go round.

QUESTION: Do you know whether the ABC series "Castle" will be back this coming season? ANSWER: "Castle" has been renewed and is scheduled to return in the fall.

Dear Dave: Do you know if the ABC series Castle , will be back this coming season? - D.M.P., via e-mail Dear D.M.P.: Castle has been renewed and is scheduled to return in the fall.

While previewing Julie & Julia , Nora Ephron's yummy film about blogger Julie Powell and her heroine-worship of jolly French chef Julia Child , I whispered to a colleague, "Is Streep the first actor ever to have previously played on screen the director he/she works for in a subsequent film?" , about the bustup of Ephron's marriage to Washington ...

In "Defending Your Life," a 1991 film starring Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks, the protagonists died and went to Judgment City, a kind of way station where it was decided if they would go on to the next level or go back for another life on Earth.

To say Meryl Streep has had a career resurgence in the last few years does a disservice to all the films she did between "Devil Wears Prada" and "Out Of Africa." Sure there are a few stinkers in there, but the majority of Meryl's movies 1990's movies are absolutely rewatchable.

Dear Readers, Thanks to the more than 2,400 of you who participated in this year's Readers' Choice Survey: Los Angeles .