Lenny

Q. My brother, "Lenny," lives in upstate New York, and I live in Texas, but we've always been close and call each other often. Lenny has been raising two grandsons, ages 9 and 10, since the parents died in an accident four years ago. They are both good boys. The problem is Lenny's favoritism. One boy has everything: a smartphone, a TV, a sunny corner bedroom, cool clothes, and great Christmas and birthday gifts. You can hear the love in Lenny's voice when he talks about that child.

Actor Michael McKean, who portrayed the lead singer in the movie "This is Spinal Tap," was injured when he was struck by a car in New York City. A McKean spokeswoman, Harriet Sternberg, says the actor suffered a broken leg. Emergency officials say McKean was struck at West 86th Street and Broadway in Manhattan just before 3 p.m. Tuesday. McKean was taken to St. Luke's hospital. Police say he was in stable condition. They had no further details. McKean also played Lenny on the hit television show "Laverne & Shirley.

Movies that live and die by the inside joke usually just die by the inside joke, and "L.A. Twister" is as inside-industry as they come. Written by Geoffrey Saville-Read and directed by newcomer Sven Pape, this is a movie within a movie about making a movie, out to humorously dramatize the fictional struggle of two Boston buddies trying to succeed in Hollywood. First there's pathetic Lenny (Zack Ward, the now-all-grown-up bully from "A Christmas Story"), who sells his soul via an unfunny casting-couch episode that should give you an idea of the sitcom-level events ahead.

Disgraced ex-Mets outfielder Lenny Dykstra Monday was sentenced to three years in a California state prison after pleading no contest to grand theft auto and providing a false financial statement. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Cynthia Ulfig sentenced Dykstra after refusing to allow him to withdraw his plea and said the scam to lease high-end automobiles from dealerships by providing fraudulent information and claiming credit through a phony business showed sophistication and extensive planning.

LOWELL -- What a shocker "The Homecoming" must have been in 1965. Harold Pinter's scathing look at familial dysfunction, British-style, makes Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" -- which preceded it by three years -- look like an innocuous nursery rhyme. Of course, we're not meant to interpret the play as an extension of Angry Young Man realism. The plot -- about a feral family of predatory males who successfully appropriate a female prepared to meet all their needs, maternal to sexual to even financial -- is preposterous.

Actor Michael McKean, who portrayed the lead singer in the movie "This is Spinal Tap," was injured when he was struck by a car in New York City. A McKean spokeswoman, Harriet Sternberg, says the actor suffered a broken leg. Emergency officials say McKean was struck at West 86th Street and Broadway in Manhattan just before 3 p.m. Tuesday. McKean was taken to St. Luke's hospital. Police say he was in stable condition. They had no further details. McKean also played Lenny on the hit television show "Laverne & Shirley.

If the meaning of life could be had for less than $10, it makes perfect sense that it would be discovered first by clay figures in a stop-motion animated film. Many of us grew up on the lessons of “Davey and Goliath.’’ Plus, who’s closer to God than Mr. Bill? In “$9.99,’’ first-time feature director Tatia Rosenthal draws divine inspiration from the popular short stories of Etgar Keret, whose imaginative, irreverent ruminations have earned him comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut, Franz Kafka, and Woody Allen.

'RocknRolla" is rehabbed Guy Ritchie. By his standards the movie is a two-hour serenity prayer that only happens to feature a junkie. Real estate here is the new crack. And the twitchy, stammering, over-cranked gangsta bang-bang of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch" for once settles into a relatively patient adventure in crime-movie filth. One hesitates to say a movie whose shots manage to last longer than a Britney Spears marriage represents a breakthrough for its maker, but restraint is a new virtue for Ritchie.

"The TV Set " is sneaking into town without benefit of much fanfare, and that's a shame for such a terrific little film. A tart, smart, closely observed satire of the television industry -- sub-topic: pilot season -- the movie's inside baseball, but it acknowledges we're all armchair umpires in this entertainment-obsessed culture. It isn't a screed like "Network . " The tone is conversational, the targets modest. Writer-director Jake Kasdan and his cast hit every one of them, though, and how often does that happen?

It's surprising that nobody has reworked Alan Lomax's historic roots-music chronicles before this. Lucky for us, Tangle Eye got there first. The group's debut is a collection of ingenious remakes and remixes of Lomax's field recordings from the 1940s through 1960s. Borrowing a name from Walter Jackson's "tangle eye blues," Rounder Records producer Scott Billington and fellow producer/engineer Steve Reynolds attracted impressive talent to the project, including Henry Butler, Tony Trischka, Corey Harris, and George Porter Jr. The New Orleans-based crew deftly turned a...

Lenny Kravitz has been enjoying Super Bowl weekend, but his reasons are more personal than sports-related. The rocker had a chance to reconnect with some NFL legends whom he's had connections with in the past. Kravitz said Sunday that Joe Namath used to live across the street from him when he was growing up and the Hall of Famer used to play catch with him. He got a chance to meet up with Namath recently and reconnected with him on Saturday night at the NFL Honors. The musician also chatted with another great, Jim Brown, who was a friend of his mother's, actress Roxie Roker.

By Justin A. Rice, Town Correspondent Comedian Lenny Clarke will headline A Night for a Fallen Hero to benefit the James Rice Memorial Fund at 7 p.m. on Feb. 18 at the State Street Pavilion Room at Fenway Park. A Peabody firefighter, Rice, 42, was killed while fighting an apartment fire just before Christmas. The evening will include a live and silent auction, cash bar, dinner and dancing. Tickets are $100. For more information call (978) 387-6612. Justin A. Rice can be reached at jrice.globe@gmail.com .

Lenny Clarke admits that it takes a lot to get him to leave his Chilmark home on Martha's Vineyard. But the comedian says he's happy to be in LA for a while for his costarring role on the new NBC sitcom "Are You There, Chelsea?," which premieres Wednesday at 8:30. The show, inspired by Chelsea Handler's books (including "Are You There Vodka, It's Me, Chelsea?") follows the exploits of a hard-drinking 20-something waitress played by Laura Prepon of "That '70s Show" fame. Handler, an executive producer of the series, plays a version of her own...

Q. My brother, "Lenny," lives in upstate New York, and I live in Texas, but we've always been close and call each other often. Lenny has been raising two grandsons, ages 9 and 10, since the parents died in an accident four years ago. They are both good boys. The problem is Lenny's favoritism. One boy has everything: a smartphone, a TV, a sunny corner bedroom, cool clothes, and great Christmas and birthday gifts. You can hear the love in Lenny's voice when he talks about that child.

Former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra has been charged in Los Angeles for allegedly exposing himself to women he met on Craigslist. The city attorney's office said Thursday the 48-year-old former baseball star could face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for each indecent exposure count. Dykstra is accused of finding victims by placing online ads seeking personal assistants or housekeepers. He allegedly exposed himself to women who responded to the ads on several occasions between 2009 and 2011.

Former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies star Lenny Dykstra was jailed Monday on grand theft auto and drug possession charges after being accused of using phony information to lease a car from a Southern California dealership. Dykstra, 48, was charged with 25 misdemeanor and felony counts of grand theft auto, attempted grand theft auto, identity theft and other crimes, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. He faces up to 12 years in state prison if convicted.

Movie's good. Book's still better. After a year of incessant pounding from the tribal drums of hype, the film adaptation of "The Hunger Games" has arrived in theaters. The millions of readers, young and old, who devoured Suzanne Collins's future-shock adventure thriller and its two sequels will be satisfied, on balance, by the compromises Hollywood has made while keeping the story essentially true to itself. The many millions more who haven't read the books may have a perfectly entertaining night at the movies while wondering what exactly the fuss was all about.

If it's got his name on it, Lenny Kravitz says he has been involved in it 100 percent, so when you see his stamp on the new collection of Toms shoes, know the Bahamas beach-meets-modern architecture influence is genuine. "If I'm in, I'm in it all the way," Kravitz says. The singer got involved in designing the shoes with Toms founder Blake Mycoskie at the urging of his daughter, Zoe. She was wearing Toms casual slip-ons all the time. She also explained the brand's larger mission of donating a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair sold.

If the meaning of life could be had for less than $10, it makes perfect sense that it would be discovered first by clay figures in a stop-motion animated film. Many of us grew up on the lessons of “Davey and Goliath.’’ Plus, who’s closer to God than Mr. Bill? In “$9.99,’’ first-time feature director Tatia Rosenthal draws divine inspiration from the popular short stories of Etgar Keret, whose imaginative, irreverent ruminations have earned him comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut, Franz Kafka, and Woody Allen.

'RocknRolla" is rehabbed Guy Ritchie. By his standards the movie is a two-hour serenity prayer that only happens to feature a junkie. Real estate here is the new crack. And the twitchy, stammering, over-cranked gangsta bang-bang of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch" for once settles into a relatively patient adventure in crime-movie filth. One hesitates to say a movie whose shots manage to last longer than a Britney Spears marriage represents a breakthrough for its maker, but restraint is a new virtue for Ritchie.