By Guy Adams

A long way from Wall Street, in the town that invented Gordon Gekko and still functions on the basis that greed really is good, Hollywood's big beasts are reeling from America's stock-market crisis. Take Tom Cruise. His mini-studio, United Artists, is now tipped to lose its $500m credit facility from Merrill Lynch, following that investment house's takeover by Bank of America. Or Steven Spielberg. He's still waiting (after two months) for India's media giant Relianceto sign its promised $500m cheque allowing the launch of his much-trumpeted production firm.

By Guy Adams

Like far too many inhabitants of this freeway-obsessed town, I barely knew Los Angeles boasted a commuter rail network prior to Friday's tragic Metrolink crash, in which 26 people have now been confirmed dead.

But with dust now settling on the disaster, victims are deciding who to blame (and therefore sue) for their troubles. Ambulance-chasing lawyers are advertising heavily for clients, and reports now suggest that the train operator’s damages will reach $200 million.

By Guy Adams

You can't move in LA these days without running into the tidal-wave of British actors, directors, presenters and producers who now dominate the local TV industry. But could our days as the pre-eminent migrant nation of American telly be numbered?

Some trusty Brit imports - American Idol, Kitchen Nightmares, America's Got Talent, and the like - are now feeling distinctly long in the tooth, and producers have been reduced to messing around with formats (this week, for example, they appointed an extra judge on American Idol) in an effort to shore-up ratings.

By Guy Adams

It's early days, but I wouldn't mind betting that someone's already working on a Hollywood script about Clark Rockefeller, the 40-something socialite who last month prompted a nationwide manhunt by kidnapping his seven-year-old daughter. Police eventually discovered that Rockefeller was not who he seemed: their fugitive's real identity was Christian Gerhartsreiter, a German student who'd visited the US in 1977 and remained illegally ever since – living, social-climbing, and even marrying under a variety of aliases.

This week, the "Crockefeller" circus arrived in LA, after police in San Marino began using radar to search for bodies under the patio of his former home. Apparently, he's now a "person of interest" in a local murder case going back to 1985.

By Guy Adams

It's Wednesday night at the Sunset Marquis, a Hollywood hotel where Springsteen, Jagger, Rod Stewart, Aerosmith and most other self-respecting rockers stay when they're in town. We're sitting by the pool waiting for Stevie Wonder to perform and wondering exactly how many TV sets have, over the years, crash-landed in our immediate vicinity. LA being LA, no one's actually swimming.

My friend, who works in the music business and got us invited to this bash, opens his wallet to reveal a card containing his name, address, and the signature of a doctor. It cost about $100, he says, and for the past decade has helped him purchase and consume marijuana throughout California. Soon, however, it may become worthless. A jury at the US District Court in LA is currently hearing the case of Charles Lynch, the owner of a shop in Morro Bay called Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers.

By Guy Adams

If dogs really are like their owners, Los Angeles has a serious image problem. In a revelation that will have the rest of America rolling its eyes, new research has established that city's most popular breed of pet really is the widely-derided Chihuahua.

According to an excellent new online database of LA's dog population, the yappy little pooches - most frequently seen under the fragrant armpit (or inside the handbag) of Paris Hilton - are now being brought in huge numbers by "civillians".

By Guy Adams

Whisper it quietly, but a pertinent question is doing the rounds of Hollywood: just how much did Heath Ledger’s tragic death have to do with Batman’s astonishingly successful launch?

By Guy Adams

Two of Britain’s foremost cultural exports - David Beckham and Catherine Zeta-Jones - this week made public pronouncements regarding their adopted city of Los Angeles.

First up, the former England football captain issued a statement on his official blog marking the first anniversary of his emigration to the US.

By Guy Adams

The impact of soaring oil prices on the American way of life knows no bounds. In recent weeks, $4.50-a-gallon "gas" been blamed (among many other things) for the decline of the truck industry, a consumer slump in Las Vegas, and bankrupting Nevada brothels popular with long-distance lorry drivers.

You know things have got really bad, though, when it starts affecting the US language. And recently, a new phrase has entered the Californian lexicon: “Lycra lout”.

By Guy Adams

It looks like Sacha Baron Cohen's next film will take a pop at two of America's most powerful lobbies: Israel, and the red-neck right.

This week came two revelations to that effect. First, on Monday, the Israeli blogger Yossi Alpher revealed that he'd recently been interviewed in Jerusalem by the satirist's latest alter ego: a gay fashion journalist called Bruno, who succeeded in confusing Hamas with houmus.

Then yesterday, police in Little Rock, Arkansas, complained of a near-riot at a local fairground after a large crowd turned-up to a cage-fighting event and were instead treated to a gay cabaret.