Alice

The beauty of a well-told fable is typically in its airy brevity, with a moral sharp and bittersweet. Ramaa Mosley's feature debut, "The Brass Teapot," has Aesopian pretensions with its supernatural-themed story about the titular vessel's darkly magical effect on the lives of a young, financially strapped married couple, played by Juno Temple and Michael Angarano. But the conceit - the teapot fills with money when harm is inflicted in its presence - is treated less like a starting-off point for something wise to say about societal masochism than an opportunity to indulge in weakly cynical jokes and aggressively ouch-y humor.

All dressed up with cool places to go, the pretty young things of "Lotus Eaters" are very rich and extravagantly bored. Alexandra McGuinness' first feature isn't quite as aimless as the millennial jet-setters it portrays, but it's at least as good-looking and stylish. And even though the handsome black-and-white lensing is no substitute for a compelling story, it helps, infusing the skin-deep sketches of emotional enervation with aesthetic energy - for a while. The movie's London clique partake of the usual sex, drugs and clubbing, the bathtubs full of bubbly, and, of course, accouter their pet lemurs with jeweled collars.

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole? We caught up with Mia Wasikowska, the 20-year-old Aussie newcomer who plays the title role in "Alice in Wonderland," out March 5. The film is called "Alice in Wonderland," but really this is neither a pure adaptation of Lewis Carroll's writings nor a remake of previous films. Mia Wasikowska: It's a completely different and new story, but it has a lot of the same characters in it. It has the same feel of the original stories, but it's really fun to explore a story that goes further and imagine what all these characters would be like several years down the tracks.

The beauty of a well-told fable is typically in its airy brevity, with a moral sharp and bittersweet. Ramaa Mosley's feature debut, "The Brass Teapot," has Aesopian pretensions with its supernatural-themed story about the titular vessel's darkly magical effect on the lives of a young, financially strapped married couple, played by Juno Temple and Michael Angarano. But the conceit - the teapot fills with money when harm is inflicted in its presence - is treated less like a starting-off point for something wise to say about societal masochism than an opportunity to indulge in weakly cynical jokes and aggressively ouch-y humor.

CAST: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska and Helena Bonham Carter. Directed by Tim Burton. BACK STORY: There's no mistaking the singular surrealism of Lewis Carroll, but despite the familiar faces on the movie posters it would be a mistake to call Burton's vision a pure adaptation of the author's 19th century writings or even a live-action remake of Walt Disney's 1951 animated film. "It's a completely different and new story, but it has a lot of the same characters in it," said Wasikowska, the 20-year-old Aussie who portrays Burton's older Alice.

It's becoming increasingly clear that Disney's March 5 release of "Alice in Wonderland" may have helped trigger a dramatic tipping point in film history. The movie's 3-D ticket sales have been astounding, which has helped spur even more momentum for Hollywood's rush to turn nearly every movie imaginable into a 3-D release. The film provided a much-needed hit for Disney, even though the executives who put it into production -- Dick Cook and Oren Aviv -- weren't around to enjoy its success, having lost their jobs long before the film arrived in theaters.

SERIES Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: When a boy is set on fire, detectives Stabler and Munch (Christopher Meloni, Richard Belzer) end up at a private school, where their student escort (Jesse McCartney) introduces them to a chastity circle. Dann Florek co-stars (8 p.m. NBC). Accidentally on Purpose: Scheduling issues force Billie and Zack (Jenna Elfman, Jon Foster) to take parenting classes separately, she attends with her sister Abby and her friend (Lennon Parham, Ashley Jensen)

Folk troubadour and sometimes-actor Bonnie "Prince" Billy may not be the first person you think of when you hear the phrase "Ladies' Night" -- we always think Kool & the Gang -- but Cinefamily will present his hand-picked double feature of films that explore the mystique of the fairer sex. On the bill: "A Woman's Secret," Nicholas Ray's 1949 soapy noir with Maureen O'Hara, and Wim Wenders' "Alice in the Cities," with Yella Rottländer playing an...

Alice in Wonderland Walt Disney, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99/$44.99 Give Tim Burton credit: When asked by Disney to make a live-action, 3-D version of "Alice in Wonderland," he didn't take the safe route. With the help of screenwriter Linda Woolverton and skilled computer-animators, Burton reinvents Lewis Carroll's creation as the story of a young woman (played by Mia Wasikowska) who returns to the surreal land she dreamed of as a girl and gets involved in an epic battle between queens.

The track record of adapting hit films into TV series has been spotty at best. For every small screen success such as CBS' "MASH," there have been such turkeys as the recent NBC series "The Firm. " The stars aligned for CBS in 1976 with the sitcom "Alice," a warmly funny adaptation of Martin Scorsese's 1974 "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," for which Ellen Burstyn won the Oscar as a widower with a young son who ends up working at a greasy spoon named Mel's. Warner Archive just released the first season on DVD. Linda Lavin was perfectly cast as Alice, as were Polly Holliday and Beth Howland as waitresses Flo and Vera.

Chefs Alice Waters and Suzanne Goin are pairing up to host “Lunch Matters,” a fundraiser to revamp the lunch program at the Larchmont Charter School in West Hollywood on April 21. The event will raise funds to rebuild a kitchen where the school's lunches will be made using seasonal produce from the school garden and local farms. The lunches will be incorporated into the curriculum to complement nutrition and cooking classes as part of the Larchmont Charter School's Edible Schoolyard program.

Robert M. Ball is one of the most revered figures in Social Security history, a man whose devotion to safeguarding the program from ideological attacks and political cant over six decades made him the program's  "undisputed spiritual leader. " Alice M. Rivlin is a distinguished budget expert at the  Brookings Institution  whose willingness to promote "entitlement reform" (read: cut benefits) as a deficit nostrum has given her a reputation as a danger to Social Security and  Medicare . So when Rivlin was named the ninth recipient of the annual Robert M. Ball Award for Outstanding Achievements in Social Insurance this week, Social Security advocates erupted in fury.

Blockbuster-starved studios rarely reach Hollywood's Emerald City, but Walt Disney Studios appears headed there this weekend. The studio's $200-million-plus 3-D production is set to open this weekend with a massive gross of about $90 million, according to those who have seen prerelease audience surveys. (Disney is predicting a softer opening of roughly $75 million.) Not only would that make for the biggest debut of 2013 by far -- "Identity Thief" currently holds the record with its $34.6-million February launch -- but the strong opening could help jump-start what has been a slow year for film-going.

It's no surprise that a conversation with Alice Schoenfeld would go deep into the traditions and legacies of classical music. She has been teaching the violin at USC's Thornton School of Music since 1960, having played her first recital more than 30 years earlier, at age 5. What's astonishing, as one sits in the large studio of her home in La Canada Flintridge, listening to her talk about her life in music in a clear, lilting, German-accented speaking...

When screenwriter Darren Lemke first proposed the idea of contemporizing the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale with CG technology, it was 2005. Tim Burton had not yet jumped into the rabbit hole with "Alice in Wonderland. " Amanda Seyfried had yet to don the cape for "Red Riding Hood. " Snow White had no Huntsman. But due to development delays and changing technology, Warner Bros. and its New Line division didn't start production on "Jack the Giant Slayer" until early 2011. By that time, Disney's PG-rated "Alice" had earned more than $1 billion at the box office and the once-novel idea for "Jack" had some huge expectations to fulfill.

"I do suck fat. I will suck the fat off my steak," actress Alice Englert warns as she slides into a booth at Musso & Frank in Hollywood on a dreary, overcast day. "I just want to prepare you in advance that I'm known to be disgusting when I eat steak. " Alden Ehrenreich, her costar in the new film "Beautiful Creatures," is unfazed by her eagerness. Perhaps it's because after enduring a shoot involving sweltering, 90-degree Louisiana days, food poisoning and Southern accents, the two on-screen sweethearts have an easy familiarity.

Alice Cooper is best known for his distinct brand of rock 'n' roll, incorporating horror elements including guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood and boa constrictors into his shows. The Phoenix rocker, 64, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011, a nod to a career that produced hits such as "School's Out," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "I'm Eighteen" and "You and Me. " Yet he's also a gifted golfer, a four handicap who after touring with Iron Maiden last year is entered in the pro-am competition at this week's Humana Challenge golf tournament headlined by Phil Mickelson in Palm Desert and La Quinta.

Original shock rocker Alice Cooper played his first show in years in Los Angeles on Thursday night at the Orpheum Theatre downtown and was joined by actor-musician Johnny Depp, who's been giving his own rock chops a serious workout this year. Cooper and Depp collaborated on several classic rock hits, including the Beatles' “Revolution,” Jimi Hendrix's “Foxy Lady,” the Who's “My Generation” and the Doors' “Break on Through (to the Other Side,” before tackling Cooper's own vintage hits, including “I'm Eighteen,” “Poison,” “Under My Wheels” and, of course, “School's Out.”  Cooper was outfitted in a long black waistcoat over black shirt, pants and leather gloves with matching ghoulish eye makeup.