Dermot Mulroney

"Longtime Companion," a frank look at a group of gay friends in New York City coping with the impact of AIDS on their lives in the 1980s, is the kind of feature film some distributors would give the soft sell. But the Goldwyn Co. plans to pull no punches in marketing the movie, which opens in New York May 11 and here a week later.

It was a party with mixed emotions. The event at the Twenty/20 club in Century City Monday night followed the benefit premiere of "Longtime Companions." On the one hand there was a celebratory feeling--Hollywood had finally made a movie about the AIDS crisis. On the other hand, a film about AIDS does not lend itself to a festive mood. "It's the gay 'Big Chill,' " is the way Bill Eisentraut, who produced the benefit, described the film.

Mass TV exposure, warring over multimillion-dollar contracts and drug scandals have shrunk the romance of baseball. Better to return to nostalgic greener days when ticky-tack ball fields were the unrivaled shrines of youth and the mingling of dust and dreams on a sandlot was a metaphor for simple American values. That's exactly what "Long Gone" does, and it works for a while, as this HBO movie (premiering at 8 tonight) initially gives amusing, raucous life to the Class D Tampico, Fla.

Today Taylor Lautner; Daughtry performs; Martha Stewart. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Regis and Kelly Taylor Lautner. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View Ricardo Chavira; Caterina Scorsone;. (N) 10 a.m. KABC The Talk Dermot Mulroney; Il Divo performs. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS The Doctors Two medical marvels share their stories; a blind Little Leaguer who pitched a no-hitter. (N) 2 p.m. KCBS Dr. Phil A judge comes under fire for whipping his teen daughter.

Filming for the biopic “Jobs," the true story of Apple founder Steve Jobs, has begun on location in Los Angeles and Los Altos, Calif. The cast, which includes Ron Eldard, John Getz, Lesley Ann Warren, James Woods, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, Matthew Modine and Dermot Mulroney, will join Ashton Kutcher, who plays the title role. “Jobs” will be directed by Joshua Michael Stern (“Swing Vote”, “Neverwas”) from an original screenplay by Matt Whiteley, and is a Five Star Feature Film Production produced by Mark Hulme.

Theater in a match box. On a tabletop. Paper actors on a teeny proscenium stage. Toy theater, not primarily child's play, dates back to early 19th century England and is enjoying a resurgence of interest. Audiences can take a look this weekend in Disney Concert Hall at the Music Center's "Toy Theatre Festival" for families, and at an adult event in Disney's REDCAT space. The free family festival, aimed at ages 6 and up, takes place during the day throughout Disney on Saturday and Sunday.

The teenage coming-of-age story gets an ever-so-slight tweak in "Struck by Lightning," written by and starring "Glee" performer Chris Colfer, whose character is, in fact, struck dead by lightning in the film's opening moments. Nevertheless he narrates the tale, looking back on his life up to that moment. Turns out Colfer's Carson was a perennial outsider for his literary ambitions and desire to break free of the small town social hierarchy of his high school. Genial and heartfelt but essentially toothless, lacking in either snark or spark, "Lightning" is directed by Brian Dannelly, who previously made the 2004 high school religious satire "Saved" before moving into television work, which seems to have leveled out his style into a flat competence.

“How black is that?” was the refrain during Jamie Foxx's “SNL” monologue Saturday night, as he marveled at turns of events like President Obama's being elected to a second term and the fact that the comedian was hosting the show with musical guest Ne-Yo. And while race was never again explicitly mentioned throughout the rest of the show, it remained a constant theme, yet one handled in a lighthearted, often absurd manner. One of the criticisms most frequently lobbed at the late-night institution is that it lacks any real diversity in its cast and writing, but last night “SNL” resembled programs that do address race while enjoying diverse audiences, like “Key and Peele” or “Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell.” Foxx, more present in the episode than most hosts, was willing to be extremely silly in many of his sketches, relying upon his sketch show experience from “In Living Color” as he played characters like a Christmas tree pimp or a Hostess Ding Dong disgruntled by the amount of attention Twinkies have been receiving lately.