Entertainment

If you can't join 'em, compete against 'em. With top pay cable channels HBO and Showtime and upstart Epix largely refusing to let Netflix stream movies during the long periods that they control the rights, the DVD subscription service is going around them, starting with independent film financing and production company Relativity Media. The two companies have signed a five-year-plus agreement through which Relativity's movies will be distributed via Netflix's Internet streaming service instead of the typical runs on pay-cable channels, which start four to seven months after a DVD release.

Fans of the late Phil Harris, the salty, tattooed captain who starred in the Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch," will still be able to see him doing the work he loved when the show launches its new season in April. Harris suffered a stroke late last month as he offloaded snow crabs from the Cornelia Marie in the port town of St. Paul, Alaska. He had been in an Anchorage hospital since then, where he died Tuesday night. He was 53. The popular show, one of many macho job reality series that dot the TV dial, had filmed more than half the new season when Harris fell ill. It's still unclear how the death will be handled in later episodes, a Discovery Channel spokesman said.

A well-dressed miller from Hungary, a 6,500-year-old child found in Peru, a baby crocodile — these aren't your mother's mummies. You can see all three of them, along with more than 40 others, at the world premiere of "Mummies of the World," starting Thursday at the California Science Center. Don't worry, there are a few linen-wrapped Egyptian mummies too. But this exhibit isn't limited to one ancient civilization. Made up of specimens lent from 20 international institutions, it showcases the incredible variety of mummies, highlighting how they're created and all that can be learned from these relics of the past.

Sonny Barger is not a religious man. But riding motorcycles is "as good a religion as any and probably better than most," says the Hells Angels icon. Meditative and transcendent, motorcycling focuses the mind, he says, and requires devotion. At 71, Barger has spent six decades riding bikes and 53 years as a member of the country's best-known outlaw motorcycle club. Now he's spreading the gospel of two wheels with his sixth book, "Let's Ride: Sonny Barger's Guide to Motorcycling, How to Ride the Right Way — for Life," co-written with Darwin Holmstrom.

Lindsay Lohan had just been fired again, and she wasn't taking the news well. "She was really hurt about it, and I felt terrible," said David Michaels, who was set to direct her in a movie called "The Other Side." Michaels made the call to his 23-year-old would-be leading lady earlier this spring after investors in the film balked at Lohan's most recent tabloid misadventures. "The budget on the film had been increased from $15 [million] to $20 million, and when the producers were going out for that kind of money, they were finding financiers and distributors asking, 'Is she really going to draw people to a theater?

The only thing that could make the opening of the new "Twilight" film look less than spectacular is the last "Twilight" film. "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" opened to an estimated $175.3 million in the United States and Canada from last Wednesday through the Monday holiday, $3.6 million short of what November's "New Moon" collected in its first six days. The shortfall is a bit surprising because the new vampire romance starring Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner had the advantage of playing in the summer, when more young people are out of school on weekdays, and on Imax screens, which charge more for tickets.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet A Novel David Mitchell Random House: 484 pp., $26 David Mitchell's new work, "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet," is conventional in more ways than one. Not only is the novel, set in Japan at the end of the 18th century, the least experimental book the British novelist has ever written — in fact, it cleanly passes as "historical fiction" — but with each passing book, he embraces...

Universal Pictures' debut computer-animation effort and 20th Century Fox's bid to revive its "Predator" franchise are expected to have good openings this weekend, but "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" figures to once again be the winner at the box office. The animated "Despicable Me" is set to open to about $35 million in ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada, according to people who have seen pre-release audience polling, while "Predators" will probably start off with about $25 million.

Russians love Shrek. And Russians love the acorn-obsessed squirrel Scrat from "Ice Age." But Russians aren't showing a lot of love for Buzz and Woody. "Toy Story 3," released June 18, has been a blockbuster success in the U.S. and most of the other countries where it has opened, racking up $244 million in ticket sales domestically and more than $100 million in foreign nations, including more than $34 million in Mexico. But the Pixar Animation Studios sequel has posted surprisingly frigid box-office results in Russia, one of the hottest international markets for movies, especially for animated films.

Aries (March 21-April 19): Some days you can't find what you're looking for. Either you are looking in the wrong place, or you have a mental block. Taurus (April 20-May 20): If you want to drop a habit, going cold turkey is the best route right now. Gemini (May 21-June 21): You're very creative now and will try to make something of whatever resources you're given. Cancer (June 22-July 22): All gifts are mixed blessings. Even if you get the thing you want the most, you still have to maintain and protect it. Leo (July 23-Aug.

Few rites of passage are more fraught with collective angst than the kids leaving home. Parents stare at empty bedrooms and brood over noiseless dinners. Young people discover that freedom brings unwanted responsibilities and challenges they may not be ready to handle. Relationships change. No blueprint sets forth how to break away or even when, since some children fly the nest at 18, some bolt in their 20s, and some never summon the gumption — or these days have the money or job — to go at all. "Nobody is correctly equipped to manage what's happening," noted Los Angeles-based author and psychotherapist Stacy Kaiser.

UCLA Live recently canceled its well-regarded international theater festival, but Calabasas would like to point out that UCLA didn't have a lock on that concept. The city near the southwestern San Fernando Valley is holding its second annual California International Theatre Festival from July 17 to 25. The visiting companies aren't of the same stature as those that UCLA attracted, but they are diverse. The Orto-Da Theatre Group of Israel will perform its work "Stones," Theatre Newfoundland Labrador of Canada presents "Tempting Providence" by Robert Chafe, and Conor Lovett of Gare St Lazare Players Ireland will perform an adaptation of the Samuel Beckett short story "The End."

Hollywood may be having a mixed year at the box office overall, but family films continue to boom. Universal Pictures this weekend became the latest studio to find success in family animation as its first stab at the genre, "Despicable Me," opened to a sensational $60.1 million, according to studio estimates. The 3-D film easily beat "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," which collected $33.4 million on its second weekend and is performing almost identically to last year's "Twilight" movie, "New Moon."

"The Kids Are All Right" had a more than all right debut, as director Lisa Cholodenko's comedic take on a modern family opened to an estimated $505,000 at seven theaters in the U.S. and Canada. The $72,127 average gross per theater for Focus Features' critically beloved Sundance acquisition was the highest for any movie released this year. Indie films in art-house theaters usually do most of their business at night, but Focus distribution president Jack Foley noted that "Kids," about two women's teen children who seek out their sperm-donor father, also did extremely well in Saturday matinees.

Bann Restaurant Where: 623 S. Western Ave. (at Wilshire Boulevard), Los Angeles. When: Open from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays through Sundays. Happy hour, 4 to 7 p.m. daily. Cost: Starters, $8 each or three for $21; starters for sharing, $10 to $21; barbecue items, $18 to $27; traditional entrees, $18 to $28; hot pots, $22; rice and noodle dishes, $5 to $18; soups and stews, $12 to $18; dessert, $6 to $8. Info: (213)

A roundup of Monday morning's arts and entertainment headlines: Roman Polanski is freed from house arrest, avoids extradition to the United States. ( Los Angeles Times) "Despicable Me" surpasses expectations at the box office. (Los Angeles Times) Marvel boots Ed Norton from "The Avengers" movie. (Los Angeles Times) Comedy Central's biggest star is Tosh.0?!? ( Hollywood Reporter) Get ready for "Hunchback of Notre Dame" as an action/comedy. (Variety)

POP MUSIC Summer Darling The first act to release a physical full-length on the in-house label of beloved Echo Park hipster Origami Vinyl, the band earns its comparisons to the fringier elements of Neil Young and such thoughtful '90s punk as Fugazi and Shudder to Think. The band holds down the July residency at Spaceland, this time with the Radiohead-addled rockers Cue the Moon. Spaceland, 1717 Silver Lake Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. Free. http://www.clubspaceland.com. Kings of Leon The scruffy Southern rockers were on no one's short list to become the dominant voice of guitar-based music in 2010.