Rob Reiner

“Open Call” 9 p.m. Thursday, KCET: “Killing Memories” and “The Anniversary”: Hosted by mezzo-soprano opera singer Suzanna Guzman. “The Wendy Williams Show” 11 a.m. Friday, Fox: Broadway: Actor Blair Underwood of "Streetcar Named Desire. " “Art in the Twenty-First Century” 10 p.m. Friday, KOCE: History: Artists Glenn Ligon, Mary Reid Kelley and Marina Abramovic. “Masterpiece Classic” 9 p.m. Sunday, KOCE: "Birdsong": Lovers are torn apart by World War I. “FIDM Fashion Show 2012” 9 p.m. Sunday, KLCS.

“Open Call” 9 p.m. Thursday, KCET: “Killing Memories” and “The Anniversary”: Hosted by mezzo-soprano opera singer Suzanna Guzman. “The Wendy Williams Show” 11 a.m. Friday, Fox: Broadway: Actor Blair Underwood of "Streetcar Named Desire. " “Art in the Twenty-First Century” 10 p.m. Friday, KOCE: History: Artists Glenn Ligon, Mary Reid Kelley and Marina Abramovic. “Masterpiece Classic” 9 p.m. Sunday, KOCE: "Birdsong": Lovers are torn apart by World War I. “FIDM Fashion Show 2012” 9 p.m. Sunday, KLCS.

Gov. Gray Davis continued filling major positions Wednesday with the appointment of actor-director Rob Reiner to a new commission to help preschoolers, and the selection of a veteran bureaucrat to head the state Department of Fish and Game. Reiner will serve without salary as chairman of the nine-member state Children and Families First Commission, which is charged with overseeing locally operated health and education programs aimed at preschoolers and their parents.

As he proved so winningly in "Stand by Me," Rob Reiner is a filmmaker who has a way of telling stories about kids, suffusing them with ambivalence and insecurity about their still-evolving selves that feels both heartfelt and authentic. So it is, once again many years later, with "Flipped," a tale of very young love and loss also set in the '60s. And though our two lovebirds, Juli and Bryce, live in white, middle-class suburbia, the experience feels universal and the oft-trod coming-of-age terrain feels newly turned.

A new independent movie and TV production company called Castle Rock Entertainment has been formed by movie director Rob Reiner and four other individuals in partnership with the entertainment division of Coca-Cola Co. The company already has received $30 million in funding from Coca-Cola, and another $65 million in credit is being negotiated with Security Pacific National Bank, according to Castle Rock principal Alan Horn, former president of 20th Century Fox Film Corp.

There's a gleaming pot of gold within easy grasp of the governor and Legislature that would help them balance the state's deficit-ridden books. But it's looking like the governor's friend, filmmaker Rob Reiner, will beat the pols to the pot. This is about using it or losing it. It is an income tax increase on the wealthiest Californians -- individuals earning more than $400,000; couples making above $800,000. That's the top 1%. Their tax rate would be hiked from the current 9.

Sitting in the back of the UA Marketplace Theater in Pasadena on May 31, at the first test screening of their new comedy, "When Harry Met Sally . . . ," Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner were understandably nervous, their congenital Angst cranked up several notches. Longstanding pals, so attuned were they to each other's psyches they hardly needed to voice their mutual anxiety.

Just before his fifth movie, "When Harry Met Sally . . . ," was about to come out in 1989, Rob Reiner, the director, was waiting for his car at a West Hollywood restaurant. "The parking guy says to me, 'Hey, Mr. Reiner, four pictures, not a stinker yet,' " Reiner recalls. "And I'm wondering, does he think 'Harry and Sally' is a stinker?"

The Sacramento County district attorney's office announced Tuesday that it had found no wrongdoing at the California Children and Family Commission, originally chaired by Hollywood entertainer Rob Reiner. Sen. Chuck Poochigian (R-Fresno) called for the investigation earlier this year after The Times reported that the commission, generally known as the California First Five Commission, used more than $20 million in tax money to air television ads touting the benefits of preschool.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the movie "Prancer," scheduled to be shown Sunday by the Ojai Film Society at the Ojai Playhouse, has been canceled. After all, the title character is probably pretty busy these days, hanging out with the likes of Comet and Blitzen, gearing up for the big delivery. In place of "Prancer," the film society will show the 1987 hit "The Princess Bride," directed by Rob Reiner. "Princess Bride" isn't exactly in the same Christmas spirit, but it will do.

How do you market the sweet and the square in a time of the slick and the hip? That's the dilemma facing Rob Reiner's "Flipped" this weekend. Hollywood studios these days don't typically make a movie about young love in an early 1960s of ice-cream parlors and bicycle-riding. Or, for that matter, release it in Sacramento weeks ahead of New York. But little is typical about "Flipped," which opens across Los Angeles on Friday (as well as in Sacramento and Austin, Texas). Based on a novel from the young-adult author Wendelin Van Draanen, it tells of a precocious girl ( Madeline Carroll, for the bulk of the film)

The rock stars in the room have been at this all day. Since 11 a.m., the laughable, mostly fictional heavy-metal trio Spinal Tap has been hard at work, making the usual wig adjustments and celebrating the release of the band's first album in 17 years. First there was a live performance and some preposterous chitchat on "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" and now more interviews and a quick nighttime photo shoot.

Director Rob Reiner, one of liberal Hollywood's most courted presidential fence-sitters, said Wednesday that he has decided to endorse New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Her campaign staff is set to make the announcement today. To seal the deal, Reiner also will throw a fundraiser party for Clinton's 60th birthday at his Brentwood estate Oct. 21.

The Sacramento County district attorney's office announced Tuesday that it had found no wrongdoing at the California Children and Family Commission, originally chaired by Hollywood entertainer Rob Reiner. Sen. Chuck Poochigian (R-Fresno) called for the investigation earlier this year after The Times reported that the commission, generally known as the California First Five Commission, used more than $20 million in tax money to air television ads touting the benefits of preschool.

A state commission chaired by Hollywood entertainer Rob Reiner violated no laws but failed to properly award millions of dollars in contracts and did not adequately justify many payments, a state audit released Tuesday shows.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign said Wednesday he would not endorse a universal preschool initiative that filmmaker Rob Reiner has championed, citing the governor's long-standing opposition to tax increases. "Put simply, the governor does not support tax increases and is opposed to Proposition 82 because it will raise taxes," Katie Levinson, communications director for the Schwarzenegger reelection campaign, said in a statement.

When the smiling, photogenic Jordans sit down to dinner, parents Katie and Ben like to engage 12-year-old Josh and 10-year-old Erin in a game called "high/low" in which each family member has to sound off on his or her best and worst experiences of the day. Similarly, "The Story of Us," the dramatic comedy about a make-or-break summer in Katie and Ben's relationship, shows us the highs and lows in a marriage that has lasted 15 years but is now floundering.

Computer mogul Bill Gates' charitable foundation donated $1 million Monday to a Beverly Hills nonprofit organization founded by actor and director Rob Reiner to raise public awareness about the importance of early childhood development. With the grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the I Am Your Child Foundation will expand its promotion of good parenting techniques and its support for national groups and state agencies that focus on early childhood health and learning.

Hollywood producer Rob Reiner resigned Wednesday as chairman of a state commission he founded seven years ago to aid children, amid accusations that the commission used tax money to boost his new political campaign. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named Hector Ramirez to the unpaid post heading the First 5 California Children and Families Commission.

All 14 Republican state senators have called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace Hollywood producer Rob Reiner on a commission the filmmaker helped found -- and Reiner flatly rejected the suggestion Tuesday.