(By Joe Kukura) Ready? OK! Hey! Is that Michael Emerson up there on the right, who plays the sinister creep cult leader Ben Linus on LOST? And is that Carrie Preston on the left, whom we recognize from Transamerica and Desperate Housewives? And is that Chester in the middle, the lovable sexual predator of the burlesque cheerleading troupe The COCK-Ts? “Like, totally for reals!” on all three counts… as Frameline 2008 had an enormous......

Inspiration to many left-leaning political activists, writers, and observational humorists, comedian/social satirist/pottymouth George Carlin died of heart failure today at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica. He was 71. Above is his "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" bit for which he was well-known. Sigh. RIP, George. Follow the jump for more clips of his comedic legacy.......

An SFist reader spotted comedian Dave Chappelle walking on Market Street the other day, interrupted his privacy, and snapped up the photo at left. (Thanks, Flickr user 3dollarbilly!) What he also caught was the now dead CompUSA store haunting and taunting us in the background. Why, CompUSA? Why? After years of adequate tech service, malodorous customers, and pointless and comprehensive backpack searches, you go on close your doors. Awful. For us non-Mac users, we......

David Beckham's gargantuan Armani underwear poster splattered against the side of the Macy's building to much acclaim yesterday. "Just in time for gay-wedding gift shopping," declares Gawker, here are some shots of the man's monstrous, 100% cotton-sheathed unit as it's being unleashed to the hungry masses below. Oh, and Becks was also on-hand to sign some autographs to a few lucky fans. Sadly, there was no sign of Posh/Posh Spice/Victoria Beckham in the crowd. Alas.......

Well, you can breathe a sigh of relief, citizen of the Bay Area. Tempestuous celebrity couple Sean Penn and Robin Wright-Penn have withdrawn their petition for a divorce. Apparently, the Oscar winning method actor took to the stage this past Monday night at some sort of Eddie Vedder cabaret revue and "reportedly dedicating a song to his wife." Sniff. The sweet and sour couple who reside in Marin, if you recall, called it quits......

Noted Marin resident/incendiary actor, Sean Penn, and noted tsunami survivor/Russian Czech model, Petra Nemcova, noticeably attended last night's Academy Awards show together. It is presumed that the two of them have had sexual intercourse with each other. There. Happy now?......

We were a tad disappointed when our only celebrity pregnant buddy turned out to be boring old Jessica Alba. Perhaps we were a bit too capricious in our disappointment, since news broke earlier today that 16-year-old Jamie Lynn Spears, sister to Britney Spears, is 12-weeks pregnant. There are so many snarky things we could say about the Zoey 101 star, but we didn't want to ruin the fun for all our clever readers. Okay......go!......

-- Doug Benson: How he didn't win the last season of Last Comic Standing is above and beyond all logic. Then again, competitive reality TV makes little sense at times. (See: Banks, Tyra) Benson managed to make it on LCS not once, but twice. And with good reason: he's downright hilarious. Nikki Glaser and Mo Mandel open for the Benson. Show starts at 8 p.m. (and continues until Saturday) at the Punch Line; $15.......

-- The Gold Rush (1925): The Tramp makes his stamp here (via playing with his food) as one of America's most beloved comedic characters of the silent era. Screens tonight at 8:45 p.m. at the Castro Theatre; $6-9. -- Juliette and the Licks: Idiosyncratic actress/Scientologist and her (pretty damn good) vanity project perform along with opening acts Scissors for Lefty and Suffrajett. Music fans, the celebrity-curious, and thetans converge at 8 p.m. at Great......

Previously on "Project Runway" the models were forced to kowtow to the fashion whims of a celebrity. Thank god THAT'S over with! Heidi walked on to the runway wearing Uhura's "Star Trek" uniform--seriously--and told the designers they weren't going to need their models for this week's challenge. Ru-roh! She then sent them all to 10 Rockefeller Plaza where they met Tim Gunn who introduced them all to Tiki Barber. Wait. Who? Tim went on......

The SFBC will have its annual fundraiser party this Sunday at 6:00 PM...

-- Unspeakable (2007): Documentary about the life of Satanic Priest Steven Johnson Leyba, "ordained by Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey, is known in the underground art world as the 'Father of Sexpressionism.'" (Chortle) Screens tonight at 7:45 p.m., 9:05 at the Roxie New College Film Center; $6. -- The W. Kamau Bell Curve: Local comedian's show, it seems, is "designed to end racism...in about an hour." Praise Jesus. This night o' comedy will......

In a final tip of the hat that sums up this year's (disappointing) election, Gavin Watch has celebrity candidate Chicken John's surprise Saturday night debate with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. Not the real mayor, mind you, but Gavin in puppet form. (Kudos to those who created the puppet, though we would've have liked to have seen Newsom sporting a signature cold-blue tie. We digress.) It's a humorous bit, one that stretches on and......

image credit: apbh2's Flickr account Writing in SFGate yesterday, CW Nevius tells us that the "Rights of Mentally Ill Street People Thwart Efforts to Prevent Harm." Those pesky rights! What happened was that the "Sign Guy" of Justin Herman Plaza was arrested after attacking a police officer, when it was pretty clear that someone (the City? Men in white coats?) should have intervened sooner. Let us be clear that this Sign Guy is not......

Exploring San Francisco through the lens of city blocks, Blocker is a weekly series by Charles Hodgkins. Look for it on SFist each Wednesday, around the lunching hour. View the map of all published Blocker episodes. Blocker, No. 20: Broadway in Russian Hill It’s never achieved the kind of celebrity the fallen Berlin Wall did. It doesn’t separate clashing cultures the way Belfast’s Falls Road / Shankill divider still does. Roger Waters didn’t perform......

SFist Mihi runs with the canines! There's nothing like a celebrity appearance at a film festival, and Sunday night at the Roxie Theatre, the crowd went wild when it was announced that two of the wiener dogs who star in "Wiener Takes All: A Dogumentary" were in attendence. The Doc Fest crowd started oohing and ahhing and craning their necks as if Paris freaking Hilton herself had dropped by. Apparently, competitive wiener dog racing is......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

Segway scooters on S.F. sidewalks...

It was a deadly weekend to be famous, that’s for sure. As one commenter already pointed out today, famous people tend to die in threes: Bill Walsh, Tom Snyder, and of course, ABC 13’s Marvin Zindler from Houston, who -- while still tied-up with breathing tubes, in his hospital bed, and very pissed off at 24-Hour Fitness -- gave and gave until the very end. But another one squeaked in there among those three: Ingmar......

Roasted Chioggia beets with nectarine juices & marjoram. We gobble the various food sections up each Wednesday. Here is our short and sweet favorite nibbles from today's offerings. SF Chronicle: Michael Bauer eats and examines the L.A. dining scene. We're shocked, shocked! to find out that many folks there feel they are and deserve celebrity treatment and ample ego stroking from restaurant staff. The Vegetable Harvest cookbook by Patricia Wells gets a look, which was......

And you thought Charmed was just a TV show! You could be forgiven for thinking you'd stepped into an alternate universe where sexy-witchies Piper, Phoebe, and Paige actually still lived in San Francisco with all the Alyssa Milano sightings around town this week. (We all still mourn the untimely death of sister Prue (Shannen Doherty), of course.) As we mentioned, Alyssa was all over this town for All-Star week: promoting her Touch 'Em All fashion......

-- Using the garbage and junk-drawer debris from oh-my-God real-life celebrities (!), crafty artist Jason Mercier creates jaw-dropping portraits of A- through D-list notables, which range from Parker Posey to Heidi Fleiss. Celebrity Junk Drawer opens tonight starting at 9 p.m. at 111 Minna Galley (at Second St.); admission is free. -- Dance, get trashed, shove something up your nose in the bathroom, shove something up, um, somewhere elsewhere in the bathroom, have a......

Oh, Chris Daly's going to have a field day with this one for his own blog -- the Chronicle Local News Blog gleefully reports that, at Sunday's Celebrity All-Star game at AT&T Park, former college baseball player Mayor Gavin Newsom: 1) went 0-for, not hitting anything pitched to him; 2) was on the losing side of the 13-8 score for the National League 3) hit a pop-up, which was promptly palmed by Dancing with the......

As reported by local crime blog SF Metblogs, we've been seeing an awful lot of violent crime lately. And, as their first commenter points out, it's the brown people who are to blame. Well, enough is enough -- we can't go on. We can't go on no more. No. Only press conferences, snappy slogans, and celebrity do-gooding can save us now! From a recent press release: Rev. Jackson and the Rainbow PUSH Coalition plans......

Last week's winner: the SJ Metro . Cover article: San Jose Pride - family day in the park on Saturday, Gay Rodeo, Women's Music Festival this weekend. A new queer nightclub in downtown San Jo. Problems with contracting for paratransit at Santa Clara County Transit VTA . Annalee Newitz on notableness on Wikipedia. The Ann Arbor Film Festival at Foothill College. And now for our frontrunner, the SF Weekly, big trouble at the Culinary Academy......

If you still haven't checked out any of the awesome exhibits at the Asian Art Museum, swing by around 5 for Matcha, their monthly mixer with live performances, gallery tours, drinks and more. DJ Tonk, a top Japanese hip-hop producer will be spinning till 9pm. $5 after 5pm, 200 Larkin St., SF. David Lyle's solo show opens today at the Heather Marx gallery. Taking inspiration from vintage photographs found at thrift stores and flea......

Dilbert artist and bay-area restaurateur Scott Adams poses a query to his readers: what can be done about the bone-crushing competition from chain restaurants? Just like Wal-mart, the Cheesecake Factory and PF Chang are putting the squeeze on locally-owned spots like his Stacey's Cafe in Pleasanton and Walnut Creek. So, to boost business, he's been trying to find a smart way to bring customers into his banquet halls, and he's turned to the internet......

A very sincere thank you to the reader who forwarded along this picture of former Mrs. Gavin Newsom Kimberly Guilfoyle with her baby boy Ronan Anthony Villency. All together: awwwwwww! And this got us thinking: what's going on with the rest of Gavin's squeezes these days? Here's the results of our Google searching! Sofia Milos: The Scientologist girlfriend! Sofia (watch out, the site plays execrable music when you load it up) was recently spotted at......

The coolest thing about writing for SFist is that often we introduce a topic, then all of y'all weigh in with insightful opinion, crazy knowledge, or even some amusing smarminess. The groupmind of active SFist participants really makes for some excellent reading, whether it's about bumblebees, celebrity gossip, Muni issues, or politics. We thought it was high time to highlight your efforts, folks....

Dazzle yours senses with SFist tonight's picks... Music by the Eyeful The first of three concerts featuring inventions in visual audio, exploring the moving boundaries between music, film, optics, graphics, loops and reels. Guest curated by Suki O'Kane [www.myspace.com/sukiokane], musician and curator of The Illuminated Corridor, an outdoor cinema project in Oakland. Event starts at 8pm with a $6-$10 sliding scale. Luggage Store Gallery, 1007 Market Street, SF. Celebrity Chef Alert! Join Food Network's Tyler......