Lego Brings the Washington Monuments to the Glendale Galleria

How do you get kids interested in our nation capital's monuments? Lego, of course. The Lego Monuments Roadshow is currently on display throughout the Glendale Galleria mall through February 22. Besides the massive models of the Capitol Building, the White House and other buildings, the roadshow includes a play area (where kids can build racecars) and an area for kids to build a free tiny Capitol building model.

Some pics from the roadshow:

Did "Political Animals" Name Its President After Eric Garcetti?

In USA Network's new Washingto-set drama "Political Animals," Adrian Pasdar plays the President of the United States, while Sigourney Weaver, whose character initially ran against him (shades of Hillary Clinton), is now his Secretary of State.

Pasdar's name on the show? "President Paul Garcetti."

Wait, "Garcetti"? As in city councilman Eric Garcetti, currently running for mayor of Los Angeles? I asked executive producer Laurence Mark if the character was indeed named after our Garcetti (or even his equally famous dad Gil) -- but Mark says it's a complete coincidence: "Oh gosh, seriously, literally it never crossed our mind," Mark told me. "But now that you say something, it should have." Mark says it's not meant to be either pro- or anti- our Garcetti. "We're not fans and we're not not fans," he says.

"Political Animals" premieres Sunday, July 15 at 10 p.m. on USA Network. Meanwhile, what's the deal with all of these Washington, D.C.-set shows suddenly showing up on television? Besides "Political Animals," there's HBO's "Veep," NBC's upcoming "1600 Penn," Showtime's "Homeland," and more. I talk about the trend in this week's TV Guide Magazine; read about it here.

Retro Friday: Here's How Journalism Was Portrayed to Schoolchildren in 1967

This is a fun find: A 1967 filmstrip, produced by Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Washington Post Co., on how news is produced. The Post newsroom, as well as WTOP radio and WTOP-TV (now WUSA) are featured -- as is a young Sam Donaldson.

Oh, the idealism... and this film pre-dates Watergate, obviously.

Los Angeles Ad Town: L.A.'s Subway Plays D.C.'s Metro

For some reason, this commercial felt the need to turn a downtown Los Angeles Red Line subway stop into a Washington, D.C. Metro stop -- the Gallery Pl-Chinatown station in D.C.


Here's another shot, where you can definitely tell the fake "Gallery Pl-Chinatown-DC" lettering has been (poorly) superimposed on the L.A. sign.


(Here's the real Gallery Pl-Chinatown station in D.C.)


And here again is the Red Line subway station... not exactly a match.


On Wilshire in downtown, near the boulevard's start

Little Barack's Big Adventure

My college senior year roommate Myra headed to D.C. with some friends to catch the inauguration... and thankfully they brought along Barack the action figure for some company.