The monthly BEAT: Hollywood. The Cat & Fiddle.

Among the clubs and glitzy restaurants, the Cat & Fiddle finds itself nestled quietly among them all. Quietly for Hollywood, at least. The restaurant takes up a huge large space with a spacious and pretty patio, but proudly calls itself a pub, which means soccer (erm, football) and other sports games being broadcast on TV screens, there's often live entertainment by bands (jazz on Sundays!) and the general sort of shenanigans you'd expect from a good old fashioned British spot. And that's what can often make it a sort of oasis in Hollywood. Gone are all the pretensions and shallowness this area can sometimes inhabit. This is just a honest-to-goodness pub. Drop into the Cat & Fiddle and you can sit back and just enjoy a cold pint, maybe even play some (free) darts or a game of pool. The waiters and waitresses and bartenders are always friendly, and ready to serve you a good serving of fish and chips, or bangers and mash.

And hey, you can still get a taste of Hollywood here: scenes from Casablanca were filmed there, when it used to act as commissary for surrounding film studios back in the day.

The Cat & Fiddle is located at 6530 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood.

-- Chau Tu

Photo credit: The Cat & Fiddle

Do It. Lord of the Rings triple feature.

The American Cinematheque always puts on great events (like Christmas Story screenings with hot chocolate parties, or Iron Man at the Aero with Robert Downey, Jr. there).

If you're a huge fan of LOTR, you may want to be at the historic Egyptian Theatre tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. to catch a triple feature of director's cuts of Peter Jackson's trilogy. This is a combined 632 minutes of Lord of the Rings.

If you can believe it, this is in celebration of it being ten years since the release of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

Don't fill up on popcorn so you can enjoy a pub dinner at the nearby Cat & Fiddle afterwards.

Saturday January 22 at 1:00 p.m. Tickets are $11 and available on Fandango, or at the box office.

The Egyptian Theater is located at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

The Cat & Fiddle is located at 6530 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: wallpaperbase.com

Check It. The Cat & Fiddle.

One of the best parts of the Christmas holidays is catching up with old friends.

Last night I caught up with one of my very best friends over drinks at The Cat & Fiddle, a Hollywood pub. Part of Casablanca was filmed there, so it was an appropriate place to go with Grant--who I met when he was in film school.

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: kidinthefrontrow.com

Eat Out. Birds [Thirsty Thursdays!].

One of my favorite Eastside bars is Birds, where delicious bar food is de rigueur. Located on Franklin Avenue, near Los Feliz Village, Birds is a cute, small bar that always seems to be packed.

A picture of Alfred Hitchcock covered in crows from his 1963 classic, "The Birds," hangs on a wall. The decor is warm, with red checkered table clothes and brick walls. Toward the bathroom, there's an enormous cage, keeping with the bar's avian theme.

Birds occupies the same great little strip of Franklin as the Upright Citizen's Brigade, the Bourgeois Pig coffee shop and cafe, and The Daily Planet newsstand and gift shop, where some of the best cards in town are sold. Popular L.A. restaurants La Poubelle and Prizzi's Piazza are also on the block, as well as a large used bookstore for browsing the night away.

The selection of beer on tap is a bit lacking, I usually end up with their refreshing cider, and the appetizers are excellent (the mozzarella sticks are amazing).

Birds is located at 5925 Franklin Avenue in Los Angeles.

-- Lauren Williams

Photo credit: Birds website