♦ In today's New York Times, Dennis McDougal reports that the Writers Guild is
sitting on millions of dollars owed to writers it can't find—no-names like Tom Clancy, Mira Nair and the estates of Preston Sturges and Charles Bukowski. By the way, the winner of the guild's presidency is announced tomorrow, otherwise known as day one of the insurgent campaign by disgruntled members to unseat the poor schmo. On Friday, the
Screen Actors Guild chooses between Morgan Fairchild, Alan Rosenberg and Robert Conrad for president.
♦ Manhattan Beach City Councilman
Jim Aldinger resigned from the state Coastal Commission after revealing a public intoxication infraction, the Times reports.
* Got there first: The
Breeze had it Saturday.
♦ Downtown's Gansevoort West hotel project gets some
scrutiny in the Times Business section. When it reopens the hotel will feature a spiffed up Trinity Auditorium, home to the L.A. Philharmonic orchestra beginning in 1919. Members of the Phil get
a raise today from their previous minimum of $2,025 weekly.
♦ The Daily News will launch four reader-written local "citizen journalism" sections in October, James Nash says in the
L.A. Business Journal. Each section will carry news from about a quarter of the Valley and will go to both subscribers and non-subs.
♦ Freelancer Kate Aurthur
live-blogged the Emmys for LATimes.com, from New York.
♦ Becca Doten, chief of staff for Arianna Huffington, is moving to the Valley staff of State Sen. Richard Alarcon.
♦ Lisa Hansen, the deputy chief of staff and press spokeswoman for Councilman Jack Weiss, has gone on maternity leave. CoS Denise Sample is the new media contact.
♦ Variety
will post an obit tonight on one of its own, Oscar-winning songwriter and reviewer Joel Hirschhorn. He died over the weekend of a coronary.
♦ Marc Weingarten, soon to be the author of
The Gang That Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion and the New Journalism Revolution, pays near-freakish tribute in Sunday's LAT Current to
the Mallomar, "a near-perfect creation, the most pleasing marriage of texture and taste in the annals of junk food." Who knew: They are only available from October to mid-March, allegedly because the chocolate form-shifts in the delivery trucks in other months.
♦ Dateline: Hollywood's
latest satire fueled an Internet rumor and
fooled a spokeswoman for Pat Robertson.
And the occasional LAO social note...
Andrew Gumbel, L.A. correspondent for The Independent, speaks at Dutton's Brentwood on Thursday about Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America. He was interviewed by Ann Louise Bardach on Sunday at a book party observed by, among others, fellow Brit Dan Glaister of The Guardian, Doug and Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, bloggers Arianna Huffington, Mickey Kaus and Amy Alkon, KCRW's Harry Shearer and Sarah Spitz, Ina Jaffe and Andy Bowers of National Public Radio, Channel 2's Dave Bryan, Steve Appleford and Dean Kuipers of CityBeat, Villaraigosa chief of staff Robin Kramer, ethics commissioner Bill Boyarsky, political insider Donna Bojarsky, KPFK host Barbara Osborn, author Gioconda Belli, Times Poll director Susan Pinkus, LAT reporter Greg Krikorian and San Diego Union political reporter John Marelius.
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