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At 1:30 Mayor Villaraigosa will announce a deal to scale back the old LAX expansion plan (and settle the lawsuits) at a command audience of pols: two Congress members, two county Supes, three other mayors and L.A. councilman Bill Rosendahl. Advancers in the Times, Daily News and Breeze. Also for Thursday:
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♦ If you live in Los Angeles and Time Warner is not your cable provider, it soon will be—like it or not. The City Council gave TW all of the Comcast and Adelphia turf. Times, Daily News
♦ There's a long new installment in Rolling Stone (online) from author Randall Sullivan in his ongoing reportage on the murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G., the possible role of rogue LAPD cops and how stories by Times reporter Chuck Philips might have influenced the investigations. Response from the Times in the story. Pointer from LAVoice.org.
♦ Retired Dodgers VP Tommy Hawkins gave it to the McCourts on AM 710's "The Big Show:" "I have never seen an organization in such disarray as the Dodgers...You take what's being done in tickets, advertising, marketing, customer service, public relations, and it's about as disjointed as I have ever seen in any organization."
♦ Today's New York Times follows yesterday's LAT story about the American-written stories being planted in Iraqi newspapers.
♦ Steve Hymon in the LAT notes the, uh, lack of coincidence behind City Hall political events. He also reports that state Assemblywoman Cindy Montañez threw a glass of red wine in the face of Democratic activist Alexandra Rooker at a Valley restaurant, part of the growing tension over next year's battle with Alex Padilla for state Sen. Richard Alarcon's seat.
♦ Hollywood Reporter music editor Chris Morris is the new host of Indie 103.1's Sunday roots music show "Watusi Rodeo." Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly was on "Airtalk with Larry Mantle" on Monday to talk about his new book Rednecks and Bluenecks: The Politics of Country Music. Audio * Don't confuse the two Chrises, as I did in the first version of this item!
♦ David Ehrenstein joins the Huffington Post roll with a lesson on cinematic gays and a takedown of Brokeback Mountain.
♦ Did Andrew Gumbel, the Independent's man in L.A., have a website before? He has one now.
♦ CNET reports in the New York Times that Breitbart.com, (the laziest website in L.A., adding nothing to borrowed AP, Reuters and AFP wire copy) got 2.7 million unique visitors in October thanks largely to links from buddy Matt Drudge.
♦ John Shannon has sold The Dark Streets, his latest Jack Liffey mystery, to Pegasus.
♦ OC Weekly staffer Gustavo Arellano will double-dip on the radio today. At 10:30 am he's on Larry Mantle's Orange County journalist roundtable on KPCC. At 8 pm, Arellano takes his "Ask a Mexican" column to the Al Rantel Show on KABC.
♦ Mark Sarvas of The Elegant Variation gave away two tickets to the Paul McCartney show at Staples Center on his blog.
♦ William Allen, son of the late entertainer Steve Allen, is the new chief exec of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
♦ Former L.A. Times reporter Agnes Diggs died at age 56.
And also:
Today's New York Times has a piece on the filming of Emilio Estevez's Bobby inside the Ambassador Hotel just before demolition began. The unfinished and unsold drama is set on the June night in 1968 when Robert F. Kennedy was shot down. The cast includes Estevez, his dad Martin Sheen, Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, William H. Macy, Sharon Stone, Laurence Fishburne, Helen Hunt, Elijah Wood, Lindsay Lohan, Heather Graham, Ashton Kutcher and Christian Slater. (An unknown plays Sirhan.) Meanwhile, the destruction on Wilshire continues. The week-old photo is a from a LiveJournal chronicle by Robert Peate; The Ambassador's Last Stand has a front view from Tuesday.