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Check out the Forbes piece on a bogus L.A. billionaire... Congressman Gallegly isn't feeling so bad after all, but Dario Frommer looks a little ill...The Times stiffs the Business Journal and the Jewish Journal...Plans for LNG off of Malibu...plus a Maggie nomination for Los Angeles and items on Canter's, Kevin Thomas and Raymond Chandler—along with a lot more. Just turn the page...
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♦ One elusive L.A. billionaire: Jacques Cowell, 19, claimed in press releases posted on PR.com to be the heir to a $4.3 billion inheritance making him “one of the youngest African-American billionaires in the world.” He also claimed to live at a Beverly Boulevard address that doesn't exist, Forbes magazine reports.
The last statement said he was a grandson of the deceased John Cowell, described as an early executive of Marriott International and Apple Compute. That’s news to both firms--whose names were misspelled. Also bogus: a claim Cowell is designing a cell phone line for Sprint ...The last contact phone number isn’t working. Assorted individuals named as press reps or agents are--like Cowell--hard to find. Various listed philanthropies aren’t registered with the obvious authorities. Then there’s the assertion he started nonprofit good deeds ten years ago--that would be at age 9--and has been a spokesman for “over 377 charity foundations.” Standard news databases contain no mentions of him. Acknowledging the many falsities, PR.com President Jason Manheim admits his Levittown, N.Y. firm did absolutely no due diligence and now has no idea who was behind the posted material.
♦ Awful hit-and-run in Culver City: A teacher at Turning Point School was killed and eight students hurt when a car jumped the curb. The driver and passenger were reportedly scuffling when the crash occured.
One witness said the pair climbed out through a car window and stepped over the fallen teacher as they ran off. Police said Samayoa told them that she and her boyfriend had been arguing and that he grabbed the steering wheel, forcing the car onto the sidewalk. She was arrested shortly after leaving the scene.
♦ That Ferrari Enzo crash on PCH? Probably videotaped by the occupants of the speeding car, police now think.
♦ Never mind: Rep. Elton Gallegly isn't quitting his reelection race for health reasons after all, now that the president has decided that the Republican agenda needs him.
With midterm elections in November, party leaders were anxious about keeping the seat safely in Republican hands, Gallegly said. He said that concern went all the way to the president, who sent word urging him to get back into the race. "If the president asks you, you don't take that lightly," he said....At the hastily called news conference at the Capitol Hill Club near the U.S. Capitol, Gallegly declined to identify the medical issues that led to his earlier decision. But he said that he met with Capitol attending physician John Eisold earlier Wednesday for about an hour and was assured that he was "100% good to go."
♦ Him too: Democratic Assemblyman Dario Frommer says he won't be running for state controller this year after all. "Family obligations," he says. Same family he had when he said he would run, presumably.
♦ Tuesday's news today: The Times follows up the LABJ's news that the Capitol Records tower is for sale, without crediting the weekly. The big boys also chase the Jewish Journal's Soto-Michigan JCC story, again without nodding to how they got on the story (and without the Journal's added nugget that the property owner says he did tell his plans to one city office, that of then-councilman Antonio Villarigosa.
♦ Here's another: Since the LAT is taking story hints, what's up with the Park Plaza? I'm told a banner on the ornate former Elks club beside MacArthur Park—possibly the city's most-filmed interior aside from City Hall's third floor rotunda and hallway—says the historic-cultural monument is in escrow.
♦ Catch of the Day: Dwayne Booth, who draws as Mr. Fish, posts a daily cartoon blog for the LA Weekly. He's going to start a weekly animated film on the paper's website as well.
♦ Up for an Ellie: Jesse Katz's piece "The Recruit," which appeared in the March 2005 issue of Los Angeles, is a finalist in the profile category of the National Magazine Awards.
♦ Offshore plans: An Australian company wants to place a liquified natural gas terminal in the Pacific 22 miles off the coast of Malibu, then run the LNG into shore via a pipeline that will surface near LAX.
♦ Party time: Tonight is the American Diabetes Association's Roast the Mayor dinner at the Century Plaza.
♦ Life after the Times: Kevin Thomas, the bought-out former LAT film reviewer is said to be starting a monthly screening series for the American Cinematheque at the Aero in Santa Monica. Source says that Kevin Thomas' Top 10 will debut with Night of the Hunter. And longtime editorial writer Judy Dugan, who also took a buyout, has landed at Harvey Rosenfield's Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights.
♦ What will 75 cents buy?: At Canter's on March 20, it will get you a corned beef sandwich on rye, pickle, chocolate chip rugula and a schmear of potato salad to celebrate the Fairfax Avenue landmark's 75th anniversary.
♦ Cash flow: James Flanigan's Entrepreneurial Edge column in the New York Times looks at the demand for new banks catering to the Los Angeles Latino market.
♦ In retort: After being targeted by a sarcastic blog rant at LAVoice.org, Times of London correspondent Chris Ayres refers to Mack Reed as "a very angry cyclist."
♦ An earful: CityBeat's Joe Piasecki covered the Daily News community meeting to hear from Latinos what the paper could do better.
♦ Giving credit: The Raymond Chandler Square signs at Hollywood and Cahuenga boulevards (recently replaced) owe their existence to pressure from Jess Bravin, now the U.S. Supreme Court reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He's also the author of a book on imprisoned Manson family follower Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme.