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The mayor plans to make some news on the NFL front—and throw a kiss to "The Bold and the Beautiful"—all in the same day. Click on the Morning Buzz to learn how things aren't going so smoothly for the Grand Avenue skyscraper scheme that got all of the hype yesterday, Chris Rock's link to Pellicano, a new hire at the Daily News, author news and oh so much more.
♦ Hate crimes: Gov. Schwarzenegger disclosed Monday that Mayor Villaraigosa and Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante have received death threats. The mayor confirmed it for KCAL-9 but offered no details and seemed unconcerned.
♦ NFL in L.A.: Mayor Villaraigosa has scheduled a 10:30 am "major announcement" with the Coliseum Commission to discuss plans to improve the stadium to help attract a football team. At noon he swings by CBS to "deliver remarks and
present a commendation to Bradley P. Bell, Head Writer and Executive Producer of 'The Bold and the Beautiful.'"
♦ OJR on Hiltzik: The Online Journalism Review asks, Can newspapers do blogs right?
♦ Today in Pellicano: Chris Rock's "representatives" hired the private eye to dig up dirton Monika Zsibrita after the model pushed a paternity claim, the L.A. Times reports.
♦ Grand questions: The Daily News says tax breaks will be needed to entice a top hotel to the Grand Avenue skyscraper district, just like at the Anschutz hotel project near Staples Center. Also, turns out there won't be an art house on Grand because no theaters are interested, and so far In-N-Out Burger, Trader Joe's and Barnes & Noble have said no too, the Times reports.
"The chains aren't interested yet," said Warren Cooley, project director of the Historic Downtown Retail Project, a city-funded endeavor to attract businesses downtown. "There's not enough population and critical mass. There are still challenges. The homeless issue on the street is a concern when real estate investigators from big chains look. That's sometimes something that concerns them." Rick Caruso, the developer behind the Grove and several other highly successful shopping centers in Southern California, said he is taking a wait-and-see approach to downtown. "We've looked at downtown a lot, and I have not been able to answer the primary question of who is my customer on evenings and weekends," he said.
♦ Somber moment: Wilshire Boulevard was closed briefly on Monday as up to 2,500 Armenian Americans demonstrated outside the Conde Nast building at McCarthy Vista. They weren't there to protest the magazines; the building also houses the Turkish consulate and Monday was the date when Armenians commemorate the genocide that began in 1915.
♦ Lost episodes: There will be extra pay for creating "mobisodes" of the hit TV show "Lost" under a deal announced Monday by the Writers Guild, Directors Guild and SAG. LAT, Variety, THR
♦ Different mornings at KKBT: John Salley is out.
♦ May 1: Planning locally for the big boycott.
♦ Fighting tickets: Highwayrobbery.net is a website outraged by the use of red light cameras to write traffic tickets.
♦ Daily News hire: Barbara Correa returns to the DN in Sunday Business, under a schedule that accommodates her motherhood.
♦ Festival of Books week: Hillary Carlip of the essay site Fresh Yarn has a packed-with-stuff new website up for her book being released today, Queen of the Oddballs: And Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan. Capsule self-description: "Hilariously offbeat memoir about an adventurous young woman's escapades as she defies conventions and transforms an ordinary Los Angeles life into a star-studded, extraordinary miracle of self-discovery."
♦ Author author: LAist interviews novelist Nina Revoyr, who is also a VP at the Children's Institute.
♦ New on the L.A. author roll: Christopher Meeks, whose collection of short fiction is The Middle Aged Man and the Sea.
♦ Hat in the ring: Former Riordan aide Alexander Rosas is running for the Alhambra City Council.
♦ Clippers win: They are up 2-0 in their NBA playoff series with Denver.