Afternoon snackage

♦ Answer: Mayor Villaraigosa, Sheriff Baca, Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, Magic Johnson, Natalie Cole, Johnny Grant and Councilman Tom LaBonge. Question: Who shows up when Channel 2's Jim Hill gets a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? Ceremony is tomorrow at 11:15 am in front of the Hollywood and Highland complex.
♦ Michael Walker has a website and blog going for his new book, Laurel Canyon: The Inside Story of Rock-and-Roll's Legendary Neighborhood. Book got a good review in yesterday's LAT.
♦ Jason Leopold's not-quite-cancelled book News Junkie is out too, with a website: "How a man once fueled by raging fear and self-hatred transforms his life, regenerated by love, sobriety and a new, harmonious career with the independent media."
♦ McDonald's is not so happy about the LAT's story this morning blaming concern about obesity for Disney deciding to end a promotion deal. Both sides are pooh-poohing the story; Mickey D says the decision was mutual and made two years ago.
♦ "California Connected" put up a new website, including host Lisa McRee's blog.
♦ Part two of Jenny Price's essay "Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in Los Angeles" is in the May issue of The Believer. (Here's part one from April.) Excerpt: "Has any city engendered more enthusiastic myth-mongering? In L.A.’s special, unstoppable, even psychotic tradition of storytelling, we’ve tended to state the powerful vision of nature as a place apart, like most grand American tales, in especially dramatic style. After all, who asks, 'Is there nature in New York?' or 'Is there nature in Chicago?'"
♦ Chairman Jeff Smulyan wants to take Emmis Communications Corp. (owner of Los Angeles magazine and KPWR) private.
♦ Lawyer and MTA director David Fleming was elected chairman of the California Center for Regional Leadership, succeeding David Abel.
♦ Gustavo Arellano of OC Weekly has sold two books to Scribner: an expansion of his “Ask a Mexican!” column in the Weekly and a history of Orange County pegged to his family’s four-generation history there. On today's LAT op-ed page, he calls Orange County "the Mexican-bashing capital of the United States."
♦ David Ehrenstein pays blog tribute to Richard Rouilard, the former editor of The Advocate (and editor at the Herald Examiner and LAT) who died ten years ago today from "complications of AIDS."
♦ Yeah, the Daily News will want to correct this chronology gaffe from this morning's paper: "In 1994, then-Los Angeles City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa was elected to represent the 45th Assembly District and rose to the rank of speaker...." He didn't get to the council until nine years later.