Weekly archive
December 10 - December 16, 2006
Friday, Dec. 15
Judith Regan, publisher of the terminated O.J. Simpson book, was abruptly fired tonight by HarperCollins. The company announced the dismissal, “effective immediately,” in a news release issued about 7 p.m....
U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose barred further executions in California, saying the state procedure for lethal injection "lacks both reliability and transparency." Superior Court Judge Dzintra...
The list of co-chairs for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's inaugural includes leading California Democrats Pelosi, Feinstein, Boxer, Villaraigosa and Núñez — and even a few Republicans such as Pete Wilson...
When Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally got in trouble recently over issuing fake badges to friends and campaign contributors, he called the fellow Democrat who was assigned to investigate, Hector De La...
Radio hype or actual anger allowed to get on their air? Never can tell with KFI. Morning angry man Bill Handel did not like that 98.7's Jamie White shooed his...
The website immediately slows down to molasses. Hearst's purchase includes the Palos Verdes Peninsula News, The Beach Reporter and More San Pedro. Dean Singleton's MediaNews will operate all of the...
Video blogger Jacob Soboroff uploaded from last night's Clippers' game, chatting in the floor seats with #1 fan "Clipper" Darrell Bailey and courtside at Staples Center with Bob Baker, the...
Big serving of politics, media and police beat items for a Friday — plus another reason to avoid 7-11 and more. All nicely hidden away below the jump. Click...
Harvey Levin, who covered the O.J. Simpson legal circus for CBS 2, has some observations over at TMZ.com on Brian (Kato) Kaelin, who lived in a guest house on Simpson's...
Hollywood Today calls itself a "newsmagazine, with attitude...we cover the world of entertainment in all its multimedia glory, from screens and stages large and small." The site has been active...
Thursday, Dec. 14
The founder of Atlantic Records died today in New York. Ertegun fell at an Oct. 29 concert by the Rolling Stones and later slipped into a coma. He will be...
Chief William Bratton says in the LAT that the department is investigating the former deputy chief in charge of internal affairs over allegations that he exchanged preferential treatment and promotions...
AmericanLife TV is a "network for baby boomers" showing up on the new channel alignment for Time Warner Cable. Its selling point is old series' like "The Honeymooners,” “The Man...
Laura Mecoy, the Sacramento Bee's Los Angeles reporter, weighs in today with a longish piece on L.A. transit pegged to the revived talk of a subway out Wilshire Boulevard. Mayor...
Jill Leovy covers homicide and the police for the L.A. Times, often in South Los Angeles. She writes today at Salon.com that the recent uptick in murder stats and spreading...
Readers of The Envelope in yesterday's Times might have thought that Calendar staffer in New York Paul Lieberman's interview with Martin Scorsese was timely. It was all framed around the...
Babel leads Golden Globe nominations If you own a movie or worked on one, you should care. Otherwise... List State Sen. Alex Padilla has brain surgery The day after...
Tribune has neither accepted nor rejected David Geffen's all-cash offer last month to buy the Los Angeles Times, a source tells the paper's James Rainey. Also: Rainey reports that ousted...
This is kind of fun: Bonhams and Butterfields' big auction Sunday of Hollywood materials includes papers that Warren Beatty apparently abandoned in a New York hotel suite in the late...
Wednesday, Dec. 13
Hearst filed a legal document today that says it will buy the South Bay Daily Breeze from Copley, then sell the Breeze to Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group along with the...
Curbed LA has the skinny and the renderings of the proposed new Midtown Crossing where Pico, Venice and San Vicente come together. Lowe's will anchor. Lots of comments on what...
Active members of homeowner and residents' group live in a world of acronyms and nettlesome neighborhood issues. In their honor, here's the Christmas carol that was sung at the holiday...
No, not Allen Iverson — not yet anyway. LA Observed contributor Bob Baker has taken over from Rick Cipes as the official, paid Clippers blogger at LATimes.com. He'll be spending...
Randy Alcorn, chief financial officer for the News-Press for 23 years, was escorted out of the building just before he could quit in exasperation with Wendy McCaw. Alcorn told his...
The author and screenwriter contributed a blog entry on Condoleezza Rice to the Huffington Post over the weekend that begins: I met Condoleezza Rice last weekend. She was much prettier...
Dean Baquet told his younger brother Terry (right) that he was being ousted as editor of the Los Angeles Times on Oct. 31, seven days before the Wall Street Journal...
Bill Booth, the Washington Post Style section's writer in Los Angeles, is on a roll. Last week it was the 99-tuba salute for Tommy Johnson, today's it's a nice piece...
Chandler family trying to buy the Times They could be the worst option yet for editorial quality. The Chandlers who are left are mostly the former John Birchers and...
A quartet of Hollywood old hands — Patrick Goldstein and John Horn of the LAT and Sharon Waxman and Laura Holson of the NYT — agreed last night at Zócalo's...
Tuesday, Dec. 12
L.A. journalist Mona Gable has stirred up a storm at the Huffington Post with a post reacting to her 16-year-old son receiving mail from the National Guard, the same week...
Michael Buchanan, the security guard who stabbed an intruder at the Beverly Hills home of celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson, is an ex-Rampart Area officer who was fired from the LAPD...
Dodgers bullpen closer Eric Gagne has agreed to a one-year deal with the Texas Rangers for $6 million, pending a physical. He actually only closed for three healthy seasons in...
The Teamsters union is trying again to organize in the L.A. Times pressroom, and new publisher David Hiller has taken to the web to urge employees to vote no. I...
City of Future winner to be announced The contest sponsored by the American Institute of Architects challenged top architecture firms and students to design a 22nd Century Los Angeles....
Both Felipe Fuentes and Cindy Montañez have been persuaded to drop out of the 7th council district special election and make way for Richard Alarcon. I assume Fuentes will now...
Records containing the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of students, faculty, employees and some applicants since the early 1990s may have been accessed. The online intrusion went on...
Monday, Dec. 11
I've switched the color of links here on News & Chatter to black, hoping to cut down on the cacophony of dark red (closer to brown on some monitors) that...
My cover story on Antonio Villaraigosa's first eighteen months as mayor has gone online at the still-in-transition Los Angeles magazine website. The piece delves into the roots of the mayor's...
Remember this spring when the Los Angeles Times announced with some fanfare that it was devoting three staffers, two front-section pages and some design energy to giving readers a brighter...
The slogan at Netty's is "serving Silverlake before it was hip." Well, no longer. Netty's, which brought takeout "California Comfort Food" to the corner of Silver Lake Boulevard and Effie...
The New York Film Critics Circle today voted United 93 their best film of the year. Martin Scorsese was deemed best director for The Departed. Anne Thompson has more at...
One day after ABC featured LAPD officer Kristina Ripatti on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Chief William Bratton sent out an update on all the officers who are living with serious...
If you saw the SUV barreling the wrong way in the carpool lane on the 134 early this morning, first, congratulations for not getting killed. Second, the SUV driver who's...
On today's New York Times op-ed page, USC Annenberg professor emeritus Murray Fromson for the first time discloses the source of his 1967 report for CBS that a top American...
They are refining the masthead titles at Variety. The winner seems to be Michael Speier (pictured), who has been named executive editor of news for Variety and Daily Variety. He...
L.A. film critics pick 'Iwo Jima' Clint Eastwood's World War II drama Letters From Iwo Jima won the best movie nod from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, less...
Sunday, Dec. 10
It was a good week for scooplets, links and smart posts by LA Observed contributors at large in the city — here's my dozen-plus-some for catching up on what you...
