Weekly archive
April 22 - April 28, 2007
Saturday, Apr. 28
Couple of additions to the lineup of LA Observed contributors at this weekend's L.A. Times Festival of Books at UCLA. Veronique de Turenne has been added as moderator of the...
Friday, Apr. 27
The Times has shown laudable sensitivity to the story of transsexual sports writer Mike Penner making the transformation to Christine Daniels, but not so much the publisher of the Times-owned...
The 12-screen Landmark opens in five weeks at Pico and Westwood, in the annex to Westside Pavilion. It will be the flagship of the Landmark theater chain, featuring indie fare,...
Tonight's show is the last, at least for now. "After five seasons and 154 shows from Yreka in the north to Baja in the south to the Eastern Sierras of...
Just before jurors returned a verdict yesterday in a breach-of-contract case involving the creators of the NBC sitcom "Will & Grace," lawyers for the network revealed that the jury foreman...
Sen. Dianne Feinstein's opposition on behalf of neighbors posed too great an obstacle and the FBI will look for another location to build its new L.A.-area headquarters. The feds had...
Mike Penner's column announcing his transition to Christine Daniels is already one of the most viewed LATimes.com stories of the past year, the paper says today in an interview with...
Not to say there's no news, it just won't be here. Morning Buzz returns Monday....
Thursday, Apr. 26
This week's Santa Barbara Independent jumps all over News-Mess owner Wendy McCaw and her people's team of lawyers (which now includes Marty Singer) for the weekend smear of ex-editor Jerry...
Once around the LA Observed blogs: Jenny Price writes at Native Intelligence that since the Virginia Tech tragedy, friends have been checking in with her a lot and asking if...
Snakeskin Shamesin, third in the series of Naomi Hirahara's novels set in Southern California that feature Japanese-American gardener Mas Arai, won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America...
Well, just in the monologue "The Tonight Show" emails out: Here's an interesting local story, a L.A. Times sportswriter, Mike Penner...a very good sports writer, has announced he's undergoing a...
Editor Jim O'Shea has emailed the L.A. Times staff a response to all the hubbub about Mark Arax and whether or not a story was killed because of concerns that...
Publicist and friend Warren Cowan made the announcement that Jack Valenti, the former head of the Motion Picture Association of America, died this afternoon. He had been in ill...
A few years ago Baseball Prospectus managing editor Christina Kahrl went through what Mike Penner wrote about this morning. She has been counseling the Times sports writer, who will be...
The May issue profiles Mario Lavandeira, who is the celebrity blogger known as Perez Hilton, asks some questions of Channel 2's Laura Diaz and visits with Wicked's Eden Espinoza. The...
Nah, but the LA Weekly's Daniel Hernandez adds good new details in the dispute we reported Tuesday between Times managing editor Doug Frantz and West magazine staff writer Mark Arax....
Plenty of news and notes today, just lurking beyond the jump....
Veteran L.A. Times sports writer Mike Penner writes in today's paper that he will return from vacation in a few weeks as Christine Daniels. He lays out his personal journey...
Wednesday, Apr. 25
A local television legend of sorts, and LA Observed oldie but goodie, returned tonight to the Los Angeles airwaves — and now to the blogosphere. Sharon Tay co-anchored the "KTLA...
It's rare for Esa-Pekka Salonen to be mentioned and pictured here twice in a year, let alone twice in the span of a few days. Or to have two mentions...
David Halberstam was to be in Los Angeles tomorrow night for a featured conversation with Times columnist Tim Rutten at the Jewish Federation's annual legal dinner. In his place, federation...
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has charged Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis with one count of misdemeanor sexual battery for allegedly touching an 18-year-old woman on the breast, buttocks and...
The Wall Street Journal and USA Today will report slight bumps up in circulation next week, but the Orange County Register will be down more than 5%, Editor & Publisher...
There's no point in asking Times newsroom staffers people to clean up their desks, Channel 2 style — clutter there is so far gone that fire inspectors have come through...
Hoping to lure in some new fans, the LA Opera will sell every seat in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for $20 at two performances next month. Tickets go on sale...
Books editor David Ulin is scheduled to discuss the changes in the Times Sunday Book Review, the situation at the paper and this weekend's LAT Festival of Books with host...
Here's a little news bite to get the day going....
Tuesday, Apr. 24
The L.A. Times Sacramento bureau is looking to bring in a new body to help cover Gov. Schwarzenegger. Here's how the offer went out to the newsroom: From: Janet Clayton,...
A dispute that has been quietly bubbling in the Times newsroom went public today when the publisher of the California Courier demanded that LAT managing editor Doug Frantz be fired...
It's Adam Gorfain, a 41 year old senior producer for "Dateline NBC" at the NBC News studios in Burbank, according to sometime NBC ABC independent investigative producer Eric Longabardi on...
Kevin Modesti, a columnist at the Daily News, becomes the first sports editor of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group chain. This means he oversees the increasingly shared sports coverage of...
A spot of news to start the day, tucked away after the jump....
Monday, Apr. 23
The author and journalist was involved in a three-car crash this morning near the Dumbarton Bridge in San Mateo County, according to AP stories out of Menlo Park and San...
Now that channels 2 and 9 reside in their new shared newsroom in Studio City, news director Nancy Bauer-Gonzales has removed the ban on eating and drinking at desks. But—staffers...
Howard Larman and his wife Roz started their folk music show in 1970. Folkscene may be the oldest program on Los Angeles radio. Howard passed away over the weekend. Roz...
I'm talking about today's Times news with guest host Jon Beaupre on KPCC's "Patt Morrison," after the NPR news at 2 pm. Update: Times Publisher David Hiller and USC Annenberg...
That was a little 3.1 earthquake at 12:30, centered just northwest of San Fernando. Here in Westwood, some in the same office did feel it and some (me included) didn't....
Times editor Jim O'Shea follows up the publisher's memo with a missive of his own, asking the newsroom to have faith and saying he understands anger over Tribune execs receiving...
As reported last week, the Times offers a buyout to most employees and will take 150. Long-term employees can receive up to a year's pay. An unstated number of positions,...
William Booth of the Washington Post phoned up the new Pulitzer Prize winner and offered to buy him a meal at the spot of his choosing. It's the fun read...
The race-track fixture handicapped most recently for the Long Beach Press-Telegram and other LA News Group papers. He had planned to retire yesterday, at the end of Santa Anita's season,...
First glance at the news is down below the fold, along with a look back at the weekend....
Sunday, Apr. 22
Erika Schickel and myself (along with Times columnist Al Martinez) were the guests on KABC 790 AM's show "Spotlight on the Community" this morning talking with hosts Nelkane Benton and...
Some review-worthy posts from the past week at LA Observed... Villaraigosa's school bill was dealt a near-fatal blow at the appeals court, leading to some cooler press handling for the...
Wendy McCaw's News-Press ran a front page story today alleging that 15,000 pornographic images, including child porn, were found last summer on the computer hard drive of the former editor...
Last week the staff of Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald put out the word that she would take a leave of absence to recuperate from an unstated form of cancer. Now AP...
