Sure enough, my pals at Los Angeles have somehow come out with another monthly issue — this one containing the magazine's first Walk of Shame Awards. I don't have time these days to contribute many pieces, but LA Observed is well represented in December by Mark Lacter. Here's the rundown note from editor Kit Rachlis:
What better way to celebrate the end of 2007 than to poke fun at the pretensions and foibles of L.A.’s most famous (notorious?) public figures? To put it differently, when we decided to produce our first Walk of Shame Awards for the December issue, Paris, Lindsey, Nicole, Britney — not to mention Antonio — were the gifts that kept on giving. Also this month, writer-at-large J.R. Moehringer profiles USC football coach Pete Carroll in his season of distress — or, more accurately, explains why he can’t profile Carroll in his season of distress. (You’ll have to read the piece to understand.) In addition, contributor Richard Zoglin, in an excerpt from Comedy at the Edge, tells how in the 1970s club owner Mitzi Shore helped create — and nearly derail — what became the modern comedy scene; contributor Mark Lacter chronicles the crash of Amp’d Mobile, the worst local tech collapse since the dot-com boom; critic Patric Kuh weighs in on the recently reopened Bastide, once considered the best restaurant in the city; style director Laurie Pike explores the rarefied world of L.A. haute couture; film critic Steve Erickson looks back on Bob Dylan as he considers I’m Not There, director Todd Haynes’s unconventional bio pic; senior writer Steve Oney takes cover girl Hilary Swank to a jazz club; and, just in time for the holiday season, our staff identifies the city’s 26 best one-stop gift shops. Plus much more.
Also in December: Radar looks at plastic surgery in Hollywood, focusing on the "insane pressures, elaborate subterfuges, and costs of playing the perfection game." The magazine speculates that Speaker Nancy Pelosi had work done, and in a piece called Scar Wars imagines new looks for Adrien Brody, Meryl Streep, Kirsten Dunst and other celebs.