Weekly archive
March 21 - March 27, 2010
Friday, Mar. 26
Variety columnist Brian Lowry must have been amused by Nikki Finke's claim that the new owners of The Hollywood Reporter included a $1 million home in Malibu as part of an offer to get her to come on as editor in chief (with a salary of $450,000.) From Lowry's BLTv blog.
Turns out that Willie Brown is more than an ex-Speaker and ex-Mayor who writes a lively California politics column for the San Francisco Chronicle.
The recent onslaught of announcements about new ventures in local news media, leading with The Entryway around MacArthur Park — and my visit this week to a class at USC Annenberg — inspire today's LA Observed Friday commentary on KCRW. Keyword: optimism.
Suzanne Rico, who lost her job last week as morning co-anchor on Channel 2, distributed an open letter that clarifies how it happened.
The City Administrative Officer was arrested by the California Highway Patrol about 12:15 this morning in Covina after attending last night's Los Angeles Political Roast downtown. Santana, who was driving his city car when arrested, issued a written statement through the mayor's office this afternoon saying he would seek counseling.
Even higher DWP rates now envisioned, Nikki Finke and the Hollywood Reporter don't agree on what she was offered, a longer Gold Line, dark days at Channel 35 and more.
Thursday, Mar. 25
Robert J. Cottle, a member of the LAPD's SWAT unit, is the first active Los Angeles police officer to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Cottle, 45, was a Sergeant Major with a United States Marine Corps Reserve battalion from Camp Pendleton. He was in the Marja region on Wednesday when a roadside bomb killed him and another Marine.
The Time magazine that hits print tomorrow will have a piece by Steve Oney on Andrew Breitbart, the Brentwood-based right-wing media impresario and culture war provocateur. The story covers the rise of Breitbart's website empire and his driving passion to conquer liberal influence on American culture and politics.
After finding out that he was being let go after 22 years at ABC News, Los Angeles correspondent Brian Rooney talked to Michael Schneider at Variety'sOn the Air blog and said he kind of saw the end coming.
Variety Editor Tim Gray has been telling studio PR types that if they give casting scoops to the online competition, the paper won't run their big announcement stories in print. Plus: Nikki Finke for sale again?
Now 54, the doyenne of Los Angeles punk band X — called by Robert Hilburn "not just one of the greatest female rockers, but one of the greatest musical figures, period" — still does shows and lives quietly in Orange County. Scott Martelle profiles Cervenka in Orange Coast magazine's April issue.
Daily Journal editor David Houston breaks the news that the California Real Estate Journal will close, and reminds reporters to come to work on time.
Journalist Adolfo Guzman-Lopez went down to the Central Library for a panel discussion of this year's Big Read selection for Los Angeles, "Sun, Stone, and Shadows," a new collection of short stories by Mexican writers. Attendance was sparse and he left discouraged that "independent cultural events and arts spaces...are now on the endangered species list."
In case you doubt the importance that both political parties put on activating and exploiting bloggers, here's an example. It's an email LA Observed just received from the
Director of Online Media Outreach at the House Republican Conference.
Betty Pleasant is best known as the colorfully opinionated Soulvine political columnist for the Wave newspapers that circulate across the southern swath of Los Angeles. This week, though, she writes as the mother of an autistic adult reacting to the police shooting of 27-year-old Steven Washington, who was unarmed and autistic.
The pot initiative makes the November ballot, support for same-sex marriage reaches 50%, DA Steve Cooley to be roasted, the Burbank teacher pleads no contest and 300 tickets written in one Downtown swoop.
Wednesday, Mar. 24
Marshall had the inside access and the eye to shoot some of the most iconic images of rock and roll musicians
Greggory Moore writes at LBPost.com that he was the first and last copy editor at The District Weekly, and was steadily involved as a contributing writer for the last two years
Larry Roberts, hired away last spring from the Washington Post to run the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, is leaving for Bloomberg News.
Variety is "in search of a full-time NY-based reporter to cover finance and entertainment," Variety.com editor Chris Krewson posts on his Twitter feed.
At 2:30 this afternoon, the Los Angeles Fire Department will supervise
the full evacuation of the Aon Building, the 62-story tower at Wilshire and Hope that was known as the First Interstate Tower when a fire broke out on the 12th floor in 1988.
A big rent hike and the desire by the landlord to break up the space at the south end of Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade looks like it spells the end, the Santa Monica Daily Press says.
Rooney's contract won't be renewed, part of a network staff trimming that includes Laura Marquez in San Francisco and that TV Newser says is expected to reach 300-400 by the end of the year.
The San Fernando Valley Fair used to be a pretty big community affair — with horse racing, rodeo events, and barns full of sheep and rabbits raised by 4-H kids in their backyards — that kept alive the Valley's equestrian and agricultural tradition.
City Council asserts itself on the DWP rates, California's algebra experiment not working, The Standard pays for pouring pool chemicals down the drain, plus Meg Whitman, Jerry Brown, Lee Baca, Walter Karabian and more.
Tuesday, Mar. 23
Tina Dupuy at Fishbowl L.A. says the runners she has heard from had tons of horror stories about pre-race traffic, the course and the experience for runners after they finished the race. Especially the traffic.
We can probably close the books on this year's local rain season, JPL meteorologist Bill Patzert says in an email exchange picked up by Emily Green, the ace water blogger at Chance of Rain.com.
Lots of interesting stuff going on, from the in-box in recent days.
The Times got it wrong. The Dodgers' own website did too — misspelling the name of farmhand Jamie Hoffmann. Notice the two
n's at the end of his name? New LA Observed contributor Bob Timmerma
nn did, but then he would.
Stefano Tonchi, the editor of T: The New York Times Style Magazine, has jumped to Conde Nast as the editor of W.
Baca goes right back at it after D.C. dustup, Whitman's spending, Jerry Brown's old apartment, LAist's owner close to sale and Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle awards. Plus more, of course.
Monday, Mar. 22
The New York Times' new Timescast, hosted by former L.A. Times Washington and state editor Jane Bornemeier, will include coverage of the NYT's daily page one news meeting. Link...
Of the three food writers nationally who are finalists in the top journalism category of this year's James Beard Foundation awards — Craig Clairborne Distinguished Restaurant Reviews — two are from L.A.: Patric Kuh of Los Angeles magazine and Jonathan Gold of LA Weekly.
Johnny Mountain retires as part of the KCBS/KCAL turnover, Trutanich won't cut pay, Speaker Perez's low district profile, a dirty trick aimed at Gavin Newsom, a Times arts hire and a birth in the media family.
I couldn't believe recently how bad the empty lot at 1st and Broadway looks — a deep pit filling with rancid- looking water and overgrown with weeds a block from City Hall.
Yeah, anybody who believed in the fairy tale that Eric Gagne would return to the Dodgers bullpen can move on now. He asked for and was given his release Sunday....
Sunday, Mar. 21
Ferber, the Hollywood Bowl's longtime production supervisor and special events manager, provided the voice that greeted concert-goers: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Hollywood Bowl."
