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LAT film columnist and Big Picture blogger Patrick Goldstein announced last night that he will be expanding his portfolio: "becoming a pop culture writer, which will allow me to broaden my focus to include two of my other favorite pastimes: sports and politics." The paper's media columnist, James Rainey, will be joining him on the blog. Goldstein:
I think of my job as trying to connect the dots between all the disparate strands of pop culture, so adding sports and politics to the mix just gives me more dots to play with. With Jim on board, you can count on The Big Picture to do an even better job of offering thoughtful analysis and strong opinions. We will be outspoken, we will sometimes be contrarian, but I hope we will never be boring.
* Update: And now the newsroom memo, after the jump.
To: The Staff
From: Sallie Hofmeister, assistant managing editor
Craig Turner, arts and entertainment editor
We are happy to report that Patrick Goldstein, Calendar's outspoken and contrarian columnist and blogger, is expanding his mission under The Big Picture banner. In the new year, Patrick will broaden his focus beyond movies to take on the larger popular culture, connecting the dots as only Patrick can across a landscape that includes not only film, but music, television, advertising, publishing, the Internet and their intersections with sports and politics. The column will move to Sunday Calendar, becoming a signature of the section every week with provocative, insightful commentary. Patrick also will write timely columns off the news when warranted for daily Calendar. Patrick's new mandate will not affect our critics, although it will require some additional coordination by him and his editor, Julie Makinen.
Patrick has proven to be an astute observer of popular culture in writing about Hollywood, movies and the entertainment industry for Calendar over the last 14 years. He also brings to this new assignment a deep understanding of the music industry. Patrick started writing music reviews in high school, worked for Creem magazine as a teenager and went on to write for many other publications, including Rolling Stone, Esquire, Playboy, Vogue and Premiere. He covered music as a freelancer for The Times during the 1980s and 1990s before moving to the movie beat in 1996. He was among the first writers in Calendar to take up the blogging challenge in 2008.
Patrick will continue to blog, and, effective immediately, he will be joined on The Big Picture by On the Media columnist Jim Rainey. Like Patrick, Jim is in the business of making sense of the culture of media. Together, they will give The Big Picture an even larger frame through which to examine the effect of pop culture, media and entertainment on our lives.