Notes

LA Observed Notes: Tur, Tony, Comey, Kelly, Gadot and more

By Kevin Roderick | June 12, 2017 1:22 AM

katy-tur-nyt.jpgPic of NBC's Katy Tur with story in the New York Times. Photo by Sasha Arutyunova for the NYT.


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At the top

If at first the headline doesn't work, try again — and again: The New York Times joined the rush to profile rising NBC star Katy Tur, via the style pages. It gets into her whole Los Angeles news biz origin story and upcoming book on covering the Trump campaign. (Nice photos by Sasha Arutyunova, by the way.) The first NYT headline irked some readers — "Katy Tur Is Tougher Than She Looks" — and the second didn't make critics much happier: "Katy Tur's Swift and Surprising Rise." OK, so they re-wrote the hed again and settled on ‘You Can’t Rattle Her’: Katy Tur on the Rise. She briefly addresses her relationships with Zooey Tur and Keith Olbermann, and if you remember the story angle that she gave up a London apartment and French boyfriend to cover Donald Trump, there's a happy ending. Tur now lives with fiance Tony Dokoupil, the CBS News correspondent.

You try it: alex-honnold.jpgAlex Honnold's feat of climbing Yosemite's El Capitan freehand was appreciated in a New York Times op-ed by climber Daniel Duane and a National Geographic video. "Honnold already had such a reputation for extreme boldness that I was surprised to find a nerdy young man with big ears and brown eyes and an impish impulse to tease — gently, sweetly — anyone burdened by the average human terror of death-by-plummeting."

Another newsstand is going: The magazine stand in the parking lot behind Whole Foods in Brentwood has lost its lease, prompting petitions to save it, with signatures by readers like Dustin Hoffman. Steve Lopez adopted the cause in his Sunday column, but you knew a swipe was coming: "You have to wonder if certain Brentwooders would be lost if, after a Pilates workout, they didn’t have unfettered access to coconut water, hemp hearts and chia pudding." Meanwhile, newsstand sales of magazines dropped 13.5 percent the first quarter of this year.

Prom night: About 300 students from Los Amigos High School took Metrolink from Santa Ana to Union Station for their prom on Saturday night. "For most of the students, this was their first train ride." - OC Register

In the news

Uber board weighs leave of absence for chief executive - NYT
Los Angeles turns out for Resist March and Pride - KPCC
The U.S. and Mexico played to a 1-1 draw in soccer in Mexico City - ESPN
Samantha Geiner testified that she wants legal proceedings dropped against Roman Polanski for raping her. - LAT
Judy Garland's remains moved to Hollywood Forever Cemetery mausoleum - Associated Press
Disneyland guests smeared by massive dump of geese droppings - AP
Snow fell Sunday on Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada - Caltrans

Media notes

NPR has been investigating the deaths in Afghanistan a year ago of its journalists David Gilkey and Zabihullah Tamanna and reports their convoy was targeted for ambush, not the victim of a random attack as first reported.


Ben Platt, Sunday night's Tony winner for best actor in a musical for “Dear Evan Hansen,” is remembered at Harvard-Westlake. Also his life on stage. Bette Midler won best actress in a musical for "Hello, Dolly!" "Dear Evan Hansen" won best musical, "Oslo" won best play. Winners

Roughly 19.5 million Americans tuned in live to watch former FBI director James Comey describe the president as a liar and more. That's about the same number who watched Game 2 of the NBA finals, but doesn't include the audience for PBS, C-Span or Fox broadcasting affiliates that carried the hearing live.

Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott jointly propose their list of the 25 Best Films of the 21st Century. So Far. Watching the reactions online, I'm reminded you can learn a lot about a person by their response to lists like this (or, say, best songs or records.)

CNN's Brian Stelter wonders why President Trump keeps so many secrets. He's acting like a man with a lot to hide... Ivanka Trump will be live on Monday's "Fox & Friends." Think they will go easy on her?

Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post says if you are wondering whether media coverage of Trump is too negative, you’re asking the wrong question.

Next Sunday Megyn Kelly and NBC interview the conspiracy wingnut and Sandy Hook massacre denier Alex Jones as if he's a serious thing. Kelly defends giving Jones the exposure, saying that President Trump has been on and praises Jones's show and that the White House has given his InfoWars a press credential. "Many don't know him; our job is 2 shine a light," she tweets.


Follow-up: Montana Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte will plead guilty to misdemeanor assault for attacking that Guardian reporter.

The new season of "Variety Studio: Actors on Actors" debuts on PBS SoCal Tuesday with back-to-back episodes at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. The lineup in episode one is Thandie Newton with Oprah Winfrey, Kevin Bacon with John Lithgow, Sarah Jessica Parker with Michelle Pfeiffer, Freida Pinto with Milo Ventimiglia and Lauren Graham with Constance Zimmer. Episode two features Nicole Kidman with Ewan McGregor, Millie Bobby Brown with Evan Rachel Wood, Pamela Adlon with Sterling K. Brown, Riz Ahmed with Elisabeth Moss, Brit Marling with Issa Rae and Anthony Anderson with Kaley Cuoco.

Axios, the media startup that is getting good access to the Trump white House, is holding its first Los Angeles editorial event on Wednesday morning, June 14. The subject is brain science, with Axios Science Editor Alison Snyder hosting one-on-one conversations with four experts. Their venue is SmashBox Studio in Culver City.

In response to a "Fox and Friends" suggestion of camps for law-abiding Muslims, the Japanese American National Museum said in a statement: "The Japanese American National Museum condemns recent and ongoing rhetoric calling for the mass incarceration of people of the Muslim faith. Citing the unlawful incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II as a precedent or justification for the unlawful targeting of Muslims, or any other group, demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of one of the most shameful chapters in United States history...We are grateful that representatives of Fox News Channel were explicit in denouncing the idea of camps as 'reprehensible.'"

Good of LA Weekly to fix its traffic controversy story that referred to Playa Vista throughout when it meant Playa del Rey. But now the story says residential Playa del Rey has "recently been dubbed 'Silicon Beach' for its proliferation of tech startups." Look, there's a real traffic issue in PdR, and the tech workers moving into PV are a factor, but it's better for all concerned if local media just stop using Silicon Beach. It doesn't exist in the way you think it does, and certainly not in little Playa del Rey.

CNN Drops Reza Aslan Over His Vulgar Criticism of Trump. Here is Aslan's response.

mummy-seats-ankler.pngRichard Rushfield of the Hollywood newsletter The Ankler observed of "The Mummy" that "technically, a 23 score on Rotten Tomatoes means it’s 23 points higher than it could’ve been; or that critics loved 1 out of every 4 minutes of the film." He also helpfully pointed out to subscribers that "there’s still a few decent seats left at the 9 o’clock in Century City." Click to enlarge.


Media people doing stuff

gwyneth-net-a-porter.jpgGwyneth Paltrow has a staff of 75 at her Goop lifestyle site and fashion label and talks to Net-a-Porter about living back in Los Angeles and why she thinks people react so badly to her... LA Times columnist Chris Erskine writes that his wife is proceeding nicely in her treatment for cancer. "Four months ago, she could barely get up off the couch. Yesterday, she walked five miles just because." Column... Artist Don Bachardy tells the story behind his Capitol portrait of Jerry Brown in the Bee... The LAT's Kate Linthicum got soaked in beer covering the US-Mexico soccer match in Mexico...
Tim Rutten blogs that James Comey’s Testimony Proves Trump is a Thuggish Fixer... Washington Post White House reporter Ashley Parker adds contributing editor to Glamour magazine... Matt Kline succeeds Michael Fleming as president of the KCRW Foundation board... Hannah Dreier, at one time in Sacramento for Associated Press, is leaving AP Caracas for ProPublica to cover immigration.

The Television Academy announced its finalists for Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards — 135 nominations in 45 categories. The winners find out at a dinner on July 22... Washington Post book critics offer 37 books they have loved so far this year... Malcolm Gladwell Polishes His Podcast in a Brooklyn Studio... Former model and actress Paulina Porizkova op-eds for the New York Times that America Made Me a Feminist... Amanda Bynes Reveals She's Three Years Sober and Eying a Return to Acting, in People.

Obituary: Actress Glenne Headly, 'Lonesome Dove' and 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' star, dies at 62 - LA Times

Wonder Woman on Jimmy Fallon

"Wonder Woman" won the box office for the second weekend in a row. Here's the star Gal Gadot telling Jimmy Fallon about her life between Israel and Los Angeles, acting while pregnant and finding out she got the role that is going to change her life.

Politics notes

Sen. Kamala Harris "insists she's not thinking about running for president. But few got that impression after her high-octane performances in nationally televised congressional hearings... One of the state's most risk-averse and cautious politicians appears to be eagerly shedding that profile, emerging as one of the Senate's fiercest critics of the Trump administration." Politico's California Playbook


Polls show Trump's base is starting to erode — and Trump is still keeping a close eye on those polls - Axios

Rep. Adam Schiff: Trump Might Go Down As ‘Worst President in Modern History’” KQED

Tom Steyer, the Democratic megadonor and environmental activist from California, said Congress should immediately begin impeachment proceedings for Trump. Sacto Bee

Thomas J. Barrack, Trump's billionaire Los Angeles buddy, is a "modern-day slumlord" who has taken 31,000 single-family homes off the housing market and now stands to benefit from Trump loosening the rules, says Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting. Update: Barrack cashed out after Reveal's story ran.

Antonio Villaraigosa targets Gavin Newsom as he stumps on Eastside - Michael Finnegan/LAT... He spent 20 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Now he's running for Assembly in LA County. KPCC... The Korean American Democratic Committee, which endorsed Robert Lee Ahn, said in a statement that "We congratulate Congressman-elect Jimmy Gomez as he represents us in Congress, and we look forward to being partners in the fight against Trump and his regressive policies."... Matt Peterson moved to president and CEO of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. He was succeeded as Mayor Garcetti's Chief Sustainability Officer by deputy Lauren Faber O’Connor... Joseph Charney, a former Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, op-eds that the Board of Supervisors needs more press scrutiny. San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Also: Gary Leonard photographed at work by Branimir Kvartuc, communications director for Councilman Joe Buscaino, who is in the pic:
gary-with-buscaino-bk.jpg

Place

• Monday is the 23rd anniversary of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman at Simpson's condo on Bundy Drive in Brentwood. O.J. Simpson was acquitted in the murders and later found civilly liable for the deaths.


• What LA's mumps outbreak tells us about our vaccine policies. - Pacific Standard

• Sinkhole forces month-long closure of Angeles Crest Highway - AP

• Being Sikh in Trump's America: ‘You have to go out of your way to prove you’re not a threat’ - LA Times

• Trina Turk, the fashion and housewares designer, bought and restore a "lost" John Lautner home in Echo Park. - NYT

• A concrete marker on Colorado Boulevard at Holliston Street in Pasadena is a relic from a much earlier time. - Off-Ramp

• How do coyotes thrive in Southern California? Scientists dissect 200-plus carcasses to find clues. - OC Register

• Growing iceberg lettuce in California can be profitable for those who do it, but broccoli is a tougher nut. - Western Farm Produce

• Disneyland opens new Circle D Ranch for its horses in Norco - OC Register

• Nearly 50 Years Later, the Sunset Strip's "Lady Barber" Reveals Her Songwriting Talents - LA Weekly

• The Petersen Automotive Museum will celebrate lowrider culture with show opening July 1: The High Art of Riding Low: Ranflas, Corazón e Inspiración.

• With Hunter Greene of Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks a possible number one pick in Monday's baseball draft (as a shortstop, a pitcher who throws 100 miles an hour or both), here's a new piece by Rob Neyer at the National Pastime Museum on the 1968 Dodgers and the greatest draft class in the history of the game.

Marine layer explained

nws-marine-layer.jpg From the National Weather Service office for Los Angeles. Click to see bigger.


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