Will anyone listen to new controller?
What won what wherePublishers Lunch brings word that actress Teri Garr is writing a memoir that will include her current battle with multiple sclerosis. She's calling it Does This Wheelchair Make Me Look Fat? L.A. Observed usually doesn't mention random celeb encounters (this is L.A. after all), but when Garr struggled into the Daily Grill in Brentwood on a Saturday night a few weeks ago, it was kind of touching to hear people wishing her well.
Also in Publishers Lunch, Los Angeles teacher Alan Sitomer's self-published young adult novel The Hoopster has been picked up by Hyperion-Disney.
Peter Biskind, author of the current hot book on Miramax and independent film, has a piece on today's L.A. Times op-ed page on why the Weinsteins got stiffed in the Oscar nominations.
This is Writers Week at UC Riverside. Ursula K. Le Guin is the keynote speaker, and there's a whole bunch of stuff going on (press release is here). Organizer Susan Straight, the author and UCR creative writing professor, was on KPCC with Kitty Felde Monday (listen to the segment here).
Thursday on "Bookworm" (KCRW, 2:30 p.m.), Elmore Leonard comes on with Michael Silverblatt to talk about Mr. Paradise.