I caught up last night with E! News for the first time in months. To my surprise, Giuliana DePandi is back in the host's chair (actually, she stands to read the gossip mixed with occasional news.) This time she anchors the show solo, and has been there since some juggling and cost-cutting in January. It wasn't that long ago that I posted she was replaced as co-host by two newcomers, as the network struggled to find worthy successors to Jules Asner and Steve Kmetko. Shortly before that, as a mere correspondent, she had given up her too-precious just Giuliana TV identity and gone back to being Giuliana DePandi, the way she began at E! in 2002. This time around, as you can see, she is not blonde—and also is no longer engaged to actor Jerry O'Connell, who if my celebrity-gossip consumption is up-to-date is spending a lot of time with Rebecca Romijn-Stamos.


Monica Almeida has the perspective of a native Angeleno who photographs Los Angeles for an East Coast newspaper: the New York Times.