Politics

Getaway day shorts

Here are some items from the week. Posting over the weekend will be sporadic at best.

• Los Angeles magazine celebrated this month's comedy issue last night with drinks, schmoozing and stand-up at the Henry Fonda Theatre. Rodney Perry, Dom Irrera, Zach Galifianakis, Maria Bamford and Jay Phillips told jokes, while Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Paul Feig, Andy Kindler and MadTV's Alex Borstein and Debra Wilson looked on. Also in the room were Arianna Huffington, literary agent Betsy Amster and author-USC professor Barry Glassner, Jewish Journal editor-in-chief Rob Eshman and columnist Teresa Strasser, Times op-ed editor Nick Goldberg and national correspondent Richard E. Meyer, author David Ulin, Distinction editor Adam Jacobson and LA.com editor-in-chief Laurie Pike, who blogged about it.

• LA.com also covered a party for Life and Style magazine last night at the Montmartre Lounge in Hollywood. LA.com has its own Summer Soiree coming up June 8 in the Blue Ribbon Garden at Disney Hall.

• SmoochersRonFineman.com calls Fox-11's Kimberly Kristin Holt "a total joke as a reporter." Here she is being kissed by Simon Cowell during her report on the final episode of "American Idol." The website also notes that Channel 2's ratings at 11 p.m. are down since Johnny Mountain signed on as the weathercaster, and says the biggest rating news is that Channel 7 fell to third place at 11 p.m.

• Santa Monica city councilman Kevin McKeown quit the Green Party this week, citing the Greens' "ongoing inability to file legally required political donation and expenditure records for a number of checks..." That is a reference to some murky dealings involving fellow Santa Monica official Michael Feinstein. The Santa Monica Lookout trolls the depths of the story.

• An account of being mugged on the subway and dropped off, battered, at King-Drew. Spotted at blogging.la.

• The San Francisco Bay Guardian reports on rumors — strictly rumors — of merger talks between alt-weekly powers Village Voice Media (owner of LA Weekly) and New Times.

• Sen. Hillary Clinton comes to town next week for a June 1 fundraiser at the Hollywood home of Roland Emmerich, co-sponsored by Christina Aguilera, Jake Gyllenhaal, Scarlett Johansson and Lindsay Lohan, and featuring a "special musical guest."

• The Franklin Avenue blog has turned its rate-a-restaurant series into a stand-alone blog with alphabetical links to 61 reviews.

• Hollywood Interrupted speculates that Tom Cruise must have approval power over the posters for War of the Worlds, given their similarity to a certain L. Ron Hubbard cover.

• Auctions for Change is a new website that wants to "serve as a bridge between the entertainment industry and the non-profit community...a non-partisan organization that supports a portfolio of causes related to community values, a progressive vision, and social justice."

• Para Los Niņos dedicates the new S. Mark Taper Foundation Child and Family Center on Wednesday, June 1, in the Pico-Union area.

• The national field office for the Dave Barry Presidential Campaign — slogan Enough Already with Leadership — is located in Los Angeles. Says field coordinator Ted Habte-Gabr: "With the most electoral bling bling for the taking in California, we are not messing around."


More by Kevin Roderick:
Standing up to Harvey Weinstein
The Media
LA Times gets a top editor with nothing but questions
LA Observed Notes: Harvey Weinstein stripped bare
LA Observed Notes: Photos of the homeless, photos that found homes
Recent Politics stories on LA Observed:
David Ryu and candidate Mike Fong
Tronc buys (NY) Daily News, La Tuna fire aftermath and more
Helping in Houston, new lion cubs, Garcetti's back
Garcetti has weekend date in the Hamptons
Garcetti hitting the road to New Hampshire
LA Confederate monument coming down
LA Observed Notes: Back from vacation and into the fray
Rendon fights for neglected Southeast


 

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