Morning Buzz: Monday 6.2.08

Universal park to reopen

MTV's Movie Awards went off Sunday night as scheduled, post-fire. The theme park side of the lot is set to open this morning at 10 a.m. LAT

Mayoral trips come with baggage

Forays out of the country seldom do a mayor any good and can hurt. Rick Orlov looks at the history. DN

Ryan Kavanaugh's deal

The Hollywood financier was due for a hearing this week on his 2006 arrest for allegedly sideswiping a Los Angeles Police Department cruiser while under the influence of alcohol. Instead, on May 6 Kavanaugh pleaded no contest to one count of driving under the influence of alcohol, while more serious charges were dropped. Perhaps those donations to Sheriff Lee Baca's favorite charity did help. NYT

Getting tough with Olvera Street

This time it's Councilman Bill Rosendahl who vows to make the tenants of Olvera Street and El Pueblo pay something closer to market rate rents. We'll see. Downtown News

Hollywood horror story with a twist

M. Night Shyamalan says he knows exactly when his relationship with Hollywood started to sour. NYT

NYT writer' book about his own druggie past

For his memoir "The Night of the Gun," David Carr tracked down his own arrest records from 20 years ago and from a DWI arrest after backsliding in New Orleans post-Katrina. He also "videotapes old girlfriends, drug counselors, street users, buddies, journalists and editors to squeeze out details of his past that he had forgotten or buried." Keith J. Kelly/NYP

Don't hold your breath for Children's Museum in the Valley

That project to move the museum to Hansen Dam has hit another money snag, and Mayor Villaraigosa has reportedly asked former mayor Richard Riordan to "shake up" the board. DN

Robert Maguire III tribute

Almost thirty years ago the developer "came up with an audacious proposal for the greatest development project never built in downtown Los Angeles," writes Bill Fulton. "He was largely responsible for the downtown office landscape, which set the table for today's condominium building boom." LAT/Sunday Opinion

Los Angeles mag down to final four

The magazine's greatest thing about L.A. contest comes down to, believe it or not, a choice between the Capitol Records building or Amoeba Music, pitted against the winner of Pink's or the weather. You can vote here. Just a wild guess, but I bet they never do this again.

Motown site for sale

The former West Hollywood headquarters of Motown Records at 7317 Romaine Street is up for sale. Asking price is $6.9 million. LABJ

Another "Sex and the City" product placement

Nati Cano's Los Camperos had a cameo role in the movie. Meanwhile, comedy writer and Dodgers talk-show host Ken Levine gives a little SATC primer for men looking to make points with women. And Minneapolis-St. Paul's man in L.A. wonders if Kobe Bryant's date to see the movie is a window into his soul.

A journalist gets his pothole filled

Steve Rosenberg got excited when the steam roller showed. Come On, Feel the Nuys

Grand Performances kicks off again

New season got going last night. BlogDowntown

Wild horses can't keep this book down

LA Observed contributor Deanne Stillman, author of "Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West," writes on the LAT Op-Ed page that "it's not news that America is a cowboy nation, but it may surprise many that we are destroying the horse we rode in on." Also, Angel City Press has just reissued Stillman's 2001 bestseller, "Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines and the Mojave Desert."