In an op-ed in the Sunday L.A. Times aimed at defusing the controversy over curator Paul Schimmel's departure, museum patron Eli Broad expresses his support for the direction the Museum of Contemporary Art is headed. He's fairly critical of some past practices and says he's happy with controversial director Jeffrey Deitch.

Anze Kopitar's privilege to spend 24 hours with the Stanley Cup might be a tad more meaningful for him than for some of the other Los Angeles Kings. He left Slovenia as a teenager to live in Canada and work hard to become his country's first NHL player. On his day with the Cup, he made sure thousands of Slovenians got to see the trophy.

The small but curiously interesting city of San Fernando has slid one more step into the bizarro world. Both of the City Council members who last year were reveled to be dating sought and received temporary restraining orders against the other, citing a violent argument over a disputed iPad.

Even though Nash is 38, the basketball media is calling the longtime star with Phoenix the point guard the Lakers need to stay competitive the next few years. Nash says he got Kobe Bryant's blessing before okaying the trade. The Lakers gave up draft picks to get him. Here are three views from the Lakers beat.

David Houston, editor of the Los Angeles Daily Journal, sends Evan George off to "Which Way, LA" and "To the Point." Plus a promotion at the legal daily.

It's a plea deal for Brian Mendoza, the May Day demonstrator who was caught on video whacking LAPD officer Mandee Duyanen on the back of her helmet with a snare drum.

Michael J. Ybarra, a freelance writer from Los Angeles who had a regular gig writing about extreme sports for the Wall Street Journal, died in a fall while mountain climbing in the Sierra Nevada.

Griffith died Tuesday morning back home in Manteo, North Carolina. He received a Tony acting nomination for "No Time for Sergeants" on Broadway in 1955, before going into movies and on TV with "The Andy Griffith Show" in 1960.

Los Angeles sprinter Allyson Felix got the last spot in the 100 meters race at the London Olympics when her training partner, Jereba Tarmoh, decided not to take part in a special runoff race arranged to settle their tie finish at the Olympic trials last month.

Ask Google Maps to find you Tehrangeles, and it places the community on the upper floor of an apartment building in the 10600 block of Kinnard Avenue, between Westholme and Hilts avenues. That's in Westwood, about eight blocks east of Westwood Boulevard, the shopping street sometimes referred to as Little Tehran. Street view is even more specific.

KTLA reporter Lu Parker's rep confirmed today that she and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have split up, ending their relationship after about three years. The LA Times has been asking Villaraigosa in recent weeks to explain his status with Parker, but his answers had been evasive.

The news last week in the LA Times that the MOCA board of directors fired curator Paul Schimmel, with Eli Broad giving him the word, revealed deep discord in the arts journalism world about the direction of the Bunker Hill museum under the recent guidance of Jeffrey Deitch.

Fun story in the LA Times: an analysis of 75,000 computerized traffic citations found the street name "mangled beyond all but the most hopeful inference about 20% of the time....The only thing we can say with 90% certainty about data like this is 'Argh!'"

Jim Drake is another example of an aerospace industry worker who pioneered the Southern California outdoor sports scene. Drake, an engineer who worked at RAND and elsewhere, didn't invent the sailboard, but he and a partner, Hoyle Schweitzer, perfected the design and got a patent for the Windsurfer.

Anderson Cooper acknowledges he is gay and proud, Rodney King funeral, new Assessor plans to stick around, venomous spiders gain foothold, Francesca Lia Block has good news and more.

Jia-Rui Chong Cook, a former LA Times reporter now in media relations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was on Friday's airing of "Jeopardy" — she was one and out on the show. But she got a nice little story out of it .

TMZ reports, citing "sources close to the actress," that Katie Holmes believes that the Church of Scientology began to consider her a threat as she became more estranged from high-profile church member Tom Cruise. The church's lawyer responded that it's not them.

Greg Krikorian, the Republican candidate in the Glendale area's 43rd assembly district, said it was his wife's debt and that she filed for bankruptcy protection

David Savage, the Los Angeles Times' long-time Supreme Court expert in Washington, gets a nice pat on the back for his coverage of the health care ruling in this note to the newsroom from Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin. Interestingly, we learn in the email that the Times website had six alerts of various flavors pre-written to be sent once the news broke.

Reto Caduff is a Swiss-born photographer who lives part-time in Los Angeles and who, apparently, really likes beautiful women with facial freckles. His new book of images, called just Freckles, is a limited edition of 500 numbered copies which features "portraits of young women with various amounts of freckles – from a slight cluster on the cheek to faces covered with the beauty marks." His book is out Monday.