L.A. Times - West Magazine

Letter from the Editor

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 20:00:02 -0800

A dollop of hope...and a heaping helping of happiness heading into the New Year

I am an optimist. And I am in good company: Winston Churchill, a favorite of my dad s, said, I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else. My husband says my optimism is genetic. I think circumstances come into play. And parenting: Mine were determined to stress that life is based on hope, joy, trust, loyalty, daily happiness therefore, the optimism.

Singing the City s Praises

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 11:21:42 -0800

A music mogul muses on a seven-decade affair with the lady of his dreams

Born on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, I ve lived my entire adult life in Los Angeles, but I remain a big Canadian flag waver. Victoria may be the greatest city in which to grow up, but L.A. may well be the greatest city to live out your dreams. Let the love story begin

Takes One to Know One

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:59:33 -0800

The best thing about comedy for Jerry Seinfeld is talking to other comedians

Comedian David Steinberg continues in his role as ear that is, a sounding board to some of the funniest people working today.

Laugh Factory

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:59:18 -0800

Being a Simpsons writer is hard work unless you re a genius

I am a television comedy writer. Which means for 8 to 12 hours a day, my job is to think up jokes along with 8 to 12 brilliant, offbeat, uniquely silly writers. It is as fun as it sounds. I m pretty sure it has done irreversible damage to my personality. Working in close proximity for so many hours with similarly damagedpersonalities, of course there have to be rules. They are numerous and subtle and mostly unwritten. Until now, baby!

Ready for Takeoff

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:59:02 -0800

Laura Linney tracks the arc of Rodrigo Santoro s rising star

After a marathon promotional tour for a slate of new movies, Brazilian actor Rodrigo Santoro pauses to reflect on the nature of celebrity and his growing fame in America. Linney, Santoro s Love Actually costar, gets the story.

Magic Means Business

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:58:19 -0800

When it comes to what ails the inner city, the former Laker is nothing short of a transformer

For a kid growing up in L.A. in the early 70s, the Fabulous Forum may as well have been Sleeping Beauty s castle at Disneyland, with its snow-white columns and white-hot lights so bright you could see them from the 405. Back then, celebrities were nowhere to be found, and the crowds for the Kings hockey team were painfully thin but that was just fine with my father, who would schlep us to the games (on school nights, no less!) just to cheer on the purple-and-gold Kings. Those nights, for me, were full of magic and promise.

First Act

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:58:43 -0800

Veteran producer Howard Rosenman comes out in front of the lens in Milk

The big surprise in Milk , the new film about murdered gay activist Harvey Milk that opens in December, isn t that Sean Penn is totally credible as a homosexual when is Sean Penn ever not remarkable? but that Howard Rosenman appears in several scenes.

Pipe Dreams

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:57:44 -0800

Nathan Gunn and Joseph Kaiser are poised to reel in the iTunes generation as the new face of the L.A. Opera

"The question you're always asked is, 'Is opera still relevant?' " says handsome young tenor on the rise Joseph Kaiser. Despite his amiable temperament, he seems peeved by the frequently posed query. And why not? Singers like Kaiser and star baritone Nathan Gunn--his strapping onstage cohort in January's L.A. Opera production of Mozart's The Magic Flute --are poised to lead the pack as opera flourishes in the 21st century. Emerging as a kind of Newman and Redford of the opera world, Kaiser and Gunn first teamed last year on Charles-François Gounod's Roméo et Juliette in Kaiser's Metropolitan Opera debut. They played opposite soprano Anna Netrebko, also hailed in the press as part of opera's "face-lift." Kaiser, 30, has been lauded as a rising talent whose looks earned him a place in Men's Vogue . Gunn, 38, has been called everything from opera's newest superstar to a "barihunk."

Presents of Mine

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:57:24 -0800

Hey, what s wrong with regifting, anyway?

I m relatively new to the idea of regifting, so I don t know exactly who came up with it. But I don t think it was a Mormon like my mother because one would be unlikely to regift with no trace of alcohol or caffeine in her system. (That the Mormons did not come up with regifting shall forever be one of their most endearing qualities in my eyes. And...their only endearing quality.)

Brut Strength

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:16:38 -0700

Jim Duane isn t called Mr. Bubblehead for nothing

As I m sitting in traffic on the 405, head- ing toward Orange County, I think to myself, Why am I doing this again? Oh, yeah, that s right, I m on my way to the Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa where supposedly there is one of the greatest collections of champagne outside of Reims, France to meet Jim Duane, the store s champagne buyer, who, I hear, is more passionate about bubbly than Winston Churchill. Okay.