George Rush and Joanna Molloy’s “SCANDAL: A Manual, The Inside Story of America’s Infamous Gossip Columnists” (Skyhorse/Norton) is the most fun read I’ve had all year — possibly in several years. It is a delicious look behind the curtain of New York’s gossip media industrial complex, the players and the played, and how […]

  Moshe Safdie’s new Guerin Pavillion at the Skirball Cultural Center offers a light-filled natural setting for conferences and gatherings. Photo by Timothy Hursley                       The Skirball Cultural Center, which stands at the crest of Sepulveda and Mulholland just west of the 405 Freeway, was […]

  The new Leica store and gallery in West Hollywood. In one version of our lives, childhood is a series of deprivations and desires whereby we want things we can’t have, some of which we grow out of or just forget. In my case, I was seized with heartache when I entered the newly opened […]

The exhibition “Hans Richter: Encounters” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is a curator’s dream:  retrospective of a somewhat obscure, multiplatform artist, who is equally adept (and revolutionary) in painting and film; whose life and career intersects with the major artists and artistic movements of the 20th century; and whose work, when organized […]

The Israel Conference  held at the Luxe Hotel on Sunset Boulevard May 30-31 was the largest gathering I’ve ever seen of … Israelis in suits. Beyond that, the two-day event was a persuasive showcase of Israeli innovation and how companies from all over the world — including Procter & Gamble (P&G), IBM and Deutsche Telekom […]

      “Here They Come II, Paris,” from the series “Big Nudes,” 1981. © Estate of Helmut Newton   Many years ago, on Jan. 23, 2004, to be precise, I was driving west on Sunset Boulevard when traffic stopped completely. There were police and an ambulance in front of the Chateau Marmont, where a […]

  Noa Achinoam Nini, the Israeli singer-songwriter known to all simply as Noa, will perform on June 18 at  American Jewish University as part of the new Geller Festival of the Arts. Born in Tel Aviv in 1969, Noa moved to New York as a child and lived there with her family until she returned […]

  Sinai Temple by Sidney Eisenshtat, 1959, courtesy of the USC Helen Topping Architecture and Fine Arts Library, © Sidney Eisenshtat Estate. It’s back! Remember long ago in those dark days of 2011, when “Pacific Standard Time,” the Getty-sponsored initiative, got more than 60 cultural organizations throughout Southern California to shine a light on the […]

  A still from Gary Baseman’s work on the animated Disney movie “Teacher’s Pet.” There’s an old saying that goes something like this: We spend the first half of our lives running away from home and the rest trying to get back. Consider Homer, way back in ancient Greece, who defined our notion of a […]

  Sons of famous fathers rarely eclipse their parent. Although there are some notable exceptions (JFK and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes come to mind), the singularity of purpose, the ruthlessness that lead to lasting renown, as well as the perks and vicissitudes that come with fame, none of these reward excellent parenting nor allow children […]