More from Gary Baum
Does LACMA Have a Looted Art Problem?
Michael Phillips — producer of The Sting, Taxi Driver and Close Encounters of the Third Kind — learned in early January 2023 that a Buddha sculpture he owned was plundered. An anonymous online activist collective, Lost Arts of Nepal, had publicized a previously published photo of the object, residing on a low glass table in […]
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Inside the Hidden Poverty Crisis at Universal Studios
Evelyn Arceo works 40-plus hours each week at Universal Studios Hollywood. During her overnight shifts, she prepares the pink-iced Simpsons donuts found in Springfield and the apple pies served at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The single mother, an eight-year veteran of the park, earns $19 an hour. She’s been struggling to pay rent […]
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Train Wreck? A Mogul’s Battle Against The Bel-Air Subway
Fred Rosen doesn’t mind if people consider him a villain. He made that clear during his fortune-making run at Ticketmaster, which he turned into a polarizing behemoth. “I was running ‘the evil empire’? I was running a business. You know who liked me? My clients. Did I love being called an asshole? Not particularly. Could […]
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50 Reasons We (Still) Love Hollywood
Let’s not sugarcoat it — 2023 was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for Hollywood. For starters, obviously, there were the strikes, which for nearly five months turned backlots into ghost towns, costing the industry an estimated $6 billion in lost wages and other collateral economic damage. Then there were the layoffs, beginning […]
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Golden Globes Brace for Possible Protests and Disruptions Ahead of Sunday’s Telecast
As the Israel-Hamas crisis enters its third month, Hollywood, with its sizable Jewish population and increasing divides among liberals as well as progressives over justice issues, has emerged as a proxy informational battle-space in the conflict. There is a nervousness among industry insiders connected to the Golden Globes that activists may take advantage of the […]
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Review: B.J. Novak’s Chain Food Fest Is Hard to Digest
B.J. Novak, the wry Office alum, demonstrated his ability to throw a (sponsored) party on Dec. 1. He filled a parking lot along Cahuenga Boulevard with his celebrity friends and a swath of fashionable Hollywood in their Kith and Fear of God fits for ChainFEST 2023, a bizarre first-of-its-kind gathering meant to celebrate and send […]
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Hollywood Rabbis Prepare for Fraught Hanukkah: “This Is the First Time I’ve Seen People Really Afraid”
The entertainment industry’s rabbis say that in the eight weeks since Oct. 7 — a horrific chapter in Jewish history encompassing Hamas’ massacre, Israel’s ensuing Gaza invasion and the worldwide response to it all — their congregations have been roiled by crises of identity and safety not experienced in America since the Holocaust. These faith […]
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How Wolfgang Puck’s Pioneering Fusion Restaurant Chinois Changed Dining
Wolfgang Puck’s now-iconic Chinois on Main, which pioneered what came to be known as Asian fusion or Pacific Rim cuisine, has turned 40 this year. An entertainment industry haven since the day it opened in Santa Monica at the address of a former New Wave punk club, it’s since gone from radical to old guard. […]
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Why Henry Kissinger Was “the Ultimate Starf—er”
Revered and reviled U.S. diplomat Henry Kissinger, whose death at 100 on Nov. 29 was met with the widespread view that his realpolitik was responsible for some of this country’s worst global war crimes, loved American celebrity — both his own, an expression of state power, as well as that of others, especially performers. He was “the ultimate […]
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Fran Drescher for President? Top Dem Consultants Weigh In
In a Nov. 9 post-strike interview with THR, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher discussed her career plans. The actress, who in September was elected to another two-year term at the helm of the union, recalled that after the announced deal with the studios, “Meryl Streep said to me, ‘This is great, now go run for [U.S.] president.’ ” In response, […]
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Who Won the Strikes? Who Lost? A Merciless Assessment
As the town flocked to picket lines during a historic 148-day writers strike and 118-day actors strike, moguls took a hit (looking at you, Bob Iger), stars made blunders (why, Drew Barrymore?) and others saw their stock rise (Lindsay Dougherty holds court next with the studios) … Winners Fran Drescher & Duncan Crabtree-IrelandTo be sure, […]
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How TMZ Became Hollywood’s Grim Reaper
On Oct. 28, TMZ was first to report Matthew Perry’s drowning death. The media outlet, which over the past two decades has become a byword for hard-edged celebrity coverage, cited law enforcement sources and ran a redacted audio clip it’d obtained of a dispatcher communicating with emergency personnel before running photos of the actor’s stricken parents […]
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