Forbes presented its annual roster of Richie Rich Americans this week naming OC mogul Donald Bren (real estate) and his $12.2 billion the winner for Southern California. more ›

You would think it was at least 2010 yet. No, it's still 2009. You would think that Attorney General Jerry Brown has at least announced he is running for governor. And no, he filed paperwork Tuesday to form an exploratory committee. Yet still, Jerry Brown yesterday received endorsement from some powerful Hollywood folk, according to Variety. more ›

Even more restaurant news is coming down the wire -- earlier today, we checked out some early reports on Bond St in Beverly Hills, and now we hear that developers The Valencia Group will be transforming Downtown's historic Union Bank building into The Union Restaurant & Lounge (it's all about the restaurant-slash-lounge concept nowadays, isn't it?). So, yes, Downtown will have another fancy-schmancy dining space; the website is promising "2 Floors of Entertainment, Upscale Dinning [sic] and Cocktail Bar, The Vault Lounge & Bar." more ›

Sunday night was in a word, magical. Rufus Wainwright transformed the Hollywood Bowl into a beautiful tribute to Judy Garland. At one point he thought he felt a drop of rain, but unlike Judy's 1961 performance at the Bowl, the weather remained cool and cloudburst free. The audience showered Rufus and his guests, his mother Kate McGarrigle, his sister Martha Wainwright, and Judy Garland's daughter Lorna Luft with love and affection and a few standing... more ›

By week's end, LA is regularly littered with a handful of free rags. Combined, these publications put the Tribune Company's Spring Street operation LA Times to shame as far as reporting on the dozens of municipalities that make up this metropolis of more than 12 million people. LAist reads the weeklies so you don't have to. If there's anything we missed, let us know, or better yet drop it in the comments section below.... more ›

Geffen, Zell Reportedly Discuss LA Times Movie and music mogul David Geffen is negotiating with Sam Zell on a possible deal for the Los Angeles Times following Zell's successful bid for Tribune Co., a published report said Thursday. How much of the city is still trying to feign interest in this ongoing saga? LA gang members in country illegally may face quicker deportation City and county prosecutors say they are working more closely with... more ›

The New York Times seems to think so. We can confirm that among the 800 or so who paid $2,300 a head to rub elbows with Barack Obama for a minute or two at the Beverly Hilton were: Jennifer Aniston, Burt Bacharach, Mario van Peebles, Stephen Spielberg, Arianna Huffington, Ben Stiller, Morgan Freeman, Zach Braff, Eddie Murphy, Ron Howard, Taye Diggs, Norman Lear, JJ Abrams, Paul Reiser, Christine Lahti, Jackson Browne, and Natalie Maines.... more ›

The California Coastal Commission voted unanimously last week to sell billionaire David Geffen a 10-foot buffer zone of the public beach that abuts his Carbon Beach-front property in Malibu. For about $140,000, the Trip-C supposedly put to rest a decades-long debate over Geffen's property rights (Geffen finally granted access to the beach in 2005). We visited Carbon Beach to assess how this deal might work out and found only about a dozen or so... more ›

- A delivery man was robbed of 1 large and 2 medium pizzas in Costa Mesa. The suspects were caught in their car just as they were about to go munchie. The six of them have bail set at $100,000 each for robbery, conspiracy and possession of stolen property. (CBS2) - Art costs too much in Los Angeles. Example: $22 to get into Magritte at LACMA. "That pretty much guarantees that the only people... more ›

"I don't care if Mark Foley had been asking boys to describe their penises because I have some sad news for you: Your kid is so larded out on Cheetos and Yoo-hoo, he can't even see his penis." - Bill Maher, today on Salon.com "You're wankers, but really important wankers. Even you, Robert Joseph at Earthlink, who has sent me consistent hatemail for two years straight. You, sir, have been impressive." - Jessica Coen... more ›

David Geffen won the bidding war in the mid '80s to nab the country-tinged LA band Lone Justice and their self-titled debut came out to much hype. Everyone was fixated on the blonde singer, Maria McKee, whose voice was often compared to both Dolly Parton and Janis Joplin as the songs went from bluesy to hillbilly with a solid foundation in rock. Record sales didn't meet expectations despite being overwhelmingly loved by critics, fans,... more ›

If you see Jennifer Love Hewitt today, wish her a happy birthday; she turns 27. And she's not the only one celebrating. Charlotte Church, the little "voice of an angel" soprano, turns 20. Musician Mark Arm from Mudhoney turns 44 and Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads will be (yikes) 57. This was Nina Simone's birthday too, but she's not around anymore for someone to put a little sugar in her bowl. more ›

Daniel Olivas is a writer and Deputy Attorney General with the California Department of Justice in Los Angeles. He was the lead counsel representing the California Coastal Commission and the State Coastal Conservancy in litigation regarding coastal access to the beach in front of David Geffen's property in Malibu. more ›

As anyone who’s seen Doc Hollywood knows, Los Angeles has a fairly secure footing in the medical community, or at least the cosmetical medical community. The city is also home to one of the world’s premiere research hospitals, the UCLA Medical Center, which recently benefited from a $200 million donation by David Geffen. Last year, the hospital suffered a PR blow when one of the workers in its morgue was arrested for selling body parts from corpses. It won’t be the first time UCLA was dragged into the choppy waters where law, medicine and morality converge. more ›

Daniel A. Olivas is an LA-based writer who has been described as "a master folk-teller," "enthralling" and "adept at establishing character." Is it a surprise that he has a day job as an attorney? Maybe not so much when you consider one of his titles: Devil Talk.

Last week Olivas was apparently silver-tongued, winning a long fight on behalf of the Coastal Commission in securing a right-of-way to the beach next to David Geffen's house. On top of losing the battle, Geffen has agreed to pay about $300,000 in expenses to the California attorney general's office and a nonprofit group; for years they'd been in the courts arguing Geffen should provide the beach access he had agreed to back in 1983 when he did some major home improvement.

With any luck, riff-raff like us should be able to stride down the Geffen easement to the Pacific by Memorial Day. Hopefully Geffen will forget Olvias' name around then, too.

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Licinio's team discovered that lean people experience a huge nighttime surge of ghrelin — the hormone that stimulates hunger — but obese people do not. Published June 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study suggests that obesity suppresses the ghrelin spike, perhaps disrupting the body's internal cues for hunger and overpowering its ability to regulate appetite. The findings may point researchers to new biological targets for treating obesity. more ›