AP Photo/Matt Sayle Exclusive parties are thrown all the time at the Playboy Mansion, but yesterday's luncheon was a bigger event for Playboy -- Playmate of the Year. This time around, the annual event's honoree is January 2007's model, the 22-year-old Jayde Nicole. She is the first Canadian Playmate of the Year in 26 years. Furthermore, Defamer makes a good observation about Canadian women: "Hailing from Scarborough, Ontario, Nicole is just the latest in......

Could you imagine Los Angeles without the Getty Museum? If that serene white chunk of Italian marble nestled above the 405 suddenly removed its bulk to some other parts, would you notice? Would you care? An article in yesterday morning's LA Times reconsiders the Richard Meier-designed edifice in the light of its 10th anniversary, and in doing so, asks some important questions about the nature and integrity of architecture in Los Angeles. "there is......

Quote of the week: 'Who are YOU?" said the Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, 'I - I hardly know sir, just at present - at least I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.' – from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Good Benefits The Players Toast Awards at the......

LAT tells us what L.A.'s top 25 "culinary bargains" are (find more Foodie news from today here). Did you know that a Louis Vuitton store also qualified as a public art gallery? Sex, scandal and assault at the Playboy Mansion: oh my! The Walk of Fame's stars have been temporarily "displaced" to make way for the construction of the new W Hotel. City Beat pleads L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo's case. A woman in......

- State trooper pulls over a female blogger in Tennessee. She has been drinking, has drugs and was speeding. He throws away her drugs and watches porn with her on the patrol car laptop before engaging in sexual acts. She blogs about it. Oh yeah, she's pornstar Barbie Cummings who is moving LA and somehow, she still ended up with a $159 ticket she has to pay for not showing up in court. - He......

- The #1 downtown landowner, and major contributer of Mayor Tony's sure has a curious history of allegedly doing some horrible things - LA Weekly - Homelessness up in Downtown! - LA Times - Verizon's "Unlimited" EVDO plan is actually 5 Gigs a month - Cybernet - Keith Richards is now flipflopping on his snorting of coke laced with dad story - MTV - Britney to KFed "You’re the biggest mistake I’ve ever made,......

We've never been bigger Bruins fans during March Madness, and we're not talking about basketball. Hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of coeds stripped down for the traditional UCLA Undie Run. This edition had a slightly modified course that kept the run on campus, starting in front of the fraternities and ending in a fountain by Royce Hall. LAist was on the scene to provide complete coverage of the uncoverage. In this post you'll find......

120 year old Indian woman died this week. She claimed that smoking marijuana every day was the reason for her long life. - All Headline News "Weeds" star and Hollywood Blvd. preacher, Craig X, was arrested last month for distributing marijuana. He says the "sacrament" that he sold to people at Temple 420 on Hollywood Blvd. is protected under the freedom of religion and Prop 215. The LAPD, who officially pressed charges this week,......

Last week Michael Richards hired a mouthpiece because his mouth was clearly defective. PR genius Howard Rubenstein (David Blaine, Worldwide Pants, Danielle Steel, News Corp) was called in to put out the fire and one of the first things that he addressed was the issue that the actor most-commonly known as Kramer went off in April on an anti-Semitic rant while on-stage. Rubenstein basically said it was kosher because Richards "is Jewish. He's not......

"NBA Basketball" (KCAL, 7:00 p.m.) Lakers @ Trailblazers "Jericho" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) The Mayor, who went wandering around the nuclear wilderness, gets sick - who'da thunk? "The War" (PBS, 8:00 p.m.) Ken Burns has a new mini-series about WWII, the "War to End All Wars". Expect the FCC to fine all PBS stations who air the 7-parter due to adult language. "The Biggest Loser" (NBC, 8:00 p.m.) "They're Back" - nuff said "America's Next......

The Girls Next Door: Season 2 starring Hugh Hefner, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson E!, Sundays at 9pm Who knew Hef would let the cameras into the fabled Playboy Mansion last year - and after the ho-hum season that they had, who knew they'd be back? The problem last year was despite the initial thrill of being (sorta) in the mansion, what we discovered was Hef isnt really the player he once......