Carolyn Kellogg

Some people, if they're lucky, get good at one thing. Like, say, photography; to be a photographer printed in Vogue and Life — that, in the 1940s and '50s, was excellence. Enough talent and vision for any one life. But for Gordon Parks, that was only the beginning. Born the last of 15 kids in Kansas, he was a photographer, co-founder of Essence magazine, writer, composer and filmmaker. He wrote a book called The...

Today City Councilman Greig Smith will propose new housing and pension incentives to help boost the LAPD's flagging recruitment efforts. Hmm... will the success of Crash have any effect? Matt Dillon's LAPD officer is a prick, but he's also kind of heroic, and he gets to handle Thandie Newton. The streets of the Valley are having their own crashes: hit-and-runs are up. Surface streets and highways together total to more than 9,000 in 2005....

Bruce Springsteen sings "Promised Land" in at an anti-nuclear concert at the Hollywood Bowl, 1981. Check out those mutton chops! The skinny guy singing with him is, we're pretty sure, Jackson Browne....

Cyd Charisse danced with the best in movie musicals, including Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. In 1952 her legs were insured for $5 million. Today is her 85th birthday. In other piping hot birthday news, Freddie Prinze, Jr is 30; Aidan Quinn is 47 and Camryn Manheim is 45. But it's fair to say the best actor of all today's birthday boys and girls is Lynn Redgrave, who turns 63. Onetime major league pitcher Jim...

When we read this exclusive at Fishbowl LA — Kimmel fashioning first-look deal with MGM — we were chilled, we admit. More good fortune smiling on Jimmy Kimmel? Why? Who does this man have incriminating photos of, other than Sarah Silverman? Whoops, it's actually Sidney Kimmel, a Philadelphia clothing magnate and philanthropist with an itch for moviemaking. His production company made 9 1/2 Weeks and Clan of the Cave Bear. Now he's got a...

San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos has filed attempted manslaughter charges against deputy Ivory Webb, who shot Elio Carrion 5 times at close range on January 29. After the car Carrion was riding in was pulled over, a bystander pulled out his video camera. It is almost unbelievable that victim Elio Carrion, an airman home from Iraq, survived. It's miraculous that the shooting was caught on tape. But most amazing of all is...

If you're rich enough to hire a private jet and crazy enough to be flying home to be charged with child molestation, be careful of what you say on the plane. Santa Monica-based XtraJet decided sure, it would fly Michael Jackson to Santa Barbara in 2003 — and it would secretly line the plane with hidden camcorders and tape the one-time King of Pop talking with his attorney. The company, and the co-conspirator who...

David Brown, the former host of the public radio show Marketplace, was an avid Tab drinker. When he left the LA-based show for Texas, empty Tab cans were left with sad staff as personal momentos. Turns out his Tab habit wasn't an eccentricity: it was a journalistic tradition. The New Yorker wrote last month of an elite group of talented, powerful journalists who all cherished their low-cal pink '70s beverage. All of them were...

Every week in Living in Sin, Jen Sincero provides advice for LA's sexually curious. e-mail Jen your question, which will be posted anonymously. Dear Jen: I'm a healthy 21 year old woman and I've never been able to have an orgasm with another person. I've been sexually active since the age of 16, but no matter who I've been with or what position I've been in, I can never get there! It's so frustrating!!!...

During the Academy Awards some boring guy always comes out and explains how they voted and who guarded the results and we never pay attention. But the upshot is that people that are in The Academy get to vote on the nominees. And believe it or not, starring in "Police Woman" gets you into the Academy. Angie Dickinson was overheard in Hollywood talking about the Best Actor Category. Philip Seymour Hoffman, she rationalized, will...