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How LA Grew its Art
From left: Edward Kienholz, “Walter Hopps Hopps Hopps,†1959; photo by Susan Einstein. Wallace Berman, “Untitled (Faceless Faces with Kabala),†1963-70; photo by Ellen Labenski. Larry Bell, “Untitled,†1969. For those of us who are not native to Los Angeles yet live here (some for more of our lives than anywhere else), there is a compulsion to define Los Angeles, to get control in some manner of this ever-changing city that is distinguished as much by its sprawl as its… -
Every Picture Tells a Story
[caption id="attachment_354" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Galerie Michael owner Michael Schwartz with clients"][/caption] For 30 years, Michael Schwartz has owned and operated Galerie Michael, an art gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, building, in his own words, “museum-quality collections, one work at a time.†Works by Picasso, Dali, Goya and Miró adorn the walls for the current exhibition on Spanish masters. With a staff of 24, many of whom hold fine-arts degrees and are called curators, Schwartz would be happy to… -
'Beauty' is Skin Deep
“Tooker Lips,†New York, 1965, by Melvin Sokolsky, © 2011. On the afternoon I attended the Annenberg Space for Photography’s latest exhibition, “Beauty Culture,†I was standing in the dark watching a series of fashion images projected in the digital gallery, when I was distracted by a woman who entered the room. I did a double take, as I recognized her as one of the iconic women featured in the exhibition, a former fashion model. My eyes darted between looking… -
Future Shock: Albert Brooks' novel "2030"
“2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America†(St. Martin’s Press) is Albert Brooks’ novel (in all senses of the word) take on our not-so-distant future. Anyone familiar with Brooks’ films, such as “Defending Your Life†or “Modern Romance,†will not be surprised that his debut novel is clever and entertaining. But it is also thoughtful, insightful and inventive about issues as diverse as health care, transportation, aging and politics. And funny — let’s not forget funny. “2030†is… -
Columbo co-creator solves his own mystery
William Link "Now, Tom, do I look Jewish?" William Link, 77, was asking the question. Link is one of, if not the most successful producer and writer in television history, having put, with his late partner Richard Levinson, 16 series on the air, including creating "Columbo," "Murder, She Wrote," "The Cosby Mysteries" and "Mannix." They also created any number of important TV movies, including "The Execution of Private Slovik," which launched Martin Sheen's career, "That Certain Summer," which was the… -
Churchill's Stand
Who do we have to thank for Hitler's eventual defeat? What was World War II's turning point? Who, by his actions during the war, inspired Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, Israel's early leaders? The answer, according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center's stirring new documentary, "Walking With Destiny," is Winston Churchill. Churchill, who died in 1965, is hardly a forgotten figure. To the contrary, there is a large and healthy Churchill industry producing new books, one after another, season after season.… -
Turning Qassams into Art
A work by Niso Maman The Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon in Southern Israel, six miles from Gaza, is a 500-bed facility with an emergency room and a teaching hospital that treats Israelis and Palestinians. Qassam rockets launched from Gaza land so regularly on the building that the top two floors are kept unoccupied as a "safety buffer." Imagine that you are Lee Wallach, an American and CEO of Community Assets Consulting, a firm specializing in assisting Israeli, international and… -
The man who was Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis was so famous, so iconic an American movie star that I don't really need to tell you who he was. He was Tony Curtis, and he lived that role with childish delight, relishing where his life had taken him, and the pleasures and opportunities fame had afforded him. By the time he died last week at age 85 at his home in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, Nev., he was known the world over - for the… -
Ten years after
It's been 10 years since my mother Eva Teicholz died on Sept. 22 - nine since I stood by her graveside at the unveiling. Since then, I have visited her grave in New Jersey on many occasions and have diligently observed days of mourning and lit memorial candles. I loved her dearly. But have I missed her? The answer is, of course, yes. But death does strange things: it restores our loved ones to their best selves - as we… -
Is LA Ready for its Dose of "Law & Order"
Following last year’s cancellation of the original New York version of the series after a venerable 20-year run — a record matched in drama only by the classic Western “Gunsmoke†— a new spawn will appear this fall: “Law & Order: Los Angeles.†While some may dismiss this latest iteration of Dick Wolf’s procedural formula as “more of the same, only different,†to me, the creation of a “Law & Order†in Los Angeles signals a cultural watershed, a moment… -
The Passions of a Nobel Laureate
Given that I haven't been posting much lately, I thought perhaps I would fill the gap by publishing an interview I did for Andy Warhol's Interview back in the early 1980s with Isaac Bashevis Singer, the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. As I recall he was prickly but quite game -- qualities evident in the interview below, with the man I came to think of as "The Yiddish Yoda." The Passions of a Nobel Laureate: Isaac Bashevis Singer… -
What We Say When We Talk about Mel Gibson
The recent news that Mel Gibson is no longer a client of William Morris Endeavor should come as no surprise. Many news and entertainment programs, including NBC's "Today Show," pegged the delisting to Gibson's recent domestic assault allegations and tabloid leak of surreptitious tapes of racist rants he allegedly made, all arising from his custody dispute with his baby-mama Oksana Grigorieva. But Gibson was already on borrowed time at the agency. In 2006, following his Malibu arrest and anti-Semitic rant,…