los angeles confidential - 2014 - issue 8 - december

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Yeah, yeah, yeah! The Beatles wowed America and the

Grammys in 1965, winning Best New Artist of 1964 and Best Performance by a Vocal

Group for “A Hard Day’s Night.”

Disclaimer: We, as jaded Angelenos, typically exhibit nonchalance at awards

shows. But cue The Recording Academy’s strobe-lit, shredded frontmen

belting out hits amidst pyrotechnics (think 1989’s Metallica performance),

and composure flies out the window alongside a heap of bras. Known for

spotlighting rockers on its bill, the Grammy Awards catapult us from our

seats with electric guitar riffs that seem to salute the gods of rock ’n’ roll, baby.

Five decades ago, however, things were far tamer. A quartet of squeaky-

clean entertainers charmed the States with pop-friendly melodies, nabbing

Best New Artist and Best Performance by a Vocal Group for then-hit “A Hard

Day’s Night” at the 1965 Grammys—then a series of untelevised dinners in

Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, and New York. The band, known as the

Beatles, ruled the music scene—even chalking up indirect wins, like Dave

Hassinger’s Best Engineered Recording—Special or Novel Effects Grammy

for the album The Chipmunks Sing the Beatles.

Eclipsed by the Fab Four was fellow Brit band the Rolling Stones, which

received no accolades for its grittier, rock-heavy sound. Mick Jagger and

crew were also snubbed during the Grammy–accompanying TV special,

The Best on Record, which—surprise—prominently featured the Beatles.

Adding salt to the wound, composer Steve Allen went so far as to mention

on air, “Sometimes I put on the Rolling Stones just so I can turn them off.”

In silent agreement that year was The Recording Academy, who gave

Petula Clark’s gentle pop track “Downtown” the coveted Best Rock and

Roll Recording Grammy—dismissing not only the Stones, but the divisive

sound they produced.

Thankfully, the anti-rock sentiment petered out over time. The Academy

grew kind to the formerly shunned Stones, presenting them with a modest

Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986 for their contributions to the recording

industry. And what of their protégés? A whopping 11 awards now comprise

the Rock Category in today’s Grammys—opening the floodgates for mosh

pits, wagging tongues, and everything in between. LAC

Rock ’n’ GoldFiFty years ago, the Beatles rocked the grammys… and the rolling stones gathered no kudos.

By Kelsey Marrujo

16 la-confidential-magazine.com

FRONT RUNNER

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We love Louella: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz dish

with the queen of Hollywood gossip,

newspaper columnist Louella Parsons, at the

1956 Golden Globe Awards, held at the

iconic Cocoanut Grove.

Who would have guessed that what began as a modest luncheon at the 20th

Century Fox studio would evolve into a star-studded spectacle… and gain a

reputation for pooh-poohing the ceremonious decorum associated with indus-

try events like it? Anyone familiar with the history of the Golden Globes

wouldn’t be surprised—after all, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association first

became associated with defying tradition as early as 1955 by creating a cate-

gory that recognized—gasp—television.

This was groundbreaking for the time—although TV now garners as many

critical accolades as movies (True Detective, Scandal, and House of Cards, we’re

looking at you), television was still a fledgling medium in the 1950s and hadn’t

yet earned the respect of industry bigwigs.

The Golden Globes’ first-ever Trailblazer TV Awards were presented in

February of 1956. Among the honorees were Lucy and Desi, Dinah Shore, and

Fess Parker, who accepted an award for best TV storytelling for Disneyland. The

Citizen News called the evening “the best, most successful of all Golden Globe

Awards,” and Lucille Ball evoked a colossal laugh from attendees when she

exclaimed, “This is a most frightening audience!”

Worldwide recognition of the small screen, along with Ball’s off-the-cuff com-

ments, weren’t the only ways the Golden Globes were breaking the mold. In

1958 (the first year the show was nationally televised), a cocktail-toting Frank

Sinatra (flanked by cohorts Sammy and Dean) crashed the stage, grabbed the

microphone, and announced the winners—to the enjoyment of the equally

toasted audience. Undeterred by their audacious antics, the Hollywood Foreign

Press invited the wisecracking bunch to do it again the following year.

Since then, the show has become notorious for unscripted hijinks. Viewers

have seen actresses caught in the ladies’ room while their names were

announced (Christine Lahti), stars refusing awards (Marlon Brando), nonsensi-

cal ramblings during acceptance speeches (Colin Farrell), and colorful, ahem,

hand gestures on the red carpet (Elisabeth Moss).

The small, virtually unknown awards show that started with only five nomi-

nation categories today honors accomplishments in 25 categories (11 in

television and 14 in motion pictures). It distinguishes the best in film and televi-

sion in a way that’s spontaneous, memorable and, yes, even scandalous—but

always distinctly Golden Globes. LAC

It’s a small screen WorldIn 1956, the Golden Globes dared to fête a new tech InnovatIon: televIsIon. By Erika Thomas


FRONT RUNNER

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B A R N E YS.C O M N E W YO R K B O S TO N C H I C AG O L A S V EG A S LO S A N G E L E S S A N F R A N C I S C O S C OT T S DA L E S E AT T L E

FO R I N S I D E R FA S H I O N AC C E S S: T H E W I N D O W. B A R N E YS.C O M

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16 // front runner

36 // letter from the editor-in-Chief

38 // letter from the publisher

40 // ... Without Whom this issue Would not have been possible

42 // the list

91 // invited

style

49 // the À la mod sQuadGela Nash-Taylor and Pamela Skaist-

Levy talk life post-Juicy Couture—and

take us behind the scenes of their new

fashion brand.

52 // tinsel toWnFor LA-style holiday revelry, only the

most decadent accessories will do.

56 // stYle spotliGht La Perla reveals a sexy new shop at

South Coast Plaza; Fendi joins forces

with Beats by Dre; and more local

style news.

58 // partY GirlPhilanthropist Irena Medavoy spills

her go-to pros for awards season party

prep.

60 // la the beautY-fulMore and more prestige beauty brands

are being made in LA—some of the

industry’s key players explain why.

62 // biG timeMusician/new mom Kelly Rowland

dishes on her latest gig: timepiece

designer for TW Steel.

128Producer/NFL team owner/

philanthropist Steve Tisch is donating

big bucks to concussion research,

treatment, and prevention.


contents December 2014/January 2015

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feather necklace, Oscar de la Renta ($1,195). 8446 Melrose Place, Los Angeles,

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culture

67 // MUSIC CENTER OF THE UNIVERSELA’s Music Center is turning 50, and to

celebrate, it’s putting on the show of a

lifetime… naturally.

70 // CINEMA PARADISOGet to know some of awards season’s

biggest contenders at January’s Santa

Barbara International Film Festival.

72 // CULTURE SPOTLIGHTA new book chronicles the history

of California graphic design; dance,

music, and art collide at REDCAT; and

more winter cultural happenings.

people

75 // GOLDEN BOYHollywood Foreign Press Associa-

tion president Theo Kingma gives an

exclusive preview of this year’s Golden

Globe Awards extravaganza.

78 // CARMEN ELECTRIC!British actress Carmen Ejogo gears up

for her second turn as Coretta Scott

King—this time in Ava DuVernay’s

Selma.

80 // MAÎTRES D’HOTELJewelry designer Maya Brenner and

her hospitality boss beau Dustin Lan-

caster collaborate on a new project—

Los Feliz’s frst boutique hotel.

82 // LOS AND FOUNDWild star Thomas Sadoski charts

where he fnds creative inspiration in

his neighborhood of Los Feliz.

86 // JOAILLERIE DE VIVREBrooke Shields and her longtime friend

Robert Procop unveil a dazzling new

fne jewelry collection to beneft LA’s

House of Ruth.

52Sparkling gems and

precious metal give evening

bags a new brilliance.

99Whether it’s a holiday

party or an Industry bash,

those in the know

celebrate at A.O.C.

67The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion

is the site of The Music

Center’s 50th anniversary gala

in December.



Beige tweed jacket ($1,895) and white button-up with blue pinstripes ($345),

Michael Bastian. michaelbastian nyc.com. Denim, Burberry Brit ($275).

9560 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, 310-550-4500; burberry.com. Navy

polka-dot tie, Tommy Hilfiger ($79). 157 N. Robertson Blvd., West

Hollywood, 310-247-1475; tommy.com. Red pocket square, Alexander Olch

($60). Barneys New York, 9570 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, 310-276-4400; barneys.com

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taste

99 // FÊTE ACCOMPLIWhen Hollywood’s fnest want to

honor a special occasion, award-win-

ning restaurant and wine haven A.O.C.

is the venue to beat.

102 // SAY FROMAGE!No celebration is complete without

frst-class cheese service—LA chefs

show us how it’s done.

104 // THE PARTY BOYSEvent planners extraordinaire Joachim

Splichal and Jeffrey Best chew on how

to throw an affair to remember.

108 // TASTE SPOTLIGHTHeadlining musician Matt Goss

takes the stage at Beverly Hills’ new

Spaghettini; Fig & Olive prepares for

its annual New Year’s Eve bash; and

more food news.

features

112 // THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHNThe only thing that comes close to

John Legend’s love affair with wife

Chrissy Teigen? His love affair with

the Grammys.

118 // LADY TOPANGASupermodel Angela Lindvall rocks

vintage-inspired resort looks at her

hippie-chic Topanga Canyon home.

128 // GIVE AND LET LIVEFrom animal rights to medicine and

the arts, get to know some of this

year’s most powerful LA philanthro-

pists—and the causes that keep them

up at night.

138 // SUPER-MEZCALIFABULISTIC!The smoky-cool spirit on every con-

noisseur’s lips this winter: mezcal.

142 // CANNABUSINESSAs the marijuana legalization debate

sweeps the nation, how do experts

think the green rush will grow?

112“[The Grammys] were the single-most

important element that made ‘All of Me’ a huge

hit,” says 2015 award hopeful John Legend.



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156The crowning glory of the new RH

West Hollywood gallery: a

10,000-square-foot rooftop park.

haute

property

151 // 100 yEARS OF PLENTITUDE

No matter what your architectural taste—

classic Craftsman, Hollywood Regency, or

somewhere in between—there’s a SoCal home

to suit it.

154 // HOORAy FOR

SANTA FE!

The latest second-home hot spot for Hol-

lywood types? Santa Fe, New Mexico.

abode & beyond

156 // DESTINATION

RESTORATION

RH opens its grandest showroom yet, in a

40,000-square-foot space on Melrose Avenue.

158 // MELROSE GOLD

WeHo’s most stylish street is a jackpot of home

design inspiration.

and finally...

168 // MAGNA CUM APPLAUD

As awards season approaches,

familiarize yourself with the OSO—obligatory

standing ovation.

CORRECTION: In the Summer 2014 issue of Los Angeles

Confdential, a quote was incorrectly attributed to Steven

Koblik, president of the Huntington Library, Art Collec-

tions and Botanical Gardens (“Made in LA,” p. 114). The

quote was actually given by Director of Art Collections

Kevin Salatino. We apologize for the error.

ON THE COVER:

John Legend Photography by Frederic AuerbachStyling by Johnathan Lawhorne

Jacket ($2,500), shirt ($660), and pin bar ($540), Dior Homme. 315 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-247-8003; dior.com. Pants, Citizens of Humanity ($198). Barneys New York, 9570 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, 310-276-4400; barneys.com. Belt, Gucci ($320). 347 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-278-3451; gucci.com



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Available at Macy’s and macys.com

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WHAT CELEBRITIES WANT THIS

HOLIDAY SEASON We match LA’s most famous with potential gift picks.

‘TIS THE

SEASON TO

ZEN OUT

Holiday shopping,

after-work parties, and

never-ending to-do

lists? Gift yourself with

some of these health

and wellness treatments.

SEE THE

LATEST FROM

LAST NIGHT’S

EVENTS

Couldn’t attend? Browse

the newest photos from

LA’s most exclusive parties.

photos

wellness

at la-confdential-magazine.comWe have the inside scoop on Los Angeles’s best

parties, holiday pursuits, and more.

JOIN US ONLINE

COME FOLLOW US

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34 LA-CONFIDENTIAL-MAGAZINE.COM

Copyright 2014 by Niche Media Holdings, LLC. All rights reserved. Los Angeles Confidential magazine is published eight times per year. Reproduction without permission of the publisher is prohibited. The publisher and editors are not responsible for unsolicited material, and it will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication subject to Los Angeles Confidential magazine’s right to edit.

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Associate Publisher VALERIE ROBLES Account Directors GUY BROWN, NORMA MONTALVO, ELIZABETH MOORE, MIA PIERRE-JACQUESAccount Executives ALICIA DRY, JULIA MAZUR Director of Event Planning MELINDA JAGGEREvent Marketing Manager ANTHONY ANGELICOAssistant Distribution Relations Manager JENNIFER PALMEROffice Manager CAROLYN SCARBROUGH Sales and Marketing Assistant KELSEY MARRUJO

ALISON MILLERGroup Publisher

Deputy Editor ERIN MAGNER

Executive Managing Editor DEBORAH L. MARTIN

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SPENCER BECKEditor-in-Chief

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ART AND PHOTO

Associate Art Directors ANASTASIA TSIOUTAS CASALIGGI, ALLISON FLEMING, ADRIANA GARCIA, JUAN PARRA, JESSICA SARRO Senior Designer NATALI SUASNAVASDesigners AARON BELANDRES, SARAH LITZ Photo Director LISA ROSENTHAL BADER Photo Editors KATHERINE HAUSENBAUER-KOSTER, JODIE LOVE, SETH OLENICK, JENNIFER PAGAN

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FASHION

Fashion Editor FAYE POWER Fashion Assistants CONNOR CHILDERS, LISA FERRANDINO Entertainment and Bookings Editor JULIET IZON

COPY AND RESEARCH

Copy and Research Manager WENDIE PECHARSKY Copy Editors DAVID FAIRHURST, JULIA STEINER Research Editors JAMES BUSS, JUDY DEYOUNG, AVA WILLIAMS

EDITORIAL OPERATIONS

Director of Editorial Operations DEBORAH L. MARTIN Director of Editorial Relations MATTHEW STEWART Editorial Assistant CHRISTINA CLEMENTE Online Executive Editor CAITLIN ROHAN Online Editors ANNA BEN YEHUDA, TRICIA CARR

Senior Managing Editors DANINE ALATI, KAREN ROSE, JILL SIERACKI Managing Editors JENNIFER DEMERITT, MURAT OZTASKIN, OUSSAMA ZAHR

Shelter and Design Editor SUE HOSTETLER Timepiece Editor ROBERTA NAAS

ADVERTISING SALES

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MARKETING, PROMOTIONS, AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations LANA BERNSTEIN Senior Director of Brand Development ROBIN KEARSE Director of Brand Development JOANNA TUCKERBrand Development Managers CHRISTIAMILDA CORREA, JIMMY KONTOMANOLIS Director of Creative Services SCOTT ROBSON Promotions Art Designers KAITLYN RICHERT, CARLY RUSSELL

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Director of Operations MICHAEL CAPACE Director of Human Resources STEPHANIE MITCHELL Executive Assistant ARLENE GONZALEZ Digital Producer ANTHONY PEARSON Facilities Coordinator JOUBERT GUILLAUME Chief Technology Officer JESSE TAYLOR Desktop Administrators ZACHARY CUMMO, EDGAR ROCHE

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PUBLISHERS

JOHN M. COLABELLI (Philadelphia Style), LOUIS F. DELONE (Austin Way), DAWN DUBOIS (Gotham), ALEXANDRA HALPERIN (Aspen Peak), DEBRA HALPERT (Hamptons), SUZY JACOBS (Capitol File), GLEN KELLEY (Boston Common), COURTLAND LANTAFF (Ocean Drive), DAN USLAN (Michigan Avenue), JOSEF VANN (Vegas)

Managing Partner JANE GALE Chairman and Director of Photography JEFF GALE

Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer JOHN P. KUSHNIR Chief Executive Officer KATHERINE NICHOLLS

OYSTER PERPETUAL ROLEX DEEPSEA

rolex oyster perpetual and deepsea are trademarks.

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Tooth-some twosome: Trying to out-smile our

October cover star, James Marsden, at the LAC Men’s Issue party (ABOVE) and with

“sexy in the city” heartthrob Gilles Marini

(RIGHT). BELOW: Toasting the opening of Bev Hills

boutique West with my buddy LAC VP of Creative/

Fashion Ann Song and owner James Anderton.

AND THE AWARD GOES

TO… LYNDA RESNICK.

STEVE TISCH. IAN

SOMERHALDER. Huh? In this

issue, as we join in pre-awards

season mania with shout-outs to

mega Grammy contender John

Legend (see “The Gospel

According to John,” page 112) and

the Golden Globes’s savvy new

president, Theo Kingma (see

“Golden Boy,” page 75), among

others, let’s toast another kind of

LA superstar: the philanthropists

who give back… and give back

big time.

Sound dreary? Hardly. This is

“Hollywood,” after all. Sure, you

can buy tickets to the Grammys

and catch a couple of minutes of

Rihanna, but if you really want to

see her up close and personal, you

could have coughed up a few more

dollars to watch her perform at the

spectacular amfAR benefit last fall

(plus, you got a gourmet dinner

and tipsy-table-hopping celeb-

watching-guilt-free conscience

included). In fact, there’s a

show-stopping fundraiser in LA

just about every week from fall

through spring, orchestrated

performance pieces nonpareil as

befit a city that knows a little

something about performing.

In “Give and Let Live” (page

128), my dear friend, ex-Hollywood

Reporter editor Degen Pener, has

worked his peerless Rolodex to

dish up LA’s philanthropic A-list.

Resnick, Tisch, et al, are terribly

busy people, but not too busy to

help us help them promote what

they really care about. Bravo.

This feature is no accident.

Amid all the glamour and

high-end luxury we tout in our

magazines every month, it is a part

of our company-wide mission to

celebrate the people and causes

that go beyond mere self-interest.

Our owners, Janie and Jeff Gale,

have made their own dedicated

philanthropic mission our mission.

Janie cares deeply about the

environment and animal rights,

among other high-minded issues.

You can’t help but be swayed to

her pointed point-of-view when

confronted by her mix of passion,

determination… and famous

charm. (But mention foie gras on

our pages, and you’re in some

deep duck doo-doo. Previously

not terribly enlightened about

such things, I’ve taken to eating

less beef these days.)

In the annals of my own

not-so-terribly philanthropic

family, there is one character who

stands out. Once upon a time, in a

medium-sized Midwestern town,

my father’s great-grandmother was

something of a local legend. Emma

Seabright Helling, the daughter of

prosperous German immigrants

who had hidden runaway slaves in

a secret room in the cellar of their

old brick house along the Ohio

River, managed to give away every

last dime of her inheritance before

she died at age 85. As the story

goes, on any given day, for the 25

years of her widowhood, a line of

tramps, girls in trouble, and men

out of work would line up in front

of her house, from which she would

dole out cash as she deemed

appropriate. Her six children

couldn’t stop her, and, sadly, after

emptying the family coffers, she

became for subsequent generations

in the family the object of some

bitterness and ridicule.

I didn’t know my great-great-

grandmother, but I admire

her—and have tried to emulate her

in some regards. For her, charity

literally began at home. At my

funeral, I hope there will be as

many people who come out and

say nice things as there were at

Grandma Helling’s final send-off,

which made the front page of the

paper back in 1940: “500 Friends

and Strangers Turn Out to Pay

Tribute to a Beloved Local

Resident.” Cheers, Grandma.

Stay up to date with all that’s going on in LA at la-confidential-magazine.com.

SPENCER BECK


LETTER from the Editor-in-Chief

Arriving in anything else calls into question whether you’ve really arrived. The new Bentley Flying Spur V8.

www.BentleyBeverlyHillsEvents.com

BENTLEY BEVERLY HILLS

The name ‘Bentley’ and the ‘B’ in wings device are registered trademarks. © 2014 Bentley Motors, Inc. Model shown: Flying Spur V8

Stay up to date with all that’s going on in LA at la-confidential-magazine.com.

ABOVE: Celebrating LAC ’s annual Men’s Issue event with Lisa Lupo, cover star James Marsden, and Munawar Hosain. LEFT: Congratulating Alexandre Desplat for his Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Film Music at the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards with emcee Matthew Morrison and Hamilton CEO Sylvain Dolla.

AS THE YEAR COMES TO A CLOSE AND WE REFLECT ON 2014, I have to say,

what a year it has been! We welcomed an exciting new sister title, Austin Way, to our family of

magazines in September (howdy, pardner!), and right on its heels, Folio named our CEO,

Katherine Nicholls, one of its Top Women in Media and Corporate Visionaries for Niche

Media’s innovative work in establishing a strong mission-driven culture. As a portfolio of pub-

lications, we exceeded well over 1 billion domestic media impressions above and beyond

those generated by our own network, and were broadcast around the world by the global press

who attended this year’s annual Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards, which we produced

here in Los Angeles last month.

With 2015 fast approaching, I find myself thinking of New Year’s Eve and its tradition of

resolutions, fireworks, and midnight kisses. It’s been 110 years since Times Square first

began the now-infamous annual celebration, although in the early days, fireworks rang

in midnight rather than today’s 11,875-pound Waterford Crystal ball. The stroke of 12 this

year will also signify the 85th anniversary of the first time “Auld Lang Syne” was played at a

New Year’s Eve celebration. Guy Lombardo began that tradition in 1929 at The Roosevelt

Hotel in New York City, and it has remained the anthem for party revelers ever since. All of

this history evokes a great sense of nostalgia for me. Normally one to embrace change, I find

myself clinging rather stubbornly to these traditions and the great sense of occasion they

create. Perhaps, as the lyrics indicate, it’s just a bit of love for times gone by. However you

choose to celebrate, I raise a glass to you, our readers, and thank you for sharing a bit of your

life with us. Take a cup of kindness, and I will see you in 2015. Happy New Year!

1

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Awards season 2015 is offi cially here!

1) 26th Palm Springs International Film

Festival & Awards Gala, January 2–12

2) 72nd Golden Globe Awards, January 11 at

The Beverly Hilton Hotel

3) 57th Grammy Awards, February 8 at the

Staples Center

// this month //

ON MY RADAR

ALISON MILLER

Matthew McConaughey accepts the Desert Palm Achievement, Actor, award at last year’s Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala.

Lupita Nyong’o arrives for Fox/FX’s 2014 Golden Globe Awards Party.

Musician Pharrell Williams performs onstage during the

56th Grammy Awards in 2014.


LETTER from the Publisher

ALEXISBITTAR.COM

West HollyWoodWest 3rd street

VeniceAbbot Kinney

MAlibulumber yard

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Degen Pener was the culture editor of The Hollywood Reporter

and previously, the editor-in-chief of Angeleno magazine. He

has covered personalities and home design for such publica-

tions as Veranda, Interior Design, Cosmopolitan, The New York

Times, Entertainment Weekly, and Glamour. Among those he

has profiled are Oprah Winfrey, Richard Avedon, Tom Ford,

Drew Barrymore, Vidal Sassoon, and interior designer

Michael Smith. He is also the author of The Swing Book, a

guide to the swing music revival. In this issue he interviews

Los Angeles’s big givers in “Give and Let Live,” page 128.

What was the most interesting thing you learned about

LA philanthropy? I read recently that there are now 1.5

million nonprofits in the United States, which is a stunning

number. There are hundreds of great nonprofits here in Los

Angeles, and there are so many of them making a difference

without celebrity supporters. It was fun to find some lower-

profile groups that deserve attention!

When it comes to charities, what cause is closest to your

own heart? Saving endangered species. I was so happy to

include the work of the Orangutan Foundation and the

Turtle Conservancy. The phrase “habitat loss” sounds so dry.

These really are animals’ houses we are talking about, and

we are making them homeless.

Who is on your “interview bucket list”? Jane Goodall. I

respect everything she has done for animals.

Among the people you have interviewed, who sur-

prised you the most? Vidal Sassoon. He was one of the

smartest, most cultured people I’ve ever met. And he paid

me a wonderful compliment on the piece. He said, “I

recognized myself.”

degen pener

Entertainment writer Scott

Huver’s work has appeared

in magazines and websites,

including People, TV Guide,

InStyle, and hollywood.com.

He is a regular contributor to

Los Angeles Confidential, and

in this issue he covers the

Santa Barbara International

Film Festival (page 70),

interviews Thomas Sadoski

(page 82), Kelly Rowland

(page 62), and the president

of the Hollywood Foreign

Press Association, Theo

Kingma (page 75).

What makes the Santa

Barbara film festival

different? It bypasses many

of the superfluous trappings

of other festivals— overt

sponsorships, parties and

“scenes” that seem discon-

nected—to focus on

celebrating film and

filmmakers. And the local

community is engaged,

excited, and invested in it,

and not just counting the

tourism dollars.

Did you learn anything

new about the Golden

Globes while interview-

ing Theo Kingma?

I was surprised to learn that

the preparations for the

actual broadcast with the

hosts begin only about a

month before the big night.

Before starting out on her

freelance photography

career, Los Angeles–based

photographer Jessica

Sample was the deputy

photo editor for Travel +

Leisure, and also contrib-

uted photography for the

pages. Current clients

include Condé Nast Traveller

UK, Coastal Living, National

Geographic, Food & Wine,

Bon Appétit, and The

Hollywood Reporter. For this

issue, Sample photographed

LA’s philanthropic power-

houses (“Give and Let Live,”

page 128).

How do you get your

portrait subjects to relax

on set? I smile a lot. I also

look young so people aren’t

intimidated by me.

What was your

favorite part of

photographing our

philanthropic Angelenos

for this issue? Discovering

that beautiful red-seat

theater at the LGBT center.

Roland felt right at home

sitting there. What is your

favorite subject matter to

photograph? I love

shooting travel because it

combines all my favorite

things: landscapes, people,

and food.

scott huver jessica sample

Eric Rosen lives in Los

Angeles and writes about

food, wine, travel and

adventure. When he is not

exploring the Los Angeles

dining scene for Los Angeles

Confidential, Eric is on

assignment discovering new

culinary trends and far-flung

wine regions from Argentina

to Australia, and every-

where in between. Most

recently he spent time in

New Zealand sipping

Sauvignon Blanc.

For this issue, he takes us on

a tour of restaurants that are

reinventing that venerable

tradition, the cheese course.

(The Dish, page 102).

What is your favorite type

of cheese? Call me a

classicist but I’m a sucker for

an Epoisses. It is such a rich,

triple-cream French cheese

but still has so much flavor.

Do you end your meals

with a cheese course? I

always choose savory over

sweet, so lingering over a

cheese course is my idea of

the perfect way to end a

meal. Did you learn

anything new in research-

ing this story? I am

impressed by the sheer

variety of cheeses available

to us today, both local and

from countries all over

the world.

eric rosen


...without whom this issue would not have been possible // december 2014/january 2015

©20

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The À La Mod SquadLA’s juicy couturiers de force, Pamela aiSt-levy And Gela

NaSh-taylor, ceLebrAte A 25-yeAr friendship with A new brAnd, A new book-turned-tV show, And A new onLine shop. By Kathryn Drury Wagner

There was a moment, around 2000, when it

seemed as if every woman in the country owned a

terry-cloth tracksuit. It was a phenomenon

sparked by Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela

Nash-Taylor, who ignited one of the biggest trends

in American fashion—luxury loungewear—with

their Juicy Couture line. But the “read my tush”

fad ran its course, and the duo parted ways with

the brand in 2010.

The two 50-something LA natives have been

best friends and business partners for 25 years

and share the mind-meld rapport you can only

forge from being in the trenches together—run-

ning empires, slinging kids, and raiding closets.

They seem as intertwined as one of the long

blonde braids Gela is wearing: Both love vintage

shopping and Malibu, and both are active in

charities, including Children’s Hospital Los

Angeles, Key to the Cure, and Baby 2 Baby.

Partners in sublime: Gela Nash-Taylor (left) and Pamela Skaist-Levy wear custom-made boots and rompers from their new line, Pam & Gela.

continued on page 50

la-confidential-magazine.com 49

Style tastemakers

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“we know we’re on to something with this brand… because our friends come

over and steal everything out of our closets!” —pamela skaist-levy

So it’s no surprise that

they’ve started another

company together, Pam &

Gela, featuring their

signature buttery fabrics and

killer fits. The spring 2014

debut of the company

coincided with the launch of

the duo’s book on entrepre-

neurship, the glitter Plan.

With that shimmering tome

being developed for TV, and

the company moving its

15-person team into new

offices in Hollywood,

Skaist-Levy and Nash-Taylor

have once again seized the

fashion spotlight.

Pam & Gela is “casual

luxury and great basics with

a fashion twist,” explains

Skaist-Levy. Their “i’m not

sorry” muscle tees were a hit

with young Hollywood this

summer, rocked by Mindy

Kaling and Emma Roberts;

Jessica Alba and other It girls

snapped up the leather track

pants. “You can wear them

with tennis shoes or dress

them up with heels,” says

Skaist-Levy. Or perhaps a

tie? Nash-Taylor’s husband,

musician John Taylor of

Duran Duran, “is obsessed.

He saw the leather track

pants and said, ‘Make those

for me!’”

“The brand is sexy but in

that LA-rocker way, very

accessible,” says Nash-Taylor.

“I hope it’s the modern-day

Juicy. I like that easy, uniform

way of dressing, where I’m

put together but

comfortable.”

“Pam and Gela define

what is now known as a

California lifestyle brand,”

says Sarah Stewart, head

buyer at Maxfield. “They

created it by ignoring the

conventional norms, such as

traditional seasons and

color trends, and instead

followed their own shared

vision. It’s a nod to their

business acumen that they

continue to get it right,

season after season.”

The line is sold by vendors

like Shopbop (shopbop.com),

but come January, fans can

click straight to the source:

pamandgela.com will offer

Pam & Gela designs, along

with vintage both high

(Birkin bags) and low (ice

cube trays), and other

oh-so-cool discoveries. A

limited offering of shoes will

be available on the website,

with the duo hoping to

eventually manufacture

footwear and handbags.

For spring, Pam & Gela

will feature ikat designs

along with a lot of leather,

fringe, and suede. “We’re

obsessed with the perfect

dress that can take you from

day to night,” says Skaist-

Levy. “I hate to say ‘boho,’

but it’s that dress that looks

good on a million body

types, in wearable prints, that

you can dress up with the

accessories and shoes.”

“We have an eclectic sense

of style,” adds Skaist-Levy,

“but we know we’re on to

something with this brand…

because our friends come over

and steal everything out of our

closets!” pamandgela.com LAC

clockwise from left: A look from Pam & Gela’s Spring 2015 collection; a leather jacket bearing the brand name was designed and made by Ade Wood, who formerly created the graphics and packaging at Juicy Couture; The Glitter

Plan tells the story of how the duo behind Pam & Gela built the Juicy brand into a global sensation using just $200.


Style tastemakers

A N I C O N J U S T G O T L A R G E R

THE NEW NAVITIMER 46 mm

TINSEL TOWNThis season, all ThaT gliTTers in la is indeed silver and gold... photography by bill diodato

styling by faye power

METALLICABold metals and feminine

crystals create the perfect contrast.

Dahomar snake link and crystal necklace,

Lanvin ($3,990). 260 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly

Hills, 310-402-0580; lanvin.com. Embellished

sleeve with removable leather glove,

Rochas (price on request). rochas.com

Pr

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STYLE Accessories

ARTFULLYGIVE

BEVERLY HILLs 310.550.5900 nEImanmaRcus.com

ARMENTA

1. Faceted floral and pearl embroidered box clutch, Marchesa ($2,495). Neiman Marcus, 9700 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, 310-550-5900; neimanmarcus.com. Crystal feather necklace, Oscar de la Renta ($1,195). 8446 Melrose Pl., LA, 323-653-0200; oscardelarenta.com. 2. Green crystal open Horsebit bracelets ($1,650 each) and green crystal closed Horsebit bracelets ($1,350 each), Gucci. 347 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-278-3451; gucci.com. Metal and crystal floral minaudière, Ralph Lauren Collection ($4,500). 444 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-281-7200; ralphlauren.com. 3. Small plexi jewel-colored clutch, Elie Saab ($2,500). Neiman Marcus, see above. Alaleone pump, Manolo Blahnik ($1,135). Barneys New York, 9570 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, 310-276-4400; barneys.com. 4. Crystal-embellished necklace, Giuseppe Zanotti Design ($1,695). 9536 Brighton Way, Beverly Hills, 310-550-5760; giuseppezanottidesign.com. Be Square silver and jet crystal minaudière, Judith Leiber Couture ($4,995). Neiman Marcus, see above

4

1 2

3

PURPLE REIGNMake a statement

with pops of plum.

GILT TRIPGo for baroque with jewel-encrusted

gold adornments.

SMART DECOGeometric patterns give

winter accessories a Gatsby-esque edge.

GLITTERATIDazzling crystals adorn this season’s

most party-perfect pieces.

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IT’S IN THE BAGAlready beloved for its perfect leather jackets,

Vince debuts its fi rst-ever women’s handbag line

this season, with an array of understated, minimal-

ist day and night options. Highlights include totes,

cross-bodies, and medium-size clutches, perfect

for beach-to-Bev Hills days. Playing off the brand’s

wildly popular ready-to-wear line, the colors range

from bright ocean blue to rhubarb to modern black

and white. 112 S. Robertson Blvd., LA, 310-247-

8299; vince.com

LISTEN UP!This holiday season marks the debut of a new

headphones collaboration between Fendi and

electronics powerhouse Beats by Dre. Each piece

is hand-stitched by Fendi leatherworkers and

comes in a variety of colors, such as sunfl ower,

emerald green, and asphalt, for the ultimate in

acoustic élan. 355 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills,

310-276-8888; fendi.com

2

Ooh la La PerlaLA PERLA CELEBRATES A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY

WITH A CHIC NEW LOOK IN THE OC.

BY LAUREN FINNEY

Lush lingerie brand La Perla has unveiled its fi rst North

American new store concept at South Coast Plaza—an occasion

that coincides with its 60th anniversary. The revamped store,

which is the work of Italian architect Roberto Baciocchi,

has überfeminine touches such as a muted color palette

and marble, velvet, and gilded metal accents. Fitting rooms

have been redone for maximum comfort and privacy, with a

discreet service bell for sales help and soft lighting. Completing

the intimate experience is a special espace privé, where VIP

customers can try on their selections in total privacy. South

Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, 714-754-7500; laperla.com LAC

gifts

shop talk

Hermès is introducing its

first writing instrument in

time for the holidays.

Called the Nautilus, the

ballpoint comes in two

point widths and two

colors; the fountain pen

comes in six nib widths

and five colors. The pens

are complemented by an

assortment of writing

papers, envelopes,

notebooks, and leather

goods—including a

leather cartridge box

that epitomizes the

brand’s understated

elegance. 434 N.

Rodeo Dr.,

Beverly Hills,

310-278-

6440;

hermes.com

Hermès Nautilus writing instrument ($1,650).

1

// NEW IN TOWN //

THE WRITE

STUFF

THE ONLY BAGGAGE YOU NEED to take you into 2015: a brilliant jewel-box clutch.

Alexander McQueen ($1,995). 8379 Melrose Ave., LA, 323-782-4983; alexandermcqueen.com

// adornments // SMALL WONDERS

Diane von Furstenberg ($398). 8407 Melrose Ave., LA, 323-951-1947; dvf.com

Marchesa (price on request). Saks Fifth Avenue, 9600 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills,

310-275-4211; saks.com

Roger Vivier ($2,250). South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa,

714-435-0015; rogervivier.com

Chanel (price on request). 125 N. Robertson Blvd., LA, 310-278-

5505; chanel.com

Cut-out clutch, $495.

La Perla Cristallo Nero Collection bodysuit (price on request).


STYLE Spotlight

SOUTH COAST PLAZA

433 NORTH RODEO DRIVE

LAPERLA.COM

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Irena Medavoy’s pre-Golden

Globes party invite (back on

for 2016!) has long been

considered the entrée to what

A-listers refer to as the

“Billionaire’s Room” for

titans of the industry and

superstars alike—picture Elon

Musk sipping Veuve Clicquot

with Jane Fonda. Married to

veteran producer Mike

Medavoy (Black Swan, All the

King’s Men), the superlative

hostess sets the bar for stylish

soirées while keeping both

Manolos rooted in tradition.

The first step to throwing a

perfect party? Finding the

perfect outfit. For red-carpet

glam, Medavoy visits

Monique Lhuillier (8485

Melrose Pl., LA, 323-655-

1088; moniquelhuillier.com).

For something edgier, Tom

Ford (346 Rodeo Dr., Beverly

Hills, 310-270-9440; tom

ford.com) is her man. “But,”

she adds, “he can also do

classic. Remember Gwyneth

Paltrow wearing his timeless

white sheath and cape to the

Oscars? Perfection.” And

then, of course, there’s

Michael Kors (108 N.

Robertson Blvd., LA, 310-385-

8350; michaelkors.com). “I

count on him for everything

in life. He’s a designer who

loves women and can dress

any figure.”

A purist who also honors

her SoCal roots, Medavoy

maintains her beach-blonde

locks with monthly visits to

color genius Lorri Goddard

at Rossano Ferretti Salon

(345 N. Canon Dr., Beverly

Hills, 310-598-6780;

lorrigoddardhaircolorist.com).

For cuts, Marc Durand at

Mèche Salon (8820 Burton

Way, Beverly Hills, 310-278-

8930; mechesalonla.com)

softens her layers with tousled

precision.

Beautifully sculpted

brows are another pre-party

must; Marlena (she’s so

good she only requires one

name) at Lukaro Salon

(323 N. Beverly Dr., Beverly

Hills, 310-275-2538;

lukaro.com) is Medavoy’s

eyebrow artiste. And when it

comes to makeup, she stays

loyal to the classically tried

and true. “I’m still loving my

Chanel Teint Innocence fluid

foundation,” she says—espe-

cially when it’s applied by her

favorite makeup artist,

Cecile Do at Neiman

Marcus (9700 Wilshire Blvd.,

Beverly Hills, 310-550-5900;

neimanmarcus.com).

Any seasoned hostess

knows the secret to a great

party is a stress-free vibe. The

day before throwing a big

party, massage therapist

Michael Sladkov (323-383-

2832) applies Medavoy’s

own brand of Tahitian

coconut oil all over her body

to relax her and make her

skin radiant.

As for a pre-Globe happy

ending? “In this town,” says

Medavoy, “parking is

everything and Greg Gee of

Crystal Valet (323-663-

0381) is our guy.” He’s the

auto savant who makes the

trains—or in this case, the

Teslas—run on time. And

during awards season, that’s

a custom that never goes out

of style. LAC

Party GirlGal-about-town Irena Medavoy Gives it up for awards

season. By NadiNe Schiff-RoSeN

clockwise from left: Irena Medavoy, the ultimate Hollywood hostess, photographed at her Beverly Crest home; Monique

Lhuillier is Medavoy’s go-to for glamorous gala-worthy gowns; she heads to Tom Ford when she wants to do “edgy.”


STYLE Social Network

e s t . 1 8 1 8

ro d e o d r i ve f i g u e roa st r e e t we st f i e l d c e n t u ry c i t y fa s h i o n i s l a n d ga r d e n s o n e l pa s e o l a j o l l a f o ru m s h o p s at ca e sa rs

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LA the Beauty-fula spate of revolutionary new launches is making los angeles

ground zero for the global beauty biz. By Kathryn Drury Wagner

Just as there’s no crying in baseball, there’s no aging in Los Angeles. It’s not easy to appear fresh and radi-ant with a sun-drenched climate and equally relentless glare of the media, so SoCal’s trend- setting faces naturally clamor for the latest in cutting-edge skincare. And increasingly, many of those products are being developed not in Paris or New York, but right here in LA.

“There are more medi-spas and beauty stores in California than anywhere else,” says Lauren Wolk-Goldfaden, VP of sales at Goldfaden MD. The brand, which claims to have created the first physician-strength natural skincare products, recently moved operations from Miami to LA. Wolk-Goldfaden explains, “[LA is] key for distribu-tion, but you also have the tastemakers and celebrities here.” Being in the right gifting suite, for example, can make or break a new skincare line.

“We’re the mecca for plastic surgery and

dermatology,” adds Jami Morse Heidegger, the Malibu-based granddaughter of Irving Morse, who started as an apprentice at Kiehl’s and ended up pur-chasing the company from its founder, John Kiehl. “As the medical aspect advances, so does the skin-care.” There’s also a rich network of chemists and manufacturing facilities already in place in LA, making it attractive for start-ups. Heidegger, for instance, just launched Retrouvé, a quartet of high-concentration, ultranourishing elixirs containing ingredients like apple stem cells, which recently debuted at LA’s Apothia by Ron Robinson (8118

Melrose Ave., LA, 323-651-0239; ronrobinson.com). Other hot new LA lines include A-list aesthetician Francesca “Frankie” Paige’s botanical skincare sys-tem, FP Skin (already a favorite of her many celebrity clients), and Beautycounter, an organic luxury brand so pure it has banned the use of 1,500 chemi-cals from its formulations (the US government, by

contrast, has only banned 11). Malibu, in particular, has become a rookery for

beauty start-ups, says Liz Edlich, who with her sister, Rachel, founded Radical Skincare there. Developed with the help of the Edlichs’ plastic surgeon father, the antioxidant-rich line is clinically proven to be 300 percent more potent than products with compa-rable ingredients, yet safe for those with sensitive skin. Guess founders Paul and Maurice Marciano and former Clarins and Estée Lauder execs are among Radical’s investors. Skincare, the Edlichs note, is one of the West Coast’s biggest investment opportunities—after all, the American cosmetic industry is the largest in the world, with total revenue projected to hit $58.79 billion for 2014.

Still, the market in LA is perhaps the world’s most demanding. Persnickety beauties have access to everything, from $1,500 eye creams to top wellness gurus. In LA, we want results—and thanks to sci-ence, we’re getting local products that deliver. LAC

get ready for your

close-up!

Hollywood’s most discerning customers can’t get

enough of these homegrown

hero products.

Beloved by Kate Hudson

and Jessica Alba, this

powerful, yet hydrating

scrub’s results are compa-

rable to those achieved with

clinical microdermabrasion.

Doctor’s Scrub Advanced,

Goldfaden MD ($98). Space NK, Brentwood

Country Mart, Santa Monica, 310-451-7284; gold

fadenmd.com

Goldie Hawn and Leslie

Mann are fans of this potent

antiaging elixir, which has

been proven to make skin

notably firmer and brighter.

Advanced Peptide

Antioxidant Serum, Radical

Skincare ($190). Barneys New York, 9570

Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, 310-276-4400;

barneys.com

Gwyneth Paltrow called

Beautycounter “one of my

favorite new lines”—she

even sold the brand’s

ultrahydrating botanical

face oils in her Goop LA

pop-up shop this year.

Lustro Face Oils,

Beautycounter ($64 each). beautycounter.com

SoCal complexions demand the latest in cutting-edge

skincare, and, increasingly, local companies are creating

products that fill the bill.


STYLE You, Even Better

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“There’s nothing wrong with being bold,” says onetime Destiny’s Child singer

Kelly Rowland, now a chart-topping solo artist as well as a new mother. “And

there’s nothing wrong with having an [accessory] that really inspires you to be

more bold.” It’s an effect she achieved with the latest special-edition timepiece

she designed for TW Steel, the renowned Dutch watchmaker that specializes in

oversize timepieces.

Her Kelly Rowland Canteen Bracelet Special Edition is distinguished by its

sleek PVD-coated steel case and bracelet, complete with a brushed finish for

added refinement and stylish rose-gold-colored numbering and indexes. It’s

the third signature timepiece Rowland’s crafted for TW Steel—she fell in love

with the boldfaced brand after “stealing” one of its timepieces from a pal. “I

remember wanting to do a black watch, and we finally got it with this one,” she

says. “With the rose-gold elements and the black, I just felt like it would match

so many things.”

Big TimeMultiplatinuM-selling R&B aRtist elly Rowland’s latest watch design

foR tw steel is foR MaxiMalists only. By scott huver

With a new album in the works and the birth of her son, Titan, last month, with

her husband and manager, Tim Witherspoon, the fleeting nature of time has

been on Rowland’s mind as of late. “Time is priceless,” she says. “When you have

it, it’s good to know how extremely delicate it is and not take advantage of it.”

Having packed so much living into every minute, the 33-year-old singer

admits she’s forcing herself to slow down and savor motherhood. “I’m trying to

be still because I’m so used to moving all the time—but when I get home, I feel

stagnant,” she confessed before the baby’s arrival. “Somebody’s like, ‘You don’t

have to work.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I want to!’”

Time management, she concedes, is always a challenge. “But somebody

gave me a wonderful quote, which is, ‘We make time for the things that we want

to make time for.’ And I will never, ever forget that because it’s so true.”

For more watch features and expanded coverage, go to la-confidential-magazine.com/

watches. LAC

“There’s noThing wrong

wiTh having an accessory

ThaT really inspires you

To be more bold.”— kelly rowland

The Kelly Rowland Canteen Bracelet Special Edition

watch ($650) is the artist’s third design for TW Steel.

Available at Feldmar Watch Co., 9000 W. Pico Blvd, LA, 310-274-8016; twsteel.com

STYLE Time Keeper


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8500 Beverly Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048 | 310-854-0070 | beverlycenter.com

Tis season, delight your sophisticated beloved with distinctive accessories, elegant baubles, and covetable styles from the fnest purveyors of holiday chic.

WISHES GRANTED1. Wrap yourself in elegance with this iconic

yet modern shirtdress by Halston Heritage.

Te simple lines and eye-catching design are

loosely defned with dual layers, and include a

detachable skinny belt. Tis versatile dress will

be a favorite as you go from day to night and

from season to season.

HALSTON HERITAGE, 310.299.8407

2. Tis beautiful black dress from Sandro is the

perfect attire for any of your holiday events.

Te graceful silhouette is complimented by a

luminous and bejeweled sheer top. Te overall

look is both refned and sophisticated and can

work on a woman of any age.

SANDRO, 310.360.4882

3. A luxury brand that knows how to build a

beautiful shoe, BCBGMAXAZRIA has created

an inspired and modern stiletto heel that will

be the envy of everyone. Precision laser-cut

geometric patterns throughout are highlighted

by an open toe. Its back zipper closure ensures

not only style but also comfort to the most

refned woman in Los Angeles.

BCBGMAXAZRIA, 310.854.0986

4. With the Rayure black evening dress, Maje

has created a stunning reinvention of a classic.

Featuring a cutaway neckline and a ftted waist,

this multi-layered look is arranged in layers to

create a transparent, elegant style. Structured

and feminine, this dress is sure to become a

favorite party dress for years to come.

MAJE, 310.360.4888

5. Inspired by the movie Mad Max, Demobaza’s

Sun Forward Collection pops with an edgy

and futuristic take on fashion. Te limited

edition popcorn knitted multi-paneled parka

jacket features button enclosures for its playful

asymmetrical silhouette. Black slouchy pants

ofer both form and function to this youthful

and energetic ensemble.

POLITIX, 310.659.1964

6. Founded in Stockholm in 1996, Scandinavian

fashion house J.Lindeberg’s vision for fnely

tailored and wearable fashion is perfectly

realized in the Blue Donnie Sof Legend Wool

Blazer. A sharp and modern look, this slim ft

blazer features a double-vent back, and is made

from 100% Italian virgin wool from Loro Piana.

Pair with wool trousers for a modern, style

setting statement.

J.LINDEBERG, 310.659.7340

7. Crafed in a unique fabric that weaves the

style of denim with the versatility of jersey,

Diesel’s Elshar Jogg Jean Jacket combines a

leather collar with their signature denim to

create a unique and trend-setting hybrid. Te

contrasting spread collar in black leather

and vertical quilting lend an element of

construction that gives this piece a high-

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DIESEL, 310.652.5504

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Music center

of the

universeThis monTh, The music cenTer celebraTes a sTar-sTudded half-cenTury of wowing la audiences wiTh oscars, opera, and musical performances nonpareil. By Michael herren

Whenever a grande dame has a golden birthday, hitting the half-

century mark, expectations effervesce faster than bubbles in Veuve

Clicquot. Delicious delicacies? Extravagant entertainment? Jaw-

dropping jewels rescued from bank vaults adorning swanlike necks,

complemented by gentlemen who wear black tie with cavalier

nonchalance? As well as the requisite live music, gardens of flowers,

and general joie de vivre? All of the afore!

But when that lady is The Music Center, the grande dame of Grand

Avenue (and the legacy of legendary LA grande dame Dorothy “Buff”

Chandler), get ready for a no-holds-barred artful extravaganza that

reflects the excellence of four of the world’s finest performing arts

companies—Center Theatre Group, LA Opera, the LA Phil, and the

Los Angeles Master Chorale, all resident companies—as well as Glorya

Kaufman Presents Dance at The Music Center, which highlights

significant classical and contemporary dance artists from around the

world. Then there’s the Hollywood connection: The Dorothy Chandler

Pavilion played host to the Academy Awards no less than 25 times.

While The Music Center’s official 50th Anniversary Celebration

revved up in October with a civic rededication ceremony and open

house, it’s the first weekend in December that marks its star-stud-

ded culmination. First, at 7 pm on Saturday, December 6, following

a Champagne reception in the lobbies of the Dorothy Chandler


clockwise from top left: The view from the stage at Walt Disney

Concert Hall; Grant Gershon, the artistic director of the LA Master

Chorale and the resident conductor of the LA Opera;

Il Postino being performed by the LA Opera in 2011; the LA Master Chorale performs the innovative

“Voices of Light” in 2014; the Oscar statuette, which was

given out at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for 25 years;

Placido Domingo in Don Rodrigo at the DCP in 1967; Christine

Ebersol performs at The Music Center’s special pre-anniversary

party for longtime supporters last April.


culture Hottest ticket

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Pavilion, the proscenium curtain bearing Tony Duquette’s

signature starburst will slowly open. The reveal will include

an aria by mezzo-soprano Susan Graham; the banquet scene

from the opera Nixon in China; Davis Gaines reprising his

role in Phantom of the Opera; appearances by Hollywood

plenipotentiaries, among them Harry Hamlin, Mario Lopez,

and Edward James Olmos; and a symphony of surprises that

Renae Williams Niles, The Music Center’s vice president of

programming, quite rightly refuses to disclose. “Then they

wouldn’t be surprises!” she says.

The degree to which the show is not only special but unprece-

dented is summed up by Stephen D. Rountree, president and

CEO of The Music Center, who describes it as a “once-in-a-life-

time collaboration. It’s unlike anything else in Los Angeles, and

perhaps even in this country.”

Following the 90-minute spectacular comes the soup—or,

rather, the black-tie dinner for 1,000 guests, which will be held in

a massive tent on The Music Center Plaza. “While the show is

about celebrating what takes place at The Music Center, the gala

dinner is about celebrating the people who make it happen,” says

Williams Niles, adding that long-standing partner Patina

Catering is preparing the special three-course menu. Naturally,

there will be more surprise performances, and, of course, there

will be dancing to follow. And as if that weren’t enough, another,

more casual confluence of food and entertainment is planned

for the following day, December 7, dubbed Party on the Plaza.

The 50th Anniversary Celebration is, however, much bigger

than one big weekend, no matter how unparalleled. “This is

an opportunity to show the world what The Music Center

stands for and to demonstrate what Dorothy Chandler sug-

gested—that the soul of The Music Center is not in what it is,

but what it does,” says Rountree.

What are some of the highlights and milestones being com-

memorated and celebrated? LA Phil, lauded as one of the

world’s finest orchestras, performs and presents nearly 300 con-

certs annually, a breadth and depth unrivaled by other orchestras

and cultural institutions (it also garnered an Academy Award in

1974 for The Bolero, a 30-minute short subject). Center Theatre

Group has developed and produced Pulitzer Prize-winning

plays such as Mark Medoff’s Children of a Lesser God, Michael

Cristofer’s The Shadow Box, and Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Part One. The Los Angeles Master Chorale’s com-

mitment to innovation is unparalleled, as illustrated by the

42 new works it has commissioned in its 50-year history as

well as the 88 pieces it has premiered (57 being world pre-

mieres). And the LA Opera, a relatively young opera

company, remains ambitious as ever, exemplified by its 2010

world premiere of Daniel Catán’s Il Postino.There’s also The Music Center’s zealous commitment to edu-

cational programs, with eye-popping empiricals such as the

number of children who have experienced Music Center pro-

grams since 1979 (10 million); the number of students with

disabilities the Music Center’s Very Special Arts Festival has

served in its 36 years (200,000); and the number of high school

students who have participated in Spotlight, a scholarship and

arts training program for SoCal high school students (40,000).

Finally, there are the innumerable moments that, while

perhaps not of enduring cultural, political, or social value,

nevertheless illustrate the power of presentation, the human

spirit, and the benefits of being fleet of foot and quick of

tongue. During the 46th annual Academy Awards in 1974,

just as David Niven prepared to introduce Elizabeth Taylor,

a streaker charged across the stage of the Dorothy Chandler

Pavilion. Niven’s reaction was to quip that it was likely the

only laugh the man would ever get in his life was “by strip-

ping off and showing his shortcomings.”

Which does make one wonder… What are those surprises

planned for the spectacular and dinner?

Tickets for the performance range from $35–$150 each. Tickets to the Gala show, including the performance and the dinner, start at $2,500 and include Party on the Plaza admission. Individual Party on the Plaza tickets are $150. musiccenter.org LAC

Dorothy Chandler and aviation tycoon Donald Douglas Jr. at the opening of what is now the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in December 1964.

A portrait of Chandler hangs behind them. right: Lit for dramatic effect, the pavilion

glitters against the night sky.

“The ShOw IS A ONCe-IN-A-

LIfeTIme COLLABOrATION. IT’S

uNLIke ANyThING eLSe IN LOS

ANGeLeS, ANd PerhAPS eveN

The COuNTry.”—stephen d. rountree

Golden nuGGetsdon’t miss these oh-so-brilliant highlights of the Music Center’s golden anniversary season.

Center theatre

Group Angela Lansbury won a

Tony for her role as a medium in this

revival of Noël Coward’s beloved

comedy Blithe Spirit. december 9–

January 18. Ahmanson Theatre,

213-972-4444; centertheatregroup.com

La Master ChoraLe

There’s a reason why Angelenos fock to

the chorale’s performance of handel’s

“messiah” each holiday season—its

rendition of this enduring classic is

simply sublime. december 17 and 21.

walt disney Concert hall, 213-972-

7282; lamc.org

La opera The Figaro

Trilogy: The Ghosts of Versailles

imagines a ghostly meeting between

marie Antoinette and her favorite

playwright. february 7–march 1.

dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 213-972-

8001; laopera.org

La phiL See beloved music

director Gustavo dudamel in action as

he leads the orchestra in Antonin

dvorák’s “from the New world,” and

John Adams’ California-inspired “City

Noir.” march 5–8. walt disney

Concert hall, 323-850-2000;

laphil.com

GLorya KaufMan

presents DanCe at

the MusiC Center

Alvin Ailey American dance Theater

returns for its ffth turn in the Glorya

kaufman Presents dance series,

introducing a program of new works

and old favorites—all of which celebrate

modern dance and African-American

culture. April 15–19. dorothy

Chandler Pavilion, 213-972-0711;

musiccenter.org —erin magner


CultuRe Hottest ticket

BEST OF THE FEST

Let these five can’t-miss

happenings guide your SBIFF

itinerary.

1. On January 27, take in

the 30th anniversary

Opening Night Film and

Gala with a screening of

the buzzed-about film

Desert Dancer (above)…

and a hip afterparty.

2. Start each day with

breakfast at one of the

8 am screenings of some

of the festival’s most

exciting films, including

several US and world-

premiere titles.

3. Pay tribute to the great

Jacques Cousteau, whose

family will accept the

Attenborough Award for

Excellence in Nature

Filmmaking on January 28.

4. Attend one of the

evening tributes, where

film luminaries (like

Michael Keaton, on

January 31) engage in

candid conversations

about their careers.

5. At Super Silent Sunday

at the Arlington Theatre

(February 1), classic silent

films are screened with

musical accompaniment

provided by a 1928

Wonder Morton

pipe organ.

A full calendar of events

and locations will be

announced in mid-

January. sbiff.org

what to see

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Cinema ParadisoThe SanTa BarBara InTernaTIonal FIlm FeSTIval markS 30 YearS

wITh a celeB-packed Show oF ShowS. By Scott Huver

For about two weeks every winter, the

epicenter of the film industry isn’t

Hollywood: it’s about 90 minutes north.

In 2015, the Santa Barbara

International Film Festival marks its 30th

annual celebration of cinema, and just as

the region’s luxurious-yet-laid-back vibe

has lured show-biz expats and artistic

types up the 101, so too has the festival

evolved from a smaller-scale community

event to a significant, world-class

occasion, drawing an elite crowd of

actors and filmmakers in the thick

of Hollywood awards-hunting to be fêted

at its signature, surprisingly intimate

events—while also showcasing the works

of new generations of film talent looking

to break through.

A key element in the increasing

success and rising profile of SBIFF is

Festival Director Roger Durling, largely

credited for reinventing it when he came

aboard a dozen years ago. Durling had

no experience running similar events or

working within the film industry, but as

an avid cinema connoisseur he’d

devoured movies and assiduously

attended festivals most of his life. What

SBIFF needed, he realized, was “a reason

for being, a vision and a focus.

“The successful film festivals have a

very strong sense of identity,” says

Durling, citing Sundance, Toronto, and

Telluride as examples. “Santa Barbara

fell into that category of ‘just another

festival’ among hundreds and hundreds

across the country.”

He initiated crucial change: “The

proximity to Hollywood had never been

exploited, and also the timing. I nudged

the date so it would capitalize on the

Academy Award nominations, and I

think that definitely shifted its identity.” It

also set SBIFF in an off-season for tourism,

allowing him to leverage cooperation

from hotels and restaurants while

bolstering the local economy.

“Roger cares so much about the

filmmaking experience, about content,

about storytelling, and he is so accurate in

terms of what the community is looking

for,” says SBIFF board chair Jeff Barbakow,

a former head of MGM/UA.

Today, the festival spotlights movie

subgenres reflecting the community’s

unique character: surf films, Latino films,

environmentally conscious films, social

justice films, and educational panels.

Those starry awards nights have also

become a big draw, luring luminaries

stumping their way towards hoped-for

victories at the Academy Awards—last

year’s honorees included eventual Oscar

winners Cate Blanchett and Jared Leto;

this year frontrunner Michael Keaton

has already been booked. SBIFF is

known for locking down the major

“awards season” players well in advance

of their buzz. “Roger has an uncanny

ability to see what the [Oscar] nominees

may be,” says Paramount’s longtime

awards strategist Lea Yardum, who views

SBIFF as a key whistle-stop on the road

to major trophies.

Away from the more klieg-lit eve-

nings, film critic/ SBIFF panel

moderator Leonard Maltin says he’s

struck by the support and enthusiasm he

sees from the local Santa Barbarans. “It

seems like the theater’s always full. I’ve

been to other festivals where people like

the party, but they don’t actually show

up for the movies! And Santa Barbara is

not that at all.” The Santa Barbara

International Film Festival runs from

January 27–February 7 in various locations

around town. sbiff.org LAC

On the closing night of the 2014 festival, the film Before Midnight was screened to a

full house at the Arlington Theatre.


cuLTurE Film

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The roller coaster once on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, sitting partially submerged in the ocean after Hurricane Sandy.

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A Shrine Auditorium poster for The Who (with Fleetwood Mac) by John Van Hamersveld and Victor Moscoso, 1968.

Cali-graphic!ACCLAIMED CALARTS PROFESSOR LOUISE SANDHAUS UNVEILS THE FIRST-EVER

BOOK DEDICATED TO CALIFORNIA’S GRAPHIC DESIGN HISTORY. BY ERIN MAGNER

You could fi ll an entire library with all of the books dedicated to California’s rich legacy in architecture, furniture design, fi ne art, and fashion—but when it comes to graphic design, that’s not the case. Enter CalArts graphic design professor Louise Sandhaus, who is the fi rst to attempt to catalog the vast and infl uential body of work that came out of the Golden State in the 20th century with her new volume, Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots:

California & Graphic Design 1936–1986 (Metropolis Books; $55). The book takes readers on a visually rollicking ride, with more than 250 examples of landmark design from makers both well known (Saul Bass, Eames Offi ce)

and more obscure (Oskar Fischinger, Victor Moscoso). Comprehensive as it may seem, Sandhaus considers her project a work in progress—with the help of her CalArts students, she’s building an online tool that will chronicle the history of California graphic design in even more depth. “While the book captures a swathe of some of the visually ecstatic graphic design produced in California, it’s intended to be a conversation starter, rather than the fi nal word,” says Sandhaus. “With the ‘Making History’ class at CalArts, I hope to work with students to add to this vivid history—much of which has yet to receive the attention it deserves.” LAC

books

As legendary

photographer Richard

Avedon once said:

“We all perform…. It’s

a way of telling about

ourselves in the hope

of being recognized

as what we’d like to

be.” His sentiment—

especially true in the

look-at-me age of

social media—forms the

basis of a collaboration

between ex-Merce

Cunningham dancer

Rashaun Mitchell and

The Magnetic Fields

singer-songwriter

Stephin Merritt at

REDCAT this December.

In addition to a live

score by Merritt

and mesmerizing

choreography by

Mitchell, the piece,

dubbed “Performance,”

also features an

interactive installation

by California artist

Ali Naschke-Messing.

December 4–7, tickets

from $25. REDCAT, 631

W. Second St., LA, 213-

237-2800; redcat.org

A portrait by artist Rachel Berksof choreographer Rashaun Mitchell, who will be performingin LA this month.

// exhibition // MAKING WAVES

COLLAB FAB

Photographers play a critical role in driving home the effects of climate change—just try not to shudder

after seeing a picture of a fl ood-ravaged city not so different than our own. Four such image makers will be

showcased this month in “Sink or Swim: Designing for a Sea Change,” an exhibition curated by writer and

KCRW host Frances Anderton. Photos depicting the devastating consequences of rising sea levels hang next

to those showing how people are responding to the problem—both a warning and a celebration of human

ingenuity at its fi nest. December 13–May 3, free admission. Annenberg Space for Photography, 2000 Avenue

of the Stars, Century City, 213-403-3000; annenbergspaceforphotography.com


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Golden BoyThe go-geTTing new presidenT of The hollywood foreign press AssociATion, Theo

ingma, TAlks golden globes, giving bAck, And why TinA fey And Amy poehler geT AwAy wiTh murder. By Scott Huver

pHotograpHy By matHew Scott

Hollywood Foreign Press Association President

Theo Kingma has some simple but emphatic

advice for his future successors on the night of the

organization’s splashy, high-profile Golden Globe

Awards ceremony: “Don’t be nervous!”

Easier said than done, he admits, having had

only seven months since his election in June 2013 to

prepare for “Hollywood’s party of the year,” an

early prognosticator for the awards shows that

follow, and a broadcast watched by a TV audience

of 21 million people in 2014. “The first 20 minutes, I

don’t really remember because I was too nervous

that I had to go up [on stage],” chuckles Kingma, a

Dutch photojournalist, of his 30 seconds of global

fame. “But the moment I was up, it was fine. And

then after that, it was just walk around and enjoy… I

know now a little bit of the game of putting it

together with lots of other members.”

Kingma is presiding over a bold new era for the

HFPA. At 47, he’s the youngest person to ever hold

the post. His election signaled a sea change for the

group, breaking a long run of veteran members in

their golden years. But Kingma’s no rookie—he has a

long, intriguing history embedded in the industry.

Born in Amsterdam, he was initially reared in an

orphanage until he was adopted, then returned to

the Netherlands following the deaths of his parents.

He found a job as a projectionist and then worked on

film productions, encountering filmmaker Robert

Altman on the set of Vincent & Theo. The director

Showman of the year: Theo Kingma, photographed in his West Hollywood office.

conTinued on page 76


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Photos of Audrey Hepburn and Jack Lemmon accepting their Golden Globe Awards line the walls at the HFPA offices. right: An array of Theo Kingma’s favorite books.

encouraged Kingma to relocate to Los Angeles—a planned vacation turned into a stay of 25 years—sig-naling a career shift photographing film and TV talent for publications in his native country, Germany, and Australia. He’s been a member of the HFPA for two decades, including serving as executive secretary and sitting on the board of directors. “We used to have press conferences with Robert Altman, and the first thing he would say to me is, ‘You’re still here?’” chuckles Kingma.

Since taking the top post, Kingma has led the HFPA to embrace forward-thinking technologies, including an increased digital initiative and social media presence. He introduced regular roundtable meetings with personalities and potential partners outside the immediate Hollywood sphere, and he took charge of peaceably settling the years-long legal wrangling with Dick Clark Productions over control of the Golden Globes broadcast (DCP had negotiated a long-term contract with NBC, giving the company the right to produce the telecast as long as the cere-mony aired on the network. Initially unaware of the negotiation, the HFPA believed DCP had over-stepped its authority). “Theo has been a very hands-on person,” says HFPA board member Ali Sar. “When he took over, we had a tough situation. Theo took the lead and managed to bring the litigation to an amica-ble conclusion for all concerned.”

Kingma is pleased that all parties are proceeding as partners in the big evening through 2018. “Just last night, I had a dinner with the new owners of Dick Clark Productions, the people from the Beverly

Theo Kingma’s golden

nuggeTs

On first becOming a member Of the

hfPa:“For somebody who shot photographs for a

teen magazine, that was a huge thing for me—

probably also one of the reasons that I’ve stayed here

in Los Angeles for 25 years.”

the standOut memOry Of his first

gOlden glObes bash:“It is very uncomfort-

able to sit for three hours if you’re 6-foot-4. Since

then, I’ve worked on the Golden Globes shows and

I’ve never been seated again.”

favOrite behind-the-scenes glObes

mOment:“There is a waiter at the Beverly Hilton

who has been working with us for almost 20 years.

He works in the green room, where there’s a tiny little

bar, and Mel Gibson once looked at his name tag…

The man has the most unfortunate name for us:

Oscar! Mel Gibson really, really had some fun with

that one.”

Hilton, and the people from NBC, and everybody is ecstatic that part is behind us,” he says. “There are no problems—just situations for which we haven’t found answers yet,” is Kingma’s overall philosophy.

Under his leadership, the organization is already hoping to one-up the previous Globes ceremony, the highest rated in a decade. The January 11 gala is set to include a new category for increasingly popular one-season, one-storyline “limited series” like True

Detective and Fargo. George Clooney will take home the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement. (“It is just absolutely amazing that as an actor, pro-ducer, director, and writer, he is the one who has been nominated in the most different categories,” marvels Kingma.) And hosting team Tiny Fey and Amy Poehler will return for a third year, booked immedi-ately after 2014’s triumph.

“Knowing [who our hosts will be] that long in advance saves a lot of time and effort,” says Kingma, though a recent conversation with the comedy team revealed that they haven’t been stockpiling jokes all year. “They literally wait until after the nominations—they haven’t started yet! We stay completely out of it. They can do whatever they want,” says Kingma, which suits the elite membership—approximately 90 international journalists—perfectly fine. “We really give a lot of freedom to the hosts and presenters. Yes, we do write the show, but if they like to tweak some things, nobody will tell them not to. We do not stop our winners if they want to talk for 45 seconds instead of 30; that’s fine with us, too. It’s a little bit of a looser environment, and we’re very protective of trying to

keep it that way. It’s one of these magical things that make the Golden Globes very special.”

Kingma says all energy is focused on delivering a prestigious, but ultimately entertaining, evening. And with expanding programs like the annual Grants Dinner (elevated this year from a luncheon), which has bequeathed $1.9 million to various arts education programs, he’s pleased that the HFPA’s remit is broad-ening beyond just bestowing trophies.

“We are not just Golden Globe voters, but 365 days a year we are working journalists. Every year, we donate a substantial amount of money to more than 50 different charitable groups, we restore films, we help film schools, and we hand out grants and scholar-ships. So I try to also keep that in the foreground. And of course, the Golden Globes, with its glamour and being the celebration of the year—that’s what gets us the headlines.” LAC


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Carmen Electric!ScottiSh-NigeriaN SeNSatioN Carmen ejogo breakS out big

time StateSide aS coretta Scott kiNg iN Selma. By Juliet izon

This holiday season, Carmen Ejogo is set to tackle one of her most complicated

and intense roles to date: The Brit-born beauty will be playing Coretta Scott

King in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. biopic Selma (with fellow Brit David

Oyelowo as Dr. King). Luckily for Ejogo, she’s had a little practice with the tax-

ing part: The actress also played Scott King in the 2001 HBO miniseries Boycott.

“I can’t think of many actors who have had the chance to play the same histori-

cal character twice at different stages in their life,” Ejogo says. “That felt really

interesting to me.”

And while there’s no doubt that she was primed to play the character, her

casting experience was far from easy. “I was among many other actresses

whom [director] Ava [DuVernay] had considered, but I

was certainly not at the top of that list,” Ejogo says. “I had

to fly myself in [to the audition]. This was one of those proj-

ects that I knew I just had to fight for because it was going

to be worth the fight.” After wowing the casting team with

her dedication to the project (“I went as far as getting my

hair done like Coretta and wore the right shade of red lip-

stick,” says the actress, who was able to meet the civil

rights figure years earlier while shooting Boycott), the

choice was clear, and the role was hers. “I was just over-

whelmed to know it was mine,” she recollects. “It’s an

incredibly special role for me.”

Her costar, Oyelowo, is also enamored of her. “She was the

perfect partner for me in this endeavor because she simply

would not rest until the scene and situation felt grounded and

real,” he says. “Carmen’s secret weapon as an actress is that

she has a unique blindness toward her own devastating

beauty. She is first and foremost a truth-seeker and a truth-

teller, so she unwittingly draws you in.”

When the film premieres on Christmas Day, it will be

Ejogo’s most high-profile piece yet, but the half-Nigerian,

half-Scottish actress has been in the limelight steadily

since her teens. “I was working fairly young after I was

spotted by a modeling agent, which led to a little bit of

film work,” she says of her London childhood. While nei-

ther of her parents was a performer, Ejogo describes

them as artists. “I definitely come from two parents that

didn’t really have rules for themselves,” she says. “They

were young go-getters in a very honest and authentic

way.” And although she is a singer as well as a proficient

saxophone player, Ejogo made the decision early in her

career to focus on acting and cross the pond for better

opportunities. Some plum film roles followed, including

Sam Mendes’s Away We Go and the musical Sparkle along-

side Whitney Houston.

“Now there are a gazillion British actors who come over

and work here,” she says. “It wasn’t quite like that when I

was first stepping out—and certainly not if you weren’t

white. So I feel I was part of that original pioneering group

of girls that kind of broke into the American market. And

I kept going here and never looked back.” LAC

INSIGHT

Next up: Ejogo will be in

Ontario shooting alongside

Ethan Hawke in an as-yet-

unnamed Chet Baker biopic.

“I’m going to get to sing

again, which is cool!”

Favorite stroll:

“The Downtown Art Walk.

You can be introduced to a lot

of really cool artists.”

CuisiNe sCeNe: “I end

up a lot in Japantown and

Koreatown because I’m so into

Asian cuisine.”

early iNspiratioN:

“I grew up not far from the

King’s Road [in London]

at a time when it was really

the epicenter of fashion and

culture. And I’m totally

grateful for that because I

think it defnitely informed me

as an artist.”

She had a dream: Carmen Ejogo had to fight for the part of Coretta Scott King in the new movie Selma, even going so far as to wear Scott King’s signature shade of lipstick to the audition.


PEOPLE Talent Patrol

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Maîtres d’HôtelBijoux-turned-home designer

Maya Brenner is tricking out

her “hot spot” hottie dustin

lancaster’s new hotel in los

Feliz this winter.

By EmErson Patrick

There’s no doubt that Los Feliz–based restaurateur

Dustin Lancaster’s and fine jewelry designer Maya

Brenner’s individual successes are their own doing. The

überindustrious pair—both reared by single moms in

humble environs—have made it their mission to make

LA a little more chic through fantastic food and drink

and dainty, elegant jewelry, respectively.

But when it comes to their romantic success, they

credit a fellow Eastside entrepreneur: handbag

designer Clare Vivier. “We did a trunk show together

a few years ago and afterward she brought me into

L&E Oyster Bar,” says Brenner, 44. It was Lancaster’s

new Silver Lake restaurant. “Dustin knows Clare from

the neighborhood, and he came up to the table.” Adds

Lancaster, 34, “It was [basically] love at first sight—

there was a spark that made us instantly take notice.”

United, their accomplishments continue to mount.

Fifteen years into her eponymous label, Brenner

broke into J.Crew after her signature letter earrings

and necklaces were selected by creative director

Jenna Lyons (the “queen bee,” she says) for a recent

fine jewelry launch. And the mother of two weathered

a string of website crashes—never mind myriad

orders—when her pieces were featured on The Ellen

DeGeneres Show’s Mother’s Day episode.

Lancaster, meanwhile, has been busy gentrifying

LA’s Eastside. The former aspiring actor cut his teeth

as a bar manager before opening his wine-centric Bar

Covell in 2010. He hasn’t slowed since. “I never envi-

sioned I’d be a restaurateur,” says Lancaster. “I thought

I’d have one, and, maybe at some other time, another.

I did not think in four years I’d have six or seven!”

Indeed, his diverse hot spots also include craft beer

bar The Hermosillo, Silver Lake’s El Condor, a forth-

coming Sherman Oaks wine bar, and, any minute

now, a B&B-meets-boutique hotel called Hotel Covell.

That last project has been the most intense. Since

opening Bar Covell (named for the Oklahoma street

on which he bought his mom a house) on Hollywood

Boulevard in Los Feliz, Lancaster longed to trans-

form the five-unit apartment building above it into a

Ménage à deux: Power couple Maya Brenner and Dustin

Lancaster have made their new Los Feliz home a veritable

creative command center.

hotel “for people with discerning taste”—some-

thing the neighborhood lacks. Each Chateau

Marmont-esque suite represents a chapter in

the life of George Covell (a fictional character

whose history grew out of the bar’s name), from

an early industrial 1950s NYC apartment to a

lover’s flat in Paris.

As for Hotel Covell’s tiny details, expect some

to be courtesy of the jeweler, who’s adapting her

chic state-outline pendants for in-room pillows

and stationery. Says Brenner, who also consults

for jewelry company Stella & Dot, “It will be a

nice way to officially work together, even though

we kind of work together every day.”

Indeed, both weigh in on each other’s proj-

ects—Lancaster, for example, was so sure of the

Ellen opportunity, he promised to write Brenner

a personal check if she didn’t recoup her invest-

ment. Their businesses also work symbiotically.

“I send all my friends into his restaurants and he

makes them feel special,” she says. “And every-

body in his life gets jewelry!” 4626 Hollywood

Blvd., LA, 323-660-4300; hotelcovell.com LAC

INSIGHT

GUILTY PLEASURES: “She has a drawer of candy next

to the bed—ghetto candy, like Hot Tamales, Lemonheads,

Grapeheads,” says Lancaster. “And he loves Del Taco,”

adds Brenner. “We’re both really high-low.”

EAT AT: “We love going to Rao’s in Hollywood—it’s old

school. And steakhouses like Taylor’s,” says Brenner.

PERFECT SATURDAY NIGHT: “Right now it’s going

somewhere other than our neighborhood,” says Lancaster.

“Dinner and then getting a hotel room so we can half

vacation, half research. It’s like playing hooky.”

CAN’T-MISS TV: Boardwalk Empire, Game of

Thrones, The Good Wife, House of Cards—and The

Bachelor, which Lancaster couldn’t help but watch

because “Juan Pablo was the biggest train wreck.”

WOULD-BE LIFE COACH: Clare Vivier. “She jokes,

‘I got you your man, I got you Steven Alan [boutique], and

now I got you J.Crew,’” says Brenner.


PEOPLE Dynamic Duo

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For someone who was reared on the East Coast (plus a stint in

Texas) and made his bones as a cutting-edge New York actor in

plays by the likes of Lonergan and LaBute, Thomas Sadoski had

a refreshingly simpatico attitude toward LA when Hollywood

came calling.

Careerwise, things have been working out remarkably well for the

38-year-old actor since he and his wife swapped coasts in 2011. A

cast member of Aaron Sorkin’s politically charged HBO drama The

Newsroom, playing former News Night producer-turned-some-

times-friendly-sometimes-not rival Don Keefer, Sadoski reluctantly

sees the third and final season through to a triumphant conclusion.

“I’m unapologetically greedy when it comes to learning about the

craft that I love from great people,” he says. “I didn’t want it to end.”

After a stint in fall’s well-received Keanu Reeves action film John Wick, he next

appears to intense effect as Reese Witherspoon’s betrayed husband in Wild, the highly

anticipated adaptation of the best-selling memoir by Cheryl Strayed, “one of the most

beautiful books I’ve ever read,” he says. “I think of that book almost like a spiritual

guide to walking the path.”

As Sadoski’s own path led him to LA, he managed to find his niche in Los Feliz, a

community that caters to his long-standing need for a genuine sense of connection as well

as his desire to gain a deeper understanding of the LA ethos. When he discovered Los

Feliz, he says, “This place just opened [LA] wide for me.”

Living in Brooklyn for almost 15 years, you become a

creature of your neighborhood. It’s important for you to

know who your butcher is, where your fish is coming from,

your deli guys, your coffee guys. All these different people

become essential, and it provides community and that feel-

ing of home. It was important for me to find something like

that here. So much of LA is so spread out that it’s hard to put

it all together. But Los Feliz, with all of these beautiful places,

the amazing food, and everything, is that nice little oasis

here in the middle of LA.

“‘Hip’ and ‘hipster-y’ and those sort of adjectives are

almost derogatorily thrown around, but I’ve actually found

this neighborhood to be populated largely by [artistic] work-

ing people: people who have something to say and an interesting way to say it.

I’m really inspired by that whole Left Coaster mentality—the very specific way

that people on the West Coast handle art, think about art, produce art.

I discovered the Skylight Theatre by walking past it—I saw a marquee and

said, ‘Oh my God, there’s a theater here right in the middle of the block!’

Finding a theater is an essential part of going to any place that I land because I

just feel like I can breathe a little bit easier there. It’s a really young, ambitious

theater company that has a really good track record already. I’ve recently

Los and FoundSTAR OF THE NEWSROOM AND THIS MONTH’S WILD, THOMAS SAdOS FINDS INSpIRATION

IN THe eASTSIDe-cHIc STReeTS OF LOS FeLIz. as told to scott Huver

“I feel like I can breathe a little easier [in theaters],” says Thomas Sadoski, pictured here at Skylight Theater in his neighborhood of Los Feliz. right and below: Sadoski believes in supporting mom-and-pop operations like Skylight Books on North Vermont, right next door to the theater.

CONTINuED ON pAgE 84


PEOPLE Native

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Felicitations From los Feliz!

skylight theatre (1816 1⁄2 N. Vermont Ave.,

213-761-7061; skylighttheatrecompany.com)

skylight Books (1816 N. Vermont Ave, 323-

660-1175; skylightbooks.com)

spitFire girl (1939 1⁄2 Hillhurst Ave., 323-912-

1977; spitfregirl.com)

y-Que trading post (1770 N. Vermont Ave.,

213-308-2269; yque.com)

alcove caFé & Bakery (1929 Hillhurst Ave.,

323-644-0100; alcovecafe.com)

homestate (4624 Hollywood Blvd., 323-906-

1122; myhomestate.com)

ricky’s Fish tacos (1400 N. Virgil Ave., 323-

906-7290; @RickysFishTacos on Twitter)

griFFith oBservatory (2800 E. Observatory

Road, 213-473-0800; griffthobs.org)

started dipping my toe into directing theater, and all

of the people over there have been really gracious

about giving me space and time. It’s a safe spot to try

it out, and it gets a lot of really great support.

The staff recommendations at [the adjoining]

skylight Books are always spot-on. I like an

owner-operated, mom-and-pop bookshop—it adds

so much to a neighborhood and I think it’s an

important thing to support.

The gift shop spitfire girl is one of so many cool,

eclectic little boutiques where people are putting

themselves on the line, putting their own stuff out

there. I want to support owner-operated [businesses],

and there are so many of them here in this neighbor-

hood. y-Que trading post is this awesome little

store with this sort of Left-Coast take on everything.

The store’s an intimidatingly cool place. I got a

T-shirt with a fat, old Elvis mug shot on it that is one

of the absolute choice pieces of my collection.

Weirdly, almost everyone who works at alcove café & Bakery feels like part of the same family,

which is really unique to find. The Italian in me

knows I’m going to be fed good food, and as much

of it as I can eat. There’s a perfect California patio

“‘Hip’ ANd ‘HipsTER-y’ ARE AlmOsT dEROgATORily

THROwN AROuNd, BuT i’VE FOuNd THis NEigHBORHOOd

TO BE pOpulATEd lARgEly By pEOplE wHO HAVE

sOmETHiNg TO sAy ANd AN iNTEREsTiNg wAy TO sAy iT.”—thomas sadoski

and it does outdoor movie nights—it’s always doing

something creative, which feeds the artist in me.

I grew up in Texas, and homestate serves a Frito

pie in the bag, which I had not seen since I left Texas.

If I’m feeling a little homesick for my childhood, I

just roll in there, and I am set. The best fish tacos in

Los Angeles are at ricky’s Fish tacos, a taco truck.

I immediately made a concerted point upon moving

to find the best fish taco I could possibly find in LA:

The slaw is nice and crunchy; the hot sauce and sal-

sas it uses are perfect, but it’s all about the batter on

the fish. I love the community created at food stalls

and taco trucks. Ricky’s has tables set out so you feel

welcome to sit and be present with people.

For me, griffith observatory is the most

important place in Los Angeles. I know that sounds

hyperbolic, but I do legitimately mean it. Trying to

find a way to limit the light pollution that’s around

it so stargazers of all ages have a place to go—it’s

essential. And nothing is better in LA than watch-

ing the sun set over Santa Monica from the

observation deck, and then watching the lights

come to life over Southern California. You can look

out onto this huge, living, breathing organism that

is LA and wonder at the immensity of it and in the

next breath walk into the observatory and know

how small and wonderfully insignificant it all is in

the scheme of things.

I want to hear what LA has to say. I want LA to

tell me why it is different than other places that I’ve

ever been. I want LA to tell me why it thinks differ-

ently than New York. I want to understand it. The

artists who are doing really cool stuff—the street art-

ists, the graffiti artists, the tag artists—are doing it

with such a passion and such a need to express

themselves by subverting this idea of what LA is. I

think that exists in Los Feliz. LAC

Sadoski considers Griffith Observatory to be “the most

important place in Los Angeles.” below, from left:

Alcove Cafe & Bakery is one of Los Feliz’s favorite meeting

places; chocolate chip bread pudding from Alcove.


PEOPLE Native

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)Joaillerie de VivreBroo e ShieldS and roBert procop’s new-bangled jewelry line is all

about giving back… one gem at a time. By Erin MagnEr

When Brooke Shields met Robert Procop, it was 1985 and they were barely

out of their teens. She was signing copies of her autobiography, On Your Own,

at the Beverly Wilshire hotel; he popped in during a break from running his

boutique, Diamonds on Rodeo, which he opened during his final year of

gemology school. “I started speaking with a woman… it ended up being

Brooke’s mom,” recounts Procop. “They came by the store after the signing

and she introduced me to Brooke.”

That serendipitous encounter led to a 30-year friendship between the New

York-based actress and LA-based jewelry designer, one that’s seen them

through Broadway stardom and Golden Globe nominations (hers), presiden-

tial design commissions and a CEO post at Asprey & Garrard (his). But their

respective creative worlds never truly collided until a few years ago, when the

duo began to conspire on a fine jewelry collection to benefit LA domestic vio-

lence nonprofit House of Ruth.

“I’ve always wanted to learn how to make jewelry—I never just wanted to be

the face of a company,” says Shields. She was particularly inspired by the success

of Procop’s 2011 Style of Jolie collection, created in collaboration with Angelina

Jolie to benefit the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict. “I realized

I’ve been spread a little bit thin charity-wise and I wanted to find something I

could contribute to, hands-on, and see [something] manifest,” says Shields.

With that, Procop introduced her to the team behind House of Ruth, an orga-

nization that he’s supported for 25 years. “In high school and college, they would

take us down to work with the homeless, and I realized that the people who

Queen of hearts: Brooke Shields (left) has parlayed her royal ancestry into a fine jewelry collection to benefit LA nonprofit House of Ruth. Designed in collaboration with Robert Procop, the line includes the 18k white-gold Sugarloaf ring with 65-carat blue topaz and 1-carat white diamonds (below).

cOntinued On page 88


PEOPLE Spirit of Generosity

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needed the most help were the women with children,”

says Procop. He became involved with House of Ruth

soon after, eventually helping to renovate one shelter,

build two more, and buy 12 units of permanent hous-

ing for homeless and battered women and children.

The organization’s mission and focus on community

also struck Shields in a profound way. “I like that

House of Ruth has a huge emphasis on accountability

and education,” says Shields. “Its programs actually

teach these mothers how to stand on their own.”

At the same time, the designer and his muse set

about gathering inspiration for a jewelry collection,

which they later named Legacy Brooke. “I had just

come back from charting my genealogy and find-

ing the French component of my ancestry,” says

Shields, who learned that she’s a descendant of

Louis XIV. “We started playing with heirloom

pieces, things I loved from going to the antique jew-

elry fairs.” Two years, hundreds of sketches, and

one soldering lesson for Shields later (“Let’s just say

I need a little more work,” the actress laughs), and

the pair debuted a suite of 30 rings, necklaces,

bracelets, and earrings in late October.

Semiprecious stones—namely amethyst, peridot,

blue topaz, and tourmaline—in smooth, unfaceted

cabochon cuts keep many pieces accessible enough

for every day, while details like latticework bands

reflect the signature Procop panache.

“The collection has a majestic quality; it captures

this sense of regal sensuality,” says Procop. Shields’

personal favorite pieces include a cuff bracelet that

she calls “my version of the Chanel or Verdura cuff”

and a lattice cocktail ring.

With the proceeds from their endeavor, Procop

and Shields hope to build another LA shelter for

House of Ruth and bring the charity to New York;

Shields is currently scouting locations for the first

facility. “The love from Robert, his family and friends

has helped change thousands of lives by allowing us

to serve and bring real hope to homeless families,”

says House of Ruth’s Sister Jennifer Gaeta. “Brooke

Shields brings another dimension of support and

attention to these women and children.”

Yet even when this mission is accomplished,

Procop and Shields are planning to continue their

partnership. “This is just the beginning, hopefully, of

a long relationship and a large collection,” says

Shields. “I’ve been around for such a long time, there’s

this sense of longevity… that’s what we kept going

back to. We want this to withstand the test of time.”

The Legacy Brooke collection is available to view by

appointment. 310-276-6041; robertprocop.com LAC

left: Robert Procop worked with Brooke Shields on the Legacy Brooke collection,

the sales of which benefit House of Ruth, a charity that builds shelters for homeless

and battered women and children. below: The Legacy Brooke Sugarloaf necklace

featuring amethysts set in 18k white gold.

Charity registerOpportunities to give.

Wishing Well Winter gala

What: Help Make-a-Wish of Greater Los Angeles

fulfll the dreams of critically ill children by attend-

ing its star-studded winter gala. Wells Fargo, Mattel

Children’s Hospital UCLA and Saban Brands will be

honored on the night, joined by Wish kids, their fami-

lies, and plenty of surprise celebrity guests.

When: Wednesday, December 3

Where: Beverly Wilshire Hotel, 9500 Wilshire

Blvd., Beverly Hills

Website: la.wish.org

trevorlive

What: Prepare for an unforgettable night of music and

comedy supporting The Trevor Project, which provides

crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ

kids and teens. Last year’s event drew an A-list crowd

that included Fergie, the cast of Glee, and Adam

Lambert; expect another illustrious guest list this year,

as well as dinner and a silent auction.

When: Sunday, December 7

Where: Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset

Blvd., LA

Website: thetrevorproject.org

art of elysium’s heaven gala

What: Artist Marina Abramovic will create a multi-

sensory spectacle that refects her idea of heaven for

this year’s Art of Elysium winter gala. Actress Amber

Heard is set to receive the Spirit of Elysium award for

her service to the organization, which provides arts

programming to disadvantaged children.

When: Saturday, January 10

Where: The Barker Hangar, 3021 Airport Ave.,

No. 203, Santa Monica

Website: theartofelysium.org

musiCares Person of the year

What: One of Grammy weekend’s most highly antici-

pated happenings, the 25th annual MusiCares gala

will honor Bob Dylan as Person of the Year. Artists

including Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Jack White, and

the Black Keys will be on hand to perform tributes to the

folk icon, with proceeds benefting MusiCares’ mission

to support musicians in need.

When: Friday, February 6

Where: Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201

S. Figueroa St., LA

Website: musicares.org

“The [legacy brooke] collecTion has a majesTic qualiTy; iT capTures This sense

of regal sensualiTy.”— robert procop


PeOPLe spirit of generosity

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Lights, Camera, hamiLton!Cinema’s off-sCreen heroes take a bow

at this year’s star-studded hamilton

behind the Camera awards. By Kelsey Marrujo

Outwardly, the scene was classic LA: stylish subjects, paparazzi,

and a barrage of flashing lights. But those in the limelight at the

8th annual Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards were neither

movie stars nor TV personalities—rather, the creative players

who toil behind Hollywood’s curtains, summoned onstage by

leading luxury timepiece brand Hamilton.

Since its eye-catching cameo in ’51s The Frogmen, Hamilton’s

watches have stolen the show in more than 400 films, from ’90s

fan favorite Men in Black to this year’s buzzed-about blockbuster

Interstellar. Hamilton not only contributes to motion pictures

Emily Blunt prepares to take the stage as a presenter at the Hamilton

Behind the Camera Awards.

conTInued on page 92


invited

After the show, guests mingled over Keurig coffee

and dessert.

Donald Graham Burt and Michelle Monaghan

Daniel Henney

Allen Leech

The Ebell’s elegant ballroom space has been the site of chic entertainment events for 50 years.

onscreen, but also acknowledges those who work

behind the scenes with this yearly awards

ceremony—hailing film editors, producers,

cinematographers, and more. This year, Los

Angeles Confidential teamed with Hamilton for the

big show, held at The Ebell of Los Angeles.

On hand were Hamilton’s CEO Sylvain Dolla

and Los Angeles Confidential’s publisher Alison

Miller, who greeted the evening’s presenters and

honorees as they made their way from the

carpet—tinted orange in the spirit of Hamilton’s

signature hue—to the Ebell’s cocktail lounge.

Here, guests mingled over Moët USA champagne

and hors d’oeuvres like fresh burrata and roasted

tomato bruschetta with basil oil.

During the ceremony, Steve Carell, Channing

Tatum, Emily Blunt, and other acclaimed actors

took the stage to present awards to honorees like

cinematographer Robert Yeoman for his work on

Ido Ostrowsky, Nora Grossman, and Teddy Schwarzman

Sandra Adair

John DeLuca, Marc Platt, and Rob Marshall

Hamilton watches combine the American

spirit with the precision of all the latest Swiss

technologies, producing a truly innovative design.

J.C. Chandor and Will Arnett

CONTINUED ON PAGE 94

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INVITED

Book early for festive holiday events. 2014 AAA Five Diamond Award and 2014 Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Award winner.

Located at the heart of the Las Vegas Strip. 3752 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, NV 89158.

For reservations, visit mandarinoriental.com/lasvegas or call +1 (888) 881 9578.

Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas. Perfect for a celebration.

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Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. Actor

Matthew Morrison of the hit show Glee emceed

the evening. “Honestly, as an actor, I would be

nowhere if it wasn’t for directors, cinematogra-

phers, [the] props department, costumes,

music,” said Morrison. “Those are all the

pieces that come together to make any

production. So to be here honoring those

people is very special for me because, as

actors, we would all look stupid if it wasn’t for

[them].” “It’s incredible, all the people that have

worked in film,” added Patricia Arquette, who

presented Sandra Adair the film editing award

for acclaimed project Boyhood. “They’ve been

unsung for so long and they work so hard … and

it’s beautiful that this event celebrates all these

people that don’t get that sort of acknowledgment

all the time.”

Shlomi Haziza of H Studio designed the

unique Hamilton award, modeled after the

brand’s signature Ventura watch and handed

to each honoree by The Bold and the Beautiful

actress Sandra Vergara. As presenters took

the stage to introduce their respective

Andy Serkis and Dan Lemmon

Guests enjoyed Moët Champagne in the Ebell’s open garden as they arrived at the show.

Channing Tatum and Steve Carell

Ellar Coltrane, Mario Revolori,

and Tony Revolori

Matthew Morrison

Matt Reamer and Ariel Gale

Patricia ArquetteSandra Vergara

Robert Yeoman and Sylvain Dolla

INVITED


Shlomi Haziza

honorees, it was clear that strong bonds had developed

between the onstage and offstage talent. Simply put by Emily

Blunt of Into the Woods producers John DeLuca, Rob

Marshall, and Marc Platt: “They are my friends; I love

them.”

After The Imitation Game star Matthew Goode presented

Alexandre Desplat with the award for Lifetime

Achievement in Outstanding Film Music, he gushed about

the composer’s incomparable work on the film. “The main

[musical] theme [of The Imitation Game] is so staggeringly

beautiful and emotional that when you watch the film—cer-

tainly with the denouement at the end of it—it’s difficult to

keep a dry eye in the house.”

Following the awards presentation, guests enjoyed coffee from

Keurig while DJ Keith 2.0 spun records. Sticks and Stones

Floral Design Home and Garden complemented the décor of

the ballroom while Luna Gardens Events outfitted the green

room for celebrity honorees and presenters. Also supporting the

festivities was Frédéric Fekkai, offering hair and makeup

touchups for the evening’s talent.

Each year, Hamilton hosts its Behind

the Camera Awards, which celebrate

the irreplaceable off-screen talent who

contribute to the creation of

memorable motion pictures. Presented

by A-list stars, the awards recognize

heavyweights in a number of

categories, from Property Master and

Visual Effects to Screenwriter and

Director, which have been chosen from

the collection of films released during

the year and/or those presented at the

prestigious festivals of Cannes,

Toronto, Venice, and the AFI Fest.

DIRECTOR

Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher), presented by

Steve Carell and Channing Tatum

SCREENWRITER

J.C. Chandor (A Most Violent Year),

presented by Will Arnett

FILM EDITOR

Sandra Adair (Boyhood), presented by

Patricia Arquette

BREAKTHROUGH PRODUCERS

Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, and

Teddy Schwarzman (The Imitation Game),

presented by Allen Leech

VISUAL EFFECTS

Dan Lemmon (Dawn of the Planet of the

Apes), presented by Andy Serkis

CINEMATOGRAPHER

Robert Yeoman (The Grand Budapest

Hotel), presented by Tony Revolori

PROPERTY MASTER

Ellen Freund (Mad Men), presented by

Kiernan Shipka

PRODUCERS

John DeLuca, Rob Marshall, and Marc

Platt (Into the Woods), presented by

Emily Blunt

PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Donald Graham Burt (Gone Girl),

presented by Michelle Monaghan

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

IN OUTSTANDING FILM MUSIC

Alexandre Desplat (The Imitation Game,

The Grand Budapest Hotel, Unbroken,

Godzilla, and The Monuments Men),

presented by Matthew Goode

BEHIND THE

CAMERA

Matthew Goode, Alexandre Desplat,

and Allen Leech

DJ Keith 2.0

Bennett Miller

Kiernan Shipka and Ellen Freund

Guests watched the ceremony over an elegant dinner.

LA-CONFIDENTIAL-MAGAZINE.COM 95

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Dianna Agron

Sia

Jack Black and Marco Bizzarri

THE WHO’S WHO of the art world descended upon the Hammer Museum for its 12th annual Gala in the Garden with generous support from Bottega

Veneta, raising an astounding $2.5 million for the museum’s groundbreaking exhibitions and free public programs. Singer/songwriter Sia performed for luminaries in attendance, including the evening’s

honorees, Mark Bradford and Joni Mitchell, as well as co-chairs Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Danna and Ed Ruscha, and Tomas Maier. Mayor Eric Garcetti commended the Hammer on its creative influence over LA, specifically praising exhibition Made in L.A. and the Arts

ReSTORE LA initiative.

HAMMER MUSEUM’SGALA IN THE GARDEN

TO CELEBRATE THE arrival of Dsquared2 in the US, founders Dean and Dan Caten threw a spirited bash in West Hollywood for fans of the international fashion house. The Rodeo Drive boutique is the first of three to grace the US, with Miami and New York showrooms slated for winter openings. Modeling pieces from the designers’ latest collection were Dita

von Teese, Alison Brie, Ireland Baldwin, and Jordana Brewster.

DSQUARED2 DEBUTSON RODEO

Dita Von Teese

Jordana Brewster and Brad Goreski Moran Atias

The fashion celebration took place at a private residence in West Hollywood,

where VIPs were treated to Pommery Champagne and cocktails.

Ian Harding, Sasha Pieterse, and Kevin Zegers

Dean Caten and Dan Caten

Paris Hilton

Emmy Rossum

Michael Polish and Kate Bosworth

Alan Finkelstein and Marg Helgenberger

Elizabeth Banks


INVITED

Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain

Guests enjoyed a poolside view from the Audi Sky Lounge on Opening Night.

James Toback and Rupert Wyatt

AFI FEST 2014 hit Hollywood with an Opening Night Gala screening of A Most

Violent Year, drawing forth VIPs like producers Anna Gerby and Neal Dodson,

writer/director J.C. Chandor, and stars Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. The event

kicked off a weeklong celebration of global cinema presented by Audi, which also

included the premiere of anticipated films The Gambler and Inherent Vice, among others.

AFI FEST

LOS ANGELES CONFIDENTIAL partnered with WEST for the

grand opening of its Beverly Hills boutique. Owner James

Anderton welcomed LAC’s Editor-in-Chief Spencer Beck and VP

of Creative and Fashion Ann Song, as well as numerous fashion

enthusiasts, to celebrate the debut of the Western-inspired store.

Throughout the evening, guests sipped ultra-premium artisanal

vodka cocktails provided by Loft & Bear and shopped the selection

of handcrafted luxury boots, jewelry, and leather goods.

WEST STORE

LAUNCH PARTY

Justin Yovino and Duane Barnhard

Ariel Kashanchi

Clive Kennedy and Janet Elaine Spinks

Joaquin Phoenix

Bob Gazzale, J.C. Chandor, and Jacqueline Lyanga

Mark Wahlberg

Anna Borchert and Heather

Lee Moss

Kyle Stephens and James Anderton

Victor Valenzuela, Stephanie Sweeney, Kashif Uqdah, and Jesse Morman

Melynda Choothesa and

Kimberly Yatsko


THE NEW

The perfect brew for you…

and visitors, too.

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Fête AccompliJAMES BEARD HONOREES SUZANNE

GOIN AND CAROLINE STYNE’S A.O.C.

DELIvERS THE CELEB-RATED GOODS

IN A CITY THAT kNOwS HOw TO

pARTY. Salut! by Jen Jones Donatelli

A would-be opera singer stands up and loudly belts

out the “Happy Birthday” song in Italian, turning the

rest of the diners on A.O.C.’s twinkling patio into a

captive audience. Such a scene might be out of place

at another restaurant, but at A.O.C., bold celebra-

tions are de rigueur. It’s just another Wednesday at

Suzanne Goin’s small-plates mainstay on West Third

Street, which just the night before had played host to

a large party for The Hollywood Reporter.

Then there was the intimate 42nd birthday party

Ryan Murphy hosted for Gwyneth Paltrow just a few

weeks earlier. For the 14-person dinner, the restau-

rant’s upstairs wine room was outfitted with dozens

of candles, and Small Masterpiece’s Jason Murakawa

was tapped to swap out the usual place settings for

centuries-old porcelain dishes and silver. “The

porcelain changeover was probably the most unique

request we’ve had in awhile,” shares general manager

Julie Espinosa.

Whether a baby shower, private brunch, rehearsal

dinner, or large soirée like DKNY’s 30th anniversary

party, A.O.C. prides itself on rising to the (special)

occasion—something it wasn’t always able to do in its

former location of 10 years. “This is the first time

we’ve ever had a private room in any of our restau-

rants,” says chef-owner Goin, referring to Lucques,

Tavern, and The Larder. “The old A.O.C. [location]

was more chopped up space-wise, so it was hard to

have big parties.”

The restaurant switched locations in 2013, moving

one mile west down Third Street into the former

Eat, drink, and make merry: At A.O.C., the formula for a perfect party includes elevated en

famille fare like “Ode to Zuni” roasted chicken and a whole lot of fine wine.

conTinued on page 100


taste this Month: Celebrate!

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Vin Incroyable!With more than 300 selec-

tions on A.O.C.’s carefully

curated wine list (all of which

are biodynamic, organic, and/

or sustainably produced),

making the right choice can

be a tall order. We asked som-

melier Caroline Styne for her

suggestions on the restaurant’s

most vivacious bottles of vino

that can stand up to any

occasion.

Best for a toast: “Always toast with something

sparkling and delicious. I love

Hugo sparkling rosé

from Austria—bright, fresh,

slightly savory, and perfect for

cocktail hour.”

Best to Pair

witH Dinner:

“A light-bodied Pinot

Noir like 2011 Hirsch

Vineyards, san

andreas fault,

sonoma Coast is perfect

to pair with an entire meal, as

it has a brightness that works

with lighter foods and enough

body and earthiness to handle

full-favored meats and

vegetables.”

Best for a

sPlurge: “Of all

of the cult Cabernets

available, I would go for

2010 araujo, eisele

Vineyard, Cabernet

sauvignon, napa

Valley. It’s pricey but worth

every penny with its elegance,

structure, and restrained

power.”

Best witH

Dessert: “I love 2007

Domaine Berthet-

Bondet, Côtes du

Jura, Vin de Paille;

it’s a blend of Chardonnay,

Savagnin, and Poulsard that

exudes notes of dried fruits

and honey with a good dose

of acidity to keep the wine’s

sweetness in check.”

clockwise from

left: A.O.C.’s otherworldly courtyard is a popular location for parties among the Industry A-list set; the restaurant’s cozy dining room sets the mood for more intimate celebrations; the egg- and prosciutto-topped brioche is made for sharing.

Il Covo space (once inhab-ited by LA institutions Orso and Joe Allen). Upon hearing that Goin and co-owner/sommelier Caroline Styne were looking to heavily revamp A.O.C., Il Covo’s Sean MacPherson contacted Styne to see if they’d be up for taking over his space instead.

“A lightbulb went off immediately, and I said yes,” recalls Styne. “The space had been such a treasure for so long; I’d been dining in that building since I was a child and always coveted it.”

The end result is a more flexible, event-friendly space with three distinct areas: an interior dining room with communal table and bar; a bougainvillea-laced patio dotted with lemon trees and an outdoor fireplace; and the upstairs dining room—deco-rated wine cellar-style with floor-to-ceiling wood paneling and accessed only by a separate entrance. Some events, like W magazine’s “It Girls” party celebrating stars

such as Diane Kruger and Hailee Steinfeld, fill up the entire space, which has a total capacity of up to 175 people.

“It feels like an old Spanish hacienda or someone’s garden in the South of France—[the space] has a very old-world feeling,” says Goin. “There is something very transporting about being here; you feel like you’re somewhere else, and it makes you want to celebrate.”

Also contributing to the festive feel is the focus on family-style dining. Goin has long been credited with popularizing the now-ubiqui-tous “small plates” approach in Los Angeles, which wasn’t so prevalent when the restaurant first opened in 2002. “The original idea was kind of a communal sharing, a way to experience the meal together—the clinking of glasses, passing of plates,” says Goin. “It was all about having a few decadent bites in an era of apps, main

courses, and desserts.”At the new A.O.C., Goin is

marrying that trademark with a new offering: platters suitable for larger groups. Alongside small-plate favorites like bacon-wrapped dates and egg- and pro-sciutto-topped brioche, diners can now choose from platters like lamb tagine, bone-in monkfish tail, and the “Ode to Zuni” roasted chicken (a nod to the popular San Francisco café). “It’s been so much fun to introduce large-format sharing of food,” says Styne.

Another addition is the full liquor license. Since the restaurant is no longer limited to serving just beer and wine, bartender Christiaan Rollich has been able to introduce a menu of nine market cocktails to round out A.O.C.’s alcoholic offerings.

“We love seeing [diners] enjoying these platters of beautiful food communally, and on top of that, Caroline’s amazing wines and

Christiaan’s cocktails,” says Espinosa. “Each really layers upon the others to make an amazing night for people.”

It’s been a big year for Goin and Styne, who were nominated for “Outstanding Chef” and “Outstanding Restaurateur,” respectively, at the 2014 James Beard awards. Their annual charity fundraiser, L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade, had its “best year ever,” says Goin, attracting 1,500 revelers and raising more than $700,000 for children’s cancer research. Goin is also still riding high from the release of the A.O.C. cookbook, which came out last October.

“A lot of the cookbook was about trying to capture the ambience and vibe of the restaurant in the pages, which I think we did,” says Goin. “It’s like my editor said: ‘The book should feel like A.O.C.—you should always feel a little bit drunk.’” 8700 W. Third St., LA,

310-859-9859; aocwine

bar.com LAC


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The famous French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once declared “a dinner that ends without cheese is like a beautiful woman who is missing one eye.” Without offense to the one-eyed beauties of the world, Brillat-Savarin does have a point—a fine meal without a cheese course some-how feels incomplete.

Fortunately for Angelenos, some of the best restau-rants in town have assembled cheese menus that would make even the most accomplished affineurs envious.

Though Patina’s surroundings at the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall Downtown (141 S. Grand Ave., LA, 213-972-3331;

patinarestaurant.com) are sleekly contemporary, when it comes to the cheese course here, general manager Kevin Welby’s tastes tend to the classical. “The cheese course is a bridge between the savory

“The cheese course is a bridge between the

savory and the sweet courses. It stills time a

bit and changes the nature of the meal,” says

Kevin Welby of Patina.

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and sweet courses,” explains Welby. Turning a bit philosophical, he continues, “It’s a way to still time for a bit during the course of the meal—it changes the nature of the meal because it has such a luxuri-ous quality to it.”

At any given time, there are around 30 selections on Patina’s cheese menu, ranging from a delicate tri-ple-cream Époisses to a full-bodied Fourme d’Ambert. However, around December and the holi-days, Welby has a few special selections on hand. “One of the cheeses I like to bring in December is the Fleur du Maquis from Corsica. It has a wonderful richness, though it is covered with wild herbs and juniper berries—the herbs give it a nice seasonal fla-vor that complements the sweet, lemony taste of the cheese,” he says.

Suzanne Goin, co-owner and executive chef at

A.O.C. (8700 W. Third St., LA, 310-859-9859; aoc

winebar.com), also has a particular cheese in mind for this special time of year. She calls Vacherin Mont-d’Or “a big, stinky cheese with woodsy, nutty notes and an unbelievably velvety texture and mouth-feel.

“This cheese symbolizes the holidays for me,” she says. But that is just the beginning at A.O.C. This iconic small-plates restaurant and wine bar has a sophisticated but laid-back raison d’être that includes a cheese menu categorized by the animal from which each one is made, as well as a separate “blue” listing.

Under the “cow” heading you might find a deli-ciously oozy Brillat-Savarin (remember him?) from Normandy, while the “sheep” section might include a firm, tart Fiore Sardo from Sardinia.

Goin views her cheese selection as a practical geography lesson, saying, “I like offering cheeses from around the world because I find it so interest-ing to see and taste how different cultures and terroirs show through.”

“I still remember tasting Reblochon [an aged semisoft cheese from the French Savoyard Alps] for the first time when I moved to France,” reminisces chef/owner Josiah Citrin of Mélisse (1104 Wilshire

Blvd., Santa Monica, 310-395-0881; melisse.com). “It was this beautiful, raw-milk cheese I had never had before, which I spread on crunchy bread, and that experience stuck with me.”

Though his techniques and cuisine have a dis-tinctly more contemporary bent these days, Citrin’s tastes have remained firmly French when it comes to his cheese menu, which is a veritable journey into creamy decadence, the selections changing nightly and arriving aboard a special cheese trolley.

What you will find on a given day—and there are usually around 20 choices—will be a well-orches-trated “balance of flavors, animal’s milk, fattiness, richness, creaminess, dryness, pungency, sharp-ness, and age,” says Citrin. “We pick seasonal things, choosing the cheeses by what is freshest or ripest at a particular time of year.”

“Seasonality is the most important aspect of the cheese menu at Bouchon,” avers Thomas Keller Restaurant Group culinary developer Michael Sandoval, who oversees the selection at Bouchon

Beverly Hills (235 N. Canon Dr., Beverly Hills,

310-271-9910; bouchonbistro.com/beverlyhills). He also considers the cheese course a chance for

an informal, communal moment of the meal. “We place that plate at the center of the table and let the guests pass it around and savor it all together with accompaniments like wildflower honey, dried fruits and nuts, and toasted brioche, all of which let the beautiful cheeses express themselves.”

So next time you dine out, heed Brillat-Savarin’s sage advice and take some time to savor some cheese… even if you have to share! LAC


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Jeffrey Best and Joachim Splichal know a thing or two

about being under pressure, but the A-list-anointed

event planner and Patina catering mogul seem to

take the high-stress demands of their respective jobs

in stride. Take this breezy fall day, for example: Best

is set to oversee a 2,000-person Tesla event at Austin

City Limits that evening, while Splichal is prepping a

breakfast for President Obama to be served the next

day. Yet the two have no problem making time to

catch up over a leisurely lunch at Splichal’s Café

Pinot in Downtown LA—which, with its prime sky-

line view and dreamy patio, is no stranger to hosting

special celebrations.

As Best and Splichal enjoy dishes like kohlrabi

salad and hamachi with yuzu granité, it’s clear they

have a shorthand and rapport achieved through

years of close collaboration. For 15 years, Splichal

and Best have been working in tandem on events

ranging from a Louis Vuitton-sponsored MOCA

gala to Bono’s 53rd birthday party (where their staff

members had to save the day when the tent almost

blew away).

“When you’re working with [Leonardo] DiCaprio

or Johnny Depp or other big clients, it has to be

‘right,’” says Best. “That’s why we intersect with

Patina so much—what [Splichal] does on a daily basis

is like someone taking a jigsaw puzzle, throwing all

the pieces up in the air, and putting them together as

art before they hit the ground.”

The ever-in-demand duo dissects the “art” of

throwing affairs to remember—and dishes up the

entertaining trends they see coming down the pike.

How has party planning in Los Angeles

changed over the last few decades?

Joachim Splichal: We’ve moved away from strictly

sit-down dinners [toward] more interaction, lots of

cocktails, lots of fun.

Jeffrey Best: Clients want it to feel like an extension

of something at someone’s home, like an extended

lounge or living room. It’s not about the finest china

or the best silverware anymore.

How does that translate to the food?

JS: People want interactive food—different stations

where they get the flavor of LA: a little Chinese, a

little sushi, a little pasta, a little French.

JB: It’s a graze. They want to graze over to the sushi,

have some caviar, try some dim sum, and eat a

delicious hamburger at 2 am.

How do you strike a balance between throwing

a lavish party and making it feel casual?

JB: The secret is that it needs to feel like an organic

environment, rather than premeditated.

JS: In the old days, everything was served in silver.

Now we use more vessels made from things like

reclaimed wood, metal, and plastic.

JB: People don’t want a polished piece of granite or

marble that’s perfect; they want the crumbled piece

with a broken edge that’s got an amazing piece of

charcuterie on top of it.

What are some other hot party trends?

JS: Cocktails are extremely important—it’s all about

the cocktail. It really has nothing to do with serving

a great Champagne anymore. [Clients] want every

party to have themed signature cocktails, developed

by a mixologist.

JB: We just did a fruits de mer Bloody Mary, filled

with crab claws and big jumbo prawns, [colored] red

or green depending on the tomato.

JS: You have to drink that before 9 am, right?

[Laughs]

JB: I’ll take it all day.

What are some of your go-to hors d’oeuvres?

JS: Our chicken and waffles appetizer with

The Party BoysWhat do Will and Kate, Madonna, and harvey Weinstein have in coMMon? events

planners/catering Kings Joachim Splichal and Jeffrey BeSt on speed dial! by Jen Jones Donatelli


Revel-utionary! Joachim Splichal (this photo, left) and Jeffrey Best discuss the art of entertaining on a grand scale as they lunch at Splichal’s Café Pinot. right: Hamachi served with yuzu granité, candied kumquat, manzano chile, shimeji mushrooms, and black sesame purée.


taste On the town

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OccasiOn tO celebrate!

Splichal and Best fess up on their favorite secret spots

for a celebratory supper.

Bestia (2121 E. Seventh Pl., LA, 213-514-5724;

bestiala.com): “My boys and I love Ori [Menashe]’s

fresh pasta and house-cured meats; I took my son,

Nicholas, there recently for his last meal before he

headed off to college.” —Splichal

Café Pinot (700 W. Fifth St., LA, 213-239-

6500; patinagroup.com/cafepinot): “Café Pinot is an

evocative setting to watch the world go by with a great

meal. The library, the skyline, and the people are like a

new painting every day.” —Best

HaBana (2930 Bristol St., Costa Mesa; 714-556-

0176): “I recently visited with a group of friends to

celebrate Germany’s World Cup win; I love the Cuban

sandwich there and how crispy it gets!” —Splichal

naPles RistoRante e PizzeRia (1550

Disneyland Dr., Anaheim; 714-776-6200;

patinagroup.com/naples): “The ultimate celebration

spot for me and my family is Disneyland. I love sitting

on the upstairs patio overlooking Downtown Disney;

when I’m eating the branzino, I feel like I’m looking

over the Amalf Coast.” —Best

noBu MaliBu (22706 Pacifc Coast Hwy.,

Malibu; 310-317-9140; noburestaurants.com/

malibu): “From the design to the service—and, of course,

the food—we always consider Nobu Malibu for birthdays

and anniversaries.” —Best

union (37 E. Union St., Pasadena 626-795-5841;

unionpasadena.com): “This is such a great, casual

place to dine with friends, and I really enjoy the way

chef Bruce [Kalman] uses local produce and offal.”

—Splichal

buttermilk-fried chicken, a soft waffle, and a hint

of Vermont maple syrup is the number-one

favorite among our guests—it’s the perfect size and

packs a lot of flavor all in one bite. Another

popular hors d’oeuvre is the Asian-inspired lobster

sweet and sour, which is rich, sweet, and tart,

capturing a little crunch from the radish.

JB: Octopus is a real crowd pleaser. Tartines are

always good, with a variety of different toppings.

surely you accommodate lots of larger-than-life food requests. Give us an idea. Js: The opening of The Music Center at the Walt

Disney Concert Hall 15 years ago: We did a cold

soup that was pea soup on the outer circle, cauli-

flower soup on the inner circle, with a half-ounce of

beluga caviar on top. We had to do 20 kitchen tests

to get the consistency right, and then have the waiter

run 150 yards to the table to make sure the caviar

would float. It was a nightmare—but it worked.

JB: I had one party where the client wanted the

attendees to cook their own steak cubes on daggers

over an open flame.

What are some of the grandest events you’ve

worked on in los angeles?Js: [Patina has] done the Emmys for 16 years in a

row; at The Governors Ball, 3,800 people sit down

and we serve them all in one hour. We have 900

employees, so it’s like an army arriving at the

convention center.

JB: I’ve been doing Golden Globe events for Harvey

Weinstein and Miramax since 1994 as well as

Madonna’s Academy Awards party at Guy Oseary’s

house. Working on these events every year chal-

lenges you to be more creative—you can’t do the

same thing over and over.

Js: Two years ago, when Prince William and Kate

visited, we did a party for 350 people. That was a

process: We had 10 tastings and hundreds of hours

of discussion, down to the minute details of whether

to place the parsley to the left or the right. The

Downtown location where we had the party was like

a fortress; you couldn’t go in or out.

What are the secrets to pulling off a high-pro-file party?Js: Calmness is the most important thing—the event

planner needs to be 100 percent in control.

JB: If there’s a real fire, I’ll get excited, but other than

that, the party goes on. I remember doing the

opening of Ford Models at the Chateau Marmont,

right after André Balazs bought it. There must have

been 700 or 800 people around the pool; you

couldn’t even walk through. God bless her, Eileen

Ford walked over to Jack Nicholson and asked him

to walk over to the other side of the party. Everyone

followed him, and suddenly we had a clear path to

get through.

Js: We do this every day. [The secret is] doing the

next party better than the last. LAC

Splichal and Best are legendary for orchestrating some of LA’s biggest bashes, from exclusive Golden Globe soirées to the Emmy Governors Ball. right: The garden at Café Pinot is an always-enchanting setting for parties.

Café Pinot’s crispy frog legs.

taste On the town


Matt Goss headlines in BH this season.

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KITCHEN CONFIDENTIALPersonal chef Pamela Salzman is known for

enticing luminaries such as Rashida Jones and Jenni

Kayne with her classic but clean cooking. And now,

the rest of us can get in on Salzman’s secret

recipes by booking one of her monthly group

cooking classes ($80/person)—or a private lesson

at home ($95/person; 10-person minimum).

December’s theme will be holiday party foods,

while January is inspired by the cuisine of Asia just

in time for the Chinese New Year (past classes

have included specialties like halibut in Thai

coconut sauce and black rice salad with edamame).

pamelasalzman.com

AULD LANG DIVINEFig & Olive brings a taste of Provence to Melrose

Place with its annual New Year’s Eve White & Gold

Dinner Party. The event kicks off with a four-

course dinner ($150 per person) followed by a

cocktail reception ($100 per person); Champagne

bottle service is available. 310-360-9100.

2

Tequila is the freshest spirit to serve at this year’s holiday parties—Feliz Navidad, indeed.

A Groove-able FeastBEV HILLS’ NEW SPAGHETTINI & THE DAVE

KOZ LOUNGE OPENS WITH A RESIDENCY BY

MUSICIAN MATT GOSS. BY ERIC ROSEN

Seal Beach staple Spaghettini makes the move north with a

new Beverly Hills location. Like the original, the focus here is

on locally sourced gourmet fare, such as Executive Chef

Scott Howard’s dry-aged NY strip with chanterelles, smoked

Gouda orzo, and crispy bone marrow in an agrodolce sauce.

Food is only half the story, though. Guests will be treated

to a roster of nine-time Grammy-nominated saxophonist/

co-owner Dave Koz’s music industry friends. First up is Las

Vegas headliner Matt Goss, who will have a residency at the

restaurant on the third Thursday of each month. “I’m lucky

enough to play all over the world, and I’m a headliner at

Caesars Palace, but I live in LA,” says Goss. “I cannot wait to

bring some old-Hollywood glamour to Spaghettini & the

Dave Koz Lounge.” Viva Los Angeles! 184 N. Canon Dr.,

Beverly Hills, 310-424-4600; spaghettinibh.com LAC

new in l.a.

1

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// cocktails // AGAVE MARIA!

Temperatures are dropping, but that’s no

reason to stash away your tequila. In fact,

though this spirit hails from steamy

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cocktails. Explaining the versatility of

this potent potable, mixologist and

author Marshall Altier says: “Very few

spirits can satisfy the most finicky fans of

more than one category. Tequila Don

Julio 1942 is able to toe that line by

satisfying the palate of the astute whiskey

drinker as well as tequila aficionados.”

Case in point, Altier’s 1942 Legendario

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ounce of Tequila Don Julio 1942, half an

ounce of Grand Marnier, and splashes of

fresh lime and orange juice. Simply

combine the ingredients, shake them well,

and serve up with an orange-peel garnish.

Keep that recipe on hand, and you’ll be the

hit of the holiday party circuit. donjulio.com

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Famed French crystal

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All of him! “The Grammys have been great to me... they have been responsible for the

success of ‘All of Me’ more than anything outside the

song itself,” says John Legend, here rocking a jacket by Hermès ($27,400). 434 N.

Rodeo Dr., Beverly Hills, 310-278-6440; hermes.com.

Shirt, Bottega Veneta ($770). 457 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly

Hills, 310-858-6533; bottegaveneta.com. Pants,

Frame Denim ($200). mrporter.com. Black belt,

Alexander Olch ($130). Ron Herman, 8100 Melrose Ave.,

LA, 323-651-4129; ronherman.com. Velvet

high-tops, Tom Ford ($890). 346 N. Rodeo Dr., Beverly

Hills, 310-270-9440

by michael ventre photography by frederic auerbach

When the lights are low, the candles are lit,

the wine is poured, and romance fills the room like a fragrant

breeze, you could do worse with your squeeze than to put on a

little John Legend. Because if you do, you can be reasonably

certain that however you had hoped the night would end, it

will be better than that.

Legend has that effect. And in recent months, the potency

of his love elixir has intensified with “All of Me,” one of those

songs that drifts by at a random cultural moment and sweeps

lovers into the ether. Written for his wife, model Chrissy

Teigen, it f lirted with listeners when released in 2013, but it

finally seduced them en masse when Legend performed it

live at last year’s Grammy Awards. If the live version of “All

of Me”—released in 2014, so it’s eligible—captures another

statuette at the 57th Grammys on Sunday, February 8 at

Staples Center, that will mark the 10th for Legend. That’s

almost unbridled awards love.

“The more you know someone, the more you’re inspired

by your relationship,” says the 36-year-old Legend of Teigen

one particularly frenzied afternoon in which his schedule

whisked him from Japan to LA and then over the pond for a

European tour. “Also, I grew up just learning what it means to

be in love with somebody… because I had never really been

in love before. I guess you have to grow enough to be able to

write that song with sincerity and authenticity.”

Legend had been with Teigen—admired by thousands of

others besides her beau, thanks to her fame as a Sports

Illustrated swimsuit cover girl—for seven years before the two

wed in September of 2013 in Lake Como, Italy. The fact that

Legend finally decided to give all of him to her after that

lengthy courtship might have been the rosebud that eventu-

ally bloomed into a hit song.

“I love it when songs are authentic and come out of what an

artist really wants to say,” says songwriter Toby Gad, who

collaborated on “All of Me” with Legend. “I feel the same

way about my wife as he does about Chrissy, so we both felt

passionately about what we were writing.”

While it’s hard to deny his devotion to his spouse, Legend

and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences

are professional soul mates. “All of Me” is just the most recent

progeny of that coupling. “The Grammys have been great to

me,” Legend says. “I think the Grammys have been respon-

sible for the success of ‘All of Me’ more than any one thing

outside the actual song itself. The Grammys really vaulted

that song from a song that was kind of chugging along on the

radio but not breaking through in the way we believed it

should and could—the Grammys took it from No. 49 on

iTunes to No. 3 in one night. It stayed in the top five on iTunes

for months after that. That was the single most important

element that made ‘All of Me’ a huge hit. I’m grateful to them

for that and everything that came before that.”

This particular Legend’s given name is John Roger

Stephens, of Springfield, Ohio. A poet friend named J. Ivy

commented once that he sounded like one of those old-school

voices—a little Al Green here, a little Smokey Robinson there,

some Marvin Gaye and Luther Vandross for seasoning, a

little Nat King Cole and Johnny Mathis for texture, a

Motown-gospel union for extra heart—and started calling

Study hard. Work hard. Love hard. And if you’re music legend John Legend, you might even win another Grammy.


While attending the University of Pennsylvania, Ivy Leaguer Legend drove hundreds of miles each weekend for his job as musical director at a Scranton church.

him Legend. Kanye West, who became a friend and collabo-

rator through his cousin, a classmate of Legend’s at Penn,

grabbed onto it and told him, “That should be your stage

name.” After a bit of reluctance over even taking a stage

name, it soon was.

If you look back through his life, Legend was somewhat

of a legend even as a kid, singing in his hometown church

choir, learning the lessons of gospel music offered by his

grandmother, who played piano and organ at services. His

grandfather was a pastor and his mother was a choir

director; he began playing piano at 4 and singing in the

choir at 6. While doing so, he was exposed to the music of

gospel stars like Edwin Hawkins, the Winans,

Commissioned, and John P. Kee.

“I was a very precocious kid, so I was very thirsty for

learning,” says Legend, who calls both Los Angeles and New

York home. “I wanted to learn the piano. I wanted to study

the encyclopedia. I wanted to do everything. I just wanted to

soak up a lot of knowledge.

“When I was singing in church,” he adds, “people will let

you know how they feel pretty quickly. You can feel the

energy of the congregation, and you get a sense of whether

they like what you’re doing, if you did a good job. That was

very tangible to me. It was very addicting too, that feeling of

affirmation and love, just feeling the elevation of the spirit

and excitement of the crowd.”

Legend went on to the University of Pennsylvania, where

he performed in an a cappella group and made some friends

who today help comprise his very tight inner circle, which

uses tony private club Soho House as its unofficial office digs.

“I think we all knew in our singing group that he had the

most talent and the best voice we ever heard,” recalls Ty

Stiklorius, a classmate of Legend’s at Penn who is now

co-president of Atom Factory, the company that manages

him. “He also had this extreme work ethic where it appeared

he never stopped.”

For nine years, including his time at Penn, Legend had a

part-time job as musical director at the Bethel AME Church

in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is about a 125-mile drive. He often drove there for

Sunday-morning services after performing late-night gigs in Philadelphia. Even then,

his full-throttle schedule caused him to occasionally drop off to sleep in class.

“I remember when he graduated and had to leave the church,” Stiklorius says. “The

church gave him a send-off. They gave him the key to the city of Scranton, and they

had the mayor and a rabbi and people from all different churches there. He was like

family to them.”

Says the current pastor, Tawan E. Bailey: “John was kind enough to sign his old

electric piano, which we are going to auction off in a mortgage-burning drive.”

Through connections at Penn and word of mouth, Legend began a rapid-fire

musical ascent that saw him play piano on Lauryn Hill’s “Everything Is Everything,”

his first appearance on a major label release. He later contributed his voice and piano

to a wide array of artists, including Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Dilated Peoples, Slum Village,

and Kanye, who helped him get a record deal with Sony in 2004, which begat his

debut album, Get Lifted.

While in LA shooting a music video for his single “Stereo” in 2006, Legend was in his

dressing room ironing his clothes—it was a low-budget affair, so no stylist—when Teigen

walked in. She claims he was ironing his underwear. He insists he has never ironed his

underwear. (“She always embellishes.”) Whatever the truth, a spark flew during that

deeply intimate moment when a woman catches a man ironing.

But their relationship evolved gradually. “Not right away,” he says of their love. “I’m

more cautious than that. I wasn’t like, ‘This is the woman I’m going to marry’ from day

one. For me I’m the kind of person who needs to grow into that feeling. It was probably a

couple of years in when I could already see us being together forever.”


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Stevie Wonder sang at their wedding. They’re discussing

kids. They love to cook, entertain friends at home (Stevie

sang there once, too) and eat out at some of LA’s more

sumptuous Italian restaurants. And aside from the chatty

Teigen recently ending (and resurrecting) an active Twitter

life after receiving death threats and hateful comments

resulting from a remark she made about gun control, life is a

beautiful duet for this high-wattage couple.

It’s a wonder they have time for each other. Legend is

active in several philanthropic endeavors, including educa-

tion advocacy groups Stand for Children, Teach for America,

and the Show Me Campaign, as well as a push for criminal

justice reform, including support for the recent Proposition 47

ballot initiative in California.

And he launched a film production company three years

ago called Get Lifted along with Stiklorius and fellow Penn

alum/longtime bud Mike Jackson, which has several projects

cooking. One is an adaptation of The Black Count: Glory,

Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom

Reiss, which won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 2013.

The project, about Alexandre Dumas, the real Count of

Monte Cristo, is set up at Sony, with Cary Fukunaga (director

of HBO’s True Detective) set to pen the script and direct.

“We have weekly phone calls when he’s on the road,”

Jackson says of Legend. “When he’s in town, he’s at meetings.

It’s a high priority for John. He makes time, whether it’s on

Skype or a phone call at 4:30 in the morning. He doesn’t

sleep. Whatever he puts his name on he takes very seriously.”

Of course, no matter how frenetic a life becomes, there’s

always time for a little relaxation and romance… which is why

it might behoove John Legend to put on a little John Legend

once in a while. LAC

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Styling by Johnathan LawhorneGrooming by Debbie Gallagher at Opus Beauty using Dior HommeDigital technician: Carl DuquettePhoto assistance by Robin HarperStyling assistance by Zoe ZhouVideo: Chris Cella


“I spend most of my life in work boots and old sweaters. But I appreciate the time to groom and enhance,” says Angela Lindvall, here bedecked in a star embroidered sweater by Marc Jacobs ($1,100). 8400 Melrose Pl., LA, 323-653-5100; marcjacobs.com. Maddy brief, Agent Provocateur ($190). 7691 Melrose Ave., LA, 323-653-0229; agentprovocateur.com

If ever there was a place that is simulta-

neously in LA and completely

removed from its status-grabbing eco-

system, it’s Topanga, the relatively

untouched mountain terrain strad-

dled between the glitzier hoods of

Santa Monica and Malibu.

It is here that Angela Lindvall, the

striking hybrid—supermodel, envi-

ronmentalist, mother of two—has

created the ultimate sanctuary, away

from the Botox’d jostling for atten-

tion, just beyond its live-oak-dotted

hills. “This is my magical place,” says

the 35-year-old Missouri-bred blonde

from her seven-acre eco-spread. “This is where I raise my

kids, where we do yoga classes and have women’s circles.

This is my community.”

Lindvall moved to Topanga nine years ago during

what she calls a “total life meltdown”—a year when her

marriage ended and her sister died in a tragic accident. “I

went on an inward journey and realized that self-care is

the path to healing.”

A vital part of that process turned out to be the creation

of her solar-powered compound, where Lindvall installed a

water filtration system and a yoga studio and planted a

small orchard of fruit trees. But far from living in an isolated

idyll, Lindvall, the founder of environmental awareness ini-

tiative The Collage Foundation, says much of that healing

has come via her hilltop neighbors.

“My boys are 9 and 12 now, so they’ll

dirt-bike to the neighboring proper-

ties, like to Ricky and Andrea

Schroder’s place. All of our kids have

grown up together. There is a real

circle of friends here.”

And it’s turned out that this inti-

mate network of like-minded

residents has reinvigorated Lindvall’s

lifelong passion for the environment

and community. “I’m completing

my work to become a certified

health coach, and the idea is to help

women look at their whole lives.

We’re such multitaskers. In my industry, women like

beauty and fashion, but that can turn into people feeling

bad about [how they look]. I want to help change that. It’s

about finding wholeness and feeling complete.”

Next up for Lindvall? She’s just purchased the property

next door, expanding her acreage and ability to test-run

new ideas: “I want the [new] outdoor areas to attract bugs

and birds and bunnies. I may even get goats,” she says. “I

want to build out a really big garden and am thinking maybe

that can be my sons’ first job: selling our own produce at a

farmers market. Living here, I’m removed from the who’s

who and I stay in touch with what’s important. Up here, it’s

easy to remember I have an awesome life.”

—Alexandria Abramian

ladyTOPANGASupermodel/mom/environmentaliSt angela lindvall

rockS the SeaSon’S high-end reSortwear with

down-to-mother-earth living at her farm in topanga.

PhotograPhy by tony Duran | styling by martina nilsson

“Self-cAre iS The

PATh TO heAliNG

The PlANeT. iT

GrOwS OuT Of yOu

ANd iNTO yOur

cOmmuNiTy, ANd

TheN yOur ciTy,

yOur STATe…”


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0457; louisvuitton.com

The Arts

LYNDA RESNICK, JANE NATHANSON, AND ANN COLGINThe Ladies of LACMA

GIVE & LET LIVE

When the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (lacma.org) celebrates its 50th birthday in April, it will do so with 50 incredible birthday presents, all donated by top supporters of the museum. The artworks will be unveiled in conjunction with a benefit party on April 18, followed by a public exhibition of the works. Among those leading the festivities are gala cochairs and LACMA board members Ann Colgin, founder of Napa Valley’s acclaimed Colgin Cellars; Lynda Resnick, the cofounder of Fiji Water and POM Wonderful (she and her husband, Stuart, made possible the museum’s Resnick Pavilion); and marriage and family counselor Jane Nathanson (who, along with her husband, donated $10 million to LACMA in 2008). The birthday comes during a time of ambitious building plans led by LACMA Director Michael Govan, who proposes to construct a $650 million edifice by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.

Happy 50th!Lynda Resnick: Well it is an exciting milestone—except if it happens to be your own birthday.Ann Colgin: What we’re doing is encouraging people to give artwork to the museum as promise gifts. Jane Nathanson: The nice thing is that after the 50th anniversary exhibition, the art goes back to the donors. They can live with it as long as they want—until the second they die—and then it will be left to LACMA.What are you all planning to give? LR: I just told Michael [Govan] to come over and pick what he wanted and he did, and then I thought, well, there’s no sculpture represented. So then I said, “Michael, pick a piece of sculpture.” Of course he picked the single-most impor-tant thing we have, which is what he should have done and we are thrilled.JN: We will be donating most of our art to LACMA and we are giving some for the 50th anniversary. I really feel that if you are lucky enough to be able to purchase really good art, you are borrowing it, and some day it should be available for the public to see and enjoy and learn from. One of the pieces that will be going to

Here in the City of Angels, the competition to earn your wings is fierce. In the realms of the arts, medicine, human

rights, children, and nature, meet the divinely inspired contestants in the holy, high-stakes game of LA philanthropy.

BY DEGEN PENER

Lynda Resnick, Jane Nathanson, and Ann Colgin photographed at Resnick’s

Beverly Hills home.


gift that gives

parties with purpose

ones to watch power couple

One year ago, Cesar

Garcia (right) opened

The Mistake Room

to showcase contempo-

rary artists from around

the globe who have never

shown before in Los

Angeles. “I was spending

a lot of time abroad and a

lot of work from Asia, the

Middle East, and South

America was not making

it to LA,” says Garcia. In

January, the nonprofit

space near Downtown

opens its fifth show,

Abstract paintings by

Argentina-born,

Guatemala-based Vivian

Suter. tmr.la

BodyTraffic,

founded by New

York-trained dancers

Lillian Barbeito and Tina

Berkett in 2007, has won

acclaim by commission-

ing works by inter national

composers for its

10-person troupe. The

nonprofit company

performs at The Broad

Stage in Santa Monica

February 26 and 27, with

a program that includes

two West Coast pre-

mieres. bodytraffic.com

In recent years, the

nonprofit Sacred Fools

Theater in Hollywood

has seen its original

productions go on to be

staged at The Pasadena

Playhouse, South Coast

Rep, and the Geffen

Playhouse. The member-

driven company

(members elect the

artistic directors) next

mounts a production of

There Is a Happiness That

Morning Is ( January

23-February 28), a work

written almost completely

in rhyming couplets

about two lecturers of

William Blake poetry.

660 N. Heliotrope Dr.,

LA, 310-281-8337;

sacredfools.org

David and Kiki Gindler live in

Hancock Park, but they may want

to consider buying an apartment

Downtown across from The Music

Center. Between the two, they sit

on at least six boards and commit-

tees at the arts complex. Kiki, a

retired attorney, is a vice chair of

the board of Center

Theatre Group and on

the Center’s 50th-

anniversary gala

committee. David, an

intellectual property

lawyer, is the chair of

the LA Master Chorale,

a vice chair of the

board of the Los

Angeles Philharmonic,

and on the board of The Music

Center itself. “Our main passion,

main hobby, and main everything

in our life is the arts,” says Kiki,

who is working on a new capital

campaign for Center Theatre

Group. (“I sometimes joke that I’m

an unpaid employee there. I spend

a good part of 20 hours a week

working on things for CTG.”) She is

also a member of The Blue Ribbon,

a committee of 500 women

established by Dorothy Chandler in

1968 to support the center. The

invite-only group is known for its

annual Children’s Festival, which

brings 18,000 kids to the center to

see live performances.

“At some point, you

realize it’s not enough to

donate money. If you are

passionate about

supporting the arts, you

can give your time and

your ability to lead,” says

David, who recalls that

the first thing he did

when he got his driver’s

license was to get a subscription to

the Phil. Among the performances

they are most looking forward to:

“The Water Passion” by the LA

Master Chorale (April 11–12) and

Angela Lansbury in Blithe Spirit

at the Ahmanson Theatre

(December 9-January 18).

musiccenter.org

The opening-night concert of The Hollywood Bowl (pictured

above) every June is not only one of LA’s most enjoyable open-air

evenings, but it also raises funds for the Los Angeles

Philharmonic and its education programs. Last year’s event

inducted Kristen Chenoweth, The Go-Go’s, and Pink Martini into

the Bowl’s Hall of Fame.

hollywoodbowl.com

To ensure that the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood continues its

acclaimed programming—2014’s run included a stunning Annette

Bening in Ruth Draper’s Monologues—buy a ticket to the theater’s

Backstage at the Geffen fundraiser coming up in May. Its upcom-

ing shows include “Switzerland” (March 3-April 12), a

commissioned work by Joanna Murray-Smith, about novelist

Patricia Highsmith. geffenplayhouse.com

Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry, and Jane Fonda took in a perfor-

mance by Diana Ross at the 2014 annual MOCA gala. The

always-boisterous event takes place this year on May 30 and

raises funds for the contemporary art programming of the

museum, now under the leadership of new director Philippe

Vergne. moca.org

Wear your art on your arm. The Hammer

Museum has released limited-edition

temporary artist tattoos to benefit its Hammer

Kids programming. For $100, museum

visitors can get a complete set of tattoos by

artists Laura Owens, Raymond Pettibon,

John Baldessari, Friedrich Kunath

(pictured below), and Dave Muller.

hammer.ucla.edu

LACMA for the 50th from my

collection is a very early Double Marilyn

by Andy Warhol.

What should we go see at

LACMA now?

AC: The Abstraction show

“Variations.” We have a contemporary

piece by Mary Weatherford that’s

currently in the show that’s a promise

gift from us to LACMA.

LR: If you don’t do anything else, go

see the Marsden Hartley show for me.

Some have called the Peter

Zumthor-proposed building a

visionary design, some a black

blob. What do you think?

AC: The design is incredible. It’s really

something that will take LACMA into

the next years in a tremendously

forward-thinking way.

LR: The black is really going to

disappear. I don’t know how tall you

are, but I don’t think you will ever be

looking at it from the top down. You

have to remember, you will be looking

up at it, and what you will see is glass

walls with people and art inside. It’s

going to do for our city what Frank

Gehry did for Bilbao. When you come

to Los Angeles you will be able to do a

few other things than have a good

plate of food!

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Animals/ The Environment

IAN SOMERHALDERThe Nature Boy

The devastation of the Gulf Coast in 2010 from the BP oil spill woke up The Vampire Diaries star Ian Somerhalder, a 36-year-old Louisiana native, to the dire effects of mankind on the environment. After volunteering to help clean up contaminated wildlife, he soon started The Ian Somerhalder Foundation (isfoundation.org), dedicated to helping animals and the natural world by inspiring young people. Its activities have ranged from a campaign to reduce the use of plastic straws to helping protect sled dogs in Canada and making emergency medical grants for animals in need.

You have 5 million Twitter followers. Is motivating your fans an important part of what you do? Here’s an example: During the Olympics in British Columbia, dog sledding became a big business and then died out after. One company had a few hundred dogs or more, and they decided they needed to get rid of a hundred of them. They slit their throats in the snow. I found out about this and not only did I cry like an infant, I was so mad. We started a petition, [pro-moted it on Twitter], and so many people signed it that British Columbia changed their animal abuse laws and instituted minimum jail time for offenders. Why did you make it the focus of your foundation to inspire young people? As adults, we live with these filters we’ve created. Young people are the future, and they don’t live within these con-fines. They are the greatest untapped natural resource in the world.How do you reach these kids? There’s a program we started called the U Factor. It’s a program of youth development, about unlocking the skills and passions of young people. In the beginning of [the program] booklet, kids identify their strengths. Then they think about what they are afraid of, whether it’s domestic violence or food shortages. Then you meld those two things together. And all of a sudden they cease to be afraid and they are ready to do.You’re in the midst of a $5 million campaign to build an animal sanctuary. What are the plans? It will not just act as a home for abandoned, abused, and ostracized animals, but as a base for young people to learn what it is to be compassionate and grateful and have reverence through working with these animals that have been so mistreated.You and your girlfriend [Nikki Reed] are big advocates of adopting pets. How many do you have? Nikki just went to this shelter and there was a cat in a cage [with a sign] that said it was feral. I think it was mislabeled. It’s a miniature Maine coon cat. Her parents were the runts of two litters, and she’s the runt of those two runts. She’s the coolest thing ever. We now have four dogs, three cats, and two horses. How do you fit everything into your schedule? I literally sleep just a couple of hours a night… it’s not healthy to do that. So I built an entire integrated medical clinic in my house. There’s an infrared sauna, a pulse electronic machine that reprograms all your cells, and another machine that shoots pure ozone and oxygen into your veins!What are some easy ways for people to help the environment? Adopt. Go to a shelter and start pulling these animals out of there. Spay and neuter them, and get this population down. As Americans we have this amazing ability to drive better cars. If you have solar panels and an electric car you plug in, guess what, you are driving on sunshine. And don’t run the TV all day for your dog. Dogs don’t need to watch TV.

“Young people are the future. They are the greatest

untapped natural resource in the world.”

Ian Somerhalder photographed in New York City.



gift that gives

how to help power couple

IWC, 9490 Brighton Way, Beverly Hills, 310-734-0520; iwc.com

Since 2009, Red Bucket

Equine Rescue has saved

almost 300 horses in

Southern California from

abandonment and

mistreatment. Volunteers

can help with ranch and

horse care at its Chino Hills

sanctuary, or permanently

adopt pets like Cohen, a

10-year-old white Arabian,

and Harper, a 5-year-old

mustang. redbucketrescue.org

Hospitality guru Eric

Goode, responsible for such

chic NYC spots as the

Bowery and Maritime

Hotels, has another passion:

bringing back endangered

turtles from the brink of

extinction at a (no-visitors)

breeding facility in Ojai,

where species include the

rare ploughshare tortoise.

Just 600 of them still exist in

the wild in Madagascar.

Become a member for $100

and you get a subscription to

its annual turtle magazine.

turtleconservancy.org

Farm Sanctuary

provides a home for

abused animals rescued

from the factory farming

system. Tours are available

at its 26-acre shelter ranch

in Acton, near the

Antelope Valley. Meet

Bear, a lamb found in an

abandoned barn, and

Bruno, a black Jersey steer

who was saved after falling

out of a transport truck.

farmsanctuary.org

Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas

is to orangutans what Jane

Goodall is to chimpanzees.

Her LA-based Orangutan

Foundation

International runs an

Orangutan Care Center in

Borneo, where residents

include babies orphaned

after palm plantation

workers shot their mothers.

Become a foster parent for

one of them for just $100.

orangutan.org

With 9,000 dogs and cats

euthanized in Los Angeles

city shelters every year,

NK/LA—an initiative

formed by a coalition of

more than 78 organiza-

tions—aspires to make LA a

no-kill city by 2017. Led by

Best Friends Animal

Society, NK/LA runs a pet

adoption center in West LA

at 1845 Pontius Avenue and

funds spay/neuter

programs for families who

can’t afford the procedures

to stem the tide of pet

overpopulation. nkla.org

Meredith McCarthy and Tom

Ford admit that pillow talk

about work is sometimes off

limits—due to confidentiality

concerns. That’s because the

couple is at the forefront of

protecting LA’s Santa Monica

Bay, but at two different

organizations. She’s

the director of

programs at the

environmental

protection group

Heal the Bay (heal

thebay.org); he’s

the executive

director at the

research- and

policy-focused The

Bay Foundation

(santamonicabay.org). Together,

they are fighting to preserve the

bay’s precious habitat of

wetlands and kelp forests and to

stop pollution. Last year, Heal

the Bay led a successful effort to

ban plastic bags in the City of

Los Angeles. The Bay

Foundation secures and imple-

ments millions in grant money to

protect beaches, which helps

preserve LA’s $12- to 18-billion

coastal tourism economy.

Each year, both organizations

work to make sure that the

billions of gallons of storm and

waste water that enter the Bay

are safe for people and wildlife.

Ford is now overseeing research

and searching for grants to

address sea level

rise and believes

that Los Angeles

needs to make its

built environment

more porous so that

the city can collect

its own rainwater.

“Right now, we

import our water

from hundreds of

miles away, while we

take the water that falls here

naturally and dump it as fast as

we can into the ocean,” he says.

Among McCarthy’s initiatives is

to keep oil drilling out of Santa

Monica Bay. The pair, who has

two boys under 10, eagerly

encourages Angelenos to

volunteer, from beach cleanups

to wetlands data collection.

“There is something for every-

one!” says McCarthy.

The Humane Society of the United States celebrated its 60th anniversary last spring with a

blowout gala, honoring actor James Cromwell for his lifetime of service to animals; its Impact

Award was given to Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the director of Blackfish, the documentary about

SeaWorld’s orcas. Its 2015 benefit takes place on May 16. humanesociety.org

A green carpet leads the way into Global Green USA’s annual zero-waste Pre-Oscar Party,

which raises funds for climate change solutions including green building. In 2014, Moby and The

Crystal Method rocked the Avalon in Hollywood. globalgreen.org

UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability has honored such names as Al Gore, Lyn

Lear, and Lawrence Bender at its An Evening of Environmental Excellence benefit in March, held

on the sprawling grounds of the Beverly Hills home of Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker. Proceeds fund

education and research, helping further the work of more than 75 faculty. environment.ucla.edu

A portion of the proceeds from sales of IWC’s

Galapagos Islands edition of its Aquatimer

Chronograph watch in rubber-coated stainless steel

($11,100) benefits the Charles Darwin

Foundation, which has been working in the

Galapagos since 1959 to protect the islands’

unique ecosystem. darwinfoundation.org

ANIMAL RESCUE

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Moby performs at Global Green USA’s 11th annual Pre-Oscar Party.


Child Welfare

NORAH WEINSTEIN AND KELLY SAWYER PATRICOFThe Kids’ Crusaders

Baby2Baby founders Norah Weinstein and Kelly Sawyer Patricof say that in their work distributing diapers and other necessities to low-income children, they have learned to never take anything they have for granted. Families who the organization helps often don’t have a crib for their infant; tots may have a toy but no batteries to make it run; and some moms make do with just one diaper a day. Weinstein, a former litigator and wife of CAA corporate finance head Brian Weinstein, and Sawyer Patricof, a former model and wife of producer Jamie Patricof, started the organization in 2006, and this year the nonprofit (whose board members include Jessica Alba and Nicole Richie) will serve

80,000 LA children. Its model: collect donations via individuals and corporations and distribute the needed goods via more than 60 partners, including Headstart, Homeboy Industries, children’s hospitals, homeless groups, and domestic violence shelters. This year, Baby2Baby (baby2baby.org) will give away 2 million diapers and thousands of new and gently used shoes, backpacks, strollers, and car seats in the LA area.

Why diapers?Norah Weinstein: According to the National Diaper Bank Network, diapers

“I don’t feel bad asking for donations because these kids have nothing. I beg. I plead. I’ve lost any sense of shame in

that area.”—Kelly Sawyer Patricof

Norah Weinstein and Kelly Sawyer Patricof

photographed at their Mid-Wilshire headquarters.


how to help


gift that gives

On January 10, The Art of Elysium will present its annual Heaven

Gala at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar. The evening is to be con-

ceived by artist Marina Abramovic, and Amber Heard will be

honored for her service to the organization, which works with artists,

designers, and musicians to bring creative workshops to children

with serious medical conditions. theartofelysium.org

The Alliance for Children’s Rights’ annual dinner takes place March

12 at the Beverly Hilton. The event, which last year honored Disney/

ABC’s Anne Sweeney, raises funds for the nonprofit’s work providing

free legal help and advocacy for children in poverty and in foster

care and for families who adopt out of the foster system. kids-alliance.org

The opening night of the Los Angeles Modernism Show on April 24

benefits P.S. Arts, which partners with schools to provide in-school

dance, music, visual arts, and theater instruction all year long. Julie

Bowen, designer Kathryn Ireland, and Ted Danson were among

those making the scene at last year’s event. psarts.org

Twenty-nine percent of

California schools

offer no arts study.

Inner City Arts helps

fill that gap. At its

Downtown campus,

the nonprofit center

provides arts education

to elementary, middle,

and high school

students. Support the

group with the

purchase of this

Charles Arnoldi

lithograph ($850) in a

limited edition of 125.

inner-cityarts.org

for one child cost approximately $100 a month. For a family of four living at the federal poverty line—$23,850—if one child is in diapers, that represents 5 percent of their income. Two children in diapers is 10 percent.Kelly Sawyer Patricof: Diapers are a huge necessity. We also hear sometimes of moms who have to get their children two meals a day instead of three. They need that money to buy diapers. One out of three moms has to choose between food and diapers for their children. There are also day-care programs where a mother has to report with either six to eight diapers a day and if you don’t have them, you can’t take your kid to day care and then you can’t go to work. It’s sort of this terrible cycle.You’ve now moved beyond diapers,

too, right?

KSP: We did a safe sleep initiative after hearing last year from one of our partner organizations of babies sleeping in laundry baskets, in drawers, and sharing beds with their siblings. We heard of one baby sleeping in a bed with siblings who was smothered and died. With help from The Honest Company, we want to give every baby in our program who needs one a crib.How can people help out?

KSP: We are very reliant on volunteers, whether individuals or schools or companies that pitch in. We like people to know we have 28 drop-off locations around the city, listed on our website. People can have collection drives at their offices.NW: We have volunteer days Mondays and Wednesdays and need help sorting items and assembling gift bags for specific children.What do you hear from some of the

women who’ve been helped?

NW: Parents will sometimes say how discouraging it feels to not be able to provide for their family when we give them a crib and diapers and clothing. They feel so much more confident as parents. They feel like they are doing the job they are intended to do. That always makes us very proud.What’s your advice on asking

for donations?

KSP: Some people are like, “I feel bad asking.” I don’t feel bad asking at all because I’m asking on behalf of these kids who have nothing. I beg. I plead. I’ve lost any sense of shame in that area.

There are dozens of opportunities to mentor

throughout Los Angeles, from the nonprofit

Southern California Foster Family and

Adoption Agency (scffaa.org) and homeless

youth group Covenant House (covenanthouse-

california.org) to student mentoring programs

The Fulfillment Fund (fulfillment.org), and Big

Brothers Big Sisters (bbbsla.org). One organi-

zation, Youth Mentoring, takes a distinctive

approach, creating groups of 20 mentors and

mentees, all of whom support each other in the

process. “We find adding this community

component makes all the difference,” says

Youth Mentoring CEO and founder Tony LoRe,

who sold his marketing-systems business 17

years ago to start the group. Most mentees

come from high schools in the South Central

area of Los Angeles. The commitment: a

two-hour session every other week for nine

months, with one-on-one meetings eventually

alternating with the group sessions. Youth

Mentoring has also partnered with such

companies as HBO and Warner Bros. Studios in

a way that makes it easy for employees to

engage. “We transport the kids every other

week to the corporation during lunchtime, and

we have our session there,” says LoRe. The

program is a success story; kids in Youth

Mentoring have a 96 percent graduation rate.

“And we draw from schools where the grad

rate ranges from 48 to 52 percent,” he

says. Youth Mentoring is looking for new

mentors to start in January. “It’s a relationship

that makes all the difference in a kid’s life. If

you give them a mentor, then it essentially

wakes up their spirit and then they are more

open to all the other help that’s available to

them.” youthmentoring.org

mentoring

The Art of Elysium’s 2014 Heaven Gala.


Health

STEVE TISCHThe Medicine Man

Steve Tisch—the top movie producer (Forrest Gump, The Equalizer) and New York Giants co-owner—is getting out ahead of the concussion problems that have hit pro football. His $10 million gift in May to support UCLA’s sports concussion center, now called the UCLA Steve Tisch BrainSPORT Program (neurosurgery.ucla.edu), will support treatment, prevention, and research on brain injuries sustained from contact sports. Tisch, age 65, who also serves on the boards of LACMA and the Geffen Playhouse, is proud that the program, led by UCLA’s Dr. Christopher Giza, particularly focuses on making a difference for young athletes.

Why tackle concussions? As an NFL owner, my exposure to that issue in the last couple of years was firsthand—then, having a 14-year-old daughter, who last year experienced a moderate concussion while playing girls lacrosse, hit home on a personal level. Also, I sort of developed a fascination with brain-related issues since my father passed away nine years ago from brain cancer.

What are BrainSPORT’s goals? Part of it is to educate coaches, trainers, and even, in some cases, principals at schools not only how to recognize when a student athlete has a concussion, but what to do. Through research, we can hopefully answer questions like, “How safe is it for my 14-year-old son to play football?” Parents then can decide if they are comfortable with their kids playing contact sports.Your family, who started Loews Corp, has been very philanthropi-cally minded. How did they inspire you? My parents and my aunt and uncle were tremendous role models. My family’s commitment goes back decades in New York City. New York University Hospital is called the Tisch Hospital. In the early ’80s, when my family first got involved at NYU, their first gifts were to the School of the Arts, which has been the Tisch School of the Arts for more than 30 years. So that was my first exposure to philanthropy. TH

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“Hopefully my gift to UCLA will inspire not only other NFL owners, but also

other philanthropists.”

Steve Tisch photographed at his Beverly Hills home.



gift that gives

how to help

ones to watch

After such catastrophes as the 2004

Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2010

Haiti earthquake, there were outpour-

ings of giving. That hasn’t happened yet

in the case of the Ebola crisis, which has

taken the lives of thousands of West

Africans. One Angeleno working to

stem the virus (the mortality rate is

around 70 percent) is Detroit native

Tiffany Persons, a casting director and

also the founder of Shine on Sierra

Leone. With the help of students from

South Central and The Buckley School,

her organization got off the ground in

2006 by transforming a roofless

three-room school (the roof had been

burned by rebels) that was the worst

performing in the country into a fully

functioning facility that’s now ranked

third out of 736 schools in Sierra Leone.

(Part of its program is a set of affirma-

tions, including “I have friends all over

the world” and “My teacher loves me.”)

Now Shine on Sierra Leone is part of a

coalition called the Ebola Survival

Fund, working to raise money,

distribute sanitation and risk-reduction

kits, and also fight the stigma

surrounding the disease by spotlighting

survivors. “We need help from our

global community,” says Persons, who

first went to Sierra Leone to make a

short documentary, Side by Side (2007),

about blood diamonds. “It’s especially

crucial to provide community

healthcare workers with training in

how to care for patients.”

shineonsierraleone.org

Just as angel investors are key to

innovation in Silicon Valley, medical

breakthroughs depend on early

investing. Phase One (phaseone

foundation.org), as the name connotes,

funds phase-one clinical trials for

patients with cancer, the first hurdle in

gaining FDA approval for promising

treatments. “A phase-one trial is the

very first time that a trial is done on

human beings. It’s a small group of

people,” says Alberto Valner, who

cofounded the group 15 years ago after

surviving advanced testicular cancer.

“The initial stages are where the most

money is needed in this world.” The

foundation supports research into any

type of cancer, including less well-

known types; one recent grant led to a

vaccine that is in the process of being

approved by the FDA for certain kinds

of kidney cancer. Another group whose

mission is to jump-start research is the

Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation

(dslrf.org), which its CEO Heather

Ortner calls “an incubator” for breast

cancer research. Dr. Love (pictured

above) and her team have done key

work in understanding the anatomy of

milk ducts, where most common types

of breast cancer start. “We support our

own research and we’ll take on very

early projects that are often a little bit

riskier than some of the established

institutions will take on. We are willing

to try anything if it makes sense.”

100 percent of the proceeds of this limited-edition,

crocodile-embossed-leather Supra Skytop

($115)—released in October to celebrate the 10th

anniversary of Elyse Walker’s famed Pink

Party—benefit the Women’s Cancer Program at

the Cedars-Sinai Samuel Oschin

Comprehensive Cancer Institute.

suprafootwear.com

EBOLA

Has anyone else ever

encouraged you to give

more? During the most

critical time of the AIDS

crisis, the people whom I

looked up to as my mentors

were David Geffen, Barry

Diller, and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

I’ll never forget David asked

me to go on the board of

AIDS Project Los Angeles.

And after about 18 months, I

was asked to become the next

chairman. I remember The Advocate writing an article

about me and I think the

headline was “LA’s Hetero

Hero.” It just made me feel so

good that I was helping as a

philanthropist and as a

community leader. That was

an amazing experience.

Do you ever work with a

philanthropic advisor? I

consult with a gentleman

named Jeffrey Stewart [of

Walnut Hill Media] on new

opportunities. There’s a

program he and I are discuss-

ing that would be a gift to Tel

Aviv University for its film and

television school.

Any other new areas of

interest? I’ve been dating a

Brazilian girl, so I’ve become

interested in the needs of her

community outside São Paulo.

But the UCLA program is my

focus now.

It seems gutsy, as a team

owner, to really face the

issue of concussions when

there seems to be an effort

in some quarters to mini-

mize the incidences and

impact of brain injuries in

the NFL. I don’t know if you

just saw the papers, but a

young high school athlete had

a concussion playing football

in the New York suburbs and

died. So this is an issue that is

not going to go away. I

acknowledge that. Hopefully

my gift to the UCLA program

will inspire not only other

NFL owners, but also other

philanthropists to look at

this problem.

The Elton John Foundation’s Academy Awards Viewing Party

can be more fun than attending the Oscars themselves. The 2014

fête drew Lady Gaga, John Waters, and Robert De Niro. The next

one takes place February 22 to benefit the HIV/AIDS grant

maker. ejaf.org

Suzanne Tracht of Jar and Ludo Lefebvre of Trois Mec have been

among the chefs who have made the UCLA Jonsson

Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Taste for a Cure benefit a

culinary classic. Over its 19 years, the late-spring event has raised

nearly $10 million for research. cancer.ucla.edu

On April 24, philanthropist and MS survivor Nancy Davis will

throw her 22nd annual Race to Erase MS gala, to raise dollars for

its Center Without Walls Program, funding seven of the nation’s

top research centers. “Only a third of good research ever gets

funding,” says Davis of the need for giving. erasems.org

Sir Elton John performs during the 22nd annual

Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy

Awards Viewing Party.


Human Rights

ROLAND EMMERICHThe Advocate

One of the most successful openly gay directors in Hollywood, Roland Emmerich—the man behind Independence Day, The Patriot, and White House Down—sees that even with same-sex marriage rights being granted around the country, young people still face often devastating levels of anti-gay backlash. That’s why he’s a longtime supporter of the youth programs of the Los Angeles LGBT Center (lalgbtcenter.org), which provides shelter, meals, clothing, and education and employment programs to homeless LGBT youth, many of whom were kicked out of their homes by their parents for being who they are. In late 2013, Emmerich, 59, who grew up in Stuttgart, Germany, threw a benefit for the center at his Moroccan-style LA residence, raising $2.9 million. He’s also supported the Legacy Project of Outfest, LA’s gay and lesbian film festival, which preserves films of historical importance to the community, and recently threw a dinner for the Russian punk rock protest group Pussy Riot when they came to town. His next film: Stonewall, a retelling of the riots that gave birth to the modern gay-rights movement.

How did you get involved with the center? Well, when you are gay yourself and you live in absolute comfort in a big house in the Hollywood Hills, which is very close to the center, all of a sudden you have to help at some point. I got in contact with them, and now I make a very big donation every year.Why does this cause touch you? There are so many kids out there who are gay and thrown out by their families, and they are on the street. It is sometimes heart-wrenching what they go through. And the center gives them help—including shelter and jobs programs.How bad is the epidemic of gay homeless youth? Forty percent of homeless kids in America are gay. A lot has changed. The majority of Americans believe that gay marriage is an absolute civil right. But when it comes down to people from around the country, people whose parents are religious or for whatever reason, they just throw their kids out… it’s happening every day. Kids also come out much earlier and easier today, so kids as young as 14 or 15 are getting thrown out.You also do a lot of work for kids in Cambodia. I’m really close to this cause called the Cambodian Children’s Fund, run by a friend of mine, Scott Neeson, a former movie studio executive. I met him when we promoted Independence Day all over the world. All of a sudden he quit his job. He sold everything he had. He had a boat, a house, and two sports cars. He lived it up. And one day he moved to Cambodia, where there are these big waste dumps where kids are scavenging to survive, and he’s rescuing them.Is there any advice you give to other donors? What I’m always saying to everybody is, “Don’t give one year to this organization and then one year to that.” That does no good for the organizations. [The groups] have to plan. I make yearly donations. They have to know it’s coming. You should commit pretty much for the rest of your life. LAC

“Don’t give one year to this organization and then one year to that. You should commit

pretty much for the rest of your life.”

Roland Emmerich photographed at the Los Angeles LGBT Center.



how to help one to watch

If you think sex trafficking of minors is something that happens mostly in other countries, you’re wrong. Experts estimate that 100,000 kids are sexually exploited for profit in the United States every year. In Los Angeles, the nonprofit Saving

Innocence rescues and helps restore the lives of these youth. “The most common age when kids are first exploited is 11, and 100 percent of our girls have also been victimized through child pornography,” says Kim

Biddle, the charity’s founder and executive director. The group runs a sanctuary residence for around 70 kids in Hollywood and is in need of donated goods (clothing, hygiene supplies), volunteers to train for its rescue team, mentors, and help with public relations and social media. “[These children] are in need of a lot of TLC and support to help them heal and have their childhoods back and begin to dream and hope for the future.”

savinginnocence.org

As the ACLU’s Celebrity

Ambassador for Immigrant

Rights, actor Demian

Bichir—who received an

Oscar nomination for his

portrayal of a Mexican

gardener in LA in 2011’s A

Better Life—has two

important reasons he wants

to end mass deportations of

undocumented workers. One

is the fact that deportations tear

families apart. “If your children were

born in the US, they can stay in the US,

but the parents have to go. But the

parents will then do everything they can

do to come back to be with their

children. It’s crazy and it’s a waste of

time and money.” Bichir—who grew up

in Mexico and came to the US to further

his acting career in his early 20s and

now holds dual citizenship—also says

it’s a misconception that immigrants

from Mexico and Central America are a

drain on the economy. “People talk

about how important it is to get rid of

this community of undocu-

mented workers because

they are taking jobs or they

are taking money from the

government,” says Bichir.

“What I’m trying to do is

educate people about the

fact that this is a community

of hard-working people who

make our lives easier every

day. It’s a force that keeps

the economy going, especially in

California.” He’s asking people to tell

their elected officials to stop the

deportations and to simply talk to the

people they interact with every day and

learn their stories: “It’s not a good thing

that you go to work fearing not coming

back to your family. We should not allow

that in any society, especially people

who work for you, from the cooks to the

gardeners to the valet parking guys. It’s

not a good thing for LA that so many

people who live here live in fear. It’s

important that we all know each other.”

aclu.org/immigrants-rights

Ron Meyer, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Haim Saban were among the

heavyweights who turned out in March of last year for the Simon Wiesenthal Center

Tribute Dinner at the Beverly Wilshire, raising more than $1.6 million for LA’s Museum

of Tolerance and for the group’s work fighting anti-Semitism. wiesenthal.com

The Human Rights Campaign hasn’t announced how it will follow up snagging Vice

President Joe Biden as the keynote speaker at its Los Angeles dinner last year, but

it’s set to take place March 14 at the JW Marriott/LA Live and raise needed funds for

the group’s fight for civil rights for all gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender

Americans. hrc.org

With an estimated 50,000 Angelenos lacking shelter, Chrysalis does crucial work

helping homeless men and women find jobs through computer training, money

management classes, interview preparation, and a transition employment program. Its

annual Butterfly Ball in June has featured performances by Gavin Rossdale and Aloe

Blacc in past years. changelives.org

Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson and his husband,

Justin Mikita, have already raised upwards of $600,000

for marriage equality through Tie the Knot, their

two-year-old nonprofit that sells limited-edition bow ties.

Now they’ve partnered with LA’s LZZR Jewelry on a new

bow-tie necklace ($105) in hand-made repurposed bronze.

lzzrjewelry.com

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gift that gives

Rabbi Meyer H. May, Ron Meyer, Jon Feltheimer, Nicole Avant, Ted Sarandos, Haim Saban, Rabbi Marvin Hier, Janice Prager, and Rabbi Abraham Cooper at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Tribute Dinner last March.


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“Every bar in LA is getting into the [mezcal] game. Every conversation is about it,” insists El Silencio honcho Fausto Zapata.


FABULISTIC!

MEZCAL: THE POOR MAN’S

TEQUILA? NO WAY, JOSÉ. THE SMOKY-

COOL OAXACAN SPIRIT HAS DEEP TIES TO LA AND IS

BACK IN ESPECTACULAR

FASHION IN WATERING HOLES ACROSS THE CITY.

By Finn-Olaf Jones

“Just put a few drops in your hands,” says Dustin Shaw, who is tending the long bar at Melrose’s recently opened Gracias Madre restau-rant, pouring from a rare bottle of Marca Negra Tobalá mezcal with a sinister hand printed across it. “Rub them together quickly and then smell.” The vapor comes up smoky, complex, the aroma of decades-old agaves from the distant deserts, underground fires flavored by fragrant woods, family recipes that go back to the conquistadors, secret distillations. In short, the stuff smells a lot more interesting than its plain vanilla cousin, tequila. Indeed, as Shaw goes on to explain, “Mezcal is the single-malt scotch to tequi-la’s whiskey.”

If you haven’t noticed, this once exotic drink has been making smoky inroads into Los Angeles. While tequila has exploded into full-menu, $100/shot stratospheres, it’s but a small planet—steamed from a single sugary azul agave varietal—in the mezcal universe, which has some three dozen other agave varietals to choose from. Moreover, tequila is distilled from steamed plants, while the complex taste of mezcal comes from agaves being roasted under-ground with whatever other ingredients the distiller has up his sleeve.

“Fine mezcal, made naturally from 100% agave, is probably the purest, most traditional spirit available on planet earth,” writes Lance Cutler, in his colorful


drinking travelogue, The Tequila Lover’s Guide to Mexico: Everything There Is to

Know About Tequila . . . Including How to Get There. “Mezcal smells like history.

It tastes like wonder and superstition. It finishes with ancestral connections

to the past and mystical visions of the future. Love it or hate it, no one

remains ambivalent after tasting it.”

There’s certainly little ambivalence about mezcal’s conquest of LA.

Head into most trendy restaurants or bars and you’ll find the mezcal menu

growing longer as local tastes evolve from just a couple of brands a few years

ago to a whole smorgasbord of artisanal concoctions whose portentous

names seem derived from magical realism novels: Minoutaurus,

Delirio, Siete Misterios, Sacrificio, Ilegal, El Silencio. Just here in Gracias

Madre, some five dozen different brands glitter in eccentrically shaped and

labeled bottles on the back bar like Christmas tree ornaments.

“It’s not just high-end places like Gracias Madre, Soho House or the

Hotel Bel-Air that are carrying it,” says Marcos Tello, a local liquor consul-

tant and proprietor of Liquid Assets. “Even chain restaurants like Killer

Shrimp and Frida are picking up the category.” Angelenos aren’t the only

ones feeling the love. Mezcalerias—specialized tasting bars—have opened

up throughout South America and Europe. Totter into the medieval streets

of Paris’ Marais district and you’ll find that the Bar Mezcaleria has become

a favorite watering hole for the city’s latest breed of bohemians. “In some hot

spots, like South Beach Miami, mezcal is the single-biggest growth category

for liquor,” says Tello.

There is a Mexican proverb that, translated, says: “For everything bad:

“Mezcal smells like history. It tastes like wonder and superstition. It finishes with

ancestral connections to the past and mystical visions of the future.”

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FROM LEFT: A farmer strips the leaves off the spiderlike agave plant using a machete. Once the leaves are removed the core of the plant is transported to a facility, where it

is quartered and thrown into a volcanic rock-lined pit to ferment; the agave plants grow wild over the scorched earth near Oaxaca, Mexico.


This pioneer in the Downtown

scene (and in introducing craft mezcals to LA)

offers up over 100 different selections—some

of them quite rare. 107 E. 6th St., LA, 213-988-

8355; 213nightlife.com/lasperlas

At this cool-as-a-

daiquiri upscale street taco joint (PICTURED ABOVE),

you can down mezcal straight up or in the signature

cilantro/watermelon/apple brandy cocktail. 7360

Beverly Blvd., LA, 323-933-5300; pettycashtaque-

ria.com

This cozy mezcal grotto in

Highland Park is popular with afi cionados.

5922 N. Figueroa Blvd., LA, 323-255-6871;

lacuevitabar.com

K-town’s orange-painted

shrine to Oaxacan food and drink is a veritable

temple to mezcal. Claro. 3014 W. Olympic Blvd.,

LA, 213-427-0608; llovemole.com

The elegant, modern vegan

restaurant gets inventive with mezcal—including

popsicles! 8905 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood,

323-978-2170; graciasmadreweho.com

At this new, super-cool

Westside saloon (PICTURED BELOW), cocktails are

expertly shaken with an impressive array of arti-

sanal mezcals. 522 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica,

310-451-0045; thebrilliantshine.com

mezcal. For everything good; the same.” However, just a decade ago,

the saying might as well have been: “For every gringo; just bad mez-

cal.” If you used to think mezcal was some yellow stuff with a worm

thrown into it, you were drinking the swill that was being brewed for

tourists and sold in souvenir shops or the occasional liquor store north

of the border. “A lot of us were introduced to mezcal when a college

buddy proffered a bottle of urine-colored liquid

and the last one to take a swig had to eat the dead

worm at the bottom,” remembers one of my drink-

ing pals. This fake tradition prompted a whole

generation of Spring Breakers to wear EAT THE

WORM T-shirts after sojourns in Acapulco and

Puerto Vallarta.

“The worm and aging thing was pure tourist

BS,” scoffs Nikki Sunseri, manager of

Downtown’s Las Perlas bar, one of the pioneers

in bringing artisanal mezcals to the Southland.

Some of their bottles, like the rare Los Javis and

Vosco, are here only because the owner knows

the families that distill them. “We like whiskey

here in the US and Mexicans ended up aging

mezcal because they were catering to that mar-

ket,” says Sunseri. “Adding the worm was a

sham. Most people who love mezcal just drink it

right away when it’s naturally clear. You lose the

vegetative taste of agave once you age it in a

barrel.”Fair enough, but for those of us raised on

the yellow stuff, a reposado (aged in oak for less

than a year) or añejo (for more than a year) adds

an extra dimension to an already fascinatingly

complex drink.

Just avoid mentioning aging and worms in the

bars that dot the Spanish colonial streets of

Oaxaca, mezcal’s spiritual center and widely

considered the culinary capital of Mexico. They

take their mezcal as seriously as holy water. “We

can pretty much taste which family makes a cer-

tain batch,” says the bartender in Mezcaloteca, a

small batch mezcaleria in the old city center.

Some of the mezcals are so distinct that individ-

ual bottles have handwritten labels indicating

date, agave varietal and mode of distillation.

The bartender shakes each bottle before pour-

ing it to showcase “las perlas,” the bubbles whose

quantity indicates the mezcal’s alcohol content.

Mezcal is a high art around these parts, part of a

local tradition that goes back untold

generations.

Carlos Morenos is part of this tradition. Right

now, Morenos stands in an immaculately ironed

white shirt and pants surveying agave clusters

along a spleen-challenging dirt road above the

dusty village of San Baltazar Guelavila, a few val-

leys removed from the city of Oaxaca. The agaves

are sputnik-sized spiders whose spear-like leaves

curve menacingly across the scorched hills,

threatening to impale anyone not treading care-

fully. “The bees indicate the juice is sweet on this

one,” says Morenos, examining a small swarm

around a particularly forbidding agave. Machete is drawn, and in

some two dozen samurai swings, the organic beast is de-leaved and

reduced to a hydrant-sized bullet to be wrung out of the earth and

rolled up to a waiting truck.

Morenos hands his machete over so I take a swing at a neighboring

agave with spectacularly underwhelming result. After half a dozen

chops I’ve managed to partially mangle a single

leaf. A few splatters of raw juice land on my bare

arms, raising burning red welts, and I notice a

knowing smile on Moreno’s face; it takes a child-

hood of chopping agaves to develop immunity

from the juice’s wrath.

The truckload of agaves is brought down to

town where Pedro Hernandez awaits next to a

hand-dug, volcanic rock-lined fire pit. Hernandez is

a ninth-generation master mescalero and his wait-

ing crew expertly quarters the agaves with axes and

tosses them into the pit. A precise mix of oak, mes-

quite, eucalyptus and pinecones are added to the

pile, and then the whole smoldering mini-volcano is

buried in a mound of dirt.

Three days later, Hernandez and his crew dig

up their baked treasures and place them in a

cement ring where a donkey-powered millstone

pounds it into a pulp, which subsequently gets

poured into waiting vats where the mixture is fer-

mented for five days before being distilled.

Hernandez is brewing this special concoc-

tion for a trio of Mexican-American mezcal

aficionados based in Los Angeles, who have

launched their own brand, El Silencio. “Mezcal

has all the right components… that it’s love at

first sight for us Angelenos,” says one of the

founders, Fausto Zapata, in between a constant

stream of e-mails and phone calls at his usual

table in Guelaguetza, Koreatown’s shrine to

Oaxacan cuisine. “It’s organic, it’s got a com-

plexity like wine in terms of agave varietals, and

there’s a Latin influence which is in the arteries

of the city. Plus, there’s an oversupply of tequila.

Angelenos are ready for this.”

Having been raised on mezcal, Zapata’s pas-

sion is contagious, leaping across the counter at

another downtown bar to show the mixologist

how to best bring out the smoky flavor in a mezcal

margarita. Although the cognoscenti like their

mezcal neat, it adds a refreshing complexity to

tequila cocktails.

“When you see mezcal in the context of how it’s

made and how it tastes compared to tequila, it’s

hard to turn down,” says Zapata. “Every bar in

LA is getting into the game. Every conversation is

about it.”

Las Perlas’ Nikki Sunseri agrees. “There’s

something about the spirit of agave and all that

goes into making it that is endlessly fascinating.

Californians love their wine and its complexities

and I think they’re finding that mezcal is at least as

intriguing.” I’ll drink to that. LAC


cannabusiness[ [by erin Lentz with additionaL

reporting by doug brown


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California is no longer the only place to have legalized

medical marijuana—nearly half of all states have

followed suit, with Colorado and Washington serving as

bellwethers for recreational use. It may seem like the US

is experiencing an end to a prohibition on par with that of

alcohol, but just how will the Green Rush grow? And why

is it attracting some surprising advocates among doctors,

entrepreneurs, politicians, attorneys, and businesspeople?

Weed. Ganja. Marijuana. Pot. During the opening session of the heady 2014 Aspen Ideas Festival held in June of this year, refer-ences to the potent plant were the keynote kicker.

An intellectual with enviable wit, Atlantic Media Company owner David G. Bradley, delivered an opening monologue that imagined some 250, type-A festival speak-ers high on Colorado cannabis, enlivening a crowd of CEOs, politicians, doctors, and thinkers with scenarios such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pulling her tempted husband into a car with a reference to her memoir, “We’re making hard choices, Bill.”

But all jokes aside, this international platform—which eventually staged a very serious conversation on mari-juana between Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper and Katie Couric—is illustrative of an escalating national debate embracing medical marijuana and its rapid-fire industry growth. And for many close to the cause, weed is no laughing matter, posing hard choices indeed.

Pot chatter is pervasive throughout the US, whether at Hollywood dinner parties or on the floor of Congress. In Los Angeles, former talk-show host and celeb-rity Ricki Lake is producing a new documentary, Weed the People, which follows cancer-stricken chil-dren and the use of cannabis as medicine. In Atlanta, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon and CNN’s chief medical correspondent, who was once vocally anti-pot, passionately discusses the benefits of canna-bis in his second documentary film, Weed 2: Cannabis

Madness. In Nevada, State Senator Tick Segerblom and Congresswoman Dina Titus are championing bills that

favor post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) medical marijuana research and protect the rights of legal users. In Denver, Tripp Keber, founder and CEO of Dixie Elixirs and Edibles, is launching his latest edible product, Dixie One. And just a 20-minute drive from Keber’s new 40,000-square-foot Colorado headquarters, Governor Hickenlooper is repeatedly quoted as stating that we are in the midst of one of the “great social experiments of the 21st century.”

On late-night talk shows and in countless political jokes, the dope-fiend stereotype propagandized in the 1936 film Reefer Madness endures, but in fact, pot is big business. The growth of the marijuana industry is predicted to outpace smartphones; a projected $2.34 billion worth of legal weed will be sold in the United States in 2014, according to the book State of Legal Marijuana Markets (2nd Edition) pro-duced by ArcView Market Research. The same report projects a whopping $10.2 billion market by 2018.

In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, a milestone ballot that legalized cannabis for medicinal use. Since that time, more than half of all states have either fol-lowed suit—in July, New York became the 23rd state to sanction medical marijuana—or taken steps to decriminal-ize the substance, making possession of a small amount on par with a traffic ticket. And referendums on legal recre-ational use of marijuana are cropping up on ballots nationwide since Washington State and Colorado voters approved the practice in 2012; Oregon and Alaska voters legalized such use on Election Day in November.

While California was indeed the first state to pass a med-ical marijuana law, it has fallen far behind other states when it comes to licensing and regulating medical mari-juana providers. In 2014, two initiatives to regulate medical marijuana fell short. As a result, the burden for regulation

DaviD Rheins

Founder of the Marijuana Business Association (MJBA)

On Marijuana

PrOhibitiOn: “We’ve had

the discussion about prohibition.

We’ve given it well past its due with

80 years of a war not on drugs,

but on people, in a culture where

pharmaceuticals are on every other

commercial and ad page.”

FOunding the Mjba: “We

chronicle and promote the industry.

The best way to build a sustainable

industry is by providing reliable infor-

mation and the network of experts and

folks that every small and start-up

business needs. [They] just happen to

also have an extra layer of compliance

and regulation to contend with.”

tax talk: “We’re told we can’t

afford to fund teachers in schools,

to fx the roads, to clean the air, to

develop alternative energy. The reality

is that with these extra dollars, we can

apportion this in such a way that we

can say, ‘Yes, let’s address these social

issues.’ I would rather pay a higher

tax to fx the economy and reinvigorate

these communities and stop the sense-

less prosecution and the wasted lives of

victims of this war on drugs.”


of medical marijuana businesses remains with local com-munities, and many around the state are now deliberating medical cannabis regulations. Conversely, following Colorado and Washington’s lead, The Marijuana Policy Project has filed a committee with the California Secretary of State to support a 2016 ballot initiative to regulate mari-juana like alcohol in California. Under current California law, possession of an ounce or less of marijuana is a civil infraction similar to a speeding violation. Simply put, we are witnessing an end to a prohibition on par with that of alcohol. As Keith Stroup, founder of NORML, says, “It is the most exciting political change I’ve seen in my lifetime. You almost can’t keep up with the change that’s going on.”

Weed 101The preferred scientific term for this lauded and condemned botanical is cannabis, from the Greek word kánabis. It relishes sunlight, is an annual, and can flourish in nearly any environ-ment, thus the slang, weed. According to Martin A. Lee’s book Smoke Signals, most scholars agree that cannabis arrived in our neck of the woods during the 16th century. Ships carrying slaves, explorers, and immigrants were outfitted with rope, sails, and net-ting made of hemp, while slave passengers also carried seeds for marijuana (hemp’s psychoactive cousin) in their pockets.

“Sir Francis Drake, Christopher Columbus, and Ferdinand Magellan all sailed ships equipped with hemp products,” Lee notes. “And in 1619, eight years after colonists first planted hemp in Jamestown, the Virginia assembly passed a law requiring every household in the colony to cultivate the plant because it had so many beneficial uses. Hemp farming and processing played an important role in American history (as evidenced in the name of towns from the Atlantic to the Midwest, Hempstead to Hempfield). Several of our Founding Fathers, in fact, were hemp farm-ers, including George Washington.” By the 1850s, hemp was the third-largest crop behind tobacco and cotton.

As the plant made its way across the globe in many forms—and was ingested via inhaling, tinctures, and medi-cal experiments among varying societal ranks—it gained a particular stronghold in Mexico, where, according to Lee’s research, farmers discovered the power of “Rosa Maria.” During the Mexican Revolution, smoking weed was prev-alent in Texas border towns like El Paso, which in 1914 became the first city to ban both the sale and possession of marijuana. Thus, the national debate on this botanical’s potent power began as a murmur, which has since evolved, at times, into a screaming match. Today, though new state laws are being enacted rather quickly, on the federal level, cannabis remains a Schedule I substance, which is defined

as “the most dangerous” drugs “with no currently accepted medical use.”

ReefeR Madness Prior to 1906, the federal government had yet to regulate any psychoactive drug. During that year, Congress enacted the Pure Food and Drug Act, the first legislation that included cannabis among ingredients that had to be noted on a product label. By 1914, the Harrison Act tight-ened narcotic control, stating that a nonmedical user could not possess cocaine or opiates; with this, the first line was drawn in the sand between medical and recre-ational drug use.

Though alcohol prohibition occurred all at once on the national level, marijuana prohibition was enacted in

stages. By the mid-1930s, canna-bis was regulated as a drug in every state. It was around this time that Harry Anslinger helmed the newly created Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN), a post he held for 32 years. Many allege that Anslinger’s anti-marijuana campaign was fueled by a desire to increase his department’s bud-get: If he could successfully vilify weed, his bureaucratic power would result in further funding for the FBN. There are also scores of reports that pot prohibition was fueled by big business, a premise referred to as the Hemp Conspiracy Theory. It is reported that the Hearst and DuPont empires felt that hemp would threaten the sales of their wood-

pulp paper and nylon products, and the theory thus played a major role in campaigns and propaganda against pot in all its forms.

Love him or hate him, Anslinger was central to the American public’s perception. He coined the term “Devil’s Weed,” championed such anti-pot propaganda as Reefer Madness (today a cult comedy classic often watched ironi-cally by college students as they get high, along with its musical 2005 parody version), and was instrumental in the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act, which heavily regu-lated the plant and served to drastically limit doctors’ ability to legally prescribe cannabis.

Today, many physicians, including the outspoken Gupta, are realizing that this little green plant could have a huge impact across several medical fields. “This is legiti-mate medicine,” argues Gupta.

The LiTTLe PLanT ThaT CouLd “I am not backing down on medical marijuana; I am dou-bling down,” proclaimed Gupta in a March CNN column. When asked to explain his 180-degree turn on the benefits of cannabis, he’s quick to explain, “The tipping point was when I started to look at the research coming out of other countries and smaller labs. [When] I started to spend time

Ricki LakeCelebrity; producer of Weed the People Lake, who was introduced to a young fan with cancer during her stint on Dancing With the Stars, is filming a documentary with director Abby Epstein. Weed the People follows ill children, including a cancer patient named Sophie, and the results of their use of medical marijuana.

GettinG involved: “[Pot] was not something that I did. I looked at it like a gateway drug. I didn’t want to be paranoid, out of it, like a couch potato. I was really turned off to it. But I fell in love with this girl via social media, and I went on this quest for her, to heal her.”Cannabis Curve: “I’m still learn-ing with cannabis—the ratio, the dosing, the CBD versus THC, and what kills the cancer cells and what keeps the bad side effects at bay. But it’s fascinating to me. I want to know more, and I want the public to know more. A whole new world opened up to me, because [before,] I was sheltered and judgmental.” Her Film: “It shows a lot of amaz-ing characters who are all relatable, particularly Tracy and her daughter, Sophie. Baby Sophie [represents] our big-gest fear with our own children. And this mother will do anything to get her baby healthy and to keep her from suffering. We have great results from the last scan. Hopefully we will see continued cell death in the tumor.” ProCeed witH Caution: “There are a lot of people in this industry who take advantage, and that is really scary. There are people selling cannabis oil to desperate families, but you have got to know what you are getting, and you need to test, and that takes money. There are so many advantages, but I think people still need to take a lot of precautions.” vision Quest: “I would love to be able to prove that cannabis is killing cancer cells. It’s so much better than doing a talk show. We have more than enough people who want to be documented and are willing to tell their stories.”

Though new state laws are being enacted rather quickly, on the federal level, cannabis

remains a Schedule I [most dangerous]

substance.

[ [


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with patients who were convinced it was helping them, I realized it was a very large group of patients who seemed to be getting objective benefits. And that’s what really started getting me researching it again.”

His research led him to Charlotte Figi, the central figure in his provocative film Weed. Charlotte has been plagued with complex seizures—nearly two an hour, at her illness’ peak—since she was an infant, and the film follows a har-rowing family journey to save Charlotte’s life after she was diagnosed with Dravet syndrome. Also known as severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy, this rare and catastrophic form of epilepsy was at one point causing Charlotte 300 grand mal seizures a week. As a last resort, the Figi family turned to medical marijuana, pitching Charlotte, then 5 years old, into the center of a national debate as the young-est medical marijuana applicant in Colorado. And though Charlotte’s story has become known across the country, what many may still not fully understand, Gupta explains, is that young patients such as Charlotte are not getting intoxicated. “This isn’t getting them high. [Particular strains of medical marijuana have a] high-CBD concentra-tion; they may become a little bit sedated, like they would with other antiepileptic drugs,” says Gupta. “The biggest misconception is that kids are getting stoned or high or psychoactive.”

Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the principal psy-choactive component in marijuana, the form of cannabis responsible for euphorias, or highs, whether smoked or ingested via edible products. On the other hand, can-nabidiol (CBD) is one of at least 60 active cannabinoids

identified in cannabis, which, when isolated, can have a wide scope of medicinal uses, and does not get patients high like THC.

Charlotte was given a very specific, highly concentrated CBD strain cultivated by the Stanley brothers—one of Colorado’s largest marijuana growers—at their Garden of Eden grow house. The six brothers crossbred marijuana with industrial hemp, and the resulting strain, Realm Oil (which Charlotte would ingest under her tongue via an olive oil blend, not as smoke), was renamed by the Stanleys as “Charlotte’s Web.” It was so successful in combating Charlotte’s seizures that families with similar stories have relocated to Colorado in order to legally obtain medical marijuana. Today, 8-year-old Charlotte is reported to have about three to four seizures a month. The Stanleys have since created the Realm of Caring nonprofit, which provides free or low-cost cannabis therapies to families in need.

It’s not just celebrity doctors such as Gupta who are championing the potential of medical marijuana. Ed Bernstein, a prominent Las Vegas attorney and television show host, is applying for a dispensary license, with a 33 percent stake in La Casa Verde Operating. As a successful businessman, he sees opportunity, but the impetus for this new venture is his 25-year-old daughter, Dana, who was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at age 3. “She’s had about 200 hospital day trips,” explains Bernstein. “She’s had a couple of dozen surgeries. Over the years, she’s had her intestines removed. She is in constant pain, 24/7.” While living in California during high school, Dana applied for a medical marijuana license and discovered the drug

NEVADA STATE SENATOR TICK SEGERBLOM Author of SB 374, which allowed the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries

WHY SENATE BILL 374? “People didn’t have the ability to actually purchase medical marijuana they were entitled to use under the Constitution.” TOURIST TOKES: “Las Vegas is going to be the Amsterdam of the West. Everyone is going to want to have their picture taken in front of a marijuana dispensary.” ALLOCATING TAX REVENUES: “Education. The money fi rst goes to offset administrative costs, then to police costs, then it goes to education.” POLITICS & POT: “Support for medical marijuana is at 90 percent. It’s incredible.”

CONGRESSWOMAN DINA TITUS Nevada, District 1

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) & POT: “As a member of the veterans committee and the ranking member of the subcommittee on benefi ts, I began to hear more and more about the potential of medical marijuana for treating PTSD. I am circulating now to get signatures that will go to the US Department of Health and Human Services, asking them to lift the limita-tions on studying the effects of marijuana. It’s very restrictive now. We need to study it just like any other kind of medicine, or any other kind of drug.”BUDS & BANKING CO-OPS: “I have signed on as a cosponsor to [Colorado Congressman] Ed Perlmutter’s bill that will change the banking laws so that we could have legitimate marijuana busi-nesses operating through bank accounts.”

Dr. Sanjay Gupta with Josh Stanley at his family’s booming Colorado grow house, in a still from Gupta’s new documentary, Weed 2.


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significantly decreased her pain. Now a Nevada resident, it’s become difficult for Dana to obtain marijuana for medicinal use, thus her father’s quest to fight for her rights and open a dispensary.

“Medical marijuana has been legal here for a number of years, but there was no way to access it,” he says. “I am very aware of the leg-islation, and we immediately looked into getting a dispensary here.” Bernstein hopes to open a boutique that features quality medical marijuana, a shop “that has a welcoming environment, that can offer the very best strains scientifically possible. You want to be able to have strains of the high-est CBD and a variance of those strains that work well with differ-ent medical conditions. We are going to focus on doing research with the strains, with universities, with hospitals. My partners all have the same interests in helping people who suffer.”

Both Bernstein and Gupta are quick to point out the harmful side effects of conventional painkillers (in Dana’s case, the opioid Dilaudid). Gupta adds, “The abuse of pain medications is the most tragic thing in our country. Someone dies every 19 minutes from an acciden-tal prescription drug overdose. It’s now the number-one preventable cause of death in the US.”

Gupta also notes that epilepsy, pain, and multiple scle-rosis are particularly responsive to cannabis-based medicines. Another hot topic in both medical and politi-cal circles is the effect of medical marijuana on PTSD. “We are following the trial of marijuana for PTSD among veterans,” says Gupta. “I think the initial research will be promising. Survivors of the Holocaust are being treated for PTSD with cannabis right now. It’s the initial drumbeat and very positive.”

USE & ABUSE: THE NEXT GENERATIONAs the medical benefits of CBD strains are further researched, there’s still considerable apprehension among medical experts (Gupta included), law enforce-ment, and politicians surrounding marijuana and young users. Now that teens may gain easier access to the drug, potential for abuse and the effects on the young brain are a particular concern.

A groundbreaking study published by The Journal of Neuroscience in April is the first to show that frequent use of marijuana is related to major brain changes. Researchers—including experts from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital—conducted MRIs on 40

people: 20 recreational users who smoke an average of 11 joints per week and 20 nonusers. The scientists found that the shapes and sizes of two neural regions essential to moti-vation and emotion were significantly altered in users.

Concerns about marijuana’s negative impact on the growing brain has spurred leaders to create forums, such as the Aspen Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo’s Valley Marijuana Council, to discuss the impact and warn young users of the dangers. Though supportive of the legalization of both medical and recreational pot, during an address to the annual NORML Legal Seminar in Aspen, Sheriff DiSalvo stated, “Marijuana is not a prod-uct for brains under construction. The message we are giving students is delay, delay, delay. The longer you delay, the better your chances of not compromising a brain under construction. We want to increase awareness and lower adolescent drug use.”

Governor Hickenlooper is in agreement. “We have a moral responsibility to regulate it properly,” he says. “That means making sure kids under 21 don’t get it. But kids think because it’s legal, it’s less dangerous. We are arguing caution.”

So just how does the industry tackle potential abuse among young users, and even adults? Certainly there are scores of medical marijuana licenses issued to “patients” who are, in fact, using medical marijuana licenses to simply get high. As with alcohol, or any sub-stance for that matter, abuse is inevitable. When asked

KEITH STROUP Founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)

SMOKERS’ RIGHTS: “If it’s contra-band, nobody is going to require it to be pure. Now we’re beginning to focus on the real consumer issues. A private employer can drug test, and if you test positive for THC, even though there is no indication you were impaired on the job, they can fi re you. What they need is an impairment test, not a test that says, ‘Have you smoked in the last six weeks?’”THE DWI DEBATE: “We all agree that we don’t want people driving while impaired. But THC adheres to your fatty tissues, and can be detected days or even weeks after smoking. We’ve got to convince legislators to use science so we test impairment.”

DR. SANJAY GUPTA Neurosurgeon; CNN chief medical correspondent

HOW CANNABIS CONNECTS: “There are cannabis receptors in the body. So it’s more natural than a lot of drugs, which simply inhibit the transmission of neurons from cell to cell. This binds to some-thing that already exists in the body.” FARMING FOR THE FUTURE: “You are going to have the CBD strains become more in demand as a medicine. It’s harder than people realize to breed these plants up to specifi c strands of CBD versus THC. But there is going to be higher demand, and it will continue to be very necessary.” ON RECREATIONAL USE: “This is legitimate medicine, and I wouldn’t take it away from people because of the concerns of recreational use.”

Tripp Keber at Colorado’s

Dixie Elixirs and Edibles.


how this will be navigated, most advocates suggest exten-sive educational outreach.

In August, a controversial Colorado public education campaign titled “Don’t Be a Lab Rat” was driven by the Colorado governor’s office. Human-size rat cages were dropped around Denver in an effort to warn teens that Colorado is a testing ground for medical marijuana legal-ization, and there is still uncertainty involved in relation to pot use and the young brain. Additionally, though Governor Mark Dayton passed legislation allowing medi-cal marijuana in Minnesota, the state’s strict new law bans smoking marijuana and home cultivation, and allows for only two cannabis dispensaries statewide.

The MighTy edible“The only thing consistent in this industry is change,” says Tripp Keber. “It’s at hyper speed.” Standing in what will soon be a sleek reception area of his new 40,000-square-foot headquarters in Denver, the founder and CEO of Dixie Elixirs & Edibles has recently been hyped on shows such as 60 Minutes and HBO’s Vice. Keber describes the booming mari-juana business as having experienced “hockey stick growth,” from completely flat to straight on up.

While leading a tour of his impressive new facility, he can-didly explains, “We are not marijuana people. We are busi-nessmen and women who have applied what we have learned professionally to the cannabis space. There has never been a nationally branded line of THC-infused products like Dixie. Our intention is taking this company not only national, but public.”

A successful entrepreneur who served in the Reagan administra-tion, Keber has been called the “Gordon Gekko of Ganja.” But nicknames aside, he helms a serious, and seriously lucra-tive, business, squarely in the spotlight of edible entrepreneurs (the industry is moving so fast that at a recent Las Vegas “cannabusiness” convention, one business pro-posal was a Domino’s-esque pot delivery service).

Founded just four years ago, Keber’s Dixie Elixirs has grown from a 400-square-foot office with two employees who made one product (an orange elixir) to what can only be called a marijuana industrial “mansion” that currently houses some 50 employees and serves as the assembly line and grow house for the more than 40 Dixie THC-infused products and 100 different SKUs. Most cannabis sold in Colorado dispen-saries comes in four forms: as the buds of the plant; as liquid extractions meant to be used in vaporizer pens; as edibles, such as gummy candies, chocolates, and sodas; and as salves and lotions for rubbing into sore muscles and joints.

The latest Dixie Elixir? Dixie One, a soda that, unlike most edible products, offers a single, measured 5mg dose of THC. Which raises the question—as the fast-paced edi-ble business booms, how does one properly package and regulate dosage amounts?

This growing debate among edible entrepreneurs, marketers, and state legislators was further thrust into the national spotlight when New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd alleged in her “Don’t Harsh Our Mellow, Dude” column back in June, that she, unaware of the potency, accidentally ate too much of a THC-infused candy bar, resulting in a panic-stricken hotel stay in Denver. Commenting on this ( Joe Hodas, Dixie’s chief marketing officer, wrote a reactive op-ed in The Times), Keber says, “Dosing is the single-greatest focus that we should be looking at as an industry. Now you have your average soccer mom from Ohio who may or may not have had a relationship with cannabis in 20-plus years, and

[today] cannabis is dramatically different. What was previously 3 or 4 percent is now 23 or 24 percent [THC].” As a potential answer to the growing concern of packaging and marketing dosing amounts, Keber and his team developed Dixie One to eliminate the guesswork: one soda, one dose.

Keber touts his new headquar-ters’ state-of-the-art security, a necessary feature at a time when few banks have been willing to provide accounts and other ser-vices to marijuana businesses because of its federal Schedule I classification, so most dispensa-ries have to conduct business in cash. He notes that two dispen-saries in his area had recently been robbed. But his some-times-risky business also means serious tax revenue—numbers, he opines, that can not be ignored by the government on

both the state and federal level, given the potential fund-ing for education, city infrastructure, additional medical research, and much more. And headway is being made with banking institutions and the marijuana industry, as politicians and banking co-ops are quickly realizing reform is inevitable in regard to banking and buds.

In February of this year, Governor Hickenlooper stated that taxes and fees from recreational and medical mari-juana sales would be $134 million in the coming fiscal year. And though some may criticize his choice of indus-try, Keber says, “You cannot argue with taxes and jobs. The revenue reported from April [2014] was up 17 percent from the month before, and up 53 percent since January.” There’s no doubt he believes in the industry’s skyrocket-ing potential. “You are seeing this real steep growth. Sometimes we feel like we have a tiger by the tail.” LAC

Tripp Keber Founder and CEO of Dixie Elixirs and Edibles tie-dyed Businessman: “This is not a fool’s business. You have to be intel-lectually charged, committed, and funded to succeed, because you can’t go to the bank and get a loan.”a kinder drug?: “There may be two [marijuana-related] deaths in Colorado since January. How many hun-dreds of alcohol- or opiate-related deaths are there?”Potent Packaging: “We as manufacturers have to set the tone, to make sure that the packaging is not attracting children. Our products are designed to look like a luxury consumer packaged brand.”

ed bernsTein Las Vegas attorney and talk show host daughter dana & crohn’s disease: “When she smokes medical marijuana, often times before going to the hospital and going through that cycle with the Dilaudid, it takes the edge off her pain.” Betting on Business: “The law is still unsettled regarding lawyers and doc-tors and their professional licenses around dispensaries. But legislators in our state are very positive about medical marijuana; the voters certainly are.” gateway drug?: “A lot of people don’t understand the medical benefits and have been so brainwashed about marijuana being a gateway drug that under any circumstances they are not in favor of it. In the past, to buy it you had to go underground, dealing with people who are selling cocaine, crack, marijuana, and heroin. Legalizing marijuana will have the opposite result. If you have a legal, safe place to purchase the medical marijuana, then you will not come into contact with the stereotypical pusher.”

The Marijuana Policy Project has filed a committee

with the California Secretary of State to support a 2016 ballot initiative to regulate

marijuana like alcohol in California.

[ [


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100 Years of PlentitudeSpaniSh revival. hollywood regency. Midcentury Modern. For over a century, the architectS oF Shangri-la-la-land have created the hauteSt potpourri oF Surreal eState on earth. By Kathy a. McDonalD

Unlike metropolises such as London, New York, or Paris—where entire neighborhoods conform to a certain architectural aesthetic—LA boasts a dizzying array of home styles, often side by side: some traditional (Craftsman and Victorian), some mod (Midcentury Modern) and sev-eral that embody the Southern California dream of indoor/outdoor living (romantic 1920s-built haciendas in the Spanish Colonial Revival style are top of mind).

As buyers soon discover with even a cursory search, this diversity of resi-dential styles representing all eras, beginning at the turn of the last century, is available at any given time in the LA market. In some ways, real estate agents

must become matchmakers when it comes to introducing buyers to historic homes. “[These] styles tend to suggest a lifestyle,” says Crosby Doe (crosby

doe.com) of Crosby Doe Associates. He’s representing the 5,725-square-foot, 1906-built, $2.845 million Bolton/Culbertson House in Pasadena, built by the masters of Arts and Crafts style, Charles and Henry Greene. “Even though they are really contemporary in many ways, the house imposes a lifestyle from 100 years ago,” adds Doe. That lifestyle typically included for-mal living and dining spaces, kitchens tucked away, and smaller bathrooms and closets than today’s buyers may be accustomed to seeing.

Hacienda heaven: This five-bedroom, five-bath Spanish Revival home by architect John Byers was built for $15,000 in 1925 for the son of Santa Monica’s first mayor. It’s now listed for $5.275 million.


HAute ProPerty A Century of Style

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When it comes to what’s hottest right now, Midcentury Modern residential architecture contin-ues to have its moment. The recent sale of architect John Lautner’s Silvertop took just 20 days despite its roughly $8 million price tag (a record high for Silver Lake). While flavors of the month fly off the MLS, says Doe, there was a time when a John Lautner house couldn’t sell. “Although some styles fall in and out of favor, that doesn’t make them any less impor-tant,” he adds. The Bolton/Culbertson House has period details and woodwork throughout that can’t be replicated today. “One of the challenges of

Craftsman houses is that they’re not all-glass houses—there’s an interplay of light and shadow,” explains Doe. Spacious and grand, the house has been meticulously restored.

Overall, however, LA is not a city that embraces its architectural past. “In this town, anything that is older than Annette Bening gets torn down. People don’t like to be reminded of aging,” says Jill Galloway of John Aaroe Group (jillgalloway.com). She’s only half kid-ding. Wide swaths of the city have been replaced with new construction, and zoning rules offer little protec-tion for neighborhood character (witness the boxy

mansionization of the streets mid-city near the Beverly Center). “Historic preservation is an anomaly,” says Galloway, who specializes in the Hollywood Hills and Hancock Park, where 11 different homeowners’ asso-ciations and HPOZ (Historic Preservation Overlay Zone) rules partially protect vintage buildings.

“[In Hancock Park and the Hollywood Hills], many of the homes were generational and have been maintained in their original style,” she says of the neighborhood’s bounty of character casas. Galloway points to the architectural integrity, original stained glass, and other handcrafted period details in the 104-year old Craftsman in Windsor Square she has listed for $2.41 million. Because the style is so specific and far from a blank canvas, there is a more limited pool of buyers, Galloway finds.

The 1902-built Hiram Higgans mansion, a gener-ous-sized Queen Anne Victorian with original woodwork throughout—listed for $6.5 million by Lisa Hutchins of Coldwell Banker Residence Brokerage (coldwellbanker.com)—is another one of Hancock Park’s grand edifices with a notable pedi-gree (by the Griffith Park Observatory’s architect John C. Austin). The antithesis of the big, modern, formulaic glass box, these period properties often appeal to a buyer who “has a high level of taste,” con-tends Jeff Kohl, cofounder of The Agency (theagency

re.com). He also finds these homes almost always elicit an emotional reaction.

Kohl points to a 2,472-square-foot, 1939-built Hollywood Regency-style “jewel box” of a house in the Hollywood Hills full of iconic flourishes by famed architect John Elgin Woolf (his client list was a who’s who of Hollywood’s elite, from Cary Grant to Katharine Hepburn). Listed for $2.795 million, the house “is about an elegant way of living where every room is well thought out,” he says. The Woolf prop-erty is atypical; the grounds and pool are extensive, and “the house is chic, super elegant, and wonderful to live in, like a piece of art,” says Kohl.

In Santa Monica, where land values are behind many a remodel of older stock, a 1925-built adobe hacienda-style home by John Byers (known as the master of revival adobe construction) stands out for its gracious authenticity. “It was an expensive home when it was built,” says The Agency’s Anna Solomon (solomonpropertygroup.com), who has the $5.275 mil-lion listing. Well sited on its oversized lot (even for its day) the house is a piece of history that’s also livable and comfortable.

From Venice (where 1,000-square-foot beach cot-tages circa 1915 are well over a $1 million these days) to old-school Pasadena, there’s a heady mix of choice that goes beyond rubber-stamped, cookie-cutter, 5,000-square-foot glass-and-marble contemporary residences. Crosby Doe concurs, “I’ve been selling houses for 40 years, and I’m excited when I run across something I’ve never seen or has never been for sale. LA has a truly remarkable built inventory.” LAC

“The [1939] Woolf properTy is chic, super eleganT, and

Wonderful To live in, like a piece of arT.”

—jeff kohl

This 1939-built, $2.795 million Hollywood Hills residence was

designed by John Elgin Woolf in the Hollywood Regency style he made

famous. The two-bedroom, two-bath home has curved-glass walls that wrap around the pool and a gated

underground five-car garage.

The eight-bedroom, Victorian-style Hiram Higgans mansion (shown here and left), listed for $6.5 million,

was designed in 1902 by John C. Austin, whose other commissions include the Shrine Auditorium,

Griffith Park Observatory, and LA’s City Hall.


haute property a Century of Style

This is neither an offer to sell, nor a solicitation of offers to buy, any condominium units in those states where such offers or solicitations cannot be made. WARNING: THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE HAS NOT INSPECTED, EXAMINED OR QUALIFIED THIS OFFER-ING. This condominium project does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability or familial status. © 2014 CityCenter Land, LLC.

The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas (The Residences) are not developed, sponsored, owned, offered or sold by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group or any affliate thereof (MOHG) and MOHG makes no representation, warranty or guaranty of any kind regarding The Residences. The developers and owners of The Residences use the Mandarin Oriental name and trademarks subject to terms of revocable licenses from MOHG which may expire or be terminated.

A Sweet Haven

Relocate and enjoy the benefts of elegant Nevada living. MandarinOrientalResidencesLasVegas.com | 866.950.2489

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Refined with rustic edges, Santa Fe, New Mexico, is the straight-from-Central-Casting antidote to urban life. Creative types and A-listers often migrate here to refuel their psyches. It’s the chosen getaway for superstar designer Tom Ford, who commis-sioned starchitect Tadao Ando to build a minimalist compound of concrete forms; the horizon-hugging horse ranch (on 24,000 acres) has a rust-colored palette that melds with the scrub-covered hills. Indeed, the scenic surrounding area is where Hollywood’s elite hide out and enjoy the good life, Western-style: Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, Shirley MacLaine, and Jane Fonda own notable spreads (both MacLaine and Fonda recently listed their high-altitude hideaways for $18 million and $19.5 million, respectively). And more recent high-profile homebuy-ers—local buzz cites January Jones—have been seduced by Santa Fe’s temperate climate, crystal-clear air, and the relative affordability of premium real estate.

Privacy is certainly a factor, too. “There are no prying eyes and it’s very quiet,” says John Dixon, a veteran real estate agent and sales director of Fairmont Heritage Place, El Corazon de Santa Fe (elcorazon

desantafe.com). Situated near the historic Plaza, the luxury condomin-ium complex was Seth MacFarlane’s base during the filming of A Million

Ways to Die in the West and offers hotel services for its full and fractional owners. “There are just not a lot of people around,” adds Dixon. However, for a town of 70,000 people, the art, culture (an eclectic mix of Spanish, Native American, and European), and culinary scenes are remarkably robust.

Santa Fe is arguably the cultural hub of the Rocky Mountains: There are more than 200 galleries, two dozen museums (the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum is a legendary gem), The Santa Fe Opera, and renowned local cuisine, ranging from the highbrow (Coyote Café, Joseph’s, and Geronimo) to the Shake Foundation’s crowd-pleasing green chili cheese-burger. Outdoor activities are year-round; in wintertime, the nearby Santa Fe Ski Basin and Taos Ski Valley are less crowded than comparable Western resorts. And if you don’t have your own plane? Flights are super convenient from Los Angeles into Santa Fe or Albuquerque.

“Californians who move here want space and the lifestyle of a cultured, sophisticated American West,” says real estate agent Tara Earley of Sotheby’s International Realty Santa Fe (sothebyshomes.com), who along with Nancy Lehrer represents a four-bed-room, five-bath, 7,850-square-foot contemporary Southwestern-style home on more than 27 scenic acres for $3.350 million. The adobe-style exterior leads to an ultracontempo-rary interior with ash wood floors and wall-wide slider doors to take in the Sangre de Cristo mountain views. “You can get a lot more for your money here than in Los Angeles,” adds Lehrer, who aided film producer/executive Frank Mancuso Jr. and wife Kim’s purchase of a large Santa Fe County ranch. Larger, more substantial properties are within reach as second, third or fourth homes. Ralph Larranaga of Keller Williams

Hooray for Santa Fe!H’wood for tHe Holidays? tHe industry

a+-list decamps for motion-picture-perfect

new mexico. By Kathy a. McDonalD

from above: In River House, on Jane Fonda’s $19.5 million Forked Lightning Ranch, an upstairs gallery holds the owner’s vast collection of books and Navajo rugs. The room was modeled after one at the Santa Fe Public Library and features reclaimed-wood ceiling beams; El Corazon de Sante Fe, a luxury condo complex favored by Hollywood heavy hitters, offers full and fractional owners hotel amenities such as concierge service, pre-arrival grocery shopping, and long-term clothing and equipment storage.

Santa Fe (kw.com), points to his $5.999 million listing (a unique architectural 7,200-square-foot ultramodern home on 13.5 acres) on a high ridge above The Santa Fe Opera House. “The gated community is a Beverly Hills-style neighborhood without the traffic or congestion,” he says. “The values here are really very good,” agrees real estate agent Tim Van Camp of Sotheby’s Santa Fe (knowing

santafe.com).

There’s also the ability to purchase near-pristine landscapes. Jane Fonda’s 2,300-acre, $19.5 million Forked Lightning Ranch abuts national forest land, and three and a half miles of the trout-filled Pecos

River flow through it. “The ranch offers security, privacy, and seclusion without isolation,” says Mike Swan, broker and owner of the Swan Land Company (swanlandco.com), which is representing Fonda’s one-of-a-kind asset. The Oscar-winning actress chose the site of the 9,585-square-foot, custom-built, tin-roofed River House—its Spanish Colonial Revival design fits into traditional architec-tural vernacular but is modern and energy-efficient. Swan explains, “When you’re at the house or on the river, it feels like there’s no one within hundreds of miles, but you’re only 25 minutes from town.” New Mexico, here we come… LAC


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An antique reproduction of Winged Victory of Samothrace serves as RH West Hollywood’s guardian angel. right, from top: 100-year-old olive trees set a bucolic tone at RH West Hollywood’s 10,000-square-foot rooftop park; the shop includes a Bellocq Organic Tea atelier; Crystal Halo chandeliers are just one of the gallery’s many product exclusives.

Destination RestoRationRH—foRmeRly known as RestoRation HaRdwaRe—moves to melRose witH a 40,000-squaRe-foot supeRstoRe. By Matt Stewart


Abode & beyond Melrose!

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Behind its imposing 150-foot Melrose Avenue façade—

one that harbors a Parisian-style entry courtyard,

terraces of lush plantings on the second floor, and a

10,000-square-foot rooftop park featuring a grove of

century-old olive trees—the new RH West Hollywood

gallery makes a statement as big and bold as the

furnishings for which the brand is known. Ben

Soleimani, a fourth-generation rug dealer/designer and

a longtime Melrose habitué, who has an exclusive rug

collection with the brand, introduced Gary Friedman,

RH’s CEO and chairman, to the idea of a Melrose

location. “My journey with Ben began at Melrose,”

Friedman explains. “Though I had five of his rugs in my

home, I had never met Ben himself. He moved to LA

when he was 18 or 19 years old, built his rug store on

Melrose, and has been buying real estate here for more

than 20 years. Melrose, because of the way it’s being

developed, is a blend of luxury retail and interior design

that is very pedestrian-friendly. I don’t think we could

have picked a better location.”

Award-winning architect Jim Gillam, who has

worked with the brand on several other large-scale and

historic spaces around the country, designed RH West

Hollywood to allow clients to imagine what is possible

on a grand scale, while at the same time showcasing

pieces in intimate settings that speak to domestic

comfort. “We’re trying to create a residential experi-

ence that blends retail and art. We include art

installations to add a level of drama that inspires people

to what might be possible.”

To enhance the domestic drama, Friedman and the

RH team have added a number of exclusive pieces,

including four Cloud sofas by British designer

Timothy Oulton and a large selection of one-of-a-kind

Balinese coffee tables. RH West Hollywood also

contains a Ben Soleimani rug showroom, a Bellocq

Organic Tea atelier, and the LA home of RH’s new

interior design platform.

The piéce de résistance of the Melrose experience is

the rooftop garden, which showcases the immediate

surroundings as well as unparalleled views of the city

and the Hollywood Hills. “We didn’t merely install a

roof deck,” Friedman says. “We gave a gift to the city

with a rooftop park the likes of which the world has

never seen. The building had to be designed to take the

weight of these amazing trees; we had to engineer a

special drainage system. We also included decomposed

granite walkways that make you feel like you’re in the

Napa Valley or the South of France.”

Friedman and his design team also sourced one very

special piece for the roof that all of the city will enjoy.

“About a month before we were due to open, I was on a

trip with the product and design teams to the Maison &

Objet show in Paris,” says Friedman. “In our travels, we

found this amazing reproduction of Winged Victory of

Samothrace, and it felt so right for the City of Angels.

This piece was more than decoration; it had a real

relevance. We decided that this statue could be an angel

for our rooftop that could look down over LA.” LAC


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Cisco HomeSince 1990 Cisco Home has

been the go-to source for

homeowners and interior

designers seeking sustainable,

stylish furniture and repur-

posed finds. Mixing stark

midcentury furnishings with

plush, California-casual

textiles, the brand’s timeless,

effortless glamour satisfies

varying aesthetics.

8025 Melrose Ave., LA,

323-932-1155; ciscohome.net

Denmark 50Bringing the best in midcen-

tury Danish Modern design to

LA, Denmark 50 dishes up

furniture, ceramics, and art.

From Poul Henningsen’s

innovative light fixtures to

Hans Wegner’s Windsor

chairs to Nanna Ditzel’s

colorful upholstered seating,

the Nordic-cool merchandise

changes regularly.


323-650-5222;

denmark50.com

Jonathan AdlerWhat started with a pottery

order from Barneys New York

has grown into a multina-

tional lifestyle brand. Known

for his glamorous interiors

and cheeky ceramics done in

matte white, Adler has

imbued his Melrose store with

items bearing his signature

style—think happy colors, Art

Deco inspirations, mono-

grammed accessories, and

Slim Aarons portraiture.


323-658-8390; jonathan

adler.com

Mansour ModernDeftly combining old-world

techniques with contempo-

rary patterns and textures,

London-based Mansour

Modern is one of LA’s premier

fine-rug galleries, offering rare

vintage finds and bespoke

pieces. With rugs on display in

some of the world’s most

luxurious hotels and resi-

dences, the brand was even

awarded the honor of the

Royal Warrant from the

Prince of Wales.

8606 Melrose Ave., West

Hollywood, 310-652-9999;

mansourmodern.com

Plush HomeAs the interior designer of the

Montage Hotel in Beverly

Hills, Nina Petronzio

demonstrates a style that is all

about superluxe textiles and

old-world furnishings. Her

aesthetic is captured in Plush

Home, which stocks over-the-

top upholstered velvet

headboards, carved maple

dining tables, and hand-cut

crystal chandeliers.

Melrose GoldWhen it comes to glittering design shops, Weho’s most famous street offers an embarrassment of riches. By Allyson Rees

she’s

dreaming

of a...

Trina Turk talks holiday décor, Cali-style.

What’s one of your favor-

ite holiday decorating

traditions?

Growing up in California, my

mother always put out bowls

of Satsuma mandarin oranges

with the pretty green leaves still

attached. The pop of orange in

a metallic bowl looks great.

How else do you create a

festive vibe at home?

Hot mulled cider and

cranberry juice with spices sim-

mering on the stove creates a

delicious holiday scent wafting

through the house to welcome

your guests.

How do you get in the

spirit when SoCal is

the opposite of a winter

wonderland?

I love taking a modernist

approach with a silver or gold

metallic tree and lots of shim-

mery ornaments. One year in

the desert we decorated a bare-

branched manzanita with tiny

silver disco-ball ornaments!

8008 W. Third St., LA, 323-

651-1382; trinaturk.com

Siglo Moderno’s private label collection oozes

with contemporary cool, but its showroom also

boasts a selection of venerable vintage finds.

8323 Melrose Ave., West

Hollywood, 323-852-1912;

plushhome.com

Siglo ModernoUnder the helm of Creative

Director Jorgé L. Cruzata,

Siglo Moderno, or “Century

Modern” as it is translated

from Spanish, offers a curated

mix of vintage and contempo-

rary furniture. The brand’s

private label, made up of low

marble tables, carved wood

credenzas, and sculptural

lighting, has a masculine,

sensual feel, while vintage

pieces range from metal

lounge chairs to, yes, concrete

teddy bears.


323-653-3100;

siglomoderno.com

Table ArtFor an exceptionally embel-

lished dinner party, head to

Table Art. For over 10 years,

the boutique has offered

handmade glassware,

dinnerware, and linens in

addition to custom tablecloths

and sterling silver pieces.

Classic luxury goods like

those from Meissen are mixed

with contemporary pieces

from names like Scholten &

Baijings, creating an edited,

yet varied, merchandise mix.


323-653-8278; table

artonline.com

Thanks for the MemoriesThis Melrose mainstay is an

emporium of 20th-century

design, artful objects, and

found treasures, curated for

over 40 years by proprietors

Maddie and David Sadofski.

Vintage chess sets and rare

Steinway pianos commingle

with Art Deco jewelry,

making the boutique popular

with designers and collectors.


323-852-9407; tftm

melrose.com LAC


abode & beyond The Guide

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1840 Echo Park Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026213.375.4505, [email protected]

yogalastudios.com, Instagram: #yogalastudios

LOTUS KITTY YOGA & POWER CYCLING

L.A.’s frst HYBRID FITNESS studio! Fusing the dynamics ofSPIN • YOGA • TRX • BARRE. We maximize the proven benefts of cross-

training. Schlepping to multiple studios becomes obsolete. JOIN THE MOVEMENT.

11961 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, CA 91604818-980-8455, lotuskitty.com, Like us on facebook.com/

LotusKittyYogaandPowerCycling

MAKING MOVEMENT

We are two Yogis from Venice Beach… AND want to change the world. We met, discovered we have the same name, the same ideas, but diferent hair color. We believe the way the world works needs to shif. Lets make it happen with these

sustainably sourced products that give back. #MakingMovement

For more information, visit www.makingmovement.com

YAS FITNESS CENTERS

YAS (Yoga & Spinning®), the frst ftness studio dedicated to the hybrid was founded in 2001 by ftness pioneer Kimberly Fowler. Her signature yoga style, Yoga for Athletes® ofers a proven, succinct and balanced style of yoga that is accessible to everyone. www.go2yas.com

Venice: 1101 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, CA 90291; 310.396.6993

Silverlake: 1932 Hyperion Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90027; 323.665.6011

East Costa Mesa: 291 E.17th St, Costa Mesa, CA 92627; 949.548.3888

Downtown LA: 831 S. Hope St, Los Angeles, CA 90017; 213.430.9053

KRISTIN OLSON’S

URBAN YOGA CENTER

PALM SPRINGS

ALL BOUND UP? COME UNWIND ~

URBAN YOGA ~ PALM SPRINGS

Visit us UrbanYoga.org 458 S Palm Canyon Dr.PALM SPRINGS 92262

760.320.7702Like us at facebook.com/

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CHAKRAS BY DIDI

Chakras by didi is a fun and fashionable yoga-inspired lifestyle company whose products are carried in yoga studios, gyms, boutiques, resorts and spas worldwide. Te brand incorporates education into its colorful designs with

its main focus on learning and understanding each individual yoga pose. 20% Discount: LACON

For more information, contact Didi Wong, 917-907-1044 [email protected] | www.chakrasbydidi.com

PROMOTION

DOSSIER

FRIDA

For over 12 years, FRIDA restaurant has been serving authentic, high quality Mexican cuisine in a relaxed and sophisticated setting. FRIDA of ers from ceviches to tacos and ev-erything in between and an extensive array of top shelf cocktails, utilizing Mexico’s premium tequilas and mezcals.

236 S. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90212Reservations: 310.278.7666Follow us on Facebook @FRIDAmexicancuisineVisit fridarestaurant.com

BEVERLY HILLS on BEVERLY DRIVE

FROYO LIFE

Froyo Life is committed to providing quality frozen desserts in a clean, fun environment. We won’t cut corners to lessen your experience with us. We have a great selection of fresh fruits and dry toppings to compliment our frozen yogurts. Come try our NEW f avors...

241 S. Beverly Dr. Beverly Hills CA, 90212

Call (310) 777-0018 Visit Froyolife.com

MALIBU CLOTHES

Located in the heart of Beverly Hills, Malibu Clothes of ers the largest selection of the f nest quality men’s clothing. With top brands, in-store tailoring, personal styling, wedding party packages, made-to-measure options, and unbeatable prices, Malibu Clothes is your one-stop shop.

Come check out Beverly Hills’ best kept secret since 1946.

259 S Beverly DriveBeverly Hills, CA 90212Follow us on Instagram @malibuclothesCall 310.278.0040Visit malibuclothesbh.com

9021PHO

Created by Vietnamese Master Chef Kimmy Tang, 9021Pho is a unique casual service restaurant that of ers a Vietnamese-centric menu with French inf uences and California f air. Chef Kimmy’s dishes are light, clean, and made with only the highest quality ingredients to make 9021Pho deli-ciously irresistible.

490 N. Beverly DriveBeverly Hills, CA 90210310.275-5277 | 9021pho.comVisit Instagram/Twitter: @9021PHOVisit Facebook: 9021PhoRestaurants

BLO BLOW DRY BAR

You’re not cheating on your hairdresser. Blo is North America’s Original Blow Dry Bar. Scissors are verboten. Dye, ditto. No cuts, no color: Just WASH BLOW GO. Guests choose from 7 styles featured in the Blo Hair Menu, from the runway inspired “Pillow Talk” to the perpetually high fashion “Go Fish”. Go to blomedry.com for theskinny.

252 South Beverly Drive, Suite ABeverly Hills, CA 90212310.270.4256

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ON THE CUSP of the holiday season, Los Angeles

Confidential toasted cover star James Marsden at its

annual Men’s Issue celebration, presented by Bentley

Motors, at Culver City gallery Unici Casa. Don Julio

Tequila provided custom beverages for the evening, as

guests enjoyed desserts by Edoughble ready-to-eat

cookie dough. Featured guests like John Terzian, Brian

Toll, and Jonnie and Mark Houston also came out to

fête the issue and support the evening’s charity partner,

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

LAC MENÕS EVENT

Presenting sponsor Bentley Motors showed

off its slick Flying Spur V8 before the crowd of VIPs.

Jai Rodriguez and Chris Donaghue

Don Julio Tequila refreshed guests throughout the evening with its signature cocktails.

James Marsden and Liana Liberato

Lisa Ling

Jason Harder

Carole and Gilles Marini

Sarah Duque and Jack Guy

Gerald McRaney

Jonnie Houston, Brooke Troesh, and Mark Houston

John Terzian and Brian Toll

Michael Heywood and Jonas Bell Pasht


INVITED

JULIA roBerts

HArrIson ford

kevIn spacey

edwArd norton

penéLope cruz

robert redford

nature is speakingc o n s e r v A t I o n I n t e r n A t I o n A L p r e s e n t s

natureisspeaking.org

nature doesn’t need people. people need nature.

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S TR

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JANUARY 10th-25th

Hybrid yoga/indoor cycling training

$1750

Sign up by Dec 10th (save $500)

[email protected] go2yas.com 866-YAS-YOGA

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Guests admired designs on display from 2013 FIDM Design Lab Live winner

Mohamed Salaheldin

Monica Rose

Ismael Castaneda, Ali Jawad, and Ashley Solano

Giancarlo Tallarico and Paul Zahn

Phuong Nguyen and Jessica Menda

Kit Wallace and Ayda Avedisian

Mary Lopez, Diane Klotz, Katie Hall, Lisa Koochof, and Alice Carrillo

Stephanie Koors, Dana Nesen, and Erin Scanlon

Matt Jefferson, Molly Unger, Shawn Tamjidi,

and Brendan KotlerElizabeth Reyes and Elizabeth Le

STYLE SWEPT THROUGH Westfield Topanga at “Cocktails and Couture,” an evening of fashion presented by Westfield, Who What Wear, and Los Angeles Confidential in support of Bright Pink. From trend presentations courtesy of Neiman Marcus and celebrity stylist Monica Rose to a showcase of chic Tesla cars and the FIDM Design Lab Live competition—in which five up-and-comingdesigners competed to create red-carpet gowns—the event offered guests an insiders’ view of this season’s most coveted looks. The Spare Room mixed cocktails using Tallarico Vodka and Selvarey Rum, while Veuve Clicquot and Keurig refreshed attendees with Champagne and coffee as they shopped with the incentive to win a one-night stay at the new SLS Las Vegas hotel.

COCKTAILS AND COUTURE

Shaun Swanger


INVITED

Camilla Belle and Gary Friedman

Molly Sims and Vanessa Lachey

Victoria Salisbury

Chord Overstreet

Jaime King

HOTSHOTS OF ARCHITECTURE, design, entertain-

ment, and art collided to celebrate the unveiling of RH

West Hollywood, The Gallery on Melrose Avenue. The

nearly 40,000-square-foot space features brand-new

collections of home furnishings in a unique gallery setting,

which includes a Ben Soleimani rug showroom, a design

studio, and a Bellocq Organic Tea atelier. Among those in

attendance to marvel at the high-end décor were Mad Men

actress January Jones, The Art of Elysium founder

Jennifer Howell, and designer/stylist Estee Stanley.

RH WEST HOLLYWOOD PARTY

Philip Lord, Irene Neuwirth, and Simon Doonan

Long-standing partner HOLA created a short film highlighting its philanthropic work in LA, which was

screened on the second floor of the flagship.

Juan Carlos Obando and

Tomoko Ogura

BARNEYS NEW YORK fêted its Beverly Hills f lagship’s extensive remodel—

and its 20th anniversary in LA—with a jubilant cocktail party for over 1,000

guests. Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Meyer, and Tobey Maguire joined the

festivities as local charity Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) arranged an

inspiring musical performance by children participating in HOLA’s perform-

ing arts and music programs. Barneys New York donated 10 percent of the

evening’s purchases to the organization’s initiatives.

BARNEYS NEW YORK

SUPPORTS HOLA

Paris and Nicky HiltonEdward Lee and Len Schlesinger

Tobey Maguire

Melanie Griffith

Mark and NJ Goldston

Monique Lhuillier and Tom Bugbee

Jennifer Meyer

January Jones


E V E N T S • H A P P E N I N G S • P R O M O T I O N S

NOT TO BE MISSED

CANALI

When picking key pieces for a cold weather wardrobe, go for a combination of style and versatility. Canali proposes a dark blue zip-up sweater in pure cashmere with fur on the inside, geometric knit on the front, and ribbed cuf s and bottom.

261 North Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210310.270.4200, canali.com

DSQUARED2

T e brand made in Italy with Canadian roots inaugurated its American presence with a new store on Rodeo Drive. Spread out over 4,500 square feet and two levels, the store is a f uid and enveloping space with iconic pieces from Dsquared2 men’s, women’s, fragrance and eyewear collections.

461 N. Rodeo DriveBeverly Hills, CA 90210310.888.0117dsquared2.com

SWEET HAVEN

Relocate and enjoy the benef ts of elegant Nevada living at T e Residences at Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas. Reside high above T e Strip and well beyond reach. At over 90% sold, now may be your last chance to make your move.

MandarinOrientalResidencesLasVegas.com, 866.950.2489

TERRANEA RESORT

Terranea Resort presents its 5th Anniversary Holiday Traditions celebrating the spirit of the season. Enjoy festive activities and events, special holiday feasts and exclusive of ers on accommodations, spa, golf, shopping and more.

For additional information visit Terranea.com/Traditions100 Terranea Way, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275, 310.265.2800

KENDAL SHANNON

Kendal Shannon started her career in Hawaii, working on numerous television shows and features in Hawaii including LOST, Hawaii Five-0, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Just Go With It, and Godzilla. In 2010 she relocated to LA branching out her career to Red Carpets and working with Celebrities.

Call 323-868-3251, visit kendalshannon.com, or e-mail [email protected]

Instagram: kendalshannonTwitter: @kendalShannon

Photographer: Colin Angus, Model: Sarah DeAnna

PROMOTION

BUBBLEMANIA AND COMPANY

Bubblemania and Company has been providing top entertainment for children in Southern California since 1987. We provide educational, entertaining programs on the science and fun of soap bubbles for children of all ages. Our carefully selected and professionally trained “Bubblologists” provide a program that is fexible and age appropriate.

For more information call 310.446.6115 or visit bubblemaniaandcompanyla.com

ROLLING ROBOTS

Home to the original robot game arena where you can choose an all-star robot or create your own robo-worrior to battle in our center ring. Rolling Robots is also a technology workshop for tech geniuses to learn robotics and engineering starting as early as at the age of four. Come in soon for your parties, workshops, camp, and robotic toys and kits.

10955 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064 310.474.0198, RollingRobots.com facebook.com/rollingrobots @RollingRobots

JUST FOR KIDST O T S , T E E N S A N D E V E R Y T H I N G I N B E T W E E N .

ZIMMER CHILDREN’S MUSEUM

Zimmer Children’s Museum - Playing our way to a better world! Voted Best Children’s Museum in 2014 by L.A. Parent readers, the Zimmer Children’s Museum is dedicated to helping young people develop their capacity for creating positive change through interactive learning, creative self-expression and leadership development.

6505 Wilshire Blvd. Ste 100, Los Angeles, CA 90048(323) 761 -8984, www.zimmermuseum.orgwww.facebook.com/ZimmerMuseum

CITYDOG! CLUB

Offering dog daycare, dog boarding, dog grooming and boutique dog shop, Citydog! Club is for dogs and their humans with a dazzling array of features and amenities in a sleek, modern, fresh environment. Citydog! Club is a safe, healthy and happy experience where fun is unleashed!

West Los Angeles: 310.477.0364 Culver City: 310.837.8032 or visit citydogclub.com

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For years now I’ve noticed an irksome

trend in standing ovations: They’re no

longer involuntary. A genuine standing

ovation is the product of an irrepressible

explosion of emotion and awe, a burst of

the body, a reflex. We’re tossed in the air.

We’re overcome.

These days, the standing ovation seems

more a formality, like reaching for the bill

even when you know you’re not paying; it’s

disingenuous, but it’s polite.

Try to remember the last time you saw

one. I bet it happened deliberately, one

person, or row, at a time. First, some guy

over there, and then his date. Then the

fellow behind them can’t see, so he gets up,

and now you’ve got a whole cluster

applauding over there, off to that side of

the theater, and a moment later, a couple

of other clusters here and there are

applauding too. And then comes the time

when you have to make a choice. As

clusters come your way, gaining in size

and speed, you ask yourself, Am I going to

stand too? (If you don’t, you’ll look

petulant. So, most often, you do.)

As we near awards season, I think it’s a

good idea to give the obligatory standing

ovation, or OSO, some consideration.

Do we like what we like because it feels

good to like it, because we “should” like it,

or because we, in fact, really do love it?

Simply put, are we applauding them, the

artists, or are we applauding ourselves?

OSOs are for us. We read the glowing

reviews, we bought the coveted ticket, we

schlepped to the theater, and we were, by

virtue of all that effort, determined to have

an important time, so we mark the evening

with a standing ovation to prove we did.

Last year around this time, I was

unpopular for suggesting, perhaps

wrongly (but I think rightly), that much of

the praise slathered on 12 Years a Slave

had, figuratively speaking, an OSO ring

to it. “It’s the most realistic movie ever

made about slavery,” I was assured by

several people I’m certain weren’t there.

“It was so brutal,” others raved.

Only later did it occur to me that the

screening of 12 Years a Slave I attended

was met with a classic OSO, and not—as

you might expect to be the case for a film

of its intensity—with the OSO’s equal/

opposite, the TOTMOB (too overcome to

move or breathe, which, for what it’s

worth, my screening of Boyhood was).

This is all to say, don’t forget to listen to

your body this awards season. It often

knows more than your brain. LAC

Magna CuM applaudWith the onset of aWards season, get ready to stand up and cheer. that’s an order. By Sam WaSSon


And FinAlly…

Style: V793

Ringo Starr: Casa della Vista, Hollywood, CAPhotographed by Danny Clinch, 2014

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los angeles confidential - 2014 - issue 8 - december

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