More from Gary Baum
Hotel Bel-Air Debuts New Dining Room, Patisserie (Exclusive)
The Hotel Bel-Air is now fully in its post-Wolfgang Puck era. First it brought on culinary director Joe Garcia, a French Laundry vet who drew acclaim at West L.A.’s tasting-menu temple Manzke, as well as noted French-born pastry chef Christophe Rull. Now the pair, who’ve already been freshening the offerings at the property’s eponymous al […]
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Pricey Veneers Have Made Hollywood Smiles Too Perfect
Flawlessness has complications. Perfect teeth, long a Hollywood ideal, have now become the onscreen standard for A-list actors. The rise of orthodontia and the fall of smoking have played roles in bringing about this new normal. But the key factor has undoubtedly been the historic conquest of veneers. While there are notable holdouts — including […]
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Tom Cruise to Skydive in Paris Olympics Closing Ceremony
Tom Cruise will reportedly have a starring role in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games’ Aug. 11 closing ceremony, when he may skydive to the Hollywood Sign during the orchestrated handoff to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympiad. According to TMZ, the stunt was quietly shot in March. Cruise has attended the Paris games, including for […]
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Hollywood Icon Yamashiro Listed for $100M
Yamashiro, the landmark Japanese Revival restaurant in the Hollywood Hills, has been listed for $100 million. The 7.3-acre estate sits immediately north of the famed Magic Castle and up the block from the TCL Chinese Theatre, which is owned by movie producers and entrepreneurs Elie Samaha and Steven Markoff. Yamashiro, according to The Real Deal, […]
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What to Do About the Academy Museum’s Pandering Problem
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has been a commercial hit and a critical misfire. In an era of declining Oscar telecast ratings, the new institution’s robust ticket sales — there have been nearly 2 million visitors since it opened in September 2021 — have turned it into a major Los Angeles draw, bolstered the […]
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DEI Is Not DOA — At Least Not Yet
The DEI dominoes started falling — or at least wobbling — last summer. There was a Supreme Court ruling all but gutting affirmative action on college campuses. In Hollywood, there was the mass exodus of diversity officers — at Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Netflix and the Motion Picture Academy. Meanwhile, conservative activists launched a barrage […]
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Producer With Checkered History Eyes Purchase of Dolby Theatre, Home to Oscars
[Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Elie Samaha as once detained in a Lebanese prison over a family dispute. That dispute and detention concerned a different Elie Samaha, not the one eyeing the Dolby Theatre. We regret the error.] The home of the Oscars telecast may soon be purchased by a producer […]
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Inside Casey Wasserman’s Lavish 50th Birthday Bash
In recent years, L.A. entertainment and sports mogul Casey Wasserman has successfully striven to be perceived as his own man. A power player in his own right — not firstly the well-connected grandson of late Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman, the MCA/Universal head and political fixer. Along with recent industry acquisitions, including Paradigm’s music business and […]
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Hollywood Talks Big on Climate. But What Is It Really Doing?
In April, Paramount Pictures senior vp Douglas Rheinheimer, who oversees facility operations for the lot, spoke at the U.S. Department of Energy’s annual buildings summit. It’s a key gathering for C-suite execs, government officials, policy experts and property owners who are thinking seriously about the practicalities of a sustainable future. Rheinheimer’s highly technical presentation about […]
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The Street-Fighting Lawyer Who’s Become Hollywood’s Dark Knight
In 2021, ESPN broadcaster Sage Steele was suspended following comments she made on a podcast, including calling parent company Disney’s vaccine mandates “sick” and questioning why Barack Obama considers himself Black when he was raised by his white mother. When she returned to her job, she felt she’d been sidelined from key on-air opportunities. So […]
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The Most Storied Suit-Maker in Beverly Hills Tells All
Beverly Hills’ Carroll & Co. once had the menswear market for Hollywood players all but sewn up. The 20th century’s greatest stars were regulars, from Jack Lemmon to Paul Newman. But the haberdasher, established in 1949, also had the machers, among them NBC CEO Grant Tinker and Walt Disney Co. head Frank Wells. Oh, and […]
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New Academy Museum Exhibit Details How Jews Pioneered the Film Business
Two years ago, when the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened, there was an outcry over the exclusion of the film industry’s Jewish pioneers. “If you’re going to have a museum in Los Angeles tied to the Academy that celebrates arguably the most significant art form of the 20th century, how is it possible not […]
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