QUINCY JONES IN EXCELSUS
Quincy Jones was more than a musician or a producer. He was a bridge between worlds. He wasn’t just a part of American culture; he was a shaper of it. By TONY CASTRO I only met Quincy Jones once,...
Category: Arts & Entertainment
IF TAYLOR SWIFT RAN FOR PRESIDENT, WOULD SHE WIN?
By NILTON OLIVEIRA If Taylor Swift decided to run for president of the United States, with her fan base and global popularity, it wouldn’t be surprising if she won, such is the impact fame has on...
THE EVOLUTION OF FASHION IN ‘AND JUST LIKE THAT’ SEASON 3: A DIVE INTO THE BOLDEST LOOKS
FASHION INFLUENCER LÍVIA GUEISSAZ EXPLORES HOW THE SERIES BLENDS ICONIC STYLES WITH MODERN TRENDS. With the third season of ‘And Just Like That’ production underway in New York City, fashion...
PENÉLOPE CRUZ & JAVIER BARDEM: A LOVE STORY WRITTEN IN THE STARS
FROM INTUITION TO FOREVER: HOW PENÉLOPE CRUZ AND JAVIER BARDEM BUILT A LOVE THAT THRIVES ON AND OFF THE SCREEN Hello, My Beautiful Friends, There’s something undeniably magical about the way...
J.D., You Were Always the Coolest Guy in Town
J.D had that rare gift of capturing heartbreak and hope all in one breath. He could take a moment, a feeling, and turn it into something timeless. It wasn’t just music; it was emotion set to...
SELENA AT THE EMMYS & A RED CARPET METAPHOR OF LIFE
The industry, which once celebrated the seasoned cynicism of reporters like me, had decided we were no longer the princes of the profession but rather its dinosaurs. Our extinction was imminent. It...
Dinner With Donald & Hannibal: A Presidential Feast
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s not every day that you find yourself with a front-row seat to the strangest conversation since Socrates asked his disciples to pass the hemlock. But here we are,...
THE BIEBERS AND MODERN BABY NAMING TRENDS: THE CULTURAL IMPACT OF JACK BLUES BIEBER
Hello, My Beautiful Friends! I’m back with another week of insights into the fascinating world of celebrity relationships and dynamics. This week, we’re diving into a topic that’s capturing...
THE KATIE FLOWERS INTERVIEW
"I want to inspire people to transform their relationships and, in turn, their lives. I aim to show that love isn’t just about finding the right partner—it’s about cultivating a deep...
MY LIFE AS MARILYN, MY DEAD OLDER SISTER
The LA Monthly interview with actress Catherine Hicks, who portrayed Marilyn Monroe in the 1980 TV feature Marilyn: The Untold Story as well as in the Arthur Miller play After The Fall and...
EMILY’S LOVE LIFE REVEALED: RELATIONSHIP COACH UNPACKS THE HEARTTHROBS AND HEARTBREAKS OF SEASON 4
Katie Flowers, a celebrated relationship coach and sex guru, delves into the intricacies of Emily’s romantic life and what it mesn for Emily and the show’s viewers. By KATIE FLOWERS The...
ZENDAYA AND THE ANTICIPATION OF EUPHORIA SEASON 3
Hello, My Beautiful Friends! Katie Flowers is your go-to source for all things sizzling in celebrity gossip. Today, we’re diving into one of the most talked-about topics in TV land —Euphoria...
When They All Left Us for Ryan O’Neal
WHEN I ELOPED with my girlfriend from college, my best friend had a good laugh at my expense. "People don't elope to Waxahachie, Texas," he said. "Las Vegas, man. People elope to Las Vegas." it...
LADY GAGA CONFIRMS ENGAGEMENT DURING THE PARIS OLYMPICS
By KATIE FLOWERS Hello, My Beautiful Friends! 🌸 Katie Flowers here, and oh boy, do I have some exciting news to share with you all! The dazzling Lady Gaga, the powerhouse singer, actress, and...
To Live and Drive in LA
I KNEW THIS DAY WOULD EVENTUALLY arrive that would require a dreaded in-person visit to the Department of Motor Vehicles — a premise that Stephen King should have considered as a theme for...
All About Love: The Art of Mickalene Thomas
By MARY FRANCES DAVIDSON Artist Mickalene Thomas begins her current exhibition at The Broad Museum in Los Angeles with a large banner stating, I Was Born To Do Great Things. Influences from art...
Britney Spears’ Sexual Magnetism: Unveiling the Secrets to Her Irresistible Charm
Relationship Coach Katie Flowers Shares Tips to Channel Britney’s Allure and Attract the Right Men By KATIE FLOWERS Britney Spears has captivated millions with her undeniable sexual magnetism, and...
George Clooney’s Exit Strategy: One Foot Out the Window
It's a scene straight out of a Clooney heist movie, but instead of robbing a casino, he's plotting an escape from the land of the free and the home of the increasingly conservative ahead of a second...
DIOGENES IN LA
For the last three years I have been a Thoreau-like hermit living amongst the Mendocino redwoods in a shack, a one-eyed cat my only companion. There, something slowly shifted in me as I slouched...
LOVE POWER: TIMOTHÉE, KYLIE & THE BIEBERS
In the ever-evolving world of celebrity romances, understanding the dynamics that drive these high-profile relationships can be as fascinating as the celebrities themselves. Katie Flowers, renowned...
MY LIFE WITH ALI MACGRAW
The passing of Ali MacGraw's ‘Love Story’ co-star Ryan O’Neal left us all with a nostalgic appreciation of the heartthrobs whose heartbreak ending sent the country out of theaters in tears to...
THE KING OF SANTA MONICA BOULEVARD
Cher, Diana Ross, Prince, Marvin Gaye, Barbara Streisand, Goldie Hawn, Liza Minnelli. Pick a name from that era, and they too likely shopped at Fred Slatten Shoes, a boutique he kept lit 24 hours a...
SCENES FROM WINNING A PRESS CLUB AWARD
ENTERTAINMENT FEATURE, FilmTony Castro, LAMonthly.org, “If Marilyn Had Been a Car, She Would Have Been a Ferrari” https://bit.ly/49ZO7BqJudges’ comment: What an entertaining story...
LAMONTHLY WINS SoCal JOURNALISM AWARD
Tony Castro Won for Entertainment Feature His paean to the late author Tom Wolfe's Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby ode to the California car culture chronicled the Ferrari...
A WEEK IN MY LIFE IN LOS ANGELES
By Morgan Riddle
Al Ruddy, Oscar-Winning Producer of ‘The Godfather,’ Dies at 94
Al Pacino leads tributes to two-time Oscar-winning producer of The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby and filmmaker who was also behind Million Dollar Baby, The Longest Yard and Hogan's Heroes. City...
Bored on a Wednesday Morning?
How about Attending the Goofiest Breakfasts You’ll Ever Have Who does anything interesting on Hump Day? How about singing, exercising, telling silly jokes, having a hearty breakfast, and...
The Princeton Mariachi Musician
East LA Native Introduces Mariachi Music to the Ivy League Sophomore Esteban Juárez González, a Garfield High School alumnus, raised money for instruments and recruited student...
‘Kylie Night’ at the WeHo Pride Music Fest
Is It the Real Pop Sensation Kylie Minogue or Just a Drop-Dead Gorgeous Queen? ‘I have been to drag nights,’ says the international LGBTQ+ pop icon, ‘and I feel like I am not getting the gold...
The Age of Larry McMurtry: The ‘Minor Regional Novelist’ Worthy of the Nobel Prize
‘Terms of Endearment’ followed ‘The Last Picture Show’ with great fanfare, but it was his Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Lonesome Dove’ that cemented his legacy as one of America’s best...
‘Cabrini’ Is a Masterpiece
A Miraculously Impressive Film About the First American SaintIt is also a timely movie for the world, in a period of racial prejudice, immigration fears and oppressive politics, no story rings truer...
‘Tippecanoe and Taylor, too’
Could Swift be looking at making history beyond the Grammys? The political consultant who helped elect Bill Clinton president says that Taylor Swift has an unheard of 93% ‘very good’...
Why Is Ridley Scott’s Film ‘Napoleon’ So Bad?
Perhaps we are just tired of dictators, and we don’t want to sit through 2 hours and 38 minutes (or a day) to deal with another dictator. We tire of little men who have squeaky voices and want to...
The Last Best Days of Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe
The famous but now shuttered Lucy's El Adobe Café in Hollywood holds a special place in California pop culture but now symbolizes the demise of the Chicano Movement's once promising political...
A Christmas Story
The Boy Who Loved Lint At a preschool in town, the teachers still talk about a boy named Trey who had special powers. It wasn’t magic, though that’s what his classmates had called it. The...
‘The Polar Express’ Christmas Classic Nears 40
When I was a young boy growing up in the suburbs of southeast Houston, every Christmas Eve I would sneak out onto our screened front porch and stare into the night sky as I tried to spot Santa’s...
Ryan O’Neal, Who Became a Star With ‘Love Story,’ Dies at 82
He was a familiar face in movies and on TV before his breakout performance opposite Ali MacGraw in the 1970 blockbuster. But it was overshadowed by years of personal problems. Ryan O’Neal, the...
Letters From Los Angeles: Small Pleasures
On making crumbles in a time of war. I have been finding it increasingly difficult to do…well, just about anything these days. I know I’m not alone. The horror, the grief, the paralysis, the...
Pete Aguilar & The Latino Presidency
By TONY CASTRO ON THE MORNING OF JANUARY 20, 2009, I am about 75 yards away from where Barack Obama would soon place his hand on the Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his 1861 inauguration and...
The Feminine Genius of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Our Lady’s feast day comes on Dec. 12, just two weeks before Christmas. Fittingly, the Latino Theater Company of the Los Angeles Theater Center will present "La Virgen de Guadalupe, Dios...
IF MARILYN HAD BEEN A CAR, SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN A FERRARI
From the debut of “Magnum PI” in 1980, Hollywood began an unrequited love affair with the Ferrari, objectifying, worshipping it and turning it into a glorified sex symbol much as it did Marilyn...
The Thanksgiving of My Youth at the Rio Grande
So I had come to the Rio Grande, symbolic of the border of my existence and the two sides of who I was. And right now I wanted to be neither. I AWOKE TO FIND MYSELF WITH a young woman I’d met the...
Elvis: An Abusive Husband or Just Uncontrollably Temperamental?
WHY DID PRISCILLA PRESLEY leave Elvis? Did the 14-year-old girl he fell in love with when he was 24 realize as she grew into a woman that they had little in common except for their daughter Lisa...
Memories of Ringo and the Carson ‘Tonight Show’ Green Room
Britt Ekland opened her dressing room door and grabbed my arm. She stood in the doorway clad only from the waist down, while holding her blouse close to her chest and leaving little to my...
Halloween at Outfitters Wig on Hollywood Boulevard
“The wig has gone mainstream and celebrates performance, creativity,” says Rebecca Sikora known professionally as Bebe Mcphereson, a former employee of the house, who bought the business and has...
Burt Young, RIP, Gentle Gangster. I Will Forever Adore You
By VICKI ABELSON Burt Young...brilliant actor, gifted fine artist, devoted father and grandfather, and a gentle, loving, attentive friend. I was so blessed to meet him, thank you, Candy, and get to...
Grammy-Winning Singer Gwen Stefani Receives Walk of Fame Star
The music legend and coach on the NBC singing competition 'The Voice' got her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame next to that of her country music artist husband Blake Shelton who was at her side....
Dorothy’s Stolen ‘Wizard of Oz’ Ruby Slippers Mystery Solved
The shoes from the film were stolen in 2005 from the Judy Garland Museum in the late actor's hometown of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and recovered in 2018 by the FBI. The thief was sentenced Friday....
Taylor Swift Film Premiere Shuts Down The Grove
Her concert movie chronicles Swift’s highly successful Eras Tour, which included six performances at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Analysts have said more than $100 million in advance tickets have...
The Daunting Curse of Historians Will and Ariel Durant
I read about the bookseller in Long Beach that had become trapped when the shelves in his store collapsed on top of him. I didn’t need to ask which books fell on him. I already imagined that he...