MY GRANDFATHER’S LAST CHRISTMAS
By TONY CASTRO The last Christmas gifts my grandfather gave me came early—sometime in the middle of summer when I was just four years old. They were simple: a stuffed lion and a bear. Yet for him,...
Category: Best Thing in LA
THE GHOSTS OF LUCY’S EL ADOBE: A LOVE STORY IN TACOS AND TEARS
Resurrecting Lucy's El Adobe Café, a beloved Hollywood landmark facing a hopeful revival, restaurateur heiress Patricia Casado fights to restore her father Frank's legacy. After years of decline,...
A 40-YEAR ANNIVERSARY, A SURPRISE MASS, AND A DASH TO DAN TANA’S
Thanksgiving isn’t just about turkey and pie—it’s about gratitude for the beautifully imperfect lives we lead, and for the people who walk beside us through it all. And this Thanksgiving, I am...
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...
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...
MY FABULOUS LIFE AT THE BARN
One of Hollywood’s Most Significant Landmarks Still Stands In a city where they think nothing of knocking down Pickfair, bulldozing the Garden of Allah and destroying the streamline...
Joe DiMaggio, Baseball Turns Its Lonely Eyes to You
Baseball doesn't need a halftime show. In fact, it doesn’t even have a halftime. And when you hear the national anthem, it’s supposed to be a clear transition from standing at attention to...
Shohei Ohtani: The Best There Ever Was
I came to town to promote my books about a legendary baseball player, including one titled 'The Best There Ever Was.' I saw a ball game while here. And I wound up leaving feeling like I had...
THE GREAT RAT & OPOSSUM HEIST OF CAMPAIGN 2024
I have always believed that nothing brings a neighborhood together quite like a good old-fashioned scandal. And in our cozy, diverse, and mostly serene Southern California community, we now find...
If Marilyn Had Been the Ultimate Ferrari…
From the debut of “Magnum PI” in 1980, Hollywood has had an unrequited love affair with the Ferrari, objectifying, worshipping it and turning it into a glorified sex symbol as if it were...
WHAT CINDERELLA’S SHOWING MEANS
Newcomer Ysabel Jurado's 1st-Place Finish Rocks Los Angeles council District 14 Race For progressive policy advocates, results at the local level like Jurado’s win in what could ultimately become...
FINDING NOVELTY IN THE LIFESTYLE OF OUR TOWN’S JAY GATSBY
Like Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” narrator Nick Carraway, I live directly across the street from the exclusive turf of another extravagantly wealthy businessman — Rick Caruso's Palisades...
IS RICK CARUSO THE LAST BEST HOPE FOR SAVING LA?
Billionaire shopping mall magnate Rick Caruso is stepping out of the political shadows with a new plan to help swing-seat Democrats retake the House in 2024. Rick Caruso may not be the last best...
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...
‘Nothing Stops a Bullet Like a Job’
Father Greg Boyle Honored with Presidential Medal of Freedom Fr. Greg has come to a deeper truth: That personal transformation requires healing the scars that prevent people from realizing their...
Cesar Chavez in Excelsus
Remembering the Chicano Civil Rights Leader ‘I will forgive them, but I will also keep fighting them with non-violence, with justice and with human dignity — and you must do the same,’ said...
Cinderella Steals the Thunder
Could De León Be Facing Tenant Rights Attorney Jurado? On their way to ousting the embattled city councilman in the 14th District who refused to resign amid scandal, his two most formidable...
Nithya Raman and the Making of a Sanctuary City
WITH DEGREES FROM HARVARD AND MIT and the charismatic charm of a Bollywood star, Nithya Raman could have stepped out of Indian cinema. Instead her tenure on the Los Angeles City Council has been...
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...
My Grandfather’s Last Christmas
MY GRANDFATHER'S LAST CHRISTMAS gifts to me came early, sometime in mid-summer of the year when I was four. They were simple gifts. A stuffed lion and a bear, but they were expensive gifts for him...
A SEASON OF CELEBRATION: THE BEST HOLIDAY FESTIVITIES OF 2023
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...
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....
The Great Breakfast Burrito Debate
There's an abundance of breakfast burrito options in Los Angeles. But which ones reign supreme? By SARAH PACIOCCO There’s several schools of thought when it comes to what makes the “best”...
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...
Pasadena Tournament of Roses Announces 2024 Royal Court
Members of the 2024 Royal Court will serve as ambassadors of the Tournament of Roses, the Pasadena community, and the greater Los Angeles area, and will each receive a $7,500 educational...
The Great de León: A Reckoning for Los Angeles
How Los Angeles deals with Kevin de León and therefore with itself will show it to be either the Tinseltown viewed by its detractors — selfish and exclusive — or the city seen by its...
Disney Expanding Parks with $60B Investment
Disney has more than 1,000 acres of available expansion space, roughly the equivalent of seven Disneyland parks — end it is pouring a small fortune into developing them for future visitors to the...
Living in the Shadow of Ruben Salazar
On Aug. 29, 1970, the National Chicano Moratorium in East Los Angeles protested the disproportionately high casualties among Latinos in Vietnam — but led to the tragic police shooting death of...
Where Is the Herald Examiner When We So Desperately Need a Laugh
AS A DEPUTY EDITOR OF THE LATE AND SOMETIMES lamented Los Angeles Herald Examiner paper, back then under the editorship of Jim Bellows, I occasionally was asked to look at gossip items...
Antonio Villaraigosa: ‘I Want My Picture on That Wall’
Once Jerry Brown’s hangout, Lucy’s El Adobe opens its doors to the new favorite son. By Tony Castro Columnist, Los Angeles Daily News The story appeared January 8, 2006, but it is published with...
‘A celebrity murder: Quick, someone call Dominick Dunne’
By Tony Castro Columnist, Los Angeles Daily News DOMINICK DUNNE SURVEYED THE ORNATE, hacienda-style lounge at the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel, knotted his thick gray eyebrows in disapproval and...
Randy Newman: Why I Wrote ‘I Love L.A.’
BY GEOFF BOUCHER, MAY 11, 2008 Republished with permission of the Los Angeles Times. RANDY NEWMAN HAS MADE a career out of melodic skepticism and deadpan rhythm, but he sounded genuinely...