Jezebel: La Times

Jonathan Franzen Loses Book Award To Some Lady

Anna North — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 12:12:00 EDT

Accomplished novelist Jennifer Egan won the National Book Critics Circle Award for her fascinating, innovative book A Visit From the Goon Squad. But one newspaper seemed more concerned with who didn't win: namely, Jonathan Franzen. More »

Life On the Streets Is Tough. Being Homeless At 97 Is Tougher.

LatoyaPeterson — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:40:00 EDT

How do you envision your life at 97? For one woman, life is lived in the front seat of 1973 Chevrolet Suburban with her two sons, spending the days panhandling and scrounging for social services. Bessie Mae Berger is homeless. More »

False Modesty

Anna North — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:30:00 EDT

Apparently the LA Times (in 1971!) wanted to shield readers from the moral degradation brought on by gazing upon the naked chest. Solution: draw a shirt! But clearly the "artist" was on a tight deadline. [Sociological Images] More »

Making Headlines: Jennifer Love Hewitt Tries Another Tactic

Anna Holmes — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:50:00 EDT

[Los Angeles, March 15. Image via Bauer-Griffin]

Where Are The Project Runway Season 5 Reviews?

Maria — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:30:00 EDT

Project Runway Season 5 Reviews?" alt="Click here to read Where Are The Project Runway Season 5 Reviews?" src="http://cache.jezebel.com/assets/images/39/2008/07/projectrunway5071608.jpg"/>

Hey, did you hear? Project Runway's fifth season is premiering tonight on Bravo! We wouldn't be surprised if you had no clue about it, seeing that Bravo has done almost zero publicity for the upcoming season and we didn't even realize that there was a new season coming up until last week (apparently Bravo is too busy promoting Date My Ex or whatever other reality disaster it cooked up last season). Well, the lack of publicity has got some people wondering if Bravo is purposefully sabotaging the series before it moves off to Lifetime next year; the network doesn't seem to have sent out screeners to reviewers. More »

Chelsea Clinton, And Lessons In Media (Mis) Management

mcarpentier — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:30:00 EDT

The LA Times is starting to specialize in profiles of the non-Hillary women on the campaign trail, if this week's Cindy McCain profile and today's Chelsea Clinton profile are anything to go by. Although the paper managed to get a nice photo and plenty of ass-kissery into the Cindy story, its Chelsea profile (with unflattering picture) mentions the following: she won't talk to the press, even when the reporter is 9 years old; she repeats anecdotes that maybe aren't true; she has a "flat" delivery and a "raspy" voice; she wears tight jeans. The only unflattering thing the Times forgets to mention is the obvious crush her mother's spokesman, Phillipe Reines, has on her. (With two unflattering profiles appearing this week of his charge, Phillipe's apparently letting his passions overcome his professional duties.) More »

Susan Carpenter, the "Throttle Jockey" at...

maria — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:40:00 EDT

Susan Carpenter, the "Throttle Jockey" at the LA Times, finds that riding motorcycles is a great way to get attention from guys, but up to a point. She says that when a woman rides a large bike (above 1,600 cc) men no longer perceive the female rider as being "sexy". While testing a Suzuki C109R (which weighs 787 pounds and 1,783 cc) Carpenter says she felt "over the top and masculine" and experienced less eye-contact from men on the road, supposedly because they thought she was "batting for the home team" because of her big bike. However, Carpenter enjoyed the larger motorcycle, saying it was "by far" better than a sex-change operation. [LA Times] More »

Are You Sick Of Ladies On TV Looking Jacked Up?

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:00:00 EDT

In a piece for Sunday's L.A. Times, Mary McNamara wrote about all the Botox, face-lifts and cosmetic surgery on TV right now. For instance: Priscilla Presley. "At once puffy and yanked, her face, and its odd relationship to her neck, often takes on the dimensions of a Picasso painting." Or Barbara Walters, whose face is "painfully taut and shiny." Or Carrie Fisher, who made guest appearances on Weeds and 30 Rock: "Her face was so changed you had to hit the rewind button a few times to make sure it was her." McNamara also calls out all of the Desperate Housewives. She admits that criticizing an actress's looks can often seem sexist: "If women look old, we criticize, and if they try to fix it, we criticize more snidely." But the problem, McNamara says, its not that these women have cosmetic procedures — it's that TV critics don't say anything when their ability to act is inhibited. More »

Duck Tales

maria — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:20:00 EDT

Here's some Friday cuteness: animal control officers in Garden Grove, CA made a rare rescue mission to save a group of 14 ducklings that had fallen into a storm drain. The article comes with a video, complete with peeps and worried quacks from the mother duck who was "frantically pacing around the drain opening" when the rescuers arrived. The officers scooped up the babes into a cardboard box and then walked them (with the mother duck following closely behind) to a nearby pond where the family was reunited. [LA Times] More »

The Critics Speak: 'Georgia Rule' Is A Hot Mess

Jennifer — Fri, 11 May 2007 14:15:03 EDT

So you might've heard that Lindsay Lohan made a lil' movie with Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman called Georgia Rule. And it totally comes out today! But what do the critics have to say? While The New York Times gets oddly sentimental about Lohan — "The surprise is that she does it with such poise and intelligence....[The film] doesn't succeed, but there is nonetheless something admirable and honest in the effort" — the rest of the country is ready to throw-down with some harsher words... More »