LOS ANGELES—Once upon a time—say, around 1995—one of the most coveted occupations in all the land was that of situation comedy writer. Ivy League grads traded in their Heidegger and Foucault for jobs staying up all night, cracking jokes and devouring Twizzlers. Work, if you could call it that, was abundant. Money flowed, in the Read More
HOLLYWOOD—Rob Weiss, a writer and executive producer of the popular HBO series Entourage and the inspiration for its bombastic director character Billy Walsh, was sitting outside at the Bourgeois Pig, a dingy coffeehouse at the foot of Beachwood Canyon. He looked wary.
“Want a coffee?” asked Josh, Mr. Weiss’ assistant—or “entourager,” as his boss Read More
LOS ANGELES—On this Wednesday, April 12, some 30 people will gather in a cramped West Hollywood apartment for the raucous Passover Seder of Jeffrey (Z-Dog) Zarnow, a former producer who now owns the liquor company Starr African Rum. It is, Mr. Zarnow said, a “debaucherous affair” that begins with a “blaring rock ’n’ roll song”—usually Read More
ASPEN—Nick Swardson, a comedian from Los Angeles, was standing in the lobby of the sprawling, red-bricked St. Regis Resort, wearing a gray T-shirt with a silver revolver on it, low-slung jeans and sneakers. It was 10 degrees outside. “It’s such a weird place—I almost feel like I’m in Dumb and Dumber,” said Mr. Swardson, 30, Read More
Outside the valet station of L’Ermitage hotel in Beverly Hills on a recent evening, the actor James Woods was bellowing into his cell phone: “Give the guy a hundred dollars! Just give it to him!” Inside at the Writer’s Bar, the hotel’s softly lit den for after-hours negotiations over $1,400 bottles of Mumm Cordon Rouge Read More
Dick Zanuck was on the phone from London, where he’s in pre-production on a Tim Burton–directed film version of the musical Sweeney Todd, discussing the regular tennis games he hosts at his house in the tony, gated community of Beverly Park. “It’s very competitive,” said Mr. Zanuck, part of the producing dynasty that includes father Read More
LOS ANGELES—On this Wednesday, April 12, some 30 people will gather in a cramped West Hollywood apartment for the raucous Passover Seder of Jeffrey (Z-Dog) Zarnow, a former producer who now owns the liquor company Starr African Rum. It is, Mr. Zarnow said, a “debaucherous affair” that begins with a “blaring rock ’n’ roll song”—usually Read More
At the New York Film Critics Circle awards at Cipriani on Sunday night, an evening considered to be the official kickoff to full-on Oscar fever, the red carpet was decidedly low-key. Apparently, it was all about serious awards for serious actors. Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee and Capote’s Philip Seymour Hoffman gamely made their way Read More
Half a century ago in Hollywood, men conveyed power simply: typically with a black suit, ideally tailored by Jack Taylor, whose shop—snuggled up to Spago on Cañon Drive in Beverly Hills—remains a white-carpeted testament to a time when the loaded word “metrosexual” wasn’t necessary to describe a gentleman who knew a thing or two about Read More
Half a century ago in Hollywood, men conveyed power simply: typically with a black suit, ideally tailored by Jack Taylor, whose shop—snuggled up to Spago on Cañon Drive in Beverly Hills—remains a white-carpeted testament to a time when the loaded word “metrosexual” wasn’t necessary to describe a gentleman who knew a thing or two about Read More
