By Drew Grant 9/06/12 12:51pm

Haunted Houses

The new face of terror (Facebook)

Paranormal Activity Producer Sets Up New Halloween Haunted House With ‘Terrifying … Smells’

Look, we here at The New York Observer are no scaredy-cats when it comes to haunted houses. After all, we’ve overcome waterboarding for the sake of journalism to make last year’s Halloween something special.

But even we are getting a little bit tired of the “real” horrors that producers have started coming up with in order to test our boundaries. For instance, this new haunted house by the creators of Paranormal Activity (1-4) and Insidious sounds terrible, and you couldn’t pay us enough money to go to Los Angeles and try it out. (Actually, you probably could … that number is around the dollar amount of a round-trip plane flight.) Read More

By The Editors 8:00am

Opening Shot

Suzuki. (Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

Trading Places

It’s time for us to escape the muggy, soup-like weather of New York, where we’re all the more conscious of the fact that with every breath, we are inhaling someone else’s recycled air. Oh mighty Mayor Bloomberg, deliver us from damnation! Or at least from this city’s cursed summer months. If we can eliminate transfats, why not the heat?

Of course, a clever individual might just pack their bags and head for a different climate completely. Take Jeremy Lin, who—with the ever-helpful hand of fan favorite Jim Dolan—may have realized it’s not the heat, but the humidity, when he signed on with the Houston Rockets. But that doesn’t mean New York isn’t without its own acquisitions: The Yankees picked up one of the greatest hitters of all time in Ichiro Suzuki (who’s looking a little grayer these days—distinguished, we say), Rick Rash for the Rangers, Jeff Otah for the Jets and possibly English Premier League veteran Tim Cahill for the Red Bulls. Welcome to town, boys. We hope your managers set you up in an apartment with central air.

Meanwhile, the rest of us just can’t wait to escape from New York, be it by plane, train or Jitney-mobile. Read More

By Hunter Walker 6/08/12 12:52am

L.A. Noir

Luka Magnotta posing in front of the Hollywood Sign in a picture dated to 2007. (Photo: Flickr)

LAPD Investigating Connection Between Luka Magnotta And Hollywood Sign Killing

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating the possibility accused Canadian killer Luka Magnotta was involved in a gruesome decapitation and killing where the victim’s head and hands were placed in a wooded area by the Hollywood Sign. The Observer was first to report links between Mr. Magnotta and the Hollywood Sign killing on Monday. We previously alerted police in Montreal amd Los Angeles to the potential connection on Saturday.

“Our detectives are contacting their counterparts in Canada and to see if suspect was in Hollywood at the time,” LAPD spokesman Lyle Knight told ABC News. “It’s an open investigation. Our detectives are trying too see if there is a connection.” Read More

By Hunter Walker 6/04/12 2:10pm

L.A. Noir

Luka Magnotta posing as James Dean in Los Angeles. (Photo: Luka-Magnotta.Deviantart.com)

Is Luka Magnotta The Hollywood Sign Killer? [Update]

Could Canadian killer and infamous internet villain Luka Magnotta be behind a Hollywood murder mystery? After an international manhunt, German police say they have arrested Luka Magnotta in Berlin over ten days after he allegedly killed and dismembered a man named Lin Jun, posted a gruesome video of the crime online and mailed the body parts to the headquarters of Canadian political parties. However, The Observer has uncovered information that could potentially link Mr. Magnotta to an infamous case from earlier this year where the severed head and hands of a man were found on a wooded trail near the Hollywood Sign.

Update (6/8/12 8:37 A.M.): The LAPD has confirmed they are investigating the possibility Mr. Magnotta was involved in the Hollywood Sign killing. Read More

By Daniel Edward Rosen 1/31/12 10:04am

Sales Beat

building

Stephen Meringoff Sells Last L.A. Asset

He’s putting all his chips on New York City.

Himmel + Meringoff Managing Partner Stephen Meringoff told The Commercial Observer that he has sold the last building in his Los Angeles portfolio, leaving the firm with a roster made entirely of New York City properties. Read More