EXCELLENT ARTS PROMOTION OFFERED BY FINEARTSLA.COM
Christian Chensvold's FineArtsLA web site inaugurates "Forty Unders," which he describes as "a marketing program aimed at developing younger audiences." If the arts organizations you handle are looking for promotion in return for tickets, contact Christian (Christian@fineartsla.com). He posts about the performances and offers a ticket giveaway to site readers, who must be 40 and under to qualify for the tickets. Among the participants so far are Jacaranda, LA Ballet, Musica Angelica, Pacific Serenades and Dilijan Chamber Music Series. BACK AT CITY BEAT I notice that Natalie Nichols is back at City Beat, listed in the masthead as Acting Arts Editor. THE PUBLICIST ATE MY HOMEWORK "Miscommunication"??? Does anyone else actually believe that? Apparently an AP reporter bought it. NEW YORK (AP) -- Ringo Starr is known for being the amiable Beatle, but the rock star showed his tough side Tuesday when he walked off the set of "Live With Regis and Kelly" rather than cut short one of his songs.
Starr, who is promoting his new album, "Liverpool 8," planned to perform the title song with fellow rocker Dave Stewart. However, due to miscommunication between his publicist, Elizabeth Freund, and the musical director, Starr didn't realize the performance had to be 2 1/2 minutes or less, Freund told The Associated Press.
When told Tuesday morning that the performance had to be shortened, Freund said Starr tried to cut about a minute of the song's 4 minute, 15 second length, down to 3 minutes and 30 seconds. However, according to Freund, producer Michael Gellman said it had to be less than 3 minutes.
"We offered to cut back our chat time and asked them to fade or go to commercial. They were not willing to do that and Ringo was not willing to cut it further, so without a compromise we were not able to stay," Freund said in a statement to The Associated Press. "Ringo left saying, 'God bless and goodbye. We still love Regis.' "
COMING AND GOING
Michael Mullen promises he is now Guide editor permanently at Los Angeles Magazine, replacing Sarah D. Wilson, who came and went pretty quickly. CHANGES AT OC REGISTER Listings maven Cynthia Furey has departed (to free lance, I believe), replaced by Matthew Ralston, who picks the featured events that run in the paper in the categories of classical and pop music, family events, visual arts, theater, nightlife and dance. He says he pulls mainly from the Z-Events online listings for what he uses in the newspaper and highly recommends submitting to that (although he's ok with getting emails, too). Although none of the writers at any of the papers involved seem to get this, I've discovered that if you submit events to LA.com (Daily News, Daily Breeze, Pasadena Star News, Long Beach Press Telegram, etc.), they'll show up in the OC Register's counterpart, SqueezeOC.com, and vice versa. So don't waste your time doing double duty. "ENTERTAINMENT CONTENT DIRECTOR" NAMED AT AP LOS ANGELES Daniel Becker has been promoted from photo editor to "director of entertainment content" at Associated Press in the LA bureau. According to a news release, "In his new position, he will oversee all print and broadcast entertainment coverage, including articles, videos, photos, audio and other multimedia." Including Britney. IS THIS GOOD NEWS OR BAD NEWS? A Pasadena Star News story reports on "Improvements in Your Local Newspaper," including that "The LA.COM section will now appear Friday, Saturday and Sunday only. In February, we will replace the LA.COM section with a new and more local weekender section appearing on those three days." Also, according to sources, Features Editor Catherine Gaugh has moved offices from the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin back to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune in West Covina. TRYING TO DECIDE FOR WHOM THIS IS BAD NEWS Here's the New York Times' story from Sunday on LA Times Editor James O'Shea's firing by Publisher David Hillier. LA Observed has additional information. Read O'Shea's remarks yesterday to the newsroom here.
IN OTHER LA TIMES NEWS… The Times' Readers Representative blog enlightens us on new assignments for three reporters: Ron Lin (Health Care), Dan Weikel (Regional Air Transportation) and Rich Connell (Multimedia/Government). In the Calendar section, Sari Heifetz takes over for Deborah Stokol handling classical music listings. HEATHER CASE MOVES TO TV GUIDE NETWORK Heather Case, previously with the now-defunct Charlia Tuna Show at KBIG (now known as 104.3 My FM – a mouthful, to say the least), is now talent booker for "Hollywood 411" at the TV Guide Network. Her new contact info:Heather Case, Talent BookerTV Guide Network1800 N. Highland Ave., 6th FloorLos Angeles, CA 90028323-817-4806heather.case@tvguide.com DEFINE "ELSEWHERE" The New Yorker has a terrific new (relatively) blog called "Goings On" which is described as being about "Cultural happenings in New York and elsewhere, both online and off."
