Category Archives: Los Angeles

Lana Del Rey criticised for wearing mesh mask to poetry reading

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Musician posed with fans at a Los Angeles bookshop wearing a glittery mesh mask that did not fully cover her nose and mouth

Fans of Lana Del Rey have criticised her for wearing a glittery mesh mask that did not appear to fully cover her nose and mouth at a surprise poetry reading and book signing event.

The musician read from her new collection, Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass, and posed with fans at a Barnes and Noble store in Los Angeles at the weekend, wearing a net facial covering that did not seem to assist in preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

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Donald Trump’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star vandalized again

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A man dressed as the Incredible Hulk reportedly took a pickaxe to the star, ‘destroying it beyond recognition’

Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been severely vandalized again, the Los Angeles police department has confirmed.

At 5.55am PST on Friday morning, officers responded to a call regarding the vandalism and took a report on the scene, a spokesman confirmed. He said the police department could not say how much estimated damage was caused.

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Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein facing six new sexual assault charges

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The disgraced film mogul, who is serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape, is accused of alleged LA attacks between 2004 and 2010

Harvey Weinstein, the convicted rapist and imprisoned film mogul, is facing six new sexual assault charges, prosecutors in Los Angeles announced on Friday.

Weinstein, 68, was charged with three additional forcible rape felonies and three forcible oral copulation charges stemming from alleged attacks between 2004 and 2010 in Beverly Hills. The new criminal complaint expands the LA case to a total of five victims, authorities said.

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Two Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies wounded in Compton attack

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  • Sheriff expresses dismay as protesters gather at hospital
  • Donald Trump tweet says ‘animals must be hit hard’

The shooting of two Los Angeles county sheriff’s deputies in an apparent ambush prompted a manhunt, reaction from the president and protests outside the hospital where the wounded deputies were being treated on Saturday night.

The deputies were shot while sitting in their patrol car at a Metro rail station, around 7pm and not far from the the Compton sheriff’s station. They were able to radio for help, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said. The department shared video of the shooting, showing a person open fire through the passenger-side window.

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Gucci heiress files lawsuit alleging stepfather sexually abused her

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Alexandra Zarini alleges Joseph Ruffalo sexually abused her from the age of six to when she was about 22

Alexandra Zarini, the 35-year-old granddaughter of Aldo Gucci, the man who turned a small Italian artisanal company into a global fashion brand, has filed a lawsuit in a US court alleging that her stepfather sexually abused her over a period of 16 years.

The action, filed in the California superior court in Los Angeles, describes years of sexual abuse from her former stepfather, Joseph Ruffalo, and complicity and a cover-up on the part of her mother, Patricia Gucci, and grandmother Bruna Palombo.

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Lake fire: huge blaze north of Los Angeles forces evacuations

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  • Firefighters battle to contain blaze before temperatures rise
  • Fire in Angeles national forest produces vast plume of smoke

A huge wildfire has prompted evacuations north of Los Angeles, with firefighters hoping to rein in the blaze before temperatures spike later on Thursday.

The Lake fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon in dense forest land in the Lake Hughes area of the Angeles national forest, some 60 miles (97km) north of downtown Los Angeles.

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Chateau Marmont in Hollywood to become members-only hotel

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Celebrity hangout will allow select group to own shares in ‘world’s best real estate’

The Chateau Marmont, a Hollywood hotspot and hangout for nearly a century, will be converted into a members-only hotel over the next year.

The owner, André Balazs, confirmed his plans to turn the 91-year-old building into a hotel at which a select group of members could buy into “a piece of a portfolio of the best real estate in the world”, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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Police shot Los Angeles security guard in the back five times, autopsy shows

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  • Andres Guardado was killed on 18 June during a foot pursuit
  • All five gunshot wounds were fatal, report said

The official autopsy report for Andres Guardado, an 18-year-old security guard killed by Los Angeles police last month, revealed that a deputy shot him in the back five times.

The findings from the Los Angeles county coroner, released on Friday, confirm an independent autopsy report released earlier this week by a family attorney. The sheriff’s department had faced intense scrutiny over its initial decision to request the findings be kept confidential under a security hold.

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Record Covid-19 cases in California as some countries prepare for ‘universal’ testing

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LA closes beaches and businesses as hospitals fill up while Bavaria announces ‘test offensive’

California has reported record new infections following its reopening as Los Angeles county ordered all beaches closed for 4 July and the re-shuttering of some businesses.

Amid warnings hospitals were filling up and others could run out of intensive care beds in the coming weeks, the state broke its record on Monday for the highest number of new coronavirus cases reported in a single day, with more than 8,000 – the third time in eight days the state has broken a record for new cases.

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Oakland moves to bar police from schools as bigger cities reject change

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Movement to get officers out of schools sees progress even as Chicago and Los Angeles school boards vote to keep them in place

A growing movement to get police officers out of US schools saw a major victory this week when Oakland’s school board voted to eliminate the school district’s dedicated police department.

But in Chicago and Los Angeles, despite protests by youth activists, support from teachers’ unions, and an outpouring of public support, school boards voted to keep police in public schools, at least for now.

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Ron Jeremy: adult film star charged with rape and sexual assault of four women

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  • Charges could lead to sentence of 90 years in prison
  • Los Angeles prosecutors will ask for bail of $6.6m

The adult film star Ron Jeremy was charged with raping three women and sexually assaulting a fourth, Los Angeles county prosecutors said Tuesday.

Jeremy, 67, whose real name is Ron Jeremy Hyatt, was charged with three counts each of forcible rape and forcible penetration by a foreign object and one count each of forcible oral copulation and sexual battery.

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Police officers shoot and kill Los Angeles security guard: ‘He ran because he was scared’

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Sheriff’s deputies chased and shot dead Andres Guardado, 18, a security guard at an auto repairs shop

After sheriff’s deputies chased and shot dead a security guard at an auto repairs shop in Los Angeles on Thursday evening, family members have identified the dead man to local media as Andres Guardado, 18.

The killing came amid national protest and unrest over the deaths of African Americans, and other people of color, at the hands of law enforcement.

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Pilot in Kobe Bryant crash thought he was climbing rather than descending

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  • Documents say Ara Zobayan was trying to climb out of clouds
  • Crash killed NBA legend, his daughter and seven others

The pilot of the helicopter that crashed in thick fog, killing Kobe Bryant and seven other passengers, reported he was climbing when he was actually descending, federal investigators said in documents released on Wednesday.

Ara Zobayan radioed to air traffic controllers that he was climbing to 4,000 feet to get above clouds when, in fact, the helicopter was plunging toward a hillside where it crashed northwest of Los Angeles. The report by the National Transportation Safety Board said Zobayan may have “misperceived” the pitch of the aircraft, which can happen when a pilot becomes disoriented in low visibility. Experts said shortly after the crash that the path of the flight indicated Zobayan had lost his bearing.

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George Floyd killing: protests rage as anger mounts in cities across US – live

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In Los Angeles, protesters marched through the downtown area before shutting the 110 freeway.

From @KTLA: protestors have shut down the 110 freeway pic.twitter.com/1WI75tIMOl

LAPD seen trying to detain protesters after squad car windows smashed, officer attacked downtown https://t.co/uHrpaRp3xm pic.twitter.com/gmxNAdO1uM

Demonstrator in DTLA made a cordon blocking the road out of Bird scooters pic.twitter.com/aV8c63SG4k

Kellie Chauvin, the wife of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer charged with killing George Floyd, is divorcing her husband because of his role in Floyd’s death.

Kellie Chauvin,
Through her attorney wife of former Officer Derek Chauvin the former Minneapolis Police Officer charged with murdering #GeorgeFloyd released a statement saying she is devastated by Floyd’s death, sends condolences to his family and is divorcing her husband @wcco pic.twitter.com/A5n7bYgdbK

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George Floyd: aerial footage shows protesters block LA highway – video

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Protests after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis grew as demonstrators rallied in Los Angeles, marching through the city and blocking both sides of a freeway. 

Floyd, who was black, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, which was captured on video 

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Los Angeles explosion: 11 firefighters hurt as ‘hash oil factory’ burns

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Fire department says 230 firefighters responded to blaze

An explosion in downtown Los Angeles has injured 11 firefighters, with scores more sent to put out the blaze in what was described as a factory making cannabis oil.

Captain Erik Scott of the Los Angeles fire department said “one significant explosion” shook the neighborhood around 6.30pm on Saturday and as first responders arrived they saw firefighters emerge from the building with burns and other injuries. Some of their uniforms were on fire.

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Bioluminescent waves dazzle surfers in California: ‘Never seen anything like it’

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Crowds are coming to see the light show as beaches begin to reopen after an almost month-long closure due to coronavirus

Mother nature has provided a radical gift to nighttime beach-goers in southern California, in the form of bioluminescent waves that crash and froth with an otherworldly light.

Related: California eases Covid-19 restrictions, allowing some businesses to reopen

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Harvey Weinstein faces new sexual assault charge in Los Angeles

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Prosecutors accuse film producer, serving 23-year sentence in New York, of sexual battery by restraint in 2010 incident

Los Angeles prosecutors have filed a new sexual assault charge against Harvey Weinstein, the film producer serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York for rape.

The LA district attorney’s office, which filed its original case in January, announced on Friday that Weinstein was facing a new felony charge of sexual battery by restraint, stemming from an incident at a Beverly Hills hotel on 11 May 2010.

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Keeping up with the Sussexes: will Harry and Meghan be LA’s hottest ticket?

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The royal couple are tipped to be the toast of the celebrity circuit but they will have to work hard to maintain their A-list status

Touching down to a city in lockdown cannot have been what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had in mind when they had imagined starting a new life in Los Angeles. With a stay-at-home order in place, all activities usually associated with the city – premieres, parties, events and schmoozing – were on hold when they reportedly arrived last month, and studios had stopped production.

Following months of drama swirling around Harry and Meghan’s decision to step down as working royals, which officially came into force on Wednesday, in the face of a deadly global pandemic they have finally taken a backseat in the public consciousness.

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James Franco accusers are ‘jumping on the #MeToo bandwagon’, say actor’s lawyers

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Franco denies allegations and asks Los Angeles county superior court to dismiss lawsuit against him

James Franco has responded to allegations of sexual harassment by two former students by claiming they were an attempt to “jump on the [#MeToo] bandwagon” and played into “the media’s insatiable appetite to ruin the next celebrity”.

In a demurrer filed on 28 February to the Los Angeles county superior court, Franco’s lawyers asked that the lawsuit filed in October by Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal be dismissed, saying none of the alleged events detailed had happened, and the statute of limitations had passed for the accusations.

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