Here’s a new twist on the age-old SoCal commute. Big Time PR owner Sylvia Desrochers has traveled some 7,000 miles, by way of New York stopover for a wedding, to wind up in the south of France sharing this picture via Facebook:

“The address is 21 rue Pasteur, near the Carlton Hotel,” Desrochers tells FishbowlLA. “I have no idea why the building is called Los Angeles, but the one next door is called Santa Monica!”

“The rental agent couldn’t really enlighten me on the reasoning. The building is a typical Cannes apartment building: older, probably pre-war, with the original elevator with the gate and everything. So not very LA in the sense of history. But I do always feel like the weather here is similar to LA, especially Santa Monica or Venice. It’s warm when the sun is out but can turn chilly very easily – especially when it’s foggy or rainy, like this [Wednesday] evening.”

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Is this really necessary? Today in Cannes, Dave McNary of Variety confirms that a Bollywood film company will soon be remaking Sylvester Stallone’s 2008 offering Rambo. This plan was originally outlined at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, but it is only now – a year later – that full funding is in place:

Daljit Parmar, nephew of the late Bollywood multi-hyphenate Mehmood, said the Rambo and Expendables remakes should be in production by the end of the year.

“I am extremely excited to announce the launch of our slate to remake titles from some of the most successful action franchises in Hollywood on this historic 100-year anniversary celebration of Indian cinema at Cannes,” he said.

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Those were the days. At the top of his reminiscence piece about covering the Cannes Film Festival, LA Times film critic Kenneth Turan paints a delightful, junk-the-junket picture:

Cannes was more casual back in 1971, of course. You could hang out with Italian director Luchino Visconti without much planning or go see Jack Nicholson in his hotel room and spend the afternoon discussing his first directorial effort, Drive, He Said, with no more preamble than running into a friend of his on the street.

There were 800 credentialed journalists back then; today, there are around 4,000. Turan cites the 1999 Greek sci-fi parody Attack of the Giant Moussaka as one of his all-time favorites from the less carpeted Marché side of the annual event.

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It’s hard to argue with the selection of Janice Min for this week’s LA Weekly issue celebrating “the most interesting people” in Los Angeles. The name-brand editorial director has completely re-invigorated a moribund Hollywood trade, showed Jay Penske the way with her weekly glossy print edition and essentially steered clear of Nikki Finke‘s core beat.

So much so that a New York Post story today about the contract renewal status of Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter mentions Min as a logical successor. Here’s a taste from Gendy Alimurung‘s LA Weekly profile of the “tiny, friendly” 43-year-old:

The new Hollywood Reporter launched in November 2010, a scant four months after Min took charge. The compressed schedule forced her to think clearly, she believes. Sometimes too much time muddles your thinking. The proof is in the numbers: Online traffic is up 800 percent. More importantly, revenue is up 50 percent.

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The Twitter profile for LA Times DC bureau reporter Matea Gold resolutely states: “I still believe in newspapers.” But perhaps not those being coveted by Rupert Murdoch and a pair of Koch brothers.

In what could be interpreted as hedging her bets, maintaining control of her professional fortunes or a little bit of both, Gold is staying in DC but moving up in terms of the daily Beltway newspaper she writes for, as money and politics reporter for the Washington Post.

Warm wishes are flowing across Twitter to Gold, proof of how well-liked a journalist she is. That’s how we first caught up to the news. Kevin Roderick has the Post announcement memo. He also spoke to Gold, who seems to confirm ever so slightly that the transitional aspect of Tribune Co. had something to do with this.

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Kris Kristofferson has been friends with singer-songwriter John Flynn for a long time. But when the two step on stage together next month in Malibu, it will mark the first time the pair has officially performed together.

The June 23 7:30 p.m. concert at Pepperdine University’s Smothers Theater will benefit Homeboy Industries. Tickets are priced at $45, $75 and a VIP package of $250. That last option, for those able to afford it, includes a post-concert reception with the artists and Homeboy guiding spirit Father Greg Boyle. Flynn’s discovery of Homeboy’s mission connects to another Kristofferson family member:

Flynn first heard about Homeboy Industries when he and Kristofferson’s daughter Kelly swapped their favorite books and he received Father Boyle’s book Tattoos on the Heart. The Pennsylvania singer-songwriter is a longtime leader of New Beginnings, a support group at the state prison in his area, and the “real stories” in Tattoos were a poignant reminder for Flynn of his experiences working with men in the prison system.

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The event beginning this afternoon at 4 p.m. on Maple Drive is private. In attendance alongside the late honoree’s children and grandchildren will be those who knew Ruth Kraft mainly as an avid tennis player who in recent years courageously battled cancer.

Before all those matches at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club and successful real estate investments made with late husband Gilman Kraft, who passed away in 1999, Ruth was a long-time LA publisher. From the obituary in Playbill:

In 1966, she moved to Los Angeles with her husband, a former owner of Playbill. Together, they began Performing Arts magazine, a publication similar to Playbill that served California theaters.

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First, you find a bureau chief. Then – if you’re lucky and work for a media outlet that still has money in the bank – you go beyond the freelance-stringer frontier and give that bureau chief some full-time local assistance.

Such is the case with Ad Age’s San Francisco operation. After installing Cotton Delo as Bay Area bureau chief, the media publication will add, post-Memorial Day weekend, Tim Peterson (pictured), a journalist plucked from competitor Adweek. Via this morning’s announcement:

It’s been a while since Ad Age has had more than one edit staffer in the Bay Area and we think now’s a good time to crank up our coverage there…

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Sometimes, being a sportswriter is no fun at all. The assignments, especially in this blog-tastic digital age, occasionally barely pass the jock-strap smell test.

So… you try to make the best of it. Here for example is LAT sportswriter Chuck Schilken dutifully catching up to a weekend meeting of reality TV show minds Dennis Rodman, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner at the Brea Mall:

Maybe the so-called basketball diplomat was seeking their advice on how to handle the sticky Kim Jong-un/Kenneth Bae situation…

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Here’s how Los Angeles Daily News columnist Richard Waggoner put it earlier this spring when rumors of program director Jhani Kaye’s departure from K-Earth 101 and The Wave 94.7 FM were confirmed:

Considered by many, including myself, as one of the true geniuses of radio, Kaye refined the idea of flow as it pertains to the sound of a radio station. Bob Moore, who was managing adult-contemporary KHTZ (now KAMP, 97.1 FM) when Kaye was named to the programming position at new competitor KOST in the 1980s, said that Kaye likened the soft-rock station to a wave, moving up and down gently.

He says that Kaye is the reason KHTZ changed to classic rock in 1986 – he just couldn’t compete against Kaye’s programming prowess.

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