Fire in the Hollywood Hills.

Quinceanera might become a series.

Mia Farrow doesn’t seem too worried about starring in E.T.: Back on Planet Earth or any other Spielburg opus.

John Travolta is ready to move back to the mothership, if global warming gets worse.

Courtney Love cares only that her self-esteem is limitless and intact.

The LA Times might think Donald Trump is a figure of fun, but wait til he’s the boss. Or some other rich guy takes over.

Britney and Kevin are finally split up.

Persecution of Christians goes on–Chris Sligh booted from American Idol.

The LA Times should get an online game–Be An Editor–just like Seventeen.

Miss America dumped by CMT. Second Life, anyone?

FBLA is late with our Andrea Keller: Top Design insights, but we have a good excuse. NBC asked to check out her responses first and took their own sweet time about it. Make of that what you will. Hmmm. So, read on for the Chef’s Table challenge, and we promise to speed things up.
Blogging Top Design is all up-to-date. So is Pink Navy. So is Top Design Blogger.

Anyway, Andrea won the challenge, but hasn’t gotten the prize yet–$2500 to spend at Jonathan Adler. FBLA can’t help but wonder if that’s trade or retail.

FBLA: Did anyone know that you had all these restaurant world connections (wine, teaching at Otis), etc?

AK: I don’t think so–they knew that I teach at Otis but not that it was restaurant design. Both of my brothers are in the food industry and live near Napa valley, one is a winemaker and the other is a distributor of organic meat products/ranch consultant. When Todd was describing a cuisine based on the finest quality ingredients, my thoughts immediately went to Alice Waters at Chez Panisse and Thomas Keller at the French Laundry (sadly no relation). That’s how I started on the image of stone walls, thinking of a California vineyard and the food culture of northern california. To incorporate arts and crafts I wanted to emphasize joinery in the woodwork, and I found some William Morris-style textiles with a leafy pattern.

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Women’s groups who complained about billboards depicting a woman’s abduction, torture and death tell FBLA today that they feel vindicated by MPAA sanctions against a film company responsible for those Captivity ads.

According to Variety:

Genre banner After Dark Films was slapped with an unprecedented sanction by the Motion Picture Assn. of America on Thursday for posting explicit ads publicizing its horror pic Captivity. The MPAA had previously ruled the ads as inappropriate.

As a result, the MPAA has suspended the ratings process for Captivity and is requiring the horror specialist to clear with the org all further promo materials as well as locations and venues of ad buys.

MPAA has never before required a film company to clear locations and venues of ad buys, and the 30-day suspension of the ratings process casts doubt over whether Captivity will receive a rating before its planned May 18 release.

Earlier: Angelenos About To Be Freed From “Captivity”

The 2008 Elections: What Would Clooney Do?

Chris Sligh, Lame Guy: The American Idol also-ran says, “I never came into this
wanting to win it.” So what was the draw, Chris? The public humiliation?

Impulse Buy: Alec Baldwin was so moved by a soldier’s tale in the NYT, that he’s paying her college education.

At the Virtual Worlds Conference, MTV’s Jeffrey Yapp, announced a new virtual world product to join its Virtual Laguna Beach and Virtual Hills. The Virtual Pimp My Ride property will allow users to enter an online version of Van Nuys, California–one of the centers of car culture-and customize cars, race them, and join clubs.

FBLA is pretty sure this was dreamed up by someone who’s never, ever been to the real Van Nuys and would rather die than do so.

April Bazaar offers up Dina Lohan by way of Phoebe Eaton, who’s seemingly never met a celebrity she couldn’t air-brush in prose. Glossing Over cackles with glee over this loopy statement:

Dina won’t let her two youngest [children] ride in Lindsay’s car. “Look at me,” she says, making deepest, darkest eye contact. “Diana will happen again,” she says.

Not soon enough. Oops–does that make us a cyber bully?

Popsugar notes that Dina likes to pretend she’s Lindsay’s assistant. You just know she’d say she was Lindsay’s sister if she thought anyone would buy it.

And then there’s that whole white Oprah thing.

LA-based independent producer and investigative journo Eric Longabardi and Peabody Award-winning TV vet Roger Scott launched an online investigative reporting site Tuesday — because a pig flight school would have been too lucrative.

ERSNews.com has a terrible name, and a not-so-catchy motto: “It’s news: exclusive and original.” But we welcome any online journalistic innovation that doesn’t involve Britney Spears, so we wish them well.

Why an online news source? Here’s one guess: Investigative reporter Longabardi seems to have long ago given up on Old Media.

Here’s to the brave, new world.

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Marc Olmsted, aka The Trash Whisperer sets a good example for those who live in Loz Feliz and see him picking up other people’s litter. He has a piece about this altrustic activity in the Los Feliz Ledger, which he’s thoughtfully scanned.

See, Olmsted is really into that whole clean and sober thing, because he’s a writer who did some time in prison, got straight while staying gay and writes poetry while making the world a better place. And he wrote this:

I am not responsible for what goes on in the world, I have little control over what other people do. But I can choose and be responsible for my reaction to everything. In fact, I can even choose joy on daily basis.

He’s picking up other people’s coffee cups, cigarette packs, and sometimes, report cards.

Andy Carvin declares today as Stop Cyberbullying Day. Blogher’s Lisa Stone, writing about Kathy Sierra, exhorts us to Hate the Hate Speech. There’s an online community (when is there ever not an online community?). Angela Gunn, in US Today, suggests:

We start treating the blogosphere less like an episode of Jackass and more like the place we live.

And Violet Blue makes the case that cyber threats are usually directed against women, but she doesn’t mention the late Cathy Seipp and her cyber-annoyer, Eliot Stein, aka Troll Dolls.

Meanwhile, someone has been busy, laboring at the parody trade. Eliot Stein’s Diary is not safe for work, according to Patterico.
That alone is enough to make most people click through.

(FBLA thinks the guy in the logo is sort of hot–in a Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down way. Is that so wrong?)

THURSDAY 03.29.07
WHAT: SoCal Journalists’ Mixer
WHO: So Cal Journalists
WHEN: 6:30 p.m.
WHERE: Redwood Bar and Grill, downtown.
WHY: Bitching about the job market is more fun in crowds.

SATURDAY 03.31.07
WHAT: Book signing, Storm Runners
WHO: T. Jefferson Parker
WHEN: 1 p.m.
WHERE: Laguna Beach Books
WHY: Parker bothered to walk the 1/2 mile to the bookstore for the signing, shouldn’t you drive the 20 miles to the signing?

SUNDAY 04.01.07
WHAT: BENEFIT–ADAM’S GIFT
WHO: Trader Joe’s employee, Adam Authier, was hit by a hit and run driver, on Hyperion.
WHEN: 1:00-6:00 p.m
WHERE: GRAND AVENUE CLUB, 1024 South Grand Avenue
WHY: Do good and meet up with like-minded folks, all at once.

WEDNESDAY 04.04.07
WHAT: “Big Time,” Filter Magazine’s exclusive screening of film Hot Fuzz
WHO: Filter Magazine
WHEN: 7 p.m.
WHERE: Hammer Museum
WHY: Because Shaun of the Dead was funnier than you thought it would be. RSVPs required.