Liza Minnelli - FishbowlLA

Journo Says Goodbye with Epic Sin City Love Letter

Richard Horgan — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 09:30:06 +0000

Steve Friess, a columnist, podcaster and major media contributor based in Las Vegas, has relocated to the University of Michigan as a Knight-Wallace fellow. For his final Las Vegas Weekly column, he uncorked one of the most memorable farewell-to-readers essays FishbowlLA has ever read.

Beginning with a full-time job at the Review-Journal in 1996, Friess’ professional experiences in Sin City mirrored the leisure capital’s explosive growth. He departed a couple of times for gigs in South Florida and China, but realized just how much Vegas was in his blood when he turned down a 2003 job interview opportunity with the Washington Post. Writes Friess:

I took a fake Liza Minnelli whom I met at the Celebrity Impersonators Convention to a 2 a.m. show by the real Liza at the Luxor. I covered rock-paper-scissors and Monopoly championships… I wrote full-service guidebooks geared towards gays, NASCAR fans and the French. My Little Brother (from Big Brothers Big Sisters) and I snuck into all the pools on the Strip and graded them for the Los Angeles Times.

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Corey Haim’s Family Puts His Belongings on eBay

Tina Dupuy — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:01:21 +0000

This Corey Haim story could not get any sadder. Turns out he was living with his mother in the Valley while she was fighting cancer when he overdosed and died at 38. To add to that, his meager personal effects are on eBay to help pay to bury him.

The seller, who says they are one of his fellow cast members from the 1985 NBC movie of the week A Time to Live with Liza Minnelli writes:

I HAVE BEEN GIVEN MOST ALL OF COREY’S BELONGINGS TO PUT ON EBAY TO SELL FOR THE FAMILY TO PAY FOR HIS FUNERAL EXPENSES. COREY HAD NO SAVINGS AND HIS FAMILY IS REALLY IN NEED !

The whole collection of used gym shorts and swag t-shirts is here.

Hat tip Joshua Stecker.

Previously on FBLA:

‘Lost Boy’ Corey Haim Dead at 38

Hey, The Wrap, If Everybody is an Icon Then No One Is

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FBLA 20 Questions:Mark Ebner

Kate — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 09:40:19 +0000

Journalist Mark Ebner has investigated Scientology, pit bull fighting in South Central Los Angeles, the Ku Klux Klan in Texas, celebrity stalkers, missing porn stars, sports groupies, college suicides and Hepatitis C in Hollywood. He’s got a book deal with Simon & Schuster and a tv deal with Court TV. Despite his busy blog, he yielded to our muscle and answered those deceptively duplicitous questions.

1. What’s the first thing(s) you read in the morning? The cereal box.

2. What’s your favorite guilty pleasure website? Gallery of The Absurd The artist known as “14″ is a genius, and twice the woman of the LA Weekly’s “Seven.”

3. What job do you fantasize about having? Sidewalk Sign Flipper.

4. Last movie you saw? In The Valley of Elah. Surprisingly, Paul Haggis can actually make a good film and, not surprisingly, Tommy Lee Jones can act. Too bad few will see this film until they’re reminded to around Oscar acting awards time.

5. Last book you read? Aftermath, Inc. Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home — a fascinating participatory adventure in the nasty business of bioremediation by crime writer Gil Reavill. The author takes the Discovery Channel’s conceptualization of “Dirty Jobs” to a whole new level.

6. Best show legendary biz/movie star encounter. In 1985, I spent a night sniffling, shaking and watching bad movies with Liza Minnelli at a resort in the Land of Ten Thousand Rehabs.

7. Proudest media moment? I have three:

Accepting the Genesis Award (for humane reporting) for Pit Bullies
(New Times, 1996); appearing as a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to promote Hollywood,Interrupted and hearing that South Park’s infamous Trapped In The Closet episode (the Scientology expose I consulted on) was nominated for an Emmy award.

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