Taylor Swift is “shockingly” offended by the idea that “The Life of a Showgirl” could be — given her recent engagement to Travis Kelce — her final album.
“It is not the last album. That’s not why people get married,” the singer told BBC Radio 2 on Monday.
“They love to panic sometimes,” she said, talking about conspiracy theorists in the Swifty-verse, “but it’s like, I love the person I am with because he loves what I do and he loves how much I am fulfilled by making art and making music.”
Rumors started to make their rounds after the couple announced their engagement in August through a joint Instagram post. Fans speculated that after she said “I do,” she would have children and move on from music — or so BBC host Scott Mills had informed his guest.
Wait, mothers can’t have careers? Swift called that a “shockingly offensive thing to say.”
Weeks earlier, the Grammy-winning singer announced the impending arrival of her 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on her now-fiancé’s podcast hosted along with brother Jason Kelce. Since the release last week, the rumors grew louder and louder, with some fans predicting this album would be it for the pop artist.
To which Swift pushed back:
“That’s the coolest thing about Travis, he is so passionate about what he does that me being passionate about what I do, it connects us,” Swift said.
Their passions in life aren’t so different, according to the singer.
“We both, as a living, as a job, as a passion, perform for 3½ hours in NFL stadiums,” the showgirl said. “We both do 3½-hour shows to entertain people.”
When she’s touring, she gets a dressing room, Swift said, but when he’s playing in the same space, they call it a locker room.
“It’s a very similar thing and we’re both competitive in fun ways, not in ways that eat away at us,” she added.
Over the weekend, while Kelce prepared for the Kansas City Chiefs’ “Monday Night Football” game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the future Mrs. Tight End released “Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” in theaters. The experience earned $33 million over the weekend, topping the box office, according to Box Office Mojo.
The music video for the album’s opening track, “The Fate of Ophelia,” premiered along with the release-party movie. Swift wrote and directed it.
“[The music video] is very, like, big and glitzy and it’s so fun and it’s supposed to be like the day in the life of a showgirl,” she said.
Multitasking has become a norm for the “Cruel Summer” singer, who juggled her last tour with the recording of the album.
Swift said she flew to Sweden on multiple occasions during the Eras Tour to record the album. Her loyal inner circle did not leak any information.
“My friends don’t rat, they do not rat and you can tell by the amount of stories about me that are out there that are absolutely not true,” she said.
OK, Swifties, you can breathe now. You can stop looking for clues into whether this is it for Tay-tay’s music career. Shake it off until her next release.
For the past five years, I’ve been interviewing Hollywood professionals about what they wish they’d known when they were starting out. The entertainment business can feel opaque and overwhelming, and many who navigated it the hard way said they want to help level the playing field for those arriving with passion but without connections.
The best advice — which is collected in a book I co-wrote with my former Times colleague Jon Healey, “Breaking Into New Hollywood: A Career Guide to a Changing Industry” — was often about how they handled chaos. The key to longevity, many said, is how you manage the rejection, instability and heartbreak that are unavoidable in the industry.
And as Hollywood has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, strikes, recessions and periods of contraction — some reports estimate Hollywood jobs were down 25% in 2024 from their 2022 peak — many of them have had to take their own advice. Decades-long industry veterans have pivoted to adjacent professions, including teaching and advertising. Some of them have left Hollywood altogether.
But others have landed their dream jobs. They’ve learned how to build something from nothing. They’ve gotten to show what they’re capable of, once someone finally gave them a chance.
The most sensible advice to give young people who dream of working in the entertainment industry, they said, is to run in the other direction — or at least have a backup plan. There are so many practical, safer choices that can result in a happy, fulfilling career.
But dreams have a way of resurfacing, no matter how deep you try to bury them. So here’s what I would tell my own kids if they felt Hollywood was their calling.
Learn how all the different parts of Hollywood come together and figure out which jobs best suit your skills.
Many people, when they imagine working in Hollywood, think of only the most high-profile jobs: actor, writer, director and producer. But Hollywood is made of hundreds, if not thousands, of careers, from pre-production, production and post-production, to representation (publicists, agents and managers), design and more.
Some questions you can ask yourself: Do I like being in front of the camera or do I prefer being behind it? Do I want to be on set or would I prefer a desk job? Do I want a leadership role or do I prefer going deep into the day-to-day details? This can help you determine which path you should pursue.
Consider whether this is something you’d do even if no one paid you to do it.
Many Hollywood professionals will tell you not to take unpaid gigs, as it devalues your work and the industry itself. But that’s different from the time and effort you’ll have to devote to becoming extremely reliable at your craft — as well as the work you’ll do to convince people to give you the job (filming auditions, developing pitch decks, building portfolios and creating demo reels).
People across the industry consistently told us it often takes five to seven years before you earn a living wage. You not only have to keep wanting to do it for that long, with no guarantees of success, but you have to see it as an investment in yourself as an artist.
Anchor yourself with two essentials: money and community.
People who come into the industry with wealth and connections will have an advantage. But if you don’t know anyone in the industry, be diligent about saving and investing the money that you’re making from your day job or side gigs.
Prioritize networking by joining or creating your own communities. Networking isn’t just about attending intimidating Hollywood events — it can also mean going to film festivals, taking classes, joining a gym, engaging with your favorite social media influencers, collaborating on passion projects, joining Facebook groups or finding other whisper networks.
Make friends inside of the industry who are going through the same struggles so you can lift each other up. But also make friends outside of the industry who will remind you that there is life outside of Hollywood.
Figure out how you’re going to distinguish yourself.
Hollywood is an extremely competitive industry. The harsh reality is that most people are replaceable. So why would a producer or showrunner hire you over someone else? What unique skills or viewpoints could you bring to a project? Figure this out; it will be your advantage and calling card.
And once you pinpoint what sets you apart, create your own work (whether it’s sketches, designs, animations, TikTok videos or web series) and put what you’re proud of online. You’ll need to get very comfortable with self-promotion. Make sure that you’re on people’s minds if a job opens up that you’d be perfect for.
Learn AI tools.
If I were talking to a current working professional about AI, we would discuss its ethical and legal implications and what unions can do to protect worker rights and fight for fair compensation.
But if I were talking to a young person starting their career, I’d say, embrace the technology and figure out how it can make you more — not less — creative.
Know that it’s good to take breaks from Hollywood — and OK to leave.
Hollywood veterans will tell you that they’ve seen the industry rise and fall, again and again. Each time there’s an upturn, it feels like it won’t last. And each time there’s a downturn, it feels like it might be the end.
If Hollywood is your calling, you owe it to yourself to try, but if your experience in the industry starts to resemble a destructive relationship, you owe it to yourself to take some space or call it quits.
But for as long as you’re out there hustling, have fun on the roller coaster and appreciate every moment you get paid to do what you love.
It’s the game of the year in high school flag football.
On Tuesday at 5:45 p.m. at Orange Lutheran, the unbeaten Lancers (18-0) take on unbeaten JSerra (19-0) in a game that should attract a large crowd and produce a memorable matchup.
Orange Lutheran and quarterback Makena Cook are the defending Division 1 flag football champions. JSerra, bolstered by a group of talented freshmen, have been surging and preparing for this showdown. Freshman quarterback Katie Meier and freshman receiver Ava Irwin get to test themselves on a big stage.
No Southern Section team has come closer than 14 points when playing JSerra. Orange Lutheran’s toughest game was an overtime win over Dos Pueblos, which hasn’t lost since.
There will be a rematch on Oct. 9 at JSerra and perhaps a third meeting in the playoffs.
But this game should do wonders for flag football as some of the top athletes in the sport show their passion and talent.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
The DeShaun Foster era is over after 15 games and just five victories, the former UCLA star running back’s storybook rise to head coach at his alma mater coming to an abrupt, deflating end.
After an 0-3 start that included back-to-back losses to Mountain West Conference teams, Foster was dismissed on Sunday in a move that showed the Bruins will no longer accept their status as the laughingstock of the college football world.
Tim Skipper, the former Fresno State interim coach who was brought in as a special assistant to Foster before this season, will serve as the interim coach for the rest of the season as the school commences a search for a permanent replacement.
UCLA was outscored by a 108-43 margin in its first three losses, leading to trolling tweets from the Big Sky and Pac-12 conferences in addition to widespread ridicule from national media figures who noted that the Bruins had clinched last place in the Mountain West and were the only remaining winless team in the Big Ten.
Athletic director Martin Jarmond said he made the decision to remove Foster after consultation with UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk, acting swiftly because there was no clear path to success in the Big Ten even with an extra week to prepare for the conference opener against Northwestern on Sept. 26.
“I felt with the timing, the bye week,” Jarmond said, “it gave our young men the opportunity to just take a breath, recalibrate and change some things that give them the best chance to finish out the season strong and also as a signal to our fans that this is not what Bruin football is going to be.”
Jarmond accepted responsibility for having hired Foster in February 2024 after a process lasting less than 72 hours and said he regretted putting the rookie coach in a difficult situation going into a new conference after national signing day with just half a year to prepare.
“I think you make the best decisions with the circumstances and the resources that you have to work with,” Jarmond said, referring to the constraints of still having the reduced revenue of Pac-12 membership combined with a condensed timeline.
Foster, who compiled a 5-10 record in a little more than one full season, is owed roughly $6.43 million in buyout money per the terms of his five-year contract, barring a new job that offsets that amount. UCLA said it would pay Foster’s buyout from athletic department-generated funds.
“Serving as the head coach at UCLA, my beloved alma mater, has been the honor of a lifetime,” Foster said in a statement. “While I am deeply disappointed that we were unable to achieve the success that our players, fans, and university deserve, I am grateful for the opportunity to have led this program.”
Starting Monday, the coaching change will open a 30-day transfer window for UCLA players who want to leave for other teams. Since the Bruins have not played four games, departing players will have the option to use a redshirt season but not immediately play for their new team.
The Bruins already appear to have lost three high school recruits after Johnnie Jones, a four-star offensive tackle from Bradenton, Fla.; Anthony Jones, a three-star defensive lineman from Irvine Crean Lutheran High; and Yahya Gaad, a three-star edge rusher from Medina, Tenn., said they were no longer committed to the school.
Foster’s dismissal shifts the spotlight onto Jarmond, who made the unconventional move to hire Foster despite Foster’s having no experience as a coordinator or head coach. Jarmond’s reluctance to fire coach Chip Kelly at the end of the previous season after the Bruins had absorbed embarrassing home losses to Arizona State and California necessitated the need for a quick replacement once Kelly left to become Ohio State’s offensive coordinator, leading some to blame the athletic director for leaving the football program in such a bind.
“I understand the criticism,” Jarmond said. “What I’ll remind you is these decisions aren’t made in a vacuum. There are many stakeholders and factors that go into where and when and how to make a coaching change. That said, ultimately, I’m the athletic director. I’m the steward of this program, and the buck stops with me.”
Foster’s biggest selling points were his status as a legendary UCLA player who had appeared in the Bruins’ last Rose Bowl game in 1999 and his success as a running backs coach at the school under previous head coaches Jim Mora and Kelly.
During a meeting at Jarmond’s home the night before Foster’s hiring, the candidate told his future boss that he would win through a relentless approach.
DeShaun Foster, left, holds up a UCLA jersey with athletic director Martin Jarmond after being introduced as UCLA’s new football coach on Feb. 13, 2024.
(Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
“He said, ‘Listen, Martin, no one’s going to outwork me, no one’s going to outwork this program,’” Jarmond said on the day of Foster’s introductory news conference. “ ‘If we lose a game, it’s going to be because we just weren’t good enough that day. But I guarantee you, I’m going to do everything I can and in my power to make this program successful.’ ”
In announcing the move, UCLA said a comprehensive national search for Foster’s replacement would involve Jarmond and executive senior associate athletics director Erin Adkins, who would be assisted by a committee composed of accomplished sports and business executives and UCLA greats that would be announced once finalized.
What will the Bruins be seeking in their next coach during a search that’s expected to last several months unless an ideal candidate who is available suddenly materializes?
“It’s got to be someone who exemplars our true Bruin values — respect, integrity and just understands those four letters,” Jarmond said, “but we’ll be looking for a coach quite frankly who sees the vision to take UCLA to the playoffs. We want to win at the highest level.”
Jarmond emphasized that this search was very different than the one that led to Foster’s hiring, noting the increased resources available because of UCLA’s move to the Big Ten and the extended timeline that will presumably lead to a wider pool of attractive candidates.
Jarmond touted Foster’s passion and integrity among the biggest factors that led to his hiring, and it didn’t hurt that the coach was wildly popular among returning players, allowing the Bruins to keep much of their roster intact heading into his debut season.
But Foster’s inexperience showed in his first game, the coach admitting he was nervous and unsure about how to address reporters after his team rallied for a victory over Hawaii. The Bruins started the season 1-5 before winning four of their last six games, momentarily steadying Foster’s standing with donors and fans.
A flurry of offseason moves in which Foster overhauled his coaching staff and scored a number of big recruiting wins, including the acquisition of star Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava from the transfer portal, appeared to show signs of growing on the job. Another promising development came during Big Ten media days in July, when Foster delivered a coherent opening message one year after stumbling his way through widely mocked and memed remarks that included the coach telling reporters, “We’re in L.A.”
But there was also a curious step backward. The coach who initially said he wanted to give his program a family feel, holding a carnival-like spring practice complete with a fire twirler and putting names on the backs of jerseys to help reporters identify players, severely curtailed access to practices and player interviews during training camp.
Foster’s team couldn’t consistently move the ball, get defensive stops or avoid penalties. The Bruins are still seeking their first lead of the 2025 season after having fallen behind 20-0 against Utah, 23-0 against UNLV and 14-0 against New Mexico.
Foster’s pillars of discipline, respect and enthusiasm clearly never took hold given his players’ repeated penalties, lagging preparation for lesser opponents and lack of passion on the sideline.
In his final meeting with reporters before his dismissal, Foster initially blamed his team’s shortcomings on a lack of execution before finally accepting culpability when pressed by a reporter about who was ultimately responsible.
“Everything that happens can fall on me,” said Foster, who turns 46 in January. “I’m the head coach, so it can fall on me.”
Trying to sound upbeat in a monotone voice, Foster said he would use the bye week to make tweaks before the Bruins opened Big Ten play on the road against Northwestern.
“You know, we’ve got two weeks to fix this,” Foster said, “and just looking forward to this opportunity to get it fixed.”
A proud Bruin having met an inglorious ending, those fixes will now be in the hands of someone else.
But Newcastle will still rue not pressing home their advantage with a full complement of players when the game was goalless.
Set-plays were wasted. The hosts were screaming out for a poacher to get on the end of teasing crosses that were gratefully claimed by Alisson. On the one occasion a delivery from Harvey Barnes picked out the head of Gordon, the forward failed to hit the target.
Digging deeper, Newcastle have had 26 shots in their opening two league games of the season, but Howe’s side have managed just six efforts on target and two goals.
Although Osula got on the scoresheet on Monday night, the 22-year-old is still developing and has never started a Premier League game for the club.
However, if Newcastle do not reach a breakthrough in the transfer market in the coming days, the Dane could yet line up against Leeds United on Saturday after bids were turned down for Wolves star Jorgen Strand Larsen and Brentford striker Yoane Wissa.
It was certainly not lost on Howe that one of the best strikers in the world is still on Newcastle’s books – and how the hosts could have used the Isak of old.
“The quality of Alex would have made a difference in the team,” Howe said. “I don’t think there’s any denying that. But, that said, the team has functioned really well.
“The performance of the players and the team in the two games doesn’t happen without every part of the team functioning well. You can’t carry anyone in this division against any opponent. Yes, we needed to score in that first half when we were on top. Goals change games, but we’re just dealing with what we have.”
Howe said he was “not party to the talks that were happening” after suggestions that Jamie Reuben, the club’s owner, had held face-to-face discussions with Isak while chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan is also in town.
But, one way or the other, a resolution to this saga is finally imminent, with the window closing on 1 September.
UCLA’s defense, the biggest unknown on the team a year ago, is facing even more questions.
A slew of players moved on to the NFL. No full-time starters return. Success will depend on several players with promising pedigrees but limited college production becoming playmakers.
As he stepped off a team bus Wednesday afternoon in Costa Mesa amid the warmest day of training camp, the temperature reaching 82 degrees before warmup stretches, Key Lawrence did not appear to feel any sort of heat, literal or figurative. The transfer safety who has made previous college stops at Tennessee, Oklahoma and Mississippi was humming a tune, savoring every moment of this new opportunity.
A few hours later, after practice concluded, Lawrence teased a reporter about wearing a collared shirt given the temperature, though he said it felt pleasant to him.
“I’m from the South,” said Lawrence, a native of Nashville, “so this, it feels pretty good to me. I loved it, honestly. Everybody else was saying it was pretty hot; I was the one looking at them crazy. This is what I love.”
One of nine transfer defensive backs — including four who have made multiple previous college stops — Lawrence has emerged as an immediate standout for not only his exuberance but also his initiative in pulling everyone together.
Defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe identified Lawrence as a leader on the field and in meeting rooms, saying the redshirt senior was eager to help teammates learn what amounted to a new scheme for almost everyone on the defense. Among the returners, interior defensive linemen Devin Aupiu and Siale Taupaki each started seven games last season. Edge rusher Jacob Busic made five starts. No one else coming back made more than two starts.
But in a sign of improved depth, Aupiu, Taupaki and Busic could come off the bench this season upon the return of defensive tackles Gary Smith III and Keanu Williams from injury and the possible emergence of several edge rushers.
Once rated as the top high school prospect in Tennessee by 247Sports.com, Lawrence has amassed a sporting goods store’s worth of college helmets and jerseys. He played in 10 games as a true freshman at Tennessee in 2020, appearing on special teams and as reserve defensive back.
After transferring to Oklahoma, he posted his best college season as a sophomore, making 47 tackles and forcing three fumbles to become an honorable mention All-Big 12 Conference selection. Two more productive seasons in which he never earned a full-time starting role were followed by a transfer to Ole Miss, where Lawrence played in four games in 2024 before utilizing a redshirt season.
Radiating energy in everything he does, even if it’s just bopping to the 1990s R&B girl group Xscape while getting off the bus, Lawrence appeared eager to make the most of this final college chance.
“If I have some juice and some guys may not some days, especially in camp, why not pour it into somebody else so it can affect myself as well?” he said. “You know what I’m saying? Just fake it ‘til I make it, if anything. But when I get off the bus, I’m just excited to do what I do. I just love what I do, man. I’m just excited.”
The 700 Club
As he recently positioned himself underneath the bar inside UCLA’s weight room, straining under the load of eight massive plates on each side, Smith’s teammates thrust their arms into the air while chanting, “Get it up! Get it up! Get it up!”
The defensive tackle complied, squatting 700 pounds. It was a personal record and the most of any Bruin.
His teammates swarmed him in celebration while flinging fake money into the air. In a possible nod to NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game, someone handed Smith a piece of paper with “700” scribbled on it to hold up for a photo.
It was a milestone in the recovery of a player who missed all of last season because of a broken ankle.
“Having the guys there to celebrate that moment with me,” Smith said, “it meant a lot.”
Having dropped 20 pounds from his 6-foot-2 frame as the result of a “clean” diet, leaving him a relatively svelte 315 pounds, Smith said he felt a significant difference.
“I feel lighter on my feet, feel explosive,” he said. “I feel twitchy again, you know, I just feel good.”
Etc.
Malloe said JonJon Vaughns, JuJu Walls, Isaiah Chisom and Donavyn Pellot were the linebackers standing out early in camp. Vaughns could replace the production of star predecessor Carson Schwesinger, Malloe said, as long as he maintained the proper belief and confidence. … A day after they were not spotted participating during the limited media viewing window, offensive linemen Courtland Ford and Reuben Unije practiced as part of the second team. Ford had both hands taped and Unije both elbows taped. The first-team offensive line consisted of tackles Garrett DiGiorgio and K.D. Arnold, center Sam Yoon and guards Julian Armella and Oluwafunto Akinshilo. … UCLA’s move to early afternoon practices this week after exclusively practicing in the mornings, Malloe said, was a schedule change implemented by coach DeShaun Foster to test players’ discipline. … Malloe said Jalen Hargrove, a veteran transfer from Rice who recently signed with UCLA, had joined his new teammates and was rounding into form with conditioning work.
A meal in Tuscany’s Valdichiana. Plus, L.A.’s best new Armenian restaurant. Avner Levi’s cherry-topped hamachi crudo. The chicken Caesar wrap comeback. And the best wedding gifts for restaurant lovers. I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes.
Something wild
Pasta with wild mint pesto made with walnuts and pine nuts at Massimo Giavannini’s Osteria La Vecchia Rota.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Most of the time we travel to escape our everyday lives, to experience something new. But sometimes we travel to return to something familiar.
I’ve been returning to the same part of Italy, an Umbrian town where it’s easy to slip across the A1 into Tuscany, for more than 20 years. For many of those years I’ve made my way to Osteria La Vecchia Rota in Marciano della Chiana, a small fortress town between Arezzo and Siena.
Two things bring me back. Certainly, there is the food, intensely local pastas and roasted meats you are unlikely to find in any of the thousands of Italian restaurants that exist in the U.S.
And then there is the proprietor, Massimo Giavannini, who appears before you in a burgundy-red chef’s apron and matching chef’s hat that, in contrast to the stiff toques favored by classically trained French chefs, flops jauntily to the side — a sign of friendliness and approachability.
You can order from a printed menu, but most of the time, if he is not handling a rush of orders in the kitchen, Giavannini — who has called himself “the innkeeper with a passion for organic produce” — prefers to describe the dishes for you in his distinctive raspy voice. These are the moments you realize you have found yourself in the hands of a passionate cook, one who wants you to understand what is special about the ingredients that will go into your food.
“You know pesto,” he said on one visit, “but our grandmother and grandfather made another pesto. We make it with selvatica mint [or wild mint], good garlic, good oil, pine nuts and walnuts.”
He explains that the portulaca, or purslane, which sauces his tortelli, is critical to the region in summer — for people and for animals — “because inside the leaf it’s like water … it’s important for energy, to cool off.”
Of the black truffle-topped ricotta gnudi I always order, he says, “Ours are green because they are made with … “
He struggles with the English word and then smiles big when I ask, “nettles?”
“Yes!” he says. We have done this information exchange before and I love it every time. Often, I’ll learn something new, but mostly I like being in his now-familiar presence.
Gnudi made with nettles and topped with shaved black truffles at Massimo Giavannini’s Osteria La Vecchia Rota.
(Laurie Ochoa / Los Angeles Times)
Of course, it was my late husband and this paper’s previous restaurant critic, Jonathan Gold, who first brought me and our kids — and then our friends — to La Vecchia Rota thanks to his obsession with trying as many places in the guidebook Osterie d’Italia, put out by Italy’s Slow Food organization. I didn’t see it in this year’s guide, but at one point La Vecchia Rota — specializing, as its website says, in “the now-forgotten cuisine of the Valdichiana” — was awarded a “snail,” the guide’s highest ranking for restaurants that epitomize Slow Food’s cook-local ethos.
Last month, a big group of us gathered in the piazza outside the restaurant, where tables are set out in the summer for al fresco dinners. Plates of our favorite pastas were passed around, including one of hand-cut squares of dough sauced with pears and Pecorino cheese and another made with Tuscany’s big-bulbed garlic known as aglione di Valdichiana, then platters of chicken “made the way it used to be,” roast pork, onions cooked in the ashes of the wood-fired oven and some of the best potatoes I’ve ever eaten.
We may have been a group of outsiders with no actual roots in this land, but after being fed here by Giavannini year after year, this corner of Tuscany has started to feel a bit like home.
Freshly baked
A spread of dishes, including fresh-baked breads, stews and an omelet with basturma at Tun Lahmajo in Burbank.
(Ron De Angelis / For The Times)
Ever since I shared a meal with critic Bill Addison early in his research for this week’s review of Tun Lahmajo in Burbank, I haven’t stopped craving the Armenian restaurant’s many meaty and cheesy breads, stews and roasted potatoes hand-mashed at the table. Since then, I’ve tried to get other people to come try what Addison calls “L.A.’s best new Armenian restaurant” — in part because Tun Lahmajo serves dishes that go beyond the classic repertoire of charcoal-grilled meats and sides we’ve come to love in Southern California. I wasn’t always successful. Maybe now, with Addison’s official blessing on the place, I can persuade my friends to come along.
Red hot
The founders of Dave’s Hot Chicken work the line in their East Hollywood parking lot pop-up in 2017.
(Dave’s Hot Chicken)
“A trio of friends — all from L.A.’s Armenian community, and all high school dropouts — scraped together $900 in 2017 because they believed that their Nashville-style fried chicken stand was the future,” writes Food’s reporter Stephanie Breijo. “Now Dave’s Hot Chicken is worth $1 billion.”
Breijo describes howArman Oganesyan, Tommy Rubenyan and Dave Kopushyan (a former line cook at Thomas Keller‘s now-closed Bouchon Bistro in Beverly Hills) went from an unpermitted pop-up in an East Hollywood parking lot to the central figures in “one of L.A.’s most astounding small-business success stories” after being acquired in June by private equity firm Roark Capital.
It’s a classic L.A. story — one more national fast-food chain born in Southern California. Of course, Dave’s is not the L.A. restaurant that popularized hot chicken in Southern California. That would be Howlin’ Ray’s started in 2015 by Johnny Ray Zone. He gives full credit to the Black cooks of Nashville, who started bringing the fire to fried chicken, especially the family behind Prince’s Hot Chicken, started in the 1930s by Thornton Prince after an angry lover tried to get her revenge on the philandering entrepreneur with an overdose of spice on his fried chicken. (The name of the woman who made that first fuming batch seems to have been lost to history.) Angelenos have access to the Prince legacy through Kim Prince, who partnered with Dulan’s on Crenshaw owner Greg Dulan to start the Dulanville Food Truck.
Back in 2020, columnist Jenn Harris made hot fried chicken with Prince and Zone for her Bucket List video series. It still makes good watching.
With a cherry on top
Cento Raw Bar chef Avner Levi prepared hamachi crudo with cherries and jalapeno in the L.A. Times Test Kitchen.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Cento Raw Bar has become one of L.A.’s hottest new restaurants of 2025. Its chef, Avner Levi, came to the Times Test Kitchen recently for our “Chef That!” video series to show us how he makes hamachi crudo, fresh jalapeños and an unusual but delicious addition of sweet cherries. Watch Levi break down half of a hamachi into two filets and then transform the fish into a perfect summer appetizer in this video. Then try the recipe for yourself. It’s a wonderful summer dish.
Closings
Shibumi chef David Schlosser prepares the mackerel dish shime saba in a style that originated over 250 years ago.
(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Reporter Lauren Ngtalked withShibumi chef-owner David Schlosser about his decision to close the Kappo omakase-style restaurant on Saturday. “In the end of 2023 to 2024, things really flattened out,” he said. “The staff is the same, the recipes were the same. The only thing that wasn’t the same was people just weren’t coming in.”
And in another loss for downtown L.A., Verve Coffee Roasters has closed its Spring Street location, the first shop it opened in Southern California. “Like many businesses in downtown L.A., we saw lasting changes in foot traffic patterns that deeply affected day-to-day operations,” a Verve spokesperson told Ng in an email. “The level of consistent foot traffic simply didn’t support what is needed to sustain the cafe in a high-overhead environment like downtown.” Its other L.A. locations remain open.
Chef Michael Mina‘s Mother Tongue in Hollywood has also closed, and Cabra, the Peruvian-inspired restaurant from Girl & the Goat chef Stephanie Izard at downtown L.A.’s Hoxton hotel is closing on July 31.
Also …
Contributor Kelly Dobkin says the much-maligned and often soggy chicken Caesar wrap is making a comeback “with some much-needed upgrades.” In her guide to some of the best new-style and classic chicken Caesar wraps, she’s seeing better bread for the croutons (from Jyan Isaac Bread at Dialog Cafe and Alfalfa), better wrap choices (grilled Mejorado flour tortillas at Ggiata) and sometimes changing up the croutons themselves (falafel croutons cooked in beef tallow at Mini Kabob and tortilla chips instead of croutons plus cotija cheese instead of Parmesan at Casa Vega).
Could this be the start of a wedding gift trend? Jenn Harris tells the story of Liv Dansky and Jeffrey Rosenthal, a couple who skipped the usual wedding registry requests and asked for gift cards to L.A. restaurants instead of an Instant Pot or even honeymoon contributions. Dansky was new to L.A. so when their guests came through with gift cards for restaurants all over the city — including Musso & Frank, Bavel, Osteria Mozza, Playa Provisions, République and Pink’s Hot Dogs — they started exploring the city through food and fell in love with their new home. “I lived in a lot of cool places, but in L.A., anything you want is accessible,” Dansky says. “On the weekends, we can spend the entire day running around, eating and exploring new neighborhoods. It’s the best way to get to know a city.”
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Stephen Reinhardt is a judge on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles.
This is intended as a personal appeal to a colleague and friend, Supreme Court nominee Stephen Breyer.
There are so many people who desperately need your understanding and compassion. The sad truth is that you are not only succeeding Harry Blackmun. You are the only potential successor to William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, Earl Warren, William O. Douglas and the whole line of humanitarian justices who understood the importance of compassion and the need to do justice, not just administer law. There are lots of able technicians who understand law. The nation, however, is entitled to at least one justice with vision, with breadth, with idealism, with–to say the word despised in the Clinton Administration–a liberal philosophy and an expansive approach to jurisprudence. Someone must carry on the work of the court’s great progressive thinkers–the justices who ended de jure racial segregation, brought us one man/one vote, opened the courts to the poor and needy, established the right to counsel for all defendants, gave women true legal equality. It was progressive justices with a view of the Constitution as a living, breathing document who gave full measure to that instrument–not the legal technocrats, not those whose view of the Constitution was frozen as of 1789.
You have a wonderful opportunity and an awesome responsibility. You can be a narrow, cramped proceduralist like Felix Frankfurter, or you can seize the occasion and grow like a Warren, a Brennan, a Blackmun. You can be cold, purely intellectual and wholly technical, or you can become what the President said he was looking for–a justice who is compassionate, who has a big heart.
I hope you will re-examine your judicial philosophy. Everyone who goes on the court should. And when you emerge, I hope it will be to assume the mantle of the Brennan-Warren legacy. Otherwise, that voice will be silenced–perhaps permanently. How ironic if that would be the enduring consequence of electing a President supported so strongly by the poor, the needy, minorities of all kinds.
Anyway, I am most hopeful for the court and the country with you there. Perhaps I’m influenced by my personal feelings, but I believe that you will not let the spirit of liberalism be extinguished, that you will be a strong voice for a philosophy that now has no other means of expression. It simply cannot be otherwise–not after all that your spiritual predecessors have fought and struggled for, including the marvelous and caring justice for whom you clerked, Arthur Goldberg. You represent an awful lot of hopes, dreams and aspirations–a vision of a nation. For better or for worse, those who depend on the court to protect their fundamental rights must now look to you. You are their best and last hope.
As I listened to the minority leader of the Senate say, “He’s not as liberal as Blackmun,” and as I heard Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) express his joy over your selection, I thought of how important it is to have scruples and convictions and to stick by them. How I hope that those who disdain the expansive and humanitarian philosophy of the Warren / Brennan court have misread you.
Conservatives who fight for what they believe in deserve respect and admiration. It is hard to have those feelings for others who are easily intimidated, who fear controversy, who care only about compromise and consensus or their own success. There are plenty of centrists around.They now represent the left of the court. While I rarely agree with Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, I respect him. When he was appointed to the court, he was a lone voice for a judicial philosophy of the right. He was regularly on the short end of 8-1 votes, but he spoke for an important point of view and he almost single-handedly kept alive the principles in which he believed. They now dominate our judicial thinking. I don’t expect you to be that successful, but at least give us a voice.
The court has lots of intellect. While you will add to it, Justice Antonin Scalia represents abstract rationality well enough. But soul is important too. That is what makes greatness.
APPRENTICE star and West Ham United vice-chair Karren Brady answers your careers questions.
Here, Karren gives her expert career advice to a reader who wants to sell their artwork.
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Karren Brady gives you career advice
Q) At the age of 53, I’ve taken up painting, and I think I’m pretty good.
I mainly paint landscapes, and would like to see if I could make some money out of selling art.
My dream would be to retire early and live off the proceeds of my paintings before drawing my pension, though I don’t know how doable that is.
My biggest problem is that I don’t know where to start with selling paintings.
READ MORE FROM KARREN BRADY
I use a computer for my office job, but I’m not very technically minded and I realise I need to create a website if I want to get my artwork seen.
But what else do I need to think about?
Pamela, via email
A) It’s fantastic that you’ve discovered a real passion for painting, and even better that you’re dreaming big and thinking about turning it into something profitable.
Don’t worry about jumping into building a website just yet – there are easier, more approachable ways to get your art seen.
Start small – take some good photos of your work (make sure you use natural light) and open an Instagram account.
The Apprentice’s Karren Brady gives career advice in game of Have You Ever?
The platform is free, simple to use and a great way to test the waters and see what reaction your paintings get.
I’d also suggest joining local art groups on Facebook, as I’ve seen so many people connect, sell their work and get advice that way.
Platforms like Artfinder and Etsy are also worth looking into, plus don’t underestimate the value of a local craft market to get face-to-face feedback and build your confidence.
Most importantly, make sure you sign your work and keep a log of each piece.
Finally, try to speak to other artists whenever and wherever you can – people are often more helpful than you might expect.
