Economist.com Cities Guide: Los Angeles Briefing - June 2006

News this month

Hollywood's wiretap dance

The Anthony Pellicano affair gets murkier by the month. Mr Pellicano, a private detective, was charged in February with 110 counts of conspiracy and racketeering for, among other things, illegally wiretapping members of the Hollywood elite to get information for his clients. So far 14 people have been charged, and John McTiernan, a director, and Brad Grey, a producer, are among the Hollywood heavyweights who have been smeared by the inquiry.

Prosecutors added another twist on May 8th, when they filed documents alleging that Mr Pellicano conspired with mobsters to arrange the murder of Alexander Proctor, a career criminal, in prison. Mr Pellicano allegedly hired Mr Proctor in 2002 to threaten a Los Angeles Times reporter who was researching possible links between Steven Seagal, an action star, and the mafia. By allegedly arranging to have Mr Proctor killed, Mr Pellicano was hoping to remove the threat of his testimony. Prosecutors argue that Mr Pellicano should be denied bail lest he interfere with witnesses.

It's all Greek

As if the Getty Museum had not seen enough trouble this year, a scandal over stolen art has spread from Italy to the Greek isles. In early May Greek authorities announced that they would charge Marion True, the Getty’s former curator of antiquities, with keeping 29 illegally acquired artefacts at her villa on the Greek island of Paros. Ostensibly these charges would have no effect on the Getty: Ms True resigned from the museum last year and there is no sign that the artefacts, which she claims were at the villa when she bought it in 1995, were ever destined for the museum. But these days any scandal involving Ms True is a scandal for the Getty. She is already on trial in Rome for allegedly acquiring looted antiquities (with the Getty paying for her defence), and Italian authorities have used the trial to pressure the museum to return objects of dubious provenance.

Greece seems to have taken a page from Italy’s book, using the threat of charges against Ms True to urge the Getty to return several items. On May 16th the Getty’s new director, Michael Brand, visited Athens to consult with the Greek culture minister about four antiquities in the Getty collection. Mr Brand then announced that he would recommend that the museum’s board return at least two.

Going for a touchdown

Los Angeles has two basketball teams, an ice hockey team and even two soccer teams. So why not a team in the National Football League (NFL)? The city has been bereft of American football since 1994, when the Rams moved to St Louis and the Raiders to Oakland. Antonio Villaraigosa, LA’s mayor, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s governor, flew to Dallas in early May to lobby NFL owners in the hopes of luring a team back to America’s second city.

Key to persuading the NFL owners will be LA’s ability to revamp the ageing Coliseum stadium, host of the 1932 and 1984 Olympics. The city is proposing an $800m refurbishment that would lower the seating capacity from 92,000 to 67,000, but provide some 200 lucrative luxury boxes. Long-suffering sports fans—such as those who struggle through gnarled traffic to see the LA Lakers play basketball at the Staples Centre—must keep their fingers crossed that this stadium plan will include better transport links.

McDisney no more

After ten years, the Walt Disney Company and McDonald's are ending their cross-promotional partnership. The arrangement had worked well for both sides—the McDonald's franchise promoted Disney movies, and children clamoured for Happy Meals stocked with Disney toys. But last summer, the two companies announced that they would not renew the deal when it expired this year. Then on May 8th the Los Angeles Times reported that the decision was Disney's, as the company did not want to be tied to a company associated with childhood obesity.

Spokesmen for both McDonald’s and Disney have rebutted the theory that health concerns had anything to do with the deal’s dissolution. Instead they pointed to a mutual desire to have more flexibility with film promotions. This would make particular sense for McDonald's, which has been courting deals with rival animation companies, such as DreamWorks. The partnership will end after this summer’s release of “Cars” and the sequel to the “Pirates of the Caribbean”.

Getting matey with the pirates

Hollywood studios have a justifiable fear of piracy: a new report by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) says that illegal copying of films cost studios $6.1 billion last year, including $2.3 billion from internet downloads. Given this threat, the film industry is beginning to follow the music industry’s lead: if you can’t beat them, why not enlist them? On May 9th Warner Brothers, a film studio, agreed to let users of BitTorrent, a pioneer in file-sharing software, download films and TV shows.

The MPAA has in the past sued computer-nerds for using BitTorrent software to share films with their friends. Warner Brothers, however, says a deal with BitTorrent will strengthen the studio, not weaken it. BitTorrent has agreed to build strong anti-copy protections in its software and remove links to illicit copies of Warner Brothers’ content. Still, those hoping that the deal will guarantee cheap downloads of the studio’s hits may be disappointed: a downloaded film will cost the same as buying the DVD.

Catch if you can

June 2006

Degas at the Getty

Until June 11th 2006

Edgar Degas is so well-known for his paintings of dancers that the rest of his oeuvre is often forgotten. Thankfully, the Getty Centre is not so careless: until June 11th a display of the museum’s 14 Degas paintings, drawings and photographs should remind visitors that the Frenchman was more than just a clever turn-of-the-century painter of ballerinas.

The exhibit’s highlights include a wonderful self-portrait, painted at the tender age of 23, and “The Milliners”, a recent acquisition, which contrasts brightly coloured ribbons with a listless, ashen milliner. It is also enlightening to see Degas’s photographs alongside his paintings. He was deeply influenced by the new medium and the way a camera framed a subject in motion.

J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Centre, 1200 Getty Centre Drive. Tel: +1 (310) 440-7300. Open: Tues-Sun 10am-6pm (Fri-Sat until 9pm). Entry is free; parking $7. For more information visit the museum’s website.

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