Former United Artists executive (he was around for the release of films such as APOCALYPSE NOW, MANHATTAN and RAGING BULL) and biographer (including books about Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl) Steven Bach recently passed away. Here's the NEW YORK TIMES obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/movies/28bach.html?_r=1&scp=64&sq=%22los+angeles%22&st=nyt
Given the passage of time and the current disinterest in examining films of yesteryear, it's likely that Bach's role in Michael Cimino's HEAVEN'S GATE (an overreaching followup to the critical and popular success THE DEER HUNTER)--plus Bach's still-worth-reading memoir FINAL CUT--won't be remembered by today's media.
LA CITY BEAT, formed years ago to keep LA WEEKLY from having a monopoly on the city's alternapaper market, died as of last week's issue: http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2009/03/weekly_down_citybeat_to_s.php
Recent editorial/business decisions didn't help, including hiring Rebecca Schoenkopf and Will Swaim (in separate regimes) to give the paper some of the OC WEEKLY bratty "attitude" (more apparent during Schoenkopf's tenure)--and the discharge of respected film critic Andy Klein.
And now, one can imagine that Mike Lacey and Jill Stewart are in triumphant celebration--bathing in the delusion that their now unchallenged center-to-right alternapaper speaks for all of Los Angeles, and praying that no one comes up with enough capital to challenge them either in paper editions and/or on the Web.
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