Luke Ford | No sacred cows.

New Jewish Community High School West

Posted on November 10, 2007 by Luke Ford

Bruce Powell started a community Jewish high school in Agoura. Now Jeff Abram is trying to get one started on the West side. He’s trying to raise $25 million. If he does, that could be the death blow to the Orthodox Shalhevet (half its students come from non-Orthodox homes), which is running at a deficit of $2-3 million. Maimonidies and Harkham Hillel day schools are also running at a substantial deficit.

The Museum of Tolerance is sending out letters around the Pico-Robertson community trying to drum up support for its expansion plans, but many in the community don’t feel the MOT is doing anything for them.

"When was the last time Rabbi Marvin Hier taught in the community?" one frum Jew asked me.

I replied that every event (at least 30) that I’ve attended at the MOT has been first rate and that in my view Rabbi Marvin Hier and his son Rabbi Ari are worth every dollar of their substantial salaries.

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Camera Of Death Vs. Hollywood Cure for Pain

Posted on November 9, 2007 by Luke Ford

Click here for photos and report.

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Making Love Out Of Nothing At All

Posted on November 9, 2007 by Luke Ford

David Horowitz’s secretary Elizabeth had a long acting career. She starred at age 16 in this Air Supply video.

Posted in David Horowitz | Comments Off

Ken Layne Quits Nick Denton

Posted on November 9, 2007 by Luke Ford

Ken blogs: "So after nearly three years of toil, I’ve finally quit writing weblogs for Nick Denton. I had planned to do a daily post on Wonkette until the end of the year, but the whole situation was so dully unpleasant that I couldn’t drag it out beyond Halloween."

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Skirball builds a real rainbow for Noah’s Ark

Posted on November 8, 2007 by Luke Ford

Danielle Berrin reports (there’s video of her lovely self):

Longtime collaborators architect Moshe Safdie and artist Ned Kahn were busy designing the new headquarters for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in Washington D.C. when Safdie invited Kahn to "think about rainbows." Standing in a courtyard, staring into a design he describes as a reflecting pool, Kahn’s first thoughts were of water. Then came the flood — ice melting, rising sea levels, global warming; then artwork bridging man and nature; and the image of someone standing on a cliff becoming engulfed by a wave.
All he had to do was figure out how to break water into the perfect-sized droplets to create a rainbow. And then he did.
Just beyond the new Noah’s Ark installation at the Skirball Cultural Center, where Asian elephants and Boringo giraffes tower, a lushly landscaped courtyard has been designed as a rainbow arbor.
Rising from a base of rocks, Kahn’s rainbow is a curved metal form that wraps around a walkway, spraying droplets of mist that coalesce to form a rainbow. It is the marriage of a museum exhibit and a symbolic natural oasis, recalling both the benevolent and destructive elements of nature and symbolizing God’s promise to Noah not to flood the earth again.
To prepare for the arbor’s construction, Kahn studied many versions of the Noah story: "I remember being struck by how many different cultures had references to a flood, the way flood stories seem like part of the collective memory of humankind."

Posted in Calendar Girls, Danielle Berrin | Comments Off

PRODUCERS SUE X17 PAPARAZZI AGENCY OVER LOHAN PHOTOS; LAWSUIT CHARGES BREACH OF CONTRACT & FRAUD

Posted on November 8, 2007 by Luke Ford

From TabloidBaby:

A pair of noted Hollywood film and documentary producers filed a potential million- dollar lawsuit this morning against the paparazzi photo agency X17, claiming breach of contract and fraud relating to photos of the reunion of Lindsay Lohan and her father Michael.
According to papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in Santa Monica, Burt Kearns and Brett Hudson of Frozen Pictures claim they’d “entered into a contract with Brandy Navarre & X17, Inc. on August 29, 2007, to ‘set up and shoot’ ‘exclusive pix’ (photos) of the reunion of Lindsay Lohan and her father Michael (the subject of a Frozen Pictures documentary project) in Provo, Utah” in early September, but that “on October 5, 2007, Navarre refused to pay, claiming she had made a side deal… paying an unamed third party a flat fee… and ‘assumed’ Plaintiff would share in the funds.”
The suit asks for $66,500 in unpaid fees, $200,000 in damages and a percentage of photo of video sales that could add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the total, It states that Navarre claims her photographer in Provo had organized a “flat rate” with Michael Lohan, but “wired (the money) to a bank account in someone else’s name… (I don’t know it off the top of my head). I assumed Michael would split this with you.”
According to the suit, Lohan denies making any deals with X17. Both he and his daughter Lindsay are expected to be subpoenaed to testify.

Posted in Tabloid Baby | Comments Off

‘Luke, If I have to sue you I will…’

Posted on November 8, 2007 by Luke Ford

As a journalist, you are constantly dealing with obnoxious people by turning the other cheek.

Because you want something from them, such as an interview, you put up with their insults and put-downs and countless annoying tics.

Then the time comes that your subject becomes so insufferable that you write about it.

That time has come with this particular lawyer.

Dwight Schweitzer, former publisher of the defunct weekly The Jewish Star Times (of Miami), emails me Nov. 6 about my online publication of an interview we did on Aug. 29, 2004 (and he’s always been aware of its existence online):

I have to respect your cleverness at insuring that anyone who wants to find me finds you first by exploiting my name but do me a favor and take it off of the net…the damm article of yours appears in several forms as it is…and truth to tell I don’t think you have the right to use my name without my consent anyway….so be a good guy and get your "Dwight Schweitzer" piece removed…it has caused me no end of embarrassment….and if you’d like to really have me owe you one…take the rest of them off too….

I respond: "Forget it. It’s basic journalism. You should know that. I’ve done nothing to exploit your name beyond doing an interview with you…"

Dwight replies:

Luke…my name was the lead…The same piece is in there with three ‘headings’ and repeated 3 times just take the one that starts with my name off…Don’t give me the "basic journalism" nonsense….just be a mench and take that version off. (and don’t quote the law to a lawyer)
This is the first thing that comes up when I am googled: Dwight Schweitzer
Then I completely forgot about Dwight Owen Schweitzer until this weekend when I ….. Dwight Owen Schweitzer. Education:. I graduated from the University of …

I ignore him.

Dwight emails Nov. 8: "Luke, If I have to sue you I will… Do the right thing and take my name off the heading. It is no different than publishing a picture that was not authorized or released and you did not licence the use of my name….Why you are being difficult about this is a mystery to me…but it has hurt my reputation and is an embarrassment."

Schweitzer reminds me of the histrionic Benyamin Cohen.

Posted in Dwight Schweitzer, Journalism | Comments Off

Camera Of Death Vs. Hollywood Cure for Pain

Posted on November 8, 2007 by Luke Ford

Click here for photos and report.

Posted in Camera of Death | Comments Off

My TV Appearances

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Luke Ford

Let’s talk about me.

I just bought a WinTV-PVR-250 to digitize my videos.

Not being technically efficient, I hired a friend for $100 and he spent three hours setting it up. If you’re savvy, you can probably pull it together in less than an hour.

Here’s my appearance on the KNBC news report about shul shopping.

ABC’s I-Caught show profiles blogebrities.

The sex.com story for British TV.

My 60 Minutes appearance Nov. 23, 2003.

VH1’s Celebrity Blackmail documentary.

Fox Files, March 25, 1999.

VH1’s Celebrity Babylon, Oct. 12, 2003.

Entertainment Tonight, February 8, 1999.

True Hollywood Story Part II Part III

National Film Board of Canada’s documentary Give Me Your Soul (Oct. 2000) Part Two Part Three Part Four

Cell Phone Shenanigans

National Enquirer’s TV Show ‘Uncovered’ June 13, 2001

Luke’s Acting Reel, Aug. 1995

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Huma Abedin

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Luke Ford

Is it just me or is the TV news these days showing a lot of clips of Huma Abedin next to Hillary Clinton? It seems to me the MSM is dying to report more on Hillary’s intriguing connection to Huma.

Posted in Hillary Clinton, Huma Abedin | Comments Off