Journalism

23 Things I Have Covered:

  1. Michael Jackson‘s memorial service. In retrospect, I failed to rightly argue that the event couldn’t help but be like the star’s life: anything but normal. On the other hand, Staples Center was selling hot dogs.
  2. The box-office weekend that wasn’t.
  3. An old-school Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.
  4. A Space: 1999 convention.
  5. Onion Field killer Jimmy Lee Smith, after his booking on a solicitation charge.
  6. A fatal meat-grinder accident.
  7. The death of a daytime soap opera.
  8. Opening day of Michael Jackson’s child-molestation trial. No hot dogs, but plenty of circus.
  9. Opening-night midnight screening of a Twilight movie.
  10. A royal red carpet, along with, as an added bonus, a royal polo match.
  11. Gary Coleman‘s death. I tried very hard to get this piece just right. I probably didn’t, but I tried.
  12. The Oscars, from a parking lot, behind a building, across the street from the Oscars.
  13. The Emmys, from a Chinese restaurant.
  14. The Golden Globes, from a luggage room at the Beverly Hilton.
  15. Sundance without a Sundance credential, meaning I covered just about everything in Park City but Sundance, except for the times I stood outside of Sundance theaters. (Don’t ask.)
  16. The Grammys, while under the influence of A Million Little Pieces.
  17. The aftermath and politics of Britney Spears‘ extreme haircut.
  18. The Jay Leno Tonight Show featuring 81 of California’s 135 gubernatorial candidates. The thing I most remember about this circus is watching Gary Coleman and adult-film star Mary Carey quietly chatting in the parking lot—and wondering what they were chatting about.
  19. Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s victory night—the first one, when people were excited.
  20. A Spice Girls concert. It was nice; when the crowd stood up, I could see the stage without having to stand myself.
  21. A Barney concert. I thought it’d be funny; it wasn’t.
  22. A Christmas parade in Whittier, Calif. The police estimated the crowd at 75,000 people—and I believed them.
  23. A jar of celebrity air.

Seven Defunct Outlets and Magazines I Wrote for (Before They Went Defunct):

  • Access DIRECTV
  • CosmoGirl
  • Creative Screenwriting
  • iFilm
  • Sci-Fi Universe
  • Parade‘s react magazine
  • Swing

Seven Still-Existing Outlets and Magazines I Have Written for:

  • E! Online
  • Los Angeles Times
  • Public radio’s Marketplace
  • San Francisco Chronicle
  • Us Weekly
  • Variety
  • American Journalism Review

One Still-Existing Magazine I Didn’t Really Write for, But Got a Credit from Anyway:

  • Entertainment Weekly (The story: I emailed the magazine a pitch regarding Mary-Kate Olsen‘s Daytime Emmy nomination for one of her joint works with her twin, Ashley Olsen. The idea was something along the lines of: How and why did voters determine that Mary-Kate was more worthy of recognition than Ashley? As I recall, I never heard anything back until an editor informed me that the idea had been incorporated into a sidebar piece, and that I’d receive a cocredit, which I did. Right decent of EW, I thought.)    

More Select Work for Outlets Both Defunct and Existing: