CITY Issue 52

MUSING IDOL HANDLERS THERE’S A JOLT OF ELECTRICITY THAT RUNS FROM When Paris, Lindsay, and Victoria are more recognizable than Cheney, Musharraf, and Ahmadinejad, the celebrity PR machine has kicked into overdrive. CITY writer and (occasional) tabloid reporter Kira Coplin slips behind the velvet ropes and waits and waits and waits for her scoop. Crescent Heights Boulevard to Doheny Drive—a gleaming, vibrating stretch of Los Angeles so notorious that Sin City’s “Strip” is named after it. It’s a warm Sunday night as I make my way to the impossibly trendy Hyde on Sunset, but before I enter the cozy, candle-lit club alive with DJ-spun rock ‘n’ roll, something catches my eye. To the right of the red carpet leading into the exclusive celebrity haven stands a pre-pubescent boy, a dusty Jansport bookbag over his shoulders, a backwards Yankees cap hiding blonde locks, and a hulking camera hanging around his neck. I ask him what he’s doing. “Just making a little summer cash,” he tells me as he waits for the next hard-partying celeb to stumble onto the sidewalk. Barely a teenager, the young paparazzo spends his nights on the Sunset Strip, armed with a Canon digital SLR and Smith & Wesson pepper spray (in the event that someone tries to mess with him or his equipment). His photos are bought by publications like the New York Daily News for $500 a pop. And this is par for the course in L.A. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. America’s celebrity obsession is at an all-time high, every intimate and usually embarrassing pre-, mid-, and post-party happening now immediately broadcast to the masses. Within the past seven years, new tabloids like Us Weekly, In Touch, and Life & Style Weekly have popped up to display the tear-streaked faces of socialites and C-list actresses on their glossy covers. And with mass media expanding to cyber space, every rumor and moment of hard partying caught by camera phone can reach BlackBerrys, offices, and living rooms worldwide in minutes. I probably also shouldn’t be surprised since over the past year I’ve been working for a couple of these celebrity magazines covering the comings and goings of all the stars flocking to my home city of Chicago. Yes, Chicago—once the town that wouldn’t let you down, where Sinatra could nonchalantly rub elbows at the Twin Anchors, where Marilyn 48 CI T Y B E C K H A M : P H OTO C O U RT E S Y PAT R I C K M C M U L L A N .

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY Issue 52

CITY Issue 52 Contents Letter from CITY Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment In Rogue Fit The Amused Bouche Fast Food Must Haves Hot Wheels Idol Handlers Design Public Affairs Pluck of the Draw Novel Ideas Monster's Belle Not Guilty The Understudies The Hunger Elastique Where to Buy It Socials Icon

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