Zócalo Public Square/Flickr

From left: Carla Hall, Carol Squiers, Adrian Grenier, Carolyn Davis and Galo Ramirez

I just emailed my photo to Adrian Grenier. He asked me to. Me, and about 200 others in the audience last night at Zócalo Public Square's event, "Are We All Paparazzi Now?" at the Getty Center.

It was an experiment, so he said. More like a little trick. Per his instruction, we all had our phones out ready to shoot -- him, we assumed -- but at the last second he told us to turn the cameras on ourselves. Send him the photo, he said, and he'll post it on his production company's website. "You're all part of this collective experience," he said.

Are we? Perhaps he was just trying to make us feel important. Or perhaps he was trying to illustrate how simultaneously voyeuristic and exhibitionist we all are. Either way, it was one of the many ambiguous answers provided last night to the panel's title question.

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Terry Richardson's James Franco in Drag, Courtesy of the artist and OHWOW Gallery

Franco poses in drag for fashion photographer Terry Richardson, as part of the "Rebel" exhibit currently on display at JF Chen.

"There's just a lot of dicks in there. A lot of porno," painter Ty Williams says, shaking his head. "But I get it, though. I understand the prevalence of penises."

We're standing in the alleyway behind JF Chen, a collectible-furniture showroom and exhibit space, at the opening party for "Rebel," an off-site MOCA multimedia extravaganza produced by the world's most famous grad student, James Franco, in collaboration with an all-star cast of contemporary artists, including Ed Ruscha, Aaron Young, Terry Richardson, Paul McCarthy and Douglas Gordon.

Though Franco was somehow involved in all of the projects shown here, and his ongoing obsession with the sexual secrets and adolescent turmoil behind James Dean and Rebel Without a Cause drives the exhibit, the lineup of bigwigs confers an air of legitimacy lacking at some of Franco's previous shows and stunts.

The exhibit itself has been impressively built-out, looking like a soundstage resembling the Chateau Marmont, with videos playing in individual bungalows and shrubbery strewn with blow-up sex dolls and other detritus referencing the art.

And yes, there were a number of penises on display inside, as Franco and his partners grappled with the pent-up, feverish sexuality of adolescence by exploring, among other themes, the homoerotic tension on-screen in the 1955 film, Dean's real-life bisexuality and a smattering of behind-the-scenes affairs that reportedly took place before and during the shooting of the movie.

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All photos by Star Foreman

Dita Von Teese wears a vintage dress from The Way We Wore and bracelets by J. Max.

See also:
*A gallery of pictures from our photo shoot at Dita Von Teese's Los Feliz home.
*Top 10 Strip Clubs in Los Angeles
*Marilyn Monroe's Seven Never-Before-Seen Mostly Nude Photos at Duncan Miller Gallery

Dita Von Teese can't remember the first time she took her clothes off for someone. It was probably early on, before she became the queen of burlesque and undressing became her job. Probably after ballet class, changing in front of other girls.

She does remember the first time she stripped. She was 19, and back then her name was Heather Sweet. She had been working as a scantily clad go-go dancer in the Los Angeles underground scene when, one night, a friend took her to a bikini club. She was fascinated.

She auditioned on a Monday -- amateur night. Rock & roll and blondes in neon bikinis were the name of the game. But she took the stage in a pink corset with black velvet trim, black stockings, long black gloves.

"You're wearing a lot of clothes up there," the manager said afterward. He hired her anyway. "Dita Von Teese" was born that night, a stage name Heather Sweet pulled out of a phone book.

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Morgan's Last Supper, a work by Ron English

Morgan Spurlock is best known for his documentary Super Size Me, but is also a prolific creator of other works, such as his reality TV show A Day in the Life. When I spoke to him on a recent Friday morning, Spurlock was wrapping up a busy week of press junkets for his new documentary Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope, about the famed San Diego fan fest, before he jumps into Tribeca Film Fest mode with a new project named Mansome. But movies and TV are not really what this phone call is about.

Spurlock is happy and excited and talking a mile a minute about art, as he is now adding "curator" to his list of professional interests. Opening Saturday, April 28, at Thinkspace gallery, the show "New Blood" reflects Spurlock's passion for art and collecting. Spurlock jumped at the chance to curate his own show when offered by Thinkspace's Andrew Hosner, and "New Blood" revolves around work from established art stars like Camille Rose Garcia, Shepard Fairey, the Date Farmers, Saber, Elizabeth McGrath and their hand-picked protégés that the artists themselves have chosen as ones to watch.

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Joe Termini

Mike D

Mike D, Beastie Boy, recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, mad collector of modern furniture and, in general, the man with all the fly juice, has now found the time to curate his own museum show.

"Transmission L.A.: AV Club" is a free, 17-day festival of art, music and food, opening to the public Friday, April 20, at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. In keeping with the museum's recent pattern of splashy, nontraditional events, Mike and Mercedes Benz's avantgardediaries.com bring together a heavy-hitting roster of L.A. and New York artists, including painters Sage Vaughn and Will Fowler, sculptor/installation builder Tom Sachs and designer/director Mike Mills, as well as DJs (Peanut Butter Wolf, Z-Trip) and musicians (Santigold plays the VIP party Thursday night). Throw in superstar Kogi and A-Frame chef Roy Choi, who does a pop-up restaurant on-site every Thursday, and you've got a party worth fighting for.

L.A. Weekly got the opportunity to do an interview with Mike D, aka Michael Diamond, over email on the new show, the hall of fame and what exactly is the proper way to do the Jerry Lewis (a dance move not to be confused with the Brass Monkey).

Mr. Diamond's concept for "Transmission LA: AV Club" doesn't take an all-out academic approach, but encompasses everything that inspires him -- good music, design, food and even coffee. Going to MOCA will be like visiting him at home -- whether that's in Brooklyn or L.A.

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Natalie Toren

Anyone who attended this year's Daniel Franzese film retrospective at L.A.'s Silent Movie Theater can attest that this actor's career spans a vivid spectrum: From the bloody crimsons of Bully (the 2001 Larry Clark version, not the new documentary), through the pastel pinks of Mean Girls, to the shadowy hues of I Spit On Your Grave. Now Franzese adds a new color to his palette: neon orange, the same pigment that radiates off the skin of Snooki and The Situation.

Last week, Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin' Rock Opera, starring and co-written by Franzese, began its Los Angeles run at the Hayworth. LA Weekly took the opportunity to pick Daniel's brain on this hilarious musical satire, NY Fringe Fest, and never playing the same character twice.

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Illustration by Patrick McQuade

Jayne Amelia Larson is a Jersey girl who made it to Harvard. But she may have gotten her greatest education from her job as a chauffeur.

Larson's 16-hour days behind the wheel were spent driving royalty of every variety: Cross-dressing movie stars. Coked-up rock stars. Spoiled Beverly Hills brats. And princesses -- real ones. As in, members of the royal family of Saudi Arabia.

"There's a lot of bad behavior that happens in cars. People would do stuff in front of me they would never do in front of other strangers. Drugs, alcohol, infidelity. I guess they figure you're in their pocket, especially the upper echelon," Larson says. "It becomes strangely intimate in a car. You're one-on-one for long periods.

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Courtesy of Angel City Press

Author and film critic Steven Rea is hip. Well he's not trying to be hip, which makes him even hipper, but we'll get to that in a second. He's got two obsessions -- bikes and Hollywood history -- that he's managed to turn into a pretty hip book.

At first glance, it might look like that kind of loud tourist-appealing kitsch -- Ta-da! Tinseltown on two wheels! -- but it's better than that. Much much better. Beautifully wrought by local publisher Angel City Press with designs from L.A.-based artist Amy Inouye, Hollywood Rides a Bike: Cycling With the Stars is exactly the type of book you need to have in print...and one you need for prominent display on your coffee table...you do have a coffee table, right?

The book is the type of conversation piece that eschews digitization -- classic photos of Hollywood stars, has-beens and almost-weres, all on their two- and three-wheeled modes of self-propulsion. Well, OK, it would be nice if it was digitized, for sales' sake, but it's one of those books that holds up better as a book. We interrupted Rea (not to be confused with the actor Stephen Rea) in the middle of his West Coast tour to talk about just that, and a lot of other things, over a coffee table.

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Courtesy Omar Von Muller

Uggie

Stardom came late in life for Hollywood's Next Big Thing. Before he played opposite Reese Witherspoon and landed a scene-stealing role in an Academy Award-nominated film, he endured random parts in commercials, TV shows and films -- and even performed tricks on Third Street Promenade for pocket money.

He didn't hit the big time until he was in his mid-50s. Which is to say, mid-50s in people years: In dog years, Uggie is just 10.

Uggie, of course, is the orange-and-white Jack Russell terrier in The Artist. Already a veteran of such movies as Mr. Fix It and Water for Elephants, Uggie became a movie star in his own right by playing sidekick to Jean Dujardin's tragically declining film star in the dark-horse silent film. There was the Palm Dog award at Cannes. There was the big splash he made at the Golden Globe Awards, getting photographed on the red carpet and then stealing the show during the moviemaker's acceptance speech. There was his guest appearance on the BBC's Graham Norton Show. And then there's Movieline's ongoing "Consider Uggie" campaign, a general effort to honor the terrier for The Artist.

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Courtesy Mark Malkoff

Mark Malkoff, left, gets a bedtime story from Phil Rosenthal, who created Everybody Loves Raymond.

Not wanting to spend thousands of dollars on hotels during his recent visit to Los Angeles, comedian Mark Malkoff instead asked a bunch of celebrities if he could sleep at their places. He picked celebrities because that's what Los Angeles is known for.

Malkoff kept his request simple, bypassing publicists and managers and writing the celebs personally through Facebook or by mail. He'd like to spend the night, he wrote. He'd also like to film video of it, which he'd then post on the Internet. "I couldn't believe it when people started saying yes," he says.

Actress Justine Bateman let him sleep in her tree house. The New York-based Malkoff, who is 36, had a terrible crush on her when he was in junior high. Video of the evening in question shows him staggering awkwardly through her doorway to give her a hug. At one point, they slow-danced.

"Good night, Justine," Malkoff says.

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