Latest news with #LidoTheater
Los Angeles Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Around Town: Carnivorous plant enthusiasts plan show, sale at Sherman Library & Gardens
The Carnivorous Plant Show and Sale at Sherman Library & Gardens will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 14. The event, which includes a judged show of plants, is presented by the Southern California Carnivorous Plant Enthusiasts. The Sherman is located at 2647 East Coast Highway, Corona del Mar. Admission is $5. The Newport Beach Film Festival this weekend is launching it inaugural Newport Beach TV Fest, a four-day counterpart to the original event. The recently restored Lido Theater and the Port Theater are venues for the festival, which promised a 'celebration of television artistry and creative achievements.' Industry professionals are in town to celebrate the top shows that are broadcast or streaming to audiences. 'Television has never been more dynamic, and as the landscape of storytelling continues to evolve, the Newport Beach TV Fest is a natural next step in our journey,' stated Gregg Schwenk, chief executive and director of the Newport Beach Film Festival. 'For over 26 years, we've championed visionary filmmakers, and now, we're proud to expand that mission to celebrate the craft and ingenuity of contemporary television. Our home of Newport Beach has long been a hub for creative excellence, and this TV Fest will cement its place as a premier destination for the industry's brightest talent.' For more information and a schedule, visit The Susan G. Komen Orange County Pink Tie Party raised more than $475,000 in support of breast cancer research, patient services and education initiatives at VEA Newport Beach on May 10. The event brought together survivors, advocates, medical professionals and the Pink Tie Partner family for a night of inspiration, remembrance and generosity. The evening included dinner, dancing and a live auction through its paddle raise with vacation packages, including getaways to Sedona, Hawaii and the Sphere in Las Vegas. The group honored its Class of 2025 OC Pink Tie Partners: Phil Markert, Director of Liquor, Albertsons, Vons and Pavilions at Albertsons Companies; January Lopez, M.D., a breast radiologist and medical director of breast imaging at the Sue J. Gross Breast Center at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach; Sol Reyes-Roberts, a retired nurse, health educator and breast cancer survivor based in Orange County; and Carrie Strom a 25-year healthcare industry veteran. The Costa Mesa City Council on Tuesday named Asst. City Manager Cecilia Gallardo-Daly as interim city manager while officials seek to replace Lori Ann Farrell Harrison, who was terminated during a May 6 closed session council meeting. Gallardo-Daly's appointment comes nearly one and a half years after she was hired on as assistant in December 2023, having come from the same position at the city of San Clemente. Her promotion comes with a pay increase, from $277,932 annually to $330,216, according to figures provided by the city. While the council also discussed the city manager search during Tuesday's closed session, no news was reported from the meeting. Officials, however, on May 20 approved retaining employment attorney Greg Labate of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP to defend the city in connection with anticipated litigation, according to city spokesman Tony Dodero. 'It's going to take us a minute to find a permanent city manager, and I feel confident we are in good hands right now with our interim,' Councilwoman Andrea Marr said of Gallardo-Daly Tuesday. 'Thank you for stepping into this role.' Also Tuesday, the Costa Mesa City Council approved a one-year lease agreement with the UCLA Bruins football team for use of the city's Jack Hammett Sports Complex as a 2025 pre-season training camp location. The city in 2017 entered into a 10-year use agreement with the Los Angeles Chargers to conduct their annual summer training campus at the complex through 2026 at an annual cost of $150,570, along with other community benefits, but decided not to host the program in Costa Mesa this year, freeing up the fields for other players. Under the new agreement, UCLA would use the center from July 30 through Aug. 18 for a $160,000 facility fee, in addition to paying for temporary improvements associated with preparing the site. The team would also offer two youth camps for local youth ages 6 to 14, along with two youth practice sessions, 500 UCLA home game tickets and $25,000 to repair field conditions afterward.
Los Angeles Times
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
USA Water Polo premieres Olympic documentary in Newport Beach
USA Water Polo set out to produce a documentary on the Olympic women's water polo team, as it prepared to win its fourth straight gold medal in Paris last summer. Then, an unexpected thing happened. Team USA didn't win gold. Or silver. Or bronze. The fourth-place finish, and some of the challenges along the way, are covered in the documentary 'Women of the Water: An Olympic Journey.' It premiered at the Lido Theater in Newport Beach on Monday night. Three members of the team attended the premiere, including Corona del Mar High alumna Maddie Musselman, Rachel Fattal and goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson, as well as head coach Adam Krikorian. 'You have to earn success,' said Musselman, 26, the Olympic MVP of the Tokyo Games who was attempting to win her third straight gold medal in Paris. ' I think this is a really good premiere because we lost. I think getting fourth, and seeing the work that goes into it, is really important. It's like, you can do all this work and still not be successful. I think that's a hard pill to swallow for us, but I think it's so good for the younger generation. 'When you go to the national team, you're not just going to win all of these gold medals that they won in the past. It's actually going to take a lot of work.' One person working to promote the sport is Flavor Flav, TV personality and founding member of the rap group Public Enemy known for wearing a big clock necklace. Last summer, he signed a five-year sponsorship deal as the official hype man for the U.S. women's and men's national water polo teams, also contributing an undisclosed amount to the 2024 Olympic women's team. 'I really, really feel that all of these Olympic teams need some sponsorship,' Flavor Flav told the crowd in the theater before the movie began. 'Everybody works hard to achieve goals. I want to thank the girls for allowing me to sponsor them. I went over to Paris and had an amazing experience.' 'Women of the Water' is a six-part series with episodes that are roughly 10 minutes long, though all episodes were shown consecutively Monday night. It was shot beginning in early 2024, as Team USA had already secured its Olympic spot. The series explores loss in Musselman's life, as her husband, former Mater Dei High and UCLA men's water polo player Patrick Woepse, whom she'd married in 2023, was diagnosed with a rare form of aggressive stage 4 lung cancer. Woepse made it to Paris to watch Musselman play, but died last October at the age of 31. Team captain Maggie Steffens also had her sister-in-law Lulu Conner, die unexpectedly after arriving in Paris to watch the team play. Suzi Mellano served as executive producer and director of the series, which also takes viewers inside practices and intimate moments, including Flavor Flav himself jumping in the pool during a practice. Greg Mescall produced the project with collaboration from associate producer Sherie Smith. USA Water Polo is aiming to distribute the series broadly, Mescall said, adding that it is the second series that the organization has made. 'Path to Paris,' documenting the journey of the Olympic men's team, debuted last year. 'We'd love to do more of this,' said Mescall, chief of content and growth for USA Water Polo. 'Hopefully, there's an audience for it … What's cool about it is that you don't know what you're going to get, and you document this whole journey. Sure, it didn't end with a gold medal, but I think it gives you some insight into how tough it is to make a team, and how close this group is, given all the challenges they went through.' The audience included plenty of young girls' water polo players and their parents, with Back Bay and Patriot water polo clubs among those with many in attendance. Newport Harbor High water polo sisters Sophia and Valery Verdugo, who were guided by Musselman as she began coaching for the Sailors in January, also attended the premiere along with several of their teammates. 'I think it's just really cool to see a water polo movie made,' said Valery Verdugo, a sophomore who played a key role in helping the Sailors reach the CIF Southern Section Open Division title match this season. 'I've never really seen one, especially about women's water polo. We were really excited when it came out, and we wanted to come. It's in our backyard.' The evening concluded with a panel discussion featuring Krikorian, Johnson and Fattal.
Los Angeles Times
01-03-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
New documentary explores Orange County's ascendence to surfing, skateboarding epicenter
It took producers Scott Hays and Terry Corwin about 18 months to make their new documentary 'The Surf-Skate Business Evolution: The OC Effect.' The Laguna Beach residents ended up reaching a conclusion in considerably less time — namely, that Orange County is the epicenter of the surf-skate culture worldwide. Many of the industry's bright minds showed up as the documentary held a private premiere Thursday night at the Lido Theater in Newport Beach. 'The people in this room tonight launched an industry that currently is worth $13 billion,' said Hays, the founder of nonprofit multimedia company OC World. 'That's billion, with a 'B.'' Steve Van Doren, the son of late Vans co-founder Paul Van Doren, continues to play a key role in the family company, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary next year. He flashed a 'shaka' hand sign associated with the surf culture as he entered the theater. Bob McKnight, co-founder and former chief executive of Quiksilver, entertained the guests during a post-documentary question-and-answer session moderated by Hayes. He described how Danny Kwock once stole board shorts from the brand's initial beach house at 56th Street on the Newport Peninsula. Kwock later ended up a team rider for Quiksilver. 'Eventually, he ran marketing for the whole damn company,' McKnight said with a laugh. Quiksilver, like many others, had humble beginnings in Orange County. The brand was first sold at the Hobie store in Dana Point, McKnight said. 'We were selling as many as we could make,' he said. 'It was on fire. Not just us, but the industry was just rabid for anything new and cool. Especially from Australia, so we were really lucky in that regard, that it came from Australia.' 'The Surf-Skate Business Evolution: The OC Effect' documentary is narrated by Sugar Ray lead singer Mark McGrath and tells the story of decades of influencers. It features interviews with 30 innovative surfing and skating personalities, Hays said. Many either came from or did business in the area of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach. Van Doren is a proud Estancia High School graduate, Class of 1973. He maintains those community roots, noting that he recently had a reunion with some of his Eagles football teammates and coach Phil Brown. 'It's a little feather in the cap to be able to stay in business these days and make it through,' Van Doren said. 'It's all about the action sports, the surfers and skaters and BMX riders. They might not have lived in Costa Mesa, but they always had come to businesses, coming down to see Quiksilver or Hurley or Vans. Everybody found their way down here to Costa Mesa and Newport and Huntington.' The industry has hit a time of transition. Authentic Brands Group, which had previously acquired Volcom, purchased Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, RVCA and several other popular brands from Boardriders in 2023. Authentic recently pulled licenses previously held by Liberated Brands and gave them to new operators. Then, in January, Liberated closed its corporate office in Costa Mesa and laid off nearly 400 employees. Boardriders had acquired Billabong in 2018, creating the world's largest action sports company. McKnight said the recent headlines looked bad, but he still believed in the brands of Boardriders. 'Wherever they are, they're really good brands, and it's really hard to kill a global, good brand,' he said. Newport Beach resident Thom McElroy, who attended Thursday's premiere, is a Volcom co-founder who designed the now iconic stone-shaped logo. Originally from Huntington Beach, he made the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. national team, traveling the world with coaches Peter 'PT' Townend and Ian Cairns. 'There weren't a lot of rules,' McElroy said. 'It was more of a playground growing up for us. The beaches were playgrounds, the parks for skating were playgrounds. Everything was. It was brand new, and it wasn't expensive to get into these sports back then. 'You could buy a cheap surfboard and a cheap wetsuit, and you're out surfing. The same thing with skateboarding. As things progressed, you could use better equipment, but it was an open environment to express yourself. You were able to wake up in the morning and then do what you wanted to do all day.' McElroy said he never would have dreamed then that the industry would evolve into what it has become. 'When you got a box from a sponsor, you cherished it,' he said. 'You knew that it was coming out of a warehouse, and they needed to sell that stuff.' Surf industry pioneer Dick Metz, 'Five Summer Stories' producer Greg MacGillivray and Volcom co-founder Richard 'Wooly' Woolcott were also among the Q&A panel members Thursday. Corwin, one of the documentary's producers, was the founder of nonprofit Lion's Heart, a platform that connects teenagers to volunteering opportunities. This was her first documentary. 'We're excited to see the reaction from the people that are in the industry,' she said. 'All of these companies started right here, and more. It's kind of crazy.' She added that the documentary will be submitted to film festivals, and the producers hope to sell it to a larger audience platform.
