Scoop's Page

I’ll tell you this — these Newport Harbor Fun Zone Boat Company captains are real namedroppers. For the past half hour, I’ve been sitting at the pointy end (that’s a nautical term) of this extravagant passenger boat as it cruises up and down Newport Harbor. And for the past half hour, all I’ve heard is, “John Wayne lived here, Shirley Temple spent her summers there,…See More

Two years ago, dressed on stage in a long gown and nightcap, Ebenezer Scrooge turned to the Ghost of Christmas Present and did a double take when he saw the specter’s graying hair and wizened face. “Excuse me, spirit, but you seem to have aged 30 years,” the miserly entrepreneur remarked, drawing appreciative laughter and applause from an audience apparently in the know. It’s an inside joke to be sure, but very appropriate to those who came to…See More

It’s funny how love is described as the language of the heart because — as a language — it can sometimes leave its practitioners at a total loss for words.“The Language Archive,” running now through April 25 on South Coast Repertory’s Segerstrom stage, is a warm, quirky comedy that has its focus on George, a renowned linguist whosespecialty is deciphering dying languages.“There are sixty-five hundred languages in the world,” says George. “More than half are expected to die within the next…See More

The costumed ghoul who's having pea-green makeup applied to her face has - fittingly enough - just gulped down a can of Monster energy drink and now has 160 milligrams of caffeine coursing through her veins.The chemical jolt has her pumped for the evening's activities. She's dying to get to work. We're packed into one of the makeup rooms at the Queen Mary in Long Beach where…See More

Two years ago, dressed on stage in a long gown and nightcap, Ebenezer Scrooge turned to the Ghost of Christmas Present and did a double take when he saw the specter’s graying hair and wizened face. “Excuse me, spirit, but you seem to have aged 30 years,” the miserly entrepreneur remarked, drawing appreciative laughter and applause from an audience apparently in the know. It’s an inside joke to be sure, but very appropriate to those who came to…See More