Laurie Sandell's Blog, page 357
March 25, 2010
Whoa, this is fun
[image error]My Feiffer cartoon is on the front page of New York Mag's website right now. Don't know how long it'll last up there, but I'm really enjoying this. Check it out before it goes away! In other news, I've spent the whole day working on a Glamour piece that is not a celebrity interview, but did involve a very interesting lunch I had yesterday with a mover/shaker in Hollywood. We were so engrossed in our conversation (and delicious sandwiches at Cube) that neither of us noticed the cop who...
March 23, 2010
Headed back to LA
…Just in time to miss all the rain. I'm on the plane right now, using American Airlines' in-flight e-mail service. (Can't seem to upload a photo, though, so I'll do that when I get to LA.) Turbulence is horrible. At least I was upgraded to bizizniss. And the guy sitting next to me just whipped out New York Magazine and read my Jules Feiffer piece. I always thought if I ever saw anyone reading my work I'd lean over and say, "I did that." But when push came to shove, I was just too shy.
Had a...
March 22, 2010
Check out this week's New York Magazine
[image error]I did a graphic profile of the artist Jules Feiffer, who has a new memoir out called Backing into Forward. One of the things he said that didn't make it into the piece was, "Fun is a prerequisite for everything I do." And I must say, there is really no better way to have fun than to hang out with a brilliant 81-year-old man and hear his stories about George Plimpton's parties, his radical Lefty leanings and the strange trajectory of his career. At the beginning of the interview we went to a l...
March 20, 2010
Spa night with the girls
[image error][image error]Last night I went with old and new friends to a Korean spa in College Point, Queens, called NY Spa Castle. You enter the 100,000 square foot building, pay $35, are given a sherbet-colored set of clothes (which you have to wear in all co-ed areas), a toothbrush and a Swatch-like wristband which magically opens your lockers; you can also use it to pay for your food. First, we visited the saunas: pictured is the Gold Room, which is lined with gold tiles to increase energy. When you walk in...
March 17, 2010
Bringing blogging back
[image error]Apparently, one or two people read this blog, and are annoyed that ever since I became a snowbird and moved to LA, I've stopped updating it. Listen, it's hard to blog when you're outside all the time. In New York, when you're hunched over your computer all day, there's nothing to do but blog. That said, I have decided to rededicate myself to updating my loyal five's of readers on this writer's life. So for starters, look out for the March 29 issue of New York Magazine, on newsstands in New Y...
February 23, 2010
Ambien strikes again!
[image error][image error]The latest celeb to admit to abusing Ambien is Lindsay Lohan–and we seem to have had the exact same Ambien/bathtub experience! She says:
"I went to rehab three times. The first time I checked myself in because I had taken Ambien. It's a sleeping aid but it makes you hallucinate. I'd run a bath and fallen asleep on the floor and the bath had overflowed. When I woke up I was so scared, I called my therapist and said, 'Can I just go somewhere for a month? I'm around bad people and I need to take ...
February 20, 2010
Did my first Glamour cover interview in LA
[image error]And what a difference having an LA home makes. Instead of throwing things into a suitcase, finding someone to watch Violet, rushing to the airport, sitting on a plane for six hours, and checking into a hotel, I got to hop in my car and cruise over to Los Feliz, a nearby neighborhood, to have lunch with our star. So what can I tell you about her? She's whip-smart, getting tons of buzz for a recent performance, has great style, is in a relationship, and has known hardship in her life. We met...
February 18, 2010
Had a bday in LA
[image error]Since I know very few people here, I kept my expectations low, but ended up having a great time. My close friend Paul came in from New York and helped me prepare for a little party I had at my house. He invited his good friend Becky, who is married to the very funny Dave Mandel, executive producer of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Merrill Markoe, whom I talk about frequently on this blog, stopped by (below right), as did my friends Karen Ramos (below left), Julie May, Emma Forrest, and others. [image error]Unlike ...
February 16, 2010
Stars…they're just like us!
[image error]They pump gas! They sip coffee! They go on hikes through Runyon Canyon, complaining the entire way! My close friend Paul came to LA to visit me for my birthday, and he couldn't have been nicer: Treating me to breakfast, helping me prepare for a little party I had. But he wasn't so into my efforts to show him the "other" side of LA. We took a lovely hike through Runyon Canyon (Paul: "First and last time I'm doing this"), strolled along Venice Beach (Paul: "Dirty and gross"), and visited...
February 12, 2010
Meet the world's leading expert on Ambien addiction
[image error]After I wrote about my Ambien addiction for Glamour, the letters from readers poured in and I was asked to appear on The Today Show. Let's not talk about what my bangs looked like–I cut them myself right before the show–or how tired I looked (nerves!) Now, any time a network does a piece on sleeping pill addiction, who gets a call? Yours truly! That's right: I have officially segued from "published author" and "celebrity interviewer" into "camera-ready junkie." A month ago I appeared on The D...
