GDLA+ Monday, 11/9/26

My friends, it's Monday. Welcome to GDLA. Is it ever. It is, it is a Monday. We're all kind of dragging for some reason. Yeah, not kind of. Yeah, we are. We are dragging. We are dragging. Hey, it is National Greek Yogurt Day. Okay. Yeah. Oh my gosh, there's a new Go Greek yogurt place that's opening where I live. Like a frozen yogurt or yogurt? Frozen yogurt. Okay. Yes. Okay, I don't know if this is- You've had Go Greek before. It's so good. I don't know if this is frozen yogurt, I have a feeling it's like just Greek yogurt. Oh, we'll never know. But it's okay, we'll try that too. That sounds good. So our friend Patrick will be here, Producer Patrick as we call him, and he'll give us the latest on the state of Hollywood production layoffs, you know, the whole drill. Okay. And have you watched this season of The Girls, a Khloe Kardashian project on Hulu? We'll have one of the stars here at the desk, Nicole Williams-English, who'll join us to give us all the behind-the-scenes scoop and so much more. We do have some breaking news in Riverside this morning to tell you about. A police officer shoots and kills a man who they say was armed with a knife. Police say the officer made contact with a man said to be in his 50s at University and Douglas Avenues. It was about 9.30 last night shortly after the man reportedly threw a rock at his aunt. When the shooting happened, the man was taken to the hospital and that is where he died. Riverside PD isn't saying what prompted the officer to shoot or whether a weapon had been recovered from the suspect. And a home invasion in the Hollywood Hills. Just before midnight, LAPD responded to a call of two people wearing ski masks breaking into a home on Torreysen Drive. At least one person was home at the time. The suspects forced the victim to open up a safe, but it's unclear what they were looking for or if anything was taken. By the time officers arrived, the suspects were gone. The driver is facing possible criminal charges after a crash outside of an Arlington Heights store left eight people hurt. The LAPD says it happened Saturday in the parking lot of Superior Grocers. Witnesses say the car hit a parked vehicle before plowing into pedestrians. A three-year-old child was among those hurt. Police say the driver was arrested on suspicion of reckless driving. Investigators are examining the car after the driver claimed his brakes failed. Fix the bridge, let us sleep, though. That is the message from some San Pedro residents after the Vincent Thomas Bridge shut down for a massive rehab project. We'll be going first. Who knows? That sounds fun. Who knows how long? All right. That's not pleasant. The $750 million project began Saturday. It will keep the iconic bridge closed for 16 months. Caltrans says crews will replace the aging deck and make safety improvements. But some locals say the overnight work is already making life so miserable with loud noise and vibrations inside of their apartments. I have things set up to play in my apartment so that I don't have to hear the noise as much, but I felt it. Who does it at night? I understand you've got to improve, you've got to fix the bridge, you've got to improve the infrastructure. I'm all for it, we're all for it, but you don't do the loudest parts of the construction at night when everyone's resting. Council member Tim McCosker's office says they will bring the issue to Caltrans and explore ways to reduce the noise so people can get some shut-eye. All right, if you take the 101 through the Coingo Pass at night, plan for big delays this week. Caltrans is closing up to four lanes and key freeway connectors overnight between Highland and the 170 for repaving. North and southbound lanes will be impacted here. Enclosures will start at 9 o'clock tonight. The work pauses Tuesday and Wednesday nights for Veterans Day before resuming on Thursday. And a reminder about overnight closures this week. On the 91 freeway, drivers were stuck in miles of backup traffic as Caltrans construction work closed multiple lanes and connectors between Cerritos and Gardena. Crews are working on a major sign rehabilitation project, causing several delays across all eastbound lanes. These overnight closures last until Friday. It's just not a good idea to drive anywhere. At any time. Right. Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. So now there's this. British actor and comedian Russell Brand has been sentenced to ten and a half years in prison for rape and sexual assault. The 51-year-old was convicted last week of raping one woman and sexually assaulting three others between 2004 and 2009. During a hearing in London, the judge told Brand he showed a casual and arrogant disregard for any woman who said no to him. The comedian and actor has said all the encounters were consensual. Police are also investigating two additional rape allegations. And an investigation is underway in Brentwood following a security scare at the home of NBA star LeBron James. LAPD officers responded late Friday night to James's estate on North Tigertail Road after private security spotted an intruder on surveillance feeds. Officers took the suspect into custody at the scene, booking him on suspicion of felony stalking. James was not at the residence during the incident. He was playing in Cleveland with the 76ers. Police have not yet That released the suspect's identity and case details are now with the LA County District Attorney's Office for formal charging decisions. The IRS is making changes that could affect your tax bill next year. New tax brackets are designed to account for inflation and keep rising wages from pushing people into the higher tax bracket as quickly. The 22% bracket starts above $52,000 for singles and $104,000 for married couples. The standard deduction also rises to $16,600 for singles and then $33,200 for joint filers. The child tax credit also will go up $100 to $2,300. Just a reminder, though, these new numbers apply to the income that's earned next year, 2027, not this year. We have breaking news from Washington DC this morning. Take a look at this dramatic video from just outside the White House where officers arrested two people following a security scare. You can see smoke pouring out from that car which crashed onto a sidewalk near Lafayette Park. Officers ordered the driver out of the vehicle before a struggle broke out and he was taken into custody. Around the same time, another person jumped a security barricade nearby and was also arrested. The White House was briefly placed on lockdown with President Trump inside. Investigators are working to determine whether the two incidents are connected. U.S. News & World Reports has just released their top elementary schools in California, and we have the best from SoCal. More than 107,000 schools were analyzed by U.S. News. Coming in at number 10 is Jack L. Weaver Elementary of Los Alamitos Unified. Number 13 is Golden Elementary in Placentia. 15 is Balboa Gifted High Ability Magnet Elementary. That was my elementary school. Oh, in Northridge. Alma Mater right here. Number 17, Palm Crest Elementary in La Canada. 18 is Wonderland Avenue Elementary, Los Angeles. And number 23 is Cornerstone at Pedregal Elementary in Rancho Palos Verdes. All right. All right. Well a growing number of people are turning to artificial intelligence to help with managing the household and one app is geared specifically towards mothers. Mom Ease is the first AI-powered app made just for moms. It can help with the usual tasks like scheduling, meal planning, and household logistics, but it also comes with an AI assistant that works proactively to remind you about important deadlines and can even help you finish tasks that you don't have time for. The proactive layer is huge. And then the fact that we built it and curated it specifically for moms is what really sets us apart. So the CEO there is saying that other parenting apps weren't helping to control the chaos and she wanted an all-in-one solution. The market for AI-based parenting apps is expected to be worth more than eight billion dollars by the year 2033. In health news this could put some new parents minds at ease. A new study suggesting that some babies who are diagnosed with common peanut And that allergies may not actually be allergic. At least this is what the finding is. Many will outgrow it. Researchers tracked infants who had reactions to peanuts and then tested positive for an allergy. Well, these babies were put in a clinical oral challenge where they were slowly exposed to larger amounts of peanuts and about a third were found to have no more allergic reactions. The researchers say that more study is planned to see if these oral challenge treatments can help with other potential life-threatening allergies. But they do stress this should only be done in a controlled setting Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Chocolate is produced on the same, for example, conveyor belts that contains peanuts. And even that sometimes can trigger an allergic reaction. Right, even residue or like a whiff of peanut. My cousin's daughter has a severe allergy to peanuts, also eggs. And even if like... Kids have eaten them, and then they didn't wash their hands, and they touched the toys. Which, I mean, that's like 90% kids. I mean, that's wild, right? I know. I know, so it's, can you imagine the stress of that? I would be holding my breath, that's a parent, the entire time, all day, every day. The clock has not struck midnight yet in Westwood. The undefeated UCLA football team has moved up to number four in the AP poll. The Bruins are them boys. After beating Minnesota on the road Saturday, that is Coach Chesney's dad, Bob Sr., dancing in the locker room after UCLA improved 9-0, their best start since 1998. Wow, making it look so easy there. Look at that play. A lot of credit goes to Bob Chesney, right? UCLA ties its highest ranking this century. Meantime, USC... It's sitting at number 15, setting up quite the crosstown showdown at the Rose Bowl in just a few weeks. I want to go to that game now. Yeah, right? Let's get some more UCLA fans, though, out there, right? They need to get more activated. Yeah, let's go. Tickets are free for students. Nice. FYI, the latest college football playoff rankings will be released on Tuesday. We'll have to see. It's a short week for the Bruins. They are back in action on Friday night at the Rose Bowl. You can see the game right here on Fox 11 UCLA. Taking on Illinois. Coverage begins at 6 p.m. Okay. Gosh, I can't wait for that game now. I'm, like, super pumped. You're pumped? Yeah. All right. Coming up, let's take a look at the Yamaba Lounge. That's where our guest is, Nicole Williams-English. In the lounge, we're talking to her about the show, The Girls, a Khloe Kardashian project on Hulu. She's coming out here next. Come on out. P.M. One of my favorite people to follow on TikTok from making major moves in high fashion as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover star. I mean, no big deal. Flex much to running her own brand. She is no stranger to the spotlight. But now our girl is back on reality TV and taking girl chat to a whole new level. These are me and my sister's OG girlfriends who know where all the bodies are buried. Oh, my God. I can't believe it was this bad. That was only 10% of everything that happened. We all have receipts. Hello. Hello. The bonds I have with my girls are unbreakable. But what about their bonds with each other? Nick, Liv, and Nat have so much history. Then Iris, Malika, and Khadija have history. It's going to be a little flicky without meaning to be. Just because they're besties doesn't mean they're all best friends with each other. You guys do not know me. Why don't we know you? If I'm being completely honest, I feel like you don't care about me. Please. Join us next. In the studio, the fabulous, the beautiful, and down to earth, Nicole Williams-English. Nicole, welcome back. Hi, thanks for having me. Oh my gosh, love having you. I watched all six episodes. Okay, what did you think? Well, I thought I need to like make a reservation to Castellina. Absolutely. That's like the other girl in part of it. Yes. You did a really good job of kind of staying out of the fray a little bit. You know, I am like, I am not a confrontational person. It's just not in me. I also really like... I don't know if it's bad or good, like, I don't care enough to have conflict, like, I just don't, I don't. Yeah, you did a good job. I'm a little more chill, I mean, everybody was like, you're way more chill on the girls than you were on Wags. I'm like, well, you know, that's growth, that's maturity, you know, security. You got the man, you got the adorable daughter, and I loved it. Your guys' little date nights that you had, because it's very relatable about our husbands wanting more of us. Yeah. And there's nothing more to give. Yeah. Sometimes there isn't. Sometimes there isn't. But we're all busy, right? Yeah, we're all busy. We're tired. So I mean, when the girls aren't getting along, I'm just like, get over it, like apologize. Let's move on. That's like perspective. Yeah. Right? Yeah. You don't sweat the small stuff anymore because you know what the big stuff might be. Exactly. Right. Yeah. Exactly. Larry knows how busy you are, right? Yes, he does. Okay, good. Definitely he does. You guys have been together since what? 2017? We've been together since the end of 2011. Oh, wow. Married in 2017. Okay. Yes. So we've been together, I think, going on almost 15, 14 years. Oh, my gosh. If I'm doing math correctly, going on 15 years. But you guys took it nice and slow in your relationship, which is refreshing. Yeah, we took it nice and slow, almost too slow. Because I was like, it took him like six years to propose. And then after we got married, I think I was like, so when are we having a baby? And I think it was like six years after that we had a baby. Like, we took it really slow. But we needed to make sure, like, this is it. And I'm very much like... I like to be in control and I wanted to make sure that this is it. I don't want to just, you know, I don't know, it's just moving fast is not my thing. So I'm actually now grateful that we did take our time, whereas like before I was kind of pushing them a little bit more, but I'm like, I'm glad I'm glad it worked out. I've had the relationships where it's been like, you know, three months. You move in together and it's like, you don't really know each other. Yeah, you don't really know. I don't recommend that. No, I've been there, done that. It didn't go so well. So well, I just love over here. I just love seeing your very handsome, buff husband be such a girl dad. He is such a girl dad. She is so precious and what a personality. Oh my God. She might be a future reality TV star. I am very scared of my daughter sometimes. Her personality is insane. Like every morning she wakes up, she's like, mommy, let's do a TikTok. I'm like, what? How old is she? She's going to be four in January. Oh my God. But she was. Guys, guys. That's like you're young. No, like real quick. We were, me and Larry were downstairs and she, I was like, baby, I'm going to go get your water and I'll be right back. But I like locked the gate and she's watching now and then because she loves to watch like old school movies. She's, she doesn't even like cartoons. That's cool. Larry says, what is she, who's she talking to? And I'm like, oh, she's just probably reciting all the words to the movie. I go upstairs, I grab my phone, I look and I have literally like 10 vlogs on my phone. Oh, at four years old. Here I am in mommy's bedroom and we're watching now and then. And I'm like, oh my goodness. It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Larry was like, that is hilarious. Oh, yeah. And everything starts with so. So. And are you okay with it? So she watches me too much. Do you love it? I love it. I think that, like, if she's interested in that and that's what she wants to do, I'm going to let her just do whatever she wants to do. You're so fun to follow on TikTok. And you know what makes you more, like, so much fun? You are as gorgeous as you are and as relatable as you are. I love that you just keep it real. And you're like, hey, I got that. You could probably get whatever designer bag you want. Yeah. And now she's talking about this viral Amazon bag that now I'm going to have to get. Which one? It's this like denim bag that's going viral. Oh, drop the link. I'll send all you guys a link. No, I'm like, why are we wasting all of our hard-earned money on like these massively expensive things? Thank you. There's no gatekeeping. I feel like they all are made in the same place. I don't know why. They're so relatable though in that way to us, to us regular, regular folks. I'm all for dressing like chic and without having to break the bank. I feel like you can dress... Amazing and look amazing without it. Thank you. And it's okay to spend a little bit. I might splurge on my boots, but then my outfit might be from Amazon. Like the staples, right? The staples. You might splurge on the staples, but I like variety. I like a variety, too. I like a high-low. Me, too. And it's all about, like, how you wear it and, like, your confidence. And if you look chic and you look amazing, who cares where you got it, you know? Who cares, right? Yeah, but also when you look good, most everything looks good on you. Well, thank you, but I do that. Right. My manager, she was like the... What do you call them? The Bermuda shorts. She was like totally against them. And I wore them all the time. And she's like, I don't know how you wear them. I could never on my body. And we just went to an event and she was wearing them. And I'm like, I told you. But it just depends on the length. It's not that Bermuda shorts are not made for everybody. It's like, what length are you getting? It has to fit you in the right spot. Is there any style where you're like hard no? Skinny jeans are a hard no for me right now. Thank you. Really? Because you would look awesome. I can't go back. You look great in skinny clothes. I can't go back. No. No. What? No. No. Thank you for that. Yeah. You do. I've seen you rock it. I think you have to have the legs for it and my ankles are way too thick for that. What? Oh my God. Don't look at that. No. We all have something though. We all have something that we hate. Of course. All of us do. Those shoes that look like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Oh, with the toe. With the toe. They're like a workout pair, but I was like, yeah, no, it's not for me. I still can't do round toe right now, like pointy toe. It has to be pointy toe. I can't do the round toe boots. I just feel like... Because the pointy toe elongates the legs, right? Yes, the pointy toe does elongate the legs. That's the thing. Just because something is trending, it doesn't mean you need to get it. It does not mean that. It depends on your style and your vibe. And there's some things that I know that, not because I can't pull it off. I feel like if I was doing a photo shoot or if I was going to an event and I wanted to rock it, I could pull it off. But it's just not for me. Something that I just wouldn't necessarily wear. Yeah. No, listen. I'm looking at you right now, and I'm wondering, why am I sitting next to a swimsuit cover model right now? But, you know, because I wanted to ask you, when you take these photos, I mean, we'll take our outfit of the day photos once in a while. Can you give us a straight from the cover star tip? On how we can elevate our photos. Like you need tips, Amanda. Well, I mean, you're the one that's posing us. I always like a little bit of like the chin down. And sometimes if you say hey before the photo, like one, two, three, hey. Like sometimes I actually adopted that. Thank you. That is so funny. It's like the fake laugh. So sometimes like we'll do red carpets and like the photographers are like, smile, smile. And it's like it's almost impossible to just be like and smile, right? So you have to like just pretend for one moment and like pretend like you're laughing. laughing at them telling you to smile just like stop telling me to smile I know like it makes my pictures look awkward when you're forcing me to like have a certain energy that I just am not bringing yeah today but yeah it's it's I think that I used to think that like smiling was not going to give me a cute photo so I was always like very serious in all my photos and then I realized like It's okay to smile. It's okay to just be yourself because I love outtakes of myself. I will tell people to take pictures of me without posing. I'll be like, no, take a picture of me talking to my daughter, tying my shoelaces. Those are the best. As long as it's not from below. Like, you know, that's... None of us want that. None of us want the below angle. This way or higher because when someone gets you from here. I know. Who's getting you from here? Well, you definitely want to angle up a little bit though because it does elongate. Yes. So it's like we were, I was at an event. Here we go. My manager, again, she was taking my pictures like this. And I'm like, Nikki, angle up a little bit. Angle up from below. Yeah, but you don't do it from below. You just go like this, but you just tilt the phone up just a tiny bit. And it brings everything a little more tall. So not this way. I know. We're doing this. Never like this and never like this. Okay. Tip it. Just angle it. Yeah. Oh, they go up. Angle up. Yeah. I used to always do chin up. Mm-hmm. And they used to say, no, chin down. Trust. It makes a big difference. With the chin down? With your chin. It's been down. It's been down. Yeah, it's been down. I know. Well, not too down. Depends on where the camera is though. Not too down. I think that you just kind of have to follow where the camera is. Yeah. Yeah. If you see the camera there, you kind of just follow it and just know where your face is going to be depending on where they are. Yeah, but some people just have it naturally in them, like Amanda here. If you ever walk after her at like a step and repeat. I've been the fool who does that. Yeah. Well, yeah. I've been the fool many times. She's like posing. She knows what to do with her arms. She just is in her element. And then, you know, comes me like. With my clutch, I'm like, Amanda is like, I would do like soap operas and my dad would blame my mom for watching the soap opera. So I was like your little girl. She's just comfortable in your DNA. Like you're born with it. You have it. You can't teach this stuff. Maybe you're born with it. Maybe it's maybe. I can't believe it. You can get tips from the pro right here. Reality TV, you're no stranger to that. There is some drama there. Are you on good terms with all of the girls right now? Yeah, I mean, I'd love to stay on good terms with my friends. I don't like to hold any grudges. And I think that for me, I just feel like it's such a waste of time to hold a grudge. It is. I do. It's a waste of energy. It's a waste of energy. It gives you ulcers. Energy to be rude and nasty. Yeah. It takes more energy to keep following along and keeping up with that same energy. And I think that I just like to move on and get on with it. And it could be like, and I'm not even talking about just like the girls, like any situation I'm in. If it's not going to work, it's not going to work, don't force it. But if it is and it's worth it, let's talk about it. Let's apologize. Let's get back to being friends. But if you feel deep down, this just isn't for me, then we move on. In that case, do you block them on social media? I don't. What do you do? Yeah, tell us what the hell. Unless you talk about my daughter, my relationship, my husband, you will not get blocked because I feel like that's a little petty for me. Those are the lines. I get it. But if you say something that there's no coming back from that I just feel like deserves a block, you'll get a block. I do have some people blocked. But that's a very evolved headspace. Yeah, boundaries. But I like that you said your husband, your daughter, because I'm the same way. I'm the M's rule. If you don't mess with my man, my mom, my money, or my meemaw, we're fine. Your meemaw taught you that. That's right. We're good. Or your money. That's what I said, as long as we don't mess with the Ms, we're good. And so that's what you have to have. There's certain lines if you cross it, that's it, right? And that's like the same with like having your friends back. Like if someone does something to them, there's no coming back from that's right. Bridges are burned. I'm with you. I got your back all the way. If I personally feel like I think you guys can get past this. Like I'm really good at reading situations, reading people and yeah. And I feel like that's like, One of my traits, like I'm good at that, so I can usually sense if we can come back from this or if we can't and if we can, I'm going to be like, okay, guys, come on, let's figure this out because this isn't that bad, you know? So yeah, that's just kind of just, and I guess that's why I look like the middleman all the time where the Switzerland as they would call it, but I don't think it's a bad thing. You're elevated. Oh, there's the badge. It's right there. 40 bucks? It's only $40. So get two, get the black. Not that we need an excuse to drink a glass of wine around here, or a bottle. Today kicks off Armenian Wine Week. It's all about introducing the world to Armenia's rich winemaking history. We're talking about a tradition that dates back more than 6,100 years. And yet... Many don't know about Armenian wine. So here's a fun fact. Back, there's something to sip on. Archaeologists discovered what's considered the world's oldest known winery inside of a cave in the village of Areni. And Areni is Armenia's signature indigenous red grape. Known for its bright acidity and distinctive character. Now, Armenian Wine Week is inviting the rest of the world to enjoy Armenian wine. And here's how you do that. You buy two bottles of Armenian wine. You keep one for yourself. You gift another to a non-Armenian friend. And then you challenge three Armenian friends to do the same. And then you share that experience on social media using the hashtag UnCorkArmenia. It's a fun way to share a little culture, introduce someone, Welcome to a new wine, support the wineries and the families who keep this tradition alive. And this challenge goes until November 14th. And November 14th happens to be International Arnie Day. Just another reason to raise a glass. So if you're a wine enthusiast or just curious to try something new, this is your invitation to uncork a bottle, share the story, do a toast. Cheers to all of you. For more information and to help find Armenian wines near you, armenianwineweek.com. Now, I know the challenge says to give one bottle of wine to a non-Armenian friend, but since I have three, I'm going to do my own version. Wow. A white for the lovely Amanda. This is the 6100 Trinity. Oh, thank you. Pop that in the fridge. Which I know you've had. Yes, this is so good. A rosé for the Jen. For the gen! Oh my gosh, I love it. And I know Sandra likes her reds. There you go. Cheers, ladies! Cheers! Oroksia, thank you! Cheers! Here's my coffee. Cheers! We'll fill your cup. How do you say cheers in Armenian? Genatsik. Genatsik. Genatsik. Genatsik. Genatsik. Genatsik. Genatsik. Okay, so the other part of the challenge which I'll do right now is challenging my three Armenian friends. I'm going to choose friends of the show. We have Chef Aramzadeh. We have Sona Movsesian. And comedian Antik. Nice. All right. Good friends of the show. Oh, my gosh. And Chef Ara is teaching me how to say some words in Armenian because he's posting about how to teach. Yes, I saw that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good. All right. Thank you. Enjoy. This is such a great wine. I love it. It's really good wine. It's really good. 6,100. You've shared this with us before. It's so good. Yep. Yep. Good, good, good. All right. A woman online is looking for reaction when it comes to possible hairstyles, so let's take a look and see what we like. All right, so here's the first style, a bit of a pixie, a pixie bob, that woman can pull off any style. Who is this woman? That woman has a face for any style. Number two, let's take a look. A bit of a Jen style. Listen, everyone kept saying this is the Jen. This is the Jen. Oh my gosh, you've become the Rachel. Yeah. This is very fresh. Number three. I do like the bangs, I have to say, the curtain bangs, is that what you call them? I don't know. They all look good. And number four. Boring, regular, regular. Number four is your actual hairstyle. This is just me. Two, two, two, two, two, two, two. Okay, now let me ask you something. Are you actually thinking of making a change here for real Z's or is this just no? I just need an idea Oh, you little teen. Oh, come on. Love number two as did everyone else apparently, but I am too scared to do so What are you afraid of? Well my hair and I think many women will agree. I feel like it's like my armor like I just feel like Comfortable having it around certain outfits. You know, when you wear certain clothes. I get it. I feel like my wardrobe. It's the shawl of the situation, right? It's the scarf of the... It's the accessory. It frames your face. Also... Oh, when you have a face like yours, the hair is just the accessory, and the face is the outfit. That's very clean. Literally, Araxia, yes. You can do it. You can do any of that. Also, you know, having shorter hair is harder to style. It is. It is more maintenance. It's actually not. Oh, what? I will say it's absolutely not. But I have... Well, you... That's true, because you cut yours that way. Mine grew in that way different. You're right. I agree. I wake up... But thank you for weighing in. Yeah. Number two, two wins, two wins, two wins. Morning. Hydration. Hey. It's important. How's it going? Am I gray? No, what are you sipping on? Water? It's going well. Or Armenian wine. Oh, no, no, no. Or gin and juice. Or Armenian wine. You know what? I got really excited about that. Gin and juice would be excellent. I'm always, you know, I got my money on my mind and my mind on my money. Thank you. At any rate, you know, talking about money, talking about money, and I wanted to talk about hairstyles, but all I got to say is Araxia is going to look good regardless. Yeah. Well, everybody drives through Beverly Hills every now and then, and you've probably seen all this construction that's going on right out there at Wilshire and Santa Monica, and you're like, hey, where's the Trader Vic's? But other than that, you're also thinking, you know what, is the Hilton getting a makeover? It's got to be the Hilton because, you know, you got the Waldorf going on right next door. That's the pretty building on the block. But boy, oh boy, it's so much more going on. There's actually two new huge towers going in where in that area kind of off besides the Hilton. The Hilton's getting the remodel, no doubt about it. But the one Beverly Hills project is what's really happening out there. And it is amazing. And there's some really cool numbers there. They've got 17.5 acres to work with to build these two towers. But you know what? Out of that 17 acres, 10 of those acres is actually going to be gardens. And if you look at a lot of the The artist conceptions of the buildings, they got a lot of greenery going on. Think about the new museum that they got in downtown. Oh my gosh, I'm forgetting the name of it. Spielberg one. Is it Spielberg? Anyways, it's the same kind of deal. They're going to start building greenery on a lot of these buildings. Using recycled water to keep this stuff green. But 10 acres is actually going to be gardens at the bottoms, miles of walking paths. You're going to have waterfalls and ponds, all kind of fake. But still, it's going to be available for people that are either staying at the Aman Hotel, which really is going to be like, I had to Google it, that is like one step above. Waldorf, that was the pretty kid on the block. This Amman is going to change everything up. But it's also going to be residents in there, residences. Residential, residential, and the money that is being spent. So the whole project, you're looking at about 4.3 billion, which I think is not that expensive when you're talking about California realty. But the homes that they're selling, which is less than 200, meaning less than 200 available for the public, because the other ones are going to be hotels. But you're looking at about 10 million for a one bedroom, 20 million for a two bedroom. You're kind of seeing the trend right there. There's two towers, so there's going to be two penthouses. One, they're looking at 107 million and the two story one next door. $200 million, now they do have a lot of this stuff already sold, and the builders are doing something pretty interesting, they're called founders bonds, founders, founders, founders bonds, and if you just got $20 million laying around, you can actually buy a portion of that building, basically investing your money in that building so that when it's done, they're talking, there's a possibility that you're going to get a 30% return on there, at any At any rate, there's still 1.6 billion. 1.6 billion available in those founders bonds. But the one thing that I got to say is there's no Trader Vic's. They're going to put in 45 restaurants and stores in there, no Trader Vic's. Are they going to put the Trader Vic's back in it? No, they're not. So I'm a little upset about that. But as far as the sci-fi stuff and the newer buildings, they're going to be amazing. I can't wait to start seeing this thing come together. Hopefully, it won't be a Tagger Towers in Beverly Hills, if you know what I mean. But the reality is, it's being built. Ladies, what do you think? That's progress. And I also think they need a ring light, sir. Yeah, what happens to a ring light? Why are you in the shadows? Come out into the light. Come on, sir. Yeah. There you go. Nice. Hollywood is rewriting the rules and traditional... Production models, they may never look the same. Why is the entertainment economy shifting and so fast? Well, and also, how are independent creators and veteran producers surviving this shift and crunch? Award-winning television producer Patrick Caligiuri, you are back. You've spent over 20 years building hits for network and streaming platforms alike. And now you're going to break down what is happening because we are ending the year with quite a bang and quite a merge. Yes. It's been a while since we were back. It's been a while. It's been a while, but it's good to be back. It's good to have you back. It's my home away from home, for sure. Let's talk about the Ellison in the room, shall we? Thank you. It's been the talk of the town for months. It finally happened before the end of the year. How does this merge really affect everyday people? You know, I think it's a lot of the things that we've seen before. We saw what Paramount happened when it merged with... Skydance before and it lost about what 10% of its workforce. So we just see that those layoffs are happening across the city. I mean, Disney just announced that they laid off about a thousand people too. So it's just not looking good. For the traditional model and for the Hollywood that we've kind of known for the past 40 years, but we're also seeing sort of emerging systems also be developing at the same time. So we're in like this transition period. So, you know, and I think the industry is trying to figure itself out right now. Has the have the unions, especially SAG-AFTRA, have they caught up with These changes, because that's, I think what's hurting a lot of people, the most, a lot of actors, you know, they're, they're, they're about to lose their health insurance at the end of the year. And so if only we can maybe update these contracts a little bit, we have these new micro dramas that are coming out. Verts are, are big. So maybe those can help them keep their hours. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and I can't speak on behalf of what the union's policies are, but I do see, you Through my own social media platforms that there's a lot of A lot of disenchantment and there's a lot of like kind of frustration with the unions for people that thought they would be covered and then they keep seeing the rates being raised and they keep seeing also union members making salaries that just seem way high for people who are losing their medical coverage right now. So there's a lot of unfairness and a lot of discussions being had. Can we also ask what a vert is? Vertical dramas. How long are they? So it depends, but usually they keep them really short. The idea is that they're kind of like tiny soap operas that you're just digesting, and it always ends with a big cliffhanger. You walk in the room and somebody is in bed with another person's husband. But, you know, it's cool to the next one. I do. I watch them on TikTok. They find me. Well, the animated fruit ones do. I did buy, I started with the animated fruit, but now I go on to the other one. The gateway drug. Yes, yes. Are you saying that these smaller types or different unconventional types of production, though, is keeping business here? It is. From a lot of actors that I hear, they're constantly being pulled into these, you know, these vertical shorts. And, you know, again, like. Television came in and disrupted the system. You know, basically social media came in and it's disrupting the system. It's how we're kind of consuming on screen. What do actors think about this? Yeah, like actors are like, oh, book me for a verse. I don't think there's want and need, you know. It's really what it comes down to is like if this is the only place where there's work right now, you know, that's going to be the place that I'm going to go to. It's just so wild because back in the day, like a big actor would never do TV and now that's what they do. Right, and television streaming is part of it. Yeah, that's right. That's prime space. I know someone who just booked. Being on one of those, and they were able to pay their car payment because of it, and the day is shorter. Right. The day is a little bit shorter because there's not as much to fill. And I think it's sort of a system, especially in L.A. right now, where beggars can't be choosers. Yeah, there's a lot of people out of work right now. Exactly. Exactly. Production is down just across the board, and the numbers are down, like 15%, 20% of production is down from just this time last year, which was already down on a five-year trend. You know, basically people are going to where the work is. So production is down just here or overall in the industry? It's it's there's places that are actually spiking up. New York right now is getting almost neck and neck to where California is as a production rival. But also New Jersey, which is right across the river, opened up their incentive program. So you actually see two states that are kind of working together to kind of build their industry, which is, you know, California is really kind of on its own. Well, there are guardrails and parameters now that were set up after this big merger, right, where they have to do X number of productions. Per year? But I've heard like some like, there's always a catch, right? Right. So I've heard also if Skydance decides to turn the company back to private, those rules no longer apply. So there's things where you start saying, okay, well, also these guardrails are only in place for three years. You know, that's a short-term protection. And then basically the game's off and the company can do whatever it wants. But again, where the company is tied in sort of the legacy media sense. We're starting to see new other production companies, studios, even models really starting to take hold because people are saying, well, I'm not going to fit into this legacy system anymore, so let's try something new. Hey, what do we got to lose? And a lot of times, sometimes the calls coming from within the house on butting heads, the Have to be on the same page because if they are not, this is why we are losing production as well. The fees locations of where you can film and the permitting process can say, here are these incentives do with it what you will and the city can be like, well, you know what? That's going to cost you. That said, though, we have a new incoming mayor. That's right. That's right. You do. And also, I see, you know, there's also been the city actually trying to help, you know, jumpstart productions. They're now saying if you have a crew of 10 people or less, you know, you're not going to have to pay permits anymore. Right. Or we're even lending out some of our city space for you can rent it a dollar a day. Right. So the production, you know, so Los Angeles is trying to take the fabricator out and at least get independent productions going or small productions going. Is it too late? You know, what we're going to have to see, but, you know, better late than never. But at the same time, we could have done this two, three years ago when, you know, everybody was just saying, please look at this. But, you know, bureaucracy of government. It's just wild to think that people go overseas to shoot something and that it's cheaper to do that. Then to film here sad because a lot of families then have to decide, well, I'll stay here with the kids or hold down the house for months and months and months for months on end just so that they can put food on the table. And so a lot of it starts in our backyard. So I have heard if you are a local business and you see a location scout come to your neighborhood, make it almost. It's as inviting as possible to have them film on your street, or they will eat, the crew will go to your deli and eat, the crew will go to your cafe and eat, and that's a good thing for our economy. And that's the same thing to say, is the city also has to want it. It can't just be neighborhoods being like, I hate these production trucks in my street, I don't want it here, because also that's pushing the production out, too. So LA has always been the entertainment capital, but it has to embrace that and say, hey, you know what, we welcome filming around the city. And they do spend money. There's a lot of crew to feed, and they will go to the local restaurant first and feed their crew. So it is the domino effect for good and, unfortunately, for bad. Yes, exactly. I'm hoping for a fruitful 2027, as all of us are, because this industry is our backbone of our city. You know, it's really what founded Los Angeles. This is the city of dreams, and you really don't want to lose that. You know, we're all gonna, it really takes a community effort to really kind of, you know, want to make sure that this remains in the community. Yeah. May it be bustling for 2027. Thank you as always for giving us your time. Happy holidays. Happy holidays to you.