BEVERLYPRESS.COM INSIDE • WeHo considers budget. pg. 3 Partly cloudy, • Alan Arkin with highs in honored pg. 12 the mid 70s Volume 29 No. 24 Serving the Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Hancock Park and Wilshire Communities June 13, 2019 La Brea Tar Pits next on Thousands #JustUnite in West Hollywood Museum Row revamp n Organizers will now look ahead to next By edwin folven ed is poised to undergo major year’s landmark 50th changes in the coming years. Black liquid tar has been bub- Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga, presi- anniversary of Pride bling up through the Earth’s surface dent and director of the Natural near present-day Wilshire History Museums of Los Angeles By luke harold Boulevard and Curson Avenue for County, which oversees operations millions of years. With that history at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum Under the theme #JustUnite, and its scientific importance in (formerly the George C. Page thousands of people attended the mind, the famous site where La 49th annual LA Pride festival Brea Tar Pits and Museum is locat- See Tar Pits page 26 and parade June 8-9 in West Hollywood. The celebration started Friday with a free ceremony and concert in West Hollywood Park head- lined by Paula Abdul. Festival- goers flooded the park and San Vicente Boulevard Saturday and Sunday to see a musical lineup photo by Luke Harold including Meghan Trainor, Pride was on parade Sunday morning, with local council members, law Ashanti and Years & Years. enforcement, corporate sponsors and other groups riding in floats. “Pride has been something I’ve wanted to play for a long just have a good time.” Angeles City Councilman Mitch time,” said Saro, a recording The annual Pride events have O’Farrell on a float during artist who performed in the Pride become a joyous celebration Sunday’s parade. festival for the first time. with music, art and barhopping, “Women, children, and mem- It was the second time he had but organizers also work to com- bers of our LGBT community ever attended Pride. On the festi- memorate Pride’s roots in the who have fled persecution from val grounds in West Hollywood fight for civil rights, and the bat- their own countries are being Park Friday morning, as a crew tles that continue across the victimized again while they seek photo by Edwin Folven built the stage, he said he was globe. The operators of a asylum hoping for a better life in Tijuana-based homeless shelter Plans are currently being formulated for the La Brea Tar Pits and “excited to just celebrate with for LGBT individuals joined Los See Pride page 25 Museum site, which will undergo a transformation in the coming years. my community and perform and Committee OKs Bergin’s as landmark Beverly Hills Unified expected n Parking lot excluded in to approve ‘19-20 budget today designation, paving way for possible development By luke harold very balanced way right now, which is the impetus for some of the The Beverly Hills Unified School changes along with the reconfigura- District’s Board of Education is tion,” school board President Noah By cameron kiszla anticipated to approve its annual Margo said during a presentation on budget with projected total revenue the special education program. On June 11, the Los Angeles of $73.7 million and $75.7 million The district will enter a new con- City Council’s Planning and Land in expenditures, which are subject figuration of two K-5 schools and Use Management Committee to change throughout the year, dur- one 6-8 middle school in the 2019- approved the Fairfax Avenue ing a June 13 special meeting at 9 20 school year, a switch from its building once home to Tom a.m. longtime model of four K-8 schools. Bergin’s Irish pub for historic-cul- School board members said dur- At Horace Mann and Hawthorne, tural monument status, but ing their June 11 meeting that the the two K-5 schools, there will be removed the building’s parking lot special education program has been six classes at each site with various from consideration so housing one of the foremost concerns of par- placement options for students. could be built there. ents throughout the district. Margo said the special education “It’s a Solomon decision. They photo by Cameron Kiszla Supporters and opponents of historic-cultural monument status for the “I would encourage those who offerings will be “more in-house” split the baby,” said Ken Hixon, are wondering about our special ed following years of outsourcing senior vice president of the Tom Bergin’s Irish pub building came out in force to the June 11 meet- ing of the PLUM Committee of the Los Angeles City Council. program to dive into this at your staffing and resources for special Miracle Mile Residential own leisure and take a look at the education. Association, which supports the specifics on here because they “I appreciate that this really landmark designation with the than a historic parking lot.” District, proposed the amendment explain how the entire program Los Angeles Conservancy. “But PLUM committee member See Bergin’s page 25 comes together holistically to serve See BHUSD page 26 I’d rather have a historic building Councilman Gil Cedillo, 1st student needs at all of our sites in a 2 June 13, 2019 CALENDAR Park Labrea News/Beverly Press ‘Claude Debussy: Schoenberg, who left their countries Walt Disney Concert Hall debut on after the Nazis came to power, and set- Sunday, June 16, at 7:30 p.m., perform- A Paris Love Story’ tled in Los Angeles. The program will ing music from his new album, “Seven include a discussion by Conlon and Days Walking.” Einaudi’s latest work Five performances have been added works by Korngold and Schoenberg was inspired by a winter walk he from Thursday, June 13, through performed by a large ensemble from the repeated over a period of time in the Sunday, June 16, for “Claude Debussy: LA Opera Orchestra. Tickets are $10. Alps. Tickets start at $45. 111 S. Grand A Paris Love Story,” starring Hershey 200 S. Grand Ave. pittancechambermu- Ave. laphil.com. Felder in the Wallis Annenberg Center sic.org. for Performing Arts’ Bram Goldsmith Theater. Doubling Julia Sweeney as playwright and Petersen Le Mans Julia Sweeney brings her one-person performer, Felder show “Older & Wider” to Largo at the takes audiences on Viewing Party Coronet on Monday, June 17, at 8 p.m. his personal explo- Petersen Automotive Museum will hold Sweeney is perhaps best known for her ration of the life a viewing party to coincide with the 24 roles on “Saturday Night Live.” The and music of com- Hours of Le Mans race in France on show is a hilarious take on parenting, poser Debussy, Saturday, June 15, from 4 to 7 p.m. religion, cancer, feminism and bringing to life a Watch Le Mans live, enjoy a one-of-a- Sweeney’s iconic characters’ place in visionary who proclaimed nature his kind car show and Ford GT Showcase, the modern world. Tickets are $40. 366 religion and romance his milieu. From and compete in a Le Mans racing game N. La Cienega Blvd. (310)855-0350, the sweeping “La mer” to the evocative in the Bruce Meyer Family Gallery. All largo-la.com. “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune” and attendees can set a lap time and enter to the mystical “Clair de lune,” Debussy win prizes from Michelin, HRE Wheels created music of beauty, color and com- and the Petersen Automotive Museum. passion. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. 6060 Wilshire Blvd. (323)964-6331, Tickets start at $35. 9390 N. Santa petersen.org. Monica Blvd. (310)746-4000, thewal- lis.org. Musical comedy Second City Hollywood presents ‘Dinner With Friends’ “More Guns! A Musical Comedy Crimson Square Theatre Company, in About the NRA” running from association with Beverly Hills Saturday, June 15, through Saturday, Playhouse and Cheshire Moon Inc., is Aug. 17. Award-winning actor and staging Donald Margulies’ Pulitzer comedian Andrew Pifko joins the pro- Prize winning production “Dinner With duction, a satire of the NRA, the Friends” running from Friday, June 14, “woke” left and the moderates in through Sunday, June 30, at the Beverly between. Showtimes are 8:30 p.m., Hills Playhouse. The play stars Saturdays. Tickets are $12. 6560 Samantha Sloyan, Jay Huguley, Chris Hollywood Blvd. secondcity.com. Devlin, and Tania Gonzalez, with photo by Ian Flanders Lisagaye Tomlinson and Bryan Dane Oliver and Michael McFall star in Theatricum Botanicum’s presen- McKinley as understudies. It is about tation of “Moby Dick-Rehearsed” running through Sunday, Sept. 29. Western music two couples who have been best friends Written by Orson Welles and adapted from the novel by Herman Music fans are invited to the Autry for years, and a husband and wife who Melville, the production follows a Shakespearean acting troupe working Museum of the American West’s have to re-evaluate their relationship between performances of “King Lear” to create a play about “Moby Western Music Association Showcase when their closest friends decide to split on Sunday, June 16, from noon to 3 Dick.” As the actors take up new roles, the theater is transformed from a up. Showtimes are 8 p.m., Friday and p.m. Musicians and cowboy poets will Saturday; 2 and 7 p.m., Sunday. Tickets bare stage into the yardarms, sails, masts and deck of a ship hunting the perform stories and songs of the roman- are $25. 254 S.