To a snobby East Coast media guy like me, all the attention paid lately to the Los Angeles newspaper world has been really tiresome. Truth is, the only L.A.-based print media I'm ever really excited about is Los Angeles magazine, which has been rather excellent the past many years under the editorship of Kit Rachlis, and which just underwent a terrific redesign.

The magazine (like a lot of city and regional titles) tends to be a bit too clotted with cheesy "special advertising section" pages that drag down the overall look of the book, but the actual editorial, such as the current "Movie Issue" package, tends to be stellar. And God bless Rachlis for not putting a busty, barely post-pubescent starlet on the issue's cover, but -- gasp! -- an actually interesting, actually brilliant 61-year-old woman (Helen Mirren).