Going on a semester abroad to Florence or Paris is so stock. Now there is a “Semester on Sunset.”
Boston-based Emerson College opened a new Los Angeles Campus in Hollywood at 5960 Sunset Blvd, with 124 students moving in this past January.
Larry David (a current parent), Tom Bergeron (a former parent), Vin Di Bona (an alum), Norman Lear (an alum), Max Mutchnick (’87), Jennifer Coolidge, and Maria Menounos (’00) helped christen the campus on Saturday night in Hollywood at a party in the 107,000 square foot space.
Along with a program from Ithaca College, Emerson interns have been staples at film studios, medical companies, public relations and marketing agencies for years. After 28 years at a rented space in Burbank, they have now made the move that entertainment businesses make when they have “arrived” – coming over the hill from the valley.
In their new homebase, close to Sunset Gower Studios, the Palladium, and the Technicolor building on Sunset, they will be leveraging the location for reaching out and funneling students to the 4,000 or so Emerson alumns in the L.A. area.
“Many call it the Emerson Mafia,” says Tom Tancred, who is a 2001 alum of the program. He is now the supervising producer on SyFy’s “Big Fat Greek Wedding” (plug: premiering Tuesday night, March 11). “It’s smart to do the LA program, especially for folks like me who knew LA was was going to be my future home.”
Notable younger Emersonians who made L.A. their future home include Harris Wittels (supervising producer on “Parks and Recreation”), Opus Moreschi (head writer for “The Colbet Report” who led the show to an Emmy win last September), director Todd Strauss-Schulson (“A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas”), and the ubiquitous Maria Menounos, (above, with Emerson parent Tom Bergeron on Saturday night).
Larry David, Max Mutchnick, Emerson president M. Lee Pelton and Jennifer Coolidge.
“I look forward to all the great minds, movies, and television that will come from collaborations that begin on the new campus,” Tancred said.
Oscars Hangover
After 11.5 hours on camera last weekend as the red carpet alpha-female, E! News’ Giuliana Rancic hosted an awards season post-mortem brunch this week for fellow carpet weary friends, fashion talking-heads, and insiders.
Nick Verreos and Phillip Bloch grab some of the Crystal Light mocktails.
“Back in the day, we would go to Leo’s party at two in the morning,” Giuliana told TheWrap, hanging with her manager Pam Kohl in the garden at the SLS Wednesday morning. “This was ten years ago, I remember I would go straight from that Leo DiCaprio party to my E! News meeting. I would walk in with full-gown hair and makeup from the Oscars and everyone would look at me. The producers would be like ‘You’re kidding, right? Those days are long gone.”
This year within 45 minutes of signing off, she was home in a bathrobe with pizza and wine, having already bathed and put down her son.
Instead of putting the sun in the sky, she says “I wake up at 5 a.m. and I’m at ‘Fashion Police’ by 6.”
She called sneaking in 24 minutes of working out a “tiny win,” weaving in the messaging of brunch sponsor Crystal Light Liquid.
John Legend also went from the Oscar high back to life.
Less than 24 hours after performing at the Governors Ball and enjoying the winner’s halo for curating the music on “12 Years a Slave,” Legend spent Oscar Monday at the Best Buy at La Brea and Santa Monica playing songs as part of a promotional appearance for “The Definitive Sound Experience.”
Legend heads out on a ten week stripped down acoustic tour (only him, guitar player, and some strings) next week.
ICM’s Chris Silbermann made a joke about being a Hollywood talent agent receiving the “Humanitarian Award” at the Venice Family Clinic Gala. Above, Silbermann with Julia Franz and Chuck Lorre.
Meanwhile, the Venice Family Clinic’s annual Silver Circle Gala also picked the tough timing of throwing a party in Oscar’s long shadow.
The Pointer Sisters (above) kept it in the “family” for the annual fundraiser.
Host Hal Sparks took a stab at a McConaughey impression and with appearances by TV figures Vince Gilligan and Chuck Lorre (a regular over the years at this event), the attention is already turning to the Emmys, which will be on a Monday six months from now.
In that spirit, Ray Dolby, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David E. Kelley, Jay Leno, Rupert Murdoch and Brandon Stoddard go in to the TV Academy Hall of Fame on Tuesday night at the Beverly Wilshire and the campaigning for TV gold has already started.
Lena Dunham headlines “An Evening with ‘Girls’” at the TV Academy on Thursday, following her “Saturday Night Live” episode this past weekend, a sign that a new campaign season is already underway.
