Lohan bust may mark last call for young stars

"I'm not being sanctimonious here, but the crazy thing about what's happening now is nobody is stopping them," said Gary Morgan, chief executive of Splash News, saying his photographers have been chronicling underage drinking for years. "The clubs love the attention, but if this was any other underage kid, the police would have swooped in on the club arrested the owner or the barman."

The celebrity website www.TMZ.com last year posted photos of McCartney and other underage stars at Mood, and Harvey Levin, the site's managing editor, said he questions why authorities aren't more closely monitoring what goes on at such night spots.

"There's no way they didn't know what was going on at those clubs," he said. "Everybody saw it. It was all over TV. There was a lot of conduct that crossed the legal line in this town. The difference today is everybody's watching."

Carr said state officials are aware of the images of baby-faced celebrities carousing. But he defends the ABC agency's efforts, saying it has four agents to monitor 2,870 liquor licenses in the Los Angeles area.

"We read the same headlines, and it concerns us," Carr said. "But we can't be in those places every night."

Carr said investigators usually build cases using young-looking decoys trying to buy alcohol without identification. They've found that nearly one in five operators doesn't bother to check, he said. Undercover agents usually survey a business to make sure identification is being checked. If an officer believes a bar has served a drink to an underage customer, he or she can demand the patron's identification and confiscate the cocktail as evidence.

Over the last year, ABC has conducted 10 undercover operations in Los Angeles. Mood is the only bar it cited for serving drinks to minors.

The club's owner, David Judaken, did not return calls Tuesday. But Elizabeth Peterson, a friend of Judaken and the owner of several trendy bars, said she believes Mood is being unfairly targeted.

"It's totally not his fault," Peterson said, noting that many underage people have convincing fake identification. "It was judiciously checked."

However, Peterson, who runs bars downtown, said other operators should learn from Mood's experience.

"Fifteen days' closure can close you [forever]. People think these places are incredible cash cows, but not the first year," she said. "Allowing underage people in is just not worth it."

Garcetti agreed it can be difficult for bar owners to weed out all underage drinkers. But he was quick to point out that in the case of paparazzi-attracting celebrities, it's not so hard. Especially when the evidence is in such full view.

"Obviously there are times the paparazzi has gone too far," he said. "But they're also showing the truth about conditions in our night life."

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david.pierson@latimes.com

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com