Beverly Center

An Atlanta-based rapper was fatally shot in the valet waiting area of the Beverly Center mall Monday by a suspect who fled in a silver Mercedes SUV, according to police. Officers later detained a "person of interest" as he approached the ticketing area at Los Angeles International Airport armed with a gun. The shooting occurred about 3:10 p.m. in the parking garage of the popular Westside mall, sending diners in nearby restaurants diving for cover.

Cold, wind and hours of boredom didn't deter shoppers on the hunt for affordable designer duds, as throngs lined up to buy into another brief fling between high-end fashion and low-end retail. On Thursday, a match-up between Italian fashion label Marni and cheap-chic retailer H&M drew hundreds of bargain seekers to select H&M stores. At the Beverly Center, about 250 shoppers had gathered outside the store by 7:30 a.m., many sipping coffee and wearing thick coats, knit caps and colorful wristbands stamped with the time slot they had been allotted to shop the collection.

Who says luxury is dead? Fendi, the Italian designer label famous for its lavish furs and Lilliputian baguette handbags, has opened a new boutique at the Beverly Center ? the first in the U.S. to feature a designated men's accessories section. The 1,825-square-foot boutique boasts the same undulating ribbed white walls, slate-gray granite floors and steel accents that mingle so harmoniously in the Peter Marino-designed Fendi flagship on Rodeo Drive. But the Beverly Center boutique also features a striking amber-colored glass facade incorporating a backlit pair of puzzle-piece-style double-Fs, the brand's logo.

If the thought of driving and holiday shopping in Los Angeles drives you a little crazy, here's a hotel package that puts guests within striking distance of the Grove and the Beverly Center. The deal from the Westside 's Orlando boutique hotel starts at $219 a night and includes a $50 gift card to spend on yourself or others.  The deal: The Orlando at 8384 W. 3rd St. (between San Vicente Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue) started life in 1984 as the Beverly Plaza Hotel. Most recently, the hotel upgraded its 95 rooms with higher ceilings,  bigger bathrooms and high-tech amenities, and it opened the new Churchill bar and restaurant.

Southern California is home to strip malls, mini-malls, mixed-use malls, outlet malls and rarefied luxury malls. But, unlike any other mall, the Beverly Center is a microcosm of the state of fashion and culture today. The behemoth at the edge of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills has eight levels — five of them for parking. The directory of stores, from Fendi to Forever 21, with very little in the middle price range, is indicative of today's high-low approach to shopping and getting dressed.

An aerialist performing during a holiday show at the Beverly Center mall was injured and hospitalized after falling to the shopping center floor, authorities said Sunday. One witness said the performer appeared to fall about 40 feet -- from the third level of the shopping center to the first. The 26-year-old woman slipped while hanging upside down from a solid metal hoop suspended from the ceiling during the finale of the show "Hunky Santa and the Candy Cane Girls" Saturday evening, said Ray Pierce, owner of Hollywood Aerial Arts, the firm putting on the performance.

Grammy-winning musician Ziggy Marley has purchased a Los Angeles home in the Beverly Center area for more than $700,000. Mature trees shade the Spanish-style house, which was built in 1929 and described in the Multiple Listing Services as a fixer. Details include high ceilings, a living room fireplace and hardwood floors. The 1,600-square-foot house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Fruit trees fill the backyard. Marley, 41, is the eldest son of the late legendary reggae artist Bob Marley.

A shopping mall that is also a tourist stop, the Beverly Center dominates the upscale fashion market and is considered by most observers to be the trendiest mall in Los Angeles County. Designed by Welton Becket & Associates, the Beverly Center suggests a modern version of a castle keep--a castle devoted entirely to retailing. The lower levels are reserved for parking. The shops on the upper levels are reached by distinctive glassed-in escalators with views of the hills.

Even the movie stars and their children need a Santa to whom to tell their Christmas wishes. There are probably others, but one is Michael Chellel, who holds forth at the Beverly Center. At other times of the year he runs a tour service known as Hollywood Hip Spots.

A man who shot and killed an up-and-coming rapper at the Beverly Center last year was acquitted of murder Friday in a case that focused in part on the victim's violence-laced gangsta rap lyrics. Aubrey Berry, 24, was hugged by his defense attorney as the last of the not guilty verdicts was read in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. Friends and family of rapper Dolla, whose real name was Roderick Anthony Burton II, wailed and sobbed in the audience. "Obviously, what happened on May 18, 2009, was a horrible tragedy for everyone," Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor told the lawyers in court.

Southern California is home to strip malls, mini-malls, mixed-use malls, outlet malls and rarefied luxury malls. But, unlike any other mall, the Beverly Center is a microcosm of the state of fashion and culture today. The behemoth at the edge of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills has eight levels — five of them for parking. The directory of stores, from Fendi to Forever 21, with very little in the middle price range, is indicative of today's high-low approach to shopping and getting dressed.

Shopping centers have always been about more than shopping. Before the rise of Internet-based social interaction, malls were a workplace, gathering place and pop culture petri dish for the better part of two generations. That made them the perfect backdrops for the kinds of films that filled the '80s and '90s - for the most part geographically ambiguous, lost-in-the-crowd tales of teen angst, budding (or imploding) romance, the everyman chafing under the yoke of social hierarchy and the bullies that come with it. In short, the mall setting was a grown-up version of the childhood playground - and, perhaps most important, a place that would look fairly familiar to everyone.

Going to the Westside Pavilion mall is a Friday afternoon ritual for Jenny Ouchi and her 8-year-old son, Will. But shopping isn't usually on the agenda. Ouchi drops Will off at Music Stars & Masters on the second floor, where he takes private piano lessons. During the half-hour session, Ouchi, 38, runs errands in the Los Angeles shopping center, such as getting her nails done or mailing a letter at the in-mall post office. "It's definitely a timesaver," said Ouchi, a part-time pediatrician who lives on the Westside.

Jocelyn Mull recalled finding the lifeless body of her 18-year-old son, Eron, lying in an alley near the Beverly Center. She had rushed to the scene after receiving a phone call from her sister alerting her of a possible shooting involving her son. She saw Eron's mouth gaping wide, she said. He had been shot once in the neck. Blood was everywhere. "A mother never expects — it's unthinkable — to bury her child," Mull said in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Friday as she demanded the maximum sentence for his killer, Kenneth Webb.

Perhaps no single individual in the last half-century has promoted and showcased African American beauty and fashion with as much flair as Eunice W. Johnson. The co-founder with her husband John H. Johnson of pioneering magazine Ebony in 1945, she was one of the first to market a cosmetics line, Fashion Fair Cosmetics, to African Americans, . And, most famously, she created the Ebony Fashion Fair — a traveling fashion runway show that's raised more than $55 million for various charities since its inception in 1958.

Obikà Mozzarella Bar Rating: one-and-a-half stars Location: Westfield Century City Shopping Center, 10250 Santa Monica Blvd., No. 206, Los Angeles; (310) 556-2452; http://www.obikala.com . Also in Beverly Center, Los Angeles. Price: Antipasti, $7 to $12; salads, $8 to $16; pane cunzato (open-faced sandwiches), $14 to $15; main courses, $14 to $18; mozzarella tasting for two, $27; for four, $58; salumi selection, $9 to $18. Corkage, $15. Details: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday; 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday.

The Beverly Center said it will begin a major face lift--including the addition of a rooftop terrace--this month as shopping malls across the Westside of Los Angeles undergo a wave of remodeling to woo affluent consumers and compete against new rivals. Renovations have also begun or are planned for the Westside Pavilion near Westwood and Santa Monica Place, both owned by Santa Monica-based Macerich Co.

An underground explosion popped a heavy manhole cover three feet into the air at the busy intersection of Beverly and La Cienega boulevards in West Los Angeles this morning, sparking a small fire and knocking out electrical power in the huge Beverly Center retail complex for 28 minutes. There were no reports of injuries, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman. Five companies of firefighters were dispatched, but the small fire had burned itself out by the time they arrived.

I distinctly remember an Italian friend raving to me a few years ago about the new mozzarella bar Obikà she'd just come across in Milan where you could get bufala mozzarella still dripping with milk, fresh from Campania to the south. Now, you have to understand that in Italy, food is always regional. And although, yes, you can buy mozzarella in practically any little deli in Italy, it usually isn't super fresh and mostly it's fior di latte , mozzarella made from cow's milk rather than the much more prized buffalo, which has its own delimited production area just like a wine.

Who says luxury is dead? Fendi, the Italian designer label famous for its lavish furs and Lilliputian baguette handbags, has opened a new boutique at the Beverly Center ? the first in the U.S. to feature a designated men's accessories section. The 1,825-square-foot boutique boasts the same undulating ribbed white walls, slate-gray granite floors and steel accents that mingle so harmoniously in the Peter Marino-designed Fendi flagship on Rodeo Drive. But the Beverly Center boutique also features a striking amber-colored glass facade incorporating a backlit pair of puzzle-piece-style double-Fs, the brand's logo.