Kenny Scharf

The new West Hollywood Library, set to open to the public Saturday on a curving stretch of San Vicente Boulevard across from the Pacific Design Center, is a building that offers a freewheeling tour through centuries of architectural history. Explicitly or implicitly, it points back to the work of Charles Moore, Pierre Koenig, Frank Gehry and even Michelangelo. The library includes long expanses of floor-to-ceiling glass, in the great California midcentury tradition, as well as bands of marble and generous helpings of architectural ornament.

Twenty years after the term New Wave was used to describe the iconoclastic French cinema of the late 1950s and early '60s but before the name became a commercially viable radio format in the '80s, it described the avant-garde hipsters of Lower Manhattan.

Tuesday night at the Hollywood Athletic Club was quite a scene according to manager Ian Gray. It all started when Demi Moore arrived, more than seven hours late, to meet mega photographer Annie Leibovitz for a Vanity Fair magazine photo session. Moore, by the way, was covered in head-to-toe body paint--and little else. Husband Bruce Willis and baby were on hand to watch. Only seconds after that entrance, Grammy guy Michael Bolton waltzed in with professional arm piece, Brooke Shields.

THE president's face seems to be everywhere these days, and while the red states may be pleased as punch, his image is not a source of mirth to some in the Los Angeles arts community. Around here, George W. Bush's smile seems to hang in the air like one of Warhol's Brillo Pad boxes circa 1978 -- abrasive to some but ubiquitous as well.

What do surfwear maker Quiksilver, AIDS, laptops and hip-hop have in common? All have had an enormous impact on the way we live today, say Paper magazine founders Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovits. A New York-based glossy magazine that began life as a black-and-white fold-out poster, Paper has defined what is hip before it gets trendy.

Where does art come from? In the case of L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art, much of its collection has come from board members who donated or bequeathed key works or entire collections, or sold art to the museum at highly favorable terms. Among the leading collectors on the current MOCA board is Peter Brant, who right now is art-rich but, at least relatively speaking, somewhat challenged for cash. Bloomberg News reports that Brant, who was once estimated to be a billionaire, is now using part of his art collection as collateral for loans.

Spring in the city was as capricious as a courtesan by Colette, warm and seductive, biting as sarcasm, drenching as angry tears. A radiant afternoon snapped into a night that made a California visitor feel like a naked baby. The idea of venturing down into the blight of East 14th Street was as attractive as an Arctic swim, especially since the target establishment is the sort of place that keeps its patrons waiting on line for hours unless they are named Mick or Bianca or Andy.

Icons Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot famously posed in fuller-cut swimwear and came off sexier than any bikini-clad Sports Illustrated cover girl could. If you want to channel that retro style at the beach, try posing this summer in something from Marysia Swim. Marysia is only three seasons old, but the line's classic looks are a fresh breeze in a sea of body-baring bikinis. Designer Maria Dobrzanska Reeves draws inspiration from swimsuits from the 1940s through 1970s and from her childhood ballerina training in Warsaw — hence the tutus and leotard shapes.

Since the searchlights started snapping on all over the environment, no issue has become more visible than the destruction of the world's tropical rain forests. In the last four decades, more than half the forests in Amazonia, West Africa and Southeast Asia have quietly been eradicated, making room for cattle ranching, logging, hydroelectric projects, and, most recently, a Wild West-style rampage of gold miners, bringing mercury contamination to the jungle's rivers and food chain.

Just before leaving the 25th anniversary dinner at Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles, Ellen DeGeneres took a turn on the vibraphone with the Lynne Gordon Quartet. "This is harder than it looks," she said, tossing back the mallets. DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi and about 80 others turned up Nov. 19 to celebrate Kohn's longevity. The backdrop: paintings by artists such as Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. After checking out her portrait by Will Cotton, Katy Perry seated herself for dinner between husband Russell Brand and Kohn's wife, restaurateur Caroline Styne.