Los Angeles Times

The 25 best L.A. films of the last 25 years "Los ANGELES isn't a real city," people have said, "it just plays one on camera." It was a clever line once upon a time, but all that has changed. Los Angeles is the most complicated community in America -- make no mistake, it is a community -- and over the last 25 years, it has been both celebrated and savaged on the big screen with amazing efficacy. Damaged souls and flawless weather, canyon love and beach city menace, homeboys and credit card girls, freeways and fedoras, power lines and palm trees . . . again and again, moviegoers all over the world have sat in the dark and stared up at our Los Angeles, even if it was one populated by corrupt cops or a jabbering cartoon rabbit.

William Reagh, who recorded Los Angeles in black and white photographs for more than 50 years, has died. He was 81. Reagh died Wednesday at his Silver Lake home after a long battle with cancer, his wife, Harriet, said Thursday. Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Harvey has called Reagh "a sort of Ansel Adams of the Angels."

A federal court jury Monday rejected the claims of a veteran Los Angeles police lieutenant who said he was retaliated against by his superiors after uncovering evidence that undermined a decades-old murder investigation conducted by a colleague in the LAPD. Lt. Jim Gavin alleged that he and his police officer wife, Carol, were subjected to a campaign of harassment following his work in the case of Bruce Lisker, who was convicted of killing his mother in 1985 and sentenced to 16 years to life in prison.

When Stanley Ranch Camp opened in 1945, the Castaic camp site was rural, verging on wild. Today, it is surrounded by development, but for many of the underprivileged kids from Los Angeles County who spend a week on the 200-acre campus, it is the most nature they have ever seen.

Original design details preserved in this gated Spanish Revival home include the owners' crests and emblems, hand-painted in the early 1940s, and the ceramic tiles of the fireplace. Among updates, the living room includes three plasma-screen televisions hidden behind canvases depicting bullfighting. Location: 1284 Temple Hills, Laguna Beach 92651 Asking price: $5.995 million Year built: 1940 House size: Four bedrooms, five bathrooms, 4,855 square feet Lot size: 0.4 acre Features: Media room with 10-foot screen, open-beam ceilings, wall murals, office/den, exercise studio, dual walk-in closets in the master suite, copper hammered tub, touch-pad entertainment and security system, multiuse sport court, swimming pool, live-in carriage house atop the three-car garage, motor court for additional parking, ocean and coastline views, olive trees, flagstone walkways, lawn About the area: Last year, 430 single-family homes sold in the 92651 ZIP Code at a median price of $1.273 million, according to DataQuick.

Entered through a two-story hall with beamed ceilings, this late-20s Mediterranean-style estate retains its period craftsmanship and details. A natural stream runs through the nearly half-acre property in the Mid-Wilshire area. Location: 4922 W. 8th St., Los Angeles 90005 Asking price: $4.6 million Year built: 1927 Architect: Ralph Flewelling House size: 6 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, 5,908 square feet Lot size: 18,748 square feet Features: Three fireplaces, iron stair rail, floor-to-ceiling family room windows, bar, den, library, roof terrace, cross-shaped swimming pool.

An Orange County doctor featured in a Times investigative report because 16 of his patients fatally overdosed on drugs he prescribed has had another patient death, according to recently released coroner's records. Wayne Oviatt, a patient of Dr. Van Vu of Huntington Beach, fatally overdosed in January. The onetime Mammoth "ski bum," as his brother called him, suffered from chronic pain. He was known to abuse his medications and mix them with alcohol, and obtained drugs from various doctors, coroner's records state.

Despite bitter attacks in recent weeks, the two candidates for mayor of Los Angeles grudgingly conceded in a debate Sunday night that their rival was (mostly) honest and not so different on many of the plans they have for leading the city. That didn't mean City Councilman Eric Garcetti and Controller Wendy Greuel didn't find plenty of opportunity for attacks on each other's trustworthiness and independence. But they also laid out records that they said made them most qualified to replace Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is leaving office June 30 after serving the maximum two terms.

Time magazine's breastfeeding cover story asks: "Are You Mom Enough?" But it might as well ask: "Who Says Print Is Dead?" The magazine is the talk of the nation this morning, dominating the morning talk shows, the radio shows, social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, and that gold standard of relevancy, Google. It's the No. 1 search term there today. "This is a cover that has the entire nation talking," said magazine expert Samir Husni. "When was the last time you saw a story do that," unless it was a breaking news event?

When Dutch filmmaker Frans Hofmeester put the video "Lotte Time Lapse: From birth to 12 in 2 min. 45" on Vimeo one week ago, he thought it might generate some interest. After all, he had been filming his daughter Lotte once a week, every week, since she was born, and by stringing those videos together and speeding them up, he had amassed an impressive time-lapse-like record of his daughter as she grew from a wide-eyed baby  into a coy girl with a penchant for flower barrettes.