Style & Focus News Bites

Style and Focus PR would like to send our condolences to the families of Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes.

** Advertising: Calvin Klein and Condé Nast Strike Online Ad Deal. Condé Nast has signed an exclusive deal with fashion brand Calvin Klein to run an ad campaign for its fragrance Secret Obsession on the vogue.com website. The deal, which will run for four weeks and will kick off before the campaign breaks nationally, will see Calvin Klein sponsor VogueTV and run banner advertising across the site. Calvin Klein will also offer exclusive sampling to Vogue.com readers. (Brand Republic - Media Week Magazine)

** Entertainment: Keke Palmer to Star in New Nickelodeon Series "True Jackson, VP". Keke Palmer of the hit film "Akeelah and the Bee" will star in Nickelodeon's newest live-action series "True Jackson, VP." The network has ordered 20 episodes of the series centered around 15-year old True Jackson (Palmer) who is tapped to head the youth division of a major fashion label. True soon learns that corporate life has the same highs and lows as high school, complete with cliques, mean girls and crushes -- but with cool perks like designing for up-and-coming rock stars and casting super cute models. (Black Entertainment News)

** Beauty/Business Law: L'Oreal Loses to eBay in Counterfeit Case. L’Oreal has lost to eBay in a Belgian court after it tried to sue the online auction site for selling counterfeit goods. The Tribunal de Commerce ruled in favour of eBay, dismissing claims from the cosmetics giant that the online auction site was not doing enough to prevent the sale of counterfeit Lancôme products. L’Oreal awaits the decision of courts in the four other European nations where the case was filed. (Cosmetics Design)

** Health/Business: Thousands in California whose health policies were canceled to be offered new coverage. About 3,400 Californians whose health insurance was canceled by Kaiser, Health Net and PacifiCare after they got sick will soon receive notification that they may be eligible for new coverage and for compensation for medical bills they paid while they were uninsured. In a deal with state regulators, the insurers agreed to offer former members new coverage regardless of preexisting medical conditions and to reimburse them for medical expenses. In exchange, the state Department of Managed Health Care will close investigations into the companies' rescission practices. Regulators began mailing out notices to individuals Tuesday. (Los Angeles Times)

** Advertising: Google Shuts Down Popular U.K. Advertising Blog. The UK's most popular advertising industry blog, Scamp, has been shut down by Google for breaching the conditions of its blogging platform, Blogger. Scamp, written by Bartle Bogle Hegarty creative director Simon Veksner, is hugely popular in the UK ad industry, often drawing hundreds of comments per post from disgruntled advertising executives. (Guardian)

** Art: Economic Realities Press on Artists’ Outdoor Eden. The 25 year-old open air studios of Laddie John Dill and Ed Ruscha are being encroched upon by the rapidly reviving city of Venice, CA. The city of Los Angeles wants to tear down the fence, pave the space for a parking lot. The project has quickly emerged as a fight between the artistic values that led to the renewal of Venice and the commercial interests that are reshaping the community’s character.

“After the railroad line stopped back there, and Venice began its slow deterioration, this was a really rough part of town,” Mr. Dill said. Now, however, as the boulevard on the other side of the alley has become populated with restaurants, clothing boutiques and a Pinkberry cafe, “this whole thing is symbolic of the gentrification of Venice.”

City bulldozers are expected to begin work on the 100-space parking project soon after a ground-breaking ceremony on Thursday. That has led the owner of the warehouse leased by the two artists to begin preparing a lawsuit seeking to stop the project. (New York Times)