Time Out for Bad Taste

Timing is everything: Los Angeles magazine’s annual August dining-in-L.A. issue had a close brush with bad taste. Although actress Michelle Phillips was this month’s cover girl, she wasn’t the only star considered. The editors originally had wanted Anthony Hopkins, the omnivorous Hannibal (The Cannibal) Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs,” tasting fried chicken. But scheduling difficulties kept it from happening. “In retrospect, considering the Jeffrey Dahmer case,” said editor Lew Harris, “it’s probably best it didn’t come to pass.”

Bow Your Head

In “Truth or Dare,” Madonna finds that group prayer can be a reminder of what’s important in life. And it seems the Spiritual Girl isn’t the only one. At a recent dinner party at Asylum, Randy Balbes, a hip, young L.A. businessman, asked his party of four before dinner to hold hands and pray for peace, a cure for AIDS and “the opportunity to share love.” Balbes says his prayers are not so much religious as they are acts of thankfulness.

Essentials

What you need on the L.A. scene: Hey guys, want to reclaim that boyish, youthful look? A baseball cap is all it takes to remind people that you’re still in touch with the child within. Directors Spike Lee, John Singleton and Steven Spielberg wear caps advertising their projects, accomplishing two tasks at once. For a rakish effect, turn the brim to the side or back.