Nigel Lythgoe left as producer of Fox’s “American Idol” two seasons ago so he could focus on producing and being a judge on Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance.” But now that he has resumed his “American Idol” duties, the 61-year-old British transplant is very busy indeed this season.
So what does the TV veteran do in his rare bits of down time? He watches television. But he doesn’t watch other reality show competitors.
“I just want to relax, so it’s mainly sports,” he said, but added that he’s so busy he gets way behind. “I often watch soccer matches four weeks after they’ve been played.”
Lythgoe also likes to record a show or two on one of the premium cable channels and watch several episodes at a time.
“I have a lot of programs that I want to catch up on like ‘Borgias,’” he said.
As for HBO’s new “Game of Thrones,” he said, “I know I’ll be behind on that.”
U.K. to L.A.
Another British transplant, Margaret Black-Scott, gets to celebrate the country of her birth each spring. And during this year’s BritWeek, which ran from April 26 to May 11, she attended a gala dinner headlined by British singer Seal and saw an original Magna Carta on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Black-Scott is founder-chief executive of Beverly Hills Wealth Management LLC, which was one of the sponsors of BritWeek. She was raised in the United Kingdom but moved to the United States with her American husband. She has lived in Los Angeles for nearly 16 years.
L.A.’s business climate makes it popular for the British to do business, Black-Scott explained.
“It has a lot of entrepreneurs who are locally grown, or some who have moved here from other parts of the country and the world,” she said. “That’s very attractive to Britons.”
Oh, and the other climate makes the city popular among Brits, too.
“I’ll take the California weather over a Sheffield winter,” she said.
Road Dog
When LeRoy Hughes was driving home on the Santa Bernardino (10) Freeway not far from Baldwin Park a few weeks ago, he caught a glimpse of a small dog on the median. He could have looked the other way, but Hughes decided to take the road less traveled. He looped back and stopped to pick up the critter.
When Hughes, 42, a business development leader at the downtown L.A. office of Ernst & Young, picked up the animal, “I could see a little nub of a tail wagging.”
The 2-year-old pooch, weighing about 11 pounds, spent the night in the Hughes’ garage.
Since the miniature pinscher had no collar or I.D. chip, Hughes assumed someone had dumped her. For his children, it was love at first sight. Still, the family did its duty and turned her in at the local shelter. They waited, impatiently, and after she went unclaimed for five days, they took her back.
The timing was perfect, as the Hughes family – including wife Michelle, and sons Caiden and Kylan – had been searching for a small dog to adopt.
The name? That was easy. It’s Freeway.
Staff reporters Greg Hernandez, Natalie Jarvey and Sam Bennett contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].
