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John Ridley: The 12 Years a Slave Oscar Winner Isn't Just a Black History Screenwriter

Photo by Ryan Orange

Published in L.A. Weekly

John Ridley is on his cellphone, talking to his sister for the first time since he won an Oscar for writing 12 Years a Slave.

"It's like Excalibur. I should give it to the Lady of the Lake," he says, dismissively: The statuette has ended up in a drawer. When it was in the kitchen, "We had to dust around it."

It's not that he's ashamed of the honor. But he wants to force himself to focus on the future.

In recent years, Ridley has been pegged as a black-history specialist. In addition to 12 Years, he wrote a still-unmade L.A. Riots script. A Jimi Hendrix song, "Sending My Love to Linda," inspired him to write and direct Jimi: All Is By My Side, starring Outkast's André Benjamin; it comes out in June.

Jimmy Kimmel: L.A.'s King of Late-Night

Photo by Ryan Orange

Published in L.A. Weekly

Jimmy Kimmel shops at Costco. The Hawthorne Costco, near his beach house, is different from the Burbank Costco, near his Hollywood Hills home. "There are beach things there, like volleyballs and surfboards, that they don't have at the Costco in Burbank," he says. He's been to Costco in Hawaii, in Cabo San Lucas.

He also goes to the Hollywood Farmers Market. The Cheese Store of Silver Lake. Surfas restaurant supply store in Culver City. (He owns a paella grill, a La Caja China pig roasting box, a tandoor oven.)
"People assume that I have someone that goes shopping for me," he says. "I have such an odd job that it's nice to go into Smart & Final.

"I almost never relax," he adds. "When I'm running errands I'm only doing one thing, and that's why it's a nice little break."