Pyott’s Coach; OC in DTLA; Higby’s Early Path to Power

David Pyott hasn’t been the boss of Allergan for more than a year, but events conspire to keep him in the public eye. Chief among them is the meltdown of Valeant Pharmaceuticals, a dip that has validated the stout resistance Pyott led through 2014, when the one-time high-flying roll-up specialist came after Allergan, with hedge funder Bill Ackman in tow on the attempted raid (see related story, page 1). Pyott never lost his sense of humor, and a Q&A with Jim Mazzo during OCTANe’s Orange County Ophthalmology Technology Summit at the Center Club last week showed that he’s still comfortable using his own heritage as grist for that mill, with frequent quips about the stereotypical reputation of what the Insider will call Scottish frugality. It’s not all a joke, though—consider the worthy piece on Valeant’s fall from grace in the summer edition of Vanity Fair, which notes Pyott “flew commercial, sometimes even coach” while former Valeant CEO Michael Pearson had two private jets at his disposal … OC in DTLA: Bob Olson has gone Hollywood with his hotel development, as another page 1 piece notes. But his R.D. Olson construction unit also is one of several OC firms with a piece of action in the latest hyper-spurt of development in L.A.’s downtown. R.D. Olson has taken on the renovation of an historic high-rise in the 700 block of South Olive Street—just about the center point of the latest boom in the city’s center … MVE + Partners, the architecture firm that’s been doing big business from its Irvine base, now has a studio with a view atop 888 S. Figueroa, just up the street from L.A. Live and the Staples Center … Credit apparel manufacturer Z Supply for bringing a chunk of the action from DTLA to OC. The company has drawn retailers and wholesalers from the Fashion District to a couple of editions of a fashion show dubbed OC Mix and staged at its “industrial park headquarters in Irvine,” according to California Apparel News, which gave the development front-page play … Good timing on the link between the Martin Lawrence Gallery and the Westin South Coast Plaza. The hotel will put works from the gallery on display in its lobby, with a linoleum cut by Pablo Picasso called “Two Women With a Vase of Flowers” and carrying a price of $249,000 among the treasures shown at a preview last week. That’s a relative bargain compared with the $179 million Picasso’s “Les Femmes d’Alger” recently fetched at Sotheby’s … Larry Higby looked fit and fashionable as he delivered remarks at the opening of The Week That Changed the World: Nixon, China and the Arts, an exhibit that drew quite a cocktail crowd to SCP’s Jewel Court. Fit enough to prompt some quick math, which brought a reminder of what a fast start Higby got as a power player—he was in his mid-20s when he made the historic trip to Mao’s China as one of 50 or so in the presidential contingent … On hand for the exhibit opener was Mary Roosevelt, who hails from the Democratic side of the famed political clan, but nevertheless reminded the Insider that her late husband, James—son of President Franklin Roosevelt, one-time member of Congress, and benefactor of Chapman University—was a Democrat for Nixon … For the record: The award-winning film produced by Knobbe Martens General Counsel Wendy Peterson and directed by husband, Dale, is titled “Hello, My Name is Frank.”