Glams of Hollywood

I went to a friend's wedding in Hollywood last night. Even though
I live in LA, I haven't really had a chance to visit Hollywood since
the revitalization of the city. Ten years ago, the city was a
dump. Crime rate was high and the street was dirty. It
seems like the city really turned the neighborhood around in the last
decade.



This was such a typical Hollywood picture, with tourists taking the
obligatory pictures of the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There are some actors in Star Wars
customes in the background. In addition, you can see the Kodak Theater
sign on the left. It's so quintessential Hollywood.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

I've lived in the US for so long, but the only time I was in CA was at
LAX on a stopover enroute to Hawaii. I think it might be nice to
see some of these iconic hollywood locations.

I've been here in Burbank - a stones throw from Hollywood for over a year, and haven't seen it. For some reason, I just don't feel compelled to do the whole tourist thing. It is cool, however, seeing famous people around town - sort of surreal. Here's who I've seen just hanging out in Burbank/LA

David Carradine - hanging out on the patio of a mexican restaurant as I jogged by.

Dannie Bonaduchi - waiting outside a restaurant, talking on the cellphone

Juliette Lewis - Shopping at my grocery store

Jay Lenno - Driving some Model T ford around town.

Vin Diesel - Walking through the parkinglot while I was eating a sandwhich.

I also think I ate lunch next to Napoleon Dynamite (John Hader), but wasn't completely sure because he looked so ....... normal.

Yay for fame. I would take the money associated with it, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to be 'known' everywhere I go.

Hollywood has cleaned up quite a bit in the last few years. I worked at the Kodak theater for a few months on the Ryan Seacrest show. It's not so bad lately. Nice name dropping there finger, hehehe. I am working on a movie right now with:

Anthony Hopkins, Christian Slater, Sharron Stone, William H. Macy,Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Lawrence Fishbourne, Martin Sheen, Heather Graham, Lindsey Lohan(?), Harry Belafonte, Helen Hunt, Elijah Wood, Shaia LeBouf, Brian Gahrety(?) Freddy Rodriguez(six feet under),Joshua jackson(Dawsons Creek), a slew of others i cant remember, directed by Emilio Estevez, and no I am not kidding. At least half of them are working every day. You get used to seeing the stars in LA, and almost tired of seeing them when working(at least I do, as gripping is labor intensive and physically exhaustive work). Most of them are pretty nice though.

Wows, that is one star studded cast Juim!

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I lived in the West Side and Brentwood for a few years, so I ran into celebrities on a fairly regular basis.

I was having dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Santa Monica, and Tom
Hanks was having a small gathering in the private room. However,
the door was open, and I could see him chatting with his guests.

I was eating a bowl of pho (Vietnamese noodle) on Wilshire Blvd and
realized that John Woo (the director) was eating the same bowl of pho
in the next table.

Kevin Spacey tried to pick up my friend's husband at a bar in Pasadena. I guess that proved him as being gay.

Bill Cosby jogged at at the UCLA campus almost daily when I was in college. So he's just a fixture of the campus track.

Benecio Del torro lived upstairs to my brother's apartment in
Westwood. This was before he became famous after "Traffic".
We were all in the elevator with him once. He's a really nice,
laid back guy. His apartment was filled with old VHS tapes of
movies.

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"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge