Friday - Hollywood: From our hotel in WeHo we walked along Sunset Drive towards Hollywood to check out the designer stores and famous spots along the way. We passed by the Chateau Marmont Hotel, which is famous for it's celebrity guests (I knew Lyndsay Lohan wasn't too far away!!), the Comedy Store which has seen many famous comedians do stand up (Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, Seinfeld etc), the actual headquarters of National Lampoon (!) - "look kids! National Lampoon",
Mark outside the Chateau Marmont Hotel
Terry outside the National Lampoon's Headquarters
Eventually we reached the hallowed ground that is Hollywood! First stop was the Hollywood Museum which contained movie memorabilia and costumes from Hollywood movies, ranging from Elvis and Marlyn Munroe movies (of which neither of us have actually seen any!) to Star Wars and Superman. But the absolute highlight was visiting Hannibal Lectre's dungeon cell from one of my favourite movies of all time - The Silence of the Lambs. They did an incredible job of recreating the scene at the mental hospital and had actual props from the movies - Hannibal's drawings, his suit, the face mask etc. Was really quite awesome and was my Graceland moment (is that weird?).
The hallway leading to Lecter's cell. Chair left out for Clarice Starling. Awesome!
Lecter's cell. Very cool.
From there it was a short work to the world famous Gruman's Chinese Theatre where celebs sign their names in cement and either leave their hand or foot prints. This is also where the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame is and the Hollywood stars.
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
R2D2 and C3PO's footprints! :)
Outside the Grauman's Chinese Theatre are also people dressed up as movie stars. It seems like they are there to add some pizzaz and make a tourists experience more pleasing. Unfortunately they are husslers. Below looks like I'm having fun posing with two pirates from the Pirates of The Carribean movie (at least that's what he said he was, but it's pretty clear he's Zorro = crack head) but underneath that smile you can see on my face is the sinking realisation that I'm being hussled. The guy jokes around with you, he chats about Australia and loving Aussies, he's only too happy to pose for a photo with you, yada yada. Then when your travelling companion is lining you up for the photo with the camera, the guy holds his hand up in front of you and in the palm of his hand (holding it facing you and so no one can see on the other side) there's a $20 bill and he whispers "hey man, I don't do this stuff for free right? I work for tips. See? $20". Way to go buddy! Great for tourism. $20 tip?? You've got to be kidding! Your costume sucks big time! I give him a few buck notes (to avoid being stabbed or mobbed later) and peel away from them asap once the photo's taken. Ironically though they are dressed up acting as pirates, they actually are pirates. End visit to Guarman's Theatre.
I wish the knife I was holding was real and not plastic.
Sigourney Weaver's star - "Get away from her you bitch!"
From there we decided to join one of the shuttle tours of movie star's homes. Unfortunately, this was a bit of a rort too. Don't get me wrong, you do see some homes and famous hotels etc, but the majority of major movie stars live so far away from an accessible road that half the time you just get the "... if you look into the distance there you can see an American flag and two chimneys? That's Tom and Katie's house! I see them driving around quite often and only yesterday Katie passed by our shuttle and waved at as". Repeat celebrity spotting stories on a half hourly basis - we saw nobody.
Granted I'm sure that celebrities are spotted from time to time, but harping on about it makes you feel as though you've missed out on something and ruins the experience a little. Having said that we did get to see quite a bit of Hollywood, WeHo and Beverly Hills that we wouldn't have seen due to not having a car. Some interesting things included the store from Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts is ignored, the Hollywood Sign (originally HOLLYWOOD LAND - put up by real estate people to try and sell land, the 'land' part feel down due to a landslide so it became 'Hollywood' and was kept that way to symbolise the area), the street where they filmed Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street (a buzz for us anyway!), the Laugh Factory where Michael Richards (Kramer) had his recent standup act which ended up in a racist rant, the house where Michael Jackson died, the Osbourne's house (now owned by Christina Aguilera) and the mansion that is Xavier's School for the Gifter from the X Men movies.
The Hollywood Sign. Can you see it? It's just under that massive antenna? I think.
90210.
The tour was $30 each and it lasted for about 2.5 hours which was suprising. It was about 7pm when we got back to the hotel and we decided to head down to a local Japanese for our first taste of LA sushi. The food was awesome and fresh - we got agedashi tofu (was nice!), 'shrimp' gyoza and a plate of sushi each. They have albacore here, we had no idea what that was, but the waitress explained it was a white tuna. Was nice! Alas, no photos as we forgot the camera :( Will do better next time.
Next up: Vegas!!!
MB
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