‘The Hills’ not a hit with Hollywood neighbors

A security guard strides toward the house on Orange Grove Avenue in Hollywood that is used by “The Hills” cast and production team. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Quiet street’s residents complain about filming at the home of the young women whose career and life struggles are the subjects of the MTV series. Show staffers say complaints are overblown.

By Bob Pool
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 6, 2008

Hollywood is learning that reality bites.

Residents of a quiet neighborhood between Sunset and Hollywood boulevards are in an uproar over the ongoing filming of a popular television reality show that they say has turned their lives upside down. 

The Hills producers and city officials allege that the neighborhood unrest is overblown — and has been fanned in part by a resident of the street who produces a competing TV reality show.  (click on ‘Continue Reading’ for more)

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Character building on Hollywood Boulevard

 Costumed characters stand in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater to entertain the tourists (AFP/Getty Images)

Hollywood is full of wannabes. The nearest most of them will get to fame is Hollywood Boulevard’s Walk of Fame, dressed as Superman or Wonder Woman. The characters are a big tourist attraction and are now the subject of a documentary. David Willis went to meet some of them.

BBC NEWS

August 1, 2008

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 Mariah Carey gets efficient on Hollywood Boulevard

Los Angeles Times

August 1, 2008

Mariah Carey may now largely avoid the daring vocal acrobatics that marked the beginning of what would become one of the most successful music careers of the last two decades. Hitting the high notes, therefore, wasn’t much of a concern Thursday night in Hollywood. Instead, the singer faced other challenges.

Chief among them: Can one of the most recognizable divas in the world emerge from what looked to be a giant plastic mascara box — one that’s placed upon a stage in the middle of a shopping mall — with grace? And do so while ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! is coming back from a commercial break?

But Carey’s every stride comes equipped with a happy elegance that would shame beauty pageants the world over. Indeed, while she was performing a free five-song mini-set at Hollywood & Highland’s outdoor mall, which was taped for ABC’s late-night show, Carey might as well have been on a moving parade float, as nary a verse or a chorus was sung without a wave, a nod or a wink to a fan. (click on ‘Continue Reading’ for more)

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Crews knock down Griffith Park fire

The hillside blaze east of the L.A. Zoo burned 15 acres and prompted some evacuations. About 200 firefighters put the blaze out in three hours. No injuries were reported.

By Stuart Pfeifer
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 27, 2008

A hillside wildfire broke out in Griffith Park this afternoon, prompting a massive response by firefighters trying to contain the blaze before it hit landmarks or a bird sanctuary.

The Los Angeles Fire Department declared the fire knocked down about 3:40 p.m., saying it burned 15 acres of heavy brush but caused no damage or injuries.

The fire was burning an area east of the zoo and Travel Town area, said Ron Myers, a Fire Department spokesman. Officials have shut down some entrances to the park and said evacuations are possible if the fire grows.

There was particular concern about a California condor breeding ground that is located near the area where the fire was burning.

About 200 firefighters were involved in controlling the blaze, which was first reported at 12:42 p.m., Myers said. The Fire Department was also using water-dropping helicopters.

The fire could be seen from parts of the San Fernando Valley and the 134 Freeway, which runs along the northern edge of the park.

Today’s fire comes 14 months after a wind-whipped wildfire consumed 1,200 acres in the park and forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents in Los Feliz.

stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com

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Estelle Getty remembered as funny, feisty, frugal

By DERRIK J. LANG

July 24, 2008 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Estelle Getty always liked a bargain.

Despite her sitcom success with The Golden Girls, son Carl Gettleman told friends and family gathered at a private memorial service Thursday that his mother always chose frugal over flashy. He recounted a time when his Emmy-winning mother’s Toyota Tercel was towed out of her assigned parking space at The Golden Girls production lot because security thought someone else had parked there.

“The Great Depression left an indelible impression on mom,” Gettleman said.

Getty, who suffered from advanced dementia, died Tuesday at her Hollywood Boulevard home. She was 84.

The diminutive actress was best known for her role as wisecracking Sophia Petrillo on The Golden Girls, which ran from 1985 to 1992 on NBC. When she auditioned for the show, Getty was appearing on stage as the carping Jewish mother in Harvey Fierstein’s play Torch Song Trilogy in Hollywood.

After her success in The Golden Girls, other roles came her way. She played Cher’s mother in Mask, Sylvester Stallone’s in Stop or My Mom Will Shoot and Barry Manilow’s in the TV film Copacabana. She also played the feisty department store owner in Mannequin and voiced the character Grandma Estelle in Stuart Little on the big screen.

“While the biographies of some celebrities are suffused with torrid love affairs, bouts of alcoholism and/or drug abuse, lavish lifestyles, epic battles with studio heads and co-stars, what had made mom so universally relatable is that she lived a life that people could completely identify with,” said Gettleman. “You can see it in the family photographs.”

Other speakers at the funeral included Getty’s other son Barry, her longtime assistant Richard and Golden Girls executive producer Tony Thomas. Her Golden Girls co-stars Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Betty White were not in attendance at the intimate service inside the chapel at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.

“We loved her dearly,” said Thomas. “She made the so-so jokes good, the good jokes great and the great jokes out of this world.”

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© David Gabber/PR Photos

The forthcoming sci-fi mystery movie has just rolled down its red carpet in front of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Hollywood on July 23 to mark its world premiere celebration.

Two days before The X-Files: I Want to Believe is debuting in the theaters across the U.S., the 20th Century Fox held a very special event celebrating the world premiere of the highly anticipated sci-fi movie of this summer. The first special screening event was held on Wednesday, July 23, at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California.

The celebration which is open for all X-Philes saw some of its star cast ensemble grazing the red carpet, including Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, Xzibit and Amanda Peet. Aside from the cast, the movie’s two key people, director/writer Chris Carter and producer/writer Frank Spotnitz were also making an appearance at the red carpet. Other celebrities spotted coming for the event included Bai Ling and Madeline Zima.

Being the second film made in the spirit of the ’90s hit television series The X-Files, I Want to Believe picks up a stand alone story in the tradition of some of the show’s most acclaimed and beloved episodes. The movie will reunite FBI agents, Mulder and Scully, to investigate a new and inexplicable phenomena in which involving the disappearance a group of women. Coming to theaters this Friday, July 25, it is said to also put the complicated relationship between the two agents to an unexpected direction.

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 Madame Tussauds Hollywood 

(Los Angeles Times)  

Madame Tussauds Wax Museum is coming to Hollywood sometime next spring and is presently under construction next to Grauman’s Chinese Theater (northeast corner of Hollywood and Orange). Today, the first two wax figures arrived - Jaime Foxx and Beyoncé - and were met in a ceremony attended by Los Angeles mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, on the new museum’s site.

 Beyoncé in the Mayor’s embrace? (Los Angeles Times)

Artists rendering of the new Madame Tussauds Hollywood

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Larry King’s a square and on the streets in Hollywood

L.A. will name an intersection in honor of the longtime CNN broadcaster as part of Hollywood’s ’second golden era.’

By Joanna Lin
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

July 10, 2008

Coming soon to Hollywood: Larry King Square.

Courtesy of Los Angeles City Hall, the intersection of Sunset and Cahuenga boulevards will be named in honor of the longtime CNN talk show host today.

Julie Wong, communications director for City Council President Eric Garcetti, said her boss sees the designation as “yet another sign of Hollywood’s second golden era,” with “entertainment and news programming such as Larry King Live shooting right out of Hollywood.”

Wong said it is relatively rare to name squares in honor of people. The last one she could recall was naming East 3rd Street and Traction Avenue for Joel Bloom, the unofficial mayor of the downtown Arts District. Bloom’s square was approved shortly before he died of cancer last summer.

King’s square, she said, honors the television host’s 50th anniversary in broadcast journalism.

King, 74, also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his 40th anniversary in television (see above photo). Larry King Live debuted in 1985 and is among CNN’s most viewed shows.

King and Garcetti are scheduled to attend the square’s dedication today at 2 p.m., Wong said.

joanna.lin@latimes.com

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BOOK SIGNING

Jon Provost

This Wednesday, Jon Provost – you remember him as Lassie’s master, Timmy – will be signing photos and memorabilia and posing for photos (bring your camera!) on:

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July 9th, 2008
West Hollywood, CA

 Book Soup
8818 Sunset Blvd.
310. 659.3110 or toll free: 800.764.BOOK
www.booksoup.com

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The Official Jon Provost Web Site

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Living Legends Ltd.

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