Advertisement
Published: December 13th 2006
Monday 4th December Laura - Today we had a very 'Hollywood' time. It really was VERY exciting and includes some A list celebs, but I'll get to that in a bit...
Firstly, we went to Universal Studios for the day and amused ourselves on all the rides and general OTT craziness. We did a really cool studio tour and got to see Desperate Housewives being filmed, among seeing lots of other cool sets including Bates' motel, Jaws sets, War of the World etc. It was really good fun, and as I've never been to anywhere like Disneyland before, Paul suggested going so that I could enjoy all the craziness of a major theme park.
When we got back to Hollywood we had a highly exciting trip to the supermarket. On our way back to the hostel we spotted some photographers lining a red carpet outside of the Egyptian theatre. We stopped to have a nose and soon enough a car pulled up and everyone started screaming.
After a while we realised that they were screaming "Tobey" and Paul recognised that it was Mr 'Spiderman' Maguire who had just got out of the car. We were too far
away to see anything so we crossed over the road but he had already moved on along the red carpet and was out of sight. Most people started to leave so we went to the front of the barrier to see if we could catch a glimpse of any stars.
To our surprise a security guard then came over and started handing out tickets. To the premier! A HOLLYWOOD PREMIER!!! Needless to say I shoved my way forward and managed to grab a couple of tickets for me and Paul. There was no time to go back to the hostel so before we knew it, we were walking down the red carpet with our shopping bags and wearing our sexy travel attire! Tobey Maguire was not the only star of the film ('The Good German'), as we soon realised walking past George Clooney and Cate Blanchett!!!! They were getting their photos taken by the paparazzi, so we may be in the background. Look out for us in an issue of Heat soon!
Inside the theatre (after going through a security scanner!) we were offered free wine and "candy" as we mingled around, trying our best to conceal our
bags of baked beans and tinned ravioli.... Tobey and Cate soon came in and we were moved along by security into the theatre.
We expected to be segregated from the stars, but to get to our seats we had to ask one of the stars to move out of the way! Don't know his name, but he is in The World is not Enough (amongst other films). Tobey sat 7 rows behind us, and I'm sure there were many other stars that we didn't recognise. Cate soon came in and set down very delicately in her gown. The film started and everyone clapped. I couldn't really concentrate on the film because I was so excited!
After the film we waited around as we noticed Tobey was one of the last to leave. We got closer and listened in on him talking to some guy about his family before he noticed us standing there. We geekily waved and said "Hi we just wanted to say hello and that we enjoyed the film", to which he gave a not very interested nod as we scuttled off embarrassed.
Out in the lobby, George was standing chewing gum, looking very laid
back, with a group of peeps around him. He turned round and smiled at me (probably thinking, "where's securirty? why are oiks like this at my premier?"). Then Cate came right next to us looking AMAZING. Very much the Hollywood starlet. The PA ushered her away from Paul! We were soon politely told where the exit was by security.
We also saw another star, who is also in ER. He looked friendly but was talking so we didn't approach him. The 3 main stars slipped out the back so we went to the car park and saw Cate and Steven Soderburgh (the director) getting into a blacked out car.
It was a terribly exciting evening. I really don't know how I managed to get any sleep after that!
Tuesday 5th December Paul - I wanted a closer up view of the Hollywood sign as it's not actually that close to Hollywood Blvd. So we caught a bus towards it and after a lot of walking past some lovely houses we reached a good view point. Some guy asked us if it had "Changed our lives" on the way back to the bus stop. He obviously
didn't know we mingle with A list stars these days.
Amusingly, back in our hostel a girl from Australia was telling everyone in ear shot that she had a record out in Australia and had come to LA to try to make it big. We did try to point out that if her record company had sent her from Australia it was highly unlikely they'd put you up in a youth hostel. "Sorry Madonna there's no hotels left but we've got a CRACKING little youth hostel on Hollywood Blvd. You'll love it. Ciao!"
I nearly forgot to say that this evening I won a free towel and 'Pirates 2' on DVD. All I had to do was jump into a huge 'sea' of water from the top of a pirate ship. It was all in aid of Disney's release of the DVD so I happily obliged and got completely soaked. I looked a state walking back down Hollywood Blvd soaking wet.
Wednesday 6th December Laura - Okay we didn't have a terribly exciting day today... BUT we managed to get into ANOTHER Hollywood Premiere, and saw some other A listers!!
We decided to go
and watch the stars arrive at 'The Blood Diamond' premiere. Well we didn't have a very good view because the barrier was over the road and there was traffic going by continually. I was going to suggest giving up and leaving but all of a sudden a guy appeared out of nowhere and started handing out tickets to the film!
Paul - His exact words were:
Him: Anyone want tickets for the film?
Everyone looks around and then continues looking at the stars arriving.
Him: Hey, anyone wanna go see the movie?
Me: Which movie?
He looks at us as if we just asked him the most ridiculous thing ever.
Him: The movie showing in the theatre over there.
Laura - I couldn't believe our luck, two premieres in one week, and this one was in the famous Chinese Mann theatre. The stars of this film included Leo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly (from 'The Labyrinth', I LOVE that film!), and Djimon Hounsou (who, by the way, is VERY sexy).
We were sat about 10 rows in front of them but still got quite a good view. Rather excitingly we also saw
Jane Fonda in the lobby (Paul managed to bump into her but still didn't notice her at first)! There were lots of other guests getting photographed by the paps but we didn't really know who they were. We mistook a girl for Lindsay Lohan when it was actually her little sister, who is releasing a CD here.
So after the premiere (the film was really good in my opinion, Paul wasn't convinced) we followed some of the stars across the road to the after party. We weren't cheeky enough to try and get in but settled for standing outside to watch the stars leaving (they didn't stay for long). One celeb making his way into the event was Danny Trejo, a lovely crazy mexican guy who stars in a few Tarantino films. He posed for some photos with us!
We soon realised that the nightclub Teddy's (popular with the stars) was ajoined to the hotel where the after party was being held. So, who turns up but Paris Hilton! The press went crazy, it was hilarious. We were so close to her, it was surreal. We also saw Ashlee Simpson going inside, some guy that Britney has been snogging, and an American TV star. How exciting! I'm pretty sure that Rachel Bilson from the OC was also hanging around looking for her driver, and we reckon that Eva Longoria's boyfriend was at BOTH premieres (if not him, then it was his double!).
After a while, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou came out (Leo had disappeared) and we got Djimon to sign our tickets. He's tipped for an oscar nomination, so that's pretty cool! What a star studded night! Even Paul was excited and I had to drag HIM away at the end of the night to get some food!
It really was a great end to our time in Hollywood. We've heard so many people saying LA isn't very nice, we were pleasantly surprised by the place. Okay Hollywood Blvd is a bit run down, and not quite the glitz and glamour you may expect, but it is such a fun place to be. There's always something crazy going on. It definitely is a city of contrasts though when you compare areas like Beverly Hills and Bel Air to Hollywood or Venice Beach. We probably stayed longer than was necessary, and are definitely ready to leave, but it really was good fun for a few days, and not a bad start to our time in the US!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.112s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 28; dbt: 0.055s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
my name
non-member comment
my comment
Danny Trejo is a bad ass mutha. I am particularly impressed that paul seems to tower over him. Obviously there ain't nowhere as bad ass as the GY.