![Hot spot ... Andaz West Hollywood, the former 'riot Hyatt'.](/web/20150120135631im_/http://www.traveller.com.au/content/dam/images/p/0/5/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.ohzv.png/1266903191537.jpg)
In true paparazzi style, Carol West stakes out the haunts, hideouts and hip shops A-listers like to visit.
Celebrity encounters in Madame Tussauds, having an Oscar moment at the Kodak Theatre, checking in at the former "riot Hyatt" where Keith Richards famously threw a television into the street and going star-spotting in the Hollywood Hills. In a town where entertainment is a business, there are still plenty of classic Hollywood experiences waiting to charm and disarm Tinseltown travellers.
Plastic fantastic
Jennifer Aniston stands alone looking at a red-carpet-ready Brad and Angelina. Justin Timberlake's gaze is fixed on Hollywood Boulevard and there's a queue of guys waiting to be photographed with Beyonce. Will Smith's lounging on a red sofa, Johnny Depp is looking the essence of cool and I'm sitting next to George Clooney.
Madame Tussauds waxworks on Hollywood Boulevard is tourism's ground zero and at $300,000 a figure, celebrities are caught in a time warp that's better than any plastic surgery. Even the restrooms are star-struck with "Director", "Comedian" and "Actress" on the doors.
On the legends level, Casablanca's Ingrid Bergman is still waiting for Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn is enjoying a breakfast at Tiffany's and Moses's alter ego, Charlton Heston, is parting the Red Sea. Heston, whose cinematic roles were often epic, was quoted as saying: "If you need a ceiling painted, a chariot race run, a city besieged or the Red Sea parted, you think of me."
And the Oscar goes to ...
Walking in Hugh Jackman's large footprints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, I reach the Kodak Theatre in the Hollywood & Highland Centre, where the guide, Seth, walks the group through a typical Oscars night. Even the stars have to show photo ID and tickets before they can enter the David Rockwell-designed building that took 2000 craftsmen four years to build at a cost of $94 million and which opened in 2001.
"Unlike today's blockbusters, the first Oscar ceremony in 1929 ran for just nine minutes at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel across the Boulevard," Seth says, pausing by images of film goddesses printed on caviar-glass panels.
Hoping to be a seat-filler on Oscar night? It helps if you know someone at the production company or Oscar HQ but with no pay, no food and 12 hours on heels, it's one tough gig.
An easier way to sink into one of the plush velvet seats is to check Kodak Theatre's performance schedule at kodaktheatre.com.
Seeing stars
George, the Starline celebrity homes tour guide, is a big fan of Victoria Beckham.
"They're home right now so we might spot them if the paps are out front," he says, as we scour the rarified 'hoods of Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Holmby Hills and Mulholland Drive for the rich and famous.
Living below the Beckhams, Jay Leno isn't so thrilled about the surge of interest in his street now that it's part of the celebrity circuit.
There's no sign of Posh and Becks, just plenty of high walls and tall trees as George keeps us entertained with a list of who drives what and real estate prices.
"Range Rovers, particularly black, and Bentley convertibles are the most popular, although Jen drives an Audi Q7. Christina Aguilera bought Ozzy Osbourne's house for $15 million, Tom and Katie paid $34 million for their estate and the Beckhams forked out $26 million," says George, who obviously keeps close tabs on these things.
Time spent in front of a celebrity's home is dependent on how well they're doing or, in Michael Jackson's case, not doing and there's a stampede as fellow passengers grab a tasteless opportunity to be photographed in front of Jackson's last rented digs on the corner of Monovale and Carolwood drives. Hugh Hefner's huge Playboy Mansion wraps around Holmby Hills while the 123-room Aaron Spelling Manor, on the corner of Mapleton Drive, is just three minutes from Rodeo Drive.
At $US59 ($66) for adults and $US39 for kids, a Hollywood Walk of Fame CityPass will get you into these and other attractions for one price.
Fun-set strip
One of Sunset Strip's hottest spots is the former "riot Hyatt" on West Sunset Boulevard.
Now sleekly transformed into Andaz West Hollywood hotel, web celebrity gossip Perez Hilton prowls the rooftop pool bar for scoops on Demi and Ashton, J. Lo and Prince, while Heidi Klum, Seal and Anne Hathaway have all been spied slipping through the doors.
While its days as a refuge for rock'n'roll renegades may be over, you'll still see them hanging at the cocktail bar and grazing at Andaz's RH restaurant, where chef Sebastien Archambault creates sublime food that reflects his roots in Perigord in south-west France.
Recently hailed by The Los Angeles Times's restaurant critic, bookings have reached critical mass as somebodies rush to be seen there.
See westhollywood.andaz.com or Twitter the latest news on @andazweho.
Madame lash
Customised eyelashes and a touch of Hollywood glamour is on the menu at Makeup Mandy Eyelash Bar and Makeup Studio on Melrose Avenue, where I get the skinny from Amanda Jacobellis. Amanda's been applying lavish lashes and making-up faces for Hollywood's hot list for a dozen years and is only too happy to bring her considerable talents to bear on faces as young as eight ("she had a dance recital") to 80.
With eyelashes individually applied, brushes flutter and dust, and there's the pat of cheeky rouge, cream blusher and eye shimmer. A slick of lip gloss and $125 later, it's just the confidence-booster needed to face West Hollywood's glamorous designer boutiques along WeHo's self-proclaimed Avenues of Art and Design.
See makeupmandyshop.com.
The WeHo wedge
Wedged between Hollywood and Beverly Hills, West Hollywood (WeHo) is a neighbourhood with life, soul and enough cutting-edge designer boutiques to satisfy even the most ardent fashionistas.
Stella McCartney trailblazed by opening in WeHo, Victoria Beckham can now buy vertiginous heels at Christian Louboutin while the textured silver VIP dressing room in the Balenciaga store resembles a spaceship.
To see what Hollywood A-listers, Middle Eastern royalty and Russian oligarchs are putting in their homes, head for Phyllis Morris at 655 North Robertson Boulevard, where a series of rooms are filled with rococo-style furniture.
"A poodle lamp kicked things off in 1953 when showman Liberace purchased one," says the marketing director, Greg Firlotte, who lists an $84,450 ornately carved Venetian bed as his No.1-seller in Russia. Drawing on art deco's clean lines in black, white and chrome, they're also re-creating modern Hollywood glamour.
"Angelina Jolie was just photographed on our white leather sofa studded with crystals to promote her upcoming movie, Salt," Firlotte says. Oh, and if you're a poodle person, you can still buy the lamp that lit the decorator's fuse for $US795. See phyllismorris.com.
Go bowling
On a balmy LA night, listening to music at the art deco-inspired Hollywood Bowl is a truly classic Hollywood moment.
The site was selected in 1919 because of great acoustics and it has showcased everyone from the Beatles in 1964 to present-day jazz and classical greats.
A small percentage of the 18,000 seats are retained for sale at one dollar, ensuring that the Hollywood Bowl remains affordable to everyone.
Dining under the stars is part of going Bowl-ing and gourmet meals are delivered to your box, a sectioned-off square with detachable table. As the bleachers fill, bottles of wine are uncorked and picnic boxes prised open.
Tonight is A Night at the Movies and under the baton of legendary screen composer John Williams, the Los Angeles Philharmonic plays the unmistakable introduction to Star Wars. With a cheer, the crowd unleashes lightsabers, punctuating the blackness with straws of red and green light. Hollywood magic indeed. See hollywoodbowl.com.
Dead famous
There's nothing macabre about wandering among Hollywood's immortals as they lie under palm trees in Los Angeles's cemeteries.
Founded in 1899 at the back of Paramount Studios, the Hollywood Forever Cemetery has some of California's most beautiful mausoleums, including a white marble Romanesque-style temple and casket containing both Douglas Fairbanks jnr and snr. The cemetery is also the final resting place for Jayne Mansfield, Rudolph Valentino and Cecil B. DeMille, all buried within sight of the Hollywood sign.
The Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park on Glendon Avenue is packed with celebrity "sightings", from crooner Dean Martin to comedian Rodney Dangerfield, novelist Truman Capote and, most famously, Marilyn Monroe. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner has reserved his plot next to the screen goddess.
The writer was the guest of V Australia, West Hollywood Marketing and Visitors Bureau and the California Travel and Tourism Commission.
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