Latre. Lluís Latre.
007...I think that's how the number on my Spanish passport starts. Anyway, here
I am, a Catalán arriving
in L.A.,
with a mission: I will not eat a single hamburger or see any of the
hokey Hollywood
sites while I am here for 11 days. I have been here before,
eight years ago, and I hated it! I vow to discover an L.A. that other
Europeans only dream about...and I will drink good
coffee! Not the enormous bowls of weak brown water for which
Americans are known. My hosts are Bruce Rheins and Dawn Westlake. They
like to BBQ
and eat outside all summer, they say. I could be facing some hamburgers
here...But no! We have steak, salmon, chicken, spaghetti...even
homemade/homegrown peach
pie! And, we always wash our food down with a red wine...or a
beer...wait! Did the airlines mess up and send me to L.A.,
Germany?
No, it's okay. I'm definitely in
America. At Dodger's
Stadium, in fact...watching movie
stars playing the great American pass-time in a Hollywood vs.
Stars charity game. The bearded one is Keanu
Reeves. Toby (Richard
Schiff) from "The West Wing" is really good. Garry
Marshall is the coach. When the stars are done acting like
baseball players, the real stars come out. This went out of the park for
the Cubs' Sammy
Sosa. A secret Cubs' fan, Dawn camouflaged
herself in Dodgerville in her Ron de Caña cap.
El
Matador Beach up the
coast from Malibu is another nice surprise. I´m told that scenes from
´´Grease´´ were filmed here,
along with many other beach movies from the ´50s and ´60s. I learned
that the actors have to pretend the water´s warm. Dawn
tries, but she´ll get no Oscar here.
In the neighborhood that night, a
commercial for Miller Lite is filmed. I am excited to see that the
director drives a Ferrari, but Bruce and Dawn roll their eyes and say,
´´What a Hollywood cliché!´´
We pay to see really famous people´s cars at the Petersen Automotive
Museum´s "Cars & Guitars" exhibit: Janis
Joplin's, Brian
Wilson's, Elvis' (complete with bullet
hole in the steering wheel...he shot it when it wouldn't
start!), and in the movie car section, we see the Batmobile.
We skip the Walk of Fame for some real Hollywood sets: CBS' "The
Young and the Restless" and NBC's now defunct "Cheers".
Both were big in Barcelona.
And then, totally by
accident...it's my turn! I'm discovered! They don't put me in the
movies, but they cast my legs for the Los Angeles Business Journal!
After attending a killer spinning class taught by John
Cantwell (who is currently the wacky, dancing hairdresser in
"Legally Blonde" with Reese Witherspoon), I'm stopped outside
the gym by photographer Todd Frankel and reporter Deborah Belgum who
want to photograph me on
a pogo stick! Only in L.A....
Very apologetically, Dawn &
Bruce tell me
that L.A. just doesn't have the nightlife
of Barcelona or Madrid...something about everyone having to get up early
for Pilates (must be a chain of hamburger restaurants)...But, I think
Beauty Bar (a former beauty
salon-turned-bar
where you can still get your nails done!), Bigfoot
Lodge (decorated like a lodge at Yellowstone) and Belly
(owned by Mike a.k.a "Dr. Dre of Chilltown" of "Big
Brother" fame) are pretty cool.
Dawn & Bruce show me that L.A.
has splendid nature
trails (overlooking the studios, of course) and lovely manicured
gardens in Pasadena. But, they often don't have cell phone
service! In Huntington Gardens, Dawn
has to tilt her head and hold very still to pick up a voice mail she
got, eventhough her phone didn't ring! Europe: 1. America: 0.
Tonight's my
birthday, and I tell them I want to have something "really
American"...I know...I know... I'm risking a trip to McDonald's
with my request, but no! Again, no hamburgers! We have ribs and
something strange called cornbread at Mr.
Cecil's on Pico in a retro round building from the 1930s.
We cap off my visit with a trip
out to Palm Springs for a hike in the San
Jacinto Mountains where it's a fresh 65º at 8500
feet, and the Jeffrey
Pines smell of vanilla and butterscotch.
Before the airport, we make one
last stop...at one of the most famous hotels in the world...The Pink
Palace: The Beverly Hills Hotel. We were just going to stop into the
Polo Lounge for a couple of Cokes, but everyone is so welcoming (the
waiters all speak Spanish!) that we decide to stay for lunch. We get the
best table, and I am so surprised, but Dawn explains the
philosophy of these types of places in L.A. "They never quite know
who you are now or who you'll be tomorrow, so they take care of you.
They want you to remember how well you were treated here so that when
you are rich and famous, you'll come back. It doesn't help them
at all to be snobbish. America: 1. Europe: 0." She's right. I'm not
Banderas, but I'm Latre. Lluís
Latre. 007...090861-08029.
Lluís returned to Barcelona, but
he admitted at the end of his trip that he loves L.A. I do, too. It
really helps to see things through
a visitor´s eyes. Oh yeah...speaking of seeing things: Besides
the Hollywood vs. Stars game where we saw David Hasselhoff, Fred
Willard, Kevin James, Garry Marshall, Keanu Reeves, Jonathan Silverman,
Sean & MacKenzie Astin, Richard Schiff & Bradley Whitford; just
"out in life", we saw Harvey Keitel, Will Sasso, Raquel Welch,
Martin Mull, Richard Lewis, Brad Garrett, Catherine Bell, and Jay Leno.
Now, it's back to work.
This month, "Mini Driver Project" played in huge theaters at
the 17th
Annual Sacramento Film & Music Festival (click on their
Venue Photos button to see what I'm talking about) and won the AVANCA
PRIZE (Best of Festival) at the Avanca
Film Fest in Avanca, Portugal.
**¡Exclusivamente este mes!
¡SCENE en español! Cliquead aquí.
Fade to September...