Penninsula Hotel, Beverly Hills and Hollywood

Docking in San Pedro

Here we are. 

We've landed in a room the size of our house. Note size of backpacks!

Monogrammed pillow cases. 

Today is 10/4, Saturday and we are sitting on a tour bus waiting to do the Warner Brothers Studio Tour. It's hectic outside because we are at the Starline Tours headquarters and everyone who visits LA does some kind of tour. Who doesn't watch movies or TV? Hollywood maybe the most powerful force in the universe. Mythical star power. People want to see and be near "famous" people. The Pope, Dalai Lama, Jennifer Lopez, George Clooney, sports figures, musicians. Spiritual icons are supposed to exude supernatural, holy blessings just by standing around shooting the breeze but what about these other famous beings? Why are we on this bus? Hollywood and the film industry are now part of our genetic make-up. They provide people with make-believe worlds they can disappear into.Worlds which offers some kind of relief to the unrelenting tedium and anxiety of our minds. Often we begin to prefer these make-believe places to our own lives. We fall in love with people we think we know. We say, "I love so and so". Our heroes and heroines are comic strip characters brought to the big screen or fantastical people like Harry Potter. Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Dumbledore, the entire Star Trek crew. These figures represent the fight of GOOD against EVIL; our inner most desire that we are good and in the end GOOD will triumph. When I walked into the Warner Brothers Batman exhibit something stirred within me as I stood before a huge statue of Batman. I held myself back from kneeling before him with my hand over my heart.

Holy Batman!

Caroline dodging a monster vehicle on the green screen at the Batman room. 

What I can't understand is why we want to see Hollywood stars, to touch them, to follow them and see their houses from a distance. They are just people who pretend to be other people. Who are we loving the characters or the people they play? Sometimes the lines are blurred. 

 

On the Friends TV set at Warner Brothers. We also visited the Ellen set but weren't allowed to take photos. 

    We took a bus tour of Hollywood and Beverly Hills and saw the house that Michael Jackson died in; the hotels Whitney Huston and John Belushi died in. The corner Lindsey Lohan crashed her car; a house Ellen Degeneres lived in for 3 weeks and sold for a 15 million dollar profit which sits right next to Hugh Hefners house. We saw the houses that Jack Benny, Lucille Ball, Peter Falk and  Paul Newman used to live in. They had sidewalks in front of them and were totally accessible to any person passing by and... so what? In the early 1900's ( I can't remember the dates), when the Academy Awards began the shows lasted 45 minutes, now the show itself is 4 hours but there are pre- shows that last 2 hours and post- shows that never end. Something not good is happening. Hollywood is replacing religion; it is our new religion. 

       We are experiencing what it means to be rich and famous here at the Penninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. It is a 5 Diamond hotel which means you can go to the pool when it is dark and ask for the lights to be turned on and they do it; if they make a mistake or you are displeased with something they have a pillowcase monogrammed with your initials on it; the cars that drive up are all black and cost anywhere from 100,000 to 2 million dollars; staff greet you, stop and move out of your way when you pass. The service at every level is unsurpassable. No one looks at you with envy or hatred in their eyes. There isn't any attitude here. I wonder how people are hired here, what kind of process they have to undergo? Is each person individually interviewed and hand picked?Can  this kind of hospitality be taught or bought? It feels genuine. How do they do it? Janet and Lory prefer the Fairmont chain because they have a "gold floor" where free food is available all day. FC prefers the Fairmont for the same reason plus if you put do not disturb on the door they leave you alone. Here at the Penninsula you can call housekeeping, tell them not to make up your room but they still come in and do something like leave new fruit and take away other fruit you have not eaten. It's a mystery why they do some things and not others. The Bubbies are happy to have had this unique wonderful experience probably never to be repeated. Our heartfelt thanks to Janet and Lory.

      Tomorrow we return to Santa Cruz and our other life. We are mainly looking forward to being with our cat, Bella, again and cooking some food. We have had 2 home- cooked meals in 6 months. Our bodies are healing. TC's foot is getting better although there is some limping after sitting for prolonged periods of time. FC has started running again and is able to which is surprising. They didn't damage themselves too badly. The puffiness and blackness under their eyes is slowly disappearing although the wrinkles and sagging skin remain. They are in the heart of plastic surgery land, surrounded by famous clinics and doctors but they are abstaining. They have no desire to look like they come from Beverly Hills. We have enjoyed our time with you all and now we are once again morphing into Caroline and Diane. We do love you and thank you for supporting us. Special thanks and love to Janet and Lory for making our re-entry so enjoyable. We are ready to start anew.

So polite. This sign works. The Streets are shitless in Beverly Hills. 

Santa Monica beach and pier. A perfect final dinner on the beach!