Hollywood Blog

Hollywood’s celebrity restaurants

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House of Blues HOllywood

Some restaurants can boast of celebrity chefs, but some of Hollywood’s eateries have something else — celebrity owners.

Quite a few of the bars and diners are owned by stars, and have become favorite celebrity hangouts. There’s the funky vibe of Dan Aykroyd’s House of Blues (found along the Sunset Strip). Or the classy Schazi, run by Schwarzenegger (no, the waiters don’t say, “Ah’ll be back!” after they take your order).

Steven Spielberg’s Dive! restaurant shows his quirky personality, being shaped like a yellow submarine. Peter Fonda chose to make his Thunder Roadhouse look like a biker joint (love those Harleys).

You can also try J. Lo’s restaurant, Madre’s, or Kevin Costner’s uber-exclusive Clubhouse. The 70’s Show cast also opened their own diner, thankfully free of any tacky upholstery — it serves traditional Italian, so there’s no lava lamp in sight.

Originally posted on August 27, 2010 @ 3:13 pm

Hollywood Sign: Hefner To The Rescue

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For some people, the Hollywood Sign is what will come to mind when this place is mentioned. Indeed, movies, print media, and television shows have immortalized this landmark more than anything else. And, for a lot of us, the loss of the Hollywood Sign is just unthinkable!

However, development has its price. The 138-acre (56-hectare) piece of land surrounding the ridge where the sign is located is supposed to be used by developers as an area for luxury homes. We know what this means: either the sign will be demolished or the astounding view will be marred by buildings and other construction. Either way, things will change – and probably not for the better.

Lucky for the world, billionaire Hugh Hefner has come to the rescue. He lent a helping hand to a conservation group that has been trying to raise enough funds to purchase the land. Their goal is to gain control of the land and turn it over to the city government so that the area can be incorporated into Griffith Park. This will ensure that any development will not endanger the Hollywood Sign.

So how much of a helping hand did Hefner give? A whopping $900,000! This amount has certainly helped the fundraising efforts greatly. They need $12.5 by the end of the work week, and it looks like they will reach their goal. This is not the first time that Hefner has helped save the sign, by the way.

Also worth mentioning are the other major players who have given their share in this effort: Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. With this combination, the Hollywood Sign is sure to be safe, right?

Originally posted on April 27, 2010 @ 3:31 am

Spielberg quits Olympics

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Hollywood producer Steven Spielberg has quit his position in the Beijing Olympics following criticism from people in the industry.

Some of the nastier comments that Spielberg received came from actress Mia Farrow:”Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games?” Riefenstahl was the German filmmaker and propogandist.

Originally posted on March 21, 2008 @ 9:14 am

Hollywood’s Richest Producers

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There’s no business like show business — especially when you earn billions.

George Lucas heads the list of Hollywood’s richest producers, listed in Forbes’ count of “World’s BIllionairs” with an estimated net worth of 3 billion dollars! His Skywalker Ranch is worth US$50 million alone.

Steven Spielberg isn’t doing too badly, with a net worth of $2.7 billion. He has his own jet worth$30 million, and splurges on his favorite hobby: collecting movie memorabilia. He spent more than half a million each for the OScar trophies of Bette Davis and Clark Gable. He’s not selfish, either, donating $1.5million to the Tsunami Relief Fund.

Opah Winfrey, who owns Harpo Productions, is the first African-American woman to make it to Forbes’ billionaires list. She’s worth about $ 1.3 billion.

Originally posted on November 26, 2007 @ 3:02 pm