L.A. Feature_Hotel Stars
72 Now Starring Your Favorite Hotel
LOS ANGELES _ The category: Best supporting structure featured in a major motion picture.
The nominees: Well, in Los Angeles, where the whole
city is one giant film set, the list of nominees would read like the phone book and would include many of L.A.’s star-studded hotels.
On any given day, hotel guests and passers-by need
only follow the stage lights, cameras, actors and actresses to get an up-close look at some `reel’ action scenes.
In downtown Los Angeles, the landmark Biltmore Hotel provides an elegant setting for some of Hollywood’slargest grossing films, including the upcoming aliens-outto-get-us flick “Independence Day,” “Up Close and Personal,” “Forget Paris,” “True Lies” and “Pretty in Pink.”
Most recently, the Biltmore’s Crystal Ballroom was transformed into a presidential victory party during the filming of “My Fellow American,” a new Warner Bros. film featuring Jack Lemmon, James Garner, Dan Aykroyd and Lauren Bacall.
“The Biltmore is the most elegant hotel in L.A.,” said Murray Miller, location manager for the film. “It is of an era, and continues to be maintained to the highest degree. From a film industry point of view, it is a vibrant structure with a lot to offer visually.”
Scenes from “My Fellow American” also were filmed at the nearby Westin Bonaventure Hotel, famous for its striking glass elevators and modern interior.
(Perhaps Jack should have stayed in Los Angeles, where shooting on location is standard fare. When filming moved to Asheville, N.C., Lemmon, 71, was injured when a sheriff’s deputy’s horse stepped on his ankle. Seems the horse became spooked during filming of a parade scene. Here, even the wildlife knows how to mug for the camera.)
The Westin Bonaventure Hotel, has seemed destined for
a movie career since its inception: parts of “Logan’s Run” were filmed there even before it officially opened in 1976.
With spectacular open spaces and panoramic views of
the city, the Bonaventure has been transformed into a futuristic war zone, an airport hangar, a Las Vegas casino and even New York City.
When “Nick of Time” was filmed there two years ago, the entire cast and crew_including actors Johnny Depp and Christopher Walkin_moved into the hotel for more than three months. Other hits filmed at the Bonaventure include “In the Line of Fire,” “Rain Man,” “Ruthless People,” “Lethal Weapon II” and still more scenes from “True Lies.”
The Park Plaza hotel, also Downtown, has seen its
share of klieg lights, ever since Hollywood discovered that its “Arabian Nights”-style ballroom makes a terrific movie set. It was here, for example, that Whitney Houston flung herself at an appreciative concert audience while Kevin Costner tried not to let them see him sweat in “The Bodyguard.”
Visitors to L.A. need not check into the swankiest
spot in town, hoping to bump into a film crew. Film
shootings take place throughout Los Angeles on a daily basis. To obtain a current listing of locations, contact the Los Angeles city permit office at (213) 957-1000 and request a “call sheet” for any given day.
The Regent Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills achieved worldwide fame in the blockbuster hit “Pretty Woman.” While there is no “Pretty Woman” suite, the hotel, which played itself in the film, does indeed anchor the worldfamous shopping avenue, Rodeo Drive.
The hotel also made an appearance along with Eddie Murphy’s Detroit cop, Axel Foley, in “Beverly Hills Cop.” The rooms there probably cost a tad more than they do in Detroit.
Just south of Beverly Hills is the Century Plaza
Hotel & Tower in Century City. Set amidst 10 acres of gardens and reflecting pools, the hotel has served as the set for such big-screen titles as “Get Shorty” and “Celtic Pride” as well as hit TV shows including “Chicago Hope,” “Melrose Place” and “Beverly Hills: 90210.”
Still not every hotel in town is angling for a closeup. The flamingo-pink Beverly Hills Hotel is one of the camera-shy venues that does not allow filming.
