Confessions From The Last Great Era Of Hollywood
Before social media, reality TV, cell phone cameras, and bottle service, Los Angeles was one girl’s paradise…
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My nephew, Cal, is currently in Los Angeles as a WGA writer, SAG actor, and bonafide multi-hyphenate and yet he still regularly laments that he could experience Hollywood the way I did, in the 90’s and 2000’s. He moved to LA as a bright, young upstart and landed on my Malibu couch just in time for one of my beach house summers. That was the year that Adrian Grenier from Entourage was my roomie and I hooked Cal up as his in-house Hollywood Hills bartender, even though he didn’t know how to make a drink. He still gets a far away look in his eye when he mentions how being tipped with women’s bras was better than any money he actually made on the job. Those definitely were the days and I would have never had the success in my future career had I not experienced them and made the friends I still have now. Here’s some reasons why…
- Polaroids
Ahhhh, the Formosa Cafe. Across the street from Jones. Late nights in LA were never as good as NYC because everything “closed” at 2 AM, but if you knew the owners of these joints, you never really had to leave. This was the spot for my 21st birthday party, which I have been celebrating the 20th (and 21st, and 22nd…)anniversary of ever since I hit my 40's. Way before cell phones, there were polaroids, your only real chance to get a great photo and look at it almost instantly. You had to wave it around a bit and eagerly await the blurry arrival of the beginning of something magical and you’d holler out a cheer and call everyone over when you got a good one. I’ve dragged these polaroids through both my divorces and moves from one side of the country to another and back again and there is never a time when I open the box of treasure that holds these items that I don’t immediately smile and feel exactly the way I did when I first saw it. I can’t remember ever looking at an old Instagram post and feeling the same way. Nobody ever turned down a polaroid among friends, no matter how wasted, or how famous they were because…
