LA report

Well, Dear Readers i told you I'd let u know about my trip and it was fabulous! Instead
of moping around in NY vis a vis Thanksgiving and my birthday I called upon my really
old...and I mean old...(in years of duration that is) friends.
Six of my dearest and best friends live there and were forced to throw me a party...my
subtle suggestion.
First of all, I stayed at three different gal's places...i have generous friends...and that alone
was worth the trip. It's fun to have a roommate..it's been a while...divorced forever.
I had thanksgiving dinner at one ...whom i hired to work on Laugh In many
moons ago...and it was her family and great food as she is gourmet cook as well as
Number One organized human being on the planet. She has given up show biz and
is volunteering around the world in three month increments. Very noble...
We went to movies and ate. That's what you do in LA. It is screening time and there
are three a day at least. (you can read about one of them in prior blog)
Then I moved to another friend,Deb, who I've written about alot in my column as
she is the World's Friendliest Human which sometimes makes me laugh...as we know
I am not!
Finally i wound up at the fab beach house of another friend and had a glorious
weekend in the sun. Walks on the beach are among my favorite things and the house
is situated right on the sand and all I had to do was pull the sunlounge from the terrace
into the bedroom so i didn't even have to move.
I stayed in her grandkids room which had a bunk bed and against her advice I chose
the top of the bunk bed which seemed like fun until those late in the night bathroom
visits. You get the picture. The ladder should be tipped at an angle...note to manufacturers
of bunkbeds.
I went to more movies and more lunches and did some walking around Bev Hills..which
wasn't too busy. Well, the stores weren't...except for foreigners.
I did however see a scary thing...the paparazzi phenomenon in full bloom. You can't
really appreciate how awful it is on TV. I had come down from a parking lot that
opened into an alley and saw a horde of over 20 men and two women with cameras
rushing like a pack of locusts towards the back of a store. I asked who it was and they
said Lyndsey Lohan. They waited for her and I walked around to the front of the
store to warn her but had been locked for her to shop I guess.
Then I returned to the back as she came out and they surrounded her. It was truely
frightening as she got into a car, they piled into theirs and chased her down the alley.
I felt really sorry for her but one of my journalist friends said she and others tip off
the locusts to tell them where they'll be. Stupid thing to do honey. Shades of Princess
Di come to mind.
I saw a few stars...Deborah Messing, smaller than I thought she was...John Lovitz,
Will Smith at the screening and another star who shall be nameless cause I'll tell you
a little story about him.
When I was in college I worked as an extra in the movies in the summer so I could
stay in LA. One day at MGM a little green sports car stopped and a really cute
young TV star was in it and flirted with me. I was too scared to flirt back.
Then, as we say in the movies...dissolve....to 1996 when my friend with the beach
house and I were having dinner at a trendy place, said star who was now a big movie
star asked me out to dinner and I said I was leaving the next day back to NY.
My girlfriend was kicking me under the table and trying to change my mind, but
he was not anyone I'd had a crush on and just couldn't see the point.
Years go by and I see that he is not only adorable, but smart, talented and at the time
he was SINGLE... though not now and have regretted my decision ever since.
Well, I ran into him and told him...actually what I said was "years ago you asked me out
and I said no and boy am I FUCKIN SORRY!"
He laughed and was very cute about it. So closure if nothing else.
My ex-husband, whom I called to say hi as I do when I'm there, told me I swear
too much. And I say "so fuckin what?" No I really should stop.
So at the great birthday lunch at the Polo Lounge in the Bev Hills Hotel, many memories.
many laughs and many secrets. Probably the best birthday I've had as an adult.
Friends are important and I have really good ones.
It is good to get away every once and a while and good to come home. I just wish I could
import the friends to NY...though some of them do come fairly often.
LA remains LA for better or worse....sun, driving, more driving, food, movies, and movie
stars. Hooray for Hollywood!