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Oscars 2019: Where to go celebrity spotting in LA
Star gazing’s easy when you know how, says Aoife O’Riordain
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Your support makes all the difference.Awards season is in full swing and the sun-drenched City of Angels will soon be awash with stars donning their finery and hitting the scene. While the Academy Awards take place on Sunday 24 February at the Dolby Theatre, the Oscars are not the only party in town that week. There’s a marathon of A-list gatherings in the run up to the main event.
Almost as glitzy as the Oscars themselves, the annual fundraiser for the Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation (MPTF), the “Night Before the Oscars” party, is wall-to-wall star power and will be chock-full of all the current nominees.
But for those lacking the essential Oscar week invites, there are plenty of other places among the swaying palm trees of LA’s swanky neighbourhoods to catch a glimpse of the likes of Kim Kardashian or Steve Carell in their natural habitat.
Where to stay
Downtown is currently LA’s hottest hood. Recent arrivals to DTLA like New York transplant The NoMad Hotel, in the former Bank of Italy building, are drawing the A-list – its manager, Philip Pavel, who previously ran the Chateau Marmont, is the man to know. Doubles from $280, room only. The opening of the Soho Warehouse later this spring, a member’s club-cum-hotel from Soho House, will only add to the area’s street cred.
Many players in the film business still favour sticking around West Hollywood (WeHo) and Beverly Hills, as it means they are closer to the studios and agents’ offices. The Beverly Hills Hotel is something of a legend in its own right and has welcomed a veritable red carpet’s worth of stars; many favour its secluded bungalows set in the tropical gardens. Doubles from $650, room only.
Where to eat
No relation to its London namesake, the flower-festooned The Ivy in Beverly Hills has enduring appeal as a lunch and dinner spot for agents, studio execs and their starry clientele, while WeHo’s The Henry is a popular brunch spot with the likes of Cindy Crawford and others in the business.
The New York original attracts the likes of Leonardo Di Caprio and Gigi Hadid, so it’s no surprise the newly-arrived Cha Cha Matcha in WeHo is already revered for its colourful matcha drinks, like Lavender CBD matcha, vegan cookies and merch designed by Virgil Abloh.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Kirsten Wiig are some of the devotees of Moon Dust drinks with names like Brain Dust and Sex Dust, as well as the cold-pressed juices, milks and tonics on offer at Moon Juice on Melrose Place.
David Chang, the Korean-American chef and founder of New York sensation Momofuku, opened his first West Coast restaurant Majordomo last year, which attracts discerning foodies like Jon Favreau for its Californian Asian mashup.
Kanye, meanwhile, has already tried out one of the city’s hottest new tables, Bavel, a Turkish-inspired spot from the owners of Bestia.
Cocktails at the bar of the iconic, storied Chateau Marmont is a constant carnival of people-watching and is still one of the best spots to spectate on Hollywood high jinks.
Where to shop
Fred Segal has always been a favoured retail rendezvous, its Sunset Boulevard flagship – more a collection of small boutiques – attracting an A-list crowd, while Melrose Place is where to browse to emulate that laidback LA look. Stars are also bound to seek out London import Dover Street Market, which recently opened a branch in DTLA.
Los Angeles has a profusion of farmers markets perfect for celebrity sightings. Head for affluent neighbourhoods like the Studio City Farmers Market on Sunday mornings at Ventura Place and Brentwood on Saturday mornings where you can also pop into the barn-like Brentwood Country Mart. You might just find yourself inspecting avocadoes alongside Jennifer Garner.
Where to work out
Exercise is the unofficial religion of Los Angeles. Sign up at Body by Simone in WeHo owned by Simone De La Rue, who has honed the thighs of everyone from Emily Blunt to Reese Witherspoon with her punishing regimes of dance, cardio and resistance training.
Taylor Swift has been known to pop into Ballet Bodies, a barre-based workout on Beverly Boulevard, while Tracey Anderson is a long-time favourite of Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna with studios in Brentwood and Studio City.
Angelenos love nothing more than a hike. Don your most fashionable athleisure and hit the trails of Runyon Canyon Park in the Hollywood Hills, where you might catch one of the local luminaries out with their dog.
Where to see the (other) stars
Celestial bodies of a different sort can be seen from the free public telescopes at Griffith Observatory at Griffith Park, in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. With some of the best views of the Hollywood sign and the twinkling metropolis sprawling below, it was also the backdrop to some of the most memorable moments of 2016 blockbuster La La Land, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
Still on a cinematic theme, one of the city’s newest cultural landmarks opening later this year on Wiltshire and Fairfax is the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, designed by Pritzker prize-winning starchitect, Renzo Piano.
Nobody likes contemporary art more than the rich and famous, so the inaugural Frieze Los Angeles, from 14 to 17 February at Paramount Studios in Hollywood, promises to be a bit of a star-studded affair. There are more than 70 galleries from all over the world represented, site-specific works, talks and films – even the committee is Hollywood heavy with Tobey Maguire, Maja Hoffman and Salma Hayek-Pinault onboard.
Where to escape
It didn’t escape November’s devastating wild fires, but Malibu remains a place apart from the hustle and bustle of Tinseltown. To the west of Malibu Beach, Carbon Beach (aka Billionaires’ Beach) is a mile-long slice of seclusion between the Pacific Ocean and Pacific Coast Highway, populated by the likes of mogul David Geffen. Access is easier since a new path opened up from the highway three years ago and any beach below the tide line in California is public, so you are free to stroll and stare.
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