What Do They Know?
Universal Studios Florida has wiped out one of the world’s most famous streets.
The Orlando studio, which lately has been promoting itself in trade publications as a site for film and television productions, features a Beverly Hills set.
Pictures of the set show the famous Beverly Wilshire hotel as being wedged between two buildings. No sign of Rodeo Drive, which borders one side of the hotel.
That’s not all. Its neighbor to the left is a Max Factor building (which also is a surprise, given the company’s offices are in West Los Angeles and the landmark Max Factor building is in Hollywood.)
But even more unusual is the star-decorated sidewalk that runs outside of the hotel.
No doubt it’s part of the Beverly Hills Walk of Fame.
Unusual Casting
Burt Reynolds has played plenty of roles in his film and television career. But vice president of a hair design operation?
Ads for Edward Katz Hair Design in Universal City list the actor as vice president, just under the name of its president, Edward Katz.
The ad calls Katz the “undisputed world leader in non-surgical hair replacement with more TV and film stars, musicians, professionals, executives and young men among his clientele.” No mention of what Reynolds does.
Asked about Reynolds involvement in the firm, Katz said he didn’t want to discuss it. He said it’s no one’s business, and “it’s just what it implies.”
Representatives of the actor could not be reached for comment.
A Few Miles Across the Sea
One of the more famous songs about Southern California is the 1958 hit “26 Miles (Santa Catalina)” by the Four Preps about the island that sits “26 miles across the sea.”
A not-to-scale map advertising the Huntington Harbor Bay Club condos in Huntington Beach suggests the song may have to be re-recorded.
The map shows Catalina as a sliver of an island less than five miles offshore. It’s even closer to the city than the San Diego Freeway.
Briefly. . .
A Salomon Bros. report on the nation’s real estate woes says “the 1980s patient got drunk on easy credit and, while reeling from the binge, plowed into a brick wall.” . . . Philippe Kahn, the quirky chief executive of the Scotts Valley software firm Borland International, said in a statement last week commemorating the 10th anniversary of the IBM PC that “I like to refer to Borland culture as ‘Barbarian.’ ” . . . The federal Resolution Trust Corp., the agency cleaning up the nation’s S&L; mess, recently sold for $4.75 million an 8,510-square-foot home in Beverly Hills that sits on a 32,350-square-foot lot and has five bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, a pool, a spa and a tennis court. . . . A San Diego firm has designed a three-minute “egg timer” that sticks to a shower wall to encourage people to save water.
