Hollywood Boulevard

Hollywood and Vine is perhaps the most famous intersection in the world. It's also surely one of the dullest. Sauke Centre, Minn., model for the Sinclair Lewis novel, "Main Street," is more exciting. It's safe to say nothing ever happens at Hollywood and Vine, except that the traffic signals change, a few people cross the street and the newsie on the southeast corner sells a few papers. The buildings are uninspiring.

This summer, two of Los Angeles' best-known nightlife players go head-to-head, opening new clubs just blocks apart in a big push for their share of the increasingly competitive Hollywood market. Last month, SBE's Sam Nazarian and Syndicate Hospitality's David Judaken each rolled out separate high-profile venues aimed at a similar upwardly mobile audience: Nazarian debuted his company's Hamptons-inspired club the Colony on Cahuenga Boulevard, while Judaken unveiled his latest streamlined space, MyStudio, on Hollywood Boulevard.

TATTOO and piercing artists, newsstands and edgy bars, Musso & Frank and the American Cinematheque all inhabit the same stretch of Hollywood Boulevard. And right in its midst, a new restaurant called Bella has appeared at the corner of Las Palmas and Hollywood Boulevard. As it happens, it's right next door to Rokbar, one of the sexiest lounges in town right now.

A small part of Hollywood Boulevard will forever belong to Nancy Wilson. At noon on Monday, the singer received her star on the Walk of Fame. Afterward, for the remainder of the afternoon, she celebrated with 300 family members and friends in the Hollywood Roosevelt's Blossom Room. "We're just glad she's getting her roses while she can still smell them," said actress Marla Gibbs, who called the singer "the epitome of romance."

A Superior Court judge ruled Monday that Los Angeles police Chief Daryl F. Gates did not violate her temporary restraining order prohibiting him from forcing extra officers to work Halloween night--although Gates had threatened to disobey the order. Judge Dzintra Janavs denied the Police Protective League's request that the chief be held in contempt for the Oct. 19 videotaped comments, because "there is not sufficient evidence for me to show cause (for a contempt ruling)."

On a recent Sunday night, as hordes spill out of Mann's legendary Chinese Theatre, a young Dutch couple ask a stranger to snap their picture. They stretch out on the grimy sidewalk alongside Elton John's pink star in the Walk of Fame, oblivious to the aimless mob around them. It is a typical scene of tourists searching for a fix of Hollywood glamour. Inevitably, the search fizzles into disillusion. That is all about to change.

Betting on a resurgence in the symbolic heart of the entertainment business, a Santa Monica-based partnership plans to purchase and resurrect Hollywood Galaxy, a failed retail and entertainment complex on Hollywood Boulevard. The pending sale of the property reflects a rekindled interest in the streets of Hollywood. New development has begun to pull the famous district out of a long slump and attract new investment from real estate speculators and the industry.

Tunneling for what will be the first subway in the San Fernando Valley was temporarily halted Monday after the ground above the 50-foot-long excavation sank half an inch, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. "The situation is not serious at all.

Water leaks and tunneling into soft earth caused the ground above on Hollywood Boulevard to sink up to nine inches and prompted a halt in excavation for the Los Angeles Metro Rail subway project, officials said Monday. The famous thoroughfare was reopened to traffic Monday afternoon. But it was unclear how long the subway tunneling would remain at a standstill and who would pay to shore up the tunnels and repair the damage aboveground. Life on the Walk of Fame was anything but back to normal.

The Community Redevelopment Agency, reigniting a debate over priorities in Hollywood redevelopment, will pay $175,000 for three paintings on Hollywood Boulevard that could be wiped out by street traffic within two years. The designer of the asphalt artworks said they will provide a "subconscious, subliminal, almost spiritual" balm for a downtrodden community. But a leading opponent calls the street paintings a "screw-up" and a "weird idea" for spending taxpayers' money.