Hollywood Highland

The Tea Room at h.wood is an exclusive one-room club within an already exclusive nightclub. Like a glammed-out Russian nesting doll, it is tucked inside the stolid concrete frame of h.wood, which is located at the far end of the Hollywood & Highland complex in the tawdry heart of Hollywood. It cracks its doors only on Wednesdays, when a rush of sultry young women and slender young men with intricate tattoos wait in line for admission. Very few will get in, however. The Tea Room, which is owned by night-life veteran Loyal Pennings and a duo of driven 29-year-old entrepreneurs named John Terzian and Brian Toll, trades inaccessibility for its hot-spot cachet.

In the end, the Oscars just couldn't leave Hollywood. After entertaining multiple offers to relocate the event, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Tuesday that it would keep the Academy Awards at the theater at Hollywood & Highland, negotiating a new 20-year deal with the CIM Group, which owns the complex. CIM also announced that Dolby Laboratories had signed on as the new name sponsor for the complex's 3,400-seat theater, taking over from Kodak, which had filed for bankruptcy.

Security for the glitzy opening of Hollywood & Highland's Governors Ballroom was intense . Even stars were asked for photo IDs as they arrived at "Stars 2001" to benefit the Fulfillment Fund, which provides scholarships and mentoring to local high school and college students. The dinner for 1,200 honored DreamWorks SKG partner Jeffrey Katzenberg, who admitted , "I'm a reluctant honoree.

A Los Angeles developer is planning to build a $100-million apartment and retail development near the Hollywood & Highland entertainment complex. Champion Real Estate Co. paid $20 million for a 2.76-acre collection of parcels, some of which will be redeveloped, President Robert Champion said Thursday. The property was purchased out of receivership. Champion Real Estate's Hollywood project, which has not been designed, would take at least a year to be approved by city officials and an additional two years to build, Champion said.

Designers and developers of the new Hollywood & Highland retail and entertainment center will discuss the project from conception to completion Wednesday at a panel discussion presented by the Los Angeles District Council of the Urban Land Institute. Speakers will include senior executives of TrizecHahn Development Corp., developer of the project, along with representatives of the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency and the architectural, planning and legal consultants for the project.

A Los Angeles developer is planning to build a $100-million apartment and retail development near the Hollywood & Highland entertainment complex. Champion Real Estate Co. paid $20 million for a 2.76-acre collection of parcels, some of which will be redeveloped, President Robert Champion said Thursday. The property was purchased out of receivership. Champion Real Estate's Hollywood project, which has not been designed, would take at least a year to be approved by city officials and an additional two years to build, Champion said.

Oscar's New Digs: The Hollywood & Highland complex under construction on eight acres along Hollywood Boulevard next to Grauman's Chinese Theatre is coming along nicely. The group of buildings and courtyards will include the Kodak Theatre, soon to be the permanent home of the Academy Awards ceremonies. Wolfgang Puck will have his own kitchen off the Grand Ballroom, where he can cater the Governors Ball after the awards (and every other event there).

Hollywood is awash in recently opened bars and clubs right now, but two brand new destinations near Hollywood & Highland are using a fresh approach to woo night owls: experiential entertainment. At new clubs Premiere Supper Club and Supperclub Los Angeles at the Vogue , guests interact with friendly staffers (who are sometimes in character) and take in light theater-inspired entertainment. It's the latest bid for your club dollar. "The two things I'm best at [are]

The historic El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, where "Citizen Kane" had its world premiere and a generation of children have watched actors dressed as Disney characters cavort onstage, is for sale. The $31-million price tag includes the six-story, 1920s office building into which the theater is built. Walt Disney Co. will remain the long-term tenant at the theater, which the studio renovated in the early 1990s and has used to showcase many of its recent children's movies.

Spiky-haired "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest announced Wednesday that he'll soon start taping a daily TV show live from the Hollywood & Highland complex in Hollywood. Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, who was on hand for the announcement, touted the news as a major economic coup for the city and as further evidence of an ongoing Hollywood revival.

Hollywood is awash in recently opened bars and clubs right now, but two brand new destinations near Hollywood & Highland are using a fresh approach to woo night owls: experiential entertainment. At new clubs Premiere Supper Club and Supperclub Los Angeles at the Vogue , guests interact with friendly staffers (who are sometimes in character) and take in light theater-inspired entertainment. It's the latest bid for your club dollar. "The two things I'm best at [are]

The film academy's Board of Governors voted Tuesday to present Francis Ford Coppola, director and producer of " The Godfather," among other films, with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday morning that it will also present honorary awards to British film historian and preservationist Kevin Brownlow; French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, who made his feature directorial debut 50 years ago with "Breathless"; and veteran actor Eli Wallach, whose credits include "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Los Angeles entertainment impresario Sam Nazarian is expected to announce Monday that he has agreed to take over a stalled hotel development at the famous Hollywood and Vine intersection and open this summer or fall. Nazarian, perhaps best known for his trendy nightclubs catering to the young and stylish, will finish the hotel to suit his own taste before plunging into the competitive Hollywood hospitality market. Among his competition will be the juggernaut W Hollywood Hotel & Residences, which opened just a block away on Hollywood Boulevard in January.

Stung by the recession, one of the most prominent developers in Los Angeles is turning to the city for an additional $19.2 million to bring a long-delayed Lowe's Home Improvement store to Mid-City. CIM Group — owner of the Hollywood & Highland mall, investors in renewable energy and a prospective bidder on 10 city-owned parking garages — has asked officials for a new 20-year loan to help it complete Midtown Crossing, a shopping center at the junction of Pico and San Vicente boulevards.

Some cynics say the Academy Awards are just a prom for the world's most spoiled children. They're wrong -- the Governors Ball is actually Hollywood's prom, while the Oscars show is more like a student election. Or is it a pep rally? On Sunday, after the final Oscar was stored in "The Hurt Locker," about 1,500 select guests rode the Hollywood & Highland complex escalators to even higher strata: the stately soiree from the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In a dramatic escalation of the war against illegal supergraphics in Los Angeles, authorities have jailed a businessman accused of posting an eight-story movie advertisement on an office building at one of Hollywood's busiest intersections. Kayvan Setareh, 49, of Pacific Palisades was arrested at his home Friday night and ordered held on $1-million bail. An arrest warrant obtained by Los Angeles City Atty. Carmen Trutanich accuses Setareh of three misdemeanor city code violations, two of them related to the city sign law, according to William Carter, Trutanich's chief deputy.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved a $325-million development that would add condominiums, apartments and a 296-room boutique hotel to Hollywood. Most of the money will come from private investors, but the city will have to pay nearly $5 million to purchase the site at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority controls about 75% of the land for the project. Legacy Partners will build 350 apartments, including 74 units for low-income renters.

It's bad enough that for two years the people in this area had to put up with the construction for the white elephant called Hollywood & Highland--you know, the place that charges $1 every 20 minutes to park. But now idiot city officials are closing the street down for a week for the Academy Awards. Why? Security? Please, this is not downtown at the Shrine Auditorium, where nothing happens at night in the area anyway, and no one minds. There are businesses and residents living here.

The Tea Room at h.wood is an exclusive one-room club within an already exclusive nightclub. Like a glammed-out Russian nesting doll, it is tucked inside the stolid concrete frame of h.wood, which is located at the far end of the Hollywood & Highland complex in the tawdry heart of Hollywood. It cracks its doors only on Wednesdays, when a rush of sultry young women and slender young men with intricate tattoos wait in line for admission. Very few will get in, however. The Tea Room, which is owned by night-life veteran Loyal Pennings and a duo of driven 29-year-old entrepreneurs named John Terzian and Brian Toll, trades inaccessibility for its hot-spot cachet.

Rolling Stone is about to take a leap into the entertainment industry, starting with a large-scale restaurant and nightclub in Hollywood. Owners of the venerable magazine hope to leverage its status as a preeminent chronicler of the rock music world and pop culture into a new business built on food and drinks. The first Rolling Stone outpost is set to open next summer at Hollywood & Highland Center. "We've been looking for the ideal opportunity to expand the Rolling Stone brand," co-founder and Editor Jann S. Wenner said.