Limousines

Hollywood wants Y Fray. Leonardo DiCaprio has arrived at awards night parties with her. So have Oscar winners Steven Spielberg and Charlize Theron. Jake Gyllenhaal has been seen all around town with her. When Al Gore, among filmdom's newest stars, comes to L.A., Fray sometimes is the first person he sees. But Fray isn't an A-list star or a big-time agent. She owns Eco- limo, a Santa Monica-based limousine service that combines privilege with environmentalism.

On Sunday night, Sherman Oaks-based CLS Worldwide Services had nearly 120 limos working into the wee hours, shuttling stars and their entourages to the Oscars and the parties that followed. On Monday morning, CLS announced a union with Norwood, N.J.-based Empire International that the companies said created the second-largest fleet of chauffeured rental vehicles in the country. Financial details of the deal weren't released.

When a Florida limousine driver ferrying 10 teens to their high school prom at Disney World was arrested on drunk driving charges, the news likely shocked parents across the country who've been depending on limo services to keep their children safe on prom night. According to authorities, the driver, a 49-year-old woman with a prior DUI charge, was so intoxicated during the April 9 incident that she was driving on the wrong side of the road and cutting off other vehicles.

The National Rifle Assn. is right when it says guns don't kill people. Bullets kill people, and really big bullets traveling at four times the speed of sound kill people with excellent and resounding authority. Welcome to the fascinating world of rifle-grade ballistics. Please keep your brains inside your skull during the ride.

Scott Herwitz travels in a world of celebrity, privilege and, sometimes, drama. Wearing a dark suit and shades, he is silent and nearly invisible -- qualities that make him privy to secrets, deals and the occasional romantic liaison. Herwitz is a limousine driver, one of thousands in Los Angeles. To those on the other side of the partition, he is simply "the driver." But he sees and hears everything. "You're the ultimate fly on the wall," says Herwitz.

One morning three years ago, Las Vegas limousine driver Michael Hughes flipped on the tube after an all-night shift on the Strip and dozed off watching Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po -- the four doughy stars of the children's TV show "Teletubbies." Hughes dreamed, he said, of crashing limos into a Teletubby belly. When he awoke, a new career was born.

It's the beginning of the Thanksgiving holiday. For those about to fly, I salute you. I've logged about 2 million air miles in my career, bathed in the cabin-borne aromatics and aerosols of my fellow travelers. Not unlike Prufrock have I measured out my life with plastic coffee spoons, waiting for the pretzels to arrive. Flying was miserable before 9/11. Now the entire flying public has to be frisked to ensure they aren't carrying anything more threatening than sharply worded memos.

It carried four U.S. presidents safely for more than 54,000 miles in dozens of countries. But in the end, the "Rolling Fortress" presidential limousine ran out of gas Friday about 24 inches from its final resting place at the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace. "We had calculated exactly how much gas we would need because we wanted the tank to be empty, but it ran out of gas and we had to push it the last two feet," said Evie Lazzarino, a Nixon library spokesperson.

Bobby and Gene "Bud" Ross watch their son Willie shift his attention from a magazine to the overhead lights as he awaits his turn at the Palisades Barber Shop. He closes one eye and raises a hand, gazing in silence at its mysterious ballet of slow, flowing movements. They watch as Willie steps into John Barrowman's chair without being told. As a teenager, Willie would thrash violently, and it would take the strength of both of them to hold him still.

In the back lot of Krystal Koach's manufacturing plant, behind rows of tasteful black, white and gray stretch limousines, sits the $75,000 Pepto-Bismol-pink fantasy of a Russian rock star. The white exterior shimmers with glitter. The interior gapes like a giant pink leather mouth. Cushy pink couches for eight. Pink carpet. Even the wood paneling is stained pale pink. Fiber-optic stars twinkle in the sun roof's glass.