A Visit to Malibu and a Great Studio

In the morning we took a long taxi ride to Malibu to visit the Getty Villa. This is a spectacular recreation of an ancient Roman villa, inspired by one of the most lavish villas in ancient Herculaneum. Though some of the treasures at the villa include Greek sculptures, Roman statues, glass and jewelry, clearly the star of the museum is the villa itself with its magnificent gardens and pools. After returning to the hotel and having lunch we spent a couple of hours in the afternoon touring Paramount Studios. This is the only major Hollywood company still located where it was first founded back in the early 1920s. Today the studio mostly produces TV shows, and they were filming a ‘New York’ scene for the wildly successful “Glee” while we were there. Tourists are not allowed on the lot when the cameras roll, or anywhere nearby. But we did see one of many sound stages, and also part of a large theater where almost finished movies are shown to directors and producers in the process of assembling a film. Since Paramount was home to countless great stars and directors, from Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Humphrey Bogart, Grace Kelly, Tom Hanks and many more, our tour was a fascinating glimpse into the history of a landmark. Our guide even showed us clips, on here i-pad, of such Paramount classics as “Sunset Boulevard” and she was obviously delighted to have her job as she rode us around to various buildings on the large property, which also used to house DesiLu and RKO. At the end of the tour we returned to our hotel to relax. Tonight we are headed out to a wonderfully located Japanese restaurant here in Hollywood, Yamashiro. This eatery is perched in Japanese-styled buildings, along with their gardens, atop a tall hill. Jim hopes to take more good photos there. –Dan