I live close to Brittany Murphy’s old home. It is a nice large house on one of the winding roads that climb the steep Hollywood hills. The house is on the North side of the Sunset strip and this is the posher side, the side you want to live, the side that says you have really made it. Of course if you do live there it doesn’t necessarily mean you earned the money to buy the place. There’s plenty of girlfriends, wives and husbands who are living there on the back of some one elses merit. Brittany Murphy’s widow, Simon Monjak is a good example of this.
Like me he is a Brit. Unlike me he is rather fat and swarthy. The rumors are that he is a con man. I cannot corroborate. He is credited for the story and as exec-producer of “Factory Girl” (Sienna Miller pic about Andy Warhol) Apparently he bullied his way into the production by claiming the producers had stolen his ‘original’ story and then threatening to sue. Rather than lose their investment the producers let him in.
There are also rumors that he dealt with procuring his wife with various drugs. Brittany had problems with class-A drugs, no doubt, she’d done rehab. If Monjack was her fixer it adds a terrible twist to the end of her life. Why didn’t he call the paramedics sooner?
She was a talented woman with a lot more to offer. RIP Brittany.
Monjack’s reaction to the death of his wife was strange. But I am sure he loved her. She was way out his league and he must know his best days are over. But Tina Tequila’s reaction to the death of her girlfriend Casey Johnson, heiress to the Johnson and Johnson pharmaceutical fortune is enough to make me cringe in my brogues. She has here greedy little eyes set on a promotion, or an elevation up the hill anyway.
Tina Tequila also lives near to me. But she is on the south side of the Sunset strip, slightly further down the hill. And that’s where she should be cos she is definitely on the wrong side of the tracks. Her TV show is a lesbian dating show. It made my toes curl and the insides of my stomach want to hit the far wall. In a European world we might have somehow managed to make the show something tasteful and still kept if fun. Here the show is lipstick lesbian fantasy prime time soft pornfor men. And Tina is the kind of trailer trash no brain person we need a lot more of on TV at any moment now.
Casey, her GF, it seems was a wild one anyway. But making publicity out of it shows Tina for what she really is.
Someone else who lives not far from here, but further up the hill than either of the other two is Joan Collins. I saw here twice in two days. The first time was in Hamburger Hamlet on Sunset and Doheny. She swept into the room and set it alight with her laughter and fun. And in a room full of old style Hollywood hacks that is an achievement. She was wearing a bright red coat and a smart white woolen hat. She was pure Dynasty and for a sucker like me who is in to old school celebs and manners it was a great spot. Celebrity safari wise…I’m not sure. Something slithe and sexy but a bit light weight. She also likes a bit of leopard print. So I’ll go Leopard. Quite rare and a dying breed.
The second time I saw her I was having a coffee in a shop on Sunset. An 80’s gold roller pulled up in front of me at the lights. By the time it had stopped swaying on it’s suspension I saw the passenger. She was wearing a lovely woolen hat. Her dresses were hanging over the back windows in dry cleaners bags. She was talking two to a dozen and waving her hands at the driver a large grey haired man who looked like he’d been tough once but now spends his time on the golf course and in the bar. T’was very surreal.
BTW Hamburger Hamlet, the Hamlet, is a good place to check out if you are visiting. In the day it was the Ivy or the Spago. Now it is a little sad and the food is fading. You need to sit in the
Judd Nelson on the Taproom
Taproom because the main area has lost its charm. But in its day Sinatra, Sammy David Jnr and Monroe ate in style. One person from the old days is still there. She’s the Maitre Dee a petite older lady who hands out tables like they are tickets to the Oscars. She’s seen a few things in her day. She was married to the late great Marvin Gaye.
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