On my brief stopover Monday on the way back from Seattle I headed to Hollywood Boulevard and did a spot of celebrity tourism. Having no idea what to do once I got there, and not having a lot of time, I paid to go on a Celebrity homes and Hollywood tour in an open top van (sort of a long ute with seats in it). We drove around Beverly Hills holding up traffic and offensively filming and capturing every tawdry bit of second hand celebrity possible. The two poms behind me we in tears when ZOMG we saw Becks house on the hill, and they incessantly rambled about how amazing it all was and how they couldn’t wait to share it on Facebook.
I will admit to being impressed by the houses, they were, to put it nicely, freaking huge, but the thing that struck me on the drive back from Rodeo Drive after seeing the houses was the stark contrast between the stars and the surrounding areas, often the backstreets behind all the gloss. Ghetto isn’t the right word, but cheap, nasty, and depressed immediately come to mind. The contrast was staggering, all within the space of 100 metres.
I’m no socialist on wealth, and good on those who work hard to get where they are, but what does such a contrast say about society? That divide of course exists everywhere, but I’ve never seen it so extremely demonstrated before.
Video of Beverly Hills to follow once I get around to download it from the camera and cutting it.
