David Grant: Charlie Sheen is a Super Hero

Is there anything Hollywood loves more than an actor who falls from grace and then redeems himself? Do you remember last year at this time when Charlie Sheen was being fired from his hit television show, "Two and Half Men?"  It seems that he had super powers to keep us glue to the tv according to author David Grant. Read about it here at Hollywood Gossip, but be sure to come back and take a look around Hollywood Daze.

David Grant joined us earlier this week at Hollywood Daze with his guest and book excerpt. 

Lights! Camera! Action! Welcome to Hollywood!

“For my family
To see me
On that silver screen
And I know I can't go wrong....
Cause I finally found my song
I'm headin' where I belong...Hollywood”

(Lyrics sung by Los Lonely Boys)


No matter how many times you experience Hollywood, it’s still easy to get caught up in the excitement of the glitz and glamour that make up this over-sensationalized, extravagant and pompous town.

Still you find yourself drawn in by the excitement of the lights, the crowds lining the streets, and billboards as big as three story buildings displaying the latest movies, Get Smart, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Sex in the City.

Saturday night the Valley Girl and her family were cruising Hollywood Boulevard, of course, it was in a mini-van and not one of the limos or fancy sports cars. That night it made no difference what car you were driving, the flow of traffic was slower than the pedestrians walking on the boulevard. One drives through Hollywood to get noticed and catch a glimpse of somebody famous, not to get to your destination in record time. Even Jim Carrey in his role as God in Bruce Almighty would have had a hard time parting the traffic to the sides of the road. There was certainly no room for all that horsepower to gallop.

People by the thousands walked the streets enjoying the night life. If you know what to look for you can even catch a glimpse of the working girl looking to make a buck. Two young men, Hollywood hopefuls took their chance to find fame and fortune danced in their Speedo underwear. In the parade crawl down the boulevard there were no paparazzi surrounding Hollywood celebrities, of course, Britney Spears is at home with mom and dad and it was early in the evening for celebrities to be mixing with the regular crowd.

Like all things that come to end, so does Hollywood Boulevard miles west of the bright lights and Valley Girl returned to Valleywood away from the lights, camera and action that is Hollywood.

Thursday Thirteen - Thirteen Facts About the Hollywood Sign

It has had almost as many makeovers as some of the stars in Hollywood. It has helped to promote a town, an industry and a culture. It lures people in with their dreams of being a star. It’s the Hollywood sign that stands high on Mt. Lee in Hollywood, California.

Originally, the sign was created as an advertising campaign to entice home buyers to buy the homes that were built under the sign.

In 1923 the Hollywood sign was erected and read H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D-L-A-N-D.

The letters are 30 feet wide and 50 feet tall and the sign was only to last a year and a half, and has endured for more than 8 decades. The first sign featured 4,000 20-watt bulbs, spaced 8 inches apart. At night the Sign blinked, first, “Holly” then “wood” and finally “land” (the sign no longer flashes today)




The “Hollywood Sign Girl” - In 1932 dreams turned into despair for young Hollywood actress, Peg Entwistle, and she climbed to the top of the letter H and plunged to her death. In a cruel twist of irony, a letter to Peg arrive the day after her death and she was offered the lead role in a play. . . about a woman driven to suicide.

In 1944 the sign became property of the city, but salvation for a facelift would have to wait until after World War II.

In 1949 the letter H in need of repair fell down the hill, leaving only OLLYWOODLAND for all to see. Later that year in 1949 when the H was repaired, the word LAND was removed from the sign.

The sign sits on Mt. Lee and can be seen close up from the grounds of the Griffith Park Observatory.

During the 70’s the town of Hollywood continued to decline as well as the sign, the top of the “D” and the entire third “O” toppled down Mt. Lee and an arsonist set fire to the second “L”.

Pranksters altered the sign’s letters to read “HOLLYWEED in 1973 (advocating loser marijuana laws). Commemorating a visit from Pope John Paul II in 1987 the sign was changed to HOLYWOOD

Before security cameras and electric charged fences surrounded the perimeter of the sign it was the ultimate make-out place to take your date.

In August 1978 the sign was removed for three months to make way for the new re-born sign which had been poised and polished for a new millennium.

Televised coverage on the New Year’s Eve the Sign took its place among the world’s most revered landmarks and was shown on global TV coverage alongside the Eiffel Tower, Times Square and the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

Griffith Park and the mountain where the sign stands suffered two damaging wildfires in 2007 and the hill where the sign stood was left black and not a single living plant grew where the land had burned.





In 2008, the mountaintop property located near the HOLLYWOOD sign, once owned by Howard Hughes was put up for sale. The property offers a stunning 360–degree panorama of the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley and has five legal lots allowing for construction of homes. The Hollywood Sign which has stood on Mt. Lee for 84 years has been a symbol of a culture and has been an icon longer than most people in Hollywood have been alive. It survived through the stock market crash and World War II, the Depression Years, Blacklisting in the 50’s, vandalism, natural disasters and made its own Hollywood comeback after numerous makeovers. In the end, the HOLLYWOOD sign may now be obscured from view if the potential house/mansions are allowed to be built on the land above the sign.


For more fascinating facts, pictures and to help save the HOLLYWOOD sign click here

Britney Spears Goes Bump in the Night

It has been to quiet on the Britney front but, when she makes news it's behind the wheel of a car. Britney Spears was involved in another minor accident in the San Fernando Valley this week as she drove eastward on the Ventura Freeway at 8:30 p.m. according to a traffic report in the Los Angeles Times. She bumped the car in front of her as traffic came to a standstill causing that car to be pushed into the one in front of it. Her driving habits which at one time were questionable, when she was photographed driving with her son on her lap, resulted in no injuries to either car or driver this time around. Being that this is the Valley and the freeways are always jammed with traffic, fender benders are nothing new. However, I can think of a few celebrities who can bump into my car any day.

What celebrity would you want to bump into your car?