As the stars get ready to walk the red carpet at tomorrow's Oscars, Hollywood is hoping to put the sparkle back into Tinseltown. Every building in Hollywood has a story to tell. The Johnny Grant building on Hollywood Boulevard, for example, was once a rehearsal space where the legendary stripper Gypsy Rose Lee perfected her bumps and grinds, writes Róisín Inglein Los Angeles.
The building now houses the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which administers that massive tourist attraction, the Hollywood Walk of Fame. People take pictures of the red stars embedded in the pavement - "look honey, there's a star here for Winona!" - while badgering security guards for gossip as final preparations for tomorrow night's Oscar ceremony take place in the Kodak Theatre across the road. It's raining, so today that iconic red carpet is covered in unglamorous white plastic sheeting, and the giant Oscar statues that will line the celebrity walkway like shiny sentries remain under wraps too.
Over at the Chamber of Commerce, its president Leron Gubler explains how, since he took over the post in 1992, Hollywood has been undergoing something of a Times Square-style transformation. "The area had lost its sparkle and become shabby, businesses were leaving in their droves. People were coming and saying 'this is Hollywood?' and being disappointed. We are in the process of reversing that," he says.
Had it been anywhere else, the area would have been abandoned completely by tourists. But, says Gubler, Brand Hollywood is so strong that people kept coming back to glimpse something of the movie magic so long associated with the place. "We need to capitalise on that and make this an urban centre that is an attractive place for people to live in, to work in and to visit," he says. In pursuit of this new goal, the W hotel and a Madame Tussaud's are planned for the area, as are thousands of new residential units. With the hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into the area by developers, this new Hollywood should prove a huge draw for tourists, residents and businesses alike.
This is new Hollywood, but the power of old Hollywood is also being harnessed to boost the brand. Johnny Grant, after whom the Chamber of Commerce building is named, is 84, but as honorary mayor of Hollywood he presides over every new star placed on the boulevard. Most recently that meant managing Donald Trump, and he'll also be there when the remaining members of The Doors turn up to inaugurate their star.
Grant says he always believed Hollywood could be saved but knows it's a very different place to the Tinseltown he grew up with. In 1950 Grant, then a radio DJ, became the announcer on the red carpet, a job he held for 10 years. "It was a wonderful time," he says, tucking into a chilli dog from Pink's, the famous hot-dog vendor off Melrose where everyone, even celebrities such as Diana Ross, have to queue.
"I remember seeing Frank Sinatra come down the red carpet with little Nancy. It was different then. There were no cameras and the celebrities had all the time in the world to talk to their fans. Hollywood was a very collegial place that way. Everyone had a connection. You'd go into a stationery shop and the woman behind the counter would tell you that Bette Davis had just been in buying her Christmas cards, or in the local garage the mechanic would point out Gene Autry's car up on the rack."
Still, neither Hollywood nor the Oscars have lost their sheen for Grant, even if "these days you can know too much about a starlet, including whether she wears underwear on a night out". He lives in the Roosevelt Hotel, next door to the Chamber of Commerce where the first Oscar ceremony took place 78 years ago, and which used to be home to Montgomery Clift. Tomorrow night, as usual, he'll be watching the Oscars in his room alone. "I like to shout things at the TV," he chuckles. "For me it's always been about having fun."
Hollywood might be trying to regain its sparkle but, if anything, the Academy Awards have become an even bigger circus in recent years. "It's like Christmas week here during Oscar season," says entertainment journalist Alan Silverman, sitting in a room in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, around the corner from the designer paradise of Rodeo Drive where many of the nominees' outfits will have been sourced.
Being a shop assistant in a designer store this week has serious kudos. "Everyone wants to have some association with the Oscars. Whatever they think about the rest of the year, during Oscar week that six degrees of separation idea is really important." Everyone in this town also has a theory on who will bring home gold tomorrow night - Helen Mirren for The Queen is a shoo-in for best actress - but Silverman says it's even more open than usual this year. "My own theory is that Little Miss Sunshine could be the real surprise," he says.
As we drive around Beverly Hills, he points to the newly constructed awnings outside certain clubs and restaurants which indicate an Oscars-related party is being planned. One of the most famous is Elton John's bash to raise money for his Aids foundation. Wayne Elias has been catering for this party for the last three years and says that, with the likes of Nicole Kidman, Paul McCartney and Tom Hanks and more than 600 on the guest list, "it's a lot of pressure". On the menu tomorrow is an Italian-themed banquet while, as usual, at the Kodak Theatre ballroom, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck will be trying to get the Oscar-clutching celebrities to stay longer at his Governor's Ball before they hightail it off to the Vanity Fair or Elton John party.
For those who are new to the Oscar hoo-ha, this week has been a vaguely disorienting experience. Irishwoman Consolata Boyle was nominated for best costume designer for her work on The Queen, and her husband, Donald Taylor Black, has sometimes found her difficult to pin down. "She's loving it but we've found that your time in Hollywood is definitely not your own as a nominee," says Taylor Black, who is here in his capacity as creative director of the National Film School.
There are those back-to-back parties to attend, for a start. The Irish Film Board, for one, used the week to launch its LA office at a party in the Sky Bar in the Mondrian Hotel, and on Thursday night film-maker Terry George, screenwriter William Monahan and Van Morrison were honoured at another of the week's hottest tickets, the Oscar Wilde awards organised by the US Ireland Alliance.
So the party people were sorted but, for the others, all those Angelenos who were starting to experience Oscar fatigue, there were always the second annual Fake Awards at the Fake gallery on Melrose Avenue which took place last night. Organisers promised fake stars, fake awards and "sort of real" gift bags as an antidote to the Oscars proper. And if you really, really want to say boo to Hollywood, tonight the 27th annual Golden Raspberry Awards (the Razzies) will be held honouring the year's very worst movies (see www.razzies.com).
Mostly, though, when the red carpet commentary begins, the city of Los Angeles and several hundred million TV viewers will be adopting the tried and tested tactic beloved of Oscar veteran Johnny Grant - settling into an armchair and shouting stuff at the TV.