I was sitting on a bench on a quiet street in front of my West Hollywood hotel. I didn't swoon or suffer hormone rush, though this was one of the Backstreet Boys, only one of the most popular boy bands in America. Celeb-spotting in West Hollywood is not hard to do, especially if you hang out in the small backstreet hotels preferred by celebs. I hung with the Backstreet Boys at Le Montrose Suite Hotel, one of several small hotels preferred by privacy-seeking stars. And yet the hotel is only blocks from Sunset Boulevard, and a few blocks to the infamous Viper Room, where many a rock group got its beginning, and where actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose on the sidewalk outside.
Life runs hot in Hollywood.
Yet West Hollywood, where bungalows and small Mission-style homes line the streets, is probably quieter than your hometown. It was very quiet on the bench outside Le Montrose Suite Hotel, where I sat among the bougainvillea. Very quiet, with occasional snippets of the Holly-world going by. Later that evening, I observed another snatch of celebrity lives. Racks of sports jackets from Macy's were carted through the lobby to be loaded up and returned to the store.