Just Above Sunset
Volume 5, Number 10
March 11, 2007

Paris Cat Fight

 The world as seen from Just Above Sunset -

"Notes on how things seem from out here in Hollywood..."

This comes under the heading of neighborhood news. A few hundred feet from my front door, down the street at the corner on Sunset, is a sort of strip mall on my side of Sunset - the Laugh Factory (the Warner Brother's comedy club), Greenblatt's deli (the oldest in Hollywood), then the Hyde Lounge, then the cleaner who does my shirts each week, then a UPS store. The Los Angeles Times recently did a photo spread of the new interior of the Hyde Lounge - a multi-million dollar redo.  But this particular club is "invitation only" - so I couldn't check it out.  The only way to drop in and have a drink and relax is to be on the list.  And it seems last Tuesday night sometime after two in the morning Paris Hilton was there and got punched in the face, and then filed a police report.

I could have walked down there that night at two in the morning with the camera, hung around the parking lot, and caught some paparazzi shots. Ah well, a missed opportunity

    Oct. 4, 2006 - Paris Hilton is accusing Shanna Moakler of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" of punching her in the face early this morning in an unprovoked attack at a Los Angeles nightclub.

    The 25-year-old heiress arrived at Hyde Lounge just before 2 a.m. today, when Moakler "shouted a barrage of obscenities and attacked her," Hilton's publicist, Elliot Mintz, told ABCNews.com.

    "She called me right afterwards and told me that she did not need to go to the hospital, but that she would file a police report," Mintz said.

    Mintz says Hilton filed a police report at the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollywood Division. Police confirmed to The Associated Press that a report had been filed concerning Hilton, but didn't offer other details.

    Moakler's representative, Susan Madore, told ABCNEWS.com that she had not spoken to her client yet, and could not confirm or deny the report.

    "I can't say for certain why this happened, but Moakler is known to be upset by rumors that Paris is dating Travis Barker," Mintz said. "Those rumors are not true. They are not dating."

There's more at the link if you can stand it.

The Hyde Lounge on the Sunset Strip

The celebrity entrance to the Hyde Lounge on the Sunset Strip, in the back parking lot. The little white sign tells you to use the intercom to the right and explain that you're famous, and you should be on the list. They may let you in. They may not.

The Hyde Lounge on the Sunset Strip

See also this from the Los Angeles Times, September 14, 2006 -

    MORE than a hideaway for headline-making starlets, Hyde Lounge on the Sunset Strip is a style bar-raiser offering a fresh look for fall.

    New York-based Icrave Design Studio has outfitted the guest-list-only space with custom Brazilian rosewood paneling, copper-leafed ceilings, Ultrasuede walls and mock-croc leather seating. The petrified-wood side tables come from Japanache on Robertson Boulevard, and low lighting and iron candle sconces can help anyone bring the club's "rich and moody vibe" home, says Theresa Fatino, chief creative officer of SBE Entertainment Group, which owns Hyde. Fatino's other suggestions for re-creating the look: "Choose a warm palette with dark woods and metallic finishes and emphasize texture with faux skins. The combination of hard, soft and organic feels masculine, and by contrast that makes women look even more beautiful."

The women may look more beautiful, but they punch each other out.

In the Times see also Robin Abcarian - Why can't these rich kids behave? - with the subhead, "Paris Hilton's latest imbroglio points up the increasingly aggressive behavior of entitled twentysomethings."

Excerpts -

    Hollywood is a town that has always known how to feud. You do it behind closed doors or, if you must go public, you spend massive legal fees to do it in courtrooms or for free with angry words and nasty insinuations in gossip columns. (See: Eisner vs. Katzenberg, Ovitz vs. Everyone.) So what is it with the twentysomethings these days? The feuding of Young Hollywood has taken a tawdry turn lately, combining the nastiness of middle-school Queen Bee behavior with an ugly, menacing physical element.

    As usual, at the center of things is Paris Hilton, the 25-year-old hotel heiress/singer/hamburger lover whose every step and misstep is tracked assiduously by camera-wielding opportunists.

    This time, according to the Associated Press, Hilton and a former Playboy Playmate and "Dancing With the Stars" contestant, Shanna Moakler, tussled at a hot Hollywood nightclub late Tuesday. Hilton claims to have been verbally assaulted, then punched in the jaw by Moakler, who claimed that Hilton's ex-boyfriend, Stavros Niarchos, then bent Moakler's wrists and poured a drink on her. Earlier, the celebrity gossip website TMZ had posted a video of Ms. Hilton making out with Ms. Moakler's estranged husband, former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker, at a crowded club. Casus belli? Apparently so.

    "It does seem there is a rash of new stars who are really behaving like high schoolers," said Harvey Levin, TMZ's managing editor.

    "People who get famous really young are in danger of having their growth stunted. They graduate from high school and live in this artificial world and they don't have to mature the way other people do."

    … The impulse to get attention - any attention - is perfectly reasonable in a narcissistic 13-year-old. But it's not so attractive in a twentysomething, said Rosalind Wiseman, author of "Queen Bees and Wannabes," the bestselling 2002 guide aimed at parents helping girls survive the mean streets of adolescence. "Getting more attention, no matter what, has become the positive consequence" for these obnoxious young adults, Wiseman said. "You're always looking for the next thing to do to get more attention, always upping the ante."

    Harvey Levin sees it the same way: "The ones who act that way get the most publicity, and it gives permission for others to do the same, because it almost seems like the cool thing to do."

    When people like Hilton and Moakler turn up in a police station complaining about each other, Levin said, "I am assuming that the desk sergeant probably looks up and says, 'Oh, it's you again.'"

Whatever.  Note the current billboard above the club.

Billboard above  the Hyde Lounge on the Sunset Strip

And across the street at the "Virgin" store…

Virgin Megastore, Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood

If you use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me.

These were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0

The original large-format raw files are available upon request.

[Paris Cat Fight]

Last updated Saturday, March 10, 2007, 10:30 pm Pacific Time

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 - Alan M. Pavlik

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