:: Today's New York Times has more details on the final film shot at the Ambassador Hotel, Emilio Estevez's "Bobby."
Estevez on the "Bobby" set. (Photo via New York Times)
A snapshot of Bobby Kennedy's final moments before being assassinated at the Ambassador, Estevez managed to shoot several scenes just days before the building's destruction began. Making it all the more odd, Estevez's papa, Martin Sheen, had thrown his support to the Kennedy family's campaign to stop preservation efforts:
Officials were planning to replace the long-shuttered grande dame of Wilshire Boulevard with a school big enough for 4,000 students, many of them immigrants and minorities, who would otherwise have to keep riding buses across town. One of the project's backers was Ethel Kennedy, the senator's widow, who saw it as a fitting tribute to her husband. So she asked her friend Mr. Sheen - who has played Robert Kennedy in a mini-series, narrated a collection of his speeches, and done voice-overs for a number of Kennedy-family productions - to make some calls on her behalf.
Mr. Sheen had been only too happy to oblige, he told his family over dinner.
To which they all but choked on their food. As Mr. Estevez reeled, he recalled in an interview, his mother snapped at his father: "Are you insane?"
Mr. Estevez, as Mr. Sheen knew, had been plotting for several years to make an independent film he had written about the day Robert Kennedy was shot. It was to take place over 16 hours on June 4 and 5, 1968, entirely within the Ambassador. And he was desperate to film his movie there before the hotel was razed.
We continue to update The Ambassador's Last Stand almost daily with latest pics of the sad destruction.
:: Curbed LA solves the mystery of the impending Hollywood Whole Foods (we took a whack at it as well).
Apparently the new Whole Foods will be a part of the massive development proposed at Hollywood and Vine. The supermarket will be located under 350 apartments, and next to a 300-room hotel (which I believe is earmarked as a W Hotel).
Curbed LA has a pic of the notice, and also shares more disturbing news: This might mean curtains for the historic Hollywood Taft Building.
Anyone know if this is true? If so, it would be the preservation fight of 2006. Stay tuned.
:: Hotel Chatter notes (via Curbed LA) that the Argyle Hotel has reverted to its original name, The Sunset Tower Hotel.
The site writes:
Changing your name is par for the course in Hollywood, but the Argyle went retro with their new name. At one time, when the Argyle was the Sunset Tower Hotel, Howard Hughes, Bugsey Siegel, and John Wayne lived in these hallowed halls. The Duke was even rumored to have kept a cow on his balcony. In contrast, the Argyle is the place where Lindsay Lohan and the Simpson sisters allegedly feuded. No wonder the Argyle changed its name back to the Sunset.
No comments:
Post a Comment