16D
Monday, August 18. 1997
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Hotel bar sets Hollywood trend
Rich, famous flock to new hot spot
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — So you think you'll be feeling a bit thirsty come late September? Better pick up the phone now if you're hoping to shake your thirst at the Skybar, the white-hot epicenter of celebrity lounging.
tions weeks in advance. But even
Tinseltown's bar du jour charges $8 a drink and requires reservations weeks in advance. But even
with that, your chances of getting in are slimmer than Kate Moss, unless your name happens to be De Niro or Ovitz.
Ellen DeGeneres
Since last year's opening night, the Skybar, located at the ultrahip
Mondrian Hotel, has seen more beautiful people than the Shrine Auditorium during the Academy Awards. In fact, it was this year's Oscar night that thrust Skybar into the spotlight, when Miramax chose it for an epic party in celebration of its winning film, The English Patient.
Twenty years after Studio 54 made velvet ropes an irresistible nightlife lure, Skybar has managed to make the mystique of exclusivity fashionable once again. This is not altogether surprising, given that Mondrian is the newest offspring of Ian Schrager, the nightclub owner-turned-hotelier who created Studio 54 along with his partner, the late Steve Rubell.
Ellen DeGeneres toasted her birthday here with a few dozen pals. Other notables? "Just about everyone," says Skybar owner Rande Gerber.
"I hate to talk about people who've come," says Gerber. "They probably won't want to come back if we mention their names."
Well, there you go, the guy will serve drinks but he will not dish.
And one subject he certainly won't touch is what sort of draw his girlfriend, supermodel Cindy Crawford, might have on the place.
Besides a Cindy sighting, just what is Skybar's lure? The bar itself is little more than a hut with a corrugated metal roof that rises above the hotel's pool and deck. Each night, patrons sprawl out around the pool on its oversize, communal mattresses with blankets casually thrown on. With its glass lanterns, terra-cotta planters, ivy walls and wooden chairs, the effect is something like an upscale Pottery Barn advertisement. Think rustic chic.
But if the decor fails to inspire, there's always the view. The sight of Los Angeles sprawled out at your feet is tailor-made for those artistic epiphanies and creative jolts so prized by actors and screenwriters.
And failing that, there's always the possibility of rubbing elbows with a studio mogul who'll option the idea conceived during last week's traffic jam.
Make no mistake. All those perfectly tanned, Prada-clad people may look like they're having fun but this is Hollywood at work, not at play. The emphasis is on schmoozing, not canooodling.
"The type of people that my place attracts are mostly in the entertainment business," Gerber says. "They may not know each other but they know of each other and it just seems to work out."
Still, it's tough to relax at Skybar, where a twitchy scrutiny belies the studied nonchalance most people try to affect. "If you're there to do business and meet people, there's this looking-around factor," says CBS executive Monique Hart. "The expectation is so high that it's going to be fabulous, that it's kind of distracting."
But, the question remains, how to get in? File the answer under "Many will call, but few are chosen."
The system is simple. Hotel guests are allowed in, along with one (that's ONE) guest. Everyone else must call to be put on a list. If you make it, you get a confirmation call back. Otherwise, don't go there.
Gerber says the Skybar gets about a thousand calls each day. About 250
Getting in
Short of shelling out a couple hundred dollars for a room at the Mondrian Hotel, which would guarantee getting into the Skybar, here are a few tips to ease you in. Remember, the truly hip don't have to resort to these tricks, and Skybar management certainly would frown on a few of them ... so try them at your own risk.
They don't start checking the guest list until 8 p.m. Arrive early and watch the sunset nearside
> watch the sunset poolside.
> You can try buying off the doorman, though Skybar's owner Rande Gerber says it could cost you. He once was offered $4,000 for a party of four. He turned it down. He doesn't know however, what the doorman did once he walked away.
Take names. Scott Kerman, a professional sneak and author of "No Tickets? No Problem!" says call ahead to get the name of the hotel manager and the doorman, then drop the names once you arrive with an air of authority. Then, when the doorman glances at his list, peek and say you're with one of the ones you see.
- Drop a Big Corporate Name, says Kerman. Say you're meeting with the MCI executives.
Look important. It might work.
■ Pretend to be a vendor with a beer company, Kerman says. You need to see how well the Heineken is selling. Ask the doorman what size T-shirt he wears and promise to get him a Heineken shirt.
Finally, Gerber offers this tempting tidit, "Usually when people get ahold of me personally, I'll let them in, whether I know them or not."
people make the list, drawn up with a blend of snobbery and science.
"We try to accommodate everybody," Gerber says. "Everybody," in this instance, means those affiliated with major film studios, talent agencies, television studios or entertainment magazines. "We don't only let
in celebrities or only well-known producers or directors. We try to accommodate a variety of people."
Still, it's clear from the numbers that most don't get in.
The pitch has become so fevered that Angelenos have been known to book rooms, which start at $195 a night, just for confirmed access to the Skybar. There's also a story about 14 Valley girls booking a room for the privilege of being admitted. Gerber doesn't know if it's true but says if it happened again, the bar would admit only one hotel guest and one friend.
The policy is tighter on weekend nights, when a bouncer armed with a list of registered guests stops hopefuls at the front of the lobby. Only after they're cleared are they allowed to proceed to the back, where a doorman checks Skybar's guest list.
To television producer Robert Scott, the whole procedure "felt like some sort of invasion into some military installation. The bouncers are one thing but it felt like they were almost armed."
Scott Kerman, a professional sneak who infiltrated many awards shows and concerts for his book "No Tickets? No Problem!" doesn't think the Skybar would be much of a challenge, though he has yet to try to get in.
His best suggestion: Call the hotel ahead of time for the names of the hotel manager and the Skybar doorman. Then drop them upon arriving with the air of someone who's known and expected. ("It gives you legitimacy to the people you want to schmooze your way by," Kerman says.) When the doorman checks for your name, Kerman says, look down at the list and spy a name — Ovitz, say. Then tell the doorman you're with the Ovitz party.
Another Kerman ploy: Look for a side entrance and walk in like you work there. "If all else fails," he adds, "blend in." Find a big crowd about to be whisked in and start talking to someone who's in it.
"Now I'm concentrating on talking to them while we're walking in. I'm part of the party and there you go, you're in the door."
RV renaissance: Celebrities take to retro tourmobiles
Former dressing rooms find favor as transportation
The Associated Press
Two letters: RV. Yes, recreational vehicles are chic again.
LOS ANGELES — Forget those stretch limos and private Gulf-streams. Hollywood jet-setters are finding a new way to tool around in sumptuous style.
Sylvester Stallone, Sean Penn, Matthew Modine, Tom Hanks, Andy Garcia and David Duchovny have each embraced these aluminum highway stalwarts. Especially those funky silver jobs.
A "silverlove sub" is how *ER doc* Anthony Edwards affectionately refers to his 34-foot, $100,000 Airstream.
Once the embarrassing behemoths that retirees trundled on the snowbird circuit, the rich and famous are snapping up those huge motor homes and bus conversions. And loving them.
Penn lived in an Airstream Sovereign after the 1993 Malibu fire destroyed his $4 million Spanish villa, Garcia, Stallone and Modine bought Airstreams for on-set dressing rooms. Hanks brought his 34-foot battle tank on location for "Sleepless in Seattle."
But these showbiz rides aren't your garden variety getaway vehicle — and they're certainly nothing like the honeymoon-turn-oreal rig that Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz towed across the screen in 1964's The Long, Long Trailer.
"The movie people like an Airstream because it's distinctive. It sets them aside," said Andy Rogozinski, 64-year-old owner of Corona's Inland RV Service Inc.
Rogozinski, known in Hollywood as the Airstream customizer to the stars, has fixed up special models of the campy cocoon for Modine, Michael Madsen and Tim Burton.
Modine's Airstream was outfitted with a totally stainless steel bathroom.
"Matthew uses his as a glorified dressing room. In 'Bye, Bye Love,' there was a lot of nighttime work and he relaxed in it during down time."
"It is one of the 99 most desired products according to Money magazine," Rogozinski said. These gleaming beauties run about $100,000 when he's finished with them.
"It doesn't matter how old it is, it's like a DC-3. A little TLC and that's it."
Actually, they kind of look like a DC-3.
Custom trailers and motor homes make sense — and cents — for celebrities with an entourage. They also eliminate complaints from stars unhappy with studio-provided accommodations while on location.
"It's a working office when you spend the better part of a year on location in a trailer," said Catherine Moore, spokeswoman for the Screen Actors Guild. "Most of the principals or performers have a very organized business structure and they have a quite sophisticated support staff."
Then there's the, um, pleasure factor: "It's very womanlike," Edwards recently told The Wall Street Journal. "The roundness, the curvature of the interior, makes a really pleasing environment to be in."
Actress Heidi Swedberg keeps an Airstream (she calls it a tin can with a door) in her back yard.
"But I'm not in the Wally Byam Caravan Club," said the actress, who played George's fiancee Susan on Seinfeld. Airstreams hit the mainstream in the 1950s when Byam started leading mass excursions nationwide.
"When we first bought our...little house, we remodeled and lived in the Airstream for nine months," Swedberg said. "It's kind of become a kind of garden fixture now."
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