Movie Star Homes – Celebrity Sightseeing in Hollywood

We recently enjoyed a sightseeing tour of Hollywood and the Movie Stars’ Homes.  The tour lasted about 2 hours, and we were chauffeured around in the comfort of an air-conditioned mini bus.  The fully-narrated tour included many of the movie stars’ homes, sights around the Hollywood Hills, Mulholland Drive, Beverly Hills, and much more. 

The tour we took was the only tour in Hollywood that visits Mulholland Drive, which provides one of the best vantage points in the city, and is home to a large number of movie stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Brittany Spears, John Travolta, Sharon Stone, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Jennifer Lopez, and Brittany Murphy to name a few.  Due to traffic, events, weather, and changes in the route for any number of reasons, the Hollywood tour company did not guarantee that we will visit any particular movies star homes or movie locations.  The itinerary listed below describes the tour that we enjoyed, but may not be exactly like your tour.

The tour departed from Hollywood Boulevard, just across from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.  Grauman’s opened on May 18, 1927, and was the most spectacular theater opening in motion picture history.  After massive renovations, the theater is still in use today and hosts many of the Hollywood movie premieres complete with the red carpet.  Currently the Chinese Theater also houses the handprints and footprints of the stars, which is a free attraction that should not be missed.  It was once stated that “to visit Los Angeles and not see the Chinese is like visiting China and not seeing the Great Wall.” 

On the tour, we learned about Hollywood, explored the neighborhoods where the movie stars’ live, visited a series of famous movie locations, and drove by the multi-million dollar homes owned by celebrities.  There were plenty of photo opportunities on the tour.  If you take the tour, be sure to keep your camera ready because you never know when a celebrity sighting may occur. First, we saw where Julia Roberts lived and was eventually rescued on the fire escape by Richard Gere in the movie Pretty Woman.  This famous movie location is known as the Las Palmas Hotel, and is located just off of Hollywood Boulevard.  I do not recommend staying at this hotel, although we were told they are still in business.

Next, we headed up and into the Hollywood Hills to our first stop at The Hollywood Bowl Overlook.  This overlook is situated to provide a beautiful view of the Hollywood Bowl Amphitheater, downtown Los Angeles, and, on a clear day, the ocean all the way to Catalina Island. Up a few steps and facing to the east, you can see the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Park Observatory.  To the north, you can see the San Fernando Valley. The Overlook was built in 1984 in preparation for the Summer Olympics.  After a brief 10-minute stop, we continued our tour along Mulholland Drive into some of the famous neighborhoods of the Hollywood Hills. 

Then, we saw the home of Cuba Gooding Jr.  As we passed his house, we saw his fantastic view, as well as the grand piano sitting in his front window.  We also visited the movie location where they filmed part of the movie Lethal Weapon.  Yes, this is the house that blows up in the movie!  We saw the $10+ million dollar mansion that Brittany Spears purchased, fully equipped with private gates and a service entrance. Next, we drove by The Summit, an exclusive gated community that is home to some of the most expensive homes in the Hollywood Hills.  Kareem Adbul Jabbar has a house in The Summit that you can see from Mulholland Drive, and the estate where Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony were married can also be seen in The Summit.  It was rumored that Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony placed their Summit address on the market for $16.1 million.  We also saw Leonardo DiCaprio’s white cliffside mansion as well as Meg Ryan’s pink palace, John Travolta’s house, and Jack Nicholson’s cliffside estate, complete with cliffside tennis court.

When we headed down the hill a little bit, we passed a number of celebrity homes including Vern Troyer (Mini Me), Matt Le Blanc from Friends, Candice Bergen, Carrie Fisher, and others.  We saw the fabulous estate belonging to Jim Carrey and the home of Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck. 

After heading into Beverly Hills, we began to see more gated estates and more elaborate mansions.  We saw the Hilton household where Nicki and Paris grew up.  Directly across the street, we viewed the estate of musician Rod Stewart and his daughter, Kimberly Stewart.  We drove by Harvard-Westlake High School where Tori Spelling and other famous child actors and actresses attend high school to the tune of $30,000 per semester.  We saw the estate of the first Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller.  This incredible estate looks like a tropical jungle with a pool extending 360 degrees around the entire property.  The house is rumored to be haunted and has been sitting vacant for over 14 years.  We drove by the Beverly Hills mansion that was transformed into a Bel Air home in the television series Fresh Prince of Bel Air.  We also saw the homes of Robert Redford, Nicholas Cage, Sir Elton John, Mick Jagger, George Harrison, and a number of other celebrities. 

Next, we passed the world famous Beverly Hills Hotel, which was recently purchased by the Sultan of Brunei for a reported $400 million dollars to hold his daughters wedding.  So many owners in neighboring estates to the hotel complained about the event that the Sultan decided to purchase every estate that surrounded the hotel.  Just down the road from the Beverly Hills Hotel is Bill Cosby’s estate, complete with a golf course!  As we turned to head down to Rodeo drive for a break and some shopping, we passed the last home of the late John Candy, which is a truly uniquely designed home that John spent many years building and only a few months living in.

After 20 minutes of celebrity sightseeing and shopping on Rodeo Drive, we headed back towards Hollywood along the exciting Sunset Strip, which is full of restaurants, clubs, hip hotels, and nightlife for the masses.  We drove by the Key Club where they filmed Night at The Roxbury with Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell.  We saw the Viper Room which is formerly owned by Johnny Depp as well as the location where River Phoenix died from a drug overdose.  We watched for stars as we drove by numerous outdoor cafés and bars that are frequented by many celebrities, and checked out some of the hip hotels along The Strip like The Mondrian, The Standard, and Chateau Marmont, which also happens to be where they found John Belushi dead of a drug overdose in Bungalow D.  Finally, we saw Pauly Shore’s family comedy store, The Laugh Factory, along with numerous other famous clubs and establishments. 

As we returned to Hollywood Boulevard, we passed along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, home to over 2,000 five-point stars honoring those in the music, television, and film business.  Our tour returned to the same departure point, just across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theater and all of the sightseeing activities along Hollywood Boulevard. 

This tour is a must-see for any traveler visiting Southern California.  Hollywood has a lot to see, and most of it is very hard to find.  This tour gives you a fantastic overview of many popular sights in a short period of time.  For more information and tour tickets, please visit Hollywood Tours (www.HollywoodTours.us).  Tours depart multiple times throughout the day, every day of the week.