Famous People Day

We left Anaheim early yesterday and rushed north to Burbank so that we could arrive in time for our 11:20 tour of the Warner Bros. Studio. If you've ever done the Universal Tour, Warner is nothing like it. Our tour group was "full" with just 13 people and you spend most of the 2 hours and 10 minutes on the working lot of Warner Bros., unlike the tram ride you get at Universal.

I really like the Warner tour. When I did it 10 years ago with my dad and my sister we did it during the summer so there was more flexibility in where to go, but this time it was pretty cool to have shooting going on around us.

After lunch there we crossed the freeway and parked at NBC studios, where we had tickets at will-call for The Tonight show (thanks, Lynn!). The area we waited is the same that I was in for an NBC tour (also 10 years ago, I think). And it hasn't changed at all, which was rather odd.

Anyway, the Tonight Show taping was very cool. Mary and I were put near the back but still had a great view. Jay Leno was pretty funny, Halle Berry was kind of a dud, and then we were surprised that Greg Grunberg (who?) was Matt Parkman from Heroes, also on Alias, and with a brief cameo in the pilot of Lost (killed by the monster).

So that was very cool. Later we saw him drive off through the stage exit at NBC.

From there we went to our very cool hotel (Le Montrose in West Hollywood via Mulholland Drive and Laurel Canyon (both movie titles, incidentally) where we checked in and then admired the view from the rooftop deck and pool. But pretty quickly we left again and drove Sunset Blvd all the way to The Arclight, perhaps the coolest movie theater in the country.

Last year I talked my way in to a sneak preview of Scoop there and as we were leaving we saw Katherine Heigl dining.

This year we saw two recognizable faces. Doris Roberts, from Remington Steele and Everyone Loves Raymond; and Joaquim de Almeida, who was on Season 3 of 24, and played the pacifist French general in "Behind Enemy Lines" (although pacifist and French might be repetitive when talking about American action films).

We also caught a late show of "Michael Clayton," a very excellent movie with George Clooney.

It's a driving tour today!

PS--Jenny, to answer your question Pirates seemed pretty similar to what it used to be, except there were a few robotic Johnny Depps around. Not much different from the old ride, I'd say.