Why chateau marmont

They stayed for three years. One weekend in September of , Parsons drove out to Joshua Tree for cosmic inspiration and never returned. Nash came back that year, renting the midcentury-modern hillside Bungalow 3 which, along with its twin, No.

David Crosby moved in with him to perfect the harmonies for their Wind on the Water album. John Belushi checked into Bungalow 3 on February 28, Tony Randall, given to nude sunbathing in the garden, lived next door in Bungalow 4.

Belushi, with his Falstaffian appetites, would spend the last five days of his life futzing around with a screenplay about the wine business called Noble Rot and his nights carousing, drugging, and generally alarming his friends and associates. Together, they partied all night on March 4, entertaining occasional visitors, including Robert De Niro, then living in 64, and Robin Williams, who swung by after a Comedy Store performance and politely tooted a line.

De Niro and Williams made hasty exits. At some point in the morning, Smith gave Belushi the injection that killed him. Suddenly, the renowned Chateau Marmont was that seedy joint where John Belushi died. The hotel sued the publisher and got the offending word removed from future printings. Soon there would be no way anyone could consider the Chateau seedy.

A sensitive, slow-moving renovation was implemented by designers Shawn Hausman and Fernando Santangelo, who artfully blurred the line between and the new. Vintage-style tiles were put in, antique stoves tuned up or installed, ad hoc lighting fixtures replaced, and Jean-Michel Frank-esque furnishings scattered about. The staff presented Lindsay-Hogg with a mirror from his old apartment as a keepsake, as a new checkerboard floor and piano came in.

The whole property had a honey-amber glow. In some ways, the current Chateau is an imposter. Soon enough, the Chateau was gaining more and more notoriety as a place of buzz—and celebrity infestation.

In another corner is George Clooney, and in the other corner is Bono. After the long and sometimes emotionally debilitating task of reporting on the Simpson trial, Dunne packed up Suite 48 and flew home. The Chateau assured him all would be taken care of and kindly asked if the item should be sent back to him. Then Lindsay Lohan checked into the Chateau. Paris Hilton checked in. Now it was velvet-rope time.

The tabloid 90s had metastasized into the social-media s. As ever, the Chateau was mirroring the evolution of Hollywood. But there were, understandably, new barriers. The Chateau, in some ways, was growing up—and turning yet another page.

It might not have been the most glamorous or expensive hotel in L. Anyone who was anyone in this town had a Chateau Marmont story to tell. In Shawn Levy's new book, The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art, and Scandal at Hollywood's Chateau Marmont , which is being adapted into an HBO series by John Krasinski, the author—not to be confused with the filmmaker of the same name—delves into the storied hotel's rich, colorful—and oftentimes painful—history.

Below are ten of the most scandalous tales from behind the Marmont's tall hedges. Before he became one of the most famous filmmakers of Hollywood's Golden Age, with credits including The Seven Year Itch , Sunset Boulevard , Some Like It Hot , and The Apartment , for which he became the first person to win producing, screenwriting, and directing Oscars for the same film, Billy Wilder was a budding writer fleeing Hitler's Germany in the s.

By , he had made his way to Hollywood. He stayed at the Chateau Marmont three times. The first time was in the cheapest and windowless room they had. Then he left to visit his mother in Europe and when he returned, the hotel was completely sold out. As a compromise, Wilder was allowed to stay in a closet-sized antechamber of the women's lobby restroom.

Erwin Brettauer, the third owner of the Chateau Marmont, instilled a policy of openness and tolerance, stemming from his firsthand experience seeing the rise of anti-Semitism in his native Germany during World War II. But according to Levy, Howard Hughes wasn't on board.

He writes: "[Hughes] was so averse to interacting with the hotel's black employees that he would go to rigorous lengths to avoid any contact with them, parking his car out on the street when a black parking valet was on duty in the garage and climbing the stairs to the penthouse rather than share close quarters with the black elevator operator.

He also had a habit of using his penthouse view to spy on girls sunbathing in the pool with binoculars. He would constantly cheat, she would find out, they would fight, and he would escape to a suite at the Marmont. Eventually they would make up, then the whole cycle would start again.

One time, according to legend, the two were arguing on the terrace of his suite when a briefcase was thrown. It burst open and a shower of cash rained down Sunset Boulevard. In writer-director Nicholas Ray moved into a bungalow after finding his second wife, actress Gloria Grahame, in bed with his year-old son Tony from his first marriage. Not long after he got his studio pitch for Rebel Without a Cause approved and began meeting actors and screenwriters, Ray met James Dean.

Then, writer Stewart Stern entered the mix and began work on a screenplay. Ray was big on entertaining industry folk in his bungalow and hosted Sunday gatherings where Dean, Dennis Hopper, and other actors would often show up. As the movie's script progressed, Ray started to use his bungalow as a rehearsal space. Among the Sunday gathering set was Natalie Wood, who was desperate to shed her goody two shoes image and get herself cast in Ray's movie.

She would make a point of showing up wherever Ray was. Los Angeles Chevron. West Hollywood Chevron. Reviewed by Brooke Porter Katz. Give us an overview? This famous and infamous castle-like hotel has stood sentry on the Sunset Strip since the s, welcoming a long, long list of Hollywood notables and their attendant scandals and tragedies.

This is all part of its enduring appeal. While many of the rooms are in dire need of updating, the romantic public areas with wood-beamed ceilings, candle-lit corner tables, and tile floor could never be recreated.

What about the rooms themselves? There are a mix of rooms, bungalows hillside and poolside , garden cottages, and suites. Skip the standard rooms if you can swing it. The real Chateau experience comes from the cottages and bungalows.