Where do I start? Maybe when I was 15 and first came to live in the place I now call home: Beverly Hills. Beverly Hills is full of surprises – it’s not just streets with amazing homes and incredible shops. It’s not just a playground for movie stars, paparazzi and tourists. In a way, it’s a small exclusive village located in the middle of big bad LA.
One of the great things about living here is that you feel a sense of community. Canon Drive is like our local main street, filled with shops and restaurants and the local Rite Aid drugstore, where on a good day you can run into everyone from Lindsay Lohan to Sidney Poitier. Yes, Beverly Hills is crammed full of movie stars running in to visit their doctor or dentist – or, in some cases, their plastic surgeon.
Rodeo Drive is the chic, expensive, world-famous shopping street, the epicentre of fabulous fashion and brand-name stores. Chanel sits on the corner of Rodeo and Brighton Way, a big favourite of Paris and Nicky Hilton. Valentino is further down the street along with Cartier and Tiffany. Shopping on Rodeo is quite a trip – albeit a very expensive one.
Rodeo has changed a lot since I first arrived in LA as a delinquent teenager. Back then the glitz and glamour did not exist, it was just small record stores and neighbourhood restaurants. Now it’s all big-time stores, and often I wonder how the tourists feel when they eyeball some of the exorbitant price tags.
Beverly Hills has some great restaurants and a few have been around forever, including the famed Nate’n Al’s delicatessen on Beverly Drive where a lot of stars hang out. CNN’s talk-show host Larry King breakfasts there every day. Another local restaurant, known for its incredible chopped salads, is La Scala – always good for a quick lunch.
Two of my favourite Beverly Hills restaurants are Spago and Cut – both owned by the extremely successful and likeable master chef, Wolfgang Puck. Cut is the place where the Beckhams and the Cruises spend many a night dining on the fantastic selection of Kobe beef.
I have written about Spago many times. Dining in the garden is delightful and very romantic. Give me a frozen margarita and a smoked salmon pizza and I’m a happy camper. For my book Lovers and Players, Wolf created a special cocktail for me called the Jackie Collins. Delicious.
Hotels rule in Beverly Hills and my personal favourite is The Beverly Hills Hotel, affectionately called the Pink Palace by the locals. It’s a landmark and has been around forever. My friend, David Niven Jr, son of the late great movie star, told me that when he was a kid, he and his brother would ride horses up to the entrance of the hotel.
The Beverly Hills Hotel holds many, many secrets. And, of course, I have revealed quite a few of them in my 27 novels. I write fiction, so I believe in changing the names to protect the not-so-innocent!
I think one of the reasons my books appeal to people is because they are always trying to figure out the real-life identity of my fictitious characters. When you read one of my books, you don’t get the tabloid headlines, you get the real truth about what really goes on behind closed doors.
The Polo Lounge is probably the most famous eating place in Beverly Hills. You can always be assured of catching a star or two. The last time I was there – dining outside in the gorgeous garden – I ran into Nicole Richie and Nicollette Sheridan, not together, but both holding court at separate tables. Katie Holmes was also there at a different table, as was the ever-sexy Colin Farrell. The Polo Lounge, especially the inside leather booths next to the bar, has probably had every star in Hollywood on the premises.
Yes, Beverly Hills is quite a city within a city. There is so much I haven’t mentioned: the fantastic houses, the tour buses out searching for star homes, the packs of paparazzi lurking around ready to pounce, the clean streets, friendly people, blue skies, swimming pools galore…
Oh yes, I love Beverly Hills. It’s my little village.
Jackie Collins’s latest book Poor Little Bitch Girl (£18.99, Simon & Schuster) is out now. British Airways flies to Los Angeles from London Heathrow. Join the Executive Club and earn BA Miles. Visit ba.com for more details.
