Will Hollywood Dig Detroit Coney Dogs?

Detroit Free Press: Can the coney cut it in Hollywood? Will the loose burger find love on Sunset Boulevard?

Actor-comedian-director Mike Binder has no doubt they'll be a smash hit when he and several other famous Detroit ex-pat pals open a 24-hour coney restaurant late next month in the heart of Hollywood's nightclub district.

The 65-seat Coney Dog will serve natural-casing hot dogs and spicy chili inspired by Lafayette Coney Island, along with Faygo pop, Better Made chips, Stroh's beer and several Detroit-area microbrews, said Binder, a Birmingham native.

"We're doing it right," he added. Joining him in the project as investors, he said, are comedian Tim Allen, "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi, comedian Adam Sandler, Red Wings center Kris Draper and former University of Michigan football player Braylon Edwards, now with the New York Jets. All but Sandler have Detroit roots.

News of the project has created a frenzy on the restaurant's Facebook page, where more than 3,000 former Detroiters in the Los Angeles area and beyond have logged on to plead for a quick opening.

"As soon as I got out here, I said, 'If anyone ever put a coney island on Sunset Boulevard, it would be huge,' " said Binder, who came to Hollywood 25 years ago as an aspiring comic. "And as the years went on ... I had so many other Detroit friends say the same thing."

To get them all a coney fix -- and introduce other people in the entertainment world to Detroit's most famous delicacy -- Binder has had coneys and chili shipped to his home once a year for a huge, all-day hot dog party in his backyard. As many as 400 people would show up, "and they'd all just love it," Binder said.

Then one day, he said, he was driving down Sunset Boulevard and saw the perfect location for Hollywood's first coney restaurant: a new building going up at the corner of Sunset and Clark in West Hollywood, next door to Whisky a Go Go, across the street from the Viper Room and two doors from the Roxy -- "in the middle of all the big rock 'n' roll nightclubs."

Binder is planning a grand opening for a Saturday at the end of May or early June, with a guest list that will include scores of entertainers who have had coneys in his backyard or at Lafayette, when they've come to Detroit for film projects.

"I've turned so many people on to coney islands -- Tom Cruise, Owen Wilson, Will Smith" and many others, he said. "Kevin Costner came to one of our hot dog parties and called the next day and said, 'Where can I get those hot dogs?' "

Read Entire Article

Celebrity Stalking Joins Tourism Mainstream

Vancouver Sun: For celebrity obsessed visitors to Los Angeles, it's no longer enough to take a tour of the palatial homes of their favourite stars.

As the city's $12-billion-a-year tourism industry rebounds, tour operators are now offering visits to the sites where stars and B-level celebrities have died, dined, fought, committed crimes and thrown headline-grabbing tantrums.

Next month, the largest tour operator in Los Angeles, Starline Tours, will team up with the celebrity news source TMZ to create a guided tour that cruises past the sites where TMZ has reported its biggest celebrity scoops.

The new TMZ guided tour was the idea of TMZ founder Harvey Levin, who declined to comment. However, Starline spokesman Philip Ferentinos said the tour will be offered on a specially designed 24-seat bus that will be fitted with four 26-inch TV screens.

Later this summer, Starline will launch a tour of celebrity crime scenes, which will be led by former law enforcement officials who investigated the crimes. It's an attempt, tour promoters say, to attract the younger visitors who are more interested in the happenings of reality TV stars like Kim Kardashian than the homes of actors Lucille Ball or Lionel Barrymore.

The TMZ tour will change with each new celebrity scandal, but operators say it may include such spots as the nightclub where Seinfeld's Michael Richards went on a racially tinged rant, the high-end department store where actress Winona Ryder was caught shoplifting and the courthouse where Lindsay Lohan is being prosecuted on a grand theft charge.

"People can never get too much of celebrities," Ferentinos said. "And today the definition of celebrity has changed so much."

A tour that launched in November lets tourists join up with paparazzi on the prowl for unsuspecting celebrities, and for years sightseeing tours fill up daily down the street from Grauman's Chinese Theatre for trips to Hollywood's graves and sites where celebrities died.

In January, a Hollywood history buff launched a guided walking tour of the history of the entertainment industry in the city. "It's starting to catch on," said Philip Mershon, founder of the Felix in Hollywood Tour Co.

To completely immerse tourists in the world of celebrity-tracking, the TMZ tour bus will be equipped with a video camera to tape any celebrity who happens to pop up along the route. The footage shot on the tour can be sent directly to the TMZ studios for broadcast later that day, Ferentinos said.

"It will be TMZ on wheels," he added.

Read Entire Article