Our trip has mainly consisted of catching up with family and friends, as well as some shopping and site seeing. On weekends, we have been spending time at my wife’s relatives beach house in Malibu, which has not only provided us with hours of fun boogie boarding (the waves have been awesome!), but has enabled us to walk by the holiday homes of Hollywood celebrities, including Steven Spielberg, Kate Hudson, Pierce Brosnan and Cher.
In fact, we have had some encounters of the celebrity kind. My wife’s aunt and I walked along the beach, and ran into Avi Arad, who also happens to be a friend of my wife’s family. As President-CEO of Marvel Studios, he handles the rights to all Marvel comic book characters, including Spider-Man, the X-Men, The Incredible Hulk and Daredevil. He has produced the recent movies based on these characters, and is one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. Yet speaking to him, he was totally unaffected. We mostly spoke about life in Israel (he was born there), and Australian actors in Hollywood (he likes to use them in his movies). I even volunteered to act in a future movie for only a quarter, but I think he thought that was still too expensive, given my acting talents!
Our next encounter with fame was at LA zoo, and will only be appreciated by hardcore Seinfeld fans. We were going to the train that takes you around the zoo, after having seen the giraffes. As we were walking, we passed a man smiling at us. As we passed him, my wife and I looked at each other and said “Seinfeld!” We had just seen the actor who played the “sidler” in the Seinfeld episode in which Kramer places the set of the Merv Griffin show inside his apartment. His names is Brent Hinkley, and he has actually starred in many other shows, including the West Wing, ER and Buffy. I told my wife that I wanted to run back and get my picture taken with him, but she cautioned me, saying that he would not want to be bothered on a family day out at the zoo (he was with his wife and children). I responded that he was not exactly an A-list hollywood actor, and would therefore probably appreciate the recognition. My logic won out, and we ran back after him like a couple of crazed stalkers. At any rate, he turned out to be very nice and friendly, appreciative of the recognition, and surprised to hear that Seinfeld was shown in Israel. Here is a picture of my wife, youngest child Maya and Brent.
Today, we were supposed to be flying back to Israel but we have been having too much fun and have extended our trip by a week.
