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Swimming with Sharks (1994) – Kevin Spacey plays a Hollywood agent with no soul. Is there any other kind?

Get Shorty (1995) – In Barry Sonnenfeld’s comedy based on the Elmore Leonard novel, John Travolta plays a mafioso who gets entangled in Hollywood and wonders which industry has fewer scruples.

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BEYOND LA

In Jake Kasdan’s Orange County (2002) a surfer desperately tries to get into Stanford University (in Palo Alto, CA) and escape his oddball family; in the meantime you get a humorous snapshot of culture in OC. Ask any oenophile about Sideways (2004), and you’ll get an earful about Santa Barbara’s wine country, Pinot Noir and Paul Giamatti. Click here for films shot in San Diego.

TELEVISION

SoCal is a common setting for TV, from LA-based Dragnet (1950s), The Beverly Hillbillies (1960s), The Brady Bunch (1970s) and LA Law (1980s), through to teen dramedies Beverly Hills 90210 (1990s), which made zip code into a status symbol, and The OC (2000s) set in Newport Beach. Six Feet Under gave a glimpse of modern LA through the eyes of a family running a funeral home. Curb Your Enthusiasm offers insights – if you can call them that – into Hollywood’s smarmier side, while Entourage offers the highs, the lows and the intrigues through the eyes of a rising star and his posse. Newcomer Californication shows us with no holds barred what happens when a successful New York novelist goes Hollywood.

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LA TV station KTLA was the first to use a news helicopter, in 1958.

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Audience members come from across the nation for tapings of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as well as innumerable sitcoms and game shows including Jeopardy! and The Price is Right.

ANIMATION

A young cartoonist named Walt Disney arrived in LA in 1923, and five years later he had his first breakout hit, Steamboat Willie, starring a mouse named Mickey. That film spawned the entire Disney empire, and dozens of other animation studios have followed with films, television programs and effects. Among the best known: Warner Bros (Bugs Bunny et al), Hanna Barbera (The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear and Scooby-Doo), Dreamworks (Shrek, Madagascar), Film Roman (the Simpsons, King of the Hill), Klasky Csupo (Rugrats), Nelvana (Babar, Fairly Oddparents). Even if much of the hands-on work takes place overseas (eg South Korea), concept and supervision is done in LA.

Music

LA’s music biz and its attendant club scene arose out of the film industry and the massive post-WWII influx of classically trained European refugees and American jazz, and country music hopefuls. Today it’s one of the world’s music capitals, not least because so much of the recording industry is based here, and many local DJs end up producing film soundtracks.

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SO YOU WANNA BE IN SHOWBIZ…

The following books are points of reference for anyone looking to make it in the Industry:

Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman – a great screenwriter holds court

The Art of War by Sun Tsu – essential tactics for agents and other dealmakers

Hello, He Lied by Lynda Obst – a producer’s (and a woman’s) perspective on this rough-and-tumble world

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee – words of wisdom from a screenwriting guru

Where Did I Go Right? by Bernie Brillstein – subtitle of this book from the legendary comedy producer: ‘You’re nobody in this Hollywood unless someone wants you dead’

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CLASSICAL

First stop for fans of ‘serious music’ should be Downtown LA’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, home of what’s often called the world’s greatest symphony orchestra, the LA Philharmonic. The dazzling conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen will pass the baton to young Venezuelan phenom Gustavo Dudamel in 2009. The LA Phil’s summer home is the Hollywood Bowl, a favorite venue for classical, jazz and pop performances and even films accompanied by and orchestra.

Orange County boasts the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, with two state-of-the-art