Monday, May 17, 2004 6:05 PM
For this year’s award banquet, the Press Club is going upscale.
The setting will be the St. Regis hotel in Century City, a 261-room tower with sweeping views from downtown to the Pacific.
Beyond its stunning luxury and glittering chandeliers, the St. Regis is known as one of the most secure hotels in the world. Most notably, it’s one of the few hotels specially outfitted for presidential stays. The penthouse, with about the same space as four or five homes, was specially approved by the United States Secret Service. Since Ronald Reagan, every president has stayed there at least once.
You can, too, for a mere $10,000 a night. That makes a Press Club June 12 awards banquet ticket a bargain by comparison. The official watering hole for the June 12 evening will be the bar simply known as The Bar, featuring an 80-foot mural of Spanish dancers. The dinner will be held a floor below in the gorgeous Grand Ballroom.
The hotel hosts many celebrities, but names aren’t supposed to slip out to the public. The staff is free to mention that Carmen Electra and Dave Navarro, of Red Hot Chili Pepper fame, got hitched there. It was on MTV. And the hotel is creating a private registration area away from the main check-in desk in part because Johnny Depp got delayed in line one day.
If you spy any celebs on awards night, you don’t have keep mum. You’ll be rubbing elbows with them at the Press Club dinner.
