3 Ways To See The Stars In Hollywood   by Andrew Regan

The word Hollywood brings to mind homes that cost seven figures, rich movie stars and a place where you're never sure who you might see next.

But of course you can never guarantee you will run into a big movie star, no matter how hard you might look. There are other ways to see the stars though, and these can be just as much fun as a quick glimpse of the real thing.

Try visiting the Hollywood Wax Museum for example. This venue on the Hollywood Boulevard guarantees you will be able to rub shoulders with some of the biggest film stars of recent and more distant years. If you have ever wondered whether you were taller than Angelina Jolie, or what Elvis Presley really looked like up close, this is the place to find out the answers.

This venue has been open for four decades now, and it continues to be exceedingly popular with visitors. You can pay tribute to Michael Jackson here and even have your picture taken with your favourite celebrity.

The second way to see the stars is to visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You won't actually see them here of course, but you can see their handprints if you go along to Grauman's Chinese Movie Theatre.

You'll find the theatre on the Hollywood Boulevard, and it provides a fascinating look back through the decades at many of the most famous names in Hollywood. Modern movie tough guys such as Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger have sunk their hands into the concrete, but there are many older names there as well. Look for classic names such as Joan Crawford and Judy Garland, who left their prints in the 1920s and 1930s respectively.

If you want to see the stars' homes and increase your chances of seeing one of them, you should book a place on one of the tours of their Hollywood homes. Be careful to choose a good quality tour with a good reputation though, as some are not as good as others. And be warned that while you may be lucky and see a movie star, the odds are that you will simply see locations of interest rather than the stars themselves.

One final bonus destination alongside these three is the Hollywood Forever cemetery. This might seem like a strange place to go but the likes of Douglas Fairbanks Junior, "Gone with the Wind" director Victor Fleming and Mel Blanc are all interred here along with many others.

During your stay in Hollywood you can enjoy relaxing at one of the Hollywood hotels as well. You may not be able to afford the million dollar pads of the superstars but you can still relax in comfort during the evenings in the same town.

Robert de Niro, Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen are all cinematic icons which have graced our screens and got their stars on Hollywood Boulevard. What about the four-wheeled actors which played the starring roles in our favourite movies? Cars don't get to trawl the red carpets or collect the Academy Awards, but they have made it to our Drive of Fame...

Herbie

Herbie, the white Volkswagen racing Beetle is the star of Disney's The Love Bug. Herbie's racing number is 53 after the number of Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball player Don Dysdale. Herbie's registration is OF9 857.

KITT

The sleek, artificially intelligent KITT (Knight Industries Two Thousand) was David Hasselhoff's partner in Knight Rider. The original KITT was a third generation 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. KITT's features included a 'molecular bonded shell', Turbo Boost for extra speed and the ability to speak (voiced by Actor William Daniels). In the original series KITT's registration was a California plate reading 'KNIGHT'. The second KITT, a Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang, starred in the 2008 pilot movie.

The Batmobile

The gadget-laden sleek machine used by Batman has evolved and been represented in many forms since its journey from DC comic to the big screen. For the film Batman Begins every aspect of the Batmobile was custom made for the eight versions used in production, from the wheels to the chassis to the bodywork. They were also fitted with six monster truck tyres! Some of the earliest representations of the Batmobile include of the 1943 Cadillac and the 1949 Mercury.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris persuades his friend Cameron to travel into the city with his dad's restored convertible 1961 Ferrari GT California. Only around a 100 of these cars were made so the real thing was only used for the tight shots and an MG car with a fibreglass exterior used for the 'messy' scenes. The 250 GT California became the most expensive model ever sold going for $10,796,000 at auction in 2008. You only see the registration plate of the car once in the film and it reads 'NRVOUS'.

The DeLorean

The true star of the Back to the Future trilogy is the DeLorean DMC-12 time machine. Four DeLoreans were used for the production, one of which was kitted out with all the travel equipment and another for the infamous train wreckage scene. The DeLorean was a licensed and registered motor in California where the films were set. The private number plate used in the film read 'OUTATIME' which morphed into a barcode plate when it returned from the future.

Bullitt

This 1968 classic with Steve McQueen is probably best remembered for the San Francisco car chase scene starring a dark highland green 1968 Ford Mustang 390 CID Fastback. Two Mustangs were used for the chase and reached speeds of over 110mph. The engines, brakes and suspensions were heavily modified by former racer Max Balchowsky. The registration plate reads JJZ 109 and is the same plate number used on the Chevy Nova in Quentin Tarantino's movie Death Trap.

Shaken not stirred

Perhaps the most iconic car in cinema history, the Aston Martin DB5 was driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger. This car was fitted with numerous gadgets, such as the infamous ejector seat and revolving number plates, which became synonymous with all Bond films. The DB5 was used 30 years later in GoldenEye and later on in Tomorrow Never Dies and Casino Royale.