From a TMZ tour bus to a seat at the Oscars: My search for elusive celebrity culture in Los Angeles

“You know what she wants to do?” spits Aunt Mattie bitterly at the aspiring Esther Blodgett (Janet Gaynor) in William A. Wellman’s 1937 picture “A Star Is Born.” “She wants to go to Hollywood.”

Standing before the Dolby Theatre at Sunday’s Academy Awards, it’s easy to think of Hollywood as a physical…