• April 30, 1990
• Vol. 33
• No. 17

Hollywood's New Squares

By Michael Small

In a Radical Swing Toward Clean and Simple Living, Hip-Beyond-Hip Stars Head for Coffeehouses, Thrift Shops and Low-Profile Clubs

At first glance, the couple entering a Los Angeles movie complex looks like any other style-conscious young Angeleno pair. Slouching toward the ticket taker in matching black suit jackets and heavy black work shoes, dark sunglasses plugged into uncombed hair, they carry shopping bags full of books from Brentano's. He drops his cigarette and gives her a kiss. They saunter to the snack bar and buy three bags of caramel corn, two Crescendo chocolate bars and two hot coffees before slipping into the 5:20 showing of Rosalie Goes Shopping. [P] But the participants in this Friday-night outing are scarcely as ordinary as they seem. Behind those Ray-Bans are [CELEBRITY_LINK "Johnny Depp"] and Winona Ryder. Though the baby-faced heartthrob of TV's 21 Jump Street and the movies' Cry-Baby and his fiancée, the rising star of Heathers and Beetlejuice, qualify as the hottest young couple in Hollywood since the heyday of Sean Penn and [CELEBRITY_LINK "Madonna"], here they are, brushing shoulders with ordinary folks. [P] Those who know them wouldn't be surprised. Depp, 26, and Ryder, 18, are masters of the trendiest art on Sunset Strip: lying low. In sharp contrast to the Brat Pack excesses of the '80s, a new generation of actors believes it's hip to be normal and a little bit square. Sure, there's the occasional night out at Bar One, the China Club and other hot spots of the moment, but the most successful young performers are more often found at a coffee-shop counter. Even notable exceptions like Corey Feldman, 18, who was recently arrested for possession of heroin and cocaine, make an outward show of clean living. Before his arrest, he admitted that he sometimes heads over to the Valley to go bowling. That's right. Bowling. [P] "It's kind of uncool to be seen on the club scene too much," says Ele Keats, 18, who stars on Fox's new teen soap opera Tribes. "It's as if being there means you're not serious about your career. I never see Winona, and if I ever saw Johnny, I'd faint. I haven't fainted yet." [P] Depp and Ryder, who will co-star onscreen in Tim (Batman) Burton's Edward Scissorhands, obviously want to keep Keats on her feet. They have not been seen eating grilled swordfish at Campanile or Indigo restaurants, they haven't made Bar One their second home, they haven't sipped herb tea at the Mad Hatter. Depp's few public appearances are at such downscale spots as King King, a relatively undiscovered live-music bar with a cover charge as low as $5, or Pink's hot-dog stand, where he chows down on $1.85 chili dogs. One of the few places that Ryder has been seen is Hugo's, a family-style restaurant that serves pasta-and-egg combo plates for under $10. Otherwise, when they aren't filming, they prefer to hole up in the houses Depp has rented in the Hollywood Hills and Malibu. [P] For some, Malibu isn't far enough from the Hollywood social scene. Despite her L.A.-based career, Martha Plimpton, 18, lives in New York City, while Plimpton's Running on Empty co-star and friend, River Phoenix, 19, sticks mainly to his home state, Florida. In a way, their absence has backfired, fueling rumors not only that that Phoenix and Plimpton are lovers but also that they've been secretly married. "They're just good friends," says Plimpton's press representative, "and that's as far as it goes. Martha's seeing another person." [P] The public, however, is unlikely to see him. "Avoiding publicity is a kind of weird game for a lot of these young actors," says Josh Richman, who had a two-part cameo on 21 Jump Street in January. "When I was staying with Johnny and Winona, I would screen the phone calls. Everybody from the agents on down. No one can get hold of them. They hate L.A., and they try to stay away from everyone here. Winona's just a kid. When she isn't working, she wants to have a normal 18-year-old's life." [P] In such a climate, the conspicuous consumption favored by the Brat Pack is openly scorned. A lot of young stars follow the example of Holly (21 Jump Street) Robinson and fiancé Brian (Head of the Class) Robbins, channeling their savings into one very private possession: a comfortable home, preferably hidden away in the Hollywood Hills, where great views combine with a convenient location and an escape from Beverly Hills snobbery. Robinson and Robbins recently plunked down $1.2 million for their house, and it doesn't hurt the area's image that [CELEBRITY_LINK "Madonna"] just moved to "Birdland," a part of the Hills where the streets are named after birds. [P] Ricki Lake, 21, star of Hairspray, Cry-Baby and TV's China Beach, just bought a three-bedroom home with a swimming pool, off Mulholland Drive, that she has already made the center of her world. "I hate clubs," she says. "It seems ridiculous to go someplace that's so loud you can't hear anyone and so dark you can't see anyone. I'd rather stay home, cook some pasta, play with my animals and have friends over to watch TV." [P] "Kids 15 and 16 still go out," says Chynna Phillips, 22, the singer-actress daughter of Michelle Phillips and her former Mamas and Papas partner John Phillips. "But older people are burnt out on it. I spend nights at home all the time." Phillips, who sings in the band Wilson Phillips with Brian Wilson's daughters Wendy and Carnie, goes out for dinner and a movie a few nights a month with her bandmates or her guitarist boyfriend. [P] Of course, it's not as if the lights in L.A. go out at 10 P.M. Now that it's hip to want privacy, a network of selective meeting places has sprung up, with changing locations and addresses so obscure that the most determined night owls have trouble keeping up with them. At Bordello, young stars chug beers beside the teased hair and black leather of a flamboyant rock and roll crowd. Club Louis, a hot hangout on hiatus that is slated to reopen at a secret new location, has attracted a sweaty throng of dancers (including [CELEBRITY_LINK "Madonna"]) who writhe to the city's best mix of rap and funk. Bar One, the only upscale hangout with cachet, maintains its cool image partly because of visits by New Hollywood icon Jack Nicholson. [P] Other young actors head for a series of underground clubs, often with changing locations. Every Friday night, the French restaurant Cassis is transformed into a double-decker club that draws the young Hollywood crowd like a Fox TV casting agent. Downstairs is a wild dance party called Le Hot Sol Lounge, while a series of very discriminating doormen allow passage into the Grotto, an upstairs lair. Co-run, until last month, by Donovan Leitch, 22, the actor son of'60s singer Donovan, the small room with floral curtains and a dozen cafe tables includes a stage where Leitch, his girlfriend, Susanna Hoffs (formerly of the Bangles), and friends like the Beastie Boys and Belinda Carlisle have performed. Julian Lennon, River Phoenix, Molly Ringwald, Enid Karl (Leitch's mother) and actress lone Skye (his sister), 19, would drop by regularly, making the place feel like a private rec-room party. In February, before Leitch moved his salon to Bar One, [CELEBRITY_LINK "Drew Barrymore"] blew out the candles on her 15th-birthday cake at the Grotto as Scott Baio and Keanu (I Love You to Death) Reeves looked on. [P] For those who crave an even more quickly changing. scene, there are a number of phone lines, some free and some not, manned by a dedicated partygoer who calls herself the Bat Lady. Every day, she records new messages on her Batlines to indicate the location of floating underground parties and special established nightclub events. All are open to the public and generally held in spaces that comply with liquor laws and fire codes. To hear the secret list of elite (and often illegal) bashes described on her line for hardcore partygoers, a caller must punch a pass code into a push-button phone. [P] One of the kingpins of the underground club scene is Holly Robinson's brother Matt, 28. "We try to find the most dilapidated restaurant with the most disgusting tacky decor and then everyone walks in and goes, 'Oh, very chic,' " he says. "The grosser it is, the better. Then we close down after a few weeks, when it's no longer the hip flavor of the month." [P] In both bars and clubs, policies range from strict to inconsistent when it comes to admitting the sometimes underage Hollywood crowd. "One big club lets in all the girls and TV people no matter what their age is," says an insider. "All you have to do is be in a magazine that week. They just tell you not to drink." [P] For a growing number of young actors and actressses, that admonition isn't necessary. While some vices still persist—Barrymore, Rodney [Outsiders) Harvey, Keifer Sutherland and Depp are all smokers—heavy drinking is definitely not in favor. "It's cool to be clean, I guess," says Alexandra (Dragnet) Paul, 26, who played Perry Mason's assistant in the recent series of TV movies. "Sometimes my friends drink wine, but there are no beer parties and no drugs." Word has it that Hugo's earned its reputation as a hot brunch spot because it's near an AA meeting place. [P] In place of booze, L.A. has a new hip beverage of choice: coffee. In the past few years the city has gained at least half a dozen offbeat coffeehouses that bring back memories of Greenwich Village in the '60s. "Java is for hipsters," Los Angeles Times contributor Dario Scardapane says of the popular spot. "Mad Hatter is for trust-fund hippies. The pikme-up is the older bohemian crowd. Lizards is a mix of gay and straight." Celebrities flock to such mocha bars mainly because an unwritten rule demands respect for their privacy. "The intellectual crowd," Matt Robinson points out, "isn't going to ask someone for an autograph." [P] Nonetheless, the coffeehouses get mixed reviews from their celebrated young patrons. "I get a good feeling at the pikme-up," says Ele Keats. "Some guy handed me a poem about the meeting of two souls and said it was about me. It's fun." Her friend [CELEBRITY_LINK "Drew Barrymore"] takes a more reasoned stance: "Ele used to drag me there every night. During the day it's okay because it's mellow. But at night it drives me nuts. It's so pompous." [P] For dining, the new attitude prefers a backdrop that is pure antichic. "I like really grody, disgusting New York-style coffee shops," says Drew. "They have the best grilled cheese." Duke's, a breakfast hangout for actors and rockers during the past 25 years, still draws Justine Bateman and Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz, among others. "Some of these people get up late," says Duke's owner, Henie Burke. "So breakfast goes on all day." [P] While upscale, established eateries like the Ivy and newer ones like Indigo draw the young celebrity crowd—particularly when an agent is paying the bill—a more favored bistro is Atlas, a few miles away from the Hollywood hubbub in the Mid-Wilshire district. Serving a typical L.A. conglomeration of ethnic foods, Atlas boasts a huge, airy dining room, reasonable prices and sociable owner Mario Tamayo. "I have friends who are actors, but I don't have time to go to their houses," says Tamayo. "I wait for them to come here." [P] When they do, it is with little fanfare. Forget the stretch limos and Porsches. "I don't need to be flashy," says Ricki Lake, who drives a Honda Prelude. "It gets me where I want to go. I do have a car phone. You need one in this town." Last year's cool downscale vehicle—a Jeep)—still shows up in plenty of valet parking spots, but others have moved on to lesser status symbols, such as Kris (Coach) Kamm's Chevy pickup. "I need a utility vehicle," says Kamm, 26, "something I can throw my life into and wash on Saturdays." [P] Kamm's life—and those of his youthful compatriots—doesn't come with many high-priced duds. Though some still buy an item or two at Fred Segal Melrose, where a frayed, European-made jeans jacket sells for $220, most rely on thrift shops and flea markets. "Dressy slacks like old men used to wear are in," says Brian Green, 16, who played Donna Mills's Knots Landing son. "You get them tapered at the bottom to six inches wide and shorten them to the top of your shoes so you don't look like you're waiting for a flood." He adds, "When my mom says I look terrible, I know I look good." [P] For women, that carefree image comes, well, carefully. "It looks like they don't think about what they wear," says Denise CohenScher, fashion director of the California Mart clothing design center. "But you know it's calculated. There's definitely an art to it." Toying with the heavy-metal-rock look, Christina Applegate and Justine Bateman have bought pricey, custom-made studded-black-leather-and-metal-mesh outfits from designer Michael Schmidt; Apple-gate and Jennifer Grey also wear the trademark Lycra-and-suede chap pants by the design duo Van Buren. Others shop in the trendy and generally expensive stores on Melrose Avenue. "Melrose is good for extra accessories and cool things," says Chynna Phillips. "But you need to get the basics somewhere nice." Proving that point, Winona Ryder has been seen at Madeleine Gallay, a Sunset Boulevard boutique where European designer dresses sell for $ 100 to $ 1,800. [P] To get that solitary moment in a dressing room, Barrymore says she heads for the Beverly Center mall, and Lake even goes to the Gap, where they find it blissfully easy to blend in. Justine Bateman, lone Skye and John Cusack seek out-of-the-way spots like Y-Que, an offbeat general store that sells love potions, $25 jeans jackets and vintage boots. "We're mellow hip, unpretentious," says co-owner Rae Chavira. "We make brownies in the back for our customers." [P] Though such diehard antiestablishment types as Skye aren't afraid to admit that they order clothes from J. Crew and Tweeds catalogs, New England basic is hardly the favored result. "A lot of the women go for the Grapes of Wrath, ravaged country girl look," says photo and film stylist Carmel Passanisi. "They buy a see-through, ill-fitting floral print dress and wear a leather jacket over it with thick socks and cowboy boots." [P] Despite such attention to details, shopping does not rank high on Young Hollywood's priority list. Most spend more time shopping for—or preserving—a relationship. For some, long work hours and the isolation of fame make it tempting to seek a soul mate within the entertainment industry. But the quest for normalcy leads others to unknown territory. "It's just not very healthy for actors to date actresses," says Jonathan (Weekend at Bernie's) Silverman, who has been dating a dancer. "It's always a competition. I'm looking for a nice law student now, someone with a regular job." [P] He might find her—as well as Jennifer Grey, Kamm and a pack of other young actors and models—at the Voight Fitness and Dance Center in West Hollywood, where an $8.50 Cardio-Funk class offers hipper music than other health clubs play. Jason Bateman, Jonathan Silverman and C. Thomas Howell pull a suburban move, tossing their golf clubs in the trunk and heading for a country club. [P] During less energetic moments, Bateman and Silverman work out their sports fantasies in the stands at the L. A. Kings hockey games, while Robert Downey Jr. and John Cusack have been known to check out the Lakers. But the favorite street-chic leisure event takes place in the dank downstairs confines of Hollywood Billiards, L.A.'s oldest pool hall. David Bowie occasionally pays the $3-an-hour fee to shoot pool at Table 13. That alone is enough to explain why Kevin Dillon and Michael J. Fox are drawn to the place. [P] While Old Hollywood races to save the planet, Young Hollywood also finds itself swept up in causes. The very private River Phoenix has recorded public-service announcements for PETA, an animal-rights group, and sung and played guitar with his folk-pop quintet, Aleka's Attic, for a benefit album. Alexandra Paul, one of the co-founders of Young Artists United, has helped corral a pack of young stars to support various causes, including an ongoing high school speaking tour during which they address voting, divorce, depression, drugs and other social issues. [P] Even so, the ultimate cause favored by these new stars is hunkering down at home. "Going to Hollywood parties takes a lot of energy and free time and things to say to reporters," explains Roseanne's Sara Gilbert, 15. "It's never as much fun as you thought it would be. My dad always says that people go to parties because they think someone else is having fun." [P] He isn't, one assumes, thinking about the kind of soirees that lone Skye likes to organize. "I'm into having afternoon-tea parties for the girls," she says. "I make scones and go to Paddington's and get clotted cream. Everyone puts on a dress and a hat. We sit around and gossip. The guys come around afterwards and eat all the leftover food." [P] This is Hollywood? Until the pendulum swings back—toward ostentation and decadence again—you bet it is. [P]

More From This Article

Richman's Rules to Live by

Josh Richman answers the phone in his Hollywood Hills home and hears the voice of Robert Downey Jr. A minute later he puts Downey on hold to take a call from Crispin Glover. They talk about meeting up with Johnny Depp at an Iggy Pop recording session. Both calls end hurriedly as Richman's neighbor Esai Morales bangs on the front door.

Richman's film cameos (Heathers, River's Edge) have not yet made him a household name. But few people live as close to the epicenter of the young L.A. social scene. To love the city as much as L.A. native Richman does, you have to know the rules. Here are some he lives by:

1. Start the day by screening all phone calls, including business people, until you're ready to deal with it. It's irresponsible, but, hey, it's L.A.

2. Don't go to a club on opening night. You let a club prove itself before you go, unless a really proven guys runs it. But the really proven guys aren't doing clubs anymore.

3. Try to go out with people who have as much social juice as you. Then you don't have to worry about getting them in.

4. In L.A. you get a lot of the chin-on-the-shoulder syndrome. You know Nicholson's in a club, so you put your chin on your shoulder to see him. You get used to talking into people's ears.

5. Having a boyfriend or a girlfriend is totally in. My big line to a guy when he tells me he has a girlfriend is, "Then what are you doing out of the house, man?"

6. Drinking is old hat. You don't need alcohol to make things exciting. You either make it not boring, or you don't go out.

7. If you've got juice with the restaurants on the [Sunset] Plaza, then you're a real citizen. Right now Le Petit Four is the coolest. You don't go there for dinner or early lunch. You go around 2 P.M.

8. Every bit of theory in L.A. goes out the window on weekends. The actors and models who live in the immediate 'hoods stay away from the Plaza. It's all people from Culver City. So don't bother.