If you’re among the inbound, you’re going to need to do a lot more than leave the heavy coats at home and drop a few “dudes” into your repartee if you don’t want to be mistaken for the latest Hollywood wannabe to drop off a turnip truck.
Follow these tips and you just might pass for a local.
If your deception goes well, you can bring your suave Angeleno persona home from vacation and try it out with your locals.
Just don’t push it.
Having “I Love L.A.” as a ringtone is a little much.
1. Don’t mention the weather
The wonderful monotony of not-too-hot, low-humidity days and mild nights is taken for granted.
Weather isn’t a topic of conversation — unless something really weird is happening, like, you know, rain.
2. For God’s sake, don’t order a Corona
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At least if you’re a male able to breathe.
READ: CNNGo in Los Angeles: Hollywood stars, food trucks and bar-cade
8. Be discreet about celebrity sightings
If you’re eager to see someone famous, that defines you as a non-Angeleno.
But if you really want a celebrity story to take back home, you can get one a lot more discreetly than by hanging around Nobu or Chateau Marmont and gawking at the patrons.
Instead, go to the fancy Pavilions grocery store on Heathercliff Road in Malibu.
On a Saturday morning, you can’t throw a rock without hitting someone who’s at least been a regular on a network TV show.
But you might not recognize him or her — because at Pavilions, unlike Nobu, the celebrities aren’t wearing copious makeup.
Chris Reed moved to Los Angeles County in 1990 and has been a Southern California journalist ever since, writing for such newspapers as the Los Angeles Daily News and Orange County Register and appearing dozens of times on “The John & Ken Show” on KFI AM 640 and “AirTalk with Larry Mantle” on KPCC-FM, a PBS affiliate.
