Moving cameras are nothing new to Orange County, where countless motion pictures have been shot, movie stars have frolicked and resided and, in more recent years, reality television stars have made our Plasticland “real.”
But though we're a short distance/long commute from being Hollywood adjacent, we still get a kick of out seeing, say, a comedy blockbuster star on our toll road, a porn star in our courthouse or a popular teen show baddie in our drunk tank. After the jump are 10 random brushes with celebrity in 2012 . . .
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“The Wolfpack” coming to a stretch of the 73 toll road in October drew condemnation, movie cameras and spectator cameras as scenes were filmed for next summer's Hangover 3. A Weekly video and StarzUncut pics showed Zach Galifianakis driving a short distance with a trailer in tow. The uproar came before filming from a city councilman and merchants who feared increased traffic and decreased business. But Hollywood filled the Toll Road Agencies' coffers, and the disruption proved minimal as few drive those goddamn Lexus lanes anyway. (VIDEO: The Hangover 3 Filming Footage in Orange County Leaked)
The legendary and controversial filmmaker shot and set parts of Savages in Laguna Beach, and he would go on to promote the movie about pot growers and their hippie girlfriend going up against a bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartel all over the place, including the July cover of High Times magazine. The interview inside had Ollie waxing poetic about California marijuana and his periodic desire to get into the growing business. Natural Born Killer Weed, anyone? (Oliver Stone, Smoking Joint on High Times Cover, Talks Up Laguna Beach Film and California Weed)
The possible best director Oscar nominee for Argo was not in Orange County (that we know of, heh-heh), but he did square off against central OC's representative, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) at a House Armed Services Committee hearing earlier this month concerning continued U.S.-led training of light infantry forces in the Congo. The Congolese are battling the LRA headed by infamous warlord Joseph Kony, but Affleck raised hackles from Sanchez and committee Republicans for suggesting similar U.S. training ops in Iraq and Afghanistan have been successful. Actually, they've been as successful as the movie Pearl Harbor. (Ben Affleck and Loretta Sanchez Need to Get a Room After House Committee Clash Over Congo)
This list purposely avoids reality television stars whose shows are set in Orange County, so that rule leaves ABC's The Bachelorette, Bachelor Pad and VH1's Couples Therapy fair game. Kasey Kahl, who appeared on all three shows, posed for the booking photo above last January in Fresno, where police dubbed it the “prettiest mug shot” they ever saw at the station. His people laughed off the arrest as being the result of getting too loud outside a nightclub, but his demeanor changed after Orange County sheriff's deputies picked him up on a warrant alleging he'd assaulted two people that Jan. 15 night and booked him into Orange County Jail (see below). (Kasey Kahl of The Bachelorette Poses for Sad Police Mugshot in OC to Go with “Pretty” One)
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Storage Wars at times shoots scenes in Orange County, but the reality show is not otherwise based here. So we can bid here on homegrown celeb Dave Hester, proprietor of the now shuttered Newport Consignment Gallery & Rags to Riches thrift store in Costa Mesa and an original Storage Wars cast member, suing A&E, the show's producer and 10 people for millions of dollars for allegedly dropping him unlawfully. Does Hester's suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in November claim Storage Wars in phony? YUUUP! (Dave Hester, ex-Costa Mesa Thrift-Store Mogul, Sues TV's “Fake” Storage Wars for Firing Him)
The star of Final Destination 3 and The Ring 2 (and the audience 0) was charged by the Orange County District Attorney's office in January with two counts of driving under the influence with a sentencing
enhancement for blood alcohol level over .08 percent. He'd been pulled over in Newport Beach after his car was seen stopped too far into an
intersection at a red light late at night. Merriman went on to fail
a field sobriety test, according to Newport Beach police, whose city jailers thought they'd recognized him as the cad from Pretty Little Liars. (Ryan Merriman of Final Destination 3 Slapped with DUI Charges)
The porn star sued in federal court in Santa Ana in July, alleging a Texas-based manufacturer of the “Fleshlight” likeness of her vagina breached their contract by discontinuing the product. Interactive Life Forms head honcho Steven Shubin countered he stopped popping out plastic pussies because no one was buying them. We feel like suing after being denied a seat at the proceedings–which both parties filed to have moved to a Texas court for arbitration. Ah, well, at least we've still got Carmella Bing! (Little Lupe Fuentes' Vaginal Likeness Lawsuit Moves From California Courts To Texas)
Speaking of porn performers, Ron Jeremy . . . ahem . . . came to Orange County not once but twice in 2012 to pimp his seven-year-old Ron de Jeremy “adult rum.” On Feb. 18, the favorite of bro's and, dating back at least to the Weekly's founding in 1995, local punk and metal bands was at Sweets Liquor in Westminster. He returned to OC like an Amorous Amateurs sequel July 9, this time to promote Ron de Jeremy at Hi-Time Cellars in Costa Mesa. In doing so, “The Hedgehog” created a whole new sex act: the rum job. (What You Missed: Social Distortion, Ron Jeremy, Edwardian Ball and
Ron Jeremy Coming to Hi-Time Wine Cellars!)
Before Dita Von Teese, in a sense, came home for her May 31 “Strip Strip Hooray!” burlesque show at Yost Theater in Santa Ana, the former
During a January Howard Stern Show satellite-cast on Sirius, the King of All Media mentioned that his former intern-turned-associate-producer K.C. Armstrong got popped in Laguna Beach for DUI. Sure enough, Laguna Beach Police confirmed Armstrong had been pulled over one afternoon in the 300
block of Bluebird Canyon and arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor DUI. Having served in the producing role from 1998 to 2004–or before Stern made
the jump from terrestrial radio–the buffed Armstrong was the subject of recurring needling on the program for being a suspected closet case. He was residing in Newport Beach and pursuing an acting
career last time we checked. (K.C. Armstrong, Former Howard Stern Show Producer, Popped for DUI)
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.