I set out for Westwood Village Memorial Park on Monday morning, the final resting place of celebrities ranging from Donna Reed to Don Knotts. (I figured I had a better chance of meeting a famous person if they were dead instead of alive.) Not knowing my way around Southern California, it took me longer than expected to find the place ... but when I got there, I felt as if I stumbled onto a hidden treasure, since it's near a major thoroughfare yet in a world of its own.
The cemetery conjured up images of a secret garden, and I strolled the grounds for more than an hour. This was a celebrity hangout with no velvet rope in sight -- just the spirits of actors, musicians, and writers gathering amongst the lush greenery to soak up the sun. Rodney Dangerfield and Billy Wilder greeted visitors with humorous send-offs, while Dean Martin sang a lyric and Dorothy Stratten spoke her mind. But, without a doubt, the main attractions are Marilyn Monroe and Natalie Wood.
