The NBA will hold its season's biggest party Sunday at Staples Center, the 67th All-Star game, and the building will be filled with the cacophony of glamour.
There will be bursting fireworks. There will be thumping music. There will be deep-throated ooohs and aaahs as the $1,800-a-ticket crowd connects with the millionaire basketball magic.
Listen closer. In the distance there will be scratching, and squeaking, and maybe a little bit of whimpering.
It's a celebration of Hollywood, but no player from Hollywood's teams were deemed cool enough to warrant entry. In one of the bleakest moments in this city's NBA landscape in two decades, the best players in the league are partying on the Lakers and Clippers court, and yet the two home teams can't get past the bouncer.