I don’t know if any of you fellow Southern Californians have noticed, but it is HOT. It is 84 degrees in my apartment while I write this and it makes me yearn for Madame Tussauds, the home of freakishly lifelike wax figures of the famous, which I recently visited. The one thing any great (or just smart) tourist attraction worth its snuff should know is that people like to get out of the ridiculous heat and into industrial-grade air conditioning.

The Madame Tussauds Hollywood is focused primarily on celebrity – the kind that graces movie screens and music videos, not history books (with the exception of an Obama photo op as you walk in the museum). This is good if you’re someone who wants to stare down a Justin Timberlake replica from a distance of six inches. I, however, found the section of current celebrities (fashionably arranged in a nightclub scene with a black glitter heart shrine to Rob Pattinson as its focal point) to be slightly creepy. There’s something about a wax figure made to look like how someone looks right now that makes me think they’ll go all Toy Story on me and come to life. I had a nightmare about a Barbie like that once…

But my trip to the museum was ultimately enjoyable because just downstairs is half a floor dedicated to old Hollywood stars. I got to gawk at the gargantuan Howard Hughes and help Katharine Hepburn steer the African Queen. It was a film nerd’s glittery Hollywood dream. I wish, though, that the museum featured historical figures and a chamber of horrors similar to the original London location. But, as is the case generally in Hollywood, it’s about who’s happening now, not who happened then.

As a special offer, students save up to $10 per ticket when you show this Campus Circle newspaper.

For more information, call (323) 798-1670 or visit madametussauds.com.