California Love
As a lifelong New Yorker,
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip's
Amanda Peet wasn't sure about
Los Angeles - until she grew fond of
the
oil rigs on La Cienega, found a good deli, and conquered her
fear of parking structures. . Photograph by Yariv Milchan.
She originally came to Los Angeles to do a television series, and
now
Amanda Peet is back on TV, where she started. Peet's new NBC
series,
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (created by
The
West Wing's Aaron Sorkin), is a backstage television drama
about a
Saturday Night Live-style late-night comedy sketch
show. But one thing is different: Between her arrival in 1999 as an
ingenue and her new series now, Peet became a star. Along the way,
she drove
Bruce Willis to distraction in
The Whole Nine
Yards, became the fantasy of Kieran Culkin as a languid beauty
in
Igby Goes Down, and made
Jack Nicholson's heart palpitate
in
Something's Gotta Give. ¶ Born in New York, Peet
tentatively left Manhattan for the wilds of Los Angeles - at least
at first. She was a city girl with a bachelor of arts degree in
history from
Columbia University, and she lived the typical New
York
actor's life, auditioning endlessly for daytime television
gigs while moonlighting as a waitress and restaurant hostess. "When
I was in New York, I was hostessing, and I was going on four
subways to make four different auditions for commercials in one
day," she remembers. But then, after winning a starring role in the
WB's 20-something romantic comedy series
Jack and Jill,
Peet moved to Los Angeles, and the city opened its fickle arms
wide. Here's a weekend with the transplant that bloomed in the
sun.