RESTAURANTS > Hallowed Walls of Hollywood

LATIMES.COM: The Palm's ubiquitous portraits of stars and bigwigs are a feast for eyes and egos. When the eatery relocates, the famous faces will follow.

Fame is fleeting. Power wanes. Except at the Palm in West Hollywood.

Walk into this cavernous steakhouse and feel the eyes of moguls and movie stars upon you. There's Paramount Pictures chief Brad Grey and Steven Spielberg, whose painted likenesses occupy a wall not far from bright-hued caricatures of Mike Myers, Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman.

Since it opened its doors on Santa Monica Boulevard in 1975, the Palm has been one of the entertainment industry's favorite haunts. Its fabled, face-covered walls are part of the reason. Like a totem pole that tells the story of a tribe, the walls of the Palm have become an insider's directory to three decades of movers, shakers and lotus eaters.