When Stars Get Over the Hill

The San Fernando Valley may be "America's Suburb" as this winsome blog about "lesser Los Angeles," claims but there's been nothing down-home about the place lately. When Britney Spears melted down in the Valley last month, the L.A. Daily News was quick to point out that Brit was only the latest Hollywood denizen to choose the relative banality of the suburbs in which to go bonkers. It was Sherman Oaks where an armed Martin Lawrence wandered into traffic shouting, "Fight the power!" Studio City saw Jack Nicholson go at a fellow driver's windshield with a golf iron. Wags might say it's the suburbs themselves that drive the stars mad; Britney's past six months argues that the stars are listing a little to port already.

Lately, though, the San Fernando Valley is starting to twinkle with its own stardust, as the vogue for mid-century Modern extends to suburban kitsch. The Valley is the perfect place for the winking retro chic of Suburbia, a salon on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City, founded when "celebrity hair stylist and colorist Jennifer Nash decided that Beverly Hills was 'so over the hill'," according Suburbia's website. Opened in November, the faux-mod spot has already appeared in The Hollywood Reporter and on E! Online.