I'm on the move in six of the greatest cities of the world
and I'm on the trail of their top movers and shakers.
They're not all cut from the same cloth.
In our globalised world,
don't make the mistake of thinking everywhere's now the same.
Each great city marches to its own tune.
My background's diplomacy - cultivating networks.
'As an ambassador,'
my job's to get to know some of the most powerful people in the world
and find out what really makes them tick.
Crime, glamour, power and influence...
it'll all be there.
In these six cities I'll grapple with the dark,
Machiavellian heart of politics.
I'll witness up close the lives of the IMMENSELY rich
and I'll get into the minds of those who really rule the roost.
This is a journey to uncover the networks of power.
Los Angeles, California...
500 square miles of sprawling suburbs rising out of the desert...
..snared by freeways,
suffocating in smog,
shapeless and unloved...
..but with global pulling power as the city of dreams.
Here glamorous movie stars, infamous gangs
and the rising immigrant population
are all somehow doing their thing on the same stage
and it's my daunting task to penetrate
all these very different networks of power.
As British ambassador to the US, I came here often
but that was ten years ago.
One thing I do remember from my past visits
is this is a place where image trumps reality.
So, the first thing I did was to hire a monstrous great black car,
an SUV, and I have checked into the swankiest hotel in town.
The Beverly Hills Hotel, for the last 100 years,
has been THE place to be seen for the rich and powerful of Los Angeles
but while I've sorted the location and assembled the props,
I need some help on the cast.
It's a basic rule of diplomacy
that you don't ride into town and seek out the big guns
until you've got some insider's tips.
LA is a culture obsessed with appearance, youth, beauty
and ever-changing fashion - and I'm already lost!
Especially here, at Venice Beach,
where I've come to find a fellow Brit to get my bearings.
Caroline Hedley is a journo who has made her name
watching life in the city for the last five years.
You must be Caroline?
Sir Christopher! How are you? Call me Christopher! At last!
How are you? Yes.
I've just arrived in the city. I'm on the outside looking in.
What is the secret of your success?
Well, you're wonderfully sycophantic
so you've got a head start already in this town! Terrific!
Do you think of yourself as an Angelino? No.
Does anybody think of themselves as Angelinos as opposed to...
You don't find many native Angelinos.
This is a transient town -
people come here for a good time, not a long time! So, there's no...?
There's no community, is there? What sort of...? No.
People don't talk about unemployment and the awful state of the roads,
and the health system - people don't want to know about that here.
They just want to think, "Well, OK, well, I haven't got any money
"but tomorrow's another day and maybe some opportunity will arise,
"and the sun is shining."
Do you ever feel that this is...
eat, drink and be merry
as the fires of revolution are licking at the door?
Absolutely! And everyone's out for themselves.
I've got the whole of Los Angeles to explore
and it's not just the Paris Hilton world
of lapdogs, Beverly Hills shopping and supercars
but this week is Oscars week and the whole world is in Hollywood's grip.
Trouble is, the event is so carefully stage-managed,
I stand no chance of getting anywhere near the action.
I'm not even allowed to show you the Oscar statuette behind me
because the image is licensed.
Now, if I can't get a statue to go on camera with me,
I've got my work cut out for the rest of the week!
Hundreds of millions of people all over the world watch the Oscars.
No-one here is going to risk compromising the global fantasy
or their commercial interests
by letting me have the run of this place.
This is the nearest I'm likely to get a red carpet in Hollywood
but, to be honest with you,
it's not where I'm going to find the real power players in this town.
The challenge for me is to get past the glamour, the hoopla,
the flashbulbs, the glitz and get access to the people you never see.
And to that end,
I'm off to meet one of the most powerful people in Hollywood.
Kim Masters is editor-at-large of The Hollywood Reporter.
Here she has established a fearsome reputation
for seeking out the truth.
'So, if I'm a big movie mogul and my secretary says,'
"We've got Kim Masters on the line, from The Hollywood Reporter,"
will I immediately get a, kind of, butterfly in my stomach?
I'm likely to be scared, aren't I? I'm a potential problem. Yeah?
You know, in Scientology, which is an institution in Hollywood,
they call you a PTS - a potential trouble source.
I'm a potential trouble source. So, that's a form of power.
I realised really quickly that I wasn't going to get very far being nice.
It is Oscars week... Right.
..and we have this great ceremony, which transfixes the world.
I mean, how important are these stars who win these awards?
Certainly not as important as they used to be.
I mean, when I started covering the beat
there was a list of A-list stars.
They could open a movie. You know, that is very over.
The movies that are working, you know, are Transformers, Avatar.
You know, if I say to you, "Who starred in Avatar?"
you're probably going to be blank, right? I am cluel...
I've seen the movie! Right.
Can you explain why this change has taken place?
It's just become... The type of film they're making is much narrower.
You know, they're trying to make big blockbuster, event films.
So, up until quite recently, the DVD was this giant cash cow.
Suddenly the market started to drop out of it. Because why?
Because you could stream it online, you could get it on demand
and it costs you this tiny little thing.
They can't cover, with internet pennies,
what they used to pay for with box office and DVD dollars.
So, what do you think is going to happen?
I have no idea and that distinguishes me from no-one because no-one knows.
It's still hugely culturally influential around the globe.
It's a big deal.
It's not just going to vanish
but it's going to go through some terrible struggle
and it may not look like it does now when it's done. It will not.
What shall I always have at the back and front of my mind as I,
as I negotiate and manoeuvre my way around?
Follow the money. The movie business is about money.
Everything is about money in Hollywood.
Kim's advice to, "Follow the money,"
is itself as movie quote from All The President's Men
and an indication, if ever one was needed,
of just how powerfully Hollywood has influenced global culture.
Feeling a bit like Watergate journos Woodward and Bernstein myself,
I am now on assignment on Hollywood Boulevard,
determined to see past the stardust and tourist throngs,
to study the men in the shadows.
(CROWD SCREAMING)
Look, she's blowing kisses at you.
How are you, Jennifer?
I cannot EXPLAIN to you how surreal this moment is!
Watching Jennifer Aniston receive her honour,
you'd never guess that Los Angeles' most famous export is in crisis
or that its stars are losing their power.
But in Hollywood it's all about keeping up the fantasy.
While the crowds gaze adoringly at their Friend's million-dollar smile
they are all overlooking where the power lies.
This grey-haired man, happily fading into the crowd,
is the real puppet master - head of Universal Studios.
Ron Meyer is the longest-serving studio boss in Hollywood history
and a man I'm determined to meet...
..but first, it's time I ventured into REAL Los Angeles
and it ain't about the stars.
(HORNS BEEPING)
The glamour of Hollywood shines so brightly
it all too easily overshadows the rest of Los Angeles.
Just 200 years ago, this immense city was a tiny Spanish pueblo
before exploding into over 80 districts,
housing one of America's most diverse populations.
The biggest ethnic group, by far, are Latinos.
LA's a Latin American city every bit as much as a North American one.
'..who are blocking the streets
'and now, all of a sudden, he wants to run for LA District Attorney.'
I'm listening to John and Ken,
Los Angeles shock jocks who claim to be speaking for the average Joe
and seem to do so, partly, by complaining about the average Jose.
John and Ken have what they call here the "bully pulpit" -
the ability to get their point across -
making them among the most influential in the city.
'And if I want to speak to them, I first have to sing for my supper.'
Hi! Hi! I'm here to see John and Ken!
'While I've many radio interviews before,
'this one could be dangerous.'
They are the most listened-to local talk radio DJs
in the whole of the United States.
They could incite protest, set the agenda
and affect the course of elections.
Afternoon! Thanks for seeing me. Meyer is how you say it, right?
John...Ken. Right, yeah.
This is no joke, this is Sir Christopher Meyer. That's me.
And he really has been a British Ambassador to the United States.
In fact, the longest serving one... Since the Second World War.
World War Two, right.
And he came on because he wants some advice
on what kind of people to speak with.
To explain how Los Angeles works. Is that right?
That, John, is exactly right.
Now, don't do the Walk of Fame, don't do Beverly Hills -
that's a very tiny sliver of Los Angeles
that has no impact on most people's lives.
We're going to tell you the dirty secrets.
First of all, you go and see the mayor.
Hm-mm. Villaraigosa, all right?
He's an empty can.
Not what makes the city great. But I have to see him?
You do have to see him.
He can't speak very well without a script. Oh.
No, he can't. He gets brainlock. Yeah, he gets brainlock.
This is a little montage we have of him, OK? OK.
'I want, er, I want, er, you know, we're looking... Er...'
(CHUCKLES) This is typical!
'..but, er, I'll tell ya that's...what...is..what
'I think has to be crystal clear.'
There you go.
You'd better have a lot of film - that could go on for two hours, OK?
That's a genuine article, is it? Well, it's, it's a montage of a few.
Montage? Yeah, but that's really what goes on.
You've got a bit of poetic licence in there, have you? A little bit.
'John and Ken are paid to be provocative.
'Power without responsibility, some might say.'
Oh, spill some secrets!
Cos you were ambassador during the run up to the Iraq war...
It all came out on WikiLeaks.
I mean, I've got nothing left. I'm an empty husk now - it's all GONE!
Oh, then you'll get on with Villaraigosa then!
A couple of empty husks! Well, yes, yes, yes.
Well, they call me Sir Empty H...
No, they don't actually but there you go!
'I was relieved to have survived.
'Now it was my turn to hear just what John and Ken
'want to do with their power.'
And you guys, you've got over a million listeners, is that right?
Mm-hm, yeah. I mean, you're influential. You have power.
Yeah, well, we talk about things that other people really care about
and relate to in their lives.
The school system is a shambles, the roads are a shambles,
traffic is horrible.
You know, the quality of life for the poor neighbourhoods is terrible
and for the wealthy neighbourhoods, they just put up walls and gates.
May I go to the mayor of Los Angeles, please?
You're very rude about him. So, how does he get back at you?
He calls us toxic. Divisive. "You spew hate."
He is an empty-suit politician, who's trying to rise to the top
based on the fact that he is Latino,
and the fact that he dresses nice,
the fact that he looks good on camera and he smiles a lot.
But he does not take strong stands on issues,
which is what people need.
'Surprise, surprise,
'the stand John and Ken most want the Mayor to take is on immigration.'
The illegal alien situation is serious in Los Angeles.
It costs, state-wide, billions and billions of dollars.
If you're the Mayor of Los Angeles, are you going to side with
the citizens, the voters, the taxpayers?
Are you going to side with people who are costing us
all this money by being here illegally?
But how the hell do you deal with illegal immigration?
How do you stop it coming in to LA?
Oh, well, you seal the border.
You really would do that? Oh, absolutely.
John and Ken are typical of their huge audience -
white, right-wing and swift to blame the city's problems on others.
There's no question LA is changing.
The Latino population has boomed,
and now accounts for almost 50% of the city and rising.
This has fundamentally changed the balance of power
and the city now has its first Mexican-born Archbishop
and a Latino sheriff.
So, I've come to Boyle Heights in East LA,
to the heart of the Latino community,
and where Los Angeles's first Latino Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, grew up.
Mariachi Plaza, just three miles from Hollywood,
and I've found myself in another world,
a link back to that original 18th-century settlement
dedicated to Nuestra Senora La Reina De Los Angeles.
California was only surrendered by Mexico to the USA in 1847.
It's time to dust off my rusty Spanish.
What I'm seeing here in the square
is part of the new influx of immigration
that so alarms John and Ken.
And which they accuse the Latino Mayor of not doing enough to stop.
'While my new friends may disagree about the merits of LA's Mayor,
'one message is coming through loud and clear -
'to find power I must indeed follow the money.
'And in common with great cities the world over,
'the best legal path to real riches
'is by owning a healthy slice of the city itself.'
The most famous sign on God's Earth,
but originally it had nothing to do with films,
it was just an advertisement to sell real estate.
And even today, those who own land,
and those who build on it, lie at the heart of power in Los Angeles.
And yet one of the really strange things about Los Angeles
is that for a generation or more its centre - downtown LA -
was one of its least desirable neighbourhoods.
That's changing, thanks in large part to one man.
He's got the power and the deep pockets to realise his dream -
to transform downtown LA through culture.
He was a moving force behind perhaps the first great building
of the 21st century -
the Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry.
Now of all the big cheeses,
this chap may be the biggest of them all.
The man who has the wealth
and influence to change the face of Los Angeles
and to do so with his name on so many public buildings
he'll almost live for eternity.
Good morning. Good morning to you, Eli.
Good to see you. Good to see you.
Eli Broad, the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants
made his first fortune in the building business.
When it comes to power,
being worth over $6 billion helps you get your point across.
I think I'm right in saying that you have said
that you wish to give away three-quarters of your wealth.
That's correct.
How are you doing at the moment?
We're doing pretty well.
You know, my children have all they'll ever need,
and during our lifetime, I want to give our wealth away,
invest it in things.
I can remember when I was Ambassador in Washington,
whenever I came to LA the one place I never went to was downtown,
because it wasn't an attractive place to go to, so that is...
It's changed.
It's changed? It's changed.
It's beginning to be recognised as a cultural capital
together with New York, London, Paris.
Though nearly 80, Broad is, if anything,
accelerating his cultural philanthropy -
with planned new developments enriching a city
which already has more museums per head than anywhere else in America,
and stages more theatrical productions than Broadway.
The big one will be a museum to house his billion-dollar
modern art collection - The Broad.
It isn't hard to convince people if you're saying
we're going to pay for the museum, we don't want any public funds,
we're going to provide an endowment,
but even then the people get concerned.
They're concerned, is it too elitist?
It's too elitist? Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it's elitist,
and how people can think it's elitist
is beyond me, but every now and then you hear that comment.
Yeah. Instead of building a museum,
why aren't you doing something for the poor or the homeless or whatever?
What's your answer to that, to that accusation, that question?
Yeah. The answer to that is we can't do everything.
I can't help but admire Eli's noble vision for Los Angeles,
but just six blocks south I find this - Skid Row -
the greatest concentration of homeless people in America.
You can see why people object to Eli Broad's priorities
and the way he distributes his money,
and I suppose it's a legitimate point of view to say,
well, before you have high art
and culture and music and paintings, and all of that,
you need to deal with this problem
that we can see on the streets around us now.
This fractured city cannot afford enough social housing.
A network of poverty, not power.
So many of these people are quite clearly mentally disturbed,
talking to themselves.
It's a terrible sight.
I suppose, sooner or later, this will be swept up
in the gentrification of downtown Los Angeles.
But that's not going to solve the problem, is it?
Tomorrow, I explore an even darker side to the city.
But this time it's richer than Eli Broad, as famous as Hollywood,
and growing in power day by day.
The mere mention of LA neighbourhoods such as Watts
and Compton conjures up images of shootings and turf wars.
In fact, scenes like that
are increasingly rare,
yet the trouble is, today the situation is a lot more dangerous.
LA is the gang capital of the world,
and the reason I find myself in one of the poorest parts of the city.
I'm in this car park,
God knows where in Los Angeles,
and I'm waiting to meet someone who used to be a leader of a gang.
I've never met a gang leader before.
It's a sort of slightly scary place, this.
You must be Alfred? Yes, sir, how are you?
How are you doing? It's good to see you.
It's a great pleasure to meet you. You gotta do this. Over here.
What do I do? Do that again? Do one of these.
Yeah. One of these. Of these.
And then you gotta go like that. Like that. There you go.
And what does that mean if I do all that?
That basically says we're good.
We're good, we're friends already.
Yeah. It's called pounding it. Walk into the British Foreign Office
and go like that to the Secretary of State.
You're the only one that could pull that off.
Who are you? Who am I? Alfred.
Well, I'm a former gang member from one of the largest
and most notorious gangs in South Central.
Have you heard of South Central Los Angeles?
Yes, I have. A very famous, infamous place.
Only from the movies, though. Only from the movies.
'Alfred was involved in the city's infamous drug wars
before being banged up for seven years.'
Did anybody ever shoot you?
I've been shot several times, yes, sir.
Several times? Yes. And have you got wounds to prove it?
Yes, I do. I got one here.
Can we see this? Jesus Christ.
See that there? You know you look like you've been bitten by a shark.
I feel like I'm in jail.
When we're in jail we all show...
we always show off our bullet-holes, yeah.
'Despite having no war wounds myself to share with Alfred,
we seem to have bonded.'
So, if I'm going to understand Los Angeles
and who's got the power here in the city,
I've got to understand gangs then, is that right?
They're powerful things.
Yes, they are. They're very, very powerful.
Whoever has the money is the ones that pretty much control things.
It's no different than government, I guess.
That's an interesting point. Yeah, right.
So they are running whole areas of Los Angeles.
You really need to see it
just to let you get a chance to maybe understand it.
OK, OK. Right, Alfred, let's do it. All right.
Well, this is the Pico Union area.
The area still has one of the highest unemployment rates,
one of the highest poverty rates,
probably about 30 gangs in this little area.
So, what is the story of gangs today?
Unfortunately, the gang issue is actually growing.
There are six times as many gang members now than there was
ten years ago.
Beneath the surface this is quite unstable here then, would you say?
Yes. Interesting.
Los Angeles ghettos, of course,
they're nothing like southern ghettos or other areas that you see.
But what we do have, unfortunately, is a lot of violence
and a lot of gangs.
'Crime here, explains Alfred, is something of a paradox.
'Better policing from the once-infamous LAPD
'has helped overall crime stats fall.
'But the gangs are now more sophisticated
'and operate with greater impunity.'
There we go. Oh, show me again. Gotta do the thing, yeah.
all right, yeah. There you go. And the pound.
And the pound? And the pound.
It's a cultural thing here, we don't do wires in the Hood.
So take your bloody equipment.
Oh!
'While Alfred mediates on the street between the gangs
'and the hope of reducing violence,
'he recommends I see someone
'who is making an impact in a very different way.
'Connie Rice is recognised
'as one of the most powerful people in California,
'a cousin of former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
'and just as formidable.
'She's a civil rights lawyer with a fearsome reputation
'for prosecuting police corruption.'
The police were one of our big targets now.
You have to understand, we've been at war with LAPD,
which is the city police, and 20 years later
I now have a parking space at the Police Headquarters.
I am now what the Chief calls his civic partner.
So you have moved from being an insurgent, a rebel,
into being part of the power structure,
because you have bent it to your will.
So, how do you feel now that you've crossed this line?
You are now a powerful member of the power structure.
Is that a fair characterisation of you, Connie Rice, now?
Well, it's an interesting characterisation,
but I would tweak it as follows -
powerful, no, because I borrow powerful people's power.
I don't actually have power myself. I have influence, I have persuasion.
I'm influential, for now.
It may last all of five minutes.
Well, that's pretty good in the land of dreams, isn't it?
LA is a land of dreams.
It is where the First World meets the Third World,
and it has worlds within worlds.
We have 70 degrees
and it's sun-splashed palm tree splendour,
and it is extremely safe.
But you go in to the kill zones and it looks like a war.
The crime in LA has gone down 27%.
How do you reconcile the contradiction
between having this level of violence,
albeit contained in fairly small areas,
with everybody saying hey, it's never been safer?
Both are true. It's the tale of two cities.
But as the visible, violent street crime goes down,
the power of the gangs is going up.
If we don't get smart, you will see alienated youth
who create a culture that is very violent and dark and brutal,
and we're not going to like it.
A tale of two cities is, of course, true for many places,
but I don't think I've ever seen it quite so clearly as in LA.
So, I'm heading to the green hills of the San Fernando Valley,
home to LA's comfortable middle class.
My destination - that archetypal American institution,
the country club,
and a meeting with Ron Kaye, former editor of the LA Daily News,
a passionate and outspoken member
of the LA awkward squad.
One of the amazing things about LA is that it's got no centre,
no - no thing, no embracing idea, no spirit of Los Angeles.
So, in New York people are New Yorkers,
in Chicago they're Chicagoans. In LA, nobody is called an Angelino.
What does this tell us
about the precise power structure in Los Angeles?
Who holds the levers of power? Nobody.
The most amazing thing about LA is there's no Mr Big.
There is a circle of interest - politicians, the donators,
developers, corporations.
I can't quite work out
whether you're painting a utopian view of the life you lead here,
or a dystopian view,
which is deeply pessimistic.
It's both. That's the drama of LA.
But I want to go to the current Mayor.
Now he's interesting, because he's the first Latino Mayor.
Of all the people in town, the Mayor
is just about the most interesting figure.
His background of growing up poor,
Latino, when Latinos had no power,
with the enormous personality, the charisma, the excitement.
And he's now talking about he might run for Governor,
he might run for the Senate.
I could be talking to a man who will, in due course,
be catapulted into national politics,
and might have actually national political aspirations.
I'm told that people around him think if he plays his cards right
he could still be President Of The United States. Wow.
Heaven help us.
With power scattered all over the place,
and the city beset with problems, I really have to see the Mayor,
but he's not returning my calls.
Luckily, I've got wind of an event where the worlds of Hollywood
and politics collide.
The Hollywood Reporter is hosting an Oscars party,
and I've persuaded Kim Masters to take me as her date.
And to my delight, the man greeting guests is none other than the Mayor.
It seems that if you wish hard enough in this town,
dreams really can come true.
All right? Thank you.
You're welcome. Give me your name again.
Sir Christopher Meyer.
Sir Christopher, get all the information.
He'll get it. Meyer, Mayor, you see. Meyer, Mayor.
I like it. It's good to see you.
Hi, everybody.
I'm Antonio. Hi.
Well, cheers, everybody.
I've been to my first Hollywood party
and have bagged the Mayor
of this great city - at least he's said he's going to talk to me
before we leave here at the end of the week,
so let's hope for the best.
I must confess, I'm seeing double,
and it's not just the Champagne.
If this is a tale of two cities,
it's only right that I'm about to meet two mayors.
Confused? Welcome to Los Angeles.
I've travelled north from Beverly Hills to a secret facility
that many believe is the saviour of Hollywood.
Whoever possesses that has the source of power and...
What is it? Where does it come from?
That is a shard of the Allspark.
It is the last remaining piece of the Allspark that exists.
And it is vacuum-sealed so that it can never erode.
In the right hands, it's the source of all good.
I'm being given a sneak preview of the future,
Hollywood's future, and their brand-new $100 million investment -
Transformers, the Ride, at Universal Studios,
based on the movies, which are based on the games, the toys, the comics.
This is the holy grail of entertainment.
I've got to stop you right there,
because I've got to make a confession to you,
I've never seen a Transformers movie.
'I'm more of a classic Westerns man myself,
but today's formulaic and bankable fantasy franchises
promise endless sequels, spin-offs and merchandising.
'Top dollar.'
Terrifying.
'All three Transformers movies were panned by the critics,
had no discernible stars, and yet the third film alone
made over a billion dollars,
and there are rumours of two more in the pipeline.'
All right, I'm already getting scared.
Yep, I can see.
You can't escape Megatron.
In its heyday,
Hollywood's influence on Western culture was unquestionable.
Perhaps I'm old school,
but it's hard to see how Transformers
will inspire generations to come.
Is that Anthony Perkins here?
That's Tony Perkins there.
I don't think he'll be happy when he sees that we've seen him.
It's a good thing he's not a very fast...
That's very good. Good thing he's not a very fast runner.
This is so corny,
but there is something quite magical about seeing this stuff.
It's not corny at all.
Listen, I've never tired of it. I've done this my whole career,
and there's never a time that I don't love being here.
There's something about being on a movie lot
that is unlike any place on Earth.
'You may recognise my genial studio tour guide
as the grey man lurking behind Jennifer Aniston
just a few days ago.
Ron Meyer is one of the world's most powerful movie moguls.
He's been Head of Universal Studios for 17 years,
so if anyone knows what the future holds for Hollywood, he should.
It's time to turn on the charm.'
I'm very old fashioned. Well, that's OK.
You know, you have bookshelves and you have other shelves
that are stuffed with DVDs.
As long as you're buying our product, we're all happy. Oh, well, yes, I do.
We want you to own it.
I would never download them in any kind of illicit way.
We want you to own, not rent, but we'll take whatever we can get.
No, I own them.
See, you are a big movie fan. Oh, I'm a genuine movie fan.
I think there's no greater messaging than movies.
It can reach everybody with every kind of positive
and negative message.
But there's an opportunity
to really do the right thing and influence people
in a positive way, and...
So, you're not just mayor of Universal Studios,
you're not just a problem-solver, you're not just an enabler,
but you are a cultural and emotional messenger to the world...
Oh, god. ..through the medium of movies.
That sounds way too important, but...
No, but it is, it is that, surely. But I do think the medium does that.
And you control the medium, at least part of the medium.
Well... It's a great thing to be. It IS a great thing to be.
'Ron never finished high school, but made his name
as a talent agent before becoming the self-styled mayor of Universal -
a studio so large, it's officially known as a city.
But it's one with an uncertain future,
being starved of the revenue that made it great.'
I look back on my career, my life, and I've been gigantically lucky.
And I get to do for work what most people would do for pleasure.
How has the industry changed and how has your job changed?
The thing that's the most difficult is piracy.
I mean that's really the biggest challenge
that we as an industry face.
Are you winning or losing the battle against piracy?
Well, we're certainly losing the battle in general.
We will never stop piracy or theft,
but I do think that we are getting better at finding ways
to make our audiences more happy to pay for it.
Hit movies are what this is all about.
In the past years we've created American Pie franchise,
a Fast and Furious franchise, a Mummy franchise,
The Bourne franchise,
and there is probably nothing more important
than building franchises, because franchises
mean your audience already knows what's coming.
People want what we deliver.
We know how to do it in film and television,
and there's always going to be a need and desire for it.
I'm very bullish on the movie business itself
and I think that we have survived and will continue to survive,
and it'll be a healthy business for hopefully many lifetimes.
Well, I finally made it,
I got to see the most powerful man in Hollywood.
And despite all the challenges,
he is optimistic about the future of this great city.
But he would say that, wouldn't he?
Others think it's more of a disaster zone.
If Hollywood does end up losing the war on piracy,
they'll be forced to rely on tourism and theme parks all the more.
But it's back to the real world, or is it?
as I cash in my brief encounter at his house with LA's mayor
and head for my final Los Angeles pow-wow.
Mayor Villaraigosa is yet another amazing LA success story.
Born into a poor immigrant Latino family in Boyle Heights,
he has presided over City Hall
for the last seven years.
But I'm still not sure what to expect.
Depending on who you listen to,
I'm either about to spend 15 minutes with an empty husk
or the future President of the United States of America.
Mr Mayor.
How are you? I'm extremely well.
Good to see you, Ambassador. Good to see you.
I'm extremely pleased I ran into you at that party...
I'm glad you did.
..the other night, otherwise I don't think we would be meeting like this.
We probably wouldn't be, but I wanted to do this
because I said I would and I think what you're doing is important.
'But before we proceed, it seems someone is missing.'
Hey, why isn't what's-her-name in here?
Remember, any time there's filming,
I mean isn't that why we brought her on?
So, she should look in that camera, she should see what that looks like.
I love this young man here, he's a good young man,
but he's still a rookie.
I'd like her to make sure that... It looks right.
Why they didn't call you, I don't know,
but let's look through that thing
and just see what you like and what you don't like.
Hello. Hi, how are you?
'This was the first time in all my travels
'that a professional producer has been brought in to approve our shot.
'Luckily, she likes it.'
Did you think that when you were at school, that one day
you would be one of the most powerful men in California?
You know, I grew up a stone's throw away,
in the community Boyle Heights and City Terrace,
and I could see City Hall - I didn't even know what it was.
How important is that Latino connection?
It's true that I have a great deal of support in that community, but...
I think if I've had a strength over the years
it's that I was always a coalition builder.
I went to see Ron Meyer last week, who gave us...
A good friend of mine. A good friend of yours.
He gave us a great, sort of,
talk about the industry and took us around the studio lot.
I'm big on Hollywood and I'll tell you why.
I tell people
there's 210,000 jobs related to that industry,
and the jobs behind the camera are even more important
than the people in front of it.
There's a lot going on here. Yeah. A lot of things that give me
the sense...that it's not hyperbole to say
this is the city of America's hope and promise,
and the city of its future.
So somebody like... somebody like Eli Broad.
A good friend of mine.
Another good friend of yours who is giving... I saw him last night.
He's one of those people that we're very lucky to have.
And so you have partnerships with these very big guys
like Eli Broad and Ron Meyer, and they're both friends,
but they're also colleagues in a kind of common mission
to build up Los Angeles and make it what it is.
I love my city, that's why we're doing this interview.
It's because...
When you found me and told me
that you'd been trying to set up a meeting -
and I guess the praetorian guard around me...
You've got a very good praetorian guard, I can tell you.
And when you told me you wanted to do a piece
about the great cities of the world, I said yes,
because I believe in this city.
I believe in, you know, the dream that is the American dream.
But if that dream happens, it happens on a scale
and scope second to none here.
Well, what was that?
After all the lobbying and the pushing and shoving and campaigning
to get in to see the mayor,
it all turned out to be a bit of a damp squib.
He was uptight, he was nervous, he spoke to us in platitudes.
And the most interesting thing of all,
he was more interested in his image and the camera angles
than, apparently, in substance.
So Hollywood!
The mayor must have been asked these questions
a thousand times before, but it wasn't an impressive performance.
You could argue that he's a reflection of the city he runs.
Los Angeles lacks something which is surely the very essence of cities -
identity.
From Ancient Athens onwards, cities have become great
when their inhabitants see themselves as citizens.
That's true of the Mumbaikars, Muscovites, Romans
and New Yorkers I've met on my previous journeys.
But though there's lots of power in Los Angeles,
it doesn't pull together.
So, it may be that this city will always be less
than the sum of its parts.
'It's so much easier to look the other way,
bury your head in the sand,
and just keep on dreaming.'
Hop out here. Who is it? Oh, the man of mystery.
All the way from London. Mysterious.
I like your socks.
Thank you very much. You're welcome.
Are we ready?
Yeah, ready. Right, yes.
Yes. So tell me, how does it feel to be here?
I'll tell you exactly how it feels -
I feel that I've arrived.
I've made it.
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