Jaunted

Television Travel

Hidden Palms Gives Old Resort Town A Teen Makeover

May 31, 2007 at 4:02 PM | 1 Comment

Between the hipification of the Dinah Shore Weekend and the dehydrated hipsters of Coachella, Palm Springs looks poised to give The O.C. a run for its money as an oasis of California cool. (Hey, if our favorite world travelers have stayed there...) The mystique can only grow with last night's premiere of soapy CW teen drama "Hidden Palms," whose website proclaims, "Scandal. Suicide. Murder. Some towns get all the fun." The summer leftover even boasts two former featured guests on "The O.C." who apparently have been forced to move inland by the ghost of Marissa Cooper.

While the show is actually filmed on a soundstage in Phoenix, Arizona, Kimberly Pierceall of the SoCal-based paper the Press-Enterprise notes on PE.com's tourism blog that the reviews of "Hidden Palms" have so far reflected the popular conception of Palm Springs as a place past its prime, while local residents are concerned that audiences will take the fictional seamy underbelly of the show for plain truth.

Still, with Kevin "Dawson's Creek" Williamson at the helm of the show, maybe a new generation of partiers will make like Paris Hilton's granny and flock to the desert instead of the ocean. The New York Times has already tantalizingly described the show as "a sick world, but one for which you wouldn't mind having the swatches."

[Photo: No Control]

Related Stories:
· Palm Springs Hotel Reviews [HotelChatter]
· Un-Hiding Hidden Palms [beloblog]