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My Profile Top News Reuters top ten news stories delivered to your inbox each day. 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The $55 million complex, featuring more than 100 celebrity waxworks spread across three floors, is the biggest attraction to join the teeming thoroughfare in years. It also represents the latest attempt to restore some glamour to the faded area, whose 10 million annual visitors make it one of the world's busiest tourist attractions. While Hollywood conjures up images of beautiful movie stars and fabulous wealth, the neighborhood itself offers an awkward mix of must-see sites like the Walk of Fame and Grauman's Chinese Theater juxtaposed with tawdry souvenir stores and costumed characters hustling tourists for money. A decade ago, the area was much worse and gang-related crime was rampant. But since 2000, $700 million of public money has been poured into the area, which in turn has attracted $5.5 billion of private investment, according to Los Angeles city officials. "To be very blunt, it was a rough area ... Hollywood has come back as a really viable and competitive tourist destination," said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. Key to the comeback has been the Hollywood & Highland shopping mall, which opened in 2001. It houses the Kodak Theater where the Oscars are handed out. Madame Tussauds will attempt to depict Hollywood's glamorous side when it opens on August 1 on the site of a former parking lot adjacent to Grauman's, the movie theater famed for the imprints of stars' hands and feet on its concrete tiles. A red carpet, flashing cameras and Joan Rivers' gravity-defying likeness -- complete with microphone in hand -- will greet visitors. They can join an A-list party with stars like Jennifer Lopez, pose with old Hollywood icons like Charlie Chaplin and even give an awards speech, projected on a screen, in front of Oscar-winner Meryl Streep. "It's all about immersing yourself, getting into the scene with the figure and feeling like you've met them," said Paul Williams, creative director of Madame Tussaud's U.S. locations. Rachel and Scott Brown, newlyweds from Houston, echoed that sentiment as they took a picture with Arnold Schwarzenegger's hand- and footprints on Thursday. "You just feel a closeness to them because they've been here," Rachel Brown said. Madame Tussauds' flagship museum has been one of London's top tourist draws since the 19th century, thrilling visitors with such exhibits as the Chamber of Horrors even as guide books like Lonely Planet decreed it "unbelievably kitsch and terribly overpriced." Madame Tussauds branched out to the United States in 1999 with a museum in Las Vegas, and there are also sites in New York City and Washington D.C. as well as in Amsterdam, Berlin, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The Hollywood museum has been in the works for eight years, said Adrian Jones, a general manager at Midway Attractions, a division of Merlin Entertainments Group, the closely held parent of Madame Tussauds as well as other themed attractions. Continued... View article on single page Share: Del.icio.us Digg Mixx Yahoo! Facebook LinkedIn Next Article: Conan loses viewers after "Tonight Show" debut Also On Reuters Blog: So long analog TV -- it was great knowing you Generation Y advised to wean selves off parents' cash Commentary: Matthew Goldstein on fixing the SEC More Entertainment News Malawi court allows Madonna to adopt second child | Video Conan loses viewers after "Tonight Show" debut | Video Graffiti star Banksy in secret art launch With digital transition, more focus on smaller TVs Hollywood, Bollywood meet Bradford: "City of Film" More Entertainment News... Video Reuters Showbiz Week Play Video More Video... 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