Planet Hollywood

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Planet Hollywood at night, Downtown Disney, Florida, USA

Planet Hollywood, a theme restaurant chain inspired by the popular portrayal of Hollywood, was launched in New York on October 22, 1991, with the backing of Hollywood stars Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Demi Moore.

It was a brainchild of Robert Earl. The stars received stock options at rock bottom price in exchange for their endorsement, thus they could be billed as legal owners.

When the restaurant opened in London, England, Schwarzengger, Stallone and Willis appeared on Michael Aspel's talk show to promote the restaurant. Aspel commented this was the "dream line up" for a talk show, but after the show aired admitted he felt "ashamed" by what was merely an advertisement for Planet Hollywood.

In April 1996, Planet Hollywood went public. The company has gone bankrupt twice. Its share price reached all time high of $32 on the first day of trading and went down to less than $1 by 1999. When Planet Hollywood went international, stores opened up in major cities such as Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, London, Montreal, Toronto (closed in 2006) and other cities throughout the world.

1 Casinos
2 Restaurants
3 Merchandise stores
4 External links

[edit] Casinos

The Aladdin Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada will be rebranded the Planet Hollywood Las Vegas resort and will be operated by Starwood Hotel and Resorts Worldwide.

In addition, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new The Planet Hollywood Towers by Westgate, the world's first vacation ownership resort directly connected to a major resort hotel and casino complex, took place on January 19, 2006. The 50-story luxury vacation ownership and condominium tower will be located on the corner of Harmon Avenue and Audrie Lane and will include over 1,200 units ranging in size from one to four bedrooms. The top four stories will comprise 28 luxury condominiums ranging in size from 4,000 square feet (372 m²) to 10,000 square feet (929 m²). Prices on the top floors start at US$4 million. The project is scheduled to be complete in 2007.