SUN, CELEBS, AND JACK DANIELS: A Day In The Life Of The Daily's Hunter Walker

Noah Davis

Jul 15, 2011, 2:32 AM

Hunter Walker has a pretty sweet gig.

He works out of The Daily’s West Coast office, reporting on Hollywood, Scientology, and everything else that makes the Left Coast great.

So what does he do all day? Well, he goes to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, hangs out with his boss Richard Johnson, and goes to “Glow in the Dark” parties armed with a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Maybe we should move west?

The man of the hour.

Hunter Walker is a reporter from Brooklyn, New York. He is currently based in Los Angeles and working in the West Coast bureau of The Daily. Walker has previously written for several web sites including Gawker.com, the Village Voice, the New York Observer, New York Magazine, Forbes.com, Blackbook, Deadspin, mediabistro, Gridskipper, and TheWrap. He is a 2010 graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism. Writing bios in the third person always makes him feel kind of dirty.

I wake up on the far West Side -- Santa Monica.

This is where my day (and my driving) begin. I need to go back home to Koreatown to freshen up and get my laptop and iPad.

On the way, I stop at a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Santa Monica to get caffeine, scan the headlines and take care of early e-mails.

West Side coffee shops are often a good source of celebrity sightings. I spot no stars, but they're playing Zeppelin, which pleases me greatly.

It's about 13.5 miles back to my house on the freeway.

But thankfully I'm going against the flow of rush hour traffic. I pity those poor suckers on the other side of the road.

Arrive at The Daily's West Coast Bureau in Beverly Hills in time for our morning gossip meeting.

I go over the day's news with my editor, the inimitable Richard Johnson, and my fellow reporter, Soo Youn. We usually get a good laugh out of some of the more scandalous items.

I try to work outside on the office patio whenever possible.

I spend the day writing items, digging through the bowels of the web, and chatting on the phone with agents, flacks and assorted tipsters.

Head to the poolside restaurant at the Four Seasons for a late lunch with a source.

It's another reliable spot for celebrity sightings, but today I just see an assortment of Botoxed housewives and middle-aged execs.

I leave the office at about 6 to make the 20-mile trek to Caltech to cover a panel on Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

It's the height of rush hour and the drive takes over an hour and a half.

Apes director Rupert Wyatt and WETA digital mastermind Joe Letteri discuss the special effects in the movie.

Andy Serkis (better known as 'Gollum' from the Lord of the Rings franchise) Skypes in from London. They're joined by Clare Richardson, president and CEO of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and Dr. Steven Quartz, a Caltech neuroscientist. It's definitely not your typical Hollywood event. I leave with an item about the awkward spandex performance capture suit Serkis wore while playing the lead chimp.

Traffic from the Dodgers/Mets game forces me to take the scenic route through Downtown LA.

I also pick up some party favours.

The party is at a beachside mansion in Santa Monica with an elevator that stops on each floor and laser lights. It gets pretty crazy.

After spending a couple hours with the party people, I head back to Koreatown.

In total, I drove 91.6 miles around LA today. I make to my bed at about 2:30 in the morning to catch a few hours of sleep before doing it all again tomorrow.

That was a fun day.

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