Television critic Neal Justin has infiltrated Kiefer Sutherland's "24" headquarters. Music critic Jon Bream has chatted up Bob Dylan backstage at the Grammys. But not everyone taking a trip to Los Angeles ranks a private audience. It's tricky enough just catching a glimpse of a celebrity so you can brag about it back home. Fortunately, Justin and Bream know just where to catch some stardust. Bream hits the new Grammy Museum, which celebrates award-winning musicians (and let's you play like you're one, too) and Justin brings us to five Hollywood studios where you can walk in actors' footsteps (or maybe run into one)

By Jon Bream

America's two most celebrated music museums are iconic edifices that stand out like Dolly Parton at a convent. That's why music fans ogle the architecture when they go to the I.M. Pei-designed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland or Frank Gehry's Experience Music Project in Seattle.

The country's newest music shrine -- the Grammy Museum, which opened in December -- fits in downtown Los Angeles like another cowboy hat in Nashville. Music fans won't care about the facade of this faceless four-story tower, but they will appreciate what's inside: cool artifacts (ranging from a 1955 handwritten Elvis Presley letter to a lovestruck fan to Jennifer Lopez's infamously revealing green Grammy gown), priceless live lecture/demonstrations (Brian Wilson, Annie Lennox) and enlightening exhibits (from the current Songs of Conscience, Sounds of Freedom to the permanent interactive walk-through-the-recording-process booths).

There is only one unusual design element about this new 32,000-square-foot music temple: Once you buy your ticket (for $14.95) on the first floor, the exhibits actually start on the fourth floor. Go figure. Remember, the Grammy Awards don't always make sense, so why should their museum?

For starters, don't be misled by the name. "It's not just about the Grammys," said chief curator Ken Viste. "The Grammys are a filter to the story about music history."

To be sure, the museum offers highlight clips from Grammy ceremonies, outfits worn to the awards (the J. Lo dress just isn't the same on a headless mannikin) and filmed interviews with such winners as Robert Plant and Alison Krauss talking about how they worked together in the studio. Music lovers are likely to spend more time elsewhere in this interactive museum, whose exhibits function like iPods and touch-screen computers.

"The Music Epicenters" display allows you to search a U.S. map and find out when a city was a musical hotbed. Minneapolis is recognized in the 1960s for the Castaways, the Trashmen and Koerner, Ray & Glover and in the '80s for the Replacements, Prince and -- go figure -- Greg Brown (whose record label is in St. Paul, but he's more closely associated with Iowa).

One climate-controlled showcase contains a treasure trove of instruments, including Glenn Miller's trombone (1917), Buddy Holly's guitar with hand-tooled leather covering executed by Holly himself (1956) and Yo-Yo Ma's temperature-resistant carbon- fiber cello (2002).

Third floor: Put on headphones to listen to Smokey Robinson, Waylon Jennings, Carole King, Ludacris and others explain their songwriting process. Then walk yourself through the making of a recording via eight booths in which you can record vocals (with producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis), mix a rock song (with engineer Eddie Kramer), etc.

In a side studio, the "From Mono to Surround" exhibit simulates what performances on the 2008 Grammys show -- Amy Winehouse's "Rehab," Chris Brown's "Run It" and Lang Lang's "Rhapsody in Blue," among others -- would sound like in various historical formats: cylinder, 78, LP, cassette, CD, DAT, surround sound and MP3. After you exit this booth, you'll want to ditch your iPod and upgrade your home audio system.

Second floor: This is the changing exhibits space. Currently on display are a series of Michael Jackson's bespangled gloves and jackets (one weighs 15 pounds) as well as a major exhibit, "Songs of Conscience, Sounds of Freedom," which explores how music and politics/social issues have been entwined, from "Yankee Doodle" in 1775 to "We Shall Overcome" in the 1940s and '50s to the Dixie Chicks' anti-Bush brouhaha in 2003. Artifacts include Frank Zappa's letter to President Reagan about censorship of recordings, outspoken 1960s folkie Phil Ochs' FBI file and bandleader John Phillips Sousa's baton from 1930. Another exhibit lets you hear historical recordings, including 1890's "Snake Dance Song," believed to be the first recording, and Muddy Waters recorded by Alan Lomax in 1941.

While the Grammy Museum may not be the destination venue that the Rock Hall of Fame is, it's well worth a visit for music lovers while in L.A.

"This is stuff you could never see, no matter who you know," James Lipsett, a hobby musician from Thousand Oaks, Calif., said as he toured the museum.

"I like the interactive things here," his friend, singer-songwriter Marcos Lopez-Iglesias said. "It shows that anyone can get involved in making music."

In fact, Lopez-Iglesias' 73-year-old mother, Eve Rendle, of Sheffield, England, did just that. "I did my first rap and I enjoyed it," she said of her experience in the rap booth with producer Jermaine Dupri. "I know how to rap now."

Jon Bream • 612-673-1719

As the Star Tribune's TV critic, I'm occasionally unchained from my couch and allowed to frolic among the beautiful people in la-la land. I've sipped cocktails in Gabrielle's home on Wisteria Lane, sat at the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise, lounged in Miley Cyrus' pink-plastered dressing room, spat dust on the streets of Deadwood and bellied up to the counter of Ross and Rachel's favorite hangout, Central Perk. Before you start seething with jealousy, keep two things in mind: One, I also have to watch "According to Jim." Two, you don't need a press credential to sample similar experiences.

Anyone heading to the Left Coast for spring break should sacrifice a few hours of beach bumming to soak in the show-biz sights of Hollywood's studio tours, several of which are surprisingly accessible and unpredictable. I'm not promising that you'll bump into a big star (although once, while I was aimlessly strolling across the Universal lot, Steven Spielberg nearly ran me over in his golf cart), but you'll get more satisfaction from a studio visit than you will trying to secure a table at celebrity haunt Chateau Marmont. Here are the studios that offer the best experiences:

The last time I took WB's VIP Tour, I had the good fortune to see some stars. As our small tram of a dozen tourists rolled across the corner, we came face to face with ... the contestants of MTV's "America's Best Dance Crew."

OK, so the celebrity-spotting isn't great sport on these tours, but if vintage sets and classic props make your heart flutter, you can't beat the WB experience. The tour, which kicks off with a short film and lasts more than two hours, takes you through the best backlots in the business, whether it's the green, green grass of home for the "Gilmore Girls" or the mean streets of James Cagney's gangster movies.

This summer, the coolest garage in the world will expand to include the Bat-Pod motorcycle from "The Dark Knight" and Neo's Lincoln Continental from "The Matrix." Tours end at a museum stocked with props and an entire floor dedicated to the "Harry Potter" franchise.

It's appropriate that this tour embarks from an amusement park, because this trip feels more like a thrill ride than a history lesson. Tourists climb aboard a tram that zips through back lots and facades with no opportunity to get out and stretch your legs. Not that you'll need to. The trams offer splendid views of everything from the Bates Motel to Wisteria Lane.

A four-acre fire last summer destroyed a number of sets, but studio officials expect Courthouse Square ("Back to the Future") and New York Street ("Bruce Almighty") to be up and running by mid-summer. In June, stars like Ron Howard and Whoopi Goldberg will accompany tourists via recorded commentary on state-of-the-art monitors. That same month welcomes the launch of "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien," and his studio, located at Universal's main gate, will be included in the tour.

Prices are steep, but keep in mind that a ticket includes full access to the park, home of the new Simpsons Ride.

$67; 1-800-864-8377; www.universalstudioshollywood.com.

The king of late night is the king of this tour, which means when "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" ends in June, the tour may end as well. You may have only two months to pay homage by visiting Leno's set and getting an in-depth history of the franchise. (The tour also includes a peek into Johnny Carson's old set, currently the home of "Access Hollywood.")

This two-hour visit requires a comfortable pair of sneakers -- and a vivid imagination. The walking tour celebrates a number of important films, from "The Wizard of Oz" to "Spider-Man 3," but you won't be able to follow the Yellow Brick Road or hang upside down from a fire escape for a smooch from Kirsten Dunst. That's because all the filming is done on soundstages -- no open-air back lots like at Warner Bros. -- and even if you get to go inside one, it'll probably be about as exciting as shopping at Home Depot.

On the upside, this tour may be your best chance to spot a working actor, because of the number of ongoing projects, and there's a nice collection of museum-worthy props, including the neuralizer from "Men in Black" and the Cryptex from "The DaVinci Code." Best of all, you get a nice workout.

$28; 1-310-520-8687; www.sonypicturesstudiostours.com.

Like the Sony tour, the emphasis here is on soundstages and, if you're lucky, you may get to witness a taping. Otherwise, the two-tour visit, a combination of trams and footwork, consists primarily of an oral history of one of Hollywood's most lavish and celebrated studios. Highlights include a visit to the last remaining back-lot set, New York Street, where you can lean against the facades for Jerry Seinfeld's and Ally McBeal's apartment buildings and touch a bench where Forrest Gump declared that life is like a box of chocolates.

$35; 1-323-956-1777; www.paramount.com.