Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended a Hollywood film premiere Tuesday -- launching a film about Israel in Tinseltown itself.
"Is this the Oscars?" Netanyahu -- fresh from meeting President Barack Obama in Washington -- quipped after arriving in Los Angeles, still recovering from the Academy Awards.
The event was a screening at Paramount Studios of a new TV movie designed to showcase Israel for tourists, with Netanyahu himself the guide for a whistle-stop tour of the Jewish state.
In "Israel: The Royal Tour," he takes CBS journalist Peter Greenberg to the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, a hi-tech center and the ancient Masada fortress.
Greenberg, who has done previous "Royal Tour" films to Jordan, New Zealand, Mexico and Peru, also includes footage of Netanyahu pulling an achilles tendon while playing soccer.
The journalist stressed that Netanyahu had no editorial control over the one-hour film, which he was seeing for the first time.
"I`m either going to be wrestled to the ground, or I`ll get a hug," he said before the lights went down.
When they came up, Netanyahu was all smiles.
"It`s not only a vehicle to increase tourism, it`s also to dispel various calumnies about the state of Israel and to show the real face of the Jewish state," said the Israeli premier.
On Wednesday Netanyahu is due to travel north to Silicon Valley, before returning to Los Angeles and leaving for home on Thursday.
