Orange County turns to gold: new resorts, TV show bolster county's image as resort destination.

Traveling south from Long Beach, visitors at last reach the new capital of cool--Orange County. Spurred by the recent success of its new coastal resorts--and the TV show "The O.C.," Orange County has shed its drab image of a bedroom community and become the place to see and be seen.

Orange County is unique by its lack of a downtown identity that people can point to--but the hit "The O.C.," has focused attention on the Newport Beach lifestyle--both fact and fiction--and sent young visitors in search of the world they see each week on the Fox soap.

"Shows like 'The O.C.' are a positive contributor to image," said Peter Yesawich, partner in the Orlando marketing firm of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell (YPB&R)

It wasn't always this way.

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