Hollywood superstar Michael Douglas says he'll be spending more time in Bermuda and wants would-be guests to his family's newly-refurbished cottage colony to come and "talk about the movies'' with him.

The son of film legend Kirk Douglas and Bermudian Diana Darrid (formerly Dill) presided over the official introduction of Ariel Sands Beach Club's new look on Friday night.

Hundreds of invited guests lined up for the chance to rub shoulders with a true tinseltown titan -- even if just for a photo, handshake and a few briefly exchanged pleasantries.

The 50-room property has added a meeting centre, gym and spa and joined the prestigious Bermuda Collection providing guests with the option of the "dine around'' programme with The Reefs, Cambridge Beaches, Lantana, Pompano and Stonington Beach.

Ariel Sands director and president Nicholas Dill said the decision to pump $5 million into renovating Ariel Sands came with changes in the tourism industry.

Now the property was aiming "to try to persuade people in the exempted company industry to enjoy life a little and spend some more time relaxing with their wives and friends and yet have the necessary facilities for doing their business''.

Mr. Douglas recalled he had been visiting his family in Bermuda and coming to Ariel Sands for some 40 years but now found himself at "another age'' as compared to the time when he had an unfortunate accident on an auxiliary cycle.

He said he was in Bermuda as a college student during a "spring fling'' when he ended up "scraping my back on a coral wall and having to go to the hospital'' while riding a mobylette.

"I don't know exactly what happened but somehow the mobylette got off the end of the dock one day.'' But the bike was recovered, he added, and he thanked the Dill family "who with their patience have put up with me''.

Mr. Douglas said as he travelled around the world more he developed a sense of what made a place special.

"Bermuda is unique unto itself,'' he continued. "And Ariel Sands is really, really special. I'm living more and more in New York and I find it very easy to come down here to meet my family, to meet other friends who come from England, from Canada, from other places in the United States.'' The actor noted that "the accessibility is very, very easy and the relaxation and comfort of a place like Ariel Sands is very, very nice.

"It's nice to have a place outside of Hamilton, equidistant, near the golf courses ... one of the things I realised more recently about Ariel Sands was that logistically and geographically what a good location it was for people to meet from all over.'' This was why he and his mother Diana Darrid, brother Joel, family members Elaine and Keith Wold and sculptor Seward Johnson -- who crafted the statue of Ariel just offshore -- had "entered into this sort of renovation of this place''.

He added he would be "spending more and more time down here with family and friends so hopefully we'll see you and some of the organisations here and I'll be happy to talk about the movies''.