I am taking today off for the Fourth of July , but wanted to wish all of my fellow stalkers a fabulous and safe holiday. I will be back tomorrow with a whole new location.
Year: 2012
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A Free View of Universal Studio’s “War of the Worlds” Set!
Many moons ago, shortly after we first met, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took me to a place that quickly became one of my very favorite “only in L.A.” spots – a residential street from which the Universal Studios War of the Worlds plane crash set is visible. And even though I always make it a point to take visiting friends to the site (which is located on the 3400 block of Blair Drive in the hills just south of Burbank), I somehow forgot to add it to My Los Angeles Must-Stalk List back in May. I have since corrected the problem and figured that now was as good a time as any to blog about the location. (I also just turned My Must-Stalk List into a page on my site in order to make it more accessible to my fellow stalkers. I will be adding to the list as I discover more must-stalk locations, so check back regularly.
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When Mike first took me to the 3400 block of Blair Drive, I was absolutely aghast at both the fact that such an amazing set piece was so openly visible from a residential street and that it had not, for whatever reason, ever been written about in any of my L.A. guide books. That is the beauty of going stalking with someone born and raised in L.A., as Mike was. He knows the city – and all of its little hidden treasures – like the back of his hand. Mike had actually discovered this location back in the early ‘90s, before the War of the Worlds set even existed, while working for the radio station Power 106. When he first began his DJing job, the station moved him into a hill-top house with several other DJ’s. That house happened to be located on Blair Drive, directly across the street from what was then the site of Falls Lake – a 2.7-million-gallon water tank and green screen in the Psycho Flats area of Universal Studios. (Falls Lake was moved a few hundred feet west in 2004 to make way for the War of the Worlds set, but you can still see it in the background of the pictures below).
According to the fabulous The Studio Tour website, the War of The Worlds plane crash shoot took place on January 5th, 6th, and 7th of 2005 and the set was then left, virtually untouched, to be featured as one of Universal Studios’ backlot attractions. The only changes made to the set after the filming were the relocation of a few of the houses and the removal of some debris in order to provide a pathway for the tram to pass through during tours. Otherwise, though, the scene appears pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen. SO INCREDIBLY COOL! On a side-note, one of my favorite movie lines ever was uttered in War of the Worlds. When Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise – and I canNOT believe that he and Katie Holmes are getting a divorce!) begins making peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, his daughter, Rachel Ferrier (Dakota Fanning), informs him, “I’m allergic to peanut butter!”, causing Ray to laugh and say, “Since when?”, to which Rachel states, “Birth!” LOL LOL LOL
The War of the Worlds plane crash set is so realistic, it is almost unbelievable! I cannot even imagine living on Blair Drive back in 2005 during the filming and getting to witness not only the construction of the massive set, but the actual shoot. How incredibly cool would that have been?!?
It is actually quite surprising that I like this location as much as I do being that I am absolutely petrified of flying, but I guess that is the magic of the movies!
As you can see below, when the Universal Studios tour tram passes through the crash set, smoke begins to rise from several of the props.
The set features an actual Boeing 747 airplane that the production team cut up and distressed. Supposedly it cost $2 million in transportation fees alone to get the aircraft to the studio.
I visited Universal Studios way back in June of 2008 (you can read my post here) and snapped the below close-up photographs of the War of the Worlds plane crash set. As you can see, it is nothing short of incredible – no matter which vantage point you view it from!
From the 3400 block of Blair Drive, you can also catch a glimpse of one of the Whoville sets from the 2000 movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas;
the back of the house where Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) lived in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho;
the Old Mexico and Six Points Texas backlot areas;
and the Falls Lake green screen/backdrop.
Which I decided to have a little bit of fun with.
Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here and you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And don’t forget to check out my new blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.
Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The War of the Worlds plane crash set at Universal Studios can be viewed from the 3400 block of Blair Drive, just off of Barham Boulevard, in Los Angeles.
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Villa d’Este – The “Under the Yum Yum Tree” Apartment Building
Thank you to all of my fellow stalkers for putting up with my two recent – and much-needed – blogging hiatuses. It felt so good to relax and recharge and I will now be back with a vengeance.
And now, on with the post! A couple of months ago, after stalking Romanesque Villa, my girl Marilyn Monroe’s former West Hollywood pad (which I blogged about back in early May), I dragged the Grim Cheaper a few blocks east to Villa d’Este, the idyllic and picturesque apartment building featured in the 1963 film Under the Yum Yum Tree. I found out about this location thanks to fave stalking book Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide by travel writer Richard Alleman. And while I had yet to see Under the Yum Yum Tree at the time (nor had I ever even heard of it), since the place was right around the corner from Marilyn’s former building, I figured I might as well stalk it. And I am so glad that I did because Villa d’Este is nothing short of majestic! Under the Yum Yum Tree, however, which I finally sat down to watch last week, left quite a lot to be desired. I found it just a wee bit boring and silly, and I still have yet to figure out what in the heck its odd title means.[ad]
But the cat in the movie was awesome, as you can see below, so I guess there’s that.
Anyway, because Villa d’Este is such a magical place, I decided it was most-definitely blog-worthy. The property, which was constructed in 1928 and was originally called the “Court of the Fountains”, was designed by brothers F. Pierpont and Walter S. Davis – the so-called “founding fathers of the L.A. courtyard apartment” who also designed the Roman Gardens Apartments in Hollywood, the since-demolished French Village at what is now the entrance to the Cahuenga Pass, and St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral near Exposition Park. The two-story Italian Renaissance-style building was inspired by the legendary 16th-century villa and gardens of the same name in Tivoli, Italy.
As you can see below, the detailing of Villa d’Este is nothing short of incredible. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to live in a place like that!
Sadly, the building is gated and off-limits to the public, so we were not able to view the interior courtyard. We did catch a tiny glimpse of it through the front gate, though, and it is simply breathtaking! I can only imagine how perfect and peaceful it would be to sit there with my laptop, blogging the day away, with no sounds to distract me but the flow of water from the many nearby fountains. Sigh!
In a cool twist, Lou Ferrigno’s house from I Love You, Man, which I blogged about here, is visible from the street out in front of the property.
As is the world-famous Laugh Factory Comedy Club.
In Under the Yum Yum Tree, Villa d’Este stands in for the Centaur Apartments, where a skirt-chasing landlord named Hogan (Jack Lemmon) rents units to young, naïve, female coeds in the hopes of bedding them. Only the exterior of the building was used in the movie.
The lush, tiered interior courtyard that appeared in the flick was just a set – an amazingly huge and detailed set, but a set nonetheless. I actually almost prefer the onscreen courtyard to its real life counterpart. It is amazing to me that set design was that advanced back in 1963 when Under the Yum Yum Tree was filmed! I mean, the faux courtyard pictured below is even more realistic and beautiful than the one that was featured on Melrose Place almost thirty years later!
The red-hued apartment that Hogan called home was also just a set.
As was the adorable apartment where Robin Austin (Carol Lynley) and her fiancé, Dave Manning (Dean Jones), lived. You can check out what the interior of an actual Villa d’Este apartment looks like on fave website CurbedLA here. Talk about character! The place just oozes charm! Back in 2008, when the CurbedLA article was written, a one-bedroom Villa d’Este apartment rented for a cool $3,450 a month, while a two-bedroom went for $4,500. Yikes!
Besides being a filming location, Villa d’Este has also been home to countless celebrities over the years, especially during the heyday of Hollywood. According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, just a few of the luminaries who have lived there include silent film actresses Pola Negri, Theda Bara, Priscilla Dean, Jetta Goudal, and Mabel Normand, voiceover actor Charles Judels, and legendary director Cecil B. DeMille.
I mentioned in last Monday’s post that I was about to begin a new project that I was very excited about. Well, that project is finally off the ground and I would like to share it with my fellow stalkers. I just started a diabetes blog (because I have so much extra time – ha!
) called The Well-Heeled Diabetic. I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes seven years ago and, since that time, have learned a lot about the disease and think I might be able to help others who are afflicted. If you would like to check it out, you can do so at www.wellheeleddiabetic.com. And if you happen to know someone who is diabetic, please pass the site along to them. 
Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Villa d’Este, aka the Centaur Apartments from Under the Yum Yum Tree, is located at 1355 North Laurel Avenue in West Hollywood. You can visit the building’s official website here.
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Another Little Break!
I will be taking another little break this week – this time to (hopefully) recharge my batteries, which unfortunately did not end up happening during my time off earlier this month as there was just way too much going on, and to begin a new project which I am very excited about. And I did some cool stalking in the Palm Springs area this past weekend, so you can look forward to some Desert posts next week. 🙂 Until that time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
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April and Andy’s House from “Parks and Recreation”
I hope y’all are not getting tired of my many Parks and Recreation posts, ‘cause here I am yet again with yet another locale from the series that was provided to me, per usual, by fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog – this time the supposed Pawnee, Indiana-area residence where Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) and April Ludgate (Aubrey Plaza), and later Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott), live on the show. And I am very sad to say that I am currently about halfway through Season 4 and only have about ten new episodes left to watch before I am all caught up on the series. I honestly have no idea what I am going to do with myself when that time comes.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, while doing some stalking in the Studio City area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk April and Andy’s home – before I had even begun to watch Season 3 actually, the season in which the property was first featured.[ad]
April and Andy’s house first shows up in the Season 3 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Fancy Party” (which actually made me cry), in the scene in which the young couple throws a dinner party for their friends – a dinner party that turns out to be (spoiler alert!) their surprise wedding. Shortly thereafter, in the episode titled “Jerry’s Painting”, April and Andy’s roommate moves out and Ben, in turn, moves in and teaches the duo “how to be adults”. (As you can see below, a dang car was parked directly in front of the house when we showed up to stalk the place, so I was unable to get photographs to match the exact angles shown on the series.)
For the filming, producers had the address number of the house changed from “12718” to “1271” in what I am guessing was an attempt to thrwart the efforts of us stalkers. But, thankfully, it takes more than a simple address change to throw off Owen and his mad stalking skills!
I absolutely LOVE the screen capture pictured below in which there is snow in the home’s front yard! So wish I could have been there to see that in person! You can check out an article written by someone who did get to witness some P&R filming at the property in October 2010 on the Studio City Patch website here. According to the write-up, April and Andy’s house has been used in countless productions over the years (although I am unsure of which productions exactly) and, to attract even more crews, the owner has made the place very film-friendly by placing the kitchen island and most of the furniture on casters for easy movement or removal. So incredibly cool! If I was a homeowner, I would so do the exact same thing!
In real life, the Studio City residence, which was originally built in 1938, boasts four bedrooms, two baths, and 2,831 square feet, and looks exactly the same in person as it does onscreen.
Despite what was reported in the Studio City Patch article, only the exterior of the property is used in Parks and Recreation – and the place most definitely does NOT belong to Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) on the show, as was also reported. (You can read my post on the Altadena residence that is used as Leslie’s here.) As you can see in these images of the real life interior of the home here and here, it does not match what appears onscreen.
Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong site, for finding this location!
Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: April and Andy’s house from Parks and Recreation is located at 12718 Valley Spring Lane in Studio City.
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Four ‘N 20 – aka JJ’s Diner from “Parks and Recreation”
A couple of weeks ago, fellow stalker Brandon (the very same stalker who told me about the Skyline Residence from fave movie Crazy, Stupid, Love., which I blogged about here) emailed me a list of over twenty Parks and Recreation locations that he had managed to track down. The one locale on the list that intrigued me the most was the exterior of JJ’s Diner – the local Pawnee-area hangout, known for its superior waffles, that is featured regularly on the show.
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Ironically enough, the exterior of JJ’s Diner is not located in Los Angeles at all, but in Atlanta, Georgia of all places! The restaurant used for the establishing shots of Pawnee’s most-famous breakfast joint is actually the Landmark Diner located at 2277 Cheshire Bridge Road NE. I have no idea how producers came to use an out-of-state eatery on the series, but as you can see below, the (craptastic) Google Street View image of the restaurant matches perfectly to what appears onscreen.
Once I found out that the exterior of JJ’s was located in Georgia, I became just a wee-bit obsessed with tracking down the restaurant used for the interior. I ended up finding it thanks to the unique botanical pattern visible on the booths in the background of the many JJ’s scenes. I had a hunch that the eatery was located in or around Van Nuys, where the series seems to do most of its filming, so I began searching through images of cafes in that area on Yelp (which is such a fabulous stalking tool, by the way!) looking for booths with that pattern. Sure enough, it was not long before I came across one on the Yelp page for Four ‘N 20 restaurant in Sherman Oaks. Yay! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place a few days later.
Once I saw the outside of Four ‘N 20 in person, I found it even more odd that producers had opted to use the Landmark Diner for JJ’s exterior because, as you can see below, Four ‘N 20 definitely has a Midwestern feel to it.
The interior also has a Midwestern feel and it is not too hard to see how it came to be used on Parks and Recreation. According to a commenter named Kiwi on the Chowhound website, when Four ‘N 20 first opened in 1969, it was located a few blocks north of where it is now. When that spot was demolished to make way for a car dealership sometime during the ‘90s, Four ‘N 20 moved to its current location, which had formerly been the site of “Chicken, Steak and Chocolate Cake” – a buffet-style restaurant where guests were charged based on their weight! Not kidding! Apparently there was a large scale that diners would have to step on before being rung up! Now if that doesn’t scream “Pawnee” – a city’s whose slogan is “First in Friendship, Fourth in Obesity” – than I don’t know what does! A CS&CC-style restaurant so needs to be added to a future storyline! P&R writers, are you listening?
At the time that Four ‘N 20 first opened, it mainly served pies – hence the name, which the GC did not understand. I am not sure who his nursery school teacher was, but he/she obviously did not do a very good job! For those not in the know, the Four ‘N 20 name comes from the “Sing a Song of Sixpence” nursery rhyme, which goes like this: “Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of rye; Four and twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing; Was that not a dainty dish, To set before the king?” Over the years, Four ‘N 20 expanded its menu choices and also opened up a sister restaurant in nearby Valley Village, but the place is still best-known for its pies. CBSLosAngeles even named the diner’s pumpkin pie one of the “Best of L.A.”
The Four ‘N 20 menu is wide and diverse with many comfort food offerings, as well as vegetarian and vegan options – and there’s even a “Fitness Menu” for the Chris Traegers in your life.
Glaringly missing from the Four ‘N 20 menu, though, were waffles! I almost fell out of the booth when I realized that the restaurant did not serve them and just had to make a suggestion to the manager that he add them to the menu – stat! Heck, he could even create a whole “Pawnee Specials” section! Man, why do I always have to be the one to think of everything?!? For my lunch, I opted for the Crispy Chicken salad which, as you can see below, was amazeballs! I literally do not think there was one scrap left on my plate by the time I was done with that thing!
The GC and I had a fabulous time at Four ‘N 20 and the staff could not have been more friendly, although I think a few of them found it odd that we were only dining there because of the place’s many Parks and Recreation appearances. (Check out the super-nice cop we met during our lunch who couldn’t stop photo-bombing me! LOL)
Four ‘N 20 has appeared in numerous episodes of Parks and Recreation, including Season 2’s “The Master Plan” and Season 3’s “Flu Season” and “Ron and Tammy: Part Two”, just to name a few. On the show, Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) describes JJ’s, which is owned by JJ Lipscomb (Brent Briscoe), as “the unofficial meeting place of Pawnee’s political elite”.
JJ’s Diner and its waffles are also mentioned regularly on the series. In the Season 3 episode titled “Time Capsule”, Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) puts one of JJ’s menus in the Pawnee time capsule because, as he says, the restaurant is a “Pawnee institution” and “home of the world’s best breakfast dish, ‘the Four Horsemeals of the Eggsporkalypse.’” Just another item that Four ‘N 20 could add to its “Pawnee Specials” menu section!
Oddly enough, though, a different restaurant – Kountry Folks at 8501 Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills, which I have yet to stalk – was used as JJ’s during the show’s first season. As you can see below, it looks nothing like Four ‘N 20.
Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.
Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Brandon for finding the location of JJ’s exterior.
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The interior of JJ’s Diner on Parks and Recreation is actually Four ‘N 20 located at 5530 Van Nuys Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. The exterior of JJ’s is the Landmark Diner, which is located at 2277 Cheshire Bridge Road NE in Atlanta, Georgia. You can check out the Landmark’s official website here.
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The “Beaches” Cottage
For Mother’s Day this year, my mom decided that she wanted to take a little weekend getaway to Newport Beach with my dad, the Grim Cheaper and me. I was absolutely thrilled over her choice of destination as while we were vacationing at the Hyatt Huntington Beach, aka the Beverly Hills Beach Club from 90210 (which I blogged about here), for the GC’s birthday last year, I happened to come across an article on South Bay filming locations in an area-attractions magazine that had been put in our room. One of the locations mentioned in the article was the Crystal Cove Historic District’s Cottage #13, which had been featured in the 1988 film Beaches. I was absolutely floored to learn of the locale as I had previously been under the impression that the Beaches cottage was located on the East Coast, near Coney Island where the flick’s opening scenes were lensed. And while I immediately added the address to my To-Stalk list, we unfortunately did not have time to go there that particular weekend. So before checking into our hotel for our Mother’s Day vacay a few weeks ago, I dragged the GC right on over to Crystal Cove State Park to finally stalk the place
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The Crystal Cove Historic District encompasses 12.3 acres of coastal land running along a 3.5-mile stretch of picturesque shoreline. The site was first developed in the late 1800s as a cattle ranch, then later as a sheep farm, and then later still, in a fortuitous twist, as a South Seas-style set for the movie industry. At the time, the property was owned by San Francisco-financier James Irvine (and later his son, James Irvine II), who had purchased it in 1864 from Jose Andres Sepulveda, who, in turn, had acquired it from the Mexican government in 1836. During the early 1900s, countless silent film productions came in, planted palm trees and built thatched-roof shacks for movies such as Treasure Island (1918), The Sea Wolf (1920), Stormswept (1923), White Shadows in the South Seas (1928), Half a Bridge (1928), and Sadie Thompson (1928). Some of those shacks were left behind after shooting wrapped and became homes for the Irvine’s friends and employees.
The Irvines also allowed their friends and employees to build custom cottages on the beachfront site, most with thatched roofs to accommodate film production. Forty-six cottages in all popped up during the 1920s and 1930s, each constructed by hand using salvaged materials, including wooden pieces from a shipwrecked vessel that washed ashore in 1927. Miraculously, thanks to a leasing contract clause and some avid preservationists, each of the 46 original bungalows remains standing to this day. In the 1930s, the Irvine family decided to give their tenants the option of either moving their homes off the land or of transferring over ownership and paying monthly rent on the cottages. For whatever reason, the family added a clause to each lease which stipulated that no portion of the small dwellings was to be altered.
The State of California purchased the land from the Irvines in 1979 and offered all then-tenants a twenty-year lease on their cottages. That same year, the site was added to the National Register of Historic Places, which listed the bungalows as “the last intact example of California beach vernacular architecture”. Once the twenty-year leases had expired in 1999, the state began showing interest in demolishing and vastly restructuring the cottages in order to make way for a large resort hotel. Thankfully, a Pasadena resident/local preservationist named Martha Padve, who regularly vacationed at Crystal Cove, joined forces with several other concerned citizens and formed the Crystal Cove Alliance, which ended up saving the site. Today, the cottages, which recently underwent an extensive two-phase restoration process, are offered to the public as extremely reasonably-priced vacation rentals.
I can honestly say that the Crystal Cove Historic District is one of the most adorable places I have ever visited. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to vacation there! The beachfront enclave features 22 charming vacation rentals, the quaintest little general store/gift shop that I have ever seen, an exhibit center, a park and marine research facility, a Ruby’s Shake Shack, and The Beachcomber Café (pictured below)– a fabulous toes-in-the-sand restaurant where the GC and I grabbed lunch – and some champagne, of course!
I honestly cannot more highly recommend stalking the site! Setting foot on the grounds is like stepping back to a simpler time – one which definitely encapsulates the Cove’s longtime motto, “Where every night is Saturday night and Saturday night is New Year’s Eve”. Love it!
Towards the end of Beaches, longtime friends Hillary Whitney Essex (Barbara Hershey) and CC Bloom (Bette Midler), along with Hillary’s daughter, Victoria Essex (Grace Johnston), spend the summer at Hillary’s beach house. As you can see below, the cottage looks quite a bit different today than it did onscreen in 1988. I am fairly certain, though, that the structure has always been the same basic shape and that set designers added the A-line roof for the filming.
The cottage’s porch area was used extensively during the filming.
The interior of Hillary’s beach house was just a set, though. As you can see below, the real life interior of Cottage #13 is much, much smaller than what appeared onscreen.
Although it does appear that one of the cottage’s actual rooms was used in the filming.
The Beaches cottage, which is currently under renovation and will eventually serve as Crystal Cove’s film museum (how cool is that???), has a plaque on display on its front gate that alerts visitors of its cinematic history, which I was absolutely FLOORED to discover! Why don’t the owners of ALL movie locations do something like this?
I was also floored to discover that the porch area is completely accessible to the public!
Oh yeah, just hanging out at Hillary’s house.
The cottage also boasts some amazing views, as you can see below.
As you can see in this May 2010 picture from the Finding the Famous blog, before the recent renovation the home was in pretty bad shape. Thank goodness for the Crystal Cove Alliance!
Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: There is no real address for this location. The Beaches cottage, aka Cottage #13, is located in the Crystal Cove Historic District, inside of Crystal Cove State Park, in Newport Beach. The best way to describe how to get there is to head to The Beachcomber Café, which is located at 15 Crystal Cove in Newport Beach. You will have to park across the street from the park at the Los Trancos Parking Lot, which is located on the Pacific Coast Highway just south of Newport Coast Drive. Parking is $15 per car, but the café does validate. Then either walk or take a shuttle (which costs $2 a person, each way) to the park (I would recommend walking). Reservations are highly recommended for The Beachcomber as the place was absolutely jammed when we were there and the bar area was pretty much standing-room-only. The Beaches cottage is located about 8 houses east of the café. You can visit the official Crystal Cove Beach Cottages Website here.
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Red Carpet Wine & Spirits from “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”
A couple of weeks ago, a fellow stalker named Emily wrote a comment on my post about the Weaver house from fave movie Crazy, Stupid, Love. in which she informed me that the liquor store that appeared in the flick was Red Carpet Wine & Spirits (what a great name!) in Glendale. As fate would have it, I had been looking for that wine shop for what seemed like ages and could NOT have been more excited to read Emily’s comment. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there a few days later and, amazingly enough, our visit turned out to be one of the best stalks of my entire “career”! Thank you, Emily!
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As soon as we set foot in Red Carpet Wine & Spirits, owner H.K. Hedlund walked up to us to ask if he could help us find anything. When I explained the reason behind our visit, he immediately directed us to the exact spot where filming took place and then proceeded to fill us in on tons of behind-the-scenes information. (And yes, I was definitely pinching myself!) H.K. ended up chatting with us for well over an hour, showed us photographs he had taken of the Crazy, Stupid, Love. shoot, dished on some of the celebs who have been spotted in his shop over the years, and told me that I could take all of the pictures of the place that I wanted. Um, yes please! As you can imagine, I was in absolute heaven!
Red Carpet Wine & Spirits was originally founded in 1964 by a man named John Vincenti. Twenty-three years later it was purchased by a retailer named David Dobbs, who, after deciding he wanted to move to Bakersfield, put the place on the market once again in late 2006. Hearing the shop was for sale, many of Dobb’s longtime employees quit and, in a twist of fate, H.K., who at the time owned an importing and wholesale beer business, was brought on to help out during the busy holiday season. H.K. ended up liking the place so much that he purchased it, along with his wife, Lisa, in October 2007. After taking over, the duo, who both grew up in nearby Arcadia, added an adorable wine-tasting room (pictured below) featuring three Enomatic wine dispensers which offer 2-ounce pours for as little as $2. Red Carpet, which boasts a huge and loyal following, hosts numerous onsite events in the wine room each year, including a book signing in July 2010 which featured Jennifer Aniston’s private chef, Jewels Elmore, who authored “The Family Chef: Make Your Kitchen the Heart of your Family”. So incredibly cool! The wine-tasting room can also be booked out for private parties which run from $10 to $20 per person.
Red Carpet, which WineSeller Magazine deemed “One of California’s most renowned wine shops”, currently carries over 1,200 different wines, 1,500 different spirits and 800 different beers, procured from all over the world. Unlike most run-of-the-mill wine stores, the oenophiles who work there actually sample every single libation that lines their shelves, so when I asked for a dry, average-priced champagne recommendation, H.K. was able to speak from experience. The champagne he directed me towards, which I enjoyed on my birthday, was fabulous! H.K. prides himself on his staff’s superior customer service, which I was lucky enough to witness firsthand. When I inquired about the most recent vintage of Marilyn Merlot wine (which you may remember me blogging about here), H.K. informed me that they were sold out, but that he would track down a bottle for me and deliver it right to my door. When I told him that was not necessary, being that I live about ten minutes from the shop and could easily come by to pick it up, he insisted and informed me that home delivery was just one of the many services that he and his team offer, free of charge mind you! Red Carpet is an amazing wine shop and I honestly cannot more highly recommend stalking it – or throwing a party there!
In Crazy, Stupid, Love., Red Carpet Wine & Spirits was where Jacob Palmer (cutie Ryan Gosling – sigh!) and Hannah (Emma Stone) shopped for wine before heading to Hannah’s mom’s house for dinner. According to H.K., one of the movie’s producers is a long-time customer of the shop, which is how it came to be used in the flick.
It was while there that Jacob made a phone call to his friend Cal Weaver (Steve Carell) and confided in him that he had met a girl who was a “game-changer”. So I , of course, just had to imitate Jacob talking on the phone while I was there.
H.K. and Lisa even appeared briefly in the background of the scene! How lucky are they?!? You can check out some fabulous photographs that H.K. took during the filming here.
H.K. informed us that Red Carpet Wine had also appeared in the Season 5 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Crime Doesn’t Pay”, in the scene in which Dave Williams (Neal McDonough), while shopping for wine with his new wife, Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan), ran into Father Drance (Don Moss), the priest who performed his then-wife and daughter’s funeral a few years prior.
Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.
Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Emily for telling me about this location!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Red Carpet Wine & Spirits, from Crazy, Stupid, Love., is located at 400 East Glenoaks Boulevard in Glendale. You can visit the store’s official website here.
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The Levitt Pavilion MacArthur Park Bandshell from “New Girl”
Brace yourselves, my fellow stalkers, because today’s post is going to be a long one! Another New Girl location that my good friend/fellow stalker Lavonna asked me to track down recently was the park where Jess (Zooey Deschanel) held a recital for her “Ensembell” bell choir in the Season 1 episode titled “Bells”. This actually turned out to be a rather fun hunt for me because, in an unprecedented turn of events, the Grim Cheaper became a bit fixated with helping in the search. When the two of us first watched the “Bells” episode a few weeks after Lavonna’s challenge, he thought the park and its unique bandshell looked familiar, but he could not place where he had seen them. So he immediately started doing research on local parks, yet, sadly, came up empty-handed. Then, a few days later while we were out and about stalking, anytime we would happen to drive by a park, he would pull over to see if the New Girl bandshell was there. As luck would have it, he ended up spotting it that same afternoon at MacArthur Park in the Wilshire District of Los Angeles. Whoo-hoo! Thank you, GC! So we pulled right on over to snap some pics.
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The land where MacArthur Park now sits was first developed by the City of Los Angeles as a drinking water reservoir in the 1880s. When the area’s piping systems were later changed around 1890, the reservoir was no longer needed and the site was transformed into a public park known as Westlake Park. The locale, which featured a picturesque lake, a boathouse, and manicured gardens, quickly became a popular recreational destination for the wealthy citizens who lived nearby and the wealthy tourists who vacationed at the many luxury hotels in the neighborhood. During that era, the 32-acre property was known as the “Champs-Elysees of Los Angeles”. Oh, how times have changed! In 1934, it was decided that Wilshire Boulevard, which formerly dead-ended at Westlake’s western border, would be extended and connected to Orange Street in order to run through to downtown Los Angeles. A berm was built which bisected Westlake, and its large lake, into two halves, with the northern portion of the lake eventually being drained, leaving a smaller, 8-acre, 23-million-gallon, 15-foot deep pond on the property’s southern side.
Sadly, during the ‘80s, the site, which in 1942 was renamed General Douglas MacArthur Park in honor of the famed WWII general, became a haven of drug, gang and criminal activity. Despite an attempted revitalization in 2002, the property is still pretty dangerous. Even though we stalked the park during daylight hours, I was still extremely uncomfortable being there. While we were snapping pictures of the Levitt Pavilion bandshell, which was completely renovated in 2007 and now offers over 50 free concerts each summer, some loon jumped onto the stage armed with a huge generator, microphone and boom box and proceeded to put on his very own rap concert. I cannot even imagine what the place is like at night! It sure is picturesque, though!
MacArthur Park is full of shady characters and we also witnessed a few drug sales in the short ten minutes we were there. To quote the Wikipedia page on the location, “Public urination in the park is illegal but commonplace.” Yep, that pretty much sums it up! As you can see below, though, the site does boast some pretty incredible views of the downtown L.A. skyline.
Because the park, which in 1972 was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #100, is so picturesque, it is not hard to understand why it has been the site of countless filmings over the years. The place also inspired the Richard Harris-penned 1968 song for Jimmy Webb titled “MacArthur Park” and Donna Summer’s 1970 remake of it, and it also quite possibly might have been the location of the eponymous bridge in the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 1992 hit “Under the Bridge”.
In the “Bells” episode of New Girl, MacArthur Park stood in for the fictional “Pershing Park” where Ensembell held their first recital. (The homeless guy fist-fighting the air in the first screen capture pictured below is pretty much a true-to-life description of the types of people one will encounter at the park.)
In the Season 1 episode of Dragnet 1967 titled “The Bank Examiner Swindle”, MacArthur Park was where Sgt. Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and Officer Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) interviewed Fred Gregory (Burt Mustin), one of the victims of a financial scam against the elderly.
In the Season 1 episode of Starsky and Hutch titled “Lady Blue”, MacArthur Park stood in for the fictional “Lincoln Gardens” where Detective Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) and Detective Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) investigated the murder of Starsky’s ex-girlfriend Helen.
And in the Season 2 episode of Starsky and Hutch titled “Vendetta”, the park was where the duo picnicked with their girlfriends before getting interrupted by a “1040” call.
In the Season 5 episode of The A-Team titled “The Grey Team”, MacArthur Park was where Templeton ‘Faceman’ Peck (Dirk Benedict) and John ‘Hannibal’ Smith (George Peppard) spied on a Soviet agent named Saroff (Tony Steedman).
In 1993’s Falling Down, MacArthur Park was the spot where William ‘D-Fens’ Foster (Michael Douglas) got into an altercation with a homeless man. At the time of the filming, the lake had been drained and the park was undergoing major construction for the Metro Rail Rail Line addition, so it looked considerably different than it does today.
In 1997’s Volcano, MacArthur Park was the site where seven public works employees were steamed to death while working on a storm drain.
The location was used extensively in 2001’s aptly-titled MacArthur Park.
In 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan) saves her friend Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) from being killed at MacArthur Park.
The music video for Gym Class Heroes’ 2005 song “Cupid’s Chokehold/Breakfast in America”, which starred Katy Perry, was shot extensively at MacArthur Park.
You can watch that video by clicking below.
Gym Class Heroes: “Cupid’s Chokehold/Breakfast in America” Filmed at MacArthur ParkIn the Season 6 episode of Numb3rs titled “Hangman”, Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) and his FBI team were shot at while setting up security for a political rally at MacArthur Park.
In the Season 1 episode of fave show FlashForward (I am still not over the fact that it was cancelled!) titled “Black Swan”, there is a flashback scene of the blackout experience of a man named Ned Ned (Keir O’Donnell) in which a city bus crashes into the MacArthur Park lake.
In the Season 1 episode of American Horror Story titled “Murder House”, MacArthur Park was where the ultra-creepy Larry Harvey (Denis O’Hare) approached Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott) to ask for $1,000 to get headshots taken.
MacArthur Park has popped up on the television series Southland no less than 3 times. In the Season 2 episode titled “Butch & Sundance”, the park was where Detective Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) chased a gang member named Orlando (Eddie Maldonado).
In the Season 4 episode titled “Identity”, Detective Bryant and Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) arrested a teenager for drug possession at MacArthur Park.
In that same episode, MacArthur Park also appeared as the spot where Detectives Lydia Adams (Regina King) and Ruben Robinson (Dorian Missick) tracked down a suspect named Nicole (Chrissy Stokes).
And in the Season 4 episode titled “God’s Work”, Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz – aka Beverly Hills, 90210’s Tony Miller
) talked to his unnamed sponsor, who was played by Lawrence Gilliard Jr., about his partner, Officer Jessica Tang (Lucy Liu), while walking around MacArthur Park’s lake.
In 2011’s Drive, “Driver” (Ryan Gosling) made a deal with Cook (James Biberi) while at MacArthur Park.
And while IMDB claims that the Season 2 episode of the original Melrose Place titled “Till Death Do Us Part” was shot at MacArthur Park, filming actually took place at the similar-looking Echo Park.
MacArthur Park was also featured in the movie Brave New World, but unfortunately I was unable to find a copy of that production with which to make screen captures for this post. And while the location supposedly appeared in 1992’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I scanned through the flick earlier today and did not spot it anywhere.
Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here. And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The Levitt Pavilion MacArthur Park bandshell, from the “Bells” episode of New Girl, is located at 2230 West 6th Street, on the northern side of MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles. You can visit the Pavilion’s official website here. Be forewarned, MacArthur Park is not the safest place, especially at night, so please exercise caution.
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Taking A Four-Day Break!
I really hate to do this, but unfortunately I have way too much going on this week and am going to have to take the next four days off.
My parents are coming to town this afternoon for a short visit, I am doing some stalking on Thursday and on Friday the Grim Cheaper is having a minor surgery – all of which does not leave much time for blogging. But I do promise to be back on Monday with a whole new location.Until next time, Happy Stalking!
