Year: 2015

The ” . . . Baby One More Time” Costume

One of the most important items on my Stalking Bucket List was checked off last week while the Grim Cheaper and I were in Las Vegas. Way back in October 2010 (while doing research for this post), I learned that Britney Spears’ schoolgirl costume from her 1998 “ . . . Baby One More Time” music video was on display at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and I just about died. As I have mentioned countless times before on this site, to me that outfit is everything. I’ve replicated it on Halloween and for various costume parties more times than I can count. I love absolutely everything about it, especially the pink hair pom poms. Upon reading on Wikipedia that the costume was at the Hard Rock, I came thisclose to driving out to see it that very night. I restrained myself (or rather, the GC did) and put the stalk on hold for what seemed like eons. So when the GC informed me that we had to head out to Vegas last week, I told him that seeing the costume was our very first priority upon arriving in town.

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Prior to heading to Vegas, I called the Hard Rock Hotel FOUR times to verify that the “ . . . Baby One More Time” costume was still on display. The HR chain has a tendency of moving memorabilia from site to site and periodically rotating items, placing some in storage, and I wanted to make sure that the schoolgirl outfit was on the premises before I got too excited about seeing it. All four people whom I talked to informed me that the costume was most definitely still on display and that it was in the lobby of the HRH Tower. Upon arriving, though, we discovered that it was not in that tower – or anywhere else we looked. None of the Hark Rock employees on duty at the time had any idea where it was, either, and most said that they hadn’t seen it in years. When the VIP concierge informed me that the outfit was most likely in storage, I literally almost started crying on the spot. Talk about a disappointment! Thankfully, the GC suggested that we walk around for a bit on the off chance that we might spot it somewhere. After about 15 minutes of wandering, I caught an image of a black skirt out of the corner of my eye and immediately took off running. Sure enough, it was Britney’s costume!

For whatever reason, the outfit is currently tucked away in the hotel’s Peacock High Limit Gaming Room, which is located just to the right of the casino’s main entrance. You have to actually walk into the room and then around to the extreme right to see the costume, though, as it is situated behind a wall and is not at all readily apparent to passersby.

I was dismayed to discover that my favorite portion of the costume (the pink hair pom poms if you haven’t been paying attention ) was not included in the display. As you can see in these photos, Britney’s entire schoolgirl outfit, including the hair accessories, thigh-high stockings and shoes, used to be on exhibit. I wanted so badly to view the complete ensemble, but, sadly, that was not to be. I was extremely excited over seeing the majority of it in person, though, and am anxiously awaiting the day when the hair ties are brought out of storage and put back on display.

While making screen captures for this post, I noticed something else about the costume that is off. As you can see below, in “ . . . Baby One More Time” Britney donned a maroon crop top, not the black bra that is featured on the hotel mannequin.

I tracked down a photo on the Britney Universe website that shows a clearer image of the crop top that she wore during the shoot.

The background dancers wore schoolgirl costumes very similar to Britney’s in the video, so I am guessing that the black bra might have been worn by one of them, or that Britney’s actual crop top was lost at some point and the black bra put in its place for display purposes.

The “ . . . Baby One More Time” music video was shot on location at Venice High School on August 7th and 8th, 1998. The original concept apparently involved cartoons, until Britney ixnayed the idea. She wanted to shoot something that would be more relatable to her fans and convinced director Nigel Dick to center the storyline around a typical school day. Spears was also responsible for creating the video’s iconic costume. In a 2009 interview, Dick said, “My idea originally was just jeans and T-shirts, and we were at the wardrobe fitting and Britney holds up the jeans and T-shirts and says, ‘Wouldn’t I wear a schoolgirl outfit?’ Every piece of wardrobe in the video came from Kmart, and I was told at the time not one piece of clothing in the video cost more than $17. On that level, it’s real. That probably, in retrospect, is a part of its charm.” Britney also explained to People magazine, “The outfits looked kind of dorky, so I was like, ‘Let’s tie up our shirts and be cute.’” And thus, one of the most iconic outfits in music video history was born. You can check out some behind the scenes photographs of the filming here, here and here.

You can watch the “ . . . Baby One More Time” video by clicking below.

Several other Britney items are on display at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, including a Washington Redskins custom-made dress and glove set that she wore for a 2003 NFL Kickoff photo shoot . . .

. . . and a “Slave” crop top that Spears donned in a commercial for the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards that she shot with Jamie Foxx.

Also on display was the outfit Katy Perry wore on the cover of her “I Kissed a Girl” single;

one of Michael Jackson’s gloves (which was virtually impossible to get a picture of due to the fact that it is so sparkly);

a handwritten letter from MJ to a friend;

the shoe stand where James Brown worked as a child;

album cover photographs that The Doors shot at the original Hard Rock Café in downtown Los Angeles (the spot where Michael Jackson filmed the video for “Beat It”);

and a jacket of MJ’s designed by Michael Bush and Dennis Tomkins.

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino has also appeared onscreen numerous times, including in an episode of fave show The O.C., but I am saving that information for a future post. Today, it’s all about Britney!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Britney Spears’ “ . . . Baby One More Time” schoolgirl costume is on display in the Peacock High Limit Gaming Room at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which is located at 4455 Paradise Road in Las Vegas. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

March 17, 2015
“The Hangover” Gas Station

The Grim Cheaper and I spent last week in Las Vegas on a business/pleasure trip (hence the lack of recent blog posts). While there, we were lucky enough to stay at Caesars Palace (post on that location coming soon!) and found ourselves constantly quoting lines from The Hangover. So one evening we decided to watch the 2009 flick and I have to say it was pretty epic to be viewing it while in a room at the very hotel where filming had taken place. One location that I wondered about while watching was the “gas n gulp” station that the boys – Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), Alan (Zach Galifianakis) and Doug (Justin Bartha) – stopped at on the way to Las Vegas. I figured it was most likely located in the Palmdale area (where many of the desert driving scenes were shot), but The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations clued me into the fact that the station was actually the Jean Fuel West Shell in Jean, Nevada, just east of the California border. So we dropped by to stalk it on our return trip home.

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Jean Fuel West Shell only appeared once in The Hangover, in the rather brief, but hilarious scene in which Alan admonished an old man for looking at his car and Stu tried to defend the actions of his girlfriend who cheated on him with a Carnival Cruise Line bell hop sailor pilot waiter bartender.

The station’s signage was changed to read “gas n gulp” for the shoot.

The fact that filming took place at a Shell, though, was still fairly obvious due to the yellow and red coloring of the station’s carport roof.

Other than the change in signage, the site looks much the same in person as it did onscreen.

Some filming also took place inside the Shell’s food mart.

The super nice woman working behind the counter informed me that the interior was changed a bit for the shoot. In real life, the cashier stand is located in the center of the store.

But for the filming of The Hangover, a fake cashier stand was built near the store’s south windows, in the area pictured in the photograph below.

The camera then cheated to the right so that the real cashier stand was not visible behind the actors.

On a side-note – One Hangover location that I will not be stalking, sadly, is the home where Mike Tyson – and his tiger – lived. While I did find the address of that humongous dwelling – 22634 La Quilla Drive in Chatsworth – it is located inside of a gated community and is therefore unstalkable.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Jean Fuel West Shell, aka the gas n gulp from The Hangover, is located at 1 Goodsprings Road in Jean, Nevada.

March 16, 2015
Latest “L.A.” Mag Post – A Guide to “Pawnee” Locales in Los Angeles

I am so excited for today’s Los Angeles magazine post, in which I compiled a guide to 21 memorable locations featured on the show Parks and Recreation. You can check it out here. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

March 12, 2015
Daniel McCormick’s House from “Forever Young”

Back in my early stalking days, I purchased a Scott’s L.A. Audio Tour of Pasadena CD. I loved every minute of it and learned about quite a few new locations while listening, one of which was the home where Claire Cooper (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her son, Nat (Elijah Wood), lived in the 1992 movie Forever Young. This was long before I had a blog, though, so I never wrote down the address and actually completely forgot about it until last week while stalking in South Pasadena. I did not have my Scott’s L.A. CD with me at the time, so used my trusty iPhone to do some Googling to see if I could find the place. I wound up coming across this Facebook post which gave the location of a different residence used in the movie – the bungalow where Capt. Daniel McCormick (Mel Gibson) lived. So I ran right on over to snap some pics. (I ended up tracking down the Cooper house, too, but not until after I had already returned home to Palm Springs, so that will be a different post for a different day.)

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For those who have yet to see Forever Young (and if you haven’t, you really should, it’s a fabulous movie!), the story (which was written by none other than Lost creator J.J. Abrams) centers on Daniel, a test pilot living in 1939, whose girlfriend gets into a terrible accident that lands her in a coma. Not bearing to see the love of his life dying, Daniel volunteers for the latest experiment that his best friend, scientist Harry Finley (George Wendt), is conducting – cryogenic freezing. Harry agrees to freeze Daniel for one full year, but things go terribly wrong and Daniel does not end up being removed from the suspended animation chamber until 1992 – 53 years after initially stepping inside.

Daniel’s small Craftsman-style bungalow is only shown once in Forever Young, in the very beginning of the movie, prior to Daniel being frozen.

Despite a change in paint color, the residence still looks much the same today as it did onscreen in 1992.

According to Zillow, the tiny dwelling, which was built in 1915, boasts two bedrooms, one bath and 864 square feet of space.

I was actually quite shocked to see that the home boasts such a scant square footage as it appears to be much larger from the street.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the property was also used in the filming, but I could not find any photographs of the interior online with which to verify that hunch.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Daniel McCormick’s house from Forever Young is located at 612 Meridian Avenue in South Pasadena.

March 9, 2015
New “L.A.” Mag Post – About “The Mentalist” Finale

Be sure to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post – about the heartwarming series finale of The Mentalist. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

March 5, 2015
Hotel Angeleno from “Heat”

The Grim Cheaper and I travel back and forth to L.A. so often that sometimes I feel like I live in a hotel – which is not a bad thing, I ADORE hotels. One that we checked into recently that I absolutely loved was the Hotel Angeleno. Not only is the place’s architecture unique, vibe spectacularly retro and views breathtaking, but it is also a filming location! I mean, come on now! What’s not to love?

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Hotel Angeleno was originally constructed in 1970 as the Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel-Air. Its cylindrically-shaped configuration was a popular one for the hotel chain. The first of its kind was designed by architect Leonard Lundgren and still stands overlooking Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. Lundgren went on to design several similarly shaped structures for the Holiday Inn company, including the Brentwood/Bel-Air outpost.

During its tenure as a Holiday Inn, the property offered mid-level lodging. In April 2005, it was taken over by the Joie de Vivre hospitality company and a massive renovation process was started. The site re-opened in February 2006 as the much more upscale Hotel Angeleno.

Thankfully though, its unique exterior was left largely untouched.

The 17-story structure sits above the Interstate 405, just north of the Sunset Boulevard exit. Each room features a private balcony (as well as complimentary parking and free Wi-Fi), most of which offer amazing views. Our room boasted views of the freeway and it was fascinating to watch traffic start accumulating on the northbound side at around 2 p.m. and remain at a standstill until well past 10.

Our room also had a spectacular view of the Getty Center.

Not to mention a vertigo-inducing view of the street below. The GC is not a fan of heights and he couldn’t even bring himself to step out onto the balcony.

Occupying the top floor of the Angeleno is the circularly-shaped restaurant West.

We had the pleasure of dining at West while staying at the hotel and not only is the food spectacular, but the views are simply uh-ma-zing.

The Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel-Air was most notably featured in the 1995 action classic Heat, as the spot where Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) moved upon leaving his wife. Very little of the hotel can actually be seen in the movie, though.

In the Season 1 episode of Starsky and Hutch titled “Death Ride,” which aired in 1975, Det. Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) and Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) stopped by the Holiday Inn to pick up a witness named Andrew Mello (Jeff Corey).

Thanks to the Dear Old Hollywood blog, I learned that the 1976 film Two-Minute Warning opened with a scene of a sniper taking a shot from a balcony at the Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel-Air.

The hotel’s interiors were also shown in the movie, including a room;

a hallway;

the lobby;

and the front desk.

In the 2004 hit Sideways, Miles (Paul Giamatti) drove by the Holiday Inn on his way to pick up Jack (Thomas Hayden Church).

There was even some filming going on when we were staying there! Just as we were checking out, my mom spotted Justin Jedlica, aka the “Human Ken Doll,” filming a segment for a reality show. So I, of course, just had to ask for a pic.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hotel Angeleno, from Heat, is located at 170 North Church Lane in Brentwood. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

March 2, 2015
Ronnie and Amber’s House from “Modern Family”

This season of Modern Family brought to life a storyline that is basically my worst fear – nightmare neighbors. Poor Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) had their tranquility disturbed in the episode titled “Won’t You Be Our Neighbor” when loudmouth medicinal marijuana dealer Ronnie LaFontaine (Steve Zahn), his wife, Amber (Andrea Anders), and their two children moved in next door. It’s been a horrific (and rather comical) ordeal ever since, with antics including a dry-docked boat parked in the driveway, an invitation to swing and a rather ugly fight over Halloween decorations. So while in the Cheviot Hills area with my friends Lavonna, Kim, Melissa and Maria last November, I just had to stop by to do some stalking of the place.

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As depicted on Modern Family, the LaFontaine residence is located right next door to the Dunphys, at 10342 Dunleer Drive.

In real life, the Mediterranean-style dwelling is quite spectacular. The pad, which was originally built in 1933, boasts 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,100 square feet and a 0.14-acre plot of land.

The house was recently listed as a rental with The Agency (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Mauricio Umanksy’s real estate company) for $9,500 a month (gardener and housekeeper included!). You can check out some interior pictures of the residence here. It is truly gorgeous inside, though I could do without that black-tiled bathroom.

The LaFontaine house has appeared in a few episodes of Modern Family, beginning with “Won’t You Be Our Neighbor.” In the episode, Phil takes on the listing for the house next door. Though he thinks he has found the perfect couple to purchase the place (not only does the husband collect fine wine, but he also works in PR for high-end shoe companies!), he and Claire scare them off, leaving room for the LaFontaines’ offer to be accepted.

The pad then popped up in “Halloween 3: AwesomeLand,” in which Claire and Ronnie went head-to-head in a battle to have the scariest decorated house in the neighborhood.

Most recently, it was featured in “The Big Guns,” in which Ronnie decided to park his large boat “Jackpot” in the homes’ shared driveway.

While we were stalking the residence, we happened to meet a woman who was working on the premises and she informed us that a house just up the street had also been used in “Halloween 3: AwesomeLand,” in the scene in which Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill) and Gloria Delgado-Pritchett (Sofia Vergara) took their kids trick-or-treating. So we ran right over to stalk it. Sadly though, very little of it can be seen in the episode.

As you can see below, in real life the house is much larger than it appeared to be onscreen.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Ronnie and Amber’s house from Modern Family is located at 10342 Dunleer Drive in Cheviot Hills. The residence where Jay and Gloria’s children trick-or-treated in “Halloween 3: AwesomeLand” is located a block west at 10424 Dunleer Drive.

February 27, 2015
Latest “L.A.” Mag Post – About Vroman’s Bookstore

Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post – about Vroman’s Bookstore and its latest onscreen appearance in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

February 26, 2015
The “Pretty Little Liars” Guide to Warner Bros. Studio

My name is Lindsay Blake and I am a Pretty Little Liars addict. I started watching the ABC Family series on Netflix while the Grim Cheaper was away on a weeklong business trip last year and it was not long before I was utterly and totally hooked. I’m no longer ashamed to admit it, either. PLL is a great show. There is good news and bad news about its filming locations, though. The bad news first. Production hardly ever – and I mean like ever – leaves the studio. In the five years the show has been on the air, the cast and crew has left the lot about eight times. Not joking. The good news is that the series is lensed at Warner Bros. Studio and many of its locales can be viewed via the Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour, which I have taken so many times now I’ve lost count. So for the other fans out there, I thought I would put together a Pretty Little Liars guide to the lot.

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Pretty Little Liars is set in the fictional town of Rosewood, Pennsylvania. The pilot episode was shot in Vancouver, but once the series got picked up, production moved to L.A. Though the show has made use of pretty much every square inch of the Warner Bros. backlot, I will only be covering the main locations that have appeared onscreen during the first two and a half seasons, as that is the point I am up to in the series. An aerial view of Warner Bros. Studio with coordinating numbers denoting each PLL locale is pictured below.

And below is a studio map featuring those same coordinating numbers.

1. The Marin House – Used repeatedly throughout the series, the house where Hannah Marin (Ashley Benson) lives is a large Colonial-style estate located at the southern end of Warner Village. It is denoted as building 187 on the Warner Bros. Studio map. Only the exterior is used on the series. As is the case with all of the Liar’s residences, the interior of Hannah’s house is a set located inside of a soundstage. In real life, the inside of the structure serves as a production office.

2. The Fields House – The residence where Emily Fields (Shay Mitchell) lives also pops up regularly on Pretty Little Liars. It is the northernmost house located on Midwest Street. The same home was also used as Ross (David Schwimmer) and Monica Geller’s (Courteney Cox) parents’ house on Friends. It is a practical set, meaning both the interior and exterior can be utilized for filming. While the inside was used on Friends (Season 2’s “The One with the Prom Video”), it does not appear on PLL.

3. The DiLaurentis House – This abode has had quite a few different residents throughout the series. Formerly occupied by Alison DiLaurentis (Sasha Pieterse) and then Maya St. Germain (Bianca Lawson), it is currently where Jason DiLaurentis (major cutie Drew Van Acker) lives. The structure is actually just a façade located on the shores of the Jungle and, as you can see in the photograph below, not even a full one at that. Yes, it is missing a roof, which is actually apparent sometimes onscreen.

4. The Hastings House – The façade that serves as the stately home where Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario, daughter of NCIS creator Donald P. Bellisario) lives is actually the rear side of the residence located next door to Emily’s house on Midwest Street. The same façade was used as Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore’s (Alexis Bledel) house on Gilmore Girls.

5. Spencer’s Barn – The barn that Spencer painstakingly redecorated and that her sister, Melissa (Torrey DeVitto), then promptly moved into is located directly across from the Hastings residence, in what is actually the front yard of the property.

6. The Hastings Gate – The large gated entrance to Spencer’s estate is not a permanent façade – it is a piece that is set up in the Jungle, across from the DiLaurentis house, when needed. Because it is only put into place during an actual shoot, you will not catch a glimpse of it while on the Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour. A photograph of the Jungle in its normal state, without Spencer’s gate, is pictured below.

7. Toby and Jenna’s House – The house where step-siblings Toby Cavanaugh (Keegan Allen) and Jenna Marshall (Tammin Sursok) live is located on Midwest Street, two doors down from Emily’s house.

8. Rosewood High School – The Liar’s high school is located on Midwest Street, near where it intersects with French Street. The structure appears regularly on the series, but, again, only the exterior is utilized. The hallways and classrooms are sets located inside of a soundstage.

9. Rosewood City Hall – City Hall is located adjacent to Rosewood High School.

10. Apple Rose Grille – The restaurant where the girls regularly hang out is located on the corner of Midwest Street and French Street. The same spot masked as Luke’s Diner on Gilmore Girls.

The structure is a practical set and its interior is also used in the series.

11. Rosewood’s Local Church – The Midwest Street church, located across the road from Emily’s house, has appeared countless times on the series. It was where Ian Thomas (Ryan Merriman) tried to kill Spencer in Season 1’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” where Ian’s funeral was held in Season 2’s “The Devil You Know,” and where Hannah tried to sabotage her dad’s wedding in Season 2’s “Over My Dead Body,” just to name a few of its appearances.

12. Anne Sullivan’s Office – Throughout Season 2, the Liars regularly visited therapist Anne Sullivan (Annabeth Gish) at her office, which was situated on Midwest Street across from the northern side of the church.

The same façade also masked as the Hastings & Reibman Law Firm, Veronica Hastings’ (Lesley Fera) law office, in the Season 3 episode titled “The Kahn Game.”

13. Ezra Fitz’s Apartment Building – The exterior of the apartment building where Ezra Fitz (Ian Harding) lives is located in between French Street and Embassy Courtyard, across from New York Park. The edifice was featured in Season 1’s “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Lie, Lie Again . . .” and is denoted as Building 60 on the studio map.

14. Philadelphia City Museum – The Warner Bros. Courthouse masked as the Philadelphia City Museum, the site of Aria Montgomery (Lucy Hale) and Ezra’s first real date, in “If at First You Don’t Succeed, Lie, Lie Again . . .” The Courthouse, which was featured regularly on the 1966 Batman television series, is located at the western end of Embassy Courtyard and is denoted as Building 61 on the studio map.

As you can see below, Ezra’s apartment and the Courthouse are actually located next door to each other.

15. Noel Kahn’s Cabin/Lost Woods Resort – In the Season 1 episode of Pretty Little Liars titled “To Kill a Mocking Girl,” the Liars attend a party thrown at a cabin belonging to Noel Kahn’s (Brant Daugherty) parents. The building used in the episode is located in the Jungle and is known as the Practical House.

The very same structure was also featured several times as the Lost Woods Resort on Pretty Little Liars. (It popped up regularly as Merlotte’s Bar & Grill on HBO’s True Blood, as well.)

For whatever reason, a different structure was used as the Kahn family cabin during Season 3 of Pretty Little Liars. I am unsure of what building was utilized as the cabin during that time, but my best guess is that it was the rear side of the Jungle’s Practical House, in the area denoted with a pink arrow below.

16. Emily and Maya’s Lakeside Hangout/The Greenhouse – In Season 3’s “Stolen Kisses,” Emily takes Nate St. Germain (Sterling Sulieman) to visit a lakeside cabin where she and Maya formerly hung out. The Jungle’s Shore-Side Cabin, located opposite the DiLaurentis house, was used as their hangout in the episode. The same structure also served as Ira’s Roadside Diner in Million Dollar Baby and Lyle Sussman’s (Scott Michael Morgan) hunting cabin on Dexter.

The rear of the Shore-Side Cabin is actually a greenhouse and it was there that the Liars often set up clandestine meetings during the beginning of Season 2. My buddy Mike the Fanboy recently had the opportunity to tour the interior of the Cabin and was nice enough to share a photograph he took of it with me.

17. Radley Sanitarium – The large building located on Embassy Courtyard served as the mental institution where Mona Vanderwaal (Janel Parrish) was held for the majority of Season 3.

18. The Haunted House – In Season 2’s amazing Halloween-themed episode,which was titled “The First Secret,” Alison was attacked in Rosewood’s local abandoned house. That residence is located on Midwest Street, directly across from Emily’s home, and was also used as the dwelling where the Seavers lived on the 1985 series Growing Pains.

19. Vail’s Doll Hospital – The creepy Brookhaven doll store that the Liars visited in both Season 2’s “Father Knows Best” and “If These Dolls Could Talk” (scariest episode ever!) is located in the middle of French Street.

20. The Brew – During Season 3, the girls start hanging out at a coffee house known as The Brew. Emily also later gets a waitressing job there. The façade that serves as the exterior of The Brew is located off of Midwest Street, just down the road from Rosewood City Hall.

21. The Local Rosewood Motel – A building that houses production offices located in the northeast portion of Warner Bros. Studio was used as a local motel in many Season 1 episodes, including “Can you Hear Me Now,” “The New Normal” and “A Person of Interest.” It is denoted as Building 139 on the studio map.

22. Melissa’s Philadelphia Apartment – The apartment that the Liars raided in Season 3’s “Birds of a Feather” can be found on Brownstone Street, which is located just a little off of the map I created.

The façade’s location is denoted in the aerial view pictured below.

At this point you are most likely wondering why I have yet to mention Aria’s house. The exterior of the Montgomery residence was actually only shown once, in the Pretty Little Liars pilot, and is therefore located somewhere in Vancouver, not at Warner Bros. Studio. I am unsure of why a replica exterior was not used for subsequent episodes, but, for whatever reason, one never has been – at least during Seasons 1 through 3.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Warner Bros. Studio is located at 3400 West Riverside Drive in Burbank. You can find out more information about the VIP Studio Tour here.

February 25, 2015
The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar from "The Bachelor"

This season of The Bachelor has been one for the record books! I don’t think there has ever been a prior season featuring so many crazy contestants – and for The Bachelor, that’s really saying something. Sure there are a few sane women in the bunch (Whitney, Carly and Becca), but for the most part each episode is like a parade of crazy – and I am loving every minute of it! The Grim Cheaper and I just visited a location from a past season of the show last week while up in San Francisco for my grandma’s 90th birthday. One of my besties Nat, who lives in SF, planned a spectacular Valentine’s Day evening for us, during which we stopped by the iconic Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar at The Fairmont San Francisco Hotel. And, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited!

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Construction on The Fairmont began in 1902. In a bit of unfortunate timing, the hotel was completed, but had not yet opened, shortly before the 1906 earthquake. While the building was not harmed by the actual quake, the fires that followed wound up devastating the structure. Architect Julia Morgan, who co-designed William Randolph Hearst’s Ocean House in Santa Monica, was eventually brought in to rehabilitate it and The Fairmont was finally opened to the public in 1907. It soon became the city’s most popular upscale hotel. The property went through a succession of different owners during its early years and in 1929 was purchased by an engineer named George Smith, who installed a 75-foot indoor pool on the hotel’s Terrace level that he dubbed the “Fairmont Plunge.”

The hotel suffered a downturn during the Great Depression and was sold yet again, this time to Benjamin Swig. In the hopes of restoring The Fairmont’s popularity, Swig brought in interior decorator Dorothy Draper to redesign the place.

And it worked. The Fairmont once again became the toast of San Francisco society, as well as the go-to hotel for visiting celebs and dignitaries. Just a few of the stars who have stayed at The Fairmont over the years include Joan Crawford, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Wells, William Randolph Hearst, Rudolph Valentino, Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, James Stewart, Kim Novak, Fred Astaire, James Brown, Ernest Hemingway, David Duchovny, Harrison Ford, Uma Thurman, Courteney Cox, Katie Holmes, and Mischa Barton. The Fairmont has also hosted such presidents as Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy and, just last week, Barack Obama. And it was in the hotel’s famed supper club, The Venetian Room, that Tony Bennett first sang his trademark song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

In 1945, Swig hired MGM set director Mel Melvin to transform the Plunge into a nautical-themed Chinese restaurant that he named the S.S. Tonga. While popular, Benjamin decided to redesign the place once again in the 1950s due to the advent of the tiki bar craze. The new Polynesian-themed eatery was dubbed the “Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar.”

Swig stationed a barge, complete with a thatched roof, in the center of the pool and hired bands to play on it nightly.

He also installed a large dance floor that had been constructed out of the deck of the S.S. Forester, a ship that once travelled between San Francisco and the South Sea Islands.

To say that the Tonga Room is spectacular would be a gross understatement. The place is absolutely phenomenal and my photographs really don’t do it justice. It is easily one of San Francisco’s most unique spots and it is not surprising that producers chose to feature it in the Season 16 episode of The Bachelor that was filmed in SF. Oh, and did I mention that it rains there? So freaking cool!

The Fairmont popped up during Ben Flajnik’s season in the episode titled “San Francisco, California” and was shown several times throughout the episode.

Not only were the women put up at the hotel . . .

. . . but the incredibly dramatic rose ceremony - in which Shawntel Newton (from Brad Womack’s season) barged in and was then subsequently ousted (cue Courtney saying “Sayonara”) – took place on the patio of The Fairmont’s 6,000-square-foot Penthouse Suite. Just a few of the luminaries who have stayed in the suite include President John F. Kennedy, Prince Charles, Mick Jagger, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, and Marlene Dietrich. You can check out some photographs of the space here. The library room is uh-ma-zing!

The show’s group date took place in the Tonga Room. In the episode, Ben described the restaurant as an iconic and historic San Francisco landmark, so I was shocked that I had never heard of it before, especially considering that I grew up in SF. I immediately called my mom to ask how it was that my parents had never taken me there and she replied, “We never took you there? How is that possible?” I don’t know, mom! I don’t know! I have wanted to remedy the situation ever since and am so glad that I was recently able to do so!

The Bachelor returned to The Fairmont during its current season. In the fourth episode, titled “Camping,” Bachelor Chris Soules and contestant Jillian Anderson had an extremely awkward date on the patio of the Penthouse Suite, the same spot where Ben’s rose ceremony took place.

The Fairmont has been featured in countless productions over the years, so many that it would be impossible for me to chronicle them all here. As Jim Van Buskirk and Will Shank say in their book Celluloid San Francisco, “The Fairmont has starred in so many movies that, legend has it, the doorman is required to be a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild.” Love it! A few of its notable onscreen appearances include Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. In the 1958 thriller, Madeleine Elster (Kim Novak) is shown briefly driving by the hotel.

Supposedly, the shots of San Francisco that appeared in the movie’s opening sequence were taken from the roof of The Fairmont, but I am unsure if that information is correct.

Hitchcock returned to the hotel to shoot a brief scene for 1976’s Family Plot, in which Blanche Taylor (Barbara Harris) leaves a cryptic message for George Lumley (Bruce Dern) with the doorman.

The Fairmont was used in establishing shots of the St. Gregory Hotel in the 1983 television series Hotel.

Interiors were shot on a set modeled after the inside of The Fairmont.

In the 1996 thriller The Rock, John Patrick Mason (Sean Connery) demands a suite at The Fairmont while helping the FBI with a case.

The FBI secures him the Penthouse Suite and it is on the patio that Mason gets his hair cut . . .

. . . and from which F.B.I. Director Womack (John Spencer) is thrown.

Though portions of the Penthouse interior were utilized in the filming (including the library, pictured below), I believe that most of the hotel room scenes were shot elsewhere.

And oddly enough, when Mason is shown exiting The Fairmont, he is actually standing in front of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

In the 1994 comedy Junior, an establishing shot of The Fairmont is shown as the location of the West Coast Pharmaceutical Convention.

But interiors were actually shot in the Gold Room at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

And when Dr. Alex Hesse (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Dr. Larry Arbogast (Danny DeVito) are shown leaving the convention, they are actually standing at the Biltmore’s limo ramp .

Fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, also informed me that The Fairmont was where Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) gave a speech at the National Parks Conference in the Season 6 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Moving Up.” The hotel was only used in establishing shots, though. Interior filming took place elsewhere.

The Fairmont has also appeared in Jade, Hard to Hold, Shoot the Moon, Chu Chu and the Philly Flash, A Night Full of Rain, Mother, Towering Inferno, Petulia, Midnight Lace, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Magnum Force, Kiss Them For Me, The Streets of San Francisco and The Amazing Race.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Fairmont San Francisco is located at 950 Mason Street in Nob Hill. You can visit the Fairmont’s official website here. The Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar is located on the hotel’s Terrace Level. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

February 23, 2015