I would like to wish a very happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow stalkers. I hope everyone has a hearty, safe and blessed holiday. Like last year, I will be cooking tonight’s meal with my mom and am really looking forward to the endeavor, as well as the festivities of the rest of week (like getting our Christmas tree tomorrow). I will be back on Monday with a whole new post, so I’ll “see” ya then.
Some television moments are so iconic they cannot be forgotten. A few that are ingrained in my memory for the long haul – Ross and Rachel’s rain-soaked first kiss on Friends, Sam and Diane’s slapping fight on Cheers, Dylan’s epic tantrum (complete with a shattered potted plant) during his first date with Brenda on Beverly Hills, 90210, and Stassi’s discovery that ex-boyfriend Jax has gotten her name tattooed on his arm on Vanderpump Rules. The latter event took place on a beach in Lake Arrowhead, so, as you can imagine, when I ventured out to the mountain hamlet for a quick getaway this past March, stalking it was one of my top priorities. The only problem was that, try as I might, I could not find it anywhere. Not only did I scan aerial views of the lake for hours upon hours looking for the spot, but I also showed screen captures of the tattoo scene to pretty much every local I came across while in town to see if they could identify it – all to no avail. It was not until a few days after I returned home that I finally pinpointed the site of filming as the beach located at the North Shore Marina. Darn Murphy’s Law! Thankfully though, my parents, the Grim Cheaper and I ventured back out to Lake Arrowhead for another visit in late September and, this time, the North Shore Marina beach was my first stop. Well, sort of. Sadly, the vast majority of the area’s coastline, including the stretch that appeared in Vanderpump Rules, is private, so I had to settle for seeing it from afar.
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In the Season 2 episode of Vanderpump Rules titled “Only the Lonely,” Stassi Schroeder and the rest of the Sur gang head out to Lake Arrowhead to attend a Pierce the Arrow (Tom Sandoval’s band) gig. (You can read about the location where the band performed here, as well as about a couple of other sites that appeared in the episode here and here.) Upon arriving in town, the group makes a brief stop at a local beach for some paddle-boarding and sunbathing.
Though not much of the beach was shown in the episode, I was able to discern that it was situated in between a grouping of boat docks . . .
. . . and that there was some sort of two-doored building, which I figured was a public restroom, on the premises.
Though Lake Arrowhead isn’t all that big, the search for the “Only the Lonely” beach proved problematic, mainly due to the fact that overhead views of the region aren’t especially clear from any search engine. After scouring and re-scouring every inch of the area’s shoreline via Google aerials for what seemed like hours, using the layout of the docks and the shape of the shoreline as it appeared in VR as my yardsticks, I finally pinpointed the site as the small beachfront located just north of the Arrowhead Lake Association’s main office at 870 North Highway 173 in the North Shore Marina. Though the beach does not have a name or an exact address, it is situated at the northern end of the marina, at the end of Access Trail 63, adjacent and just north of Peninsula Park, as denoted in the aerial view below.
While the gang is at the beach, Stassi makes the startling discovery that Jax Taylor, whom she broke up with months prior, has just gotten her name tattooed on his arm. Dumbfounded, she immediately asks the question all viewers were thinking at the time, “Why couldn’t you have done this when we were together?” (Instead of getting a bottle service girl pregnant in Vegas, perhaps?) Tom weighs in further, cautioning those at home, “Guys, I’m telling you, do not go out getting your ex-girlfriend’s name tattooed on your arm. Nine out of ten times this leads to a restraining order. Jax just got real lucky on this one.” It should be noted that it was not actually Stassi’s name that Jax immortalized on his bicep. No, he decided to take things one step further by tattooing her signature onto his arm. And yes, he of course covered over the inking not too long after the fact (with a black rose, no less), but not before etching another girlfriend’s name onto his other arm. An FYI for those who don’t watch the show – that relationship didn’t last, either. In fact, less than a month and a half after obtaining that tat, Jax was already looking to have it obscured. As he explained to his tattoo artist, “It’s round two for me on the cover-ups.” Thankfully, Jax switched things up in Season 4 by adding the names of his two BFFs, Tom and Tom, to his forearm. (I so love that he failed to capitalize the “i.” No ragrets!)
I cannot express how badly I wanted to re-create the moment Stassi discovered the tattoo (which was captured so perfectly on film), but because the beach and entire area surrounding it are private, that was not to be.
The site is so removed from public access, in fact, that the view below is pretty much all I saw of it.
For those interested, that view can be seen from the lookout point denoted below, which is situated slightly north of the Arrowhead Lake Association’s main office on Highway 173.
The stalk was not all for naught, though, as we were afforded some gorgeous glimpses of the North Shore Marina.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: North Shore Marina, from the “Only the Lonely” episode of Vanderpump Rules, is located at 870 North Highway 173 in Lake Arrowhead. Though the beach where filming took place does not have an exact address, it can be found at the northern end of the marina, at the end of Access Trail 63, adjacent to and north of Peninsula Park. Please keep in mind that the beach is private and trespassing strictly prohibited, but you can catch a limited glimpse of it from the lookout point situated just north of Arrowhead Lake Association’s main office on Highway 173.
It has been said that everyone has their own special superpower. I don’t know if that is true or not, but if so, mine is definitely my brain’s ability to take note of small, seemingly insignificant and rather trivial details, and commit them to memory, completely of its own volition. Case in point – I have stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia on a couple of occasions over the years. Though I did not spend much time on the premises during either of my visits (typically when in L.A., I am out and about stalking during all waking hours), last year, while watching the closing scene of Veep’s Season 5 premiere, “Morning After,” in which Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simon) attempts to check into a very crowded “Carson City” hotel, I immediately recognized the orange and pink ombré curtains visible behind him as those of the Garden Inn. Had I scrutinized or taken particular note of the hotel’s lobby area during my stay? No, not at all. In fact, prior to viewing the episode, had you asked me about the HGIA’s curtains, I probably would not have been able to recall them. But as soon as the draperies entered my eye-line during Veep, something in my brain clicked and I knew immediately where filming had taken place. Because I had failed to snap any photos of the hotel on my visits and because it is one of the series’ more minor locations, I never blogged about it. But when the Grim Cheaper happened to book us another stay there a few weeks back, I decided it was finally time I do so.
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In “Morning After,” Jonah, Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky), Dan Egan (Reid Scott), and Richard Splett (Sam Richardson), along with a slew of other staffers from both the Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Bill O’Brien (Brad Leland) presidential campaigns, descend upon Carson City, Nevada to head up a recount in the area. While in town, the group stays at a local unnamed motel. The exterior shown in the episode is a partial view of the Carson City Plaza Hotel and Event Center located at 801 South Carson Street, as well as the small strip mall situated across from it at 711 South Carson. (Though I have actually been to CC, I do not have any photos of those particular spots, so you’ll have to excuse the Google Street View image below.)
All actual filming of the “Morning After” hotel scene, though, took place at the Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia. The view of the curtains in the shot below is what caught my eye while watching.
After viewing the episode, I headed over to Google to pull up images of the hotel to confirm my hunch. One look at pictures of the Hilton Garden Inn’s lobby, with its peachy curtains and uniquely-etched front doors, cinched things for me.
Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia also popped up in the next episode of Veep, titled “Nev-AD-a.” (Confused about that title? This Veep clip should clear things up.) Oddly, a different hotel exterior, that of the Carson Tahoe Hotel at 800 North Carson Street, was utilized for the establishing shot in the episode. (Again, please pardon the Google Street View image below.)
In “Nev-AD-a,” exes Dan and Amy head back to their hotel after their first day of re-counting votes . . .
. . . and are shocked to discover that their rooms are located right across from each other.
In the episode, Dan is staying in Room 129 . . .
. . . while Amy is in 130. Both of these rooms can be found on the Hilton Garden Inn’s first floor, directly off of the lobby.
I am fairly certain that the interior of room 130 (or another of the property’s rooms) was also used in the episode. Like a dolt, I did not take any photos of the room we stayed in, but as you can see in these images from the hotel’s website, the Garden Inn’s bed and lamps match what appeared onscreen.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia, from the “Morning After” and “Nev-AD-a” episodes of Veep, is located at 199 North 2nd Avenue in Arcadia. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.
While it is quite common for locations to shift after the pilot episode of a television series is shot (as I’ve mentioned countless times before on this blog), changes are typically few and far between from that point forward. The vast majority of my favorite shows tend to play fast and loose with their locales, though. On Beverly Hills, 90210, for instance, not only did two different pads portray the residence of Dylan McKay (Luke Perry), but three exteriors were used to represent both the family home of Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) and that of Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris). Then there’s Sex and the City, which completely thumbed its nose at any sort of location continuity. Though said to be at 245 East 73rd Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, no less than five properties were utilized as the apartment building where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) lived during the program’s six-season run. The initial site, a third-floor flat situated above a café (complete with a very New York-style neon “coffee” sign), which appeared in the series’ first two episodes, has long been a craw in my side. Despite many attempts to track it down over the years, I could never seem to do so. Then, a couple of months back, I decided to do a deep dive into identifying it and was finally successful. As fate would have it, my good friend Kim visited NYC shortly after my discovery and graciously agreed to stalk the place on my behalf. Thank you, Kim! When I sat down to write a post on the spot earlier this week, I got a little obsessed with pinpointing the four other properties used, as well, and, after countless hours scouring the internet, managed to ID all but one! So here I present to you a round-up of Carrie Bradshaw’s many Sex and the City apartments.
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Mention Carrie’s apartment to any SATC fan and visions of a grand brownstone with an idyllic stoop will undoubtedly come to their mind. But the spot initially used as her dwelling was not a walk-up at all, nor did it have any sort of stoop. Instead, Carrie was first shown living on the third floor of a rather non-descript building housing a coffee shop on its ground level, as I mentioned above. The structure pops up twice in the pilot – first in an opening scene and then again in the episode’s closing when Mr. Big (Chris Noth) drops Carrie off at home after running into her at a club. It is on the sidewalk in front of the property that the duo’s now iconic exchange takes place, during which Carrie asks Big, “Have you ever been in love?” to which he responds, “Absof*ckinglutely.”
As was portrayed on Sex and the City, while the bottom two levels of the building are commercial space in real life, the upper floors house apartments.
Though the apartments appear to have been modernized in recent years (as you can see here and here), I am fairly certain from the way the episode was shot that one of the units was utilized as Carrie’s in the pilot.
As you can see in the stills above from the pilot as compared to the ones below from the series’ second episode, “Models and Mortals,” Carrie’s apartment interior looked completely different in the inaugural episode than it did during the rest of the series.
In “Models and Mortals,” an establishing shot of the building appears twice. While scrutinizing the shot, I noticed a sign situated below Carrie’s apartment in which the word “Clea” and partial word “Col” could barely be made out. After a ridiculous amount of time Googling that phrasing along with “New York,” I finally landed on a mention on The Knot website of Clea Colet, a now defunct bridal wear vendor formerly located at 960 Madison Avenue. A quick look at that address on Street View confirmed that it was, indeed, Carrie’s original apartment building. Amazingly, while the second level windows were changed at some point in the 19-plus years since the first season of Sex and the City was filmed, the edifice otherwise looks much the same as it did onscreen. Though there is an eatery named 3 Guys Restaurant situated on the bottom level (it’s been there since the ‘70s!), I am fairly certain that the coffee sign visible next to Carrie’s window was not a real feature of the property, but a prop brought in for the filming.
As Kim noticed while stalking the place, a Christian Louboutin store is fittingly located right across the street.
After “Models and Mortals,” the exterior of Carrie’s apartment building is not shown again until the twelfth episode of the series, Season’s 1 finale titled “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” By that time, shooting had shifted from the Madison Avenue building to a new spot – a handsome brownstone with a picturesque stoop. In the episode, Carrie and Mr. Big break up – for the first time – outside of the structure after he refuses to tell her she is “the one.” Oddly, the site was only utilized in the one episode and while quite a bit of it was shown, I had a heck of a time tracking it down.
While doing my due diligence, I noticed that an address number of what I thought was “56” was visible on the building next door to Carrie’s brownstone in “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” I examined pretty much all of the Upper East Side, as well as Greenwich Village, looking for properties numbered 56 that matched what appeared onscreen to no avail before finally calling in my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for an assist. Though he put in a Herculean effort, spending hours perusing the Upper West Side, as well as re-tracing my searches of Upper East Side and West Village neighborhoods, he could not find the pad either.
Then fate stepped in when, while hunting for the place via Google Street View, it struck me that the number on the building next door might actually be “36.” I dragged the little yellow man to the Upper East Side once again and started scrutinizing blocks in the 30 range for the right spot. It was not long before I came across 36 East 62nd Street. I had to do a triple take, though, because while the structure at that address matched what appeared on Sex and the City to a T, there was no brownstone adjacent to it. Instead, as you can see in the Street View image below, situated directly next to the building is a vacant plot of land. As I later learned thanks to this The New York Times article, a brownstone did once stand in the vacant space at 34 East 62nd Street, but it was blown up on July 10th, 2006 by its owner, who was involved in a bitter divorce and wanted to not only commit suicide, but to seek revenge on his ex in the process. The blast incinerated the structure, as you can see in images here, here, and here.
A photo of the home from when it was still intact is pictured below via Property Shark. Hard to believe it is just gone.
Carrie’s apartment doesn’t show up again until the third episode of Season 2, titled “The Freak Show.” Well, it sort of shows up. In the episode, Carrie walks in front of a row of brownstones at the end of her non-date with Ben (Ian Kahn) and at one point stops and says, “This is me,” but the exterior of a building is never actually visible. All that is visible is a rather fuzzy view of several walk-ups with iron porch railings.
A few episodes later, in “The Caste System,” Carrie walks with performance artist/bartender Jeremiah (Sam Ball) to a row of brownstones and heads up a set of stairs, but, again, no real exterior is shown. All that is visible is a row of buildings.
In Season 2’s “La Douleur Exquise!,” we finally get a definitive look at an exterior, though it is an overhead shot of Big leaving Carrie’s apartment – after yet another break-up – in which virtually nothing of the property is shown. I believe the same set of brownstones was utilized in all three episodes, but since so little is visible, I cannot say that with any certainty, nor can I even begin to guess where they might be located.
In Season 2, episode 14, “The F*ck Buddy,” Carrie’s apartment exterior is shifted yet again – this time to a brownstone at 64 Perry Street in the West Village. I found this locale thanks to a 2016 post on the StreetEasy Blog which mentioned the property’s use during the series’ early years.
Though very little of the exterior of Carrie’s brownstone is shown in “The F*ck Buddy,” thanks to its distinctive porch railing and some landmarks visible in the background, I was able to discern that 64 Perry was indeed the spot used.
64 Perry also appeared in Season 2’s “Was It Good for You?”
If the address sounds familiar, that is because the brownstone utilized as Carrie’s from the Season 3 premiere, titled “Where There’s Smoke . . . “, onward can be found right next door at 66 Perry Street. Why production decided to shift locales yet again to a brownstone located literally one door away from the previous one used is a mystery.
Though 66 Perry is undeniably charming and picturesque (that’s a picture of me on the stoop taken way back in 2004) and it is not hard to see how it came to be used on the series, as why it wasn’t chosen for filming during Season 2 instead of its neighbor . . . well, your guess is as good as mine.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to my friend Kim for stalking Carrie’s first apartment for me and to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for helping in the hunt for her second apartment! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment from the first two episodes of Sex and the City is located at 960 Madison Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side. The brownstone used in “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” was formerly located at 34 East 62nd Street, also on the Upper East Side, but no longer stands. Her home from the latter part of Season 2 can be found at 64 Perry Street in the West Village. And the brownstone used from Season 3 on is right next door at 66 Perry.
When not stalking or shopping, you can typically find me perusing fashion and beauty blogs. There are several I frequent daily including Gal Meets Glam, Atlantic-Pacific, Merrick’s Art, Cupcakes and Cashmere, and Hello Gorgeous. The latter was founded by Angela Lanter, wife of fave actor Matt Lanter. I started reading her site because of the Matt connection (obvs), but it didn’t take long for Angela to seriously grow on me and become one of my favorite online personalities. Her blog is worthy of a visit for the Halloween make-up tutorials alone (this one is my favorite), but she posts fabulous fashion, cosmetics, lifestyle and décor tips no matter what time of year. (Her beauty room is honestly the stuff dreams are made of!) Up until just recently, the Hello Gorgeous home page featured a photograph of Angela in front of an extremely picturesque wall dotted with pink and red lipstick marks. I was, of course, immediately taken with the colorful backdrop and set out to locate it. One quick Google search of the terms “wall,” “pink lips,” and “Los Angeles,” led me to this Los Angeles magazine article titled “Where to Find L.A.’s Most Instagrammed Walls IRL.” The blurb cataloged 9 of the city’s most photogenic backdrops, Number 7 being the “The Hello Lips Wall” at Carrera Café. Though a cursory internet search showed me the mural had long since been covered over with a new painting (the Beverly Grove coffee shop regularly changes up its exterior art), I became utterly intrigued with the place for a different reason.
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Google “Carrera Café” and, along with shots of the ubiquitous lips wall, your screen will be inundated with photos of lattes with perfect re-creations of celebrity images imprinted into the foam. One look at this pic of a frothy Leonardo DiCaprio had me absolutely smitten and I added the address of the coffee shop to the very top of my To-Stalk List. Though I wasn’t planning on traveling to L.A. for a couple of weeks, I set right out to determine which star would be donning my drink. After scouring pictures of Leo, actor Jeremy Renner, and cutie crooner Michael Bublé, I eventually settled on the image below, which was taken by fashion photographer Evaan Kheraj. At that point, I could hardly wait to head out to the café and when I finally did, the visit did not disappoint.
Carrera Café is able to create its latte masterpieces thanks to a machine known as the Ripple Maker. That’s it below.
The innovative and ingenious device is capable of etching any image or design onto the top of a frothy espresso drink. Oh, if only it was sold for home use!
The way the Ripple Maker works is quite simple. In order for the magic to occur, customers must download the Coffee Ripples app on their smartphones. Then, when in range of a café that utilizes the machine, they can upload an image of their choice to the app and crop and customize it to their liking. Hitting the “Ripple It” button sends the photo to the Ripple Maker and assigns the customer an order number. Patrons give that number to the cashier upon arrival and order an espresso drink of their choosing. (The Ripple Maker can even create images on top of iced drinks, which I was thrilled to learn as I am not a huge fan of hot coffee. In this case, though, I opted for a hot latte as I did not realize until later that iced versions were available.) The customer then pays for their drink at the register and the barista pulls the espresso and mixes the coffee confection, after which the cup is put underneath the Ripple Maker and voila, the uploaded image is stamped onto the foam topping!
Just a little bit excited to be drinking a Michael Bublé latte!
Best-looking java I’ve ever had!
The Grim Cheaper was not at all impressed with my image of choice, though, and ran his fingers right through the top of it as soon as I was done taking photos! Perhaps I was a bit too gleeful over my creation. 
Opened in late 2016, Carrera Café, which is named for the white and grey marble that forms its countertops, is an absolutely adorable little spot.
I was especially enamored of the bubble gum pink payphone.
Considering its charming décor, it is no surprise that the place has popped up onscreen. In the Season 7 episode of Vanderpump Rules titled “Tom and Tommer,” which aired in 2019, Lala Kent and Scheana Shay meet up at Carrera Café where they discuss Scheana’s tumultuous relationship with the rest of the Sur girls.
Besides espresso specialties, the café also serves a variety of sandwiches, salads, vegetable side dishes, and pastries.
The GC and I decided to grab a bite to eat while there, opting for the Il Tacchino sandwich, which consisted of roasted turkey breast, provolone cheese, iceberg lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, Dijon mustard, and mayonnaise. It was honestly one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had!
At the time that we visited, Carrera Café’s exterior wall was covered with a mural advertising ABC’s new show The Mayor. I have to say that I much prefer the pink lips painting. I really wish I had gotten to see it in person.
Otherwise though, our visit could not have been more perfect and I cannot wait to go back – which means I better get busy choosing the next celebrity image I am going to use to decorate my drink!
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Carrera Café is located at 8251 Melrose Avenue in Beverly Grove. You can visit the eatery’s official website here and you can download the Coffee Ripples app here.
I’ve made no secret of my love for Big Little Lies over the past couple of months (you can read my many posts on its filming locations here, here, here, and here), so it should come as no surprise that the HBO miniseries figured into my and the Grim Cheaper’s 2017 Halloween costumes. Interestingly though, this year marked the first time I’ve ever chosen a costume based on earrings alone. One look at the pink tassels hanging from Madeline Martha Mackenzie’s (Reese Witherspoon) lobes in the final episode, titled “You Get What You Need,” as well as in the weekly opening credits, and I knew there was no one else I’d rather dress up as. Thankfully, the ensemble was quite easy to put together.
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For those who haven’t seen Big Little Lies (and if that’s you, you must rectify the situation immediately – it was easily the best show of 2017, in my never-to-be-humble opinion), the series culminates with a massive Audrey-Hepburn-and-Elvis-Presley-themed costume party extravaganza titled “Trivia Night.” Though all of the characters’ Trivia Night costumes are pretty darn amazing, Madeline’s stole the show for me. Instead of the ubiquitous Breakfast at Tiffany’s LBD, Madeline chooses to dress in Holly Golightly’s (Hepburn) famous tuxedo shirt pajamas and blue sleep mask.
Though I typically do not appreciate it when changes are made to an iconic costume (I am of the firm belief that if you are going to dress like an iconic character, you should do so as precisely as possible), in this case, I thought the alterations BLL costume designers made to the ensemble only enhanced the look – especially the bright pink tassel earrings Madeline donned in lieu of Holly’s purple tassel ear plugs. I hate to say this in case any Breakfast at Tiffany’s purists might be reading, but Big Little Lies did the tuxedo pajamas outfit better.
Obviously, the earrings were the most important part of the getup for me, so when putting together my costume, I started with them. While I found a few that were similar to Madeline’s online, none had tassels quite as large as the ones she wore. So I decided to make them myself – with some help from the GC.
Madeline’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s ensemble was recently on display at the FIDM Museum in downtown Los Angeles as part of the 11th Annual Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design. Though I, sadly, did not get to see it in person, thanks to the image below, posted by the museum on Instagram, I got a close-up view of the earrings which let me know exactly what I needed to purchase.
I searched high and low for fuchsia tassels and finally found the perfect ones on Etsy – the Silky Luxe Jewelry Tassels in Color #54 from Woman Shops World. Hobby Lobby was my next stop where I picked up this Faux Turquoise Beaded Bracelet Connector (which I cut apart to use for the earring’s blue beads) and this Gold Plated Findings Starter Pack for the rest of the earring parts. I ended up buying additional jump rings, eye pins, and gold beads (the latter two I can’t find links for) at Michaels.
The GC actually constructed the earrings for me and, while doing so involved some trial and error, they turned out exactly how I wanted.
The rest of my costume was a snap to put together. The sleep mask came from the SvetlanaCO Etsy store and the tuxedo shirt from Men’s Warehouse. I ended up having to purchase a Big and Tall shirt to get the length right (the regular-sized tops were far too short for my comfort zone) and have it drastically altered in width. I also added some extra black buttons as the shirt originally only came with four. Though Madeline completed her look with pink Marabou slippers, I decided to wear a black pair that I already owned. To finish things off, I put my hair up in a very poofy half-ponytail and voila! Madeline came alive.
For Trivia Night, Madeline’s husband, Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott), dresses as Elvis’ Chad Gates character from the movie Blue Hawaii. To re-create the look, we purchased the Hawaiian Hangover Aloha Shirt in Hibiscus Red from Walmart for the GC. Completing the outfit was a multi-colored lei from Party City, which he paired with khakis and flip flops he already owned.
To celebrate, we headed down to San Diego to attend the 8th annual Hallo-Wine & Spirits Party at Hotel Del Coronado with one of my best friends Kylee. I blogged about the Del way back in 2008, so I won’t re-hash its vast history and lengthy filming locations resume here. As I mentioned in that post, the hotel has always been a very special place for my family. Not only have we vacationed there countless times, but my surprise 21st birthday party was held in the iconic Crown Room in 1998 and my parents and I spent New Year’s Eve 1999 on the property. For the latter, Hotel Del put on what is easily the best party I have ever been to, complete with dinner, dancing, a live band, and a midnight balloon drop. After that experience and after seeing this video, I had majorly high hopes for the Hallo-Wine & Spirits soiree. Sadly, it did not live up to my expectations. While fun, I wouldn’t say the party was anywhere near worth the ticket price. Besides the fact that the decorations were seriously lacking, there were not enough chairs for the majority of people in attendance. Dinner was a mix of a buffet (the food was great, incidentally – the Baked Jack o’ Lantern is honestly one of the best things I’ve ever eaten!) and wine-tasting, so guests obviously wound up in possession of numerous plates and glasses. For some inexplicable reason, though, there was a major shortage of tables – and surface area in general – on which to put them, and virtually nowhere to sit. Most attendees were left to stand holding plates precariously stacked on top of other plates, wine glasses at their feet, awkwardly trying to eat. By the second hour of the dinner portion of the evening, Kylee could hardly stand, her feet were hurting so badly, which didn’t bode well for the dancing that was to come. I will say that I was majorly impressed with the party-goers costumes, though. People went all out and I absolutely LOVED seeing the creativity and detail that went into the many outfits.
While I am definitely glad we attended Hallo-Wine & Spirits and we all had a good time (I pretty much find it impossible to have a bad time no matter where I am), I don’t think I’d go back next year, nor can I really recommend the party to my fellow stalkers, sadly. So the search is on to find a fun Halloween activity for 2018!
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Hotel Del Coronado is located at 1500 Orange Avenue on Coronado Island. You can visit the hotel’s official website here and you can find information about the annual Hallo-Wine & Spirits Party here.
I would like to wish all of my fellow stalkers a very Happy Halloween! The Grim Cheaper and I were away all weekend celebrating the holiday with one of our best friends in San Diego, so I do not have a new post for today, unfortunately. And my grandma is currently in town visiting for the next three weeks, so blog posts during the coming month will be a bit scarce. I will still be posting, but probably only twice a week, so please bear with me.
Happy Halloween!
The Grim Cheaper is a celebrity magnet. Literally everywhere he goes, he runs into someone famous. It’s maddening because 90% of these encounters occur when I am not with him. Like the time he stopped by a Starbucks while on his way to a business meeting and saw Keanu Reeves sitting outside. Or the night he ate dinner at a table next to Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart and then watched as the two flew off on their private plane from the airport situated adjacent to the restaurant. And I won’t even get into that day he popped into a Circuit City (remember those?) to find Britney Spears perusing the CD aisle. The encounter that was easily the most painful for me, though, was the time he spotted Christian Slater in a grocery store. That one killed this ‘80s lover’s heart. I was so bummed that as soon as he texted me about it, I hopped in my car and drove to the market to see if I could spot the actor. Sadly, he was long gone by the time I got there. That was years ago, but to this day, every time I am in that particular store, I can’t help but scan every square inch of the place for a possible Christian sighting. Oddly, while I have always loved Slater, I never liked what is arguably his most popular movie, Heathers. I did stalk one of its main locations, John Adams Middle School, a couple of years back, though, and figured what better time to blog about it than during my annual Haunted Hollywood postings.
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And no, I did not have a brain tumor for breakfast. I am fully aware that Heathers does not exactly fit into the scary movie genre. But as Horror Freak News stated in a 2015 article, “Heathers isn’t a horror movie (or even a horror comedy) but the irreverent film (released in 1988) has a body count to rival most teen-slashers. And besides, for Horror Freaks who came of age during the 1980s, Heathers was essential viewing!” Anyone who doesn’t feel the flick fits in with my Haunted Hollywood theme can go do you-know-what with a chain saw. 
The movie’s fictional Westerburg High School (named for Paul Westerberg, the lead singer of The Replacements, Winona Ryder’s favorite band at the time of the filming), supposedly located in Sherwood, Ohio, is actually an amalgamation of a few different L.A.-area places. Interior scenes, as well as a few exteriors, were shot at what was then Osaka Sangyo University Education Center (OSULA), but is currently Bridges Academy, at 3921 Lauren Canyon Boulevard in Studio City. You can check out some photos of the inside of Bridges here. As you can see, it looks much the same today as it did when Heathers was shot almost 30 years ago. The lockers are even still green!
The most recognizable spot used to portray Westerburg, though, is easily John Adams Middle School, at 2425 16th Street in Santa Monica, which appeared in the vast majority of Heathers’ exterior school scenes. John Adams’ rear parking lot, situated off of 17th Street in the northeast portion of the campus, popped up countless times throughout the movie.
But it is the site’s auditorium that should be most memorable to fans.
In Heathers, John Adams’ auditorium, which is located in the north portion of the campus along Pearl Street, masked as the exterior of Westerburg’s gym.
The structure was featured several times in the flick. It was in front of the auditorium that, in the immortal words of Heather Duke (my girl Shannen Doherty), Martha ‘Dumptruck’ Dunnstock (Carrie Lynn) “tried to buy the farm” by belly-flopping “in front of a car wearing a suicide note.” Spoiler alert – Martha lives through the event in what Heather so eloquently describes as “just another case of a geek trying to imitate the popular people and failing miserably.” (Heathers is nothing if not a wellspring of great one-liners!)
Most notably, the auditorium was the site of Heathers’ infamously explosive climax in which Veronica (Ryder) thwarts J.D.’s (Slater) nefarious plan to “infect a generation” by blowing up a gym full of students during a pep rally. Instead, J.D. winds up detonating the bomb on himself at the bottom of John Adam’s auditorium steps, while Veronica lights a cigarette using the ensuing flames. Man, the movie is dark! I had forgotten how much so until my latest re-watch, which had me shuddering. Heathers is not just dark, it’s pitch black!
Only the exterior of John Adams’ auditorium was used in Heathers (you can check out what the inside of the building looks like here) and, unfortunately, I am unsure of where interior gym scenes were shot. While the campus does boast a large gymnasium where I thought filming might possibly have occurred, as you can see in these photographs as compared to the screen captures below, it does not match the space that appeared in the movie. Filming did not take place at Bridges’ gym, which you can see pictures of here and here, either. And while several internet sources claim that the gym scenes were shot at Verdugo Hills High School, as you can see in this YouTube video, that does not appear to be the case.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: John Adams Middle School, aka Westerburg High School from Heathers, is located at 2425 16th Street in Santa Monica. The parking lot from the movie is situated off of 17th Street in the northeast portion of the campus and the auditorium can be found off Pearl Street in the northern section.
Oh, do I love a good ghost story! Back in 2014, my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, sent me an article about a well in New York that was the site of an infamous 1799 murder. The seven-foot by five-foot well, situated in the basement of a SoHo building that housed a restaurant for many years, but at the time of the article’s printing was being transformed into a COS clothing store outpost, was cited as one of the most haunted spots in the U.S. With the clipping came a note from Owen, saying, “If you come to NYC, maybe you can get access to the basement for a future Haunted Hollywood post.” As you can imagine, reading the blurb had my tongue wagging. I immediately added the address to my Manhattan To-Stalk List and began researching the case, despite the fact that I had no plans of traveling to the Big Apple. Flash forward to April 2016. Shortly before the Grim Cheaper and I headed to New York for a last minute trip, I started madly combing through my list of area locales to compose a coherent stalking itinerary. (Said itinerary was even color-coded! I kid you not.) One of the spots I, of course, looked into was the well. By then, COS had opened and I was thrilled to discover, via countless photos on the boutique’s Yelp page, that the well was no longer located in an inaccessible basement, but in the men’s department on the shop’s lower level!
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For those not familiar with the case, here’s a brief breakdown. On the evening of December 22nd, 1799, Gulielma Elmore Sands, or “Elma” as she was better known, walked out of the Greenwich Street boardinghouse where she lived, never to be heard from again. Though she had informed her cousin, Catherine, that she was planning to elope with her rumored boyfriend, Levi Weeks, that night and the two were later spotted by several witnesses riding on a sleigh together, at some point things took a sinister turn. When Elma failed to return home, Catherine asked Levi about the events of the evening, but he claimed not to have been with her. It wasn’t until eleven days later that her body was discovered thanks to some boys who noticed a piece of clothing floating at the top of a Manhattan Water Company well near where they were playing and notified police. Using grappling hooks, detectives probed the well and quickly uncovered Elma’s waterlogged corpse. Her neck showed the telltale signs of strangulation. Levi was charged with her murder shortly thereafter. But the young defendant had a trick up his sleeve. Thanks to his wealthy brother, Ezra, he secured Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr (yes, that Aaron Burr) as his legal counsel. The two-day trial that followed, the first recorded murder trial in U.S. history, became a maelstrom of media reports and public scrutiny. It was definitely the Trial of the Century – the 18th century.
The case was considered a slam-dunk for the prosecution. Not only was Levi reported to have been in a romantic relationship with Elma and the last person to see her alive, but Sands was rumored to be pregnant, which pointed to a motive. Public outcry against Weeks hit the zenith point. Hamilton and Burr were no slouches, though. They painted Elma as a woman of highly questionable morals and fingered pretty much every other man in the county as possible culprits, creating a massive amount of reasonable doubt. After just minutes of deliberation, the jury found Levi not guilty. Sounds a lot like that other so-called Trial of the Century. In fact, many articles about Elma’s murder refer to Burr and Hamilton as the “original Dream Team.” The events that followed the verdict also parallel the O.J. proceedings, with Week’s lawyers faring about as well post-trial as their 1995 counterparts. Hamilton was killed in a famous duel in 1804, shot by former legal partner Burr, which destroyed the one-time Vice President’s political career. Rumor has it the judge who presided over the trial just up and vanished one day, never to be seen again. And Weeks was so hated, he was forced to skip town. Elma never found justice via the court system, but maybe karma stepped in on this one. Amazingly, the case is still talked about today, more than 200 years after the fact. That is in large part thanks to a restaurant named Manhattan Bistro.
In 1954, the four-story Federal-style building that had been erected on the site of the well in 1817 was purchased by the DaGrossa family, who opened up a Franco-American eatery on the lower level. Manhattan Bistro became a local favorite and in 1980, the family decided to excavate the basement in order to create space for an office. During the project, a large brick well was unearthed. I am unsure of how its connection to Elma Sands was determined and, while some dispute its affiliation with the famous case (you can read their thoughts here and here), it did not take long for stories about the murder to spread once again. Tales of the building being haunted by a woman followed and soon patrons were asking to be shown the well while dining. The rest, as they say, is history.
In 2010, the well was even detailed in an episode of the Travel Channel series Ghost Stories – Season 2’s “Elma Sands,” which you can watch here.
Restaurant manager Thomas King tells of many instances of hauntings in the episode. One such tale, which was also chronicled in the book Ghosthunting New York City, had me shuttering. As King tells it, one evening he ventured down to the basement to grab a bottle of wine from the large cage that contained the eatery’s liquor. He unlocked the space, left the key in the lock, and stepped to the back wall to grab the bottle. When he turned around a few minutes later, he saw that the gate had been locked behind him and the keys placed on a box just out of reach. It was an hour before anyone noticed Thomas missing and headed downstairs to rescue him.
While Manhattan Bistro looks like it was a cute little spot, it was shuttered in 2013 after more than five decades in business for reasons I am not aware of. Perhaps Elma cursed the place. I mean, its Yelp reviews were downright terrible! In May 2014, Schimenti Construction was hired to gut and reconstruct the building as a COS (short for Collection of Style) clothing store. According to the article Owen sent me, though the overhaul was major, Schimenti was asked to preserve the site’s windows, façade, and infamous well. The boutique opened its doors in December 2014.
COS’ head of communications Atul Pathak touted the site’s famous past in a 2015 The Village Voice article and described the lengths the company went to in preserving the well, saying, “The historic prevalence of the space only adds to its appeal, as we are a brand that is committed to maintaining and restoring the original aspects and individual features of all of our buildings. At COS, we appreciate the importance of incorporating our core aesthetic of modern, timeless, and functional design into our store interiors. Prior to the store’s opening in December 2014, repairs were made to some of the bricks and mortar and the left side of the well, which was broken, was repaired.”
What’s odd is that, for a company that went to such pains to restore the well, the employees could not have been less interested in speaking about it, to the point that they were downright rude. When I first arrived at COS, I ventured up to one of the women working on the main level to ask if she could point me in the direction of the well. She rolled her eyes and said it was downstairs. I asked if she happened to know any tidbits about the restoration or why the company had been so keen on salvaging it and she told me she had no idea what I was talking about. Still hopeful (I’m nothing if not an eternal optimist), I then ventured downstairs, where I happened to come across another employee and a manager of some sort. They had just about as much interest in speaking with me as the woman upstairs and claimed not to have any idea why the well had been kept intact. Their demeanor was rather surprising considering this sentence in The Village Voice: “Just like the diners of yore, the store, Pathak expects, will have some inquisitive customers — and he says COS is pleased to provide a setting where the structure can be a focal point of the store’s interior.” Sadly, that was not my experience.
In fact, the employees were almost hostile in their attitude toward me, so much so that the Grim Cheaper, who literally never shops (especially at pricier places like COS – he didn’t earn that nickname for nothing!), had been looking at a blazer while we were there and was shockingly about to purchase it (had it in his hands and was heading to the counter) when he overheard my interaction with the manager. As I walked over to him, he turned on his heel, returned to the rack, hung the blazer back up, and said, “No way I’m patronizing this place.” Judging from the Yelp reviews, I am hardly the only one who has had a bad experience at the store. Maybe Elma really has cursed the building, condemning any business that operates there to a lifetime of bad Yelp reviews! Regardless of the rather unfriendly employees, I was still thrilled to see the haunting relic in person.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for telling me about this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: COS is located at 129 Spring Street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. The well from the Manhattan Well Murder of 1799 can be found in the men’s department on the store’s lower level.
I am always tickled when I spot a location I have already stalked pop up in additional productions. Amazingly, that happened twice in the past month with today’s locale, the former Highland Park branch of the Security Trust & Savings Bank. I originally learned of the site thanks to its many appearances as the Battle Creek Police Department/FBI field office on CBS’ short-lived 2015 series Battle Creek, which was one of my and the Grim Cheaper’s favorites. I ran out to stalk the building the day after the show was given the ax, just prior to writing this Scene It Before post for Los Angeles magazine. Flash forward to earlier this month. Not only did I spy the branch in a Season 1 episode of my and the GC’s latest obsession, Leverage, which we have been feverishly binge-watching on Netflix, but I also recognized it immediately as the apartment building where Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) lived in the 2016 horror movie Lights Out, the main house from which I blogged about on October 3rd. So I figured that, even though I previously covered the building for LA mag, it was worthy of its own Haunted Hollywood write-up.
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The Security Trust & Savings Bank’s Highland Park branch was designed in 1923 by Parkinson & Parkinson, the father-and-son architecture team that also gave us Union Station (which I briefly blogged about here), Bullocks Wilshire (which I blogged about here), and Los Angeles City Hall (an oft-used filming spot that I somehow have yet to stalk).
Throughout the 1920s, Parkinson & Parkinson built a series of branches for the Security Trust chain, all of which boasted very similar brick and concrete Renaissance Revival-style façades. While there were about a dozen of the structures dotting the L.A. landscape at one time, most have been lost to the wrecking ball. But the Highland Park outpost still stands.
As does its sister branch and virtual twin, the former Security Trust & Savings Bank at 5303 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, which was erected in 1926 and currently houses The Federal Bar. That property (pictured below) has appeared in everything from Perception to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to Parks and Recreation. You can read my 2015 post on it here.
The Highland Park structure, Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #575, boasts 2 stories (plus a basement), 11,500 square feet of space, and a marble and granite interior.
I managed to snap a photo of that interior, which is really quite spectacular, through one of the building’s side windows while I was there.
I am unsure of the exact date that Security Trust & Savings shuttered the Highland Park branch or what the site was utilized for afterwards. In recent years, though, the property has been the cause of much controversy, beginning in 2004 when City Councilman Ed Reyes started spearheading a campaign to transform it into a “constituent service center” that would provide office space to several municipal departments. The only problem with Ed’s project, which was dubbed “Highland Park City Hall,” was that the building’s then owner, Dr. Richard Rutgard, wasn’t interested in selling – at least not for the price that was being proposed. The original bid of $1,590,000, made on September 30th, 2004, was quickly denied. In 2006, a higher offer of $2 million was introduced, but it was, again, declined. The city continued to make offers up until March 2007, to no avail. Then, the following month, a move was made to acquire the former bank branch via imminent domain. Rutgard subsequently filed a lawsuit and, though he did lose the property, he was eventually awarded a settlement of $725,000 in 2009.
The Highland Park City Hall project never found its footing, though, and the former bank was left vacant and unused, except for the occasional filming. And then things got really hinky. Per the California Code of Civil Procedure, if a site is taken over via imminent domain, the city has ten years to either complete its plans with said site or propose a reauthorization of the existing stated public use. If neither of those actions are taken, the property must be offered back to its original owner. In this case, the city did not complete (or even begin) the renovation project within the decade. And while a reauthorization was proposed, it was not done so by the ten-year deadline. Regardless of that fact and over objections from Rutgard’s lawyers, according to The Eastsider website council members went ahead and approved the reauthorization. What the wha? Talk about shady! Not to mention unethical and seemingly illegal (though I’m no lawyer, so what do I know?). I am unsure of where this leaves the bank, but hopefully it will be rehabilitated and brought back to its original glory à la The Federal in the near future.
Security Trust & Savings Bank’s Highland Park branch pops up a couple of times toward the beginning of Lights Out. It is there that Teresa first sees – and gets attacked – by the shadowy being that has been tormenting her brother at night. For those who have not seen the movie, the utterly creepy segment involves Teresa waking up to discover the specter at the end of her bed. If you’re feeling brave, you can check out a portion of the scene via the movie’s trailer here.
The bank building is shown from both its Avenue 56 and Figueroa Street sides in the film.
Only the exterior of the site appeared in Lights Out. The interior of Rebecca’s apartment was a soundstage-built set.
As I mentioned earlier, Security Trust’s Highland Park branch was also featured in an early episode of Leverage. In Season 1’s “The Bank Shot Job,” which aired in 2008, the building portrayed the Imperial Valley Bank in Juan, California, where Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton) and his team thwarted a robbery.
The structure’s real life interior appeared in the episode, as well.
As I also mentioned earlier, the former bank portrayed Battle Creek PD on Battle Creek. Only the building’s Avenue 56 side was ever shown on the series.
The inside was not utilized, either. The interior of the Battle Creek Police Department, as well as that of the FBI field office were sets.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Security Trust & Savings Bank’s Highland Park branch, aka Rebecca’s apartment from Lights Out, is located at 5601 North Figueroa Street in Highland Park.