The “Secrets and Lies” Brothel

I found the second season of Secrets and Lies abysmal – which is surprising being that, on paper, it contained several elements that should have made it a sure-fire hit in my book.  Murder mystery premise?  Check!  Shot in L.A.?  Check!  And it starred both AnnaLynne McCord (from my beloved 90210) and David James Elliott (one of my all-time favorite cuties).  Considering I couldn’t have loved the first season more, especially its locations, Season 2 turned out to be a major disappointment.  There was one locale I became fairly obsessed with, though – the Cape Cod-style dwelling from which Melanie Warner (McCord) ran a high-class brothel.  The house not only figured prominently in the season’s storyline, but was extremely idyllic and picturesque.  So I, of course, immediately set about tracking it down, which wound up being a more fruitful venture than watching Secrets and Lies through to the end.  (What the heck was that finale, amirite?  I was not at all shocked to hear the series was given the ax a few months after its airing.  But I digress.)

On Secrets and Lies, Melanie’s brothel is said to be at 8686 Mint Hill Drive in Charlotte, North Carolina.  A fake “8686” address placard was even placed on the exterior of the residence for the shoot.

While watching the episode titled “The Statement,” though, I noticed that “4735” was painted on the curb of a neighboring house barely visible in the background.  I had an inkling the brothel was most likely located in Encino, thanks to its seemingly new construction (the city has been a hotbed of new home activity as of late, especially Cape Cod-style properties which pop up on the regular), so I did a search for residences numbered 4735 in the area and was led to a pad at 4735 Yarmouth Avenue.  When I dropped Street View’s little yellow man in front of that address and turned him around, there was the Secrets and Lies brothel staring me in the face.  In reality, it can be found at 4720 Yarmouth.

My hunch about the pad being newly constructed turned out to be correct.  The massive estate was custom-built in 2013 for its then owner.  The residence previously situated on the premises (pictured in the Google Street View image from 2012 below) was much more modest in both size and style.

The new house consists of 5 bedrooms, a whopping 7 baths (one is resort-style with a standalone tub), 6,347 square feet of living space, a chef’s kitchen, a walk-in pantry and a butler’s pantry, a double Calacatta marble island (because one is never enough), both cathedral and coffered ceilings, a formal dining room, a breakfast room, multiple fireplaces (including one outside), a master suite with a sitting room and his-and-her walk-in closets (why, oh why, do the Grim Cheaper and I not have those?), a gym, guest/maids’ quarters, and a 0.45-acre lot with a covered patio, a fire pit, a pool (with a slide!), a spa, a BBQ, a sport court, a putting green, and a covered pool pavilion with three – count ‘em! – three TVs.  Talk about amenities goals!

The sprawling estate last sold in July 2016 for $3,950,000.

You can check out some interior photos of the place here.  And yes, they’re straight up real estate porn!

The brothel popped up numerous times during the second season of Secrets and Lies, beginning with the episode titled “The Detective” in which Melanie’s husband, Patrick Warner (Charlie Barnett), first finds out about his wife’s illicit business venture.

We don’t get a great view of the pad until “The Statement,” though, in the scene in which Patrick’s brother, Eric Warner (Michael Ealy), stops by the property to investigate what has been going on there.  As you can see, the residence is currently much more covered over with foliage than it was when filming took place in late 2015.

While the real interior also appeared in “The Statement,” as well as in the episode that followed titled “The Racket,” the shots were far too tight and contained too much movement for me to be able to get any useable screen shots.

Thanks to IMDB, I learned that the same house was utilized as the residence of Roger Murtaugh (Damon Wayans) and his family during Season 2 of the Lethal Weapon television series.  (In Season 1, a different home at 3816 Longridge Avenue in Sherman Oaks portrayed the Murtaugh pad.)

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Melanie’s brothel from Secrets and Lies is located at 4720 Yarmouth Avenue in Encino.  Ali’s (Elisabeth Shue) house from The Karate Kid can be found right around the corner at 4072 Alonzo Avenue.

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