The Virgil from “A Star Is Born”

I got a text from my friend Liz the other day saying, “Don’t see A Star Is Born . . . OMG!” followed by a bunch of crying face emojis.  As Liz and most of my fellow stalkers are well aware, I do not like sad or depressing movies – at all.  Liz needn’t have worried.  While I have never watched any of the A Star Is Born iterations, I am familiar enough with the storyline to know that they are just not my cup of tea.  My friend Lavonna is on the other end of the spectrum, though.  She saw the latest installment as soon as it came out, became absolutely obsessed, and, during a recent visit to L.A., stalked a bunch of its locations, including The Virgil, which masked as Bleu Bleu in an opening scene.  As fate would have it, upon arriving at the East Hollywood bar, she stumbled upon some crew members from Glow striking set pieces from a shoot that had been done on the premises the day prior.  Lavonna struck up a conversation with one them who invited her inside to take a closer look and snap pictures.  Figuring it would make for a good blog post, she forwarded the photos on to me.  And while I still have yet to see A Star Is Born, thanks to Vudu, where it is available for streaming, I was able to scan through the beginning to familiarize myself with it a bit in preparation for this write-up.

The Virgil was originally established in June 2012 by nightlife impresarios Louie and Netty Ryan, of Temple Bar Concepts, who also founded Townhouse/The Del Monte in Venice and Santa Monica’s famed Temple Bar (which is now closed), among a slew of others.

The lounge, known for its specialty craft cocktails, occupies a space on the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and North Virgil Avenue that formerly housed Little Temple, another of the Ryans’ watering holes which opened in mid-2004.  Prior to that, the site was the longtime home of The Garage, a rock club owned by Steve Edelson.

Comprised of two spacious areas, the “Stage” room and the “B Side” (the latter of which Lavonna did not get any photos of, but you can see what it looks like here), The Virgil has a distinctly bohemian vibe . . .

. . . with some Moroccan elements thrown in.

With curtains flanking wide openings . . .

. . . and unique carvings adoring various doorways, The Virgil looks like a really cool place to hang out.

In A Star Is Born, Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) pops by “Bleu Bleu” to get a drink while on his way home from a performance.  The exterior of the bar is only shown briefly in the segment.

Though, as Lavonna informed me, the billboard out front does provide some foreshadowing of the movie’s ending.  (And she wonders why I’m resisting watching it!  Yeah, that’s gonna be a hard ‘no’ from me!)

It is at The Virgil that Jack first lays eyes on Ally (Lady Gaga) as she spectacularly performs “La Vie en Rose.”

Due to low lighting and rather tight camera angles, not much of the bar can be seen in the movie.  We do get a better glimpse of it later in the scene, when Jack is invited to perform onstage while he waits for Ally after Bleu Bleu has closed for the evening.  Despite some major set dressing that was added for the shoot (which, per Vulture, took two days to complete), the place is still definitely recognizable from its appearance.

I am unsure if the Bleu Bleu dressing room segments were shot at The Virgil, as well, but I am guessing that they were.

The Virgil is also featured twice in the Season 1 episode of Strange Angel titled “The Sage,” which aired in 2018.  The B Side area first pops up as the bar where Jack Parsons (Jack Reynor) laments to his friend Ernest Donovan (Rupert Friend) about not being allowed in to an important business function.

The Stage room then masks as the gentleman’s club that Jack and Ernest visit later in the episode.

As I mentioned earlier, Glow also did some filming at The Virgil, so be sure to look for it in an upcoming episode of the third season.

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Big THANK YOU to my friend Lavonna for stalking this location for me! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Virgil, aka Bleu Bleu from A Star Is Born, is located at 4519 Santa Monica Boulevard in East Hollywood.  You can visit the bar’s official website here.

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