Year: 2019

The Union Theological Seminary Rotunda from “The Ice Storm”

Locations have been making impressions on me for ages, long before I even knew stalking was a thing. Case in point – way back in 1997 while watching The Ice Storm, I became fixated on the ornate stone staircase Libbets Casey (Katie Holmes) walked down in an early scene. Even though I only saw the movie once, those stairs were ingrained in my head. So when I started location hunting years later, I, of course, put some time into searching for them. Though I knew they had to be in New York or Connecticut, where the bulk of The Ice Storm was shot, I came up empty. Then, shortly before my April 2016 trip to the Big Apple, I saw the stairs pop up in an episode of White Collar and decided to revisit the hunt. Once again, I was unsuccessful. So I called in my friend Owen for an assist. And while I had yet to send him screen captures of the steps, he miraculously wrote me back in a matter of minutes saying he had come across a mention on the White Collar TV Live Journal site that noted the show did some filming at Union Theological Seminary in Morningside Heights, which he thought might be the spot I was seeking. One look at photos told me it was! I also quickly gleaned that while the school is closed to the public, it is available for special events. So I wrote to an events coordinator on staff, explained my fascination with the staircase, and asked if I might be able to tour it while in NYC. I was thrilled to receive a response shortly thereafter with a date and time to show up!

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As my tour guide explained, the staircase used in The Ice Storm is known as The Rotunda in real life. It is situated in the John Crosby Brown Memorial Tower, just beyond the campus’ main entrance.

Situated at the corner of West 120th Street and Broadway, the sprawling English Gothic-style campus is actually Union Theological Seminary’s third location. The Christian school, which educates those wishing to lead a life dedicated to the church, was initially established in a small building in Lower Manhattan in January 1836. With space for only a scant thirty pupils, it was not long before the need for a new, larger facility arose. Union Theological Seminary first re-located to Lenox Hill in 1884, but by the 1890s that site had been outgrown as well. So in 1904, a 36-lot plot of land in Morningside Heights was secured for a new school location. Architects Francis Richmond Allen and Charles Collens were tapped to design it. Construction began in 1908 and was completed in 1910.

As professor emeritus Daniel Johnson Fleming said of the new campus, “The Directors of the Seminary had as one of their aims that the very buildings should become an element in the education of those who live and study within its walls.”

I’d say Allen and Collens certainly delivered on that goal.

The Rotunda, constructed of marble and featuring a vaulted ceiling with rosette detailing, is literally breathtaking.

The three-story vestibule, which serves as Union Theological Seminary’s entrance hall, boasts fan tracery ornamentation that culminates in a central point showcasing the shields of the University of Edinburgh, the University of Cambridge, the City of Geneva, and the Westminster Assembly.

As I explained in my email plea for a tour, “I have to admit that I did not even like the movie The Ice Storm. But I took one look at Katie Holmes walking down the curved staircase and thought it was one of the most beautiful spaces I had ever seen.”

In person it was even more striking!

I literally couldn’t stop taking photos of the grand space.

It is not at all hard to see how The Rotunda wound up onscreen.

Because Union Theological Seminary itself is such a prolific film star, I decided it best to just focus on The Rotunda’s many onscreen cameos for this particular post.

I’ll cover the school as a whole in a future article.

It is on The Rotunda stairwell that Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) attempts to make a connection with Libbets over the writings of Dostoyevsky at the beginning of The Ice Storm. Hauntingly beautiful, it is no surprise that the space stayed with me all these years.

As I mentioned, The Rotunda also popped up in an episode of White Collar. In Season 3’s “Upper West Side Story,” which aired in 2012, Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) and Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) walk down the staircase while investigating a case at what is said to be Manhattan Prep.

Our tour guide was kind enough to fill me in on several of The Rotunda’s other cameos.

Claire (Mimi Rogers) walks through The Rotunda with her sister, Rose Morgan (Barbra Streisand), on the way to her wedding ceremony in the 1996 dramedy The Mirror Has Two Faces.

Detectives Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) descend the staircase and walk through the halls of Union Theological Seminary, which is standing in for The Crestborne School, while investigating a former teacher in the Season 2 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit titled “Abuse.” The episode, which aired in 2001, features a very young Hayden Panettiere in a guest role.

Interestingly, Benson and Stabler briefly revisit The Rotunda (the bottom level of it is visible behind them in the cap below) in another episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that guest-starred Hayden Panettiere – Season 6’s “Hooked,” which aired in 2005.

The duo once again heads to Union Theological while investigating the murder of a student at the fictional Morewood School in the Season 10 episode of SVU titled “Hothouse,” which aired in 2009.

Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts) is told by President Jocelyn Carr (Marian Seldes) that she has gotten complaints regarding her teaching methods while in The Rotunda in 2003’s Mona Lisa Smile.

Max Carrigan (Joe Anderson) and his friends slide down the bannister of The Rotunda stairs in the 2007 musical Across the Universe.

In 2010, The Rotunda popped up very briefly in the Season 4 episode of Gossip Girl titled “Goodbye, Columbia,” in the scene in which Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) talks with her minions about the teaching assistant job she is hoping to land.

Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) closed a case in the grand space in the Season 3 episode of Blue Bloods titled “Higher Education,” which aired in 2012.

The Rotunda appeared in the pilot episode of Masters of Sex, which aired in 2013, as the spot where Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) registers for classes at what is supposedly Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Jason McCord (Evan Roe) gets into a fistfight with a fellow student in The Rotunda in the Season 1 episode of Madam Secretary titled “The Ninth Circle,” which aired in 2015.

Beck (Elizabeth Lail) talked to Professor Paul Leahy (Reg Rogers) on The Rotunda staircase before class in the Season 1 episode of You titled “The Last Nice Guy in New York,” which aired in 2018.

And Abe Weissman (Tony Shalhoub) chased Simon (Michael Countryman) up The Rotunda stairs, supposedly located at Columbia University, in the Season 3 episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel titled “Marvelous Radio,” which aired in 2019.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for tracking down this location! For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Union Theological Seminary is located at 3041 Broadway in Morningside Heights. You can visit the school’s official website here. The Rotunda, from The Ice Storm, can be found just past the main entrance. Please keep in mind that the seminary is closed to the public and that I was only able to see it via a pre-arranged tour.

September 4, 2019
Happy Labor Day!

I would like to wish a happy Labor Day to all of my fellow stalkers. I am taking today off, but will be back on Wednesday with a whole new location!

September 2, 2019
Mayfield Senior School from “All About Steve”

Stalkings can come about from the most random of situations. Many, many moons ago, I joined a grief group (long story) where I met a woman who worked at Mayfield Senior School in Pasadena. During one of our sessions, she happened to mention that filming took place on the campus regularly and my ears immediately perked up. After the meeting, I, of course, approached her to pick her brain about the school’s cinematic history and she wound up inviting me for a tour. Though I never took her up on her offer, I did pop by for an impromptu visit one Saturday afternoon several years later. My friend happened to be on site at the time and welcomed me to poke around. Because it was the weekend, all of the buildings were locked up, but I did get to see the exteriors – and they were fabulous! The place somehow went straight to the back of my mind afterwards, though, and stayed there until earlier this summer when I spotted it while scanning through All About Steve making screen captures for this post. Thrilled over the discovery, I dug up my old photos of the school and decided to finally sit down and write about it.

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Mayfield School, as it was initially known, was founded in 1931 by the Society of the Holy Child Jesus on a small campus located at 405 South Euclid Avenue in Pasadena. It was the city’s first private Catholic learning institution, serving students in grades Pre-K through 12 (though boys were only accepted at the primary levels).

By 1950, Mayfield’s enrollment had grown such that more space was needed and it was decided that the facility would split into an upper school and a lower school. The lower, comprising grades K-8, would remain at the Euclid site. For the upper levels, 9-12, a new location was secured thanks to Dr. Charles and Vera Strub who gifted the Society of the Holy Child Jesus with a 1917 mansion situated about two miles away.

Originally known as the Marshall-Eagle House, the striking Italianate Beaux Arts estate was designed by Frederick L. Roehrig (who also gave us the Stimson House from House II: The Second Story, the Andrew McNally House from Kingdom Come, the Lincoln Clark House from Little Black Book, and the Rindge House from The Brasher Doubloon) for oil tycoon E.J. Marshall. Today, it goes by the moniker “Strub Hall” in honor of its generous benefactors. Though transformed from private residence into a campus building, much of the original detailing miraculously remains intact, with the ground floor living spaces repurposed into a chapel, conference room and student activities area. You can check out some photos of the interior here.

The sprawling eight-acre campus boasts five additional buildings, including a gym and a music studio, as well as a courtyard, a meditation garden and a grotto.

It is not at all hard to see how the gorgeous site wound up onscreen.

In All About Steve, Mayfield poses as the supposed Sacramento-area The Youngstrum School, where Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock) attends a career day event and speaks about her job as a cruciverbalist. The exterior of Strub Hall . . .

. . . as well as the interior of the school’s auditorium appeared in the movie.

All About Steve is hardly the only production to feature Mayfield. In fact, the property is one of Pasadena’s most popular filming locations – and that’s saying a lot considering the city’s prominence onscreen. There are far too many cameos to chronicle fully here, but what follows are some of the highlights.

Mayfield portrays Valley View Sanitorium, where Dr. David Banner (Bill Bixby) becomes an unwitting patient, in the Season 2 episode of The Incredible Hulk titled “The Quiet Room,” which aired in 1979.

In one brief scene from the 1992 favorite The Cutting Edge, Strub Hall stands in for the Albertville, France chateau where Kate Moseley (Moira Kelly) and Doug Dorsey (DB Sweeney) stay while in town for the Olympics. It is in the foyer of the building that Kate tells Doug she is retiring from skating. From what I’ve gleaned, virtually all of the movie was shot in Toronto, so I am unsure how this short bit came to be lensed in Pasadena. I am guessing it must have been a pick-up shot captured after principal photography wrapped.

Bishop (Robert Redford) tracks down Liz (Mary McDonnell) teaching music at Strub Hall in 1992’s Sneakers.

Mayfield pops up as the T. Carter Foundation, where Easy Rawlins (Denzel Washington) goes “all the way to the top” by visiting the richest man in town, Todd Carter (Terry Kinney), in the 1995 drama Devil in a Blue Dress.

In the 1996 comedy The Nutty Professor, Strub Hall serves as the office of Dean Richmond (Larry Miller).

That same year, it portrayed the hospital where Matilda (Mara Wilson) was born in Matilda.

John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) lives there in the 1997 action flick The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Strub Hall was used for interior scenes involving the Potsdam Conference in the 2006 drama The Good German.

It plays Paris’ Chateau Parc des Chanteraines, where Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly) attends an Interpol anti-terrorist seminar, in the Season 4 episode of NCIS titled “Trojan Horse” which aired in 2007.

Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck) is summoned there to discuss his affair in the 2008 thriller State of Play.

On the series Switched at Birth, which started airing in 2011, Mayfield masquerades as the supposed Kansas City-area Buckner Hall, where Bay Kennish (Vanessa Marano) attends school.

Mayfield pops up as Bridget Donovan’s (Kerris Dorsey) high school during the third season of Ray Donovan, which kicked off in 2015.

And currently, Mayfield stands in for Atlas Academy on Marvel’s Runaways.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Mayfield Senior School, from All About Steve, is located at 500 Bellefontaine Street in Pasadena. Please remember that it is a working school and not open to the public.

August 30, 2019
The Sharper Image from “When Harry Met Sally”

Movies don’t typically surprise me, as far as locations go. But When Harry Met Sally has me absolutely shocked as of late! Ever since first seeing the romcom when it debuted back in 1989, I had been under the impression that it was lensed entirely in New York. The city is so woven into the fabric of the film – it is practically a character in the story! – that I couldn’t imagine even one frame of it being shot elsewhere. That all changed in 2016, though, when I contacted a crew member regarding a locale from a different production – the crab restaurant from A Few Good Men. As I chronicled in this post, said crew member not only informed me that the eatery I was looking for was in the San Pedro area, but that it had also appeared in When Harry Met Sally! Gobsmacked, I immediately started researching the matter further and discovered several more WHMS sites in Los Angeles, one of which being The Sharper Image where Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) karaoked with Harry Burns (Billy Crystal). Sadly, it’s no longer in business, but I figured it was still blog-worthy nonetheless.

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As has long been documented online, the exterior of The Sharper Image store at 4 West 57th Street in New York (which today houses an Ermenegildo Zegna boutique) was shown in an establishing shot at the top of the When Harry Met Sally karaoke scene. I had always assumed interior footage had been shot there, as well.

During my deep dive into the film’s L.A. locations, though, I was stopped in my tracks by a comment from a man named Colin Stone on the On the Set of New York’s When Harry Met Sally page who stated, “The interior scene of The Sharper Image was actually filmed at the Los Angeles (Wilshire and Grand) store.” A quick Google search for further information on the shop yielded absolutely nothing, which told me it was long since out of business. So I hopped over to Newspapers.com in the hopes of pinpointing its exact former address and found several ads (like the one below from 1986) noting its location as 601 Wilshire Boulevard, right on the corner of Wilshire and Grand, as Colin had said. (Also noted? The fact that it was a non-smoking store! Were people honestly allowed to smoke in retail shops back then??? I certainly don’t remember that as a kid!)

I ran out to stalk it shortly thereafter. At the time (July 2018), the site housed a print shop named LA Grafix.

Per Google Street View, it sits vacant today.

But back in the ‘80s, it was home to the mecca of all-things-yuppie, The Sharper Image. It was there that Harry and Sally headed to find a housewarming gift for their respective BFFs, Jess (Bruno Kirby) and Marie (Carrie Fisher). While shopping, the two test out a “singing machine” with a duet of “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” and, in the process, run into Harry’s ex-wife, Helen Hillson (Harley Jane Kozak), and her new boyfriend, Ira Stone (Kevin Rooney), thereby setting Harry on a downward spiral. Quite a lot of the interior is shown in the scene (which you can watch here). Sadly though, other than the store seeming quite large (which goes against it being located in New York City), there really aren’t any identifying factors like doors or windows visible which would have helped me verify its use in the film. So I, of course, went straight to the source and tracked down Colin! As it turns out, he couldn’t have been nicer or more informative! Currently, he is a professional relaxation therapist and composer, but during The Sharper Image’s early days, he worked in the DTLA store creating health and fitness products, which is how he knew of its big-screen cameo.

I am absolutely kicking myself now for not having ventured inside LA Grafix during my stalk. I (wrongly) assumed that due to the passage of thirty years and the change in occupancy, the space would no longer look anything like it did onscreen. But as Colin wrote in his email, “I popped over to the location maybe 4 years ago and saw that it was a printing place (it was a Saturday and it was closed, but still in business then) and I was totally surprised and amazed to look in the windows and see they still had all the grey and burgundy fixtures, counters, displays, slatwall, everything, still intact from the TSI days!” Talk about a fail on my part!

I did manage to dig up some interior images of the place from a past real estate listing which corroborate Colin’s observations. As you can see, some of The Sharper Image’s grey slatwall, visible in When Harry Met Sally, was held over when the store closed.

There’s some more of it pictured below, though it is no longer grey.

The Sharper Image’s decorative triangular ceiling lining was retained by LA Grafix, as well.

You can also make some of it out here.

The Wilshire & Grand Sharper Image, which was the fifth of the company’s brick and mortar stores, opened its doors on November 12th, 1984. Founder Richard Thalheimer chose the location in a rather unconventional way. As he told the Los Angeles Times, “I just stand on street corners and count the number of people who walk by wearing suits and ties.” Though he looked at spots in Westwood, Beverly Hills and Century City, the corner of Wilshire and Grand fit the bill for his SoCal venture. As the article states, “There among the skyscrapers, he figured, were throngs of young professionals with a potential soft spot for gold-plated dumbbells, sculptured pillows designed to look like Porsche and BMW cars, guns that fire pulses of infrared light and even tummy exercisers, among other things.” Colin said the methodology was backed by the “San Franciscan logic that people shop where they work,” which turned out not to be the case in L.A. At least, not at the time. Today, DTLA is a bustling live/work community, but in the ‘80s, ‘90s, and even the early 2000s, the city virtually cleared out as soon as offices closed. And on weekends, it was practically a ghost town. Not exactly a fertile environment for retail. The downtown Sharper Image was apparently the lowest-performing in the entire chain. Per Colin’s recollection, the store closed in late 1992/early 1993, though the other outposts in Sherman Oaks and Beverly Hills remained open for a time. The company filed for bankruptcy in February 2008 and by the end of that same year, all of its retail stores had, sadly, closed, truly marking the end of an era.

Huge THANK YOU to Colin Stone for identifying this location and providing so much of the intel that appears in this post.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Sharper Image from When Harry Met Sally was formerly located at 601 Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles. The space is currently vacant, but was home to the print shop LA Grafix when I stalked it last year.

August 28, 2019
The Daisy – Where O.J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Met

I love a good true-crime podcast. One that recently got me hooked is Confronting: O.J. Simpson with Kim Goldman, which just finished its first season. In it, the sister of murder victim Ronald Goldman interviews numerous key players in the so-called Trial of the Century, including jurors, prosecutors, witnesses and one of the defense team’s private investigators. It is raw, real, heartbreaking and informative – I even learned a few new things about the case, which I didn’t think possible. Listening also reminded me of a Simpson-related location that I stalked way back when but have yet to blog about – the former site of The Daisy in Beverly Hills. It was at the tony members-only discotheque that O.J. first laid eyes on a young Nicole Brown, thereby setting off their turbulent 17-year relationship. It is sobering to think that without The Daisy there would be no O.J. and Nicole, the events of June 12th, 1994 would not have occurred, and the cultural landscape of Los Angeles, nay the world, would be very different today.

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The small brick building that housed The Daisy, which has long since been razed, was initially constructed as a private residence in 1941. Just two years later, famed restauranteur and self-proclaimed Russian prince Michael Romanoff enlisted architect Douglas Honnold to transform the dwelling into his eponymous nightclub, Romanoff’s. The lounge (you can see what it looked like here) would go on to become one of the best-known hot spots in Hollywood history. An entire post could be dedicated to Romanoff’s, in fact, but since this piece is about The Daisy, I’ll keep my reporting on it scant. The eatery’s patronage read like a Who’s Who of Tinseltown, with Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, Charlie Chaplin, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Jack Warner all counted as regulars. In 1951, when Romanoff’s moved a few blocks away to 140 South Rodeo Drive (that’s where Sofia Loren was famously snapped gazing disdainfully at Jayne Mansfield’s décolletage – one of history’s most iconic images), its former home became the Friars Club. That, too, relocated in 1961 and the following year The Daisy opened in its place. It was the first members-only disco to exist in Beverly Hills.

Established by Jack Hanson, who was best known as the founder of Jax, a wildly popular Beverly Hills clothier that outfitted the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy, and Twiggy, The Daisy was a hit from the outset. The Hollywood elite who patronized it had to shell out an initiation fee of $250 and membership was limited to 400. The steep price tag did not curb the club’s popularity, which was packed to the gills most nights with such luminaries as Steve McQueen, Robert Redford, Sonny and Cher, Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Mia Farrow, Natalie Wood, Paul Newman, Grace Kelly, Bobby Darin, and Peter Sellers all dining, dancing, and playing pool on the premises. The extensive menu even had dishes named after many of its famous regulars, from Ray Bradbury to Katherine Ross. As Hanson told the press in 1977, “Seven nights a week for nearly 10 years, this place was filled with the biggest celebrities in the world. I was king of the town.”

The Daisy was the site of countless historic events in pop culture, not a surprise considering its elite clientele. Aaron Spelling met future wife Candy there in 1965, while they were both on dates with other people (she was doubling with Tina Sinatra and Sammy Hess). In the winter of that same year, Frank Sinatra had a terse exchange with writer Harlan Ellison over a pair of boots, which journalist Gay Talese famously chronicled for Esquire magazine. And it was at The Daisy that, on August 11th, 1969, Diana Ross introduced the Jackson 5 as Motown’s newest group. The place truly is hallowed ground when it comes to Hollywood history.

The late ‘60s brought a decline in The Daisy’s patronage, largely thanks to newer clubs like The Factory which were popping up all over L.A., and it eventually closed in 1970. At that point, Hanson rebranded the place into a health food restaurant/cabaret (where’s Luann de Lesseps when you need her?) that went by the same floral moniker. The eatery didn’t last long, though, and in 1976, Bryan MacLean, a founding member of the rock group Love, leased it, opening a Christian nightclub on the premises. Though initially popular, dancing was not allowed and alcohol was not served, and it, unsurprisingly, closed within a year. So Hanson quickly took over the reins again, reopening The Daisy at the site. This time initiation fees were $500, but, as before, the high fee did not deter customers. It was not long before the club was hoppin’ once more.

In 1977, Nicole Brown, then 18 and fresh out of high school, landed a job as a waitress at The Daisy. During her very first shift, she caught the eye of O.J., then 30, married, and one of the club’s regulars. (He, too, had a dish named after him – the “O.J. Simpson” consisted of scrambled eggs and a sliced orange. Let that sit for a minute.) Though Nicole had no idea who the sports star was at the time and despite the fact that he was not exactly single, the two began an affair and within months were living together. The rest is much publicized – and very tragic – history.

Along with being a pop culture phenomenon, The Daisy is also a screen star. It was there that Leon (Bill Duke) told Julian (Richard Gere) he had to go back to Palm Springs for a job in the 1980 drama American Giglio.

It was also at The Daisy that Ross Conti (Steve Forrest) and Elliot (Beverly Hills, 90210’s Joe E. Tata!) discussed some illicit images in the second episode of the 1985 miniseries Hollywood Wives.

While much has been reported about The Daisy’s early, popular years, I could not find any info whatsoever on its demise and have seen it reported that the club was closed and demolished in both the early 1980s and in 2005. Aerial views don’t provide much clarity, either. Whatever the year, at some point the building was razed to make way for new retail space. Today, the former Daisy site is home to the boutiques Saint Laurent and Moncler.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The former site of The Daisy, where Nicole Brown first met O.J. Simpson, can be found at 326 North Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Anderton Court Shops complex is located right next door at 333 North Rodeo.

August 26, 2019
Out of Office for a Couple Days

A good friend is currently in town for a brief visit, so I am taking a couple days off from blogging. I expect to be back on Friday, so until then . . . Happy Stalking!

August 21, 2019
The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “I Want to Know”

Season 2 of Big Little Lies comes to an end with “I Want to Know,” as does my episode-by-episode coverage of its locations. Hope you enjoyed reading through the posts as much as I enjoyed putting them together. So, without further ado . . . (Note – as was the case with my posts about the locales from “What Have They Done?,” ”Tell-Tale Hearts,” “The End of the World,” “She Knows,” “Kill Me,” and “The Bad Mother,” because I have already extensively detailed BLL’s inaugural season, I will not be covering flashbacks. And places that appear in multiple episodes will be noted as such, so expect some crossover.)

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1. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – Celeste Wright’s (Nicole Kidman) magnificent home, featured throughout Seasons 1 and 2, sits cliffside on an exclusive tree-lined street in Carmel Highlands. The pad’s exterior and interior appear frequently onscreen, though the master bedroom – where Celeste discovers a disturbing video shot by her sons in “I Want to Know” – and the twins’ room were just sets.

2. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – Madeline Martha (Reese Witherspoon) and Ed Mackenzie’s (Adam Scott) residence, my favorite on the series, is located a good 300 miles from the Central Coast. You can find it just north of Zuma Beach in Malibu. The fab Cape Cod, which I dedicated a post to here, is a vacation rental in real life, so you can live out your very own Big Little Lies fantasy by booking some time there! It doesn’t come cheap, though – rates start at $3,000 a night.

It is in the property’s beachfront backyard that Madeline and Ed renew their vows in “I Want to Know” – one of the episode’s only high points in my opinion.

3. Jane and Ziggy’s Beach Talk (Del Monte Beach, 653 Del Monte Avenue, Monterey) – Ziggy Chapman (Iain Armitage) has a heart-to-heart with his mom, Jane (Shailene Woodley), on Del Monte Beach, declaring her to be a “whole ‘nother person – your whole face and stuff has been different” when she’s with Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith) – though I have to say that I didn’t really see any of that come across onscreen. I thought she seemed much happier with Blue Blues’ owner Tom (Joseph Cross) in Season 1. (#bringbacktom!) Del Monte Beach also pops up in “What Have They Done?”, “The End of the World,” “She Knows,” and “Kill Me.”

4. Renata and Mary Louise’s Starbucks Run-In (1 Kersting Court, Sierra Madre) – In one of my favorite scenes of the season (which you can watch here – warning, it’s NSFW!), Renata Klein (Laura Dern) gets into a huge kerfuffle with Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep) at a supposed Monterey-area Starbucks. The coffee house is actually located in Sierra Madre, though. It is the same spot where Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic) hit on Ed in “The Bad Mother.” You can check out a post I wrote about it here.

5. Katie Richmond’s Office (7427 Beverly Boulevard, Fairfax) – Katie Richmond (Poorna Jagannathan) unsuccessfully tries to convince Celeste not to question Mary Louise herself at her upcoming custody hearing during a meeting at her law office, which can be found in a unique Tudor-style building located on the corner of Beverly Boulevard and North Vista Street in Los Angeles.

6. Ira Farber’s Office (Scheper Kim & Harris LLP, The CalEdison DTLA, 601 West 5th Street, 12 Floor, downtown Los Angeles) – At another Los Angeles law office, this one located on the 12th Floor of TheCalEdison, Ira Farber (Denis O’Hare) cautions the ever-unpredictable Mary Louise to only answer the questions she is asked when she takes the stand at her upcoming hearing.

7. Monterey Superior Court (Superior Court of California, Marina Division, 3180 Del Monte Boulevard, Marina) – The bulk of “I Want to Know” takes place at the Marina Division of the Superior Court of California, where Celeste and Mary Louise furiously face off for custody of Celeste’s twin boys. The courthouse’s unique exterior is featured in full view in the episode.

And the lobby appears, as well.

But the actual courtroom itself is, I believe, just a set.

8. Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row, Monterey) – Jane and Corey rekindle their relationship in front of the Open Sea display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where they both work. Per the aquatic museum’s website, the million-gallon tank is one of the “largest live marine community exhibits in the world.” The romantic segment was shot during off hours, which gave producers the opportunity to capture the two lovebirds in front of the “bubble curtain,” a mechanism that helps fish maneuver through dark waters which is only utilized at night. The aquarium offers Romance Tours when the facility is closed, so you, too, can re-enact Jane and Corey’s kiss if you feel so inclined.

9. Cypress Community Hospital (Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Boulevard, Pomona) – Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) ultimately says goodbye to both her mother, Elizabeth Howard (Crystal Fox), and her husband, Nathan Carlson (James Tupper), at an abandoned medical facility in Pomona known as Lanterman Developmental Center. The vast property, which once housed the developmentally disabled, pops up as Cypress Community Hospital in almost every episode of Season 2. (Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for IDing this location! )

10. Renata and Gordon’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Renata also says goodbye to her husband, Gordon Klein (Jeffrey Nordling), in “I Want to Know,” coming to blows with him at their sprawling home, which is located in Malibu in real life. Though both the interior and exterior are featured throughout Seasons 1 and 2 . . .

. . . I believe Gordon’s mancave, which Renata takes a bat to, might have been a set.

11. Jane’s Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – In Season 2, Jane calls a unit at Monterey’s Ocean Harbor home, though we only catch a quick glimpse of the interior, which I am fairly certain was a studio-built set, in “I Want to Know.”

12. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – At the end of the episode, Bonnie sends out an SOS text to the Monterey 5 from the bucolic home she shares with Nathan. Their pad, which is really located in Calabasas, was used throughout Season 1 and 2.

13. Carmel by the Sea Police Department (Junipero Avenue & 4th Avenue, Carmel) – In one of the most unfulfilling closing scenes I’ve ever witnessed, the Monterey 5 meet up at Carmel by the Sea PD (which plays itself) and the screen fades out as they walk inside, presumably to turn themselves in for Perry Wright’s (Alexander Skarsgård) murder. It was a definite “Wait, that’s it?” moment. As my friend Nat said after watching, “I had to check the episode information to verify that ‘I Want to Know’ was actually the finale!” As disappointing as the episode and the entire season turned out to be, though, I still loved spending time with Madeline and the gang and am sincerely hoping for a Season 3.

And that’s a wrap for me on Big Little Lies Season 2. Well, until the DVD comes out with the deleted scenes, at least!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

August 19, 2019
The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “The Bad Mother”

Turmoil abounds in the sixth episode of Big Little Lies’ second season, “The Bad Mother.” Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) and Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep) face off in court, Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic) propositions Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott), Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) has a deathbed confession with her mom, Elizabeth Howard (Crystal Fox), and Renata Klein (Laura Dern) finds out about husband Gordon’s (Jeffrey Nordling) affair with the nanny! Phew! Read on for a list of where it all happened. (Note – as was the case with my posts about the locales from “What Have They Done?,” ”Tell-Tale Hearts,” “The End of the World,” “She Knows,” and “Kill Me,” because I have already extensively detailed BLL’s inaugural season, I will not be covering flashbacks. And places that appear in multiple episodes will be noted as such, so some crossover should be expected.)

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1. Corey’s House (263 Old Ranch Road, Sierra Madre) – “The Bad Mother” opens with Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) storming over to Corey Brockfield’s (Douglas Smith) home to find out if he’s working with the police. A small Sierra Madre cottage was utilized in the short segment and both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior were seen, albeit very briefly. (Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Peter for identifying this location for me! )

2. The Monterey 5’s Beach Meet-Up (White Point Park Parking Lot, 1801 West Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro) – Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) and the gang have yet another secret parking lot meeting, this time at White Point Park in San Pedro, during which the cracks in their armor start to show. This locale also appears in episode 5, “Kill Me.”

3. Cypress Community Hospital (Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Boulevard, Pomona) – Bonnie makes several startling bedside confessions to her mother while sitting vigil in her room at Monterey’s fictional Cypress Community Hospital. Filming actually took place at the shuttered Lanterman Developmental Center in Pomona, which also popped up in “The End of the World,” “She Knows” and “Kill Me.” The facility, closed since 2014, formerly provided housing for the developmentally disabled, but currently sits vacant, which means I need to stalk it for a Haunted Hollywood post! There’s even a carousel situated on the grounds of the abandoned property – can you think of anything more eerie? (Insert scream face emoji here!)

4. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – Madeline attempts to reconnect to the person she was on her wedding day by trying on her wedding dress (“It doesn’t fit, but we’re not talking about that!”) at her gorgeous home – which is just the magic wand Ed needs to repair their marriage. Both the interior and exterior of Madeline and Ed’s Cape Cod-style pad are featured extensively throughout Seasons 1 and 2. I dedicated a post to the house – which is actually located in Malibu and serves as a vacation rental in real life – back in 2017.

Interestingly, the front of the Mackenzie residence, the driveway of which appears briefly in “The Bad Mother,” is a different location entirely. That property can be found at 2830 14th Avenue in Carmel.

5. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – The gorgeous home where Celeste lives with her twin boys, Max (Nicholas Crovetti) and Josh (Cameron Crovetti), is one of the few Monterey 5 residences actually located on the Central Coast. The rear patio and kitchen of the Carmel Highlands property appear in “The Bad Mother,” as well as in most Seasons 1 and 2 episodes, but the boys’ room and master bedroom were just studio-built sets.

6. Renata’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Renata and Gordon call a humongous mansion in Malibu home on the series, though due to their bankruptcy proceedings, it sits largely empty, much like their marriage. In “The Bad Mother,” the backyard and living room of the property are featured.

7. Monterey Bay Aquarium (886 Cannery Row, Monterey) – Jane brushes off Corey’s attempts at a reconciliation at the Rocky Shore touch pools exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where they both work as educators.

8. Monterey Superior Court (Superior Court of California, Marina Division, 3180 Del Monte Boulevard, Marina) – Celeste and Mary Louise’s custody hearing gets underway at an actual Monterey courthouse – the Superior Court of California, Marina Division. The site’s unique exterior is only briefly shown in the episode, though we catch a better glimpse of it in “I Want to Know.”

The building’s real life lobby (where Renata has more trouble with a metal detector!), hallway and an anteroom are also featured in “The Bad Mother.”

But I am fairly certain that the courtroom itself was a studio-built set.

9. Jane and Ziggy’s Bodysurfing Beach (Del Monte Beach, 653 Del Monte Avenue, Monterey) – Corey interrupts Jane’s bodysurfing session with her son, Ziggy Chapman (Iain Armitage), at Del Monte Beach in order to tell her that he is not going to give up on their relationship easily.

10. Tori and Ed’s Starbucks Meet-Up (1 Kersting Court, Sierra Madre) – Tori makes a major pass at Ed – and tells him about a rather disturbing diary that she keeps – at a Starbucks outpost in downtown Sierra Madre. You can read a post about the locale, which also pops up in “I Want to Know,” here.

11. Mary Louise’s Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – The actual interior of a unit at Monterey’s picturesque Ocean Harbor portrays the new apartment of Mary Louise, where Jane goes to confront her about her custody war with Celeste in “The Bad Mother.” Jane also calls the complex home on the series.

12. Bankruptcy Hearing (Spring Street Courthouse, 312 North Spring Street, downtown Los Angeles) – I am fairly certain that the scene in which Renata and Gordon’s nanny, Juliette (Nelly Buchet), seeks $160,000 in restitution for “other services rendered” – ahem, “stress management” – during a bankruptcy hearing was shot in a room at the Spring Street Courthouse in downtown L.A. The same spot also portrayed Gordon’s jail in “Tell-Tale Hearts” and was the site of another of the couple’s bankruptcy hearings in “She Knows.”

Be sure to check back Monday for my post on Big Little Lies’ season 2 finale, “I Want to Know.”

August 16, 2019
The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “Kill Me”

The fifth episode of Big Little Lies’ second season may have lacked pizzazz (especially since the much-anticipated ice-cream-throwing scene was cut!), but it sure boasted a lot of locations. Read on to discover which spots the Monterey 5 frequented in “Kill Me.” (Note – as was the case with my posts about the locales from “What Have They Done?,” ”Tell-Tale Hearts,” “The End of the World” and “She Knows,” because I have already extensively detailed BLL’s inaugural season, I will not be covering flashbacks. And places that appear in multiple episodes will be noted as such, so some crossover should be expected.)

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1. Jane’s Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – “Kill Me” opens at the new seaside apartment Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) shares with her son, Ziggy (Iain Armitage), located at Monterey’s Ocean Harbor. Though the inside of Jane’s place is, I believe, just a set . . .

. . . the actual interior of a unit is used as the home of Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep), who lives in the same complex.

“Kill Me” also offers us a rare glimpse of the exterior of Ocean Harbor towards the end of the episode as Mary Louise sits alone on nearby Del Monte Beach.

2. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – A gorgeous pad in Carmel Highlands stands in for the residence of Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) and her children, Max (Nicholas Crovetti) and Josh (Cameron Crovetti), on the show. Used extensively throughout Seasons 1 and 2, the home, more specifically its dining room, only appears briefly in “Kill Me.” Celeste’s bedroom and the twins’ room, which are also shown in the episode, were just studio-built sets.

3. Nathan and Ed’s Argument (Monterey Bay Coastal Recreation Trail, near 459 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – Nathan Carlson (James Tupper) calls Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) a “nut-f*ck” – the planet is inhabited by them! – on Monterey Bay’s gorgeous Coastal Recreation Trail, which runs 18 miles from Castroville to Pacific Grove. In the scene, the two men argue near the Lovers Point Mural, about 0.2 miles east of Lovers Point Beach.

4. Monterey Superior Court (Superior Court of California, Marina Division, 3180 Del Monte Boulevard, Marina) – Celeste and Mary Louise attend the first part of their custody hearing at an actual Central Coast courthouse located in Marina, a small town just north of Monterey. Little of the unique building is shown in the scene, though we catch better views of it in the Season 2 finale, “I Want to Know.”

I believe the actual interior of the courthouse also made an appearance in the episode.

5. Cypress Community Hospital (Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Boulevard, Pomona) – Bonnie Carlson (Zoë Kravitz) sits vigil at her mother Elizabeth Howard’s (Crystal Fox) bedside at what is supposed to be Monterey’s local Cypress Community Hospital. Filming actually took place at an abandoned former health facility in Pomona known as Lanterman Developmental Center. The same spot is also where Amabella Klein (Ivy George) was taken after her anxiety attack in “The End of the World” and where Elizabeth was admitted following her stroke in “She Knows.” (Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for IDing this location! )

6. Ziggy and the Twins’ Fist Fight (Carmel River Elementary School, 2770 15th Avenue, Carmel) – Though Ziggy, Max and Josh are suspended for pummeling a bully on the Otter Bay Elementary playground, Kenter Canyon, which typically portrays the school of the Monterey 5’s children on the series, was not used in the scene. Filming instead took place at Carmel River Elementary, with the bungalows of the neighboring Mission Ranch Hotel clearly visible in the background.

7. Otter Bay Elementary (Kenter Canyon Elementary School, 645 North Kenter Avenue, Brentwood) – Kenter Canyon does make an appearance in “Kill Me,” though. It in the school’s principal’s office that Celeste and Jane are informed of their children’s three-day suspension and outside of the school that Jane asks Ziggy what caused the fight.

8. Madeline and Ed’s Marriage Retreat (Seven Coves, 157 Spindrift Road, Carmel) – A massive compound in Carmel which also cameoed in the 1992 thriller Basic Instinct stood in for the “healing institute” where Ed and his wife, Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon), try to repair their marriage. The sprawling property, known as Seven Coves in real life, boasts 5 separate homes, more than 4 acres of land, 1,000 feet of coastline, 17,000 square feet of living space, 12 bedrooms, and 17 bathrooms. If you have an extra $52 million lying around, the whole thing can be yours, as it is currently on the market.

It is in the property’s quaint, one-bedroom Writer’s Cottage that Ed and Madeline attend the retreat’s infamous hugging seminar in “Kill Me.”

9. Renata and Gordon’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – In the hopes of getting her to drop the custody battle against Celeste, Renata Klein (Laura Dern) invites Mary Louise for tea at her massive modern mansion, now virtually empty due to her bankruptcy – which, of course, does not go unnoticed by Mary Louise. The pad, featured in both Seasons 1 and 2, can be found on a private road in the hills of Malibu above Escondido Beach. Both the interior and exterior are utilized extensively on the series.

10. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – Chloe Mackenzie (Darby Camp) offers her father, Ed, some solace in the form of a hug in the kitchen of their idyllic Cape Cod-style home in “Kill Me.” Like Renata’s place, the Mackenzie residence is located in Malibu. The stunning property is a vacation rental in real life, which means you, too, can live like the Monterey 5 – well, temporarily, at least. You can check out a post I wrote about the dwelling here.

11. Liberation Yoga (124 South La Brea Avenue, Hancock Park) – Bonnie hosts a “singing for sleep apnea” class and is confronted by her father, Martin Howard (Martin Donovan), at a real yoga studio in Hancock Park. Or at least it was. Sadly, Liberation Yoga, formerly located on La Brea Avenue, has since moved and the storefront that once housed it sits vacant, so you can no longer get your namaste on there. The site also popped up a couple of times in Season 1 and was where Elizabeth surprised Bonnie in Season 2’s “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

12. Ira Farber’s Office (Scheper Kim & Harris LLP, The CalEdison DTLA, 601 West 5th Street, 12th Floor, downtown Los Angeles) – Mary Louise’s lawyer, Ira Farber (Denis O’Hare), unsuccessfully tries to broker a joint custody deal between his client and Celeste at Scheper Kim & Harris, located on the 12th floor of The CalEdison in downtown L.A. The firm’s offices also showed up in episode 4, “She Knows.”

The building’s 12th floor elevator bay was utilized in “Kill Me,” as well.

13. The Monterey 5’s Parking Lot Meet-Up (White Point Park, 1801 West Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro) – Celeste calls for a late-night secret meeting in the parking lot of San Pedro’s White Point Park (quite a long way from Monterey!) to discuss the latest in Perry’s (Alexander Skarsgård) case and to inform the group that she might be required to take the stand in her custody hearing, which would put them all in jeopardy. The same lot also makes an appearance in “The Bad Mother.”

14. Bonnie and Nathan’s House (636 Crater Camp Drive, Calabasas) – Nathan tries to make a grand gesture to show his love for Bonnie by surprising her with a treadmill and running book at their bohemian-style residence, actually located in Calabasas. It is in the living room of the bucolic home, used in both Seasons 1 and 2, that Bonnie has a heart-to-heart with her dad about her childhood abuse in the episode.

15. Madeline and Mary Louise’s Ice Cream Run-In (Kersting Court, Sierra Madre) – In what proved to be the most disappointing scene of the season, Madeline and her daughter Abigail Carlson (Kathryn Newton) run into Mary Louise on a downtown Sierra Madre street after getting ice cream. Though the cone-tossing element of the segment never made it to the screen, the trio is shown having a terse conversation in front of Savor the Flavor gift store at 11 Kersting Court.

16. Corey’s Kayaking Beach (Whaler’s Cove, Point Lobos, Carmel) – Instead of keeping Max, Josh and Ziggy home during their suspension, Celeste and Jane decide to take them kayaking with Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith) at Monterey’s famed Whaler’s Cove at Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. The pristine oasis, a popular kayaking destination in real life, is part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Prior to heading out on the water, Corey engages in some horseplay with the boys in the Cove’s parking lot area, which also made appearances in “The End of the World.”

17. Tori Hits on Ed (City Tavern, 9739 Culver Boulevard, Culver City) – Tori Bachman (Sarah Sokolovic) rather awkwardly hits on Ed (though things are about to get a lot more awkward in the episodes to come!), at City Tavern, the very same bar where Celeste and Jane had cocktails in “She Knows.”

18. Carmel by the Sea Police Department (Junipero Avenue & 4th Avenue, Carmel) – Carmel by the Sea PD plays itself in several episodes of Big Little Lies’ second season. In “Kill Me,” Bonnie heads there on a late-night walk and makes the shocking discovery that Corey might be working with the police.

Don’t forget to tune in Friday for my post about episode 6, “The Bad Mother.”

August 14, 2019
The Filming Locations of “Big Little Lies” Season 2 – “She Knows”

The fourth episode of Big Little Lies’ second season is pretty much when the show jumped the shark for me. Though there were some captivating moments – a pumpkin carving party, a disco soiree and that slap! – the majority of “She Knows” was just meh. Nevertheless, I proudly present to you its locations! (Note – as was the case with my posts about the locales from “What Have They Done?”, ”Tell-Tale Hearts” and “The End of the World,” because I have already extensively detailed BLL’s inaugural season, I will not be covering flashbacks. And places that appear in multiple episodes will be noted as such, so expect some crossover.)

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1. Madeline and Ed’s House (30760 Broad Beach Road, Malibu) – At the top of “She Knows,” the Monterey 5 and their children enjoy a brief respite from the drama surrounding them thanks to a pumpkin carving party hosted by Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) at the gorgeous home she shares with her husband, Ed (Adam Scott). An unexpected visit from Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep) cuts the festivities short, though– and results in a slap in the face from Celeste (Nicole Kidman). Don’t go looking for the idyllic beachside pad where filming took place in Monterey as Madeline and Ed’s residence (my favorite of the series) can actually be found in Malibu. And it’s a vacation rental in real life! You can read a post I wrote about the dwelling, which appears throughout Seasons 1 and 2, here.

Interestingly, when the front of the Mackenzie home is shown later in the episode, a different spot is used. That pad, which is also seen a couple of times in Season 1, is actually on the Central Coast. It’s at 2830 14th Avenue in Carmel.

2. Jane and Corey’s Surfing Beach (Del Monte Beach, 653 Del Monte Avenue, Monterey) – During a surf session at Del Monte Beach, Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) invites her new love interest, Corey Brockfield (Douglas Smith), to Amabella Klein’s (Ivy George) disco-themed birthday party. Though he accepts, he is not especially enthused about the costume aspect of the event because of the huge “opportunity for embarrassment.” A man who doesn’t like costume parties? Jane, you can do better! This locale is also where Jane and Corey run into each other in “What Have They Done?” and where Corey gives Ziggy (Iain Armitage) surf lessons in “The End of the World.”

3. Blissful Drip Café (Lovers Point Park, 631 Ocean View Boulevard, Pacific Grove) – Mary Louise and Celeste discuss the respective ways they deal with grief at Monterey’s newest hot spot, Blissful Drip Café. As I detail in this post, the eatery is not a real place, but was a set constructed solely for the Big Little Lies shoot in Pacific Grove’s Lovers Point Park. Though featured religiously throughout episodes 1 through 4, “She Knows” marks the coffee shop’s last Season 2 appearance.

4. Bankruptcy Court (Spring Street Courthouse, 312 North Spring Street, downtown Los Angeles) – Renata Klein (Laura Dern) attends a bankruptcy hearing with husband Gordon (Jeffrey Nordling) at downtown L.A.’s Spring Street Courthouse where she gets into more trouble with a metal detector and is forced to relinquish her wedding ring. The same spot also served as Gordon’s jail in “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

As was the case in that episode, signage reading “Los Angeles” is visible in the background giving away the courthouse’s true location as a non-Central Coast site.

5. Renata and Gordon’s House (27326 Winding Way, Malibu) – Despite their financial woes, Renata and Gordon throw a lavish, over-the-top disco-themed costume party (headlined by Earl Young and The Trammps!) for their daughter Amabella’s 8th birthday at their massive home, which, like Madeline’s, can be found in Malibu.

6. Ira Farber’s Law Office (Scheper Kim & Harris LLP, The CalEdison, 601 West 5th Street, 12th Floor, downtown Los Angeles) – An actual law firm housed on the 12th floor of DTLA’s CalEdison building serves as the office of Mary Louise’s cutthroat custody lawyer, Ira Farber (Denis O’Hare). You can check out some interior photos of the space, which also pops up in “Kill Me,” here.

7. Cypress Community Hospital (Lanterman Developmental Center, 3530 Pomona Boulevard, Pomona) – Pomona’s Lanterman Developmental Center portrays the Monterey-area hospital where Elizabeth Howard (Crystal Fox) is admitted following the stroke she suffers at Amabella’s party. The massive 309-acre facility, closed since 2014, housed the developmentally disabled while in operation, but currently sits vacant. This is the same spot Amabella was taken post anxiety attack in “The End of the World” and it makes additional appearances throughout the rest of Season 2. (Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for identifying this location! )

8. Jane and Celeste Grab Cocktails (City Tavern, 9739 Culver Boulevard, Culver City) – After Amabella’s party, Jane and Celeste head to City Tavern to debrief. The cozy Culver City bar is also seen in episode 5, “Kill Me.”

9. Pizza Parlor (Bean Town, 45 North Baldwin Avenue, Sierra Madre) – Mary Louise takes the twins, Josh (Cameron Crovetti) and Max (Nicholas Crovetti), for the “best pizza in the woooooooorld” at Bean Town, a popular Sierra Madre coffee house. Because the eatery was heavily dressed to appear like an upscale Italian restaurant, not to mention barely shown, it is, unfortunately, not very recognizable in the scene. You can read a more in-depth post on the locale, and see photos of it decked out for the shoot, here.

10. Celeste’s House (40 Yankee Point Drive, Carmel) – While dropping the twins off at their gorgeous oceanside home, Mary Louise catches Celeste with a one-night stand and promptly slaps her with a custody suit. Celeste’s residence, which is featured in both Season 1 and 2, is one of the few Monterey 5 pads that can actually be found on the Central Coast. In real life, it sits perched atop a rocky cliff in Carmel.

11. Café Descanso (Descanso Gardens, 1414 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge) – Madeline and Renata have a terse run-in with Detective Adrienne Quinlan (Merrin Dungey) at their regular Season 2 hangout, Café Descanso. Like Blissful Drip, the eatery, which pops up repeatedly in episodes 1 through 4, makes its last Season 2 appearance in “She Knows.” Unlike Blissful Drip, this spot is a real place, located on the grounds of Descanso Gardens. I wrote about it here.

12. Mary Louise’s New Apartment (Ocean Harbor, 125 Surf Way, Monterey) – Jane confronts Mary Louise about her custody battle with Celeste at her new apartment in Monterey’s Ocean Harbor, the same beachside complex where Jane also lives.

While Jane’s apartment was a studio-built set, the actual interior of an Ocean Harbor unit was utilized as Mary Louise’s. Little of the space can be seen in “She Knows,” but you can check out some behind-the-scenes imagery of it here.

Be sure to check back Wednesday for a look at episode 5, “Kill Me.”

August 12, 2019