Category: Movie Locations

Andrew’s House from “Hidden Away”

Ah yes, another Hidden Away locale. I promise this is the last one! Despite the fact that the 2013 Lifetime Original Movie was laughably bad, I became obsessed with tracking down all of its locations, mainly due to the fact that it was lensed for the most part in Palm Springs. (You can read my various Hidden Away posts here, here and here.) One spot that I was fairly certain was not in the Coachella Valley, though, was the supposed Spokane, Washington-area home where Andrew (Ivan Sergei) lived in the flick. So I set about searching for it in L.A.

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I got really lucky with this hunt. In one of the movie’s earlier scenes, an address of “203 Vera” was visible on the front of Andrew’s house. My initial reaction was that it had to be fake. I mean, it couldn’t really be that easy, could it? I did a Google search for “203 Vera,” regardless, and, sure enough, was met with results for a residence in Malibu with an address of 203 Vera Canyon Drive. It turned out to be the right place.

I wound up stalking it back in June, shortly after grabbing lunch with the Grim Cheaper at Malibu Café at Calamigos Ranch. When we pulled up to the residence, I was shocked to discover that it was actually part of Calamigos Ranch! As I mentioned in my recent post about the ranch, the place is a very popular wedding venue, and dotted throughout the property are cottages that can be rented by wedding guests. Andrew’s house from Hidden Away is one of those cottages.

In real life, the residence, which was built in 1988, is much larger than it appears to be from the street. The pad boasts five bedrooms, three baths and 3,590 square feet of living space.

In Hidden Away, the cottage is where Alexandra (Emmanuelle Vaugier) lived before she moved to Palm Springs and changed her identity in order to escape Andrew, her abusive husband. Despite being located in the ‘Bu, the place does have a very Pacific Northwest-feel to it and it is not very hard to see why producers chose to use it in the movie.

The house, which is extremely picturesque, looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did in Hidden Away.

I am 99% certain that the real life interior of the cottage was also used in the filming, but, unfortunately, I could not find any interior photographs of the place with which to verify that hunch.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Andrew’s house from Hidden Away is located at 203 Vera Canyon Drive in Malibu.

September 8, 2014
Villa Restaurant from “Must Love Dogs”

Some filming location finds turn out to be a disappointment in person while others wind up to be better than I ever could have imagined. Today’s stalk – of Villa restaurant from the 2005 romantic comedy Must Love Dogs – was a little bit of both.

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For several months, I had been on a fruitless search for the outdoor eatery that appeared in the beginning of Must Love Dogs, in the scene in which Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane) showed up for a date with someone she met online only to discover that her date was actually her father, Bill (Christopher Plummer). The bistro was absolutely adorable and reminded me quite a bit of Aroma Café in Studio City, one of my favorite spots in all of L.A. Try as I might, though, I just could not seem to locate it. I finally enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and he found the place in record time. A Google search of the terms “restaurant, patio, fountain, San Fernando Valley,” led him to the website for Villa in Woodland Hills. Images posted there proved it was the right spot. Sadly though, the images also showed that the eatery had been remodeled in recent years and, in the process, seemed to have lost much of its charm. I was heartbroken to learn of the renovation, but decided to stalk the place nonetheless. As it turns out, despite the facelift, Villa is still quite spectacular.

The space that currently houses Villa was originally the site of Eckberg’s Steakhouse, which was founded in the 1960s. At the time, the property was a private home owned by Russ and Eleanor Eckberg. Russ worked in the meat industry and, upon retiring, decided to convert the living room of his house into a small ten-table restaurant with an adjacent open kitchen. And yes, Russ and Eleanor still lived on the premises. When they fully retired in the late 1970s, the space was taken over by restaurateur John Makhani. He remodeled and expanded the residence (keeping much of the original framing intact) and re-opened it in 1981.

The restaurant has gone through several incarnations under Makhani’s tutelage. At one point, it was a French eatery named Lautrec and then later it became an Italian spot named Villa Piacere. It was during its time as Piacere that Must Love Dogs was filmed on the premises. Makhani decided to revamp the space again in 2012 and, with the help of designer Thomas Schoos, transformed both the interior and the exterior.

When it was re-opened, the “Piacere” was dropped from the name and the restaurant became known simply as “Villa.”

The filming of Must Love Dogs took place on Villa Piacere’s back patio.

As you can see below, that area, while still somewhat recognizable, looks significantly different today.

Gone are the flowered tablecloths, country-style furniture and tiered water fountain.

While I was originally disappointed to learn of the changes, I was pleasantly surprised when I stepped onto Villa’s patio. In the photographs Owen had found online, the space looked sleek and cold, but in person, it turned out to be quaint, adorable and absolutely charming. I fell in love with it on site! So did Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who had joined me on the stalk, and we both promptly made plans to return there for dinner with our significant others in the near future.

The super-nice server whom we spoke with while we were there informed us that Villa had appeared onscreen numerous times over the years. The interior of the eatery popped up in the 2013 biopic Jobs as the spot where Steve Jobs (Ashton Kutcher) made the decision not to give Daniel Kottke (Lukas Haas) any Apple stock options.

A different exterior was used for the establishing shot of the restaurant in the scene.

In the Season 4 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Operation Ann,” the exterior of Villa masked as the Bluebell Cafe. Interiors were filmed at the Hamburger Hamlet in Sherman Oaks, though. (Interiors from Season 2’s “Galentine’s Day” were also filmed at the Hamburger Hamlet.)

In the Season 1 episode of LeAnn & Eddie (and let’s hope that there only winds up to be one season of that train wreck of a show) titled “Babes and a Baby,” LeAnn Rimes dined at Villa with some of her childhood friends.

Villa’s tree-canopied parking lot appeared in Buick’s recent “Hmm” commercial.

The parking lot is absolutely gorgeous in person! I can only imagine what it looks like at night all lit up.

You can watch the Buick “Hmm” commercial by clicking below.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Villa restaurant, from Must Love Dogs, is located at 22160 Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

August 26, 2014
Citigroup Center from “Opportunity Knocks”

One of my favorite movies from my teen years is Opportunity Knocks. I first saw the 1990 comedy in the theatre with my uncle and cracked up all the way through. I have watched it countless times since and its hilarity has not waned in the slightest. I knew that the flick was lensed largely in Chicago and recently asked It’sFilmedThere’s Chas (a native of nearby Indiana) to track down its locations. One that he had some trouble with was the building that housed the office of Milt Malkin (Robert Loggia). I thought it looked like an L.A.-area property and, as it turns out, I was right. While the vast majority of the movie was shot in the Windy City, the exterior of Mitch’s office can actually be found in downtown Los Angeles. (Although, this blurb from Shot On This Site, which I came across while researching for today’s post, has me wondering if more scenes – most likely interiors – were shot in L.A.) In real life, Milt’s office was located in the Citigroup Center at 444 South Flower Street.

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The 625-foot, 48-story Citigroup Center was designed by the A.C. Martin & Partners architecture firm and was completed in either 1979 or 1981, depending on which website or book you are reading.

The structure, which originally served as the Los Angeles headquarters for Wells Fargo Bank, was first named the Wells Fargo Bank building. When WFB acquired Crocker Bank in 1986, the company’s headquarters were moved to Crocker Center. The property then became known as the 444 Plaza Building (or the 444 Flower Building) until the early 2000s when Citigroup Inc. moved in and changed the name to Citigroup Center.

Citigroup Center played the headquarters of the Malkin Blower Company in Opportunity Knocks. The building was only shown in one brief establishing shot, in the scene in which Milt first brought Eddie (Dana Carvey) to visit his office.

The sculpture visible in the scene is named “Shoshone” and was built by artist Mark DiSuvero in 1982.

The 45-foot tall piece, which is painted in two different shades of red, was constructed out of 13 steel I-beams and weighs 25 tons.

The CRA/LA website states that the abstract sculpture “is aligned to frame the Bonaventure Hotel like an easel.”

Citigroup Center was not used for the interior of the Malkin Blower Company in Opportunity Knocks.

Interior filming took place at a building located somewhere in downtown Chicago, as is evidenced by the Chase Tower . . .

. . . and Crain Communications Building visible outside of Milt’s window.

Citigroup Center has been immortalized onscreen countless times over the years. In the 1980s television series L.A. Law, the offices of the McKenzie-Brackman law firm were housed in the building.

In 1986’s 52 Pick-Up, Citigroup Center was where Barbara Mitchell (Ann-Margret) worked.

Citigroup Center was the site of the bank heist at the end of 1995’s Heat. Only the exterior of the building was used, though. The bank’s interior can be found a few blocks east at 350 South Grand Avenue. (Michael Heizer’s geometrically-shaped North, South, East, West art installation is visible in the scene.)

In 1999’s Fight Club, one of the Fight Club members tried to start a scuffle in the forecourt of Citigroup Center’s street-level entrance.

Citigroup Center was also featured in Gotcha! and To Live and Die in L.A, but, unfortunately, I could not find copies of either movie with which to make screen captures for this post. And while several websites state the building appeared in Baby Boom, I scanned through the 1987 comedy and did not see it pop up anywhere.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Citigroup Center, aka Mitch’s office from Opportunity Knocks, is located at 444 South Flower Street in downtown Los Angeles.

August 8, 2014
The “Clueless” Mall

As evidenced by yesterday’s post, I have been on a major Clueless filming locations kick as of late. One spot about which much conflicting information has been reported online is the mall (or malls) that appeared in the 1995 flick. Some sites stipulate Westside Pavilion in Rancho Park was used, some surmise the Beverly Center in Beverly Grove made a cameo and still others claim that filming took place at Westfield Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks. So I set out to end the confusion once and for all.

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Not surprisingly, Clueless featured several mall scenes. In the first, which took place towards the beginning of the movie, Cher (Alicia Silverstone) headed to the mall with BFF Dionne (Stacey Dash) to “find sanctuary” after receiving a less-than-stellar report card. The establishing shot shown in that particular scene was of the Westside Pavilion located at 10800 West Pico Boulevard in Rancho Park. The locale was only used for that single exterior image, though.

Inside the mall, the girls are shown at Contempo Casuals lamenting the crusty demeanor of their debate teacher, Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn).

That same Contempo Casuals was also featured in the scene in which Dionne called Cher to inform her that they were going to have to make an appearance at the “Val party.” Most websites state that the C.C. used in Clueless was the one formerly located on the sixth floor of the Beverly Center. Some recent research leads me to believe that information is incorrect, though. But more on that in a bit.

Later in the movie, Cher and Christian (Justin Walker) witness some “Barneys” trying to throw Tai (Brittany Murphy) off a railing while out shopping for a leather jacket.

I originally thought the interior of Westside Pavilion had been used in that scene, but, as you can see below, it does not match the mall shown in Clueless.

So I headed out to Westfield Fashion Square recently and was thrilled to discover that it was the right spot! The escalator that Cher and Christian rode in the scene is located in the eastern portion of the mall (on the Macy’s side of the center), directly outside of Williams-Sonoma and Zara.

While the tile flooring has been altered and the stores have since transitioned, the area still looks much the same as it did in Clueless, which had me grinning (ridiculously so) from ear to ear.

Tai’s “near-death experience” took place just across from the escalator, outside of what is now Foot Locker.

I was totally buggin’ when I realized that the benches visible in the movie were no longer there (or perhaps never were). I so wanted to stand in front of one and say, “Car-pe Di-em!”

Once I realized that Tai’s near-death experience had been filmed at Fashion Square, I got to thinking that the Contempo Casuals scenes were most likely shot there, as well. It did not make sense to me that producers would go to the trouble of shooting the C.C. scenes elsewhere, especially considering that they were both extremely brief. So I did some research and learned that there was indeed a Contempo Casuals located at Fashion Square in the mid-nineties, as you can see here and here. I scanned through the C.C. scenes again and just about fell off my chair when I spotted the number 22 posted on the store’s window. And while I could find no such numbers in any pictures of the Beverly Center via a Google image search, I did spot a number in the same style and color on the front of Victoria’s Secret in one of the photographs I had taken at Fashion Square a few years prior (pictured below). Then I came across this listing and just about died of excitement upon discovering that the company currently located in storefront 22 of the Westfield Fashion Square is none other than Wet Seal, the very same brand that took over Contempo Casuals in 1995! You can see a photo of the storefront in its current state here. Based on all of that, I am 99.9% certain that the only mall interior that appeared in Clueless was Westfield Fashion Square.

Clueless is hardly the first production to make use of Westfield Fashion Square. As I blogged back in 2012, the mall was where Michael Scott (Steve Carrel) took Dunder Mifflin’s fairer sex in the Season 3 episode of The Office titled “Women’s Appreciation.”

In the Season 5 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Christmas Comes This Time Each Year,” Westfield Fashion Square was both where Andrea Zuckerman-Vasquez (Gabrielle Carteris) and Jesse Vasquez (Mark Damon-Espinoza) tried to get their baby to pose for a photo with Santa . . .

. . . and where Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) shopped with LuAnn Pruit (Caroline McWilliams).

In the Season 4 episode of Malcolm in the Middle titled “If Boys Were Girls,” the Nolastname family headed to Westfield Fashion Square to do some shopping.

Jane Kaczmarek returned there (to the mall’s southeastern parking lot) a couple of years later to film one of my favorite television scenes ever – the demolition derby scene from Season 6’s “Hal’s Christmas Gift.”

You can watch that scene by clicking below.

In the Season 1 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Move On,” Fashion Square was where Gaby took a low-budget modeling job.

And it was at Fashion Square that Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz) fell into a fountain in the Season 3 episode of Glee titled “Props.”

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Westside Pavilion, located at 10800 West Pico Boulevard in West L.A., was used for exterior shots of the mall in Clueless. Interior mall scenes were shot at Westfield Fashion Square at 14006 Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks. The escalator that Cher and Christian rode in the movie is located on the eastern side of Fashion Square, in front of Williams-Sonoma and Zara, and Tai was almost pushed off the railing located in front of Foot Locker.

August 5, 2014
The “Clueless” Guide to Occidental College

While it is well-known among location aficionados that Occidental College masked as Bronson Alcott High School in Clueless, an in-depth guide to the exact areas of the campus that appeared in the flick has never been published. So, with some help from Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and a reader named Rebecca who grew up in Eagle Rock and knows Oxy like the back of her hand, I set out to do just that.

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A map of the Occidental College campus is pictured below. I will be using the same numbering key provided on the map to identify the areas and buildings featured in Clueless. So without further ado, I present to you the Clueless guide to Occidental College (in order of appearance)!

1. Bronson Alcott High School Exterior – The south side of Occidental’s Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15) masqueraded as the front of Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and the gang’s Beverly Hills-area high school.

The building, which was designed by Myron Hunt, is shown repeatedly throughout Clueless and should also be recognizable to Beverly Hills, 90210 fans as the exterior of the Condor’s Nest at CU.

2. Walkway – The esplanade that Cher and her friends are often seen strolling along (and where the movie’s infamous “As if!” moment took place) is Oxy’s Central Quadrangle (#126).

The Quadrangle, which is situated directly south of the Johnson Student Center, served as the hangout of Bronson Alcott’s various cliques, including the TV station group, the Persian Mafia and the Crew.

The eastern portion of the Quad, in front of Occidental’s Johnson Hall/Alumni Auditorium (#2), is where Cher offered her father’s “sucky Italian roast” to Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn) . . .

. . . and where he later shared it with Miss Geist (Twink Caplan).

3. Athletic Field – It is on Oxy’s Patterson Field (#101) that Cher convinces her P.E. teacher, Ms. Stoeger (Julie Brown – yes, that Julie Brown), to raise her grade from a C to an B.

The field has changed a bit since filming took place, but it still very recognizable.

4. Mr. Hall’s Pathway – The walkway leading to the south side of Occidental’s Booth Music and Speech Center (#14), which looks quite a bit different today, is where Cher observed Mr. Hall and came to the conclusion that he was in need of a “good, healthy boink fest.”

5. The Teachers’ Lounge – According to an Oxy employee that Owen contacted, the faculty lounge where Cher tried to decide which teacher to set Mr. Hall up with (and coveted a Snickers bar) was one of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15) dining rooms. Unfortunately, the interior of the student center was largely gutted and remodeled in 1998 and then again in 2013 and the vast majority of it looks completely different today. I am not sure if the dining room that appeared in Clueless was renovated or if it currently remains in its onscreen state. Here’s hoping!

6. The Main Office – This location was the saddest discovery of all. According to Rebecca, Bronson Alcott’s main office was the former Student Activities Office at the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15), which prior to the 1998 remodel was known as the Freeman Student Union. The space was gutted during the initial renovation and no longer exists. You can see photographs of what the interior of the structure currently looks like here.

7. Cafeteria Exterior – The eastern side of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15) served as the outside of the Bronson Alcott cafeteria.

That portion of the building looks a bit different today than it did in Clueless due to the fact that stairs and a wheelchair ramp have since been added to the exterior, I am guessing to comply with ADA regulations.

The cafeteria doors look the same for the most part . . .

. . . aside from said staircase and ramp addition.

Had to do it!

8. Parking Lot – Mr. Hall and Miss Geist shared their first kiss in the Admission and Visitor Parking (#43), in between the Admissions Office – Collins House (#19) and Newcomb Hall (#18). Miss Geist is parked in front of Newcomb Hall in the scene.

And Cher and Dionne are standing in the middle of the parking lot, with the Admission Office – Collins House visible behind them.

Again, had to do it!

9. Tennis Courts – Oxy’s McKinnon Family Tennis Center (#107) is where Dionne (Stacey Dash) refuses to participate in a P.E. lesson because her tennis instructor “would prefer if I didn’t expose myself to any training that might derail his teachings.”

The courts are also where Cher and Dionne first meet Tai (Brittany Murphy) and decide to befriend her despite the fact that their “stock” might “plummet.”

10. Cafeteria Interior – The exact location of the interior of the Bronson Alcott cafeteria, where Tai and Travis Birkenstock (Breckin Meyer) first locked eyes, is a spot that I am unsure of. Thanks to the carved columns, paned windows and brown doors visible in the background of the scene, I can say with certainty that it is (or was) somewhere on the Occidental campus. My guess is that it was once located inside of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15), but was dismantled during the 1998 remodel.

11. The Grassy Knoll – The spot where Travis and his fellow Loadies (who “no respectable girl actually dates”) hang out is along the western side of the Samuelson Campus Pavilion/Tiger Cooler (#16).

12. The Fountain Photo Shoot – Cher’s impromptu photo shoot with the gang took place in the courtyard of the Booth Music and Speech Center (#14).

Again, had to do it!

13. Josh’s Girlfriend’s Dorm – Occidental was not solely used to stand in for Bronson Alcott High School in Clueless – a campus building also masqueraded as the dorm where Josh’s (Paul Rudd) girlfriend, Heather (Susan Mohun), lived. The structure featured in that scene was Oxy’s Weingart Center for the Liberal Arts (#17).

In reality, the building is not a dorm, but instead houses an art gallery, art studio and classrooms.

14. Girls’ Locker Room – The locker room where Tai laments the fact that her feelings are not reciprocated by Elton (Jeremy Sisto) can be found inside of the Rush Gymnasium (#8). You can see a real life photograph of the locker room that was used in the movie here.

15. Art Museum – Oxy’s Arthur G. Coons Administrative Center (#1) masked as the art museum featured in the montage scene in which Cher decides that she wants to make over her soul. (The outfit Cher wore in that scene is one of my favorites from the entire movie.)

In real life, the building, which sits at the center of the Occidental campus, houses administrative offices.

It was the structure’s glass lobby that stood in for the museum in Clueless. In reality, there are no sculptures on display in that area.

16. Cher’s Pismo Beach Disaster Relief Booth – Cher and Dionne encouraged fellow students to sign up for the Pismo Beach Disaster Relief Team on the lawn located at the southeast corner of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15).

17. Pismo Beach Food Collection Drive – Last, but not least is another location I am unsure of. Toward the end of Clueless, Travis donated some unusual kitchenware to the Pismo Beach Food Collection Drive which took place in some sort of conference/meeting room. Thanks to its paned windows and the foliage and architecture visible in the background, I am certain that the room is (or, again, was) located on the Occidental campus. Unfortunately, I have been unable to pinpoint exactly where, though. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

And that’s all, folks! I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and Rebecca for helping me with this post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Occidental College, aka Bronson Alcott High School from Clueless, is located at 1600 Campus Road in Eagle Rock. You can visit the school’s official website here.

August 4, 2014
The “Whatever It Takes” Houses

I am all about teen comedies, even admittedly bad ones. Drive Me Crazy is one of my favorite movies ever, I loved all of the Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen destination flicks, and Get Over It cracks me up every time I watch, even though I’ve seen it repeatedly. So I was shocked when I received an email from a fellow stalker named David who was writing to let me know that he had found the two main houses from Whatever It Takes, a 2000 teen comedy that I had never previously heard of. I ran right out to stalk the two properties, which are located next door to each other in South Pasadena, while I was in L.A. this past week and then watched the movie with the Grim Cheaper shortly thereafter. I have to say that I was not very impressed. There are bad teen comedies and then there are bad teen comedies. This was a bad one. Regardless, I figured the two houses were charming enough to be blog-worthy.

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Whatever It Takes is a Cyrano de Bergerac adaptation centered around two longtime best friends, Ryan (Shane West) and Maggie (Marla Sokoloff), who live next door to each other. Ryan is in love with the most popular girl in school, Ashley (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe). He eventually manages to strike up a friendship with Ashley’s cousin Chris (James Franco), who has a crush on Maggie. The two make a deal with each other – Chris will help Ryan out with Ashley, if Ryan helps Chris out with Maggie. Such a unique plotline. I’ll give y’all one guess as to the outcome of the story.

David managed to track down Ryan and Maggie’s houses thanks to a 2016 address number that was visible above Ryan’s front door in a scene.

Oddly, while the two dwellings are shown together in wide establishing shots numerous times throughout Whatever It Takes, they are never shown individually – not a full-view of them, anyway.

Both properties are extremely charming in person. In real life, Ryan’s house was built in 1924 and boasts four bedrooms, two baths, 1,844 square feet and a 0.17-acre plot of land.

Maggie’s English-style residence was originally constructed in 1932 and features five bedrooms, four baths, 3,096 square feet and a 0.17-acre plot of land. The pad sold this past March for a whopping $1,830,000. You can check out some interior photographs of it here.

Only the exterior of the two homes appeared in Whatever It Takes. Maggie and Ryan’s bedrooms were just sets constructed on a soundstage, as were their two facing balconies, where countless scenes took place.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker David for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Ryan’s house from Whatever It Takes is located at 2016 Le Droit Drive in South Pasadena. Maggie’s house is right next door at 2012 Le Droit Drive.

August 1, 2014
Bowfinger International Pictures from “Bowfinger”

I am a sucker for any movie about Los Angeles. Coincidentally (or perhaps no so coincidentally), Steve Martin has written and starred in two of my favorites – L.A. Story and Bowfinger. Two completely different takes on life in LaLaLand, but both equally valid and poignant. Because I originally moved to Southern California to pursue an acting career, Bowfinger really hit home for me. Especially the scene in which wannabe actress Daisy (Heather Graham) jumped off the bus that transported her from Ohio to Hollywood, suitcase in hand, and asked of random passersby, “Where do I go to be an actress?” That was so me when I moved to SoCal – bright-eyed, full of dreams and so, so naïve. Who am I kidding, that is still so me – the dreams have just shifted a bit. So when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, told me years back that he had tracked down the bungalow that served as both the residence of Robert K. Bowfinger (Martin) and the headquarters of Bowfinger International Pictures in the flick, I immediately added it to my To-Stalk list. Somehow, though, I did not make it over there until a couple of weeks ago.

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Sadly, the house has changed considerably since filming took place. While the columned portico stationed around the front door was a set piece added for the filming and never an actual fixture of the property, the front door itself used to be in the same spot it was shown to be in Bowfinger, but has since been moved.

Mike took some photographs of the residence a couple of years ago and, as you can see, the location of the front door at that time matched what appeared onscreen. You can check out some other pictures of what the front door originally looked like here and here.

The door has since been covered over and moved to the side of the dwelling, as you can see in the image below (which I got off of the Yelp page for the FunHouse 420 Café and Lounge which was formerly housed in the bungalow).

Oddly enough, though, while taking a closer look at Bowfinger I noticed that an opening in that area was visible, so it seems that the home used to have two front doors.

Despite the front door alteration, the dwelling is still recognizable from the movie.

The area surrounding it is not, though. While the neighborhood used to be chock full of bungalows and apartment buildings, it now consists mainly of parking lots. The Bowfinger house is pretty much the only home in the vicinity still standing. And, sadly, it does not look like it will remain so for long. The land the residence is located on is currently being offered for sale (for $5million!) for the purpose of building a high-tech storage facility.

I am fairly certain that the interior of Bowfinger International Pictures was a set and not the bungalow’s actual interior, which you can see some photographs of here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and for loaning me the picture that appears in this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Bowfinger International Pictures from Bowfinger is located at 1621 Vista Del Mar Avenue in Hollywood.

July 28, 2014
Martin Weir’s Mansion from “Get Shorty”

While out and about stalking in Beverly Hills two weeks ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took me on a minor detour to see the mansion where movie star Martin Weir (Danny DeVito) lived in the 1995 comedy Get Shorty. I LOVE the scene that took place at Martin’s pad, so I was beyond excited to finally be seeing it in person.

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Towards the beginning of Get Shorty, Chili Palmer (John Travolta) enlists the help of Martin’s ex-wife, Karen Flores (Rene Russo), in the hopes that she can get the actor to star in a movie Chili is producing. Karen agrees to go to Martin’s mansion to talk to him and tells Chili that she will meet him afterwards at Abiquiu restaurant in Santa Monica (which I blogged about here). Instead of waiting for that lunch meeting, though, Chili buys a map of the stars’ homes and shows up at Martin’s residence at the same time that Karen does. (A man after my own heart!) Upon arriving, he says, “I can’t believe this map is accurate. I bought it for ten bucks from a kid sitting in a lawn chair on Sunset.” Love, love, love!

The mansion’s front gate was shown several times in the scene. It was closed when we arrived, but, as you can see below, still looks very similar to how it appeared in the movie.

The large, circular fountain-like structure that was stationed just beyond the gate in Get Shorty is no longer there, though, or was, perhaps, never there and was simply just a prop installed for the filming. Not having the fountain certainly adds more space for cars, which seems to be a pressing need for the current homeowners, as you can see below.

The home’s elaborately carved exterior is absolutely stunning – both onscreen and in person.

In real life, the 13,913-square-foot pad, which was originally built in 1988, has eight bedrooms, nine baths and a 0.66-acre lot. It last sold in July 2007 for $14,800,000.

I believe that the manse’s real life interior also appeared in Get Shorty, but I was, unfortunately, unable to verify that.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Martin Weir’s mansion from Get Shorty is located at 1017 North Crescent Drive in Beverly Hills.

July 14, 2014
Café Figaro from “Jerry Maguire”

Today’s post is a long time in the making. Off and on for years now I have been trying to track down the restaurant where Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) got fired in the 1996 romcom of the same name. I decided to actively revisit the search a couple of weeks ago and, this time, got Mike, from MovieShotsLA, involved. He wound up finding the place shortly thereafter. As it turns out, Jerry was let go from Sports Management International while at Café Figaro at 9010 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. Sadly, the eatery was shuttered in 1997, but Mike and I headed right on out to stalk its former location nonetheless.

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Mike pinpointed the locale thanks to the unique trees visible outside of the restaurant during the firing scene. Those trees can only be found on a few streets in the L.A. area, one of which is Melrose Avenue. So he began his search at the start of Melrose (just east of where it intersects with North Doheny Drive) and, sure enough, found the right spot within a matter of minutes. The only trouble was, the space had gone through so many iterations in the years since Jerry Maguire had been shot, that it was a bit of a struggle for me to figure out what restaurant had been in operation at the time of the filming. Finally (after scanning through at least 25 Google search results pages), I came across this 2007 article which stated that an eatery named Café Figaro had once been located at 9010 Melrose Avenue and that its walls had been covered with “ticky tacky newspaper decoupages.” Eureka! With that information in hand, I did a Google search for “Jerry Maguire” and “Café Figaro” and turned up this post which confirmed the find. Woot woot!

Café Figaro first opened its doors in 1969. (Apparently, Bill Cosby was one of the initial investors.) It was founded by Tom Ziegler, who, in the 1950s, had pioneered a coffee shop of the same name on the corner of MacDougal and Bleecker Streets in Manhattan. When a rent hike forced Tom to close that eatery in 1969, he packed up all of its interior decor and migrated west to Los Angeles where he launched a new, larger Figaro. You can read a 1970 news article about the L.A. site shortly after its opening here. (Interestingly, a man named Ben Fishbein re-opened the Manhattan Café Figaro in 1975, six years after Ziegler had been forced out. The re-vamp proved extremely successful and remained in operation until 2008. You can read more about the East Coast Figaro’s history here.)

Café Figaro closed down in 1997, a whopping 28 years after its founding. The interior of the space was subsequently gutted and the Kass Bah steakhouse, which you can see of a photograph of here, opened in its place. By the summer of 2001, the Kass Bah had called it quits. Following that closure, the property went through numerous iterations – it was the Parisian Room, then Santo Coyote and then Murano, prior to which it was completely gutted once again. When Murano shuttered, the site became The Artichoke’s Heart, then, after yet another remodel (this one not as major as the first two, which were complete overhauls), Smoke. Since Smoke’s closing in 2013, the venue has remained vacant. It absolutely boggles my mind that Mike was able to locate a spot that had not only changed hands no less than six times, but had been completely gutted twice. Hats off to him!

In Jerry Maguire, Café Figaro stood in for Cronin’s, the “crowded” restaurant where Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr) rather comically fired Jerry. During the scene, Bob delivered this diatribe, one of my favorite from the movie – “What about me? You know what I went through knowing I was gonna have to fire my mentor? Carrying that around in my head for a week! Could you get past yourself for a second?”

Not surprisingly, while the general structure and set-up remain the same, the restaurant’s interior looks completely different today than it did onscreen. You can check out some photographs of Café Figaro’s interior from the early 1970s here and here, though, and see that it did indeed match what appeared in Jerry Maguire.

Café Figaro’s exterior (which was only seen in a limited view in Jerry Maguire) has also been remodeled since filming took place, but is still somewhat recognizable.

Thankfully, the space across the street, which was a children’s gym at the time that Jerry Maguire was filmed, has not changed over the years and still looks pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen.

As does the building located next door to Café Figaro, which Jerry rushes by in the scene while on his way back to his office.

Mike and I were both floored to see that the manhole cover that was shown in the close-up of Jerry running was still there. Love that!

Me doing my best Jerry impersonation.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The former Café Figaro space from Jerry Maguire is located at 9010 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. The building that Tom Cruise runs by in the movie is located next door at 9006 Melrose Avenue. The manhole cover that he walks over can be found just east of that building’s front door.

July 9, 2014
The “Must Love Dogs” House

One location that I had always wondered about, but never put much time into tracking down was the charming bungalow where lovelorn preschool teacher Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane) lived in the 2005 romantic comedy Must Love Dogs. Then, this past May, a fellow stalker named Linda challenged me to find the place and just a few days later I got an email from Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, with an address. He had seen Linda’s challenge and decided to do a little digging and, lo and behold, found the locale. Thank you, Geoff!

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Geoff was able to find the residence thanks to an address number of “1181” that was visible above the front porch in several scenes. Figuring that the pad was most likely located in Pasadena due to its Craftsman-style architecture, he began searching 1100 blocks in the area and it was not long before he found the right spot.

I was not at all disappointed when I finally saw the house in person. The place is just as adorable and picturesque as it appeared to be onscreen.

In real life, the 1921 dwelling features four bedrooms, one bath, 1,874 square feet of living space and a 0.32-acre plot of land. It was last sold for $280,000 in October 1997, which means that the people who own it today owned it at the time that Must Love Dogs was filmed. Love that! Wish I could have spoken to them while I was there.

The exterior of Sarah’s residence popped up repeatedly throughout Must Love Dogs.

Sadly, the gorgeous interior shown in the movie was just a set.

I am absolutely in love with Sarah’s décor (hello, claw-foot tub!). The entire place just looks so cozy and inviting. You can read a great Hooked on Houses article about Sarah’s interior design style here.

I managed to find some photographs of the real life interior of the residence online and, as you can see, it looks quite a bit different than what was shown onscreen. Some of the set does appear to have been modeled after the actual home, though. The built-in buffet in Sarah’s dining room is very similar to the property’s actual buffet.

And her green tiled fireplace is also very reminiscent of the the real home’s fireplace.

Sarah’s bedroom looks nothing like the real life master bedroom, though.

The two kitchens do not resemble each other, either. You can check out the real one here.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Sarah’s house from Must Love Dogs is located at 1181 East Elizabeth Street in Pasadena.

June 27, 2014