Category: Movie Locations

The Former Site of the “Home Alone 2” Motel

One Christmas location that I had been absolutely obsessed with finding for years was the supposed Miami, Florida-area motel where the McCallister family – minus Kevin (Macaulay Culkin), of course – stayed in the 1992 flick Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. I had always assumed that the place was located in Miami, until I noticed a mention on the movie’s IMDB filming locations page that stated that it was actually in Malibu. Well, believe you me, once I found out that the motel was located in the L.A. region, I became bound and determined to find it and immediately enlisted the help of fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website. Chas wound up contacting one of the HA2 crew members about a year and a half ago, who had this to say, “That was the last scene we shot in the movie and I was driving the van. I just looked it up. We shot it at Rochelle’s Motel, 3333 Lakewood Boulevard @ Donald Douglas Drive, Long Beach, CA. I’m honestly not sure it exists anymore, but that would be (I think) the correct name and address. I just found the call sheet.” (I LOVE hearing insider info like the fact that it was the last scene shot and that the crew-member was driving the van. SO COOL!) Sadly, said crew member was right – Rochelle’s had been leveled shortly after Home Alone 2 was lensed. Even though the locale was no longer in existence, though, I was absolutely dying to stalk its former site and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to do just that on our way to Newport Beach this past weekend.

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Fellow stalker Gary, from Seeing Stars, did a TON of research on this locale and I honestly cannot thank him enough. Because he lives in the South Bay, Chas had contacted Gary to ask if he had ever seen Rochelle’s when it was still in operation. He hadn’t, but decided to do some Googling on the subject and came up with quite a bit of information. From his queries, which yielded several Los Angeles Times mentions of various events held at the site, Gary was able to ascertain that the location, which is a stone’s throw away from the Long Beach Airport, was originally a motel named the Landmark that opened around 1962. You can check out a photograph of an old Landmark matchbook here and a vintage postcard from the place on Ron-Kane’s Flickr photostream here. According to the postcard, the Landmark featured a heated swimming pool and fully-carpeted, air-conditioned rooms with tubs, showers and 21-inch television sets. Sometime around 1967, the Landmark was razed (or completely altered) to make way for a new, larger hotel/convention center named Rochelle’s. You can see an old Rochelle’s matchbook here, which states that the place boasted 163 “luxurious units” with separate kitchenettes, a heated pool, a restaurant, a coffee shop, sauna baths for both men and women, and a private conference room. From what Gary ascertained, Rochelle’s seems to have been in operation until at least 1988 and, if I had to guess, I would say that the place was closed and vacant at the time that Home Alone 2 was filmed in 1992, which is most likely why producers chose to use it. Sometime thereafter, the motel was demolished and a parking structure for the Long Beach Airport currently stands in its place. Boo!

Rochelle’s Motel, which was re-named Villa de Dolphine for the filming, only showed up twice in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – first in the scene in which the McCallister family arrived in Miami, only to discover that the motel that Uncle Frank (Gerry Bamman) recommended was a total dump. Of the place, he says, “It didn’t look this bad on our honeymoon.” LOL I absolutely LOVE the docked boat that was parked in front of the pool area in the scene. Fabulous touch!

Rochelle’s later appeared in the scene in which Kate McCallister (Catherine O-Hara) received a phone call from the Miami Police informing her that Kevin had tried to check in to The Plaza Hotel in New York (which I blogged about here).

Amazingly enough, I could not find a single photograph of the former Rochelle’s Motel anywhere online. Not one! Thankfully though, fave website Historic Aerials did come through with a view of the locale from 1972, which you can compare to the current aerial view below.

As you can see in a more close-up version of that 1972 view, the C-shape of the motel, as well as the pool with parking spaces set around it, match up perfectly to what appeared onscreen in Home Alone 2.

The pink-hued interior of the McCallister family’s motel room was, I believe, just a set and not an actual room at Rochelle’s.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Chas, from It’sFilmedThere, and Gary, from Seeing Stars, for their help in finding and researching this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Rochelle’s Motel, aka Villa de Dolphine from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, was formerly located at 3333 Lakewood Boulevard in Long Beach. Today, the site is a parking structure for the Long Beach Airport.

December 20, 2012
The “Four Christmases” House

Today’s location is a big one, my fellow stalkers! Well, it is for me, at least, being that it took me years to find it, as I mentioned in last Friday’s post. Yes, I am talking about the ultra-modern and gorgeous hilltop home where Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) lived in the 2008 romantic comedy Four Christmases. Despite the fact that the abode only showed up once in the flick – and very briefly at that – its contemporary façade and bamboo accents made quite an impression on me and I fell in love the place pretty much on sight. Try as I might, though, I just could NOT seem to track it down. So when I finally did this past Thursday morning, I was pretty much doing cartwheels across my apartment for the next hour and a half. And while the residence is actually located in San Francisco and I was therefore not able to stalk it myself, I recruited my good friend Nat, who lives in the Bay Area, to stalk it on my behalf, which she did the very next day. Thank you, Nat!

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Because Four Christmases was lensed in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, I had no idea where to even begin my search on this one. When I first embarked on the hunt, fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, had contacted one of the movie’s crew members for me, who informed him that the residence was indeed located in San Francisco, but that it had been changed significantly for the filming and would be virtually unrecognizable in person. He refused to divulge the property’s exact location, though, so I did not put much credit into his information as I thought that he might be fabricating things in order to throw us off the scent. As it turns out, the guy was telling the truth. Brad and Kate’s house was changed drastically for the shoot, which is another reason that it was so hard to find. It was not until I came across production designer Shepherd Frankel’s amazing website last week and saw this artistic rendering of the Four Christmases house that I was able to finally find the place.

What threw me off considerably during the search was the fact that, for the filming, the home’s real life front doors (which face the street) were covered over and a fake door added to the eastern side of the structure (in the area denoted with a red arrow in the photograph below), making it impossible for me to figure out how the place was situated in relation to the street. Once I saw the drawing of the house on Frankel’s website, though, it all came together in my head and I was able to find the pad within minutes. WHOO HOO!

The home’s actual front doors are pictured below. I much prefer the set-up of the house that appeared in the movie to its real life exterior. Absolutely LOVE that bamboo-covered accent wall.

Also love that the residence’s stuccoed front half-wall was covered over with wood for the shoot. It gives the place a much more modern feel and adds quite a bit of texture and color to the exterior.

One aspect of the house that was not altered for the filming was its view, which, as you can see below, is absolutely STUNNING.

Can you imagine waking up to this image every morning? Sigh!

In real life, Brad and Kate’s dwelling is absolutely gargantuan – much larger than it appears to be from its front exterior and much larger than it appeared to be in Four Christmases. The four-story pad, which was originally built in 1987, boasts five bedrooms, four baths and a whopping 3,990 square feet of living space – all on a 0.09-acre plot of land.

Absolutely LOVE the Christmas tree in the window. Can you imagine how spectacular it looks at night, all lit up and against the backdrop of that amazing San Francisco view?

All of the interior scenes that took place at Brad and Kate’s house were filmed in Venice Beach at the same residence that was used in Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” music video, which I blogged about last week.

Oddly enough, though, it seems that a different interior was used as Brad and Kate’s house at some point during the filming because in the trailer for Four Christmases, the couple is shown making phone calls to their respective parents while sitting in a brick-walled loft-style residence with arched windows.

Even odder still is the fact that that particular interior (which in reality is located at 1161 Vine Street in Hollywood and which you can check out some photographs of here) did wind up in the film – as the studio where Brad and Kate took dance lessons. As you can see below, the brick walls, exposed duct work and arched windows match Kate and Brad’s house from the trailer perfectly. Heck, even the Christmas decorations are the same! Very, very strange! UPDATE – Shepherd was nice enough to send me an email explaining that this scene was supposed to have taken place in a break area at the dance studio and not at the couple’s home, so the seeming anomaly now makes sense.

You can watch the Four Christmases trailer by clicking below.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to my good friend Nat for all of her help in finding this location and for going out and stalking it for me.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Brad and Kate’s house from Four Christmases is located at 85 Burnett Avenue in the Twin Peaks area of San Francisco.

December 19, 2012
Marilyn’s House from “Four Christmases”

Early yesterday morning, after what had amounted to years and years of searching and thanks to the assistance of both Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and my good friend Nat, I finally, finally, FINALLY managed to track down the San Francisco-area house where Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) lived in the 2008 holiday flick Four Christmases. Woot woot! The stalking Gods were definitely smiling down upon me yesterday because shortly thereafter I ALSO found the residence where Kate’s mom, Marilyn (Mary Steenburgen), lived in the flick. And while Nat, who resides in the Bay Area, will be stalking Ben and Kate’s pad for me later today so that I can blog about it next week, Marilyn’s house is, thankfully, located right near me in South Pasadena. So I, of course, immediately ran out to stalk it yesterday.

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Surprisingly, finding Marilyn’s house was a snap. I had heard rumblings over the years that the abode was located inside the gated Hancock Park community of Fremont Place, but while scanning through Four Christmases yesterday, I spotted an address number of 1217 on the curb in front of the house and on the façade above the front door. Because Fremont Place addresses are only three digits long, I knew that the dwelling could not be located there – unless, of course, the number had been altered for the filming, which I doubted. Upon closer inspection, I got the strange feeling that I had seen the house before, possibly in South Pasadena. So I decided to begin my search on the most oft-filmed-at street in the area, Milan Avenue. I punched 1217 Milan Avenue into Google and, lo and behold, it was the spot! Let me tell you, I almost fell out of my chair! Here it had taken me YEARS to track down Ben and Kate’s house, but I somehow managed to find Marilyn’s on the very first street that I searched! Go figure!

In real life, the charming home, which was originally built in 1927, boasts four bedrooms, three baths, a whopping 4,447 square feet of living space, and almost half an acre of land.

The exterior of Marilyn’s house only showed up once, very briefly (blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-briefly), in Four Christmases, in the scene in which Ben and Kate arrived at Kate’s mother’s residence to celebrate their second Christmas of the day. Quite a bit of décor was added for the filming, including a white picket fence, a huge amount of wildflowers lining the front walkway and sidewalk, a cross in each downstairs window, and, of course, a myriad of religious statues. I was absolutely FLOORED to discover that the Christmas wreaths that had been displayed in the second floor windows in the movie were there in real life, as well – in the exact same positions! SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

And while I would have bet money on the fact that the real life interior of the home had been used in the movie, that was, shockingly, not the case. According to the Four Christmases production notes, all of the interiors of the four parents’ houses excluding one – the residence where Creighton (Jon Voight) lived, which was actually the Boddy House in Descanso Gardens, which I blogged about way back in May 2009 – were sets built on a soundstage at Ren-Mar Studios (now Red Studios Hollywood, which I blogged about this past March). All I can say is that production designer Shepherd Frankel (who has a Masters Degree in architecture) did an UH-MA-ZING job because, outside of Nancy Meyer productions, I have never seen such detailed sets. Of Frankel’s design, the production notes state, “In keeping with Marilyn’s malleable personality, her home is characterized by what Frankel describes as ‘surfaces and veneers, reflecting no real sense of self.’ At the same time, it reveals a dedication to symmetry and order, with wallpapers matched to upholstery patterns, suggesting the hand of a woman who is constantly striving toward some higher standard of domestic design as much as she strives for the perfect relationship.” You can check out some FABULOUS pictures of the set that Frankel created here.

As you can see in the screen captures below as compared to these real life photographs of the house, the set is much different than the actual residence. Areas of the dwelling that Frankel recreated include the entryway, which you can see real life photos of here and here;

the living room, which you can see real life photographs of here and here;

the den, which you can see real life photos of here and here;

the huge guest bathroom (you can check out one of the home’s actual bathrooms here and here);

and the kitchen, which you can see a real life photograph of here and here. It is unbelievable to me how textured, detailed and realistic Frankel’s designs are!

I am fairly certain that the backyard that appeared in the movie was a mixture of both the home’s real life backyard and a set. You can see photographs of the actual backyard here and here, and a picture of the set here. UPDATE – Shepherd Frankel contacted me after I wrote this post and informed me that Marilyn’s backyard was just a set. Of the filming, he said, “It was all done onstage where I replicated a version of the rear elevation of the location, but modified it to suit our needs.” He also told me that the view behind Marilyn’s fence was a “plate shot” of the home’s actual neighborhood. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Marilyn’s house from Four Christmases is located at 1217 Milan Avenue in South Pasadena. Quite a few other famous homes can be found on the same street, including the former residence of architect Norman Marsh at 1934 Milan ; Matthew Kidman’s (Emile Hirsch’s) house from The Girl Next Door at 1504 Milan; Danielle’s (Elisha Cuthbert’s) house from The Girl Next Door at 1500 Milan; the Beethoven house at 1405 Milan; the Lawrence house from the 1970’s television series Family at 1230 Milan; and one of the houses that the boys painted in American Pie 2 at 820 Milan.

December 14, 2012
The “People Like Us” Apartment Building

This past weekend, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Westfield Topanga mall in Canoga Park (one of my very favorite shopping centers) to do some major Christmas shopping. And “since we were in the area” (cough, cough), I asked if we could make a little stalking stop beforehand at the apartment building where Frankie Davis (Elizabeth Banks) and her son, Josh Davis (Michael Hall D’Addario), lived in the 2012 flick People Like Us. I had learned about the location thanks to a June 26th, 2012 Los Angeles Times article that chronicled the various L.A. locales that appeared in the flick and in which author Richard Verrier stated, “Filming took place throughout the San Fernando Valley, where Sam’s [Chris Pine’s] sister Frankie, a struggling bartender, lives with her son in an apartment complex, which was actually the Saticoy Court Apartments in Canoga Park.” Never before had I seen a film location spelled out like that in a newspaper article, so I would be remiss if I did not give major props to Richard here! A man after my own heart, I swear!

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The location was also (sort of) spelled out in People Like Us, in the scene in which Sam is shown reading a letter from his recently-deceased father which states, “Please get this to Josh Davis. Regal Arms Apartments. 731 Saticoy Street.” From there, tracking down the building – which, in actuality, is located at 21731 Saticoy Street – was a snap.

As luck would have it, while we were stalking the Saticoy Court Apartments (which are, sadly, gated), one of the residents, who could NOT have been nicer, came outside and started talking to us. He answered all sorts of questions I had about the filming (although he did not live on the premises at the time and, shockingly, has still yet to watch People Like Us!) and, when he saw how excited I was about seeing the building in person, invited us inside for a closer look! (Yes, I was pinching myself. The GC, not so much. )

As luck would further have it, while I was snapping photographs, the owner of the actual apartment used in the movie (unit #58), who also could NOT have been nicer, happened to step outside and spent quite a few minutes talking with us. She informed us that filming did indeed take place inside of her actual apartment and that she and her husband were moved into one of Saticoy Court’s vacant units for a few weeks during the shoot. She also told us that filmmakers chose her particular unit over the many others in the building because they liked its location in relation to the exterior stairwell and that the interior of her apartment was painted and upgraded a bit for the production. And while I was hoping that she might invite us inside for a little look-see, sadly that was not to be.

The Saticoy Court Apartments, which was named the “Regal Arms” in People Like Us, showed up repeatedly throughout the flick. Quite a few areas of the building were used in the movie, including the front exterior;

the main entrance doors;

the mailboxes;

the exterior stairwell;

the central courtyard and pool;

the side of the building (please excuse my photograph, which was taken from the wrong angle);

Apartment 25, where Ted (Mark Duplass) lived;

and, of course, Apartment 58.

How cool is it that they used the unit’s actual number for the filming, by the way? Love it!

Even though I was not a huge fan of People Like Us, I cannot tell you how much fun I had stalking Saticoy Court and how amazeballs it was to be invited inside! AND the GC and I got all of our Christmas shopping done shortly thereafter, so it was definitely a banner day.

On a very sad People Like Us side-note – This past Monday morning, a fellow stalker named Diane published a comment on my Henry’s Tacos post informing me that the historic eatery is set to close its doors in just a few weeks. According to the AngelCityArt blog, while the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted 5-0 last year to designate Henry’s a historic-cultural monument, for whatever reason, Councilman Paul Kerkorian never submitted the proposal to the City Council and the designation was not pursued. Mehran Ebrahimpour, the owner of the Henry’s Tacos building, vehemently opposed the cultural status nomination and subsequently raised the rent on the site considerably last December. Due to the spike in rent, Henry’s current owner, Janis Hood, whose grandfather, Henry Comstock, founded the eatery on December 13th, 1961 (exactly fifty-one years ago tomorrow), will close up shop at the end of the month. Such a shame! You can visit the official Henry’s Tacos Facebook page here and you can watch an ABC 7 news special on the closure by clicking below.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Saticoy Court Apartments, aka the Regal Arms Apartments where Frankie lived in People Like Us, are located at 21731 Saticoy Street in Canoga Park.

December 12, 2012
Bill Cozbi’s Auto Body Shop from “Bridesmaids”

As I mentioned in my post about the apartment building where Lillian (Maya Rudolph) lived in Bridesmaids, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I finally managed to track down all of the L.A.-area locations from the 2011 flick last week. Or so I thought. While scanning through the movie on Monday afternoon, making screen captures for my post about Officer Rhodes’ (Chris O’Dowd’s) house, I came across the scene that took place at Bill Cozbi’s (Richard Riehle’s) Auto Body Shop and realized that Mike and I had both somehow completely forgotten about the locale and failed to do any sort of search for it. I immediately shot him an email asking for some help in tracking the place down and five minutes later I received a text that said, “Oh no! You were just there!” As it turns out, the auto body shop that stood in for Bill Cozbi’s in the flick is located in Santa Clarita, right around the corner from Officer Rhodes’ and Judy’s (Jill Clayburgh’s) houses. UGH! So – after smacking myself in the forehead for being such a ditz – I drove all the way back out to the SC yesterday to stalk the place.

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Fortunately, finding this location was a snap. When Mike first received my email, he had to the foresight to do a Google search for Bill Cozbi’s Auto Body Shop. Because that name was obviously a fake, it did not even occur to me to search for it – I had instead been Googling Bridesmaids and auto body shop. Thankfully though, Mike’s query led him to a page on the Ricardo’s Auto Upholstery website which identified the shop as a Bridesmaids filming location and also featured the photograph below. Whoo hoo – I so LOVE it when location owners embrace their property’s filming history!

Bill Cozbi’s Auto Body Shop is first mentioned by Officer Rhodes towards the beginning of Bridesmaids, in the scene in which he pulls Annie (Kristen Wiig) over for having broken taillights. Rhodes tells Annie that she should go see his friend who has a body shop, “Bill Cozbi, with a z – different guy. And don’t mention the whole Bill Cosby thing to him. It drives him nuts. I mean it!” LOL Annie ends up going to the shop at the very end of the movie, after finally deciding to start getting her life back on track. Thankfully, as you can see below, Ricardo’s Auto Upholstery looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen – aside from the name (and, therefore signage) change, of course.

I so love that a variation of one of the shop’s real life signs was used in the movie, though.

While I was stalking the shop, I happened to meet the super-nice owner, who is aptly named Ricardo. He was in absolute SHOCK that I had driven all the way from Pasadena just to see the location. Ricardo spent quite a few minutes filling me in on the filming of Bridesmaids, showing me photographs from the shoot, and he was even nice enough to take the picture of me that appears at the top of this post. He also informed me that producers had taken down a chain link fence that had originally surrounded his property during the shoot and that, after filming wrapped, he decided to replace the old fence with a nicer, more permanent metal one, as you can see below. Personally, I like the look of the place sans fence, but that’s probably because that is how it appeared in Bridesmaids.

Mike has most of the remaining Bridesmaids filming locations posted on his site. You can check out Annie’s Cake Baby shop here, the Brazilian restaurant here, the house where Annie went on a blind date here, and Joni’s Restaurant here.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Ricardo’s Auto Upholstery, aka Bill Cozbi’s Auto Body Shop from Bridesmaids, is located at 24347 Main Street in Santa Clarita. You can visit the shop’s official website here. Judy’s home from the movie is located right around the corner at 23418 8th Street. And Officer Rhodes’ residence is located directly across the street from Judy’s at 23425 8th Street. Note – the Bridesmaids houses cannot be reached via Calgrove Boulevard, as that street is blocked just east of Creekside Drive. To gain access to the sites, you can take either Apple or Valley Street south off of Lyons Avenue to 8th Street.

December 6, 2012
Judy’s House from “Bridesmaids”

The one location from Bridesmaids that I was most determined to track down – the one that I would not stop bugging poor Mike, from MovieShotsLA, about – was the yellow ranch-style dwelling where Annie’s (Kristen Wigg’s) mom, Judy (Jill Clayburgh, who was ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE in the role, which was, sadly, her last), lived in the 2011 flick. Thankfully, once Mike managed to find Officer Rhodes’ (Chris O’Dowd’s) house, which I blogged about yesterday, tracking down Judy’s was a snap because, in an odd twist, the two properties are located right across the street from one another. While I had told Mike when we first began the search that I had a hunch that the residences would most likely be found in the same vicinity, perhaps even the same town, never in a million years did I think that they would be directly across the street from each other!

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Mike had an inkling that they would be, though. While scanning through Bridesmaids, he noticed that the fake address numbers that producers had given the properties for the filming – 8409 and 8410 – were sequential, which would, in fact, put the two structures across the street from one another. He figured that the residence’s actual addresses had most likely just been shortened – from 28409 to 8409 and from 28410 to 8410, perhaps – for the shoot. So, when he ended up finding the locations, we were both absolutely flabbergasted to learn that the real life numbers – 23418 and 23425 – are not actually in any sort of sequence. Why on earth producers would give two homes that are not supposed to be located anywhere near each other random, but sequential address numbers is absolutely beyond me!

Judy’s house shows up numerous times throughout Bridesmaids, especially towards the end of the movie when Annie moves in with her mother.

As you can see below, the abode looked quite a bit different onscreen than it does in real life. While I figured that the pad had most likely been remodeled in recent months, a super-nice neighbor informed us that the enclosed front porch area that appeared in Bridesmaids was actually a fake that had been built specifically for the filming. I actually think the front porch makes the house much more appealing, which is most likely why it was added.

You can see the home’s real life front door behind Judy, inside of the fake enclosed front porch, in the screen capture below.

The exterior of the home is actually quite deceiving as it looks to be fairly moderate in size. In reality, though, the property, which was originally built in 1948, boasts two bedrooms, one bath, a scant 882 square feet of living space, and a 0.21-acre plot of land. It’s teensy!

And while I originally thought that the residence’s actual interior was used in the filming, that does not seem to be the case. You can check out some photographs of the home’s real life interior here. As you can see, it looks nothing at all like Judy’s wood-paneled, 70s-style abode.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Judy’s house from Bridesmaids is located at 23418 8th Street in Santa Clarita. Officer Rhodes’ house is located directly across the street at 23425 8th Street. Note – these properties cannot be reached via Calgrove Boulevard, as that street is blocked just east of Creekside Drive. To gain access to the sites, you can take either Apple or Valley Street south off of Lyons Avenue to 8th Street.

December 5, 2012
Officer Rhodes’ House from “Bridesmaids”

As I mentioned in last Thursday’s post about the apartment building where Lillian (Maya Rudolph) lived in Bridesmaids, I recently became just a wee-bit obsessed with tracking down all of the locales featured in the 2011 hit. One of the sites I was most interested in finding, of course, was the small blue ranch-style house belonging to Officer Rhodes (Chris O’Dowd). I bugged Mike, from MovieShotsLA, relentlessly to help me out with the search and he finally managed to track the place down last Wednesday morning. Needless to say, I was absolutely ecstatic and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it just a few days later – despite the fact that it was raining at the time. As I have mentioned before, this stalker absolutely HATES rain (thank goodness I am moving to the desert) and there are very few locations that I would actually venture out to stalk during a downpour. But Officer Rhodes’ house was one of ‘em!

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Finding this location took quite a bit of work, actually, so Mike definitely deserves a HUGE pat on the back! While scanning through Bridesmaids looking for clues as to the house’s location, I noticed an address number of 8410 behind Rhodes in the scene in which Annie (Kristen Wiig) leaves a cake on his doorstep. Mike and I both had an inkling that the number was a fake, though.

That inkling was solidified when I spotted a five-digit address number on the residence pictured behind Annie’s car in the same scene. And while I was unable to make out the number with any sort of certainty, I told Mike that I thought it read 23430. As luck would have it, I was right! I had read in the Bridesmaids production notes that towns surrounding Los Angeles had been used to stand in for Milwaukee and Chicago in the flick, so Mike and I decided to begin our hunt in the 23400 blocks of small towns surrounding L.A. proper. And, sure enough, although it took a while, Mike worked his magic and found the pad – in Santa Clarita of all places. Yay!

Officer Rhodes’ house shows up a few times in Bridesmaids and, as you can see below, has not been altered much from its silver screen appearance.

In real life, the tiny cottage, which was originally built in 1948, boasts 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 605 square feet of living space (that’s smaller than my apartment!), and a small 0.085-acre parcel of land.

As you can see below, the place is absolutely adorable in person – and does not seem like an L.A.-area house at all.

I was most excited to see the front porch area where the raccoons devoured Annie’s cake in the movie. LOL LOVE IT!

And while I am not certain, I have a hunch that the interior (LOVE the beamed roof and French doors, by the way!) of Rhodes’ house was just a set.

Tomorrow, I will be blogging about the residence where Annie’s mom, Judy (Jill Clayburgh), lived in Bridesmaids – which just so happens to be located directly across the street from Rhodes’ house! I was going to blog both properties together, but ran out of time today. So until tomorrow . . .

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Officer Rhodes’ house from Bridesmaids is located at 23425 8th Street in Santa Clarita. Note – the property cannot be reached via Calgrove Boulevard, as that street is blocked just east of Creekside Drive. To gain access to the site, you can take either Apple or Valley Street south off of Lyons Avenue to 8th Street.

December 4, 2012
Lillian and Sam’s House from “People Like Us”

After I tracked down Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) and Josh’s (Michael Hall D’Addario’s) house from 2012’s People Like Us (which I blogged about on Friday), the next item on my To-Search-For list was the gorgeous Craftsman-style abode where Lillian Harper (Michelle Pfeiffer) and her son, Sam Harper (Chris Pine), lived in the flick. Thankfully, this locale proved to be an easy find, despite the fact that very little of the exterior was ever shown.

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Towards the end of People Like Us, there is a scene in which a phone book listing of Lillian and Sam’s address is shown. And while the residence is said to be located at 2523 Wonderland Avenue in the Laurel Canyon area, I knew from this June 2012 Los Angeles Times article that the place could actually be found in L.A.’s West Adams District. Because the real life address of Frankie’s home had been used in the movie, I had an inkling that the address number of Lillian’s house was most likely real, as well. So I started looking at aerial views of all residences numbered 2523 in the West Adams area and, sure enough, found the place after just a few minutes. Whoo hoo! And I, of course, dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk it just a few days later.

As luck would have it, the SUPER-nice owner of the People Like Us house happened to come outside while we were stalking the place and filled us in on all sorts of filming information about the neighborhood. Ironically enough, the Eppes family’s home from the 2005 television series Numb3rs (pictured below), which I stalked and blogged about way back in March of 2008, is located right next door.

The owner answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of People Like Us and even said that if she was not running to appointment at the time, she would have invited us inside to see the interior of the house, which was used extensively in the film! OMG! That would have been amazing! Sigh! She also told me that I was welcome to go up onto the front porch to pose for a pic in the spot where Josh knocked on the door in the movie. Yay!

Lillian and Sam’s house popped up numerous times in People Like Us, although, as I mentioned above, not much of the exterior was shown.

The 6-bedroom, 5-bath, 4,030-square-foot abode, which was originally built in 1922 and sits on 0.16 acres, is quite spectacular in real life, as you can see below. Despite its large size, it does very much look like a Laurel Canyon-area home. I am guessing that the reason producers opted not to use an actual LC residence is that the streets there are extremely narrow and twisty and not very conducive to the transportation and parking needs of large production trucks.

As I mentioned above, the to-die-for interior of the home was used extensively in the flick. Of the fact that actual places and not sets were used in People Like Us, producer Bobby Cohen said, “There is something special about shooting in real locations. There is a texture to them that you can’t rebuild. It makes a difference.” I definitely agree. While some sets are absolutely spectacular (the bar from Burlesque comes to mind), I much prefer the look of real life locations. And the look of the interior of the People Like Us home is pretty darn spectacular. It would have been pretty foolish to use a set when an interior like that was available.

The home’s real life garage, which you can barely see in the background of the photograph below, was also used in the movie.

As was the majestic backyard. What I wouldn’t give to see that backyard in person!

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lillian’s house from People Like Us is located at 2523 4th Avenue in Los Angeles’ West Adams District. The Numb3rs house is located right next door at 2515 4th Avenue. The Fisher & Sons Funeral Home from Six Feet Under (which I blogged about here) is located around the corner at 2302 West 25th Street.

December 3, 2012
Frankie’s House from “People Like Us”

As I mentioned in early November in my post about Henry’s Tacos, I did not especially love the 2012 movie People Like Us as I found it to be a bit too depressing. What I did love, though, was the fact that the flick was filmed in its entirety in L.A. So after watching, I, of course, set about tracking down as many of its locales as I could – all by myself! Lately I feel like I do not get to spend much time searching for locations as I am usually too busy writing about them. While I love the hunt, blogging each day and physically stalking sites each weekend does not leave much time for actually tracking them down. So while I typically hand over the task of searching to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, with People Like Us, I decided that I was going to do all of the heavy lifting myself. And I loved every minute of it! The locale I was most interested in finding, of course, was the house that Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) moved into towards the very end of the movie. And I am embarrassed to admit that while finding it should have been a slam dunk, it took me more than a few hours to do so.

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In People Like Us, an address number of 809 was visible on the side of Frankie’s front door. For whatever reason, though, I was absolutely convinced that the number was a fake, so I initially did not pay much attention to it.

And while the filming locations map on the People Like Us Facebook page states that Frankie’s house is located on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Los Angeles, because the residence was shown to be on a flat, straight street in the movie and because Laurel Canyon is an extremely twisty and hilly road, I knew that information had to be incorrect. (I somehow did not even notice the word Burbank written next to the drawing of Frankie’s home on the map until making a screen capture of it for this post – yes, I am that blonde!) My gut was telling me that the abode was most likely located in the Valley somewhere, so I began searching for it in Van Nuys, Reseda, Valley Village and North Hollywood, but, unfortunately, came up completely empty-handed.

It was not until a few hours into the hunt that I recalled a scene in which Frankie’s son, Josh (Michael Hall D’Addario), wrote a note to Sam (Chris Pine) giving him their new address. And while I did not in a million years imagine that the home’s actual address would have been used in the note, I thought the address given might provide some sort of clue as to the pad’s real life location. So I scanned to that portion of the flick and saw that Josh wrote down 809 Fairview. On a whim, I punched 809 Fairview and Los Angeles into Google and it kicked back a map of 809 North Fairview Street in Burbank. One quick Google Street View glance and I saw that it was the right place. As you can imagine, I felt like a complete and total dolt after that! All those hours searching and it turns out that the home’s location had been spelled right out for me the entire time! D’oh!

Frankie’s house shows up only twice in People Like Us – first in the scene in which she is shown moving into the abode.

And next in the scene in which Sam shows up at Frankie’s house unexpectedly, hoping for a reconciliation. Sadly, as you can see in the photographs and screen captures both above and below, the house has changed quite a bit since the filming of People Like Us. Gone is Frankie’s landscaping and front lawn, the exterior trim is now painted red instead of white, the brick front porch steps have been swapped out for Spanish-style ones, a railing has been added, and the front porch overhang altered. Boo! At least the shutters flanking both front windows still look the same despite a change in paint color.

Thankfully though, the abode pretty closely resembles its onscreen self on Google Street View, as you can see below, so I guess there’s that.

I much prefer the look of the house in the movie to its real life appearance. I am just not all that into drought-resistant landscaping, I guess. According to Zillow, the 2-bedroom, 1-bath, 1,148-square-foot abode was originally built in 1936 and sits on 0.16 acres of land.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was also used in People Like Us, although very briefly.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Frankie’s house from People Like Us is located at 809 North Fairview Street in Burbank.

November 30, 2012
Lillian’s Apartment from “Bridesmaids”

This past Monday, the Grim Cheaper and I both had some business to attend to on L.A.’s West Side, so we decided to drive out that way together. Because his meetings were going to run a lot longer than mine, I figured I would do some stalking in the area while I waited. And I really have to give myself a major pat on the back here as I managed to get quite a bit of stalking done using the GC’s car, which does not have a GPS. I am seriously directionally-challenged and typically cannot find my way out of a paper bag, but the direction gods were definitely smiling down upon me on Monday because I managed to get to several locales with no problems whatsoever . . . in Venice, mind you – an area I am not particularly fond of due to the crowds, the sketchiness, and the lack of parking places and public restrooms. So needless to say I am very proud of myself! I feel like I can conquer the world now! Anyway, one of the locations that I managed to successfully find my way to was the supposed Milwaukee-area apartment building where Lillian (Maya Rudolph) lived in the 2011 hit Bridesmaids.

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I should mention here that I did not particularly enjoy Bridesmaids the first time I saw it – perhaps because I was home alone at the time and had no one to laugh with. But when the GC and I randomly caught the last half of it on TV while vacationing in La Quinta last August, I was practically rolling on the floor in hysterics. Then when my good friends, fellow stalkers Lavonna and Kim, came for a visit in November they quoted the movie constantly, so I re-watched it during their stay and became just a wee bit obsessed – the airplane scene (which you can watch by clicking below – caution, it is NSFW) is SO me, I cannot even tell you! Anyway, I spent the past few weeks bugging Mike, from MovieShotsLA, to help me track down all of the locations from the flick, the final two of which he did yesterday, after which he sent me a text that said, “Can we move on from this now?” LOL (I have to say that I was seriously disappointed to learn that Joni’s Restaurant, where Lillian and Annie Walker (Kristen Wiig) had coffee at the beginning of the flick, was just a set built on the Paramount Studios backlot. But I digress.)

Lillian’s apartment was kind of a random find, actually. While the majority of the Bridesmaids establishing shots were taken in the Milwaukee area, all actual filming was done right here in Southern California. At one point in the movie, Officer Rhodes (Chris O’Dowd) mentioned that Lillian’s building was located on the corner of Craner and Rose. And while I was not aware of any L.A. street named Craner, I was, of course, aware of Venice Beach’s famous Rose Avenue and decided to begin my search there. Sure enough, I found Lillian’s apartment just a bit east of Rose Avenue, on the corner of San Juan and Cabrillo. Woot woot!

Amazingly enough, despite the fact that the building is quite beautiful and looks to be somewhat historic, I could find absolutely no information whatsoever about it online, outside of the fact that it was originally built in 1922 (thank you, Property Shark!). According to a Panoramio poster named “gregmaz”, the domicile was designed and constructed by Abbot Kinney, the father of Venice himself, but I could not find any other references which support that claim. And being that Kinney passed away in 1920, two full years before Property Shark states that the place was built, I am fairly certain that he had nothing to do with its creation.

The building shows up twice in Bridesmaids – first in a brief establishing shot before the scene in which Lillian tells Annie that she has just gotten engaged.

And next towards the very end of the movie, in the scene in which Annie and Helen (Rose Byrne) track Lillian to her apartment on the morning of her wedding.

The interior of Lillian’s apartment was just a set, though. You can check out the real life interior of two of the building’s actual units here and here.

The very same building was also featured very briefly (blink and you’ll miss it, in fact) in the 1990 movie A Girl to Kill For, in the scene in which Chuck (Sasha Jenson) and Sue (Karen Medak) are being chased by the police. (Please pardon the craptastic screen captures below.)

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lillian’s apartment building from Bridesmaids is located at 300 San Juan Avenue in Venice.

November 29, 2012