Category: Movie Locations

The “Beaches” Mansion

One location that I have been asked about repeatedly ever since I first started my blog almost four years ago (and I CANNOT even believe that it has been that long!!!) is the large Tudor-style mansion where Hillary Whitney Essex (aka Barbara Hershey) lived in the 1988 tearjerker Beaches. And while it had long been noted on various websites that the property was located somewhere in the Pasadena area, try as I might, I just could not seem to track the place down. Then this past January a fellow stalker named Alain who lives in France emailed me to ask about a mansion that had appeared in the Season 7 episode of Columbo titled “Try and Catch Me”. He mentioned that the same estate had also been used in Beaches. I explained to Alain that I had been trying to find that particular home for years, but had had absolutely no luck. Flash forward 9 months to this past Tuesday afternoon when I received another email from Alain, this one announcing that he had found the property! Whoo-hoo! How he managed to locate it while living thousands of miles away in France, when I failed to do so while living right here in Pasadena, is absolutely beyond me! My hat is most-definitely off to you, Alain!

So I, of course, ran right out to stalk the place early Wednesday morning. Sadly though, as you can see above, hardly any of the property is visible from the street.

But, as I have said before, that is why God created aerial views. In real life, the 7,479-square-foot, 8-bedroom, 4-bath home, which was built in 1916 by the noted Pasadena architecture firm Marston & Van Pelt (who also designed the Twins mansion), is known as the S. S. Hinds Estate. The property was named for one of its original owners, actor Samuel S. Hinds, who is best known for playing Peter Bailey, George Bailey’s (aka James Stewart’s) father, in the 1946 classic It’s A Wonderful Life. According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory, Hinds lived in the home from the 1920s until the 1940s. Ironically enough, Hinds was originally a very prominent attorney who lost his fortune in the stock market crash of 1929. He was able to keep his Pasadena manse during that difficult time by renting it out to various boarders. Finding himself destitute at the age of 54, he decided to abandon law and try his hand at acting and it was not long before Hollywood came a’callin’. Hinds went on to star in over 200 films before his death in 1948.

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In Beaches, the S.S Hinds Estate stood in for the supposed Atherton-area residence where Hillary lived both as a child and an adult.

The house’s front gate was used quite prominently in the movie in the scenes in which Hillary checked her mailbox in anticipation of receiving letters from her lifelong best friend, Cecilia “CC” Carol Bloom (aka Bette Midler).

And while the gate is thankfully visible from the street and still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in 1988 when Beaches was filmed, sadly, as you can see above, Hillary’s mailbox is not there in real life. I am guessing that it was just a set piece that was brought in solely for the filming.

The real life interior of the property was also used in the flick.

Thanks to fave website OnLocationVacations, I learned that the Season 3 episode of Mad Men titled “My Old Kentucky Home” was also filmed at the S.S. Hinds Estate. In the episode, the property stood in for the country club where Roger Sterling (aka John Slattery) and Jane Siegel (aka Peyton List) hosted their Kentucky Derby party.

As you can see in the screen captures above, one of the hallways that appeared in Beaches was also used in Mad Men as the spot where Betty Draper (aka January Jones) first met Henry Francis (aka Christopher Stanley).

I am fairly certain, though, that the club’s bar, where Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm) spent most of his evening, is not actually located inside of the Hinds Estate, but is a real life bar somewhere in Los Angeles.

And again thanks to OnLocationVacations, I also learned that the estate was used as the Turnbill Mansion, which Leslie Knope (aka Amy Poehler) fought to save, in the Season 2 episode of Parks & Recreation titled “94 Meetings”.

Amazingly, the very same hallway that appeared in both Mad Men and Beaches was also featured in Parks and Recreation.

As was the stairway from Beaches.

And the front gate, which Leslie Knopes barricaded herself to, thinking it opened in the middle, on Parks and Recreation. LOL

A large painting of the mansion was created for the filming of Parks and Recreation, as well. Being that I doubt the painting would ever be used again on the series, I am wondering if the owners of the Hinds Estate got to keep it. So cool if they did!

Unfortunately, I was not able to find a copy of the Columbo “Try and Catch Me” episode anywhere, so I could not make screen captures of the Hinds Estate’s appearance in it for this post.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Beaches mansion is located at 880 La Loma Road in Pasadena.

September 15, 2011
The Cabazon Dinosaurs from “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”

On our way out to visit my parents in Palm Springs two weekends ago, the Grim Cheaper and I made a little stalking stop at the Cabazon Dinosaurs – the two legendary roadside sculptures located just outside of Palm Springs which were featured in the 1985 movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, among countless other productions. And even though I had passed by the humongous prehistoric creatures countless times on my way too and from the Coachella Valley, for whatever reason, I had never thought to stalk them until just recently.

The infamous Cabazon Dinosaurs were originally designed by a Knott’s Berry Farm portrait artist/sculptor named Claude Bell who was looking for a way to attract diners to the Wheel Inn, his roadside restaurant which opened in 1958. He had visited Lucy the Elephant while growing up in Atlantic City and the image of the six-story tin elephant had stuck with him.

So in 1964, Claude set about building a 150-ton, 45-foot tall, 150-foot long Apatosaurus, whom he later dubbed “Dinny” (pronounced Dine-ee), directly behind his eatery. He first built a steel framework of the creature, then covered it over with a metal grid in the shape of a dinosaur, and then finally coated it all with spray concrete. Much of the materials used were procured from scraps left over from construction of the nearby Interstate 10 freeway. Legend has it that a friend of Bell’s painted the entire exterior of Dinny in exchange for $1 and a case of Dr. Pepper. And while I, too, love me some Dr. Pepper, I seriously doubt I would paint a 150-foot long dinosaur in exchange for a case of it.

It took eleven years and over $250,000 to complete Dinny and, of his creation which housed a small gift shop, Bell said that it was “the first dinosaur in history, so far as I know, to be used as building”.

In 1981, Bell decided to give Dinny a friend and began construction on a 100-ton, 65-foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex, whom he named “Rex”. His original plans called for a large slide to be installed on Rex’s back, but that idea never came to fruition. Steps were built leading up into the inside of the Tyrannosaurus’ mouth, though, enabling visitors to climb to the top of the creature. Bell had plans to add more reptiles to his roadside creation, but sadly passed away in 1988 before he could do so. In the mid 1990s, his heirs sold the dinosaurs for $1.2 million to an Orange County developer named Gary Kanter, who, along with a pastor named Robert Darwin Chiles, immediately set about turning the spot into children’s exhibit and museum which would promote the theory of creationism. They added several more dinosaurs, some robotic, to the 60-acre site, as well as an open-air museum, a sand pit where children can dig for fossils, and a non-denominational church. And while I wanted to venture inside the museum and up into Rex’s giant mouth, the GC was, of course, having none of it.

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In Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, truck driver Large Marge (aka Alice Nunn) drops Pee-wee Herman (aka Paul Reubens) off at the Wheel Inn restaurant, where he discovers that he has lost his wallet and ends up having to wash dishes in order to pay for his meal.

The real life interior of the Wheel Inn was used for the filming of the scene.

And, amazingly enough, it still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in 1985 when Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was filmed.

It is while at the Wheel Inn that Pee-wee meets waitress Simone (aka my former acting teacher Diane Salinger), who invites him to watch the sun rise from the inside of Rex’s mouth. That scene was not actually shot inside of Rex’s mouth, though, but on a soundstage at Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank. You can see some great photographs of what Rex’s mouth actually looks like here. In real life, his mouth is not nearly as big as the set replica that Tim Burton created for the film, nor is there a large pink tongue on which to sit.

After watching the sun rise, Simone’s very large and very jealous boyfriend Andy (aka Jon Harris) shows up and chases Pee-wee around the dinosaurs.

Thanks to Diane, I actually got to meet some of the cast of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure a couple of years ago, while attending a screening of the movie at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Pictured above is Diane Salinger, Elizabeth Daily, and the man himself, Paul Reubens.

Thanks to Kim Potts’ fabulous write-up of the Cabazon Dinosaurs for the Moviefone website, I learned that the landmark was featured in quite a few other productions, as well. At the end of 1989’s The Wizard, while driving by the dinosaurs Jimmy Woods (aka Luke Edwards) recognizes them from a childhood visit and jumps out of his step-father’s car and up to Dinny.

The actual interior of the dinosaur was used for the filming of that scene.

Miraculously, little of Dinny’s interior has changed in the 22-plus years since The Wizard was filmed.

In 1984’s Paris, Texas, the Wheel Inn is the supposed-San-Bernardino-area restaurant where Travis Henderson (aka Harry Dean Stanton)and his son Hunter (aka Hunter Carson) stop to use a payphone.

The Cabazon Dinosaurs and Wheel Inn also appeared briefly in the 1985 music video for the Tears for Fears song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, in the scene in which the band’s lead singer Curt Smith stops his Austin-Healey 3000 by the side of the road in order to use a pay phone.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World music video –Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

The dinosaurs were featured extensively in the music video for Tonio K’s 1988 single “Without Love”.

Without Love music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

They also appeared in the U.S. version of the music video for the 1994 Oasis song “Supersonic”.

Supersonic music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

And finally, they made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the 2009 music video for Brad Paisley’s song “Welcome to the Future”.

Welcome to the Future music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the new face of About Me!

Stalk It: The Cabazon Dinosaurs, from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, are located at 50770 Seminole Drive in Cabazon. You can visit the official Cabazon Dinosaurs’ website here. While the museum charges an admission fee, the interior of Dinny houses a gift shop which is free to visit. The Wheel Inn restaurant is located directly in front of the dinosaurs at 50900 Seminole Drive in Cabazon.

September 12, 2011
Wattles Mansion from “Troop Beverly Hills”

After re-watching Troop Beverly Hills a couple of weeks back and subsequently stalking the mansion where the Nefler family lived, I became just a wee bit obsessed with tracking down some of the other locales featured in the 1989 flick. Thankfully IMDB had quite a few sites listed on its Troop Beverly Hills filming locations page, one of which was Wattles Mansion – a historic and oft-filmed at Hollywood estate that, amazingly enough, I had never before heard of. So I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place the following weekend.

Wattles Mansion was originally built in 1907 by Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, the legendary Los Angeles-area architects who were also responsible for designing the Ambassador Hotel, the Huntington Art Gallery, Pasadena’s Wentworth Hotel (now the Langham), Occidental College (aka California University from fave show Beverly Hills, 90210), the California Institute of Technology, and the Beverly Hills Hotel. The large Mission Revival-style dwelling was commissioned by a wealthy Omaha, Nebraska native named Gurdon Wallace Wattles to be used as his family’s winter residence. The estate, which sat on 49 acres and was called“Jualita”, featured 6,167 square feet of living space, seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a wood-paneled library with a hand-painted ceiling, black-and-white checkerboard marble flooring, a terracotta tile terrace, wood-beamed ceilings, and a full basement. The home’s extensive 5-acre formal garden area consisted of a Japanese Garden, an Italian Rose garden, a Spanish garden, an American garden, a palm court, sparkling ponds, and several fruit orchards. In an amazing show of generosity, Gurdon opened his beloved gardens to the public upon moving into his new home and it was not long before they became a wildly popular tourist attraction.

After Gurdon passed away in 1932, his widow, Julia Vance, and their son, Gurdon Wallace Wattles Jr., continued to live at the mansion. In 1968, they sold the property to the City of Los Angeles and the Department of Parks and Recreation subsequently took over. Sadly, the city lacked the money necessary to maintain the large estate and it quickly fell into a serious state of disrepair. Gurdon’s formerly glorious gardens were taken over by drug dealers, squatters, and vandals, and what they didn’t destroy, a series of mudslides in the 1980s did. Thankfully, in 1983 the Hollywood Heritage preservation group leased the property and began a massive restoration project before moving in and using the historic mansion as their headquarters. It was at that time that the abode, which is a City of Los Angeles Cultural Monument, became a popular filming location. For reasons that are not entirely clear, Hollywood Heritage was served with an eviction notice in 2008 and finally vacated the property in May of 2009. The mansion is currently being maintained by the Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation once again. (I snapped the interior pictures through one of the estate’s front windows.)

The piece of property, which you can see in the above aerial view, is now made up of three separate areas.

The section denoted with a pink square above, which measures 4.2 acres, was turned into a community garden in 1975 and has been continuously maintained by local residents. It is private and not open to the public. The middle section, which is denoted with a blue square, is a park known as Wattles Garden Park. It is open to the public daily from dusk until dawn. The mansion and formal garden area, which is denoted with a purple square above, is not open to the public, but is available for use as a special event and wedding venue.

And although the formal gardens are not accessible to the public, from what was visible from the park, that area once again appears to be in a sad state of disrepair. According to sign a posted on the premises, a restoration is currently in progress, so hopefully they will not look that way for long.

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Wattles Mansion actually stood in for two different locations in Troop Beverly Hills. It first appeared as the Beverly Hills Rest Haven where Phyllis Nefler (aka Shelley Long) and her group of Wilderness Girls performed their community service requirement.

While there, Phyllis and her daughter, Hannah (aka Jenny Lewis), taught a group of senior citizens how to do the “Freddy” dance, so I, of course, just had to do a little recreation of that scene while I was stalking the place.

In a later scene, the northern-facing side of Wattles Mansion and the formal garden area were used as the location of the “khaki” fashion show that was hosted by Robin Leach and featured cameos by Pia Zadora and Dr. Joyce Brothers.

Wattles Mansion was also used extensively as the demon-haunted home inherited by Jonathan Graves (aka Peter Liapis) in the 1985 horror-comedy Ghoulies.

The real life interior of the mansion, including the kitchen area and the formal library, appeared in Ghoulies, as well. You can check out some great interior photographs of the place here.

Randomly enough, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’s Mariska Hargitay made her feature film debut in Ghoulies. She is pictured in the grey sweater above. The actress was just 21 at the time that the movie was filmed.

Wattles Mansion also appeared in Diana Ross’ ultra-weird 1985 music video for her single “Eaten Alive”, which was co-written by none other than the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson.

Eaten Alive Music Video–Filmed at Wattles Mansion

You can watch that video by clicking above.

In the 1989 movie Rain Man, Wattles Mansion stood in for the institution where the psychiatric evaluation of Raymond Babbitt (aka Dustin Hoffman) took place.

Wattles was where Jose (aka Jacob Vargas) first met Maria (aka Jennifer Lopez) in the 1995 flick My Family.

And finally, the mansion popped up in the Season 3 episode of The O.C. titled “The Man of the Year” as the supposed Montecito-area boarding school attended by Marissa Cooper’s (aka Mischa Barton’s) sister, Kaitlin (aka Willa Holland).

Until next time, Happy Stalking – and Happy Voting! Don’t forget to vote for me today to be the new face of About Me!

Stalk It: Wattles Mansion, from Troop Beverly Hills, is located at 1824 North Curson Avenue in Hollywood. The interior of the mansion and formal garden areas are not accessible to the public, but Wattles Park is open daily from dawn until dusk. You can visit the official Wattles Mansion website here.

September 8, 2011
Grandma Bunny’s House from “You Again”

As I mentioned in last Friday’s post, the hunt for Aunt Mitsy’s (aka Kathy Bates’) house from Rumor Has It actually began when fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, asked for some help in tracking down the abode where Grandma Bunny (aka Betty White) lived in the 2010 flick You Again. I immediately got fellow stalkers Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, and Owen on the case, but even with their master stalking skills, for whatever reason, this particular location mystery took us quite a bit of time to solve. The one major clue that we had to go on was that the house appeared to be situated on some sort of slanted lot and was not perfectly parallel to the street. And while several crew members had informed Chas that the dwelling was located in Altadena, he had remembered seeing some slanted-type houses in the Monrovia area while he was searching for the Georgia Rule abode way back in March of this year, so he decided to begin his hunt there. Thank god that guy has a good memory!

As you can see in the above screen capture, an address number of “240” was also visible in the background of flick, so Chas got started searching all of the 200 blocks on every “slanted” street he could find in the Monrovia area and, amazingly enough, it was not long before he spotted the right house! So I, of course, ran right out to stalk the place just a few days later.

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Grandma Bunny’s Victorian-style abode is actually only featured once in You Again and very briefly at that. It pops up in the scene in which Marni (aka Kristen Bell), her brother Will (aka James Wolk) and his new fiance/Marni’s high school nemesis Joanna (aka Odette Annable) arrive to pick up Grandma Bunny for a wedding dance rehearsal. It is there that, while helping Bunny put in her false teeth, Marni accidentally gets denture adhesive all over her hands and then winds up getting her hands stuck in her hair, causing Grandma Bunny to chop a large chunk of it off. (It pretty much goes without saying that You Again was not that great of a movie. )

I am very happy to report that Grandma Bunny’s house, which was originally built in 1887 (the same year that Monrovia was incorporated) and is one of the city’s oldest surviving Victorians, is just as adorable in person as it appeared to be onscreen. At the time of its construction, there were only 164 homes in Monrovia and a scant 2,000 residents. According to the city’s Historic Preservation Group’s website, the Colonial Revival-style front porch is not original, but was added to the property in the early 1900’s. In real life, the charming little abode boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and measures 1,482 square feet, although its façade makes it appear to be much larger. Ironically enough, in a bit of foreshadowing the home’s actual owner described the dwelling as “everyone’s idealized version of grandma’s house” in a Los Angeles Times article that was published in January 1989. I guess the You Again filmmakers felt the exact same way when they scouted the property.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location. And you can check out Geoff’s, from the 90210Locations website, extensive You Again filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Grandma Bunny’s house from You Again is located at 240 West Hillcrest Boulevard in Monrovia.

September 6, 2011
Aunt Mitsy’s House from “Rumor Has It”

One location that I have been on the lookout for for what seems like ages now is the home where Aunt Mitsy (aka Kathy Bates) lived in the 2005 movie Rumor Has It. Even though I was never a particularly big fan of the flick, I pretty much fell in love with Aunt Mitsy’s adorable little bungalow – and her huge front porch – at first sight and have wanted to stalk it ever since. Especially being that my girl Jen Aniston had filmed a scene on the premises. Because no apartment number, street sign, or even a full view of the exterior of the property was visible at any point during the movie, though, I figured this was one locale that would be virtually impossible to track down.

Enter fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who emailed me last week to ask for some help in locating the home where Grandma Bunny (aka Betty White) lived in the 2010 romantic comedy You Again. Well, I took one look at the screencap he sent me (pictured above) and realized that, while it was not the same house featured in Rumor Has It, the two properties looked amazingly similar – which got me to thinking that they might just be located in close proximity to each other, quite possibly even on the same street. So I immediately began searching for the You Again house and also got fellow stalkers Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and Owen on the case.

As fate would have it, Mike happened to recognize the yellow Victorian-style home located in the background of the Rumor Has It scene and when he looked at that property on Google Street View, sure enough, there was Mitsy’s house right across the street. Yay!

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Aunt Mitsy’s house was only featured in one very brief scene in Rumor Has It, in which Sarah Huttinger (aka Jennifer Aniston) asks Mitsy for information about her deceased mother. It is there that Mitsy first tells Sarah about her mother’s affair with Beau Burroughs (aka Kevin Costner), at which point Sarah realizes that her family served as the inspiration for the movie The Graduate. (Yeah, yeah – lame plot for a movie, I know.) From its appearance in Rumor Has It, I had assumed that the home was an extremely small, one-story dwelling and searched for it as such. As it turns out, I could not have been more wrong.

In real life the house looks nothing at all like how I had envisioned it to look in my mind. Not only is the place two levels, but it is also pretty darn huge!

And furthermore, the property is actually an apartment building – not a private residence as I had originally thought! As you can see above, the dwelling has several front doors and consists of at least three separate units. This is one location that I can honestly say I NEVER would have found on my own. Not in a million years.

Thankfully, the front porch area looks pretty much the same today as it did back in 2005 when Rumor Has It was filmed. There is currently much less foliage in place and the house is now painted blue instead of yellow, but otherwise little else has changed in that section of the property over the years and it still looks just as cute in person as it did onscreen. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to sit on that porch in the same spot that Jen sat to pose for a pic!

The other houses on the street that appeared in the background of the scene look exactly the same as they did in the movie, as well. And, yes, we did also end up finding Grandma Bunny’s house from You Again – well, fellow stalker Chas found it – and I will be blogging about it soon.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and to fellow stalkers Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, and Owen for all of the time and effort they put into this search.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Aunt Mitsy’s house from Rumor Has It is located at 485 Ellis Street in Pasadena.

September 2, 2011
Figaro Bistrot from “Made of Honor”

As I mentioned in my post about Le Petit Bistro back in early August, one location that I have been longing to stalk for quite some time now is Figaro Bistrot, an adorable little French cafe that has appeared in numerous productions over the years, most notably the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2009 advertising campaign which featured pop star Madonna. For whatever reason, though, the Grim Cheaper and I had just never made it out there. Until this past Saturday evening, that is, when we found ourselves in Los Feliz and I suggested stopping by for a cocktail. The sandwich board sign out in front of the restaurant proclaimed that Figaro offered “the very best Happy Hour in Los Feliz” and, let me tell you, it was not an exaggeration! Not only did the GC and I absolutely stuff ourselves silly, but we managed to get out of there for under $45!

As you can see in the photographs above, Figaro Bistrot is an absolutely ADORABLE little spot. Decorated with authentic French antiques, flower-shaped chandeliers, tiny sidewalk bistros, gilded mirrors, and a zinc-plated bar, the setting could not be more magical. Walking through the front doors, one is immediately transported to Paris. Not real life Paris, but a fantasy Paris – the Paris of the movies, the Paris that Bogey and Bergman so fondly reminisced about in Casablanca. And the food! Oh my god, the food! It was quite simply out of this world! The GC and I both ordered two items off of the happy hour menu, each of which were priced at around $5. The GC opted for the Beef Carpaccio and Moules Gratinees aux Fromage (mussels gratin with parsley butter sauce), while I ordered the Mini Burger, which was quite simply the best burger I have ever had in my life, and the Croquettes de Crabe (crab cakes), which were also divine. The GC was so insanely happy over the large portions, inexpensive prices, and fabulous fare that I can pretty much guarantee this is one spot we will be stalking again and again.

The Spring/Summer 2009 ad campaign for Louis Vuitton, which was directed by fashion icon Marc Jacobs and shot by legendary fashion photographer Stephen Meisel, featured the café quite prominently, most notably the bar area and the red leather banquettes located in the rear of Figaro’s southern-most dining room. And even though I am not a fan of Madonna – like at all – I have to admit that Meisel’s pictures of her are absolutely stunning. (The photographs above do not belong to me, but are the sole property of photographer Stephen Meisel and Louis Vuitton.)

As I mentioned in my post about Le Petit Bistro in August, the exterior of Figaro was featured in a brief establishing shot in the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “How Much is that Liam in the Window”. It was used as the exterior of the French restaurant where Charlie Selby (aka Evan Ross) took Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes) on a date. For some reason, though, the interior scenes were shot about six miles away at Le Petit Bistro in West Hollywood.

Our super-nice bartender informed us that Figaro had also made an appearance in the 2008 flick Made of Honor and I just about died of excitement. You see, I have always had a very special place in my heart for that movie because when I first asked my non-celebrity-obsessed best friend, Robin, who is male and lives in Switzerland, to stand up for me at my wedding, he sent me an email which stated, “I would do absolutely everything to be at your wedding. I just don’t know what the best man has to do. I’m not so familiar with the American rules of marriage. I went to watch a really bad movie last Spring with Steffi [his girlfriend]. I, of course, don’t know the name of the movie or of the actor in it, but it was with the guy who plays the doctor in Grace [his spelling, not mine – love it] Anatomy. Anyway, he had to organize the bachelor party for women and stuff like that. So you will have to give me a summary of the duties of the bride’s best man.” So incredibly cute! I immediately printed out that email and have carried it around in my wallet ever since. The “really bad” movie he was speaking about was, of course, Made of Honor, which I had actually never before seen. So after our dinner at Figaro, the GC and I headed right on over to Blockbuster to rent it. And I have to say that it was not half bad. It is not great, mind you, but it is a cute, little lightweight romantic comedy. Anyway, Figaro Bistrot was featured a few times in the flick. The exterior first pops up as the supposed Manhattan bakery where Hannah (aka Michelle Monaghan) tries to guess what dessert her best friend Tom (aka Patrick Dempsey – the guy who plays the doctor in Grace Anatomy ) is going to order.

It later pops up in the scene in which Tom, who has since realized that he is in love with Hannah, takes a random date out for dessert and tries to get her to play the guessing game, which she fails miserably at. While there, she also complains about the long line, to which Tom says, “This is the best bakery in the world! That’s why it’s worth waiting in line.”

And, finally, the interior pops up in the scene in which Tom, while eating two pieces of cake, thinks about Hannah, who is on a business trip in Scotland for six weeks.

Figaro Bistrot is also something of a celebrity hot spot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Katherine Heigl, Josh Kelley, Isabel Lucas, Lindsay Price, Jessalyn Gilsig, and Keifer Sutherland. The GC and I also once spotted Archie Panjabi dining at one of the restaurant’s sidewalk tables while we were walking by after grabbing a bite to eat at nearby Fred 62.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Figaro Bistrot, from Made of Honor, is located at 1802 North Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. Figaro offers Happy Hour from 5 to 7 p.m. daily, including Saturdays and Sundays!

August 30, 2011
Vitello’s Italian Restaurant from “The Deep End of the Ocean”

A couple of weeks ago, after doing some stalking in Beverly Hills, the Grim Cheaper and I decided to head over to the Valley to grab dinner at one of our very favorite eateries in all of Los Angeles – Vitello’s Italian Restaurant in Studio City. And even though I have blogged about the place twice before – first in June of 2008 and then again later that November – due to the fact that it is set to undergo an extensive – and when I say extensive, I mean extensive – renovation and remodel in the near future, I figured that it was most definitely worthy of a re-post.

Vitello’s was originally opened by Sal Vitello, a native New York baker, in 1964. Ironically enough, at the time the place was not an Italian restaurant, but a modest subway sandwich shop which featured fresh, homemade bread. In 1977, Sal sold his little eatery to brothers Joe and Steve Restivo, Sicilian natives who migrated to Los Angeles via Chicago. The brothers added down-home, hearty Italian-style staples to the Vitello’s menu, quickly turning the restaurant into a Los Angeles institution.

Thanks to its proximity to the many area movie studios, along with its fabulous fare, it was not long before Hollywood took notice of Vitello’s. As you can see above, the restaurant’s main entrance is literally covered with autographed headshots. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted dining at Vitello’s over the years include Frank Sinatra, Sally Kellerman, Ana Ortiz, Tony Danza, Jason Alexander (the one from Seinfeld, not Britney Spears’ ex-husband ), Life Goes On’s Chris Burke, Candice Bergen, Melissa Joan Hart, Frankie Muniz, Michael Landon, Joanna Kerns, Dom DeLuise, Rick Fox, Scott Baio, Tom Smothers, and Wilford Brimley.

The restaurant’s most famous celebrity guest, though, has to be actor Robert Blake, who used to be a regular patron of the eatery, dining there at least three times a week. On the evening of May 4, 2001, Blake notoriously grabbed dinner there with his then-wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley, in a booth that, according to the above photograph, was located in the bar area.

The actual bar area is pictured above. Shortly after the couple finished their meal, Bonnie was shot and killed just around the corner from the restaurant. And while Blake claimed that at the time of the shooting he had been walking back to the restaurant to retrieve a gun he had inexplicably left behind in his booth, he was arrested and charged with Bakley’s murder on April 18, 2002. He was then acquitted of those charges in March of 2005, but a few months later was found liable for Bakley’s wrongful death in a civil court. Unlike was the case with Brentwood’s Mezzaluna Restaurant, where Nicole Brown Simpson ate her last meal and which closed shortly thereafter, Vitello’s association with the crime only seemed to further the eatery’s fame and made the place even more of a Valley hot spot.

In 2005, Joe and Steve Restivo, seeking retirement, sold Vitello’s to Matt Epstein, a Sherman Oaks real estate agent who had been a regular patron of the restaurant since childhood. And while Epstein kept the menu and décor largely the same for quite some time, earlier this year he brought in a new chef, Tonino Cardia, and completely revamped the menu. And I am very sad to report that it is not nearly as good as it used to be. Gone are the vast majority of the hearty Vitello’s staples that the GC and I had come to know and love and the few items that the new menu did retain have been completed made over. The chicken marsala – which used to be my favorite entree – is a lackluster version of its former self and Vitello’s famous garlic bread now tastes much like the kind that can be purchased in the frozen food aisle of your local supermarket. Such an incredible shame!

There are also plans in the works to gut the interior of the restaurant and give it a completely new look. Even the famous Vitello’s wall mural will be coming down, as will the vintage leather booths. The new design will apparently feature French doors in the entryway and a huge olive tree in the middle of the dining room. And while it all sounds lovely, I am of the mantra that “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. Vitello’s has been a veritable Los Angeles institution for decades, always packed to the gills whenever we have dined there. It is widely noted that 59% of new restaurants close within three years of their opening, so for an eatery that has remained successful for over thirty-four years, you have to wonder why the owners would change a thing! It is such a shame! And while the super-nice manager came over to speak with us after we had expressed our disappointment with the new fare and even offered to comp our meal (which we turned down – we were not looking for a free meal, but just wanted to voice our opinion that the former cuisine was one hundred times better than the current), I am sad to say that I do not think we will ever be dining at Vitello’s again – the food was that bad!

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Besides being a celebrity hangout, our super-nice waitress also informed us that Vitello’s has been used as a filming location! Ironically enough, it stood in for two different locations in the 1999 movie The Deep End of the Ocean. The interior very briefly appeared as the supposed Madison, Wisconsin-area Italian restaurant where Pat Cappadora (aka Treat Williams) worked towards the beginning of the flick.

And the exterior later popped us as Cappadora’s, the supposed Chicago-area restaurant that Pat founded with his father, Angelo (aka Tony Musante), in the middle of the movie.

And while the interior was (I think) just a set, with its orange-toned walls, painted murals, and brickwork, it very closely resembles the real life interior of Vitello’s. Our waitress also informed us that the restaurant will be featured in an upcoming episode of Whitney, the yet-to-be released television series which stars Chelsea-Lately-regular Whitney Cummings.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Vitello’s Restaurant, from The Deep End of the Ocean, is located at 4349 Tujunga Avenue in Studio City. You can visit Vitello’s official website here.

August 29, 2011
The Cliffhouse Restaurant from “City of Industry”

For our first wedding anniversary this past weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I headed out to the desert to spend a few days at the La Quinta Resort & Club, a historic hotel and popular celebrity hangout which I blogged about extensively last December. The GC’s brother, who works for the Hilton Hotels chain, which owns the resort, hooked us up royally with a Friends-and-Family discount so we were able to book a suite at an amazingly low rate – a suite that turned out to be the property’s Errol Flynn room! When I first walked through the doors and saw Errol’s star hanging on the wall, I just about had a heart attack! (As I mentioned in my December post, in each room where a celebrity has once stayed, the hotel posts a replica of that celebrity’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star.) A super-nice concierge that we later spoke with also informed us that comedian Red Skelton had once vacationed in our suite. But for some reason, even though Red Skelton was actually honored with two Walk of Fame stars during his lifetime – one for radio and one for TV – only a replica of Errol’s star was posted in our room.

We absolutely fell in love with our little Spanish-style suite, which featured two bathrooms and two patios and was situated in an adorable trellised courtyard. So much so that we ended up extending our stay at the last minute by one more night, as neither of us could bear to leave.

Just to explain the kind of place La Quinta Resort is, we were not only sent a split of champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries on the night of our anniversary . . .

. . . but after deciding to extend our stay, we were sent more champagne, more strawberries, and a bottle of wine! All while we were paying a room rate that was almost obscenely low. Needless to say, the La Quinta Resort & Club is all about customer service. I absolutely LOVE the place and cannot more highly recommend staying there! You can read more about Hollywood’s extensive love affair with the hotel in the post I wrote back in December. And now, on with today’s location!

Long before they moved to the desert, my parents discovered a La Quinta-area eatery named the Cliffhouse and it quickly became their favorite local spot to grab a bite to eat. And while I have dined there quite a few times over the years, it was not until just a couple of weeks ago that, thanks to favorite stalking tome Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors, I discovered the restaurant was a filming location! As it turns out, the ranch-style eatery was featured briefly in the 1997 heist movie City of Industry! So when my parents mentioned that they wanted to treat me and the GC to dinner there in honor of our anniversary, I could NOT have been more excited!

As you can see in the above aerial view, the Cliffhouse is literally built directly into the side of a small cliff that is known locally as “Point Happy”. The area was named for rancher Norman “Happy” Lundbeck who, in the early 1900s, owned a store and ranch directly across the highway from the small hillside. Over time, Norman’s homestead, which he dubbed “Point Happy Ranch”, became a popular hitching post and watering hole for weary gold-seekers traveling from California to the Colorado River. And the small, but prominent hillside eventually became a landmark to those travelers, letting them know that much-needed food and rest was near. The Cliffhouse restaurant, which cost $5 million to construct, took over 5 years of planning to complete, and involved a hollowing out of a part of the Point, opened in 1992 and has been a desert staple ever since. The eatery is not only beautiful and incredibly unique in its architecture, but it also serves up some FABULOUS food, especially the fish tacos, which are INCREDIBLE – and I don’t even like fish! The two-story, 9,000-square foot steakhouse is owned by TS Restaurants and, sadly, the corporation will not be renewing its lease come 2012, which is such an incredible shame I cannot even tell you. There is hope that a new company will come in and take over the property, keeping the Cliffhouse name and menu, so my fingers are crossed. I will be extremely sad if this place closes, as will my parents!

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In City of Industry, after being double-crossed and shot at by his partner Skip Kovich (aka Stephen Dorff), bank robber Roy Egan (aka Harvey Keitel) climbs up the retaining wall located on the western side of the Cliffhouse and then proceeds to steal a car from the restaurant’s parking lot. Immediately after dining at the Cliffhouse, the GC and I ventured over to my parents’ house to watch City of Industry and I have to say that the movie was pretty darn horrible! We ended up fast-forwarding through the vast majority of it, pausing just long enough to check out the numerous Palm-Springs-area locales which popped up.

Only the parking lot area and the exterior of the restaurant were shown in the movie. If you were at all a fan of City of Industry (I’m sure there have to be at least a few of you out there ), and would like to stalk the restaurant, I would recommend doing so before December 31st, when it is set to close.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Cliffhouse restaurant, from City of Industry, is located at 78250 Highway 111 in La Quinta. The area where Harvey Keitel climbed up the retaining wall in the movie is marked with a pink “X” in the above aerial view. The area from which he stole the car is marked with a blue star. You can visit the official Cliffhouse website here. La Quinta Resort & Club is located at 49-499 Eisenhower Drive, also in La Quinta. You can visit the hotel’s official website here. The Errol Flynn suite is Room 222.

August 26, 2011
Lucille’s House from “Bye Bye Love”

Another location that fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, had on his extensively detailed list of places to stalk during our day together in L.A. this past July (and there were over 30 locales on that list, by the way; as I said it was quite extensive!) was the residence where Lucille (aka Janeane Garofalo) lived in the 1995 film Bye Bye Love. And while I had never actually seen Bye Bye Love at that point in time, I absolutely fell in love with the house as soon as we drove up to it. So much so that I immediately added the flick to my list of movies to rent and finally did so this past week – which I think may have actually been a first for me. I do not believe that I have ever before watched a movie solely based on the fact that I liked a location featured in it. Ladies and gentlemen, I have reached a new level of stalking! I have to say, though, that I was not too crazy about Bye Bye Love. While it was heartwarming, it was also extremely sad and, as I have mentioned before, I am not too keen on depressing flicks. Never in my life have I been more thankful that my parents never divorced than I was while watching that movie. And, surprisingly enough, while I typically cannot stand Janeane Garofalo – actually, to be completely honest, I absolutely abhor the woman; she’s right up there with Jessica Simpson on my list of least favorite celebrities – I LOVED her in Bye Bye Love. She had me laughing out loud on several occasions, especially when she continually tried to utilize the passenger controls in Vic Damico’s (aka Randy Quaid’s) Driver’s Education car. But I digress.

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Lucille’s house was only featured briefly in Bye Bye Love and, surprisingly, very little of the property was ever shown. You would think producers would have utilized more of the place being that it is so completely adorable. The residence first showed up in the scene in which Vic picks Lucille up for their blind date. Immediately after opening the door and meeting for the first time, Vic says to Lucille, “Nice place!”, to which she responds, “Yes, thank you. Buying this place was the only smart thing that son-of-a-b*tch ex-husband of mine ever did!” LOL

It later shows up when Vic drives Lucille home after suffering through a horrible dinner with her, only to discover that she has locked her keys inside the property and cannot get in.

And even though the house is absolutely ADORABLE in person, I actually prefer the blue color it was painted in Bye Bye Love to the yellow/red combination that it is painted now. The home, which was originally built in 1920, is not actually as small as its façade would lead you to believe. According to fave website Zillow, the residence boasts 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and 1,596 square feet of living space.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location. You can check out Chas’ extensive Bye Bye Love filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lucille’s house from Bye Bye Love is located at 1612 Courtney Avenue in Los Angeles.

August 19, 2011
The “Troop Beverly Hills” House

A couple of weeks ago, fellow stalker Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, mentioned that he had recently stalked the residence belonging to the Nefler family – Phyllis (aka Shelley Long), Freddy (aka Craig T. Nelson), and their daughter, Hannah (aka Jenny Lewis) – in the 1989 comedy Troop Beverly Hills. Well, let me tell you, after hearing that I literally just about had a heart attack! TROOP BEVERLY HILLS? TROOP BEVERLY HILLS! How in the heck had I forgotten about that movie?? I absolutely loved it as a teenager and remember renting it countless times from the video store around the corner from my house. Due to some sort of brain lapse, though, I had not thought about or seen the flick in years. So when Mikey mentioned it, I immediately ran to my local Blockbuster to rent it. Shockingly though, the sales clerk informed me that the store did not carry the title! And neither did any of the other Blockbusters within a ten mile radius of my apartment! (Perhaps this is why the chain has been floundering in recent years! I mean, hello! How does a video store not carry a major 80s classic like Troop Beverly Hills????) I was further shocked to discover that my local Borders Books did not have the movie, either. (Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in 2010, Borders in 2011 – a coincidence? I think not! ) Thankfully, Troop Beverly Hills was available for purchase on iTunes (oddly enough, they do not offer the flick for rent), so I immediately purchased it and, because iTunes does not allow one to burn a purchased movie onto a DVD, was forced to watch the entire hour and forty minutes on my tiny computer screen. But I have to say that it was completely and totally worth it! What a fabulous, FABULOUS flick! And, immediately after watching it, I, of course, dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the Nefler mansion.

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The 6 bedroom, 6 bath, 7,694-square-foot, Spanish-style abode, which was originally built in 1916, was featured numerous times throughout Troop Beverly Hills.

And, amazingly enough, the residence still looks almost EXACTLY the same today as it did when the movie was filmed over twenty-two years ago! SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

The only difference is that there is now a large, three-car garage located on the northern side of the property.

For some reason, while watching the movie, the inside of the Nefler house just did not look real to me. So, while I could not find any interior photographs of the home online, I am fairly certain that all of the interior scenes were filmed on a set inside of a studio soundstage somewhere in Hollywood and not at the actual residence.

I believe the backyard that was shown in the movie was also a set, as it does not match up to the home’s real-life backyard.

As you can see in the above aerial view, the mansion’s real-life pool is not the same shape as the one that appeared in the movie and its position in relation to the house also does not match up with what was shown onscreen. And while it is possible that the backyard was completely remodeled in the two-plus decades since filming took place, I do not find that scenario to be very likely.

According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, the house has also had several celebrity inhabitants over the years, including movie star Betty Compson, producer Samuel Goldwyn, silent film star Charles Ray, and actor Charles Smith.

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Troop Beverly Hills house is located at 901 North Camden Drive in Beverly Hills.

August 18, 2011