IAMNOTASTALKER

Category: Movie Locations

  • The Witch’s House from “Clueless”

    One of my favorite sites to stalk in all of Beverly Hills is known simply as “The Witch’s House” and it just so happens to fit in perfectly with this month’s Halloween theme. Although not really a filming location, the house is a Beverly Hills landmark of sorts. Known formally as “The Spadena House”, after the Spadena family who lived there in the 1930s, the house did show up very briefly in fave movie Clueless, during the scene when Alicia Silverstone is “totally buggin’” about Ty’s crush on Josh (pictured in above screen capture).

    The home was originally built on a silent film studio lot in Culver City known as Irvin C. Willat Productions and was used as an office/dressing room. It was designed by the very first art direction Oscar Winner, Henry C. Oliver, in 1921. Willat Productions was sold in 1926 and the house was purchased and later moved to its current location in the heart of Beverly Hills, where it was turned into a private home for the Spadena family. No one can say for sure how the house came to be called “The Witch’s House”, but mention the words to any Beverly Hills native and they will know exactly what you are talking about. Personally, I believe the house got its nickname due to its resemblance to the witch’s home in the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel”.

    In 1998, a real estate agent named Michael Libow was hired to sell the house. Apparently he became frustrated that all prospective buyers planned to demolish the property, so he took matters into his own hands and purchased the home himself for $1.3 million. He is currently restoring the property to its original state, along with the help of art director Nelson Coates. For the past few years the two have painstakingly rennovated the home, even re-creating the original moat which once surrounded the property. The Witch’s House is still currently under rennovation, so unfortunately a large chain link construction fence blocks some of the view from the street. But hopefully in a few years the rennovations will be complete and the house will be even more spectacular for us stalkers to view.

    Because it is so truly unique, I am actually very surprised that the house hasn’t appeared in more Hollywood productions. Besides Clueless, the Witch’s House was also featured in the 1965 movie The Loved One, as the home of Sir John Gielgud’s character, and in the 1957 horror film The Undead. Supposedly, during its time on the Willat lot, the home also appeared in a quite a few 1920s silent films, as well.

    The Witch’s House is simply a must see for all Beverly Hills tourists, especially during the Halloween season, and it is a beautiful example of Storybook style architecture.

    You can read more about the history of the Witch’s House and see some fabulous photos of it here.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The Witch’s House is located at 516 N. Waldren Drive, at the corner of Walden Drive and Carmelita Avenue, in Beverly Hills.

  • Halloween

    Hi, my name is Lindsay Blake and I have never seen the movie Halloween. I know, I know – it’s like sacrilege or something, especially since Halloween is my favorite holiday. I’ve also never seen any of the Friday, the 13th movies. But I’ve always been kind of a scaredy cat, so as a teenager I was way too afraid to watch any sort of horror flick. I fully intend to rent and finally watch them this Halloween season, though. In the meantime, even though I have yet to see the movie, I did some Halloween stalking this past weekend. Halloween supposedly takes place in Haddonfield, Illinois, but in reality all of the filming was done in the L.A. area.

    This weekend I set out to stalk Jamie Lee Curtis’ house from the movie, which is actually located in South Pasadena, not far from Michael Meyer’s childhood home and the Pretty In Pink house. In the movie, pretty much only a side view of the house is shown, so when we first drove up I didn’t recognize it at all. I actually thought we were in the wrong place, until I rounded the corner and saw the side of the house, which I am happy to report looks exactly the same as it did thirty years ago when filming took place.

    The front of the home actually looks completely different than the side. The front of the house is a very cute, very typical South Pasadena style Craftsman home. The side of the house does not have any Craftsman features at all. It has more of a traditional American feel to it, so it was odd to see.

    The next Halloween location I set out to stalk – the street where Jamie Lee Curtis and her friends walk home from school and Michael Meyes drives by in his station wagon – is also located in South Pasadena. The most recognizable part of the street where the girls walk is a large stone pillared half-wall located on a corner, which amazingly also looks EXACTLY the same thirty years later. Very cool!!! 🙂

    Big THANKS to Mike from MovieShotsLA for the above screen captures! 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!

    Stalk It: Jamie Lee Curtis’ house is located at 1115 Oxley Street, at the corner of Oxley Street and Fairview Avenue, in South Pasadena. The stone wall the girls walk by is located on the corner of Fairview Avenue and Highland Street, also in South Pasadena, just around the corner from Lady Heather’s house on CSI .

  • Cher’s House from “Clueless”

    For a few years now I have been looking for Cher’s house from one of my fave movies of all time, Clueless. In trying to locate the house, though, I had read several articles and interviews about the filming of Clueless, which all stated that the neighborhood scenes were actually filmed in Scottsdale, Arizona, not in California, so I had pretty much called off my hunt. I had also always believed that Cher’s house was merely a set, not a real home. Something about the house just looked fake to me, so I had a feeling the house was just a facade that was built at a movie studio strictly for the filming of Clueless.

    But all of that changed last week, when I got a challenge from a guy named John who informed me that Cher’s house was actually also used as Gaby’s boyfriend Victor Lang’s house in a Season 3 episode of Desperate Housewives entitled “Dress Big” (pictured above). After hearing that, I knew that the house could not be located in Scottsdale. And, being that the Desperate Housewives episode aired twelve years after Clueless was filmed, I also knew the house had to be real, not just a set. So I enlisted Mike, over at MovieShotsLA, to help me locate the house and, sure enough, after just a few days we found it!!

    After reading a few articles on the filming of Clueless and searching through online images of colonial style mansions in the LA area, I decided to check my fave locations website, Malibu Locations, to see if Cher’s home was listed with them. Sure enough, after about ten seconds of searching, I found it! Mailbu Locations listed the home as being in Encino, so I got Mike on the phone and the two of us got to searching aerial views of Encino. About ten minutes later I located the house, right on Louise Avenue in the heart of Encino. OMG – If Cher only knew that her home was actually located in the “Valley”! LOL So, of course, yesterday I ran right out to do some Clueless stalking! 🙂

    I am sad to say that not much of the home is visible from the street, which I pretty knew before I stalked it, as I remembered from the movie that the house had an extremely long driveway. But Zillow has some good aerial views of the home and you can definitely recognize it as Cher’s mansion. This is one location I wouldn’t really recommend stalking as there just isn’t really anything to see. 🙁

    But I was absolutely floored to discover from looking at the Malibu Locations photos of the house that the interior of the home was also used extensively for the filming of Clueless!! If you look at the interior photos of the home, all Clueless fans will recognize the entryway staircase which was shown several times in the movie, most memorably as the location where Cher and Josh first kiss.

    Also used in the movie were the Encino house’s real life kitchen, wood-paneled office, dining room, fireplace (where Ty tries to burn her “Rollin’ With The Homies” tape), master bedroom (where Cher and Christian was Spartacus and Some Like It Hot), and backyard and pool area (where Mr. Hall and Miss Geist get married). I must admit I was absolutely floored to see the pics of the interior of the house. 🙂

    Mike also just discovered that the interiors of the Clueless home were also used as Toni Marchette’s house on 90210. For the exterior, however, a different home was used.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The Clueless house is located at 5148 Louise Avenue in Encino – yes, that’s the “Valley”! 🙂 While there is not much of the house to see from the street, you can cyber-stalk it on Zillow here.

  • Stalk Me If You Can

    I have been head over heels for Leonardo DiCaprio for what feels like pretty much my whole life – since long before Titanic, and even before the Growing Pains days. Yes, I actually sat through his first flick Critters 3. I do love me some Leo! One of my fave Leo movies (besides Titanic, of course!) is Catch Me If You Can, so a few years ago, when I found out that scenes from that movie were filmed at a house on California Boulevard in Pasadena, I ran right out to stalk it. The Pasadena house shows up towards the second half of the movie, as the home where Leo’s mom lives after she divorces Christopher Walken’s character.

    The first scene where the house is featured is the scene when Tom Hanks and two other FBI agents pay a visit to Frank Abagnale Jr’s (Leo’s character) mom to dig up some information on the con man. In the scene, Frank’s mom naively offers to “write a check” for the money Frank has stolen until Tom Hank informs her the amount owed is about $1.3 million. 🙂

    Towards the end of the movie, the house is featured yet again in the scene when Leo arrives at his mother’s home on Christmas Eve only to discover that she now has a whole new family. A few minutes later, Tom Hanks shows up with a calvary of police cars to arrest him. Not a very Merry Christmas for Leo! You can watch the (ultra depressing) Christmas scene here.

    The Catch Me If You Can house looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it does in the movie. It is interesting to note, though, that there are hundreds of homes in Pasadena that look almost exactly like this one. There is truly nothing different or spectacular about it to distinguish it from the countless other white clapboard homes in the area. So it absolutely fascinates to contemplate what it was about this home that made producers choose it over the others. The only reason I can come up with is that this home has a very large front yard area, which was necessary for the scene when Leo is arrested, as there needed to be enough room for six police cars to drive up onto the front lawn. These location decisions always fascinate me, though, and I would love to sit down and talk with a location scout someday to find out what exactly their thought processes are in determining locations.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The Catch Me If You Can house is located at 3077 E. California Boulevard in Pasadena. I also just found out that Martin Sheen’s New Orleans house in the movie is actually located in Altadena, so it looks like I have some more Catch Me If You Can stalking to do! 🙂

  • Stalking In Pink

    Got a challenge the other day from Niki all the way over in Greece to stalk some of the locations from her favorite 80s flick Pretty In Pink. I have to admit that before I got the challenge I had never actually seen the movie, so this week I made a special trip to Blockbuster to rent it. After watching it I was in shock that I had somehow missed seeing this movie during the 80s – Pretty In Pink is pretty much right up my alley and I have no idea why I had never watched it before this week. Better late than never, though, right? Anyway, thanks to Mike over at MovieShotsLA, who located all of the Pretty In Pink locations long ago, I was able to stalk one of the houses from the movie yesterday.

    In Pretty In Pink, Molly Ringwald plays Andie, a girl who is literally from the wrong side of the tracks. In the movie, Andie’s tiny home is located directly next to a set of train tracks supposedly in the Chicago area. In reality, her home can be found just outside of L.A., in South Pasadena, right next to the Metro Gold Line tracks. Andie’s train tracks looks much the same today as they did back during the filming of the movie. I was actually pretty surprised to discover that the majority of the filming of Pretty In Pink took place in Los Angeles, as John Hughes usually prefers to film on location in Chicago.

    Anyway, I was absolutely amazed to discover that Andie’s house also looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1985 when filming for Pretty In Pink took place. The only major difference I noticed is that there is now much more foliage located in front of the house than there was 23 years ago. Otherwise the home is exactly as it was portrayed onscreen. It is always amazing for me to stalk a location from a movie or television show that was filmed over two decades ago only to find that little to nothing has changed over the years. I’ve never been a big fan of change. : )

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Andie’s house is located at 1010 Hope Street in South Pasadena. Literally directly around the corner from Andie’s house is Michael Meyer’s house from the original Halloween movie.

  • Doc Brown’s House

    Back to the Future has always been one of my very favorite movies, so when I found out that the interiors of Doc Brown’s house were filmed at a home in Pasadena, I had to run right out to stalk it. The exteriors of Doc’s house were also filmed at a home in Pasadena, a very famous Craftsman style home named the Gamble House. The Gamble House was built by the famous Greene & Greene architecture firm for the Gamble Family (of Proctor and Gamble). Formerly the Gamble family’s summer home, the Gamble House is now a museum which is open daily to the public. But I’ll save the history of the Gamble House for another post. Being that no filming is allowed to take place on the inside of the Gamble home, producers had to find a similar home to shoot the interiors of Doc’s house. The home they chose is called the Robert R. Blacker Home and it is considered by many to be the finest example of Craftsman architecture ever built by the Greene Brothers.

    Built in 1907 for more than $100,000, the Blacker House was originally situated on over seven acres of land and included a seperate garage and a caretaker’s home. Originally built for Robert Rowe Blacker and his wife Nellie, sadly the home and its land was parceled off and sold after their death. While the caretaker’s house and the seven acres of land are now gone, the Blacker House still sits on a significant amount of property and it is absolutely breathtaking to view in person. Besides being featured in Back to the Future, the Blacker House also shows up in a deleted scene from the movie Armageddon, as the location where Bruce Willis says goodbye to his father before going off to save the world. I highly recommend stalking the Blacker House if you are at all a fan of Back to the Future or architecture in general. The house is absolutely striking in person and pictures simply do not do it justice.

    On a side note, last summer, while vacationing in San Diego with my family, we stopped in at the Lodge at Torrey Pines for a bite to eat. I could not believe my eyes as we drove up to the resort as the exterior is the spitting image of the Blacker House. The concierge was shocked when I asked him if the hotel was modeled after the Blacker House – he said that no guest he’d ever talked to in the two years he’d been working at the hotel had ever even heard of the Blacker House. Apparently he didn’t realize he was talking to a stalker. 🙂 LOL The Lodge at Torrey Pines is a beautiful hotel and another breathtaking example of Craftsman architecture. Although no movies have been filmed there, I highly recommend stalking the hotel if you find yourself in the area.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The Gamble House is located at 4 Westmoreland Place in Pasadena. The R. R. Blacker House is located at 1177 Hillcrest Avenue, at the corner of Hillcrest and Wentworth Ave., also in Pasadena. The Lodge at Torrey Pines can be found at 11480 North Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla.

  • The Paramount Pictures Studio Tour

    After our morning over at the WB, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I made our way to Hollywood for a tour of Paramount Pictures and I have to say we had even more fun there than we did at Warner Brothers! The Paramount tour is very similar to the WB tour, in that tour guides take around a very small group of people – our group had only eight in it – which allows for a very intimate and personalized experience.

    Our tour was led by a FABULOUS guide named Ian and I HIGHLY recommend requesting him if you are interested in taking a Paramount tour. Ian was personality PLUS and the tour would not have been nearly as great without him.

    Like at the WB, the Paramount tour also starts in the studio’s gift shop, where there is also a coffee shop. Alas, it’s not a Starbucks like over at the WB, instead Paramount has a Coffee Bean, which ranks a close second in my book. Ian started out the tour by giving us a brief history of Paramount Pictures and was pretty shocked to see that Mike and I actually knew more about Paramount, and film locations in general, than he did and he ended up giving me his tour guide badge to wear. LOL 🙂 (Notice how you can see the Hollywood Sign in the above photo? It’s a testament to Paramount being one of the last few remaining movie studios actually located IN Hollywood. SO COOL!)

    After Ian told us that while seeing a celeb on the tour is possible it is not necessarily likely, who should walk by but Molly Shannon, on her way to her trailer during a break from filming Kath and Kim. Molly was SUPER pretty in person, but unfortunately we did not get a pic of her face. 🙁

    Literally not ten seconds after seeing Molly Shannon, who should walk by but Donald Sutherland and Jill Clayburgh! (You can see Donald in the picture above, wearing a black suit and walking next to a man. He is on the right hand side. Jill is the woman in grey next to the limo.) From that point on we literally saw one star after another!!!!!!!!!! Ian said in his entire history at Paramount he had never led a tour where so many celebs were spotted! I like to think I brought our group a little stalking luck. 🙂

    After Jill, who should walk by but John Michael Higgins, who is currently starring on Kath and Kim. John is probably best known, though, for his hilarious spontaneous dinner choir performance in The Break-Up. If you never saw the movie, you can watch the dinner scene below:

    And that’s Gary on the kick drum . . . And Gary on the kick drum . . .” LOL! John was nice enough to take a pic with Mike and the two of them even broke out into a random performance of “Owner of a Lonely Heart” – it was GREAT!

    After snapping some pics with John, Ian led us over to a golf cart and drove us by both Molly AND Selma Blair’s trailers. Selma’s door was open and she actually leaned out and said hi and waved to us. I was shocked at how beautiful Selma was. From what I saw in my very brief view of her, she was striking. Much prettier in person than on screen. We didn’t get a pic, though. 🙁

    After seeing Selma, we were taken over to “Lucy Park”, a small park built by Lucille Ball for her children back when that part of the studio was owned by Desilu Productions. Apparently it was built as an exact replica of the backyard in Lucy’s Beverly Hills home and she built it so that she could take media photographs with her children and pretend she was at home when she was actually at work. According to our tour guide, Miss Ball was something of a workaholic. To the side of Lucy Park is a New York apartment style facade that was apparently modeled after Lucy’s East Coast home, built for the very same purpose as the park. LOL

    Lucy Park has an even better claim to fame, though – it is the location of the tree under which Greg Brady smoked his first cigarette on The Brady Bunch!

    Behind Lucy Park is the location of the building that served as the high school on the television series Happy Days.

    Next up we headed over to Paramount’s New York Street, which I found out can actually be rented for private parties! How fun would that be????? 🙂 I was ESPECIALLY excited to see New York Street because of a challenge I received a few months ago. Jenna challenged me to find a city street used repeatedly on the television series Charmed. I was pretty sure that a street on the Paramount lot was used for the television series, but I couldn’t be positive. When we got to New York Street, though, I was able to verify with absolute certainty that it was the street used in Charmed, as you can see in the above screen captures. YAY!

    Going to New York Street was VERY cool because we were allowed to walk around and explore the entire area, including the facade pictured above which is currently being used in Dirty Sexy Money as an art gallery and was also used in Spiderman 3 as a cafe.

    Next we were taken to the “Financial District” section of the New York back lot. The above building was used as the “Life Extension” company headquarters from the Tom Cruise movie Vanilla Sky. You will notice that in real life the building is only three stories high, but in the movie it appeared to be a skyscraper. The extra floors were added in post production using CG technology.

    After seeing the New York back lot, we happened to run into another bunch of celebs!! First, a golf cart came by with an actress (whose name I can’t for the life of me remember) riding in the front, and James Cromwell and Alfie Woodard in the back. And if that wasn’t enough, right after they drove by, Tyler James Williams from Everybody Hates Chris walked by! I am telling you, we were on fire!!! 🙂

    After seeing that group of stars, Ian took us over to the high school set of Everybody Hates Chris, where we were given a tour of everything from the hallways and classrooms to the principal’s office.

    One of our last stops was the building used as the high school on The Brady Bunch. SO COOL! I absolutely LOVED that show growing up, so I was in heaven stalking this spot.

    The final stop on our Paramount tour was the famous wooden bench from the movie Forrest Gump, which was transported to Paramount after filming was completed.

    I cannot tell you what an amazing experience Mike and I had on the Paramount Tour. I truly cannot recommend stalking it enough! If you are going to do a studio tour, this is the one I recommend. I can’t say enough good things about our afternoon there. 🙂

    Another BIG THANK YOU to Mike for taking all of the above photos! I think I need to get me a camera like Mike’s – his takes much better pictures than mine! But mine is pink and I doubt his camera comes in pastel colors, so I guess I have to make some concessions. 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! : )

    Stalk It:Paramount Studios is located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Tickets will cost you $35 per person and advance reservations are required. DO NOT BE LATE! Mike and I got held up on our way to Paramount, and our reservations were almost given away! 🙁 You can find out more about the studio tour here.

  • Stalking the WB!

    This past Monday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I took a little stalking field strip to both Warner Brothers Studios and the Paramount Lot. I’ll get to the Paramount tour tomorrow, but today it’s all about the WB. What can I say – the Warner Brothers tour was awesome! It is nothing at all like the Universal Studios back lot tour. The WB tour is far more intimate and personal. A maximum of twelve people is allowed in each tour group, which makes for a far more flexible, personalized tour. The WB tour also lacks the cheesiness that is pretty much ever-present over at Universal. Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast on my Universal birthday tour, but if I had to choose between the two, I’d much prefer stalking the WB. Anyway, Mike and I arrived bright and early at about 8:30AM and I must admit I was as giddy as a schoolgirl! 🙂 Before the tour began, we got to do some shopping in the WB gift shop. The gift shop sells some great souvenirs like t-shirts, key chains, mugs, and even lip gloss, from hit shows like Entourage, Gossip Girl, Gilmore Girls and, my personal fave, Friends.

    There is also a lot of movie memorabilia to stalk inside the gift shop, such as Daniel Radcliffe’s costume from the original Harry Potter movie and Will Smith’s outfit from I Am Legend (pictured above).

    There is even a Starbucks located right inside the gift shop, so I was in heaven!! Movie memorabilia AND a Starbucks?? What more could a girl ask for? 🙂

    After getting our shopping on at the gift shop, we were instructed to move into a small movie theatre where we were shown a short movie about the many productions that have been filmed on the lot. The movie definitely got me pumped up and excited for the tour and I was literally on the edge of my seat ready for the tour to begin. After the 15 minute movie, our tour group boarded a small tram and headed for the famous WB back-lot.

    The first movie site stalked on our tour was the location of one of the most well-known screen kisses in cinema history – the famous upsidedown kiss between Spiderman and Mary Jane that took place on a fire escape in the pouring rain. That fire escape is located on the WB’s back-lot in an area that is now called “Spiderman Alley”. 🙂 Apparently the scene was not very fun, or romantic, to film, as Tobey Maguire had to hang upside down for over eight hours, giving him a massive headache, not to mention all the water running up his nose from the fake rain. That kiss was later emulated by Seth and Summer in one of my favorite O.C. scenes ever!

    Our next stop on the tour was the exterior set of ER ‘s Cooke County General Hospital. This set was very cool to see as I was a big fan of ER during its first few seasons.

    While 95% of the sets for ERare located inside a soundstage, the exterior set includes the hospital’s ambulance entrance, a small portion of the waiting room,

    The Jumbo Mart where the doctors eat,

    the “L” tracks from the Chicago railway system,

    and even George Clooney’s former basketball hoop left over from the days he starred on ER.

    Next up our tour guide took us to a small stretch of grass that often doubles for Central Park in Warner Brothers movies and television shows. The patch of lawn is so small, I have no idea how it can possibly double for a park, but it does. The small park was featured on Friends as the place where Phoebe “runs weird” and also as the location of Rory’s “study tree” on the Gilmore Girls.

    Next up was Lorelai’s house from Gilmore Girls which looks pretty much exactly as it did during the filming of the show.

    In actuality, the entire town of Sleepy Hollow from Gilmore Girls is located on the WB lot, and it, too, looks pretty much exactly as it did during filming. This set is usually called Anytown, USA and has been used in countless productions, most prominently as Hazzard County in the Dukes of Hazzard television series.

    Pictured above is Luke’s restaurant from Gilmore Girls,

    and the Hazzard County Courthouse from Dukes of Hazzard.

    I think I was most excited of all to see the house from one of my fave 80s sitcoms – Growing Pains (pictured above). I used to seriously love me some Kirk Cameron. 🙂 The house looks a bit different now, but it is still pretty recognizable as the Seaver Family home. As we drove up upon the house, our tour guide asked if anyone could still remember the words to the show’s theme song and I am proud to say, I still could. 🙂 You can watch the Growing Pains intro here. Cue theme song – “Show me that smile again, don’t waste another minute on your crying . . .” 🙂

    The side of the Seaver house was also used as Lane’s house on Gilmore Girls. Apparently many houses on the WB lot have double, or even triple, fronts so that they can be used for multiple houses at a time.

    We also got to see crew members setting up a scene for Ghost Whisperer on the WB’s Paris Street. Ghost Whisperer used to be filmed at Universal Studios, but due to the recent fire, production has since moved to Warner Brothers. Paris Street was also used in the filming of Casablanca, as the location of Rick and Ilsa’s Parisian tryst.

    The building pictured above was featured as the location of Rick and Isla’s teary Paris goodbye. Ahhh, we’ll always have Paris! 🙂

    Also included in the tour was a walk through of the set of Two and a Half Men– which was VERY cool as I watch that show all the time; an up-close and personal view of many cars used in major motion pictures – ie. the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard movie, the Batmobile, and Keanu’s car from the Matrix; a tour of the Warner Brothers Museum which displays numerous costumes and other movie memorabilia from such films as Harry Potter, Fools Gold, The Matrix, and The Dark Knight;and a walk through of the third biggest soundstage in the US which has been used in productions such as Ocean’s 13 and The Perfect Storm. We were not allowed to take any photographs while inside the soundstages or the museum which was a total bummer! 🙁

    My favorite part of the tour, hands down, had to be when we got to see the original Central Perk set from Friends. SO COOL! After the final season of Friends, the entire Central Perk set was moved to an empty soundstage preserved for us fans to visit. 🙂 The set pieces are a little tweaked and aren’t set up exactly as they were during filming, but it still looks pretty much as it did on TV. SO COOL!

    Mike and I had an absolute blast on the WB tour and I HIGHLY recommend stalking it!!!! No two tours are ever the same, and I am seriously considering doing it again soon. 🙂

    BIG THANK YOU to Mike for taking all of the above pictures – would you believe my camera died at the very beginning of the WB tour cause this stalker forgot to charge it the night before. I am such a blond sometimes!!! LOL

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Warner Brothers Studios is located at 3400 Riverside Drive in Burbank. Tours run every 30 minutes Monday through Friday from 8:20am to 4:00pm. Advance reservations are recommended. Tickets will cost you $45 per person – and I assure you, it is $45 well spent! You can learn more about the tour here.

  • "I Don’t Need the BMW Anymore, I Already Have A Mercedes!"

    This past weekend while out stalking Les Anderson’s house from my fave 80s movie License to Drive , I randomly found the house of his girlfriend Mercedes from the movie. This was another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were obsessed with finding. We had been doing some cyber-stalking of Mercedes’ house for a few weeks with no luck. We both had an inkling, though, that the house was somewhere right around Les’ house. And then, this weekend, fate stepped in. As my boyfriend pulled the car away from Les Anderson’s house, he took a turn onto Loring Drive and I literally started screaming “STOP THE CAR!” Out of the corner of my eye, I had spotted the house!

    Truth be told, I didn’t so much spot the house, as I did the street in front of the house. While watching License to Drive trying to find Mercedes’ house, I noticed that three streets joined and became one right at her front door (shown in the above screen capture). I had been cyberstalking all week, trying to find three streets that came together in front of a large brick house, but to no avail. Until my boyfriend took a turn onto Loring on Sunday, and I noticed the exact same street set-up that I had seen so many times in the movie. When my boyfriend backed the car up, I looked at the house located where the three streets meet and sure enough, there was Mercedes’ house! YAY!

    I must say it was very exciting to be standing there in my teenage idol’s footsteps, even all these years later. 🙂 Especially since the house looks exactly like it did back when License to Drive was filmed.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Mercedes house is located at 485 Loring Drive in Los Angeles, just a few blocks from Corey Haim’s house in the movie.

  • License to Stalk!

    When I was about ten years old, my favorite movie in the world was License to Drive starring the two Coreys. I bought the movie on VHS and literally watched it every single Friday and Saturday night. I was absolutely obsessed with Mercedes Lane in the movie, a character played by Heather Graham. I wanted nothing more than to have her spectacular long, curly hair, her cute boyfriend Les Anderson, and, especially, her white VW Cabriolet convertible. Six years later, I was still obsessed with Mercedes and I actually did end up getting a white Cabriolet when I turned 16 and I could not have been happier! I didn’t have the long gorgeous hair or the cute boyfriend, but hey, you can’t win ’em all. 😉 Anyway, I’ve always wanted to stalk the houses used in the movie, especially Les Anderson’s (Corey Haim’s) house and for the past few weeks Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I have made it our mission to find the filming locations from the 80s flick. So I almost fell over on Friday when I received a text message from Mike telling me that he had located Les’ house in the movie! YAY!

    I must say that Mike is a true stalking genius and my hat is off to him, yet again! After a few weeks with no luck in locating the Anderson house, Mike noticed that an address for Les and his twin sister is shown quite clearly in the scene when they both receive their driver’s licenses. So Mike Googled the address, and while the one shown on the licenses doesn’t exist in real life, there is in fact a “Dalehurst Drive” in Los Angeles and sure enough, there was the Anderson home, just a few numbers off from the fake address. 🙂 I am starting to realize that, more often than not, producers will show the actual addresses of homes used in productions rather than making up fake ones. All the hours we spent looking for the Anderson house and there it was right under our noses the whole time! LOL

    So this weekend, I dragged my boyfriend and my best friend out to do some License to Drive stalking. 🙂 Except for a few minor differences, the house looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did 20 years ago when the movie was filmed. Missing, though, are the front bushes Les drives his Grandfather’s Cadillac through when he sneaks out to go on his date with Mercedes. LOL

    I also had to snap some pics of the distinct shaped house located across the street from the Anderson home, just to be sure I was stalking the right place. The neighbor’s house also looks pretty much the same, except for what looks like a small ad-on that must have been done after License to Drive was filmed.

    I must say it was VERY COOL to be standing there in front of the Anderson house after countless times of seeing it immortalized on my television screen. I highly recommend stalking the home if you are at all a fan of License to Drive. If you have yet to see the movie, RENT IT! It is a definite 80s classic!! 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Les Anderson’s house in the movie is located at 536 Dalehurst Avenue in Los Angeles, near the UCLA campus.