Category: This and That

  • Mountain View Cemetery from “The Office”

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    Since my favorite holiday, Halloween, is fast approaching, I thought it would only be appropriate to devote the next few blog posts to some filming locations of a spookier nature.  So, this past Sunday morning, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, the Grim Cheaper, and I went on a joint stalking venture up to Altadena to stalk Mountain View Cemetery which appeared in the Season 4 episode of The Office titled “The Chair Model”, among countless other productions.  I first found out about this locale from my parents’ neighbor, Julie, who owns The Coffee Gallery in Altadena – a location which was also used in “The Chair Model” episode and which I blogged about this past July.  According to Julie, while scouting locations for the “Chair Model” episode, location managers sought out a coffee shop that was in close proximity to Mountain View Cemetery where they were also shooting scenes, which is how they came to use her cafe.  Like the old saying goes, it’s all about location, location, location.  😉  Anyway, once Julie told me about the place, I started doing some research on it and discovered that Mountain View Cemetery has been featured in hundreds upon hundreds of productions over the years.  Apparently, the 60-acre cemetery is used for filming an average of 150 days out of EACH AND EVERY year, which is absolutely incredible to me!  Upon finding out that fact, I promptly informed both Mike and the GC that Mountain View Cemetery was the ONLY place I wanted to be buried.  Spending my hereafter at a site that is in use as a filming location almost half of each year sounds like absolute heaven to me (pun intended).  Mike jokingly said that if I did end up being buried there, my tombstone should read, “Lindsay Blake, from IAMNOTASTALKER –Still Stalking Filming Sites From Beyond the Grave”.  🙂

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    Mountain View Cemetery, which is one of the oldest cemeteries in the San Gabriel Valley, was first established in 1882 when a man named Levi W. Giddings designated a plot of his family’s land to be used as a site for burials for the citizens of Pasadena.  His descendants still own and operate the cemetery to this day, over 128 years later.  Mountain View, which as the name implies does boast picturesque views of the San Gabriel Mountains, is an absolutely enormous and quite beautiful property, with sprawling lawns, stately trees from all over the world, an art collection, two chapels, and two mausoleums.  Besides being a filming location, Mountain View is also the final resting place of several notables, including actor George Reeves, who played TV’s original Superman in the 1950s television series of the same name. George is entombed in the cemetery’s Pasadena Mausoleum.  Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, one of the original founders of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and builder of the Mount Lowe Railway, is also buried at Mountain View, in the cemetery’s Royal Oak’s section.

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    The yet-to-be released show Franklin & Bash was setting up to do some filming while we were stalking the cemetery on Sunday, and as you can see in the above photographs, had fake tombstones, floodlights, a generator, and a mock funeral assembled, which was very cool to see.

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    There was also a fake crypt set up on the property, which none of us actually realized was a fake . . .

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    . . . until we got around to the back of it and saw the prop door.  So, of course, I just had to get inside of it to snap a quick picture.  🙂  I am not sure if the fake crypt was a prop for Franklin & Bash or for Wicked Literature: A Halloween Theatre Festival – a Halloween-themed live theatre event which is running at the cemetery now through the end of October.  But being that Franklin & Bash is a series about a law firm, I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the crypt was set up for the Wicked Literature show.

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    In “The Chair Model” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) falls in love with a chair model whom he sees in an office supply catalog.  He sends Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) on a recognizance mission to track down the model and is crushed when he learns that she was recently killed in a car accident.  Dwight and Michael later visit the cemetery where she is buried in order to pay their respects.  While there, they break into a rousing rendition of the song “American Pie”.

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    While stalking Mountain View on Sunday, I was absolutely dying to find the exact spot where The Office had been filmed.  Unfortunately though, I was unable to figure it out at the time.  It wasn’t until after I got home and re-watched “The Chair Model” episode that I was able to discern the correct location.  So, bright and early yesterday morning, I dragged my dad out to re-stalk the place so that I could get some photos of the spot where Michael and Dwight had mourned, ahem, sang.  That spot can be found in the northeastern section of the cemetery.

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    In the Season 1 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “There Won’t Be Trumpets”, Mountain View was the site of Mama Solis’ (aka Lupe Ontiveros’) funeral.  In the scene filmed at the cemetery, Gaby Solis (aka Eva Longoria Parker) flies into a rage after discovering that her destitute husband Carlos (aka Ricardo Antonio Chavira) has purchased a large crypt for his dead mother.  It was during the filming of that scene that Eva Longoria Parker accidentally (and hilariously) got the heel of her stiletto stuck in the cemetery’s grass.  Some paparazzi who were on hand managed to snap pictures of the event and those pictures later made their way onto the pages of US Magazine, but unfortunately I cannot find copies of those photographs anywhere online.

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    While watching the “There Won’t Be Trumpets” episode, I was convinced that Mama Solis’ crypt had been a prop put into place for the filming.  As I discovered yesterday morning, though, her burial site is an actual crypt belonging to the Buckley family.  So darn cool!  I would like to let it be known here and now that, upon my death, filmmakers have my permission to use whatever it is I end up being buried in – whether it be a crypt, a mausoleum, or a simple grave – whenever and in as many productions as they so desire!  😉

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    The cemetery was also used in the Season 8 episode of Seinfeld titled “The Foundation” as the final resting place of Susan Ross (aka Heidi Swedberg), George Costanza’s (aka Jason Alexander’s) former fiancé, who died after ingesting toxic glue while licking the envelopes of their wedding invitations.

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    Mountain View also appeared in the Season 11 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Shock Waves” as the site of the funeral of Officer Franklin Clark (aka Reggie Von Watkins), during which a bomb explodes.  Fave website Altadenablog was on hand during the filming of that episode and took some great photographs of the crew setting up the extensive rigging for the explosion scene.

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    The cemetery also popped up in the pilot episode of the HBO series Six Feet Under as the site of the funeral of Nathaniel Fisher (aka Richard Jenkins).

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    The cemetery was also used in Ozzy Osbourne’s video for his 2010 song “Life Won’t Wait” . . .

    . . . which you can watch by clicking above.

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    Ironically enough, after visiting the cemetery, I had a feeling that it might have been the very cemetery used in fave movie A Lot Like Love, so after I got home I re-watched the flick and noticed the large, open-air grave-marker located in the background behind Oliver Martin (aka Ashton Kutcher) in the scene pictured above.

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    I could also just make out the last name “Holmes” written on the marker.  So, yesterday morning, while re-stalking the cemetery with my dad, I walked around to see if I could spot that open air crypt.

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    And, amazingly enough, I did!  As it turns out, the filming of A Lot Like Love had taken place just due west of where The Office had filmed.  The grave where Emily Friehl’s (aka Amanda Peet’s) mother was buried in the movie was a fake that was put into place solely for the filming.  In real life, her grave is just empty space.  Ironically enough, Ashton Kutcher returned to the cemetery once again this past May to film scenes for the yet-to-be released comedy No Strings, along with co-star Natalie Portman.  You can check out some photographs of them filming here.  The 2007 remake of the classic horror film Halloween was also filmed at Mountain View Cemetery.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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    Stalk It: Mountain View Cemetery is located at 2400 North Fair Oaks Avenue in Altadena.  The area which appeared in The Office is in the northeastern portion of the cemetery and is denoted with a pink circle and a pink “X” in the above aerial views.  A Lot Like Love filmed just due west of where The Office was filmed in the area of the cemetery numbered 4474, which is denoted with a purple circle in the above aerial views. Desperate Housewives was filmed in front of the Buckley crypt, which is located in the section of the cemetery numbered 4386, directly across from the Vista Del Monte mausoleum, which is denoted with a blue circle and a blue arrow in the above aerial views.

  • Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch . . . A Second Time

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    This past weekend, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to one of my all time favorite Halloween-themed stalking locations – Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch in West Hollywood.  The family owned and operated patch, which is located on a vacant plot of land on North Doheny Drive in between Keith and Harland Avenues, has been serving L.A.’s west side since 1986 and each year during the month of October is the place to see and be seen in Southern California.  And even though I’ve actually blogged about this location once before, way back in October of 2008, since it is a landmark Haunted Hollywood stalking venue, I thought it was only fitting that I write about it once again since we are just a few days away from Halloween. 

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    For whatever reason – I am guessing due mostly to its centralized location – the patch has been a celebrity magnet ever since its inception almost two and a half decades ago.  Anyone who’s anyone stops by there during the month of October for a bit of Halloween fun.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there recently include Tobey Maguire and Jennifer Meyer, Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott, The Girls Next Door’s Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, Britney Spears, Marcia Cross, Scott Baio, Chris Noth, Sara Gilbert, Justin Chambers, Jessica Alba, Mark Wahlberg, Courteney Cox, Christina Aguilera, Laurence Fishburne, Halle Berry, Usher, Breckin Meyer, Dave Grohl, Victoria’s Secret-model Alessandra Ambrosio, and Cougar Town’s Busy Philipps.  I could literally go on and on here, but that gives you somewhat of an idea of the patch’s extensive celebrity clientele.  Unfortunately, the GC and I did not see any stars while we were stalking the place this past Sunday, but we did run into Heidi Klum and Seal during our first visit there back in 2007 (the two are pictured above) and last year we missed both Tori Spelling and Gwen Stefani by mere minutes!  UGH!

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    And while I love Mr. Bones, I must admit that the Grim Cheaper isn’t too crazy about the place thanks to the fact that they charge a $4 entrance fee for each adult (kids are $2).  That fee can later be applied to any pumpkins or Halloween merchandise that is purchased, but as the GC says, Mr. Bones has to be the only pumpkin patch on the planet that has a cover charge.  😉  Besides pumpkins, the patch also boasts plenty of activities to keep the kids (and those adults who want to join in on the fun) occupied, including a large pumpkin-shaped jump house, face painting, a super slide, a small straw maze, a petting zoo, and a pumpkin decorating station.  The patch also offers catered lunches of pizza, kosher hot dogs, and sausages.  And I can personally attest to the fact that the hot dogs there are fabulous.  😉

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    Mr. Bones also boasts quite a large paparazzi following.  The paps have been a fixture there pretty much ever since the place first opened.  As you can see in the above pictures, for a time Mr. Bones employees tried to thwart photographers’ efforts by surrounding the property with large black-out curtains which blocked views of the patch from the street.  And each year it seemed that not only did those curtains grow taller and taller, but so did the paparazzo’s ladders.

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    But this year things changed considerably.  I guess the patch has now resigned itself to the fact that as long as it is going to be there each year, so are the paparazzi, because they have now set up a cordoned off “press area” at the corner of the property in which the photogs are allowed to stand and take pictures.  A pumpkin patch with a cover charge and a press area?  Only in L.A., I swear!  SO LOVE IT!

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    I honestly cannot recommend stalking Mr. Bones enough!  Be forewarned, though, its pumpkins do run on the expensive side – but, then again, you can’t put a price tag on celebrity sightings now can you?  🙂 

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

    Stalk It: Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch is located at 702 North Doheny Drive in West Hollywood.  You can visit the official Mr. Bones website here.  The patch is open this year from October 2nd through the 31st.  Mr. Bones charges a cover fee of $4 per adult and $2 per child during the weekends.  That fee can later be applied to the cost of any pumpkins or Halloween merchandise that is purchased while there.

  • The Glen Capri Inn & Suites from “The Good Girl”

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    A few weeks ago, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk the Glen Capri Inn & Suites – a historic and oft-filmed Glendale-area motel that has appeared in over twenty movie and television productions in the past six years alone.  I was most interested in stalking the property due to its appearance in the 2002 flick The Good Girl, which starred my girl Jen Aniston.  And even though I didn’t like The Good Girl AT ALL (it was just far too dark and depressing for my taste), because JA had filmed there, I was dying to see the motel which was featured in it in person.

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    The Glen Capri is famous not only for its vast motion picture history, but for its distinct architectural style, as well.  The property was originally built in 1949 by Louis Armet and Eldon Davis, the architectural team who, according to an August 1999 Los Angeles Times article written by Ed Leibowitz, “defined ‘50s Googie architecture” – Googie being the unique mid-century modern-style of design which had its roots in the now-defunct, John Lautner-constructed Googies Coffee Shop.  At the time of its grand opening, the Glen Capri Inn & Suites was called simply the Glen Capri Motel.  In 2000, the interior of the property underwent an extensive remodel at which point it was given its more upscale-sounding moniker.  Fortunately, the exterior of the property was left intact during the recent remodel and looks almost exactly the same today as it did when it was first built over six decades ago.  It is thanks to the motel’s historic facade and authentic 60’s neon signage that location scouts have returned to film there time and time again.

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    Before arriving at the Glen Capri Inn & Suites, I was a little nervous that the place would not be very stalker-friendly and that taking photographs of the premises would be a big no-no.  As it turns out, though, I needn’t have worried.  The man working at the front desk was very nice and said that we could take all of the pictures that we wanted.  AND there was even a “Wall of Fame” located in the main office, with signed headshots of all of the actors who had filmed at the motel on display.

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    As you can imagine, I just about died when I saw my girl Jen’s autographed picture hanging on the wall.  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

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    In The Good Girl, the Glen Capri stood in for the Texas-area motel where Justine Last (aka Jennifer Aniston) and Holden Worther (aka Jake Gyllenhaal) conducted their on-going affair.

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    Both the main office .  . .

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    . . . and Room 8 were used in the flick.  I don’t want to give away the ending, but Room 8 also featured significantly in the movie’s climactic finale.  On a Good Girl side note – Mike, from MovieShotsLA, recently stalked Retail Rodeo, the discount store where Justine and Holden worked in the movie.  You can see pics of it on his site here.

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    In 2004’s Raising Helen, the Glen Capri stood in for the New York-area motel where Helen Harris (aka Kate Hudson) and Jenny Portman (aka Joan Cusack) catch their underage niece Audrey Davis (aka Hayden Panettiere) on prom night.  Audrey’s room was number 205.

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    In the 2004 teen comedy The Girl Next Door, Matthew Kidman (aka Emile Hirsch) took Danielle (aka Elisha Cuthbert) to the Glen Capri with the hopes of seducing her while there.

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    Ironically enough, Emile Hirsch returned to the Glen Capri two years later to film a scene for the 2006 drama Alpha Dog. In the flick, the Glen Capri stood in for the Albuquerque motel where Johnny Truelove and his girlfriend Angela Holden (aka Olivia Wilde) hid out after police had discovered the body of Zack Mazursky (aka Anton Yelchin).

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    In 2007’s Georgia Rule, the Glen Capri stood in for the Hull, Ohio-area motel where Arnold (aka Cary Elwes) stays while in town visiting his wife, Lily (aka Felicity Huffman), and his step-daughter, Rachel Wilcox (aka Lindsay Lohan).  In the movie, Arnold stays in Room 206.

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    Other movies that have filmed at the Glen Capri include The Country Bears, Diamonds & Guns, and Janky Promoters. Episodes of Without a Trace, Parks and Recreation, Cold Case, Saving Grace, Night Stalker, Close to Home, Day Break, Windfall, Lovespring International, Mad Men, and Nip/Tuck have also been shot at the Glen Capri.  You can check out the hotel’s very thorough filming page, which chronicles all of the productions that have been filmed on the premises over the past ten years, on its website here.  Love it!  There are actually several different motels in the Glen Capri chain and the one located at 326 Colorado Street, also in Glendale, has been used for filming, as well.  It has appeared in episodes of Life and The Surreal Life and in a 2007 Smash Mouth music video.

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    On a Jennifer Aniston side note – my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry recently gifted me with the new Jennifer Aniston Perfume and I have to say that it is absolutely DIVINE.  It is honestly the best scented perfume that I’ve ever smelled in my entire life!  All of the literature written about it says that it has a “beachy” scent, but to me it seems to have more of a floral feel to it and is a bit reminiscent of Michael Kors signature fragrance, which I also love.  Jennifer Aniston perfume smells so amazing that I literally cannot stop smelling my wrists when I wear it – I wouldn’t be surprised if I subconsciously gnaw my arm off in the coming weeks.  😉  Because the perfume is only available at Harrods in London (contrary to what Jen reported during her most recent Chelsea Lately appearance, it cannot be shipped outside of the UK), Kerry had to go through hell and high water to get it for me.  So, I’ve had to resort to rationing it out in very small portions each day as I simply do not know WHAT I am going to do when I run out.  🙁  I am hoping that by that time it will be available in the US.  (Are you listening, Jen?)  Anyway, if you live in London or have plans to travel there, I HIGHLY recommend stopping by Harrods to pick up some JA perfume.  Take my word for it, you will NOT be disappointed.  And a HUGE thank you to Kerry for getting it for me!  🙂

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    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

    Stalk It: Glen Capri Inn & Suites is located at 6700 San Fernando Road in Glendale.  You can visit the hotel’s official website hereThe Good Girl was filmed in the main office and in Room 8; Raising Helen also used the main office and Room 205; and Georgia Rule was filmed in Room 206.

  • Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe

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    Two Mondays ago, after Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I finished our tour of Paramount Studios in Hollywood (which I still have yet to blog about), the two of us headed across the street to grab a bite to eat at a little restaurant that has been at the top of my To-Stalk list for close to a decade now – Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe.  I hadn’t actually heard much about Lucy’s before our recent trip there, but had passed by it countless times and figured it had to be something of a celebrity hot spot due to its close proximity to three different Hollywood studios – Paramount, Raleigh, and the now defunct KCAL/KHJ.  As it turns out, my hunch could not have been more spot on!  Lucy’s was originally founded over four decades ago and has been attracting film, television, and music stars and well-known politicians pretty much ever since.  Not only that, but Mike and I discovered that the restaurant is also a filming location!  And the food there is absolutely AMAZING, to boot.  As Mike said to me upon leaving the restaurant, “This place is a hidden jewel!”

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    Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe was first founded in 1964 by Los Angeles native Frank Casado, who named the eatery in honor of his beloved wife Lucy.  Frank managed and worked at the restaurant, along with members of his family, for over two and a half decades until he passed away in 1990, upon which Lucy took over.  She still owns and runs the place along with their daughter, Patricia, to this day.  Amazingly enough, most of Lucy’s employees have also been there since the day the place opened, including our extremely nice waiter Ricardo, whom Lucy calls a “Juan-of-all-Trades”.  🙂  The Cafe originally consisted of only one single storefront – a tiny room lined with brown leather booths – but thanks to its immense popularity, the place has since expanded to include both the storefronts to the left and to the right of it. 

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    Ricardo was so incredibly proud of the restaurant’s history and excited that Mike and I were so very interested in hearing about it that he ended up taking us on our very own thirty minute private tour of the property and told us countless stories about the many stars who have dined there over the years.  Included in our tour was Lucy’s large VIP/Private Party room, where most of their celebrity patrons dine.

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    The VIP room also just so happens to be the spot where the restaurant displays the piano that was gifted to them by musician Phil Collins, who is a regular patron!  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!  There is even a picture displayed on the restaurant’s walls of Phil tickling the piano’s ivories.  LOVE IT!

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    Ricardo also showed us the restaurant’s ultra-cool looking front patio area, which he says gets extremely crowded each Friday and Saturday night.  I am so going to have to take the Grim Cheaper back there to grab a drink in the near future.

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    My favorite part of the tour, though, had to be when Ricardo showed us Lucy’s extensive wall of autographed celebrity photos, accompanied by quite a few of his personal anecdotes from his various dealings with them. 

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    It would be impossible for me to name all of the celebs who have dined at the restaurant over the years, but a partial list includes celebrity siblings Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal (who ate there quite often as children), Lyle Lovett (who often thanks the restaurant in the liner notes of his albums), Ugly Betty’s Ana Ortiz (who first met husband Noah Lebenzon while at the Cafe), the cast of Family Ties (who were regulars during the series’ seven year run), Ronald Regan, Dolly Parton, Tom Selleck, Harland David Sanders (aka “Colonel Sanders”), Bernadette Peters, Magic Johnson, and all of the members of the Eagles rock group.  One of the restaurant’s most loyal patrons is former California governor Jerry Brown who has been eating at Lucy’s since the early 1970s and considers Lucy, Frank, and Patricia to be part of his extended family.  He even used the restaurant as an unofficial office during his tenure as governor.  And it was at Lucy’s that Jerry first met singer Linda Ronstadt. The Cafe now has an entree named after the former governor – the Jerry Brown Special, which consists of chicken and rice.

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    Most amazing of all, though, is the fact that the Dalai Lama himself is a regular!  He has been eating at the restaurant at least once each year for well over a decade!

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    Lucy’s is considered something of a lucky charm among celebrities, as many now-famous stars were regular patrons there long before becoming household names – the most notable of whom is Drew Barrymore who has been dining at Lucy’s since before she could talk.  In fact, Ricardo still remembers the day a young Drew told him that she had just been cast in Steven Spielberg’s latest movie.  😉

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    The actress continued to dine at Lucy’s long after becoming famous and even held one of her childhood birthday parties at the Mexican restaurant (pictured above).

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    And I just had to take a pic sitting in Drew’s favorite booth (which is the very first booth located on the right-hand side of Lucy’s main room) for fellow stalker and Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, from the Drewseum website.  🙂

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    Then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy once dined at Lucy’s back in June of 1968, just a few short days before he was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel.  The above photographs were taken as the senator was leaving the restaurant through Lucy’s rear door.

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    Lucy’s restaurant also appeared in the 2010 flick Greenberg, which was directed by Noah Baumbach, husband of Jennifer Jason Leigh.  According to this Los Angeles Times article from March of 2010, Jennifer has been a patron of Lucy’s ever since childhood, which is why Noah decided to feature the restaurant in his movie.

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    Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe has become such a Hollywood landmark that in 2007 the Los Angeles City Council voted to name the intersection of Melrose Avenue and North Plymouth Boulevard as “I Love Lucy Square” in honor of both Lucy Casada, the restaurant’s owner, and Lucille Ball, who owned a portion of the Paramount lot back when it was known as Desilu Studios.  So amazingly cool!

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    As I mentioned above – and despite what many Yelp reviews may state – both Mike and I thought the food at Lucy’s was absolutely spectacular!  I opted for the ground beef tacos, which were AMAZING, and Mike ordered the cheese quesadillas, which he said were fabulous.  I honestly can’t recommend stalking this place enough! 

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    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

    Stalk It: Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe is located at 5536 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, directly across the street from Paramount Studios.

  • The Fremont Troll from “10 Things I Hate About You”

    Another location that I stalked while visiting the Pacific Northwest this past May was a famous Seattle-area sculpture known as the Fremont Troll, which appeared in a brief scene in the 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You.  The Troll, which weighs two tons and was built out of wire, ferroconcrete, and rebar steel, lurks under Seattle’s Aurora Bridge and measures eighteen feet tall.  It was originally constructed in 1990 over a period of seven weeks by four local artists named Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter, and Ross Whitehead.  At the time, the area under the bridge had become a haven for drug dealers and other miscreants, so in 1989, with the hopes of cleaning up the space, the Fremont Art Council sponsored a national contest for artists to create a piece of work which would be displayed there permanently.  The menacing-looking Troll, which is also known as the Troll Under the Bridge and was inspired by the well-known children’s fairy tale Three Billy Goats Gruff, was the winning design and has since become a Seattle-area icon, so much so that it even has its very own Facebook page!

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    I found out about this location from fellow stalker Owen, who somehow managed to track down every single locale which appeared in 10 Things I Hate About You.  To be honest, I wasn’t actually all that keen on stalking it, though.  It looked a bit odd online and since it had only been featured for a few brief seconds in the movie, I didn’t think it was a very blog-worthy location.  As it turns out, though, I couldn’t have been more wrong.  The mixed media sculpture, while not necessarily beautiful, is incredibly unique and I am so, so glad that my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry ended up taking me there.  If you happen to be in the area, I can’t recommend stalking it enough!  My favorite aspects of the Troll are the fact that its left eye consists of an old hubcap and its left hand is clasping an actual Volkswagen Beetle.  Not kidding!  Apparently, the car once boasted a California license plate and also housed a time capsule filled with Elvis Presley memorabilia, but both had to later be removed due to vandalization of the sculpture.

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    In 10 Things I Hate About You, the Troll is the site of the scene in which Cameron James (aka Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Bianca Stratford (aka Larisa Oleynik) discuss how to get her sister, Kat Stratford (aka Julia Stiles), to attend an upcoming party.

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    And while the Troll also appears in a brief scene with Jennifer Aniston in the movie Love Happens, due to scheduling conflicts the actress never actually set foot in Seattle during the filming.  Instead, the rest of the cast and crew traveled there, while a body double stood in for Jennifer and kept her back to the camera during the scene.  Her stand-in is pictured in the grey hat in the screen capture above.  Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

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    Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location!  🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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    Stalk It: The Fremont Troll, from 10 Things I Hate About You and Love Happens, is located on the corner of Troll Avenue North and North 36th Street, directly underneath the north end of Aurora Bridge in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.

  • Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Gets Up Close & Personal with the “Back to the Future” DeLorean

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    This past Friday afternoon, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, had a definite “Only in L.A.” moment when he looked out of his office window and noticed the Back to the Future DeLorean parked in the lot outside!  After having a minor heart attack, he flew right out of his seat and immediately ran outside to snap some pictures of it.  While doing so, he texted me saying, “Want to know what is outside of my office right now?  And it’s the actual one!”  Amazingly enough, as soon as I read Mike’s words, I knew that he was talking about Doc Brown’s time machine.  I’m not exactly sure how I knew – and no, it’s not because I’m psychic.  😉  But when Mike wrote, “It’s the actual one!”, an image of the DeLorean popped into my head.  I’m fairly certain it is because I honestly can think of no other movie prop that is more iconic.  I mean, the DeLorean is pretty much the movie prop to end all movie props – in my eyes, at least.  Short of the actual ship used in the filming of Titanic, I can’t think of a set piece that I’d more rather see.  I was at Kinko’s making photocopies when I received Mike’s text and, let me tell you, I just about had a heart palpitation!  I completely messed up my copies, ordered way too many of a page I didn’t even want, and ended up having to leave the store altogether as I was so totally flustered over the fact that Mike WAS UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH THE BACK TO THE FUTURE DELOREAN!!!!!

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    What was the car doing there, you ask?  Well, I had that very same question!  As it turns out, Mike works in the same complex as a high-end movie memorabilia auctioneer, and, for whatever reason, the owner of the DeLorean had stopped by the company’s headquarters.  I am not sure of the circumstances of his visit – if he is planning on selling the car or if he just came by for a friendly chat, but either way, not only was he there, but he apparently DROVE the DeLorean there!  I had assumed that it had arrived on the premises via a flatbed truck, but no, the owner actually drove it!!!!!  Can you imagine being on the freeway and having the DeLorean pull up next to you?  I would surely crash!  But I digress.  Anyway, when Mike first went outside, no one was around, so he ended up just snapping a few photos of the outside of the car and one through the driver’s side window before returning to his desk.  But being that it’s not everyday that one has the opportunity to SEE the actual inside of the actual DeLorean from Back to the Future, I told Mike that he better get his butt back down there and knock on the auction company’s door to ask if they’d let him take a peek at the interior.  I, of course, anticipated the owner saying no, but even so, I didn’t think he should let the opportunity pass him by without at least asking. 

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    And thank goodness he did, because not only did the super-nice owner open up the car for him, but he also let him GET INSIDE and take all of the photographs he wanted!  So, yes, you are reading that right – Mike, from MovieShotsLA, actually got to SIT INSIDE the Back to the Future DeLorean!!!!!!!  As you can imagine, I was absolutely DYING when Mike told me the news and I informed him that I was going to hop in my car and immediately drive over there.  Unfortunately, though, the owner said that he and his DeLorean were just about to leave.  🙁 

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    Thankfully, though, Mike took plenty of pictures and I am very happy to report that, twenty-five years later, the DeLorean still looks EXACTLY the same as it did in Back to the Future!  I was most excited to see the Flux Capacitor – which still had the red stickers from the movie which state, “Disconnect capacitor drive before opening” and “Shield eyes from light”.  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

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    And the date module still reads “October 26, 1985”.  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!

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    Mike also got some pictures of the back of the car, including ones of the plutonium chamber and the iconic “OUTATIME” license plate.

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    Best of all, though, was the pic that the owner took of Mike standing with the car, a la the way Doc Brown stood with it in Back to the Future.  Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have a photo like that!  Sigh!  Mike wasn’t sure if I’d want to blog about his experience with the DeLorean or not, being that it’s not technically a filming location, but I was like, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????  THIS IS A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME!  OF COURSE I WANT TO BLOG IT!”  So, while it is not one of my typical posts, I still hope my fellow stalkers enjoyed the up-close-and-personal view of one of the most famous movie props of all time as much as I did!

    A HUGE thank you to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for sharing his photos with me to publish in this post.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

    Stalk It: Unfortunately, you can’t.  🙁  We have to live vicariously through Mike on this one!

  • The Rocks from Jennifer Aniston’s Perfume Ad

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    This past April, the ad campaign for my girl Jen’s newly-released fragrance, which is named “Jennifer Aniston”, was revealed.  The ads showed the actress, wrapped solely in a towel, sitting on a very rocky beach somewhere in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  Well, let me tell you, once I saw those photographs, I became extremely hell-bent on finding the exact spot where they had been taken, especially since around that very same time my fiancé and I had just not-so-coincidentally finalized our Cabo San Lucas honeymoon plans.  I say “not-so-coincidentally” because the only reason we even looked at honeymooning in Cabo in the first place was because of how often Jen vacations there.  My now-husband originally wanted to spend the honeymoon in Hawaii, but I am EXTREMELY afraid to fly and suffer from terrible anxiety days, and sometimes weeks, before venturing on a long flight.  I really didn’t want to be nervous or stressed about flying the day of my wedding, so I suggested we travel instead to a place a little closer to home.  I started looking at Cabo, mostly because it is Jen’s favorite getaway spot, and when I discovered that it was a short one-hour-and-fifty minute plane ride from LAX I was sold!  And then when the Grim Cheaper found out that we could book round-trip airfare to the Mexican city for a scant $150 each, it was pretty much “Cabo, here we come!”  So, a few weeks later when fellow stalker Owen sent me Jen’s new perfume ad, I just about fell over.  I mean, could it have been any more perfect?  Here I was about to head to the very city where the photographs had just been taken!  Yay!

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    I half-jokingly asked Owen if he could track down the rocks for me prior to our trip, and even though I figured it would pretty much be like trying to find a needle in a haystack, about an hour later there was an email from him in my inbox along with a six-page attachment.  The email stated, “It’s pretty much impossible to find a couple of rocks without being there in Cabo, but I think I’ve got a good idea where you should look.”  Amazingly enough, even though Owen was not familiar with the area, he had figured out that the rock formation which can be seen in the distance behind Jen was the famous Land’s End (pictured above), which is located at the very southern tip of the Baja peninsula.  He also figured out that Jen’s head was blocking the three mountainous formations which can be seen at the far left of the above image.  Sure enough, when I looked at the above photograph compared with Jen’s advertisement, the two backgrounds matched perfectly.  From there, Owen scanned through aerial views of Cabo San Lucas to determine the exact location where Jen was sitting in the photograph.  His best guess was that the rocks were located somewhere on the far east end of Medano Beach, between Riu Palace and Missiones Del Cabo.  The six-page attachment he had included with his email provided detailed photographs, maps, and aerial views of the Cabo area, and, let me tell you, I printed that thing out and carried it with me EVERYWHERE I went in Mexico so that I could ask anyone and everyone who would talk to me where those rocks were located.

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    One of the very first people I asked was our airport shuttle driver, whom we met immediately upon landing at Los Cabos International Airport.  The driver took one look at Jen’s picture and told us that it had been taken at the beach at Esperanza Resort, which I blogged about on Friday.  Turns out our shuttle driver used to be a paparazzi and not only recognized the beach from the many times he had gone there to photograph celebrities, but also informed us that Jen had stayed at the hotel countless times over the years, so it was a place she would have been familiar with.  He also pointed out that the structure visible in the background of the right-hand side of the picture (denoted with a blue arrow above) was the Sunset Da Mona Lisa Restaurant – a very popular Cabo San Lucas dining spot.  Even though the shuttle driver seemed to really know what he was talking about, I continued showing Jen’s picture to everyone I encountered on the trip to see if they might know for sure where it had been taken.  And it was mind-boggling how many different answers I received!  One bartender I spoke with even went so far as to hypothesize that the photograph had been taken at Chileno Beach and that the Land’s End rock formation had been digitally added to the background of the picture while it was being edited – which I guess is possible, but not very likely.  The answer we heard most often, though, was that the picture had been taken at the Esperanza Resort beach – which is pretty much the exact spot where Owen had originally told me to look.  So, one day the Grim Cheaper and I rented a car and headed north to try to find Jen’s rocks.

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    And, let me tell you, it was quite the stalk!  Definitely different than any of the other stalks I’ve experienced in my lifetime.  Esperanza’s beach is extremely rocky, and when I say rocky, I mean ROCKY.  The GC and I had to traipse over three, four, and five-foot tall boulders while making our way north.  It was more of a mountain climb than anything else, actually.  Oh, and did I mention that it was about 110 degrees at the time?  I can only imagine what the people who saw us during our hike were thinking.  Probably something along the lines of “Stupid-*ss gringos!”  😉  The GC and I walked about a kilometer north of the resort, which took us around ninety minutes, and examined every square inch of the beach.  Finding Jen’s exact rocks proved to be rather difficult, though, as we had arrived at the Esperanza in the late afternoon during high-tide and I am almost certain that Jen was photographed in the early morning hours when the tide was much, much lower.  Adding to the difficulty was the fact that Jen’s photograph had been taken with a wide-angle lens, which distorted the background of the image.

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    What we finally determined, without being able to find the actual rocks, was that Jen was photographed about five hundred feet north of Esperanza Resort. As you can see in the above photograph as compared with Jen’s advertisement, while it’s not the exact spot where Jen sat, I think we got pretty darn close.  I am fairly certain that Jen’s photo was taken on the same rock formation where I am sitting in the above picture, but a bit farther out towards the sea.  Because the tide was high while we were there, though, we unfortunately couldn’t venture out any farther into the water.

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    As you can see above, numerous photographs were taken for the Jennifer Aniston Perfume advertising campaign.  My favorite, though, was definitely the one featuring Land’s End in the background.  But truth be told, she looks amazing in all of them!  Can you even imagine being 41 years old and having a body like that?  Who am I kidding – can you even imagine being 21 years old and having a body like that???  Sigh!   The photographs were all shot by renowned Italian photographer Mario Sorrenti and I honestly think that they are some of the best photos that Jen has ever taken.

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    The perfume, which was originally called Lolavie (which some have reported as being a rough French translation for “laughing at life”), took 18 months to create and the actress made herself a part of every minute detail of the development process.  Of the creation, Jen said, “It wasn’t just about showing up for a shoot and putting my name on the bottle.  I felt like a little chemist.  It’s turned out to be an extension of myself as opposed to slapping my name on something.”  The perfume is supposed to smell clean and beachy, but unfortunately, because, it is only available at Harrods Department Store in London (and for whatever reason it cannot be shipped outside of the UK), I have yet to be able to catch a sniff of it.  🙁  But thankfully, my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry has a daughter, Jen, who has a friend who lives in London who is going to purchase a bottle for me and bring it with her to the states when she comes to visit next month.  And, let me tell you, I cannot wait to get my hands on it!  Of the scent, Jen said, “I am not a big perfume-y fragrance fan.  I want people to go ‘What is that?  You smell great!’”  I have never been a perfume-fragrance fan, either, but if I did wear a scent, that is EXACTLY what I would want people to say about it, so I have a feeling I am going to LOVE Jen’s perfume.  🙂

    Jen was recently on fave show Chelsea Lately where she spoke about her perfume, of which Chelsea said, “Oh, that smells EXACTLY like I think you would smell!”  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!  LOVE IT!  And being that I would like nothing more than to smell like Jen, I am pretty sure Jennifer Aniston is going to become my signature scent.  😉  You can watch a clip of Jen’s Chelsea Lately appearance by clicking above.

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    Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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    Stalk It: I am fairly certain that the rocks from Jennifer Aniston’s perfume advertisements are located about 500 feet north of the Esperanza Resort, which is located at Carretera Transpeninsular KM 7 in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.  I would recommend parking your car at the Esperanza and using their beach access.  From there, walk due north to the rock formation denoted with the pink arrow above.  Be forewarned, though, the beach north of the Esperanza is extremely rocky and makes for quite a precarious walk.  Be extremely cautious and wear shoes with good tread.  I’d also recommend stalking the beach early in the morning, during low tide.

  • The One&Only Palmilla Resort

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    The Grim Cheaper and I just returned from our Cabo San Lucas honeymoon this past Tuesday evening and, let me tell you, we couldn’t have been sadder to say good-bye to the place!  We had an amazing time in Mexico – relaxing, swimming, sunbathing, and, of course, stalking.  And while I have plans to publish a whole slew of posts about our recent wedding day, which of course incorporated some stalking and celebrity elements, I am currently waiting on the official pictures from our photographer, so I am going to have to put those columns on the back burner for now.  In the meantime, though, I thought I’d write about one of the locations I stalked while in Cabo San Lucas last week – the One&Only Palmilla Resort, which just so happens to be my girl Jennifer Aniston’s very favorite vacation spot.

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    The One&Only Palmilla, which is Cabo San Lucas’ oldest resort, was first built in 1956 by Don Abelardo Rodriguez, the son of then-Mexican president Abelardo Luis Rodriguez, and at the time was named simply the Palmilla Hotel.  The property originally boasted a scant 15 rooms and was so exclusive that it was only accessible via boat or private plane.  The completion of the Mexican Federal Highway in 1973 allowed easier access to the property, which only helped it to grow in popularity.  In 1984 the hotel expanded to include 50 rooms, ten years later it added the Jack Nicklaus-designed Palmilla Golf Club, and in 1996 the number of rooms expanded once again to 115.  In 2002, the resort shuttered its doors to begin a massive $90 million renovation and expansion project.  It re-opened as the One&Only Palmilla Resort in February of 2004 and remains one of the city’s most sought after destinations.  The hotel is world-renowned for its service, which includes 24-hour personalized butler service for each guest, fresh fruit delivered daily to each room, twice daily maid service, and aromatherapy turndown service each night.

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    One&Only Palmilla has won such a staggering number of awards over the past six years that it would be virtually impossible to list them all here.  A few of them include: “The Gold List” in January 2010 from Conde Nast Traveler, “World’s Best Hotels” in January 2010 from Travel + Leisure Magazine, and “Best Butler Service in Mexico” in July/August 2010 from Bridal Guide.  The place truly is one of a kind.  As you can see in the above photographs, there are little hidden hammock alcoves which can be found throughout the Palmilla’s extensive property.  Next to the hammock is a sign which informs guests that if they require assistance, such as beverage service or an iPod pre-programmed with relaxation music, they only need push the little button located next to the hammock.  Sigh!  Now that’s what I call the life!  Because of its luxuriousness and exclusivity, the hotel has long been a celebrity magnet.  Just a few of the stars who have checked in there over the years include Desi Arnaz, Lucille Ball, Bing Crosby, John Wayne, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mario Lopez, Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Celine Dion, Mandy Moore, Richard Gere, John Travolta, Dustin Hoffman, and Eva Longoria.  Giants quarterback Eli Manning tied the knot there in April of 2008, as did Oliver Hudson (Kate Hudson’s brother) in June of 2006.  Kevin Jonas honeymooned there with his new wife Danielle Deleasa in December of 2009 and Christina Aguilera threw her bachelorette party there in 2005.  And, as I mentioned above, Jennifer Aniston is a frequent guest.  The actress loves the hotel so much, in fact, that she visits it several times a year.

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    Palmilla One&Only is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL place and it’s not at all hard to see why Jen loves to vacation there.  The property is closed to the public, however, and you must have a lunch or dinner reservation to be allowed past the front gates.  I wasn’t aware of that little caveat at the time, though, so when we showed up to stalk the place we were almost turned away.  The guard at the guard shack was incredibly nice, though – as were ALL of the One&Only employees – and he asked us to wait a moment while he called one of the hotel’s restaurants to see if we could be seated immediately.  Thankfully, Breeze, the One&Only’s outdoor lounge, had room and we were able to dine there.  And, let me tell you, the food was ABSOLUTELY incredible!  Like honestly, some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life.  I, of course, ordered a glass of champagne while there (hey, I was on my honeymoon!) and when the waiter arrived with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot to pour, I thought the Grim Cheaper was going to have a heart attack!  After the waiter left, GC tuned to me and said, “From now on, honey, please ask for the house ‘sparking wine’ instead of the ‘champagne’.”  LOL  Being that Veuve is my favorite, though, I wasn’t complaining.  😉

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    The hotel is also, of course, a filming location.  Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt held their Mexican wedding ceremony at the resort’s 50-year old chapel in November of 2008.  The event was covered exclusively by US Weekly Magazine, but unfortunately I could only find the above-pictured photograph of it online.

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    And, for whatever reason, The Hills’s cameras failed to record the ceremony.  The only part of the wedding ever shown on the series was in the Season 4 episode titled “Mr. and Mrs. Pratt”, in which Spencer and Heidi are shown watching a brief clip of their nuptials taken on a hand-held camera.

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    The Palmilla’s tiny chapel, which was originally built in 1956, is absolutely adorable in person and plays host to numerous wedding ceremonies each year.

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    The hotel was also used extensively in the Season 5 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Hazardous to your Health”, where it stood in for the Punta Brava-area resort where Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry) and Valerie Malone (aka Tiffany-Amber-Thiessen) set up a sting to win back Dylan’s stolen fortune.

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    Due to the recent renovation, though, the hotel looks a bit different now than it did back in 1995 when 90210 was filmed.  Guests no longer drive up to the same entrance used by Dylan and Valerie – that area is still there, but it is now a walkway.

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    And while the shape of the pool is still the same, the area around it has been altered slightly.   As you can see in the above photographs, there is now a restaurant located off to the left hand side of the pool and a large “palapa” (the Spanish word for a thatched umbrella) which covers an outdoor bar has also been installed.  Thankfully, though, the hotel is still very recognizable from 90210.  The real life Los Cabos International Airport was also featured extensively in that episode, but unfortunately I did not take any photographs of it while I was there.

    On a side note – Everyone from fellow stalkers to my mom to a high school friend who I haven’t spoken to in over a decade has contacted me today to alert me to the fact that the date is 9-02-10!  Yes, it’s officially 90210 day!  How I didn’t realize this before is beyond me.  I mean, it should be a national holiday or something!  When I told my husband (that is SO weird to say!) the significance of today’s date he asked me if Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were going to hold a seance or something.  And then he begged me not to make a pilgrimage to the 90210 house, as Jack, the owner, “already thinks you’re weird enough!”  LOL  Anyway, just wanted to wish all of my fellow stalkers a VERY HAPPY 90210 day!

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    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

    Stalk It: The One&Only Palmilla Resort is located at Km 7.5 Carretera Transpeninsular in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico.  The hotel is private and not open to the public, but if you book a reservation for lunch or dinner at one of the property’s three exceptional restaurants you will be granted access. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.  Jennifer Aniston rented the One&Only Palmilla’s private, 8,500 square foot Villa Cortez beach house for her recent 41st birthday party this past February.  The One&Only chapel, where Spencer and Heidi tied the knot, is located up the steps which lead away from the hotel’s main entrance.

  • Honeymooning in Cabo!

         

    Well, as you can see by the above photograph, I did it!  I am currently a married woman!  The Grim Cheaper and I finally tied the knot – after what amounted to close to ten years of dating! – this past Saturday evening in Malibu.  Yay!  And one of the Grim Cheaper’s very first duties as my husband was to recreate the famous photograph taken of Brad and Jen during their July 2000 nuptials.  Love it!  🙂  

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    We are heading to Cabo San Lucas for our honeymoon later this afternoon, so I will be taking the next five days off from blogging.  And, while I will, of course, be stalking while I am in Mexico (the rock formation pictured above is my number one must-see!), I plan on spending most of my time enjoying the sunshine while laying out by the pool, accompanied only by my new husband and a slew of gossip magazines.  🙂  I promise to be back next Monday, though, with a whole new post.  So, until that time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

  • The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco

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    Last Sunday morning, after checking out of the spectacular San Francisco loft where my bachelorette party was held, my friend Nat and I headed over to the historic former Presidio Army Base to stalk the recently-opened Walt Disney Family Museum.  Knowing what a Disney freak I am, Nat figured that the museum would be right up my alley, which it, of course, was!  The Walt Disney Family Museum, which was founded by Walt’s heirs through the Walt Disney Family Foundation, first opened a little under two years ago on October 1, 2009.  After the Presidio Army Base closed down in 1989 and the property was taken over by the US National Parks Service five years later, the Walt Disney Foundation set about renovating three of the former bases’ main buildings to house their new museum.  And while it might seem a bit random to open a gallery about the world’s most famous animator on a former Army Base, I must say that the place’s setting is nothing short of spectacular!

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    As you can see in the above-pictured photographs, the museum boasts absolutely gorgeous – albeit majorly fog-filled – views of the Golden Gate Bridge.  Amazingly enough, I had never actually heard of the museum before this past weekend and was shocked to discover that the legendary imagineer had a museum dedicated to him in the City by the Bay, because, as far as I knew, he had no connection to the area.  As it turns out, though, Walt’s eldest daughter Diane Marie Disney, moved to Northern California in the early 1970’s and still lives there to this day.  Because the museum focuses on the history of Walt’s life and career and boasts a massive collection of memorabilia from both, it makes sense that it would be opened in the city where his closest living heir now lives.  And once you see the museum’s breathtaking surroundings, it makes sense why Dianne chose to honor her father there.

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    The Walt Disney Family Museum consists of ten permanent galleries, each of which focuses on a different aspect of the icon’s life, including his early years, his arrival in Hollywood, his animation, the historical 1937 production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, his marriage to Lillian Disney, and, of course, the creation of Disneyland.  Sadly, though, no photographs of any kind were allowed in any of the galleries.  Pictures were allowed in the museum’s lobby area, though, and, amazingly enough, Walt’s Academy Award collection was displayed there, so I did get to snap some photographs of that.  As it turns out, Walt Disney has the distinction of holding the record for most Academy Award nominations received by a single person in the history of the Academy – he was nominated a whopping 59 times!  He won 26 of those nominations, including an honorary Oscar in 1939 for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated feature film.  The award, whose inscription reads, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field”, is the only Academy Award of its kind and befittingly features one large Oscar statuette flanked by seven miniature ones.

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    I cannot tell you how absolutely floored I was to be seeing that Oscar, which was presented to Walt at the 11th Annual Academy Awards Ceremony by a then-six-year-old Shirley Temple, in person.  I had first read about the one-of-a-kind award many, many years back and had thought it was just about the coolest thing ever!  So, when I read in the museum’s brochure that some of Walt’s Oscars were on display in the main lobby, my mind immediately flashed to that Snow White award, but, because it is so valuable, never in my wildest dreams did I think it would actually be there.  So, as you can imagine, I just about died upon seeing it!  So darn cool!

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    Also on display in the museum’s main lobby is a furniture set that used to be housed inside of the Disney Family Apartment, which is located inside of the original Disneyland theme park, above the Disney Fire House on Main Street U.S.A.  I had never actually heard about the private apartment until fellow stalker Kerry pointed it out to me last summer after the two of us had eaten at Club 33.  According to Kerry, whenever Walt stayed at the apartment, the lamp in the main window was lit to alert Disney Cast Members of his presence.  Following his death on December 15, 1966, the lamp was turned on and has been left permanently lit ever since.  The Walt Disney Family Museum also boasts an absolutely GINORMOUS 3-D diorama of the “Disneyland of Walt’s imagination” in one of its galleries and if you look at it closely you can see an apartment located above the Disney Fire House – and there is, of course, a lamp flickering inside of the window.  So darn cool!  You can read more about the Disney Family Apartment and see photographs of the inside of it here.

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    The Walt Disney Family Museum is an absolutely fascinating place and I honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough.  It was such a treat to learn about the life and times of the man who created one of my favorite places in the entire world.  Walt truly was a fascinating person and I was amazed to discover how little I knew about him before visiting the museum.  More than just an innovator and an animator, Walt was a family man who loved his wife and children above all else.  It was absolutely heartwarming to learn about the incredible love that he had for them.  I also highly recommend stalking the museum’s gift store as they have some FABULOUS items in there!

    Big THANK YOU to Nat for taking me stalk this location!

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

    Stalk It: The Walt Disney Family Museum is located at 104 Montgomery Street, on the former Presidio Army Base, in San Francisco.  You can visit the museum’s official website here.   The museum is closed on Tuesdays and all major holidays.  Tickets for adults are $20, seniors and students are $15, children ages 6-17 are $12.50, and children ages 6 and under are free.