IAMNOTASTALKER

Category: This and That

  • The Oldest Restaurant in Hollywood!

    Two weeks ago, while my mom and I were out stalking in Hollywood, we hit up Musso and Frank’s Grill, which has the distinction of being the oldest running restaurant in Hollywood. Opened in 1919, not only is Musso and Frank’s a top notch celeb hangout, but the restaurant has been featured in countless hit movies, including Ocean’s Eleven (pictured above).

    Musso and Frank’s was started by John Musso and Frank Toulet. Ever since its opening almost 90 years ago, the restaurant has been hugely popular with Tinseltown’s elite. Back in the day Marilyn Monroe, Raymond Burr, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Cecil B. DeMille, Raymond Chandler and Clark Gable were all Musso and Frank regulars. Since its opening the restaurant has only been remodeled once – in 1937 – and it is still extremely popular with the rich and famous. Today you might spot Robert Dinero, Al Pacino, Brad Pitt, James Woods, Johnny Depp, Keith Richards, Leonardo DiCaprio, Drew Barrymore, Sean Penn, Madonna, Harrison Ford, or Francis Ford Coppola sitting next to you in one of Musso and Frank’s plush red leather booths.

    My mom and I had an absolute blast dining at Musso and Frank’s!! The restaurant definitely projects an Old Hollywood vibe, with its large oak-paneled, red leather booths, wood beamed ceilings, and vintage style bar. Musso’s also serves up some really great food including chicken pot pie, filet minon, lamb, and cheese raviolis, but be prepared as it’s a bit on the pricey side. The price is worth it, though, as you are paying for the vintage ambiance as much as anything else.

    I literally could have sat there all day listening to the stories our waiter had to share about his 40 plus years working at Musso and Frank’s. It seemed every waiter and bartender had a story to tell about the countless famous names that have dined at the establishment over the years and I have to admit I was completely mesmerized.

    Besides being a celeb hangout, Musso and Frank’s is a frequent filming location, as well. The restaurant’s kitchen was featured as the kitchen in Disney’s Enchanted where Nathanial speaks to Queen Narissa’s reflection in a pot of soup on the stove.

    The Grill was featured not once, but TWICE in Ocean’s Eleven. Both scenes were with Brad Pitt and George Clooney. The restaurant first shows up in the scene when Danny Ocean first tells Rusty that he is thinking of robbing a Vegas casino. That scene was filmed in a booth in the Grill’s front dining room. A bit later on in the movie, Rusty and Danny have a drink at Musso and Frank’s bar and Danny says his famous monologue about needing one more person for the heist – “Ten oughta do it, don’t you think? You think we need one more? You think we need one more. All right, we’ll get one more.”

    The restaurant was also used in the movie Swingers during the parking lot fight scene. In the scene, Vince Vaughn and gang get into a fight with their rivals “House of Pain” in the parking lot behind Hollywood club the Dresden, but in reality filming actually took place in Musso and Frank’s back lot. Producers simply changed the awning over the back door of Musso and Frank’s to read “The Dresden.” Musso and Frank’s also showed up in Ed Wood as the location where Ed Wood meets Orson Wells. The restaurant has also appeared in numerous episodes of the TV show Shark.

    Stalk It: Musso and Frank’s Grill is located at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard in Downtown Hollywood. I highly recommend stalking it for the great food, amazing ambiance, and the waiters’ legendary Hollywood stories!

  • Whitney Houston’s Drug Bust

    Back in January of 2000, Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown had a little scuffle with the authorities at Keahole Kona International Airport. So, since I just happen to be in Kona, I had to do a little airport stalking. 🙂 It seems Ms. Houston was departing from Kona after a vacation on the Big Island, when security noticed a total of 15.2 grams of marijuana – located in two small baggies and in three half-smoked marijuana cigarettes – in her carry on luggage. After being confronted by authorities, Whitney simply walked off, leaving behing her carry-on bag, and boarded her United flight headed to San Francisco. LOL The security agents called the police, but by the time they arrived Whitney’s plane had already taken off.

    The Kona Airport is not your typical airport. It the smallest airport I have ever seen, and I hope it always stays that way. It is basically just little more than a carport, with no interior area whatsoever. It is adorable, I absolutely love it!! The airport doesn’t even have tarmacs – when your plane lands in Kona, they simply wheel a little staircase out to the runway for people to deplane.

    Authorities never did press charges against Ms. Houston, but she did enter a drug rehabilitation facility later that year.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The Kona Airport is located right on Highway 11, off Kaiminani Drive. Whitney ran into problems at the United Security Checkpoint, located behind me in the above photograph.

  • Brangelina – At It Again!

    The new Hello Magazine just hit the shelves with pics of Brangelina’s newborn twin babies. The cover of Hello looks to be an almost exact replica of the famous People Magazine cover photograph taken of Brad and Angie with newborn baby Shiloh back in June of 2006.

    So I just had to do a little post of a pic my boyfriend and I took on Halloween of 2006, when we dressed up like Brangelina. 🙂 LOL For Halloween that year, not only did we dress up like B + A, but we carried around three dolls – a Maddox doll, a Zahara doll, and a Shiloh doll. Before we went out on Halloween night, I made my dad take this pic of my boyfriend and me laying on my bed with our Shiloh doll. LOL!

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The Hello Magazine with pics of Brangelina’s twins hit newstands on Monday. Images of the twins are also being published in this week’s People Magazine.

  • Blogging Hawaiian Style

    It seems even the internet over here is on Hawaiian time, as it only works when it wants to. LOL I can hardly get online to write this short post before it kicks me off. 🙁 I will keep trying to do a regular post throughout the day.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

  • The Great Quake of ’08!

    Yesterday morning at around 11:42am a fairly large earthquake hit the LA area. I received a text message from a friend, who forgot that I am currently on vacation in Hawaii, asking if I felt the quake. My first thought was ” OMG! My Marilyn Merlot bottle!” LOL The bottle of Marilyn wine that my dad gave me a few weeks back is on display on the top shelf of the baker’s rack in my kitchen (not a smart place to put it being that I live in California!) and I was super worried that the bottle did not survive the big quake. 🙁 One of our good friends rushed right over to our place to check on Marilyn and I am happy to report that she remained intact during the earthquake!!! Our friend said she was literally teetering on the shelf in my kitchen and one more aftershock would have done her in, so thank goodness she was rescued in time. 🙂 That Marilyn – she takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’!

    In other Marilyn news, while walking around Downtown Kona the other morning, we stumbled upon Hula Bean Coffee Shop. I was immediately drawn to the place – not only because I am addicted to coffee, but because the logo on the sign out front was somewhat familiar. At first I couldn’t place the image, but then I realized, the logo is almost exactly like one of the famous nude photographs of Marilyn that were taken by photographer Tom Kelley in 1949.

    I, of course, had to go inside to sample some of the Hula Bean Coffee and to ask the owner about their logo. He said the logo was actually based on the pin-up girls from the World War II era. To me, though, it looks like an exact replication of Marilyn’s pose. There are many conflicting stories of how the Marilyn Monroe nude photographs came to be, but what I was able to discern from the various different accounts is that in 1949 Marilyn was down and out on her luck and her money. An already established model with the Blue Book Modeling Agency, Marilyn was scheduled to pose for some calendar photographs with photographer Tom Kelley. He offered her $50 to pose nude during the session, and the broke starlet, whose car had actually just been impounded, agreed. The pictures sat in a drawer for a few years until they were released in 1952, causing quite a scandal as by that time Marilyn was a bonafide moviestar. Marilyn, who always loved any sort of media attention, immediately fessed up to posing for the photographs and when a reporter asked if she had anything on during the shoot, she replied “The radio, of course.” 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
    Stalk It: Hula Bean Coffee is located at 75-5719 Alii Drive in Kona, Hawaii. I highly recommend stalking it as it serves up some great coffee. I am a Starbucks girl myself and can rarely find a coffee house that compares, but Hula Bean was really good!

  • The World’s Largest Collection of MM Memorabilia and . . . A New Fiance?

    Last week, while stalking in Hollywood, I dragged my mom to the Hollywood Museum, which is currently exhibiting one of the largest collections of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia in the entire world. The entire drive there I could barely sit still in my seat I was so absolutely floored to see the exhibit, and I must say that when I got there I was not disappointed in the slightest. I literally could have spent the whole day just at the Marilyn exhibit – there was so much to see and read. One display was a stalker’s dream come true as it listed the address of every single residence ever occupied by Miss Marilyn! This stalker definitely has her work cut out for her now! 🙂

    The Marilyn exhibit contains countless one of a kind MM items, including her personal scripts from almost every single movie she ever starred in. As an actress it was fascinating to see the scripts with all of Marilyn’s lines circled and side notes written in her own hand. In one of the scripts she had marked all of her character’s lines with a red lip liner! So Marilyn – I love it!!!! 🙂 The costumes were amazing to see, as well – included were dresses from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Some Like It Hot, How to Marry a Millionaire and many, many more. The exhibit also featured numerous clothing items from Marilyn’s personal collection and even furniture from her last home. Also on display were personal letters, bank checks, and photographs of the starlet. All in all, I had a blast being there and I highly recommend stalking the museum, even if the Marilyn exhibit is the only one you visit.

    That being said, there are countless other movie star exhibits to stalk at the museum. The Hollywood Museum used to be known as the Max Factor Museum and is actually housed in the former Max Factor Building, where Max Factor himself gave makeovers to the stars during the hey-dey of Old Hollywood. The building is four full floors and a whopping 38,000 square feet chock full of movie memorabilia! They literally have something for everyone, including Rocky’s boxing gloves, the shoes George Clooney, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt wore during their handprint ceremony at Grauman’s, costumes from the movie The Flinstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Hannibal Lector’s jail cell from Silence of the Lambs, Cary Grant’s Rolls Royce, Roddy McDowall’s actual bathroom, Pee Wee Herman’s bike, and Leo Dicaprio’s (sigh!) wedding suit and Claire Danes’ pajamas from Romeo & Juliet, just to name a few. In fact, the building itself has even been used as a filming location. The exterior of the museum was used in the filming of Beverly Hills Cop II as the jewelry store Adriano’s which ends up getting robbed by Brigitte Nielsen.

    The only thing I did not like about the museum was that they did not allow photographs of any kind inside the building. In fact, I had to check my camera at the door. 🙁 I was so looking forward to taking pictures of all things Marilyn and was completely bummed when I found out I couldn’t. I did however get my mom to snap one cell phone pic of me standing in front of the “For Blondes Only” sign at the Max Factor exhibit. I am a total blonde, and so was Marilyn, so I just had to get a pic in front of that sign. 🙂 You should have seen my mom and I trying to get that picture on the down-low. LOL The pic didn’t come out very well, but at least I got it. As Marilyn herself said, “If I had observed all of the rules, I’d never have gotten anywhere.” 🙂

    The museum staff is extremely friendly, especially Doug, the security guard who was dressed up in full Indiana Jones regalia. Not only did Doug fill me in on all sorts of movie star gossip, but by the end of the afternoon he had actually proposed to me! LOL I told him that if he let me take pics in front of some of the Marilyn Monroe items, he had himself a deal! Unfortunately he didn’t go for it. We instead settled for taking a picture outside of the museum together. 🙂 If you visit the museum, be sure to ask for Doug (or “Indy” as I like to call him) as he is super friendly and loves to trade Hollywood gossip.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The Hollywood Museum is located at 1660 N. Highland Avenue, directly kitty-corner from the Hollywood & Highland Center, behind the Guinness Book of World Records Museum. Get there fast though, as the Marilyn exhibit leaves for Japan at the end of August. If you miss it this time around, the entire collection will be back in June of ’09. Tickets are $15 per adult, $12 for seniors and students, and $5 for children under 5. The museum is only open from Thursday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm. For more up-to-date information, you can visit the museum’s website here.

  • Big Day in Hollywood!

    Yesterday I dragged my poor mom out, yet again, to do some more Hollywood stalking! We ran out of time stalking last week, so yesterday it was Hollywood here we come! As we pulled up to Hollywood Boulevard, we were both extremely excited to see a huge red carpet being rolled out for The X Files: I Want To Believe movie premiere! I must say that I LOVE me some Fox Mulder!!!!! Anyway, the new X Files movie premiered last night at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre at around 6pm. While we didn’t stick around long enough to see the stars arrive, it was still pretty cool to watch the premiere being set-up. I have to say that, more often than not, when I have visited the Chinese Theatre there has either been a movie premiere or some sort of special event taking place. So if you are in the Hollywood area and want to see a red carpet up close and personal, I definitely recommend stalking Grauman’s!

    After stalking the X-Files premiere, my mom and I headed over to Hollywood & Highland Shopping Center, where lo and behold, a camera crew was filming the TLC show Ten Years Younger . The crew happened to be looking for people to do on-camera interviews about the contestant post-makeover and of course, I said SIGN ME UP! 🙂 I was interviewed by the host of the show who asked me a couple of questions about how old I thought the contestant looked. SO EXCITING! 🙂 Hopefully you will be able to see me in the episode and I won’t end up on the cutting room floor! LOL

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: For the best chance of seeing a movie premiere in person, I recommend stalking Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on a weekday in the late afternoon. Grauman’s Theatre is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. Ten Years Younger is holding all of its “Man on the Street” type interviews at Hollywood & Highland Shopping Center this season, so if you’re at the mall, chances are you could wind up on TV! The shopping center is located right on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in Hollywood. Ten Years Younger airs Fridays at 10/9 Central on TLC. I am on the 11th episode of the season, which should air in about 7 to 8 weeks.

  • The Best Place to View the Hollywood Sign!

    There is one site in Los Angeles that I absolutely never get tired of, no matter how many times I see it. Even though I can now officially call myself a native Angeleno, I am not ashamed to admit that I still get a little jolt of butterflies in my stomach every time I see the Hollywood Sign in person. All of my hopes and dreams are represented in those big white letters and the sign is probably my favorite landmark in all of LA. Every time I am on the freeway or in Hollywood and the sign comes into view, I am reminded of why I moved to Los Angeles.

    A few years ago, in my fave Hollywood tour book, I found directions to a spot with a view of the sign like no other. High atop a hill in Burbank on Canyon Lake Drive, one can view the Hollywood Sign up close and personal. Driving up there, I am always amazed at the sheer size of the individual letters, which become absolutely ginormous the closer you get to them, in a way that almost feels eerie. From Canyon Lake Drive you can also see incredible views of Lake Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles’ skyline. I highly recommend stalking the sign from Canyon Lake, even if you have lived in Los Angeles for years and have seen the Hollywood sign more times than you can count, as I can pretty safely guarantee that you’ve never seen it like this!

    The Hollywood sign, which originally spelled out “Hollywoodland”, was erected in 1923 as a real estate advertisement for a housing development known as Hollywoodland. The sign was deeded to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1945 and the “land” part was subsequently removed so that the sign would be a more accurate representation of the city it sat above. The original letters measured 50 feet in height and 30 feet in width. Over the years the sign became more and more dilapidated, with no one stepping in to repair it. At one point in time, half of the first “O” had fallen off along with the entire third “O” so that the sign read “HuLLYWO D”. In 1978, rock star Alice Cooper spearheaded a campaign to repair the sign, rallying huge donations from celebrities including Hugh Hefner, Gene Autry, and Les Kelly, creator of the Kelly Blue Book. The old sign was taken down and a new one was completed in November of 1978, with letters measuring 45 feet high and 31 to 39 feet wide, and a combined total weight of a whopping 480,000 pounds. The original sign sat in storage for over 20 years until 2005 when it was sold on EBay to an artist named Bill Mack, who is currently creating a piece of artwork out of the letters. You can read an article here about Bill’s artistic renovation of the sign, which includes painting old Hollywood legends onto each letter, including Rita Hayworth, James Dean, Greta Garbo, and my favorite, Marilyn Monroe. Something of a stalker himself, Bill also owns Marilyn Monroe’s bed and the original gate to her home. Sigh!

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: For the best views of the Hollywood sign, take Lake Hollywood Road off of Barham Boulevard. Follow Lake Hollywood for quite a while until you come to Lake Tahoe Drive. Make a left there. Follow Lake Tahoe to Canyon Lake Drive and make a right. You will see the looming sign on your left hand side. If you follow Canyon Lake past the large park on the left, you will see a little dirt look-out area with amazing views of Downtown LA and Lake Hollywood.

  • All Marilyn, All the Time!

    I dragged my mom to Hollywood last Friday to do a little Marilyn stalking. She wasn’t too keen on the idea, but I was absolutely dying to do something I had yet to do in all the years I have lived in LA – I wanted to put my hands in Marilyn Monroe’s handprints outside of the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. I can’t tell you the number of times I have been to Grauman’s Theatre, but never once had I put my hands in her handprints or even made it a point to go look at them. I was so excited to be there on Friday, that I actually walked right past Michael Caine’s freshly made handprints on prominent display in front of the theatre without so much as even taking a picture for the blog. LOL I am kicking myself now for not taking a picture as it was very cool to see how the handprints looked in an unfinished state. But what can I say, I was just too excited to see Marilyn. 🙂

    Grauman’s Theatre has long been an iconic Hollywood symbol – almost a celebrity in and of itself. Grauman’s Chinese Theatre opened its doors on May 18, 1927. The Theatre was the brainchild of movie theatre owner Sid Grauman, who in 1922 built Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, and his partners Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Grauman, who passed away in 1950, now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (near 6379 Hollywood Boulevard), and he was also one of the original founding members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Chinese theatre was purchased by the Mann’s Movie Theatre chain in 1973 and the name was changed to Mann’s Chinese Theatre. But in 2001 the original name was reinstated and the theatre is once again officially known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

    The handprint tradition began one day in 1927 while the Chinese Theatre was still being built. Sid accidentally stepped into some fresh cement in front of the theatre, leaving his footprints behind which sparked a magical idea. He says he immediately ran to get his two partners, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, who did the same with their feet. The rest as they say is history. There are currently over 200 stars’ handprints and footprints immortalized in cement at the entrance to Grauman’s, including Tom Cruise, Betty Grable, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford and even R2D2 and Donald Duck.

    It is interesting to note that Marilyn’s handprints are absolutely black with dirt, one hundred times dirtier than any of the other handprints at the Theatre. (You can see the dirt in the picture to the left.) Seeing that, it becomes quite apparent just how many fans come on a daily basis to place their hands in Marilyn’s famous handprints. Marilyn’s handprint ceremony took place along with Jane Russell on June 26, 1953 during the promotion of their movie Gentleman Prefer Blondes. You can watch their handprint ceremony here. If you look closely at the dot in the “i” of Marilyn’s name, you can see that it looks a bit odd. Marilyn had wanted to put a real diamond in the cement to mark the dot of the “i” in her name in honor of the song “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” which she sings in the movie. The studio refused out of fear of it being stolen, but Marilyn was allowed to use a rhinestone instead. Apparently less than three days after the handprint ceremony that rhinestone was indeed stolen, so the theatre replaced it with a glass bead which has remained embedded in the cement ever since.

    Several movies and TV shows have also been filmed outside the theatre, including Hollywood Homicide, I Love Lucy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Forest Gump, Blazing Saddles, Mighty Joe Young, Rush Hour, Borat, Goldmember, Earthquake, and A Star is Born. Although the theatre is a complete tourist trap and is always crowded with hordes of people, I highly recommend stalking it if you have not yet had the chance to do so. Grauman’s is a true Hollywood icon and a place everyone should see in person at least once in their lives. 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Marilyn’s handprints can be found in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, which is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard, right in the heart of Hollywood. Her handprints are close to the doors of the Theatre, on the left hand side as you face the front of it. If you can’t find them, there are many theatre ushers standing around who can direct you to the right spot. You can still catch a movie at Grauman’s and I highly recommend doing so, as the theatre has recently been restored to its original grandeur and the interior is quite a sight to see.

  • The Pasadena Playhouse

    My boyfriend and I happened to walk past the Pasadena Playhouse this past weekend, and I just had to walk inside to stalk it. 🙂 The Pasadena Playhouse, although not a filming location, is one of the oldest and most distinguished community theatres in the US. The Playhouse has hosted hundreds of notable actors on its stages throughout the years and the talent of countless Hollywood stars of yesterday and today was cultivated at its distinguished theatre school.

    The Playhouse was started in 1917 by an actor/director named Gilmore Brown in a burlesque house in Pasadena. In 1925 it moved to it’s current location, a Spanish adobe style building in what is now called the Playhouse District of Pasadena. A theatre school was also established on the property during the ’20s. It was at this point that the Playhouse became recognized in Hollywood as the go-to place to find talent. George Bernard Shaw even called the Playhouse “the Athens of the West”.

    The Playhouse’s theatre school eventually became known in Hollywood as the “Star Factory” due to the many famous actors and actresses that studied there. Famous alumni include Gene Hackman, George Reeves (TV’s Superman), Eve Arden, Sally Struthers, Dustin Hoffman, Raymond Burr, Frances Farmer, Tyrone Power, Charles Bronson, William Holden, and Gloria Stuart, just to name a few. And writer Tennesse Williams premiered all of his plays at the Playhouse. Besides its famous students, countless big names have also performed on the Playhouse’s stage over the years, including William H. Macy, Scott Bakula, and Marilu Henner. Hopefully one day I, too, will be gracing the hallowed stages of this famed theatre.

    The Playhouse is one of the best places in Los Angeles to see live theatre. Valerie Harper is currently starring in the world premiere of the play Looped, which was written by celebrated playwright Matthew Lombardo. Looped is based on the life of actress Tallulah Bankhead, who has been dubbed “Hollywood’s first bad girl”. Looped also stars former teenage heartthrob Chad Allen – remember him from My Two Dads???? – who looks completely different today!

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The Pasadena Playhouse is located at 39 S. El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, just off Colorado Boulevard. Looped, starring Valerie Harper and Chad Allen, is currently playing through the 3rd of August. After seeing a show, you can grab a bite to eat and a drink at Bazaar Restaurant, located on the Playhouse property.