Little Dom’s Restaurant from “90210”

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This past Saturday night, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Los Feliz to stalk Little Dom’s – an Italian eatery owned by Warner Ebbink and Brandon Boudet of the Eat Heavy Restaurant Group, the very same team that was responsible for founding the 101 Coffee Shop that I blogged about yesterday.  The GC and I had actually breakfasted at the Los Feliz-area establishment once before a couple of years ago, but at the time I had no idea the place was a filming location or a celebrity hotspot, so I, unfortunately, did not take any photographs while there.  Well, imagine my surprise when just a few months later the restaurant was featured in a Season 2 episode of fave show 90210.  I recognized the place immediately, and, let me tell you, just about fell out of my chair.  And then this past September, I just about had a heart attack when the eatery appeared on 90210 yet again.  And then, last week, when I came across these November 4th paparazzi photos of the cast of Glee – including Lea Michele, Dianna Agron, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Harry Shum Jr., Kevin McHale,  Jenna Ushkowitz, Naya Rivera, and Chord Overstreet – dining at the restaurant, I just about died and immediately informed the GC that Little Dom’s was where the two of us would be spending our upcoming Saturday night.  

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Little Dom’s first opened in January of 2008 on the corner of Hillhurst Avenue and Avocado Street in the heart of Downtown Los Feliz in the space that previously housed the French bistro La Belle Epoque.   Warner Ebbink, who so ingeniously designed the 101 Coffee Shop interior, completely gutted the former Epoque property and created the Manhattan-esque decor of his new Italian eatery from scratch.  The interior designer/restaurateur searched far and wide, and I mean that literally, for the items that now make up his eclectic establishment.  He purchased and then transported the wooden bar, which dates back to the 1930’s, from a former saloon in Eaton, Pennsylvania; he found the authentic leaded-glass windows, which now make up some of the restaurant’s interior walls, at an about-to-be-demolished building in New York City, and the picture of Yosemite National Park which hangs above the bar area was requisitioned from none other than Warner Brothers Studios.  As the Eater website so aptly stated in their January 2008 review of the restaurant, “Warner Ebbink is an ace at making an entirely new space feel like it’s been there forever.”  I couldn’t agree more!  Sitting at the antique bar and looking around at the dimly-lit, tin-ceilinged space, I found it very hard to believe that the place had not been around during the heyday of Hollywood catering to members of the Rat Pack. 

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Besides the spectacular ambiance, Little Dom’s also serves up some fabulous food!  I absolutely gorged myself on the Brussels Sprouts with Shaved Parmesan side dish and the Truffled Chicken Salad with Arugula Sandwich entrée – both of which were divine!  And I just about died from excitement when I saw that they featured my very favorite dessert, Affogato – vanilla gelato with a shot of espresso (pictured above) – on the menu!  I never actually knew that my favorite dessert had a name, nor had I ever actually seen it featured on a restaurant menu before, but I have been ordering a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso on the side as dessert for just about as long as I can remember.  So, the fact that Little Dom’s had it named on their menu was simply amazing to me!  The restaurant also breaks down their wine list into three sections – ”Tried and True”, “Your New Best Friend”, and “Go Out on a Limb” – which I thought was just about the cutest thing ever.  The eatery’s prices were also extremely, extremely reasonable, which, needless to say, the Grim Cheaper was thrilled about.  We both absolutely LOVED the place and cannot wait to go back there for another stalking/culinary adventure.

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It should come as no surprise that, in the three short years that it has been in operation, Little Dom’s has become a big time celebrity hot spot.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there recently include Drew Barrymore, Jason Segel, Katherine Heigl, Josh Kelly, Rachel Bilson, Joe Jonas, Pixie Lott, Conan O’Brien, Ryan Reynolds, Megan Fox, Kate Walsh, Zachary Quinto, Michelle Williams, Spike Jonze, Vince Vaughn, Gisele Bundchen, Ron Livingston and, as I mentioned above, most of the cast of Glee.  And while the GC and I, unfortunately, did not spot anyone famous on this most recent trip to the restaurant, we did see actor Michael Cera, who played Paulie Bleeker in the 2007 movie Juno, during our first visit there.

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And the place is also a filming location!  Little Dom’s appeared in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “Women’s Intuition”, in the scene in which Debbie Wilson (aka Lori Loughlin) confronts Sasha (aka Mekia Cox) about what she suspects is her fake pregnancy.  That scene was filmed in the booth located closest to the restaurant’s front door.

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Little Dom’s was also used in the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “2021 Vision”, in the scene in which Mr. Cannon (aka Hal Ozsan) “accidentally” bumps into Erin Silver (aka Jessica Stroup).

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In the scene, Silver sat in the booth located third in from the restaurant’s front door.  That particular booth was, sadly, occupied while I was stalking the place, so I had to settle for taking a photograph in the one directly next to it.

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Silver’s Vespa was parked just outside of the restaurant, on Avocado Street, in the scene.  And I just have to say here that I am absolutely hooked on 90210 this year.  The series started getting pretty good last season, but I think it is just now finally beginning to hit its stride and I absolutely love it, love it, love it.  Especially the brewing romance between Liam Court (aka my latest celebrity crush Matt Lanter) and Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes).  Those two are SO darn cute together!!!

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Little Dom’s also appeared in the 2010 movie The Kids Are All Right, in the scene in which Nic (aka Annette Bening) and Jules (aka Julianne Moore) discuss the fact that their children’s biological father Paul (aka Mark Ruffalo) is now a part of their lives. 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Little Dom’s restaurant from 90210 is located at 2128 Hillhurst Avenue in Los Feliz.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

The Gas Station from the “Palm Springs Weekend” Episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210”

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One location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like forever now is the gas station where Brenda Walsh (aka Shannen Doherty), Kelly Taylor (aka Jennie Garth), Donna Martin (aka Tori Spelling), Steve Sanders (aka Ian Ziering) and David Silver (aka Brian Austin Green) fueled up their cars in the Season 1 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Palm Springs Weekend” (aka “A Fling in Palm Springs”).  Because “Palm Springs Weekend” was one of my all-time favorite episodes of the entire series, and was also coincidentally the very first episode of the show that I ever saw, it holds an extremely special place in my heart and I was absolutely dying to stalk all of the locations featured in it.  And while I had found most of the other “Palm Springs Weekend” filming sites a while back, for whatever reason, try as I might, I just couldn’t seem to track that gas station down.  So, I recently enlisted the help of fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, who contacted one of the show’s former crewmembers, who happened to remember that the gas station was located on Thousand Oaks Boulevard just a few blocks west of Hampshire Road in Thousand Oaks.  As soon as Chas gave me that detailed information, I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Valley to look for the place.  Amazingly enough, though, even with the crew member’s detailed directions, I just could not seem to find it.  So, after returning home I emailed fellow stalker Owen and asked if he might be able to lend a hand.  Magically, Owen found the gas station almost immediately!  As it turns out, the GC and I had relegated our search to too small of an area and had only stalked the short stretch of Thousand Oaks Boulevard located immediately to the west of Hampshire Road.  Had we ventured just one more block west, though, we would have found the station right there on the corner of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Live Oak Street.  UGH!  So, this past weekend, while on our way to Santa Barbara, I made the GC take a little detour off the 101 so that I could finally, finally stalk the “Palm Springs Weekend” gas station!

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In the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode, which originally aired almost twenty years ago on February 21, 1991, Brenda and the gang stop by the gas station while on their way to Palm Springs, where they are all spending President’s Day weekend.  Quite a lengthy scene takes place at the station, at one point during which Steve informs David that if he wants to hang out with him and pick up girls he needs to “at least attempt to be cool”, to which David says, “Oh, OK, so you think I should, like, hold off and give ‘em, like, a Johnny Depp-type attitude thing?”   That line absolutely amazes me every time I hear it being that it still holds true to this day, almost two full decades later, as Johnny Depp is still considered the epitome of cool in Hollywood!  Talk about a star having staying power!   

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Today, the 90210 gas station, which at the time of the filming was operated by Shell Gas Company, is now an auto repair shop named Steve’s Automotive.  I had the pleasure of speaking with Steve, the super-nice owner, while I was stalking the place and he was pretty excited to learn that his shop had once appeared on the iconic series.  He also informed me that it had been used a few times in car commercials in more recent years.

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Amazingly enough, even though the property has since changed ownership and is no longer a gas station, it still looks much the same today as it did nineteen years ago when filming took place.  I was most excited to see that the bathroom area, where David met Tuesday (aka Shana Furlow), was still there and that it still looks EXACTLY the same as it did in the episode!  So incredibly cool!!!!

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And, of course, I just had to take a picture in the spot where Kelly had parked her car in the episode.  🙂

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Big THANK YOU to both Chas from It’sFilmedThere and fellow stalker Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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Stalk It: Steve’s Automotive, aka the gas station from the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 2658 East Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks.  The bathroom where David met Tuesday, which is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view, can be found just to the left of and around the corner from the front of the auto shop.  The area where Kelly was parked is located under the carport, directly in front of the entrance to the office portion of Steve’s Automotive and is denoted with a blue “X” in the above aerial image.

The Restaurant Where Brenda and Donna Ate Veal Brains on “Beverly Hills, 90210”

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One location that I have been on the lookout for for over eighteen years now is the Paris restaurant where Donna Martin (aka Tori Spelling) and Brenda Walsh (aka Shannen Doherty) ate veal brains in the Season 3 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Too Little, Too Late/Paris, 75001”.  Because almost two decades have passed since filming took place, though, and because there were virtually no clues visible in the background of the veal-brains-eating scene, this one proved to be a VERY tough find.  So, a few weeks back I finally decided to call in the team – Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, and fellow stalker Owen – and, amazingly enough, Owen found the restaurant in record time – in less than an hour, in fact!  Not joking!  I really need to start taking lessons from Owen, as he always comes up with extremely innovative ways of tracking locations down.  In this particular case, he decided to contact a few of the guest star actors who appeared in the episode, one of them being a girl named Lindsey Rosin.  Now, to someone like Owen who has never in his life watched an episode of 90210, the name Lindsey Rosin doesn’t mean a whole lot, but to all of us diehard fans out there, the girl is a celebrity!  For those who are not in the know, Lindsey just happens to be the daughter of 90210’s longtime executive producer Charles Rosin and, as a child, she appeared in several episodes of the series, including the “Too Little, Too Late/Paris, 75001” episode.  When Owen told me he had contacted her, let me tell you, I just about died from excitement!  Even more exciting, though, was the fact that not only did she write him back almost immediately, but she also knew exactly where the filming of the veal brains scene had taken place.  YAY!

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As it turns out, Brenda and Donna’s Paris restaurant was named Le Chardonnay and it used to be located on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood.  Sadly, though, the eatery closed its doors for good just about a decade ago.  Since that time, the property has undergone several renovations and has re-opened as a few different restaurants, including the now-defunct French bistro Carafe and the Danny Masterson/Wilmer Valderrama/Ashton Kutcher-owned eatery Dolce.  Today, the space which once housed Le Chardonnay is an upscale Chinese food restaurant named Philippe Chow and even though it no longer looks anything like it did when it appeared on 90210, I just HAD to stalk the place.  So, this past Friday afternoon, since we were in the area running some errands, I dragged my dad there to grab some lunch.

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Philippe Chow is a SUPER cute little restaurant that serves up some FABULOUS food!  Especially the chicken satay in cream sauce, which the restaurant is famous for.  The food is pricey, though – a bottle of sparkling water cost me a whopping $10!!!!!!!! – but, as they say, you get what you pay for, and the grub at Philippe Chow is EXTREMELY good!  The service was also fabulous and definitely lacking in the typical hoity-toity attitude one comes to expect from upscale L.A. eateries.  I honestly can’t recommend the place enough! 

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In the “Too Little, Too Late/Paris, 75001” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Brenda and Donna go out for dinner on one of their very first nights in Paris, France.  Neither one can speak the language very well and they end up ordering the one item on the menu that contains a word they recognize, Cerveaux de Veau – “veau” meaning veal.  As it turns out, though, Cerveaux de Veau actually translates to veal brains – something they don’t discover until after they have already sampled the dish.  The scene is absolutely hilarious, mostly due to the comedic antics of Tori Spelling, who spits a bite of the brains out onto her plate and then proceeds to gargle with a glass of water.  And they say Tori Spelling can’t act!  In my never-to-be-humble opinion, I think she was FABULOUS in that particular scene –

– which can watch by clicking above.

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And while there is absolutely no trace of Le Chardonnay left on the Philippe Chow premises, there is some good news about this location.  After doing some research online, I discovered that Le Chardonnay was actually an almost-exact replica of the famous Restaurant Vagenende in Paris, France, which is still open, and as you can see in the above photographs, looks VERY similar to the restaurant which appeared on 90210.  So, while Le Chardonnay is no longer stalk-able, Vagenende thankfully is!  And, believe you me, if I ever go back to Paris, I am FOR SURE going to stalk the place!

 

Beverly Hills, 90210 is not the only production to have filmed on the Le Chardonnay premises.  Back when the restaurant had first been purchased by Wilmer Valderrama, Ashton Kutcher, and Danny Masterson, it was used in the Punk’d episode in which Ashton plays a prank on Wilmer by having a jealous boyfriend pretend to destroy his beloved Escalade – which you can watch by clicking above.

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At the time Punk’d was filmed, Dolce had yet to open and was undergoing an extensive renovation process, and, as you can see in the above screen capture, the walls had yet to be painted and were still the same color pink that they were on 90210.  Love it!

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Philippe Chow also recently appeared in the Season 5 episode of The Hills titled “Can’t Always Get What You Want” as the spot where Kristin Cavallari and Brody Jenner meet up and discuss his wanting to get back together with ex-girlfriend Jayde Nicole.

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Philippe Chow is also something of a celebrity magnet.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Charlize Theron, Rihanna, Nick Nolte, Matt Kemp, Stephanie Pratt, Kelly Osbourne, Paris and Nicky Hilton, Lauren Conrad, Lindsay Lohan, Nick Jonas, Sofia Vergara, Selena Gomez, Lamar Odom, Kobe Bryant, and Kim and Khloe Kardashian.  Unfortunately, we didn’t spot any celebs while we were there, though.

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Big THANK YOU to Owen – and to Lindsey Rosin! – for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Philippe Chow, the former Le Chardonnay restaurant where Brenda and Donna ate veal brains on Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 8284 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood.  You can visit the Philippe Chow website here.  Vagenende, the restaurant that Le Chardonnay was modeled after, is located at 142, boulevard Saint-Germain, in Paris, France.  You can visit the Vagenende website here.

Griffith Observatory

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A couple of months ago I dragged my parents and my then-fiancé/now husband out to Los Feliz to do some stalking of the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park – a place which I had never before visited despite having lived in Los Angeles for over a decade.  I had actually wanted to stalk the Observatory for close to 18 years –  ever since November of 1992, to be exact – thanks to the fact that it was featured in a Season 3 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210.  But more on that later.

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The land that now encompasses Griffith Park was donated to the City of Los Angeles by Welsh industrialist Colonel Griffith J. Griffith (and no, that was not a typo – the guy’s first name was actually the same as his last!) on December 16, 1896.  Griffith stipulated that the donated parcel of land, which measured 3,015 acres, was to be used as a public park.  He said, “It must be made a place of rest and relaxation for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people.  I consider it my obligation to make Los Angeles a happy, cleaner, and finer city.  I wish to pay my debt of duty in this way to the community in which I have prospered.”  When Griffith passed away 26 years later, in 1919, he bequeathed the majority of his $1.5 million estate to the city for the purposes of building a theatre and an observatory inside of the park.  Construction on the observatory, which was designed by architect John C. Austin and engineer Russell W. Porter, began on June 20th, 1933 and the building opened to the public just under two years later, on May 14, 1935.  

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The Griffith Observatory, which sits high atop Mount Hollywood, features a 300-seat state-of-the-art planetarium, a 2,700-square foot multimedia theatre, a Zeiss refracting telescope, an exhibit hall, and, as you can see above, views which are nothing short of incredible.

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Hollywood location scouts took notice of the property right from the very beginning when it was chosen to appear in the 1935 movie The Phantom Empire shortly after its opening.  Since that time, the Observatory has been featured in hundreds upon hundreds of productions – far too many for me to be able to properly catalog here, but I’ll do my best to give my fellow stalkers a broad overview.

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As I mentioned above, the Observatory was featured in a Season 3 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210.  That episode was titled “Rebel With A Cause” and it was, ironically enough, one of my least favorite episodes in the entire history of the series.  The episode centers around the break-up of longtime couple Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry) and Brenda Walsh (aka my girl Shannen Doherty), immediately after which Dylan puts the moves on Brenda’s best friend Kelly Taylor (aka Jennie Garth).  Mind you, Dylan and Kelly had also been seeing each other behind Brenda’s back for an entire summer at that point in the series.  Dylan then decides to take Kelly out on a date – just two nights after his break-up with Brenda! – and when Brenda randomly catches the two of them together in a restaurant, she calls Kelly a “bimbo” and Kelly actually has the nerve to be mad at Brenda.  I mean, HELLO, Kelly!  Not only did you spend an entire summer making out with your BEST FRIEND’S boyfriend, but when said best friend and said boyfriend break-up, it’s not 48 hours later that you are out on a date with him.  With friends like that, who needs enemies??  Let me tell you, had that happened to me, I would have been calling Kelly a whole lot worse things than “bimbo”.  And yes, I realize Beverly Hills, 90210 is just a television show and that the “Rebel With A Cause” episode aired almost two decades ago, but the whole thing still seriously upsets me!  But I digress.  Anyway, in the episode, before taking her out to dinner, Dylan brings Kelly to the Griffith Observatory, where they watch a show in the planetarium.

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After the show, the two little home-wreckers head outside for a heart-to-heart chat and, even though I was strongly opposed to the whole Kelly/Dylan romance, for whatever reason, it was the location of that chat that I was most interested in stalking. 

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I had a very difficult time locating the wall where Dylan and Kelly sat, though, as it is not in an easily-visible part of the building.  It actually wasn’t until we were heading back to our car that I finally spotted the right place.

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As it turns out, Kelly and Dylan’s wall is located in the eastern-most section of the Observatory.  It is actually the wall to a ramp which leads to the back of the building and is located on the left-hand side of the Observatory (as you are facing it) and is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view.

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The Observatory’s most famous onscreen appearance was, of course, in the 1955 James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause, which, amazingly enough, I have never actually seen!  In the beginning of the flick, Jim (aka James Dean) and Judy (aka Natalie Wood), along with the rest of their high school class, go on a field trip to the Observatory where they watch a show in the planetarium.

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And the very same wall from 90210 also appears in that scene. 

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Rebel’s final scene also takes place at the Observatory, but I do not want to post any screen caps of that scene as they would spoil the ending.

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There is a statue of James Dean on display on the Observatory’s front lawn which commemorates the historic filming that took place there in 1955.  So darn cool!

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Griffith Observatory was also the site of the climatic scene in 1999’s hilarious comedy Bowfinger, in which renegade, wanna-be movie director Bowfinger (aka Steve Martin) and his ragamuffin film crew secretly tape Daisy (aka Heather Graham) and Kit Ramsey (aka Eddie Murphy) fighting off a fictitious band of aliens.

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In the first Transformers movie, Mikaela Banes (aka Megan Fox) and Sam Witwicky (aka Shia LaBeouf) are at the Observatory when they witness a group of Transformers crash landing on earth in the form of meteorites.

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In The Terminator, the Observatory is the spot where the Terminator (aka Arnold Schwarzenegger) first emerges from a time warp and begins his mission to kill Sarah Conner (aka Linda Hamilton).

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In 2008’s Yes Man, the Observatory is the location of Allison’s (aka Zooey Deschanel’s) weekly jogging/photo class, during which Carl (aka Jim Carrey) crashes after drinking waaaaaaay too many Red Bull energy drinks.

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It is also where Carl professes his love to Allison at the very end of the movie.

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And it is during that ending scene that Carl and Allison run right by the exact spot where Beverly Hills, 90210 was filmed 16 years beforehand.  🙂

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The scene in which Natalie Cook (aka Cameron Diaz), Dylan Sanders (aka Drew Barrymore) and Alex Munday (aka Lucy Liu) discover that Madison Lee (aka Demi Moore) is actually a fallen angel in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle takes place at the Observatory.

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The observatory was also featured in the music video for Paula Abdul’s hit single “Rush Rush”, which was an homage to the movie Rebel Without a Cause.

You can watch the full video, which starred Keanu Reeves, by clicking above.

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Griffith Observatory has also appeared in the movies Dragnet, Devil in a Blue Dress, The Rocketeer, House on Haunted Hill, Nancy Drew, and Earth Girls are Easy, and in episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles, 24, Star Trek Voyager, Alias, MacGyver, Melrose Place, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Colbys.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Griffith Observatory is located at 2800 East Observatory Road, inside of Griffith Park, in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.  You can visit the observatory’s official website here.  Admission is free.  The observatory is closed to the public on Mondays and Tuesdays.

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.

The Bistro Garden

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A couple of weeks ago, while searching online for different filming locations from The Office, I came across some information about an area restaurant which not only appeared in The Office, but in countless other productions over the years, as well – the Bistro Garden in Studio City.  So, I, of course, dragged the Grim Cheaper right out to stalk it that very weekend!  And I think it is safe to say that we both pretty much fell in love with the place immediately upon arriving!  The Bistro Garden was first opened by Carolyn Niklas Pappas, the daughter of famed restaurateur Kurt Niklas (who founded the enormously popular celebrity hotspots Bistro and the original Bistro Garden in Beverly Hills) and her husband Gregory Pappas in 1990.  Two decades later, the place is still one of the Valley’s most popular restaurants – and definitely its most romantic!  According to this 2009 Los Angeles Times article, restaurant reviewer Max Jacobson said of the Bistro Garden that it “may have been the most beautiful restaurant he had ever dined in”.  And he wasn’t exaggerating – the place is exquisite. 

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The Bistro Garden, which according to its website was modeled after a “European Wintergarden”, features a central indoor courtyard with a huge, peaked skylight roof, large French doors, and a perimeter of potted trees covered in twinkle lights, all of which give off the feeling of being outside in some sort of magical garden oasis.  And I swear they must pump some sort of rose fragrance through the air conditioning vents, because the place smells like fresh cut flowers – it’s AMAZING! 

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The restaurant’s wood-paneled mahogany bar area, where the Grim Cheaper and I ate, definitely evokes a feeling of Old Hollywood, especially with the Michael Buble and Frank Sinatra music that plays in the background.  Love it!  🙂  The staff also could NOT have been friendlier and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming that has taken place there over the years.  Oh, and the food was absolutely incredible, too!  And even though the restaurant is a bit pricey, the Grim Cheaper thoroughly enjoyed himself and said he can’t wait to go back!  That in and of itself is a testament to how good the place is.

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In the Season 6 episode of The Office titled “Double Date”, the Bistro Garden stood in for Paparazzo’s (LOL!), the Italian restaurant where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) hosted a birthday luncheon for Pam’s (aka Jenna Fischer’s) mom, Helene (aka Linda Purl).  It is there that Michael decides that Helene, at age 58, is far too old for him and promptly breaks up with her . . . in the middle of her birthday lunch. 

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Steve Carell also filmed a scene from 2005’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin at the Bistro Garden – the scene in which his character Andy attends a Date-A-Palooza speed-dating event.

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Randomly enough, The Office’s Mindy Kaling also made an appearance in that scene.

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In 2010’s Valentine’s Day, the Bistro Garden was the spot where Julia Fitzpatrick (aka Jennifer Garner) confronted her boyfriend, Dr. Harrison Copeland (aka Patrick Dempsey), after finding out that he was married.

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In 1997’s Liar Liar, the Bistro Garden was the spot where Jerry (aka Cary Elwes) proposed to Audrey (aka Maura Tierney).

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Bistro Garden has popped up twice in Desperate Housewives.  In the Season 2 episode titled “Remember (1)”, the restaurant’s bar area was where Gabrielle Solis (aka Eva Longoria Parker) discovered (wrongly) via a newscast that her husband Carlos (aka Ricardo Chavira) had died in a car accident. 

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The restaurant was also where Zach Young (aka Cody Kasch) unveiled himself to be Gabrielle’s secret admirer in the Season 3 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Not While I’m Around”.

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The Bistro Garden also showed up twice on fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 – first in the Season 8 episode titled “Toil and Trouble” as the spot where Cooper Hargrove (aka Christopher Orr) gifted Valerie Malone (aka Tiffani Amber-Thiessen) with a diamond necklace.

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And second in the Season 10 episode titled “Laying Pipe”.  But in actuality only the exterior of the Bistro Garden was featured in the “Laying Pipe” episode.  

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As you can see in the above screen captures, the interior filming took place elsewhere.  The restaurant was also featured in an episode of Melrose Place, but because I didn’t really watch that show, I am unsure of exactly which episode.

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Bistro Garden is also something of a celebrity hotspot, as well.  Just a few of the celebs who have been spotted dining there recently include Taylor Lautner, Taylor Swift, and Steve Carell.

On a side note – I will not be publishing a new blog post for tomorrow, or for the next two Fridays.  Because of my upcoming wedding, I wrote all of my August blog posts in advance and unfortunately was only able to get enough done to publish four each week.  But I will be back on Monday with a whole new post.  🙂 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Bistro Garden is located at 12950 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

Will Rogers Memorial Park from “90210”

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As I mentioned yesterday, my fiancé and I spent quite a bit of last weekend making up for lost time, so to speak, by catching up on all of the stalking that I had been putting off over the past few months while my dad was ill.  The location that I was most excited about seeing in person was Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, which was the spot where Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes) and Liam Court (aka Matt Lanter) took a dip in a fountain in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “Multiple Choices”.  And while I haven’t exactly been a huge fan of the CW series this past season, I have absolutely loved watching the friendship between Liam and Annie blossom and change in the most recent episodes, especially in the fountain scene (which is vaguely reminiscent of the Carrie/Big fountain scene from Sex and the City).  Add to that the fact that I have a massive crush on actor Matt Lanter and I just HAD to stalk the park where filming took place.  🙂  It is at this point that I should confess that I had no idea whatsoever where Annie and Liam’s fountain might be located, despite the fact that I’d actually driven by it more times than I’d care to admit.  Thankfully though, the Grim Cheaper pays closer attention to things than I do, because he recognized the park immediately while watching the show.  Thank you, G.C.!  As it turns out, Will Rogers Memorial Park is located on Sunset Boulevard, directly across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel, one of my favorite places in all of L.A.  How I had never seen the park during one of my many visits to the Pink Palace is absolutely beyond me!  Ugh, I am such a blonde sometimes! 

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The five-acre parcel of land that currently makes up Will Rogers Memorial Park originally belonged to the Beverly Hills Hotel and served as its front lawn area.  In 1915, the hotel decided to donate the land to the City of Beverly Hills and it became known as Sunset Park, the city’s very first municipal park.  Thirty-seven years later, in 1952, the City renamed the property in honor of legendary actor/humorist/cowboy Will Rogers, who had been dubbed “Honorary Mayor” of Beverly Hills while at the park in 1926. 

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Will Rogers Memorial Park is an absolutely GORGEOUS place, with a huge central fountain filled with Koi fish, sweeping lawns, and countless palm trees which dot the property.  I honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough.   

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In the “Multiple Choices” episode of 90210, Liam takes Annie to the park to get her mind off of her parents’ recent marital troubles.  While there, Annie announces that she wants “to kick something or scream or just, you know, run away” before impulsively jumping into the park’s large fountain.  When Liam later tries to pull her out, he accidentally falls into the water himself.  It’s a super cute little scene and was the first time that either Annie or Liam acknowledged to themselves that they might have feelings for each other. 

You can watch the Annie/Liam fountain scene by clicking above.

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Will Rogers Memorial Park has actually had quite a few brushes with fame.  Its cinematic history first began almost nine decades ago, when it was featured in the 1921 Charlie Chaplin movie The Idle Class, which you can see a photograph of here.  And according to the Seeing Stars website, in 1990 rocker Rod Stewart proposed to his one-time wife Rachel Hunter while at the park.  The property is perhaps most famous, though, for a much less glitzy reason – it was in the park’s restroom that singer George Michael was arrested for performing a lewd act on April 7, 1998.  And while my fiancé did use the men’s room while we were there, I felt a little odd about sending him in with a camera to take pictures of it.  😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Will Rogers Memorial Park is located at 9650 Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, directly across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel.

David Silver’s Grandparents’ House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

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One Beverly Hills, 90210  location that I have been dying to find pretty much ever since the episode it was featured in aired over 18 years ago is the house where David Silver’s grandparents’ lived in the Season One episode entitled “Palm Springs Weekend” (aka “A Fling in Palm Springs”).  For those who don’t know 90210 like the back of their hand like I do, in the episode Kelly, Donna, Brenda, and the gang head out to Palm Springs for Presidents’ Day Weekend and, because of an oversight on Steve’s part, wind up having to spend the entire three days at David Silvers’ grandparents’ house.  And while I was absolutely certain that the home used in the episode wasn’t located in Palm Springs, unfortunately, I had no idea of where it actually could be found.  My gut was telling me that it might be located in or around Encino and I actually spent quite a bit of time searching in that area.  It was actually this location that I was looking for when I stumbled upon the mansion where April Rhodes was caught squatting in “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of fave show Glee, but I digress.  Anyway after spending countless hours searching the Valley for David Silver’s grandparents’ house, fellow stalker Chas got some insider information that the residence could actually be found in . . . Malibu of all places!  I swear, Malibu would have been the absolute LAST spot on earth I would have looked for this house as, in my opinion at least, it just doesn’t really look like a Malibu-type residence.  Anyway, once Chas had me divert my search to the ‘Bu  :), I found the home almost immediately.  YAY.  So, this past Friday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took the day off and the two of us headed out to Malibu to do some long overdue “Palm Springs” stalking.

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And let me tell you, I literally started screaming the moment we drove up to the house when I realized that – over eighteen years later – the place still looked EXACTLY – and I do mean EXACTLY – the same as it did when it appeared on 90210.  The only differences I noticed were that the trees in the front yard have since been changed, as have the front doors which are now made out of glass.  Other than those two minor details, though, the place still looks very much like Henry and Adele Silver’s house.  🙂  I cannot tell you how cool it was to finally be seeing this location in person and to be reliving the countless memories that being there brought back – memories of Dylan playing charades with Brenda in the living room, memories of David Silver’s random hookup with a girl named Tuesday whom he met at a gas station, and memories of Donna’s black daisy dress with the matching black daisy headband.  LOL  God, I miss that show! 

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As you can see in the above photograph, David Silver’s grandparents’ house is, sadly, gated, so Mike and I couldn’t venture in farther to get a better view.  🙁

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But he did manage to snap a few close-up pictures through the fence for me. 

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Silly as it may sound, Mike and I were most excited to see the little curved brick half-wall located in the middle of the home’s front lawn, as that same brick wall was also visible on 90210.  I almost couldn’t believe it was still there after all these years.

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I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was also featured in the episode.  Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place! 

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The backyard and pool area appeared quite a few times in the episode, too.

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Sadly, though, that area is not at all visible from the street.  But that’s why God created aerial images, right?  😉  And, as you can see, the pool still looks very much the same as it did on the show.

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Even Henry and Adele’s little hidden hot tub oasis is actually there in real life.  LOVE IT!   While we were stalking the place, Mike and I were hoping beyond hope that the owner would come outside so we could ask them all sorts of questions about the filming and maybe even get a peek at their backyard, but sadly it was not to be.  🙁

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On a side note – My good friend and fellow stalker Chas has finally started up his own filming locations website.  The website is called ItsFilmedThere.com and it focuses on locations in both the Los Angeles and the Chicago areas.  And, let me tell you, while his L.A. posts are great, it is the Chicago locations that have me absolutely fascinated.  Before coming into contact with Chas I had NO idea whatsoever that so many movies were filmed in the Windy City.  The first time I learned about Chas’ huge library of Chicago area locations was one night back in December during one of my father’s many hospital visits.  My dad had been taken to the emergency room and because only my mom was allowed to stay with him, my fiancé and I were stuck in the waiting room for hours, bored out of our minds.  Until I logged onto Facebook via my cell phone, that is, and started looking through all of Chas’ Facebook photos.  And, let me tell you, I just about died looking at his Chicago movie pictures.  My fiancé and I were literally mesmerized for hours looking at those photos – which is saying a lot being that the Grim Cheaper doesn’t normally care about movie locations – and ever since that night I’ve been absolutely itching to visit the Windy City.  Chicago honeymoon, anyone?  🙂  So, when Chas decided to start his own site last month I begged him to publish all of his Chicago photographs for stalkers such as myself – who had no idea the Windy City was such a treasure trove of locations – to enjoy.  You can check out his site here – www.itsfilmedthere.com.  🙂 

A big THANK YOU to Chas for helping me find this location.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: David Silver’s Grandparents’ house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 6636 Portshead Road in Malibu.

Brenda and Dylan’s Palm Springs Hotel from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

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Another Beverly Hills, 90210 location that I stalked recently was the Hyatt Westlake Plaza which stood in for both Brenda’s hotel – the Desert Palm Mirage – and Dylan’s hotel – the Desert Mirage – in the Season One episode entitled “A Fling in Palm Springs” (aka “Palm Springs Weekend”).  Why that particular episode has two different names I’m not entirely sure, but I digress.  I found this location thanks to Geoff over at 90210 Locations who posted the address a few weeks back.  The “Palm Springs Weekend” episode has always been one of my favorites (mostly due to the charades game played at the end during which Dylan points to Brenda to convey the movie Pretty Woman to the rest of the gang – SO CUTE!), so when I saw that Geoff had tracked down the hotel featured in it, I just about started screaming.  I had literally wanted to stalk that location for as long as I can remember.  So, I  immediately dragged my fiancé right out to the Valley to do some long overdue “Palm Springs” stalking, Beverly Hills, 90210-style

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And while the exterior of the Hyatt Westlake Plaza looks EXACTLY the same today as it did when 90210 was filmed there over 18 years ago,

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sadly the interior has been extensively remodeled in recent years and looks quite a bit different today.

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In the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode, Kelly and Donna mistakenly drop Brenda off at the Desert Palm Mirage hotel to meet Dylan for a romantic rendezvous, but as fate would have it Dylan is actually staying at the similarly named Desert Mirage hotel.  And because Brenda has misplaced her wallet and can’t get ahold of Kelly or Dylan (how did people ever survive without cell phones???), she is forced to spend the night on a cot in the hotel’s broom closet.  God, I miss 90210!  The areas used in the episode include the main entrance;

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the front desk,

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and the pay phone station, which is now an Enterprise Rent-A-Car office.  As you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, the interior of the hotel is virtually unrecognizable from the episode.  🙁

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But I did manage to dig up a few old pictures of the hotel from the Here Comes the Guide website (YAY!) and as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, the former front desk matches the one that appeared on 90210 exactly. 

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Another thing I noticed while looking at old photographs of the hotel was that up until the recent remodel, a piece of furniture seen in the background of the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode was still on display in the Hyatt’s lobby.  So cool!  If only I had stalked this place two years ago!  UGH!  🙁  You can take a virtual tour of the former lobby area here.

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Later on in the episode, Brenda shows up at Dylan’s hotel only to find him hanging out with a random girl named Janie.  The Hyatt Westlake Plaza also stood in for Dylan’s hotel in the episode.

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After catching him with Janie, Brenda has a minor meltdown (during which she actually screams “Bogus!” LOL) in front of the Hyatt’s elevators, which I am happy to report look EXACTLY the same today as they did on 90210.  🙂  So darn cool!

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And while I didn’t recognize much of the Hyatt Westlake Plaza from the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode of 90210, what I did recognize it from – pretty much immediately upon entering – was another television series – ABC’s The Bachelor!   As it turns out, the Hyatt Westlake Plaza is the very hotel where the contestants are put up for a few days pre-show before they move into the mansion.  And, in this particular season’s opener, quite a bit of filming was done on location at the Hyatt.  The areas used in that episode include the inside of several of the girls’ hotel rooms;

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the lobby;

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and the main entrance.  And according to the February 1st issue of US Magazine, part of the alleged affair between booted contestant Rozlyn Papa and former Bachelor producer Ryan Callahan took place at the hotel where the girls were staying pre-show – which we now know is the Hyatt Westlake Plaza.  🙂 The Bachelor is FABULOUS this season, by the way, and as always I am ABSOLUTELY addicted to Reality Steve’s coverage of it.  🙂  If you’re not watching, you really should be! 

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Big THANK YOU to Geoff over at 90210 locations for finding this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Hyatt Westlake Plaza is located at 880 South Westlake Boulevard in Westlake Village.  You can visit their website here.

The Walsh Family’s Minnesota House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

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One Beverly Hills, 90210 location that both Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I have long wanted to stalk was the Walsh Family’s former Minnesota residence which briefly appeared in the Season Four episode entitled “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye”.  Sadly, though, because no address number or background information which would point us to the home’s location were visible in the episode, we had no idea where to even begin looking.  So, this past week I called upon the usual suspects, fellow stalkers Owen and Chas, to help us track down the residence.  And sure enough, they did!  Chas ended up getting into contact with a former 90210 crew member who remembered that the home was located somewhere in Altadena, in the very same vicinity as Casa Walsh.  So, Owen got to cyberstalking aerial views of the area and, voila, fairly quickly found the home!  YAY!  As it turns out, the “Minnesota” house is located a mere two blocks away from Casa Walsh, so it looks like when the Walsh’s moved, they didn’t go very far. 😉  And, let me tell you, once Owen gave me the address, I immediately hopped into my car and dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place!  As fate would have it, when we pulled up to the house, the owner – an incredibly nice woman named Judy – just happened to be standing outside, so I of course had to strike up a conversation with her.  🙂 

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Judy truly could not have been nicer and did not find it at all weird that I was stalking her home.  😉  She even shared some interesting tidbits of behind-the-scenes information with us, the most exciting of which was the fact that not only did her home appear in the “So Long, Farewell” episode of 90210, but also in the opening credits of the Season One episode entitled “The Green Room” – which you can watch here.   In the credits, the house is featured in one brief scene in which a mailman is shown picking up the Walsh’s forwarded mail from their snow covered former home in Minnesota.  For some reason, though, that particular segment appeared only in “The Green Room” episode’s opening credits and never again.  It’s too bad, too, because I think it would have been a really cute way to start off each show.  Judy told us that it was about 105 degrees in Altadena on the day that scene was filmed and that the producers were having a hard time keeping the “snow” – which in reality was just a soap suds mixture – from evaporating in the heat.

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In the “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye” episode, Brenda returns to Minneapolis for the first time since her family’s move to Beverly Hills in order to begin her Freshman Year at the University of Minnesota.  Before school starts, Cindy takes Brenda to see their former home and she knocks on the front door, hoping to take a peek at her old bedroom, but unfortunately no one is home.  Is it while standing in the front yard of her former home, though, that Brenda first starts to have doubts about attending college in Minnesota.  Those doubts soon turn into all out misgivings and in the following episode she leaves Minnesota and heads back to Beverly Hills to attend CU with Brandon, Kelly, and the rest of the gang.  🙂

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In the scene, Brenda mentions that as kids she and Brandon used to play on a tire swing that their father had hung from a tree in their former home’s front yard.  So, I was absolutely floored when I noticed that the house had a swing hanging from a tree in the front yard in real life, too, as you can see in the above photograph.  So cool!

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Judy also told us that for the past eight years her family has hosted a huge – and I do mean HUGE – annual Halloween spectacular in their front yard, consisting of a 40 foot maze, creepy clowns, life-size animatronics, monsters with chainsaws, and screenings of horror movies, along with numerous other tricks and treats to both terrorize and delight.  Judy’s a woman after my own heart, I swear, as Halloween has always been my very favorite holiday.  🙂   The “Haunted Yard”, as it has come to be known, attracted some 3,500 spectators this past year, including the Los Angeles Clippers Cheerleading Team who led the entire crowd in a spontaneous rendition of Michael Jackson’s zombie dance from Thriller.  Which begs the question, HOW IN THE HECK DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS????   I mean, I would have absolutely DIED to have seen that!!!!   And it was all happening just a few miles from where I live!  Oh, how I wish I had been there.  🙁  Ugh.  Maybe I can convince the Clippers to do a repeat performance next Halloween! 😉  You can read more about the annual “Haunted Yard” on fave website AltadenaBlog here.

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A big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, and Chas for finding this house.  This one was definitely a group effort!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Walsh Family’s Minnesota house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1640 Braeburn Road in Altadena.