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Blue Blues Café from “Big Little Lies”

Two episodes in to the latest season of Big Little Lies and I am still missing Blue Blues, the café that figured so prominently in Season 1. As the Huffington Post recently stated, the loss has left a “Venti cappuccino-sized hole” in my heart. So I figured it was only proper to devote a blog to the seaside coffee shop – or at least to the eatery that inspired it. Those who have read my other posts on the hit HBO series (which you can check out here, here and here) know that Blue Blues was not a real place. Though countless online sources claim that Big Little Lies’ café scenes were shot at Paluca Trattoria, a popular restaurant on Monterey’s Old Fisherman’s Wharf, that is not true. Sadly, Blue Blues was nothing more than a set constructed on a soundstage at The Culver Studios, where the show’s inaugural season was lensed. Paluca did serve as the model for the charming space, though, so when my friend Nat informed me that she was heading to Monterey a few weeks back, I recruited her to stalk it for me.

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Paluca Trattoria was originally established in 2000 by Sicilian-born chef Sal Tedesco and his wife, Ashley. The duo opened the eatery, named after their two sons Paolo and Luca, in a picturesque corner spot on Old Fisherman’s Wharf that formerly housed Captain’s Gig, a landmark restaurant that had been in operation since the early 1970s. You can check out some photos of the site during the Captain’s Gig days here.

Per a reader named Barbara who commented on my 2017 A Round-Up of Big Little Lies Filming Locations post, Captain’s Gig used to feature a basket that ran between the eatery’s first and second floors which the cook would put orders into and then lift to the top level for patrons to retrieve.

Today, the upscale restaurant, which serves Italian-inspired seafood dishes, is the definition of farmhouse chic, sporting shiplap walls, hardwood flooring, floor to ceiling windows, a large patio area, and stunning views of the bay.

Paluca’s use on Big Little Lies came about in a rather organic way. While scouting Central Coast locales for Season 1, director Jean-Marc Vallée patronized the establishment and, in doing so, quickly befriended Sal. As Ashley tells the Huffington Post, “The director would come over to our place and just hang out in the mornings and have coffee and come and have lunch and he just sort of chatted with my husband. He’s there every day. They sort of hit it off and that’s how it came to be, just on the fly.” Per Eater, the Trattoria had the exact aesthetic Vallée was seeking – “a snug hideaway that’s just a bit rough around the edges.” For a plethora of reasons, mainly having to do with the ever-present fog that plagues Monterey, it was decided that instead of filming on the premises, the eatery would be re-envisioned onstage in Los Angeles. Eater explains, “The production team took measurements of the Paluca space, filmed the surrounding area, and re-created the restaurant at a studio using a green screen so that they could fill in plate shots of the harbor in post-production.”

Though a sign outside of Paluca Trattoria misleadingly proclaims, “Our little gem by the Bay was selected as one of the filming locations for the HBO series Big Little Lies,” no scenes were actually lensed there. All filming took place on set. As you can see in my images as compared to screen captures from the show above and below, though Blue Blues does greatly resemble Paluca, there are enough differences to know that the two places are not one and the same.

That is especially true when you take a look at the two interiors.

Of Blue Blues’ cozy, inviting inside, production designer John Paino told Eater, “I’ve done a lot of shows in Atlanta, and I’ve looked at a lot of cafés there that were run by women that had a lot of those silly knick-knacks that say, like, ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ I loved that aesthetic, that reclaimed farmhouse look, but in our case it would be reclaimed marine.” Paino truly nailed the style he was going for. Blue Blues was quaint, charming and warm – much more so than I find Blissful Drip this season.

The inside of Paluca, while pretty, is much less homey and much more sleek than its onscreen counterpart.

Nevertheless, many fans still contend that filming took place there. I am here to assure you that none actually did. Both the interior and exterior of Blue Blues were part of a large set that existed only on a soundstage. Still don’t believe me? I’ve got the receipts to prove it thanks to a couple of videos (which you can check out here and here) put together by REAL by FAKE, the Montreal-based production company that handled Big Little Lies’ digital effects.

As you can see above and below, I’ve compiled a bunch of screen grabs from the two reels as well as comparison shots from the series that show the whole café was studio-built and situated in front of a huge green screen.

The massive screen wrapped around the entire Blue Blues set so as to be visible from inside the café, as well.

During post-production, REAL by FAKE digitally swapped in a background showing views of Monterey Harbor that matched those of Paluca Trattoria.

The company also added faux sunshine and shadows to make the women appear to be outside while sitting on Blue Blues’ deck.

Of the process (which you can see take shape in this fascinating video), Big Little Lies visual effects coordinator Marc Côté says, “We did 1,428 visual effects for the entire series, about 220 per episode. I hope you were not able to see them.” Amazingly, that goal was achieved – the effects are perfectly seamless. Green screen magic at its finest!

Despite the fact that Paluca Trattoria never actually appeared on Big Little Lies – or more correctly, because of the misinformation floating around about its supposed cameo – fans stalk the restaurant in droves. I can’t tell you the number of Instagram photos I’ve come across of people posing at “Madeline’s regular table,” as evidenced here, here and here. The place has become such a draw that Sal told Eater, “I had to go buy a bigger espresso machine because I couldn’t keep up with the coffee sales.” Of their newfound fame, Ashley says, “We are shocked. We cannot believe how many people come because of the show, still. They found us. We didn’t push it out there. We didn’t push it out there at all. We didn’t advertise it on our social media. We were just really low key about it, but people sought us out. We didn’t know it’d be such a big deal. It’s been a nice little gift. Things [like that] don’t happen often in life, and then when they announced the second season we thought, ‘Oh my gosh. It’s like the bonus round.’ Even though we’re not in it, people are still coming because they’re excited about the show.” Ah, the power of filming locations!

Big THANK YOU to my friend Nat for stalking this location for me!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Blue Blues Café, from the first season of Big Little Lies, is not a real place, but a studio-built set based upon the Italian restaurant Paluca Trattoria located at 6D Old Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

June 21, 2019
Blissful Drip Café from “Big Little Lies”

Big Little Lies producers sure like their fake coffee shops! In the hit HBO series’ first season, Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon), Celeste Wright (Nicole Kidman) and Jane Chapman (Shailene Woodley) regularly hung out at Blue Blues, a supposed Old Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant that, as I mentioned here and here, was actually a studio-built set situated in front of a green screen. This season, the trio frequents Blissful Drip Café, another faux spot that was installed, not on a soundstage, but on location at Lovers Point Park in Pacific Grove. I learned about the prop coffee bar thanks to several articles written about its construction back in April 2018 (you can read one here and one here) and I, of course, made note of it. So when my friend Nat headed out to Monterey a couple of weekends ago and asked if I needed anything stalked, Lovers Point Park was the first thing I mentioned!

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Lovers Point Park and Beach is an area I am very familiar with. Growing up in nearby San Francisco, Monterey was a favorite vacation spot for my family. Countless hours were spent at the Pacific Grove retreat, namely at the snack bar overlooking the water where my dad and I would always order an extra helping of fries to feed the seagulls that would inevitably join us.

The bucolic 4.4-acre site, which regularly plays host to sunbathers, scuba divers, windsurfers, swimmers, bicyclists, runners, and fishermen, boasts a large beach surrounded by a rocky cove, a pier, a children’s swimming pool, a volleyball court, picnic areas, a restaurant, the aforementioned snack bar, and a large park situated on a grassy bluff fronting Monterey Bay.

It is the park area that serves as the home of Blissful Drip Café on Big Little Lies. In the Season 2 premiere titled “What Have They Done?”, Madeline and Celeste pop by the funky seaside coffee shop (which per Madeline “smells like weed”) after dropping their kids off for their first day of school.

While there, Madeline runs into Mary Louise Wright (Meryl Streep), who curtly informs her that she finds “little people to be untrustworthy.”

Celeste and Jane also meet up at Blissful Drip in “Tell-Tale Hearts.”

In “The End of the World,” Jane and Mary Louise have coffee and discuss Perry (Alexander Skarsgård) there, though not much of the place can be seen.

And in “She Knows,” Celeste and Mary Louise have a tense tête-à-tête at Blissful Drip.

Though the café is charming and boasts stellar views, I can’t help but miss Blue Blues while watching – not to mention Tom (Joseph Cross), the eatery’s cutie owner who struck up a romance with Jane toward the end of Season 1. Why Tom isn’t making an appearance this time around, I am unsure. (Yes, I do know that Cross landed a leading role in the upcoming Netflix series Medal of Honor, but Iain Armitage, who plays Jane’s son, Ziggy Chapman, somehow made S2 of Big Little Lies work despite being the star of Young Sheldon and I feel Joseph could have done the same.) I do have an answer for Blue Blues’ absence, though. Per a Monterey County Now article, current director Andrea Arnold, who was brought on to replace Jean-Marc Vallée, wanted to showcase more outdoor locations than were featured in Season 1. Blue Blues, therefore, was scrapped and replaced with Blissful Drip. The fake café stood at Lovers Point Park for a total of 12 days (including installation and dismantling) and cost the production $44,077.50 in park use fees. (You can check out a breakdown of those costs here and here.) According to Monterey County Now, Madeline and the gang will be hanging out at the coffee bar throughout Season 2. In fact, HBO donated the café set to Pacific Grove after filming wrapped with the understanding that the company would have access to it if the show gets picked up for a third season. What the city will end up doing with it, I don’t know, but how cool would it be if it became a real coffee shop?

In reality, the area where Blissful Drip was installed (denoted with a pink arrow below) is nothing but an empty (albeit very picturesque) patch of grass.

The exact spot where the café was built is denoted in the aerial view below, with the pentagon representing the eatery’s gazebo and the attached rectangle its trellised patio.

The very same area of Lovers Point Park was featured in Big Little Lies’ Season 1 finale titled “You Get What You Need,” in the scene in which Jane tells Celeste that it is her son, Max (Nicholas Crovetti), who has been bullying Amabella Klein (Ivy George).

The spot where Blissful Drip was constructed (denoted with a pink arrow below) was visible behind Celeste in the segment.

As I detailed in my comprehensive list of locales from the series’ first season, Lovers Point Park and Beach popped up in additional episodes of Big Little Lies, as well.

Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott) and Nathan Carlson (James Tupper) almost go to blows on the northern edge of Lovers Point Park, just due north of where Blissful Drip was built, in “Serious Mothering.”

Jane and Ziggy hang out at Lovers Point Beach in “Push Comes to Shove” . . .

. . . and in the area just south of the beach in “Living the Dream.”

Big THANK YOU to my friend Nat for stalking this location for me!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lovers Point Park, where the Blissful Drip Café set was built for the second season of Big Little Lies, is located at 631 Ocean View Boulevard in Pacific Grove.

June 17, 2019
Mary’s House from “All About Steve”

If you listened to critics, you probably think All About Steve has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. You’d be wrong, though. While the 2009 comedy (and I use the term “comedy” loosely) is not remotely funny, boasts an odd storyline, and fails to properly showcase the talents of its fabulous cast, which includes Bradley Cooper, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church, Ken Jeong and DJ Qualls, it does feature some pretty stellar locations. The delightfully retro residence where Mary Horowitz (Bullock) lives with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Horowitz (Howard Hesseman and Beth Grant, respectively), in the flick especially had me drooling. I, of course, set out to track it down shortly after first viewing All About Steve ten years ago, but was unsuccessful. And though I subsequently revisited the hunt several times over the years following, I always came up empty. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to call in the big guns (aka my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog), to see if he might be able to provide some assistance and in less than 24 hours he had an address for me. Thanks to a helpful crew member, we learned that the Horowitz home is located at 1704 Wellington Road in Mid-City’s Lafayette Square neighborhood. So I immediately ran out to stalk it.

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In real life, the All About Steve house is known as the J. Phyromn Taylor Residence. The two-story pad was designed in 1953 by prolific architect Paul Revere Williams (you can read a few of my posts on his many famous properties here, here, here, here, here, here and here) for his good friend, wealthy doctor Jackson Phyromn Taylor.

Built in a style known as Los Angeles Contemporary, the home also boasts prairie, international, and midcentury design elements, as well as a lot of geometric detailing. Per The Paul Revere Williams Project website, “The motif was used in a floating staircase flanked by a dramatic two-story sandblasted glass wall, metal work, etched room dividers, light fixtures and other midcentury-style custom furnishings designed for the space.”

Williams also incorporated Lafayette Square’s strict design regulations into the architecture of the residence, which included a second-floor balcony, deep setbacks, clean lines and a horizonal layout, with the long end fronting the street.

Sadly, Dr. Taylor passed away just a few short years after his home was completed, but the extraordinary residence remains in his family today. It is currently owned by Lauren Smith, his granddaughter, who told the Larchmont Ledger, “They [Jackson Phyromn Taylor and his wife, Pearl] surrounded themselves with art, music their entire lives. My uncle Phyromn was an accomplished jazz saxophonist so music was definitely a part of our lives. My mom was a music major in college as well. Very social, Paul Williams designed their house with their desire to entertain in mind. My grandparents were proud to have an African American man, their friend, design their unique house.”

The home features 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, a whopping 5,062 square feet of living space, a 2-car garage, and a 0.27-acre lot.

Unfortunately, the property looks quite a bit different today than it did onscreen in All About Steve. Not only is it now significantly covered over with foliage, but it has undergone a drastic paint change. The result is a residence that is much darker and less aesthetically pleasing, at least in my opinion. In fact, if it had boasted its current color scheme in the movie, I probably wouldn’t have been nearly as enamored of it.

Due to the pad’s rectangular orientation and decidedly midcentury feel, I had been convinced that it was an apartment building, not a single-family home, in real life.

And because of the mansion-like properties situated next door . . .

. . . and across the street, I knew it had to be located in an upscale neighborhood. Accordingly, I spent copious hours searching Hancock Park and West Hollywood for a midcentury apartment complex, so it’s no surprise that I couldn’t find the place. Somehow I had completely forgotten about Lafayette Square, an area I’ve been to a few times and even written about – twice! Thank goodness for the helpful crew member who provided Owen with the address!

The J. Phyromn Taylor Residence popped up several times in All About Steve.

The movie did a fabulous job of showcasing the dwelling . . .

. . . and all of its unique architectural details.

As fabulous as those details are, it was the interior of the Horowitz home that really stole my heart, namely the floating staircase. The openness of the steps, the paned glass panel behind them, and the stone walls on either side practically had me drooling.

I am torn as to whether what was shown onscreen was the real interior of the J. Phyromn Taylor Residence or a set modeled after it, though I’m leaning toward the former. As you can see below, the glass panel pictured behind the stairs in All About Steve is a perfect match to that of the actual home.

And the geometric elements visible in several scenes, like the open metal wall in the foreground below . . .

. . . and the silver sculpture to the left of the pool table, mesh with the interior detailing described on The Paul Revere Williams Project website.

I am fairly certain, though, that Mary’s colorful bedroom . . .

. . . and bathroom were just sets.

Either way, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place!

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The J. Phyromn Taylor Residence, aka the Horowitz home from All About Steve, is located at 1704 Wellington Road in Lafayette Square. The McGinley Residence, where Robert F. Kennedy is reported to have spent his last night, is right around the corner at 1821 South Victoria Avenue. And the incorrectly identified Leave It to Beaver house is two blocks west at 1727 Buckingham Road.

June 14, 2019
The Friends of Heaven Grief Retreat Hotel from “Dead to Me”

You wouldn’t expect a show centered around grief to be funny. But the Netflix original Dead to Me, about the recently-widowed Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and her new BFF Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini), whom she meets in the Laguna Beach chapter of the Friends of Heaven grief group, is downright hilarious! One episode in particular, “I’ve Gotta Get Away,” in which Jen and Judy attend a Friends of Heaven-sponsored retreat, had me LOLing throughout. So I, of course, had to blog about the supposed Palm Springs hotel where the event took place, which, as it turns out, is a mash-up of several different L.A. spots. Two I’ve previously blogged about and recognized on sight (that’s the Sportmen’s Lodge above, which you may remember from this post) and the third I did a bit of digging to track down. What can I say – I always go the extra mile for my fellow stalkers.

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The bulk of the Friends of Heaven Grief Retreat took place at The Garland Hotel Studio City, a spot I spent a few days at in 2015 and later blogged about. Numerous areas of the retro-fabulous property, which does have a very Palm Springs feel, were utilized in the episode including the Cabrillo ballroom, where Jen follows her new crush, Jason (Steve Howey), to a seminar titled “Big Question.” Though I stalked the space during my Garland stay, unfortunately the photos I took don’t jibe with the angles shown onscreen. Regardless, you can still see that the carpeting, wall color and chair railing match.

And while I failed to snap an image of the Cabrillo’s entrance, which appeared on Dead to Me, I did get a pic of the doors to another of the hotel’s venues, the Beverly Garland Theatre, which bears the same look.

The lodging’s Garland Ballroom was utilized for the Lost Angels: Finding Yourself After Pregnancy Loss workshop that Judy attends.

Again, my photos were taken from different angles than what was shown onscreen, but you can see that the chandeliers, mirrored paneling and carpet all match.

One of The Garland’s hallways was utilized in “I’ve Gotta Get Away,” as well.

And the hotel’s picturesque courtyard pops up twice in the episode.

It first appears toward the beginning of “I’ve Gotta Get Away,” in the scene in which Judy and Jen head to their respective seminars.

Later, Jen has a talk with Pastor Wayne (Keong Sim) there.

I am unsure if the two hotel rooms featured on Dead to Me are actual Garland rooms (which you can see images of here) or studio-built sets.

Though both suites do look very much like those of the hotel, there are some structural differences. For instance, Jason’s room on the show has louvered double closet doors . . .

. . . while The Garland’s rooms feature flat single closet doors with raised blue paneling.

On Dead to Me, similar blue paneled doors instead lead to the bathroom.

But The Garland’s bathroom doors are made of frosted glass.

Jason’s room also boasts crown molding and numerous ceiling beams . . .

. . . which the actual rooms do not, as you can see in the image below from the hotel’s website.

While I’m leaning toward the Dead to Me rooms being sets, the wallpaper and carpeting in both suites match those of the hotel precisely. It seems like duplicating those two décor items in such exacting fashion would not only be difficult, but rather pointless considering most viewers have likely never been to The Garland and would have no idea what the accommodations look like. So I’m really torn on this one.

And oddly, while The Garland does have a beautiful pool . . .

. . . for whatever reason, cast and crew headed three miles west to the Sportsmen’s Lodge for Dead to Me’s pool scene.

I have stalked Sportmen’s Lodge countless times in the past (you can read about one instance here), so I recognized the pool – and its signature orange chaises – immediately. Somehow though, I had never taken any photos of the area and when I recently headed back to the hotel to do so, I found it under massive construction. Despite the detritus, the pool is still recognizable from its appearance in “I’ve Gotta Get Away.”

In another odd twist, producers chose not to utilize any of the restaurants located at either The Garland or Sportsmen’s Lodge for the Carry On-Oke event that supposedly took place at the hotel bar. They instead made use of a Hollywood watering hole named Black. Though I have yet to stalk the place and actually had never heard of it prior to researching for this post, it was not very hard to identify thanks to its unique retro aesthetic. You can check out some photos of it here.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Friends of Heaven Grief Retreat from the “I’ve Gotta Get Away” episode of Dead to Me took place at these three spots – The Garland Hotel at 4222 Vineland Avenue in Studio City, Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel at 12825 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, and Black bar at 6202 Santa Monica Boulevard in Hollywood.

June 7, 2019
Steve’s House from “Dead to Me”

I have a major thing for modern houses. So it’s no shock that my favorite locale from the new Netflix series Dead to Me is the uber-contemporary abode belonging to Judy Hale’s (Linda Cardellini) ex, Steve Wood (James Marsden). Huge, avant-garde and decidedly unique, I fell in love with the place as soon as it came into view in the pilot episode and set out to find it immediately. Though an address number of “232” was clearly visible on the front of the residence in many scenes, it turned out to be fake – which thankfully did not lead me astray. From the start, I had an inkling that the obviously newly-built home was located in the San Fernando Valley, most likely Encino. So I inputted “large modern house” and “Encino” into Google and the second result kicked back was this Peerspace listing for an “Ultra Modern Huge Mansion with Pool and Tennis.” One look at the photos posted told me it was the right spot! Though no address was given, the copy below the images stated that the pad was in Encino’s Royal Oaks neighborhood and from there it did not take me long to pinpoint its location as 4230 Valley Meadow Road. I ran out to stalk it a few days later and that’s when fate stepped in!

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While the Grim Cheaper and I were out front snapping photos, the owner happened to pull up. As he got out of his car, he noticed us and inquired as to what we were doing. Bracing myself for being told to leave immediately, I explained that I was visiting the house because of its appearance in Dead to Me and, amazingly, without hesitation, he invited us right in!

Yes, you read that right – he invited us inside the residence to take a closer look! I could not believe my luck!

Nor could I believe how impressive the house was in person! Though it obviously looked stellar on Dead to Me . . .

. . . close-up it was even far more remarkable!

The 3-story property, which is currently for sale, boasts 8 bedrooms (all en suite and with walk-in closets), 11 baths, 9-foot ceilings, a grand entry, multiple fireplaces, a theatre, a gym, an elevator, a laundry room, an entertainment area with a built-in bar, a detached in-law unit, and an 8-car garage!

All 10,400 square feet of it is stunning!

Everywhere you turn is like a work of art!

Even the hallways are dramatic.

And the theatre! Oh my gosh, the theatre! Can you imagine having that in your house?

Or the gym?

It is the master bedroom, though, that really had me drooling.

The spacious suite boasts both his-and-her bathrooms AND his-and-her walk-in closets.

While the male bathroom (pictured above and below) is nothing to shake a stick at . . .

– the GC was especially impressed with the fact that there was a urinal (me, not so much) –

‘

. . . and the male closet is nice, as well . . .

. . . the female bathroom is the stuff dreams are made of!

I mean!

When can I move in?

And don’t even get me started on the attached bathed-in-pink female closet!

The 0.92-acre grounds are pretty extraordinary, as well, with a 60-foot lap pool, a spa, a wading pool, a fire pit, a 70-foot waterfall, a built-in BBQ and bar, a tennis court, and a large cabana area situated off the master bedroom.

Yeah, I could hang here.

The home somehow manages to be sleek and modern yet warm and inviting at the same time.

And it can all be yours for a cool $7,495,000, which honestly I think is a bargain, considering.

As it turns out, the super-friendly owner was also the home’s builder. The lavish pad, completed in 2018, replaced the 1952 ranch house pictured below (which you can see more photos of here).

Producers made fabulous use of the property throughout Dead to Me’s ten-episode run.

Said to be in Newport Beach’s Harbor Ridge area, the home’s exterior appeared numerous times on the series.

The interior did, as well.

You can see why I fell in love with the place.

The landing just outside the elevator on the residence’s second floor was the site of one of my favorite scenes from the show in which the recently widowed Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) hosts an open house where she runs into her ex mother-in-law, Lorna (Valerie Mahaffey), and gets pressured into having a birthday party/memorial for her dead husband.

I was just a little thrilled to pose in that same spot, though my photo was taken from the opposite angle from which the scene was shot.

Interestingly, producers did not make use of the home’s master bedroom on the show. Instead, a set was built to portray Steve’s bedroom. Said set was much less plush than that of the actual house, as you can see below.

According to the owner, the pad will be making an appearance on the upcoming season of The Affair, as well.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Steve’s house from Dead to Me is located at 4230 Valley Meadow Road in Encino.

June 5, 2019
Jen’s House from “Dead to Me”

The Grim Cheaper and I admittedly become obsessed with a lot of shows. But it is a rare occasion (at least as of late) to find ourselves consumed by a series filmed entirely in L.A. (Bosch and Brooklyn Nine-Nine notwithstanding). Darn runaway production! So I was ecstatic to discover the thrilling, hilarious AND locally shot Dead to Me. A few sites from the new Netflix original I recognized immediately, like The Warehouse Restaurant which masked as Dana Point eatery Point Bliss, where Bambi (Olivia Macklin) worked. Other spots I set about tracking down as soon we finished binging it. At the top of my list of to-find places was the supposed Laguna Beach abode where widow Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) lived with her two sons, Charlie (Sam McCarthy) and Henry (Luke Roessler), and new BFF, Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini). Fortunately, it was a snap to pinpoint.

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While plowing through the series’ ten episodes (which the GC and I did in just two days), I noticed an address number of “3847” visible on the curb in front of Jen’s house in several establishing shots. I had an inkling the pad was located somewhere in the Studio City/Sherman Oaks/Encino vicinity and hit pay dirt when I entered “3847,” “house” and “Sherman Oaks” into Google. An address of 3847 Deervale Drive was kicked back and, sure enough, it was the right place!

Aside from the front door which was painted bright yellow for the production, the Cape Cod-style dwelling looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen . . .

. . . right down to the script on the mailbox.

In real life, the charming property boasts 5 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 4,909 square feet of living space, a kitchen featuring Carrara marble and Caesar stone counters, a breakfast nook, French doors throughout, multiple fireplaces (including one outside), a formal dining room, a media room, a butler’s pantry, a pool, a spa, and a covered backyard loggia.

The 1960 pad, which was heavily remodeled in 2010, last sold for a whopping $2.5-million in January 2011.

Only the exterior of the home appeared on Dead to Me. All interiors were filmed on a studio-built set.

Said set was modeled very closely upon the residence’s actual inside, as you can see in the screen captures as compared to the MLS images from the 2011 sale above and below. In fact, the home so closely resembles its TV counterpart that at first I thought filming had taken place on location there. Upon closer inspection, though, I noticed a few differences. In the actual kitchen, for instance, there is no spacing between the windows and the upper cabinets that frame them, but the set windows are surrounded by a perimeter of wall space. And while the actual home’s real life lower cabinets are made up of drawers, the set’s aren’t.

Other than that, though, Jen’s kitchen is a dead ringer for that of the actual house.

As is the breakfast nook area just beyond it.

The living room set also closely matches the actual living room, though I am unsure why production added that odd yellow window-like insert to the otherwise sleek built-ins.

Lacking wallpaper, curtains and a shelving unit, the home’s dining room is much less ornate than its television dupe, though its shape, layout and wainscotting are the same.

Jen’s master bedroom also bears a similar layout and window/French door schematic to that of the actual house . . .

. . . though her bedroom’s side wall has a cut-out, which the real residence does not.

While the interior of 3847 Deervale was not utilized for filming, its backyard was.

The pool got a lot of airtime . . .

. . . and the outdoor fireplace made an appearance in the pilot (although it was closed off with white cabinet doors and a television installed above it for the shoot).

Shockingly, the guest house where Judy lived is not a real element of the residence. Much like the Cohen family’s pool house on fave show The O.C., the structure was a just a façade built for the production in the area adjacent to the pool.

The spot where it was constructed is home to a patch of grass in real life.

As was the case with Jen’s residence, the interior of the guest house was a studio-built set.

Jen’s pad is not the only Dead to Me location to be found on Deervale Drive! The property belonging to her neighbor, Karen (Suzy Nakamura), aka the Mexican Lasagna Lady (who Redditors have some interesting theories about), is right next door at 3869 Deervale.

It, too, looks much the same as it did onscreen.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Jen Harding’s house from Dead to Me is located at 3847 Deervale Drive in Sherman Oaks. Karen’s home from the series is right next door at 3869 Deervale Drive.

May 31, 2019
Hoose Library of Philosophy from “What Women Want”

Those who were impressed by Doheny Memorial Library from Matilda (which I blogged about last November), wait ‘til you get a load of today’s locale! It’s yet another stunning athenaeum on the University of Southern California campus. Named the Hoose Library of Philosophy, it boasts some of the most remarkable architecture I have ever laid eyes on! I first learned of the place while researching for my Doheny post and upon seeing photos of its grand vaulted interior, my jaw practically dropped to the floor. I was thrilled – but not surprised – to discover while probing further that it had cameoed in numerous productions, including the 2000 romcom What Women Want. So to the top of my To-Stalk List it went and I finally made it out there last week.

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The James Harmon Hoose Library of Philosophy, as it is formally known, is situated on the second floor of USC’s Mudd Hall.

Designed in 1930 by architect Ralph Carlin Flewelling, son of then USC School of Philosophy head Ralph Tyler Flewelling, the striking structure incorporates Romanesque, Byzantine and Arabesque elements.

Modeled after a medieval Tuscan monastery, the building features a 146-foot-tall bell tower . . .

. . . cloisters that seem to stretch forever . . .

. . . and a central courtyard with a fountain.

.

As gorgeous as Mudd Hall’s exterior is, though . . .

. . . Hoose Library is the site’s real stunner.

Named for James Harmon Hoose, the founder of USC’s Philosophy Department and its first department head, the dramatic space looks like something straight out of the Harry Potter universe.

With a cathedral ceiling that towers 38 feet above the checkered floor . . .

. . . a massive carved fireplace . . .

. . . a parade of archways at either side . . .

. . . stained glass windows . . .

. . . tile mosaic designwork . . .

. . . rich wood paneling . . .

. . . and reading nooks galore . . .

. . . it is easily one of the prettiest venues I have ever had the pleasure of visiting.

The rest of Mudd Hall isn’t too shabby, either!

I was especially enamored with the stairs leading up to Hoose Library.

I mean!

That tiling!

Hoose, which spans 115 by 22 feet, is currently home to 50,000 tomes, the vast majority related to philosophy.

The locale, which has the distinction of being USC’s oldest continuously operating library, underwent a painstaking four-month seismic retrofitting in 2003. After the walls were sheared and braced, artisans were brought in to cover any marks left behind as a result of the extensive work. The outcome is flawless. Hoose appears completely untouched and frozen in an idyllic past.

It is not at all hard to see how the place wound up onscreen.

In What Women Want, Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) peruses the Hoose Library of Philosophy stacks in an attempt to “get inside women’s heads” as research for his new ad campaign.

The site’s onscreen resume dates back much farther than that production, though. In the 1930 short Hog Wild, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy drive by Mudd Hall. That’s it on the extreme right in the two screen captures below.

Thanks to fellow stalker Mike, I learned that Hoose and Mudd Hall popped up several times in the Season 4 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Angels on Campus,” which aired in 1979.

Along with Doheny Memorial Library, Hoose serves as the interior of Brain’s (Harry Dean Stanton) lair in 1981’s Escape from New York.

Mudd Hall is the site of countless hijinks in the 1985 medical school comedy Stitches.

The building’s clocktower makes a very brief appearance in the 1991 horror flick Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare.

In the 2000 comedy Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Sherman Klump (Eddie Murphy) tries to figure out what went wrong with his hamster experiment while at Hoose.

Rachel (Naomi Watts) researches Pacific Northwest-area lighthouses there in the 2002 thriller The Ring.

Hoose masks as the church where John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) visits Gabriel (Tilda Swinton) in the 2005 drama Constantine.

The site was tapped to portray a portion of the Berkeley campus in the Season 5 episode of Monk titled “Mr. Monk and the Class Reunion,” which aired in 2006. In the episode, a detective actually refers to Hoose Library as “nothing special,” which is a bit mind-boggling.

In the Season 6 episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine titled “The Bimbo,” which aired this past April, the exterior of Mudd Hall stands in for Columbia University where Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) and Captain Raymond Holt (Andre Braugher) investigate the theft of three ancient coins.

One of the building’s first level rooms was also utilized in the episode.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hoose Library of Philosophy, from What Women Want, is located at 3709 Trousdale Parkway, inside the Seeley Mudd Hall of Philosophy on the University of Southern California campus, in University Park. The site is open Monday through Friday from 12 to 5 p.m.

May 29, 2019
“MA” Party Pack Giveaway

UPDATE – This contest has ended. Congratulations to winner Rob R.!

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere!
-MA

Oscar winner Octavia Spencer will send chills down your spine in the new thriller from Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Entertainment, MA, coming to theaters May 31! You can check out a trailer here. To celebrate the film’s release, I’m hosting a giveaway in which one lucky reader will win an awesome MA Party Pack!

The MA Party Pack contains:

1 – Exclusive Limited Edition MA rhinestone “Sexy” hat replica (with or without blood splatter) exclusive! Extremely limited with only 150 created!

1 – Exclusive Party Pong Game Set, that includes six MA themed cups and a ping pong ball.

The contest runs today through June 6th.

Entering is easy – simply click on the link below, follow me on Instagram and then provide your Instagram handle. If you already follow me on Instagram, then simply click below to enter and input your handle. Don’t forget to use #MAMovie to spread the word about the film and the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway is open to US residents only. Each household is only eligible to win the MA party pack via blog reviews and giveaways. Only one entrant per mailing address per giveaway. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you will not be eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification. The prize will be sent via FedEx or USPS. No P.O. Boxes please.

May 28, 2019
Happy Memorial Day!

A very happy Memorial Day to my fellow stalkers. I hope we all take time today to remember the reason behind the holiday – to honor those who lost their lives protecting our freedoms. I am taking the day off, but will be back tomorrow with a giveaway. Until then, Happy Stalking!

May 27, 2019
Lorraine’s House from “Back to the Future”

Back to the Future fans are undoubtedly looking at the photo above thinking, ‘That’s not Lorraine Baines’ (Lea Thompson) house!’ But the Craftsman I am standing in front of, located at 1705 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena, did actually serve as her 1955 pad in the movie. Before the die hards get all up in arms, I am well aware that it’s not the property widely recognized as her teenage home, which is just a few doors down at 1727 Bushnell. As I just discovered, though, the Baines’ residence was actually a mash-up of two different dwellings situated within a few hundred feet of each other. Let me explain. For years now, my friend Owen, from When Write Is Wrong, has been begging me to blog about sites from BTTF, his all-time favorite movie. Because its locations have been copiously chronicled both online and in books for decades, I’ve avoided the subject. As longtime readers know, I don’t like to write about places that have been covered elsewhere (especially feverishly so) unless I have something new to say. Well folks, I finally have something new to say! Owen’s birthday was a couple of weeks back, so I consider this post a belated present to him! HBD, friend!

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Many moons ago, one of my dad’s Los Angeles doctors mentioned during an appointment that he lived in “the Back to the Future house.” My ears immediately perked up (obvs!) and when I pressed for more details, he explained that he owned Lorraine’s 1955 pad and then said, “It’s bizarre to watch the movie and see Michael J. Fox sitting in my dining room.” I had long been aware of 1727 Bushnell’s (that’s it below) cameo as Lorraine’s home in the film and, assuming it had been used for both interiors and exteriors, figured that was the spot he was referring to and did not think much further on the subject (though I was thisclose to inviting myself over for a tour).

Flash forward to a few weeks ago. Shortly before Owen’s birthday, I toyed with the idea of writing about the place. My first move was to check if my dad’s doctor still lived on the premises, in the hopes that he might send me some interior photos. In looking at property records, though, I was shocked to see that not only did he not reside at 1727 Bushnell anymore, but that he never had! His former house, which was sold in 2017, is three doors up the street at 1705 Bushnell (it’s pictured below). Thoroughly confused, I almost brushed the whole thing off as misinformation. But then a lightbulb went off in my head – what if 1705 had been used for interiors? Thankfully, MLS pictures from the 2017 sale are still widely available online so my newfound hunch was easily verifiable. I could hardly hold my fingers steady as I slipped in my Back to the Future DVD and just about hyperventilated when I saw that I was correct! While 1727 Bushnell appeared as the exterior of Lorraine’s house, interior filming took place just up the street at 1705! As far as I can tell, this information has never been reported elsewhere, which has me giddy with excitement – for Owen, for myself, and for the leagues of BTTF fans out there!

But first, let’s get back to 1727 Bushnell. Not much of the 1909 Craftsman’s exterior is actually shown in Back to the Future. We really only catch a glimpse of the second floor windows when George McFly (Crispin Glover) tries to peep on Lorraine in an early scene.

As you can see, thanks to a completely new color scheme, the home looks quite a bit different today.

We do get a full view of the property’s exterior in a different Michael J. Fox movie, though! Interestingly enough, 1727 Bushnell also served as the Howard family residence in the 1985 comedy Teen Wolf.

In a Q&A Fox shot for Back to the Future’s Special Edition DVD, he even mentions encountering the movie’s location scouts while shooting Teen Wolf on the premises.

I am unsure if the actual inside of 1727 Bushnell was used in Teen Wolf, but I think it might have been.

If so, considering the decidedly 60s/70s look of the place, it goes a long way toward explaining why Back to the Future producers headed elsewhere to stage the inside of Lorraine’s 1955 home. And they found exactly what they were looking for right up the street.

As you can see in the screen shot as compared to the MLS image below, the inside of 1705 Bushnell is classic, timeless, and simple in design – perfect for a storyline set in the 1950s. (You can check out another matching shot of the home’s front entry area here.)

As you can also see in the screen captures below as compared to images here and here, not much of the property has changed in the years since Back to the Future was filmed (though it appears that producers did cover over the dining room’s stained glass window for the shoot – either that or the window was a later addition).

Along with the front entry and dining room, areas of 1705 visible in Back to the Future include the living room (you can check out an additional matching image of it here and a close-up view of the fireplace, which has been altered a bit but is still recognizable, here);

and the stairs . . .

. . . which you can see additional imagery of here.

I believe that Lorraine’s bedroom was just a set, though, and not one of 1705’s actual rooms.

In real life, 1705 Bushnell, which was built in 1912, boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,772 square feet of living space, formal living and dining rooms, hardwood flooring, wainscoting, a fireplace, stained glass windows, an eat-in kitchen, a den, a partially-finished basement, an upstairs laundry room, a 0.18-acre lot, a pool, a built-in BBQ, and a detached garage that has been converted into a family room/pool house. You can check out some more interior photos of the place here and here.

How incredible – and thrilling – it is that new location information can still be unearthed from a decades-old movie, one that has been feverishly studied and documented ad nauseam over the years, no less! Imagine all of the other filming sites just waiting to be discovered! The possibilities are endlessly exciting! The future of stalking is bright, my friends!

A (belated) happy birthday to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The home used for exterior shots of Lorraine Baines’ 1955 residence in Back to the Future is located at 1727 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. Interiors were filmed just up the road at 1705 Bushnell. George McFly’s 1955 pad from the film can be found next door at 1711 Bushnell. And Biff Tannen’s (Thomas F. Wilson) property from Back to the Future Part II is at 1809 Bushnell. Several other famous, but non-BTTF-related houses are on the same street including Hope and Michael Steadman’s residence from thirtysomething at 1710 Bushnell; the Hopper family home as well as Joan’s pad from Ghost Dad at 1621 and 1615, respectively, and the Lambda Epsilon Omega fraternity house from Old School at 1803.

May 24, 2019