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The Cellular House

Back in September of last year, while stalking the house from fave 80s movie License to Drive, I just happened to stumble upon another famous movie home – Kim Basinger’s residence from the 2004 flick Cellular. Well, truth be told, “stumble upon” isn’t exactly the terminology I should be using here. 🙂 The real story is that while taking pictures in front of the License to Drive house, the owner came outside and struck up a conversation with me. And while he had no idea that he was living in a famous home, he did tell me that the movie Cellular had been filmed on the street directly behind his! So, of course, off I went to stalk that house! But somehow, in all this time, I never got around to blogging about it. So, here goes. 🙂

In the very beginning of Cellular, Kim Basinger, aka Jessica Martin, is kidnapped out of the large, traditional style home pictured above.   Her only hope for rescue lies in reluctant hero – and total cutie – Chris Evans, whose cell phone accidentally intercepts a 911 call Jessica is trying to make.

In the movie, we are told that Jessica’s home is located at 3270 Bonhill Road in Brentwood.   And, while a Bonhill Road in Brentwood does actually exist, the street numbers there don’t go higher than 800. In actuality, the home where filming took place is located about three miles east of Brentwood.

And, as you can see in the above screen capture, producers even went so far as to paint the number 3270 on the curb in front of the home! Which would have made locating this house extremely difficult for stalkers!!!!! So, I definitely owe a big THANK YOU to the owner of the License to Drive house. 😉 If you haven’t seen the movie Cellular yet, I highly recommend doing so! While the campy thriller has to be one of the cheesiest movies ever made, I have to say that I absolutely LOVED it!    🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Cellular house is located at 527 Loring Avenue in Los Angeles.

June 4, 2009
Watermark On Main

This past weekend, while in Ventura, my parents, my fiance, and I ate dinner at a newly opened restaurant named Watermark On Main. And, even though my eyes are ALWAYS peeled, I wasn’t exactly expecting to see a celeb during our meal. But, sure enough, we did! As it turns out, Watermark is something of a celeb hot spot. 🙂 So, I just had to blog about it.

Watermark On Main, which just recently opened last August, is located inside of the Theodore Groene/Brahn Jewelry Store Building, which is a City of Ventura Cultural Landmark.  The Spanish Revival style building was originally built in 1928 and was designed by architects Frederick M. Ashley and John C. Austin, who also designed L.A.’s Griffith Park Observatory. The structure, which was marked by tiled curtained walls, hand-painted murals, and ornately decorated ceilings, was built to house the Ventura Guarantee Building and Loan Company, who had a large safe installed on the premises. In 1938, the building was sold to Theodore Groene, who subsequently covered up and painted over much of the structure’s ornate decoration and detail. The building had several different occupants following that sale, including the Brahn Jewelry Company, until March 16, 2004 when it was purchased by the Hartley Family. From March of 2004 to August of 2008, the Hartleys began the huge task of renovating the historic building. What they uncovered was a structure that can best be described as a work of art!

Working with artist Michael Kelly, the Hartleys painstakingly brought their historic building back to life. And it truly is remarkable to see! A few of the restaurant’s unique details include travertine floors, an onyx gold wraparound bar, ceiling murals, which were originally hand-painted by artist Norman Kennedy in 1928 (pictured above);

handpainted plaster ceilings;

and African mahogany woodwork throughout.

The Hartleys also added a third floor to the building, which required a 61,000 pound steel support structure to be built on top of the existing roof. The third floor now houses the restaurant’s rooftop lounge, named W2O.

I honestly can’t recommend stalking Watermark On Main enough!! The restaurant is beautiful, the service was superb, and the food! Oh, the food! It was simply A-MA-ZING. It was so good, in fact, that I scarfed down about three pounds of appetizers, bread, and salad making it virtually impossible for me to eat any of the actual meal that I ordered! I’m not kidding – I think I ate two bites of it! LOL  Oh, well, that’s what to-go boxes are for. 🙂

And, oh, yes, the celebs! : ) The night we were there, actor/singer Kris Kristofferson was hosting a benefit concert for farm workers at the Majestic Ventura Theatre (pictured above), which just so happens to be located directly across the street from Watermark On Main.  The concert pre-party was being held at Watermark’s lounge, W2O.  And while I didn’t expect to see any celebs, before we knew it several familiar faces walked by. Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t place exactly who they were and my fiance, who is usually great at remembering names, wasn’t paying any attention whatsoever. UGH – I think I need to give the ring back.  🙂 LOL  The one face he did recognize, though, was that of Stephen Root, aka the Stapler Man from fave movie Office Space. Love it! 🙂   Other celebs who have dined at Watermark include Kevin Costner (who held the premiere of his movie Swing Vote at the Majestic Ventura Theatre), Leann Rimes, Kenny Loggins, and singer Michael McDonald. Mark Hartley, the owner of Watermark, is also a big time country music manager who represents such stars as Brad Paisley, Leann Rimes, Colbie Caillat, and Vince Gill. Apparently, his famous clients stop into Watermark on a regular basis. Love it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Watermark On Main is located at 598 East Main Street in Ventura. You can visit their website here. Reservations are recommended. You can make reservations here or by calling (805)643-6800. Watermark also has a dress code – no shorts or flip flops are allowed and, for men, collared shirts are preferred.

June 3, 2009
The Swordfish Hostage Scene

This past weekend, my parents, my fiance and I drove up to Ventura for a little weekend vacay.  And I was absolutely floored to discover – thanks to my new favorite stalking book – that the hostage scene gone wrong from the 2001 movie Swordfish had been filmed in the coastal town! But, while my stalking book stated that all of the filming took place on Main Street in Downtown Ventura, it unfortunately didn’t specify exactly which stores were used in the production. So, me being me, I just had to stalk pretty much every shop and ask around until I found the right ones. 🙂    Filming of Swordfish took place back in October of 2000 and, all in all, three main stores were used. Come to find out, though, every single storefront featured in the movie was drastically remodeled for the filming and today they are all virtually unrecognizable. Such a bummer!!!!!

All of the filming took place on one of Downtown Ventura’s main street corners, where producers were lucky enough to find two vacant storefronts that faced each other.    The first storefront, which was formerly the location of a used bookstore named Second Time Around, was where producers built the set of John Travolta’s favorite coffee shop, Traveler’s Coffee Company. Yep, that’s right – the ENTIRE coffee shop was just a set built solely for the filming!

Today, that storefront houses an American Apparel store, which looks nothing like the coffee shop in Swordfish. 🙁    Being the coffee fiend that I am, I was actually pretty bummed out when I learned that the coffee shop was a fake! I was really hoping to grab an iced latte there. LOL Thank goodness there was a Starbucks located just a few blocks away. 🙂 You can see some pics of the Traveler’s Coffee Company set being built here.

Directly across the street from “Traveler’s Coffee Company”, is the bank that John Travolta set out to rob. The interior and the facade of the building, which housed a restaurant named O’Brien’s up until a few months before filming began, were changed significantly for the filming.

Today, an upscale clothing store named Parts Unknown and a restaurant named Riviera Bistro call that space home. You can see some great photographs of the bank set being built here.

The final storefront used in Swordfish was that of Nicholby’s Nightclub, which popped up in the background of the hostage scene quite a few times. Producers built a fake newsstand on the side of the Nicholby’s building for the filming.

As you can see in the above photograph, that newsstand does not exist in real life. You can see pics of the fake newsstand being built here.

It is actually very surprising to me that producers used a real life street corner and real life storefronts to shoot Swordfish’s hostage scene. For action sequences of that magnitude, producers usually opt to film inside of studio soundstages. But because Ventura is a somewhat sleepy town, I am guessing it was fairly easy for them to take over a few vacant storefronts and close down a street corner. According to one of the business owners I talked to, production of the hostage scene took over two months to complete!!!!   While the actual filming only took about three weeks, a significant amount of time was needed to both construct and dismantle the extensive sets. I can’t even imagine being able to watch all of that take place! It must have been an amazing experience for the Ventura locals. 🙂    Oh, how I wish I had been there!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The hostage scene from Swordfish was filmed on the corner of East Main and South Oak Streets in Downtown Ventura. Traveler’s Coffee Company is really the American Apparel store located at 391 East Main Street. World Banc is the clothing store named Parts Unknown, which is located at 394 East Main Street #A. Nicholby’s Nightclub, which can be found at 404 East Main Street, was the newsstand that showed up in the background of the scene.

June 2, 2009
Cameron Frye’s House

Last Wednesday morning I almost fell out of my chair as I opened up my email account and saw an AOL news headline screaming out at me “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off   House For Sale!” At first, I thought the article was talking about the Long Beach area home that stood in for Ferris’ in the film. But, in reality, it is the ultra-modern glass and steel abode that belonged to Ferris’ best pal Cameron Frye in the film that just recently went on the market. And, while I don’t usually like to blog about places that I have not actually visited myself, since I have received about a million emails this week about the cinematically historic home, I figured what the heck! So, here goes. 🙂

The house, which was built entirely out of steel, cedar, and glass, measures 5,300 square feet, sits on almost an acre of land, and boasts four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The home was built in 1953 by prominent architect A. James Speyer for a prominent textile designer named Ben Rose, and his wife, Fran. The famous garage – which is actually called “the Pavilion” or auto museum – is separate from the house and was not built until 1970. It was designed by architect David Haid and, in line with how it was portrayed on film, was built to store Ben’s antique car collection.   The house had been featured in numerous architectural books and magazines long before Ferris Bueller was filmed and, apparently, it was through those magazines that location scouts discovered the house. 🙂 With its glass walls and simplistic design, the home reminds me quite a bit of the Stahl House in Los Angeles and the other Case Study Houses.  Cameron Frye’s home is selling for a cool $2.3 million, which I think is pretty low considering you’d be buying a cinematic and architectural landmark! 🙂 You can read a great article about the home and its original owners here.

Several memorable scenes from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off took place at Cameron Frye’s home, including the “He’ll keep calling me, he’ll keep calling me until I come over. He’ll make me feel guilty. This is – uh – this is ridiculous! OK, I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go. Sh*t!” scene. LOL

I believe the real interior of the Ben Rose House was used in the scene when Ferris continually calls Cameron begging him to come over. The walls of the actual home are built entirely out of glass and, as you can see in the above screen capture, so are the walls of Cameron’s room.

But, of course, the most memorable scenes took place in the Pavilion and involved Cameron’s father’s 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California.

It is in the Pavilion that Cameron says to Ferris, “Less than 100 were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love, it is his passion . . .” to which Ferris replies. “It is fault he didn’t lock the garage.” LOL God, I love that movie!!!!

It is also in the Pavilion that Ferris “runs the car in reverse” in the hopes of removing the mileage that was accrued during their “day off”.

When that plan doesn’t work, Cameron flips out and ends up “killing the car”. LOL To shoot that scene, producers had to not only replace the Pavilion’s real life windows with breakaway glass, but also build several fake cars out of fiberglass, complete with small bombs that made the car smoke upon impact. I can’t even imagine being there to watch that scene be filmed!!!   It must have been so much fun for the owners of the house!!!! Apparently, there is an entire wall of photographs from the filming of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on display in the Pavilion. Love it!!!

You can visit the home’s real estate website and see photos of its interior here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Cameron Frye’s house is located at 370 Beech Street in Highland Park, Illinois.

June 1, 2009
The Bronson Caves

This past weekend, on a recommendation from fellow stalker Steve, I dragged my dad and my fiance out to stalk the Bronson Caves in Griffith Park. Friends have been urging me to stalk the Bronson Caves, which are most commonly known as being the location of “the Batcave” from the 1966 television series Batman, for years now, but somehow I just never made it out there. Until this past Saturday, that is. 🙂

And I am so glad I finally did!! The term “caves” is actually something of a misnomer, though, as the passages look more like tunnels than they do caves. Surprisingly enough, the Bronson Caves were actually man-made. In 1903, a rock excavation company named Union Rock Company built a quarry on the site, which was then known as Brush Canyon. The company drilled three tunnels through the base of a small mountain and used the excavated rocks to pave Los Angeles city streets. When the company called it quits in 1920, the three tunnels remained and were coined the Bronson Caves. The rest, as they say, is Hollywood history.

The Caves have been featured in countless Hollywood productions over the years, most notably standing in for “the Batcave”, where Batman spent most of his time in the 1966 television series of the same name. You can watch the opening credits of Batman, which feature a very brief clip of the Batmobile leaving the Batcave, here.

The Caves also popped up in the alternative ending to the movie Army of Darkness. The ending, which was thought to be too depressing for movie audiences, can be found on special edition DVD’s of the 1992 flick. On a side note, one of my very favorite movie lines of all time was uttered in Army of Darkness. In the movie, one of the knights announces “I am Henry the Red, Duke of Shale, Lord of the Northland, and Leader of its Peoples”, to which Bruce Campbell replies “Well, hello Mr. Fancy Pants! I got news for you, Pal, you ain’t leading but two things right now – Jack and Sh*t. And Jack left town!” LOL LOL LOL

The Bronson Caves also showed up in the horror flick Cabin Fever as the location where Rider Strong finds one of the many dead bodies.

At the end of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Miles and Dana used the Caves as a hiding place from the pod people. You can watch that scene here. All in all, the Bronson Caves have been featured in well over one hundred productions including: The Lone Ranger, The Three Musketeers (1933), The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Sleeper, Night of the Bloodbeast, Robot Monster, The Cyclops, MacGuyver, It Conquered the Earth, The X-Files, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Short Cuts, and The Scorpion King.

As luck would have it, we even ran into some filming while stalking the Bronson Caves. Shooting on location was a very small, independent caveman/apocalypse film. And the crew was even nice enough to let us snap some pics of them. 🙂 Ironically enough, it was close to one hundred degrees outside that day and the poor caveman had to walk around in those ridiculous fur boots. LOL He must have been dying in those things!!!!

I HIGHLY recommend stalking the Bronson Caves. They are very cool to see in person, even for those of you who are not movie locations buffs. My dad, who, as I have mentioned before HATES stalking, really enjoyed seeing the Caves, as did my boyfriend.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Bronson Caves are located just off Canyon Drive inside of Griffith Park. To reach Canyon Drive, follow Hollywood Boulevard to Bronson Drive and head North. When you hit Canyon Drive, make a left. You will pass through some stone gates, a couple of parking lots, and a playground. Head to where Canyon Drive ends and park in the public lot. The Caves are a short quarter mile walk from the parking lot. To walk to the Caves, head up the first pathway – it has a red curb – to the right. You will pass through a fire gate. Head up the hill and the Caves will be around a short bend to the left. You can see some photographs of the trail that leads to the Caves here.

May 29, 2009
The Taken Mansion

This past weekend, my fiance and I rented the movie Taken – which was phenomenal, by the way!!!! – and I immediately recognized a home featured in it that was originally used in a Season One episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210. I have been dying to stalk the home for the past few years, but, unfortunately, it is located inside of a gated community and I haven’t been able to get past the guards. Yet!!! 🙂 But that’s why God created real estate websites – which is where I got the above photo. 🙂 The home, which was built in 1915 and is located inside of the exclusive Fremont Place complex in Hancock Park, has been featured in DOZENS of productions over the years.   It has five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, boasts 8,240 square feet, and sits on almost two acres! Besides being featured on the silver screen, the home was also lived in by both Mary Pickford and Mary Miles Minter at different points in time.

In the movie Taken, the mansion stood in for the home of Liam Neeson’s ex-wife, Lenore, and her new uber-wealthy husband, Stuart. The mansion shows up several times in the movie, most notably as the site of Liam’s daughter’s birthday party.

Way back in 1990, the mansion was featured as the home of Brenda’s shoplifting pal Tiffany Morgan in the Season One episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “Every Dream Has It’s Price”.  Ironically enough, though, no actual filming of Beverly Hills, 90210 took place at the home. A very brief establishing shot of the mansion was used in the episode, but all of the actual filming took place in the backyard of an Altadena home located directly across the street from Casa Walsh.

The same house also showed up in the Season 7 episode of CSI: Miami entitled “Dead on Arrival”. In the episode, the mansion was used as the setting of the fictional Bachelor-esque reality series “The Marrying Kind”.

The mansion was also used in the Season Six episode of Cold Case entitled “November 22” as the present day home of pool shark Baltimore Red.   And, as if all of that was not enough, in 2008 alone the home was featured in an infomercial, a DiGiorno pizza commercial, and episodes of Prison Break, Monk, Numbers, and the episode of The Mentalist entitled “Ladies in Red”.   How cool would it be to own that place?!?!? Oh, I would be in heaven!!!! 🙂

According to The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book, the movie War of the Roses was also filmed in the Fremont Place community, just a few houses down from the Taken mansion. But, if you compare the above screen capture to the aerial image of the property supposedly used, the two houses don’t quite seem to match. So, unless some major renovations were done to the home since the filming of War of the Roses took place, I don’t think The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book’s information is correct. 🙁 Supposedly, the house from the Rocky movies is also located on the same street, but I haven’t been able to verify that yet. You can see photographs of some of the Fremont Place homes that have been used for filming and a really cool schedule of the 2007 and 2008 productions that filmed there here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Taken mansion is located at 56 Fremont Place in Los Angeles. The supposed War of the Roses home is located just down the street at 119 Fremont Place West. Please keep in mind that both of these houses are located inside of a gated, private community and trespassing is not allowed. 🙂

May 28, 2009
Descanso Gardens

This past weekend I dragged my fiance and my parents out to stalk Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge – another location that I discovered thanks to my new favorite stalking book. The 160-acre botanical garden has been featured in countless movies and television shows over the years and is also a popular wedding venue.

E. Manchester Boddy (pronounced “Boh-dee”) first purchased the property now known as Descanso Gardens in 1937 to build a home for his family. Besides being the owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News, Boddy was also a horticulturalist and a commercial camellia grower and he needed a piece of property large enough to cultivate his prized flowers. Rancho de Descanso, as it was then known, fit the bill perfectly. In 1938, he commissioned a 12,000 square foot home to be built on the property. The 22-room mansion, named the Boddy House, was designed in the Hollywood Regency style by “architect to the stars” James E. Dolena. Boddy positioned the home in the very southeast corner of Descanso – which means “rest and repose” in Spanish – so that he and his family would be able to enjoy specatular views of the San Gabriel Mountains.  In 1953, Boddy sold the entire 160 acre property, including his custom built home, to the City of Los Angeles, who later opened it up to the public. In 2007, the Boddy Home was featured as the Pasadena Showcase House of Design and was completely renovated and restored to its former glory. The bottom floor of the home is open for all visitors of Descanso Gardens to tour. The Boddy House can also be rented out for weddings and private events.

Descanso Gardens encompasses a twenty-acre oak tree forest, a bird sanctuary, a five-acre rosarium featuring over three thousand roses, a Japanese tea garden, countless waterfalls and koi ponds, a lilac garden, and a California garden featuring Redwood trees, California poppies, and chaparral plants.   The site is stunning and extremely expansive, but also, sadly, very crowded, I believe due to its low admission price.

The venue’s beauty has, of course, led to countless onscreen cameos. Descanso was the location of Nikolas Natchios’ funeral in the 2003 movie Daredevil.

Its greenhouse was used in a prominent scene in Minority Report.

And Reese Witherspoon has filmed no less than three productions at the Gardens!   In Legally Blonde, Descanso was transformed into Golden Springs Spa where Reese and her partner Luke Wilson interviewed Raquel Welch. The building located just to left of Descanso’s main entrance was used as the entrance to the spa.

Both the interior and the exterior of the Boddy House were used as the home of John Voight, where Reese spends Christmas, in last year’s Four Christmases. Because the movie has not yet been released on DVD, I was not able to make screen captures of it. 🙁    According to one of the Boddy House docents, though, the mansion was significantly dressed up for the filming of the movie and is not very recognizable. Four Christmases featured many areas of the Boddy House, including the front entrance, main foyer, library, and living room. Reese also filmed her latest Avon commercial, which has yet to be released, at Descanso Gardens.

An episode of Mad Mad  was also recently filmed on Descanso’s main lawn area (pictured above). Descanso Gardens was also featured in Memoirs of a Geisha, America’s Sweethearts, Graduation Day, Tiny Dancer, Congo, Land of the Lost, the recently wrapped Untitled Duplass Brothers Project starring Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill, and John C. Reily, and Eddie Murphy’s new movie The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Descanso Gardens is located at 1418 Descanso Drive in La Canada Flintridge. The Gardens are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The entrance fee is $8 for adults and $3 for children aged 5 to 12. Children under 5 are free. You can visit the Descanso Gardens website here.

May 27, 2009
It’s A Wrap!

Got an email the other day from fellow stalker Heather who told me about a store in Burbank named It’s A Wrap that sells clothing, props, and memorabilia from recently wrapped movies and television shows! Being that the store sounded right up my alley, I immediately ran out to stalk it!! 🙂 It’s A Wrap has been in business selling Hollywood costumes and movie merchandise since 1981. Owner and founder Janet Dion purchases clothes and props directly from the many movie studios in the area and sells them to the public out of two retail stores – one in Burbank and one in Beverly Hills. It’s A Wrap has sold clothing from hundreds upon hundreds of productions over the last twenty-eight years, including The Flinstones, Beverly Hills, 90210!!!!, Seventh Heaven, Charmed, Drillbit Taylor, Twilight, Lipstick Jungle, Spanglish, Seven, Guiding Light, Varsity Blues, Seinfeld, Baywatch, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Las Vegas. Love it!!

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Not only does It’s A Wrap provide the general public access to movie items we might otherwise never have the ability to purchase, but the store also has INCREDIBLE deals!!!! I’m talking INCREDIBLE!!!! Designer dresses are usually marked down well over 50% below retail value. Yesterday, while I was stalking the place, I spotted a few super cute BCBG dresses with the original price tags still attached. The dresses, which were originally priced $298, were selling for $98!!!  But, of course, not a one of them was in my size!!! Ugh! Such a bummer!

Because It’s A Wrap receives new merchandise from the local studios on a daily basis, you simply never know what treasures you are going to discover there. While I was stalking the place last week, I found clothing from Kath & Kim, Ugly Betty, General Hospital, Hancock, According to Jim, and CSI: Miami – just to name a few. But the cutest clothes, by far, had to be from the newly-released Wayans Brothers’ movie Dance Flick. I pretty much loved every single piece from that collection, which included a large assortment of tees by fave designer Michael Stars. 🙂 It’s A Wrap was also selling a HUGE array of evening gowns and cocktail dresses from the soap opera General Hospital. If I was still in high school, this would DEFINITELY be the place I’d shop for my prom dress. 🙂

The store even had a dress from Disney Studios that looked strikingly similar to Silver’s prom dress from last week’s episode of 90210.   Oh, if only I had a prom to go to! 🙂

I honestly can’t recommend stalking It’s A Wrap enough. But be sure to keep in mind that even though the shop sells movie costumes, it is still a used clothing store.   Don’t go in there expecting it to look like a Beverly Hills boutique. It’s A Wrap is a thrift shop, and if you don’t like that sort of thing, you won’t like this place. 🙂 Also don’t go in there expecting to find a specific costume from a specific movie or television show. While all of the clothing for sale at It’s A Wrap bears tags marking what production or what studio it came from, no reference is made to what actor or actress actually wore the item. In fact, many of the clothes for sale were most likely not worn by a lead actor, but by secondary and background actors. And some of the costumes may never even have been worn at all.    At the same time, though, you simply never know what you are going to find at It’s A Wrap. A few years back, one lucky customer walked away with Brad Pitt’s shoes from the movie Seven. 🙂 Any visiting tourist who wants to take a piece of Hollywood home with them should definitely stalk It’s A Wrap! Oh, and the best part about the store? Showcased on the walls are countless costumes worn in famous movies and television shows, including items worn by Shannen Doherty, Shirley MacLaine, Sean Penn, and Demi Moore.    If you do happen to stalk It’s A Wrap, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for celebs, because, amazingly enough, quite a few of them are fans of the store. Famous customers include Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, Mario Lopez, Jennifer Love Hewitt, David Arquette, Brittany Murphy, Nicole Eggert, Drew Barrymore, Geena Davis, Sir Anthony Hopkins, and my fave Shannen Doherty. 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Amanda for telling me about It’s A Wrap! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: It’s A Wrap has two Los Angeles area locations. The first is located at 3315 West Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank. The other can be found at 1164 South Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills. You can visit the It’s A Wrap website here. Another great place to purchase movie and celebrity memorabilia is the website www.starwares.com.

May 26, 2009
Happy Memorial Day!

I am taking today off for Memorial Day, but will be back tomorrow with a new location to stalk. 🙂 Hope everyone is enjoying their three day weekend and taking a moment to remember those who lost their lives fighting for our country.

May 25, 2009
The Starsky & Hutch Mansion

A few weeks ago, my mom drove me by what has to be one of the biggest houses I’ve ever seen in my entire life! The property spans almost an entire city block! When you drive by it literally just keeps on going and going and going! LOL My mom showed me the absolutely ginormous Tudor style mansion to see if I recognized it from any movies or television shows. She had an inkling that, because of its massive size, it was probably used as a filming location at some point in history. And she was right, although I didn’t realize it at the time.

Then, last week, as I was scanning through Starsky & Hutch, making screen captures for my post about Rae’s Restaurant, I saw the house and almost fell out of my chair! In the 2004 comedy, the mega-mansion was featured as the home of Vince Vaughn’s character, Reese Feldman.

The mansion appears twice in Starsky & Hutch. We first see it when the detectives show up there to interrogate Vince Vaughn about a dead body they have just discovered.

Later on in the movie, Vince Vaughn throws his daughter a bat mitzvah party in a large tent in the home’s backyard.

During the party, Ben Stiller accidentally shoots a pony in front of all of the party guests just outside of the mansion’s large garage.

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This same house was also used in the short lived Rebecca Romijn series Pepper Dennis. As you can see in this Movieland Directory link, Arden Road is no stranger to the silver screen. Numerous houses on Arden have been featured in productions over the years, most notably the “Carrington Mansion” from television’s Dynasty, which is located just a few houses down from the Starsky & Hutch manse. Unfortunately, though, it is not at all visible from the street. 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Reese Feldman (aka Vince Vaughn’s) mansion from Starsky & Hutch is located at 1050 Arden Road in Pasadena. The “Carrington Mansion” is located just a few houses away from it at 1145 Arden Road.

May 22, 2009