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Hope and Michael’s House from “thirtysomething”

I think Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick are two of the greatest television producers ever to walk the face of the earth. Oddly though, while I am obsessed with both My So-Called Life and Relativity (as evidenced here and here), I was never a fan of thirtysomething, one of their earliest forays into the small screen. The 1987 series’ failure to resonate was likely due to its focus on parenting – the subject matter was just a little too adult being that I was ten when the show debuted. I did stalk the large Craftsman home belonging to Hope Murdoch Steadman (Mel Harris) and her husband, Michael (Ken Olin), on it upon first moving to Southern California almost twenty years ago, though. I never got around to blogging about the place, but while recently listening to My So-Called Podcast (a My So-Called Life re-cap show hosted by the creators of fave podcast True Crime Obsessed), I started thinking about the property and figured not only was it high time I dedicate a post to it, but to also give the series it starred on another chance.

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Open up any Pinterest board of famous houses and the Steadman residence will inevitably be pictured. The pad is also documented in pretty much every single Hollywood tour book ever written, is talked about regularly in the comments sections of filming location blogs (especially over at Hooked on Houses), and will definitely go down in the annals of history as one of the best-loved TV homes. Oddly though, the exterior of the dwelling was rarely featured on thirtysomething. I scanned through dozens upon dozens of episodes to make screen captures for this post and only came across a few instances of it being shown. I guess Herskovitz and Zwick weren’t big fans of establishing shots in their early days.

Said to be at 1700 Bryn Mawr Avenue in Philadelphia on the series, the home can actually be found at 1710 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena.

As chronicled in a 1997 People magazine article titled “That’s My House!”, homeowners Dennis and Donna Potts were first approached about the use of their residence on the series via a location scout who knocked on their door in the summer of 1987. The couple wound up being paid $1,500 for each day of filming that occurred on the premises during the show’s four-year run. I would consider that a heck of lot of money today, but back in the late ‘80s? Dang! According to People, production designer Brandy Alexander keyed in on the property because of its age, saying “We wanted an older house so we could have the characters do renovations.”

The home was utilized solely for exterior sequences on thirtysomething. The interior of the Steadman residence was nothing more than a set (a roofless one, at that) built inside of a soundstage at CBS Studio Center (then called CBS/MTM Studios) in Studio City. Per a 1996 New York Times article, the set was based upon the real life interior of two different Pasadena-area Craftsmen – one of which, I came to discover, is definitely the Bushnell house. As you can see in this image of the property’s built-in buffet, it matches what was shown onscreen perfectly.

The dining room is also a pretty direct match, as you can see in this photo as compared to the screen capture below. You can check out some additional images of the actual inside of the Bushnell house here.

Interestingly, audiences considered the set a bit too upper-crust for the middle-class Steadmans, which proved to be an ongoing source of consternation for thirtysomething producers. As author Elisabeth Bumiller states in the New York Times article from 1996, “Even though the creators let the set deteriorate, making the house look dirtier and more lived in, few people bought it.” Herskovitz extrapolates, “No matter what we did, people thought it was a rich, expensive house.” Considering the property’s wood detailing and plethora of built-ins and the fact that Zillow currently pegs its value at $2.23 million, I’m going to have to side with the fans on this one.

In real life, the 1902 pad boasts 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2,760 square feet, a fireplace, stained glass windows, original detailing, a detached garage, a covered patio, 0.17 acres of land, and a garden.

The same property also appeared in the 1990 comedy Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael as the residence of Denton (Jeff Daniels) and Barbara Webb (Joan McMurtrey).

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hope and Michael Steadman’s house from thirtysomething is located at 1710 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. Elliot (Timothy Busfield) and Nancy Weston’s (Patricia Wettig) pad from the series is one street over at 1700 Fletcher Avenue. Countless other famous homes are located on Bushnell. The Hopper residence from Ghost Dad is at 1621 Bushnell. Joan’s dwelling from the movie is next door at 1615. The Lambda Epsilon Omega fraternity house from Old School is at 1803 Bushnell. The property located at 1727 Bushnell played both Scott Howard’s (Michael J. Fox) house in Teen Wolf and Lorraine Baines’ (Lea Thompson) 1955 home in Back to the Future. George McFly’s (Crispin Glover) 1955 residence from Back to the Future can be found at 1711 Bushnell, while Biff Tannen’s (Thomas F. Wilson) from Back to the Future Part II is at 1809.

August 17, 2018
Michelle’s Downhill Derby from “Full House”

There’s nothing like remnants of a film shoot remaining behind years after the fact to set my heart aflutter. Last June, a fellow stalker named Chris kindly emailed me a lengthy and comprehensive list of Full House locations he had tracked down, one of which was the Griffith Park road where the Downhill Derby from Season 7’s “Michelle a la Cart” took place. Though I did not remember the episode, the locale had me particularly intrigued thanks to some vestiges from the shoot Chris noted were still visible. As he wrote in his email, “In the 2007 imagery on Google Street View, you can still see the faded lane markings on the road from the race.” Um, sign me up! So onto my To-Stalk List the site went and I finally headed out there to see it in person a few weeks ago.

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In re-watching “Michelle a la Cart” in preparation for this post, I realized there’s a reason I did not recall it from its original airing in 1994 – the episode just isn’t all that memorable. It centers around three less-than-scintillating storylines. First, D.J. Tanner (Candance Cameron) laments a phone message left by her ex-boyfriend, Steve Hale (Scott Weinger) – she thinks he’s despondent over their recent break-up, but it turns out he just really wants a CD back. Then there’s Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier) who attempts to learn ballet from Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin) in the hopes it will improve his hockey-playing skills, which gives us this great visual. Oh, Joey!

In the main narrative, Michelle Tanner (Mary-Kate and Ashely Olsen) decides to build a soapbox car with her aunt Becky (Lori Loughlin) so she can compete in the local Downhill Derby and defeat neighborhood meanie Kenny (K. Evan Bonifant), who thinks she can’t win because she’s a girl. Though lackluster as a whole, the episode did give us a great zinger from Michelle. When faced with her nemesis’ jeering, she tells him, “My dad said if I can’t say anything nice then I shouldn’t say anything at all . . . but my dad’s not here and you’re a weenie!” (You can see a clip of the fabulous moment here.)

The episode culminates in the big Downhill Derby competition, which was set up on Vista Del Valle Drive just west of where it intersects with North Vermont Canyon Road in Griffith Park. The race’s starting point was positioned at the very eastern edge of Vista Del Valle Drive, close to where it dead ends.

The finish line was set up about two hundred feet away, where the hilly part of the road bottoms out.

(Spoiler alert – Michelle, of course, wins the derby and, in the process, learns that girls can do anything boys can do.)

In the episode, the racers’ lanes are made up of uninterrupted white lines and dotted yellow lines, as you can see below.

It is those lines that are still visible today – not just on Google Street View imagery from 2007 as Chris had mentioned, but in real life, too.

Though extremely faded, the dotted yellow lines . . .

. . . and the uninterrupted white lines are still somewhat intact, as you can see in my photos above and below.

While I originally assumed that the markings were painted onto the road strictly for the Full House shoot, it is entirely possible they were there prior to the filming – especially since the yellow lines pictured in my images appear to be newer additions. Considering said lines are not typical road boundaries, though (I have never seen anything like them, at least), and it is unclear as to exactly what they designate, I do not believe they are original elements of the street. Either way, I love that markings visible in a shoot that took place 24 years ago remain evident today.

While I was stalking the Downhill Derby site, security guards happened to be setting up street closures on the premises for a concert that was taking place nearby later that night. I can only imagine their befuddlement in seeing me bounce all over the road, enthusiastically snapping photo after photo of faded lines and loudly exclaiming to the Grim Cheaper how thrilled I was to be seeing them in person. Ah, to be on the outside looking in.

Big THANK YOU to Chris for finding this location and telling me about it!

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 Downhill Derby from the “Michelle a la Cart” episode of Full House took place on Vista Del Valle Drive just west of where it intersects with North Vermont Canyon Road in Griffith Park. (Be advised, some maps refer to Vista Del Valle as “Boy Scout Road,” though Google Maps and my GPS both recognize the street as Vista Del Valle.)

August 15, 2018
Oliver’s House from “A Lot Like Love”

A Lot Like Love is a movie I can’t not watch. Even though I’ve seen it at least a dozen times and own the DVD, if I happen to catch it on TV, need to scan through it for a post, or it pops up in my Netflix recommendations, I’m pretty much viewing it in its entirety. And thank goodness, too, because doing so led me to find a new location from the film recently, one that I thought I had already pinpointed – the house belonging to Oliver Martin’s (Ashton Kutcher) parents in the 2005 romcom. First, let me back up a bit.

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Ten years ago (egads!), my buddy Mike, from MovieShotsLA, tracked down what I thought was the Martin residence via a 2006 Los Angeles Times article chronicling homes featured onscreen. In the blurb, author Danny Miller states, “Encino resident Ramona Hennesy creates brochures showing her house’s best features and sends them off to location scouts all over town. Her efforts have paid off. Several commercials have been filmed in her ranch home. Last year, the house had a featured role in the film A Lot Like Love. Both the interior and the backyard were used, and her carport was even transformed into Ashton Kutcher’s bedroom.” A quick scan through public records provided us with the property’s address (17050 Magnolia Boulevard) and I ran right out to stalk the place shortly thereafter. Upon arriving, I was surprised to see the pad fronted by large hedges that obscured it almost entirely from view, as you can see below. What little was visible did not look familiar from the movie, as I mentioned in the post I wrote about the locale a few days later.

Google Maps imagery from 2007 (two years after the movie was released) show the hedges in a much less mature state, so figuring they were a post-A Lot Like Love addition, I did not think much further on the subject.

Flash forward to this past April. While making screen captures of the flick in preparation for this post, I fell into the familiar trap of viewing it through to the end and was shocked to see an address number of “17204” posted by the front door of the house across the street from Oliver’s parents’ place in the closing scene in which Oliver and his longtime on-again/off-again paramour Emily Friehl (Amanda Peet) finally get together. That number, though close, did not exactly coincide with the 17050 address of the property I’d blogged about all those years ago. What the whaaat? So I headed over to Google to search for homes numbered 17204 in the Los Angeles area and quickly came across one at 17204 Otsego Street in Encino that matched the residence Emily and Oliver kissed in front of, albeit with quite a bit more foliage.

From there, I flipped Google Street View’s little yellow man around to see the property across the street and, sure enough, Oliver’s parents’ house was staring me right in the face (again, with quite a bit more foliage). Had the article gotten things wrong?

Confused, I pulled up the old Los Angeles Times article and quickly realized that I had read too much between the lines all those years ago (that was back when I was an amateur stalker, after all ). I’d simply assumed the Magnolia Boulevard residence had been used for exteriors and interiors, as well as backyard shots, but the article never actually mentions the front exterior at all. D’oh! As I soon came to find out, Oliver’s parents’ house was a mash-up of both properties, which are located right around the corner from each other. The Otsego Street house was utilized in all scenes featuring the front of the Martin home . . .

. . . including the final scene, which was my favorite of the movie. While there, I couldn’t help but re-enact the hissy fit Oliver’s sister, Ellen (Taryn Manning), has over the fact that Oliver is holding up her wedding. (Lucifer fans – that’s Aimee Garcia, aka forensics expert Ella Lopez, in the pink dress below! She plays Ellen’s best friend in the movie.)

All interior filming took place just around the corner at the Magnolia Boulevard house.

As you can see in the screen capture as compared to my photograph below, the roofline and window framing of 17050 Magnolia match that of the Martin home.

The shape of the Martin’s pool and its location in regard to the house, as well as the residence’s rear roofline . . .

. . . all also match what is visible of the Magnolia Boulevard dwelling in aerial views.

As mentioned in the Los Angeles Times article, the property’s carport was transformed into Oliver’s bedroom for the movie.

Luckily, the Magnolia Boulevard home’s front gates were open when I stalked the place back in 2008, so I got to snap a couple of photos of said carport.

Why producers chose to use two properties in the film is unclear to me, but I am guessing it has something to do with the hedges surrounding the Magnolia Boulevard residence, which I now believe were there at the time of the A Lot Like Love shoot. The movie’s final scene, in which Emily runs from Oliver’s house to her car parked across the street, required a location that was open to the road. I think the production team likely fell in love with the Magnolia pad’s interior, but found the exterior too closed-off for the end sequence, so they searched for a secondary property to utilize. I was hoping the DVD commentary with director Nigel Cole and producers Armyan Bernstein and Kevin Messick would provide some clarification on the subject, but, other than the fact that filming of the wedding segment took place in the Valley, nothing was said about the Martin residence.

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 house used for exterior shots of Oliver’s parents’ residence in A Lot Like Love can be found at 17201 Otsego Street in Encino. The pad Emily parks in front of at the end of the movie is directly across the street at 17204 Otsego. The home utilized for interior and backyard sequences is located around the corner at 17050 Magnolia Boulevard.

August 13, 2018
My Latest Interview with BH9021Whoa

I recently sat down to chat all things 90210 with LeeAnn from the fabulous BH9021Whoa website. (That’s her header pictured above – yep, she photoshopped her face onto Shannen Doherty’s body. A woman after my own heart, I swear!) Be sure to head over to her site to check out the interview.

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P.S. The “Luke Perry and his wife” imagery from the Real Life Couples of Riverdale video that LeeAnn mentions in the interview is pictured below. You can watch the clip here. It’s seriously the most amazing thing ever!

August 10, 2018
The Pierre Hotel’s Grand Ballroom from “Trainwreck”

I know I am in the minority when I say that I don’t think Amy Schumer is funny. And it’s not for lack of trying on my part. I first learned of the comedian when she appeared on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s season of The Bachelorette and found her schtick to be a bit annoying. Despite that, I have since seen all of her movies, including 2015’s Trainwreck, 2017’s Snatched and 2018’s I Feel Pretty. The latter is the only one I remotely liked, though I thought it could have been so much better – and a little shorter. I guess I just don’t get Amy’s humor. I was still thrilled to learn while touring The Pierre’s Cotillion Ballroom during my April 2016 trip to NYC, that the hotel’s Grand Ballroom was utilized in a prominent scene in Trainwreck, and ran right over to the space to snap some pics. Since returning home, I’ve come across a couple of the venue’s other onscreen cameos and figured it was high time I blog about it.

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I covered The Pierre’s history in my recent post on the Cotillion Ballroom, but figured a brief recap is in order here. The extravagant hotel was designed by the Schultze & Weaver architecture firm in 1930 for restaurateur Charles Pierre. The opulent property has defined luxury lodging in New York ever since. Known for its lavish décor and large public spaces, The Pierre is one of the city’s most popular event venues, thanks in large part to its Grand Ballroom.

Per The Pierre’s official website, the 86-by-86-foot space is the “largest pillarless ballroom amongst all five-star properties in NYC and offers uninhibited views.” The 7,500-square-foot venue also boasts 20-foot ceilings and a 1,500-person capacity. In 2005, the hotel underwent a four-year, $100-million renovation, during which The Grand Ballroom was overhauled by interior designer Alexandra Champalimaud. The result of her efforts is a sprawling room with a bowed ceiling, richly-colored draperies, gilded mirrors, and sparkling chandeliers hung from chains designed to resemble bows, which I was completely enamored with.

Even the stairs and hallway leading to The Grand Ballroom are stunning.

I mean, check out that ceiling!

In Trainwreck, Amy (Amy Schumer) attends an awards luncheon in The Grand Ballroom in which her new boyfriend, Dr. Aaron Conners (Bill Hader), is honored.

During Aaron’s acceptance speech, Amy takes a work call and winds up having to leave the venue – a huge no-no. Did she not learn anything from Mr. Big in Sex and the City’s “The Chicken Dance” episode?

The hallway leading to The Grand Ballroom is featured in the scene, as well.

As is the hotel’s Regency Room . . .

. . . which we also got to check out during our April 2016 tour.

The Grand Ballroom is also the spot where Ramona Singer and friends (well, all friends except for Kelly Killoren Bensimon) attend a fundraiser in the Season 4 episode of The Real Housewives of New York City titled “March Madness,” which aired in 2011.

In the Season 2 episode of Jessica Jones titled “AKA Start at the Beginning,” which aired earlier this year, Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor) and Griffin Sinclair (Hal Ozsan) are shown walking down the steps leading to The Grand Ballroom after attending a literacy fundraiser.

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 Pierre is located at 2 East 61st Street on New York’s Upper East Side. You can visit the hotel’s official website here. The Grand Ballroom can be found at the rear of the property, east of the Rotunda, on the 2nd floor.

August 8, 2018
The “Portal” Light Installation

Today’s locale can be filed in the hidden-gem-that-is-not-a-filming-location category, much like the Barthman Sidewalk Clock in New York. (Well, it’s not really a filming location, but more on that in a bit.) This one is located in Los Angeles, though, and is a definite must-see under-the-radar spot. Looking back, I can’t remember how I first learned about Portal, the unique light installation tucked away in Little Tokyo’s Weller Court shopping center, but as soon as I did I was transfixed. I pored over images of the site, practically drooling, and immediately added it to the tip top of my To-Stalk List. But when I ventured out there a few weeks later, I was shocked at what a hard time I had locating the art piece. Walking around Weller Court, I could not seem to find it anywhere and no one I asked (even two local cops patrolling the area) had any clue as to what I was talking about (though the cops were intrigued and asked me to report back to them if I ever did track the thing down as they wanted to see it themselves). The lack of awareness on the subject was surprising considering Portal’s current popularity on Instagram. I finally managed to pinpoint the installation after about thirty minutes of searching and figured a blog post was in order so that my fellow stalkers don’t have to suffer the same confusion I did.

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Portal is the work of visual artist Akiko Yamashita, who was commissioned by the owner of Weller Court in 2014 to jazz up a lackluster exterior hallway leading to the shopping center’s elevator and rear entrance/exit that fronts East 2nd Street.

Her vision, which consists of 7,000 colorful light pixels that bounce and dance around the small corridor, was completed the following year.

To create the piece, Yamashita embedded individually addressable LED strips into the floor, sides, and ceiling of the 271.5-foot passageway.

Illumination continually moves throughout the strips, shining different colors along the way, resulting in a virtual light show.

Though the installation runs 24 hours a day, it operates intermittently, which is why I had a hard time finding it.

As you can see below, the passageway doesn’t look like much when Portal isn’t running.

But when the lights go on, it is pretty darn spectacular.

And it becomes even more so at night, as you can see in these images.

The “show” reminds me a bit of the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland, though it is not set to music.

As I mentioned, Portal has become an Instagram favorite, popping up all over the grid of countless feeds. The installation also won A’Design Award & Competition’s Silver Award in the Lighting Products and Lighting Projects Design category for 2017-2018.

If you find yourself in downtown L.A. looking for something to do, I highly recommend stopping by Weller Court to catch a glimpse of Portal. To save you the headache of pinpointing it, here is a breakdown of its exact location. The easiest method of reaching the installation is via the 200 block of East 2nd Street, as the passageway serves as the shopping center’s rear entrance. Portal is located just beyond the staircase pictured below.

Portal can also be reached from the inside of Weller Court shopping center, which is located at 123 Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka Street. The entrance to the marketplace is pictured below.

The installation is situated directly across from the main entrance through the doorway with the red awning that is denoted with a pink arrow in the photo below.

And in the interest of being thorough, here’s a close-up image of that doorway, which serves as Portal’s entrance.

Thanks to fellow stalker Walter, I learned that Weller Court makes an appearance at the beginning of the Season 3 episode of Highway to Heaven titled “All That Glitters” as the spot where Charley Trapola (John Pleshette) hocks fake gold necklaces.

The hallway that now houses Portal is very briefly visible in the scene.

At the beginning of the 2008 action flick Hancock, John Hancock (Will Smith) is seen sleeping on a bench situated just outside of Weller Court, in front of the Bank of the West outpost at 123 Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka Street, Suite 101.

In the Google Street View image below, the pink box denotes where the bench was placed in the scene.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Portal is located in the hallway leading to the elevator on the southern side of Weller Court shopping center at 123 Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka Street in Little Tokyo. The corridor also serves as Weller Court’s East 2nd Street entrance, which can be found on the 200 block of East 2nd Street, in between South Los Angeles and San Pedro Streets. Kinokuniya, one of my favorite area book/gift stores, is located on Weller Court’s second level directly above Marukai Market. And Demitasse Cafe, one of my fave L.A. coffee shops, is just down the block at 135 South San Pedro Street, as is Kyoto Gardens from Her, which can be found on the third floor of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Los Angeles Downtown at 120 South Los Angeles Street.

August 6, 2018
The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant from “I Love You, Man”

In Pretty Woman, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) states that very few people surprise him. I could say the same about filming locations. One that did recently surprise me, though, was The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant in Reseda. For years I had been under the impression that the engagement party scene from the 2009 comedy I Love You, Man had been shot at Hop Louie. But when I sat down to write my post about the landmark Chinatown eatery back in March, I realized that, despite a misleading establishing shot pictured at the beginning of the segment, the restaurant’s interior most certainly did not match what was shown onscreen. What the wha? I got to Googling and eventually discovered that filming had actually taken place at The Great Wall. What’s more, the eatery’s official website noted several other productions lensed on the premises! So it, of course, went straight to the top of my To-Stalk List and the Grim Cheaper and I headed out there for lunch a few weeks later.

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The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant is one of those rarest of Los Angeles anomalies – an eatery that has been around for multiple decades.

Originally established in 1984, the Mandarin/Szechwan restaurant is a neighborhood landmark.

The site’s rather drab exterior (excluding those fabulous red doors pictured above) belies little of the grandiosity of its interior.

Featuring Mandarin décor . . .

. . . and a striking gilded ceiling, the place is absolutely stunning!

I mean, look at that chandelier!

The restaurant is also much larger than its exterior would have you believe and consists of three areas – a massive main dining room;

a rear banquet room;

and a bar area situated near the entrance.

The eatery is extremely old school – in the best way possible.

The GC and I both commented on the fact that we hadn’t seen a Chinese restaurant like it in ages.

The place even has a Lazy Susan and serves hot tea via ceramic teapots upon entering! Talk about bringing me back to my childhood!

Per LoopNet, The Great Wall, which appears to be for sale, raked in $38,350 in filming income last year alone! And it is not very hard to see why. The restaurant is just begging to be photographed! Somehow, it even manages to come across more beautifully in pictures than it does in real life. As such, location managers flock to it.

Though an establishing shot of Hop Louie was shown at the beginning of I Love You, Man’s engagement party scene and the restaurant was even referred to by that name in the segment . . .

. . . all actual filming took place at The Great Wall.

Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) and Zooey Rice’s (Rashida Jones) friends and family first gather in the bar area in the scene . . .

. . . and then head to the rear banquet room for dinner.

The interior of The Great Wall also pops up a few times as the inside of the Golden Wonton Restaurant & Orphanage in the 2007 comedy Norbit.

That same year, the restaurant appeared in Lucky You as the spot where Huck Cheever (Eric Bana) takes Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore) for a celebratory dinner.

Though the place isn’t referred to by name and is supposedly located in Las Vegas in the flick, “The Great Wall Restaurant” is visible on the menu Huck is holding in the scene.

At the end of the 2011 drama Drive, Driver (Ryan Gosling) meets with Bernie Rose (an unrecognizable Albert Brooks) at The Great Wall.

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 Great Wall Chinese Restaurant, from I Love You, Man, is located at 18331 Sherman Way in Reseda. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

August 3, 2018
7th Street/Metro Center Station from “Cruel Intentions”

We all have those movie scenes – the ones so dramatic, so full of romance or even so disturbing (like this, for example) that, for better or worse, they remain ingrained in our memories. Two of my favorites happen to be from the same film and, oddly, it’s a film I don’t even like – 1999’s Cruel Intentions. The first, as mentioned in my recent post on the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion, is the scene in which Annette Hargrove (Reese Witherspoon) implores Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Phillippe) to take himself less seriously by making adorably silly faces. The other is the escalator scene. Ladies, you know what I’m talking about, amirite? For those who haven’t seen it (and if not, I urge you to check it out ASAP), here’s a rundown – after a major argument, Sebastian shows up at what is supposedly Penn Station in New York to surprise Annette. As she heads up an escalator upon debarking her train and sees him waiting for her at the top, she says “I’m impressed,” to which he responds, “Well, I’m in love.” Hearts of teenage girls everywhere broke wide open for Phillipe while watching the scene – mine included. So when I recently learned via The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations that the 7th Street/Metro Center Station in downtown L.A. portrayed Penn Station in the bit, I just about fell over from excitement and immediately added the site to my To-Stalk List. I made it out to the station a few weeks later and was thrilled to see the place looking virtually frozen in time from its onscreen stint almost twenty years ago.

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7th Street/Metro Center Station is located beneath Figueroa Tower on the corner of South Figueroa and West 7th Streets in downtown’s Financial District.

Completed in 1988, the 24-story structure, originally known as Home Savings Tower, mixes Chateauesque and post-modern styles.

The station’s entrance can be found at the building’s southwest corner, beneath a gorgeous mural titled “City Above.”

Painted by Terry Schoonhoven in 1991, the imagery of the colorful piece appears to change drastically as riders journey up the escalators to the street or down to the subway.

The depot itself, the first subway station to open in Los Angeles since the city shut down subterranean transportation in 1955, debuted in February 1991 to much fanfare. The site’s lower level, which was behind schedule, opened two years later.

Very little of the terminal can actually be seen in Cruel Intentions. Thankfully, an elevator is visible behind Sebastian at one point which helped me pinpoint the exact spot where filming took place.

In the iconic scene, Annette and Sebastian reunite on the station’s first level mezzanine, at the set of escalators that abut the elevator just past the turnstiles near the 7th & Figueroa Street entrance. That area is pictured below.

The escalator that Annette rides up in the segment actually moves downward in real life, so it was a bit hard to get a matching shot of her POV. The image below is the closest I got.

Despite the directional switch, thanks to the fact that the camera pans down in the scene, stepping onto that escalator made me feel like I was actually living out the movie. I swear I could almost make out “Colorblind” playing in the background.

The segment also features a blurred view of the station’s ceramic tile art installation titled The Movies: Fantasies and The Movies: Spectacles, hand-painted by Joyce Kozloff, as Annette and Sebastian inevitably kiss. Sigh!

Amazingly, the escalator bit wasn’t an original element of the Cruel Intentions storyline. Per a script I found online dated February 10th, 1998 (which is about four months before filming began), the train station scene initially lacked dialogue and simply consisted of Annette disembarking from a train at Grand Central Station to find Sebastian standing in the busy concourse waiting for her. She runs to him and they kiss. End scene. I would love to know what motivated the change. Did the director take one look at 7th Street/Metro Center Station’s escalator layout and become inspired? Being that locations typically serve as my inspiration, I’d like to think that was the case.

Cruel Intentions is not the only production to have made use of 7th Street/Metro Center Station. Lt. Sam Cole (Tom Sizemore) ventures out of the depot at the end of the Season 1 episode of Robbery Homicide Division titled “Hellbound Train,” which aired in 2003.

In the 2004 thriller Collateral, Annie (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Max (Jamie Foxx) run into the station and onto a train in an attempt to escape from Vincent (Tom Cruise).

That same year, the site appeared in two episodes of 24. It is at 7th Street/Metro Center Station that Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and his team set up a stakeout to catch Arthur Rabens (Salvator Xuereb) in Season 3’s “11:00 A.M. – 12: 00 P.M.” . . .

. . . and “12:00 P.M. – 1:00 P.M.”

The entrance to the station also appears in the Season 6 episode of 24 titled “7:00 A.M. – 8 A.M,” which aired in 2007 . . .

. . . though interiors were shot about 15 miles away at North Hollywood Station located at 5391 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood.

Both the subway’s Figueroa and 7th Street entrance . . .

. . . as well as its other entrance at West 7th and South Flower Street make brief appearances in the 2009 family comedy Hotel for Dogs.

Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) investigate the death of a subway maintenance worker at the station in the Season 3 episode of Castle titled “Murder Most Fowl,” which aired in 2010.

The depot and its 7th & Flower entrance also pop up in Castle’s Season 7 episode titled “Kill Switch,” which aired in 2014.

Taylor Swift dances at 7th Street/Metro Center Station (barefoot, no less!) in her 2018 music video for “Delicate,” which you can watch here.

The station’s 7th & Flower entrance masks as the entrance to New York’s Chamber Street Station in the Season 1 episode of For the People titled “Rahowa,” which aired in March of this year.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: 7th Street/Metro Center Station, aka Penn Station from Cruel Intentions, can be reached from the bottom level of the Home Savings Tower, which is located at 660 South Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles. The escalator that appeared in the movie is situated just beyond the turnstiles at that entrance, in front of the elevator. Be advised, you will need to purchase a TAP card and buy a fare to access the area featured in the scene.

August 1, 2018
The House from Ben Affleck’s “Men’s Journal” Photo Shoot

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times – I hate incorrect filming location information! I recently encountered some erroneous reporting which led me to stalk a site that, come to find out, does not actually have any movie or television connections (at least, none that I could dig up). Hmph! Because the property has played host to a couple of celebrity photo shoots, though, and is an absolutely stunning example of 1960s architecture, I figured it was still worthy of a blog post. So here goes. Back in June, a fellow stalker named Manon emailed me a link to a house featured in an online film locations database asking me to identify it. When I read in the description that the pad had not only appeared in the original 1960 Ocean’s 11 movie, but a James Bond flick from the same era, I just about hyperventilated. Images of the place showing the property in all of its retro glory, with decorative wood screens, bright orange front doors and a rock-walled fireplace, only served to further my intrigue. So I immediately set about tracking it down.

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Fortunately, finding this particular locale was a snap thanks to a street sign reading “Devlin Drive” that was visible in one of the images featured online. I simply headed to Google Street View, inputted “Devlin Drive, Los Angeles,” and began scanning through the various houses located there. I came across the right pad at 1344 Devlin Drive in Hollywood Hills West mere minutes later, promptly added the address to my To-Stalk List and visited it while in L.A. shortly thereafter, without doing any further research on the subject.

It was not until I sat down to start penning this post that I discovered the home was not actually featured in Ocean’s 11 – or James Bond.

Though the place would undeniably fit perfectly into either flick, I scanned through the original Ocean’s 11 TWICE and did not see it anywhere.

I also scanned through every 1960s James Bond flick that did any filming in California (as it turns out there aren’t many) and did not see the house pop up at all, so I believe that information is also incorrect.

I am still glad to have seen the striking pad in person nonetheless. Originally built in 1960 by Bray Architects, the gorgeous mid-century-style residence boasts 2 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,500 square feet of living space, a natural rock double fireplace, floor to ceiling glass windows, 0.37 acres of land, a terrace, and a garden.

Some of the interior is visible through the massive front windows and I was practically drooling upon seeing it.

The home is such a relic, I half-expected Don Draper to come waltzing into view casually sipping a martini.

Considering its authentic retro aesthetic, I am fairly certain the pad has appeared in a production or two at some point, but, surprisingly, I could not find any cinematic ties to the place in all of my research.

It has been the site of a few photo shoots, though. Ben Affleck posed at the house for the cover of the December 2017 issue of Men’s Journal magazine. The caps below come from some behind-the-scenes videos shot the day of the shoot which you can watch here and here.

Laura Dern was also photographed there for the May 2018 issue of Rhapsody magazine.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Manon for asking me to find this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The house from Ben Affleck’s photo shoot for the December 2017 issue of Men’s Journal magazine is located at 1344 Devlin Drive in Hollywood Hills West.

July 30, 2018
The Lewis Estate from “American Woman”

The internet has been going crazy as of late over images of Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood filming on location in L.A. The period piece, which stars Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Luke Perry (OMG!) and chronicles the murder of Sharon Tate, is set in 1960s Tinseltown. As Tarantino said at CinemaCon in April, “Street by street, block by block, we’ll transform Los Angeles into the Hollywood of 1969.” And transform it, he has. The director has brought countless lost city landmarks back to life in their original locations. I so wish I was there to witness it all! Another recent production that has also been resurrecting retro L.A. is American Woman, which debuted on the Paramount Network in early June. Set in 1975, the series is loosely based upon the life of Kathleen Richards, mom of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards, who serves as co-executive producer. Though I find the show to be a bit blah, the costumes and music are downright intriguing and the locations have me practically foaming at the mouth, especially the mid-century modern pad that serves as the home of lead character Bonnie Nolan (Alicia Silverstone) and her two daughters, Becca (Makenna James) and Jessica (Lia McHugh). So I, of course, set out to pinpoint it.

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Said to be in Bel Air on the series, one look at the retro-fabulous property told me it was more likely located in Encino.

Thanks to the unique configuration of the residence, which consists of two adjacent rotundas, it was a snap to find. I simply inputted “mid-century modern,” “house,” “Encino,” and “circular” into Google and the first response kicked back was a 2011 article about a pad for sale at 17862 Via Vallarta in Lake Encino complete with listing photos showing the very same spot I was searching for! I ran out to stalk it shortly thereafter.

Known as the Lewis Estate in real life, the 1972 residence was commissioned by Joby and Helen Lewis, proprietors of Lake Tahoe’s Cal-Vada Lodge, as well as several Los Angeles nightclubs.

The unique property, designed by Benton/Park/Candreva Architects, is formed by two dodecagons (aka 12-sided structures) connected via a glass pavilion.

The sprawling 4-bedroom, 4-bath, 5,377-square-foot estate boasts a 3-car garage, a sunken living room, Rosewood detailing, brass sunburst front doors, maid’s quarters, a fireplace, a fire pit, a pool, a spa, and 1.33 acres of land. Amazingly, very little of the home has been altered since it was built 45-plus years ago.

After Joby passed away in 1998, Helen continued to live at the residence. Upon her death in July 2011, the property was put on the market for $2,900,000. It eventually sold that November for $1,887,500 to husband-and-wife art auctioneers/architecture buffs Peter and Shannon Loughrey who have resolved to keep much of the place’s original detailing intact. Peter is definitely a man after my own heart. As a Ventura Boulevard article about the house states, “When Peter Loughrey first moved to California he was so enamored by the modernist homes he’d pass while driving through Brentwood and Bel Air that he’d often stop, ring the doorbell and ask the owner for a tour. ‘A little old lady would answer and I’d say “Is this a Neutra house?”’ recalls Peter, referring to pioneering Austrian-American architect Richard Neutra. ‘She’d say “Yes! How did you know?” Then she’d let me in, make me a sandwich and show me around.’” Oh Peter, you and I could so hang!

The Lewis Estate’s original detailing is no doubt what led to its use on American Woman. The residence is featured regularly on the series in establishing shots of the Nolan family home, as well as in some on-location scenes.

The residence’s actual interior, which you can see photos of here and here, appeared in the show’s first two episodes, “Liberation” (pictured below) and “Changes and the New Normal.”

Beginning with episode 4, titled “The Cost of Living,” the production began utilizing a set for interiors of the Nolan home. That set is pictured below.

The property’s real-life pool and backyard area have been featured several times on the series, as well.

Fellow stalker Lisa informed me that the Lewis Estate also appears extensively as the home of Ken (Brían F. O’Byrne) and Grace Karn (Michaela McManus) during the first season of the television series Aquarius, which aired in 2015.

The Lewis Estate briefly pops up in the pilot episode of Snowfall, which aired in 2017, as the residence of Robert Volpe (Taylor Kowalski).

And the house party at the end of 2019’s Booksmart takes place there, as well.

Eagle-eyed fellow stalkers likely noticed the blue and white filming notification attached to the residence’s front lamp in my photos.

That notification was for Elle King’s “Shame” music video, which you can watch 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 American Woman house is located at 17862 Via Vallarta in the Lake Encino neighborhood of Encino.

July 27, 2018