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Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins from “Veep”

I often find myself thinking about how fabulous it would be if Instagram had existed back when Beverly Hills, 90210 was still on the air. One of my most-loved down-time activities is perusing the feed of actors currently starring on shows I watch to see the various behind-the-scenes stories and photos they post. Not only do the images provide a rare peek at the intimate goings-on of the production of a television series, but they’re an incredible source of filming location information. Like I said, I can only imagine if the app was in existence during the 90210 days. Perhaps then the world would know the location of Tal Weaver’s (Gabriel Macht) house, as well as the mansion where the infamous red dress photo shoot took place (two of my most-wanted yet-to-be-found spots). But I digress. One of the best IG accounts for production info is Julia Louis-Dreyfus’. The Veep star regularly posts photos of the behind-the-scenes happenings of her hit HBO series – like this 2016 image showing the cast and crew during the filming of Season 5’s “Camp David,” which Julia states in the caption took place in Lake Arrowhead. I was more than a little perturbed when I came across the pic one day this past March being that I had literally just returned home from a trip to the mountain town days prior. Regardless, I quickly got to Googling to figure out exactly where filming had occurred and was thrilled to head back to Lake Arrowhead in September so that I could finally stalk it.

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A Google search of the words “Veep,” “filming,” and “Lake Arrowhead” led me to this 2016 Yelp review posted by user Stephanie B. in which she mentioned that the show had used Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins, located at 25994 California 189 in Twin Peaks, to mimic Camp David shortly before her stay. One look at images of the hotel online confirmed Stephanie’s assertion. From there, I just had to figure out exactly which of the property’s 20 cabins were utilized in the episode. Thankfully, the resort boasts quite an extensive website with numerous photographs of each bungalow, so that wasn’t hard to do. But more on that in a bit.

Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins was initially built in the early 1900s as housing for U.S. Forest Service rangers and staff. It was not until Helen and Fred Dowd saw the site’s potential as a vacation destination in the 1950s that the property was transformed into a sprawling hotel. The couple first leased the location, which they named “Arrowhead Road Resort,” from the Forest Service before eventually buying it outright in the ‘60s. More cabins were added to the premises during their tenure, but sadly, many of the original cottages from the early 1900s no longer stand thanks to several fires that hit the area over the years.

Fred’s passing in 1989 caused Helen to consider retirement and she put Arrowhead Road Resort on the market shortly thereafter. Four years later, Twin Peaks locals David and Tricia Dufour happened to visit some friends staying at the hotel and were given a tour of the vast property by Helen. It was love at first sight. The couple quickly snatched up the resort and re-named it Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins.

David, a general contractor, and Tricia, an interior designer, still own and manage the site to this day and have used their vocational talents to expand upon and improve the grounds and cabins, with David adding meandering streams and two large koi ponds to the premises and Tricia re-imagining the décor.

Today, the sprawling resort features 6 forested acres of land, a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi, volleyball courts, ping pong tables, hammocks, log swings, a myriad of outdoor seating areas, a jungle gym, a fire pit (perfect for s’mores!), and, as I mentioned earlier, 20 individual cabins ranging in size from studios that sleep 2 to a 7-bedroom lodge that can accommodate 21 guests.

During the month of December, each of those cabins is decorated for Christmas, which I think has to be about the coolest thing ever!

Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins truly is gorgeous in person. It is not hard to see why David and Tricia fell in love with the place or how it came to be used on Veep. Bonus – the employees are super friendly, as well! When I first arrived at the hotel, I popped in to the front office to explain why I was there and make sure it would be OK to take photos. The woman working at the desk told me to feel free to walk around and explore the grounds. While she was unsure of exactly where filming had taken place, thankfully I had already hatched all of that out beforehand, so she kindly handed me a map of the resort to help me find my way to the appropriate spots!

In “Camp David,” President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), her bagman Gary Walsh (Tony Hale), her ex-husband Andrew Meyer (David Pasquesi), his girlfriend Monica (Lauren Bowles), Selina’s daughter Catherine (Sarah Sutherland), and Catherine’s girlfriend Marjorie Palmiotti (Clea DuVall) head to Camp David for a “pre-Christmas Christmas celebration.” Though the trip is supposed to be an outing solely for family, unbeknownst to the rest of the group Selina has invited her entire team along, as well as Chinese President Lu Chi-Jang (Tzi Ma), his aides, and Finnish stateswoman Minna Häkkinen (Sally Phillips) – or as Selina refers to her “that a**-burger salad” – in order to discuss the building of manufacturing plants in key states where Selina needs votes. While three supposed Camp David cabins are shown in the episode, only two of the resort’s lodgings were utilized, with Fisherman’s Hideaway, aka Cabin #12 (pictured below), doing double duty portraying two different spots.

The front of Fisherman’s Hideaway first pops up as Camp David’s Aspen Lodge, where President Meyer and her family stay in the episode. In real life, the two-bedroom structure, which is Pine Rose Cabins’ most secluded unit, features a wooden deck with a BBQ, a full kitchen, a queen bed, a double bed, a foldout sofa, and a fireplace.

Only the exterior of the cottage was used in the filming. The interior of Selina’s cabin, which is much larger than Fisherman’s Hideaway’s interior, was a set built at Paramount Studios where the series is lensed. As you can see in these images of the inside of the actual Aspen Lodge, the Veep set was designed to closely resemble the president’s real life country retreat.

The north side of Fisherman’s Hideaway later pops up in “Camp David” as the cabin where Selina meets with President Lu Chi-Jang and the rest of the Chinese diplomats.

As you can see below, some changes were made to the structure for the shoot. Not only were the picnic table, bench swing, plastic storage compartment, utility box, and metal piping removed from the cabin, but a large pile of wood was added next to the door and the front porch area was digitally covered over with siding and a window to make it appear enclosed.

It is in front of the Fisherman’s Hideaway’s north side door that Lu Chi-Jang learns that President Eisenhower is no longer alive . . .

. . . and that Mike McLintock (Matt Walsh) inadvertently takes up chewing nicotine gum.

The supposed interior of that cabin was also a studio-built set.

Finally, Pine Rose’s Wild Bill’s cabin, aka Cabin #15, is where Selina’s team holes up in the episode.

In real life, the one-bedroom Western-themed lodging boasts a fireplace, a full kitchen, a deck, a BBQ, a queen bed, and a day bed.

Unlike Fisherman’s Hideaway, the interior of Wild Bill’s was utilized in “Camp David.” You can see images of it here.

The episode also made extensive use of Pine Rose Cabins’ beautiful grounds.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Arrowhead Pine Rose Cabins, from the “Camp David” episode of Veep, is located at 25994 California 189 in Twin Peaks. You can visit the hotel’s official website here. The cabins that appeared in the episode are Fisherman’s Hideaway and Wild Bill’s, both of which are denoted in pink in the aerial view below.

December 6, 2017
“The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” House

My knowledge of the Golden Age of Television doesn’t extend much beyond I Love Lucy, which I watched regularly with my grandma as a child. I am so out of the loop when it comes to entertainment of that era, in fact, that up until recently coming across a blurb in my friend E.J.’s book Hollywood Death and Scandal Sites, I did not realize that The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was based upon the exploits of the real life Nelson family – patriarch Ozzie, his wife, Harriet, and their two sons, David and Ricky – all of whom played semi-fictionalized versions of themselves on the ABC series, which aired from 1952 through 1966. (The show has the distinction of being the longest-running live action comedy in TV history, though It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will tie that record when its fourteenth season finishes airing in 2019.) Not only that, but, as I also learned from E.J.’s book, the family’s actual Hollywood Hills West home was used in establishing shots of the clan’s residence in each week’s opening credits! I had never before heard of such a case of art imitating life via a location like that and was immediately intrigued. So I added the dwelling to my To-Stalk List and headed on over to see it in person shortly thereafter.

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Ozzie and Harriet purchased their picturesque 1916 Cape Cod Colonial-style pad, designed by Frank T. Kegley and H. Scott Gerity, in November 1941, shortly after relocating from New Jersey to California upon landing stints on Red Skelton’s radio show The Raleigh Cigarette Program. The couple parlayed that gig into another radio show, this one based upon their lives, titled The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which premiered on October 8th, 1944. While the duo played themselves on the weekly series, child actors were hired to perform as their two young sons. It was not until the show’s fifth season in 1949 that David and Ricky began portraying themselves. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet proved immensely popular with radio audiences and in February 1952, a 75-minute feature based upon it titled Here Come the Nelsons was produced to serve as a sort of test pilot for a television show. The movie was a hit and the family’s TV series began airing in October of that same year. The rest, as they say, is history.

In a rather unprecedented move, Ozzie and Harriet decided to utilize their own home in the opening credits of the series’ early seasons, which you can take a look at here. Miraculously, despite the passage of more than six decades, the pad still looks very much the same today as it did when the show originally debuted.

Sadly though, a large fence was built around the exterior of the property at some point which largely blocks it from view.

During my research for this post, I came across quite a few media reports (including this 2007 Los Angeles Times article) stating that a replica of the exterior of the Nelsons’ home was built by ABC for the series and that no filming of the real life residence ever actually took place. I am 99.9% certain, though, that the Hollywood Hills West house did, indeed, appear in the early seasons’ credits and that the re-creation was built at some point after the initial seasons aired and was utilized for both the various openings from the series’ later years (one of those openings is pictured below) . . .

. . . as well as in episodes which required the outside of the family’s house to be shown, such as Season 8’s “The Nelsons Decide to Move” (pictured below).

The interior of the Nelsons’ home on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet was, of course, just a studio-built set, but, from everything I’ve read, it was very closely modeled after the actual inside of the Hollywood Hills West house.

Though the television series turned the entire family into icons, the Nelsons remained living in their rather approachable digs until 1975 when Ozzie passed away. Harriet did hold on to the property through 1981, but resided mainly at a modest weekend home in Laguna Beach the couple had owned for years. (That pad has since been torn down, unfortunately.)

The residence’s Tinseltown connections doesn’t end there, though. The property also served as the home of another famous small-screen family – that of Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) and his clan during the first few seasons of Entourage.

The real life interior of the dwelling was also utilized on the popular HBO series. (That interior has since been drastically remodeled, but more on that in a bit. You can see what it looked like pre-remodel here and here.)

Amazingly, the pad has yet another small-screen connection! In 2013, it was put on the market (for a cool $3,295,000) and the listing agent was none other than The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Mauricio Umansky. The property, which boasts 5 bedrooms (all of them en-suite), 6 baths, 5,283 square feet of living space, a 0.49-acre lot, a pool complete with a pool house, a 3-car garage, a whopping 3 fireplaces, a media room, a chef’s kitchen, and a master suite with his and her walk-in closets, was purchased by a development company that same year for $3,025,000. The group completely renovated the place with interior designer Kishani Perera (you can see photos of what it looks like currently here and here) and sold it in October 2014 for $5,250,000 to Law & Order: SVU’s Christopher Meloni. He still owns it today. Talk about a house with a Hollywood pedigree!

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 Nelson family home (both in real life and from The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet) is located at 1822 Camino Palmero Street in Hollywood Hills West.

December 4, 2017
My Latest Article for “L.A.” Mag – A DIY Film Locations Tour

The December 2017 issue of Los Angeles magazine hit newsstands last week, featuring an article by yours truly. The blurb, which can be found on page 93, is a detailed itinerary for a tour of twenty L.A.-area film locales. If you can’t get your hands on a copy, don’t worry – the article can also be found online here. Enjoy!

December 1, 2017
Richard Simmons’ House

I, along with the rest of the world, became absolutely transfixed by the first season of Serial, the 2014 podcast hosted by Sarah Koenig which detailed the murder of Baltimore teenager Hae Min Lee and the subsequent conviction of her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed for the killing. Not only did the Grim Cheaper and I listen to the entire thing three times through, but we also voraciously devoured Truth and Justice (née Serial Dynasty) and Undisclosed, two of Serial’s unaffiliated offshoots that further investigated the crime. Since then, I have constantly been on the lookout for other engrossing podcasts, but finding ones that fit the bill has proved difficult. Some, like In the Dark and Accused, definitely hit the mark. Others like Someone Knows Something and My Favorite Murder were horribly disappointing (though to be fair I only listened the first season of the former). Then in February of this year, Missing Richard Simmons dropped and I felt as if my prayers had been answered! The GC and I couldn’t get enough! Created by director/producer Dan Taberski, a close friend of the eccentric fitness guru, the series is extremely well-executed, intelligently written, and absolutely gripping. Prior to the podcast, I knew very little about Simmons and never would have thought he’d be someone I’d be interested in listening to 3.5 hours worth of dialog on, but thanks to Taberski’s engaging narrative, I was hooked right from the start. At the forefront of the story is Richard’s palatial Hollywood Hills West mansion. So I, of course, just had to stalk the place.

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For those who haven’t listened to Finding Richard Simmons (and if not, you really should!) and don’t know much about the mystery shrouding the icon’s life as of late, I’ll break it down for you. On February 15th, 2014, Richard did not show up for the exercise class he had been teaching thrice weekly at Slimmons, his Beverly Hills studio, since 1974. No explanation was given – nor was one given when he failed to show up the following week. At the same time, Simmons also cut off ties to his legions of regulars and, from what it seems, all of his close friends, including Taberski. His calls, emails, and texts just ceased. He also stopped talking to the media, stopped giving interviews, and stopped doing promotions. Richard Simmons hasn’t been seen in public since (unless you count his blanket-covered homecoming after a four-day visit to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in April 2017). Reportedly holing up in his Colonial-style mansion, rarely (if ever) venturing past the fence line, the star pulled a gone guy – with his longtime housekeeper, Teresa Reveles, acting as a gatekeeper. Friends, colleagues, and fans were understandably concerned and attempted to get in touch. Richard wasn’t talking, though. According to the podcast, outside of his brother, manager, publicist, a friend in Minnesota, and Teresa, Simmons went radio silent on the world.

Why the silence? Why the hiding? Why the mystery? That is what Taberski sought to find out. And he left no stone unturned in his quest for the truth – contacting countless friends and associates of Richard’s, traveling to New Orleans to interview his brother, and showing up at Simmons’ house (where he used to be a frequent guest) a couple of times unannounced. All of it is recorded, documented, and broadcast to tantalizing effect in the podcast. On his trek to the massive dwelling during the taping of episode 1, titled “Where’s Richard?”, Dan is shocked to discover that a 6-foot wall has been erected around the residence since the last time he visited. As you can see in the Google Street View images below from June 2011 and May 2014, while there has always been a fence surrounding Simmons’ home, since his self-imposed exile, a secondary barricade, one built of concrete, has replaced the white picket enclosure that once ran along the property line. The result is a house that is much less accessible and welcoming, which I’m sure is the point.

A funny side-note – Teresa, Richard’s housekeeper who I mentioned earlier and who figures prominently in Missing Richard Simmons, is visible moving Simmons’ trash cans (just as she did during Taberski’s second visit to the house in episode 2, “Stakeout”) in Google’s Street View imagery from November 2015.

According to the Mary Cummins website, Richard purchased the two-story residence in 1982 for $670,000.

Per Zillow, the 1937 pad, which features 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, 4,119 square feet of living space, a 0.56-acre lot, and a 2-car detached garage, is worth a whopping $5.2 million today.

The property also boasts a massive black-bottom swimming pool, as you can see in the aerial view below.

Though definitely ornate, the house is not nearly as over-the-top and ostentatious as one would expect considering its owner.

Simmons has been known to give the place its own grandiose spin, though. As Taberski says in episode 1, “He loves to tell people his house was featured as a plantation house stand-in in the opening credits of Gone with the Wind, but I’m gonna call bullshit on that one.” Dan was probably smart to do so. I did the legwork and watched the GWTW credits and while Richard’s residence does bear a striking resemblance to a property featured in it (pictured below), I do not believe the two are one and the same.

I was most excited to check out the home’s mailbox, which, as noted in the podcast, boasts a touch of the star’s ostentatious flair and is, thankfully, still visible from the street despite the new fencing. As you can see below, the letter drop is a miniature replica of Simmons’ antebellum mansion.

So what is the outcome of Taberski’s quest, you ask? Does he get to the bottom of the icon’s disappearance? How does Missing Richard Simmons end? Sadly, Dan does not really uncover any definitive answers. All he hears over and over again is that Richard is tired and wants to retreat from public life – which he is perfectly entitled to do. But to do so by cutting off ties to virtually everyone he has ever been close with and essentially becoming a recluse overnight? Well, that smacks of something problematic (in my opinion, at least). What that something is, I have no idea. But I don’t begrudge Dan – or the rest of Richard’s friends – for wanting to find out. And though the podcast was met with quite a bit of controversy, I believe Taberski’s intentions were pure. He just wanted to make sure that Simmons, someone he cares a lot about, is OK. In doing so, he created a podcast that showcases the amazing person that Richard is. Prior to listening, I had no idea of Simmons’ incredible generosity and kindness, nor his astute business sense. All I really knew of the guru centered around his eccentricity, his love of costumes, and the fortune he made sweatin’ to the oldies. Dan taught me – and legions of other listeners – that Richard is so much more. I hope that whatever he is currently doing and for whatever reasons he is doing it, that he is happy.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Richard Simmons’ house is located at 1350 Belfast Drive in Hollywood Hills West.

November 27, 2017
Happy Thanksgiving!

I would like to wish a very happy Thanksgiving to all of my fellow stalkers. I hope everyone has a hearty, safe and blessed holiday. Like last year, I will be cooking tonight’s meal with my mom and am really looking forward to the endeavor, as well as the festivities of the rest of week (like getting our Christmas tree tomorrow). I will be back on Monday with a whole new post, so I’ll “see” ya then.

November 23, 2017
Lake Arrowhead’s North Shore Marina Beach from “Vanderpump Rules”

Some television moments are so iconic they cannot be forgotten. A few that are ingrained in my memory for the long haul – Ross and Rachel’s rain-soaked first kiss on Friends, Sam and Diane’s slapping fight on Cheers, Dylan’s epic tantrum (complete with a shattered potted plant) during his first date with Brenda on Beverly Hills, 90210, and Stassi’s discovery that ex-boyfriend Jax has gotten her name tattooed on his arm on Vanderpump Rules. The latter event took place on a beach in Lake Arrowhead, so, as you can imagine, when I ventured out to the mountain hamlet for a quick getaway this past March, stalking it was one of my top priorities. The only problem was that, try as I might, I could not find it anywhere. Not only did I scan aerial views of the lake for hours upon hours looking for the spot, but I also showed screen captures of the tattoo scene to pretty much every local I came across while in town to see if they could identify it – all to no avail. It was not until a few days after I returned home that I finally pinpointed the site of filming as the beach located at the North Shore Marina. Darn Murphy’s Law! Thankfully though, my parents, the Grim Cheaper and I ventured back out to Lake Arrowhead for another visit in late September and, this time, the North Shore Marina beach was my first stop. Well, sort of. Sadly, the vast majority of the area’s coastline, including the stretch that appeared in Vanderpump Rules, is private, so I had to settle for seeing it from afar.

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In the Season 2 episode of Vanderpump Rules titled “Only the Lonely,” Stassi Schroeder and the rest of the Sur gang head out to Lake Arrowhead to attend a Pierce the Arrow (Tom Sandoval’s band) gig. (You can read about the location where the band performed here, as well as about a couple of other sites that appeared in the episode here and here.) Upon arriving in town, the group makes a brief stop at a local beach for some paddle-boarding and sunbathing.

Though not much of the beach was shown in the episode, I was able to discern that it was situated in between a grouping of boat docks . . .

. . . and that there was some sort of two-doored building, which I figured was a public restroom, on the premises.

Though Lake Arrowhead isn’t all that big, the search for the “Only the Lonely” beach proved problematic, mainly due to the fact that overhead views of the region aren’t especially clear from any search engine. After scouring and re-scouring every inch of the area’s shoreline via Google aerials for what seemed like hours, using the layout of the docks and the shape of the shoreline as it appeared in VR as my yardsticks, I finally pinpointed the site as the small beachfront located just north of the Arrowhead Lake Association’s main office at 870 North Highway 173 in the North Shore Marina. Though the beach does not have a name or an exact address, it is situated at the northern end of the marina, at the end of Access Trail 63, adjacent and just north of Peninsula Park, as denoted in the aerial view below.

While the gang is at the beach, Stassi makes the startling discovery that Jax Taylor, whom she broke up with months prior, has just gotten her name tattooed on his arm. Dumbfounded, she immediately asks the question all viewers were thinking at the time, “Why couldn’t you have done this when we were together?” (Instead of getting a bottle service girl pregnant in Vegas, perhaps?) Tom weighs in further, cautioning those at home, “Guys, I’m telling you, do not go out getting your ex-girlfriend’s name tattooed on your arm. Nine out of ten times this leads to a restraining order. Jax just got real lucky on this one.” It should be noted that it was not actually Stassi’s name that Jax immortalized on his bicep. No, he decided to take things one step further by tattooing her signature onto his arm. And yes, he of course covered over the inking not too long after the fact (with a black rose, no less), but not before etching another girlfriend’s name onto his other arm. An FYI for those who don’t watch the show – that relationship didn’t last, either. In fact, less than a month and a half after obtaining that tat, Jax was already looking to have it obscured. As he explained to his tattoo artist, “It’s round two for me on the cover-ups.” Thankfully, Jax switched things up in Season 4 by adding the names of his two BFFs, Tom and Tom, to his forearm. (I so love that he failed to capitalize the “i.” No ragrets!)

I cannot express how badly I wanted to re-create the moment Stassi discovered the tattoo (which was captured so perfectly on film), but because the beach and entire area surrounding it are private, that was not to be.

The site is so removed from public access, in fact, that the view below is pretty much all I saw of it.

For those interested, that view can be seen from the lookout point denoted below, which is situated slightly north of the Arrowhead Lake Association’s main office on Highway 173.

The stalk was not all for naught, though, as we were afforded some gorgeous glimpses of the North Shore Marina.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: North Shore Marina, from the “Only the Lonely” episode of Vanderpump Rules, is located at 870 North Highway 173 in Lake Arrowhead. Though the beach where filming took place does not have an exact address, it can be found at the northern end of the marina, at the end of Access Trail 63, adjacent to and north of Peninsula Park. Please keep in mind that the beach is private and trespassing strictly prohibited, but you can catch a limited glimpse of it from the lookout point situated just north of Arrowhead Lake Association’s main office on Highway 173.

November 22, 2017
Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia from “Veep”

It has been said that everyone has their own special superpower. I don’t know if that is true or not, but if so, mine is definitely my brain’s ability to take note of small, seemingly insignificant and rather trivial details, and commit them to memory, completely of its own volition. Case in point – I have stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia on a couple of occasions over the years. Though I did not spend much time on the premises during either of my visits (typically when in L.A., I am out and about stalking during all waking hours), last year, while watching the closing scene of Veep’s Season 5 premiere, “Morning After,” in which Jonah Ryan (Timothy Simon) attempts to check into a very crowded “Carson City” hotel, I immediately recognized the orange and pink ombré curtains visible behind him as those of the Garden Inn. Had I scrutinized or taken particular note of the hotel’s lobby area during my stay? No, not at all. In fact, prior to viewing the episode, had you asked me about the HGIA’s curtains, I probably would not have been able to recall them. But as soon as the draperies entered my eye-line during Veep, something in my brain clicked and I knew immediately where filming had taken place. Because I had failed to snap any photos of the hotel on my visits and because it is one of the series’ more minor locations, I never blogged about it. But when the Grim Cheaper happened to book us another stay there a few weeks back, I decided it was finally time I do so.

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In “Morning After,” Jonah, Amy Brookheimer (Anna Chlumsky), Dan Egan (Reid Scott), and Richard Splett (Sam Richardson), along with a slew of other staffers from both the Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Bill O’Brien (Brad Leland) presidential campaigns, descend upon Carson City, Nevada to head up a recount in the area. While in town, the group stays at a local unnamed motel. The exterior shown in the episode is a partial view of the Carson City Plaza Hotel and Event Center located at 801 South Carson Street, as well as the small strip mall situated across from it at 711 South Carson. (Though I have actually been to CC, I do not have any photos of those particular spots, so you’ll have to excuse the Google Street View image below.)

All actual filming of the “Morning After” hotel scene, though, took place at the Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia. The view of the curtains in the shot below is what caught my eye while watching.

After viewing the episode, I headed over to Google to pull up images of the hotel to confirm my hunch. One look at pictures of the Hilton Garden Inn’s lobby, with its peachy curtains and uniquely-etched front doors, cinched things for me.

Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia also popped up in the next episode of Veep, titled “Nev-AD-a.” (Confused about that title? This Veep clip should clear things up.) Oddly, a different hotel exterior, that of the Carson Tahoe Hotel at 800 North Carson Street, was utilized for the establishing shot in the episode. (Again, please pardon the Google Street View image below.)

In “Nev-AD-a,” exes Dan and Amy head back to their hotel after their first day of re-counting votes . . .

. . . and are shocked to discover that their rooms are located right across from each other.

In the episode, Dan is staying in Room 129 . . .

. . . while Amy is in 130. Both of these rooms can be found on the Hilton Garden Inn’s first floor, directly off of the lobby.

I am fairly certain that the interior of room 130 (or another of the property’s rooms) was also used in the episode. Like a dolt, I did not take any photos of the room we stayed in, but as you can see in these images from the hotel’s website, the Garden Inn’s bed and lamps match what appeared 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: Hilton Garden Inn Arcadia, from the “Morning After” and “Nev-AD-a” episodes of Veep, is located at 199 North 2nd Avenue in Arcadia. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

November 20, 2017
The Many Apartments of Carrie Bradshaw on “Sex and the City”

While it is quite common for locations to shift after the pilot episode of a television series is shot (as I’ve mentioned countless times before on this blog), changes are typically few and far between from that point forward. The vast majority of my favorite shows tend to play fast and loose with their locales, though. On Beverly Hills, 90210, for instance, not only did two different pads portray the residence of Dylan McKay (Luke Perry), but three exteriors were used to represent both the family home of Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) and that of Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris). Then there’s Sex and the City, which completely thumbed its nose at any sort of location continuity. Though said to be at 245 East 73rd Street on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, no less than five properties were utilized as the apartment building where Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) lived during the program’s six-season run. The initial site, a third-floor flat situated above a café (complete with a very New York-style neon “coffee” sign), which appeared in the series’ first two episodes, has long been a craw in my side. Despite many attempts to track it down over the years, I could never seem to do so. Then, a couple of months back, I decided to do a deep dive into identifying it and was finally successful. As fate would have it, my good friend Kim visited NYC shortly after my discovery and graciously agreed to stalk the place on my behalf. Thank you, Kim! When I sat down to write a post on the spot earlier this week, I got a little obsessed with pinpointing the four other properties used, as well, and, after countless hours scouring the internet, managed to ID all but one! So here I present to you a round-up of Carrie Bradshaw’s many Sex and the City apartments.

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Mention Carrie’s apartment to any SATC fan and visions of a grand brownstone with an idyllic stoop will undoubtedly come to their mind. But the spot initially used as her dwelling was not a walk-up at all, nor did it have any sort of stoop. Instead, Carrie was first shown living on the third floor of a rather non-descript building housing a coffee shop on its ground level, as I mentioned above. The structure pops up twice in the pilot – first in an opening scene and then again in the episode’s closing when Mr. Big (Chris Noth) drops Carrie off at home after running into her at a club. It is on the sidewalk in front of the property that the duo’s now iconic exchange takes place, during which Carrie asks Big, “Have you ever been in love?” to which he responds, “Absof*ckinglutely.”

As was portrayed on Sex and the City, while the bottom two levels of the building are commercial space in real life, the upper floors house apartments.

Though the apartments appear to have been modernized in recent years (as you can see here and here), I am fairly certain from the way the episode was shot that one of the units was utilized as Carrie’s in the pilot.

As you can see in the stills above from the pilot as compared to the ones below from the series’ second episode, “Models and Mortals,” Carrie’s apartment interior looked completely different in the inaugural episode than it did during the rest of the series.

In “Models and Mortals,” an establishing shot of the building appears twice. While scrutinizing the shot, I noticed a sign situated below Carrie’s apartment in which the word “Clea” and partial word “Col” could barely be made out. After a ridiculous amount of time Googling that phrasing along with “New York,” I finally landed on a mention on The Knot website of Clea Colet, a now defunct bridal wear vendor formerly located at 960 Madison Avenue. A quick look at that address on Street View confirmed that it was, indeed, Carrie’s original apartment building. Amazingly, while the second level windows were changed at some point in the 19-plus years since the first season of Sex and the City was filmed, the edifice otherwise looks much the same as it did onscreen. Though there is an eatery named 3 Guys Restaurant situated on the bottom level (it’s been there since the ‘70s!), I am fairly certain that the coffee sign visible next to Carrie’s window was not a real feature of the property, but a prop brought in for the filming.

As Kim noticed while stalking the place, a Christian Louboutin store is fittingly located right across the street.

After “Models and Mortals,” the exterior of Carrie’s apartment building is not shown again until the twelfth episode of the series, Season’s 1 finale titled “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” By that time, shooting had shifted from the Madison Avenue building to a new spot – a handsome brownstone with a picturesque stoop. In the episode, Carrie and Mr. Big break up – for the first time – outside of the structure after he refuses to tell her she is “the one.” Oddly, the site was only utilized in the one episode and while quite a bit of it was shown, I had a heck of a time tracking it down.

While doing my due diligence, I noticed that an address number of what I thought was “56” was visible on the building next door to Carrie’s brownstone in “Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” I examined pretty much all of the Upper East Side, as well as Greenwich Village, looking for properties numbered 56 that matched what appeared onscreen to no avail before finally calling in my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for an assist. Though he put in a Herculean effort, spending hours perusing the Upper West Side, as well as re-tracing my searches of Upper East Side and West Village neighborhoods, he could not find the pad either.

Then fate stepped in when, while hunting for the place via Google Street View, it struck me that the number on the building next door might actually be “36.” I dragged the little yellow man to the Upper East Side once again and started scrutinizing blocks in the 30 range for the right spot. It was not long before I came across 36 East 62nd Street. I had to do a triple take, though, because while the structure at that address matched what appeared on Sex and the City to a T, there was no brownstone adjacent to it. Instead, as you can see in the Street View image below, situated directly next to the building is a vacant plot of land. As I later learned thanks to this The New York Times article, a brownstone did once stand in the vacant space at 34 East 62nd Street, but it was blown up on July 10th, 2006 by its owner, who was involved in a bitter divorce and wanted to not only commit suicide, but to seek revenge on his ex in the process. The blast incinerated the structure, as you can see in images here, here, and here.

A photo of the home from when it was still intact is pictured below via Property Shark. Hard to believe it is just gone.

Carrie’s apartment doesn’t show up again until the third episode of Season 2, titled “The Freak Show.” Well, it sort of shows up. In the episode, Carrie walks in front of a row of brownstones at the end of her non-date with Ben (Ian Kahn) and at one point stops and says, “This is me,” but the exterior of a building is never actually visible. All that is visible is a rather fuzzy view of several walk-ups with iron porch railings.

A few episodes later, in “The Caste System,” Carrie walks with performance artist/bartender Jeremiah (Sam Ball) to a row of brownstones and heads up a set of stairs, but, again, no real exterior is shown. All that is visible is a row of buildings.

In Season 2’s “La Douleur Exquise!,” we finally get a definitive look at an exterior, though it is an overhead shot of Big leaving Carrie’s apartment – after yet another break-up – in which virtually nothing of the property is shown. I believe the same set of brownstones was utilized in all three episodes, but since so little is visible, I cannot say that with any certainty, nor can I even begin to guess where they might be located.

In Season 2, episode 14, “The F*ck Buddy,” Carrie’s apartment exterior is shifted yet again – this time to a brownstone at 64 Perry Street in the West Village. I found this locale thanks to a 2016 post on the StreetEasy Blog which mentioned the property’s use during the series’ early years.

Though very little of the exterior of Carrie’s brownstone is shown in “The F*ck Buddy,” thanks to its distinctive porch railing and some landmarks visible in the background, I was able to discern that 64 Perry was indeed the spot used.

64 Perry also appeared in Season 2’s “Was It Good for You?”

If the address sounds familiar, that is because the brownstone utilized as Carrie’s from the Season 3 premiere, titled “Where There’s Smoke . . . “, onward can be found right next door at 66 Perry Street. Why production decided to shift locales yet again to a brownstone located literally one door away from the previous one used is a mystery.

Though 66 Perry is undeniably charming and picturesque (that’s a picture of me on the stoop taken way back in 2004) and it is not hard to see how it came to be used on the series, as why it wasn’t chosen for filming during Season 2 instead of its neighbor . . . well, your guess is as good as mine.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Kim for stalking Carrie’s first apartment for me and to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for helping in the hunt for her second apartment!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment from the first two episodes of Sex and the City is located at 960 Madison Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side. The brownstone used in “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” was formerly located at 34 East 62nd Street, also on the Upper East Side, but no longer stands. Her home from the latter part of Season 2 can be found at 64 Perry Street in the West Village. And the brownstone used from Season 3 on is right next door at 66 Perry.

November 17, 2017
Carrera Café – Where Your Favorite Celebrity Can Be Turned into Latte Art

When not stalking or shopping, you can typically find me perusing fashion and beauty blogs. There are several I frequent daily including Gal Meets Glam, Atlantic-Pacific, Merrick’s Art, Cupcakes and Cashmere, and Hello Gorgeous. The latter was founded by Angela Lanter, wife of fave actor Matt Lanter. I started reading her site because of the Matt connection (obvs), but it didn’t take long for Angela to seriously grow on me and become one of my favorite online personalities. Her blog is worthy of a visit for the Halloween make-up tutorials alone (this one is my favorite), but she posts fabulous fashion, cosmetics, lifestyle and décor tips no matter what time of year. (Her beauty room is honestly the stuff dreams are made of!) Up until just recently, the Hello Gorgeous home page featured a photograph of Angela in front of an extremely picturesque wall dotted with pink and red lipstick marks. I was, of course, immediately taken with the colorful backdrop and set out to locate it. One quick Google search of the terms “wall,” “pink lips,” and “Los Angeles,” led me to this Los Angeles magazine article titled “Where to Find L.A.’s Most Instagrammed Walls IRL.” The blurb cataloged 9 of the city’s most photogenic backdrops, Number 7 being the “The Hello Lips Wall” at Carrera Café. Though a cursory internet search showed me the mural had long since been covered over with a new painting (the Beverly Grove coffee shop regularly changes up its exterior art), I became utterly intrigued with the place for a different reason.

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Google “Carrera Café” and, along with shots of the ubiquitous lips wall, your screen will be inundated with photos of lattes with perfect re-creations of celebrity images imprinted into the foam. One look at this pic of a frothy Leonardo DiCaprio had me absolutely smitten and I added the address of the coffee shop to the very top of my To-Stalk List. Though I wasn’t planning on traveling to L.A. for a couple of weeks, I set right out to determine which star would be donning my drink. After scouring pictures of Leo, actor Jeremy Renner, and cutie crooner Michael Bublé, I eventually settled on the image below, which was taken by fashion photographer Evaan Kheraj. At that point, I could hardly wait to head out to the café and when I finally did, the visit did not disappoint.

Carrera Café is able to create its latte masterpieces thanks to a machine known as the Ripple Maker. That’s it below.

The innovative and ingenious device is capable of etching any image or design onto the top of a frothy espresso drink. Oh, if only it was sold for home use!

The way the Ripple Maker works is quite simple. In order for the magic to occur, customers must download the Coffee Ripples app on their smartphones. Then, when in range of a café that utilizes the machine, they can upload an image of their choice to the app and crop and customize it to their liking. Hitting the “Ripple It” button sends the photo to the Ripple Maker and assigns the customer an order number. Patrons give that number to the cashier upon arrival and order an espresso drink of their choosing. (The Ripple Maker can even create images on top of iced drinks, which I was thrilled to learn as I am not a huge fan of hot coffee. In this case, though, I opted for a hot latte as I did not realize until later that iced versions were available.) The customer then pays for their drink at the register and the barista pulls the espresso and mixes the coffee confection, after which the cup is put underneath the Ripple Maker and voila, the uploaded image is stamped onto the foam topping!

Just a little bit excited to be drinking a Michael Bublé latte!

Best-looking java I’ve ever had!

The Grim Cheaper was not at all impressed with my image of choice, though, and ran his fingers right through the top of it as soon as I was done taking photos! Perhaps I was a bit too gleeful over my creation.

Opened in late 2016, Carrera Café, which is named for the white and grey marble that forms its countertops, is an absolutely adorable little spot.

I was especially enamored of the bubble gum pink payphone.

Considering its charming décor, it is no surprise that the place has popped up onscreen. In the Season 7 episode of Vanderpump Rules titled “Tom and Tommer,” which aired in 2019, Lala Kent and Scheana Shay meet up at Carrera Café where they discuss Scheana’s tumultuous relationship with the rest of the Sur girls.

Besides espresso specialties, the café also serves a variety of sandwiches, salads, vegetable side dishes, and pastries.

The GC and I decided to grab a bite to eat while there, opting for the Il Tacchino sandwich, which consisted of roasted turkey breast, provolone cheese, iceberg lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, Dijon mustard, and mayonnaise. It was honestly one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had!

At the time that we visited, Carrera Café’s exterior wall was covered with a mural advertising ABC’s new show The Mayor. I have to say that I much prefer the pink lips painting. I really wish I had gotten to see it in person.

Otherwise though, our visit could not have been more perfect and I cannot wait to go back – which means I better get busy choosing the next celebrity image I am going to use to decorate my drink!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Carrera Café is located at 8251 Melrose Avenue in Beverly Grove. You can visit the eatery’s official website here and you can download the Coffee Ripples app here.

November 8, 2017
Halloween 2017

I’ve made no secret of my love for Big Little Lies over the past couple of months (you can read my many posts on its filming locations here, here, here, and here), so it should come as no surprise that the HBO miniseries figured into my and the Grim Cheaper’s 2017 Halloween costumes. Interestingly though, this year marked the first time I’ve ever chosen a costume based on earrings alone. One look at the pink tassels hanging from Madeline Martha Mackenzie’s (Reese Witherspoon) lobes in the final episode, titled “You Get What You Need,” as well as in the weekly opening credits, and I knew there was no one else I’d rather dress up as. Thankfully, the ensemble was quite easy to put together.

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For those who haven’t seen Big Little Lies (and if that’s you, you must rectify the situation immediately – it was easily the best show of 2017, in my never-to-be-humble opinion), the series culminates with a massive Audrey-Hepburn-and-Elvis-Presley-themed costume party extravaganza titled “Trivia Night.” Though all of the characters’ Trivia Night costumes are pretty darn amazing, Madeline’s stole the show for me. Instead of the ubiquitous Breakfast at Tiffany’s LBD, Madeline chooses to dress in Holly Golightly’s (Hepburn) famous tuxedo shirt pajamas and blue sleep mask.

Though I typically do not appreciate it when changes are made to an iconic costume (I am of the firm belief that if you are going to dress like an iconic character, you should do so as precisely as possible), in this case, I thought the alterations BLL costume designers made to the ensemble only enhanced the look – especially the bright pink tassel earrings Madeline donned in lieu of Holly’s purple tassel ear plugs. I hate to say this in case any Breakfast at Tiffany’s purists might be reading, but Big Little Lies did the tuxedo pajamas outfit better.

Obviously, the earrings were the most important part of the getup for me, so when putting together my costume, I started with them. While I found a few that were similar to Madeline’s online, none had tassels quite as large as the ones she wore. So I decided to make them myself – with some help from the GC.

Madeline’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s ensemble was recently on display at the FIDM Museum in downtown Los Angeles as part of the 11th Annual Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design. Though I, sadly, did not get to see it in person, thanks to the image below, posted by the museum on Instagram, I got a close-up view of the earrings which let me know exactly what I needed to purchase.

I searched high and low for fuchsia tassels and finally found the perfect ones on Etsy – the Silky Luxe Jewelry Tassels in Color #54 from Woman Shops World. Hobby Lobby was my next stop where I picked up this Faux Turquoise Beaded Bracelet Connector (which I cut apart to use for the earring’s blue beads) and this Gold Plated Findings Starter Pack for the rest of the earring parts. I ended up buying additional jump rings, eye pins, and gold beads (the latter two I can’t find links for) at Michaels.

The GC actually constructed the earrings for me and, while doing so involved some trial and error, they turned out exactly how I wanted.

The rest of my costume was a snap to put together. The sleep mask came from the SvetlanaCO Etsy store and the tuxedo shirt from Men’s Warehouse. I ended up having to purchase a Big and Tall shirt to get the length right (the regular-sized tops were far too short for my comfort zone) and have it drastically altered in width. I also added some extra black buttons as the shirt originally only came with four. Though Madeline completed her look with pink Marabou slippers, I decided to wear a black pair that I already owned. To finish things off, I put my hair up in a very poofy half-ponytail and voila! Madeline came alive.

For Trivia Night, Madeline’s husband, Ed Mackenzie (Adam Scott), dresses as Elvis’ Chad Gates character from the movie Blue Hawaii. To re-create the look, we purchased the Hawaiian Hangover Aloha Shirt in Hibiscus Red from Walmart for the GC. Completing the outfit was a multi-colored lei from Party City, which he paired with khakis and flip flops he already owned.

To celebrate, we headed down to San Diego to attend the 8th annual Hallo-Wine & Spirits Party at Hotel Del Coronado with one of my best friends Kylee. I blogged about the Del way back in 2008, so I won’t re-hash its vast history and lengthy filming locations resume here. As I mentioned in that post, the hotel has always been a very special place for my family. Not only have we vacationed there countless times, but my surprise 21st birthday party was held in the iconic Crown Room in 1998 and my parents and I spent New Year’s Eve 1999 on the property. For the latter, Hotel Del put on what is easily the best party I have ever been to, complete with dinner, dancing, a live band, and a midnight balloon drop. After that experience and after seeing this video, I had majorly high hopes for the Hallo-Wine & Spirits soiree. Sadly, it did not live up to my expectations. While fun, I wouldn’t say the party was anywhere near worth the ticket price. Besides the fact that the decorations were seriously lacking, there were not enough chairs for the majority of people in attendance. Dinner was a mix of a buffet (the food was great, incidentally – the Baked Jack o’ Lantern is honestly one of the best things I’ve ever eaten!) and wine-tasting, so guests obviously wound up in possession of numerous plates and glasses. For some inexplicable reason, though, there was a major shortage of tables – and surface area in general – on which to put them, and virtually nowhere to sit. Most attendees were left to stand holding plates precariously stacked on top of other plates, wine glasses at their feet, awkwardly trying to eat. By the second hour of the dinner portion of the evening, Kylee could hardly stand, her feet were hurting so badly, which didn’t bode well for the dancing that was to come. I will say that I was majorly impressed with the party-goers costumes, though. People went all out and I absolutely LOVED seeing the creativity and detail that went into the many outfits.

While I am definitely glad we attended Hallo-Wine & Spirits and we all had a good time (I pretty much find it impossible to have a bad time no matter where I am), I don’t think I’d go back next year, nor can I really recommend the party to my fellow stalkers, sadly. So the search is on to find a fun Halloween activity for 2018!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hotel Del Coronado is located at 1500 Orange Avenue on Coronado Island. You can visit the hotel’s official website here and you can find information about the annual Hallo-Wine & Spirits Party here.

November 3, 2017