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Vivian’s Millennium Café

I have to say that while I have always been a pretty big fan of Leah Remini (hello, Saved by the Bell! Who’s the Boss?! Living Dolls!), I don’t particularly love her reality show, Leah Remini: It’s All Relative. I was fascinated to learn through watching it, though, that Leah’s husband, mother, and stepfather run an eatery in Studio City named Vivian’s Millennium Café. This stalker loves herself some filming locations of the restaurant variety, especially ones that have a celebrity tie-in! But, while I immediately added the place to my To-Stalk List upon first seeing it on It’s All Relative way back in 2014, for whatever reason I never made it over there. Then, when I spotted it pop up in an episode of fave show Battle Creek (which was maddeningly cancelled after just one season!), Vivian’s moved to the top of the list and I finally managed to stalk it late last year.

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Sadly, Vivian’s was jam-packed when we arrived (from what I’ve since read on Yelp, it always is), so we were not able to eat there.

I was shocked to discover upon entering how small the eatery is in real life. The interior reminded me a lot of Café Lalo in New York, at least size-wise. It was too small (and far too crowded) to snap any interior photographs, unfortunately, but you can see what the inside of the place looks like here. Considering its scant size, it is pretty surprising to me that they were able to fit cameras inside to film.

The eatery, which is situated inside of a former house, was originally established by a couple named Vivian and Walter in 1963. The site changed hands several times over the years before being purchased by Leah’s stepfather, George Marshall, mother, Vicki Marshall, and husband, Angelo Pagan, in November 1999. They renamed the site Vivian’s Millennium Café in honor of that date.

The restaurant has proved popular over the years and on the weekends wait times for a table are often upwards of two hours! So if you plan on dining there, be sure to carve out an appropriate chunk of time.

Vivian’s also boasts a tree-lined back patio that is absolutely adorable, but was, sadly, standing-room only when we were there.

The café shows up regularly on It’s All Relative and has been the subject of several storylines.

In the Season 1 episode titled “What’s the Point, Mom?”, Leah attempts to redecorate the place, but her stepfather wants no part of it.

And in “Lady Is a Tramp Stamp,” also from Season 1, Leah’s sister, Shannon Farrara, starts working at Vivian’s.

And now we’ve come to the weird part of this particular post. I vividly remember Vivian’s popping up in an episode of Battle Creek and even have a notation about it in my stalking notebook. But I scanned through each episode twice (thank you, Netflix!) prior to writing this column and did not see it anywhere. So I’m either officially going crazy, remembering the wrong TV show, or just continually missing the place while scanning through Battle Creek. If any of my fellow stalkers happen to know which episode was lensed at the restaurant (if one actually was), please let me know as it is driving me nuts!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Vivian’s Millennium Café, from Leah Remini: It’s All Relative, is located at 10968 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

March 30, 2016
Shakers Family Restaurant from “Old School”

Today’s locale is another one of those facepalm spots. For ages, I had been trying to track down the interior of the diner where Mitch (Owen Wilson) and the boys discussed saving their fraternity in the 2003 comedy Old School. While I had long known that Montrose Bakery & Café (which, sadly, Yelp is reporting has closed) was used as the exterior of the restaurant, the café that portrayed the interior remained a mystery. Then while watching the flick recently, I spotted something that I thought I recognized.

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Visible outside of the window behind Mitch in the restaurant scene was a red brick building that looked extremely familiar to me.

Upon scrutinizing the scene further, I spotted a Kentucky Fried Chicken outpost located across the street from the restaurant and it was then that everything clicked into place. I knew immediately that filming had occurred at Shakers Family Restaurant in South Pasadena. I used to get my nails done at a salon just south of Shakers and, though I had never eaten there, I passed by it, as well as the red brick building and the KFC (which is now Mamma’s Brick Oven Pizza and Pasta), on a regular basis, which is why they looked so familiar to me.

As soon as I figured out that filming had taken place at Shakers, I started doing some research on the eatery and its filming history and came across this mention of Old School being shot on the premises on the Scott’s L.A. Audio Tours website. Now, not only have I been to that website several times over the years, but I own and have listened to (several times, I might add!) the Scott’s L.A. Pasadena Audio Tour CD! D’oh! Feeling a bit sheepish, I immediately added the diner to my To-Stalk List and ran right on over there a couple of weeks later.

The Googie-style building that houses Shakers was originally built in 1965 for the Preble’s Restaurant and Coffee Shop chain. It was designed by the famed Armet & Davis architecture firm, who also gave us Norm’s La Cienega. You can see an advertisement for Preble’s here and you can check out what a few other restaurants built for the chain look like today here.

In 1971, the South Pasadena Preble’s changed hands and was turned into the Salt Shaker. Just a few years later, in 1975, the owners dropped “salt” from the name (according to Wikia, the change was made due to the many studies being released at the time that showed salt was unhealthy) and the eatery became known simply as “Shakers” or “Shakers Family Restaurant.” Though the interior has been remodeled slightly in recent years, it still boasts much of the same décor that it did when the Salt Shaker was originally established 45 years ago.

I cannot believe that in all the years I lived in Pasadena, I never dined at Shakers! The Grim Cheaper and I thoroughly enjoyed our lunch there, though I am really regretting not opting to order the chicken strips, which countless Yelp reviewers have touted as being the best they’ve ever had. That’s what I get for trying to be healthy! I cannot say enough good things about the Classical Cobb Salad that I did order, though. It was fabulous!

Thanks to the place’s fabulously retro aesthetic, it has long been a favorite of location managers.

In Old School, Mitch and his Alpha Epsilon Omega brothers discussed the Charter Certification Review of their fraternity while sitting in Shakers’ southern dining room.

As I mentioned earlier, only the interior of Shakers was featured in Old School. The exterior shown in the movie can be found at 2325 Honolulu Avenue in Montrose.

I was floored to learn via various websites and Yelp reviews that an episode of The X-Files had been lensed at Shakers. I was unsure of which episode, though, and while it took quite a bit of time, I finally managed to figure it out! Shakers was the spot where Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) told Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) the legend of the Lazarus Bowl in Season 7’s “Hollywood A.D.,” which aired in 2000 and was written and directed by Duchovny.

As I mentioned in my recent post about Beeman Park from Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Shakers masked as The Burger Hole in the 2008 comedy Role Models. The eatery popped up twice in the film and both the exterior . . .

. . . and interior were utilized.

In the Season 2 episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. titled “One of Us,” which aired in 2015, Calvin Zabo (Kyle MacLachlan) and the rest of the “Masters of Evil” dine at Shakers and discuss how to take down the Agents.

I immediately recognized the diner when it popped up in the recently-aired episode of Scandal titled “Wild Card” as the spot where Tom Larsen (Brian Letscher) convinced Wayne Turner (Braden Lynch) to hold up the Pennsylvania State Capital.

The exterior of Shakers also appeared in the episode.

The eatery was apparently featured in All Night Long, as well, but I could not find a copy of the 1981 comedy to verify that information.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Shakers Family Restaurant, from Old School, is located at 601 Fair Oaks Avenue in South Pasadena. You can visit the diner’s official website here.

March 28, 2016
Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel from “The Ugly Truth”

It has been said that Los Angeles has no regard for its history. Today’s post is a testament to that assertion. On March 1st of this year, the doors of the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel were closed in order for a massive remodel and renovation process to take place. Though the building is set to re-open in 2018 as a condo/hotel hybrid, it will sadly have a completely different look and feel than its predecessor. The property had long been on my To-Stalk List and was a place I had always wanted to book a stay at, but unfortunately that was never to be. I did get to finally see it in person, though, a couple of days before its closure, and the site was just as grand as I had imagined, which makes the redesign all the more tragic.

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The Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel first opened its doors to the public on June 1st, 1966. At the time, it was known as The Century Plaza Hotel. The curved, 19-story property was designed by Minoru Yamasaki, who also designed the World Trade Center in New York. (Fellow stalker Michael, of of The Golden Spoon Café and Downtown Christmas Shopping District from The Brady Bunch fame, recently stayed at the hotel and was nice enough to share many of the photos he took for use in this post, including the two below. Thank you, Michael! )

The 726-room luxury hotel was situated on top of what was once the 20th Century Fox Studios backlot, which was sold off in 1961 after the film company found itself in dire financial straits due to a series of flops. At the time of its inception, the property was run by Western International Hotels (in 1980, Western International became Westin Hotels & Resorts).

The property was a celebrity magnet from the get-go with such stars as Bob Hope, Walt Disney, Tom Hanks, Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Stewart, Jon Voight, James Garner, Clark Gable, Whoopi Goldberg, Lucille Ball, Robert Duvall, John Ritter, and Loretta Young all spending time there. In a great show of foresight, during the hotel’s construction, Western International representatives spoke with Secret Service personnel in order to ensure that the building would be assembled with the utmost security. As such, The Century Plaza played host to every single United States president from Lyndon Johnson on. Nancy and Ronald Reagan were such frequent guests that the press was apt to call the place the “Western White House.”

In 1984, a second building, this one a 297-room tower named The Tower at Century Plaza, was added to the property. Sadly, it no longer stands. In 1999, The Century Plaza and The Tower at Century Plaza were sold and the new owners chose to operate them as separate hotels, changing The Tower’s name to the St. Regis Los Angeles. Though The Century Plaza continued to run strong, the St. Regis was shuttered in January 2005 and sold once again. Although it was originally set to be renovated into a residential tower, it was ultimately demolished and The Century, Candy Spelling’s new digs, now stands in its place – which is rather ironic (and maddening) being that the St. Regis appeared in an episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. Thanks to fellow stalker “Alexis Colby,” who commented on my post about Season 1’s epic “Spring Dance” episode, I learned that the St. Regis was the building featured in the establishing shot of the hotel where the West Beverly gang’s formal was held. All actual filming took place at Sheraton Universal City, though.

Ronald Reagan was The Tower at Century Plaza’s first guest in 1984. In honor of his long history with the hotel, the building’s 8,000-square-foot penthouse, which encompassed the entire 32nd floor, was renamed “The Ronald Reagan Suite” in 1999. An exhibit of photographs of the former president was displayed in a portion of the suite. When the building was demolished, the exhibit was moved to The Century Plaza, where it was recreated in a second floor anteroom. One of the employees was nice enough to show it to us while we were stalking the place.

In August 2005, shortly after the St. Regis was sold, The Century Plaza was purchased by Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc., a renovation was begun, and the structure was renamed Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. It was then sold once again three years later to the Next Century Associates development company and plans were quickly set in motion to demolish the historic structure and build two 50-story condominium buildings in its place. Thanks to uproar from the community and efforts by preservationists and politicians (L.A. City Councilman Paul Koretz even went so far as to say the building would be demolished “over my dead body and even then I hoped my heirs would fight it”), those plans were thwarted and the hotel was instead set to be renovated, with two new 46-story towers constructed behind it. The property closed its doors on March 1st to begin the process.

We were there two days prior to that, on February 28th, and there was a definite feeling of nostalgia in the air. Many of the hotel employees had worked on the premises for decades. We spoke to quite a few during our brief visit. Some wiped their eyes as they talked to us. All were proud of The Century Plaza, wanting to show it off. I found myself on the verge of tears several times while speaking with them. You can read two great articles about a few of the long-time employees here and here.

The renovation is said to be a “sensitive rehabilitation” of the historic property. While I believe the exterior will be left untouched, the interior will largely be gutted. (Thank you to Michael for the second picture that appears below.)

The revamped structure will house 394 hotel rooms and 63 condominium units and is set to open in 2018.

Sadly, the hotel’s legendary Los Angeles Ballroom will be a casualty of the renovation.

The 25,000-square-foot room, which was remodeled to the tune of $1.3 million in 2012, was not only the site of both of Ronald Reagan’s presidential election victory parties, but is also where President Nixon hosted a celebratory welcome home dinner for the Apollo 11 astronauts on August 13th, 1969.

Not only is the ballroom one of the most massive I’ve ever seen (not to mention sparkly) . . .

. . . but the hall leading into it is pretty darn extraordinary in and of itself.

I mean, that ceiling!

The Century Plaza Hotel has been featured in so many productions over the years that it would be virtually impossible for me to chronicle them all here. So for brevity’s sake (or is it too late for that at this point? ), I will only list a few of my favorites.

The Century Plaza, playing itself, was where Mike (Gerard Butler) and Abby (Katherine Heigl) stayed while visiting L.A. in one of my all-time faves, the 2009 romcom The Ugly Truth.

While I originally thought that one of the property’s curved hallways was utilized in the filming of the movie, upon closer inspection, now I am not so sure. Though similar, there appear to be marked differences in the actual hallways from what appeared onscreen, most notably the ceiling, light fixtures, and recession of the doors. I am now thinking that the hallway may have been a set re-creation, though that seems like a considerable amount of trouble to go through for the filming of such a short scene. (Thank you to Michael for the photo below.)

I am also unsure if an actual (but heavily dressed) suite at The Century Plaza was used in the filming or if a set based upon one was built for the shoot.

Some recent photos of one of the hotel’s rooms are pictured below, once again courtesy of Michael.

The Hyatt Regency Century Plaza was also where Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) – or should I say “Clive Bixby” and “Juliana”? – celebrated Valentine’s Day in the Season 1 episode of Modern Family titled “My Funky Valentine.” The couple started out their evening in the hotel’s X Bar.

That bar had already been shuttered by the time we stalked The Century Plaza, but I was able to get a few photos of it through the glass entrance doors.

After dinner, Claire (who is going “commando,” shall we say, underneath her trench coat) and Phil start to make their way up to their room, but trouble ensues when Claire’s coat get caught in the escalator.

While stuck, she proceeds to run into pretty much everyone she knows, including her father and step-mother, Jay (Ed O’Neill) and Gloria Delgado-Pritchett (Sofia Vergara), who all ask the same question – why not just take the jacket off? (Thank you to Michael for the escalator photographs that appear above and below.)

The Los Angeles Ballroom was also featured in the episode as the spot where Jay and Gloria caught a comedian’s act.

Despite the escalator issues from the year prior, Claire and Phil returned to The Century Plaza to celebrate the following Valentine’s Day in Season 2’s “Bixby’s Back.” Once again, they started out their evening in X Bar.

They then proceeded to head up, separately, to their room. One of the hotel’s actual hallways was featured in the scene.

Phil, though, accidentally grabbed the key card of the woman sitting next to him at X Bar, instead of the key card Claire left behind, and enters the wrong room, resulting in him almost being arrested. Another Valentine’s Day down the tubes! One of the hotel’s actual rooms was used in that scene.

The Hyatt Century Plaza popped up yet again on Modern Family, as the hotel where Alex Dunphy’s (Ariel Winter) academic decathlon was held in the Season 4 episode titled “Mistery Date.”

In the 1980 comedy 9 to 5, The Century Plaza was the hotel that Franklin M. Hart Jr. (Dabney Coleman) sent his wife Missy (Marian Mercer) to.

Alex Munday (Lucy Liu) rides a horse and lassos a bad guy in front of The Century Plaza at the beginning of Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.

And in the Season 6 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Nancy’s Choice,” Susan Keats (Emma Caulfield) wins a journalism award at The Century Plaza.

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

Big THANK YOU to Michael for letting me use so many of his fabulous photos in this post!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel, from The Ugly Truth, is located at 2025 Avenue of the Stars in Century City. The property is currently closed to the public and undergoing renovations.

March 23, 2016
The Millennium Biltmore Hotel’s Gold Room from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Some locations hit you like a ton of bricks. Today’s locale was one of those spots. For ages, I had been trying to track down the supposed Las Vegas casino prominently featured in the Season 4 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “And Did It . . . My Way.” I was fairly certain that production had not actually travelled to Sin City for the shoot, but I could not for the life of me figure out where filming had taken place. Then last year, while writing a post about San Francisco’s famed Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar, I learned about a ballroom at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles named the Gold Room. Now the Grim Cheaper and I have stayed at the Biltmore countless times over the years and I know the place like the back of my hand, yet somehow I had never seen or heard of that particular ballroom. I did not think much more about it until I began researching the historic hotel for a recent Discover Los Angeles post and came across this online brochure that lists some of the productions filmed at the Biltmore. I read through it and as soon as I saw the words Beverly Hills, 90210, everything suddenly aligned in my head! The Gold Room was the casino from “And Did It . . . My Way.” I popped in my DVD of the episode to confirm things and, sure enough, I was right! I was lucky enough to tour the ballroom recently as part of my research for the Discover L.A. article and, since getting there had been such a long time coming, figured I should pen a detailed post on the gorgeous space.

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The Gold Room is easily one of the most ornate ballrooms I have ever visited. The lavish space is two-tiered and separated by a curved stone balustrade, as you can see below.

The Gold Room originally served as a dining room for the Biltmore’s more elite guests and, at the time the hotel opened in 1923, was separated into two spaces. The lower level, where patrons entered the venue, was known as the Palm Room . . .

. . . while the top level, where patrons dined, was named the Supper Room.

Once the two spaces were merged, the ballroom was re-christened the “Gold Room.” And it has certainly earned that name. The gilded venue, which can accommodate 350 guests, boasts a striking gold frieze, nine mirrored windows adorned with gold leaf, and a stunning gold cast-plaster ceiling.

During the Prohibition years, the Gold Room served as a nightclub/speakeasy where guests, celebrities and “thirsty” Angelinos could partake. The mirrored window pictured below actually contains a hidden doorway that was utilized to bring liquor into the space, as well as to shuttle guests out when the need arose.

I had read about the hidden doorway while writing my Discover Los Angeles post and had even seen photographs of it, but the tiny opening is so discreet that, even though I knew what I was looking for, I could not find it until it was pointed out to me.

Also of note, dotted along the gold frieze that lines the ballroom’s ceiling are panels containing invisible windows that were utilized by the paparazzi to spy on celebrities partying down below during the space’s tenure as a nightclub. You can see a great photograph of one of those panels here.

Thanks to the Gold Room’s beauty and versatility, it is not very hard to see how it has ended up onscreen countless times over the years. In “And Did It . . . My Way,” it convincingly served as the Las Vegas casino that Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) and Stuart Carson (David Gail) secretly headed to in order to elope after becoming disillusioned by their parents’ reaction to their recent engagement. No secret is safe in Beverly Hills, though, and the rest of the West Beverly gang, as well as Jim (James Eckhouse) and Cindy Walsh (Carol Potter), inevitably follow and finally manage to talk some sense into the couple, who call off the nuptials.

The spot where Brenda and Stuart danced after canceling the wedding is the Biltmore’s Bernard’s ballroom, which you can see photos of here and here.

Way back in 1973, the Gold Room popped up very briefly in the caper classic The Sting as the upscale Chicago restaurant where Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw) offered to finance Kid Twist (Harold Gould) and Johnny Hooker’s (Robert Redford) bookie scheme. Though recognizable, the room looked quite a bit different at that time.

The Gold Room is where Dr. Alex Hesse (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Dr. Larry Arbogast (Danny DeVito) attend a pharmaceutical convention in 1994’s Junior.

In the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers, John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) attempts to crash Claire Cleary’s (Rachel McAdams) engagement party, which is taking place in the Gold Room.

That same year, the Gold Room popped up in Rumor Has It as the spot where Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) first laid eyes on Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner).

Also in 2005, the Gold Room once again masked as a casino, albeit one in Monte Carlo, in the Season 5 episode of Alias titled “Mockingbird.”

Dagny Taggart (Taylor Schilling) and Henry ‘Hank’ Rearden (Grant Bowler) attend a party there in the 2011 drama Atlas Shrugged: Part I.

And in the Season 5 episode of New Girl titled “Decision,” which aired in 2016, Cece Parekh (Hannah Simone) and Schmidt (Max Greenfield) tour the Gold Room, their dream wedding venue, which just so happens to have a last minute availability due to the fact that Shia LeBeouf cancelled his upcoming solitaire tournament.

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 Gold Room is situated off of the Galleria at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles, which is located at 506 South Grand Avenue in downtown L.A. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

March 21, 2016
Two Bunch Palms from “The Bachelor”

This past weekend, I was finally able to visit a place that has been on my To-Stalk list for eons! I first learned about Two Bunch Palms in Desert Hot Springs, which was featured in a Season 1 episode of The Bachelor, about a decade ago, but, because the exclusive wellness resort was only accessible to hotel guests and spa-goers at the time, was never able to see it in person. Though the Grim Cheaper and I were tempted to book a stay there many times over the years, neither of us is especially holistic by nature and were afraid the place wouldn’t exactly be our cup of tea, so we resisted. Then, this Sunday afternoon, we happened to find ourselves in Desert Hot Springs. I had read that the hotel had changed hands in 2012 and, figuring the new owners might have changed its accessibility policy, we decided to stop by. I was absolutely floored when the guard at the front informed us that Two Bunch Palm’s onsite restaurant, Essense, was now indeed open to the public. So we headed right on past the gate and were dazzled by what we encountered. The resort is nothing short of idyllic.

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Two Bunch Palms is so named thanks to a United States Camel Corps team who was surveying the area in 1907 and came across two palm groves (one of which is pictured below). The group originally dubbed the site “Two Bunches of Palms,” but by the time the survey was published had simplified it to “Two Bunch Palms.”

Rumors abound that gangster Al Capone happened upon the isolated site in the ‘20s and, figuring the remote, hilltop location would offer the ultimate in privacy as well as make it easy for his goons to spot approaching cars, set up shop there. Legend states that he constructed several bungalows and a casino, connected by underground tunnels and surrounded by a large wall, on the pristine grounds. Though the tales are largely unsubstantiated, one of Two Bunch Palm’s villas is dubbed the Al Capone Suite and it apparently contains a desk marked with the initials “A.C.,” a mirror marred by a bullet hole, and a lookout tower that has since been turned into a tanning deck. His supposed former casino now houses Essense restaurant.

In 1940, the property was turned into a hotel known as The Desert Spa. It became Two Bunch Palms in 1969 after being purchased by a new owner and then was sold once again in 1978, at which time the site underwent an extensive renovation. From there, it did not take long for the resort to become the stomping ground of the Hollywood elite, with such stars as Mel Gibson, Barbra Streisand, Jeff Bridges, Kelsey Grammer, Daryl Hannah, Robin Williams, Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, Bruce Springsteen, Julia Roberts, Madonna, Neil Diamond, Lisa Rinna, Justin Chambers, and Bette Midler all spending time there.

Despite consistently being ranked among the best spas in the world and winning countless accolades and awards, in 2010 Two Bunch Palms was placed under receivership when its then owner defaulted on a $38.8-million loan, causing the resort’s future to be uncertain. It was eventually rescued in 2012 by a group of Los Angeles-based movie producers, who immediately got started on a much-needed renovation to the site.

Today, Two Bunch Palms boasts 70 rooms and bungalows, a grotto with two mineral pools, a lap pool, a gym, large expanses of lawn, walking trails, a pond with koi, ducks and turtles, a 3,000-square-foot yoga dome, a 3.5-acre solar field (which generates 100% of the power needed to run the resort), and an award-winning spa that offers countless treatments and wellness programs.

Though the quiet exclusivity of the property and its lush 77-acre grounds, which are dotted with tamarisk trees and fan palms, are definite draws, Two Bunch Palm’s main attraction is its mineral baths. Situated on top of a 600-year-old mineral spring, the restorative waters that flow throughout the property are chock-full of lithium and other healing elements, yet low on sulfur so no dreaded odor permeates the air.

Essense, the hotel’s farm-to-table restaurant, is also pretty darn fabulous.

Not only was the eatery’s decor sleek, modern and inviting, but the food was nothing short of spectacular and the prices surprisingly reasonable.

The Grim Cheaper and I wholeheartedly fell in love with Two Bunch Palms on sight and are already planning on spending our upcoming anniversary there.

The adults-only hotel is serene, idyllic and tranquil. Loud voices and use of cell phones in common areas is frowned upon, which creates an environment of peace and relaxation. It truly is a place to get away from it all.

Being there almost feels like being in Hawaii, despite the fact that there is no ocean nearby.

Thanks to its countless picturesque vistas, it is not very hard to see how the place ended up being featured on The Bachelor.

Two Bunch Palms appeared in the reality series’ second episode, which aired in 2002. In the episode, Bachelor Alex Michel took five women, including future Bachelorette Trista Rehn, on a group date to the resort.

While there, the group headed to the Clay Cabana for mud baths.

Two Bunch Palms was also featured as the idyllic desert spa where Hollywood executive Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) took his new paramour, June Gudmundsdottir (Greta Scacchi), in the 1992 dramedy The Player.

In the movie, while dining outside near the grotto, June asks Griffin, “Do places like this really exist?” To which he responds, “Only in the movies.” It is a fitting bit of conversation, as the resort truly does feel like a fantasy land.

Like Alex Michel and his Bachelor contestants, Griffin and June also partook of the mud baths while at Two Bunch Palms.

Due to the unseemly heat, Two Bunch Palms formerly shut its doors each year during the entire month of August. It was then that The Player filmed on the premises, which I cannot even imagine being that August temperatures typically run upwards of 115 degrees! How the cast and crew didn’t melt is beyond me!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Two Bunch Palms is located at 67425 Two Bunch Palms Trail in Desert Hot Springs. You can visit the resort’s official website here. The onsite restaurant, Essence is open to the public, but keep in mind that the hotel is an adults-only property so only guests 18 years and older will be admitted.

March 18, 2016
My Picture on “The Meredith Vieira Show”

The Meredith Vieira Show recently used my photograph of The Golden Girls house as part of their “Name That Hollywood Home” segment. It is a really fun bit, which you can watch by clicking above.

March 17, 2016
New “L.A.” Mag Post – A Filming Locations Guide to “Flaked”

Be sure to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post about the filming locations of the new Netflix series Flaked. You can read it here.

March 14, 2016
The “Life Goes On” House

Some locations I spend ages upon ages trying to track down only to discover that, when finally found, they had been listed on another website all along. D’oh! Such was the case with today’s locale. I’ve mentioned before that Life Goes On is one of my all-time favorite television shows. It is pretty common knowledge amongst stalkers that the Cape Code-style home belonging to the Thatcher family – Drew (Bill Smitrovich), Libby (Patti LuPone), Corky (Chris Burke), Becca (Kellie Martin) and Paige (who was played by both Monique Lanier and Tracey Needham) – on the series is a façade located at Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank. What is less common knowledge is that the Ranch residence was actually modeled upon a real life house that appeared in Life Goes On’s pilot episode. I spent countless hours over numerous years attempting to track down that house, but could never manage to do so, mainly due to the fact that the clips of the show available on YouTube were of extremely poor quality. Then, last month while writing my post on Warner Bros. Ranch for Mike the Fanboy, I decided to see if the series was available on DVD and, to my surprise, Season 1 was! Figuring the quality of the episodes would be leagues better than their YouTube counterparts, I promptly ordered it.

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As soon as the DVDs arrived, I popped the one featuring the pilot into my computer and was floored to see a street sign reading “12100 W Banff Ln” visible near the house during the opening credits. I did a quick Google search for “12100 West Banff Lane, Los Angeles” and pretty much immediately found the Thatcher home at 305 North Bowling Green Way in Brentwood. I started doing research on the place right away, as I always do upon finding a locale, and was shocked to come across this page on my buddy E.J.’s The Movieland Directory website, which listed the home’s address and mentioned its appearance on Life Goes On. #facepalm All those hours spent looking for the place could have been avoided had I just stumbled upon that listing years ago. Fail!

In real life, the Thatcher home, which was originally built in 1941, boasts 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,000 square feet of living space, a pool, a detached garage, and a 0.16-acre plot of land.

Amazingly, the residence still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when the pilot first aired on September 21st, 1989, almost thirty years ago!

Not only was the exterior of the home featured in the opening credits of the pilot, but in the opening credits of every single episode throughout the series’ four-season run. You can watch (a very poor quality clip of) those credits below. Try not to sing along! “Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah, la la how the life goes on!”

A scene from the pilot in which Corky, Becca and Drew painted the home’s white picket fence was also lensed in the Brentwood residence’s front yard.

The real life interior of the home was used extensively throughout the pilot. Then, once the series was picked up, that interior was re-created on a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, where the show was lensed. Several changes were made to the set re-creation, though. Most notably, the kitchen was widened significantly, as you can see below.

The family’s eating area was also moved from a dining nook located just off the kitchen to the actual kitchen.

In a rather unprecedented move, the exterior of the Brentwood home was also re-created, not at Warner Bros. Studio, but at its sister facility, Warner Bros. Ranch. To accomplish the feat, producers modified the façade of one of the lot’s existing houses, known as the Partridge House. As the name implies, the structure was featured as the Partridge residence on the 1970 television series The Partridge Family. After filming of that show wrapped, the façade was altered for its use on the 1983 series Scarecrow and Mrs. King and then again for its role on Life Goes On.

Comparison images of the Brentwood residence and its set re-creation are pictured below. As you can see, the roofline of the real house is much taller than that of the re-creation, which makes the Brentwood home appear to be much larger than its set counterpart.

I have been lucky enough to visit the set re-creation on several occasions over the years and each time was honestly like a dream come true. So you can imagine how exciting it was for me to finally be able to stalk the real house, as well.

And let me just say here that I think it would be about the coolest thing ever to have my house re-created on a studio backlot! I mean, can you even imagine?!?

The Warner Bros. Ranch house did not make an appearance on Life Goes On until the fourth episode, which was titled, “Break a Leg, Mom.” Only the garage area was featured, though.

The structure went on to appear regularly throughout the series, though typically only tight, close-up shots of it were shown.

On a side-note – Calling all Glee fans! GLEE: The Official Show Auction Part II, hosted by Invaluable and Profiles in History, will be taking place today at 11 a.m. PST. You can find out more information about the auction and bid on the over 600 items up for sale 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 Thatcher family home from the pilot episode of Life Goes On is located at 305 North Bowling Green Way in Brentwood. The façade used in later episodes of the series is the Partridge House at Warner Bros. Ranch, which is located at 411 North Hollywood Way in Burbank.

March 11, 2016
Nicole Simpson’s Condo from “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”

Today’s location is one of the most interesting that I’ve ever uncovered! As I mentioned in Friday’s post about O.J. Simpson’s mansion from The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (which proved to be rather timely considering the “buried knife” story that was released that same day), the Grim Cheaper and I are hooked on the new FX series. Once I tracked down O.J.’s pad from the show, I set out to find the site that stood in for Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo. And what I discovered turned out to be pretty intriguing.

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Nicole’s former Brentwood condo was located at 875 South Bundy Drive (the address has since been changed, but more on that in a bit). It was there that her body and the body of her friend Ronald Goldman were found just after midnight on June 13th, 1994. The site became an instant macabre tourist attraction and though put up for sale in October of that same year, just a few months after the murders, it lingered on the market until finally being sold in 1997 for around $590,000 ($200,000 under the asking price). The new owner immediately set about remodeling the exterior of the 3,400-square-foot, three-story dwelling, which, according to a 1995 Los Angeles Times article, boasted 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 fireplaces, several patios, and a rooftop sun deck. (The same article also states that Nicole put the property up for lease just days before her death, a factoid that was new to me.) In an effort to detract tourists, the front gate, walkway and entrance were drastically altered and the address was renumbered from 875 to 879. The condo was once again put up for sale in 2006 and sold for a whopping $1.7 million.

You can see a photo of what the exterior of Nicole’s condo previously looked like here. The residence is largely unrecognizable today, not to mention that the entryway is entirely covered over with foliage.

The GC and I visited the site way back in 2006 (it was for sale at the time, as you can see below) and the entryway was much more visible, though we did not take many photos of it.

The door to the neighboring unit, which was also altered after the murders and matches the layout of Nicole’s, is currently visible. You can see what it looks like below.

Not only was the condo’s address changed and the front entrance remodeled, but the walkway (where Nicole’s body was found) was actually moved. Comparison images taken of the walkway shortly after the murders in 1994 as compared to 2016 are pictured below.

More close-up comparison images are pictured below.

As you can see, the walkway was formerly situated just to the right of the large palm tree that stands in front of Nicole’s home. Today, the walkway is located to the left of that tree. The blue box in the lower photo denotes the previous site of the walkway. As you can also see below, the drainage pipe and utility access panel are still located in the same spot in relation to the tree, which helps give a bearing as to the walkway’s prior positioning.

A close-up view of the walkway’s former location is pictured below.

Nicole’s rear gate, which is reached via an alley off of Dorothy Street and is where the killer supposedly entered and exited the property the night of the murders, has also been altered.

The rear gate of the neighboring unit (pictured below) does not appear to have been changed, though, and remains, I believe, in the same state that it was back in 1994.

I am guessing that the reason The People v. O.J. Simpson did not film at the actual condo was two-fold, due to both the alterations and the reticence of the current owners.

So where did filming take place? Thanks to a February The Hollywood Reporter article, I learned that “a house a block away from Nicole Brown Simpson’s home was used as a stand-in” on the series. The walkway and entrance shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson were an exact match to those of Nicole’s former condo, though. Being that the chances of producers finding a walkway/front gate so closely resembling Nicole’s less than a block away from her former home were most likely slim to none, I figured they had heavily altered an existing walkway/front gate to look like hers. When I started looking along Bundy Drive, though, I could not find anything even remotely resembling what appeared onscreen. So I instead started searching for the homes that were visible across the street from Nicole’s in the pilot episode and wound up finding them right away – in the exact spot where The Hollywood Reporter said I would, a block away from Nicole’s condo.

Those houses can be found at 918 and 922 South Bundy Drive.

When I looked at what was across the street from those homes, though, I did not find a Mediterranean-style condominium complex as expected, but a non-descript, one-story single-family residence addressed 917 South Bundy. It wasn’t until I really started scouring Street View images of the property that I realized the entire walkway shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson was a fabrication constructed in the home’s driveway.

Yes, you read that right – from what I have been able to gather, Nicole’s walkway on the series was built entirely from scratch in the area pictured below.

Some heavy CGI and set dressing were employed to achieve the effect. As you can see below, not only was the image of a tall condominium building digitally added to the property, but a front wall, gate, walkway, lamp post, and large amount of foliage were also brought in.

In the images below, I’ve denoted the few things that were not altered. The large palm tree located in front of the home is a direct match to what appeared onscreen (it’s marked with the blue arrow below). The large pine tree behind the palm is also a direct match to what appeared onscreen (yellow arrow). The tall skinny palm located towards the rear of the property also parallels what was shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson (purple arrow). And you can even see where the dip of the driveway was temporarily filled in for the shoot (pink arrow).

A clean view of those same two images is pictured below. The whole thing is absolutely fascinating to me! I cannot even imagine what it would have been like to see it all in person.

I’ve got to give the production designer major props because the faux walkway is an exact replica of Nicole’s, which you can see an image of here.

The street in front of 917 South Bundy got a lot of screen time, too.

You can check out some interior photographs of the 4-bedroom, 2-bath, 2,154-square-foot home here.

All interior filming took place at a building located just a couple of blocks away.

That building can be found at 11978 Mayfield Avenue and it does bear a striking resemblance to Nicole’s actual former home.

The interior of Nicole’s condo was shown in two episodes of The People v. O.J. Simpson, “From the Ashes of Tragedy” and “The Race Card.” You can see photos of the inside of one of the Mayfield Avenue units 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 exterior of Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo was recreated in the driveway of the house at 917 South Bundy Drive in Brentwood for the filming of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Interior scenes were filmed at 11978 Mayfield Avenue in Brentwood. Nicole’s real life former condo is located at 879 South Bundy Drive in Brentwood.

March 7, 2016
O.J.’s Mansion from “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”

The Grim Cheaper and I are absolutely hooked on the new FX series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, which is not surprising considering we have both been fascinated with the case since the beginning – as has the rest of the world. While watching the first episode, titled “From the Ashes of Tragedy,” I was shocked to see the real life former home of Robert Kardashian playing the role of itself. I stalked and blogged about the residence back in 2013 and recognized it immediately when it popped up onscreen. I recently wrote about the pad once again for Los Angeles magazine and, during my research for that post, came across this The Hollywood Reporter article which talked about some of the other locales used in the mini-series. One particular sentence had my interest especially piqued. Author Lacey Rose stated, “Many of the case’s famed landmarks will appear familiar, even if the series had to take some liberties with its locations. O.J.’s Brentwood home, for instance, was razed in 1998, so the location manager found a similar-looking Tudor in Beverly Hills and production designers recreated key touches of Simpson’s estate, including the life-size Simpson statue in the yard.” I, of course, instantly got started searching for the property.

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Thanks to an address number of “1006” that was visible on the curb in front of the house in “From the Ashes of Tragedy,” finding it was a snap! I simply began looking through 1000 blocks in Beverly Hills and quickly came across the right spot at 1006 North Rexford Drive. I didn’t get around to stalking the place, though, until this past weekend while the GC and I were in L.A.

The manse has appeared in several episodes of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, including “From the Ashes of Tragedy,” “The Run of His Life,” and “The Race Card.”

Numerous areas of the property have been shown onscreen, including the entrance gates;

the backyard;

and the real life interior, which you can see photographs of here.

The residence looks much the same in person as it does in The People v. O.J. Simpson and, though gated, quite a lot of it is visible from the street.

Unfortunately though, the estate sits on a heavily tree-lined street and, because we were there in the late afternoon, my photographs of it turned out rather dark.

For those who want a true American Crime Story experience, the house is available as a vacation rental for a whopping $14,000 a night. According to its HomeAway webpage, the massive property, which was originally built in 1923, boasts 7 bedrooms, 9 baths, 10,311 square feet of living space, a den, a library, 2 offices, multiple fireplaces, a game room, a gym, a sauna, a “laundry center,” an entertainment lounge with a bar, a 35mm projection screening room, a secluded 1.65-acre lot, a pool, a guest apartment (for the Katos in your life), a tennis court, a spa, and a playground.

The estate also boasts a Hollywood pedigree. According to my buddy E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, the dwelling, which last sold in March 1981 for $2,950,000, belonged to Warner Bros. Studio founder Harry Warner during the 1940s.

On a rather humorous side-note – the GC’s GPS is run through his iPhone and gives directions via Siri. When I asked Siri to direct us to “1006 North Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills,” she instead, rather ironically, gave us a listing of juice places in the area. Not joking! A photograph of the listing that popped up on the GPS screen is pictured below.

The whole thing was especially comical being that the video below had just been released a few days prior.

Since we were on an O.J. kick, the GC and I decided to also stalk the site of Simpson’s real life former residence, which was a first for me. While I have visited Nicole’s condo a few times over the years, for whatever reason, I had never been to “Juice’s” estate. As mentioned above, the home was razed in 1998, long before I moved to L.A., so I guess I always figured it was never worth the trip. Now that the case is front and center again, though, I was dying to see the place in person.

O.J.’s estate formerly stood at 360 North Rockingham Avenue in Brentwood. The football star purchased the 6,200-square-foot, Tudor-style manse for $650,000 in 1977 and lived there for the next twenty years (not counting the 474 days he spent in jail), until being evicted in 1997 after the house was foreclosed upon. The pad was subsequently purchased by Jerry’s Famous Deli owner/investment banker Kenneth Abdalla for close to $4 million. According to a 1998 CNN.com article, Abdalla contended that the property was in need of a large amount of repairs and figured it would be most cost effective to demolish it and re-build from scratch. I believe the tear-down had more to do with the pad’s notoriety than its condition, though, especially considering the fact that Abdalla also had its address changed to 380 North Rockingham.

Today, a large Mediterranean-style residence stands at the site. You can see aerial views of what the property currently looks like below and what it looked like when Simpson lived there here.

There is literally nothing left of Simpson’s former home. The gates, the fencing, the circular driveway, the pool, the waterfalls, the putting green, the guest quarters, the tennis court, and the playground have all been replaced.

You can check out an in-depth rendering of the layout of O.J.’s former estate here and see photographs of it here and here. It is amazing to me how much it resembles the house being used in The People v. O.J. Simpson.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: O.J.’s house from The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story is located at 1006 North Rexford Drive in Beverly Hills. The site of O.J.’s actual former mansion can be found at 380 North Rockingham Avenue in Brentwood.

March 4, 2016