13 Going On 30 – IAMNOTASTALKER

June 20, 2014July 11, 2014

Hal’s Bar & Grill from “13 Going on 30”

Last week, while shopping in Venice Beach with my girls Lavonna, Kim, Katie and Kaylee, we made a brief stalking stop at Hal’s Bar & Grill, which appeared in one of my favorite movies of all time, 13 Going on 30. During our visit, we happened to have the good fortune to speak with Don Novack, one of Hal’s owners (that thick Southern accent of Lavonna’s worked for us once again!), and I just about fell over when he informed us that the eatery had appeared in Single White Female in 1992! So even though I’ve already blogged about the place once before, I decided Hal’s was most definitely worthy of a redux.

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Don’s foray into the restaurant world was a circuitous one. While working as a real estate broker in 1985, he unwittingly found himself part-owner of a sandwich shack/antique shop named Merchant of Venice after a business deal fell through. Don remained a silent partner for two years, until he learned that the eatery was facing certain financial failure. He decided to take over operations of the place at that point and brought in his wife, Linda, to help. He also partnered up with Hal Frederick, a fellow real estate broker, whom he had just recently met. The group remodeled the space into an upscale venue, gave the menu a full revamp and renamed the site “Hal’s Bar & Grill.” The property opened its doors to the public in 1987 and very little of it has been changed since.

Hal’s became an immediate success, despite the fact that the neighborhood was rough (to say the least) at the time. Abbot Kinney Boulevard has since experienced a major revitalization and patrons continue to flock to Hal’s, 27 years after its inception. The eatery is also a major celebrity hot spot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted dining there include Jessica Simpson, Eric Johnson, Robert Downey Jr., Mike Tyson, Lindsay Lohan, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sammy Davis Jr., Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, Tom Hanks, Kobe Bryant, Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson, Dermot Mulroney, Ewan McGregor, Reese Witherspoon, Rachel McAdams and Josh Lucas.

Hal's Bar & Grill (5 of 8)

In the 1992 thriller Single White Female, Hal’s stood in for the supposed New York restaurant where Allison Jones (Bridget Fonda) made a deal to sell her computer program to Mitchell Myerson (Stephen Tobolowsky).

Surprisingly, although 22 years have since passed, the eatery still looks much the same today as it did onscreen in Single White Female. LOVE that!

In 2004’s 13 Going on 30, Hal’s masqueraded as the New York City bar where Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner) hit on a teenage boy. Only the interior of Hal’s appeared in the movie.

The exterior of the restaurant can actually be found about 3,000 miles away in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. You can read the post I wrote on the exterior here.

Don also informed us that Hal’s had appeared in two episodes of Californication. Because I am not very familiar with the Showtime series, I asked fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, if he happened to know which two episodes had been lensed on the premises. Sure enough, he did. Thank you, Geoff! In 2007, Hal’s was the site of the very bad double date between Hank Moody (David Duchovny) and Meredith (Amy Price-Francis) and Charlie (Evan Handler) and Marcy Runkle (Pamela Adlon) in Californication’s pilot episode.

Hal’s also popped up this year in the Season 7 episode of Californication titled “Faith, Hope, Love,” in a flashback scene in which Hank remembers going on another double date, this time with his ex-wife, Karen (Natascha McElhone), and Charlie and Marcy. Several areas of the eatery appeared in the episode, including the exterior;

the front entrance and bar;

and main dining room.

Don told us that Hal’s was featured in an episode of another show that I am unfamiliar with, Curb Your Enthusiasm. So I enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, to figure out which episode and, thankfully, he came through. Hal’s stood in for Primo Trattoria in Season 6’s “The TiVo Guy,” which aired in 2007. In the episode, Larry David (who plays himself) gets snubbed by his favorite restaurant after his wife, Cheryl David (Cheryl Hines), leaves him. Both the interior . . .

. . . and the exterior of Hal’s (which I somehow failed to get any photographs of) were shown several times throughout “The TiVo Guy.”

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hal’s Bar & Grill, from 13 Going On 30, is located at 1349 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice Beach. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

May 27, 2010June 16, 2011

The New York Public Library from “Sex and the City: The Movie”

In honor of today’s big premiere of Sex and The City 2, I thought I’d blog about a location from the original movie that I stalked this past October while I was in Manhattan – the New York Public Library. And even though I’ve actually blogged about this location once before, since I did not include any interior photographs, I thought the place was definitely worth re-visiting. In the original Sex and the City movie, Carrie Bradshaw (aka Sarah Jessica Parker) and her fiancé Mr. Big (aka Chris Noth) plan to hold their upcoming nuptials at the library because, as Carrie says, it is “the classic New York landmark that housed all the great love stories”. The New York Public Library was constructed during the years 1902 through 1911 on the site of the former Croton Reservoir and was designed by the architecture firm Carrere & Hastings. The Beaux-Arts structure, which is made of white marble and cost $9 million to build, encompasses two full blocks of New York City land and contains 88 miles of shelving which holds over seven million books. Amazingly enough, any one of those seven million tomes can be requested and delivered to the library’s main circulation desk within a period of ten minutes or less! The New York Public Library, which was named a National Historic Monument in 1965, is a truly amazing piece of architecture and, being that it is symbolic of the two great loves of Carrie Bradshaw’s life – New York City and writing – it is easy to see why producers chose it as the site of her ill-fated wedding.

The library shows up twice in Sex and the City: The Movie. It first appears in the scene in which Carrie, while returning the book “Love Letters of Great Men, Volume I”, spots a wedding being set up in the library’s mezzanine. She immediately decides the place is the perfect location for her own upcoming nuptials.

That first scene was shot in the extremely beautiful McGraw Rotunda, which is located on the library’s second floor.

The New York Public Library next appears in the big wedding scene, during which Mr. Big stands Carrie up at the altar. And I should state here that the wedding scene seriously annoyed me. I mean, honestly, how many times can we expect Big to screw up before Carrie leaves him for good???? The SATC writers really need to come up with a new way of creating tension, because the whole Big-breaks-Carrie’s-heart thing was already getting old way back in Season 3. We should be long past that storyline by now, but I digress.

According to the SUPER nice security guard I spoke with, producers had the McGraw Rotunda intricately decorated with thousands upon thousands of flowers and other adornments for the wedding scene, yet none of it was visible in the movie. The only time any of the wedding decorations can be spotted is in the above-pictured blink-and-you’ll miss it scene in which Anthony Marentino (aka Mario Cantone) tells an assistant to keep all of the wedding guests off of the main stairwell.

The scene in which Mr. Big tells Carrie via telephone that he “couldn’t get out of the car” and that he will not be going through with the wedding was filmed in the library’s Astor Hall area, just off of the main lobby.

Miranda (aka Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (aka Kristin Davis) immediately grab Carrie and rush her out of the library’s northernmost front door.

And, while I was stalking the library, I, of course, just had to reenact the scene in which a devastated Carrie drops her cell phone after finding out that Big has stood her up.

Sex and the City: The Movie was hardly the first production to film at the library, though. The building was also the site of the benefit gala in the Season 3 episode of Gossip Girl titled “Ex-Husbands and Wives”

In the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Paul Varjak (aka George Peppard) and Holly Golightly (aka Audrey Hepburn) stop into the library during their “things we’ve never done before” day. And while the real life exterior of the library appeared in that scene, I cannot say for certain that the actual interior was also used. The interior scenes quite possibly may have been filmed on a studio soundstage. The library also appeared in a later scene in the movie as the spot where Paul first tells Holly that he loves her. And I just have to say here that I find it absolutely amazing that Audrey Hepburn’s costumes are still stylish today, almost five decades after Breakfast at Tiffany’s was filmed! I mean, how adorable is the orange jacket pictured above? But, again, I digress.

In the original Spider-Man movie, Uncle Ben (aka Cliff Robertson) drops off Peter Parker (aka Tobey Maguire) at the library, where he is supposedly going to do some studying. Peter instead goes to a wrestling match dressed as Spider-Man. When Ben later comes to pick Peter up, he gets killed outside of the library’s main entrance.

Jenna Rink (aka Jennifer Garner) and Matt Flamhaff (aka Mark Ruffalo) stage part of their “Class of 2004” photo shoot in front of the New York Public Library in fave movie 13 Going On 30.

In 1997’s Picture Perfect, the library was the site of the Gulden’s Mustard party where Kate Mosley (aka my girl Jennifer Aniston) first becomes disillusioned with the advertising world.

And while a large portion of the movie The Day After Tomorrow was set in the New York Public Library, no filming actually took place there. Instead producers built a replica of the library’s interior on a studio soundstage that they later destroyed during the massive flood scenes. According to the security guard that I spoke with, set designers spent weeks taking measurements of the interior of the library so that it could be exactly replicated for the filming.

In The Thomas Crown Affair, the inside of the library stood in for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as the Met refused to let any interior scenes be shot on the premises.

The first Ghostbusters movie actually opens with a shot of the New York Public Library and its famous stone lions, who are named Patience and Fortitude. The library has also appeared in the movies On The Town, Pickup on South Street, A Thousand Clowns, The Clock, King Kong, and You’re a Big Boy Now, and in the television series Kings.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The New York Public library is located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 42nd Street in New York City. It is open to the public daily.

March 4, 2010March 3, 2010

The “13 Going On 30” Thriller Dance Location

A few months ago, I enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen in tracking down the location from fave movie 13 Going On 30 where Jenna Rink (aka Jennifer Garner) saved the Poise Magazine party by performing her rendition of the Zombie Dance from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, which, not surprisingly, just so happens to be my very favorite scene in the flick. From the beginning, I was absolutely convinced that the “Thriller” scene had been filmed in a building located somewhere in New York, but Owen had a hunch that it had actually taken place right here in Los Angeles. And, as usual, Owen was right. After doing a bit of cyber-stalking, he somehow managed to track down one of the movie’s location managers who told him that Jenna’s “Thriller” dance had actually been performed inside of an oft-used filming location in Downtown Los Angeles, one that I am ashamed to admit I was already very familiar with – the former Bank of American building located on the corner of 7th and South Spring Streets. The building has been used in COUNTLESS productions over the years, but I am sad to say that, for whatever reason, I somehow failed to recognize it.

Being that the former bank’s big ol’ safe is clearly visible in the background of the “Thriller” scene, I really should have figured this one out. Man, I’m such a blonde sometimes!

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Once Owen had tracked down the location for me, I put the former bank building on my very long “To-Stalk” list and finally managed to visit the place in person while out doing some stalking in the Downtown Los Angeles area a couple of weeks ago. The Spring Street Tower, as it is sometimes called, which was built in 1912 by the architectural firm of Schultze and Weaver, served as the Los Angeles headquarters for the Bank of America Corporation from 1930 to 1972. After Bank of America vacated the twelve story high Beaux Arts style building, the upper floors served as offices for various companies throughout the years, while the marble clad lobby became an extremely popular filming location. In recent years, SB Properties, a building development company, took over the building and converted the former offices into lofts. And while the lobby area still looks much the same as it did during the time when it was operating as a bank, there are currently plans in the works for a restaurant and club to open up in that space, which is both good news and bad news. Bad news because I am guessing that once the space becomes a restaurant, it will cease to be a filming location and will most likely be heavily remodeled and good news because if it does eventually become a restaurant that means that someday in the near future I will be able to stalk the area where Jennifer Garner danced, a place which is currently off limits to the public. YAY! 🙂

When we first arrived to stalk the former Bank of America building, I did not actually have high hopes that I would be able to see any of the interior. So, let me tell you, I just about passed out from excitement when I discovered that the lobby area, where the “Thriller” dance scene took place, was thoroughly visible through the former bank’s front windows. From the windows you can see the vault;

the main staircase;

the second floor balcony;

and several of the wood-paneled main offices. You can also see some fabulous interior photographs of the bank building here.

In 13 Going On 30, the former Bank of America building was the location of the Poise Magazine “Girls Night Out” party, during which Jenna’s boss, Richard (aka Andy Serkis) complains that the guests are leaving far too early and if someone doesn’t do something to liven up the joint – and quick – then the entire magazine might go down the drain. So, Jenna immediately heads over to the DJ booth where she requests Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and then proceeds to lead the entire party in the famous Zombie Dance. Oh, how I would love to do that dance at my wedding! 😉

So I, of course, just had to imitate Jenna doing the “Thriller” dance while I was at the building. 🙂 I think it goes without saying that my fiancé was HIGHLY embarrassed while taking the above photographs of me.

The former bank is also where Robbie (aka Adam Sandler) tries to get a job to impress Julia (aka Drew Barrymore) in 1998’s The Wedding Singer. When the bank’s manager, who was played by Kevin Nealon, turns him down, Robbie says, “You don’t even have to give me the job. If you could just give me some business cards with my name on it, I think that might help. How ‘bout this – I’ll give you ten singing lessons for one business card. Please?” LOL

In 1995’s Se7en, the bank building was dressed to look like a library and appeared in the scene in which Detective Lt. William Somerset (aka Morgan Freeman) researches the Seven Deadly Sins.

In L.A. Story, the bank stood in for the Fourth Reich Bank of Hamburg where Steve Martin is forced to show his financial records to the owner of the impossible-to-get-into L’Idiot Restaurant in order to secure a dinner reservation there.

In 1994’s The Mask, the bank was used as Edge City Savings and Loan where Stanley Ipkiss (aka Jim Carrey) worked.

In Spiderman 2, the bank appeared up as the spot where Peter Parker (aka Tobey Maguire) takes his Aunt May (aka Rosemary Harris) to apply for a loan from a bank teller played by none other than The Soup’s Joel McHale. 🙂 While the two are in the bank, Doc Ock shows up to rob the place and almost succeeds until Spiderman steps in and, of course, saves the day.

In Ghost, the bank was used as the place where Sam Wheat (aka Patrick Swayze) takes Oda Mae Brown (aka Whoopi Goldberg) to fill out a signature card under the false name of Rita Miller.

In Blow, the former Bank of America building stood in for the Bank of Panama in one very brief scene.

In The Prestige, the building shows up twice. First, the bank lobby appeared as the courtroom where Alfred Borden’s (aka Christian Bale’s) murder trial is held.

And second, the bank’s second floor mezzanine area stood in for the bar where Robert Angier (aka Hugh Jackman) shared a drink with Cutter (aka Michael Caine).

The bank also appeared in the movies Marathon Man, Traffic, Fatal Vision, Prizzi’s Honor, St. Elmo’s Fire, All of Me, and in episodes of 24, Cagney & Lacey, Hill Street Blues, Matlock, and Hardcastle & McCormick.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The old Bank of America building is located at 650 South Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The best place to catch a glimpse of the interior of the property is through the windows located on either side of the building’s front doors, which are pictured above.

October 21, 2009June 16, 2011

The Central Park Conservatory Water

Because I spoke only very briefly about the Central Park Conservatory Water in yesterday’s post regarding the filming of Gossip Girl, today I thought I’d do a more in-depth blog on that location and the myriad of filming that has taken place there over the years. So, here goes. 🙂 The Conservatory Water is so named because in the original plans for Central Park, which were drawn up in 1857 by designers Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, an oval-shaped conservatory, or greenhouse, containing tropical plants was to be situated in the area where the Model Boat Pond now stands. When the money for that particular project fell through, Olmstead and Vaux instead decided to place an oval-shaped model boat pond, designed after those in Paris’ Jardin du Luxembourg, in the exact spot where the conservatory was originally positioned. Hence the name “Conservatory Water”. Over the years, the Pond became incredibly popular with children and adults alike and, thanks to the model yacht races which are held there each weekend, the area has come to be more commonly known as the “Model Boat Pond”. In fact, ask any New Yorker for directions to the Conservatory Water and I doubt they’d know what you were talking about. 🙂

Besides its weekend boat races, the Conservatory Water is also famous for two statues which are situated along its perimeter. The statue pictured above is of children’s author Hans Christian Andersen, who penned the stories “The Little Mermaid”, “The Snow Queen”, and “Thumbelina”, among countless others. In the statue Hans is depicted reading his tale “The Ugly Duckling” to an attentive little duck. So cute!!! And please don’t ask what the heck I am wearing in the above picture – it was a freezing cold and rainy day in New York and I threw on whatever warm clothes I could find. LOL

At the North end of the pond sits the famous Alice in Wonderland statue, in which Alice cavorts atop a life-sized mushroom with her friends the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the Dormouse, and the White Rabbit. The statue was commissioned in 1959 by George T. Delacorte, founder of the Dell Publishing Company, in honor of his wife. Legend has it that George’s face was the model for the face of the Mad Hatter in the statue. 🙂

The Model Boat Pond is so incredibly beautiful and picturesque, with its flat pool of reflecting water, curving benches running along its perimeter, lush green foliage and pink cherry trees juxtaposed against the towering skyscrapers of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, that it’s not very hard to see why producers have returned to film there time and time again.

In fave movie 13 Going On 30, the Model Boat Pond shows up very briefly during the montage scene in which Jenna is shown enjoying her newfound age. You can see the Alice and Wonderland statue in the background of the first screen capture pictured above.

In fave show Sex and the City, the Model Boat Pond shows up in the Season One episode entitled “The Power of Female Sex”, in the scene in which Carrie takes French Architect Gilles on a tour of the city. While at the Pond, Carrie says, “I felt like I had landed in a Claude Lelouch film”, Lelouch being a French film director known for his picturesque cinematography. The Alice and Wonderland statue shows up in this scene, as well – Carrie is sitting on top of it in the first screen capture pictured above.

In Just My Luck, yet another of my favorite teeny-bopper movies, cutie Chris Pine has some incredibly bad luck while visiting the Model Boat Pond at the very beginning of the film. Again you’ll notice the Alice in Wonderland statue pictured in the background above. It seems to be a favorite of filmmakers. 🙂

In the 1998 movie The Object of my Affection, it is while sitting on a bench overlooking the Pond that my girl Jen Aniston tells Paul Rudd that she is pregnant.

In fave movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Fred is followed by Doc Golightly, Holly’s former husband, while taking a stroll near the Conservatory Water.

And in the 1999 movie Stuart Little, Stuart (who was voiced by none other than Alex P. Keaton himself – Michael J. Fox) and his pal Jonathan Lipnicki race a model sailboat at the Pond. (That’s Hugh Laurie, aka Dr. House M.D., who plays Stuart and Jonathan’s dad in the flick, pictured in the second screen capture above!)

The producers definitely took some liberties while filming this scene, though, because while the race starts out at the Model Boat Pond, it ends up in the Central Park Reservoir, which, contrary to what the movie would have you believe, is not actually connected to the Pond and is, in fact, located quite a few miles away.

At one point, the boats even sail under a small bridge, but, being that the Model Boat Pond has no bridge, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I’m fairly certain this scene wasn’t actually filmed in Central Park. My guess is that the scene was filmed a few thousand miles away on a soundstage at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. LOL When watching that scene, you’ll notice that the camera never pans back far enough to show the entire Pond, leading me to believe that producers built their own version of it at the studio in Los Angeles which they then used for the filming.

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The Pond also showed up in I’m Not Rappaport, F/X, Jungle 2 Jungle, The Mirror Has Two Faces, Key Exchange and in 1964’s The World of Henry Orient. And it has even been immortalized in print, as well! In J.D. Salinger’s famous Catcher in the Rye novel, Holden Caulfield laments his problems to the Conservatory Water’s resident ducks.

I honestly cannot recommend stalking the Model Boat Pond enough!! It is one of my very favorite places in all of New York! In fact, one of my favorite things to do while visiting the city is to grab a bagel from a street vendor and eat it while sitting on one of the many benches surrounding the Pond – weather permitting, of course. 🙂 Which is exactly what my best friend, Kylee, and fiancé are doing in the above photograph which was taken during my 30th birthday trip to the Big Apple. 🙂 Ironically enough, while doing research on the Pond for today’s post, I kept running across the following sentence – or some variation of it – written again and again: “The Conservatory Water is so relaxing and peaceful that you almost forget you are in New York.” But to me, the Pond is a perfect representation of what it is that makes New York so incredibly unique. I mean where else can you find a huge and incredibly quiet and picturesque piece of nature located smack dab in the middle of a beautiful, bustling, towering city? 🙂 No, for me, the Model Boat Pond couldn’t be more New York and I never forget what city I am in while visiting it! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Conservatory Water, aka the Model Boat Pond, is located in Central Park on New York’s Upper East Side and can be reached from 72nd through 75th Streets.

September 16, 2009September 16, 2009

The 13 Going On 30 Bar

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that the restaurant where Jennifer Garner hit on the 13-year-old boy in fave movie 13 Going On 30 has long been a thorn in my side. For whatever reason, it seems that no matter how hard I tried or how badly I wanted to stalk it, I just couldn’t seem to track the place down! I came fairly close last year, when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, managed to find what was used as the exterior of the restaurant on a cobblestone street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. But, as fate would have it, the SoHo location turned out to be a clothing store that was used solely for exterior filming, while the interior scenes were shot at another location altogether. But where???? Finally, last week, I decided to enlist the help of fellow stalker Owen, who promised to track down a few of the 13 Going On 30 crew members and hopefully get an answer for me. Ironically enough, I had told Owen that time was of the essence in this particular stalking endeavor as I wanted to stalk the restaurant during my upcoming trip to New York. Well, come to find out, much like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, it turns out that the location I was searching for was right in my own backyard the whole time! 🙂 It wasn’t an hour later that I got a text back from Owen which read “Interested in hitting on 13-year-old boys? Head to Hal’s Bar at 1349 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice”. Well, let me tell you I almost fell over right then and there! I could NOT believe that the this WHOLE TIME the restaurant had been in L.A., literally right under my nose! LOL So, of course, I immediately dragged my boyfriend right out to FINALLY stalk it. 🙂

For those who have never seen 13 Going On 30, the scene that takes place at Hal’s restaurant involves Jennifer Garner (as a 13-year-old stuck in a 30-year- old’s body) drinking some cocktails at a bar in New York with BFF Judy Greer. At one point, Judy leans over and whispers to Jennifer “Mr. Hottie behind you is totally scamming on you right now!” So, of course, Jennifer gets up to go talk to him, but instead of walking up to the older gentleman standing at the bar, she heads over to a 13-year-old boy sitting in a booth and tells him she thinks he is cute. Judy freaks out, grabs Jennifer, and says “What do you want to go to jail? I meant that guy!” to which Jennifer replies, “The man? Oh, gross!” LOL LOL LOL You can watch the entire scene here.

Amazingly enough, while the decor of the 13 Going On 30 restaurant is pretty much exactly the same in person as it was in the movie, I had a really hard time recognizing the place once there. In fact, even though I have been actively searching for this location for years, had I randomly eaten at Hal’s, I probably never would have recognized it as the 13 Going On 30 restaurant. LOL As you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, while most of the background paintings were changed for the filming, for the most part the restaurant looks very much the same in real life as it did onscreen. One of the things that threw me, though, was the fact that, in real life, Hal’s is a fairly large restaurant, but, because 13 Going On 30 only showed one small section of it, it appeared to be tiny in the movie. When I first walked in, I was shocked at how big the place actually was.

But the biggest shock for me was actually the lighting. In real life, Hal’s is extremely bright and open, with one wall made up almost entirely of windows. In the movie, though, the place seemed very dark and cozy, much like a real New York restaurant would be. As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, producers actually had all of Hal’s front windows covered over for the shoot, which really made a difference in the look and feel of the restaurant. In fact, the entire time we were there, I kept saying to my boyfriend “This place is so bright, but it was dark in the movie!!!! I don’t get it!” LOL Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

In an ironic side note – While attempting to locate the restaurant, I had spent WEEKS trying to figure out what the sign behind Judy Greer in the above screen capture spelled out. Countless times, I had Googled the terms “New York” along with all sorts of different combinations of words ending with “–ECKAS” and the phrase “bar & grill” to try to figure it out – all to no avail. Which makes sense now, being that the sign was a fake put up for decoration at the New York location where exterior filming took place.

But what doesn’t make sense is that when I finally got to stalk the restaurant, I noticed that producers had used part of the Hal’s Bar & Grill logo for their fake sign in New York. You’ll notice in the above screen capture and photograph that the oddly-placed “S” in the Hal’s Bar & Grill logo is EXACTLY the same as the oddly-placed “S” in the fake restaurant sign that was at the New York location. I’m not sure why producers went to all the trouble of creating a fake name and a fake logo that incorporated a part of the real restaurant’s real logo. Why not just use the real thing??? LOL But that’s Hollywood for you! 🙂

And, as if getting to eat at the 13 Going On 30 restaurant was not excitement enough for one day, while walking to our car afterwards we happened upon Desperate Housewife Marcia Cross sitting on a bench outside of a nearby shop. Ironically enough, the only reason I noticed her at all was because, as I walked by, she looked up and gave me an absolutely ENORMOUS smile. I was a bit taken aback by that as people in L.A. don’t typically smile like that at strangers. And it was while smiling back at her that I all of a sudden realized she was Marcia Cross! I so wanted to ask her to take a picture with me, but, as it was an extremely busy afternoon on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, I didn’t want to attract a bunch of attention to her. But, after we walked across the street, I begged my fiancé to snap a quick paparazzi pic of her for my blog – for which she also smiled. 🙂 So cool!!!

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I cannot recommend stalking Hal’s Bar & Grill enough! The food is EXCELLENT – especially the burgers! – and I had an absolute blast being there.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Hal’s Bar and Grill, aka the 13 Going On 30 bar, is located at 1349 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. You can visit their website here.

August 13, 2009August 13, 2009

A Peek Inside the Pink House from “13 Going On 30”

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, this past weekend, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I actually got to GO INSIDE the pink house featured at the end of fave romantic comedy 13 Going On 30. Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I absolutely LOVE 13 Going On 30 and that Jenna’s pink Craftsman style home is one of my very favorite filming locations of all time! Mike actually found this location for me back in May of 2008, after what seemed like MONTHS of me begging him to track it down. LOL But even though Mike was the one who actually located the house, he had yet to stalk it himself. So, I just HAD to take him there on Saturday while the two of us were in the area.

As fate would have it, when I first blogged about Jenna’s pink house back in May of 2008, the real life homeowner, an AMAZINGLY NICE woman named Mimi, happened to stumble upon my site and was amazed to see a post dedicated to her residence. LOL Mimi ended up leaving me a comment where she mentioned that after the filming of 13 Going On 30 had been completed, she and her husband asked the production crew who were repainting the house back to its original color to leave one brick pink in memory of the movie. HOW COOL IS THAT???? So, when I took Mike to stalk the place on Saturday, the two of us stood there on the sidewalk for quite some time, scrutinizing every square inch of the house looking for that brick. LOL Well, Mimi happened to see us through her front window and came outside to say hello. She recognized me from my site and said “Do you want to see the pink brick?” Well, as you can imagine, I just about DIED. I had been itching to see that brick ever since I first read her comment over a year ago! 🙂

The brick is actually located on the rear side of a post in the driveway area of the home and I could NOT have been more excited to be seeing it in person!!!!! I can’t tell you how cool it is that Mimi and her husband left that one brick pink! I SO SO SO LOVE IT! Mimi is truly a woman after my own heart! 🙂 Except, knowing me, I probably would have left the whole house pink! LOL 🙂

Then, just as I was about to die of excitement over seeing that brick, Mimi asked us if we wanted to come inside to see the living room area where they had also filmed!!!! DID WE WANT TO COME INSIDE????? DID WE WANT TO COME INSIDE?????? LOL OF COURSE WE DID! Well, it turns out that the mantle area shown in the movie was a fake that was built solely for the filming in what is really Mimi’s dining room. The production crew covered over the large window pictured above with a fake wall, a fake fireplace, and a fake mantle. Mimi said that the crew spent about a week building one fireplace, only to have the producers not like it. So, they ended up having to rip it out and build a new one entirely from scratch. She said it was an amazingly intricate fireplace made out of tile, but, ironically enough, after what amounted to two weeks of construction on two different fireplaces, neither one was ever seen in the movie. LOL LOL LOL In the scene when Jenna is unpacking photographs, the camera never shows anything below the top right corner of the mantle area. So, all of that fireplace construction was pretty much for naught. Only in Hollywood, I swear!

Adding to the irony is the fact that there is already a fireplace and a mantle in the house that could have been used in the scene! LOL Too funny!

I can’t tell you how exciting it was to be able to see the interiors of the home in person and to hear all of the behind-the-scenes info! Truly a once in a lifetime! All in all, filming at the house took two weeks to complete, including the painting and construction time. The actual filming of the scene between Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo took less than one day to shoot. LOL And, amazingly enough, the pink house scene wasn’t the movie’s original ending, but a re-shoot that was filmed after the first ending didn’t fare well with test audiences.

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Mimi’s house has also been featured in a commercial and the Season 2 episode of Cold Case entitled “Who’s Your Daddy”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The pink house from 13 Going On 30 is located at 1965 Fletcher Avenue in South Pasadena, just a few doors down from the Step by Step house, which is located at 2011 Fletcher. The house from Kelly Clarkson’s Because Of You video is located across the street at 2006 Fletcher Ave. Please respect the owner’s privacy and don’t trepass, knock on the door, or ask to be let inside. Mike and I were extremely lucky to be invited inside the house, but as this is not common practice, please don’t bother the owner about doing it yourself.

December 31, 2008November 8, 2010

The Exterior of the Bar from “13 Going On 30”

Another filming location I have been absolutely obsessed with finding for YEARS is the New York restaurant where Jenna hit on the 13 year old boy in fave romantic comedy 13 Going On 30. Ever since the movie was released four years ago I have been searching New York City streets hoping to find the restaurant featured in the movie, but having absolutely no luck. And then, just before I left on my recent New York vacation, a light bulb went off in my head and I honestly don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner! I enlisted master stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, to help me find the location. And sure enough he did!

Literally less than ten minutes after challenging Mike to find the restaurant’s location, he sent me an email with the above photo! And I just about fell off my chair. Here I had been searching for this location for FOUR YEARS, even resorting to walking up and down New York streets, screen captures in hand, trying to find it, and he locates it in the space of ten minutes! The man has a gift!

It turns out that the 13 Going On 30 restaurant isn’t actually a restaurant at all, but a clothing store named Phi Boutique located on a cobblestone street in SoHo’s Cast Iron Historic District. My initial thought was that maybe a restaurant occupied Phi’s space back in 2003 when the filming of 13 Going On 30 took place, but after speaking to a Phi saleswoman earlier today I learned that that wasn’t actually the case. Before Phi took over the space at 71 Greene Street in 2004, it was occupied by clothing boutique Vivienne Westwood. Since no restaurant was ever located on the premises, my best guess is that 13 Going On 30 used the vacant storefront for filming in late 2003 during the interim after Vivienne Westwood moved out and before Phi moved in, and that the restaurant’s interiors were shot somewhere else entirely (possibly even in Los Angeles). Finding the restaurant’s interior is my next mission for Mike! 🙂

The Cast Iron Historic District is an architecturally and historically significant area of New York’s SoHo neighborhood. The Cast Iron District boasts over 250 buildings erected out of cast iron, making it the largest concentration of cast iron buildings in the entire world. All of the historic buildings were constructed between the years 1869 and 1895, when cast iron was considered the cheapest and easiest-to-use building material. At the time, different architectural designs were cast in iron inside of a warehouse and later secured into place on building facades creating an architecturally beautiful and diverse area of New York. The building that Jenna’s hockey player boyfriend stands in front of while signing autographs in 13 Going On 30 is considered by some to be the most brilliant example of cast iron architecture in the city. The building is known as the “King of Greene Street” and was built in 1872 by cast iron craftsman Isaac F. Duckworth. It was originally designed as a dry goods warehouse for successful merchant Gardner Colby and now is home to an antique store and art gallery.

Even though there is no 13 Going On 30 restaurant to stalk on Greene Street, I highly recommend visiting the area anyway. With its cobblestone streets and historical buildings, it really is an adorable area of New York.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The exterior of the restaurant from 13 Going On 30 is really the storefront of Phi Boutique located at 71 Greene Street in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. Jenna meets Matt’s fiance just next door to Phi, outside of the building located at 69 Greene Street. And Jenna’s hockey player boyfriend, Alex Carlson, signs autographs across the street in front of 70 Greene Street.

November 19, 2008February 13, 2009

The Sony Pictures Studio Tour

Last month Mike, from MovieShotsLA, his fiance Jen, and I decided to go on another studio stalking adventure. This time we opted for the Sony Pictures Studio Tour in Culver City. The studio lot that is now owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment (parent company to both Columbia and TriStar Pictures) was originally built in 1915 by producer Thomas Ince for his company Triangle Pictures. During that time, Culver City was quite a powerhouse in the motion picture industry. The city even touted itself with the slogan: “Culver City – Where Hollywood Movies Are Made”. In 1918, Ince sold his studio to Samuel Goldwyn of Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. Six years later the lot became the legendary MGM Studios when Goldwyn joined forces with Louis B. Mayer and Metro Pictures forming the conglomerate Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The rest, as they say, is history.

During its heydey MGM liked to say it had “more stars than there are in the heavens”. And it was pretty much true. Such mega-stars as Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Clark Gable, Katharine Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Joan Crawford all called MGM home at one time or another. Hundreds of hit movies were created within the historic studio walls, including Singin’ in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz, Meet Me In St. Louis, Ben Hur, David Coppefield and Grand Hotel. When billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, former owner of the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, purchased the legendary studio in 1969, he sold off more than 150 acres of MGM’s property. In one fell swoop, the studio downsized from 183 acres to 30. 🙁 Almost all of what was sold off was the studio back lot area, including the street Gene Kelly danced on in Singin’ in the Rain. How sad!! After several subsequent ownerships, in 1991 the former MGM Studios was purchased by Sony Pictures. The good news in all of this is that Sonyspent $100 million rennovating the legendary lot and also opened the place to the public for daily tours. It is that tour that Mike, Jen and I embarked upon last month. 🙂

The tour starts off in the lobby of the Sony Pictures Plaza building (pictured above). As we pulled up to the building, Mike pointed out that the exterior was used in the filming of the 1987 movie Adventures in Babysitting in the scene where young Sara climbs the exterior of a Chicago skyscraper while her parents unknowingly attend a cocktail party inside. Love that movie!

After checking in with out tour guide in the lobby of the Plaza building, we were given Sony Studio Tour VIP lanyards to wear around our neck which we actually got to keep! 🙂 I was way excited about that! 🙂 Then while waiting for the tour to begin, we were encouraged to walk around the Plaza lobby, which is a movie memorabilia museum of sorts. I absolutely LOVE looking at movie props and costumes, so I was extra excited about this part of the tour. One of the exhibits included Julia Robert’s wedding dress from Steel Magnolias and one of Cameran Diaz’s costumes from the first Charlie’s Angels movie (both are pictured above).

Other items on display in the museum include, the gameboard from Jumanji,

Annie’s letter to Sam and Jonah’s teddy bear and backpack from Sleepless in Seattle,

artifacts from The DaVinci Code, including the book Tom Hanks character authored,

Will Smith’s sunglasses and the notecards which contained his speech from Hancock,

and Julian’s toys from Big Daddy.

After milling around the museum for a few minutes, our tour was ready to begin with a short walk across the street to the entrance of the historic studio once known as MGM. Our first stop was probably my favorite part of the tour – the lightpost which Jennifer Garner posed with for the 13 Going On 30 promotional movie posters. The lightpost and background were all digitally changed after the photo was taken, but I could not have been more excited to pose there nonetheless! In fact, Mike, Jen and I almost got separated from the rest of our tour group because we spent so much time trying to get a photo of me in the exact same pose as Jennifer Garner. LOL 🙂

Our next stop was the Irving Thalberg Building, an administration building which was built in 1936 and named for the legendary MGM producer after his untimely death at the young age of 36. Besides now housing all of the Columbia Pictures Best Picture Oscar statuettes, the building was also recently used as the site of Peter Parker’s high school graduation in the first Spiderman movie.

Next we headed over to Main Street, where the studio commissary, cafe, and gift shop are located. Our tour guide told us that Main Street is often used as a filming location for productions being shot on the lot, but he didn’t know in particular which movies or television shows had filmed there.

While there, he also demonstrated how most of the doors on Main Street don’t really lead to anything but a stucco wall. LOL

Next we headed over to the only exterior/backlot type street located on the Sony lot – an East Coast looking Street, which can stand in for New York, Washington D.C., and even Boston. Both sides of that street are pictured above. The exteriors in the top photograph above were used as Jack Nicholson’s apartment building in the movie Something’s Gotta Give. During the filming of the movie, producers were trying to film a long shot of Jack walking away from his apartment building. Because there are no sidewalks located on this backlot street, Nicholson appeared very short when walking next to the cars parked along the side of the road. To fix the problem, producers simply removed the tires on all of the parked cars and voila, Jack appeared to be a normal height. LOL 🙂

After walking down the studio’s sole backlot street, we were taken through the main part of the studio, which includes many soundstages (27 is where they filmed The Wizard of Oz), the scene shop where humongous backdrops are painstakingly painted by numerous artists all working at the same time, the “scoring studio” (a favorite of Barbra Streisand’s) where scores from movies are recorded, and an interior set inside a soundstage that was used in the filming of the new Beyonce movie Obsessed. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures of any of these things. 🙁

All in all, the tour lasted about two hours. While the Sony Pictures Studio Tour was fun, and I was super excited that we got to keep our VIP necktags, I would say that I much prefered the Paramount Pictures Studio Tour and the Warner Brothers Tour. My favorite part of studio tours is seeing backlots where countless exteriors are filmed and unfortunately there just wasn’t enough of those to see on the Sony tour. 🙁 So while I did enjoy myself, if you are a tourist who only has time for one tour, I suggest one of the other studios.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Sony Pictures Studios is located at 10202 W. Washington Boulevard in Culver City. You can visit their website and purchase tickets here. The tour cost is $28 per person and only those 12 years of age and older are permitted.

May 21, 2008November 8, 2010

The Pink House from “13 Going On 30”

I must bow down right now to Mike over at MovieShotsLA as yesterday he found a house that I have spent many unsuccessful hours over the past two years looking for – Jenna’s pink dream house from the last scene of my fave movie 13 Going On 30. Mike said he had a hunch about the area the home was in and found it by looking at aerial shots of streets in that neighborhood. I am forever grateful! Literally, as SOON as he gave me the address yesterday, I rushed out of my house and headed over to South Pasadena to stalk the home. For this particular stalking trip I had to drag my dad along as my boyfriend was at work.

Jenna’s pink house is, of course, no longer pink – it was only painted pink for the movie. It is A LOT bigger in person than it seemed on screen, but otherwise is completely recognizable from the movie. Jenna and Matt move into this house at the very end of 13 Going On 30, and the final scene is them sitting on their couch in the front yard of the home with a moving van in the driveway. I cannot tell you how excited I was to finally be there as this was one location I honestly thought I’d never find. Thank you, Mike!!

While my dad and I were stalking the house, a super nice neighbor came home and filled us in on all sorts of filming information about his street. He told us that Jennifer Garner wasn’t as friendly as one would expect and that she had a big bodyguard who kept fans away the entire time they were filming. He also told us that the Kelly Clarkson video for Because Of You was filmed just across the street from the 13 Going On 30 house. That home is pictured on the left. He said that Kelly Clarkson could not have been nicer and that even after a really long day of filming, she stuck around for about 40 minutes to sign autographs for all of the neighborhood kids. He said she literally stayed until every last autograph was signed. You can watch the Because Of You video here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The 13 Going On 30 house is located at 1965 Fletcher Avenue in South Pasadena. The Because Of You house is across the street at 2006 Fletcher. These houses are very close to the other houses used in 13 Going On 30.

February 26, 2008November 8, 2010

The Poise Magazine Office from “13 Going On 30”

First, let me just say how happy I am that Britney apparently survived Starbucks three hour closure today! It’s truly a minor miracle!!

Anyway, on with the post . . .

This past December while on vacation in New York, I happened to walk by a building that I immediately recognized as the “Poise” offices from 13 Going On 30. I am not sure if it was the gold-framed revolving door that gave it away, or just the fact that I have seen 13 Going On 30 way too many times, but nevertheless I knew the building was used as Jenna Rink’s office the moment I spotted it. The “Poise” office building was actually built in 1931 and used to house Newsweek Magazine. It is now home to New York Magazine.

The store where Jenna shops in the movie and forgets her credit card is Henri Bendel and it is located just a few blocks away at 712 Fifth Avenue.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The “Poise” offices are located at 444 Madison Avenue in New York City, between 49th and 50th Streets. Just a half a block down from the office building is the New York Palace Hotel, where much of the TV show Gossip Girl is filmed. On the show, Serena lives at the Palace with her parents and often hangs out in the Gilt bar, which can be found just off the hotel’s courtyard.