Jessica’s House from “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”

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Another Crazy, Stupid, Love. location that I stalked recently was the residence where the Riley family – babysitter Jessica (aka Analeigh Tipton) and her parents, Bernie (aka John Carroll Lynch) and Claire (aka Beth Littleford) – lived.  And I just have to say here that now that the flick has been released on DVD, I have watched it about 100 times!  OK, OK, I am exaggerating slightly, but I do have a serious problem!  If anyone out there knows of a support group for Crazy, Stupid, Love. addiction, please, please let me know!  But I digress.  Anyway, I was informed of this particular location thanks to a helpful Crazy, Stupid, Love. crewmember and, even though it appeared only briefly, because I thought Analeigh Tipton was absolutely phenomenal in the movie, I just had to go stalk it.  Truth be told, though, every actor in Crazy, Stupid, Love. was phenomenal!  In most movies there are certain roles in which an actor seems to be perfectly cast, but in the case of Crazy, Stupid, Love., everyone – right on down to the bit players – seemed tailor-made for their role.  If only there were Academy Awards for casting!

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In Crazy, Stupid, Love., the Riley house first appears in the scene in which Cal Weaver (aka Steve Carell) drops Jessica off after an evening of babysitting and she tells him that his wife is “bat-sh*t crazy” for wanting a divorce.

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The abode next shows up in the scene in which Cal’s 13-year-old son, Robbie (aka Jonah Bobo), delivers some second-hand flowers to Jessica’s front door, while she is making an, ahem, present for Cal.

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And lastly, the home was used in the scene in which Bernie finds out about Jessica’s present for Cal.  I do not want to say anything else about that particular scene as I do not want to spoil the movie for those who have yet to see it.

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In real life, the Riley home, which was built in 1947, is absolutely adorable and boasts a whopping 7 bedrooms, 4 baths, and 3,875 square feet of living space.

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And while I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the house was also used in the flick, I could not find any interior photographs online with which to verify my hunch.

Analeigh Tipton from “Crazy, Stupid, Love.” on “America’s Next Top Model”

On an Analeigh Tipton side-note – while researching this post, I discovered that the actress starred in the Eleventh Season of America’s Next Top Model, during which she placed Third.  You can watch a clip of her on the show by clicking above.  As you can see, she is much more mature, confident, and wise than the character she played in Crazy, Stupid, Love. Like I said, the woman is phenomenal!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Jessica’s house from Crazy, Stupid, Love. is located at 2564 Boulder Road in Altadena.

The Weaver House from “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”

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Back in August, on the recommendation of my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to see Crazy, Stupid, Love. and I can honestly say that it was one of the best movies I have seen all year.  In fact, I might even go so far as to say that it was one of the best movies I have seen ever!  And while I have long thought that Ryan Gosling is one of the most gifted actors of our generation, he entered a whole new level in Crazy, Stupid, Love. and blew all of his past performances right out of the water!  The guy is simply phenomenal!  And can you say “heartthrob”?!  I also absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE me some Emma Stone and she, too, was nothing short of fabulous.  If you have yet to see the movie, I cannot more highly recommend doing so!  Like now!  Stop reading this post, in fact, and go right out and rent it!  Seriously!  Anyway, because I loved the flick so much, I could absolutely NOT wait for it to come out on DVD  – which it finally did last week – so that I could start tracking down some of its locations.  And one of the first that I found, thanks to a very helpful crew member, was the residence where the Weaver family lived.  So I ran right out to stalk it – Grim Cheaper in tow, of course – just a few days later.

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In Crazy, Stupid, Love., recently-separated Emily Weaver (aka Julianne Moore) and her two children, Robbie (aka Jonah Bobo) and Molly (aka Joey King), live in the two-story Anywhere, U.S.A.-style house pictured above.

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The backyard was the area of the property that actually appeared most often in the flick, most notably during Cal Weaver’s (aka Steve Carell’s) late-night gardening sessions.  According to the Crazy, Stupid, Love. production notes, of the residence, production designer William Arnold said, “We were really lucky to find that house, which had this beautiful back sun porch. The owners graciously let us tear down their old glass doors and put in windows and doors that opened the house up to the backyard, lending itself to Cal’s late-night ‘visits’ to his garden. He could see almost all the way through the house, but was, tellingly, on the outside looking in.”

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The backyard also appeared in my very favorite scene from the movie, in which Cal’s surprise for Emily goes a bit haywire.  I will not say anymore than that, as I do not want to spoil the scene for those who have yet to see the movie – and if that is the case, then you really should not be reading this post!  You should be out renting Crazy, Stupid, Love. like I told you to before!  Winking smile

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The real life interior of the house was also used in the flick.  Amazingly, according to the production notes, almost all of Crazy, Stupid, Love. was filmed on location at actual sites.  Only two sets were constructed for use in the movie – Cal’s post-separation apartment and Plus, the bar where Jacob Palmer (aka Ryan Gosling) taught Cal the finer points of seducing women – which I found shocking!

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In real life, the 3-bedroom, 3-bath, 2,270-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1949 and sits on over half an acre of land, looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, except for the cement front walkway, which appears to have been swapped out for a stone one during the filming.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Weaver residence from Crazy, Stupid, Love. is located at 2002 Minoru Drive in Altadena.

The Haunted Mansion from “The Three Sisters” Episode of “Knots Landing’

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Way back in January of this year, a fellow stalker named James posted a comment on my site challenging me to find the haunted mansion which appeared in the Season 3 episode of Knots Landing titled “The Three Sisters”.  James had found an interview on the Knots Landing website in which Kim Lankford, who played Ginger Ward on the long-running nighttime soap, stated that the estate featured in the episode was located somewhere in Pasadena.  And even though I had never seen “The Three Sisters” episode, nor any episode of KL for that matter, I figured that because the house was so large and historic-looking, it would not be that hard to track down.  Oh, how wrong I was!  I cannot tell you the countless hours I spent looking for this place, all to no avail!  Then last Thursday morning, I decided to enlist the help of fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, and, amazingly enough, he was able to track the place down in thirty minutes flat!  Halleluiah!

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Geoff said that he vaguely remembered coming across aerial views of the mansion while looking for a different location a few months prior and figured that since I had already conducted an exhaustive search within the city limits of Pasadena, that the property must be located in a neighboring environ.  He decided to begin his hunt in Altadena and, after noticing the large palm tree denoted with a pink circle in the above screen capture, realized that there were only a couple of places in the Altadena area where the home could be located.  And, sure enough, he was right.  Yay!  Thank you, Geoff!!!

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So I ran right out to stalk the place the very next morning.  And I have to say that the mansion is pretty darn majestic in person!  According to Zillow, the estate, which was originally built in 1915 and sits on over half an acre of land, boasts 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and 7,176 square feet of living space.

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As you can see in the above aerial view, the mansion is so huge that it pretty much dwarfs everything which surrounds it.  And while I was fairly certain that the property had to be historic in some way, amazingly enough, I could find absolutely no information whatsoever about the place online.  I did manage to find some fabulous interior photographs of the property, though, which you can check out here.

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In “ The Three Sisters” episode of Knots Landing, realtor Laura Avery (aka Constance McCashin) takes the Seaview Circle wives, including Ginger, Val Ewing (aka Joan Van Ark), Abby Cunningham (aka Donna Mills), and Karen Fairgate (aka Michele Lee), to look at an estate that she is currently selling that is rumored to be haunted.  After touring the property and becoming quite spooked, the women get back into their car to head home only to discover that it will not start.  They are subsequently forced to spend the night in the house, whereupon strange things begin to happen.  It is absolutely AMAZING to me that the mansion still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did almost three full decades ago when the Knots Landing episode was filmed.  So incredibly cool!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker James for challenging me to find this location and to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for being the one to find it! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The haunted mansion from “The Three Sisters” episode of Knots Landing is located at 1366 East Palm Street in Altadena.

The Omega Beta Zeta House from “Scream 2”

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This past Saturday, while I was out stalking the Oscars, fellow stalker Tony spent his day trying to track down the large Victorian mansion which appeared as both the Omega Beta Zeta sorority house in Scream 2 and the Strong residence in Catch Me If You Can.  Tony knew that the house was located somewhere in the Altadena area and, since I live in the vicinity, was hoping I could help him find it.  We spent quite a bit of time emailing back and forth that day – me on my blackberry while out and about in Hollywood and Tony on his computer at home.  I am sad to say that I was unable to provide him with any help whatsoever in this particular hunt, though, as I had long been under the incorrect assumption that the Woodbury Story House on Madison Avenue in Altadena was the residence used as the Strong mansion in Catch Me If You Can.  Tony proved me wrong, though, and, as it turns out, didn’t need my help after all.  He managed to track down the correct location fairly quickly, first using Google to make a list of all of the large Victorian-style houses in the Altadena area and then viewing each one using aerial maps.  YAY!  Thank you, Tony!  So, once Tony gave me the address, I, of course,  had to run right out to immediately stalk the place.

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The Scream 2/Catch Me If You Can estate is actually known as both the Crank House and Fair Oaks Ranch and is something of a historical residence.   The vacant property was first owned by a wealthy landowner named Dr. John S. Griffin.  In 1862, Griffin sold the lot to his sister, Eliza Griffin Johnston, for $1000 after her husband, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, passed away during the Civil War.  Eliza built a small abode on the property and dubbed her new home “Fair Oaks Ranch”, after the city of Fair Oaks in Virginia where she was born.  In 1864, following the death of her son in a steamship accident, Eliza sold the property to Benjamin Eaton, one of Pasadena’s first founders.  Eaton ended up splitting the land in half and in 1876 sold one of the halves to a New Yorker named James F. Crank.  Crank had Eliza’s original home moved off of the property (it is currently located at 2072 Oakwood Avenue in Altadena) and in 1882 built a much larger, two and a half story, Victorian-style abode, named the Crank House, in its place.  In 1910, after investing and subsequently losing his fortune in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroads, Crank was forced to sell the residence.   And while his property was further subdivided after the sale, I am happy to report that his former house still stands and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997.  The seven bedroom, four bathroom home measures a whopping 6,450 square feet and currently sits on over one and a half acres of land.  Sadly, though, the residence is situated behind a large gate and is not very visible from the street.

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But, as luck would have it, when I showed up to stalk the place yesterday, not only was the property’s back gate standing open . . . 

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. . . but, the front gate was, as well!  So, I just had to stick my arm around the open gate and snap the above pictures!  YAY!  🙂 

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And, being that the house is not visible from the street, I can’t really recommend visiting it in person.  But if you are absolutely dying to catch a glimpse of it, I am happy to report that parts of it can actually be seen from the streets surrounding the property.  🙂   

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In Scream 2, the Crank House stood in for the Omega Beta Zeta sorority house located on the campus of the fictional Windsor College in Ohio.

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The house is where sorority girl CiCi Cooper (aka Sarah Michelle Gellar) meets her untimely end thanks to a push off the mansion’s second floor balcony.  In the movie, the house is supposedly situated within walking distance of the Delta Lambda Zeta house, where the “Martini Mixer” fraternity party was held, but in actuality it is located a good six miles away from that residence.  On a side note – I have to admit that I must have jumped out of my chair at least ten times while making the above screen captures!  LOL

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In Catch Me If You Can, the Crank House stood in for the New Orleans residence belonging to Roger (aka Martin Sheen) and Carol Strong (aka Nancy Lenehan) and their daughter Brenda (aka Amy Adams).   The house showed up in several scenes in the movie, most notably as the location of Frank Abagnale (aka Leonardo DiCaprio) and Brenda’s engagement party.

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Both the interior and the exterior of the Crank House were used extensively in the filming of Scream 2 and Catch Me If You Can.  As you can in the above screen captures, which were taken from both films, the interiors match almost exactly.  Love it!

Big THANK YOU to Tony for finding this location!  🙂  And be sure to check out Tony’s Flickr site, as it features some fabulous photographs of filming locations in and around the L.A. area.

On a very sad side note – I was heartbroken today to learn of the untimely death of actor Corey Haim.  Corey was one of my very first movie star crushes.  I was eleven years old when I first layed eyes on him in 1988’s License to Drive and I think it’s safe to save I’ve been smitten ever since.  My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones at this difficult time.  I hope that in death Corey has finally found the peace that he never seemed to have in life.  Rest in peace, sweet Corey. 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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Stalk It: The Crank Estate, aka Fair Oaks Ranch, is located at 2186 East Crary Street in Altadena.  The property’s front gate is located around the corner, at the end of Layton Street.  Remember, this is a private residence, so please do not trespass.  To see the best views of the house, drive on Crary Street just a bit east of the property and look backwards or drive a block south to Garfias Drive and look north.  I’ve marked the areas with the best views of the house on the map above.