Ashton Kutcher – IAMNOTASTALKER

August 13, 2018September 24, 2018

Oliver’s House from “A Lot Like Love”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

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

April 16, 2018April 15, 2018

Oliver’s San Francisco House from “A Lot Like Love”

I have made no secret over the years of my obsession with the 2005 romcom A Lot Like Love. And I thought I was quite well-versed in its locations. So I was shocked when fellow stalker Tovangar2 (you may remember him from this post) published a comment on my site in November 2015 alerting me to the fact that the supposed San Francisco house where Oliver Martin (Ashton Kutcher) lived in the flick was actually located in Los Angeles – at 1321 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park, to be exact. For the life of me I could not remember the exterior of Oliver’s SF residence being shown in the movie, so I immediately popped my A Lot Like Love DVD into my computer, started scanning, and, sure enough, about 45 minutes in was a shot of Oliver returning to a large Victorian pad after a long day at work. Considering I’ve seen the film about 25 times, I don’t know how I missed it! Fortunately, I happened to be in L.A. just a few days after learning about the locale, so I ran right out to stalk it. Thank you, Tovangar2!

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According to Big Orange Landmarks, the pad, which is known as the Beaudry House in real life, has quite an interesting history. Constructed in the Queen Anne/Eastlake style in 1887, the dwelling was initially located at 1145 Court Street, just west of North Boylston, about seven blocks south of where it currently stands. You can check out a map showing where it was originally situated here.

By the late ‘70s, the Beaudry House had grown severely dilapidated, the result of a downturn in the neighborhood and negligible maintenance. Though the property as well as its neighbor, the Irey House at 1123 Court Street, were rewarded Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument status, they both suffered from vandalism, graffiti and age. At around the same time, a group of Carroll Avenue homeowners banded together to form the Carroll Avenue Restoration Foundation in the hopes that they could thwart the development of a large vacant plot of land on their street. Fearing that the addition of a sizeable contemporary residence on the lot would be at odds with the community’s decidedly historic Victorian aesthetic, the organization resolved to purchase the plot and relocate the Beaudry and Irey Houses there. Thanks to some savvy maneuvering and many generous donations, CARF was successful and the two dwellings were moved via flatbed truck to their new street on March 22nd, 1978. You can check out a photo of the drive, which took two hours to complete, here.

Today, the Beaudry House, which is actually classified as a duplex, is a glowing example of preserved Victorian architecture. The 3,201-square-foot property – which consists of a 1-bedroom, 1-bath unit downstairs and a 2-bedroom, 1-bath second-level space, as well a carriage house that has been converted into a studio – boasts pocket doors, period sconces, wood detailing, stained glass windows, a 3-car garage, and 0.28 acres of land.

The residence last sold in December 2015 for $1.2 million. You can check out some interior photos from the listing here. Because the pad is a duplex with a converted carriage house, it oddly has three different kitchens, which is a bit jarring to see.

Here’s hoping the new owners will convert the property back into a single-family home.

The Beaudry House appears only once in A Lot Like Love, in the scene in which Oliver returns home from work to learn that his live-in girlfriend Bridget (Moon Bloodgood) wants to break up with him just minutes before dinner guests are expected to arrive. in the movie, the residence actually belongs to Bridget. As Oliver later explains to his on-again/off-again love Emily Friehl (Amanda Peet), “I’ve been killing myself at work – nights, weekends, even at home. Well, Bridget’s home. See, I moved in with her. That was my big mistake right there. I should have stuck to the plan. I mean, the plan, the plan was working! And the irony of it is that Bridget actually loves plans.”

The actual interior of the property was also featured in the film, as you can see in the screen capture as compared to the MLS photo of the home pictured below.

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

Big THANK YOU to Tovangar2 for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Oliver’s “San Francisco” house from A Lot Like Love is located at 1321 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park. Several other homes in the neighborhood have also appeared onscreen – the Sanders House at 1145 Carroll is where Ola Ray hid from zombies in Michael Jackson’s Thriller, 1329 Carroll portrayed the Halliwell sisters’ residence on Charmed, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) grew up at 1355 Carroll on Mad Men, and Holly’s (Amy Ryan) Nashua house from the “Employee Transfer” episode of The Office is around the corner at 1347 Kellam Avenue.

August 26, 2014March 1, 2015

Villa Restaurant from “Must Love Dogs”

Some filming location finds turn out to be a disappointment in person while others wind up to be better than I ever could have imagined. Today’s stalk – of Villa restaurant from the 2005 romantic comedy Must Love Dogs – was a little bit of both.

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For several months, I had been on a fruitless search for the outdoor eatery that appeared in the beginning of Must Love Dogs, in the scene in which Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane) showed up for a date with someone she met online only to discover that her date was actually her father, Bill (Christopher Plummer). The bistro was absolutely adorable and reminded me quite a bit of Aroma Café in Studio City, one of my favorite spots in all of L.A. Try as I might, though, I just could not seem to locate it. I finally enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and he found the place in record time. A Google search of the terms “restaurant, patio, fountain, San Fernando Valley,” led him to the website for Villa in Woodland Hills. Images posted there proved it was the right spot. Sadly though, the images also showed that the eatery had been remodeled in recent years and, in the process, seemed to have lost much of its charm. I was heartbroken to learn of the renovation, but decided to stalk the place nonetheless. As it turns out, despite the facelift, Villa is still quite spectacular.

The space that currently houses Villa was originally the site of Eckberg’s Steakhouse, which was founded in the 1960s. At the time, the property was a private home owned by Russ and Eleanor Eckberg. Russ worked in the meat industry and, upon retiring, decided to convert the living room of his house into a small ten-table restaurant with an adjacent open kitchen. And yes, Russ and Eleanor still lived on the premises. When they fully retired in the late 1970s, the space was taken over by restaurateur John Makhani. He remodeled and expanded the residence (keeping much of the original framing intact) and re-opened it in 1981.

The restaurant has gone through several incarnations under Makhani’s tutelage. At one point, it was a French eatery named Lautrec and then later it became an Italian spot named Villa Piacere. It was during its time as Piacere that Must Love Dogs was filmed on the premises. Makhani decided to revamp the space again in 2012 and, with the help of designer Thomas Schoos, transformed both the interior and the exterior.

When it was re-opened, the “Piacere” was dropped from the name and the restaurant became known simply as “Villa.”

The filming of Must Love Dogs took place on Villa Piacere’s back patio.

As you can see below, that area, while still somewhat recognizable, looks significantly different today.

Gone are the flowered tablecloths, country-style furniture and tiered water fountain.

While I was originally disappointed to learn of the changes, I was pleasantly surprised when I stepped onto Villa’s patio. In the photographs Owen had found online, the space looked sleek and cold, but in person, it turned out to be quaint, adorable and absolutely charming. I fell in love with it on site! So did Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who had joined me on the stalk, and we both promptly made plans to return there for dinner with our significant others in the near future.

The super-nice server whom we spoke with while we were there informed us that Villa had appeared onscreen numerous times over the years. The interior of the eatery popped up in the 2013 biopic Jobs as the spot where Steve Jobs (Ashton Kutcher) made the decision not to give Daniel Kottke (Lukas Haas) any Apple stock options.

A different exterior was used for the establishing shot of the restaurant in the scene.

In the Season 4 episode of Parks and Recreation titled “Operation Ann,” the exterior of Villa masked as the Bluebell Cafe. Interiors were filmed at the Hamburger Hamlet in Sherman Oaks, though. (Interiors from Season 2’s “Galentine’s Day” were also filmed at the Hamburger Hamlet.)

In the Season 1 episode of LeAnn & Eddie (and let’s hope that there only winds up to be one season of that train wreck of a show) titled “Babes and a Baby,” LeAnn Rimes dined at Villa with some of her childhood friends.

Villa’s tree-canopied parking lot appeared in Buick’s recent “Hmm” commercial.

The parking lot is absolutely gorgeous in person! I can only imagine what it looks like at night all lit up.

You can watch the Buick “Hmm” commercial by clicking below.

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.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Villa restaurant, from Must Love Dogs, is located at 22160 Ventura Boulevard in Woodland Hills. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

February 11, 2014February 11, 2014

Reed’s House from “Valentine’s Day”

Many moons ago (July 2012 to be exact), Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I ventured out to Venice for a day of stalking. Most of our time was spent at the Venice Canals (the history of which you can read here), one of my favorite spots in all of Los Angeles. As I mentioned in my previous posts about the area, while there, Mike continuously pointed out filming locations as we walked by (the site is chock full of them!). One locale he identified that I was particularly interested in was the residence where Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) lived in the 2010 romantic comedy Valentine’s Day. So, since the holiday of love is fastly approaching, I figured what better time than now to finally blog about the place.

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Reed’s clapboard residence, which sits overlooking the Grand Canal, is absolutely idyllic, as you can see below. From what I’ve been able to discern from Zillow, the 0.06-acre plot of land where the home now stands was purchased in November 1975 for $10,000. Construction on the dwelling was completed in 1978 and it has not changed hands since – understandably! If I owned that place, I’d never sell it either!

The property looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen in Valentine’s Day – minus the wetsuits that were seen hanging from the balcony in the movie.

In real life, the two-story dwelling boasts three bedrooms, three baths, and 2,216 square feet of living space.

Because it was seen only briefly, I believe that the home’s actual interior was also used in the filming, but, unfortunately, I could not find any photographs of the inside of the place to verify that hunch.

The bridge that appeared throughout the film is located directly in front of Reed’s house and crosses over Grand Canal.

Because of what takes place there at the end of Valentine’s Day (I won’t spoil it for those of you who have yet to see the movie), I was actually more excited to pose for a picture on the bridge than I was in front of Reed’s house.

Thanks to the Simon and Simon website, I learned that Reed’s residence was also used as the home where A.J. Simon (Jameson Parker) lived on Simon & Simon. At the time that the series was filmed in the 1980s, the property looked quite a bit different than it does today and the lot next door to it was also vacant. (The yellow house seen in the photographs above was not built until 1988.)

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for showing me this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Reed’s house from Valentine’s Day is located at 2604 Grand Canal in Venice.

March 13, 2012March 14, 2012

Casbah Café from “A Lot Like Love”

Today’s blog is going to be a short one as I am heading out to the eye doctor in a bit to have my eyes dilated, which, second to being on an airplane, is my least favorite activity in the entire world. Speaking of flying, US Magazine recently published an article about celebrity riders which featured actor Billy Crystal’s “Flight Preboard Information”. The “Other notes” section of Billy’s rider states, “Normally holds hands w/ family during takeoff and landing. Keep informed of turbulence.” Um, LOVE IT! Like Billy, I, too, hold my parents’ hands during takeoff, and I am absolutely PETRIFIED of turbulence! Oh, how I wish I were a celebrity so that I could submit my very own flight rider in which I demanded that the crew keep me informed of any upcoming turbulence. Winking smile But I digress.

Anyway, just down the street from Bar Keeper – the store that stood in for Upon Gallery in fave movie A Lot Like Love, which I blogged about yesterday – is Casbah Café, a French Moroccan-style coffee shop that was also featured in the 2005 flick. And, even though I have already blogged about this location once before very briefly, I just had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on back over there to snap some pics – and grab some coffee, of course! – while we were in the area doing our Christmas shopping last December.

The Casbah Café, which first opened in 1997 and currently serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, is a very unique and quirky independent coffee house/gift boutique that sells clothing, jewelry and home furnishings collected from various locales around the world, including India, Mexico, Morocco, and Argentina. The shop’s eccentric interior features blue- and orange-painted walls covered in large framed tapestries, a French-inspired chalkboard mirror menu and exposed ductwork. In the March 2004 issue of Toro Magazine, journalist Stephen Hunt hit the nail on the head when he described the Casbah as follows: “On first glance, the café evokes one of those places where Indiana Jones hung out in Cairo. An almost too perfectly shady establishment in which to exchange letters of transit, or a Maltese falcon . . .” The place also has a definite hipster vibe to it. The GC always jokes that he is not cool enough to hang out there because he does not own a pair of skinny jeans. Winking smile And he is right – the Casbah Café is a place where skinny jeans abound.

Thanks to its fabulous coffee and free Wi-Fi, the Casbah Café has become insanely popular over the years – so popular, in fact, that curbside service has recently been added to provide for the many customers who cannot find a vacant table. Celebrities have even been known to pop into the eatery from time to time. Just a few of the stars who have gotten their caffeine fix there include Madonna, Mia Kirshner, Gwen Stefani, Sofia Coppola, Courtney Love, Patricia Arquette and clothing designer Diane von Furstenberg.

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In A Lot Like Love, Oliver Martin (Ashton Kutcher) and Emily Friehl (Amanda Peet) stop by the Casbah Café to grab coffee after their “silent” New Year’s Eve dinner. It is while there that Emily tries to pay for Oliver’s coffee, to which he says, “No. I appreciate the reach – the acting classes are really paying off – but I got it.” LOL

In a very brief scene in the Season 4 episode of Southland titled “Wednesday”, Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) eats breakfast at the Casbah Café – and checks out some girls on their way to a yoga class while doing so.

The exterior of the Casbah Café shows up very briefly in The Freebie. According to a September 2010 Los Angeles Times article, Katie Aselton wrote the six-page outline for the 2010 indie flick while at the eatery and it even inspired one of the movie’s main storylines in which married man Darren (Dax Shepard) develops a crush on a barista at his local coffee shop. The Casbah will also be featured in the upcoming movie L!fe Happens, which stars Kate Bosworth, Rachel Bilson, and Krysten Ritter.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Casbah Café from A Lot Like Love is located at 3900 West Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake. You can visit the café’s official website here.

March 12, 2012March 11, 2012

Bar Keeper – aka Upon Gallery from “A Lot Like Love”

Back in December, shortly before Christmas, the Grim Cheaper and I headed out to Silver Lake to do some gift shopping for his father at one of the most unique, quirky and whimsical stores in all of Los Angeles – Sunset Junction’s Bar Keeper, the very same spot that stood in for Upon Gallery in fave movie A Lot Like Love. And even though I have actually already blogged about this location once before – way back in January of 2008, during the early days of my site – because it was not only a very brief write-up, but also lumped together with a few other A Lot Like Love locations, I figured the place was most-definitely worthy of a re-post. So here goes.

On its website, Bar Keeper is described as being a “head shop for those who want to prepare and serve their cocktails with style”. Specializing in everything from vintage glassware to bar collectibles to hard-to-find liquor, the place is truly one-of-a-kind. The store, which first opened its doors on April 4th, 2006, is the brainchild of former reality TV producer Joe Keeper, hence the “Keeper” in the name. Joe designed the entire shop himself, doing everything from laying down the flooring to constructing the L-shaped wooden bar from which he rings up customers’ purchases.

The walls of the unique shop are decorated with a larger-than-life periodic table of the elements, photographs of bartenders from local watering holes, over 70 vintage bar signs, and floor-to-ceiling wooden bookshelves which hold small-production bottles of liquor. Keeper scours the U.S. to find his unique stock of vintage barware and rare-label libations, traveling everywhere from the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena to such far-flung locales as Antique Alley, a 33-mile section of Old National Road in Indiana that boasts over 900 different antique dealers. In a December 2008 Los Angeles Times article, Keeper states, “In my heart of hearts, I realize I’m a gift shop, but really, what I feel like I sell is ritual, the art of drinking.” Well, whatever Joe is selling, people are definitely buying as the store has been extremely popular ever since it first opened. Some of Bar Keeper’s customers even include set designers from Mad Men who stop by regularly to pick up vintage pieces to feature on the show. Um, love it!

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In A Lot Like Love, Bar Keeper stood in for Upon Gallery, the art gallery where Oliver Martin (Ashton Kutcher) stumbled upon the nude photograph that he and longtime on-again/off-again girlfriend Emily Friehl (Amanda Peet) had taken a few years prior. At the time of the filming, the storefront, which formerly housed a vintage record shop, was vacant. The space pops up twice in the movie – first in the scene in which Olive spots his photograph and later when he returns there in the hopes of running into Emily. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the store were featured in the flick.

The laundromat located across the street from Upon Gallery, where Oliver waited for Emily in A Lot Like Love, was actually a real life laundromat named Sunset LaunderLand.

Sadly though, according to the Eastsider LA website, the place closed its doors a couple of years ago and it looks to still be vacant and awaiting a new tenant.

The exterior of Bar Keeper also showed up very briefly in last week’s episode of fave show 90210, which was titled “Babes In Toyland”, in an establishing shot for the scene in which Dixon Wilson (Tristan Wilds) and Adrianna Tate-Duncan (Jessica Lowndes) waited at a café for the VP of A&R for Def Jam Records. The actual café where filming took place, though, was the Coffee Pot located at 2201 West Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, a location that I will surely be stalking very soon. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Bar Keeper, aka Upon Gallery from A Lot Like Love, is located at 3910 West Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake. You can visit the store’s official website here. Sunset LaunderLand, where Oliver waited for Emily in the movie, was formerly located across the street from Bar Keeper at 3903 West Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake. That site is currently vacant.

April 11, 2011June 16, 2011

Fred 62 from “Commander in Chief”

Me on Ellen! 🙂

Before I begin today’s blog, I thought I would post a clip of the game I played on The Ellen DeGeneres Show last week. I just have to say here, too, that going to see the show was a FABULOUS experience and I highly recommend doing so if you are in the area. I would also like to thank my friend and fellow stalker, Beth, for inviting me to tag along with her to watched Ellen being filmed. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Beth! Smile And now, on with the post!

The Grim Cheaper and I recently sat down to watch the 2005 series Commander in Chief in its entirety. The short-lived show about a female president, Mackenzie Allen (aka Geena Davis), sadly only lasted one season with a scant 18 episodes ever being broadcast. I had originally been interested in watching the series because it starred cutie Matt Lanter (aka Liam Court on 90210) as the First Son, Horace Calloway, but, as it turned out, both the GC and I absolutely LOVED it! I am beyond shocked that the show was cancelled after such a short time period. There’s no accounting for taste, I guess. Anyway, while watching one of the episodes, I recognized a location that I had actually stalked almost a decade prior – Fred 62 restaurant in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. The GC’s best friend, Chris, had taken us there for a late lunch one afternoon back in 2001 and at the time I had no idea the place was a filming location. So once I saw it pop up on Commander in Chief, I immediately dragged the GC right on out to re-stalk it. And thankfully Fred 62 was just as great as I remembered it.

Fred 62 was originally founded in 1997 by two men named Fred who were both born in the year 1962, hence the name. Nightclub designer Fred Sutherland, who fashioned everything from The Palladium in New York City to Deep in Hollywood, created the look of the diner, while his friend, chef Fred Eric, of Olive, Vida, and Airstream fame, was responsible for the fare. The restaurant became a hit right of the bat and, due to its distinct retro-look, also became an instant favorite with area location scouts. Besides being a filming location, though, Fred’s is also something of a celebrity hot-spot and such stars as Drew Barrymore, Britney Spears, Cameron Diaz, Heather Graham, Shane West, Dax Shepard, Johnny Knoxville, Kristen Bell, Kirstie Alley, Samantha Ronson, Lindsay Lohan, Katy Perry, Russell Brand, Mandy Moore, Kate Bosworth, Naomi Watts, Cam Gigandet, and Ben Stiller have all been spotted there. Ironically enough, as we were leaving Fred 62 we saw Archie Panjabi, who plays investigator Kalinda Sharma on The Good Wife, which is another show the GC and I just recently started watching. She was dining a few doors down from Fred’s at Figaro Bistro and I just about had a heart attack upon spotting her as Kalinda is my favorite character on the series. Smile

The Fred 62 menu is quite extensive and offers a selection of everything from typical diner fare like burgers and hot dogs (with homemade potato chips, no less!) to Japanese entrees like udon and soba noodle soup to Mexican favorites such as tacos and burritos. I opted for the S.W.S. Southwestern Pacific Railroad Salad with chicken fingers (pictured above) and it was OUT OF THIS WORLD! There was literally not one scrap of lettuce or droplet of ranch dressing left on my plate when I got done with it! The GC had a roast beef sandwich which he also devoured. I honestly cannot say enough good things about Fred 62 – great food, fab atmosphere! I loved, loved, loved the place and cannot wait for a re-stalk!

Fred 62 popped up in the Season 1 episode of Commander in Chief titled First Disaster as the supposed Washington, D.C.-area diner where First Daughter Rebecca Calloway (aka Caitlin Wachs) goes on a date with schoolmate Mike Fleming (aka Matt Barr).

As fate would have it, the GC and I ended up sitting in pretty much the exact same spot where Rebecca and Mike sat in the scene.

After finishing their meal, the two get mobbed by a crowd of people while standing on the street just outside of Fred’s and wind up having to be rescued by the Secret Service.

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Fred 62 was also featured in the 2006 flick Friends With Money as the spot where Mike (aka Scott Caan) and Olivia (aka my girl Jen Aniston) go out on a blind date.

Mike and Olivia sat in the second booth in from Fred’s front door while on their date.

The restaurant also popped up a few times in 2009’s Spread, which has honestly got to be one of the WORST movies I have ever seen in my entire life!! I should say “half-seen”, as I turned it off about halfway through. Anyway, it first pops up as the spot where Nikki (aka Ashton Kutcher) grabs breakfast and while doing so meets and becomes obsessed with his waitress, Heather (aka Margarita Levieva).

Nikki later takes his friend Harry (aka Sebastian Stan) to the diner and has him pretend to be his assistant in the hopes that it will make him more attractive to Heather, but he only ends up making a fool of himself and getting a parking ticket, to boot.

Fellow stalker Chas, of the ItsFilmedThere website, let me know that Fred62 also appeared in the Season 1 episode of Charmed titled “That ‘70s Episode” in the scene in which the Charmed Ones – Prue (aka Shannen Doherty), Phoebe (aka Alyssa Milano), and Piper Halliwell (aka Holly Marie Combs) – travel back in time to March 24th, 1975 to visit their deceased mother, Patty (aka Finola Hughes), at the restaurant where she then worked.

In the episode, Prue and Piper sat in the booth closest to Fred’s front door.

And Phoebe got into a fist fight with Nicolas (aka Andrew Jackson) on the sidewalk out in front of Fred’s.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Fred 62 is located at 1850 North Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. The restaurant is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can visit Fred’s official website here.

February 8, 2011February 8, 2011

The “A Lot Like Love” Apartment Building

A couple of weeks ago, fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210locations website, tweeted me to let me know that he had just tracked down the apartment building where Oliver Martin (aka Ashton Kutcher) lived in fave movie A Lot Like Love. As I have mentioned quite a few times before on this blog, A Lot Like Love is one of my all-time favorite romantic comedies and I have stalked pretty much every location featured in it – every location, that is, except for Oliver’s apartment building. So I was BEYOND excited to receive Geoff’s tweet and while out and about doing some stalking in the Hollywood area this past weekend, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place.

The building, which is called the Glen Oaks in real life, was actually featured only once in A Lot Like Love in the scene in which Oliver and Emily (aka Amanda Peet) return home after a New Year’s Eve party. It is when they walk into Oliver’s empty apartment that Emily discovers that he is moving to San Francisco the very next morning, just when, as she says, “I’m starting to like you”. The following morning, Emily awakens to discover that Oliver is already gone, but that he has left behind his beloved camera, which prompts her to begin a career in photography.

And it is obvious from the way the movie was shot that the real life interior of the apartment was also used in the filming.

I am very happy to report that the Glen Oaks building still looks much the same today as it did when A Lot Like Love was filmed back in 2005. The exterior paint color has since been changed, but the property is still very recognizable from the movie

The building also boasts an AMAZING view of the Hollywood sign.

In A Lot Like Love, Oliver lived in the building’s southwestern-most corner, bottom floor unit which is pictured above.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210locations website, for finding this location! Smile

Stalk It: Oliver’s apartment building from A Lot Like Love is located at 2649 North Beachwood Drive, at the corner of North Beachwood Drive and Glen Oak Street, in Hollywood. Oliver lived in the building’s southwestern-most unit on the bottom floor, which is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view.

October 27, 2010September 29, 2017

Mountain View Cemetery from “The Office”

Since my favorite holiday, Halloween, is fast approaching, I thought it would only be appropriate to devote the next few blog posts to some filming locations of a spookier nature. So, this past Sunday morning, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, the Grim Cheaper, and I went on a joint stalking venture up to Altadena to stalk Mountain View Cemetery which appeared in the Season 4 episode of The Office titled “The Chair Model”, among countless other productions. I first found out about this locale from my parents’ neighbor, Julie, who owns The Coffee Gallery in Altadena – a location which was also used in “The Chair Model” episode and which I blogged about this past July. According to Julie, while scouting locations for the “Chair Model” episode, location managers sought out a coffee shop that was in close proximity to Mountain View Cemetery where they were also shooting scenes, which is how they came to use her cafe. Like the old saying goes, it’s all about location, location, location. 😉 Anyway, once Julie told me about the place, I started doing some research on it and discovered that Mountain View Cemetery has been featured in hundreds upon hundreds of productions over the years. Apparently, the 60-acre cemetery is used for filming an average of 150 days out of EACH AND EVERY year, which is absolutely incredible to me! Upon finding out that fact, I promptly informed both Mike and the GC that Mountain View Cemetery was the ONLY place I wanted to be buried. Spending my hereafter at a site that is in use as a filming location almost half of each year sounds like absolute heaven to me (pun intended). Mike jokingly said that if I did end up being buried there, my tombstone should read, “Lindsay Blake, from IAMNOTASTALKER –Still Stalking Filming Sites From Beyond the Grave”. 🙂

Mountain View Cemetery, which is one of the oldest cemeteries in the San Gabriel Valley, was first established in 1882 when a man named Levi W. Giddings designated a plot of his family’s land to be used as a site for burials for the citizens of Pasadena. His descendants still own and operate the cemetery to this day, over 128 years later. Mountain View, which as the name implies does boast picturesque views of the San Gabriel Mountains, is an absolutely enormous and quite beautiful property, with sprawling lawns, stately trees from all over the world, an art collection, two chapels, and two mausoleums. Besides being a filming location, Mountain View is also the final resting place of several notables, including actor George Reeves, who played TV’s original Superman in the 1950s television series of the same name. George is entombed in the cemetery’s Pasadena Mausoleum. Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe, one of the original founders of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and builder of the Mount Lowe Railway, is also buried at Mountain View, in the cemetery’s Royal Oak’s section.

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The yet-to-be released show Franklin & Bash was setting up to do some filming while we were stalking the cemetery on Sunday, and as you can see in the above photographs, had fake tombstones, floodlights, a generator, and a mock funeral assembled, which was very cool to see.

There was also a fake crypt set up on the property, which none of us actually realized was a fake . . .

. . . until we got around to the back of it and saw the prop door. So, of course, I just had to get inside of it to snap a quick picture. 🙂 I am not sure if the fake crypt was a prop for Franklin & Bash or for Wicked Literature: A Halloween Theatre Festival – a Halloween-themed live theatre event which is running at the cemetery now through the end of October. But being that Franklin & Bash is a series about a law firm, I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the crypt was set up for the Wicked Literature show.

In “The Chair Model” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) falls in love with a chair model whom he sees in an office supply catalog. He sends Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) on a recognizance mission to track down the model and is crushed when he learns that she was recently killed in a car accident. Dwight and Michael later visit the cemetery where she is buried in order to pay their respects. While there, they break into a rousing rendition of the song “American Pie”.

While stalking Mountain View on Sunday, I was absolutely dying to find the exact spot where The Office had been filmed. Unfortunately though, I was unable to figure it out at the time. It wasn’t until after I got home and re-watched “The Chair Model” episode that I was able to discern the correct location. So, bright and early yesterday morning, I dragged my dad out to re-stalk the place so that I could get some photos of the spot where Michael and Dwight had mourned, ahem, sang. That spot can be found in the northeastern section of the cemetery.

In the Season 1 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “There Won’t Be Trumpets”, Mountain View was the site of Mama Solis’ (aka Lupe Ontiveros’) funeral. In the scene filmed at the cemetery, Gaby Solis (aka Eva Longoria Parker) flies into a rage after discovering that her destitute husband Carlos (aka Ricardo Antonio Chavira) has purchased a large crypt for his dead mother. It was during the filming of that scene that Eva Longoria Parker accidentally (and hilariously) got the heel of her stiletto stuck in the cemetery’s grass. Some paparazzi who were on hand managed to snap pictures of the event and those pictures later made their way onto the pages of US Magazine, but unfortunately I cannot find copies of those photographs anywhere online.

While watching the “There Won’t Be Trumpets” episode, I was convinced that Mama Solis’ crypt had been a prop put into place for the filming. As I discovered yesterday morning, though, her burial site is an actual crypt belonging to the Buckley family. So darn cool! I would like to let it be known here and now that, upon my death, filmmakers have my permission to use whatever it is I end up being buried in – whether it be a crypt, a mausoleum, or a simple grave – whenever and in as many productions as they so desire! 😉

The cemetery was also used in the Season 8 episode of Seinfeld titled “The Foundation” as the final resting place of Susan Ross (aka Heidi Swedberg), George Costanza’s (aka Jason Alexander’s) former fiancé, who died after ingesting toxic glue while licking the envelopes of their wedding invitations.

Mountain View also appeared in the Season 11 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Shock Waves” as the site of the funeral of Officer Franklin Clark (aka Reggie Von Watkins), during which a bomb explodes. Fave website Altadenablog was on hand during the filming of that episode and took some great photographs of the crew setting up the extensive rigging for the explosion scene.

The cemetery also popped up in the pilot episode of the HBO series Six Feet Under as the site of the funeral of Nathaniel Fisher (aka Richard Jenkins).

The cemetery was also used in Ozzy Osbourne’s video for his 2010 song “Life Won’t Wait” . . .

. . . which you can watch by clicking above.

Ironically enough, after visiting the cemetery, I had a feeling that it might have been the very cemetery used in fave movie A Lot Like Love, so after I got home I re-watched the flick and noticed the large, open-air grave-marker located in the background behind Oliver Martin (aka Ashton Kutcher) in the scene pictured above.

I could also just make out the last name “Holmes” written on the marker. So, yesterday morning, while re-stalking the cemetery with my dad, I walked around to see if I could spot that open air crypt.

And, amazingly enough, I did! As it turns out, the filming of A Lot Like Love had taken place just due west of where The Office had filmed. The grave where Emily Friehl’s (aka Amanda Peet’s) mother was buried in the movie was a fake that was put into place solely for the filming. In real life, her grave is just empty space. Ironically enough, Ashton Kutcher returned to the cemetery once again this past May to film scenes for the yet-to-be released comedy No Strings, along with co-star Natalie Portman. You can check out some photographs of them filming here. The 2007 remake of the classic horror film Halloween was also filmed at Mountain View Cemetery.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mountain View Cemetery is located at 2400 North Fair Oaks Avenue in Altadena. The area which appeared in The Office is in the northeastern portion of the cemetery and is denoted with a pink circle and a pink “X” in the above aerial views. A Lot Like Love filmed just due west of where The Office was filmed in the area of the cemetery numbered 4474, which is denoted with a purple circle in the above aerial views. Desperate Housewives was filmed in front of the Buckley crypt, which is located in the section of the cemetery numbered 4386, directly across from the Vista Del Monte mausoleum, which is denoted with a blue circle and a blue arrow in the above aerial views.

October 1, 2010October 1, 2010

The “Valentine’s Day” Floral Shop

This past weekend I dragged my new husband out to stalk the Burbank storefront that stood in for Siena Bouquet & Cafe – the flower shop/coffee bar belonging to Reed Bennett (aka Ashton Kutcher) in the 2010 romantic comedy Valentine’s Day. And even though I didn’t particularly like Valentine’s Day all that much – in my eyes it came off as a very poorly executed Love Actually clone – I did absolutely fall in love with Reed’s floral/coffee shop in the movie, mostly due to the fact that I am an absolute coffee fiend, as anyone who knows me even slightly well can attest to. I mean, what a FABULOUS idea for a store – a florist with a built-in espresso bar! I am of the opinion that there should be a built-in espresso bar in ALL kinds of stores – book shops, hair salons, nail salons, etc. etc. etc. When I was in college, the local laundromat not only had an espresso bar, but a tanning booth AND an arcade! Genius! Needless to say it was the most popular laundromat in the entire area. Half the time I would visit the place just to grab a latte, even if I didn’t have clothes to wash. Not kidding! 😉 But I digress. The other reason I loved Reed’s store so much was because of its colorful and funky decor, which was vaguely reminiscent of the Central Perk set on fave show Friends. So, when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, told me that a friend of his had actually watched some of the flower shop scenes being filmed, I just about died as I had assumed that the interior of the store had just been a set. I immediately added the address of the place to the top of my To-Stalk list and finally made it out there to see it in person this past weekend.

At the time of the filming, the flower shop space was actually vacant, which gave the Valentine’s Day producers the ability to completely take over the premises and extensively dress it in the exact way that they wanted. Since that time, the space has been taken over by an extremely cool vintage clothing store named Playclothes, but I am very happy to report that the exterior still looks much the same in person as it did in the flick.

The interior, however, is another story.

While the flooring, intricately designed ceilings, and wooden double front door have remained the same, the store is unfortunately not very recognizable from the movie. And in real life, there is, of course, no on-site espresso bar. 🙁 The good news, though, is that Playclothes honestly has to be one of the coolest stores I’ve ever had the pleasure of shopping at. I’m not at all into vintage clothing, mind you, but I am into costumes and I have to say that Playclothes had some of the best and most authentic on display that I’ve ever seen in my entire life! The staff there was also incredibly nice and spent a LOT of time answering all of my silly little questions about the filming of Valentine’s Day.

Walking around the vintage clothing shop made me realize that the time to choose this year’s Halloween costume has long since arrived. Unfortunately though, I am currently at a loss. Ideas anyone? The Grim Cheaper and I are always either a famous movie couple or a famous real life celebrity couple and this year I was thinking of dressing up as Sue Sylvester and Mr. Schuester from Glee, but the GC ixnayed that idea real fast! So, I am currently open to ideas. But please don’t suggest anyone from Avatar as I am so not interested in covering myself with blue paint. 😉

The rear entrance to Playclothes, which can be reached off of North Fairview Street, was also used in Valentine’s Day.

On a side note – My main man Michael Buble just released the music video for his new song “Hollywood”, in which he does a SPOT ON imitation of Justin Beiber. I actually thought it was the Biebs in the video when I first watched it. HILARIOUS! Anyway, the video was shot in its entirety on a movie lot and I spent quite a bit of yesterday trying to figure out which lot. After wasting more than a few hours searching, I asked Mike, from MovieShotsLA, if he knew where the video was filmed and, sure enough, he did. Turns out it’s Universal! The video shows off quite a bit of the newly rebuilt New York Street, which I have yet to see , so you all know what that means – I’ll be draggin the Grim Cheaper out to stalk it very soon! 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Playclothes vintage clothing store, aka the floral shop from Valentine’s Day, is located at 3100 West Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank. The back of the store is accessible from North Fairview Street. You can visit the Playclothes website here.