Beverly Hills 90210 characters

November 18, 2011November 17, 2011

The SAG Conversations with “Southland” Event

I would like to start off today’s post by announcing that my good friend, fellow stalker Owen, who is a copy editor by trade, has just started his very own blog which chronicles the various spelling mistakes and grammatical errors that he comes across in printed material on a daily basis. The blog is called When Write Is Wrong and, let me tell you, it is absolutely HILARIOUS! I strongly urge you to check it out and get your LOL on. You can visit When Write Is Wrong here. And now, on with the post!

Last week, I received an email from the Screen Actors Guild inviting me and a guest to a screening of the TNT television series Southland, followed by a Q&A with executive producer Christopher Chulack and cast members Lucy Liu, Regina King, C. Thomas Howell, Ben McKenzie, Michael Cudlitz, and Shawn Hatosy. And even though I had never before actually seen an episode of the show, once I saw the name Ben McKenzie I just about died of excitement! As I have mentioned several times before on this blog, this stalker absolutely LOVES herself some The O.C., especially its cutie former star, and I have been absolutely dying to get a picture with him for what seems like forever now! So I immediately RSVP-ed to the event and invited fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, to be my guest as Southland is one of his favorite shows.

[ad]

The evening started out with a screening of the Season 3 episode titled “Fixing a Hole” and while my mom, who watches Southland religiously, had warned me that the series might be a bit too gory and gritty for my taste, let me tell you, I absolutely LOVED it. It was laugh-out-loud funny, extremely well-written and sharply poignant. I cannot wait to rent Season 1 and start watching from the beginning. Immediately after the episode ended, the stars of the show entered the room and my stomach literally did a flip-flop when Ben McKenzie came into view. He is even cuter in person than he appears to be on TV. Swoon! Because I am anal and always arrive at these types of events about 3 hours early, I secured some FABULOUS seats for me and Mike and we literally could have reached out and touched the actors. Sadly though, this particular venue did not allow any photographs to be taken during the Q&A, so I was unable to get any pictures of the actors onstage. But, let me tell you, the interview session was FABULOUS! The Southland cast is easily one of the most down-to-earth casts I have ever seen in person and, for such a dark, heavy show, the atmosphere between them all was extremely light and fun. They seemed to genuinely like each other and had an easy rapport. And although the jokes were flying out of everyone’s mouth, Michael Cudlitz (who plays Officer John Cooper on the show) was by far the funniest of the bunch. He is absolutely HILARIOUS in person – like stand-up-comedian funny. My favorite part of the Q&A, though, had to be when the actors talked about the fact that executive producers Christopher Chulack and John Wells do not allow any sides on the Southland set. For those unfamiliar with the term, “sides” are small portions of a script that contain only those scenes being filmed on that particular day and actors usually have them on hand at all times. John and Christopher banned the mini-scripts from the set from the very beginning so that the actors would be forced to do their homework and come to work prepared each day. The Southland cast all said that it was a phenomenal way to work and that they were better performers because of it. This policy especially resonated with me as it used to drive me absolutely batty in acting class when my fellow students would show up unprepared. Memorizing lines is the easiest part of acting, in this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion, and if you cannot even come to class with that basic part of your homework completed, how can you expect to be present and focused onstage??? But I digress.

Immediately following the Q&A, Mike and I, of course, approached all of the actors to ask for pictures and I am very happy to report that they could NOT have been nicer!! We met Regina King first and she was a complete and total sweetheart – a total 180 from the tough, brazen character she plays on Southland. Sadly, while we were talking to Regina, Lucy Liu walked by and because no one stopped her for a photo (most actors consider themselves to be above the whole fandom thing), she left before we could talk to her. As Miss Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, would say, “FAIL!”

After Regina, we hit up Shawn Hatosy whom I was familiar with from both Alpha Dog and Dexter. It is funny, but even though I had never watched Southland, I knew and loved each of the actors in attendance from other productions. Shawn was extremely nice and happily posed for photos with both Mike and me.

After posing with Shawn, I spotted Ben McKenzie and just about had a heart attack. Pinky Lovejoy had told me prior to the event that Ben was a total sweetheart and I am happy to report that she could not have been more right! SUCH a nice guy and, as I mentioned above, ADORABLE in person! SWOON! SWOON! SWOON!

After Ben, Mike and I got a pic with Michael Cudlitz, which we were both EXTREMELY excited about as he had played jock Tony Miller on fave show Beverly Hills, 90210. When I first walked up to Michael, I said, “You were Brenda Walsh’s prom date!”, to which he smiled and said, “That I was!” LOVE IT!

Last up was Ponyboy himself, C. Thomas Howell, who was a complete and total sweetheart! I chatted with him a bit about Rob Lowe’s autobiography, Stories I Only Tell My Friends (which is honestly one of the BEST books I have ever read – like in my entire life!!!!), and he told me that his wife had just read it and had also said it was one of the best books she had ever read. Ironically enough, a few minutes later Mike and I ventured into a nearby Starbucks (I know, shocker!) and who should be in front of us in line, but C. Thomas! He recognized us and I quickly said, “We are not following you, I swear!” I mean, I’m a stalker, but I’m not that bad! C. Thomas chatted to us again for a few minutes and then I headed off to use the restroom, but Mike told me that when C. Thomas left, he called out to him, “Later, bro!” and waved good-bye. How incredibly cool is that?? All in all, it was an AMAZING night and I am still pinching myself over the whole thing! As Pinky Lovejoy would say, “Win!”

And don’t forget to check out fellow stalker Owen’s new blog, When Write Is Wrong!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Unfortunately, there is no stalking location for this one, but you can catch Southland every Tuesday night on TNT. Season 4 is set to begin on January 17th.

October 13, 2011September 29, 2017

Palace Costume – The Halloween Costume Shop from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One location that I have been wanting to stalk for close to two decades now is the costume shop that was featured in the Season 2 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Halloween”. Not only was that episode one of my most beloved of the entire series, but, as has been made blatantly apparent by now, Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday and I was positively DYING to wander through the very same clothing racks that the 90210 gang had wandered through. So when fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, tracked the place down a while back, I just about died of excitement and immediately added it to my Haunted-Hollywood-To-Stalk list. Being that the store’s actual name – Palace Costume Company – had been visibly displayed in the episode, I am highly embarrassed that I was not able to find the place myself. I mean honestly, what kind of a stalker am I? Winking smile Anyway, I finally dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the store two weekends ago and, as you can imagine, I could NOT have been more excited!

Palace Costume, which was originally a vintage clothing retailer, was founded in the 1960s by a woman named Melody Barnett in a storefront on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. The shop was the very first vintage clothing store to be located on Melrose, a street that is now rife with thrift emporiums and vintage boutiques. In 1970, Palace Costume moved to a 2,000-square-foot space on Fairfax Avenue and began exclusively renting out authentic vintage clothing to film and production crews. According to this October 1998 Los Angeles Business Journal article, Barnett has become so successful in the entertainment industry that she has had to add about 1,000 square feet of space to her store every single year due to her rapidly growing collection. Today, her 36,000-square-foot emporium houses over half a million different pieces, making it one of the largest vintage clothing collections in the entire country. Melody’s costumes have appeared in thousands upon thousands of productions, including Titanic, Chinatown, A Beautiful Mind, Blow, Frida, Pleasantville, Boogie Nights, Evita, Forrest Gump, What’s Love Got to Do with It, and all three Austin Powers movies. In 1998, Barnett had a wooden and stucco façade constructed around her store for security reasons, so the place looks quite a bit different today than it did onscreen on 90210.

[ad]

In the “Halloween” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Brenda Walsh (aka my girl Shannen Doherty), Kelly Taylor (aka Jennie Garth), Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry), and the rest of the 90210 gang head out to what they call “Hollywood Costume” to pick out some costumes for a Halloween party they are attending that night. As I mentioned above, the name “Palace Costume Co.” is blatantly visible on the storefront in the scene. Yes, I am a blonde! Winking smile

It is while there that Brenda and Dylan find their amazeballs Bonnie and Clyde costumes. It has ALWAYS been my dream to dress up as Brenda and Dylan dressed up as Bonnie and Clyde for Halloween, but somehow I do not think the GC would go for that. Although this year we are dressing up 90210-style, but I am saving that information for a future post! Winking smile

Sadly, Palace Costume is not open to the public, but is only open to industry professionals. Words cannot express how heartbroken I was when we arrived and saw the “not open to the public” sign on the front door. I was literally almost in tears (OK, not really, but I was pretty bummed) as I had so badly wanted to peruse through the countless racks of period clothing like Brenda and Donna had done on 90210. And I had also wanted to verify if the episode had actually been filmed inside of the store or at a different location.

Because I hate making phone calls (I know, I know – I am weird!), I enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA (who is doing his own Halloween locations theme this month), to call Palace Costume and ask Melody if any 90210 filming had been done inside of the store. She confirmed that indeed it had. And if you look at the above screen capture from the episode and compare it to the photograph of the inside of Palace Costume, which I got off of the company’s website, you can see that the light fixtures and ceiling do, in fact, match. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to go inside of that place! I am a member of SAG, doesn’t that count for anything?? Winking smile

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Palace Costume, from the “Halloween” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 835 North Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. You can visit the store’s official website here. Palace Costume is sadly not open to the public, but is only open to members of the entertainment industry.

June 30, 2011June 29, 2011

The Jennifer Grant “Good Stuff” Book Signing

Back on Thursday, May 26th (I told you I am way behind in my reporting! Winking smile ), Vroman’s Bookstore welcomed Jennifer Grant for a signing and discussion of her new book Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant which chronicles the actress’ experiences being raised by one of the most iconic movie stars of all time. And while most of the people attending the event were fans of Jennifer’s famous father, I have been a long-time fan of Jennifer herself, ever since she appeared as Steve Sander’s (aka Ian Ziering’s) longtime girlfriend Celeste Lundy during Seasons 3 and 4 of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210.

Jennifer also made an appearance as Nina Bookbinder, the girl Chandler Bing (aka Matthew Perry) couldn’t fire, in the Season 1 episode of Friends titled “The One With Two Parts: Part I”. But I digress.

Because I have never actually seen a Cary Grant movie, before attending the reading I did not have much interest in reading Good Stuff. My only reason for going to the event was to meet and, of course, get a photograph with Jennifer. But, let me tell you, all of that changed as soon as I started looking through the memoir. As I have mentioned before, I am just slightly anal, so I arrived at the signing about 3 hours early. Well, not only did those three hours ensure me a front row seat, but they also gave me time to peruse through the book and I was immediately mesmerized. Cary Grant was not only an amazing man, but an amazing father! He retired in 1966, the same year that Jennifer was born, so that he could devote all of his time to being a dad. Because Jennifer’s mother, Dyan Cannon (whom the actress is the spitting image of!), was at the height of her career at the time and often on location filming movies for months on end, most of Jennifer’s childhood was spent with her father. And Cary wanted to document his only child’s early years as best he could. Not only did he save and catalogue ever single letter ever exchanged between the two and every single photograph ever taken of them, but he also made hundreds upon hundreds of audio recordings of their time together, many of which are transcribed in the book. Sweetest of all, though, was the fact that, on the mornings when Jennifer was not staying with him, Cary would wait along the sidewalk of her bus route just to wave to her as her bus passed by on the way to school.

[ad]

The event began right on time and I just about died when I caught my first glimpse of Jennifer as she looks almost exactly the same today as she did eighteen years ago when she was on 90210. Jennifer started out the evening by reading a few passages from her book and I have to say that she is a fabulous writer and a fabulous speaker. Her voice has an almost lyrical quality to it and I was absolutely mesmerized listening to her. I was completely shocked, though, when she adopted a British accent to read her father’s words! Prior to that evening, I was unaware that Cary Grant was British!

Jennifer then opened up the session to questions from the audience and, even though A LOT were asked, for once they were actually well-crafted. I should explain here, to those who do not regularly attend book signings and television screenings, that people at these events usually ask the most asinine questions imaginable and it absolutely drives me mad! If you have the chance to ask a question of an actor, author, or director, make it a good one, people! And, for the love of God, do NOT ask the celebrity to get you a role in a movie or TV show! And yes, that has been asked at almost EVERY SINGLE EVENT I have ever attended! Most of the questions asked of Jennifer, though, were about what it was like to grow up with such a famous father. In answer to those questions, Jennifer told numerous anecdotes and, as amazing as it may sound, it seems she had a very normal childhood. The two often squabbled about Jennifer’s choice in music and boys, they took frequent outings to the Fox Hills Mall – one of Cary’s favorite haunts – and played regular family games of Trivial Pursuit. She said she never viewed Cary as a celebrity, but, while she knew he was special and certainly different than her friends’ fathers, to her he was always just “Dad”.

When it came time for the signing portion of the reading, the Vroman’s coordinator asked Jennifer if she would be willing to take posed photographs with those in attendance, to which the actress gave a puzzled look and said, “Of course I will!”, as if she could not figure out why anyone wouldn’t take a picture with their fans. LOVE IT!

When it was my turn to meet Jennifer, I told her what a huge fan I had been of Beverly Hills, 90210 and she said that the show was actually the very first acting job she had ever had and was one of the best experiences of her life. She told me that all of the actors were extremely nice and welcoming and that she looks back on that time with incredible fondness. She took quite a bit of time to chat with me and I even got to tell her about my experiences as an extra in the final episode of the series and that the 90210 theme song was still the ringtone on my cell phone. Smile Jennifer was so abundantly sweet and warm, it was almost unbelievable.

As I was leaving Vroman’s, I opened the book to read what Jennifer had signed and almost died over her inscription. It reads, “To Lindsay, Thank you for watching 90210 – your smile is infectious. Jennifer Grant” OMG nicest inscription EVER! Especially considering that so many celebrities will not even personalize books at their signings! Meeting Jennifer was such an incredible experience and I love her even more now than I did before! And while I have not started to officially read Good Stuff yet, it is the next book on my “To Read” list and after I do so, I will most definitely be stalking the many locations mentioned in it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: You can purchase a copy of Jennifer Grant’s book, Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant, here. Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. You can visit the store’s official website here. And you can check out Vroman’s upcoming author events here.