Californication – IAMNOTASTALKER

March 21, 2018March 19, 2018

The “Lady Bird” House

I know I am in the minority when I say I did not like Lady Bird. Besides confusion over the name (up until I actually popped in the DVD and started watching, I thought the movie was a biopic about Lady Bird Johnson) and a storyline that seemed lacking, I found the main character, Christine ‘Lady Bird’ McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), utterly bratty. She complains constantly about her hometown and claims she will do anything to go to college far away, yet she doesn’t take action to improve her grades, she cheats (on both a test and by lying to her teacher), lets her recently-out-of-work dad mortgage the family home (behind her mom’s back) in order to pay her out-of-state tuition, and throws tantrums on the reg. I honestly could not find one redeemable thing about her. Without a protagonist to root for or at least to sympathize with on some level, my investment in the movie felt like a waste of time. I was intrigued by the locations, though. While set and partially shot in Sacramento, I knew upon watching and recognizing the café where Lady Bird worked as Kaldi Coffee and Tea in South Pasadena that some filming took place in Los Angeles, as well. I was fairly certain that the house where Lady Bird lived with her family – parents Marion (Laurie Metcalf) and Larry (Tracy Letts), brother Miguel (Jordan Rodrigues), and his girlfriend Shelly Yuhan (Marielle Scott) – could also be found in L.A. So I set out to find it.

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One quick stroke of the keypad led me to an Architectural Digest article that stated the McPherson family home was located in Van Nuys. An address number of “6701” was also visible behind Lady Bird in a scene, so I began searching blocks numbered 6700 in Van Nuys and came across the right spot within minutes. Said to be on “the wrong side of the tracks” in SacTown in the movie, Lady Bird’s home can actually be found at 6701 Orion Avenue, just east of the 405.

According to the AD article, Lady Bird’s production team scouted no less than fifty different properties before settling on the traditional 2-bedroom, 2-bath, 1952 ranch-style pad pictured below.

Not much of the residence was altered for the shoot, as you can see below.

Even the interior, which was utilized extensively, was a perfect fit for the production. As director/writer Greta Gerwig said to The Sacramento Bee, “I was looking for very specific things and it’s so hard to find a home that’s not been renovated. I had this vision of the kind of California home I wanted, like specific wide colorful tiles in the bathroom and kitchen.”

Prior to securing locales, Gerwig took the production team to her childhood home to give them an idea of the look she was going for. In a lucky and rather eerie twist, the Van Nuys house boasted that aesthetic naturally – and in spades. As production designer Chris Jones explained to Architectural Digest, “It was really bizarre because the kitchen looks almost exactly like Greta’s kitchen growing up. It’s an almost exact match, down to the yellow tiles on the wall.” The space actually reminds me quite a bit of the Arnolds’ kitchen from the pilot episode of The Wonder Years.

Per AD, while most of the furniture seen onscreen was brought in for the shoot, the faux wood paneling was another of the home’s authentic features.

Jones calls the house “a great find” saying it became a “character in the movie.”

The 1,607 square feet of living space did prove rather cramped for cast and crew, though. Jones told Deadline, “Working in the house was tight. Everyone was crammed in this small, square footage house. Fortunately, that house had a back area, which actually ended up being the dorm rooms for when she goes to New York. The whole yard was taken over by the film shoot for a week and a half.” Lady Bird’s dorm is pictured below. From Jones’ words, I am unclear if an actual room in the Van Nuys residence was utilized for the segment (with a New York cityscape splayed across the window) or if the space was a set constructed in the backyard or some other rear portion of the property.

The Lady Bird house also popped up in the Season 6 episode of Californication titled “Blind Faith” as the residence belonging to Faith’s (Maggie Grace) parents.

Quite a bit of the interior was also shown in the episode . . .

. . . including Faith’s childhood bedroom, which was the same room utilized as Lady Bird’s.

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 McPherson family home from Lady Bird is located at 6701 Orion Avenue in Van Nuys.

February 21, 2018February 20, 2018

Book Soup from “Bewitched”

I am a total bookstore junkie – as I’ve mentioned numerous times on this site. The rest of the world seems to be leaning in the opposite direction, though. Still I was shocked – and saddened – to learn of the recent shuttering of the Barnes & Noble on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, a place I patronized often during its 20-plus years in business. Reading about the closure got me to thinking about another L.A. bookseller I regularly frequent, one that is thankfully still in business and is also a popular filming location – Book Soup. I first visited the West Hollywood store for stalking purposes way back in October 2011 after seeing it in both Bewitched and Californication and intended on blogging about it shortly thereafter, but never got around to it. Though I’ve been back countless times since, I still somehow have yet to dedicate a post to the site. So I figured it was finally time to do so.

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Originally established in 1975, Book Soup was the brainchild of UCLA graduate student Glenn Goldman. Though the 24-year-old was studying arts management at the time, a lifelong appreciation of bookstores and a dream of one day owning his own led Glenn to change course. Armed with $50,000 in seed money, he took action shortly after earning his degree and settled on West Hollywood as the home of his future shop. As he explained to the Los Angeles Times in a 2000 article, “I really couldn’t contemplate a lot of places. There had been a period of upheaval here in the ‘60s – of thought and ideas – and I felt that the people who lived in the neighborhood would and could really support a bookstore.” Goldman enlisted his friend, architecture student David Mackler, to design the space.

Success did not come quickly, though. In 1992 Glenn told The New York Times, “The store was an immense failure. All this energy met with total indifference.” He wound up so broke, he had to move into the shop, sleeping on a mattress upstairs. It took years, but people did eventually find their way to Book Soup and its clientele grew exponentially, turning it into an area landmark. By the late 1980s, the site had become so popular that Goldman decided to move up the street to a much larger space that still serves as the store’s home today.

Sadly, Glenn passed away rather unexpectedly in 2009. The shop was subsequently purchased by Vroman’s Bookstore, another of L.A.’s most famous independent booksellers. (Vroman’s should be familiar to those who read my site regularly. You can check out a few of the myriad posts I’ve written about the place here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.) Thankfully, little of Book Soup was changed following the acquisition and the shop is still going strong today.

One of Book Soup’s largest draws is its legendary book signings. Just a few of the luminaries who the store has hosted over the years include Martin Scorsese, Howard Stern, Muhammad Ali, Shaquille O’Neal, The Doors, Mia Farrow, Mark Wahlberg, Ann-Margret, Ed McMahon, Jack Palance, and Annie Leibovitz. Stars have also been known to shop onsite. Drew Barrymore, Marlee Matlin, Nicolas Cage, Elton John, Madonna, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Paris Hilton, Faye Dunaway, Thora Birch, Leonard Nimoy, Ellen Pompeo, Alec Baldwin, Joan Collins, and Robert Downey Jr. have all been spotted perusing the stacks.

With such a vast celebrity clientele, it is not hard to see how Book Soup wound up on both the big and small screens.

In the oddly-shot 2000 drama Timecode, in which four frames of action are shown simultaneously throughout the entire film, Cherine (Leslie Mann) and Emma (Saffron Burrows) shop at Book Soup. The scenes featuring the store are pictured in the top right corner of the screen captures below.

It is at Book Soup that Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) first lays eyes on Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman) in the 2005 romcom Bewitched.

Jack subsequently follows Isabel to Book Soup Bistro, a café that was formerly located next door to the bookstore in the Carolco building, in a sunken space situated adjacent to the newsstand.

By the time I stalked Book Soup in 2011, while the newsstand was still intact, the restaurant had closed and the space that once housed it was vacant.

The “Book Soup Bistro” signage was still in place, though.

The former restaurant area has since been completely taken over by the Carolco building (which underwent a massive renovation in 2014 and currently serves as the West Hollywood headquarters of IAC) and Book Soup’s newsstand has been moved to the front exterior of the store, as you can see in the recent Street View images below.

Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) meets an amorous fan named Nicole (Lindsay Sloane) at Book Soup in the Season 3 episode of Entourage titled “I Wanna Be Sedated,” which aired in 2006.

In the Season 1 episode of Californication titled “The Whore of Babylon,” which aired in 2007, Hank Moody (David Duchovny) gets into a fist fight with director Todd Carr (Chris Williams) during a signing at Book Soup.

Though countless websites claim that Book Soup is also the spot where Hank first meets Mia Cross (Madeline Zima) in Californication’s pilot episode, that information is incorrect. Hank and Mia’s initial encounter actually took place at the now shuttered Equator Books, formerly located at 1103 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice.

In the Season 1 episode of The Layover titled “Los Angeles,” which aired in 2012, Anthony Bourdain chronicles exciting places to visit during a stopover in L.A., one of which is Book Soup.

The store pops up a couple of times in Netflix’s 2017 film Sandy Wexler as the newsstand that Sandy Wexler (Adam Sandler) – and Arsenio Hall (playing himself) – regularly frequents.

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: Book Soup, from Bewitched, is located at 8818 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the shop’s official website here.

April 10, 2015April 9, 2015

18th Street Coffee House from “Modern Family”

As I have said countless times before on this blog, there’s pretty much nothing I love more than a filming location that serves coffee. So I thought stalking the 18th Street Coffee House in Santa Monica, which was featured in the Season 6 episode of Modern Family titled “Rash Decisions,” would be a pleasant experience. I was wrong. But more on that in a bit.

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In “Rash Decisions,” Alex Dunphy (Ariel Winter) attends a college interview for Princeton at a local café. While there, she realizes that the interviewer, Vanessa (Aya Cash), is bored, so she recounts a story recently told by her sister, Haley Dunphy (Sarah Hyland), involving sneaking into Dodger Stadium. In doing so, she inadvertently calls Vanessa “slut.” Interview over!

Thankfully, 18th Street Coffee House’s real life exterior signage was clearly shown in the scene which made the place easy to track down.

When I showed up to stalk the café, I took several photographs outside before walking in, large camera in hand. I ordered my drink, camera still in hand (did I mention it was large?), and asked the barista all sorts of questions about the filming of “Rash Decisions,” questions she seemed just barely to tolerate. The attitude there is just a wee bit pretentious (as evidenced by countless reviews on Yelp). I fangirled out nonetheless, explaining that I had come in solely to see the place because of its appearance on Modern Family. After I got my latte, I snapped the picture below and all of a sudden the barista got upset with me, not-at-all politely informing me that photographs were most certainly not allowed on the premises. You’d think she would have mentioned this beforehand, while I was asking about Modern Family, when she undoubtedly had to have seen the big ol’ camera in my hand. Either way, I would have expected her to be polite about the whole thing, which she was not. I’ll never understand places that don’t allow photographs, but do allow filming. Not to mention that there are a myriad of customer pictures of the place featured on the 18th Street Coffee Shop Facebook page. Go figure.

The 18th Street Coffee House actually has quite a few rules. Cell phone use is prohibited there, which is something I can typically get behind. Who wants to listen to someone talking loudly on a phone inside of an eatery? That is one of my biggest pet peeves. But, according to several Yelpers, at 18th Street you aren’t allowed to look at your phone. So if you want to grab a coffee, sit down and answer a few emails, be forewarned that you will not be allowed to (though the guy in the above photo appears to be doing so). The rule is apparently in place to encourage interaction and conversation. While I agree that it is a nice sentiment to want customers to interact with the people they are dining with rather than having their heads buried in cell phones during a visit, when someone is alone I don’t see why he or she should not be able to check their email or surf the web via their cell phone. I’m all about having rules and like the thought of a restaurant wanting to establish a peaceful, quiet environment, but there is also such a thing as overkill. (This scene from Bridesmaids comes to mind.)

It has long been rumored that the 18th Street Coffee House is owned by Bob Dylan and this 2002 Los Angeles magazine article stated that the place’s business permit, as well as that of the boxing club located downstairs from it, are in the name of Dylan’s manager, Jeff Rosen. When asked about the ownership, Jeff said, “I know nothing about that . .. Can’t you find something more interesting to write about?” Yep, that pretty much sums up the attitude of the whole place.

My coffee was excellent, though. The place was not so pretentious as to not offer whole milk (another of my pet peeves when it comes to coffee shops), so my latte was perfectly creamy and delicious. And I will say that the café is definitely picturesque, both inside and out, though I will, sadly, most likely not be going back.

The 18th Street Coffee Shop has appeared onscreen several times. In the Season 1 episode of Californication titled “The Devil’s Threesome,” which aired in 2007, Mia Lewis (Madeline Zima) and Dani (Rachel Miner) discussed what Dani thought was Mia’s new book [though the tome was actually written by Hank Moody (David Duchovny)] over coffee at 18th Street.

In 2009, the coffee shop popped up in the Season 7 episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm titled “Denise Handicapped,” as the spot where Larry David (playing himself) met a handicapped woman named Denise (Anita Barone).

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: 18th Street Coffee House, from the “Rash Decisions” episode of Modern Family, is located at 1725 Broadway in Santa Monica.

December 15, 2014December 12, 2014

Chaya Venice from “The Holiday”

It’s finally that time of year again, folks! Time for some Christmas-themed posts! And I could NOT be more excited. First up is a locale that I had been searching for for years – the sushi restaurant where Iris Simpkins (Kate Winslet) and Miles (Jack Black) dined towards the end of The Holiday. During my lengthy search for the eatery, I spent countless hours inputting terms like “sushi restaurant,” “The Holiday” and “filming” into Google, but always came up empty-handed. Then, this year, I decided to ask for some help and called in my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, to see if he could work his magic in finding it. Sure enough, he did! After numerous Google inquiries using, as he stated, “Soooooooo many combinations and permutations” of terms, he sent an email to The Holiday’s production manager who got back to him right away and informed him that the restaurant was in Venice. Adding “Venice” to his search terms led him to a Yelp review of Chaya Venice, in which a patron named Hayley M. mentioned that the place had appeared in The Holiday. Yahoo! So I ran right on over there for lunch while I was in L.A. a couple of weeks ago.

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Chaya Venice was originally founded by the Tsunoda family in 1990. The Tsunodas’ tenure in the culinary field is an extensive one that has lasted almost forty decades. Yes, you read that right – forty decades! About 390 years ago, the family set up shop, so to speak, under a large tree in Hayama, Japan, where they served tea and snacks to travelers on horseback who happened to pass by. At some point thereafter, they opened an inn on the site, which was eventually transformed into a Japanese restaurant that they named “Hikage Chaya.” (Chaya means “teahouse” in Japanese.) It is still open today. A second restaurant, La Maree de Chaya, which served French food, soon followed.

In the 1980s, the Tsunodas migrated to the United States and, in 1984, opened Chaya Brasserie in Beverly Hills. It, too, is still in operation today. Sister restaurants, including Chaya Venice, soon began to pop up and there are currently four Chaya outposts located throughout California. The eateries, which serve French/Japanese cuisine, are headed by executive chef Shigefumi Tachibe, who just so happens to be the inventor of tuna tartare. He created the dish at Chaya Brasserie the same year that the eatery opened, after a patron requested an alternative to the steak tartare that was then being offered on the prix-fixe menu. The rest, as they say, is history.

I absolutely loved my experience at Chaya Venice! While I am not a fan of sushi (I do not like most fish), I opted for some veggie rolls and they were delish! The staff also could not have been nicer to me and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of The Holiday. The atmosphere of the place is quite beautiful, too. It is not very hard to see why Chaya Venice wound up being featured on the silver screen.

I was particularly obsessed with the restaurant’s painted ceiling. Gorgeous!

In The Holiday, Chaya Venice was where Miles and Iris were eating lunch when Miles’ ex-girlfriend, Maggie (Shannyn Sossamon), called to tell him she wanted him back.

As you can see, the place looks much the same in person as it did onscreen.

“Accidental boob graze!”

The Holiday is not the only production to have been lensed at Chaya Venice. In the Season 5 episode of The Hills titled “Mess with Me, I Mess With You,” which was filmed in 2009, Stephanie Pratt and Audrina Patridge grabbed lunch at the eatery and discussed Kristin Cavallari and Justin Bobby’s burgeoning relationship.

And in the Season 5 episode of Californication titled “The Ride-Along,” which aired in 2012, Chaya Venice was where Richard Bates (Jason Beghe) got naked while standing on a sushi bar.

The entrance to Chaya Venice also appeared in the episode.

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

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: Chaya Venice, from The Holiday, is located at 110 Navy Street in Venice. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.

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.

February 20, 2014February 19, 2014

The All American Burger from “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”

I was devastated to learn back in early 2010, thanks to fellow stalker Amanda, that The All American Burger on Sunset Boulevard, which masqueraded as Clown Dog restaurant in 1991’s Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was being turned into a Chipotle Mexican Grill. I never expected that the historic eatery was going to be demolished in the process, though, so when I drove by it later that same year, I was shocked to discover a vacant lot. All that remained of the once-popular burger shack was its neon signage. It was not until two weeks ago, though, while I was on my way to stalk Parisian Florist, that I saw the Chipotle outpost that now stands in its place. Sad as I was, I figured I might as well pull over and snap some pics so that I could write an updated post on the property.

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The All American Burger was originally founded in 1963 by a successful stockbroker named Aaron Binder. The company grew fairly quickly and, by 1970, four sister eateries had opened up throughout L.A. For reasons that are unclear, things took a turn for the worse in 1981 and the chain filed for bankruptcy. Binder was later found guilty of fraud (stemming from a tax shelter investment scheme) and sent to prison for ten years. He wound up serving 42 months. It is unclear what happened to the restaurants following the bankruptcy and Binder’s imprisonment, but I believe they were sold to several new owners. Each branch was eventually shuttered, except for the Sunset Boulevard location which, according to LA Weekly, was the last remaining of the chain, until it, too, closed its doors in early 2010. The subsequent demolition of the restaurant and rebuilding did not take long as Chipotle opened on the site in November of that same year.

I originally visited The All American Burger in December 2009 and it turned out to be one of my favorite stalking experiences ever. You can read about that stalk – in which I got to don an All American Burger uniform and go behind the counter – here.

Sadly, the Chipotle building looks nothing at all like the former The All American Burger. As I mentioned, the sole remnant of the historic eatery is its signage – or at least a portion of it. As you can see below, the hand pointing to the parking lot that was part of the All American Burger sign was incorporated into Chipotle’s new sign.

I would say I love the fact that Chipotle made the gesture, but I’m too darn sad that The All American Burger was demolished in the first place.

While doing research for this post I learned that it was directly across the street from The All American Burger, on the curb in front of 7677 Sunset Boulevard, that Hugh Grant infamously picked up a prostitute named Divine Brown in the early morning hours of June 27th, 1995. Hugh then drove Divine three blocks to the corner of Hawthorn and North Curson Avenues, where the two indulged in “lewd conduct” and were eventually arrested. Oddly, neither seemed to be negatively affected by the arrest. Hugh’s career did not miss a beat and, according to this 2010 Daily Mail article, Divine made about $1 million off of the 20-minute encounter and wound up leaving the “business” for good. She currently runs a music production company in Atlanta.

In Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, The All American Burger stood in for Clown Dog restaurant, where Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate) worked for a day and met her future boyfriend, delivery boy Bryan (The Good Wife’s Josh Charles).

The real life interior of the eatery was also used in the movie.

The All American Burger was featured in a couple of other productions during its too-short lifetime. In the Season 2 episode of Californication titled “La Petite Mort,” which aired in 2008, the restaurant was where Hank Moody (David Duchovny) confronted his daughter’s boyfriend, Damian (Ezra Miller).

And in 2009, the eatery was where Officer John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz) and Officer Ben Sherman (cutie Ben McKenzie – sigh!) responded to a 911 call from a customer complaining that her regular lunch spot was out of chicken nuggets (LOL) in the Season 1 episode of Southland titled “Derailed.”

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The All American Burger, aka Clown Dog restaurant from Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, was formerly located at 7660 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. The property is now the site of a Chipotle Mexican Grill.

December 14, 2011December 6, 2013

Farralone – Frank Sinatra’s Former House

While doing research on the Chaplin Court apartment complex, which I blogged about last Thursday, I came across some information about an oft-filmed-at Chatsworth-area estate formerly owned by Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, that, for some inexplicable reason, I had somehow not previously known about. The mansion, which in most circles is known simply as Farralone, is a marvel of modern design that just came on the public market for the very first time in history a couple of weeks ago. And, let me tell you, I took one look at the photographs featured on the real estate listing and became just a wee-bit obsessed with stalking the place. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there last weekend to do just that.

Farralone, or the “Great Glass Mansion” or the “Sinatra Compound” as it is also sometimes called, was commissioned by Chase-Manhattan-Bank-heiress Dora Hutchison in 1951 and was designed by Pereira & Luckman, the architecture firm who also gave us the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, the Theme Building (aka The Encounter Restaurant & Bar) at the Los Angeles International Airport, and, my personal favorite, the Disneyland Hotel. Dora built the house to be used as a party pad and regularly hosted rousing soirees where she counted Ava Gardner, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland, and Vincent Minnelli as guests. When Dora moved back to her native New York, she leased the property to none other than Frank Sinatra, who remained there for almost ten years. Sadly though, as you can see above, not much of the property is visible from the street.

But that’s why God created real estate listings! The estate, which was just put on the market earlier this month for a cool $12 million, boasts sweeping views, parking for over 200 cars, 10,000 square feet of living space, 4 bedrooms, 6 baths, 3 private offices, a conference room, a detached gym, a 50-foot swimming pool, 14 acres of land, a vineyard, a production studio, 16-foot ceilings, glass walls, and a 1,000-square-foot, 1-bedroom, 2-bath guest house (with its own separate pool) where my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe supposedly lived in for a time.

Farralone has seen so much filming over the years that, according to a December 2nd, 2011 Forbes article, it not only nets up to $2 million a year in location fees, but also “comes with a property manager who acts as a liaison with the studios, paid for by the studios.” The article further states that the “main house also boasts a lower level production studio equipped with conference room, edit bays, private office and a separate entrance, all paid for and maintained by the studios.” Ironically enough, when we showed up to stalk the property some filming was actually taking place. The super-nice security guard on duty informed us the the shoot was for a reality dating show of some sort, but she was unsure of the name.

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In the Season 4 episode of Californication titled “Lawyers, Guns, and Money”, Farralone showed up as the residence belonging to Stu Beggs (aka Stephen Tobolowsky), where Marcy Ellen Runkle (aka Pamela Adlon) made a house call to give Stu a “full Kardashian” body wax.

In the 2001 thriller Swordfish, Farralone was the house where Gabriel Shear (aka John Travolta) lived and where Halle Berry famously shed her top for the very first time onscreen – an act for which she was supposedly paid a whopping $500,000. Thanks to some crafty CGI, the Sinatra compound was made to appear as if it was located in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles for the film, instead of Chatsworth.

Farralone was also the home where Jack Wyatt (aka Will Ferrell) lived and threw his post-divorce party in the 2005 romantic comedy Bewitched.

In 2006’s Dreamgirls, Farralone stood in for the residence belonging to pop star Deena Jones (aka Beyonce Knowles) and her music-producer husband, Curtis Taylor Jr. (aka Jamie Foxx).

In the Season 2 episode of Mad Men titled “The Jet Set”, Farralone was used as the supposed-Palm-Springs-area home where Joy (aka Laura Ramsey) took Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm) while he was visiting California.

In the 2002 flick The Salton Sea, Farralone was the home where Nancy Plummer (aka Shirley Knight) and Verne Plummer (aka R. Lee Ermey) lived.

In 2001’s Tomcats, the Sinatra Compound was where Kyle Brenner (aka Jake Busey) lived.

The real estate listing mentioned that Farralone had been featured in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and I really have to pat myself on the back for this one because as soon as I read those words I knew immediately that the episode in question was Season 9’s “Kill Me If You Can”. I was not even watching CSI regularly back in 2008 when the “Kill Me If You Can” episode aired, but I had caught it on TV at some point and when I saw CSI mentioned in the listing, my mind immediately flashed to an image of Lawrence Fishburne standing by the Farralone pool while investigating the death of an art dealer. Why these random, useless bits of location information remain stored in my head is beyond me, but they do. Smile

Thanks to commenter Becky on the Design Public blog, I learned that in the Season 1 episode of Six Feet Under titled “An Open Book”, Farralone stood in for the home belonging to the parents of Brenda Chenowith (aka Rachel Griffiths).

And thanks to the HGTV website, I learned that Farralone was where the Design Star contestants lived during Season 4 of the reality series.

Location manager Scott Trimble also let me know that Farralone was where Optimus Prime came out of the swimming pool in the first Transformers movie.

Fellow stalker Jason informed me that the estate also showed up as the party location at the very beginning of 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Farralone also popped up in the 2004 music video for Usher’s hit song “Burn”.

Usher–Burn–filmed at Farralone in Chatsworth

You can watch the “Burn” video by clicking above.

Several articles have also claimed that the home appeared in the 2001 biopic Ali, but I scanned through that movie yesterday and did not seen anything resembling it pop up onscreen, so I am fairly certain that information is incorrect. I am thinking that the house might have instead been featured in the similarly-named television movie Ali: An American Hero, but because I have never seen it and was unable to find it anywhere online, I cannot verify that hunch. One rumor that I can put to rest is that the Farralone pool was not actually the site of Marilyn Monroe’s second-to-last photo shoot, as the real estate listing and several articles about the property have claimed. Truth be told, that photo shoot was not really a photo shoot at all, but simply consisted of photographer Lawrence Schiller snapping some stills of the starlet while she filmed scenes for her very last movie, Something’s Gotta Give. The shoot, which took place a few days before Marilyn’s death and featured her skinny-dipping while talking to co-star Dean Martin, was not actually shot on location, but on a set that was built inside of Stage 14 on the Fox Studios lot in Century City.

As you can see above, the pool from Something’s Gotta Give does not match the real estate listing photographs of the Farralone pool.

You can watch a YouTube video of the Something’s Gotta Give pool scene being shot, during which it is stated that filming took place on Stage 14 of the Fox lot, by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Farralone, the former Frank Sinatra estate, is located at 9361 Farralone Avenue in Chatsworth. You can visit the home’s official real estate listing here and you can check out some fabulous interior pics of the property here.

September 30, 2011September 29, 2011

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ Former Mansion

I recently finished reading Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography which was written by Andrew Morton, the legendary celebrity biographer who also penned Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words, and I have to say that it was absolutely FABULOUS! I honestly cannot more highly recommend it. Not only was the book, which became a 2008 bestseller, a fascinating read, but it also got me completely obsessed with Dawson’s Creek once again and I just started re-watching the series from the beginning last week. SUCH a great show and one of these days I have GOT to get myself to Wilmington, North Carolina to do some stalking of the locales, but I digress. Anyway, one of the locations talked about in Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography was the Beverly Hills manse that the actor called home when he first started dating Katie Holmes and which Katie also later moved into. So I, of course, just had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place as soon as I finished reading the book.

Sadly though, as you can see above, virtually no part of the mansion is visible from the street.

But, as I’ve said before, that’s why God created aerial views. As you can see above, Tom and Katie’s former house is absolutely gargantuan. In fact, it would be more appropriate to call the place a “compound” rather than a “house”. The English-Country-style abode, which was originally built in 1927, features a 6,685-square-foot main house with five bedrooms and five baths, a guest house which is comprised of three separate apartments, each with their own kitchen and bath!, a screening room, formal gardens, a sunken tennis court, a pool, a spa, and almost three full acres of secluded land. According to the Berg Properties website, Tom Cruise first leased the residence in 2001, shortly after his separation from then-wife Nicole Kidman. TomKat moved out of the home sometime in 2007, at which point it went on the market at a rental rate of $100,000 per month. Not kidding! According to fave website The Real Estalker, Russell Crowe may have lived there for a time after the Cruises left. And it appears that the property is once again available for lease. You can check out the real estate listing – and see some fabulous interior photographs of it – here.

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And, amazingly enough, not only was the abode once the home of one of the world’s biggest movie stars, but the place is also a filming location! In 2001’s Blow, the mansion was where George Jung (aka Johnny Depp) lived with his wife, Mirtha (aka Penelope Cruz). It was featured in the memorable scene in which George shows his father, Fred (aka Ray Liotta), his extensive collection of cars. The home was also where George was arrested by the FBI during his 38th birthday party.

The interior of the house was also used in the filming.

In the Season 3 episode of Californication titled “Wish You Were Here” the mansion was the residence of Dean Stacy Koons (aka The O.C.’s Peter Gallagher) and his wife, Felicia (aka Embeth Davidtz), where Hank Moody (aka David Duchovny) attended a dinner party.

The real life interior of the mansion also appeared in that episode.

And the mansion also shows up each week on the ABC Family series Switched at Birth as the residence of the Kennish family – Bay (aka Vanessa Marano), Toby (aka Lucas Grabeel), John (aka D.W. Moffett), and Kathryn (aka Lea Thompson) – and the Vasquez family – Daphne (aka Katie Leclerc), Regina (aka Constance Marie), and Adrianna (aka Ivonne Coll).

Although the interior is, I believe, just a set. As you can see in the screen captures above, it does not look at all like the real life interior of the former Cruise home.

But the backyard, pool, and guest house scenes all take place at the actual house.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ former house is located at 918 North Alpine Drive in Beverly Hills.

June 1, 2010May 31, 2010

Only In L.A. . . .X

Unfortunately, I don’t have a full blog to post today because it’s currently 11:15 p.m. and I just walked in the door after landing at LAX a few hours ago after spending a whirlwind weekend in the Pacific Northwest where I stalked for literally 72 hours straight with my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry. I promise to be back tomorrow with a regular post, but for now I thought I’d publish a picture I took at the airport shortly after my plane landed. While the Grim Cheaper and I were making our way to the baggage claim area at LAX, I spotted actress Pamela Adlon, who plays Marcy on the Showtime television series Californication, walking a few steps ahead of us. I recognized her fairly immediately, thanks to her distinctive voice, and just about had a heart attack right there on the spot! I am actually extremely amazed that I recognized her when I don’t really even watch Californication, especially considering that the Grim Cheaper walked right by her without so much as batting an eyelash and he watches the series religiously. I. of course, immediately ran up to her to ask if she’d pose for a pic with me and I am very happy to report that she could NOT have been nicer. She said she really appreciated me coming up to her and the fact that my fiancé was a big fan of the show and she happily posed for a picture and even made me check to make sure it came out alright in case I wanted her to pose for another one. So sweet! All in all, a FABULOUS end to a FABULOUS weekend and a further reminder to keep your eyes open for celebs no matter where you are – even in baggage claim!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

April 2, 2009April 1, 2009

Vibiana

A couple of weeks ago, while spending the weekend at the Hilton Checkers Hotel, I stumbled upon a filming location I had been meaning to stalk for quite some time – a former cathedral named Vibiana located in Downtown Los Angeles. While walking back to the hotel after grabbing a Starbucks :), I saw what looked like a wedding being set up outside of a church. And I just about fell over when a woman stopped me and said “Are you here for Vibiana?” It was at that point that I realized I wasn’t standing outside of a church at all, but a filming location that had appeared on my fave show The Hills. I had actually found Vibiana’s location a few weeks back, but had yet to stalk it for some odd reason. So, I was pretty much jumping up and down with excitement when I realized what I had stumbled upon. The woman who had stopped me was extremely amused at my thrill over seeing Vibiana in person and was nice enough to let me step inside to take a peek at the former church and snap some photos.

The Cathedral of Saint Vibiana was built in 1876 by Ezra F. Kyson, the very same architect who designed the Pico House. The Baroque style church could seat 1200 parishioners, which at the time was one tenth of the city’s population. For many years St. Vibiana’s enjoyed the prestige of being the mother church cathedral parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Sadly, the building was badly damaged during 1994’s Northridge Earthquake, and since the archdiocese had since outgrown the structure, they set their sights on demolishing it to build something bigger. Thankfully, preservationists stepped in and literally stopped the wrecking ball mid-swing. After a time consuming and much heated debate between the city, the archdiocese, and preservationists, the city decided to give the archdiocese a larger piece of land in exchange for the damaged church. In 1999, the city sold the property to real estate developer Tom Gilmore, who spent the next seven years and over $8 million restoring the building to its former grandeur. Today, the former cathedral is used as an events venue, hosting everything from weddings to corporate parties. In February of 2008, former American Idol Katharine McPhee held her wedding reception at Vibiana.

And, of course, there’s also the filming! 🙂 Vibiana’s showed up in two Season 3 episodes of The Hills. In the first episode, entitled “Stress and the City”, Teen Vogue intern Whitney Port is delegated the task of choosing a venue for the upcoming Young Hollywood Party. Whitney chooses the former cathedral and suggests running a long carpet down the aisle to be used as the fashion show runway and setting up photo booths in the confessionals. The following episode, entitled “Young Hollywood”, centers around Lauren and Whitney setting up for and running the Young Hollywood Party. Since the name of the church was written right across the screen in both episodes, finding this location was a snap. 🙂

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The former church also showed up very briefly in a controversial scene in the pilot episode of the David Duchovny series Californication. Only the interiors of Vibiana were used for that scene, though. The exteriors were filmed about ten miles away at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

I highly recommend stalking Vibiana as it is absolutely gorgeous inside! I would so love to have a wedding there! Although the property is not currently open to the public, you can stalk the exterior and maybe someone will be nice enough to let you take a peek inside. You can also cyberstalk the building here. If you are interested in hosting an event at the former church, you can contact the events coordinator here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Vibiana is located at 210 South Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles.