Tag: celebrites

The “Pretty Woman” Opera House

Today’s locale is one that I have been trying to track down for over a year and a half now – ever since discovering that pretty much every other location website out there had gotten it wrong. I am talking about the exterior of the supposed San Francisco opera house featured in the 1990 classic romantic comedy Pretty Woman. Last January, while on a Pretty Woman kick, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, where filming of the opera scene is said by several websites to have taken place. And while the interior of the museum did, in fact, appear in the movie, I took one look at the exterior and knew without a doubt that it was not the exterior shown in Pretty Woman.

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As you can see below, the Pretty Woman opera house and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, while somewhat similar, are most definitely NOT one and the same. Which begs the question – how does erroneous information like this get published? Yet again, the answer is shoddy research and lazy reporting. Once upon a time, someone made the claim that the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles was used as the exterior of the Pretty Woman opera house and everyone else just jumped on the bandwagon without doing any of their own investigating. I call that “spaghetti-style stalking” – let’s just throw some locations out there and see what sticks – and it is maddening! Anyway, while I knew that the Natural History Museum did not stand in for the exterior of the Pretty Woman opera house, I had no idea what location actually was used and spent the next year and a half trying to figure it out. Then on Monday afternoon, I got a text from my good friend Nat letting me know that she had found the site – in Pittsburgh of all places! (I should mention here that Nat is not AT ALL into stalking, so this truly was a feat!)

I originally got Nat, who is a native San Franciscan, involved in the hunt because I had assumed that the building used in Pretty Woman was located somewhere in the City by the Bay. In a bad twist of fate, while the scene was originally set to be lensed at S.F.’s iconic War Memorial Opera House, a few days before the shoot date, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck, rendering the city, and War Memorial, unfilmable. So director Garry Marshall and his team had to scramble to find a different last-minute location at which to film. They wound up using three different locales to stand in for the opera house. The Natural History of Museum of Los Angeles was used as the interior of the concert hall’s lobby area.

In the scene, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) and Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) walk through the main entrance of the Natural History Museum and head to the right.

I am fairly certain that the curved wall panel pictured below was a set piece that was added for the filming, as the actual walls of the museum are not rounded.

As you can see in the screen capture below, the tiled floor pattern also seems to be cut off by that rounded panel, further leading me to believe that it was a set piece.

Edward and Vivian then walk past an usher handing out programs . . .

. . . and up a flight of stairs.

Had the camera panned just slightly farther to the right in the scene, the museum’s famous dinosaurs would have been visible.

For the interior of the actual theatre, production designer Albert Brenner constructed a set at The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, where Pretty Woman was lensed. In Garry Marshall’s DVD commentary featured on the Pretty Woman (15th Anniversary Special Edition) DVD, he states that the set was built against a soundstage wall and that the cast and crew had to climb a ladder to gain access to the balcony area.

While the lobby and theatre areas were easy finds, it was the exterior of the opera house that had me in the dark. Because the building shown in Pretty Woman did bear a striking resemblance to the War Memorial Opera House (which you can see a picture of here), I figured that it was also most likely located somewhere in San Francisco. So after asking fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and John, from the Silent Locations blog, for their help in tracking the place down, I emailed a screen capture of the building to Nat to see if she recognized it at all. She did not, but kept the picture on hand in case she ever came across it in her daily travels. Then yesterday, Nat’s boyfriend headed out to the San Francisco Natural History Museum, which reminded her of my quest, so she started doing some cyber-stalking and, lo and behold, found the place! As it turns out, the Pretty Woman opera house is actually Carnegie Music Hall (which is a part of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, oddly enough!) at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. My hat is DEFINITELY off to her being that she did what we “professional” stalkers could not. And had she not found the locale, it would have remained a mystery because never in a million years would I have EVER thought to search for it in Pennsylvania! (Please pardon the rather poor-quality Google Street View image pictured below.)

Nat also informed me that Carnegie Music Hall was used in the 1983 classic Flashdance, where it masqueraded as the prestigious Pittsburgh Dance and Repertory Company that welder Alex Owens (Jennifer Beals) dreamed of attending. The building shows up several times throughout the movie, most notably in the scene in which Alex chickened out of auditioning for the school’s ballet program.

The interior of Carnegie Music Hall and Carnegie Museum of Natural History were also utilized in the filming.

In a very ironic twist, I was SHOCKED to discover that the establishing shot shown in Pretty Woman was actually a still from Flashdance! Towards the middle of Flashdance, Alex attended a black-tie dance recital with her mentor, Hanna Long (Lilia Skala), at the Pittsburgh Dance and Repertory Company. The exterior of Carnegie Music Hall was shown several times throughout that scene, with tuxedo-clad men and cocktail gown-clad women milling about on the stairs outside. Garry Marshall simply used a shot from that scene for Pretty Woman.

The first screen capture pictured below is from Flashdance, while the second is from Pretty Woman. As you can see, the gala sign pictured on the bottom left-hand side of both of the images is a perfect match, as are the man and woman standing just to the right of it. Several of the other people in the screen captures match up, as well, including the man standing with his back against the wall of the middle archway and the white-haired woman in the bottom right-hand corner. Too bad I have never seen Flashdance, otherwise this would have been a much easier find!

The interior of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History was also used in The Silence of the Lambs, as the spot where Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) met up with an entomologist.

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

Big, HUGE THANK YOU to my good friend Nat for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Carnegie Music Hall, aka the exterior of the opera house from Pretty Woman, can be found at the Carnegie Institute, which is located at 4400 Forbes Avenue in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The area used in the scene is denoted with a pink arrow below. You can visit the Carnegie Institute’s official website here. The interior of the Pretty Woman opera house is the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, which is located at 900 Exposition Boulevard in the Exposition Park area of Los Angeles. You can visit the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles’ official website here.

July 31, 2013
Bing Crosby’s Palm Desert House – Where JFK Trysted with Marilyn Monroe

Last month, shortly before I headed off to Switzerland, my dad loaned me the book Killing Kennedy, which he had just finished reading. Because there was a chapter devoted to my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe, he thought I might enjoy it. And enjoy it, I did. I could hardly put it down! The chapter about Marilyn focused on the starlet’s first – and most likely only – tryst with the president, which, according to the book, took place the weekend of March 24th, 1962 at the “Spanish-style home of show business legend Bing Crosby” in Palm Springs. Well, believe you me, once I read the words “Marilyn Monroe” and “Palm Springs”, I became hell-bent on tracking down and stalking that house. Unfortunately though, it proved to be quite the difficult find.

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It seems that every book and website that mentions Marilyn’s encounter with JFK sets it at a different Palm Springs-area home of Bing Crosby’s (the crooner owned several desert houses over the course of his lifetime). Most claims state that the tryst took place at Bing’s Thunderbird Country Club residence, which is located at 70375 Calico Road in Rancho Mirage. A December 2012 NBC News article about the then for-sale property even stated, “If the Crosby angle isn’t enough of a celebrity real estate draw, one of the wings of the home is named the Kennedy wing for the presidential visitor that reportedly stayed for a weekend. ‘Robert Kennedy said that Marilyn Monroe and John F. Kennedy stayed a weekend here, so our party named the wing after him,’ [real estate agent Carl] Mitrak explained.” After looking at aerial views of the home, though, and seeing that it was not at all Spanish in style, I became certain that, despite Mitrak’s claims, it was not the right place.

So I started digging further and came across a message board on the Crosby Fan World website on which Crosby biographer Malcolm MacFarlane commented that the Thunderbird Country Club house was, indeed, NOT the spot where Marilyn spent the weekend with JFK. Unfortunately though, no further information was given, so I was still uncertain as to where their encounter actually did take place. And, after stalking Bing’s first desert home at 1011 East El Alameda in Palm Springs (pictured below) and seeing how close it was to the street and neighboring properties and therefore difficult to secure, I quickly ruled it out, as well.

Then fate stepped in. This past Saturday, I happened to mention my quest to the Grim Cheaper’s boss and, amazingly enough, she had the answer for me! She informed me that Marilyn and JFK trysted at Bing Crosby’s Palm Desert estate in Ironwood Country Club. And, as luck would have it, she owns a home inside of the community, which is gated, and granted me access that very afternoon. As you can imagine, I was beyond floored! Unfortunately though, not much of the place, outside of its front gate, is visible from the street.

When I returned home later that day, I did further research and was able to verify that the Ironwood house was indeed the correct spot. As you can see below, the sprawling residence is definitely Spanish in style. You can check out a postcard of what the property looked like back in Bing’s day here.

In the biography Marilyn Monroe: The Final Years, author Keith Badman states “The fact is that Marilyn was intimate with John F. Kennedy only once, during the evening of Saturday 24 March 1962, when both he and the screen actress were guests at singer Bing Crosby’s three-bedroom house in Palm Springs and the adjoining, remote conclave home belonging to songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen and writer Bill Morrow. The houses, situated in a tiny community 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles, stood against a mountain in Palm Desert at a place called Silver Spur and were situated up a single dirt thoroughfare named Van Heusen Road. They had been a favourite of former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower and his men during his tenure.”

To further verify Badman’s claims, according to Peter Lawford (as quoted in the Sinatra biography His Way by Kitty Kelley), while JFK and Marilyn stayed at Bing’s pad, the secret service stayed next door at Jimmy Van Heusen’s abode. That house is located at 49300 Della Robbia Lane and is denoted with a pink arrow below. You can check out a 1960s-era photograph of both Bing and Van Heusen’s properties here.

The Silver Spur area was later absorbed by Ironwood Country Club. A 2012 MyDesert.com article states, “Bing Crosby’s estate that was initially part of neighboring Silver Spur Ranch is now part of Ironwood.”

Today, the property, which was recently remodeled and is currently available as a vacation rental, boasts a three-bedroom main house, two guest casitas with two bedrooms each, 2.5 acres of land, a saltwater pool, a Jacuzzi, a fully-lit tennis court, mountain views, and original Bing Crosby decor.

My favorite aspect of the property, though, has the be the sign outside which reads “The Crosby Estate.” LOVE IT!

I also love the fact that Ironwood embraced its celebrity history by naming two of the community’s streets “JFK Trail” and “Crosby Lane.” So incredibly cool!

And I was extremely excited to discover that the residence is also a filming location! In Season 1, Episode 7 of the reality series Hollywood Exes, the women spend the weekend at The Crosby Estate and discuss the fact that JFK and MM trysted there. Hollywood Exes is terrible by the way! I feel significantly dumber just from having scanned through it to make screen captures for this post!

The interior of the house was also shown in the episode.

As was the pool area.

And the property’s front gates.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bing Crosby’s former home, where Marilyn Monroe is said to have trysted with President Kennedy, is located at 49400 Della Robbia Lane in Palm Desert. The estate is located inside of Ironwood Country Club, a gated community, and is only accessible to residents and guests of residents, unfortunately. You can check out the property’s vacation rental website – with fabulous interior photographs – here.

July 25, 2013
Cabo Cantina from “Annie Hall”

The May 2013 issue of Los Angeles magazine featured a short column about a new documentary called The Source Family which detailed the life of a World War II vet turned spiritual guru named Jim Baker (not to be confused with televangelist Jim Bakker), who became most famous for founding both The Source Family cult and a Sunset Strip vegetarian restaurant named simply The Source. The half-page article piqued my interest because, while I had long been aware of The Source (now Cabo Cantina) thanks to its appearance in the 1977 movie Annie Hall, I had never before heard about the inauspicious background of its founder. Upon reading the column, I, of course, immediately added the site to my To-Stalk list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there while in L.A. a few weeks back. The two of us also watched The Source Family this past weekend, or I should say we tried to. While interesting, the documentary was just a tad too odd for my taste and we turned it off halfway through.

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The Cincinnati-born Baker migrated to Southern California shortly after World War II, during which he earned a Silver Star, to try his hand at acting. While in La La Land, he became inspired by a health-obsessed group named the Nature Boys and a kundalini yoga guru named Yogi Bhajan. In 1957, Jim opened his first organic health food eatery, the Aware Inn. A second Aware Inn and additional establishments named the Old World Restaurant and The Discovery Inn quickly followed. And while all of the endeavors were extremely successful, Jim started to develop a heavy drug problem and his investors wound up absolving him of his duties. Hoping to turn his life around, Baker founded The Source on April 1st, 1969. For his new venture, he chose a 1946-era building at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and North Sweetzer Avenue that had previously housed a hamburger stand.

The Source, which was way ahead of its time, became an immediate hit, attracting such celebrities as Goldie Hawn, John Lennon, Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda, Steve McQueen, Marlon Brando, Joni Mitchell, and Julie Christie.

About three years after The Source opened its doors, Jim adopted the name of “Father Yod” and began leading a small spiritual commune that he named The Source Family. The group would eventually boast about 140 members, 13 of whom became Yod’s spiritual wives. Most of the Family lived together in Hillhurst, a Los Feliz-area mansion that had once belonged to Los Angeles Times publisher Otis Chandler. The Source, which some articles state brought in about $10,000 per day, provided the group’s income. Money was also generated thanks to the Family’s art gallery, Source Arts, and their popular psychedelic band, YaHoWa13.

In 1974, Father Yod began to fear that the apocalypse was upon him, so he sold The Source and, along with the Family, fled to Hawaii. The guru passed away shortly thereafter, on August 25th, 1975, in a hang gliding accident. The restaurant continued to operate as The Source for a couple of years, whereupon it was purchased by new owners who transformed it into an eatery called The Cajun Bistro. It was during that time that the front patio was enclosed.

Otherwise though, the restaurant still looks very much the same as it did during The Source days.

Today, the site houses Cabo Cantina. The photographs below show what was once The Source’s patio area, but is now the interior of the Mexican eatery. The brick walls seen in the background of the pictures are the former exterior walls of The Source. I absolutely LOVE that they are still visible!

Cabo Cantina is also fairly popular with the Hollywood set. Such stars as Brittany Snow, Ryan Rottman, Jessica Simpson, Cacee Cobb, and Donald Faison have all been spotted there in recent years.

In Annie Hall, The Source was where Alvy (Woody Allen) proposed to his longtime on-again/off-again girlfriend Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) over a plate of alfalfa sprouts and mashed yeast. Yum!

In the scene, the former Golden Crest Retirement Home is visible behind Alvy. That site is now the iconic Standard Hotel.

When Annie turns down Alvy’s proposal, he gets so upset that he winds up hitting three cars while trying to exit The Source’s parking lot and is later arrested.

The restaurant was also featured in the 1970 flick Alex in Wonderland.

The Source also appeared at the beginning of the 1975 flick Just the Two of Us.

The eatery also popped up in the Season 1 episode of the reality series Saddle Ranch (yeah, I’d never heard of it, either) titled “Rachel’s Hair Trigger”. In the episode, the gang goes to Cabo Cantina to grab some after-work cocktails and Rachel winds up drinking too much and causing a huge bar brawl. And while the restaurant was also apparently featured in an episode of Bad Girls Club, I am unsure of which episode.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Cabo Cantina, from “Annie Hall”, is located at 8301 West Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

July 23, 2013
Wokcano from “Get Shorty”

A couple of months ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called to let me know that he had just discovered that the iconic scene from Get Shorty in which loan-shark-turned-movie-producer Chili Palmer (John Travolta) threw a henchman named Bear (James Gandolfini) down a flight of stairs had been lensed at a restaurant named Abiquiu (now Wokcano) in Santa Monica. And even though I had not seen the 1995 gangster comedy in years, I was beyond thrilled to learn this information and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there for happy hour just a few days later.

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Abiquiu was opened at 1413 5th Street in Santa Monica on July 28th, 1994 by John Sedlar. The restaurateur had originally founded a more upscale, special occasion-type eatery named Bikini at the site in 1991. After Bikini folded in early 1994, due to a combination of the recession and the aftereffects of the the Northridge earthquake, the two-story space sat vacant for the about six months.

Sedlar then opened the more casual Abiquiu, named for the Santa Fe town where his grandparents once lived, in its place. He kept the interior, which in an August 1994 Los Angeles Times article journalist S. Irene Virbila described as “one of the most beautiful in L.A.”, largely the same. At some point in 2002, Abiquiu closed. Following in its place were several eateries, including Union, then Akwa, and then, most-recently, in July 2008, the Wokcano chain opened its fifth Los Angeles-area outpost at the site. Amazingly enough, despite the many changes in ownership over the 18 years since Get Shorty was filmed, the restaurant is still very recognizable from its onscreen appearance. But more on that later.

The GC was floored to discover Wokcano’s stellar happy hour, which he quickly dubbed “the best in L.A.” And I have to say that I agree with him. The food was excellent, the servings huge and the prices extremely inexpensive. I highly recommend the Garlic Brussels Sprouts ($5) and the Crispy Pepper Calamari ($7), both of which are to die for!

Happy hour is offered in Wokcano’s upstairs bar area, off of which is located a huge outdoor patio, complete with couches and cabanas. Love it!

In Get Shorty, Abiquiu was the restaurant where Bo Catlett (Delroy Lindo) tried to sabotage Karen Flores (Rene Russo) and Chili’s lunch meeting with movie producer Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman).

When Bo’s “muscle”, Bear, tried to intimidate Chili, Chili responded by throwing him down a flight of stairs.

Amazingly, that now-famous staircase still looks exactly the same as it did when Get Shorty was filmed! (Unfortunately, Wokcano is housed in an extremely bright space, which wreaked havoc on my photographs.)

The downstairs decor has changed quite a bit since filming took place, however. Gone are the brightly-colored walls and booths, and a sushi bar has since been installed. Otherwise, though, the restaurant still looks very much the same as it did onscreen.

At one point while I was taking pictures, the hostess came up to ask why I had such an interest in the staircase. When I told her of its famous onscreen appearance, she was shocked. Apparently, she had not known that bit of trivia prior to speaking with me, which was shocking! I mean, doesn’t information of that importance deserve a mention in the employee handbook? 😉

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Get Shorty staircase can be found at Wokcano, aka the site of the former Abiquiu restaurant, which is located at 1413 5th Street in Santa Monica. You can visit the eatery’s website here.

July 22, 2013
Laney Boggs’ House from “She’s All That”

Back in March, when I told fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write is Wrong blog, that fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, had just tracked down the Fundraiser house from L.A. Story (which I blogged about here) in Palos Verdes, he suggested that when I made my way out to the South Bay to stalk the place, I should also stop by the residence where Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook) lived in the 1999 flick She’s All That. Owen had found the She’s All That home, which is located in Redondo Beach, just outside of Palos Verdes, a few years prior. So I followed his advice and stalked it shortly after stalking the L.A. Story pad. It was not until I started doing research for this post that I learned that two houses were actually used as the Boggs’ residence – one for the exterior and another for the interior. But more on that later.

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In real life, the Boggs’ house, which was originally built in 1962, boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 3,058 square feet of living space, and a 0.60-acre plot of land overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Apparently, the residence is currently – or was just recently – available as a rental (at a rate of $5,750 per month), but, unfortunately, the real estate listing does not provide any interior photographs of the place. And why the agent is not marketing it as the “She’s All That house” is absolutely beyond me!

A full exterior shot of the Boggs’ home, which was said to be located in the Pacific Palisades area in the flick, was shown only once in She’s All That, in the scene in which Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze Jr.) shows up to escort Laney to a party. As you can see below, not much of the house has been changed since 1998 when the movie was lensed.

A close-up shot of the residence’s front door . . .

. . . and a close-up shot of the driveway (in which an address number of 507 was visible) were shown in the scene in which Zack invited Laney to go to the beach with him.

While doing research for this post, I noticed that the IMDB She’s All That filming locations page stated that two different houses were utilized as Laney’s – a home at 507 Paseo De La Playa for exteriors and a home directly across the street at 504 Paseo De La Playa for interiors. Because incorrect information is often posted on IMDB, though, I decided to do some of my own research on the subject and was pleasantly surprised to find that the addresses had indeed been correct. I later came across a thread on an IMDB She’s All That message board explaining where the IMDB data had originated. In November 2012, an inquiring mind named Luciana asked if anyone knew where the Boggs’ home was located. A poster named “hkchris” managed to track it down for her and another poster named “Smartiejl” – a man definitely after my own heart – did some subsequent Google Earth sleuthing and figured out that the interior filming had been done at the property across the street. I seriously think I need to start spending more time on IMDB message boards. 😉 Because I did not know of the 504 Paseo De La Playa home’s appearance in the film at the time that I was stalking the Boggs’ residence, I, unfortunately, did not get a photograph of it. But I did spot the exterior of the pad briefly pop up in the scene in which Zack talked to Laney’s dad, Wayne Boggs (Kevin Pollak), before inviting Laney to the beach.

The 504 Paseo De La Playa house, which was originally built in 1972, boasts 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3,076 square feet of living space, and a 0.19-acre plot of land. Back in April, the property was put on the market as a rental (at a rate of $7,000 per month) and, thankfully, its real estate listing, complete with interior photographs, is still online. And while the listing will not allow me to link to individual photographs, if you scroll through the page of pictures you can see that many areas of the house match perfectly to what appeared onscreen. These areas include the kitchen (although the Formica countertop has since been swapped out for one made of granite);

the brick fireplace;

the square wall cut-out between the living room and the kitchen;

the backyard and pool area (I believe the grass that was situated around the pool in the movie was a decoration piece that was added solely for the filming);

and the famous staircase that Laney walked – and fell – down. If I lived in that house, I would so be recreating that moment on a daily basis. 😉 “So kiss me . . . “

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The exterior of Laney’s house from She’s All That can be found at 507 Paseo De La Playa in Redondo Beach. The home used for the interior scenes is located across the street at 504 Paseo De La Playa.

July 19, 2013
Meeting Ivo Adam

While vacationing in Switzerland last month, I was not expecting to encounter any stars. But the stalking gods were definitely smiling down upon me because encounter a star, I did – a Swiss celebrity chef named Ivo Adam.

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Upon arriving in Ascona, a gorgeous lakeside town in Switzerland’s Ticino region, my best friend Robin’s girlfriend, Steffi, suggested we grab an afternoon cocktail (or aperitivo) at her favorite area bar, Sea Lounge – a watering hole that sits rights on the harbor of Lake Maggiore.

A portion of Sea Lounge is situated inside of a little cave, which is where our group sat.

As you can see below, the views, even from inside of the cave, are absolutely spectacular!

The entire restaurant is pretty darn amazing, actually. That’s the hallway leading to the bathrooms – yes, the bathrooms – pictured below.

The bathroom faucets, which are controlled by a metal touch screen, were a sight to behold in and of themselves! As you can see below, when a patron turns the temperature to cold, a blue light comes on.

And when the water is turned to hot, a red light comes on. So incredibly cool!

While enjoying our bubbly, Steffi, Robin and Robin’s mom, Doina, told the Grim Cheaper and me about Seaside Lounge’s owner, celebrity chef Ivo Adam, who is quite well-known in Switzerland thanks to his new television series, The Swiss Cookbook with Ivo Adam, and a series of commercials he starred in for the Coop grocery store chain. At one point, Steffi mentioned that she had seen Ivo the last time she was at the Lounge. Well, once I heard that Ivo might actually be on the premises, that was it! I was bound and determined to get a picture with him and pretty much nothing was going to stop me! Next thing I know, Doina announced that she saw Ivo approaching. So I ran up to him, explained that I was a tourist from America and that I would love to take a photo with him. Ivo agreed, thanked me for visiting, and happily posed with me and Steffi. As you can imagine, I could NOT have been more excited! Woot woot!

The Biel-born Ivo got his start in the culinary arts while still in elementary school, when he began baking cakes for his classmates’ birthdays. He was later formally trained as a chef, a pastry chef and a chocolatier. In 2000, Ivo became the youngest person ever appointed to the Swiss Culinary National Team. He opened his first restaurant, Apropos, in 2004, at the age of 27. Three years later, he partnered with Birgit and Stefan Breuer to open Seven in Ascona – the name of which is derived from the fact that the Breuer family boasts seven members. The fine-dining establishment has since gone on to earn a Michelin star. Sea Lounge was founded shortly thereafter and in 2008, Ivo and the Breuers opened two additional Ascona eateries – a casual bistro named Seven Easy (pictured below) and a sushi bar named Seven Asia. Robin likes to joke that Ivo owns every restaurant in town. 😉

Ivo is also the author of several award-winning cookbooks. Oh, and he’s a hit rapper. Yes, a rapper. As Adam stated in a 2008 Swiss News interview, “Back in 2004, I gave a presentation on diet and healthy eating for my diploma and wanted to get my message across to young people. Rap and hip-hop seemed a great way to do that. I put together a CD with some rapped recipes.” His CD consisted of 16 recipes – or “rapcipes”, as the newspaper called them. Amazingly enough, the single “Birchermuesli” (about a popular Swiss breakfast dish consisting of oats and fruit) went double-platinum! Everything the young chef touches seems to turn to gold. It is no wonder that he has been dubbed the Jamie Oliver of Switzerland.

On the recommendation of Steffi, our group wound up eating at Seven Easy that night and, let me tell you, it was spectacular! Pricey, but spectacular. Robin made the best menu choice by ordering the UH-MA-ZING truffle pizza. Though not at all diabetic friendly, I was kicking myself for not having ordered it because it was honestly one of the best things I have ever tasted.

Like Sea Lounge, the design of Easy is altogether unique, with tree trunk cocktail tables, chalkboard menus and a wall made of sawed-off log cross-sections. Love it!

I would be remiss if I did not share some photographs of Ascona in this post, as it is an absolutely GORGEOUS part of Switzerland.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for even more stalking fun! And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Seven Easy is located at Piazza Giuseppe Motta 61 in Ascona, Switzerland. Sea Lounge is located at just up the street at via Moscia 2. You can visit Ivo Adam’s official website here.

July 17, 2013
Ladurée from “Gossip Girl”

Ever since watching the Season 4 episode of Gossip Girl titled “Juliet Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”, in which Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) was shown in a bubble bath eating a box, ahem, boxes of Ladurée macarons, I have been just slightly obsessed with the Paris-based confectionery. Since the chain’s only U.S. outpost is located in New York, though, and since it did not open until August 2011 and my last trip to the Big Apple was in 2009 (yikes!), I had never had the chance to sample any of the bakery’s iconic pastel-colored wares. So when my best friend, Robin, informed me that Ladurée had a shop in Zurich, I just about passed out from excitement and added the place to my Switzerland Must-Stalk list – even though, being that nothing has been filmed there, it is not technically a stalking location.

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Ladurée was originally founded as a small bakery at 16 rue Royale in Paris in 1862 by a miller from the southwest of France named Louis Ernest Ladurée. In 1871, the shop was burned in a fire and Louis subsequently built a larger pastry store in its place. He commissioned French painter/poster artist Jules Cheret to design the interior, which was bathed in a celadon hue. It was not until 1930, though, when the shop started serving its now legendary macarons, that Ladurée gained its immense popularity. There are several differing accounts as to who actually created the macaron as it is known today, but, according to the Ladurée website, Louis’ grandson, Pierre Desfontaines, is the responsible party. Although a single-decker variety of the meringue cookie had been in existence since the 1500s, it was not until Pierre came up with the idea of cementing two of those wafers together with a ganache paste that the contemporary macaron was born. The rest, as they say, is history.

Shortly thereafter, Pierre, acting upon an idea from Louis’ wife, Jeanne Souchard, decided to open a female-friendly tea salon on the premises. At the time, the fairer sex was not allowed inside of Paris cafes. As you can imagine, the Ladurée tea room quickly became a massive hit.

In 1993, the father and son duo of Francis and David Holder purchased the bakery with the hopes of taking it global. And that they did. The second Ladurée opened on Paris’ prestigious Champs-Élysées in 1997. Thirteen additional French stores quickly followed. Today the company has boutiques in twenty different countries, including Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Hong Kong, from which it sells a whopping 15,000 cookies per day.

The interior of Ladurée (which we, unfortunately, were not allowed to take photographs of) is like a cotton-candy dreamworld! It is absolutely adorable and filled to the brim with pastel-colored boxes, which have become collectors items among macaron aficionados.

Robin’s mom, Doina, and girlfriend, Steffi, and I opted for the bakery’s vanilla-flavored macaron variety and it was pretty much the best thing I have ever eaten! As someone who has sampled quite a few different macaron brands in her day, I can honestly say that Ladurée puts them all to shame! If there was a California branch, I wouldn’t be able to stay away! Thank God there is not, otherwise I would be in permanent diabetic shock. 😉 Amazingly enough, at most Ladurée outposts in other countries, the cookies are not made onsite, but flown in daily from Paris! That is not the case with the shop in Zurich, though, so Doina, Steffi and I were lucky enough to taste fresh cookies made right on the premises.

Gossip Girl is hardly the first production to make use of Ladurée macarons. Not only were the cookies featured in Marie Antoinette . . .

. . . but the confection actually formed the basis of the color palate for the entire 2006 movie. As stated in an article from London’s The Times Magazine, “At the start of pre-production, [director Sophia] Coppola handed [costume designer] Milena Canonero a box of pastel-coloured macaroons from the Ladurée pastry house. ‘She told me, “These are the colours I love”,’ recalls Canonero. ‘I used them as a palette.’” Love it!

And while a few websites have stated that the final episode of Sex and the City did some filming at the Ladurée store in Paris, I scanned through the episode yesterday and did not see the bakery pop up anywhere.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for even more stalking fun! And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Swiss outpost of Ladurée, Blair Waldorf’s favorite macaron shop on Gossip Girl, is located at Kuttelgasse 17, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland. You can visit the official Ladurée website here.

July 16, 2013
Contra Dam from “GoldenEye”

Sorry to have been M.I.A. the past couple of days. My dad had surgery last Wednesday and I spent the better portion of the remainder of the week in the hospital with him. He is having a follow-up surgery this upcoming Wednesday, as well, so this week will also probably be light on posts. I apologize in advance. Anyway, today, my stalking friends, IAMNOTASTALKER is going global! And a word of warning – if you are at all afraid of heights, you are NOT going to like this locale. When the Grim Cheaper and I were on vacation in Switzerland last month, my best friend, Robin (who planned our entire trip), took us on a little detour to the Ticino region to stalk the Contra Dam, which was featured in the iconic opening bungee jump sequence of the 1995 007 movie GoldenEye.

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The Contra Dam, which is also known as the Locarno Dam and the Verzasca Dam, was originally constructed beginning in 1960 to support the Verzasca Hydroelectric Power Station, which is pictured in the images below.

The structure was designed by Lombardi & Gellaro Ltd. and took five years to complete. The pouring of the concrete alone (the arch-style dam is comprised of 23,000,000 cubic feet of concrete!) took a whopping 18 months to execute!

The dam’s stunning reservoir, which is known as Lago di Vogorno, began to load with water in August 1964 and the dam was finally completed a little over a year later, in September 1965, when the lake was filled to its maximum capacity. Oddly enough, the initial filling of Lago di Vogorno, which boasts a surface area of 400 acres, caused several earthquakes, which was apparently a side effect of the rapid speed with which the water rose. As a result, the reservoir had to be drained and refilled once again shortly thereafter.

Contra Dam, which is the fourth tallest dam in Switzerland, stands at 721 feet (220 meters), with its crest running a length of 1,250 feet (381 meters).

This shot gives me vertigo just looking at it!

Don’t look down!

With my Swiss family on the dam. 🙂

A permanent bungee jump station is now located in the middle of the dam, where those who are so inclined can do their own 7.5-second, 721-foot jump.

Robin bungeed from there a few years back, loved it, and tried to convince the GC and I to do the same. And while I was not at all keen on the idea to begin with, once I found out that jumps cost about $270 per person, I informed Robin that, for that price, I would much rather buy a pair of new shoes.

The Contra Dam appeared only once in GoldenEye, in the opening scene in which James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) is shown bungee jumping off of the dam and eventually latching onto the top of Russia’s Arkangel Chemical Weapons Facility, which is supposedly located below.

Some amazing shots of the dam were shown in the sequence and its appearance, although brief, was pretty darn striking.

In reality, Pierce Brosnan never set foot on the Contra Dam during filming. The scene was instead performed by a British stuntman named Wayne Michaels, who, incredibly enough, completed the stunt in a single take in front of six well-positioned cameras.

The jump was choreographed and coordinated by The Oxford Stunt Factory. So that Michaels would not hit the dam wall during the stunt, a special platform was constructed above and in front of the dam. You can see that platform in the screen captures below.

In 2002, a Sky Movies website poll deemed the jump the best movie stunt of all time. The feat also set the then world record for the highest bungee jump from a fixed structure. According to a BBC news website, of the jump, Michaels said, “It’s pushing the limits of what can physically be done. The body is travelling at such a high rate of speed that it puts a great deal of strain on you.” Um, yeah, that’s why I’d rather have a new pair of shoes!

Oddly enough, when Bond escapes from the facility at the end of the scene, he is in a different location entirely and the Contra Dam is no longer anywhere in sight.

You can watch the opening scene of GoldenEye by clicking below.

The entire time we were at the dam (and for quite a few days thereafter) I was constantly singing what I thought was the James Bond theme song. It was not until a few days after we returned home that the GC turned to me, while I was in mid-song, and said, “You do realize that you’re singing the Mission: Impossible theme, right?” Not my proudest moment.

The Contra Dam also appeared in the first episode of Season 14 of The Amazing Race, in which one member of each team had to perform a bungee jump as a Roadblock challenge.

After stalking the dam, we headed a few miles north to Switzerland’s Lavertezzo municipality where we visited the region’s famous Ponte dei Salti (which translates to “Bridge of Jumps”). And while nothing has been filmed onsite (that I know of), the place is just too beautiful not to share.

The double-arch Romanesque-style bridge was originally constructed out of stone during the 16th or 17th century, but was destroyed by a flood in 1906. It was eventually rebuilt in 1958.

Ponte dei Salti spans the Verzasca River, whose waters, as you can see below, are a spectacularly vivid shade of green.

It almost looks fake – like the water at Disneyland.

The area surrounding the bridge looks like it was ripped right from a postcard. Absolutely beautiful!

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for even more stalking fun! And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Contra Dam from GoldenEye (which does not have an actual address) is located at the northern end of Via Valle Verzasca in Gordola, Switzerland. You can learn more about bungee jumping off the dam here. Ponte dei Salti is located just a few miles north in 6633 Lavertezzo.

July 15, 2013
Beau Burroughs’ Mansion from “Rumor Has It”

Back in April, when fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, let me know that he had found the Fundraiser House from L.A. Story (which I blogged about here) at 3456 Via Campesina in Rancho Palos Verdes, I remembered that a few years prior I had tracked down a different Palos Verdes locale – the supposed Half Moon Bay-area mansion where Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner) lived in the 2005 romantic comedy Rumor Has It. Because I very rarely find myself in that part of town, though, I had never actually stalked it. So I moved the dwelling to the top of my To-Stalk list and headed right on over there while in the neighborhood visiting the L.A. Story pad just a few days later. And wouldn’t you know it – there was a truck parked right in front of the place when I showed up! Boo!

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The mansion appeared once in Rumor Has It – in the scene in which Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) woke up at Beau’s residence after spending the night with him – and, unfortunately, very little of the actual home was ever shown. The only areas of the property that appeared in the flick were the backyard –

with its gorgeous ocean views;

part of a back door;

and a tiny portion of a bedroom.

Despite the fact that I had so little to go on, though, this location was a fairly easy find. Thanks to the Rumor Has It production notes, I knew that at least one scene had been lensed in the seaside city of Palos Verdes and, because Beau’s manse was shown to be situated on a cliff overlooking the ocean, I decided to begin my search there. While watching the flick, I had noticed that the dwelling was located on some sort of a promontory that was directly across from another promontory. On that second promontory sat an immense Mediterranean-style mansion.

So I used Google Maps to search for that house, which I found fairly quickly thanks to its size, and from there tracked down Beau’s place. As you can see below, the residence sits perched above a site named “Honeymoon Cove.” Um, love it!

In real life, the mansion, which was originally built in 1973, boasts five bedrooms, seven baths, 6,126 square feet of living space, and a 0.59-acre plot of oceanfront land. The property last sold in October 1995 for $2.5 million.

Upon arriving, I was happily surprised to discover how much of the residence is actually visible from the street. I had not expected to be able to see any of it.

As the words on the two pillars that flank the front gate seem to indicate, the residence is named “Punta Vento”, which, according to Google Translate, means “peak wind” in Italian.

I was shocked to discover, thanks to the fabulous Seeing Stars website, that the same home was also used in the 1987 classic Lethal Weapon, in which it portrayed the mansion belonging to Michael Hunsaker (Tom Atkins). In the movie, a great exterior view of the property was shown.

The backyard and pool area also appeared;

as did a small portion of the interior of the house.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for even more stalking fun! And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Beau Burroughs’ mansion from Rumor Has It is located at 2817 Via Segovia in Palos Verdes.

July 10, 2013
The Site of Ariel’s House from “L.A. Story”

One L.A. Story location that I tracked down and stalked months ago, but has since become a bit of a conundrum to me, is the apartment building – or house – where Ariel (Susan Forristal), the best friend of wacky weatherman Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin), lived. Finding the locale was pretty much a no-brainer (or so I thought), being that it is a running gag throughout the movie that Harris drives to Ariel’s place whenever he wants to visit her, despite the fact that his home (which I blogged about here) is located just a couple of doors away.

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In the movie, the exterior of Ariel’s dwelling is never actually shown. All that is shown is Harris leaving his house, walking to his car . . .

. . . and then driving about 25 feet before parking in front of an apartment building with an odd lattice façade, which I assumed was where Ariel lived.

So while in L.A. this past May, I stalked that apartment building. In real life, the place does not have a lattice façade and I do not believe that it ever actually did. I am fairly certain that the façade, along with the numerous statuaries posted along the street, were added solely for the filming.

When I got home a few days later and re-watched the scenes that took place at Ariel’s house, though, I began to have doubts about the location that I stalked. As you can see below, the interior of Ariel’s residence does not look like an apartment at all, but more like the interior of a typical L.A-style bungalow.

Her pad even appears to have some sort of covered porch – a feature that most definitely would not be found in an apartment.

I also noticed that the size and positioning of Ariel’s living rooms windows did not match up to the size and positioning of the real life windows at the apartment building. In fact, one window was missing entirely.

As you can see below, Ariel’s home also has a fireplace, yet the actual apartment building has no visible chimney.

Because the apartment building does not look to have been remodeled since it was built in the 1950s (or at least since 1991 when L.A. Story was filmed), I became fairly certain that I had the wrong location. And while it is possible that producers used two different locales to depict Ariel’s dwelling – one for the exterior and another for the interior – or even possibly built a set for the inside scenes, I do not believe that to be the case.

Upon further inspection (I know, I know – I have WAY too much time on my hands ), I noticed that when visiting Ariel, Harris actually did not park directly in front of the apartment building that I had stalked, but a bit past it. In fact, whenever he is shown driving to Ariel’s, he stops his car at a point halfway blocking the driveway belonging to the house just north of the building, as you can see below.

So I went back to the drawing board and began doing some Google Street View stalking and noticed that the apartment complex located just north of the building that I had stalked was newly constructed. On a hunch, I headed on over to Historic Aerials to see if there used to be a bungalow located on that site at one point in time. And sure enough, there was! It is my belief that that now-defunct bungalow is the house that was used as Ariel’s. And while fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, was nice enough to put me in touch with a very helpful L.A. Story crew member (whom he had contacted a few weeks prior when helping me track down some of the flick’s other locales) in the hopes that he might be able to shed some light on this mystery, said crew member, unfortunately, did not remember anything about the location of Ariel’s house.

Even though the bungalow is long gone, I sent Mike, from MovieShotsLA, out to do some stalking of the apartment building that now stands in its place. Thank you, Mike! According to fave website CurbedLA, construction on the ultra-modern concrete complex was started sometime around 2008. The developer then hit some financial trouble and the project was stalled until finally being completed in 2010.

And while the Curbed commenters were pretty harsh about the aesthetic of the place, I actually really like what it looks like. Especially the interiors, which you can take a look at here.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for even more stalking fun! And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for taking the pictures of the site where I believe Ariel’s house once stood.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The site where I believe Ariel’s house from L.A. Story once stood is located at 1220 North Orange Grove Avenue in West Hollywood. The building that I originally thought was Ariel’s is located at 1216 North Orange Grove Avenue. And Harris’ house from L.A. Story is located at 1206 North Orange Grove Avenue.

July 3, 2013