Tag: Celebrities

The LAPD/FBI Headquarters from “The Fast and the Furious”

One location that I am asked about constantly is the mid-century modern-style, circular-shaped home that served as the LAPD/FBI undercover headquarters in the 2001 flick The Fast and the Furious. And while fellow stalker Gary, of the Seeing Stars website, had briefly written about the Beverly Hills property a couple of years ago after learning that it had, sadly, been torn down (despite the best efforts of the Los Angeles Conservancy Modern Committee), since I get asked about it frequently and since it was such an incredibly unique residence, I figured the place was most-definitely worthy of a blog post.

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In The Fast and the Furious, the circular home, which was said to have been confiscated by the LAPD, popped up quite frequently. The areas shown include the central courtyard and pool;

the front entrance . . .

. . . and the interior. As you can see, the place was pretty darn spectacular and extraordinary. My mind is absolutely boggled over the fact that someone would want to tear it down!

The same house was also featured in 2000’s Hanging Up as the residence where Lou Mozell (Walter Matthau) lived. In the movie, the property is referred to as being on Angelo Drive, which was its actual former location. Quite a lot of the house appeared in the flick, including the front exterior;

the interior;

and the pool and courtyard, which were shown in both a dilapidated . . .

. . . and normal state.

I absolutely love Meg Ryan’s hair cut in Hanging Up, by the way. So adorable! I might just have to get mine cut that way, too! But I digress.

In The Fast and the Furious, Sgt. Tanner (Ted Levine) says of the circular abode, “You know, Eddie Fisher built this house for Elizabeth Taylor in the ‘50s.” That anecdote is actually untrue, though. According to the Estately website, in real life, the home, which was designed by architect David Fowler for his mother, was built in 1963 and boasted 4 bedrooms, 6 baths, 5,444 square feet, and over six acres of land with unparalleled 180-degree views of the city. After the residence was sold in 2000 for $2.8 million, the entire thing was bulldozed to the ground in order to make room for a new – and absolutely gargantuan – mansion (which you can see below in an aerial view that I got from a 2012 Wall Street Journal video).

According to fave website Curbed LA, the new mansion, which belongs to Anthony Pritzker (heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune), boasts 53,000 total square feet (although the main house measures “only” 49,300 square feet), a two-level basement, a media library, a “hairdressing area” (whatever that is), a gym complete with changing rooms, an arts and crafts room, his-and-her offices, a floating pool, a game room, a two-lane bowling alley, an entertainment foyer with a bar, a detached guest house, and a rec room. The residence is, according to Property Shark, the second-largest house in all of Los Angeles. The only residence bigger? The Manor – aka the former Mapleton Drive home of Aaron and Candy Spelling.

Sadly though, as you can see below, other than the exterior gates, no part of the property is visible from the road.

I was able to track down the below historic aerial images of the house, though, on the Historic Aerials website. As you can see, the home was originally built in the shape of a perfect circle. So incredibly cool!

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The house that was used as the LAPD/FBI headquarters in The Fast and the Furious was formerly located at 1261 Angelo Drive in Beverly Hills. A very different residence stands on that site today.

September 5, 2012
Molly Malone’s from “Patriot Games”

Way back in mid-June, while trying to track down the Irish pub that masquerades as Scully’s bar on fave show Parks and Recreation (a location that I still have, maddeningly, yet to find, by the way), I came across a website for a Fairfax District-area watering hole named Molly Malone’s. The website mentioned that the historic establishment had been featured in several movies over the years, including Patriot Games, Leaving Las Vegas and Life Without Dick. And even though I am not particularly a fan of any of the three flicks, I just about died of excitement upon reading the news and immediately added the place to my To-Stalk list. Why, oh why, do more bars and restaurants not post similar such information on their websites? It would make my job so much easier! And while I was not able to drag the Grim Cheaper out to stalk Molly’s until two Saturdays ago, I have to say that the place was most-definitely well worth the wait.

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Molly Malone’s, which is located at 575 South Fairfax Avenue, was originally founded sometime (I believe) during the 1960s. In 1970, the place was taken over by a Dublin-born homemaker named Angela Hanlon, who had come to Los Angeles via Baltimore with her entertainer husband. Finding herself homesick for her native land, Hanlon one day ventured in Molly’s and quickly became a regular. And although there are several differing reports as to how Hanlon came to own the watering hole, the story I like best, which was chronicled in a 1997 Los Angeles Times article, is that, on one very fateful day, Hanlon loaned Molly’s then-owner money and when he skipped town shortly thereafter, the place wound up in her hands. Molly Malone’s has been owned and operated by the Hanlon family ever since.

The space at 575 South Fairfax housed bars long before Molly Malone’s was ever founded, though. According to a 1995 Los Angeles Times article by Hillary Johnson, legend has it that the 575 Club, one of the many watering holes to precede Molly’s, was actually one of the first to be given an alcohol license after Prohibition.

Molly Malone’s dark walls are covered with over seventy original paintings – almost all of them renderings of the bar’s regular customers – created by legendary oil painter Neil Boyle, who was a loyal patron of the drinkery for decades until he passed away in 2006. Lorraine Devon Wilke writes in a 2011 Huffington Post article, “For an artist whose pieces command phenomenal fees, who was always in demand for murals and commissioned work, and whose work hangs in galleries and museums around the country, the prestige of showcasing such valuable art was undeniable to Molly’s. Some patrons came in simply to view Neil’s paintings. It was a draw. Literally.”

In the 1995 LA Times article that I mentioned above, author Hillary Johnson states, “A sign on the wall says, ‘Dublin, 40 km.’ Some would say it’s closer.” And I would have to agree with that sentiment. As soon as we walked through Molly Malone’s dark wooden front door, we were welcomed like old friends. And when I asked the bartender on duty about the various movies filmed on the premises, he came out from behind his post, grabbed me by the hand and proceeded to take me on a tour of the place. And he even introduced me to Molly’s former longtime manager, who just happened to be on site that day, to see if he could answer any more of my questions! Talk about hospitality! Love it!

Besides being a filming location, Molly Malone’s has also long been popular with the Hollywood set. According to the former manager that I spoke with, Lenny Kravitz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Mickey Rourke, and Ralph Fiennes have all been spotted there. The place is also a live music venue and boasts a large back room, complete with a stage, where many young musicians have gotten their start.

The band Flogging Molly not only cut their teeth at the bar, but named themselves in honor of it. Of the name, front-man Dave King said, “We used to play there every Monday night and we felt like we were flogging it to death, so we called the band Flogging Molly.” Love it!

In 1992’s Patriot Games, Molly Malone’s was the Irish pub where Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) threatened to destroy Paddy O’Neil (Richard Harris) after O’Neil refused to tell him the whereabouts of Sean Miller (Sean Bean) and Kevin O’Donnell (Patrick Bergin).

While numerous websites state that either Boardner’s of Hollywood (which I blogged about here) or Cock ‘N Bull British Pub in Santa Monica was the bar featured in the opening scene of 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas, that information is actually incorrect. The bar in question was actually Molly Malone’s and it popped up twice in the flick, first in the scene in which Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage) rather aggressively purchases a random woman named Terri (Valeria Golino) a drink before inviting her home with him.

It next appeared in the scene in which the “L.A. Bartender” (Graham Beckel) urged Ben to stop drinking once and for all.

Molly Malone’s also popped up twice in 2002’s Life Without Dick. It first appeared in the scene in which hitman Daniel Gallagher (Harry Connick Jr.) asked his friend Rex (David Cross) to get rid of a gun. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior were used in that scene.

Molly’s next popped up in the scene in which Daniel finally admitted to his new girlfriend, Colleen Gibson (my girl Sarah Jessica Parker), that he was a hitman.

The exterior of Molly’s also appeared in that scene, as well.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my latest post – about a nightmare experience at the DMV – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Molly Malone’s, from Patriot Games, is located at 575 South Fairfax Avenue in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. The bar is a 21-and-over establishment, so, if you are going to stalk it, you will have to leave the kiddies at home. You can visit Molly Malone’s official website here.

September 4, 2012
Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center from “Parks and Recreation”

One location that had been lingering at the top of my To-Stalk for more than a few months was Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, which stands in for Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, where Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) works, on fave show Parks and Recreation. I found this locale thanks to Mike, from the always-fabulous Franklin Avenue blog, who recognized the site way back in 2010 when it popped up in the Season 2 finale of P&R titled “Freddy Spaghetti”. And while I did drag the Grim Cheaper out to stalk the place in early June, because I had failed to bring along any screen captures, I could not for the life of me figure out which angle of the building was used on the show and we ended up leaving after just a few minutes. I promptly added Providence to my Re-Stalk list, though, and, after doing some celebrity stalking in the area this past Monday afternoon with my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, I dragged her right on over there to properly stalk the place.

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Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, which was originally founded in 1943 by the Sisters of Providence Health System, is the largest hospital in the entire San Fernando Valley, boasting 431 beds. The location is also one of the largest employers in the SFV, with over 650 physicians and a staff of almost 2,500 on its payroll. The hospital is located directly across the street from The Walt Disney Studios and, in fact, has a very large Disney connection.

Walt Disney himself turned over the first official piece of sod during Providence’s groundbreaking ceremony, provided funding for its construction, commissioned his animators to create artwork for the interior décor, and even served on the hospital’s original Advisory Board (all of which you can see pictures of on the Started by a Mouse website here). And sadly, after collapsing in his home on November 30th, 1966, he was taken to Providence where he remained for the next two weeks before passing away on December 15th. According to the Started By a Mouse website, during his hospital stay, Walt “plotted out designs for his property in Florida [Walt Disney World] on [Providence’s} acoustical ceiling tiles.” Walt’s older brother, Roy O. Disney, also passed away at Providence, five years later – almost to the day – on December 19th, 1971. But the connection does not end there. Just recently, in 2010, the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Cancer Center (named in honor of Roy O.’s son, Roy E. Disney, and his former wife), was founded. According to the Providence website, the state-of-the-art, four-floor, 55,000-square-foot facility provides cutting-edge care to “treat the body, mind and spirit of each patient” and utilizes both Western medical technologies, such as radiation and chemotherapy, as well as Eastern, including acupuncture, meditation, fitness, yoga, and herbal remedies.

Parks and Recreation and Walt Disney are hardly Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center’s only claims to fame. Due to its proximity to both The Walt Disney Studios and NBC Studios, the hospital has seen its fair share of celebrities come through its automatic doors. Pop star Justin Bieber was taken there in January 2011 after suffering from an allergic reaction while filming an episode of CSI; Lucy Lawless was rushed there in October 1996 after falling off a horse while filming a skit for The Tonight Show; and John Ritter tragically passed away there on September 11th, 2003, as did Corey Haim on March 10th, 2010. (As you can see in the photograph below, some filming was actually taking place while Pinky and I were stalking the hospital, but we did not see any crew members whom we could ask about it. All of the filming signs were marked “BOP” and for the life of me I cannot figure out what that acronym stands for. Any ideas? UPDATE – the Providence Found blog tweeted me to let me know that the television series Body of Proof was filming at the hospital the day we were there. Thanks, Providence Found!)

On Parks and Recreation, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center pops up pretty much weekly in establishing shots of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, or Saint Joseph’s Medical Center as it is also sometimes referred to.

The interior of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, though, is, of course, just a set.

Oddly enough, though, while Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center is used for all establishing shots of Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital, a different location – St. Vincent Medical Center, located at 2131 West 3rd Street, just north of MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles – stood in for the place in the Season 1 finale of Parks and Recreation, which was titled “Rock Show”.

Some actual filming of that episode also took place inside of St. Vincent Medical Center.

Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center was also featured in the Season 2 episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians titled “Kris the Cheerleader”, as the place where Kris Jenner underwent emergency knee surgery, although a different side of the building was shown than what is regularly shown on Parks and Rec.

Filming of the “Kris the Cheerleader” episode also took place inside of the hospital. And I have to comment here that, wow, that show is bad! It was painful just scanning through a single episode to make screen captures for this post!

The Providence Found blog let me know that in 2010’s Due Date, Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center was “Pacific Mercy Hospital” where Sarah Highman (Michelle Monaghan) gave birth and the place that Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) spent the entire movie trying to get to.

The interior of the hospital also appeared in the movie.

Providence Found also informed me that Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center stood in for “Los Angeles Hospital” where Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner) discovered that her boyfriend, Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey), was married. The catwalk over the hospital’s healing garden was used in the film.

As was the GI waiting area.

On a stalking side-note – My buddy E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, who is easily one of the best researchers and wittiest writers I know, recently penned a book about Old Hollywood titled Unscripted: Hollywood Back-Stories, Volume 1. I highly recommend checking it out! You can purchase an e-copy of the book (it is currently only available digitally) on Nook here and on Kindle here.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my latest post – about a nightmare experience at the DMV – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, aka Pawnee Saint Joseph Hospital from Parks and Recreation, is located at 501 South Buena Vista Street in Burbank. You can visit the hospital’s official website here. The area shown in establishing shots on Parks and Recreation is the exterior of Providence’s emergency room, which is located off Buena Vista Street, while the Alameda Street entrance was the entrance shown on Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

August 31, 2012
Earthbar – One of Kristin Cavallari’s Favorite Haunts

Way back in mid-April, I stumbled upon some recently-published photographs of my girl Kristin Cavallari grabbing a smoothie at the Earthbar health market/juice bar on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. After spending a few minutes oogling her ensemble, which was comprised of an amazing tangerine dress and Kate Middleton-esque nude heels, I came to the conclusion that The Hills star was quite easily the cutest, most stylish pregnant woman I had ever laid eyes on. I, of course, promptly added Earthbar to my To-Stalk list – and then ran right out to buy myself a similar pair of nude heels, much to the Grim Cheaper’s chagrin. And while the GC and I ended up stalking Earthbar later that same week – and even had a celebrity sighting while there! – for whatever reason it has taken me this long to blog about the place. So without further ado . . .

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The Earthbar in West Hollywood, which is the company’s flagship store and premiere location, was originally opened in 2007 and was the brainchild of Bernie Bubman, the registered pharmacist who also founded the highly-popular Great Earth vitamin store chain in the 1970s, and his son, Noah. Earthbar became an immediate success and the father-son team have since opened nine sister locations in and around the L.A. area. (And I apologize for the horrible exterior photograph below. The sun was in the worst possible spot for picture-taking when we showed up to stalk the place. Boo!)

According to its website, Earthbar’s mission is “to provide people with hand-crafted nutrient-rich drinks along with state-of-the-art supplements for optimum whole body health and wellness.” And I have to say that the place definitely delivers! When I ordered an iced green tea, the cashier asked me what kind of iced green tea I wanted as there were several different varieties to choose from, each infused with its own special mixture of vitamins and minerals. Um, LOVE IT! The green tea that I ended up ordering was absolutely fabulous, as was the GC’s. So it is no surprise that Earthbar has long been a draw for health-conscious celebs. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted at the WeHo location include Russell Brand, Penn Badgley, Mila Kunis, Jaime King, Kelly Osbourne, Justin Long, Selma Blair, and Dexter’s Desmond Harrington. And while doing research for this post, I came across some photographs taken of KCav there back in November 2009, so apparently she has been an Earthbar patron for quite some time. (I wish I looked that good in leggings and tennis shoes, by the way!)

While we were in line waiting to order our drink, I happened to spot actor Ben Savage standing just a few people ahead of us. And while the GC was absolutely adamant that I was mistaken and that the man I was pointing to was most-definitely not Ben Savage, as it turns out my “spot” was spot-on. After I finished ordering, I approached Ben to ask for a picture and I am happy to report that he could NOT have been sweeter. He spent quite a while talking to us and, of course, asked where we were visiting from. Due to my massive incapability to be anything other than completely star-struck, celebrities invariably think I am from Iowa or Ohio and are always shocked to learn that I live in L.A. If I had a nickel for every time a star asked where I was from, let me tell you, I would be one very rich stalker! When Ben inquired as to how I had wound up at the West Hollywood Earthbar when I live in Pasadena, I (embarrassedly) explained about my Kristin Cavallari fandom and was shocked when he told me that he and KCav are good friends! He then said, “I can tell you exactly what she orders when she comes here so that you can order it, too, if you want. Oh, wait, that would be a little weird, huh?” LOL Such a genuinely nice guy! It was also incredibly cool to be able to tell him that, to this day, I cannot drive by Topanga Canyon Boulevard without thinking of him and Boy Meets World.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Earthbar is located at 8365 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. You can visit the store’s official website here.

August 28, 2012
St. Vincent de Paul Church from “The Closer”

A couple of weeks ago, while watching the Season 7 episode of The Closer titled “Last Rites”, I received a text from my mom, who was also watching the show at the time. She was curious to know if I was aware of what church the episode had been filmed at. And, as fate would have it, I did! The “Last Rites” church was none other than St. Vincent de Paul Church in the West Adams District of Los Angeles. And while the locale has appeared in countless productions over the years, for whatever reason, I had yet to blog about it, or even stalk it for that matter. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to finally do just that this past weekend.

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St. Vincent de Paul Church first came to be thanks to a 1922 donation to the Catholic Church from oil tycoon Edward Doheny, who, at the time, lived directly behind where St. Vincent now stands. The structure, which seats 1,200, was designed by Albert C. Martin, the very same architect who also gave us the Million Dollar Theatre and Los Angeles City Hall, both in Downtown Los Angeles, and St. Monica’s Catholic Church in Santa Monica (which I blogged about here). St. Vincent’s elaborate Churrigueresque-style exterior was inspired by the California Building from the 1915 Panama-California Exposition and Santa Prisca Temple in Mexico.

Construction on the massive structure began in 1923, was completed in 1925, and St. Vincent de Paul Church was officially dedicated on Easter Sunday, April 12th, of that same year.

As you can see, the church is absolutely stunning and its detailing is nothing short of awe-inspiring!

The property’s 44-foot tall concrete dome is a site to see, in and of itself.

If you thought the exterior of St. Vincent de Paul was special, though, the interior will absolutely knock your socks off! It literally almost took my breath away! The inside of the church was designed by architect Ralph Adams Cram and the ceiling decoration was by artist John B. Smeraldi, who also created the ceilings of the Biltmore Hotel (hence the name of the hotel’s main restaurant, Smeraldi’s).

The main church lights were off when we showed up to stalk the place, so it was extremely hard to take decent photographs, but, as you can see, it is pretty darn spectacular.

The detailing of St. Vincent’s interior is just as impressive as the exterior. I honestly cannot recommend stalking the church, which was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1971, enough!

In the “Last Rites” episode of The Closer, Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) and her Major Crimes team investigate the murder of a priest who was found dead outside of St. Vincent de Paul. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the church were featured in the episode.

The Closer is hardly the first production to film on the premises, though. In 1992, St. Vincent de Paul Church appeared in both of the videos for the Warrant song “The Bitter Pill” – the acoustic version featuring Jani Lane;

which you can watch by clicking below;

Warrant–The Bitter Pill video–filmed at St. Vincent de Paul Church

and the album version featuring the entire band (I apologize for the craptastic screen captures, which I got off of YouTube);

which you can also watch by clicking below.

Warrant–The Bitter Pill video–filmed at St. Vincent de Paul Church

In the Season 5 episode of the original Melrose Place titled “Great Sexpectations”, which aired in 1997, St. Vincent de Paul Church was where Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) took Dr. Kimberly Shaw (Marcia Cross) to pray about her illness, but the two end up accidentally walking into the tail end of a funeral.

In the Season 1 episode of Charmed titled “When Bad Warlocks Turn Good”, which aired in 1999, St. Vincent de Paul was the church where Brendan Rowe (NCIS’ resident cutie, Michael Weatherly) was attacked by a warlock.

St. Vincent’s most well-known onscreen appearance was at the very end of the 1999 thriller End of Days, as the spot where Jericho Cane (Arnold Schwarzenegger) took on Satan (Gabriel Byrne). According to the Seeing Stars website, while some actual filming did take place on the premises, the destruction scenes were all shot on a large-scale miniature of the interior that was created especially for the movie.

As you can see below, a different church was used for the exterior, though.

In 2000’s Bedazzled, the church was where Elliot Richards (Brendan Fraser), in a very funny scene, complained to a priest (played by Brian Doyle-Murray) that he had sold his soul to The Devil (Elizabeth Hurley) for seven wishes, but that she was trying to trick him out of one of them.

The Charmed crew returned to St. Vincent in 2001 to shoot the Season 4 episode titled “Charmed Again” for the scene in which Paige Matthews (Rose McGowan) discovers she is able to move objects with the swipe of a hand.

In 2002’s The Salton Sea, St. Vincent was where Al Garcetti (Anthony LaPaglia) and Gus Morgan (Doug Hutchison) told Danny Parker (Val Kilmer) that he had to leave town and go into hiding.

In the Season 2 episode of Alias titled “Firebomb”, which aired in 2003, St. Vincent de Paul stood in for the supposed Mexico City-area Vatican Embassy where Alia Gizabi (Lina Patel) worked and where Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) escaped a weapon that was able to make humans spontaneously combust.

St. Vincent was used as two different locations in the 2005 movie Constantine. The interior first popped up as the church where Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) went to confession.

And the exterior was used as the exterior of the church where John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) talked to Gabriel (Tilda Swinton).

Although the interior of Gabriel’s church, as you can see below, was a different location entirely.

The Alias crew returned to St. Vincent de Paul Church in 2006 to film Nadia Santos’ (Mia Maestro) funeral in the Season 5 episode titled “I See Dead People”.

In 2007’s This Christmas, the exterior of St. Vincent was where the Whitfield family attended Christmas mass.

As you can see below, though, for the interior scenes, a different church was used.

In the Season 5 episode of Entourage titled “Gotta Look Up to Get Down”, which aired in 2008, St. Vincent de Paul was where the funeral of Alan Gray (Paul Ben-Victor) was held, during which Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) was offered Alan’s studio head job.

In the Season 1 episode of Dollhouse titled “Needs”, which aired in 2009, St. Vincent de Paul Church appeared as the site where November (Miracle Laurie) found Katie’s gravesite.

A fake cemetery was set up on the church grounds for the filming of that episode.

St. Vincent was also apparently used in Tom Clancy’s 1999 made-for-television movie NetForce, but I, unfortunately, could not find a copy of the flick with which to verify that information. And while it also supposedly appeared in the 2001 made-for-TV movie James Dean, I scanned through that production yesterday and did not see the church pop up anywhere.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: St. Vincent de Paul Church, from the “Last Rites” episode of The Closer, is located at 621 West Adams Boulevard in the West Adams District of Los Angeles. The Stimson House, from House II: The Second Story (which I blogged about here), is located next door at 2421 South Figueroa Street.

August 24, 2012
The Los Angeles Police Administration Building from “The Closer”

One location that I had long been desperate to stalk was the real life Los Angeles Police Administration Building – or the Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters, as it is also known – in downtown Los Angeles, which played itself each week on fave show The Closer. So in honor of the series’ recently-aired final episode, the Grim Cheaper and I ventured down there this past Saturday morning. And I just have to say here that I, sadly, was not very impressed with The Closer’s finale, which was titled “The Last Word”. I thought Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) deserved a much more meaningful – and heck, happier! – send-off, for heaven’s sake! But I digress.

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The Los Angeles Police Administration Building was constructed over three years – from 2007 to 2009 – on the site of the former Caltrans building and was made possible thanks to funding from Proposition Q (the $600-million Public Safety Bond Program) after the former LAPD headquarters, which was known as Parker Center, was deemed too aged and unsafe for continued use in the mid-1990s. The structure officially opened on October 24th, 2009 and, in an embarrassing twist, the American flag was hung incorrectly at the founding ceremony, with the stars facing right, instead of left. LOL

The stunning ultra-modern building, which was designed jointly by AECOM and Roth Sheppard Architects and cost a whopping $437 million to construct, boasts 10 floors, 500,000 square feet, a one-acre public park, a 400-seat civic auditorium, a rooftop garden, a 200-seat café, a fitness center, and an underground parking garage. The structure also features a Memorial Monument and Reflection Garden honoring those LAPD officers killed in the line of duty, both of which we somehow missed. We did spend quite a bit of time admiring the display pictured below, though, which features the badges of 202 fallen LAPD officers dating all the way back to 1907.

The Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters’ front courtyard area is extremely beautiful and boasts a large infinity fountain;

a garden comprised of drought-resistant plants;

and spectacular reflections of Los Angeles City Hall, which is located across the street. Best of all – it is completely accessible to the public!

I honestly cannot more highly recommend stalking the spectacular structure, which, not surprisingly, won the Los Angeles Architecture Awards Grand Prize in 2010.

The Los Angeles Police Administration Building first showed up in the Season 6 episode of The Closer titled “The Big Bang”, the storyline of which centered around the Priority Homicide Division’s ultra-frustrating move to their new headquarters. [Poor Commander Taylor (Robert Gossett) still doesn’t seem to have an office – even on the new spin-off Major Crimes!]

And while the building was typically featured each week in establishing shots, some on-location filming of “The Big Bang” took place there as well, as you can see below.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Los Angeles Police Administration Building, aka the Los Angeles Police Department Headquarters, from The Closer, is located at 100 West 1st Street in downtown Los Angeles.

August 21, 2012
North Hollywood Park from “Say Anything . . . “

A few months back, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, informed me that his fiancé, Ame (who grew up in North Hollywood), had just told him that the iconic Boombox scene from the 1989 classic Say Anything . . . was filmed at, of all places, a park – North Hollywood Park in North Hollywood to be exact. I was absolutely shocked to hear this information because, not only had I always assumed that the flick was filmed in its entirety in Seattle, Washington, but the scene was made to look as if it took place in a residential area, directly outside of the house where Diane Court (Ione Skye) lived, and not at a public park. As we both came to find out, though, thanks to the Washington State Film Locations website, while the vast majority of the movie’s establishing shots were lensed in the Pacific Northwest, all actual filming took place right here in Southern California! Well, believe you me, once Mike and I learned that bit of information, we set about tracking down some other locales from the flick and had quite a bit of success. And we also ran right out to stalk North Hollywood Park.

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In the brief, but iconic Say Anything . . . scene, shortly after Diane breaks up with him, a heartsick Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) stands outside of Diane’s bedroom window (or so producers would have us believe) at night, holding a large Boombox that is playing Peter Gabriel’s hit 1986 song “In Your Eyes”. The memorable scene has been duplicated and parodied countless times since, on everything from Saturday Night Live and South Park to The Colbert Report and fave movie Easy A.

In an interesting twist, Peter Gabriel came thisclose to turning down director Cameron Crowe’s request for “In Your Eyes” to be featured in the movie. In a November 2009 Entertainment Weekly article, Crowe explains that he was on the phone with Gabriel a few days after sending him a Say Anything . . . screener, but Gabriel refused to sign off on the song’s use. Of the call, he says, “I just remember being in the kitchen and just going, ‘Oh man.’ I said I understood and I appreciated it and was he sure and he said yes, he was sure, and I was saying goodbye to him and I remember the phone was like on its way to the cradle, I think we’d already even said goodbye. And I just, like, was seized with this thing and I pulled the phone back up and I go, ‘Why? I got to ask you why. Why can’t we have the song? Why was it wrong?’ And he said, ‘Well when he takes the overdose it just didn’t feel like the right kind of use of the song.’ And I’m like, ‘When he takes the overdose?’ He said, ‘Yeah, you’re making the John Belushi story [Wired], right?’ I said, ‘No, no, no. It’s a movie about the guy in high school with the trench coat.’ And he’s like, ‘Oh, the high school movie. We haven’t watched that yet.’ Hallelujah! ‘Please watch the high school movie and let me know if it works in the high school movie.’ And he said, ‘Oh yeah yeah yeah, okay, great.’ And then we got the word back that he said yes.” And the rest is (very often re-enacted) history.

Before heading out to the park, Mike had told me to wear a trench coat and that he would be bringing along a Boombox from work so that I could recreate the iconic scene. As fate would have it, though, the Boombox went missing a few days before our stalk, but Mike was thankfully able to work his magic by digitally adding the stereo into the below picture. Love it!

I would venture a guess that North Hollywood Park was also the park featured in the Say Anything . . . montage scene, but I, unfortunately, have not been able to verify that hunch.

And thanks to the Hollywood Lost and Found blog, I learned that Pee-wee Herman (Paul Ruebens) rode his beloved red bike through North Hollywood Park – in almost the exact same spot that appeared in Say Anything . . . – at the very beginning of 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

Sadly, I can’t say that I would really recommend stalking North Hollywood Park. While the tree-lined, 99-acre space, which was originally founded in 1927, is quite beautiful and boasts countless amenities, including a library, three baseball diamonds, a public pool, tennis courts, a playground, a skate park, and a recreation center, the place seemed to be a haven for the homeless and a den of criminal activity. The police were actually called and wound up arresting someone in the brief ten minutes that we were there.

And let me tell you, when you’re standing around in shorts, wedges and a trench coat and holding a non-existent Boombox above your head, the “locals” tend to get just a wee-bit rowdy. LOL

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER and you can take a look at my latest post – about low-carb chicken noodle soup – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and his fiancé, Ame, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: North Hollywood Park, where the iconic Say Anything . . . Boombox scene was filmed, is located at 11455 Magnolia Boulevard in North Hollywood. In the scene, Lloyd Dobler was standing on the southwest corner of Magnolia Boulevard and Tujunga Avenue, in the area denoted with a pink arrow above.

August 16, 2012
Griffith Park’s Pote Field from “Jerry Maguire”

Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked way back in early June (shortly before we stalked the legendary Perino’s restaurant, which I blogged about yesterday) was Pote Field in Griffith Park, which was featured in the closing scene of one of my favorite romantic comedies of all time – 1996’s Jerry Maguire. Mike had discovered this locale quite a few years back and while I was beyond excited about it and had immediately added the address to my To-Stalk list, for whatever reason, I had just never gotten over there to see the place. Then, in June, while we were in Griffith Park doing some stalking of nearby Harding Municipal Golf Course, which has appeared in several movies, Mike reminded me about Pote Field and I just about had a heart attack right there on the spot. So, we quickly headed over there to stalk it. Yay!

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In the closing scene of Jerry Maguire (which was easily one of flick’s cutest scenes), the film’s title character, who was played by Tom Cruise, is shown walking hand-in-hand with his new wife, Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger), and her son, Ray (Jonathan Lipnicki), next to a little league game taking place on Pote Field, when a runaway baseball lands in front of the trio. Young Ray picks it up and tosses it high over the fence back towards the waiting players. Jerry, who is a sports agent, is thoroughly impressed by Ray’s throw and says, “Whoa! Did you see?”, causing Dorothy to exclaim, “Oh no! Let’s go!” The three then walk off into the sunset as the strains of Bob Dylan’s “Shelter From The Storm” start to be heard over Jerry’s pleas to Dorothy to let Ray play baseball.

As you can see below, Pote Field, which was named in honor of Major League Baseball scout Phil Pote, looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in 1996 when Jerry Maguire was filmed. And while this stalker is not AT ALL into sports, I cannot tell you how excited I was to see this location in person. So incredibly cool!

And I, of course, just had to imitate Jerry walking and swinging Ray’s hand while we were there.

Mike found the field thanks to the large hill that was visible in the background of the baseball-throwing scene. He had played ball at Pote several times as a teen and, as soon he spotted that hill while watching Jerry Maguire, he recognized the place immediately. Ironically enough, upon first moving to Southern California in 2000, I had attended a special exhibit on area filming locations at the Pasadena Central Library. One of the movies featured in the exhibit was Jerry Maguire and the display piece on it mentioned that some filming had taken place at Villa-Parke Community Center in Altadena. Well, as soon as I saw the word park in the write-up, I immediately assumed that the scene alluded to was the baseball-throwing scene and just about had a heart attack. I drove over to the park immediately upon leaving the exhibit (not kidding!), but when I got there nothing about the place looked familiar. After doing some cyber-digging later that night, I learned that Villa-Parke’s gym had been used in one of the movie’s auxiliary scenes (although I can no longer find any mention of that online, so now I am even more confused than I was before!) and not the closing scene as I had originally thought. So when Mike told me about Pote Field years later, I was absolutely floored!

I am fairly certain that Pote Field was also featured in Jerry Maguire’s opening montage as the supposed Indio, California-area baseball field where Jerry’s client Art Stallings (Jordan Ross) is shown swinging a bat. Because the shot is so incredibly tight, though, it would be extremely hard to verify that hunch, but, as you can see below, the scoreboard behind Stallings is a match to Pote’s real life scoreboard, as is the foliage visible in the background.

Pote Field also appeared in the 1991 flick Hook as the location of Jack ‘Jackie’ Banning’s (Charlie Korsmo) final little league game of the season – a game that his workaholic father, Peter Banning (Robin Williams), shows up extremely late for and winds up missing entirely.

On a Jerry Maguire side-note – a very young Emily Procter (aka CSI: Miami’s Calleigh Duquesne) was featured as one of Jerry’s ex-girlfriends in the mini-movie that was shown during the bachelor party scene. And, according to IMDB’s Jerry Maguire trivia page, the film was originally written with Tom Hanks and Winona Ryder in mind for the lead roles. All I can say to that is blech! THANK GOD that never came to be, because Jerry Maguire would have been just about the worst movie ever with those two at the helm!

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER and you can take a look at my latest post – about low-carb chicken noodle soup – on 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: Pote Field, from the closing scene of Jerry Maguire, is located on Crystal Springs Drive, just east of where it intersects with Fire Road, inside of Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Jerry Maguire was filmed in the northeast section of the field, in the area denoted with a blue arrow above.

August 15, 2012
Perino’s Restaurant

Today’s post is going to be a long one, my fellow stalkers, so brace yourselves! I hope that it makes up for the fact that I was on vacation for the past week. Last October, while doing research on Mommie Dearest locations for my annual Haunted Hollywood postings, I came across a page on Scott Michaels’ FindADeath website about the now-defunct, but still legendary Perino’s restaurant. While the historic eatery was sadly razed in 2005 to make way for an apartment building, Scott posted a fabulous write-up of his visit there prior to the demolition. Amazingly enough, I had not ever heard of the place before reading his post and became just a wee bit devastated that I never had the chance to see it in person. So imagine my surprise when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, mentioned that, while doing some cyberstalking, he discovered that the eatery’s legendary façade was still standing just around the corner from its original location! The two of us were absolutely floored to learn this information and went right on over there just a few days later. And, as luck would have it, the stalking gods were definitely smiling down upon us while we were there because it turned out to be one of our best stalks yet!

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Alex Perino originally founded his eponymous restaurant at 3927 Wilshire Boulevard in 1932. The highly exclusive eatery became an instant hotspot, drawing many of Hollywood’s elite through its gilded doors. In February 1950, Perino moved the establishment to a new, larger location two blocks west at 4101 Wilshire Boulevard, where he commissioned legendary architect Paul Revere Williams to re-design a former Thriftimart grocery store into a New Orleans-inspired restaurant. The new $200,000 masterpiece was even more successful than its predecessor and attracted such luminaries as Bugsy Siegel, Cole Porter, Bette Davis, Frank Sinatra, my girl Marilyn Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan, Sid Grauman, Dean Martin, Howard Hughes, Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, Eleanor Roosevelt, Margaret O’Brien, Tyrone Power, Cary Grant, Charlie Chaplin, and Elizabeth Taylor.

In 1969, Perino retired and sold his legendary eatery to a man named Frank Esgro. And while the place continued to enjoy massive popularity for the next decade-and-a-half, in July 1983 Esgro decided to open a second Perino’s in the Wells Fargo Building in downtown L.A. and inexplicably and misguidedly stopped serving meals at the original location, which was turned into a special events venue. The downtown restaurant, which closed in December 1984, was a massive failure and Esgro wound up losing $7.5 million on it, causing him to declare bankruptcy. A court removed him from operating the original Perino’s shortly thereafter and despite a few false starts thanks to the efforts of new owners, the historic eatery never regained its original success and its doors were closed for good in 1986. The structure sat vacant for the next nineteen years, occasionally being used as a filming location and for private parties. Then, sadly, in 2002, Perino’s was sold to a real-estate developer named Tom Carey, who auctioned off most of its interior décor in 2004 before finally razing the place to the ground in 2005. Today a 4-story, 47-unit apartment building stands in its place.

Thankfully though, Carey decided to keep intact Perino’s famous porte-cochere;

its front doors;

its entryway awning;

and its main entrance, which were all then incorporated into the design of the apartment building. So incredibly cool!

While Mike and I were peeking through the front windows of Perino’s Luxury Apartments . . .

. . . into the main lobby area, the super-nice and super-knowledgeable property manager happened to see us and inquired as to what we were doing. As fate would have it, when we told him about our love of filming locations and that Mike was a location manager, he invited us inside to take a look around, at which point we both just about died!

Several items from the original Perino’s are on display in the main lobby, including one of the restaurant’s famously peach-hued booths (according to the Los Angeles Times, the “warm glow” of the eatery’s peach and pink interior “always seemed to give diners a radiant look”);

one of the gilded chandeliers;

and an etched glass sign from the Palm Court Ballroom.

Mike and I just about had a heart attack, though, when the property manager informed us that Perino’s bar area had been rebuilt in its entirety on the first floor of the building – especially when he unlocked its doors (which are original!) and invited us inside for a closer look!

The bar area, which is now named the “Remembrance Room”, is reached through Perino’s former main entrance.

Just inside the doors, the actual wall paneling from Perino’s original front foyer has been authentically reconstructed.

Just to the right of the foyer sits the Remembrance Room, which features the original bar;

bar stools;

(check out the incredible detailing!);

wood paneling;

red velvet booths;

wall sconces;

fireplace;

chairs;

beams;

and stair railing.

I cannot in a million years express how exciting it was to be able to explore, photograph and see in person such a legendary piece of Los Angeles’ history. I was literally pinching myself the whole time!

As I mentioned above, Perino’s is no stranger to the screen. The restaurant portrayed L’Etoile, where Babe (Dustin Hoffman) grabbed lunch with Elsa (Marthe Keller) and Doc (Roy Scheider) – and was chastised for not wearing a tie – in the 1971 thriller Marathon Man.

In the Season 7 episode of Columbo titled “Murder Under Glass”, which first aired in 1978, Perino’s was the eatery where the ritzy “Restaurant Writers Dinner” was held.

In 1980’s American Gigolo, Perino’s popped up as the restaurant where Julian (Richard Gere) asked Anne (Baroness van Pallandt Nina) for help.

In 1981, the eatery was featured as the spot in Mommie Dearest where (in a scene I still do not entirely understand) Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) gets mad at boyfriend Greg Savitt (Steve Forrest) for taking her to dine at the table of studio head Louis B. Mayer (Howard Da Silva) like “some picked-up floozy”, after which she screams the famous line, “Damn it, Perino’s is MY place!”

In the scene, fans are shown waiting outside of Perino’s to gather autographs from the many stars who dined there regularly, which was apparently the case in real life, too. Oh, if only the restaurant was still open! My girl Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, and I would probably be there every night!

Perino’s shows up a second time in Mommie Dearest as the eatery where Joan takes her daughter Christina (Diana Scarwid) and gets viciously mad at her over the fact that she has not yet completed her “Christmas card list”.

In the 1982 made-for-television movie Bare Essence, the interior of Perino’s stood in for the supposed Manhattan-area restaurant where Ava Marshall (Lee Grant) threw a party for the fashion industry. The exterior party scenes were shot at the legendary Tavern on the Green in New York, though, which I blogged about here.

In 1983, Perino’s appeared as the restaurant where Tony Montana (Al Pacino) and his wife, Elvira Hancock (Michelle Pfeiffer), got into a screaming match while at dinner in Scarface.

Also in 1983, Perino’s popped up as the supposed Washington, D.C.-area eatery where James Deland (Paul Shenar) took an undercover Mrs. Amanda King (Kate Jackson) in the Season 1 episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King titled “Service Above and Beyond”.

In the Season 5 episode of Hart to Hart tiled “Max’s Waltz”, which aired in 1984, Perino’s was where Jonathan Hart (Robert Wagner) and Jennifer Hart (Stefanie Powers) posed as an oil baron and a French dancer, respectively, in order to entrap two crooks.

The bar area was also featured in the episode.

In 1985, Perino’s was featured in the Season 1 episode of The Colbys titled “The Family Album” as the restaurant where Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) dances with Fallon Carrington Colby (Emma Samms), after which he begins to suspect that she might be his long-lost daughter.

Perino’s bar area was also featured in that episode.

In the Season 3 episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King titled “Welcome to America, Mr. Brand”, which aired in 1985, Amanda grabbed dinner once again at Perino’s (which was masquerading as Washington, D.C.’s tony Bennington Club) – this time with a klutzy English accountant named James Brand (Harvey Jason).

In the Season 1 episode of L.A. Law titled “The Douglas Fur Ball”, which aired in 1987, Perino’s was used as the eatery where Andrew Putnam (Grant Heslov) took Roxanne Melman (Susan Ruttan) for dinner and was refused a bottle of champagne due to the fact that he had forgotten his I.D. and did not appear to be of drinking age.

In that same episode, I am fairly certain that Perino’s bar area was also used twice (although not very visibly) – first as the eatery where George Cromwell (Sandy McPeak) took Ann Kelsey (Jill Eikenberry) out for dinner and asked her to be his lawyer.

And second as the restaurant where Judge Morris (Milton Selzer) begged Leland McKenzie (Richard Dysart) for a job.

In the Season 12 episode of Dallas titled “The Way We Were”, which aired in 1989, Perino’s stood in for the supposed Dallas, Texas-area “Café Espana”, where J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) and April Stevens (Sheree J. Wilson) had lunch.

Also in 1989, Perino’s stood in for the supposed San Francisco restaurant where Angela Channing (Jane Wyman) had lunch with Melissa Agretti (Ana Alicia), who was impersonating Samantha Ross, in the Season 8 episode of Falcon Crest titled “Grand Delusions”. Thank you to fellow stalker Gilles for the screen captures from the episode!

In 1991’s Dead Again, Perino’s masqueraded as Syd’s, where Roman Strauss (Kenneth Branagh) took Margaret Strauss (Emma Thompson) for their first date.

In 1992’s Chaplin, Charles Spencer Chaplin (Robert Downey Jr.) took the newly-brunette Paulette Goddard (Diane Lane) to Perino’s, also for their first date.

In the Season 3 episode of Melrose Place titled “Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Dinner at Eight”, which aired in 1995, Perino’s is the supposed Manhattan-area restaurant where Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro) tried to kiss Amanda Woodward (Heather Locklear).

In that same episode, Perino’s bar area masked as The Bistro Garden, where Allison Parker (Courtney Thorne-Smith) told a client that Amanda Woodward (Heather Locklear) was sick.

At the very beginning of 1996’s Mulholland Falls, Perino’s is where Max Hoover (Nick Nolte) beats up mobster Jack Flynn (a very young William Petersen from CSI).

In the scene, the bar area is briefly visible.

And in 1950’s Sunset Blvd., the original Perino’s location was visible in the background of the scene in which Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) takes Joe Gillis (William Holden) shopping for new clothes.

And while Perino’s supposedly appeared in Bugsy and The Two Jakes, I scanned through both of those flicks yesterday and did not see it pop up anywhere. According to IMDB, Perino’s was also used in the TV movies Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story and Sinatra: Dark Star, and the film Grilled, but I, unfortunately, could not find copies of any of those productions with which to verify that information.

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER and you can take a look at 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: Perino’s Restaurant was formerly located at 4101 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. Its famous façade can still be seen just around the corner at 635 South Bronson Avenue. You can visit the official Perino’s Luxury Apartments website here.

August 14, 2012
Holden’s House from “The Good Girl”

Another Simi Valley location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, suggested I stalk this past Saturday after my and the Grim Cheaper’s American Jewish University Brandeis-Barden Campus snafu (which you can read about here) was the supposed Texas-area home where Holden Worther (Jake Gyllenhaal) lived in my favorite movie of all-time, The Good Girl. Ha, just kidding! As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about the Retail Rodeo, I actually hated the 2002 Jennifer Aniston flick. But because the GC and I were pretty much right around the corner from Holden’s house when Mike texted me its address, I figured we might as well stalk the place.

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In real life, the charming one-story, Anywhere, U.S.A.-style residence was constructed in 1964 and measures two bedrooms, two baths and 1,267 square feet. Mike, who lives in Simi Valley, actually tracked this location down way back in 2002 thanks to some local buzz that he heard while The Good Girl was being filmed.

In The Good Girl, Holden lives at the house – after getting kicked out of college – with his spiritless, emotionless parents, Mr. Worther (John Doe – and yes, that is his actual stage name!) and Mrs. Worther (Roxanne Hart), neither of whom utter more than a single word during the entire movie. As you can see below, the property looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen. Even the number plaque next to the garage door is still exactly the same! Yay!

I find it pretty ironic that producers ended up choosing a home with a large mountain range visible behind it to stand in for Holden’s in the flick. As I mentioned above, The Good Girl is supposed to take place in a small Texas town and the Lone Star State isn’t exactly known as being mountainous.

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

On an interesting The Good Girl side note – according to IMDB, director Miguel Arteta had Jennifer Aniston wear wrist weights prior to and during the filming in order to give her character, Justine Last, a worn-down look. The trick worked as Justine was light years away from Rachel Green. Her wardrobe only added to the effect, especially the drab shoes. And while I realize that I have posted this quote before (back in October 2011 in my column about the What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? house), I absolutely love it, so I figured it bore repeating. In the September 2009 issue of Elle Magazine, Jennifer Aniston said of her process of creating a character, “I‘ll never forget my high school acting teacher, Anthony Abeson, who said, ‘It starts with the shoes.’ When I think about a character, it does start with the shoes: What kind would she wear? How would she walk in them? If I’m going to put on a dress for a role – I don’t care if it’s the hardest dress to put on – I have to put the shoes on first. The physicality leads me to the character . . . Like Justine in The Good Girl: She was so disconnected from how she looked, that’s what led to the discomfort of who she was.” She’s right – Justine’s shoes – and her flood pants – definitely made that character.

And on a Simi Valley side-note – the GC and I stumbled into Aubergine Emporium – the coolest, most unique antique store that I have ever been to in my life – while stalking in the area on Saturday. The place is worth a visit just to check out its decor alone! My favorite adornment was the antique ladder above the cash register, which the owners placed a sheet of glass on top of and now use as a shelf. SO INCREDIBLY COOL AND UNIQUE! Love, love, love it! Aubergine was chock full of creative, whimsical touches like that and I honestly could have spent all day there, walking around gathering interior design ideas. I cannot more highly recommend stalking the place!

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here and you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And you can take a look at my latest post – about road trip eats – on 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: Holden’s house from The Good Girl is located at 5368 Leland Circle in Simi Valley. While in the area, be sure to stop by Aubergine Emporium at 4385 Valley Fair Street for a little antique shopping.

August 2, 2012