Tag: Celebrities

  • “The Perfect Age of Rock & Roll” Premiere

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    As I mentioned yesterday, I was unable to stick around to watch much of the Parks and Recreation filming at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena last Wednesday afternoon as I had promised Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, that I would meet her at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 theatre in West Hollywood that evening to do some stalking of the premiere of The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll.  As fate would have it, this particular event turned out to be a pretty fortuitous one for us because Sunset 5 is located right next door to Crunch Fitness, which is apparently a big time celebrity hot spot.  So not only were we keeping our eyes peeled for stars dressed to the nines heading towards the theatre, but we were also keeping our eyes peeled for those dressed in work-out clothes entering and exiting the gym.  Pinky, who pretty much has superhero powers when it comes to spotting celebrities, caught sight of comedian/actor Dane Cook walking into Crunch while we were eating dinner a good 300 yards away.  The girl has got MAD skills, I tell ya!  And while she ended up catching Dane on his way out of the gym about an hour later, the guy was NOT nice AT ALL and not only refused to take a picture with her, but would not even make eye contact, which resulted in her bestowing him with the “Douchebag of the Day” award on her blog later that week.  Pinky also had this sage piece of advice for the surly actor, “If you don’t want to be recognized, don’t walk right through a movie premiere!”  LOL LOL LOL  I did not even attempt to approach Dane as he did not in any way, shape, or form seem friendly.  Truth be told, he kind of scared me.  I am very happy to report, though, that it was all uphill from there as shortly after Dane shot Pinky down, she spotted Rufus Sewell, who played Jasper Bloom in fave movie The Holiday, heading into Crunch.  Rufus could NOT have been nicer and posed for at least a dozen photographs with various fans – and even agreed to pose for a second one with me after the first one we took failed to turn out.  Rufus was so sweet, in fact, that he asked me to make sure our second picture was to my liking and even waited around while I did so, before heading off to the gym.  Swoon!

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    While I was posing with Rufus, Jason Ritter showed up and was absolutely mobbed by fans and the numerous “graphers” who were in attendance.  Luckily enough, Pinky has known Jason for quite a long time and is actually sort of friends with the actor, so he immediately walked through the crowd and right up to her to say hi.  I am sad to say that I had a major blonde moment while meeting him, though, as I had been planning on asking him if he happened to know where the apartment building from the opening credits of Three’s Company was located.  Fellow stalkers Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, and Owen and I have been looking for that blasted building for quite a while now and I figured that if anyone would know its location, it would be Jason.  But I got a bit flustered while speaking with him and the whole thing COMPLETELY slipped my mind!  MAJOR FAIL!  And big apologies to Chas and Owen!  Jason could NOT have been nicer, though, and even though there were at least fifty people mobbing him, he stayed around to take pictures with and sign autographs for absolutely everyone who wanted one.

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    Taryn Manning arrived next and I was absolutely FLOORED to get a photograph with her as I have extremely fond memories of the actress from my time as an extra on the movie Crossroads.  Taryn was easily the nicest of all of the Crossroads stars and, for whatever reason, remembered me each day that I was on set and would go out of her way to say hi.  She also remembered me when I attended the movie’s wrap party, a week after filming had been completed, and walked up to me to say, “I’m so glad you were able to come to this.”  So incredibly sweet!  When I told her how nice she had been to me during the Crossroads shoot, she started laughing and said, “Aww.  Well, I haven’t changed, I’m still very nice, I promise.”  Smile

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    We also spotted DJ Qualls, who played Kyle Edwards in 2000’s Road Trip, at the premiere . . .

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    . . . and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past/Grey’s Anatomy/The Devil Wears Prada star Daniel Sunjata, who was leaving Crunch Fitness – both of whom were extremely nice.

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    Also in attendance was Easy Rider himself, Peter Fonda, along with his much younger-looking wife, Margaret DeVogelaere.  Sadly, Peter would not take any pictures or sign any autographs due to the fact that he was running late.  And while we could have hung out and waited until the premiere was over to get a pic with Peter, I just really did not feel like doing so.  If it was Matt Lanter, Michael Buble, or Joel McHale, I would wait around all day for a photo, but Peter Fonda?  Not so much.  😉  All in all it was another FABULOUS celebrity-filled stalking adventure, though – save for the minor setback with Dane douchebag Cook.  Winking smile

    Big THANK YOU to Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, for inviting me to this event!  Smile

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: Laemmle’s Sunset 5 is located at 8000 Sunset Boulevard, inside of the 8000 Sunset Strip shopping center, in West Hollywood.  You can catch The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll in theatres now.

  • “Parks and Recreation” Filming at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena

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    Last Wednesday, while on my morning walk to Starbucks, I happened to pass by fave bookstore Vroman’s and just about fell over when I noticed an entire slew of production trucks parked out front.  I, of course, immediately sought out one of the crew members to ask what was being filmed and he told me that it was an episode of Parks and Recreation.  And even though I had never actually seen the NBC series before, I decided to stick around to watch the filming – only after getting my Starbucks first, of course.  Winking smile The shoot was taking place inside of Vroman’s, in the store’s Reading Group section, which had been set up to look like a book signing event was about to occur.  The crew had brought in all new furniture for the scene, as well as several posters for Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America, a book supposedly written by Pawnee, Indiana Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation Leslie Knope (aka Amy Poehler).  And while I had assumed that the tome was a fake that had been created solely for the filming, it is apparently a real life publication about the show that is set to be released on October 4th.

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    A display featuring several copies of Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America was set up in the background of the scene and, throughout the day, before filming began, countless Vroman’s customers would walk up and look through it, thinking it was a real item that was for sale.  LOL  I am dying to know if anyone actually brought a copy up to the cash registers and tried to purchase it!

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    At first I was not sure if I would be allowed to photograph the set that the crew had created, so like an idiot I was trying to be sly and take pictures on the down-low, which never seems to work out for me.  For some reason, whenever I try to fly under the radar and be covert, I end up drawing attention to myself, which is exactly what happened in this case.  One of the crew members noticed me ever-so-stealthily snapping photographs and informed me that I was welcome to take all of the pictures that I wanted . . .

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    . . . at which point I immediately jumped up onto the podium that Amy Poehler would be standing on during the scene to pose for a pic.  Smile YAY!

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    I was most fascinated, though, with a palm tree located just outside of Vroman’s front doors (which would only be seen in the background of the scene) that set dressers decorated to look like a tree indigenous to the Midwest, where Parks and Recreation supposedly takes place.

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    As you can see above, the front side of the tree’s trunk had been covered over with fake bark for the filming.

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    And real life branches from some sort of Midwestern tree (can you tell that I am in no way, shape, or form a green thumb?!?) were mixed in with the actual palm’s branches.  The tree looked so incredibly realistic, even up close, that it was almost unbelievable!  I don’t think anyone who walked by even noticed that it had been altered, even though the trunk looked a bit odd from the side.

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    I was absolutely dying to get a photograph with Rob Lowe (whose autobiography, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, was recently loaned to me by my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry and is can’t-put-down-AMAZING!) and figured I could catch the actor on his way into the bookstore before filming got started. Sadly though, Vroman’s has three different entrances and I waited outside of the wrong one and missed him entirely.  Major, major FAIL!  Especially since he was reportedly incredibly friendly and nice!  Apparently, one of the Vroman’s employees, who goes by the twitter handle @howsannie, had sent out the following tweet the previous evening: “Parks & Recreation is filming at the store tomorrow.  Dibs on @RobLowe!”, to which the actor responded, “I expect prominent book display!”  When Rob walked into the store the following afternoon, his books were indeed on prominent display and he not only signed a bunch of copies for Vroman’s to sell, one of which is pictured above, but he also signed a copy for @howsannie.  How incredibly cool is that?  He even tweeted a photograph of himself from the set that day, which you can take a look at here.  I was lucky enough to get to watch Rob, along with Amy Poehler and Chris Pratt, during the filming and all I can say is WOW!  The guy is VERY good looking!  Much more so than he appears to be onscreen.  And while I would have waited around until the shoot wrapped to try to get a picture with the cast, I had promised Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, that I would stalk a movie premiere with her later that afternoon, so I couldn’t.  Ah well!  Here’s hoping they will be filming in Pasadena again sometime soon!

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.  You can visit the store’s official website here.  Look for the Parks and Recreation episode that was filmed at Vroman’s to air sometime in the next two months or so.

  • Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea in Pasadena – One of Joel McHale’s Favorite Hangouts

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    As I have mentioned quite a few times before on my blog, this stalker absolutely loves herself some Joel McHale.  So when I saw that the cutie The Soup host/Community star had been interviewed about some of his favorite SoCal haunts in the August 2011 “The Best of LA” issue of Los Angeles Magazine, I just about died of excitement!   And, being that this stalker also absolutely loves herself some coffee, when I discovered that the actor frequents a java spot right near where I live in Pasadena, I almost had a full-blown heart attack right on the spot!  In the brief blurb, which is pictured above, Joel mentions that his two young sons love visiting Travel Town at Griffith Park and the Train Shack in Burbank and that a great night out with his wife would include meals or cocktails at Harvard & Stone, Girasole, Mozza, Cut, or Varnish (all of which I will, of course, be stalking in the very near future Winking smile).  But the quote that caught my eye had to do with a recently-opened coffee bar in Old Town Pasadena that I have walked by about a hundred times in the past few months, but had yet to visit.  (I know, I know – a coffee bar that I have not yet sampled?  Did hell freeze over or something?)  When asked where Joel goes for “solo time”, the actor responded, “Solo time is in my car, but if I’m alone and want to be in a social atmosphere, I would choose LaMill in Silver Lake or Intelligentsia in Pasadena.”  So I, of course, immediately ran right out to stalk the place the very next day.

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    I first walked by Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea shortly after it opened in August of last year and was completely floored to discover that the place was not only a coffee house, but a restaurant and wine bar, as well.  I am of the opinion that every type of public space should house a built-in coffee bar, e.g. nail salons, laundry mats, book shops, museums, clothing stores, etc., etc., etc.  So when I saw that Intelligentsia not only served espresso, but champagne (which is my other culinary vice), as well, I was beyond excited!  I immediately called up the Grim Cheaper and told him about the place and what a fabulous idea I thought it was.  According to fave website Eater LA, of the concept owner Doug Zell says, “The neighborhood there in Old Town Pasadena reminds us of some European and South American cities where you can walk into a café or bar and be served a great espresso any time of day, but also a nice lunch, a beer after work, a glass of wine on a date.”  Zell was apparently inspired to open the space after visiting an eatery in San Paulo, Brazil that served beer, wine, food, and fine coffee.  Never have I so badly wanted to visit Brazil!  Winking smile

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    The first Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea was opened in October of 1995 on the north side of Chicago by coffee-loving couple Doug Zell and Emily Mange.   Sixteen years later, the Zagat-rated chain, which employs coffee sommeliers at each outpost (love it!), boasts nine locations in three different cities – Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.  (The Pasadena branch is the first to offer food and wine.)  Celebrities have been flocking to the company’s four L.A.-area locations since the very beginning.  Just a few of the stars who have gotten their java on at the chain include Vanessa Hudgens, Zachary Quinto, Olivia Wilde, Scarlett Johansson, Joe Jonas, Christina Ricci, Jake Gyllenhaal, and, of course, Joel McHale.  Amazingly enough, the recent Los Angeles Magazine article was not Joel’s first mention of the coffee house.  He also spoke about it in a June 2011 Chicago Tribune interview in which he said, “I do drink Intelligentsia. I wish there was one slightly closer to my house. There are two of them right now. Hopefully, they’ll open more. But the coffee is—no, there’s three of them now, four; I don’t know. There’s a couple in Pasadena, one on Sunset and one in Santa Monica, which is not geographically conducive to me. But it’s great coffee.”  Even though it is not geographically conducive, according to the barista that I spoke with, the actor does stop by the Pasadena outpost fairly regularly.  She also told me that Joel could NOT be nicer, friendlier, or more down-to-earth, which was the exact impression I got of him when I met him at the Envelope Emmy Week Geek TV Event this past June.  (I also just got to go to a taping of The Soup this past Friday, thanks to my good friend/fellow stalker Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, which was an ABSOLUTELY amazing experience that I will be blogging about soon.)

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    As my fellow stalkers very well know, I have long been a Starbucks girl at heart and can rarely find a coffee house that compares. But I am very happy to report that Joel McHale has some great taste in java, because Intelligentsia serves up some FABULOUS joe!  I was VERY pleasantly surprised as I find that most independent stores make a brew that is far too strong for my taste.  Intelligentsia’s was a perfect blend, though, and, coming from me, that is the ultimate compliment!  And, let me tell you, I just about fell over when the girl ahead of me in line ordered a cappuccino and it came out looking like this.  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea is located at 55 East Colorado Boulevard in Old Town Pasadena.  You can visit the chain’s official website here.

  • Twin Palms – Frank Sinatra’s Former Palm Springs Estate

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    Another Palm-Springs-area location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked two weekends ago while vacationing in the Coachella Valley was Twin Palms, the former desert home of legendary crooner Frank Sinatra and his then-wife Nancy Barbato.  And while I have actually stalked – and even blogged about – this location once before (way back in April of 2008!), since it was in the very early days of my site, it was an extremely short post that did not include any of the property’s vastly fascinating history.  So I decided that the estate was most definitely worthy of a re-write.

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    Apparently, on May 1, 1947, Frank Sinatra, who had just signed a highly profitable movie contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, wandered into the offices of newly-founded architectural firm Williams, Williams, & Williams.  At the time, now-legendary architect E. Stewart Williams, who designed Frankie’s house from Alpha Dog which I blogged about last Thursday, was a novice who had just joined his father’s firm and had yet to design a private residence.  Frank, who was holding an ice cream cone and wearing a sailor’s hat, informed the team that he wanted them to design and build a huge Georgian-style estate by Christmas, in time for a party the singer was hosting.  And even though the desired finish date was only seven short months away, Williams, Williams, & Williams took the job.  Apparently, Frank was a difficult man to say “no” to.  E. Stewart came up with two designs for the singer, one in the Georgian-style that Frank had originally envisioned, and another in the mid-century-modern-style, which Stewart would later become famous for.  Sinatra liked the modern design and the rest, as they say, is history.  E. Stewart’s partner and brother, Roger, later said, “We’d have been ruined if we’d been forced to build Georgian in the desert.”

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    The four-bedroom, five-bathroom, 4,500-square-foot estate, which was built fully air-conditioned at a cost of $150,000, was completed in time for Frank’s party.  The property was nick-named “Twin Palms”, thanks to the two large palm trees which flanked the home’s piano-shaped swimming pool.  The estate, which is currently used as a vacation rental and filming location, currently boasts authentic period furniture, countless Frank Sinatra memorabilia, the original Valentino sound system on which Frank used to cut his records, a pool house complete with his-and-her bathrooms, and a full library of the iconic crooner’s music.

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    Frank and Nancy divorced in 1948 and Frank’s mistress and future wife Ava Gardner subsequently moved in.  Of her time in the house, Ava said, “It was the site of probably the most spectacular fight of our young married life, and honey don’t think I don’t know that’s really saying something . . . Frank’s establishment in Palm Springs, the only house we really could ever call our own, has seen some pretty amazing occurrences.”  Indeed!  According to the home’s rental website, one of the sinks in the master bathroom bears a crack from a champagne bottle that Frank threw at Ava during one of their legendary brawls.  You can see a photograph of that crack here.  Frank also reportedly once threw all of Eva’s belongings into the driveway of the home after she had attempted to catch him cheating on her with actress Lana Turner.  It was also in this house that Frank kept a room for his friend and my girl Marilyn Monroe, who was a frequent guest.  In 1957, after filing for divorce from Ava, Frank sold the property and moved to a new home in nearby Rancho Mirage.  Today, Twin Palms is a Palm Springs Class 1 Historical Site and is featured regularly in photo shoots for fashion magazines, including Men’s Health, Town & Country, Palm Springs Life, Sunset, German Elle, and Vogue.  And the dwelling is also a filming location!  Apparently Frank allowed the exterior of the property to be featured in the 1950 movie The Damned Don’t Cry, which starred Joan Crawford.  You can see some fabulous interior photographs of the estate on the Rearranged Design website here.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: Twin Palms, Frank Sinatra’s former desert home, is located at 1148 East Alejo Road in Palm Springs.  You can visit the property’s official website here.  Tours of the estate are conducted on a semi-regular basis and private tours, for a minimum of 20 guests, can also be arranged by clicking here.

  • The Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells

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    One Palm-Springs-area hotel that I have long wanted to vacation at – not because it is a filming location, but because it is just simply beautiful – is the Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells.  The Grim Cheaper and I ate dinner at the resort once upon a time many years back and I have been enamored of the place ever since.  So for our recent Coachella Valley getaway two weekends ago, I begged the GC to book us a room there.  And even though the rates weren’t exactly inexpensive despite the intense summer heat, he readily agreed!  Shocking, I  know!  It was not until the very end of our stay, as we were checking out of the hotel, that I discovered, thanks to the super nice concierge on duty, that the resort was not only something of a celebrity hot-spot, but also a filming location!  They say that the more you think about something, the more you attract that thing to you and in this particular instance that was definitely the case.  It seems I always find myself stalking, even when I am not necessarily intending to.  Winking smile

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    The Miramonte Resort & Spa, which has been awarded Four Diamond status from AAA, boasts 215 spacious guest rooms sprawled throughout an 11-acre piece of property that has been designed to resemble a Tuscan villa.  The well-manicured grounds include several flower and herb gardens, outdoor fireplaces and piazzas, meandering pathways, hammocks tucked away in shaded little spaces, sparkling fountains, 24-hour room service (LOVE it!), a two-story, 12,000-square-foot spa, which was named the “#1 Resort Spa in North America & Caribbean” by Conde Nast Traveler, two 18-hole championship golf courses, two pools, including an adults-only pool, and over 30,000 square feet of event and meeting space.  And while the resort is quite large and boasts countless amenities, it somehow manages to retain an intimate, secluded, and quiet ambiance.  Both the GC and I absolutely loved the place!

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    Best of all, we somehow got upgraded to a 425-square-foot “Estate Room” during our stay, which featured a full marble bathroom, two queen-sized ‘Desert Dream Beds’, a sitting area, free wireless internet (which the GC was absolutely floored about), a 42-inch flat screen TV, and striking views of the Santa Rosa Mountains.

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    The Miramonte’s SUPER-nice concierge, who spent about twenty minutes speaking with me about filming locations and my website, informed me that The Real Housewives of Orange County had once filmed at the hotel.  In the Season 6 episode titled “Body Shots”, Housewife Peggy Tanous and her husband, Micah, spent the weekend with their two daughters, Capri and London, in the Miramonte’s Presidential Suite.  It was while laying by the resort’s pool that baby Capri cut her finger and had to be rushed to the hospital – which was just a slight overreaction to the situation in my opinion, but I digress.

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    The concierge also informed me that in the Season 1 episode of Flavor of Love titled “Flav’s Trippin’”, Flavor Flav took contestants Brooke Thompson, aka “Pumkin”, and Nicole Alexander, aka “Hoopz”, to the Miramonte for a spa getaway.  Just a few of the other celebrities who have been spotted at the resort include Larry King, three-time Olympic figure skating World Champion Peggy Fleming, Bernie Mac, George Lopez, Tony Bennett, Tommy Hilfiger, Chris Tucker, and Judy Sheindlin, aka “Judge Judy”.

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    On a side note – while at my parents’ new house this past weekend, I came across a few celebrity autographs that I had compiled over the years, including the one pictured above from Miss Liza Minnelli.  And even though, because I have always been far more into photographs than autographs, there are not that many of them, I thought it might be fun to post a few on my site.  So I created a new page titled “Celebrity Guest Book”.  You can check it out here.  Enjoy!

    And a very big HAPPY ANNIVERSARY goes out to my parents today, who are celebrating a whopping 37 years of marriage!  Congratulations, guys!  I love you!

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: The Miramonte Resort & Spa is located at 45000 Indian Wells Lane in Indian Wells.  You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

  • The Cree Estate in Cathedral City

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    While doing research on Las-Vegas-Dunes-Hotel-owner Charlie “Kewpie” Rich’s former Palm Springs home, which I blogged about last Tuesday, I came across some information about another Coachella Valley location where my girl Jen Aniston and former-husband Brad Pitt had once vacationed.  The property is known as the historic Cree Estate in Cathedral City and it is apparently a big-time celebrity hot-spot and wedding venue.  According to this FASCINATING January 2004 Palm Springs Life article, which chronicles the adventures of area location scout Sylvia Schmitt who manages rentals of the Cree Estate, Brad and Jen spent a Thanksgiving weekend at the secluded Spanish-style hacienda a few years back.  Upon their arrival in the desert, Sylvia met up with the famous couple to hand over the property’s keys and walk the grounds with them.  As you can imagine, I was literally drooling upon reading those words!  Never in my life have I so badly wanted to be a location scout!  Sigh!  Anyway, at some point during their stay, Sylvia received a late-night phone call from Brad who informed her that the home’s dishwasher had broken and was leaking water all over the floor.  Sylvia promptly hired a plumber to go out to the property to fix the leak.  Well, as fate would have it, after the plumber finished working, he ended up hanging out with Jen until about 2 a.m.!!!!  Drool, drool, drool!  How incredibly cool is Jen to hang out chatting with a random stranger until the wee hours of the morning!  I love her even more now after reading that story!  According to Sylvia, the plumber said the experience was “the highlight of his life”.  Um, you’re telling me!!!!!!  So while vacationing in Palm Springs two weekends ago, I, of course, just had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the estate.

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    Real estate developer Raymond Cree built his private, 5000-square foot, all-adobe estate, along with two stand-alone guest houses, on a sprawling two-and-a-half-acre plot of land sometime during the 1930s.  The property boasts 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, a whopping 78 palm trees, a regulation-sized tennis court, three separate kitchens, wood-beamed ceilings, white-washed brick walls, a wood-burning fireplace, classical statuaries (including a replica of Michelangelo’s David), two jacuzzis, a swim-up bar, a permanent dance floor, and sweeping views of the San Jacinto Mountains.  The estate also features two black-bottomed swimming pools, one of which is the largest privately owned pool in the entire Coachella Valley and was featured by Huell Howser in an episode of his television series Palm Springs.  Sadly, as you can above, though, even though the front gate was open when we showed up to stalk the place, not much of the ultra-secluded property is visible from the street.

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    But, as I have said before, that is why God created aerial views!  As you can see above, the property is quite magnificent and absolutely enormous.   Other stars who have spent time at the Cree Estate include Christina Applegate and now ex-husband Johnathon Schaech, who got married on the premises on October 20th, 2001, with such celebs as David Faustino, Cameron Diaz, Jared Leto, and hairstylist Ken Paves in attendance.  Apparently, in 2003 the contestants and the crew from The Bachelorette stayed at the Cree Estate for over a month during the filming of the series’ first installment starring Trista Rehn, although for the life of me I do not remember that season taking place in the Palm Springs area.  CSI:Crime Scene Investigation’s William Petersen also once vacationed at the property.  Being that rates start at $1,500 per night with a three-night minimum, though, this is one Jen location that I seriously doubt I will ever have the opportunity to visit.  But . . . to any of my friends reading this who might be planning a wedding in the near future, I think you should seriously consider the estate as your venue.  I will even go scout it for you, if you want!  Winking smile You can see some fabulous close-up and interior photographs of the historic Cree Estate here.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: The Cree Estate is located at 67698 Carey Road in Cathedral City.  You can visit the home’s vacation rental website here and its wedding website here.

  • The Hartunian House from “Alpha Dog”

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    Another Palm-Springs-area locale that fellow stalker/location scout Scott Trimble, of the STS Locations website, helped me to find recently was the residence where Frankie Ballenbacher’s (aka Justin Timberlake’s) good friend/”Witness #11”, Susan Hartunian (aka Dominique Swain), lived with her utterly clueless and apathetic mother, Tiffany Hartunian (aka ER’s Alex Kingston), in the 2006 movie Alpha Dog.  As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about the Koerner House , while I did not exactly love me some Alpha Dog, darn if the flick’s location scouts did not choose some FABULOUS and COMPLETELY UNIQUE locales to feature in it, one of which was the exquisite, mid-century-modern-style Hartunian abode.  So I, of course, just had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place while the two of us were vacationing in the Coachella Valley two weekends ago.

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    As stated yesterday, Alpha Dog is based on the harrowing true story of the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz, whose brother, Ben, owed $1,200 in drug debt to infamous West-Hills-area marijuana dealer Jesse James Hollywood.  During the three-day-long ordeal, which more closely resembled a vacation than a kidnapping, Markowitz hung out and partied with Hollywood’s small group of low-life cronies in the Santa Barbara area and was seen by no less than 38 witnesses, none of whom reported – or for the most part even realized –  that anything out of the ordinary was going on.  In the movie, the character of Susan Hartunian, who was based on 17-year-old Santa-Barbara-resident Natasha Adams-Young, was the only one of those 38 witnesses who expressed any sort of concern over the fact that the boy, whose character was named Zack Mazursky and who was portrayed by Anton Yelchin, had been kidnapped.  She was also the one who finally reported the involvement of the Jesse James Hollywood character, Johnny Truelove (aka Emile Hirsch), and his best friend Frankie to the police shortly after Zack’s body was found.  Susan’s incredible house was featured several times in Alpha Dog and both the exterior . .

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    . . . and the interior of the property were used.

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    In real life, the Hartunian residence is known as the Burgess House or the Bougain Villa house, a play on the term “bougainvillea”, which is the name of a hearty, brightly-flowering plant that thrives in hot desert climates. The Burgess House, which was originally built in 1958 and boasts 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 2,932 square feet of living space, is situated on a one-acre plot of land that is nestled into a rocky mountainside located about 200 feet above Downtown Palm Springs. The altitude of the lot affords for some amazing mountain and city views and architects Hugh Kaptur and William Burgess took advantage of the lot’s unique position by fashioning the home with huge, floor-to-ceiling windows made of mirrored glass which reflect the surrounding landscape.  They also installed numerous sparkling pools and ponds, large boulders located both inside and outside of the residence, large open patios, and huge canopy overhangs, which protect the residence and its occupants from the desert’s intense heat.  In 1986, Albert Frey, the legendary Swiss-born architect who is largely regarded as the father of the Desert Modernism Movement, added a large guest home to the property.  Sadly though, as fabulous as the house is, as you can see above very little of it can actually be seen from the street.

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    But I did manage to spot the patio where filming took place for the scene towards the beginning of Alpha Dog in which Susan told her mother that she was heading off to a party at Frankie’s house.

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    Aerial views of the property, which are sadly not that great either, are pictured above.  And you can check out some FABULOUS photographs of the place that Martha Stewart took – yes, that Martha Stewart – on a 2009 trip to the desert here.  If you would like to read a more in-depth account of the Nicholas Markowitz murder, you can check out a fabulous LA Magazine article titled “The Last Ride of Jesse James Hollywood” here.

    I would like to send out a very big HAPPY BIRTHDAY wish today to my dear friend and fellow stalker Kerry up in Anacortes, Washington.  I hope you are having fabulous day!  I love you, girl!

    Big THANK YOU to Scott Trimble, from the STS Locations website, for finding this location!  Smile You can follow Scott on Twitter, and learn all about his many location scout adventures, here.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: The Burgess House, aka the Hartunian residence from Alpha Dog, is located at 550 West Palisades Drive in Palm Springs.  Palisades Drive is a private, gated road that is not accessible to the public, but you can catch some good views of the residence from West Tahquitz Canyon Way, just east of where it meets Palisades Drive.

  • Cary Grant’s Former Palm Springs Estate

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    Another Cary Grant location (and I promise that this is the last of them for a while for those who are hoping for a change of pace) that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked while vacationing in the Palm Springs area two weekends ago was the “Cary Grant Estate”, aka “Las Palomas”, the Andalusian-style, U-shaped farmhouse that the actor called his desert home for nearly two decades.  I came across information about the property, which is currently for sale for a cool $2,995,000, when doing some cyber-stalking while trying to track down the estate belonging to Charlie Rich, which I blogged about yesterday.  And even though Cary’s daughter, Jennifer, never mentioned Las Palomas in Good Stuff, her newly-penned memoir about her late father, because we were in the area and because I have recently found myself just slightly obsessed with the movie icon, I decided I just had to stalk the place.

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    The Cary Grant Estate was originally built in 1927 and was commissioned by Dr. Jacob John Kocher, Palm Springs’ very first pharmacist.  When Cary laid eyes upon the property in 1954, along with his then-wife, actress Betsy Drake, it was love at first sight and he immediately set about purchasing the place.  He owned it for the next 18 years and, for a time at least, made the secluded sanctuary, with its large pool, sparkling fountains, trellised arbors, and towering palm trees, his primary residence.  Cary nicknamed the property “Las Palomas”, Spanish for “The Doves”.  Just a few of the luminaries who visited Cary during the nearly two-decades that he lived at the estate include Howard Hughes, Alfred Hitchcock, Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, and Katharine Hepburn.  Grant, a longtime supporter of the U.S. armed forces, also made it a practice of hosting numerous events on the property for the Marine Corp soldiers stationed at the nearby Twentynine Palms military base.  Sometime after Grant sold the home in 1972, it was purchased by professional bodybuilder and three-time-Mr. Olympia-winner Frank Zane.  Upon Zane’s departure, the property fell into serious disrepair due to years of neglect.  And then, in 1998, it was rescued by Jane Cowles Smith, an author/doctor who purchased the dilapidated estate and immediately set about a painstakingly-detailed and historically-accurate 11-year renovation process , during which she restored the dwelling to its original grandeur.  She also had the property designated a Class 1 Historic Site by the City of Palm Springs.  Sadly though, as you can see above, not much of the 6-bedroom, 6-bathroom, 6,000-square-foot, ultra-private abode, which sits on 1.54 lush acres of land, can be seen from the street.

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    Something that can be seen from the street, though, is the estate’s mailbox (pictured above).  When Grant first purchased the property, he commissioned his close friend, legendary Los-Angeles-area architect Wallace Neff, to build a second-story addition, consisting of two bedrooms and two baths, above the home’s garage.  It is said that at that same time Neff also designed a small-scale replica of Las Palomas to be used as the home’s mailbox.  I find it so incredibly cool that that mailbox is still there, almost six full decades later!  LOVE IT!

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    Sadly, the aerial views of the property are not that great, but you can visit the home’s real estate listing and see some close-up photographs of the place here and you can read a more in-depth history of the estate here and here.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: The Cary Grant Estate, aka Las Palomas, is located at 928 North Avenida Palmas in Palm Springs.

  • Charlie Rich’s Former Palm Springs Estate

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    Another location that Jennifer Grant spoke fondly of in Good Stuff, the memoir about her late father, actor Cary Grant, was the Palm Springs estate belonging to Cary’s good friend, Las Vegas Dunes Hotel owner Charlie “Kewpie” Rich.  Many weekends of Jennifer’s childhood were spent at “Uncle Charlie’s” lush, four-acre Coachella Valley oasis, which the Beverly Hills, 90210 actress described as “my adolescent wonderland” and a “desert Disneyland”.  In the book, Jennifer writes, “Our number-one weekend getaway was to Uncle Charlie’s Palm Springs estate. Uncle Charlie was a staple in our life. Kewpie was maybe five feet tall, bald as they come, with a year-round tan (sometimes orange out of the Coppertone bottle – which Dad heckled him for) and a heart that never stopped giving. Uncle Charlie lived in a Spanish adobe on several acres of manicured, palm-tree-lined property. I learned to drive a golf cart and play putt-putt on that lawn. We stayed in the pool house, near the good-for-guppy-hunting pond and gorgeous rose gardens.”  Well, as you can imagine, as soon as I read those words, I became absolutely obsessed with tracking the place down.  And while vacationing in the Desert two weekends ago, I spent quite a few hours doing just that.  I ran into a few snags along the way, though, as I was originally under the very incorrect assumption that Charlie “Kewpie” Rich, hotel owner, and Charlie Rich, country crooner, were one in the same.  As it turns out, they are most definitely not!

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    Charlie Rich’s Palm Springs House–Villa Paradiso

    It was not until I came across the YouTube video posted above that I realized my mistake.  Thankfully, said video lead me to a real estate listing for the estate formerly belonging to the correct Charlie Rich, complete with an address!  Yay!  So I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper right on our to stalk the place – in 108-degree weather, no less!

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    Charlie Rich’s former home, which Cary Grant dubbed “Villa Paradiso”, was originally built in 1928 and features 8 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms (not kidding!!!), 13,000 square feet of living space, a four-car garage, a climate-controlled fur-storage-closet (also not kidding!!!), a swimming pool, a pond, over one hundred palm trees, several eighty-year-old Cypress trees, sweeping mountain views, and 3 stand-alone guest houses, one of which was built by Uncle Charlie especially for Cary Grant.  Cary’s guest house boasts a formal living room, a fireplace, a large bar, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and one large bedroom.  A photograph of that guest house circa 1970 was featured in Good Stuff and I was absolutely FLOORED to discover a recent picture of the structure on the property’s real estate listing in which it still looks almost exactly the same as it did when Cary and Jennifer vacationed there.  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!  According to the real estate listing, Howard Hughes also spent quite a bit of time at the property.

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    Sadly, not much of the ultra-private estate, which is currently for sale for a cool $8,950,000, is visible from the street.

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    Thank god for aerial views!  As you can see above, the place is pretty darn magnificent and majorly dwarfs everything which surrounds it.  I cannot even imagine owning a home like that!  Sigh!  You can visit two of the property’s real estate listings and see some great close-up photographs of it here and here.

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    On a stalking side note – fellow stalker/celebrity enthusiast Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, her dog Sammy, the GC, and I were lucky enough to  run into a few stars while hanging out together this past Saturday night in Beverly Hills.

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    While walking to our cars after grabbing dinner, Pinky happened to spot The Hangover star Ken Jeong, who could not have been nicer or funnier!  He practically did an entire, private stand-up comedy routine for us, right there on the sidewalk.  So incredibly cool!  And he gave Pinky a kiss on the cheek after posing for a pic with her!  How cute is that?

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    We spotted Kevin Nealon a few minutes later and he was also a total sweetheart and even remembered meeting Pinky at the Sundance Film Festival a couple of years ago.

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    And last, but definitely not least, we saw Ed Helms from The Office and The Hangover.  I had previously heard that Ed is not especially fan-friendly, but I am very happy to report that that information is not accurate as he was super sweet to Pinky and me and happily posed for a picture with both of us.  Mine sadly came out a little blurry, which I did not realize until after I got home.  Such a bummer, but I am stoked nonetheless to have gotten a picture at all.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: Charlie Rich’s former home is located at 457 West Hermosa Place in Palm Springs.

  • Cary and Jennifer Grant’s Former House

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    As I mentioned last month, back on May 28th I attended the Jennifer Grant book signing for Good Stuff, the actress’ newly-penned memoir about her late father, movie star Cary Grant.  Well, I finally finished reading the tome last weekend and I can honestly say that it is one of the best books I have ever read.  What an incredibly touching gift Jennifer has created for her father – and for her father’s countless legions of fans.  If you have not yet read Good Stuff, I cannot more highly recommend doing so.  I literally could not get enough of Jennifer’s words and stories and was pretty much drowning in tears by the time I came to the end.  Besides the heartfelt memories and sound fatherly advice from Cary that Jennifer shares in her book, my favorite aspect of Good Stuff has to be the fact that in it she refers to her childhood home by its street address – 9966 Beverly Grove Drive.  Oh, THANK YOU, Jennifer!  A woman after my own heart, I swear!  How I wish more celebrity authors would do that very same thing when penning their own memoirs.  Sigh!  So while out and about in Beverly Hills a couple of weekends ago, before I had yet to even finish the book actually, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place.

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    “9966”, as Jennifer lovingly calls her childhood home, is located high up in the Hills of Beverly, off of Benedict Canyon Drive, at the end of a twisty, turny, fairly remote street which overlooks pretty much all of Los Angeles.

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    Needless to say, the view, which is pictured above, is pretty darn majestic.  Of it, Jennifer says, “We had a ‘You should see the view’ view.  Stunning.  From downtown Los Angeles all the way to the beach – oh, but please don’t.  All my life we had looky loos parking outside the gate and peering in through the metal bars.  Our home was on the Movie Star Maps.  Can’t blame people for wanting to see, really, but it was a disconcerting inconvenience.  People would park their cars in our driveway, just outside the gate.  Then they’d stand and gaze in and around the gate, hoping to catch a glimpse of Dad through the windows or in the backyard.  Dad, Barbara [Cary Grant’s fifth and last wife], and I likened it to being animals in a zoo.”

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    To poke fun at their seemingly zoo-like existence, the trio posed for the above photograph in 1983.  Of it, Jennifer writes, “One of my favorite pictures of Dad, Barbara, and me is a spoof on all of this. In the midst of a rarely held family photo session (perhaps our only one), we decided to get a shot of us at the gate, mimicking our imagined status as displeased monkeys, our cheeks puffed and heads pressed through the bars. Of course, we did choose the outside of the gate as the imagined cave. We quite liked our own confines.”  Love it!

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    That gate is pictured above.  Sadly though, as you can see, little else besides the gate is visible from the street.  And no, I did not try to venture up to it and peer in and around it to try to catch a better glimpse of the property as the looky loos in Cary Grant’s day did.  Winking smile

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    Of her 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom, 7,602 square foot childhood home, Jennifer writes, “There’s a beautiful symmetry to the number 9966, as if it were the end and the beginning of a quotation.  The first time I remember seeing my father, and the last time I actually did see him, was at 9966.  One of my father’s priorities was providing me with a sense of permanence and stability.  The actual structure he chose was a farm-style house.  Our home atop a hill.”  According to Jennifer, while the house was luxurious, it was also “practical”.  She says, “Dad used to say that the state of your surroundings reflected the state of your mind.  Also, there could be an inverse correlation.  A clean atmosphere provides space for thought.  This has become a truism for me.  During college exams, regardless of my lack of sleep, my boyfriend used to marvel at the way I had to clean my apartment before studying.  A direct offshoot of 9966.”  She also says, “Dad wasn’t a fan of overly lavish displays, at least not in the worldly sense.  Our home was beautiful and not a mansion.  What did we need with a mansion?  Our parties were small parties.  We had a white, modern-looking oval table that at most sat fourteen.  You could see and hear everyone.  The mood was festive and intimate.  Barbara made scrumptious, home-cooked meals and decorated the table with her own arrangements of flowers.  Dad was so proud.  I understand why.  Our home had love, warmth, and personal care.  It was overflowing.”  The home was so beloved by the Grant family, in fact, that not only was it the spot where Cary married Barbara on April 11, 1981, but it was also where Jennifer tied the knot with her now ex-husband, Randy Zisk, in 1993.  When Cary sadly passed away in 1986, he left the property to Barbara and it appears that she still owns it to this day.

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    Again, I cannot more highly recommend reading Good Stuff.  Just be prepared with a box of hankies when you get towards the end.

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    On a side note – Located due west of 9966, across Benedict Canyon Drive, is Villa Bella, the Italian-style monstrosity that was built on the site of the now-demolished residence where Sharon Tate was murdered in the early morning hours of August 8, 1969.  The Tate house was leveled in 1996 by owner Alvin Weintraub, who subsequently built the ginormous 18,000-square-foot, nine-bedroom villa pictured above.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

    Stalk It: Cary and Jennifer Grant’s former house is located at 9966 Beverly Grove Drive in Beverly Hills.  You can purchase a copy of Jennifer’s book Good Stuff here.