Tag: Celebrities

Alverno High School from “Passport to Paris”

As I promised in Tuesday’s post, here is a photograph of me dressed as Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Halloween back in 1992. My mom made the costume for me by hand and she made it absolutely PERFECT, so I was especially excited to tell Kristy Swanson about it when I met her this past Sunday night at the Celebration of Corey Haim’s life. And now, on with the post!

Two weekends ago I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk a location that has long been at the top of my To-Stalk list – Alverno High School in Sierra Madre. The school has appeared in hundreds upon hundreds of productions over the years, but I had been dying to stalk it for one reason and one reason only – it was one of the primary locations featured in the 1999 Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen video Passport to Paris. Being that I was 22 years old when Passport to Paris was released and a full decade older than the flick’s targeted demographic, I can’t really explain why it was that I liked it so much. But the truth is that, as an adult, I absolutely LOVED all of the MK & A videos and would rent them regularly from my local video store. And yes, I know how strange that is. When in Rome and Winning London are my two favorites out of the twins’ myriad of straight-to-video movies, but Passport to Paris definitely runs a close third. And because the vast majority of the Olsen’s movies were primarily filmed on location in exotic locales around the globe, you can imagine my excitement and surprise when I discovered that the main home used in Passport to Paris was literally right in my own backyard!

Alverno High School was originally built as a private home for physician Walter Jarvis Barlow in 1924. The manse was designed by legendary architect Wallace Neff and was modeled after a Tuscan-style mansion located in Tavainuzze, Italy named Villa Collazi. Barlow dubbed his new residence Villa del Sol d’Oro, which roughly translates to Manor of the Golden Sun. After Barlow passed away in 1942, his widow, Marion Patterson Barlow, sold the property to the Sisters of St. Francis while she promptly moved into the Huntington Hotel (now the Langham Hotel and Spa) in Pasadena, where she spent the remainder of her days. Not too shabby of a place to spend your final years! Anyway, for the next 18 years, Villa del Sol d’Oro was used as a novitiate – a home where nuns live during a probationary period before taking their vows. In 1960 a high school named Alverno Heights Academy was founded on the property. The name was later changed to Alverno High School, as it is known today. Several buildings have since been constructed on the school grounds, but Villa del Sol d’Oro, which is a historical landmark, has thankfully been left untouched. And while classes are not held in the actual Villa, the building is used regularly for special school events.

Because Alverno is a working school, I did not expect to be able to get onto the property and was beyond FLOORED to discover that the side gate was standing open and several people were walking around the grounds. One lady that I spoke with told me that she comes to the school each weekend just to walk around and appreciate the beauty of the place. And it is not very hard to see why. As you can see in the above photographs, Villa del Sol d’Oro is absolutely breathtaking!

And, amazingly enough, there was a photo shoot taking place on the property when we showed up to stalk it, so all of the Villa’s doors were open. And even though the SUPER nice staff member who was on duty at the time thought I was EXTREMELY odd for liking Passport to Paris so much, he allowed me to go inside to take a quick peek around and snap a few pictures, which I could NOT have been more excited about!

[ad]

In Passport to Paris, Alverno High School stood in for the American Embassy in Paris, France, where Ambassador Edward (aka Peter White), the grandfather of Melanie “’Mel’ Porter (aka Mary-Kate Olsen) and Allyson ‘Ally’ Porter (aka Ashley Olsen), lived. And while the exterior of the property (pictured above) shown in the flick was a building in Paris . . .

. . . Villa del Sol d’Oro was used for all of the interior scenes.

I am fairly certain that the girls’ bedroom in the movie was also located at Villa del Sol d’Oro, but because I did not get to see the upstairs portion of the property I am not able to verify that.

In 1992’s Poison Ivy, Villa del Sol d’Oro was the high school that Ivy (aka Drew Barrymore) and Sylvie (aka Sara Gilbert) attended.

Alverno High School also appeared at the very beginning of 1996’s Executive Decision as a Chechen Mafia safehouse supposedly located just outside of Trieste, Italy.

In Legally Blonde, Alverno stood in for the Delta Nu sorority house where Elle Woods (aka Reese Witherspoon) and her “sisters” lived.

And while a private home in San Francisco, which I blogged about back in April of 2008, stood in for the exterior of the San Francisco-area Anthony P. Grove High School in 2001’s The Princess Diaries, Alverno’s courtyard was used for all of the courtyard scenes in the movie.

It was the convent where Christina Crawford (aka Diana Scarwid) was sent to live in the 1981 movie Mommie Dearest.

In 1995’s A Walk in the Clouds, the interior of Villa del Sol d’Oro stood in for the interior of the Las Nubes vineyard home where the family of Victoria Aragon (aka Aitana Sanchez-Gijon) lived.

The Villa was used as the Los Angeles Visitor Security Headquarters in the 1984 television mini-series V: The Final Battle.

Although they changed the property’s exterior gate for that production quite a bit. LOL I just about died laughing when I scanned through V and saw the above-pictured pseudo-space-age electronic gate. Could it be any more ‘80s?

The Villa’s actual gate is pictured above.

The Villa was also the site of Axl Rose and Stephanie Seymour’s wedding reception in the Gun ‘N Roses “November Rain” music video . . .

November Rain–Villa del Sol d’Oro

. . . which you can watch by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Alverno High School, from Passport to Paris, is located at 200 North Michillinda Avenue in Sierra Madre. We entered the school via its Wilson Street gate. Please remember that Alverno High School is an active learning institution and you should not trespass or visit the grounds during school hours. You can visit Alverno’s official website here.

April 15, 2011
Skylight Books from “Joan of Arcadia”

Another Los Feliz location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked two weekends ago was Skylight Books, the bookstore where Joan Girardi (aka Amber Tamblyn) worked on the 2003 television series Joan of Arcadia. In a very synchronicitous twist of fate, the GC and I had visited Skylight Books way back in October of last year, just a few minutes before grabbing dinner at the nearby Dresden Restaurant from Swingers. We both fell in love with the bookstore immediately, but, because I had never seen an episode of Joan of Arcadia, I had no idea whatsoever that the place was a filming location. Then, randomly enough, the very next day I met up with fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website who was in town visiting from Indiana, and he happened to mention that he was taking his mom to Skylight Books later that afternoon because Joan of Arcadia was one of her very favorite shows.   Well, let me tell you, I just about died upon finding out that information and immediately added the store to my “To Re-Stalk” list and dragged the GC back there two Saturdays ago after eating lunch at Fred 62.

In the pilot episode of Joan of Arcadia, God (who in this particular instance was played by Kris Lemche) instructs Joan to get a part-time job at Skylight Bookstore – the store’s actual name was used in the series – for reasons he does not specify. She continued to work there throughout the series’ short two-season run.

Both the interior and the exterior of the store were used regularly on the show.

[ad]

Interestingly enough, according to this fantastic article about the filming of Joan of Arcadia, all of the bookstore scenes during the first season of the series were filmed on location at the actual Skylight Books.   Production designer Bill Eigenbrodt says he chose the store due to its “distinct visual personality”. And let me just say that, with its high, peaked ceilings, numerous skylights, concrete flooring, large trees, exposed ducts, brick walls, and extensive use of wood décor, the store definitely does have a unique look. Ironically enough, while Joan of Arcadia is set in the fictional town of Arcadia, Maryland on the East Coast, to me Skylight Books has more of a Pacific Northwest feel to it. But, then again, what do I know.



For the second season of the series, producers had a replica of the store built on a soundstage and they changed things around quite a bit, making the shop slightly larger, dropping the ceilings, adding more brick walls, and infusing the decor with a bit of a Craftsman style.

Skylight Books, which was originally founded in 1996, is a VERY cool bookstore and I can’t recommend stalking it enough! Apparently it has been used quite often in filming, but the SUPER nice clerk that I spoke with was unsure of which other productions had been lensed there. He did mention that some location scouts from Glee had been there that very week, so the shop might just be showing up on the show in the near future!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Skylight Books from Joan of Arcadia is located at 1818 North Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. You can visit the store’s official website here.

April 14, 2011
The “Decisions” Movie Premiere and Celebration of Corey Haim’s Life

This past Sunday night, fellow celebrity stalker and photo-bug extraordinaire Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, invited me to do some stalking of the premiere of Corey Haim’s final movie, Decisions, at the Writers Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills. I could NOT have been more excited to attend because, as I have mentioned quite a few times before on this site, I have been a HUGE fan of Corey’s ever since 1988 when License to Drive first premiered. Because the event was also a celebration of the late actor’s life, many of his longtime friends, as well as most of the actors who starred in Decisions, were in attendance.

The Writer’s Guild Theatre is a very small venue and I just about fell over when one of the event coordinators invited Pinky, the Grim Cheaper, and me to stand INSIDE where there was a small fan area set up just off of the red carpet. So incredibly cool! And, amazingly enough, there were only about five stalkers besides ourselves there so we had fabulous access to most of the stars.

[ad]

The event was being hosted by Haim’s longtime friend Corey Feldman, who I have to admit I was not at all a fan of when The Two Coreys was on the air. But I really appreciate how hard Corey has worked to honor his fallen friend by keeping his memory alive in Hollywood ever since his untimely passing. And I am very happy to report that he could NOT have been nicer in person. Corey seemed to be a genuinely kind man and took a lot of time to speak with and take pictures with each of his fans.

According to this recent EW.com article about the event, Feldman was wearing a jacket that Haim had once given him.

The premiere was mostly made up of 80’s stars, which I, of course, could NOT have been more thrilled about! I was most excited about meeting actress Kristy Swanson, whom I absolutely LOVED in the Buffy, the Vampire Slayer movie.

I have to say that it was pretty cool being able to tell her that I dressed up like her character Buffy Summers one year for Halloween back when I was in high school.

I was also floored to see singer/actor Jeremy Jordan, whom I recognized from the ending credits of the second season of Beverly Hills, 90210. For those of you out there who did not have every episode of the series recorded like I did and have no idea what on earth it is I am talking about right now, at the very end of each show Tori Spelling was shown walking up to the Peach Pit’s jukebox, pointing to a song and saying “Jeremy Jordan, all right!”, after which his video for “The Right Kind of Love” would come on the screen. Pinky later informed me that Jeremy had also starred as Guy Perkins in fave movie Never Been Kissed, which I hadn’t before realized! So incredibly cool!

I just about died when Julie McCullough, who played Mike Seaver’s (aka Kirk Cameron’s) fiancé Julie Costello during the fourth season of Growing Pains, walked in. I absolutely LOVED Julie on the show and was heartbroken when her character was written off of the series in 1990. Julie also starred as Trina, the girl who stole Steve Sanders Corvette, in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Slumber Party”. Love it! Seeing so many ‘80s stars in one place put me into serious overload! I swear, if Tommy Puett had walked in, my head might have just exploded!

Also in attendance was Donna D’Errico, from Baywatch;

Nicole Eggert, from Charles in Charge;

who is seriously pregnant right now!;

John Marshall Jones from the original Melrose Place and Smart Guy;

actor Carlos Ramirez, the twin brother of actor Efren Ramirez (aka Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite);

Jarrod Schulz from the A&E show Storage War$;

and his wife Brandi Passante, who also appears on the show;

Sofia Milos from CSI: Miami, who is absolutely GORGEOUS in person;

Bai Ling, who is easily my mom’s least favorite celebrity, so I just had to get a picture with her ;

Mary Carey, the adult film actress/Celebrity Rehab star who ran for governor of California in 2003;

Francisco San Martin, who plays Dario Hernandez on Days of Our Lives;

Phoebe Price, who the GC was VERY excited about seeing as she is featured daily on his favorite blog, Dlisted;

Natasha Alam, who plays Yvetta on True Blood;

and Mike Foy, one of the stars of Decisions.

All in all it was a great event and I am so incredibly thankful that I got to be a part of it.

Big THANK YOU to Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, for inviting me to stalk the Decisions premiere!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Decisions will be released on May 13th. You can visit the movie’s official website here.

April 13, 2011
Trish’s House from “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”

Two weeks ago, on the recommendation of fellow stalker Owen, the Grim Cheaper and I finally sat down to watch the 2005 comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin. I have no idea why we avoided seeing the flick for as long as we did, but I have to say that we both ended up absolutely loving it. It’s sweet, light-hearted, and laugh-out-loud funny. It seems that not everyone was a fan, though. A few months back, fellow stalker Lavonna, who is a major Steve Carell aficionado, told me an absolutely hilarious story about The 40-Old-Virgin that I just have to share! Apparently, and unbeknownst to her, Lavonna’s husband decided to watch the movie while he was home by himself one day. He never mentioned anything about it to Lavonna, but when their daughter Melissa went to watch the flick a few weeks later she opened up the DVD box to find a note taped inside which read, “I want that two hours of my life back! – Dad” LOL LOL LOL Love it! That so sounds like something my father would do!

Anyway, when fellow stalker Owen told me that he had tracked down the residence where Andy Stitzer’s (aka Steve Carell’s) girlfriend, Trish (aka Catherine Keener), lived in the flick – along with pretty much every other locale used in the movie – I dragged the GC right on out to stalk the place. Thank you, Owen!

Sadly, Trish’s house has become a bit run-down since the filming of The 40-Year-Old Virgin took place back in 2005. While the property was pretty adorable in the movie, the paint is now, unfortunately, faded and peeling, the front yard has become quite overgrown, and weeds are currently growing through the many cracks in the driveway. Such a shame! The residence was just sold this past November, though, so I am hoping that the new owner will give the place some much-needed TLC and restore it back to its onscreen condition.

[ad]

One VERY odd thing that I noticed after I returned home and scanned through the movie was that the home’s front door seems to have been moved since filming took place. As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, in The 40-Year-Old Virgin the front door was located perpendicular to the street, facing the apartment building next door, but it has since been moved kitty-corner to where it used to be and is now situated facing the street. Very, very strange!

I think the inside of the house, which you can see photographs of here, was also used in the flick. Either that or producers modeled the set of Trish’s residence very closely to that of the home’s real life interior.

The home’s real life backyard also appeared in the flick during the montage scene which showed Andy and Trish’s first twenty dates.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Trish’s house from The 40-Year-Old Virgin is located at 4433 Cartwright Avenue in Toluca Lake.

April 12, 2011
The Other “Catch Me If You Can” House

A few years ago during an acting class, my very favorite acting teacher, Annie, happened to mention that the Catch Me If You Can house was located just around the corner from where she then lived in Studio City. She said she had been walking her dogs one afternoon back in 2002 and had stumbled upon a scene from the movie being filmed at a large, Colonial-style house that producers had dressed in Christmas decor and covered with fake snow. Well, her story had me thoroughly confused as I knew that the large, Colonial-style house where Frank Abagnale Jr.’s (aka Leonardo DiCaprio’s) mother, Paula (aka Nathalie Baye), lived in the flick, which was dressed in Christmas décor and covered with fake snow for a scene, was located on East California Boulevard in Pasadena. Annie insisted, though, that the house was located in Studio City and that she had watched much of the filming take place. I didn’t think much of it at the time and figured it was just a case of producers scrapping one location for another mid-shoot, as has been known to happen sometimes during the course of a production. It wasn’t until I was scanning through Catch Me If You Can back in March to make screen captures for my post on the Barclay Hotel that I realized that, as incredible as it may sound, there were actually TWO large, Colonial-style homes that had been dressed in Christmas decor and covered with fake snow in the flick! As it turns out, the house Annie had told me about appeared briefly in the very beginning of the movie as the supposed New Rochelle, New York-area residence where Frank Jr. lived with his parents before they lost all of their money.

[ad]

Once I realized that the house that Annie had told our class about had, in fact, appeared in the movie, I immediately got to work in tracking it down. I knew where Annie’s former residence was located, so it was just a matter of searching around her neighborhood for the property. Thanks to the home’s distinct corner location, it was not very hard to find. And I dragged the GC right on out there to stalk the place this past weekend. The Catch Me If You Can house is quite charming in person and is situated on an absolutely HUGE corner lot which measures .38 of an acre. And while the landscaping in front of it has changed quite a bit since filming took place, it is still very recognizable from the movie.

The residence appeared in two scenes in the movie. It first popped up in the scene in which Frank Abagnale Sr. (aka Christopher Walken) and his wife Paula dance in their living room after attending an awards ceremony at the local Rotary Club.

And it later appears in the scene in which the family is shown moving out of the house after having fallen upon hard times.

And, as you can see in these photographs of the home, the real life interior, including the living room area . . .

. . .and one of the bedrooms, was used in the filming.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Frank’s parents’ house from the beginning of Catch Me If You Can is located at 12075 Valleyheart Drive in Studio City.

April 8, 2011
The “Crossroads” Grocery Store

Special Note – I attended a taping of Ellen yesterday afternoon and ended up being ON the show as one of her game contestants. The episode will air today, so tune in! I absolutely CANNOT wait to see it! And now, on with the post . . .

A couple of weeks ago, I sent fellow stalker Chas, of the ItsFilmedThere website, on a mission to try to track down all of the as of then not-yet-found locations which appeared in the 2002 movie Crossroads. At the top of my list was the supposed Alabama-area Super A Foods grocery store where Lucy Wagner (aka Britney Spears) and her friends, Mimi (aka Taryn Manning), Kit (aka Zoe Saldana), and Ben (aka Anson Mount), made a pit stop during their road trip from Georgia to Hollywood in the flick. I knew from watching the movie’s DVD commentary with producer Ann Carli, director Tamra Davis, and writer Shonda Rhimes (who I just discovered was the same woman who created Grey’s Anatomy!) that the grocery store was located somewhere in the L.A. area and I had tried in vain to find it several times without any luck. I had also enlisted the help of my dad who, as I have mentioned before, used to work in the grocery business, and while he did have a few Super A stores that he previously consulted for, he sadly did not recognize the one that appeared in Crossroads. So imagine my surprise when Chas called me shortly after watching the movie to let me know that the grocery store was the first location he had managed to track down. Amazingly enough, all he did was input the words “Super A Foods” and “Los Angeles” into the Google search bar and the Crossroads store was the first entry that popped up! Not kidding! So, I dragged my dad right on out there to stalk the place the very next morning. Yay!

[ad]

I am VERY happy to report that the exterior of the market still looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did in onscreen.

In real life, the “Alabama’s Finest Meat & Produce” sign that was put in place for the filming reads “Carniceria”.

I was BEYOND excited when I discovered that the children’s mini merry-go-round machine that appeared in the movie was actually there in real life! So incredibly cool!

Some filming also took place inside of the Super A Foods market. In the DVD commentary, director Tamra Davis mentions that the shoot was an all-night event and that it was one of the hardest days of filming due to the fact that everyone was beyond exhausted. She also mentioned that more than a few squabbles took place that night.

Sadly, the interior of the store has since been remodeled and looks quite a bit different today than it did when Crossroads was filmed back in 2001.

The signs that appeared in the background of the scene have also since been changed, but the new ones are, thankfully, quite similar – in shape at least – to the old ones.

Crossroads was filmed in Super A Foods check stand #1, but as you can see in the above photographs, that area is much more modern now than it was in the movie. Such a shame!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for finding this location! You can check out his extensive Crossroads filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Super A Foods which appeared in Crossroads is located at 2925 Division Street in the Glassell Park area of Los Angeles, just southwest of Eagle Rock.

April 7, 2011
The “Teen Wolf” Party House

As I mentioned in the post I wrote back in January about the residence where Pamela Wells (aka Lorie Griffin) lived in Teen Wolf, fellow stalkers Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, and Owen recently embarked upon a mission to track down all of the locations used in the 1985 comedy. One of the locales that they both wanted to find was the house where the high school party was thrown in the beginning of the flick, just before Scott Howard (aka Michael J. Fox) finds out that he is a werewolf. Because no address number and no street signs were visible in the background of the scene, though, we really had nothing to go on for this one and Owen was fairly certain that, as the movie had been filmed well over two and a half decades ago, the chances of finding the place were slim to none. Well, as fate would have it, a few months before Owen and Chas began their Teen Wolf hunt, I had been doing some stalking in a residential area of Eagle Rock and had gotten to talking with a homeowner who filled me in on some of the filming that had taken place in his neighborhood. One of the places he pointed out to me was a house that he said had been used in Teen Wolf. Because he had never seen the movie, though, he was unsure of what scene the house had appeared in or if it had, in fact, even made it into the final cut of the flick, so I did not think much of it at the time. But when Owen sent me a screen capture of the party house and asked if I had any idea where it might be located, I recognized it immediately and sent him back the address. There’s an old saying that goes, “Work begets work.” Well, in this particular instance, I’d have to say that stalking begets stalking.

[ad]

The Eagle Rock house only appeared in one brief scene in Teen Wolf in which Scott and his friends, Rupert “Stiles” Stilinski (aka Jerry Levine) and Lewis (aka Matt Adler), attend a high school house party. It is while in one of the home’s closets that Scott and Lisa “Boof” Marconi (aka Susan Ursitti) kiss for the very first time.

I am very happy to report that the property looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in 1985 when the movie was filmed.

And, as you can see in these photographs, the real life interior of the property was also used in the filming. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that house and take a picture in the closet where Scott and Boof kissed!

From what I can tell from this photograph and this photograph, though, that closet may have been a fake that was built in the room located directly off of the kitchen. As you can see in the above screen capture, the closet door was located next to an arched built-in bookshelf that is visible in the photographs that I linked to.

And as you can see in the above screen capture, the built-in bookshelf is located directly next to the kitchen, which is also visible in the photographs that I linked to. So, from the way that it appears, I believe that producers created a faux closet on what is, in actuality, the home’s backyard patio. Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

You can check out Chas’ extensive Teen Wolf filming locations page by clicking here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Teen Wolf party house is located at 5223 Shearin Avenue in Eagle Rock.

April 6, 2011
Liam Court’s House from “90210”

This past Thursday afternoon, while out running some errands in the Hancock Park area, I decided to do a little stalking of the residence where Liam Court (aka cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!) lives on fave show 90210. I found this location thanks to Geoff at the 90210 Locations website who posted the information way back in October of 2009. And even though I do seriously love me some Matt Lanter, for whatever reason it took me almost a year and half to get out to stalk the place.

Geoff actually first found this location shortly after it appeared in the Season 1 episode of the new Melrose Place titled “Windsor” in which it was used as the spot where Lauren Yung (aka Stephanie Jacobsen) caught David Breck (aka Shaun Sipos) stealing jewelry. Geoff had an inkling that the manse was located in the Hancock Park area as he had just tracked down the house belonging to Michael Mancini (aka Thomas Calabro) on the series in that same vicinity. Because the estate is so incredibly large and distinct-looking, it did not take him long to find it using aerial views. Then, as fate would have it, someone emailed him a screen cap of Liam’s house just a few days later and asked if he might be able to track it down. He, of course, recognized the place immediately. It is so funny to me that two such closely-related CW shows would use the very same house in episodes that aired within a month of each other. But that’s Hollywood for you.

In real life, the estate is known as the Ahmanson Mansion as, during the years 1958 through 1968, it belonged to Howard F. Ahmanson Sr., the prominent Los Angeles philanthropist who founded Home Savings and Loan, which for a time was the largest savings and loan association in America. You can see a photograph of Mr. Ahmanson standing inside the mansion on the Find A Grave website here. The impressive property, which was originally built in 1929, boasts 7 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a large pool, a tennis/basketball court, a four-car garage, a carriage house, 14,071 square feet of living space, and a 1.5 acre plot of land. It is an absolutely magnificent home and it is not very hard to see why it ended up being used on 90210.

Liam’s house first showed up in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “To Sext or Not to Sext”.

For whatever reason, though, producers chose not to use the front view of the house for the establishing shot shown on the series, but instead chose to use a view of the side of the property.

The real life interior of the house, which you can see photographs of here, was used in the episode, as well.

And the home’s tennis/basketball court, which you can see a photograph of here, was also used in the “To Sext or Not to Sext” episode as the spot where Ryan Matthews (aka Ryan Eggold) and Harry Wilson (aka Rob Estes) played basketball and discussed Ryan’s relationship with Jen Clark (aka Sara Foster).

[ad]

The Ahmanson Mansion was also used as the residence belonging to Francis Buxton (aka Mark Holton) in 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

The real life interior of the house also appeared in the movie, as well.

Although I am fairly certain that Francis’ humongous bathtub was most likely just a set.

The Ahmanson Mansion was also featured in several Season 4 episodes of the television series Falcon Crest and in the 1990 Jackie Collins’ mini-series Lucky Chances.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Ahmanson Mansion, aka Liam Court’s house from 90210, is located at 401 South Hudson Avenue in Hancock Park. The view of the house shown on 90210 can be seen from West 4th Street.

April 4, 2011
Monrovia Bakery from the New “Iceland” Pilot

During this entire past week, the television pilot for the new Fox comedy series Iceland, which stars Scrubs’ Kerry Bishe, Friday Night Lights’ Zach Gilford, and 24’s John Boyd, has been filming on location on Myrtle Avenue in Old Town Monrovia, just down the street from where my parents now live. The show, which takes place in a supposed small town in Minnesota, centers around a young woman (Bishe) whose fiancé dies suddenly shortly before their wedding day – and yes, despite its tragic-sounding premise, the series is being pitched as a comedy. So I, of course, asked my parents to keep tabs for me on what was going on – and to take lots of photographs of the filming, which my dad has been doing on a pretty much daily basis. My mom had also heard that some filming would be taking place at the Monrovia Bakery, which is located at 506 South Myrtle Avenue, this past Wednesday, so I ventured on over there on Wednesday morning to do some stalking of the set.

Sadly though, the shoot at the Monrovia Bakery was not scheduled to take place until the evening hours and most of the cast and crew was filming at an apartment building located a few miles away when I showed up to stalk the set. The day was not entirely lost, though, as I did get to speak with the SUPER nice owner of the bakery, which has remarkably been in business since 1900!, who filled me in on all of the filming that has taken place in her shop over the years.

[ad]

I was extremely excited to hear that in the Season 3 episode of Mad Men titled “Seven Twenty Three”, the Monrovia Bakery stood in for the supposed Ossining, New York-area Swenson’s Bakery where Betty Draper (aka January Jones) met Henry Francis (aka Christopher Stanley) to discuss saving the local Pleasantville Road Reservoir. Both the interior . . .

. . . and the exterior of Monrovia Bakery were featured in the episode.

After leaving the bakery, Betty and Henry walk by Wentworth’s Furniture Store, where Henry spots a “fainting chair” in the window and suggests that Betty should purchase it.

In real life Wentworth’s Furniture Store is the Irish Gardener gift boutique located right next door to Monrovia Bakery.

In 1992’s Beethoven, Monrovia Bakery was the neighborhood bake shop where Beethoven the dog stopped to pick up a free bear claw.

For the 2007 Jim Carrey movie The Number 23, producers transformed Monrovia Bakery into a model train shop while, in an odd twist, the nail shop next door was transformed into a . . . you guessed it, bakery! Apparently, Monrovia Bakery did not have the exact look that producers desired for the shoot and they felt that they would be better able to redress the nail shop than redecorate the real life bakery into the image that they wanted. So, a false rear wall was constructed inside of the nail shop and a myriad of bakery cases and bakery equipment was brought in for the filming, when all the while all of those exact same things could be found already in place right next door! I will never understand production decisions like that, I swear!

Monrovia Bakery was also featured in the 1988 made-for-TV movie Rock ‘n’ Roll Mom and in a television pilot starring That ‘70s Show’s Laura Prepon that was, unfortunately, never picked up.

While we were stalking the bakery, some set dressers came to start preparing the premises for filming, which included putting up the above-pictured “Ellie’s Bakery” sign over Monrovia Bakery’s real life front awning. So incredibly cool!

Pictured above are some photographs that my dad took this past Monday afternoon during the filming of Iceland. The shoot took place in front of the Monrovia Library and involved a wedding scene of some sort. From what the owner of the Monrovia Bakery told me, in the pilot of Iceland, Kerry Bishe’s character decides to go on with her wedding, even though her fiancé has just recently passed away. I believe that is the scene they were filming above.

Stars Kerry Bishe, Jack Gilford, and John Boyd were all on set on Monday.

And my dad managed to snap some great shots of both Kerry . . .

. . . and Zach. I sent the pictures over to my friend Christine at fave website OnLocationVacations on Monday afternoon and after she looked at them she said that my dad should seriously consider becoming a paparazzi! Love it!

On a Kerry Bishe side note – In one of the actress’ very first film roles, she portrayed the twenty-something woman shown looking into a department store window while Carrie Bradshaw (aka Sarah Jessica Parker) says in one of her famous voiceovers, “Year after year, twenty-something women come to New York City in search of the two L’s – Labels and Love” in the opening scene of Sex and the City: The Movie. So incredibly cool!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! “

Stalk It: Monrovia Bakery, from the new Iceland pilot and the “Seven Twenty Three” episode of Mad Men, is located at 506 South Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia. The Irish Gardener, aka Wentworth Furniture Store from Mad Men, is located next door at 504 South Myrtle Avenue.

April 1, 2011
The Hyatt Huntington Beach from “90210”

One location that I have been absolutely DYING to stalk for over a year and a half now is the Hyatt Huntington Beach Hotel, the spot which stands in for the Beverly Hills Beach Club, the regular hangout of Liam Court (aka cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!), Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord) and the rest of the West Bev gang, each week on fave show 90210. So when the Grim Cheaper and I were discussing where to spend his upcoming birthday weekend a couple of weeks back, I casually mentioned the Hyatt as a possible destination and, amazingly enough, despite the hotel’s hefty nightly room cost, he readily agreed! Yay! So the two of us, along with my parents, headed down there bright and early this past Saturday morning. And, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited! I was literally bouncing out of my seat the entire drive from Pasadena down to the South Bay.

Thankfully the hotel did not disappoint! The Hyatt Huntington Beach is absolutely HUGE – I honestly don’t think I have ever in my life seen a hotel even remotely that big! – and features a retail plaza complete with a grocery store and coffee bar, spa grottos with 3 tucked away spa pools, 6 different on-site restaurants, a water playground for kids, over 100,000 square feet of meeting and event space;

517 guest rooms (ours is pictured above);

a large lagoon-style swimming pool;

lush grounds with meandering koi ponds;

several sparkling fountains;

and a 20,000 square foot spa.

For all of its grandiosity, though, there were a lot of small touches, as well, that gave the hotel an intimate feel; my personal favorite being the mini-outdoor living room that was tucked away in an alcove near our room.

And on Sunday morning when it rained, the hotel put out umbrellas for guests to use. Love it!





The area of the hotel that I was most excited about seeing was the front entrance, which is used in establishing shots of the Beach Club each week.

Pictured above is what the entry-way columns look like when not sporting the “Beverly Hills Beach Club” signs that are shown on the series.

[ad]

Besides appearing weekly in establishing shots, filming has also taken place on location at the hotel on two different occasions. The Hyatt was first used in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “New Beginnings”. In that episode, filming took place at the front entrance of the hotel;

in the main fountain area;



and by the pool.

And in the Season 3 episode titled ”Mother Dearest” filming took place once again at the hotel’s front entrance;

by the pool;

outside of the spa;

in one of the exterior courtyards;

on the bridge that connects the hotel to the beach;

and in the beach parking lot located directly across the street from the hotel.

None of the interior filming of the Beverly Hills Beach Club takes place at the hotel, though. Sadly, the interior of the Club is just a set that exists only on a soundstage at Manhattan Beach Studios where the series is lensed.

But I was very excited to see some similarities between the interior of the Hyatt hotel and the Beach Club set. As you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, the Hyatt has a set of three surfboards hanging on the wall behind the concierge desk, much like is the case with the check-in desk at the Beach Club! I cannot tell you how excited I was to spot those surfboards!

There is also an outdoor fire pit located in the patio area of Mankota’s Grill, the hotel’s poolside restaurant, that looks very similar to the Beach Club’s outdoor fire pit.

A SUPER nice concierge that we spoke with while checking out also let us know that in the Season 3 episode of Chuck titled “Chuck Versus the Beard” the Hyatt stood in for the Malibu Vista Hotel where Devon Woodcomb (aka Ryan McPartlin) and Ellie Bartowski (aka Sarah Lancaster) vacationed . . .



. . . and where Sarah Walker (aka Yvonne Strahovski) and Daniel Shaw (aka Brandon Roth) were sent to track down a spy.

The Hyatt Huntington Beach also stood in for the Turks & Caicos hotel where married CIA agents Steven and Samantha Bloom (aka Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw respectively) conducted a sting operation in the Season 1 episode of Undercovers titled “Instructions”.

According to a column on the Surf City News website, a large green screen was set up at the north end of the pool during the filming of Undercovers so that it could be made to look as if the hotel was located on the beach. In reality, the Hyatt is located across the street from the beach.

The hotel’s Red Chair Lounge also stood in for a Caracas bar in the “Instructions” episode.

And one of its exterior hallways and courtyards were also used.

The Hyatt was also featured in an Orbitz commercial in which the Orbitz hovercraft is shown landing in a hotel pool.

Orbitz Commercial filmed at the Hyatt Huntington Hotel

You can watch that commercial by clicking above.

The concierge also told us that the Hyatt was featured in the Season 3 episode of My Fair Wedding titled “Monopoly Bride” in which wedding planner David Tutera coordinates a Monopoly-themed wedding for a board-game obsessed bride and groom. And she informed us that a production with Hills star Audrina Patridge was filmed by the hotel’s pool, but she was not sure exactly what production it was. And finally she told us that the hotel will be featured as a venue in an upcoming episode of Tori & Dean: sTORIbook Weddings, which is set to premiere on the Oxygen Channel on April 6th.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Hyatt Huntington Beach, aka the Beverly Hills Beach Club from 90210, is located at 21500 Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

March 30, 2011