Tag: Celebrities

David’s Bungalow from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

This past Tuesday night, Geoff, from the 90210locations website, asked for my help in tracking down the blue and white bungalow where Carly Reynolds (aka Hilary Swank) – and in later years David Silver (aka Brian Austin Green), Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry), and Noah Hunter (aka Vincent Young) – lived during Season 8 of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210. Now as I have mentioned a few times before on this site, I stopped watching 90210 after Season 4 when my girl Shannen Doherty left the series, but Geoff sent me a screen capture of the bungalow in the hopes that I could track the place down anyway. Randomly enough, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, had just loaned me several of his DVDs of the older seasons of the show with the instruction that I should start watching the series over again from the beginning.   One of the seasons he loaned me just happened to be Season 8, so after I received Geoff’s email, I immediately popped in the first DVD and started scanning through it looking for clues to the location of Carly’s bungalow. And, thanks to a little help from Mike, I was able to find the place almost immediately.

Mike clued me into the fact that every shot of the bungalow shown on the series seemed to have been taken at an odd, sideways angle. And scanning through the Season 8 episodes, I realized that I could literally not find one single establishing shot that had been taken of the house head on.

That paired with the fact that the home seemed to be situated at an angle perpendicular to that of its front gate led Mike to believe that the property did not actually face the street.



He had also noticed that in both the episodes “Pride and Prejudice” and “Toil and Trouble” there was a house that looked like a mirror image of Carly’s located in very close proximity and directly across the street from it. All of these little “clues” added together led him to believe that Carly’s residence was not actually a house at all, but what is commonly referred to in Los Angeles as a “bungalow court” apartment complex. So, armed with that information from Mike and after scanning through quite a few Season 8 episodes of the show, I immediately starting searching through Google for addresses of different bungalow court apartments. And thankfully quite a few came up, almost all of which were in the Hollywood area. I then looked at all of those addresses using Bing aerial views. Because Carly’s house had a very unique roofline I thought it would be fairly easy to spot from above and, thankfully, it was! One of the addresses that had come up on Google was for a bungalow court located at 1554 North Serrano Avenue. And while that complex wasn’t where Carly lived on 90210, I did notice that there were quite a few other bungalow courts located on that very same street. And, magically, one was Carly’s! YAY! So, I immediately dragged my dad out to stalk the place yesterday afternoon.

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Carly and David’s bungalow court apartment complex is actually something of a historic property and was designed by architect A.B. Crist in 1919. It is a SUPER cute and picturesque little grouping of homes and it is not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it on Beverly Hills, 90210.



Unfortunately, there is a large tree that is now situated in front of Carly’s bungalow which considerably blocks the view of it from the street.

But the bungalow located directly across from it is very visible and, as you can see in the above photographs, looks exactly like Carly and David’s home. Like Geoff said to me after I told him I had found the place, I guess I am going to have to start watching all of the later seasons of the show now.

On a side note – I just wanted to let all of my fellow stalkers know that Bing Maps has recently added a “Streetside” feature to its site and it is A-MA-ZING! In fact, I think it is safe to say that I am absolutely in love with it! The imaging is one hundred times better than that of Google Street View, not to mention one hundred times faster. If you are trying to track a location down, I honestly cannot recommend using it enough!

Big THANK YO U to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for helping me find this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: David Silver’s bungalow – aka Carly Reynold’s bungalow – from the later seasons of Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1547 North Serrano Avenue in Hollywood.

January 21, 2011
The “Swingers” Apartment Building

One location that I stalked quite a few months back, but for whatever reason have yet to blog about is the Los Feliz apartment building where Mike (aka Jon Favreau) lived in the 1996 comedy Swingers. I had actually been wanting to stalk this location for quite some time, ever since reading on the IMDB trivia page for Swingers that Jon Favreau had lived there while writing the screenplay for the movie and during the actual filming. IMDB even had the address of the building – 5874 Franklin Avenue in Los Feliz – listed on its Swingers filming locations page, but when my husband and I showed up to stalk the place we discovered that such an address did not actually exist. At first I thought that the Swingers building had quite possibly been torn down, but, as it turns out, the information posted on IMDB was actually incorrect. While looking for the apartment numbered 5874, I noticed the building located at 5870 Franklin Avenue and thought it looked very similar to where Mike had lived in Swingers, so my husband and I ventured over there for a closer look. And amazingly enough we found our answer in a very cool way while doing so!

As it turns out, and as you can see in the above photograph, there is a Swingers poster hanging on the wall of the building’s lobby, which we spotted while peeking in through the front windows. Once I saw that poster, I knew we had to be in the right place! So incredibly cool! I am not sure why there is also a Batman poster displayed in the lobby, being that Batman was filmed in its entirety in England, but I am guessing that maybe someone involved in the production had lived in the building at one time or another.



In real life, the Swingers apartment building is named Chateau Marcella and it was originally built in 1928. Due to the building’s detailing and character, I assumed it was mostly likely a historic structure of some sort, but sadly I could find absolutely no information about it online. Like nothing, nada, zip. Not even a single Yelp report stating whether or not it was a nice place to live!



But I am happy to report that the building looks very much the same today as it did back in 1996 when Swingers was filmed.

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Not only did Jon Favreau live at the Chateau Marcella while Swingers was being filmed, but his real life apartment even stood in for Mike’s apartment in the flick! Which makes sense because according to some of the behind-the-scenes information that I have found about the movie online, the Swingers’ shoot was a very low budget one. So, I am guessing that to cut down on costs, Jon decided to use his own apartment for the filming instead of paying to rent out a location for days on end.

I believe that the filming of Swingers took place inside of apartment 382, as in the scene in which Mike comes home after first meeting Lorraine (aka Heather Graham), he opens his front door and a number is just barely visible. I believe that number is 382, but don’t quote me on that as it is very hard to make out. According to IMDB’s trivia page for Swingers, actor Adam Scott also lived at Chateau Marcella during the time that Swingers was being filmed.

The apartment also boasts a fabulous view of the Hollywood sign.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Chateau Marcella, aka the Swingers apartment building and actor Jon Favreau’s former home, is located at 5870 Franklin Avenue in Los Feliz. The 101 Coffee Shop, where Mike and his friends hung out in the movie, is located just a few blocks west of the apartment building at 6145 Franklin Avenue.

January 19, 2011
72 North – The Real Life Emerald City Bar from “Grey’s Anatomy”

While Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were watching True Blood being filmed in Pasadena last Wednesday night, we got to talking with the owner of The Old Towne Pub about all of the filming that has taken place in the area over the years. The owner was extremely knowledgeable and clued us in to a lot of locations that neither of us had previously known about, the most exciting of which for me was the downstairs bar of the former McMurphy’s Restaurant & Tavern, now 72 North, which is used as the supposed Seattle-area Emerald City Bar where all of the Seattle Grace interns hang out each week on the hit television series Grey’s Anatomy. I was EXTREMELY interested in stalking McMurphy’s upon finding out that after filming the Season 2 episode of the series titled “Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head” on location there, producers had an exact replica of the place rebuilt at ABC Prospect Studios, where Grey’s Anatomy is lensed, that they then used for filming each and every week, which I thought was just about the coolest thing ever! Even though I have never watched Grey’s Anatomy, finding that out was like discovering that Central Perk from Friends was modeled after a real life coffee shop that one could actually visit! So incredibly cool! Sadly, McMurphy’s Restaurant and Tavern closed its doors a few years ago and the new owners completely gutted and remodeled the place, renamed it Dullahans, and it subsequently closed down yet again just a short while later. It was then sold once again to new owners and renamed 72 North. Miraculously though, through all of the changes of ownership and the extensive remodel, the downstairs bar area was left untouched and still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when Grey’s Anatomy first filmed there back in 2005. YAY! So, this past Friday night I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place.

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Ever since Emerald City Bar, or Joe’s Bar as it is also sometimes referred to on Grey’s Anatomy, appeared in the “Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head” episode, it has been featured almost weekly on the series as the regular hangout of Meredith Grey (aka Ellen Pompeo), Christina Yang (aka Sandra Oh), Derek Shepherd (aka Patrick Dempsey), and the rest of the Seattle Grace gang. The above screen captures were taken from the “Raindrops” episode, during which filming took place at the actual downstairs bar area of McMurphy’s Restaurant & Tavern.

The above screen captures were taken from later episodes of the series, during which filming took place at the studio-built replica of the bar.

The downstairs bar area at 72 North is currently only used for special events and private parties, but one of the super-friendly bartenders offered to open it up for me so that I could snap a few pictures of the place. And even though Bartender Joe’s Seattle-inspired decorations were of course no longer in place, the bar is still very recognizable from the series. So incredibly cool!

Unfortunately, I did not get a great picture of the bar’s front doors while I was stalking the place, but you can kind of see them in the above photograph.

72 North’s downstairs room can actually be reached via an exterior staircase much like it was portrayed on Grey’s Anatomy.

72 North has a kind of sports/dive bar-type atmosphere, but, let me tell you, the food they serve there is nothing short of FABULOUS! This is not your ordinary bar food in any way, shape, or form! The chicken was cooked to absolute perfection and, as I have mentioned numerous times before, I am extremely picky about my chicken. The GC and I ordered up a vegetable plate while we were there and not only was it amazing, but it was also absolutely HUGE! It was literally the size of a platter one would serve at a party! And the cost of that vegetable dish? Because it was happy hour, the tray was only $3! I am not kidding! Our entire meal came to $27 and we each had a cocktail! Needless to say, the GC was absolutely THRILLED upon receiving the check and told me that we could go back to stalk the place anytime I wanted.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: 72 North, aka the real life Emerald City Bar or Joe’s Bar from Grey’s Anatomy, is located at 72 North Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Town Pasadena. The downstairs bar is the area that is shown on the series. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

January 18, 2011
Watching the Filming of “True Blood”

Last Wednesday evening I got a text from the owner of POP Champagne & Dessert Bar – my very favorite restaurant and the spot where the Grim Cheaper and I held the rehearsal dinner for our wedding last August – alerting me to the fact that the hit HBO television series True Blood would be filming at his eatery the following evening beginning at 9 p.m. He invited me to come down to watch and even though I’ve never seen even one episode of the vampire series, I was beyond excited! I immediately called up Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and asked him to join me as True Blood is his very favorite show. So, the next night at around 8 p.m. the two of us headed out to POP and were floored to see those ubiquitous yellow filming signs that I so love on the streets surrounding the restaurant.

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True Blood was actually first being shot inside of The Old Towne Pub, a bar that is located right next door to POP, and when filming wrapped there, the production was then set to move outside, to POP’s back entrance, which, oddly enough, was standing in for the front entrance to The Old Towne Pub. Confused? I was. For whatever reason though, even though the two doors look very similar (POP’s back entrance is pictured above left and The Old Towne Pub’s entrance is pictured above right), producers had decided that POP’s back door suited their filming needs better than The Old Towne Pub’s actual entrance.

And even though only POP’s back door and the alleyway directly outside of it would be appearing in the episode and none of the restaurant’s actual interiors would be seen, the eatery was required to close its doors during the shoot. So, I ,of course, just had to take a picture standing in front of the sign announcing that POP would be closing early that evening. Love it!

According to one of the crew members that we spoke with, the Old Towne Pub and POP Champagne Bar were being used for a flashback scene that was taking place in a punk bar in 1980’s London. The courtyard outside of the two bars and the alleyway were dressed to look like 1980’s London for the shoot and there were several British cars parked there, which was very cool to see.

The sides of the alley were also packed to the brim with all sorts of filming equipment and props.

According to one of the security guards that we spoke with, actors Stephen Moyer, who plays Bill Compton on the series, and Ryan Kwanten, who plays Sookie Stackhouse’s brother Jason, were in attendance that evening (at least I think that is what he said, but again I have never seen the show, so I cannot be positive of who was actually there). Sadly though, we did not spot either of them. We first watched the filming from a distance in the courtyard area behind the two bars, but we unfortunately could not see very much from there at all. Then the owner of The Old Towne Pub, who had been standing with us, informed us that we should venture upstairs to the courtyard’s outdoor patio where we would have a much better vantage point. Well, wouldn’t you know it, just as we made our way up to the second story patio, both Stephen and Ryan were wrapped for the night and walked off of the set. Apparently they took photographs with several fans who were also watching the filming on their way out, too, so Mike and I majorly lost out!!! While we were on the patio, we did get to watch a scene being filmed with some of the episode’s guest stars, though, which I was floored about. Even though I do not watch the show, as you all know I LOVE to watch filming of any sort, so I was in absolute heaven. And the crew truly (pun intended!) could NOT have been nicer, either. The first crew member that we spoke with upon arriving at POP was actually a real a-hole and I was fearful that they all might be unfriendly towards us. But, as it turned out, I really needn’t have worried as the rest of the crew was INCREDIBLY friendly and answered all of our questions about the filming and allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted. YAY! One of them even came up to me to chat about the jacket I was wearing as he had just bought the exact same jacket for his girlfriend for Christmas. LOVE IT!

The following evening, I dragged the GC out to stalk the The Old Towne Pub so that I could snap some picture of the restaurant’s interior where filming had taken place. Our original plan was to grab a bite to eat there, but unfortunately the restaurant does not serve food and the two of us were absolutely starving, so we did not end up staying. The server on duty was super nice, though, and let us take all of the photographs of the place that we wanted even though we were not actually eating there. I definitely plan on re-stalking this location after the True Blood episode airs and doing a more in-depth post on it as an episode of the HBO series Hung was filmed there as was the 2000 movie Bedazzled.

True Blood Filming in Pasadena–1-12-2011

Mike took the above video on his iPhone of the two guest stars rehearsing the scene that we watched being filmed. He also took all of the photographs which appear in this post, so, a big THANK YOU goes out to him for allowing me to share them all on my site. THANK YOU, Mike, from MovieShotsLA!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: POP Champagne and Dessert Bar is located at 33 East Union Street in Old Town Pasadena. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. True Blood was filmed at POP’s back entrance on Aayes Alley, which is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view and which can be reached from East Holly Street. The episode was also filmed inside of The Old Towne Pub, which is located at 66 North Fair Oaks Avenue, directly behind the Container Store, in Old Town Pasadena. You can visit that restaurant’s official website here.

January 17, 2011
Angela’s Substitute Teacher’s Apartment Building from “My So-Called Life”

Well, it appears as if I am definitely on a My So-Called Life kick as of late because once I popped in my DVD of the series’ pilot episode last week, I have literally not been able to stop watching since. The show has definitely withstood the test of time as it is still absolutely riveting to watch today, sixteen years after it originally aired, which is simply incredible to me! Anyway, while watching the Season 1 episode of the series titled “The Substitute” earlier this week, I noticed an address number of “1008” in the background behind Angela Chase (aka Claire Danes) in the scene in which she goes to the apartment building where her substitute teacher, Mr. Vic Racine (aka Roger Rees), lives to confront him about deserting his family. And while the outside of his building is never actually shown in its entirety in the episode – all that appears in the scene is a brick wall, a wooden fence, and a red door – I became rather obsessed with finding where it was located. Not because I necessarily wanted to stalk it, but because seeing that “1008” was like a challenge, a little clue being dangled in front of my eyes, tauntingly daring me to track the place down. As crazy as it may sound, for whatever reason, once I spotted that address number I was absolutely NOT going to rest until I found it!

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I had also noticed railroad tracks in the background of the scene, so I was 99.9% certain that Mr. Racine’s apartment building was located in the South Pasadena area, somewhere in the vicinity of Andie’s house from the movie Pretty in Pink. I immediately emailed my super-friendly and super-knowledgeable contact over at the South Pasadena film office to ask for her thoughts. While waiting for a response, I decided to start searching aerial views of the the streets on either side of the city’s Metro Gold Line tracks and it wasn’t long before I came to a conclusion – Mr. Racine’s “apartment” was actually the side of the popular South Pasadena eatery Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop. I emailed my contact once again to tell her my theory and to send along a set of screen caps from “The Substitute” episode and she wrote me back almost immediately saying that I was indeed correct – the scene had been shot on the side of Buster’s Coffee Shop. YAY! So, early yesterday morning I headed on over to South Pasadena to snap some pics.

And let me tell you, I just about died upon realizing that the EXACT SAME “No Trespassing” sign that had appeared in the episode was still there in real life! Seeing that sign literally gave me goose bumps, I was so excited! SO INCREDIBLY COOL! As you can see in the above photograph, the “1008” address sign was also there in real life, as well.

The area looks quite a bit different today as the majority of it has been fenced off.

But you can kind of catch a good glimpse of the spot where filming took place if you head north across the train tracks. And while it does seem like a VERY odd spot for a substitute to live, or anyone to live for that matter, it does appear that there is some sort of small apartment complex located behind the wooden fencing pictured above.

The door pictured above is actually the side entrance to Buster’s and it still looks very much the same today as it did back in 1994 when “The Substitute” episode was filmed.

The tree and telephone pole that appeared in the background behind Angela also still look very much the same.

And the electrical meters which appeared in the scene are also still there in real life.

While I was taking photographs yesterday, one of the Buster’s workers came outside and inquired as to what I was doing. When I explained that an episode of My So-Called Life had been filmed on the premises over 16 years ago, he said, “Oh yeah, I know! Wow, I haven’t thought about that in a REALLY long time!” As it turns out, he was there during the filming of “The Substitute” episode, although he doesn’t remember much of what went on. I thought it was still incredibly cool nonetheless – I mean he actually witnessed the filming of one of the most ground-breaking shows on television! Love it! The front of Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop is pictured above. The purple arrow denotes where “The Substitute” was filmed. Ironically enough, Michael Myers’ house from the original Halloween movie is located just across the train tracks from Mr. Racine’s apartment and is denoted with the pink arrow in the above photograph.

On a My So-Called Life side note – while watching the episode titled “The Zit” a couple of days ago, I was floored to discover that the department store where Angela and her mother, Patty (aka Bess Armstrong), shopped for make-up was none other than the former Bullocks Wilshire department store, now Southwestern Law School campus, near Downtown Los Angeles, which I blogged about back in December of 2009.

The Mother/Daughter Fashion Show scene from that same episode was also filmed at Bullock’s Wilshire, in the former department store’s Louis XVI Room.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Vic Racine’s apartment from “The Substitute” episode of My So-Called Life is located at 1008 Mission Street, directly behind Buster’s Ice Cream and Coffee Shop, in South Pasadena. Michael Myers’ house from the original Halloween movie is located right across the train tracks from Buster’s at 1000 Mission Street. And the former hardware store, now Radhika restaurant, where Michael Myers stole a mask and some knives in the original Halloween is also located across the street from Buster’s at 966 Mission Street.

January 14, 2011
Madame Chocolat from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”

Another location that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to see while stalking in the Beverly Hills area two weekends ago was Madame Chocolat, the chocolate shop that was featured in the Season 1 episode of the reality series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills titled “Chocolate Louboutins”. Sadly though, because we were there on a Sunday, the place was closed and we did not get to venture inside, nor did we get to sample any of the delicious-looking chocolate.

We did spend quite a bit of time admiring the beautifully sculpted candies that were featured in the shop’s front window, though – all of which I later learned are actually fake to prevent melting, but are modeled after real designs that can be purchased inside. Then yesterday, I randomly found myself parked directly in front of the store while doing some shopping in Beverly Hills, so I decided to pop in and purchase some candy for the GC. (I am diabetic and therefore could not buy any for myself.) And, amazingly enough, Hasty Torres, the shop’s owner who appeared in The Real Housewives episode, was working the front counter! Hasty could NOT have been nicer and spent quite a bit of time speaking with me about the filming of the show and even helped me pick out some sweets that the GC would like. I so badly wanted to ask her to take a photograph with me, but I hesitated as I thought she might think I was a bit weird. Looking back, I really regret it as she was so incredibly sweet.

As it turns out, Hasty’s foray into the chocolate world reads like a Hollywood script. While working for a finance company in Century City a little over a decade ago, she became obsessed with a Food Network television show named Chocolate with Jacques Torres, in which renowned pastry chef/chocolatier Jacques Torres created various works of art out of the sweet delicacy. Hasty was so obsessed, in fact, that she wound up quitting her job and enrolling in Pasadena’s famed Le Cordon Bleu cooking school with the hope of one day opening up a chocolate shop of her very own. Upon graduating a year and a half later, she got a job working for Jacques himself at one of his many chocolate stores in New York and the two ended up falling in love. Hasty’s dream was finally realized in November of 2006 when the chocolatier founded her very own shop on North Canon Drive in the heart of Beverly Hills. And just a year later, Hasty and Jacques were married at the legendary Bel Air Hotel. Such an incredible story!

When I came home with the above-pictured bag yesterday, the GC was extremely excited as he is a total chocolate fiend . . . until he saw the receipt, that is, which I had accidentally left in the bag.

I ended up purchasing four (tiny) chocolate bon bons and one chocolate-dipped Oreo cookie and my total bill was $13! But hey, it’s Beverly Hills – prices like that pretty much go with the territory. Well, the GC took one look at that receipt and said, “Can you return them?” LOL Return chocolate??? Really???? Do you see what I have to put up with here? Anyway, despite his chagrin over the cost, by 8 p.m. last night he had devoured all four of the bon bons and the cookie, as well! And while he said that he much preferred the Rocky Mountain chocolate that I had purchased him this past Christmas, I am fairly certain that had more to do with Madame Chocolat’s pricing than it did the quality of their chocolate.

His favorite item was the Café bon bon – an espresso-infused dark chocolate ganache that is shaped like a coffee cup. So cute!

In the “Chocolate Louboutins” episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, housewife/restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump-Todd (whom I absolutely LOVE) visits Madame Chocolat to pick up a pair of chocolate Christian Louboutin high heels, which were made out of a whopping three pounds of white Belgian chocolate, that she has special ordered.

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The chocolate shoes, of course, also boast the signature Louboutin red soles. Love it!

During her visit, Lisa also orders a custom-made, $1,000, three-foot tall chocolate Easter bunny which she then brings to Easter brunch at fellow housewife Kyle Richard’s house in Palm Springs.

Madame Chocolat also appeared in the Season 5 episode of The Girls Next Door titled “Hot Chocolate” in which Hugh Hefner’s three then-girlfriends, Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson, visit the chocolatier to have some of their, ahem, body parts recreated out of chocolate as a birthday gift for Hef.

The shop is also something of a celebrity hot spot with such stars as Wolfgang Puck, Nobu Matsuhisa, Rachel Ray, Mario Batali, Ricky Martin, JC Chasez, Robin Thicke, Ludacris, Lamar Odom, P. Diddy, Eva Longoria Parker, Kris Jenner, and Shannon Elizabeth all stopping by to satisfy their sweet tooth.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Madame Chocolat from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is located at 212 North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. You can visit the store’s official website here. Madame Chocolat is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The store is closed on Sundays.

January 13, 2011
Patrick Swayze’s Former Apartment

Ever since the Grim Cheaper purchased the Dirty Dancing: Limited Keepsake Edition DVD for me this past Christmas, I have become just a tad bit obsessed with finding out more behind-the-scenes information about the movie. So, the other day I picked up Patrick Swayze and wife Lisa Niemi’s autobiography which is titled The Time of My Life and, let me tell you, I’ve hardly been able to put it down since. It is an absolutely FABULOUS book and Patrick Swayze was an absolutely AMAZING man! The unbridled love that he had for his wife is riveting to read about and heartbreaking at the same time, now that he has since passed away. Let’s just say that theirs was not a typical Hollywood union. Patrick married Lisa on June 12, 1975, when he was only 22 years old and she was only 19, and they remained together and completely devoted to one another throughout the rest of his life. While the majority of married actors surrounding him on movie sets were conducting on-set affairs during filming, Lisa accompanied Patrick on each and every single shoot – whether he was filming in Los Angeles or in the far reaches of Africa – and I think that is part of what made their marriage so strong. If you have any interest whatsoever in learning more about Patrick Swayze or the movie Dirty Dancing, I honestly cannot recommend The Time of My Life enough! The book also doles out quite a few stalking addresses, including one of the couple’s first Los Angeles apartments, which I ran right out to stalk yesterday!

Patrick and Lisa first moved to Southern California in 1979, after spending several years together in New York. The two first lived in the ground-floor apartment of a home owned by two older women in the Hollywood Hills. Of his new landlords, Patrick said, “The women upstairs were real characters, and one of them seemed always to have a tumbler of scotch in her hand.” LOL In 1980, after living in that apartment for a little over a year, the couple moved to what Patrick describes in the book as “an apartment in West Hollywood, on La Jolla Avenue”. Well, as soon as I read those words I knew I was going to have to track down that apartment! Thankfully though, Patrick made the job extremely easy for me by putting in the book the above photograph of himself, along with his mother and Lisa, standing outside of their apartment in which an address number of “623” was visible. Because he had described the place as being in West Hollywood, I had assumed it would be located on North La Jolla Avenue, but when I searched for that address via Google street view, nothing matched up. So, I then looked at the building located at 623 South La Jolla Avenue and there was his apartment, looking almost EXACTLY the same as it had back in the early 80s when the Swayzes had called the place home!. So incredibly cool!

In the book, Patrick says that his apartment came with a two-car garage that he and Lisa turned into a woodworking shop as the couple ran a carpentry business on the side, which kept them afloat financially in between acting gigs. I am guessing that their garage was the one denoted with the pink arrow in the above photograph.

But, for whatever reason, in the above photograph, which was included in the book, Patrick is shown posing with his brand new DeLorean car outside of the garage belonging to the neighboring apartment building. That area, too, though looks very much the same today as it did back in the early 80’s.

Shortly after moving into the apartment, the Swazyes found themselves broke with only $3 in their bank account. Patrick says, “The saving grace of our new apartment was the orange tree in the backyard, which ended up feeding us for the difficult weeks we spent trying to pull our financial life together. We managed to scrape together enough coins to buy a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread, and that, with the oranges, was what we ate.” Just a few weeks after going broke, fate intervened and Patrick landed the lead role of “Bandit” in the television series Renegades. His career took off from there. The couple continued to live in the La Jolla Avenue apartment for the next few years as Patrick’s fame continued to grow. But after the television series North and South aired in 1985, the actor became a household name and the Swayzes had to move from their beloved, but entirely-too-accessible apartment. Patrick says, “Lisa and I also realized that we’d now have to take steps to protect our privacy. Even in those pre-internet days, there were still paparazzi all over Hollywood, not to mention some overzealous fans who weren’t above staking us out at home. When I got the role of Orry Main, it allowed us to buy a five-acre ranch, where we could keep horses and enjoy nature without being disturbed.” That ranch, which they named “Rancho Bizarro and which Lisa still owns to this day, is located on Lemoncrest Avenue in Sylmar, about twenty miles north of Los Angeles.

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Another location that Patrick talks about in The Time of My Life – one that I was absolutely DYING to stalk until I found out that it was no longer there – was the Harkness Theater at Lincoln Center in New York. In September of 1973, Patrick, who was at the time a member of the Harkness Ballet Company, was hired to pose for artist Enrique Senis-Oliver who had been commissioned by oil heiress Rebekah Harkness to paint a large mural in her new theatre, which was then just being built. The enormous painting, which Patrick says “stretched from the stage to the very top of the proscenium and down both sides”, was titled Homage to Terpsichore and it featured hundreds of nude men dancing. Incredibly, all of those men were Patrick! Over a period of several weeks, Enrique had used the actor/dancer as the model for each and every single male featured in the mural! Sadly though, that mural is no longer as the Harkness Theatre was torn down in 1977, only a few short years after it had been built. So incredibly sad! You can see photographs of part of Patrick’s mural here and here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Patrick Swayze’s former apartment building is located at 623 South La Jolla Avenue in Los Angeles. The garage Patrick posed in front of with his new DeLorean is located just north of his apartment building and is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view.

January 12, 2011
The Avalon Hotel – The Former Beverly Carlton Where Marilyn Monroe Once Lived

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked while in the Beverly Hills area two weekends ago was the historic Avalon Hotel, where my girl Marilyn Monroe once lived for a period of about three years back in the 1950’s. During that time, the property was a residential motel known as the Beverly Carlton that was first opened in 1948 and was designed by legendary graphic designer Alvin Lustig. And while the hotel was actually considered to be a moderately priced accommodation for its time, besides Marilyn, such stars as Mae West, Lucille Ball, and Desi Arnaz often stayed there. In the 70s and 80s the hotel became rundown, underwent several remodels, and was transformed into both a retirement home and an apartment complex. In 1998, property developer Brad Korzen purchased it and enlisted his now-wife, Kelly Wearstler of KWID Designs, to give the place an extensive reboot. In doing so, Wearstler and her team researched the original design elements of the hotel, which they obtained from photographs taken by famed photographer Julius Shulman for a 1948 Forum Magazine article, and it was those original designs that ended up serving as the inspiration for the entire remodel.

The result is that the property looks VERY much the same today as it did back in the 1950’s when Marilyn lived there! Love it!

I first learned about the Avalon a few years back when Cold Case star Kathryn Morris posed for an InStyle Magazine photo shoot on the hotel grounds. I became quite obsessed with the Avalon Hotel sign pictured above, but had assumed it was a fake that had been created for the shoot. Looking back, why I never thought to Google the terms “Avalon Hotel” is absolutely beyond me, but as they say hindsight is 20/20.   Then last Christmas, I was flipping through Southwest Airline’s Spirit Magazine while on the plane ride home from visiting my grandmother in Reno, when I happened upon an article about the Avalon and noticed a picture of that same unique sign from the InStyle photographs. Well, I just about fell over upon realizing that the Avalon was in fact a real life hotel and immediately added its address to my ever-growing To-Stalk list. It wasn’t until much later, though, while doing some cyber-stalking on the internet, that I discovered that my girl Marilyn had once called the place home. So incredibly cool!



According to the super nice desk clerk that we spoke with while stalking the place, MM actually lived at the Beverly Carlton during several different periods of her life – first in 1948 and then again in 1951 through 1952, for a total of about three years time. The hotel is comprised of three different buildings – the Olympic, the Beverly, and the Canon – and the desk clerk informed us that Marilyn lived in Room 305 of the Beverly building, which is pictured above, although I have read some conflicting reports online, so I am not sure if that information is entirely accurate. What is for certain, though, is that during her tenure at the hotel, Marilyn rented a one-room studio apartment, which you “>can see a photograph of here. The starlet posed for numerous photo shoots while living on the premises – both inside of her actual studio and next to the hotel’s hour glass-shaped pool. You can see many of the photographs from those particular shoots here. I cannot tell you how cool it was to look through those pictures and see Marilyn standing in a location that still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did when she posed there almost six decades ago.

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Celebrities who have been spotted at the Avalon in more recent years include Jacinda Barrett, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake, Guy Pearce, Eva Longoria, William Baldwin, Selma Blair, Jonah Hill, Kate Hudson, Ryan Phillipe, Abbie Cornish, Terrance Howard, Tilda Swinton, Superbad’s Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Grey’s Anatomy’s Jessica Capshaw, Numb3rs’ David Krumholtz, House, M.D.’s Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer, Entourage’s Kevin Connolly, sisters Hilary and Haylie Duff, and 90210’s Shenae Grimes, Michael Steger, and Ryan Eggold.

The front desk clerk also let us know that in the Season 4 episode of I Love Lucy titled “L.A. At Last”, the Avalon stood in for the Beverly Palms Hotel where Lucy Ricardo (aka Lucille Ball), Ricky Ricardo (aka Desi Arnaz), Ethel Mertz (aka Vivian Vance), and Fred Mertz (aka William Frawley) stayed while vacationing in Los Angeles. Lucy and Ricky’s hotel room set from that episode is now on display at the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Center in Jamestown, New York, which I think is just about the coolest thing ever!

The Season 5 episode of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List titled “Paris is My New BFF”, in which Paris Hilton guest-starred, was filmed on location at the Avalon’s pool area.

And 90210 star Jessica Lowndes recently posed for Zooey Magazine’s October 2010 issue at the Avalon, which you can see photographs of here. You can also watch a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Avalon Hotel, aka the former Beverly Carlton Hotel where Marilyn Monroe used to live, is located at 9400 West Olympic Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Marilyn Monroe lived in the hotel’s Beverly Building, the entrance of which is located at 412 South Beverly Drive. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

January 11, 2011
The Electric Fountain from “Clueless”

Two weekends ago while doing some stalking in the Beverly Hills area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the corner of Wilshire and North Santa Monica Boulevards to finally, finally stalk the fountain where Cher Horowitz (aka Alicia Silverstone) realized her true feelings for her former stepbrother Josh (aka Paul Rudd) in fave movie Clueless. I was clued in – pun intended 🙂 – to this location two years ago by a fellow stalker who had visited the fountain while vacationing in Southern California and had later sent me pictures of it. Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me remember who this particular tipster was, nor can I find the emails she sent to me in any of my saved email folders. UGH! So, whoever it was that informed me of the location of the Clueless fountain, I sincerely thank you! Anyway, even though I was tipped off about this locale quite a while back and even though Clueless is one of my all time favorite movies, for whatever reason I had yet to stalk the place until last Saturday afternoon.

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In real life the Clueless fountain is named the Electric Fountain and it was built in 1931 at a cost of $21,000 by architect Ralph Carlin Flewelling, who also designed the Beverly Hills Post Office. The 50-foot in diameter fountain, which was constructed out of concrete, cast stone, and terra cotta tile, boasts a large central basin detailed with relief carvings that represent various events in California history. Anchored at the top of the basin is a sculpture of a Native American woman praying for rain that was molded by Robert Merrell Gage, the same artist who sculpted the facade of the Los Angeles Times Building in Downtown L.A. The fountain got its unusual name thanks to the fact that it was the first electric fountain to be built in the United States. The structure is perhaps best known for its nightly water and lights show, which is vaguely reminiscent of the Fountains of the Bellagio show in Las Vegas, albeit on a much smaller scale.

My favorite aspect of the fountain, though, is the fact that it is located directly across the street from a Starbucks. 🙂



In Clueless, Cher arrives at the Electric Fountain while walking around the City of Beverly Hills in an attempt to clear her “totally buggin’” head after failing her driver’s license test and getting into a huge fight with Tai (aka Brittany Murphy). It is while she is at the fountain that she has an epiphany and realizes that she is in love with Josh.

And I,of course, just had to reenact the scene while there. 🙂



The rock group The Go-Go’s danced in the Electric Fountain (in a scene that must have been a precursor to the opening credits of fave television series Friends) in the music video for their 1981 hit song “Our Lips Are Sealed”.

You can watch the “Our Lips Are Sealed” music video by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Clueless fountain is located on the northwest corner of Wilshire and North Santa Monica Boulevards, in Beverly Gardens Park, in Beverly Hills. The Witch’s House, which also appeared in Clueless, is located just around the corner from the fountain at 516 North Walden Drive, also in Beverly Hills.

January 10, 2011
The Hollywood Towne House Motel – Lumen’s Motel from “Dexter”

This past weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I were doing some stalking in Hollywood when we happened upon the Hollywood Towne House Motel – aka the supposed Miami-area hotel where Lumen Ann Pierce (aka Julia Stiles) lived during this past season of fave series Dexter – which in my never-to-be humble opinion was the very best season the show has yet produced. Is it just me or does the series keep getting better and better with each passing year? Julia Stiles was absolutely PHENOMENAL in her role this past season. I honestly think it was the best acting she has done thus far in her career. Loved her, loved her, loved her! Anyway, while I usually rely on Seeing Stars’ extensively detailed Dexter filming locations page to find locales from the series, I recognized Lumen’s motel immediately upon driving by it, thanks to the place’s unique (and very bright) color scheme. What was even more amazing, though, was the fact that the Grim Cheaper also recognized the place immediately upon driving by, as well! He’s learning, folks!

Even had we not recognized the place, this one most likely would have been an easy find as the real life name of the motel was used on the show. So incredibly cool!

The Hollywood Towne House Motel first showed up in the Season 5 episode of Dexter titled “Beauty and the Beast”, in the scene in which Dexter Morgan (aka Michael C. Hall) tracks down the motel Lumen was living in before she was kidnapped. The motel looks exactly the same in person as it did on the series and it is not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it as the place definitely has a Miami vibe to it.

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The motel’s real life main office also appeared in the episode.

And it, too, looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, except that in real life there is a pane of security glass which surrounds the front counter. I so desperately wanted to get a picture of myself standing in the spot where Dexter was standing in the episode, but unfortunately the office was closed when we showed up to stalk the place.

The motel was also used in the next episode of Dexter, which was titled “First Blood”, in the scene in which Dexter breaks into Lumen’s motel room and discovers that she is planning to seek revenge against her kidnappers.

In that episode Lumen was living in room number 110.

And while I originally had thought that the real interior of Room 110 was used in the filming of “First Blood”, after looking at the photographs of the motel’s actual rooms on TripAdvisor, I no longer believe that to be the case. I am guessing that the interior of Lumen’s room was a set that was built on a soundstage. (The TripAdvisor reviews of the motel are not too kind, by the way. One is titled “Should be condemned! It’s a Dump and Unsafe!!!!” LOL LOL LOL And one group of particularly enterprising guests even went so far as to make a YouTube video review/tour of the motel which is pretty incredible to watch! If you are at all grossed out by dirty hotel rooms, however, I suggest you do NOT watch it.)

Ironically enough, “Beauty and the Beast” was not the first time that Dexter was filmed on location at the Hollywood Towne House Motel. The very same spot was used in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Turning Biminese”, in the scene in which Sergeant Angel Batista (aka David Zayas) seeks out Detective Barbara Gianna (aka Kristin Dattilo), who is working undercover as a prostitute, to ask her out on a date. Real romantic setting to ask someone out on a date, I know.

While we were stalking the place, I was floored to discover that Sunset Gower Studios, the lot where Dexter is filmed, is located directly across the street from the Hollywood Towne House Motel, which explains how producers came to use it on the series.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Hollywood Town House Motel, aka Lumen’s motel from Dexter, is located at 6055 West Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Lumen stayed in room number 110 on the show.

January 7, 2011