Tag: Celebrities

The Tam O’Shanter Inn from “Glee”

A couple of weeks ago I dragged my fiancé out to stalk the Tam O’Shanter Inn which appeared in the Season 1 episode of Glee titled “Dream On”. I found this location thanks to an eagle-eyed stalker who recognized the restaurant immediately while watching the episode back in May. And even though I no longer consider myself a “Gleek” (gasp!), I just could not resist stalking the place. And yes, you read that right – I am no longer a huge fan of Glee. In fact, I can’t even really say that I like the series at all anymore, let alone love it like I used to. In my never-to-be-humble opinion, the show has gone WAY downhill ever since it returned from its four month hiatus this past April. I don’t know if it’s due to the fact that it became such a humongous hit in such a short period of time or if the writers just simply got lazy, but somewhere along the way the show lost its heart. It’s become more about the music and less about the characters that I grew to love so deeply in the first part of the season. While the series used to be over-the-top and fun, in recent months it’s become ridiculous and largely unbelievable – Kurt and Mercedes joining the cheerios, Olivia Newton-John asking Sue Sylvester to star in a re-make of her “Physical” video, and Shelby Corcoran – the coach of Vocal Adrenaline – adopting Quinn and Puck’s baby???? Like, huh??? I could go on and on and on. Not to mention the fact that Mr. Shue, who was in my eyes the real heart of the show, has become a complete and total jerk – i.e. cheating on Emma, pretending to be in love with Sue Sylvester (I don’t even know what to say about that one!), and hooking up with his arch-enemy and head of the rival Glee club, Shelby Corcoran. Sigh. The whole thing makes my head hurt. Although I did love it when all of the kids were calling him “Man Whore” in the “Bad Reputation” episode. Anyway, despite all of that, because I loved part one of the series’ first season SO much, I still find it fun stalking locations featured on the show. Which is how my fiancé and I ended up at the Tam O’Shanter Inn two weekends ago.



Tam O’Shanter Inn actually has a long and celebrated Hollywood history. It was first opened in June of 1922 by Lawry’s restaurant chain founders Lawrence Frank and Walter Van de Kamp and has the distinction of being Los Angeles’ oldest restaurant that is still operating in the same location and by the same family. Art director/humorist Harry Oliver, designer of the Spadena House in Beverly Hills (aka the Witch’s House from Clueless), was commissioned to design the original building in what is called the “storybook-style” of architecture. In fact, the restaurant’s original interior closely resembled that of a ride at Disneyland. The property was extensively remodeled and expanded in 1968 at which time it was renamed the “Great Scot”. In 1982, in honor of the restaurant’s 60th anniversary, the original name, which refers to a style of hat worn in Scotland, was restored and it has remained to this day.

In the “Dream On” episode of Glee, Will Schuester (aka cutie Matthew Morrison) takes frenemie and former Glee-club-rival Bryan Ryan (aka guest star Neil Patrick Harris) to the Tam O’Shanter Inn for a drink to convince him to not shut down the Glee club. Will finally gets Brian to concede and the two wind up singing a rousing rendition of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”.



When we first walked into the Tam O’Shanter Inn, I asked the hostess who greeted us at the door where exactly the “Dream On” episode had been filmed. Well, let me tell you, she could NOT HAVE BEEN NICER! She immediately sat us in the bar area in the exact spot where Matthew Morrison and Neil Patrick Harris were sitting in the episode. She also told us the direction the cameras were facing during filming, what areas of the restaurant could be see in the background, and asked if we wanted to reenact the “Piano Man” scene while she took photographs of us. LOVE IT! I was SO down with reenacting the scene, by the way, but the Grim Cheaper was having none of that! 😉

Filming for the yet-to-be-released Larry Crowne movie, which stars Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks, also took place at the Tam O’Shanter Inn earlier this year.   According to the bartender we spoke with, producers had the above-pictured green rug made especially for the filming and then gifted it to the restaurant after shooting wrapped. SO DARN COOL!

Besides being a filming location, the restaurant is also a long time celebrity hangout. Just a few of the luminaries who have been spotted there over the years include Mary Pickford, John Wayne, Fatty Arbuckle, and Tom Mix. Walt Disney loved the place so much that he frequented it on an almost daily basis and on one visit gifted the owners with the above-pictured cartoon, which he personally drew of Lawrence Frank. According to the restaurant’s website, Disney executives dined at Tam O’Shanter’s so often that the place became known as “Disney’s studio commissary”. Apparently Walt’s favorite table was #31, while John Wayne preferred #15.

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I honestly cannot say enough good things about the Tam O’Shanter Inn. I absolutely LOVED the place! Especially their fried calamari appetizer!

On a Glee side note – For those of you who have not yet seen Heather Morris, who plays Brittany on Glee, performing “Single Ladies” live with Beyonce at the 2009 American Music Awards, you can do so now by clicking above. Apparently, Heather was not originally being considered as a cast-member for Glee, but was first called in by series creator Ryan Murphy to teach series regulars Chris Colfer and Jenna Ushkowitz the “Single Ladies” dance for the Season 1 episode titled “Preggers”. Fate stepped in, though, and Murphy ended up liking the actress/professional dancer so much that he immediately cast her in the role of ditzy cheerleader Brittany. And the rest, as they say, is history!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Tam O’Shanter Inn from Glee is located at 2980 Los Feliz Boulevard in the Atwater Village section of Los Angeles. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

July 14, 2010
The Beverly Hills Courthouse – Where Lindsay Lohan Was Sentenced

Last Thursday morning, my fiancé and I ventured out to the Beverly Hills Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office to obtain our marriage license. Because the license application listed the address of the office as “9355 Burton Way, First Floor, Beverly Hills”, I assumed we would be going to some sort of government building. So, imagine my surprise when we pulled up to the Beverly Hills Municipal Courthouse – the exact spot where Lindsay Lohan had been sentenced to 90 days in jail just two days prior! As you can imagine, I just about died of excitement! Not that I am at all a fan of LiLo or anything, I was just ecstatic at the prospect of our marriage license being obtained in a stalking location. I guess it’s really true what they say about the Laws of Attraction because it seems I find myself stalking even when not meaning to. 😉 Unfortunately, I was not able to get many photographs while we were at the courthouse due to the plethora of signs that were posted on the premises announcing that photography of any kind was absolutely NOT allowed. I don’t think those signs are usually posted, by the way, I think they were there solely due to La Lohan’s recent trial. According to one of the security guards we spoke with, the courthouse was absolute pandemonium on the day of Lindsay’s sentencing. He said there were news vans parked up and down the entire street in front of the courthouse and at least a few hundred paparazzi and fans staked out on the sidewalk. Oh, how I wish we had gotten our marriage license two days earlier! 😉

While we were waiting for our marriage license to be processed, I ventured up to the second floor of the courthouse to use the restroom. On the way back downstairs a few minutes later, I spotted the name of Lindsay’s judge – Judge Marsha Revel – on the court directory in the elevator bay and just about had a heart attack! I was absolutely DYING to snap a picture of it, but didn’t due to the aforementioned “NO PHOTOGRAPHS OF ANY KIND” signs posted all over the building and the “YOUR ACTIONS ARE BEING WATCHED ON CCTV” notifications. My fiancé told me I was being a “sissy-la-la” and should have just taken the picture anyway, but I would have felt like a complete and total moron if I had been arrested or had had my camera confiscated for taking a photograph of Lindsay Lohan’s judge’s name on a stupid sign on the same day I was getting my marriage license! I mean, how incredibly lame would that have been??? 😉

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You can watch La Lohan arriving at and leaving the courthouse for her sentencing hearing on July 6 by clicking above. (WARNING – there are some expletives yelled out as she leaves the building, so the video is definitely NSFW.)

You can also watch Lindsay’s little sister Ali going through the courthouse metal detectors that same day by clicking above. As silly as it may sound, I cannot tell you how excited I was to be going through those very same metal detectors just a few days later! I know, I know, I really need to get out more!

The Beverly Hills Courthouse is actually no stranger to celebrity and it’s also a filming location! Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt decided not to get married there in the Season 4 episode of The Hills titled “I Heidi Take Thee Spencer” (pictured above). Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, and Danny DeVito all served their civic duty at the courthouse – Danny DeVito on the very same day on which LiLo was sentenced. Other celebrity trials which took place there include Winona Ryder’s 2002 shoplifting trial, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s 1989 slapping-a-police-officer trial, and Lane Garrison’s 2007 DUI/manslaughter trial. Actors Jessica Alba and Cash Warren even tied the knot in a civil ceremony at the courthouse on May 19, 2008. Unfortunately, we did not have any star sightings while we were getting our marriage license, though.

On a side note – if any of my fellow stalkers live in the Los Angeles area and are in need of a marriage license, I HIGHLY recommend obtaining one at the Beverly Hills Courthouse. My fiancé and I first attempted to apply for ours a few weeks ago at the County Clerk’s office located on Cesar Chavez Avenue in East Los Angeles and what a mistake that was! We ended up leaving after a scant five minutes and decided to try the Beverly Hills branch instead. The Beverly Hills office was nothing short of AWESOME – the clerks were SUPER friendly and the entire process, from the time we parked our car to the time we started our drive home, took only twenty minutes. And even though no photographs were allowed in the building, one of the clerks was nice enough to snap the above photograph of the Grim Cheaper and me as we signed our license. 🙂 See what I mean – sooooo incredibly friendly! Not what you would expect from a government office.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Beverly Hills Courthouse – and Register-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office – is located at 9355 Burton Way in Beverly Hills.

July 13, 2010
David Wallace’s House from “The Office”

Fellow stalker Owen and I recently set out upon a mission to try to track down the Colonial-style residence belonging to David Wallace in the Season 3 episode of The Office titled “Branch Closing”. This proved to be a rather difficult find for us, though, being that we had virtually nothing to go on – no house number or street sign was visible in the background of the episode and neither Owen nor I had any idea of which city the house might be located in. We figured that unless we were able to get ahold of a crew member and gather some inside information, we would never be able to track the place down. That is until last week, when I stumbled upon this fabulous filming locations database, which, lo and behold, had photographs of the exact property which we were looking for! And not only did the database state that the house was located in Pasadena, but it also gave us an address number – 1485. YAY! I immediately emailed the link to Owen and the two of us set about using Google Maps to search every 1400 block in the Pasadena area. Three minutes later I got a text from Owen with the address. And while he says that this one was a team effort, my hat is definitely off to him because there is absolutely NO WAY I ever would have found the place as quickly as he did. So, THANK YOU, OWEN! 🙂

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In the “Branch Closing” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) come up with a plan to save the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company’s Scranton branch by driving to New York to make a personal face-to-face plea to CFO David Wallace (aka Andy Buckley) at his home, the address of which Dwight has stolen off of the company Christmas card list. Because Wallace is not at home when they show up to confront him “Michael Moore-style”, they are forced to wait outside on the sidewalk all day and into the night with only a bottle of Gatorade to sustain them. And while Dwight and Michael never end up getting the chance to confront Wallace in the episode, the Scranton Branch does eventually get spared from closure.

I am VERY happy to report that the Wallace residence looks much the same in person as it did onscreen. In fact, the only difference I noticed was that the bronze eagle that was affixed to the round portico above the front door in the episode was not there in real life. Otherwise, though, the house looks exactly as it did on the show. Love it!

As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, producers even went so far as to have the house’s real life “San Marino Security” sign covered over with a “Mount Vernon Security” sign for the filming, which is so darn cool!

And, of course, I just had to sit in the spot where Dwight and Michael were sitting at the end of the episode. 🙂

On a side note – for whatever reason, in the episode of The Office titled “Cocktails”, which aired during the very same season as the “Branch Closing” episode, a similar-looking, but obviously very different, home stood in for the Wallace residence. Have no fear, though, Owen also found that property, so I will be stalking it soon!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: David Wallace’s house from the “Branch Closing” episode of The Office is located at 1485 Lomita Drive in Pasadena.

July 12, 2010
The Hungry Fox Restaurant from “The Office”

Another location that I stalked back in April while fellow stalker Lavonna and her daughter Melissa were in town was the Hungry Fox Restaurant, which appeared in the Season 3 episode of The Office titled “The Negotiation”. We found this location thanks to fellow stalker “Snidely Whiplash”, who posted a comment on my site a while back that listed an entire slew of Office locales. Snidely currently lives in the Valley, where most Office filming takes place, and often recognizes area locales when they pop up on the show. So, thank you, Snidely! Unfortunately though, because at the time I had never before seen an episode of The Office, when we went to stalk the Hungry Fox I had no idea what it was exactly that we were looking for – or looking at, for that matter. To further complicate things, Lavonna was under the mistaken impression that the restaurant stood in for Poor Richard’s Pub, the bar where Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) confessed to her ex-fiancé Roy Anderson (aka cutie David Denman, who also starred as hearing-impaired football player Brian Murphy in one of my very favorite movies – The Replacements) that she had cheated on him with Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) in the episode titled “Cocktails”. Because the Hungry Fox looks absolutely nothing like Poor Richard’s, though, we figured we had gotten the location wrong. It wasn’t until I recently sat down to watch The Office on DVD that I figured out which particular episode and which particular scene the Hungry Fox had actually appeared in.

As it turns out, the Hungry Fox, which, according to the sign put up for the filming, serves up “Scranton’s Best Breakfast” (LOVE IT!), stood in for the restaurant where Roy took his ex-fiancé Pam to talk about their recent break-up and his rather violent reaction to finding out that she and Jim had kissed. The two say their final good-byes to each other at the restaurant and Roy also rather meaningfully states, “I don’t get you, Pam”, to which she replies, “I know.”

Roy and Pam’s good-bye scene was filmed at the table located immediately to the left of the Hungry Fox’s front door (as you enter the restaurant), right next to the place’s resident fish tank. I have to say that the owner of the Hungry Fox was INCREDIBLY nice when we came in to stalk the place and told us that we were welcome to take as many pictures as we wanted, even though we weren’t actually eating there. Yay! And from what I’ve read on Yelp, we really missed out by not eating there, as the place apparently serves up some fabulous grub!

As I mentioned above, none of us stalkers were entirely sure what scene exactly had been filmed at the Hungry Fox, so we all pretty much just took some random photographs of the place. Whoopsie! Looks like I’m just going to have to go back there in the near future!

On a side note – After returning home, Lavonna did some cyber-stalking and found out that the bar which stood in for Poor Richard’s Pub on The Office is actually a place called Pickwick’s Pub in Woodland Hills. Besides the “Cocktails” episode, Pickwick’s also made an appearance in the Season 4 episode of The Office titled “Local Ad”. Thank you, Lavonna! I will FOR SURE be stalking this one! 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Snidely Whiplash for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hungry Fox restaurant from “The Negotiation” episode of The Office is located at 13359 Sherman Way in North Hollywood.

July 9, 2010
On the Set of “Mad Men”

This past Tuesday, I received an email from one of my fellow stalkers alerting me to the fact that the hit AMC television series Mad Men was going to be shooting on location in Pasadena the following day at Don and Betty Draper’s house, which I blogged about last June. And even though I don’t really watch the show, I just had to venture out to stalk the set – with my camera in hand, of course! 🙂 Unfortunately though, not a whole lot was going on while I was there and the filming only lasted a few short hours. The scene being shot was a very short little driving scene involving actor Jon Hamm, who plays advertising executive Don Draper on the show. And sadly, the crew, while nice, made it very clear that they did NOT want photographs being taken of anything – the set, the filming, the actors, etc., etc., etc. And while I was in no way going to let that stop me ;), the only pictures I could take were on the down low, so I didn’t get very many good ones. I did manage to snap the above photograph of Jon as he was leaving the set after shooting had wrapped, though, and let me tell you, I was completely floored about that! 🙂

Jon seemed super friendly and waved to me and another stalker who I was hanging out with from his van as he was being driven away from the set. I so would have LOVED to have gotten a photograph with him, but unfortunately he was shuttled away from the premises rather quickly as he was due in Downtown L.A., where more Mad Men filming was taking place.

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After Jon Hamm was driven away, I stuck around for a bit to watch the crew members strike the set, a process which I find incredibly interesting. I always love to see what aspects of a property are changed for a filming and which are left the same. One altered aspect of the Draper house that I knew about prior to my set visit yesterday was the color of their front door. As you can see in the above photograph, which I took when I stalked the property last June, in real life the home’s front door is painted blue.

But on the show, the Draper’s front door is painted a bright red color, and, let me tell you, when I set out to stalk the set yesterday, I was most excited over the prospect of seeing that red door in person – even more so than I was about the prospect of seeing Jon Hamm. 😉 And I was even more excited when I was able to snap the above photograph of it! YAY! I found out from a crew member that the home’s real life front door is actually painted red each and every time they film at the property! I had mistakenly assumed that set dressers had a special door that they installed during each filming, but in reality, someone is actually brought in the day before shooting to paint the real life door red and then, after shooting wraps, he or she paints it back to its original blue color . . . every single time they film! Isn’t that incredible? I mean, I realize doors are expensive and all, but it seems to me that it would be a whole lot more cost effective and a whole lot more timely to simply switch out the real door for a red one. Not to mention the fact that there now must be over a dozen layers of paint on that door! I swear, I’ll never understand Hollywood sometimes!

Set dressers also install a fake light post (which you can see laying on the ground in the above photograph) each time filming takes place, which was incredible to see. They actually dig up a part of the home’s front lawn in order to bury the base of the light each and every time they film! With all the filming that takes place at the property that poor lawn probably never has time to grow back! They also bring in a slew of potted plants (which you can also see in the above photograph) which are placed on the front porch for each filming.

The coolest thing for me to see, though, was the fake street sign that was put up for the scene. The signs above which read “Shady Lane” and “Bullet Park Road” normally spell out “El Molino Avenue” and “Arden Road”. So darn cool! According to one of the crew members I talked to, the fake sign was so realistic that it caused a bit of confusion for a passerby who was driving around, trying unsuccessfully to find Arden Road. LOL

Set dressers also covered up the above-pictured stop sign with a fake 50’s style stop sign, but unfortunately I didn’t get a photograph of it. In fact, I didn’t even notice it was a fake sign until one of the set dressers removed it after filming had wrapped. I SO wish I had gotten a picture of it! UGH! I am SO blonde sometimes.

Ironically enough, my fiancé and I were watching the 1995 movie Outbreak a couple of weeks ago and I was floored to discover that the house belonging to Robby Keough (aka Rene Russo) in the flick was none other than the Mad Men house! So cool! You can see some great interior photographs of the home here. And, according to one of the crew members I talked to, some Mad Men filming does actually take place inside of the home.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Don and Betty Draper’s house from Mad Men is located at 675 Arden Road in Pasadena.

July 8, 2010
Jim and Pam’s House from “The Office”

One location that I stalked back in April while fellow stalker Lavonna and her daughter Melissa were in town was the house that Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinksi) purchased for his fiancé Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) in the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Frame Toby”. At the time I had never actually seen an episode of the series despite the fact that pretty much everyone in my life (from fellow stalker Owen to my best friend Kylee) had been telling me how fabulous it was. But then, a few weeks ago, I finally took the plunge and rented the show’s entire first season on DVD, and, let me tell you, once I sat down to watch it I simply COULD NOT STOP! It practically became an addiction! They say that laughter is the best medicine and from what I’ve experienced watching The Office that sentiment is absolutely true. I started viewing the series during a particularly stressful time in my life and it brought me so many much-needed laughs that I was lifted right out of my funk. In fact, I can honestly say that never IN MY LIFE have I laughed out loud at a show as much as I have these past few weeks while watching The Office. It’s absolutely hilarious! For those of you holdouts who have never watched the show, you simply must start! But I digress. Anyway, last night I finally saw the “Frame Toby” episode in which Jim and Pam’s house is first shown, which meant that I could finally, finally blog about the place!

On The Office, Jim and Pam’s house actually first belonged to Jim’s parents. He buys it from them as a gift for Pam because, as he says, he wants to help his parents out and because he was able to “save on closing costs”. So darn cute! 🙂 I have to give major props to Owen on finding this location as producers actually changed the property’s address number in the episode in order to throw us stalkers off track!

As you can see in the above photograph, in real life the house is numbered 13831.

But, as you can see in the above screen capture, producers had the second “1” digitally removed from the scene. UGH! I SO hate it when they do that! Changing address numbers has to be my biggest stalking pet peeve! Thankfully though, Owen, acting on a tip from a fellow stalker, started searching the neighborhood surrounding the studio where The Office is filmed and found the house a mere two miles away. YAY!

And I am very happy to report that, aside from the address number, the property looks very similar in person as to how it appeared in the “Frame Toby” episode. Producers very obviously roughed the house up a bit for the filming (i.e. the broken roof gutter, the leaves on the front lawn, and the overgrown foliage), but I am guessing that in the episodes to come, Jim will be shown fixing up the place for Pam. I can’t say that for certain, though, as I am currently only halfway through Season 5, so I’ve still got some viewing to do before I catch up with the current episodes. I’ve actually had to considerably slow down my Office-watching habit this past week, though, because I am absolutely DREADING having no more new episodes to watch. I honestly don’t know what I’ll do with myself when that happens!

The home’s garage area, which on the show Jim converted into an art studio for Pam . . .

. . . is sadly not visible from the street.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Jim and Pam’s house from The Office is located at 13831 Calvert Street in Van Nuys.

July 7, 2010
Will Rogers Memorial Park from “90210”

As I mentioned yesterday, my fiancé and I spent quite a bit of last weekend making up for lost time, so to speak, by catching up on all of the stalking that I had been putting off over the past few months while my dad was ill. The location that I was most excited about seeing in person was Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, which was the spot where Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes) and Liam Court (aka Matt Lanter) took a dip in a fountain in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “Multiple Choices”. And while I haven’t exactly been a huge fan of the CW series this past season, I have absolutely loved watching the friendship between Liam and Annie blossom and change in the most recent episodes, especially in the fountain scene (which is vaguely reminiscent of the Carrie/Big fountain scene from Sex and the City). Add to that the fact that I have a massive crush on actor Matt Lanter and I just HAD to stalk the park where filming took place. 🙂 It is at this point that I should confess that I had no idea whatsoever where Annie and Liam’s fountain might be located, despite the fact that I’d actually driven by it more times than I’d care to admit. Thankfully though, the Grim Cheaper pays closer attention to things than I do, because he recognized the park immediately while watching the show. Thank you, G.C.! As it turns out, Will Rogers Memorial Park is located on Sunset Boulevard, directly across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel, one of my favorite places in all of L.A. How I had never seen the park during one of my many visits to the Pink Palace is absolutely beyond me! Ugh, I am such a blonde sometimes!

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The five-acre parcel of land that currently makes up Will Rogers Memorial Park originally belonged to the Beverly Hills Hotel and served as its front lawn area. In 1915, the hotel decided to donate the land to the City of Beverly Hills and it became known as Sunset Park, the city’s very first municipal park. Thirty-seven years later, in 1952, the City renamed the property in honor of legendary actor/humorist/cowboy Will Rogers, who had been dubbed “Honorary Mayor” of Beverly Hills while at the park in 1926.

Will Rogers Memorial Park is an absolutely GORGEOUS place, with a huge central fountain filled with Koi fish, sweeping lawns, and countless palm trees which dot the property. I honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough.





In the “Multiple Choices” episode of 90210, Liam takes Annie to the park to get her mind off of her parents’ recent marital troubles. While there, Annie announces that she wants “to kick something or scream or just, you know, run away” before impulsively jumping into the park’s large fountain. When Liam later tries to pull her out, he accidentally falls into the water himself. It’s a super cute little scene and was the first time that either Annie or Liam acknowledged to themselves that they might have feelings for each other.

You can watch the Annie/Liam fountain scene by clicking above.

Will Rogers Memorial Park has actually had quite a few brushes with fame. Its cinematic history first began almost nine decades ago, when it was featured in the 1921 Charlie Chaplin movie The Idle Class, which you can see a photograph of here. And according to the Seeing Stars website, in 1990 rocker Rod Stewart proposed to his one-time wife Rachel Hunter while at the park. The property is perhaps most famous, though, for a much less glitzy reason – it was in the park’s restroom that singer George Michael was arrested for performing a lewd act on April 7, 1998. And while my fiancé did use the men’s room while we were there, I felt a little odd about sending him in with a camera to take pictures of it. 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Will Rogers Memorial Park is located at 9650 Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, directly across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel.

July 6, 2010
The “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” Apartment Building

A couple of weeks ago, fellow stalker Owen set out upon a mission to try to track down the Spanish-style apartment building where Peter Bretter (aka Jason Segal) lived in the 2008 romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He emailed a few screen captures of the building to me and to the rest of “the team” – aka Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and Chas, from ItsFilmedThere – and, while my first instinct was that the dwelling was located somewhere in Hollywood, most likely in the same neighborhood as Brenda Leigh Johnson’s duplex from The Closer, I just couldn’t seem to locate it. Thankfully though, Owen also called upon master stalker Gary, curator of the Seeing Stars website, who ended up tracking the place down. Thank you, Gary! As it turns out my instincts were way off – the building was not located in Hollywood as I had originally thought, but a few miles northeast of it in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. So, last weekend, after what had amounted to a more-than-month-long hiatus due to my dad’s illness, I finally, finally resumed my stalking habit and dragged my fiancé out to Los Feliz to see the Forgetting Sarah Marshall apartment. YAY!

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Because the vast majority of Forgetting Sarah Marshall was filmed on location at Oahu’s Turtle Bay Resort, Peter’s building is actually only featured in a few scenes in the movie, most notably the scene in which Peter’s step-brother Brian (aka Bill Hader) stops by the apartment after Peter’s landlord reports seeing smoke coming out of his unit.

And I am very happy to report that Peter’s building looks almost EXACTLY the same in person as it did onscreen in the movie.

In fact, the only difference I noticed was the color of the front door, which was white in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but is now painted a light green. The building is SUPER cute – and super colorful – in person and is located in an adorable little neighborhood. I highly recommend stalking it!

On a side note – A few months ago, while my fiancé and I were trying to decide where to go for our upcoming honeymoon, I, of course, made mention of the Turtle Bay Resort, which, besides Forgetting Sarah Marshall, has also been featured in episodes of Murder, She Wrote and the reality series The Big Break and was used as the main location in the 2004 series North Shore, which starred Brenda Walsh herself, Shannen Doherty. Sadly though, my fiancé immediately put the kibosh on that one as he had no desire to honeymoon in Oahu, which has the stigma of being known as Hawaii’s most crowded island. All was not lost, though, as we ended up booking a week at my girl Jen Aniston’s favorite vacation spot – Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. 🙂 I SO wanted to stay at her favorite resort there – One&Only Palmilla, which also just so happens to be the the site of Spencer and Heidi’s November 2008 elopement – but unfortunately, rooms there START at $1,000 per night. Yes, you read that right – the lowest priced room at One&Only Palmilla is $1,000 per night! Not kidding! Don’t worry, though, we will OF COURSE be stopping by there to grab a bite to eat at some point during the honeymoon. Fellow stalker David asked me a few weeks ago if I would be stalking on my honeymoon. And my answer to that question is OF COURSE! I mean, don’t you know me at all by now? 😉

Big THANK YOU to Gary from Seeing Stars for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Forgetting Sarah Marshall apartment building is located at 1973 Palmerston Place in Los Feliz.

July 5, 2010
The “Spanglish” House

The Michael J. Fox Theatre in Burnaby, British Columbia, which I blogged about yesterday, was actually the very last Vancouver locale that I had logged away in my location library and, while I have a slew of Seattle area spots that I have yet to write about, I thought that for today I’d mix things up a bit by posting about a location that can be found right here in Southern California. So enjoy! A few weeks ago, fellow stalker Nick emailed me to let me know that he was in the process of trying to track down the residence belonging to John and Deborah Clasky (played by Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni, respectively) in the 2004 movie Spanglish. I was extremely excited upon hearing about this endeavor as the Spanglish house is one that I’ve long been wanting to stalk. Unfortunately, though, my father was in the hospital on the day that Nick emailed me, so I wasn’t able to offer him much help in the hunt. As it turns out, though, he didn’t need my assistance, after all, because less than 24 hours later he emailed me back with an address! Nick had read on IMDB’s Spanglish filming locations page that some filming of the movie had taken place on Stone Canyon Road in Bel Air, so he immediately got to searching the area via Google Street View and, lo and behold, found the house! YAY! Thank you, Nick!

So, since things have calmed down considerably regarding my dad’s health in recent weeks (he just had his final surgery to implant the permanent nerve block device last Friday evening and is feeling great!), I was finally able to drag my fiancé out to stalk the Spanglish house this past Saturday afternoon. Sadly, though, due to a large gate and massive amounts of foliage, not a whole lot of it is visible from the street.

I am happy to report, though, that what was visible looks much the same as it did in the movie. 🙂

And from the way the movie was shot, I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the house, which boasts 3 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and 4,295 square feet of living space, was used in the filming, as well.

And, as you can see in the above aerial image and screen capture, the home’s real life backyard and pool area were also used in the flick.

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And while not much of the property could be seen from the street, I must say that the Spanglish house was still very exciting for me to stalk because quite a few scenes from the movie were actually filmed out in front of the residence –

– most notably the scene in which Deborah Clasky and her housekeeper Flor Moreno (aka Paz Vega) engage in a spontaneous foot-race after dropping their kids off at the bus stop on the first day of school.

On a side note – I will not be publishing a new blog post tomorrow, Friday, July 2nd, as I have a bunch of wedding appointments scheduled on the day prior that, unfortunately, will leave me with very little time for blogging. I’ll be back Monday, though, and in the meantime I’d like to wish all of my fellow stalkers a very happy Fourth of July! 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Nick for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Clasky house from Spanglish is located at 1130 Stone Canyon Road in Bel Air.

July 1, 2010
The Michael J. Fox Theatre

A few months back, while fellow stalker Owen and I were doing research on Michael J. Fox’s childhood home which I blogged about yesterday, I came across some information about a place called “the Michael J. Fox Theatre” which is located on the campus of Burnaby South Secondary School and, let me tell you, I just about passed out from excitement. I absolutely could NOT WAIT to tell Owen about the location, as he just so happens to be MJF’s biggest fan. Apparently, in November of 1995 Burnaby South renamed their 613-seat professional theatre, which originally opened in 1993, in recognition of the Canadian-born actor and his many achievements in the entertainment industry and contributions to the community that he once called home. Owen was extremely excited to hear about the theatre and I immediately added it to my list of Must-Stalk locations in Vancouver. So, Owen, this one’s for you! 🙂

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As I mentioned above, the Michael J. Fox Theatre is located on the campus of Burnaby South Secondary School, which is not actually the high school that Michael J. Fox attended as a teen.   The actor was actually enrolled at the similarly-named Burnaby Central Secondary School, which is located about three miles north of Burnaby South. I’m not entirely sure why city officials did not dedicate a theatre in his honor at his actual alma mater, but I believe the reasoning behind the decision had to do with the fact that Burnaby South is a very technologically advanced institution that offers several communications and broadcasting courses to its 1,700-member student body. The school also televises its morning announcements via a daily news program each morning and offers a broadcasting class in which theatrically-inclined students can create and film short movies and television series which are then broadcast over the school’s airwaves during each lunch hour. Add to that the fact that the British Columbia School for the Deaf was moved to the Burnaby South campus in 1995 and that the theatre which now bears MJF’s name was designed with the hearing-impaired, and other special needs students, in mind, and it’s obvious why they chose the campus as the location of the Michael J. Fox Theatre.

And, let me tell you, I just about died when we pulled up to the Burnaby South campus and spotted the above sign. So darn cool! 🙂



Because the theatre is located on a high school campus and because we were stalking the place on a Saturday, I didn’t have high hopes that we would actually be able to see the inside of it. So, imagine my surprise when we pulled up and found the front doors standing wide open, thanks to a dance recital that was taking place inside. YAY!



The Michael J. Fox Theatre is truly beautiful inside, but my favorite part had to be the huge tile wall mosaic made up of brightly-colored musicians and dancers which greets patrons as they enter (pictured above).

And while the theatre’s logo, which consists of MJF’s initials written in his own handwriting – which I think is just about the coolest thing ever! – appears in numerous spots throughout the theatre, sadly there are no photographs of the actor displayed anywhere on the premises. Nor could I find any information about him or about the history of the theatre. I had expected there to be, at the very least, some sort of plaque honoring the theatre’s namesake along with a photograph of him at the theatre’s dedication ceremony, but all we could find was the above display which lists the names of those who have donated to the property at one time or another. Such a bummer!



Due to the dance recital which was taking place while we were there, the interior of the actual auditorium was far too dark for us to be able to snap any photographs. 🙁 Which is such a bummer as I had so wanted to see the Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan honorary chair!   You can see what the auditorium looks like on the official Michael J. Fox Theatre website here, which is where I got the two photographs pictured above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Michael J. Fox Theatre is located on the campus of Burnaby South Secondary School at 7373 Macpherson Avenue in Burnaby, British Columbia. You can visit the office Michael J. Fox Theatre website here.

June 30, 2010