Tag: Celebrities

Villa de Leon

Back in September, while doing research on the Glendale Amtrak Station from Bulletproof (which I blogged about here), I came across a fabulous post on the Paradise Leased website about Villa de Leon – a huge Pacific Palisades-area estate that was also designed by architect Kenneth MacDonald Jr. I quickly became entranced by the ginormous manse, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean, because not only is it an oft-filmed-at locale, but it is also one of the most consistently mis-identified buildings in all of Los Angeles. In fact, until reading the Paradise Leased post, even yours truly had gotten this one wrong. I had seen the dwelling countless times in the past whenever driving along the Pacific Coast Highway and had always assumed that it was the Getty Villa – as do most people, even native Angelinos. It is an easy mistake to make, though.

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As you can see in the images below, Villa de Leon is situated directly above a sign for the Getty Villa, confusing tourists and residents alike. In fact, even The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have mis-identified the place, so I guess I am in good company.

In actuality, the Getty Villa sits hidden from the road, directly behind and just north of Villa de Leon. As you can see below, both buildings are also Mediterranean in style and quite significant in size, which only furthers the confusion.

And while the Getty Villa is, I’m sure, spectacular (I’ve never actually been there), Villa de Leon is a masterpiece in and of itself – easily one of the most stunning properties that I have ever laid eyes upon. The 35-room Beaux Arts/Mediterranean-style estate was built for a wealthy wool magnate named Leon Kauffman and his wife, Clemence, in 1927. The three-story structure took over five years to complete and cost a whopping $1 million to construct – about $12 million today. At the time that the Villa was built, it was the only residence in the area. In fact, even the Pacific Coast Highway had yet to exist. Access to the beach from the home was made possible thanks to a funicular (yeah, I had to look that one up, too).

Sadly, Clemence Kauffman passed away in 1933, only five years after the house was completed, and Leon followed soon after in 1935. The Villa remained unoccupied, except for a caretaker, for the next twenty years, until it was finally put up for auction in 1952, where it sold for the unbelievably-low price of $71,000. The property then went through a succession of different owners and was last purchased in 2007 for $10 million.

The massive Villa de Leon boasts ten bedrooms, ten baths, 10,277 square feet of living space, a one-acre plot of seaside land, a 67-foot tall entry hall, a library with coffered ceilings, a master suite with mahogany-paneled walls, a spiral staircase, a living room with a 35-foot tall hand-stenciled ceiling, a circular-shaped formal dining room with ocean views, a seven-car garage(!) with its own car wash (!), formal gardens (many of which have been destroyed over the years due to landslides), a working elevator, two vaults, a central vacuum system (one of the first to ever be built), and several terraces. You can check out some fabulous photographs of the mansion’s interior here. What I wouldn’t give to go inside that place!

Thankfully, unlike most Los Angeles-area mega-mansions, this one is quite visible from the road.

As I mentioned above, Villa de Leon has been featured in countless productions over the years, most notably photo shoots. I actually dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk the location twice as, on our first visit, I was not able to get any faraway photographs. Amazingly enough, there was something being shot on the premises BOTH times that we were there, as you can see below.

The exterior of Villa de Leon was featured on the cover of Procol Harum’s Grand Hotel album in 1973.

In 2008, Victoria Beckham did a photo shoot for Harper’s Bazaar Indonesia at the mansion.

Villa de Leon was one of two estates used in the music video for Lady Gaga’s 2009 song “Paparazzi”. While the majority of the video was filmed at 10425 Revuelta Way in Bel Air (which was also the location of this week’s group date on The Bachelor), portions of the Villa were featured, as well, including the back patio area . . .

. . . and parts of the interior.

You can watch the “Paparazzi” video by clicking below.

Also in 2009, the home appeared in Michael Bay’s “A Thousand Fantasies” commercial for Victoria’s Secret.

Villa de Leon was the site of Heidi Klum’s photo shoot for the February 2010 issue of InStyle magazine, although very little of the property can actually be seen in the final spread. (The stills below came from a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot posted on the InStyle website.)

Robert Pattinson shot the (extremely NSFW) cover story for the March 2010 issue of Details magazine at Villa de Leon.

Angelina Jolie posed for the cover of the December 2010 Vogue there.

Reese Witherspoon’s spread for the October 2011 issue of Marie Claire also took place at the Villa.

The promotional pictures for Britney Spears’ 2011 album Femme Fatale were shot on the premises.

The estate appeared in the music video for Foster the People’s 2011 song “Call It What You Want”. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the house were used extensively in the video.

You can watch the “Call It What You Want” video by clicking below.

Robert Downey Jr. did a photo shoot for the May 2012 issue of Esquire magazine at Villa de Leon.

As did Freida Pinto for the July 2012 issue of Flaunt Magazine.

Rod Stewart’s 2012 Christmas special, Rod Stewart: Merry Christmas, Baby, was also filmed at the estate.

The Kardashians, Maria Menounos, Katy Perry, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Justin Long have also done shoots at the house – all of which you can see photographs of here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Villa de Leon is located at 17948 Porto Marina Way in Pacific Palisades.

January 16, 2013
El Pollo del Mar from “L.A. Story”

One location that I had been dying to find for years was El Pollo del Mar (yes, that translates to The Chicken of the Sea LOL), aka the supposed Santa Barbara-area resort featured in the 1991 flick L.A. Story. Try as I might, though, I just could not seem to track the place down. So, when a fellow stalker named Scott wrote a comment on my L.A. Story gas station post informing me of the site’s location, my head just about exploded from excitement! In reality, the Mediterranean-style hotel is an absolutely gargantuan private residence that overlooks the Pacific Ocean in Long Beach. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that El Pollo del Mar was a) someone’s home (!!!) and b) located in the LBC. I honestly would have bet money on the fact that it was an actual hotel in Santa Barbara. Mind officially blown! And while I was chomping at the bit to stalk the locale just as soon as Scott told me about it, because I do not get down to the Long Beach area very often, I was not able to do so until this past December.

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Sadly, the El Pollo del Mar house is located on a gated street, so only a small portion of it is visible to the public. Man, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that thing!

In real life, the gargantuan residence, which was originally built in 1926 and is named Casa Oceana, boasts three bedrooms, five baths, 7,576 square feet of living space, and a 1.28-acre plot of seaside land.

El Pollo del Mar pops up towards the end of L.A. Story as the charming resort where disgruntled weatherman Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) takes his girlfriend SanDeE* (my girl Sarah Jessica Parker) for the weekend. While there he runs into his dream girl, Sara McDowel (Victoria Tennant), who is on a reconciliation trip with her ex-husband, Roland Mackey (Richard E. Grant). Drama, of course, ensues. As you can see below, the property is absolutely huge and can easily masquerade as a hotel. In fact, I am surprised that it hasn’t been used more frequently in productions.

And, as I mentioned, while the majority of the residence cannot be seen from the road, I was BEYOND floored to discover that the front gate . . .

. . . and archway that appeared in the movie were visible. Yay!

And for the rest, there’s always Bing Aerial Views! I still can’t believe the place is a private house! I mean, look at that thing!

I am kicking myself for not having walked down to the beachside of the property while we were there because it, too, appeared in L.A. Story, in the scene in which Harris and Sara get into a fight over their respective significant others.

All of the interior El Pollo del Mar scenes were filmed (I believe) twenty miles north of Long Beach at the now-defunct Ambassador Hotel, which used to stand at 3400 Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown.

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The El Pollo del Mar hotel from L.A. Story is actually a private home located at 20 37th Place in Long Beach.

January 9, 2013
Redwood Bar & Grill from “Bridesmaids”

Once the rain finally stopped falling this past Saturday morning, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to downtown Los Angeles to stalk a Bridesmaids location that has been at the very top of my To-Stalk list for months now – Redwood Bar & Grill, where Officer Rhodes (Chris O’Dowd) and Annie Walker (Kristen Wiig) went on a spontaneous date towards the end of the movie. I found this locale thanks to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who has a page dedicated to a few of the spots featured in the 2011 flick.

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Before arriving at Redwood Bar & Grill, I knew virtually nothing about the place, other than the fact that it had been used in Bridesmaids. And because so little of it was shown in the movie, I had no idea what to expect of the interior. Boy, was I in for a surprise!

While fairly non-descript on the outside, the interior of Redwood Bar & Grill is all dim lighting, dark wood paneling and themed nautical décor. Dining there feels like dining in the middle of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland, only better. Unfortunately, because the lighting was so low, though, the vast majority of my pictures did not come out. Ugh! Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has promised that he will teach me how to use the aperture settings on my camera in the near future, but in the meantime, you can check out some cool photos of the bar here. (Now why couldn’t my pics have come out that clear?)

Redwood Bar & Grill actually saw its origins as a 1930s-era hamburger stand where Philadelphia native Samuel “Eddie” Spivak sold 10-cent burgers out of a small storefront located at 234 West 1st Street, just downstairs from the Los Angeles Times newsroom. In 1942, Eddie expanded his eatery, as well as its menu, added a bar, and renamed the place the “Redwood House”. Due to its proximity to the newspaper offices, the restaurant became extremely popular with the journalist set, who dubbed the site the “Red Dog”. According to the obituary of Alice Broude, who worked at the Redwood House for more than 50 years, a certain unnamed reporter would place his daily order by stomping his feet three times loudly on the floor. Ha! You can see a photograph of the original Redwood House here and a picture of its former menu here. When the Times Mirror Co., owner of the L.A. Times, decided to expand into the Redwood space in January 1970, Spivak moved his restaurant one block south, where it remains to this day. Despite the move, the watering hole remained popular with Times journalists. So much so that for years the bar was equipped with a special red phone that was connected directly to the paper’s main news desk, just in case any last minute tips came in. It was not only journalists who were drawn to the site, though. Over the years, the Redwood House was frequented by the likes of actors Burt Reynolds and Jack Warden, former presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and such notorious gangsters as Frankie Carbo (who, according to Broude, refused to eat meat on Fridays) and Mickey Cohen (who, also according to Broude, was a fabulous tipper).

At some point in time, the establishment’s name was changed to the Redwood 2nd Street Saloon and it was taken over by new owners In and Ho Park. Sadly, in June 2005, due to dwindling business and failed lease negotiations, Ho and In closed the eatery, which most regulars had described as a real life Cheers (where everybody knows your name). Thankfully though, restaurateurs Christian Frizell and Dev Dugal stepped in, signed a new lease, renovated the interior, and, in September 2005, re-opened the site as a pirate-themed watering hole named the Redwood Bar & Grill. The décor is now decidedly unique and swashbuckler-esque. I absolutely fell in love with the skeleton candelabra pictured below. I so need to find one for myself to add to my Halloween decorations!

Besides spicing up the décor, Frizell and Dugal also revamped the Redwood menu, and, let me tell you, the food is to-die-for! I opted for the Redwood’s Veggie Burger, made on the premises out of mushrooms, vegetables, and quinoa, and not only was it divine, but absolutely HUGE! The GC ordered a cup of the restaurant’s New England Clam Chowder, which was also fabulous, especially considering the chill in the air that day. I honestly cannot more highly recommend stalking Redwood Bar & Grill! It is a shame that we only just discovered the place as I have a feeling that, were we not moving to Palm Springs in three weeks, it would have quickly become a favorite.

In Bridesmaids, Redwood Bar & Grill is where Rhodes and Annie grabbed a drink after her ill-fated flight to Las Vegas. It is there that Rhodes uttered the super-cute line, “There’s something about you – something about you that sticks.” As you can see below, the place looked quite a bit different onscreen.

Because Bridesmaids was set in Milwaukee, the exterior of an actual Milwaukee-area watering hole – Norman One Step (which is now closed), located at 3218 West Cameron Street – was used for the establishing shot of the bar in the movie.

Redwood Bar & Grill also popped up in the 2009 flick (500) Days of Summer, as The Mill – aka the spot where Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Summer (Zooey Deschanel) and their greeting-card-writing co-workers karaoked on Day (28).

The stage where Summer and the rest of the gang performed is actually there in real life, too, although the Redwood does not actually host karaoke nights.

And the skeleton candelabra that I fell in love with was even pictured briefly in the flick. Love it!

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Redwood Bar & Grill from Bridesmaids is located at 316 West 2nd Street in downtown Los Angeles. The eatery is open daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can visit the Redwood’s official website here.

January 3, 2013
Paula’s House from “Four Christmases”

While I realize that the holidays are now over and that I should be posting about a non-Yule-related locale, today’s house is one that I have been searching for for over a year and finally found on the morning of December 25th – yes, it was a Christmas miracle – and I am FAR too excited to wait a full year to blog about it. So please excuse my belatedness. And now, on with the post! Ever since first seeing the movie Four Christmases back in 2008, I have wanted to stalk the supposed Marin-area residence where Brad’s (Vince Vaughn’s) mom, Paula (Sissy Spacek), lived. Thankfully, the flick’s production notes stated that the exterior of the “Zen-styled living space” was actually a private home in Topanga Canyon, so I knew where to begin my search. Try as I might, though, I could not seem to find the darn place. Then, on Christmas morning, while my mom was at work (I know, boo!), my dad was napping and the Grim Cheaper was preparing our turkey dinner, I decided to get some cyber-stalking in and did a quick Google search for Topanga Canyon cottages with stone fireplaces. Lo and behold, one of the first results to come back was a real estate listing for an adorable little bungalow that I immediately recognized as Paula’s! Yay! And while the residence did not appear to be visible from the road, I could hardly wait to stalk the place and dragged the GC right on over there just a few days after we returned home.

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Well, let me tell you, when we pulled up to the property and saw that it was actually visible from the street, I was so excited that I just about started doing cartwheels! Yahoo! As you can see below, the cottage is absolutely idyllic in person. It literally looks like something ripped right out of a fairy tale!

In real life, the residence boasts two bedrooms, two baths, 1,632 square feet of living space, a 236-square-foot detached studio, a sprawling one-acre lot, a fireplace constructed out of River Rock, a sauna, an eat-in kitchen, an outdoor patio, a wrap-around deck, a footbridge built over Garaptas Creek (which runs through the property), several meandering pathways, and numerous park-like areas consisting of willow, oak, sycamore and pine trees. The place is absolutely stunning!

Paula’s bungalow actually shows up only once in Four Christmases, and very briefly at that, in the scene in which Brad and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) arrive at their third holiday destination – which was my personal favorite. The Taboo game segment (which you can watch by clicking below) was absolutely hilarious – “I don’t have an attitude. I’ve shut down. She buzzes me, I’m trying to explain to you how to the play the game, you obviously don’t understand the best ways to play the game, and I’m shutting down.” Love it! But I digress.

In an AMAZING twist, Four Christmases production designer Shepherd Frankel contacted me after reading my post on Brad and Kate’s house from the movie. (And yes, I just about died when I received his email in which he said that he loved reading my blog and seeing my detective work unfold!!!!) Shepherd was nice enough to answer all of the questions posed in my various Four Christmases posts (which I will get to in a bit) and also had this to say when I asked if Paula’s home was indeed a real location: “Yes, we shot at a house in Topanga, but . . . I added all kinds of things to make it bigger. I created sun rooms by enclosing decks. Added skylights built up to help the house appear bigger. Created an entrance. Did all of the set-ups and ‘places’ in the yard.” As you can see below, the real life residence does look quite a bit different – and much smaller – than its onscreen counterpart, although it is (thankfully) still very recognizable from the film.

Amazingly enough, the stained-glass interior of Paula’s cottage was just a set that was built inside of a soundstage at Ren-Mar Studios (now Red Studios Hollywood, which I blogged about here). The set was so incredibly realistic, though, that, before reading through the movie’s production notes, I was absolutely convinced that the actual interior had been used, which speaks to Shepherd’s artistry. As you can see in these real estate photographs as compared to the screen captures below, the actual interior of the residence is much smaller than its onscreen counterpart, and much simpler in design. You can check out some fabulous photographs of Shepherd’s set on his website here.

As I mentioned above, Shepherd was nice enough to answer a couple of questions posed in my other Four Christmases posts. First, he informed me that the backyard of Marilyn’s (Mary Steenburgen’s) house was not a mixture of the actual backyard and a set, as I had surmised. According to Shepherd, “ It was all done onstage where I replicated a version of the rear elevation of the location, but modified it to suit our needs.” He also told me that the view behind Marilyn’s fence was a “plate shot” of the home’s actual neighborhood.

Shepherd also explained that the deleted scene in which Brad and Kate called their respective parents to tell them that they would not be coming home for Christmas was not supposed to have taken place at the couple’s residence, as I had guessed, but in an upstairs coffee break room at the dance studio. So the differing interiors now make sense.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Paula’s house from Four Christmases is located at 1290 Oakwood Drive in Topanga Canyon.

January 2, 2013
The “Christmas Vacation” Pool

Another Christmas-themed locale that I had long wanted to track down and stalk was Clark W. Griswold’s (Chevy Chase’s) dream pool from the 1989 classic Christmas Vacation. (Is it odd, by the way, that I can still remember exactly where I was and who I was with the first time I saw the flick back in middle school? But I digress.) Being that the pool had only popped up once in the movie and that a very small portion of it was ever shown, I had no clue whatsoever where it might be located or how to even begin searching for it. Then, back in February, while Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were visiting Warner Bros. Ranch, where the majority of Christmas Vacation was lensed, our lovely tour guide took us by the lot’s pool and I got an inkling that it might have been the one used in the movie. Our guide was unsure if that was the case, though, and when I re-watched the flick to make comparisons later that day, I noticed some differences in the two pools which led me to believe that they were not one and the same.

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Then, in October, I returned to the Ranch for another tour, this time with fellow stalkers Kim and Lavonna, and our guide informed us that Old Navy had just shot a series of Christmas Vacation-themed commercials (one of which you can watch by clicking below) on the premises and that, during the filming, Chevy Chase had mentioned that the lot’s pool had been used as Clark’s dream pool in the original movie. YAY! As someone who is always seeking further verification, though, I popped in my dad’s Christmas Vacation DVD while visiting my parents during Thanksgiving to see if any mention of the pool’s location was made in the commentary and, sure enough, director Jeremiah S. Chechik stated that the pool scene was filmed at Warner Bros. Ranch, just across from the house used as the Griswold residence in the film.

Clark’s dream pool, which, according to the fabulous Columbia Ranch website, was originally built in 1948, is located in the Park section of Warner Bros. Ranch, right next to the fountain used in the Friends opening credits and the Alan House from Pushing Daisies and Small Soldiers.

Mike took the photographs below during our February visit and, as you can see, a backdrop was installed around the southern portion of the pool at the time for a production that did not want it to be visible.

For the filming of Christmas Vacation, a significant amount of foliage was added to the premises to make it appear more like a residential backyard. And, as you can see below, while the lip of the pool was plain cement at the time of the shoot, it is now brick, and the metal ladder that was once affixed to the side of the structure has also since been removed.

But, thankfully, the legs of the diving board still look EXACTLY the same today as they did in 1989 when Christmas Vacation was filmed! LOVE IT!

You can check out a close-up photograph of those legs below.

And I, of course, just had to pose on the diving board like Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) while I was there. If only I had brought my skivvies that day!

The Warner Bros. Ranch pool also appeared very briefly in the Season 1 episode of The Monkees titled “The Chaperone” during their “You Just May Be the One” performance.

The pool also popped up several times in various The Partridge Family episodes, including the Season 1 episode titled “Danny and the Mob” . . .

. . . and the Season 2 episode titled “Home Is Where the Heart Was”.

And while the pool was used in the Season 1 episode of Bewitched titled “And Something Makes Three”, it was never actually shown. In the episode, Samantha Stephens (Elizabeth Montgomery) conjures up a pool in her backyard on a hot summer day, absolutely perplexing nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz (Alice Pearce), who can only see small glimpses of Samantha, jumping up and down on a diving board and splashing water, over their shared fence.

The Warner Bros. Ranch pool was also used significantly in the 2012 high school comedy Project X.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Christmas Vacation pool is located on the Warner Bros. Ranch lot at 411 North Hollywood Way in Burbank. Unfortunately, the Ranch is gated and not accessible to the public.

December 21, 2012
The Former Site of the “Home Alone 2” Motel

One Christmas location that I had been absolutely obsessed with finding for years was the supposed Miami, Florida-area motel where the McCallister family – minus Kevin (Macaulay Culkin), of course – stayed in the 1992 flick Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. I had always assumed that the place was located in Miami, until I noticed a mention on the movie’s IMDB filming locations page that stated that it was actually in Malibu. Well, believe you me, once I found out that the motel was located in the L.A. region, I became bound and determined to find it and immediately enlisted the help of fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website. Chas wound up contacting one of the HA2 crew members about a year and a half ago, who had this to say, “That was the last scene we shot in the movie and I was driving the van. I just looked it up. We shot it at Rochelle’s Motel, 3333 Lakewood Boulevard @ Donald Douglas Drive, Long Beach, CA. I’m honestly not sure it exists anymore, but that would be (I think) the correct name and address. I just found the call sheet.” (I LOVE hearing insider info like the fact that it was the last scene shot and that the crew-member was driving the van. SO COOL!) Sadly, said crew member was right – Rochelle’s had been leveled shortly after Home Alone 2 was lensed. Even though the locale was no longer in existence, though, I was absolutely dying to stalk its former site and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to do just that on our way to Newport Beach this past weekend.

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Fellow stalker Gary, from Seeing Stars, did a TON of research on this locale and I honestly cannot thank him enough. Because he lives in the South Bay, Chas had contacted Gary to ask if he had ever seen Rochelle’s when it was still in operation. He hadn’t, but decided to do some Googling on the subject and came up with quite a bit of information. From his queries, which yielded several Los Angeles Times mentions of various events held at the site, Gary was able to ascertain that the location, which is a stone’s throw away from the Long Beach Airport, was originally a motel named the Landmark that opened around 1962. You can check out a photograph of an old Landmark matchbook here and a vintage postcard from the place on Ron-Kane’s Flickr photostream here. According to the postcard, the Landmark featured a heated swimming pool and fully-carpeted, air-conditioned rooms with tubs, showers and 21-inch television sets. Sometime around 1967, the Landmark was razed (or completely altered) to make way for a new, larger hotel/convention center named Rochelle’s. You can see an old Rochelle’s matchbook here, which states that the place boasted 163 “luxurious units” with separate kitchenettes, a heated pool, a restaurant, a coffee shop, sauna baths for both men and women, and a private conference room. From what Gary ascertained, Rochelle’s seems to have been in operation until at least 1988 and, if I had to guess, I would say that the place was closed and vacant at the time that Home Alone 2 was filmed in 1992, which is most likely why producers chose to use it. Sometime thereafter, the motel was demolished and a parking structure for the Long Beach Airport currently stands in its place. Boo!

Rochelle’s Motel, which was re-named Villa de Dolphine for the filming, only showed up twice in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – first in the scene in which the McCallister family arrived in Miami, only to discover that the motel that Uncle Frank (Gerry Bamman) recommended was a total dump. Of the place, he says, “It didn’t look this bad on our honeymoon.” LOL I absolutely LOVE the docked boat that was parked in front of the pool area in the scene. Fabulous touch!

Rochelle’s later appeared in the scene in which Kate McCallister (Catherine O-Hara) received a phone call from the Miami Police informing her that Kevin had tried to check in to The Plaza Hotel in New York (which I blogged about here).

Amazingly enough, I could not find a single photograph of the former Rochelle’s Motel anywhere online. Not one! Thankfully though, fave website Historic Aerials did come through with a view of the locale from 1972, which you can compare to the current aerial view below.

As you can see in a more close-up version of that 1972 view, the C-shape of the motel, as well as the pool with parking spaces set around it, match up perfectly to what appeared onscreen in Home Alone 2.

The pink-hued interior of the McCallister family’s motel room was, I believe, just a set and not an actual room at Rochelle’s.

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Chas, from It’sFilmedThere, and Gary, from Seeing Stars, for their help in finding and researching this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Rochelle’s Motel, aka Villa de Dolphine from Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, was formerly located at 3333 Lakewood Boulevard in Long Beach. Today, the site is a parking structure for the Long Beach Airport.

December 20, 2012
The “Four Christmases” House

Today’s location is a big one, my fellow stalkers! Well, it is for me, at least, being that it took me years to find it, as I mentioned in last Friday’s post. Yes, I am talking about the ultra-modern and gorgeous hilltop home where Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) lived in the 2008 romantic comedy Four Christmases. Despite the fact that the abode only showed up once in the flick – and very briefly at that – its contemporary façade and bamboo accents made quite an impression on me and I fell in love the place pretty much on sight. Try as I might, though, I just could NOT seem to track it down. So when I finally did this past Thursday morning, I was pretty much doing cartwheels across my apartment for the next hour and a half. And while the residence is actually located in San Francisco and I was therefore not able to stalk it myself, I recruited my good friend Nat, who lives in the Bay Area, to stalk it on my behalf, which she did the very next day. Thank you, Nat!

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Because Four Christmases was lensed in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, I had no idea where to even begin my search on this one. When I first embarked on the hunt, fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, had contacted one of the movie’s crew members for me, who informed him that the residence was indeed located in San Francisco, but that it had been changed significantly for the filming and would be virtually unrecognizable in person. He refused to divulge the property’s exact location, though, so I did not put much credit into his information as I thought that he might be fabricating things in order to throw us off the scent. As it turns out, the guy was telling the truth. Brad and Kate’s house was changed drastically for the shoot, which is another reason that it was so hard to find. It was not until I came across production designer Shepherd Frankel’s amazing website last week and saw this artistic rendering of the Four Christmases house that I was able to finally find the place.

What threw me off considerably during the search was the fact that, for the filming, the home’s real life front doors (which face the street) were covered over and a fake door added to the eastern side of the structure (in the area denoted with a red arrow in the photograph below), making it impossible for me to figure out how the place was situated in relation to the street. Once I saw the drawing of the house on Frankel’s website, though, it all came together in my head and I was able to find the pad within minutes. WHOO HOO!

The home’s actual front doors are pictured below. I much prefer the set-up of the house that appeared in the movie to its real life exterior. Absolutely LOVE that bamboo-covered accent wall.

Also love that the residence’s stuccoed front half-wall was covered over with wood for the shoot. It gives the place a much more modern feel and adds quite a bit of texture and color to the exterior.

One aspect of the house that was not altered for the filming was its view, which, as you can see below, is absolutely STUNNING.

Can you imagine waking up to this image every morning? Sigh!

In real life, Brad and Kate’s dwelling is absolutely gargantuan – much larger than it appears to be from its front exterior and much larger than it appeared to be in Four Christmases. The four-story pad, which was originally built in 1987, boasts five bedrooms, four baths and a whopping 3,990 square feet of living space – all on a 0.09-acre plot of land.

Absolutely LOVE the Christmas tree in the window. Can you imagine how spectacular it looks at night, all lit up and against the backdrop of that amazing San Francisco view?

All of the interior scenes that took place at Brad and Kate’s house were filmed in Venice Beach at the same residence that was used in Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” music video, which I blogged about last week.

Oddly enough, though, it seems that a different interior was used as Brad and Kate’s house at some point during the filming because in the trailer for Four Christmases, the couple is shown making phone calls to their respective parents while sitting in a brick-walled loft-style residence with arched windows.

Even odder still is the fact that that particular interior (which in reality is located at 1161 Vine Street in Hollywood and which you can check out some photographs of here) did wind up in the film – as the studio where Brad and Kate took dance lessons. As you can see below, the brick walls, exposed duct work and arched windows match Kate and Brad’s house from the trailer perfectly. Heck, even the Christmas decorations are the same! Very, very strange! UPDATE – Shepherd was nice enough to send me an email explaining that this scene was supposed to have taken place in a break area at the dance studio and not at the couple’s home, so the seeming anomaly now makes sense.

You can watch the Four Christmases trailer by clicking below.

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

Big THANK YOU to my good friend Nat for all of her help in finding this location and for going out and stalking it for me.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Brad and Kate’s house from Four Christmases is located at 85 Burnett Avenue in the Twin Peaks area of San Francisco.

December 19, 2012
Marilyn’s House from “Four Christmases”

Early yesterday morning, after what had amounted to years and years of searching and thanks to the assistance of both Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and my good friend Nat, I finally, finally, FINALLY managed to track down the San Francisco-area house where Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) lived in the 2008 holiday flick Four Christmases. Woot woot! The stalking Gods were definitely smiling down upon me yesterday because shortly thereafter I ALSO found the residence where Kate’s mom, Marilyn (Mary Steenburgen), lived in the flick. And while Nat, who resides in the Bay Area, will be stalking Ben and Kate’s pad for me later today so that I can blog about it next week, Marilyn’s house is, thankfully, located right near me in South Pasadena. So I, of course, immediately ran out to stalk it yesterday.

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Surprisingly, finding Marilyn’s house was a snap. I had heard rumblings over the years that the abode was located inside the gated Hancock Park community of Fremont Place, but while scanning through Four Christmases yesterday, I spotted an address number of 1217 on the curb in front of the house and on the façade above the front door. Because Fremont Place addresses are only three digits long, I knew that the dwelling could not be located there – unless, of course, the number had been altered for the filming, which I doubted. Upon closer inspection, I got the strange feeling that I had seen the house before, possibly in South Pasadena. So I decided to begin my search on the most oft-filmed-at street in the area, Milan Avenue. I punched 1217 Milan Avenue into Google and, lo and behold, it was the spot! Let me tell you, I almost fell out of my chair! Here it had taken me YEARS to track down Ben and Kate’s house, but I somehow managed to find Marilyn’s on the very first street that I searched! Go figure!

In real life, the charming home, which was originally built in 1927, boasts four bedrooms, three baths, a whopping 4,447 square feet of living space, and almost half an acre of land.

The exterior of Marilyn’s house only showed up once, very briefly (blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-briefly), in Four Christmases, in the scene in which Ben and Kate arrived at Kate’s mother’s residence to celebrate their second Christmas of the day. Quite a bit of décor was added for the filming, including a white picket fence, a huge amount of wildflowers lining the front walkway and sidewalk, a cross in each downstairs window, and, of course, a myriad of religious statues. I was absolutely FLOORED to discover that the Christmas wreaths that had been displayed in the second floor windows in the movie were there in real life, as well – in the exact same positions! SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

And while I would have bet money on the fact that the real life interior of the home had been used in the movie, that was, shockingly, not the case. According to the Four Christmases production notes, all of the interiors of the four parents’ houses excluding one – the residence where Creighton (Jon Voight) lived, which was actually the Boddy House in Descanso Gardens, which I blogged about way back in May 2009 – were sets built on a soundstage at Ren-Mar Studios (now Red Studios Hollywood, which I blogged about this past March). All I can say is that production designer Shepherd Frankel (who has a Masters Degree in architecture) did an UH-MA-ZING job because, outside of Nancy Meyer productions, I have never seen such detailed sets. Of Frankel’s design, the production notes state, “In keeping with Marilyn’s malleable personality, her home is characterized by what Frankel describes as ‘surfaces and veneers, reflecting no real sense of self.’ At the same time, it reveals a dedication to symmetry and order, with wallpapers matched to upholstery patterns, suggesting the hand of a woman who is constantly striving toward some higher standard of domestic design as much as she strives for the perfect relationship.” You can check out some FABULOUS pictures of the set that Frankel created here.

As you can see in the screen captures below as compared to these real life photographs of the house, the set is much different than the actual residence. Areas of the dwelling that Frankel recreated include the entryway, which you can see real life photos of here and here;

the living room, which you can see real life photographs of here and here;

the den, which you can see real life photos of here and here;

the huge guest bathroom (you can check out one of the home’s actual bathrooms here and here);

and the kitchen, which you can see a real life photograph of here and here. It is unbelievable to me how textured, detailed and realistic Frankel’s designs are!

I am fairly certain that the backyard that appeared in the movie was a mixture of both the home’s real life backyard and a set. You can see photographs of the actual backyard here and here, and a picture of the set here. UPDATE – Shepherd Frankel contacted me after I wrote this post and informed me that Marilyn’s backyard was just a set. Of the filming, he said, “It was all done onstage where I replicated a version of the rear elevation of the location, but modified it to suit our needs.” He also told me that the view behind Marilyn’s fence was a “plate shot” of the home’s actual neighborhood. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Marilyn’s house from Four Christmases is located at 1217 Milan Avenue in South Pasadena. Quite a few other famous homes can be found on the same street, including the former residence of architect Norman Marsh at 1934 Milan ; Matthew Kidman’s (Emile Hirsch’s) house from The Girl Next Door at 1504 Milan; Danielle’s (Elisha Cuthbert’s) house from The Girl Next Door at 1500 Milan; the Beethoven house at 1405 Milan; the Lawrence house from the 1970’s television series Family at 1230 Milan; and one of the houses that the boys painted in American Pie 2 at 820 Milan.

December 14, 2012
The “People Like Us” Apartment Building

This past weekend, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Westfield Topanga mall in Canoga Park (one of my very favorite shopping centers) to do some major Christmas shopping. And “since we were in the area” (cough, cough), I asked if we could make a little stalking stop beforehand at the apartment building where Frankie Davis (Elizabeth Banks) and her son, Josh Davis (Michael Hall D’Addario), lived in the 2012 flick People Like Us. I had learned about the location thanks to a June 26th, 2012 Los Angeles Times article that chronicled the various L.A. locales that appeared in the flick and in which author Richard Verrier stated, “Filming took place throughout the San Fernando Valley, where Sam’s [Chris Pine’s] sister Frankie, a struggling bartender, lives with her son in an apartment complex, which was actually the Saticoy Court Apartments in Canoga Park.” Never before had I seen a film location spelled out like that in a newspaper article, so I would be remiss if I did not give major props to Richard here! A man after my own heart, I swear!

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The location was also (sort of) spelled out in People Like Us, in the scene in which Sam is shown reading a letter from his recently-deceased father which states, “Please get this to Josh Davis. Regal Arms Apartments. 731 Saticoy Street.” From there, tracking down the building – which, in actuality, is located at 21731 Saticoy Street – was a snap.

As luck would have it, while we were stalking the Saticoy Court Apartments (which are, sadly, gated), one of the residents, who could NOT have been nicer, came outside and started talking to us. He answered all sorts of questions I had about the filming (although he did not live on the premises at the time and, shockingly, has still yet to watch People Like Us!) and, when he saw how excited I was about seeing the building in person, invited us inside for a closer look! (Yes, I was pinching myself. The GC, not so much. )

As luck would further have it, while I was snapping photographs, the owner of the actual apartment used in the movie (unit #58), who also could NOT have been nicer, happened to step outside and spent quite a few minutes talking with us. She informed us that filming did indeed take place inside of her actual apartment and that she and her husband were moved into one of Saticoy Court’s vacant units for a few weeks during the shoot. She also told us that filmmakers chose her particular unit over the many others in the building because they liked its location in relation to the exterior stairwell and that the interior of her apartment was painted and upgraded a bit for the production. And while I was hoping that she might invite us inside for a little look-see, sadly that was not to be.

The Saticoy Court Apartments, which was named the “Regal Arms” in People Like Us, showed up repeatedly throughout the flick. Quite a few areas of the building were used in the movie, including the front exterior;

the main entrance doors;

the mailboxes;

the exterior stairwell;

the central courtyard and pool;

the side of the building (please excuse my photograph, which was taken from the wrong angle);

Apartment 25, where Ted (Mark Duplass) lived;

and, of course, Apartment 58.

How cool is it that they used the unit’s actual number for the filming, by the way? Love it!

Even though I was not a huge fan of People Like Us, I cannot tell you how much fun I had stalking Saticoy Court and how amazeballs it was to be invited inside! AND the GC and I got all of our Christmas shopping done shortly thereafter, so it was definitely a banner day.

On a very sad People Like Us side-note – This past Monday morning, a fellow stalker named Diane published a comment on my Henry’s Tacos post informing me that the historic eatery is set to close its doors in just a few weeks. According to the AngelCityArt blog, while the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission voted 5-0 last year to designate Henry’s a historic-cultural monument, for whatever reason, Councilman Paul Kerkorian never submitted the proposal to the City Council and the designation was not pursued. Mehran Ebrahimpour, the owner of the Henry’s Tacos building, vehemently opposed the cultural status nomination and subsequently raised the rent on the site considerably last December. Due to the spike in rent, Henry’s current owner, Janis Hood, whose grandfather, Henry Comstock, founded the eatery on December 13th, 1961 (exactly fifty-one years ago tomorrow), will close up shop at the end of the month. Such a shame! You can visit the official Henry’s Tacos Facebook page here and you can watch an ABC 7 news special on the closure by clicking below.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Saticoy Court Apartments, aka the Regal Arms Apartments where Frankie lived in People Like Us, are located at 21731 Saticoy Street in Canoga Park.

December 12, 2012
The House from Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” Video

Way back in April 2010, fellow stalker Virginie (who lives in Belgium!) contacted me to let me know that she had tracked down the Venice-area home featured in Rihanna’s 2008 “Take a Bow” music video. And while I had never seen said video, nor am I a particularly big fan of Rihanna, I did absolutely love the Glee version of the song, so after receiving Virginie’s email, I decided to take a gander. And, let me tell you, I fell head over heels in love with the gorgeous “Take a Bow” house on sight. To be honest, I was practically foaming at the mouth! So I immediately added the place to the very top of my To-Stalk list, but because I do not often find myself in the Venice area, the residence, sadly, remained un-stalked until two weeks ago. I am very happy to report, though, that it was well worth the wait because the dwelling is nothing short of spectacular in person!

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The 7,456-square-foot property, which houses both a private loft-style residence and a 40-foot by 40-foot art gallery, was originally built in 2007 by du Architects for Steve Shaw, a prominent Los Angeles fashion photographer who drew up the floor plans himself. The structure, which was constructed out of wood, concrete, glass, and steel, boasts five bedrooms (the master bedroom suite features an eight-foot movie screen!), five baths, a rooftop infinity pool (with a special sensor that drains excess water whenever it rains!), an atrium, a terrace, and a sunken living room with a built-in custom sofa, gas fire pit and 11-foot movie screen (yes, the place has not one, but TWO movie screens!). Not bad for a house that sits on a miniscule 0.09-acre plot of land.

In 2009, Shaw sold the abode (how anyone could ever bear to part with this house is beyond me!) for a cool $5.6 million to none other than Robert Downey Jr. and his wife, Susan, who are now using the property as their production offices. You can check out some interior photographs of the spectacular pad here, here, here, and here. Warning – have a drool cloth ready!

The interior of the house was used extensively in “Take a Bow”. (See what I mean? Definitely drool-worthy! Sigh.)

The front entrance also made a brief appearance.

As did the three-car garage area.

The video’s driving sequence was shot just one block south of the home, in front of the residence located at 1309 Cabrillo Avenue . . .

. . . which was apparently for rent at the time of the filming.

You can watch Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” video by clicking below.

While doing research on the property, I was absolutely FLOORED to discover that the interior had been used as the supposed San Francisco-area residence where Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) lived in the 2008 flick Four Christmases. I am ashamed to admit that I had been trying to track down this particular locale for years, but because the place was so much brighter in Four Christmases than it appeared to be in “Take a Bow”, I failed to recognize it! D’oh! (I am still on the hunt for the exterior of Brad and Kate’s house, which is apparently located somewhere in San Francisco’s Twin Peaks.)

You can see the home’s movie screen (complete with curtain!) in the background behind Vince Vaughn below. So incredibly cool!

The red-tiled bathroom that appeared in the flick, which you can see a real life photograph of here, is absolutely amazeballs!

The video for Usher’s 2008 song “Trading Places” was also filmed at the abode.

You can watch that (NSFW!) video by clicking below.

Thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, I learned that the dwelling was also used as the office of celebrity psychiatrist Dr. Henry Carter (Kevin Spacey) in the 2009 flick Shrink. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property were used extensively throughout the flick.

And, when he owned the place, Steve Shaw conducted a photo shoot on the premises with actress Evan Rachel Wood (which you can check out some pictures from here).

Speaking of music videos, have y’all seen the John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John jewel “I Think You Might Like It”? The thing actually rendered me speechless! All I can say is “LOL!”

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The house from Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” music video is located at 1311 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. The garage area that appeared in the video can be viewed from the opposite side of the residence on the 1300 block of Electric Avenue. And the driving scene was filmed just around the corner, in front of the home located at 1309 Cabrillo Avenue.

December 11, 2012