Tag: Celebrities

Olvera Street

This weekend I dragged my boyfriend and my parents out to stalk a street that is known as the “birthplace of Los Angeles”. The historic Olvera Street outdoor marketplace has long been a popular tourist attraction and filming location. But its history began over 200 years ago when the area was built by early Spanish settlers.  At that time it was the center of Hispanic life in Southern California and consisted of a church, a town plaza, and several adobe homes all surrounding a tiny lane known as Wine Street. In 1877, that small street was lengthened and given its current moniker, Olvera Street, named for Augustin Olvera, the very first Superior Court Judge of Los Angeles County.   Beginning in the 1880’s, Olvera street fell into serious disrepair and was a haven for Los Angeles’ poor and disenchanted. It remained that way until the year 1926 when a woman named Christine Sterling came along and vowed to restore it.

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It was Christine’s idea to turn Olvera Street, which at the time was little more than a backstreet alley, into the bustling Mexican marketplace that it is today. She garnered support from Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler and many local businesses and literally took on City Hall to restore the former plaza. Christine’s vision was realized on Easter Sunday of 1930 when the Olvera Street Marketplace opened to the public. She marketed it as “A Mexican Street of Yesterday in a City of Today.”  Christine’s marketplace became a virtual overnight success. And amazingly that success has held steady for almost 80 years – today over 2 million tourists a year visit Olvera Street!

Today’s Olvera Street is a bustling Mexican marketplace bursting with colorful displays, authentic restaurants, hanging pinatas, and ancient adobe structures. A visit to Olvera Street also includes a history lesson of sorts – there are twenty-seven historic buildings which line the marketplace, including Avila Adobe, which is the oldest Los Angeles home still in existence.   In 1953, Olvera Street and its neighboring plaza, which together are known as El Pueblo de Los Angeles, were named a California State Historic Landmark.

Ever since its opening in 1930 celebrities have flocked to the tiny marketplace. Everyone from Albert Einstein, Gretta Garbo, and Buster Keaton to Ben Kingsley, Oscar De La Hoya, and Art Linkletter in recent years have visited the marketplace. In the early days of Hollywood stars such as Rita Hayworth, Lauren Bacall, and Humphrey Bogart frequented Olvera Street’s many restaurants, which at the time doubled as afterhours nightclubs. Numerous American Presidents and their wives have also shopped at the marketplace, including Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Richard and Pat Nixon, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

And, of course, there’s also the movies! Location scouts have been in love with the Mexican marketplace since 1921 when it was featured in the Charlie Chaplin movie The Kid as the location where The Tramp rescues “the kid” from a welfare office.

Olvera Street also popped up in Lethal Weapon 3. It’s the place where Riggs and Murtaugh are assigned to work patrol after inadvertently blowing up a building.

The courtyard of the Avila Adobe stood in for Bogota, Columbia in Mr. and Mrs. Smith  in the scene where the two little homewreckers dance at the beginning of the movie. “Not a lot of people get to see a movie where their parents fell in love.” Ugh, spare me, Angelina! LOL

The marketplace has also appeared in Death Wish II, True Confessions, Sea Biscuit, and A Street of Memory.

But Olvera Street’s connection with the movie business doesn’t end there! Located right in the middle of the marketplace is a small shop called Murillo Leather, where owner Armando Murillo (pictured above), a second generation leather craftsman, creates handmade items like bracelets, belts, bags, and saddles. While stalking Olvera Street, my dad stopped into Murillo’s to look for a saddlebag for his Harley (otherwise known as “H”) and, like a moth to a flame, my eyes immediately went to some magazine photographs of Jessica Simpson hanging on the wall.

It turns out that Armando made all of Jessica’s belts and purses for the movie Dukes of Hazzard and sells replicas of them in his shop. Apparently, Johnny Knoxville had long been a fan of the historic leather shop and before filming on Dukes of Hazzard began recommended Armando to the costume team. And the rest is celluloid history. 🙂 You can see Jessica’s belts above. Now I have to say that Jessica Simpson is my least favorite celebrity. I absolutely cannot stand the girl!  But, let me tell you, I love her Dukes of Hazzard belt! 🙂

So much so, in fact, that I just had to buy one for myself! 🙂  And I absolutely love it!!!   That’s me posing with my new belt in the above pic. 🙂 Besides Dukes of Hazzard, Armando also made the leather items for the movie There Will Be Blood. When his father, Manuel, owned the shop, he made several items for Clint Eastwood that were also worn in movies. If you happen to stalk Olvera Street, a visit to Murillo Leather is a MUST!   Armando is THE nicest guy and makes really beautiful belts, cuffs, purses, and even shoes. You can bet I will be going back there regularly to shop! 🙂

I can’t recommend stalking Olvera Street enough. It is a really fun way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Besides the shops, there are several excellent restaurants located in the marketplace – and they all serve up the BEST taquitos I have ever had!!!!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Olvera Street is located just off East Chesar E. Chavez Avenue, in between North Alameda and North Main Streets, in Downtown Los Angeles. Murillo’s Leather – maker of the Daisy Duke belts – is located at W-6 Olvera Street. The Mentalist’s CBI Headquarters building is located just across the plaza from Olvera Street at 430 North Main Street.

March 25, 2009
On Location With The Mentalist!

Yesterday morning while doing some Downtown Los Angeles stalking, I happened to stumble upon a large film crew outside of Union Station.  I, of course, asked one of the background actors what was being filmed and almost fell over when she told me it was my new favorite show, The Mentalist!!!!   I asked if Simon Baker was on set and she laughed and said “Everyone’s been asking for him all morning! It’s cause he’s such a cutie.” LOL Sadly, SB had already been wrapped for the day, as had actress Robin Tunney. 🙁   Such a bummer!!

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But I did get to see actor Tim Kang, who plays Detective Kimball Cho on the show (pictured above). I love Kang’s character, so I was pretty floored to see him in person.  He was filming a scene that basically consisted of him sitting on a bench reading a newspaper at the entrance to Union Station’s former ticket concourse. Needless to say, it wasn’t that exciting. LOL

I didn’t stick around very long to watch the filming as not a whole lot was going on and, sadly, the crew wasn’t all that friendly. The area where the scene was being filmed wasn’t shut off to the public as filming areas normally are, so I am guessing that the crew was just slightly annoyed at the many random people who were walking directly into their shot while the cameras were rolling.   I guess the people didn’t notice the many signs that were posted around the area announcing that filming was taking place (pictured above). LOL I can’t tell you the number of people I saw who walked right in front of the camera and into the former ticket concourse, then stopped and looked around with confusion on their faces, only to walk right back out in front of the camera once again. I’m not kidding! I can imagine how that might have gotten old for the crew real quick!

Countless productions have filmed at the historic train station since its opening in 1939, including Nick of Time (Johnny Depp’s daughter is kidnapped there), Charlie’s Angel’s: Full Throttle (Demi Moore lived in the former ticket concourse area which is pictured above), Can’t Hardly Wait (Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ethan Embry finally get together in the station’s waiting area), 24, Alias, Blast From The Past, Bugsy, Catch Me If You Can, Blade Runner, Guilty by Suspicion, Garfield, The Italian Job, Pearl Harbor, and a 1950’s movie actually entitled Union Station.

Union Station is an absolutely beautiful place to visit and I highly recommend stalking it, even if you aren’t a film locations buff. The interiors, which have been beautifully maintained, immediately transplant you back to the 1930s.   It’s not hard to see why the station has been a favorite of location scouts over the years. Union Station, which was built by architects John Parkinson, Donald D. Parkinson, and Jay van der Lin, is on the National Register of Historic Places and according to Wikipedia, is considered the “Last of the Great Railway Stations” built in the U.S.   You can see some great photographs of the station here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Union Station is located at 800 North Alameda Street in Downtown Los Angeles. Ironically, it is located just around the corner from The Mentalist’s CBI Headquarters. 🙂

March 24, 2009
Where The American Idol Contestants Live

Even though American Idol is not a show I regularly watch, I was completely floored to find a two page article in this week’s US Magazine featuring the mansion the current Idol contestants are calling home.  I love me some celebrity real estate!   And while US didn’t give the exact location of the Idol pad, it did publish several photos of the 35,000 square foot manse and stated that it was located somewhere in Bel Air. Well I, of course, got to cyberstalking and it wasn’t long before I had located the Mediterranean style home. And I immediately dragged my boyfriend right out to stalk it. 🙂

In years past, the Idol  contestants were put up in an exclusive apartment building called The Marlow which I blogged about last year. Well, the economy may be bad, but the Idol finalists are movin’ on up, because this season they are residing in a rented four story, nine bedroom, twenty bathroom (I’m not kidding!) mansion that sits on over an acre of well-manicured land. According to one real estate website, the home, which was originally built in 1927, boasts two pools (one indoor, one outdoor), a gym, a screening room, a bowling alley, an elevator, an indoor basketball court, a steam room, a jacuzzi, and private guest quarters. It sounds like Disneyland! I swear, put in a Starbucks and I’d never leave the place. 🙂 FOX has also sprung for a live-in chef, who cooks up healthy meals for the Idols daily. You can see great indoor photos of the house on some real estate websites here and here. And you can watch a video of the Idols moving into their new home here.

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Sadly, there’s not a whole lot of the home that is visible from the street, excluding some large exterior gates. I could see about ten cars parked in the driveway, though, so it seems that the Idols were allowed to bring their cars with them to California. 🙂

There are numerous differing online reports as to whether the Idol mansion is currently for sale. From what I can gather from the many conflicting accounts I’ve read, I believe the mansion was on the market for quite some time back in 2006 at a price of $43 million. After over 200 days with no sale, that price was dropped to $29,995,000. After an $18,500,000 deal fell through in 2008, the house was eventually taken off the market altogether. It is currently available for lease at a rate of $85,000 per month. The sign pictured above was on the ground in front of the mansion when I was stalking it. I wonder if one of the Idol hopefuls took it down in hopes that they would be able to buy the mansion themselves after landing a record deal. LOL If you have the $85,000 a month to shell out to rent the place, it should be available in about ten weeks when Idol is over.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The American Idol  mansion is located at 277 St. Pierre Road in Bel Air.

March 23, 2009
The Mentalist’s CBI Headquarters

My location obsession as of late has been the CBI Headquarters building where Patrick Jane and the gang report to work each week on my new fave show The Mentalist. I do love me some Simon Baker! He’s such a cutie! 🙂   Being that it is quite unique in appearance, I had an inkling that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, might recognize the building used on the show, but since he had never watched The Mentalist I was out of luck there – until this past Tuesday night when the episode entitled “Bloodshot” aired. For the first time ever, the cast and crew actually filmed on location at the Headquarters building (in the past it had only been used for set-up shots) and I was able to make quite a few screen captures to send to Mike. And, sure enough, he recognized the building immediately! He’s so my hero!

In actuality, CBI Headquarters is the rear entrance of the Pico House, a former luxury hotel and a National Historic Landmark located in Downtown Los Angeles. I am ashamed to admit that I have actually visited the Pico House several times, but never recognized it as the CBI Building, most likely because the front of the former hotel looks strikingly different from the back. The front of the Pico House is pictured above. The Pico House was built from 1869 to 1870 by Pio Pico, a former governor of Alta California. The building was designed by architect Ezra F. Kysor and at the time of its opening was considered the most upscale hotel in the L.A. area. It was also the first three story building located in Los Angeles. The luxurious hotel boasted 82 rooms, 21 ballrooms, a French restaurant, and bathrooms for “both sexes” on every floor. LOL Pio Pico lost the hotel due to financial difficulties just ten years after its grand opening. For the next thirty years, beginning in 1892, the hotel was known as The National and was a cheap boarding house. In 1953, the hotel was taken over by the City of Los Angeles who has managed it ever since. The Pico House was restored in the 60s and again in the 80s and 90s. Today it is no longer a hotel, but remains vacant and is used as an event location and for filming. You can see great interior photographs of the Pico House here.

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Once Mike told me that CBI Headquarters was really the Pico House, I dragged my dad right out to stalk it.   He actually didn’t mind being dragged to this location, as The Mentalist is one of the few shows on television that he actually likes. My dad was especially excited to see the CBI building in person since he had just watched the “Bloodshot” episode, in which the Pico House is featured prominently, the night before. He kept saying “This is so cool – I just saw this place on TV last night!”

I am happy to report that the CBI building looks exactly the same in person as it does onscreen.   The “Bloodshot” episode featured several parts of the Pico House, including the exterior stairwell area where the team exited the building after being evacuated due to a bomb threat;

the alleyway where Van Pelt met her boyfriend for an early morning cup of coffee and also where Jane’s team got evacuated;

the parking lot area where the car bomb exploded and later where a temporarily blind Jane drove Van Pelt’s car;

and Hype Nightclub, which in actuality is not a nightclub at all, but the entrance to the Pico House’s central courtyard.

I highly recommend stalking the CBI Headquarters building to all Mentalist fans. Who knows, you might even catch them filming an episode while you’re there! Even though no filming was going on while I was stalking the Pico House, I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally be seeing CBI Headquarters in person! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Mentalist’s CBI Headquarters, aka the Pico House, is located at 430 North Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The back side of the Pico House, which is the area shown on The Mentalist, can be viewed on West Arcadia Street in between North Main and North Spring Streets. The area surrounding the Pico House is open to the public, so I would suggest parking your car and taking a walk around the historic building. The parking lot where the “Bloodshot” episode was filmed is really the El Pueblo De Los Angeles parking lot located on the corner of West Arcadia and North Spring Street. And the fake Hype Nightclub’s entrance is located on the Pico House’s South facing wall.

March 20, 2009
Helen Twelvetrees’ House

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a book that is quickly shaping up to be my new stalking tome.  It’s called Movie Star Homes: The Famous to the Forgotten and it features photographs and addresses of over 350 celebrity homes, most of them from the Golden Age of Hollywood.  I have never really been much into the celebs of yesteryear (except for my girl Marilyn), but once I picked up this book I really couldn’t put it down. It wasn’t long before I had about thirty pages dog-eared and was dragging my boyfriend out the door with a whole new set of locations to stalk.

The first location on my list? The former home of a 30’s movie star whom you’ve probably never heard of, but whom I’ve always had a special place in my heart for – Helen Twelvetrees.  I’ve never actually seen any of Helen’s movies, nor do I even really know what she looks like. But back when I was about 18, I came home from college one day and announced to my family that I was switching my major from pre-law to theatre because I wanted to become an actress. It was at that moment that my grandfather started calling me Helen Twelvetrees. My grandpa was always making up silly little nicknames for various family members, so I didn’t really think anything of it. For years this went on, with my grandpa saying “Well, if it isn’t Helen Twelvetrees!” every time I walked into a room and me thinking it was a name he had made up for me. It wasn’t until after my grandfather passed away in 2005 that I came across a listing for Helen on IMDB and realized that she had in fact been a real person – not to mention a big time movie star back in the ’30s.

So, when I saw the address of a home Helen lived in during the ’30s in my new stalking book, I just about fell out of my chair. And, of course, I immediately dragged my boyfriend right out to stalk it. So, Grandpa, this ones for you! 🙂 Helen’s former home is a very cute little Mediterranean style dwelling located on a one way street in the Whitley Heights section of Los Angeles.   And, as it turns out, the house is currently for sale! While the real estate listing makes no mention of its famous former resident, it does indicate that the 3,000 square foot home, which was built in 1923, has parquet floors, crown moldings, and a hot tub. The asking price is a cool $1,150,000.

My favorite feature of the house, though, is the view of the Hollywood sign from the front yard.  Love it! 🙂 You can see interior photos of Helen’s former home on its real estate listing here.

According to my buddy EJ over at The Movieland Directory, Rose McGowen and Rachel Bilson both owned a home located just a few doors down from Helen’s.    The house pictured above was first owned by Miss McGowan who sold it to Rachel in November of 2004. Rachel then sold the house just a little over a year later in December of ’05. And it was sold yet again this past January for $1,075,000. I also read on this website that Busy Phillips owned the very same house at one point in time, but I haven’t been able to confirm that. Seems like it’s a pretty lucky house, though, being that several successful actresses have lived in it. I need to get me one of those! 🙂 You can see interior photos of the home here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Helen Twelvetrees’ former home is located just off the 101 Freeway at 6851 Iris Circle in Hollywood. Rachel Bilson and Rose McGowan’s former house is just down the road at 6867 Iris Circle.

March 19, 2009
POP Champagne Bar

This past weekend I dragged my boyfriend out to stalk Pasadena’s newest hot spot – a little place called POP Champagne & Dessert Bar which opened its doors about three months ago. Being that champagne is my (and my girl Marilyn’s) fave cocktail, I have been dying to stalk this place ever since it opened back in December. Sadly I didn’t get around to it until this past Friday night. But let me tell you, it was worth the wait. I think POP might just be my new favorite bar. : )

POP is absolutely adorable inside. It has a very New York City feel to it. The decor is made up of exposed brick, huge leather booths, dark wood paneling, and sparkling crystal chandeliers. It’s exactly the kind of place you want to escape to after a long day at work (or in my case, a long day of stalking). 🙂 And while no movies have been filmed there yet, I can pretty much guarantee that it won’t be long before location scouts come a-knockin’!

POP’s wine menu is quite extensive. In fact, I’ve never seen anything like it! They serve over 50 varieties of wine by the glass, including Merlot and Chardonnay for those of you who aren’t champagne drinkers. Their menu is A-MA-ZING and they serve up huge portions at reasonable prices. During their happy hour, which runs from 5 to 7 pm daily, mimosas, bellinis, and draft beers are only $4 a glass and most appetizers are 20% off. And on those rare days in Southern California when it rains, POP extends its happy hour to an all day affair. How cool is that? And – my personal favorite POP special – every single Wednesday they serve up glasses of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Champagne (the BEST champagne ever) for only $10! That’s like unheard of! LOVE IT! You can bet I’m going to be hanging out at POP pretty much every Wednesday night from now on. LOL

But my favorite item on the menu? The “Room Service for Mr. Lewis” appetizer which consists of a selection of fresh strawberries and two glasses of Gloria Ferrar Blanc de Noir champagne. If the words “Room service for Mr. Lewis” sound familiar to you, it’s because they should. They were uttered in one of the most famous romantic comedies of all time – Pretty Woman. In the movie Edward Lewis, aka Richard Gere, orders up some champagne and strawberries when he first arrives with Vivian at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. He tells Vivian that strawberries bring out the flavor in the champage. 🙂 Movie references on a menu? LOVE IT! In fact, I think it’s safe to say that there’s nothing about POP that I don’t love! 🙂

As I always do when visiting new places, I asked our bartender if any celebs had been spotted at POP. Well, let me tell you, I almost fell right off my bar stool when he told me that douchbag Bachelor Jason Mesnick and girlfriend Molly Malaney had just been there the previous week! I couldn’t figure out what the heck those two would be doing in Pasadena, until I remembered that ABC usually puts the current Bachelor up at the Langham Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena when they come to town for press events. I know this because a good friend of mine used to work at the hotel back when it was owned by the Ritz Carlton. 🙂 Well, after I heard that Jason and Molly had stopped in, I had about a million and one questions for our bartender. LOL Turns out he didn’t pay all that much attention to the pair because he “doesn’t really care about them”. LOVE IT! But he did mention that Molly was SUPER skinny. Like disgustingly so. He said that Molly and Jason were meeting up with some friends at POP which begs the question, who in the heck do those two know in L.A.?? They were probably meeting up with Bachelor producer Mike Fleiss to toast the big payoff (the After the Final Rose special was the most watched in Bachelor history!) from the scam they pulled this season. LOL Anyway, our bartender said that Jason and Molly didn’t stay long as Jason wanted to try out the Vertical Wine Bistro (owned by Terminator producer Gale Anne Hurd) located just around the corner from POP. Jason was probably hoping to run into Gale so that he could give her a headshot – now that his Bachelor fame is waning he needs a new day job. LOL Our bartender said that quite a few celebs have stopped into POP since its grand opening, but unfortunately he didn’t know any of them by name.

I HIGHLY recommend stalking POP!!!! It is a very fun place to grab a drink, even if you are not a champagne fan! You can bet I’ll be stopping in regularly in the months to come. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: POP Champagne and Dessert Bar is located at 33 East Union Street in Pasadena. You can visit their website here. POP is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

March 17, 2009
The Most Photographed Home in the World!

About three months ago my mom challenged me to find a house that had been used in a famous photograph back in the 1960s. The only information she remembered about the photograph was that it was an advertisement of some sort shot in black and white and that it featured two women sitting in a glass home that overlooked all of Los Angeles. With those small pieces of information, I got to googling and came up with . . . nothing. This went on for months with me having absolutely no luck in finding either the house or the advertisement she had been talking about. Then about two weeks ago while my mom was flipping through a magazine at a hair salon, she came across this photographwhich was described as “the most iconic image of Los Angeles”.   Sure enough it was the picture my mom had been talking about – only as it turns out it wasn’t an advertisement at all, but a photograph by legendary architectural photographer Julius Shulman. And the house featured in the image is actually quite well known. In fact, it has been called “the most photographed home in the world”. Its name is the Stahl House, otherwise known as Case Study House #22.

When my mom first described the home to me all those months ago, I had an inkling that it was either a John Lautner house or a Case Study House.   And sure enough, I was right! To tell you the truth, I don’t know a lot about the Case Study Houses. Up until a few weeks ago, I had never even seen a photograph of one. But my best friend Kylee has long been obsessed with the Houses and I had learned enough about them from her to know that the house my mom was describing just might be one. The Case Study project began in 1945, when John Entenza, editor of Art and Architecture Magazine, commissioned several legendary architects including Richard Nuetra, Raphael Soriano, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Craig Ellwood, and Pierre Koenig to build affordable homes in California using mostly wood, steel, and glass. The houses were intended to be model homes which the typical American family could easily duplicate using affordable materials.

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Interestingly enough, the Stahl House which is arguably the most famous of all the Case Study Houses, wasn’t originally commissioned as one.   In 1954, a man named C.H. “Buck” Stahl purchased a vacant lot high up in the hills of Los Angeles at a cost of $13,500. Buck had the idea to build a house on the property constructed almost entirely of glass to showcase the lot’s incredible views. He said to the architects “I don’t care how you do it, there’s not going to be any walls in this wing.” He built a scale model of his dream home and started shopping the project around to different architects. They all told him his design was impossible, that it couldn’t be done. Enter architect Pierre Koenig, who at the time was involved in the Case Study Project. Pierre told Buck and his wife Carlotta that not only could the house be built, but that he wanted it to be a part of the Case Study Program. And thus Case Study House #22 was born. It is incredible to me that the most famous Case Study House wasn’t designed by an architect – it was designed by a man with a vision who wouldn’t take no for an answer.   The iconic photograph that was burned into my mother’s memory was actually taken before construction on the home had even been completed. Here is a great article detailing how the most famous photograph of Los Angeles came to be.

After my mom discovered the name of the house, I decided to do some research on it as I thought it would make for an interesting blog post. While searching the web I stumbled upon this website where I found out that it was possible to actually tour the home and I just about died! If only all of my stalking exploits were this easy! 🙂 I quickly made reservations for my mom and her friend and me and my best friend to take a tour of the legendary Stahl House the following week. And I must say, at the reasonable price of $20 per person, it was entirely worth it.

When you enter the front door of the house your mouth pretty much just drops to the floor at the site of the incredible views. Honestly I’ve never seen views like that anywhere in my entire life. They were literally breathtaking! And the house!!! Words can’t even properly describe the house! I can’t imagine living, or even getting to spend one night, there. Our tour, which lasted about an hour, was led by Buck Stahl’s widow and son, Carlotta and Mark Stahl, respectively. Mark said that growing up in the house he really had no idea how special it was. To him it was just his home. He said that only when he got a bit older and noticed his friends were always wanting to hang out there and swim in his pool, did he realize the home was anything out of the ordinary. I must say it was fascinating to be given a tour of the Stahl house by members of the actual Stahl family. Case Study House #22 is one of the only Case Study Houses that is still owned and occupied by the original residents, so it is in amazing condition. Due to the Stahl Family’s determination to keep the house true to its original form, the home is extremely expensive to maintain, which is why they started giving tours.

Another way the family generates revenue to maintain the home is by renting out the space as a filming location. Due to the house’s unique structure and striking views, Hollywood locations scouts come a-knockin’ quite frequently on the Stahl House door.

The house has been featured in countless movies including Playing By Heart (where it was used John Stewart’s house; pictured above) Why Do Fools Fall In Love, Galaxy Quest, The Final Power, Thirteenth Floor, The Marrying Man, Prescription Murder, Corina Corina, Nurse Betty, Where the Truth Lies, and Smog; the television shows Adam 12, Night Stalker, and Emergency;

the music videos for Wilson Phillips’ “Release Me”,

Scott Weiland’s “Missing Cleveland”,

and ATB’s “I Don’t Wanna Stop” ;

and dozens of commercials including one for Best Buy featuring the Black Eyed Peas.

The home was also featured in a Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen photo shoot for a 2003 issue of YM Magazine. I absolutely loved MK & A once upon a time (I even had their dolls!) and I used to collect every single magazine that featured the twins. So as soon as my my mom showed me the famous picture of the Stahl House taken by Julius Shulman, I said “Hey, that’s where Mary Kate and Ashley did their YM photo shoot.”  LOL It might not be award winning photography, but the above image is one that was burned into my memory for many years.    I so wanted to recreate the twins’ pose while touring the house, but, alas, venturing out on that ledge is not allowed. LOL 😉 You can see more photos from the Olsen’s YM shoot here.

My best friend and I did get to recreate Shulman’s famous photograph while at the house, though, and it has quickly become one of my favorite pictures of the two of us. I honestly cannot recommend taking a tour of the Stahl House enough! Go, go, go on this tour!! Even if you are not at all interested in architecture or filming locations, I can pretty much guarantee the house will still amaze you. Seeing it in person is an absolutely magical experience. The tour lasts about an hour and consists of a walk through of the main living area, kitchen, and the pool and spa area. The two bedrooms are currently off limits as they are undergoing a renovation. The Stahl House is fairly small, only 2,300 square feet, but I could have spent all day there! Tours can accommodate up to twenty people and are usually held on Saturdays and Sundays. Photographs for commercial use are not permitted and a photography waiver must be signed before being granted entry. The Stahl Family was kind enough to let me publish these photographs from my tour on my blog and for that I sincerely thank them.

Note: All photographs of the Stahl House are used with permission from the Stahl Trust.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Stahl House is located at 1635 Woods Drive in Los Angeles. The only way you’ll be able to catch a glimpse of it, though, is by paying for a tour as the house is located on a gated, private street. To find out specific tour information please visit the Stahl House Facebook page.

March 13, 2009
Flash Forward!

This past weekend, while out doing some stalking, my boyfriend and I happened upon a rather large film shoot that shut down an entire block in Downtown Los Angeles. So, of course, we just had to pull the car over to find out what was being filmed. 🙂 Turns out it was the pilot episode of a new Lost-esque television series entitled Flash Forward that is set to premiere on ABC this Spring. The series is based on a science fiction novel of the same name written by Robert J. Sawyer. While the crew members were pretty tight-lipped about plot details and the show’s cast, they did let me snap some pics of the production. 🙂

And what a production it was!! I’ve don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie set that was quite so large or quite so involved. And what amazed me the most was how realistic everything seemed. It truly felt as if we were viewing a real life disaster area. The scene being filmed centered around a major accident involving several overturned cars and two totalled buses. If you look closely at the above pics, you’ll notice that both buses used in the filming feature advertising for ABC shows (Lost and Desperate Housewives) on their sides. LOL   Gee, I wonder what network this show will be airing on. 😉

When I got home from stalking the Flash Forward set, I did some cyber-research on the show and this is the info I was able to gather. The script for the pilot episode, which is entitled “No More Good Days”, was written by David S. Goyer (author of The Dark Knight and Batman Begins movies among many others) and Brannon Braga (co-executive producer of the series 24). The show’s premise is this: at the exact same time all across the globe all of humanity loses consciousness for approximately two minutes. During that brief period of time people everywhere “flash forward” to a moment exactly five months into their future to witness an unexpected event in their lives. Sort of like what happened when the Ghost of Christmas Future visited Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.   🙂    Adding to the drama is that fact that during the worldwide black-out, chaos takes over the earth – there are plane crashes, car accidents, deadly falls, etc. – and 40 million people lose their lives.   Even though I am not a fan of the science fiction genre (I’ve never watched even one episode of Lost), I have to admit that Flash Forward’s already got me hooked and I am for sure going to tune in! The show stars Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, and Courtney B. Vance. You can read a great article about the new series here.

And although I didn’t see any stars while stalking the Flash Forward filming, I did spot an actor walking around in his tighty-whities (pictured above). LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Flash Forward was filmed on South Broadway in between 8th and 9th Streets in Downtown Los Angeles. Look for Flash Forward to premiere on ABC sometime this Spring in the time slot before Lost.

March 12, 2009
Samantha Jones and Smith Jerrod’s Beach House

This weekend after stalking Carrie’s honeymoon villa from Sex and the City: The Movie, I dragged my boyfriend about 15 miles south to stalk yet another location from the film – Samantha and Smith’s beach house. Thanks to fave book Sex and the City: The Movie, which stated that the home was located on Malibu Road, this location was a snap to find! Smith and Samantha’s house, with its curved glass and steel architecture, is quite unique and it’s not hard to see why producers chose it as the residence of SATC’s trendy P.R. exec and her young movie star boyfriend.

In person, the house is absolutely breathtaking. Located right on the sand in Malibu, the home has five separate cantilevered balconies that seem to just hang right over the Pacific Ocean. I can only imagine what the views must be like at sunset! I’m not usually a big fan of modern houses, but this one is pretty special.   At the time of filming the home was on the market for a cool $17 million (the price has now dropped to $14,500,000). I believe it was also vacant, which would have made filming there much easier than in a home that was occupied.

Filming of the Samantha/Smith scenes took two weeks to complete and both the interior and the exterior of the real life beach house were used extensively.  Featured in the movie were the kitchen area (where Samantha cooks Smith homemade sushi),

the living room where Samantha and Smith celebrate New Year’s Eve in front of a fire,

and the master bedroom, where Smith asks Samantha to stop running off to New York every chance she gets.  You can compare the above screen captures to the interior photos of the home shown on its real estate website and on this website.  From the looks of it, it seems producers even chose to use the home’s real bedroom furniture for the filming.

The front of Samantha and Smith’s home wasn’t shown in Sex and the City: The Movie, but you can catch a glimpse of it in the above pic. Ironically, the front of the house looks like a normal everyday modern style home and doesn’t give any clue as to the amazing architecture located just on the other side of it. And while the front of the house will not be familiar to Sex and the City fans, the back definitely will be. Public beach access is located fairly close to the house, so if you would like to see the back view – and I really suggest you do – it’s less than a five minute walk down the beach.

The house directly next door to Samantha’s should also be recognizable to SATC fans. It was used as the home of Samantha’s hunky neighbor Dante (played Gilles Marini who is currently competing on Dancing With The Stars) on whom she develops quite a crush.   As for Dante’s outdoor shower, I couldn’t find it anywhere. It is my guess that either another home was used for that scene, or a special shower was created especially for filming purposes that was later removed.

Also missing in real life – the balcony hot tub that Samantha relaxes in towards the beginning of the movie.

Samantha’s house is absolutely beautiful in person and I highly recommend stalking it – or purchasing it if you have the means! If you don’t have $14,500,000 on hand to buy the home, it is also available as a rental property at the rate of $75,000 per month. Being that I’ve never made that amount in an entire year, let alone a month, I think I’m pretty much out of the running on this one. LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Samantha and Smith’s beach house is located at 24826 Malibu Road in Malibu. Dante’s house is located directly next door at 24822 Malibu Road.

March 11, 2009
The Sex and the City Honeymoon House

Ever since Sex and the City: The Movie premiered last May, I have been absolutely dying to stalk the hotel where the girls stayed during Carrie’s non-honeymoon. In the movie, Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte spend a week at what is supposedly a private villa located on the grounds of a Mexican resort. In actuality, though, not only were the Mexican hotel scenes not filmed in Mexico, but they weren’t even filmed at an actual hotel. LOL In reality, two different locales situated over forty miles apart from each other stood in for Carrie’s honeymoon hotel. The villa the girls stayed in is actually a private home located right off the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. And the hotel restaurant where Carrie and the girls drank margaritas is actually a ballroom located at an equestrian compound in Simi Valley named Hummingbird Nest Ranch. And while I have yet to stalk the Ranch – something which I am planning to do in the near future – I did drag my boyfriend out to stalk Carrie’s villa this past weekend.

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My first clue in locating the villa came from fave book Sex and the City: The Movie, in which Sarah Jessica Parker mentioned that the honeymoon scenes were filmed in Malibu. Knowing that there is no hotel anywhere near Malibu that looks at all like the one Carrie and the girls stayed at, I started searching the internet for a private home near the coast that had an infinity pool flanked by two huge built-in planters holding palm trees. And I located the home almost immediately. Then when I came across these close up photos of the house, I knew for certain that it was the place where Carrie spent her honeymoon.

At first I couldn’t figure out why producers didn’t use a real Mexican resort to shoot the honeymoon scenes. But then I remembered that Kim Cattrall and Jason Lewis were already shooting on location in Malibu, so it would have made sense to shoot the honeymoon sequence there, as well. Apparently, the producers were even given the opportunity to film for free at a Caribbean resort (in exchange for a pretty prominent plug of the hotel, I’m sure), but they loved Carrie’s “Mexicoma” joke so much that they decided to keep the honeymoon in Mexico. I actually thought that joke was pretty lame and I can’t even believe they gave up a free five-star filming location to keep it in the script! LOL

Carrie’s honeymoon house is absolutely stunning in person and I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was quite a lot of it visible from the street.

Even the pool area, which was the part of the house featured most prominently in SATC, can be seen from the road! Love it! Quite a bit of the property can be seen from the Pacific Coast Highway, as well.

There is even what appears to be a chapel located on the property, so I am guessing that the owners must rent out their house quite often for weddings. Even though the place didn’t prove to be good luck for Carrie, it still looks like a pretty amazing place to get married. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Sex and the City: The Movie honeymoon house, aka Villa Lizton, is located at 4440 Encinal Canyon Road in Malibu. To see the house’s pool area, you have to drive a bit south of the property.

March 10, 2009