Tag: Celebrities

Donna and David’s Wedding

A few months ago Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called to tell me that he had located the church where Donna married David on the very last episode of Beverly Hills, 90210.    He mentioned something about the church being located in Sunland, a small town on the outskirts of Burbank, and for the first time ever I thought Mike, God of stalking, had actually gotten a filming location wrong. You see, I could say with absolute certainty that Donna and David did not get married in a church anywhere near Sunland. How could I be so sure about the location of their wedding? Because I was there!    🙂

Back in the Spring of 2000, just a few weeks after I had first moved to Los Angeles, I was given the once in a lifetime opportunity of being an extra on the very last episode of Beverly Hills, 90210,entitled “Ode to Joy”. I had just registered with Central Casting, Los Angeles’ premiere extras casting agency, and was calling the hotline to see what jobs were available for the week when I heard words which I will never forget: “Be a part of television history – press one to be a guest at Donna and David’s wedding on the very final episode of 90210.” Well, let me tell I just about died! I believe I stood with the phone in my hand screaming for a good two minutes.   LOL I swear if you had told me back in high school that one day I would be attending the wedding of Donna Martin and David Silver I probably would have had a heart attack right then and there. LOL You can see me in the above screen captures dancing at Donna and David’s reception. 🙂

Anyway, it turns out that Mike was not actually wrong about Donna and David’s wedding location. I should have known – he’s never wrong! 🙂 For whatever reason, producers chose to film the set-up shots of Donna and David’s wedding church at the First Baptist Church of Sunland. But all of the actual filming took place about twenty miles away from there in a small chapel right off the 101 Freeway in Hollywood.   So, last weekend I decided I just had to revisit the site of one of my very first acting jobs and I dragged my boyfriend out to stalk the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood.

Donna and David’s wedding was not actually held in the First Presbyterian Church’s main building, but in a smaller venue named Wylie Chapel, which is also located on the church premises.   The wedding ceremony took one full day to shoot, as did the reception scene, which took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. And, if I remember correctly, we shot the reception scene first.  Both days lasted well over 14 hours – and, let me tell you, I loved every single minute of them!!!  I have to say that being on the final episode of 90210 was an absolutely magical experience for me. Especially since it was one of my very first encounters with Hollywood. I swear I spent the entire two days with stars in my eyes. 🙂 The cast and crew were incredibly nice – especially Luke Perry and Ian Ziering. I met Ian during one of our lunch breaks and I told him that in high school I had slept on 90210 sheets. Well, he was absolutely shocked that there was such a thing as 90210 sheets and next thing I know he’s screaming “Luke! Luke! You’ve gotta come hear this!” Well, I just about keeled over as Luke Perry, love of my high school life, walked right up to us and Ian told him about my sheets. Luke started laughing and said “Well, then I guess you can say we’ve slept together.” LOL Luke was even cuter in person that I ever imagined he could be and when I told him he was my first Hollywood crush he shook my hand and introduced himself. Sigh! I’m telling you, inside I was absolutely dying! I’m amazed I was actually able to get any words out of my mouth while talking to him. LOL And if you’re wondering – Jennie Garth was the least friendliest of the bunch, which really surprised me.

The First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood is actually used quite often for filming. Besides 90210, it was also featured in the 2007 movie Welcome to Paradise. And while we were stalking the place, filming crews for the television series Chuck pulled up. 🙂

The church was founded in 1903 and once boasted the largest Presbyterian congregation in the world! The main building, which is still used for church services today, was erected in 1923. The church property takes up an entire city block and has a huge courtyard and garden area which is where the extras hung out while 90210 was filming.   I can still remember Brian Austin Green playing chess in the courtyard with the extras during his breaks. There is also a theatre on the church gounds. 🙂  First Hollywood Presbyterian also has amazing views of the Hollywood sign, but ironically enough, the church was there long before there ever was a Hollywood sign to view. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Donna and David’s wedding was held in the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood’s Wylie Chapel, which is located at 1763 North Gower Street in Hollywood. Their wedding reception was filmed in the Beverly Hilton Hotel’s former Coconut Club, which is now the Beverly Hills Ballroom.

March 9, 2009
Lauren Conrad’s New Condo

Last week I heard the tragic news that Lauren Conrad confirmed that this season of her reality show The Hills would, in fact, be the last. Oh, Lauren, say it ain’t so!!! I get depressed enough when a season ends – how on earth am I going to feel knowing there will never again be a new Hills episode for me to look forward to?? Waaaaa! My fingers are crossed that at least Spencer and Heidi will be given their own show, because, let’s face it, The City just isn’t cutting it as a satisfactory Hills replacement. In other Hills news, Lauren Conrad and best pal Lo Bosworth recently moved out of the Hollywood house LC purchased back in January of ’08 and into a rented condominium in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. So, of course, last weekend I dragged my boyfriend right out to stalk their new place. 🙂

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One of my very favorite movie lines was said by Denise Richards (I know – yuck!) in the 2001 comedy Good Advice. In the movie, while trying to convince boyfriend Charlie Sheen to let her move into his upscale New York apartment building with him, Denise says “I’m ready to have a doorman in my life.” LOL Well, apparently LC was also ready for a doorman – according to the H’wood Party Girl website Lauren “wanted more security and being in a building with a doorman will allow her that.” Apparently Lauren was sick and tired of tour buses driving by her home ten plus times a day and random fans scaling her front wall and ringing her doorbell at all hours of the night. Hmmm, I wonder how these people got her address. 😉 LOL

Not only does Lauren’s new building have a 24-hour doorman, but it also features valet parking, a swimming pool and sun deck, a tennis court, a banquet room, and a fitness center. The twenty story building has only 65 units which range in price from $1.5 million to $3 million. Supposedly, Lauren is paying $15,000 per month to rent her new condo. To offset that hefty new rental cost, Lauren is currently renting out her Hollywood house for the bargain price of $11,000 a month! LOL How cool would it be to have LC as your landlord, though?? Keep your eyes peeled for LC’s new pad to be showing up in the fifth, and final, season of The Hills which premieres Monday, March 30th, at 10 pm. You can see interior pics of another unit currently for sale in Lauren’s building here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Lauren Conrad’s new condominium is located in the prestigious Wilshire House building located at 10601 Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood. You can visit the Wilshire House website here.

March 6, 2009
The Pilot House!

One filming location that has pretty much been the bane of Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and my existence for quite some time now is the home that the Walsh family lived in during the very first of episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. Mike and I fondly, and sometimes not so fondly – LOL – refer to this location as “The Pilot House” since it was used in one episode and one episode only of our favorite 90’s series – the pilot episode.  The home was never seen again on the series and the question as to why the Walshes lived in a different house when the show began than in later episodes has remained a location mystery for the past twenty years.  It’s actually quite common, though, for certain elements of a television series, i.e. locations or actors, to be changed after a pilot episode is filmed.  Pilots are usually filmed with extremely small budgets months before regular series filming begins.  After a pilot is filmed, it is then shopped around to different networks in the hopes of being sold. The sad truth is that less than twenty five percent of the television pilots that are filmed ever get picked up by the networks, so producers aren’t usually willing to spend a boatload of money to shoot them.  But even so the questions as to where the original Walsh home was located and as to why the Walsh home changed from the traditional style home pictured above to the famous Spanish style home that we all know and love  have never been answered. Until now! 🙂

A few weeks ago while Mike was watching the pilot episode of 90210 he noticed the number 130 located above the front door of the Walsh home – a little location clue neither of us had picked up on before. (Pictured above). So pretty much immediately the two of us started searching 100 blocks in Los Angeles and its surrounding areas.  We must have scrutinized almost every single square inch of L.A. looking for this house! With no luck, I might add. Mike’s instincts kept telling him that the house was located in a gated community due to the fact that the street in front of the home appeared extremely narrow on TV.   But, knowing that the shooting budget for the pilot was most likely meager and that filming on a private road is usually a whole lot more costly than filming on your average city street, I disagreed with him. Until last week, that is.

While driving through Brentwood with my boyfriend last week I saw a gated community that I had never noticed before. I could tell just by driving by that it bore a striking resemblance to the 90210 pilot neighborhood. So when I got home that night I did some cyberstalking and quickly found a house in the community with a 130 address that looked a whole lot like the Walsh’s first Beverly Hills home.   But I couldn’t be certain it was the Pilot House until I saw the property with my own two eyes. And I was really worried that, being that the home is located in a gated community, I would never get that chance. Well, I must have a guardian angel watching over me, because on a whim, last weekend, I asked my boyfriend to drive by the neighborhood. I knew there was a house for sale just up the road from the pilot house and I had a bit of a hunch. Sure enough – right as we drove up to the community, there on a sign in big red letters were the words I was hoping beyond all hope to see – OPEN HOUSE! 🙂 YAY! And that was my ticket in!

Let me tell you, as we came around the corner and the Pilot House came into view, I was so excited I thought my heart was going to beat right out of my chest!!!! 🙂 I was pinching myself the whole time! It was so surreal to finally be standing there in front of a filming location I had wondered about for almost twenty years!  I almost felt as if any second I would wake up at home in bed only to realize that none of it was real. LOL The Pilot House is a lot smaller in person than it appeared on the show, but otherwise, even twenty years later, it looks EXACTLY the same as it did on 90210! And I could not have been more ecstatic to finally be seeing it with my own two eyes!!!!!  The neighborhood where the Pilot House is located is really beautiful, too, with towering trees, huge lawns, and hilly, winding roads. The house for sale wasn’t too shabby, either – yes, of course, we went to go see it! 🙂

And once I determined that the home was located in a gated community, the other part of the 90210 pilot house mystery was solved, too. Upon entering, I just happened to ask the guard on duty at the guard shack if the community allowed filming of any sort to take place on the premises. He told me that in fact filming is not allowed and he laughed as if he gets asked that question all the time. I am sure location scouts come a-knockin’ at the guard shack door all too often. My best guess is that back in 1990, when the pilot episode was filmed, there was no ban on filming in the neighborhood. The pilot house was probably the first home on the premises ever used for filming of any sort. And I am pretty sure it must have belonged to someone on the production team – ie. the director, producer, art director, etc. It actually happens more often than you’d think that someone involved with a lower budget production will offer up their home for filming to keep costs down.  Because the Pilot House is a beautiful home located in an upscale community, and since the 90210 pilot budget was most likely quite small, I think that is exactly what happened. Otherwise I just don’t see how they could have afforded to film there. If you’ve seen the pilot episode as many times as I have, you’ll remember that most of the location shooting at the Walsh house took place at night, which I am sure angered quite a few neighbors. Night shoots usually last from sunset to sunrise and can be loud, messy, and annoying to anyone whose house is nearby. So I am gonna go out on a limb and say that during the production of 90210, a few of the neighbors probably got a little miffed about the filming and  as soon as the pilot wrapped, members of the small community (there are only 67 houses on the property) made certain nothing like that would ever happen again. So when Beverly Hills, 90210 got picked up as a series three to six months later, the producers were left without a home to use for filming.   And that’s how we ended up with Casa Walsh. 🙂

Now we can FINALLY put to bed one of the greatest filming location mysteries of all time. Now if only I could find that darn Girls Just Want To Have Fun apartment! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The 90210 Pilot House is located at 130 North Gunston Drive in the Brentwood Circle community. Please remember that this home is located in a private, gated community, and unless they open their gates for a reason (ie. an open house), you should not be on the property.

March 5, 2009
Jason Mesnick’s Bachelor Pad

Monday night’s episode of The Bachelor was all that RealitySteve promised it would be – and more! The show played out pretty much EXACTLY as he said it would and I completely agree with him that the finale’s “shocking twist” was a set-up from the get-go. Something about Molly’s reaction during the After the Final Rose program just didn’t ring true for me. I mean, come on, she got dumped two months ago on national TV, then Monday night she finds out that the girl she was dumped for just got dumped herself (also on national TV), and then the dumb-ass guy asks her if he can have another chance???? Anyone with half a heart would need at least an hour or so to process all that information! Not Molly, though – she had her lips on Jason’s before they could even cut to a commercial break. And we’re supposed to believe that was her “real” reaction? Come on, ABC! No woman in her right mind would react that way!  I mean doesn’t she find it just a wee bit unsettling that Jason has now proposed to three different women, none of whom it’s worked out with?? Hello – red flag! But I must say that as obvious of a set-up as the whole thing was and as horrible as I felt for poor Melissa, damn if that didn’t make for some good TV. I was absolutely glued to my television set for the entire three hours! And I have to admit I have a new found respect for Melissa. LOVED when she called Jason a bastard. LOL LOL LOL You go girl! Anyway, since earlier this week I stalked the house the women lived in on this season of The Bachelor, today I thought I’d blog about Jason’s pad.

During the first half of this season’s Bachelor, Jason Mesnick lived in a red adobe style home that looked like it belonged in Arizona or New Mexico rather than in L.A.    Jason’s son Ty, who someone on RealitySteve’s site commented looks just like Eddie Munster LOL LOL LOL, also lived in this house during the filming – notice the jungle gym in the above screen caps. This house was the site of Jason’s infamous camping date with Molly where the two supposedly stayed up all night “talking” in their tent. Yeah right! About halfway through the season, Jason moved out of this house and into what was supposedly his Seattle home. In reality, though, that house (like everything else on the show) was a fake and didn’t truly belong to him.

Ironically enough, I first started searching for this home when it appeared on an episode of the new 90210 series earlier this year. The home was featured in the episode entitled “Love Me or Leave Me” in which Annie and Ethan take a little overnight vacay to Palm Springs. In the episode the two spend the night in Annie’s grandmother’s house, which just happens to be the very same home Jason lived in on The Bachelor.  When the home first appeared on 90210, I believed it was actually located in Palm Springs.   It wasn’t until I recognized it a few weeks later on The Bachelor that I realized it had to be located somewhere in the L.A. area, most likely Malibu.

I am sad to say that it took me much longer than it should have to find this house, being that it is located ON THE SAME STREET as the house the women lived in on The Bachelor. LOL In fact I drove right by it the other day while out stalking the women’s house, but just didn’t realize it. I’m oh so observant! So when I finally found the house today after doing some cyberstalking, I could have kicked myself! I knew the two Bachelor homes had to be located fairly close to each other, but I had no idea they’d be on the very same street less than a mile apart. LOL

Sadly, not much of the home, which is named Rancho Cielo, is visible from the street. You can see just enough of it to recognize it as The Bachelor house, but even so I wouldn’t make any sort of special trip out there to see it. I’d stay home and cybertsalk it instead.

According to the sign out front, besides being available for filming, Rancho Cielo is also currently used as a wedding venue. And while Jason didn’t have much luck in the love department while living there, it still looks like a beautiful place to get married.   LOL You can visit the home’s wedding website here.

On a side note – if you didn’t catch Jason’s appearance on Monday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, you really need to watch it! I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t hear it with my own ears, but on the show Jason actually said – and I am quoting here – “I think at some point her [Melissa] and I will be friends again.” WOW! Seriously???? Jason, you’re an even bigger idiot than I thought! LOL Jimmy Kimmel’s reaction to that quote was absolutely priceless! LOL LOL LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Jason Mesnick’s Bachelor pad, aka Rancho Cielo, is located at 430 Kanan Road in Malibu.

March 4, 2009
Tom and Gisele’s Big Day

Last Friday night while watching my new favorite show Talk Soup (why on earth I was not a regular watcher before is beyond me!!!!), a news flash splashed across my screen announcing that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had wed supermodel girlfriend Gisele Bundchen the previous evening. According to reports the hush-hush ceremony took place on the evening of February 26th at Saint Monica’s Catholic Church in Santa Monica and only a few guests were in attendance. Even though I am in no way, shape, or form a fan of Tom or Gisele, since I just happened to be in the area this weekend, I thought I’d stalk the church where their nuptials took place. 🙂

I’ve actually been to St. Monica’s Church quite a few times over the years, as it used to be my boyfriend’s local parish. It is an absolutely beautiful place, inside and out, and I am not at all surprised that Gisele and Tom chose it for their top-secret ceremony. The church was established way back in 1886, but the church that now stands at the corner of 7th Street and California Avenue wasn’t built until 1926. There is also an elementary school and a high school on the site. Since it’s inception over 123 years ago, St. Monica’s has grown to become one of the largest Catholic congregations in the Los Angeles area.

Saint Monica’s Catholic Church is no stranger to celebrity. It was featured in both the 1956 film Full of Life and the 1944 Academy Award winning musical Going My Way. Barry Fitzgerald, the lead character in Going My Way, was actually based on former St. Monica Monsigor Nicholas Conneally. Besides Tom and Gisele, other celebrities who are fans of the church include Martin Sheen, Brooke Shields, architect Frank Gehry, and Lawrence Welk. Lucy Lawless aka Xena, Warrior Princess, was married at St. Monica’s in 1998 and the memorial services for both Chris Farley and Lucille Ball were held there in 1997 and 1989 respectively.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Saint Monica’s Catholic Church is located at 725 Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica.

March 3, 2009
“The Bachelor” Mansion

I just about died this past Friday afternoon when my US Magazine arrived in the mail and looming out at me was the headline “Is The Bachelor Fake?” I have been absolutely enthralled with The Bachelor this season – and not because I am a fan of Jason Mesnick. I think the guy is pretty much a tool. But there was just so much drama this season that I absolutely could not tear myself away from the TV. And from the look of things, more drama is yet to come on tonight’s Final Rose Ceremony and After the Final Rose presentation. According to this week’s US Magazine article, a blogger named Steve Carbone, from RealitySteve.com, blew the lid right off of tonight’s shows! According to Steve (whose website I am now addicted to!) Jason is going to propose to contestant Melissa Rycroft at the end of tonight’s Bachelor finale. But (and here is where things get juicy!) during tonight’s After the Final Rose show (which was pre-taped six weeks ago) Jason is going to dump Melissa for second runner up Molly Malaney. And, the icing on the cake, supposedly Jason has been seeing Molly behind Melissa’s back ever since filming was completed – not that he will ever admit to that! What a snake! Steve believes in his heart of hearts that ABC concocted this whole scenario to increase their ratings and I have to say I agree with him. I started having my doubts as to the reality of The Bachelor way back during Season Two when my boyfriend’s boss spotted Bachelor Aaron Buerge on a date with contestant Gwen Gioia. Apparently not only were make-up artists fixing Gwen’s hair and make-up during the date, but producers were constantly stopping the filming to re-shoot certain segments. LOL Needless to say I cannot wait for tonight’s episode. I am sure I will walk away from it thinking Jason is an even bigger douchebag than I did before. LOL

Thanks to my buddy Whitney over at ZillowBlog, who alerted me to this article back in October, I was able to stalk the Bachelor house this past weekend. Ever since it was built in 2005, the Malibu area home pictured above has been featured on numerous seasons of The Bachelor. The mansion’s front entrance was used repeatedly as the famous limousine drop-off area where the past few Bachelors and Bachelorettes have welcomed their contestants during the first episode of each season. In fact, not only was the mansion’s entrance the very spot where Jason first met Deanna last season, but it was also the same locale where Jason welcomed the women of the show this season. The home’s living room area has also been the site of the numerous rose ceremonies of seasons past. But this season, not only was the home used for rose ceremonies and the big limo welcome, but it was also where the women lived during the filming. So I was pretty excited to stalk it! 🙂

Orignally priced at $13 million and later dropped to $8,750,000, The Bachelor house is currently for sale at the bargain price of $6,750,000. Apparently being “The Bachelor house” isn’t that great a selling point. LOL The six bedroom, nine bathroom Tuscan style manse measures a whopping 8,000 square feet and sits on almost ten acres of land! The home has a four car garage, a gourmet kitchen, an infinity pool with a swim-up barbeque and bar, and a detached 4,000 square foot studio/office area! To put it in Bachelor speak, the house is simply “amazing”! Ever notice how often they use that word on the show? LOL Somebody really needs to get the contestants a thesaurus – stat! Unfortunately, not much of the home is visible from the street, but it was still extremely exciting to stalk it knowing all the drama that took place there back in November.

Be sure to tune into tonight’s Bachelor Season Finale. It is sure to have “the most dramatic rose ceremony . . . ever”! And if you haven’t yet, you simply must check out Reality Steve’s blog – it’s enthralling!

UPDATE – This very same mansion was recently featured in the Season 2 episode of The Mentalist entitled “The Red Box” as the home of photographer Hopper Banks.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Bachelor house is located at 2351 Kanan Road in Malibu. You can visit the home’s real estate website here. You can also visit the owner’s website here.

March 2, 2009
Becky Bloomwood Takes on the El Capitan!

I have long been obsessed with the “Confessions of a Shopaholic” book series authored by British novelist Sophie Kinsella (aka Madeline Wickham). So obsessed in fact that about five years ago when I heard that Hollywood was optioning a screenplay based on the novels, I wrote to Sophie pitching myself for the movie’s lead role. I must say that I was absolutely born to play the story’s heroine, Becky Bloomwood – a slightly daft shopaholic with a completely unique and upbeat take on the world.  So when Sophie Kinsella wrote me back, as you can imagine, I just about died!!! And then when it was announced that Sophie’s one and only West Coast stop on her Shopaholic and Baby book tour was going to be at my fave bookstore, Vroman’s, I thought it was a sign from above. In March of 2006 I did indeed get to meet Sophie at her book signing and – get this – she remembered me and my letters. Being that I decorated the letters with about a hundred sparkly shoe stickers that I made myself, I guess they were pretty unforgettable. LOL   🙂 So as you can imagine I was absolutely crushed when in late 2006 it was announced that Isla Fisher had won the much-coveted role of Becky.

The most crushing part of all for me was my belief that Isla Fisher was just simply not the right person to play Becky. If it wasn’t going to be me playing that part, then it better be someone darn perfect for the role! And Isla just wasn’t it. So yesterday after much begging and pleading my friend Blaze finally convinced me to see Confessions of a Shopaholic with him.  And I have to admit that, surprisingly enough, I didn’t hate it. I didn’t love it either, mind you, I didn’t even really like it. But at least I didn’t hate it. LOL But they really should have given the movie a different title, because in no way, shape, or form does it resemble the novels I’ve grown to know and love. Aside from the characters’ names, the story is pretty much unrecognizable. And while Isla was funny – she just wasn’t Becky. I so wanted to see the warm-hearted, but hair-brained character I love so much up on that screen. And sadly, Isla wasn’t it.   So, if you want my advice, don’t bother with the movie if you are at all a fan of the books. And if you’re not a fan of the books, but just want to see a romantic comedy, I’d instead recommend  He’s Just Not That Into You.   🙂

The only good part about seeing Shopaholic yesterday was that we got to watch it in the famed and historic El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. I so rarely go to the El Capitan and, honestly, I have no idea why as it is one of the most beautiful movie palaces in all of L.A. The El Capitan first opened up on May 3, 1926 and was strictly a live theatre venue.  The exterior was designed in the Spanish Colonial style by art deco architect Stiles O. Clements, who was also the designer of the Wiltern and Mayan Theatres in Los Angeles. The interior was designed by San Francisco theatre designer G. Albert Lansburgh, who was also responsible for designing the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. and the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. The interior alone cost over $1.2 million to construct. For over a decade the El Capitan had an enormously successful run showcasing live theatre performances starring such legends as Clark Gable, Buster Keaton and Will Rogers.   During the Great Depression the theatre began to falter and was in danger of closing its doors.  Until 1941 when a young director who was having trouble finding a theatre that would premiere his new movie asked if he could rent out the El Capitan.  That director was Orson Welles and the movie was Citizen Cane. That premiere gave new life to the theatre and not long afterwards, theatre executives decided to close the space for a year in order to modernize it and customize it for film premieres.  On March 18, 1942, armed with a new design and a new name, the Hollywood Paramount Theatre opened to the world. It’s first movie showing was Read the Wild Wind. The Paramount became wildly successful hosting premieres for all of the Hollywood greats, including my girl Marilyn Monroe. 🙂 In later years the theatre came to be owned by Pacific Theatres, who in 1989 partnered up with the Walt Disney Company and decided to restore the Paramount to its original glory. The theatre closed its doors once again. This time for two years, while undergoing a $14 million renovation. When it re-opened in 1991, the original name had been restored and the original glamour unearthed once again.

Today the El Capitan is where Disney holds most of its Hollywood premieres. In the past Lilo and Stitch, Monsters Inc., Bolt, Miracle, Herby: Fully Loaded, and countless, countless others have premiered there. Oftentimes, before the start of a movie, the El Capitan will feature a live-action pre-show starring some of your favorite Disney characters. And a display featuring props, costumes, and memorabilia from the movie currently playing is usually set up in the El Capitan’s basement for fans to enjoy. I took the above photo of some of Isla Fisher’s costumes from Confessions of a Shopaholic, but it didn’t come out very well. The El Capitan is absolutely breathtaking inside and its lobby and hallways have countless photographs showcasing the history of the legendary theatre and the hundreds of stars who have attended premieres there.  My favorite part of the El Capitan, though, has to be the Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store located just off the theatre’s main lobby. The Soda Fountain serves up some fabulous hot dogs and ice cream sundaes – and the walls are lined with photographs of the many stars who have dined there. I can’t recommend stalking the El Capitan enough – but I’d wait until Shopaholic leaves and a new movie comes. LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The El Capitan Theatre is located at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, directly across from the Hollywood & Highland complex.

February 27, 2009
Isn’t It Romantic!

A few weeks ago while watching my all time favorite episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, entitled “Isn’t It Romantic”, I noticed something I had never noticed before in all of my previous times watching it. In the episode, Dylan takes Brenda on a date to a scenic lookout point to discuss their burgeoning relationship. While watching that scene I noticed that Dylan and Brenda walk right by a sign reading “Mulholland Scenic Corridor” (pictured above). And I almost jumped right out of my chair as I knew exactly where Brenda and Dylan were standing. My boyfriend had taken me to that exact same spot about four or five years ago. My boyfriend – stealing romantic moves from Dylan McKay! Who knew? LOL

So immediately after watching the episode, I dragged my boyfriend out to stalk the overlook that he had taken me to all those years ago. But when we got there I realized immediately that we were in the wrong place.   For some reason it just didn’t look to me like Brenda and Dylan’s overlook. My boyfriend kept telling me “Lindsay, the episode was filmed 20 years ago! Surely the place is going to look different now!” LOL   Well, come to find out, we were in the wrong place! Turns out there are EIGHT different scenic overlooks located along the twisty turny 24 mile stretch of Mulholland Drive known as the Mulholland Scenic Corridor and Parkway. LOL I believe it was at that point that I became a bit unglued and told my boyfriend that we were going to drive to EACH AND EVERY ONE of those overlooks until I found the right one. LOL I know, I know, it’s amazing that he puts up with me!

Well, lucky for my boyfriend, we didn’t actually have to go to all eight overlooks. I believe we only made it to five of them. 🙂 The funny thing is that by that point I didn’t even care so much about seeing Brenda and Dylan’s overlook in person – it was more the frustration over not being able to find it that was driving me.    Anway, the overlook used on Beverly Hills, 90210 is named the Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook and as soon as I saw it in person I had to give myself a mental kick. I am sad to say that I really should have figured this one out sooner, as the Pohl Overlook is pretty much the only Mulholland overlook that has any sort of parking lot. And parking lots are definitely one thing location scouts look for when scouting locations. They need a place to park all of those massive production trucks! The Pohl Overlook has a HUGE parking lot that can fit over 40 cars, so it would have been the obvious choice for the filming of my fave 90s show. UGH! I can be such a blond sometimes! LOL

I HIGHLY recommend stalking ANY of the Mulholland Scenic Parkway and Corridor overlooks. All five that we visited boasted absolutely majestic views of Los Angeles.  The eight overlooks are located on Mulholland Drive in between the 101 and 405 Freeways. Their names are: Barbara A. Fine Overlook, Hollywood Bowl Overlook, Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook, Stone Canyon Overlook, Universal City Overlook, The Groves Overlook, Las Virgenes Overlook, and Seminole Overlook.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Nancy Hoover Pohl Overlook is located at 8401 Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles.

February 26, 2009
The Robinson House from “The Graduate”

A few weeks back fellow stalker Scott, from the Film in America website, asked me if I knew the location of the Robinson house and the Braddock house from the 1967 movie The Graduate.   He told me that he feared the locations of those homes were lost to history being that the movie was filmed over forty years ago and the addresses didn’t seem to be posted anywhere.   So I just had to get Mike from MovieShotsLA on the case – and sure enough he found the houses. Well, the house, actually, but I’ll get to that later. 🙂 While doing some cyberstalking Mike came across this Wikipedia article stating that the Robinson home was located on North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills, and after a quick search of Google Maps he found the house, right where Wikipedia said it would be. 🙂

The Robinson house looks much different today than it did back in 1967 when The Graduate was filmed. At the time of filming, the home had an all white exterior while today it has a red brick facade. My initial belief was that the brick exterior was added to the house sometime after filming had been completed, but after seeing the above screen capture, I realized that, in actuality, the home has always been brick. When The Graduate was filmed the bricks were just painted white. 🙂

Because the Robinson house looks so very different today than how it appeared onscreen forty years ago, I was shocked Mike was able to locate it. But he found two “landmarks” of a sort on Mrs. Robinson’s house that he used while searching Palm Drive. The first landmark was the wierd brown wooden design that appears to the left of the front door. The second was the house’s small peaked roof area. Both are pictured above. But here’s where things get really weird!

While looking at aerial images of the Palm Drive house, I realized that the pool area and backyard looked a whole lot like Benjamin Braddock’s backyard from the movie. Armed with a pretty big hunch I grabbed my Graduate DVD and fast-forwarded through the entire thing.  And sure enough, my hunch was correct – the front of the Braddock house is never shown in the Graduate – only the backyard is shown. And after looking at all of the Braddock backyard scenes one more time, I realized that the Braddock house and the Robinson house were one in the same!   LOL

So last week I dragged my boyfriend out to Beverly Hills to stalk the (one and only) Graduate house and while I was there taking photographs the owner happened to drive up. So, of course, I just had to talk to her! 🙂   I asked her if she lived in the home at the time The Graduate was filmed and her mouth pretty much just fell to the floor and she said “HOW did you know this was The Graduate house?” LOL I told her that my friend Mike was a master stalker and that he had found the house by doing some cyber-stalking. She confirmed that her home was indeed used in The Graduate, but said that she didn’t live in it at the time. She said that when she purchased the house about twenty years ago, the real estate agent was marketing it as “the Robinson house”. LOL Then I asked her if her backyard was in fact Benjamin Braddock’s backyard and once again her mouth just hung open. Apparently she didn’t realize who she was dealing with! LOL She told me that, in actuality, Benjamin Braddock’s backyard existed only on a soundstage, but that his backyard and pool area were indeed modeled after hers. I’m not sure she’s entirely correct on that, though. While I have no doubt that her backyard was re-created on a soundstage and that most of the filming probably took place there, if you watch some of the Graduate pool scenes closely it becomes obvious that at least some filming did actually take place at the Palm Drive home.

So, there you have it, the mystery of The Graduate houses is finally solved.   🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Graduate house is located at 607 North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills.

February 25, 2009
Get Out Of Line!

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that there’s only one thing I like better than stalking and that’s Starbucks. 🙂 Or any kind of coffee, really. So when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called me up last Sunday morning and asked if I wanted to stalk a coffee shop with him, I believe my exact words were “How fast can you be here?” On a side-note, my grandma just started reading my blog and the other day she called me up and asked “So, who’s this Mike guy????” She was convinced my boyfriend must be upset about all the time Mike and I spend together stalking. And I really had to laugh at that one because I’m pretty sure my boyfriend wakes up every morning thanking his lucky stars that Mike and I found each other. You see, if Mike is out stalking with me, that means my boyfriend isn’t.  And I’d say he’s pretty happy about that. No, I’d have to say that not only does my boyfriend not mind Mike and I spending so much time together, but I’m pretty sure that at this point Mike is probably in the running to be my boyfriend’s best man in our wedding.

Anyway, the coffee shop that Mike wanted to stalk is named Bean Town Coffee Bar and it was featured several times in the 2005 Will Ferrell movie Kicking and Screaming. I just rented the movie last week and I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised watching it as it’s absolutely hilarious!! And my favorite scene in the whole movie is the one that takes place at Bean Town.  In the scene, Will Ferrell has just become addicted to coffee and shows up at his favorite coffee shop for his morning fix. But on this particular day the rather long line is moving far too slowly and Will has a total coffee meltdown. I have to say that I almost died laughing watching that scene because, let me tell you, I’ve been there! There are some mornings at Starbucks where I just want to tear my hair out because the line is taking so long!   My boyfriend bought me a taser (it’s pink!) a couple of months ago because he was worried about me walking to my car late at night after my acting classes and he’s always joking that one day he’s going to get a call from the police saying that I was arrested for tasing someone who was taking too long in the Starbucks line. While watching Will Ferrell’s meltdown scene, I was reminded of comedian John Pinette’s “Get Out Of Line” routine. It has to be my favorite comedy routine of all time!

In real life Bean Town is a super cute little coffee house, with exposed brick walls, comfy chairs, board games, outdoor tables, and live music on weekends. The staff is super friendly and boy is the coffee strong, but in a good way. 🙂 And no, the line didn’t move too slowly while we were there. Besides yummy coffee, Bean Town also serves up a wide array of homemade goodies, including cinnamon rolls, croissants, sandwiches, soups, and cookies.   And even though I am a Starbucks girl at heart, I will for sure be returning!   As the authors of the book Hometown Pasadena said “We’d live in Sierra Madre just for Bean Town – it’s the perfect coffee house.”

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bean Town Coffee Bar is located at 45 North Baldwin Avenue in Sierra Madre. You can visit their website here.

February 24, 2009