IAMNOTASTALKER

Tag: Celebrities

  • Brenda and Kelly’s Spa Weekend

    The other night while watching some old episodes of 90210, I was super excited to recognize a location from the Season 3 episode entitled “Midlife . . . Now What?” In the episode Brenda, Kelly, and their moms, along with Donna and Andrea, try to spend a relaxing weekend at a health spa, but, as usual, drama ensues. Kelly’s mom, Jackie, runs into her former coke dealer and Brenda overhears some disturbing gossip about Kelly’s step-dad. Such a great show! 🙂 Anyway, the health spa that the girls spent the weekend at was actually Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, a location my boyfriend and I have visited on many occasions.

    So, of course, after watching the episode, I immediately dragged my boyfriend to the Loews to do some stalking. But I was crushed to see that the lobby was completely different than I remembered it due to a recent remodel. Up until just a couple of months ago, the lobby looked exactly the same as it did in the 90210 days. But, sadly, now the lobby is virtually unrecognizable. Gone are the large chairs and couches that used to line the lobby area, and which Brenda and Kelly sat in upon their arrival at the spa, and in their place is a long row of tall palm trees which now run the length of the lobby. 🙁

    The hotel pool was also featured extensively in the episode – Jackie sits by the pool and contemplates using cocaine again and later has a poolside heart to heart with Kelly. I am happy to report that not only did Jackie decide not to start using drugs again, but that the hotel pool looks exactly the same as it did when filming took place there 15 years ago. An episode of Season 10 of The Bachelor with triathlete Bachelor Andy Baldwin was also filmed at the hotel pool. The girls competed in a triathlon competition around the pool to win private time with Andy.

    The Loews is a really nice place to stop in and have a drink. The hotel is situated right on the beach in Santa Monica and has amazing views of the Pacific and the famous Santa Monica Pier. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled if you visit the Loews as celebs often frequent the hotel. The last time my boyfriend and I were at the lobby bar, Jorja Fox from TV’s CSI walked in off the beach after a surfing lesson to have a drink. 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The four-diamond Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel is located at 1700 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. You can visit their website here. Their rooms will run you about $400 a night.

  • Pacific Dining Car

    My father is currently in the hospital (again) as he just had some minor surgery – and no, it was not caused by me dragging him to filming locations! 🙂 As they say, though, every cloud has a silver lining! Not only has his hospital been used as a filming location, but there is a restaurant across the street from the hospital that is a favorite of film producers. My dad is staying at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downtown Los Angeles. Even though there are countless vacant hospitals all across LA that are only utilized for filming, for some reason Good Sam still shows up in productions now and again. The exterior was shown in an earlier episode of The Closer, it was featured on Dr. 90210 and a movie was filmed there last winter, but unfortunately I am not sure what movie it was.

    Across the street from Good Sam is a restaurant that has been around since 1921 called Pacific Dining Car. Fred and Grace Cook opened the restaurant in a replica of train dining car on a rented plot of land in Downtown Los Angeles in 1921. The idea was based on a restaurant that they had visited in New York that was also situated in an authentic railway dining car. Owned and operated by the same family since its opening, Pacific Dining Car serves up some AMAZING food in a truly unique environment. You definitely feel like you are stepping back in time when you enter the restaurant.

    The restaurant has long been a favorite of novelist James Elroy, author of Training Day, LA Confidential, Black Dhalia and the screenplay for the 2008 movie Street Kings. James usually writes about the LA area and often features Pacific Dining Car in his novels. Consequently the restaurant often shows up in the movies based on his books. The movie Training Day was filmed in the Pacific Dining Car, as was Street Kings with Keanu Reeves. Both movies were filmed in the Pacific Northwest Room of the restaurant. The scene from Training Day when Denzel Washington meets with the “three wise men” was filmed at the booth I am standing in front of in the picture to the left. (IMDB actually states that Training Day was filmed at the Santa Monica location of the Pacific Dining Car, but that information is incorrect.) My dad happened to also be in the hospital during the filming of Street Kings and I got to watch part of it be filmed. 🙂 I got to see Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, and Jay Mohr. I was HIGHLY disappointed, though, that I didn’t get to see Chris Evans, who also starred in the movie. He is such a cutie!! The security guard on duty during the filming was slightly disgusted with the fact that I was standing around watching the filming of Street Kings while my father was in the hospital. What can I say – once a stalker, always a stalker! 🙂

    If you dine at Pacific Dining Car, chances are you’ll get to see a celeb. Famous patrons have flocked to the restaurant since its opening – including Louella Parsons, Mae West, Mickey Cohen, George Raft, Sid Ziff, all of Linkin Park, Nicholas Cage and Johnny Depp who just threw a party in the Astor Room of the restaurant.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It:: The Pacific Dining Car is located at 1210 West 6th Street in Downtown LA. You can call (213)483-6000 to make reservations. They are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and you can order breakfast there all day long! Pacific Dining Car is in a bit of a sketchy neighborhood and I recommend that you utilize their valet parking and exercise caution at night. Their sister restaurant is located in Santa Monica at 2700 Wilshire Boulevard, but that restaurant is only 18 years old and not as charming. Both restaurants are pricey and will run you about $50 a person for a meal. If you want a cheaper option, head to the restaurant’s full bar for a drink.

    Stalk It

  • "Goose, You Big Stud . . . "

    No self-respecting stalker can take a trip to San Diego without visiting Kansas City Barbecue, which is more commonly known as the “Top Gun Bar”. Kansas City Barbeque was actually featured twice in the 1986 Tom Cruise flick. It first shows up in the scene where Goose and Maverick serenade Kelly McGillis and Meg Ryan with “Great Balls of Fire” and Meg Ryan utters her famous line “Goose, you big stuuuuuud! Take me to bed now or lose me forever!” It also appears in the very final scene of the movie, where Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis reunite while “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” plays on the jukebox in the background. (Yes, that jukebox is still there!) 🙂

    Even though Top Gun was filmed over 20 years ago, fans still flock to the tiny bar on a regular basis. I’ve even seen huge tour buses pull up out front on occasion. All of the bartenders there are extremely nice and will tell you all sorts of stories about the filming of the movie. The place would definitely be considered a dive bar, but it serves up some GREAT food in a super fun atmosphere. Sitting there, you might wonder how in the heck Kansas City Barbeque wound up in one of the biggest movies of the 80’s. Apparently, location scouts were out and about searching San Diego for filming locations for Top Gun and they stopped into Kansas City Barbeque for a cold beer and some lunch. They ended up loving the place so much, they brought director Tony Scott back there for lunch and he wound up featuring it in the movie. The rest, as they say, is history.

    Goose’s piano and the jukebox can still be found in the Top Gun Bar, although they have been moved from where they stood during filming. There are tons of photographs and other movie memorabilia located throughout the restaurant – it’s a Top Gun museum of sorts. You will for sure recognize it from the movie as soon as you walk in the door and you’ll probably get the urge to sit down at Goose’s piano and play “Great Balls of Fire”. 🙂 Kansas City Barbeque is a super fun place to spend an afternoon or an evening and I highly recommend stalking it! It has also been voted “Best BBQ in San Diego” for ten years in a row.

    Note – my pictures of the Top Gun Bar are extremely old! I couldn’t find my more recent ones. But trust me, the bar looks pretty much the same as it did over ten years ago when my pictures were taken. 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Kansas City Barbeque is located at 610 West Market Street in Downtown San Diego, just across the street from Seaport Village. You can visit the bar’s website here. After hanging out at the Top Gun Bar head across the street to Seaport Village, a cute little outdoor shopping center right on the water. Edgewater Grill, located in Seaport Village, is an excellent place for dinner!

  • Hotel Del Coronado

    Ever since I was a little girl, my family has been vacationing at Hotel Del Coronado on the island of Coronado. Hotel Del is a truly magical place – like no other hotel I have ever seen. Stepping inside it is literally like stepping back in time a hundred years to a completely different era. Completed in 1888 for the cost of one million dollars, the Victorian style hotel is one of the oldest and last remaining buildings made entirely of wood. It’s hard to believe, but not one single nail was used in the building of the hotel, instead the workers used wooden pegs to fasten and secure. Hotel Del Coronado was named a historical landmark in 1977 and it truly is a marvel to see in person. The lobby is covered in dark wood paneling and looks like it was taken right out of the set of James Cameron’s Titanic.

    The hotel has undergone many changes in the past decade, including a $57 million renovation. Ironically I preferred the hotel in its pre-renovation days, as many of the original areas of the Del are now gone. When I was a little girl, the original men’s cigar room was still intact, but it was gutted a few years ago and is now a restaurant. The lobby piano bar was a favorite of my parents, but it was recently turned into a gift shop. The hotel’s original dining room, the Crown Room, used to be a magnificent 156 foot long restaurant with 30 foot high arched ceilings made entirely of Oregon Sugar Pine, but it is no longer open to the public and is now only used for special events. My parents actually threw me a surprise 21st birthday party in the Crown Room, so it holds a special place in my heart. While the hotel truly is still a magical place, sadly it was much more enchanting in years past.

    Hotel Del is now and has always been a celebrity mecca. Hundreds of celebrities, dignitaries, authors, and almost every single American president of the past 20 years have all been guests of the hotel. Thomas Edison, George Burns, Harry Truman, Charlie Chaplin, Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, Lucille Ball, and Frank Sinatra all stayed at the Del at one time or another. L. Frank Baum, who lived on Coronado, was a frequent guest of the hotel, and it is rumored that the Del was his inspiration for Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz. He also designed the crown chandeliers that still hang to this day in the Crown Room.

    Countless TV and movie productions have been filmed at the Del – including My Blue Heaven, K-9, Mr. Wrong, The Stunt Man, The Married Virgin, Simon & Simon, Ghosts of California, Baywatch and, of course, the 1959 Marilyn Monroe classic Some Like It Hot , where it was used extensively as a Miami resort. Interestingly enough, Billy Wilder chose to shoot Some Like It Hot at the Del because at the time the hotel was in an economic decline so the owners let him film there for minimal costs. He also wanted to shoot at a place where Marilyn Monroe could stay on location – due to her numerous on-set antics, he did not want to take the risk of her not showing up to the set due to transporation problems. The picture to left is of the stage where Marilyn and “the girls” performed their concert in Miami. Also, the book Bid Time Return , on which the 1980 movie Somewhere In Time was based, was written about Hotel Del Coronado. However, producers chose to use the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan for the filming of the movie.

    Movie memorabilia and photographs used to line the Del’s long hallways and as a little girl I would walk the corridors looking at all of the old time movie photographs, completely mesmerized. At the time, being at the Del was the closest I ever got to being on a movie set. Today, the memorabilia has been moved to the Coronado Museum of History and Art, just down the street from the Del. For a $4 admission fee, you can enter the museum and learn the history of the island and the hotel.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Hotel Del Coronado is located at 1500 Orange Avenue on Coronado Island in San Diego. You can visit the hotel’s website to book a room here. While at the hotel, be sure to visit the Est. 1888 gift shop – they sell photos and souvenirs from the many movies filmed at the Del. The Coronado Museum of History and Art is located at 1100 Orange Avenue. They are open Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 5pm. You can visit their website here.

  • Stalking San Diego

    Spent this past weekend in Coronado, a small island off the coast of San Diego, with my family to celebrate Father’s Day. My best friend, who lives nearby, came over to spend the day with me by the hotel pool and when she got there she mentioned that she was a “bit afraid” to tell me that a production crew was filming on the San Diego-Coronado Bridge. LOL While I didn’t drag her over to the bridge to do some stalking, I thought I’d do a post about past productions that took place there.

    The Coronado Bridge, as it is more commonly referred to, is 11,288 feet long and 200 feet high – a height which permits Navy ships harbored at the nearby Naval Station San Diego to safely sail underneath. The Bridge was built in 1969 and connects the City of San Diego, via the 5 Freeway, to Coronado Island. It is the third most popular suicide bridge in America, following the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Aurora Bridge in Seattle, Washington. My best friend also shared a very cool, little known bridge fact with me – it floats! Yes, you read that right! In the case of a disaster, natural or otherwise, if the Coronado Bridge is destroyed, pieces of it will actually float instead of sinking to the bottom. It was designed this way so that in the case of a disaster large pieces of the bridge can be towed out of the harbor so that the Naval Station and Navy ships are not blocked in.

    The Coronado Bridge is an oft used filming location, mostly for commercials, but it has showed up in a few TV shows. The bridge was featured each week in the opening credits of the TV show Simon & Simon and it also showed up several times on Veronica Mars, where most notably it was the bridge where Logan’s mother jumped to her death. While it is sometimes referenced as the bridge used in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, even though that movie was supposed to take place in “Sun” Diego, it was actually filmed almost entirely in Long Beach. The scene where Will Ferrel and Jack Black get into a fist fight was actually filmed on the Queensway Bridge in Long Beach, not on the Coronado Bridge.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The San Diego-Coronado Bridge is located off the 5 Freeway in San Diego County, just past the Downtown San Diego exits. If you have time, spend the afternoon walking around Coronado – it is an adorable little town.

  • Ago Restaurant

    For my birthday this year, my parents and my boyfriend were planning to take me to famous celebrity haunt the Ivy restaurant in Beverly Hills. But plans changed when my boyfriend heard that a better bet for celeb stalking was Ago Restaurant, which just happens to be owned by Robert DeNiro, Ridley Scott, and Harvery and Bob Weinstein. Apparently the Italian restaurant is celeb central with countless stars showing up to dine nightly. Sadly, the stalking gods were not shining on me when we dined at Ago, because we didn’t spot one single celeb during my birthday dinner. 🙁 But I would definitely recommend stalking the restaurant anyway.

    Ago, pronounced Ah-Go, is named after Italian chef Agostina Sciandri. The food there is INCREDIBLE – my dad, who was recently released from the hospital and hasn’t really had an appetite since, practically licked his plate clean. It was the first time I had seen him eat an entire meal in a good two months! So, for me, that speaks volumes! My boyfriend chose the gnocci, which our waiter proclaimed was the best in America, and it truly did live up that promise. Service at Ago was great, too, although somewhat rushed. We were out of the restaurant in 45 minutes flat – which seemed strange for such an expensive place. I have heard, though, that if you ask them not to rush you, they will slow their service down.

    I would definitely recommend making a stalking trip to Ago – but it will cost you. Dinner will run you about $100 for two people at the bare minimum. If you don’t want to pay that much for a meal, Ago does have a bar with a great view of the front door for prime celeb stalking. 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Ago is located at 8478 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. You can visit their website here. I would suggest dining there later in the evening, as you’ll have a better chance of seeing celebs. 🙂

  • Buy A Set From Laguna Beach!

    Fave website Real Estalker just posted news that Lauren Conrad’s parents put their Laguna Beach dream house up for sale for a cool $17.5 million! You may remember that James Conrad built this house during the first season of Laguna Beach: The Real O.C. and LC and Ste-ven traipsed through the house during construction in the pilot episode. L.C. threw a few pool parties/BBQ’s there during subsequent seasons of the show and it was at one of those pools parties that her romance with Jason Wahler blossomed. I have no idea why the Conrad’s would sell this home – it is absolutely amazing!

    You can read the entire Real Estalker article here.

    Stalk It: The Conrad’s home is located at 29 Vista Del Sol in Laguna Beach. You won’t get past the guardshack located at 32350 Pacific Coast Highway, though, so you’ll just have to settle for views of the house from the road.

  • The World’s Most Famous Subway Grate

    The other night in my acting class we were talking about Marilyn Monroe and the movie The Seven Year Itch. One of my classmates asked me if I had ever seen the famous scene of Marilyn standing on top of a subway grate from the movie. I told him that not only had I seen it, I’ve stood on that very subway grate! So, I thought I’d do a little post about it. 🙂 In that famous scene, Marilyn and her downstairs neighbor, played by Tom Ewell, exit the Trans Lux Theatre, which once stood at 586 Lexington Avenue, and walk onto a subway grate. Marilyn is standing atop the grate as a subway passes making her white skirt billow high above her waist as she exclaims “Oh, can you feel the breeze from the subway? Isn’t it delicious?”

    sevenyearitch1

    The scene was originally shot on location in Manhattan on September 15, 1954 at 1 O’clock in the morning, with over 5000 spectators and media men watching. The crowd went wild as Marilyn’s skirt flew higher and higher, making the footage being shot completely unusable due to the noise. Director Billy WIlder ended up having to re-shoot the entire sequence at 20th Century Fox Studios in Los Angeles.

    The footage that ended up making it to the final cut of the movie was significantly edited down as the scene was considered far too racy for its time. But everyone remembers those black and white photographs taken of Marilyn that September night in Manhattan with her skirt billowing high above her waist, showing off her panties and her long gams. In the actual movie, you barely see Marilyn’s skirt fly up at all, most of what is shown is her face reacting to the subway breeze. You can watch the subway grate scene below:

    On a side note – One of the many people in attendance that September night in New York was Marilyn’s husband at the time, Joe DiMaggio. Supposedly, Joe became enraged that the gleeful onlookers were viewing his wife’s panties over and over again during the filming of the scene. The marriage was already on the rocks at the time and this experience put Joe over the edge. Just a few weeks later he filed for divorce from the starlet, long before the movie ever premiered.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The Seven Year Itch subway grate is located at the northwest corner of Lexington Avenue and 52nd Street. The Trans Lux Theatre is no longer there and a large office building now stands in its place.

  • Making My Job a Little Easier!

    For my birthday my boyfriend bought me the new Sex and the City: The Movie book and I was totally floored to open it up and find a whole chapter devoted to filming locations from the movie! Takes a bit of the guesswork out of stalking, but it will make things so much easier on my next trip to New York. 🙂 The book is GREAT! I absolutely LOVE IT! There are tons of pictures, gossip, and trivia inside and I am having so much fun flipping through it. The only location not named in the filming locations chapter in the book is the Mexican restaurant the girls go to during Carrie’s “honeymoon”. It does mention, though, that it is located in Simi Valley, so it looks like I’ll be stalking all Mexican restaurants in the Simi Valley area for the next few months. 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: You can buy your very own Sex and the City: The Movie book here.

  • Alma Mater to the Stars

    This weekend, while stalking in the Valley, my boyfriend and I drove by Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks. American Idol fans might remember Notre Dame from Season 5, when Katherine McPhee returned to her hometown of Sherman Oaks for a large pep rally held in the gym of her alma mater. Antonio Villaraigosa even showed up for the celebration and declared the day as “Katharine McPhee Day”! Gag me! I, personally, did NOT have McPhever during Season 5 of Idol and was very happy when she didn’t take home the crown. 🙂

    Besides Ms. McPhee, Notre Dame is the alma mater to countless celebs, including Rachel Bilson from The OC, director Nick Cassavetes, Kristin Dunst, Maureen Flannigan (from Out of This World), Devon Gummersall and Devon Odessa from My So-Called Life, Staci Keenan from My Two Dads, Jerry Mathers aka the Beave, Dave Navarro and Stephen Perkins from Jane’s Addiction, and Michelle Trachtenberg from Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl, as well as countless professional football and baseball players. There must be something in the water at Notre Dame, I swear!! It definitely seems like a breeding ground for lots of talented celebrities. 🙂

    According to Wikipedia, the softcore porn TV series Love Street shot an episode at Notre Dame High School, which is very surprising as schools are usually pretty choosy about what productions can and cannot film on campus.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Notre Dame High School is located at 13645 Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks.