celebrity scandals – IAMNOTASTALKER

October 1, 2013September 29, 2017

Tom Neal’s Former House

Upon first moving to the Desert in January, I started seriously perusing the book Palm Springs Confidential, which the Grim Cheaper’s boss had purchased for me several years prior. One locale mentioned in the tome that immediately piqued my interest was the former Little Tuscany Estates residence of Tom Neal, where, on April 1st, 1965, the ex-actor/onetime prizefighter shot and killed his third wife, Gail Evatt. (Her name is also sometimes reported as being “Gail Bennett” and, unfortunately, I am unsure of which moniker is correct, but for this post I’ll stick with Evatt.) Figuring the place would fit in perfectly with my Haunted Hollywood theme, I dragged the GC out to stalk it in July and have been itching to blog about it ever since. So here goes!

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Tom Neal’s acting career began on Broadway in 1935. The Illinois native, who had boxed quite successfully while attending Northwestern University, enrolled in Harvard Law School shortly thereafter and, upon graduating in 1938, migrated to Hollywood to pursue his dream of being on the silver screen. He landed his first film role that same year as Aldrich Brown in Out West with the Hardys and went on to play bit parts (mostly tough-guy characters thanks to his boxing background) and later star in over 180 low-budget, B-rated productions. His success garnered him quite a bit of wealth, a two-acre estate in Bel-Air and a romance with actress Barbara Payton. It was that romance with Payton that triggered his downfall. In 1951, the starlet told Neal she was leaving him for a new paramour, actor Franchot Tone. Neal did not take the news well. He beat Tone severely, giving him a broken nose, a concussion and a ten-day hospital stay. Payton later married Tone (though that was short-lived) and Neal was blacklisted by Hollywood. He wound up moving to Palm Springs, where he worked first as a host at the Doll House restaurant and then as a landscaper.

In 1961, Neal married Gail, who worked as a receptionist at the Palm Springs Racquet Club. (I blogged about the Racquet Club here.) The two moved into the four-bedroom, two-bath, 1,624-square-foot rental pictured below in early 1965. The ranch-style home, which was originally built in 1947, sits on 0.29 acres.

On the afternoon of April 1st, Tom and Gail began to argue. The couple had been separated for about ten weeks and Gail had filed for divorce on March 11th, unbeknownst to Tom. In the midst of the argument, Gail apparently headed for the living room, where she attempted to nap on the couch. Neal followed, accused her of cheating on him and wound up shooting her in the head with a 0.45-caliber pistol. He later claimed that Gail had grabbed the gun, pointed it at him and it had accidentally fired, striking her, during the course of a struggle, although the evidence did not reflect his account. Whatever the true story may be, Neal did not call the police, but, according to Palm Springs Life magazine, instead headed out to Tirol restaurant in Idyllwild for dinner. While there he informed two friends that he had just killed Gail. Apparently, neither of them thought to call the police, either.

The police were finally telephoned at 6:30 the following morning by Neal’s lawyer, James Cantillion, who informed them, according to Palm Springs Life, that a woman “had expired or was seriously injured” at 2481 Cardillo Avenue. Neal was indicted for murder two weeks later. After a twenty-day trial and a ten-hour jury deliberation, the former actor was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison and ultimately served seven before being paroled on December 6th, 1971. Upon his release he moved to North Hollywood, where passed away from a heart attack eight months later. Neal was 58.

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Tom Neal’s former house is located at 2481 North Cardillo Avenue in the Little Tuscany Estates neighborhood of Palm Springs.

July 26, 2010July 23, 2010

Kurt Cobain’s Former House

While visiting the Pacific Northwest this past May, my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry took me to stalk a location that, at first, I actually wasn’t all that interested in seeing – the Seattle-area home where Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain passed away on April 5, 1994. I’d never really been into Kurt Cobain or Nirvana or the Grunge Movement as a whole – let’s face it, if it’s not sung by Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, or Michael Buble, I probably haven’t heard it 😉 – which is why seeing the Cobain home wasn’t really one of my top priorities while visiting Seattle. But I am so, so thankful that Kerry took me there, as Kurt’s former residence is an ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL place. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that it is one of my favorite places that I’ve ever stalked . . . ever! And that has nothing to do with the fact that Kurt Cobain once lived there, but is simply because the property is just that spectacular. I can’t even put into words my feelings about the place – it is just extraordinarily serene, quiet, and stunningly beautiful. In fact, the property is so peaceful that it is extremely hard to imagine someone like Courtney Love ever living there.

The Cobains first purchased the three-story, five bedroom, 7,808 square foot Cape Cod-style home, which was built in 1902 and is located in Seattle’s upscale Denny-Blaine neighborhood, in January of 1994 for $1.13 million. At the time, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz lived next door. Less than four months later, on April 8, 1994, Kurt’s lifeless body was discovered by an electrician in the greenhouse located above the property’s garage. The Nirvana singer was dead at the age of 27 from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The coroner later estimated that Kurt had most likely died three days earlier, on April 5. And while reports continually say that Kurt passed away in a “greenhouse”, I believe the space was actually more of a spare room or a gardener’s shed than it was an actual greenhouse. Sadly, Courtney had the entire garage and the room above it razed in 1996 after growing annoyed at the many stalkers who came by to take pictures of it. She later said that the garage had become “bigger than the Space Needle”. You can see a picture of what it used to look like here. Courtney ended up selling the home in 1997 to a non-celebrity couple and, along with daughter Frances Bean, relocated to Beverly Hills. According to the Cellar Door Blog, Courtney put a clause in the home’s sale documents stating that she would be allowed to remove a certain willow tree from the property at any future point in time should she so choose. Supposedly, some of Kurt’s ashes were spread at the foot of that tree, but it is unclear whether or not she ever returned to remove it.

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My favorite part about Kurt’s former home, and what I think makes the property so special, is the fact that it borders the absolutely gorgeous Viretta Park. In 1901, the 1.8 acre park was donated to the city by C.L. Denny, son of Seattle founder Arthur Denny, who named the space in honor of his wife, Viretta Jackson Denny. Supposedly, Kurt liked to walk the park grounds during the brief four months he lived next door and it’s not very hard to see why. The park has an incredibly calming affect – and that’s coming from someone who, admittedly, is a major Type A personality! 😉 I honestly can’t say enough about the place. The grounds are small and intimate, the foliage is lush and green, and the deep blue waters of Lake Washington are visible just across the road. It’s truly breathtaking.

Since Cobain’s death, the park has become a sort of unofficial memorial to the late singer, with messages scrawled to him on benches and trees. And while I normally wouldn’t like that sort of thing at all, in this case, for whatever reason, it seems to fit.

My fiancé was very proud of the above photograph which he took while we were there as he managed to get both the bench and Kurt’s former house in the frame.

When I got home from Seattle, I immediately purchased Ian Halperin’s controversial book Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain, which I had seen in a bookstore a few years before, but had never had any particular interest in reading. Until I visited his house, that is, at which point I remembered the book and knew that I just had to buy it. And I must say that it was FABULOUS! I literally could NOT put it down. I highly recommend it to everyone, whether you were a fan of Nirvana or not. I recently loaned the book to my friend Nat and she, too, said she could NOT put it down.

In an ironic side note – While Kurt’s former home is located at 171 Lake Washington Boulevard East, we mistakenly first stalked the property located at 171 Lake Washington Boulevard West. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones to ever make this mistake, either, because the owner of the property at 171 West has a sign in his front yard which points stalkers in the direction of the correct location. Love it!

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for taking me to this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kurt Cobain’s former house is located at 171 Lake Washington Boulevard East in the Denny-Blaine district of Seattle. Howard Schultz’s former home is located next door at 120 39th Avenue East.

July 13, 2010July 13, 2010

The Beverly Hills Courthouse – Where Lindsay Lohan Was Sentenced

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

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

June 10, 2008February 27, 2009

Britney’s Cure for a Bad Hair Day!

This weekend, before our Vitello’s dinner, my boyfriend had the idea to stalk the Tarzana salon where Britney Spears shaved herself bald in February of last year. Apparently, at around 7pm on the night of February 16th, after the salon was already closed for the night, Britney along with one of her bodyguards entered the shop and asked Esther Tognozzi to give her a buzz cut. When Esther refused, Britney took matters into her own hands and shaved her head bald.

Later that week Esther and her husband put BritBrit’s hair up for sale on eBay for a cool $1.2 million! They were also going to throw in the half empty can of Red Bull Britters was drinking during the hair cut, her blue Bic lighter and the electric razor she used to shear herself. I am not sure what happened, but the listing was taken down off of Ebay before the hair was ever sold. The website Esther started – www.buybritneyshair.com – has also been taken down. Maybe Esther just couldn’t bear to part with such an iconic piece of history. For the time being, whatever happened to Britney’s hair will, I guess, remain a mystery.

Esther’s Haircutting Salon is a tiny little place set way back on Ventura Boulevard. How Britney chose this tiny little salon to shave herself bald is beyond me. I sooooo wanted to go inside and talk to Esther herself but my boyfriend flat out refused and said he’d leave me there if I did so. LOL I guess I’ll have to go back to Esther’s on my own to do some further stalking.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Esther’s Haricutting Studio is located at 18360 Ventura Boulevard in Tarazana. It is set back a bit from the road, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled. You can visit the salon’s website here.