Clueless – IAMNOTASTALKER

January 16, 2019January 14, 2019

Kabuki Japanese Restaurant from “Clueless”

OK so I’m totally buggin’! I just found out that Paramount Pictures is in talks to reboot Clueless! This may be way harsh, but all I have to say regarding the news is ‘Whatever!’ The 1995 classic is absolute perfection AS IS and should NOT be touched! Hearing about the project did remind me of several locales from the flick that I stalked long ago, but have yet to blog about, namely Kabuki Japanese Restaurant in Burbank, aka the former Crocodile Cafe, where Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) lunched with her Beverly Hills besties Dionne (Stacey Dash) and Tai (Brittany Murphy). I had been on the lookout for the eatery for ages – pretty much since starting my blog back in 2007. It was not until 8 years later, on June 4th, 2015, that a reader named Jasmine finally solved the mystery when, in response to another reader asking about the restaurant in the comments section of my post on the Horowitz house from the movie, said, “It used to be Crocodile Cafe in Burbank on San Fernando and Orange Grove. But now it’s a Kabuki. I have no idea how I figured this out but I’m pretty sure that’s exactly where it was. The booth they sat at is right behind the hostess/cashier. I sound so stalkerish right now it’s ridiculous.” Jasmine’s comment was quite stalkerish, but in the best way possible! One look at images of the place online told me she was right. I could not have been more thrilled and ran out to stalk Kabuki just a few days later with my friend Kate who was in town visiting from Kentucky. Very shortly after that, author Jen Chaney released her fabulous book As If!: The Oral History of Clueless as told by Amy Heckerling and the Cast and Crew which confirmed Crocodile Cafe’s appearance in the film on page 126.

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The former Crocodile Cafe actually pops up twice in Clueless – first very briefly in the opening “So, OK, you’re probably going ‘Is this, like, a Noxzema commercial or what?’” montage.

It then later appears in the scene in which Cher and Dionne take Tai out for a “calorie fest” to cheer her up after she finds out that snob-and-a-half Elton (Jeremy Sisto) isn’t into her.

Upon walking into the restaurant, I was thrilled to see that despite the changeover from Crocodile Cafe to Kabuki, it was entirely recognizable from its big screen cameo. Unfortunately, someone happened to be sitting in the exact booth utilized during filming, so I couldn’t snap any photos of it, but as you can see in the image below as compared to the screen capture, the booths remain very much the same today as they appeared in Clueless. The cushioning has been swapped out and glass partitions have since been added, but other than that, they are untouched.

The front door and hostess area also largely look the same.

Crocodile Cafe’s bar, which was visible in both Clueless scenes, was apparently gutted when Kabuki took over.

The area where it used to be located is pictured below. Thankfully, the frosted glass blocks formerly situated behind the bar are still intact, as are the wood columns that frame them.

It is not hard to see why the restaurant was chosen for the movie. With its bright pink and green color scheme and 90s-modern vibe, the place fit in perfectly with the splashy, over-the-top visual aesthetic that made up Cher’s world. Interestingly, Crocodile Cafe was not producers’ first choice, though. Per As If!, “Originally the Clueless crew was hoping to shoot the restaurant sequences at California Pizza Kitchen. But once the CPK people saw the final script, and saw how much breadstick-penis talk goes on between Cher, Dionne and Tai, they said no. Says producer Adam Schroeder: ‘I think the whole idea of talking about boy parts in CPK, that made them uncomfortable.” The default location turned out to be ideal, though.

Of Crocodile Cafe’s unique décor, Los Angeles Times writer Max Jacobson had this to say in a 1997 article, “It’s a breezy place with an open kitchen tiled in a pattern that looks like a multicolored snake. The dining room–all brick walls, high ceiling and a gallery’s worth of modern art–is narrow and noisy.” I believe the open kitchen Jacobson mentions (or at least a portion of it), which was not shown in Clueless, serves as the restaurant’s sushi counter today.

The Burbank Crocodile Cafe outpost opened its doors in July 1994, so it was new when Clueless filmed on the premises. (Though I am unsure of the exact day the scenes were lensed, the movie was shot from November 21st, 1994 through February 7th, 1995.) The eatery was the fifth in the CC chain, which was founded in Pasadena in 1987 by restauranteur Gregg Smith as a sort of casual version of his upscale and highly popular bistro Parkway Grill. I was unable to dig up the year the eatery closed, but, per a newspaper ad I came across, the shuttering took place between May 2002 and July 2005, at which time Kabuki Japanese Restaurant was already in operation. Oh, how I wish I could have seen the Croc when it was still open in all of its bright green and pink glory!

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

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Kabuki Japanese Restaurant, aka the former Crocodile Cafe from Clueless, is located at 201 North San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. The Downtown Christmas Shopping District from “The Voice of Christmas” episode of The Brady Bunch is located a little over a block away at 100 South San Fernando.

January 5, 2015January 2, 2015

Contempo Casuals from “Clueless”

Happy 2015, folks! Now that the holidays have come to a close, I will (hopefully) be back to my regularly scheduled blogging. So here goes. Stalking is obviously my favorite pastime, but shopping comes in at a close second. So when I get an opportunity to combine the two, I jump at it. A couple of weeks ago, the Grim Cheaper and I traveled to L.A. for a holiday party and decided to do some Christmas shopping the following morning before driving back to the desert. Because I wanted to further investigate the Contempo Casuals that appeared in fave movie Clueless, I insisted we head over to Westfield Fashion Square. For those who missed my August post about the Sherman Oaks mall and its appearance in the 1995 romcom, I’ll recap.

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For years now, misinformation has been rolling around the internet about which shopping center Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and friends shopped at in Clueless. As I came to find out during a recognizance shopping mission in August, though, more than one mall actually appeared in the flick. The establishing shot of the shopping center shown in the movie was of the Westside Pavilion in Rancho Park. But the interior scene in which some “Barneys” tried to throw Tai (Brittany Murphy) off a balcony was lensed about ten miles north of the Pavilion at Westfield Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks.

While everyone and their mother has stated online that the Contempo Casuals that appeared in Clueless was the one formerly located at the Beverly Center in Beverly Grove, during the writing of my August post I started to believe that the Fashion Square Contempo Casuals was the outpost that had most likely been featured in the flick. As I explained in the post, “Once I realized that Tai’s near-death experience had been filmed at Fashion Square, I got to thinking that the Contempo Casuals scenes were most likely shot there, as well. It did not make sense to me that producers would go to the trouble of shooting the C.C. scenes elsewhere, especially considering that they were both extremely brief. So I did some research and learned that there was indeed a Contempo Casuals located at Fashion Square in the mid-nineties, as you can see here and here. I scanned through the C.C. scenes again and just about fell off my chair when I spotted the number 22 posted on the store’s window. And while I could find no such numbers in any pictures of the Beverly Center via a Google image search, I did spot a number in the same style and color on the front of Victoria’s Secret in one of the photographs I had taken at Fashion Square a few years prior (pictured below). Then I came across this listing and just about died of excitement upon discovering that the company currently located in storefront 22 of the Westfield Fashion Square is none other than Wet Seal, the very same brand that took over Contempo Casuals in 1995! Based on all of that, I am 99.9% certain that the only mall interior that appeared in Clueless was Westfield Fashion Square. ” Since that post, I have discovered that the suite numbers of stores at the Beverly Center are three-digit (as you can see here), not two, which is further proof that the C.C. from Clueless was not located there.

So, while Christmas shopping with the GC, I set out to snap some pics of the Fashion Square Wet Seal and prove once and for all that my theory was correct.

I was a bit dismayed to discover upon my arrival that not only had the font and styling of the store’s numbers been changed since both the filming of Clueless in 1994 (the movie premiered in 1995, but was shot in 1994) and since my photograph of Victoria’s Secret was taken in 2012, but that Wet Seal’s actual suite number had been altered as well. It is now addressed #21, instead of #22. At first, I thought that Wet Seal might have moved storefronts at some point, but then I spoke with the incredibly nice people working at BCBG Max Azria (the company that currently occupies #22) and they explained that Fashion Square’s suite numbers do change on occasion. Apparently, sometimes when a store closes, its space will be subdivided into smaller spaces and the neighboring suite numbers need to be shifted accordingly. BCBG’s manager also informed me that Wet Seal had not moved storefronts since she started working at Fashion Square fifteen years ago. She was also fairly certain that prior to Wet Seal opening, the space had housed a Contempo Casuals. Eureka!

Contempo Casuals popped up twice in Clueless. It first appeared in the scene in which Cher attempted to gather her thoughts and regain her strength via a shopping trip. That scene gave us a good glimpse of C.C.’s interior. Though it has been remodeled since Wet Seal took over, as you can see below the basic set up of the store is the same today as it was in Clueless. Both Wet Seal and the store from Clueless are large (Wet Seal is one of Fashion Square’s larger storefronts, as I came to discover during my stalking mission), extremely long and narrow, and boast very high ceilings (unusually high compared to the other shops located in the mall).

In a later scene, Dionne (Stacey Dash) is shown standing outside of Contempo Casuals while talking to Cher on her cell phone. As you can see below, the split-glass-paneled frontage shown in the movie matches that of Wet Seal, though the panels seem to be spaced further apart today than they were in 1994.

The central positioning of the entrance doors that appeared onscreen match the current positioning of Wet Seal’s doors, as well. Thanks to all of these correlations, I can now say with absolute certainty that the Contempo Casuals scenes from Clueless were shot at Westfield Fashion Square, not at the Beverly Center.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Wet Seal, aka the former Contempo Casuals from Clueless, can be found in Suite 21 of Westfield Fashion Square, which is located at 14006 Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks. You can visit the mall’s official website here.

December 2, 2014December 7, 2014

The “Fancy” Music Video Party House

I have never been very “hip” when it comes to music. If it’s not sung by Michael Jackson, Michael Buble or Britney Spears, chances are I haven’t heard it. So it should come as no surprise that when my friends Kim and Lavonna visited this past June and were singing the Iggy Azalea hit “Fancy” every chance they got, I was completely unfamiliar with the tune. While a few lyrics (“Drop it low and pick it up, just like this!” and “Who dat? Who dat?”) became ingrained in my head thanks to Kim and Lavonna’s endless chanting, once they headed back to Ohio, I pretty much forgot about the song. Then, in July, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I happened to stalk Grant High School in Van Nuys and, while we were there, a teacher informed us that both Clueless and the music video for “Fancy” , which paid homage to the 1995 comedy, had been filmed on the premises. Well, believe you me, I just about fell over upon hearing that Iggy modeled her video after one of my favorite movies of all time! Standing in the halls of Grant, I pulled up “Fancy” on YouTube (thank you, iPhone!) and immediately fell in love! I also promptly set out to track down the other main location featured in it – the party house.

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The locale turned out to be an easy find thanks to the fact that an address number of “10310” was visible on the curb in front of the house in the video. I knew that the residence had to be located somewhere in the Valley, so, address number in hand, I began searching through 10300 blocks, starting in Van Nuys near Grant High School, and working my way outward. Sure enough, it was not long before I spotted the place at 10310 Wystone Avenue in Porter Ranch.

The residence looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did in “Fancy.”

What it does not look like, though, is the party house from Clueless. While both properties have exterior steps, a peaked roof, and a definite “Valley” feel, the pad used in the “Fancy” video is much more ostentatious and modern than its Clueless counterpart.

In real life, the “Fancy” party house, which is quite sprawling as you can see below, features five bedrooms, four baths (with heated flooring!), 4,000 square feet of living space, and a 0.41-acre plot of land. While originally built in 1961, it was remodeled in 2008 and the new interior includes an open floor plan with 13 foot ceilings, a wet bar, and two fireplaces.

The home’s actual interior also appeared in the “Fancy” video.

I so love that a pool table was featured in the shoot! If only Charli XCX had been hit in the head by the shoe of someone sitting on said table a la Brittany Murphy, well, that would have been classic!

I would also guess that the “Fancy” video’s opening scene, in which Iggy is shown picking out an outfit on her iPad, was shot inside one of the home’s bedrooms.

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

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The party house from Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy” music video is located at 10310 Wystone Avenue in Porter Ranch. The party house from Clueless is located at 16401 Knollwood Drive in Granada Hills.

August 5, 2014August 4, 2014

The “Clueless” Mall

As evidenced by yesterday’s post, I have been on a major Clueless filming locations kick as of late. One spot about which much conflicting information has been reported online is the mall (or malls) that appeared in the 1995 flick. Some sites stipulate Westside Pavilion in Rancho Park was used, some surmise the Beverly Center in Beverly Grove made a cameo and still others claim that filming took place at Westfield Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks. So I set out to end the confusion once and for all.

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Not surprisingly, Clueless featured several mall scenes. In the first, which took place towards the beginning of the movie, Cher (Alicia Silverstone) headed to the mall with BFF Dionne (Stacey Dash) to “find sanctuary” after receiving a less-than-stellar report card. The establishing shot shown in that particular scene was of the Westside Pavilion located at 10800 West Pico Boulevard in Rancho Park. The locale was only used for that single exterior image, though.

Inside the mall, the girls are shown at Contempo Casuals lamenting the crusty demeanor of their debate teacher, Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn).

That same Contempo Casuals was also featured in the scene in which Dionne called Cher to inform her that they were going to have to make an appearance at the “Val party.” Most websites state that the C.C. used in Clueless was the one formerly located on the sixth floor of the Beverly Center. Some recent research leads me to believe that information is incorrect, though. But more on that in a bit.

Later in the movie, Cher and Christian (Justin Walker) witness some “Barneys” trying to throw Tai (Brittany Murphy) off a railing while out shopping for a leather jacket.

I originally thought the interior of Westside Pavilion had been used in that scene, but, as you can see below, it does not match the mall shown in Clueless.

So I headed out to Westfield Fashion Square recently and was thrilled to discover that it was the right spot! The escalator that Cher and Christian rode in the scene is located in the eastern portion of the mall (on the Macy’s side of the center), directly outside of Williams-Sonoma and Zara.

While the tile flooring has been altered and the stores have since transitioned, the area still looks much the same as it did in Clueless, which had me grinning (ridiculously so) from ear to ear.

Tai’s “near-death experience” took place just across from the escalator, outside of what is now Foot Locker.

I was totally buggin’ when I realized that the benches visible in the movie were no longer there (or perhaps never were). I so wanted to stand in front of one and say, “Car-pe Di-em!”

Once I realized that Tai’s near-death experience had been filmed at Fashion Square, I got to thinking that the Contempo Casuals scenes were most likely shot there, as well. It did not make sense to me that producers would go to the trouble of shooting the C.C. scenes elsewhere, especially considering that they were both extremely brief. So I did some research and learned that there was indeed a Contempo Casuals located at Fashion Square in the mid-nineties, as you can see here and here. I scanned through the C.C. scenes again and just about fell off my chair when I spotted the number 22 posted on the store’s window. And while I could find no such numbers in any pictures of the Beverly Center via a Google image search, I did spot a number in the same style and color on the front of Victoria’s Secret in one of the photographs I had taken at Fashion Square a few years prior (pictured below). Then I came across this listing and just about died of excitement upon discovering that the company currently located in storefront 22 of the Westfield Fashion Square is none other than Wet Seal, the very same brand that took over Contempo Casuals in 1995! You can see a photo of the storefront in its current state here. Based on all of that, I am 99.9% certain that the only mall interior that appeared in Clueless was Westfield Fashion Square.

Clueless is hardly the first production to make use of Westfield Fashion Square. As I blogged back in 2012, the mall was where Michael Scott (Steve Carrel) took Dunder Mifflin’s fairer sex in the Season 3 episode of The Office titled “Women’s Appreciation.”

In the Season 5 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Christmas Comes This Time Each Year,” Westfield Fashion Square was both where Andrea Zuckerman-Vasquez (Gabrielle Carteris) and Jesse Vasquez (Mark Damon-Espinoza) tried to get their baby to pose for a photo with Santa . . .

. . . and where Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) shopped with LuAnn Pruit (Caroline McWilliams).

In the Season 4 episode of Malcolm in the Middle titled “If Boys Were Girls,” the Nolastname family headed to Westfield Fashion Square to do some shopping.

Jane Kaczmarek returned there (to the mall’s southeastern parking lot) a couple of years later to film one of my favorite television scenes ever – the demolition derby scene from Season 6’s “Hal’s Christmas Gift.”

You can watch that scene by clicking below.

In the Season 1 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Move On,” Fashion Square was where Gaby took a low-budget modeling job.

And it was at Fashion Square that Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz) fell into a fountain in the Season 3 episode of Glee titled “Props.”

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Westside Pavilion, located at 10800 West Pico Boulevard in West L.A., was used for exterior shots of the mall in Clueless. Interior mall scenes were shot at Westfield Fashion Square at 14006 Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks. The escalator that Cher and Christian rode in the movie is located on the eastern side of Fashion Square, in front of Williams-Sonoma and Zara, and Tai was almost pushed off the railing located in front of Foot Locker.

August 4, 2014July 10, 2015

The “Clueless” Guide to Occidental College

While it is well-known among location aficionados that Occidental College masked as Bronson Alcott High School in Clueless, an in-depth guide to the exact areas of the campus that appeared in the flick has never been published. So, with some help from Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and a reader named Rebecca who grew up in Eagle Rock and knows Oxy like the back of her hand, I set out to do just that.

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A map of the Occidental College campus is pictured below. I will be using the same numbering key provided on the map to identify the areas and buildings featured in Clueless. So without further ado, I present to you the Clueless guide to Occidental College (in order of appearance)!

1. Bronson Alcott High School Exterior – The south side of Occidental’s Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15) masqueraded as the front of Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and the gang’s Beverly Hills-area high school.

The building, which was designed by Myron Hunt, is shown repeatedly throughout Clueless and should also be recognizable to Beverly Hills, 90210 fans as the exterior of the Condor’s Nest at CU.

2. Walkway – The esplanade that Cher and her friends are often seen strolling along (and where the movie’s infamous “As if!” moment took place) is Oxy’s Central Quadrangle (#126).

The Quadrangle, which is situated directly south of the Johnson Student Center, served as the hangout of Bronson Alcott’s various cliques, including the TV station group, the Persian Mafia and the Crew.

The eastern portion of the Quad, in front of Occidental’s Johnson Hall/Alumni Auditorium (#2), is where Cher offered her father’s “sucky Italian roast” to Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn) . . .

. . . and where he later shared it with Miss Geist (Twink Caplan).

3. Athletic Field – It is on Oxy’s Patterson Field (#101) that Cher convinces her P.E. teacher, Ms. Stoeger (Julie Brown – yes, that Julie Brown), to raise her grade from a C to an B.

The field has changed a bit since filming took place, but it still very recognizable.

4. Mr. Hall’s Pathway – The walkway leading to the south side of Occidental’s Booth Music and Speech Center (#14), which looks quite a bit different today, is where Cher observed Mr. Hall and came to the conclusion that he was in need of a “good, healthy boink fest.”

5. The Teachers’ Lounge – According to an Oxy employee that Owen contacted, the faculty lounge where Cher tried to decide which teacher to set Mr. Hall up with (and coveted a Snickers bar) was one of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15) dining rooms. Unfortunately, the interior of the student center was largely gutted and remodeled in 1998 and then again in 2013 and the vast majority of it looks completely different today. I am not sure if the dining room that appeared in Clueless was renovated or if it currently remains in its onscreen state. Here’s hoping!

6. The Main Office – This location was the saddest discovery of all. According to Rebecca, Bronson Alcott’s main office was the former Student Activities Office at the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15), which prior to the 1998 remodel was known as the Freeman Student Union. The space was gutted during the initial renovation and no longer exists. You can see photographs of what the interior of the structure currently looks like here.

7. Cafeteria Exterior – The eastern side of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15) served as the outside of the Bronson Alcott cafeteria.

That portion of the building looks a bit different today than it did in Clueless due to the fact that stairs and a wheelchair ramp have since been added to the exterior, I am guessing to comply with ADA regulations.

The cafeteria doors look the same for the most part . . .

. . . aside from said staircase and ramp addition.

Had to do it!

8. Parking Lot – Mr. Hall and Miss Geist shared their first kiss in the Admission and Visitor Parking (#43), in between the Admissions Office – Collins House (#19) and Newcomb Hall (#18). Miss Geist is parked in front of Newcomb Hall in the scene.

And Cher and Dionne are standing in the middle of the parking lot, with the Admission Office – Collins House visible behind them.

Again, had to do it!

9. Tennis Courts – Oxy’s McKinnon Family Tennis Center (#107) is where Dionne (Stacey Dash) refuses to participate in a P.E. lesson because her tennis instructor “would prefer if I didn’t expose myself to any training that might derail his teachings.”

The courts are also where Cher and Dionne first meet Tai (Brittany Murphy) and decide to befriend her despite the fact that their “stock” might “plummet.”

10. Cafeteria Interior – The exact location of the interior of the Bronson Alcott cafeteria, where Tai and Travis Birkenstock (Breckin Meyer) first locked eyes, is a spot that I am unsure of. Thanks to the carved columns, paned windows and brown doors visible in the background of the scene, I can say with certainty that it is (or was) somewhere on the Occidental campus. My guess is that it was once located inside of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15), but was dismantled during the 1998 remodel.

11. The Grassy Knoll – The spot where Travis and his fellow Loadies (who “no respectable girl actually dates”) hang out is along the western side of the Samuelson Campus Pavilion/Tiger Cooler (#16).

12. The Fountain Photo Shoot – Cher’s impromptu photo shoot with the gang took place in the courtyard of the Booth Music and Speech Center (#14).

Again, had to do it!

13. Josh’s Girlfriend’s Dorm – Occidental was not solely used to stand in for Bronson Alcott High School in Clueless – a campus building also masqueraded as the dorm where Josh’s (Paul Rudd) girlfriend, Heather (Susan Mohun), lived. The structure featured in that scene was Oxy’s Weingart Center for the Liberal Arts (#17).

In reality, the building is not a dorm, but instead houses an art gallery, art studio and classrooms.

14. Girls’ Locker Room – The locker room where Tai laments the fact that her feelings are not reciprocated by Elton (Jeremy Sisto) can be found inside of the Rush Gymnasium (#8). You can see a real life photograph of the locker room that was used in the movie here.

15. Art Museum – Oxy’s Arthur G. Coons Administrative Center (#1) masked as the art museum featured in the montage scene in which Cher decides that she wants to make over her soul. (The outfit Cher wore in that scene is one of my favorites from the entire movie.)

In real life, the building, which sits at the center of the Occidental campus, houses administrative offices.

It was the structure’s glass lobby that stood in for the museum in Clueless. In reality, there are no sculptures on display in that area.

16. Cher’s Pismo Beach Disaster Relief Booth – Cher and Dionne encouraged fellow students to sign up for the Pismo Beach Disaster Relief Team on the lawn located at the southeast corner of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15).

17. Pismo Beach Food Collection Drive – Last, but not least is another location I am unsure of. Toward the end of Clueless, Travis donated some unusual kitchenware to the Pismo Beach Food Collection Drive which took place in some sort of conference/meeting room. Thanks to its paned windows and the foliage and architecture visible in the background, I am certain that the room is (or, again, was) located on the Occidental campus. Unfortunately, I have been unable to pinpoint exactly where, though. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

And that’s all, folks! I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and Rebecca for helping me with this post. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Occidental College, aka Bronson Alcott High School from Clueless, is located at 1600 Campus Road in Eagle Rock. You can visit the school’s official website here.

May 10, 2012May 9, 2012

The “Clueless” Party House

One location that I have been wanting to stalk for what seems like ages now is the party house from fave movie Clueless. Because the property is located in Granada Hills, though, and because I rarely travel that far deep into the San Fernando Valley, it was quite a long while before I finally made it out there. But make it out there, I did, one dark and dreary afternoon (as you can see above) back in March. And I can honestly say that this is one location that was absolutely worth the wait! I could NOT have been more excited to be stalking the house and was literally pinching myself the whole time! Not even the intermittent rain could dampen this stalker’s spirits on that particular day!

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In Clueless, Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), Dionne (Stacey Dash), Murray (Donald Faison), and Tai (Brittany Murphy) venture outside of Beverly Hills for the evening in order to attend a high school party being held at a house located in the dreaded “Valley”. As you can see below, the party house still looks very much the same today as it did back in 1995 when Clueless was filmed, minus the Christmas decorations, of course. Even the exterior metal stairway railing leading up to the front porch is still there! Love it, love it, love it! And, as fate would have it, I had a little Clueless moment of my very own right as we pulled up to the residence and I heard the thump-thump-thump of a nearby helicopter. If you’ll recall, a helicopter happened to be flying overhead during the Clueless party scene when Cher was on the phone with her father, causing him to ask if she was in Kuwait, to which she replied, “Is that in the Valley?” LOL LOL LOL Man, I love that movie!

While we were snapping pics of the house, the owners happened to come outside and were nice enough to chat with us for a bit. They informed us that the filming of the party scene took a whopping two weeks to complete and that the real life interior of the property, including the kitchen where Elton (whom I just realized was played by actor Jeremy Sisto!) revived Tai and the bathroom where Murray shaved his head, was used in the shoot.

The actual backyard and pool area also appeared in the movie. I was so hoping the owners would invite me inside for a little tour, but, unfortunately, that did not happen. Winking smile

An aerial view of the backyard, courtesy of Bing, is pictured below. As you can see, the green fence that once surrounded the pool is now, sadly, gone.

In real life, the Clueless party house, which was originally built in 1963, boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,716 square feet of living space, and 0.54 acres of land. The owners informed us that producers ended up choosing their home for the filming because they thought that it looked like the archetypal “Valley” residence. And I have to say that I agree with them. The Clueless party house is extremely reminiscent of another famous Valley dwelling – the home where Jan, Cindy, Marcia and the rest of the Brady clan lived on fave show The Brady Bunch.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Clueless party house is located at 16401 Knollwood Drive in Granada Hills.

March 18, 2011March 17, 2011

Alicia Silverstone’s “The Kind Diet” Book Signing

This past Wednesday night I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to my favorite local bookstore, Vroman’s (which coincidentally just appeared in the most recent episode of Modern Family, but more on that later), to attend the book signing and discussion for Alicia Silverstone’s new lifestyle tome The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet. Even though I am not in any way, shape, or form a vegan, I was absolutely DYING to attend the book signing because, as I have mentioned a few times before on this blog, not only is Clueless one of my all-time favorite movies, but Alicia and I happened to grow up in the same hometown – San Mateo, California – so I have always had a very special place in my heart for the actress. Because I am a diabetic and on a very strict, virtually no-carbohydrate diet, though, and because most vegan diets that I have read about tend to favor carbs, I was not actually interested in purchasing a copy of Alicia’s book for myself. But my good friend Nat, who actually attended San Mateo High School – Alicia’s alma mater – is a vegan and she absolutely LOVES Alicia’s book – and her lifestyle blog, The Kind Life – so I decided I would purchase a copy for her as a little “just because” present. Which is how the GC and I found ourselves heading over to Vroman’s at about 5 p.m. this past Wednesday night. And, as always, before the event got started, I sent him outside to snap some photographs of Alicia when she arrived. Winking smile

The signing began right on time, at 7 p.m., but for some reason it was VERY strictly monitored. No photographs WHATSOEVER were allowed during the event – not when Alicia walked into the room, not during the discussion session, and not while standing in line waiting to have our books signed. We were told shortly before her arrival that each guest would be allowed one – and only one – posed photograph with Alicia (which I could NOT have been more excited about as most celebs will not actually pose for pictures during a signing), but otherwise photographs of any kind would not be allowed. To enforce this, two quite burly Pasadena policemen were on site and they threatened to remove anyone who was even spotted with a camera in their hands during the event! So I was extremely thankful that the GC had managed to snap some photographs of Alicia outside of the store.

Alicia, who is currently pregnant, was ABSOLUTELY adorable in person and much taller than I had expected her to be, although she was wearing some fairly tall heels. She walked directly to the podium upon arrival, introduced herself, and started speaking about why she decided to write The Kind Diet, which was an extremely surreal moment for me as it was like watching the Haitian immigrant debate scene from Clueless (pictured above) come alive before my very eyes. I kept having to pinch myself to make sure that it was all really happening and that I wasn’t actually at home sitting in front of my television set. I have to say that in person, Alicia reminded me A LOT of Cher, her Clueless alter-ego. In real life, Alicia has the same mannerisms, facial expressions, and vocal tendencies that I had grown so familiar with from watching the movie over and over again. And I can honestly say that I love Alicia even more now than I did before. The actress came off as extremely charming, warm, genuine, and sweet. She was also poised, well-read, and wildly knowledgeable about veganism, holistic medicine, and healthy nutrition. I was riveted listening to her and, while not a vegan, found myself agreeing whole-heartedly with the vast majority of what she had to say. She also handled herself incredibly well when one of the audience members asked her an asinine question about veganism and pregnancy, in which he tried to make Alicia look bad. (Honestly, if you don’t agree with her lifestyle and are not a fan of hers, then why come to the event????) Alicia responded to him, though, with honesty, wit, and a bit of snarkiness and ended up making him look like a complete and total moron. As we left the event, I found myself wondering how she managed to do that! I cannot tell you how much I would love to be able to tell a rude person off without breaking my cool and all the while seeming poised and charming. But I digress. I was most surprised to hear Alicia speak about diabetes and veganism. As it turns out, her diet does not favor carbohydrates at all and is actually very similar to the diet I am currently on, so it looks like I am now going to have to buy a copy of the book for myself!

After Alicia’s speech, which lasted about thirty minutes, we all lined up to meet the actress. Alicia really took her time with all of her fans and seemed to have an incredibly warm and open personality. And, as promised, every guest got to pose for a photograph with her, which I was absolutely floored about!

Nat’s signed book is pictured above.

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Alicia’s inscription reads, “Dear Natalie, Thank you for loving the book! <3, Alicia Silverstone”.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, fave show Modern Family recently did some filming on location at Vroman’s Bookstore. The final scene of the Season 2 episode titled “Two Monkeys and a Panda”, in which Mitchell Pritchett (aka Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron Tucker (aka Eric Stonestreet) peruse various books on parenting, took place near the store’s Current Event’s section.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. You can check out the store’s upcoming signings here. You can purchase Alicia Silverstone’s book The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet here. You can visit Alicia’s lifestyle blog, The Kind Life, here. And you can check out future L.A.-area book signings and other celebrity events on my Upcoming Celebrity Events page here.

January 10, 2011January 10, 2011

The Electric Fountain from “Clueless”

Two weekends ago while doing some stalking in the Beverly Hills area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the corner of Wilshire and North Santa Monica Boulevards to finally, finally stalk the fountain where Cher Horowitz (aka Alicia Silverstone) realized her true feelings for her former stepbrother Josh (aka Paul Rudd) in fave movie Clueless. I was clued in – pun intended 🙂 – to this location two years ago by a fellow stalker who had visited the fountain while vacationing in Southern California and had later sent me pictures of it. Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me remember who this particular tipster was, nor can I find the emails she sent to me in any of my saved email folders. UGH! So, whoever it was that informed me of the location of the Clueless fountain, I sincerely thank you! Anyway, even though I was tipped off about this locale quite a while back and even though Clueless is one of my all time favorite movies, for whatever reason I had yet to stalk the place until last Saturday afternoon.

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In real life the Clueless fountain is named the Electric Fountain and it was built in 1931 at a cost of $21,000 by architect Ralph Carlin Flewelling, who also designed the Beverly Hills Post Office. The 50-foot in diameter fountain, which was constructed out of concrete, cast stone, and terra cotta tile, boasts a large central basin detailed with relief carvings that represent various events in California history. Anchored at the top of the basin is a sculpture of a Native American woman praying for rain that was molded by Robert Merrell Gage, the same artist who sculpted the facade of the Los Angeles Times Building in Downtown L.A. The fountain got its unusual name thanks to the fact that it was the first electric fountain to be built in the United States. The structure is perhaps best known for its nightly water and lights show, which is vaguely reminiscent of the Fountains of the Bellagio show in Las Vegas, albeit on a much smaller scale.

My favorite aspect of the fountain, though, is the fact that it is located directly across the street from a Starbucks. 🙂

In Clueless, Cher arrives at the Electric Fountain while walking around the City of Beverly Hills in an attempt to clear her “totally buggin’” head after failing her driver’s license test and getting into a huge fight with Tai (aka Brittany Murphy). It is while she is at the fountain that she has an epiphany and realizes that she is in love with Josh.

And I,of course, just had to reenact the scene while there. 🙂

The rock group The Go-Go’s danced in the Electric Fountain (in a scene that must have been a precursor to the opening credits of fave television series Friends) in the music video for their 1981 hit song “Our Lips Are Sealed”.

You can watch the “Our Lips Are Sealed” music video by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Clueless fountain is located on the northwest corner of Wilshire and North Santa Monica Boulevards, in Beverly Gardens Park, in Beverly Hills. The Witch’s House, which also appeared in Clueless, is located just around the corner from the fountain at 516 North Walden Drive, also in Beverly Hills.

March 24, 2010March 23, 2010

Dionne’s House From “Clueless”

One location that I have been searching for for what seems like forever is the huge castle-like abode where Cher’s (aka Alicia Silverstone’s) best friend Dionne (aka Stacey Dash) lived in one of my all time favorite comedies, 1995’s Clueless. Since I had been trying to track down the home for years and had come up virtually empty handed, I recently decided to call upon fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, and Owen – or, as Mike likes to call us collectively, “The Team” 😉 – for help. Well, I almost fell off my chair when Owen emailed me back less than ten minutes later with an address. Here I had been trying to track down this location for years and Owen managed to find it in a span of ten minutes???? Am I losing my mojo or something? As luck would have it, thanks to a simple Google search, Owen stumbled upon a website called “The Daily Truffle” which recently featured an entire post about Clueless locations in honor of the tragically short life of actress Brittany Murphy who played newcomer Tai in the flick. One of the addresses mentioned on the site? You guessed it, Dionne’s home! YAY! As it turns out, the author of “The Daily Truffle” lives just a few blocks away from the residence, which is how she knew of its location. Thank you, Daily Truffle!

Dionne’s house shows up in one very short scene at the very beginning of Clueless. And I am not kidding when I say the scene was short – it lasted a mere 18 seconds! But even though its appearance onscreen was brief, Dionne’s home was one of the most memorable locations of the entire movie and I was ABSOLUTELY DYING to stalk the place.

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Unlike Cher’s house, which is located in Encino of all places (egads!), Dionne’s house is located exactly where the movie purports it to be – right in the heart of Beverly Hills. Sadly though, as you can see in the above photographs, the residence looks much different today than it did in 1995 when Clueless was filmed. 🙁 As luck would have it, an extremely nice contractor happened to be working at the house when my dad and I showed up to stalk the place earlier today and he explained that the property was sold in late 2008 and that the new owners not only completely gutted the interior, but also added an exterior gate and massive amounts of foliage to the perimeter which completely block the home from view. SO SAD. The contractor also told me that part of Clueless was filmed inside of the residence. But, because no scenes from the movie actually took place in Dionne’s home, I am guessing that the property might been used to stand in for Cher’s house in some way. That is just pure speculation on my part, though, so don’t quote me on that. 😉

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Thankfully, because the home’s newly installed gate was standing wide open while we were there, I was able to snap a few close-up pictures of the front door area which was featured prominently in Clueless – well, as prominently as it could have been in an 18 second scene. 😉

If you look at Dionne’s house via Google Street View, it appears pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen in Clueless. Oh, how I wish I had stalked the place two years ago before the remodel began! Ugh! In real life, Dionne’s house, which was built in 1930, boasts 7 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and a whopping 9,850 square feet!

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Big THANK YOU to both Owen and The Daily Truffle for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Dionne’s house from Clueless is located at 705 North Sierra Drive in Beverly Hills.

October 10, 2008September 29, 2017

The Witch’s House from “Clueless”

One of my favorite sites to stalk in all of Beverly Hills is known simply as “The Witch’s House” and it just so happens to fit in perfectly with this month’s Halloween theme. Although not really a filming location, the house is a Beverly Hills landmark of sorts. Known formally as “The Spadena House”, after the Spadena family who lived there in the 1930s, the house did show up very briefly in fave movie Clueless, during the scene when Alicia Silverstone is “totally buggin'” about Ty’s crush on Josh (pictured in above screen capture).

The home was originally built on a silent film studio lot in Culver City known as Irvin C. Willat Productions and was used as an office/dressing room. It was designed by the very first art direction Oscar Winner, Henry C. Oliver, in 1921. Willat Productions was sold in 1926 and the house was purchased and later moved to its current location in the heart of Beverly Hills, where it was turned into a private home for the Spadena family. No one can say for sure how the house came to be called “The Witch’s House”, but mention the words to any Beverly Hills native and they will know exactly what you are talking about. Personally, I believe the house got its nickname due to its resemblance to the witch’s home in the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel”.

In 1998, a real estate agent named Michael Libow was hired to sell the house. Apparently he became frustrated that all prospective buyers planned to demolish the property, so he took matters into his own hands and purchased the home himself for $1.3 million. He is currently restoring the property to its original state, along with the help of art director Nelson Coates. For the past few years the two have painstakingly rennovated the home, even re-creating the original moat which once surrounded the property. The Witch’s House is still currently under rennovation, so unfortunately a large chain link construction fence blocks some of the view from the street. But hopefully in a few years the rennovations will be complete and the house will be even more spectacular for us stalkers to view.

Because it is so truly unique, I am actually very surprised that the house hasn’t appeared in more Hollywood productions. Besides Clueless, the Witch’s House was also featured in the 1965 movie The Loved One, as the home of Sir John Gielgud’s character, and in the 1957 horror film The Undead. Supposedly, during its time on the Willat lot, the home also appeared in a quite a few 1920s silent films, as well.

The Witch’s House is simply a must see for all Beverly Hills tourists, especially during the Halloween season, and it is a beautiful example of Storybook style architecture.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Witch’s House is located at 516 N. Waldren Drive, at the corner of Walden Drive and Carmelita Avenue, in Beverly Hills.