Crossroads filming locations

February 6, 2012February 3, 2012

Café-Club Fais Do-Do from “Crossroads”

One location that I blogged about way back in March of 2009 and had been dying to re-stalk ever since – in order to snap some interior pictures – was Café-Club Fais Do-Do, the supposed New-Orleans-area karaoke bar that appeared in the 2002 movie Crossroads. (For those who did not catch my original post on the place, in the Spring of 2001 I was an extra in Crossroads and spent a full three days filming at the Fais Do-Do – a magical experience that I will never forget.) Because the club is typically only open at night for concerts and events, though, and because the Grim Cheaper has a major aversion to paying any sort of a cover charge, since the filming I had never been able to get back inside. Until last Wednesday afternoon, that is, when I tagged along with fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, on a scouting expedition. A couple of months back, Mike actually joined the Location Managers Guild of America under the title of Apprentice and, when I heard that he was in the process of building his portfolio, I immediately (and a bit selfishly) suggested that he visit Café-Club Fais Do-Do – with me accompanying him, of course. Don’t get me wrong – the place is incredibly unique and visually stimulating and I knew that he would not only shoot some incredible photographs of it, but that it would also be a highly useful locale to have in his scouting arsenal. But mostly, I just really wanted to stalk it myself. Winking smile

The Art Deco building which currently houses Café-Club Fais Do-Do was originally constructed in 1930 and is actually comprised of two separate sections – The Club (pictured above) and The Ballroom. In its original incarnation, The Club was a branch of the First Citizens Savings Bank and Trust, which explains the structure’s uniquely rich and ornate interior. Sometime in the 1960s, the bank was converted into a jazz bar/underground club, but thankfully most of its architecturally and historically significant detailing was kept intact. During its years as a jazz club, such musicians as Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, BB King, Pearl Bailey, John Coltrane, and Billy Preston were all said to have hung out there.

The Ballroom (pictured above) was originally constructed as the single-screen Variety Movie Theatre and was where the filming of Crossroads took place. I am unsure of when exactly the Variety ceased showing movies, but in 1990 the entire building was purchased by a new owner who, while still keeping the two distinct areas separate, decided to turn the venues into a nightclub and bar which collectively would be known as Café-Club Fais Do-Do – “Fais Do-Do” meaning “nighty-night” in French. And while this post on the Lon’s Place blog states that The Club area was sold to a new owner in 2010, according the film liaison that we spoke with, the same person who bought the building back in 1990 still owns it to this day.

While we were stalking the Fais Do-Do, I was extremely sad to discover that the huge two-story bar that used to be located in the center of The Ballroom and on which I had sat in Crossroads had since been removed. To me, that bar, which had a dance floor on top of it, was the coolest, most unique aspect of the entire club and I cannot believe the owner did away with it! So incredibly sad.

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In Crossroads, Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom was used for the interior of Club Bayou, where Lucy Wagner (Britney Spears), Kit (Zoe Saldana) and Mimi (Taryn Manning) competed in a karaoke contest in order to win money to fix their car which had just broken down.

That’s me in the blue pants standing next to Ben (Anson Mount) in the above screen capture. Smile

The Fais Do-Do dressing room, which you can see a photograph of here, was featured in the scene in which Kit, Mimi and Lucy get ready to go onstage. Sadly, a film crew was using that area at the time that we were stalking the club so we were unable to take any pictures of it.

The GC and I recently started watching fave show The O.C. again from the beginning and, let me tell you, I just about fell off my chair when I spotted Café-Club Fais Do-Do pop up in a Season 1 episode. In “The Escape”, the Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom stood in for “Boom Boom”, the supposed-Tijuana-area club where Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) caught Luke Ward (Chris Carmack) cheating on her.

And, while scanning through “The Escape” to make screen captures for this post, I was shocked to discover that the little bar where Marissa almost overdosed on pain pills later in the episode was none other than the Fais Do-Do’s Club! The Club was remodeled in 2010 (as you can see in these photograph on the Lon’s Place blog) and looks a bit different now, but, amazingly enough, the actual bar where Marissa sat still looks exactly the same today as it did when the episode was filmed back in 2003!

After reading my original post on the Fais Do-Do back in 2009, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, figured out that The Ballroom also stood in for Delloser Hall, the reggae club where Josie Geller (Drew Barrymore) got stoned after inadvertently eating a pot-laced cake, in fave movie Never Been Kissed.

In the extremely odd 2006 film The Gymnast, the Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom was used extensively as the place where Jane Hawkins (Dreya Weber) and Serena (Addie Yungmee) learned aerial fabric acrobatics.

In the flick, you can clearly see the club’s former bar . . .

. . . as well as the dance floor above it.

Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s dressing room also appeared in The Gymnast.

And in one scene, a business card featuring the club’s actual address, fax number, and website was even shown. So incredibly cool!

Fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, also let me know that the Fais Do-Do had appeared in the Season 2 episode of Arrested Development titled “Queen for a Day”. In the episode, the exterior . . .

. . . as well as The Ballroom stood in for The Queen Mary, the bar that Tobias Funke (David Cross) purchased.

The Club was also used in that episode as the restaurant where Byron “Buster” Bluth (Tony Hale) took his new girlfriend, Starla (Mo Collins), out for a milkshake.

And the dressing room stood in for the Hot Cop stripper club, from which Lindsay Bluth Funke (Portia de Rossi) hired strippers to scare her husband into selling The Queen Mary.

Back in February of 2011, while doing research for my post on The Little Door restaurant, I discovered that Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s Club room was used in the Season 2 episode of Entourage titled “The Abyss”, in the scene in which the boys – Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), Eric Murphy (Kevin Connolly), Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (Kevin Dillon), and Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) – gather together to watch Saigon perform.

I was shocked to discover (thanks to the Ron’s Place blog) that in 1994’s Reality Bites, The Club stood in for the bar where “Hey, That’s My Bike!”, Troy Dyer’s (Ethan Hawke’s) band, regularly played. The room was heavily dressed for the filming, though, and is almost unrecognizable in the movie.

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The Fais Do-Do Club was also featured in the Jane’s Addiction video for “Underground”.

As was the dressing room area.

Jane’s Addiction “Underground” Music Video–Filmed at Café-Club Fais Do-Do in Los Angeles

You can watch the “Underground” video by clicking above.

The Club also appeared in the Destiny’s Child “No, No No, Part 1” music video.

Destiny’s Child–”No, No, No Part 1” Music Video Filmed at Café-Club Fais Do-Do in Los Angeles

You can watch the “No, No, No, Part 1” video by clicking above.

This Is 40, the yet-to-be released sequel to 2007’s Knocked Up, also did some filming in Café-Club Fais Do-Do’s Ballroom in 2011. And while the Ron’s Place blog stated that The Big Lebowski and American Gangster were also filmed at the Fais Do-Do, I scanned through both movies while doing research for this post and did not spot the place anywhere.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Café-Club Fais Do-Do, from Crossroads, is located at 5253 and 5257 West Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles. You can visit the club’s official website here.

March 29, 2011March 28, 2011

The “Crossroads” Motel

One location that I have been trying to track down for what seems like ages now is the supposed Tucson, Arizona-area motel where Ben (aka Anson Mount) played the song “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” for Lucy (aka Britney Spears) in the 2002 movie Crossroads. In the flick, Ben takes Lucy into a large, very unique-looking, surfboard-shaped glass room and proceeds to play the song for her on a piano that is stationed there. Well, let me tell you, I became absolutely intrigued with that room ever since first seeing the movie almost a decade ago and immediately added the motel to my “To-Find” list, but for whatever reason could just not seem to locate it. So imagine my surprise when fellow stalker Owen emailed me a little over two weeks ago to ask if I happened to know where that motel was. He was trying to track it down because, as he said, “the big room with the large glass windows is pretty cool”. What can I say – great minds think alike. When I told Owen that I had no idea where it was located, he got right to work in finding it. He had learned from watching the Crossroads’ DVD commentary with producer Ann Carli, director Tamra Davis, and writer Shonda Rimes that the motel was located somewhere in “the Valley” and that a production designer named Waldemar had discovered it while driving around scouting locations for the film. So what did Owen do? Yep, he went straight to the source and contacted Waldemar directly! Well, the very next day there was an email from Waldemar waiting in Owen’s inbox – with an address. Yay! As it turns out filming had taken place at the Hometown Inn in North Hills. So I dragged my dad right on out to stalk the place a few days later. (Now I would be remiss if I didn’t mention here that I, too, listened to that very same DVD commentary while trying to locate the motel and never in a million years did it occur to me to go after Waldemar himself! Owen is most definitely the master and my hat is completely off to him on this one!)

Oddly enough, the room where Ben played “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” is now a restaurant of some sort and it looks quite a bit different today than it did when filming took place back in 2002. The whole motel has an odd feel to it, truth be told, and the place seemed to be rather deserted while I was there taking pictures.

I cannot express how cool it was to finally be standing in that room, though, and thinking about the fact that Miss Britney Spears had once been standing – and singing – in that same exact spot.

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Quite a bit of the Hometown Inn was featured in Crossroads, including the front entrance;

and the pool area . . .

. . . which appeared in the scene in which Lucy speaks with her friends, Kit (aka Zoe Saldana) and Mimi (aka Taryn Manning), about the fact that her mother does not want a relationship with her.

As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, the blue lip which surrounds the perimeter of the pool still looks exactly the same today as it did when the movie was filmed!

The Hometown Inn was not used for the filming of the interior of Lucy, Kit, Ben, and Mimi’s motel room, though. As was the case with the majority of the motel room scenes in Crossroads, interior filming took place at the now-defunct Ambassador Hotel near Downtown Los Angeles. You can see what an actual Hometown Inn room looks like here.

While we were stalking the Hometown Inn, I desperately wanted to find the payphone where Lucy called her father, Pete (aka Dan Aykroyd), in the movie, but for the life of me I just could NOT seem to figure out where it was. I knew the phone had to be situated somewhere near the motel’s main entrance because Ben’s car was visible in the background behind Lucy in the scene, but I just could not locate it anywhere.

It wasn’t until after I returned home and watched the above-pictured deleted scene that I realized the payphone was located inside of the motel’s lobby.

That payphone is, sadly, no longer there. And while I did go inside the lobby while I was stalking the motel, because I did not realize it had been featured in the movie, I, unfortunately, did not get any photographs of it.

Crossroads Behind-the-Scenes Featurette–Hometown Inn

You can watch a behind-the-scenes video of the Hometown Inn scene being filmed by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hometown Inn, aka the Tucson, Arizona motel from Crossroads, is located at 9401 Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills. You can visit the motel’s official website here.

February 25, 2011February 25, 2011

Burlesque Lounge from “Burlesque”

A couple of months ago, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to see Burlesque and, because of all of the bad reviews the movie was generating, I did not have very high hopes that either of us would enjoy it much. As it turns out, though, I could NOT have been more wrong! It is a highly entertaining romp which boasts fabulous musical numbers, sparkling and intricately-designed costumes, and incredibly beautiful sets that made me want to hop right into the movie screen. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it. And even though the movie is definitely a chick flick, the GC said he thoroughly enjoyed it as well. So when I saw that fellow stalker Gary, of the Seeing Stars website, had just published a page detailing various filming locations from the movie, I just about died. The were two locations that I was most interested in stalking, the first of which was the Mediterranean-style apartment complex where Ali (aka Christina Aguilera) and Jack (aka Cam Gigandet) lived, which come to find out does not, in fact, exist. Fellow stalker Chas, of the ItsFilmedThere website, contacted a few Burlesque crew members on my behalf to find out the location of the apartment building, but they all informed him that it was a set that had been built on the Sony Pictures Studio backlot, which was shocking to me as I had been convinced that the building was a real place. I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on the DVD of the movie, which is being released on March 1st, so that I can listen to the commentary to learn more about the construction of that set. Anyway, the other location that I was dying to stalk was the exterior of the Burlesque Lounge, which, thanks to Gary I now know, was in actuality the side entrance of the historic Ricardo Montalban Theatre in Hollywood. So, I dragged the GC right on out there to stalk the place this past Monday afternoon.

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The Ricardo Montalban Theatre was first built in 1926 by Myron Hunt, the legendary Los Angeles architect who also designed the Rose Bowl, Occidental College, the California Institute of Technology, the Huntington Hotel (now the Langham), and the Huntington Library, among countless other area buildings. The Beaux Arts-style theatre was originally a live, or a “legitimate”, stage venue known as the Vine Street Theatre, but was transformed into a single-screen movie theatre during the Great Depression. A few years later it was purchased by CBS and became a radio broadcasting venue known as the CBS Playhouse Theatre. It was there that legendary Hollywood producer/director Cecil B. DeMille hosted his Lux Radio Theatre show in which movie stars of the day would act out radio versions of his many films. In 1954, the property once again became a live theatre venue and was renamed the Huntington Hartford. In 2000, the 1200-seat venue was purchased by Nosotros, a non-profit performing arts organization founded by Fantasy Island star Ricardo Montalban. The organization set about renovating the theatre and restoring the property to its former 1927 glory and in May of 2004 reopened the space as the Ricardo Montalban Theatre.

In Burlesque, the Ricardo Montalban Theatre’s side entrance, side exterior stairwell, and parking lot area were all used as the Burlesque Lounge’s main entrance. Amazingly enough, the wrought-iron gate which was featured so prominently in the movie is actually there in real life, which I was BEYOND excited to see! You can check out some pictures of the gate dressed for the filming here. (The theatre was having some sort of a movie screening when we showed up to stalk it, which is why there are people camped out on the sidewalk in all of my photographs).

Sadly, the parking lot area, which was featured in the scene in which Tess (aka Cher) and Nikki (aka Kristen Bell) get into a fight, has been ripped up and is currently under construction. According to the signs posted on the fence which now surrounds the former lot, a parking garage is set to be built in that area.

You can see what the parking lot area used to look like thanks to Bing Streetside in the pictures above and by clicking here.

I literally just about fell over when, while stalking the theatre, I recognized the burger stand located next door as the spot where Lucy (aka Britney Spears), Ben (aka Anson Mount), Kit (aka Zoe Saldana), and Mimi (aka Taryn Manning) signed up for the Slide Records singing audition in the movie Crossroads! I had actually been on the hunt for that location for quite some time and was absolutely FLOORED to have stumbled upon it in such a way. For whatever reason, I always seem to have that sort of luck when it comes to Crossroads locales as I also stumbled upon the gas station which appeared in the movie in a very similar manner.

If you would like to stalk the stand, which is named Molly’s Charbroiler in real life, you should do so soon as, according to fave website CurbedLA, the tiny restaurant may be torn down in the coming months in order to make way for a new office building. Sad smile Have I mentioned how much I love change?

Burlesque Trailer

You can watch the trailer for Burlesque, in which the exterior of the Burlesque Lounge is briefly shown, by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Gary, from Seeing Stars, for finding this location and to Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, for contacting Burlesque crew members to find out where Ali and Jack’s apartment building was located! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Ricardo Montalban Theatre, aka Burlesque Lounge from Burlesque, is located at 1615 North Vine Street in Hollywood. The Burlesque Lounge entrance is located on the north side of the property. You can visit the theatre’s official website here. Molly’s Charbroiler, from Crossroads, is located at 1601 North Vine Street. You can visit the burger stand’s official website here.

January 28, 2011January 27, 2011

The “Crossroads” Gas Station

One location that I was absolutely dying to stalk while visiting Palmdale last week was the supposed Texas-area gas station where Lucy Wagner (aka Miss Britney Spears) stole the keys to Ben’s (aka Anson Mount’s) Buick Skylark convertible in the 2002 movie Crossroads. I had known from watching the flick’s DVD commentary with director Tamra Davis and writer Shonda Rhimes that the gas station scene was filmed somewhere in the Palmdale/Lancaster area, but unfortunately its exact location was not specified. So, the night before my dad and I were set to head out that way, I got to work looking at aerial views of what I thought was every single gas station located within the Palmdale/Lancaster city limits. Unfortunately though, I came up completely empty-handed. So, imagine my surprise the following morning when I spotted what I was fairly certain was the Crossroads station while driving to the famed Four Aces movie set. I just about had a heart attack, slammed on my brakes, did a U-turn in the middle of the street, and headed right on back to the station to get a closer look.

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And, as it turns out, my instincts were right! The Super Store 6, as it is called in real life, was in fact the gas station from Crossroads! So, I immediately headed right on inside to speak with the owner who truly could NOT have been nicer. She told me that Britney had been very friendly and down-to-earth during the filming and that it had been a fairly low-key shoot. The owner also informed me that her station had appeared in both ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video and the final scene from the original Terminator movie. Unfortunately though, the gas station has been completely remodeled since that time and looks quite a bit different today than it did in the early 1980’s when those productions were filmed.

Thankfully though, Crossroads was filmed after the remodel took place, so it still looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen. In what turned out to be one of my very favorite scenes from the movie, Lucy, Ben, and their friends Mimi (aka Taryn Manning) and Kit (aka Zoe Saldana), stop by the station to fill up their car with gas while making their way from Louisiana to California. After grabbing a snack in the station’s mini-mart, Lucy, Mimi, and Kit discover that Ben has fallen asleep in the backseat of his car and, even though they have been warned that they are not allowed to touch the car under any circumstances, they decide to steal his keys and drive to their next destination themselves.

Mimi nominates Lucy to steal the car keys from Ben’s pocket because, as she says, “Well, Kit and I voted and you lost!” (LOVE IT!) So, Lucy snatches the keys and the girls drive off into the sunset.

But not before snapping the above photograph of themselves which I think is just about the cutest thing ever. I love, love, love that famous cross-eyed, tongue-out Britney face . . .

. . . which she later duplicated in her Super Bowl commercial for Pepsi Cola, but I digress.

In Crossroads, Ben’s Buick is parked at the station’s southeastern-most pump, in the spot where I am standing in the above photograph. Because there was a large truck parked right near the pump, though, my dad had to take the picture from the opposite direction from which the camera was facing in the movie.

In the very final scene of The Terminator, Sarah Connor (aka Linda Hamilton) stops by the Super Store 6 to fill her tank with gas and winds up having her photograph taken by a young boy. I am fairly certain that the station was never actually colored pink and green in real life, but that producers had it painted solely for the filming of the movie and then painted it back to its original color when the production was wrapped. Because the gas station is supposed to be located somewhere in the Mexican desert in the flick, producers also added quite a bit of set dressing, including Spanish signs, piñatas, and souvenirs, making the place look quite a bit different than it actually appeared at the time.

ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video takes place almost in its entirety at the Crossroads/Terminator gas station.

In the video, the woman in red parks her car in the exact same spot that Sarah Connor parked her Jeep in The Terminator, but the camera is facing in the opposite direction in the video than it was in the movie so the view is a bit different.

But, as you can see in the above screen captures, the square-shaped bars that cover the mini-mart’s windows . . .

. . . and the roofline and roof shape from the “Gimme All Your Lovin’” video exactly match that which appeared in The Terminator.

“Gimme All Your Lovin’” Music Video at Palmdale Gas Station

You can watch the “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Super Store 6, aka the gas station from Crossroads, the final scene in the first Terminator movie, and ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video, is located at 37202 90th Street East, at the corner of 90th Street East and Avenue S, in Palmdale. Some maps also list the gas station as being located in the town of Littlerock. In Crossroads, Ben’s car was parked at the pump located in the northeast corner of the station, in the area denoted with a pink “X” in the above aerial view. At the end of The Terminator, Sarah Connor was parked in front of the station’s western-most pump, in the area denoted with a blue “X” in the above aerial view. ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin’” music video was filmed in the exact same spot that was used in The Terminator.

January 27, 2011January 27, 2011

The “Kill Bill” Church

One location that my dad and I visited while stalking in the Lancaster and Palmdale areas last week was the Sanctuary Adventist Church which was used prominently in the 2003 and 2004 Quentin Tarantino movies Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2. And although I have never actually seen either of the Kill Bill flicks, I was dying to stalk the church because, thanks to fave book Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors, I found out that it also had a very small, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in the 2002 Britney Spears movie Crossroads, in which I was an extra. I should mention here that if you are planning to spend a day stalking in Palmdale – and I do HIGHLY recommend doing so – I suggest you print out maps of each and every location that you are wanting to visit before heading out the door. I failed to do so and had planned on using my navigation system to lead me to each locale, but, let me tell you, that did NOT pan out very well. At most points during our journey, my navigator had no idea where on earth we were – more than once it told me I was driving on a road that didn’t exist! LOL – and a few times it even took us on routes through dirt roads that wound up at dead ends. And while Palmdale and Lancaster are not exactly desolate – there’s even a Starbucks there! – most of the filming locations in that area are pretty far removed from civilization. I suggest that you not make a stalking journey out there alone and that you arrive with a full tank of gas and a car that is in good working order.

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The Sanctuary Adventist Church, which up until recently was known as the Calvary Baptist Church, is an actual working religious facility that, sadly, does not appear to currently be in the best of shape. The tiny Spanish-style chapel definitely has a Southwestern feel to it and it is not very hard to see why Quentin Tarantino chose to use it as the site of the wedding day massacre in his two-part action flick. Especially with that lone Joshua tree that stands in front of it and gives the church a very picturesque, very cinematic feel.

As you can see in the above photograph, the church is also located on a very desolate and very remote stretch of desert road, which gives it a very non-L.A., non-California feel. In fact it is hard to believe that the place is located just a scant sixty miles away from the hustle and bustle that is Los Angeles.

In Crossroads, the church stood in for the supposed Arizona-area Native American souvenir stand that Lucy (aka Britney Spears), Kit (aka Zoe Saldana), Mimi (aka Taryn Manning), and Ben (aka Anson Mount) stop at during their journey from Louisiana to California. It is while at the stand that Lucy asks her friends for advice on whether she should show up at her estranged mother’s house unannounced or call her beforehand.

Ironically enough, even though the church is supposed to be a roadside souvenir stand in the movie, for whatever reason producers decided to leave the Calvary Baptist Church sign up during the filming.

In Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2, the Sanctuary Adventist Church stood in for the supposed El Paso, Texas-area Two Pines Wedding Chapel where the Deadly Viper Assassination Team (aka Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, and David Carradine) attempt to kill “the Bride” (aka Uma Thurman).

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the church, which you can see a photograph of here, was also used in the production of both films.

The church has also been featured in numerous other productions, as well. In fact, the intersection of 198th Street East and East Avenue G, where the church is located, is quite a famous little stretch of land. In the 1981 movie True Confessions, the Sanctuary Adventist Church is where Detective Tom Spellacy (aka Robert Duvall) visits his brother Father Des Spellacy (aka Robert DeNiro).

The 1999 Jean-Claude Van Damme action flick Dessert Heat (which, for some reason, is also named Inferno), was filmed almost in its entirety in both the former High Vista Diner and the sundries store located directly across the street from the Sanctuary Adventist Church. The church is visible in the background throughout the vast majority of the movie.

Jubal Early (aka Pat Morita) is also shown ringing the church bell at one point in the movie, although that bell is no longer there in real life.

In Desert Heat, the High Vista Diner is where both Rhonda Reynolds (aka Gabrielle Fitzpatrick) and Dottie Matthews (aka Jaime Pressly) worked. In real life, the place was not a real working restaurant, but, much like Four Aces and Club Ed, was solely built for use as a filming location. Sadly though, the structure was torn down back in early 2008 and is now nothing more than a dirt lot. You can see a photograph of what it used to look like here and here.

Right next to the former High Vista Diner location is another vacant building which stood in for the Elis Emporium Sundries and Surplus store in Desert Heat. And while that structure is still currently standing, I am not sure for how long that will be the case.

As you can in the above photographs, the building does not look to be in the best of shape, although it is apparently still available for filming. Winking smile

The Elis Emporium structure was also visible in the background of the opening scene of True Confessions and I do believe that it was a real working grocery store at one point in time.

The little motel that Henry Howard (aka Robert Symonds) and his wife (aka Priscilla Pointer) owned in Desert Heat used to be located directly behind the Elis Emporium building, but it has also since been torn down.

In Nurse Betty, the High Vista Café stood in for the supposed Williams, Arizona-area Canyon Ranch Bar where Betty (aka Renee Zellweger), and later Wesley (aka Chris Rock) and Charlie (aka Morgan Freeman), stop while making their way towards California.

I am fairly certain that the interior of the Canyon Ranch Bar was filmed elsewhere though, as it looks nothing like the interior of the diner from Desert Heat and also appears to be quite a bit larger than the former High Vista Diner building. My guess is that the interior Canyon Ranch Bar scenes were filmed on a soundstage somewhere in Hollywood.

The Kill Bill church is also just barely visible in the background of Nurse Betty in the scene in which Charlie and Wesley arrive at the Canyon Ranch Bar.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Sanctuary Adventist Church, aka the Kill Bill church, is located at the intersection of 198th Street East and East Avenue G in Lancaster. The High Vista Diner was formerly located directly across the street from the church at the southeast corner of 198th Street East and East Avenue G. The Elis Emporium Sundries and Surplus Store from Desert Heat is located at the southwest corner of 198th Street East and East Avenue G.

August 2, 2010August 3, 2010

Jim and Pam’s Wedding Hotel from “The Office”

Now that I have watched all six seasons of The Office, I can honestly say that my favorite episode hands down has to be the Season 6 episode titled “Niagara” in which Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) and Pam Beasley (aka Jenna Fischer) finally get married. I loved the episode for two very different reasons – one, because Jim and Pam’s relationship is so incredibly sweet, and two, because it so perfectly captures what it is like to plan a wedding. Whoever wrote “Niagara” must have gone through the ordeal that is planning a wedding just prior to penning it, because, let me tell you, they got things absolutely, one hundred percent SPOT ON! And right now I can TOTALLY relate. Yes, planning a wedding is fun and exciting and heartwarming, but, at the same time, dealing with people is just not my forte. I honestly want to call up some of our guests and/or vendors and scream, “NO, I will not provide you with shade during the ceremony, NO, I will not pick you up from the airport on the morning of my wedding, and NO, it’s not OK that you RSVP-ed yes, but are now backing out even though I have already given my caterer the final head count!” – all of which were recently said to or asked of me and my fiancé! Sigh! The scene in which Pam says to Jim, “Everyone’s driving me crazy. This is supposed to be our wedding day! Why did we invite all these people?” especially resonated with me when I watched the episode and I can’t tell you the number of times since then that I’ve seriously considered jumping on a ship to tie the knot sans guests just like Pam and Jim eventually did. 😉 Anyway, while watching “Niagara”, I immediately recognized the hotel where Jim and Pam’s guests stayed during their wedding as the historic Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City. So, I dragged my fiancé right out to stalk it when we were in the area two weekends ago.

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The Sportmen’s Lodge Hotel has been around since the early 1880s, but at the time it was named Hollywood Trout Farms thanks to the fact that it was surrounded by a series of man-made lakes and piers from which guests could fish for trout which would then subsequently be cooked and served to them for dinner by the staff at the main restaurant. In 1962, a new, larger hotel was built on the property, which had since been re-named the Sportsmen’s Lodge. It is that structure that still stands today.

And while the trout lakes have long since been removed, the hotel now boasts an Olympic-sized swimming pool, numerous ponds and waterfalls, and eight picturesque acres of land. Due to its proximity to the Hollywood studios, the Lodge has long been popular with movie stars, including Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Doris Day, David Lee Roth, Billy Bob Thornton, Trisha Yearwood, Spencer Tracy, Lauren Bacall, Tallulah Bankhead, Lena Horne, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, and Bette Davis, all of whom have been spotted there at one time or another. In 2007, the hotel was purchased by real estate developer Richard Weintraub who set about extensively renovating the property. And, unfortunately, along with that renovation came quite a bit of change. 🙁

In The Office’s aptly named “Niagara” episode, Pam and Jim head to Niagara Falls to tie the knot. And while the interior scenes were filmed at the Sportsmen’s Lodge, as I mentioned above, the exterior shots were filmed at an actual Niagara Falls lodging named the Red Coach Inn. And, as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, the two hotels look nothing alike.

The Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel actually has two lobbies, and it is the back lobby, which is located off of Coldwater Canyon Avenue, that was used in the episode. Unfortunately, as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, that lobby looks MUCH different today than it did when The Office was filmed. During the recent remodel, all of the back lobby’s wood was covered over with white paint, making the space appear much less lodge-like.

Gone, too, is the hotel’s former stone-covered fireplace, which has been revamped to look like an ordinary, everyday fireplace. Such a shame! The hotel, which used to have a very kitschy feel to it, now appears traditional and run-of-the-mill. I am actually quite surprised that Weintraub had the place remodeled in such a way, as I am sure that it is no longer quite as appealing to producers and location managers.

And I have to say here that I absolutely LOVE the scene in which Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) shows up to the hotel’s front desk and informs the clerk that he doesn’t have a reservation because Jim and Pam have “blocked” rooms for their guests. LOL LOL LOL Man, I can SO see that happening in real life! I don’t know what it is about a wedding that renders seemingly normal, intelligent people into helpless, self-absorbed morons, but, let me tell you, it happens!

Several of the Lodge’s hotel rooms were also featured in the “Niagara” episode, including Room 642, where Pam’s grandmother, Meemaw, stayed;

Room 644, where Pam stayed;

Room 641, where Dwight stayed;

and Suite 639, aka the “Honeymoon Suite”, where Andy stayed.

All of the rooms featured in the episode can be found in the same hallway, which is located on the hotel’s second floor, directly above the main lobby.

I could NOT for the life of me find the ice/vending machine closet where Michael spent the night in “Niagara”, though. Oddly enough, according to the housekeeper that I spoke with, the hotel only has one ice machine area and it is located next to the pool. I checked it out, though, and it looks nothing like the room pictured above, which leads me to believe that producers either created a fake room in one of the hotel’s storage closets for the filming or that the ice machine room where filming took place was removed during the recent remodel.

The very same back lobby which appeared in The Office was also the site of the graduation dance in the Britney Spears’ movie Crossroads. I obtained this information from a crew member while I was working as an extra in the movie and I actually thought it was a bit odd being that a vast majority of the flick was lensed at the now-defunct Ambassador Hotel. It seems like it would have been a whole lot easier to just shoot the dance sequence in one of the former hotel’s many ballrooms since the cast and crew were already filming on location there, but, then again, what do I know? 😉

And, of course, I just HAD to pose on the Sportmen’s Lodge’s stairwell since Britney had once been there. 🙂

The actual dance scene in Crossroads was filmed in the Lodge’s Starlight ballroom. And, as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, the room’s light fixtures and the banister surrounding the dance floor still look the same today as they did in 2002 when Crossroads was filmed. YAY!

The hotel was also where Lynette Scavo (aka Felicity Huffman) stayed after leaving her husband Tom (aka Doug Savant) in the Season 2 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Remember (1)”.

And if you look at the room where Lynette stayed in that episode, you will notice that it is a perfect match to the room Lucy Wagner (aka Britney Spears) and Henry (aka Justin Long) rented after the dance in Crossroads, which is extremely odd as I would have guessed – once again – that that scene would have been filmed at the above-mentioned Ambassador, as was the case with all of the other hotel room scenes in the movie. So odd!

The front entrance of the hotel also appeared in Crossroads.

The wedding from the end of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry was filmed at the Lodge, in the hotel’s lagoon area, and, according to a staff member I spoke with, the movies Leverage, Made, and Day the World Ended, and episodes of the television series Reno 911, Columbo, and Falcon Crest were also all filmed at the Sportsmen’s Lodge,

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Sportmen’s Lodge, aka Jim and Pam’s wedding hotel from The Office, is located at 12825 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. You can visit the hotel’s official website here. In the “Niagara” episode, Pam stayed in Room 644, Dwight in Room 641, Pam’s Meemaw in Room 642, and Andy in Suite 639. All of the rooms that were featured in the episode are located in the same second floor hallway of the hotel, directly above the main lobby. The back lobby, which appeared in the both The Office and Crossroads, can be reached via Coldwater Canyon Avenue.

March 31, 2009March 30, 2009

The Belasco Theatre

During my three day stint as an extra in the Britney Spears movie Crossroads, I happened to make friends with a few of the crew members. The entire cast and crew of the movie was EXTREMELY nice and, as tends to happen on long shoots, I got to know the people I was working with quite well. As I was saying goodbye to my new friends on my last day of being a Crossroads extra, one of the cameramen invited me to watch the following day’s shoot which was taking place at an old theatre in Downtown Los Angeles. It was going to be the very last day of filming on Crossroads and since the cameraman knew what a huge BritBrit fan I was, he invited me to spend the day on the set.

Getting to watch the final day of the filming of Crossroads was an incredible experience for me. Filming took place at a beautiful old theatre named the Belasco. Just being in that space was an amazing opportunity – let alone being there to watch Britney Spears perform. 🙂 The scene being filmed on that final day was the Hollywood singing contest that Britney and her friends compete in at the very end of the movie. Basically, for the entire twelve hours that I spent on the set that day, I got to sit around and watch Britney Spears sing live both “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman” and “Overprotected”. Most of the filming that day was done without any extras in attendance – and because of the way the cameras were positioned, I was allowed to sit on the steps leading up to the stage and watch what pretty much amounted to my very own private Britney Spears concert. I’m not kidding – it was absolutely A-MA-ZING!!! And, once again, I was literally pinching myself the whole time. I could NOT believe I was actually sitting there, an audience of one, less than two feet from my idol, watching her perform two unreleased songs live and in person. For me, it was a once in a lifetime! I half expected to wake up at any moment in my bed at home – the whole experience having been just a dream. I mean things like that just don’t happen in real life! And even though I don’t still adore Britney as I once did, I will always cherish my memories from that day. You can watch part of the scene that was filmed at the Belasco Theatre here.

The Belasco Theatre was built in 1926 by theatre producers David and Edward Belasco. The Spanish Baroque style theatre was originally a live performance venue. Its premiere show? Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – a play written by Anita Loos which would later become a movie musical starring my girl Marilyn. 🙂 Over the years, after falling upon hard times and closing its doors for a period, the Belasco was used as both an exotic movie house and a church. The building was just recently sold last year and was completely restored to its original grandeur by its new owner. At this time it’s unclear what is being done with the historic theatre, but some online reports speculate that it might become a nightclub.

Besides Crossroads, other productions that have filmed at the historic Belasco Theatre include Swordfish (where it was used as John Travolta’s lair – pictured above), The Prestige, Memoirs of a Geisha, Being John Malkovich, Midnight Frolics, and the television series Fastlane.

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The Belasco Theatre is incredible beautiful inside, but, sadly, it is currently closed to the public. I can’t really recommend stalking the exterior of the theatre, either, as it is fairly non-descript. You could easily drive right by without even noticing it. But if you ever have the opportunity to see the interior in person, I highly recommend it! In the meantime, you can cyberstalk the interior here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Belasco Theatre is located at 1050 South Hill Street in Downtown Los Angeles.

March 30, 2009April 6, 2009

Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do

Back before she was going shoeless in public restrooms and flashing her privates to anyone with a camera, I was majorly obsessed with pop princess Britney Spears. The hair, the cute little outfits, her music – I absolutely loved everything about the girl! I attended her 2001 Live From Las Vegas concert event, I learned the steps to “Oops! . . . I Did It Again“ and performed a mini-Britney concert with some of my sixth grade students back when I was a substitute teacher, and I dressed up like her every chance I got. The above photo is from a Christmas costume party back in 2000 when I dressed up like Britney and made my good friend Ty dress up like Justin Timberlake. He’s such a big guy, though, that everyone thought he was supposed to be Britney Spears security. LOL

So, in Spring of 2001, when a co-worker of mine told me that her good friend was responsible for casting the extras in all of Britney’s music videos, I almost died on the spot! I begged her to pass my phone number on to her friend in the hopes that maybe someday she’d hire me as an extra and I’d get to see my idol in person. Well, not three days later I got a call from the friend asking if I wanted to do background work in the Britney Spears MOVIE that was currently filming. I’ll never forget standing there screaming “Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!” into the phone, and the friend saying – a bit nervously – “OK, you can’t do that once you get to the set!” LOL So, bright and early the next morning I set out for a three day shoot on the set of the Britney Spears movie. And I really could not have been more excited!

Britney’s movie was originally entitled What Are Friends For and the scene being filmed was the karaoke contest scene where BritBrit and her friends sang Joan Jett’s famous “I Love Rock N’ Roll” in the fictional Club Bayou, which was supposedly located in New Orleans. In reality, though, the club where Britney performed is named Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do and is located just off the 10 Freeway in Los Angeles. Even though quite a bit of Crossroads was actually filmed in Louisiana, the karaoke scene was filmed in L.A. Go figure. You can see the exterior of the fictional Club Bayou which is shown in the movie and the exterior of the real club where filming took place above.

The filming of the karaoke scene took three long days to complete, but, of course, I was loving every minute of it! I think it is pretty much safe to say, though, that no other extra was quite as excited to be there as I was. 🙂 During the three day shoot I made friends with a few of the background actors and they all teased me incessantly over my love for BritBrit. LOL Needless to say they weren’t big fans of hers. 🙂 (Pictured above are my group of extra friends hanging out on the set – I’m the one in the middle. This was long before I cut my hair and dyed it blond, so I look a bit different today.) If I remember correctly, there were about 75-100 extras hired for the karaoke scene and right before filming began one of the assistant directors gave us each an exact place to stand during the scene and told us what we were to be doing. As I was getting my instructions, a very thin blond woman came up to me and introduced herself. She told me that she LOVED my outfit and that she wanted me to be sitting front and center during Britney’s performance. She led me over to the bar area, just a few feet away from where Britney would be performing, and sat me next to an actor wearing a blue shirt. Well, it turns out that the thin blond woman was Crossroads director Tamra Davis and the actor she sat me next to was Britney’s love interest in the film, Anson Mount!!!!

Needless to say I was THRILLED!!! Not only was I sitting thisclose to Britney while she was performing onstage, but I was also right next to the movie’s lead actor! Ironically, the outfit that director Tamra Davis so loved wasn’t what I had originally intended to wear that morning. (A little known fact – 95% of the time movie and TV extras wear their own clothes during filming.) All Crossroads extras were told to wear New Orlean’s style club attire to the shoot. And on the morning of my first day on the set I had put on something entirely different. But my mom stopped me as I had one foot out the door and said “You don’t look very New Orleansy. Why don’t you wear that cute halter top you got in Hawaii with your blue capris.” Well, of course, I argued with her as I thought the shirt and pants she was talking about didn’t really match, but in the end she won out. And, as luck would have it, had I not worn that outfit I never would have gotten noticed by Tamra Davis. The moral of the story? Ladies – always listen to your mother! 🙂 As a result of my mother’s foresite, not only did I have a front row seat for Britney, but I also got considerable screen-time in the movie. 🙂 (That’s me next to Anson Mount in the above screen capture.)

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When I first saw Crossroads I just about died as you can see me quite a bit in the karaoke scene. Being that I was such a HUGE fan of Britney, it was pretty darn cool that I shared my big screen debut with her. 🙂

And let me tell you, filming that scene was quite an experience. For pretty much three days straight I sat around watching Britney perform “I Love Rock N’ Roll” on a stage that was about two feet away from me! I was literally pinching myself the whole time thinking “I’m getting paid for this????” You have to remember that this was at the height of Britney’s career – she still had that cutesy, good girl image, “Oops! . . . I Did It Again” was multi-platinum, and she and Justin Timberlake were madly in love. I mean, do you know how many 13 year old girls would have died to have been in my shoes! I was 24 at the time, but that’s besides the point. LOL 🙂 The highlight of the filming for me was when Britney Spears, Pop Princess!!!! actually started a conversation with me! I am amazed I was even able to get any words out to talk to her. LOL During one of the many breaks from filming, BritBrit walked right up to me with a big smile on her face and asked me what I was doing with my drink. I had actually been sticking my finger in the drink I was holding playing with the fake ice in my glass. In movies and television, whenever anyone is drinking, the ice in their glass isn’t real – fake ice made out of a gelatin formula is used. Real ice has a tendency to clink against glasses, thereby making noise and disrupting filming. So clear jello-like cubes are used instead – and, boy, are they fun to play with! When I told Britney this, she started laughing hysterically and said “Oh mah gawd, you’re so funny!” Apparently, she thought this was the funniest thing she had heard in a long time. LOL It really wasn’t all that funny, but I was on cloud nine, nonetheless. Britney Spears thought I was funny!!!! 🙂 BritBrit was very nice, fairly quiet, and extremely down to earth. It almost seemed as if she had no idea how truly famous she really was. She also spoke with a very heavy Southern accent, which I wasn’t expecting. And I have to say that while she seemed very sweet and SUPER cute in person, it was quite obvious that she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. 🙂

For me, being an extra in Crossroads was an AMAZING experience. It was truly everything I hoped it would be. I’m am so lucky it was my first movie experience, as it was such a good one. And while the actual movie didn’t turn out that great, I will always look back on my time working on it with fondness.

You can watch the entire “I Love Rock N’ Roll” scene here.

I can’t really recommend stopping by Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do for a drink as the only time I ever visited it was while we were filming. Since I’m not really a clubbin’ kind of girl, I’ve never been back to check it out. But if you’re into that kind of thing, it seems like a pretty cool place to grab a drink. The Fais Do-Do (which means “Nighty-Night” in French) building was originally constructed in 1930 and at the time housed the First Citizens Savings Bank and Trust. The club, which definitely has a New Orlean’s vibe to it, has remained a popular nighttime hotspot since its opening in 1990.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do is located at 5257 W. Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.