Don Draper – IAMNOTASTALKER

June 21, 2011June 20, 2011

The Envelope Emmy Week “Mad Men” Screening

Ever since fellow stalker Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, invited me to be his plus-one for the SAG screening/cast Q & A of the FX television series Justified back in late May, I have been all about attending similar-type events. So when he told me about an Envelope Emmy Week screening/roundtable of the television show Mad Men, featuring series’ creator Matt Weiner and series’ stars Jon Hamm (who plays Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce advertising executive Don Draper), Christina Hendricks (who plays secretary Joan Harris) and Kiernan Shipka (who plays Don’s daughter, Sally), I jumped at the chance to attend. Because Mad Men is one of the Grim Cheaper’s favorite television shows, I mistakenly assumed that he would also jump at the chance to be my date for the evening, so imagine my surprise when he told me that he would rather sit at home and watch paint dry! I mean, I understand not having an interest in attending some random screening, but when the opportunity comes up to see in person – and possibly meet – several actors from one’s favorite television show, I just do NOT understand turning that opportunity down. Men! Winking smile It all turned out alright, though, as Mikey invited fellow stalkers CB and Anushika, who are both contributors to his website, and we all had an ABSOLUTE BLAST hanging out together. Not to mention that we were also all given free popcorn and soda to enjoy during the screening! Celebrities and popcorn? What more could a stalker ask for?

The event got started right on time with a screening of the Season 4 episode titled “The Beautiful Girls”. Before the screening, I had never actually watched an entire episode of Mad Men and I have to say that I was most pleasantly surprised. I absolutely LOVED it and am now itching to watch the series from the very beginning. Anyway, Matt, Jon, Christina, and Kiernan were brought out shortly after the episode was finished and I have to stay that Jon Hamm is MAJORLY good looking in person! Like drool-worthy good looking! I had seen him once before, while watching an episode of the series being filmed in Pasadena last July, but because I did not get very close to him at the time I had no idea what a cutie he actually was! Sigh!!

Christina Hendricks was also GORGEOUS in person! With her striking red hair and bright red lips, she looked exactly like what one would expect a movie star to look like. She is also much taller in person than I had expected her to be.

Pretty much everyone in the audience was most taken with 11-year-old Kiernan Shipka, though, who has got to be one of the most adorable little girls that I have ever seen in my entire life! Kiernan is extremely poised, talkative, and wise beyond her years and reminded me a LOT of Dakota Fanning. At one point, the moderator asked her if mimicking the mannerisms of TV-mom January Jones, which Kiernan apparently did a lot of this season, had been her idea or that of Matt Weiner, and both Matt and Kiernan explained that it had been her idea and that she had started doing it spontaneously, without any sort of outside direction. Kiernan said that she out of the blue one day realized it would make sense to start “channeling” January’s habits, traits, and voice inflections so she began to carefully observe her while on set and then mimicked a few chosen behaviors during filming. This is an 11-year-old, people! Unbelievable!

All in all, it was a fabulous screening and the cast seemed to get along remarkably. As you can see in the above photographs, there was a LOT of laughing and joking around going on and the actors were all very complimentary of one another, especially Jon of Christina and Kiernan.

Because this screening was put on by the Los Angeles Times and Envelope Emmy Week, it was handled a bit differently than most SAG events and, sadly, audience members were not allowed to venture up to the stage to meet the actors after the Q & A had ended. So, Mikey, CB, Anushika and I literally RACED out of that theatre as soon as the event was over in order to try and catch the cast before they got in their limos. I really, really, REALLY wanted to get a photograph with Jon Hamm and, because fellow stalker Pinky LoveJoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, had informed me that Jon is always INCREDIBLY nice to his fans, I had very high hopes. Unfortunately though, Jon had already left the premises by the time we got outside, as had Kiernan. Christina Hendricks was, thankfully, still there, though, and was nice enough to sign a TON of autographs and take photographs with everyone who wanted one before leaving. Love it! Even though I did not get my picture with Jon Hamm, all in all it was a FABULOUS night and just the first of many screenings that I have attended over the past few weeks, but have yet to blog about. So stay tuned . . . Winking smile

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, for telling me about this event! Smile You can read Mikey’s write-up of the evening, as well as check out some videos he took while there, on his website.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: There is no stalking location for this one, but you can catch Mad Men each Sunday night on AMC. Season 5 of the series is not scheduled to begin airing until sometime in 2012.

July 8, 2010July 7, 2010

On the Set of “Mad Men”

This past Tuesday, I received an email from one of my fellow stalkers alerting me to the fact that the hit AMC television series Mad Men was going to be shooting on location in Pasadena the following day at Don and Betty Draper’s house, which I blogged about last June. And even though I don’t really watch the show, I just had to venture out to stalk the set – with my camera in hand, of course! 🙂 Unfortunately though, not a whole lot was going on while I was there and the filming only lasted a few short hours. The scene being shot was a very short little driving scene involving actor Jon Hamm, who plays advertising executive Don Draper on the show. And sadly, the crew, while nice, made it very clear that they did NOT want photographs being taken of anything – the set, the filming, the actors, etc., etc., etc. And while I was in no way going to let that stop me ;), the only pictures I could take were on the down low, so I didn’t get very many good ones. I did manage to snap the above photograph of Jon as he was leaving the set after shooting had wrapped, though, and let me tell you, I was completely floored about that! 🙂

Jon seemed super friendly and waved to me and another stalker who I was hanging out with from his van as he was being driven away from the set. I so would have LOVED to have gotten a photograph with him, but unfortunately he was shuttled away from the premises rather quickly as he was due in Downtown L.A., where more Mad Men filming was taking place.

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After Jon Hamm was driven away, I stuck around for a bit to watch the crew members strike the set, a process which I find incredibly interesting. I always love to see what aspects of a property are changed for a filming and which are left the same. One altered aspect of the Draper house that I knew about prior to my set visit yesterday was the color of their front door. As you can see in the above photograph, which I took when I stalked the property last June, in real life the home’s front door is painted blue.

But on the show, the Draper’s front door is painted a bright red color, and, let me tell you, when I set out to stalk the set yesterday, I was most excited over the prospect of seeing that red door in person – even more so than I was about the prospect of seeing Jon Hamm. 😉 And I was even more excited when I was able to snap the above photograph of it! YAY! I found out from a crew member that the home’s real life front door is actually painted red each and every time they film at the property! I had mistakenly assumed that set dressers had a special door that they installed during each filming, but in reality, someone is actually brought in the day before shooting to paint the real life door red and then, after shooting wraps, he or she paints it back to its original blue color . . . every single time they film! Isn’t that incredible? I mean, I realize doors are expensive and all, but it seems to me that it would be a whole lot more cost effective and a whole lot more timely to simply switch out the real door for a red one. Not to mention the fact that there now must be over a dozen layers of paint on that door! I swear, I’ll never understand Hollywood sometimes!

Set dressers also install a fake light post (which you can see laying on the ground in the above photograph) each time filming takes place, which was incredible to see. They actually dig up a part of the home’s front lawn in order to bury the base of the light each and every time they film! With all the filming that takes place at the property that poor lawn probably never has time to grow back! They also bring in a slew of potted plants (which you can also see in the above photograph) which are placed on the front porch for each filming.

The coolest thing for me to see, though, was the fake street sign that was put up for the scene. The signs above which read “Shady Lane” and “Bullet Park Road” normally spell out “El Molino Avenue” and “Arden Road”. So darn cool! According to one of the crew members I talked to, the fake sign was so realistic that it caused a bit of confusion for a passerby who was driving around, trying unsuccessfully to find Arden Road. LOL

Set dressers also covered up the above-pictured stop sign with a fake 50’s style stop sign, but unfortunately I didn’t get a photograph of it. In fact, I didn’t even notice it was a fake sign until one of the set dressers removed it after filming had wrapped. I SO wish I had gotten a picture of it! UGH! I am SO blonde sometimes.

Ironically enough, my fiancé and I were watching the 1995 movie Outbreak a couple of weeks ago and I was floored to discover that the house belonging to Robby Keough (aka Rene Russo) in the flick was none other than the Mad Men house! So cool! You can see some great interior photographs of the home here. And, according to one of the crew members I talked to, some Mad Men filming does actually take place inside of the home.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Don and Betty Draper’s house from Mad Men is located at 675 Arden Road in Pasadena.

June 22, 2010June 21, 2010

Casey’s Irish Pub

One location that I have been wanting to stalk for what seems like ages now is Casey’s Irish Pub (aka Casey’s Bar & Grill), a historic Downtown Los Angeles watering hole that has appeared in COUNTLESS movie and television productions throughout its more than thirty year history. I first found out about the bar over six months ago while doing some online research on locales featured in the first X-Files movie and the place has been high up on my “To Stalk” list ever since. But until this past weekend, I had yet to make it there. My delay in visiting the bar was not for lack of trying, though, believe me. For some reason, every time my fiancé and I found ourselves in the area, Casey’s Irish Pub was, unfortunately, closed. I’ve lost track of the amount of thwarted Casey’s stalking attempts that were actually made, but, trust me, the number is higher than you can count on one hand. Thankfully though, this past Saturday night, fate finally intervened and my fiancé and I found ourselves just a few blocks away from Casey’s during a time when the bar was actually open! YAY! And, even though I was in a fairly bad mood at the time – unfortunately, there is still some health drama going on with my dad and I also recently found out that one of my closest friends is ill, so it’s not exactly a happy time for me – we decided to stop in anyway. And I am SO glad that we did, because my spirits were lifted almost immediately upon walking through Casey’s beveled-glass doors.

The two-story building where Casey’s now resides was first constructed in 1916 and originally housed a general store on its street level and a Turkish bath on its basement-level. In 1924, the general store and bathhouse were closed and an upscale restaurant named B&M Cafeteria was opened in their place. The former general store space was transformed into B&M’s main dining room and the former Turkish bath location became the kitchen area. In the years following, the restaurant went through numerous changes of ownership and several different restaurant incarnations, until 1969, when it took on the name of Casey’s Irish Pub. Casey’s owners had the two-level property completely revamped, most notably moving the entire structure thirty feet back from the street in order to make room for an enclosed basement-level patio. After changing hands – but not its moniker – a few more times, in 2007 Casey’s was acquired by the nightlife development company 213 – the very same company that was also responsible for restoring the popular Cole’s Restaurant a few years back. (Once again I must apologize for the ultra-blurry photographs that appear in this post. I STILL cannot figure out how to use my new camera and I am growing seriously annoyed! UGH!)

Casey’s Irish Pub is absolutely HUGE (over 10,000 square feet!) and features a gorgeous mahogany bar, hand-pressed tin ceilings, a live-music stage, a dart room, a billiards room, and several private event areas, including the “Captain’s Quarters” (pictured above). Not only is the bar’s ambiance fabulous and unique, but the food is also INCREDIBLE, despite what the reviews on Yelp state. As I’ve mentioned numerous times in the past, I am an INCREDIBLY picky eater, especially when it comes to chicken, and I have to say that Casey’s serves up some of the best food in L.A. My fiancé and I especially loved their famous pub fries – which are an absolute must-have while dining at Casey’s – and their Cobb salad. The staff there could also NOT have been nicer and one of the bartenders even went so far as to take me on a little mini-tour of the place, which is how I got the above-pictured photographs of the Captain’s Quarters. 🙂 Love it!

The thing I was most excited about, though, was the fact that Casey’s not only serves champagne – and good champagne, at that – but they serve it in old-school champagne glasses, ala the kind Marilyn Monroe was always pictured drinking out of. So darn cool! I honestly can’t recommend stalking Casey’s enough!!!! I can pretty much guarantee its a place that stalkers and non-stalkers alike will appreciate!

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Walking through the doors of Casey’s Irish Pub is truly like stepping back in time and it is not very hard to see why filmmakers have returned there again and again over the years to capture the place’s unique ambiance on film. And, thanks to the bar’s definite New York vibe, it is most often portrayed as being in a city other than Los Angeles. In 2002’s Mr. Deeds, Casey’s stands in for the New York bar where Babe Bennett (aka Winona Ryder) went to drown her sorrows after being rejected by Longfellow Deeds (aka Adam Sandler).

In the first X-Files movie, Casey’s appeared as the Washington, D.C. bar where cutie Fox Mulder (aka David Duchovny) met Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil (aka Martin Landau) for the first time.

Ironically enough, though, for the scenes which supposedly took place outside of the bar, producers filmed at a different location entirely, yet they chose to use the actual Casey’s name on the exterior signage. Casey’s real-life exterior is pictured above and, as you can see, it is located below street-level and looks nothing like the exterior shown in The X-Files.

In 2006’s 16 Blocks, Casey’s stood in for the New York bar where Detective Jack Mosby (aka Bruce Willis) celebrated his birthday.

In Charlie Wilson’s War, Casey’s was featured as the Washington, D.C. watering hole where Congressman Charlie Wilson (aka Tom Hanks) took his lady friend Joanne Herring (aka Julia Roberts) for a drink before leaving on a trip to the Middle East.

In Good Night and Good Luck, Casey’s pops up as the New York bar where Edward R. Murrow (aka David Strathairn), Fred Friendly (aka George Clooney), and their co-workers wait to read the reviews of their just-aired See It Now television special about Senator Joseph McCarthy. Ironically enough, according to the movie’s DVD commentary, Casey’s was one of only two non-studio locations used in the filming of Good Night and Good Luck – the other being the Masonic Temple in Pasadena.

In 1998’s Fallen, Casey’s stands in for the Philadelphia bar where John Hobbes (aka Denzel Washington) met up with his cop friends Lou (aka James Gandolfini) and Jonesy (aka John Goodman) after the execution of a notorious serial killer.

In The Deep End of the Ocean, Casey’s stood in for the Chicago, Illinois restaurant where Detective Candy Bliss (aka Whoopi Goldberg) took Beth Cappadora (aka Michelle Pfeiffer) for a bite to eat a few weeks after Sam, Beth’s kidnapped son, was returned to her. Both the interior and the exterior of Casey’s were used in the flick.

Casey’s has also been featured in numerous episodes of the television series Mad Men, including the Season 1 episode titled “The Hobo Code”, where it stood in for P.J. Clarke’s, the famed, real life 125-year old watering hole located in Manhattan.

Casey’s also popped up in the Season 2 episode of Mad Men titled “For Those Who Think Young”, as the spot where Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm) is shown eating a steak and eggs breakfast after learning from his doctor that he is not in the greatest of health. The bar was also apparently featured in an episode of CSI, although I am not sure of which particular episode.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Casey’s Irish Pub is located at 613 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. The restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. each Monday through Wednesday, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. each Thursday through Saturday, and from 3 p.m. to 11 a.m. each Sunday. You can visit the official Casey’s website here.

June 22, 2009June 26, 2009

Don Draper’s House from Mad Men

Got an email last week from fellow stalker Karin who wanted me to locate the house belonging to Donald Draper (played by Jon Hamm) and his wife, Betty (played by January Jones), on the AMC television series Mad Men. It turns out that my good friend, and fellow stalker E.J., over at The Movieland Directory, had written down a bunch of addresses where Mad Men filming had taken place over the years off of the On Location Vacations website. Using those addresses, it wasn’t long before Karin and I had located the right house. 🙂 Thank you, E.J.!! So, while out doing some stalking with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, last Friday, I dropped by the Draper residence to snap some pics. 🙂

On Mad Men, the Draper family supposedly lives in the town of Ossining in Westchester County, New York. In reality, though, their home is located in the suburbs of Pasadena, just a stone’s throw away from the Father of the Bride house. It’s such a small movie world, isn’t it? 😉

I had a heck of a time making screen captures of the Draper home as it seems that, for some reason, the exterior of the house is rarely shown on the series. I guess the producers of Mad Men aren’t big on doing establishing shots! LOL You can see a paparazzi pic of Jon Hamm and January Jones filming at the house a few weeks ago here.

I am happy to report that Don Draper’s house looks exactly the same in person as it does on TV. Except, of course, for the color of the front door. On the series, the Draper’s front door is painted red, while the door of the real life home is blue.

If you look at the house on Google Maps Street View, the front door is also red, which leads me to believe that the Google photographs must have been taken while Mad Men filming was going on. So cool!

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Before Karin’s challenge, I had never watched even a single episode of Mad Men. My fiance has been a longtime fan of the series, though, so, last night I popped in the pilot episode from his Season One DVD’s for a quick peruse. It’s actually a very entertaining show about a wealthy group of Manhattanites living in the 60s, when everyone smoked everywhere, having a cocktail at the office was commonplace, and all husbands cheated on their wives. Doesn’t sound like a very reputable show, but it definitely makes for some interesting storylines. 🙂 A bit of a disclaimer – the house that was featured in the pilot episode of Mad Men is not the same residence that is being used now. The house from the pilot episode is pictured above and as you can see looks quite different from the Pasadena residence that is used in all of the other episodes.

UPDATE:

Just got an email from fellow stalker Kevin who happened upon some Mad Men filming at the Draper residence just a few weeks ago. Kevin was nice enough to send me some photos he managed to snap of the many antique cars parked on the road, some of the filming equipment, and best of all, the Draper house all dressed up with its red front door. Big THANK YOU to Kevin!!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Don Draper’s house from Mad Men is located at 675 Arden Road in Pasadena.