ARIA Resort & Casino “The Bachelor”

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Each season, The Bachelor reality series whisks its stars and contestants to various exotic, high-end locales.  During Brad Womack’s second stint as The Bachelor, he and the ladies (including my girl Emily Maynard) headed to the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.  Prior to last month, I had not been to Sin City in over a decade (that’s like a lifetime in Vegas years!), long before the ARIA had been built, and I was absolutely itching to stalk the place.  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over there to grab cocktails our second night in town.

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ARIA Resort & Casino, which is comprised of two curvilinear glass towers, is situated in the middle of CityCenter, a 67-acre, 6-building complex consisting of 3 condominium towers, 3 hotels with a total of 4,800 rooms, and an upscale mall named The Shops at Crystals.

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ARIA Resort & Casino (2 of 29)

ARIA was designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and opened to the public in December 2009.  According to a USA Today article from that year, the site’s unusual name was derived from the fact that the hotel is the focal point of the CityCenter complex and arias are the focal points of operas.

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ARIA Resort & Casino (9 of 29)

The AAA Five Diamond-rated hotel stands at 600 feet tall, measures 4,000,000 square feet, and is nothing short of stunning!  The property features 4,004 rooms and suites, 16 restaurants, 15 bars and nightclubs, 5 pools, 3 hot tubs, an 80,000-square-foot spa, a convention center, a theater, and, of course, a casino.

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ARIA’s three-story lobby boasts incredible textures.  I realize that is kind of an odd way to describe the design of a hotel, but every corner of the place seems to sport a uniquely tactile feature.  From a hanging glass ball curtain . . .

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. . . to a wall of thick, reclaimed wood planks . . .

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. . . to a massive chandelier made of what appeared to be paper-thin shells – every décor piece had its own unique look and feel and, when put together, the result was fabulous.

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I was especially enamored of the 84-foot silver sculpture situated behind the registration desk.  Named Silver River, the piece, which was designed by Maya Lin, who also designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., was inspired by the layout of the Colorado River.

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And don’t even get me started on The Shops at Crystals!  It is easily the most architecturally unique mall I have ever set foot in.

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I mean, check out that ceiling!

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The Crystals’ Starbucks was pretty darn amazing, as well.

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ARIA Resort & Casino (29 of 29)

During a Season 15 episode of The Bachelor, Brad Womack and the ladies ventured to Las Vegas for a series of dates.  The ARIA was used extensively throughout the episode.

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While there, the women stayed in one of the hotel’s massive Sky Suites.

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Many of the dates took place at ARIA, as well.

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The most memorable date, for me at least, was Shawntel Newton’s shopping spree date at The Shops at Crystals, during which she got to purchase anything and everything she wanted.  Um, DREAM DATE!

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As if that wasn’t enough, Shawntel’s date ended with a dinner and fireworks show on the roof of Crystals.

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ARIA was also featured in a Season 6 episode of The Bachelorette in which Ali Fedotowsky took Jesse Beck to Las Vegas for a one-on-one date.

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During the date, the couple spent time at ARIA’s Liquid Pool & Lounge . . .

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. . . and ate dinner in a Sky Villa.

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They also attended a private concert with singer Jamie Cullum at ARIA’s Haze Nightclub, which has since closed.

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Much of Last Vegas, one of my favorite movies of 2013, took place at ARIA.

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In the comedy, childhood buddies Billy (Michael Douglas), Paddy (Robert De Niro), Archie (Morgan Freeman) and Sam (Kevin Kline) gather at ARIA for Billy’s bachelor party.

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Though much of the hotel was featured throughout the movie, the guys’ four-bedroom Penthouse Villa was just a set.

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In the 2013 thriller Now You See Me, the Four Horsemen – J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) – were arrested at the ARIA.

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One of the hotel’s Sky Villas was used in the filming.

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And this past weekend, Sarah Jessica Parker was on hand at The Shops at Crystals for the launch of the pop-up boutique for her The SJP shoe collection (images below via The Shops at Crystals Instagram and the SJP Collection Instagram).

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: ARIA Resort & Casino, from The Bachelor, is located at 3730 South Las Vegas Boulevard in Las Vegas.  You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

An “Extra” Taping with “The Bachelorette’s” Emily Maynard!

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Late last week, Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, informed me that the current Bachelorette, the impossibly adorable Emily Maynard, would be filming a segment for Extra at The Grove in L.A. on Tuesday, May 22nd.   And while I am not usually a fan of getting celebrity pictures during Extra tapings – there are always massive amounts of people trying to do the exact same thing, security is difficult, at best, and the set-up is different everyday so one never knows the best place to stand – because this stalker absolutely LOVES LOVES LOVES herself some Emily Maynard, I had to at least try.  Which is how I found myself heading out to The Grove bright and early this past Tuesday morning, and, as it turned out, things could not have gone more perfectly!  And I would like to go on the record here and state that while I LOVE Emily as The Bachelorette, it is this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion that producers seriously dropped the ball on choosing her suitors.  There is not one guy in the bunch that I even mildly like.  (Although I did truly laugh out loud at the comment contestant John “Wolf” made about fellow contestant Kalon in Monday night’s episode in which he said, “I have a rule – if you have Louis Vuitton luggage and you’re a dude, you’re an a**hole!”)  Emily, you’ve definitely got your work cut out for you!

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I ended up arriving at The Grove at around 9 a.m., about two hours before Emily’s interview was scheduled to begin and, amazingly enough, the mall and area around the Extra stage were both completely empty.  After milling around for a bit, looking in the windows of my favorite stores, I lucked out by spotting host Maria Menounos walking towards the set, so I ran up to ask for a pic.  Maria was a complete and total sweetheart and even chatted with me a bit about her stint on Dancing with the Stars.  Love it!  Shortly thereafter, one of the Extra crew members came to the stage and announced that a prize would be given to those audience members who were willing to stick around for the entire taping, which would last about three hours.  I, of course, agreed to stay, not because I wanted the prize, but because, as you all know, I LOVE to watch filming of any kind!  The crew member then came up to me and the two women standing next to me to inquire if we would be willing to ask Emily Maynard a “fan question” during the show.  Um, yes, please!  I mean, could this day get any better? Smile (For those who read my blog regularly, you will remember that I also asked actor Colin Egglesfield a fan question during an Extra taping a couple of weeks ago, but it seems that I ended up on the cutting room floor as I never saw my question air.)

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Shortly after we were informed of the questions we were to ask during the taping (yes, the fan questions are written by producers and are not spontaneous), Emily showed up on the scene looking absolutely adorable, as you can see below!

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I was OBSESSED with her shoes, which, thanks to a quick internet search, I discovered are Pierre Hardy’s Canvas Multi-Colored Wedges.  For those of you who have an extra $695 burning a hole in your pockets, you can pick yourselves up a pair here.

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I happened to spot Emily as she was making her way to the Extra set, completely unnoticed by passersby.  Seizing the opportunity, I snuck away from the crowd and approached her to ask for a picture, knowing it would likely be my only chance.  And while security seemed extremely peeved with me and told me that photos could only be taken once filming was completed, Emily said it was OK and happily posed.  She seemed quite a bit shy and was surprised I wanted a picture with her, but was very sweet.  And yes, she is just as cute in person as she appears to be onscreen.  As it turns out, the stalking gods had definitely been smiling down upon me when I spotted her, because after her interview was over, she was mobbed by fans and my chances of getting a photograph would have been slim to none.

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Emily’s interview, which lasted about ten minutes, was very fun to watch and she was very sweet answering my fan question, which was, “Did you learn anything from your previous experience with Brad?  Is there anything you are going to avoid this time around?”  After the interview was completed, one of the Extra crew members took a photo of The Bachelorette posing with Mario Lopez, which I somehow made it into the background of (!!!) and which The Grove later posted on its Facebook page.  (Thanks to Lisa, from the Finding the Famous blog, for letting me know!)  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!  Can you tell I was excited?  Winking smile You can check out another pic from the taping that fellow stalker Sandy told me about here.

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After Emily left, Mario, Maria, and host Renee Bargh taped a few more brief segments.  The girl who was standing next to me – a super nice tourist from Texas named Danielle – really wanted a photograph with Mario, and even though it is typically extremely hard to get pictures with him during the filming of Extra, I decided to try to help her make it happen.  After getting turned down four separate times by him throughout the course of the morning, we were noticed by his security guard who, knowing that we had been standing there for over three hours and had participated in the show by asking fan questions, took pity on us, asked for our cameras and managed to snap pics of each of us posing with Mario during a break.  Yay!  As I said earlier, the stalking gods were definitely smiling down upon me on Tuesday!

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Oh, and I almost forgot to mention our prize!  All of the audience members who stayed for the duration of the filming were gifted a Philips Sonicare Airfloss Electric Flosser, which at first I thought was pretty lame – until I got home, that is, and tried it out.  The Flosser is seriously one of the coolest things I have ever owned!  The machine flosses one’s entire mouth electronically, using air and water, in about sixty seconds time.  For someone who has never been a fan of flossing, this is pretty much the best invention ever and I am now completely in love with it!  The Grim Cheaper has Siri and I have my Philips Sonicare Airfloss Electric Flosser. Winking smile All in all, it was a fabulous, FABULOUS day that I could not have enjoyed more!  Look for Emily’s interview to air on Extra next Monday, May 28th.

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Big THANK YOU to Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, for telling me about Emily’s appearance on ExtraSmile

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here.  You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here.  And you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Extra tapes daily at The Grove shopping center, which is located at 189 The Grove Drive in Los Angeles.  You can visit The Grove’s official website here and Extra’s official website here.

Attending a Taping of Extra . . .

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I spent all of yesterday morning at The Grove watching an episode of Extra being filmed that featured special guest Bachelorette Emily Maynard, whom I LOVE LOVE LOVE.  (She is so freaking cute, it is almost unbelievable!)  Then, when I finally did get home, the Grim Cheaper hooked me up with a new watermark (check it out above) and a cutting-edge photograph program, which I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to master.  As I said a couple of weeks ago, this stalker is taking things to the next level.  Smile Anyway, because of all of that I was not able to write a new post for today, but I will be back tomorrow writing about my whole Extra experience, which was FABULOUS!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!