Entertainment – IAMNOTASTALKER

February 12, 2014February 11, 2014

The Colorado Street Bridge from “The Bachelor”

When Juan Pablo Galavis and Chelsie Webster went bungee jumping off of Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge in the recently-aired Season 18 episode of The Bachelor titled “Soccer Date,” I found myself wondering, “How did I miss the filming?” Although it has been over a year now, I still have to remind myself that the Crown City is no longer home. (The Grim Cheaper is convinced that all the blonde hair dye I use has finally started to affect my brain. Winking smile ) I happened to drive under the famed bridge while visiting Pasadena last week and got to thinking that it would make for a good Valentine’s-themed post (even though, per Reality Steve, Juan Pablo and Chelsie do not wind up together), so I pulled over to snap some pics. (The GC also “loaned” me a bunch of photos he took of the structure years ago.)

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The Colorado Street Bridge was designed by the Kansas City, Missouri-based engineering firm Waddell & Harrington. Construction on the 1,467.5-foot-long, two-lane structure was completed in 1913. The bridge, which towers 148.5-feet above the Arroyo Seco, is an architectural marvel boasting 11 Beaux Arts arches, ornamental clustered light posts and an iron balustrade. Shockingly, the magnificent, curving span was almost demolished in 1953 following the completion of the adjacent Pioneer Bridge, which connects the 134 and 210 freeways. The site was saved thanks to a letter-writing campaign and is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Due to structural deterioration, the Colorado Street Bridge was closed to traffic in 1989 and a $27-million restoration project subsequently begun. The site was re-opened on December 13th, 1993 – the 90-year anniversary of its original completion.

The span is often referred to as the “Suicide Bridge” because more than 100 people have jumped to their deaths from it over the years, most during the 1930s in the midst of the Great Depression. While a wrought-iron suicide-prevention fence was installed at the time of the 1989 renovation, it has not halted the most determined troubled souls – thirteen people have jumped from the bridge since 2006 alone.

In the “Soccer Date” episode of The Bachelor, Juan Pablo first takes Chelsie to sample Venezuelan delicacies at Amara Chocolate & Coffee (located at 55 South Raymond Avenue in Old Town).

The two then head over to the Colorado Street Bridge where, after a considerable amount of hemming and hawing on Chelsie’s part, they embark on a tandem bungee jump.

The Bachelor is hardly the first production to make use of the picturesque site. The bridge has appeared in countless productions over the years – far too many for me to ever chronicle here. But I’ve compiled a few of the highlights. Way back in 1921, Charlie Chaplin featured the structure in his movie The Kid (which starred Jackie Coogan, grandfather of Keith Coogan, my girl Pinky Lovejoy’s husband.)

The Colorado Street Bridge showed up very briefly at the beginning of the 2005 romantic comedy Rumor Has It, in the scene in which Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) and Jeff Daly (Mark Ruffalo) first arrived in Pasadena.

The bridge was where Carl (Jim Carrey) bungee jumped – and took a phone call – in 2008’s Yes Man.

Jim Carrey actually performed the stunt himself for the scene. You can watch a behind-the-scenes video of it being shot by clicking below.

In the Season 4 episode of The Closer titled “Fate Line,” which aired in 2009 (and which I got to watch being filmed – you can read my set report here), horror film producer Sean Thompson died in a car accident underneath the Colorado Street Bridge.

In the Season 2 episode of The Mentalist titled “The Scarlet Letter,” which also aired in 2009 (and which I also watched being filmed – you can read that set report here), the Colorado Street Bridge masqueraded as the Sacramento-area bridge where the body of Kristin Marley (Kristine Blackport) was found.

The structure was where two sisters killed themselves in another 2009 production – the Season 1 episode of Lie to Me (a series I absolutely loved) titled “Depraved Heart.”

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: The Colorado Street Bridge, where Juan Pablo and Chelsie bungee jumped on The Bachelor, is located on West Colorado Boulevard, in between South Orange Grove Boulevard and North San Rafael Avenue, adjacent to the 134 Freeway, in Pasadena.

February 11, 2014February 11, 2014

Reed’s House from “Valentine’s Day”

Many moons ago (July 2012 to be exact), Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I ventured out to Venice for a day of stalking. Most of our time was spent at the Venice Canals (the history of which you can read here), one of my favorite spots in all of Los Angeles. As I mentioned in my previous posts about the area, while there, Mike continuously pointed out filming locations as we walked by (the site is chock full of them!). One locale he identified that I was particularly interested in was the residence where Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) lived in the 2010 romantic comedy Valentine’s Day. So, since the holiday of love is fastly approaching, I figured what better time than now to finally blog about the place.

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Reed’s clapboard residence, which sits overlooking the Grand Canal, is absolutely idyllic, as you can see below. From what I’ve been able to discern from Zillow, the 0.06-acre plot of land where the home now stands was purchased in November 1975 for $10,000. Construction on the dwelling was completed in 1978 and it has not changed hands since – understandably! If I owned that place, I’d never sell it either!

The property looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen in Valentine’s Day – minus the wetsuits that were seen hanging from the balcony in the movie.

In real life, the two-story dwelling boasts three bedrooms, three baths, and 2,216 square feet of living space.

Because it was seen only briefly, I believe that the home’s actual interior was also used in the filming, but, unfortunately, I could not find any photographs of the inside of the place to verify that hunch.

The bridge that appeared throughout the film is located directly in front of Reed’s house and crosses over Grand Canal.

Because of what takes place there at the end of Valentine’s Day (I won’t spoil it for those of you who have yet to see the movie), I was actually more excited to pose for a picture on the bridge than I was in front of Reed’s house.

Thanks to the Simon and Simon website, I learned that Reed’s residence was also used as the home where A.J. Simon (Jameson Parker) lived on Simon & Simon. At the time that the series was filmed in the 1980s, the property looked quite a bit different than it does today and the lot next door to it was also vacant. (The yellow house seen in the photographs above was not built until 1988.)

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for showing me this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Reed’s house from Valentine’s Day is located at 2604 Grand Canal in Venice.

January 9, 2014January 9, 2014

The “License to Drive” Hospital

A couple of weeks ago, the Grim Cheaper and I headed to L.A. for a brief visit and just happened to book a hotel on the west side of town for our stay. The location turned out to be quite fortuitous, too, as it allowed me to stalk a few nearby spots that had been on my To-Stalk list for ages – one of which was Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, the Westwood synagogue that masqueraded as the hospital where Mrs. Anderson (Carol Kane) gave birth in 1988’s License to Drive, one of my all-time favorite movies.

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The Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, which was modeled after the prayer houses in Old Spain, was dedicated on September 5th, 1981. Sephardic Jews originally hailed from Spain (Sepharad means “Spain” in Hebrew), but were expelled from the country in 1492. Many wound up in America, by way of Turkey, but kept their Spanish roots. In 1987, Spain’s King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia attended services at the Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, or The Sephardic Temple as it is also known. Of the event, Spain’s then consul general in Los Angeles Pedro Tamboury said, “As we are now approaching the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, we are also going to commemorate this historic event because we want to make what we call the reencuentro with the Jews from Spain, who were expelled in 1492 but left behind a tremendous heritage of culture and traditions.”

Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel only showed up once in License to Drive, towards the end of the movie, in the scene in which non-licensed driver Les Anderson (Corey Haim) drove (backwards, I might add) his pregnant mom, Mrs. Anderson – as well as his father, Mr. Anderson (Richard Masur), and brother, Rudy (Christopher Burton) – to Elmdale Memorial Hospital after she went into labor. I found this locale thanks to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who has an entire page dedicated to License to Drive on his site.

While fake “Elmdale Memorial Hospital” signage was added for the shoot and the exterior hand railings have since been changed, the structure is still very recognizable from its onscreen appearance 26 years ago. (How in the heck has it been 26 years since License to Drive premiered?!?!)

The area used for the scene was not actually the front of the synagogue, but its north side entrance on Warner Avenue.

According to License to Drive’s DVD commentary with director Greg Beeman and writer Neil Tolkin, the original ending of the movie was to have taken place at the hospital. As it was originally shot, the final scene showed Grandpa Anderson’s (Parley Baer) beloved Cadillac being crushed by a large construction beam . . .

. . . and then a freeze frame of Les and Mr. Anderson’s shocked faces. Test audiences found it too much of a downer, though, so some additional footage was shot and tacked onto the original ending.

And thank God it was, because the new ending – in which Mercedes Lane (Heather Graham) pulls up to Les’ house, causing him to utter his famous line, “I don’t need the BMW anymore – I already have a Mercedes.” (Cue Billy Ocean’s hit song “Get Outta my Dreams, Get Into My Car.”) – was not only my favorite part of the entire movie, but it quite considerably affected my life. I was only 11 years old at the time and a far cry from getting my driver’s license, but when I laid eyes on Mercedes white Volkswagen Cabriolet convertible, I was a goner. I knew there was no other car I wanted when I turned 16. And on my 16th birthday, my parents surprised me with one. I’ve actually owned three over the years (two Cabriolets and one Cabrio) and if VW currently made them, I would probably still be driving one to this day. Best. Car. Ever.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel, aka Elmdale Memorial Hospital from License to Drive, is located at 10500 Wilshire Blvd in Westwood. The northern side of the synagogue, on Warner Avenue, was the area that appeared in the movie. You can visit the temple’s official website here.

January 6, 2014January 7, 2014

The Possible Interior of O’Hara’s Pub from “Bad Santa”

As I mentioned in last Tuesday’s post, thanks to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, I am fairly certain that I have managed to find the bar that was used as the interior of O’Hara’s Pub in the 2003 comedy Bad Santa. When Owen heard about my quest to track down the location a couple of weeks ago, he contacted a few of the movie’s crew members in the hopes that they could provide some assistance. One did, informing him that the interior was a bar on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica “near the beach.” Once I heard that, my thoughts immediately went to Scarboni New York Lobster & Steak House – a now defunct restaurant formerly located at 312 Wilshire that I had visited for a brief moment a few years prior. Sadly, the place has since been completely remodeled, which is why I cannot be certain that it was the spot used in Bad Santa. I still ran right out to stalk it, though, while the GC and I were in L.A. two weekends ago.

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The structure that once housed Scarboni was designed by legendary architect Paul Revere Williams in 1928. The two-story, Spanish Colonial Revival-style edifice, which features Plateresque detailing and is known as the Edwin Building, was constructed by the H.W. Baum Company at a cost of $100,000. At the time of its inception, it housed three lower-level retail storefronts (which have since been combined into one large space) and eleven upstairs offices. In 2008, the Edwin Building was declared a Santa Monica Historic Landmark, protecting the exterior from any future alteration. The interior, though, boasts no such protection, unfortunately.

In the ’80s, the first floor of the Baldwin Building was occupied by a restaurant named the Darwin. It closed in 1988 and was subsequently taken over in 1992 by new owners, who established Italian eatery Pentola Taverna at the site. (While The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations states that the building’s lower level housed a restaurant named Vesuvio’s Ristorante in the early ’90s, I believe that information is incorrect. I am fairly certain that from 1988 through 1992 the space remained vacant.) Little of the interior was changed upon Pentola’s opening because, as Taverna owner Blaine Ivy stated of the Darwin, “They cut down half the rain forest for the wood in that place, so that will remain largely intact. We just want to lighten it up.” LOL A March 1993 Los Angeles Times article described Taverna as such: Part trendy pasta joint and part classic chop house, Pentola looks like a remake of the wood-paneled restaurants of the ’40s–a ’90s version of Musso and Frank or Chicago’s bustling Berghoff. According to that same article, the property boasted two bars – “the main one seemingly a mile long, the other tucked into a corner of the restaurant. Both are ornate, old-fashioned and crammed on a Saturday night.” It is the main, seemingly-mile-long bar that I believe was featured in Bad Santa. You can see a photograph of Pentola’s interior here. Sadly, the main bar is not shown in the image, though – nor anywhere else online, maddeningly enough. It is due to that fact that I cannot say for certain that the property was where Bad Santa was filmed.

Sometime in 2006, after Pentola Taverna closed its doors, Scarboni New York Steak & Lobster House opened in its place. The new tenants remodeled the site a bit and Chowhound commenter robertholtz had this to say, “The booths are a little tight and the decor has yet to be broken in. This style needs the grit of time to earn its charm; right now it sometimes feels like you’re on a movie set instead of a real location. Ironic, considering that was how Pentola was often used.” Love it! You can see some photographs of the old Scarboni interior here. Once again, the main bar is, unfortunately, not shown. The Grim Cheaper and I actually ventured into Scarboni back in 2006 to grab a drink, but he took one look at the prices and nixed the idea. Sadly, because of the way the restaurant was set up, I only caught a glimpse of the smaller bar – not the bar that I believe was used in Bad Santa.

Scarboni was shuttered after a scant 11 months and when new tenants took over, they gutted the interior to make room for a restaurant named Riva. Along with the complete dismantling, the space was also made smaller in order to add a second, rear dining room. Riva didn’t last long, either, though (I swear, the space is cursed), and shortly after its closing, the Riva owners opened a place named Fraiche at the site. Fraiche subsequently closed in December 2012 and the site has remained vacant ever since. The current state of the interior is pictured below. As you can see, it is a sad shadow of its former self. You can check out some photographs of Fraiche’s interior from the time that it was still in operation here.

In Bad Santa, I believe that Pentola Taverna was the bar where Willie (Billy Bob Thornton) lamented over his hatred for Christmas. And I should mention here that I was not a fan of Bad Santa – not even remotely. I was a fan of that gorgeous wood-paneled bar, though, and so badly wanted to see it in person. I cannot express how heartbroken I am that it is now gone. Why on earth would someone gut such a gorgeous interior? Who purchases something like that and thinks, yeah, let’s get rid of it and start fresh?

As luck would have it, the GC and I randomly decided to watch the 2000 flick Coyote Ugly a couple of nights before Christmas and I just about fell over when I spotted what I am fairly certain was the Bad Santa bar in the scene in which Lil (Maria Bello) tried to offer Violet (Piper Perabo) her old job back. The white tile flooring and slatted wooden chairs at the Coyote Ugly bar match up to those of the bar from Bad Santa.

As do the cabinets and drawers behind the bar;

as well as the antique cash register, wooden beams flanking it, and mirrored shelving.

At the time that we watched Coyote Ugly, I was not at all certain that Pentola Taverna was the spot used in Bad Santa, so I was floored when I spotted a backwards view of a restaurant name in the window of the Coyote Ugly bar. Using Picasa, I flipped one of the screen captures I had made and, sure enough, the loopily-written “P” visible in the window was a perfect match to the “P” in Pentola Taverna’s former logo. Woot woot! (I got the below photograph of the Taverna exterior from the Edwin Building’s City Landmark Assessment Report.)

Thanks to a commenter named Stewart on the Santa Monica Mirror website, I learned that the Pentola Taverna space (while it was vacant, I’m assuming) was where Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) told Capt. Jack Ross (Kevin Bacon) that he had managed to find Lt. Col. Matthew Andrew Markinson (J.T. Walsh) in the 1992 flick A Few Good Men (one of my all-time favorites). The main bar is visible in the scene, but too little of it is shown to be able to say with complete certainty that it is the same bar from Bad Santa.

Pentola Taverna was also featured in the opening scene of 1995’s Get Shorty, in which Ray ‘Bones’ Barboni (Dennis Farina) stole Chili Palmer’s (John Travolta) $379 black leather jacket. The western portion of the restaurant, where the smaller bar was located, was the main area used in the scene.

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At one point, Chili does wander over to the eatery’s eastern side and a limited view of the main bar is shown. Unfortunately, yet again, not enough of it is visible to be able to determine with 100% certainty that it was the same spot that appeared in Bad Santa. If anyone out there ever visited the Darwin, Pentola Taverna or Scarboni and can give me a definite answer either way, please let me know.

The Art Deco-style buildings across the street from the Pentola Taverna space were also shown in the scene.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The interior of the Bad Santa bar was most likely the now defunct Pentola Taverna, which was formerly located at 312 Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica. The space is currently vacant, but most recently housed a restaurant named Fraiche.

January 3, 2014January 2, 2014

Abbot’s Habit from “The Truth About Cats & Dog”

Last Saturday, after stalking the Venice exterior of O’Hara’s Pub from Bad Santa (which I blogged about here), the Grim Cheaper and I decided to walk around Abbot Kinney Boulevard for a bit. At one point during our stroll, we passed by a corner coffee shop named Abbot’s Habit and I recognized it immediately as a location from the 1996 romantic comedy The Truth About Cats & Dogs. So I dragged the GC right on over to do some stalking of it. And that right there is what I love about L.A. – you never know what adventure is waiting around the corner. It turned out to be quite a fortuitous stalk, too, because it led to me meeting my very favorite blogger and style icon, Emily Schuman from Cupcakes and Cashmere. But more on that later.

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Abbot’s Habit, which was founded in 1991, is actually Abbot Kinney Boulevard’s oldest coffee shop. Aside from that small tidbit, though, I could find no information whatsoever about the eatery’s history online.

I already had a Starbucks in hand (duh!) at the time that we stalked Abbot’s Habit, but the GC did not, so I encouraged him to try some of the place’s java. He didn’t end up to be a fan, but he did really enjoy their “bacon, egg & cheese” breakfast sandwich.

While the GC was eating his sandwich, I happened to check Instagram and almost had a heart attack when I saw that Emily Schuman had just posted a photograph of herself dining at Gjelina. I had heard of Gjelina before via Emily’s site and from my mom’s hairstylist in Palm Springs who had told me a few months prior that the place was his favorite restaurant in all of L.A. And while I knew that the establishment was located on Abbot Kinney Boulevard, I was unsure of exactly where. So imagine my elation when I saw that it was about three doors down from Abbot’s Habit! I mean what are the odds? Barely containing my excitement, I grabbed the GC and marched right on over there to ask Emily for a picture. And I am thrilled to report that she could NOT have been nicer, even though I was interrupting her during a meal. She didn’t even seem at all put off by the fact that I had totally Instagram-stalked her. Emily is an absolute doll and meeting her was one of the highlights of 2013 for me – particularly when she told me she “loved” my “ensemble.” The GC had been making fun of my outfit all day (especially the boots), so to hear my style guru compliment it was major validation.

In The Truth About Cats & Dogs, Abbot’s Habit is where Noelle (Uma Thurman) and Abby (Janeane Garofalo) grab coffee shortly after becoming friends. While there, a fellow patron very humorously tries to protect Noelle from a bee that has flown into the café.

That scene took place in front of the window in Abbot’s Habit’s main room.

The café was also the site of Becca Moody’s (Madeleine Martin) poetry reading in the Season 6 episode of Californication titled “Hell Bent for Leather.” Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of Abbot’s Habit were shown in the episode.

Becca’s poetry reading took place towards the back of the café’s rear room.

And while the Venice California History Site states that Abbot’s Habit was featured in the 1997 comedy Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, I scanned through the flick yesterday and did not see it pop up anywhere.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Abbot’s Habit, from The Truth About Cats & Dogs, is located at 1401 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

December 31, 2013December 30, 2013

O’Hara’s Pub from “Bad Santa”

I realize that Christmas has passed, but I have one more holiday locale to write about before bidding adieu to the Yuletide season. Two Fridays ago, after reading my post on Footsies bar from Bad Santa, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, miraculously managed to track down the exterior of O’Hara’s Pub from the 2003 comedy. Being that I had been trying to find that darn bar for what seemed like eons, I could NOT have been more excited to learn the news. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it while the two of us were in Los Angeles this past weekend. (And yes, I do realize that my outfit in the above photograph is slightly ridiculous, being that the weather was a sunny 75 degrees at the time. I had been dying for a pair of red Hunter rain boots for ages, though, and finally received them from the GC this Christmas. I don’t care that I live in the desert where it never rains, I am in love with the boots and am determined to wear them as often as possible – rain or shine. So Smile with tongue out !)

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During his search for the Bad Santa bar, Owen managed to contact a couple of the flick’s crew members, one of whom told him, “The exterior front was a built and dressed empty storefront in Venice.” With that information in hand, Owen did a Google image search for “Venice California store,” as he said, “hoping that by some minor miracle I’d recognize a building.” Thankfully, fate took hold. He went on to say, “Well, a minor miracle occurred. In the fifth row of images, I saw this picture. It was brick and had that white brick trim, so I opened the page and learned it was an antique store on Abbot Kinney. I figured perhaps the building you were after, because it shared similar elements, would be nearby. I went to Google Maps, put in ‘Abbot Kinney Blvd., Los Angeles’ and — GET THIS! — I grabbed the little yellow/orange ‘street view’ man and the very first place I dropped him on Abbot Kinney was literally right in front of the bar. And the camera was even facing the right way. Talk about luck! It must be a Christmas miracle.” Not only was it a Christmas miracle, but it was one of the best gifts I received this year! Thank you, Owen!

As the crew member had mentioned, the storefront was dressed heavily for the shoot, with an “O’Hara’s Pub” neon sign added to the exterior and a fake green façade constructed over the space’s windows and doors. Even with the changes, though, the place is still very recognizable.

I accidentally took my photos from a slightly wrong angle, so the street light in front of the bar exterior appears to be a bit farther east than it did in Bad Santa. If you take a look at Google Street View, though, you can see a correctly-angled view of the space.

Today, the O’Hara’s Pub storefront houses a clothing boutique named Heist. As the crew member told Owen, the space was vacant at the time that Bad Santa was filmed in 2003.

As I mentioned in my Footsies bar post, I am also dying to locate the interior of O’Hara’s Pub. I may have found it, too, but I need to do some more research to be sure, so stay tuned!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Heist boutique, aka the exterior of O’Hara’s Pub from Bad Santa, is located at 1100 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice.

December 24, 2013December 23, 2013

Alvarado Street School from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

For my final holiday post of 2013, I thought I would blog about a locale from my favorite television series of all time, Beverly Hills, 90210. Last September, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Culver City to stalk Playa del Rey Elementary School, which masqueraded as Alvarado Street School, where Brenda Walsh (my girl Shannen Doherty), Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth), Dylan McKay (Luke Perry), and the rest of the West Beverly gang handed out gifts to needy children in the Season 3 Yuletide-themed episode “It’s a Totally Happening Life.” Because I do not own the series’ third season on DVD, though, and because the episodes are maddeningly not available to stream on iTunes, Netflix or Amazon, I was not able to blog about the site last Christmas. So this year, I enlisted my good friend Mike, from MovieShotsLA, to provide me with a recap and screen captures so that I could finally do so. Thank you, Mike!

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In real life, Playa del Rey Elementary School, which is known as the “Jewel of the Westside,” is an SAS (School for Advanced Studies) establishment for gifted and high-achieving students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Besides traditional courses, such subjects as theatre arts, dance and choral music are also offered.

Playa del Rey Elementary School was featured prominently in “It’s a Totally Happening Life,” in which, in an homage to the 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life, two guardian angels, Clarence and Miriam, watch over the 90210 gang. And, in what turns out to be a Christmas miracle, the angels even manage to save the group from a fatal bus accident at the end of the show.

In the episode, Brenda and Kelly give Dylan an ultimatum, telling him that he must choose between the two of them by New Year’s Day. (He makes the wrong choice, incidentally, and the show never recovered, at least in my never-to-be humble opinion. I’ve shared my thoughts about the Dylan-Kelly-Brenda love triangle ad nauseam over the years, though, so I will spare y’all from digressing further. Winking smile )

While the school still does look very similar to how it appeared when filming took place back in 1992 (has it seriously been 21 years?!?), sadly the area that was featured in the episode is now covered over with blue-paneled fencing and is no longer visible from the street. Ironically enough, that is the only portion of the school’s fencing that is covered in such a manner. The paneling must have been installed to ward off the many stalkers who drop by. Winking smile

You can see areas of the school that were not featured on Beverly Hills, 90210, but are visible from the street in the photographs below.

Sadly, the gate that the gang walked through in “It’s a Totally Happening Life” has also since been removed. It was formerly located at the front of Playa del Rey Elementary, just east of the main entrance, in the area where Santa is standing in the photograph below. Oh, how I wanted to pose for a photograph next to that gate! Sad smile

I will be taking the rest of the week (and possibly next Monday) off from blogging in order to celebrate Christmas with my family and for a quick trip to L.A. I hope all of my fellow stalkers have a fabulous holiday!

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for making the screen captures that appear in this post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Playa del Rey Elementary School, aka Alvarado Street School from the “It’s a Totally Happening Life” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 12221 Juniette Street in Culver City. The southeast corner of the school, near the intersection of Juniette and Randall Streets, was the area that appeared in the episode.

December 23, 2013December 22, 2013

Downey Studios from “Christmas with the Kranks”

Back in early 2011, while doing some research on filming locations from Christmas with the Kranks, I just about fell off my chair when I discovered – thanks to Google Street View – that the backlot residential street at Downey Studios, which served as the main neighborhood in the 2004 comedy, was visible from the road. And while I ran right out to stalk it shortly thereafter, for whatever reason, when the holidays rolled around that year and the following year, I somehow forgot to blog about the place. Sadly, the entire studio was leveled in late 2012, so while this post is now somewhat obsolete, I figured the site was still blog-worthy. There’s no time like the present, right?

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Before it became home to Downey Studios, the 160-acre site located on the corner of North Lakewood Boulevard and Imperial Highway was home to an aircraft manufacturing facility that produced Apollo modules and space shuttle fleets for NASA for almost 40 years. When Boeing shut the plant down in 1999, the property was purchased by the city of Downey. An 80-acre portion of it was subsequently turned into Downey Studios, one of the largest production facilities in the United States, complete with two soundstages, the biggest indoor water tank in North America, a lake the size of a football field and over 360,000 square feet of production space.

In late 2003, Christmas and the Kranks director Joe Roth and production designer Garreth Stover started scouting neighborhoods for their upcoming Chicago-set holiday-themed movie. They didn’t have much luck, though, so they did what any Hollywood executives with deep pockets would do – they built their own, in an empty portion of Downey Studios. The Coming Soon website states, “Stover actually scouted 15 neighborhoods in the Chicago area and decided on Winnetka. The problem was that shooting for 10-12 weeks in the spring, they’d have to kick families out of their homes for the Easter/Passover holiday season. They would have to defoliate all the trees to make them look like winter. The sight lines wouldn’t match. In the plot, certain neighbors would have to witness certain events, and the actual layout of the Winnetka street made that impossible. But most importantly, they could never control the snow they would have to for the film’s snowstorm climax. So, Stover built a model and pitched director Joe Roth the idea of building Hemlock Street in Los Angeles.” $5 million and 12 weeks later, Downey Studios’ residential street was born. You can read a fabulous Variety article about the construction here.

The street consisted of 16 houses, four of which were practical (meaning that the interiors could also be used for filming), and 11 facades.

When Christmas with the Kranks wrapped, the street was left intact for future productions to utilize, with Joe Roth receiving a portion of the rental revenue. Sadly though, due to runaway production and numerous health complaints, Downey Studios began to lose money and was eventually closed and then razed in 2012. A 77-acre shopping center named Tierra Luna Marketplace is currently being constructed on the vacant land.

You can see an aerial view of Downey Studios’ residential street via Google Maps below. When it was still standing, Congressman Steve Horn Way and Bellflower Boulevard provided a fabulous view of the place. It is absolutely heartbreaking to me that it is no longer there.

The street was (obviously) used extensively in Christmas with the Kranks.

Especially the two-story clapboard and stone residence where the Krank family – Luther (Tim Allen), Nora (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Blair (Julie Gonzalo) – lived.

The Krank house was one of the street’s practical sets in which interior filming took place.

The very same residence was used four years later as Angie Anderson’s (Amber Heard) home in Pineapple Express (bottom screen shot below). A porch was added to the exterior of the dwelling for the filming, but as you can see below, the bay window, stone work and windows that flank the front door match the Krank abode (top screen capture below).

The Krank’s kitchen (top) also matches Angie’s kitchen in Pineapple Express (bottom);

as does the Krank’s study (top) and Angie’s dining room (bottom);

and the Krank’s entryway (top) and Angie’s entryway (bottom).

In 2005, one of the Downey Studios residential street homes was used as the Lawrence, Kansas-area childhood home of Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles) in the pilot episode of Supernatural.

The street also popped up at the very end of the Jonas Brothers music video for their 2009 song “Paranoid.”

You can watch that video by clicking below.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The now defunct Downey Studios, from Christmas with the Kranks, was formerly located at 12214 Lakewood Boulevard in Downey.

December 19, 2013December 18, 2013

The “Four Christmases” Bar

Last December, while doing research on the Venice residence that was used as the interior of the house belonging to Kate (Reese Witherspoon) and Brad (Vince Vaughn) in Four Christmases (which I blogged about here), I came across this Venice Paper article that stated that the 2008 comedy had also done some filming at a neighboring property located at 1319 Abbot Kinney Boulevard. When I Googled the address, I learned that it was the location of a spiritual gift shop/bookstore named Mystic Journey (which has since moved). Being that Four Christmases did not have a scene that took place at any sort of a store, I could not for the life of me figure out what the space had been used for in the flick. It was not until I came across these interior photographs of the building’s second floor that I figured out a fake bar had been built there for the shoot. I later confirmed my theory with the movie’s incredibly nice production designer, Shepherd Frankel, and then ran right out to stalk the place in early February.

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The 6,057-square-foot, three-story ultra-modern building was originally constructed in 2007 and was set up to accommodate two different retail/office spaces. The ground floor consists of a 2,000-square-foot storefront that has been vacant ever since Mystic Journey moved out this past April. (According to the Yo Venice website, It will soon be home to an IRO clothing store outpost.) You can see photographs of that bottom level here.

The top two floors are comprised of a 4,057-square-foot open live-work space with a full kitchen, hardwood flooring, two patios, and plenty of windows.

As you can see in the interior photographs below (which I got from the building’s former real estate listing), the place is absolutely incredible! Throw in a huge walk-in closet and it’s pretty much my ideal living space.

At the time of the filming of Four Christmases in December 2007, the building’s first floor and roof were being temporarily utilized for a Smart Car promotional event called the “Smart House.” Shepherd and his team took over the property’s second and third levels, which were vacant, and transformed them into a supposed San Francisco-area bar/art gallery.

The bar was only featured once in Four Christmases – in the opening scene, in which Kate and Brad pretended to be strangers named “Kent” and “Daphne.”

As you can see below, the place was dressed heavily for the filming and is virtually unrecognizable from the real estate listing photographs.

The third floor railing, thankfully, remains the same, though, and is what eventually tipped me off as to what the building had been used for in the movie.

The bathroom where Brad and Kate, ahem, rendezvoused in the scene was a set that Shepherd constructed inside of the building.

Although the exterior of the bar/gallery is never visible in Four Christmases, Kate and Brad are shown leaving the establishment and hopping onto a cable car. That portion of the scene was actually filmed in San Francisco (one of the few scenes that was), just outside of Café Grecco, which is located at 423 Columbus Avenue.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The fake Four Christmases bar/art gallery was created on the second and third floors of the building located at 1319 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. The spot where Kate and Brad caught a cable car outside of the bar can be found about 400 miles away at 423 Columbus Avenue in the North Beach area of San Francisco.

December 18, 2013December 17, 2013

The “Four Christmases” Church

Due to the fact that Christmas movies filmed in the L.A. area are few and far between, I typically only compile about five holiday-themed locales to blog about each year. (If I could swing an entire month of Christmas posts, believe me, I would.) This year was no different and because there are only five blogging days left until Christmas, you know what that means – my Yuletide posts start today! Yay! So here goes. Last January, while on the hunt for locations from Four Christmases, I managed to track down New Life Community Church, the Hawthorne parish that masqueraded as the United Church of Faith and Worship, Piedmont Branch, in the 2008 comedy. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on over to stalk it a couple of weeks ago, after first stopping by Marilyn Monroe’s childhood home (which I blogged about here).

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While most of the interior spaces that appeared in Four Christmases were studio-built sets, I knew from the movie’s production notes that an actual religious institution in Hawthorne was used for the filming of the church scene. Because only the inside of it was shown, though, I had a tough time tracking it down. That is, until I came across production designer Shepherd Frankel’s FABULOUS website last year, on which were posted exterior photographs of the ultra-modern-looking parish where filming took place. From there I just did a Google search for modern places of worship in Hawthorne and was fairly quickly led to images of New Life Community Church.

New Life Community Church pops up towards the middle of Four Christmases (in the second Christmas vignette), in the scene in which Marilyn (Mary Steenburgen) takes her daughter Kate (Reese Witherspoon) and Kate’s boyfriend, Brad (Vince Vaughn), to a bit of an unconventional mass to meet her new boyfriend, Pastor Phil (Dwight Yoakam). While there – and despite Kate’s massive stage fright – Kate and Brad get roped into portraying Mary and Joseph in a reenactment of the Nativity of Jesus. According to the production notes, the church’s hi-tech style was not the original design concept. Director Seth Gordon states, “Pastor Phil was originally meant to play guitar and deliver a brief sermon, but Dwight brought such stature and swagger to it, with his arms raised and a booming voice that played to the furthest pews.” From there, the design scheme of the church was changed to include a large stage, huge video screen backdrops, colored lights, smoke, and blasting music. Frankel says, “The church was an environment that morphed considerably from its earliest conception. Pastor Phil’s sermon was originally written as something with a dilapidated smoke machine on a bare stage, but once Dwight got involved, it turned into a real rock n’ roll event with projection screens and lighting cues and neon illuminating the nativity. We did keep the smoke, though, and made it a key visual element to the set.”

Sadly, New Life Community Church was not open when we showed up to stalk it, so I was not able to get any interior photographs of the place. But you can see some on the church’s official Facebook page here.

Despite the fact that the church’s architecture is unusual to say the least, I could not find any information whatsoever about its construction or history online. The only thing I was able to discern – thanks to the Historic Aerials website – was that the structure was built sometime after 2005.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: New Life Community Church, from Four Christmases, is located at 5009 West 119th Street in Hawthorne. You can visit the church’s official website here.