Tag: Entertainment

The Closer Duplex

As I have mentioned before, I am a huge fan of TNT’s crime series The Closer. As is my whole family, actually. So, a few weeks ago when my mom challenged me to locate Brenda and Fritz’s duplex apartment building from the series, I accepted the challenge! 🙂 And it didn’t take me long to find it at all.

Actually, I can’t really take credit for this one. I happened to show my boyfriend a screen capture I had made of Brenda’s building to see if he might have an idea of where it was located, and, sure enough, he did! He told me that there is a certain area of Hollywood that is chock full of duplexes just like Brenda’s and that I should start my search there. And that’s exactly what I did. That area is South of Beverly Boulevard, in between La Brea and Fairfax. And sure enough, that’s exactly where I found the building! It was actually on the second street I searched. 🙂

Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson and her fiance Fritz Howard move into this duplex on the Season 4 series opener, entitled “Controlled Burn”. Brenda spends most of the episode, which guest-starred Life On Mars cutie Jason Mara, fretting about what to do with her cat, Kitty, as her new landlord has a strict “no pets” policy.   “Controlled Burn” actually featured some on location filming at the duplex, when Brenda brings home a reporter who is writing a story about the squad (pictured above).  The duplex is shown throughout the rest of Season 4 in establishing shots of Brenda and Fritz’s home.

The Closer duplex looks EXACTLY the same in person as it does on TV, right down to the wind chimes hanging from the second story balcony and the decorative plaque located above the carport. Oddly enough, though, producers changed the address number of the duplex during filming. As you can see in the above screen capture, the address number on The Closer is 130/132. The real address, though, is 126/128. Which makes absolutely no sense to me! If you’re going to change the house number for whatever reason – most likely to ward off stalkers like myself 🙂 – shouldn’t you change it more significantly than that? LOL Because, to tell you the truth, when searching for the duplex, I was only looking at buildings with 130/132 address numbers, but quickly noticed The Closer duplex located right next door to a building that was numbered 130.  LOL 🙂

The other inconsistency I noticed about the duplex is that in The Closer there is only one exterior door. You can see in the above screen capture that to enter her apartment, Brenda has to go through the main front door, which then leads into an anteroom.

But in real life, the duplex actually has a second front door located just to the right of the main entrance. Since Brenda’s unit is the one with the large plate glass window on the bottom floor, she should actually enter her home through that second exterior door, which is never shown on TV. Ah, the magic of Hollywood! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Closer duplex is located at 126/128 North Detroit Street in Hollywood.

April 20, 2009
“Smoke Gets In Your CSIs”

A few months ago while doing some cyberstalking, I came across this fabulous blog post about a photographer named Rob Greer who was lucky enough to have my fave show CSI: Miami film right in his studio. So, of course, I just had to stalk the place. 🙂 Especially since the episode which was filmed at the studio, entitled “Smoke Gets In Your CSIs”, was one of my favorite episodes from this season! In the episode, which aired in February of this year, the team investigates a physician who performs illegal organ transplant surgeries right in his own home.  The episode was pretty much a thrill a minute and I was literally on the edge of my seat the whole time – especially when Eric Delko finally professed his love to Calleigh Duquesne. I have been waiting for those two to get together for YEARS! 🙂

In “Smoke Gets In Your CSIs”, Rob Greer’s photography studio was used as the Miami home of the episode’s renegade doctor. Filming took place in both the interior and the exterior of the studio. I actually find it odd that they chose this location to stand in for a physician’s home, as neither the interior nor the exterior look much like a home at all.  The place actually looks more like a warehouse than anything else. But, due to the illegal surgeries that the physician was performing in the episode, I am guessing that the producuers wanted his home to have a cold, urban, industrial feel to it.   You can see some great photos of the photography studio here.

Rob Greer’s photography studio is located in the Los Angeles Brewery Arts Complex. The complex, which can best be described as a sort of compound or artists’ enclave, is an eclectic mix of buildings, warehouses, and offices. Apparently, the buildings house mostly live/work units and are available for lease to artists only – ie. graphic designers, painters, photographers.    The complex is located in an industrial part of town, out in the middle of nowhere, which led me to wonder how in the heck a location scout would even find out about it. But my boyfriend said since the compound has such a unique look, it is probably used in productions all the time and therefore is well known in the scouting world. The entire area is gated and not usually open to the public, but luckily when I showed up to stalk the place it was open for an art gallery showing. 🙂 Yay! I can’t really recommend stalking the complex, though, because besides the fact that it is normally closed to the public, there also just isn’t really that much to see.

Rob Greer’s blog post about the CSI: Miami filming  is a great read with tons of pictures and I highly recommend giving it a glance. According to Rob, set dressers came to his studio the day before the filming and spent quite a few hours dressing the space with living room furniture and a large chandelier so that it would look more like a home. But the following morning, when the director arrived on set, he took one look at the living room set-up and wanted it all removed! LOL Only in Hollywood! Rob Greer’s experience with the cast and crew of CSI: Miami was exactly on par with my encounter with them a few months back. He said they were incredibly nice and friendly, especially David Caruso, whom he describes as “really warm and genuine”. 🙂 I’m telling you, the CSI: Miami cast is like no other!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Rob Greer Photography is located at 678 South Avenue 21 in Los Angeles.  Be careful not to trespass on the property, though, because, as I mentioned above, the area is not usually open to the public.

April 17, 2009
The Adamson House

I spent all last week on the hunt for a location from my fave 90s TV show Beverly Hills, 90210. The spot I was looking for was the location that stood in for Baja, Mexico in the Season 2 episode entitled “Mexican Standoff”. In the episode, Brenda sneaks off to a Mexican resort town for the weekend with Dylan without telling her parents. I knew from this amazing website that the “Mexico” scenes were actually shot near the beach in Malibu, so I started my hunt there.   And it wasn’t long before I found the right spot!

While watching the “Mexican Standoff” episode, I noticed an abundance of intricate Spanish tile in the background of pretty much every scene. (You can see an example of that tile behind Dylan in the above screen capture.) The tiles were my big tip-off, as there is actually a famous house in Malibu that is known for its exquisite tile work. In fact, the house has been deemed the “Taj Mahal of tile”. I had done some research on the home a few years back when I was working and immediately thought of it when I watched the “Mexican Standoff” episode this past week. The home, which is named the Adamson House, is owned by the State of California and has been open to the public as a museum since 1983. So, I, of course, dragged my boyfriend right out there this weekend for a tour.

In 1891, a man named Frederick Hastings Rindge purchased what is now known as the city of Malibu for the bargain price of $10 per acre. Rindge’s wife, May, was fiercely protective of her family’s privacy and did everything she could to keep outsiders out, including fencing off the 17,000 acre property and hiring armed guards who patrolled the area day and night.   For close to forty years the Rindges were Malibu’s only occupants. But in the 30s, May ran into some financial trouble and had to sell off parcels of her property. Not wanting to sell to just anyone, May made sure she sold her land to wealthy, distinguished individuals who understood the need for privacy. Most of those individuals were movie stars. And thus, the city of Malibu, celebrity haven, was born. It was Frederick and May’s daughter, Rhoda Agatha Rindge, and her husband Merritt Adamson who in 1930 built the 4,000 square foot Mediterranean style home that is now known as the Adamson House.

Rhoda and Merritt’s custom home, which was designed by Stiles O. Clements, took a year and a half to build and is situated directly above the Malibu Lagoon. May Rindge, who was a tile connoisseur and owned her own tile company named Malibu Potteries, commissioned all of the custom, handmade tile that eventually made her daughter’s home so famous and, in the end, saved it from demolition. In 1966, four years after Rhoda’s death, the State of California was granted eminent domain on the Adamson House and its surrounding property. The state purchased the home from Rhoda’s heirs for $2.6 million and set about razing the property to build a beach parking lot. Unbelievable!!   Thankfully, the Malibu Historical Society and the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation stepped in and fought to stop the demolition of the home.  That fight turned into a ten year battle. During that time, the chancellor of Pepperdine University leased and lived in the property. In 1976, thanks to the home’s unique tile work and its historical significance to the city of Malibu, the house was saved from the wrecking ball. In 1983, after a lengthy renovation process, the home was opened to the public as a museum. The Adamson House is currently both a California Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

And, let me tell you, it is an absolutely incredible place to visit. The tile work in the home is nothing short of A-MA-ZING! I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life and doubt I ever will again. I was shocked when I heard that construction on the home took only a year and a half to complete, as the detailing is so incredibly intricate and elaborate that I would have expected it to have taken much longer. Everything from the clock in the kitchen to the heater grates in the ceiling are made from hand-painted tiles!   The house could not be more exquisite and I HIGHLY recommend taking the tour to see it for yourself.

That being said, I have to say that the actual tour was one of the most BIZARRE experiences of my life. There are simply no words to accurately describe our tour – or our docent for that matter. I’m not quite sure what was wrong with her, but I think it is safe to say she was a few bricks shy of a load.   A sample bit of her dialog from the tour: “Now we are in the upstairs . . . the ceiling . . . has . . . and you can see . . . and there are . . . this piece of . . . . . . . . . . . . . string . . . during World War II . . . there were bombs . . . who can guess why there are no lights?” And I’m pretty much QUOTING her! LOL When I asked why the Rindge family sold the Adamson House to the State of California she told me it was because “they were tired of it”. LOL LOL LOL At one point during the tour, my boyfriend turned to me and said “Please don’t ask if 90210 was filmed here – that might just make her head explode!” Within the first five minutes I became convinced we were on a hidden camera show – I was hoping it was I Get That A Lot – and at any moment a camera crew was going to jump out at us from behind a wall. I was actually laughing so hard on more than one occasion that I had to completely turn away from the group and stare at the wall. LOL I haven’t laughed that hard in a really long time, so I guess the tour wasn’t a total bust!   In fact, as I sit here writing about it, I’m STILL laughing. 🙂 We even made friends with another couple, who were just as bewildered over our docent’s behavior as we were.   At the end, one of them said to us, “I realize that they are all volunteers, but isn’t there some sort of screening process???” LOL But I must say that despite our nimrod of a tour guide, seeing the house in person is still an experience I’d recommend.

Oddly enough, only a very small section of the Adamson House was used in the “Mexican Standoff” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210.   Of course our docent had no clue whatsoever where, or even if, 90210 had filmed on the property back in 1992 and I had a surprisingly difficult time locating the exact spot used on my own. After the tour on Saturday, I went home and watched the “Mexican Standoff” episode once again and finally figured out where it had been filmed. Unfortunately, I had only taken one photograph of that spot while on the tour. LOL So, I actually had to drag my boyfriend BACK to the house the following day to take some more pictures. Thank the lord our docent was nowhere to be found. 🙂 The area featured on Beverly Hills, 90210 was the little porch and driveway located to the side of Adamson House garage.

In the scene, Brenda and Dylan get into an argument over a girl that Dylan dated the previous summer. Brenda is in quite the little snit until a mariachi band strolls over and serenades them with a Spanish version of the Morris Albert song “Feelings”.   The two make up and then dance the night away under the Mexican sky. GOD I LOVE THAT SHOW! 🙂 The new one doesn’t even compare!!! You can watch the scene filmed at the Adamson House here.

The “Baja” beach where Brenda and Dylan surf the following morning is very obviously the Malibu Lagoon State Beach, which is located directly in front of the Adamson House.

The location where Brenda and Dylan run into Jake Hanson in the beginning of that same episode is the beach parking lot located just south of the Adamson House. It is actually the place where you must park your car if you are going on an Adamson House tour. That’s the Malibu Pier in the background behind Dylan.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Adamson House is located at 23200 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. The grounds are open daily to the public from sunrise to sunset. You do not need to be part of a tour to walk around the grounds. The interior of the house is only made available to the public via docent led tours. Tours are held Wednesday through Saturday from 11am to 3pm, with the last tour beginning at 2pm. Tours cost $5 per adult and $2 per child under the age of 16. Kids 5 and under are free. You can visit the Adamson House website here.

April 15, 2009
Taverna Tony

This past Saturday afternoon my boyfriend and I met up with my former boss and his wife for some coffee at the Malibu Country Mart – where we sat next to Brian Grazer in the playground area for a good 45 minutes. But that’s a whole other story. 🙂 After hanging out at the Mart for a bit, we decided to grab a bite to eat and I could not have been more floored when my boss’ wife suggested the famous Greek restaurant and celebrity hotspot Taverna Tony. Tony’s is a veritable celeb mecca in Malibu and pretty much anyone who’s anyone has dined there. I’ve been absolutely dying to stalk the place for years, but somehow just never got around to it. Until this past Saturday night! 🙂

Google the terms “Taverna Tony” and “celebrities” and a whole smorgasbord of famous names will appear, including Pamela Anderson, Courteney Cox, Kate Moss, Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend, Britney Spears, Gwen Stefani, Brooke Burke, David Charvet, Paris Hilton, Benji Madden, Salma Hayek, Shannen Doherty, Al Pacino and my girl Jen Aniston (who is of Greek descent) – all of whom have dined at the Malibu restaurant. Unbelievably, we did not spot any celebs on Saturday night, but to be honest, for once, I wasn’t paying very close attention. I was too busy gabbing. LOL But I get the feeling that seeing a celeb at Tony’s is pretty much a sure thing, so you can bet I’m going to return in the near future. 🙂

Before dining at Tony’s on Saturday night, I had never sampled Greek food, so I had no idea what to expect. Well, let me tell you, it was FABULOUS! I have to say that Tony’s serves up some of the BEST food I’ve ever eaten in my life. The servings are absolutely ENOURMOUS and the prices are extremely reasonable – especially considering it’s located in Malibu. Tony’s is the type of place where you can eat a healthy meal or completely throw your diet out the window. I opted for the latter. LOL If you’re game for doing the same, I must suggest the Flaming Saganaki Cheese appetizer! Second to fried calamari, it is probably the worst thing on earth you could possibly eat, but OH-MY-GOD! It is A-MA-ZING! I could have eaten an entire platter of just that! LOL

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I honestly cannot recommend stalking Taverna Tony enough! Even if you’re not into the whole celeb thing, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll love this place. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Taverna Tony is located at 23410 Civic Center Way, in the Malibu Country Mart shopping center, in Malibu. The feature live music and belly dancing nightly. You can visit their website here.

April 14, 2009
The L.A. Confidential Liquor Store

Got an email a few weeks back from fellow stalker Tracey who gave me the address of a film location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I had been trying to find for months – the liquor store from the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential!   Mike and I had known from doing some online research that the liquor store featured in the movie was not actually real. Instead, producers had built a fake liquor store inside of a real storefront somewhere in the L.A. area.    According to this film locations book, that storefront was located somewhere on Larchmont Avenue, but as so often happens with location books, that information was not correct. Mike and I had actually driven up and down Larchmont Avenue several times one day looking for the storefront without any luck. We even stopped in and spoke with the editor of the Larchmont Chronicle to see if she knew where the filming of the liquor shop scenes had taken place. LOL It wasn’t long before we figured out that the L.A. Confidential liquor store was not actually located on Larchmont Avenue and for a while the two of us put the liquor store quest on the back burner.

So you can imagine how excited I was to receive an email from one of my readers named Tracey, who, after several years of being on the prowl for the elusive liquor store, had finally located it!   Turns out she had taken a surface street to work one morning hoping to avoid freeway traffic and, lo and behold, drove right past the liquor store and recognized it immediately! Yay! It’s amazing how often that actually happens. You spend hours upon hours seaching high and low for a location, only to randomly drive by it one day. In this city, you’ve just gotta keep your eyes open! 🙂 In real life the L.A. Confidential liquor store is a furniture repair store named Ramon’s Cane Shop. And it looks like it has been around forever. (In the above photo I am actually standing in front of the wrong storefront. I’m such a blond! Although in real life both storefronts are occupied by Ramon’s Cane Shop, in L.A. Confidential only the middle storefront was used.)

The liquor store shows up twice in L.A. Confidential.   It is first featured in the scene when Bud White, while picking up some liquor for a Christmas party, first lays eyes on Veronica Lake lookalike Lynn Bracken.

After leaving the liquor store, Bud spots Pierce Patchett’s car with what appears to be a very beat up Susan Lefferts inside.  A brief fight ensues before Lynn Bracken walks outside and explains that all is not as it seems. In the scene, Pierce’s car was parked in the driveway of a parking lot located just to the left of Ramon’s Cane Shop.

The liquor store pops up once again a bit later on in the movie, when Bud White stops by to try to dig up some information on Lynn Bracken.

I must say it was VERY cool to be stalking the L.A. Confidential liquor store, especially since – aside from the fact that it’s not really a liquor store – it looks pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen. Sadly, though, the shop was closed when we were stalking it, and since the windows were completely covered, I didn’t get to peek inside. Looks like I’ll have to take another stalking trip out there!! Big, big THANK YOU to Tracey for tipping me off to this location. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The L.A. Confidential liquor store, aka Ramon’s Cane Shop, is located at 1279 South Cochran Avenue in Los Angeles. The area where Pierce Patchett’s car was parked when Bud White confronts him is located just to the left of the cane shop.

April 13, 2009
Spencer and Heidi’s Wedding!

UPDATE: They actually did it (again)! Check out pictures from Saturday’s wedding here.

My favorite reality TV duo, better known as Heidi and Spencer, have caused a media shitstorm yet again by announcing that they will be tying the knot – for real this time – in two short weeks right in my hometown of Pasadena. 🙂 Early in the week, I actually got a tip that Speidi would be at the Westminster Presbyterian Church (which I’ve blogged about in the past) this past Wednesday and, of course, went right out to stalk the place. But unfortunately the normally camera friendly duo stayed inside the church the whole time they were there and I didn’t get to see them. I did get to chat with quite a few paparazzi on the scene, though, one of whom actually gave me his phone number as he said it seemed I had more information than he did. He actually told me to call him next time I had a tip! 🙂 LOL Anyway, I had a feeling that Speidi might be visiting the church for reasons relating to their wedding and now it sounds like my hunch might just be correct. (I took the above photos of Westminster Presbyterian back in June when the movie Valkyrie was being filmed there.)

Earlier this evening E! News reported that my two favorite douchebags will be marrying on Saturday, April 25th, in a “sunset” ceremony at an “undisclosed Pasadena location”. Now I am not sure if Speidi’s wedding will actually take place at Westminster Presbyterian, but I do know that the church is going to figure in the ceremony in some form or another. Quite possibly, a pastor from the church will be officiating the nuptials, but they will take place elsewhere. Either way, I’ll give you one guess as to where I’m going to be on April 25th right around sunset. 🙂

According to E!, the reception is taking place on a rooftop somewhere in Pasadena. Well, the only wedding locale with a rooftop in the Pasadena area that I know of is the Pasadena Museum of California Art. So that’s my best guess as to where the reception is going to take place. Now, don’t quote me on any of this, as I am simply going on quite a few large hunches. Only time will tell whether those hunches prove to be correct, but my fingers are sure crossed. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Westminster Presbyterian Church is located at 1757 North Lake Avenue in Pasadena. The Pasadena Museum of California Art is located at 490 East Union Street, also in Pasadena.

April 10, 2009
My Day on the Set of Weeds!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I absolutely LOVE living in L.A. You just never know what surprises lay around each corner here!  Yesterday, as I drove up to the Hollywood & Highland Center to meet my good friend Blaze for some coffee, I noticed quite a few of those yellow filming signs that I love so much. Come to find out, the Showtime series Weeds was filming on location at the outdoor mall. I can’t say that I am a huge fan of the show, but my boyfriend absolutely loves it, so I have seen quite a few episodes.  Needless to say, even though I don’t really watch the show, I was floored to be there. I’m pretty sure I could stumble upon an episode of Sesame Street being filmed, though, and still be pretty darn excited. 🙂 LOL

I pretty much couldn’t have picked a better time to arrive at H&H, since the filming of a large dance sequence was just about to begin right as I was walking up to the complex. The dance number was being filmed in the mall’s central courtyard area and there were cameras set up all over the top level of the complex. There was even a camera crew filming from the top of a ladder (pictured above).

The area where the scene was being filmed was not closed off to the public – much the same as when I watched the filming of The Mentalist a few weeks back – and normal people were walking in and out of the scene not realizing what was going on. In this case, though, I think that was exactly the producers’ intention. I believe they wanted to capture the real life reactions of tourists watching the dance sequence take place. The Weeds crew was extremely friendly and let people take all the photographs they wanted, so I was in heaven. 🙂

Being that I am a sucker for any sort of musical, I really couldn’t have picked a better film shoot to stumble upon. I can’t tell you how much fun the dance sequence was to watch!  🙂  The scene being filmed actually seemed to be an imitation of the awesome T-Mobile “Life’s For Sharing” commercial that was filmed at the Liverpool Street Train Station in London.   Not only was the set-up of the Weeds scene pretty much identical to the T-Mobile ad, but the extras were all pretending to be taking photographs of the dancers with their cell phones, just like in the commercial. Basically the scene consisted of Mary-Louise Parker sitting in Hollywood & Highland’s central courtyard drinking a fruit smoothie, when all of a sudden loud music starts pouring out of the loudspeakers and one by one a large crowd breaks out into a spontaneous dance routine. It was really very cool to see in person! I so wanted to get out there and dance myself! LOL   Amazingly enough, according to one of the extras I talked to, the dancers had only learned the dance a few hours earlier.

The only series regular acting in the scene was Mary-Louise Parker. I was hoping to see her cutie son on the show, actor Hunter Parish, but sadly he was not there. Ironically, before Mary-Louise came onto the set, her stand-in walked out and I started immediately snapping photos as I thought it was MLP! LOL She looks JUST like her! It was uncanny! You can see her stand-in wearing the purple shirt in the above photograph.

The above are photographs of the real MLP during the filming of the scene. 🙂  Mary-Louise is very pretty in person and a lot taller than I expected, but extremely thin. Disgustingly thin, really. Her arm looked like a bone with skin covering it.  I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen arms that skinny in my entire life.

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During the filming breaks, Mary-Louise actually had a “personal umbrella holder” who followed her around with an umbrella to shield her from the sun (pictured above).   For those of you who don’t read US Magazine regularly, some celebrities actually employ what is known as a “personal umbrella holder” – or a P.U.H. – who basically holds an umbrella over their heads for them when it rains.  I’m not kidding! I guess celebs are just far too important to be holding their own umbrellas. LOL I mean, how lazy can someone actually be??? I honestly don’t think I could ever in good conscience allow another person to hold an umbrella for me, no matter how big of a star I was. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but something about that just doesn’t seem right.   LOL

P.U.H. aside, I had an absolute blast being on the Weeds set today and cannot wait to watch the episode on TV!!! It should air on Showtime in about two months.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Weeds was filmed in the Hollywood & Highland Center’s central courtyard, which is located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. Some filming also took place at Dlush Deluxe Beverage Joint in the Hollywood & Highland Center.

April 10, 2009
The W Hotel

This weekend while out doing some stalking of L.A.’s Westside, I dragged my boyfriend to the W Hotel, which was featured in both fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and the new 90210. I have wanted to stalk the W ever since I first watched Win A Date over four years ago, but somehow never got around to it until this past Sunday. I actually can’t believe that I waited so long to stalk the modern style hotel, but, as I’ve said before, in L.A. there’s just so much to stalk and so little time! 🙂

The W Hotel is actually featured quite a few times in Win A Date. The poolside restaurant, named “The Backyard”, shows up in the very beginning of the movie as the location where Tad and his agents (who are both named Richard Levy) do lunch. It is during this luncheon that Tad is told he must clean up his public image and thus the “Win A Date With Tad Hamilton” contest is born.

The W also shows up a bit later on in the movie as the hotel where contest winner Rosalee Futch (aka Kate Bosworth) stays while she is in L.A. The front entrance of the hotel is shown when she first checks in, as well as when she is picked up and dropped off for her dream date with Tad.

The lobby area of the hotel and the stairway leading up to the pool are also both featured in the movie.

On the new 90210, Naomi Clark, following in the footsteps of Dylan McKay from the original series, forgoes living with her parents to permanently check in to the ultra-trendy W. In the episode entitled “By Accident”, Naomi moves out of her cheating father’s house and into Room 723 of the hotel. The W has been featured on the series several times since then, most prominently in the Valentine’s Day episode entitled “Of Heartbreaks and Hotels”.

Many areas of the hotel were shown in that episode including the front entrance;

the lobby;

the hotel’s NineThirty Restaurant where Silver and Dixon share a Valentine’s Day dinner;

the hotel’s coffee bar where Naomi first meets cutie bartender Liam (in real life the coffee bar is set up daily between 6 and10am just outside of the NineThirty Restaurant, but sadly it had already been removed by the time we got there, so I didn’t get to snap a photo of it);

the hotel’s Whiskey Blue Bar where Silver and Naomi grab some tea;

and, just like in Win A Date, the hotel’s Backyard restaurant where Naomi gets stood up by Liam.

I HIGHLY recommend stalking the W! The hotel somehow manages to be ultra-trendy and ultra-modern, yet extremely welcoming at the same time. The staff truly could not have been nicer to me and answered all of my silly questions about the filming of 90210 and Win A Date. 🙂 Since we were stalking the place in the middle of the day, though, we weren’t able to grab a drink in the hotel’s Whiskey Blue Bar. But you can bet that is something I am going to do in the very near future. I also must book a room and drag my boyfriend there for the weekend sometime! Even though ultra modern hotels are usually not my thing, I really fell in love with this one. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The W Hotel is located at 930 Hilgard Avenue in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.

April 9, 2009
Joe’s Pizza

Last week, on April Fools’ Day, CBS aired a television special entitled I Get That A Lot in which celebrities posed as normal, everyday people working in normal, everyday jobs.   Hidden cameras captured customers’ reactions as stars like Jessica Simpson, Ice-T, LeAnn Rimes, and Jeff Probst waited on them and told them that they were not, in fact, famous, but that they “get that a lot.” 🙂 While the show was a bit on the silly side, I, of course, LOVED it! I so wish I could have been one of those customers! But since I wasn’t, I figured I’d at least stalk one of the locations where I Get That A Lot was filmed. 🙂

My favorite segment from I Get That A Lot involved supermodel Heidi Klum whose assignment on the show was to spend a few hours serving pizzas at a small pizza place in Santa Monica named Joe’s.  Heidi was absolutely adorable in the segment and since I happened to be in Santa Monica this weekend, I just had to drag my boyfriend out to stalk the place.   🙂

Joe’s Pizza is a very cute, but super tiny shop located just off the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica. In fact, it is so tiny I am surprised they were able to film inside of it at all.  Joe’s was also extremely crowded – during the brief twenty minutes that we were there no less than fifteen people stopped in for a bite to eat – which is, I’m sure, why it was chosen for the hidden camera special.  I am guessing that the producers wanted Heidi waiting on as many people as possible. The staff at Joe’s was extremely nice and answered all of my questions about the filming of I Get That A Lot,which took place almost a year ago.   They told me that Heidi Klum was very down to earth and a lot of fun to work with. 🙂

While stalking Joe’s, my boyfriend and I just had to sample a few slices of their pizza. And let me tell you, it is some of the best pizza I’ve ever had!   The Joe’s Pizza chain originated in New York in 1975 and has continuously been credited as New York’s best pizza. In fact, New York Magazine stated that “the quintessential New York slice is at Joe’s”. The Santa Monica branch, which opened in 2007, is just as good as its New York counterpart and I am sure I will be frequenting it quite often. Being that I am diabetic, a big ol’ slice of cheese pizza is probably the last thing I should be eating, but, hey, life’s short – sometimes you’ve gotta live it up. 🙂

Other famous fans of the restaurant, besides Heidi Klum, include Brooke Shields, Harrison Ford, Robin Williams, Tobey Maguire, Ben Affleck, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, and Everybody Loves Raymond’s Doris Roberts.  Pictured above are photographs of Joe’s celebrity fans which line the walls of the small restaurant. Love it! Think someday they’ll put my photo on the wall? 🙂

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The original Joe’s Pizza, which is located in Manhattan, has long been a favorite of location scouts. It has appeared in Spiderman 2 (Peter Parker worked as a Joe’s pizza delivery boy), Sex and the City, Along Came Polly, and a Nike Commercial. You can bet that Joe’s is at the top of my list of places to stalk on my next trip to NYC. 🙂

I HIGHLY recommend stalking Joe’s Pizza! It’s a really fun place to grab a bite to eat and the pizza is to die for! It’s truly like having a little piece of New York right here in L.A. 🙂  You can watch some clips from the I Get That A Lot special, including Heidi Klum’s stint as a Joe’s Pizza girl, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Joe’s Pizza is located at 111 Broadway in Santa Monica. The original New York location can be found at 7 Carmine Street in Manhattan. You can visit the Joe’s Pizza website here.

April 8, 2009
The “If U Seek Amy” House

A few weeks ago, Miss Britney Spears debuted her new video for the third single off her Circus album, the controversially titled “If U Seek Amy”. So, of course, I just had to watch! I was actually pretty excited about this video, as many critics were proclaiming that the old Britney was finally back. I was hoping for something along the lines of the Britney videos of old featuring adorable outfits, cute hairdos, and choreographed pop dances that high school girls everywhere (and – who am I kidding – I) would be copying.   But, alas, that was not to be. I guess I just have to face the cold, hard truth – the old Britney will never be back. 🙁 The “If U Seek Amy” video is downright terrible. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more lame music video in my life. But, since I was in the area this weekend, I figured I may as well stalk the house where it was filmed. 🙂

The “If U Seek Amy” house was incredibly easy to find thanks to this article which stated that the video was filmed in Pacific Palisades and several paparazzi photos taken the day of the filming which clearly showed an address number of 14966 (pictured above).

Interestingly enough, though, the final “6” of the house number doesn’t appear in the actual music video (pictured above). It must have been removed in the editing room after filming was completed to ward off stalkers like me. LOL Nice try, Britney, but don’t you know the paparazzi document your every move? 🙂

It appears that both the interior and the exterior of the colonial style home were used in the filming of Britney’s new video.  The interiors were used for the wild party scenes where a scantily clad Britney (wearing a pair of super cute pink high heels) dances with a group of friends. The exterior of the home is featured at the end of the video, where BritBrit – this time dressed up like a 50’s housewife – walks out of her white-picket fenced house with her husband and two children to serve the paparazzi some apple pie.

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It’s easy to see why producers chose to use the Pacific Palisades home, as it looks like the typical American dream house, complete with a white picket fence and gabled windows. It’s just the type of place you’d expect to find Britney’s 50’s housewife character living. You can watch the (incredibly lame) “If You Seek Amy” video here.

On a side note I have one more thing to say about the “If U Seek Amy” video – Holy roots, Batman!   I think Britney really should have visited the salon to get her roots did before filming this thing!! I mean, I don’t let mine get even half that bad, and unlike BritBrit, I don’t have a stylist on the payroll!!   Her roots were so distracting in the video that I pretty much couldn’t focus on anything else – which actually might have been a good thing! LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The house from Britney’s “If U Seek Amy” video is located at 14966 La Cumbre Drive in Pacific Palisades.

April 7, 2009