Erika Christensen – IAMNOTASTALKER

February 13, 2017February 14, 2017

Library Bar from “Parenthood”

In his bestselling book Outliers: The Story of Success, author Malcolm Gladwell asserts that a person needs 10,000 hours of practice at something in order to become an expert. I’ve been writing my blog for about nine years now, working on it at least eight hours a day, five days a week, which translates to roughly 19,000 stalking hours under my belt. That number is probably a vast understatement, but I think we can all agree that I am an expert on filming locations. Even experts make mistakes, though. Last week, while watching the most recent episode of fave show Vanderpump Rules (Season 5’s “Into the Closet”), a “Coming Up” teaser was shown prior to a commercial break in which Tom Schwartz and Katie Maloney argued (shocker, I know!) at a dimly-lit restaurant lined with books. I excitedly turned to the Grim Cheaper and said, “That’s Library Bar!” – a dimly-lit, book-lined downtown L.A. haunt that we visited a few years back. When the segment aired a few minutes later, though, I saw I was mistaken as the camera panned to a sign reading “The Wellesbourne” at the top of the scene. Whoops! After, of course, adding The Wellesbourne to my To-Stalk List (the place seriously looks so cool!), I decided to do a post on Library Bar ASAP.

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The GC and I stumbled upon Library Bar by chance one evening in 2011 while on our way to stalk/eat dinner at Takami Sushi & Elevate Lounge (which, ironically, later appeared in a Season 1 episode of Vanderpump Rules). Because I am obsessed with books, the name of the place intrigued me and, as we walked by, I told the GC that I wanted to grab a post-meal cocktail there.

What we wandered into later that night felt like the cozy book-lined living room of a friend. For me, it was love at first sight.

The intimate lounge is dotted with cushy couches, a fireplace filled with candles, and lots and lots of books. And yes, the tomes are all real. Patrons are permitted to peruse them while sipping libations. How incredibly cool is that? Bartender Brianna Rettig told the Los Angeles Times in 2007 that one customer even asked her out on a date by putting a note in a romance novel and later telling her to find the book and turn to page 40.

Library Bar was established in 2006 by Will Shamlian and Michael Leko, restaurateurs who originally met while working at Mezzaluna, the Brentwood eatery where Nicole Brown Simpson ate her last meal. The successful duo also gave us Spring St. Bar, 4100 Bar, and Sixth Street Tavern, among others.

Library Bar, which you can check out some more photos of here, has popped up a couple of times onscreen, though not as often as I would expect considering its unique aesthetic. In the Season 5 episode of Parenthood titled “Fraud Alert,” Julia Braverman-Graham (Erika Christensen) asks Ed Brooks (David Denman) to meet up with her at Library Bar, after learning that her husband, Joel Graham (Sam Jaeger), does not want to work on their marriage. Only the exterior of the lounge was shown in the episode.

In the Season 8 episode of 24 titled “Day 8: 9 a.m – 10 a.m.,” Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) gets into a taxi outside of Library Bar while talking on his cell with Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub). Because the scene involved a telephone call, it was shown in a split-screen format, which explains the odd screen capture below .

Charlie (James Wolk) attempts to win his ex-girlfriend Lauren Powell (Lauren Miller) back while at Library Bar in the 2012 comedy For a Good Time, Call . . . , though not much of the lounge can be seen in the scene. (Special thanks to Instagram user Cherryeco5 for letting me know about this one!)

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Library Bar, from the “Fraud Alert” episode of Parenthood, is located at 630 West 6th Street, Suite 116-A, in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the lounge’s official website here.

December 4, 2015February 25, 2016

Valli Tropics from “Wicked City”

Locations, locations, locations! Aside from Ed Westwick, locations were easily the best aspect of the now cancelled ABC series Wicked City. The show took place in Los Angeles circa 1982 and the location manager did a fabulous job of securing spots evocative of that era. None was more spectacularly retro than the apartment building where Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen) lived. I became obsessed with the place, and all of its pink-accented glory, while watching Wicked City’s pilot episode, but, unfortunately, had a heck of a time tracking it down.

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In the pilot, a sign with the name “Valli Tropics” was prominently shown posted outside of Betty’s apartment. Because the complex had somewhat of a tropical aesthetic, I figured the name might be legitimate and did a Google search for “Valli Tropics” and “Los Angeles.” It yielded nada, though, so I abandoned my hunch that the name was real and began searching for images of tropical-style apartments in L.A. I poured through countless photographs, but none was of the right spot. I then looked through all of my local architectural guidebooks to see if the complex was pictured, but came up empty-handed. So I abandoned the hunt for a bit.

When the third episode, titled “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” aired and Betty’s apartment was featured prominently, I decided to start the pursuit up again. I revisited my original hunch that the name might be legit and this time did a search for “Valli Tropics Apartments” and “Los Angeles,” which led me to a yelp review written by the manager of a Valli Tropics in Studio City. From there, the complex was a snap to find. I honestly cannot believe that I spent so many fruitless hours searching for the place, when the name of it was right in front of me the entire time! The blonde factor was strong with this one.

In person, Valli Tropics did not disappoint!

Every square inch of the place was just begging to be photographed.

And the vintage signing was to die for!

I was floored to see that the retro-ish sign that had been so prominently featured in Wicked City was a real life element of the building.

Surprisingly, other than the fact that it was built in 1956, I could find virtually no information online about Valli Tropics.

The complex is actually situated in an odd way, with the front entrance running diagonal to the street. One could easily drive right past it without noticing its architectural splendor.

Valli Tropics was featured repeatedly throughout the three episodes of Wicked City that made it to the airwaves. Besides the front exterior, the courtyard was also utilized on the show.

I am fairly certain that the interior of a real life Valli Tropics unit was used for the filming of the pilot . . .

. . . and that a set re-creation appeared in the other two episodes.

Oddly, while a brief shot of the exterior of Valli Tropics was shown in Wicked City’s second episode, which was titled “Running with the Devil” . . .

. . . a scene that was supposed to take place there was actually shot about five miles away, on the corner of Kittridge Street and Wilkinson Avenue in Valley Glen.

Thanks to the Litany of Schist blog, I learned that the Valli Tropics masked as the apartment of murder victim Jason Devereaux (Ben Feldman) in the Season 10 episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation titled “Working Stiffs.”

In the episode, Jason was said to live at 1120 Marapasa Parkway in Las Vegas, the numbering of which meshes with Valli Tropic’s real life address of 11120 Acama Street. The crew failed to remove the extra “1” from the building’s address placard, as well as from the Valli Tropics sign for the shoot, though, so the scripted address didn’t end up gibing with what appeared onscreen. Whoops!

Valli Tropic’s courtyard was also used in the filming of CSI.

As was the interior of one of the apartment units.

In the Season 11 episode of Criminal Minds titled “A Badge and a Gun,” the Behavioral Analysis Unit investigates a murder at the Valli Tropics, which is said to be in Atwater Village.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Valli Tropics, aka Betty’s apartment from Wicked City, is located at 11120 Acama Street in Studio City.

November 30, 2015November 24, 2015

Kent’s House from “Wicked City”

I cannot express how disappointed I am that ABC cancelled Wicked City. I’ll admit that I was not very impressed with the series’ pilot episode, but I think that was mainly due to the fact that it was rather jarring to see Ed Westwick (one of my absolute faves!) portraying a serial killer. The second episode had me hooked, though, and by episode three I was full-blown obsessed. So it was quite a blow when the show was cancelled just three days after that episode aired. And while ABC has said that the remaining five episodes that have yet to be broadcast will soon be available via streaming, so far that has yet to happen, which has me heartbroken that there might not be any sort of resolution to the show’s core mystery. The cancellation did not stop me from hunting down locations from the series, though. A couple of weeks ago on LAmag.com, I blogged about the Whisky a Go Go, which made several appearances on Wicked City. In the article, I mentioned some other locales featured on the show, but at the time I had yet to track down a few key spots, one of which was the Spanish-style home belonging to Kent Galloway (Westwick).

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I spent a ridiculous amount of time scouring film location databases looking for Kent’s home and, just as I was reaching my wits’ end, decided to call in the Grim Cheaper to ask for his thoughts. I happened to show him a scene from the second episode, which is titled “Runnin’ with the Devil,” and he noticed that a large wall was located across the street from Kent’s residence. He presumed it to be part of a studio and told me to search the neighborhoods surrounding The Walt Disney Studios.

Sure enough, I found the house within seconds, exactly where he said it would be! Sometimes I think he’s better at this stalking stuff than I am! Thank you, GC!

I was so intent on finding the locale not only because I am such a huge fan of Ed Westwick and Wicked City, but also because I just love the look of the place. The residence is picturesque, homey and a perfect representation of the Los Angeles bungalow.

In person it did not disappoint.

Though Zillow states that the property, which was built in 1940, measures one bedroom, one bath, and 1,551 square feet, it looks to be much larger from the outside.

The setting is also quite beautiful. The residence is situated on a 0.21-acre corner plot of land that almost looks like a park.

The house appeared in the first two episodes of Wicked City. I’m sure it was also utilized in the five unaired episodes that were shot prior to the cancellation, as well.

As you can see below, it looks much the same in person as it did onscreen, though it appears that a lot of foliage was brought in for the shoot.

I fell in love with the iron adornment on the front door while watching the pilot and was floored to see that it is an actual feature of the house.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was used in the filming of the pilot episode.

Unfortunately, I could not find any interior photographs of the place with which to verify that hunch.

The inside of Kent’s residence also made a brief appearance in the third episode of Wicked City, which is titled “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” but I am pretty certain that a set was used for that scene.

Interestingly, in the Google Street View imagery of the house, a film crew is visible shooting some sort of production in one of the neighboring residences.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Kent’s house from Wicked City is located at 2023 West Parkside Avenue in Burbank.

November 19, 2015November 11, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the Whisky a Go Go from “Wicked City”

Don’t forget to check out my latest Scene it Before post for Los Angeles magazine about the Whisky a Go Go from Wicked City. My articles typically get published in the early afternoon hours.

March 1, 2011April 21, 2011

Stalking the 2011 Academy Awards

As I have mentioned countless times before on this blog, Oscar Weekend is, hands down, my favorite weekend of the entire year. Hollywood just seems to come alive during Oscar Weekend and I honestly cannot get enough of it. And this year was no different. My Oscar stalking began early this past Saturday morning and continued on through late Sunday night and I think it is safe to say that the poor Grim Cheaper is absolutely beat. Winking smile Thankfully though, some good friends and fellow stalkers – Beth, Mary, Debbie, and Carol – were in town from Louisville, Kentucky and they let me tag along with them all weekend, so the GC did get somewhat of a reprieve. And while this year was, sadly, not as great as previous years due to the fact that hotels have seriously beefed up their security and many would only let actual guests through their front doors, we still managed to have an absolute BLAST! We started out our 2011 Oscar stalking adventure Saturday morning when we hit up the blue carpet at the Independent Spirit Awards – and yes, the event does actually feature a blue carpet. The Spirit Awards are held in a tent directly next to the beach in Santa Monica and, let me tell you, this year the weather was absolutely FREEZING – and I mean that literally! It actually SNOWED in many parts of Los Angeles this past weekend (not kidding!) and the GC and I witnessed it firsthand at one point, which I am fairly certain he was more excited about than any of the celebs that we encountered.

When we arrived at the Spirit Awards, there was already a HUGE group camped out along the blue carpet, but we still managed to snag a pretty good spot in which to stand. While there, I ran into celebrity stalker extraordinaire Pinky Lovejoy (pictured above), from the Pinky Lovejoy Blog, whom I had met at Alec Baldwin’s Star Ceremony a few weeks back. Smile

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We had an absolute blast stalking the red carpet and just a few of the stars who were on hand include Jason Isaacs – aka “Lucius Malfoy” from the Harry Potter movies;

Warren Beatty;

Annette Bening;

Jennifer Lawrence;

Amanda Peet, who is absolutely ADORABLE in person;

Anthony Mackie;

Terrance Howard;

director Danny Boyle;

Diego Luna;

John Hawkes;

Sarah Steele from Spanglish;

Greta Gerwig from Greenberg;

Samuel L. Jackson;

Liev Schreiber;

Aaron Eckhart, who is GORGEOUS in person;

one of fellow stalker Owen’s favorite actors, Paul Rudd;

Malin Ackerman;

Amber Tamblyn;

David Cross;

Erika Christensen;

Jane Lynch (YAY!);

(I absolutely LOVE that the GC managed to snap a picture of Jane making one of her famous Sue Sylvester faces!);

Eva Mendes;

Jesse Eisenberg (he did not turn towards the crowd when he arrived, so we only got a picture of the back of his head);

Jeremy Renner;

Rainn Wilson (aka Mr. Dwight Schrute!);

Jamie Foxx;

Ben Stiller;

Rosario Dawson;

Joel McHale (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE him!);

and Nicole Kidman (who is STUNNING in person) and Keith Urban.

I LOVE the picture of Nicole above, which my friend Carol snapped. So cute!

Natalie Portman tried to sneak in behind Nicole and Keith, but thankfully the GC still managed to get some pics of her. Smile

After the Spirit Awards arrivals wrapped up, the GC and I headed on over to the Kodak Theatre to do some stalking of the Academy Awards’ red carpet. Sadly though, everything was blocked off this year and we were not allowed to walk on the red carpet or to get very close to any of the set-up, which was incredibly disappointing.

We did spot the above-pictured Oscar statue being hauled from the Renaissance Hotel to the Kodak Theatre, though, which I thought was absolutely hilarious.

We then headed over to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (where the first Academy Awards ceremony was held) to see if anything was going on there. As fate would have it, the E! channel was running rehearsals for their Oscar coverage show in the lobby of the hotel and we were lucky enough to be able to watch. As you can see in the above photographs, Kris Jenner was on site rehearsing for the show.

As was Ross Mathews, from Chelsea Lately.

As luck would have it, Kris wound up leaving the hotel at the exact same time we did and she was nice enough to pose for a photo with me on her way out, which I could NOT have been more excited about. I have actually never been a fan of Keeping Up With the Kardashians, but I will always have a special place in my heart for the series due to the fact that anytime someone encounters my family for the first time, they invariably say, “You guys need your own reality show! You are funnier than the Kardashians!” My good friend Nat keeps threatening to secretly videotape us and send the result to the E! channel. LOL I guess I can see where people are coming from, though. Case in point – this past Friday afternoon the GC downloaded and then proceeded to spend a good ten minutes showing me an app in which one, while in a store, can scan the barcode of an item along with its price using the camera on their iPhone and the phone will then subsequently spit back a list of places where you can purchase said item for less money. Not kidding! I totally thought he was joking with me, but sadly he wasn’t. Not only is that app real, but the GC fully expects me to USE it! Oh, the things I have to put up with!

On Sunday evening, while doing some more hotel stalking, I spotted Doris Roberts, from Everybody Loves Raymond and Christmas Vacation fame. My grandma absolutely LOVES Doris, so I just had to ask her to pose for a photograph with me and thankfully she obliged, which I could NOT have been more excited about. Smile Other celebs that we spotted out and about this weekend, but didn’t get photographs of were Mark Wahlberg, Lou Diamond Phillips, Bai Ling, Frances Fisher, Gary Busey, Ed Asner, Pat Boone, Meat Loaf, Charo, Caroline Herrera (on her way to the Oscars in an absolutely STRIKING dress), Tara Reid, Brenda Strong (aka Mary Alice from Desperate Housewives), Gloria Allred, Noah Wyle, Taylor Armstrong from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Jessica Stroup (aka Silver from 90210), Glee’s Chris Colfer and Matthew Morrison, Jennifer Lopez (who is absolutely STUNNING in person!), Renee Zellweger, Russell Brand, Kirk Kerkorian, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, Harvey Weinstein, Chace Crawford, Cate Blanchett, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen (who are sooooo tiny in person it was almost unbelievable), Ron Jeremy, Jeffrey Ross, Fred Willard, Sofia Milos, Pierce Morgan, Robert Downey Jr. and Susan Downey, Jude Law, George Hamilton, Reese Witherspoon, Timothy Olyphant, Elton John, Craig Robinson (aka Darryl from The Office), Joanne Worley, and Antonio Sabato Jr.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Oscars are held each year at the Kodak Theatre, which is located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. The Grim Cheaper and I usually drive up and down Sunset Boulevard during Oscar weekend, stopping into various hotels along the way to spot celebs. A few of the hotels we usually stalk include The Mondrian, which is located at 8440 Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, which is located at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel, which is located at 1755 North Highland Avenue in Hollywood, and the Chateau Marmont, which is located at 8221 West Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.