famous homes – IAMNOTASTALKER

March 19, 2013March 19, 2013

Loretta Young’s Palm Springs House

While doing research on the Playa del Rey house where Judy Lewis (secret love child of Loretta Young and Clark Gable) was born (which I blogged about here), I came across a November 2011 The New York Times article about Lewis’ recent death which stated that the actress/psychotherapist was finally told the true story of her birth in 1966 while at her mother’s home in Palm Springs. Well, I, of course, immediately set about doing some cyber-stalking in order to track down the address of the Desert property and found it fairly quickly (thanks to The Movieland Directory website), and then dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it just a few days later. In the meantime, I picked up Judy’s autobiography, Uncommon Knowledge, at my local library and started reading. (It is fabulous, by the way!) I had not yet gotten to the chapter that covered Loretta’s strained confession when I stalked her Palm Springs abode but, come to find out, not only was it NOT where the incident took place, but the actress did not even own the residence at the time! Think it’s too late for The Times to print a retraction?

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In The New York Times article, it is stated, “Ms. Lewis, a former actress who died on Friday at the age of 76, was 31 before she discerned the scope of the falsehoods that cast her, a daughter of Hollywood royalty, into what she later described as a Cinderella-like childhood. Confronted by Ms. Lewis, Young finally made a tearful confession in 1966 at her sprawling home in Palm Springs, Calif.” As it turns out, though, that confrontation actually took place at Loretta’s longtime house in West Hollywood, which I stalked this past weekend and will be blogging about soon. Being that Judy wrote a book that described Loretta’s confession in great detail, I am unsure of how such misinformation ever got printed. Especially considering the fact that Judy also stated in her book, which was published in 1994, that the last time she was ever in her mom’s home was on Mother’s Day 1986, seven long years before Loretta purchased a residence in Palm Springs.

It was not until 1993 that Loretta and her third husband, Jean Lewis (the famed Oscar-winning costume designer who created the dress my girl Marilyn Monroe wore when she famously sang “Happy Birthday” to President John Kennedy in 1962) purchased the Deepwell Estates home. At the time, the three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath property, which was originally built in 1964, boasted fourteen-foot ceilings, indirect lighting, a pool, a suspended fireplace, and a circular living room that was decorated all in white. According to a September 2010 Palm Springs Life article, Loretta tended to the home’s exterior hedges herself, using a pair of scissors, and also decorated the site with a myriad of angels each Christmas. What I wouldn’t give to have been able to see that!

Sadly, Jean Louis passed away on April 20th, 1997 while sitting on the residence’s back patio. Loretta continued to live on the premises until her death at the age of 87 on August 12, 2000. The house was then sold by her estate in 2001 for $630,000, which, according to the fabulous book Palm Springs Confidential, was almost twice what she and Jean had paid for it in 1993.

While doing research for today’s post, I learned that one significant event between Loretta and Judy did actually take place at the Palm Springs property. In 2001, Judy appeared on Larry King Live and stated that Loretta had invited her to the Desert home shortly after Jean’s death in the hopes of mending their relationship, which they eventually did.

The couple who now own the property were nice enough to open it up to the public in 2011 for a party to raise the money needed to posthumously honor Loretta with a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. The star was dedicated on May 19th, 2011 and is located at 121 South Palm Canyon Drive.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to E.J., from The Movieland Directory, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Loretta Young’s Palm Springs house is located at 1075 Manzanita Avenue in the Deepwell Estates area of Palm Springs.

April 18, 2012April 17, 2012

The Hancock Park House Where Prince William and Kate Middleton Stayed In July 2011

While Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were out stalking two Thursdays ago, I asked him to take me by the Hancock Park-area mansion where Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (the former Miss Kate Middleton), stayed while visiting Los Angeles last July. Mike had found the property a few months prior thanks to fave website CurbedLA, which had done extensive reporting on the Mediterranean-style pad shortly before the royal couple touched down in La La Land on July 9th, and had stalked it shortly thereafter. Not surprisingly, I had been absolutely drooling over the pictures he snapped while there and was dying to do some stalking of the place myself. So, on our way out to Franck’s wedding coordinator shop from Father of the Bride, which I blogged about last Thursday, we took a detour to the William and Kate house.

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William and Kate’s holiday homestead is known as the Erle M. Leaf House and it was designed in 1928 by Wallace Neff, the prolific Southern California architect who also designed the estate where Amanda lived in The Holiday, Villa del Sol d’Oro from Passport to Paris, and Viola’s mansion from Monster-in-Law, as well as countless other famous movie abodes. According to Zillow, the Leaf House, which sits on almost half an acre of land, measures 7 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, and 7,247 square feet. But there seems to be a discrepancy somewhere because the Ronald Chang Architecture team, who did a recent remodel of the dwelling, states on their website that, after the latest add-on, the residence measures 10,000 square feet. Either way, the property is quite gorgeous, but far more average than I had expected it to be.

It is amazing to me that the heir to the British throne and his new wife stayed in such a “normal” home while visiting L.A. Yes, it is a beautiful estate and quite large, but there is no gate, no wall, no tall hedges to block it from public view. Granted, the entire street and surrounding area was barricaded by police officers and private security during the Duke and Duchess’ three-day stay, but still. I would have expected a much more private and exclusive abode to have housed them. Being that the British government purchased the property in 1957 to be used as a residence for the British Consuls-General, though, I guess it makes sense. You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the Erle M. Leaf House and its recent remodel here. As you can see, the “before” kitchen was pretty atrocious, but the new one is absolutely to-die-for.

On a random side-note – My girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, did some stalking of The Lucky One premiere this past Monday evening and who should she run into while there, but the love of my life, Matt Lanter (sigh!). Pinky asked Matt for a photo, to which he happily obliged (because he’s the sweetest!), and she then mentioned my rooftop encounter with him last April. Well, in an amazing twist, Matt said he REMEMBERED ME! UM, HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE???? DYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pinky then reiterated how much I loved him, that he is one of my “Top Three”, that I want to bear his children (just kidding about that last part Winking smile ) and he said to tell me “Hi”! Um, HI, MATT! When Pinky texted me the news shortly thereafter I just about hyperventilated from excitement and am still pretty much glowing over the whole thing! Best. Night. Ever.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Erle M. Leaf House, aka the Residence of the Los Angeles British Consuls-General where Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, stayed in July 2011, is located at 450 South June Street in Hancock Park.

March 30, 2012March 29, 2012

“The Bodyguard” Mansion – aka The Beverly House Compound

After the sad passing of singer Whitney Houston last month, I mentioned to fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, that we should try to track down the mansion where one of Whitney’s most legendary characters, pop star Rachel Marron, lived in 1992’s The Bodyguard. For some very odd reason, I thought that the place had yet to be found, but Mike told me that way back in 2007 he had come across an article on fave website The Real Estalker about “The Beverly House Compound”, the most expensive home then for sale in the United States. In the comments section of the post, someone had reported that the very same mansion had been used as Rachel’s residence in The Bodyguard. How I had not previously come across that information in all my years of stalking is absolutely beyond me, especially considering that the location is one that I have long been itching to stalk. Well, believe you me, once Mike gave me the address, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to Beverly Hills to see the place for myself.

The Beverly House Compound has a vast and storied Hollywood history. It was originally designed by Gordon B. Kaufmann, the very same architect who also designed the Hoover Dam, the Los Angeles Times Building, Scripps College, and the Athenaeum at the California Institute of Technology, a very popular filming location that I have yet to blog about. The Compound was commissioned by banker Milton Gerz in 1927 and cost over $1 million to construct – and we’re talking 1920’s money! In 1947, William Randolph Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies purchased the lavish three-story, 27-room estate, which sat on over 7 acres of land, for $120,000. Hearst died at the residence in 1951, as did Davies in 1961. Legend has it that John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier spent part of their 1953 honeymoon at the property and supposedly the mansion was also used as the West Coast headquarters for the Kennedy Presidential Campaign in 1960.

In 2007, financier Leonard Ross, who purchased The Compound in 1976, put it up for sale for a whopping $165 million, making it the most expensive home on the market in the entire country at the time. In 2010, the estate, minus three acres of land, was re-listed at the reduced price of $95 million. According to several articles, the lavish property, which has been expanded over the years, currently boasts four separate houses, a cottage, an apartment, 72,000 square feet of living space, 29 bedrooms, a two-story library, two movie projection rooms, a living room with a 22-foot arched ceiling, two tennis courts, a tennis pavilion, staff accommodations, a 50-foot entry hall, an 82-foot cascading waterfall, a disco, and three separate pools. You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the mansion on the This and That and More of the Same blog here.

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In The Bodyguard, the exterior of The Beverly House Compound stood in for the exterior of the palatial home where Rachel Marron lived.

All of the interiors of Rachel’s estate were filmed at the nearby Greystone Mansion, though. You can see photographs of the room that was used as Rachel’s fake bedroom here and here.

And you can see a photograph of the Greystone Mansion kitchen here

And for the gate to Rachel’s home a third location was used! The gate actually belongs to the mansion located at 10231 Charing Cross Road in Beverly Hills, which just so happens to be the very same residence where Jeffrey Lebowski (David Huddleston) lived in The Big Lebowski.

A current Google Street View image of that gate is pictured above. And while it looks considerably different today than it did in The Bodyguard, you can see that the basic positioning remains the same.

I tracked down the location of Rachel’s gate thanks to an address number of “10224” that was visible in the background of the scene in which Frank Farmer (Kevin Costner) first arrived at Rachel’s mansion.

That gate also looks considerably different today, but, as you can see above, much like was the case with Rachel’s gate, the basic positioning remains the same.

The Beverly House Compound has been the site of constant filming over the years. In The Godfather, it was used as the mansion where movie producer Jack Woltz (John Marley) lived. Yes, that mansion.

According to The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations website, only the exterior of The Compound was used in the filming, though. All of the interior scenes – including the infamous horse head scene – were shot at an estate located at 95 Middleneck Road on Long Island.

In the Season 1 episode of The Colbys titled “The Turning Point”, the residence stood in for the supposed Rome mansion where Francesca “Frankie”Colby (Katharine Ross) vacationed with Lord Roger Langdon (David Hedison).

Ironically enough, though, in the following episode, which was titled “Thursday’s Child”, Greystone Mansion stood in for that same Rome mansion.

In the 1979 movie The Jerk, the grounds of The Compound were used as the backyard of the home where Navin (Steve Martin) lived after he became rich.

As you can see above, though, the front of Navin’s home was a different location entirely.

In 1985’s Fletch, The Compound was where Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) lived.

The real life interior of the property was also used in the filming.

In 1985’s Into the Night, the mansion was where Jack Caper (Richard Farnsworth) lived.

The real life interior of The Compound was used in the filming of that movie, as well.

Way back in 1966, The Compound was used as the home of Mrs. Sampson (Lauren Bacall) in the thriller Harper.

At that time, the backyard and pool area of the property looked considerably different than they do today.

In the Season 3 episode of Charlie’s Angels titled “Rosemary, for Remembrance”, the mansion was where Jake Garfield (Ramon Bieri) lived.

The real life interior of the mansion was also used in the filming of that episode.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Beverly House Compound, aka Rachel Marron’s mansion from The Bodyguard, is located at 1011 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. Greystone Mansion, which was used as the interior of Rachel’s home, is located at 905 Loma Vista Drive in Beverly Hills. The gate to Rachel’s mansion, which looks considerably different today, is located at 10231 Charing Cross Road in Beverly Hills.

March 20, 2012March 19, 2012

Erin’s Florida House from “The Office”

I would like to start off today’s post by wishing my good friend and fellow stalker Lavonna a VERY HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY! In honor of her big day, I decided that I just had to write about an Office-related locale, because not only it is Lavonna’s very favorite show, but she is actually the person who is responsible for getting me hooked on the series in the first place – for which I will always be grateful. And while I do have a few Office locations in my back pocket, so to speak, as fate would have it, this past Sunday morning I received a timely email from fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, who wanted to let me know that he had just tracked down the supposed Tallahassee, Florida house where Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper) lived in the Season 8 episodes of the series titled “Last Day in Florida” and “Get the Girl”. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place that very afternoon.

The eagle-eyed Geoff tracked this location down thanks to a sign reading “Stagg Street” which he spotted in the background of the scene in which star-crossed lovers Erin and Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) finally kissed in the “Get the Girl” episode. A quick Google search informed Geoff that Stagg Street was located in Panorama City, so he started looking through aerial views of the area and thankfully it was not long before he found the right abode.

As Geoff later pointed out to this directionally-challenged stalker, Erin’s Florida house is actually located directly behind Chandler Valley Center Studios, where The Office is lensed!

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In the “Last Day in Florida” episode of The Office, broken-hearted Erin decides that she will not be returning to Scranton, Pennsylvania once the Sabre “Special Project” has been completed. She winds up being hired as a personal assistant/house cleaner to an “old lady” named Irene (Georgia Engel) and moves into her Tallahassee home. In the following episode, “Get the Girl”, Andy drives out to Florida in order to profess his love to Erin in the hopes that she will quit her new job and return to Scranton with him.

In person, Erin’s Tallahassee house looks much the same as it did onscreen in The Office, minus some Florida-themed foliage and the dolphin water fountain that Andy tried to fix in the “Get the Girl” episode. In real life, the tiny dwelling, which was originally built in 1951, measures 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, and 1,040 square feet. I have only been to Florida once, when I was about three years old, and do not remember much about it, but the GC spent quite a few of his childhood years in the Sunshine State, so I asked him if the abode looked like one that would be found there. His answer, “No, not at all.” LOL (The building that is visible behind the house in the above photographs is Chandler Valley Center Studios. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to live that close to where The Office is filmed!)

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the property was also used in the episodes.

The intersection where Andy and Erin kissed is located a block and a half north of the house, but, unfortunately, I did not realize that at the time, so I did not take any photographs of it.

On an Office side-note – I was beyond floored when I recognized that the supposed Tallahassee, Florida hotel where the gang stayed during the “Special Project” episodes (“Tallahassee”, “After Hours”, “Test the Store”, “Last Day in Florida”, and “Get the Girl”) was actually the Hyatt Regency Valencia, the very same hotel which appeared in the first Twilight movie and which I stalked way back in November of 2009. Quite a bit of the property was used in the five episodes, including the front exterior;

several rooms;

the main lobby;

and Vines Restaurant and Bar.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location and a very big HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY to my good friend Lavonna! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Erin’s “Florida” house from the “Last Day in Florida” and “Get the Girl” episodes of The Office is located at 7777 Cherrystone Avenue in Panorama City. The home backs up to Chandler Valley Center Studios, where The Office is filmed, which is located at 13927 Saticoy Street in Van Nuys. Erin and Andy kissed in the “Get the Girl” episode just up the street from the house at the intersection of Stagg Street and Cherrystone Avenue. The “Tallahassee, Florida” hotel where the gang stayed during the “Special Project” episodes is the Hyatt Regency Valencia, which is located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

March 6, 2012March 5, 2012

George Valentin’s Duplex from “The Artist”

As I mentioned way back in early 2010 in my post about Julia Child’s childhood home, one of the best parts about being in the Screen Actors Guild is the fact that all Guild members are sent several “For Your Consideration” DVDs just prior to the SAG Awards each year. One of the DVDs that I received this particular year was The Artist and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Out of all of the movies nominated, I definitely think it deserved to win the Best Picture Oscar for 2012. The concept was completely novel, the cinematography beautiful, the acting stellar, and best of all, in my opinion at least, was the fact that it featured numerous Los Angeles-area locations. It was actually My Week with Marilyn, though, that knocked my socks off and won my SAG vote for “Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role”. Michelle Williams was absolutely PHENOMENAL in it and not only managed to capture Marilyn’s walk, voice and mannerisms, but also that quality that MM had of not being able to take your eyes off of her. How that characteristic can be acted is absolutely beyond me, but Michelle did it, and seamlessly at that. I honestly cannot say enough good things about My Week with Marilyn or Michelle’s performance in it and I am beyond saddened that she did not take home the Academy Award! I mean, honestly, how many does Meryl Streep really need? But I digress. Anyway, as soon as I finished watching The Artist, I, of course, immediately started searching for the many locales featured in it, the most important of which was the duplex where silent film actor George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) lived towards the end of the flick. Thankfully, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, was able to track it down fairly quickly for me, and the two of us dropped by to stalk it while in the area a couple of weeks ago.

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In The Artist, George Valentin sees his career falter during the advance of “talking” pictures, much like real-life silent film actor Douglas Fairbanks, on whom the character of George seems to be loosely based. After divorcing his wife Doris (Penelope Ann Miller), George is forced to move out of his ornate Hollywood estate – which is located inside of the gated Fremont Place neighborhood in Hancock Park, just a few doors down from the Taken mansion, which just so happens to be where Peppy Miller (the absolutely adorable Berenice Bejo) lived in The Artist – and into the duplex pictured above. It is while living in the duplex that George (SPOILER ALERT) burns copies of his former films, accidentally setting fire to the property and almost killing himself in the process.

I sent screen captures of George’s duplex to Mike shortly after I first watched The Artist and, like me, he was convinced that the property was located somewhere in Hancock Park. And while we spent more than a few fruitless hours looking for it there, we both came up completely empty-handed. It was not until Mike expanded his search a couple of miles to the south that he finally found the right place, just a few blocks north of the 10 Freeway. And I am very happy to report that the building, which in real life was originally built in 1924, looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen.

As does the sidewalk in front of the duplex, which also appeared in the movie.

Because the interior of George’s residence was very non-descript and because the ceilings were abnormally high, I am fairly certain that a set was used and not the actual duplex.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: George Valentin’s duplex from The Artist is located at 4056 West 21st Street in the Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles.

February 23, 2012February 22, 2012

The Milbank Mansion – aka Chapman Academy Preschool from “Daddy Day Care”

A couple of weeks ago, Tony, my friend and fellow stalker who has the fabulous On Location in Los Angeles Flickr photostream (seriously, it’s amazing – go check it out!), asked me for some help in tracking down the ginormous Mediterranean mansion that stood in for the prestigious Chapman Academy Preschool in the 2003 comedy Daddy Day Care. Tony had informed me that the residence was used regularly for filming and that it had also been featured recently in the Season 10 episode of fave show CSI: Miami titled “By the Book”. So I started doing some research on oft-filmed-at Mediterranean estates in Los Angeles and, amazingly, fairly quickly came across a photograph of a gorgeous Country Club Park property named the Milbank Mansion that, sure enough, was the right spot. So, while Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were out doing some stalking in the area this past Monday morning, we stopped by the place. And I have to say that it is pretty darn incredible in person! Not to mention pretty darn huge!

The Milbank Mansion was originally built in 1913 for prominent local businessman Isaac Milbank and his wife, Virginia. The 12-bedroom, 5-bath, 10,059-square-foot home, which sits on 1.79 acres of land, was designed by G. Laurence Stimson, the very same architect who also gave us the legendary Wrigley Mansion, now the Tournament of Roses House, in Pasadena. The estate is located in the heart of Country Club Park – a historic 250-acre neighborhood situated on the site of the original Los Angeles Country Club, which closed its doors in 1905. The area was developed and subdivided by none other than Isaac Milbank himself, along with a business partner named George Chase, beginning in 1906. The Milbank Mansion, which, according to a June 1988 Los Angeles Times article, is “considered to be the most substantial surviving estate built for a single family in the city of Los Angeles before World War I”, became a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument on December 13, 1989. You can see some interior photographs of the property here.

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In Daddy Day Care, both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the Milbank Mansion were used as the Chapman Academy Preschool.

In the Season 10 Halloween-themed episode of CSI: Miami titled “By the Book”, the mansion stood in for the island estate where a female body that had been entirely drained of blood was found hanging upside down.

The interior of the estate was also used in the episode.

In the 1929 silent film Wrong Again, the exterior of the Milbank Mansion was used as the residence where stable hands Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy mistakenly returned a horse named “Blue Boy” thinking they would be able to collect on some reward money being offered for a missing painting also known as “Blue Boy”.

In the 1975 film noir Farewell, My Lovely, both the interior and the exterior of the Milbank Mansion stood in for the brothel belonging to “L.A.’s famous madam” Francis Amthor (Kate Murtagh). Of the estate, detective Phillip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum) says, “It was an old house, built as they once built them and don’t build them anymore. Fitting and proper for housing the world’s oldest profession.”

In 2006’s Running with Scissors, the interior of the mansion stood in for the home where Dr. Finch (Brian Cox) lived with his crazy family – wife Agnes (Jill Clayburgh) and daughters Hope (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Natalie (Evan Rachel Wood). The property was dressed rather heavily for the production, though, and is virtually unrecognizable onscreen.

As you can see above, for the exterior of Dr. Finch’s mansion a different location was used.

The Milbank Mansion was also supposedly featured in Harold Lloyd’s 1922 silent film Dr. Jack, the 1971 movie Hit Man, and the reality series Beauty and the Geek, but unfortunately I could not find copies of any of those productions to verify that information. And while several websites have stated that the property also appeared in the 2001 biopic Ali, I scanned through the movie yesterday while making screen captures for this post and did not see it anywhere.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Tony for asking me to find this location! You can check out Tony’s FANTASTIC On Location in Los Angeles Flickr photostream here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Milbank Mansion, aka the Chapman Academy Preschool from Daddy Day Care, is located at 3340 Country Club Drive in the Country Club Park section of Los Angeles.

February 22, 2012February 21, 2012

The Interior of the “Bruce Almighty” Party House

In honor of my girl Jen Aniston receiving the 2,642^nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today (a ceremony that I will actually not be attending because, after the debacle that was the Horrible Bosses premiere this past summer, I have a severe aversion to any event that has the potential of being too crowded or too chaotic), I thought that I would blog about a location from her 2003 romantic comedy Bruce Almighty. As I mentioned this past July in my post about the Stern House in Pasadena, which stood in for the exterior of the supposed Buffalo, New York-area Vanderbilt Estate where the Channel 7 news team threw a party in honor of Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) in the flick, I was fairly certain that a different property had been used for the interior. And for the past seven months or so, I had been just a wee-bit obsessed with tracking down that interior. Unfortunately though, while I searched through countless real estate listings and location websites during my hunt, I had come up completely empty-handed.

The most memorable aspect of the interior of the Bruce Almighty party house was the two-story front entrance foyer and its dual curving staircases.

Back in July, while researching the Stern House, I had come across a picture of Jen sitting at the foot of one of those staircases on IMDB’s Bruce Almighty photo page and, it will come as no surprise, that it soon became embedded in my memory.

So when I spotted that very same staircase pop up in the mansion belonging to wealthy steel businessman Henry Rearden (Grant Bowler) in the 2011 movie Atlas Shrugged: Part I a couple of weeks ago, I just about died! I, of course, immediately started doing research on Atlas Shrugged filming locations (in fact, I did not even finish watching the film, I became so obsessed!) and fairly quickly found an article in which a commenter had stated that Frank’s residence was located in La Canada Flintridge, across the street from the 2011 Pasadena Showcase House of Design. And while it would seem that it would be fairly easy to track down the 2011 Showcase House, for whatever maddening reason, I could not find it anywhere! Fortunately, after spending countless hours searching by myself, I decided to enlist the help of fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who texted me back a few minutes later with an address. THANK YOU, Mike! So, this past Monday afternoon, while the two of us were out doing some stalking in the San Gabriel Valley, we ran right over there to take some pics.

In real life, the estate, which was originally built in 1993 by architect Wayne Siggard, boasts 5 bedrooms, 7 baths, a whopping 11,700 square feet of living space!!!, and an almost 2-acre plot of land. The mansion, which, as you can see above, is pretty darn spectacular, is currently listed on MLS for a cool $7,950,000, although it does look like a sale might be pending. You can visit the home’s real estate website here. Oh, what I would not give to see the inside of that place in person!

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In Bruce Almighty, the interior of the mansion was used extensively during the party scene and the master bedroom area was where Grace Connelly (Jennifer Aniston) caught Bruce in a passionate embrace with his “Spanish-accented” co-anchor, Susan Ortega (Catherine Bell).

The estate was also used extensively in Atlas Shrugged: Part I. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property appeared in the movie.

And the very same bedroom where Bruce and Susan kissed in Bruce Almighty was also featured as the bedroom of Henry and his wife, Lillian Rearden (Rebecca Wisocky), in Atlas Shrugged.

Photographs of the magnificent stairwell that I spent over seven months searching for are pictured above. Sigh! What I wouldn’t give to sit on them to pose for a photograph like Jen did!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The interior of the Bruce Almighty party house, aka Henry Rearden’s mansion from Atlas Shrugged: Part I, is located at 4158 Commonwealth Avenue in La Canada Flintridge.

February 21, 2012February 20, 2012

The “You, Me and Dupree” House – Revisited

Today’s location is one that I have actually already once blogged about – way back in April of 2008 – but because it was a fairly short write-up and because I somehow missed one very pertinent detail when reporting on the place, I decided that it was most-definitely worthy of a re-post. The location? The adorable Craftsman-style bungalow where newlyweds Carl (Matt Dillon) and Molly (Kate Hudson) lived in the 2006 romantic comedy You, Me and Dupree. Fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took me by the property and pointed out the detail that I had inadvertently missed while the two of us were out doing some stalking in the West Adams district a couple of weeks ago and, let me tell you, I just about fell over from shock. I could hardly believe my eyes when he pointed it out! What is this detail, you ask?

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As you can see in the screen captures pictured above, in You, Me and Dupree Carl and Molly’s residence appears to be two stories tall.

In reality, though, and as you can see above, the home, which was built in 1923, is a ONE-story dwelling! How I missed that fact the first time around is absolutely beyond me, especially being that I usually consider myself to be quite an observant little stalker. I must have been in the midst of a severe blonde moment when I originally stalked the property! I am not sure if a fake second level was built on top of the bungalow during the filming or if one was digitally added during post-production, but, either way, I was absolutely gobsmacked (LOVE that word!) when Mike pointed out the discrepancy!

According to Zillow, in real life the 1,726-square-foot house boasts 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, but Property Shark tracks the place at 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, so someone seems to have gotten their wires crossed with the measurements at some point.

Being that Carl and Molly’s living room was dominated by a set of stairs that led up to the home’s fake second level, the real life interior of the property was, obviously, not used in the filming. The inside of their house was, in actuality, just a set that was built on a soundstage at Universal Studios Hollywood. According to fave website Hooked on Houses, of the set, directors Joe and Anthony Russo said in the movie’s DVD commentary, “We tried to make Carl and Molly’s world sort of warm and accessible and you’ll see that in the choice of their house. It’s an older home, modest in scale, and the neighborhood feels like it’s been there awhile.”

Also according to Hooked on Houses, the scene pictured above, in which Carl watches Dupree (Owen Wilson) play baseball with some neighborhood kids, was actually filmed from inside of the real life home, because the directors wanted to “capture the look you can only get through old glass.” It has been said that “God is in the details” and it is the little details like this that I absolutely LOVE hearing about.

According to IMDB’s You, Me and Dupree trivia page, the set used for the interior of Molly and Carl’s house was the same one used for the residence of Hope (Mel Harris) and Michael Steadman (Ken Olin) on the 1980s television series thirtysomething. But, as you can see above, while slightly similar, the two are most definitely not one in the same.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for pointing out the discrepancy in the number of stories of the You, Me and Dupree house.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The You, Me and Dupree house is located at 2406 Gramercy Park in the West Adams District of Los Angeles.

February 14, 2012February 14, 2012

Robert Reed’s Former Home

I (along with cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!) would like to start out today by wishing all of my fellow stalkers a very happy Valentine’s Day! And now, on with the post!

A couple of weeks ago, while doing research on the Nanny and the Professor house, I happened to stumble upon an article on my friend Scott Michaels’ FindADeath website about Robert Reed, the Shakespearian-trained actor who is most famous for having portrayed architect/patriarch Mike Brady on the 1970s television sitcom The Brady Bunch. And, let me tell you, I almost fell right out of my chair when I read the portion of the article which stated that the star had lived the majority of his later years right here in Pasadena. Come again, now? How in the world had I not previously known this information?? Especially considering that The Brady Bunch is one of my favorite shows of all time! I mean, why on earth is this data not posted right there on the homepage of the official City of Pasadena website, or on a plaque on the walls of City Hall itself?? It is a pretty major claim to fame – in my eyes at least! Sheesh! Do I have to think of everything? Anyway, I was so excited about the news that I ran right out to stalk the place later that same week.

According to Zillow, Robert Reed’s former home, which was originally built in 1947 and sits on almost half an acre of land, boasts 3 bedrooms, 4 baths, and 4,400 square feet of living space. There seems to be a bit of a discrepancy somewhere, though, because the Property Shark website has a differing set of statistics which state that the abode measures 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, and 4,010 square feet of living space. And, unfortunately, I am unsure of which information is correct. Either way, I cannot express how incredibly cool I think it is that Robert Reed, who was a household name and an instantly recognizable star at the time, lived in a dwelling that was largely visible from the street. Love it!

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According to his death certificate, which can be viewed on the FindADeath website, Robert Reed passed away at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena on Tuesday, May 12th, 1992, and not at his home as several websites have stated. The actor was 59 years old at the time. His funeral was held at All Saints Church in Pasadena, an oft-filmed-at location that I have yet to blog about, and he is buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Skokie, Illinois. According to a commenter named Rita on the FindADeath site, the home pictured above was not Robert Reed’s first Pasadena-area residence. The star, who was born John Robert Rietz, originally purchased a property located at 1210 South Arroyo Boulevard sometime during the mid-sixties. That gargantuan abode, which boasts 3 bedrooms, 5 baths, a whopping 9,218 square feet, and 0.84 acres of land, is, sadly, not at all visible from the street, though, so I did not attempt to stalk it. Reed sold his original Pasadena residence sometime around 1985, at which point he moved about a half a mile east, into the sprawling Spanish-style home where he would live out the remainder of his years.

Big THANK YOU to Scott Michaels, from the FindADeath website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Robert Reed’s former house is located at 980 Stoneridge Drive in Pasadena. The Cravens Estate, from Commander in Chief and JAG, is located right around the corner at 430 Madeline Drive in Pasadena.

February 2, 2012February 1, 2012

La Villa Consolata – The Day Spa from the “Driven” Episode of “CSI: Miami”

Back in January, a fellow stalker named Brandi left a comment on my post about the mansion from The Beverly Hillbillies movie informing me that the property’s indoor spa had not actually been used in the Season 4 episode of CSI: Miami titled “Driven”, as I had originally presumed, but that that spa could actually be found at a different ostentatious estate, this one on Mapleton Drive in Beverly Hills. One quick online search and I discovered that Brandi was, indeed, correct and I immediately added the residence to my “To-Stalk” list. As fate would have it, just a few days later, the Grim Cheaper and I happened to be watching the 2001 romantic comedy Good Advice (for about the hundredth time, mind you – it is one of our favorite movies EVER!) and I just about fell off the couch when I spotted the very same spa from CSI: Miami! So I decided that I just HAD to stalk the estate as soon as possible and dragged the GC right on out there this past Saturday afternoon.

As you can see above, in real life, the “Driven” mansion is absolutely GINORMOUS and actually looks more like a palace than a private residence. In fact, according to the Wikinfo website, the property is one of the largest single family homes in all of the United States! Ironically enough, while we were stalking the dwelling, a Hollywood tour van happened to pull up and the guide announced that the estate had once been leased by Donatella Versace, to which the GC yelled out, “It was also featured in an episode of CSI: Miami!” Thanks for having my back, honey! Smile And while I cannot find any information online to back up the Donatella Versace claim, it does look like exactly the sort of place that I would imagine her living. There are also a few internet reports floating around that the home was lived in (at different times, of course) by both Janet Jackson and Tommy Hilfiger, but I believe that information is incorrect. According to CurbedLA, the residence was originally built in 1993 by Pacific-Brokerage-Services-founder Steven Wallace and was awarded to his ex-wife, Jo-Anne, in their divorce shortly thereafter. Current property records show that Jo-Anne still owns the mansion to this day, although it is possible she rented it out to various celebrities over the years.

As you can see in the above photographs from the home’s MLS listing, the 6-bedroom, 7-bath, 27,816-square-foot abode, which sits on 1.15 well-manicured acres of land, is nothing short of unbelievable! The property, dubbed “La Villa Consolata”, features a whopping eight fireplaces!, a domed entryway, a gourmet kitchen, formal gardens, a gym, an indoor and an outdoor pool, a massage room, a game room, a two-level library (which I would give anything to have in my own home!), a master bedroom wing, three elevators!, staff quarters, three family rooms, a detached theater, a guard house, a wine cellar, and a three-level underground disco named “Atlantis”! Who knew that those kinds of amenities were even available in homes?!?! And while the residence has been on and off the market for a couple of years now, it seems to currently be back on again at the bargain price of $27.5 million. You can check out the dwelling’s real estate website and see more photographs of it in all of its ornate grandeur here.

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In the “Driven” episode of CSI: Miami, La Villa Consolata stood in for a supposed Dade-County-area day spa where a group of wealthy women are robbed at gunpoint.

The mansion’s indoor lap pool was used extensively in the episode.

That pool area is pictured above and I have to say that it is pretty darn magnificent!

The interior of La Villa Consolata also masqueraded as a second location in “Driven”. Towards the end of the episode, the mansion stood in for the residence belonging to Cynthia Gilmore (Jacqueline Pinol), where a home-invasion robbery took place.

In Good Advice, La Villa Consolata’s indoor pool is where Cathy Sherman (Rosanna Arquette) attends a yoga class and gets interrupted by a phone call from her husband, Barry Sherman (Jon Lovitz). I SO love that Cathy has a coffee with her while practicing yoga, by the way! SO something I would do! Smile

In the Season 1 episode of Charmed titled “The Wedding from Hell”, La Villa Consolata’s front exterior;

interior;

and backyard stood in for the mansion where Mrs. Grace Spencer (Barbara Stock) lived.

Oddly enough, though, the mansion grounds shown in the beginning of the episode are unmistakably those of The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, which I blogged about way back in October of 2008. I have no idea why two different locations would be used to stand in for the same backyard, but I am guessing that it was some sort of a timing issue in which La Villa Consolata was not available for the entire stretch of time that was needed to film “The Wedding from Hell”, so producers found a similar-looking spot to double for it in certain scenes.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Brandi for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: La Villa Consolata, aka the mansion from Good Advice, the “Driven” episode of CSI: Miami and “The Wedding from Hell” episode of Charmed, is located at 330 South Mapleton Drive in the Holmby Hills section of Los Angeles. The home used for all of the backyard scenes in Mommie Dearest is located across the street at 355 South Mapleton Drive.