The “Mr. Deeds” House

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One location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has being dying to stalk for ages now is Winona Ryder’s red-doored childhood home from the 2002 Adam Sandler comedy Mr. Deeds.  Mike had asked for my help in tracking down this location a couple of months ago, but, for some reason, even our two heads working together couldn’t seem to find it.  So, this past week, I enlisted the help of fellow stalkers Chas and Owen, and, incredibly, it wasn’t more than a couple of hours later that I got a text from Chas saying he had found the house!  🙂   I’m telling you, there’s nothing he can’t find!!!  Thank you, Chas! 

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Even though in the movie Winona says that she grew up in the fictional town of Westchestertonfieldville, Iowa, Mike and I were fairly certain that her childhood home was located somewhere in the Pasadena area.  And, sure enough, we were right!!  🙂    So, of course, once I had the address I immediately ran right out to stalk it.  And I am happy to report that, aside from a pretty big difference in paint color, the house is still very recognizable from the film.  The home is absolutely adorable in person and it’s not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it as Winona’s idyllic, small town childhood home.

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The Mr. Deeds  house only shows up in one very brief scene in the movie.  In the scene, Adam Sandler takes Winona, who is posing as school nurse Pam Dawson, to what he thinks is her former childhood home in what he thinks is her former hometown.  Pam had described her childhood home in Westchestertonfieldville as being “a big Victorian right off Main Street, with blue shutters and a big red door and a tire swing in the front yard.”   Adam spots the house pictured above and – even though it doesn’t look at all Victorian to me LOL – assumes it is the one she had described.

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Adam then proceeds to knock on the home’s red door and tells the three children who currently live there that Winona grew up in their house.   Shocked, one of the kids says “My daddy built this house with his bare hands six years ago” to which Winona replies “Well, your daddy is a liar!”  LOL LOL LOL   Sadly, in real life the front door of the home is blue, not red, but I am guessing that the entire home was most likely repainted for the filming and then changed back to its original coloring after the production wrapped.   If I was the homewoner, I so would have left the filming paint on the house, as I think it looked a lot prettier in the movie than it does now.  🙂

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The filmmakers actually “cheated” quite a bit in the filming of this scene.   When Adam and Winona first walk down her former street, they are supposedly walking on the sidewalk across the street from her childhood home.  In actuality, though, they are walking  in front of the home located directly next door to the Mr. Deeds  house.  While stalking the place, I immediately recognized the wooden fence pictured above, which actually surrounds the neighbor’s property.  LOL

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Making matters even more complicated is the fact that the home Adam and Winona stop in front of in the scene, which supposedly stands directly across from the Mr. Deeds  house, is actually located about three houses down and across the street.    Confused yet?  So was I!  😉

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Pictured above is the home that is actually located across the street from the Mr. Deeds  house.  I guess it didn’t have the look the producers were going for in the scene, but wow, it sure seems like a lot of trouble to go to to film one very brief scene that barely took up thirty seconds of the movie.  LOL   

 Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Mr. Deeds  house is located at 989 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena.  The house that is supposedly located across the street from the Mr. Deeds house can be found at 1026 South Madison.  The home with the wooden fence that Adam and Winona walk in front of is located at 999 South Madison.

A Peek Inside the Pink House from “13 Going On 30”

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As I mentioned in Monday’s post, this past weekend, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I actually got to GO INSIDE the pink house featured at the end of fave romantic comedy 13 Going On 30.  Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I absolutely LOVE 13 Going On 30 and that Jenna’s pink Craftsman style home is one of my very favorite filming locations of all time!   Mike actually found this location for me back in May of 2008, after what seemed like MONTHS of me begging him to track it down.  LOL  But even though Mike was the one who actually located the house, he had yet to stalk it himself.  So, I just HAD to take him there on Saturday while the two of us were in the area. 

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 As fate would have it, when I first blogged about Jenna’s pink house back in May of 2008, the real life homeowner, an AMAZINGLY NICE woman named Mimi, happened to stumble upon my site and was amazed to see a post dedicated to her residence.  LOL  Mimi ended up leaving me a comment where she mentioned that after the filming of 13 Going On 30  had been completed, she and her husband asked the production crew who were repainting the house back to its original color to leave one brick pink in memory of the movie.  HOW COOL IS THAT????  So, when I took Mike to stalk the place on Saturday, the two of us stood there on the sidewalk for quite some time, scrutinizing every square inch of the house looking for that brick.  LOL  Well, Mimi happened to see us through her front window and came outside to say hello.  She recognized me from my site and said “Do you want to see the pink brick?”  Well, as you can imagine, I just about DIED.  I had been itching to see that brick ever since I first read her comment over a year ago!   🙂

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The brick is actually located on the rear side of a post in the driveway area of the home and I could NOT have been more excited to be seeing it in person!!!!!  I can’t tell you how cool it is that Mimi and her husband left that one brick pink!  I SO SO SO LOVE IT!  Mimi is truly a woman after my own heart!  🙂  Except, knowing me, I probably would have left the whole house pink!  LOL  🙂

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Then, just as I was about to die of excitement over seeing that brick, Mimi asked us if we wanted to come inside to see the living room area where they had also filmed!!!!  DID WE WANT TO COME INSIDE?????  DID WE WANT TO COME INSIDE??????  LOL  OF COURSE WE DID!  Well, it turns out that the mantle area shown in the movie was a fake that was built solely for the filming in what is really Mimi’s dining room.  The production crew covered over the large window pictured above with a fake wall, a fake fireplace, and a fake mantle.  Mimi said that the crew spent about a week building one fireplace, only to have the producers not like it.  So, they ended up having to rip it out and build a new one entirely from scratch.  She said it was an amazingly intricate fireplace made out of tile, but, ironically enough, after what amounted to two weeks of construction on two different fireplaces, neither one was ever seen in the movie. LOL LOL LOL  In the scene when Jenna is unpacking photographs, the camera never shows anything below the top right corner of the mantle area.   So, all of that fireplace construction was pretty much for naught.  Only in Hollywood, I swear!     

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Adding to the irony is the fact that there is already a fireplace and a mantle in the house that  could have been used in the scene!  LOL   Too funny! 

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I can’t tell you how exciting it was to be able to see the interiors of the home in person and to hear all of the behind-the-scenes info!  Truly a once in a lifetime!   All in all,  filming at the house took two weeks to complete, including the painting and construction time.  The actual filming of the scene between Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo took less than one day to shoot.  LOL  And, amazingly enough, the pink house scene wasn’t the movie’s original ending, but a re-shoot that was filmed after the first ending didn’t fare well with test audiences.

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Mimi’s house has also been featured in a commercial and the Season 2 episode of Cold Case entitled “Who’s Your Daddy”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The pink house from 13 Going On 30  is located at 1965 Fletcher Avenue in South Pasadena, just a few doors down from the Step by Step  house, which is located at 2011 Fletcher.  The house from Kelly Clarkson’s Because Of You video is located across the street at 2006 Fletcher Ave.  Please respect the owner’s privacy and don’t trepass, knock on the door, or ask to be let inside.   Mike and I were extremely lucky to be invited inside the house, but as this is not common practice, please don’t bother the owner about doing it yourself.   

The “Step by Step” House

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One location fellow stalker Owen has been on the lookout for for quite some time now is the house where the Lambert Family lived in the 1990’s television sitcom Step by Step.  Because of the house’s Crafstman style architecture, Owen was pretty convinced that it was located somewhere in South Pasadena, a city which is known for its Crafstman style homes.  Well, back in June while doing some research for my blog, I was fortunate enough to meet a SUPER NICE woman who works in the South Pasadena film office, so I emailed her to ask if she might know the location of the house.  The woman, who can usually name South Pasadena film locations right off the top of her head – SO LOVE IT! – didn’t happen to know anything about this particular location, but I did get an email from her a couple of hours later telling me that she had found the house!   YAY!

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While doing some preliminary stalking, Owen had been able to discern that the address number of the house was “201”.  So, my SP film contact started playing around with different 201 address numbers in Google Maps until she landed upon the Step by Step  house!  In reality, the address number turned out to be “2011”, not “201”, but somehow my contact was able to find it anyway!   See, I told you she was super nice!  🙂  Most film location people won’t even give me the time of day, let alone spending a couple of hours of their time looking for a house for me!   Love it!!!! 

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So this past Saturday, with the address in hand, Mike from MovieShotsLA and I went out to stalk the Step by Step  house.   We actually had some amazing stalking karma that day, because not only did we get let into the Father of the Bride backyard and inside the 13 Going On 30  house (those posts will be written soon, I promise!), but we also got to speak with the owner of the Step by Step  house who just happened to be standing on his front porch when we pulled up.  He said NO ONE ever recognizes the house and was absolutely AMAZED that we had.  LOL  Apparently he didn’t know who he was dealing with.  His grandmother owned the house at the time the show was filmed and he told us that no filming actually took place inside the house, nor does the inside look anything like the set that was built for the show.  He also said that he never got to meet the actors as they were never a part of the filming that took place at the house.   He was SUPER nice, though, and told us to take all the pictures we wanted.  🙂  And I am happy to report that the house looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when Step by Step premiered over 18 years ago!  Unbelievable!  

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Ironically enough, part of the Step by Step  opening credits was also filmed in South Pasadena, just around the corner from the house.   In the very beginning of the credits the family’s Ford Explorer is seen passing by a sign reading “Port Washington, Wisconson, Population 9,336”.  Well, that scene was filmed a good 2,000 miles away from Port Washington on a street named Meridian Avenue in South Pasadena!  You can watch the Step by Step opening credits here.

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The building shown in the credits is actually South Pasadena’s oldest commercial building.  It currently houses the South Pasadena Historical Museum and the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation, but way back in 1887 the building was the site of the city’s grocery store.  

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A little bit of television trivia for you – the remainder of the Step by Step  opening credits were filmed at SixFlag’s Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia.  Producers digitally added water over Magic Moutain’s real life parking lot to make it appear as if the roller coaster the family rides on was overlooking the beach.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Step by Step  house is located at 2011 Fletcher Avenue in South Pasadena.  The beginning of the series’ opening credits was filmed in front of the Meridian Iron Works Museum, which is located at 913 Meridian Avenue, also in South Pasadena. 

The “Rumor Has It” House

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Out of the blue last week, fellow stalker Owen and I became a bit obsessed with finding the white clapboard colonial style home used in the 2005 Jen Aniston movie Rumor Has It.  For some extremely odd reason, neither Owen (who is also a HUGE JA fan) nor I had ever tried to locate the house before.  I didn’t especially love the movie, though, in spite of the fact that it starred my girl Jen, so that’s probably why I never sought it out.  But, last week, when Owen mentioned the movie to me, we both got the exact same thought in our head at the exact same time – “We have GOT to find that house!”  LOL  And find it, we did!  Well, he did, actually!

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Even though the movie supposedly takes places in Pasadena and even though the house looks like a very typical Pasadena area home – there’s a white clapboard colonial on practically every corner here – I was convinced that, in typical Hollywood fashion, the house would most likely be located elsewhere.  Because Pasadena stands in for pretty much every city in pretty much every state in pretty much every movie LOL, it seemed only fitting that when a production called for a Pasadena area home, the location scouts would find it in a city other than Pasadena. LOL

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So, imagine my surprise when Owen texted me to let me know that he had found the house exactly where the movie said it would be.   While searching the IMDB Rumor Has It message boards he found a thread entitled “White Colonial In Pasadena Used As Movie Set” where a man had written the following entry: “It was quite a shock seeing Rumor Has it while flying back to Boston.  I suddenly recognized the home my grandfather built in Pasadena at 717 South Hudson Avenue in 1920 and that I lived in briefly in 1946-47 while my father built a new home near the Annandale golf course. Not often that one sees one’s childhood home used as a movie set — and sees Shirley MacLaine walking out the front door or Kevin Costner arriving.”   So, Owen googled the address and, sure enough, it was the house!!    THANK YOU, IMDB!

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So, of course, as soon as I had the address, I immediately ran right out to stalk the house!  🙂   Surprisingly enough, I had actually parked RIGHT in front of the Rumor Has It house just two weeks prior while stalking the Dickie Roberts house, which is ironically located just two doors down!!!!    I felt like such an airhead for not recognizing the house at the time, but, in my defense, it actually looks quite different in person than it did in the movie. The paint color has been changed from white and forest green to more muted tones and, sadly, the house just isn’t as charming in person as it was in Rumor Has It.  Don’t get me wrong, the house is cute, it’s just not AS cute as it was in the movie.  But there was also something else that looked quite different to me that I just couldn’t put my finger on – until I got home.

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In person, the house seemed much smaller than it did in Rumor Has It and I couldn’t figure out why until I was able to compare screen captures from the movie to the photographs I had just taken.  As you can see in the above screen capture, producers actually put large hedges over the real driveway of the home and extended the curb and grass area on the sidewalk in front of the driveway, making the front yard appear much larger than it actually is.

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In the scene when Jen Aniston’s father pulls up to the house, he actually parks in the real life home’s neighboring driveway (pictured above)!  LOL  Why go to all of that trouble just to give the illusion that the house is larger than it actually is?  Why not just film at a bigger house?  As I mentioned above there are houses similar to this one on practically every Pasadena street corner.   LOL  Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

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But even though the house looked quite different in person than it did in the movie, I was still absolutely floored to be stalking it!  It was soooo exciting to think that my girl Jen – and Shirley MacLaine and Kevin Costner –  had once stood on the very same sidewalk that I was now standing on.  🙂  LOVE IT!

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Had to do it!  🙂

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Rumor Has It house is located at 717 South Hudson Avenue in Pasadena, just two houses down from the home used in Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.

The Walsh House – Circa August 2009

UPDATE 2/18/10 – The Casa Walsh garage has been torn down in the months since I wrote this post. You can see pictures of the rubble here. And to see the inside of the real Walsh house, click here.

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My fiance tried to talk me out of writing this post today, but it just seemed to be too important of an item for me to ignore.  As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, last week, while giving a stalking tour of Pasadena to my good friend Kerry and her husband Jim, I drove by the Walsh House from fave TV show Beverly Hills, 90210 and almost had a full blown panic attack right there in my car!  While cruising down Altadena Drive, I, Lindsay Blake, almost passed right by my favorite stalking location of all time without even recognizing it!!!!!  I actually turned to Kerry at one point and said, “Wait a minute!  Where’s the 90210 house???”  What I didn’t realize at that time was that some pretty major changes had been made to the exterior of the house rendering it almost unrecognizable to me.  OK, OK, maybe I’m being slighty melodramatic here, but, let me tell you, the whole experience was pretty JARRING.  I mean, not only had a large hedge been removed from the Walsh’s driveway, but their entire house had been PAINTED PINK!   Oh, Jack, say it ain’t so!

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Ironically enough, when I showed my fiance photographs of the newly painted 90210 house, he said “What are you talking about??  It looks exactly the same as it always did!  You CANNOT write a post about that!”  LOL LOL LOL  It’s amazing to me how two people can have such differing views of the same exact thing.  To me, the difference in the house’s appearance was absolutely STAGGERING, yet my fiance didn’t even notice it!  Men!  LOL  I also showed the photos to my mom, though, who said “THAT’S what you’re so upset about?  From the way you were talking, I thought they had painted the house black or something!”  LOL  OK, OK, I will concede that the paint color isn’t that different, but I guess because the 90210 house is so cemented in my memory, any change in its appearance, no matter how minor, is going to seem huge.   And, to be fair, the paint color doesn’t show up well in pictures.  In person, the house is PINK!  Anyway, against my fiance’s better judgement, I just had to write a post today about the house and how it looks post-paint.

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Also altering the appearance of the house was the removal of the large hedge which used to stand along the West side of the Walsh’s driveway.  As you can see in the two screen captures pictured above, the hedge used to run the length of the driveway, separating the Walsh property from that of their neighbor’s.

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But, as you can see in the above photographs, that hedge has been completely removed, which only adds to the difference in the home’s appearance, especially if you approach it from the West.

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At least the garage still looks pretty much the same as it always did – minus Brandon’s basketball hoop, of course.  Last November, when Mike and I met Jack, the owner of the house, he told us that he was in the process of remodeling his garage and we both got looks of absolute HORROR on our faces!  Jack laughed and said “What?  Is it a crime to change the Walsh garage or something?”   To which both Mike and I replied with a resounding “YES!”  LOL  Obviously Jack didn’t heed our words of wisdown, though!  SUCH A BUMMER!

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I guess it’s really true what they say – the only constant is change.  But this is one filming location I was convinced would stay as fixed in real life as it is in my memory.  🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Walsh house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1675 East Altadena Drive in Altadena, CA.

The Jerry Maguire House

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A couple of months ago, I gave Mike, from MovieShotsLA, the mission of locating Dorothy Boyd’s house from the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire.   From a quick internet search, Mike was able to ascertain that Dorothy’s tiny yellow house was located in an area of Manhattan Beach known as the “Tree Section”.  The home’s exact location, though, was not mentioned anywhere online and since Google Maps Street View is not available in Manhattan Beach, we were unable to locate the house using the internet.  So, two weeks ago, Mike and I set about to stalk Manhattan Beach’s Tree Section in person.  Our plan was to literally drive up and down each street in the neighborhood until we found Dorothy’s house.  But, thanks to a very lucky twist of fate, it never actually came to that.

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The Tree Section of Manhattan Beach is thus named not because of an abundance of trees as one might guess, but because the vast majority of streets in the area are named after different types of trees, such as Palm, Walnut, Oak, and Elm.  It is said that the Tree Section is one of the most sought after areas to live in Manhattan Beach due to its rural neighborhood feel which has been maintained thanks to extremely narrow streets, lack of sidewalks, tiny houses built in the ’40s and ’50s, and proximity to the beach.  Oddly enough, though, when Mike and I arrived in Manhattan Beach, we could not find the Tree Section anywhere.   After driving around in what seemed like circles for quite some time, we pulled over to ask a random woman to point us in the right direction.  The woman immediately asked us, “Well, is there a particular street you are looking for?”  We both pretty much started laughing and told her we had NO idea what street we were looking for.   Thinking we were probably crazy, she then said “Well, what is it you are trying to find?”   Figuring she would have absolutely NO IDEA what were talking about, we told her we were looking for the Jerry Maguire  house.  Well, lo and behold, she started laughing and said “Oh my God, one of my good friends from high school lived across the street from that house during the filming.  I know exactly where it is!”   Honestly, what are the odds????  The stalking gods must have been watching out for us that day, because of all the people in Manhattan Beach to ask for directions, we find the one who knows exactly where the JM  house is!  Our new best friend then gave us detailed directions to the house and Mike and I were on our way!  YAY!

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Before arriving at the house, Mike was worried that it may have been remodeled, as sadly that is fairly commonplace with the older Tree Section homes.  So, we were both absolutely FLOORED when we pulled up and saw that the house looked EXACTLY- and I do mean EXACTLY – the same today as it did over thirteen years ago when the movie was filmed.  It is absolutely incredible to me that virtually no part of the house has been changed in the almost decade and a half since filming took place.  The paint color, the landscaping, even the house number plaque all the look exactly the same.  HOORAY!  

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The only difference that I noticed was the tree in front, which used to have a second limb that crossed in front of the house.  That limb has since been removed.

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The Jerry Maguire  house shows up numerous times throughout the movie, most notably in the scene when Jerry takes Dorothy out on their first date.

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 And I believe the real backyard of the home was also used for the filming of several scenes, including both Jerry and Dorothy’s wedding ceremony and their subsequent break-up. 

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And from what we could see of the inside of the house from the street, it definitely looks as if the home’s real life interior was also used in the film, most notably for the many “Divorced Women’s Group” meetings.  A little bit of movie trivia for you – Winnie Holzman, the creator of fave show My So-Called Life, was one of the members of that “Divorced Women’s Group” (pictured above).

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Which is extremely ironic to me, because in Jerry Maguire, Dorothy and Jerry have what I’ve always referred to as “their My So-Called Life  moment” in the middle of the street out in front of Dorothy’s house.  LOVE IT! 

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I highly recommend stalking the Jerry Maguire  house for any fans of the movie, as, thanks to the aweome fact that its appearance has not been changed in recent years, it is one of the most recognizable movie locations I’ve ever been to!  On a very sad side note, though, I drove by the 90210  house the other day and almost had a heart attack when I saw that it had been painted an entirely different color!  It’s almost unrecognizable now!  UGH!  Such a tragedy!!!!!  🙁   That stuff should not be allowed to happen!!!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Jerry Maguire  house is located at 527 23rd Street in the “Tree Section” of Manhattan Beach.

Paul Rudd’s House From “I Love You, Man”

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One location I have been trying to find for quite some time now is the Mid-Century Modern style abode where Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones lived in fave romantic comedy I Love You, Man.   I was dying to stalk the house not only because of its incredibly unique architecture, but also because I was such a big fan of the movie.  It’s hilarious!  Well, I happened to mention my quest in an email to fellow stalker Owen last week and it wasn’t ten minutes later that he had emailed me back with an address!  Sure enough, it was the right  house!   YAY!  So, of course, I ran right out to stalk it!  🙂

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Ironically enough, the I Love You, Man  house  is exactly where the movie purports it to be – in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.  Not only that, but the scenes where Paul Rudd drives to and from his home in the movie were really filmed along the actual streets one would take to get there in real life.  On my way to stalk the house yesterday, I was amazed to realize that I was actually passing by some of the very same buildings that Paul drove by in the movie, which was shocking to me as most driving scenes in movies are not filmed anywhere near the places where the characters are supposedly leaving from or heading to.  LOL  

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I am very happy to report that the I Love You, Man  house looks exactly the same in person as it did in the movie.  And I absolutely loved seeing it!  The house is extremely unique in its appearance and even though, as I have mentioned many times before on this blog, the modernist style isn’t really my thing, I truly love this house!  I am not at all surprised that producers chose to use it as the home of a young, fairly successful Los Angeles real estate agent and his fiance.   

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My favorite part of the house has to be the dual staircases leading up to the front door.  I just love the juxtaposition of the rounded and straight stairway, which you can sort of see in the above photograph.  So cool and, as I said before, just so unique!     

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Ironically enough, the man who lives across the street from the I Love You, Man  house pulled up while I was stalking the place.  I was really hoping I’d get the chance to talk to him and ask him all sorts of questions about the filming, but instead he gave me a look like I was absolutely out of mind for taking photographs of a random house in L.A. and immediately went inside his home.  LOL  I so should have left a note on his door saying “You obviously don’t realize this, so I really feel it is my duty to tell you –  you live right ACROSS THE STREET from the I Love You, Man  house!”   LOL  Sheesh, some people!

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The I Love You, Man  house is located at 3959 Franklin Avenue in Los Feliz, just around the corner from John Marshall High School, aka the Girls Just Want To Have Fun  high school.

Jeff Malene’s House From Girls Just Want To Have Fun

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Got a call from fellow stalker Chas last week, who told me that he had finally received his Girls Just Want To Have Fun  Netflix rental in the mail.  Chas was calling me up to ask if I wanted any other locations from the movie found – besides SJP’s ubiquitous apartment building, of course.  I believe my exact answer to his question was “Um, yeah, ALL OF THEM!”  LOL  So, this past week Chas set about locating every single GJWTHF  filming location.  And I am happy to report that he came through – big time!  One location that I was absolutely DYING to stalk was the small house belonging to siblings Jeff  and Maggie Malene (aka Lee Montgomery and Shannen Doherty) in the movie.  I did not have high hopes for this location, though, as I was convinced that it had been torn down in the twenty-four years since GJWTHF  had been filmed.  Thankfully, Chas proved that theory wrong, though, when he located the house just outside of South Pasadena on Friday.  YAY!

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So, I, of course, immediately ran right out to stalk it!  🙂  And I am EXTREMELY happy to report that aside from the paint color and a new porch railing, the GJWTHF  house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in 1985 when the movie was filmed!   🙂  I was absolutely STUNNED that all these years later the house would still be so recognizable.  So cool!  I do have to say, though, that Jeff Malene’s house is actually a lot bigger in person than I imagined it would be.  For some reason, onscreen it appeared to be much smaller than it actually is.  Standing there on Friday, looking at this small, relatively nondescript home, I couldn’t help but think to myself ‘How in the HECK did Chas find this location amidst the millions of other homes in L.A.?’  It’s incredible – just incredible!

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Amazingly enough, even Jeff’s neighbor’s house still looks very much the same today as how it appeared in the movie.  As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, although the two downstairs windows have changed a bit, the upstairs window still looks exactly the same. 

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Jeff’s house shows up several times throughout Girls Just Want To Have Fun, most notably the front yard area where Jeff practices doing flips to impress SJP.

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The garage area where Jonathan Silverman and Lee Montgomery play basketball in the beginning of the movie also looks exactly the same, but unfortunately, thanks to a fence standing in my way, I couldn’t get a good picture of it.  🙁

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I highly recommend stalking the GJWTHF  house to all fans of the ’80s flick!  I can’t tell you how cool it was to be seeing that house in person all these years later!

As always, a big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Jeff Malene’s house from Girls Just Want To Have Fun  is located at 6511 Pollard Street in Los Angeles, just off of Avenue 64.

The Zeta House from House Bunny

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Last week, thanks to fellow stalker Owen, I was able to stalk the Zeta House from the 2008 movie House Bunny.   Owen actually found this location without ever even having seen the film, which takes some pretty major stalking skills, I tell you!!!!   He happened to notice the house while watching a House Bunny  preview and, because of its unique and distinct look, set about on a mission to locate it.  Which he did in record time!  And even though I didn’t particularly like House Bunny all that much, once Owen told me where the house was located, I just HAD to stalk it.  🙂  I do have to say, though, that I did absolutely LOVE Anna Faris in the movie. I laugh out loud EVERY TIME I hear her do that scary-deep-voice-to-remember-a-name thing.  LOL LOL LOL 

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The House Bunny  house is absolutely GINORMOUS in person, much larger than it appears onscreen.  It’s so huge that pictures don’t even really do it justice, in fact!  It’s easily one of the biggest houses I’ve ever seen in my life!!!!  Other than its size, though, I am happy to report that the House Bunny house looks exactly the same in person as it did in the movie.  🙂 

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Well, until the girls painted it blue towards the middle of the film, that is.    

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And, of course, in real life there is no ZETA sign.  🙂

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The house shows up several times throughout the movie, most notably as the location where Anna Faris does her absolutely HILARIOUS Marilyn-Monroe-over-the-subway-grate impersonation!  LOL LOL LOL

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I highly recommend stalking the House Bunny  house.  The home itself is just so unique and distinct, that even if you didn’t like the movie it’s still worth the trip.  🙂  The house is also located on a pretty amazing street that is chock full of HUMONGOUS Craftsman style homes.  Walking around the neighborhood it’s easy to forget that you are just one small block away from the hustle and bustle of the 10 Freeway.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It:  The Zeta House from House Bunny  is located at 2151 West 20th Street in Los Angeles.

The Dickie Roberts House

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Today is my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry’s birthday!  The two of us are actually heading down to Disneyland in a bit, where Kerry has secured a reservation for a little birthday celebration at the park’s exclusive Club 33 members-only restaurant and, let me tell you, I could not be more excited!!  I’ve been trying to get into that place for YEARS!!  But I’ll save that story for a future post.  🙂  Anyway, for the past few months, Kerry has been begging me to find the blue clapboard residence featured in the 2003 movie Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.  Unfortunately, though, not only had I never seen the movie, but I also had no idea where the home might be located.  So, the other day when fellow stalker Chas happened to mention that he knew the location of the Dickie Roberts  house, I just about died!!!  I immediately told Kerry, who also just about died.  🙂  So, Kerry, this one’s for you! 

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Once Chas had given me the address of the Dickie Roberts  house, I just HAD to watch the movie, and I am happy to report that I LOVED it.    I even found myself tearing up at the end, causing my fiance to look over at me and say “Are you actually crying over Dickie Roberts???”  LOL LOL LOL  What can I say, it’s a very touching movie!  🙂  Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star is the story of a thirty-something washed up actor, played by David Spade, who pays a family to let him move into their  home with them in the hopes of recreating his lost childhood so that he may become a better adult and, in turn, a better actor.  The home, which belongs to the Finney family in the film, is supposedly located at 741 Mockingbird Lane in an idyllic neighborhood somewhere in the Los Angeles area.  Once I visited the house in person, it wasn’t too hard to see why producers chose to use it as Dickie’s perfect childhood home.  While I was there a woman was out walking her dog, children were riding their bikes in their front yards, a couple was jogging down the street together, and every time any of them passed each other they would call out “Hi Mrs. So and So!  How are you this morning?”  It was literally like a scene out of a movie!  I felt like I had somehow stumbled onto the set of The Truman Show  or something!  LOL  It’s just as idyllic of a street in real life as it was portrayed to be in the movie.   Love it!  

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I am also very happy to report that the Dickie Roberts  house looks pretty much EXACTLY the same in person as it did in the movie.   According to IMDB, the real life owners of the home liked David Spade’s backyard treehouse from the movie so much, that after filming wrapped they elected to keep it!  I was SO looking forward to seeing that treehouse in person, but, alas, it is not visible from the street.  🙁  

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The Dickie Roberts  house shows up several times throughout the movie, most notably in the hilarious scene when Dickie is introduced to the wonder that is a Slip ‘n Slide!   A little bit of movie trivia for you – Wham-O, Inc., the company that manufactures the Slip ‘n Slide toy, actually sued Paramount Pictures for using their product in the movie without permission.  LOL  The things people get upset about, I swear!   🙂

 Happy birthday to Kerry and a big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Dickie Roberts  house is located at 741 South Hudson Avenue in Pasadena.