Tag: Famous houses

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Matthew Perry’s Former House

A few weeks ago, while doing some stalking with my boyfriend, I set out to stalk Matthew Perry’s former home. I got the address of “Ms. Chanadaler Bong’s” former residence thanks to E.J. over at The Movieland Directory. I must admit I was pretty disappointed upon arriving at the house, as there is just not all that much to see from the street other than Matthew’s ugly mailbox, which appears to be broken and unable to close.

I still don’t get what is up with the stars and their hiddy mailboxes!! LOL Anyway, while Matthew’s former house is pretty anti-climatic to stalk, what is significant about this home is that it was while living there that Matty crashed his Porsche into a neighbor’s front porch.

Back in June of 2000, on the very same day the troubled star was released from Cedar Sinai Medical Center after a stint with pancreatitus, Matthew crashed his car into the stairs leading up to the front door of a neighboring house (pictured above). According to reports, the house was unoccupied at the time. Apparently Matthew swerved to avoid an oncoming car and in doing so lost control of his Porsche and crashed. No drugs or alcohol were found in his system at the time. Driving along his street, though, it was not hard for me to see why Matthew lost control of his car. The roads surrounding his house are extremely narrow, with countless twists and turns, and I was actually worried I was going to get into a car accident while stalking.

The home Matty crashed into is a really cute little place. I am not sure if it looked like this before the crash, or if a hefty settlement from the Friends star is responsible for the house’s curb appeal Apparently the front stairs of the home were completely destroyed during the crash and had to be rebuilt entirely.

While I wouldn’t really recommend stalking Matthew’s former home, as there is just not much to see, you can catch a good Zillow view of the home here. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Matthew Perry’s former house is located at 7204 Chelan Way. The neighboring home he drove his porche into can be found just down the road at 2233 Chelan Drive.

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Break Out The Clicquot!

This is a post I’ve been itching to do for almost two weeks now, but had to keep mum on! Two weeks ago I was interviewed by Washington Post travel correspondent Andrea Sachs, who, based on the major hype of the upcoming 90210 v. 2.0, was sent out to the West Coast to do a travel piece on the world’s most famous zip code. Andrea contacted me to do an interview about the iconic TV series and also a little BH stalking. The article was finally published today and I could not be more excited!! My family and I just got back from celebrating with a little champagne. 🙂 You can read the article here.

When I first received Andrea’s email asking if I would have time to chat about my fave TV show for a newspaper article, I have to admit I thought someone was playing a joke on me. The name Andrea Sachs seemed extremely familiar and after doing a little Google research, I realized that I recognized it from the movie The Devil Wears Prada where it was the name of Anne Hathaway’s character. Besides sharing a name, the two also share a profession. In the movie Andrea Sachs is a budding newspaper journalist. So I was completely convinced someone was pulling my leg. But, it turns out that there is, in fact, a real life Andrea Sachs who is, in fact, a reporter for the Washington Post. And I was happy to discover that the real Andrea is much cooler and a hundred times more funny than her silver screen counterpart. 🙂

Andrea and I decided to meet up for a “power lunch” at the legendary Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel (where we spotted a very large Rob Reiner – I had no idea he was such a big man!) and we wound up spending the entire afternoon stalking. Andrea’s assignment – to report on both the Hills of Beverly and the legendary television show – had a built in challenge for me. Andrea was required to stay in the 90210 zip code and, ironically, there isn’t one filming location from the TV show actually located in Beverly Hills.So I had to think a bit outside the box for this one. 🙂 During our adventure we hit up Aaron Spelling’s manse (which is currently for sale for a reported $150 million!!!), the Playboy Mansion, the home where Shannen Doherty attacked then-boyfriend Dean Factor, and Brad and Jen’s former Beverly Hills love nest.

The last stop on our Beverly Hills stalking tour was Andrea’s inspired idea – the real Beverly Hills High School, upon which 90210‘s fictional West Beverly High was loosely based, but of course where no actual filming took place. Producers had originally wanted to film at the real Beverly Hills High, but the school board was having none of that. So producers created the fictional West Beverly Hills High School and set out for Torrance High School in the South Bay to film. Torrance High will also be featured once again in the new 90210 series.

Even though BHHS shied away from being featured in the 90210 series, it has been used in several other Hollywood productions including Anywhere But Here, The Beverly Hillbillies, Less Than Zero, the Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Taggat, Whatever It Takes, and the videos for Nickelback’s Rockstar and NLT’s That Girl. In the Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life, the school’s “Swim Gym” (pictured above) which features a basketball court that slides open to reveal a swimming pool underneath, was prominently featured.

Andrea had read about Beverly High’s “Hall of Fame”- a wall display featuring headshots of BHHS’ famous alumni and I was absolutely dying to see it! The display actually ended up bringing us full circle in our stalking adventure when we spotted Rob Reiner’s photo on the wall. Andrea took one look at Rob’s photo and said “You really didn’t realize he was a large man???” LOL As excited as we both were to see the Hall of Fame, it proved to be pretty anti-climatic. Sadly many of the most famous names were strangely missing from the display. BHHS’ famous alumni include Angelina Jolie, Tori Spelling, both Ephron sisters, Albert Brooks, 80s heartthrob Steve Burton, Cari Fisher, Bonnie Franklin, Gina Gershon, Nicolas Cage, Shaun Cassidy, Jennifer Grey’s father Joel, Brady mom Florence Henderson, Lenny Kravitz, Monica Lewinsky (LOL!), the Menendez Brothers, Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meister, Pauly Shore, Antonio Sabato Jr., Alicia Silverstone, and countless, countless others. I was most looking forward to seeing BHHS alumni David Schwimmer’s photo on the wall, but like many others it was absent. I mean, hello – where’s the Friends’ love?

In person the school has minimal resemblance to how West Beverly High was portrayed onscreen. For being located in the world’s most exclusive zip code, the school is actually quite unremarkable and ordinary. I really expected much more from BHHS. In reality the school looks pretty much like every other American high school I have ever seen. The interior leaves much to be desired, as well, and, in truth, looked pretty run down. Andrea and I were cracking up at the sad state of the hallway’s ceiling tiles (pictured above). I am happy to report, though, that both the students and faculty of BHHS could not have been friendlier to us as we wandered the halls. But all I kept thinking was how young the students looked compared with what was portrayed on 90210. I mean, there wasn’t a Luke Perry style receding hairline in the bunch!

I truly had a BLAST stalking with Andrea all afternoon and I cannot wait for her next West Coast adventure as I’d love to hang out again. And the article turned out fabulous – I really could not be more excited! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Beverly Hills High School is located at 241 Moreno Drive in Beverly Hills. You can read the Washington Post article here.

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Marilyn Monroe’s First, and Last, Home

UPDATE – this house is currently for sale.  You can see interior photographs of it on the Curbed LA site. 

Just finished another excellent book about the life and times of Miss Marilyn Monroe. The book, Goddess , was recommended to me by a staff member at Vroman’s – even though it is currently out of print – who said it was the definitive biography about the star. See why I love that bookstore?!? 🙂

Anyway, reading the book reminded me that a couple of years back, on our annual Haunted Hollywood tour, my boyfriend and I did a little stalking of the house where Marilyn Monroe took her final breath. This was actually the first, and last, home Miss Monroe every owned. She purchased the house in 1961, but didn’t officially move in until March of 1962, just six months before her death.

While shopping for homes in 1961, Marilyn decided she wanted a place close in both proximity and looks to her therapist, Dr. Ralph Greenson’s, home. The Spanish style home on Fifth Helena Drive fit the bill, as it looked very similar to Dr. Greenson’s home and was located only a few short miles away. According to Goddess, Marilyn actually cried while signing the final papers as she said she never imagined she would be purchasing a home alone. Ironically, after moving in to the home, Marilyn had a plaque placed above her door which read “Cursom Perificio”. Translation – “My Journey Ends Here”. How right she was.

Sadly, there isn’t a whole lot to see of the home from the street as there is a huge wall surrounding it. But it was still very cool to visit, and I highly recommend stalking it if you are at all Marilyn fan. According to Goddess, Marilyn absolutely loved her little Spanish bungalow and was personally handpicking all of the furnishings before her death. She even made a trip to Mexico shortly before her death to pick up some decorations for the home. (In the above photo a large green home is visible above Marilyn’s gate – that is a neighbor’s house, not hers.)

Remember to be courteous when stalking and not to disturb the home’s current residents. From what I have read they do not take kindly to tourists taking pictures in front of their house. Which begs the question – Then WHY in the heck did they buy one of the world’s most famous houses?? LOL

You can read a brief history of Marilyn’s home here.

UPDATE: 

Are you a Marilyn Monroe fan? Visit BarrysTickets.com for Marilyn Tickets to see a play based on the legendary Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn Monroe fans visiting the L.A. area will be excited to hear that tickets to a new stage show chronicling the starlet’s life are currently available at Barry’sTickets.com.  Marilyn – the Story of the Silver Screen Goddess, A Dance Musical, comes to Los Angeles from London’s West End and recounts the tragic behind-the-scenes life of the world’s most iconic blond.  The musical, which was choreographed and directed by the Oliver and Evening Standard award-winning director Peter Schaufuss, provides audiences a glimpse of the private world Marilyn rarely shared with the public – the world of a woman who achieved every success imaginable, except for true happiness.  The show features a cast of fifteen remarkable actors and showcases fifteen lively song and dance numbers including Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind”, which the singer originally wrote in honor of Marilyn in 1973, “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” from the hit movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” from the 1960 movie Let’s Make Love.  Don’t miss Marilyn – The Story of the Silver Screen Goddess, A Dance Musical.   

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Marilyn’s final home is located at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood. The house can be difficult to find as there are many streets in the area with the name “Helena”. Take South Carmelina Avenue past First, Second, Third and Fourth Helena Drive and then you will see Fifth Helena, where Marilyn’s home is located.

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Lynn Bracken’s House

Thanks to E.J. over at The Movieland Directory, I was able to do a bit more LA Confidential stalking this weekend. As I mentioned in a previous post, LA Confidential is one of my mom’s favorite movies of all time. She has always been in love with the houses and bungalows used in the movie and has requested several times that I stalk them for her. In fact, when my family first moved to LA she told our real estate agent that she wanted an “LA Confidential house” and that’s pretty much exactly the type of house we moved into. 🙂

So when E.J. gave me the address to Kim Basinger’s character’s house from the movie, I of course had to run right out and stalk it. Lynn Bracken’s house shows up several times in the film, especially the front door and front porch area, and from what I can tell from watching the movie, it appears that both the interior and the exterior of the home were used for filming. The house is a very cute little 1950’s style Spanish bungalow and it’s pretty easy to see why producers chose to use it in the movie as it looks like it came straight out of the 1950’s.

I must admit that when we first arrived at the house, I didn’t immediately recognize it. The way the movie was filmed was somewhat deceiving and the layout of the house appears much different in person than I’d remembered it looking onscreen. In the movie, Russell Crowe spends many hours in his car staked out in front of Lynn’s home watching her greet and say goodbye to her many “houseguests”. But in real life the front door is located on the side of the home and is not immediately visible from the street which made me not entirely sure I was stalking the correct house. But when I got home and popped in my LA Confidential DVD it was easy to see that the two houses matched perfectly! 🙂 Thanks, EJ!

I highly recommend stalking Lynn’s house if you are at all a fan of LA Confidential or 1950’s California architecture.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Lynn Bracken’s house is located at 501 Wilcox Avenue, right where Wilcox meets Rossmore, in Los Angeles. It is just around the corner from the American Idol and SYTYCD apartment which is located at 445 N. Rossmore.

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Spend the Night at Kelly and Donna’s Beach Apartment

While doing some cyber-stalking this morning, I came across this advertisement for a vacation rental of the 90210 beachhouse! For between $300 and $600 per night, you can take the ultimate 90210 vacation and actually spend a few nights (there’s a three night minimum) in Kelly and Donna’s beachfront apartment. How cool is that??

The exterior of the townhouse being advertised was used as the location of Kelly, Donna and various other cast member’s beach apartment from Seasons 4 through 10. Many memorable scenes took place at the beach apartment over the years, my favorite being David’s proposal to Donna. 🙂 It is so odd to look at the interior pictures of the real beach house as it looks nothing like the interior of Kelly and Donna’s place. The interior of their apartment existed only on a soundstage, of course, about 40 miles away, in Van Nuys. But it would still be really cool to stay at the real apartment! The advertisement doesn’t state which apartment is available for rent, but Kelly and Donna lived in the 2nd floor unit on 90210. According to the advertisement, the newly remodeled beach house sleeps four, has a barbecue, lots of deck space, and a private jacuzzi. Not a bad place to spend a vacation! Looks like I might just have to drag my boyfriend out to Hermosa for a little 90210 vacation. 🙂

You can read my other post about the beach apartment here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kelly and Donna’s beach apartment is located at 3500 The Strand in Hermosa Beach. If you walk along the beach just south of where Hermosa Beach meets Manhattan Beach, you’ll see the apartment. You can’t miss it! To rent the place out, contact Gary Ashe at (310)809-0592 or you can send him an email inquiry.

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Steve Sanders’ House

While out stalking on Wednesday, Mike from MovieShotsLA took me over to a mansion called the Iny Estate, which is probably better known as Steve Sanders’ house from the original 90210 series. While the estate was featured as Steve Sanders’ home for the entire ten year run of the series, it is probably most recognizable from the pilot episode of 90210. In that episode, the West Beverly gang attends a party where Steve drinks a bit too much and realizes he can’t drive home. He entrusts his black corvette (with custom license plate “I8A4RE” – LOL!!) to David Silver who doesn’t have a license. When David parkes the car at Steve’s house, he forgets to put the car in gear causing it to roll down the driveway and crash into a parked car. Steve spends the rest of the episode trying to figure out which “nerd” totalled his corvette. SUCH GREAT TV! 🙂

This location had actually eluded Mike and his fiance for quite some time. My hat is seriously off to them, though, as they went so far as to contact STEVE SANDERS HIMSELF, Ian Ziering, to ask him if he remembered where his house on the show was located. Ian recalled that the home was somewhere in Encino and from that bit of information, Mike and his fiance were able to locate it. I truly think they are better stalkers than me! 🙂

In real life the ultra modern manse is owned by Paula and Ben Iny and the house is a frequent filming location. While Mike and I were there, Ben Iny happened to be outside and we got to speak with him briefly. He was laughing at us and, like the security guards at the 90210 studio, said “But 90210 was filmed so long ago!” LOL The house has 38 foot ceilings, an elevator, a conservatory, a “glass radius wall” (whatever that means!), four fireplaces, an indoor jacuzzi, and a pool and spa. It sounds like EXACTLY the type of place Steve Sanders would have lived! You can see an up close and personal view of the home and even take a virtual tour on the official Iny Estate Website. The home has also appeared in the Corbin Bernsen movie “The Dentist”, the movie “Ghost in the Machine”, and in music videos for both Prince and Ice Cube.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Steve Sanders former house is located at 16711 Bosque Avenue in Encino.

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The Other Corey’s House from “The Two Coreys”

Took a little stalking trip to Encino last week to stalk Corey Feldman’s house from the reality show The Two Coreys. I had found Corey’s address on fave website Virtual Globetrotting and even though I am so not a fan of the guy, I had to stalk it because like climber George Mallory said about Mt. Everest – “It’s there.” 🙂

Sadly, there’s not a whole lot of Corey’s house to see from the street as the home is located behind a gate, down a long, curving driveway and his property is lined with huge view-blocking trees. Even with the minimal view, though, the house is definitely recognizable from the Corey’s reality show. According to Zillow (which also has a good bird’s eye view of the home), Corey’s McMansion measures 4,400 square feet, is nestled on a 27,000 square foot lot, and has the following amenities: BBQ area, gated entrance, fireplace, garden, pool, spa and jetted tubs.

Also according to Zillow, the home was last purchased in 2005, which leads me to believe that it truly is owned by Corey Feldman and was not just rented for the filming of the show. While I was there, two guys were working on Corey’s front gate and I asked them if Corey did in fact live there. They told me they “weren’t allowed to talk about it” which pretty much answered my question. 🙂 LOL

One thing that you actually can see from the street is Corey’s mailbox. I honestly don’t know what it is with celebrities and their mailboxes, but it seems like every movie star house I stalk has a seriously hideous mailbox. LOL Maybe it’s a celeb thing and someday when I am rich and famous I’ll understand, but for now I just don’t get it. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Corey Feldman’s house is located at 16221 Elisa Place in Encino. As always, excercise caution when “stalking” and do not disturb the residents in any way.

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Brad and Angelina’s Malibu Manse

While partying with The Hills cast at the Project Beach House last Thursday, I got to do a little stalking of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Malibu home. Brangelina’s place is located directly next door to the Project Beach House and being that there are no gates in between the two properties, I had a great view of the Jolie-Pitt’s manse. I have stalked the outside of their house before, but sadly no part of the home is visible from the street. So I was absolutely FLOORED at the up close and personal view of Brangelina’s that the Project Beach House afforded me. 🙂

Brad bought the house in March of 2005 shortly after he left Jen and long before he started dating Angelina Jolie (yeah, right!). Ironically Jen also moved to Malibu following their separation – I guess the two really can’t get away from each other. Brad purchased his five bedroom, three bath, 4,088 square foot home for $8,410,000 and lived in it only briefly. In 2006, Brangelina pretty much deserted the Malibu property and made Brad’s Los Feliz compound, which is located on a private gated road, their primary LA residence. I heard from a Malibu real estate agent a while back that the Jolie-Pitts were quietly shopping their Malibu house trying to unload it, but not having much luck.

According to one of my many star maps, the ultra modern home has a custom made sandblasted glass kitchen countertop, top of the line appliances, an outdoor fireplace and sweeping views of the Pacific. There’s even an adorable little lawn area below the house, set up with two chaise lounges which looks like the perfect place to spend a sunny afternoon. The house is really beautiful in person and – even though I am 100% on Team Aniston – I was still really excited to see it up close and personal!!!

Check out some great pictures of the interior of the house here and here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Brangelina’s Malibu home can be found at 32316 Pacific Coast Highway, directly next door to the Project Beach House which is located at 32340 PCH. I can’t say that I’d really recommend stalking either house, as there just isn’t that much to see from the street. I would suggest doing a little cyberstalking instead, as Zillow provides some good views of both houses. Click on the following links for the Zillow pages on Brangelina’s house and the Project Beach House.

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Corey Haim’s House from “The Two Coreys”

I returned home from Hawaii earlier this week and was absolutely floored to find three episodes of The Two Coreys waiting for me on my TiVo. 🙂 The Two Coreys is so my new favorite show. While I find Corey Feldman to be a complete and total douchebag – the Valentine’s Day song, anyone??? – I absolutely LOVE Corey Haim. I feel so bad for the guy and it breaks my heart everytime he falters on the show. Growing up my favorite movie of all time was License to Drive and I wanted nothing more than to be Mercedes Lane driving around in her white Cabriolet Convertible with Corey Haim for a boyfriend. 🙂 So Mr. Haim will always hold a special place in my heart.

So when I found the address of Corey Haim’s house from the show on fave website Virtual Globetrotting , I just had to run right out and stalk it. I am sad to say that my mom and dad both refused to go out stalking with me on this one – I think they have had just about enough stalking for both of their lifetimes – and since my boyfriend was at work, for Corey’s house I had to go it alone. 🙁

Before arriving at Corey’s house, I was convinced that like in most reality shows (ie. Scott Baio is 46 . . and Pregnant ), his home was rented solely for filming purposes and was not the “Haimster’s” actual residence. When I got to the house, though, the current (and super nice) owner was standing outside and gave me the scoop. She told me that while Corey does not live in the house anymore, that he actually did live there during the filming of the show. She even got to meet him a few times and said he was very nice. I knew it! 🙂

I am actually surprised they used the house for filming, though, as it is located waaaaaay up in the West Hollywood hills on a very narrow street. I have no idea how they had the room to film anything out in front of the house. I couldn’t even get a very good photo of the house, as the street was so narrow I could not back up far enough to get the whole house in the camera lens. I had to walk halfway down the block to get a pic. The house is a very cool place, though, and is located in a gorgeous neighborhood! I couldn’t believe the size of some of the houses I drove by en route to Corey’s. I highly recommend stalking it if you are a fan of the show.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Corey Haim’s house from The Two Coreys can be found at 1567 Viewsite Drive in West Hollywood. Keep your eyes peeled for all of the gorgeous houses on the up way to Corey’s.

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LA Not So Confidential

For years my mom has been begging me to do some stalking of one of her favorite movies, LA Confidential. Ever since the movie came out back in 1997 she has been obsessed with finding the various houses used during filming, but none more so than David Strathiarn’s character’s beautiful, ultra modern hillside abode. Luckily, the house was a snap for me to find as the address was given right on imdb’s LA Confidential filming locations page. 🙂 In the movie David Strathiarn plays Pierce Patchett, a very wealthy businessman who runs a high class prostitution ring, where all of the prostitutes are made up to look like famous actresses. Supposedly, the ring was based on a real brothel that truly did exist back in the hey dey of Tinseltown. In the movie, Pierce lives in an amazing modern looking manse built right into the side of a hill. In real life that house is called the Lovell Health House and it is just as breathtaking in person as it appears onscreen. The Lovell Health House, or Lovell House, was commissioned by doctor Philip Lovell and built by architect Richard Neutra. Construction began in 1927 and was completed in 1929. Health-nut Lovell was completely obsessed with diet and exercise and he wanted the house to be built in such a way as to benefit the health of its occupants, which is how the house came to be called the “Lovell Health House”. Included in the home was a swimming pool, an exercise room, an eight foot tall food cooler, a water purification system, juicing equipment and plenty of windows to allow the occupants to be close to nature. The unique home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Amazingly the Lowell family only lived in the house for one year before selling it to a different family.

Both the interior and the exterior of the house show up several times in LA Confidential and the home looks much the same in person as it did on the big screen. Unfortunately you can’t see a whole lot of the home from the street. If you want a more in depth view, I recommend renting the movie for your very own up close and personal private tour of the home.Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂 Stalk It: Pierce Patchett’s house can be found at 4616 Dundee Drive in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. To see the garage area, where filming also took place, just drive a bit south of the house to the large concrete driveway and you’ll see the garage.