Tag: famous places

Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar from the “Happy Hour” episode of “The Office”

As I mentioned yesterday, one location that fellow stalker Lavonna was absolutely dying to stalk while she was in town last week was Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar, the arcade/restaurant which appeared in the Season 6 episode of The Office entitled “Happy Hour”. So, before her arrival, I called upon fellow stalker Owen for some help in tracking the place down, but, unfortunately, the two of us came up completely empty-handed. My first instinct was that filming had taken place at one of the local branches of the popular Dave & Buster’s restaurant chain, but after looking at photographs of all of the D&B’s located in the L.A. area and comparing them to the screen captures of The Office that Lavonna had sent me, I couldn’t find a match. So, after a few hours of searching, Owen and I came to the unfortunate conclusion that Sid & Dexter’s was most likely not a real location, but a set that had been built solely for the filming of the “Happy Hour” episode. Lavonna was sorely disappointed over this discovery, as was I, because I knew how badly she wanted to stalk the place. But then, this past Friday, while stalking Scranton Business Park, I had an inspired idea. Because the security guard manning the front gate was so incredibly nice, I decided to ask her whether she knew where the “Happy Hour” episode had been filmed. And, lo and behold, she did! She told us that filming had taken place at a restaurant/arcade next to a bowling alley somewhere on Universal CityWalk. And, let me tell you, I almost fell over when I heard that. Usually when I meet crew members and ask them about locations, they have no recollection whatsoever about where a filming took place, even if they were actually on the set that particular day! So, for the security guard to know where the “Happy Hour” episode was shot, when she had never actually been there was absolutely incredible to me! Yay! So, Lavonna, her daughter, Melissa, her friend, Debbie, and I immediately headed over to Universal CityWalk to try to track down Sid & Dexter’s!

My initial plan of attack was to visit each and every restaurant located on Universal CityWalk until we found the right one. Thankfully, though, that wasn’t necessary. Fairly immediately upon entering the outdoor shopping center, Lavonna spotted a sign for the chain restaurant Jillian’s and thought it might be the right spot. And, sure enough, it was! In actuality, Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar is a restaurant/arcade/bowling alley/billiards bar named Jillian’s. Sadly, though, it has been completely remodeled since its onscreen appearance and no longer looks anything like it did when filming took place. According to one of the super nice bartenders we spoke with, The Office filmed at Jillian’s for an entire week, just after the place had closed its doors to the public to begin the remodel process. As soon as filming wrapped, the ENTIRE place was completely gutted and the rebuilding began.   The single, solitary decor item that remains from the old design is the above pictured cartoon which is now hanging on a wall in the billiards room. Such a bummer!

The Jillian’s staff could NOT have been nicer, though, and took us on our own personal tour of the restaurant to show us where filming took place and to explain what the former layout used to look like. As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, the place is COMPLETELY unrecognizable from its Office appearance. 🙁

Thankfully, though, the ticket machines still look identical to how they appeared on the show, so, at least there’s that. 🙂

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Lavonna had desperately wanted to see the zebra-print wall which appeared in the background throughout most of the “Happy Hour” episode. Sadly, though, it had been thrown out during the remodel and that area was then transformed into the ticket redemption counter (pictured above).

And while Jillian’s still makes use of the actual pool tables which appeared in The Office, they have since been moved to a different part of the restaurant.

Lavonna also wanted to see the Whac-A-Mole arcade game that Dwight (aka Rainn Wilson) and Isabel (aka Kelen Coleman) played on the show, but the bartender informed us that that particular game was brought in by producers solely for the filming. The dance machine that Andy (aka Ed Helms), Kelly (aka Ellie Kemper), Ryan (aka B.J. Novak), and the other Kelly (aka Mindy Kaling) played on, however, is a real game that can still be found at Jillian’s.

So, of course, Melissa and I just had to pose on it. 🙂

The bartender ended up asking Jillian’s two general managers to come out so that we could ask them all sorts of silly questions about the filming of The Office, and, let me tell you, they could NOT have been nicer. They talked to us for a good twenty minutes and when they heard how upset Lavonna was over not being able to see that zebra-print wall, they ended up giving her the above “Sid & Dexter’s” sign which appeared in the “Happy Hour” episode! How incredibly cool is that?? I mean, talk about the ultimate Office keepsake!

The managers also showed us a bowling pin that the entire Office cast had signed during the filming. That’s Melissa posing with it in the above picture. So darn cool!



They also informed us that Justin Bieber had recently filmed his “Baby” video in the bowling alley located on Jillian’s second level. So, of course, we had to go stalk that, too.

I am very happy to report that the bowling alley portion of the restaurant was not altered during the recent remodel and still looks EXACTLY the same as it did in the video. Yay!

You can watch Justin’s “Baby” video by clicking above. I so love the line, “She had me going crazy, Oh I was starstruck, She woke me up daily, Don’t need no Starbucks!” LOL Although, I don’t think there’s a guy in existence who could make it so that I didn’t need Starbucks in the morning. 😉

While we were stalking Jillian’s bowling alley, we ran into another SUPER nice bartender named Rashid, who actually made a brief appearance in the background of the “Happy Hour” episode of The Office! He was supposed to have a speaking role in the episode and producers even went so far as to make him shave his head for the part, but, sadly, as so often happens in Hollywood, his scene wound up on the cutting room floor. 🙁 We are hoping it will be featured in the “Deleted Scenes” section of The Office’s yet-to-be-released Season 6 DVD set, though.

You can catch a glimpse of Rashid in the background behind the Sid & Dexter’s manager in the above pictured screenshot. So cool!

We had a blast hanging out at Jillian’s and I honestly cannot recommend stalking the place enough, even though it no longer bears any sort of resemblance to Sid & Dexter’s. The staff truly could NOT have been nicer, the prices were very reasonable, the food was excellent, and the ambiance was lively and fun! Jillian’s is definitely a place I will be returning to again and again!

On a Justin Bieber side note – For those who have yet to see his first appearance on Chelsea Lately which aired back in December, you really must tune in! The kid is absolutely adorable and HILARIOUS and truly holds his own against Chelsea, which is a pretty amazing feat for a 15-year old!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Jillian’s, aka Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar from the “Happy Hour” episode of The Office, can be found at 1000 Universal Studios Boulevard, on Universal CityWalk, in Universal City. The bowling alley where Justin Bieber filmed his “Baby” video can be found on the restaurant’s second level. You can visit the Jillian’s website here.

April 23, 2010
The Magic Castle Hotel from “The Hills”

If I had a nickel for every time one of my fellow stalkers asked me for a reasonably-priced Hollywood area hotel recommendation . . . well, let’s just say that I’d have a lot more Louis Vuitton in my life than I do right now. 😉 And I never really had a solid answer to the query until I met fellow stalker Lavonna, who hails from Cincinnati, Ohio, this past November. Lavonna makes a stalking pilgrimage to the L.A. area at least once a year and, without fail, she always books a room at the very same place – the Magic Castle Hotel on Franklin Avenue right in the heart of Hollywood. Lavonna has been singing the Magic Castle’s praises so loudly ever since I’ve known her that I couldn’t help but sit up and take notice. So, when she came to town this past week, along with her daughter, Melissa, and her good friend, Debbie, and invited me to stop by her temporary digs, I jumped at the chance to see the place for myself. Especially after Lavonna told me that the hotel had appeared in a Season 3 episode of The Hills! A fabulous hotel that’s also a filming location? What more could a visiting stalker ask for? 😉 So, even though I’ve never stayed there myself, now that I’ve seen the place in person, I can honestly say that for reasonably-priced accommodations in Hollywood, look no further than the Magic Castle Hotel.

The 40-room Magic Castle Hotel is located right in the heart of Hollywood and within walking distance of all of the major Boulevard attractions. From the outside, the place almost looks like an old-school apartment complex, which I believe it actually was back in the early days of Hollywood. As I mentioned above, the boutique-style hotel, which was completely remodeled in 2004, is very reasonably priced (rates average $100 to $215 per night, depending on the time of year and size of the room), especially by Southern California standards, and the staff’s main focus is service, service, service. The Magic Castle website states, “A lot of hotels talk about their customer service. Here at the Magic Castle Hotel, we live it. We’re not about stuffy ambience and rigid policy – rather, we strive to offer the friendliest, most personalized and accommodating service to every one of our customers.” And I am very happy to report that they have succeeded in achieving that goal – with flying colors! In fact, I’ve never seen anything quite like the Magic Castle Hotel when it comes to their level of personalized customer service. First of all, their mini-bar, which includes over forty snack items – everything from Peanut M&M’s to microwave popcorn – is absolutely FREE. I’m not joking! I mean, have you ever even heard of such a thing? Oh, and if you want something that’s not listed on the menu, don’t worry, they’ll go out and get it for you! During Lavonna’s first stay at the Magic Castle Hotel, she called down to the front desk to inquire if they had Mountain Dew, her favorite soft-drink. They didn’t, but they actually went out later that day and purchased some for her! Then when she checked into the hotel during her next visit, not only had Mountain Dew been added to the mini-bar menu, but there was a twelve pack of it waiting for her in her room! How incredibly cool is that?

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Other freebies include wireless internet access, which is available in every room, daily continental breakfast, over one hundred DVD titles available from the front desk (each room comes equipped with a DVD player), and popsicles and “ice-cold towels infused with lavender and mint” which attendants serve every hour on the hour to those guests laying by the pool. But the Magic Castle’s special level of service goes far beyond freebies. When Lavonna and friends checked into their room this past week, there was a bottle of champagne and a huge bunch of balloons waiting for them in honor of Debbie’s 50th birthday, which they were in town to celebrate. There was also a handmade card with a picture of Ellen DeGeneres on the front (Lavonna is a huge Ellen fan) which read “Ellen and the Magic Castle Hotel welcome you back to Hollywood!” Then, when they returned to the hotel after dinner that evening, they were a dozen Sprinkles cupcakes awaiting them. A woman on the staff had remembered that Lavonna was a big fan of the cupcake chain and had driven out to Beverly Hills to pick some up for her earlier that morning. I’m really not kidding! I mean, have you ever heard of this kind of personalized service at a hotel? It’s beyond incredible! I had the pleasure of meeting the Magic Castle’s Chief Operating Officer, Darren Ross, while I was stalking the hotel and he honestly could NOT have been nicer. As a matter of fact, the entire staff was insanely nice. When we left to go out stalking for the day, the manager even went so far as to pack up a HUGE bag filled with snacks and drinks for us to take on the road. Amazing! Oh, and, during their stay, all hotel guests are also given access to the ultra-exclusive, members-only Magic Castle club and restaurant, a place that I have been DYING to get into ever since I moved to L.A.

I realize this post must sound like one big Magic Castle Hotel advertisement, but I was just so impressed with the place that I had to blog about it. And while the hotel is by no means fancy or luxurious – if you’re looking for those kinds of accommodations, I’d suggest the Roosevelt Hotel or the new W, but believe me, you’ll pay up the wazoo for each of them – it’s an extremely nice place, especially for the price and I’d stay there in a heartbeat!

And, as I mentioned above, the hotel is also a filming location! The Magic Castle appeared in the Season 3 episode of The Hills entitled “For Better or Worse”, in the scene in which Lauren Conrad and Whitney Port meet up with the band Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (that’s honestly their name!) to do a wardrobe fitting prior to a Teen Vogue photo shoot.

Quite a few areas of the hotel appeared in the episode, including the front parking lot;

the main entrance;

and Room 215, where the band was staying.

The interior of Room 215 was also shown in the episode, but unfortunately I didn’t get to stalk it while I was there. I so would have loved to have seen it, though!

Big THANK YOU to Lavonna for telling me about this location and for allowing me stalk her room. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Magic Castle Hotel is located at 7025 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood. You can visit their website here. The “For Better of Worse” episode of The Hills was filmed in Room 215.

April 21, 2010
The Michael Jackson Auditorium at Gardner Street Elementary School

A few weeks ago, fellow stalker and mega-MJ-aficionado David from Spain told me about a King of Pop location that I wasn’t previously aware of – the Michael Jackson Auditorium at Gardner Street Elementary School. So, of course, I just had to run right out and stalk it! MJ attended the Hollywood area school for a few brief months in late 1969/early 1970, after the 11-year old singer and his four brothers first moved to Southern California from their hometown of Gary, Indiana to begin their new lives as performers. At the time, the Jackson 5, who had recently been signed to the Motown record label, were on the cusp of superstardom. Young Michael attended sixth grade classes at Gardner Street Elementary School during the day – you can view his class picture here – while the group recorded songs for their new label at night. But, in January of 1970, after only a few short months at the school, the Jackson 5 skyrocketed to fame, their single “I Want You Back” hit number one, and Michael’s popularity made it so that he could no longer be a part of a normal school environment. He withdrew from Gardner Street and from that point forward was homeschooled by a private tutor named Rose Fine. But the story doesn’t end there.

In 1989, almost two full decades after he attended classes there, Gardner Street Elementary School decided to honor its most famous alumnae by renaming its assembly room the “Michael Jackson Auditorium”. On October 11th, to the delight of the student body, the King of Pop himself showed up for the dedication ceremony, where he was presented with a plaque by his sixth grade teacher, Mrs. Laura Gerson. The pop star made a brief speech thanking the students, the faculty, and the PTA, donated a large sum of money to the school, planted rose bushes on the campus, and even signed the wall of Room 8 – his former sixth grade classroom. In the years following the dedication, Michael also personally paid the salary of the school’s music teacher out of his own pocket, an act which I find absolutely amazing!

You can watch a video of the Michael Jackson Auditorium dedication ceremony by clicking above.

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But, once again, the story doesn’t end there. Sadly, in November of 2003, following the singer’s arrest on molestation charges in the Gavin Arvizo case, Gardner Street School covered over the Michael Jackson portion of the auditorium’s sign with paint and a plywood box. According to a November 25, 2003 Los Angeles Times article written by Erika Hayasaki, school district spokeswoman Stephanie Brady stated that administrators chose to cover the sign due to complaints from angry parents. She said the sign “may” be uncovered following the trial, if the singer was found innocent. But, even though, Michael Jackson was indeed acquitted of all charges on June 13, 2005, the sign remained covered, and still does to this day, seven years after the fact. And while in America one is supposed to remain innocent until proven guilty, that certainly wasn’t the case here. It’s pretty unbelievable to me that after BOTH his acquittal and subsequent death this past June, the plywood box has yet to come down. You can see what the Michael Jackson Auditorium looked like before its sign was covered up here.

All that currently remains alerting anyone to the auditorium’s former name is a small plaque which reads “Michael Jackson Auditorium, Dedicated October 11, 1989”. The plaque is barely visible, though, and we had to use my fiancé’s telephoto lens to snap a picture of it. After telling me about this location, fellow stalker David said “I must admit, I am dying to stalk this place . . . but, at the same time, I am also dying to to go there and throw a bunch of eggs at their doors.” And that pretty much sums up how I felt while I was there, too. English may be his second language, but David sure has a way with words! 🙂

Big THANK YOU to David for telling me about this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Michael Jackson Auditorium can be found at Gardner Street Elementary School which is located at 7450 Hawthorn Avenue in Hollywood. The Auditorium can best be viewed from the corner of Hawthorne Avenue and North Gardner Street. Please remember that this location is a school and that schools do NOT take kindly to trespassing. I must caution you that there are, by no stretch of the imagination, at least ten signs out front warning that all uninvited visitors who trespass will be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Schools don’t really mess around when it comes to trespassing, so please be aware that if you set foot on the Gardner Street Elementary School campus you are breaking the law and will be subject to arrest. To sign a petition to restore Michael Jackson’s name to the Gardner Street Elementary School auditorium, please click here and to learn more about the cause, click here.

April 19, 2010
The “Pretty Woman”/”(500) Days of Summer” Fountain and Park

Another Downtown Los Angeles location that my fiancé and I stalked this past weekend was the water fountain and park which appeared in both fave movie Pretty Woman and not so fave movie (500) Days of Summer. I discovered this location way back in September of 2007 when I was called to serve as a juror on a four day trial at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Downtown L.A. I’m glad to know jury duty is at least good for something. 😉

As I’ve mentioned a few times before on this blog, included in Los Angeles’ jury orientation presentation are directions to the nearest Starbucks – made complete with a PowerPoint slide showing a map which details the cafe’s exact location. I am not kidding here! Needless to say, I spent quite a bit of time at that Starbucks, especially because jurors are often given two hour-plus lunches (also not kidding!). The “Courthouse Starbucks” as I came to call it is located in the middle of the Civic Center Mall, which is a large plaza that can be found about two blocks away from the Criminal Justice Center. While waiting in line to order my latte one morning, I noticed a HUGE fountain located just north of where I was standing and immediately recognized it as the fountain which appeared in Pretty Woman.   I had always wondered where that fountain was located, so I was beyond floored to have discovered it while waiting in line to purchase a cup of coffee. It always amazes me the things I notice if I just have my eyes open, instead of buried in my Blackberry. 😉 Anyway, because jurors aren’t allowed to bring cameras into the Criminal Justice Center, I wasn’t able to take any photographs of the fountain while on jury duty, so this past weekend I dragged my fiancé back there so that I could finally blog about the place.



In Pretty Woman, the fountain shows up towards the end of the movie in the scene in which Vivian Ward (aka Julia Roberts) has just convinced Edward Lewis (aka Richard Gere) to take his very first day off of work. Vivian is shown walking along the rim of the fountain where she announces that she wants a “snap dog” – whatever that is.



The official name of the Pretty Woman fountain is the Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain and it was dedicated on May 18, 1966. Will, who served as the chief administrative officer of the County of Los Angeles from 1951 to 1957, was instrumental in developing the Civic Center Mall as an urban park and garden for those Angelinos who worked in the area so that they could enjoy a bit of outdoor time during their busy day. The Civic Center Mall is officially known as El Paseo De Los Pobladores De Los Angeles, which translates to “The Walk of the First Settlers of Los Angeles”, and was named in honor of the 44 Mexican settlers who on September 4th of 1781 founded the City of Angels.

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I have to give some serious props to the Grim Cheaper right now, as he is turning out to be quite the little stalker! While we were taking pictures of the Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain he immediately recognized the park located just south of it as the spot where Edward and Vivian “copped a squat” in Pretty Woman. I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t recognize the park at all, and was so convinced that it wasn’t the same one which appeared in Pretty Woman that I told him not to bother taking any photographs of it! It’s a good thing he didn’t listen to me,though, because as it turns out, the patch of grass which is located in the southern portion of the Civic Center Mall is, in fact, the Pretty Woman park.   Thank you, G.C.!

The park was featured in the scene immediately following the fountain scene, in which Edward and Vivian are shown relaxing on a blanket and reading Shakespeare out loud to each other.

As I mentioned above, the Civic Center Mall was also featured in the 2009 flick (500) Days of Summer and I immediately recognized the place when I saw the movie a few months back. The Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain appeared very briefly in the beginning of the big Hall & Oates “You Make My Dreams Come True” dance sequence.



The vast majority of the dance sequence takes place on the walkway just east of the fountain, in between the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration building and the Courthouse Starbucks.



I also immediately recognized the dance area when I first watched (500) Days of Summer, as it is located along the exact route I would take multiple times each day while on my frequent Starbucks runs during jury duty – and yes, I go to Starbucks multiple times a day and I’m not ashamed to admit it! 🙂

Needless to say, the (500) Days of Summer dance sequence was my absolute favorite scene in the entire movie! I’m a sucker for any sort of musical type performance and being that “You Make My Dreams Come True” is one of my VERY favorite ‘80s songs, I felt like the whole thing was pretty much tailor-made for me. But because the scene was so incredibly fun and upbeat and joyful, it made the movie’s ending all that more shocking of a blow. 🙁 You can watch the big (500) Days of Summer dance number by clicking above – but I’m warning you, unless you want to be depressed for a good couple of hours, do NOT watch the rest of the movie.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Civic Center Mall, aka El Paseo De Los Pobladores De Los Angeles, is located in between the Los Angeles County Municipal Court (111 N. Hill Street) and the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration (500 West Temple Street), and is bordered by Hill Street to the north and Grand Avenue to the south. The Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain, aka the Pretty Woman fountain, is located in the northern portion of the Mall, near North Grand Avenue, in between West Temple Street and West 1st Street. The Pretty Woman park is located just a bit south of the fountain, on North Hill Street. The (500) Days of Summer dance sequence took place on the walkway in front of the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration. The cameras were facing southwest for most of that scene, looking towards the Hall of Records building.

April 16, 2010
The “(500) Days of Summer” Bench

Another Downtown Los Angeles location that my fiancé and I stalked this past weekend was the famous bench from 2009’s indie hit (500) Days of Summer. A few weeks ago, fellow stalker Eileen emailed me to tell me of the bench’s location and to send me the above photograph of herself and her roommate taken while there. I should mention here that I didn’t especially care for (500) Days of Summer. Actually, it’d be much closer to the truth to say that I didn’t like the movie at all, and for the very same reason that I didn’t like 2006’s The Break-Up – it was far too depressing. I went in expecting to laugh and came out completely crushed. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that the two main characters didn’t wind up together, being that the movie’s tag line read, “Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t.” But, being that I’ve always been an eternal optimist, the ending came as a complete shock to me. For those who have yet to see (500) Days of Summer, I apologize if I just ruined it for you, but I think the movie would be a whole lot more enjoyable to watch if you know beforehand that the ending is not a happy one. Anyway, I just about died when I saw Eileen’s photograph of the bench and noticed the little plaque glued to the back of it which heralds its famous cinematic appearance. That plaque is just about the COOLEST THING EVER! I think ALL movie locations should have something similar on display! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! So, even though I wasn’t a fan of the movie, I just HAD to stalk the bench to see that plaque with my own two eyes.

The bench, which shows up twice in (500) Days of Summer, is a very significant location in the movie. It first appears in the beginning of the flick – on “Day 95” – as the spot where aspiring architect/greeting card author Tom Hansen (aka Joseph Gordon-Levitt) takes new girlfriend Summer Finn (aka Zooey Deschanel) on a date. He describes the bench as his favorite place in all of Los Angeles thanks to its view of some of Downtown’s most historically significant buildings. After Zooey jokingly points out that the bench also has a view of quite a few parking structures, Tom says, “There’s a lot of beautiful stuff here, too, though. I don’t know. I just wish people would notice it more.” I love that quote as it is sad fact that L.A.’s beauty is overlooked much of the time. Southern California gets a bad wrap more often than not, but if you really take the time to look, there is a staggering amount of beauty and history and magic in this city. That’s one of the things I love most about stalking – I get to see so many unique and fascinating areas of L.A. – like Tom’s bench – that I might never have known about had they not been featured in a movie. So, thank you, Hollywood! 🙂

Tom’s bench, and the one immediately to the right of it, shows up yet again on “Day 488”, in the scene in which Tom and Summer run into each other after she has married someone else. See what I mean – depressing freakin’ movie!

The park where the bench is located, a tiny, little spot known as Angels Knoll, also appears in the movie, on “Day 259”, in the scene in which Tom and Summer pretend to have Tourette’s syndrome.

Tom’s bench is a very cool little spot and I am happy to report that it looks much the same in person as it did in the movie.

Except that it now has that uber-cool filming plaque proudly displayed on its back. LOVE IT!

The view from the bench is also much the same in real life as it appeared in the movie. And it really is quite a view!

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Because the movie filmed at so many unique and interesting locations and did such a fabulous job of highlighting Los Angeles’ beauty, I was quite shocked to find out today, thanks to IMBD’s (500) Days of Summer trivia page, that the original screenplay depicted the characters living in San Francisco! Los Angeles is so prevalent in the storyline – the city could almost be considered the third main character – that I can’t even fathom what the movie would have been like had it been filmed anywhere else.

Ironically enough, while we were stalking the bench we ran into yet another stalker who was doing the exact same thing! So, we, of course, got to talking to him and he alerted me to this (500) Days of Summer online movie locations map, which was apparently transcribed from a map that was given out as a promo during the flick’s June 24th, 2009 premiere. I know I am repeating myself here, but that map has to be just about THE COOLEST THING EVER! Why is something like this not done for all movies???? Do I have to think of everything? Sheesh! 🙂 Anyway, as it turns out, my fellow stalker was visiting L.A. from Vancouver, British Columbia, which just so happens to be Mr. Michael Buble’s hometown. So, since I just booked tickets for a little May vacation in the Pacific Northwest and have been busy making a list of all of my must-see locations up there, I asked him if he happened to know where MB’s childhood home could be found. Well, let me tell you, he just about flipped out right there on the spot, gave me the weirdest look, and immediately hightailed it out of there. Not kidding! The guy practically ran from me – he could not get away fast enough! He obviously thought I was a complete and total freak! LOL Ah well, I guess not everybody loves a stalker.

Big THANK YOU to Eileen for telling me about this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The (500) Days of Summer bench can be found in the western portion of Angels Knoll Park, which is located at 356 South Olive Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. The bench’s exact location is denoted with a blue circle in the above aerial map. Angels Knoll is open daily, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during Winter months and from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. during Summer months.

April 15, 2010
The “Confessions of a Shopaholic” House

While doing some research for my Who’s The Boss? post quite a few months back, I came across this website which chronicles all of the movies that have ever been filmed in the city of Fairfield, Connecticut and just about died when I saw the 2009 flick Confessions of a Shopaholic on the list. As I’ve mentioned before, I wasn’t all that big a fan of the movie (I actually just re-watched parts of it while making today’s screen captures and have to say that it’s even worse the second time around), but the book that the movie was based on is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE NOVEL OF ALL TIME. For those of you who have yet to read Confessions of a Shopaholic, please don’t let its craptastic cinematic counterpart scare you off. The novel is a literary masterpiece – well, for a “chick lit” book, anyway. 😉 But I digress. Anyway, as luck would have it, fellow stalker Owen just happens to live in the Fairfield area so I had an inkling that he might know the exact location of the main house used in the movie. And, sure enough, he did! Owen had come across the home’s address back in 2008 while doing some research on the Leonardo DiCaprio/Kate Winslet film Revolutionary Road, which was also filmed in Fairfield. And even though he had absolutely no interest in ever seeing Shopaholic, nor did he even know what the movie was about really, he wrote the address down in his stalking files anyway! And that right there is why we’re friends! 🙂 So, because I have no immediate plans to visit the state of Connecticut, I asked Owen if he wouldn’t mind stalking the house for me, which he happily did. Thank you, Owen!

In Confessions of a Shopaholic, the residence pictured above belongs to Graham (aka John Goodman) and Jane (aka Joan Cusack), the parents of Becky Bloomwood (aka Isla Fisher), the movie’s heroine. The house only actually appears in a few brief scenes in the flick and, oddly enough, only a partial view of the exterior is ever shown.

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The home’s front door is the area that got the most screen time in the flick, but even that was featured only very briefly. I am surprised that the producers didn’t choose to show more of the house onscreen, as it is a SUPER cute abode and actually looks exactly like the type of place I pictured Becky growing up in while reading the book.

I am very happy to report that the Confessions of a Shopaholic home looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did onscreen.

Even the residence’s real life address plaque and mailbox were used in the filming. SO LOVE IT! 🙂

Filming at the house took place on April 9 of 2008 and I am fairly certain that the interior was also used in the production. You can see some photographs of the filming taken by a Fairfield, Connecticut resident here.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location and stalking it for me! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Confessions of a Shopaholic house is located at 16 Essex Street in Fairfield, Connecticut. The movie also filmed a scene at Greenwich Point Park, which is located on Tods Driftway, off of Shore Road, in Greenwich, which is about 20 miles west of Fairfield.

April 12, 2010
“The Wedding Singer” Limo Test Parking Lot

One location that fellow stalker Owen has been on the lookout for for what seems like years now is the parking lot where Robbie (aka Adam Sandler) and Julia (aka Drew Barrymore) tested Sammy’s (aka Allen Covert’s) limo driving skills in fave movie The Wedding Singer. And I think I can safely say that this particular hunt has been one of the most challenging and longest lasting stalks that I’veexperienced to date. For whatever reason, no matter how hard we tried, neither of us could seem to locate that lot! I’m really not joking when I say that the two of us looked at pretty much every single parking lot in the greater Los Angeles area, either in person or via aerial views. Owen even managed to contact at least a dozen crew members involved in the 1998 production, all of whom gave him a different answer when asked where the limo test scene had been filmed. Talk about frustrating! Then, miracle of miracles, Owen somehow got his hands on the entire collection of shoot sheets from the movie, one of which stated that the limo scene had been filmed in a public parking lot somewhere on Honolulu Avenue in the city of Montrose. So, that following Saturday, I dragged my fiancé over to Montrose to stalk each and every lot in the immediate area.

While watching the Wedding Singer scene, Owen had noticed what he called a “distinct-looking tree” in the background behind Robbie and Julia. It was that tree that my fiancé and I set out to find that Saturday morning in Montrose. Sadly, though, none of the lots on Honolulu Avenue had a single, solitary tree, let alone a distinct-looking one.   Owen and I had all but given up hope at that point when fellow stalker Chas, of ItsFilmedThere, managed to get a hold of one of the Wedding Singer producers, who remembered that the scene had been filmed in the auxiliary bus parking lot at Descanso Gardens. Amazingly enough, I had actually already stalked Descanso’s main lot looking for that tree, but had come up empty-handed. I hadn’t realized at the time that there was an additional, second lot on the premises. So, this past weekend, I dragged my fiancé out to Descanso once again, Wedding Singer screen captures in hand, to track down Owen’s distinct-looking tree.

And, sure enough, we did! Surprisingly enough, even though the Descanso Gardens auxiliary bus lot is quite large, I spotted Owen’s tree almost immediately.   And I, of course, just had to pose in front of it holding my Wedding Singer screen caps! 🙂

And I am very happy to report that, even though twelve years have passed since The Wedding Singer was filmed, Owen’s tree looks much the same today as it did onscreen. Sure, it’s a bit larger now and grows a bit more to the right than it did in the movie, but for the most part it is immediately identifiable. YAY!

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   Now, I do realize that there are some stalkers out there who might say that this location is “just” a tree or “just” a parking lot. And I get that, I do. I mean my favorite locations have always been – and always will be – film and television houses. (Ranking a close second are restaurants, but I digress.)   At the same time, though, this has been one of the most fun stalks I’ve ever been involved with. As I said above, it’s been long and challenging, but I mean that in the best possible way.   As my fiancé likes to say, it’s about the journey, not the destination. And even though I was “just” searching for a parking lot – and a parking lot tree – this journey was definitely a blast!   And I’d like to thank Owen for inviting me along for the ride! 🙂   So, yes, while it is just a parking lot, I decided this location was definitely blog-worthy. And, aside from Owen, I knew my friend and fellow stalker Ashley over at TheDrewseum would also appreciate this particular locale. 🙂

In the super cute scene which took place at Descanso, Robbie creates an obstacle course of sorts out of cones to test his best friend’s limo driving ability before he will allow Julia to hire him for her upcoming nuptials. During the test, Julia says, “Of course I’m going to hire him – not only is he your best friend, but he’s the only limo driver in town.” To which Robbie replies, “Yeah, I just like having fun with him.” LOL   Sammy unfortunately hits several of the cones during his test, causing Robbie to admonish, “You hit two cones! Those could have been people! Those could have been guests at her wedding!” To which Sammy says – in what I think is Owen’s favorite line out of the entire movie – “They were CONES!” LOL

You can watch the hilarious limo test scene by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Wedding Singerlimo test parking lot is actually the auxiliary bus parking lot at Descanso Gardens, which is located at 1418 Descanso Drive in La Canada Flintridge. The location where Julia and Robbie were standing in the scene is denoted with a pink “X” in the above aerial map. Sammy’s limo test starts out next to the shrub located just due north of the pink “X”.

April 9, 2010
Isabel’s House from the “Bewitched” Movie

Last week, fellow stalker Tony, from the On Location in Los Angeles flickr page, asked for my help in tracking down the residence belonging to Isabel Bigelow (aka Nicole Kidman) and her loyal cat, Lucinda, in the 2005 movie adaptation of the television series Bewitched. So, I, of course, immediately called upon “The Team” – aka fellow stalkers Owen, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and Chas, from ItsFilmedThere – to see if they could help me find it. Which they, of course, did! Owen fairly quickly came upon fave website Hooked on Houses’ awesome write up about the cottage which stated that it was located somewhere in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. And because the house’s address number – 4427 – was also visible in the movie, we had two very strong leads to follow. Owen immediately began searching the Valley – once he figured out exactly what part of Los Angeles constituted “The Valley”, something I have still not yet been able to do 😉 – for houses with a “4427” address number and voila, it wasn’t very long before he found the correct one. YAY! Thank you, Owen! So, bright and early yesterday morning, I headed out to stalk the place.

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In Bewitched, Isabel discovers the house pictured above during a walk and immediately decides it would be the perfect place to start her new, “normal”, non-witch life in which she has vowed to stop using magic. She does, of course, continue to use magic – fairly soon after making the decision not to, in fact – and, with a simple twitch of her nose, has a “for rent” sign put on the residence’s front lawn and immediately leases the place and moves right in. It’s not very hard to see why producers chose to use the charming colonial style cottage featured in the movie, as it is extremely picturesque and idyllic. It’s exactly the type of place I’d imagine a witch seeking normalcy to want to live. Heck, I would LOVE to live there, myself!

As you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, Isabel’s house looks almost EXACTLY the same in person as it appeared onscreen, right down to the address plaque, white front porch bench, and red front door. Love it!

In fact, the only differences I noticed in real life were the absence of Isabel’s single-car garage and the shutters on the window just to the left of it.

As you can see in the above photographs, that single-car garage is not there in real life. There is a detached two-car garage located directly behind and to the right of the house, though, which leads me to believe that Isabel’s garage was simply a facade that producers had built solely for the filming. And, according to Hooked on Houses, only the exterior of the real life residence was used in Bewitched. The absolutely adorable interiors, sadly, only ever existed on a studio soundstage.

On an ironic side note – According to IMDB’s Bewitched Trivia Page, in real life Isabel’s home was once owned by Bewitched director Nora Ephron’s parents’ friends. Ephron had visited the residence numerous times during her childhood and when it came time to scout locations for the movie, she remembered the house and thought it would be perfect to use as her lead character’s abode. What Nora didn’t realize, however, was that her parents’ friends who once owned the house were none other than Larry Berns and his wife, Sandra Gould – an actress who is best known for playing nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz on the Bewitched television series. Cue the Disney music, ‘cause it truly is a small world after all!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Isabel’s house from the Bewitched movie is located at 4427 Radford Avenue in Studio City.

April 8, 2010
The “Glee” Vanity Fair Photo Shoot

In early December of last year, I came across these Fan Sites Network photographs of the male stars of Glee – including my latest love, cutie Matthew Morrison – posing for an upcoming issue of Vanity Fair at the Urban Light display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and I just about died. I absolutely COULD NOT WAIT for the article to be published so that I could stalk the display and blog about it. I’m really not kidding – on January 1st, February 1st, and March 1st of this year, I literally ran to my local newsstand to check out the latest issue of the magazine to see if the Glee pics were in there. Well, the photos – ahem – photo was finally published this past Thursday in the magazine’s May issue and I have to say that I was sorely disappointed with it. I had whole-heartedly been expecting the Glee actors to garner a cover story or, at the very least, a full-fledged feature article, so, you can imagine my disappointment last Thursday upon discovering that the actual publication consisted of a single page. Yes, you read that right – ONE single, solitary page. In my never-to-be humble opinion ;), I have to say that Vanity Fair really dropped the ball on this one! I mean, HELLO! Glee is not only the biggest new show of the 2009 Fall television season and is finally returning to the airwaves after a FOUR MONTH hiatus, but it also recently won both a Golden Globe Award (for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy) and a SAG Award (for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series) along with countless other awards and nominations too numerous to list here – before its very first season had even been completed, no less! Shouldn’t that at least garner them more than a half page picture and tiny write-up buried all the way on page 181? Shame on you, VF! Not only that, but I wasn’t exactly crazy about the sole photograph that did get published, either. It is a pretty dark and dreary picture, especially considering that Glee is a show chock full of . . . well, glee! But, even though I wasn’t very happy about the finalized product, I still just HAD to stalk the place where the photo shoot took place. So, this past weekend I dragged my fiancé out to Wilshire’s Miracle Mile District and did just that.



I’ve actually driven by the Urban Light display countless times over the past few years and have always found it a bit odd, to say the least.   As you can see in the above photographs, the large scale art installation consists of a group of grey-colored lights standing right smack dab in the middle of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s central courtyard which is located along the heavily trafficked Wilshire Boulevard in Mid-Town L.A. Trust me when I say that the whole thing looks very bizarre when driving by at 35 miles per hour. And even though I’ve always admired the many vintage street lamps that are in still in use around the Los Angeles area, the Urban Light display always seemed out of place to me and I never had any interest in stopping my car to get a closer look.

That is, until my good friend Renae sent me the above picture of her family taken earlier this year, which I thought was just about the coolest family photograph I had ever seen!   I absolutely loved, loved, loved it and, in turn, realized what an amazing display the Urban Light installation actually was. I mean can you even imagine taking wedding photographs there?? They would be A-MA-ZING!

The Urban Light display, which is comprised of a group of 202 actual working 1920’s and 1930’s era Los Angeles street lamps that took over seven years to collect, was created by performance artist and sculptor Chris Burden in early 2008. Burden is perhaps best known for his highly controversial performance pieces from the early 1970s, the most famous of which was entitled “Shoot” and involved an assistant actually shooting him in the arm while onstage. Not surprisingly, he was made to see a therapist after that production. 😉 Burden also once had himself nailed to a Volkswagen Beetle during a show.   Needless to say, the guy’s a bit out there. According to this article which was written by Susan Freudenheim and appeared in the January 30th, 2008 issue of the Los Angeles Times, in recent years Burden has shifted his attention from performance art to “large-scale assemblage sculptures”.   He first stumbled upon the vintage street lamps that would become the foundation of his “Urban Light” display in December of 2000 at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena. Even though he had no plan for them at the time, he immediately purchased a pair of the vintage lights for $1600.   An avid collector of a wide array of tchotchkes, Burden soon found himself in possession of 150 of the street lamps and used them to build a small scale display outside of his studio. Eventually, a few big wigs at LACMA viewed the installation and knew it would be the perfect piece to stand in the middle of the new courtyard that was being built outside of the museum. Andrew M. Gordon, a chairman on the LACMA board, donated the money to purchase the display, to which Burden had added 52 more lamps, and the rest, as they say, is history. The installation’s first lighting was on February 7, 2008 and coincided with the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA. In a humorous side note, not only did each of the 202 lamps have to actually be installed per Los Angeles City Code, but they were also all inspected by the Bureau of Street Lighting. No that’s not a joke, Los Angeles actually has a Bureau of Street Lighting!

Seeing the Urban Light sculpture up close and personal is extremely jarring as the display is absolutely HUGE, much more so then it appears to be when simply driving by. Burden designed the piece so that visitors could actually walk through each of the lights to experience what he describes as “architecture without walls”. And let me tell you, one can easily get lost in the middle of the installation, as I obviously did in the above photograph. 🙂 I honestly can’t recommend stalking the Urban Light display enough. It is an absolutely beautiful and truly unique place that everyone should see in person at least once.

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And, of course, I just had to pose in the exact spot where the Glee picture was taken, which is on the northwest corner of the installation. 🙂

Note – The Glee photograph which appears in this post does not belong to me, but remains the sole property of photographer Michael Roberts and Vanity Fair Magazine.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Chris Burden’s “Urban Light” display, where the Glee guys’ Vanity Fair photo shoot took place, is located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in Mid-Town L.A. The Glee boys posed in the display’s northwest corner, which is pictured above. The May issue of Vanity Fair, which features the Glee photograph, will be on sale throughout the end of April. If you would like to check out a more in-depth photoshoot of the cast, pick up this month’s Glamour.

April 7, 2010
Wayne Manor From the “Batman” Television Series

Just up the street from the Just Married mansion which I blogged about yesterday is the residence which stood in for Wayne Manor, aka Batman’s abode, in the 1966 television series and movie of the same name. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the Batman mansion and the Just Married mansion are quite often mistaken for each other due to a myriad of reasons. So, to set the record straight – and since we already were in the area a couple of weeks ago doing some Just Married stalking- I decided to drag my fiancé a few hundreds yards up the road to also stalk Bruce Wayne’s pad. Sadly, though, not very much of it is visible from the street.

According to Zillow, the residence, which was built in 1928, boasts ten bedrooms, six bathrooms, a whopping 16,599 square feet of living space, and sits on over five acres of land! And if you look at the above photographs, it is very easy to see why the property is often confused with the Just Married mansion that burned down in October of 2005. Not only are both houses gargantuan, set far back from the road, and Tudor/Gothic Revival in style, but both were constructed almost entirely out of brick by the very same architect, Paul Revere Williams, and bear a striking resemblance to each other. Further adding to the confusion between the properties is the fact that they are located within blocks of each other on the very same street, San Rafael Avenue, in Pasadena and have both been featured in countless productions over the years.



Because the location rumors about the two mansions have been running rampant for so very long, this weekend I decided to try to get my hands on as many of the productions filmed on the premises as I could to try to set the record straight once and for all. And I didn’t do too bad – the only movies I wasn’t able to track down were Topper, Three Men and a Little Lady, Executive Action, The Gumball Rally, The Bells of St. Mary’s, Sweet Bird of Youth, and True Confessions. If anyone has those movies or has seen them in the past, can you let me know which, if either, of the San Rafael mansions was featured in them?

As I mentioned above, the mansion’s most famous appearance was as Wayne Manor in the 1966 television series Batman and the subsequent movie of the same name that was made that very same year. But its resume hardly ends there.

The residence was also used as both the St. Audrey’s Home for Boys where Grace (aka Emma Thompson) was taken in by a nun . . .

. . . and as Roman Strauss’ (aka Kenneth Branagh’s) home in 1991’s Dead Again.





In the first Rush Hour movie, the mansion stood in for Los Angeles’ Chinese Consulate.

As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, though, the exterior gate which appears in that movie is not the home’s real life gate.

In 1999’s Bowfinger, the mansion was used as the residence of action star Kit Ramsey (aka Eddie Murphy).

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And in that flick the home’s real life gate does actually appear and was the site of one of the movie’s funniest scenes.

In Scary Movie 2, the mansion stood in for Hell House/Kane Manor where most of the film’s action takes place.

In X-Files: Fight The Future, it was used as the Somerset, England home of the Well-Manicured Man (aka John Neville).



According to some reports that I found online, the mansion was also featured in 1986’s Stand By Me, which seemed a bit odd being that I had always heard that Stand By Me was filmed almost in its entirety in the state of Oregon. After re-watching the flick earlier today, though, I believe that the mansion did appear once at the very end of the movie as the residence of “The Writer” (aka Richard Dreyfuss). As you can see in the above screen captures, the front driveway area does match that of the Batman mansion. Why would they come all the way to Pasadena to film this one brief scene, though, when the rest of the movie was filmed hundreds of miles away in Oregon, you ask? Well, according to IMDB’s Stand By Me trivia page, an actor named David Dukes was originally cast in the role of “The Writer”. After his scenes were shot, though, and filming had wrapped, they re-cast the role with actor Richard Dreyfuss and re-shot all of his character’s scenes. So, since the Richard Dreyfuss scenes were filmed at a later date – I am guessing after principal photography in Oregon had already wrapped – it makes sense that they would have been shot somewhere in the L.A. area, closer to where the film was being edited.



And if you’ll notice in the above screen captures, which were taken from the movie Dead Again, the mansion’s front window and the view from it does sort of match that which appeared in Stand By Me, which makes me think that the property was actually used in the movie, although I don’t have any concrete proof to back that up.

Fellow stalker Ivan just sent me the above screen captures from the television series Land of Giants, in which Wayne Manor stood in for the residence belonging to Uncle Trojar in the episode entitled “Collector’s Item”. And, yes, the mansion was blown up t the end of that episode. Thank you, Ivan! 🙂

According to fave website OnLocationVacations, the mansion was also the site of some filming from the upcoming Dinner For Schmucks movie starring Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and Zach Galifianikis.   Besides being a filming location, the mansion was also the Pasadena Showcase House of Design in 1997. So, I hope that at least partially puts to rest some of the locations rumors about the two landmark San Rafael Avenue mansions. If I come across any further information, I will post it here! And please let me know, dear readers, if you come across any information yourselves!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Wayne Manor from the Batman television series is located at 380 South San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena. Unfortunately, the residence is not very visible from the street. To see the best views of the home, drive just a bit north of where the main gates are located.

April 6, 2010