Tag: famous places

The Standard Hotel Rooftop Bar in Downtown Los Angeles

Another Fracture filming location that I recently stalked – without actually realizing it – was the Standard Hotel’s Rooftop Bar in Downtown L.A. I say “without actually realizing it” because at the time I stalked the place I had no idea it was a filming location.   I ended up there while on the way to the Los Angeles airport where I was dropping off my good friends from Switzerland who were flying home after a two week visit. I thought it would be nice to stop for a cocktail at an L.A. hot spot before their flight took off and so I got to Googling, whereupon I found a myriad of websites all touting the amazing views that could be found at the Standard’s rooftop watering hole. So, we made a pit stop there before heading to LAX and, as fate would have it, the place turned out to be the PERFECT spot for my friends to bid their farewells to Los Angeles.



Downtown L.A.’s Standard Hotel opened up in May of 2002 and was the brainchild of famed hotelier Andre Balazs, the same man who gave us New York’s Mercer Hotel, the original Standard Hotel in West Hollywood, and the updated version of Hollywood’s legendary Chateau Marmont. The twelve story building now known as the Standard was originally built in 1952 and housed the Southern California headquarters of Superior Oil. The structure, which was designed by architect Claude Beelman, had stood vacant for over a decade when Balazs purchased it in 2000. He left most of the original architectural details intact, including the two-story lobby area’s stainless steel time zone clock which displays the times of 15 different countries and stands at over ten feet tall, the oil mining frieze located above the entrance doors, a pair of escalators (left over from when Union Bank of California occupied the building), the black and white marble flooring, and the original S-shaped door handles. To that he added shag carpeting, an absolutely enormous digital wall hanging, a sunken lounge area, an outdoor fire pit, a 125 foot long couch designed by Vladimir Kagan, and a foosball table station situated next to the valet desk. It’s retro-modern decor at its finest! The Standard’s piece de resistance, though, is its 1,220 square foot Rooftop Bar, which features astro-turf, a heated swimming pool, outdoor sofas, a dance floor, numerous topiaries, vibrating waterbeds, movies which are projected onto the walls of neighboring buildings, red plastic “pod” gazebos, Verner Panton-designed furniture, a fab menu and a full bar.

Oh, and did I mention the view? Yes, the bar also features an absolutely breath-taking, awe-inspiring view of Downtown Los Angeles.

So breath-taking and awe-inspiring, in fact, that it’s almost impossible to do anything but stare out at the skyline while there. The above photograph was taken of my friend Stephanie while at the bar and it perfectly encapsulates how one feels while visiting the place. 🙂   Of the hotel, Travel + Leisure Magazine said it is “Los Angeles like you have never seen it before.” My sentiments exactly!

The Standard Rooftop Bar is such a unique spot that it became an almost immediate celebrity magnet. Stars such as Owen Wilson, Charlize Theron, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Mark Wahlberg, Lara Flynn Boyle, Moby, Nicolas Cage, and Sophia Coppola have all been spotted hanging out there. And I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough! Whether you’re a native Angelino or a first-time visitor to Southern California, I can’t think of a better place from which to enjoy the City of Angels.



Due to its unique architecture and unparalleled views of the city, the Standard has become a frequent filming location. In Fracture, the Standard’s Rooftop Bar is featured very briefly as the spot where Willy Beachum (aka Ryan Gosling) meets up with Nikki Gardner (aka Rosamund Pike) after losing his court case against Ted Crawford (aka Anthony Hopkins).



The bar was also featured in the Season 3 episode of Entourage entitled “Strange Days” as the spot where Eric Murphy (aka Kevin Connolly) meets up with Sloane’s best friend Tori (aka Malin Akerman).



In Collateral, Jamie Foxx “borrows” a stranger’s cell phone while out in front of the Standard’s main entrance. And last, but not least, the hotel was also where Robert Downey Jr. stayed in the 2005 movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which I unfortunately don’t own a copy of.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Standard Hotel is located at 550 South Flower Street in Downtown Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.

February 2, 2010
The “Fracture” House

A few weeks ago, while doing some cyberstalking, I came across a fabulous filming locations database named Unreel Locations and I just about died when I saw a listing for what the site referred to as “The Fracture House”. I immediately recognized the property as the ultra modern abode where Ted Crawford (aka Anthony Hopkins) lived in the 2007 flick – a location which I had long been wanting to stalk. Unfortunately though, Unreel Locations didn’t specify where the residence was located, so I had to call in the usual suspects – aka Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and fellow stalker Owen – to help me track it down. And as expected, it wasn’t long before Owen was emailing me back with an address! YAY! Owen actually began his search for the home in an unlikely place – on the IMDB Fracture filming locations page – a site which doesn’t always serve up the most accurate of information. But there was a notation on the page stating that Fracture had been filmed in Encino, so Owen decided it was as good a starting point as any. From there he began Googling “Encino” and “Fracture filming location” and fairly quickly stumbled upon this real estate listing which advertised a vacant piece of property located “next to the famous Sherman House featured in the movie Fracture”. From there it was just a matter of searching the area next to the vacant lot. And voila, the Fracture house was found! Thank you, Owen! 🙂





For those who have yet to see Fracture (and I highly recommend that you do – it’s a FABULOUS flick), Ted Crawford’s house is simply breathtaking in it and, in my humble opinion at least, is the real star of the film. Both the inside . . .

. . . and the outside of the Sherman Estate were featured extensively in the movie and several weeks were actually spent shooting on location at the home. Of the property, Fracture director Gregory Hoblit says, “It must be 80% glass, supported by struts, but you can see from one of the house all the way to the other, all the way through it, side to side, end to end, anywhere you go. It would be a little unnerving to live in a house like that, but fortunately it’s pretty well-hidden.”   And while Hoblit enjoyed filming at the home and all of the unique camera angles the open, almost transparent-seeming property allowed him, cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau had a different opinion. “It was very film-unfriendly,” he says, “but it was worth every bit of effort and heartbreak and stepping on top of each other. It was a classic, Schindler-influenced building, where the interiors and exteriors flowed from one to the other, but it was not easy.” Openness and glass walls on a movie set are usually big no-nos, as crew members need places to hide themselves and their large camera equipment behind, so I can’t even imagine how difficult it must have been to film at the Sherman Estate. In this case, though, I think it was worth the extra effort as the house is absolutely unforgettable. You can read a great article on the filming of Fracture here.

In reality, the 3 bedroom, 4 bathroom, 5,472 square foot Sherman Estate, which sits on 4 acres of land, was built in 2001 by architect Peter Tolkien and the Scanlon Construction Company for Jerome and Zina Sherman. The “Zen-serenity” aura of the award-winning home was inspired by some Bali and Thailand area hotels where the couple had spent many a vacation. The house, which was built almost entirely out of wood, concrete, and glass and in which every room opens up to the outdoors, was constructed as a one-story dwelling because as Jerome said in the September 2004 issue of Better Homes and Gardens, “The older I get the more forgetful I am. I didn’t was to be constantly going up and down stairs to find my glasses.”   The property also includes a 1,500 foot guest house, a tennis court, a pool and hot tub, and a veritable forest of orange, oak, sycamore, and Deodar trees. I honestly can’t say enough about this house. It is truly a work of art!



Sadly, though, not very much of it can be seen from the street. 🙁 It was still very cool to stalk the house nonetheless, but oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place in person! You can see some great photographs of the interior of the property here and here.

The Sherman Estate also popped up very briefly as one of the homes that Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni robbed in the 2005 movie Fun With Dick and Jane.

A big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Fracture house, aka the Sherman Estate, is located at 4411 Noeline Avenue in Encino. You can see interior pictures of it here.

February 1, 2010
The IHOP Restaurant from “Glee”

As I have mentioned a few times in the past, I am a diabetic.   And in order to combat my currently out-of-whack blood sugars, I recently picked up Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution, a best-selling book which proposes a VERY low carbohydrate diet to maintain blood sugar control. Which is a problem, because this stalker loves to eat! And the foods I am naturally drawn to are, of course, those high carbohydrate entrees that the book proposes steering clear of. I mean, I honestly can’t think of any better meal than chicken strips and ranch dressing, can you? Nor can I think of a better place that serves them up than the International House of Pancakes, aka IHOP. So, you can imagine my disappointment when I found out – thanks to a reader who happened to be in the know – that an episode of Glee had been filmed at an IHOP in Tarzana, because, honestly, how was I going to stalk the place without consuming carbs?? I mean, a stalker’s gotta eat, right? So, I made the command decision to put my diabetic diet on hold for a couple of hours – for my blog’s sake, of course – and dragged my fiancé right out to Tarzana to do a little Glee stalking.



The IHOP in Tarzana appeared in one very brief scene at the beginning of the Season One episode of Glee entitled “The Rhodes Not Taken”. In the episode, Will Schuester (aka cutie Matthew Morrison) is out dining with his wife Terri (aka Jessalyn Gilsig) when he recognizes his waiter as a student he used to teach over five years ago. Once the former student informs Will that he is now enrolled at Carmel High School and is continually flunked year after year so that he can stay in Vocal Adrenaline – despite the fact that he is 24 years old, LOL – Will gets inspired to re-enroll high school dropout and former glee club star April Rhodes (aka Kristin Chenoweth) at McKinley High School so that she can perform with his group, New Directions. And, of course, hilarity ensues.

Some of you out there might find it silly that I stalked a Glee location that appeared in only one very brief, barely sixty second long scene, but being that the show is currently on hiatus until April 16th – what am I going to do with myself until then???? – I needed to get my fix somehow. And, thankfully, IHOP provided me with that. 🙂 Not to mention the fact that my current celebrity crush Matthew Morrison was in said scene, so I had no choice but to stalk the place! I so wanted to sit in Matthew’s seat while there, but unfortunately a group of three was already occupying it when we arrived – and something tells me that they had absolutely no idea of the significance of their particular booth. Ah well, such is life. The staff at IHOP could NOT have been nicer to me, though, and answered all of my silly questions about the filming.   And, of course, the chicken strips were A-MA-ZING. And I did manage to snap a quick pic while sitting in a booth sort of near the one used in the Glee scene.

The purple arrow above denotes the exact booth where Will and Terri were sitting during the scene.

On a side note – For those Gleeks out there who have yet to see the behind-the-scenes video of the filming of Emma and Will’s kiss from the “Sectionals” episode, you really need to check it out. It is ADORABLE! I absolutely love Jessalyn Gilsig’s little cameo appearance in it. 😉

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The IHOP that appeared in “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee can be found at 19100 Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana. If you stalk the place, I highly recommend ordering the chicken strips meal. 😉

January 28, 2010
Dylan’s House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Still licking our wounds this past weekend after finding out that the Walsh Family garage had recently been dismantled, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to head over to Dylan McKay’s house to do some more Beverly Hills, 90210 stalking. And, as fate would have it, the real life owner of Dylan’s home, an INCREDIBLY nice woman named Mary, just happened to be outside doing some gardening work when we arrived! So, we got to talking to her and found out quite a bit of behind-the-scenes information, the most fascinating of which was the fact that throughout the show’s entire second season, all of the scenes which took place at Dylan’s residence were actually filmed inside of Mary’s house and not on a soundstage! And, let me tell you, I just about died when I heard that! Interestingly enough, though, Mary’s house was not used for the exterior establishing shots of Dylan’s house until early in the show’s third season!

The house used as the exterior of Dylan’s abode during the show’s second season is pictured above. And, ironically enough, it’s also the very same house that was used as Andrea’s residence in the Season One episode of 90210 entitled “Spring Dance”.   LOL The location manager’s wires must have gotten crossed somewhere along the line while dealing with this residence! 😉

The interior of Mary’s house first appeared early on in the series’ second season in an episode entitled “Necessity is a Mother” (pictured above). According to Mary, whenever filming would take place at her home, producers would use her actual furniture in all of the scenes. She said she and her husband owned a pink couch at the time and producers would cover it up with Indian-style blankets during the filming, as you can see in the above screen captures. So, that finally answers the question of how Dylan McKay’s blanket-happy decorating style came to be. 😉

The exterior of Mary’s house (pictured above) didn’t show up until a full year after the “Necessity is a Mother” episode aired. Its first appearance was in the premiere episode of the Third Season, which was entitled “Misery Loves Company”. I guess producers didn’t figure viewers would notice that Dylan’s house changed mysteriously mid-series, but they really should have accounted for all of us stalkers out there. 😉



According to Mary, the interiors of her house were used throughout the filming of the entire second season and into the beginning of third, at which time producers ended up building an exact replica of the structure on a studio soundstage.

They even rebuilt the home’s front porch and side patio area (pictured above), complete with a replica red Webber BBQ, just like the one Mary and her husband owned at the time! So cool!   You can watch a clip which features an extensive view of Dylan’s house from the Season 3 episode entitled “A Song of Myself” here.

Mary also told us that a scene from the Season Four episode entitled “Twenty Years Ago Today” was also filmed inside of her house. In the scene, Dylan is shown taking a shower, just as Brandon pulls up to pick up a picture frame he had purchased for his parents’ twentieth wedding anniversary. Because Dylan can’t hear him knocking, Brandon ends up breaking the glass on the back door and entering the house. Dylan hears the glass break, grabs his gun, and almost shoots him. Ah, dontcha just love 90210 drama? Mary said that for the filming of Brandon’s breaking-and-entering scene, a fake back door – complete with break-away glass – was built and that she got to keep the door after the filming was completed! She still has the door in her garage! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see it, but I think it is so incredibly cool that she still has it after all these years.

She also told us that her real life bathroom was used for the scene in which Dylan is showering in that episode, which means that Luke Perry actually stood in her shower! Sigh! Mary also said that Shannen Doherty was her favorite out of all of the actors on the show. YAY! Go Team Brenda! See, I knew Shannen had to be nice! 🙂

Because Mary’s front door is glass, you can easily see inside of the house when standing on the front porch. And, let me tell you, I was ABSOLUTELY DYING looking at the interior because it looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did on 90210. But while Mary told us that we could take all the pictures we wanted of the house’s exterior and the front porch area, she asked us not to take any photos of the interior through the glass. 🙁   Apparently fans are apt to do that and she’s not too keen on it. And even though it killed me not to, I had to respect her wishes. 🙁 Ugh, such a bummer as I would have LOVED to have posted photographs of the inside here. But you can see some great interior photos of the house from before Mary owned it here and a photograph that someone did actually take through her front door here.



The house’s front porch area, which showed up countless times on 90210, is absolutely HUGE and Mike and I just had to take pictures of every single angle of it! 🙂

The house is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, and extremely unique, in person. It’s appearance from the street is actually quite deceiving, though, as it seems to be rather small and quaint. . .

. . . when in reality it is absolutely huge and stretches the length of an entire block. When you walk by, the place literally seems to just keep going and going and going.



Mary’s house was also used as Jesse Bradford’s residence in the super cute 2002 movie Clockstoppers.

Besides its cinematic significance, the house also has quite a bit of historical significance, as well. The dwelling is known as the “Parsons House” in architectural circles and it was originally built in 1910 by Arthur and Alfred Heineman, former Greene & Greene Brother’s’ apprentices. Amazingly enough, the house wasn’t always located in Altadena, though. It was originally built on East California Boulevard in Pasadena, four miles away from its current location. In 1980, a condominium development company purchased the land where the Parsons House used to stand and slated the area for demolition. The developer ended up giving the home to the Pasadena Heritage Society, who later sold the entire structure for one dollar to a man named Phil Elkins. Elkins hired architect Tim Anderson to restore the Parsons House and then purchased a vacant lot in Altadena, where he would eventually move the structure. In order to do so, though, the home had to be cut into three separate pieces, using a chain saw, no less! But the house survived the cut and the four mile journey to Altadena and two years later the entire property was completely restored. Anderson says, “We probably could have built a reproduction of the house for less than what it cost to restore. Had we all been less enthusiastic and naive about this project, the house would not have been saved.” You can read an entire history of the house on Tim Anderson’s website here.

Only the home’s chimney and front porch area had to be rebuilt from scratch, but they were made in exact replication of the originals. Ironically enough, George McDavitt, the stoneworker who did all of the masonry work on the new porch – and who also did the stone work on Bob Dylan’s Malibu house – actually showed up one day at Mary’s front door with his teenaged daughter. It turns out that his daughter was a huge 90210 fan and she didn’t believe that her father had actually built a part of Dylan McKay’s house, so he wanted to show her his name, which he had engraved in one of the rocks (pictured above). So cool!



I honestly cannot tell you how exciting it was to be able to see Dylan’s house in such an up-close-and-personal way and to talk to Mary about her amazing home and the historic filming that took place there almost two decades ago.   It was truly a dream come true! 🙂

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On a side note – My good friend Kristin, who owns my very favorite restaurant POP Champagne and Dessert Bar in Pasadena, will be appearing on KTLA tomorrow morning at around 9:45 in honor of dineLA’s Restaurant Week. If you live in the Los Angeles area be sure to tune in for the segment. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Dylan’s house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1605 East Altadena Drive, at the corner of Altadena Drive and Porter Avenue, in Altadena.

January 27, 2010
The Casa Walsh Garage – A Distant Memory

Like Mike, from MovieShotsLA said yesterday, it’s officially the end of an era. While the two of us were out doing some Pasadena area stalking on Sunday, we made our regular pilgrimage to the Walsh House from Beverly Hills, 90210 and saw a very sad sight, indeed. In fact, Mike was so out of sorts over the whole thing that he almost crashed the car upon viewing it. Not kidding! Apparently, just last week, Jack, the real life owner of Casa Walsh, tore down the Walsh garage – the hallowed spot where Brandon and Jim’s famous basketball hoop used to hang. 🙁 Mike and I actually knew this was coming, as Jack had mentioned he had plans to install a new garage on the property last December during our interior tour of the home, but it was still sad to see nonetheless. I am not a person that handles change very well anyway, and being that my parents just last week decided to sell the house we’ve lived in ever since moving to Southern California a decade ago, I’ve been having to deal with a lot of it lately. Granted I moved out of that house a year and a half ago, but that’s entirely beside the point. 😉 So, when I saw that my beloved 90210 house had also been altered, it was almost too much to bear.   And while Jack says that some change can actually be for the better, I’ll take the status quo over something new any day. 🙂



Pictured above is what’s currently left of the Walsh garage. I told Jack he should seriously consider selling pieces of the rubble on eBay, like the pieces of the Berlin Wall that were sold back in the 90s, but I don’t think he took me seriously. 😉



And here is the empty footprint where the Walsh garage – and basketball hoop – used to stand.

Pictured above is the garage area as it appeared in December of 2008.

And what it looks like today. So sad. See what I mean? It truly is the end of an era!



Jack also removed the little patio area that used to be located just outside of the Walsh’s backdoor – an area which the producers of 90210 had built especially for the filming of the show.   🙁

Pictured above is what that patio area used to look like.

Our visit to the Walsh house wasn’t an entirely sad event, though. As always, Jack regaled us with some fabulous tales from the days when the show was filmed on his property. And, let me tell you, I just cannot get enough of those stories! I could literally listen to Jack talk all day long! Which Mike and I pretty much did – we were there for close to two hours! Not kidding! Jack has to be one of THE nicest guys on the planet, I swear!    One story he told us had us absolutely cracking up. Apparently, a few months back, a fan from Belgium came to the house and asked to see the inside. Jack’s wife was hesitant about doing so, but the girl was very persistent, so she eventually showed her the area just inside the front door. Well, the girl took one look at the inside and completely burst into tears. Apparently, she thought the show was actually filmed inside of the real life house and expected it to look exactly the same in person as it does on TV and she became terribly upset when that was not the case. If only she had read my blog before stalking the house, she would have been saved some heartache. 😉   One interesting little tidbit of information that Jack shared with us that I found fascinating was that there were actually three houses being considered for the Walsh residence once the series got picked up by Fox. The three residences were Jack’s house, which ended up being chosen, Jack’s neighbor’s house directly to the east (pictured above) . . .

. . . and the house located across the street (pictured above). I think they made the right choice, don’t you think? How different the show would have been – at least to me – if one of the other houses had been chosen. The house across the street from Jack’s was eventually used as both the residence of Melissa, aka 90210’s Baby Mama, in the Season One episode entitled “One Man and a Baby” and the backyard area was used as Tiffany Morgan’s backyard in the Season One episode entitled “Every Dream Has Its Price”, both of which I blogged about here.



Ironically enough, Jack also told us that the very same backyard also stood in for Steve Sander’s backyard in the Season One episode entitled “Higher Education”.

Another little bit of 90210 trivia that Jack clued us into was the fact that the front yard of the house located directly west of Jack’s masqueraded as the backyard of Steve and Janet’s neighbor’s home in the Season 10 episode entitled “The Easter Bunny”.

In the episode, Steve and Janet erroneously believe that her parent’s dog, whom they are pet-sitting at the time, killed their neighbor’s pet rabbit, so the two of them concoct a plan to replace it with a new rabbit. Because Jack’s neighbor’s house doesn’t have a backyard with much open space, producers dressed the front yard area – just to the west of the home’s front door – and added a fence and a gate to make it appear as if it was really the home’s backyard.   So interesting!

One thing I noticed while in Jack’s backyard was that the Walsh house actually has two small upstairs balconies, not just one as I had previously believed. I recognized the smaller of the two balconies from the Season One episode entitled “Isn’t It Romantic” the last time I stalked the house. And this time, I immediately recognized the other balcony from the Season One episode entitled “Seventeen Year Itch”, which I had randomly watched the night beforehand. 🙂   In the episode, Cindy Walsh is shown pining over her former fling Glen Evans while standing out on the balcony looking up at the stars. And while the balcony looks a bit different today than it did when it appeared on 90210 – a cement awning has since been added – it was still very cool to see it in person nonetheless. 🙂

And another little bit of trivia – according to Jack, the exterior light located just to the left of the balcony door is the very light that used to be located on his front porch during the 90210 years. It was purchased by producers to match the light located on the front porch set that had been built at the studio.

The highlight of the day, though, had to be when – are you sitting down for this????? – Mike asked Jack if the two of us could each possibly have one of the roof tiles from his former garage.   Jack thought we were incredibly silly to want such a thing, but he happily obliged. Thank goodness we stalked the place before all of the rubble had been removed! And, to top it all off, he even signed the tiles for us! Can you believe it????? I was absolutely DYING! I mean now I can actually say that I OWN A PIECE OF THE 90210 HOUSE!! I OWN A PIECE OF THE 90210 HOUSE!!!!!!!! How incredibly cool is that??? I was literally pinching myself the whole drive home and I almost still can’t believe it happened!!!!! 🙂 So, I guess what Jack said is actually true – some change can be for the better, because had he not dismantled his garage, we never would have been given a part of it. And while I, of course, would prefer that the Walsh garage was still standing, being given a real piece of the show isn’t such a bad consolation. 🙂 And I will of course take photographs and report back to my fellow stalkers once the new Walsh garage has been completed – it’s going to look totally different, by the way – but according to Jack, that won’t be for about six months.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Casa Walsh is located at 1675 East Altadena Drive in Altadena. Please keep in mind that this is a private residence and please do not disturb the owners. It was a fluke that Mike and I were lucky enough to have been given a tour of the home, but this is not a regular occurrence. I’d hate to have people bothering Jack for tours due to the fact that I put this information on the internet, so please be respectful of his privacy. 🙂 The two houses which producers also considered using as the Walsh house can be found at 1689 and 1690 East Altadena Drive. 1690 East Altadena was also used as 90210’s Baby Mama’s house and its backyard was used as both Steve Sander’s backyard and Marianne Moore’s backyard during Season One. The house which stood in for Steve and Janet’s neighbor’s house in “The Easter Bunny” episode can be found at 1665 East Altadena Drive.

January 26, 2010
Sarah Silverman’s Apartment Building from “The Sarah Silverman Program”

A few months back, I got an email from a fellow stalker named Kate who wanted to know if I could track down the apartment building where Sarah Silverman lives on The Sarah Silverman Program. Kate had heard on one of the show’s DVD commentaries that the building was located somewhere in Hollywood in close proximity to Paramount Studios, where the series is taped. Because I had never watched an episode of The Sarah Silverman Program – although I did see one being filmed 🙂 – for this particular stalking venture I had to call for reinforcements – i.e. fellow stalker Owen. 🙂 Like the blonde that I am, though, in the email I originally sent him asking for his help, I accidentally told him that the building was located near Universal Studios, instead of Paramount! Oops!!! Brain blips like that are quite common for me, I’m afraid, and they drive me – and those around me – crazy! Anyway, Owen spent quite a bit of time searching in the Universal Studios area (I still feel bad about that!), until I realized my mistake and informed him. Well, it wasn’t 20 minutes later that he emailed me back with an address! Yes, he is the master! Seems he found the building by looking at aerial views of various neighborhoods surrounding the Paramount Lot. He first set some parameters for himself of areas to check, searched all the houses within those boundaries, but had no luck. Then he opened up the parameters a bit to the south and almost immediately found the apartment. THANK YOU, Owen! 🙂

On The Sarah Silverman Program, Sarah, along with her friends Brian Spukowski (aka Brian Posehn) and Steve Myron (aka Steve Agee), live in a Mediterranean style building supposedly located in Valley Village. In reality, though, the building, which I am happy to report looks EXACTLY the same in person as it does on the show, is located in the heart of Hollywood.

One inconsistency that I did notice, though, is that on the show, Sarah’s building has an interior hallway, as you can see in the above screen captures. But from how it appears in real life, I am fairly certain that interior hallway doesn’t actually exist. In reality, it seems that the building contains four individual apartment units, each of which can be reached via the four front doors facing the street, thus negating any need for an indoor hallway.

The above photograph is the view looking north from the front of The Sarah Silverman Program apartment building. The big white structure located behind the large hedge is Paramount Studios, so that DVD commentary wasn’t lying – the apartment is indeed located in VERY close proximity to the lot where filming takes place! 🙂

On a side note – I finally sat down to watch a few episodes of The Sarah Silverman Program before writing this post and I have to say that I wasn’t really impressed. It’s kind of an odd program. It can funny at times, but for the most part, it’s just . . . well . . . very, very odd. That’s the best word I can find to describe it. Needless to say, I most likely won’t be watching it again. And I’m actually pretty bummed I spent $4 buying the episodes on iTunes. I could have bought a cup of Starbucks coffee with that $4 – something which I am fairly certain I would have enjoyed a whole lot more than the show! 😉

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location. 🙂

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Sarah Silverman’s apartment building from The Sarah Silverman Program is located at 607 North Irving Boulevard in Hollywood, just one block south of Paramount Studios.

January 25, 2010
Stalking the WB – For the Third Time!

As I’ve mentioned a few times before, this past October, my good friends from Switzerland came to visit my family for a few weeks. While they were here, I decided to take them on a Hollywood studio tour. The only problem was I couldn’t decide exactly which Hollywood studio tour to take them on. So, I got Mike, from MovieShotsLA, on the phone and the two of us had a very in-depth discussion about it, carefully weighing all of our options. Not kidding – you should have heard the two of us. 🙂   Anyway, we quickly narrowed down our choices to either the Paramount Studio Tour or the Warner Brothers VIP Studio Tour.   And even though I was leaning towards Paramount, Mike convinced me that because the WB Tour covers the overall studio experience, it would be the best choice for those stalkers who had yet to visit a movie studio. Paramount is geared more towards us die-hard stalkers, in my opinion, which is probably why I like it the best. 🙂 So, with our tour location finally decided upon, the four of us headed out bright and early the following morning to stalk the WB. This was actually my third time stalking the lot and it really is true what they say – no two tours are alike. I already want to go back for a fourth time. 🙂   Sadly, though, our tour guide left quite a bit to be desired on this particular venture. We still had a blast while there, don’t get me wrong – it’s pretty hard not to have fun on the WB lot – but, for whatever reason, our guide was a grump pretty much the whole way through. She also seemed to have a pretty high opinion of herself, which didn’t help my opinion of her. 😉

She even got a bit testy with me at one point, after bringing us to the Central Park portion of the lot and asking if anyone knew what television show it had been featured in. I, of course, raised my hand and said “It’s where Phoebe runs weird on Friends!” to which she snapped, “Well, you must have been on the tour before, which is the only reason you’d know that!” I wanted to explain that I had actually known the answer to that question while on my first WB tour, but I was afraid she’d pretty much bite my head off if I did!    So, since it was obvious she didn’t appreciate stalkers, I kept my mouth shut for the remainder of the tour. The other disappointing aspect of the day was that Hennesy Street, which is one of the WB’s New York areas, Midwest Street, aka Anytown USA, and the Jungle area were all closed off to tour groups due to filming. 🙁 The Witches of Eastwick was actually the production being filmed on Midwest Street and we were very briefly allowed to venture over to the outskirts of that area to take a peek at what was going on, but unfortunately no photographs were allowed. Anyway, aside from Debbie Downer and the fact that numerous areas of lot were closed off, we had a great time on the tour.   🙂

The tour began the way it always does, with our guide driving us via golf cart through the very same studio gate that Carrie Bradshaw drove through in the Season Three episode of Sex and the City entitled “Escape from New York”. LOVE IT! 🙂

Our first stop was the old ER hospital set which has all but been dismantled. 🙁   So sad! While the hospital entrance and L Train track will be left up to be used by future productions . . .

. . . the area behind the large brown double doors which used to contain the ambulance bay and waiting room set, is now just empty space, as you can sort of see in the above photograph.

The way it used to look is pictured above. You can see more photographs of the old ER set on my two previous WB Tour posts which can be viewed here and here. According to our tour guide, ER’s Jumbo Mart Diner set is going to be left intact to serve as the studio’s tribute to the longest running medical drama ever to air on television.

Our next stop was the Nate’s Bar & Grill set from ER, which is also being left intact to be used by future productions. Nate’s Bar & Grill is what’s called a “practical set” in studio terminology because both its interior and its exterior can be used for filming.

Unlike the facade pictured above which has no interior area.

As you can see in the above photograph, Nate’s Bar & Grill lacks a ceiling, which is actually typical of movie sets. The ceilings of sets are always left open so that lights and other production equipment can be hung above the area being filmed. That’s often how I can tell if something was filmed in a studio or on location somewhere – if a ceiling is shown onscreen, that’s pretty much a dead giveaway that the production was filmed at a real life location.   😉

Located just outside of Nate’s is a very realistic looking subway set, which was extremely cool to see being that we had just returned from our New York trip a few days beforehand. 🙂





Our next stop was the the Embassy Courtyard, an area which was used in the 1999 made-for-TV movie Annie, in the television series Without a Trace, Hotel, and, as you can see in the above screen captures, Chuck .



We also visited New York Street, which is not to be confused with Hennesy Street, the lot’s other Manhattan-like area. New York Street has been used in the movies The Big Sleep, Blade Runner, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and The Last Samurai, for which the entire area was dressed to look like 1870s Japan.





Located on New York Street is the movie theatre facade pictured above, which was featured in the “New York and Queens” episode of The Drew Carey Show in which Drew and the gang challenge Mimi and her friends to a Rocky Horror Picture Show/Priscilla Queen of the Desert dance-off.

That very same area was also featured in the Season One episode of The Mentalist entitled “A Dozen Red Roses”.

We also briefly visited the Warner Village area of the lot, where we saw “New Christine’s” apartment building from the series The New Adventures of Old Christine.



Our next stop was the soundstage used in the filming of the television show Chuck, a series which I have never before seen. But I was extremely excited to see the set nonetheless because it was modeled after the very same apartment building featured in the movie ‘Til There Was You – an apartment building which I have not only stalked, but also blogged about. 🙂   I cannot tell you how cool it was to be seeing that set in person, as it looks very much the same as its real life counterpart. Love it! And while our tour guide did let us know that the Chuck set was based on a real life apartment building, she mistakenly told our group that said building was located in Los Feliz, which is actually incorrect. The building, which is named El Cabrillo, is actually located in Hollywood. I didn’t dare correct her, though, since she had already made it pretty clear that she didn’t care to hear any information I had to share. 😉 We also got to venture inside the characters’ individual apartments, which really are located directly off the building’s courtyard area.   Unfortunately no photographs were allowed inside of the Chuck soundstages, but you can see what the set looks like in the above screen captures. When I asked our tour guide why the area was off-limits to cameras she said it was to prevent spoilers, i.e. if a crewmember accidentally left something on set that gave away a future plot point and then a tour group came in and took pictures of the set and then those pictures somehow wound up on the internet ;), fans might figure out the future plot development and stop watching the show. Which I think is pretty silly reasoning, but c’est la vie.

No WB VIP Tour would be complete without a visit to the car museum, where we got to see several vehicles from The Dark Knight, including the Batmobile;

the Bat-Pod motorcycle;

and the Stealth Launch Batmobile; all of which my best friend, Robin, the only guy in the group, loved seeing. 🙂



Also on display was the Ducati 996 motorcycle from The Matrix Reloaded;

the “Shaguar” from Austin Powers in Goldmember;



Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino from the movie of the same name;

the Nerd Herd car from Chuck;

the General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard;

several vehicles from AI, including the Hovercopter;

the Ford Angila from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets;

and a 1969 Lincoln Continental from The Matrix, along with a wax figure of “Agent Smith”.

The best part of the tour for me, though, had to be when we got to see the Central Perk set from Friends. Granted, I’ve seen the set twice before on the two other WB Tours I’ve attended, but this time we were actually allowed to venture ONTO the set, walk around, touch things, and even sit on the furniture! YAY!   Let me tell you, I just about DIED I was so excited!   (Those are my friends Doina and Stephanie sitting on the Friends couch with me in the above photograph.)





And I just HAD to take pictures of absolutely EVERYTHING!

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Well, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I HIGHLY recommend taking the WB VIP Studio Tour! Even with a craptastic tour guide, it’s still a fabulous adventure to have in L.A.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Warner Brothers Studios is located at 3400 Riverside Drive in Burbank. Tours run every 30 minutes Monday through Friday from 8:20 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Advance reservations are recommended. Tickets cost $45 per person. You can learn more about the tour here .

January 22, 2010
SpeedZone from “Guess Who”

This past New Year’s, my fiancé’s entire family – including his two school-age nephews – came to town to watch the Rose Parade. Before their arrival, he scoured the internet to find some fun places in the L.A. area to take the kids after the festivities were over. One of the ideas he came up with was to spend a few hours at SpeedZone in the City of Industry – an amusement park of sorts which features an array of kid-friendly fun such as go-kart racing, miniature golf, and a large arcade. I have to admit that I wasn’t actually too keen on the idea at first . . . until my fiancé told me that the place was an oft-used filming location, that is. And then I was 100 percent on board with the venue and even tried to convince everyone that we should skip the whole parade and just head straight there instead! 🙂

SpeedZone is best known for its four go kart courses, for which it recently won the LA Magazine “Best of Los Angeles 2009” – Best Go Kart Track award. Those four tracks include the Top Eliminator Dragster, where racers drive authentic 300 horsepower NHRA dragsters on a mini-track reaching speeds of 70 miles per hour in less than 3.5 seconds;

the Slick Trax – an ultra-slick polished surface course which encourages spinning and can accommodate up to 15 different drivers at the same time;

the Grand Prix – a long, single licensed-driver course based on Formula 1 and Indy Car tracks which features tight turns and a speed timer; and the Turbo Track (which I unfortunately did not get a picture of) – a course which can accommodate up to twenty drivers at a time racing in high-torque one- and two-seater cars. Not into go karts? Well, that’s OK, too, because SpeedZone also features an arcade which boasts over 100 games including numerous video games, air hockey tables, and, my personal favorite, skee ball machines. There are also two 18-hole golf-courses on the premises and a cafe which serves up pizza, sandwiches, burgers, and cocktails. Yes, you read that right, the SpeedZone Cafe has a full bar, because adults enjoy go kart racing, too, you know. 😉

While hanging out at SpeedZone, I raced on both the Top Eliminator Dragster course and the Grand Prix course and the Grand Prix was by far my favorite. I had an ABSOLUTE blast racing and actually thought I was burning up the course the whole way through . . .

. . . until I got to the end and noticed my pitiful time! Yes, the 75.249 time is mine. As you can see, two of the other racers noted on the board pictured above completed the race in almost half the amount of time it took me! LOL What can I say, I am cursed with having the opposite of a lead foot. But I had an absolute blast being there and cannot wait to go back . . . and hopefully improve my time! 🙂

SpeedZone’s most memorable cinematic appearance was in the 2005 comedy Guess Who in the scene in which overprotective father Percy Jones (aka Bernie Mac) challenges his future son-in-law Simon Green (aka Ashton Kutcher) to a little drag race on the Grand Prix track. The two get into a bit of a scuffle during the race and wind up veering off the track, through a large hedge, and straight into oncoming traffic.

Contrary to what was shown in Guess Who, though, SpeedZone does not allow two people to race on the Grand Prix track at the same time. And don’t go looking for the archway pictured above, which Bernie and Ashton drive under in the movie, either, because I could not find it anywhere, which leads me to believe that it was either a prop brought in for the filming or that it used to be a real feature of the track that was removed sometime after filming took place.

SpeedZone also stood in for Zany Town, the Chuck E. Cheese style arcade featured in the ultra-depressing Season One episode of CSI: Miami entitled “Broken”. The episode was actually filmed almost in its entirety on the SpeedZone premises.

The park’s golf area was also used in “Broken”, as the “Sir Golf-A-Lot” miniature golf course, where H and the gang finally apprehended the bad guy at the end of the episode.

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SpeedZone has also been featured in the reality shows Blind Date, Amish in the City, Average Joe, Who Wants To Marry My Dad, and Dismissed, on the game show Jeopardy, and it is set to appear in an upcoming episode of the new Melrose Place. While I was stalking SpeedZone, I just had to ask one of the employees which celebrities had visited the theme park over the years and I just about died when he told me that Jennifer Aniston had been there! Love it! I was even wearing my Team Aniston sweatshirt at the time. 🙂 Courteney Cox and David Arquette have also raced cars at the park.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: SpeedZone is located at 17871 Castleton Street in the City of Industry. You can visit their website here. Guess Who was filmed on the Grand Prix track and CSI: Miami was filmed in the Electric Alley arcade and on the Speedway miniature golf course.

January 20, 2010
Julia Child’s Childhood Home

One of the best things about being a member of the Screen Actors Guild is that each and every January all guild members receive, often without notice, DVDs of various movies that have been nominated for an upcoming SAG award. These DVDs are doled out “for your consideration” so that members can watch them before casting their ballots for the upcoming awards. And, let me tell you, I can hardly stand the anticipation as I head to my mailbox each day during awards season, wondering what treasure I will find waiting for me in there. It’s like Christmas in January! This week alone I received five different DVDs, one of which was Julie & Julia. Ironically enough, while at a birthday celebration last Sunday night, some new friends were inquiring about my blog and asked if I had yet to see the Meryl Streep/Amy Adams movie, which I had not. They ordered me to run right out and rent it immediately, as not only was it a fabulous flick, but its plot also centered around the true life story of an intrepid young blogger named Julie Powell who they said reminded them of me. So, you can imagine my surprise when I opened up my mailbox just a few days later and found a copy of Julie & Julia waiting for me! YAY! So, I, of course, watched the movie that very night. I honestly didn’t have high hopes for it, though, despite the glowing recommendation I had just heard, because I am not that interested in the culinary arts. Actually, truth be told, I am not AT ALL interested in anything having to do with the culinary arts. I am an absolutely HORRIBLE cook. I somehow managed to ruin an entire serving of rice the other night – while using a RICE COOKER, no less! I am very lucky, though, because my fiancé actually does all of the cooking in our household. He LOVES to cook – says it calms him after a long day at work – and, really, who am I to argue? 😉 What can I say, he’s the perfect guy – he not only brings home the bacon, but cooks it, too!   Anyway, amazingly enough, I ended up absolutely ADORING Julie & Julia. I pretty much loved EVERYTHING about the movie – both Meryl Streep and Amy Adam’s performances, the love both women had for their husbands, the amazing life story of the famous chef and how she inspired a young government worker to spend an entire year cooking out of one of her cookbooks and then writing a blog based on her experiences. But what I loved the most about Julie & Julia is the fact that it is the very first movie ever to be based on a blog. Now I just need someone to create a movie based on my blog and I’d be one happy camper! 🙂 Amazingly enough, the movie also inspired me, rice-ruining Lindsay, to cook! I have never in my life had a desire to cook anything – ever. But after watching Julie & Julia, I immediately ran right out and bought my very first cookbook, written by Julia Child, of course. I opted to purchase The Way To Cook, instead of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which is the tome Julie Powell conquered in the movie, because the former is geared toward people with “little to no cooking experience”, which, let’s face it, describes me to a T! 🙂 But more on that later. Anyway, while watching Julie & Julia, I was shocked to find out that Julia Child actually grew up in Pasadena – the same city which I now call home! So, after watching the movie, I went on a cyberstalking mission to find her childhood house and almost immediately came across a website called Pasadena Daily Photo, which spelled it all out for me! Thank you, Pasadena Daily Photo! 🙂 So, the next morning, I dragged my dad right out to stalk the place.

As the daughter of John McWilliams, Jr., a successful landowner, and Julia Carolyn Weston, heir to the Weston Paper Company fortune, Julia Child grew up very wealthy.   The Colonial-style home pictured above was built for her parents in 1912 by architect Reginald Johnson, who was also responsible for designing Pasadena’s All Saints’ Church and Santa Barbara’s Biltmore Hotel, among numerous other prominent Southern California structures. The home, which boasts five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and a whopping 4,210 square feet of living space, is truly ginormous and beautiful in person and it definitely has that Old Pasadena feel to it! It was so fascinating to be standing there decades later, imaging Julia Child as a little girl playing in the front yard, looking out the blue-shuttered windows, and walking in and out of the front door.   While living in this house, Julia attended the prominent Westridge School for Girls, which is also located in Pasadena. While doing a bit of research on the world-famous chef, I found out that while growing up Julia’s family not only employed full-time drivers, gardeners and housekeepers, but chefs, as well. Ironic, dontcha think? 😉    And, her parents also honeymooned at San Diego’s Hotel Del Coronado, an oft-used filming location which I blogged about last summer. 🙂   So cool!!!

Taking a page from Julie Powell, I decided to not only cook a Julia Child meal this past Friday night, but to also blog about my experiences, as well. Like a dolt, though, I completely forgot to take photographs of the finished feast, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it turned out beautifully. 🙂 For the meal I decided to cook Julia’s Cream of Mushroom Soup, Broccoli-Sauced Broccoli, and Chicken Breasts Meuniere: Sautéed in Butter. And while the chicken and soup turned out simply AMAZING – so amazing that I am still finding it difficult to believe I actually cooked them – the broccoli left a bit to be desired. But I am fairly certain that was due to me either leaving out an ingredient or misreading an instruction somewhere along the way, because the finished product did not look anything like its photograph in the book. When I realized I had messed up the dish, I had visions of Rachel Green after she completed her English Trifle/Mincemeat Pie desert in “The One Where Ross Got High” episode of Friends. 🙂 Anyway, I’d like to share a few things that I learned while cooking on Friday. One – my fiancé and I do not own a set of measuring spoons. How that’s even possible I’m not sure! Two – simmer does not mean low heat, as I had previously believed. It actually refers to a temperature just below boiling. And three – cooking is HARD WORK! It’s enjoyable work, don’t get me wrong, but, wow, it’s WORK! I had no idea how hard it was. I truly felt like I needed a nap afterwards. 🙂 But it was also extremely fun and I am already looking forward to my next go at it. I swear, if you had told me two weeks ago that I’d actually be able to enjoy the act of cooking in the near future, I never would have believed you in a million years.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Julia Child’s childhood home is located at 625 Magnolia Avenue in Pasadena.

January 19, 2010
George’s 50’s Diner from “A Cinderella Story”

Another location at the very top of my Long Beach “To Stalk” list was the restaurant where Hilary Duff worked in fave teeny-bopper movie A Cinderella Story. In real life, that restaurant is known as George’s 50’s Diner and it is one of the last remaining diners of its kind in all of California. George’s Diner, which was originally named Grissinger’s Drive-In, first opened up in 1952. It was designed by architect Wayne McAllister, who also designed the famous Sands Casino in Las Vegas.   In 1963, the Grissingers sold the drive-in to new owners who expanded and remodeled the place and dubbed it Lyman’s Coffee Shop. Shortly thereafter it was purchased by a woman named Terry, who re-named it Terry’s Coffee Shop and in 1974 made the fortuitous decision to hire as a chef a young man named George Alvarez. George worked at the restaurant for over two decades and then in 1996, decided to buy the place for himself, upon which he restored it back to its original 1952 design. He named the place George’s 50’s Diner, in honor of both himself and the restaurant’s original opening date.

In A Cinderella Story, George’s 50’s Diner stood in for the restaurant first owned by Hilary Duff’s father and then later by her evil step-mother, who was played by Jennifer Coolidge.   Both the interior and the exterior of the restaurant were used extensively in the filming.

As you can see in the above photograph and screen captures, though, the place looks very, very different in person than how it appeared onscreen in the movie. In fact, it almost doesn’t even look like the same place. According to George and Helen, the diner’s INCREDIBLY nice owners, the restaurant was COMPELTELY remodeled for the filming.

A few of the changes made for the filming include: the interior walls being removed to make the diner appear much larger than it actually was, the real life counter being replaced with a new, much higher counter, all of the booths being covered over in fake pink and black leather, a false ceiling being installed, the ceiling fans being removed and new light fixtures hung, fake doors being added in numerous places, the entire kitchen being re-painted in a fake stainless steel color, and linoleum being laid over the restaurant’s real life carpet.

According to George and Helen, the interior and the exterior of the diner were actually remodeled  TWICE during the filming – first for the scenes in which the restaurant was owned by Hil D’s dad . . .

. . . and then again for the scenes in which it was later owned by her evil step-mother.

Producers also brought in the big pink “Fiona’s” sign that ends up falling on Carter’s dad’s Mercedes towards the end of the movie. Phew! Sure seems like a whole lot of remodeling work to do. You’d think it would have been much easier to built a diner set on a soundstage somewhere in Hollywood for the filming. Which, according to IMDB’s A Cinderella Story trivia page, is exactly what they did.   That information, however, is not accurate. According to George and Helen, all of the interior filming of the diner scenes – which took just about two weeks to complete – did indeed take place on location at George’s Diner. I’ll never understand Hollywood, I swear. 😉 Helen even has a scrapbook full of photographs of the filming, but unfortunately she didn’t have it on hand the day I stalked the place. 🙁 Oh well, I guess that just means I’ll have to go back to re-stalk it sometime! 🙂

And a little Cinderella Story trivia for you – not only did the movie star Madeline Zima, who now has a recurring role on Californication . . .

. . . but it also starred Dan Byrd who is currently playing Courteney Cox’s son Travis on Cougartown.

A Cinderella Story is not the only production to have filmed at George’s, though. Back when the restaurant was known as Terry’s Coffee Shop, the 1994 movie Corrina, Corrina filmed on the premises.   It is at the drive-in diner that Whoopi Goldberg gets Tina Majorino to communicate with her for the very first time.

George’s also appeared briefly at the very beginning of the 2007 movie Zodiac, in the scene in which Mike Mageau and his girlfriend Darlene Ferrin drive by a diner, decide it is too crowded to stay, and leave, only to be attacked by the Zodiac killer minutes later.

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George’s 50’s Diner has also been featured in the movie The Real McCoy and in several episodes of the television series Cold Case. And I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough!!!! The food was A-MA-ZING – especially the French fries – the retro atmosphere was truly unique, and George and Helen honestly could NOT have been nicer. I absolutely LOVED the place and will DEFINITELY be back!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: George’s 50’s Diner is located at 4390 Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach. You can visit their MySpace page here.

January 15, 2010