famous places – Page 6 – IAMNOTASTALKER

December 19, 2011December 16, 2011

The “Bad Santa” House

A couple of weeks ago, my good friend/fellow stalker Lavonna suggested that I do a Christmas movie stalking theme during the entire month of December. I absolutely LOVED the idea, but, unfortunately, by that time it was too late for me to get enough locations together and actually stalk them prior to December 1st. I usually start preparing for my Haunted Hollywood posts in August of each year as it takes quite a bit of time to research and compile enough themed locations to fill a whole month. So, while next year one of my goals is to do both a Haunted Hollywood month and a Christmas month (fingers crossed that it will work out!), for this year I thought I would do a Christmas-themed week, instead. I hope that you enjoy it! So, while in the San Fernando Valley area two weekends ago, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk the house where “The Kid” aka Thurman Merman (aka Brett Kelly) lived in the absolutely HORRIBLE 2003 Christmas movie Bad Santa. Now you might be wondering why I would stalk a location from a movie that I thoroughly hated, but the sad truth is that when it comes to flicks of the holiday variety, very few were filmed in L.A. And being that fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, had already tracked the place down, it required no work on my part aside from driving out to stalk it. Beggars can’t be choosers, as they say. Winking smile

As you can see above, the dwelling’s address number was changed from “7211” to “41” for the filming, but Chas was able to find the place thanks to a very helpful crew member.

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In Bad Santa, disgusting and disgruntled mall Santa Willie Stokes (aka Billie Bob Thornton) takes up residence with The Kid and Grandma (aka Cloris Leachman) because, as he tells them, “things are all f*cked up at the North Pole”. Now I have to say that that particular line did make me LOL, as did Willie’s line to his neighbor, “Well, you see, we don’t celebrate Christmas around here. We’re Muslims.” LOL LOL LOL Other than those two very brief moments, though, the movie is downright terrible!

I am very happy to report that, despite a change in the color of the garage and front doors, the Bad Santa house looks much the same in person as it did onscreen. In real life, the gargantuan abode, which was originally built in 1997, boasts 5 bedrooms, 5 baths and 4,100 square feet of living space.

As luck would have it, the Bad Santa home was listed for sale late last year and you know what that means, my fellow stalkers! Yessiree, we get to take a peek inside! I so love it when that happens! As you can see in the real estate listing, the actual interior of the home also appeared in the flick.

As well as the real life backyard and pool.

In an extremely random side-note – I have to ask, why in the heck was Leonardo DiCaprio given special thanks in the movie’s end credits?

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Lavonna for giving me the idea of doing a Christmas theme and to fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location. You can check out Chas’ extensive Bad Santa filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Bad Santa house is located at 7211 Whitehall Lane in West Hills.

December 16, 2011December 15, 2011

David Santiago’s House from “Post Grad”

Unfortunately, this stalker is currently suffering from a bad cold (which, for some reason, always seems to happen to me right before the holidays) and thanks to the fact that I cannot breath out of my nose and have taken copious amounts of NyQuil, I am feeling just a wee bit out of it today. So I have to apologize if this particular post is somewhat off, but, regrettably, my head is somewhere in the clouds right now, instead of sitting on top of my shoulders in front of the computer screen where it should be. I will do my best to be coherent, though, so here goes. Located directly across the street from the house where Ryden Malby (aka Alexis Bledel) lived in Post Grad, which I blogged about yesterday, is the residence that belonged to her mysterious neighbor – zany, Brazilian infomercial director David Santiago (aka Love Actually’s/Lost’s Rodrigo Santoro). So I, of course, dropped by to stalk it while in the neighborhood last weekend.

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David’s one-story, stone-and-wood, ranch-style abode shows up numerous times throughout Post Grad. And oddly enough, while I actually think the exterior is quite similar in appearance to the Malby house, according to the Post Grad production notes David’s pad was supposed to represent a more “cosmopolitan” lifestyle, the very type of lifestyle that Ryden was seeking. In the notes, production designer Mark Hutman states, “The house we found for the Malbys is a single story, ranch-style house, which is very common in the Valley. It’s not new, but it’s not old either, it’s just somewhat non-descript. For David’s environment, we went very stylish and masculine. His house is more modern, with dark leather couches and a minimalist color palette. And he has a pool.”

As luck would have it, the real life owners of David’s house walked outside just as we showed up to stalk the place and they literally could not have been nicer! They spoke with us for quite a while and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming. Just a few of the tidbits they shared with us were that the shoot lasted just over three weeks and that a lot of filming did take place inside of their actual home.

As well as in their backyard and pool.

They also informed us that the production team replaced their entire back and side fence for the filming. And they mentioned that the experience was the most fun they had ever had in their entire lives. Um, you’re telling me! I think I would just about die if a movie set up shop in my apartment for over three weeks!

In real life, David’s house, which was built in 1960, measures 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and 2,767 square feet. And I am very happy to report that it looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen.

I was actually struck by how much it resembles the party house from fave movie Clueless, a location that has been the bane of my existence for years now as I just cannot seem to find it anywhere!!!! UGH! But I digress!

On a random side-note – while getting my hair blown out the other day, I was lucky enough to run into Summer Bishil, who plays Navid Shirazi’s (aka Michael Steger’s) sister Leila Shirazi on fave show 90210! Summer could NOT have been nicer and readily agreed to pose for a pic with me even though she had no make-up on and her hair had yet to be done. Love it! And when I told her that Matt Lanter was the love of my life, she said, “I think he’s pretty much the love of everyone’s life!” Love it even more!

On another side-note – I would like to wish my wonderful father a VERY happy 65th birthday today!! I love you so much, Dad!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location! Smile You can check out Chas’ extensive Post Grad filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: David Santiago’s house from Post Grad is located at 5901 Farralone Avenue in Woodland Hills. Ryden’s house from Post Grad is located directly across the street at at 22200 Tiara Street, also in Woodland Hills.

December 15, 2011December 14, 2011

Ryden’s House from “Post Grad”

Another location that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk while in the San Fernando Valley area this past weekend was the ranch-style house where Ryden Malby (aka Alexis Bledel) and her extremely odd, but extremely loveable family – dad Walter (aka Michael Keaton), mom Carmella (aka Jane Lynch), brother Hunter (aka Bobby Coleman), and crazy Grandma Maureen (aka the always fabulous Carol Burnett) – lived in Post Grad. I saw the 2009 romantic comedy back when it first came out on DVD early last year and absolutely fell in love with it. So I, of course, immediately started attempting to track down all of its featured locations, especially the Malby residence, but I am sad to say that I was a complete and total failure at the endeavor. In my defense, though, it was not entirely my fault as the movie did somewhat lead me astray.

As you can see above, in one of Post Grad’s early scenes, Ryden is shown being dropped off by a taxi, on the door of which is written “North Hollywood Cab Co.”, so I made the incorrect assumption that the Malby residence was located in that area. And while I really should have known better, being that movies “cheat” that sort of thing all the time, the home just looked like a North-Hollywood-type residence to me. So I spent more than a few fruitless hours searching NoHo (as Angelinos are now referring to it) before calling off the hunt. Enter fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, who is pretty much the biggest Gilmore Girls/Alexis Bledel/Lauren Graham fan on the planet and who a few months later had begun his own trek to find the home. And find it, he did, thanks to a very helpful crew member. Once Chas told me of the location, I immediately added it to my “To-Stalk” list, but because I rarely get out to Woodland Hills, it took me quite a long time to actually visit the place.

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In Post Grad, after losing out on her book-publishing dream job, recent college graduate Ryden Malby is forced to return home to live with her parents in their quirky-looking abode.

I am very happy to report that the Post Grad house, which in real life measures 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and 2,500 square feet, and was originally built in 1960, looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen.

I was especially excited to see that the wooden wishing well that was situated in the home’s front yard in the movie was actually there in real life, as well. Love it!

Sadly, the little white fence that flanked the property’s front steps was not there, though.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the residence was also used in the filming, but I, unfortunately, could not find any photographs of the interior online with which to verify that hunch.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location. You can check out Chas’ extensive Post Grad filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Ryden’s house from Post Grad is located at 22200 Tiara Street in Woodland Hills.

December 14, 2011December 6, 2013

Farralone – Frank Sinatra’s Former House

While doing research on the Chaplin Court apartment complex, which I blogged about last Thursday, I came across some information about an oft-filmed-at Chatsworth-area estate formerly owned by Old Blue Eyes himself, Frank Sinatra, that, for some inexplicable reason, I had somehow not previously known about. The mansion, which in most circles is known simply as Farralone, is a marvel of modern design that just came on the public market for the very first time in history a couple of weeks ago. And, let me tell you, I took one look at the photographs featured on the real estate listing and became just a wee-bit obsessed with stalking the place. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there last weekend to do just that.

Farralone, or the “Great Glass Mansion” or the “Sinatra Compound” as it is also sometimes called, was commissioned by Chase-Manhattan-Bank-heiress Dora Hutchison in 1951 and was designed by Pereira & Luckman, the architecture firm who also gave us the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco, the Theme Building (aka The Encounter Restaurant & Bar) at the Los Angeles International Airport, and, my personal favorite, the Disneyland Hotel. Dora built the house to be used as a party pad and regularly hosted rousing soirees where she counted Ava Gardner, Lucille Ball, Judy Garland, and Vincent Minnelli as guests. When Dora moved back to her native New York, she leased the property to none other than Frank Sinatra, who remained there for almost ten years. Sadly though, as you can see above, not much of the property is visible from the street.

But that’s why God created real estate listings! The estate, which was just put on the market earlier this month for a cool $12 million, boasts sweeping views, parking for over 200 cars, 10,000 square feet of living space, 4 bedrooms, 6 baths, 3 private offices, a conference room, a detached gym, a 50-foot swimming pool, 14 acres of land, a vineyard, a production studio, 16-foot ceilings, glass walls, and a 1,000-square-foot, 1-bedroom, 2-bath guest house (with its own separate pool) where my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe supposedly lived in for a time.

Farralone has seen so much filming over the years that, according to a December 2nd, 2011 Forbes article, it not only nets up to $2 million a year in location fees, but also “comes with a property manager who acts as a liaison with the studios, paid for by the studios.” The article further states that the “main house also boasts a lower level production studio equipped with conference room, edit bays, private office and a separate entrance, all paid for and maintained by the studios.” Ironically enough, when we showed up to stalk the property some filming was actually taking place. The super-nice security guard on duty informed us the the shoot was for a reality dating show of some sort, but she was unsure of the name.

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In the Season 4 episode of Californication titled “Lawyers, Guns, and Money”, Farralone showed up as the residence belonging to Stu Beggs (aka Stephen Tobolowsky), where Marcy Ellen Runkle (aka Pamela Adlon) made a house call to give Stu a “full Kardashian” body wax.

In the 2001 thriller Swordfish, Farralone was the house where Gabriel Shear (aka John Travolta) lived and where Halle Berry famously shed her top for the very first time onscreen – an act for which she was supposedly paid a whopping $500,000. Thanks to some crafty CGI, the Sinatra compound was made to appear as if it was located in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles for the film, instead of Chatsworth.

Farralone was also the home where Jack Wyatt (aka Will Ferrell) lived and threw his post-divorce party in the 2005 romantic comedy Bewitched.

In 2006’s Dreamgirls, Farralone stood in for the residence belonging to pop star Deena Jones (aka Beyonce Knowles) and her music-producer husband, Curtis Taylor Jr. (aka Jamie Foxx).

In the Season 2 episode of Mad Men titled “The Jet Set”, Farralone was used as the supposed-Palm-Springs-area home where Joy (aka Laura Ramsey) took Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm) while he was visiting California.

In the 2002 flick The Salton Sea, Farralone was the home where Nancy Plummer (aka Shirley Knight) and Verne Plummer (aka R. Lee Ermey) lived.

In 2001’s Tomcats, the Sinatra Compound was where Kyle Brenner (aka Jake Busey) lived.

The real estate listing mentioned that Farralone had been featured in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and I really have to pat myself on the back for this one because as soon as I read those words I knew immediately that the episode in question was Season 9’s “Kill Me If You Can”. I was not even watching CSI regularly back in 2008 when the “Kill Me If You Can” episode aired, but I had caught it on TV at some point and when I saw CSI mentioned in the listing, my mind immediately flashed to an image of Lawrence Fishburne standing by the Farralone pool while investigating the death of an art dealer. Why these random, useless bits of location information remain stored in my head is beyond me, but they do. Smile

Thanks to commenter Becky on the Design Public blog, I learned that in the Season 1 episode of Six Feet Under titled “An Open Book”, Farralone stood in for the home belonging to the parents of Brenda Chenowith (aka Rachel Griffiths).

And thanks to the HGTV website, I learned that Farralone was where the Design Star contestants lived during Season 4 of the reality series.

Location manager Scott Trimble also let me know that Farralone was where Optimus Prime came out of the swimming pool in the first Transformers movie.

Fellow stalker Jason informed me that the estate also showed up as the party location at the very beginning of 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Farralone also popped up in the 2004 music video for Usher’s hit song “Burn”.

Usher–Burn–filmed at Farralone in Chatsworth

You can watch the “Burn” video by clicking above.

Several articles have also claimed that the home appeared in the 2001 biopic Ali, but I scanned through that movie yesterday and did not seen anything resembling it pop up onscreen, so I am fairly certain that information is incorrect. I am thinking that the house might have instead been featured in the similarly-named television movie Ali: An American Hero, but because I have never seen it and was unable to find it anywhere online, I cannot verify that hunch. One rumor that I can put to rest is that the Farralone pool was not actually the site of Marilyn Monroe’s second-to-last photo shoot, as the real estate listing and several articles about the property have claimed. Truth be told, that photo shoot was not really a photo shoot at all, but simply consisted of photographer Lawrence Schiller snapping some stills of the starlet while she filmed scenes for her very last movie, Something’s Gotta Give. The shoot, which took place a few days before Marilyn’s death and featured her skinny-dipping while talking to co-star Dean Martin, was not actually shot on location, but on a set that was built inside of Stage 14 on the Fox Studios lot in Century City.

As you can see above, the pool from Something’s Gotta Give does not match the real estate listing photographs of the Farralone pool.

You can watch a YouTube video of the Something’s Gotta Give pool scene being shot, during which it is stated that filming took place on Stage 14 of the Fox lot, by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Farralone, the former Frank Sinatra estate, is located at 9361 Farralone Avenue in Chatsworth. You can visit the home’s official real estate listing here and you can check out some fabulous interior pics of the property here.

December 13, 2011December 12, 2011

The El Torito Grill from “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”

As I have mentioned numerous times before on this blog, this stalker has absolutely obsessed herself silly over the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love. So when I discovered, thanks to the flick’s exceedingly extensive production notes, that a couple of scenes had been filmed at the El Torito Grill in the Sherman Oaks Galleria, I immediately added the place to my “To-Stalk” list and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to grab some lunch this past weekend. And I could not have been more excited to do so because if there is one thing this stalker loves more than Crazy, Stupid, Love., it’s Mexican food! And I would just like to mention here how much I appreciate the abundant efforts the author (or authors) of the CSL production notes put into writing them. I am currently searching for the gorgeous bar that was featured in the opening scene of 2003’s Bad Santa and am having absolutely no luck whatsoever in finding it. If only the filmmakers had followed Crazy, Stupid, Love.’s example and published some decent production notes, I would have been able to stalk the place in time for Christmas. Hmph! But I digress.

Oddly enough, when the Grim Cheaper and I first ventured into the El Torito Grill, it did not look familiar to me at all. In Crazy, Stupid, Love., the place appeared to be fairly small and intimate, but, as you can see above, in real life it is very large and consists of one huge open room with a smaller anteroom off to the side. The restaurant was so unrecognizable, in fact, that I had to ask the bartender to pinpoint the exact area where filming took place so that I could take the proper photographs. It was just slightly disheartening – I mean, am I losing my touch here? Winking smile

And while unrecognizable from Crazy, Stupid, Love., I am very happy to report that the El Torito Grill serves up some FABULOUS food! I ordered the Tableside Grilled Fajitas Salad, which was mixed right in front me, and, ohmygod, was it delicious! Honestly one of the best salads that I have ever had in my entire life! Yum, yum, yum! And contrary to what has been reported in numerous Yelp reviews, El Torito Grill does in fact serve chips and salsa, both of which are also fantastic! Man, I am in love with this place! And I am not the only one – such stars as Paula Abdul, Nicole Kidman, Keith Urban, and Miley Cyrus have all been spotted dining there at one time or another.

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The El Torito Grill in Sherman Oaks, which is made to seem as if it is located inside of the Westfield Century City Shopping Mall, shows up twice in Crazy, Stupid, Love. It first pops up in the scene in which Richard (aka Josh Groban) takes his girlfriend “Hannah Banana” (aka Emma Stone) and her friends and co-workers out for a pre-bar-exam dinner. It is during this scene that one of my very favorite lines from the entire movie is uttered. When Richard announces that he is also going to host Hannah’s post-bar-exam celebratory dinner at the El Torito Grill and that it is going to be a “special night”, Hannah turns to her best friend Liz (aka the hilarious Liza Lapira) to ask if she thinks Richard is planning on proposing to which Liz responds, “At the El Torito Grill? God, I hope not!” LOL LOL LOL LOVE it!

The El Torito Grill next appears in the scene featuring the aforementioned post-bar-exam celebratory dinner, during which Richard does not, in fact, propose, leaving Hannah in a hilarious state of shock.

The exterior of the restaurant is also shown in that scene.

Both of Hannah’s dinner scenes were shot in the very front of the El Torito Grill, just behind the main entrance, at a large table that is, for some odd reason, usually surrounded by a sheer circular curtain. I would say that the curtain contains a VIP section of some sort, but because it is completely transparent and VIP sections are usually private, that would not make much sense. Anyway, for the filming, which according to the Before the Trailer website took place on April 26th and 27th of 2010, producers removed the curtain and also attached some multi-color sombreros to the walls.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The El Torito Grill from Crazy, Stupid, Love. is located at 15301 Ventura Boulevard, inside of the Sherman Oaks Galleria, in Sherman Oaks. You can visit the chain’s official website here.

December 9, 2011December 8, 2011

The Infamous Solar Drive Mansion

Shortly before Halloween, my good friend Nat sent me a link to an article on the TopTenRealEstateDeals website (an article that I now maddeningly cannot find anywhere online) about the top ten haunted houses then for sale in the U.S. My interest was immediately piqued at one of the properties featured when I read that it had not only been the inspiration for and appeared in an episode of Law & Order: Los Angeles, but that it also had a long and sordid history, the stuff of which movies are made. I quickly added the never-occupied, long-ago-abandoned Runyon-Canyon-area manse to my To-Stalk list and even though my Haunted Hollywood postings had already come to a close, I dragged the GC right on out there to visit the place a few weeks later.

The “Wedding Cake House”, as neighbors are prone to call it, has been clouded in mystery and innuendo since its inception. Just a few of the rumors floating around include that it was built on an Indian burial ground, was once the site of an alien spaceship landing, and that a woman was murdered on a pool table inside of the billiard room. Needless to say, not many concrete facts are known about its history, but from what I was able to dig up it seems that construction on the ginormous pink Mediterranean manse began around the year 1993. Plans for the home were originally drawn up in 1989 by architect Gregg Madeo for a man named Tom Ego. Of the mansion’s early days fave website CurbedLA states, “It’s believed that Ego built the home as a spec house for an Argentinean couple, or sold it to them during the process of building it for himself. Either way, the Argentinean couple divorced while the house was under construction, so the residence was essentially abandoned, and architect Maedo left the project. (Subsequent contractors and architects would come along and “butcher” the original design, according to a rep for Maedo.)”

Due to the property’s on-going vacancy, it long ago became a den for all manner of illegal enterprise, including drug use, teenage raves, gang activity, and satanic rituals. The unauthorized activity got so bad that a private security guard had to be hired to keep watch over the residence, which is often referred to by trespassing partiers as the “Runyon Canyon Clubhouse”. The guard now lives onsite in a Winnebago parked in front of the home’s six-car garage – yes, six-car garage!!

In 2004, music executive Timothy Devine partnered up with former Miss Palm Springs Shauna Giliberti and purchased the unfinished residence as tenants in common for a cool $3.7 million. Things did not go according to plan, though, because Giliberti ended up getting sued by several investors and subsequently filed for bankruptcy. Devine then took over full ownership of the home and, in January of this year, put it on the market for $12.5 million. A few weeks later, the selling price was inexplicably raised to $15.2 million. According to a February 2011 Daily Mail Online article, the home exceeds the city’s zoning limits in both its height and lot coverage, and was built larger than what the original permits (which are now expired) allotted for, so it will have to be torn down, at least in part, by whoever purchases it. The residence also lacks a certificate of occupancy, so it is currently uninhabitable. “Fixer-upper” doesn’t even begin to describe this place! Winking smile

The unfinished dwelling boasts 5 bedrooms, 7 baths, 9,800 square feet, a 200-bottle wine cellar, a pool, a Jacuzzi, stone flooring, 22 acres of “mostly useable” hilltop land, and, as you can see above, sweeping views that reach all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

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The Solar Drive mansion played itself – an abandoned house where ne’er-do-well activity frequently takes place – in the fabulous Season 1 episode of Law & Order: Los Angeles titled “Runyon Canyon”.

The home’s real life interior, which you can see photographs of here, also appeared in the episode. According to several newspaper reports, many rooms in the mansion are covered with graffiti, so I am fairly certain that the “wall art” pictured above is real and not set dressing.

On a stalking side-note – I would like to alert all of my fellow stalkers to a celebrity event that is taking place this Saturday. Planet Green will be hosting The Recycle, Reuse, Rejoice Celebrity Celebration at the Sportsman’s Lodge Hotel, which is located at 12825 Venture Boulevard in Studio City. Such stars as Anthony Denison, Kevin Sorbo, Taylor Gray, Anson Williams, and Kate Linder are scheduled to attend. Entry is free, but Planet Green asks you to bring electronic waste items such as used inkjet and toner cartridges and old cell phones. You can find out more information here.

Big THANK YOU to Nat for sending me the article in which this location was featured! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The infamous Solar Drive mansion is located at 2450 Solar Drive in the Hollywood Hills. You can visit the home’s real estate website here.

December 8, 2011December 8, 2011

The Chaplin Court Apartment Complex

While doing research on the Sierra Bonita apartments from the 2001 thriller Mulholland Drive, which I blogged about back in October, I came across a mention of an absolutely adorable courtyard apartment complex in Hollywood about which legends abound. The complex is known by quite a few different monikers across the web, including Chaplin Court, the Hansel and Gretel Cottages, and the Charlie Chaplin Apartments, but for the purposes of this post I will refer to the cluster of tiny dwellings as Chaplin Court. While not a filming location, the four-bungalow complex is rumored to have been lived in by countless stars over the years, but it was actually the charmingly unique storybook architecture that lured me, Grim Cheaper in tow, out to go stalk the place back in mid-November.

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The main rumor which persists about Chaplin Court is that the property was commissioned by the Little Tramp himself to be used as everything from dressing rooms during filming to studio housing for his stars to a movie set for his film A Woman of Paris. But Allan R. Ellenberger, of the Hollywoodland blog, watched the 1923 flick for an April 2009 post he wrote about the complex and did not notice anything resembling it popping up onscreen. So I think it is safe to put the A Woman of Paris rumor to rest. And after conducting much online research myself yesterday, I think it is also safe to say that Chaplin likely never had any sort of connection to the place. But because the property is located a scant two and a half blocks from the former Charlie Chaplin Studios/now Jim Henson Company Lot and bears a striking resemblance to it, it is not very hard to see why there has been some confusion over the years. And the legends do not stop there. According to a September 2009 write-up on fave website CurbedLA, an old real-estate listing for the property purported that Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Rudolph Valentino, John Barrymore Sr., Judy Garland, and Patrick Dempsy all lived at Chaplin Court at one time or another. The listing even goes so far as to claim that Drew Barrymore was born on the premises!! As does the John Robert Marlow website, which further speculates that Drew’s father, John Drew Barrymore, also once lived onsite. But thanks to my friend/Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, of The Drewseum website, I can at least put part of that rumor to rest. Drew was, in fact, born at Brotman Memorial Hospital in Culver City and not at Chaplin Court. Whether or not she ever spent any time at the complex during her early years is anyone’s guess.

In actuality, Chaplin Court was built in 1923 by Arthur and Nina Zwebell, the husband-and-wife architecture team who designed Villa Primavera (the In a Lonely Place apartment building) and El Cabrillo (the ‘Til There Was You apartment building). According to a commenter named “MHP”’ on he CurbedLA article, the complex was only the second multi-unit project that the Zwebell’s attempted and is currently the oldest surviving of their designs.

As luck would have it, when we showed up to stalk Chaplin Court the front gate was standing open, so the GC and I ventured a few feet inside. One of the residents happened to be standing in the courtyard area and said that the two of us were free to poke around. YAY! I so love homeowners who recognize that they live in a unique, photo-worthy spot and do not mind the occasional stalker dropping by. As you can see above, the architecture of Chaplin Court is nothing short of incredible! With its miniscule sizing, rounded turrets, swayback roofs, and beveled glass windows, it is not very hard to see why the place is rumored to have once been a movie set. The property looks like it came straight out of the pages of a Grimm Brothers Fairytale or the streets of Disney’s Fantasyland! Love it! You can see some great photographs of the interior one of the bungalows here. And while the interior is, for the most part, also adorable, I have to say that the bathroom gives this stalker the heebie-jeebies.

A Chaplin Court resident named Sean who commented on the Hollywoodland blog post mentioned that he does the complex up each year for both Halloween and Christmas. Thankfully, even though it was mid-November at the time, some of the Halloween decorations were still up when we stalked the place. I fell in love with the little “Enter at your Own Risk” sign pictured above. So cute! And I am SO going to have to re-stalk the property later this month to see it decked out in all of its Christmas glory. Pictures to follow, of course.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The so-called Chaplin Court apartment complex is located at 1330 North Formosa Avenue in Hollywood.

December 7, 2011December 11, 2011

Judge Crawford’s House from “Fracture”

After tracking down the hilltop abode Willy Beachum (aka cutie Ryan Gosling) called home in fave movie Fracture, which I blogged about last Tuesday, I became just a wee bit obsessed with finding the large brick mansion where Judge Gardner (aka Bob Gunton) lived in the flick. Even though the dwelling showed up only briefly in the movie, because it was pretty much the only location I had yet to track down, I was absolutely itching to find it. The fabulously extensive Fracture production notes stated that some filming had taken place “at a private residence in Hancock Park” and I assumed that the private residence that was referred to had to be Judge Crawford’s. So I started searching aerial views of the area and after about 45 minutes stumbled upon the right property. YAY! And while out and about running some errands in Santa Monica yesterday, I took a little detour through Hancock Park so that I could stalk the place.

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In Fracture, Willy’s love interest, Nikki Gardner (aka Rosamund Pike), invites him to her parent’s home on Thanksgiving to eat dinner with her family.

Later on in the flick, Willie returns to the house to ask Nikki’s father, who is a judge, to sign a court order prohibiting Ted Crawford (aka Anthony Hopkins) from pulling the plug on his comatose wife, Jennifer Crawford (aka Embeth Davidtz).

In real life, the Georgian-Revival-style mansion, which was originally built in 1914, boasts 6 bedrooms, 5 baths, 6,175 square feet of living space, and almost half an acre of land. The house was designed by Meyer & Holler, the noted Los-Angeles-based architecture firm that was responsible for the Alex Theatre in Glendale, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Culver Studios in Culver City, and the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Thanks to the fabulous The Houses of Hancock Park and JCB blogs, I discovered that the property is currently owned by famed Los Angeles interior designer Suzanne Rheinstein and her husband, Fred. The Rheinsteins purchased the dwelling over thirty years ago and immediately began an extensive redesign of the interior, a lengthy process that was reported on by several home magazines. The residence is nothing short of GORGEOUS in person and is, ironically enough, exactly the type of spot that my mom and I refer to as a “Thanksgiving House” – an idyllic and picturesque dwelling that makes one think of coming home for the holidays. I mean, the place could not look any more like it came out of a Folgers Coffee Christmas commercial if it tried! Winking smile

The interior of the abode, which is BEAUTIFUL, was featured prominently in Suzanne’s 2010 book At Home: A Style for Today with Things from the Past. (The pictures featured above remain the sole and private property of Suzanne Rheinstein and photographer Pieter Estersohn.)

As you can see above, the photographs featured in Suzanne’s book match up to what appeared onscreen, which means that the real life interior of the home, along with some of the furniture, was also used in the filming.

On a side-note that falls into the obscenely-cool category – yesterday I dropped by my very favorite store, Lula Mae in Old Town Pasadena, and just about died when Marci, the adorable owner who has come to be my good friend, informed me that she had just named me the shop’s very first “Customer of the Month”. Um, LOVE IT! For those who have never been there, LA Weekly recently awarded Lula “Best One-Stop Gift Shopping 2011” and in their write-up said, “You know that friend of yours who always upstages the $10 bottle of wine you pull out of your purse when she shows up at parties with the most adorable, clever little trinket wrapped perfectly in a colorful vintage bag? Well that smug b*tch probably has been shopping at Lula Mae for years now.” LOL Couldn’t have said it better myself! The store is so insanely cute, colorful, and fun that I find myself dropping in at least five times a week. It has become an addiction! Lula Mae is the first place I head whenever I am depressed, have writer’s block, or just need a good giggle! So to be named their Customer of the Month was just about the best honor I could have received! Thank you, Marci, Julia, Alison, and Lula Mae! <3

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Judge Crawford’s house from Fracture is located at 435 South Windsor Boulevard in the Windsor Square section of Hancock Park. Lula Mae is located at 100 North Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Town Pasadena.

December 5, 2011December 4, 2011

The Daily Grill at LAX from “Friends With Benefits”

While watching Friends With Benefits this past July, I just about fell out of my theatre seat when I realized that one of the flick’s more pivotal scenes had been filmed at the Daily Grill restaurant inside of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport – an eatery that I am very familiar with. As I have mentioned previously on this blog, my best friend, Robin, lives in Switzerland and comes to visit me just about once a year. He always flies in and out of LAX and every time we take him to the airport for his return flight, we grab one final cocktail together at the Daily Grill. The eatery long ago came to be known as “the sad restaurant” in my family’s lexicon, as, knowing that the hour to say good-bye is near, we are all invariably in tears by the time the check arrives. Flash forward to this past November when, as I mentioned three weeks ago in my post about The Grill on Main in La Quinta, Robin’s mom, Doina, who is my mom’s best friend, flew out to America to surprise my mom on her 60th birthday. At the end of her eight-day visit, we made our regular pilgrimage to the Daily Grill (that is me and Doina pictured above), which I was extremely excited about as it meant that I could finally blog about the place.

The Daily Grill at LAX, which opened its doors in January 1997, is actually the largest full-service airport restaurant in the entire United States (it measures 8,300 square feet!!!) and features a full bar, a private dining room, and what are easily the best chicken strips I have ever eaten in my entire life! In fact, on this particular visit, we ordered three servings of them (!!!!) as we could just not seem to get enough. Best of all, unlike other airport eateries where a single slice of take-out pizza can cost upwards of $7, the Daily Grill is very reasonably priced. (On a random side-note – while doing research for today’s post, I discovered that there are SEVEN Starbucks stores located inside of LAX! SEVEN! According to the Expect Delays travel blog, Starbucks outposts can be found inside of Terminals 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8! Now, that’s my kind of place! Winking smile )

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In Friends With Benefits, the Daily Grill appeared in the scene in which Dylan (aka Justin Timberlake) and his father, Mr. Harper (aka Richard Jenkins), grab a bite to eat – sans pants – shortly after Mr. Harper arrives at what is supposedly Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. It is actually pretty ironic that the Daily Grill masqueraded as an East Coast location in the flick, as Friends With Benefits poked quite a bit of fun at movies that try to pull one over on their audience by having locales in Los Angeles stand in for those in New York.

In the scene, Dylan and Mr. Harper dine in the northeastern-most section of the restaurant in the area overlooking the ticketing counters.

That area is pictured above.

And I, of course, just had to pose for a pic in the spot where Dylan and Mr. Harper sat in the flick. Smile

Our super-nice waitress answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of Friends With Benefits and even informed us that the filmmakers had covered over one of the Daily Grill’s overhead lights during the shoot and had forgotten to uncover it afterwards. As you can see above, it is still covered over today! So incredibly cool!

According to the Friends With Benefits production notes, the scene in which Jamie (aka Mila Kunis) hops on a baggage carousel and starts handing out luggage to various travelers was also shot at LAX, although I am unsure of exactly where.

Our waitress also informed us that a scene from the 2005 flick Rumor Has It involving my girl Jen Aniston had been filmed on the escalators located just outside of the Daily Grill, which I could NOT have been more excited about. Our waitress was working during the time the scene was filmed and said she watched Jen ride up and down those escalators for pretty much an entire day! How incredibly cool is that? I would have absolutely DIED!

The escalators have been remodeled since the time Rumor Has It was filmed and no longer have palm trees planted in between them, but otherwise look much the same as they did onscreen.

And I, of course, just had to pose for a pic in the spot where my girl stood in the movie. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Daily Grill, from Friends With Benefits, is located at 380 World Way in Los Angeles, on the Mezzanine Level of the Tom Bradley International Terminal inside of the Los Angeles International Airport. It is located outside of the security checkpoint, so you do not have to be traveling to dine there. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

December 2, 2011December 2, 2011

Mansion Adena – The “A Haunting in Salem” House

As I mentioned back in October during my Haunted-Hollywood-themed-month, while doing research on the Strode house from Halloween I came across a post on fellow stalker Lisa’s Midnight in the Garden of Evil website about Dick Van Dyke’s annual Halloween extravaganza, which I later had the incredible good fortune to stalk. Lisa’s post also featured some information about a movie named “A Haunting in Salem” that Dick’s grandson Shane had recently directed. I was shocked to discover that the straight-to-DVD horror flick had been filmed almost in its entirety at an 1800s-era Pasadena mansion, that, for whatever reason, I had not been previously aware of. I immediately became intrigued with the gargantuan Queen Anne structure and even though Halloween had long since passed, I just had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk it.

In real life, the 3,098-square-foot property is known as Mansion Adena and it is one of Pasadena’s oldest surviving homes. The abode was built sometime during the years 1885 to 1887 for a dentist named Dr. R.K. Janes and was designed by architect Eugene Getschell. At the time, Pasadena had yet to be incorporated, so the mansion has the unique distinction of being older than the city itself! The recently-restored home, which was declared a Pasadena Historical Landmark in 2006 and is currently available as a vacation rental, features four bedrooms, four baths, two parlors, six fireplaces, a quarter-acre gated lot, a cook’s kitchen, a formal rose garden, a spa, two sunrooms, three wrap-around porches, and a three-story mansard tower. In the book At Home: Pasadena, the property is described as one of the city’s “finest homes” and Elizabeth McMillian, a former Architectural Digest editor, called it “the finest example of Victorian architecture in Southern California.” Sadly though, as you can see above, not much of it can be seen from the street.

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In A Haunting in Salem, Mansion Adena stood in for the supposed Salem, Oregon-area haunted abode that new town sheriff Wayne Downs (aka Bill Oberst Jr.) and his family – wife Carrie (aka Courtney Abbiati), daughter Alli (aka Jenna Stone) and son Kyle (aka Nicholas Harsin) – moved into upon arriving to town.

The real life interior of the home (as well as all of the actual furniture!), which you can see photographs of here, here and here, was also used in the flick.

Thanks to fave website OnLocationVacations, I learned that Mansion Adena was also featured in an episode of Parks and Recreation. Since I do not watch the series, I enlisted the help of fellow stalker/Parks-and-Recreation-fan Owen, from the When Write is Wrong website, to discern which episode it had appeared in. As it turns out, Mansion Adena stood in for The Quiet Corn Bed and Breakfast in the Season 3 episode titled “Camping”, in the scene in which the Parks Department gang ditches out on a staff camping trip in order to spend the evening in more comfortable quarters. Both the interior and the exterior of the property were featured in the episode. And Owen even managed to dig up this Wikia article about the fictional Pawnee, Indiana-area inn.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Lisa, of the Midnight in the Garden of Evil website, for finding this location and to fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write is Wrong website, for letting me know which episode of Parks and Recreation it appeared in.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Mansion Adena, aka the A Haunting in Salem house, aka The Quiet Corn Bed and Breakfast from the “Camping” episode of Parks and Recreation, is located at 341 Adena Street in Pasadena. You can visit the property’s rental website here.