Tag: filming locations

Alicia Silverstone’s “The Kind Diet” Book Signing

This past Wednesday night I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to my favorite local bookstore, Vroman’s (which coincidentally just appeared in the most recent episode of Modern Family, but more on that later), to attend the book signing and discussion for Alicia Silverstone’s new lifestyle tome The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet. Even though I am not in any way, shape, or form a vegan, I was absolutely DYING to attend the book signing because, as I have mentioned a few times before on this blog, not only is Clueless one of my all-time favorite movies, but Alicia and I happened to grow up in the same hometown – San Mateo, California – so I have always had a very special place in my heart for the actress. Because I am a diabetic and on a very strict, virtually no-carbohydrate diet, though, and because most vegan diets that I have read about tend to favor carbs, I was not actually interested in purchasing a copy of Alicia’s book for myself. But my good friend Nat, who actually attended San Mateo High School – Alicia’s alma mater – is a vegan and she absolutely LOVES Alicia’s book – and her lifestyle blog, The Kind Life – so I decided I would purchase a copy for her as a little “just because” present. Which is how the GC and I found ourselves heading over to Vroman’s at about 5 p.m. this past Wednesday night. And, as always, before the event got started, I sent him outside to snap some photographs of Alicia when she arrived.

The signing began right on time, at 7 p.m., but for some reason it was VERY strictly monitored. No photographs WHATSOEVER were allowed during the event – not when Alicia walked into the room, not during the discussion session, and not while standing in line waiting to have our books signed. We were told shortly before her arrival that each guest would be allowed one – and only one – posed photograph with Alicia (which I could NOT have been more excited about as most celebs will not actually pose for pictures during a signing), but otherwise photographs of any kind would not be allowed. To enforce this, two quite burly Pasadena policemen were on site and they threatened to remove anyone who was even spotted with a camera in their hands during the event! So I was extremely thankful that the GC had managed to snap some photographs of Alicia outside of the store.

Alicia, who is currently pregnant, was ABSOLUTELY adorable in person and much taller than I had expected her to be, although she was wearing some fairly tall heels. She walked directly to the podium upon arrival, introduced herself, and started speaking about why she decided to write The Kind Diet, which was an extremely surreal moment for me as it was like watching the Haitian immigrant debate scene from Clueless (pictured above) come alive before my very eyes. I kept having to pinch myself to make sure that it was all really happening and that I wasn’t actually at home sitting in front of my television set. I have to say that in person, Alicia reminded me A LOT of Cher, her Clueless alter-ego. In real life, Alicia has the same mannerisms, facial expressions, and vocal tendencies that I had grown so familiar with from watching the movie over and over again. And I can honestly say that I love Alicia even more now than I did before. The actress came off as extremely charming, warm, genuine, and sweet. She was also poised, well-read, and wildly knowledgeable about veganism, holistic medicine, and healthy nutrition. I was riveted listening to her and, while not a vegan, found myself agreeing whole-heartedly with the vast majority of what she had to say. She also handled herself incredibly well when one of the audience members asked her an asinine question about veganism and pregnancy, in which he tried to make Alicia look bad. (Honestly, if you don’t agree with her lifestyle and are not a fan of hers, then why come to the event????) Alicia responded to him, though, with honesty, wit, and a bit of snarkiness and ended up making him look like a complete and total moron. As we left the event, I found myself wondering how she managed to do that! I cannot tell you how much I would love to be able to tell a rude person off without breaking my cool and all the while seeming poised and charming. But I digress. I was most surprised to hear Alicia speak about diabetes and veganism. As it turns out, her diet does not favor carbohydrates at all and is actually very similar to the diet I am currently on, so it looks like I am now going to have to buy a copy of the book for myself!

After Alicia’s speech, which lasted about thirty minutes, we all lined up to meet the actress. Alicia really took her time with all of her fans and seemed to have an incredibly warm and open personality. And, as promised, every guest got to pose for a photograph with her, which I was absolutely floored about!

Nat’s signed book is pictured above.

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Alicia’s inscription reads, “Dear Natalie, Thank you for loving the book! <3, Alicia Silverstone”.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, fave show Modern Family recently did some filming on location at Vroman’s Bookstore. The final scene of the Season 2 episode titled “Two Monkeys and a Panda”, in which Mitchell Pritchett (aka Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron Tucker (aka Eric Stonestreet) peruse various books on parenting, took place near the store’s Current Event’s section.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. You can check out the store’s upcoming signings here. You can purchase Alicia Silverstone’s book The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet here. You can visit Alicia’s lifestyle blog, The Kind Life, here. And you can check out future L.A.-area book signings and other celebrity events on my Upcoming Celebrity Events page here.

March 18, 2011
The Barclay Hotel from “As Good As It Gets”

This past weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I re-watched the movie As Good As It Gets, which I had not seen since it first came out in theatres almost 15 years ago. I am ashamed to admit that I had somehow forgotten what a great flick it is! While watching, I, of course, became a bit obsessed with tracking down some of the Southern California locations featured in it and just about had a heart attack when I read on IMDB’s As Good As It Gets filming locations page that the interior of the Barclay Hotel in downtown Los Angeles stood in for the movie’s fictional Café 24 Heures, where Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt) worked and where Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson) dined each morning. So I dragged the GC right on out to stalk the place this past Sunday afternoon. As it turns out, this location proved to be one VERY LUCKY find as it has been used in countless productions over the years.

First built in 1897 and commissioned by L.A. businessman Isaac Newton Van Nuys, the Barclay Hotel was originally known as the Van Nuys Hotel The Beaux-Arts-style building was designed by the architecture firm Morgan + Walls and, with its sprawling lobby, detailed stained glass windows, and phone service in each room, was considered one of the finest hotels of its day. In 1929, the property’s name was changed to the Barclay Hotel and there is supposedly a sign still visible on one of the building’s exterior walls which reads “Van Nuys Hotel, Rooms $1 and Up.” It would have been so incredibly cool to see, but, sadly, I could not find it anywhere. The Barclay has the distinction of being known as downtown L.A.’s oldest continuously operating hotel and is a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument. It currently serves as a residential hotel which offers affordable housing to its residents, many of whom have lived there for years.

The GC and I were lucky enough to speak with the Barclay’s manager as well as one of the hotel’s longtime residents while we were stalking the place, both of whom could NOT have been nicer! They filled us in on all of the filming that has taken place on the premises over the years and allowed me to take all of the photographs of the interior that I wanted. Yay! The resident that we spoke with was literally like a walking encyclopedia of the hotel’s vast filming history and in some instances was able to tell me not only when filming of certain productions had taken place, but how long the crew was onsite, AND he also knew the names of particular episodes of shows that had filmed on the premises and the exact dates on which those episodes had aired! Speaking with him was like . . . well, it was like speaking with myself, actually.

The Barclay Hotel’s actual, working lobby was transformed into the supposed Manhattan-area Café 24 Heures for the filming of As Good As It Gets.

According to the hotel manager, producers not only brought in several booths for the filming;

but they also built a fake waitress station;

and swapped out the lobby’s front windows with French doors, which were then swapped back after filming had wrapped.

The hotel’s real life check-in desk, which is now caged, was used as the Café’s bar in the movie.

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The entire opening scene of the 1998 disaster movie Armageddon takes place in front of the Barclay Hotel and the neighboring Farmers & Merchants National Bank, which were both made to look like they were located in New York City.

In 2002’s Catch Me If You Can, the Barclay was the apartment building/residential hotel from which a young Frank Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) was evicted after having written a series of bad checks to the landlord.

Leo returned to the Barclay for the filming of last year’s Inception, in which the hotel was featured twice. It first showed up towards the very beginning of the movie in the scene in which Cobb (DiCaprio) is dunked into a bathtub. According to the manager, that scene was filmed in one of the Barclay’s second floor hotel rooms.

The Barclay’s lobby was later used as the African casino where Cobb meets up with Eames (Tom Hardy). The hotel’s check-in desk is where Eames cashed in his casino chips in the scene.

The Barclay also stood in for the Columbian hotel where John Smith (Brad Pitt) and Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie) met at the very beginning of 2005’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

A fake bar was set up in the Barclay’s lobby for the filming of that scene.

In 2009’s (500) Days of Summer, the Barclay’s lobby was transformed into the coffee shop where Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) regularly hung out with his friends McKenzie (Geoffrey Arend) and Paul (Matthew Gray Gubler).

The Barclay’s former coffee shop, which is located on the southeast corner of West 4th and South Main Streets, is not currently a working restaurant, but was kept intact in order to be used for filming, which I think is so incredibly cool! Unfortunately, that area is closed to the public so I could only take photographs of it through its front windows.

The cafe was featured in the Season 5 episode of The Closer titled “Tapped Out”, in the scene in which Lieutenants Flynn (Anthony John Denison) and Provenza (G.W. Bailey) are shown eating breakfast and discussing Provenza’s new girlfriend all the while ignoring a crime taking place directly outside.

There is another vacant room located on the eastern side of the hotel that is also often used for filming.

That room was recently dressed to look like a New York bakery in the Season 7 episode of CSI: New York titled “To What End”.

The exterior of the Barclay also appeared a few times throughout the episode.

Most amazing of all, though – to me, at least – is the fact that the Barclay appeared in the pilot episode of the television series Starsky & Hutch way back in 1975, looking almost exactly the same as it does today! As I mentioned above, the check-in desk has since been caged in, but other than that minor detail, the Barclay has remained unchanged in the more than 36 years since filming took place. Love it, love it, love it!

Ironically enough, the Starsky and Hutch movie, which premiered in 2004, was also filmed at the Barclay. The flick’s opening scene took place on the hotel’s roof.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Barclay Hotel, aka Café 24 Heures from As Good As It Gets, is located at 103 West 4th Street in Downtown Los Angeles.

March 17, 2011
Maggie Peyton’s House from “Herbie Fully Loaded”

After fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, so expertly tracked down the Georgia Rule house for me last week, I asked for his assistance in locating the residence where the Peyton family – Ray Peyton Sr. (aka Michael Keaton) and his children Ray Peyton Jr. (aka Breckin Meyer) and Maggie Peyton (aka Lindsay Lohan) – lived in the 2005 movie Herbie Fully Loaded. Now before I get y’all thinking that I am a massive Lindsay Lohan fan or something, I would like to assure you that I most definitely am not. Nor was I a huge fan of Herbie Fully Loaded, truth be told. What I was a fan of, though, was the Peyton family’s adorable and – what I thought was – little Craftsman-style bungalow which appeared countless times throughout the movie. And while I had a hunch that the property was located somewhere in the Pasadena area, I just could not seem to find it. So last week I called upon Chas and, working together this past Monday afternoon, the two of us were finally able to track it down. Yay!

I decided to take a page out of fellow stalker Owen’s book for this particular hunt and began my search by looking through various Herbie Fully Loaded message boards to see if any fans had mentioned the home or its location.   And, sure enough, several had! I first came across this filming locations thread on the LoveBugFans website on which a real life photograph of the house was posted and, amazingly enough, an address number of 1120 was visible on the curb out in front of it. After seeing that photograph, I became convinced that the home was located somewhere in Altadena. So I immediately passed that information along to Chas and he subsequently started using Google Street View to search all of the 1100 blocks in the Altadena area, even though his gut was actually telling him that the house was located in South Pasadena.

Imagine my surprise when I came across yet another thread, this time on the LoveBugCentral website, on which someone had stated that the Peyton home was located just a few doors down from Patrick Gates’ house from the National Treasure movies. And where is Patrick Gates’ house located, you ask? I am ashamed to admit that it can be found on Buena Vista Street in . . . yep, you guessed it, South Pasadena.  So, after apogizing profusely to Chas for steering him in the wrong direction, I immediately opened up Google Street View and started perusing Buena Vista Street and, sure enough, found the house in just a few short minutes.

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The Herbie Fully Loaded house actually looks much different in person than it did onscreen as, for whatever reason, only a side view of the property was ever shown in the movie.



The view of the house from the street is pictured above and, as you can see, it is absolutely MASSIVE in real life – much, MUCH larger than it appeared onscreen.

In actuality the Peyton home, which was built in 1870, boasts 6 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a whopping 3,974 square feet of living space. It is incredible to me how deceiving the home’s appearance was onscreen, as while watching the movie I had been fully convinced that Maggie’s house was a teeny, tiny, little California bungalow, ala Dylan McKay’s home from Beverly Hills, 90210.

As you can see in the above aerial view, in real life the home also sits on a GINORMOUS parcel of land.



The home’s real life backyard also appeared quite a few times in the movie.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from It’sFilmedThere, for helping me find this location! Be sure to check out his detailed Herbie Fully Loaded filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Maggie Peyton’s house from Herbie Fully Loaded is located at 1120 Buena Vista Street in South Pasadena. Patrick Gates house from National Treasure and National Treasure: Book of Secrets is located just a few houses west of Maggie’s at 1030 Buena Vista Street. Lady Heather’s house from the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is located at 929 Buena Vista Street. And the Liar Liar house is located just around the corner at 1004 Highland Street.

March 16, 2011
Rocking My Wedding Reception – Michael Jackson Style

Ever since I first watched fave movie 13 Going On 30 for the first time back in 2004 and saw Jenna Rink (aka Jennifer Garner) so charmingly reenact the Zombie Dance sequence from “Michael Jackson’s Thriller” while at a party, I became absolutely obsessed with doing the very same thing at my wedding reception. At the time the Grim Cheaper had yet to propose, nor had the two of us ever even really talked about marriage, but I knew that we would most likely be tying the knot at some point and that when we did, my friends and I were going to do that “Thriller” dance!! Unfortunately, when I actually tried to learn the dance not long after the GC finally did propose, I realized it was far too complicated for this stalker, especially considering that not only do I have two left feet, but I am by far the least coordinated person I know. So, after scouring countless MJ videos and concert clips on YouTube, I decided that the infamous “Jackson 5 Medley” – which is a compilation performance of the songs “I Want You Back” and “The Love You Save” that MJ used to perform during his many concerts and which you can watch by clicking above – would be a far easier dance to learn. The only trouble was that I did not much like the ending of the Medley featured in the clip posted above, as it seemed to be a bit anti-climactic.

I much preferred the ending of the Medley that the Jackson 5 performed during the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special (which can be viewed at the 1:59 mark in the above video) in 1983. So I ended up putting together a bit of a mash-up of the two dances for my friends to perform at my reception.

The GC had informed me very early on – and in no uncertain terms – that he would definitely NOT be participating in my Michael Jackson dance extravaganza, so I instead enlisted the services of my best friend Robin and my good friend Stew. Because Stew is a complete and total ham, I asked him if he would play the part of MJ in our little production and he could not have been more excited to do so. He even hired a choreographer to teach him the dance in its entirety up in San Francisco where he lives and I purchased him a sequined jacket, glove, and bedazzled microphone to complete the look. Once I had the dance picked out and my team of dancers in place, I had to figure out a way for us to learn the darn thing. Enter my good friend, Chelsea, who has been a dancer her entire life. Chelsea readily agreed to not only perform the dance with us at my reception, but to also break it down into easy-to-learn steps and then teach it to me and Robin. She first taught the steps to us upon Robin’s arrival in Los Angeles from his native Switzerland two weeks prior to the wedding. And while Chelsea looked fabulous doing the routine, I am sorry to say that Robin and I were quite painful to watch. 😉

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But the two of us practiced every single night and I have to say that after two weeks I was incredibly impressed with our skills!!! We had that dance down and looked pretty darn good performing it, if I do say so myself. 🙂

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Stew came down to Pasadena a few days before the wedding so that we could all practice the routine together as a group. To say that this little endeavor was a labor of love is a gross understatement! There were countless man hours put into learning the dance and rehearsing it, but I cannot tell you how much fun we all had with the whole thing! Learning the steps and practicing the dance are some of my fondest memories of the entire wedding. 🙂



And the dance turned out ABSOLUTELY AMAZING, if I do say so myself!! Sadly though, we do not have a video of it. 🙁 As Murphy’s Law would have it, while almost all of our wedding was video-taped, the camera malfunctioned during our big dance number. Such a bummer! Our photographer Rob Greer did get some fabulous photographs of it, though.



Especially of the grand finale, which was my favorite part. 🙂 I cannot tell you how much fun it was to dance the “Jackson 5 Medley” at our reception and how much our guests loved our performance. If you are thinking of rocking your own wedding reception, I cannot more highly recommend doing so! It is one of the most fabulous memories of one of the most joyous days of my life!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: There is no stalking location for this particular post.

March 15, 2011
Rickie’s Alley from the “So-Called Angels” Episode of “My So-Called Life”

As I have mentioned quite a few times in recent months, I just finished re-watching fave television series My So-Called Life from the beginning. And I have to say that when I came to the final episode, it was a very bittersweet moment for me as it brought up all of the same sad emotions I experienced back in 1995 when the show was first cancelled. Sigh. The only bright spot in coming to the end of my re-watching of the series was the fact that I could then begin to watch the countless special features on the My So-Called Life: The Complete Series DVDs, including – count ‘em! – seven full-length commentaries of six different episodes. And those commentaries did NOT disappoint. There were two commentaries included on the Christmas-themed “So-Called Angels” episode – one with series creator Winnie Holzman and actor Wilson Cruz and a second with the episode’s director Scott Winant. Thankfully, both Wilson and Scott dished the dirt on a few of the episode’s locations – most notably the alley featured in the opening scene, which I ran right out to stalk early last week.

In the opening scene of “So-Called Angels”, Rickie Vasquez (aka Wilson Cruz) is shown beaten and bloody, struggling to stand near the end of a snow-covered brick alley.

The camera then pans over to Angel (aka special guest star, singer Juliana Hatfield) who is sitting on the sidewalk out in front of the alley. According to Scott Winant, a snow machine had to be brought in for the filming of the scene and, at the time, the weather outside was a whopping eighty degrees despite the fact that the episode was filmed in late October.

Later on in the episode, Patty Chase (aka Bess Armstrong) follows Angel down that exact same alley while looking for her daughter, Angela Chase (aka Claire Danes), who has gone missing.

Wilson Cruz mentioned in his commentary of the episode that the alley was located on Bagley Avenue in Culver City, just down the street from Sony Pictures Studios, so I immediately started searching aerial views of Bagley to see if I could find it. As it turns out, though, Bagley is a residential street made up almost entirely of private homes – until it reaches Venice Boulevard, that is, where it turns into Main Street, a short one-block-long road with commercial businesses located on either side of it. And, sure enough, right in the middle of Main Street was Rickie’s alley! And while the shops located on either side of it (a pizza restaurant named LaRocco’s Pizzeria and a storefront that is currently vacant) have changed slightly over the years, the alley is still very recognizable from the episode. Love it!

I just about died when I saw that the yellow fire hydrant which was visible in the background behind Juliana Hatfield in the opening scene was STILL there almost two full decades later! So incredibly cool!

Scott Winant also mentioned in his commentary that the grocery store where Jordan Catalano (aka Jared Leto) ran into Rickie and offered him a ride was located right through the alley. Sadly though, that grocery store is no longer.

A SUPER nice neighborhood business owner, who gave me all sorts of scoop on filming in the area, informed me that the former Balian Market was converted into a renal dialysis center a few years back.



Thankfully though, the shop-owner also informed me that very little had been done to alter the exterior of the grocery store building since the dialysis center purchased it. Yay! The area which appeared in the “So-Called Angels” episode of My So-Called Life was the former market’s back entrance, the doors of which have since been changed.





But, as you can see in the above photographs and screen captures, everything else matches up perfectly, including the cut-out decor elements of the cement wall located next to the door and the iron beams which hold up the awning.

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The buildings which appear in the background behind Jordan’s car in the scene also look very much the same today as they did when filming took place over seventeen years ago.

The super nice business owner also informed me that Rickie’s alley appeared in episodes of the television series Boomtown and Bones and in the yet-to-released music video for Kim Kardashian’s new single featuring Kayne West.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Rickie’s alley, from the “So-Called Angels” episode of My So-Called Life, can be found directly north of LaRocco’s Pizzeria, which is located at 3819 Main Street in Culver City. The former Balian’s Market, the grocery store where Jordan ran into Rickie, can be found just through the alley at 9432 Venice Boulevard in Culver City. My So-Called Life was filmed in the market’s back entrance area, which is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view. Jordan’s car was parked in the spot that is marked with a pink “X”.

March 14, 2011
The “Georgia Rule” House

One location that I have been absolutely DYING to stalk for what seems like AGES now is the supposed Hull, Idaho-area home belonging to Georgia Randall (aka Jane Fonda) in the 2005 dramedy Georgia Rule. And I have to say here that despite being largely panned by the critics (Moviefone even rated it the Number 2 Worst Movie of the Year in 2007!), I thoroughly enjoyed Georgia Rule . . . and its locations – none more so than the adorable white Craftsman-style residence where Georgia lived. Over the past few years I had managed to track down just about every single locale which appeared in the flick, except for, for whatever reason, that house! Because director Garry Marshall had thanked the City of Monrovia in the movie’s final credits, I had an inkling that the house was most likely located there. So, using Google Street View, I spent countless hours searching through various neighborhoods in the San Gabriel Valley suburb – all to no avail. Then last week, I decided to bring in the big guns, so to speak, and enlisted the help of fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, who immediately added the flick to his Netflix queue. The movie arrived in his inbox on Wednesday night and within twenty minutes of watching it, he somehow managed to find Georgia’s house – in Monrovia no less – as well as another location that had eluded me! I am telling you, the guy just has the magic touch! So, while in Monrovia taking care of my dad yesterday, I ran right out to stalk the place.



In Georgia Rule, wild child Rachel Wilcox (aka Lindsay Lohan) is sent by her mother, Lily (aka Felicity Huffman), to live for the summer with her grandmother, Georgia, in the small town of Hull, Idaho in the hopes that doing so will calm the troubled teen’s rebellious ways.



In real life Georgia’s home, which is known as the E.N. Hawes House, was built in 1906 and is a Monrovia Historical Landmark. And I am very happy to report that the property is just as charming in person at it appeared onscreen.

The real life interior of the residence was not used in the production, but was apparently very faithfully recreated on a soundstage at the Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood, where the movie was lensed. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that house in person!!

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For whatever reason, producers changed the address number of the house from 243 to 247 for the filming. As you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, though, the address plaque was kept exactly the same and producers simply swapped out the real life “3” for a “7”.

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They even went so far as to change the number painted on the curb out in front of the house.

Oddly enough, though, they did not change the number of the house located next door, even though it was highly visible throughout much of the movie.

In an interesting side note – according to Garry Marshall’s commentary on the Georgia Rule DVD, he thought the house across the street from Georgia’s was too ugly to appear in the film, so he parked a large boat in front of it during the production, hiding it from view. As you can see in the photographs above, though, the house has since been remodeled and actually has a bit of “curb appeal” today.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from It’sFilmedThere, for finding this location!   You can check out Chas’ highly detailed Georgia Rule filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Georgia Rule house is located at 243 North Encinitas Avenue in Monrovia.

March 11, 2011
Jack Rabbit Slim’s Restaurant from “Pulp Fiction”

This past Tuesday night, I received a very exciting text from fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, letting me know that one of his readers had finally, finally tracked down the exterior of the fictional Jack Rabbit Slim’s restaurant where Mia Wallace (aka Uma Thurman) took Vincent Vega (aka John Travolta) for dinner in the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction. When I first saw Pulp Fiction just about seventeen years ago, I thought Jack Rabbit Slim’s, which Vincent describes as a “wax museum with a pulse”, was just about the coolest place ever! With its slot car race tracks, wait staff dressed up to resemble stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Mamie Van Doren, and James Dean, and booths fashioned out of classic cars, the restaurant could not have been more up my alley! In fact, the diner was one of the places I most wanted to stalk upon moving to Los Angeles a little over a decade ago. So imagine my surprise – and total devastation – when I found out that it was not a real place, but a set that had been created solely for the filming of the movie. Such an incredible bummer! I always thought the producers should have built a real Jack Rabbit Slim’s restaurant after the movie became so successful, but, alas, they never did. Why oh why do I always have to think of everything? Anyway, I could NOT have been more excited about Chas’ news, so I ran right out to stalk the place yesterday afternoon.

The exterior of Jack Rabbit Slim’s only showed up very briefly in Pulp Fiction, in the scene in which Vincent takes Mia out for dinner at a place of her choosing at the behest of her husband, Marsellus Wallace (aka Ving Rhames).

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It is while out in front of Jack Rabbit Slim’s that Vincent begs Mia to take him to another restaurant so that he can get a steak, to which Mia replies, “You can get a steak here, Daddio. Don’t be a . . . “ and she then proceeds to draw a square on the screen with her fingers, which was one of my very favorite moments of the film.

At the time of the filming, the building which stood in for Jack Rabbit Slim’s was a recently-shuttered bowling alley named Grand Central Bowl, which you can see photographs of here. The property is currently owned by The Walt Disney Disney Company and is a part of their Grand Central Business Center. The 125-acre center is on the site of Los Angeles’ first major airport – the now-defunct Grand Central Air Terminal, which shut down due to a decline in business in 1959. The space was transformed into a large office park shortly thereafter, much of which was leased by the Walt Disney Company beginning in 1961. In 1997, Disney purchased the entire 125-acre property and it currently serves as the headquarters for Walt Disney Imagineering. Because Pulp Fiction was produced by Miramax, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, it makes sense that producers chose to film the Jack Rabbit Slim’s exterior where they did.

Sadly, as you can see in the above photographs, the Jack Rabbit Slim’s building is currently surrounded by a large cement wall and is not very visible from the street.

According to Wikipedia, the interior of the Jack Rabbit Slim’s set was built in a warehouse in Culver City and, at a cost of $150,000, was the largest line item in the production’s entire budget!

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from It’sFilmedThere, for letting me know about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Jack Rabbit Slim’s restaurant, from Pulp Fiction, is located at 1435 Flower Street, on the southwest corner of Sonora Avenue and Flower Street, in Glendale. The property is located inside of Disney’s Grand Central Business Center, which is private property, so please do not trespass.

March 10, 2011
Brenda’s Horseback Riding Center from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like forever now is the supposed Minnesota-area equestrian center where a childhood Brenda Walsh (a young actress stood in for my girl Shannen Doherty in this episode, but I, unfortunately, cannot seem to find her name anywhere online) went horseback riding in the Season 2 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Meeting Mr. Pony”. For whatever reason, though, I just could not seem to track the place down. I told the Grim Cheaper of my plight a little over a year ago and he informed me that filming had most likely taken place at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank, where the classic 1990 romantic comedy Pretty Woman had also been lensed. So the two of us promptly ran right out to stalk the place. Oddly enough, though, when we got there, the center did not look at all familiar from 90210. It wasn’t until after I got home and re-watched the “Meeting Mr. Pony” episode that I realized the GC had, in fact, been correct! So I immediately added the place to my “To Re-Stalk” list and finally made it back out there this past weekend.



In the “Meeting Mr. Pony” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, Brenda goes to speak with a psychologist to deal with the fallout she endured after being robbed at gunpoint at the Peach Pit. While there, the therapist asks Brenda to think back to a time in her life when she felt the most happy and the most secure. Brenda immediately envisions her childhood riding sessions with her father, Jim Walsh (aka James Eckhouse), and her “beloved” horse, whom she actually calls both Sylvester and Sebastian in the episode! LOL



The area which appeared in the episode is the Los Angeles Equestrian Center’s main jumper ring which is located just east of the center’s main entrance.

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In the scene, Jim Walsh stood along the wooden fence that borders the southern edge of the ring, just north of the center’s main parking lot. That portion of the ring looks slightly different today as the white fence which was located behind Jim has since been removed and the wooden beams located at the bottom of the fence have since been swapped out and replaced with round pieces of wood, as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph.

The approximate spot where Jim stood is denoted with a pink “X” in the above aerial view.

The very same jumper ring was also the site of the polo match that Edward Lewis (aka Richard Gere) and Vivian Ward (aka Julia Roberts) attended in Pretty Woman.

Until next time , Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Los Angeles Equestrian Center, aka Brenda’s horseback riding center from the “Meeting Mr. Pony” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 480 West Riverside Drive in Burbank. You can visit the center’s official website here. Both 90210 and Pretty Woman were filmed in the jumper ring located just east of the center’s main entrance, in the area denoted with a pink circle in the above aerial view.

March 9, 2011
My Wedding Hair and Make-Up Stylists

There are still quite a few stalking-related wedding posts that I have yet to blog about and I figured I might as well get started on them today since it has already been six months since the Grim Cheaper and I tied the knot. So here goes. For me, the decision of whether or not to hire professional hair and make-up artists for my big day was a complete and total no-brainer, much to the GC’s chagrin. I have never been very adept at doing either my hair or my make-up, so I knew that for my wedding I had to bring in the big guns, so to be speak. Martina Maina, owner of the T-Birds Hair Salon in Burbank, has been my hair stylist for over a decade now, pretty much ever since I first moved to L.A. in February of 2000, and I absolutely love the woman to death. More than just simply my hairdresser, Martina is also my friend and I knew that there was no one else I would even fathom trusting my wedding ‘do with. Martina is an absolute hair master (she has even been dubbed the “Hair Whisperer” by her many devotees), is extremely quick and creative, does not need to work off of photographs, and is sassy beyond belief! Simply put, the woman ROCKS.

I told Martina that for my wedding, I wanted her to put my hair in a chignon – something very simple, classic, and Audrey Hepburn-esque – and without so much as even showing her a photograph of what I had in mind, she created it perfectly – and it only took her about ten minutes to do so. Not kidding! The finished product is pictured above. I have to mention here, too, that my hair stayed in perfect shape throughout the entire evening and I never even needed so much as a tiny touch-up. It was simple, easy, and beautiful – in short, EXACTLY what I had envisioned. And it looked great both with and without my veil.

As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, this post does have a celebrity twist. Because this is Hollywood, Martina has worked with countless stars and on quite a few television shows and movies over the many years she has been styling hair. Just a few of the celebs Martina has worked on recently include Jake Busey, Quincy Jones, General Hospital’s Megan Ward, Eric Roberts, Jennifer Tilly, Sugar Ray Leonard, Crispin Glover, The World Is Not Enough’s Serena Scott Thomas, CSI: New York’s Hill Harper, Cedric the Entertainer, and Scary Movie’s Regina Hall. She was also the head hair and make-up artist for the Cathy Hughes television talk show TV One on One.

For my wedding day make-up, I knew there was only one woman for the job – Rita Montanez, whom I first met through my favorite head-shot photographer Robert Kazandjian. Robert had hired Rita to do my make-up for a set of head-shots he was taking of me back in 2007 and I fell in love with her pretty much on site! Aside from being incredibly sweet, Rita was also insanely fun to talk to and did my make-up in a VERY natural way, which I loved. So, when the GC finally proposed two years ago, one of the first calls I made was to Rita to ask her if she would be willing to do the make-up for my nuptials. Because Rita works regularly now as the head make-up artist for the television series The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan, she sadly no longer does wedding make-up. But she THANKFULLY made an exception in my case once she heard that I had remembered her from so many years beforehand. Like Martina, Rita has been working in Hollywood for quite a long time and has done make-up for numerous big time celebrities including Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Andy Garcia, Donald Sutherland, Lisa Kudrow, Bonnie Rait, Ray Charles, BB King, Oliver Stone, Liam Neeson, Carrie Fisher, Kelsey Grammer, Dionne Warwick, Steven Spielberg, Faye Dunaway, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner, and Hugh Grant. She has also worked on the television soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. I cannot tell you how much fun it was listening to Rita’s many Hollywood stories. Sigh!

As you can see in the above photograph, I was not a traditional bride in the fact that there was only one woman in my wedding party – my best friend Kylee. For whatever reason, my closest friends have always been male and when it came time to choosing my bridal party, I did not let a little thing like gender interfere. I believe that your wedding party should be who your wedding party should be – regardless of gender, age, or anything else, really. So, my wedding parting consisted of the following: my best girlfriend, Kylee; one of my closest friends from high school, Stew; my best friend, Robin, whom I have known since I was six years old; and Mike, from MovieShotsLA.

Not surprisingly, aside from Kylee (pictured above), no one else in my wedding party wanted their hair or make-up done .

But I did have Martina and Rita do the hair and make-up for my mom.

And her best friend, Doina, who is also my best friend Robin’s mom and who is also pretty much my surrogate mother.

And Robin’s girlfriend, Steffi, who is also one of my closest friends.

Martina even ended up giving my dad a hair-cut that morning!

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The finished results were SPECTACULAR! Honestly so much more than I ever could have hoped they would be! I was absolutely amazed at how Martina and Rita managed to bring out the individual beauty in each of us rather than just creating a cookie-cutter look for the whole group. Pictured above is Kylee;

my mom;

Doina;

Steffi;

and me!

I really do not want this to come off the wrong way, but I looked absolutely amazing on my wedding day – all thanks to Martina and Rita. Trust me, I don’t normally look like that! You should see my appearance when I roll out of bed and head to Starbucks each morning. It is a far, FAR cry from the above photograph, which just proves that it is an absolute wonder – I’ll even go so far as to say it is miraculous, in fact – what a professional hair and make-up team can do. No wonder celebrities always look so fabulous! I would be in heaven if I could hire Martina and Rita to come to my house each morning to make me beautiful! If you are at all on the fence about whether or not to hire professional hair and make-up artists for your wedding day, I honestly cannot more highly recommend doing so! It is money that you will not regret spending. Not only that, but getting ready together, as my mom, Kylee, Steffi, Doina, and I did on the morning of my wedding, is one of my fondest memories of the entire day.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Hair stylist Martina Maina can be reached via her salon, T-Birds, which is located at 1808 West Olive Avenue in Burbank. You can visit the official T-Birds website here. Make-up artist Rita Montanez can be reached via her website, Makeup by Rita, here.

March 3, 2011
Casa del Mar Hotel from “Just Go With It”

On February 11th – which just so happened to be my girl Jennifer Aniston’s 42nd birthday – I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to see the actress’ latest movie, Just Go With It. Because there are very few JA movies that I have ever actually liked (even though I am a HUGE fan of hers, Office Space and He’s Just Not That Into You are the only two that I can honestly say that I LOVE), I did not have high hopes for the flick. But I am very happy to report that I ended up absolutely LOVING it! Even more amazing was the fact that the GC loved it, too. And even more amazing still was the fact that the GC also recognized a location from it – the Casa del Mar hotel in Santa Monica which was used in the scene in which Katherine (aka Jennifer Aniston) poses as Danny’s (aka Adam Sandler’s) soon-to-be ex-wife and meets his new girlfriend, Palmer (aka Brooklyn Decker), for the first time. So, while we were in Santa Monica this past weekend stalking the blue carpet at the Independent Spirit Awards, I dragged the GC right on over to the Casa del Mar to do a bit of Just Go With It stalking.

Casa del Mar hotel was first opened in 1926 as the luxurious and ultra-exclusive Club Casa del Mar beach club, which catered to Southern California’s elite and featured an indoor, Olympic-sized swimming pool, a private stretch of white, sandy beach, weekly dinner dances, upscale accommodations, and a grand ballroom. Even though it was founded during the heart of America’s Prohibition era, booze apparently flowed freely at the hotel and gambling was a frequent guest pastime. According to local lore, Santa Monica policemen would turn a blind eye to the illegal goings-on at the property and would tip off the club staff members each time there was going to be a raid. During World War II, the US Army took over the building and used it to house American soldiers. Fallen into disrepair, the hotel shuttered its doors shortly after the war ended. Charles E. Dederich purchased the Renaissance Revival-style property shortly thereafter and turned it into a drug rehabilitation facility known as Synanon. In the late 1970’s, the building was purchased by nutrition guru Nathan Pritikin and transformed into the Pritikin Longevity Center, where actor Chris Farley was a one-time guest. The Edward Thomas Hospitality Corporation took over the property in 1998, restored the building to is original 1920’s grandeur, and in 1999 reopened it as the Casa del Mar hotel. It has been going strong ever since.

The hotel currently boasts a Zoltar fortune machine, a la the machine that made Tom Hanks “big” in the movie of the same name, in its lobby area, which I found so incredibly cool!

The Casa del Mar hotel popped up in what was, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, the funniest scene in Just Go With It, in which JA pretends to be a rich, snobby Beverly Hills socialite with a bit of a drinking – and pill – problem. Jen is ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS in the scene and even had the GC LOL-ing at several points, even though he typically does not find her to be at all amusing.

The Just Go With It scene was filmed in the southern portion of the Casa del Mar lobby, just south of the rear side of the hotel’s main fireplace. The lobby’s furnishings were changed quite a bit for the filming, though.

And I, of course, just had to recreate the scene in which Jen first arrives at the hotel and tells her limo driver that she “shant be long”.

The scene that supposedly takes place just outside of the hotel was shot at a different location, though, and I have not been able to determine exactly where that location is yet.

Just Go With It Trailer – Casa Del Mar Hotel

You can watch the Just Go With It trailer, in which Casa del Mar is featured, by clicking above.

The hotel also popped up in the Season 2 episode of The Mentalist titled “18-5-4” as the supposed San Francisco-area Tidewater Resort where Oliver Simon McDaniel (aka Evan Peters) hid out.

For whatever reason, producers had a fake check-in desk built in front of the hotel’s fireplace for the filming of the episode.

The scene in which Patrick Jane (aka Simon Baker) tells Teresa Lisbon (aka Robin Tunney) that she should have the CBI Headquarters moved to the beach was filmed in the hotel’s Veranda Bar area . . .

. . . which I, unfortunately, could not get a great photograph of due to the brightness of the sun.

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The SUPER nice concierge that we spoke with while we were stalking the hotel also let us know that the Casa del Mar’s Colonnade Ballroom was used in another Jennifer Aniston flick – the 2006 movie Friends With Money, in the scene in which Olivia (aka JA) and her friends attend a benefit for ALS. He also informed us that the ballroom was used in episodes of both Hung and Curb Your Enthusiasm, as well.

As fate would have it, the ballroom just happened to be unlocked while we were stalking the hotel, so I was able to walk in and snap a few pictures of it.

The exterior of the hotel is visible in the scene in 2005’s Be Cool in which wanna-be gansta Raji (aka an absolutely HILARIOUS Vince Vaughn) and Elliot Wilhelm (aka Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) get into a fight and Raji announces, “I smell you man! I feel your pain!” LOL

Besides being a filming location, the hotel is also something of a celebrity hotspot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there in recent years include Lindsay Lohan, Christian Bale, Ryan Phillipe, AnnaLynne McCord, Cameron Diaz, Megan Fox, Gisele Bundchen, Tom Brady, Maria Shriver, Pamela Anderson, Christian Slater, Emma Watson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake, Bradley Cooper, Molly Ringwald, Oprah Winfrey, Kevin Bacon, Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, Will Smith, Josh Duhamel, and Renee Zellweger. Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray were married at the hotel in 2005 and Miss Britney Spears and then-husband Kevin Federline even lived there for a time while their Malibu mansion was being renovated. I was lucky enough to spot Jen Aniston at the Casa del Mar once – along with Vince Vaughn, Joey Lauren Adams, and Jon Favreau – back in 2006. She was doing press for The Break-Up at the time and the GC and I had randomly stopped by the hotel to grab a cocktail. I was wearing my “Team Aniston” sweatshirt and when Jen saw it she pointed, smiled, and said, “Oh, thank you!” Ever since that day, the GC has referred to Casa del Mar as the “Jen Aniston hotel”. Love it! (The GC took the above photograph of Jen that day on his blackberry, which is why it turned out so poorly. After seeing the picture, I solemnly swore I would NEVER again be caught out and about without my camera and I now carry it with me at all times.)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Casa del Mar hotel, from Just Go With It, is located at 1910 Ocean Way in Santa Monica. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

March 2, 2011