Tag: filming locations

The “Poison Ivy” Mansion

Back in early August, Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, from the Drewseum website, challenged me to find the large pink mansion belonging to the Cooper family – Sylvie (aka Sara Gilbert), Darryl (aka Tom Skerritt), and Georgie (aka Cheryl Ladd) – in the 1992 thriller Poison Ivy. But because I was just a few weeks away from my upcoming wedding at the time, I didn’t get a chance to do any research on it. Thankfully though, fellow stalker Terri stepped in and managed to track down the location for us! Terri had discovered a message board thread on the IMDB Poison Ivy page on which a commenter had stated that the Cooper mansion was located in a “section of Los Feliz called the Oaks”. She then used Google Street View and managed to track down the massively large residence, which amazingly enough looks very much the same today as it did back in 1992 when the movie was filmed! Thank you, Terri!

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In real life, the 13,000-square foot, 5 bedroom, 9 bathroom home, which sits on over a half acre of land, was first built in 1926 and, according to my buddy E.J. over at The MovielandDirectory, belonged to Geena Davis in the early 90s, although that is a claim that the Thelma & Louise actress denies. The Geena Davis rumor was actually featured in a small blurb in the September 1997 issue of Los Angeles Magazine, which states that the extensive property was purchased for $1.3 million in 1992 by the “Sav-On Trust” (believed to be created by Geena) and that an extensive remodel of the residence was subsequently begun. After the roof, windows, and doors had been removed from the estate, though, the remodel was abruptly stopped and the property left in ruins. At one point, squatters even moved into the residence, which is located in a very affluent neighborhood. Sav-On Trust sold the decrepit property to a new owner in 1995 for $1,050,000, with the trust actually carrying the majority of the loan. When the new buyer defaulted on his payments, the home went into foreclosure, with Geena still denying that she had anything to do with the property. Why she didn’t want to be associated with the home, I don’t know, but she doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on being that the trustee of the Sav-On Trust is none other than Greg Kress – Geena Davis’ business manager. Hmmmm. Anyway, the remodel on the property was finally completed in the late 1990s and the mansion is absolutely beautiful today. The home, which you can see some fabulous interior photographs of here, currently boasts a 1,000-bottle wine cellar, a private gym, a game room, an infinity pool, a movie theatre, TWO elevators, a cigar room, a grotto, a spa, a library, and striking views of Los Angeles. Talk about living the high life!

The Cooper mansion figured quite prominently in Poison Ivy and both the interior and the exterior of the property appeared in the flick.

The mansion’s garage area . . .

. . . and main balcony were also used repeatedly in the movie, although both look quite a bit different now. An addition to the house has since been added on to the garage area and a turret has been added next to the balcony.

The exterior stairwell that was formerly located next to the garage has also since been removed.

And the stairs that led to the front of the property in the movie have now been replaced by a sloping driveway. Even with all of those changes, though, the home still looks almost exactly the same today as it did in Poison Ivy. And I so love that it is still almost the same color pink!

Randomly enough, just a few days after stalking it, I spotted this very same location while watching the pilot episode of the new series Law & Order: Los Angeles. The residence showed up in the very beginning of the episode, which was titled “Hollywood”, as the burgled home of teenaged actor Colin Blakely (aka Travis Van Winkle) . Being that I had just stalked the place a few days beforehand, I literally just about fell over when I saw it.

Especially when I noticed the home’s real life address plaque pass by in the background of one of the scenes. So darn cool!

The real life interior of the estate was also used in the episode.

Big THANK YOU to Ashley, from the Drewseum website, for challenging me to find this location and to Terri for actually tracking it down! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Poison Ivy mansion is located at 2208 West Live Oak Drive in Los Feliz.

October 8, 2010
The Dresden Restaurant

A couple of months ago I was flipping through one of my favorite stalking tomes, Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors, when I came across a blurb written about the legendary Dresden Restaurant in Hollywood. And while I had actually eaten at the Dresden once before upon first moving to Southern California almost a decade ago, at the time I had no idea it was a filming location! So, I immediately called up the Grim Cheaper and begged him to take me there that very night. But being that we were just a few weeks away from our upcoming nuptials at the time, he quickly put a nix on my plans with the caution that “we shouldn’t be spending money right now”. I acquiesced, but have been itching to stalk the place ever since. Thankfully, the two of us finally made it out there for dinner two weeks ago, with the GC pretty much kicking and screaming the entire way. But as it turned out he absolutely LOVED the place – and the $32 dinner bill that came at the end of the night. Yes, you read that right – our dinner, including one cocktail a piece, was only $32! We ended up eating in the Dresden’s bar area and ordering up a smorgasbord of happy hour items, including French onion soup and quesadillas, and, let me tell you, the food was not only INCREDIBLE, but the serving sizes were absolutely HUGE. The staff there was also amazingly nice and answered all of my silly little questions about the extensive filming that has taken place there over the years. All in all, it was quite the successful stalk and I honestly cannot say enough good things about the place!

The Dresden has been a Hollywood staple since it first opened in the 1950’s. A paint store originally occupied the premises, but the space was converted into an eatery named Pucci’s Cafe sometime in the late 1930s. It later became known as the Dresden Room, named so for the china dolls which decorated the restaurant interior. In 1954, a man named Carl Ferraro purchased the restaurant along with his wife, Sara, and remodeled it twelve years later. The interior has been left virtually untouched since that time and walking through the front doors is like stepping back in time a good fifty years. One look at the restaurant and it is easy to see why the place has become a favorite of location scouts.

The Dresden’s most memorable film appearance was in the 1996 flick Swingers, in the scene in which Mike (aka Jon Favreau) meets and makes a fool of himself in front of Nikki (aka The Replacements’ Brooke Langton), his neighborhood Starbucks barista.

The scene also showcased the Dresden’s legendary long-running musical act, Marty and Elayne, who have been playing at the restaurant nightly since 1982.

Ironically enough, the big fight scene in Swingers, which supposedly takes place outside of the Dresden’s rear entrance, was actually filmed a few miles away in the parking lot of the famous Musso & Frank Grill in Downtown Hollywood. The Dresden’s real life rear entrance is shown above. For the scene, the producers covered over Musso’s back awning with the word “Dresden” . . .

. . . but forgot to cover over Musso’s “Oldest in Hollywood” sign, which can blatantly be seen in the background during the fight.

In 1990’s The Two Jakes, the Dresden was used as the Green Parrot night club where J.J. Jake Gittes (aka Jack Nickolson) meets up with Tyrone Otley (aka Tracey Walter).

In the 1996 flick That Thing You Do, the Dresden stands in for the Blue Spot jazz club where Guy ‘Shades’ Patterson (aka Tom Everett Scott) meets musician Del Paxton (aka Bill Cobbs).

In the 2000 romantic comedy What Women Want, the interior of the Dresden was used as the Chicago-area Back Door piano lounge where Nick Marshall (aka Mel Gibson) and Darcy Maguire (aka Helen Hunt) meet up for a late night drink. The restaurant was re-decorated considerably for the filming, with white twinkle lights being added to the walls and mirrors being added to the back of the booths.

The Dresden was transformed into the Escupimos en su Alimento (which translates to “We Spit in Your Food” LOL) Mexican restaurant for the 2004 flick Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

And while The X-Files also shot scenes at the Dresden at one point in time, I am not sure of exactly which episode it appeared in. Supposedly the restaurant was also featured in Bugsy, but I scanned through that flick earlier today and did not see the Dresden pop up anywhere.

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The Dresden has also long been a celebrity magnet and even boasts an extensive headshot wall-of-fame at its front entrance to prove it. Just a few of the luminaries who have dined there over the years include Dolly Parton, Nicolas Cage, Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, Adam West, Danny Aiello, Jay Leno, Keanu Reeves, David Lynch, Frank Sinatra . . .

. . . “Thriller” director John Landis . . .

. . . and fellow stalker Owen’s main squeeze Jennifer Love Hewitt.

I honestly cannot recommend stalking the Dresden enough! When people say that L.A. has no history, it is places like this that I think of. I cannot tell you how cool it was to be dining at a restaurant that has not only been in operation for over five decades, but also boasts an extensive film resume and has seen the likes of everyone from Frank Sinatra to Julia Roberts walk through its doors. If that’s not history, I don’t know what is!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Dresden Restaurant is located at 1760 North Vermont Avenue in Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

October 7, 2010
The “Grey’s Anatomy” House

Another location that my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry took me to stalk while I was visiting the Pacific Northwest earlier this year was the Seattle-area home owned by Meredith Grey (aka Ellen Pompeo) on the long-running television series Grey’s Anatomy. I’ve only actually ever seen one episode of the show – the Season 2 episode titled “Enough is Enough” in which my friend Lukas Behnken was a guest star – but since we were in the area and since Kerry knew the address, I figured I might as well stalk the place. I have heard such amazing things about the series over the years, though, that I really do think I need to start tuning in. Especially since the main house used in the series is such a cool one! I was actually quite shocked to discover that the Grey’s residence was located in Seattle, as the show is taped for the most part right here in Los Angeles – at both Prospect Studios in Los Feliz and the Veterans Administration Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center in North Hills. But apparently, the cast and crew make a few treks each year up to the Seattle-area to shoot some exterior and establishing shots, including all of the shots of Meredith’s home.

On the show, the house originally belonged to Meredith’s mother and while she announced in the pilot episode that she was planning on selling it, she later decides to keep it and live in it with her fellow Seattle Grace Hospital interns Izzie Stevens (aka Katherine Heigl) and George O’Malley (aka T.R. Knight). The home has been featured regularly in all six seasons of the series.

The address of the home on the series is said to be 613 Harper Lane, but in reality it is located in the Queen Anne Hill neighborhood of Seattle on Comstock Street. The home, which was originally built in 1905 and according to fave website Zillow is currently worth about $1.2 million, boasts 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and 2,740 square feet of living space.

On a side note – I apologize for the short blog posts I’ve been publishing as of late. My parent’s recent, and what has been on-going, move – which has taken place over the past four weekends and has involved packing up a 2,000 square foot residence, staging that residence for sale, moving my parents temporarily into their friends’ currently vacant home, putting 1/3 of their possessions into a storage facility, and the other 2/3’s into two portable POD moving containers – has really taken it out of me. And it’s definitely been a group effort, too. Mike, from MovieShotsLA, even pitched in to help us out! Not many people I know would be willing to help their friends move, let alone their friend’s parents, but that’s just the kind of guy Mike is – and it is why he is one of my very best friends! Anyway, escrow on my parent’s former house closes TODAY (halleluiah!), so the move is finally over – for the time being at least – and I can now get back to my normal life, normal routine, and normal blogging. After a nice hot bubble bath and nice, tall glass of champagne, that is! Thanks for bearing with me over the past few weeks, my fellow stalkers!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Kerry for taking me to this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Grey’s Anatomy house is located at 303 Comstock Street in Seattle, Washington.

October 6, 2010
Moonlight Rollerway- The Roller Skating Rink from “Glee”

One location that I have been dying to stalk for months now is Rinky Dinks, the cabaret/roller rink owned by April Rhodes (aka Kristin Chenoweth) in the Season 1 episode of Glee titled “Home”. On a quick Glee side note, I just have to say that I was not at all happy with last week’s Britney Spears-inspired episode. Besides just being disappointing as a whole, I was HIGHLY annoyed with the recreation of the “ . . . Baby One More Time” music video. That video has to be one of my all time favorites and the fact that they couldn’t even get the costumes right seriously bothered me! I mean, hello – where were the pink hair pom poms in the opening sequence???? Dressing up like “. . . Baby One More Time”-Britney without those pom poms is like dressing up as the Pope and not wearing a white robe! I had a better Britney costume when I dressed up like the singer for Halloween back in 1999 and I didn’t have a big Hollywood budget to do it with, either. Ugh, don’t even get me started! 😉 Anyway, in real life Rinky Dinks is known as Moonlight Rollerway and it is a national historic landmark. The building which houses it was first constructed in 1940 and was originally used during World War II to build and produce airplane parts. In 1950, the property was purchased by a man named Harry Dickerman, who transformed the space into a roller rink named Harry’s Roller Rink. The property was taken over by new owners in 1963, who renamed the place Moonlight Rollerway, as it is still known today. The rink is currently owned by Dominic Cangelosi, who was named the “RS Gazette Rink Operator of the Year” in 2006. And the original 1950 maple wood flooring, which measures 75 feet by 170 feet, is the same flooring that Moonlight patrons skate on to this day.

And while the Grim Cheaper and I did not have time to actually skate at Moonlight Rollerway, the employees there were nice enough to let us inside to snap some pics and take a look around. They also answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of Glee and confirmed that Matthew Morrison is very cute in person. 😉

I first found out about this location from an acting friend named Alex who had worked as an extra in several scenes of the 2002 gross-out comedy Van Wilder. One of the scenes he appeared in was the Lambda Omega Mega fraternity party, which he told me had been filmed at Moonlight Rollerway.

Since that time, I’ve recognized the rink in several other productions, most memorably in the Brett Ratner-directed video for Jessica Simpson’s hit song “A Public Affair”, which also starred Eva Longoria, Christina Applegate, Christina Milian, Maria Menounos, Ryan Seacrest, Andy Dick, and Brent Bolthouse. And even though Jessica Simpson is easily my least favorite celebrity of all time, for whatever reason I really loved that video. I am pretty sure that was mostly due to her super-cute skating outfit . . .

. . . which I tried to emulate at a friend’s roller rink birthday party just a few months after the video was released. 🙂

You can watch the “A Public Affair” video by clicking above.

In the “Home” episode of Glee, Will Schuester (aka Matthew Morrison) goes on a search for a venue that the New Directions can utilize as their daily rehearsal space after finding out that Sue Sylvester (aka Jane Lynch) has commandeered their usual spot. He winds up at Rinky Dinks roller rink, where he finds his old glee club crush April Rhodes, who now owns the place. Producers changed quite a bit of the interior for the filming of the episode, including adding quite a bit of neon decor to the walls and a stage to the middle of the rink. You can see the rink dressed for the filming on the Moonlight Rollerway Facebook page here.

The rink’s snack bar and . . .

. . . skate rental area were also used in the episode.

Moonlight Rollerway has also appeared in episodes of Cold Case, What About Brian, Gene Simmons: Family Jewels, Medium, The Millionaire Matchmaker, and What Not To Wear, and in the 2008 Will Ferrell movie Semi-Pro.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Moonlight Rollerway, the roller skating rink from the “Home” episode of Glee, is located at 5110 San Fernando Road in Glendale. You can visit the rink’s official website here.

October 4, 2010
The “Valentine’s Day” Floral Shop

This past weekend I dragged my new husband out to stalk the Burbank storefront that stood in for Siena Bouquet & Cafe – the flower shop/coffee bar belonging to Reed Bennett (aka Ashton Kutcher) in the 2010 romantic comedy Valentine’s Day. And even though I didn’t particularly like Valentine’s Day all that much – in my eyes it came off as a very poorly executed Love Actually clone – I did absolutely fall in love with Reed’s floral/coffee shop in the movie, mostly due to the fact that I am an absolute coffee fiend, as anyone who knows me even slightly well can attest to. I mean, what a FABULOUS idea for a store – a florist with a built-in espresso bar! I am of the opinion that there should be a built-in espresso bar in ALL kinds of stores – book shops, hair salons, nail salons, etc. etc. etc. When I was in college, the local laundromat not only had an espresso bar, but a tanning booth AND an arcade! Genius! Needless to say it was the most popular laundromat in the entire area. Half the time I would visit the place just to grab a latte, even if I didn’t have clothes to wash. Not kidding! 😉 But I digress. The other reason I loved Reed’s store so much was because of its colorful and funky decor, which was vaguely reminiscent of the Central Perk set on fave show Friends. So, when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, told me that a friend of his had actually watched some of the flower shop scenes being filmed, I just about died as I had assumed that the interior of the store had just been a set. I immediately added the address of the place to the top of my To-Stalk list and finally made it out there to see it in person this past weekend.

At the time of the filming, the flower shop space was actually vacant, which gave the Valentine’s Day producers the ability to completely take over the premises and extensively dress it in the exact way that they wanted. Since that time, the space has been taken over by an extremely cool vintage clothing store named Playclothes, but I am very happy to report that the exterior still looks much the same in person as it did in the flick.



The interior, however, is another story.



While the flooring, intricately designed ceilings, and wooden double front door have remained the same, the store is unfortunately not very recognizable from the movie. And in real life, there is, of course, no on-site espresso bar. 🙁 The good news, though, is that Playclothes honestly has to be one of the coolest stores I’ve ever had the pleasure of shopping at. I’m not at all into vintage clothing, mind you, but I am into costumes and I have to say that Playclothes had some of the best and most authentic on display that I’ve ever seen in my entire life! The staff there was also incredibly nice and spent a LOT of time answering all of my silly little questions about the filming of Valentine’s Day.

Walking around the vintage clothing shop made me realize that the time to choose this year’s Halloween costume has long since arrived. Unfortunately though, I am currently at a loss. Ideas anyone? The Grim Cheaper and I are always either a famous movie couple or a famous real life celebrity couple and this year I was thinking of dressing up as Sue Sylvester and Mr. Schuester from Glee, but the GC ixnayed that idea real fast! So, I am currently open to ideas. But please don’t suggest anyone from Avatar as I am so not interested in covering myself with blue paint. 😉



The rear entrance to Playclothes, which can be reached off of North Fairview Street, was also used in Valentine’s Day.

On a side note – My main man Michael Buble just released the music video for his new song “Hollywood”, in which he does a SPOT ON imitation of Justin Beiber. I actually thought it was the Biebs in the video when I first watched it. HILARIOUS! Anyway, the video was shot in its entirety on a movie lot and I spent quite a bit of yesterday trying to figure out which lot. After wasting more than a few hours searching, I asked Mike, from MovieShotsLA, if he knew where the video was filmed and, sure enough, he did. Turns out it’s Universal!   The video shows off quite a bit of the newly rebuilt New York Street, which I have yet to see , so you all know what that means – I’ll be draggin the Grim Cheaper out to stalk it very soon! 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Playclothes vintage clothing store, aka the floral shop from Valentine’s Day, is located at 3100 West Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank. The back of the store is accessible from North Fairview Street. You can visit the Playclothes website here.

October 1, 2010
The Street Where “The Hills” Finale Was Filmed

One location that I have been on the lookout for for a couple of months now is the street where Kristin Cavallari said good-bye to on-again/off-again boyfriend Brody Jenner in the final scene of the series finale of fave show The Hills, which aired on July 13th of this year. For whatever reason, though, I was having a heck of a time pinpointing the exact spot where filming had taken place. Until this past Friday, that is. Thankfully, fellow stalker “Diggy” posted a comment on that day’s blog post in which I wrote about the home where Kristin had lived during the last season of the show. In the comment, Diggy stated that the final scene had been filmed on “Beachwood Drive, just north of Franklin”. Sadly though, even with that detailed information, I was unable to find the right spot! Enter master stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, who texted me later that same night with an exact address – 2107 North Beachwood Drive. And sure enough, once I pulled up the location on Google Street View, I saw that he was right! Thank you, Chas! So, yesterday, after Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I finished our tour of Paramount Studios, we headed right on over to Beachwood Drive to do some Hills stalking.

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The Hills’ final scene centers around the premise that after suffering a broken heart thanks to Brody Jenner, series star and narrator Kristin Cavallari decides to leave Los Angeles to begin a new adventure in a foreign land because, as she says, “I feel if I’m really gonna move and do this, it needs to be a big change and I need to be completely uncomfortable and I need to be scared again and the only place I can really think about would be somewhere in Europe.” When Brody finds out she is leaving the country, he heads to her house to say good-bye and just happens to catch her right as she is walking out her door to drive to what is presumably the airport. In the scene, Brody pulls up and parks in front of the apartment building located at 2107 N. Beachwood Drive.

Kristin subsequently walks out of the house located across the street at 2117 Beachwood Terrace, which is not where the reality star was actually presumed to be living on the show. The house where Kristin lived during the series’ Sixth Season, which I blogged about last week, is located almost five miles away in West Hollywood. Thanks to the tall hedges which completely surround both properties, though, the two residences do bear a striking resemblance to each other.

Kristin then walks to her waiting limousine, which was parked in front of the home located at 2110 North Beachwood Drive.

After Kristin shares a tear-filled good-bye with Brody, her limousine proceeds to drive south on Beachwood, presumably heading to the airport.

The camera then closes in on a distraught-looking Brody for a few poignant moments before the background behind him begins to move and it is revealed that he is actually standing on the backlot of Paramount Studios in Hollywood and that Kristin’s limo had only been driven a few feet off screen. Brody then walks up to Kristin, hugs her, and says, “You outta here?” before the two nonchalantly walk off. I found the ending, which was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that many viewers believe the show to be fake, ingenious. What better way to acknowledge that some of the show was in fact “produced” than to have its final moments be shot on a soundstage? Of the finale, Brody said, “I think the show has always battled with what’s real and what’s fake, and this ending was perfect because you still don’t know what was real, what was fake and it’s kind of like L.A. in a sense.” And while the ending leaves no doubt (in mind at least) that the show wasn’t entirely “real”, some fans still swear up and down that it was. But being that Kristin never in fact moved anywhere, least of all not to Europe, and that she later tweeted “I think I shld finally let everyone know I’m not going 2 Europe. It was 4 the show.”, I think we can all rest assured that the reality series was most definitely manipulated, if not out and out scripted. Which was the exact impression I got when I watched an episode of it being filmed back in August of 2008 – yes, it’s a “reality” show, but a heavily, heavily manipulated one.

Anyway, because Mike and I were at Paramount yesterday, I just had to stalk the exact spot where the finale was filmed – which was at the corner of Avenue A and 3rd Street, just southwest of Stage 23, in front of the studio’s former film vaults.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, and fellow stalker “Diggy” for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The final scene from The Hills was filmed in front of 2110 and 2172 North Beachwood Drive in Hollywood. In the scene, Brody parked in front of the apartment building located at 2107 North Beachwood Drive, Kristin walked out of the house located at 2117 Beachwood Terrace, and the two said good-bye to each other in front of the house located at 2110 North Beachwood Drive. The scene which took place on the Paramount lot was filmed on the corner of Avenue A and 3rd Street, just southwest of Stage 23.

September 29, 2010
Liberace’s Former Home

A couple of weeks ago, while doing some stalking in the Valley, I became a bit obsessed with locating the home where legendary pianist Liberace lived back in the 1950s. I first heard about this location, ironically enough, from comedian and Whose Line Is It Anyway? star Ryan Stiles, who also owned the property at one point in time. I got to know Ryan – and several other members of The Drew Carey Show cast and crew – after some extra work I did on the series in the summer of 2000. For about a year I would fairly regularly meet up with “the Drew Crew”, as I liked to call them, after the show taped every Tuesday night at the now-defunct Dalt’s Grill in Burbank. During one of those outings, Ryan mentioned that he lived in a Sherman Oaks-area home that had once belonged to Liberace and that the home had a piano-shaped swimming pool in the backyard, which I thought was just about the coolest thing ever! Being that that conversation took place almost a decade ago, though, I’m not quite sure what made me think of it two weeks ago, but for whatever reason, as my fiancé and I drove through the Valley my mind flashed on that piano-shaped pool and I immediately pulled out my blackberry and started cyberstalking the place. I fairly quickly stumbled upon this Los Angeles Times article from July of 2007 which listed the address of Liberace’s former house and immediately dragged my new husband right on over to stalk it.





Liberace himself designed the L-shaped house, which, of course, was decorated with a piano motif throughout, in 1953 and he and his mother, Francis, moved in that very same year. As his fame grew, fans would reportedly hop the fence into his backyard to catch a glimpse of the entertainer at home and the property was eventually deemed far too accessible for a man who was, at the time, the highest-paid entertainer in the entire world. Liberace moved out of the 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom, 3,907-square foot home sometime in or around 1958 and migrated to the Palm Springs area, while Francis stayed behind. Amazingly enough, the property still looks much the same today as it did when Liberace first built it over 57 years ago. So darn cool!

The residence made headlines in July of 1957, when Francis was attacked by two masked men while throwing away trash in the garage. At the time, Liberace was involved in a $20 million libel lawsuit against Confidential Magazine which had featured a recent cover story insinuating that the entertainer was gay. Liberace had given a deposition earlier that day and it is widely believed that the attack on his mother was a direct result of the lawsuit, although the perpetrators were never identified.

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Sadly, the piano-shaped pool that I had so loved hearing about from Ryan Stiles cannot be seen from the street. But thankfully it is visible via Bing’s aerial views and was also featured in a Life Magazine photoshoot from 1954. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see that pool in person!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Liberace – and Ryan Stiles’ – former home is located at 15405 Valley Vista Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.

September 27, 2010
Kristin Cavallari’s House from Season 6 of “The Hills”

Literally just around the corner from Philippe Chow, the restaurant that I blogged about on Tuesday where Brenda and Donna ate veal brains on Beverly Hills, 90210, is the home where Kristin Cavallari lived during Season 6 of fave show The Hills. I am embarrassed to say that I spent an exorbitant amount of time looking for this particular location and had absolutely no luck whatsoever in finding it. Thankfully though, fellow stalker Britney embarked on her own hunt to track it down and quickly stumbled upon this Shelterpop article which stated that Kristin’s home was formerly owned by “celebrity” hairstylist Eric Bilardi (apparently Eric has tressed everyone from Daryl Hannah to Jane Seymour). Britney then searched for information on Eric online, wound up finding some public records which listed his former address, and voila, it was the right place! Yay! So, after my father and I finished lunch at Philippe’s last Friday afternoon, we headed right on over to stalk Kristin’s former pad.

Unfortunately though, because the property is surrounded by extremely tall hedges and a very high fence, not a whole lot of it can be seen from the street.

Nor can much be seen from aerial views.

But that’s why God created real estate listings! Kristin’s Spanish-style home, which was originally built in the 1920s, was available for rent earlier this year at a rate of $5,750 per month. The property, which last sold in 2007 for $1.3 million, boasts two bedrooms, two bathrooms, 1,400-square feet of living space, a garden, hardwood flooring throughout, a covered patio, several fountains, and an outdoor fire pit.

The house first showed up in the second episode of The Hills’ sixth season, which was titled “Rumor Has It”, in which Kristin throws a little housewarming shindig for herself. I am fairly certain, though, that, like most of The Hills residences, Kristin never actually lived on the premises, but that it was used for filming purposes only. And from how it appears in the real estate photos, producers seem to have used all of the real life homeowner’s actual furnishings during filming –

– right down to the cups in the kitchen cupboards . . .

. . . and the cushions on the living room couch. You can check out more photos of the house on the Shelterpop website here.

Ironically enough, the finale scene, in which Kristin walks out of her house and says a tearful good-bye to both Los Angeles and Brody Jenner, was not actually filmed in front of the property, as it was made to appear. And unfortunately I have not yet been able to discern exactly where that scene was shot. Ideas, anyone?

Big THANK YOU to Britney for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kristin Cavallari’s house from Season 6 of The Hills is located at 819 North La Jolla Avenue in West Hollywood. Philippe Chow, the restaurant where Brenda and Donna ate veal brains on Beverly Hills, 90210, is located just a half a mile south at 8284 Melrose Avenue, also in West Hollywood.

September 24, 2010
The Schaffer Residence from “A Single Man”

A couple of weeks ago, I dragged my new husband out to stalk an architecturally and cinematically famous house located in Glendale at the base of the Verdugo Mountains – the John Lautner-designed Schaffer Residence which appeared in fashion designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut, A Single Man. I found this location thanks to fellow stalker Gary from England, who immediately set about cyberstalking the residence after watching the flick back in February of this year. And even though I’ve never actually seen A Single Man – I try to avoid any and all movies that have a depressing subject matter – because I am a HUGE fan of legendary architect John Lautner and because the house is simply gorgeous, I just had to stalk it.

The two bedroom, two bath Schaffer Residence, which was originally built in 1949, measures 1,698 square feet and sits on a heavily wooded quarter acre of land. The home was constructed entirely out of steel, glass, redwood, and concrete and boasts an open floor plan with glass walls, which several websites have described as “transparent”. Apparently being in the home makes one feel as if they are actually outside. The house is so spectacular, that according to the John Lautner Foundation website, both architects Frank Gehry and Frank Escher consider the Schaffer house to be among their most favorite abodes ever created. Sadly, though, as you can see in the above photographs, not much of the house is visible from the street.

Nor is much visible from Bing’s aerial views, either. 🙁

Thankfully though, the Schaffer Residence is currently for sale (for a cool $1,495,000 and as fellow stalker Gary said in his email to me, “I am saving as I type!!!!!”) and there are plenty of pictures of the property on its real estate website. You can also check out some fabulous photographs of the interior of the home on the Big Shed website here. As you can see above, the Schaffer house is a post-modern masterpiece, stunning in its detail, and with its wood, steel, and glass features, is very reminiscent of both the abode belonging to Sebastian Stark (aka James Woods) on the television series Shark and the residence where Ted Crawford (aka Anthony Hopkins) lived in the movie Fracture.

In A Single Man, which premiered last year, the Schaffer Residence stands in for the Santa Monica-area home of Professor George Falconer (aka Colin Firth), and both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property were used quite extensively in the filming. When I skimmed through A Single Man earlier today to make the above screen captures, I was actually surprised to see how the home was portrayed onscreen. In the movie, George’s house is very dark and dreary, which is ironic being that, in reality, a huge part of what makes the home so special and unique are the large plate-glass windows which bathe the interior of the property in an exorbitant amount of natural light. As depicted in the real estate photographs and in all that I’ve read about the dwelling online, in real life the Schaffer residence is bright and airy – not at all how it appeared in A Single Man. In fact, after seeing how it was depicted onscreen, I’m quite surprised that director Tom Ford chose to use the home at all in the movie. I would have assumed that he’d want to film at a house that, at the very least, had less windows. But what do I know? 😉

The Schaffer Residence also made an appearance in the ultra-strange 2005 dramedy Happy Endings as the residence where Charley (aka Steve Coogan) and Gil (David Sutcliffe) lived.

On a side note – If you want to see photographs of the house where Charley (aka Julianne Moore) lived in A Single Man, you can do so on MovieShotsLA.

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On another side note – A Single Man director Tom Ford also just so happens to be the designer behind my girl Jennifer Aniston’s favorite sunglasses – the “Tom Ford Jennifer sunglasses” (pictured above). Jen loves the glasses so much, in fact, that legend has it that Tom even named them after her. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to own a pair of those! 🙂

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Gary for finding this location! 🙂

Stalk It: The Schaffer Residence from A Single Man is located at 527 Whiting Woods Way in Glendale. You can check out the home’s real estate website here.

September 23, 2010
First Christian Church of North Hollywood – Where Phyllis Got Married on “The Office”

Brace yourselves, my fellow stalkers, ‘cause today’s post is going to be a long one! A few months back, I dragged my then-fiancé and my parents out to re-stalk the First Christian Church of North Hollywood – a location which is most commonly known as “the 7th Heaven church”, thanks to its recurring role as the Camden Family’s local parish throughout the Aaron Spelling series’ ten-year run. Even though I never watched 7th Heaven, I stalked and blogged about the church way back in April of 2008 after receiving a challenge to find it from my Aunt Lea. So, when the very same location popped up on new favorite show The Office as the spot where Phyllis Lapin (aka Phyllis Smith) married Bob Vance (aka Robert R. Shafer) – of Vance Refrigeration – in the Season 3 episode titled “Phyllis’ Wedding”, I decided I just had to re-stalk it and do a more in-depth write-up of its extensive filming history.

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The First Christian Church of North Hollywood was originally built in 1949 on the corner of Moorpark Street and Colfax Avenue in what is, contrary to what the name might suggest, actually Studio City. Construction on the 19,000-square foot, Colonial-style structure took just under a year to complete and the first mass was said there on March 12, 1950. Today the church boasts one of the largest Protestant congregations in the entire San Fernando Valley. Location scouts have long been drawn to the property, which includes a main sanctuary, several offices, a kitchen, a garden, a nursery school, a social hall, and a courtyard, for decades due to its Anytown, U.S.A.-style facade. Countless upon countless productions have been filmed there over the years – far too many for me to properly catalog here, but I’ll do my best to try. I must give major props to whoever runs the First Christian Church of North Hollywood website, by the way, because it boasts a very well-organized Film Shoots” page that chronicles all of the filming that has ever taken place there. Love it!

The “Phyllis’ Wedding” episode of The Office was filmed almost in its entirety on location at First Christian Church of North Hollywood and both the interior and the exterior of the property were used extensively in the production. The areas which appeared in the episode include the front entrance;

the entryway and front stairwell;

the main sanctuary;

the altar;

the social hall (which we unfortunately did not get to see);

the top of the exterior side stairwell, where Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) and Roy Anderson (aka David Denman) danced;

the north exterior side of the church, where Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) danced with Angela Martin (aka Angela Kinsey);

and the side courtyard, where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) “found” Phyllis’ Uncle Al (aka George Ives).

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention here that it is while in the First Christian Church of North Hollywood that Dwight utters fellow stalker Owen’s very favorite television line of all time. While filing into the church with the other wedding guests, Dwight turns to Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) and says, “Why are all these people here? There’s too many people on this earth. We need a new plague.” LOL LOL LOL Love it! So, of course I just had to stand in the exact spot where Dwight was standing during that scene and repeat his famous line.

As I mentioned above, the First Christian Church of North Hollywood is most well-known for its countless appearances on 7th Heaven where it popped up almost weekly during the series’ eleven season run.

It is also at First Christian Church that Indiana Jones (aka Harrison Ford) marries Marion Ravenwood (aka Karen Allen) while Mutt Williams (aka Shia LaBeouf) looks on at the end of 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Shia LaBeouf returned to First Christian Church that very same year to film his character’s brother’s funeral scene for the movie Eagle Eye.

The church was also where Barbara Keeley (aka Calista Flockhart) married Val Goldman (aka Dan Futterman) at the end of the 1996 movie The Birdcage.

In What About Bob?, the church was where Bob Wiley (aka Bill Murray) tied the knot with Lily Marvin (aka Fran Brill).

The church was also the wedding location in the music video for Katy Perry’s hit song “Hot & Cold” –

– which you can watch by clicking above.

Most recently, the church appeared in the Season 6 opener of How I Met Your Mother, which was titled “Big Days” and which aired this past Monday evening.

The First Christian Church of North Hollywood was also used in the movies Death Becomes Her, Nothing to Lose, and The Suburbans, and in episodes of United States of Tara, Desperate Housewives, Parks and Recreation, Samantha Who?, Crossing Jordan, Swingtown, Hart to Hart, Ghost Whisperer, Gilmore Girls, and Melrose Place.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The First Christian Church of North Hollywood is located at 4390 Colfax Avenue in Studio City. You can visit the church’s official website here. The areas of the church used in the “Phyllis’ Wedding” episode of The Office are denoted above. Pam and Roy danced at the top of the church’s north-side stairwell, which is located on Moorpark Street and is marked with the blue arrow above. The windows where Dwight and Angela danced are located just below the stairwell and a few feet east, also on Moorpark Street. Michael’s courtyard is located on Colfax Avenue, in between the main church building and the nursery school, and is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view. The social hall, where Bob and Phyllis held their wedding reception, is located on the second floor of the nursery school building.

September 22, 2010