Tag: filming locations

The Chinese Foooood Drive-Through from “Dude, Where’s My Car?”

One location that I have been begging fellow stalker Chas to find for what seems like months now is the “Chinese Foooood” restaurant from the 2000 movie Dude, Where’s My Car? As I’ve mentioned in the past, Dude is one of my very favorite comedies and a few years back my best friend Robin and I pretty much spent every night of an entire two week period doing nothing but watching and re-watching the flick over and over again. We simply could not get enough of it!   Our absolute favorite scene, hands down, had to be the scene in which bonehead best friends Jesse Montgomery III (aka Ashton Kutcher) and Chester Greenburg (aka Seann William Scott) visit the drive-though window of a Chinese food restaurant only to find that the woman working there cannot stop saying the words, “And then? And then?   And then?” LOL LOVE IT! So, last week, when Chas told me that he was finally going to put his proverbial nose to the grindstone to try to track down the restaurant for me, I just about died of excitement. I had actually spent quite a bit of time looking for this location in the Pasadena area, as I was convinced it was located somewhere along the famous Colorado Boulevard. Turns out, I was searching a few miles too far to the east, though, as Chas later informed me.   Thankfully, early on in Chas’ quest, fellow stalker Gary, from fave website Seeing Stars, pointed him in the direction of this website written by an actor named Geoffrey Gould, who had actually worked as an extra in the Dude, Where’s My Car? Chinese food scene! Talk about serendipity! On his website, Geoffrey mentioned that the restaurant was located “at Victory near Hollywood Way” in Burbank. Well, Chas got to googling and found the drive-through almost immediately. YAY! So, this past weekend I dragged my fiancé out to finally, finally do some Chinese Foooood stalking!



In real life, the Chinese Foooood place is not actually a drive-through at all, but a tiny little restaurant named Steve’s Burgers.

And because Steve’s is a burger joint and not a Chinese food restaurant, it looks quite a bit different in person than how it was portrayed in the movie. Missing in real life, of course, is the Asian-inspired decor and Oriental-style flared roof that appeared in Dude, Where’s My Car?, all of which I am fairly certain were just decorations that were added for the filming. Despite the lack of Asian decor and a slight change in paint color, though, the restaurant is still VERY recognizable from the movie. And let me tell you, while it may sound silly, I could NOT have been more excited to be seeing the place in person!

And I was absolutely floored to discover that while Steve’s serves up mostly All-American fare, there were a few Chinese food items featured on the menu, as well! LOVE IT! For the record, Steve’s also serves a bit of Mexican food. It’s a whole smorgasbord of options!

And, as you can see in the above photograph and screen captures, the painted-on window signs that were featured in Dude are still there to this day – over an entire decade later – and still look pretty much exactly the same as they did in the movie! LOVE IT!

Unfortunately, Steve’s was already closed by the time we showed up to stalk the place so we couldn’t sample any of their food. 🙁 But I guess that just means I’ll have to re-stalk the place again sometime soon! 🙂

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The Dude, Where’s My Car? restaurant scenes were filmed both on the west side and in the back of Steve’s Burgers, the latter being where the fake drive-through menu and speaker box were added for the filming. As you can see in the above photographs, that drive-through area doesn’t actually exist. 🙁

Steve’s Burgers first shows up in the very beginning of Dude, Where’s My Car, in the scene in which Jesse and Chester visit a restaurant called “Chinese Foooood” for lunch. While Jesse is ordering, the woman working the drive-through window continually asks him, “And then? And then? And then?” to which he finally says, “AND THEN . . . I’m gonna come in there and I’m gonna put my foot in your a** if you say ‘and then’ again!” The Chinese Foooood lady of course responds with, “And then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then, and then?” LOL

Jesse then proceeds to absolutely destroy the drive-through box.

The restaurant later shows up towards the end of the flick in the scene in which Jesse and Chester drop the “Nordic Dudes” off at the Chinese Foooood place after telling them that the drive-through lady knows where the “Continuum Transfunctioner” can be found. I know, I know, the whole thing sounds pretty darn stupid, but trust me, it’s hilarious! You can watch the Chinese Foooood restaurant scene here.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Steve’s Burgers, aka the Chinese Foooood drive-through from Dude, Where’s My Car?, is located at 2320 West Victory Boulevard in Burbank. Steve’s is open Monday through Saturday, but is closed on Sundays.

February 18, 2010
Michael Jackson’s Former Condo

A few months back I read a fabulous book named Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story written by author J. Randy Taraborelli about the life and times of the King of Pop. I’ve mentioned the biography once before in a post I wrote back in September about the Jackson Family’s first L.A. area home. I actually stumbled upon the tome while browsing at a Barnes & Noble bookstore with my fiancé this past summer and once I picked it up, I literally could NOT put it down. I was so absorbed in the book, in fact, that hours later the Grim Cheaper practically had to drag me out of the store – only after agreeing to let me purchase a copy of it for myself, of course. 😉 Because Taraborelli and Michael were longtime friends, first meeting in 1970 at the tender ages of 14 and 11 respectively, the 765-page! book is written from a true insider’s point of view. The best part about the biography, though – well, at least in my opinion – is the fact that it doles out several addresses of places that the pop star called home during his far too brief life. One of those places is the three story condominium that MJ purchased in February of 1981 and lived in for a brief time while his family’s Hayvenhurst mansion was being remodeled. So, since my fiancé and I were in the area doing some Valley stalking two weekends ago, I just had to drag him right out to stalk the place.

Michael purchased the 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom condo, which measures 1,890 square feet, upon the suggestion of his long time lawyer John Branca, who thought it was time the 22-year old singer moved out on his own. The condo cost him $210,000 – $175,000 of which he paid in cash. According to Taraborelli, Michael’s mother, Katherine, footed the remainder of the tab, not because MJ didn’t have the extra $35,000, but because he wanted his mother to own a piece of property – or a piece of a piece of property in this case – apart from her husband Joe Jackson in case the two were ever to separate. Shortly after purchasing the condominium, Michael had a change of heart, though, and didn’t end up moving in. Taraborelli’s book quotes him as saying, “I just don’t feel it’s time for me to move away from home yet. If I moved out now, I’d die of loneliness. Most people who move out go to discos every night. They party every night. They invite friends over, and I don’t do any of those things.” Such a heartbreaking sentiment from someone who, at the time, was, professionally speaking, on top of the world. 🙁

A couple of years later, Michael took over ownership of his family’s Hayvenhurst estate and decided to completely raze the dwelling in order to rebuild a new, much more extravagant abode. Construction of the new mansion, which was Tudor in style, took a full two years to complete during which time Michael and a few of his siblings lived in the Encino condo. While there, Michael invited a journalist named Gerri Hirshey into his temporary home to conduct an interview. In the interview, which was published in the February 17, 1983 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine, MJ says to Gerri of his dwelling, “Not what you expected, huh?” And even though Gerri says that he goes on to explain that it is a only a temporary living situation and he “concedes that this is an unlikely spot for a young price of pop”, he would end up owning the place for the rest of his life. And he was right – the complex, which is called the Lindbrook, does not look at all like the kind of place one would expect to find the King of Pop residing in during the height of the “Thriller” years. Which is probably exactly why he chose it. That and the fact that the building is gated. From what I can tell, the complex, which was built in 1973 and is quite large, houses 81 different units. Supposedly Ice Cube even lived there at one time. You can see interior photographs of other units in the building here, here, and here. And here is a photograph taken in 1981 of Michael outside of his condo. Supposedly this absolutely adorable video of Michael dancing with television star Emmanuel Lewis was taken in the living room of the Encino condo, but I have not actually been able to verify that. Either way, the clip is definitely worth a look. 🙂 After Michael and his family moved back into the Hayvenhurst estate, the condo remained vacant with various Jackson family members occupying it intermittently throughout the years. At the time of his death, his sister LaToya’s name was also on the deed.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Michael Jackson’s former condo, the Lindbrook, is located at 5420 Lindley Avenue in Encino. MJ lived in Unit #9. Ice Cube supposedly lived in Unit #4 of the same building.

February 11, 2010
Cole’s Restaurant from “A Lot Like Love”

This past weekend I dragged my fiancé out to re-stalk Cole’s Restaurant, a location that I originally blogged about way back in May of 2008. I first learned about the old time watering hole while watching the DVD commentary for fave movie A Lot Like Love, during which one of the film’s directors mentions that the New York bar scene featured at the beginning of the flick wasn’t actually filmed on the East Coast at all, but at a historic little bar in Downtown Los Angeles named Cole’s. After doing a bit of online research I discovered that COUNTLESS movies had actually been filmed on location at the historic bar, so I, of course, immediately dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place. Sadly, though, upon arriving we were greeted by a sign announcing that the restaurant was closed for a massive renovation project. 🙁 And I have longed to stalk the place ever since. So, since we were in the area this past weekend, I begged my fiancé to make a little pit stop there and, since he was hungry at the time, he happily obliged. YAY!

Cole’s actually has a few other claims to fame besides being an oft-used filming location, including the fact that it is not only where the French Dip sandwich was first originated, but it is also the oldest continuously operating bar and restaurant in all of Los Angeles.

Cole’s, which was originally known as Cole’s P.E. Buffet, was first opened on December 8, 1908 by an entrepreneur named Harry Cole in what was once the main terminal of the Pacific Electric Building. That very same year, Cole’s main chef, a resourceful young man named Jack Garlinghouse, dipped the bread of a roast beef sandwich in Au Jus sauce in order to soften it for a customer who suffered from sore gums, and, thus, the French Dip sandwich was born. Those sandwiches, and the restaurant itself, became extremely popular with the hundreds of thousands of commuters who traveled through the Pacific Electric Building terminal each day. Twenty-five years later, in 1933, Cole’s was still such a popular spot that on the day California nixed its ban on beer, the bar served up over 19,000 gallons of the stuff to its parched customers. Yes, you read that right – 19,000 GALLONS in ONE day! That same year, Harry Cole’s son, Rawland, who was a bit of an entrepreneur himself, decided to start cashing checks out of the restaurant’s back room and wound up giving out over $1,000,000 each month (and we’re talking 1930’s money!), which was a larger amount than any U.S. bank was giving out during that same time! Cole’s has also had a longtime celebrity following, attracting such notables as Mickey Cohen who was a regular there during the 70’s and even had his own booth.

In 2007, Cole’s was purchased by a Los Angeles area development company named 213 who subsequently began a year-long, $1.6 million restoration process on the historic restaurant, during which its 40-foot long mahogany bar, porcelain penny tile mosaic flooring, and antique Tiffany glass lamps were all brought back to their original glory. The 213 company, which is headed by C.E.O. Cedd Moses, even added a “secret” bar in what was formerly Cole’s storage room. That secret bar is named “The Varnish” and it is so hidden, in fact, that I had absolutely no idea it was there until I read about it online after I got home. 🙁 For their restoration efforts of the legendary restaurant, 213 was awarded the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Preservation Award.

Cole’s specialty is, of course, its signature hand-carved, made-to-order French Dip sandwich which was originated on the premises one hundred and two years ago. There’s actually another L.A. area restaurant named Phillipe’s also laying claim to that exact same feat and the dispute between the two establishments is almost as old as the sandwich itself. But being that in 1974 the City of Los Angeles designated Cole’s a Historical Landmark Site and a State Point of Historical Interest not only due to its significant location, but also to its culinary invention, I think it’s safe to say that Cole’s has won that battle. 🙂 Cole’s French Dips can be constructed out of a variety of meats, including lamb, pastrami, turkey, and the typical roast beef. They can also be adorned with extra meat, Swiss, cheddar, goat, or blue cheeses, and an “atomic pickle spear”. I opted for a turkey French dip, sans the cheese and pickle, and I have to say it was absolutely A-MA-ZING! The meat truly was hand-carved, right-off-the-turkey-type turkey and I loved every last bite of it. What I loved more, though, was the historic aura of the place. It was incredible to be sitting there, dining on my French dip, thinking about the fact that the very sandwich I was now eating had actually been created on the premises over a century ago. Yes, I’ll take my meal with a side of history, please. 😉 I think it goes without saying that I ABSOLUTELY LOVED Cole’s and I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough!

In A Lot Like Love, Cole’s stood in for the New York bar where Oliver (aka Ashton Kutcher) and Emily (aka Amanda Peet) make a $50 bet that he won’t be a successful married businessman in six years time.

And I, of course, just had to eat lunch while sitting in the same spot where Ashton and Amanda sat in the flick. 🙂

The side booth area that is visible to the left of Ashton in the above screen capture is no longer a part of Cole’s. It was closed off during the restaurant’s recent remodel and is now a separately owned “secret” bar known as the Association. Yes, there are two secret bars located on the Cole’s premises!

The Association’s unmarked front door is pictured above.

In Jumpin’ Jack Flash – one of my all-time favorite movies EVER – Cole’s once again stood in for a New York bar, this time as the place where Terri Dolittle (aka Whoopi Goldberg) gets kidnapped by a man in a tow truck while making a telephone call from a public phone booth.

It is during this scene that Whoopi utters the infamous line “I am little black woman in a big silver box!” LOL

Towards the end of the movie, Whoopi once again runs by the restaurant on her way back to her office after escaping from the police. Cole’s is also talked about throughout the flick as the place where Whoopi and her pals hang out after work. Ironically enough, back before my very first trip to the Big Apple, I spent HOURS using Google Street View to search New York for this location. It wasn’t until years later, when I stalked Cole’s the first time after watching A Lot Like Love, that realized my mistake. I can’t believe I wasted so much time scouring New York for this location, when the whole time it was literally right in my own backyard! 😉

In Rumor Has It, Cole’s stands in for the San Francisco bar named the Fillmore Pub, where Kevin Costner and my girl Jen Aniston share a dance. Ironically enough, before I knew about Cole’s, I actually spent quite a bit of time searching the San Francisco area for this spot! Which means – you guessed it! – that I not only wasted countless hours searching for this location – not realizing it was the same place featured in Jumpin’ Jack Flash – in New York, but in San Francisco, too. LOL Man, I’m such a blonde sometimes!

The scene where Kevin and Jen kiss outside of the ladies’ room after their dance was really filmed in the bathroom area of Cole’s, as well.

The exterior of the restaurant was also used in the filming of the scene, although they changed the signage to read “Fillmore Pub”. As you can see in the above photograph (which was taken during my first Cole’s stalk) and screen capture, though, the signage used in the movie is an exact match to Cole’s real life signage. Love it!

In Forrest Gump, Cole’s yet again stood in for a New York watering hole. It was used as the spot where Forrest and Lieutenant Dan spend New Year’s Eve of 1971. Sadly, though, not much of the bar is visible in that scene.

On a side note – Located directly across the street from Cole’s is a little place named J &J Sandwich Shop, which is the restaurant which stood in for the Night Owl Cafe in fave movie L.A. Confidential.

And located directly above Cole’s is the ninth floor window from which Bud White (aka Russell Crowe) hung D.A. Ellis Loew (aka Ron Rifkin) in the same movie.

Cole’s has also appeared in an episode of The X-Files, in numerous episodes of both Mad Men and NYPD Blue, and it flashed by very briefly in the 1991 movie Guilty By Suspicion. And, according to legend, the Terminal Bar from 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which was in actuality just a set, was based on Cole’s.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Cole’s is located at 118 East Sixth Street in Downtown Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.

February 10, 2010
The “Hangover” House

A few weeks ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called me up to let me know that he was on the hunt for the main house used in fave movie The Hangover. The two of us both had a pretty good inkling that the residence was located somewhere in the Pasadena area, we just weren’t sure exactly where. Randomly enough during that same conversation, I happened to mention that I had just read on OnLocationVacations – my go-to-stalking guide 🙂 – that 90210 had been filming all week at a large gated home located at 465 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena. Well, it wasn’t five minutes after we ended our call that Mike phoned me up a second time, extremely excited, and said “I found The Hangover house and you’ll NEVER guess where it is!” As it turns out, the house was located just two doors down from the residence where 90210 had been filming! Apparently, while looking at aerial images of the 90210 location, Mike noticed a neighboring property that bore a striking resemblance to the Hangover house. Turns out, it was the Hangover house! 🙂 So, I guess it’s true what Walt Disney once said . . . It really is a small world, after all! Well, when it comes to filming locations, at least. 🙂 So, that same weekend, Mike drove out to meet me in Pasadena so the two of us could do a little Hangover stalking.

In The Hangover, the house pictured above belongs to the parents of Doug’s (aka Justin Bartha’s) fiancé, Tracy (aka Sasha Barrese). The residence is featured several times throughout the film. It first shows up at the very beginning of the movie as the spot from which Doug and his soon to be brother-in-law Alan (aka Zach Galifianakis) leave for the infamous Vegas bachelor party.

And, as you can see in the above screen capture and aerial image, the real life backyard, which is absolutely HUGE, was used in several scenes as well, including the scene in which Phil (aka Bradley Cooper) calls Tracy, while she is sunning herself by the pool, to let her know that the guys have been unavoidably detained in Vegas an extra day.

The movie’s final wedding scene also took place in the home’s real life backyard.

As you can see in the above aerial image, the house has a fairly large covered back porch area. That porch is where Stu (aka Ed Helms) finally breaks up with his belligerent girlfriend Melissa (aka Rachel Harris) while Alan and the rest of the wedding party look on. I am also fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was used in the filming of several scenes, as well.

The Hangover house is absolutely beautiful in person. Although, thanks to its size, calling it a “house” is actually a bit of a misnomer. The place is really more of a mansion. It is absolutely HUGE in person, much bigger than I expected it to be. Even though it did appear quite large in The Hangover, trust me when I say that in real life it is far, far larger – gargantuan actually! I can’t even imagine living there. The 7 bedroom, 7 bathroom house, which was built in 1930, measures a whopping 7,892 square feet. And while the property is gated, I am happy to report that quite a bit of it can be seen from the street. 🙂

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The house from The Hangover is located at 415 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena.

February 9, 2010
April’s House from “Glee”

As I have mentioned countless times before, I am absolutely, irrevocably, one hundred percent obsessed with the television show Glee. So obsessed that I’ve been watching my “Road to Sectionals” DVDs over and over and over again to bide my time until the series returns from its absurdly long hiatus on April 13th – which still seems like such a far off date. I honestly don’t know how I am supposed to wait another 65 days before getting my Glee fix. Why, oh, why are you holding out on us Fox? But I digress. As you’ve probably ascertained by now, I literally cannot get enough of the show! So, imagine my absolute – pardon the pun – glee when I stumbled upon the house where April Rhodes (aka Kristin Chenowith) was caught squatting in the Season One, Volume 1 episode entitled “The Rhodes Not Taken”. I happened to be doing be some cyberstalking of the Encino area at the time – looking for a Beverly Hills, 90210 location, no less – and randomly happened upon the Glee house. And, let me tell you, I just about died from excitement! And, since my fiancé and I were already in the area last weekend enjoying our little “staycation” at the Westlake Village Inn, I just had to drag him out to stalk the place. YAY!

In “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode, Will Schuester (aka cutie Matthew Morrison) decides to reenlist former Glee club star April Rhodes at William McKinley High School so that she can join his glee team and lead them to glory at the upcoming sectionals competition. He tracks down April, whom he hasn’t spoken with in years, via a Google search and ends up sending her an instant message asking if she remembers him from their high school days. She immediately responds with an address where he should meet her along with an instruction to bring buffalo wings. LOL

That address is 35 Bontempo Road in Lima, Ohio and producers even went so far as to put a fake address placard on the front of the house for the filming. As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, though, the fake address sign is an exact match to the home’s real one. 🙂 In reality, of course, April’s home is not located on Bontempo Road in Ohio, but about 2,000 miles west on White Oak Avenue in Encino. I swear, it’s a good thing I accidentally stumbled upon this location, otherwise I never would have found it in a million years! When I first watched “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode, actually, I had wrongly assumed the property was located in Pasadena, so my search would have been way off!

While Will is visiting with April inside the home, a real estate agent barges in and informs him that April is a squatter who been residing in foreclosed-upon, bank-owned properties as of late. And, as you can see in these photographs from a 2007 real estate listing, the home’s real life interior and real life furniture were used for the filming of that scene. So cool!

After being booted out of the house, Will and April – and her box of wine LOL – then head outside and have a conversation on the sidewalk, whereupon he convinces her to return to high school to finally graduate – and to join glee, of course.

While stalking the house, I just had to take a picture while sitting in the same spot where Will and April were sitting in that scene. 🙂 I guess my memory was a little off on this one, though, as I wound up taking the picture about four feet too far to the left. Whoopsie!

In reality, April’s house is a 6 bedroom, 7 bathroom dwelling, which was built in 2001 and measures a whopping 7,280 square feet. It boasts maid’s quarters, a central vacuum system, a second family room located upstairs, Viking appliances, and a 400 square foot back patio with a built-in BBQ, fire pit, fireplace, and a large pool and spa. It looks like a pretty plush pad – no wonder April was squatting there. 😉

On a Matthew Morrison side note – I just recently re-watched the Sex and the City episode from Season Two that he guested on back in June of 1999. The episode was entitled “They Shoot Single People, Don’t They?” and Matthew played a very young busboy who waits on Carrie in the final scene. His sole line in the episode is “Waiting for someone?” The spot was Matthew’s first ever television appearance and he was so very young in it and oh so darn cute. 🙂 Sigh!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The house where April Rhodes’ was caught squatting in “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee is located at 4777 White Oak Avenue in Encino.

February 8, 2010
The Westlake Village Inn

This past weekend, my fiancé and I decided to take a little “staycation” at a hotel named the Westlake Village Inn located about thirty miles away from where we live. I had read about the hotel while doing some cyberstalking a few weeks beforehand and because it was touted as a frequent filming location was absolutely dying to stay there. The Inn also looked like the perfect spot for a romantic weekend getaway and, thankfully, in person, it did not disappoint. The 17-acre hotel, which was originally named the “Westlake Motor Lodge”, was first opened in 1968 by Swiss born developer John L. Notter and consisted of 75 simple rooms. Today, the property, which was remodeled last year, is made up of seven different buildings which are comprised of 141 European-style hotel rooms, no two of which are exactly alike, and beautiful manicured grounds. Besides being a frequent filming locale, the Inn has also long enjoyed a rich celebrity following. Just a few of its famous past guests include Arnold Palmer, Hulk Hogan, Sean Connery, Tiger Woods, Julio Iglesias, and politicians Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, Nancy Reagan, and Ronald Reagan, who was a regular. The hotel even created a Ronald Reagan Suite at the behest of the nearby Reagan Library. The suite, which is decorated with the late president’s photographs and memorabilia, is available to all guests, but was created especially for visiting political dignitaries and even features a special adjoining room for secret service agents to stay in.



One of the most exceptional aspects of the Westlake Village Inn is its extremely reasonable room rates – according to Notter the hotel is underpriced by about twenty percent. Because Notter has owned the Inn for over 42 years, his debt is fairly small and he can therefore keep the rates substantially lower than his competitors. And thanks to those low rates, I was able to book one of the hotel’s 400 square foot “Business Suites” at a cost of only $150.00. Even the Grim Cheaper was amenable to staying in a suite at that low price. 🙂

Our room, which I absolutely LOVED, featured a sitting area,

a king size bed,

a fireplace,

a HUGE bathroom (with a TV!), and a private patio.

My fiancé and I spent quite a bit of time walking the manicured grounds of the hotel, which are truly beautiful with trellis-covered walkways;

landscaped courtyards;

rock waterfalls;

and large ponds.



The pool area, with its covered cabanas, is also extremely inviting, but unfortunately it was far too cold in Westlake last weekend – about 50 degrees Fahrenheit – to take a dip. 🙁   I was so tempted, though!

Upon checking into the hotel, the lobby of which is pictured above, I was asked to sign an agreement stipulating that I would not be throwing a party in my room that night. Being that I’ve never had to sign such an agreement, I found it a bit of an odd request, but didn’t think much of it . . . until about 2 o’clock the following morning, when the people above us returned to their room and screamed out “THE PARTY’S HERE!” I called the office to complain, but, unfortunately, it didn’t seem to do a whole lot of good as the noise continued until about 5am. It wasn’t just the people above us, either. Outside our patio, another group seemed to having a party, as did even another group still that was located a bit farther away. Come 2am, it seems, the place turns into one big party. The hotel is actually a very popular wedding facility and no less than three ceremonies were being held on the grounds during our stay. Weddings at the Inn have to conclude by 10pm due to noise restrictions, but there is also a bar/nightclub on the property named Bogies, which doesn’t close until 2. So, I am fairly certain that come 10 pm, wedding parties simply move from the reception areas over to Bogies to get their groove on. Then once Bogie’s shuts down for the night, groups move back to their hotel rooms to continue the party there. Being that I had to sign the “no parties” contract, I am guessing that what I experienced is a fairly common problem at the Westlake Village Inn. And, unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if they’ve figured out quite how to deal with it. So, while we had a nice time there and absolutely loved our room, I wouldn’t exactly recommend the place as a good spot for a quiet weekend getaway. 🙁

The Westlake Village Inn staff truly could NOT have been nicer to us, though, especially one of the front desk employees who answered all of my silly questions about the filming that has taken place there over the years. And, let me tell you, there’s been quite a bit of it. The Inn popped up in the Season Three episode of Desperate Housewives entitled “A Weekend In The Country” as the hotel where Gaby runs into her former lover John. The area used in that scene is the covered pathway located directly across from the hotel’s main entrance. The hotel room and elevator area where Gaby hides in a suitcase in that episode were filmed elsewhere, though.

Both the hotel’s pool . . .

. . . and its two story, 1,500 square foot “Villa Suite” were also used in that same episode during the scene in which Orson is daydreaming about his upcoming honeymoon with Bree. According to the hotel employee I talked to, another episode of Desperate Housewives was also filmed on location at the Inn. The episode consisted of one of the ladies kicking her husband out of their house, whereupon he checks into the Westlake Village Inn. Unfortunately I can’t figure out which episode that was, though. Does anyone out there remember it?

In the movie XXX, the hotel stood in for the Capital Country Club where Vin Diesel steals a member’s Corvette and then proceeds to drive it through a tiny covered walkway. XXX was filmed before the hotel’s recent remodel, though, so, as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, the valet area looks a bit different today.

And according to the employee I talked to, a real life Corvette was actually driven down the walkway pictured above during the filming of that scene. Amazing!

The employee also said that producers brought in a new valet desk for that scene – even though said desk was only visible for a split second – and the hotel ended up keeping it and is still using it today. 🙂 So cool!

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The hotel was also used for a large car crash scene in an episode of the television series Eli Stone.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Westlake Village Inn is located at 31943 Agoura Road in Westlake Village. You can visit their website here.

February 5, 2010
Brenda and Dylan’s Palm Springs Hotel from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

Another Beverly Hills, 90210 location that I stalked recently was the Hyatt Westlake Plaza which stood in for both Brenda’s hotel – the Desert Palm Mirage – and Dylan’s hotel – the Desert Mirage – in the Season One episode entitled “A Fling in Palm Springs” (aka “Palm Springs Weekend”). Why that particular episode has two different names I’m not entirely sure, but I digress. I found this location thanks to Geoff over at 90210 Locations who posted the address a few weeks back. The “Palm Springs Weekend” episode has always been one of my favorites (mostly due to the charades game played at the end during which Dylan points to Brenda to convey the movie Pretty Woman to the rest of the gang – SO CUTE!), so when I saw that Geoff had tracked down the hotel featured in it, I just about started screaming. I had literally wanted to stalk that location for as long as I can remember. So, I immediately dragged my fiancé right out to the Valley to do some long overdue “Palm Springs” stalking, Beverly Hills, 90210-style.

And while the exterior of the Hyatt Westlake Plaza looks EXACTLY the same today as it did when 90210 was filmed there over 18 years ago,



sadly the interior has been extensively remodeled in recent years and looks quite a bit different today.

In the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode, Kelly and Donna mistakenly drop Brenda off at the Desert Palm Mirage hotel to meet Dylan for a romantic rendezvous, but as fate would have it Dylan is actually staying at the similarly named Desert Mirage hotel. And because Brenda has misplaced her wallet and can’t get ahold of Kelly or Dylan (how did people ever survive without cell phones???), she is forced to spend the night on a cot in the hotel’s broom closet. God, I miss 90210! The areas used in the episode include the main entrance;

the front desk,

and the pay phone station, which is now an Enterprise Rent-A-Car office. As you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, the interior of the hotel is virtually unrecognizable from the episode. 🙁

But I did manage to dig up a few old pictures of the hotel from the Here Comes the Guide website (YAY!) and as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, the former front desk matches the one that appeared on 90210 exactly.



Another thing I noticed while looking at old photographs of the hotel was that up until the recent remodel, a piece of furniture seen in the background of the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode was still on display in the Hyatt’s lobby. So cool! If only I had stalked this place two years ago! UGH! 🙁 You can take a virtual tour of the former lobby area here.

Later on in the episode, Brenda shows up at Dylan’s hotel only to find him hanging out with a random girl named Janie. The Hyatt Westlake Plaza also stood in for Dylan’s hotel in the episode.

After catching him with Janie, Brenda has a minor meltdown (during which she actually screams “Bogus!” LOL) in front of the Hyatt’s elevators, which I am happy to report look EXACTLY the same today as they did on 90210. 🙂 So darn cool!



And while I didn’t recognize much of the Hyatt Westlake Plaza from the “Palm Springs Weekend” episode of 90210, what I did recognize it from – pretty much immediately upon entering – was another television series – ABC’s The Bachelor!   As it turns out, the Hyatt Westlake Plaza is the very hotel where the contestants are put up for a few days pre-show before they move into the mansion. And, in this particular season’s opener, quite a bit of filming was done on location at the Hyatt. The areas used in that episode include the inside of several of the girls’ hotel rooms;



the lobby;

and the main entrance. And according to the February 1st issue of US Magazine, part of the alleged affair between booted contestant Rozlyn Papa and former Bachelor producer Ryan Callahan took place at the hotel where the girls were staying pre-show – which we now know is the Hyatt Westlake Plaza. 🙂 The Bachelor is FABULOUS this season, by the way, and as always I am ABSOLUTELY addicted to Reality Steve’s coverage of it. 🙂 If you’re not watching, you really should be!

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Big THANK YOU to Geoff over at 90210 locations for finding this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hyatt Westlake Plaza is located at 880 South Westlake Boulevard in Westlake Village. You can visit their website here.

February 4, 2010
The Walsh Family’s Minnesota House from “Beverly Hills, 90210”

One Beverly Hills, 90210 location that both Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I have long wanted to stalk was the Walsh Family’s former Minnesota residence which briefly appeared in the Season Four episode entitled “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye”. Sadly, though, because no address number or background information which would point us to the home’s location were visible in the episode, we had no idea where to even begin looking. So, this past week I called upon the usual suspects, fellow stalkers Owen and Chas, to help us track down the residence. And sure enough, they did! Chas ended up getting into contact with a former 90210 crew member who remembered that the home was located somewhere in Altadena, in the very same vicinity as Casa Walsh. So, Owen got to cyberstalking aerial views of the area and, voila, fairly quickly found the home! YAY! As it turns out, the “Minnesota” house is located a mere two blocks away from Casa Walsh, so it looks like when the Walsh’s moved, they didn’t go very far. 😉 And, let me tell you, once Owen gave me the address, I immediately hopped into my car and dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place! As fate would have it, when we pulled up to the house, the owner – an incredibly nice woman named Judy – just happened to be standing outside, so I of course had to strike up a conversation with her. 🙂



Judy truly could not have been nicer and did not find it at all weird that I was stalking her home. 😉 She even shared some interesting tidbits of behind-the-scenes information with us, the most exciting of which was the fact that not only did her home appear in the “So Long, Farewell” episode of 90210, but also in the opening credits of the Season One episode entitled “The Green Room” – which you can watch here.   In the credits, the house is featured in one brief scene in which a mailman is shown picking up the Walsh’s forwarded mail from their snow covered former home in Minnesota. For some reason, though, that particular segment appeared only in “The Green Room” episode’s opening credits and never again. It’s too bad, too, because I think it would have been a really cute way to start off each show. Judy told us that it was about 105 degrees in Altadena on the day that scene was filmed and that the producers were having a hard time keeping the “snow” – which in reality was just a soap suds mixture – from evaporating in the heat.

In the “So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye” episode, Brenda returns to Minneapolis for the first time since her family’s move to Beverly Hills in order to begin her Freshman Year at the University of Minnesota. Before school starts, Cindy takes Brenda to see their former home and she knocks on the front door, hoping to take a peek at her old bedroom, but unfortunately no one is home. Is it while standing in the front yard of her former home, though, that Brenda first starts to have doubts about attending college in Minnesota. Those doubts soon turn into all out misgivings and in the following episode she leaves Minnesota and heads back to Beverly Hills to attend CU with Brandon, Kelly, and the rest of the gang. 🙂

In the scene, Brenda mentions that as kids she and Brandon used to play on a tire swing that their father had hung from a tree in their former home’s front yard. So, I was absolutely floored when I noticed that the house had a swing hanging from a tree in the front yard in real life, too, as you can see in the above photograph. So cool!

Judy also told us that for the past eight years her family has hosted a huge – and I do mean HUGE – annual Halloween spectacular in their front yard, consisting of a 40 foot maze, creepy clowns, life-size animatronics, monsters with chainsaws, and screenings of horror movies, along with numerous other tricks and treats to both terrorize and delight. Judy’s a woman after my own heart, I swear, as Halloween has always been my very favorite holiday. 🙂   The “Haunted Yard”, as it has come to be known, attracted some 3,500 spectators this past year, including the Los Angeles Clippers Cheerleading Team who led the entire crowd in a spontaneous rendition of Michael Jackson’s zombie dance from Thriller. Which begs the question, HOW IN THE HECK DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS????   I mean, I would have absolutely DIED to have seen that!!!!   And it was all happening just a few miles from where I live! Oh, how I wish I had been there. 🙁 Ugh. Maybe I can convince the Clippers to do a repeat performance next Halloween! 😉 You can read more about the annual “Haunted Yard” on fave website AltadenaBlog here.

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A big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, and Chas for finding this house. This one was definitely a group effort! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Walsh Family’s Minnesota house from Beverly Hills, 90210 is located at 1640 Braeburn Road in Altadena.

February 3, 2010
The Standard Hotel Rooftop Bar in Downtown Los Angeles

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



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

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

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

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



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



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



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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

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

February 2, 2010
The “Fracture” House

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





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

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

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



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

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

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

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

February 1, 2010