Tag: filming locations

The Searching For Bobby Fischer Chess Park

One location that I have been wanting to stalk for years now is the park where child prodigy Josh Waitzkin (aka Max Pomeranc) and Vinnie (aka Laurence Fishburne) played chess in the 1993 movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. I actually thought I had found this location in Central Park during my very first trip to the Big Apple six years ago, but upon closer inspection after arriving home, realized I had stalked the wrong outdoor chess park. LOL It turns out that New York has quite a few of them. Then last year, thanks to fave New York stalking book Manhattan On Film: Walking Tours of Hollywood’s Fabled Front Lot, I finally found the right spot! And I was shocked to discover that Chess Table Alley, as it is more commonly known, is actually located in Washington Square Park, a place that I had visited numerous times on my many trips to New York! Ugh! I can be such an airhead sometimes! LOL

Not only has Searching for Bobby Fischer long been one of my family’s favorite movies, but chess has also long been one of our favorite games. I can’t say that any of us are especially good at it, but we love to play nonetheless. So, in 1993 when a film based on the life of real life child chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin premiered, you can bet we were some of the first in line to see it. Ever since that day, I’ve wanted to see, in person, the outdoor chess tables where Josh first perfected his game. And, during last years trip to New York, I finally got to do just that! Thanks to the movie, I had visions dancing in my head of the park being occupied by hundreds of chess geniuses hunkered over the cement tables, furiously punching timers and screaming out “Check mate!” to their opponents, but, in actuality, that’s not really the case.

When we got to Chess Table Alley, the tables were surprisingly empty – probably due to the fact that it was about three degrees below zero outside – and the place was startlingly quiet. LOL There honestly wasn’t a soul to be found or a chess player in sight! Nevertheless, it was still extremely exciting to be stalking the outdoor chess park. And, I am happy to report that it still looks very much the same in person as it did in the movie. The name “Chess Table Alley” is something of a misnomer, though. The outdoor chess park is actually set up in the shape of a semi-circle, not an alley, and, unfortunately, because of the way it is situated, I wasn’t able to snap a great photograph of the entire thing. But you can get an idea of what it looks like in the picture above.

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According to Wikipedia, not only did Stanley Kubrick play on the outdoor tables as a child, but Chess Table Alley was also featured in the 2002 movie Bad Company starring Chris Rock.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Searching for Bobby Fischer chess park, aka Chess Table Alley, is located in the Southwest corner of Washington Square Park, off MacDougal and West 4th Streets, in New York’s Greenwich Village.

October 6, 2009
The First Wives Club Building

Amazingly enough, I still have a long list of New York filming locations that I have yet to blog about from last year’s trip to the Big Apple. One of those locations is the Fifth Avenue building where Dan Hedaya lived with his trashy trophy-girlfriend Sarah Jessica Parker in fave movie The First Wives Club. Now, I know The First Wives Club is a fairly old movie – it premiered over 13 years ago – but it happens to be one of my all time favorites. It is one of those rare flicks that, if I happen to catch on TV, no matter where I am or what I am doing, I HAVE to stop and watch the whole thing. I just never, ever get tired of it! Especially the scene when Goldie Hawn storms into her cheating estranged husband’s office, slams two quarters down on his desk and says “As per our agreement, I sold our assets to a friend of mine. Here’s your half. Considering our history together, I thought a dollar was terribly fair.” At her ex’s stunned expression, Goldie shrugs, says, “Oh, alright! Take it all!” and slams the other two quarters down on his desk. LOL LOL LOL Anyway, when I found a location from the movie in a stalking book I picked up for last year’s NYC trip called Manhattan on Film: Walking Tours Of Hollywood’s Fabled Front Lot, I just had to drag my boyfriend right out to stalk it.

The Fifth Avenue building was actually featured in only one scene in the movie – the brief, but memorable window washing scene. In The First Wives Club, spurned first wives Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, and Goldie Hawn connive to get even with their estranged ex-husbands, all of whom have recently left them for younger women. Bette Midler’s husband, played by Clueless’ Dan Hedaya, and his new mistress, played by none other than a pre-Sex and the City Sarah Jessica Parker, live in the upscale Fifth Avenue co-op with the horrendously ugly staircase pictured above. In order to steal some potentially damaging business files, Bette, Diane, and Goldie scam their way into the apartment and ransack the place while Dan and SJP are away.

Completely oblivious to the breaking and entering scheme that is taking place in their apartment, the two return home earlier than expected and almost catch the first wives in the act.

At that point, the trio’s only means of escape is an abandoned window washing scaffolding machine located just outside of Dan and SJP’s apartment.

But, of course, the scaffolding malfunctions while the women are on it and they are plummeted down towards Fifth Avenue, stopping safely mere seconds before colliding with the pavement. LOL

Before hitting the ground, though, the scaffolding stops at the window of an apartment building, where the residents notice that standing in front of them is none other than Academy-award winning actress Elise Richard, played by Goldie Hawn in the film.

The couple yell out to her “You look GREAT, Elise!” and even with imminent danger pending, Elise gets a huge smile on her face and yells out “Thanks!”. LOL God, I love that movie!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The window washing building from The First Wives Club is located at 1056 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

October 5, 2009
Lila’s Apartment Building on Dexter

A few months ago, my fiancé and I started watching the Showtime television series Dexter and I have to say that it didn’t take very long for the two of us to become completely and totally obsessed with it. So, as I’m sure you can probably imagine, I’ve also become pretty obsessed lately with the Seeing Stars website page that catalogs the many filming locations featured on the show. In fact, I can’t even watch an episode of Dexter now without having my laptop next to me and open to the site! LOL Anyway, after my fiancé and I had finished watching the series’ second season, I was absolutely dying to stalk the apartment building belonging to Dexter’s psychopathic girlfriend Lila Tournay on the show. And, while I actually could NOT stand the character of Lila, I absolutely loved her loft-style apartment, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to stalk it. But that’s not actually the whole story. The biggest reason that I wanted to stalk it is that it was actually thanks to Lila’s building that fellow stalker Chas was able to locate the Girls Just Want to Have Fun apartment for me. Apparently, Gary from Seeing Stars was having a hard time tracking down Lila’s building, so he enlisted the help of master stalker Chas in his hunt. And while Lila’s building and the GJWTHF building don’t look all that much alike, they do both have central courtyards and are both made out of brick. So, during his search for Gary, Chas came across the GJWTHF apartment and took a close look at it. And, while he quickly realized that it wasn’t the Dexter building, he remembered it later when I mentioned my GJWTHF quest. And the rest, as they say, is history! If it hadn’t been for Dexter, it’s quite possible Chas never would have found the GJWTHF apartment, and because of that, Lila’s building will always hold a VERY special place in my heart. 🙂

The exterior of Lila’s apartment building was shown repeatedly throughout Dexter’s second season, beginning with the episode entitled “Dex, Lies, and Videotape”, and I am very happy to report that it looks exactly the same in person as it did on the show. Well, sort of!

As it turns out, the view of the building shown on Dexter is not actually the view of the building that is visible from the street. The view featured on the show is actually the building’s side entrance, which can only be reached via a gated parking lot located just East of the complex. You can compare the view shown on Dexter to the street view of the building in the screen capture and photograph pictured above. As you can see, they look nothing alike.

But if you go around to the East side of the building, you’ll see the entrance that was shown on Dexter, looking much the same as it did in the series. 🙂

Sadly, though, that entrance is located behind a locked gate and is not accessible to the public. But as it turns out, when Chas stalked the building back in February of this year, the stalking gods were smiling down on him because he was actually invited onto the property! 🙂 As fate would have it, when Chas first showed up to stalk Lila’s place, a gentleman happened to be outside painting the gate and when he noticed Chas snapping photographs, he, of course, asked why. When Chas explained that the building was featured on Dexter, a show which the painter had never heard of LOL, he opened the gate and allowed Chas to step inside to get some better photographs. YAY! You can see Chas’ pictures here.

And while the interior of Lila’s apartment was actually filmed on a soundstage at Sunset Gower Studios and not at this location, as you can see in the sign pictured above, the building is actually made up of loft-style apartments just like Lila’s. 🙂

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Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Lila’s apartment building from the television series Dexter is located at 6201 Yucca Street in Hollywood.

September 30, 2009
Kendra Wilkinson’s House

A few months back, fellow stalker Ashley challenged me to find the home belonging to Kendra Wilkinson and Hank Baskett on the E! television series Kendra. And while I did actually spend quite a bit of time looking for this location, for some reason I just couldn’t seem to track it down. I do have to admit, though, that because I am not the biggest of Kendra Wilkinson fans – her laugh is pretty much like nails on a chalkboard to me! – I gave up on finding this location rather quickly. But thankfully, Ashley kept on the case and, just last week, posted a comment on my site letting me know that she had finally found the house! Thank you, Ashley! 🙂 So, this past Friday, while doing some stalking in the Valley, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stopped by Kendra and Hank’s house to snap some pics.

This house first showed up in the Season 5 episode of The Girls Next Door entitled “Transitions Part I”, in which Kendra, accompanied by Hef’s other two girlfriends Bridget Marquardt and Holly Madison, tours various houses for sale in the L.A. area. Kendra ends up purchasing the brick Colonial-style home pictured above and shortly thereafter moves out of the Playboy Mansion to begin a new life – and a new reality series – on her own. The house was then featured weekly on Kendra’s self-titled reality show and it wasn’t long before boyfriend Hank Baskett moved in. Sadly, though, Kendra and Hank moved out of the house this past July and relocated to the New Jersey area, so it will actually not be featured in upcoming episodes of the series.

While Mike and I were stalking the house on Friday, we spotted several empty moving boxes propped up near the trash cans and also heard dogs barking in the backyard, so it seemed as if someone new had moved into Kendra’s old pad. But, according to the home’s real estate website which was just updated on September 24th, the five bedroom, six bath home, which measures 4,900 square feet, is currently vacant and available for rent at the bargain price of $6,000 per month. The website also mentions that the house is, of course, available for filming, as well. 🙂

While there I just had to take a picture of the home’s mailbox, which was featured prominently in the Season 1 episode of Kendra entitled “Preggers Can’t Be Choosers”. In the episode, Kendra and Hank are shown attempting to mail out their wedding invitations, which they soon discover are too large to fit in their mailbox.

Kendra’s solution? Leave the entire box of invitations on the ground next to the mailbox, along with a note addressed to the postman saying “Please take and send all invitations.” She then walks back into the house telling Hank, “I hope no one steals them.” LOL LOL LOL

Big THANK YOU to Ashley for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kendra Wilkinson and Hank Baskett’s former home is located at 6014 Greenbush Avenue in Van Nuys.

September 29, 2009
Lou Ferrigno’s I Love You, Man House

Another location from fave movie I Love You, Man that I have been absolutely dying to stalk is the ultra modern, ultra large manse that belonged to Lou Ferrigno in the flick. As always, I enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen in tracking this location down. Ironically enough, though, around that same time, fellow stalker Ashley was visiting the L.A. area and just happened to notice the Ferrigno house in the distance while driving on Fairfax Avenue. She had yet to see I Love You, Man, but because the house was so unique looking, asked her boyfriend to snap a quick picture of it. Well, you can imagine her surprise a few days later, when, while watching the in-flight movie on the way home, which, as luck would have it just happened to be I Love You, Man, she recognized the Lou Ferrigno house as the one she had admired from a distance just a few days prior. So, Ashley immediately emailed me as soon as she got home to let me know of the home’s location. Well, literally that SAME day, I got an email from Owen letting me know that he had also found the house! LOL I guess this was one location that I was really meant to stalk! 🙂

The Lou Ferrigno house shows up a few times in the movie, most notably as the site of the infamous “Open House” scene in I Love You, Man, in which Jason Segel calls out a man not only for attending the event for the sole purpose of impressing a girl, but also for farting while there! LOL When the perpetrator leaves the house he says, “You know what, guy, I like it, but I’m thinking it might be a little bit small.” To which Jason Segel says, “Totally, and it smells like fart.” LOL LOL LOL

Quite a bit of the Lou Ferrigno house was used in I Love You, Man, including the exterior,

the back patio,

the living room,

and the entryway, which, as you can see in these interior photographs of the house, all look exactly the same in real life as they did in the movie.

Ostensibly missing in real life, though, are the Lou Ferrigno statue, artwork, and memorabilia. 😉

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The Lou Ferrigno house, which, of course, does not actually belong to the Hulk star in real life, is no stranger to celebrity. There are rumblings online that the 6 bedroom, 8 bathroom, 9,204 square foot home which sits on over an acre of land has been owned by both Merv Griffin and the Sony Company in the past. I don’t know if that information is true or not, but the house has been the site of some very fashionable Hollywood parties, including one in 2005 for the exclusive New York/London Club the SoHo House and another for the Entertainment Group “House of Hype”.

Sadly, as you can see in the above photograph, besides the large front gate, not much of the house is visible from the street.

But you can catch some great views of it if you head up Hercules Drive . . .

. . . or down Laurel Canyon Boulevard. (Please excuse the power lines! LOL)

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Big THANK YOU to both Owen and Ashley for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Lou Ferrigno’s house from I Love You, Man is located at 1 Electra Court in the Mt. Olympus area of the Hollywood Hills.

September 28, 2009
The Other 17 Again House

After stalking Zac Efron’s house from the movie 17 Again, I set my sights on finding the home belonging to his zany, long time best friend Ned Gold in the flick. In the movie, Ned, who has made an absolute fortune inventing various software programs, lives in an ultra-modern, ultra-posh pad somewhere high up in the hills above Los Angeles. And I absolutely fell in love with his house the moment I saw it. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not usually a huge fan of modern-style architecture, but, for some reason, as of late it really seems to be growing on me. Since Ned’s house was proving to be somewhat of a difficult find, I had to yet again enlist the help of fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen and Chas. Because we knew that the address number of Zac Efron’s 17 Again house had been changed for the filming, we had a feeling that the address of Ned’s house (which was shown to be 6355) was also a fake. So, we definitely had our work cut out for us on this one.

According to the movie’s production notes, Ned Gold’s house was located “in the hills near Griffith Park”, but exactly where we couldn’t be sure. Thankfully, though, while looking at the above screen capture I had sent him, Owen noticed that a street sign was visible in the distance. But because neither one of us could make out what the sign said, Owen suggested renting 17 Again on Blu-ray DVD to see if it would give us a clearer picture. And sure enough, it did! The street sign in the distance read “Los Encantos Way” – and from there it was simply a matter of using Google Maps Street View to look at houses located near Los Encantos Way in Los Feliz. And it wasn’t long before I had found the house. So, of course, I immediately ran right out to stalk it! 🙂

I am very happy to report that the 17 Again house looks exactly the same in person as it did in the movie – despite just a few minor changes.

When filming at this location, producers went so far as to not only change the address placard on the wall next to the front door, but they also painted a fake address number on the curb in front of the house! Unfortunately, you can only make out the fake curb and sign numbers while watching the Blu-ray copy of the DVD, which my computer is unable to make screen captures of. But if you happen to own the Blu-ray copy of the movie, keep your eyes peeled for the number 6355 in the two areas that I have circled in the above screen cap.

The other difference I noticed was that in real life Zac Efron’s basketball hoop is ostensibly missing from above the garage door.

Other than those two minor changes, though, the 17 Again house looks very much the same in person as it did in the movie. And, let me tell you, it is such a cool house!! With its cement exterior and polished wood details, it is slightly reminiscent of the home from the Showtime series Californication.

As you can see in the above screen capture and aerial image, the home’s real life backyard was used for the high school party scene in the movie. And, from how it appears, I believe the house’s real life interiors were also used for the filming of some scenes.

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On a side note – be sure to check out my new blog page called “Look Who’s Stalking!” where fellow stalkers can send in their photos for me to post. 🙂 I just posted some simply AMAZING photos of the new Sex and the City movie being filmed that were sent to me by fellow stalker Leslie. LOVE IT!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Ned Gold’s 17 Again house is located at 2223 Hobart Boulevard in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.

September 24, 2009
The 17 Again House

As I’ve mentioned numerous times in the past, I am a total sucker for any sort of teeny-bopper movie. So, a couple of weeks ago when my fiancé surprised me with a copy of 17 Again, I just about died! 🙂 And while I have to admit that I’ve never been a big Zac Efron fan– I mean, have you seen High School Musical??? – and didn’t have very high hopes for this movie, I ended up absolutely LOVING it!! Surprisingly enough, it’s actually a really cute, really funny flick. And Zac Efron is absolutely fabulous in it!!!! Before watching 17 Again, I had never thought of him as any sort of great actor, but he was absolutely hilarious in it and really pulled off playing a 37-year-old dad who wakes up one morning in a 17-year-old body. So, of course, immediately after watching the movie, I called up fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, and Chas, and asked for their help in locating the house belonging to Matthew Perry and Leslie Mann in the flick. And, sure enough, Mike found it almost immediately. YAY!

While watching 17 Again, Mike thought he recognized the neighborhood where filming took place. He was fairly certain that Matthew Perry’s house in the movie was located somewhere in the San Fernando Valley, and since he used to play in a softball league in that area, thought he may have driven by it on a regular basis while going to and from his games. So, using Google Maps Street View, he retraced the various routes he used to take and found the house almost immediately!! Talk about observant! The fact that Mike remembered pretty much the exact location of a house he used to drive by several years ago that was NOT even a filming location at the time absolutely boggles my mind! I’m lucky if I can even find my way home most days. LOL

As it turns out, this location was actually an amazingly lucky find for us, because as you’ll notice in the above screen capture and photograph, producers changed the address number on the house for the filming! In the movie, Matthew Perry’s address number is 5005, but in real life the house is actually numbered 6610! Honestly, had Mike not recognized the neighborhood, I’m certain this is one location that would have had us stumped for a very long time! Please tell me that changing house numbers like this is not the way of the future! UGH!

Besides the change in address numbers, I am happy to report that the 17 Again house looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did in the movie – except for one major difference. It appears that 17 Again was shot sometime in the late fall or early winter, because as you can see in the above screen capture, the trees in the front yard were quite barren at the time of the filming. Today those trees have filled in quite considerably, blocking much of the view of the house from the street. Other than the trees, though, the house is very recognizable from the movie. The 17 Again house is absolutely GINORMOUS in person (3,409 square feet according to Zillow) – so big, in fact, that I had a hard time fitting the whole thing in my camera lens.

According to the movie’s production notes, producers remodeled the real life backyard of the 17 Again house for the scene in which landscape architect Leslie Mann shows Zac Efron and Sterling Knight the magical garden she has created. And, as you can see on the MovieShotsLA website, the real interior of the house was also used in the filming. The 17 Again house is actually an oft-used filming location. Besides being featured in countless commercials, it has also been seen in the television series Day Break, In Justice, and Turn Up the Heat with G. Garvin, and the movies Happy Endings and Something New.

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Big THANK YOU to Mike for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The 17 Again house is located at 6610 Allott Avenue in Van Nuys.

September 23, 2009
Jaime Pressly’s I Love You, Man House

A few months back, I asked fellow stalker Owen for some help in tracking down all of the filming locations from fave movie I Love You, Man. The spot I was most interested in stalking was the charming little house belonging to Denise (aka Jaime Pressly) and her brutish husband Barry (aka Jon Favreau) in the flick. Ever since seeing the movie this past March, I have been absolutely obsessed with that house. It is just so darn cute! And I was one hundred percent convinced that it was located somewhere in the Pasadena area. For some reason, it just looked like a Pasadena-style home to me. In fact, I would have bet my bottom dollar on it! So, you can imagine my surprise when I got a text back from Owen saying that he had contacted an I Love You, Man crew member who told him that the house was actually located in . . . Hollywood! I absolutely could not believe it! Hollywood probably would have been just about the last place on earth I would have searched for that house. LOL It’s a good thing I had Owen on the case, as I’m fairly certain this is one location I never would have found without him. So, this past weekend, with the address in hand, I dragged my fiancé out to finally stalk the home.

Well, that’s not exactly the whole story. Truth be told, this is one location that I actually had to stalk twice! LOL A few weeks ago, my dad asked me if I would drive him to a doctor’s appointment which just happened to be right near the I Love You, Man house. I told him I’d be happy to, as long as we could do some stalking along the way. He, of course, said “no”, but, because I thought he was just joking around, I dragged him out to the house anyway. Well, as it turns out, he wasn’t joking around – AT ALL – and was not especially happy with me once I pulled up to the house. In fact, I believe his exact words were, “Where the hell are we and why are you stopping the car????” LOL LOL LOL Karma came back to bite me, though, because when I pulled my camera out of my purse to snap a few photographs of the house, I realized that it felt rather light and my mind immediately flashed back to the camera battery that I had plugged into the charger the night before and had forgotten to put back in the morning. UGH! So, this past weekend, I returned to the house yet again, this time with my fiancé – and camera battery – in tow. 🙂

I am very happy to report that Jaime Pressly’s I Love You, Man house is absolutely ADORABLE in person– even cuter than it appeared onscreen. I’d even say it was worth all the trouble I had to go to to get to it. LOL The house definitely has a fairy tale/storybook style feel to it and is a little bit reminiscent of Hilary Duff’s house from fave movie A Cinderella Story. So love it! Because it is so cute, I’m actually very surprised that it hasn’t been featured in even more productions.

The exterior of the house is actually only featured in two very brief scenes in the movie. It first shows up as the site of Jon Favreau’s infamous poker night party, where his “Boat Race” beer drinking game ends very badly.

The front porch of the house next shows up as the place where Rashida Jones and Paul Rudd make up after calling off their engagement towards the end of the flick. And from how it appears in that scene, I believe the real interior of the house was also used for some of the filming.

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I highly recommend stalking Jaime Pressly’s I Love You, Man house as it is just so darn cute in person. Just remember to bring your camera battery! 😉

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Jaime Pressly’s house from I Love You, Man is located at 532 North Las Palmas Avenue in Hollywood.

September 22, 2009
The Matchstick Men House

Another location I dragged my fiance to while in Venice last weekend was the house used in the 2003 movie Matchstick Men. I found this spot thanks to fellow stalker Chas, who made it his mission to find EVERY SINGLE Matchstick Men location in the L.A. area. And find them all, he did! Chas’ entire catalog of Matchstick Men locales can actually be found on the Seeing Stars website, but the spot I was most interested in stalking, of course, was the residence belonging to obsessive-compulsive con man Nicolas Cage in the flick. I had absolutely fallen in love with the unique Mid-Century Modern-style home with a tree growing through its front porch when I first saw Matchstick Men in the theatre six years ago. So, when Chas mentioned that he knew where the house was located, I just about died of excitement and immediately ran right out to go stalk it! 🙂

I am very happy to report that the Matchstick Men house looks exactly the same in person today as it did onscreen six years ago. For those who don’t remember, Nicolas Cage’s residence in the flick was a very unique, very flat, one story white 50’s-style abode. But the coolest feature of the house actually had to be the large tree growing right through the roof of the front porch. I’ve never seen anything quite like it in my entire life and when I first saw the movie, I remember wondering if the tree was real or just a prop added for the filming. Well, as it turns out, the front porch tree is a real feature of the house and is still there today. Love it!

The Matchstick Men house is located on a very cool street that is actually chock full of similar looking Mid-Century Modern-style homes. More than a few of them even have a tree growing through their front porch roof, too. Love it! 🙂 According to Zillow, the MM house, which was built in 1948, has 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, and measures a tiny 1,016 square feet.

Chas also told me that, according to the Matchstick Men DVD’s director’s commentary, the scenes that took place in Nicolas Cage’s backyard in the movie were actually filmed at another location altogether – a house located somewhere in the San Fernando Valley near Woodland Hills.

The home’s real life backyard is pictured in the above aerial image, and as you can see, is much smaller than the backyard portrayed in the movie and does not have a pool.

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If you were at all a fan of the movie – or of Mid-Century Modern-style architecture in general – I highly recommend stalking the Matchstick Men house.

Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Matchstick Men house is located at 3508 Meier Street, just outside of Venice, in West Los Angeles.

September 21, 2009
The Girl Next Door Houses

Located just a block away from the Beethoven house, which I blogged about yesterday, are the two main homes used in the 2004 movie The Girl Next Door. Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took me by this location on the same day that we stalked the Beethoven house a few months back. And, even though I had never seen The Girl Next Door, I was still extremely excited to be stalking the homes. So excited, in fact, that I went right out that night and rented the movie. And, let me tell you what a disappointment that turned out to be! LOL The Girl Next Door is absolutely horrible – I was so bored that I didn’t even get through the first thirty minutes before turning it off. LOL The movie is, for lack of a better word, just plain “dumb”! But, since I did really like the houses featured in it, I decided they were worth a blog post. You know I have a serious stalking problem when I not only stalk, but also blog about, locations from a movie that I didn’t even like – or finish watching, for that matter! 🙂

The Girl Next Door centers around nerdy high school senior Emile Hirsch whose life changes dramatically when a beautiful girl, played by Elisha Cuthbert, moves in next door to his family’s home. The two, of course, become romantically involved, but trouble ensues when Emile discovers that the girl he has fallen in love with is actually an adult film star. Nice premise for a movie, huh? LOL Roger Ebert pretty much hit the nail on the head in his review when he said that the movie tried – but failed miserably – to imitate fave flick Risky Business. LOL You can read Roger’s entire Girl Next Door review here.

The two houses from the movie are, obviously, located right next door to each other. Emile Hirsch’s house is shown several times through the flick and is vaguely reminiscent of the house featured in the 1970’s television series Family – which is ironic, being that that house is located just up the street!

The house belonging to Elisha Cuthbert in the movie is never actually shown in full view, which is odd being that it is a very beautiful home, as you can see in the above photograph.

Milan Avenue is actually chock full of beautiful homes and is, not surprisingly, one of South Pasadena’s most oft-filmed streets. My good friend and fellow stalker E.J. over at The Movieland Directory emailed me this morning to let me know of two other noteworthy Milan Avenue locations. The first is one of the homes that Jason Biggs and his friends paint while on vacation in “Grand Harbor, Michigan” in the teen comedy American Pie 2.

The second is the former residence of famed architect Norman Marsh, who designed the vast majority of prominent buildings in Venice, California. Marsh’s former home is an absolutely adorable little Craftsman abode that looks like it belongs on a lake back East somewhere. So cute! 🙂

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Milan Avenue is absolutely beautiful in person and I highly recommend stalking it. One drive down the tree-lined street and you’ll understand why filmmakers have returned to film there again and again.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: In The Girl Next Door Emile Hirsch lived at 1504 Milan Avenue in South Pasadena. Elisha Cuthbert lived next door at 1500 Milan Avenue. The house from the 1970’s television series Family is located just up the road at 1230 Milan, the house from the movie Beethoven is located at 1405 Milan, the American Pie 2 house can be found at 820 Milan, and Norman Marsh’s former residence is at 1934.

September 18, 2009