Tag: filming locations

Paco’s Tacos Cantina From Jerry Maguire

Last Friday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I spent an entire twelve hours stalking together!!! Yes, you read that right – an ENTIRE TWELVE HOURS!!! I’m not exaggerating!! The two of us literally drove from one end of L.A. to the other – we covered Pasadena, Redondo Beach, Eagle Rock, El Segundo, and even Santa Monica – and back again! It was FABULOUS! 🙂 One of the places at the top of our day’s stalking list was a little restaurant called Paco’s Tacos Cantina, which was featured in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire.

Mike discovered this location back in the ’90s. At the time he worked just a few blocks away from Paco’s and used to frequent the restaurant regularly for lunch.  One day he noticed a poster of Jerry Maguire hanging on the wall (pictured above) and asked the owner about it.  Well, it turns out that a pretty major scene from the movie had actually been filmed at the Cantina. So, of course, I made Mike take me there for lunch so I could stalk the place! 🙂

In the movie, Paco’s Tacos Cantina is the restaurant where Jerry Maguire, aka Tom Cruise, takes Dorothy Boyd, aka Renee Zellwegger, on their very first date. It is before that date that Jerry says one of my very favorite movie lines ever – well, besides “You had me at hello”, of course!   🙂 When Dorothy walks out in her LBD (that’s Little Black Dress for all of you guys out there), Jerry says, “Wow! That’s more than a dress. That’s an Audrey Hepburn movie!” LOL Love it!   Please excuse the above photographs as I wasn’t able to take them from the exact same angles from which the scene was filmed.

And, of course, Mike and I just had to sit next to the fish tank like Jerry and Dorothy did in the scene. 🙂

I HIGHLY recommend stalking Paco’s Tacos!   As I’ve mentioned before, I am a VERY picky eater, but I have to say that I absolutely loved Paco’s! The tacos were to die for – with all white meat chicken, no less!!!! And the chips and homemade tortillas were pretty amazing, too!    While there, Mike and I got to meet Paco himself, who really could not have been nicer! He was even sweet enough to pose for a couple of pictures with us. 🙂 Paco told us that his Cantina was also featured numerous times in the ’70s television series CHiPs.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Paco’s Tacos Cantina, aka the Jerry Maguire restaurant, is located at 4141 South Centinela Avenue in Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.

July 28, 2009
The Christmas Vacation Mansion

Last week I did something that I am almost too ashamed to admit to on this forum.  I, Lindsay Blake of iamnotastalker.com, actually spent about two hours searching for a filming location that I – are you sitting down for this – HAD ALREADY FOUND! LOL LOL LOL I’m not kidding!!!! I guess I truly am a blonde! Ever since fellow stalker Owen tracked down the Griswold house from fave movie National Lampoon’s Vacation, I have wanted to find the mansion which stood in for Clark’s boss, Frank Shirley’s, house in the movie’s 1989 sequel Christmas Vacation. So, last week, I sat down at my computer on a mission to do just that.   But unbeknownst to me, it seems I already had!

My first stalking step was to pop in my Christmas Vacation DVD and skip forward to the scene when Cousin Eddie shows up with his RV at Frank Shirley’s Chicago area manison on Christmas Eve night and kidnaps him – an idea he gets after hearing Clark’s HILARIOUS “last minute gift ideas” rant. LOL LOL LOL

As soon as the mansion came into view on my computer screen I realized that it looked extremely familiar. My first thought was that it might be located in the Pasadena area and that the reason it looked familiar was because I had driven by it regulary on my way to and from home. The more I watched the scene, the more I kept thinking to myself, “Man, I KNOW that house!” I spent the next couple of hours on Google Map’s Street View, looking up and down all the streets I frequent on a regular basis.  I also spent quite a bit of time researching behind-the-scenes information on the movie. Then, just as I was about to go completely crazy, it hit me! Not only had I stalked the Christmas Vacation mansion before, but I had even BLOGGED ABOUT IT! LOL LOL LOL   What an airhead I am!

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It turns out that the Christmas Vacation house is actually the Mansion Bel Aire which I stalked last May while on the hunt for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air house.  The Mansion Bel Aire was built in 1922 by prominent Glendale area businessman Mattison Boyd Jones and was also used in the Aaron Spelling TV series Flamingo Road.    According to Zillow, the house sits on over one and a half acres and measures a whopping 5,698 square feet! The mansion is truly amazing to see in person and I highly recommend stalking it – preferably during the month of October, as the owners apparently really do the place up for Halloween. Mansion Bel Aire has been nominated for a City of Glendale Halloween Spirit Award for several years in a row now. You can bet I am going to be dragging my fiance out to stalk it once again come October! 🙂 Personally I think they should do the place up for Christmas, too! Bring in fake snow ala how it looked in Christmas Vacation! Can you imagine how cool that would have been to see being filmed?!?!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Christmas Vacation mansion, aka Mansion Bel Aire, is located at 727 West Kenneth Road in Glendale.

July 27, 2009
The Never Been Kissed Coffee Shop and Tiki Post

It appears to be “Chas week” here at iamnotastalker.com, because once again I find myself posting locations which were unearthed thanks to the incredible stalking talents of my friend Chas!  A few weeks ago, I enlisted his help in finding both the coffee shop and the Tiki Post locations featured in fave romantic comedy Never Been Kissed. Chas located both sites pretty much immediately and I am VERY happy to report that the coffee shop featured in NBK is an actual coffee shop in real life, too! Y’all know how much I love me some coffee! So, I immediately dragged my fiance out to Monrovia to do some Never Been Kissed stalking – and to grab an iced latte, too, of course! 🙂

The coffee shop, which was called Nana’s in Never Been Kissed, shows up towards the beginnning of the movie as the spot where Leelee Sobieski and Drew Barrymore grab a bite to eat after cool guy Guy hides Josie’s car.  In reality, that coffee shop is known as the Monrovia Coffee Company and from what information I could gather while stalking it, I believe it is the very same place that was there when NBK was filmed. The girl working the front counter was a new employee, so she couldn’t answer many of my questions, but she did say she was fairly certain that the Monrovia Coffee Company had occupied that same space for well over ten years. Maybe it’s just me, but wouldn’t you think the fact that Never Been Kissed had been filmed on the premises would have been part of the information given out during the employee training program??? Sheesh!

I am very happy to report that the Monrovia Coffee Company looks almost exactly the same in person as it did onscreen in Never Been Kissed. The decor has changed slighty and new tables and chairs have been added in the ten years since filming took place, but otherwise it is very easily recognizable!

Even the neon ice cream/coffee cup sign is STILL in place in the front window – albeit in a slightly different spot. SO LOVE IT!!!!!

And, of course, I just HAD to sit in the same exact place where Leelee and Drew hung out during the scene. 🙂 There is no table in that corner area now, but I was still floored to be sitting there, just the same.

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Chas was able to find this location by noticing an address number posted across the street from the coffee shop when Josie looked out the window during the scene.   He had an inkling the coffee shop was located in Monrovia and, sure enough, he was right!

The Monrovia Coffee Company is a super cute little place that serves up some great coffee, so I highly recommend stalking it!!

Just up the street from the NBK coffee shop was the storefront that was used as the Tiki Post where David Arquette worked in the movie. I say “was the storefront” because, unfortunately, that location no longer exists. Old Town Monrovia got a bit of a facelift a few years back and the block where the Tiki Post was located was changed considerably.

I am going to guess that at the time Never Been Kissed was filmed the Tiki Post space was vacant, which is why producers chose to use it. Shortly after the movie was completed, the entire property was razed and a Cold Stone Creamery built in its place.

“The Fox and the Hair” salon, which Drew and David are standing in front of in the above screen capture, was also completely torn down and is now a Krikorian Movie Theatre.   The Fox and the Hair moved just around the corner from this location to a storefront on Lime Avenue.

Chas was also able to pinpoint this location using an address number and a sign posted directly across the street from the Tiki Post which read “L & D Appliance Corp.” Thankfully, L & D is still located in the exact same spot it was during the filming of Never Been Kissed, which led Chas right to the former Tiki Post location. I told you he was good! 🙂

Big thank you – yet again! – to Chas for finding these locations.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Never Been Kissed coffee shop, aka the Monrovia Coffee Company, is located at 425 South Myrtle Avenue in Monrovia. The former Tiki Post location can be found at 408 South Myrtle Avenue, also in Monrovia.

July 24, 2009
The Girls Just Want To Have Fun Apartment Building!!

As I sit here writing this I am in shock – absolute shock. This morning at around 10 O’clock I got a phone call from fellow stalker Chas who had some news to share with me, some very big news! Are you all sitting down for this???? Chas was calling me up to tell me that HE HAD FOUND THE GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN APARTMENT BUILDING!   No, that was not a major typo, you did just read that last sentence correctly!!!! Chas, who I am now probably going to name my first born after, actually FOUND THE GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN APARTMENT BUILDING!!!! For those who are new to my blog, the large brick apartment building that Sarah Jessica Parker lived at in fave ’80s movie Girls Just Want To Have Fun is for me the absolute Holy Grail of filming locations, the one location I have spent YEARS looking for but could NOT for the life of me find, the one spot that I was sure I would go to my grave still wondering about.   And Chas FOUND IT! In record time, too!

I only set Chas on the mission of finding the GJWHF apartment this past Sunday night and being that I have spent YEARS searching for it, it is absolutely unbelievable to me that he located it in a record TWO days! And the guy doesn’t even live in the L.A. area!!!!  He has to have ESP or something! It’s a gift, I tell ya!   And, oh yeah, did I mention that he has NEVER EVEN SEEN THE MOVIE! LOL  After seeing the ONE screen capture of the building I had posted online, Chas got an inkling as to where it might be located. And sure enough, minutes later, he found it – right where he thought it would be! Totally mind-blowing! What’s even more amazing to me is that he recognized the building using aerial images, as the bird’s eye view of it (pictured above) does not look at all like how I pictured it to be. Because of the angle at which the apartment was always shown in the movie, I was under the impression that it was a U-shaped structure surrounding a grassy courtyard.

In reality, though, the GJWHF apartment building is made up of four separate matching buildings which surround a grassy courtyard.   The two rear buildings have a large space running in between them which was not visible in the movie.

Pretty much immediately after Chas told me the good news, I ran right out to FINALLY stalk the GJWHF apartment!   And I have to say that seeing it in person was heaven – absolute heaven – for me! I honestly never believed the day would come when I would actually be able to STALK THE GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN APARTMENT BUILDING!!!  My biggest fear was that the place had been torn down, so, to see it in person today was INCREDIBLE! I honestly could NOT have been more excited!!!!! And while the apartment does look slightly different today than how it appeared in GJWHF, what’s amazing to me is how little has actually changed in the twenty-four years since filming took place!!!  For the most part, the building looks EXACTLY the same as it did in 1985 when GJWHF was filmed.

The main changes occured in the building’s courtyard area, where the walkway and foliage now look quite different than how they appeared in the movie.  But other than that, the rest of the building looks virtually identical to how it appeared onscreen back in 1985! And it was so very cool to see it all in person!

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This morning, when Chas first told me he had found the much-coveted apartment building, I was in absolute and total shock. My first thought was ‘What in the heck am I going to do with all of my free time?’   LOL You see, for the past year and a half, anytime I’ve had a free moment or two, instead of picking up a magazine or turning on the TV, I’d hop on Google Maps and search for the ever-elusive GJWHF apartment building.   And anytime I’d drive through a new neighborhood, I’d crane my neck looking down each and every side street hoping against hope I’d randomly stumble upon it. So, to be honest, seeing that building in person today was a bit of a bittersweet moment for me.   As excited as I was, I couldn’t help but wonder (subtle SJP reference there) what in the heck I am going to do with myself now!! LOL LOL LOL I feel like a mountain climber who spends years training to climb Mount Everest, finally makes it to the top, and then wonders ‘Now what?’   The Girls Just Want To Have Fun apartment was my definitely my Mount Everest.  🙂 I have no doubt, though, that it won’t be long before I come up against a new hard-to-find location that will keep me up for many a night! 🙂

Big Huge THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!!!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Girls Just Want To Have Fun apartment building is located at ( WOW I never thought I’d be writing those words!) 511-517 South Mariposa Avenue in Los Angeles.

July 22, 2009
The Never Been Kissed House

Last weekend, thanks to fellow stalker Chas, I was able to stalk a location I’ve been on the lookout for for quite some time – Drew Barrymore’s childhood home from fave romantic comedy Never Been Kissed. Chas is quite the master stalker, so last week I enlisted his help in finding this location and, lo and behold, he unearthed it pretty much immediately! Thank you, Chas!!! Never Been Kissed supposedly takes place in the Chicago area, but being that 99.9% of the movie was filmed right here in L.A., Chas had an inkling that “Josie Grosie’s” childhood home was most likely located here, as well. And sure enough, he was right. 🙂

I am very happy to report that Josie’s house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1999 when Never Been Kissed was filmed. And I really could not have been more excited to be seeing it in person!

Josie’s home is featured several times throughout the movie, most notably as the location of the heartbreaking scene when she gets egged on prom night by her high school crush, Billy. Ugh, such a sad scene!

It is also the spot where Guy picks up Josie for her second prom experience – one that turns out to be much better than her first. 🙂

Amazingly enough, Chas also managed to track down the home Josie lived in as an adult in the movie, which, ironically, can actually be found in Chicago. I find it incredibly strange that the producers would go all the way to the Windy City to film a few establishing shots of the home along with one very brief scene between Drew Barrymore and David Arquette that takes place in front of the home, when pretty much every other scene in the movie was filmed in Los Angeles. But, according to Chas, whenever filmmakers want to establish that a movie is taking place in Chicago, they film at a location near an ‘L’ Train. Which is exactly what they did in Never Been Kissed. 🙂 In the movie, Drew’s home is located directly beneath a set of ‘L’ Train tracks. Chas just recently visted the Windy City and was kind enough to stop by Josie’s house to take some pictures for me. SO COOL!

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Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding these locations and sharing his pictures of Josie’s Chicago home! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Never Been Kissed house is located at 368 North Ridgewood Place in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. The home Josie lives in as an adult is located at 930 West Newport Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.

July 20, 2009
The Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever Special

I know, I know – it was just last week that I promised not to let my blog go on Michael Jackson overload, but I’m sorry, this one was a must-post! 🙂 The other day, while reading one of the many Michael Jackson tribute magazines that have been published since the pop star’s death – and yes, I bought them all 🙂 – I came across an article that just about made me pass out from excitement! The column, which was featured in the July 13th, 2009 issue of People Magazine,  stated that Michael Jackson’s iconic – and now legendary – “Billie Jean” performance from the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special had been filmed at none other than the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. Now I have lived in Pasadena for over nine years and until that article came out had absolutely NO idea whatsoever that what is arguably Michael Jackson’s most famous stage performance EVER was filmed right in my own backyard. WHY IN THE HECK IS THIS INFORMATION NOT MORE WIDELY KNOWN????   I mean this is HUGE!! Absolutely HUGE! It was on the Auditorium’s stage on a March night in 1983 that THE most definitive moment of Michael Jackson’s adult career took place – it was here that he introduced the world to his now-infamous signature dance move – the Moonwalk. What an amazing piece of history! If I ran the place, I’d have a freaking 80 foot by 80 foot banner put up telling everyone it was here that Michael Jackson made musical history!   🙂

I can still remember watching that iconic performance with my parents the night it aired on May 16, 1983, almost two months after it was filmed. I was six years old at the time and I can still picture us all sitting in front of the television and my dad telling me that I was about to witness something really extraodinary.   And it was, it truly was! We actually taped the Motown special that night and years later my dad and I were still re-watching it. So much so, in fact, that the VHS tape eventually wore out.  So, we were absolutely floored when my mom found a DVD of the Motown special for sale on Amazon about five years ago and immediately purchased it. I was still living with my parents at the time, and whenever a friend would come to visit my dad would invariably ask “Have you ever seen Michael Jackson’s Motown 25 performance?”   Shockingly, most of my friends had no idea what he was talking about, so my dad would lead them into the TV room and show them Michael’s history making dance. It was absolutely fascinating to watch my friends see this performance for the very first time, their eyes absolutely glued to the TV and filled with wonderment. Pretty soon it got to be a thing at my house – anyone visiting would ask my dad to see the Motown 25 performance and he would happily oblige. It’s fascinating to me that 26 years later that performance still has the ability to awe and inspire. You can read a great article about Michael’s Motown 25 performance written by a man named Christopher Smith who actually witnessed it firsthand here.

Michael was actually nominated for an Emmy Award for his Motown 25 performance, but did not win.  Michael said his real award came the morning after the performance aired when dancing sensation, and his former neighbor, Fred Astaire called him up screaming, saying it was the best performance he had ever seen!  Fred said he had taped Michael’s routine, watched it twice, and was absolutely mesmerized. He also said “Michael, you put them on their *ss! You’re a hell of a mover! You’re a hell of a dancer!”   Love it!

The Pasadena Civic Auditorium, which was built in 1931, has also been featured in the movies 10 and Red Dragon and episodes of Last Comic Standing, Alias, Lie To Me, and American Idol. The auditorium has also hosted countless awards shows, including the 2008 ALMA Awards, numerous People’s Choice Awards, and the Emmy Awards from 1977 to 1997.

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I went to stalk the Auditorium today under the assumption that it is open to the public and was really dissappointed to find out that isn’t the case. 🙁 Because of that, I can’t say that I’d really recommend stalking it. The manager of the place is also a TOTAL jerk, which only added to my dissapointment. 🙁 Nevertheless, it was still very exciting to be standing in front of the very spot where Michael Jackson made musical history just a little over twenty-six years ago!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special took place at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, which is located at 300 East Green Street in Pasadena.

July 17, 2009
The Golden Girls House

This past weekend, thanks to fellow stalker Owen, I was able to stalk the home used in one of my favorite ’80s TV shows – The Golden Girls.   Being that I was only eight years old at the time The Golden Girls premiered, I probably seem like a very unlikely fan of the show. But, for some reason, a sit-com which centered around the trials and tribulations of four single senior citizens living together in a Miami area home appealed to me. What can I say – I absolutely loved it!

But besides being a fabulous show, The Golden Girls also had, hands down, the BEST television theme song ever! 🙂 “Thank you for being a friend! Travel down the road and back again. Your heart is true, you’re a pal and a confidant.” Sing it with me, now! “And if you threw a party, invited everyone you knew, you would see the biggest gift would be from me and the card attached would say, thank you for being a friend!” LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

I am happy to report that The Golden Girls house looks EXACTLY the same today – and I mean EXACTLY the same – as it did when the show first premiered in 1985. It is absolutely unbelievable to me that the home has remained unchanged in a whopping twenty-four years time. LOVE IT! I’d like to go on record right now and thank the owners of this house for letting this piece of television history remain untouched for all of us stalkers to appreciate years later. Why can’t more filming location owners be like you????? LOL

What’s even more amazing to me is how iconic The Golden Girls house truly is. Even my fiance recognized it, and he recognizes virtually NOTHING. In fact, I think I can safely say that in all the years we’ve dated (eight and half, but who’s counting?), he has never once recognized a location that I’ve dragged him to – ever! Until this past weekend, that is. 🙂     Even though The Golden Girls house is extremely non-descript, for some reason a picture of it is imbedded in my brain, almost more so than any other TV home – except, of course, for the 90210 house! 🙂

A big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location after hearing numerous rumors about its wherabouts – rumors like the house was actually located in Florida or Pacific Palisades or that it only ever existed on a studio backlot. He ended up finding the house several years ago on a German website that had a map of Los Angeles with the general vicinity of the GG home earmarked.   Once he had the general area locked down – even if it was in German 🙂 – it didn’t take him long to find the home’s exact address and put to rest all of those pesky location rumors. The real story of the Golden Girls home is this: During the first seasons of the show, a Brentwood area house was used for all of the establishing shots of the ladies’ Miami area residence.   Then in 1988, a replica of that home was built on the backlot of Disney MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida, and that replica was used for the exterior house shots for the remainder of the series – which seems odd to me being that the show was actually taped right here in Los Angeles. Anyway, you can see a photograph of the replica home here. Sadly, in 2003 the replica was torn down, along with the rest of Residential Street, in order to make room for a new stunt show called “Lights! Motors! Action!”   To quote Chelsea Lately,”I don’t like that! I don’t like that at all!”   At least the real house is still standing, though!

And if you are a big fan of the GG house, or just the show in general, I definitely recommend checking out this girl’s website.   And people say I have way too much time on my hands! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Golden Girls house is located at 245 North Saltair Avenue in Brentwood.

July 16, 2009
The Erin Brockovich House

Many, many months ago my very good friend and fellow stalker Kerry challenged me to find Julia Roberts’ house from the Academy Award winning movie Erin Brockovich.  Kerry knew that the home was located somewhere in the Ventura area, but had no idea of its exact whereabouts. So, I, of course, enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who wound up finding the home’s location pretty much immediately!   Flash forward to six weeks ago when my family and I took a little weekend vacay to Ventura. I managed to sneak in some stalking during our trip, as I always do when on vacation, but by that time had completely forgotten about the Erin Brockovich house.  That’s the blonde in me!! Well, as soon as I got home and posted my first Ventura blog entry, I got a very excited phone call from Kerry, who wanted to know when I would be writing about the house that she had challenged me to find so long ago. Well, let me tell you, I almost fell out of my chair. I felt absolutely TERRIBLE that I had forgotten all about it!!!!   And I felt even more terrible about an hour later when Mike called me up and asked me the very same thing! LOL LOL LOL So, this past weekend, when my parents announced that they would be spending a few nights in Ventura, I begged them to do a little Erin Brockovich stalking for me.  Semi-begrudgingly they agreed.   So, even though I don’t usually like to blog about locations I haven’t personally visited myself, I had to make an exception just this once, for Kerry’s – and Mike’s – sakes! 🙂

I am very happy to report that, although the paint color is now different, the Erin Brockovich house is still very recognizable from the movie. On a side note, my mom had actually offered to pose in front of Erin’s house for the above picture like I usually do in my stalking photographs, which I thought would have been absolutely HILARIOUS, but unfortunately she was having a bad hair day at the time, so she didn’t end up doing it. LOL

Located directly next door to Erin’s house is the residence that stood in for the home of her boyfriend George, who was played by Aaron Eckhart, in the film. And I am happy to report that it looks exactly the same today as it did when Erin Brockovich was filmed there back in 2000 – right down to its paint color! 🙂 I love it when that happens!!!

There has been one major change to the two houses since filming wrapped, though.  In Erin Brockovich, Erin and George’s homes shared a large front yard area, but today there is a tall hedge separating the two properties, which changes their appearance quite significantly.

Quite a few scenes take place in that shared front yard area, including the FABULOUS scene when Erin and George first meet and she makes that GREAT speech about her telephone number! Love it!

The scene when Ed Masry gifts Erin $5,000 and a new car also takes place out in front of the home.

Some filming also took place in the backyard area of the two houses, and, I believe, inside of the homes, as well.

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Just around the corner from Erin’s home is the Main Street Restaurant and Steakhouse, which makes a very brief appearance at the beginning of the movie as the restaurant where Erin takes her kids for a bite to eat after finding a cockroach in her kitchen.

A little bit of movie trivia for you – the waitress in that scene was played by none other than the real life Erin Brockovich. Her character’s name in the movie? Why Julia, of course! 😉 LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Erin Brockovich house is located at 545 South Emma Avenue in Ventura. George’s house is located right next door at 555 South Emma Avenue. Main Street Restaurant and Steakhouse is located just a few blocks away at 3159 East Main Street, also in Ventura.

July 15, 2009
James’ Beach Restaurant

This past weekend, I dragged my fiance out to stalk a restaurant named James’ Beach that was featured in the 2009 romantic comedy I Love You, Man.    In the movie, Sydney Fife (aka Jason Segal) and Peter Klaven (aka Paul Rudd) have their very first man-date at the Venice Beach area restaurant, which Sydney alleges serves up the “best fish tacos in the world”. So, of course, I just had to try the place out for myself, especially since tacos are pretty much my favorite food!

James’ Beach has actually been at the top of my must-stalk locations list ever since the movie first premiered this past March, but because I rarely make it out to the Venice area, I had yet to visit the place. Until this past weekend, that is. And I have to say that the restaurant was well worth the wait!  Being that I am the pickiest eater known to man and also not a big fan of fish, I opted not to try the restaurant’s world famous fish tacos, but instead ordered up their tofu version. And I am happy to report that the James’ Beach tofu tacos were so good that I couldn’t stop eating them -even after I was far past full! Really, it was pathetic! LOL James’ Beach taco plates are served in a build-it-yourself style and come with black beans, AMAZING guacamole, homemade salsa, and flour tortillas.   And, even though the tofu tacos I ordered were fabulous, looking back now I really wish I had tried the fish tacos, as I think they would have been simply amazing. Oh well, it looks like I’ll just have to stalk the restaurant again! 🙂

The owner of James’ Beach truly could NOT have been nicer to us and answered all of my silly questions about movies that had been filmed at the restaurant and celebrities that had dined there. He told us that while numerous productions have actually been filmed on the premises (including three episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm), none had brought him as much attention as I Love You, Man. At the time of the filming, the owner had no idea that the name of his restaurant would be mentioned in the movie or that Jason Segal would proclaim that his place serves up the world’s best fish tacos. 🙂 So, it was a very pleasant surprise for him when moviegoers started stalking his establishment. 🙂 Pictured above is the restaurant’s plaque commemorating the filming of I Love You, Man.

The movie is also mentioned on the James’ Beach menu. Love it! 🙂

I Love You, Man was filmed on the restaurant’s outdoor patio area. Unfortunately, since the DVD of the movie is not being released until August 11th, I was not able to make any screen captures of the scene which was filmed at James’ Beach.   Ironically enough, though, I was able to get the above pic from a New York newspaper article about I Love You, Man and the author’s quest to find the “world’s best fish tacos” out on the East Coast.   LOL According to the owner, I Love You, Man took two full nights to film, during which time the restaurant had to be closed to the public. When I asked if Paul Rudd and Jason Segal were nice, the owner told me they were both “absolutely wonderful”. 🙂

Besides being a filming location, James’ Beach is also a big time celebrity hot spot. 🙂 Stars like Alfre Woodard, Peter Berg, Muhammad Ali, Meg Ryan, Tea Leoni, Catherine O’Hara, Forest Whitaker, tap dancing king Gregory Hines, and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas have all been spotted at the restaurant at one time or another.   So, of course, I just had to ask if my girl Jen had ever eaten there. And I was floored to find out that she had!   Not only was a scene from Jen Aniston’s 2006 movie Friends With Money filmed at James’ Beach (pictured above), but my girl also held a premiere party for her 2004 documentary Growing Up Grizzly 2 at the restaurant, with none other than George Clooney in attendance. Growing Up Grizzly 2 is an adorable documentary about the lives of two orphaned grizzly bears named Bart and Honey-Bump who were adopted by a human family. If you haven’t seen it, you definitely should – it’s adorable!

James’ Beach is a SUPER cute little restaurant and I really can’t recommend stalking it enough! The food was FABULOUS, the service was excellent, and the ambiance is just plain fun! It’s the perfect place to grab a bite to eat after spending a day on Venice Beach, which is located just a stone’s throw away from the restaurant.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: James’ Beach is located at 60 North Venice Blvd. in Venice. You can visit the James’ Beach website here.  Its sister restaurants, Canal Club Wood Grill & Sushi Bar (pictured above) – where Jen Aniston has also dined – and Danny’s Venice Beach Bistro & Bar, are also located in Venice, at 2025 Pacific Avenue and 23 Windward Avenue respectively.

July 14, 2009
The Blast from the Past Strip Mall

Since I was in the area this past week stalking a wedding venue, I decided to pay a little visit to the strip mall featured in fave romantic comedy Blast from the Past. In the flick, which opens up in the year 1962, a nuclear-war-fearing Christopher Walken builds a massive fallout shelter for his wife and unborn son directly underneath his suburban home. When a small plane fortuitously crashes onto his property, Walken fears a bomb has been dropped on America and immediately locks his family in the homemade shelter where they remain for the next 35 years.   While the family is living underground, a strip mall comprised of a dive bar, an adult bookstore, and a 50s diner,  is built on the spot where their home used to stand. That strip mall is what I set out to stalk last week.

And I am happy to report that it looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did in Blast from the Past. According to fave website Seeing Stars, which is how I originally found this location, all three storefronts used in the movie were vacant at the time of filming. And, after recently re-watching BFTP, I am fairly certain that filming not only took place outside of the empty shops, but inside of them, as well.  Pictured above is the storefront used as the dilapidated 50s diner originally named “Mom’s” in the movie. It is this shop that is located directly above the fallout shelter and into which the shelter’s elevator rises through the floor, causing the loopy storeowner to believe an angel has come to save him. In reality, “Mom’s” diner is actually a tattoo parlor.

Directly next door to “Mom’s”, is the storefront that was used as the dive bar “Shangri Lodge” in the movie. Today it is a beauty parlor named “Unlimited Touch Salon” – I don’t even want to know what goes on in there!!!   LOL LOL LOL

Next door to the salon is the storefront that was featured as the adult bookstore in the movie. Just before Brendan Fraser makes his first visit above ground, Christopher Walken warns him to stay away from the adult bookstore as there is “invisible, poisonous gas” inside of it. LOL LOL LOL   In reality, that shop is now an antique clock store.

The tiki bar that Alicia Silverstone and Brendan Fraser kiss in front of at the end of the movie is in actuality a large bakery and pastry shop.

I find it kind of ironic that, in what is definitely a case of life imitating art, two of the empty storefronts eventually became seedy shops – a tattoo parlor and a salon with a highly suggestive name – much like was the case in the movie. And while I, of course, had fun stalking the strip mall, I can’t say I’d really recommend it to others. It’s kind of in a seedy area and unfortunately there isn’t all that much to see. For fans of the movie, like me, I’d instead recommend stalking Alicia Silverstone’s adorable little house from the film. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Blast from the Past strip mall is located at 7218-7222 Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Canoga Park. Mom’s diner, under which Brendan Fraser’s bomb shelter was located, can be found at 7222 Topanga Canyon Blvd. The Shangri Lodge Bar is really the Unlimited Touch Salon which is located at 7220 Topanga Canyon. And the “poison gas” adult bookstore is really Denny’s Clocks, which can be found at 7218 Topanga Canyon. Pastries by Edie, the bakery where Alicia Silverstone and Brendan Fraser kiss in the movie, is located next to the strip mall, at 7226 Topanga Canyon Blvd.

July 13, 2009