Tag: filming locations

The Swordfish Hostage Scene

This past weekend, my parents, my fiance and I drove up to Ventura for a little weekend vacay.  And I was absolutely floored to discover – thanks to my new favorite stalking book – that the hostage scene gone wrong from the 2001 movie Swordfish had been filmed in the coastal town! But, while my stalking book stated that all of the filming took place on Main Street in Downtown Ventura, it unfortunately didn’t specify exactly which stores were used in the production. So, me being me, I just had to stalk pretty much every shop and ask around until I found the right ones. 🙂    Filming of Swordfish took place back in October of 2000 and, all in all, three main stores were used. Come to find out, though, every single storefront featured in the movie was drastically remodeled for the filming and today they are all virtually unrecognizable. Such a bummer!!!!!

All of the filming took place on one of Downtown Ventura’s main street corners, where producers were lucky enough to find two vacant storefronts that faced each other.    The first storefront, which was formerly the location of a used bookstore named Second Time Around, was where producers built the set of John Travolta’s favorite coffee shop, Traveler’s Coffee Company. Yep, that’s right – the ENTIRE coffee shop was just a set built solely for the filming!

Today, that storefront houses an American Apparel store, which looks nothing like the coffee shop in Swordfish. 🙁    Being the coffee fiend that I am, I was actually pretty bummed out when I learned that the coffee shop was a fake! I was really hoping to grab an iced latte there. LOL Thank goodness there was a Starbucks located just a few blocks away. 🙂 You can see some pics of the Traveler’s Coffee Company set being built here.

Directly across the street from “Traveler’s Coffee Company”, is the bank that John Travolta set out to rob. The interior and the facade of the building, which housed a restaurant named O’Brien’s up until a few months before filming began, were changed significantly for the filming.

Today, an upscale clothing store named Parts Unknown and a restaurant named Riviera Bistro call that space home. You can see some great photographs of the bank set being built here.

The final storefront used in Swordfish was that of Nicholby’s Nightclub, which popped up in the background of the hostage scene quite a few times. Producers built a fake newsstand on the side of the Nicholby’s building for the filming.

As you can see in the above photograph, that newsstand does not exist in real life. You can see pics of the fake newsstand being built here.

It is actually very surprising to me that producers used a real life street corner and real life storefronts to shoot Swordfish’s hostage scene. For action sequences of that magnitude, producers usually opt to film inside of studio soundstages. But because Ventura is a somewhat sleepy town, I am guessing it was fairly easy for them to take over a few vacant storefronts and close down a street corner. According to one of the business owners I talked to, production of the hostage scene took over two months to complete!!!!   While the actual filming only took about three weeks, a significant amount of time was needed to both construct and dismantle the extensive sets. I can’t even imagine being able to watch all of that take place! It must have been an amazing experience for the Ventura locals. 🙂    Oh, how I wish I had been there!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The hostage scene from Swordfish was filmed on the corner of East Main and South Oak Streets in Downtown Ventura. Traveler’s Coffee Company is really the American Apparel store located at 391 East Main Street. World Banc is the clothing store named Parts Unknown, which is located at 394 East Main Street #A. Nicholby’s Nightclub, which can be found at 404 East Main Street, was the newsstand that showed up in the background of the scene.

June 2, 2009
Cameron Frye’s House

Last Wednesday morning I almost fell out of my chair as I opened up my email account and saw an AOL news headline screaming out at me “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off   House For Sale!” At first, I thought the article was talking about the Long Beach area home that stood in for Ferris’ in the film. But, in reality, it is the ultra-modern glass and steel abode that belonged to Ferris’ best pal Cameron Frye in the film that just recently went on the market. And, while I don’t usually like to blog about places that I have not actually visited myself, since I have received about a million emails this week about the cinematically historic home, I figured what the heck! So, here goes. 🙂

The house, which was built entirely out of steel, cedar, and glass, measures 5,300 square feet, sits on almost an acre of land, and boasts four bedrooms and four bathrooms. The home was built in 1953 by prominent architect A. James Speyer for a prominent textile designer named Ben Rose, and his wife, Fran. The famous garage – which is actually called “the Pavilion” or auto museum – is separate from the house and was not built until 1970. It was designed by architect David Haid and, in line with how it was portrayed on film, was built to store Ben’s antique car collection.   The house had been featured in numerous architectural books and magazines long before Ferris Bueller was filmed and, apparently, it was through those magazines that location scouts discovered the house. 🙂 With its glass walls and simplistic design, the home reminds me quite a bit of the Stahl House in Los Angeles and the other Case Study Houses.  Cameron Frye’s home is selling for a cool $2.3 million, which I think is pretty low considering you’d be buying a cinematic and architectural landmark! 🙂 You can read a great article about the home and its original owners here.

Several memorable scenes from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off took place at Cameron Frye’s home, including the “He’ll keep calling me, he’ll keep calling me until I come over. He’ll make me feel guilty. This is – uh – this is ridiculous! OK, I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go, I’ll go. Sh*t!” scene. LOL

I believe the real interior of the Ben Rose House was used in the scene when Ferris continually calls Cameron begging him to come over. The walls of the actual home are built entirely out of glass and, as you can see in the above screen capture, so are the walls of Cameron’s room.

But, of course, the most memorable scenes took place in the Pavilion and involved Cameron’s father’s 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California.

It is in the Pavilion that Cameron says to Ferris, “Less than 100 were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love, it is his passion . . .” to which Ferris replies. “It is fault he didn’t lock the garage.” LOL God, I love that movie!!!!

It is also in the Pavilion that Ferris “runs the car in reverse” in the hopes of removing the mileage that was accrued during their “day off”.

When that plan doesn’t work, Cameron flips out and ends up “killing the car”. LOL To shoot that scene, producers had to not only replace the Pavilion’s real life windows with breakaway glass, but also build several fake cars out of fiberglass, complete with small bombs that made the car smoke upon impact. I can’t even imagine being there to watch that scene be filmed!!!   It must have been so much fun for the owners of the house!!!! Apparently, there is an entire wall of photographs from the filming of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off on display in the Pavilion. Love it!!!

You can visit the home’s real estate website and see photos of its interior here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Cameron Frye’s house is located at 370 Beech Street in Highland Park, Illinois.

June 1, 2009
The Bronson Caves

This past weekend, on a recommendation from fellow stalker Steve, I dragged my dad and my fiance out to stalk the Bronson Caves in Griffith Park. Friends have been urging me to stalk the Bronson Caves, which are most commonly known as being the location of “the Batcave” from the 1966 television series Batman, for years now, but somehow I just never made it out there. Until this past Saturday, that is. 🙂

And I am so glad I finally did!! The term “caves” is actually something of a misnomer, though, as the passages look more like tunnels than they do caves. Surprisingly enough, the Bronson Caves were actually man-made. In 1903, a rock excavation company named Union Rock Company built a quarry on the site, which was then known as Brush Canyon. The company drilled three tunnels through the base of a small mountain and used the excavated rocks to pave Los Angeles city streets. When the company called it quits in 1920, the three tunnels remained and were coined the Bronson Caves. The rest, as they say, is Hollywood history.

The Caves have been featured in countless Hollywood productions over the years, most notably standing in for “the Batcave”, where Batman spent most of his time in the 1966 television series of the same name. You can watch the opening credits of Batman, which feature a very brief clip of the Batmobile leaving the Batcave, here.

The Caves also popped up in the alternative ending to the movie Army of Darkness. The ending, which was thought to be too depressing for movie audiences, can be found on special edition DVD’s of the 1992 flick. On a side note, one of my very favorite movie lines of all time was uttered in Army of Darkness. In the movie, one of the knights announces “I am Henry the Red, Duke of Shale, Lord of the Northland, and Leader of its Peoples”, to which Bruce Campbell replies “Well, hello Mr. Fancy Pants! I got news for you, Pal, you ain’t leading but two things right now – Jack and Sh*t. And Jack left town!” LOL LOL LOL

The Bronson Caves also showed up in the horror flick Cabin Fever as the location where Rider Strong finds one of the many dead bodies.

At the end of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Miles and Dana used the Caves as a hiding place from the pod people. You can watch that scene here. All in all, the Bronson Caves have been featured in well over one hundred productions including: The Lone Ranger, The Three Musketeers (1933), The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Sleeper, Night of the Bloodbeast, Robot Monster, The Cyclops, MacGuyver, It Conquered the Earth, The X-Files, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Short Cuts, and The Scorpion King.

As luck would have it, we even ran into some filming while stalking the Bronson Caves. Shooting on location was a very small, independent caveman/apocalypse film. And the crew was even nice enough to let us snap some pics of them. 🙂 Ironically enough, it was close to one hundred degrees outside that day and the poor caveman had to walk around in those ridiculous fur boots. LOL He must have been dying in those things!!!!

I HIGHLY recommend stalking the Bronson Caves. They are very cool to see in person, even for those of you who are not movie locations buffs. My dad, who, as I have mentioned before HATES stalking, really enjoyed seeing the Caves, as did my boyfriend.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Bronson Caves are located just off Canyon Drive inside of Griffith Park. To reach Canyon Drive, follow Hollywood Boulevard to Bronson Drive and head North. When you hit Canyon Drive, make a left. You will pass through some stone gates, a couple of parking lots, and a playground. Head to where Canyon Drive ends and park in the public lot. The Caves are a short quarter mile walk from the parking lot. To walk to the Caves, head up the first pathway – it has a red curb – to the right. You will pass through a fire gate. Head up the hill and the Caves will be around a short bend to the left. You can see some photographs of the trail that leads to the Caves here.

May 29, 2009
Descanso Gardens

This past weekend I dragged my fiance and my parents out to stalk Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge – another location that I discovered thanks to my new favorite stalking book. The 160-acre botanical garden has been featured in countless movies and television shows over the years and is also a popular wedding venue.

E. Manchester Boddy (pronounced “Boh-dee”) first purchased the property now known as Descanso Gardens in 1937 to build a home for his family. Besides being the owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News, Boddy was also a horticulturalist and a commercial camellia grower and he needed a piece of property large enough to cultivate his prized flowers. Rancho de Descanso, as it was then known, fit the bill perfectly. In 1938, he commissioned a 12,000 square foot home to be built on the property. The 22-room mansion, named the Boddy House, was designed in the Hollywood Regency style by “architect to the stars” James E. Dolena. Boddy positioned the home in the very southeast corner of Descanso – which means “rest and repose” in Spanish – so that he and his family would be able to enjoy specatular views of the San Gabriel Mountains.  In 1953, Boddy sold the entire 160 acre property, including his custom built home, to the City of Los Angeles, who later opened it up to the public. In 2007, the Boddy Home was featured as the Pasadena Showcase House of Design and was completely renovated and restored to its former glory. The bottom floor of the home is open for all visitors of Descanso Gardens to tour. The Boddy House can also be rented out for weddings and private events.

Descanso Gardens encompasses a twenty-acre oak tree forest, a bird sanctuary, a five-acre rosarium featuring over three thousand roses, a Japanese tea garden, countless waterfalls and koi ponds, a lilac garden, and a California garden featuring Redwood trees, California poppies, and chaparral plants.   The site is stunning and extremely expansive, but also, sadly, very crowded, I believe due to its low admission price.

The venue’s beauty has, of course, led to countless onscreen cameos. Descanso was the location of Nikolas Natchios’ funeral in the 2003 movie Daredevil.

Its greenhouse was used in a prominent scene in Minority Report.

And Reese Witherspoon has filmed no less than three productions at the Gardens!   In Legally Blonde, Descanso was transformed into Golden Springs Spa where Reese and her partner Luke Wilson interviewed Raquel Welch. The building located just to left of Descanso’s main entrance was used as the entrance to the spa.

Both the interior and the exterior of the Boddy House were used as the home of John Voight, where Reese spends Christmas, in last year’s Four Christmases. Because the movie has not yet been released on DVD, I was not able to make screen captures of it. 🙁    According to one of the Boddy House docents, though, the mansion was significantly dressed up for the filming of the movie and is not very recognizable. Four Christmases featured many areas of the Boddy House, including the front entrance, main foyer, library, and living room. Reese also filmed her latest Avon commercial, which has yet to be released, at Descanso Gardens.

An episode of Mad Mad  was also recently filmed on Descanso’s main lawn area (pictured above). Descanso Gardens was also featured in Memoirs of a Geisha, America’s Sweethearts, Graduation Day, Tiny Dancer, Congo, Land of the Lost, the recently wrapped Untitled Duplass Brothers Project starring Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill, and John C. Reily, and Eddie Murphy’s new movie The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Descanso Gardens is located at 1418 Descanso Drive in La Canada Flintridge. The Gardens are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The entrance fee is $8 for adults and $3 for children aged 5 to 12. Children under 5 are free. You can visit the Descanso Gardens website here.

May 27, 2009
The Starsky & Hutch Mansion

A few weeks ago, my mom drove me by what has to be one of the biggest houses I’ve ever seen in my entire life! The property spans almost an entire city block! When you drive by it literally just keeps on going and going and going! LOL My mom showed me the absolutely ginormous Tudor style mansion to see if I recognized it from any movies or television shows. She had an inkling that, because of its massive size, it was probably used as a filming location at some point in history. And she was right, although I didn’t realize it at the time.

Then, last week, as I was scanning through Starsky & Hutch, making screen captures for my post about Rae’s Restaurant, I saw the house and almost fell out of my chair! In the 2004 comedy, the mega-mansion was featured as the home of Vince Vaughn’s character, Reese Feldman.

The mansion appears twice in Starsky & Hutch. We first see it when the detectives show up there to interrogate Vince Vaughn about a dead body they have just discovered.

Later on in the movie, Vince Vaughn throws his daughter a bat mitzvah party in a large tent in the home’s backyard.

During the party, Ben Stiller accidentally shoots a pony in front of all of the party guests just outside of the mansion’s large garage.

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This same house was also used in the short lived Rebecca Romijn series Pepper Dennis. As you can see in this Movieland Directory link, Arden Road is no stranger to the silver screen. Numerous houses on Arden have been featured in productions over the years, most notably the “Carrington Mansion” from television’s Dynasty, which is located just a few houses down from the Starsky & Hutch manse. Unfortunately, though, it is not at all visible from the street. 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Reese Feldman (aka Vince Vaughn’s) mansion from Starsky & Hutch is located at 1050 Arden Road in Pasadena. The “Carrington Mansion” is located just a few houses away from it at 1145 Arden Road.

May 22, 2009
Naomi Clark’s House

Back in March, I came across this post on fave website On Location Vacations which stated that 90210 was filming that day at a private residence located at 145 North Rossmore Avenue in Los Angeles. That residence turned out to be the mega-mansion that Naomi Clark and her sister moved into in the episode of the CW series that aired last week, entitled “Zero Tolerance”. And since the home was also featured quite prominently in last night’s episode as the location of Naomi’s after-prom party, of course I just had to run right out and stalk it. 🙂 Thanks, On Location Vacations!!!!!

As you can see in the aerial images pictured above, Naomi’s house is absolutely ginormous in person!!! The mansion, which was originally built in 1923, boasts 5 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms!!! and a whopping 6,147 square feet.

Thanks to its sheer size and the two large towers (complete with flagpole) that flank its entrance, the mansion actually looks more like a museum or a monument of some sort than a residence. It’s hard to believe that a real person actually lives there!

The home is so big, in fact, that it even has its own separate service entrance! 🙂 LOL

Both the interior and the exterior of the mansion were used quite extensively on last night’s episode of 90210, which was entitled “One Party Can Ruin Your Whole Summer”.   Featured on the show were the front entrance;

the front yard area – where Annie had her meltdown;

the pool area – where Silver encouraged all the girls to go swimming in their prom dresses and where Naomi’s sister, Jen, hit on Liam;

and the covered walkway – where Ethan kissed Silver.

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I couldn’t help but cringe last night while watching Naomi’s house being trashed during her out of control prom party. If I owned that beautiful mansion I don’t think I could have handled watching that happen – even if it was all fake. LOL  🙂  According to Zillow, this same home was also used in an episode of CSI: Miami, but I am not sure which one.  I will have to keep my eyes open for it. 🙂

I have to say that I am actually a bit surprised that that this particular house was used for filming, as it doesn’t seem to be situated in a very film-friendly location. Rossmore Avenue is a fairly busy thoroughfare, with pretty much constant traffic congestion.  I had a hard time even just walking across Rossmore to take a picture from the other side of the street, so I can’t imagine how the crew was able to set up the many film trucks and equipment needed for the day without at least partially shutting down the street. Needless to say, though, the house is absolutely beautiful and absolutely huge and it is just the type of home I’d picture 90210’s resident princess purchasing for herself. You can see some great interior and close up pics of the house here. 🙂

  Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Naomi Clark’s house is located at 145 North Rossmore Avenue in Los Angeles.

May 21, 2009
Altadena Town and Country Club

As I predicted a few weeks ago, getting engaged has opened up a whole new stalking world for me! And even though I have known for years now the exact spot where I want to get married, I am fully planning on dragging my fiance from one end of L.A. to the other looking at wedding/filming locations. Hey, a girl should really keep her options open, shouldn’t she? For stalking’s sake, at least. 🙂 So, yesterday I set out to stalk my very first wedding (and, of course, filming) location – the Altadena Town and Country Club. I had heard rumors a few years back that a scene from Dirty Dancing  had been filmed at the club – how did these Dirty Dancing being filmed in Altadena rumors get started, anyway???? – and have wanted to stalk the place ever since. Yesterday, I finally had my chance.

Altadena Town and Country Club, which was established in 1910 and was originally called the Altadena Country Club, is an absolutely beautiful private club located at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains.

The five and a half acre property boasts sprawling lawns;

a beautiful rose garden;

a sparkling swimming pool complete with a poolside snack bar;

multiple tennis courts;

a 27,000 square foot clubhouse,

consisting of several beautiful ballrooms with wood-beamed ceilings;

a large terrace overlooking the pool;

and an upscale restaurant with a top notch wine list. In fact, one of my very favorite champagnes is on the Club’s list of options for wedding toasts. 🙂   Altadena Town and Country Club looks like the perfect setting to host a wedding and the prices are extremely reasonable to boot!!! I didn’t end up taking the full wedding tour while I was there yesterday, as it was the event coordinators’ day off. But I think I am going to make an appointment to do just that, as I ended up really liking the place. 🙂

And, while I am absolutely certain that Dirty Dancing was not filmed at the Altadena Town & Country Club, many other productions have been filmed there. The Club stood in for Marsante Country Club in the Season One episode of The Mentalist entitled “Scarlett Fever”;

it was used as Vince Vaughn’s pool club in Starsky & Hutch;

and it was the location of the Lambda Omega Omega “End of Finals Loo-au” in Van Wilder.  Altadena Town and Country Club was also featured in an episode of Mad Men, the 1994 movie Speechless, and the Wonder Years two-part series finale entitled “Summer/Independence Day”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Altadena Town and Country Club is located at 2290 Country Club Drive in Altadena. You can visit their website here. Unfortunately, the Club is not open to the public, but it is available as an event and wedding venue.

May 20, 2009
Farnsworth Park

My favorite movie of all time has got to be Dirty Dancing. I’ve loved the coming-of-age film ever since I was about 13 years old. Oh, how I wanted to be Baby! 🙂 Growing up, I made my best guy friend practice doing “the lift” with me everytime we were in a swimming pool. LOL   And, like Baby, I could never seem to get it right! 🙂 It has long been my location dream to one day travel to Pembroke, Virgina to stalk Mountain Lake Resort, the hotel where most of the filming of the movie took place.   So, imagine my surprise yesterday when I read in my new favorite stalking book that the final dance sequence from Dirty Dancing was actually filmed right here in L.A.! I literally just about died of excitement!!!! LOL According to the book, the Kellerman Playhouse, which supposedly existed at the Catskills resort where Baby and her family were vacationing, was, in reality, the Davies Memorial Building located in Farnsworth Park in Altadena. So, of course, I ran right out to stalk it!

Unfortunately, though, after watching Dirty Dancing earlier today – accompanied by screenwriter Eleanor Bergstein’s commentary – I am fairly certain that the rumors about the movie being filmed in Altadena are simply that – rumors. As you can see in the above screen captures, the Davies Memorial Building in no way resembles the Kellerman Playhouse where Johnny and Baby performed their famous final dance. 🙁    The differences between the two buildings include: the Kellerman Playhouse has French doors and stone columns running along its walls, but the Davies Building does not; the ceiling of the Davies Building is flanked by wooden beams, while the ceiling of the Kellerman Playhouse has an almost curtain-like ceiling; the Davies Building features a huge rock fireplace centered on one wall, while the Kellerman Playhouse is lacking a fireplace; and the chandeliers in the Davies building are craftsman style, while the Kellerman Playhouse chandeliers are more traditional. Final proof that the dance scene was not filmed at the Davies Building? In the commentary, Eleanor states that the scene, which took a whopping five full days to film, took place in North Carolina. SUCH A BUMMER!!!!

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My stalking trip to Farnsworth Park wasn’t a complete bust, though. While I can pretty much state with absolute certainty that Dirty Dancing’s final dance scene did not take place there, I am happy to report that many other productions have been filmed on the property. 🙂

In American Pie 2, Farnsworth Park stood in for Tall Oaks Band Camp. The amphitheatre area was featured in the scene where Jim played the trombone before a packed audience . . .

. . . and the Davies Memorial Building was used as the camp lodge where Jim and Michelle had a late night chat. You can see the building’s huge stone fireplace behind Jim and Michelle in the above screen capture. Farnsworth Park also made an appearance in the movie’s sequel, American Pie Presents Band Camp.

The Davies Memorial building was also used in the Margaret Chow series Two Sisters  and it’s kitchen area was featured in an episode of NCIS, where it was dressed up to look like a morgue. The picnic area of Farnsworth Park has been featured in CSI: Las Vegas, numerous episodes of Ghostwhisperer, and a commercial for Apple Computers.

And even though Dirty Dancing wasn’t filmed there, I still highly recommend stalking Farnsworth Park. It is a really pretty place to walk around, lounge in the shade, or have a picnic. The staff there is also EXTREMELY friendly. I was even given a mini-tour of the property by one of the staff members, who told me all about what filming had taken place there. 🙂 Love it!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Farnsworth Park is located at 568 East Mount Curve Avenue, at the corner of Mount Curve and Lake Avenues, in Altadena. Park hours are from 9 a.m. to sunset. Parking is free. You can visit the park’s official website here.

May 19, 2009
Rae’s Restaurant

Last weekend, while lounging by the pool in Palm Springs, I happened to open up People Magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful issue and almost fell right off my lawn chair when I saw a pic of my girl Chelsea Handler posing at fave restaurant Rae’s in Santa Monica. 🙂 Chelsea was featured as one of the magazine’s “Pretty Funny” people and her entire photo shoot (which you can watch a behind the scenes video of here) took place at a small 50s style diner that is no stranger to the silver screen. In fact, I’ve even stalked it once before!

Even though I have already blogged about Rae’s, because it is one of my favorite places in all of L.A. and because my girl Chelsea did her People photo shoot there, I just had to stalk it once again. 🙂   So, on Friday morning, bright and early, I dragged my dad out to Santa Monica to grab some breakfast at Rae’s.

Rae’s has been a Santa Monica staple since it first opened up in 1958. And it’s really no wonder why. The diner serves up some of the best food in all of L.A.!!!! And I am the pickiest eater known to man, so if I love the food, then you know it’s gotta be good.   🙂  Pretty much everything Rae’s serves is homemade on the premises using fresh ingredients, which is pretty unusual to find in a diner type setting. Especially when you consider the prices! Rae’s is extremely inexpensive – almost unbelievably so! The bill for my dad and my breakfast came to a whopping $5.30! I’m not kidding!!!! My personal favorite Rae’s meal, though, has to be their turkey dinner, which is served with fresh whipped mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing and gravy, and turkey that is cut right off of an actual steaming turkey right in front of you. Even my dad loved the place and is already making plans to bring my mom there in the near future. 🙂

Because Rae’s has such a unique look, location scouts have long been enamored with it.  Rae’s has appeared in COUNTLESS productions over the years, including my fave Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, where it stood in for the Frazier’s Bottom diner where Tad and Rosalie grabbed a bite to eat;

Not Another Teen Movie, where it was featured during the “Prom Tonight” song and dance sequence;

Starsky and Hutch, where Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller ate breakfast after discovering a dead body in a nearby ravine;

Bowfinger, where Steve Martin and his film crew ate a celebratory dinner after filming a pivotal scene in their movie entitled “Chubby Rain” LOL;

True Romance, where Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater eat some pie after seeing a movie;

Lords of Dogtown, where Skip and the boys get into a food fight with a waiter;

The Next Best Thing, where Madonna eats a hamburger for the first time and realizes she might be pregnant;

the cover of Elton John’s “Songs from the West Coast” album;

‘N Sync’s photo shoot for the December 2001 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine; and the movies Book of Love and The Old Car. The diner has also been featured in countless commercials.

I honestly can’t recommend stalking Rae’s enough!!!! Love the food, love the atmosphere, love the service!!! You honestly can’t go wrong with this place! 🙂

On a side note, I am completely obsessed with the wishbone ring Chelsea Handler was sporting in her People Magazine photo shoot (you can just barely see it in the above photo). The ring is a Jennifer Meyer (aka Mrs. Tobey McGuire) design and even though I just received a pretty special ring last weekend :), I am so wanting it. LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Rae’s Restaurant is located at 2901 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica. Be sure to bring cash, as Rae’s does not accept credit cards. 🙂

May 18, 2009
Speidi on I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here!

For those of you like me out there, for whom one day a week is just not enough to satisfy your Spencer and Heidi fix, I have good news!! Everyone’s favorite reality TV duo will be starring in the upcoming season of I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here, which premieres on June 1st. For those of you who have never watched the Get Me Out Of Here reality series, it is basically a celebrity version of Survivor. In the season opener, seven celebs (including Speidi) will be dropped off in a remote Costa Rican jungle without make-up artists, publicists, or even personal assistants to keep them company! The celeb contestants will be forced to sleep outdoors in hammocks and eat meals consisting of rice, water, and even bugs!! The stars will also participate in challenges to raise money for their particular charities. Each week, viewers will have a chance to vote off a different contestant, until one is eventually crowned King or Queen of the Jungle. This show sounds like it’s right up my alley and I absolutely cannot wait to watch it!!!! 🙂

What’s even more exciting is that one of the executives from I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here was kind enough to send me some location pics from the show so that I could share them with all of you!!!! So cool!!!!! 🙂 Pictured above are a swamp and a bridge that will be used in the filming. 🙂 Love it!!

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You can watch a super cute interview with Speidi about their upcoming jungle adventure here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The new season of I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here premieres Monday, June 1st at 8 p.m. on NBC. You can visit the show’s official website here.

May 16, 2009