Tag: filming

The Washoe County Courthouse from “The Misfits”

As promised, while visiting my grandmother in Reno last month, I did indeed bring along a copy of The Misfits on DVD and we did indeed watch it. Prior to gathering around her television set, my grandma informed me that she had actually seen The Misfits once before, back in 1961 when it first came out in theatres. How incredibly cool is that! When I asked her if she had enjoyed it, she said “No, not particularly.” Ha! My grandmother has never been one to mince words. She told me that the movie was a bit too depressing for her taste and that the horse-wrangling scenes seriously disturbed her. Now, having seen the flick myself, I can say that her analysis was spot on. The Misfits was seriously depressing and I had to fast-forward through each and every one of the scenes involving horse-wrangling. I must say, though, that it was, as always, thoroughly enjoyable to see my girl Marilyn Monroe onscreen in what many consider to be her finest performance. Every time MM would enter a scene, my mom, who watched the film with us, would say, “God, she was beautiful!” And it is so true! The camera certainly loved Marilyn and she was absolutely luminous in The Misfits, which, as fate would have it, was the last picture the starlet ever completed.

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A very brief, but important scene from The Misfits, which was filmed almost in its entirety in the Silver State, takes place at the Washoe County Courthouse in Downtown Reno, a building which is still in use to this day. So I, of course, just had to drag my dad and my grandma out to stalk the place while we were in town. (My mom, who had just had back surgery, decided to sit this one out.) The absolutely beautiful, neo-classical-style courthouse was originally designed in 1911 by Frederic DeLongchamps, in what was to be the prolific Nevada-area architect’s very first solo commission. The stunning structure, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, cost $250,000 to construct and features a copper dome, towering Corinthian columns, a large portico, terrazzo tile flooring, and a stained glass ceiling.

Sadly though, as you can see above, no photography whatsoever is allowed inside of the building. According to the Yahoo! Travel website, more marriage licenses have been given out at the Washoe County Courthouse than at any other courthouse of its size in the entire country. Consequently, due to Reno’s lenient divorce laws (the city’s waiting period for a divorce in the early 1900s was only six months; in 1927 that waiting period was shortened to three months; and in 1931 it was shortened yet again to a scant six weeks!), countless marriages have ended within the courthouse walls, as well, resulting in the city being dubbed “The Divorce Capital of the World”. In the 1930s alone over 33,000 divorces were granted at the historic courthouse, which is, I am guessing, how The Misfits came to be filmed there.

In The Misfits, Guido (aka Eli Wallach, whom my sharp-as-a-tack, 86-year-old grandmother immediately recognized as Arthur Abbot from fave movie The Holiday), drives Roslyn Taber (aka Marilyn Monroe) and her friend Isabelle Steers (aka Thelma Ritter) to the Washoe County Courthouse so that Roslyn can be granted a – you guessed it – divorce. Guido drops the two women off on the northeast corner of South Virginia Street and Court Street in the scene, just across the road from the courthouse, which you can see in the background in the two screen captures pictured above.

Roslyn and Isabelle then cross South Virginia Street and head to the courthouse, where they run into Roslyn’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Raymond Taber (aka Kevin McCarthy), and have a brief confrontation with him on the front steps. I find it absolutely amazing that the courthouse not only still looks exactly the same today as it did in 1961 when The Misfits was filmed, but that the place is still in use almost a full century after its inception. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

While stalking the courthouse, I was under the mistaken assumption that Marilyn had walked up the north side of the front steps in The Misfits and I had my dad take a photograph of me posing there. It was not until I got home and re-watched the scene that I realized that Marilyn had actually walked up the south side of the steps. Ugh, I am such a blonde sometimes! Ah well, I guess I will just have to go back and re-stalk the place during my next visit to Reno!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The official address of the Washoe County Courthouse from The Misfits is 75 Court Street in Downtown Reno, but the front of the building and the area that appeared in the movie is actually located around the corner at 117 South Virginia Street.

August 12, 2011
The “Eye for an Eye” House

A couple of months ago, my good friend and fellow stalker Lavonna asked me to track down the supposed Pacific-Palisades-area residence where the McCann family – Karen (aka Sally Field), Mack (aka Ed Harris), Julie (aka Olivia Burnette, who also played Dorothy Jane Torkelson on The Torkelsons, one of my very favorite television series ever, but I digress), and Megan (aka Alexandra Kyle) – lived in the 1996 revenge thriller Eye for an Eye. Amazingly enough, even though I absolutely LOVE me some revenge thrillers, I had never before even heard of Eye for an Eye, so the Grim Cheaper and I promptly headed out to rent it that very evening. And I have to say that we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Not as much as Taken or Man on Fire (which in this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion are the ultimate vigilante flicks ever made), mind you, but it was a good watch nonetheless.

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Like Lavonna, I, too, was immediately taken with the stately home belonging to the McCann family while watching the flick and was absolutely convinced that it was located somewhere in the Pasadena area. After a few hours of looking for the residence via aerial views, though, I came up completely empty-handed. So I did what any good stalker does in a situation like this – I called in the troops – i.e. fellow stalkers Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, and Owen. And, amazingly enough, Owen immediately sent me back a text informing me that he had tracked down the residence about four years beforehand! Duh! Note to self – always ask my fellow stalkers if they have found a location prior to looking for it myself!

In real life, the Eye for an Eye house is located at 456 South Arden Boulevard in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. As you can see above, though, the property was given a fake address number of “244” for the filming, so I have no idea how in the heck Owen managed to find the place! My hat is definitely off to you, buddy!

I finally made it out to stalk the residence a couple of weeks ago, along with Chas, who happened to be in town for a little Southern California stalking vacay. And while the Eye for an Eye house is very pretty in person, I must say that I much prefer the way it looked onscreen – painted grey and white and sans shutters on the upstairs windows.

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was also used in the filming, but I was unfortunately not able to find any photographs of the property on any locations websites to verify that hunch.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! And you can check out fellow stalker Chas’ in-depth Eye for an Eye filming locations page on the It’sFilmedThere website here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Eye for an Eye house is located at 456 South Arden Boulevard in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.

August 11, 2011
“Parks and Recreation” Filming at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena

Last Wednesday, while on my morning walk to Starbucks, I happened to pass by fave bookstore Vroman’s and just about fell over when I noticed an entire slew of production trucks parked out front. I, of course, immediately sought out one of the crew members to ask what was being filmed and he told me that it was an episode of Parks and Recreation. And even though I had never actually seen the NBC series before, I decided to stick around to watch the filming – only after getting my Starbucks first, of course. The shoot was taking place inside of Vroman’s, in the store’s Reading Group section, which had been set up to look like a book signing event was about to occur. The crew had brought in all new furniture for the scene, as well as several posters for Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America, a book supposedly written by Pawnee, Indiana Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation Leslie Knope (aka Amy Poehler). And while I had assumed that the tome was a fake that had been created solely for the filming, it is apparently a real life publication about the show that is set to be released on October 4th.

A display featuring several copies of Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America was set up in the background of the scene and, throughout the day, before filming began, countless Vroman’s customers would walk up and look through it, thinking it was a real item that was for sale. LOL I am dying to know if anyone actually brought a copy up to the cash registers and tried to purchase it!

At first I was not sure if I would be allowed to photograph the set that the crew had created, so like an idiot I was trying to be sly and take pictures on the down-low, which never seems to work out for me. For some reason, whenever I try to fly under the radar and be covert, I end up drawing attention to myself, which is exactly what happened in this case. One of the crew members noticed me ever-so-stealthily snapping photographs and informed me that I was welcome to take all of the pictures that I wanted . . .

. . . at which point I immediately jumped up onto the podium that Amy Poehler would be standing on during the scene to pose for a pic. YAY!

I was most fascinated, though, with a palm tree located just outside of Vroman’s front doors (which would only be seen in the background of the scene) that set dressers decorated to look like a tree indigenous to the Midwest, where Parks and Recreation supposedly takes place.

As you can see above, the front side of the tree’s trunk had been covered over with fake bark for the filming.

And real life branches from some sort of Midwestern tree (can you tell that I am in no way, shape, or form a green thumb?!?) were mixed in with the actual palm’s branches. The tree looked so incredibly realistic, even up close, that it was almost unbelievable! I don’t think anyone who walked by even noticed that it had been altered, even though the trunk looked a bit odd from the side.

I was absolutely dying to get a photograph with Rob Lowe (whose autobiography, Stories I Only Tell My Friends, was recently loaned to me by my good friend/fellow stalker Kerry and is can’t-put-down-AMAZING!) and figured I could catch the actor on his way into the bookstore before filming got started. Sadly though, Vroman’s has three different entrances and I waited outside of the wrong one and missed him entirely. Major, major FAIL! Especially since he was reportedly incredibly friendly and nice! Apparently, one of the Vroman’s employees, who goes by the twitter handle @howsannie, had sent out the following tweet the previous evening: “Parks & Recreation is filming at the store tomorrow. Dibs on @RobLowe!”, to which the actor responded, “I expect prominent book display!” When Rob walked into the store the following afternoon, his books were indeed on prominent display and he not only signed a bunch of copies for Vroman’s to sell, one of which is pictured above, but he also signed a copy for @howsannie. How incredibly cool is that? He even tweeted a photograph of himself from the set that day, which you can take a look at here. I was lucky enough to get to watch Rob, along with Amy Poehler and Chris Pratt, during the filming and all I can say is WOW! The guy is VERY good looking! Much more so than he appears to be onscreen. And while I would have waited around until the shoot wrapped to try to get a picture with the cast, I had promised Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, that I would stalk a movie premiere with her later that afternoon, so I couldn’t. Ah well! Here’s hoping they will be filming in Pasadena again sometime soon!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. You can visit the store’s official website here. Look for the Parks and Recreation episode that was filmed at Vroman’s to air sometime in the next two months or so.

August 9, 2011
Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea in Pasadena – One of Joel McHale’s Favorite Hangouts

As I have mentioned quite a few times before on my blog, this stalker absolutely loves herself some Joel McHale. So when I saw that the cutie The Soup host/Community star had been interviewed about some of his favorite SoCal haunts in the August 2011 “The Best of LA” issue of Los Angeles Magazine, I just about died of excitement! And, being that this stalker also absolutely loves herself some coffee, when I discovered that the actor frequents a java spot right near where I live in Pasadena, I almost had a full-blown heart attack right on the spot! In the brief blurb, which is pictured above, Joel mentions that his two young sons love visiting Travel Town at Griffith Park and the Train Shack in Burbank and that a great night out with his wife would include meals or cocktails at Harvard & Stone, Girasole, Mozza, Cut, or Varnish (all of which I will, of course, be stalking in the very near future ). But the quote that caught my eye had to do with a recently-opened coffee bar in Old Town Pasadena that I have walked by about a hundred times in the past few months, but had yet to visit. (I know, I know – a coffee bar that I have not yet sampled? Did hell freeze over or something?) When asked where Joel goes for “solo time”, the actor responded, “Solo time is in my car, but if I’m alone and want to be in a social atmosphere, I would choose LaMill in Silver Lake or Intelligentsia in Pasadena.” So I, of course, immediately ran right out to stalk the place the very next day.

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I first walked by Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea shortly after it opened in August of last year and was completely floored to discover that the place was not only a coffee house, but a restaurant and wine bar, as well. I am of the opinion that every type of public space should house a built-in coffee bar, e.g. nail salons, laundry mats, book shops, museums, clothing stores, etc., etc., etc. So when I saw that Intelligentsia not only served espresso, but champagne (which is my other culinary vice), as well, I was beyond excited! I immediately called up the Grim Cheaper and told him about the place and what a fabulous idea I thought it was. According to fave website Eater LA, of the concept owner Doug Zell says, “The neighborhood there in Old Town Pasadena reminds us of some European and South American cities where you can walk into a café or bar and be served a great espresso any time of day, but also a nice lunch, a beer after work, a glass of wine on a date.” Zell was apparently inspired to open the space after visiting an eatery in San Paulo, Brazil that served beer, wine, food, and fine coffee. Never have I so badly wanted to visit Brazil!

The first Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea was opened in October of 1995 on the north side of Chicago by coffee-loving couple Doug Zell and Emily Mange. Sixteen years later, the Zagat-rated chain, which employs coffee sommeliers at each outpost (love it!), boasts nine locations in three different cities – Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. (The Pasadena branch is the first to offer food and wine.) Celebrities have been flocking to the company’s four L.A.-area locations since the very beginning. Just a few of the stars who have gotten their java on at the chain include Vanessa Hudgens, Zachary Quinto, Olivia Wilde, Scarlett Johansson, Joe Jonas, Christina Ricci, Jake Gyllenhaal, and, of course, Joel McHale. Amazingly enough, the recent Los Angeles Magazine article was not Joel’s first mention of the coffee house. He also spoke about it in a June 2011 Chicago Tribune interview in which he said, “I do drink Intelligentsia. I wish there was one slightly closer to my house. There are two of them right now. Hopefully, they’ll open more. But the coffee is—no, there’s three of them now, four; I don’t know. There’s a couple in Pasadena, one on Sunset and one in Santa Monica, which is not geographically conducive to me. But it’s great coffee.” Even though it is not geographically conducive, according to the barista that I spoke with, the actor does stop by the Pasadena outpost fairly regularly. She also told me that Joel could NOT be nicer, friendlier, or more down-to-earth, which was the exact impression I got of him when I met him at the Envelope Emmy Week Geek TV Event this past June. (I also just got to go to a taping of The Soup this past Friday, thanks to my good friend/fellow stalker Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, which was an ABSOLUTELY amazing experience that I will be blogging about soon.)

As my fellow stalkers very well know, I have long been a Starbucks girl at heart and can rarely find a coffee house that compares. But I am very happy to report that Joel McHale has some great taste in java, because Intelligentsia serves up some FABULOUS joe! I was VERY pleasantly surprised as I find that most independent stores make a brew that is far too strong for my taste. Intelligentsia’s was a perfect blend, though, and, coming from me, that is the ultimate compliment! And, let me tell you, I just about fell over when the girl ahead of me in line ordered a cappuccino and it came out looking like this. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea is located at 55 East Colorado Boulevard in Old Town Pasadena. You can visit the chain’s official website here.

August 8, 2011
Le Petit Bistro from “90210”

A couple of Saturday nights ago, the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves in West Hollywood, tired and hungry after a long day of stalking. We happened to come across an absolutely adorable little French restaurant named Le Petit Bistro and decided to pop in for a bite to eat. Now, usually I do not like to frequent eateries that are not mentioned on my (very long and ever-growing) “To Stalk” list, but because the place was so darn cute I made an out-of-character exception. So imagine my surprise when later that week I happened to be perusing through my friend and fellow stalker Geoff’s 90210Locations website and saw that Le Petit Bistro was listed as a filming location from fave show 90210! I literally just about fell off my chair and immediately started mentally kicking myself for not taking more pictures of the place.

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In the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “How Much Is That Liam In The Window”, college student/budding writer Charlie Selby (aka Evan Ross, who I just found out is Diana Ross’ son!) takes Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes) out for a date at Le Petit Bistro, his favorite French restaurant. After the waiter approaches their table and says something in French, Annie asks Charlie, “Are you sure you didn’t secretly drug me and take me to Paris?” (The menus pictured above are the eatery’s actual menus, by the way! How incredibly cool is that?)

Annie’s assessment of the Zagat-rated restaurant, which first opened in 1993, could NOT have been more spot-on! Thanks to its dark red walls, French-accented waiters, wood-paneled bar, and covered patio (made complete with twinkle lights), the Grim Cheaper and I absolutely did feel like we had been magically transported to Paris! And I am very happy to report that besides the incredible ambiance, Le Petit Bistro also serves up some out-of-this-world food! For whatever reason, I opted for a bit of a strange order that night – a parmesan cheese salad that was one of the evening’s specials, the Blue Crab Cakes appetizer, and a side of marinated wild mushrooms. Even though it might sound odd ordered all together like that, it was an absolutely incredible meal, especially the mushrooms! My mouth still waters just thinking about those mushrooms weeks later! The GC ordered one of the restaurant’s fish specials which was adorned with homemade mushroom risotto and it was also scrumptious! And best of all (in the GC’s eyes at least), the prices were extremely reasonable. We both absolutely fell in love with the place and cannot wait to go back!

Besides being a filming location, Le Petit Bistro is also something of a celebrity hot spot. Just a few of the famous faces who have dined there over the years include Dr. Dre, Neve Campbell, Julio Iglesias, Alfred Molina, Sean Connery, Salma Hayek, Robert Forster, Denise Grayson, Suzanne Somers, director Jared Hess, and Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement.

Ironically enough, the very brief exterior establishing shot of Annie and Charlie’s date restaurant on 90210 was not of Le Petit Bistro, but of a different L.A.-area French eatery – Figaro Bistrot, which is located at 1802 North Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. While making screen captures for today’s post, I immediately recognized Figaro as I have walked past the cute little French restaurant numerous times in the past and have always wanted to stalk it due to its appearance in a Louis Vuitton ad featuring Madonna (which you can see photographs of here). And I should clarify here that while I have never been a particularly big fan of Madonna, I am a HUGE fan of Louis Vuitton. I also spotted Archie Panjabi, who plays investigator Kalinda Sharma on The Good Wife, dining on Figaro’s sidewalk patio a couple of months back.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Le Petit Bistro, from the “How Much Is That Liam In The Window” episode of 90210, is located at 631 North La Cienega Boulevard, just north of Restaurant Row, in West Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

August 5, 2011
Twin Palms – Frank Sinatra’s Former Palm Springs Estate

Another Palm-Springs-area location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked two weekends ago while vacationing in the Coachella Valley was Twin Palms, the former desert home of legendary crooner Frank Sinatra and his then-wife Nancy Barbato. And while I have actually stalked – and even blogged about – this location once before (way back in April of 2008!), since it was in the very early days of my site, it was an extremely short post that did not include any of the property’s vastly fascinating history. So I decided that the estate was most definitely worthy of a re-write.

Apparently, on May 1, 1947, Frank Sinatra, who had just signed a highly profitable movie contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, wandered into the offices of newly-founded architectural firm Williams, Williams, & Williams. At the time, now-legendary architect E. Stewart Williams, who designed Frankie’s house from Alpha Dog which I blogged about last Thursday, was a novice who had just joined his father’s firm and had yet to design a private residence. Frank, who was holding an ice cream cone and wearing a sailor’s hat, informed the team that he wanted them to design and build a huge Georgian-style estate by Christmas, in time for a party the singer was hosting. And even though the desired finish date was only seven short months away, Williams, Williams, & Williams took the job. Apparently, Frank was a difficult man to say “no” to. E. Stewart came up with two designs for the singer, one in the Georgian-style that Frank had originally envisioned, and another in the mid-century-modern-style, which Stewart would later become famous for. Sinatra liked the modern design and the rest, as they say, is history. E. Stewart’s partner and brother, Roger, later said, “We’d have been ruined if we’d been forced to build Georgian in the desert.”

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The four-bedroom, five-bathroom, 4,500-square-foot estate, which was built fully air-conditioned at a cost of $150,000, was completed in time for Frank’s party. The property was nick-named “Twin Palms”, thanks to the two large palm trees which flanked the home’s piano-shaped swimming pool. The estate, which is currently used as a vacation rental and filming location, currently boasts authentic period furniture, countless Frank Sinatra memorabilia, the original Valentino sound system on which Frank used to cut his records, a pool house complete with his-and-her bathrooms, and a full library of the iconic crooner’s music.

Frank and Nancy divorced in 1948 and Frank’s mistress and future wife Ava Gardner subsequently moved in. Of her time in the house, Ava said, “It was the site of probably the most spectacular fight of our young married life, and honey don’t think I don’t know that’s really saying something . . . Frank’s establishment in Palm Springs, the only house we really could ever call our own, has seen some pretty amazing occurrences.” Indeed! According to the home’s rental website, one of the sinks in the master bathroom bears a crack from a champagne bottle that Frank threw at Ava during one of their legendary brawls. You can see a photograph of that crack here. Frank also reportedly once threw all of Eva’s belongings into the driveway of the home after she had attempted to catch him cheating on her with actress Lana Turner. It was also in this house that Frank kept a room for his friend and my girl Marilyn Monroe, who was a frequent guest. In 1957, after filing for divorce from Ava, Frank sold the property and moved to a new home in nearby Rancho Mirage. Today, Twin Palms is a Palm Springs Class 1 Historical Site and is featured regularly in photo shoots for fashion magazines, including Men’s Health, Town & Country, Palm Springs Life, Sunset, German Elle, and Vogue. And the dwelling is also a filming location! Apparently Frank allowed the exterior of the property to be featured in the 1950 movie The Damned Don’t Cry, which starred Joan Crawford. You can see some fabulous interior photographs of the estate on the Rearranged Design website here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Twin Palms, Frank Sinatra’s former desert home, is located at 1148 East Alejo Road in Palm Springs. You can visit the property’s official website here. Tours of the estate are conducted on a semi-regular basis and private tours, for a minimum of 20 guests, can also be arranged by clicking here.

August 4, 2011
The Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells

One Palm-Springs-area hotel that I have long wanted to vacation at – not because it is a filming location, but because it is just simply beautiful – is the Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells. The Grim Cheaper and I ate dinner at the resort once upon a time many years back and I have been enamored of the place ever since. So for our recent Coachella Valley getaway two weekends ago, I begged the GC to book us a room there. And even though the rates weren’t exactly inexpensive despite the intense summer heat, he readily agreed! Shocking, I know! It was not until the very end of our stay, as we were checking out of the hotel, that I discovered, thanks to the super nice concierge on duty, that the resort was not only something of a celebrity hot-spot, but also a filming location! They say that the more you think about something, the more you attract that thing to you and in this particular instance that was definitely the case. It seems I always find myself stalking, even when I am not necessarily intending to.

The Miramonte Resort & Spa, which has been awarded Four Diamond status from AAA, boasts 215 spacious guest rooms sprawled throughout an 11-acre piece of property that has been designed to resemble a Tuscan villa. The well-manicured grounds include several flower and herb gardens, outdoor fireplaces and piazzas, meandering pathways, hammocks tucked away in shaded little spaces, sparkling fountains, 24-hour room service (LOVE it!), a two-story, 12,000-square-foot spa, which was named the “#1 Resort Spa in North America & Caribbean” by Conde Nast Traveler, two 18-hole championship golf courses, two pools, including an adults-only pool, and over 30,000 square feet of event and meeting space. And while the resort is quite large and boasts countless amenities, it somehow manages to retain an intimate, secluded, and quiet ambiance. Both the GC and I absolutely loved the place!

Best of all, we somehow got upgraded to a 425-square-foot “Estate Room” during our stay, which featured a full marble bathroom, two queen-sized ‘Desert Dream Beds’, a sitting area, free wireless internet (which the GC was absolutely floored about), a 42-inch flat screen TV, and striking views of the Santa Rosa Mountains.

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The Miramonte’s SUPER-nice concierge, who spent about twenty minutes speaking with me about filming locations and my website, informed me that The Real Housewives of Orange County had once filmed at the hotel. In the Season 6 episode titled “Body Shots”, Housewife Peggy Tanous and her husband, Micah, spent the weekend with their two daughters, Capri and London, in the Miramonte’s Presidential Suite. It was while laying by the resort’s pool that baby Capri cut her finger and had to be rushed to the hospital – which was just a slight overreaction to the situation in my opinion, but I digress.

The concierge also informed me that in the Season 1 episode of Flavor of Love titled “Flav’s Trippin’”, Flavor Flav took contestants Brooke Thompson, aka “Pumkin”, and Nicole Alexander, aka “Hoopz”, to the Miramonte for a spa getaway. Just a few of the other celebrities who have been spotted at the resort include Larry King, three-time Olympic figure skating World Champion Peggy Fleming, Bernie Mac, George Lopez, Tony Bennett, Tommy Hilfiger, Chris Tucker, and Judy Sheindlin, aka “Judge Judy”.

On a side note – while at my parents’ new house this past weekend, I came across a few celebrity autographs that I had compiled over the years, including the one pictured above from Miss Liza Minnelli. And even though, because I have always been far more into photographs than autographs, there are not that many of them, I thought it might be fun to post a few on my site. So I created a new page titled “Celebrity Guest Book”. You can check it out here. Enjoy!

And a very big HAPPY ANNIVERSARY goes out to my parents today, who are celebrating a whopping 37 years of marriage! Congratulations, guys! I love you!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Miramonte Resort & Spa is located at 45000 Indian Wells Lane in Indian Wells. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

August 3, 2011
The Hartunian House from “Alpha Dog”

Another Palm-Springs-area locale that fellow stalker/location scout Scott Trimble, of the STS Locations website, helped me to find recently was the residence where Frankie Ballenbacher’s (aka Justin Timberlake’s) good friend/”Witness #11”, Susan Hartunian (aka Dominique Swain), lived with her utterly clueless and apathetic mother, Tiffany Hartunian (aka ER’s Alex Kingston), in the 2006 movie Alpha Dog. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about the Koerner House , while I did not exactly love me some Alpha Dog, darn if the flick’s location scouts did not choose some FABULOUS and COMPLETELY UNIQUE locales to feature in it, one of which was the exquisite, mid-century-modern-style Hartunian abode. So I, of course, just had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place while the two of us were vacationing in the Coachella Valley two weekends ago.

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As stated yesterday, Alpha Dog is based on the harrowing true story of the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz, whose brother, Ben, owed $1,200 in drug debt to infamous West-Hills-area marijuana dealer Jesse James Hollywood. During the three-day-long ordeal, which more closely resembled a vacation than a kidnapping, Markowitz hung out and partied with Hollywood’s small group of low-life cronies in the Santa Barbara area and was seen by no less than 38 witnesses, none of whom reported – or for the most part even realized – that anything out of the ordinary was going on. In the movie, the character of Susan Hartunian, who was based on 17-year-old Santa-Barbara-resident Natasha Adams-Young, was the only one of those 38 witnesses who expressed any sort of concern over the fact that the boy, whose character was named Zack Mazursky and who was portrayed by Anton Yelchin, had been kidnapped. She was also the one who finally reported the involvement of the Jesse James Hollywood character, Johnny Truelove (aka Emile Hirsch), and his best friend Frankie to the police shortly after Zack’s body was found. Susan’s incredible house was featured several times in Alpha Dog and both the exterior . .

. . . and the interior of the property were used.

In real life, the Hartunian residence is known as the Burgess House or the Bougain Villa house, a play on the term “bougainvillea”, which is the name of a hearty, brightly-flowering plant that thrives in hot desert climates. The Burgess House, which was originally built in 1958 and boasts 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 2,932 square feet of living space, is situated on a one-acre plot of land that is nestled into a rocky mountainside located about 200 feet above Downtown Palm Springs. The altitude of the lot affords for some amazing mountain and city views and architects Hugh Kaptur and William Burgess took advantage of the lot’s unique position by fashioning the home with huge, floor-to-ceiling windows made of mirrored glass which reflect the surrounding landscape. They also installed numerous sparkling pools and ponds, large boulders located both inside and outside of the residence, large open patios, and huge canopy overhangs, which protect the residence and its occupants from the desert’s intense heat. In 1986, Albert Frey, the legendary Swiss-born architect who is largely regarded as the father of the Desert Modernism Movement, added a large guest home to the property. Sadly though, as fabulous as the house is, as you can see above very little of it can actually be seen from the street.

But I did manage to spot the patio where filming took place for the scene towards the beginning of Alpha Dog in which Susan told her mother that she was heading off to a party at Frankie’s house.

Aerial views of the property, which are sadly not that great either, are pictured above. And you can check out some FABULOUS photographs of the place that Martha Stewart took – yes, that Martha Stewart – on a 2009 trip to the desert here. If you would like to read a more in-depth account of the Nicholas Markowitz murder, you can check out a fabulous LA Magazine article titled “The Last Ride of Jesse James Hollywood” here.

I would like to send out a very big HAPPY BIRTHDAY wish today to my dear friend and fellow stalker Kerry up in Anacortes, Washington. I hope you are having fabulous day! I love you, girl!

Big THANK YOU to Scott Trimble, from the STS Locations website, for finding this location! You can follow Scott on Twitter, and learn all about his many location scout adventures, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Burgess House, aka the Hartunian residence from Alpha Dog, is located at 550 West Palisades Drive in Palm Springs. Palisades Drive is a private, gated road that is not accessible to the public, but you can catch some good views of the residence from West Tahquitz Canyon Way, just east of where it meets Palisades Drive.

July 29, 2011
Frankie’s House from “Alpha Dog”

One location that I have been on the lookout for for what seems like forever now is the home belonging to Frankie Ballenbacher’s (aka Justin Timberlake’s) father, Juergen Ballenbacher (aka Chris Kinkade), in the ultra-dark and depressing movie Alpha Dog. As I have expressed a few times before on this blog, I was not at all a fan of the 2006 flick, which was based on the real-life kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz by Jesse James Hollywood and his group of drug-dealing cronies, as it was far too disturbing for my taste. But I did absolutely fall in love with the mid-century-modern-style abode where the teenaged kidnap victim, who was named Zack Mazursky (aka Anton Yelchin) in the movie, spent the majority of his imprisonment. I started looking for the Ballenbacher residence pretty much immediately after first watching the film and, even though I knew it was located somewhere in the Palm Springs area, try as I might, I just could not seem to find it. Then on June 1st, fellow stalker/location manager Scott Trimble, of the STS Locations website, wrote a comment on my post about the Caliente Tropics Resort, the motel featured in Alpha Dog, stating that he had actually worked on the movie. So I immediately wrote to him and enlisted his help in tracking the place down. And even though he had only worked on the portion of the movie that was filmed in Los Angeles and was therefore unsure of where the Ballenbacher home was located, he was instrumental in finally helping me to find it. Thank you, Scott! So a couple of weekends ago, while out visiting my parents in Palm Springs, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place.

In real life, the Ballenbacher residence is known as the Koerner House and it boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4,224 square feet of living space, and 1.1 acres of land. The abode was originally designed in 1955 by legendary mid-century modernist architect E. Stewart Williams, the very same man who constructed the Kenaston Residence in Rancho Mirage – the dwelling where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie posed for their now-infamous July 2005 W Magazine photo shoot. As you can see above, the home is pretty darn incredible!

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In Alpha Dog, drug-dealing kingpin Johnny Truelove (aka Emile Hirsch) orders his friend Frankie to take Zack, whom Johnny is holding as a marker for a $1,200 debt Zack’s brother has incurred, to Frankie’s father’s house in Palm Springs to hide out for a few days. The vast majority of the movie was filmed at the dwelling and both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property were used in the flick.

And while the house is pretty darn incredible, it was actually the backyard area, which appeared quite frequently in Alpha Dog, that I became so enamored of. What an absolutely amazing piece of property! As you can see above, because it is so strikingly beautiful, it was rather difficult for me to narrow down which screen captures of the backyard to post.

While driving to stalk the Koerner House, the GC and I spotted several open house signs and, thinking that it might just be the Koerner House that was open and that I might just have the opportunity to go inside and see that amazing backyard in person, I almost had a full-blown heart attack! Sadly though, it was in fact a neighboring residence that was hosting the open house, so I guess, for the time being at least, I will just have to settle for looking at aerial views of the property.

Big THANK YOU to Scott Trimble, from the STS Locations website, for finding this location for me! You can follow Scott on Twitter, and learn all about his many location scout adventures, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Koerner House, aka Frankie Ballenbacher’s home from Alpha Dog, is located at 1275 South Calle De Maria in Palm Springs.

July 28, 2011
The “Bruce Almighty” Party House

Last week while going through the glove compartment of my car, I came across the Scott’s L.A. Audio Tour of Pasadena CD that I had purchased about seven years prior. For those who have never heard of Scott’s L.A., the family-owned company produces a series of audio driving tours of the Southern California area, all of which feature numerous famous locations, including quite a few that have appeared in movies and on television. Since I had not listened to the CD in years, I decided to spend a couple of hours re-taking the tour. And I am so glad that I did because there were a few locales mentioned on it that I had completely forgotten about, the most important of which was the party house from the 2003 movie Bruce Almighty. And even though I was not at all a fan of Bruce Almighty, because my girl Jen had filmed a scene at the house, I figured it was most-definitely stalk- and blog-worthy.

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In real life, the Bruce Almighty party mansion is known as the Stern House and it was originally built in 1938 by architects Garrett Van Pelt and Robert E. Alexander. The Mediterranean-style property, which sits on 0.83 acres of land, boasts 7 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, and 7,146 square feet of living space. And even though the residence has a name and seems to be historic in some way, surprisingly I could not find any other information about it online.

In Bruce Almighty, the Channel 7 news team throws Bruce Nolan (aka Jim Carrey) a party at the supposed Vanderbilt Estate in New York in honor of his recent promotion. When Bruce’s girlfriend Grace Connelly (aka Jennifer Aniston) shows up at the party, she catches him kissing his co-anchor Susan Ortega (aka Catherine Bell) and a fight ensues out in front of the mansion.

And while I could not find any photographs of the inside of the property to verify this, I am fairly certain that a different residence was used to film the interior party scenes.

Ironically enough, while scanning through Bruce Almighty yesterday to make screen captures for this post, I noticed that the house belonging to Debbie (aka Lisa Ann Walter) in the flick is the very same property where the Simpson family lived in fave movie She’s Out of Control, which I stalked this past May.

I also came across this super-cute photograph on IMDB of my girl Jen and Bruce Almighty director Tom Shadyac which was taken out in front of the She’s Out of Control house. Love it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Bruce Almighty party house is located at 1395 Ridge Way in Pasadena. You can visit the Scott’s L.A. website and purchase the company’s various tour CDs here.

July 14, 2011