Halle Berry – IAMNOTASTALKER

November 23, 2010November 23, 2010

The Whisper Lounge – One of Michael Buble’s Favorite L.A. Restaurants

Last week, Michael Buble’s tour marketing manager, Tory Class, who I follow on Twitter (@ToryonTour), sent out a link to a recent interview the cutie crooner had done with The Hollywood Reporter during which he named his five favorite places to hang out in Los Angeles. I, of course, watched the video immediately and just about died when he mentioned the Whisper Restaurant and Lounge at The Grove as one of his favorite area restaurants, being that the Grim Cheaper and I had just dined there a few months prior. I, unfortunately, did not take any photographs of the place at that time, though, so I promptly added the eatery to my ever-growing “To Stalk” list and informed the GC that we would be dining there that very weekend. And we, indeed, did, this past Saturday night. Ironically enough, Michael actually mistakenly referred to the place as the “Viper Lounge” in his interview, but being that there is no such restaurant at The Grove and being that there is only one spot there that has the word “lounge” in its name, I was able to figure out which establishment he was talking about.

The Whisper Restaurant and Lounge, which first opened in January of 2004, is owned and operated by billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso (no relation to actor David Caruso), the man who was the brains behind both The Grove shopping center and the more recent Americana at Brand in Glendale. The eatery was modeled after the private supper clubs that thrived during the heyday of Hollywood and was designed to resemble a 1940’s speakeasy (hence the “whisper” in the name), with dim lighting, dark wood-paneled walls, large leather booths, an indoor/outdoor canopied patio, and Rat Pack music on the stereo. It’s a very quiet, intimate spot and both the GC and I fell in love with the place immediately. Being that it is on the pricier side, though, I almost fell right off my bar stool when the GC announced that he couldn’t wait to bring my parents back there as he knew that they would also love it and suggested that we do so this upcoming weekend!

In The Hollywood Reporter interview, Michael mentioned that the restaurant serves “the best flat crust pizza ever” and I have to say that I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. The GC and I opted for the Wild Mushroom and Truffle version and it was nothing short of A-MA-ZING! The couple dining next to us ordered the Pizza Margherita with prosciutto added to it and, holy schmoley, did it look good. I am going to have to sample that myself on my next visit there. The Grilled Baby Broccoli with Garlic Butter side dish that I ordered was also spectacular – easily the BEST broccoli I have ever eaten in my entire life. I was seriously tempted to lick my plate clean. Winking smile

The service was also impeccable and lacked any sort of the typical L.A. snootiness that is usually found in upscale Hollywood-area restaurants. The bartender was INCREDIBLY nice and, because she had only worked at the Lounge for two months, was not sure if Michael Buble had ever frequented the place, so she sought out a few of the more veteran servers to find out for me, and, sure enough, they confirmed that the singer is a regular patron. So incredibly cool! While we were dining, we also had the pleasure of meeting the Assistant General Manager, a SUPER nice man named Eric Todd, who was very excited to hear that Michael had mentioned the eatery in a recent interview and did not think I was at all weird for stalking the place because of it.

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Apparently, Michael Buble is not the restaurant’s only famous fan. In fact, the place seems to be a veritable celebrity haven. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there recently include Halle Berry, Kim Kardashian, Kris Kardashian, Bruce Jenner, Spencer Pratt, Heidi Montag, Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Leah Rimini, Lauren Conrad, Jessica Simpson, Lara Flynn Boyle, Vivica A. Fox, Nick Lachey, David Spade, Sam Worthington, former Bachelor- contestant Jerry Ferris, and Antonio Sabato, Jr. And while we, unfortunately, did not spot any celebs while dining at the restaurant, we did see actress and former Real World-er Jacinda Barrett and her husband, actor Gabriel Macht, and comic book legend Stan Lee, who was doing a signing at Barnes & Noble, while walking around The Grove earlier in the day.

Michael Buble’s Five Favorite Places in L.A.

You can watch Michael Buble’s Hollywood Reporter interview by clicking above. And for those who are not able to watch, his five favorite Hollywood haunts are as follows: 1. Koi Restaurant, 2. The Chateau Marmont hotel, 3. His house in West Hollywood, 4. The Grove and the Whisper Lounge, and 5. Disneyland! Because I am an absolute Disney freak, I was incredibly excited to hear that last one. Of the park, Michael says, “When I walk in there now and I go through the gates, I’m seven years old. I go right back. I just, I can’t get enough of it.” Love it! And congratulations are also in order here as MB won his very first American Music Award this past Sunday night for Favorite Adult Contemporary Artist! Whoo-hoo!

Justin Bieber’s AMA Speech

On an AMA side note – I just have to say that I absolutely LOVED Justin Bieber’s speech after winning Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist, in which he acknowledged the King of Pop, saying, “I want to thank Michael Jackson because without Michael Jackson, none of us would be here.” Love it! Then when he called Usher up on stage after winning the Artist of the Year award, I literally got tears in my eyes! (You can watch his Artist of the Year award speech by clicking above). What can I say? I love me some Biebs!

New Kids on the Block and Back Street Boys 2010 AMA’s Performance

I also absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED the NKOTB/BSB performance! It was – dare I say it – the best performance of the night and, because I’ve had New Kids on the Blocks songs on my iPod for as long as I can remember, so think I am going to have to get myself some tickets for that tour!

On another side note – While doing some stalking in Hollywood this past Saturday morning, the Grim Cheaper and I spotted the above-pictured Tom Cruise look alike in the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and I just about died from excitement! The guy looked SO much like the movie star that it was absolutely UNCANNY. The GC and I both did a double take and for a few brief moments I actually believed he was the real Tom Cruise doing some sort of a press appearance at the legendary Hollywood theatre.

The guy was being absolutely MOBBED by people wanting to take a photograph with him and I have to admit that in the ten-plus years that I have lived in Los Angeles, never once have I paid – or been tempted to pay – to have my picture taken with the faux celebrities or superheroes who make their living on the Boulevard, but I HAD HAD HAD to get my picture taken with Tom. Smile There was absolutely NO way I was going to let that opportunity pass me by.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Whisper Lounge is located inside of The Grove shopping center, near where Farmers Market Place meets Gilmore Lane, across the street from the Wonderland Bakery, in Los Angeles. The restaurant’s exact location is marked with a pink arrow in the above aerial view. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here, its Facebook page here, and you can follow the Lounge on Twitter here. The Whisper Lounge is currently hosting a “Blues Beats, Exquisite Eats” event each Sunday night, with live jazz music and a five-course tasting menu. You can find out more information about “Blues Beats, Exquisite Eats” here.

March 8, 2010March 7, 2010

Oscar Weekend 2010

The celebrity sightings during Oscar Weekend 2010 started a bit early for me this year when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I accidentally stumbled upon the filming of CSI: Miami in Altadena on Friday morning. But I’ll save that story for tomorrow’s blog post. Today, it’s strictly all about Oscar, Oscar, Oscar! And, let me tell you, it was another amazing Oscar Weekend for me. Man, I love awards season!!!! 🙂

Anyway, after hanging out on the CSI: Miami set for a few hours this past Friday, Mike and I made our way over to the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood to check out the Academy Awards preparations at the Kodak Theatre and to take a little walk on the most famous carpet in the entire world. My fiancé and I usually hit up the Kodak Theatre each year on the Saturday morning before the Oscar ceremony is held and, amazingly enough, the place is usually not all that crowded. But when Mike and I showed up early Friday afternoon, the Hollywood & Highland Center was absolutely JAM PACKED. So much so that they actually had to CLOSE the parking garage there as it was completely full! If you’ve ever been to that parking garage, you know what I mean when I say it is absolutely GINOURMOUS, so the fact that it was FULL was mind-boggling to me! Even with all the traffic and throngs of people, though, we finally managed to make it to the Kodak. And I can’t even tell you how exciting it was to be standing there in the middle of it all! Being that this was my fourth year stalking the Oscars, you would think that I’d be at least a little tired of it by now. But nothing could be further from the truth. I was absolutely ESCTATIC to be seeing it all in person once again. I still have to pinch myself every time I am there. Unbelievably, this was actually Mike’s very first Oscar stalk, though! For whatever reason, even though he grew up in the Los Angeles area, he had yet to ever visit the Academy Awards red carpet in person, so it was extremely exciting for me to be sharing that experience with him. And it got the Grim Cheaper off the hook of having to take me there on Saturday morning. So, it was definitely a win-win situation for all of us. 😉

I have to say that it was very cool to be stalking the Oscars a day earlier than usual, as Mike and I got to see quite a bit of the red carpet set-up taking place, including one of the Oscar statuettes being brought into the theater on a golf cart . . .

. . . and part of the red carpet being rolled out.

Thanks to the massive rain-storms that have been plaguing Southern California as of late, many of the Oscars were actually covered over with plastic tarps;

and there was also a rain tent set up over the red carpet. Which got me to thinking, why does it always seem to rain on Oscar Night?

As usual, the actual carpet was also covered over in tarping to prevent the awards crew from trampling on it pre-show.

And, even with the tarping, I, of course, just had to get a picture of myself standing on it. 🙂

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For those who have never visited the Kodak Theatre, it is located inside of the Hollywood & Highland Center, which is, for all intents and purposes, a mall. So, when the stars walk down the red carpet on Oscar Night, they are actually walking right through a bunch of shops. It’s pretty hard to imagine, I know, but you can kind of see the set-up in the above photographs. The windows to the right and left of the carpet area are actually stores. Whenever I take out-of-towners to the Kodak Theatre and explain that it is where the Oscar Ceremony is held each year, I invariably hear the following sentence, “But this is a mall!” LOL Anyway, the red carpet goes right through a stretch of the mall which houses such stores as MAC, Louis Vuitton (sigh!), Sanrio, Sun’s Up sunglasses store, the Gateway Newstand, and Kelly’s Coffee & Fudge. I swear, if I was an actor walking the red carpet, I would so be tempted to stop into Kelly’s Coffee for a quick latte before making my way into the theatre. 😉 To prevent this, though, the stores are actually required to close during Oscar Weekend, beginning on the Friday evening before the ceremony. Mike and I happened to stop into one of the stores on the red carpet to do some shopping while we were there and the clerk told us that she was getting ready to close for the next few days and that security was just about to do their final check of the premises, along with their bomb-sniffing dogs who roam each store to make sure that no explosive devices have been left inside. How crazy is that?

EXTREMELY bright (like absolutely BLINDINGLY so) lights were set up all along the perimeter of the red carpet. One is pictured above and even via photograph you can tell how darn bright it is.

Some of the Oscar statues are unbelievably HUGE, especially the one located at the corner of Highland Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, which is where the red carpet begins. As you can see in the above photograph, even the base of that statue is taller than me!

I was just itching to jump up on the above pictured press stage to snap a quick picture, but the security guard standing in that vicinity did not look at all friendly so I didn’t want to risk it. He probably would have ended up banning me from the Hollywood & Highland Center for life. 😉

While hanging out on the red carpet on Friday, Mike and I ran into this enterprising young woman who was holding up a homemade sign asking Matt Damon to be her date to the Oscars. 😉 Love it!

While walking around Hollywood, we also spotted this gigantic movie poster for Sex and the City 2 on the side of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and I just had to snap a pic of it! Love it! Love it! Love it!

As much fun as Mike and I had on Friday, I must say that there was even more fun in store for me on Saturday. Beginning early Saturday morning and ending very late Saturday night, I dragged my fiancé from one end of Los Angeles to the other to do some major star-gazing. Sadly, though, due to the rain and the Independent Spirit Awards’ change in venue (while they are usually held on the beach in Santa Monica each Saturday before the Oscars, this year they took place on Friday evening at the much less accessible Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles), my celeb sightings weren’t as numerous this year as they were last, but I still managed to have an ABSOLUTE BLAST. In fact, I am still pinching myself this morning. I even got to meet up with one of my readers, a super sweet fellow stalker named Kendall, at one point during the evening. And while I didn’t spot my girl Jen or crooner Michael Buble (whose sightings were the highlights of my Oscar Weekend last year), I did manage to stalk quite a few celebs. But because hotel security is very tight during Oscar Weekend, I, unfortunately, didn’t get to snap any pictures of them. 🙁

So, without further ado, here is “The List” of celebrity sightings from Oscar Weekend 2010.

1. Jerry Ferris – from Jen Schefft’s season of The Bachelorette

2. Jamie Foxx

3. Lenny Kravitz

4. Aaron Eckhart

5. Benjamin McKenzie – At one point in the evening, I noticed Ben standing next to my fiancé at a valet stand, so I leaned over and said “Hi, Ben!” He looked over expecting me to be someone he knew, got a blank expression on his face, and then smiled a big smile when he realized I was just a fan and said “Hey, how are you doing?” SIGH!

6. Elizabeth Banks

7. Dennis Haysbert (from 24)

8. Ben Stiller

9. J.J. Abrams (the producer of Lost)

10. will.i.am (from the Black Eyed Peas) – He seemed super nice and waved at us.

11. Ed Westwick

12. Jessica Szohr

13. Jake Gyllenhaal

14. Maggie Gyllenhaal – She is extremely taaaaaaaaall in person.

15. Rashida Jones

16. Katie Couric

17. Zachary Quinto

18. Morgan Freeman

19. Jason Reitman

20. Steven Spielberg

21. David Spade

22. Leonardo DiCaprio

23. Halle Berry

24. B.J. Novak

25. Kevin Connolly

26. Sofia Vergara (Gloria from Modern Family)

27. Jesse James

28. Sandra Bullock

29. Ryan Reynolds

30. Ryan Seacrest – He is so not as short as everyone makes him out to be.

31. Jon Hamm

32. Jennifer Westfeldt

33. Jimmy Kimmel

34. Anna Kendrick

35. Christian Slater – Was super friendly and waved at us. 🙂

36. Meg Ryan

37. Ron Livingston

38. Jemaine Clement (from The Flight of the Conchords)

39. Colin Firth

40. Taylor Lautner – He looks VERY young in person, but is VERY cute.

41. Fred Savage

42. Kristin Davis

43. Kate Beckinsale

44. Eddie Murphy

45. Matt Damon

46. Luciana Barrosa

47. Tina Fey

48. Jeanne Tripplehorn

49. Gina Gershon

50. Stanley Tucci

51. Robert Downey Jr.

52. Susan Downey (Robert’s wife, who is a big time producer)

53. Jeff Bridges

54. Winona Ryder

55. Mariska Hargitay – She is STRIKINGLY beautiful in person!

56. Rich Ross – The new chairman of Walt Disney Studios, who I actually served on jury duty with once. 😉

57. Julie Bowen (Claire from Modern Family)

58. Ty Burrell (Phil from Modern Family)

59. Elton John – We ate dinner just a few tables away from him and in what was an absolutely surreal moment, the musician working at the restaurant started playing Elton’s 1970 hit “Your Song” with him sitting just a few feet away.

60. George Takei and his husband Brad Altman – My fiancé said he was actually star struck for what was probably the first time in his life over seeing the two of them, not because he is a Trekkie, but because he is a fan of “The Howard Stern Show” on which George is a frequent announcer.

61. Carrie Underwood

62. Eric Nies

63. Brian Grazer

64. Felicity Huffman

65. Eric McCormack from Will and Grace

66. Jeff Prettyman

67. Dianna Agron (Quinn from Glee)

68. Mark Salling (Puck from Glee) – He is SUPER cute in person and also waved to us.

69. Vera Farmiga

70. Amy Adams

71. Carey Mulligan

72. Peter Sarsgaard

But the highlight of the evening for me had to be when I got to see my latest celebrity crush, Mr. Schuester himself, Matthew Morrison from Glee! Sigh! Ironically, earlier in the day, I had told my fiancé that of all the people I was hoping to see this Oscar Weekend, Matthew Morrison was number 1! And then it happened! I got to see him – and better yet, he even did a little Glee-style spin and turn in front of us when he walked by. SIGH! I literally almost had a heart attack right there on the spot! Truth be told, though, I was SO completely starstruck over seeing him in person that I didn’t even notice his little dance routine. I must have blacked out from excitement or something, but it wasn’t until fellow stalker Kendall mentioned something about it that I even realized he had done it. LOL Anyway, Oscar Weekend 2010 was INCREDIBLY exciting and I CANNOT wait to do it all again next year!!!!! But for now, I am absolutely exhausted, so I am going to go park myself on the couch and spend the next few hours recuperating. 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: I stalked so many hotels and bars this Oscar Weekend, that there are far too many to name here. For a detailed list of places to go to see movie stars on Oscar Weekend – or any weekend, for that matter – check out this blog post that I wrote last year.

June 2, 2009June 1, 2009

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.