He’s Just Not That Into You

November 13, 2019November 13, 2019

City Supper Club from “He’s Just Not That Into You”

Back in February, I wrote a Scene it Before column for L.A. magazine covering a few locales from He’s Just Not That Into You in honor of the romcom’s 20th anniversary. While researching, I was thrilled to come across a mention on production designer Gae Buckley’s website that the supposed Baltimore-area City Supper Club, where Alex (Justin Long) worked in the film, was not a studio-built set as I had long assumed, but an actual restaurant! I, of course, promptly reached out to Gae in the hopes that she could ID the place for me. Though she didn’t get back to me before my article went to print, when she did respond she was a wealth of information, notifying me that a shuttered eatery on the northeast corner of Hollywood and Vine in the heart of Tinseltown had masked as City Supper Club. A quick Google search showed me that the space had since re-opened as 33 Taps Bar & Grill. Despite the new tenant, interior photos posted on Yelp still bore somewhat of a resemblance to what had appeared onscreen! Ecstatic, I ran out to stalk it a couple of months later. I’m pouting in the above photo, though, because, unbeknownst to me, 33 Taps had shuttered in the interim and I arrived at a vacant, boarded-up building.

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33 Taps was situated on the ground floor of The Lofts at Hollywood and Vine, a 12-story, 116,000-square-foot Late Gothic/Art Deco structure designed by Aleck Curlett in 1929. Commissioned by drug store magnate Sam Kress, the property was originally known as the “Bank of Hollywood Building” thanks to the financial institution of the same name which occupied its street level.

In an ironic twist, the site’s namesake shuttered in December 1930, after less than two years in operation! The structure was sold shortly thereafter and subsequently redubbed the “Equitable Building.” The former Bank of Hollywood space then became home to Citizens National Bank and, in later years, the Bernard Luggage Company and American Airlines.

The Equitable Building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, fell on hard times and was allowed to dilapidate, along with the rest of downtown Hollywood, from the ‘70s through the ‘90s, but was finally rescued by Tom Gilmore in 2000. The developer purchased the property for $5 million and set about rehabbing it to the tune of another $6 million. The restoration process took two years to complete.

Part of that restoration included a build-out of the ground floor to accommodate the new Hollywood and Vine Diner, a dark wood-paneled space reminiscent of the great Tinseltown restaurants of yesteryear. You can see what it looked like here.

The upscale eatery, helmed by Scott Shuttleworth and Richard Heyman, opened in 2002. It had about as much staying power as the Bank of Hollywood, though, initially shuttering in 2004 before being revived a few months later and then ultimately closing for good in 2007, the same year that He’s Just Not That Into You was shot. The restaurant’s furnishings were left intact after the closure, making it an ideal spot for the production to utilize.

The Equitable Building underwent another massive renovation around the same time, during which the upper floors were converted from offices to condos, a project that cost $50 million to complete. The 60-unit property is now known as The Lofts at Hollywood and Vine.

After the shuttering of Hollywood and Vine Diner, that space, too, was significantly remodeled and subsequently debuted as Dillon’s Irish Pub in November 2009. The bar had a short shelf life, as well, closing in April 2013 (though it did move for a time to a different Hollywood Boulevard location) and 33 Taps opened in its place a few months later. The name of the 8,051-square-foot sports bar was derived from the 33 beers it had on tap.

Lasting about six years, 33 Taps closed its doors in June 2019 and its former home is under construction yet again, as you can see in the photos below, which I took through the front windows. Per Eater LA, an Italian eatery named Soprano will be opening there in the near future.

The numerous changeovers (especially the most recent) have taken a toll on the space’s recognizability from He’s Just Not That Into You, unfortunately. When the film was shot, the restaurant’s large U-shaped bar was situated directly across from the front doors . . .

. . . at the base of the grand staircase leading up to the second floor (which you can just see in the background below).

That same area today is pictured below. For whatever reason, when Dillon’s Irish Pub moved in, the bar was relocated to the opposite side of the staircase (as you can see in this photo) and the area where it formerly stood was closed off.

Today, the only remnants of the City Supper Club are those stairs, sadly. Gone is the aforementioned central retro bar;

the dark oak walls (they’re still there, they’ve just been painted over);

. . . and the many rounded partitions.

Oh, how I wish I had visited Hollywood and Vine Diner when it was still in operation – or, at least, had made it to 33 Taps before its recent closure!

As noted on Gae’s website, Alex’s office was not an actual element of Hollywood and Vine Diner, but a set specifically constructed for the shoot at the rear of the bar.

Only the interior of Hollywood and Vine Diner was utilized in He’s Just Not That Into You. The exterior of City Supper Club was faked outside of Duda’s Tavern at 1600 Thames Street in Baltimore.

Thanks to the Seeing Stars website, I learned that Hollywood and Vine Diner, prior to shutting down, appeared in the 2009 thriller Taken as the restaurant where Kim (Maggie Grace) tried to convince her father, Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), to let her go to Paris.

In the scene, Bryan, Kim and Kim’s mom, Lenore (Famke Janssen), sit in the spot where the eatery’s bar now stands. That space was a dining room when Hollywood and Vine was in operation.

Though the former bar area isn’t shown in Taken, the adjacent staircase is just visible in the top middle of the screen capture below, which should help you get your bearings when looking at the various images.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: 33 Taps Bar & Grill, aka the former Hollywood and Vine Diner from He’s Just Not That Into You, was located at 6263 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. The restaurant closed recently and currently sits vacant.

April 8, 2019April 5, 2019

The Queen Mary Observation Bar from “He’s Just Not That Into You”

I am beginning to discover that The Queen Mary is a lot like the Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles in that every square inch of it has appeared onscreen in multiple notable productions. Case in point – while scanning through Adaptation to make screen captures for my post on Zipper Concert Hall last week, I noticed that the 2002 drama’s opening scene took place in the ship’s Observation Bar & Art Deco Lounge. I had long been aware of the watering hole’s appearance in favorite movie He’s Just Not That Into You (which I detailed in a 2014 article for L.A. magazine), but immediately got curious about what other productions made use of it. When I got to digging, I was shocked at the number of big and small screen hits that feature the bar. So I figured it was only right to dedicate a post to it.

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When we lived in Los Angeles, The Queen Mary was one of my and the Grim Cheaper’s favorite places to staycation. Originally a Cunard-White Star Line luxury liner, the grand 1934 ship is permanently moored just south of downtown Long Beach.

She was purchased by the city after making her final voyage (the last of 1,001 Atlantic crossings) in 1967. Following a painstaking three-year renovation, The Queen Mary opened as a hotel and tourist attraction. The restored vessel is nothing short of stunning inside and out and stepping aboard immediately transports one back in time to the grand old days of ocean travel. I first visited the ship with my parents for my birthday in June 2000, at the height of my Titanic obsession, and honestly felt like I had wandered right onto one of the film’s opulent sets.

On that visit, the Observation Bar & Art Deco Lounge quickly became one of our favorite spots on the boat. Originally a first class parlor (you can see what it looked like in its early days here), the gilded space appears to have been ripped right out of the pages of an Art Deco magazine. Shockingly, during The Queen’s time as a troop ship in World War II, the ornate room was utilized as a dormitory for soldiers. I can’t even imagine bunking amid all that glitz!

For some inexplicable reason, as the ship was being renovated into a hotel, it was decided that The Queen Mary should take on an Old English theme (which explains the extremely odd grouping of fairy-tale-like storefronts that dot the parking lot). As such, all of the Observation Bar’s glam Art Deco furnishings were removed (but thankfully not thrown away) and replaced with Old English décor, giving the space a pub-like feel.

Fortunately, the watering hole was returned to its initial grandeur in the early ‘80s and, though it has gone through some additional revamps in the years since, it remains an utterly glorious space.

Today, the semi-circle-shaped site boasts massive red torchiere lamps, a carved balustrade, a Massacar ebony bar, silver and bronze detailing, maple and cedar woodwork, an original mural that hangs above the bar, 21 windows, and amazing views of Queensway Bay.

It is in the elegant space that Anna (Scarlett Johansson) sings at the end of 2009’s He’s Just Not That Into You.

Back in 1981, Dr. R. Quincy, M.E. (Jack Klugman) discovers what has been ailing his fellow cruise passengers when a woman goes into premature labor in the Observation Bar in the Season 7 episode of Quincy M.E. titled “Slow Boat to Madness: Part 2.” (Spoiler – it’s contaminated tortillas!)

The Observation Bar portrays the New York cocktail lounge where NYPD detective Mike Keegan (Tom Berenger) takes murder witness Claire Gregory (Mimi Rogers) for drinks on his last night of protecting her in the 1987 thriller Someone to Watch Over Me.

In 1989, the Observation Bar popped up a couple of times in the Season 6 episode of Murder, She Wrote titled “The Grand Old Lady.”

The site masks as the New York bar where Garland Stanford (David Warrilow) tells Barton (John Turturro) that Capital Pictures wants to put him under contract in 1991’s Barton Fink.

In the Season 6 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “You Say It’s Your Birthday: Part 1,” which aired in 1996, Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) and Valerie Malone (Tiffani Thiessen) discuss Colin Robbins’ (Jason Wiles) disappearance with FBI agent Richard Ballen (Jon Hensley) while at the Observation Bar. (Don’t mind the craptastic screen captures below. Unfortunately, the episode is not available to stream anywhere, not even on Hulu which inexplicably has all of the others from Season 6, so I had to settle for grabs from a poor-quality Dailymotion upload.)

Later in “You Say It’s Your Birthday: Part 1,” Kelly grabs breakfast with Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris) at the bar.

In 1999’s Being John Malkovich (such a great movie!), John Malkovich (playing himself) enters the portal to his own head and winds up seeing himself everywhere at the Observation Bar.

The 2002 film Adaptation opens with actual behind-the-scenes footage of the Being John Malkovich segment lensed at the lounge. (I apologize for the blurry screen caps below, but the scene has a lot of movement.)

Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) also celebrates the wrap of Hell’s Angels at the Observation Lounge in the 2004 biopic The Aviator.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Observation Bar & Art Deco Lounge, from He’s Just Not That Into You, is located on the bow of The Queen Mary’s Promenade Deck at 1126 Queens Highway in Long Beach. You can visit the ship’s official website here. Tickets or hotel reservations are required to venture aboard.

February 28, 2018February 27, 2018

Pico House from “My Sister Sam”

The name of my blog is (obviously) meant in jest. I always feel a pang of guilt over having chosen it, though, when I think about Rebecca Schaeffer, the young actress who was gunned down in her doorway by a deranged stalker at the tender age of 21 in 1989. My grandma and I religiously watched My Sister Sam, the CBS series she starred on, when it was on the air in the late-80s and were both considerably obsessed. We were equally devastated when it was cancelled after a scant one and a half seasons and then again when we learned of Schaeffer’s murder a little over a year later. While the show and its star have never strayed far from my mind in the years since, somehow I never though about tracking down the supposed San Francisco building where Schaeffer’s teenaged character, Patti Russell, lived with her older sister, Sam Russell (Pam Dawber). Thankfully, in 2013, a reader named Vera Charles left a comment on my 2009 post about downtown L.A.’s Pico House, which I was reporting on due to its use as “Sacramento’s” CBI headquarters on The Mentalist, alerting me to the fact that the very same spot served as the My Sister Sam apartment! I was floored over the news, but, for whatever reason, am only just now getting around to re-blogging about the historic site.

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Constructed from 1869 to 1870, Pico House has the distinction of being Los Angeles’ first three-story building.

Commissioned by Pio Pico, the last governor of California under Mexican rule, the Italianate structure originally served as an 82-room hotel. Not just any hotel, though – it was the city’s finest, featuring arched windows and doors at every turn, a grand double staircase, an aviary, 21 parlors, 2 courtyards, a French restaurant, restrooms and water closets for both sexes on each floor, a bar, and a billiards room. Designed by architect Ezra F. Kysor, the lodging cost $48,000 to construct and a whopping $34,000 to decorate and furnish. At the time of its opening, the most expensive rooms ran for $3 a night.

Though the property proved bustling throughout its first decade, Pio wasn’t the savviest when it came to finances and he wound up losing Pico House to foreclosure in 1880. The site subsequently passed through several hands, continuing to function as a hotel, before being transformed into an inexpensive boarding house named The National in 1892. It operated as such for the next three decades, growing more dilapidated as time passed. Though the original moniker was restored in 1920, the building continued to deteriorate, becoming a mere shadow of its once grand self, and was eventually condemned in 1922.

It was finally acquired by the city of L.A. in 1953 and incorporated into El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Monument. Though it has remained vacant ever since (you can check out some images of the interior taken in 2006 here), the site has undergone several renovations in the ensuing years and is both a California Historical Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. Today, it is utilized mainly as a special events venue and, of course, for filming.

Pico House has the fortunate and unique quality of boasting four rather diverse façades. As such it has proved an extremely versatile landscape for filming. The north and west edifices are both elaborately Italianate in style, with arched windows and doors and stuccoed exteriors fashioned to resemble blue granite. Though similar, the north end (pictured below) stands alone facing El Pueblo de Los Angeles’ Old Plaza and bears the look of a 19th Century courthouse or city hall . . .

. . . while the west end (pictured below), which runs along North Main Street, is much wider and is adjacent to several buildings with Victorian detailing, giving it a very San Francisco feel.

The south façade, which is situated on Arcadia Street, boasts an Old West style and has a very Sacramento-ish look.

And the east side, which runs along Sanchez Street, features fabulous red brickwork as far as the eye can see.

It is the western end that masked as Sam and Patti’s apartment building on My Sister Sam, which, as I mentioned above, was said to be located in San Francisco.

Only the exterior of the building was utilized on the series. The interior of Sam and Patti’s apartment was just a set constructed at Warner Bros. Ranch (then named The Burbank Studios Ranch), where the show was lensed.

In the Season 1 episode of Amazing Stories titled “Alamo Jobe,” which aired in 1985, the north side of Pico House masks as the site of the modern-day Alamo.

Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) work patrol in front of Pico House’s north end at the beginning of 1992’s Lethal Weapon 3.

That same year, Pico House’s southern side masqueraded as Hotel Brian in 19th Century San Francisco where Lt. Commander Data (Brent Spiner) tried to secure lodging in the Season 5 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation titled “Time’s Arrow: Part 1.”

The building situated adjacent to Pico House at 425 North Los Angeles Street also appeared as 19th Century San Francisco in the episode.

In real life, that structure (pictured below) houses the Chinese American Museum.

In the Season 1 episode of Criminal Minds titled “Machismo,” which aired in 2006, the south side of Pico House . . .

. . . . as well as the interior courtyard portrayed a police station in Allende Del Sol, Mexico.

Beginning in 2008, the south end of the site was utilized regularly as Sacramento’s CBI Headquarters on the television series The Mentalist. Besides appearing in weekly establishing shots . . .

. . . some location filming also took place on the premises, as was the case with Season 1’s “Bloodshot.”

The building’s east side was even used to portray a nightclub in that particular episode.

JLS shot their 2009 music video for “Everybody in Love” in Pico House’s courtyard. You can watch the video here.

That same year, the courtyard situated just outside of Pico House’s north entrance appeared in the “ . . . if he’s not marrying you” vignette in He’s Just Not That Into You. The bit contains one of my favorite lines from the movie – “The second you hear that, you just run to the store and get yourself some ribs and some ice cream, because you have been dumped!” You can watch the hilarious segment here.

The Ghost Adventures crew investigates paranormal happenings related to an 1871 race riot in which 19 people were killed at Pico House in the Season 4 episode titled “Pico House Hotel,” which aired in 2011.

In the 2016 drama Live by Night, Pico House’s courtyard appears as the hospital where Joe Coughlin (Ben Affleck) recovers from a beating.

The Chinese American Museum also pops up in the movie as the spot where Joe and his crew rob card players during a high stakes poker game.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pico House, aka Sam and Patti’s apartment from My Sister Sam, is located at 424 North Main Street in downtown Los Angeles. The site is part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historic Monument. Several areas of the monument have appeared onscreen, including the Old Plaza, located just north of Pico House at 1 Olvera Street, and the historic Olvera Street outdoor marketplace, the entrance to which is just beyond the Plaza. Union Station, another popular filming locale, can be found directly across the street at 800 North Alameda Street.

November 21, 2016November 20, 2016

Annie’s House from “Sleepless in Seattle”

We all have those movies – the ones that affected us so much upon first viewing, they left a lasting imprint on our hearts. Sleepless in Seattle is one such movie for me. As I mentioned in this 2010 post about the houseboat from the 1993 romcom, I still remember exactly where I was the first time I saw it and have my ticket stub tucked away in a box. The film had an immediate visceral effect on me – and still does to this day. So when I found out that the Grim Cheaper and I were heading to Baltimore, where Sleepless was partially filmed, this past September, I started putting together a list of must-see locales from the movie, namely the gorgeous brick townhome where Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) and her fiancé, Walter (Bill Pullman), lived.

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Annie’s residence has been well-documented online for years, so I did not have to do any sleuthing to hunt it down.

Miraculously, the dwelling looks almost exactly the same today as it did 23 years ago when Sleepless in Seattle was filmed.

Even the duck boot scraper visible in the bottom right of the above screen capture is still intact.

Annie’s house was featured several times throughout Sleepless in Seattle.

In real life, the three-story property, which was originally built in 1900, houses 1,995 square feet of space and 3.5 baths.

Though I do believe the structure was a private residence at one point, today it serves as an office, housing the Baltimore branch of Captel, a fundraising and membership development company.

Only the exterior of the site was used in Sleepless in Seattle. While I always assumed that the charming interior of Annie’s home was a set, my friend/fellow stalker David, who is a denizen of the Pacific Northwest, has heard that interiors were shot at an actual residence in West Seattle. So the jury’s still out on that one.

If interiors were shot at a real place, what I wouldn’t give to track it down!

The pier just outside of Annie’s home was also used in the filming.

In one particularly memorable scene (well, to me, anyway), Annie walks to the end of the pier and sits on a bench located there, while Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) does the exact same thing more than 2,000 miles away at a dock in Seattle. (As you can see in my images above and below, a car commercial was being shot on the pier the day we were there! Apparently, Broadway Pier, as it is known, is used for filming quite often.)

Unfortunately, the bench where Annie sat in the scene was just a prop.

But that didn’t stop me from posing for a photo there. Smile

Broadway Pier was also used very briefly in the “ . . . if she’s not sleeping with you” vignette from He’s Just Not That Into You. The building visible in the background of the scene has been remodeled in recent years and looks quite a bit different today than it did in 2009 when HJNTIY was shot, so I’m using a comparison image below from Google Street View that was taken in 2011.

Broadway Square, which is located just about one hundred feet north of Annie’s house, was also featured in He’s Just Not That Into You, as the spot where Connor (Kevin Connolly) called Mary (Drew Barrymore) to discuss the placement of his real estate ads. In the scene, Connor sat at the southern end of Broadway Square, just east of Admiral Fell Inn.

I recently discovered a couple of other He’s Just Not That Into You locales in the same vicinity. Duda’s Tavern, which is located about 500 feet west of Annie’s house at 1600 Thames Street, served as the exterior of City Supper Club, the bar owned by Alex (Justin Long) in the flick.

And The Waterfront Hotel, located about 300 feet east of Annie’s house at 1710 Thames Street, masked as the exterior of The Huntsman’s Den, where Alex gave Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) some pointers on reading body language.

The entire area around Annie’s house is absolutely adorable.

Unfortunately, we did not get to spend a lot of time there, but I found myself wishing we had stayed at one of the hotels lining the main drag as there are so many shops and restaurants in the cobblestoned vicinity.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Annie’s house from Sleepless in Seattle is located at 904 South Broadway in Baltimore’s Fells Point neighborhood. The spot where Connor sat in He’s Just Not That Into You can be found about one hundred feet north at Broadway Square, just east of the Admiral Fell Inn at 888 Broadway. Duda’s Tavern, which was used as the exterior of City Supper Club in HJNTIY, is located one block west of Broadway Square at 1600 Thames Street. And The Waterfront Hotel, which masked as the exterior of The Huntsman’s Den in HJNTIY, is located one block east at 1710 Thames Street.

November 14, 2016November 10, 2016

Connor and Gigi’s Date Restaurant from “He’s Just Not That Into You”

Not every location from He’s Just Not That Into You was a challenge to track down. [As I mentioned yesterday and the day before, both Janine (Jennifer Connelly) and Ben’s (Bradley Cooper) home and Conor’s (Kevin Connolly) row house listing proved to be real thorns in my side.] Case in point, the exterior of the restaurant where Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Conor went on a date in the 2009 flick. That site, which was actually the heavily dressed entrance to two neighboring Mount Vernon eateries named Thairish and The Helmand, was spelled out in a 2007 The Baltimore Sun article that was written while the cast and crew were in town shooting portions of the movie. I came across the piece shortly after I first saw He’s Just Not That Into You and jotted down the addresses in case I ever traveled to Baltimore, an opportunity that finally arose this past September.

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Gigi and Conner’s date restaurant, shown to be named “Red Seven,” only popped up once at the very beginning of He’s Just Not That Into You. As you can see below, due to massive set dressing, the locale looks quite different in person than it did onscreen. For the shoot, the exteriors of Thairish and The Helmand were covered over and made to appear as if they were one large brick and glass-clad space. The Baltimore Sun column states, “While the entrance of Thairish only was covered with cardboard, The Helmand underwent more drastic changes. The Helmand’s manager, Assad Akbari, says contractors with the film changed its sign and swapped out the front door.”

Another Sun article from around that same time went into further detail, stating, “In Mount Vernon, restaurants Thairish and The Helmand were temporarily redecorated Saturday with new lights, a new door and a new name: Red Seven.”

Thairish, a Thai eatery, was shuttered in 2016 and today Khun Nine Thai occupies the space. The Helmand, though, is still going strong. Originally opened in 1989, the Afghan restaurant is something of a Baltimore institution.

Unfortunately, there was a sidewalk fair set up right in front of the two restaurants when we showed up to stalk them, which made getting photographs rather difficult.

The neighborhood where The Helmand and Khun Nine Thai are located is absolutely adorable – and boasts quite a view of the Washington Monument, as you can see below. The Grim Cheaper and I spent quite a bit of time there, exploring the shops and admiring the handsome brick buildings.

Only the exterior of Khun Nine Thai and The Helmand were utilized in He’s Just Not That Into You.

At the time I started researching the movie’s locales, I was unsure where the interior of Conner and Gigi’s date scene was shot. Finding the right spot proved to be a snap, though. One look at photographs of the inside of both The Helmand and Thairish told me that interior footage was lensed elsewhere. My guess was that filming had most likely taken place in Los Angeles, where the majority of the romcom was shot. Red Seven, the name that producers had given to their fictional restaurant, seemed unusual to me. So unusual that I figured it was likely the moniker of a real place – either an actual Baltimore establishment filmmakers wanted to pay homage to or, possibly, the site in L.A. where interiors were filmed. Fingers crossed, I Googled “Red Seven,” “restaurant,” and “Los Angeles” and discovered that there is indeed an eatery by that name in West Hollywood! Images of it matched perfectly to the spot where Gigi and Conor enjoyed a beer and a Ketel-soda. Why the crew went to all of that trouble and did not just use a fake name or no name at all is beyond me, but I’m grateful they did as I might never have found the location otherwise.

As you can see below, filmmakers also went to the trouble of matching the entrance door of their fake restaurant to the actual walls of Red Seven.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The exterior of Connor and Gigi’s date restaurant from He’s Just Not That Into You was created outside of both Khun Nine Thai and The Helmand, which are located at 804 and 806 North Charles Street in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, respectively. Interiors were filmed at Red Seven, which is located at 700 North San Vicente Boulevard, in the Pacific Design Center, in West Hollywood. You can visit Khun Nine Thai’s official website here, The Helmand’s here and Red Seven’s here.

November 10, 2016November 9, 2016

Conor’s Row House Listing from “He’s Just Not That Into You”

He’s Just Not That Into You was the thorn in my side prior to my recent trip back east. As I mentioned yesterday, the 2009 romcom is one of my all-time favorites and before heading to Baltimore, where the film was set and partially shot, in September, I got a bit obsessed with tracking down its locales. After a rather long and arduous pursuit to find Ben (Bradley Cooper) and Janine’s (Jennifer Connelly) stately home, I set my sights on the row house that real estate agent Conor (Kevin Connolly) was trying to sell – and that he also wanted to buy for Anna (Scarlett Johansson) – at the end of the movie. It proved just as difficult to locate and, once again, I found myself watching and re-watching the flick, looking for a clue I knew I was missing.

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During my umpteenth re-watch of the one scene involving the house (I saw it so many times, I can pretty much recite it from memory), I spotted a barely-visible address number displayed on the residence next door.

Though the number was not clear in the streamed version of the movie I was watching (which is where the above screen capture came from), I knew it would be via Blu-ray, so I popped in my DVD and, sure enough, there was the address 3104, clear as day. (Unfortunately, I cannot make screen captures of the Blu-ray version of the film as my computer does not have a Blu-ray drive).

It was also clear in the scene that the house was located on a road that ran perpendicular to a one-way street (as you can see in the background below). So I started searching 3100 blocks in Baltimore that abut one-way streets and fairly quickly found the right spot.

Though He’s Just Not That Into You was only filmed six years ago, I was nevertheless thrilled to see that Conor’s listing still looked exactly the same as it had onscreen.

In real life, the property, which was originally built in 1880, just sold to new owners in July of this year for $279,000. Per the listing, the pad boasts 2.5 baths, 1,920 square feet of living space, a brand new kitchen with Caesar stone countertops and stainless steel appliances, updated bathrooms, a brick patio, refinished hardwood flooring throughout, and custom built-ins. The listing information also states that the home has two bedrooms, but from looking at the photographs I believe there are actually four.

I was shocked to discover that the listing even makes mention of the property’s appearance in He’s Just Not That Into You. Really wish I had happened upon it prior to spending so many hours searching for the place!

The real life interior of the home was also used in the filming, as you can see in the screen captures as compared to the real estate listing photos below.

While the kitchen has since been remodeled, its layout remains the same.

Despite the renovation, the built-in ironing board that Anna fawned over in the movie remains intact! Love it! There seems to be some sort of placard affixed to it, too. I wonder if it says something along the lines of, “Scarlett Johansson touched this.” Or “Screen-used ironing board.” Or “Our ironing board is famous.” Man, I wish the real estate listing had provided a close-up photograph of it.

One thing I did spot in the listing photographs – which floored me to no end – was the “For Sale” sign that was affixed to the front of the house in the movie! Apparently the owners were allowed to keep it and chose to display it on their wall, which is so incredibly cool.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Conor’s row house listing from He’s Just Not That Into You is located at 3102 O’Donnell Street in Baltimore’s Canton neighborhood.

November 9, 2016November 9, 2016

Janine and Ben’s House(s) from “He’s Just Not That Into You”

You know those crime novels where a main character is trying to solve a case and there is some niggling clue that tugs at them throughout the story – an important piece of evidence that would solve the whole mystery, but which remains elusive until the final pages? That was how I felt while trying to track down the Baltimore row house where Janine (Jennifer Connelly) and Ben (Bradley Cooper) lived in He’s Just Not that Into You. Though the 2009 film was largely panned by critics, it is one of my favorite romcoms of all time and prior to our recent trip to Charm City, I set out to track down its locations, namely Janine and Ben’s handsome brick townhome. Try as I might, though, I could just not locate it. During the tail end of my search, I found myself sitting at my computer staring at a screen capture of the residence for what seemed like hours, aware of the fact that I was missing something, but unsure of exactly what. Then finally, something clicked!

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All of a sudden, I noticed that a fire hydrant was visible on the street corner next to Janine and Ben’s pad. I swear, I started to hear angels sing when I realized that said hydrant was painted red, white, and green. That could only mean one thing – the house had to be located in Little Italy! Not being familiar with Baltimore, I wasn’t even sure if the city had a Little Italy neighborhood, but a quick Google search told me that it does. So I started searching the area via Street View and found the place within minutes.

Throughout He’s Just Not That Into You, Janine and Ben’s dwelling is under extensive renovation.

Because of the work being done, it is not until the end of the movie that we actually get a clear view of the property’s exterior. Aside from the front door being changed, the structure looks much the same in person as it did onscreen.

Something I did not notice until making screen captures for this post (despite my many viewings of the movie) is that Janine and Ben actually owned two neighboring townhomes that were being combined into one, hence the scaffolding on the two residences you see below. (And yes, I realize how blonde that makes me sound being that, as stated earlier, I spent a considerable amount of time staring at a screen capture of the house during my search for it. In my defense, though, I was looking at the grab pictured above, which is from the scene in which the remodel has already been completed.)

Because I did not realize that both properties were used in He’s Just Not That Into You, I only shot photographs of the residence that Janine walked into towards the end of the flick.

Per Zillow, that handsome pad, located at 226 South Exeter Street, boasts 1,508 square feet of living space, 2 bathrooms, a 0.02-acre lot, a fireplace, and a 325-square-foot finished basement.

The property, which was built in 1860 (yes, 1860!), last sold in December 2002 for $135,000.

While the exterior of Janine and Ben’s residence is quite stately, it is the interior that I fell in love with. I mean, #housegoals, right? All of the exposed brick, built-in shelving, and woodwork had me drooling.

Sadly, I am fairly certain that it was all a set built on a soundstage in Los Angeles, where the majority of the movie was lensed. Only two weeks of filming took place in Baltimore, which is far too short a time for the interior house sequences to have been shot at the actual residence. Add to that the fact that, from most of the articles I’ve read, it does not seem that Bradley Cooper, who was present in many of the home scenes, traveled to Baltimore for any filming. I believe Kevin Connolly, Scarlett Johansson, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Jennifer Connelly were the only cast members who were in Charm City for the on-location portion of the shoot.

I have to give major props to the production team for their seriously keen eye for detail. In the scene at the end of the movie in which Ben comes home and discovers (spoiler alert!) that Janine is divorcing him, a panoramic photo of the actual houses located across the street from 226 South Exeter was displayed as a backdrop outside of the set windows. As you can see below, the residences visible through the windows of Janine and Ben’s dwelling match perfectly to the properties located across the street in real life! A generic backdrop featuring random homes could just as easily have been used in the scene, so I am extremely impressed that the production team went to such trouble to be authentic.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Janine and Ben’s houses from He’s Just Not That Into You are located at 224 and 226 South Exeter Street in Baltimore’s Little Italy neighborhood.

December 2, 2015February 23, 2018

Carondelet House from Maroon 5’s “Sugar” Music Video

I am a sucker for any kind of choreographed dance, especially if a wedding is involved. So when my mom sent me a link to this video of an epic seven-minute wedding dance, in which all 250 guests were included in on the action, I was all over it! In one portion of the video, a white curtain was lowered to reveal the groom, accompanied by a microphone and back-up band, lip-syncing a rather catchy song that I surmised was named “Sugar.” I had never heard the song before (I know, I know – my musical knowledge is limited at best), but immediately loved it and got to Googling so that I could download it. Turns out, the song, which is indeed titled “Sugar,” is by Maroon 5 and, when I came across the music video during my online search, I practically started drooling. In it, Adam Levine and the rest of the group crash several weddings in one evening in order to perform “Sugar” live. While watching, I happened to recognize Carondelet House, one of the wedding venues Adam crashed, which had me even more floored. I had walked by the location last October while on my way to stalk the American Cement Building and thought it was one of the prettiest facades I had ever seen. Even though I had no idea at the time what the property was or what it housed, I figured it had to have been used in a production at some point. Little did I know that I would later spot it in what has now become one of my favorite music videos of all time.

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Carondelet House was originally constructed in 1928 as a private residence.

The 7,683-square-foot site, which boasts Spanish and Italian design elements, also once served as the administration building of the prestigious Otis College of Art and Design.

In 2011, Alan Dunn, owner of the Tres L.A. catering company, toured the property and, figuring it would make a beautiful event space, purchased it and transformed it into Carondelet House.

The site features two courtyards, brick detailing throughout, a fireplace, hand-painted vaulted ceilings, exposed beams and ductwork, and hardwood flooring. You can check out some interior photographs of it here. It is easily one of the prettiest properties I have ever laid eyes on, both inside and out.

Its picturesque brick façade stands out from all of the other buildings on the street.

Though Carondelet House has hosted everything from fashion shows to celebrity events, it is most often used as a wedding venue – which made it the perfect spot to film “Sugar.”

A wedding was actually taking place when we showed up to stalk it. I love the below image of guests arriving at the nuptials.

In the “Sugar” music video, which was shot on December 6th, 2014, Adam and his bandmates crash several weddings at a string of venues around L.A., surprising guests with a spontaneous performance. The video opens with Maroon 5 leaving the Carondelet House and hopping into Adam’s convertible to drive to the first venue.

One of the weddings that was crashed also took place at Carondelet House, so the property’s interior was featured in the video, as well.

I am not typically cynical by nature, but I was a little skeptical about Maroon 5’s performances being a surprise. So much goes into a film shoot, like securing a permit, paying location fees, shutting down traffic, hiring police officers, etc., etc., etc., that I just found it very hard to believe that the production was done on the sly, without the knowledge of anyone associated with the various weddings. But it pretty much was! While researching the video, I came across a blog post about the December 4th wedding of Ryan and Melanie, which took place at the Carondelet House. As it turns out, Maroon 5 coordinated with each venue prior to the shoot and, in this particular case, Ryan knew about the performance ahead of time, though no one else did – not the bride, not the wedding planner, not the photographer, not the videographer, not the guests. So outside of the groom, the performance was a complete surprise to all involved! Such a cool idea for a video! And can we just take a moment to talk about how beautiful Ryan and Melanie’s wedding was? Love the wine bottle “guest book.” Love the rustic place settings. LOVE the guest seating “game.” And those Edison bulbs strung against the brick wall are uh-ma-zing! I would like to do that in my home! Two thumbs up on all of it!

You can watch the “Sugar” video by clicking below. It has such a feel-good vibe, not to mention that Adam Levine just seems like the coolest, most down-to-earth guy ever in it! I could watch it on repeat all day, every day.

Carondelet House portrays the Baltimore Blade newspaper offices, where Mary (Drew Barrymore) works, in the 2009 romcom He’s Just Not That Into You.

One of the property’s courtyards also appears in the ending scene in which Conor (Kevin Connolly) announces that he loves Mary.

Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel) and Winston Bishop (Lamorne Morris) unload Jess’ car in front of Carondelet House in the Season 1 episode of New Girl titled “Bells,” which aired in 2011.

It is never stated what the property is supposed to be in the episode, but I believe it is intended to mask as the exterior of Jess and the gang’s loft. The building that typically serves as the loft on the series is located about three miles to the east, but because the “Bells” episode also made use of MacArthur Park, which is less than a block away from Carondelet House, I am guessing it was more economical to shoot there on that one occasion.

Carondelet House is the site of a wedding in the Season 3 episode of You’re the Worst titled “The Inherent, Unsullied Qualitative Value of Anything,” which aired in 2016. (Thanks to Molly, from Almost Makes Perfect, for telling me about this one!)

Nick Viall took some of his girls to Carondelet House during a group date – the best group date ever, in my opinion (hello, Backstreet Boys!) – on the Season 21 episode of The Bachelor titled “Week 3,” which aired in 2017.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Carondelet House, from Maroon 5’s “Sugar” music video, is located at 627 South Carondelet Street in Westlake. You can visit the venue’s official website here.

September 25, 2014September 17, 2014

New “L.A.” Mag Post – About the Queen Mary

Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine blog post – about the 80th birthday of the Queen Mary – on LAMag.com. My columns typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

February 9, 2009February 17, 2009

I Am Just So That Into It!

On Friday night, literally the second my boyfriend got off work, I dragged him right out to see new movie He’s Just Not That Into You. He said afterwards that if he had known it was a two-hour-and-nine-minute-long-movie, he never would have agreed to see it. LOL Needless to say, he just wasn’t that into the movie. But I, on the other hand, was! I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! LOVE LOVE LOVED IT! I was practically skipping out of the theatre afterwards, with a huge grin on my face, thinking to myself that movies like HJNTIY are the reason I moved to Hollywood. Movies like that make me want to act. 🙂 I’m not aiming to be the next Meryl Streep and I have no desire to be the darling of the independent film circuit – I just want to make people laugh and walk out of that movie theatre with a big ol’ smile on their face. 🙂 That’s the kind of acting I want to do – and HJNTIY is EXACTLY the kind of movie I hope to someday be a part of. So, in case you didn’t get it the first few times – I LOVED THIS MOVIE! 🙂

So, yesterday, after I found one of the movie’s filming locations, I, of course, ran right out to stalk it. 🙂 Although the movie is set in the East Coast city of Baltimore, most of the filming took place – of course – in Los Angeles. Only two weeks of filming actually occured in Baltimore and only four of the HJNTIY actors (Bradley Cooper, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connelly, and Kevin Connolly) made the trip out to the East Coast. The film’s writers, Marc Silverstein and Abby Kohn, decided to set their story in Baltimore because they had never seen it done before. Most romantic comedies are set in either New York or Los Angeles and Marc and Abby were hoping to shake things up a bit. Since Marc had lived in Baltimore for ten years before moving to L.A. to pursue a screenwriting career, he knew the coastal city well and thought it was the perfect choice to set their story.

But since I couldn’t very well run right out to Baltimore to stalk HJNTIY, I decided to try to find some of the movie’s West Coast locations. I really wanted to stalk the coffee shop where Drew Barrymore met Kevin Connolly towards the end of the movie, but I struck out on that one. Instead, after a bit of Googling, I happened to find these paparazzi photos of Scarlett Johansson and Bradley Cooper filming a scene at a grocery store in Burbank. From there it was just a matter of finding the right grocery store. And sure enough, I did! 🙂

In real life the grocery store is called Handy Market and it is a very cute and very tiny little shop. According to one of the Handy Market checkers, back in October of 2007 the store was shut down for a full day and a half for the filming of the two short scenes that took place there. Scenes were filmed both inside the store – at the first check-out stand and in a few of the aisles – and outside on the market’s exterior West facing wall.

It’s not hard to see why producers chose to use Handy Market. According to this article about the filming of HJNTIY , director Ken Kwapis said “One of the things that I love about Baltimore is that the texture of the city can be summed-up in one word: brick. The brick textures of the interiors and the exteriors are, to me, so expressive, so distinctive. Being a resident of Baltimore, you may not realize it, but boy, it’s not easy to find a lot of brick in L.A.” LOL Handy’s all-brick exterior must have made it a shoe-in for being used in the movie.

So, for all of you out there who weren’t like me and didn’t catch HJNTIY on opening night, drop what you’re doing and go see it now! I guarantee you so will be that into it! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Burbank’s Handy Market is located at 2514 W. Magnolia Boulevard in – you guessed it! – Burbank. The Home Depot store located at 16800 Roscoe Boulevard in Van Nuys was also used in He’s Just Not That Into You, although I most likely won’t stalk that location. 🙂 My boyfriend would probably be really excited if I did, though. LOL