Jen Aniston locations – IAMNOTASTALKER

February 22, 2012February 21, 2012

The Interior of the “Bruce Almighty” Party House

In honor of my girl Jen Aniston receiving the 2,642^nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today (a ceremony that I will actually not be attending because, after the debacle that was the Horrible Bosses premiere this past summer, I have a severe aversion to any event that has the potential of being too crowded or too chaotic), I thought that I would blog about a location from her 2003 romantic comedy Bruce Almighty. As I mentioned this past July in my post about the Stern House in Pasadena, which stood in for the exterior of the supposed Buffalo, New York-area Vanderbilt Estate where the Channel 7 news team threw a party in honor of Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) in the flick, I was fairly certain that a different property had been used for the interior. And for the past seven months or so, I had been just a wee-bit obsessed with tracking down that interior. Unfortunately though, while I searched through countless real estate listings and location websites during my hunt, I had come up completely empty-handed.

The most memorable aspect of the interior of the Bruce Almighty party house was the two-story front entrance foyer and its dual curving staircases.

Back in July, while researching the Stern House, I had come across a picture of Jen sitting at the foot of one of those staircases on IMDB’s Bruce Almighty photo page and, it will come as no surprise, that it soon became embedded in my memory.

So when I spotted that very same staircase pop up in the mansion belonging to wealthy steel businessman Henry Rearden (Grant Bowler) in the 2011 movie Atlas Shrugged: Part I a couple of weeks ago, I just about died! I, of course, immediately started doing research on Atlas Shrugged filming locations (in fact, I did not even finish watching the film, I became so obsessed!) and fairly quickly found an article in which a commenter had stated that Frank’s residence was located in La Canada Flintridge, across the street from the 2011 Pasadena Showcase House of Design. And while it would seem that it would be fairly easy to track down the 2011 Showcase House, for whatever maddening reason, I could not find it anywhere! Fortunately, after spending countless hours searching by myself, I decided to enlist the help of fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who texted me back a few minutes later with an address. THANK YOU, Mike! So, this past Monday afternoon, while the two of us were out doing some stalking in the San Gabriel Valley, we ran right over there to take some pics.

In real life, the estate, which was originally built in 1993 by architect Wayne Siggard, boasts 5 bedrooms, 7 baths, a whopping 11,700 square feet of living space!!!, and an almost 2-acre plot of land. The mansion, which, as you can see above, is pretty darn spectacular, is currently listed on MLS for a cool $7,950,000, although it does look like a sale might be pending. You can visit the home’s real estate website here. Oh, what I would not give to see the inside of that place in person!

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In Bruce Almighty, the interior of the mansion was used extensively during the party scene and the master bedroom area was where Grace Connelly (Jennifer Aniston) caught Bruce in a passionate embrace with his “Spanish-accented” co-anchor, Susan Ortega (Catherine Bell).

The estate was also used extensively in Atlas Shrugged: Part I. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property appeared in the movie.

And the very same bedroom where Bruce and Susan kissed in Bruce Almighty was also featured as the bedroom of Henry and his wife, Lillian Rearden (Rebecca Wisocky), in Atlas Shrugged.

Photographs of the magnificent stairwell that I spent over seven months searching for are pictured above. Sigh! What I wouldn’t give to sit on them to pose for a photograph like Jen did!

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The interior of the Bruce Almighty party house, aka Henry Rearden’s mansion from Atlas Shrugged: Part I, is located at 4158 Commonwealth Avenue in La Canada Flintridge.

November 28, 2011November 27, 2011

Julia Harris’ House from “Horrible Bosses”

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I ventured out in the pouring rain to stalk two weekends ago was the ultra-modern abode where Dr. Julia Harris, D.D.S. (aka my girl Jen Aniston) lived in the (horrible) 2011 comedy Horrible Bosses. I was informed of this location via a text from fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, who prefaced giving me the address with the query, “Did you like Horrible Bosses?”, to which I wrote back, “Not at all!” When he asked if my dislike stemmed from the fact that the movie was “too crude”, I wrote back, “No! It stemmed from the fact that it was seriously stupid!” Winking smile The GC and I had gone to see Horrible Bosses on opening night in a theatre, as I do with pretty much every new Jen Aniston movie, and were both so bored to tears that we almost walked out! I just did not find the flick funny, like at all, and, for some reason, Charlie Day, who played Dr. Harris’ dental assistant Dale Arbus, seriously grated on my nerves, especially his gravely voice. It was like fingernails on a chalkboard to this stalker, but I digress. Anyway, I was extremely excited to receive Chas’ text, regardless of my feelings about the movie, as I am always, always up for stalking a location that has anything whatsoever to do with my girl.

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Julia’s house actually only shows up twice in Horrible Bosses – first in the scene in which Dale’s friend Kurt Buckman (aka Jason Sudeikis) stakes out the property with the intent of murdering Julia and later on in a flashback scene in which he describes what happens while there. According to the Horrible Bosses production notes, “The deviant doc’s house is stylistically similar to her office — that is, what can be seen of it through its wide street-facing picture windows, which afford her the opportunity to put on the kind of show she couldn’t get away with at work.”

In real life, the five-bedroom, four-bath, 3,906-square-foot home, which was completely rebuilt in 2008, is pretty darn spectacular! The property features a double-sided fireplace, a floating staircase, an open floor plan, Cherry wood and poured concrete flooring, exposed steel beams, a six-burner range, and three fireplaces. The property sold on July 22 of this year for $1.73 million. You can check out some great interior photographs of the place here.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location. You can check out Chas’ extensive Horrible Bosses filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Julia Harris’ house from Horrible Bosses is located at 2361 Midvale Avenue in the Westside area of Los Angeles.

September 2, 2011September 2, 2011

Aunt Mitsy’s House from “Rumor Has It”

One location that I have been on the lookout for for what seems like ages now is the home where Aunt Mitsy (aka Kathy Bates) lived in the 2005 movie Rumor Has It. Even though I was never a particularly big fan of the flick, I pretty much fell in love with Aunt Mitsy’s adorable little bungalow – and her huge front porch – at first sight and have wanted to stalk it ever since. Especially being that my girl Jen Aniston had filmed a scene on the premises. Because no apartment number, street sign, or even a full view of the exterior of the property was visible at any point during the movie, though, I figured this was one locale that would be virtually impossible to track down.

Enter fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who emailed me last week to ask for some help in locating the home where Grandma Bunny (aka Betty White) lived in the 2010 romantic comedy You Again. Well, I took one look at the screencap he sent me (pictured above) and realized that, while it was not the same house featured in Rumor Has It, the two properties looked amazingly similar – which got me to thinking that they might just be located in close proximity to each other, quite possibly even on the same street. So I immediately began searching for the You Again house and also got fellow stalkers Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and Owen on the case.

As fate would have it, Mike happened to recognize the yellow Victorian-style home located in the background of the Rumor Has It scene and when he looked at that property on Google Street View, sure enough, there was Mitsy’s house right across the street. Yay!

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Aunt Mitsy’s house was only featured in one very brief scene in Rumor Has It, in which Sarah Huttinger (aka Jennifer Aniston) asks Mitsy for information about her deceased mother. It is there that Mitsy first tells Sarah about her mother’s affair with Beau Burroughs (aka Kevin Costner), at which point Sarah realizes that her family served as the inspiration for the movie The Graduate. (Yeah, yeah – lame plot for a movie, I know.) From its appearance in Rumor Has It, I had assumed that the home was an extremely small, one-story dwelling and searched for it as such. As it turns out, I could not have been more wrong.

In real life the house looks nothing at all like how I had envisioned it to look in my mind. Not only is the place two levels, but it is also pretty darn huge!

And furthermore, the property is actually an apartment building – not a private residence as I had originally thought! As you can see above, the dwelling has several front doors and consists of at least three separate units. This is one location that I can honestly say I NEVER would have found on my own. Not in a million years.

Thankfully, the front porch area looks pretty much the same today as it did back in 2005 when Rumor Has It was filmed. There is currently much less foliage in place and the house is now painted blue instead of yellow, but otherwise little else has changed in that section of the property over the years and it still looks just as cute in person as it did onscreen. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to sit on that porch in the same spot that Jen sat to pose for a pic! Smile

The other houses on the street that appeared in the background of the scene look exactly the same as they did in the movie, as well. And, yes, we did also end up finding Grandma Bunny’s house from You Again – well, fellow stalker Chas found it – and I will be blogging about it soon.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and to fellow stalkers Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, and Owen for all of the time and effort they put into this search.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Aunt Mitsy’s house from Rumor Has It is located at 485 Ellis Street in Pasadena.

August 2, 2011August 1, 2011

The Cree Estate in Cathedral City

While doing research on Las-Vegas-Dunes-Hotel-owner Charlie “Kewpie” Rich’s former Palm Springs home, which I blogged about last Tuesday, I came across some information about another Coachella Valley location where my girl Jen Aniston and former-husband Brad Pitt had once vacationed. The property is known as the historic Cree Estate in Cathedral City and it is apparently a big-time celebrity hot-spot and wedding venue. According to this FASCINATING January 2004 Palm Springs Life article, which chronicles the adventures of area location scout Sylvia Schmitt who manages rentals of the Cree Estate, Brad and Jen spent a Thanksgiving weekend at the secluded Spanish-style hacienda a few years back. Upon their arrival in the desert, Sylvia met up with the famous couple to hand over the property’s keys and walk the grounds with them. As you can imagine, I was literally drooling upon reading those words! Never in my life have I so badly wanted to be a location scout! Sigh! Anyway, at some point during their stay, Sylvia received a late-night phone call from Brad who informed her that the home’s dishwasher had broken and was leaking water all over the floor. Sylvia promptly hired a plumber to go out to the property to fix the leak. Well, as fate would have it, after the plumber finished working, he ended up hanging out with Jen until about 2 a.m.!!!! Drool, drool, drool! How incredibly cool is Jen to hang out chatting with a random stranger until the wee hours of the morning! I love her even more now after reading that story! According to Sylvia, the plumber said the experience was “the highlight of his life”. Um, you’re telling me!!!!!! So while vacationing in Palm Springs two weekends ago, I, of course, just had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the estate.

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Real estate developer Raymond Cree built his private, 5000-square foot, all-adobe estate, along with two stand-alone guest houses, on a sprawling two-and-a-half-acre plot of land sometime during the 1930s. The property boasts 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, a whopping 78 palm trees, a regulation-sized tennis court, three separate kitchens, wood-beamed ceilings, white-washed brick walls, a wood-burning fireplace, classical statuaries (including a replica of Michelangelo’s David), two jacuzzis, a swim-up bar, a permanent dance floor, and sweeping views of the San Jacinto Mountains. The estate also features two black-bottomed swimming pools, one of which is the largest privately owned pool in the entire Coachella Valley and was featured by Huell Howser in an episode of his television series Palm Springs. Sadly, as you can above, though, even though the front gate was open when we showed up to stalk the place, not much of the ultra-secluded property is visible from the street.

But, as I have said before, that is why God created aerial views! As you can see above, the property is quite magnificent and absolutely enormous. Other stars who have spent time at the Cree Estate include Christina Applegate and now ex-husband Johnathon Schaech, who got married on the premises on October 20th, 2001, with such celebs as David Faustino, Cameron Diaz, Jared Leto, and hairstylist Ken Paves in attendance. Apparently, in 2003 the contestants and the crew from The Bachelorette stayed at the Cree Estate for over a month during the filming of the series’ first installment starring Trista Rehn, although for the life of me I do not remember that season taking place in the Palm Springs area. CSI:Crime Scene Investigation’s William Petersen also once vacationed at the property. Being that rates start at $1,500 per night with a three-night minimum, though, this is one Jen location that I seriously doubt I will ever have the opportunity to visit. But . . . to any of my friends reading this who might be planning a wedding in the near future, I think you should seriously consider the estate as your venue. I will even go scout it for you, if you want! Winking smile You can see some fabulous close-up and interior photographs of the historic Cree Estate here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Cree Estate is located at 67698 Carey Road in Cathedral City. You can visit the home’s vacation rental website here and its wedding website here.

June 17, 2011June 17, 2011

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston’s Honeymoon Suite at the Ingleside Inn

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, I spent my recent birthday weekend in Room 148 of the Ingleside Inn in Palm Springs – the very room where Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston stayed during their mini-honeymoon shortly following their July 29th, 2000 wedding. I first found out about the Ingleside Inn back in April of 2009 thanks to this Jetsetters Magazine article and, as you can imagine, just about died upon hearing that my girl Jen had honeymooned there. Then, shortly thereafter, the Grim Cheaper ended up proposing to me at the Ingleside, so the hotel has always had a very special place in my heart. During that proposal weekend, I, of course, just had to ask Melvyn Haber, the Ingleside’s longtime owner, what room it was that Brad and Jen had stayed in. Before I could even get the question fully out of my mouth, he replied, “Room 148, the Princess Room.” And that right there is just one of the many reason that I fell in love with the hotel! Almost a full decade later, Melvyn STILL knew the exact room where Brad and Jen had stayed right off the top of his head!

Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago. My dad called me up to let me know that he had booked Brad and Jen’s honeymoon suite as a surprise for my upcoming birthday. (He had to tell me about his plans a few weeks early as the GC and I had been thinking about spending my birthday at Disneyland and were thisclose to booking a hotel room there.) I happened to be driving at the time and got so excited upon hearing his news that I literally almost crashed the car! For those who have never visited the Palm Springs area, it gets EXTREMELY hot there during the summer months – we are talking like 115 to 120 degrees hot – so hotels drastically drop their rates from early June through the end of August. Because of this, and the fact that the Ingleside inn is not overly-expensive to begin with, my dad was able to get Brad and Jen’s room for only $200 per night! My birthday just so happened to fall on my mom’s very last day of work ever (she retired this year), so he also booked a suite at the hotel for them, and talked the GC into booking a second night in Brad and Jen’s room so that we could all spend the weekend together. Now mind you, my dad was extremely sick during this time and was in and out of the hospital, so how he managed to come up with such an incredible idea AND do all of the planning without me or my mom’s help – not to mention that he also purchased some FABULOUS gifts for the two of us – is absolutely BEYOND me!! It was one of the best, most exciting weekends of my entire life and I cannot believe he pulled it all off while feeling so incredibly sick! Best. Present. Ever.

When we first arrived at the Ingleside Inn and were checking in at the front desk, I saw the above-pictured “Happy Birthday Lindsay” message displayed on the marquee in the front lobby and just about fell over. So incredibly cool!! The lobby sign is very typical of the personal touches that the Ingleside Inn employs in order to make guests feel at home. Love it!

After checking in, we were handed the above-pictured room key. As you can see, the Ingleside Inn still uses actual brass room keys, not the keycards that are typically found in hotels today. So, as you can imagine, as soon as those keys were handed over, I turned to the GC and said, “OH MY GOD! Jennifer Aniston once held this key in her hand!” Granted, the key quite possibly could have been swapped out for a new one in the decade that has passed since Jen stayed at the Ingleside, but just let me have my fantasy! Winking smile

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I covered the Ingleside Inn’s vast history in the post I wrote about the hotel back in May of 2009, so I won’t go over it again here. But needless to say, the tiny, 30-room inn, which sits on just over 2.5 acres of land, has had quite a celebrated history since it was first founded in 1939. Thanks to its extreme privacy and award-winning service, celebrities have long been drawn to the place like moths to a flame. Just a few of the luminaries who have stayed there over the years include Frank Sinatra, Kate Hudson, Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, Lance Bass, Donald Trump, Marla Maples, Ava Gardner, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Gary Cooper, John Wayne, Bob Hope, John Travolta, David Boreanaz, Joan Collins, Cher, Howard Hughes, and Rita Hayworth. The Ingleside is by no means fancy or extravagant, though. It is a very simple, low-key retreat where people go to truly get away from it all. The Inn is not a party hotel, it is not a place for families, and it is not modern in any way, shape, or form. It is an extremely quiet, private, and relaxing sanctuary; the type of place where an A-List star can lay out by the pool and not worry about being approached by a fan or fellow guest.

Brad and Jen’s honeymoon suite features a wood-burning fireplace, a sitting area, a king-sized bed, two picture windows, and a plasma TV, and while it is extremely nice, it is not overly-luxurious or the type of place one would expect one of the most famous couples in the world to have spent their honeymoon. And that right there is why I LOVE Jen so much! Of course she would choose a simple, laid-back, low-key space to spend her first few days of married life. And while Brad and Jen’s room is a suite, it is by no means the Ingleside’s largest. There are two others that are far bigger than the Princess Room, which led me to wonder how the couple ending up choosing it for their honeymoon.

Besides the fact that Jen has always been a fan of small spaces (the bungalow she rented in Malibu post-divorce measured a scant 1,531 square feet, the home on Blue Jay Way where she lived during the height of her Friends’ success measured only 2,903 square feet, and she is currently selling her 9,105-square-foot Beverly Hills manse as it is reportedly too large for her), as it turns out, the Princess Room is by far the hotel’s most private and secluded suite. It is located towards the very back of the property, far away from the pool and the award-winning Melvyn’s restaurant, but close to the back parking area, which means that Brad and Jen could have parked their car and been inside of their room less than ten steps later. As you can see above, there is also a gate surrounding that particular wing of the hotel, which consists of three rooms, and the actual suite itself is bordered by a large stucco wall.

The Princess Room is one of the few at the hotel that also boasts a completely private patio area, which I absolutely fell in love with while there.

As you can imagine, pretty much all weekend I was saying things like “I just took a shower where Jennifer Aniston once showered!” or “Jennifer Aniston sat on this couch!” or, my personal favorite, “Jennifer Aniston slept here!” My head was literally about to explode the entire time I was there! And poor, poor fellow stalker Owen! I must have sent him about 100 text messages, all saying things like, “I just washed my face where Jennifer Aniston once washed her face!” Smile

My parents stayed in Room 145, aka “Margaret’s Room”, which according to one of the super-nice front desk clerks that we spoke with while there, was one of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver’s favorite suites. The former Governator and his soon-to-be ex-wife stayed at the hotel on an almost monthly basis at one point in time.

My parents’ room boasted a HUMONGOUS semi-private patio (semi-private as it has an opening on the backside that is accessible to the public) that was honestly bigger than most backyards!

All in all, it was an A-MA-ZING weekend and, as you can see above, I was BEYOND sad to check out of what the GC and I had dubbed “our perfect little room”.

Ingleside Inn–Brad and Jen’s honeymoon hotel

You can watch a video about the Ingleside Inn, in which owner Melvyn Haber is interviewed, by clicking above.

Ingleside Inn Palm Springs

And you can watch another video, which shows the Inn’s beautiful grounds, by clicking above.

On a stalking side-note – This Sunday (June 19th), stalking gods Harry Medved and Karie Bible will be signing copies of their new book Location Filming in Los Angeles at Vroman’s Bookstore, which is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. They will also be conducting a walking tour of some famous Pasadena movie sites, including locations from Knocked Up, The Prestige, Live Free and Die Hard, and Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator immediately following the signing at 4 p.m.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Ingleside Inn is located at 200 West Ramon Road in Palm Springs. Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston spent their honeymoon in the hotel’s Princess Room, aka Room 148. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver frequently stayed in Margaret’s Room, aka Room 145. You can visit the Ingleside Inn’s official website here.

March 2, 2011June 16, 2011

Casa del Mar Hotel from “Just Go With It”

On February 11th – which just so happened to be my girl Jennifer Aniston’s 42nd birthday – I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to see the actress’ latest movie, Just Go With It. Because there are very few JA movies that I have ever actually liked (even though I am a HUGE fan of hers, Office Space and He’s Just Not That Into You are the only two that I can honestly say that I LOVE), I did not have high hopes for the flick. But I am very happy to report that I ended up absolutely LOVING it! Even more amazing was the fact that the GC loved it, too. And even more amazing still was the fact that the GC also recognized a location from it – the Casa del Mar hotel in Santa Monica which was used in the scene in which Katherine (aka Jennifer Aniston) poses as Danny’s (aka Adam Sandler’s) soon-to-be ex-wife and meets his new girlfriend, Palmer (aka Brooklyn Decker), for the first time. So, while we were in Santa Monica this past weekend stalking the blue carpet at the Independent Spirit Awards, I dragged the GC right on over to the Casa del Mar to do a bit of Just Go With It stalking.

Casa del Mar hotel was first opened in 1926 as the luxurious and ultra-exclusive Club Casa del Mar beach club, which catered to Southern California’s elite and featured an indoor, Olympic-sized swimming pool, a private stretch of white, sandy beach, weekly dinner dances, upscale accommodations, and a grand ballroom. Even though it was founded during the heart of America’s Prohibition era, booze apparently flowed freely at the hotel and gambling was a frequent guest pastime. According to local lore, Santa Monica policemen would turn a blind eye to the illegal goings-on at the property and would tip off the club staff members each time there was going to be a raid. During World War II, the US Army took over the building and used it to house American soldiers. Fallen into disrepair, the hotel shuttered its doors shortly after the war ended. Charles E. Dederich purchased the Renaissance Revival-style property shortly thereafter and turned it into a drug rehabilitation facility known as Synanon. In the late 1970’s, the building was purchased by nutrition guru Nathan Pritikin and transformed into the Pritikin Longevity Center, where actor Chris Farley was a one-time guest. The Edward Thomas Hospitality Corporation took over the property in 1998, restored the building to is original 1920’s grandeur, and in 1999 reopened it as the Casa del Mar hotel. It has been going strong ever since.

The hotel currently boasts a Zoltar fortune machine, a la the machine that made Tom Hanks “big” in the movie of the same name, in its lobby area, which I found so incredibly cool!

The Casa del Mar hotel popped up in what was, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, the funniest scene in Just Go With It, in which JA pretends to be a rich, snobby Beverly Hills socialite with a bit of a drinking – and pill – problem. Jen is ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS in the scene and even had the GC LOL-ing at several points, even though he typically does not find her to be at all amusing.

The Just Go With It scene was filmed in the southern portion of the Casa del Mar lobby, just south of the rear side of the hotel’s main fireplace. The lobby’s furnishings were changed quite a bit for the filming, though.

And I, of course, just had to recreate the scene in which Jen first arrives at the hotel and tells her limo driver that she “shant be long”. Smile

The scene that supposedly takes place just outside of the hotel was shot at a different location, though, and I have not been able to determine exactly where that location is yet.

Just Go With It Trailer – Casa Del Mar Hotel

You can watch the Just Go With It trailer, in which Casa del Mar is featured, by clicking above.

The hotel also popped up in the Season 2 episode of The Mentalist titled “18-5-4” as the supposed San Francisco-area Tidewater Resort where Oliver Simon McDaniel (aka Evan Peters) hid out.

For whatever reason, producers had a fake check-in desk built in front of the hotel’s fireplace for the filming of the episode.

The scene in which Patrick Jane (aka Simon Baker) tells Teresa Lisbon (aka Robin Tunney) that she should have the CBI Headquarters moved to the beach was filmed in the hotel’s Veranda Bar area . . .

. . . which I, unfortunately, could not get a great photograph of due to the brightness of the sun.

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The SUPER nice concierge that we spoke with while we were stalking the hotel also let us know that the Casa del Mar’s Colonnade Ballroom was used in another Jennifer Aniston flick – the 2006 movie Friends With Money, in the scene in which Olivia (aka JA) and her friends attend a benefit for ALS. He also informed us that the ballroom was used in episodes of both Hung and Curb Your Enthusiasm, as well.

As fate would have it, the ballroom just happened to be unlocked while we were stalking the hotel, so I was able to walk in and snap a few pictures of it.

The exterior of the hotel is visible in the scene in 2005’s Be Cool in which wanna-be gansta Raji (aka an absolutely HILARIOUS Vince Vaughn) and Elliot Wilhelm (aka Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) get into a fight and Raji announces, “I smell you man! I feel your pain!” LOL

Besides being a filming location, the hotel is also something of a celebrity hotspot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there in recent years include Lindsay Lohan, Christian Bale, Ryan Phillipe, AnnaLynne McCord, Cameron Diaz, Megan Fox, Gisele Bundchen, Tom Brady, Maria Shriver, Pamela Anderson, Christian Slater, Emma Watson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Justin Timberlake, Bradley Cooper, Molly Ringwald, Oprah Winfrey, Kevin Bacon, Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, Will Smith, Josh Duhamel, and Renee Zellweger. Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray were married at the hotel in 2005 and Miss Britney Spears and then-husband Kevin Federline even lived there for a time while their Malibu mansion was being renovated. I was lucky enough to spot Jen Aniston at the Casa del Mar once – along with Vince Vaughn, Joey Lauren Adams, and Jon Favreau – back in 2006. She was doing press for The Break-Up at the time and the GC and I had randomly stopped by the hotel to grab a cocktail. I was wearing my “Team Aniston” sweatshirt and when Jen saw it she pointed, smiled, and said, “Oh, thank you!” Ever since that day, the GC has referred to Casa del Mar as the “Jen Aniston hotel”. Love it! (The GC took the above photograph of Jen that day on his blackberry, which is why it turned out so poorly. After seeing the picture, I solemnly swore I would NEVER again be caught out and about without my camera and I now carry it with me at all times.)

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Casa del Mar hotel, from Just Go With It, is located at 1910 Ocean Way in Santa Monica. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.