Katies Holmes – IAMNOTASTALKER

April 25, 2011April 25, 2011

Crumbs Bake Shop from “90210”

Another location that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to see while doing some stalking in Beverly Hills two weekends ago was Crumbs Bake Shop, the popular cupcakery which appeared in the Season 2 episode of fave show 90210 titled “What’s Past is Prologue”. Crumbs has been a veritable institution in the Beverly Hills area for quite some time now and, being that I do love me some cupcakes, I am absolutely shocked that it took me this long to finally stalk the place, especially since it appeared on 90210 well over a year ago. As I have said before, though, there are just too many places to stalk and not enough hours in the day to do so! Thankfully, Crumbs was well worth the wait!

The original Crumbs Bake Shop first opened on New York’s Upper West Side in March of 2003 and was founded by former lawyer Mia Bauer and her entrepreneur husband Jason. Mia, who grew up on a farm in Israel, first started making coconut-flavored cupcakes for her family and friends when she was just a young child in the second grade. When she made a batch for Jason, her then boyfriend, one day in 2002, an idea was born. Mia left her law career behind shortly thereafter and, along with Jason, opened up her first cupcakery. It became an instant success and the couple now owns over 35 stores in six different states, including one in Washington, D.C. Today each shop offers over fifty different flavors of cupcakes daily, each of them made by hand. Sadly, because photographs are not allowed inside of the store, I had to settle for snapping a few pics of the exterior only.

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The GC and I opted to try one of Crumb’s espresso-flavored cupcakes and, let me tell you, it was A-MA-ZING! I am pretty picky about my cupcakes and I have to say that Crumbs serves up some fabulous ones! Loved, loved, loved them! Because the GC is a big fan of Howard Stern, he really wanted to try the Artie Lange cupcake, which was created by Artie on the air during an episode of The Howard Stern Show back in 2008 and consists of a vanilla cupcake filled with chocolate cream cheese, topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting, dipped in chocolate fondant, and then sprinkled with chocolate and vanilla sprinkles. We thought it might just be a wee bit too rich, though. Winking smile Artie Lange is hardly Crumbs’ only celebrity fan. Brooklyn Dekker, Andrea Bowen, Alyssa Milano, Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Jason Alexander (the actor from Seinfeld, not Britney Spears’ ex), Tori Spelling, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Katy Perry, Russell Brand, Chace Crawford, Justin Timberlake, Lauren Conrad, and my girl Jen Aniston have all been known to sample the sweet treats. In March of 2009, Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise stopped into the Beverly Hills Crumbs to get their cupcake on. And in September of 2008, Crumbs unveiled a limited-edition Cosmo-flavored cupcake especially for the DVD release party for Sex and the City: The Movie. Love it, love it, love it!

In the “What’s Past is Prologue” episode of 90210, Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord), and Erin Silver (aka Jessica Stroup) meet up at Crumbs to discuss Silver’s relationship with Teddy Montgomery (aka Trevor Donovan).

It is while they are enjoying their cupcakes that Annie notices her ex-boyfriend, Jasper Herman (aka Zachary Ray Sherman), sitting at a nearby table and finally realizes that he is stalking her.

Ironically enough, just around the corner from Crumbs Bake Shop is a Vietnamese restaurant named 9021Pho, which I think is just about one of the funniest names for a restaurant that I have ever heard! The place cracks me up every single time I drive by it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Crumbs Bake Shop, from the “What’s Past is Prologue” episode of 90210, is located at 9465 Little Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills. You can visit the official Crumbs’ website here. 9021Pho is located just around the corner from Crumbs at 490 North Beverly Boulevard in Beverly Hills. You can visit the official 9021Pho website here.

December 28, 2009December 28, 2009

Wollman Ice Skating Rink

I’m sticking with my Christmas stalking theme for one more day – even though it’s already December 28th – as I had originally intended to publish this post on Christmas Eve, but, unfortunately, ran out of time. As I’ve said many times before, though, it’s better to be late than never! So, here goes! One New York location that definitely belongs in any collection of Christmas movie locales is Wollman Ice Skating Rink, a spot which appeared in one of my very favorite holiday flicks of all time, Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. I had the pleasure of skating at Wollman Rink with my fiancé back in 2004 and absolutely fell in love with the place. With the Plaza Hotel and other New York skyscrapers towering in the background, the rink actually looks more like a picture postcard than a real life location. If you haven’t been there yourself, take my word for it, Wollman Rink is absolutely magical. 🙂

Wollman Rink was originally constructed in 1949 thanks to a $600,000 donation from New York philanthropist Kate Wollman. Kate had the ice skating rink built in honor of her parents, Jonas and Bettie, and her four brothers, William, Morton, Henry, and Benjamin. From the beginning, Wollman Rink was an immediate success, welcoming over 300,000 skaters in its first year alone. Today, it is visited by an average of 4,000 skaters per day.

Like practically everything else in New York, Wollman Rink is currently owned and operated by real estate mogul Donald Trump, who purchased and completely rebuilt the property back in the ‘90s. His name is displayed on almost every square inch of the rink, lest anyone ever forget who it belongs to. 😉 In the summer months, the rink is transformed into a small amusement park named Victorian Gardens. Wollman Rink is not to be confused with the similarly named Kate Wollman Memorial Rink, which was constructed in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park by the William J. Wollman Foundation upon Kate’s death in 1955.

Thanks to its picturesque appearance, Wollman Rink has long been a favorite of location scouts, appearing in countless movies and television shows over the years. In Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, Harry and Marv, aka “The Sticky Bandits”, plan their robbery of Duncan’s Toy Chest while skating at Wollman Rink. Ironically enough, though, before my first visit to New York, this stalker was under the mistaken assumption that the Home Alone scene had been filmed at the famous Rockefeller Center ice staking rink. It wasn’t until I started making a stalking itinerary for my first Big Apple vacation that I realized my mistake. As it turns out, New York has not one, but TWO cinematically historic ice skating rinks. But I’ll save the Rockefeller Center rink for a future post. 😉

Wollman Rink also appeared in the Season One episode of Gossip Girl entitled “Roman Holiday”, in the scene in which Blair Waldorf (aka Leighton Meester), along with her mother, her father, and her father’s new boyfriend go ice skating just a few days before Christmas.

On a side note – I am absolutely IN LOVE with the skates with the hanging pink pompoms that Blair wore in that scene!!!! I have GOT to get me a pair of those! 🙂

In Serendipity – one of my fave romcoms of all time! – Jonathan (aka John Cusack) and Sara (aka Kate Beckinsale) go for a late night skate at Wollman Rink after sharing a Frrrozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity 3 Restaurant.

After their skate, Jonathan draws the constellation of Cassiopeia on Sara’s arm while sitting on the rink’s benches.

And at the end of the movie, the two star-crossed lovers finally reunite at the rink. Wollman Rink has also been featured in Stepmom, Autumn in New York, Love Story, The January Man, The Devil’s Own, Odds Against Tomorrow, Carnal Knowledge, August Rush, A Journey That Wasn’t, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, and the 2005 version of King Kong.

Celebrities also often visit Wollman Rink. In December of 2005, Tom Cruise took his then-pregnant girlfriend Katie Holmes there to celebrate her 27th birthday.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Wollman Rink is located inside Central Park, near the corner of Central Park South and 5th Avenue, in New York. Follow the footpath from the Park’s 59th Street entrance over Gapstow Bridge and the rink will be visible on the west. Wollman Rink is open from November through March. You can visit its official website here.

October 13, 2009December 6, 2013

The Carlyle Hotel

Yet another of my favorite New York haunts is the ultra-exclusive Carlyle Hotel, located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. I blogged about the Carlyle’s famous Bemelman’s Bar, which was featured in Sex and the City: The Movie, after last year’s trip to the Big Apple, but didn’t include much information on the actual hotel itself. So, here goes. The Carlyle Hotel, which was named after author Thomas Carlyle, was built by Moses Ginsberg and designed in the Art Deco style by architects Sylvan Bien & Harry M. Prince. The thirty-five story building first opened its doors in November of 1930 and was actually a residential hotel at the time, with apartments leasing for approximately $20,000 a year. To show you how times have changed, today there is a room at the Carlyle which rents for approximately $15,000 a night! LOL Due to the Great Depression, the hotel did not fare well during the early years. In 1932, it was sold to new owners who managed to keep it afloat and occupied, but failed to really put the hotel on the map. In 1948, businessman Robert Whittle Downing purchased the building with the intent of transforming it into an exclusive, upscale hotel property. And transform it, he did! Shortly after the change of ownership, then-president Harry S. Truman stayed at the Carlyle, and the rest, as they say is, history. Every president since that time has stayed at the Carlyle at least once during their presidency. In fact, JFK owned an apartment at the hotel from 1953 until the time of his death and was such a frequent visitor that during his tenure the Carlyle earned the nickname “the New York White House”. (By the way, I have absolutely no idea what I was looking at when my dad snapped the above picture, but it’s the only one I have of the front of the hotel. LOL)

JFK’s wife Jackie was also a frequent guest at the Carlyle during her lifetime. The hotel honored her patronage by placing the above framed photograph just inside the main entrance. Ironically enough, rumor has it that Marilyn Monroe was also a frequent visitor to the Carlyle – but only when JFK was in town and only when Jackie wasn’t able to accompany him. According to legend, there is a secret tunnel system located below the hotel which allows the rich and famous to enter and leave the property without being spotted by the masses. Thanks to the discretion and privacy that the Carlyle affords, it has long been a celebrity magnet. In fact, the New York Times just recently dubbed it “a Palace of Secrets”. Just a few of the celebs who have been spotted at the hotel through the years include Elizabeth Taylor, Steve Martin, Debbie Reynolds, Princess Diana, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Christian Slater, France’s First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Scarlett Johansson, Jack Nicholson, Gwen Stefani, Nicole Kidman, Jay Z, Beyonce, Ryan Reynolds, Britney Spears, Swiss tennis star Roger Federer, Kate Bosworth, Victoria Beckham, Kate Hudson, Katie Holmes, and Tom Cruise. And, of course, Sarah Jessica Parker. In fact, SJP and Matthew Broderick are such fans of the Carlyle that they not only honeymooned at the hotel, but hosted an after-after party for the Sex and the City: The Movie premiere there.

The Carlyle is an absolutely beautiful place, with sparkling marble floors, dark wood paneling, crystal chandeliers, and antique elevators complete with real gloved operators. And I highly recommend stalking the place! If you can’t afford to stay there (the average cost of a room is about $525!), you can grab a drink in the hotel’s Bemelman’s Bar or dine in their restaurant, Cafe Carlyle. On our last trip to the Big Apple, we stopped in to the hotel and I asked my dad to snap some photos of of it for me while I went to ask the concierge about the filming that had taken place there over the years. The two pictures shown above were the result of that request. LOL Why he took only two photographs, both of me and not of the hotel, I’ll never know! LOL My apologies! Anyway, to get a better idea of what the Carlyle looks like inside, take a peek at the photo gallery on the hotel’s website. 🙂

The Carlyle is also, of course, a filming location. Woody Allen met ex-wife Tea Leoni at the Carlyle’s Bemelman’s Bar for a drink in the 2002 movie Hollywood Ending. Woody also shot a date scene with Dianne Wiest in the hotel’s restaurant, Cafe Carlyle, for the 1986 movie Hannah and her Sisters.

According to the book New York: A Movie Lover’s Guide, the penthouse where Anthony Hopkins lived in Meet Joe Black was actually one of the Carlyle Hotel’s deluxe suites. The exteriors of his building, however, were filmed elsewhere.

Also according to New York: A Movie Lover’s Guide, the Carlyle stood in for the European hotel where Glenn Close first met Jeremy Irons in the 1990 movie Reversal of Fortune, but I’m not entirely sure that information is correct. As you can see in the above screen captures, the decor just doesn’t seem to match that of the Carlyle.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Carlyle Hotel is located at 25 East 76th Street on New York’s Upper East Side.