Kevin McHale – IAMNOTASTALKER

November 16, 2010November 16, 2010

Little Dom’s Restaurant from “90210”

This past Saturday night, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Los Feliz to stalk Little Dom’s – an Italian eatery owned by Warner Ebbink and Brandon Boudet of the Eat Heavy Restaurant Group, the very same team that was responsible for founding the 101 Coffee Shop that I blogged about yesterday. The GC and I had actually breakfasted at the Los Feliz-area establishment once before a couple of years ago, but at the time I had no idea the place was a filming location or a celebrity hotspot, so I, unfortunately, did not take any photographs while there. Well, imagine my surprise when just a few months later the restaurant was featured in a Season 2 episode of fave show 90210. I recognized the place immediately, and, let me tell you, just about fell out of my chair. And then this past September, I just about had a heart attack when the eatery appeared on 90210 yet again. And then, last week, when I came across these November 4th paparazzi photos of the cast of Glee – including Lea Michele, Dianna Agron, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Harry Shum Jr., Kevin McHale, Jenna Ushkowitz, Naya Rivera, and Chord Overstreet – dining at the restaurant, I just about died and immediately informed the GC that Little Dom’s was where the two of us would be spending our upcoming Saturday night.

Little Dom’s first opened in January of 2008 on the corner of Hillhurst Avenue and Avocado Street in the heart of Downtown Los Feliz in the space that previously housed the French bistro La Belle Epoque. Warner Ebbink, who so ingeniously designed the 101 Coffee Shop interior, completely gutted the former Epoque property and created the Manhattan-esque decor of his new Italian eatery from scratch. The interior designer/restaurateur searched far and wide, and I mean that literally, for the items that now make up his eclectic establishment. He purchased and then transported the wooden bar, which dates back to the 1930’s, from a former saloon in Eaton, Pennsylvania; he found the authentic leaded-glass windows, which now make up some of the restaurant’s interior walls, at an about-to-be-demolished building in New York City, and the picture of Yosemite National Park which hangs above the bar area was requisitioned from none other than Warner Brothers Studios. As the Eater website so aptly stated in their January 2008 review of the restaurant, “Warner Ebbink is an ace at making an entirely new space feel like it’s been there forever.” I couldn’t agree more! Sitting at the antique bar and looking around at the dimly-lit, tin-ceilinged space, I found it very hard to believe that the place had not been around during the heyday of Hollywood catering to members of the Rat Pack.

Besides the spectacular ambiance, Little Dom’s also serves up some fabulous food! I absolutely gorged myself on the Brussels Sprouts with Shaved Parmesan side dish and the Truffled Chicken Salad with Arugula Sandwich entrée – both of which were divine! And I just about died from excitement when I saw that they featured my very favorite dessert, Affogato – vanilla gelato with a shot of espresso (pictured above) – on the menu! I never actually knew that my favorite dessert had a name, nor had I ever actually seen it featured on a restaurant menu before, but I have been ordering a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso on the side as dessert for just about as long as I can remember. So, the fact that Little Dom’s had it named on their menu was simply amazing to me! The restaurant also breaks down their wine list into three sections – ”Tried and True”, “Your New Best Friend”, and “Go Out on a Limb” – which I thought was just about the cutest thing ever. The eatery’s prices were also extremely, extremely reasonable, which, needless to say, the Grim Cheaper was thrilled about. We both absolutely LOVED the place and cannot wait to go back there for another stalking/culinary adventure.

It should come as no surprise that, in the three short years that it has been in operation, Little Dom’s has become a big time celebrity hot spot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there recently include Drew Barrymore, Jason Segel, Katherine Heigl, Josh Kelly, Rachel Bilson, Joe Jonas, Pixie Lott, Conan O’Brien, Ryan Reynolds, Megan Fox, Kate Walsh, Zachary Quinto, Michelle Williams, Spike Jonze, Vince Vaughn, Gisele Bundchen, Ron Livingston and, as I mentioned above, most of the cast of Glee. And while the GC and I, unfortunately, did not spot anyone famous on this most recent trip to the restaurant, we did see actor Michael Cera, who played Paulie Bleeker in the 2007 movie Juno, during our first visit there.

And the place is also a filming location! Little Dom’s appeared in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “Women’s Intuition”, in the scene in which Debbie Wilson (aka Lori Loughlin) confronts Sasha (aka Mekia Cox) about what she suspects is her fake pregnancy. That scene was filmed in the booth located closest to the restaurant’s front door.

Little Dom’s was also used in the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “2021 Vision”, in the scene in which Mr. Cannon (aka Hal Ozsan) “accidentally” bumps into Erin Silver (aka Jessica Stroup).

In the scene, Silver sat in the booth located third in from the restaurant’s front door. That particular booth was, sadly, occupied while I was stalking the place, so I had to settle for taking a photograph in the one directly next to it.

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Silver’s Vespa was parked just outside of the restaurant, on Avocado Street, in the scene. And I just have to say here that I am absolutely hooked on 90210 this year. The series started getting pretty good last season, but I think it is just now finally beginning to hit its stride and I absolutely love it, love it, love it. Especially the brewing romance between Liam Court (aka my latest celebrity crush Matt Lanter) and Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes). Those two are SO darn cute together!!!

Little Dom’s also appeared in the 2010 movie The Kids Are All Right, in the scene in which Nic (aka Annette Bening) and Jules (aka Julianne Moore) discuss the fact that their children’s biological father Paul (aka Mark Ruffalo) is now a part of their lives.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Little Dom’s restaurant from 90210 is located at 2128 Hillhurst Avenue in Los Feliz. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

October 13, 2010October 12, 2010

Eagle Rock Plaza from “Glee” and Michael Buble’s “Crazy Love” Photoshoot

This past Monday morning, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called me up to ask if I wanted to do some stalking with him in the San Gabriel Valley. As it turns out, Monday was a holiday – although I hadn’t realized it beforehand – and Mike had the day off from work. So, after first loading up on some Starbucks coffee (but of course) the two of us headed right on over to Eagle Rock, where the first item on our stalking agenda – Eagle Rock Plaza mall – was located. I had been dying to stalk the mall ever since May 18th of this year when it appeared in the Season 1 episode of Glee titled “Dream On”, in the scene in which Artie Adams (aka Kevin McHale) starts a flash mob in the middle of a supposed Ohio-area shopping center. My good friend and fellow stalker Kerry’s daughter, Jen – who is a total Gleek – had challenged me to find this location the day after the episode aired and, amazingly enough, it wasn’t too hard to track down at all. I just simply used Google Images to search through interior photographs of Los Angeles-area malls and fairly quickly came upon one of Eagle Rock Plaza, which I recognized immediately. And even though I live only a few miles outside of Eagle Rock, for whatever reason it has taken me this long to get out there to stalk the place. Oh well, better late than never, right? [And yes, I am pretending to dance like Artie in the above picture. ;)]

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In the “Dream On” episode of Glee, Artie visits a local mall with his girlfriend Tina Cohen-Chang (aka Jenna Ushkowitz), and while she is in line buying a hot pretzel, he daydreams about being able to get up out of his wheelchair and dance. He ends up starting a huge flash mob to the 80’s song “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats.

As it turns out, Eagle Rock Plaza is a very tiny mall and it wasn’t hard at all to track down the exact spot where filming had taken place. Artie’s flash mob scene was shot in the very center of the property, right in between the mall’s two main escalators and directly in front of the Seafood City Supermarket.

You can watch the “Safety Dance” number by clicking above.

While we were there, Mike and I stopped by the Eagle Rock Plaza’s management office to ask about the filming that has taken place there over the years and the woman on duty literally could NOT have been nicer! She spent quite a bit of time chatting with us and filling us in on some of the productions that have been shot on the premises, including the Season 4 episode of The Closer titled “Time Bomb”, in which Brenda Leigh Johnson (aka Kyra Sedgwick) and her fellow members of the L.A.P.D.’s Major Crimes Division investigate a bomb threat at a local mall.

Ironically enough, only the interior of Eagle Rock Plaza appeared in that episode. All of the exterior scenes were filmed at Los Angeles City College, in front of the campus’ Communications Center, which does actually look quite a bit like a mall.

Eagle Rock Plaza was also featured in Avril Lavigne’s music video for the 2002 hit song “Complicated” . . .

. . . which you can watch by clicking above.

One production that shot on location at Eagle Rock Plaza that the management didn’t know about, but that I recognized immediately was Michael Buble’s 2009 behind-the-scenes DVD titled “The Making of Crazy Love”. In the documentary, Michael is shown posing for a photo shoot outside of a Macy’s department store during which he is made to run back and forth through a large parking lot. Michael is a total goofball and EXTREMELY funny during the shoot, announcing to one passerby who drives by, “Welcome to Macy’s!” LOL I can only imagine if I had arrived at the mall on a random day to do some shopping only to find MICHAEL BUBLE standing at the entrance welcoming me! I probably would have had a heart attack right on the spot. But I digress. Anyway, for whatever reason (most likely because MB was so darn funny in the spot – at one point he says, “The next shot is of me shopping at Macy’s . . . finding discounts . . . there is a pillow set that is to die for!” LOL LOL LOL), I have been literally hell-bent on stalking that parking lot ever since watching the DVD late last year. Trouble was, I couldn’t seem to find the darn place anywhere.

Until this past Monday that is, when Mike just happened to drive through the part of the Plaza’s parking lot that is located directly behind Macy’s and I recognized it immediately. YAY! Thank you, Mike!

And I, of course, just had to imitate MB running while I was there. 🙂

You can watch Michael’s absolutely hilarious photo shoot in the Macy’s parking lot by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Jen for challenging me to find this location and to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for taking me there! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Eagle Rock Plaza is located at 2700 Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock. You can visit the mall’s official website here. Michael Buble posed for his running photographs in the southwestern portion of the Plaza’s parking lot, directly behind Macy’s department store, in the area depicted with the pink circle in the above aerial view. The “Dream On” episode of Glee was filmed in the center-most point of the mall, in between the property’s two main escalators and directly in front of the Seafood City Supermarket.

April 7, 2010April 7, 2010

The “Glee” Vanity Fair Photo Shoot

In early December of last year, I came across these Fan Sites Network photographs of the male stars of Glee – including my latest love, cutie Matthew Morrison – posing for an upcoming issue of Vanity Fair at the Urban Light display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and I just about died. I absolutely COULD NOT WAIT for the article to be published so that I could stalk the display and blog about it. I’m really not kidding – on January 1st, February 1st, and March 1st of this year, I literally ran to my local newsstand to check out the latest issue of the magazine to see if the Glee pics were in there. Well, the photos – ahem – photo was finally published this past Thursday in the magazine’s May issue and I have to say that I was sorely disappointed with it. I had whole-heartedly been expecting the Glee actors to garner a cover story or, at the very least, a full-fledged feature article, so, you can imagine my disappointment last Thursday upon discovering that the actual publication consisted of a single page. Yes, you read that right – ONE single, solitary page. In my never-to-be humble opinion ;), I have to say that Vanity Fair really dropped the ball on this one! I mean, HELLO! Glee is not only the biggest new show of the 2009 Fall television season and is finally returning to the airwaves after a FOUR MONTH hiatus, but it also recently won both a Golden Globe Award (for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy) and a SAG Award (for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series) along with countless other awards and nominations too numerous to list here – before its very first season had even been completed, no less! Shouldn’t that at least garner them more than a half page picture and tiny write-up buried all the way on page 181? Shame on you, VF! Not only that, but I wasn’t exactly crazy about the sole photograph that did get published, either. It is a pretty dark and dreary picture, especially considering that Glee is a show chock full of . . . well, glee! But, even though I wasn’t very happy about the finalized product, I still just HAD to stalk the place where the photo shoot took place. So, this past weekend I dragged my fiancé out to Wilshire’s Miracle Mile District and did just that.

I’ve actually driven by the Urban Light display countless times over the past few years and have always found it a bit odd, to say the least. As you can see in the above photographs, the large scale art installation consists of a group of grey-colored lights standing right smack dab in the middle of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s central courtyard which is located along the heavily trafficked Wilshire Boulevard in Mid-Town L.A. Trust me when I say that the whole thing looks very bizarre when driving by at 35 miles per hour. And even though I’ve always admired the many vintage street lamps that are in still in use around the Los Angeles area, the Urban Light display always seemed out of place to me and I never had any interest in stopping my car to get a closer look.

That is, until my good friend Renae sent me the above picture of her family taken earlier this year, which I thought was just about the coolest family photograph I had ever seen! I absolutely loved, loved, loved it and, in turn, realized what an amazing display the Urban Light installation actually was. I mean can you even imagine taking wedding photographs there?? They would be A-MA-ZING!

The Urban Light display, which is comprised of a group of 202 actual working 1920’s and 1930’s era Los Angeles street lamps that took over seven years to collect, was created by performance artist and sculptor Chris Burden in early 2008. Burden is perhaps best known for his highly controversial performance pieces from the early 1970s, the most famous of which was entitled “Shoot” and involved an assistant actually shooting him in the arm while onstage. Not surprisingly, he was made to see a therapist after that production. 😉 Burden also once had himself nailed to a Volkswagen Beetle during a show. Needless to say, the guy’s a bit out there. According to this article which was written by Susan Freudenheim and appeared in the January 30th, 2008 issue of the Los Angeles Times, in recent years Burden has shifted his attention from performance art to “large-scale assemblage sculptures”. He first stumbled upon the vintage street lamps that would become the foundation of his “Urban Light” display in December of 2000 at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena. Even though he had no plan for them at the time, he immediately purchased a pair of the vintage lights for $1600. An avid collector of a wide array of tchotchkes, Burden soon found himself in possession of 150 of the street lamps and used them to build a small scale display outside of his studio. Eventually, a few big wigs at LACMA viewed the installation and knew it would be the perfect piece to stand in the middle of the new courtyard that was being built outside of the museum. Andrew M. Gordon, a chairman on the LACMA board, donated the money to purchase the display, to which Burden had added 52 more lamps, and the rest, as they say, is history. The installation’s first lighting was on February 7, 2008 and coincided with the opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA. In a humorous side note, not only did each of the 202 lamps have to actually be installed per Los Angeles City Code, but they were also all inspected by the Bureau of Street Lighting. No that’s not a joke, Los Angeles actually has a Bureau of Street Lighting!

Seeing the Urban Light sculpture up close and personal is extremely jarring as the display is absolutely HUGE, much more so then it appears to be when simply driving by. Burden designed the piece so that visitors could actually walk through each of the lights to experience what he describes as “architecture without walls”. And let me tell you, one can easily get lost in the middle of the installation, as I obviously did in the above photograph. 🙂 I honestly can’t recommend stalking the Urban Light display enough. It is an absolutely beautiful and truly unique place that everyone should see in person at least once.

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And, of course, I just had to pose in the exact spot where the Glee picture was taken, which is on the northwest corner of the installation. 🙂

Note – The Glee photograph which appears in this post does not belong to me, but remains the sole property of photographer Michael Roberts and Vanity Fair Magazine.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Chris Burden’s “Urban Light” display, where the Glee guys’ Vanity Fair photo shoot took place, is located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, in front of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in Mid-Town L.A. The Glee boys posed in the display’s northwest corner, which is pictured above. The May issue of Vanity Fair, which features the Glee photograph, will be on sale throughout the end of April. If you would like to check out a more in-depth photoshoot of the cast, pick up this month’s Glamour.