Simon Baker’s Former House

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While doing some cyberstalking on fave website Virtual Globetrotting a few weeks back, I came across this post listing the address of a Santa Monica home which formerly belonged to cutie Mentalist star – and my latest celebrity crush – Simon Baker and I just about keeled over from excitement.  So, when my dad asked if I would be able to take him to a doctor appointment in the Santa Monica area yesterday morning, I literally jumped at the opportunity and informed him that we’d be making a little stalking pit stop first.  🙂  Thankfully, since my dad is also a big Mentalist fan, he didn’t give me much grief about being dragged along on this particular stalking expedition. 

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My dad and I were both quite shocked when we pulled up to the residence and saw it in person, as it is a lot smaller than we had anticipated and looks like a fairly normal suburban home.  A very nice suburban home, of course, but still fairly normal, nonetheless.  My dad kept saying, “There is no way Simon Baker lived there!”  Thanks to the property’s ostensible lack of a front wall and exterior gate, it’s hard to imagine a celeb like SB ever calling the place home.  But I guess it sort of makes sense being that Simon lived in the house about nine months before The Mentalist hit the airwaves, turning him into a household name and creating the need for some sort of exterior wall to keep stalkers like myself at bay.  😉  

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SB and his wife, actress Rebecca Rigg, purchased the 2,394 square foot, three bedroom, two bath home, which was originally built in 1934, on December 13, 2006 for a whopping $2,626,000 and sold it just a little under 13 months later, on January 10, 2008, for a nice little profit at $2,895,000.  While living in the house, the couple remodeled and expanded the kitchen area and added a pool and spa to the backyard.  You can see interior photographs of the home at the time it belonged to SB here.  The area where the house is located – which just so happens to be one of the most expensive areas in all of Los Angeles County – is known as Gillette’s Regent Square and was developed by none other than King Camp Gillette, the razor blade magnate who also gave us King Gillette Ranch, aka the Biggest Loser Ranch, in Calabasas.  Amazingly enough, during the time that Simon lived in the house, my fiancé lived just a few blocks away  [in a much less expensive area, of course. ;)], yet we never ran into him!  How we missed each other is beyond me, being that Owen Wilson also used to live in that same vicinity (at 947 23rd Street) and my fiancé and I ran into him not once, but twice!!!!  Oh, SB, where were you hiding???  😉  According to fave website The Real Estalker, when SB sold this house, he purchased an even larger one also in the Santa Monica area.  So, you know what that means, don’t you??  Yessiree, there’s a whole other Simon Baker residence out there just waiting for me to stalk it!  🙂  YAY!

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On an interesting side note – Fellow stalker and Mentalist aficionado Liz recently alerted to me to the fact that Rebecca Rigg, SB’s real life wife and mother of his three children, played widowed actress Felicia Scott in the Season One episode of The Mentalist entitled “A Dozen Red Roses”.  So cool!  🙂

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Simon Baker’s former house is located at 534 20th Street in Santa Monica.  Owen Wilson’s former residence is just a few blocks away at 947 23rd Street.  Courteney Cox also owned a house in the area, at 606 Alta Avenue, during her Friends days.  Across the street from Courteney’s former digs is the 7th Heaven house, which can be found at 527 Alta Avenue.  Also in the area is Danny Devito’s house from Twins, which can be found at 323 11th Street, and Darrin and Samantha’s house from Bewitched, which is located at 267 18th Street.

The “Biggest Loser” Ranch

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This past weekend, I dragged my boyfriend out to Calabasas to stalk the King Gillette Ranch, otherwise known as The Biggest Loser  Ranch.  I found this location thanks to the couple we met while stalking the Adamson House a few weeks back.   Our new friends, who just recently got engaged, have been traipsing all over the Los Angeles area touring wedding locales.   Many of those locales also happen to be filming locations!  I swear, if my boyfriend ever gets off his butt and proposes, a whole new stalking world is going to open up for me.  🙂  Anyway, our friends recently toured King Gillette Ranch and immediately called me up to let me know that it is where The Biggest Loser  is filmed.  And even though I’ve never watched the show, I just had to run right out and stalk it!  🙂  THANKS Nancy and Eric!  🙂

  Actually, I did see one brief segment of  The Biggest Loser  on Talk Soup  a few months back when Joel McHale showed the above clip of trainer Bob Harper absolutely FREAKING OUT at a contestant.  LOVE IT!  LOL LOL LOL  I think I need to hire that guy to be my trainer!!!  🙂

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King Gillette Ranch was originally built by King Camp Gillette (yes, that’s an actual name), the founder of the Gillette Safety Razor Company.  King purchased the 588 acre property in 1926 and commissioned famed architect Wallace Neff – who designed Brad and Jen’s famous former home– to built a 26,000 square foot Mediterranean style mansion on the site.  When Gillette died in 1932, his widow sold the extensive property to movie director Clarence Brown.   Clarence threw so many elaborate Hollywood parties in the mansion that he ended up building his own private airstrip so that his famous guests could land directly on the property !  LOL  In 1952, the Ranch was sold to Bob Hope and his wife, Dolores, who donated the entire 588 acres to the Claretian Order of the Catholic Church.  They used the property as a seminary for the next 25 years, until eventually selling it to New Age leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet.  Elizabeth planned to use the property as the headquarters for her religious movement, the Church Universal and Triumphant, but faced much government opposition and ended up selling it to Soku University of America in 1986.   The Ranch was finally collaboratively purchased by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, California State Parks, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, and National Park Service, who opened the property to the public on June 30, 2007.   It is currently a nature and wildlife reserve featuring numerous hiking trails, a former Chumash Indian settlement, walking paths, a man-made lake, and picnic grounds. 

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And, of course, it’s also a filming location!  For the past two years, beginning with Season 4, King Gillette Ranch has been used as the location where contestants vie to become The Biggest Loser.  While we were stalking the place, we had the good fortune of  running into one of the Biggest Loser  crew members who was busy setting up for Season 8, which begins filming in a few weeks.  He was INCREDIBLY nice and pointed out all of the areas featured on the show, including the gym, which, as you can see in the above photograph (which was taken through a closed window!  LOL ) was empty at the time;  

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the pool –

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which was flanked by fake flowers!!!  LOL;img_6451-800

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the production offices;

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the “dormitories” where the contestants sleep – which is actually just a section of the main house;

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the patio area;

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and the Administration Building –

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which is used for the filming of the elimination ceremonies.  Again, the above photographs were taken through a closed window, so they aren’t the greatest. 

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Evidence of the filming of The Biggest Loser could be found all over the Ranch, which I, of course, LOVED seeing!    There was a leftover tape marker that was stuck on the ground outside of the elimination room; 

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wire cords were strung up on all of the buildings;

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and those yellow signs that I so love were posted at the entrance gates. 🙂

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King Gillette Ranch is a truly beautiful place.  It is the perfect spot to spend an afternoon outdoors, go for a long hike,  take a bike ride, or just sit back and nature watch.  

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 Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: King Gillette Ranch is located at 26800 Mulholland Highway in Calabasas.  The park is open daily to the public from 8 a.m. to sunset.  Dogs are not allowed.  Parking costs $5 per day.  The Ranch is also available as a wedding or event location.