Liam Court – IAMNOTASTALKER

January 30, 2012January 27, 2012

Offshore – Liam’s Bar from “90210”

One of the many locations that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked last week while hanging out in the Redondo Beach area – and the one that I was most excited about – was Offshore, the bar owned by Liam Court (cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!) on fave show 90210. I had been absolutely itching to stalk the fictitious watering hole ever since it first appeared in the series’ Season 4 premiere episode back in September of last year. Thankfully, fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, had quickly tracked the place down and, as soon as he posted the address, I immediately added it to my “To-Stalk” list. Because the Grim Cheaper and I do not get down to the South Bay very often, though, the bar had, sadly, remained unstalked until last Wednesday afternoon. And, let me tell you, when I finally saw it in person, I could not have been more excited! I was practically busting at the seams!

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Offshore first showed up in the Season 4 episode of 90210 titled “Up In Smoke”, as the spot where Liam and his friends, Navid Shirazi (Michael Steger), Dixon Wilson (Tristan Wilds) and Teddy Montgomery (Trevor Donovan), lamented over their various end-of-the-summer blues. In the episode, the beachside watering hole was named “Salty’s Place” and it included an on-the-sand hut. And while that hut seems to have subsequently disappeared, I am sure it will be brought back during the summer months.

After Liam purchased the bar at the very end of the “Up In Smoke” episode, he renamed it “Offshore” and the place now shows up weekly as the gang’s regular hangout.

As you can see above, the Offshore building looks much the same in person as it does on TV.

Don’t go looking for the interior of Liam’s bar there, though, as it is, sadly, just a set that exists inside of a soundstage at Manhattan Beach Studios where the series is lensed.

The ground floor space that supposedly houses Offshore is, in reality, the rear entrance to a storefront that is, I believe, currently vacant. As you can see from above photograph of the back of the building, the place is currently undergoing some major construction, so I was, unfortunately, unable to venture any closer to the see what the Offshore space actually looks like in real life.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Offshore, Liam’s bar from 90210, is located at 100 Fisherman’s Wharf, at the end of the Redondo Beach Pier, in Redondo Beach. Its exact location is marked with a pink arrow in the above aerial view. You can catch a good view of the place from the spot where North Harbor Drive meets West Torrance Boulevard.

May 27, 2011May 26, 2011

Tapas & Vino from “90210”

Another location that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk this past weekend while in the Redondo Beach area was Tapas & Vino restaurant which appeared in the Season 3 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Best Lei’d Plans”. I found this location, as always, thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, and because Matt Lanter, the love of my life, had appeared in the scene that had been filmed there, I was absolutely dying to stalk the place! So after hitting up the Yellow Vase Café, which I blogged about yesterday, for lunch, the GC and I headed just a few doors north to snap a few quick pics of the Spanish-fusion restaurant.

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In the “Best Lei’d Plans” episode of 90210, newly-famous pop star Adrianna Tate-Duncan (aka Jessica Lowndes) takes her publicist, Renee (aka Elaine Hendrix), hair-stylist, Ilon (aka Jeffery Self), and make-up artist, Ginny (aka Cassandra Church), as well as her (as she calls them) “normal, non-famous friends” Navid Shirazi (aka Michael Steger), Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), Silver (aka Jessica Stroup), Teddy Montgomery (aka Trevor Donnovan), Dixon Wilson (aka Tristan Wilds), Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord), and Liam Court (aka cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!) out for a celebratory lunch at Tapas & Vino.

While the gang is dining, a few paparazzi show up and start snapping photos of Adrianna. And while she feigns annoyance and calls the paps “vultures”, as we later come to find out, it was actually the wannabe starlet herself who tipped the photogs off in the hopes that it would generate publicity for her new singing career. Oh, Adrianna! Such a drama queen!

While watching the episode, Geoff had noticed a sign reading “Curl Up & Dye” located across the street from the restaurant and he immediately got to work using Google to search for a salon by that name in the L.A. area. And sure enough, he found it – almost directly across the street from the Yellow Vase Café.

Unfortunately we did not have time to grab a bite to eat, or even a cocktail, at Tapas & Vino while we were in the Redondo area. The restaurant looks like a VERY cool place, though, and the GC promised to take me back there for a meal in the near future. Even though we weren’t actually dining there, Tapas & Vino’s SUPER-nice owner came out to chat with us and spent quite a bit of time answering all of my silly little questions about the filming. She said that both the cast and the crew of 90210 were EXTREMELY nice and that the filming was absolutely hassle-free and went off without a hitch. She also informed me that all of the cast members went outside after the shoot wrapped to snap pictures with the fans who were in attendance. Sigh! If only I had been there!!!!! Not everyone, it seems, was pleased with the shoot, though. You can read a rather negative article about the inconveniences the filming, which took place on October 20th, 2010, caused on the Redondo Beach Patch website here. Apparently Redondo residents were beyond irritated that 90210 was filming in their town. Really? REALLY? I would be so incredibly floored if the cast and crew of 90210 came to Pasadena to film. They could shut down the street in front of my apartment building for an entire week and you wouldn’t hear one complaint from this stalker! Sheesh! What the heck is wrong with people? Honestly! Winking smile

As you can see in the above photographs, all of the restaurant’s real life furnishings were moved out for the filming and new tables and chairs were brought in, which I thought was absolutely bizarre. So in real life the restaurant looks quite a bit different than it did onscreen. It is definitely a cool place, though, and I cannot wait to go back there to eat!

On a stalking side-note – yesterday I attended a Read-In event to promote literacy at the school where my mom works. Each guest of the event was assigned to an individual classroom where we were supposed to both talk about out careers and read a passage from our favorite book. A few days before the event, each class decorated their particular room’s door in honor of their reader and my decorated door, as well as the two students who were in charge of designing it, are pictured above. I thought the door was absolutely ADORABLE and had to share it with my fellow stalkers.

Not only did the students post a photograph of me and Matt Lanter on the door, but they also created a fake pink computer out of construction paper, complete with a keyboard that popped out. So incredibly cute! Smile

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Tapas & Vino, from the “Best Lei’d Plans” episode of 90210, is located at 1729 South Catalina Avenue in Redondo Beach. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. The Yellow Vase Café, from the “What’s Past is Prologue” and “Another Another Chance” episodes of 90210, is located just a few doors south of Tapas & Vino at 1805 South Catalina Avenue in Redondo Beach. You can visit the official Yellow Vase Café website here. Salon Riviera, from the “To the Future!” episode of 90210, is located nest door to the Yellow Vase Café at 1807 South Catalina Avenue in Redondo Beach.

April 4, 2011April 3, 2011

Liam Court’s House from “90210”

This past Thursday afternoon, while out running some errands in the Hancock Park area, I decided to do a little stalking of the residence where Liam Court (aka cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!) lives on fave show 90210. I found this location thanks to Geoff at the 90210 Locations website who posted the information way back in October of 2009. And even though I do seriously love me some Matt Lanter, for whatever reason it took me almost a year and half to get out to stalk the place.

Geoff actually first found this location shortly after it appeared in the Season 1 episode of the new Melrose Place titled “Windsor” in which it was used as the spot where Lauren Yung (aka Stephanie Jacobsen) caught David Breck (aka Shaun Sipos) stealing jewelry. Geoff had an inkling that the manse was located in the Hancock Park area as he had just tracked down the house belonging to Michael Mancini (aka Thomas Calabro) on the series in that same vicinity. Because the estate is so incredibly large and distinct-looking, it did not take him long to find it using aerial views. Then, as fate would have it, someone emailed him a screen cap of Liam’s house just a few days later and asked if he might be able to track it down. He, of course, recognized the place immediately. It is so funny to me that two such closely-related CW shows would use the very same house in episodes that aired within a month of each other. But that’s Hollywood for you. Winking smile

In real life, the estate is known as the Ahmanson Mansion as, during the years 1958 through 1968, it belonged to Howard F. Ahmanson Sr., the prominent Los Angeles philanthropist who founded Home Savings and Loan, which for a time was the largest savings and loan association in America. You can see a photograph of Mr. Ahmanson standing inside the mansion on the Find A Grave website here. The impressive property, which was originally built in 1929, boasts 7 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, a large pool, a tennis/basketball court, a four-car garage, a carriage house, 14,071 square feet of living space, and a 1.5 acre plot of land. It is an absolutely magnificent home and it is not very hard to see why it ended up being used on 90210.

Liam’s house first showed up in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “To Sext or Not to Sext”.

For whatever reason, though, producers chose not to use the front view of the house for the establishing shot shown on the series, but instead chose to use a view of the side of the property.

The real life interior of the house, which you can see photographs of here, was used in the episode, as well.

And the home’s tennis/basketball court, which you can see a photograph of here, was also used in the “To Sext or Not to Sext” episode as the spot where Ryan Matthews (aka Ryan Eggold) and Harry Wilson (aka Rob Estes) played basketball and discussed Ryan’s relationship with Jen Clark (aka Sara Foster).

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The Ahmanson Mansion was also used as the residence belonging to Francis Buxton (aka Mark Holton) in 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.

The real life interior of the house also appeared in the movie, as well.

Although I am fairly certain that Francis’ humongous bathtub was most likely just a set.

The Ahmanson Mansion was also featured in several Season 4 episodes of the television series Falcon Crest and in the 1990 Jackie Collins’ mini-series Lucky Chances.

Big THANK YOU to Geoff from the 90210 Locations website for finding this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Ahmanson Mansion, aka Liam Court’s house from 90210, is located at 401 South Hudson Avenue in Hancock Park. The view of the house shown on 90210 can be seen from West 4th Street.

July 6, 2010July 5, 2010

Will Rogers Memorial Park from “90210”

As I mentioned yesterday, my fiancé and I spent quite a bit of last weekend making up for lost time, so to speak, by catching up on all of the stalking that I had been putting off over the past few months while my dad was ill. The location that I was most excited about seeing in person was Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, which was the spot where Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes) and Liam Court (aka Matt Lanter) took a dip in a fountain in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “Multiple Choices”. And while I haven’t exactly been a huge fan of the CW series this past season, I have absolutely loved watching the friendship between Liam and Annie blossom and change in the most recent episodes, especially in the fountain scene (which is vaguely reminiscent of the Carrie/Big fountain scene from Sex and the City). Add to that the fact that I have a massive crush on actor Matt Lanter and I just HAD to stalk the park where filming took place. 🙂 It is at this point that I should confess that I had no idea whatsoever where Annie and Liam’s fountain might be located, despite the fact that I’d actually driven by it more times than I’d care to admit. Thankfully though, the Grim Cheaper pays closer attention to things than I do, because he recognized the park immediately while watching the show. Thank you, G.C.! As it turns out, Will Rogers Memorial Park is located on Sunset Boulevard, directly across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel, one of my favorite places in all of L.A. How I had never seen the park during one of my many visits to the Pink Palace is absolutely beyond me! Ugh, I am such a blonde sometimes!

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The five-acre parcel of land that currently makes up Will Rogers Memorial Park originally belonged to the Beverly Hills Hotel and served as its front lawn area. In 1915, the hotel decided to donate the land to the City of Beverly Hills and it became known as Sunset Park, the city’s very first municipal park. Thirty-seven years later, in 1952, the City renamed the property in honor of legendary actor/humorist/cowboy Will Rogers, who had been dubbed “Honorary Mayor” of Beverly Hills while at the park in 1926.

Will Rogers Memorial Park is an absolutely GORGEOUS place, with a huge central fountain filled with Koi fish, sweeping lawns, and countless palm trees which dot the property. I honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough.

In the “Multiple Choices” episode of 90210, Liam takes Annie to the park to get her mind off of her parents’ recent marital troubles. While there, Annie announces that she wants “to kick something or scream or just, you know, run away” before impulsively jumping into the park’s large fountain. When Liam later tries to pull her out, he accidentally falls into the water himself. It’s a super cute little scene and was the first time that either Annie or Liam acknowledged to themselves that they might have feelings for each other.

You can watch the Annie/Liam fountain scene by clicking above.

Will Rogers Memorial Park has actually had quite a few brushes with fame. Its cinematic history first began almost nine decades ago, when it was featured in the 1921 Charlie Chaplin movie The Idle Class, which you can see a photograph of here. And according to the Seeing Stars website, in 1990 rocker Rod Stewart proposed to his one-time wife Rachel Hunter while at the park. The property is perhaps most famous, though, for a much less glitzy reason – it was in the park’s restroom that singer George Michael was arrested for performing a lewd act on April 7, 1998. And while my fiancé did use the men’s room while we were there, I felt a little odd about sending him in with a camera to take pictures of it. 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Will Rogers Memorial Park is located at 9650 Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, directly across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel.