Los Angeles – Page 8 – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 1, 2009July 1, 2009

Will Ferrell’s Streaking Scene

A few weeks ago, while out stalking in Montrose, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to pinpoint the exact location where Will Ferrell went streaking in the 2003 movie Old School. Although it’s fairly common location knowledge that the streaking scene took place on Honolulu Avenue in the City of Montrose, I actually first heard that information straight from the horse’s mouth last July when I saw Will Ferrell speak at my acting school. During the question and answer session of Will’s presentation, one of my fellow students raised their hand and asked Frank the Tank himself where the streaking scene had taken place. Love it!! 🙂 Amazingly enough, Will remembered the general location where that scene had been filmed and ever since then I have been meaning to stalk it. So, a few weeks ago, Mike and I set out to do just that.

With our Blackberries in hand, the two of us walked up and down Honolulu Avenue watching Will’s streaking scene on YouTube while trying to find the exact location. And sure enough, we did! 🙂 We were actually able to pinpoint Will’s streaking spot by matching up the Montrose Shopping Park Directory sign . . .

and some windows that were shown in the background of the scene. YAY!

While we were stalking Honolulu Avenue, one of the super-friendly local shop owners informed us that the Montrose Bakery and Cafe, which is located just down the road from Will’s streaking spot, was also featured in Old School. The Cafe’s exterior stood in for the exterior of the University Cafe where Luke Wilson and his friends have a pow wow about how to save their fraternity. Interestingly enough, though, the Cafe’s interior was not used in the filming. The interior scenes were filmed at another location altogether.

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You can watch Will Ferrell’s absolutely hilarious – but NSFW – streaking scene here. “We’re going streaking! Yeah! We’re going streaking through the quad and into the gymnasium! Come on, everybody! Come on, Snoop, Snoop-a-Loop! Bring your green hat!” LOL LOL LOL

On a bittersweet side note, I dragged my mom out to Montrose earlier today to snap some more photos of the “streaking street” and we noticed the above tribute to Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett posted outside of a local shop named Pure Sunshine Beauty Supply. It seems everyone the world over is mourning Michael and Farrah’s untimely passings. 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Will Ferrell’s streaking scene took place on the block of Honolulu Avenue located between Market Street and Ocean View Boulevard in Montrose. Frank’s wife is driving East on Honolulu Avenue when she first spots Frank. She stops the car right around 2246 Honolulu Avenue to let him hop inside. Montrose Bakery and Cafe, aka the University Cafe, is located at 2325 Honolulu Avenue, also in Montrose.

June 25, 2009June 25, 2009

The National Lampoon’s Vacation House

And speaking of National Lampoon’s Vacation, last week fellow stalker Owen made it his mission to locate the Griswold home from the 1983 comedy flick. Amazingly enough, he ended up finding the house pretty much right away! For this particular movie location expenditure, Owen decided to “stalk outside the box”, so to speak, and started looking through Vacation’s IMDB message boards to see if they provided any clues as to the home’s locale. He ran across a thread entitled “Griswold House 2008″ where, lo and behold, someone had actually posted recent pics of the home. Owen ended up contacting the owner of those photos who told him that one evening, while stuck in traffic after attending a concert in Los Feliz, he happened to gaze to his left where he saw, and immediately recognized, the Griswold Family home. How this guy recognized the house from a movie filmed way back in 1983 while not actively looking for it, is beyond me. My hat is definitely off to him!!!! 🙂

So, Owen did a little bit of digging and ended up finding the house, exactly where the man told him it would be – in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. In reality, the home is a long way off from Chicago, Illinois, where the Grisworlds supposedly lived in Vacation. 🙂 I am happy to report that the house looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1983 when the movie was filmed there. Hallelujah! 🙂 It is absolutely AMAZING to me that in twenty-six years virtually nothing about the house has been changed.

Well, except for one thing. For some incredibly odd reason, the owners did make one major addition to the Griswold home. Since the filming, a large fence which surrounds the perimeter of the property and blocks the view of the house from the street, has been added. I wonder if the fence was installed to ward of potential stalkers, like myself. 😉 Either way, even with the addition of the fence, the home is still largely recognizable from the film.

Even the street out in front of the house, where we see Clark pull up in the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, seems to be exactly the same as it appeared in Vacation.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The National Lampoon’s Vacation house is located at 2310 North Vermont Avenue in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles.

June 17, 2009August 17, 2009

The “Joey” Apartment Building

For quite a while now I have been begging Mike, from MovieShotsLA, to locate the apartment building where Joey Tribbiani lived with his nephew, Michael, on the Friends spin-off Joey. So, imagine my surprise when I came across the address randomly in The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book. In the book, the address is listed as an almost after-thought, which is why it took me so long to notice it. LOL Apparently, most stalkers aren’t as interested in finding Joey filming locations as I am. 🙂 LOL Being that the show was canceled after only 14 episodes, I can’t say I’m all that surprised. But, because Joey was always my favorite Friends character (besides Rachel, of course!), I absolutely loved that show! “How you doin’?” 😉

On the show, Joey lived in a large apartment building named Monroe Manor, located directly beneath the Hollywood sign. Apparently, production designer John Schaffner chose the 50s style building because of its mid-century appeal. He said, “I didn’t want to do another Los Angeles show in a Spanish house or Craftsman cottage. I was more inspired by architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Rudolph Schindler, who worked in natural materials that create a more casual feeling.” Monroe Manor definitely has a unique appearance to it and evokes a feeling of old time Hollywood.

The Monroe Manor complex was constructed in 1949 and is made up of ten terraced, duplex-type units built right into a Hollywood hillside. Each of the twenty apartments in the complex is entirely different in size and style. A side view of the building, which shows its tiered design, is pictured above. As you can see in the above photograph, the building is actually much larger than it’s front exterior would lead you to believe and much larger than it appeared onscreen in Joey. I read online that Monroe Manor was supposedly modeled after my girl Marilyn Monroe, but – call me crazy – I just don’t see the resemblance. 😉 LOL I think it is safer to say that the building was most likely just named after her. 🙂

In an interesting side note, after Joey was cancelled in 2004, a paramedics company in Charlotte, North Carolina purchased the entire set from the show (pictured above) to be used for their training simulations! Apparently, simulations are acted out on the former Joey set and recorded for later review and evaluation. How incredibly cool is that?? I so think I need to go work for that company!!!! North Carolina, here I come! 😉

In an even more interesting side note, when Matt LeBlanc first came to Hollywood, long before hitting it big with Friends, he actually lived at Monroe Manor!!!!! It was a complete coincidence years later when production designer John Schaffner chose the building to be used as the residence of struggling actor Joey Tribbiani. This was definitely a case of art imitating life! 🙂 Ironically, my good friend Maura has been asking me to find Matt LeBlanc’s house for some time now – so, Maura, this one’s for you. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Joey apartment building, aka Monroe Manor, is located at 2232 North Beachwood Canyon Drive in Hollywood. Joey lived in Apartment #7. In real life, Matt LeBlanc lived in #16.

June 11, 2009June 10, 2009

The Bedtime Stories School

Last week, while searching for the Bedtime Stories house, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to also try to find the school featured in the movie. We started our search by looking at street views of different elementary schools in the Los Angeles area, but pretty much came up empty-handed. So, I decided to once again ask my friend who had worked on the movie if she happened to remember where the school was located. She, of course, did not, but what she did remember was that the school from the movie wasn’t actually a school at all, but a public library. She said that the exterior of the library had been changed quite extensively for the filming and made to look a lot bigger than it actually is. Two whole wings were actually added to one side of the building to make it look more like an elementary school. So, armed with that little bit of information, off I went to search local libraries. And, sure enough, it wasn’t long before I found the right one! 🙂

In real life, Daniel Webster Elementary School is, in fact, the Los Angeles Memorial Branch Library which was constructed in 1930. It was built to honor twenty alumni of Los Angeles High School, which is located directly across the street, who had lost their lives in the first World War. Students had originally purchased a small parcel of land across the street from the high school in 1922 and turned it over to the Park Commission with the decree that a memorial park, in honor of all alumni who had fought in the war, would be built on the premises. Today, that park is known as L.A. High Memorial Park. The following year, students and alumni purchased an additional parcel of land adjacent to the park. In 1929, the City of Los Angeles decided to build a library on that adjacent piece of land and commissioned the architecture firm Austin and Ashley, who had also designed the high school, to build it. The library was designed to match the English Tudor style architecture of the high school, which had been built twelve years beforehand. A stained glass window, designed by Judson Art Studio, with the names of the twenty alumni who had lost their lives, was installed in the adult reading room. The library officially opened to the public on April 29, 1930.

Sadly, the original Los Angeles High School building was badly damaged in the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake and was quickly condemned by the City of Los Angeles. Preservationists tried to stop the demolition of the beautiful building, but a mysterious fire gutted the school, thereby sealing its fate. The building was completely demolished later that same year and a huge blue and gold cement monstrosity was built in its place (pictured above). That monstrosity even pops up in Bedtime Stories, in the scene when Adam Sandler picks his niece and nephew up from school. You can see pictures of what Los Angeles High School used to look and pictures of its demolition here and here. So sad!!!!

Ironically enough, the original Los Angeles High School building was a frequent filming location, showing up in A Kiss Before Dying (1956), Compulsion, and the television series Room 222. You can watch the intro to Room 222, in which the school is featured prominently, here.

As you can see in the above screen capture and photographs, the Los Angeles Memorial Branch Library looks much different and much smaller in person than how it appeared onscreen. You can also see the wing that was added to the right side of the building.

The front door of the library is very recognizable from the film, though. 🙂

Because the real interior of the library looks nothing like an elementary school, the interior scenes were shot about 20 miles away at McKinley School in Pasadena. And, according to the librarian who I talked to while stalking the place, the interior of the Memorial Branch Library, but not the exterior, was featured in the 1987 movie Baby Boom. Go figure. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Bedtime Stories school is really the Memorial Branch Library located at 4625 West Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles. The interior school scenes were filmed at McKinley School located at 325 South Oak Knoll Avenue in Pasadena.

June 10, 2009June 10, 2009

The Pantages Theatre

As promised earlier in the week, I thought I would dedicate today’s post to the historic Pantages Theatre in Hollywood where I saw Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage last Tuesday night . And let me tell you, the Pantages Theatre is a site to see, in and of itself! The Art Deco landmark was built in 1930 by vaudeville theatre mogul Alexander Pantages for a whopping $1.25 million – and we’re talking 1930’s money!!!! It was designed by architect B. Marcus Priteca, who conceived most of the theatres in the Pantages chain. But, in an ironic twist of events, when the theatre first opened to the public on June 4, 1930, it was not opened as a Pantages, but instead under the Fox Theatre name. In 1929, while the Pantages was being built, Alexander was knee-deep in a scandal involving another of his many theatres. It seems Alexander, who was in his sixties at the time, was accused and found guilty of raping one of his sixteen year old female ushers at his theatre in Downtown Los Angeles. After being sent to jail, he was forced to open his new Hollywood theatre under a different name. In 1931, Pantages appealed the case and was awarded a new trial. His defense in the second trial maintained that rival theatre company RKO along with Joseph Kennedy (yes, that Joseph Kennedy) had framed him in order to purchase his theatre chain at a low price. Since the broom closet where the rape had supposedly occured was too small a space for two people to fit in, the jury acquitted him and Alexander was released from prison. But Pantages never regained his luxor in Hollywood. Alexander Pantages passed away only two months after his release from prison, broke and broken.

The Pantages has gone through a succession of owners during its almost eighty year history. In 1949, Howard Hughes purchased the theatre and renamed it RKO Pantages. His offices were located above the theatre on the building’s second floor. During the RKO years, from 1949 to 1959 , the Pantages hosted ten Academy Awards ceremonies. It was also home to the Emmy Awards through 1977. In 1967, the Pantages was taken over by Pacific Theatres, who in 1977 joined forces with the Nederlander Theatre Organization to refurbish the property and turn it into a live theatre venue. In October of 2000, Disney opened its hit show The Lion King at the Pantages, which ran for over two years and almost 900 performances. Just prior to The Lion King’s opening, the Pantages underwent a painstaking $10 million renovation process, bringing the theatre back to her original splendor. Since that time, the theatre has been home to over 45 live stage productions including Mama Mia, Annie, Rent, Cats, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

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The Pantages is an absolutely beautiful theatre and a stunning example of Art Deco architecture.

From its sweeping staircases . . .

. . . to its sparkling Art Deco chandeliers, I was absolutely mesmerized by the architectural detail throughout. The Pantages is truly a wonder and I HIGHLY recommend stalking it, if you get the chance!

The Pantages is no stranger to the silver screen, either. It was featured in The Bodyguard, as the site of the Academy Awards ceremony where Whitney Houston was a presenter;

the exterior of it shows up very briefly in The Black Dhalia, as Josh Hartnett makes his way into the Frolic Room which is located right next door;

and in L.A. Confidential, as Kevin Spacey does the very same thing;

and its stage was featured in Michael Jackson’s music video for the song “You Are Not Alone”. The Pantages also showed up in Season Two of Ugly Betty (it’s the “New York” theatre where Henry takes Betty to see the musical Wicked), Paparazzi (it’s the site of Cole’s movie premiere at the very end), Ed Wood, The Jazz Singer, Money Talks, and Batman Forever.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Pantages Theatre is located at 6233 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit their website here. Dirty Dancing: The Classic Story On Stage is currently running at the Pantages now through June 28th. Upcoming shows include Legally Blonde: The Musical and How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

June 9, 2009June 9, 2009

Kyra Sedgwick’s Walk Of Fame Star Ceremony

I found out a few weeks ago that Kyra Sedgwick would be receiving the 2,384th Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on the morning of Monday, June 8th. So, I immediately called up my good friend Blaze and asked him if he wanted to join me in watching the ceremony. He, of course, said yes, so today the two of us made our way out to Hollywood to watch Kyra receive her star. And, even though I had already seen the entire Closer cast in person, I was still SUPER excited to attend this event because ever since Footloose came out, I have absolutely LOVED me some Kevin Bacon. 🙂

Kyra’s ceremony was scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m., and unlike Hugh Jackman’s Hand and Footprint Ceremony, this event actually started on time. 🙂 Amazingly enough, for some reason there weren’t that many people in attendance. I’d say about forty-five fans and another fifty reporters and photographers were there. Because there weren’t a lot of people in the audience, we were able to stand fairly close to the stage area, which I was thrilled about. Up until just around 11:25, that is, when security guards led all of the media people into the area directly in front of the fans, completely blocking everyone’s view. It was SUCH a bummer. To make matters worse, many of the press photographers pulled out stepladders to stand on and propped their cameras up on huge tripods! UGH. So, even though I was standing right in the front row, I didn’t have the best view. 🙁 I have no idea why bleachers were not set up for the event, as this definitely would have rectified the situation. Note to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce – next time you have an event like this, invest in bleachers! LOL

Right at 11:30 a.m. on the nose, Kyra Sedgwick and husband Kevin Bacon arrived and the event got underway. Kyra looked absolutely adorable and I just about died over her salmon-colored dress. I have got to get me one of those!!!! What I was most impressed with, though, were her arms!!!! I couldn’t take my eyes off of them the entire time! As you can see in the above photograph, they are absolutely rock-hard! Not bad for a 44-year-old mother of two!!! I am so jealous! I mean, I’m 31 and have no children and my arms don’t look nearly as good as hers! LOL Anyway, Kyra was introduced by Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President Leron Gubler, who gave us a brief background on Kyra and her career as an actress. One of the many tid-bits of information he told us was that, contrary to popular belief, Kyra was actually born in Manhattan, not the South, and yes, her Closer accent is a fake. 🙂

After Leron’s introduction, Lee Daniels, who produced the 2004 movie The Woodsman, which starred Kyra and her husband, got up to say a few words. And when I say “a few words”, I literally mean a few words. LOL I think the guy had maybe two sentences to say about Kyra. It was kind of disappointing. If you’re going to get up on a stage to honor someone during an awards ceremony, I’m of the opinion that you should spend a little bit of time writing your speech. Brief and to the point is nice, but so is saying something meaningful. LOL All Lee basically said was that while working with Kyra on The Woodsman, she had taught him to “live in the moment”. To quote Chelsea Lately, “What . . . a douchebag!!” LOL

Next up was Kyra’s Closer co-star, and my fave actor from the show, G.W. Bailey. G.W. gave a FABULOUS – and absolutely hilarious – speech about Kyra and their experiences starring together on The Closer. He started off his speech by listing the questions he most commonly gets asked about Kyra – such as is her accent real (no), is she really that tiny in person (yes!), is her hair real (yes), do she and Kevin Bacon really love each other that much (absolutely!), and what is she really like in person. In answer to that last question, G.W. had this to say, “Kyra is a mix of Mary Poppins and Cruella DeVil. If you come to the set on time and know your lines, she’s a spoonful of sugar. If you come to the set late and haven’t done your homework, she’ll skin you alive and make a jacket out of you. But then she’ll feel bad and end up giving the jacket to the homeless.” LOL I absolutely LOVED that quote, as one of my biggest pet peeves in acting class is lazy actors who don’t do their homework and don’t memorize their lines!!!! You go, Kyra! 🙂

G.W. called Kyra one of the most giving actresses he has ever worked with and said that the cast nicknamed her “Mama” early on because of the way she takes care of everyone. I was actually an extra on The Closer a few months back and was able to witness firsthand how Kyra takes care of her crew. At one point while I was there, Kyra held up filming for a few minutes in order to write out a grocery list of cold remedies and medications before sending someone out to pick them up for a make up artist who was feeling under the weather. She is definitely a “Mama”. 🙂 G.W.’s speech was so sweet that he ended up making Kyra cry. So cute!

Next up was Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti, who ironically enough is the son of The Closer’s consulting producer Gil Garcetti, who presented Kyra with a Hollywood Walk of Fame plaque.

Then Kyra came to the podium to make a speech. She announced at the very beginning that her speech would be brief due to the fact that her feet were already hurting from standing up for such a long time. 🙂 Kyra said that she wanted to be an actress since the age of 12, when she landed a role in a school production of Fiddler on the Roof. She said that acting in that production made her “soul dance” and she knew at that moment that she never wanted to do anything else.

But the best part of Kyra’s speech was when a Hollywood tour bus drove by!!!! The tourists on board went absolutely crazy, so, Kyra stopped her speech and said hello to them using her Brenda Leigh Johnson accent! LOL LOL LOL Only in L.A.! 🙂

Then, Kyra’s star was unveiled. But, unfortunately, thanks to the press standing in the way, fans see couldn’t see it at all. 🙁 Such a bummer!!! Kyra seemed absolutely thrilled to be receiving her star, though, and it made me tear up to think how special it must be to be honored as an actress in that way. 🙂

Kyra was also given a plaque with a replica of her star on it. Oh, how I want one of those!!!!!!! With my own name on it, of course!!!! 🙂

Then, the press asked if Kevin Bacon would come onstage and I just about died!! During most of the ceremony, Kevin had been standing in the audience laying low. I am pretty sure he didn’t want to steal any of his wife’s thunder during the event, so he just remained on the sidelines the entire time. I had been trying to snap a photograph of him throughout the ENTIRE ceremony, but for some reason could just not get a good shot. So, when he finally came onstage, I was FLOORED! KB is still a total cutie after all these years and I could not have been more excited to see him in person. 🙂

Also on hand to celebrate with Kyra were her Closer castmates Corey Reynolds, Robert Gossett, Anthony John Denison, Michael Paul Chan, Raymond Cruz, Phillip P. Keene, and Jonathan Del Arco, along with series consulting producer Gil Garcetti.

Also in attendance was series creator James Duff.

After the ceremony was over, all of the stars – including Kyra and Kevin – came out into the audience to sign autographs and take photographs with the fans. And I could not have been more excited!!!!!! So, of course, I just had to ask my two favorite actors from the show for a pic – G.W. Bailey,

and Anthony John Denison. Unfortunately, I was using my dad’s huge paparazzi style camera at the event, and Blaze couldn’t figure out how to zoom out to take the above photograph. LOL LOL LOL Can you say “extreme close-up”?? Oh well, at least I got a pic. 🙂

I so wanted to take a picture with KB, but, unfortunately, wasn’t standing near him when he came out into the audience. But I did manage to snap the above pic of him as he was walking to his car. Sigh!!!!

About an hour after the ceremony, I returned to see Kyra’s star unveiled, at last. 🙂

As you can see in the above photograph, because it’s brand new, Kyra’s star is much shinier than any of the others on Hollywood Boulevard.

Kyra’s star is right next to husband Kevin Bacon’s, which makes them the only married couple in history to have side by side stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 🙂

If you find yourself in the Hollywood area during a Walk of Fame Star Ceremony, I HIGHLY recommend attending one! I had an absolute blast seeing all of the stars, listening to the speeches, and being a part of a historic Hollywood event! It was definitely a better experience for me than the Hand and Footprint Ceremony and I am so thankful that I got to be a part of it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kyra Sedgwick’s star is located in front of Cinespace Nightclub, which is located at 6356 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

June 8, 2009June 24, 2009

Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage!

Don’t miss your chance to catch Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story on Stage live! Dirty Dancing Pantages Theater Tickets are available at Barry’s Tickets now!

As I have mentioned several times before, Dirty Dancing is one of my absolute favorite movies of all time. The coming of age flick had such a profound effect on me, in fact, that I can still remember exactly where I was when I saw it for the first time. That was the summer of 1988 :), I was eleven years old and was on a plane by myself flying to visit some family friends. Dirty Dancing had been released in movie theatres the previous summer and, to my chagrin, my mom had banned me from seeing it, saying I was far too young. So, imagine my excitement, when I got on the airplane and opened up my in-flight magazine to see that the movie being shown was none other than Dirty Dancing! Ha, ha, my mother had been outsmarted yet again!!! 🙂 I can still remember sitting there on that airplane, over 21 years ago, being absolutely mesmerized by the movie and the dancing. Since that time, I’ve probably watched Dirty Dancing over one hundred times. I’m pretty sure I could easily recite the entire movie, word for word, from start to finish, from memory. So, a few weeks ago, when I saw a flyer on a bulletin board at my acting school advertising the new Dirty Dancing stage show, I just about had a heart attack! HOW HAD I NOT KNOWN ABOUT THIS???? LOL I immediately drove home and purchased tickets to the show for the night of June 2nd, which honestly could not have come soon enough! Finally, last Tuesday night, my fiance and I got to see Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage! And let me tell you, I could not have been more excited!!!

The show was being held at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, an absolutely beautiful Art Deco venue and oft-used filming location which I will have to devote an entire blog post to in the near future. 🙂 When we arrived at the Pantages, you could literally feel the excitement in the air! In the lobby girls were singing “Hungry Eyes”, fans waiting in line for the bathroom were comparing their favorite scenes from the movie, and everywhere I turned I kept hearing people say “I am SO excited to see this show!” I can’t tell you how much fun it was to be in a theatre full of people who loved the movie as much as I did and who had so much excitement to see a live performance of it over twenty-two years after its original release! It was incredible!!

Before seeing the show, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I was actually a little worried that some aspects of the movie might be changed or modernized for the stage production, but I really needn’t have fretted. Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage is exactly what its title professes it to be – a real life stage show of the movie. It is pretty much an EXACT, word for word, replication of the movie performed on-stage right before your very eyes! Every single aspect of the movie was re-created for the stage show – right down to Baby’s many costumes!!!! It made me want to run right out and buy some white Keds and denim cut-off shorts! 🙂

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Quite possibly, the most incredible part of the production – besides the dancing, of course! – was the use of the stage. I was absolutely AMAZED that they were able to re-create the scenery from the movie in the way that they did for a live stage production. In the show, scenes take place in Kellerman’s Lodge, outside during the big rain storm, driving in Johnny’s Chevrolet, and on the fallen log in the forest where Baby and Johnny dance. Even the “practicing the lift in the water” scene was included in the show!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t want to give too much away here, but to see Johnny and Baby onstage in the water practicing the lift was incredible!!!!! Through the unique set design – which includes hydraulic lifting panels and a huge LCD projection screen – it was as if the movie came to life right before my very eyes. The Dirty Dancing set is actually so big that – for the first time in history – the Pantages had to remove the first three rows of seats in the audience to accommodate it AND the orchestra had to be moved from the pitt area to a room underneath the stage!!!! It truly is incredible to see!!!!! I was on a huge high throughout the entire performance and once again became that eleven year old girl on the airplane. The show is A-MA-ZING andI can’t recommend going to watch it enough! If you were AT ALL a fan of the movie, you will LOVE this show!!! You can watch a preview of Dirty Dancing by clicking in the box above.

And, just when I thought my night couldn’t possibly get any better, I also go to go BACKSTAGE! Yes, you read that right! I GOT TO GO BACKSTAGE at Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage !!! In a very lucky twist of fate, while planning my surprise engagement party, my mom just happened to meet the mother of one of Dirty Dancing’s ensemble cast members, Jamie Bayard. So, I just had to ask to be put in contact with him in the hopes that he could possibly take me on a backstage tour after the show. And, sure enough, he did!!! Besides starring as a dancer in Dirty Dancing, Jamie is a United States and World West Coast Swing Champion, a Latin/Ballroom Champion, a Salsa and Musical Theatre professor at Loyola Marymount University, and he was a top twenty finalist on Season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance. 🙂 You can visit his website here. Jamie honestly could NOT have been nicer and spent a good twenty minutes talking with us about the show and showing us around backstage.

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On our tour, we got to see Jamie’s dressing room;

the outdoor “green room” complete with plasma TV where the actors hang out while not onstage;

the costumes;

Johnny’s car;

and the Dirty Dancing stage!!!!!!!!!!!! I was absolutely freaking out over the fact that I was STANDING ON THE DIRTY DANCING STAGE! I mean, who the heck am I to be standing on the DIRTY DANCING STAGE???? LOL

Of course, I just HAD to have my fiance take a picture of me standing on the stage, but for some incredibly odd reason, beknownst only to him, he decided to zoom in for a close up while taking the photograph! So, basically, since no part of the Dirty Dancing stage is visible in the above photograph, I have what amounts to what might as well be a picture of me standing in my own living room! LOL Men, I swear!!!!

Seeing the show and going backstage was an absolutely incredible experience for me. A big THANK YOU to Jamie for affording us the opportunity!!! 🙂 And, as I said before, if you are in the area, Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage is a MUST-see!!!!

UPDATE:

Sadly, Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage will be ending its Los Angeles run this upcoming Sunday, June 28th. So, you know what that means! There are only five days left to catch this phenomenal stage show before it leaves Southern California for good. In other news, just last week, on June 17th to be exact, Dirty Dancing welcomed its 5 MILLIONTH audience member worldwide. The award winning show first premiered in Sydney, Australia in 2004 and has since opened in thirteen different cities across the world including Hamburg, Berlin, London, Toronto, Boston, and Los Angeles. Don’t miss your opportunity to see what all the fans are raving about. Visit Barry’sTickets.com today to book your tickets before it’s too late!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Dirty Dancing – The Classic Story On Stage is playing now through June 28th at the Pantages Theatre, which is located at 6233 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit the official Dirty Dancing website here. Tickets are available at Barry’sTickets.com.

June 4, 2009June 3, 2009

The Cellular House

Back in September of last year, while stalking the house from fave 80s movie License to Drive, I just happened to stumble upon another famous movie home – Kim Basinger’s residence from the 2004 flick Cellular. Well, truth be told, “stumble upon” isn’t exactly the terminology I should be using here. 🙂 The real story is that while taking pictures in front of the License to Drive house, the owner came outside and struck up a conversation with me. And while he had no idea that he was living in a famous home, he did tell me that the movie Cellular had been filmed on the street directly behind his! So, of course, off I went to stalk that house! But somehow, in all this time, I never got around to blogging about it. So, here goes. 🙂

In the very beginning of Cellular, Kim Basinger, aka Jessica Martin, is kidnapped out of the large, traditional style home pictured above. Her only hope for rescue lies in reluctant hero – and total cutie – Chris Evans, whose cell phone accidentally intercepts a 911 call Jessica is trying to make.

In the movie, we are told that Jessica’s home is located at 3270 Bonhill Road in Brentwood. And, while a Bonhill Road in Brentwood does actually exist, the street numbers there don’t go higher than 800. In actuality, the home where filming took place is located about three miles east of Brentwood.

And, as you can see in the above screen capture, producers even went so far as to paint the number 3270 on the curb in front of the home! Which would have made locating this house extremely difficult for stalkers!!!!! So, I definitely owe a big THANK YOU to the owner of the License to Drive house. 😉 If you haven’t seen the movie Cellular yet, I highly recommend doing so! While the campy thriller has to be one of the cheesiest movies ever made, I have to say that I absolutely LOVED it! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Cellular house is located at 527 Loring Avenue in Los Angeles.

May 28, 2009August 12, 2009

The Taken Mansion

This past weekend, my fiance and I rented the movie Taken – which was phenomenal, by the way!!!! – and I immediately recognized a home featured in it that was originally used in a Season One episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210. I have been dying to stalk the home for the past few years, but, unfortunately, it is located inside of a gated community and I haven’t been able to get past the guards. Yet!!! 🙂 But that’s why God created real estate websites – which is where I got the above photo. 🙂 The home, which was built in 1915 and is located inside of the exclusive Fremont Place complex in Hancock Park, has been featured in DOZENS of productions over the years. It has five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, boasts 8,240 square feet, and sits on almost two acres! Besides being featured on the silver screen, the home was also lived in by both Mary Pickford and Mary Miles Minter at different points in time.

In the movie Taken, the mansion stood in for the home of Liam Neeson’s ex-wife, Lenore, and her new uber-wealthy husband, Stuart. The mansion shows up several times in the movie, most notably as the site of Liam’s daughter’s birthday party.

Way back in 1990, the mansion was featured as the home of Brenda’s shoplifting pal Tiffany Morgan in the Season One episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “Every Dream Has It’s Price”. Ironically enough, though, no actual filming of Beverly Hills, 90210 took place at the home. A very brief establishing shot of the mansion was used in the episode, but all of the actual filming took place in the backyard of an Altadena home located directly across the street from Casa Walsh.

The same house also showed up in the Season 7 episode of CSI: Miami entitled “Dead on Arrival”. In the episode, the mansion was used as the setting of the fictional Bachelor-esque reality series “The Marrying Kind”.

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The mansion was also used in the Season Six episode of Cold Case entitled “November 22” as the present day home of pool shark Baltimore Red. And, as if all of that was not enough, in 2008 alone the home was featured in an infomercial, a DiGiorno pizza commercial, and episodes of Prison Break, Monk, Numbers, and the episode of The Mentalist entitled “Ladies in Red”. How cool would it be to own that place?!?!? Oh, I would be in heaven!!!! 🙂

According to The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book, the movie War of the Roses was also filmed in the Fremont Place community, just a few houses down from the Taken mansion. But, if you compare the above screen capture to the aerial image of the property supposedly used, the two houses don’t quite seem to match. So, unless some major renovations were done to the home since the filming of War of the Roses took place, I don’t think The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book’s information is correct. 🙁 Supposedly, the house from the Rocky movies is also located on the same street, but I haven’t been able to verify that yet. You can see photographs of some of the Fremont Place homes that have been used for filming and a really cool schedule of the 2007 and 2008 productions that filmed there here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Taken mansion is located at 56 Fremont Place in Los Angeles. The supposed War of the Roses home is located just down the street at 119 Fremont Place West. Please keep in mind that both of these houses are located inside of a gated, private community and trespassing is not allowed. 🙂

May 27, 2009June 27, 2019

Descanso Gardens

This past weekend I dragged my fiance and my parents out to stalk Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge – another location that I discovered thanks to my new favorite stalking book. The 160-acre botanical garden has been featured in countless movies and television shows over the years and is also a popular wedding venue.

E. Manchester Boddy (pronounced “Boh-dee”) first purchased the property now known as Descanso Gardens in 1937 to build a home for his family. Besides being the owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News, Boddy was also a horticulturalist and a commercial camellia grower and he needed a piece of property large enough to cultivate his prized flowers. Rancho de Descanso, as it was then known, fit the bill perfectly. In 1938, he commissioned a 12,000 square foot home to be built on the property. The 22-room mansion, named the Boddy House, was designed in the Hollywood Regency style by “architect to the stars” James E. Dolena. Boddy positioned the home in the very southeast corner of Descanso – which means “rest and repose” in Spanish – so that he and his family would be able to enjoy specatular views of the San Gabriel Mountains. In 1953, Boddy sold the entire 160 acre property, including his custom built home, to the City of Los Angeles, who later opened it up to the public. In 2007, the Boddy Home was featured as the Pasadena Showcase House of Design and was completely renovated and restored to its former glory. The bottom floor of the home is open for all visitors of Descanso Gardens to tour. The Boddy House can also be rented out for weddings and private events.

Descanso Gardens encompasses a twenty-acre oak tree forest, a bird sanctuary, a five-acre rosarium featuring over three thousand roses, a Japanese tea garden, countless waterfalls and koi ponds, a lilac garden, and a California garden featuring Redwood trees, California poppies, and chaparral plants. The site is stunning and extremely expansive, but also, sadly, very crowded, I believe due to its low admission price.

The venue’s beauty has, of course, led to countless onscreen cameos. Descanso was the location of Nikolas Natchios’ funeral in the 2003 movie Daredevil.

Its greenhouse was used in a prominent scene in Minority Report.

And Reese Witherspoon has filmed no less than three productions at the Gardens! In Legally Blonde, Descanso was transformed into Golden Springs Spa where Reese and her partner Luke Wilson interviewed Raquel Welch. The building located just to left of Descanso’s main entrance was used as the entrance to the spa.

Both the interior and the exterior of the Boddy House were used as the home of John Voight, where Reese spends Christmas, in last year’s Four Christmases. Because the movie has not yet been released on DVD, I was not able to make screen captures of it. 🙁 According to one of the Boddy House docents, though, the mansion was significantly dressed up for the filming of the movie and is not very recognizable. Four Christmases featured many areas of the Boddy House, including the front entrance, main foyer, library, and living room. Reese also filmed her latest Avon commercial, which has yet to be released, at Descanso Gardens.

An episode of Mad Mad was also recently filmed on Descanso’s main lawn area (pictured above). Descanso Gardens was also featured in Memoirs of a Geisha, America’s Sweethearts, Graduation Day, Tiny Dancer, Congo, Land of the Lost, the recently wrapped Untitled Duplass Brothers Project starring Marisa Tomei, Jonah Hill, and John C. Reily, and Eddie Murphy’s new movie The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Descanso Gardens is located at 1418 Descanso Drive in La Canada Flintridge. The Gardens are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The entrance fee is $8 for adults and $3 for children aged 5 to 12. Children under 5 are free. You can visit the Descanso Gardens website here.