Malibu filming locations – IAMNOTASTALKER

November 18, 2013November 10, 2013

Lauren and Jason’s Malibu Rental from “The Hills”

Way back in June 2010, a fellow stalker named Nick emailed me to let me know he had tracked down the Malibu beach house that Lauren Conrad and her then boyfriend Jason Wahler leased for the summer in the Season 1 episode of The Hills titled “Timing Is Everything.” And while the location was one that I had been dying to find for ages, because I was knee deep in wedding planning at the time, I was unable to stalk it. Then, on a rather overcast morning this past March, I remembered the locale while out and about in The ‘Bu and dropped by. For whatever reason, though, the pad slipped my mind yet again shortly thereafter and I failed to blog about it. It was not until two Thursdays ago, when I received the November 18th, 2013 issue of US Weekly with its “Life After The Hills” cover feature, that I was reminded of the residence and that it was long overdue for a write-up. So here goes.

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The modern-style seaside pad, which was originally built in 2005 and sits just east of Las Tunas Beach, boasts three bedrooms, two and a half baths, 3,000 square feet of living space, a chef’s kitchen, a game room, Brazilian cherry wood flooring, onyx marble detailing throughout, and a master suite with an office, fireplace, dual walk-in closets (yes, please!), and a spa tub. According to Zillow, back in 2010 the property was available for sale for $4,195,000 or for lease at $13,000 a month. It later sold in November of that same year for $3,688,000.

The interior of the house is pretty darn spectacular, as you can see below. You can check out some more photographs of the interior on Redfin here.

In the “Timing Is Everything” episode of The Hills, which was the Season 1 finale, Lauren turned down a Teen Vogue summer internship in Paris in order to spend the season living with Jason in a rented Malibu beach house. The rental was shown twice in the episode, but very briefly each time.

The real life interior of the home was also featured in “Timing Is Everything.”

As was the rear of the property, which sits on stilts over the ocean and is, unfortunately, completely unstalkable, as you can see below.

The beach house also popped up briefly at the beginning of The Hills Season 2 premiere, which was titled “Out with the Old . . .” By the start of that episode, Lauren and Jason were, not surprisingly, broken up and Lauren had become known around the Teen Vogue offices as “The Girl Who Didn’t Go to Paris.” (While making screen captures for this post, I got COMPLETELY sucked in to watching both “Timing Is Everything” and “Out with the Old . . .” Man, The Hills was a great show! Why, oh why did it have to go off the air? For those who were as into the series as I was, this article is a fascinating read!)

On a side-note – While watching “Timing Is Everything” and “Out with the Old . . ,” I happened to spot my favorite blogger, Cupcakes and Cashmere’s Emily Schuman, who worked at Teen Vogue at the same time as Lauren, twice. Looks like Emily was even sporting her famous messy bun back then. Love it!

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Nick for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Lauren and Jason’s summer rental from the “Timing Is Everything” episode of The Hills is located at 19220 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

May 21, 2013May 20, 2013

The Ladies’ Villa from Season 1 of “The Bachelor”

Another location that I became obsessed with tracking down thanks to the Best of The Bachelor DVD that my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, recently gifted me was the so-called “Ladies’ Villa” – the Mediterranean-style manse where the female contestants lived during the filming of the popular reality series’ inaugural season. And fortunately, it was quite the easy find.

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In the second episode of the series, which was titled “Week Two”, not only did The Bachelor host Chris Harrison mention that the Ladies’ Villa was a “beachfront Malibu mansion”, but aerial views of the property were also shown.

In one of the faraway aerial views, I happened to notice two fairly large landmarks – a red-roofed condominium complex (denoted with a blue arrow below) and a beachside road (denoted with a pink arrow below). So I began searching Bing Maps for those two landmarks and found them fairly quickly in the Point Dume Riviera section of Malibu. From there, tracking down the huge oceanside estate, which is located at 7107 Birdview Avenue, was a snap and I ran right out to stalk it while in L.A. just a few days later.

Sadly though, as you can see below, virtually none of the property is visible from the street. But you can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the home on the Malibu Rents website here. According to the website, the six-bedroom, six-bath, 5,032-square-foot mansion, which was originally built in 1996, boasts a 1.04-acre plot of land, a pool with several waterfalls, a ten-person spa, two guest houses, a tennis court, a wine cellar, and a private staircase leading down to both Westward and Zuma beaches. The estate rents for (a measly Winking smile ) $4,000 per night or $28,000 per month.

The Ladies’ Villa appeared regularly throughout the first season of The Bachelor. Areas of the property that were utilized during the filming include the front exterior;

the rear of the residence;

the backyard and pool and spa;

the living room;

the kitchen;

a bedroom;

a bathroom;

and a massive custom closet that the girls went gaga over (and yeah, I would have, too!).

Ironically enough, for over a decade Bachelor producer Mike Fleiss lived just a few doors down from the Ladies’ Villa at 7163 Birdview Ave. He purchased the home in April 2002, shortly after the first installment of the series started airing, so while he did not live there during the filming, I am guessing that he might have discovered the place thanks to his time spent at the Villa.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Ladies’ Villa from Season 1 of The Bachelor is located at 7107 Birdview Avenue in Malibu.

May 17, 2013May 19, 2013

The Mansion from Season 1 of “The Bachelor”

My girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, recently gifted me with Best of The Bachelor, a DVD compilation of condensed episodes from the popular reality series’ first season as well as a slew of special features and not-shown-on-TV bonus footage. Well, because this stalker absolutely loves herself some The Bachelor, I just about died from excitement upon receiving it, especially since I had not seen any of Season 1 since it originally aired in early 2002, over a decade ago! (How in the heck has it been that long??) I, of course, watched the DVD the very same night that I received it and immediately became obsessed with tracking down the Mediterranean-style mansion – or “The Bachelor’s Villa” as it was called on the series – where the inaugural Bachelor, 31-year-old management consultant Alex Michel, lived. The good news is that the mansion was quite the easy find. The bad news is that it is no longer standing. But more on that later.

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Thanks to the spectacular ocean views that were visible in the episodes, I knew that The Bachelor’s Villa had to be located somewhere near the coast in Malibu.

So I began scanning through Bing Map’s aerial views of the ‘Bu coastline looking for the property’s uniquely-shaped pool, which I figured would be easily recognizable.

Thankfully, it was.

When I zoomed in for a closer look, though, I was saddened to discover that the mansion had been torn down and a new dwelling was being built in its place.

And while Bing aerial views only show the new residence mid-construction, you can catch a glimpse of what it looks like in a mostly completed state below, thanks to Google Maps.

Even though the mansion is no longer, I figured it was still worth a stalk and a blog post being that there are most likely other stalkers out there who are curious as to its location.

According to Zillow, the now-defunct mansion, which was originally built in 1987, boasted four bedrooms, four baths, 6,967 square feet of living space, a 1.7-acre plot of ocean-front land, a lighted tennis court, an infinity pool with his-and-her cabanas, a 2,200-square-foot guest house, several stone fireplaces, a motor court, 22-foot-high beamed ceilings, hand-carved wooden doors, a sauna, and panoramic ocean views. Unfortunately though, aside from the top floor of the massive guest house (seriously, that thing is bigger than most homes!), no part of the property is visible from the street.

The manse was used extensively throughout Season 1 of The Bachelor. The dwelling was not only where Alex lived during the duration of the seven-week filming, but it was also where all of the rose ceremonies and cocktail parties took place. Areas of the property that appeared in the series include the front entrance . . .

. . . where Alex was first introduced to the 25 women;

the driveway;

the huge living room, where the rose ceremonies were held;

and the backyard, where the final rose ceremony – in which Alex rejected future Bachelorette Trista Rehn and offered his final rose (but not a ring!) to Amanda Marsh – took place. Not surprisingly, Amanda and Alex broke up less than a year later and rumor has it that he pulled the ol’ switcheroo by then (unsuccessfully) attempting to rekindle the flame with Trista. It appears, though, that Alex, who for the most part has stayed out of the spotlight since the series ended, finally found marital bliss with a woman named Carly in June 2010.

I am unsure of how many seasons of The Bachelor were shot at the mansion, but I am guessing that it was only Alex Michel’s season. At some point after the year 2005, filming moved to an Agoura estate (which I blogged about here), where it has remained ever since.

You can watch a great interview with Alex, thanks to the Obsessed with Samantha Ettus website, by clicking below.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The former site of the mansion from the first season of The Bachelor, which has since been torn down, is located at 24834 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

April 8, 2013April 5, 2013

Neptune’s Net from “The Hills”

One location that had been at the top of my To-Stalk list for a couple of years, but had, for whatever reason, remained unstalked was Neptune’s Net – an oft-filmed-at eatery and Malibu institution that was featured on one of my favorite shows of all time, The Hills, in a scene featuring none other than my girl Kristin Cavallari. I had driven by the beachside restaurant countless times (my former boss used to live almost directly across the street from the place) and seen its exterior, but in all my years of living in Southern California had never ventured inside. So when the Grim Cheaper and I were visiting Los Angeles two weekends ago, I decided to take a trip up the coast early one (very overcast) morning to finally stalk the place.

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Neptune’s Net was originally established in 1958 – over five decades ago! – by an aerodynamicist (of all things) named Eastman Jacobs. At the time it was named Jake’s Diner and was considerably smaller than it is today. (I am not sure why the sky looks pink in my photographs below, but, hey, I’ll take it! Winking smile )

The eatery has only changed hands twice during its existence, first in 1974, when it was purchased by Paul and Dolly Seay (who doubled the size of the place and renamed it Neptune’s Net) and then again, in 1991, when it was sold to Michelle Lee and her husband, Chong Sun. Other than the name and size change made almost four decades ago, as well as a patio addition in the early ‘90s, very little of the place has ever been altered. In a September 2001 Los Angeles Times article Lee, a woman after my own heart, says, “This look has never changed. People love to come here because of that. You have sun and ocean and food. Some people say this is the California dream place, because it’s natural and not changing.” Exactly! I have always been of the firm belief that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

While the place has often been called a “dive restaurant”, celebs have flocked to it since the beginning. Just a few of the stars who have dined there over the years include Drew Barrymore, Pink, Carey Hart, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michelle Pfeiffer, U2’s Bono, Adam Sandler, Martin Sheen, Charlie Sheen, Emilio Estevez, Tom Green, Flip Wilson, Jay Leno, Cher, Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Taylor, Larry Fortensky, Pierce Brosnan, Jerry West, Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Nicolas Cage, Cameron Diaz, Bill Murray, Tori Spelling, Dean McDermott, LeAnn Rimes, Eddie Cibrian, Luke Wilson, Anthony Edwards, Jonathan Winters, Cheech Marin, Heather Locklear, Gene Hackman, Bob Dylan, and Barbra Streisand.

The Zagat-rated beach shack has won numerous awards over the years including being named “Best Seafood Dive” by Coastal Living magazine in 1999. Unfortunately, it was around 10:30 in the morning when I arrived at The Net, far too early for lunch, so I was not able to sample any of the fare. It looked pretty darn good, though. Patrons of the eatery are able to choose their own fresh shellfish from out of the restaurant’s tanks, hand it over to the cooks and have it steamed for them right then and there. So incredibly cool! According to the Los Angeles Times article that I referenced earlier, during the summer months, Neptune’s goes through 200 pounds of Maine lobster and 150 pounds of Alaskan crab a week! That’s a lot of shellfish! For those not into seafood, the restaurant also serves hamburgers, veggie burgers, patty melts, and my personal faves, hot dogs and chicken strips.

In the Season 6 episode of The Hills titled “Mess with Me, I Mess with You”, Neptune’s Net was where Justin “Bobby” Brescia took Kristin Cavallari took on her first motorcycle ride.

Thanks to its unique atmosphere, Neptune’s Net has been featured onscreen countless times over the years. In 1983’s Losin’ It, the restaurant was where Woody (Tom Cruise), Dave (Jackie Earle Haley), Spider (John Stockwell), and Wendell (John P. Navin Jr.) got into a food fight. Of the scene, former owner Dolly Seay said in a June 1997 Los Angeles Times article, “For two years after, I was cleaning up the mess.” LOL

As you can below, the exterior of the eatery looked quite a bit different at that time sans its exterior patio.

In 1991’s Point Break, Neptune’s Net was where Tyler (Lori Petty) worked and where Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) begged her to teach him how to surf.

In the 2001 flick The Fast and the Furious, Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) told Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) that he wanted in on whatever illegal activity he was a part of while the two were lunching at Neptune’s Net.

In the Season 3 episode of So Little Time titled “Manuelo in the Middle, Part 2”, which aired in 2001, Manuelo Del Valle (Taylor Negron) quit his job as a housekeeper for Riley Carlson (Mary-Kate Olsen) and Chloe Carlson (Ashley Olsen) and became a chef at Neptune’s Net. Only the exterior of the restaurant appeared in the episode, though.

The interior was just a set.

In the 2012 drama People Like Us, Sam (Chris Pine) took Frankie (Elizabeth Banks) and Josh (Michael Hall D’Addario) out for lunch at Neptune’s Net.

And in the soon-to-be released Iron Man 3, a replica of Neptune’s Net was built in Dania Beach, Florida. You can see some great photographs of it on The Comics Factory Facebook page here.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for making the Losin’ It screen captures that appear in this post! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Neptune’s Net, from the “Mess with Me, I Mess with You” episode of The Hills, is located at 42505 Pacific Coast Highway, just north of the Ventura County Line, in Malibu. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

June 2, 2010June 1, 2010

The Malibu House from “Spanglish”

A few weeks ago, fellow stalker Nick was driving along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu with his family when he happened to pass by a home that looked extremely familiar to him. He immediately asked the driver of the car to pull over so that he could get a better look and, upon closer inspection, realized that the property was none other than the spot where John and Deborah Clasky (aka Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni, respectively) spent the summer with their family and their spunky housekeeper Flor Moreno (aka Paz Vega) in the 2004 dramedy Spanglish. Nick emailed me as soon as he returned home that day to let me know the good news and, let me tell you, I just about passed out from excitement as I had been looking for the Spanglish house for just about as long as I could remember. Yay! So, the very next weekend I dragged my fiancé out to the ‘Bu to finally do some Spanglish stalking!

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I am very happy to report that the Spanglish house looks much the same in person as it did onscreen in the movie. In real life, the Clasky’s Malibu home, which was built in 1934, boasts 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and a whopping 3,418 square feet of living space. And, according to my friend E.J. over at the Movieland Directory, the place also has a celebrity connection as it once belonged to “Pretty Woman” singer Roy Orbison.

Unfortunately, we were strapped for time the day we stalked the Spanglish house and were not able to pop around back to sneak a peek at the beach-side of the property, which appeared quite a few times in the movie.

But, as you can see in these photographs of the home from a Malibu rental website (the Spanglish house’s listing can be found in the third row and third column of the page), the real life interior was also used in the filming. According to the website, the home is currently available as a summer rental for a whopping $45,000 per month!

Just two doors down from the Clasky’s summer home is the house where Deborah went searching for a translator for Flor after first arriving in Malibu. And while the property has definitely been modernized in recent years, it is still very recognizable from Spanglish. According to fave website Big Time Listings, that home also has a celebrity connection as it formerly belonged to makeup artist and special effects master Stan Winston.

Big THANK YOU to Nick for finding these locations! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Clasky’s summer home from Spanglish is located at 21628 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. The house where Deborah finds a translator for Flor is located two doors down at 21622 Pacific Coast Highway.

May 7, 2009May 6, 2009

The “Biggest Loser” Ranch

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!!! 🙂

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.

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;

the pool –

which was flanked by fake flowers!!! LOL;

the production offices;

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

the patio area;

and the Administration Building –

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.

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;

wire cords were strung up on all of the buildings;

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

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.

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.

April 16, 2009December 6, 2013

Paradise Cove

One location I have been wanting to stalk ever since I first moved to L.A. nine years ago – has it really been nine years??? – is Malibu’s Paradise Cove. Countless movies have been filmed at the Cove, but I wanted to stalk it for one reason and one reason only. Back in April of 1999, it was the location where Britney Spears filmed the music video for her hit song “Sometimes”. And I absolutely LOVED that video. I can still remember the first time I watched it on TRL just about ten years ago. And ever since that day I have been dying to see the white pier featured in the video in person. So, this past Saturday, I finally did just that. When I happened to mention to my mom that morning that I was on my way to stalk the Cove and the reason why, she said “Oh Lindsay, when are you going to get over this Britney obsession?” LOL

Paradise Cove, as we know it today, came to be in the early 1950s when a man named Joe Morris purchased two adjacent parcels of land and combined them into 70 beachfront acres complete with a private cove and a beach cafe. In the beginning, the area was a fisherman’s hangout, a place for sea-weary workers to not only launch their boats, but to kick back and grab a drink after a long day on the open water. The Cove gradually turned into a beachfront community, a place for local families, tourists, and celebrities alike to hang out by the sea. In the 70s, Joe sold his land, his beachfront restaurant, and his private cove to the Kissel family, who turned the area into a waterfront mobile home park. Joe’s son Bob was heartbroken over the sale and in 1998, he returned to Paradise Cove and purchased his father’s former restaurant. He renamed it Bob Morris’ Paradise Cove Beach Cafe and remains the owner to this day. The above photograph is of a picture on display at the Beach Cafe of my girl Marilyn Monroe posing on a cliff above the restaurant many moons ago.

Most of the action of Britney’s “Sometimes” video takes place right on the Paradise Cove pier. In the video, while hanging out at her beach house, Britney spies a cute boy playing nearby in the sand. She rushes down to the local pier, where her back-up dancers, dressed all in white, are waiting for her. The group then performs a very “Britney” dance routine (of course, I memorized it!) for the boy. I know, I know, the premise sounds incredibly lame, but – trust me – the video is adorable! You can watch the “Sometimes” video here.

In person, the pier looks exactly the same as how it appeared in Britney’s video. The only difference is that, in real life, there is no “Kenny’s Cove” sign located over the entrance. Apparently the video’s producer, Nigel Dick, thought an entrance sign similar to the one that adorns the Santa Monica pier was needed for decoration. He decided to name the cove after the video’s location scout, Kenny. 🙂 Love it!

Had to do it! 🙂

Paradise Cove has been featured in countless productions over the years. In American Pie 2, the Michigan lake house the boys spend their summer at was actually a facade the producers built on the beach at Paradise Cove just North of Bob Morris’ Paradise Cove Beach Cafe. That’s the Paradise Cove Pier behind the boys in the above screen capture. Producers also built a fake lighthouse on the end of the pier for the production.

In Lethal Weapon 4, Mel Gibson and Rene Russo lived in a trailer/house also located just to the North of the Beach Cafe. Their house was also just a facade built for filming. You can see the Cafe’s exterior just to the right of Mel Gibson in the above screen capture.

The pier is featured twice in Indecent Proposal. It first shows up as the location where Woody Harrelson proposes to Demi Moore in the beginning of the movie. Then, at the very end of the movie, it is where the two reunite.

Other productions filmed at the Cove include Rockford Files (James Garner lived in a trailer on the beach), Gidget, Monster-in-Law (JLo and Michael Vartan explored the Cove’s tide pools in the beginning of the movie), Alias, Charlie’s Angels, X-Men (Spider-Man creator Stan Lee served hot dogs by the sea) and The House of Sand and Fog. The Beach Boys also shot the cover for their Surfin’ Safari album at the Cove (pictured above).

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I HIGHLY recommend stalking the Cove – but be forewarned, it’s not cheap! Parking there costs $25! Yes, you read that right! Which is the very reason it took me nine years to stalk the place. Stealing a term from my friend Mandy, I long ago dubbed my boyfriend the “Grim Cheaper” because the guy just hates spending money. Five years ago, when we went to stalk the Cove for the first time, he took one look at that $25 parking sign and turned the car right around. LOL What we didn’t realize at the time is if you grab a bite to eat at Bob Morris’ Paradise Cove Beach Cafe and spend more than $20, the parking fee drops to $3, which is not bad at all. So, after stalking the Cove this past Saturday we marched right into the cafe and parked ourselves on some bar stools. And while we had a good time and the food was definitely yummy, I think we actually missed the boat on that one. What we didn’t realize is that there is actually a back patio area where you can sip a cocktail while sitting outside under the sun, watching the surf. But the rules for the back patio are pretty confusing because while the cafe provides the outdoor seating, they do not actually own that particular area. So, you can buy a bottle of wine or beer inside the restaurant to take outside, but the bottles have to remain closed until you reach your sandy destination. If you open your beverages before you leave, you will have to finish them inside. Confused? So was I.

Basically, Bob Morris’ Beach Cafe acts as a liquor store and sells full bottles of wine and beer that you can purchase at the bar and then take outside to drink on the back patio area. I SO wish I had known that at the time, as the patio looks like a really fun place to grab a drink, put your toes in the sand, and watch the sun set. Oh well, it looks like I’ll just have to go back to stalk the place again. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Paradise Cove is located at 28128 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. You can visit the Paradise Cove website here.

April 15, 2009April 14, 2009

The Adamson House

I spent all last week on the hunt for a location from my fave 90s TV show Beverly Hills, 90210. The spot I was looking for was the location that stood in for Baja, Mexico in the Season 2 episode entitled “Mexican Standoff”. In the episode, Brenda sneaks off to a Mexican resort town for the weekend with Dylan without telling her parents. I knew from this amazing website that the “Mexico” scenes were actually shot near the beach in Malibu, so I started my hunt there. And it wasn’t long before I found the right spot!

While watching the “Mexican Standoff” episode, I noticed an abundance of intricate Spanish tile in the background of pretty much every scene. (You can see an example of that tile behind Dylan in the above screen capture.) The tiles were my big tip-off, as there is actually a famous house in Malibu that is known for its exquisite tile work. In fact, the house has been deemed the “Taj Mahal of tile”. I had done some research on the home a few years back when I was working and immediately thought of it when I watched the “Mexican Standoff” episode this past week. The home, which is named the Adamson House, is owned by the State of California and has been open to the public as a museum since 1983. So, I, of course, dragged my boyfriend right out there this weekend for a tour.

In 1891, a man named Frederick Hastings Rindge purchased what is now known as the city of Malibu for the bargain price of $10 per acre. Rindge’s wife, May, was fiercely protective of her family’s privacy and did everything she could to keep outsiders out, including fencing off the 17,000 acre property and hiring armed guards who patrolled the area day and night. For close to forty years the Rindges were Malibu’s only occupants. But in the 30s, May ran into some financial trouble and had to sell off parcels of her property. Not wanting to sell to just anyone, May made sure she sold her land to wealthy, distinguished individuals who understood the need for privacy. Most of those individuals were movie stars. And thus, the city of Malibu, celebrity haven, was born. It was Frederick and May’s daughter, Rhoda Agatha Rindge, and her husband Merritt Adamson who in 1930 built the 4,000 square foot Mediterranean style home that is now known as the Adamson House.

Rhoda and Merritt’s custom home, which was designed by Stiles O. Clements, took a year and a half to build and is situated directly above the Malibu Lagoon. May Rindge, who was a tile connoisseur and owned her own tile company named Malibu Potteries, commissioned all of the custom, handmade tile that eventually made her daughter’s home so famous and, in the end, saved it from demolition. In 1966, four years after Rhoda’s death, the State of California was granted eminent domain on the Adamson House and its surrounding property. The state purchased the home from Rhoda’s heirs for $2.6 million and set about razing the property to build a beach parking lot. Unbelievable!! Thankfully, the Malibu Historical Society and the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation stepped in and fought to stop the demolition of the home. That fight turned into a ten year battle. During that time, the chancellor of Pepperdine University leased and lived in the property. In 1976, thanks to the home’s unique tile work and its historical significance to the city of Malibu, the house was saved from the wrecking ball. In 1983, after a lengthy renovation process, the home was opened to the public as a museum. The Adamson House is currently both a California Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.

And, let me tell you, it is an absolutely incredible place to visit. The tile work in the home is nothing short of A-MA-ZING! I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life and doubt I ever will again. I was shocked when I heard that construction on the home took only a year and a half to complete, as the detailing is so incredibly intricate and elaborate that I would have expected it to have taken much longer. Everything from the clock in the kitchen to the heater grates in the ceiling are made from hand-painted tiles! The house could not be more exquisite and I HIGHLY recommend taking the tour to see it for yourself.

That being said, I have to say that the actual tour was one of the most BIZARRE experiences of my life. There are simply no words to accurately describe our tour – or our docent for that matter. I’m not quite sure what was wrong with her, but I think it is safe to say she was a few bricks shy of a load. A sample bit of her dialog from the tour: “Now we are in the upstairs . . . the ceiling . . . has . . . and you can see . . . and there are . . . this piece of . . . . . . . . . . . . . string . . . during World War II . . . there were bombs . . . who can guess why there are no lights?” And I’m pretty much QUOTING her! LOL When I asked why the Rindge family sold the Adamson House to the State of California she told me it was because “they were tired of it”. LOL LOL LOL At one point during the tour, my boyfriend turned to me and said “Please don’t ask if 90210 was filmed here – that might just make her head explode!” Within the first five minutes I became convinced we were on a hidden camera show – I was hoping it was I Get That A Lot – and at any moment a camera crew was going to jump out at us from behind a wall. I was actually laughing so hard on more than one occasion that I had to completely turn away from the group and stare at the wall. LOL I haven’t laughed that hard in a really long time, so I guess the tour wasn’t a total bust! In fact, as I sit here writing about it, I’m STILL laughing. 🙂 We even made friends with another couple, who were just as bewildered over our docent’s behavior as we were. At the end, one of them said to us, “I realize that they are all volunteers, but isn’t there some sort of screening process???” LOL But I must say that despite our nimrod of a tour guide, seeing the house in person is still an experience I’d recommend.

Oddly enough, only a very small section of the Adamson House was used in the “Mexican Standoff” episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. Of course our docent had no clue whatsoever where, or even if, 90210 had filmed on the property back in 1992 and I had a surprisingly difficult time locating the exact spot used on my own. After the tour on Saturday, I went home and watched the “Mexican Standoff” episode once again and finally figured out where it had been filmed. Unfortunately, I had only taken one photograph of that spot while on the tour. LOL So, I actually had to drag my boyfriend BACK to the house the following day to take some more pictures. Thank the lord our docent was nowhere to be found. 🙂 The area featured on Beverly Hills, 90210 was the little porch and driveway located to the side of Adamson House garage.

In the scene, Brenda and Dylan get into an argument over a girl that Dylan dated the previous summer. Brenda is in quite the little snit until a mariachi band strolls over and serenades them with a Spanish version of the Morris Albert song “Feelings”. The two make up and then dance the night away under the Mexican sky. GOD I LOVE THAT SHOW! 🙂 The new one doesn’t even compare!!! You can watch the scene filmed at the Adamson House here.

The “Baja” beach where Brenda and Dylan surf the following morning is very obviously the Malibu Lagoon State Beach, which is located directly in front of the Adamson House.

The location where Brenda and Dylan run into Jake Hanson in the beginning of that same episode is the beach parking lot located just south of the Adamson House. It is actually the place where you must park your car if you are going on an Adamson House tour. That’s the Malibu Pier in the background behind Dylan.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Adamson House is located at 23200 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. The grounds are open daily to the public from sunrise to sunset. You do not need to be part of a tour to walk around the grounds. The interior of the house is only made available to the public via docent led tours. Tours are held Wednesday through Saturday from 11am to 3pm, with the last tour beginning at 2pm. Tours cost $5 per adult and $2 per child under the age of 16. Kids 5 and under are free. You can visit the Adamson House website here.

March 18, 2009January 30, 2011

Tad Hamilton’s House

Another day, another Tad Hamilton location! Last week while searching for the Sex and the City honeymoon house I ran across aerial views of a Malibu home that looked very familiar to me (pictured above). It didn’t take long before I realized the house was used as Tad Hamilton’s ultra-modern white mansion in fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton. So, of course, I dragged my boyfriend right out to stalk it! 🙂

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When I first saw Win A Date back in 2004, I assumed Tad’s house was just a set. I knew the pool area was most likely authentic, but the interiors seemed far too stylized to be real. But it turns out that Tad’s house is actually a real home located right on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

In Win A Date, both the interior and the exterior of the real home were used quite extensively. The pool area shows up most prominently in a scene that was deleted from the actual movie, but that is featured in the DVD’s deleted scenes section. In the scene, Paris Hilton parachutes from an airplane into Tad Hamilton’s pool in an attempt to meet the movie star (pictured above).

Also featured in Win A Date is Tad’s entryway;

the front of the home;

the living room area;

and the wet bar.

I can’t even imagine living in a place like Tad’s. It’s just so modern and so . . . what’s the word I’m looking for? Oh, yeah, “blue”. In real life and in the movie the home has an odd blue tint to it, as you can see in all of the screen captures pictured above. It does look like a great place to have a party, though. 🙂 And it’s not hard to see why producers chose it as the home of the gorgeous, but somewhat shallow and morally empty movie star Tad Hamilton. You can compare the above screen captures to these real life interior photos of the house.

This same home was also featured in the 1991 movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day where it was used as the residence of computer scientist Miles Dyson and his family. It is this home that Linda Hamilton shoots up in an attempt to kill Miles towards the end of the movie. As you can see in the above screen captures, the interior of the home has been extensively remodeled since then and looks nothing like it did when Terminator 2 was filmed there over 18 years ago.

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In fact, at first glance the Win A Date house and the Terminator 2 house seem like different homes altogether. But they’re not. Although it is slightly hard to see, the above screen captures show that the stairs leading down to the living room area, the doorway leading to the kitchen, and the stairway and landing that lead to the second level are in the exact same position. The house has been given a major facelift, but structurally it’s the same as it was all those years ago in Terminator 2.

I can’t really say that I recommend stalking Tad Hamilton’s house. The above photographs show what you can see of the home from the Pacific Coast Highway – which is minimal. Aside from a white cabana-like structure, exterior pool lights, and a cement sign with the address number on it, virtually nothing is visible from the street. So Tad Hamilton and Terminator 2 fans will just have to be satisfied with cyber-stalking the home instead.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Tad Hamilton’s house is located at 30065 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

March 11, 2009March 11, 2009

Samantha Jones and Smith Jerrod’s Beach House

This weekend after stalking Carrie’s honeymoon villa from Sex and the City: The Movie, I dragged my boyfriend about 15 miles south to stalk yet another location from the film – Samantha and Smith’s beach house. Thanks to fave book Sex and the City: The Movie, which stated that the home was located on Malibu Road, this location was a snap to find! Smith and Samantha’s house, with its curved glass and steel architecture, is quite unique and it’s not hard to see why producers chose it as the residence of SATC’s trendy P.R. exec and her young movie star boyfriend.

In person, the house is absolutely breathtaking. Located right on the sand in Malibu, the home has five separate cantilevered balconies that seem to just hang right over the Pacific Ocean. I can only imagine what the views must be like at sunset! I’m not usually a big fan of modern houses, but this one is pretty special. At the time of filming the home was on the market for a cool $17 million (the price has now dropped to $14,500,000). I believe it was also vacant, which would have made filming there much easier than in a home that was occupied.

Filming of the Samantha/Smith scenes took two weeks to complete and both the interior and the exterior of the real life beach house were used extensively. Featured in the movie were the kitchen area (where Samantha cooks Smith homemade sushi),

the living room where Samantha and Smith celebrate New Year’s Eve in front of a fire,

and the master bedroom, where Smith asks Samantha to stop running off to New York every chance she gets. You can compare the above screen captures to the interior photos of the home shown on its real estate website and on this website. From the looks of it, it seems producers even chose to use the home’s real bedroom furniture for the filming.

The front of Samantha and Smith’s home wasn’t shown in Sex and the City: The Movie, but you can catch a glimpse of it in the above pic. Ironically, the front of the house looks like a normal everyday modern style home and doesn’t give any clue as to the amazing architecture located just on the other side of it. And while the front of the house will not be familiar to Sex and the City fans, the back definitely will be. Public beach access is located fairly close to the house, so if you would like to see the back view – and I really suggest you do – it’s less than a five minute walk down the beach.

The house directly next door to Samantha’s should also be recognizable to SATC fans. It was used as the home of Samantha’s hunky neighbor Dante (played Gilles Marini who is currently competing on Dancing With The Stars) on whom she develops quite a crush. As for Dante’s outdoor shower, I couldn’t find it anywhere. It is my guess that either another home was used for that scene, or a special shower was created especially for filming purposes that was later removed.

Also missing in real life – the balcony hot tub that Samantha relaxes in towards the beginning of the movie.

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Samantha’s house is absolutely beautiful in person and I highly recommend stalking it – or purchasing it if you have the means! If you don’t have $14,500,000 on hand to buy the home, it is also available as a rental property at the rate of $75,000 per month. Being that I’ve never made that amount in an entire year, let alone a month, I think I’m pretty much out of the running on this one. LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Samantha and Smith’s beach house is located at 24826 Malibu Road in Malibu. Dante’s house is located directly next door at 24822 Malibu Road.