Malibu – Page 2 – IAMNOTASTALKER

March 27, 2017July 16, 2019

Madeline’s House from “Big Little Lies”

Every once in a while a show comes along that absolutely grips me. Granted, I watch – and get hooked on – a lot of series, but among them are certain standouts. The Hills, Vanderpump Rules, and Beverly Hills, 90210 come to mind, though my obsession with the latter was admittedly next-level. My latest fixation is Big Little Lies, the murder-mystery miniseries based on the book of the same name currently airing on HBO. Besides a scintillating premise, well-drawn characters, and a dynamic timeline (the story is told mainly through flashbacks), the show is real estate porn at its finest! I am thoroughly consumed with each of the main character’s homes and was thrilled to learn via this fabulous People magazine article that all but one is located in the Los Angeles area and not in Monterey where BLL is set.

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Out of the four principal residences used on the series, the beachfront Cape Cod belonging to Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Reese Witherspoon) is my favorite. So I recently set about tracking it down. As it turns out, the place is an onscreen regular that I had actually already stalked!

My initial thought upon first seeing Madeline’s house in the pilot episode of Big Little Lies was that it looked like a modernized version of the gray shingled pad where Sarah Owens (Cassidy Rae) and her fellow models lived in the 1994 Melrose Place spin-off, Models Inc. (Man, that was a great show! I am still flabbergasted over the fact that it only lasted one season.) I stalked that property, which can be found at 30760 Broad Beach Road in Malibu, back in March 2013. In no way did I think the two places were one and the same, though, so I did not give the subject further attention. Thanks to the People article, I knew that Madeline’s home was also located in Malibu and started perusing beachfront dwellings in the area via aerial views, but, frustratingly, came up empty-handed. Circling back to my Models Inc. inclination, I decided to pull up some screen captures from the show and just about fell over! The reason I thought Madeline’s residence looked like a modernized version of the Models Inc. house is because it is a modernized version of the Models Inc. house! Apparently, the property was given a bit of a facelift in recent years. As you can see in comparing the images above and below, the renovation included a change in paint color, the removal of several awnings, and opening up the second floor deck.

I actually stalked the property post-remodel, but only visited its street side. While I had every intention of heading around to the rear of the home, while walking there, I somehow stepped into some tar (like a bunch of it – my feet were covered for days!) and had to turn back.

Ironically, that wasn’t my only visit to the house. Later that year (October 27th, to be exact), Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, married Keith Coogan, of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead fame, at the Malibu West Beach Club, which is located next door to Madeline’s pad. Because I am seriously directionally-challenged and because I had parked near public beach access – which is a ways away from the residence – during my initial stalk, I did not realize the venue’s proximity to the home until looking at it recently via aerial views. D’oh! As soon I put two and two together, I remembered that the bridesmaids (including myself) and Keith had climbed onto a bluff adjacent to the club to pose for a wedding photo. I had an inkling that Madeline’s residence was likely visible in the shot and, sure enough, I was right! In the image below, which Pinky was nice enough to let me post here, you can see it on the left-hand side!

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In real life, the 1979 property features a 6,000-square-foot main house with 6 bedrooms (2 of which are master suites), 7 bathrooms, 3 fireplaces, a Jacuzzi, a deck, a rock sauna, a family room with a bar, a wine cellar, and a large chef’s kitchen with 3 ovens, 2 dishwashers, and Viking appliances. The detached 2-story, 950-square-foot guest pad boasts 1 bedroom, 1.5 baths, and a full kitchen.

The pad, which sits on a 0.6-acre lot featuring 80 feet of beachfront land, is currently available as a vacation rental with rates running from $3,000 to $5,000 a night.

Interestingly, only the rear side of the property is shown on Big Little Lies. A different home is used as the front of Madeline’s residence and, unfortunately, I have not yet tracked that location down.

The dwelling’s actual interior also appears on the show – and it is nothing short of idyllic.

The kitchen area is uh-ma-zing! I find it quite ironic that, according to the People article, Madeline’s house is intended to be the least fabulous of the bunch – excluding Jane Chapman’s (Shailene Woodley) – and “represents her lower economic standing.” Like, huh? Madeline’s residence is pretty much my dream pad! I would give my eye teeth to live there!

Besides being featured in Models Inc., Madeline’s residence also portrayed the home of Dr. Mark Sloan (Dick Van Dyke) and his son, Steve (Barry Van Dyke), during Seasons 3 through 8 of the television series Diagnosis Murder.

The pad was also where the Stewart family lived from Seasons 1 through 3 on the Disney series Hannah Montana.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Madeline’s house from Big Little Lies is located at 30760 Broad Beach Road in Malibu. You can visit the residence’s vacation rental website here.

October 17, 2016September 29, 2017

Casey’s House from “Scream 2”

“What’s your favorite scary movie?” So asks Ghostface of Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) at the beginning of Scream. Well, if Ghostface asked me that question, my answer would be Scream everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. I love, love, love that movie! Though I was not as big a fan of the film’s three sequels, I got on a kick recently of tracking down some of their unknown locales. The spot I most wanted to find was the gorgeous peaked-roof house where Casey (Heather Graham) lived in Stab, Scream 2’s movie-within-a-movie. Thanks to a lot of help from my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, I was finally able to locate it!

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I knew from the Scream 2 production notes as well as the movie’s DVD commentary that the opening Stab sequence was shot in Malibu. Though the front exterior of Casey’s residence was never shown in the scene, enough of the backyard and pool area was that I figured tracking the place down via aerial views would be a snap. I was wrong. I cannot tell you the countless hours I spent searching for the pad to no avail.

Enter Owen. On the verge of giving up, I emailed him to ask if he might be willing to help with the hunt and provided him with all of the necessary information. It was not long (minutes, really!) before I received an email back with an address. As Owen discovered, Casey’s house from Scream 2 is located at 5730 Busch Drive in Malibu.

While searching for the home, Owen had come across a mention that during the filming of the Stab scene, neighbors heard Heather Graham’s screams and, not realizing that a film shoot was taking place, called the police. Armed with that information, Owen began looking for more neighborhood-y areas of Malibu via aerial views and fairly quickly spotted the house in Malibu Park. (I should mention here that I had also seen the anecdote about neighbors calling the police during my search for the residence, but I did not think it was pertinent. Malibu is canyon-y and rather silent at night and I figured that the scene could have been shot at a remote property with Heather’s screams still easily heard by people in homes nearby. That was a major fail on my part. D’oh!)

According to a cached Zillow page, Casey’s Stab pad was originally built by architect Doug Rucker in 1961. Rucker also later updated the property in 1989. The contemporary dwelling boasts 10 rooms, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 4,148 square feet of living space, a driveway with parking for 8 cars, a swimming pool and spa, a putting green, a 1.01-acre plot of land, a garden, a 400-square-foot garage, vaulted ceilings, and skylights.

Quite a bit of the home was featured in Scream 2. The property’s sprawling backyard is where poor Casey met her grizzly demise in a scene that emulated Drew Barrymore’s death from the original movie.

As you can see in the aerial view below, the backyard still looks much the same today as it did when the flick was filmed in 1997.

Portions of the residence’s interior also appeared onscreen, including a bathroom . . .

. . . and the living room.

It is while standing in the house that Casey utters one of the franchise’s most well-known lines – “You know, I don’t even know you and I dislike you already.”

Thanks to the residence’s wide expanse of sleek glass walls, much of the interior can be spotted in the backyard scenes, as well.

Though not much of the dwelling is visible from the street, especially not the areas used in Scream 2, I was absolutely floored to catch a glimpse from the road of the rear side of the fireplace that Casey walked by in the movie.

The house also made a brief appearance in Scream 4, during the Stab-a-Thon segment in which the opening scene from Stab was shown.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Casey’s house from Scream 2 is located at 5730 Busch Drive in Malibu.

September 10, 2015September 4, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – The Cohen Mansion from “The O.C.”

Be sure to check out my latest post for L.A.mag.com about the Cohen mansion from The O.C. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

August 13, 2015August 17, 2015

New “L.A.” Mag Post – Calamigos Ranch from “Wet Hot American Summer”

Don’t forget to read my latest post for L.A.mag.com, about Calamigos Ranch from Wet Hot American Summer. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

November 18, 2014November 17, 2014

Grayson Manor from “Revenge”

My favorite location from the television series Revenge is Grayson Manor, the massive Hamptons estate that originally belonged to the dysfunctional Grayson family, but is currently home to Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp). It seems that pretty much everyone who watches the show is as obsessed with the house as I am and there are countless message boards dedicated to its design. While most commenters stipulate that the dwelling is not a real place, but a CGI-generated property created by Revenge production designers, that information is actually incorrect. As I have come to discover, Grayson Manor is an amalgamation of several different residences – one of which is located in Malibu.

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As I mentioned in my recent post about Porter’s Stowaway Tavern, while Revenge is set in the Hamptons, the pilot episode was actually shot at several real locations in North Carolina. When the series got picked up by ABC, replica sets of the NC locales were built at MBS Media Campus in Manhattan Beach where the show is lensed. During my obsessive Revenge binge-watching in September, I set out to find the exteriors of the two main residences used in the series – Emily’s beachfront cottage and Grayson Manor, which are shown to be located next door to each other. I wound up tracking down the address of Emily’s home on fave website Hooked on Houses. In reality, it is located at 6249 Pebble Shore Lane in Southport, North Carolina. Despite a few alterations, it looks pretty much exactly the same in real life as it does onscreen.

I was absolutely shocked to discover via aerial views and the real estate listing photo pictured below, though, that Grayson Manor was nowhere to be found. In reality, Emily’s house is not situated next to the Grayson’s massive estate, but a small community center and pool.

The anomaly led many fans to believe that Grayson Manor was simply a CGI-generated residence that does not actually exist. Thanks to an intrepid stalker who commented on Hooked on Houses, though, I learned that there is a real Grayson Manor. It is located at 257 Further Lane in East Hampton, New York. A few changes were made to the façade for the series, including a lengthening of the house, the addition of Victorian Grayson’s (Madeline Stowe) infamous turret, and a relocation of the pool from the side of the property to the back.

Despite those alterations, the estate is still largely recognizable from the series. What I wouldn’t give to see it in person!

The inside of an estate located at 2340 Ocean Point Drive in Wilmington, North Carolina was used for the interior of Grayson Manor in Revenge’s pilot episode (pictured below). Once the series got picked up, an almost exact replica of that interior was built inside of a soundstage. You can see comparison photos of the real interior and the set on Hooked on Houses here and you can see some great pictures of the Wilmington residence’s actual interior here.

Once filming relocated to Los Angeles, producers needed a dwelling bearing a similar look to the East Hampton house to be utilized for on location exterior shoots. They found the perfect pad at 27720 Winding Way in Malibu. While much smaller than the home from the pilot (which is still used in establishing shots of Grayson Manor), it does bear a resemblance to it.

Fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, managed to track down this locale for me, after I had spent countless hours searching with zero luck. In real life, the Winding Way estate, which was built in 2007, boasts three stories, five bedrooms (three of which are en-suite), nine baths, 10,000 square feet of living space, a formal dining room, a chef’s kitchen, a butler’s pantry, a media room, a gym, a playroom, a gift-wrapping room (a la Candy Spelling), a 3,000-square-foot basement, 5.8 acres of land, a pool, a spa, a tennis court, an equestrian corral and a playground. Sadly though, the property is located on a private road and none of it (aside from a small portion of the roof) is visible to the public. You can check out some close-up photos of the house here, though.

The Winding Way house first showed up in the Season 1 episode of Revenge titled “Charade,” in the scene in which Emily and Daniel Grayson (Joshua Bowman) returned to Grayson Manor after a swim in the ocean.

The pad has popped up several times since, including in the Season 3 episode titled “Hatred.”

The same residence was also used as the Hamptons home of Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) in the Season 5 episode of Castle titled “Murder He Wrote.”

The house where Nolan Ross (Gabriel Mann) – my favorite character – lived during the first season of Revenge is located just up the street at 27326 Winding Way. That particular location has been featured in dozens of productions, including Brothers and Sisters and 90210. Unfortunately, none of it is visible from the street.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The exterior of Grayson Manor from Revenge is located at 257 Further Lane in East Hampton, New York. The estate used for the interior filming of the pilot episode can be found at 2340 Ocean Point Drive in Wilmington, North Carolina. The residence used for on location exterior shoots is located at 27720 Winding Way in Malibu. Nolan’s Season 1 home on the series is located just up the road at 27326 Winding Way. Unfortunately, both Ocean Point Drive and Winding Way are private roads that are not accessible to the public.

September 8, 2014August 28, 2014

Andrew’s House from “Hidden Away”

Ah yes, another Hidden Away locale. I promise this is the last one! Despite the fact that the 2013 Lifetime Original Movie was laughably bad, I became obsessed with tracking down all of its locations, mainly due to the fact that it was lensed for the most part in Palm Springs. (You can read my various Hidden Away posts here, here and here.) One spot that I was fairly certain was not in the Coachella Valley, though, was the supposed Spokane, Washington-area home where Andrew (Ivan Sergei) lived in the flick. So I set about searching for it in L.A.

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I got really lucky with this hunt. In one of the movie’s earlier scenes, an address of “203 Vera” was visible on the front of Andrew’s house. My initial reaction was that it had to be fake. I mean, it couldn’t really be that easy, could it? I did a Google search for “203 Vera,” regardless, and, sure enough, was met with results for a residence in Malibu with an address of 203 Vera Canyon Drive. It turned out to be the right place.

I wound up stalking it back in June, shortly after grabbing lunch with the Grim Cheaper at Malibu Café at Calamigos Ranch. When we pulled up to the residence, I was shocked to discover that it was actually part of Calamigos Ranch! As I mentioned in my recent post about the ranch, the place is a very popular wedding venue, and dotted throughout the property are cottages that can be rented by wedding guests. Andrew’s house from Hidden Away is one of those cottages.

In real life, the residence, which was built in 1988, is much larger than it appears to be from the street. The pad boasts five bedrooms, three baths and 3,590 square feet of living space.

In Hidden Away, the cottage is where Alexandra (Emmanuelle Vaugier) lived before she moved to Palm Springs and changed her identity in order to escape Andrew, her abusive husband. Despite being located in the ‘Bu, the place does have a very Pacific Northwest-feel to it and it is not very hard to see why producers chose to use it in the movie.

The house, which is extremely picturesque, looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did in Hidden Away.

I am 99% certain that the real life interior of the cottage was also used in the filming, but, unfortunately, I could not find any interior photographs of the place with which to verify that hunch.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Andrew’s house from Hidden Away is located at 203 Vera Canyon Drive in Malibu.

August 11, 2014August 9, 2014

Malibu Café at Calamigos Ranch

The Grim Cheaper and I recently headed out to the ‘Bu to grab a bite to eat at the Malibu Café at Calamigos Ranch and walked away with not only a new favorite restaurant, but an addition to my Must-Stalk List. Mike, from MovieShotsLA, had told me about Calamigos Ranch years ago because of its appearance in a couple of Beverly Hills, 90210 episodes. And though it took me a while to stalk the place, it was definitely worth the wait.

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Calamigos Ranch was founded in 1947 by Navy veteran J. Grant Gerson and his wife, Helen, on a 15-acre plot of land nestled at the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. Gerson originally called the property Calamigos Star C Ranch (“Calamigos” is an Indian word meaning “come as my brother, come as my friend”) and operated a year-round Old West-themed children’s camp there for over three decades.

As more residences started popping up near what was once his rural property, Gerson decided to purchase several plots of adjoining land. Today, Calamigos Ranch, which is still run by the Gerson family, is comprised of a whopping 120 acres and is utilized mainly as a special events venue.

The ranch is an extremely popular wedding location (there were three taking place on the premises the day we were there!). In fact, my favorite actor, Matt Lanter, married one of my favorite bloggers Angela Lanter at Calamigos on June 14th, 2013. You can see pictures of their nuptials here.

As we walked through the ranch’s massive grounds making our way to Malibu Café, I was stunned at how gorgeous the property is and became just a wee bit obsessed with the twinkle-light-draped trees pictured below.

Calamigos Ranch has a very rustic feel to it and I mean that in the best possible way.

Even the designated smoking area is picturesque!

Malibu Café, which sits at the center of the property, is a more recent addition to the ranch.

And while food is served there (excellent food, might I add) and the dining areas are uniquely stunning . . .

. . . to classify the place simply as a restaurant would be doing it a disservice.

Malibu Café is more of a gathering space, with games for both adults and kids . . . .

. . . tucked away spots reserved for quiet reflection . . .

. . . and meandering waterways.

There is even a boat launch onsite that offers pedal boat rentals!

Um, sign me up!

The café’s unexpected décor had me practically foaming at the mouth! It’s exactly the way I would want to decorate my house if I owned one.

Thanks to its natural beauty and ruggedness, Calamigos Ranch has been utilized for filming countless times over the years, far more times than I could ever catalog here, but I’ll do my best. Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) and Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) attended a Task Force retreat held at Calamigos in the Season 4 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Change Partners,”

The room where Brandon and Kelly square-danced can be viewed here.

In the two-part Season 4 finale of Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Mr. Walsh Goes to Washington,” Calamigos Ranch was the site of CU’s 28th Annual Mardi Gras fair.

I believe that the wedding of Suzanne Steele (Kerrie Keane) and Kevin Weaver (David Hayward), which took place in the episode, was also filmed at Calamigos.

The ranch was the site of Waynestock in 1993’s Wayne’s World 2.

According to the Seeing Stars website, the television series Bunheads films almost exclusively at Calamigos.

One of the ranch’s many cabins was transformed into a spa for the Season 2 episode of Rizzoli & Isles titled “Living Proof.”

The property’s wooded area was also where a young pregnant woman tried to escape an attacker in the episode.

Calamigos was the site of Dr. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) and Dr. Ben Warren’s (Jason George) wedding in the Season 9 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy titled “Run, Baby, Run” and “Things We Said Today.”

The episodes were filmed in the ranch’s Main Dining Room.

I snapped a few photos of the space’s interior through the front windows.

In the third episode of Season 9 of The Bachelorette, Desiree Hartsock hosted a Western-themed group date at Calamigos Ranch.

The group date took place in the area pictured below, which is located on Pitsch Canyon Road.

Juan Pablo Galavis won the date’s challenge and was rewarded with a private screening of The Lone Ranger in the Calamigos barn.

Juan Pablo returned to the ranch a few months later during his stint as The Bachelor. In the second episode of his season, he treated Claire Crawley to a one-on-one snow date at Calamigos. The property was not at all recognizable in the episode due to the fact that producers set up a winter wonderland in one of the open areas for the date, complete with Christmas trees, snow, a hot tub and a hill for sledding.

I cannot more highly recommend a visit to Malibu Café. The place is one of Los Angeles’ hidden treasures.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Malibu Café at Calamigos Ranch is located at 327 Latigo Canyon Road in Malibu. You can visit the ranch’s official website here and the café’s official website here. If you plan on dining at the restaurant, reservations are highly recommended as the place is jam-packed pretty much all day, every day.

November 3, 2011September 29, 2017

Halloween at Dick Van Dyke’s House

While doing research on the Strode House from Halloween a couple of weeks back, I came across a blog post about the extravagant yard haunt that actor Dick Van Dyke hosts every Halloween at his home in Malibu. And while you wouldn’t think it would be possible, being that I have lived in Southern California for well over a decade, have spent countless hours stalking, and am obsessed with all things Halloween and all things celebrity, until reading that post I had never before heard anything about it! And, let me tell you, I just about had a heart attack a few minutes later when I discovered that Dick Van Dyke lives inside of the gated Serra Retreat community because some of our good friends just (like literally weeks ago!) moved into that very same community! I immediately texted said friend to ask if she lived near Dick Van Dyke or knew him at all and started hyperventilating when she wrote back that not only are they next-door neighbors, but that the Grim Cheaper and I were welcome to come to his Halloween party! Talk about fate! I mean, do these things actually happen??? Days later, as I sit here typing this, I am still in a bit of shock and can’t quite believe that I was actually at Dick Van Dyke’s house for Halloween! And that right there is why I LOVE L.A. – one simply never knows what unthinkable adventure is waiting just around the corner! (The GC refused to dress up as Dylan again after already dressing up on Saturday night, which is why I am dressed like a flapper above. I am now thinking of changing his nickname to the “Grim Grumper”, by the way. )

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About two seconds after we arrived at our friends’ house on Halloween night, some trick-or-treaters knocked on the door and I just about died when I realized it was none other than James Cameron, dressed as a pirate, and his family! I kid you not! I was absolutely DYING inside as he introduced himself to our friends and welcomed them to the neighborhood. Like really? As I said above, does this stuff actually happen??? Oh, what I would not give to live in the ‘Bu and have James Cameron trick-or-treat at my door! HOW INCREDIBLY COOL! I did not ask James for a photograph as I figured it would have been a bit awkward, but I am kind of kicking myself about it now. As my girl Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, constantly admonishes me, when an opportunity presents itself, always, always ask for a picture! Ah well, maybe next Halloween! Anyway, shortly after James left, we all headed over to Dick Van Dyke’s house and, let me tell you, it was nothing short of AMAZING! For this Halloween-obsessed stalker, being there was the ultimate experience!

Dick had decorated the entire front of his property – like every single square inch of it – with a myriad of Halloween displays and contraptions and, let me tell you, it was like nothing I had ever seen! The whole thing was like being in the middle of a horror movie set! We were there for well over an hour and I still do not think I saw everything. The spooktacular was comprised of animatronic mannequins, some of which would jump out at people from hidden corners;

a talking statue, a la the talking statues in the graveyard at Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion;

a Pee-Wee Herman lookalike who was controlling an animatronic wolf that would jump out to “attack” each passerby;

and a video-rigged front door that had both a picture of Dick Van Dyke that would change from normal to scary depending on where you were standing and a “window” to an insane asylum in which an inmate with an ax tries to break her way out.

You can watch a video of the door by clicking above. Notice the marks that show up on the door when the inmate hits it with the ax! Simply incredible!

My favorite part of the whole thing, though, had to be the graveyard, which consisted of a myriad of tombstones, some of which moved and had animatronic corpses coming out of them. There was also an invisible screen set up at the back of the graveyard on which was projected a video of cartoon skeletons doing the “Thriller” dance! SO INCREDIBLY COOL! Sadly, the GC could not get a good picture of the video, nor could he get a photograph of the glow-in-the-dark monster footprints that had been painted in the street out in front of Dick’s house. AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING!

Because so many celebrities live in Serra Retreat, I was keeping my eyes peeled the entire time we were there and was beyond excited when I spotted Camille Grammer from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. As I have mentioned several times before on this blog, I absolutely LOATHE RHOBH star Kyle Richards (“hot, heaping hunks of hate!” as Jerry Stiller would say), and I don’t much like her sister Kim or their friend Taylor Armstrong, either. And while I used to like Lisa Vanderpump, after her high-school-like mean-girl behavior in the recently-aired “The Opposite of Relaxation!” episode, I don’t really care for her either. The only two on the show that I like are Adrienne Maloof-Nassif and Camille Grammer. So seeing Camille was especially exciting!

So I, of course, just had to ask her for a pic. I am very happy to report that Camille was a total sweetheart and even told me that I was beautiful!!! How nice is that? And she is absolutely gorgeous in person, far prettier even than she appears to be on TV. Love her!! Ironically enough, fellow stalker Chas later told me that Camille had been featured in an interview on TMZ TV on Halloween night in which she was asked what Halloween party she would be attending. Her response? “Dick Van Dyke’s and his is the best.” LOVE IT!

Shortly after I took the pic with Camille, Dick Van Dyke walked outside and I just about died. I, of course, also asked him for a photo and he happily obliged. Unfortunately, I did not get to talk to him at all, though, as he was extremely busy and had hoards of neighbors coming up to him, all wanting to say hi. All in all it was a magical evening and I still cannot quite believe it all happened! As I said yesterday, between meeting Matthew Lillard on Friday, dressing up as Brenda and Dylan on Saturday, and then spending Halloween night at Dick Van Dyke’s house, this was quite simply the Best. Halloween. Ever.

During the party, I also just had to run around the corner to get my picture taken in front of Britney Spears and Kevin Federline’s former house. 🙂

You can read a great blog post about decorating Dick Van Dyke’s house written by one of his Halloween crew members on the Disney Travel Babble website here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Unfortunately, because Dick Van Dyke lives inside of Serra Retreat, a gated community that is not open to the public, there is no stalking location for this one.

September 13, 2011September 13, 2011

The Surfrider Foundation’s 6th Annual Celebrity Expression Session

This past Saturday, the fabulous Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, invited me and the Grim Cheaper out to Malibu to do a little stalking of one of her very favorite celebrity events – the Surfrider Foundation’s 6th Annual Celebrity Expression Session, an hour-long free surf contest which was taking place at First Point at Malibu Lagoon State Beach. Much to the GC’s chagrin, I accepted the invitation which is how the two of us found ourselves heading out to the ‘Bu bright and early Saturday morning. Although, as you can see in the above photograph, the word “bright” is somewhat misleading being that the skies were quite grey when we arrived on the scene. The day turned out to be one of the best of my entire life, though, and, in what can only be described as an amazing act of divine intervention, we were not only invited to visit and tour the residence used as the Cohen House on fave show The O.C. (on which the sets from the series were very closely based), but we also spent about five hours at the property! I promise to blog about that INCREDIBLE experience in the very near future, but, for now, on with the Surfrider event!

Joining me, Pinky, and the GC in our morning beach-capade were our good friends, fellow stalkers Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, and Scotty, or as Pinky likes to call us, the Motley Crew. Despite the fact that it started raining heavily while we were waiting for the celebrity surfers to arrive, we had an absolute blast hanging out together. As I have said on numerous occasions, when it comes to these types of events, which involve hours upon hours upon hours of waiting around, it is all about the journey. And I can think of no one else I would rather share that journey with than Pinky’s Motley Crew.

The first celebrity to arrive on the scene was Eric Avery from the band Jane’s Addiction.

Also in attendance was Jesse Spencer from House (SO cute! Sigh!);

Chad Lowe;

Eric Balfour from The O.C.;

Tate Donovan, also from The O.C. and also my girl Jen Aniston’s former main squeeze;

John Slattery, from Mad Men, Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City;

Brian Geraghty from The Hurt Locker;

Ross Thomas from Soul Surfer;

and Krysten Ritter – ALL of whom were so incredibly nice and friendly it was almost unbelievable! I felt like we all truly had a special little moment with each of them. Pinky and I got to chat with Chad Lowe about how much we both enjoyed his brother Rob’s autobiography; we joked with John Slattery about his – ahem – shower requests on Sex and the City; Ross Thomas took off his hat and sunglasses in order to provide us with a better photograph; Tate Donovan almost fell over when Scotty quoted several lines to him from Space Camp . . .

. . . and, as you can see above, Krysten and Pinky even spent some time hanging out together in the surf. Amazing, amazing day!

And Mikey managed to snap this super cute pic of me getting his prop “Victor Lang for Mayor” t-shirt from Desperate Housewives signed.

Our main reason for being there, though, was, of course, to see Pinky’s sweetheart, Sam Trammell, who plays Sam Merlotte on the hit series True Blood.

Sam spotted Pinky immediately and, of course, came right over to her to say hi. I cannot even imagine if one of my favorite celebrities knew me by name and regularly came up to me at events to say hi! I would absolutely DIE! Heck, if ANY celebrity knew me by name and came up to me to say hi, I would die!!! The kicker was when Pinky told Sam that she had finally found a job, he congratulated her and asked where she was working. The fact that he knew – and remembered – that she had been unemployed the last time they spoke was enough to make me gasp. SO INCREDIBLY COOL! That is Sam autographing some photos for Pinky in the above picture – all of which he signed with “much love” or “xoxoxo”. SIGH!

The entire event was extremely low-key and relaxed and all of the celebrities conducted their media interviews right there in the sand.

The surf contest got started at noon and I cannot tell you how much fun it was to watch them all suit up and head out. (As you can see in the photograph on the top left above, Baywatch star David Chokachi was also in attendance, but since I had already gotten a picture with him at the Pedal on the Pier 100 Mile-a-Thon in June, I did not want to bother him for another.)

Before hitting the water, the group posed for a few publicity shots and, thankfully, the GC got right in there among the press photographers and started snapping away. I’ve taught him well, folks.

Because the GC has gotten seriously into photography as of late, this was one celebrity event that he actually did not mind being dragged to and he managed to snap some pretty fabulous action shots while there.

My favorite being the one pictured above, which reminds me of the movie poster for The Endless Summer. So cool!

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the new face of About Me!

Stalk It: Malibu Lagoon State Beach, aka Surfrider Beach, is located at 23200 Pacific Coast Highway, just north of the Malibu Pier, in Malibu. You can visit the Surfrider Foundation’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.