Tag: Movie Locations

Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa from “House, M.D.”

The third and final location that I stalked while vacationing in Lake Arrowhead this past Thanksgiving with my family and the Grim Cheaper was the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa, which was featured prominently in the Season 6 episode of House, M.D. titled “Known Unknowns”. The property, which was originally named the Arlington Lodge, was first built in 1923 by A.L. Richmond, the owner of the Arlington Hotel in Santa Barbara, and was designed by architect McNeal Swasey at a cost of $500,000. The upscale Lodge boasted numerous luxuries, including ornate drawing rooms, outdoor terraces, guest quarters with private bathrooms, and a main lobby, dubbed the “Great Hall”, which featured a 45-foot tall vaulted ceiling, a large fireplace, and a grand staircase. The resort was opened to the public on June 23, 1923 and became an immediate success. According to legend, such Hollywood luminaries as Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Roy Rogers, Carole Lombard, and Gary Cooper were all frequent guests. The hotel also attracted movie crews and such films as 1952’s Just For You, which starred Jane Wyman, Natalie Wood, Bing Crosby, and Ethel Barrymore – Drew’s great-aunt, 1965’s I’ll Take Sweden, which starred Bob Hope, Tuesday Weld, and Frankie Avalon, and 1973’s made-for-TV movie A Summer Without Boys, which starred Barbara Bain and Michael Moriarty, were all filmed on location there. Sadly though, the Arlington Lodge burned to the ground in October of 1938. And while it was rebuilt shortly thereafter, the entire resort was razed in December of 1976 in order to make room for a new hotel, the Arrowhead Hilton Lodge, which opened to the public in 1982. And while Bob Hope, Gerald Ford, and Baron Hilton – Paris’ grandfather – were all in attendance for the resort’s grand opening, it doesn’t seem as if many celebrities frequent the hotel today. Currently the property, which is now known as Lake Arrowhead Resort, boasts 162 guest rooms and 11 suites, a full-service spa, a fitness room, a coffee bar, an upscale restaurant named BIN189, and a 40-foot pool.

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Sadly though, I have to say that the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa is truly nothing special. Don’t get me wrong, the place is O.K., but after the website had touted its “idyllic” and “majestic” ambiance, I had expected a heck of a lot more than what was actually there. The setting is absolutely gorgeous, but truth be told, ALL of Lake Arrowhead is that beautiful.

And while the BIN189 restaurant is absolutely GORGEOUS, I cannot in any way, shape, or form recommend eating there. While we were stalking the hotel, we popped into the restaurant and were enticed by its roaring, oversized fireplace and decided to grab a drink there, but as soon as we sat down, a woman came into the eatery with her large dog (which one would think would be a health code violation, but I guess not) and the dog proceeded to bark hysterically at the top of its lungs. The dog was so terribly loud that we had to get up and leave. All of the patrons in the restaurant at the time were quite upset over the barking dog and three groups besides ours ended up walking out in the middle of their meal. You’d think at an average cost of $35 a plate, the management would have done something -like kick the freaking woman and her dog out -but because the hotel is “pet friendly”, the servers all said that there was absolutely nothing they could do. So, that was pretty much it for that place! My family literally could not get out of there fast enough and I therefore did not get to stalk very much of the resort! 🙁

In the “Known Unknowns” episode of House, M.D., in which doctors Gregory House (aka Hugh Laurie), James Wilson (aka Robert Sean Leonard), and Lisa Cuddy (aka Lisa Edelstein) attend a pharmacology and public policy conference in the Adirondacks, extensive use was made of the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa.   According to a review that I read on Travelocity, the vast majority of the hotel – including the restaurant and pool – was closed off during the filming, yet the hotel management failed to inform guests of that fact when they made their reservations – which sounds pretty much right on par as to the level of customer service that we experienced while there. Anyway, filming of the episode took place in the lobby area;

down by the lake;



on the outdoor terraces;

in one of the meeting rooms;

and in BIN189, which was both the site where the big 80’s party scene was filmed;

and where the doctors ate breakfast on the last morning of their conference.

I am fairly certain that the two guest rooms shown in the episode were not actually Lake Arrowhead Resort hotel rooms, but were sets that were built on a studio soundstage, as they just don’t seem to match up to the rooms that are pictured on the hotel’s website.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Even though I REALLY wouldn’t recommend stalking this particular location, Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa is located at 27984 California 189 in Lake Arrowhead. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

January 4, 2011
UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center from “The American President”

Before heading to Lake Arrowhead, where the Grim Cheaper, my parents, and I spent Thanksgiving weekend this past November, I did some research on filming in the area and just about fell off my chair when I discovered, thanks to the official Lake Arrowhead website, that part of the 1992 romantic comedy The American President had been shot on location there. Unfortunately, the website did not specify which scene in particular had been shot in the area nor did it say where exactly filming had taken place. So, I immediately called upon fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, who put me in touch with the movie’s location manager, Richard Davis Jr., whom he happens to know, and Richard was kind enough to write me back that very same day! Yay! Richard informed me that filming had taken place at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center, which stood in for the president’s country retreat, Camp David, in the flick. So, I dragged my parents and the GC right on out to stalk the place pretty much immediately upon arriving in the lakeside city.





The UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center, which was originally known as the North Shore Tavern, was first constructed in 1921 and at the time was Lake Arrowhead’s most exclusive resort. The property changed hands a few times over the years and was transformed into everything from a yacht club to a grammar school. In 1957, the Los Angeles Turf Club, the property’s then-owner, sold off the vast majority of the grounds, including the lake, to several different buyers, but they decided to donate the main lodge to a school. The lodge was first offered to USC, who declined it. The L.A.T.C. next approached the Regents of the University of California, who accepted the gift and still own the property to this day. The state of the art facility is currently comprised of over forty acres of land and features a large swimming pool, an indoor Jacuzzi, a ropes course, three dining rooms with first class catering service, an amphitheater, a rock wall, a zip-lining course, volleyball and tennis courts, hiking and biking trails, 12 conference rooms incorporating 9,000 square feet of meeting space, and 105 guest rooms, including 81 “condolets” – two-story villa-type dwellings.

In The American President, the conference center’s main lodge stood in for Camp David, where President Andrew Shepherd (aka Michael Douglas) took Sydney Ellen Wade (aka Annette Bening) for a weekend getaway. The lodge is only shown for a very brief six seconds in the scene in which Marine One, the presidential helicopter, lands on the conference center’s expansive front lawn. Of filming the scene, which took place on March 29, 1995, Richard Davis Jr. said, “The snow had melted before we could land the helicopter so we crushed about 4 tractor trailer loads of block ice and spread it around like snow. The chopper landed on that and VFX painted in the rest. The shots looking down from the helicopter were shot in Tahoe and cut in. Winter ended early that year. Another couple of weeks and we probably would have had to go to Alaska.” So incredibly cool!

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Richard also informed me that the interior and exterior of the actual cabin where Andrew and Sydney stayed in the scene were just sets that were built inside of a studio soundstage.



The real life interior of the main lodge is pictured above.

Thanks to fave stalking guide Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors (which also had The American President information listed, but for whatever reason I failed to see it), I found out that the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center was also used as Cascade, the supposed Vermont-area sanitarium where “ugly duckling” Charlotte Vail (aka Bette Davis) was sent in the 1942 film Now, Voyager. I cannot tell you how incredibly cool I think it is that the property still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when the movie was filmed over 68 years ago! Love it! Love it! Love it!

The center’s tennis courts were also used extensively in Now, Voyager and they, too, still look very much the same today as they did in the movie.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Stalk It: UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center from The American President is located at 850 Willow Creek Road in Lake Arrowhead. You can visit the center’s official website here.

December 31, 2010
Caffe’ Opera – aka Dog Years Diner from “American Pie”

Shortly after selling their house a few months back, my parents moved into an apartment building in Old Town Monrovia. Since that time, they have become regular patrons of their new favorite restaurant, Caffe’ Opera – the very spot that stood in for Dog Years Diner, the supposed Grand Rapids, Michigan-area hangout of Jim Levenstein (aka Jason Biggs), Chris Ostreicher (aka Chris Klein), Kevin Myers (aka Thomas Ian Nicholas), and Paul Finch (aka Eddie Kaye Thomas), in the 1999 gross-out comedy American Pie. So, when my parents suggested that we dine at the eatery on my dad’s recent birthday, I jumped at the chance as, even though I wasn’t a big fan of the flick, I had always wanted to stalk the restaurant due to the fact that both the interior and the exterior of it had been used in the movie. The building where filming took place is actually the historic Monrovia Savings Bank Building which was originally constructed back in 1923. The bank operated at the site until 1934, at which point it consolidated with a sister branch located just up the street. Different businesses subsequently moved into the space, until 2003 when it was taken over by Varo Angeletti, the original owner of Pasadena’s Sorriso Ristorante which I blogged about back in November, who used it as the site of his new Italian bistro, Caffe’ Opera.

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Caffe’ Opera is a FABULOUS restaurant that serves up some absolutely HUGE portions! I opted for the Crusted Rosemary Chicken entrée and it was A-MA-ZING! The GC and I have actually been back there with my parents twice now since my father’s birthday and the place has been spectacular each time. Honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough. I would suggest splitting an entrée with your date, though, as the servings are literally HUMONGOUS!

At the time that American Pie was filmed, the Caffe’ Opera space was actually a vacant storefront inside of which producers built the interior of the Dog Years set. The set was actually based on a real life restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan named Yesterdog Diner where Adam Herz, the movie’s screenwriter, hung out during his high school years. You can see some photographs of the actual Yesterdog restaurant here.

Sadly, the interior of the Monrovia Savings Bank Building was completely renovated in 2000, two years after American Pie was filmed, and looks completely different today than it did onscreen.

Sadder still is the fact that the exterior of the building was also remodeled at the time and looks quite a bit different today than it did when filming took place, although, unlike the interior, it is still vaguely recognizable. The changes to the exterior include the awning being swapped out, the front doors being moved to the opposite side of the building, and the large tree out front being chopped down.

The “6 Blocks From Downtown See Great Falls” mural is, of course, not there in real life.

But you can see the building’s then-real life “402” address plaque in the movie’s closing scene. So cool!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Caffe’ Opera, aka Dog Years Diner from the first American Pie movie, is located at 402 South Myrtle Avenue in Old Town Monrovia. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. Caffe’ Opera is located just a few doors down from the since-demolished building that stood in for the Tiki Post in fave movie Never Been Kissed (its former location was at 408 South Myrtle Avenue) and across the street from the Monrovia Coffee Company (which can be found at 425 South Myrtle Avenue), which also appeared in the flick. Yesterdog Diner, the restaurant upon which Dog Years was based, is located at 1505 Wealthy Street SE in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

December 28, 2010
Dirty Dancing: The Limited Keepsake Edition DVD

Well, I unfortunately do not have a new blog to post for today and it is all the Grim Cheaper’s fault! You see, on Christmas Eve morning he gifted me with an early Christmas present – the Blu-ray DVD of Dirty Dancing: The Limited Keepsake Edition, which contains hours upon hours of extras including a feature devoted to all of the locations used in the film. As you can probably imagine, I just about died upon opening it and spent that entire day watching the special features and therefore did not have time to write a new post for today. I did find out a huge amount of Dirty Dancing location information from it, though, and now know where pretty much every single scene in the movie was filmed. And you know what that means! Oh yes, the Grim Cheaper and I will be taking a trip to Pembroke, Virginia and Lake Lure, North Carolina to stalk all of the DD locales in the very near future! For those who are wondering, the majority of the Kellerman hotel scenes – including Baby’s cabin, the dining hall where the family eats, the gazebo where she takes her first dance lesson and gets partnered up with Mrs. Shumaker, and the kitchen where Penny was found crying – can all be found at the Mountain Lodge Hotel in Pembroke, West Virginia. The hotel even offers a Dirty Dancing tour in which guests stalk each and every location featured in the movie and also get to reenact scenes while there! So incredibly cool! All of the staff-type scenes – including the dance hall segments, the rehearsal scenes, and the staff cabin scenes – were filmed at the now-defunct Chimney Rock Boys Camp in Lake Lure, North Carolina. Sadly, most of the Lake Lure locations were either demolished shortly after the movie was filmed or destroyed in a fire a few years later, but Baby’s steps remain and it is those steps that I am longing to see more than anything else! But, until I actually get out there, I offer this AMAZING link of photographs taken by a woman and her husband who somehow managed to pinpoint the exact spots where filming at Lake Lure took place. I seriously think that woman might just be my new best friend!

If you are at all a fan of Dirty Dancing, I honestly cannot recommend enough picking up your own copy of the Limited Keepsake Edition DVD! Other special features include two commentaries, some original screen tests, numerous cast interviews, deleted scenes, extended scenes, alternate scenes, a trivia reel, a making-of featurette, and an outtakes reel (which is actually the only disappointing extra on the entire DVD as the segment only lasts about 30 seconds). The edition also includes a keepsake book about the movie AND, best of all, a $50 coupon to stay at the Mountain Lake Hotel. LOVE IT!

Anyway, I promise to be back tomorrow with a whole new post, so, until that time, Happy Stalking!

December 27, 2010
The “It’s A Wonderful Life” Train Station

If there is anything I have learned over the past ten-plus years that I have lived in Southern California, it is that stalking tips often come from the most unlikely of places. Take for instance this past weekend. The Grim Cheaper’s father has long been a collector of model trains, so last Sunday afternoon the GC headed over to the Whistle Stop train store in Pasadena to do some Christmas shopping for his dad. While there he stumbled upon some vintage locomotive photographs taken by photographer Stan Kistler. Amazingly enough, one of those photographs happened to be a May 1946 image of the former Santa Fe Lamanda Park Train Station in Pasadena which at the time was dressed to appear as the Bedford Falls Train Station for the filming of It’s A Wonderful Life! And while the GC did not actually purchase the photograph for me (he didn’t earn that nickname for nothin’!), when he got home he immediately told me about it and, let me tell you, I almost fell out of my chair! I could not believe that one of the most famous Christmas movies of all time had been filmed right in my own backyard and that I had not previously known about it! Because the GC had failed to write down – or remember – exactly which station had been used in the filming (men!), I immediately ran right over to the Whistle Stop to find out. I also purchased the photograph (which is pictured above), not for myself, but for fellow stalker David in Seattle, as It’s A Wonderful Life is one of his all time favorite movies.

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Written on the back of the photograph was the information that I was seeking. The It’s A Wonderful Life train station was actually the now-defunct Santa Fe Lamanda Park Station located at the intersection of East Walnut Street and North San Gabriel Boulevard in Pasadena. Sadly, the station was torn down in 1953.

And even though the station is no longer in existence, I just had to stalk its former site. The above photograph is what the intersection of North San Gabriel Boulevard and East Walnut Street looks like circa 2010. As you can see, there is no sign of the former station anywhere, which I had expected. What I had not expected, though, was the fact that there was also no sign of the former railroad tracks. Before arriving at the intersection, I had been convinced I would be able to find some small remnant of the tracks somewhere in the vicinity.

What I did spot while I was there, though, was an elevated section of the road that looked to be just about the same size as a set of train tracks. That area is marked with the pink lines in the above photograph.

Another view of that elevated portion of land is pictured above. I am guessing that the former railroad tracks are located just beneath that area of land and that instead of actually removing the tracks when the Santa Fe Railroad Line was dismantled in the 1950s, workers simply just poured cement over them leaving what you see above.

So, if my hunch is correct and that bit of land is in fact the former home to a set of train tracks, then I am fairly certain the patch of grass pictured above is where the Lamanda Park Train Station used to be located. But again, that is just a guess.

The station was featured towards the beginning of It’s A Wonderful Life in the scene in which George Bailey (aka James Stewart) and Uncle Billy (aka Thomas Mitchell) wait to pick up Harry Bailey (aka Todd Karns), who has just returned home after graduating from college, at the Bedford Falls train station.

Pictured above is a close-up view of the vintage photograph I purchased for David. The “Bedford Falls” prop signs are denoted with the pink arrows and one of the production’s lighting rigs is denoted with a blue arrow. So incredibly cool! You can see a photograph of what the Lamanda Park station looked like back in 1936 on the Palomar Skies blog here and here.

A very MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of my fellow stalkers! I hope you all have a fabulous holiday with your loved ones.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The former Lamanda Park station, aka the Bedford Falls train station from It’s A Wonderful Life, was located at the intersection of East Walnut Street and North San Gabriel Boulevard in Pasadena. My best guess as to the station’s exact location is denoted with the pink arrows in the above aerial view.

December 24, 2010
Our Movie Locations-Themed Scavenger Hunt

My good friend/party planner extraordinaire Natalie Drees has become famous in our circle over the past few years for creating absolutely amazing customized scavenger hunts. She plans one for pretty much every event she hosts and not only are they insanely fun, but they also provide a fabulous way for people to get to know each other. So, once it was decided that our rehearsal dinner would take place at POP Champagne & Dessert Bar in Old Town Pasadena and that all of our family and friends would be invited, I asked Nat if she wouldn’t mind creating a movie locations-themed hunt to cap off our evening. And, thankfully, she said yes! Because Nat lives in San Francisco and therefore does not know the Pasadena area all that well, though – nor is she particularly into this thing that we call stalking – she enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen to carry out the endeavor. And I have to say that the two pulled it off beautifully!

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Natalie figured that most of our guests wouldn’t be quite as into filming locations as I am, so she based the scavenger hunt not around finding where a specific production was filmed, but around finding particular restaurants and bars in Pasadena that also happened to be filming locations. If teams could subsequently figure out what was filmed at each particular restaurant or bar – by talking to their servers or using their iPhones – extra points would be awarded, but filming location knowledge was not in any way required to participate. Besides figuring out which location each clue referred to, teams would also be required to obtain specific items from each location in order to complete the hunt. As always, each team was given a set of pens, a bag to collect all of our scavenger hunt items, and a book detailing our assignment, the rules of the game, and the clues.

The booklets were handed out at the end of the rehearsal dinner at POP Champagne Bar and my best friend Kylee, who was managing the hunt, gave all of the teams five minutes to read them over, before yelling out “On your mark . . . get set . . . go!”. At that point our entire group of fifty literally RAN out of the restaurant! It was like a mass exodus and I can only imagine what our fellow diners were thinking! LOL The scavenger hunt clues read as follows:

Clue Number 1 –

It’s been said “men want

a lady on the street . . .”

Perhaps women want

An “uomo” who can take the heat.

Once they find him,

They’ll take some “pane”.

Bring it back to the judge

And you’ll “vincere”.

The solution to Clue Number 1 was the restaurant Il Fornaio, which was featured in the 2000 movie What Women Want and was actually the very first movie I ever saw being filmed upon moving to Los Angeles. Before purchasing a house, my parents and I lived in an apartment in Old Town Pasadena and we would walk down to Il Fornaio to grab a bite to eat at least once a week. We got to know quite a few people who worked at the eatery and one night one of the servers let us know that Mel Gibson was going to be filming a movie at the restaurant the very next day. So, my mom and I, of course, headed back there bright and early the following morning to watch! It was an extremely cool experience for both of us and while we did not get to meet Mel Gibson, he did wave to us and say ‘hi’ several times while on his various cigarette breaks. Anyway, Nat came up with the brilliant idea of using foreign words in each clue which correlated to the type of food served at the restaurants we were supposed to visit. In the case of Il Fornaio, which is Italian, she used several Italian words – “uomo” translates to “man”, “pane” to “bread”, and “vincere” to “win”. Well, once I read the words “women want”, I knew exactly which restaurant the clue was referring to and my team (which consisted of me and the GC, my best friend Robin and his girlfriend Steffi, and Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and his fiancé Ame) immediately headed on over there. Unfortunately though, my mom, of course, also immediately figured out the answer to the clue and was right on our heels! In the movie, Il Fornaio appeared in the scene in which Nick Marshall (aka Mel Gibson) has lunch with his daughter Alex Marshall (aka Ashley Johnson) after buying her a prom dress.

One of the rules of the game was that all teams would have to purchase a round of drinks at each and every bar, so as not to anger the various managements by having large groups of people running in and out of the restaurants, causing a disruption. When we arrived at Il Fornaio, Mike suggested that we each get a shot as we could drink them quickly and then be on to our next location. Well, I am a complete and total lightweight and typically do not drink anything other than champagne and I really did not want to be doing shots at each and every bar we went into the night before my wedding, so I quickly ixnayed that idea. But the next thing I knew, my friend Steffi had six full shot glasses lined up in front of her. I immediately said, “No, I can’t drink a shot!” to which she replied, “These are champagne shots!” I had no idea what on earth a champagne shot was, but she informed me that she had asked the bartender to pour a bit of champagne into six shot glasses. The bartender at first balked at the idea, but when Steffi explained that I was a soon-to-be bride who only drank champagne, she agreed and poured us our “champagne shots”. We are holding them in the above photograph and I can honestly say that that particular moment was one of my favorites of the entire wedding. So incredibly cute!!!!!!

Clue Number 2 –

Don may ride a white horse

To get to this filmed bar.

If he were in gay Paris

This would be more on par.

Once he arrived

A “serviette” he’d obtain.

In Pasadena it’s this,

Hopefully without a stain.

The solution to Clue Number 2 was Cheval Blanc Bistro, which I blogged about back in December of last year and which was used in the original Father of the Bride movie as the spot where George Banks (aka Steve Martin) takes Bryan MacKenzie (aka George Newbern) for a drink. Because there are not many French restaurants in Old Town Pasadena, this was an easy one. Also tipping me off to the clue’s answer was the fact that Don is my dad’s name, aka the name of the “father of the bride”. Amazingly enough, my mom and her team were hot on our tail upon arriving at this particular bar, as well! My aunt Lea, who was on my mom’s team, had asked the bartender at Il Fornaio if she knew of any French restaurants in the area and the bartender told her that the only place she could think of was Cheval Blanc. My mom’s best friend, who speaks fluent French, immediately said “Cheval Blanc means white horse! That’s the place!” and they took off for the restaurant. At Cheval Blanc we were required to obtain a “serviette”, aka a “napkin”.

Both my team and my mom’s team spent quite a bit of time at this restaurant and ordered a round of drinks and relaxed since we were so far ahead of all of the other groups. And amazingly enough, my mom’s team happened to meet an actor while at Cheval Blanc and they got his autograph for an extra 50 points! He wasn’t anyone famous, but he did have his own IMDB page, so he counted as a “star”.

Clue Number 3 –

You can get a roll

In California’s 91105.

This filming location

You may not recognize.

You won’t need a fork,

But two pieces of wood

To experience

Lindsay’s favorite hood.

The answer to Clue Number 3 was, of course, Maikobe Japanese Restaurant – aka the former Ruby’s Diner which stood in for the Peach Pit on my favorite show of all time Beverly Hills, 90210. For anyone who knew anything about me or anything about the city of Pasadena for that matter, this clue was a no-brainer. In an unfortunate twist of bad luck, though, Maikobe had unexpectedly closed its doors just a few days before our rehearsal dinner, so when we showed up there for the scavenger hunt, we could not go inside to obtain our “two pieces of wood”, aka a set of chop sticks. Mike immediately started looking around for other sushi restaurants in the area and noticed one directly across the street from Maikobe (perhaps this is why the place went out of business! ) and ran right on over to grab some chopsticks. BUT, amazingly enough, my mom’s team had happened to grab a set of chop sticks at Sushi Roku near Il Fornaio earlier during the hunt (they had gone in to collect matchbooks for extra points and the hostess had, for whatever reason, also given them chopsticks!), so as soon as her team realized Maikobe was closed, they immediately started running to the last stop on the hunt and ended up coming in first place! So, yes, even though Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were on the same team, we LOST the scavenger hunt!!!!! Unbelievable!!!! But at least now you can see where I get my stalking skills from! In our family, the apple definitely does not fall far from the tree! On a side note – you can see a great picture of what Maikobe looked like back when it was Ruby’s Diner here.

Clue Number 4 –

At this Latin lounge with a fitting name

Their life together they can star living

Before their honeymoon, as husband and dame.

Ask for this in your drink-o.

Tie it in a knot with your tongue

To get an extra cinco.

The solution to Clue Number 4 was Vive Lounge, where fave movie A Lot Like Love was filmed. At the time the movie was filmed, the place was a Chinese-Malaysian fusion restaurant named Nonya, but that eatery closed down back in 2006 whereupon Vive moved in. Amazingly enough, very little of the décor was changed upon the transition and the restaurant still looked almost exactly the same as it did in the movie. Because there is only one Latin-themed lounge in Pasadena, my mom and her team were easily able to figure out what location the final clue was referring to. Especially once they realized that “vive” translates to “live” in Spanish. For winning the hunt, each member of my mom’s team was awarded with a bag of microwave popcorn and a pass for a free movie at any AMC Theatre. So incredibly cool! All in the all, the scavenger hunt turned out FABULOUS and all of our guests, even those who seriously lagged behind, absolutely LOVED it. It was the perfect end to a perfect evening. On a sad side note, though – the GC and I walked by Vive this past Friday night and discovered that it had closed it doors! I can only hope that the new owners also choose to keep the original Nonya’s décor so that all of us stalkers can still appreciate it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Natalie Drees can create customized scavenger hunts for parties and corporate events based upon any and all sorts of themes. You can contact her via her event planning website Pop Planning. Il Fornaio, from What Women Want, is located at 24 West Union Street in Old Town Pasadena. You can visit Il Fornaio’s website here. Cheval Blanc Bistro, from Father of the Bride, is located at 41 South De Lacey Avenue, also in Old Town Pasadena. You can visit the Cheval Blanc website here. The former Maikobe restaurant, aka the Peach Pit from Beverly Hills, 90210, is located at 45 South Fair Oaks Avenue in Pasadena, but is currently vacant. Vive Lounge, the former Nonya restaurant from A Lot Like Love, is located at 61 North Raymond Avenue in Pasadena, but is also currently vacant. You can visit the former Vive Lounge website here.

December 13, 2010
Paramount Studios as a Wedding Venue

Well, I guess it is finally about time that I start blogging about my wedding, but I can’t very well do that without first writing about the place where I got almost all of my wedding planning inspiration – the Studios at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. When Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I embarked on our very first VIP tour of the historic lot back in September of 2008, our fabulous tour guide, Ian, who sadly no longer works at the studio, mentioned that sections of Paramount could be rented out for parties, weddings, and other special events. And even though at that point in time I already knew without a doubt where I wanted to get married, the thought of tying the knot at Hollywood’s oldest continuously operating studio definitely piqued my interest. Especially once Ian told us that it was possible to rent out the New York Street backlot area, which is quite possibly my very favorite place in all of Southern California. So, pretty much immediately after the Grim Cheaper proposed, I called up the Paramount Studios Special Events Department and scheduled a tour of the lot’s various event venues. And, let me tell you, it was an amazing experience! The special events tours are actually very similar to the VIP Tours in that all of the same areas of the studio are shown. The main difference, however, is that the event tours are private, so ours consisted of only four people – my two parents, the Grim Cheaper, and me – which was absolutely INCREDIBLE! The special events coordinator who we dealt with, a super nice man named Craig who I believe no longer works for Paramount, was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the lot and where various filming had taken place over the years, so the entire two-hour affair pretty much became a private, walking tour of the lot which was customized just for me! And, as you can imagine, I absolutely loved every single minute of it!

Events at Paramount can pretty much be held in any section of the 65-acre lot, making the party possibilities absolutely endless. Available venues include empty soundstages, each of which can hold up to 1,500 guests and can be completely decorated and customized based on each particular event;

the B-Tank, which is a 914,023 gallon water tank that can be filled and dressed to resemble any sort of water setting one can imagine;

any of the studio’s park areas, including Production Park;

and Lucy Park, which I’ve blogged about previously;

any of the lot’s theatres, including the historic Paramount Theatre;

and the smaller Gower Theatre;

the famous Bronson Gate and water fountain area, which can accommodate up to 500 people;

and, of course, New York Street.

As luck would have it, a huge breast-cancer awareness fundraiser was being set up in the New York Street section of the lot during our tour, so we were actually able to see firsthand what an event in that space would look like. And I have to say that it was absolutely AMAZING! I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been more inspired in my life than I was when I set foot onto New York Street that day and witnessed the extravaganza pictured above.

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Because the fundraising event incorporated three of the things that I love most in this world – New York, Hollywood, and filmmaking – I was completely in awe of the whole thing and my brain immediately started working on overload. All of sudden, idea after idea started pouring into my head and it was at that moment that I decided that the Grim Cheaper and I would be having a movie-themed wedding. Which in retrospect really seems like a no-brainer, but for whatever reason, up until we visited Paramount, the thought had never occured to me.

The most inspired wedding idea that came to me while at Paramount was that we could name each of the reception tables after various movies that had been filmed on New York Street and that, upon arrival, each guest would be given a card with a movie line written on it. Each line would correspond to one of the tables and our guests would have to figure out which movie their particular line came from in order to find where they would be sitting during the reception. And even though we didn’t end up getting married on New York Street, we did use that idea for our tables and our guests absolutely LOVED it, but more on that in a future post.

Even though I absolutely loved the idea of getting married on New York Street, the GC and I ultimately decided against it. As my best friend Kylee said after viewing the above pictures of the breast cancer fundraiser, a wedding – especially one as small as ours (we only invited 80 people) – would wind up getting lost in the spectacle of the space. The venue is much better suited for a party – a ten-year anniversary party, perhaps – rather than a wedding ceremony. Oh, and there was also the little matter of cost! Renting New York Street will run you $12,500, which may sound like a lot, but is, amazingly enough, a fairly average venue rental rate for the L.A. area. (According to msn.com, Los Angeles is one of the most expensive cities in the US to get married!) The New York Street backlot area measures a whopping five acres and can accommodate up to 5,000 people and while it, according to the Paramount Special Events website, can now be customized to suit smaller groups, that wasn’t actually the case when we were thinking about getting married there. Even though we only wanted to utilize a small portion of New York Street, we would have been required to rent the entire five acres, which is actually fine – I expected that. What I didn’t expect, though, and what we were not told until we received the actual proposal, was that we would also have to pay to light the entire backlot as well – at a cost of $12,000!!!! – even if we were, in actuality, only going to light a small section of it. And, mind you, that $12,000 only covered “washing” the street in light, so that the space wouldn’t be pitch black during the reception. If we wanted any sort of specialty lighting, that would, of course, be an additional cost. There was also a fee of $3,500 just to power the event. I’m not kidding! And because Paramount hires only in-house employees for its events, you also have to pay union wages for absolutely everyone who works it – from the lighting technicians to the catering staff to the parking attendants. Besides paying union wages, you also have to adhere to union regulations, the most maddening of which was the fact that every employee must be paid for a minimum of six hours of work, whether they worked a full six hours or not. So, while I knew that getting married at Paramount would be pricey, I had no idea it would be as exorbitant at it actually was. Our proposal came to a whopping $41,000 for a pretty bare bones wedding – no open bar, no appetizers, no specialty food. The GC literally almost choked when that email came through! And keep in mind that that $41,000 did not include a DJ, a photographer, ceremony musicians, a dance floor, flowers, or the mashed potato bar that I had my heart set on. As the old saying goes, though, you get what you pay for, and a party at Paramount would have, no doubt, been nothing short of incredible!

Even though we did not ultimately choose to tie the knot at Paramount, I am so incredibly thankful that we considered it. Our wedding would have been a very different event had we not. And now at least I know where I want to hold our ten-year anniversary party.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Paramount Studios is located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. If you are interested in hosting an event on the lot, you can visit the studio’s special events page here or you can call (323)956-8398.

November 30, 2010
The Parking Garage from “Twins”

Last weekend, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the city of Glendale to do some stalking of the historic Alex Theatre, where the cast of Glee was recently spotted doing some filming for this year’s “Sectionals” episode which is set to air on December 7th. After finishing up at the theatre (which I will be blogging about after the episode of Glee premieres), we headed a few blocks up the street to stalk the parking garage where Al Greco (aka a very young David Caruso) worked in the 1988 movie Twins. And I have to say that in all of my years of stalking, this one was actually a first for me because, while I’ve stalked a parking lot before, never in my life have I actually stalked a garage. And while it might seem a bit odd to all of my fellow stalkers out there that I would even want to stalk a parking structure in the first place, my reason for doing so was two-fold. First, the garage was a fairly prominent location in Twins and quite a few segments were filmed there, but more importantly it was where all of my man David Caruso’s scenes were filmed, and because the actor has got to be THE nicest celebrity that I’ve ever met in my entire life, I was dying to stalk the place where he filmed one of his very first movies. I found this location thanks to fellow stalker Gary, from the Seeing Stars website, who actually tracked the place down for fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, who had been searching for it for quite some time. So, thank you, Gary!

In Twins, Vincent Benedict (aka Danny DeVito) frequents the supposed airport parking garage where his buddy Al works in order to steal high end cars which he then subsequently sells on the black market. Towards the beginning of the movie, Vincent inadvertently makes off with a Cadillac carrying a very valuable stolen fuel injector prototype that he then decides to deliver to an industrialist in Houston who has offered to pay him $5,000,000 for it. The movie’s storyline takes off from there.

And I am very happy to report that the parking garage looks EXACTLY the same today as it did 22 years ago when Twins was filmed. I guess if I were to think about it, though, how much could a parking garage really change over the years, even in more than two decades time, but I was still pleasantly surprised and grateful, nonetheless.

The guard shack is the only part of the structure that has been altered since filming took place back in 1988. At the time of the filming, it was located outside of the garage, but it has since been moved a few feet backwards.

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Big THANK YOU to Gary, from Seeing Stars, for finding this location and to fellow stalker Chas from ItsFilmedThere who asked for his help in doing so!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The parking garage from Twins is located at 127 Burchett Street, off of North Brand Boulevard in between Goode and Arden Avenues, in Glendale. The area used in the movie is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view.

November 22, 2010
Gas Works Park from “10 Things I Hate About You”

Another location that I stalked while visiting the Pacific Northwest this past May – and yes, there are still quite a few of them that I have yet to blog about – was Seattle’s famously unique Gas Works Park, the spot where Patrick Verona (aka Heath Ledger) took Kat Stratford (aka Julia Stiles) to play a game of paintball in the 1999 movie 10 Things I Hate About You. I found this location, as well as countless other 10 Things I Hate About You locations, from fellow stalker Owen, who has managed to compile a mind-bogglingly massive list of Seattle-area filming locales over the past few years. And I can honestly say that Gas Works Park is easily the most interesting and unique of all of the locations that I stalked while vacationing in Washington State. Actually, come to think of it, the park is quite possibly the most unique and interesting of all the locations I have ever visited in my entire stalking career! The place is truly incredible.



Gas Works Park, as the name implies, was originally a gasification plant established by the Seattle Gas Company in 1906 to manufacture gas from coal.   The plant was one of Seattle’s main sources of power until 1956 when the city began using natural, instead of “town” – or synthetically produced – gas, at which point the plant was shuttered. In 1962, the City of Seattle purchased the property for a cool $1,340,000 with the intention of turning the space into a public park. Enter award-winning landscape architect Richard Haag who was brought in to transform the area into a place of recreation and beauty, which he indeed did, later winning the American Society of Landscape Architects Presidents Award Design of Excellence for the project. In an unprecedented move, because the property was the only gasification plant still in existence in the U.S., Haag decided to preserve the seemingly-ugly and utilitarian equipment and incorporate them into his park design. And while a park that features old gas generator towers and rusted boiler rooms might not sound appealing, what Haag left us with is a truly stunning mix of industry and nature.

So stunning, in fact, that it has become a popular Seattle wedding venue, as unlikely as that might seem. As you can see in the above photograph, one was even being set up while we were stalking the place.

Part of what makes the 20.5-acre park, which is both a Seattle City Landmark and a Washington State Landmark, so spectacular is its amazing views of Lake Union, Downtown Seattle, and the Space Needle.

And, as fellow stalker Kerry pointed out, the park also boasts a perfect water-side view of the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat. So incredibly cool!

Thanks to the park’s unique architecture, it should come as no surprise that filmmakers have returned there time and time again to shoot various productions. In 10 Things I Hate About You, Patrick takes Kat to Gas Works Park to play paintball after she sneaks him out of detention and it is there that the couple shares their first kiss. In real life, the park does not actually feature a paintball area, though.

You can watch the 10 Things I Hate About You paintball scene by clicking above.

In the 1992 movie Singles, Gas Works Park is the location where Linda Powell (aka The Closer’s Kyra Sedgwick) says yes to Steve Dunne’s (aka Campbell Scott’s) marriage proposal.



In the 1989 movie Three Fugitives, the park is the spot where Ned Perry’s (aka Martin Short’s) daughter, Meg (aka Sarah Rowland Doroff), speaks for the first time.

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Gas Works Park was also featured twice on the reality television series The Amazing Race. It first appeared as the finish line for the final competition in Season 3 and was later used as the starting point in the very first competition in Season 10 (pictured above).

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for telling me about this location and to fellow stalker Kerry and her husband Jim for taking me there.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Gas Works Park, from 10 Things I Hate About You, is located at 2101 North Northlake Way in Seattle, Washington. The area where the paintball scene was filmed is denoted with a pink “X” in the above aerial view. The park is open daily from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. You can visit the official Gas Works Park website here.

November 19, 2010
All Star Lanes from “Glee”

Another Eagle Rock-area location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked a few weeks back after our venture to the nearby Eagle Rock Plaza Mall was All Star Lanes – the bowling alley where Finn Hudson (aka Cory Monteith) took Rachel Berry (aka Lea Michele) on a date in the Season 1 episode of Glee titled “The Rhodes Not Taken”. I found this location thanks to an eagle-eyed (pun intended) anonymous fellow stalker who lives in the area. My source recognized the bowling alley when it showed up in the episode back in September of last year and emailed me immediately afterwards to let me know. So, thank you, anonymous source! I don’t know who you are, but I will be forever grateful for the stalking tip!

The 22-lane bowling alley, which features state-of-the-art equipment and automatic scoring, was completely empty when Mike and I showed up to stalk it, which made for a prime picture-taking opportunity. The owner finally made an appearance about ten minutes after we showed up and was nice enough to chat with us for a bit about the various filming that has taken place there in recent years. Sadly, he didn’t have much to tell me about “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee, though, because he had never actually watched the show before it filmed on the premises and, therefore, did not pay much attention during the shoot.

He did tell us that part of the episode was lensed in the alley’s retro-style cocktail lounge and, even though it was closed at the time, allowed us to take a quick peek inside. Besides bowling, All Star Lanes also features pools tables, a video arcade, a Chinese food restaurant, and, as was shown on Glee, nightly karaoke! Love it! In 2009, All Star Lanes was voted First Place in the “Best Bowling” category of MyFOX Los Angeles’ “Best of the LA HOTLIST” contest. LA Weekly newspaper also recently dubbed the alley the “Best Glow-in-the-Dark Bowling 2010” thanks to its late-night glow-in-the-dark bowling sessions, which feature glowing pins and balls! How incredibly cool is that?

In “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee, Finn takes Rachel on a pretend date to All Star Lanes in the hopes that he can somehow talk her into re-joining the McKinley High Glee Club.

Will Schuester (aka Matthew Morrison) and April Rhodes (aka Kristin Chenoweth) also visit the bowling alley that same night and it is there that Will tells April that one of his biggest regrets in life is never having sung with her.

April then leads Will over to the alley’s cocktail lounge where the two hop up on stage and sing a rousing karaoke rendition of the 1987 Heart song “Alone”.

You can watch their “Alone” duet by clicking above.

The owner of All Star Lanes also informed us that the outside of the alley and its parking lot area were recently dressed to look like the Mid-Atlantic Trailways Bus Station for the Season 8 episode of NCIS titled “Broken Arrow” for the scene in which Ziva David (aka Cote de Pablo) and Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo (aka Michael Weatherly) track down Anthony DiNozzo Sr. (aka Robert Wagner).

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Apparently, the All Star Lanes parking lot is quite the popular filming location because fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, also let me know that it was featured during the opening credits of the 1992 Quentin Tarantino movie Reservoir Dogs. In the scene, in which the bowling alley is not actually visible, Quentin and the gang walk through the parking lot toward Eagle Rock Boulevard after their famous conversation about tipping which took place at the nearby Pat & Lorraine’s Coffee Shop. The Eagle Rock Plaza strip mall, which is located directly across the street from the alley, is the building that pictured in the above screen captures.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: All Star Lanes from “The Rhodes Not Taken” episode of Glee is located at 4459 Eagle Rock Boulevard in Eagle Rock. Rachel and Finn bowled in Lane Nine and Will and April bowled in Lane Fifteen in the episode. In Reservoir Dogs, Quentin and the gang walk east through the alley’s parking lot towards Eagle Rock Boulevard. You can visit All Star Lanes’ official website here.

November 18, 2010