Tag: Movie Locations

Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe

Two Mondays ago, after Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I finished our tour of Paramount Studios in Hollywood (which I still have yet to blog about), the two of us headed across the street to grab a bite to eat at a little restaurant that has been at the top of my To-Stalk list for close to a decade now – Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe. I hadn’t actually heard much about Lucy’s before our recent trip there, but had passed by it countless times and figured it had to be something of a celebrity hot spot due to its close proximity to three different Hollywood studios – Paramount, Raleigh, and the now defunct KCAL/KHJ. As it turns out, my hunch could not have been more spot on! Lucy’s was originally founded over four decades ago and has been attracting film, television, and music stars and well-known politicians pretty much ever since. Not only that, but Mike and I discovered that the restaurant is also a filming location! And the food there is absolutely AMAZING, to boot. As Mike said to me upon leaving the restaurant, “This place is a hidden jewel!”

Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe was first founded in 1964 by Los Angeles native Frank Casado, who named the eatery in honor of his beloved wife Lucy. Frank managed and worked at the restaurant, along with members of his family, for over two and a half decades until he passed away in 1990, upon which Lucy took over. She still owns and runs the place along with their daughter, Patricia, to this day. Amazingly enough, most of Lucy’s employees have also been there since the day the place opened, including our extremely nice waiter Ricardo, whom Lucy calls a “Juan-of-all-Trades”. 🙂 The Cafe originally consisted of only one single storefront – a tiny room lined with brown leather booths – but thanks to its immense popularity, the place has since expanded to include both the storefronts to the left and to the right of it.

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Ricardo was so incredibly proud of the restaurant’s history and excited that Mike and I were so very interested in hearing about it that he ended up taking us on our very own thirty minute private tour of the property and told us countless stories about the many stars who have dined there over the years. Included in our tour was Lucy’s large VIP/Private Party room, where most of their celebrity patrons dine.

The VIP room also just so happens to be the spot where the restaurant displays the piano that was gifted to them by musician Phil Collins, who is a regular patron! SO INCREDIBLY COOL! There is even a picture displayed on the restaurant’s walls of Phil tickling the piano’s ivories. LOVE IT!

Ricardo also showed us the restaurant’s ultra-cool looking front patio area, which he says gets extremely crowded each Friday and Saturday night. I am so going to have to take the Grim Cheaper back there to grab a drink in the near future.

My favorite part of the tour, though, had to be when Ricardo showed us Lucy’s extensive wall of autographed celebrity photos, accompanied by quite a few of his personal anecdotes from his various dealings with them.

It would be impossible for me to name all of the celebs who have dined at the restaurant over the years, but a partial list includes celebrity siblings Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal (who ate there quite often as children), Lyle Lovett (who often thanks the restaurant in the liner notes of his albums), Ugly Betty’s Ana Ortiz (who first met husband Noah Lebenzon while at the Cafe), the cast of Family Ties (who were regulars during the series’ seven year run), Ronald Regan, Dolly Parton, Tom Selleck, Harland David Sanders (aka “Colonel Sanders”), Bernadette Peters, Magic Johnson, and all of the members of the Eagles rock group. One of the restaurant’s most loyal patrons is former California governor Jerry Brown who has been eating at Lucy’s since the early 1970s and considers Lucy, Frank, and Patricia to be part of his extended family. He even used the restaurant as an unofficial office during his tenure as governor. And it was at Lucy’s that Jerry first met singer Linda Ronstadt. The Cafe now has an entree named after the former governor – the Jerry Brown Special, which consists of chicken and rice.

Most amazing of all, though, is the fact that the Dalai Lama himself is a regular! He has been eating at the restaurant at least once each year for well over a decade!

Lucy’s is considered something of a lucky charm among celebrities, as many now-famous stars were regular patrons there long before becoming household names – the most notable of whom is Drew Barrymore who has been dining at Lucy’s since before she could talk. In fact, Ricardo still remembers the day a young Drew told him that she had just been cast in Steven Spielberg’s latest movie. 😉

The actress continued to dine at Lucy’s long after becoming famous and even held one of her childhood birthday parties at the Mexican restaurant (pictured above).

And I just had to take a pic sitting in Drew’s favorite booth (which is the very first booth located on the right-hand side of Lucy’s main room) for fellow stalker and Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, from the Drewseum website. 🙂

Then-presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy once dined at Lucy’s back in June of 1968, just a few short days before he was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel. The above photographs were taken as the senator was leaving the restaurant through Lucy’s rear door.

Lucy’s restaurant also appeared in the 2010 flick Greenberg, which was directed by Noah Baumbach, husband of Jennifer Jason Leigh. According to this Los Angeles Times article from March of 2010, Jennifer has been a patron of Lucy’s ever since childhood, which is why Noah decided to feature the restaurant in his movie.

Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe has become such a Hollywood landmark that in 2007 the Los Angeles City Council voted to name the intersection of Melrose Avenue and North Plymouth Boulevard as “I Love Lucy Square” in honor of both Lucy Casada, the restaurant’s owner, and Lucille Ball, who owned a portion of the Paramount lot back when it was known as Desilu Studios. So amazingly cool!

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As I mentioned above – and despite what many Yelp reviews may state – both Mike and I thought the food at Lucy’s was absolutely spectacular! I opted for the ground beef tacos, which were AMAZING, and Mike ordered the cheese quesadillas, which he said were fabulous. I honestly can’t recommend stalking this place enough!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Lucy’s El Adobe Cafe is located at 5536 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, directly across the street from Paramount Studios.

October 12, 2010
The “Poison Ivy” Mansion

Back in early August, Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, from the Drewseum website, challenged me to find the large pink mansion belonging to the Cooper family – Sylvie (aka Sara Gilbert), Darryl (aka Tom Skerritt), and Georgie (aka Cheryl Ladd) – in the 1992 thriller Poison Ivy. But because I was just a few weeks away from my upcoming wedding at the time, I didn’t get a chance to do any research on it. Thankfully though, fellow stalker Terri stepped in and managed to track down the location for us! Terri had discovered a message board thread on the IMDB Poison Ivy page on which a commenter had stated that the Cooper mansion was located in a “section of Los Feliz called the Oaks”. She then used Google Street View and managed to track down the massively large residence, which amazingly enough looks very much the same today as it did back in 1992 when the movie was filmed! Thank you, Terri!

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In real life, the 13,000-square foot, 5 bedroom, 9 bathroom home, which sits on over a half acre of land, was first built in 1926 and, according to my buddy E.J. over at The MovielandDirectory, belonged to Geena Davis in the early 90s, although that is a claim that the Thelma & Louise actress denies. The Geena Davis rumor was actually featured in a small blurb in the September 1997 issue of Los Angeles Magazine, which states that the extensive property was purchased for $1.3 million in 1992 by the “Sav-On Trust” (believed to be created by Geena) and that an extensive remodel of the residence was subsequently begun. After the roof, windows, and doors had been removed from the estate, though, the remodel was abruptly stopped and the property left in ruins. At one point, squatters even moved into the residence, which is located in a very affluent neighborhood. Sav-On Trust sold the decrepit property to a new owner in 1995 for $1,050,000, with the trust actually carrying the majority of the loan. When the new buyer defaulted on his payments, the home went into foreclosure, with Geena still denying that she had anything to do with the property. Why she didn’t want to be associated with the home, I don’t know, but she doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on being that the trustee of the Sav-On Trust is none other than Greg Kress – Geena Davis’ business manager. Hmmmm. Anyway, the remodel on the property was finally completed in the late 1990s and the mansion is absolutely beautiful today. The home, which you can see some fabulous interior photographs of here, currently boasts a 1,000-bottle wine cellar, a private gym, a game room, an infinity pool, a movie theatre, TWO elevators, a cigar room, a grotto, a spa, a library, and striking views of Los Angeles. Talk about living the high life!

The Cooper mansion figured quite prominently in Poison Ivy and both the interior and the exterior of the property appeared in the flick.

The mansion’s garage area . . .

. . . and main balcony were also used repeatedly in the movie, although both look quite a bit different now. An addition to the house has since been added on to the garage area and a turret has been added next to the balcony.

The exterior stairwell that was formerly located next to the garage has also since been removed.

And the stairs that led to the front of the property in the movie have now been replaced by a sloping driveway. Even with all of those changes, though, the home still looks almost exactly the same today as it did in Poison Ivy. And I so love that it is still almost the same color pink!

Randomly enough, just a few days after stalking it, I spotted this very same location while watching the pilot episode of the new series Law & Order: Los Angeles. The residence showed up in the very beginning of the episode, which was titled “Hollywood”, as the burgled home of teenaged actor Colin Blakely (aka Travis Van Winkle) . Being that I had just stalked the place a few days beforehand, I literally just about fell over when I saw it.

Especially when I noticed the home’s real life address plaque pass by in the background of one of the scenes. So darn cool!

The real life interior of the estate was also used in the episode.

Big THANK YOU to Ashley, from the Drewseum website, for challenging me to find this location and to Terri for actually tracking it down! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Poison Ivy mansion is located at 2208 West Live Oak Drive in Los Feliz.

October 8, 2010
The Dresden Restaurant

A couple of months ago I was flipping through one of my favorite stalking tomes, Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors, when I came across a blurb written about the legendary Dresden Restaurant in Hollywood. And while I had actually eaten at the Dresden once before upon first moving to Southern California almost a decade ago, at the time I had no idea it was a filming location! So, I immediately called up the Grim Cheaper and begged him to take me there that very night. But being that we were just a few weeks away from our upcoming nuptials at the time, he quickly put a nix on my plans with the caution that “we shouldn’t be spending money right now”. I acquiesced, but have been itching to stalk the place ever since. Thankfully, the two of us finally made it out there for dinner two weeks ago, with the GC pretty much kicking and screaming the entire way. But as it turned out he absolutely LOVED the place – and the $32 dinner bill that came at the end of the night. Yes, you read that right – our dinner, including one cocktail a piece, was only $32! We ended up eating in the Dresden’s bar area and ordering up a smorgasbord of happy hour items, including French onion soup and quesadillas, and, let me tell you, the food was not only INCREDIBLE, but the serving sizes were absolutely HUGE. The staff there was also amazingly nice and answered all of my silly little questions about the extensive filming that has taken place there over the years. All in all, it was quite the successful stalk and I honestly cannot say enough good things about the place!

The Dresden has been a Hollywood staple since it first opened in the 1950’s. A paint store originally occupied the premises, but the space was converted into an eatery named Pucci’s Cafe sometime in the late 1930s. It later became known as the Dresden Room, named so for the china dolls which decorated the restaurant interior. In 1954, a man named Carl Ferraro purchased the restaurant along with his wife, Sara, and remodeled it twelve years later. The interior has been left virtually untouched since that time and walking through the front doors is like stepping back in time a good fifty years. One look at the restaurant and it is easy to see why the place has become a favorite of location scouts.

The Dresden’s most memorable film appearance was in the 1996 flick Swingers, in the scene in which Mike (aka Jon Favreau) meets and makes a fool of himself in front of Nikki (aka The Replacements’ Brooke Langton), his neighborhood Starbucks barista.

The scene also showcased the Dresden’s legendary long-running musical act, Marty and Elayne, who have been playing at the restaurant nightly since 1982.

Ironically enough, the big fight scene in Swingers, which supposedly takes place outside of the Dresden’s rear entrance, was actually filmed a few miles away in the parking lot of the famous Musso & Frank Grill in Downtown Hollywood. The Dresden’s real life rear entrance is shown above. For the scene, the producers covered over Musso’s back awning with the word “Dresden” . . .

. . . but forgot to cover over Musso’s “Oldest in Hollywood” sign, which can blatantly be seen in the background during the fight.

In 1990’s The Two Jakes, the Dresden was used as the Green Parrot night club where J.J. Jake Gittes (aka Jack Nickolson) meets up with Tyrone Otley (aka Tracey Walter).

In the 1996 flick That Thing You Do, the Dresden stands in for the Blue Spot jazz club where Guy ‘Shades’ Patterson (aka Tom Everett Scott) meets musician Del Paxton (aka Bill Cobbs).

In the 2000 romantic comedy What Women Want, the interior of the Dresden was used as the Chicago-area Back Door piano lounge where Nick Marshall (aka Mel Gibson) and Darcy Maguire (aka Helen Hunt) meet up for a late night drink. The restaurant was re-decorated considerably for the filming, with white twinkle lights being added to the walls and mirrors being added to the back of the booths.

The Dresden was transformed into the Escupimos en su Alimento (which translates to “We Spit in Your Food” LOL) Mexican restaurant for the 2004 flick Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.

And while The X-Files also shot scenes at the Dresden at one point in time, I am not sure of exactly which episode it appeared in. Supposedly the restaurant was also featured in Bugsy, but I scanned through that flick earlier today and did not see the Dresden pop up anywhere.

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The Dresden has also long been a celebrity magnet and even boasts an extensive headshot wall-of-fame at its front entrance to prove it. Just a few of the luminaries who have dined there over the years include Dolly Parton, Nicolas Cage, Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland, Adam West, Danny Aiello, Jay Leno, Keanu Reeves, David Lynch, Frank Sinatra . . .

. . . “Thriller” director John Landis . . .

. . . and fellow stalker Owen’s main squeeze Jennifer Love Hewitt.

I honestly cannot recommend stalking the Dresden enough! When people say that L.A. has no history, it is places like this that I think of. I cannot tell you how cool it was to be dining at a restaurant that has not only been in operation for over five decades, but also boasts an extensive film resume and has seen the likes of everyone from Frank Sinatra to Julia Roberts walk through its doors. If that’s not history, I don’t know what is!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Dresden Restaurant is located at 1760 North Vermont Avenue in Hollywood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

October 7, 2010
The Fremont Troll from “10 Things I Hate About You”

Another location that I stalked while visiting the Pacific Northwest this past May was a famous Seattle-area sculpture known as the Fremont Troll, which appeared in a brief scene in the 1999 teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You. The Troll, which weighs two tons and was built out of wire, ferroconcrete, and rebar steel, lurks under Seattle’s Aurora Bridge and measures eighteen feet tall. It was originally constructed in 1990 over a period of seven weeks by four local artists named Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter, and Ross Whitehead. At the time, the area under the bridge had become a haven for drug dealers and other miscreants, so in 1989, with the hopes of cleaning up the space, the Fremont Art Council sponsored a national contest for artists to create a piece of work which would be displayed there permanently. The menacing-looking Troll, which is also known as the Troll Under the Bridge and was inspired by the well-known children’s fairy tale Three Billy Goats Gruff, was the winning design and has since become a Seattle-area icon, so much so that it even has its very own Facebook page!

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I found out about this location from fellow stalker Owen, who somehow managed to track down every single locale which appeared in 10 Things I Hate About You. To be honest, I wasn’t actually all that keen on stalking it, though. It looked a bit odd online and since it had only been featured for a few brief seconds in the movie, I didn’t think it was a very blog-worthy location. As it turns out, though, I couldn’t have been more wrong. The mixed media sculpture, while not necessarily beautiful, is incredibly unique and I am so, so glad that my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry ended up taking me there. If you happen to be in the area, I can’t recommend stalking it enough! My favorite aspects of the Troll are the fact that its left eye consists of an old hubcap and its left hand is clasping an actual Volkswagen Beetle. Not kidding! Apparently, the car once boasted a California license plate and also housed a time capsule filled with Elvis Presley memorabilia, but both had to later be removed due to vandalization of the sculpture.

In 10 Things I Hate About You, the Troll is the site of the scene in which Cameron James (aka Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Bianca Stratford (aka Larisa Oleynik) discuss how to get her sister, Kat Stratford (aka Julia Stiles), to attend an upcoming party.

And while the Troll also appears in a brief scene with Jennifer Aniston in the movie Love Happens, due to scheduling conflicts the actress never actually set foot in Seattle during the filming. Instead, the rest of the cast and crew traveled there, while a body double stood in for Jennifer and kept her back to the camera during the scene. Her stand-in is pictured in the grey hat in the screen capture above. Ah, the magic of Hollywood!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Fremont Troll, from 10 Things I Hate About You and Love Happens, is located on the corner of Troll Avenue North and North 36th Street, directly underneath the north end of Aurora Bridge in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.

October 5, 2010
The “Valentine’s Day” Floral Shop

This past weekend I dragged my new husband out to stalk the Burbank storefront that stood in for Siena Bouquet & Cafe – the flower shop/coffee bar belonging to Reed Bennett (aka Ashton Kutcher) in the 2010 romantic comedy Valentine’s Day. And even though I didn’t particularly like Valentine’s Day all that much – in my eyes it came off as a very poorly executed Love Actually clone – I did absolutely fall in love with Reed’s floral/coffee shop in the movie, mostly due to the fact that I am an absolute coffee fiend, as anyone who knows me even slightly well can attest to. I mean, what a FABULOUS idea for a store – a florist with a built-in espresso bar! I am of the opinion that there should be a built-in espresso bar in ALL kinds of stores – book shops, hair salons, nail salons, etc. etc. etc. When I was in college, the local laundromat not only had an espresso bar, but a tanning booth AND an arcade! Genius! Needless to say it was the most popular laundromat in the entire area. Half the time I would visit the place just to grab a latte, even if I didn’t have clothes to wash. Not kidding! 😉 But I digress. The other reason I loved Reed’s store so much was because of its colorful and funky decor, which was vaguely reminiscent of the Central Perk set on fave show Friends. So, when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, told me that a friend of his had actually watched some of the flower shop scenes being filmed, I just about died as I had assumed that the interior of the store had just been a set. I immediately added the address of the place to the top of my To-Stalk list and finally made it out there to see it in person this past weekend.

At the time of the filming, the flower shop space was actually vacant, which gave the Valentine’s Day producers the ability to completely take over the premises and extensively dress it in the exact way that they wanted. Since that time, the space has been taken over by an extremely cool vintage clothing store named Playclothes, but I am very happy to report that the exterior still looks much the same in person as it did in the flick.



The interior, however, is another story.



While the flooring, intricately designed ceilings, and wooden double front door have remained the same, the store is unfortunately not very recognizable from the movie. And in real life, there is, of course, no on-site espresso bar. 🙁 The good news, though, is that Playclothes honestly has to be one of the coolest stores I’ve ever had the pleasure of shopping at. I’m not at all into vintage clothing, mind you, but I am into costumes and I have to say that Playclothes had some of the best and most authentic on display that I’ve ever seen in my entire life! The staff there was also incredibly nice and spent a LOT of time answering all of my silly little questions about the filming of Valentine’s Day.

Walking around the vintage clothing shop made me realize that the time to choose this year’s Halloween costume has long since arrived. Unfortunately though, I am currently at a loss. Ideas anyone? The Grim Cheaper and I are always either a famous movie couple or a famous real life celebrity couple and this year I was thinking of dressing up as Sue Sylvester and Mr. Schuester from Glee, but the GC ixnayed that idea real fast! So, I am currently open to ideas. But please don’t suggest anyone from Avatar as I am so not interested in covering myself with blue paint. 😉



The rear entrance to Playclothes, which can be reached off of North Fairview Street, was also used in Valentine’s Day.

On a side note – My main man Michael Buble just released the music video for his new song “Hollywood”, in which he does a SPOT ON imitation of Justin Beiber. I actually thought it was the Biebs in the video when I first watched it. HILARIOUS! Anyway, the video was shot in its entirety on a movie lot and I spent quite a bit of yesterday trying to figure out which lot. After wasting more than a few hours searching, I asked Mike, from MovieShotsLA, if he knew where the video was filmed and, sure enough, he did. Turns out it’s Universal!   The video shows off quite a bit of the newly rebuilt New York Street, which I have yet to see , so you all know what that means – I’ll be draggin the Grim Cheaper out to stalk it very soon! 🙂

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Playclothes vintage clothing store, aka the floral shop from Valentine’s Day, is located at 3100 West Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank. The back of the store is accessible from North Fairview Street. You can visit the Playclothes website here.

October 1, 2010
The Schaffer Residence from “A Single Man”

A couple of weeks ago, I dragged my new husband out to stalk an architecturally and cinematically famous house located in Glendale at the base of the Verdugo Mountains – the John Lautner-designed Schaffer Residence which appeared in fashion designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut, A Single Man. I found this location thanks to fellow stalker Gary from England, who immediately set about cyberstalking the residence after watching the flick back in February of this year. And even though I’ve never actually seen A Single Man – I try to avoid any and all movies that have a depressing subject matter – because I am a HUGE fan of legendary architect John Lautner and because the house is simply gorgeous, I just had to stalk it.

The two bedroom, two bath Schaffer Residence, which was originally built in 1949, measures 1,698 square feet and sits on a heavily wooded quarter acre of land. The home was constructed entirely out of steel, glass, redwood, and concrete and boasts an open floor plan with glass walls, which several websites have described as “transparent”. Apparently being in the home makes one feel as if they are actually outside. The house is so spectacular, that according to the John Lautner Foundation website, both architects Frank Gehry and Frank Escher consider the Schaffer house to be among their most favorite abodes ever created. Sadly, though, as you can see in the above photographs, not much of the house is visible from the street.

Nor is much visible from Bing’s aerial views, either. 🙁

Thankfully though, the Schaffer Residence is currently for sale (for a cool $1,495,000 and as fellow stalker Gary said in his email to me, “I am saving as I type!!!!!”) and there are plenty of pictures of the property on its real estate website. You can also check out some fabulous photographs of the interior of the home on the Big Shed website here. As you can see above, the Schaffer house is a post-modern masterpiece, stunning in its detail, and with its wood, steel, and glass features, is very reminiscent of both the abode belonging to Sebastian Stark (aka James Woods) on the television series Shark and the residence where Ted Crawford (aka Anthony Hopkins) lived in the movie Fracture.

In A Single Man, which premiered last year, the Schaffer Residence stands in for the Santa Monica-area home of Professor George Falconer (aka Colin Firth), and both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property were used quite extensively in the filming. When I skimmed through A Single Man earlier today to make the above screen captures, I was actually surprised to see how the home was portrayed onscreen. In the movie, George’s house is very dark and dreary, which is ironic being that, in reality, a huge part of what makes the home so special and unique are the large plate-glass windows which bathe the interior of the property in an exorbitant amount of natural light. As depicted in the real estate photographs and in all that I’ve read about the dwelling online, in real life the Schaffer residence is bright and airy – not at all how it appeared in A Single Man. In fact, after seeing how it was depicted onscreen, I’m quite surprised that director Tom Ford chose to use the home at all in the movie. I would have assumed that he’d want to film at a house that, at the very least, had less windows. But what do I know? 😉

The Schaffer Residence also made an appearance in the ultra-strange 2005 dramedy Happy Endings as the residence where Charley (aka Steve Coogan) and Gil (David Sutcliffe) lived.

On a side note – If you want to see photographs of the house where Charley (aka Julianne Moore) lived in A Single Man, you can do so on MovieShotsLA.

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On another side note – A Single Man director Tom Ford also just so happens to be the designer behind my girl Jennifer Aniston’s favorite sunglasses – the “Tom Ford Jennifer sunglasses” (pictured above). Jen loves the glasses so much, in fact, that legend has it that Tom even named them after her. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to own a pair of those! 🙂

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Gary for finding this location! 🙂

Stalk It: The Schaffer Residence from A Single Man is located at 527 Whiting Woods Way in Glendale. You can check out the home’s real estate website here.

September 23, 2010
First Christian Church of North Hollywood – Where Phyllis Got Married on “The Office”

Brace yourselves, my fellow stalkers, ‘cause today’s post is going to be a long one! A few months back, I dragged my then-fiancé and my parents out to re-stalk the First Christian Church of North Hollywood – a location which is most commonly known as “the 7th Heaven church”, thanks to its recurring role as the Camden Family’s local parish throughout the Aaron Spelling series’ ten-year run. Even though I never watched 7th Heaven, I stalked and blogged about the church way back in April of 2008 after receiving a challenge to find it from my Aunt Lea. So, when the very same location popped up on new favorite show The Office as the spot where Phyllis Lapin (aka Phyllis Smith) married Bob Vance (aka Robert R. Shafer) – of Vance Refrigeration – in the Season 3 episode titled “Phyllis’ Wedding”, I decided I just had to re-stalk it and do a more in-depth write-up of its extensive filming history.

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The First Christian Church of North Hollywood was originally built in 1949 on the corner of Moorpark Street and Colfax Avenue in what is, contrary to what the name might suggest, actually Studio City. Construction on the 19,000-square foot, Colonial-style structure took just under a year to complete and the first mass was said there on March 12, 1950. Today the church boasts one of the largest Protestant congregations in the entire San Fernando Valley. Location scouts have long been drawn to the property, which includes a main sanctuary, several offices, a kitchen, a garden, a nursery school, a social hall, and a courtyard, for decades due to its Anytown, U.S.A.-style facade. Countless upon countless productions have been filmed there over the years – far too many for me to properly catalog here, but I’ll do my best to try. I must give major props to whoever runs the First Christian Church of North Hollywood website, by the way, because it boasts a very well-organized Film Shoots” page that chronicles all of the filming that has ever taken place there. Love it!

The “Phyllis’ Wedding” episode of The Office was filmed almost in its entirety on location at First Christian Church of North Hollywood and both the interior and the exterior of the property were used extensively in the production. The areas which appeared in the episode include the front entrance;

the entryway and front stairwell;

the main sanctuary;

the altar;

the social hall (which we unfortunately did not get to see);

the top of the exterior side stairwell, where Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) and Roy Anderson (aka David Denman) danced;

the north exterior side of the church, where Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) danced with Angela Martin (aka Angela Kinsey);

and the side courtyard, where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) “found” Phyllis’ Uncle Al (aka George Ives).

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention here that it is while in the First Christian Church of North Hollywood that Dwight utters fellow stalker Owen’s very favorite television line of all time. While filing into the church with the other wedding guests, Dwight turns to Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) and says, “Why are all these people here? There’s too many people on this earth. We need a new plague.” LOL LOL LOL Love it! So, of course I just had to stand in the exact spot where Dwight was standing during that scene and repeat his famous line.

As I mentioned above, the First Christian Church of North Hollywood is most well-known for its countless appearances on 7th Heaven where it popped up almost weekly during the series’ eleven season run.

It is also at First Christian Church that Indiana Jones (aka Harrison Ford) marries Marion Ravenwood (aka Karen Allen) while Mutt Williams (aka Shia LaBeouf) looks on at the end of 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Shia LaBeouf returned to First Christian Church that very same year to film his character’s brother’s funeral scene for the movie Eagle Eye.

The church was also where Barbara Keeley (aka Calista Flockhart) married Val Goldman (aka Dan Futterman) at the end of the 1996 movie The Birdcage.

In What About Bob?, the church was where Bob Wiley (aka Bill Murray) tied the knot with Lily Marvin (aka Fran Brill).

The church was also the wedding location in the music video for Katy Perry’s hit song “Hot & Cold” –

– which you can watch by clicking above.

Most recently, the church appeared in the Season 6 opener of How I Met Your Mother, which was titled “Big Days” and which aired this past Monday evening.

The First Christian Church of North Hollywood was also used in the movies Death Becomes Her, Nothing to Lose, and The Suburbans, and in episodes of United States of Tara, Desperate Housewives, Parks and Recreation, Samantha Who?, Crossing Jordan, Swingtown, Hart to Hart, Ghost Whisperer, Gilmore Girls, and Melrose Place.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The First Christian Church of North Hollywood is located at 4390 Colfax Avenue in Studio City. You can visit the church’s official website here. The areas of the church used in the “Phyllis’ Wedding” episode of The Office are denoted above. Pam and Roy danced at the top of the church’s north-side stairwell, which is located on Moorpark Street and is marked with the blue arrow above. The windows where Dwight and Angela danced are located just below the stairwell and a few feet east, also on Moorpark Street. Michael’s courtyard is located on Colfax Avenue, in between the main church building and the nursery school, and is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view. The social hall, where Bob and Phyllis held their wedding reception, is located on the second floor of the nursery school building.

September 22, 2010
The “It’s Complicated” House

This past weekend, I dragged my new husband out to Westlake Village to see a home that I’ve been absolutely dying to stalk ever since I tracked down its location a little over two months ago – the adobe-style ranch where Jane Adler (aka Meryl Streep) lived in the 2009 Nancy Meyers-directed romantic comedy It’s Complicated. I have been absolutely obsessed with Jane’s little Spanish-style bungalow ever since first laying eyes upon it while watching the flick back in July. Nancy Meyers has a true gift for choosing only the most beautiful homes to showcase in her films – from Diane Keaton’s beachside abode in Something’s Gotta Give to Kate Winslet’s English cottage in The Holiday to Steve Martin and family’s iconic white colonial residence in the Father of the Bride movies. I don’t think there’s a director out there who is better at scouting movie homes and that talent is nowhere more apparent than in It’s Complicated. The movie’s production designer, Jon Hutman, is quoted in the production notes as saying, “Nancy, perhaps more than any director I’ve worked with, comes to the table with a clear and specific vision of the world in which the story takes place.” She ends up translating that world to the screen and it becomes a place that her audiences want to live in, too. Which is why I think I became so obsessed with the It’s Complicated house – it is exactly the type of place I’d love to own myself someday.

And I am not alone in my desire. Ask anyone if they’ve seen It’s Complicated and the conversation invariably turns to Jane’s wooded, Spanish-style residence. So, it’s no surprise that I began cyber-stalking the place immediately upon finishing the movie. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t find much information about the home anywhere. The only real clues I had to go on were from the movie’s production notes, which stated that in real life the property had been built in the late 1920’s, was located in Thousand Oaks, and had belonged to several celebrities over the years, most notably comedian W.C. Fields.

   I had one other pretty big clue to go on, though – one that wasn’t mentioned in the film’s production notes. Throughout the movie, Jane’s house is shown to be surrounded by a long, white wooden fence. That type of fence pops up quite often in film and television productions and when it does, it is pretty much a dead giveaway that filming took place somewhere on Potrero Road.

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Potrero Road is an extremely long, meandering street that cuts through numerous ranch-style properties in the Thousand Oaks, Hidden Valley, and Westlake Village areas and, as you can see in the above photographs, is bordered on each side by low, white wooden fences just like Jane’s. So, I decided to begin my search there. And sure enough, about ten minutes into the hunt, I located Jane’s house! As it turns out, it is situated less than half a mile east of JMJ Ranch, which was featured in fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and the more recent Back-Up Plan with Jennifer Lopez.



Before stalking the house, I was convinced that some part of it would be visible from the street. As you can see in the above photographs, though, that was not really the case. Sadly, the residence is set quite a ways back from the road and is surrounded by massive oak trees which hide the home from view. 🙁 UGH!

But that’s why God created aerial images!

And while the aerial views of the home aren’t that great, as you can see in the above screen captures, the shape of the house and the shape of the pool match those of the real residence perfectly!

Only the exterior of the Potrero Road home was featured in the production. Sadly, the beautiful interior of Jane’s house was a set that existed solely on a soundstage at Brooklyn’s Broadway Stages. Nancy Meyers was so meticulously involved in the creation of the interior of Jane’s residence, though, that she even went so far as to hand pick the books that were stored on the character’s bookshelves. She says, “I’m very particular about what’s sitting on a table. I’ll walk around the set, saying, ‘Would she really be reading this book?’” It is that attention to detail that makes the home appear so warm and inviting. Sigh!

UPDATE – The It’s Complicated house is currently for sale. You can check out a YouTube video of it here.

On a side note – fellow stalker David from Spain recently alerted me to the fact that the Gene Autry Museum in Griffith Park is currently hosting an exhibit featuring clothing that once belonged to the King of Pop. The exhibit is entitled “How The West Was Worn, by Michael Jackson” and displays such iconic pieces as the silver-plated shoes he wore to the White House in 1990 and the guitar-clasp belt he wore on the “Beat It” album cover in 1982 (pictured above). You can find out more information about the exhibit here. Special thanks to David for telling me about this event, which I will, of course, be stalking! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The It’s Complicated house is located at 714 West Potrero Road in Westlake Village. JMJ Ranch, from Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and The Back-Up Plan, is located at 930 West Potrero Road in Thousand Oaks, just a half a mile west of the It’s Complicated house.

September 17, 2010
The “E.T.” House

Although I consider myself somewhat of a master stalker (not as good as fellow stalkers Owen, Mike, from MovieshotsLA, or Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, of course), for whatever reason, up until this past weekend I had yet to visit one of the most famous movie locations of them all – the home where Mary (aka Dee Wallace), Elliot (aka Henry Thomas), Michael (aka Robert MacNaughton), and Gertie (aka Drew Barrymore) lived in the 1982 classic film E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. I am not sure how, or even why, I avoided the location for as long as I did, but my best guess is that it is due to the fact that it is located in Tujunga, which is kind of out in the middle of nowhere, far from the areas I usually drag my husband out to stalk. In fact, up until this past Saturday afternoon, I had never actually set foot in the Crescenta Valley suburb, which is situated just north of Glendale and just east of Sunland. But, this weekend, while on our way home from doing some stalking in the Valley, a light bulb went off in my head and I asked my fiancé to take a little detour on the 210 Freeway so that I could finally, finally stalk the E.T. house.

It is absolutely amazing to me how iconic the E.T. home still is – almost thirty years after the movie was filmed! As the Grim Cheaper and I drove up the hill where the residence is located and the property came into view, we both immediately recognized not only the actual house, but the cul-de-sac and neighboring residences which surround it. Being that I haven’t seen E.T. in almost three decades (I only watched it once, when it first came out, and I became so hysterical when E.T. left Elliot that my parents had to drag me out of the auditorium kicking and screaming and I’ve never been able to re-watch it since), I find that to be absolutely amazing! The long, sloped driveway, the cul-de-sac, the mountains in the background – for better or for worse, those images of the house are indelibly engraved in my memories.

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Thankfully, the residence still looks extremely similar today to how it appeared back in 1982 when E.T. was filmed. The only real difference I noticed was the fact that the property is now dotted with large trees and shrubs, which wasn’t the case thirty years ago. At the time of the filming, the house was newly-built and therefore had very little foliage surrounding it. I cannot tell you how awesome it was for me to stalk a place I haven’t laid eyes on since 1982 and have it still look almost exactly the same now as it did then. Love it!

According to director McG’s DVD commentary, the house was also used in another Drew Barrymore flick – 2000’s Charlie’s Angels, as the residence where the character of Dylan Sanders falls after being shot by Eric Knox (aka Sam Rockwell). I find it incredibly cool that McG decided to shoot a scene at this location! Such a nice nod to the home’s iconic cinematic history.

The sliding glass door that Dylan knocks on in Charlie’s Angels can also be seen in several scenes in E.T.

For those who haven’t seen the above YouTube video, which chronicles most of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial’s filming locations, you really need to check it out! The video, which was put together by fellow stalker/filmmaker Herve Attia, artfully morphs clips of the movie with footage of how the locations look today. It is simply amazing to watch!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The E.T. house is located at 7121 Lonzo Street in Tujunga.

September 16, 2010
Griffith Observatory

A couple of months ago I dragged my parents and my then-fiancé/now husband out to Los Feliz to do some stalking of the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park – a place which I had never before visited despite having lived in Los Angeles for over a decade. I had actually wanted to stalk the Observatory for close to 18 years – ever since November of 1992, to be exact – thanks to the fact that it was featured in a Season 3 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210. But more on that later.

The land that now encompasses Griffith Park was donated to the City of Los Angeles by Welsh industrialist Colonel Griffith J. Griffith (and no, that was not a typo – the guy’s first name was actually the same as his last!) on December 16, 1896. Griffith stipulated that the donated parcel of land, which measured 3,015 acres, was to be used as a public park. He said, “It must be made a place of rest and relaxation for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people. I consider it my obligation to make Los Angeles a happy, cleaner, and finer city. I wish to pay my debt of duty in this way to the community in which I have prospered.” When Griffith passed away 26 years later, in 1919, he bequeathed the majority of his $1.5 million estate to the city for the purposes of building a theatre and an observatory inside of the park. Construction on the observatory, which was designed by architect John C. Austin and engineer Russell W. Porter, began on June 20th, 1933 and the building opened to the public just under two years later, on May 14, 1935.

The Griffith Observatory, which sits high atop Mount Hollywood, features a 300-seat state-of-the-art planetarium, a 2,700-square foot multimedia theatre, a Zeiss refracting telescope, an exhibit hall, and, as you can see above, views which are nothing short of incredible.

Hollywood location scouts took notice of the property right from the very beginning when it was chosen to appear in the 1935 movie The Phantom Empire shortly after its opening. Since that time, the Observatory has been featured in hundreds upon hundreds of productions – far too many for me to be able to properly catalog here, but I’ll do my best to give my fellow stalkers a broad overview.

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As I mentioned above, the Observatory was featured in a Season 3 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. That episode was titled “Rebel With A Cause” and it was, ironically enough, one of my least favorite episodes in the entire history of the series. The episode centers around the break-up of longtime couple Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry) and Brenda Walsh (aka my girl Shannen Doherty), immediately after which Dylan puts the moves on Brenda’s best friend Kelly Taylor (aka Jennie Garth). Mind you, Dylan and Kelly had also been seeing each other behind Brenda’s back for an entire summer at that point in the series. Dylan then decides to take Kelly out on a date – just two nights after his break-up with Brenda! – and when Brenda randomly catches the two of them together in a restaurant, she calls Kelly a “bimbo” and Kelly actually has the nerve to be mad at Brenda. I mean, HELLO, Kelly! Not only did you spend an entire summer making out with your BEST FRIEND’S boyfriend, but when said best friend and said boyfriend break-up, it’s not 48 hours later that you are out on a date with him. With friends like that, who needs enemies?? Let me tell you, had that happened to me, I would have been calling Kelly a whole lot worse things than “bimbo”. And yes, I realize Beverly Hills, 90210 is just a television show and that the “Rebel With A Cause” episode aired almost two decades ago, but the whole thing still seriously upsets me! But I digress. Anyway, in the episode, before taking her out to dinner, Dylan brings Kelly to the Griffith Observatory, where they watch a show in the planetarium.

After the show, the two little home-wreckers head outside for a heart-to-heart chat and, even though I was strongly opposed to the whole Kelly/Dylan romance, for whatever reason, it was the location of that chat that I was most interested in stalking.

I had a very difficult time locating the wall where Dylan and Kelly sat, though, as it is not in an easily-visible part of the building. It actually wasn’t until we were heading back to our car that I finally spotted the right place.

As it turns out, Kelly and Dylan’s wall is located in the eastern-most section of the Observatory. It is actually the wall to a ramp which leads to the back of the building and is located on the left-hand side of the Observatory (as you are facing it) and is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view.

The Observatory’s most famous onscreen appearance was, of course, in the 1955 James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause, which, amazingly enough, I have never actually seen! In the beginning of the flick, Jim (aka James Dean) and Judy (aka Natalie Wood), along with the rest of their high school class, go on a field trip to the Observatory where they watch a show in the planetarium.

And the very same wall from 90210 also appears in that scene.

Rebel’s final scene also takes place at the Observatory, but I do not want to post any screen caps of that scene as they would spoil the ending.

There is a statue of James Dean on display on the Observatory’s front lawn which commemorates the historic filming that took place there in 1955. So darn cool!

Griffith Observatory was also the site of the climatic scene in 1999’s hilarious comedy Bowfinger, in which renegade, wanna-be movie director Bowfinger (aka Steve Martin) and his ragamuffin film crew secretly tape Daisy (aka Heather Graham) and Kit Ramsey (aka Eddie Murphy) fighting off a fictitious band of aliens.

In the first Transformers movie, Mikaela Banes (aka Megan Fox) and Sam Witwicky (aka Shia LaBeouf) are at the Observatory when they witness a group of Transformers crash landing on earth in the form of meteorites.

In The Terminator, the Observatory is the spot where the Terminator (aka Arnold Schwarzenegger) first emerges from a time warp and begins his mission to kill Sarah Conner (aka Linda Hamilton).

In 2008’s Yes Man, the Observatory is the location of Allison’s (aka Zooey Deschanel’s) weekly jogging/photo class, during which Carl (aka Jim Carrey) crashes after drinking waaaaaaay too many Red Bull energy drinks.

It is also where Carl professes his love to Allison at the very end of the movie.

And it is during that ending scene that Carl and Allison run right by the exact spot where Beverly Hills, 90210 was filmed 16 years beforehand. 🙂

The scene in which Natalie Cook (aka Cameron Diaz), Dylan Sanders (aka Drew Barrymore) and Alex Munday (aka Lucy Liu) discover that Madison Lee (aka Demi Moore) is actually a fallen angel in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle takes place at the Observatory.

The observatory was also featured in the music video for Paula Abdul’s hit single “Rush Rush”, which was an homage to the movie Rebel Without a Cause.

You can watch the full video, which starred Keanu Reeves, by clicking above.

Griffith Observatory has also appeared in the movies Dragnet, Devil in a Blue Dress, The Rocketeer, House on Haunted Hill, Nancy Drew, and Earth Girls are Easy, and in episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles, 24, Star Trek Voyager, Alias, MacGyver, Melrose Place, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Colbys.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Griffith Observatory is located at 2800 East Observatory Road, inside of Griffith Park, in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles. You can visit the observatory’s official website here. Admission is free. The observatory is closed to the public on Mondays and Tuesdays.

September 14, 2010