Movie Locations – Page 32

May 1, 2009December 6, 2013

San Francisco City Hall

I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’ve read just about every biography on my girl Marilyn Monroe that’s ever been published. So, imagine my surprise when I came across an article the other day which stated that the starlet married her second husband, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, at San Francisco City Hall. How in the heck did I not know this before??? I grew up in San Francisco for Pete’s sake! City Hall was pretty much right in my own backyard! In fact, I even stalked the place back in October, during my last trip to the City by the Bay. I had yet to blog about it, though, because it was extremely windy the day I was there and I only got out of the car long enough to take one photograph – the one pictured above. Check out my hair! LOL So, the other day, after reading about Marilyn’s San Francisco wedding, I sent my good friend Nat, who lives in the area, on a stalking mission to take photographs of City Hall for me, so that I could finally blog about it. 🙂 Here goes!

San Francisco City Hall was built in 1915 by architect Arthur Brown, Jr., who also designed Coit Tower, the War Memorial Opera House and Pasadena City Hall. The Beaux-Arts style building that stands today is actually San Francisco’s second City Hall. The first, which was built in 1899 and stood at the corner of Grove and Larkin Streets where the public library is now located, was completely destroyed during the 1906 earthquake. Rescue workers were able to salvage the statue that stood atop of the original City Hall’s dome and planned on placing it on the new building. Unfortunately, the statue fell off the back of a flat bed truck while being transported to its new location and was destroyed. LOL LOL LOL How’s that for irony?? The current City Hall measures over 500,000 square feet, takes up two entire city blocks, and cost over $3.5 million to build! Over ten acres of marble were used in the construction. The building’s dome stands at 307.5 feet tall, trumping Washington D.C.’s Capital Building’s dome by 14 inches.

Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio’s wedding took place on January 14, 1954 in the third floor chambers of Judge Charles S. Perry, who was a close friend of Joe’s. DiMaggio’s other good friend Reno Barsocchini and his former manager Lefty O’Doul were the couple’s only guests. Sadly, the marriage was short-lived. Marilyn filed for divorce only 274 days later. City Hall is also the location where Mayor George Moscone and County Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot to death by Dan White on November 27, 1978.

San Francisco City Hall has been featured in countless movies and television shows over the years. The interior of the building’s rotunda showed up at the very end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where it stood in for the Washington D.C. building where Indiana Jones agreed to let Marion Ravenwood buy him a drink (pictured above). City Hall was also used in Bedazzled, The Rock, A View to a Kill, Dirty Harry, Milk, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, The Towering Inferno, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dharma and Greg (in the “Much Ado During Nothing” episode), Foul Play, and Bicentennial Man, just to name a few!

I highly recommend stalking San Francisco City Hall. It is an absolutely beautiful building and just seeing the dome alone in person is worth a drive by! And, although I didn’t venture inside while I was stalking the place, the first floor area is open to the public. Free tours are also given three times daily, Monday through Friday, at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., and 2 p.m. San Francisco City Guides also offers free interior tours of City Hall every Thursday at 11:00 a.m. You can visit their website for further details.

Big THANK YOU to my surrogate stalker Nat who took all of the above photos. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: San Francisco City Hall is located at 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place in San Francisco.

April 24, 2009April 23, 2009

On Location With “Peep World”!

Yesterday, while heading to fave bookstore Vroman’s to pick up a stalking book I had special ordered, I happened upon a small crew filming on the sidewalk at the store’s entrance. One of the policemen on duty was extremely nice and told me that the movie being filmed was a low-budget indie entitled Peep World. The flick actually has a great cast including Sarah Silverman, Michael C. Hall (who plays Dexter on the Showtime series of the same name), and The Office’s Rainn Wilson, but unfortunately none of them were on hand while I was there. I was actually really hoping Michael C. Hall would show up as I love me some Dexter, but, alas, that was not to be.

The only actors on set that I saw were Ben Schwartz (from I Hate Valentine’s Day);

and Kate Mara (who starred in the movies Shooter and We Are Marshall). I didn’t recognize either of them, though, which is surprising being that I usually recognize anyone and everyone. 🙂 At first, I actually thought that Kate Mara was Joanna Garcia from TV’s Privileged, as the two look strikingly alike!

I only stuck around to watch the filming for about ten minutes because, sadly, the crew was NOT at all nice or friendly. One of the production guys actually tried to feed me some nonsense about it being illegal for me to take pictures of the production. But being that I was standing on a public sidewalk, talking to the policeman on duty while taking those pictures, the guy pretty much didn’t have a leg to stand on. LOL Oddly enough, some paparazzi were also on the scene taking pics and one of the crew members had a policeman ask them to leave. HUH???? Wouldn’t you think that a low budget movie would want all the publicity it could get???? I am actually shocked that the paparazzi were even there to begin with, as no one even remotely famous was on the set. It’s always such a bummer to me when film crews aren’t friendly. I find it quite ironic that the crew of a fairly low-budget indie film would be so rude, when one would expect the opposite to be true. In my experience, though, it is the big budget, A-List crews that are the nicest. Oh well, I just have to resign myself to the fact that not all film crews are as friendly as the crew of CSI: Miami.

Surprisingly enough, I also got bored quite quickly while watching the filming. And for me to get bored on a film set is almost unheard of! But nothing much was really going on. The crew was also so disorganized that it was almost comical. They scene they were filming involved a taxi carrying Ben Schwartz pulling up to Vroman’s front entrance. But because no one from the crew was stationed on the sidewalk to stop cars from entering the filming area, quite a few people were driving up and parking in the exact spot where the taxi cab was supposed to go. LOL They actually had to repeatedly stop filming to ask the drivers to move. During one take, when an older gentleman tried to walk past the camera, a crew member put his hand out and whispered “Can you hold on a minute?” The man, who was obviously hard of hearing due to his age, said really loudly “WHAT?” LOL LOL LOL So, at least I got a few laughs out of watching the filming. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. You can visit their website here.

April 13, 2009November 24, 2013

The L.A. Confidential Liquor Store

Got an email a few weeks back from fellow stalker Tracey who gave me the address of a film location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I had been trying to find for months – the liquor store from the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential! Mike and I had known from doing some online research that the liquor store featured in the movie was not actually real. Instead, producers had built a fake liquor store inside of a real storefront somewhere in the L.A. area. According to this film locations book, that storefront was located somewhere on Larchmont Avenue, but as so often happens with location books, that information was not correct. Mike and I had actually driven up and down Larchmont Avenue several times one day looking for the storefront without any luck. We even stopped in and spoke with the editor of the Larchmont Chronicle to see if she knew where the filming of the liquor shop scenes had taken place. LOL It wasn’t long before we figured out that the L.A. Confidential liquor store was not actually located on Larchmont Avenue and for a while the two of us put the liquor store quest on the back burner.

So you can imagine how excited I was to receive an email from one of my readers named Tracey, who, after several years of being on the prowl for the elusive liquor store, had finally located it! Turns out she had taken a surface street to work one morning hoping to avoid freeway traffic and, lo and behold, drove right past the liquor store and recognized it immediately! Yay! It’s amazing how often that actually happens. You spend hours upon hours seaching high and low for a location, only to randomly drive by it one day. In this city, you’ve just gotta keep your eyes open! 🙂 In real life the L.A. Confidential liquor store is a furniture repair store named Ramon’s Cane Shop. And it looks like it has been around forever. (In the above photo I am actually standing in front of the wrong storefront. I’m such a blond! Although in real life both storefronts are occupied by Ramon’s Cane Shop, in L.A. Confidential only the middle storefront was used.)

The liquor store shows up twice in L.A. Confidential. It is first featured in the scene when Bud White, while picking up some liquor for a Christmas party, first lays eyes on Veronica Lake lookalike Lynn Bracken.

After leaving the liquor store, Bud spots Pierce Patchett’s car with what appears to be a very beat up Susan Lefferts inside. A brief fight ensues before Lynn Bracken walks outside and explains that all is not as it seems. In the scene, Pierce’s car was parked in the driveway of a parking lot located just to the left of Ramon’s Cane Shop.

The liquor store pops up once again a bit later on in the movie, when Bud White stops by to try to dig up some information on Lynn Bracken.

I must say it was VERY cool to be stalking the L.A. Confidential liquor store, especially since – aside from the fact that it’s not really a liquor store – it looks pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen. Sadly, though, the shop was closed when we were stalking it, and since the windows were completely covered, I didn’t get to peek inside. Looks like I’ll have to take another stalking trip out there!! Big, big THANK YOU to Tracey for tipping me off to this location. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The L.A. Confidential liquor store, aka Ramon’s Cane Shop, is located at 1279 South Cochran Avenue in Los Angeles. The area where Pierce Patchett’s car was parked when Bud White confronts him is located just to the left of the cane shop.

April 6, 2009April 6, 2009

The El Royale Motel

A couple of weeks ago while doing some Valley stalking, my boyfriend and I happened to drive by a small motel named the El Royale and I immediately recognized it from this page on the Seeing Stars website. I didn’t watch the Fourth Season of The O.C. (even though I do love me some Benjamin McKenzie!), but apparently the El Royale Motel was used in the second episode of that season. In the episode, entitled “The Gringos”, Ryan and Seth follow Volchok down to Ensenada, Mexico to try to avenge Marissa’s death. While there they check into the El Royale.

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Interestingly enough, though, it appears that the El Royale was used only for establishing shots of their motel and that no actual filming took place there. You can see in the above screen captures that the interiors of Ryan and Seth’s room don’t match the exteriors of the El Royale. For example, when Ryan and Seth enter the motel room, you can see an interior hallway behind them. The El Royale does not actually have any interior hallways. Ryan and Seth’s motel room window is also small and flat and does not match the popped out picture windows that exist at the real El Royale. My best guess is that the interior of their room was a set that existed only on a soundstage.

The El Royale also made an appearance in the 1997 Marky-Mark film Boogie Nights (pictured above). It was used as the location where Duke and Reed plan the drug scam they are going to pull on Rahad. In Boogie Nights, as with The O.C., it appears that only the exteriors of the motel were used, as once again, the interior shots don’t match up to what the motel really looks like.

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The El Royale was also featured in the movies Angel and Fool For Love. But since I have not seen either of them, I am not sure whether only the El Royale exteriors were used or if some interior filming took place there, as well.

One of the few productions that did actually film inside of an El Royale Motel room, is the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In a Season 9 episode of the show entitled “Kill Me If You Can”, a woman is found dead inside of one of the El Royale bungalows, leaving behind a desert tortoise named Gareth as the only witness to the crime (pictured above).

The El Royale is a very unusual little motel, with about 15 tiny bungalows situated around an empty cement lot. Each bungalow has its own entrance and carport. It is easy to see why the El Royale has been used so often in film and television productions as it definitely gives off a seedy motel vibe. I do recommend stalking it, though, as it is such a unique spot and seeing it in person will make you feel as if you’ve stepped back in time to a different era.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The El Royale Motel is located at 11117 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.

April 1, 2009March 31, 2009

The Bradbury Building

While serving on jury duty a few years back, I had the opportunity to visit one of the most incredible buildings I’ve ever seen in my life. Since jurors are oftentimes given incredibly long lunches (sometimes lasting over two and a half hours!!), the jury orientation paperwork includes a list of some “Things To Do” in the area. On that list was the Bradbury Building, which is located just a few short blocks away from the L.A. courthouse. Thanks to its prominent appearance in the 1982 science fiction flick Blade Runner, the Bradbury is quite famous among film location buffs – it’s listed in pretty much every book ever written on the subject. But surprisingly, I had never visited the building myself. I am not into the science fiction genre and have never seen Blade Runner, so I wasn’t ever really interested in visiting the building in person. But since I was only a few blocks away during my three day stint as a juror, I figured I may as well take a gander.

And I am so thankful I did! While the building is fairly non-descript on the outside, its interior is nothing short of AMAZING. The Bradbury was built in 1893 by millionaire real estate developer Lewis Bradbury. Mr. Bradbury was in poor health at the time and wanted to create a building that would be a sort of monument to himself before he passed away. He first enlisted architect Sumner Hunt to design a suitable building, but when none of Sumner’s designs were exceptional enough, Bradbury looked to one of Sumner’s young assistants. That assistant, George Wyman, was only 32 years old at the time and possessed virtually no architectural or design experience to speak of. Perhaps realizing this, Wyman at first turned Bradbury down. Thankfully, his dead brother Mark stepped in, eventually changing his mind. Yes, you read that right. George and his wife “consulted” with Mark via a planchette board (aka a spirit board) upon which Mark wrote “Take Bradbury Building. It will make you famous.” And the rest is architectural history.

Wyman’s inspiration for the design of the legendary building actually came from a science fiction book written in 1887 named Looking Backward From 2000 to 1887. In the book, author Edward Bellamy wrote that the typical office building in the year 2000 was a “vast hall full of light, received not alone from the windows on all sides, but from the dome, the point of which was a hundred feet above . . . The walls were frescoed in mallow tints, to soften without absorbing the light which flooded the interior.” It’s amazing to me that a building built 116 years ago, inspired by a book written 122 years ago, remains awe-inspiring to this day.

And awe-inspiring it truly is! Pictures honestly don’t do the amazing architecture of this building justice. It has to be seen in person to be truly appreciated. The building’s central courtyard is covered by a five story high peaked glass roof, which “Arts and Architecture Magazine” called “a fairytale of mathematics”. The roof bathes the entire interior of the building in a soft natural light. Lewis spared absolutely no expense in the making of his monument – the Bradbury’s walls are made of a glazed brick, the floors are covered in Mexican tile, and the stairs are carved out of Belgium marble. But by far, the building’s most gorgeous element is the lavish wrought iron detailing that is located throughout.

The building’s two open cage elevators are also housed by beautiful wrought iron detailing. The Bradbury definitely turned out to be the extraordinary monument that Lewis Bradbury set out to build. Unfortunately, he passed away three months before seeing its completion. All in all the Bradbury cost $500,000 to construct.

The building’s unique architecture and abundance of natural light have long made it a favorite of location scouts. The Bradbury Building was featured most prominently in the 1982 movie Blade Runner, where it was used as the apartment building of J.F. Sebastian. In the movie, the real name of the building is used, but the exterior looks nothing like it does in real life (pictured above). It is quite ironic to me that the Bradbury was chosen to be used in Blade Runner, as producers made the interior, which is so famous for its light, look so incredibly dark.

The historic building was also featured in Chinatown, Good Neighbor Sam (as Jack Lemmon’s hotel), Double Indemnity, D.O.A., Mr. Wrong (as Dean Stockwell’s office), Pushing Daisies (as Ned and Chuck’s apartment building), Quantum Leap, Pay It Forward, Wolf (as Jack Nicholson’s office), Disclosure, Lethal Weapon 4 (as Joe Pesci’s dentist’s office – pictured above), Murder in the First (as Christian Slater’s law office), the television series Pasadena (as the Los Angeles Sun’s newspaper office), as well as countless others. The ground floor of the building is home to Ross Cutlery – the knife store where O.J. Simpson allegedly purchased a 12-inch stilleto knife three weeks before the murders of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Simpson.

The Bradbury is also used quite often for photography shoots. While out stalking in Downtown L.A. last weekend, I dragged my boyfriend and my parents to the building, where we stumbled upon the band Shattered Atom posing for photographs for their new album cover (pictured above).

A statue of Charlie Chaplin, on loan from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, is currently on display just inside the Bradbury Building’s side entrance.

I HIGHLY recommend stalking the Bradbury Building. In fact, it should be a “must see” location for both natives and tourists of Los Angeles alike. It is a truly amazing, literally breathtaking structure, like nothing I have ever seen anywhere else in my life. Even if you are not a filming locations buff, I can pretty much guarantee you will be a fan of this building and its awe-inspiring architecture.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Bradbury Building is located at 304 South Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles. The building’s first floor and courtyard area are open to the public daily.

March 31, 2009March 30, 2009

The Belasco Theatre

During my three day stint as an extra in the Britney Spears movie Crossroads, I happened to make friends with a few of the crew members. The entire cast and crew of the movie was EXTREMELY nice and, as tends to happen on long shoots, I got to know the people I was working with quite well. As I was saying goodbye to my new friends on my last day of being a Crossroads extra, one of the cameramen invited me to watch the following day’s shoot which was taking place at an old theatre in Downtown Los Angeles. It was going to be the very last day of filming on Crossroads and since the cameraman knew what a huge BritBrit fan I was, he invited me to spend the day on the set.

Getting to watch the final day of the filming of Crossroads was an incredible experience for me. Filming took place at a beautiful old theatre named the Belasco. Just being in that space was an amazing opportunity – let alone being there to watch Britney Spears perform. 🙂 The scene being filmed on that final day was the Hollywood singing contest that Britney and her friends compete in at the very end of the movie. Basically, for the entire twelve hours that I spent on the set that day, I got to sit around and watch Britney Spears sing live both “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman” and “Overprotected”. Most of the filming that day was done without any extras in attendance – and because of the way the cameras were positioned, I was allowed to sit on the steps leading up to the stage and watch what pretty much amounted to my very own private Britney Spears concert. I’m not kidding – it was absolutely A-MA-ZING!!! And, once again, I was literally pinching myself the whole time. I could NOT believe I was actually sitting there, an audience of one, less than two feet from my idol, watching her perform two unreleased songs live and in person. For me, it was a once in a lifetime! I half expected to wake up at any moment in my bed at home – the whole experience having been just a dream. I mean things like that just don’t happen in real life! And even though I don’t still adore Britney as I once did, I will always cherish my memories from that day. You can watch part of the scene that was filmed at the Belasco Theatre here.

The Belasco Theatre was built in 1926 by theatre producers David and Edward Belasco. The Spanish Baroque style theatre was originally a live performance venue. Its premiere show? Gentlemen Prefer Blondes – a play written by Anita Loos which would later become a movie musical starring my girl Marilyn. 🙂 Over the years, after falling upon hard times and closing its doors for a period, the Belasco was used as both an exotic movie house and a church. The building was just recently sold last year and was completely restored to its original grandeur by its new owner. At this time it’s unclear what is being done with the historic theatre, but some online reports speculate that it might become a nightclub.

Besides Crossroads, other productions that have filmed at the historic Belasco Theatre include Swordfish (where it was used as John Travolta’s lair – pictured above), The Prestige, Memoirs of a Geisha, Being John Malkovich, Midnight Frolics, and the television series Fastlane.

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The Belasco Theatre is incredible beautiful inside, but, sadly, it is currently closed to the public. I can’t really recommend stalking the exterior of the theatre, either, as it is fairly non-descript. You could easily drive right by without even noticing it. But if you ever have the opportunity to see the interior in person, I highly recommend it! In the meantime, you can cyberstalk the interior here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Belasco Theatre is located at 1050 South Hill Street in Downtown Los Angeles.

March 30, 2009April 6, 2009

Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do

Back before she was going shoeless in public restrooms and flashing her privates to anyone with a camera, I was majorly obsessed with pop princess Britney Spears. The hair, the cute little outfits, her music – I absolutely loved everything about the girl! I attended her 2001 Live From Las Vegas concert event, I learned the steps to “Oops! . . . I Did It Again“ and performed a mini-Britney concert with some of my sixth grade students back when I was a substitute teacher, and I dressed up like her every chance I got. The above photo is from a Christmas costume party back in 2000 when I dressed up like Britney and made my good friend Ty dress up like Justin Timberlake. He’s such a big guy, though, that everyone thought he was supposed to be Britney Spears security. LOL

So, in Spring of 2001, when a co-worker of mine told me that her good friend was responsible for casting the extras in all of Britney’s music videos, I almost died on the spot! I begged her to pass my phone number on to her friend in the hopes that maybe someday she’d hire me as an extra and I’d get to see my idol in person. Well, not three days later I got a call from the friend asking if I wanted to do background work in the Britney Spears MOVIE that was currently filming. I’ll never forget standing there screaming “Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god!” into the phone, and the friend saying – a bit nervously – “OK, you can’t do that once you get to the set!” LOL So, bright and early the next morning I set out for a three day shoot on the set of the Britney Spears movie. And I really could not have been more excited!

Britney’s movie was originally entitled What Are Friends For and the scene being filmed was the karaoke contest scene where BritBrit and her friends sang Joan Jett’s famous “I Love Rock N’ Roll” in the fictional Club Bayou, which was supposedly located in New Orleans. In reality, though, the club where Britney performed is named Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do and is located just off the 10 Freeway in Los Angeles. Even though quite a bit of Crossroads was actually filmed in Louisiana, the karaoke scene was filmed in L.A. Go figure. You can see the exterior of the fictional Club Bayou which is shown in the movie and the exterior of the real club where filming took place above.

The filming of the karaoke scene took three long days to complete, but, of course, I was loving every minute of it! I think it is pretty much safe to say, though, that no other extra was quite as excited to be there as I was. 🙂 During the three day shoot I made friends with a few of the background actors and they all teased me incessantly over my love for BritBrit. LOL Needless to say they weren’t big fans of hers. 🙂 (Pictured above are my group of extra friends hanging out on the set – I’m the one in the middle. This was long before I cut my hair and dyed it blond, so I look a bit different today.) If I remember correctly, there were about 75-100 extras hired for the karaoke scene and right before filming began one of the assistant directors gave us each an exact place to stand during the scene and told us what we were to be doing. As I was getting my instructions, a very thin blond woman came up to me and introduced herself. She told me that she LOVED my outfit and that she wanted me to be sitting front and center during Britney’s performance. She led me over to the bar area, just a few feet away from where Britney would be performing, and sat me next to an actor wearing a blue shirt. Well, it turns out that the thin blond woman was Crossroads director Tamra Davis and the actor she sat me next to was Britney’s love interest in the film, Anson Mount!!!!

Needless to say I was THRILLED!!! Not only was I sitting thisclose to Britney while she was performing onstage, but I was also right next to the movie’s lead actor! Ironically, the outfit that director Tamra Davis so loved wasn’t what I had originally intended to wear that morning. (A little known fact – 95% of the time movie and TV extras wear their own clothes during filming.) All Crossroads extras were told to wear New Orlean’s style club attire to the shoot. And on the morning of my first day on the set I had put on something entirely different. But my mom stopped me as I had one foot out the door and said “You don’t look very New Orleansy. Why don’t you wear that cute halter top you got in Hawaii with your blue capris.” Well, of course, I argued with her as I thought the shirt and pants she was talking about didn’t really match, but in the end she won out. And, as luck would have it, had I not worn that outfit I never would have gotten noticed by Tamra Davis. The moral of the story? Ladies – always listen to your mother! 🙂 As a result of my mother’s foresite, not only did I have a front row seat for Britney, but I also got considerable screen-time in the movie. 🙂 (That’s me next to Anson Mount in the above screen capture.)

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When I first saw Crossroads I just about died as you can see me quite a bit in the karaoke scene. Being that I was such a HUGE fan of Britney, it was pretty darn cool that I shared my big screen debut with her. 🙂

And let me tell you, filming that scene was quite an experience. For pretty much three days straight I sat around watching Britney perform “I Love Rock N’ Roll” on a stage that was about two feet away from me! I was literally pinching myself the whole time thinking “I’m getting paid for this????” You have to remember that this was at the height of Britney’s career – she still had that cutesy, good girl image, “Oops! . . . I Did It Again” was multi-platinum, and she and Justin Timberlake were madly in love. I mean, do you know how many 13 year old girls would have died to have been in my shoes! I was 24 at the time, but that’s besides the point. LOL 🙂 The highlight of the filming for me was when Britney Spears, Pop Princess!!!! actually started a conversation with me! I am amazed I was even able to get any words out to talk to her. LOL During one of the many breaks from filming, BritBrit walked right up to me with a big smile on her face and asked me what I was doing with my drink. I had actually been sticking my finger in the drink I was holding playing with the fake ice in my glass. In movies and television, whenever anyone is drinking, the ice in their glass isn’t real – fake ice made out of a gelatin formula is used. Real ice has a tendency to clink against glasses, thereby making noise and disrupting filming. So clear jello-like cubes are used instead – and, boy, are they fun to play with! When I told Britney this, she started laughing hysterically and said “Oh mah gawd, you’re so funny!” Apparently, she thought this was the funniest thing she had heard in a long time. LOL It really wasn’t all that funny, but I was on cloud nine, nonetheless. Britney Spears thought I was funny!!!! 🙂 BritBrit was very nice, fairly quiet, and extremely down to earth. It almost seemed as if she had no idea how truly famous she really was. She also spoke with a very heavy Southern accent, which I wasn’t expecting. And I have to say that while she seemed very sweet and SUPER cute in person, it was quite obvious that she’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. 🙂

For me, being an extra in Crossroads was an AMAZING experience. It was truly everything I hoped it would be. I’m am so lucky it was my first movie experience, as it was such a good one. And while the actual movie didn’t turn out that great, I will always look back on my time working on it with fondness.

You can watch the entire “I Love Rock N’ Roll” scene here.

I can’t really recommend stopping by Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do for a drink as the only time I ever visited it was while we were filming. Since I’m not really a clubbin’ kind of girl, I’ve never been back to check it out. But if you’re into that kind of thing, it seems like a pretty cool place to grab a drink. The Fais Do-Do (which means “Nighty-Night” in French) building was originally constructed in 1930 and at the time housed the First Citizens Savings Bank and Trust. The club, which definitely has a New Orlean’s vibe to it, has remained a popular nighttime hotspot since its opening in 1990.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Cafe-Club Fais Do-Do is located at 5257 W. Adams Boulevard in Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.

March 27, 2009March 29, 2009

Hilton Checkers Hotel

A few months ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, scored the two of us invites to a party and silent auction being held by the Location Managers Guild of America. We had a fab time at the party and got to meet many location scouts, none of whom had any idea that there were people like us out there obsessed with movie and television locations. LOL Anyway, the highlight of that evening was when I placed the winning bid on a one night stay in the Penthouse Suite of the Hilton Checkers Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles for the bargain price of $160! I’m not kidding! So this past weekend my boyfriend and I cashed in on our big win and spent a night in luxury at the historic boutique hotel.

On its website the Hilton Checkers Hotel touts itself as being Downtown Los Angeles’ only four diamond boutique hotel – and, let me tell you, it didn’t disappoint! Checkers was originally built in the 1920s and was called “The Mayflower”. The boutique hotel, which stands at twelve stories high, was built at a time when the City of Los Angeles did not allow any buildings in the Downtown area to have more than twelve floors. In 1984, the hotel was completely renovated and remodeled and given it’s current moniker. For a time it was owned privately and then was sold to Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. When it was purchased by the Hilton Hotel chain in 2002, it took on the name Hilton Checkers.

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Checkers Hotel has two Penthouse Suites – one each on its 11th and 12th floors – and I can’t tell you how excited I was to be staying in one of them! Besides soon-to-be-famous actress Lindsay Blake :), numerous other celebs have stayed in the hotel’s Penthouse Suites over the years, including Jim Carrey (who lived in one while he was filming the movie Man on the Moon), Carol Burnett (who also resided in one for a few months during her stint at the Ahmanson Theatre performing in Putting It Together), Ray Charles, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith (who were recent guests), and Cher (who books a Penthouse each year when she’s in town for the Grammys).

Both of the Checkers’ Penthouse Suites are identical in size and decor. Each boasts two bathrooms, a separate bedroom with a desk and reading chair,

a separate dining room with a marble table that seats eight,

and a large living room complete with a fireplace and big screen plasma TV.

Besides celebs, dignitaries have also been known to visit the hotel. According to the book Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles Alive!, in 1992 President Richard Nixon and Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev had a meeting in the Checkers’ Library (pictured above).

And, of course, Checkers is also a popular filming location! The hotel was featured twice in a Season One episode of fave television show Shark. In the episode, entitled “Fashion Police”, Sebastian Stark dines at the hotel’s award winning restaurant, named Checkers Downtown, with the mayor.

Later on in the episode, Stark arrests fashion designer Z Pruitt (played by Diedrich Bader) at a lingerie party being held at Checker’s rooftop pool.

Other productions filmed at the hotel include Heroes, which used Checker’s front entrance, and the now-canceled What About Brian, which filmed in the lobby area. In 2003’s A View From The Top, Checkers stood in for the Paris hotel where Gwyneth Paltrow stays on a layover. Paula Abdul and a few of this season’s Idols just recently filmed a segment by the hotel’s pool. And Dancing With The Stars has also shot numerous segments at the hotel. Just last week Carson Daily filmed a television interview about the birth of his son in the Checkers Lounge (pictured above). And Stefanie Powers, of Hart to Hart fame, has filmed numerous PBS specials onsite.

I HIGHLY recommend stalking Checkers! It’s a really beautiful hotel and I wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again. And if you can swing it, I’d definitely recommend booking a Penthouse room! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Hilton Checkers Hotel is located at 535 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.

March 25, 2009March 24, 2009

Olvera Street

This weekend I dragged my boyfriend and my parents out to stalk a street that is known as the “birthplace of Los Angeles”. The historic Olvera Street outdoor marketplace has long been a popular tourist attraction and filming location. But its history began over 200 years ago when the area was built by early Spanish settlers. At that time it was the center of Hispanic life in Southern California and consisted of a church, a town plaza, and several adobe homes all surrounding a tiny lane known as Wine Street. In 1877, that small street was lengthened and given its current moniker, Olvera Street, named for Augustin Olvera, the very first Superior Court Judge of Los Angeles County. Beginning in the 1880’s, Olvera street fell into serious disrepair and was a haven for Los Angeles’ poor and disenchanted. It remained that way until the year 1926 when a woman named Christine Sterling came along and vowed to restore it.

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It was Christine’s idea to turn Olvera Street, which at the time was little more than a backstreet alley, into the bustling Mexican marketplace that it is today. She garnered support from Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler and many local businesses and literally took on City Hall to restore the former plaza. Christine’s vision was realized on Easter Sunday of 1930 when the Olvera Street Marketplace opened to the public. She marketed it as “A Mexican Street of Yesterday in a City of Today.” Christine’s marketplace became a virtual overnight success. And amazingly that success has held steady for almost 80 years – today over 2 million tourists a year visit Olvera Street!

Today’s Olvera Street is a bustling Mexican marketplace bursting with colorful displays, authentic restaurants, hanging pinatas, and ancient adobe structures. A visit to Olvera Street also includes a history lesson of sorts – there are twenty-seven historic buildings which line the marketplace, including Avila Adobe, which is the oldest Los Angeles home still in existence. In 1953, Olvera Street and its neighboring plaza, which together are known as El Pueblo de Los Angeles, were named a California State Historic Landmark.

Ever since its opening in 1930 celebrities have flocked to the tiny marketplace. Everyone from Albert Einstein, Gretta Garbo, and Buster Keaton to Ben Kingsley, Oscar De La Hoya, and Art Linkletter in recent years have visited the marketplace. In the early days of Hollywood stars such as Rita Hayworth, Lauren Bacall, and Humphrey Bogart frequented Olvera Street’s many restaurants, which at the time doubled as afterhours nightclubs. Numerous American Presidents and their wives have also shopped at the marketplace, including Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Richard and Pat Nixon, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

And, of course, there’s also the movies! Location scouts have been in love with the Mexican marketplace since 1921 when it was featured in the Charlie Chaplin movie The Kid as the location where The Tramp rescues “the kid” from a welfare office.

Olvera Street also popped up in Lethal Weapon 3. It’s the place where Riggs and Murtaugh are assigned to work patrol after inadvertently blowing up a building.

The courtyard of the Avila Adobe stood in for Bogota, Columbia in Mr. and Mrs. Smith in the scene where the two little homewreckers dance at the beginning of the movie. “Not a lot of people get to see a movie where their parents fell in love.” Ugh, spare me, Angelina! LOL

The marketplace has also appeared in Death Wish II, True Confessions, Sea Biscuit, and A Street of Memory.

But Olvera Street’s connection with the movie business doesn’t end there! Located right in the middle of the marketplace is a small shop called Murillo Leather, where owner Armando Murillo (pictured above), a second generation leather craftsman, creates handmade items like bracelets, belts, bags, and saddles. While stalking Olvera Street, my dad stopped into Murillo’s to look for a saddlebag for his Harley (otherwise known as “H”) and, like a moth to a flame, my eyes immediately went to some magazine photographs of Jessica Simpson hanging on the wall.

It turns out that Armando made all of Jessica’s belts and purses for the movie Dukes of Hazzard and sells replicas of them in his shop. Apparently, Johnny Knoxville had long been a fan of the historic leather shop and before filming on Dukes of Hazzard began recommended Armando to the costume team. And the rest is celluloid history. 🙂 You can see Jessica’s belts above. Now I have to say that Jessica Simpson is my least favorite celebrity. I absolutely cannot stand the girl! But, let me tell you, I love her Dukes of Hazzard belt! 🙂

So much so, in fact, that I just had to buy one for myself! 🙂 And I absolutely love it!!! That’s me posing with my new belt in the above pic. 🙂 Besides Dukes of Hazzard, Armando also made the leather items for the movie There Will Be Blood. When his father, Manuel, owned the shop, he made several items for Clint Eastwood that were also worn in movies. If you happen to stalk Olvera Street, a visit to Murillo Leather is a MUST! Armando is THE nicest guy and makes really beautiful belts, cuffs, purses, and even shoes. You can bet I will be going back there regularly to shop! 🙂

I can’t recommend stalking Olvera Street enough. It is a really fun way to spend a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Besides the shops, there are several excellent restaurants located in the marketplace – and they all serve up the BEST taquitos I have ever had!!!!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Olvera Street is located just off East Chesar E. Chavez Avenue, in between North Alameda and North Main Streets, in Downtown Los Angeles. Murillo’s Leather – maker of the Daisy Duke belts – is located at W-6 Olvera Street. The Mentalist’s CBI Headquarters building is located just across the plaza from Olvera Street at 430 North Main Street.

March 16, 2009April 3, 2009

The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton Motel

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I heart Josh Duhamel! Sigh! So, last week, on a whim, I decided to do some stalking of fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton. A few years back I had read on IMDB that Win A Date was shot almost entirely on location in a small town called Fayetteville, West Virginia. But since I knew that at least one Win A Date scene (the diner scene) was actually filmed in Los Angeles, I decided to do a little digging to see if I could find some other Tad Hamilton filming locales in the L.A. area. So I popped in my Win A Date DVD and watched the special features to see if they uncovered any behind the scenes info. And, lo and behold, according to the DVD’s production notes it turns out that the ENTIRE movie was filmed in Southern California. Apparently, West Virginia was only used for a few brief set-up shots. That’s the last time I ever listen to IMDB! 🙂

Once I discovered that significant piece of information, I immediately began searching for the small motel Tad stays at while visiting Rosalee in the film. I don’t know why, but it has always been a dream of mine to stalk that hotel. I know, I know – it’s kind of a silly stalking dream being that the motel is small, old, and fairly dingy. But ever since I first watched Win A Date, I have vowed to someday make a special trip out to West Virginia to stalk the Bide-A-Way Motel, as it was called in the film. Well it turns out I didn’t need to go clear across the country to do so. Like Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, my “heart’s desire was right in my own backyard.” 🙂

While watching the movie I had noticed the address number 2413 on the front of the motel. So I started googling “2413” and “Los Angeles motel” and almost immediately was directed to a small inn named La Crescenta, located in – you guessed it – La Crescenta. And literally five seconds later I was in my car on my way out to stalk the place. 🙂 La Crescenta Motel, which was formerly known as the May-Lane Motel, was built in 1946 by an Indiana native named Glen Pine. The Motel’s original name is a hybrid of Glen’s children’s names – Maynard and Alane. The tiny motel was owned and operated by the Pine family for close to fifty-six years before being sold in 2002. The current owner is currently courting plans to tear down the motel to make room for a two-story strip mall (just what L.A. needs – another strip mall!) and a 138-space parking structure. Although many La Crescenta citizens are trying to stop the demolition of the historic inn, it looks like the hotel will most likely be leveled. 🙁 Such a bummer!!

I am happy to report, though, that the La Crescenta Motel looks exactly the same in person as it appeared onscreen in Win A Date. Although, I did notice some inconsistencies while I was there. For one thing, La Crescenta’s office doesn’t have a little orange door located right next to it, as the office in Win A Date did. (Don’t ask – for some reason I remember odd little details like that. LOL) Turns out that the little orange door is actually located right next to Room number 8 at the motel (pictured above). So, apparently, the interior of Room 8 was used as the interior of the Bide-A-Way Motel’s office during filming. I could not for the life of me figure out why the producers didn’t just use the real motel office for filming. But then my boyfriend suggested that most likely the real La Crescenta Motel office didn’t look exactly how the filmmakers wanted their Bide-A-Way office to look. So, instead of remodeling the real office and having to shut it down for a week or two, they just remodeled Room 8 to make it look like the office of a small town motel. Which makes total sense! My boyfriend is becoming quite the little stalker. 🙂

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What makes the fact that producers used Room 8 as the motel office even stranger is that Room 8 is supposedly the room Tad stayed in during his time at the Bide-A-Way. LOL But the exterior of the real Room 8 did not match up to the exterior of Tad’s room in the movie. After looking around the motel it became apparent that the exterior of Room number 11 was used as Tad’s room. You can compare Tad’s room to Room 11 in the above pictures.

And one final inconsistency – yes, I have way too much time on my hands LOL – the window location and position of the door of the exterior of Room 11 don’t match up to the way Tad’s room appears onscreen. So I am guessing that filmmakers used another La Crescenta room altogether to film the interior motel room scenes for Win A Date. Or there is also the possibility that the interior of Tad’s room was filmed on a soundstage and not in a La Crescenta Motel room at all. LOL Confused yet? Cause I sure was. 🙂 Why do filmmakers do this to us? Just pick a room and stick to it! Geez! LOL What’s even more ironic, though, is that apparently people from all over the world come to stay at the La Crescenta Motel just because it’s been featured in movies. The most requested room? You guessed it – Tad’s room – number 8. LOL If those people only knew that filming didn’t actually take place there!

La Crescenta Motel, which is a favorite of location scouts, was also featured in the Season 10 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “I Will Be Your Father Figure” where it was used as the Arizona motel Kelly, Matt, and Dylan stayed at while looking for Dylan’s father, Jack McKay (pictured above). At that time it was still known as the May-Lane Motel. La Crescenta Motel has also made an appearance in Heroes, The House of Sand and Fog, The Portal, and in quite a few episodes of fave show The X-Files. I do love me some Fox Mulder! 🙂 Supposedly the motel was also featured in the 1946 Christmas Classic It’s A Wonderful Life, although I haven’t been able to confirm that. You can read a good article on the history of the motel and the filming that has taken place there on this forum.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton motel, aka La Crescenta Motel, is located at 2413 Foothill Boulevard in La Crescenta. If you want to stalk the hotel, do it fast as it could be torn down in as little as two months. 🙁