Movie star houses – Page 3

June 2, 2010June 1, 2010

The Malibu House from “Spanglish”

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

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

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

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

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

Big THANK YOU to Nick for finding these locations! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

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

April 30, 2010April 29, 2010

Carol Burnett’s Childhood Home

A few weeks ago, fellow stalker Lavonna gifted me with a copy of one of her all-time favorite books, Carol Burnett’s autobiography entitled One More Time: A Memoir. I finished reading the tome this past week and, let me tell you, I absolutely loved it! Even though I’ve never been a huge Carol Burnett fan – not that I had anything against the comedienne, I just didn’t really know all that much about her – I literally couldn’t put the book down. It’s a fascinating, and somewhat heartbreaking, story about growing up in Depression-era Hollywood with an alcoholic mother and an alcoholic father and a very loving, if at times off-beat, grandmother. One of the things I liked best about the book was the fact that in it Carol dolled out quite a few addresses, one of which being the Hollywood apartment building where the actress lived for over a decade during her formative years. Carol was actually born in Texas and spent the first few years of her life with her grandmother “Nanny” and her great-grandmother “Groggy” in a home located at 2803 West Commerce Street in San Antonio. Her parents, Louise “Lou” Burnett and Joseph “Jody” Burnett, had moved to Los Angeles in the early 1930s in order to make it in the movie industry, leaving their infant daughter behind in the Lone Star State. Lou and Jody ended up divorcing a few years later and didn’t send for Carol until she was seven, at which point she and her grandmother said goodbye to Texas and headed West where they moved into a one bedroom studio apartment in a building named the Hollywood Arms. So, of course, as soon as I finished the book, I had to run right out and stalk the place.

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Because Carol had been raised pretty much since infancy by her grandmother, she chose to stay with Nanny and not her mother upon moving into the Hollywood Arms. Nanny and Carol settled into Room 102, a studio apartment on the building’s first floor, just a few doors down from Lou. The tiny room, which Carol described as a “12 foot by 16 foot box”, was comprised of a kitchenette, a tiny bathroom, and one single Murphy bed, which is where Nanny slept. Carol bunked on a small couch in a corner of the room and used the shower rod in the bathroom as her closet. During her childhood years, she spent quite a bit of time on the building’s roof, staring up at the Hollywood sign and dreaming of one day becoming a famous actress. She would also often play “movie star” on the roof with her best friend and neighbor, Illomay Sills. Carol and Nanny remained residents of Room 102 for the next fourteen years, until 1954, when the wanna-be actress migrated to New York to pursue a career on Broadway. Nanny stayed behind at the Arms until Lou passed away in 1959, at which point Carol moved her to a bigger apartment a few blocks away on Cherokee Avenue.

With all of the changes in Hollywood in recent years, I wasn’t sure if Carol’s former apartment building would still be standing today. But, thankfully, it is! The 49-unit building, which was originally built in the 1920’s, was purchased by a real estate development company named StarPoint Properties in 2003 and underwent an extensive renovation and restoration process shortly thereafter. And, while the exterior supposedly looks much the same today as it did when Carol lived there back in the ‘40s, the building and surrounding area are much more upscale now than they were then. You can see some current interior photographs of the building here.

And, let me tell you, I just about died when I noticed that one of the hallway windows was open while I was stalking the building yesterday, allowing me a quick glimpse of the interior. I could only just barely see the entrance to Room 104, which I am assuming is located just two doors down from Carol and Nanny’s old studio, which, unfortunately, was not visible. Oh, how I would have loved to have seen the doorway to Room 102! And, believe me, I tried, but my neck just wouldn’t crane that far. 😉

In 1985, long after she had become a star and her beloved grandmother had passed away, Carol returned to the Hollywood Arms and Room 102 to revisit old memories. The new occupants graciously left the premises for an hour, so she could spend a bit of time in her childhood home. Of the experience she said, “You think when you’re gonna go back that it’s going to look different . . . maybe smaller, because you’re taller, I don’t know, but this is just the way I remembered it: the same walls, the same size, the same colors.” The above photograph was taken during her visit in 1985.

She also stipulated that day that “this’ll be the last time I’ll ever see it, I know that . . . ”, but, in fact, she was wrong. In 1998, Carol and her daughter, Carrie Hamilton, began a five year process of co-writing a play based on Carol’s childhood. They named the play “Hollywood Arms” in honor of Carol’s former home. In 2001, while in the midst of the writing process, Carol went back to the Arms building and was shocked to find the place undergoing StarPoints Properties massive renovation. When she discovered that Room 102 was vacant, she immediately rented it to use as her writing office. Prior to moving in, Carol and her daughter burned sage in every corner of the tiny studio in the hopes of removing the bad spirits and sad memories. “Hollywood Arms” went on to become a hit, but sadly Carrie passed away in January of 2002, a few months before the show opened on Broadway. You can read more about the play here.

Big THANK YOU to Lavonna for giving me One More Time: A Memoir, which led me to write this post. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hollywood Arms, aka Carol Burnett’s childhood home, is located at 6434 Yucca Street in Hollywood. Carol and her beloved Nanny lived in Room 102.

March 3, 2010March 2, 2010

Shannen Doherty’s Former House

One of the first locations I ever stalked, long before I moved to the L.A. area, was the residence that Shannen Doherty called home during the height of her Beverly Hills, 90210 fame. I was on summer vacation in between my Junior and Senior years of college at the time and had flown down to Southern California for the weekend to visit my then-boyfriend and then-best friend, both of whom lived near Los Angeles. The three of us ended up spending one of the days I was in town stalking the Hollywood area, although this was long before I called my unique hobby “stalking”. Our first stalk that day just happened to be Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a place which I had only ever visited once previously during my teenage years. I remember being absolutely ecstatic upon seeing the numerous handprints and footprints of the stars, especially those of Tom Cruise who I was in love with at the time. At some point during our Grauman’s stalk, I wandered into the theatre’s little gift shop and stumbled upon The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book – a stalking tome the likes of which I had never before seen. I was instantly enamored with the book and, despite being a starving college student at the time, immediately forked over the $16.95 to purchase the guide. The rest of our day in Hollywood was spent using the book to tour various filming locations and numerous homes of the rich and famous. And while my then-best friend, whom we’ll call Julie for the purposes of this post, refused to take me to the Walsh House – she said it was WAY TOO FAR for her to drive – she did agree to make a stop at Shannen Doherty’s former West Hollywood abode, which I could NOT have been more excited about. And, as fate would have it, when we pulled up to the residence a man happened to be standing on the front porch. Well, let me tell you, I immediately started screaming and begged Julie to pull over so that we could ask the man some questions about SD, but she had an absolute meltdown and flat out refused to stop! In fact, she didn’t even want me to take a picture of the residence and was screaming at me the entire time to put my camera away. The above photo is the only one I managed to snap during her little tantrum. I’m not sure what it was that Julie was so nervous about, being that Shando had moved out of the home about four years prior and I had only wanted to ask the new resident if he had ever met the star and if the stories about her being a bad girl were true. But, alas, that was not to be. I’m fairly certain it goes without saying that Julie and I are no longer friends. 😉

She did agree to drive a bit north of the house, though, so that I could snap another photograph of the residence from farther away. That’s me and my college boyfriend in the above pic, along with a very tiny, very blurred view of SD’s former house.

Anyway, the other day while doing some stalking in the West Hollywood area, I was reminded of my long past failed stalk of Shannen’s house and mentioned the story to my fiancé. He thought the whole thing was absolutely hilarious, especially when I showed him the photograph I had taken out of Julie’s car window, and it was then that I decided I just had to blog about the place. So, later that day I dragged him up Doheny Drive to re-stalk Shannen’s former residence and was quite to surprised to discover that the property had been altered since my last visit. Apparently, Shannen’s former home, which is currently for sale at the bargain price of $4,695,000, was given a recent facelift, both inside and out.

As you can see in the above photograph, though, the house still has that weird round sculpted adornment above the front door that it had when I first stalked the place back in 1998. The 3 story, 3 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom residence, which was built in 1967 and measures 3,699 square feet, boasts city and ocean views, a gourmet kitchen, a master suite with a fireplace and an infinity bathtub (although I must confess I don’t even know what the heck an “infinity bathtub” is), a pool, a waterfall, a spa, and an outdoor fireplace.

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This is the same house that Shannen not only famously trashed, but was evicted from in March of 1993. Supposedly the actress moved out of the property in the middle of the night after being served with an eviction notice while still owing $14,000 in back rent. Her landlord ended up filing a lawsuit against her claiming she caused $136,300 in damage to the property while living there. Included in that $136,000 was a reported $70,000 in structural damage that was also caused by the actress. How in the heck one tiny person – SD is reportedly 5’2” – can cause that much structural damage to a house I’ll never know, but I digress. Shannen’s former home had actually seen its fair share of notoriety long before the 90210 bad girl moved in, though. In the 70s, famous Hollywood Madame and longtime Heidi Fleiss mentor, Alex Adams, also lived at the property and even operated a brothel out of it for several years.

While doing research for this post, I managed to dig up the above black and white photograph of the interior of the house which was taken just around the time Shannen lived there and was featured in a February 24th, 1997 People Magazine article about the star. The color photograph pictured above was taken off of the home’s real estate website – which you can view here – and as you can see, despite the recent remodel, the beamed roof and fireplace area still look very much the same today as they did when Shannen called the place home. So darn cool!!! 🙂

And, of course, while we were stalking the place a couple of weeks ago, I just had to drag my fiancé up the hill to take a photograph of the house from the same spot where I had taken a picture of it all those years beforehand.

On a side note – Fellow stalker Erika recently met Shannen Doherty while dining at the Marmalade Cafe in the Malibu Lumber Yard. Because Erika is 100% on Team Brenda (YAY), she just had to ask Shannen if she’d be willing to snap a picture with her, to which the star happily obliged! See, I knew SD HAD to be nice! 🙂 Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have my photo taken with Shannen Doherty!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Shannen Doherty’s former house is located at 1654 North Doheny Drive in West Hollywood.

March 1, 2010February 28, 2010

Kristin Cavallari’s Beach House from “The Hills”

Just down the street from Jennifer Aniston’s former beach house, which I blogged about on Friday, is the residence that Kristin Cavallari called home during this past season of fave reality show The Hills. So, since we were already in the area a couple of weeks ago, I just had to drag fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA – who I am sad to say is not at all a fan of the MTV show – over to stalk the place. I found this location thanks to fellow stalker Virginie who posted Kristin’s former address in the comments section of my site way back in October of last year and it’s been high up on my “To-Stalk” list ever since. Thank you, Virginie! Unfortunately, though, since I so rarely get out to the ‘Bu, I had yet to stalk the residence. And while I realize that The Hills ended its current season over two and a half months ago and that I am just slightly late to the game on this one, as I always say, it’s far better to be late than never. 🙂

The four bedroom, four bath beach house pictured above, which was built in 1969 and measures 2,972 square feet, first showed up when Kristin Cavallari joined the cast of The Hills in the Season Five episode entitled “It’s On Bitch”. But she didn’t stay there long. The Laguna Beach alum moved out of this location just ten episodes later, on the show’s season finale which was entitled “Boys of the Summer”. I am fairly certain that Kristin never actually rented this house, though, and quite possibly never even truly lived there, but that the property was leased by MTV solely for filming purposes.

And quite a bit of filming did actually take place on location at the residence. In fact, the house showed up in all ten episodes which featured Kristin during Season Five. The back side of the property was the area most often featured on the show . . .

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. . . and was the site of Kristin’s many beach parties and get-togethers. Oh, how I wish I had stalked this place back when The Hills was still filming so that I could have seen her little tiki bar and patio furniture in person. Sadly, all of the outdoor decor that appeared on the show has long since been removed.

And, of course, I just had to get a picture of the house’s back stairwell, which appeared numerous times on the show. I so wanted to pose for a picture while standing on the stairs, too, but being that someone was inside the property while we were stalking the place, I didn’t think that would be a very smart move. 😉

The inside of the home was also featured numerous times on the show and while I have to say that the residence’s interior is absolutely GORGEOUS, it doesn’t, in my opinion at least, really match up to the exterior, which seems to be a bit dated and weathered.

For whatever reason, the front entrance to the house was only ever shown once on The Hills, at the very beginning of the “It’s On Bitch” episode, in the scene in which Kristin is shown getting into her car and driving off on Pacific Coast Highway on her way to make an appearance at Spencer and Heidi’s “Welcome Home” party.

Amazingly enough, while doing research for this post I discovered that appearing on The Hills isn’t the home’s only claim to fame. The property actually has a long and storied Hollywood history. According to this article, in the early ‘80s the beach pad belonged to music executive Jerry Goldstein. In the ‘90s, it was purchased by another music man, record promoter and Giant Records president Charlie Minor. Sadly, on March 19, 1995, Minor, who had worked with both Sting and Janet Jackson during the course of his highly successful career, was murdered in the house by a former girlfriend named Suzette McClure who shot him nine times after catching him in bed with another woman. But the house’s notoriety doesn’t end there, for it was also used as one of the locations of the Silver Spoon Beach House – the notorious party pad where throngs of young Hollywood stars would hang out during the summer months. Just a few of the celebs who were seen there include Lindsay Lohan, Ali Landry, The Real Housewives of Orange County’s Slade Smiley (Ugh, gag me!) and Gretchen Rossi, Brody Jenner, and ironically enough, even Kristin Cavallari, who not only partied at the house, but also once did a photo shoot there.

A big THANK YOU to Virginie for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kristin Cavallari’s beach house from The Hills is located at 22058 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. Jennifer Aniston’s former Malibu home is located just a few houses east of Kristin’s at 22164 Pacific Coast Highway.

February 26, 2010June 16, 2011

Jennifer Aniston’s Former Beach House

While out stalking the ‘Bu with Mike, from MovieShotsLA, a couple of weeks ago, I just about had a complete heart attack as the two of us passed by my girl Jen Aniston’s former beach house and I noticed that the door to the front gate was standing WIDE OPEN! Let me tell you, I must have screamed for a good sixty seconds over that one! Once Mike regained his hearing ;), he made an immediate U-turn across Pacific Coast Highway so that the two of us could head over to the house to get a peek behind the gates. I’ve actually stalked Jen’s former Malibu bungalow a few times in the past – and have even blogged about it once before – but being that this was the first time I was catching a glimpse of her front courtyard area, I figured the place was worth a re-post. And let me tell you, I was pretty much dying the whole time I was there. I mean never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d get to see past that front gate!

As we walked up to the house we noticed some workers standing out front, so I, of course, struck up a conversation with them. The workers told us that they were doing some landscaping in the front courtyard area of the residence, which is why the gate was open. When I asked one of them if he knew that Jennifer Aniston used to live on the property, he looked at me like he had absolutely no idea who Jennifer Aniston even was. LOL

I didn’t want to overstep my bounds or get the landscapers in any sort of trouble while I was stalking the place, so I stayed on the sidewalk area while taking the above pictures, but believe me I was absolutely dying to venture in for a closer look!

I did manage to catch a glimpse of the glass front door, though, which you can just barely see in the above pictures.

While there, I was so focused on seeing Jen’s former courtyard area that I didn’t even realize the garage door to the house was open. It wasn’t until Mike elbowed me and whispered really loudly in my ear, “GET A PICTURE OF THE GARAGE! GET A PICTURE OF THE GARAGE! That’s where Jen did her laundry!” that I even noticed it. LOL I so wanted Mike to ask the landscaping guys if we could peek inside the house, but he refused as he felt like that would definitely be crossing a line. And I have to admit I agree with him – which is why I didn’t want to ask the workers myself. 😉 But, oh, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that house!

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During the time Jen rented the home, the glass walls of the back patio area were actually covered over with some sort of black paneling which shielded the star from the prying eyes of not only the paparazzi, but stalkers such as myself. So, I was beyond floored when Mike and I traveled to the back side of the property and noticed that those panels were no longer there, which meant that Jen’s former “backyard” was visible. YAY! It’s actually very surprising to me that the notoriously press-shy Aniston ever lived in this house – especially during her divorce, when the media frenzy was at an all-time high – being that the public beach access walkway is located just a few feet to the east of the property. Because the area was so easily accessible, the paparazzi used to supposedly camp out night and day on the beach directly behind her house. Ugh!

Jen moved into her wood-shingled Malibu beach bungalow in early 2005, immediately following her separation from now ex-husband Brad Pitt. She leased the property, which is supposedly owned by Oracle C.E.O Larry Ellison, through the end of 2007 for a reported $30,000 a month. Despite the fact that it is located right on the sand, thisclose to the ocean, Jen’s former beach house is fairly modest by celebrity standards. The residence, which was built in 1945, boasts two bedrooms, three bathrooms, and measures a scant 1,531 square feet. And I have to say that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the place. The house is incredibly charming and so very, for lack of a better word, cute and I would give anything to live in something similar. I am so enamored of the place in fact that I would consider it my dream pad, even if it hadn’t been previously lived in by Jen. 😉 The two-story bungalow is actually the place where the actress conducted her infamous first post-split interview which ran in the September 2005 issue of Vanity Fair magazine. According to several other interviews which also took place at the home, Jen decorated her bachelorette pad with mostly white furnishings adorned with white candles, white flowers, and quite a bit of Asian-inspired decor. She also reportedly kept a little vase filled with loose Merit brand cigarettes on an end table next to the couch for her guests to partake of. Apparently Jen remodeled the home a bit, even though it was a rental, before moving in. Vanity Fair author Leslie Bennetts says, “Although the bungalow was dark and depressing when she first saw it, a quickie makeover has transformed it into a cozy sanctuary that’s far more representative of Aniston’s personal taste than the showplace she and Pitt shared, where the decor seemed all hard edges and unforgiving materials.” Bennetts goes on to ask Jen what she likes best about being separated from Brad, to which the actress responds, “I can have a comfortable couch.” LOL

On a side note – Early last year fave website Big Time Listings reported on another (possible) former rental of Aniston’s in the Laurel Canyon area. And while Big Time Listings can’t actually verify that the actress ever lived in the home, according to the September 2009 issue of Elle Magazine, Jen did rent a house in Laurel Canyon during her pre-Friends days, so it’s a definite possibility.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Jennifer Aniston’s former beach rental is located at 22164 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

January 5, 2010January 4, 2010

Simon Baker’s Former House

While doing some cyberstalking on fave website Virtual Globetrotting a few weeks back, I came across this post listing the address of a Santa Monica home which formerly belonged to cutie Mentalist star – and my latest celebrity crush – Simon Baker and I just about keeled over from excitement. So, when my dad asked if I would be able to take him to a doctor appointment in the Santa Monica area yesterday morning, I literally jumped at the opportunity and informed him that we’d be making a little stalking pit stop first. 🙂 Thankfully, since my dad is also a big Mentalist fan, he didn’t give me much grief about being dragged along on this particular stalking expedition.

My dad and I were both quite shocked when we pulled up to the residence and saw it in person, as it is a lot smaller than we had anticipated and looks like a fairly normal suburban home. A very nice suburban home, of course, but still fairly normal, nonetheless. My dad kept saying, “There is no way Simon Baker lived there!” Thanks to the property’s ostensible lack of a front wall and exterior gate, it’s hard to imagine a celeb like SB ever calling the place home. But I guess it sort of makes sense being that Simon lived in the house about nine months before The Mentalist hit the airwaves, turning him into a household name and creating the need for some sort of exterior wall to keep stalkers like myself at bay. 😉

SB and his wife, actress Rebecca Rigg, purchased the 2,394 square foot, three bedroom, two bath home, which was originally built in 1934, on December 13, 2006 for a whopping $2,626,000 and sold it just a little under 13 months later, on January 10, 2008, for a nice little profit at $2,895,000. While living in the house, the couple remodeled and expanded the kitchen area and added a pool and spa to the backyard. You can see interior photographs of the home at the time it belonged to SB here. The area where the house is located – which just so happens to be one of the most expensive areas in all of Los Angeles County – is known as Gillette’s Regent Square and was developed by none other than King Camp Gillette, the razor blade magnate who also gave us King Gillette Ranch, aka the Biggest Loser Ranch, in Calabasas. Amazingly enough, during the time that Simon lived in the house, my fiancé lived just a few blocks away [in a much less expensive area, of course. ;)], yet we never ran into him! How we missed each other is beyond me, being that Owen Wilson also used to live in that same vicinity (at 947 23rd Street) and my fiancé and I ran into him not once, but twice!!!! Oh, SB, where were you hiding??? 😉 According to fave website The Real Estalker, when SB sold this house, he purchased an even larger one also in the Santa Monica area. So, you know what that means, don’t you?? Yessiree, there’s a whole other Simon Baker residence out there just waiting for me to stalk it! 🙂 YAY!

On an interesting side note – Fellow stalker and Mentalist aficionado Liz recently alerted to me to the fact that Rebecca Rigg, SB’s real life wife and mother of his three children, played widowed actress Felicia Scott in the Season One episode of The Mentalist entitled “A Dozen Red Roses”. So cool! 🙂

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Simon Baker’s former house is located at 534 20th Street in Santa Monica. Owen Wilson’s former residence is just a few blocks away at 947 23rd Street. Courteney Cox also owned a house in the area, at 606 Alta Avenue, during her Friends days. Across the street from Courteney’s former digs is the 7th Heaven house, which can be found at 527 Alta Avenue. Also in the area is Danny Devito’s house from Twins, which can be found at 323 11th Street, and Darrin and Samantha’s house from Bewitched, which is located at 267 18th Street.

October 29, 2009September 29, 2017

John Barrymore’s Apartment Building

Another Greenwich Village location that Owen, my fiancé, and I stalked during our recent whirlwind day in New York City was the Greek Revival townhouse where beleaguered actor John Barrymore – Drew’s grandfather – once lived. For three years, from 1917 to 1920, John rented the top floor penthouse of the building pictured above, which was originally constructed in 1839. Barrymore decorated his apartment, which he nicknamed the “Alchemist’s Corner”, with Gothic elements including gold wallpaper, fake wooden beams, ironwork accoutrements, and stained glass windows. His piece de resistance, however, was a garden oasis, which consisted of a cottage, a reflecting pool, and large trees, that he erected on the building’s roof. To build his little rooftop paradise a vast amount of soil had to be brought in – over 35 tons, actually – eventually causing the roof of the building to collapse! LOL Barrymore was nothing if not eccentric! And while his garden has long since been removed, the cottage Barrymore had built remains standing to this day. You can even see a photograph of it here. It was while living in this apartment that Barrymore carried out his illicit affair with married poet Blanche Thomas, who nicknamed herself Michael Strange – no that’s not a typo, she actually called herself Michael. Strange indeed! In 1920, the two married and moved to Westchester County. Two years later, on November 16, 1922, Barrymore began his legendary Broadway portrayal of Hamlet. This was to be his defining role and, in fact, he has even been called history’s “definitive Hamlet”.

My interest in the townhouse had little to do with the fact that John Barrymore had lived there, however, and more to do with something that occurred on the premises about seventy years later. In 1987, screenwriter/playwright Paul Rudnick, who later penned the screenplays for In & Out, Addams Family Values, and The Stepford Wives, moved into Barrymore’s former penthouse and became inspired to write a two-act comedic play entitled I Hate Hamlet. The play centers around a mediocre television actor named Andrew Rally who, like Rudnick, lives in John’s former dwelling. Rally has just landed the lead role in a Shakespeare in the Park production of Hamlet and is having a little trouble getting into character. One night the ghost of John Barrymore returns from the dead, in full Hamlet regalia no less, to help Andrew get a grasp on his new role. Of course, hilarity ensues when Andrew fails to live up to Barrymore’s ridiculously high expectations. I Hate Hamlet opened on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre on April 8, 1991 and starred none other than Evan Chandler, who later became famous for playing Charlotte’s husband Harry Goldenblatt on fave show Sex and the City. The show received mixed reviews and, thanks to actor Nicol Williamson, who played Barrymore in the production, was closed after a scant 88 night run. Apparently Williamson, who seems to be just about as eccentric as the real Barrymore, didn’t like to share the stage or the audience’s attention with his fellow actors. To remedy his problem he decided to actually stab Evan during one of the performances! Evan was harmed, but managed to walk off the stage, never to return to the show. Needless to say, I Hate Hamlet was shut down shortly thereafter. You can read a great article that Paul Rudnick wrote about the play’s Broadway run here. And, even though the show didn’t enjoy much success on Broadway, I Hate Hamlet has since become an acting class staple. I have seen monologues and scenes from it performed in pretty much every acting class I’ve ever attended in my entire life. You’d think I’d be tired of it by now, but surprisingly that has not been the case. Even though I’ve seen its most pertinent scenes and monologues performed countless times, I Hate Hamlet is still one of my very favorite plays. And even though by now I can probably recite the entire show by heart, I still laugh out loud every time I see it! 🙂 I absolutely LOVE I Hate Hamlet!

Surprisingly enough, though, I never knew of the play’s history until I read a passage about John Barrymore’s former abode in fave stalking book New York: A Movie Lover’s Guide. And, once I learned the story behind I Hate Hamlet, the play became all the more fascinating to me, if that’s at all possible. And, as you can probably imagine, once I heard that the setting of the comedy was in fact a real place and that John Barrymore and Paul Rudnick had actually lived there, I just HAD to stalk it!! 🙂 I cannot tell you how exciting it was for me to be able to see the townhouse in person, after countless years of loving the play that was inspired by it. I highly recommend both catching a performance of I Hate Hamlet if you ever have the opportunity and, of course, stalking the house where the story took place.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: John Barrymore’s former apartment building is located at 132 West 4th Street in New York’s Greenwich Village area.

July 6, 2009July 7, 2009

The Old School House

A few weeks ago, while out stalking, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to pay a little visit to the house where Luke Wilson lived and set up his fictional Lamdba Epsilon Omega fraternity in the 2003 comedy Old School. The house is located on a quiet, tree-lined street that has long been a favorite of location scouts. South Pasadena’s Bushnell Avenue has shown up in everything from the movies Back to the Future and Ghost Dad to the television series thirtysomething. I promise to devote a future post to the other famous homes located on the oft-filmed street, but today’s post will be dedicated solely to the Old School house. 🙂

I am happy to report that aside from a few minor changes, the Old School house looks exactly the same in person as it appeared onscreen. Unfortunately, the sun was shining very brightly the day we stalked the house, so my pictures did not turn out very good. 🙁

Because the Old School house was supposed to be located very close to, or as Vince Vaughn says “practically on”, a college campus, producers brought in a mailbox, a kiosk, and several parking meters to make the area look less residential. They also created fake parking places in front of the home, much like was done at the nearby Bedtimes Stories house.

The house shows up many times throughout the movie, most notably as the site of Vince Vaughn’s Mitch-A-Palooza Party, where he hires Snoop Dogg to perform.

Will Ferrell’s streaking expedition was also filmed in front of the Old School house. Before heading over to Honolulu Avenue in nearby Montrose, Frank-the-Tank tries to lead his fellow Mitch-A-Palooza partiers on a streaking trip down Bushnell Avenue. Unbeknownst to him, he is the only one streaking. LOL

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My friend and fellow stalker Owen, informed me that the Old School house was also used in the 1989 flick Back to the Future II. In the movie, bully Biff steals a little kid’s ball and tosses it up onto the balcony of the Old School house.

In a very random side note, the Old School fraternity house actually belonged to Will Ferrell at the time of the filming. In the movie’s DVD commentary, Will Ferrel says, “And this was actually my house. My little craftsman house in Pasadena. I was cool with it, even though you guys ruined the hardwood floors with all the equipment.” Actors Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson also took part in the DVD commentary and since there was quite a bit of joking around going on during their talk, I can’t say with absolute certainty that the house ever actually belonged to Will. He very well could have just been joking around. But he does continally refer to the house as being his throughout the entire commentary, so I think it might actually be true. At one point he even said that his wife was extremely upset when she saw the house set up for the post-Mitch-A-Palooza scene (pictured above). According to property records, the home was sold to a new owner in 2006, so while I can’t say for sure that Will owned it during the filming of Old School, I can say he for sure that he doesn’t own it anymore.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Old School house is located at 1803 Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena. The house located at 1727 Bushnell was used as both Lorraine’s 1955 house in Back to the Future and Michael J. Fox’s house in Teen Wolf. George McFly’s 1955 house is located at 1711 Bushnell, while Biff’s from Back to the Future Part II is at 1809. At 1710 Bushnell is the home that was featured as Ken Olin and Mel Harris’ in the television series thirtysomething. Ghost Dad was filmed at both 1615 and 1621 Bushnell. I will write a more detailed post on all of those locations at a later date. 🙂

May 14, 2009September 21, 2011

Bob Hope’s Palm Springs House

While in Palm Springs this past weekend, I dragged my boyfriend – ahem, fiance (I swear, I’m never going to get used to saying that!) out to stalk Bob Hope’s former residence, which is located high up on a cliff at the very top of Southridge Drive. I wasn’t so much interested in seeing the home because it had once belonged to Bob Hope, but rather because it was designed by famed architect John Lautner. And I am absolutely obsessed with Lautner homes! Once upon a time, I actually hated his designs – I thought they were just simply too weird. But over the years they have really grown on me. I love that all of his homes are so incredibly unique and recognizable. One look at a poured concrete wall or a curving roof line and you know immediately if a house was designed by Lautner. It’s no wonder that his homes have been used in countless Hollywood productions over the years including Charlie’s Angels, Diamonds Are Forever, The Big Lebowski, and Lethal Weapon 2.

Not everyone is as big a fan of John Lautner as I am, though. Legend has it that Bob Hope wasn’t exactly happy with the house that Lautner designed for him. According to this article, Judith Lautner, John’s daughter, states that Bob “made life hell for my father. He destroyed a lot of the thinking. He just stepped in and said ‘No, no, no.'” Legend also has it that Bob never even spent one night in the home, but instead used it solely for entertaining purposes. The home, which was built in 1979 and was designed to look like the skirts of a volcano, measures 17,531 square feet, has 6 bedrooms and 9.75 bathrooms!

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Unfortunately, Bob’s former home is located in a private, gated community, so I wasn’t able to get very close to it. 🙁 And, judging from the signs pictured above, the neighborhood is not very stalker friendly! When I saw the sign which read “Trespassers will be photographed and may be prosecuted”, I was pretty much outta there! Bob’s former community is very exclusive and was once also home to actors Steve McQueen and William Holden. Lautner also designed another home – the Elrod House – just down the road from Bob’s, but, unfortunately, I didn’t realize that until after I got home, so I didn’t get any photographs of it! Ugh, I am such a blond sometimes!

Because I couldn’t get very close to the house while stalking it, I had to settle for doing some cyberstalking as soon as I got home. It’s funny, but in aerial images the home actually appears to be rather small, but rumor has it that the open circle cut-out in the roof is so large that a helicopter could actually land there!! I don’t know if that is true or not, but being that the home measures almost 18,000 square feet, it is definitely a possibility! Another rumor floating around about the former Bob Hope residence is that the shape of the pool was loosely based on the comedian’s profile. So cool! You can see another amazing aerial view of the home here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bob Hope’s Palm Springs house is located at 2466 Southridge Drive. The Elrod House is located just a few houses down at 2175 Southridge Drive. Both are in a private, guard-gated community, so DO NOT trespass. If you are into hiking, apparently the nearby Araby Trail offers some great views of both homes.

March 26, 2009March 26, 2009

George Clooney’s Former Digs

This past weekend, thanks to my new favorite book Movie Star Homes: The Famous to the Forgotten, I was able to stalk George Clooney’s former Studio City house. Now, to be completely honest, I am not a big fan of George Clooney. I’ll admit that he’s OK-looking, but for some reason he just doesn’t do it for me. No, this stalker’s heart will forever and always belong to Josh Duhamel. 🙂 But, being that pretty much every woman on earth is absolutely gaga for GC, I know that I am in the vast minority on this one. So ,when I saw the address of his former home listed in the Movie Star Homes book, I just had to stalk it. For my readers, of course. 🙂

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George Clooney’s former home is a really pretty 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom Mediteranean mini-manse, located on a windy street in the hills of Studio City. He lived in this 3,282 square foot home during the years 1990 to 1997, smack dab in the middle of his ER fame. Which is surprising being that the home isn’t that private – you can actually see quite a bit of it from the street. George shared the house with former wife Talia Balsam during their brief four year marriage, from December of 1989 to September of 1993. After his separation, George invited good friend, actor Matt Adler, to move in with him for a brief period of time. But the list of celebrity inhabitants doesn’t end there! From 2000 to 2004, Jamie Pressly of My Name is Earl fame owned George’s former digs. She then sold the house to Malcom in the Middle star Justin Berfield, who lived there for two years before selling it to a non-celeb.

I highly recommend stalking George’s former pad, as it is one of the few movie star homes that isn’t completely hidden behind a large gate. 🙂 I couldn’t snap many good pics of it, though, as George’s former street is quite narrow and my camera couldn’t zoom back far enough to get the whole house in the shot. 🙁 I so need to spring for a fisheye lens! But the good news is you can cyber-stalk his former home here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: George Clooney’s former house is located at 11655 Laurelcrest Drive in Studio City.