movie stars – Page 7 – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 4, 2010May 4, 2010

On the Set of “NCIS: Los Angeles”

This past Thursday afternoon, my fiancé called me up to let me know that an episode of NCIS: Los Angeles was being filmed at the YWCA building in Pasadena, just a few blocks away from his office. So, I immediately grabbed my jacket and my camera and headed over to the set with one goal in mind – to get a photograph with actor Chris O’Donnell, who had been the love of my life back in my high school days. I showed up to the corner of North Garfield Avenue and East Union Street to find that NCIS had commandeered an entire city block of Old Town Pasadena for the filming! But, unfortunately, all of the action was taking place inside of the YWCA building, so aside from a slew of production equipment and a myriad of about thirty production trucks, there wasn’t a whole lot to see. And, sadly enough, the security guard on duty – who absolutely could NOT have been nicer – told me that I had missed both LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell by a mere twenty minutes. Apparently, the two actors had walked out of their makeup trailer shortly beforehand and, on their way to the set, had stopped to pose for photographs with a small group of fans who had showed up to watch the filming. UGH! Talk about bad timing! The security guard told me that I was welcome to hang around, though, and that the actors would most likely be back outside at some point during the next few hours. So, hang around, I did.

And, as luck would have it, I spotted Chris O’Donnell walking alone from the set to his trailer just a few minutes later. But because he had no entourage with him and because he was a good twenty feet away from me, I didn’t realize it was him until it was much too late. I was absolutely shocked – and pleasantly surprised – to have spotted Chris walking alone, as stars almost always have some sort of an entourage – or “handlers” as they are called in “the biz” – who accompany them while on set. Even more shocking was the fact that Chris had walked to his trailer. It is fairly commonplace for stars to be driven back and forth to their Star Waggons while working on a production. Granted, Chris’ trailer was located only about a half a block away from the YWCA building, but I’ve seen stars be driven far less distances while on set. Heck, I’ve even seen one celeb being driven from one side of a street to the other! Not kidding! Chris seemed super down-to-earth and friendly and made it a point to wave and say hello to the security guard who was on duty, which I also thought was incredibly cool! I have so much respect for stars who acknowledge and are friendly to the crew members who work behind the scenes of their productions. I once read that Drew Barrymore makes it a point to learn the name of each and every crew member – right down to the negative cutter – who works on her movies, which I thought was just about the coolest and most non-divaish thing I had ever heard! So love it! Anyway, once I spotted Chris, I parked myself outside of his trailer and immediately called up the Grim Cheaper and told him to get over to the set as soon as possible so that he could take a picture of the two of us. The GC was NOT happy about this development, but headed over to the YWCA building anyway. Ah, the things we do for love. 🙂 Thankfully, it was only about an hour before Chris exited his trailer and walked to the set – again sans entourage. I called out to him and asked if he would mind taking a picture with me, and the guy truly could NOT have been nicer! He was so incredibly friendly, down-to-earth, and low-key that he almost didn’t even seem like a celebrity. He happily posed for the above photograph (during which the wind was blowing like mad, which is why my hair ended up in my face! UGH!) and shook my hand and introduced himself. I told him that I had been a fan since 1992 when Scent of a Woman first premiered, and he thanked me for the longtime support and then continued on to the set. Sigh! The few NCIS: Los Angeles crew members that I spoke with were also incredibly friendly and nice and the vibe on set reminded me distinctly of that of CSI: Miami. Love it! 🙂 After meeting Chris, the GC was ready to head home, so I never did get to see LL Cool J. But getting a photo with Chris O’Donnell more than made up for that fact. 🙂

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The Young Women’s Christian Association building, where filming took place, was originally constructed in 1921 by famed Los Angeles-area architect Julia Morgan, who is best known for designing the world-famous Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The land on which the YWCA now sits was donated to the Association by prominent Pasadenean David Gamble, of Proctor and Gamble fame. The building, which cost $350,000 to build and was originally used by the Association as a social venue and a dormitory of sorts for young women, is currently in a state of disrepair and has sat abandoned and boarded up for the past two decades. The City of Pasadena is currently involved in an eminent domain dispute with its owner and is trying to purchase the historic building and restore it to its former glory. The owner, however, is refusing to sell. You can read more about the history of the YWCA building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, here and you can see some great interior photographs of the place here. Other productions filmed on the premises include the movie Idle Hands and an episode of Heroes.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: NCIS: Los Angeles was filmed at the YWCA building, which is located at 78 North Marengo Avenue in Pasadena.

April 26, 2010April 24, 2010

Raquel Welch’s “Beyond The Cleavage” Book Signing

Ever since my mom found out that actress and 1960’s/1970’s sex symbol Raquel Welch was scheduled to do a book signing for her new tome Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena on the evening of April 22nd, she became absolutely obsessed with attending the event. And, even though I wasn’t exactly sure who Raquel Welch was (at first I actually thought she was one of the original Charlie’s Angels!), I agreed to accompany her. Unfortunately though, because my father was in the hospital for most of this past week, my mom wound up not being able to attend the signing. My entire family is pretty much spent – both emotionally and physically – at the current moment, but we are heading back to Minnesota to enroll my dad in the Mayo Clinic in a few weeks and hopefully the doctors there will be able to figure out what is wrong with him and restore some normalcy to our lives. But I digress. Even though my dad had been released from the hospital and was back at home on Thursday night, my mom said that she just didn’t have the energy to attend the signing, so, since I live pretty close to Vroman’s, I told her I’d go in her place. I dragged the Grim Cheaper along with me, which is how, this past Thursday night, two very unlikely fans found ourselves sitting at Vroman’s Bookstore amidst about 150 Raquel Welch enthusiasts, waiting to meet the raven-haired icon.

I expected Raquel’s signing to be absolutely jam-packed, but when I arrived an hour and a half prior to its starting time, there were only about 15 people in the audience. As the minutes ticked away, though, more and more fans showed up, but there were still far less people in attendance than I had originally anticipated. By my estimation, there were only about 150 fans in the audience by the time 7 o’clock rolled around. Before Raquel made her appearance, one of the Vroman’s staff members explained the rules of the evening. Now, I’ve been to quite a few book signings in the past and this was the first time that rules had ever been established beforehand. The staffer explained that no photographs of the star were to be taken when she entered the room nor while she was speaking and that the only time pictures would be allowed was during the actual book signing. She also stipulated that Raquel would not be posing for ANY photographs with the fans, nor would she be personalizing the books, which I thought was pretty ludicrous. At all of the book signings I’ve ever been to, the authors have ALWAYS personalized their books. I mean, what is the point of getting it signed, otherwise? It is also pretty rare that an author won’t pose for photographs with their fans. I mean, if someone is going to shell out $28 plus tax to pay for a book and then wait upwards of two hours to get it signed, I really feel that the very least a star can do is personalize it and pose for a quick photograph. The restrictions were pretty maddening and led me to believe that Raquel would be a full-on Di-va with a capital “D”.

Which, I am happy to report, actually couldn’t have been further from the truth! The event started right on time and Raquel walked into the room promptly at 7 p.m. We were told she had actually arrived at Vroman’s thirty minutes early, which, in and of itself, is a non-diva maneuver. And I have to say that she was absolutely BEAUTIFUL in person! Like AMAZINGLY beautiful! I wasn’t expecting her to be quite so luminous. Raquel’s not nearly as short as I expected her to be, either – she was about my height, 5’4” but my fiancé said she was wearing pretty tall heels, so she very well could be significantly shorter when wearing flats. She was also extremely friendly and warm and waved and said hello to all of the people she walked by while making her way to the front table.

And even though the Vroman’s staff had forewarned the fans that if anyone took a picture of Raquel while she was speaking, they would be asked to leave and their cameras possibly confiscated, THOUSANDS of flashbulbs went off as soon as she entered the room. You can see how bright the camera lights were in the above photograph. And they pretty much didn’t stop going off the entire time!

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Raquel gave a very brief speech prior to signing her books, in which she stated that she has long been a fan of Vroman’s Bookstore because it’s an “old girl” like herself (the place was founded in 1894) and that it’s still going strong, which is also much like herself. She even called the place the “book lovers’ book store”, which just about made me want to swoon as I, too, absolutely LOVE Vroman’s. She talked about how much respect she has for writers now that she has completed a book, as it was very grueling work. Tell me about it, honey! 😉 Raquel was extremely vivacious and charming during her speech and not AT ALL the diva I was expecting her to be after hearing her restrictive book signing policies. Which brings me to a point. Sadly, many of the people in attendance Thursday night were . . . well, to put it in plain language, creepy. One man was wearing pajamas – not kidding – and quite a few others had on ripped-up, dirty sweatpants, disheveled hair, and looked as if they had rolled out of bed about two minutes prior to the event. The guy behind me in line reeked of cigarette smoke and kept making odd grunting noises the closer he got to Raquel. Seeing the myriad of oddball fans made me wonder if the icon was refusing to take posed photographs for her own protection. I’ll never know for sure, but the whole thing made me sad. Note to fans – if you are going to meet someone you admire at a signing, don’t wear pajamas or ripped-up sweatpants, run a comb through your hair, and, at the very least, take a shower! I mean would you want to meet and pose for a picture with someone who had done anything less? Gross!

After Raquel’s speech, the signing began. Because I had gotten there so early, I was the fifteenth person in line and didn’t have to wait long to get my mom’s book signed.

The whole event got kind of crazy as soon as she started signing books, though, and about thirty people rushed right up to the front table and began snapping photographs. Book signings are usually pretty calm events, so I was surprised when this one incited such hysteria! It was pretty funny to watch.

I was pleasantly surprised when I reached the front of the line and Raquel stuck out her hand for me to shake! She was SUPER friendly and, as I said before, very warm. I think she got slightly offended, though, when I told her that the book was for my mom, who was a huge fan of hers. Ah well.

I am also very happy to report that Raquel did (sort of) pose for pictures with those fans who had someone accompanying them who could stand off to the side and snap a quick pic while she was signing their book. My fiancé has a camera with a speed-burst shutter, which means that he can take a multitude of photographs in the space of one second, which he did while I was standing with Raquel. Unfortunately though, the two of us couldn’t quite seem to get it together in any of the photographs and we were never looking in the same place at the same time. LOL But at least I got a picture with her . . .

. . . and a book signed for my mom. As you can see, though, Raquel did not personalize it, which I thought was pretty darn janky. 🙁 Ironically enough, the woman sitting next to me during the event actually told me that it was better not to have my book personalized. That way when I die, my family can sell it on eBay for a profit, whereas a book endorsed to “Lindsay” would be worthless. NO JOKE – she actually said that! LOL

When we left Vroman’s after the event had ended, we spotted Raquel’s limo waiting in the parking lot, so, of course, I just had to take a picture with it. 🙂 All in all, the evening was a great experience, despite all of the ridiculous rules put in place prior to Raquel’s arrival. I had a blast meeting the icon and seeing how friendly, upbeat, and BEAUTIFUL she is in person. My mom may have been the family’s sole Raquel fan prior to Thursday night, but now there is definitely a second one. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. You can check out their upcoming celebrity and author events here. And you can purchase Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage here.

March 10, 2010March 11, 2018

On The Set of “CSI: Miami”

This past Friday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took the day off from work so that the two of us could do a little stalking. For whatever reason, though, for the first time ever we didn’t come up with any sort of plan or itinerary beforehand of where we were going to go or what we going to stalk. And it’s a good thing we didn’t, either, because fate stepped in and the two of us wound up stumbling upon the cast and crew of CSI: Miami filming on location in Altadena. YAY! Earlier that morning, Mike and I had stopped by my parents’ house to ask my dad to accompany us to Altadena Drive so that he could take a few pictures of us in front of Casa Walsh from Beverly Hills, 90210. I am in the process of creating a slideshow for my wedding in August and because Mike is one of my groomsmen :), I wanted to get a picture of the two of us together in front of our very favorite stalking location. Anyway, while driving to the Walsh residence we passed by a very large production crew and, of course, just had to pull over to find out what was being filmed. Amazingly enough, it turned out to be my dad’s very favorite show, CSI: Miami. I should explain here that I, too, love me some CSI: Miami. Like LOVE it, never miss an episode, was screaming in delight when Calleigh and Eric finally got together last season. But I think it’s safe to say that my love for the show greatly pales in comparison to my dad’s. As I mentioned the last time we stumbled upon the filming of the show back in January of ‘09, my father is absolutely, one hundred percent obsessed with the series – it is his favorite show of all time. CSI: Miami is his Beverly Hills, 90210. So, it goes without saying that he was ABSOLUTELY THRILLED when we stumbled upon it being filmed yet again. Anyway, as Mike, my dad, and I made our way to the set we passed by a security guard and asked him if it would be OK if we watched the filming. He not only told us to make ourselves at home (YAY!), but also pointed out the fact that Jonathan Togo, who plays Ryan Wolfe on the series, was standing about two feet in front of us. So, we immediately walked up to him and asked if he’d be willing to snap a picture. Well, let me tell you, Jonathan was SO INCREDIBLY NICE and not only posed for pics, but marched us right over to the set, introduced us to everyone, and gave us our own personal tour of the place!!!!! He literally could NOT have been more sweet, more upbeat, more friendly, or more charming and was EASILY one of the NICEST celebrities I have ever had the pleasure of meeting! I so heart Jonathan Togo! 😉 He even came over to check up on us several times while we were on the set to make sure we were having a good time. At one point I mentioned to him how I had chosen my wedding photographer based on the fact that an episode of CSI: Miami had been filmed in his studio (yes, Rob Greer, the photographer whose studio was featured in the “Smoke Gets In Your CSIs” episode of CSI: Miami is photographing our wedding!) and Jonathan laughed and said, “WOW, you guys really are fans!” 😉

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The scene that was being filmed on Friday centered around the investigation of a fire at a “Miami” area home. While we were watching the filming, I happened to comment on how realistic the fire damage was. Well, one of the crew members started laughing and told me that movie magic wasn’t responsible for the burn marks, but that the house had actually been involved in a real life fire last April! I thought he was pulling my leg at first, but as it turns out there really was a fire at the residence just about ten months ago. You can see photographs of it on fave website Altadenablog here. Apparently, the CSI: Miami location manager was in Altadena scouting homes to be used in the episode, when he spotted the charred remains of above pictured house and realized it would be perfect for the show! I mean, honestly, what are the odds of that?

The makeup in the episode was also incredibly realistic. Pictured above is one of the guest stars, whose hands were supposed to have been burned in the fire. Even close up his injuries looked incredibly real! It was unbelievable!

While we were watching the filming, my dad happened to spot actor John Beasley who played Coach Warren in one of his all time favorite movies, 1993’s Rudy. I mean, honestly, could the day have gotten any better for my dad?? John, who was guest starring in the episode being filmed, also could NOT have been nicer and happily posed for photographs with all of us. 🙂

Also on hand filming on Friday was Emily Procter, who plays Calleigh Duquesne on the show, but we unfortunately did not get a photograph with her, and actress Robin Bartlett, who played Debbie Buchman on Mad About You.

Unfortunately, David Caruso was not on the set on Friday, but one of the crew members mentioned that he would be there the following Monday and that we were welcome to come back if we wanted to. IF we wanted to???? Duh! Of course we did! So, bright and early Monday morning, I headed up to Altadena once again to do a bit more CSI: Miami stalking. 🙂

On the set on Monday was Eddie Cibrian, who is SUPER cute in person! Those dimples! Sigh!

And Eve LaRue, who remembered us from our last set visit and who, just like last time, was as sweet as could be. 🙂

And, of course, the man himself, David Caruso! My dad had actually had a bad night this past Sunday – as I’ve mentioned before, he suffers from pancreatitis – and when I went to pick him up on Monday morning to go to the set, he was still not feeling well. So, I had to venture over to the filming by myself. Before I left, though, my dad asked me to bring the photograph we took last January with Mr. Caruso to the set. The now-framed photograph is a prized possession of my dad’s and it inhabits prime real estate on his desk at home and he was hoping that Mr. Caruso would sign it for him. And I am happy to report that, much like what happened back in January, when I got to the set on Monday, David Caruso immediately walked up to me to introduce himself and shake my hand, which is such a rare occasion on a film set. In most instances, fans have to seek the stars out during breaks from filming, but on CSI: Miami, the opposite is true – the stars often walk up to the fans to introduce themselves and say hi. It is AMAZING! Anyway, I explained to DC that we had met him about a year ago and that my dad is a HUGE fan of his and asked if he’d be willing to sign the photo.

Mr. Caruso not only happily obliged, but also gave me some autographed photographs of himself, a Horatio bobble head, and the above pictured Lance Armstrong-style “Horatio” bracelet. LOVE IT! That bracelet is now prominently placed around the gearshift in my car. 🙂 Anyway, later on in the afternoon I returned to my parents’ house to see if my dad was feeling any better, which he was, so I brought him back to the set. Well, as soon as Mr. Caruso saw my dad, he walked right up and gave him a HUGE hug. From that point on, he came over to talk to us pretty much between every single take and was so incredibly nice and down to earth that it was almost unbelievable! I honestly can’t say this enough – David Caruso has got to be the NICEST guy in show business!

Jonathan Togo was also on the set on Monday and remembered me from the previous Friday. I think he thought I was a little nutso to have returned to the set to watch MORE of the filming, because at one point he walked up and said, “You HAVE to be at least a little bored! Just a little bit! Come on, admit it!” But I could honestly sit for HOURS and watch productions being filmed. The entire process and everything that goes into it – from the hundreds of crew members and extensive camera equipment . . .

. . . to the actual filming – absolutely fascinates me, especially if it’s for a show I watch regularly. I honestly can’t get enough of it!

As I mentioned last January, the entire cast and crew of CSI: Miami is fun and friendly, almost unbelievably so. Mike also said that in all his years of living in Los Angeles and of all the sets he had visited in the past, he had NEVER seen one quite like theirs. As you can see in the above pictures, there is definitely a very jovial feeling on set and you’d be hard pressed to find a time when the cast and crew is not laughing or cracking jokes with each other, even during difficult scenes. At one point yesterday, they were trying to film a scene which involved a tricky camera maneuver that just didn’t seem to be working. They had to film the scene numerous times and even through the frustration of it all, they were STILL laughing and kidding each other between takes! LOVE IT!

Both Friday and Monday were absolutely incredible days for me and my dad. I literally could not drag him away from the set yesterday, and he typically hates that sort of thing, so it was very cool for me to see him enjoying himself at a filming. Especially when he has been so sick lately. As I said after our last set visit, being with the cast and crew CSI: Miami provided him with the kind of healing that just can’t be found in a doctor’s office or a hospital building. 🙂 I honestly can’t thank them all enough. When we left the set yesterday, David Caruso said, “I hope to see you guys again the next time we are in Pasadena.” H – you can count on it! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: CSI: Miami was filmed at 1838 East Braeburn Road in Altadena, just down the street from the Walsh’s Minnesota house from Beverly Hills, 90210, which is located at 1640 Braeburn Rd. Look for the CSI: Miami episode to air sometime in April.

March 8, 2010March 7, 2010

Oscar Weekend 2010

The celebrity sightings during Oscar Weekend 2010 started a bit early for me this year when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I accidentally stumbled upon the filming of CSI: Miami in Altadena on Friday morning. But I’ll save that story for tomorrow’s blog post. Today, it’s strictly all about Oscar, Oscar, Oscar! And, let me tell you, it was another amazing Oscar Weekend for me. Man, I love awards season!!!! 🙂

Anyway, after hanging out on the CSI: Miami set for a few hours this past Friday, Mike and I made our way over to the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood to check out the Academy Awards preparations at the Kodak Theatre and to take a little walk on the most famous carpet in the entire world. My fiancé and I usually hit up the Kodak Theatre each year on the Saturday morning before the Oscar ceremony is held and, amazingly enough, the place is usually not all that crowded. But when Mike and I showed up early Friday afternoon, the Hollywood & Highland Center was absolutely JAM PACKED. So much so that they actually had to CLOSE the parking garage there as it was completely full! If you’ve ever been to that parking garage, you know what I mean when I say it is absolutely GINOURMOUS, so the fact that it was FULL was mind-boggling to me! Even with all the traffic and throngs of people, though, we finally managed to make it to the Kodak. And I can’t even tell you how exciting it was to be standing there in the middle of it all! Being that this was my fourth year stalking the Oscars, you would think that I’d be at least a little tired of it by now. But nothing could be further from the truth. I was absolutely ESCTATIC to be seeing it all in person once again. I still have to pinch myself every time I am there. Unbelievably, this was actually Mike’s very first Oscar stalk, though! For whatever reason, even though he grew up in the Los Angeles area, he had yet to ever visit the Academy Awards red carpet in person, so it was extremely exciting for me to be sharing that experience with him. And it got the Grim Cheaper off the hook of having to take me there on Saturday morning. So, it was definitely a win-win situation for all of us. 😉

I have to say that it was very cool to be stalking the Oscars a day earlier than usual, as Mike and I got to see quite a bit of the red carpet set-up taking place, including one of the Oscar statuettes being brought into the theater on a golf cart . . .

. . . and part of the red carpet being rolled out.

Thanks to the massive rain-storms that have been plaguing Southern California as of late, many of the Oscars were actually covered over with plastic tarps;

and there was also a rain tent set up over the red carpet. Which got me to thinking, why does it always seem to rain on Oscar Night?

As usual, the actual carpet was also covered over in tarping to prevent the awards crew from trampling on it pre-show.

And, even with the tarping, I, of course, just had to get a picture of myself standing on it. 🙂

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For those who have never visited the Kodak Theatre, it is located inside of the Hollywood & Highland Center, which is, for all intents and purposes, a mall. So, when the stars walk down the red carpet on Oscar Night, they are actually walking right through a bunch of shops. It’s pretty hard to imagine, I know, but you can kind of see the set-up in the above photographs. The windows to the right and left of the carpet area are actually stores. Whenever I take out-of-towners to the Kodak Theatre and explain that it is where the Oscar Ceremony is held each year, I invariably hear the following sentence, “But this is a mall!” LOL Anyway, the red carpet goes right through a stretch of the mall which houses such stores as MAC, Louis Vuitton (sigh!), Sanrio, Sun’s Up sunglasses store, the Gateway Newstand, and Kelly’s Coffee & Fudge. I swear, if I was an actor walking the red carpet, I would so be tempted to stop into Kelly’s Coffee for a quick latte before making my way into the theatre. 😉 To prevent this, though, the stores are actually required to close during Oscar Weekend, beginning on the Friday evening before the ceremony. Mike and I happened to stop into one of the stores on the red carpet to do some shopping while we were there and the clerk told us that she was getting ready to close for the next few days and that security was just about to do their final check of the premises, along with their bomb-sniffing dogs who roam each store to make sure that no explosive devices have been left inside. How crazy is that?

EXTREMELY bright (like absolutely BLINDINGLY so) lights were set up all along the perimeter of the red carpet. One is pictured above and even via photograph you can tell how darn bright it is.

Some of the Oscar statues are unbelievably HUGE, especially the one located at the corner of Highland Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, which is where the red carpet begins. As you can see in the above photograph, even the base of that statue is taller than me!

I was just itching to jump up on the above pictured press stage to snap a quick picture, but the security guard standing in that vicinity did not look at all friendly so I didn’t want to risk it. He probably would have ended up banning me from the Hollywood & Highland Center for life. 😉

While hanging out on the red carpet on Friday, Mike and I ran into this enterprising young woman who was holding up a homemade sign asking Matt Damon to be her date to the Oscars. 😉 Love it!

While walking around Hollywood, we also spotted this gigantic movie poster for Sex and the City 2 on the side of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and I just had to snap a pic of it! Love it! Love it! Love it!

As much fun as Mike and I had on Friday, I must say that there was even more fun in store for me on Saturday. Beginning early Saturday morning and ending very late Saturday night, I dragged my fiancé from one end of Los Angeles to the other to do some major star-gazing. Sadly, though, due to the rain and the Independent Spirit Awards’ change in venue (while they are usually held on the beach in Santa Monica each Saturday before the Oscars, this year they took place on Friday evening at the much less accessible Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles), my celeb sightings weren’t as numerous this year as they were last, but I still managed to have an ABSOLUTE BLAST. In fact, I am still pinching myself this morning. I even got to meet up with one of my readers, a super sweet fellow stalker named Kendall, at one point during the evening. And while I didn’t spot my girl Jen or crooner Michael Buble (whose sightings were the highlights of my Oscar Weekend last year), I did manage to stalk quite a few celebs. But because hotel security is very tight during Oscar Weekend, I, unfortunately, didn’t get to snap any pictures of them. 🙁

So, without further ado, here is “The List” of celebrity sightings from Oscar Weekend 2010.

1. Jerry Ferris – from Jen Schefft’s season of The Bachelorette

2. Jamie Foxx

3. Lenny Kravitz

4. Aaron Eckhart

5. Benjamin McKenzie – At one point in the evening, I noticed Ben standing next to my fiancé at a valet stand, so I leaned over and said “Hi, Ben!” He looked over expecting me to be someone he knew, got a blank expression on his face, and then smiled a big smile when he realized I was just a fan and said “Hey, how are you doing?” SIGH!

6. Elizabeth Banks

7. Dennis Haysbert (from 24)

8. Ben Stiller

9. J.J. Abrams (the producer of Lost)

10. will.i.am (from the Black Eyed Peas) – He seemed super nice and waved at us.

11. Ed Westwick

12. Jessica Szohr

13. Jake Gyllenhaal

14. Maggie Gyllenhaal – She is extremely taaaaaaaaall in person.

15. Rashida Jones

16. Katie Couric

17. Zachary Quinto

18. Morgan Freeman

19. Jason Reitman

20. Steven Spielberg

21. David Spade

22. Leonardo DiCaprio

23. Halle Berry

24. B.J. Novak

25. Kevin Connolly

26. Sofia Vergara (Gloria from Modern Family)

27. Jesse James

28. Sandra Bullock

29. Ryan Reynolds

30. Ryan Seacrest – He is so not as short as everyone makes him out to be.

31. Jon Hamm

32. Jennifer Westfeldt

33. Jimmy Kimmel

34. Anna Kendrick

35. Christian Slater – Was super friendly and waved at us. 🙂

36. Meg Ryan

37. Ron Livingston

38. Jemaine Clement (from The Flight of the Conchords)

39. Colin Firth

40. Taylor Lautner – He looks VERY young in person, but is VERY cute.

41. Fred Savage

42. Kristin Davis

43. Kate Beckinsale

44. Eddie Murphy

45. Matt Damon

46. Luciana Barrosa

47. Tina Fey

48. Jeanne Tripplehorn

49. Gina Gershon

50. Stanley Tucci

51. Robert Downey Jr.

52. Susan Downey (Robert’s wife, who is a big time producer)

53. Jeff Bridges

54. Winona Ryder

55. Mariska Hargitay – She is STRIKINGLY beautiful in person!

56. Rich Ross – The new chairman of Walt Disney Studios, who I actually served on jury duty with once. 😉

57. Julie Bowen (Claire from Modern Family)

58. Ty Burrell (Phil from Modern Family)

59. Elton John – We ate dinner just a few tables away from him and in what was an absolutely surreal moment, the musician working at the restaurant started playing Elton’s 1970 hit “Your Song” with him sitting just a few feet away.

60. George Takei and his husband Brad Altman – My fiancé said he was actually star struck for what was probably the first time in his life over seeing the two of them, not because he is a Trekkie, but because he is a fan of “The Howard Stern Show” on which George is a frequent announcer.

61. Carrie Underwood

62. Eric Nies

63. Brian Grazer

64. Felicity Huffman

65. Eric McCormack from Will and Grace

66. Jeff Prettyman

67. Dianna Agron (Quinn from Glee)

68. Mark Salling (Puck from Glee) – He is SUPER cute in person and also waved to us.

69. Vera Farmiga

70. Amy Adams

71. Carey Mulligan

72. Peter Sarsgaard

But the highlight of the evening for me had to be when I got to see my latest celebrity crush, Mr. Schuester himself, Matthew Morrison from Glee! Sigh! Ironically, earlier in the day, I had told my fiancé that of all the people I was hoping to see this Oscar Weekend, Matthew Morrison was number 1! And then it happened! I got to see him – and better yet, he even did a little Glee-style spin and turn in front of us when he walked by. SIGH! I literally almost had a heart attack right there on the spot! Truth be told, though, I was SO completely starstruck over seeing him in person that I didn’t even notice his little dance routine. I must have blacked out from excitement or something, but it wasn’t until fellow stalker Kendall mentioned something about it that I even realized he had done it. LOL Anyway, Oscar Weekend 2010 was INCREDIBLY exciting and I CANNOT wait to do it all again next year!!!!! But for now, I am absolutely exhausted, so I am going to go park myself on the couch and spend the next few hours recuperating. 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: I stalked so many hotels and bars this Oscar Weekend, that there are far too many to name here. For a detailed list of places to go to see movie stars on Oscar Weekend – or any weekend, for that matter – check out this blog post that I wrote last year.

October 20, 2009October 20, 2009

Watching The Filming of Gossip Girl

Two weeks ago while in New York, thanks to fave website OnLocationVacations – who I am now seriously thinking of naming my first born after 🙂 – I was able to watch the filming of Gossip Girl live and in person no less than THREE times!!!!! Yes, you read that right – THREE TIMES! For those not familiar with the site, OnLocationVacations features a “Daily Filming Locations” page that chronicles which productions are filming where all over the U.S. – most notably on the island of Manhattan. So, I, of course, checked that page pretty much immediately after I woke up every morning while on my New York vacation. And, as you can probably imagine, I just about died when on October 5th I read that my new fave show Gossip Girl would be filming in Central Park, just a few blocks away from the hotel where I was staying. So, I immediately dragged my fiancé, my best friend, Robin, his girlfriend, Stephanie, and his mother, who were all visiting from Switzerland at the time, out to the Conservatory Water, which is more commonly known as the Model Boat Pond, in Central Park to do some GG stalking! THANK YOU OnLocationVacations! 🙂 (On our way to the set, Stephanie and I spotted the above pictured Craft Services truck and were SO excited we just had to stop and snap a quick pic!) 🙂

Upon arriving at the Model Boat Pond, I, of course, struck up a conversation with a few crew members from the show who really could NOT have been nicer or more friendly. They chatted with me about where filming was taking place specifically and about who was on set at the time. The only cast member present when we showed up, though, was Taylor Momsen, who plays Jenny Humphrey, aka “Little J”, on the show. Taylor was very cute in person and much taller than I expected her to be, but, unfortunately, she also looked a bit under-the-weather. During breaks she pretty much just sat off to the side of the production and kept to herself. The next day, I heard that she actually collapsed from exhaustion a few hours after we left the set! Poor Taylor!

Also on set that morning was Air Bud actor Kevin Zegers who will be guest-starring as Little’s J.’s new love interest on several episodes of Gossip Girl this season. Because I didn’t recognize him, while we were there I asked around to see if any of the crew members could tell me who he was, but no one seemed to know. LOL One crew member told me that Kevin had starred in the Spiderman movies, but that information turned out to be incorrect. LOL It wasn’t until after I got home that fellow stalker Owen was able to identify him for me. Thank you, Owen! 🙂 Anyway, after watching the filming for about thirty minutes or so, my fiancé and best friend dragged me away from the set. 🙁 Needless to say, neither one of them is very much into filming locations. LOL

But have no fear, because later that afternoon, I, of course, dragged everyone back to Central Park to see if any of the other cast members had shown up. I was hoping most of all to see Ed Westwick (aka Chuck Bass) and Leighton Meester (aka Blair Waldorf) because, as I mentioned yesterday, they are my two favorite actors on the show. I so heart Chuck Bass!!!! So, as you can imagine, I literally almost fell over when I walked up to the set and saw my two faves standing hand in hand filming a scene! YAY! I could NOT have been more excited! And it seems that I’m not the only one who reads OnLocationVacations because there were at least two hundred fans and paparazzi standing around watching the filming when we arrived. 🙂

I cannot tell you how exciting it was to watch GG being filmed right before my very eyes!!!!! The scene being shot involved Chuck and Blair taking a leisurely stroll through Central Park just East of the Model Boat Pond.

We literally took close to 500 pictures while watching the filming that afternoon, so deciding which ones to post here proved to be rather difficult. LOL I wanted to post them ALL! But that probably would have crashed my entire blog, so I had to settle for a select few. 🙂

Leighton Meester is absolutely BEAUTIFUL in person – much prettier than she appears to be on TV – and MUCH taller than I had expected!! I thought she would be teeny tiny, but in person she looked to be about 5’6”.

But I have to say that seeing Chuck Bass in person was my favorite part of the day! 🙂 Like Leighton, Ed Westwick is also much better looking in person than he appears to be on TV, but what struck me the most about him was the fact that he makes the SAME EXACT facial expressions in real life that he does while acting as Chuck on the show. LOVE IT! Stephanie and I were cracking up the whole time while watching him because he is just so similar to his character.

In between takes Leighton and Ed hung out together on set and seemed to get along really, really well. They were laughing and joking together and appeared to really enjoy each other’s company. It was very cool to see.

And when she wasn’t chatting with Ed, Leighton was pretty much glued to her blackberry. A girl after my own heart, I swear! 🙂

Unfortunately, as you can see in the above photos, during most of the breaks from shooting a big guy in a red sweatshirt stood in front of Ed and Leighton blocking the paparazzi’s view of the two stars and making it rather difficult for me to take photos. 🙁

Because Chuck and Blair are my fave GG characters, I pretty much hit the jackpot with the filming I got to see. I felt really bad for Stephanie, though, as she was absolutely dying to see Serena (aka Blake Lively) in person. The closest we got to seeing her, though, was when her stand-in walked by (pictured above). And, let me tell you, it was absolutely uncanny how much her stand-in looked like her! Everyone started furiously snapping photos of her until she got close enough for us to realize that it wasn’t actually Blake Lively. LOL

The following morning, October 6th, I once again checked OnLocationVacations and was FLOORED to discover that GG was filming on location yet again – this time in SoHo. So, much to my fiancé and best friend’s chagrin, I once more dragged everyone out to the set to do some stalking. LOL This time actor Penn Badgley, who plays Dan Humphrey on the show, was shooting a scene by himself. And, for some incredibly odd reason, besides the ever-present paparazzi, we were the only stalkers on the set that day. And can I just say here that I so love the New York paparazzi!!! They are so incredibly friendly and so incredibly different from the L.A. paps, who always seem to have a chip on their shoulder. One photog that I struck up a conversation with told us exactly where to stand to get a good pic of Penn. And, sure enough, he was right! It wasn’t two minutes after we moved to where the photog had told us to stand that Penn walked RIGHT BY! 🙂

So, of course, I asked him if he would mind taking a quick photograph with us. Penn was SUPER nice and said that he had to film a really quick scene, but that he’d be happy to pose with us afterwards. You can see him filming the scene in the monitors pictured above.

So, while Penn filmed his brief scene, Stephanie and I waited off to the side and, as promised, just a few minutes later he walked by us once again. When he got close to us he stopped and said to his bodyguard, “Hold on a second, I promised these girls a picture.” How sweet is that!!!!! Sigh!!!!! So darn cool!

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All in all it was an AMAZING experience being on the GG set. The cast and crew could NOT have been friendlier and I had an absolute blast being there! I highly recommend stalking the show if you ever have the opportunity!

A big THANK YOU goes out to OnLocationVacations without whom none of this would have been possible!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Gossip Girl scenes with Taylor Momsen, Ed Westwick, and Leighton Meester were filmed on the East and West sides of the Conservatory Water, aka the Model Boat Pond, in Central Park near 74th Street and Fifth Avenue. The scene with Penn Badgley was filmed in SoHo at the corner of North Moore and Varick Streets.

October 13, 2009December 6, 2013

The Carlyle Hotel

Yet another of my favorite New York haunts is the ultra-exclusive Carlyle Hotel, located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. I blogged about the Carlyle’s famous Bemelman’s Bar, which was featured in Sex and the City: The Movie, after last year’s trip to the Big Apple, but didn’t include much information on the actual hotel itself. So, here goes. The Carlyle Hotel, which was named after author Thomas Carlyle, was built by Moses Ginsberg and designed in the Art Deco style by architects Sylvan Bien & Harry M. Prince. The thirty-five story building first opened its doors in November of 1930 and was actually a residential hotel at the time, with apartments leasing for approximately $20,000 a year. To show you how times have changed, today there is a room at the Carlyle which rents for approximately $15,000 a night! LOL Due to the Great Depression, the hotel did not fare well during the early years. In 1932, it was sold to new owners who managed to keep it afloat and occupied, but failed to really put the hotel on the map. In 1948, businessman Robert Whittle Downing purchased the building with the intent of transforming it into an exclusive, upscale hotel property. And transform it, he did! Shortly after the change of ownership, then-president Harry S. Truman stayed at the Carlyle, and the rest, as they say is, history. Every president since that time has stayed at the Carlyle at least once during their presidency. In fact, JFK owned an apartment at the hotel from 1953 until the time of his death and was such a frequent visitor that during his tenure the Carlyle earned the nickname “the New York White House”. (By the way, I have absolutely no idea what I was looking at when my dad snapped the above picture, but it’s the only one I have of the front of the hotel. LOL)

JFK’s wife Jackie was also a frequent guest at the Carlyle during her lifetime. The hotel honored her patronage by placing the above framed photograph just inside the main entrance. Ironically enough, rumor has it that Marilyn Monroe was also a frequent visitor to the Carlyle – but only when JFK was in town and only when Jackie wasn’t able to accompany him. According to legend, there is a secret tunnel system located below the hotel which allows the rich and famous to enter and leave the property without being spotted by the masses. Thanks to the discretion and privacy that the Carlyle affords, it has long been a celebrity magnet. In fact, the New York Times just recently dubbed it “a Palace of Secrets”. Just a few of the celebs who have been spotted at the hotel through the years include Elizabeth Taylor, Steve Martin, Debbie Reynolds, Princess Diana, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Christian Slater, France’s First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, Scarlett Johansson, Jack Nicholson, Gwen Stefani, Nicole Kidman, Jay Z, Beyonce, Ryan Reynolds, Britney Spears, Swiss tennis star Roger Federer, Kate Bosworth, Victoria Beckham, Kate Hudson, Katie Holmes, and Tom Cruise. And, of course, Sarah Jessica Parker. In fact, SJP and Matthew Broderick are such fans of the Carlyle that they not only honeymooned at the hotel, but hosted an after-after party for the Sex and the City: The Movie premiere there.

The Carlyle is an absolutely beautiful place, with sparkling marble floors, dark wood paneling, crystal chandeliers, and antique elevators complete with real gloved operators. And I highly recommend stalking the place! If you can’t afford to stay there (the average cost of a room is about $525!), you can grab a drink in the hotel’s Bemelman’s Bar or dine in their restaurant, Cafe Carlyle. On our last trip to the Big Apple, we stopped in to the hotel and I asked my dad to snap some photos of of it for me while I went to ask the concierge about the filming that had taken place there over the years. The two pictures shown above were the result of that request. LOL Why he took only two photographs, both of me and not of the hotel, I’ll never know! LOL My apologies! Anyway, to get a better idea of what the Carlyle looks like inside, take a peek at the photo gallery on the hotel’s website. 🙂

The Carlyle is also, of course, a filming location. Woody Allen met ex-wife Tea Leoni at the Carlyle’s Bemelman’s Bar for a drink in the 2002 movie Hollywood Ending. Woody also shot a date scene with Dianne Wiest in the hotel’s restaurant, Cafe Carlyle, for the 1986 movie Hannah and her Sisters.

According to the book New York: A Movie Lover’s Guide, the penthouse where Anthony Hopkins lived in Meet Joe Black was actually one of the Carlyle Hotel’s deluxe suites. The exteriors of his building, however, were filmed elsewhere.

Also according to New York: A Movie Lover’s Guide, the Carlyle stood in for the European hotel where Glenn Close first met Jeremy Irons in the 1990 movie Reversal of Fortune, but I’m not entirely sure that information is correct. As you can see in the above screen captures, the decor just doesn’t seem to match that of the Carlyle.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Carlyle Hotel is located at 25 East 76th Street on New York’s Upper East Side.

October 9, 2009October 7, 2009

Rye Playland

Another location that fellow stalker Owen visited a few weeks back while spending the day in Rye, New York was the amusement park featured at the very end of the 1988 Tom Hanks movie Big. Rye Playland, which is also called Playland Amusement Park or just simply Playland and is run by Westchester County, New York, is the only government-owned and operated amusement park in the entire United States. In the early 1900s, Westchester County Park Association purchased two beachside theme parks after local citizens became upset over the unruly patrons fraternizing there. The Association tore down the existing parks and built Rye Playland in their place. The Art Deco style park opened on May 26, 1928 after a scant six months of construction. The new park featured an ice skating rink, a boardwalk, a fine dining restaurant, a swimming pool, two beaches, and numerous rides, including the Grand Carousel, which was built by Mangels-Carmel in 1915. In 1987, Playland was declared a National Historic Landmark and it is still in operation to this day, looking much the same as it did when it first opened over 81 years ago.

Due to its quaint, beachside charm, movie producers have made much use of Playland over the years. It is at the Rye amusement park that Tom Hanks finally locates the elusive Zoltar machine and makes his wish to be a kid again in fave movie Big. As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, the entrance to the park looks a bit different today than it did in 1988 when Big was filmed. The two white pillars flanking the front gates have long since been removed, as has the pine tree that used to stand in the center island.

Also, at the time the movie was filmed, the large fountain at the front of the park was not in operation. That fountain was in full swing, though, when Owen visited Playland a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, due to all of the spouting water, he couldn’t match up his photograph perfectly to the screen shot, but the two pictures you see above were taken from the exact same vantage point.

Most of the scene from Big took place on Playland’s curved boardwalk, which is located just around the corner from the park’s main entrance and, which, amazingly enough, still looks almost exactly the same today as it did twenty-one years ago when the movie was filmed.

The only thing missing, of course, is the Zoltar machine. 🙁 But notice how the payphone in the above photograph is still in the EXACT same place that it was when the movie was filmed!!

Owen, of course, wasn’t expecting to find a magic fortune telling machine on the pier during his stalk, so imagine his surprise when he discovered that a Pepsi machine was standing just a few feet to the left of where Zoltar was situated in the movie.

So, of course, he just HAD to pretend to kick the machine, like Tom Hanks did in the movie. LOVE IT! 🙂

Rye Playland also showed up in Fatal Attraction, as the spot where Glenn Close took Michael Douglas’ daughter for the day after kidnapping her from school. In the movie, the two are shown riding Playland’s iconic Dragon Coaster, which was built in 1929 and was designed by Frederick A. Church. The Dragon Coaster is 3,400 feet long, rises to 85 feet at its highest point, and is one of only about a hundred wooden roller coasters still in operation in the United States.

Mariah Carey also rode the Dragon Coaster in the 1995 video for her song “Fantasy”, which was filmed in its entirety on location at Playland. The video also made use of the park’s boardwalk and parking lot area.

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Other productions filmed at Playland include Pieta, Sweet and Lowdown, Tenderness, The Muppets Take Manhattan and several episodes of BET Now.

A big THANK YOU to Owen for stalking this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Rye Playland is located at the end of Playland Parkway in Rye, New York. You can visit their website here. Park admission fees range between $20 to $30, but you can access the boardwalk area, where Big was filmed, for free. Parking costs an average of $5, depending on the day. The boardwalk area is located just around the corner from the park’s main entrance. The Who’s the Boss? house is located just a mile North of Playland at 13 Onondaga Street, also in Rye.

October 2, 2009October 1, 2009

Cafe Luka

One of my very favorite places to grab a bite to eat in all of New York is a small restaurant located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side named Cafe Luka. The tiny, little cafe also just happens to be the spot where I ate my first ever New York meal on my first ever New York vacation just about four years ago. My family and I actually happened upon the restaurant quite accidentally one freezing cold morning in December of 2004. We had just taken the red-eye in from L.A. as my dad was scheduled to have surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in the upcoming week. Because our plane was due to arrive at 5 O’clock in the morning, my mom had called our hotel at the last minute and added on what she thought was an extra day at the beginning of our trip. That way, as soon as we landed, we could go straight to the hotel and go to sleep. But, as fate would have it, what my mom actually booked was an extra night at the END of our stay. LOL Now you know where I get my air-headedness from. 🙂 So, there we were at 5 O’clock a.m., exhausted, hungry, and absolutely freezing in the middle of Manhattan with no place to go! Rather than hang out in the hotel lobby until they could get a room ready for us, we instead flagged down a cab-driver and asked him to take us to the nearest open restaurant. That restaurant just so happened to be Cafe Luka. When we arrived, the front door was unlocked, so my parents, my fiancé, and I walked right in and sat down at a booth. As we looked around at the empty seats, my mom said “I don’t think this place is open yet.” My dad, who has absolutely no inhibitions whatsoever, replied “I don’t care if it’s open or not. I’m about to curl up in that booth right there and take a nap.” LOL LOL LOL And curl up he did, right there in the middle of the empty restaurant! A few minutes later a busboy wandered out of the kitchen area, took one look at our motley crew and said “We don’t open for another 45 minutes, but you are welcome to sit here and get warm and I’ll bring you some coffee.” And they say New Yorkers are rude! Well, that was it for us! We had found our new favorite restaurant! 🙂 My family and I went back for breakfast pretty much every morning during that trip and got to know Cafe Luka’s two owners, Jon and Marc, pretty well. Flash forward to a year later during our next trip to the Big Apple. After landing in NYC, at 5 a.m. yet again, my parents headed to our hotel room – which my mom had managed to book correctly this time – to get some sleep, while my boyfriend and I headed to Cafe Luka for some coffee. When we walked in, Jon greeted us BY NAME and then said “How’s your dad doing?” Well, let me tell you, I almost fell on the floor! I could NOT believe that this guy that we had met so briefly an entire year beforehand not only remembered us, but also recalled our names and the fact that my dad had had surgery! My fiancé, ever the pessimist, said to me “OF COURSE he remembers us! Your dad curled up in one of his empty booths and took a nap!!!!!” LOL LOL LOL Even had my dad not done that, though, I’m pretty sure Jon would have still remembered us. He just seems like that kind of guy. Since that visit we’ve become regular patrons of Cafe Luka, and its sister restaurant Fratelli Brick Oven Pizza, usually eating there several times during our New York vacations. And, without fail, Jon and Marc remember us by name on every single visit! And this review of the restaurant on Insider Pages let me know that we haven’t been alone in our experiences there.

So, last year when we stopped into Cafe Luka for our traditional first-morning-in-New-York-breakfast and Jon asked what we had been up to, I, of course, told him about my blog. My dad piped up and said “Hey, you should write about this place.” To which I replied, “That’s a good idea, but have any celebrities ever eaten here?” Jon laughed and said that he had heard buzzings about celebs every now and again, but had no idea which stars in particular had actually dropped by. That’s the difference between L.A. and New York – while Angelinos pretend they are too cool to care about celebrities, New Yorkers actually are too cool – or too busy, for that matter – to care. LOL Anyway, Jon told me that several New York sports stars stop in to eat at the cafe on a regular basis, but I couldn’t tell you specifically who, as I pretty much tune out whenever people start talking sports to me. 🙂 But my ears did perk up when he mentioned that Conan O’Brien stops in to Cafe Luka every morning for a cup of coffee and that Eric Roberts dined next door at Fratelli with some fellow actors shortly after it opened last year. Of course, Jon didn’t know either Conan or Eric by name – he referred to Eric Roberts as the actor with the really famous sister who has curly hair and to Conan as the red-headed comic with a TV show LOL – so I had to play a bit of a guessing game to figure out who he was talking about. Anyway, I decided that if Cafe Luka is good enough for Conan O’Brien and Eric Roberts, it’s definitely good enough for my blog. 🙂

And while I’ve never spotted Conan grabbing his daily cup of coffee while eating at Cafe Luka, I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough. Besides the great service (that’s me and owner Marc pictured above), they also serve up some of the BEST chicken strips, mashed potatoes, and chicken noodle soup that I’ve ever tasted! What can I say? I am WAY into comfort food. 🙂 Their sister restaurant, Fratelli, which is located right next door, is equally as tasty! Especially the pizza!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Cafe Luka is located at 1319 1st Avenue #A on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Their sister restaurant, Fratelli Brick Oven Pizza, is located right next door at 1317 1st Avenue.

September 24, 2009September 23, 2009

The Other 17 Again House

After stalking Zac Efron’s house from the movie 17 Again, I set my sights on finding the home belonging to his zany, long time best friend Ned Gold in the flick. In the movie, Ned, who has made an absolute fortune inventing various software programs, lives in an ultra-modern, ultra-posh pad somewhere high up in the hills above Los Angeles. And I absolutely fell in love with his house the moment I saw it. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not usually a huge fan of modern-style architecture, but, for some reason, as of late it really seems to be growing on me. Since Ned’s house was proving to be somewhat of a difficult find, I had to yet again enlist the help of fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen and Chas. Because we knew that the address number of Zac Efron’s 17 Again house had been changed for the filming, we had a feeling that the address of Ned’s house (which was shown to be 6355) was also a fake. So, we definitely had our work cut out for us on this one.

According to the movie’s production notes, Ned Gold’s house was located “in the hills near Griffith Park”, but exactly where we couldn’t be sure. Thankfully, though, while looking at the above screen capture I had sent him, Owen noticed that a street sign was visible in the distance. But because neither one of us could make out what the sign said, Owen suggested renting 17 Again on Blu-ray DVD to see if it would give us a clearer picture. And sure enough, it did! The street sign in the distance read “Los Encantos Way” – and from there it was simply a matter of using Google Maps Street View to look at houses located near Los Encantos Way in Los Feliz. And it wasn’t long before I had found the house. So, of course, I immediately ran right out to stalk it! 🙂

I am very happy to report that the 17 Again house looks exactly the same in person as it did in the movie – despite just a few minor changes.

When filming at this location, producers went so far as to not only change the address placard on the wall next to the front door, but they also painted a fake address number on the curb in front of the house! Unfortunately, you can only make out the fake curb and sign numbers while watching the Blu-ray copy of the DVD, which my computer is unable to make screen captures of. But if you happen to own the Blu-ray copy of the movie, keep your eyes peeled for the number 6355 in the two areas that I have circled in the above screen cap.

The other difference I noticed was that in real life Zac Efron’s basketball hoop is ostensibly missing from above the garage door.

Other than those two minor changes, though, the 17 Again house looks very much the same in person as it did in the movie. And, let me tell you, it is such a cool house!! With its cement exterior and polished wood details, it is slightly reminiscent of the home from the Showtime series Californication.

As you can see in the above screen capture and aerial image, the home’s real life backyard was used for the high school party scene in the movie. And, from how it appears, I believe the house’s real life interiors were also used for the filming of some scenes.

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On a side note – be sure to check out my new blog page called “Look Who’s Stalking!” where fellow stalkers can send in their photos for me to post. 🙂 I just posted some simply AMAZING photos of the new Sex and the City movie being filmed that were sent to me by fellow stalker Leslie. LOVE IT!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Ned Gold’s 17 Again house is located at 2223 Hobart Boulevard in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.

August 28, 2009December 6, 2013

Marilyn Monroe’s Catalina House

The most important item on my Catalina Island stalking list was the home where a very young Marilyn Monroe lived with her first husband James Dougherty during the years 1943 to 1944. This was long before Miss Monroe became a Hollywood icon and household name, back when she was just a girl who was known simply as Norma Jeane Baker. Norma married James in 1942 at the tender ago of 16. Yes, you read that right – 16!!! The family who was taking care of her at the time was moving out of state and rather than take Norma with them, opted to basically marry her off to one of the neighbor boys. After only one short year of marriage, James was shipped off to Catalina Island to begin his basic training with the Merchant Marines. Marilyn moved to Catalina with him and remained on the island for about a year and a half. So, as you can probably imagine, I was absolutely busting at the seams to find her former home – a task that proved to be much easier than I had anticipated.

While waiting at the Catalina Island taxi station yesterday, I happened to notice a flyer for a movie called Hollywood’s Magical Island: Catalina with a picture of Marilyn on it posted on a wall. So, of course, I just had to ask the taxi operator if he knew anything about the movie, which he, sadly, didn’t. So, I said, “Shoot! I was hoping it might have information about where Marilyn’s Catalina house was located.” Well, lo and behold, the cab operator got this funny look on his face and said “I know where her house is – it’s at 310 Metropole Avenue!” I totally thought the guy was pulling my leg, as what would be the odds that the very first person I ask about her house would know its exact location??? Well, I must have some seriously good stalking karma because the guy really did know the correct address. He told me that just about a year ago a Japanese film crew had descended on the island to make a documentary about the starlet and they actually filmed part of it at her house! Turns out the taxi guy knew the location, because it’s located just three blocks up the street from his little taxi stand and he saw the filming! Honestly, what are the odds????? 🙂

So, of course, I immediately dragged my parents and my fiance right up the street to stalk Marilyn’s former residence. 🙂 Marilyn’s house is an adorable little beach bungalow that looks pretty much exactly like I pictured it would! So darn cute!!!! The home is actually a duplex, I believe, rather than a single family residence, as there seem to be two separate front doors, as you can see in the above photograph.

But, being the overly-anal person that I am, I just had to ask around town for further verification that the house I had just stalked was definitely Marilyn’s former home. I hate putting information on my blog unless I know with absolutely certainty that that information is correct. And all I had to go on for this one was the word of a random cab operator. So, I wanted further verification. Well, as it turns out there are COUNTLESS stories floating around out there as to where the starlet’s former house is located. While most locals I talked to had no idea that Marilyn had even lived on the island LOL LOL LOL, those few that did had differing stories. I heard everything from “She lived somewhere on Whitley Avenue” to “No, no, no, her house is on Descanso Avenue between Beacon and Third Streets” to “Marilyn Monroe lived here? Are you sure?” And that last one came from a guy who WORKS AT THE CATALINA ISLAND MUSEUM! LOL LOL LOL Needless to say I was just a tad bit frustrated over all of the differing theories. I mean, come on people! This is Catalina history! Someone should know where MM lived!!!! Finally, I ended up locating two different books about the history of the island, both of which said Marilyn’s former home was located on Metropole Avenue – just like the cab guy had said! 🙂 So, while I can’t say with absolute certainty that Marilyn Monroe did at one time live at 310 Metropole Avenue on Catalina Island, I am going to go out on a limb here and trust the word of two history books, a local taxi operator, and a Japanese film crew. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Marilyn Monroe’s Catalina house is (most likely) located at 310 Metropole Avenue in Avalon.