Tag: movies

Isabel’s House from the “Bewitched” Movie

Last week, fellow stalker Tony, from the On Location in Los Angeles flickr page, asked for my help in tracking down the residence belonging to Isabel Bigelow (aka Nicole Kidman) and her loyal cat, Lucinda, in the 2005 movie adaptation of the television series Bewitched. So, I, of course, immediately called upon “The Team” – aka fellow stalkers Owen, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and Chas, from ItsFilmedThere – to see if they could help me find it. Which they, of course, did! Owen fairly quickly came upon fave website Hooked on Houses’ awesome write up about the cottage which stated that it was located somewhere in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley. And because the house’s address number – 4427 – was also visible in the movie, we had two very strong leads to follow. Owen immediately began searching the Valley – once he figured out exactly what part of Los Angeles constituted “The Valley”, something I have still not yet been able to do 😉 – for houses with a “4427” address number and voila, it wasn’t very long before he found the correct one. YAY! Thank you, Owen! So, bright and early yesterday morning, I headed out to stalk the place.

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In Bewitched, Isabel discovers the house pictured above during a walk and immediately decides it would be the perfect place to start her new, “normal”, non-witch life in which she has vowed to stop using magic. She does, of course, continue to use magic – fairly soon after making the decision not to, in fact – and, with a simple twitch of her nose, has a “for rent” sign put on the residence’s front lawn and immediately leases the place and moves right in. It’s not very hard to see why producers chose to use the charming colonial style cottage featured in the movie, as it is extremely picturesque and idyllic. It’s exactly the type of place I’d imagine a witch seeking normalcy to want to live. Heck, I would LOVE to live there, myself!

As you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, Isabel’s house looks almost EXACTLY the same in person as it appeared onscreen, right down to the address plaque, white front porch bench, and red front door. Love it!

In fact, the only differences I noticed in real life were the absence of Isabel’s single-car garage and the shutters on the window just to the left of it.

As you can see in the above photographs, that single-car garage is not there in real life. There is a detached two-car garage located directly behind and to the right of the house, though, which leads me to believe that Isabel’s garage was simply a facade that producers had built solely for the filming. And, according to Hooked on Houses, only the exterior of the real life residence was used in Bewitched. The absolutely adorable interiors, sadly, only ever existed on a studio soundstage.

On an ironic side note – According to IMDB’s Bewitched Trivia Page, in real life Isabel’s home was once owned by Bewitched director Nora Ephron’s parents’ friends. Ephron had visited the residence numerous times during her childhood and when it came time to scout locations for the movie, she remembered the house and thought it would be perfect to use as her lead character’s abode. What Nora didn’t realize, however, was that her parents’ friends who once owned the house were none other than Larry Berns and his wife, Sandra Gould – an actress who is best known for playing nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz on the Bewitched television series. Cue the Disney music, ‘cause it truly is a small world after all!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Isabel’s house from the Bewitched movie is located at 4427 Radford Avenue in Studio City.

April 8, 2010
Wayne Manor From the “Batman” Television Series

Just up the street from the Just Married mansion which I blogged about yesterday is the residence which stood in for Wayne Manor, aka Batman’s abode, in the 1966 television series and movie of the same name. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the Batman mansion and the Just Married mansion are quite often mistaken for each other due to a myriad of reasons. So, to set the record straight – and since we already were in the area a couple of weeks ago doing some Just Married stalking- I decided to drag my fiancé a few hundreds yards up the road to also stalk Bruce Wayne’s pad. Sadly, though, not very much of it is visible from the street.

According to Zillow, the residence, which was built in 1928, boasts ten bedrooms, six bathrooms, a whopping 16,599 square feet of living space, and sits on over five acres of land! And if you look at the above photographs, it is very easy to see why the property is often confused with the Just Married mansion that burned down in October of 2005. Not only are both houses gargantuan, set far back from the road, and Tudor/Gothic Revival in style, but both were constructed almost entirely out of brick by the very same architect, Paul Revere Williams, and bear a striking resemblance to each other. Further adding to the confusion between the properties is the fact that they are located within blocks of each other on the very same street, San Rafael Avenue, in Pasadena and have both been featured in countless productions over the years.



Because the location rumors about the two mansions have been running rampant for so very long, this weekend I decided to try to get my hands on as many of the productions filmed on the premises as I could to try to set the record straight once and for all. And I didn’t do too bad – the only movies I wasn’t able to track down were Topper, Three Men and a Little Lady, Executive Action, The Gumball Rally, The Bells of St. Mary’s, Sweet Bird of Youth, and True Confessions. If anyone has those movies or has seen them in the past, can you let me know which, if either, of the San Rafael mansions was featured in them?

As I mentioned above, the mansion’s most famous appearance was as Wayne Manor in the 1966 television series Batman and the subsequent movie of the same name that was made that very same year. But its resume hardly ends there.

The residence was also used as both the St. Audrey’s Home for Boys where Grace (aka Emma Thompson) was taken in by a nun . . .

. . . and as Roman Strauss’ (aka Kenneth Branagh’s) home in 1991’s Dead Again.





In the first Rush Hour movie, the mansion stood in for Los Angeles’ Chinese Consulate.

As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, though, the exterior gate which appears in that movie is not the home’s real life gate.

In 1999’s Bowfinger, the mansion was used as the residence of action star Kit Ramsey (aka Eddie Murphy).

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And in that flick the home’s real life gate does actually appear and was the site of one of the movie’s funniest scenes.

In Scary Movie 2, the mansion stood in for Hell House/Kane Manor where most of the film’s action takes place.

In X-Files: Fight The Future, it was used as the Somerset, England home of the Well-Manicured Man (aka John Neville).



According to some reports that I found online, the mansion was also featured in 1986’s Stand By Me, which seemed a bit odd being that I had always heard that Stand By Me was filmed almost in its entirety in the state of Oregon. After re-watching the flick earlier today, though, I believe that the mansion did appear once at the very end of the movie as the residence of “The Writer” (aka Richard Dreyfuss). As you can see in the above screen captures, the front driveway area does match that of the Batman mansion. Why would they come all the way to Pasadena to film this one brief scene, though, when the rest of the movie was filmed hundreds of miles away in Oregon, you ask? Well, according to IMDB’s Stand By Me trivia page, an actor named David Dukes was originally cast in the role of “The Writer”. After his scenes were shot, though, and filming had wrapped, they re-cast the role with actor Richard Dreyfuss and re-shot all of his character’s scenes. So, since the Richard Dreyfuss scenes were filmed at a later date – I am guessing after principal photography in Oregon had already wrapped – it makes sense that they would have been shot somewhere in the L.A. area, closer to where the film was being edited.



And if you’ll notice in the above screen captures, which were taken from the movie Dead Again, the mansion’s front window and the view from it does sort of match that which appeared in Stand By Me, which makes me think that the property was actually used in the movie, although I don’t have any concrete proof to back that up.

Fellow stalker Ivan just sent me the above screen captures from the television series Land of Giants, in which Wayne Manor stood in for the residence belonging to Uncle Trojar in the episode entitled “Collector’s Item”. And, yes, the mansion was blown up t the end of that episode. Thank you, Ivan! 🙂

According to fave website OnLocationVacations, the mansion was also the site of some filming from the upcoming Dinner For Schmucks movie starring Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and Zach Galifianikis.   Besides being a filming location, the mansion was also the Pasadena Showcase House of Design in 1997. So, I hope that at least partially puts to rest some of the locations rumors about the two landmark San Rafael Avenue mansions. If I come across any further information, I will post it here! And please let me know, dear readers, if you come across any information yourselves!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Wayne Manor from the Batman television series is located at 380 South San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena. Unfortunately, the residence is not very visible from the street. To see the best views of the home, drive just a bit north of where the main gates are located.

April 6, 2010
The “Just Married” Mansion

Since we are currently knee-deep in the middle of wedding planning, a few weeks ago my fiancé and I decided to sit down and finally watch the 2003 movie Just Married for the very first time. And I have to say that I absolutely LOVED it! While watching it, though, I became obsessed with finding the gargantuan, red brick, Tudor-style mansion where Sarah (aka Brittany Murphy) and her family lived in the flick, which as luck would have it, wasn’t too hard to track down.   Thanks to IMDB’s Just Married filming locations page, I discovered that the mansion was located at 160 South San Rafael Avenue right here in Pasadena. So, I immediately dragged my fiancé right over there the following morning. We had a sad surprise awaiting us when we arrived at the front gates, though – the mansion was no longer there. It had completely burned to the ground in a massive fire back in October of 2005. SO SAD.

All that currently remains of the once massive mansion are its front gate, guard house, and red brick retaining wall. I can’t tell you how depressing this was to discover, being that the now-fallen house was something of a historic landmark in Pasadena. The residence which once stood on the property was originally built in 1929 for British thoroughbred horse breeder Jack Pease Atkin for $500,000. The home was designed by famed celebrity architect Paul Revere Williams, who is best known for being the very first African American member of the American Institute of Architects and for designing the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Jet-Age Theme Building, aka Encounter Restaurant, at LAX. He also built Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli’s house, but I digress. The three-story mansion boasted 21 rooms, three stories, a 1,200 square foot gate house, over 12,000 square feet of living space, and sat on a lot measuring 3.3 acres. The house’s love affair with the movies began early on, in the 1930s, when Atkins decided to rent his property out to film crews in order to raise money to fund soup kitchens for the downtrodden in Depression-era L.A. And the filming never stopped. In 2004, the home was purchased by Michael Armand Hammer, the grandson of oil tycoon Armand Hammer, who also founded the famed Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture in Westwood. Hammer immediately set about completely restoring the entire property. Sadly, though, a massive fire broke out at approximately 9:20 p.m. on the night of October 5, 2005, one month before he was set to move in. Over 80 firefighters were called in from neighboring cities to fight the blaze and it took them over three hours to even contain it.   Flames were still burning the following morning and ended up causing over $20 million worth of damage and completely gutting the property. According to some neighbors that I spoke with while stalking the place, rumor has it that the fire was started due to a dispute between contractors. What a complete and total shame! No charges were ever filed in the case and the 3.3 acre vacant lot is currently for sale for a whopping $10 million. You can see some great aerial views of the mansion before and after it was burned on Zillow.

Hollywood rumors about the mansion have been circling around Pasadena pretty much since the time the house was built, the two most prevalent of which being that it was owned at one time by former Beatle Paul McCartney and that it was used as Bruce Wayne’s manor in the 1960s television series Batman. Both of those rumors are completely false. And while I am not sure how the Paul McCartney story came to be, the Batman rumor is easy enough to figure out. The real Wayne Manor is located just a few houses up the road at 380 S. San Rafael Avenue and looks extremely similar in appearance to the Just Married mansion. Batman and Paul McCartney aside, though, the Atkin’s house has a Hollywood resume any actor would envy.



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In Just Married, the mansion, which was supposedly located in Beverly Hills, belonged to Sarah’s extremely wealthy father, who co-owned both the Dodgers and the Lakers in the flick. For whatever reason, though, the exterior of the house was never shown in its entirety, but the front gate area did appear quite a bit.

As did the front door/front porch . . .

. . . and the intercom outside of the main gate, which was used as a running joke throughout the movie. And, even though it wasn’t the same exact intercom which appeared in Just Married, I just had to pose for a pic with it. 😉

Thankfully, the area where Sam (aka Ashton Kutcher) played flag football with Sarah’s family is still intact and is visible through the front gate.



The mansion also stood in for the Carlton Hotel in several episodes of TV’s Dynasty.

The residence was also featured in the 1985 movie Clue, but as you can see in the above screen capture, some movie magic was definitely employed in the production.



According to some reports that I read online, while the real life driveway, retaining wall, front porch and bottom half of the mansion’s exterior were used in Clue . . .

. . . producers had a matte painting added to the top portion of the house to make it appear larger and more sinister than it actually was.

In the 1991 movie Mobsters, the mansion belonged to Arnold Rothstein (aka F. Murray Abraham), but only the interior of it was ever shown.



In 2003’s Hollywood Homicide, it belonged to Jerry Duran (aka Martin Landau) who gave part time real estate agent Sergeant Joe Gavilan (aka Harrison Ford) 72 hours to sell it.

I am fairly certain that the real inside of the home was used in the movie, as well.

According to several books, the mansion also stood in for the home of Rocky Balboa in Rocky V, but as you can see in the above screen captures, while the two properties resemble each other, they are not in fact the same. There are also reports which state that the mansion was featured in the 1979 Peter Sellers’ movie Being There, but I just re-watched that film last night and did not see it anywhere. I am guessing that it was either not in fact used in the movie or that it was used solely for interior shots.

The mansion also supposedly appeared in The Bells of St. Mary’s, Sweet Bird of Youth, Three Men and a Little Lady, True Confessions, an episode of Murder, She Wrote, and in both the movie Topper and the subsequent television series of the same name, but because I don’t own any of those productions I have not been able to verify that information.

UPDATE – Fellow blogger Petrea from the Pasadena Daily Photo website just sent me this amazing photograph that a friend of hers named Dave Thompson took of the Just Married mansion shortly after it was destroyed in the 2005 fire. Thanks, Petrea!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Just Married mansion was formerly located at 160 South San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena. Sadly, the area is currently just a vacant lot.

April 5, 2010
The “Sleepless in Seattle” Houseboat

Another Seattle area location that my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry stalked for me a few weeks back was the houseboat where Sam Baldwin (aka Tom Hanks) and his son Jonah (aka Ross Malinger) lived in one of my favorite romantic comedies of all time, 1993’s Sleepless in Seattle. I just re-watched Sleepless last night, actually, in order to write today’s post and was absolutely amazed at how incredibly fabulous the movie still is, almost two decades after it was first released! It’s a classic and I honestly cannot tell you how much I LOVE it. Like LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! In fact, I can still remember exactly where I was when I first saw it seventeen years ago. It was the summer of 1993, I was sixteen years old, and my parents and I were vacationing in Santa Barbara. While shopping on State Street, we stumbled upon Paseo Nuevo Cinemas, saw Sleepless on the marquee, and decided to buy tickets. I actually still have my ticket from that day, in fact, in a shoebox somewhere in my closet. In the years since, I’ve walked by that same movie theatre countless times while visiting the Santa Barbara area and each time I do the memories from that day never fail to bring a smile to my face. So, when Kerry mentioned that she was going to stalk the Sleepless houseboat, I just about died. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see that place in person! So, I decided that, even though I have yet to stalk the house myself yet, I just had to blog about it. Thank you, Kerry!

In Sleepless in Seattle, Sam and Jonah Baldwin leave their home in Chicago and move into the Seattle area houseboat pictured above in order to make a fresh start after losing their wife and mother, respectively, a few months prior.

In real life, the Sleepless in Seattle houseboat is located in a gated community of sorts in the Lake Union area of Seattle, Washington (actual gates are pictured above) and is, sadly, not at all visible from the street. Typically, the only way to catch a glimpse of the place is if you travel by it by boat. Thankfully, though, as I’ve mentioned before on my blog, Kerry isn’t one to be easily deterred. As luck would have it, there was an open house in the neighborhood on the day Kerry stalked the place and so she was allowed to wander right in past the main gate! YAY!

As you can in the above screen captures and photographs, the houseboat looks almost EXACTLY the same today as it did when Sleepless was filmed over 17 years ago! In fact, the only differences I noticed were that the front door is currently painted a bright red color and that the fencing around the back patio has been changed from metal to wood.

The four bedroom, two bath houseboat, which was first built in 1978, was apparently for sale in 2008 for a whopping $2.5 million, but I was unable to discern if it was ever actually purchased by someone or if it is still currently up for grabs. If you look at the home’s interior photographs on its real estate website, though, you can see that the inside was not used in the filming of Sleepless. Although the interior of the real life home and its onscreen counterpart bear a striking resemblance to each other, you can tell by the location of both the kitchen and the stairway leading up to the second level that they are not the same place. In real life, the inside of the houseboat, which measures 2,075 square feet, is also much larger than it was made to look onscreen. I am guessing that the entire interior that appeared in the movie was just a set that producers had built on a soundstage somewhere.

If you’ll notice in the above picture, though, the little bench that Sam sits on at night in the movie is there in real life, too. So LOVE it!

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I am happy to report, too, that the mailboxes seen in the flick are in fact the community’s real life mailboxes and that they look very much the same today as they did back in 1993 when Sleepless was filmed. YAY!

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for stalking this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Sleepless in Seattle houseboat is located at 2460 Westlake Avenue North in the Lake Union area of Seattle, Washington, right next to Boatworld Marinas. Please remember that the home is located in a private community and do not trespass.

April 2, 2010
The “Father of the Bride Part II” Wall, House, and Intersection

As I’ve mentioned quite a few times in the past, fellow stalker Owen and I are just a bit obsessed with both the 1991 movie Father of the Bride and its sequel, 1995’s Father of the Bride Part II. And while we had tracked down most of the locales featured in the flicks, Owen had his sights set on locating the wavy stone wall that George Banks (aka Steve Martin) walked by towards the beginning of Part II. Although the wall only appears for one very brief second in the movie and seems like a rather peculiar spot to want to stalk, Owen was absolutely consumed with finding it. And I must say, I understand. Yes, maybe to some it is just a wall that flashed by once in a movie that is well over a decade and a half old, but to people who love Father of the Bride Part II and have watched it countless times over, that wall is a landmark – a significant piece of cinematic history. Fellow stalker David from Spain made a comment to me the other day that rang so very true. Speaking about our shared and unwavering desire to track down certain filming locations, he said, “I think you and I are infected with the same virus.” 😉    Couldn’t have said it better myself, David, couldn’t have said it better! So, when Owen told me he was dying to stalk that Father of the Bride Part II wall, I completely understood and vowed to help him find it. As it turned out, though, he didn’t need my help after all.



I was able to help him with one thing, though. After Owen asked for my assistance with this particular stalk, I popped in my Father of the Bride Part II DVD and immediately recognized the grey-shingled home that George walks by just prior to the stone wall. In the scene, George is shown walking in his neighborhood after getting into a fight with his wife Nina (aka Dianne Keaton), after just finding out that she is pregnant. While walking he wonders if he still has what it takes to be a good dad at his age and then spots a man much younger than he standing on the front porch of a home kissing his son goodbye before leaving for work.



As fate would have it, Mike from MovieShotsLA, and I had JUST walked by that very same house a few weeks beforehand. While grabbing a Starbucks one day in Pasadena, the two of us decided to take a walk over to the Mr. Deeds house which was fairly close by. As we strolled down Madison Avenue, we randomly stopped to admire the above pictured residence and Mike said, “Wow, what a beautiful home! I bet it’s been used in a movie before!” Because the house was so incredibly picturesque and had “Anywhere, U.S.A.” written all over it, I completely agreed. As the two of us walked on, the residence stuck in my brain and became one of many in Pasadena that I refer to as a “Thanksgiving House”. Every so often in my stalking travels I will come across incredibly charming and idyllic spots that immediately make me think of coming home at Thanksgiving. I started using the phrase “Thanksgiving House” as a child after taking a stroll one holiday morning with my parents and listening to my mom say “Don’t you want to spend Thanksgiving in a house that looks like that?” as she pointed out the many beautiful residences we passed. The term has, for whatever reason, stuck. So, when I popped in my Father of the Bride Part II DVD to help Owen with his search, I, of course, immediately recognized my “Thanksgiving House”! Which proved Mike right – it had been used in a movie! 😉 And, ironically enough, when I returned to the house a few weeks later to snap some pictures, a crew was just getting ready to set up for the filming of a Cialis commercial on the premises!

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Once Owen knew that the grey-shingled house was located in Pasadena, he began searching for the stone wall there, too. What he found first, though, was the intersection where George gets propositioned by a young blond woman in a convertible.   How in the heck he managed to recognize a fairly non-descript intersection is beyond me! But he did and my hat is definitely off to him! As fate would have it, while looking at the intersection via Google Street View, Owen fairly quickly noticed that it was located at the top of a very large hill. Also located on that hill? You guessed it – the stone wall Owen had been searching for! YAY!

Sadly, though, Owen’s stone wall looks very different today than it did in 1995 when Father of the Bride Part II was filmed. In fact, the entire thing is now completely covered over with ivy and is almost completely unrecognizable. Such a bummer! Why anyone would cover up such a cool looking stone wall is beyond me.

But as you can see in the above photograph, a few stones can still be seen peeking out from under the ivy in some parts of the wall. So, at least there’s that.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for tracking down these locations! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Father of the Bride Part II house is located at 639 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena. The spot where the blond woman hits on Steve Martin is at the intersection of South Grand Avenue and Arbor Street in Pasadena. The stone wall Steve Martin walks in front of later on in the movie is just west of the intersection, on the 500 block of Arbor Street.

March 31, 2010
The Nite Owl Coffee Shop from “L.A. Confidential”

I have to apologize in advance for today’s post as it is going to be a short one. My best friend came to visit me this weekend and we spent all of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday doing wedding planning which, unfortunately, left me with no time for blogging. 🙁 I promise to write a more complete post tomorrow, but in the meantime, on with the stalking! One location that I have known about for quite some time now, but, for whatever reason, had yet to stalk was J & J Sandwich Shop from fave movie L.A. Confidential. In the 1997 flick the tiny restaurant stood in for the Nite Owl Coffee Shop, the 24 hour diner which was the site of the aptly named “Nite Owl Massacre”, the investigation of which provided the movie’s central plotline. I first learned of the location from Mike, from MovieShotsLA, way back when, but didn’t actually stalk the place until two weeks ago when the two of us walked by it while in Downtown Los Angeles trying to find the “Beat It” cafe.

In real life, J&J Sandwich Shop is not actually a coffee shop at all, but more of a walk-up-style delicatessen. And it, sadly, looks very different in person than it did in L.A. Confidential. According to J&J’s owner – a super nice woman who answered all of our silly questions about the filming and let us take as many pictures of the place as we wanted – set dressers completely remodeled the cafe’s interior for the movie. The restaurant actually had to be closed down for a total of three weeks for the filming, which included time for both dressing the set to look like a ‘50s diner and then subsequently putting it back to normal again after shooting had been completed.

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As you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, J&J Sandwich Shop is almost unrecognizable from it’s appearance in L.A. Confidential. Not only was the floor completely redone for the filming, but replacement light fixtures were also brought in, as were new tables and chairs, to make the place seem more ‘50s like.

A rounded, sit-down countertop was also brought in to replace the restaurant’s real life walk-up counter.

The restaurant’s back hallway was also featured in L.A. Confidential, and, thankfully, looks pretty similar in person to how it appeared onscreen.

J&J’s owner also told us that the restaurant’s real life bathroom was also used in the movie, as the spot where most of the Nite Owl patrons were killed during the massacre.

I am kicking myself right now for not sending Mike into the actual bathroom to take pictures, though. 🙁 I have no idea why, but I never even thought of it while we were there! UGH!

Even though J&J Sandwich Shop does not look at all like its onscreen counterpart, I still have to say that I’d recommend stalking the place just because its owner was so incredibly nice. We didn’t have time to actually eat there during our stalk – as I said, we were on a mission to find the “Beat It” cafe – but according to its Yelp reviews, the place serves up some great food, so it’s looks like I’ll have to go back there again soon. Well, I told you it was going to be a short one today. But, as I said, I will be back tomorrow with a normal post.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: J&J Sandwich Shop, aka the Nite Owl Coffee Shop, is located at 119 East 6th Street, directly across from Cole’s Restaurant.

March 29, 2010
Dionne’s House From “Clueless”

One location that I have been searching for for what seems like forever is the huge castle-like abode where Cher’s (aka Alicia Silverstone’s) best friend Dionne (aka Stacey Dash) lived in one of my all time favorite comedies, 1995’s Clueless.   Since I had been trying to track down the home for years and had come up virtually empty handed, I recently decided to call upon fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, and Owen – or, as Mike likes to call us collectively, “The Team” 😉 – for help. Well, I almost fell off my chair when Owen emailed me back less than ten minutes later with an address. Here I had been trying to track down this location for years and Owen managed to find it in a span of ten minutes???? Am I losing my mojo or something?   As luck would have it, thanks to a simple Google search, Owen stumbled upon a website called “The Daily Truffle” which recently featured an entire post about Clueless locations in honor of the tragically short life of actress Brittany Murphy who played newcomer Tai in the flick. One of the addresses mentioned on the site? You guessed it, Dionne’s home!   YAY! As it turns out, the author of “The Daily Truffle” lives just a few blocks away from the residence, which is how she knew of its location. Thank you, Daily Truffle!

Dionne’s house shows up in one very short scene at the very beginning of Clueless. And I am not kidding when I say the scene was short – it lasted a mere 18 seconds! But even though its appearance onscreen was brief, Dionne’s home was one of the most memorable locations of the entire movie and I was ABSOLUTELY DYING to stalk the place.



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Unlike Cher’s house, which is located in Encino of all places (egads!), Dionne’s house is located exactly where the movie purports it to be – right in the heart of Beverly Hills. Sadly though, as you can see in the above photographs, the residence looks much different today than it did in 1995 when Clueless was filmed. 🙁 As luck would have it, an extremely nice contractor happened to be working at the house when my dad and I showed up to stalk the place earlier today and he explained that the property was sold in late 2008 and that the new owners not only completely gutted the interior, but also added an exterior gate and massive amounts of foliage to the perimeter which completely block the home from view. SO SAD. The contractor also told me that part of Clueless was filmed inside of the residence. But, because no scenes from the movie actually took place in Dionne’s home, I am guessing that the property might been used to stand in for Cher’s house in some way.   That is just pure speculation on my part, though, so don’t quote me on that. 😉

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Thankfully, because the home’s newly installed gate was standing wide open while we were there, I was able to snap a few close-up pictures of the front door area which was featured prominently in Clueless – well, as prominently as it could have been in an 18 second scene. 😉

If you look at Dionne’s house via Google Street View, it appears pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen in Clueless. Oh, how I wish I had stalked the place two years ago before the remodel began! Ugh! In real life, Dionne’s house, which was built in 1930, boasts 7 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and a whopping 9,850 square feet!

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Big THANK YOU to both Owen and The Daily Truffle for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Dionne’s house from Clueless is located at 705 North Sierra Drive in Beverly Hills.

March 24, 2010
Mia Wallace’s House from “Pulp Fiction”

A few weeks ago, fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, set his sights on tracking down every single location featured in the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction. Well, as soon as I found out about this bold undertaking, I begged him to find the ultra-modern abode belonging to Mia Wallace (aka Uma Thurman) in the flick, which was, of course, the location I was most interested in stalking (besides the ‘50s inspired Jack Rabbit Slims restaurant, which unfortunately doesn’t exist in real life). And, sure enough, he did! Chas somehow managed to track down a crew member from the film who remembered that Mia’s residence was located somewhere in Beverly Hills a few miles north of Sunset Boulevard. So, Chas immediately got to cyberstalking and I am happy to report found the abode fairly quickly.   And once he gave me Mia’s address, I dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place. Sadly, though, the gate pictured above is pretty much the only part of the property that is visible from the street.   🙁

I was so hoping to see the home’s main entryway, as that is the area of the house that is most recognizable from Pulp Fiction, but alas that was not to be. 🙁

You can catch a slight (very, very slight) glimpse of the residence if you drive a bit north of the property . . .

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. . . . and another slight view of it if you drive a bit south of the main gates. Aside from those two limited views, though, there unfortunately isn’t a whole lot to see at this location. Such a bummer!

But that’s why God created real estate listings! While doing some research on the property earlier today, I not only stumbled upon a real estate website advertising the home (which is currently for sale at a price that is only made known upon request – yikes!), but a YouTube video, as well (see below)! Score!   And, as you can see in the above photographs and screen captures, it seems that the real life interior of the residence was also used in the filming of Pulp Fiction. So cool!

Even the home’s real life bathroom was used in the scene in which Vincent Vega (aka John Travolta) tries to talk himself out of wanting to get together with Mia.   So cool!

In real life, the home, which was built in 1960, boasts three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, measures 4,015 square feet and sits on almost a full acre of land.   And while the real estate listing does boast that the “gated celebrity view estate” (and I’m not even really sure what that phrase means!) features an infinity pool and “state of the art electronics and security systems”, for whatever reason it fails to mention its cinematic cameo! If I was the property’s real estate agent, you can bet its appearance on the silver screen would be my main selling point! Hello! I mean, that’s bound to drive the price up at least a few dollars. 😉

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mia Wallace’s house from Pulp Fiction is located at 1541 Summitridge Drive in Beverly Hills.

March 18, 2010
The Omega Beta Zeta House from “Scream 2”

This past Saturday, while I was out stalking the Oscars, fellow stalker Tony spent his day trying to track down the large Victorian mansion which appeared as both the Omega Beta Zeta sorority house in Scream 2 and the Strong residence in Catch Me If You Can. Tony knew that the house was located somewhere in the Altadena area and, since I live in the vicinity, was hoping I could help him find it. We spent quite a bit of time emailing back and forth that day – me on my blackberry while out and about in Hollywood and Tony on his computer at home. I am sad to say that I was unable to provide him with any help whatsoever in this particular hunt, though, as I had long been under the incorrect assumption that the Woodbury Story House on Madison Avenue in Altadena was the residence used as the Strong mansion in Catch Me If You Can. Tony proved me wrong, though, and, as it turns out, didn’t need my help after all. He managed to track down the correct location fairly quickly, first using Google to make a list of all of the large Victorian-style houses in the Altadena area and then viewing each one using aerial maps. YAY! Thank you, Tony! So, once Tony gave me the address, I, of course, had to run right out to immediately stalk the place.

The Scream 2/Catch Me If You Can estate is actually known as both the Crank House and Fair Oaks Ranch and is something of a historical residence.   The vacant property was first owned by a wealthy landowner named Dr. John S. Griffin. In 1862, Griffin sold the lot to his sister, Eliza Griffin Johnston, for $1000 after her husband, Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, passed away during the Civil War. Eliza built a small abode on the property and dubbed her new home “Fair Oaks Ranch”, after the city of Fair Oaks in Virginia where she was born. In 1864, following the death of her son in a steamship accident, Eliza sold the property to Benjamin Eaton, one of Pasadena’s first founders. Eaton ended up splitting the land in half and in 1876 sold one of the halves to a New Yorker named James F. Crank. Crank had Eliza’s original home moved off of the property (it is currently located at 2072 Oakwood Avenue in Altadena) and in 1882 built a much larger, two and a half story, Victorian-style abode, named the Crank House, in its place. In 1910, after investing and subsequently losing his fortune in the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Valley Railroads, Crank was forced to sell the residence.   And while his property was further subdivided after the sale, I am happy to report that his former house still stands and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. The seven bedroom, four bathroom home measures a whopping 6,450 square feet and currently sits on over one and a half acres of land. Sadly, though, the residence is situated behind a large gate and is not very visible from the street.

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But, as luck would have it, when I showed up to stalk the place yesterday, not only was the property’s back gate standing open . . .

. . . but, the front gate was, as well! So, I just had to stick my arm around the open gate and snap the above pictures! YAY! 🙂



And, being that the house is not visible from the street, I can’t really recommend visiting it in person. But if you are absolutely dying to catch a glimpse of it, I am happy to report that parts of it can actually be seen from the streets surrounding the property. 🙂

In Scream 2, the Crank House stood in for the Omega Beta Zeta sorority house located on the campus of the fictional Windsor College in Ohio.

The house is where sorority girl CiCi Cooper (aka Sarah Michelle Gellar) meets her untimely end thanks to a push off the mansion’s second floor balcony. In the movie, the house is supposedly situated within walking distance of the Delta Lambda Zeta house, where the “Martini Mixer” fraternity party was held, but in actuality it is located a good six miles away from that residence. On a side note – I have to admit that I must have jumped out of my chair at least ten times while making the above screen captures! LOL

In Catch Me If You Can, the Crank House stood in for the New Orleans residence belonging to Roger (aka Martin Sheen) and Carol Strong (aka Nancy Lenehan) and their daughter Brenda (aka Amy Adams).   The house showed up in several scenes in the movie, most notably as the location of Frank Abagnale (aka Leonardo DiCaprio) and Brenda’s engagement party.



Both the interior and the exterior of the Crank House were used extensively in the filming of Scream 2 and Catch Me If You Can. As you can in the above screen captures, which were taken from both films, the interiors match almost exactly. Love it!

Big THANK YOU to Tony for finding this location! 🙂 And be sure to check out Tony’s Flickr site, as it features some fabulous photographs of filming locations in and around the L.A. area.

On a very sad side note – I was heartbroken today to learn of the untimely death of actor Corey Haim. Corey was one of my very first movie star crushes. I was eleven years old when I first layed eyes on him in 1988’s License to Drive and I think it’s safe to save I’ve been smitten ever since. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones at this difficult time. I hope that in death Corey has finally found the peace that he never seemed to have in life. Rest in peace, sweet Corey.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Crank Estate, aka Fair Oaks Ranch, is located at 2186 East Crary Street in Altadena. The property’s front gate is located around the corner, at the end of Layton Street. Remember, this is a private residence, so please do not trespass. To see the best views of the house, drive on Crary Street just a bit east of the property and look backwards or drive a block south to Garfias Drive and look north. I’ve marked the areas with the best views of the house on the map above.

March 11, 2010
Bun ‘N Burger Restaurant from “An American Summer”

I must apologize in advance for today’s fairly short blog post as I just got back from spending pretty much the entire day (over seven hours – not kidding!) on the set of CSI: Miami yet again. And while I promise to write a detailed post about my experiences there in the very near future, I’ve unfortunately gotta keep this particular column short and sweet. So, without further ado . . . a few weeks ago Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took the day off from work so that the two of us could do some stalking in the Malibu area. But before heading over to the ‘Bu, Mike told me that he was taking me out to breakfast – at a filming location, of course. That filming location turned out to be a little place named Bun ‘N Burger restaurant that was featured very briefly in a movie called An American Summer. Before that day a few weeks ago I had never actually heard of An American Summer, which premiered in 1991, but as fate would have it, the flick starred a very young actor by the name of Brian Austin Green, aka David Silver from Beverly Hills, 90210. So, of course, once I learned that little tidbit of information, I just had to run right out and buy myself a copy of the movie.

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Bun ‘N Burger restaurant shows up in one very brief scene in An American Summer, the very cheesy (but in a good way) and very 80’s plot of which revolves around a young Chicagoan named Tom (aka Michael Landes) who is begrudgingly sent to live with his aunt in California for the summer while his parents go through a divorce. While in Los Angeles, Tom ends up befriending a young surfer named Fin (aka Brian Austin Green) who not only teaches him how to sell sunglasses, deliver newspapers, and surf, but also how to pick up girls. At the very beginning of the movie, right after the boys first meet, Fin takes Tom to Bun ‘N Burger restaurant for some “java”, because as he says, “Every grown-up drinks java!” LOL

Amazingly enough, Bun ‘N Burger restaurant still looks very much the same today as it did back in 1991 when An American Summer was filmed. As you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, even the signs that appeared in the background behind Tom and Fin in the movie are still there in real life over 19 years later! A few more signs have been added since that time, but still so darn cool!

Mike found this location thanks to the fact that he used to work directly across the street from it in the late 80s and would frequently take his lunch breaks there. So, when he saw An American Summer for the first time in the movie theatre he recognized the place immediately. 🙂

Bun ‘N Burger restaurant, which was first established in 1941, is a super cute little roadside diner which features red leather booths, authentic ‘50s style furniture, a sit-down countertop, black-and-white checkered flooring, and countless old time photographs papering the walls. It is such an adorable little spot, in fact, that I am actually quite shocked it hasn’t been featured in more productions over the years. And despite what some online reviews have stated, the place serves up some fabulous food, including Mike’s personal favorite – the famous Bun ‘N Burger breakfast burrito. Unfortunately, though, because I am still on my new low carb diabetic diet, I didn’t get to sample the breakfast burrito, but instead opted for three hardboiled eggs. Mike was a bit flabbergasted over my menu selection and, after I ordered, said , “I take you out to breakfast and you order three hardboiled eggs?????” LOL What can I say – diets are absolutely NO fun. But, let me tell you, his burrito looked fabulous and if I ever get the urge to cheat, you know where I’m heading. 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bun ‘N Burger restaurant from An American Summer is located at 1000 East Main Street in Alhambra.

March 9, 2010