OVer Her Dead Body – IAMNOTASTALKER

Over Her Dead Body is hardly a horror flick. In fact, the only thing scary about it is the reviews, with one critic going so far as to opine, “A deceased bride, a depressed groom and a caterer who doubles as a psychic. Yes, it’s an unlikely love triangle, and it’s even more unlikely that you’ll like this film.” Ouch. The 2008 “ghostcom,” as Roger Ebert called it, centers around would-be-newlywed Kate (Eva Longoria), who, after getting killed in a freak accident on her wedding day, decides to spend the afterlife haunting Ashley (Lake Bell), a psychic who starts to show interest in her former fiancé, Henry (Paul Rudd). (I’m not gonna lie, that would be so be me!) I initially learned of the movie many moons ago when fellow stalker Virginie emailed me a couple of its locations including Long Beach’s Broadlind Hotel, which doubled as the apartment building where Ashley lived and was haunted by Kate. I finally sat down to give Over Her Dead Body a watch this week and was shocked to find it cute, sweet and funny – and though not of the horror genre, considering its subject matter, fully fitting of a Haunted Hollywood post.

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Built in 1928 as a boutique lodging by the Piper & Kahrs architecture team, the Italian Renaissance-style Broadlind Hotel featured 20 rooms as well as a manager’s unit at its inception.

The property’s name was derived from its location on the corner of East Broadway and Linden Avenue in Long Beach’s East Village Arts District.

Featuring handsome brickwork, terra cotta detailing, two-story arches dotting the lower levels, and carved wooden doors, the structure, dubbed “the biggest little hotel in Long Beach,” was mainly patronized by naval officers temporarily stationed at the now-defunct Long Beach Naval Complex in its early days. Amenities included a tiled bath and shower in every room and a barbershop, beauty parlor, and restaurant on the ground floor.

The basement level, now home to the Blind Donkey whiskey lounge, served as a gambling hall and watering hole during the Prohibition years.

The Broadlind eventually transitioned into an apartment facility before falling into disrepair and sitting vacant for many years. Then in 2005, it was picked up by a new owner who made plans to restore it to its original use as a boutique lodging. Those plans finally came to fruition in 2017. Today, the 20-room property, a Long Beach Historical Landmark, is marketed as a European-style “ApartHotel,” meaning it is part apartment/part hotel. Each of the units features many of the comforts of home, including a kitchenette with an oven, refrigerator and microwave, cookware, utensils, a flat-screen television with digital channels, and Wi-Fi. Laundry facilities are also on the premises, as well as a lobby balcony for guests to enjoy their morning coffee. In a unique twist, there is no front desk or on-site reception – vacationers are instead granted access to their rooms via keyless entry codes.

The Broadlind even has a penthouse suite in the tower situated at its northeast corner.

The hotel’s ground floor is currently home to a Thai restaurant and a juice bar. And don’t forget about the Blind Donkey in the basement!

Though the place looks absolutely adorable both from the outside and in its website photographs, sadly the reviews are less than stellar. Yelpers really don’t mince words about the property, with one referring to it as “whipped cream on dog sh*t” and another deeming it the “Fyre Festival of hotels.” Yikes!

It is the penthouse area that Ashley calls home in Over Her Dead Body. Oddly, we only get one establishing shot of it throughout the entire movie.

Though I didn’t take a matching photograph, that’s the penthouse in my images below.

Broadlind’s front entrance also makes a brief appearance in the film . . .

. . . as does its interior stairwell . . .

. . . and its north side, where Thai District restaurant is now located.

The interior of Ashley’s apartment only existed in a studio soundstage, though. You can see what the actual penthouse looks like here. The sole element of it that matches its onscreen counterpart is the perimeter of arched, paned windows.

The hallway leading up to Ashley’s apartment was also just a set. Production designer Cory Lorenzen incorporated elements of the Broadlind’s actual exterior, including arches, tile work and wooden doors, into the design of both, though.

The Blind Donkey has also famously cameoed onscreen. The basement lounge masked as the interior of Seb’s, the jazz club owned by Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), at the end of La La Land.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Virginie for telling me about this location!

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Broadlind Hotel, aka Ashley’s apartment building from Over Her Dead Body, is located at 149 Linden Avenue in Long Beach. You can visit the property’s official website here.

The Grim Cheaper and I became obsessed with a myriad of new shows this year, namely Blindspot, Quantico (though I think that one may have already jumped the shark), The Family, Limitless, The Grinder (those last three have, sadly, all been cancelled), and Rosewood. Oh, how we love Rosewood. The police procedural perfectly mixes comedy with drama, the writing is witty and smart, and Morris Chestnut, who plays the endlessly positive and charming titular character Dr. Beaumont “Rosie” Rosewood, Jr. is perfection, as is Jaina Lee Ortiz, who portrays his fiery cynical counterpart, Det. Annalise Villa. My favorite aspect of the show, though, is that, while set in Miami, it is lensed largely in Los Angeles. (Beaumont’s Magic City Lab is one of the few non-L.A. locales featured on the series – it can be found at 2043 North Miami Avenue in Miami). One location that I recently became obsessed with identifying was the gorgeous Italian Renaissance-style building used in the episode titled “Aortic Atresia and Art Installations.” And I have the GC to thank for tracking it down.

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In “Aortic Atresia and Art Installations” (try saying that one three times fast!), Rosie and Villa are led to the Willmore Hotel, said to be located at 315 Collins Avenue in Miami, via a clue left for them by a cryptic serial killer they have been chasing. Not only was the name “Willmore” shown prominently in the killer’s clue . . .

. . . but it was also visible above the front doors when Villa and Rosie arrived on the scene. For whatever reason, though, I was quick to assume that the name and signage were fakes. Thank goodness for the GC because when I paused the episode to ask him where he thought the building might be located, he said, “Looks like Long Beach. I’m guessing the name is real, too.” Though I doubted the latter, I figured his Long Beach hunch was correct, so I did a quick Google search on my phone for “Willmore” and “Long Beach” and was shocked to see that he was right! Not only is the Willmore a real place, but it is indeed located in the LBC! Nicely done, GC! I am not ashamed to admit that he completely outwitted me on this one!

Both the interior and the exterior of the Willmore were featured on Rosewood and, though shown only briefly, I was captivated by the place’s beauty. The interior, which you can see some photographs of here, reminds me quite a bit of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown L.A.

The Willmore was originally built in 1927 by the Stillwell Hotel Corporation. At the time, it was operated as an upscale apartment hotel and was known as the “Stillwell.”

The 11-story structure was designed by Fisher, Lake and Traver, the same architecture firm who gave us the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

Shortly after its inception, the property’s name was changed to the Willmore in honor of William Erwin Willmore, one of Long Beach’s first developers.

Today, the building, which was deemed a City of Long Beach Historic Landmark in 1986, is made up of individually-owned condominiums, like this loft-style unit which came on the market in February 2015. Love the half-exposed brick!

Rosewood is not the only production to have made use of the site. First Congregational Church, Long Beach, the main location featured in License to Wed, is situated across the street from the Willmore and, as such, the building was seen several times in the background of the 2007 romcom.

The Willmore’s parking lot, located on the western side of the property, was also used as the church parking lot in a scene.

The building was also where Henry (Paul Rudd) lived in Over Her Dead Body. Ironically, way back in 2010, a fellow stalker named Virginie sent me the addresses of a couple of filming locations from the 2008 comedy, one of which was the Willmore. I had never seen the movie and, aside from adding the sites to my To-Stalk List, did not do any further research on them, which is why I did not recognize the Willmore when it popped up on Rosewood. It was not until I started gathering my Long Beach addresses together shortly before heading down there for a stalking expedition last week that I realized the connection. Thank you, Virginie!

The interior of Henry’s apartment was not a real Willmore unit, but a set.

A portion of the Willmore’s bottom level houses a popular Italian restaurant named La Traviota.

It was there that Henry and Ashley (Lake Bell) dined – and discussed cats – in Over Her Dead Body.

Thanks to the book Emergency!: Behind the Scene (which was written by fellow stalker Richard Yokley), I learned that the Season 2 episode of Emergency! titled “Peace Pipe” was lensed at the Willmore. Richard was even nice enough to provide the screen capture below. Thank you, Richard!

And, according to Location Filming in Long Beach, Ally McBeal and Profiler also did some filming at the Willmore, but I am unsure of which episodes in particular were shot there.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Willmore, from the”Aortic Atresia and Art Installations” episode of Rosewood, is located at 315 West 3rd Street in Long Beach.

Tag: OVer Her Dead Body

Broadlind Hotel from “Over Her Dead Body”

The Willmore from “Rosewood”