Charlie and Kevin’s House from “Monster-in-Law”

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A couple of weeks ago, fellow stalker Nick challenged me to track down all of the residences used in the 2005 romantic comedy Monster-in-Law, including Charlie Cantilini’s (aka Jennifer Lopez’s) Mediterranean-style apartment building, Kevin Fields’ (aka Michael Vartan’s) Craftsman house, and Viola Fields’ (aka Jane Fonda’s) opulent mansion.  Nick had already done most of the heavy lifting for this particular hunt by narrowing down the cities in which each of the dwellings was located.  All that was left for me to do was pinpoint the exact address of each location.  So, this past Saturday night, my fiancé and I finally sat down to watch Monster-in-Law for the first time.  I didn’t actually expect to like the movie, but I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised – it’s a really cute flick!  Anyway, the first house I set my sights on finding was the large Craftsman bungalow where Kevin, and later Charlie, lived in the movie.  Nick had ascertained that this particular house was located somewhere in Pasadena and I had a hunch that, due to its stunning Craftsman-style architecture, it was most likely a famous residence.  So, on Sunday morning, I headed over to fave bookstore, Vroman’s, to take a peek at some Pasadena area architectural guidebooks and, sure enough, I found the Monster-in-Law house in the very first one in which I looked.  Yay!

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In real life, the Monster-in-Law house is known as the Ross House and it was designed in 1911 by Alfred and Arthur Heineman, the same architectural team who was responsible for giving us Dylan’s house from Beverly Hills, 90210 and the Eppes house from the television series Numb3rs.   The Heineman brothers built the residence, which features Craftsman, Asian, and Neo-Classical design elements, for a rancher named Winslow Ross at a cost of $8,000. The house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, boasts Batchelder tile work, a hand-painted mural, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a whopping 4,657 square feet of living space.  And, let me tell you, it is absolutely beautiful in person!

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The exterior of the Ross House showed up numerous times in Monster-in-Law.

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As did the home’s large front porch.

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But, according to the behind-the-scenes information featured in the movie’s DVD extras, the interiors were not filmed on location at the residence, but on a soundstage at Culver Studios in Culver City.  As you can see in these photographs of the real life house, the actual interior doesn’t much look like its onscreen counterpart, which is pictured above.  You can check out a more in-depth view of the set where filming took place on fave website Hooked On Houses.

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While watching Monster-in-Law on Saturday night, I spotted an unusual-looking street sign in the background behind Jane Fonda in a scene that had been filmed in front of the house.  I was hoping it would give me some sort of clue as to the residence’s exact location, but, try as I might, I could not for the life of me make out what the sign said.  As it turned out, I didn’t end up needing the sign to find the house, but when I  stalked the place on Sunday, I was absolutely dying to see that sign in person and of course, just had to take a picture with it.  🙂 

Big THANK YOU to Nick for helping me find this location!  🙂

  Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Ross House, aka Charlie and Kevin’s house from Monster-in-Law, is located at 674 Elliott Drive in Pasadena.

Wayne Manor From the “Batman” Television Series

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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 . . .

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

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

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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!  🙂

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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.

The “Just Married” Mansion

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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.

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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

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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.

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As did the front door/front porch . . .

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. . . 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.  😉

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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. 

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

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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.

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  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 . . .

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. . . 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.   

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

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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

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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. 

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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.

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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!

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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. 

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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.

The “Hangover” House

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A few weeks ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called me up to let me know that he was on the hunt for the main house used in fave movie The Hangover.  The two of us both had a pretty good inkling that the residence was located somewhere in the Pasadena area, we just weren’t sure exactly where.  Randomly enough during that same conversation, I happened to mention that I had just read on OnLocationVacations – my go-to-stalking guide 🙂 – that 90210 had been filming all week at a large gated home located at 465 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena.  Well, it wasn’t five minutes after we ended our call that Mike phoned me up a second time, extremely excited, and said “I found The Hangover house and you’ll NEVER guess where it is!”  As it turns out, the house was located just two doors  down from the residence where 90210  had been filming!  Apparently, while looking at aerial images of the 90210 location, Mike noticed a neighboring property that bore a striking resemblance to the Hangover house.  Turns out, it was the Hangover house!  🙂  So, I guess it’s true what Walt Disney once said . . . It really is a small world, after all!  Well, when it comes to filming locations, at least.   🙂  So, that same weekend, Mike drove out to meet me in Pasadena so the two of us could do a little Hangover stalking.

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In The Hangover, the house pictured above belongs to the parents of Doug’s (aka Justin Bartha’s) fiancé, Tracy (aka Sasha Barrese). The residence is featured several times throughout the film.  It first shows up at the very beginning of the movie as the spot from which Doug and his soon to be brother-in-law Alan (aka Zach Galifianakis) leave for the infamous Vegas bachelor party.  

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And, as you can see in the above screen capture and aerial image, the real life backyard, which is absolutely HUGE, was used in several scenes as well, including the scene in which Phil (aka Bradley Cooper) calls Tracy, while she is sunning herself by the pool, to let her know that the guys have been unavoidably detained in Vegas an extra day.

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The movie’s final wedding scene also took place in the home’s real life backyard.

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As you can see in the above aerial image, the house has a fairly large covered back porch area.  That porch is where Stu (aka Ed Helms) finally breaks up with his belligerent girlfriend Melissa (aka Rachel Harris) while Alan and the rest of the wedding party look on.  I am also fairly certain that the real life interior of the home was used in the filming of several scenes, as well.

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The Hangover house is absolutely beautiful in person.  Although, thanks to its size, calling it a “house” is actually a bit of a misnomer.  The place is really more of a mansion.  It is absolutely HUGE in person, much bigger than I expected it to be.  Even though it did appear quite large in The Hangover, trust me when I say that in real life it is far, far larger – gargantuan actually!  I can’t even imagine living there.  The 7 bedroom, 7 bathroom house, which was built in 1930, measures a whopping 7,892 square feet.  And while the property is gated, I am happy to report that quite a bit of it can be seen from the street.  🙂

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The house from The Hangover is located at 415 South Grand Avenue in Pasadena.

Julia Child’s Childhood Home

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One of the best things about being a member of the Screen Actors Guild is that each and every January all guild members receive, often without notice, DVDs of various movies that have been nominated for an upcoming SAG award.  These DVDs are doled out “for your consideration” so that members can watch them before casting their ballots for the upcoming awards.  And, let me tell you, I can hardly stand the anticipation as I head to my mailbox each day during awards season, wondering what treasure I will find waiting for me in there. It’s like Christmas in January!  This week alone I received five different DVDs, one of which was Julie & Julia.  Ironically enough, while at a birthday celebration last Sunday night, some new friends were inquiring about my blog and asked if I had yet to see the Meryl Streep/Amy Adams movie, which I had not.  They ordered me to run right out and rent it immediately, as not only was it a fabulous flick, but its plot also centered around the true life story of an intrepid young blogger named Julie Powell who they said reminded them of me.  So, you can imagine my surprise when I opened up my mailbox just a few days later and found a copy of Julie & Julia waiting for me!  YAY!  So, I, of course, watched the movie that very night.  I honestly didn’t have high hopes for it, though, despite the glowing recommendation I had just heard, because I am not that interested in the culinary arts.  Actually, truth be told, I am not AT ALL interested in anything having to do with the culinary arts.  I am an absolutely HORRIBLE cook.  I somehow managed to ruin an entire serving of rice the other night – while using a RICE COOKER, no less!  I am very lucky, though, because my fiancé actually does all of the cooking in our household.  He LOVES to cook – says it calms him after a long day at work – and, really, who am I to argue?  😉  What can I say, he’s the perfect guy – he not only brings home the bacon, but cooks it, too!   Anyway, amazingly enough, I ended up absolutely ADORING Julie & Julia.  I pretty much loved EVERYTHING about the movie – both Meryl Streep and Amy Adam’s performances, the love both women had for their husbands, the amazing life story of the famous chef and how she inspired a young government worker to spend an entire year cooking out of one of her cookbooks and then writing a blog based on her experiences.  But what I loved the most about Julie & Julia is the fact that it is the very first movie ever to be based on a blog.  Now I just need someone to create a movie based on my blog and I’d be one happy camper!  🙂  Amazingly enough, the movie also inspired me, rice-ruining Lindsay, to cook!  I have never in my life had a desire to cook anything – ever.  But after watching Julie & Julia, I immediately ran right out and bought my very first cookbook, written by Julia Child, of course.  I opted to purchase The Way To Cook, instead of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which is the tome Julie Powell conquered in the movie, because the former is geared toward people with “little to no cooking experience”, which, let’s face it, describes me to a T!  🙂  But more on that later.  Anyway, while watching Julie & Julia, I was shocked to find out that Julia Child actually grew up in Pasadena – the same city which I now call home!  So, after watching the movie, I went on a cyberstalking mission to find her childhood house and almost immediately came across a website called Pasadena Daily Photo, which spelled it all out for me!  Thank you, Pasadena Daily Photo!  🙂  So, the next morning, I dragged my dad right out to stalk the place.

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As the daughter of John McWilliams, Jr., a successful landowner, and Julia Carolyn Weston, heir to the Weston Paper Company fortune, Julia Child grew up very wealthy.   The Colonial-style home pictured above was built for her parents in 1912 by architect Reginald Johnson, who was also responsible for designing Pasadena’s All Saints’ Church and Santa Barbara’s Biltmore Hotel, among numerous other prominent Southern California structures.  The home, which boasts five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and a whopping 4,210 square feet of living space, is truly ginormous and beautiful in person and it definitely has that Old Pasadena feel to it!  It was so fascinating to be standing there decades later, imaging Julia Child as a little girl playing in the front yard, looking out the blue-shuttered windows, and walking in and out of the front door.   While living in this house, Julia attended the prominent Westridge School for Girls, which is also located in Pasadena.  While doing a bit of research on the world-famous chef, I found out that while growing up Julia’s family not only employed full-time drivers, gardeners and housekeepers, but chefs, as well.  Ironic, dontcha think?  😉    And, her parents also honeymooned at San Diego’s Hotel Del Coronado, an oft-used filming location which I blogged about last summer.  🙂   So cool!!! 

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Taking a page from Julie Powell, I decided to not only cook a Julia Child meal this past Friday night, but to also blog about my experiences, as well.  Like a dolt, though, I completely forgot to take photographs of the finished feast, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it turned out beautifully.  🙂  For the meal I decided to cook Julia’s Cream of Mushroom Soup, Broccoli-Sauced Broccoli, and Chicken Breasts Meuniere: Sautéed in Butter.  And while the chicken and soup turned out simply AMAZING – so amazing that I am still finding it difficult to believe I actually cooked them – the broccoli left a bit to be desired.  But I am fairly certain that was due to me either leaving out an ingredient or misreading an instruction somewhere along the way, because the finished product did not look anything like its photograph in the book.  When I realized I had messed up the dish, I had visions of Rachel Green after she completed her English Trifle/Mincemeat Pie desert in “The One Where Ross Got High” episode of Friends.  🙂  Anyway, I’d like to share a few things that I learned while cooking on Friday.  One – my fiancé and I do not own a set of measuring spoons.  How that’s even possible I’m not sure!  Two – simmer does not mean low heat, as I had previously believed.  It actually refers to a temperature just below boiling.  And three – cooking is HARD WORK!  It’s enjoyable work, don’t get me wrong, but, wow, it’s WORK!  I had no idea how hard it was.  I truly felt like I needed a nap afterwards.  🙂  But it was also extremely fun and I am already looking forward to my next go at it.  I swear, if you had told me two weeks ago that I’d actually be able to enjoy the act of cooking in the near future, I never would have believed you in a million years.   

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Julia Child’s childhood home is located at 625 Magnolia Avenue in Pasadena.

The “Father of the Bride” Bar

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A few weeks ago, while wandering around Old Town Pasadena, my fiancé and I found ourselves in the familiar predicament of having to decide whether to go out to eat or cook dinner at home.  Being that the only thing I like to make for dinner is reservations, I voted to eat out and started looking around at nearby restaurants.  And, let me tell you, I just about fell over when I realized we were standing only steps away from an eatery where a scene from fave movie Father of the Bride  took place.  At the time the movie was filmed, the restaurant was known as Delacey’s Club 41 and it was something of a Pasadena institution, but for some odd reason, in my almost ten years of living in the area, I had yet to dine there.  So, you can imagine my disappointment when the placed closed down in 2007, after 25 long years of serving Pasadena patrons.  🙁  A little pub called Spitfire Saloon soon opened up in its place, but it wasn’t long before that restaurant was also shuttered and the space’s current inhabitant – a French bistro named Cheval Blanc – set up shop.  So, not wanting to take the chance that the new eatery would also close, I  grabbed my fiancé and headed right in!

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And I am so glad I did because even though it has been over 18 years since Father of the Bride  was filmed and even though the place has gone through a succession of different owners since Delacey’s Club 41 closed its doors more than two years ago, both the interior and the exterior of the restaurant still look EXACTLY the same as they did in the movie.  YAY!  I mean, even the black and white tiled floor is still intact.  LOVE IT!

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Only a very brief scene from Father of the Bride  took place at Cheval Blanc.  In the scene, a fight has just erupted between Bryan Mackenzie (aka George Newbern) and his fiancé Annie Banks (aka Kimberly Williams) over his decision to give her a blender as a pre-wedding present.  To calm the situation, Annie’s father, George Banks (aka Steve Martin), decides to take Bryan out for a cocktail and a little heart-to-heart at, you guessed it, Cheval Blanc.  🙂  It is in that scene that George says one of my very favorite lines from the movie, “You know, Brian, Annie’s a very passionate person and passionate people tend to overreact at times.  Annie comes from a long line of major overreactors.  Me – I can definitely lose it.  My mother – a nut.  My grandfather – stories about him were legendary.  The good news however is that this overreacting tends to get proportionately less by generation.  So, your kids could be normal.  But on the upside, with this passion comes great spirit and individuality, which is probably one of the reasons you love Annie. ”  Ah, George, I can so relate!  I, too, am a very, ahem, passionate person, and have done my fair share of overreacting over  the years.  And I just so happen to also hail from a long line of major overreactors – both of my parents would actually fit into that category.  🙂  As fate would have it, I just recently learned a pretty good lesson about overreacting.  Those of you who read my blog regularly know that the guy who I paid to make my wedding dress skipped town a few months back – with my money.  Well, as it turns out, even though the guy did close up his shop, disconnect his phone, and was M.I.A. for over two months time, the whole thing was actually just a big misunderstanding.  But, let me tell you, during those two months, there was quite a bit of overreacting going on!!  LOL  So, when the guy called me out of the blue two weeks ago to let me know that my dress was finished and ready to be picked up – at his new shop LOL – I felt like a complete fool!  What a waste all that anger and worry was.  The next time something like that happens I just need to let go, relax, and let things take their natural course.  That’ll never happen, of course, but it’s a nice sentiment, nonetheless.  🙂  But I digress.  Besides being featured in Father of the Bride, Cheval Blanc also showed up in I Love Trouble, Judging Amy, and in ten different episodes of Equal Justice

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I honestly cannot say enough good things about Cheval Blanc!  My fiancé and I had an absolute blast dining there!  The manager, who knew quite a bit about the restaurant’s filming history, truly could not have been nicer to us and told me I could take as many interior photographs of the place as I wanted.  LOVE IT!   The service was also spectacular and don’t even get me started on the food!  The macaroni and cheese is to die for!  🙂  And even though Cheval Blanc’s menu is French, the decor is very Old New York, with dim lighting, dark paneled walls, and an incredibly ornate Mahogany bar.  The place is absolutely gorgeous inside, which should come as no surprise being that it is owned by the hugely successful restaurateur team of Bob and Gregg Smith, aka the Smith Brothers, who also started  the Arroyo Chophouse, the Crocodile Cafe chain, Smitty’s Grill, and the hugely popular Parkway Grill. 

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On a side note – Cheval Blanc also showed up in the movie Father of the Bride Part II.  Well, sort of.  In the flick, Steve Martin’s Side Kicks shoe factory is located directly across the street from the restaurant and the exterior of it can be seen very briefly in the background of the scene pictured above.  I’m not sure what occupied the Side Kicks space at the time Father of the Bride Part II was filmed, but I am guessing it was simply a vacant warehouse that producers dressed for the movie. Today, Steve Martin’s shoe warehouse space houses a restaurant named Brix 42.   It is the restaurant’s side door, which looks much different today, that Steve Martin enters in the above scene.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Father of the Bride bar, aka Cheval Blanc , is located at 41 South De Lacey Avenue in Pasadena.  Steve Martin’s shoe factory from Father of the Bride Part II  is really the side entrance to Brix 42 Restaurant, which is located  at 42 South De Lacey Avenue, just across the street from Cheval Blanc.

My Coffee With Andre – Agassi, That Is!

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A few years back, an email entitled “You Know You’re From Los Angeles When . . . “ which was comprised of a list of “Only in L.A.” scenarios circled the World Wide Web.   My personal favorite item on the list was number 28 which stated, “The guy at 8:30 in the morning at Starbucks wearing the baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney actually IS George Clooney”.  LOVE IT!  Well, Thursday morning, I had my very own “Only in L.A.” moment at a local Starbucks, when I realized that the guy in front of me in line who looked like tennis superstar Andre Agassi actually WAS tennis superstar Andre Agassi.   As it turns out, Andre was in town for a book signing at my fave bookstore, Vroman’s, and was grabbing a quick coffee beforehand.  So, of course, for my blog’s sake, I just had to ask him to take a picture with me.  I was a little nervous about doing so, though, as just a few weeks prior some friends and I happened to run into Bruce Willis while dining at the Jerry’s Deli on Beverly Boulevard.  We had the good fortune of  finishing our meal at pretty much the exact same time as Bruce and when we found ourselves in the valet line next to him while waiting for our cars, I asked him if he wouldn’t mind posing for a photograph with us, to which he replied “Doubtful.”    Being that my question pretty much warranted either a yes or a no answer, I’m not even really sure what he meant by that, but needless to say I did not get my photo.  🙁  He did shake our hands, though, so I guess that’s something.  So, when Andre Agassi said that he’d be happy to pose for a picture with me, I was absolutely elated!   A man who I am guessing was his publicist took the above photograph of us – which is arguably the worst photo I’ve ever taken in my life LOL – and afterwards said “I think you’re going to like this one!”  I laughed and replied, “Well, being that I’m not wearing any make-up right now, I’m not so sure”, to which Andre said, “Well, I’m not wearing make-up either, so we’re even!”  LOL LOL LOL  Three other women were in Starbucks at the time that all of this took place and, let me tell you, Andre’s presence caused us all to act like a bunch of giddy little school girls.   I’m pretty sure the noise level inside Starbucks increased more than one decibel while the four of us fawned over him.  My three new friends also asked for their pictures to be taken with Andre and he happily obliged.  In fact, he was so incredibly friendly and gracious I almost couldn’t believe it.  He even waited patiently while I tried to figure out how to use the camera on one of the girl’s iPhones.   And, to top it all off, when I was on the way out the door a few minutes later, Andre looked up from his espresso and called out “Bye!”  Sigh!  What a nice guy!  I am so going to have to check out his new book now!

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Seeing Andre on Thursday got me thinking.  Everyday I receive emails from readers seeking advice on how and where to spot celebrities in L.A.  And, while I did write a post about celebrity hot spots earlier this year, I realized that the best advice I can give on seeing a famous person in Los Angeles is to just simply KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN AT ALL TIMES.  The truth is you just never know when or where you might spot a celeb.  I’ve seen stars in such mundane spots as the grocery store, Target, Rite Aid, the mall, Joann’s Fabrics, and Michael’s Craft Store.  And, of course, at Starbucks.  Other celebs I’ve spotted at various Starbucks in the L.A. area include Sophia Loren, Bradley Whitford (on three different occasions!), Jane Kaczmarek, Britney Spears, Peter MacNicol, Maxine Bahns (from The Brothers McMullen), David Strathairn, Danielle Panabaker, Mark D. Espinoza (who played Andrea’s husband Jesse on the original 90210), Kevin Dunn, Jamie Lynn Spears, who was with her mother Lynn Spears, and Reese Witherspoon.  Although to be fair, Reese wasn’t actually at a Starbucks when I spotted her.  I saw her walking out of a yoga studio located directly next door to the Starbucks I happened to be walking into.  But that still counts, don’t you think?  🙂  Being that I visit a Starbucks on average of three times a day, though, I guess my record of seeing celebs there isn’t actually all that good.  LOL  But my point is that when you’re in L.A. you just have to keep your eyes peeled at all times!  And always, always have your camera with you!  🙂

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As if to further drive this point home, while doing some shopping at Larchmont Village with my fiancé on Saturday afternoon, I happened to spot both Anthony John Denison, who plays Lieutenant Flynn on TNT’s The Closer,  and Owain Yeoman, who plays Detective Wayne Rigsby on The Mentalist (pictured above), dining at restaurants across the street from each other.  I, of course, noticed both actors immediately, but my fiancé walked RIGHT BY them completely oblivious.  Honestly, I think they both could have come up and bitten him on the nose and he still wouldn’t have realized who they were!  As I mentioned above, you just gotta keep your eyes open!

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And let me just say here that I was completely struck by how much better looking Owain Yeoman is in person than he comes across onscreen, as was the case back in August when I saw him during a filming of The Mentalist.  I mean, even my fiancé had to admit that the guy looked quite a bit different in person.  🙂 And even though Owain is one of my new celebrity crushes, because he was eating lunch when we spotted him, I didn’t want to bother him for a photograph.  But, as luck would have it, when driving away from Larchmont Village, my fiancé happened to get stuck at a stop sign RIGHT IN FRONT of Owain’s table, so, I just had to snap a quick pic.  🙂 Owain definitely noticed me taking his photo and didn’t seem too happy about the situation, but being that he is oh so dreamy, I just couldn’t help myself.  🙂  Sigh!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Starbucks where I ran into Andre Agassi is located at 408 East Colorado Blvd., in the Paseo Colorado Shopping Center, in Pasadena.  Larchmont Village, where I spotted Owain Yeoman and Anthony John Denison, is a quaint little shopping district located on North Larchmont Blvd. in between Beverly Boulevard and West 1st Street.  Anthony John Denison was eating at Louise’s Tratroria, which is located at 232 N. Larchmont Blvd.  Owain was eating at Le Petite Greek, which is located at 127 N. Larchmont. 

The “Twins” Mansion

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Another day, another Twins  location.  🙂  Unbelievably, before writing my post about the Twins house yesterday, I had yet to actually see the movie. For some reason, even though we own a copy of it on DVD, I had never sat down to watch it.  Until yesterday, that is.  But, as often happens to me when watching a movie for the first time, I got more absorbed in the locations and behind-the-scenes information than the actual storyline.  I kept having to pause the movie to run to my computer to look things up.  LOL  One of the locales that I became a bit obsessed with finding yesterday was the mansion belonging to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito’s father in the movie.  Ironically enough, while doing some cyberstalking of the home, I came across this post on fave website ’80s Movie Rewind and was SHOCKED to see the location of the house listed with a special thanks to none other than my good friend Mike, from MovieShotsLA.  LOL LOL LOL  It’s such a small stalking world, isn’t it??  Granted, I’m sure Mike had told me the address of the Twins  mansion before, but when the two of us get to talking about locations I get so excited that half of what he says doesn’t even register.  I’ll ask him about a movie locale months later and he’ll say “I ALREADY told you where that was!”  LOL   Needless to say, the Twins  mansion address is one of the bits of information that, for whatever reason, my brain didn’t store.

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Anyway, as soon as I had the address yesterday, I ran right out to stalk the house.  And I am very happy to report that – over TWO DECADES later – the Twins  mansion looks pretty much EXACTLY the same today as it did when the movie was filmed!  I mean, even the paint color is still the same!  LOVE IT!  In fact, the only differences I noticed were some very minor changes in foliage.   Movie location owners really need to take lessons from the people that live in this house!  LOL 

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The Twins  mansion shows up very briefly in the scene when Arnold is out looking for infomation about his mother who passed away in childbirth.  He winds up at this home and ends up meeting his father for the very first time.  A scene takes place in the front yard of the house and then, later, in the father’s study.  And, from how it looked in the movie, I believe a real room inside the house was used as the study. 

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The Twins  mansion, which in real life is known as the A.L. Garford House, was built in 1916 by the prominent Pasadena architectural firm of Marston & Van Pelt.  Sylvanus Marston built over 1,000 residences in the Pasadena area throughout his twenty-two year career, including America’s first ever bungalow motor court apartment complex, and has even been called “Pasadena’s Quintessential Architect”.   Marston built homes and buildings in an eclectic array of styles ranging from English Tudor to Imperial Chinese.  The Garford House was actually one of the first Pasadena area homes to be built in the elaborate Churrigueresque, or Spanish Baroque, style, and, according to this article, was the first ever Spanish style home to have a painted stucco exterior.   It truly is a very beautiful and absolutely ginormous home!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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Stalk It:  Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito’s father’s house from Twins, aka the A.L. Garford House,  is located at  1126 Hillcrest Avenue, on the Northeast corner of Hillcrest Avenue and South Oak Knoll Avenue, in Pasadena.

The “Mr. Deeds” House

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One location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has being dying to stalk for ages now is Winona Ryder’s red-doored childhood home from the 2002 Adam Sandler comedy Mr. Deeds.  Mike had asked for my help in tracking down this location a couple of months ago, but, for some reason, even our two heads working together couldn’t seem to find it.  So, this past week, I enlisted the help of fellow stalkers Chas and Owen, and, incredibly, it wasn’t more than a couple of hours later that I got a text from Chas saying he had found the house!  🙂   I’m telling you, there’s nothing he can’t find!!!  Thank you, Chas! 

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Even though in the movie Winona says that she grew up in the fictional town of Westchestertonfieldville, Iowa, Mike and I were fairly certain that her childhood home was located somewhere in the Pasadena area.  And, sure enough, we were right!!  🙂    So, of course, once I had the address I immediately ran right out to stalk it.  And I am happy to report that, aside from a pretty big difference in paint color, the house is still very recognizable from the film.  The home is absolutely adorable in person and it’s not at all hard to see why producers chose to use it as Winona’s idyllic, small town childhood home.

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The Mr. Deeds  house only shows up in one very brief scene in the movie.  In the scene, Adam Sandler takes Winona, who is posing as school nurse Pam Dawson, to what he thinks is her former childhood home in what he thinks is her former hometown.  Pam had described her childhood home in Westchestertonfieldville as being “a big Victorian right off Main Street, with blue shutters and a big red door and a tire swing in the front yard.”   Adam spots the house pictured above and – even though it doesn’t look at all Victorian to me LOL – assumes it is the one she had described.

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Adam then proceeds to knock on the home’s red door and tells the three children who currently live there that Winona grew up in their house.   Shocked, one of the kids says “My daddy built this house with his bare hands six years ago” to which Winona replies “Well, your daddy is a liar!”  LOL LOL LOL   Sadly, in real life the front door of the home is blue, not red, but I am guessing that the entire home was most likely repainted for the filming and then changed back to its original coloring after the production wrapped.   If I was the homewoner, I so would have left the filming paint on the house, as I think it looked a lot prettier in the movie than it does now.  🙂

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The filmmakers actually “cheated” quite a bit in the filming of this scene.   When Adam and Winona first walk down her former street, they are supposedly walking on the sidewalk across the street from her childhood home.  In actuality, though, they are walking  in front of the home located directly next door to the Mr. Deeds  house.  While stalking the place, I immediately recognized the wooden fence pictured above, which actually surrounds the neighbor’s property.  LOL

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Making matters even more complicated is the fact that the home Adam and Winona stop in front of in the scene, which supposedly stands directly across from the Mr. Deeds  house, is actually located about three houses down and across the street.    Confused yet?  So was I!  😉

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Pictured above is the home that is actually located across the street from the Mr. Deeds  house.  I guess it didn’t have the look the producers were going for in the scene, but wow, it sure seems like a lot of trouble to go to to film one very brief scene that barely took up thirty seconds of the movie.  LOL   

 Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Mr. Deeds  house is located at 989 South Madison Avenue in Pasadena.  The house that is supposedly located across the street from the Mr. Deeds house can be found at 1026 South Madison.  The home with the wooden fence that Adam and Winona walk in front of is located at 999 South Madison.