Penn Badgley – IAMNOTASTALKER

June 22, 2020June 20, 2020

Forty’s House from “You”

Season 2 of You was pretty much a steady stream of stunning location after stunning location. Anavrin grocery store . . . the party house . . . Candace Stone’s (Ambyr Childers) Victorian rental – talk about real estate envy! One spot that eluded me for a while was the mid-century pad where Forty Quinn (James Scully) lived. The stunning residence only showed up in one episode, “P.I. Joe,” and the view of the exterior was brief at best. But one look at its sleek lines, wood façade, and decorative concrete screening, and I was completely taken! I knew at first glance the residence had to be located somewhere in the Hollywood Hills. Recalling that the Nichols Canyon neighborhood, specifically Nichols Canyon Road, boasts a plethora of handsome mid-century pads, I headed over there on Google Street View, plonked the little yellow man down at the top of the road, walked him south, and almost immediately found the right place at 3122 Nichols Canyon! I ran out to stalk it just a few days later.

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The spectacular dwelling was designed by Edward H. Fickett, F.A.I.A. for building contractor Jack M. Weisskopf in 1959. The architect constructed several homes for Weisskopf in the Hollywood Hills area.

The sleek property boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2,510 square feet, a central atrium with cement pavers dotting a pond, floor-to-ceiling sliding glass walls, a master bath with a standalone tub (my dream amenity!), a double-sided rock fireplace, a 0.19-acre lot with a large deck, a pool, a spa, a fire pit, a bonus side yard, and a carport.

The residence has been remodeled a couple of times over the years, including in 1966 by architect Val Powelson. The result is a mid-century home that retains a slew of original detailing, but with a thoroughly updated kitchen and baths. You can check out some interior photos here. The place is an architectural masterpiece – a perfectly preserved 1950s time capsule. I half expected to see Frank Sinatra sipping a martini by the pool in the images!

The pad last sold in November 2018 for a whopping $3,180,000. Per Dwell, the seller was none other than Jamie Dornan, of 50 Shades fame! The real estate listing asserts, “Four bedrooms will accommodate all your envious friends who arrive but refuse to take the hint when it’s time for them to hit the road and leave you in peace in your amazing oasis,” which I think sums up the property perfectly!

In “P.I. Joe,” Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) heads to the house in order to ask Forty to help him piece together what happened during their drug-infused evening the night before.

The property’s actual interior also appeared in the scene . . .

. . . as did the backyard, as you can see in the screen captures as compared to the MLS images above and below.

Candance shows up at the house later in the episode to praise Forty on his recently-penned script. It is at this time that she opens his eyes to the possibility that Joe is a killer.

I would be surprised to learn that You is the only time the impressive home has appeared on the screen, but I was unable to dig up any other appearances.

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: Forty’s house from You is located at 3122 Nichols Canyon Road in Hollywood Hills West.

March 16, 2020March 14, 2020

Joe and Love’s New House from “You”

I apologize to those who don’t follow me on Instagram or Facebook for not posting updates about my dad here. He was finally moved out of the ICU a couple of days ago, thank God, and is currently progressing in the right direction. Unfortunately, the Wi-Fi and cell signal in the ICU were nil, to the point that I could not even use my cell phone as a hotspot, which explains my lack of new posts. Now that I can get online again, my blogging schedule should return to normal. And I figured what better spot to kick things off with than the house Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) and Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) moved into in the final episode of You’s second season, titled “Love, Actually.”

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One look at the place, with its traditional architecture, large set-back from the street and insane curb appeal, and I knew it was likely located in Cameron Woods, a highly photogenic neighborhood in Van Nuys that is used for filming all.the.time. Situated at the southern end of Orion Avenue, the charming two-block enclave is a latticework of picket-fenced suburban homes, each one seemingly prettier than the last. It’s like a studio backlot come to life! An address number of 6301 was visible on the curb in the episode, so I promptly headed over to 6301 Orion on Google Street View and, sure enough, there was Joe and Love’s new pad looking back at me!

In real life, the idyllic property, built in 1951 but recently remodeled, boasts 2,969 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, a kitchen with Caesarstone counters, a butler’s pantry, countless built-ins, a laundry room, multiple fireplaces, hardwood flooring and wainscoting throughout, a pool, a pond, a motor court, a cabana, gorgeous landscaping, and a 0.58-acre plot of land.

The stunning pad (you can check out interior photos of it here) last sold for $1,885,000 in January 2018.

It is not hard to see how the place came to be used on You. A quintessential slice of Americana, the home perfectly encapsulates the normalcy and traditionalism that Joe will never be able to subscribe to. No amount of white picket fencing or manicured shrubberies can tame his obsessive and murderous ways. Instead, the pad serves as a prison of his own making. As he says upon moving in, “Not every Siberia is cold. Some are 73 and sunny with eco-conscious landscaping.”

Though one of the series’ most notable locales, the residence only appears in a single segment – “Love, Actually’s” closing scene.

Along with the front exterior, the property’s backyard is also featured in the episode, as you can see in the screen capture as compared to the MLS image below.

Considering Cameron Woods’ prolific filming history, it should come as no surprise that Joe and Love’s house has popped up in other productions.

In 1984, it portrayed the home of Mother Blaisdel (Diana Douglas) in the Season 4 episodes of Dynasty titled “The Vigil” . . .

. . . and “The Voice Part 3.”

The pad’s interior also appeared in the episodes, but it looked very different at the time.

The Dixie Chicks race through the house Ferris-Bueller-style in their 1999 “Ready to Run” music video, which you can watch here.

More recently, the property was featured as the home of a man who falls off his roof while installing Christmas decorations in the Season 2 episode of 9-1-1 titled “Merry Ex-Mas,” which aired in 2018.

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: Joe and Love’s new house from the final episode of the second season of You is located at 6301 Orion Avenue in Van Nuys’ Cameron Woods neighborhood.

March 4, 2020March 3, 2020

The “You” Party House

The second season of You certainly did a stunning job of showcasing Los Angeles. From the fabulously chic Anavrin grocery store to the striking Victorian rented by Candace Stone (Ambyr Childers), the city has never looked better onscreen! One spot that majorly intrigued me was the pad where Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) attempted to acquire $50,000 from a stranger named Rufus (Jeremy Kent Jackson), but instead found himself at “a party . . . at noon . . . on a Tuesday” in the episode titled “Just the Tip.” The ranch-style property boasted several unique design elements – namely a tree growing through its living room and a window looking into the backyard pool – that had me drooling. So I promptly set out to find it.

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A tree growing through the middle of a living room is certainly a rarity and I figured would likely be the key in helping me to pinpoint the locale. So I did a Google search for “house with tree growing through it” and “Los Angeles” and the first result kicked back was this CurbedLA feature titled “Burbank A-Frame With a Big Tree Growing Through It.” One look at the images linked told me it was the spot where Joe partied with Henderson (Chris D’Elia) and Delilah Alves (Carmela Zumbado) – and got mistaken for John Mayer. Said to be at 311 Heartwood in Van Nuys in the episode, the home can actually be found at 630 South Parish Place in Burbank’s Rancho Equestrian neighborhood.

Upon first approaching the pad, Joe says, “Hell – I’ve arrived. It’s called the San Fernando Valley, at the borders of which anyone with an architect’s degree is denied entry.” While most of Joe’s musings about Los Angeles rather comically ring true, I’ve gotta disagree with him on this one. The party house might indeed be in the San Fernando Valley, but it is quite extraordinary, architecturally speaking – though I will admit some aspects of its interior are a bit skeezy. (That orange shag carpeting and tiled bathtub?!? Shudder!)

But the rest of the place is pretty darn exceptional!

And it looks much the same in real life as it did on You, as evidenced by the screen captures and MLS images pictured above and below.

I was thrilled to see that the peek-a-boo window looking into the pool was a real element of the house!

Along with that pool window and the living room tree, the 1940 post-and-beam structure boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3,420 square feet, floor-to-ceiling windows, a sunken den, countless mid-century details, a whopping 5 fireplaces (the one in the kitchen even has a BBQ!), cathedral ceilings, a master bedroom with a private patio, a pool with a waterfall, a hot tub, a garden, a 2-story guest house, a 0.31-acre lot, and a 2-stall horse barn with a tack room and office space.

Though it was on the market when I popped by (as indicated by the “For Sale” sign in the front yard), some lucky buyer has since snatched the place up. Per Redfin, it sold just last week for $2 million.

Considering its many architectural anomalies, I’d assume the house would be a location manager favorite, but I was unable to unearth any additional big or small screen cameos.

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 party house from the “Just the Tip” episode of You is located at 630 South Parish Place in Burbank.

January 31, 2020January 31, 2020

Joe’s Apartment from the Second Season of “You”

The second season of You couldn’t have been more quintessentially L.A.! Nowhere is that more evident than in the apartment building that served as Joe Goldberg’s (Penn Badgley) new West Coast home. As a reader commented about the place to me last week on Facebook, “It seems like I’ve passed it 284739484 times in my travels.” I’m guessing that was by design. Producers likely picked the building based on its universal Los Angeles appeal. It literally looks like almost every other apartment complex in the city – and is exactly the sort of spot Joe would have selected in his attempt to blend in while hiding out in La La Land. Despite its ubiquitousness, though, thankfully the place was a cinch to track down!

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In the first episode of the season, titled “A Fresh Start,” an address number of “1830” was visible above the stairwell leading up to Joe’s apartment in several scenes. Being that much of the episode was shot in Los Feliz, I decided to start my search there and, voila, it wasn’t long before I found Joe’s new building at 1830 Winona Boulevard. I ran out to stalk it shortly thereafter.

Along with Anavrin, the Streamline Moderne complex was Season 2’s most prominent locale.

In real life, the 1953 building looks much the same as it did onscreen.

A few minor changes were made for the production, though, including the addition of a courtyard fountain . . .

. . . which, as you can see, is not a real element of the building.

Some fake drought-resistant foliage was also draped over the second-floor railings for the shoot.

Though my photos don’t show it well, nothing adorns the railings in actuality.

Addressed 1824 to 1834 Winona Boulevard, the complex is also quite a bit larger than it appeared on You, which only showcased its central courtyard area.

In real life, the property features covered parking, an onsite manager, and 25 units with hardwood flooring and crown moldings throughout.

The building also boasts some fabulous mid-century flourishes.

On You, Joe lived in the rear northernmost second-floor unit overlooking the courtyard.

That apartment is numbered 3 in real life.

I am fairly certain that only the exterior of Unit 3 was used in the filming and that the inside of Joe’s apartment was a set, though it does bear a resemblance to the interior of other units in the building, one of which you can see here. While Joe calls the place “Home, sweet prison,” it’s actually pretty darn nice – and so very L.A.! In fact, it is pretty much a carbon copy of the apartment the Grim Cheaper called home when we first met.

I believe the laundry room shown on the series also may have been a set, though, per this rental listing, the building does boast laundry facilities in real life.

The only substantial discrepancy between the real building and its onscreen counterpart is the fact that the house belonging to Love Quinn (Victoria Pedretti) isn’t situated directly behind it as is purported on the series. Love’s residence can instead be found a good three miles away at 3022 Windsor Avenue in Silver Lake. You can check out some photos of it here.

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: Joe’s apartment from Season 2 of You is located at 1830 Winona Boulevard in Los Feliz.

March 21, 2011March 19, 2011

The Quality Café

While stalking in Downtown Los Angeles a couple of weekends ago, the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves hungry so I suggested grabbing some lunch at the Quality Café on West 7th Street – a diner that has appeared in countless productions over the years. When we showed up to stalk the place, though, we were shocked to discover that it was completely boarded up. I was even further shocked to discover, once I returned home, that, aside from some brief blurbs about its filming history, I could not seem to find any information about the place online. I was extremely curious if the cafe had ever been an actual working restaurant or if it had only ever existed as a film set. So I contacted fellow stalker Harry Medved, author of one of my very favorite stalking tomes – Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer’s Guide to Exploring Southern California’s Great Outdoors – who was nice enough to give me the scoop on the former greasy spoon. As it turns out, the Quality Café was indeed a real life restaurant at one point time. It closed its doors a few years back and is now used solely for filming, although word on the street is that the place might re-open as an eatery once again in the near future.

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Being that it is completely boarded up and there is not a whole lot to see while there, the Quality Café does not make for a great stalking venue, but because it has such an incredibly vast filming history, I figured it was worthy of a blog post.

In Catch Me If You Can, it is while dining at the Quality Café that a waiter clues Carl Hanratty (aka Tom Hanks) into the fact that Barry Allen, the alias Frank Abagnale Jr. (aka Leonardo DiCaprio) has been using, is the actual name of the comic book character “The Flash”.

In 1995’s Se7en, Tracy Mills (aka Gwyneth Paltrow) confesses to Detective Lt. William Somerset (aka Morgan Freeman) that she is pregnant with Detective David Mills’ (aka Brad Pitt’s) baby over a cup of coffee at the Quality Café.

Morgan Freeman returned to the Quality Café in 2004 to film the scene from Million Dollar Baby in which his character, Eddie Scrap-Iron Dupris, takes Maggie Fitzgerald (aka Hilary Swank) out to celebrate her birthday.

In Gone in Sixty Seconds, the Quality Café is the diner where Helen Raines (aka Grace Zabriskie), the mother of Memphis (aka Nicolas Cage) and Kip Raines (aka Giovanni Ribisi), works.

In Training Day, Detective Alonzo Harris (aka Denzel Washington) and Jake Hoyt (aka Ethan Hawke) meet up at the café on their first day of working together.

In Old School, Mitch Martin (aka Luke Wilson) takes Nicole (aka Ellen Pompeo) to the Quality Café and tries to convince her that he is actually a nice guy.

In Mr. and Mrs. Smith, John Smith (aka Brad Pitt) and Eddie (aka Vince Vaughn) meet up at the Quality Café to discuss the failed assassination attempt of Benjamin Danz (aka Adam Brody).

In 2001’s Ghost World, Enid (aka Thora Birch) and Rebecca (aka a very young Scarlett Johansson) spy on some supposed Satanists while dining at the Quality Café.

In 2009’s The Stepfather, the Quality Café is where David Harris (aka Dylan Walsh) asks Michael Harding (aka Penn Badgley) to be his best man.

In Sex and Death 101, the Quality Café is where Death Nell (aka Winona Ryder) tells Roderick Blank (aka Simon Baker) her life story.

In 2008’s The Midnight Meat Train, the Quality Café is where Leon’s (aka Bradley Cooper’s) wife, Maya (aka Leslie Bibb), works.

In 1993’s What’s Love Got To Do With It, the Quality Café is where Ike Turner (aka Laurence Fishburne) takes Anna Mae Bullock (aka Angela Bassett) out to dinner for the first time.

The Quality Café was the site of a triple murder in the Season One episode of CSI: New York titled “Outside Man”.

In the Season One episode of Mad Men titled “5G”, the Quality Café stood in for the Delight Café where Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm) met up with his half-brother, Adam Whitman (aka Jay Paulson), whom he had been estranged from for years.

Harry Medved also let me know that, according to Marty Cummins, the key assistant location manager for 500 Days of Summer, the Quality Café is where Summer (aka Zooey Deschanel) broke up with Tom (aka Joseph Gordon-Levitt) at the beginning of the flick.

And while the exterior of the restaurant appeared as a local hangout in 2004’s You Got Served . . .

. . . as you can see in the above screen captures, a different restaurant was used for the interior filming.

EMBED-The Quality Cafe in Movies Mash-Up – Watch more free videos

You can watch a fabulous compilation from the Screen Junkies website of several different movies that have been filmed at the café by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Harry Medved for filling me in on the restaurant’s history.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Quality Café is located at 1238 West 7th Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The restaurant is currently closed to the public and is only available for film shoots, so I can’t say that I’d really recommend stalking it as there is just not a whole lot to see.

October 26, 2009October 26, 2009

The New York Palace Hotel

Yet another Gossip Girl location that I set out to stalk during this year’s Manhattan vacation was the New York Palace Hotel, a locale which has appeared in pretty much every single episode of the series since it began back in 2007. Truth be told, though, I actually first stalked this location quite a few years back during my very first trip to the Big Apple, long before Gossip Girl was even on the air. And, let me tell you, I absolutely fell in love with the place! Each year since then I’ve made sure to stop into the Palace at least once during our annual New York vacation to either grab a cocktail at GILT or to simply relax for a few minutes in the hotel’s opulent lobby. So, as you can probably imagine, I was completely floored this past summer when I first watched the pilot episode of Gossip Girl and realized that a huge portion of it was filmed on location on the hotel grounds. So, while in New York two weeks ago, I just had to drag my fiancé back to the Palace, this time to do some stalking of my new favorite show! 🙂

The New York Palace Hotel is absolutely beautiful inside and out and is one of my very favorite places to visit in all of New York. By now, I really must sound like a broken record due to the fact that I pretty much say that about every single place I stalk in the Big Apple. LOL But it’s just that there are so many spectacular and incredibly unique places on the island of Manhattan that I find it very difficult to narrow down my favorites! Anyway, the New York Palace Hotel was originally built as a private home for New York Evening Post editor and Union Pacific Railroad founder Henry Villard in 1882. Villard hired the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White to design and build six four-story townhouses surrounding a central courtyard in an empty lot across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The buildings were constructed in a Neo-Italian Renaissance style and were modeled after Rome’s Palazzo della Cancellaria. In 1883, Villard moved into his new home, which was still under construction, for a period of just a few months. Sadly, though, he ended up filing bankruptcy shortly thereafter and was forced to sell the entire property, which was then known as the Villard Houses, to several different owners before construction had even been completed. In 1974, the townhouses were purchased by the Helmsley (yes, that Helmsley) Hotel chain. The Helmsleys came up with the inspired idea to purchase the air space above the Villard Houses (and here all this time I never knew that type of thing was for sale! LOL) in order to add a 55-story tower to the property and turn it into a luxury hotel. Construction of that tower took six years to complete and in 1981 the Helmsley Palace Hotel finally opened its doors to the world. It didn’t take long for the Palace name to become synonymous with the utmost in luxury and elegance. In 1992, the hotel was sold to a private limited partnership, who changed its name to the New York Palace Hotel, as it is known today. The Palace Hotel is currently owned by the upscale Dorchester Group and boasts 360 square-foot guest rooms, 22,000 square feet of meeting space, two restaurants, including GILT, which has been awarded two Michelin stars , and a 7,000 square foot spa and gym, where complimentary tennis shoes and workout clothes are made available to guests. LOVE IT! Rooms average $297 per night, which is incredibly low for such upscale accommodations, especially considering that the hotel is located in Manhattan.

The Palace Hotel features prominently on Gossip Girl, not only because the hostelry is owned by Bart Bass, Chuck’s father, on the show, but also due to the fact that Serena van der Woodsen and family lived in one of the hotel’s Triplex Suites while their home was being remodeled during Season One. The hotel is such an integral part of the show, actually, that, according to this article, filming of GG takes places there at least twice a month! How cool is that?? The areas of the hotel that have been used in the filming over the past three years include the front exterior (pictured above),

the central courtyard,

the second floor mezzanine,

the lobby’s courtyard entrance,

the special events venue named the Madison Room,

the entrance to the famous GILT restaurant,

the interior of GILT,

and the GILT kitchen.

In fact, GILT’s menu now even features “The Gossip Girl – You Know You Love It” grilled cheese and truffle oil sandwich (YUM!), much like the one Chuck made for Serena in the pilot episode. 🙂 My good friend Steffi, who is also a HUGE GG fan, is holding GILT’s menu in the above picture.

Besides being a main filming location for Gossip Girl, the Palace is also a celebrity magnet. According to fave book, Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Full Story, back during his “Thriller” days, the Palace was the only New York Hotel where the King of Pop would rest his head. The hotel also plays host to a number of A-List events each year. A few of the stars who have been spotted there in the past include Prince, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Lady Gaga, Orlando Bloom, Harry Connick, Jr., Helena Christenson, Claire Danes, Hugh Dancy, Molly Sims, Kristin Davis, Bethenny Frankel, and Rose McGowan.

I honestly can’t recommend stalking the New York Palace Hotel enough! The staff is INCREDIBLY friendly – one of the concierges even went so far as to get me a GILT menu when I was there two weeks ago just so that I could take a picture of the Gossip Girl sandwich listing! 🙂 And the entire property – from the Central Courtyard to the ornate lobby – is just simply breathtaking. I honestly can’t say enough about it! Especially at Christmastime! If you find yourself in the area during the month of December, stopping by to see the Palace’s Christmas decorations, which are pictured above, is a MUST! Christmas trees, garland, and white twinkle lights can be found EVERYWHERE, especially in the hotel’s Central Courtyard which is absolutely transformed into a mass of sparkle. LOVE IT!

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For further information on the hotel you can read an amazingly in-depth review, written by someone who actually stayed there, here. Although, because the author listed the fact that Palace’s “popular restaurant/bar is closed intermittently for film crews” under the Con section of her Palace Hotel Pros and Cons List, you have to take everything she says with a grain of salt. LOL I mean, for me that little tidbit is SO totally a Pro! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The New York Palace Hotel is located at 455 Madison Avenue in Manhattan. You can visit their website here.

October 20, 2009October 20, 2009

Watching The Filming of Gossip Girl

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

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