Reese Witherspoon filming locations

January 2, 2013December 31, 2012

Paula’s House from “Four Christmases”

While I realize that the holidays are now over and that I should be posting about a non-Yule-related locale, today’s house is one that I have been searching for for over a year and finally found on the morning of December 25th – yes, it was a Christmas miracle Winking smile – and I am FAR too excited to wait a full year to blog about it. So please excuse my belatedness. And now, on with the post! Ever since first seeing the movie Four Christmases back in 2008, I have wanted to stalk the supposed Marin-area residence where Brad’s (Vince Vaughn’s) mom, Paula (Sissy Spacek), lived. Thankfully, the flick’s production notes stated that the exterior of the “Zen-styled living space” was actually a private home in Topanga Canyon, so I knew where to begin my search. Try as I might, though, I could not seem to find the darn place. Then, on Christmas morning, while my mom was at work (I know, boo!), my dad was napping and the Grim Cheaper was preparing our turkey dinner, I decided to get some cyber-stalking in and did a quick Google search for Topanga Canyon cottages with stone fireplaces. Lo and behold, one of the first results to come back was a real estate listing for an adorable little bungalow that I immediately recognized as Paula’s! Yay! And while the residence did not appear to be visible from the road, I could hardly wait to stalk the place and dragged the GC right on over there just a few days after we returned home.

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Well, let me tell you, when we pulled up to the property and saw that it was actually visible from the street, I was so excited that I just about started doing cartwheels! Yahoo! As you can see below, the cottage is absolutely idyllic in person. It literally looks like something ripped right out of a fairy tale!

In real life, the residence boasts two bedrooms, two baths, 1,632 square feet of living space, a 236-square-foot detached studio, a sprawling one-acre lot, a fireplace constructed out of River Rock, a sauna, an eat-in kitchen, an outdoor patio, a wrap-around deck, a footbridge built over Garaptas Creek (which runs through the property), several meandering pathways, and numerous park-like areas consisting of willow, oak, sycamore and pine trees. The place is absolutely stunning!

Paula’s bungalow actually shows up only once in Four Christmases, and very briefly at that, in the scene in which Brad and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) arrive at their third holiday destination – which was my personal favorite. The Taboo game segment (which you can watch by clicking below) was absolutely hilarious – “I don’t have an attitude. I’ve shut down. She buzzes me, I’m trying to explain to you how to the play the game, you obviously don’t understand the best ways to play the game, and I’m shutting down.” Love it! But I digress.

In an AMAZING twist, Four Christmases production designer Shepherd Frankel contacted me after reading my post on Brad and Kate’s house from the movie. (And yes, I just about died when I received his email in which he said that he loved reading my blog and seeing my detective work unfold!!!!) Shepherd was nice enough to answer all of the questions posed in my various Four Christmases posts (which I will get to in a bit) and also had this to say when I asked if Paula’s home was indeed a real location: “Yes, we shot at a house in Topanga, but . . . I added all kinds of things to make it bigger. I created sun rooms by enclosing decks. Added skylights built up to help the house appear bigger. Created an entrance. Did all of the set-ups and ‘places’ in the yard.” As you can see below, the real life residence does look quite a bit different – and much smaller – than its onscreen counterpart, although it is (thankfully) still very recognizable from the film.

Amazingly enough, the stained-glass interior of Paula’s cottage was just a set that was built inside of a soundstage at Ren-Mar Studios (now Red Studios Hollywood, which I blogged about here). The set was so incredibly realistic, though, that, before reading through the movie’s production notes, I was absolutely convinced that the actual interior had been used, which speaks to Shepherd’s artistry. As you can see in these real estate photographs as compared to the screen captures below, the actual interior of the residence is much smaller than its onscreen counterpart, and much simpler in design. You can check out some fabulous photographs of Shepherd’s set on his website here.

As I mentioned above, Shepherd was nice enough to answer a couple of questions posed in my other Four Christmases posts. First, he informed me that the backyard of Marilyn’s (Mary Steenburgen’s) house was not a mixture of the actual backyard and a set, as I had surmised. According to Shepherd, “ It was all done onstage where I replicated a version of the rear elevation of the location, but modified it to suit our needs.” He also told me that the view behind Marilyn’s fence was a “plate shot” of the home’s actual neighborhood.

Shepherd also explained that the deleted scene in which Brad and Kate called their respective parents to tell them that they would not be coming home for Christmas was not supposed to have taken place at the couple’s residence, as I had guessed, but in an upstairs coffee break room at the dance studio. So the differing interiors now make sense.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Paula’s house from Four Christmases is located at 1290 Oakwood Drive in Topanga Canyon.

December 19, 2012December 31, 2012

The “Four Christmases” House

Today’s location is a big one, my fellow stalkers! Well, it is for me, at least, being that it took me years to find it, as I mentioned in last Friday’s post. Yes, I am talking about the ultra-modern and gorgeous hilltop home where Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) lived in the 2008 romantic comedy Four Christmases. Despite the fact that the abode only showed up once in the flick – and very briefly at that – its contemporary façade and bamboo accents made quite an impression on me and I fell in love the place pretty much on sight. Try as I might, though, I just could NOT seem to track it down. So when I finally did this past Thursday morning, I was pretty much doing cartwheels across my apartment for the next hour and a half. And while the residence is actually located in San Francisco and I was therefore not able to stalk it myself, I recruited my good friend Nat, who lives in the Bay Area, to stalk it on my behalf, which she did the very next day. Thank you, Nat!

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Because Four Christmases was lensed in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, I had no idea where to even begin my search on this one. When I first embarked on the hunt, fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, had contacted one of the movie’s crew members for me, who informed him that the residence was indeed located in San Francisco, but that it had been changed significantly for the filming and would be virtually unrecognizable in person. He refused to divulge the property’s exact location, though, so I did not put much credit into his information as I thought that he might be fabricating things in order to throw us off the scent. As it turns out, the guy was telling the truth. Brad and Kate’s house was changed drastically for the shoot, which is another reason that it was so hard to find. It was not until I came across production designer Shepherd Frankel’s amazing website last week and saw this artistic rendering of the Four Christmases house that I was able to finally find the place.

What threw me off considerably during the search was the fact that, for the filming, the home’s real life front doors (which face the street) were covered over and a fake door added to the eastern side of the structure (in the area denoted with a red arrow in the photograph below), making it impossible for me to figure out how the place was situated in relation to the street. Once I saw the drawing of the house on Frankel’s website, though, it all came together in my head and I was able to find the pad within minutes. WHOO HOO!

The home’s actual front doors are pictured below. I much prefer the set-up of the house that appeared in the movie to its real life exterior. Absolutely LOVE that bamboo-covered accent wall.

Also love that the residence’s stuccoed front half-wall was covered over with wood for the shoot. It gives the place a much more modern feel and adds quite a bit of texture and color to the exterior.

One aspect of the house that was not altered for the filming was its view, which, as you can see below, is absolutely STUNNING.

Can you imagine waking up to this image every morning? Sigh!

In real life, Brad and Kate’s dwelling is absolutely gargantuan – much larger than it appears to be from its front exterior and much larger than it appeared to be in Four Christmases. The four-story pad, which was originally built in 1987, boasts five bedrooms, four baths and a whopping 3,990 square feet of living space – all on a 0.09-acre plot of land.

Absolutely LOVE the Christmas tree in the window. Can you imagine how spectacular it looks at night, all lit up and against the backdrop of that amazing San Francisco view?

All of the interior scenes that took place at Brad and Kate’s house were filmed in Venice Beach at the same residence that was used in Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” music video, which I blogged about last week.

Oddly enough, though, it seems that a different interior was used as Brad and Kate’s house at some point during the filming because in the trailer for Four Christmases, the couple is shown making phone calls to their respective parents while sitting in a brick-walled loft-style residence with arched windows.

Even odder still is the fact that that particular interior (which in reality is located at 1161 Vine Street in Hollywood and which you can check out some photographs of here) did wind up in the film – as the studio where Brad and Kate took dance lessons. As you can see below, the brick walls, exposed duct work and arched windows match Kate and Brad’s house from the trailer perfectly. Heck, even the Christmas decorations are the same! Very, very strange! UPDATE – Shepherd was nice enough to send me an email explaining that this scene was supposed to have taken place in a break area at the dance studio and not at the couple’s home, so the seeming anomaly now makes sense.

You can watch the Four Christmases trailer by clicking below.

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to my good friend Nat for all of her help in finding this location and for going out and stalking it for me. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Brad and Kate’s house from Four Christmases is located at 85 Burnett Avenue in the Twin Peaks area of San Francisco.

December 14, 2012December 31, 2012

Marilyn’s House from “Four Christmases”

Early yesterday morning, after what had amounted to years and years of searching and thanks to the assistance of both Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and my good friend Nat, I finally, finally, FINALLY managed to track down the San Francisco-area house where Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) lived in the 2008 holiday flick Four Christmases. Woot woot! The stalking Gods were definitely smiling down upon me yesterday because shortly thereafter I ALSO found the residence where Kate’s mom, Marilyn (Mary Steenburgen), lived in the flick. And while Nat, who resides in the Bay Area, will be stalking Ben and Kate’s pad for me later today so that I can blog about it next week, Marilyn’s house is, thankfully, located right near me in South Pasadena. So I, of course, immediately ran out to stalk it yesterday.

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Surprisingly, finding Marilyn’s house was a snap. I had heard rumblings over the years that the abode was located inside the gated Hancock Park community of Fremont Place, but while scanning through Four Christmases yesterday, I spotted an address number of 1217 on the curb in front of the house and on the façade above the front door. Because Fremont Place addresses are only three digits long, I knew that the dwelling could not be located there – unless, of course, the number had been altered for the filming, which I doubted. Upon closer inspection, I got the strange feeling that I had seen the house before, possibly in South Pasadena. So I decided to begin my search on the most oft-filmed-at street in the area, Milan Avenue. I punched 1217 Milan Avenue into Google and, lo and behold, it was the spot! Let me tell you, I almost fell out of my chair! Here it had taken me YEARS to track down Ben and Kate’s house, but I somehow managed to find Marilyn’s on the very first street that I searched! Go figure!

In real life, the charming home, which was originally built in 1927, boasts four bedrooms, three baths, a whopping 4,447 square feet of living space, and almost half an acre of land.

The exterior of Marilyn’s house only showed up once, very briefly (blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-briefly), in Four Christmases, in the scene in which Ben and Kate arrived at Kate’s mother’s residence to celebrate their second Christmas of the day. Quite a bit of décor was added for the filming, including a white picket fence, a huge amount of wildflowers lining the front walkway and sidewalk, a cross in each downstairs window, and, of course, a myriad of religious statues. I was absolutely FLOORED to discover that the Christmas wreaths that had been displayed in the second floor windows in the movie were there in real life, as well – in the exact same positions! SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

And while I would have bet money on the fact that the real life interior of the home had been used in the movie, that was, shockingly, not the case. According to the Four Christmases production notes, all of the interiors of the four parents’ houses excluding one – the residence where Creighton (Jon Voight) lived, which was actually the Boddy House in Descanso Gardens, which I blogged about way back in May 2009 – were sets built on a soundstage at Ren-Mar Studios (now Red Studios Hollywood, which I blogged about this past March). All I can say is that production designer Shepherd Frankel (who has a Masters Degree in architecture) did an UH-MA-ZING job because, outside of Nancy Meyer productions, I have never seen such detailed sets. Of Frankel’s design, the production notes state, “In keeping with Marilyn’s malleable personality, her home is characterized by what Frankel describes as ‘surfaces and veneers, reflecting no real sense of self.’ At the same time, it reveals a dedication to symmetry and order, with wallpapers matched to upholstery patterns, suggesting the hand of a woman who is constantly striving toward some higher standard of domestic design as much as she strives for the perfect relationship.” You can check out some FABULOUS pictures of the set that Frankel created here.

As you can see in the screen captures below as compared to these real life photographs of the house, the set is much different than the actual residence. Areas of the dwelling that Frankel recreated include the entryway, which you can see real life photos of here and here;

the living room, which you can see real life photographs of here and here;

the den, which you can see real life photos of here and here;

the huge guest bathroom (you can check out one of the home’s actual bathrooms here and here);

and the kitchen, which you can see a real life photograph of here and here. It is unbelievable to me how textured, detailed and realistic Frankel’s designs are!

I am fairly certain that the backyard that appeared in the movie was a mixture of both the home’s real life backyard and a set. You can see photographs of the actual backyard here and here, and a picture of the set here. UPDATE – Shepherd Frankel contacted me after I wrote this post and informed me that Marilyn’s backyard was just a set. Of the filming, he said, “It was all done onstage where I replicated a version of the rear elevation of the location, but modified it to suit our needs.” He also told me that the view behind Marilyn’s fence was a “plate shot” of the home’s actual neighborhood. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Marilyn’s house from Four Christmases is located at 1217 Milan Avenue in South Pasadena. Quite a few other famous homes can be found on the same street, including the former residence of architect Norman Marsh at 1934 Milan ; Matthew Kidman’s (Emile Hirsch’s) house from The Girl Next Door at 1504 Milan; Danielle’s (Elisha Cuthbert’s) house from The Girl Next Door at 1500 Milan; the Beethoven house at 1405 Milan; the Lawrence house from the 1970’s television series Family at 1230 Milan; and one of the houses that the boys painted in American Pie 2 at 820 Milan.

December 11, 2012December 10, 2012

The House from Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” Video

Way back in April 2010, fellow stalker Virginie (who lives in Belgium!) contacted me to let me know that she had tracked down the Venice-area home featured in Rihanna’s 2008 “Take a Bow” music video. And while I had never seen said video, nor am I a particularly big fan of Rihanna, I did absolutely love the Glee version of the song, so after receiving Virginie’s email, I decided to take a gander. And, let me tell you, I fell head over heels in love with the gorgeous “Take a Bow” house on sight. To be honest, I was practically foaming at the mouth! So I immediately added the place to the very top of my To-Stalk list, but because I do not often find myself in the Venice area, the residence, sadly, remained un-stalked until two weeks ago. I am very happy to report, though, that it was well worth the wait because the dwelling is nothing short of spectacular in person!

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The 7,456-square-foot property, which houses both a private loft-style residence and a 40-foot by 40-foot art gallery, was originally built in 2007 by du Architects for Steve Shaw, a prominent Los Angeles fashion photographer who drew up the floor plans himself. The structure, which was constructed out of wood, concrete, glass, and steel, boasts five bedrooms (the master bedroom suite features an eight-foot movie screen!), five baths, a rooftop infinity pool (with a special sensor that drains excess water whenever it rains!), an atrium, a terrace, and a sunken living room with a built-in custom sofa, gas fire pit and 11-foot movie screen (yes, the place has not one, but TWO movie screens!). Not bad for a house that sits on a miniscule 0.09-acre plot of land.

In 2009, Shaw sold the abode (how anyone could ever bear to part with this house is beyond me!) for a cool $5.6 million to none other than Robert Downey Jr. and his wife, Susan, who are now using the property as their production offices. You can check out some interior photographs of the spectacular pad here, here, here, and here. Warning – have a drool cloth ready! Winking smile

The interior of the house was used extensively in “Take a Bow”. (See what I mean? Definitely drool-worthy! Sigh.)

The front entrance also made a brief appearance.

As did the three-car garage area.

The video’s driving sequence was shot just one block south of the home, in front of the residence located at 1309 Cabrillo Avenue . . .

. . . which was apparently for rent at the time of the filming.

You can watch Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” video by clicking below.

While doing research on the property, I was absolutely FLOORED to discover that the interior had been used as the supposed San Francisco-area residence where Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) lived in the 2008 flick Four Christmases. I am ashamed to admit that I had been trying to track down this particular locale for years, but because the place was so much brighter in Four Christmases than it appeared to be in “Take a Bow”, I failed to recognize it! D’oh! (I am still on the hunt for the exterior of Brad and Kate’s house, which is apparently located somewhere in San Francisco’s Twin Peaks.)

You can see the home’s movie screen (complete with curtain!) in the background behind Vince Vaughn below. So incredibly cool!

The red-tiled bathroom that appeared in the flick, which you can see a real life photograph of here, is absolutely amazeballs!

The video for Usher’s 2008 song “Trading Places” was also filmed at the abode.

You can watch that (NSFW!) video by clicking below.

Thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, I learned that the dwelling was also used as the office of celebrity psychiatrist Dr. Henry Carter (Kevin Spacey) in the 2009 flick Shrink. Both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property were used extensively throughout the flick.

And, when he owned the place, Steve Shaw conducted a photo shoot on the premises with actress Evan Rachel Wood (which you can check out some pictures from here).

Speaking of music videos, have y’all seen the John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John jewel “I Think You Might Like It”? The thing actually rendered me speechless! All I can say is “LOL!”

You can find me on Facebook here and on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And be sure to check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Virginie for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The house from Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” music video is located at 1311 Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. The garage area that appeared in the video can be viewed from the opposite side of the residence on the 1300 block of Electric Avenue. And the driving scene was filmed just around the corner, in front of the home located at 1309 Cabrillo Avenue.