Sandra Bullock – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 12, 2019July 11, 2019

Grand Hope Park from “All About Steve”

The Hills are alive and well once again thanks to the recent MTV reboot The Hills: New Beginnings which debuted late last month. I actually did not have high hopes for the show, despite loving the original, but I have to say that the Grim Cheaper and I are really enjoying it. More mature and realistic than its predecessor, though no doubt just as engineered and produced, watching it feels like coming home again. There’s nothing quite like a revisit to the highly-stylized world of Audrina, Spencer, and Heidi! And thanks to a recap special the GC and I viewed prior to the premiere episode, I was reminded of Grand Hope Park, an oft-used site from the OG series that was also featured in the 2009 romcom All About Steve. Though I peripherally covered the picturesque spot in blogs about the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) and the Renaissance Tower in 2008 and 2011 respectively, I thought it was time the place got its due with a full-fledged post of its own.

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Situated on land that formerly housed a parking lot, Grand Hope Park was completed in 1993.

Designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, the 2.5-acre site was commissioned by the Los Angeles Redevelopment Agency as part of the city’s Open Space Network, a collection of lush public areas dotted along downtown’s Hope Street.

Grand Hope Park, the first major park built in Los Angeles since Pershing Square in 1870, boasts large grassy expanses, a children’s playground, vine-draped pergolas, meandering pathways, numerous terraces, a plethora of trees, and a collection of art installations that includes sculptures, fountains, and a mosaic clock tower.

My favorite area of the property, though, is easily the unique sunken water court featuring a startling blue pool and geometric-shaped elements.

A protected serene little space in the heart of the city, Grand Hope Park is flanked by FIDM to the east and the Renaissance Tower apartment complex to the South, all of which have appeared onscreen.

One look at the bucolic site and it is not very hard to see why location managers have continually flocked there.

Grand Hope Park pops up twice at the beginning of All About Steve in establishing scenes that show Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock) on her way to and from her job as a cruciverbalist at what is supposedly The Sacramento Bee newspaper. Both the park . . .

. . . and its unique water court appear in the segments.

As I mentioned earlier, thanks to the fact that several cast members attended FIDM, Grand Hope Park regularly cameoed on The Hills. In a myriad of episodes, including Season 3’s “A Date with the Past” which aired in 2008, Lauren Conrad and friends were seen gossiping over coffee at the picturesque site.

Numerous other productions have made use of the place, as well.

Renaissance Tower regularly appeared as Buckland Auction House where Prue Halliwell (Shannen Doherty) worked during Seasons 1 and 2 of Charmed.

Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano) and her ex-boyfriend Clay (Victor Browne) also walk in the park in Charmed’s Season 1 episode titled “Feats of Clay,” which aired in 1999.

FIDM and Grand Hope Park popped up regularly as the exterior of the supposed Santa Monica-area St. Ambrose Hospital on the television series Private Practice.

In 2009, the park masked as the entrance to an FBI field office in the Season 7 episode of 24 titled “Day 7: 4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.”

Thanks to the Castle Wiki website, I learned that Grand Hope Park was featured on the ABC series no less than nine times (“Nine times?” “Nine times!” “I don’t remember him being sick nine times.” Ferris Bueller reference – anyone, anyone?). In Season 1’s “Nanny McDead,” which aired in 2009, Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) and Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) interview a nanny named Chloe Richardson (Sarah Drew) at the park.

In 2011, it popped up in Season 3’s “Poof, You’re Dead,” as the spot where Beckett and Castle tracked down magician Chuck Russell (Chadwick Boseman).

That same year, Beckett told Castle about her recent break-up at Grand Hope Park in Season 4’s “Rise.”

In the Season 5 episode “Cloudy with a Chance of Murder,” which aired in 2012, Beckett and Castle investigate the killing of weathergirl Mandy Michaels (Candice Mann) at the park.

Later that season, a heavily dressed Grand Hope Park masked as the snowy New York plaza where a man wearing a St. Nick costume plummeted to his death in the episode titled “Secret Santa.”

It is at Grand Hope Park that Castle proposes to Beckett in the Season 5 finale titled “Watershed” . . .

. . . in a scene that continued over into the Season 6 premiere, “Valkyrie.”

Beckett and Castle covertly meet up at the park later that same season in the episode titled “Veritas.”

And in Season 7’s “Hollander’s Woods,” which aired in 2015, Beckett tells Castle about her tentative plan to become a state senator while at the site. Phew! Castle sure does love itself some Grand Hope Park!

Grand Hope Park is also where Carl Creel (Brian Patrick Wade) meets with Sunil Bakshi (Simon Kassianides) and almost gets shot in the Season 2 episode of Marvel’s AGENTS of S.H.I.E.L.D. titled “Heavy is the Head,” which aired in 2014.

And in the Season 1 episode of Supergirl titled “World’s Finest,” which aired in 2016, Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) is kidnapped and taken to Grand Hope Park where a huge battle ensues.

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: Grand Hope Park, from All About Steve, is located at 919 South Grand Avenue in downtown L.A.

June 14, 2019June 13, 2019

Mary’s House from “All About Steve”

If you listened to critics, you probably think All About Steve has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. You’d be wrong, though. While the 2009 comedy (and I use the term “comedy” loosely) is not remotely funny, boasts an odd storyline, and fails to properly showcase the talents of its fabulous cast, which includes Bradley Cooper, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Haden Church, Ken Jeong and DJ Qualls, it does feature some pretty stellar locations. The delightfully retro residence where Mary Horowitz (Bullock) lives with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Horowitz (Howard Hesseman and Beth Grant, respectively), in the flick especially had me drooling. I, of course, set out to track it down shortly after first viewing All About Steve ten years ago, but was unsuccessful. And though I subsequently revisited the hunt several times over the years following, I always came up empty. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to call in the big guns (aka my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog), to see if he might be able to provide some assistance and in less than 24 hours he had an address for me. Thanks to a helpful crew member, we learned that the Horowitz home is located at 1704 Wellington Road in Mid-City’s Lafayette Square neighborhood. So I immediately ran out to stalk it.

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In real life, the All About Steve house is known as the J. Phyromn Taylor Residence. The two-story pad was designed in 1953 by prolific architect Paul Revere Williams (you can read a few of my posts on his many famous properties here, here, here, here, here, here and here) for his good friend, wealthy doctor Jackson Phyromn Taylor.

Built in a style known as Los Angeles Contemporary, the home also boasts prairie, international, and midcentury design elements, as well as a lot of geometric detailing. Per The Paul Revere Williams Project website, “The motif was used in a floating staircase flanked by a dramatic two-story sandblasted glass wall, metal work, etched room dividers, light fixtures and other midcentury-style custom furnishings designed for the space.”

Williams also incorporated Lafayette Square’s strict design regulations into the architecture of the residence, which included a second-floor balcony, deep setbacks, clean lines and a horizonal layout, with the long end fronting the street.

Sadly, Dr. Taylor passed away just a few short years after his home was completed, but the extraordinary residence remains in his family today. It is currently owned by Lauren Smith, his granddaughter, who told the Larchmont Ledger, “They [Jackson Phyromn Taylor and his wife, Pearl] surrounded themselves with art, music their entire lives. My uncle Phyromn was an accomplished jazz saxophonist so music was definitely a part of our lives. My mom was a music major in college as well. Very social, Paul Williams designed their house with their desire to entertain in mind. My grandparents were proud to have an African American man, their friend, design their unique house.”

The home features 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, a whopping 5,062 square feet of living space, a 2-car garage, and a 0.27-acre lot.

Unfortunately, the property looks quite a bit different today than it did onscreen in All About Steve. Not only is it now significantly covered over with foliage, but it has undergone a drastic paint change. The result is a residence that is much darker and less aesthetically pleasing, at least in my opinion. In fact, if it had boasted its current color scheme in the movie, I probably wouldn’t have been nearly as enamored of it.

Due to the pad’s rectangular orientation and decidedly midcentury feel, I had been convinced that it was an apartment building, not a single-family home, in real life.

And because of the mansion-like properties situated next door . . .

. . . and across the street, I knew it had to be located in an upscale neighborhood. Accordingly, I spent copious hours searching Hancock Park and West Hollywood for a midcentury apartment complex, so it’s no surprise that I couldn’t find the place. Somehow I had completely forgotten about Lafayette Square, an area I’ve been to a few times and even written about – twice! Thank goodness for the helpful crew member who provided Owen with the address!

The J. Phyromn Taylor Residence popped up several times in All About Steve.

The movie did a fabulous job of showcasing the dwelling . . .

. . . and all of its unique architectural details.

As fabulous as those details are, it was the interior of the Horowitz home that really stole my heart, namely the floating staircase. The openness of the steps, the paned glass panel behind them, and the stone walls on either side practically had me drooling.

I am torn as to whether what was shown onscreen was the real interior of the J. Phyromn Taylor Residence or a set modeled after it, though I’m leaning toward the former. As you can see below, the glass panel pictured behind the stairs in All About Steve is a perfect match to that of the actual home.

And the geometric elements visible in several scenes, like the open metal wall in the foreground below . . .

. . . and the silver sculpture to the left of the pool table, mesh with the interior detailing described on The Paul Revere Williams Project website.

I am fairly certain, though, that Mary’s colorful bedroom . . .

. . . and bathroom were just sets.

Either way, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place!

Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The J. Phyromn Taylor Residence, aka the Horowitz home from All About Steve, is located at 1704 Wellington Road in Lafayette Square. The McGinley Residence, where Robert F. Kennedy is reported to have spent his last night, is right around the corner at 1821 South Victoria Avenue. And the incorrectly identified Leave It to Beaver house is two blocks west at 1727 Buckingham Road.

January 23, 2017January 20, 2017

“The Awakening” Sculpture

I am not typically a big art person. This is mainly due to the fact that I love to be outside, especially when on vacation, so I don’t find myself frequenting museums often. While researching Washington, D.C.-area attractions prior to my trip to the East Coast last September, though, I came across some information about a work of art that enthralled me. Images of the piece, a massive sculpture called The Awakening, were striking and I quickly decided that I was not returning home without seeing it in person.

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The unique installation, which depicts a giant fighting to emerge from the sand that engulfs him, was created by J. Seward Johnson, Jr., the same artist who gave us Forever Marilyn and Unconditional Surrender, both of which I blogged about in May 2012. (I was thrilled to come across reports while researching for this post that Forever Marilyn might be returning to Palm Springs in the very near future!)

The sculpture is made up of five half-buried cast-aluminum parts representing the hand, arm, head, knee and foot of a distressed giant struggling to break through the earth’s surface.

Rising over 15 feet tall and spanning a length of 70 feet, The Awakening is absolutely breathtaking to see in person.

And rather dramatic.

Seward, who is the grandson of Johnson & Johnson co-founder Robert Wood Johnson, created the piece in 1980 for the International Sculpture Conference Exhibition in Washington, D.C. It was originally installed on an open expanse of grassy land overlooking the water at Hains Point in East Potomac Park, just a few miles from the National Mall. Owned by the Sculpture Foundation, The Awakening’s placement was always considered temporary, thanks largely to a law enacted in 1986 that banned non-commemorative art from being permanently displayed in any District-area national park. As such, the Foundation quietly put it on the market, where it remained for several years until Milton V. Peterson, chairman of the Peterson Companies, snapped it up in 2007. The purchase price? A cool $740,000. Of the score, Peterson said, “As soon as I found it was for sale, I bought it that week. I think it is one of the most demonstrative pieces that we have.”

Peterson purchased the 4,100-pound statue in order to install it at National Harbor, his 300-acre mixed-use development consisting of shops, eateries, condominium buildings, hotels, offices, and a convention center, all situated adjacent to the Potomac River in Oxon Hill, Maryland. A beach was constructed in the center of the complex for The Awakening to be displayed.

While being assembled at its new home, the giant was altered. As explained in this December 2007 The New York Times article, “At Hains Point, the pieces were placed slightly off-kilter, making the figure anatomically incorrect. So when the sculpture’s wire base is reburied, one of the legs will be moved slightly.”

National Harbor opened to the public in 2008.

As you can see below, the site where The Awakening now sits boasts some incredible views.

I have to say that I prefer the sculpture’s original setting, though. The Awakening is now situated in a relatively tiny area that is below street level, making it virtually hidden from passersby. Even I had a bit of a hard time spotting it as we arrived on the scene, and I was actively looking for it. While undeniably huge, the piece gets swallowed up by its surroundings. In my never-to-be-humble opinion, I think it looked much better – and much more striking – when it was out in the open as it was at Hains Point. You can see images of The Awakening at its original location here and here. My other beef with the piece’s new home is that it has seemingly turned into a playground, with kids crawling all over it (as pretty much all of my pictures attest to), and now more closely resembles a jungle gym than a stunning work of art. A second The Awakening was created by Seward in 2009 and put on display in Chesterfield, Missouri. That piece is laid out in a much better way than its National Harbor counterpart. You can check out some photos of it here and here.

I was floored to learn while doing research for this post that The Awakening is also a filming location! Back in 1995, when it was still located at Hains Point, the statue was featured in the opening scene of The Net as the spot where Secretary of Defense Senator Bergstrom (Ken Howard) killed himself.

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 Awakening sculpture is located at 153 National Plaza, in the National Harbor development, in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

March 31, 2011April 4, 2011

Jesse James and Sandra Bullock’s Former House

Another Orange County location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked this past weekend while spending time in Huntington Beach was the former home of actress Sandra Bullock and her ex-husband, West Coast Choppers CEO and reality television star Jesse James. As it was the GC’s birthday weekend, I was not actually planning on doing any stalking – outside of the 90210 Beach Club, of course, which I blogged about yesterday – during our time in the South Bay, but while we were checking out, the super nice concierge we spoke with informed us that Sandra and Jesse’s former home was located just a few miles north of the hotel in the beachfront community of Sunset Beach. And even though I am not a particularly huge fan of either one of the stars, because we were in the area I immediately got to cyberstalking the residence on fave website Virtual Globetrotting and dragged the GC right on over to stalk the place on our way out of town.

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And I am so glad that I did! Despite the numerous nasty commenters on more than a few celebrity real estate websites who state how ugly the house is, I actually think it is pretty darn beautiful. Sure, it is a bit boxy-looking, but heck I’d live in an octagon if it meant being right on the ocean. Winking smile Jesse James purchased the 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom Mediterranean-style home, which boasts a whopping 3,626 square feet of beachfront living space, for $3.5 million in 2003, when he was still married to adult film star Janine Lindemulder. The residence was originally built in 1976, but was completely remodeled in 2002 shortly before Jesse purchased it. He put the house up for sale for a cool $6.75 million in May of 2010, shortly after the news of his infidelity hit the blogosphere, and eventually sold it in mid-December of last year, after a pretty major reduction in price, for $4.5 million.

The home is situated on a fairly-large corner lot located directly on the beach . . .

. . . and boasts pretty incredible ocean views, although, as you can see in the above photograph, the weather was fairly dreary while we were there.

Jesse and Sandra’s former residence also features a glass-enclosed lanai which sports an outdoor pool with a waterfall and a waterslide and automated tiki torches, which you can sort of see in the above photographs. According to the property’s real estate website, on which you can see some great interior pictures of the house, the place also boasts a media room, a wet bar, stone floors, coved ceilings, an en-suite guest room, a master suite with a fireplace, and a three car garage with a custom tool crib. Now I am not quite sure what a “custom tool crib” is, but I’d be willing to be that, whatever it is, the GC – and most other men on the planet – would absolutely love it. Winking smile In a very random turn of events, I happened to spot Jesse James and his pit bull Cinnabun on Tuesday afternoon while on my early afternoon coffee run. Jesse did not seem to be in any way open or friendly – in fact he shot me a VERY dirty look as I walked by for some odd reason – so I did not attempt to go up to him or engage him in any way. I was still pretty excited to see him in person, though, nonetheless. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Jesse James and Sandra Bullock’s former house is located at 16905 South Pacific Avenue in Sunset Beach.

March 7, 2011March 7, 2011

Buckland Auction House from “Charmed”

I am taking a break from my wedding blogging once again today in order to write about a locale that I stalked this past Thursday evening while on my way to dinner in Downtown Los Angeles – the fictional Buckland Auction House where Prue Halliwell (aka my girl Shannen Doherty) worked during the first two seasons of the television series Charmed. Fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, tracked this location down – along with pretty much every other locale that ever appeared on the series – a good two years ago and how he did so is a complete and total mystery to me!

In reality, the exterior of the Buckland Auction House is the back side of a Downtown Los Angeles apartment building known as the Renaissance Tower. The portion of the building which appeared on Charmed is not at all visible from the street nor via Google Street View and can only be reached from the inside of Downtown’s Grand Hope Park, so how Chas managed to find the place while sitting in front of his computer screen all the way across the country in Warsaw, Indiana is absolutely BEYOND me! All I can say is that my hat is definitely off to him on this one! Especially being that I had actually stalked Grand Hope Park once before – and had even blogged about it – yet did not recognize the Renaissance Tower as the Buckland Auction House!

Renaissance Tower Apartments first showed up in the Season 1 episode of Charmed titled “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” in the scene in which Prue interviews for a job as an exhibition curator at the supposed San-Francisco-area Buckland Auction House. Prue lands the job and continues to work at Buckland through all of Season 1 and most of Season 2, until the episode titled “Awakening”, in which she quits her job in order to go back to school to study photography.

As I mentioned above, Renaissance Tower is situated along the south end of Downtown’s Grand Hope Park. Because the park also borders FIDM, aka the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising where Lauren Conrad and Stephanie Pratt attended fashion school on The Hills, the area popped up on regularly on the reality series during its six-season run. In the Season 3 episode titled “A Date with the Past”, the two girls are shown discussing Lauren’s recent house-warming party while sitting on a planter box located on the southern end of the park, just outside of FIDM’s entrance.

In the Season 4 episode titled “Don’t Act Innocent . . .”, Lauren confronts Stephanie about going out with Doug Reinhardt behind her back while the two are sitting on a planter box located on the park’s northern end.

This past Saturday afternoon, I dragged the GC back out to FIDM to stalk the 19th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design currently on exhibit at FIDM’s Museum & Galleries (which I will be blogging about soon) and while there, I, of course, just had to pose like Lauren in the “Don’t Act Innocent . . .” episode. Smile

Grand Hope Park also appeared in the opening scene of the 2009 movie All About Steve, in which Mary Horowitz (aka Sandra Bullock) walks to the supposed Sacramento-area newspaper office where she works as a crossword puzzle editor.

In that scene, Mary walks through the water fountain located in the southeast portion of the park.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from It’sFilmedThere, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Buckland Auction House, from Charmed, is actually the back side of the Renaissance Tower Apartments building, which is located at 501 West Olympic Boulevard in Downtown Los Angeles. The area which appeared on Charmed (which is denoted with the pink circle in the above aerial view) can best be reached from Grand Hope Park, which is located at the southeast corner of South Hope Street and West 9th Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The planter box where Lauren and Stephanie sat in the “Don’t Act Innocent” episode of The Hills is denoted with a blue arrow in the above aerial view and the planter box where they sat in the “A Date With the Past” episode is denoted with a pink arrow. The fountain Sandra Bullock walked across in All About Steve is denoted with a purple circle.

March 8, 2010March 7, 2010

Oscar Weekend 2010

The celebrity sightings during Oscar Weekend 2010 started a bit early for me this year when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I accidentally stumbled upon the filming of CSI: Miami in Altadena on Friday morning. But I’ll save that story for tomorrow’s blog post. Today, it’s strictly all about Oscar, Oscar, Oscar! And, let me tell you, it was another amazing Oscar Weekend for me. Man, I love awards season!!!! 🙂

Anyway, after hanging out on the CSI: Miami set for a few hours this past Friday, Mike and I made our way over to the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood to check out the Academy Awards preparations at the Kodak Theatre and to take a little walk on the most famous carpet in the entire world. My fiancé and I usually hit up the Kodak Theatre each year on the Saturday morning before the Oscar ceremony is held and, amazingly enough, the place is usually not all that crowded. But when Mike and I showed up early Friday afternoon, the Hollywood & Highland Center was absolutely JAM PACKED. So much so that they actually had to CLOSE the parking garage there as it was completely full! If you’ve ever been to that parking garage, you know what I mean when I say it is absolutely GINOURMOUS, so the fact that it was FULL was mind-boggling to me! Even with all the traffic and throngs of people, though, we finally managed to make it to the Kodak. And I can’t even tell you how exciting it was to be standing there in the middle of it all! Being that this was my fourth year stalking the Oscars, you would think that I’d be at least a little tired of it by now. But nothing could be further from the truth. I was absolutely ESCTATIC to be seeing it all in person once again. I still have to pinch myself every time I am there. Unbelievably, this was actually Mike’s very first Oscar stalk, though! For whatever reason, even though he grew up in the Los Angeles area, he had yet to ever visit the Academy Awards red carpet in person, so it was extremely exciting for me to be sharing that experience with him. And it got the Grim Cheaper off the hook of having to take me there on Saturday morning. So, it was definitely a win-win situation for all of us. 😉

I have to say that it was very cool to be stalking the Oscars a day earlier than usual, as Mike and I got to see quite a bit of the red carpet set-up taking place, including one of the Oscar statuettes being brought into the theater on a golf cart . . .

. . . and part of the red carpet being rolled out.

Thanks to the massive rain-storms that have been plaguing Southern California as of late, many of the Oscars were actually covered over with plastic tarps;

and there was also a rain tent set up over the red carpet. Which got me to thinking, why does it always seem to rain on Oscar Night?

As usual, the actual carpet was also covered over in tarping to prevent the awards crew from trampling on it pre-show.

And, even with the tarping, I, of course, just had to get a picture of myself standing on it. 🙂

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For those who have never visited the Kodak Theatre, it is located inside of the Hollywood & Highland Center, which is, for all intents and purposes, a mall. So, when the stars walk down the red carpet on Oscar Night, they are actually walking right through a bunch of shops. It’s pretty hard to imagine, I know, but you can kind of see the set-up in the above photographs. The windows to the right and left of the carpet area are actually stores. Whenever I take out-of-towners to the Kodak Theatre and explain that it is where the Oscar Ceremony is held each year, I invariably hear the following sentence, “But this is a mall!” LOL Anyway, the red carpet goes right through a stretch of the mall which houses such stores as MAC, Louis Vuitton (sigh!), Sanrio, Sun’s Up sunglasses store, the Gateway Newstand, and Kelly’s Coffee & Fudge. I swear, if I was an actor walking the red carpet, I would so be tempted to stop into Kelly’s Coffee for a quick latte before making my way into the theatre. 😉 To prevent this, though, the stores are actually required to close during Oscar Weekend, beginning on the Friday evening before the ceremony. Mike and I happened to stop into one of the stores on the red carpet to do some shopping while we were there and the clerk told us that she was getting ready to close for the next few days and that security was just about to do their final check of the premises, along with their bomb-sniffing dogs who roam each store to make sure that no explosive devices have been left inside. How crazy is that?

EXTREMELY bright (like absolutely BLINDINGLY so) lights were set up all along the perimeter of the red carpet. One is pictured above and even via photograph you can tell how darn bright it is.

Some of the Oscar statues are unbelievably HUGE, especially the one located at the corner of Highland Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, which is where the red carpet begins. As you can see in the above photograph, even the base of that statue is taller than me!

I was just itching to jump up on the above pictured press stage to snap a quick picture, but the security guard standing in that vicinity did not look at all friendly so I didn’t want to risk it. He probably would have ended up banning me from the Hollywood & Highland Center for life. 😉

While hanging out on the red carpet on Friday, Mike and I ran into this enterprising young woman who was holding up a homemade sign asking Matt Damon to be her date to the Oscars. 😉 Love it!

While walking around Hollywood, we also spotted this gigantic movie poster for Sex and the City 2 on the side of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and I just had to snap a pic of it! Love it! Love it! Love it!

As much fun as Mike and I had on Friday, I must say that there was even more fun in store for me on Saturday. Beginning early Saturday morning and ending very late Saturday night, I dragged my fiancé from one end of Los Angeles to the other to do some major star-gazing. Sadly, though, due to the rain and the Independent Spirit Awards’ change in venue (while they are usually held on the beach in Santa Monica each Saturday before the Oscars, this year they took place on Friday evening at the much less accessible Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles), my celeb sightings weren’t as numerous this year as they were last, but I still managed to have an ABSOLUTE BLAST. In fact, I am still pinching myself this morning. I even got to meet up with one of my readers, a super sweet fellow stalker named Kendall, at one point during the evening. And while I didn’t spot my girl Jen or crooner Michael Buble (whose sightings were the highlights of my Oscar Weekend last year), I did manage to stalk quite a few celebs. But because hotel security is very tight during Oscar Weekend, I, unfortunately, didn’t get to snap any pictures of them. 🙁

So, without further ado, here is “The List” of celebrity sightings from Oscar Weekend 2010.

1. Jerry Ferris – from Jen Schefft’s season of The Bachelorette

2. Jamie Foxx

3. Lenny Kravitz

4. Aaron Eckhart

5. Benjamin McKenzie – At one point in the evening, I noticed Ben standing next to my fiancé at a valet stand, so I leaned over and said “Hi, Ben!” He looked over expecting me to be someone he knew, got a blank expression on his face, and then smiled a big smile when he realized I was just a fan and said “Hey, how are you doing?” SIGH!

6. Elizabeth Banks

7. Dennis Haysbert (from 24)

8. Ben Stiller

9. J.J. Abrams (the producer of Lost)

10. will.i.am (from the Black Eyed Peas) – He seemed super nice and waved at us.

11. Ed Westwick

12. Jessica Szohr

13. Jake Gyllenhaal

14. Maggie Gyllenhaal – She is extremely taaaaaaaaall in person.

15. Rashida Jones

16. Katie Couric

17. Zachary Quinto

18. Morgan Freeman

19. Jason Reitman

20. Steven Spielberg

21. David Spade

22. Leonardo DiCaprio

23. Halle Berry

24. B.J. Novak

25. Kevin Connolly

26. Sofia Vergara (Gloria from Modern Family)

27. Jesse James

28. Sandra Bullock

29. Ryan Reynolds

30. Ryan Seacrest – He is so not as short as everyone makes him out to be.

31. Jon Hamm

32. Jennifer Westfeldt

33. Jimmy Kimmel

34. Anna Kendrick

35. Christian Slater – Was super friendly and waved at us. 🙂

36. Meg Ryan

37. Ron Livingston

38. Jemaine Clement (from The Flight of the Conchords)

39. Colin Firth

40. Taylor Lautner – He looks VERY young in person, but is VERY cute.

41. Fred Savage

42. Kristin Davis

43. Kate Beckinsale

44. Eddie Murphy

45. Matt Damon

46. Luciana Barrosa

47. Tina Fey

48. Jeanne Tripplehorn

49. Gina Gershon

50. Stanley Tucci

51. Robert Downey Jr.

52. Susan Downey (Robert’s wife, who is a big time producer)

53. Jeff Bridges

54. Winona Ryder

55. Mariska Hargitay – She is STRIKINGLY beautiful in person!

56. Rich Ross – The new chairman of Walt Disney Studios, who I actually served on jury duty with once. 😉

57. Julie Bowen (Claire from Modern Family)

58. Ty Burrell (Phil from Modern Family)

59. Elton John – We ate dinner just a few tables away from him and in what was an absolutely surreal moment, the musician working at the restaurant started playing Elton’s 1970 hit “Your Song” with him sitting just a few feet away.

60. George Takei and his husband Brad Altman – My fiancé said he was actually star struck for what was probably the first time in his life over seeing the two of them, not because he is a Trekkie, but because he is a fan of “The Howard Stern Show” on which George is a frequent announcer.

61. Carrie Underwood

62. Eric Nies

63. Brian Grazer

64. Felicity Huffman

65. Eric McCormack from Will and Grace

66. Jeff Prettyman

67. Dianna Agron (Quinn from Glee)

68. Mark Salling (Puck from Glee) – He is SUPER cute in person and also waved to us.

69. Vera Farmiga

70. Amy Adams

71. Carey Mulligan

72. Peter Sarsgaard

But the highlight of the evening for me had to be when I got to see my latest celebrity crush, Mr. Schuester himself, Matthew Morrison from Glee! Sigh! Ironically, earlier in the day, I had told my fiancé that of all the people I was hoping to see this Oscar Weekend, Matthew Morrison was number 1! And then it happened! I got to see him – and better yet, he even did a little Glee-style spin and turn in front of us when he walked by. SIGH! I literally almost had a heart attack right there on the spot! Truth be told, though, I was SO completely starstruck over seeing him in person that I didn’t even notice his little dance routine. I must have blacked out from excitement or something, but it wasn’t until fellow stalker Kendall mentioned something about it that I even realized he had done it. LOL Anyway, Oscar Weekend 2010 was INCREDIBLY exciting and I CANNOT wait to do it all again next year!!!!! But for now, I am absolutely exhausted, so I am going to go park myself on the couch and spend the next few hours recuperating. 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: I stalked so many hotels and bars this Oscar Weekend, that there are far too many to name here. For a detailed list of places to go to see movie stars on Oscar Weekend – or any weekend, for that matter – check out this blog post that I wrote last year.