Stacey Dash – IAMNOTASTALKER

January 16, 2019January 14, 2019

Kabuki Japanese Restaurant from “Clueless”

OK so I’m totally buggin’! I just found out that Paramount Pictures is in talks to reboot Clueless! This may be way harsh, but all I have to say regarding the news is ‘Whatever!’ The 1995 classic is absolute perfection AS IS and should NOT be touched! Hearing about the project did remind me of several locales from the flick that I stalked long ago, but have yet to blog about, namely Kabuki Japanese Restaurant in Burbank, aka the former Crocodile Cafe, where Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone) lunched with her Beverly Hills besties Dionne (Stacey Dash) and Tai (Brittany Murphy). I had been on the lookout for the eatery for ages – pretty much since starting my blog back in 2007. It was not until 8 years later, on June 4th, 2015, that a reader named Jasmine finally solved the mystery when, in response to another reader asking about the restaurant in the comments section of my post on the Horowitz house from the movie, said, “It used to be Crocodile Cafe in Burbank on San Fernando and Orange Grove. But now it’s a Kabuki. I have no idea how I figured this out but I’m pretty sure that’s exactly where it was. The booth they sat at is right behind the hostess/cashier. I sound so stalkerish right now it’s ridiculous.” Jasmine’s comment was quite stalkerish, but in the best way possible! One look at images of the place online told me she was right. I could not have been more thrilled and ran out to stalk Kabuki just a few days later with my friend Kate who was in town visiting from Kentucky. Very shortly after that, author Jen Chaney released her fabulous book As If!: The Oral History of Clueless as told by Amy Heckerling and the Cast and Crew which confirmed Crocodile Cafe’s appearance in the film on page 126.

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The former Crocodile Cafe actually pops up twice in Clueless – first very briefly in the opening “So, OK, you’re probably going ‘Is this, like, a Noxzema commercial or what?’” montage.

It then later appears in the scene in which Cher and Dionne take Tai out for a “calorie fest” to cheer her up after she finds out that snob-and-a-half Elton (Jeremy Sisto) isn’t into her.

Upon walking into the restaurant, I was thrilled to see that despite the changeover from Crocodile Cafe to Kabuki, it was entirely recognizable from its big screen cameo. Unfortunately, someone happened to be sitting in the exact booth utilized during filming, so I couldn’t snap any photos of it, but as you can see in the image below as compared to the screen capture, the booths remain very much the same today as they appeared in Clueless. The cushioning has been swapped out and glass partitions have since been added, but other than that, they are untouched.

The front door and hostess area also largely look the same.

Crocodile Cafe’s bar, which was visible in both Clueless scenes, was apparently gutted when Kabuki took over.

The area where it used to be located is pictured below. Thankfully, the frosted glass blocks formerly situated behind the bar are still intact, as are the wood columns that frame them.

It is not hard to see why the restaurant was chosen for the movie. With its bright pink and green color scheme and 90s-modern vibe, the place fit in perfectly with the splashy, over-the-top visual aesthetic that made up Cher’s world. Interestingly, Crocodile Cafe was not producers’ first choice, though. Per As If!, “Originally the Clueless crew was hoping to shoot the restaurant sequences at California Pizza Kitchen. But once the CPK people saw the final script, and saw how much breadstick-penis talk goes on between Cher, Dionne and Tai, they said no. Says producer Adam Schroeder: ‘I think the whole idea of talking about boy parts in CPK, that made them uncomfortable.” The default location turned out to be ideal, though.

Of Crocodile Cafe’s unique décor, Los Angeles Times writer Max Jacobson had this to say in a 1997 article, “It’s a breezy place with an open kitchen tiled in a pattern that looks like a multicolored snake. The dining room–all brick walls, high ceiling and a gallery’s worth of modern art–is narrow and noisy.” I believe the open kitchen Jacobson mentions (or at least a portion of it), which was not shown in Clueless, serves as the restaurant’s sushi counter today.

The Burbank Crocodile Cafe outpost opened its doors in July 1994, so it was new when Clueless filmed on the premises. (Though I am unsure of the exact day the scenes were lensed, the movie was shot from November 21st, 1994 through February 7th, 1995.) The eatery was the fifth in the CC chain, which was founded in Pasadena in 1987 by restauranteur Gregg Smith as a sort of casual version of his upscale and highly popular bistro Parkway Grill. I was unable to dig up the year the eatery closed, but, per a newspaper ad I came across, the shuttering took place between May 2002 and July 2005, at which time Kabuki Japanese Restaurant was already in operation. Oh, how I wish I could have seen the Croc when it was still open in all of its bright green and pink glory!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Jasmine 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: Kabuki Japanese Restaurant, aka the former Crocodile Cafe from Clueless, is located at 201 North San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. The Downtown Christmas Shopping District from “The Voice of Christmas” episode of The Brady Bunch is located a little over a block away at 100 South San Fernando.

January 5, 2015January 2, 2015

Contempo Casuals from “Clueless”

Happy 2015, folks! Now that the holidays have come to a close, I will (hopefully) be back to my regularly scheduled blogging. So here goes. Stalking is obviously my favorite pastime, but shopping comes in at a close second. So when I get an opportunity to combine the two, I jump at it. A couple of weeks ago, the Grim Cheaper and I traveled to L.A. for a holiday party and decided to do some Christmas shopping the following morning before driving back to the desert. Because I wanted to further investigate the Contempo Casuals that appeared in fave movie Clueless, I insisted we head over to Westfield Fashion Square. For those who missed my August post about the Sherman Oaks mall and its appearance in the 1995 romcom, I’ll recap.

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For years now, misinformation has been rolling around the internet about which shopping center Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and friends shopped at in Clueless. As I came to find out during a recognizance shopping mission in August, though, more than one mall actually appeared in the flick. The establishing shot of the shopping center shown in the movie was of the Westside Pavilion in Rancho Park. But the interior scene in which some “Barneys” tried to throw Tai (Brittany Murphy) off a balcony was lensed about ten miles north of the Pavilion at Westfield Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks.

While everyone and their mother has stated online that the Contempo Casuals that appeared in Clueless was the one formerly located at the Beverly Center in Beverly Grove, during the writing of my August post I started to believe that the Fashion Square Contempo Casuals was the outpost that had most likely been featured in the flick. As I explained in the post, “Once I realized that Tai’s near-death experience had been filmed at Fashion Square, I got to thinking that the Contempo Casuals scenes were most likely shot there, as well. It did not make sense to me that producers would go to the trouble of shooting the C.C. scenes elsewhere, especially considering that they were both extremely brief. So I did some research and learned that there was indeed a Contempo Casuals located at Fashion Square in the mid-nineties, as you can see here and here. I scanned through the C.C. scenes again and just about fell off my chair when I spotted the number 22 posted on the store’s window. And while I could find no such numbers in any pictures of the Beverly Center via a Google image search, I did spot a number in the same style and color on the front of Victoria’s Secret in one of the photographs I had taken at Fashion Square a few years prior (pictured below). Then I came across this listing and just about died of excitement upon discovering that the company currently located in storefront 22 of the Westfield Fashion Square is none other than Wet Seal, the very same brand that took over Contempo Casuals in 1995! Based on all of that, I am 99.9% certain that the only mall interior that appeared in Clueless was Westfield Fashion Square. ” Since that post, I have discovered that the suite numbers of stores at the Beverly Center are three-digit (as you can see here), not two, which is further proof that the C.C. from Clueless was not located there.

So, while Christmas shopping with the GC, I set out to snap some pics of the Fashion Square Wet Seal and prove once and for all that my theory was correct.

I was a bit dismayed to discover upon my arrival that not only had the font and styling of the store’s numbers been changed since both the filming of Clueless in 1994 (the movie premiered in 1995, but was shot in 1994) and since my photograph of Victoria’s Secret was taken in 2012, but that Wet Seal’s actual suite number had been altered as well. It is now addressed #21, instead of #22. At first, I thought that Wet Seal might have moved storefronts at some point, but then I spoke with the incredibly nice people working at BCBG Max Azria (the company that currently occupies #22) and they explained that Fashion Square’s suite numbers do change on occasion. Apparently, sometimes when a store closes, its space will be subdivided into smaller spaces and the neighboring suite numbers need to be shifted accordingly. BCBG’s manager also informed me that Wet Seal had not moved storefronts since she started working at Fashion Square fifteen years ago. She was also fairly certain that prior to Wet Seal opening, the space had housed a Contempo Casuals. Eureka!

Contempo Casuals popped up twice in Clueless. It first appeared in the scene in which Cher attempted to gather her thoughts and regain her strength via a shopping trip. That scene gave us a good glimpse of C.C.’s interior. Though it has been remodeled since Wet Seal took over, as you can see below the basic set up of the store is the same today as it was in Clueless. Both Wet Seal and the store from Clueless are large (Wet Seal is one of Fashion Square’s larger storefronts, as I came to discover during my stalking mission), extremely long and narrow, and boast very high ceilings (unusually high compared to the other shops located in the mall).

In a later scene, Dionne (Stacey Dash) is shown standing outside of Contempo Casuals while talking to Cher on her cell phone. As you can see below, the split-glass-paneled frontage shown in the movie matches that of Wet Seal, though the panels seem to be spaced further apart today than they were in 1994.

The central positioning of the entrance doors that appeared onscreen match the current positioning of Wet Seal’s doors, as well. Thanks to all of these correlations, I can now say with absolute certainty that the Contempo Casuals scenes from Clueless were shot at Westfield Fashion Square, not at the Beverly Center.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Wet Seal, aka the former Contempo Casuals from Clueless, can be found in Suite 21 of Westfield Fashion Square, which is located at 14006 Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks. You can visit the mall’s official website here.

August 4, 2014July 10, 2015

The “Clueless” Guide to Occidental College

While it is well-known among location aficionados that Occidental College masked as Bronson Alcott High School in Clueless, an in-depth guide to the exact areas of the campus that appeared in the flick has never been published. So, with some help from Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and a reader named Rebecca who grew up in Eagle Rock and knows Oxy like the back of her hand, I set out to do just that.

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A map of the Occidental College campus is pictured below. I will be using the same numbering key provided on the map to identify the areas and buildings featured in Clueless. So without further ado, I present to you the Clueless guide to Occidental College (in order of appearance)!

1. Bronson Alcott High School Exterior – The south side of Occidental’s Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15) masqueraded as the front of Cher (Alicia Silverstone) and the gang’s Beverly Hills-area high school.

The building, which was designed by Myron Hunt, is shown repeatedly throughout Clueless and should also be recognizable to Beverly Hills, 90210 fans as the exterior of the Condor’s Nest at CU.

2. Walkway – The esplanade that Cher and her friends are often seen strolling along (and where the movie’s infamous “As if!” moment took place) is Oxy’s Central Quadrangle (#126).

The Quadrangle, which is situated directly south of the Johnson Student Center, served as the hangout of Bronson Alcott’s various cliques, including the TV station group, the Persian Mafia and the Crew.

The eastern portion of the Quad, in front of Occidental’s Johnson Hall/Alumni Auditorium (#2), is where Cher offered her father’s “sucky Italian roast” to Mr. Hall (Wallace Shawn) . . .

. . . and where he later shared it with Miss Geist (Twink Caplan).

3. Athletic Field – It is on Oxy’s Patterson Field (#101) that Cher convinces her P.E. teacher, Ms. Stoeger (Julie Brown – yes, that Julie Brown), to raise her grade from a C to an B.

The field has changed a bit since filming took place, but it still very recognizable.

4. Mr. Hall’s Pathway – The walkway leading to the south side of Occidental’s Booth Music and Speech Center (#14), which looks quite a bit different today, is where Cher observed Mr. Hall and came to the conclusion that he was in need of a “good, healthy boink fest.”

5. The Teachers’ Lounge – According to an Oxy employee that Owen contacted, the faculty lounge where Cher tried to decide which teacher to set Mr. Hall up with (and coveted a Snickers bar) was one of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15) dining rooms. Unfortunately, the interior of the student center was largely gutted and remodeled in 1998 and then again in 2013 and the vast majority of it looks completely different today. I am not sure if the dining room that appeared in Clueless was renovated or if it currently remains in its onscreen state. Here’s hoping!

6. The Main Office – This location was the saddest discovery of all. According to Rebecca, Bronson Alcott’s main office was the former Student Activities Office at the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15), which prior to the 1998 remodel was known as the Freeman Student Union. The space was gutted during the initial renovation and no longer exists. You can see photographs of what the interior of the structure currently looks like here.

7. Cafeteria Exterior – The eastern side of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15) served as the outside of the Bronson Alcott cafeteria.

That portion of the building looks a bit different today than it did in Clueless due to the fact that stairs and a wheelchair ramp have since been added to the exterior, I am guessing to comply with ADA regulations.

The cafeteria doors look the same for the most part . . .

. . . aside from said staircase and ramp addition.

Had to do it!

8. Parking Lot – Mr. Hall and Miss Geist shared their first kiss in the Admission and Visitor Parking (#43), in between the Admissions Office – Collins House (#19) and Newcomb Hall (#18). Miss Geist is parked in front of Newcomb Hall in the scene.

And Cher and Dionne are standing in the middle of the parking lot, with the Admission Office – Collins House visible behind them.

Again, had to do it!

9. Tennis Courts – Oxy’s McKinnon Family Tennis Center (#107) is where Dionne (Stacey Dash) refuses to participate in a P.E. lesson because her tennis instructor “would prefer if I didn’t expose myself to any training that might derail his teachings.”

The courts are also where Cher and Dionne first meet Tai (Brittany Murphy) and decide to befriend her despite the fact that their “stock” might “plummet.”

10. Cafeteria Interior – The exact location of the interior of the Bronson Alcott cafeteria, where Tai and Travis Birkenstock (Breckin Meyer) first locked eyes, is a spot that I am unsure of. Thanks to the carved columns, paned windows and brown doors visible in the background of the scene, I can say with certainty that it is (or was) somewhere on the Occidental campus. My guess is that it was once located inside of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15), but was dismantled during the 1998 remodel.

11. The Grassy Knoll – The spot where Travis and his fellow Loadies (who “no respectable girl actually dates”) hang out is along the western side of the Samuelson Campus Pavilion/Tiger Cooler (#16).

12. The Fountain Photo Shoot – Cher’s impromptu photo shoot with the gang took place in the courtyard of the Booth Music and Speech Center (#14).

Again, had to do it!

13. Josh’s Girlfriend’s Dorm – Occidental was not solely used to stand in for Bronson Alcott High School in Clueless – a campus building also masqueraded as the dorm where Josh’s (Paul Rudd) girlfriend, Heather (Susan Mohun), lived. The structure featured in that scene was Oxy’s Weingart Center for the Liberal Arts (#17).

In reality, the building is not a dorm, but instead houses an art gallery, art studio and classrooms.

14. Girls’ Locker Room – The locker room where Tai laments the fact that her feelings are not reciprocated by Elton (Jeremy Sisto) can be found inside of the Rush Gymnasium (#8). You can see a real life photograph of the locker room that was used in the movie here.

15. Art Museum – Oxy’s Arthur G. Coons Administrative Center (#1) masked as the art museum featured in the montage scene in which Cher decides that she wants to make over her soul. (The outfit Cher wore in that scene is one of my favorites from the entire movie.)

In real life, the building, which sits at the center of the Occidental campus, houses administrative offices.

It was the structure’s glass lobby that stood in for the museum in Clueless. In reality, there are no sculptures on display in that area.

16. Cher’s Pismo Beach Disaster Relief Booth – Cher and Dionne encouraged fellow students to sign up for the Pismo Beach Disaster Relief Team on the lawn located at the southeast corner of the Johnson Student Center and Freeman College Union (#15).

17. Pismo Beach Food Collection Drive – Last, but not least is another location I am unsure of. Toward the end of Clueless, Travis donated some unusual kitchenware to the Pismo Beach Food Collection Drive which took place in some sort of conference/meeting room. Thanks to its paned windows and the foliage and architecture visible in the background, I am certain that the room is (or, again, was) located on the Occidental campus. Unfortunately, I have been unable to pinpoint exactly where, though. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

And that’s all, folks! I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and Rebecca for helping me with this post. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Occidental College, aka Bronson Alcott High School from Clueless, is located at 1600 Campus Road in Eagle Rock. You can visit the school’s official website here.

March 24, 2010March 23, 2010

Dionne’s House From “Clueless”

One location that I have been searching for for what seems like forever is the huge castle-like abode where Cher’s (aka Alicia Silverstone’s) best friend Dionne (aka Stacey Dash) lived in one of my all time favorite comedies, 1995’s Clueless. Since I had been trying to track down the home for years and had come up virtually empty handed, I recently decided to call upon fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, and Owen – or, as Mike likes to call us collectively, “The Team” 😉 – for help. Well, I almost fell off my chair when Owen emailed me back less than ten minutes later with an address. Here I had been trying to track down this location for years and Owen managed to find it in a span of ten minutes???? Am I losing my mojo or something? As luck would have it, thanks to a simple Google search, Owen stumbled upon a website called “The Daily Truffle” which recently featured an entire post about Clueless locations in honor of the tragically short life of actress Brittany Murphy who played newcomer Tai in the flick. One of the addresses mentioned on the site? You guessed it, Dionne’s home! YAY! As it turns out, the author of “The Daily Truffle” lives just a few blocks away from the residence, which is how she knew of its location. Thank you, Daily Truffle!

Dionne’s house shows up in one very short scene at the very beginning of Clueless. And I am not kidding when I say the scene was short – it lasted a mere 18 seconds! But even though its appearance onscreen was brief, Dionne’s home was one of the most memorable locations of the entire movie and I was ABSOLUTELY DYING to stalk the place.

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Unlike Cher’s house, which is located in Encino of all places (egads!), Dionne’s house is located exactly where the movie purports it to be – right in the heart of Beverly Hills. Sadly though, as you can see in the above photographs, the residence looks much different today than it did in 1995 when Clueless was filmed. 🙁 As luck would have it, an extremely nice contractor happened to be working at the house when my dad and I showed up to stalk the place earlier today and he explained that the property was sold in late 2008 and that the new owners not only completely gutted the interior, but also added an exterior gate and massive amounts of foliage to the perimeter which completely block the home from view. SO SAD. The contractor also told me that part of Clueless was filmed inside of the residence. But, because no scenes from the movie actually took place in Dionne’s home, I am guessing that the property might been used to stand in for Cher’s house in some way. That is just pure speculation on my part, though, so don’t quote me on that. 😉

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Thankfully, because the home’s newly installed gate was standing wide open while we were there, I was able to snap a few close-up pictures of the front door area which was featured prominently in Clueless – well, as prominently as it could have been in an 18 second scene. 😉

If you look at Dionne’s house via Google Street View, it appears pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen in Clueless. Oh, how I wish I had stalked the place two years ago before the remodel began! Ugh! In real life, Dionne’s house, which was built in 1930, boasts 7 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, and a whopping 9,850 square feet!

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Big THANK YOU to both Owen and The Daily Truffle for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Dionne’s house from Clueless is located at 705 North Sierra Drive in Beverly Hills.