Tag: television locations

“The Mary Tyler Moore Show” House

Well, after three days and a whopping (insert sarcasm here) three tests (including a blood test, an ultra-sound, and a CAT scan, each of which my dad has undergone numerous times with his doctors at home over the past two years), we have been discharged from the Mayo Clinic sans diagnosis. The doctor’s sole recommendation was to see a pain specialist back in L.A. UGH! Would Dr. House have given up so easily? I don’t think so! Oh, if only the real world was like T.V.! Anyway, we are heading back to Minneapolis tomorrow (where I will hopefully get to do a bit more stalking) and then we are flying to Los Angeles on Saturday morning. As I said yesterday, though, our trip wasn’t a total waste – we had a blast in Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Stillwater. So, now, on with the stalking! Another Minneapolis filming location that fellow stalker Owen clued me onto was the apartment house where Mary Richards lived during the first five seasons of the iconic television series The Mary Tyler Moore Show. And, even though I have yet to watch even one episode of the show, as I mentioned yesterday, I just had to stalk the place because of its huge significance in television history. On The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary supposedly lived in Unit D of a large apartment house located at 119 North Weatherly Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And, while the show was filmed primarily in the Hollywood area, all of the exteriors were shot on location in the Great Lake State. The series was created by producers James L. Brooks and Allan Burns in 1970 and the two included a highly-detailed description of their leading lady’s studio apartment in the original treatment of the pilot script. As you can see on fave website Hooked on Houses, where a copy of that script is posted, Mary’s apartment was originally described as “A room. Actually an entire apartment, but a single large room. There are some – mostly of the working-girl variety – who would consider this place a “great find”: ten-foot ceilings, pegged wood floors, a wood-burning fireplace, and, most important, a fantastic ceiling-height corner window.” Location scouts found that window – and the incredibly picturesque house to which it belonged – near the Lake of the Isles on Kenwood Parkway in Minneapolis. And, although actress Mary Tyler Moore never actually set foot inside of the residence, production designers did, whereupon they painstakingly measured and photographed the now-famous third-floor window so that it could be replicated on a soundstage at CBS Studios. And, thus, one of the most well-known sets in television history was born.

As the television series grew in popularity, so did Mary’s Queen Anne-style residence. The “Mary Tyler Moore house”, as it soon came to be called, became an almost immediate tourist attraction, overwhelming and angering the then-owner. According to journalist Neal Karlen’s January 12, 1995 New York Times article about the property, actress Mary Tyler Moore stated that the woman who owned the place during the time the show was being filmed, “was overwhelmed by people showing up and asking if Mary was around.” Oh, to have such a problem! 😉 To prohibit location managers from shooting additional exterior footage of her home, the owner hung huge signs reading “Impeach Nixon” all over the property in 1973. It was at that point that producers decided to move Mary Richards to a new dwelling – a one-bedroom apartment in the Riverside Towers complex in Downtown Minneapolis. But that didn’t stop Mary’s former house from being a major tourist destination. As of 1995, it was still drawing as many as THIRTY tour buses A DAY, even though The Mary Tyler Moore Show had been off the air for close to two decades! But as Mary Tyler Moore herself said, “The outside of the house was so warm, cozy and soothing. As the nest of all these characters who invaded people’s hearts, the house was going to receive similar affection.” And it still does today, over thirty years later.

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The house, which was built in 1878 and was designed by architect Edward Stebbins, originally boasted 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and 6,461 square feet of living space. The dwelling was converted into an apartment home, much like it was portrayed to be on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, for a short time, but was transformed back into a single-family residence sometime before the year 1988, at which time the property was purchased by Evan Maurer, the then-director of the Minneapolis Art Institute. Evan and his wife, Naomi, at first regretted the purchase of the home due to the amount of attention it attracted, but in time they came to understand the appeal. Years later Evan said, “In some ways, it’s like we’re caretakers living inside a monument. Mary is a myth, but myths have great power. They answer questions, and they set up value systems. There’s something in the Mary ethos that’s very important to very many people. She’s the greatest mythic hero from this region since Paul Bunyan.” Evan also called the house “Minnesota’s version of Graceland”. Love it!

In 2005, a high school English teacher named Don Gerlach purchased the property from the Maurers for $1.1 million and gave the entire pad an extensive makeover and a significant add-on with the hopes that he would be able to flip it for a profit in a little over a year’s time. Which is exactly what he did. In August of 2007, Don sold the home, which currently boasts 8 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, a crafts room, a billiards room, an exercise room, nanny’s quarters, and a whopping 9,161 square feet of living space, for $2.8 million. During the renovation, the size of the kitchen was quadrupled and it now features four ovens, two refrigerators, two dishwashers, and a five-foot wide stovetop! Not kidding! Honestly, who needs a kitchen with TWO refrigerators and FOUR ovens??? My parents have two ovens at their house and I must say that they do come in handy on Thanksgiving, but FOUR ovens? Really? The new owners must do a heck of a lot of entertaining! 😉 You can watch a news report about the house which was filmed in 2006 here and you can see some great interior pics of the current interior on fave website Hooked on Houses here.

On The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary Richards’ apartment was located behind the third-story Palladian windows pictured above. At the time the show was filmed, the area behind that window was, in actuality, just an unfinished attic. Today, it houses a media room, which the owners call the “Mary Tyler Moore Suite”. Love it!

The interior of Mary’s studio, which is pictured above, only ever existed, of course, on a soundstage in Hollywood.

The Kenwood neighborhood, where The Mary Tyler Moore house is located, is an absolutely beautiful area comprised of huge, picturesque houses with large, rolling front lawns . . .

. . . all situated around the gorgeous, tree-lined Lake of the Isles which boasts beautiful views of Downtown Minneapolis. I would LOVE to live there!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for telling me about this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mary Richard’s apartment house from The Mary Tyler Moore Show is located at 2104 Kenwood Parkway, in the Kenwood area of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

May 7, 2010
On the Set of “NCIS: Los Angeles”

This past Thursday afternoon, my fiancé called me up to let me know that an episode of NCIS: Los Angeles was being filmed at the YWCA building in Pasadena, just a few blocks away from his office. So, I immediately grabbed my jacket and my camera and headed over to the set with one goal in mind – to get a photograph with actor Chris O’Donnell, who had been the love of my life back in my high school days. I showed up to the corner of North Garfield Avenue and East Union Street to find that NCIS had commandeered an entire city block of Old Town Pasadena for the filming! But, unfortunately, all of the action was taking place inside of the YWCA building, so aside from a slew of production equipment and a myriad of about thirty production trucks, there wasn’t a whole lot to see. And, sadly enough, the security guard on duty – who absolutely could NOT have been nicer – told me that I had missed both LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell by a mere twenty minutes. Apparently, the two actors had walked out of their makeup trailer shortly beforehand and, on their way to the set, had stopped to pose for photographs with a small group of fans who had showed up to watch the filming. UGH! Talk about bad timing! The security guard told me that I was welcome to hang around, though, and that the actors would most likely be back outside at some point during the next few hours. So, hang around, I did.

And, as luck would have it, I spotted Chris O’Donnell walking alone from the set to his trailer just a few minutes later. But because he had no entourage with him and because he was a good twenty feet away from me, I didn’t realize it was him until it was much too late. I was absolutely shocked – and pleasantly surprised – to have spotted Chris walking alone, as stars almost always have some sort of an entourage – or “handlers” as they are called in “the biz” – who accompany them while on set. Even more shocking was the fact that Chris had walked to his trailer. It is fairly commonplace for stars to be driven back and forth to their Star Waggons while working on a production. Granted, Chris’ trailer was located only about a half a block away from the YWCA building, but I’ve seen stars be driven far less distances while on set. Heck, I’ve even seen one celeb being driven from one side of a street to the other! Not kidding! Chris seemed super down-to-earth and friendly and made it a point to wave and say hello to the security guard who was on duty, which I also thought was incredibly cool! I have so much respect for stars who acknowledge and are friendly to the crew members who work behind the scenes of their productions. I once read that Drew Barrymore makes it a point to learn the name of each and every crew member – right down to the negative cutter – who works on her movies, which I thought was just about the coolest and most non-divaish thing I had ever heard! So love it! Anyway, once I spotted Chris, I parked myself outside of his trailer and immediately called up the Grim Cheaper and told him to get over to the set as soon as possible so that he could take a picture of the two of us. The GC was NOT happy about this development, but headed over to the YWCA building anyway. Ah, the things we do for love. 🙂 Thankfully, it was only about an hour before Chris exited his trailer and walked to the set – again sans entourage. I called out to him and asked if he would mind taking a picture with me, and the guy truly could NOT have been nicer! He was so incredibly friendly, down-to-earth, and low-key that he almost didn’t even seem like a celebrity. He happily posed for the above photograph (during which the wind was blowing like mad, which is why my hair ended up in my face! UGH!) and shook my hand and introduced himself. I told him that I had been a fan since 1992 when Scent of a Woman first premiered, and he thanked me for the longtime support and then continued on to the set. Sigh! The few NCIS: Los Angeles crew members that I spoke with were also incredibly friendly and nice and the vibe on set reminded me distinctly of that of CSI: Miami. Love it! 🙂 After meeting Chris, the GC was ready to head home, so I never did get to see LL Cool J. But getting a photo with Chris O’Donnell more than made up for that fact. 🙂

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The Young Women’s Christian Association building, where filming took place, was originally constructed in 1921 by famed Los Angeles-area architect Julia Morgan, who is best known for designing the world-famous Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The land on which the YWCA now sits was donated to the Association by prominent Pasadenean David Gamble, of Proctor and Gamble fame. The building, which cost $350,000 to build and was originally used by the Association as a social venue and a dormitory of sorts for young women, is currently in a state of disrepair and has sat abandoned and boarded up for the past two decades. The City of Pasadena is currently involved in an eminent domain dispute with its owner and is trying to purchase the historic building and restore it to its former glory. The owner, however, is refusing to sell. You can read more about the history of the YWCA building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, here and you can see some great interior photographs of the place here. Other productions filmed on the premises include the movie Idle Hands and an episode of Heroes.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: NCIS: Los Angeles was filmed at the YWCA building, which is located at 78 North Marengo Avenue in Pasadena.

May 4, 2010
Charlie’s Apartment Building from “Monster-in-Law”

The third and final Monster-in-Law locale that I set out to find this past weekend was the supposed Venice Beach area apartment building where Charlie Cantilini (aka Jennifer Lopez) lived in the flick. Fellow stalker Nick had already determined that the Spanish-style building was located somewhere in Hollywood, so from there I set out on a Google search using the terms “Mediterranean”, “apartments”, and “Hollywood”. And I have to say that I got REALLY lucky on this one, because the first thing that popped up was this link to a complex named “Mediterranean Apartments” on North Sycamore Avenue. After looking at an aerial view of the building, I quickly determined that it was not, in fact, the Monster-in-Law locale that I had been searching for, but I did notice another apartment complex just a few doors down that looked an awful lot like Charlie’s. And sure enough, it was! The stalking gods were definitely smiling on me during this search, because, honestly, what are the odds of tracking the building down so easily??? And, let me tell you, I almost fell over when I realized that not only had I already stalked Charlie’s apartment a few years prior, but I had even blogged about it! More on that later, though.

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In real life, Charlie’s apartment building is known as the El Cadiz and it is located in the heart of Hollywood, a good fifteen miles away from Venice Beach, it’s purported location in Monster-in-Law.   The building was constructed during the height of the Great Depression in 1936 by architect Milton J. Black and was named after the province of El Cadiz in the south of Spain. According to the book Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles: A Typological Analysis, the complex has the distinction of being the very last Spanish Revival-style courtyard apartment building to be constructed in L.A. In 2005, the Church of Scientology purchased the El Cadiz, and thanks to the community’s fear that the place would subsequently be torn down, just a few months later the City of Los Angeles declared it a Cultural Historic Monument, preserving its beauty for future generations to appreciate. The El Cadiz is an absolutely gorgeous dwelling that boasts numerous Andalusian decorative elements including a red-tiled roof, covered balconies scattered throughout, large water fountains, arched doorways and windows, and a multitude of courtyards. Sadly, though, none of those elements is visible from the street and what is visible is fairly non-descript, as you can see above.



Even more unfortunate is that fact that not even Google maps can give us a very good view of the building. 🙁   But you can read a more in-depth history of the property and see a picture of its interior courtyard here.

Charlie’s apartment building is only featured at the very beginning of Monster-in-Law, in the scenes which take place before she moves in with new-fiancé Kevin Fields (aka Michael Vartan).

Because of the way some scenes were filmed and because, according to the movie’s production notes, all of the apartments in the El Cadiz building were vacant and undergoing extensive renovations at the time of the filming, I am fairly certain that the real life interior of one of the units was used in the movie, too.

Coincidentally, the El Cadiz was also featured each week during the first two seasons of the immensely popular television series Alias, where it stood in for Sydney Bristow’s apartment.   (An even further coincidence is that both productions starred actor Michael Vartan!) As I mentioned above, I actually stalked the place – and blogged about it! – back in February of ‘08, but because only the exterior of the complex was featured in Alias, while only the interior courtyard was featured in Monster-in-Law, I didn’t recognize that they were actually the same place.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: El Cadiz, aka Charlie’s apartment building from Monster-in-Law and Sydney Bristow’s apartment building from Alias, is located at 1721-1731 North Sycamore Avenue in Hollywood.

April 29, 2010
Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar from the “Happy Hour” episode of “The Office”

As I mentioned yesterday, one location that fellow stalker Lavonna was absolutely dying to stalk while she was in town last week was Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar, the arcade/restaurant which appeared in the Season 6 episode of The Office entitled “Happy Hour”. So, before her arrival, I called upon fellow stalker Owen for some help in tracking the place down, but, unfortunately, the two of us came up completely empty-handed. My first instinct was that filming had taken place at one of the local branches of the popular Dave & Buster’s restaurant chain, but after looking at photographs of all of the D&B’s located in the L.A. area and comparing them to the screen captures of The Office that Lavonna had sent me, I couldn’t find a match. So, after a few hours of searching, Owen and I came to the unfortunate conclusion that Sid & Dexter’s was most likely not a real location, but a set that had been built solely for the filming of the “Happy Hour” episode. Lavonna was sorely disappointed over this discovery, as was I, because I knew how badly she wanted to stalk the place. But then, this past Friday, while stalking Scranton Business Park, I had an inspired idea. Because the security guard manning the front gate was so incredibly nice, I decided to ask her whether she knew where the “Happy Hour” episode had been filmed. And, lo and behold, she did! She told us that filming had taken place at a restaurant/arcade next to a bowling alley somewhere on Universal CityWalk. And, let me tell you, I almost fell over when I heard that. Usually when I meet crew members and ask them about locations, they have no recollection whatsoever about where a filming took place, even if they were actually on the set that particular day! So, for the security guard to know where the “Happy Hour” episode was shot, when she had never actually been there was absolutely incredible to me! Yay! So, Lavonna, her daughter, Melissa, her friend, Debbie, and I immediately headed over to Universal CityWalk to try to track down Sid & Dexter’s!

My initial plan of attack was to visit each and every restaurant located on Universal CityWalk until we found the right one. Thankfully, though, that wasn’t necessary. Fairly immediately upon entering the outdoor shopping center, Lavonna spotted a sign for the chain restaurant Jillian’s and thought it might be the right spot. And, sure enough, it was! In actuality, Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar is a restaurant/arcade/bowling alley/billiards bar named Jillian’s. Sadly, though, it has been completely remodeled since its onscreen appearance and no longer looks anything like it did when filming took place. According to one of the super nice bartenders we spoke with, The Office filmed at Jillian’s for an entire week, just after the place had closed its doors to the public to begin the remodel process. As soon as filming wrapped, the ENTIRE place was completely gutted and the rebuilding began.   The single, solitary decor item that remains from the old design is the above pictured cartoon which is now hanging on a wall in the billiards room. Such a bummer!

The Jillian’s staff could NOT have been nicer, though, and took us on our own personal tour of the restaurant to show us where filming took place and to explain what the former layout used to look like. As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, the place is COMPLETELY unrecognizable from its Office appearance. 🙁

Thankfully, though, the ticket machines still look identical to how they appeared on the show, so, at least there’s that. 🙂

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Lavonna had desperately wanted to see the zebra-print wall which appeared in the background throughout most of the “Happy Hour” episode. Sadly, though, it had been thrown out during the remodel and that area was then transformed into the ticket redemption counter (pictured above).

And while Jillian’s still makes use of the actual pool tables which appeared in The Office, they have since been moved to a different part of the restaurant.

Lavonna also wanted to see the Whac-A-Mole arcade game that Dwight (aka Rainn Wilson) and Isabel (aka Kelen Coleman) played on the show, but the bartender informed us that that particular game was brought in by producers solely for the filming. The dance machine that Andy (aka Ed Helms), Kelly (aka Ellie Kemper), Ryan (aka B.J. Novak), and the other Kelly (aka Mindy Kaling) played on, however, is a real game that can still be found at Jillian’s.

So, of course, Melissa and I just had to pose on it. 🙂

The bartender ended up asking Jillian’s two general managers to come out so that we could ask them all sorts of silly questions about the filming of The Office, and, let me tell you, they could NOT have been nicer. They talked to us for a good twenty minutes and when they heard how upset Lavonna was over not being able to see that zebra-print wall, they ended up giving her the above “Sid & Dexter’s” sign which appeared in the “Happy Hour” episode! How incredibly cool is that?? I mean, talk about the ultimate Office keepsake!

The managers also showed us a bowling pin that the entire Office cast had signed during the filming. That’s Melissa posing with it in the above picture. So darn cool!



They also informed us that Justin Bieber had recently filmed his “Baby” video in the bowling alley located on Jillian’s second level. So, of course, we had to go stalk that, too.

I am very happy to report that the bowling alley portion of the restaurant was not altered during the recent remodel and still looks EXACTLY the same as it did in the video. Yay!

You can watch Justin’s “Baby” video by clicking above. I so love the line, “She had me going crazy, Oh I was starstruck, She woke me up daily, Don’t need no Starbucks!” LOL Although, I don’t think there’s a guy in existence who could make it so that I didn’t need Starbucks in the morning. 😉

While we were stalking Jillian’s bowling alley, we ran into another SUPER nice bartender named Rashid, who actually made a brief appearance in the background of the “Happy Hour” episode of The Office! He was supposed to have a speaking role in the episode and producers even went so far as to make him shave his head for the part, but, sadly, as so often happens in Hollywood, his scene wound up on the cutting room floor. 🙁 We are hoping it will be featured in the “Deleted Scenes” section of The Office’s yet-to-be-released Season 6 DVD set, though.

You can catch a glimpse of Rashid in the background behind the Sid & Dexter’s manager in the above pictured screenshot. So cool!

We had a blast hanging out at Jillian’s and I honestly cannot recommend stalking the place enough, even though it no longer bears any sort of resemblance to Sid & Dexter’s. The staff truly could NOT have been nicer, the prices were very reasonable, the food was excellent, and the ambiance was lively and fun! Jillian’s is definitely a place I will be returning to again and again!

On a Justin Bieber side note – For those who have yet to see his first appearance on Chelsea Lately which aired back in December, you really must tune in! The kid is absolutely adorable and HILARIOUS and truly holds his own against Chelsea, which is a pretty amazing feat for a 15-year old!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Jillian’s, aka Sid & Dexter’s Sports Bar from the “Happy Hour” episode of The Office, can be found at 1000 Universal Studios Boulevard, on Universal CityWalk, in Universal City. The bowling alley where Justin Bieber filmed his “Baby” video can be found on the restaurant’s second level. You can visit the Jillian’s website here.

April 23, 2010
Wayne Manor From the “Batman” Television Series

Just up the street from the Just Married mansion which I blogged about yesterday is the residence which stood in for Wayne Manor, aka Batman’s abode, in the 1966 television series and movie of the same name. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the Batman mansion and the Just Married mansion are quite often mistaken for each other due to a myriad of reasons. So, to set the record straight – and since we already were in the area a couple of weeks ago doing some Just Married stalking- I decided to drag my fiancé a few hundreds yards up the road to also stalk Bruce Wayne’s pad. Sadly, though, not very much of it is visible from the street.

According to Zillow, the residence, which was built in 1928, boasts ten bedrooms, six bathrooms, a whopping 16,599 square feet of living space, and sits on over five acres of land! And if you look at the above photographs, it is very easy to see why the property is often confused with the Just Married mansion that burned down in October of 2005. Not only are both houses gargantuan, set far back from the road, and Tudor/Gothic Revival in style, but both were constructed almost entirely out of brick by the very same architect, Paul Revere Williams, and bear a striking resemblance to each other. Further adding to the confusion between the properties is the fact that they are located within blocks of each other on the very same street, San Rafael Avenue, in Pasadena and have both been featured in countless productions over the years.



Because the location rumors about the two mansions have been running rampant for so very long, this weekend I decided to try to get my hands on as many of the productions filmed on the premises as I could to try to set the record straight once and for all. And I didn’t do too bad – the only movies I wasn’t able to track down were Topper, Three Men and a Little Lady, Executive Action, The Gumball Rally, The Bells of St. Mary’s, Sweet Bird of Youth, and True Confessions. If anyone has those movies or has seen them in the past, can you let me know which, if either, of the San Rafael mansions was featured in them?

As I mentioned above, the mansion’s most famous appearance was as Wayne Manor in the 1966 television series Batman and the subsequent movie of the same name that was made that very same year. But its resume hardly ends there.

The residence was also used as both the St. Audrey’s Home for Boys where Grace (aka Emma Thompson) was taken in by a nun . . .

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





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

As you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, though, the exterior gate which appears in that movie is not the home’s real life gate.

In 1999’s Bowfinger, the mansion was used as the residence of action star Kit Ramsey (aka Eddie Murphy).

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And in that flick the home’s real life gate does actually appear and was the site of one of the movie’s funniest scenes.

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

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



According to some reports that I found online, the mansion was also featured in 1986’s Stand By Me, which seemed a bit odd being that I had always heard that Stand By Me was filmed almost in its entirety in the state of Oregon. After re-watching the flick earlier today, though, I believe that the mansion did appear once at the very end of the movie as the residence of “The Writer” (aka Richard Dreyfuss). As you can see in the above screen captures, the front driveway area does match that of the Batman mansion. Why would they come all the way to Pasadena to film this one brief scene, though, when the rest of the movie was filmed hundreds of miles away in Oregon, you ask? Well, according to IMDB’s Stand By Me trivia page, an actor named David Dukes was originally cast in the role of “The Writer”. After his scenes were shot, though, and filming had wrapped, they re-cast the role with actor Richard Dreyfuss and re-shot all of his character’s scenes. So, since the Richard Dreyfuss scenes were filmed at a later date – I am guessing after principal photography in Oregon had already wrapped – it makes sense that they would have been shot somewhere in the L.A. area, closer to where the film was being edited.



And if you’ll notice in the above screen captures, which were taken from the movie Dead Again, the mansion’s front window and the view from it does sort of match that which appeared in Stand By Me, which makes me think that the property was actually used in the movie, although I don’t have any concrete proof to back that up.

Fellow stalker Ivan just sent me the above screen captures from the television series Land of Giants, in which Wayne Manor stood in for the residence belonging to Uncle Trojar in the episode entitled “Collector’s Item”. And, yes, the mansion was blown up t the end of that episode. Thank you, Ivan! 🙂

According to fave website OnLocationVacations, the mansion was also the site of some filming from the upcoming Dinner For Schmucks movie starring Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and Zach Galifianikis.   Besides being a filming location, the mansion was also the Pasadena Showcase House of Design in 1997. So, I hope that at least partially puts to rest some of the locations rumors about the two landmark San Rafael Avenue mansions. If I come across any further information, I will post it here! And please let me know, dear readers, if you come across any information yourselves!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Wayne Manor from the Batman television series is located at 380 South San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena. Unfortunately, the residence is not very visible from the street. To see the best views of the home, drive just a bit north of where the main gates are located.

April 6, 2010
The “Just Married” Mansion

Since we are currently knee-deep in the middle of wedding planning, a few weeks ago my fiancé and I decided to sit down and finally watch the 2003 movie Just Married for the very first time. And I have to say that I absolutely LOVED it! While watching it, though, I became obsessed with finding the gargantuan, red brick, Tudor-style mansion where Sarah (aka Brittany Murphy) and her family lived in the flick, which as luck would have it, wasn’t too hard to track down.   Thanks to IMDB’s Just Married filming locations page, I discovered that the mansion was located at 160 South San Rafael Avenue right here in Pasadena. So, I immediately dragged my fiancé right over there the following morning. We had a sad surprise awaiting us when we arrived at the front gates, though – the mansion was no longer there. It had completely burned to the ground in a massive fire back in October of 2005. SO SAD.

All that currently remains of the once massive mansion are its front gate, guard house, and red brick retaining wall. I can’t tell you how depressing this was to discover, being that the now-fallen house was something of a historic landmark in Pasadena. The residence which once stood on the property was originally built in 1929 for British thoroughbred horse breeder Jack Pease Atkin for $500,000. The home was designed by famed celebrity architect Paul Revere Williams, who is best known for being the very first African American member of the American Institute of Architects and for designing the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Jet-Age Theme Building, aka Encounter Restaurant, at LAX. He also built Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli’s house, but I digress. The three-story mansion boasted 21 rooms, three stories, a 1,200 square foot gate house, over 12,000 square feet of living space, and sat on a lot measuring 3.3 acres. The house’s love affair with the movies began early on, in the 1930s, when Atkins decided to rent his property out to film crews in order to raise money to fund soup kitchens for the downtrodden in Depression-era L.A. And the filming never stopped. In 2004, the home was purchased by Michael Armand Hammer, the grandson of oil tycoon Armand Hammer, who also founded the famed Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture in Westwood. Hammer immediately set about completely restoring the entire property. Sadly, though, a massive fire broke out at approximately 9:20 p.m. on the night of October 5, 2005, one month before he was set to move in. Over 80 firefighters were called in from neighboring cities to fight the blaze and it took them over three hours to even contain it.   Flames were still burning the following morning and ended up causing over $20 million worth of damage and completely gutting the property. According to some neighbors that I spoke with while stalking the place, rumor has it that the fire was started due to a dispute between contractors. What a complete and total shame! No charges were ever filed in the case and the 3.3 acre vacant lot is currently for sale for a whopping $10 million. You can see some great aerial views of the mansion before and after it was burned on Zillow.

Hollywood rumors about the mansion have been circling around Pasadena pretty much since the time the house was built, the two most prevalent of which being that it was owned at one time by former Beatle Paul McCartney and that it was used as Bruce Wayne’s manor in the 1960s television series Batman. Both of those rumors are completely false. And while I am not sure how the Paul McCartney story came to be, the Batman rumor is easy enough to figure out. The real Wayne Manor is located just a few houses up the road at 380 S. San Rafael Avenue and looks extremely similar in appearance to the Just Married mansion. Batman and Paul McCartney aside, though, the Atkin’s house has a Hollywood resume any actor would envy.



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In Just Married, the mansion, which was supposedly located in Beverly Hills, belonged to Sarah’s extremely wealthy father, who co-owned both the Dodgers and the Lakers in the flick. For whatever reason, though, the exterior of the house was never shown in its entirety, but the front gate area did appear quite a bit.

As did the front door/front porch . . .

. . . and the intercom outside of the main gate, which was used as a running joke throughout the movie. And, even though it wasn’t the same exact intercom which appeared in Just Married, I just had to pose for a pic with it. 😉

Thankfully, the area where Sam (aka Ashton Kutcher) played flag football with Sarah’s family is still intact and is visible through the front gate.



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

The residence was also featured in the 1985 movie Clue, but as you can see in the above screen capture, some movie magic was definitely employed in the production.



According to some reports that I read online, while the real life driveway, retaining wall, front porch and bottom half of the mansion’s exterior were used in Clue . . .

. . . producers had a matte painting added to the top portion of the house to make it appear larger and more sinister than it actually was.

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



In 2003’s Hollywood Homicide, it belonged to Jerry Duran (aka Martin Landau) who gave part time real estate agent Sergeant Joe Gavilan (aka Harrison Ford) 72 hours to sell it.

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

According to several books, the mansion also stood in for the home of Rocky Balboa in Rocky V, but as you can see in the above screen captures, while the two properties resemble each other, they are not in fact the same. There are also reports which state that the mansion was featured in the 1979 Peter Sellers’ movie Being There, but I just re-watched that film last night and did not see it anywhere. I am guessing that it was either not in fact used in the movie or that it was used solely for interior shots.

The mansion also supposedly appeared in The Bells of St. Mary’s, Sweet Bird of Youth, Three Men and a Little Lady, True Confessions, an episode of Murder, She Wrote, and in both the movie Topper and the subsequent television series of the same name, but because I don’t own any of those productions I have not been able to verify that information.

UPDATE – Fellow blogger Petrea from the Pasadena Daily Photo website just sent me this amazing photograph that a friend of hers named Dave Thompson took of the Just Married mansion shortly after it was destroyed in the 2005 fire. Thanks, Petrea!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Just Married mansion was formerly located at 160 South San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena. Sadly, the area is currently just a vacant lot.

April 5, 2010
On The Set of “CSI: Miami”

This past Friday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took the day off from work so that the two of us could do a little stalking. For whatever reason, though, for the first time ever we didn’t come up with any sort of plan or itinerary beforehand of where we were going to go or what we going to stalk. And it’s a good thing we didn’t, either, because fate stepped in and the two of us wound up stumbling upon the cast and crew of CSI: Miami filming on location in Altadena. YAY! Earlier that morning, Mike and I had stopped by my parents’ house to ask my dad to accompany us to Altadena Drive so that he could take a few pictures of us in front of Casa Walsh from Beverly Hills, 90210. I am in the process of creating a slideshow for my wedding in August and because Mike is one of my groomsmen :), I wanted to get a picture of the two of us together in front of our very favorite stalking location. Anyway, while driving to the Walsh residence we passed by a very large production crew and, of course, just had to pull over to find out what was being filmed.    Amazingly enough, it turned out to be my dad’s very favorite show, CSI: Miami. I should explain here that I, too, love me some CSI: Miami. Like LOVE it, never miss an episode, was screaming in delight when Calleigh and Eric finally got together last season. But I think it’s safe to say that my love for the show greatly pales in comparison to my dad’s. As I mentioned the last time we stumbled upon the filming of the show back in January of ‘09, my father is absolutely, one hundred percent obsessed with the series – it is his favorite show of all time.   CSI: Miami is his Beverly Hills, 90210. So, it goes without saying that he was ABSOLUTELY THRILLED when we stumbled upon it being filmed yet again. Anyway, as Mike, my dad, and I made our way to the set we passed by a security guard and asked him if it would be OK if we watched the filming. He not only told us to make ourselves at home (YAY!), but also pointed out the fact that Jonathan Togo, who plays Ryan Wolfe on the series, was standing about two feet in front of us. So, we immediately walked up to him and asked if he’d be willing to snap a picture. Well, let me tell you, Jonathan was SO INCREDIBLY NICE and not only posed for pics, but marched us right over to the set, introduced us to everyone, and gave us our own personal tour of the place!!!!!   He literally could NOT have been more sweet, more upbeat, more friendly, or more charming and was EASILY one of the NICEST celebrities I have ever had the pleasure of meeting!   I so heart Jonathan Togo! 😉    He even came over to check up on us several times while we were on the set to make sure we were having a good time. At one point I mentioned to him how I had chosen my wedding photographer based on the fact that an episode of CSI: Miami had been filmed in his studio (yes, Rob Greer, the photographer whose studio was featured in the “Smoke Gets In Your CSIs” episode of CSI: Miami is photographing our wedding!) and Jonathan laughed and said, “WOW, you guys really are fans!” 😉

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The scene that was being filmed on Friday centered around the investigation of a fire at a “Miami” area home. While we were watching the filming, I happened to comment on how realistic the fire damage was. Well, one of the crew members started laughing and told me that movie magic wasn’t responsible for the burn marks, but that the house had actually been involved in a real life fire last April! I thought he was pulling my leg at first, but as it turns out there really was a fire at the residence just about ten months ago. You can see photographs of it on fave website Altadenablog here. Apparently, the CSI: Miami location manager was in Altadena scouting homes to be used in the episode, when he spotted the charred remains of above pictured house and realized it would be perfect for the show! I mean, honestly, what are the odds of that?

The makeup in the episode was also incredibly realistic. Pictured above is one of the guest stars, whose hands were supposed to have been burned in the fire. Even close up his injuries looked incredibly real! It was unbelievable!

While we were watching the filming, my dad happened to spot actor John Beasley who played Coach Warren in one of his all time favorite movies, 1993’s Rudy. I mean, honestly, could the day have gotten any better for my dad?? John, who was guest starring in the episode being filmed, also could NOT have been nicer and happily posed for photographs with all of us. 🙂

Also on hand filming on Friday was Emily Procter, who plays Calleigh Duquesne on the show, but we unfortunately did not get a photograph with her, and actress Robin Bartlett, who played Debbie Buchman on Mad About You.

Unfortunately, David Caruso was not on the set on Friday, but one of the crew members mentioned that he would be there the following Monday and that we were welcome to come back if we wanted to. IF we wanted to???? Duh! Of course we did! So, bright and early Monday morning, I headed up to Altadena once again to do a bit more CSI: Miami stalking. 🙂

On the set on Monday was Eddie Cibrian, who is SUPER cute in person! Those dimples! Sigh!

And Eve LaRue, who remembered us from our last set visit and who, just like last time, was as sweet as could be. 🙂

And, of course, the man himself, David Caruso! My dad had actually had a bad night this past Sunday – as I’ve mentioned before, he suffers from pancreatitis – and when I went to pick him up on Monday morning to go to the set, he was still not feeling well. So, I had to venture over to the filming by myself. Before I left, though, my dad asked me to bring the photograph we took last January with Mr. Caruso to the set. The now-framed photograph is a prized possession of my dad’s and it inhabits prime real estate on his desk at home and he was hoping that Mr. Caruso would sign it for him.   And I am happy to report that, much like what happened back in January, when I got to the set on Monday, David Caruso immediately walked up to me to introduce himself and shake my hand, which is such a rare occasion on a film set. In most instances, fans have to seek the stars out during breaks from filming, but on CSI: Miami, the opposite is true – the stars often walk up to the fans to introduce themselves and say hi. It is AMAZING! Anyway, I explained to DC that we had met him about a year ago and that my dad is a HUGE fan of his and asked if he’d be willing to sign the photo.

Mr. Caruso not only happily obliged, but also gave me some autographed photographs of himself, a Horatio bobble head, and the above pictured Lance Armstrong-style “Horatio” bracelet. LOVE IT!   That bracelet is now prominently placed around the gearshift in my car. 🙂   Anyway, later on in the afternoon I returned to my parents’ house to see if my dad was feeling any better, which he was, so I brought him back to the set. Well, as soon as Mr. Caruso saw my dad, he walked right up and gave him a HUGE hug. From that point on, he came over to talk to us pretty much between every single take and was so incredibly nice and down to earth that it was almost unbelievable! I honestly can’t say this enough – David Caruso has got to be the NICEST guy in show business!

Jonathan Togo was also on the set on Monday and remembered me from the previous Friday. I think he thought I was a little nutso to have returned to the set to watch MORE of the filming, because at one point he walked up and said, “You HAVE to be at least a little bored! Just a little bit! Come on, admit it!” But I could honestly sit for HOURS and watch productions being filmed. The entire process and everything that goes into it – from the hundreds of crew members and extensive camera equipment . . .

. . . to the actual filming – absolutely fascinates me, especially if it’s for a show I watch regularly. I honestly can’t get enough of it!

As I mentioned last January, the entire cast and crew of CSI: Miami is fun and friendly, almost unbelievably so. Mike also said that in all his years of living in Los Angeles and of all the sets he had visited in the past, he had NEVER seen one quite like theirs. As you can see in the above pictures, there is definitely a very jovial feeling on set and you’d be hard pressed to find a time when the cast and crew is not laughing or cracking jokes with each other, even during difficult scenes. At one point yesterday, they were trying to film a scene which involved a tricky camera maneuver that just didn’t seem to be working. They had to film the scene numerous times and even through the frustration of it all, they were STILL laughing and kidding each other between takes! LOVE IT!

Both Friday and Monday were absolutely incredible days for me and my dad. I literally could not drag him away from the set yesterday, and he typically hates that sort of thing, so it was very cool for me to see him enjoying himself at a filming. Especially when he has been so sick lately. As I said after our last set visit, being with the cast and crew CSI: Miami provided him with the kind of healing that just can’t be found in a doctor’s office or a hospital building. 🙂 I honestly can’t thank them all enough. When we left the set yesterday, David Caruso said, “I hope to see you guys again the next time we are in Pasadena.” H – you can count on it! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: CSI: Miami was filmed at 1838 East Braeburn Road in Altadena, just down the street from the Walsh’s Minnesota house from Beverly Hills, 90210, which is located at 1640 Braeburn Rd. Look for the CSI: Miami episode to air sometime in April.

March 10, 2010
Sierra Towers – Brody Jenner’s Building on “The Hills”

A few weeks ago, while out doing some stalking with my fiancé in West Hollywood, I made a little pit stop at the place where Brody Jenner is shown to reside on fave reality show The Hills, a West Hollywood building which is known as the Sierra Towers.   I found this location once again thanks to fellow stalker Virginie who, being that she also managed to track down Spencer and Heidi’s new house and Kristin Cavallari’s beach abode, has proven to possess some absolutely mad Hills stalking skills! My hat is most definitely off to you, Virginie! 🙂 As us die hard Hills stalkers are well aware of, though, MTV has been known to pull the wool over its viewers eyes when it comes to the various cast residences shown on the series. So, while the Sierra Towers building is definitely the place shown for the establishing shots of Brody’s residence on The Hills, I can’t say for certain that the reality star actually lives there. According to this Los Angeles Times article, in March of 2007 Brody leased an apartment in the Villa Malibu complex in Malibu, so its quite possible he may still live there. But regardless of whether Mr. Jenner is a resident of Sierra Towers or not almost seems to be entirely beside the point, since the building’s registry reads like a who’s who of Hollywood. Pretty much anyone who’s anyone in this town has called the place home at one time or another.

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The 32-story Sierra Towers, which was built in 1964 by architect Jack A. Charney, originally consisted of apartments and was called the Spoon Apartment Building. The complex was converted into condominium units at some point thereafter – I am unsure of the exact date – and, due to its exclusivity, proximity to Hollywood, and many upscale amenities, became an almost immediate celebrity magnet. In fact, so many notables currently live in the building that paparazzi are pretty much a constant presence there. In recent years, the Sierra Towers has been given a new hipster image thanks to a savvy real estate agent named Russ Filice. Just a few of the amenities that the building currently boasts include maids quarters, a ballroom, a catering kitchen, a gym and a spa with his and her locker rooms, a swimming pool, and a 24 hour support staff made up of porters, valets, doormen, and security guards. And I can personally attest to the fact that the Sierra Towers security is pretty darn tight, as they were keeping a VERY close eye on my fiancé and I while we were snapping pictures of the place from across the street. There are currently 148 separate units in the building, six to a floor, each of which features its own eight foot wide balcony, floor to ceiling windows, and sweeping views of the Los Angeles skyline.

As you can see from the above photographs which were taken from a lookout point on North Doheny Drive, Sierra Towers is the tallest building in its vicinity, so its views are pretty much unparalleled. Can you even imagine living in a place like that? Sigh!

The exterior of the Sierra Towers building pops up pretty much weekly on The Hills,



but if you compare the interior of Brody’s apartment, which is shown above, to these photographs of a real life Sierra Towers unit, the two don’t seem to match. From what I’ve been able to discern by looking at photographs of various Sierra Towers units online, most of the condos boast floor to ceiling glass walls, a feature which Brody’s apartment doesn’t seem to have. So, I am fairly certain that the interior shots of his residence were filmed at another location altogether. Besides The Hills, the Sierra Towers building has also appeared in several episodes of the reality show Million Dollar Listing.

And now on to the Sierra’s famous celebrity residents! 😉 Just a few of the notables who have called the building home over the years include Matthew Perry, Elton John (you can see pictures of his unit here), Kate Moss, Joan Collins, George Hamilton, David Janssen, Diahann Carroll, Nino Tempo, fashion designer Edith Flagg, Julian Burke, PJ Harvey, Peter Morton, Jim Morris, Rachel Zoe, Fred Durst, Evander Holyfield, David Geffen, Peter Lawford, Jack Webb, Lindsay Lohan, Vincent Gallo, Patty Duke, Rhonda Fleming, Donald Ayres, Michael Milken, Vickie Morgan, Sidney Poitier, Tawney Kitaen, Bill Shoemaker, and Cher. Phew! That’s quite a list! The building is so famous, in fact, that there is not only a Wikipedia page dedicated to it and its many famous residents, but a Facebook page, as well! And being that in 2006 Variety Magazine proclaimed the building to be one of the most expensive in all of Los Angeles, costing a whopping $2,000 per square foot, you pretty much have to be a celebrity to live there! You can see a more detailed list of the building’s residents, both past and present, on my good friend and fellow stalker E.J.’s website, The Movieland Directory.

Big THANK YOU to Virginie for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Sierra Towers, aka Brody Jenner’s condo from The Hills, is located at 9255 Doheny Road in West Hollywood. You can visit the building’s website here.

March 5, 2010
The “13 Going On 30” Thriller Dance Location

A few months ago, I enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen in tracking down the location from fave movie 13 Going On 30 where Jenna Rink (aka Jennifer Garner) saved the Poise Magazine party by performing her rendition of the Zombie Dance from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”, which, not surprisingly, just so happens to be my very favorite scene in the flick. From the beginning, I was absolutely convinced that the “Thriller” scene had been filmed in a building located somewhere in New York, but Owen had a hunch that it had actually taken place right here in Los Angeles. And, as usual, Owen was right. After doing a bit of cyber-stalking, he somehow managed to track down one of the movie’s location managers who told him that Jenna’s “Thriller” dance had actually been performed inside of an oft-used filming location in Downtown Los Angeles, one that I am ashamed to admit I was already very familiar with – the former Bank of American building located on the corner of 7th and South Spring Streets. The building has been used in COUNTLESS productions over the years, but I am sad to say that, for whatever reason, I somehow failed to recognize it.



Being that the former bank’s big ol’ safe is clearly visible in the background of the “Thriller” scene, I really should have figured this one out. Man, I’m such a blonde sometimes!

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Once Owen had tracked down the location for me, I put the former bank building on my very long “To-Stalk” list and finally managed to visit the place in person while out doing some stalking in the Downtown Los Angeles area a couple of weeks ago. The Spring Street Tower, as it is sometimes called, which was built in 1912 by the architectural firm of Schultze and Weaver, served as the Los Angeles headquarters for the Bank of America Corporation from 1930 to 1972. After Bank of America vacated the twelve story high Beaux Arts style building, the upper floors served as offices for various companies throughout the years, while the marble clad lobby became an extremely popular filming location. In recent years, SB Properties, a building development company, took over the building and converted the former offices into lofts. And while the lobby area still looks much the same as it did during the time when it was operating as a bank, there are currently plans in the works for a restaurant and club to open up in that space, which is both good news and bad news. Bad news because I am guessing that once the space becomes a restaurant, it will cease to be a filming location and will most likely be heavily remodeled and good news because if it does eventually become a restaurant that means that someday in the near future I will be able to stalk the area where Jennifer Garner danced, a place which is currently off limits to the public. YAY! 🙂



When we first arrived to stalk the former Bank of America building, I did not actually have high hopes that I would be able to see any of the interior. So, let me tell you, I just about passed out from excitement when I discovered that the lobby area, where the “Thriller” dance scene took place, was thoroughly visible through the former bank’s front windows. From the windows you can see the vault;

the main staircase;

the second floor balcony;

and several of the wood-paneled main offices. You can also see some fabulous interior photographs of the bank building here.



In 13 Going On 30, the former Bank of America building was the location of the Poise Magazine “Girls Night Out” party, during which Jenna’s boss, Richard (aka Andy Serkis) complains that the guests are leaving far too early and if someone doesn’t do something to liven up the joint – and quick – then the entire magazine might go down the drain. So, Jenna immediately heads over to the DJ booth where she requests Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and then proceeds to lead the entire party in the famous Zombie Dance. Oh, how I would love to do that dance at my wedding! 😉



So I, of course, just had to imitate Jenna doing the “Thriller” dance while I was at the building. 🙂 I think it goes without saying that my fiancé was HIGHLY embarrassed while taking the above photographs of me.

The former bank is also where Robbie (aka Adam Sandler) tries to get a job to impress Julia (aka Drew Barrymore) in 1998’s The Wedding Singer. When the bank’s manager, who was played by Kevin Nealon, turns him down, Robbie says, “You don’t even have to give me the job. If you could just give me some business cards with my name on it, I think that might help. How ‘bout this – I’ll give you ten singing lessons for one business card. Please?” LOL



In 1995’s Se7en, the bank building was dressed to look like a library and appeared in the scene in which Detective Lt. William Somerset (aka Morgan Freeman) researches the Seven Deadly Sins.



In L.A. Story, the bank stood in for the Fourth Reich Bank of Hamburg where Steve Martin is forced to show his financial records to the owner of the impossible-to-get-into L’Idiot Restaurant in order to secure a dinner reservation there.

In 1994’s The Mask, the bank was used as Edge City Savings and Loan where Stanley Ipkiss (aka Jim Carrey) worked.

In Spiderman 2, the bank appeared up as the spot where Peter Parker (aka Tobey Maguire) takes his Aunt May (aka Rosemary Harris) to apply for a loan from a bank teller played by none other than The Soup’s Joel McHale. 🙂 While the two are in the bank, Doc Ock shows up to rob the place and almost succeeds until Spiderman steps in and, of course, saves the day.

In Ghost, the bank was used as the place where Sam Wheat (aka Patrick Swayze) takes Oda Mae Brown (aka Whoopi Goldberg) to fill out a signature card under the false name of Rita Miller.





In Blow, the former Bank of America building stood in for the Bank of Panama in one very brief scene.



In The Prestige, the building shows up twice. First, the bank lobby appeared as the courtroom where Alfred Borden’s (aka Christian Bale’s) murder trial is held.

And second, the bank’s second floor mezzanine area stood in for the bar where Robert Angier (aka Hugh Jackman) shared a drink with Cutter (aka Michael Caine).

The bank also appeared in the movies Marathon Man, Traffic, Fatal Vision, Prizzi’s Honor, St. Elmo’s Fire, All of Me, and in episodes of 24, Cagney & Lacey, Hill Street Blues, Matlock, and Hardcastle & McCormick.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The old Bank of America building is located at 650 South Spring Street in Downtown Los Angeles. The best place to catch a glimpse of the interior of the property is through the windows located on either side of the building’s front doors, which are pictured above.

March 4, 2010
Bistro de la Gare from “Modern Family”

This past Sunday morning, while grabbing some coffee with my parents and the Grim Cheaper at my new fave coffee house, Kaldi’s, my mom asked me if I happened to remember what day it was. Looking at her with what I’m sure was a completely blank expression on my face, I told her that I had absolutely no idea. It was then that she reminded me that it was exactly ten years prior, on February 28th of 2000, that my mom and I had waved goodbye to our little house in San Mateo and begun the five hour journey south to meet my dad – who had moved a few months ahead of us – at our new home in Pasadena.   Yes, this past Sunday was my family’s ten year anniversary of living in Southern California. And while in some ways it seems like that journey occurred just yesterday, in other ways it feels like a lifetime ago. And as I sat there and reflected on my past decade in LaLaLand, I’m not sure what surprised me more – the number of things that had changed in my life, or the number of things that hadn’t. Over the last ten years, quite a few of my life circumstances have remained constant – I am still a struggling actress who makes zero dollars each year off her craft and I still dream each day of “making it big”, I still attend acting school – albeit a different one than the one I was attending when I first moved here, and I still live in Pasadena, although I finally moved out of my parents home two years ago – at the tender age of 30. Ha ha. But while so much of my life is pretty much exactly the same as it was the day I moved here, there have also been some huge milestones. I met the Grim Cheaper and after eight and a half years of dating finally got engaged last May. I have made some amazing new friends and, sadly, also lost a few. I was voted valedictorian at one of my acting schools. I starred in a commercial for State Farm Insurance. And I became a blogger, which along with my fiancé and my friends and family, has been my saving grace over the past two years. Just when I thought my frustrations with the acting industry were becoming too much to bear and that I was ready to throw in the towel, I found another, entirely different, creative outlet that I have as much love for and am just as passionate about as my acting career. And while it’s definitely true what they say, that the more things change, the more they stay the same, what I’ve found is that while I was happy ten years ago, I am far happier now. So, I want to thank you dear readers and fellow stalkers out there, for helping me to find a new – and, as I am quickly discovering, far better – path in this crazy world called show business. 🙂   Anyway, now that I’ve digressed for an entire paragraph, let’s get to the stalking! Once I heard that it was my family’s ten year anniversary of being in L.A., I suggested that we go out to eat to celebrate the occasion. And what better place to do so than Bistro de la Gare, the little South Pasadena restaurant that was recently featured in an episode of Modern Family.

Bistro de la Gare, which roughly translates to “the restaurant by the train station”, was opened in October of 2005 by French restaurateur Eric Ulmer and quickly became a local favorite. And, yes, it is in fact located adjacent to a train station – the Metro Gold Line’s Mission Street stop. The bistro is an absolutely adorable little place, with dark red walls, a carved mahogany bar, white paned windows, French music playing on the stereo, and little signs with French sayings posted most everywhere, my favorite of which was the one which stated “Entree Des Artistes”, aka “Artists’ Entrance”. 🙂 The Bistro de la Gare staff could NOT have been nicer and not only answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of Modern Family, but also let me take all the photographs of the place that I wanted. Oh, and did I mention the food? Our meal was absolutely EXCELLENT and incredibly reasonably priced – my rosemary chicken entree was only $12.95 and our total bill for four people – with drinks – was a scant $120.00. Not bad for a fabulous meal in a charming setting in Southern California.

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As I mentioned last week, Bistro de la Gare was featured in the Season One episode of Modern Family entitled “Moon Landing”. In the episode, Claire (aka Julie Bowen) meets her former work frenemie Valerie (aka Minnie Driver) for a drink in the bar area of the tiny French bistro.

The two later move into the restaurant’s main dining room to grab a bite to eat and to try to make each other jealous over their respective and very different lives.

Bistro de la Gare has also appeared in an episode of Brothers & Sisters in a scene featuring Rob Lowe and Calista Flockhart, but because I have never seen the series, I am unsure exactly which episode it was. And despite its remoteness from the West Side where most movie stars live, quite a few celebrities have been known to stop into the restaurant from time to time. Actor Troy Evans has been spotted there on occasion and even has his autographed headshot displayed in the bistro’s entryway. Ron Howard also recently patronized the place. But when I asked our waiter if my girl Jen had ever dined there, he winked at me and said “I’ll never tell.” 😉   Bistro de la Gare is a fabulous, very inexpensive little restaurant and I am happy to report that it was the perfect spot to spend our “ten year anniversary”. I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bistro de la Gare, from the “Moon Landing” episode of Modern Family, is located at 921 Meridian Avenue in South Pasadena. You can visit their website here. Kaldi’s, the coffee shop that appeared in that same episode of Modern Family, is located just a block away at 1019 El Centro Street.

March 2, 2010