television locations – Page 18

November 30, 2009December 9, 2020

The Hyatt Regency Valencia from “Twilight”

The other Los Angeles area filming location from Twilight that I mentioned in last Wednesday’s post is the Hyatt Regency Valencia Hotel. In Twilight, the Hyatt stood in for the Phoenix area hostelry where Bella (aka Kristen Stewart), Alice (aka Ashley Greene), and Jasper (aka Jackson Rathbone) hid out while on the run from the evil vampire James (Cam Gigandet) towards the end of the movie. In reality, the hotel is, of course, not located anywhere near Arizona, but instead can be found just about four miles away from the home that was used as Bella’s mom’s house in the flick. So, of course, since I was already in the area last week, I just had to stalk the place. 🙂 I found this location thanks again to the link that fellow stalker Kerry sent me last April while the first Twilight movie was still in production. Thank you, Kerry! 🙂

The Hyatt is, sadly, featured only briefly in Twilight, but I am happy to report that it looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen. In the scene featuring the Hyatt, Bella, Jasper, and Alice are first shown hanging out in a hotel room discussing their current predicament. And while the exterior set up shots for that scene were indeed filmed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia, after looking at photographs of the hotel’s rooms online, I am fairly certain that the interior filming took place elsewhere. My best guess is that the hotel room scene was either filmed on a soundstage or at a real hotel located somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, where the rest of the movie was filmed.

We next see Jasper and Alice in the hotel’s lobby area waiting to check out. And, as you can see in the above photographs and screen capture, that particular scene was actually shot on location at the Hyatt Regency Valencia and the lobby area still looks pretty much the same in person as it did in Twilight. Even the red flower paintings hanging behind the reception desk are there in real life. 🙂 Love it!

In a subsequent scene, Bella is shown rushing out of the Hyatt Regency Valencia’s main entrance and into a waiting taxi cab. And that pretty much covers the entire Twilight segment that took place at the Hyatt! LOL All told, the scenes probably last a little under 45 seconds. As I said in the previous Wednesday’s post, though, it’s better than nothing! 🙂

While stalking the hotel, I happened to strike up a conversation with one of the bellhops who truly could NOT have been nicer to me. He even took the photograph of me featured at the top of this post. 🙂 According to the bellhop, the Hyatt is actually an oft-used filming location and has been featured in such series as CSI: Las Vegas, NCIS, and the reality show Make It Or Break It. The bellhop said that a scene from Twilight was also filmed in the hotel’s parking garage, but he wasn’t sure which scene. He also informed me that Robert Pattinson actually stayed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia for a few days during the filming of Twilight. LOVE IT! The Hyatt Regency Valencia is a really beautiful hotel, with a large swimming pool, picturesque gardens, and a beautiful wedding courtyard (pictured above). I highly recommend stalking the place or even staying there while visiting the L.A. area. Who knows – you may even wind up in RP’s former room! 🙂

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On a very random side note: Earlier today, while reading the fabulous book Twilight: Director’s Notebook, I learned that the scene pictured above, in which Bella and Edward kiss for the first time, was actually filmed in Pasadena! Apparently, the scene was originally filmed on location in Oregon, but director Catherine Hardwicke never ended up getting the exact shot she wanted. So, a few months later, when the cast and crew was back in California, some reshoots were done, one of which was the Bella/Edward kiss scene. For the re-shoot, a replica of Bella’s bedroom was built at the Elk’s Lodge in Pasadena. 🙂 So, as it turns out, there are actually three L.A. area locations that were featured in Twilight. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hyatt Regency Valencia, where Bella, Jasper, and Alice hid out in Twilight, is located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia. You can visit their website here. The Elks Lodge in Pasadena, where Bella and Edward first kissed, is located at 400 West Colorado Boulevard. You can visit their website here.

November 20, 2009November 19, 2009

Jefferson Market Garden

Another Sex and the City location that I re-stalked while in New York last month was Jefferson Market Garden, the spot where the series’ ever-present cynic Miranda Hobbs finally married long-time boyfriend Steve Brady in the Season 6 episode entitled “The Ick Factor”. I first stalked this location back in December of 2006, but at the time had absolutely no idea that it was a filming location and from one of my favorite television shows, no less. My fiancé had dragged me to the garden and it’s adjacent library due to the place’s historical significance, and, while I enjoyed visiting it, I took virtually no photographs while there. So, this year, I vowed to return, camera in hand! And return, I did! Thank goodness my family scheduled this year’s New York trip in early October, though, as I had not previously realized that Jefferson Market Garden is only accessible to the public seasonally, during the months May through October.

Jefferson Market Garden’s name is derived from the fact that in the early 1800’s a produce market, named after former president Thomas Jefferson, existed on the site where the garden and library now stand. In 1873, that market was torn down and a courthouse built in its place. Jefferson Market Courthouse, which opened in 1877, was designed by Calvert Vaux, one of the men responsible for designing Central Park, and architect Frederick Clarke Withers. In 1885, the Gothic-style building (pictured above) was voted the fifth most beautiful in the entire country. In 1931, an eleven story detention center for women was constructed on the lot directly adjacent to the Courthouse. And while the Courthouse served the Third Judicial District of New York from 1874 to 1945 and the detention center even housed a certain famous prisoner named Mae West at one time, by the 1940’s, both structures had fallen into serious disrepair and were threatened with demolition. Thankfully New York preservationists stepped in and convinced the City of New York to renovate the Courthouse and turn the space into a Public Library. They also petitioned to have the dreary detention center torn down and a garden created in its place. Which is exactly what happened. The library opened to the public in 1967, the detention center was destroyed in 1973, the garden was planted in 1974, and the rest, as they say, is history. Jefferson Market Garden, which measures one third of an acre, opened to the public in 1975 and, while owned by New York City Parks & Recreation, remains a community project, cared for by local Manhattanites.

Today’s garden consists of a central lawn, a koi pond, a rose garden, beds of various annuals, and several benches upon which to sit and enjoy the view. It seems like the perfect place to spend a sunny afternoon. In fact, while we were stalking the place, quite a few people were seated on the benches talking and enjoying the warm Autumn weather, while several artists stood nearby and painted the scene on portable easels. It looked like something straight out of a movie. 🙂 Jefferson Market Garden is a truly beautiful place, and not surprisingly, has been the site of numerous nuptials ever since Miranda and Steve tied the knot there back in 2004.

On Sex and the City, the garden first showed up in a beginning scene of the “Ick Factor” episode, in which the recently engaged Steve and Miranda have some issues while walking home after doing their weekly shopping. Not only do Miranda’s shopping bags explode during the scene, spilling their contents onto Greenwich Avenue, but Steve also steps in a wad of chewing gum, causing Miranda to proclaim “We should get married right here in this mess!”, to which Steve replies, “We’re gonna have to if I can’t get this gum off.” LOL LOL LOL Ahhh, I so love Steve!

It is then that Miranda looks up and notices the picturesque garden setting situated right in front of them and announces to Steve that she thinks it might just be the perfect spot for the two of them to get married.

And get married there, they do, in a beautiful ceremony which took place later in that very same episode, which, as I’ve mentioned before, has to be one of my favorite episodes of all time. Carrie’s closing line of “For better or for worse, we were all ourselves that day, just the way Miranda wanted it.”, which she utters just after Samantha’s announcement that she has breast cancer, never fails to bring a tear to my eye!

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On a sad side note – Jefferson, the restaurant where Miranda and Steve held their wedding reception in the “Ick Factor” episode (pictured above), has since been closed. 🙁 Such a bummer, as I had so wanted to stalk that place. You can see photographs of the former Jefferson restaurant here and here, though.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! : )

Stalk It: Jefferson Market Garden is located on Greenwich Avenue, in between Sixth Avenue and West 10th Street. The garden is open every afternoon, except Mondays, during the months of May through October. You can visit their website here. Miranda and Steve’s wedding reception took place directly across the street from the garden at the now-defunct Jefferson restaurant, which was formerly located at 121 West 10th Street.

November 19, 2009November 18, 2009

Scout Bar from “Sex and the City”

Yet another Sex and the City location that I stalked while in New York last month was O’Nieals Grand Street Bar, which stood in for Scout, the watering hole owned by Carrie and Miranda’s ex-boyfriends, Aidan and Steve, on the show. And even though I had actually stalked this location during last year’s New York vacation and also blogged about it, because I had not been able to venture inside, it was a place I had always planned on returning to. So, since my good friend Steffi, who is an even bigger fan of Sex and the City than I am (if that’s at all possible) and who has always loved the character of Aidan, accompanied me to New York this year, I decided there was no time like the present! On this particular occasion, though, nothing was going to stop me from journeying inside! 🙂 And, let me tell you, I am so glad I did, because O’Nieals’ interior is nothing short of magnificent.

One look around O’Nieal’s dark Mahogany interior and it’s easy to see why producers chose to use it as the bar that Carrie’s furniture designing former boyfriend built. Upon seeing Scout for the first time on the show, Carrie says “There was no sign of him, but he was everywhere. In the mahogany bar, wood floors, carved ceiling. The whole place looked and felt just like Aidan.” And in real life, that same sentiment is true – the place truly does look and feel just like the character played by John Corbett. So much so, in fact, that it’s hard to believe the bar wasn’t a set built by production designers specifically for the series.

O’Nieal’s decor consists almost entirely of dark, shiny, hand-carved wood and, let me tell you, it is absolutely gorgeous. But my favorite part of the bar had to be its amazingly intricate ceiling, which unfortunately I just could not get a very good photograph of. 🙁 But take my word for it, the ceiling is beautiful. O’Nieals has a definite old New York vibe to it and, I am happy to report, looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen in Sex and the City. The staff also could NOT have been nicer and allowed me to take all of the photographs I wanted, even though I wasn’t dining at the establishment. On a side note – Being able to take pictures inside of bars and restaurants is just one of the many reasons that I love New York so much. In L.A., unfortunately, there are many venues that don’t allow any sort of interior photography. And, while part of me understands an establishment’s desire to keep stalkers like myself from taking pictures of their celebrity patrons, for the most part I think the whole thing is just plain ludicrous. A few months back my fiancé and I grabbed some cocktails at a place called the Writers Bar in Beverly Hills. The upscale (read: snooty) bar had numerous autographed scripts displayed on their walls and when I went to a photograph in front of one which had been signed by Julia Roberts, the manager came rushing over and demanded that I put my camera away. Dumbfounded, I asked him why, to which he replied “We do not allow cameras here due to our high-profile clients”. LOL LOL LOL Now, if I had been trying to take a photograph of a celebrity sitting nearby (and by the way, my fiancé and I were the only two people in the entire bar at the time), I can totally understand the manager requesting that I put my camera away. But it was very obvious what I was taking a picture of and why and being that we had just shelled out $25 per drink, I found the whole thing highly ridiculous and my fiancé and I vowed never to return. Which we haven’t. But thankfully, in my many visits to New York, I have NEVER EVER – not even once – been told to put my camera away – even in cases when celebrities actually were dining right next to me. 🙂 But, I digress. Anyway, as I said before, O’Nieals is a very hip, absolutely gorgeous little spot and I HIGHLY recommend stalking it.

O’Nieals was featured twice on Sex and the City. It first showed up in the Season Four episode entitled “Ghost Town”, in which Carrie visits Scout to drop off a congratulatory Mulberry bush for Aidan and Steve, just before the bar is set to open.

O’Nieal’s shows up once again later in that same episode, when the girls attend Scout’s grand opening party.

The bar was also featured in the Season Four episode entitled “Time & Punishment”, in which Carrie shows up at Scout only to discover Aidan flirting with a skeezy bartender named Shana. And, even though Steve continued to own the bar throughout the rest of Sex and the City’s six year run, for some reason, it never again appeared onscreen.

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On a sad side note – While in New York, I was also dying to visit Collins Bar, the spot where Miranda first met Steve in the Season 2 episode of Sex and the City entitled “The Man, The Myth, The Viagra” (pictured above). Unfortunately, though, the beloved dive bar closed its doors in July of 2007 and the building that formerly housed it is in the process of being torn down to make room for a new hi-rise condominium development. Such a bummer!!!! You can see some great pictures of the former Collins Bar here and here, though.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Scout, aka O’Nieals Grand Street Bar, is located at 174 Grand Street in New York’s SoHo area. You can visit their website here. Collins Bar was formerly located at 735 Eighth Avenue, near Time’s Square.

November 18, 2009November 17, 2009

Whitney Port’s Apartment from “The City”

As fate would have it, last year’s New York vacation ended just a few weeks prior to the series premiere of the MTV Hills spin-off entitled The City. That, of course, meant that I had to wait almost an entire year to stalk any of the locations featured on the new show. 🙁 And, while I have to admit that I don’t even really like the series all that much, at the top of this year’s NYC stalking list were quite a few locales used on it. One of the locations I most wanted to stalk was the building where series’ heroine/burgeoning fashion designer Whitney Port supposedly lived during Season One. But, of course, as is often the case on The City, things weren’t quite as cut and dry as they seemed. Thanks to fellow stalker Virginie, who posted a comment on my site back in January with a link to this article from the blog Curbed, I found out that the building shown as Whitney’s on the show isn’t where the reality starlet actually lived. So much for The City being a “reality” show. LOL But even though Whitney didn’t actually live in the building featured on the series, because the place is a filming location, I, of course, still had to stalk it! 🙂

The building where “Whit” supposedly lived on The City is ultra-tall, ultra-modern, ultra-luxurious, and just oh-so-New-York! And, thanks to the dwelling’s quintessential New York feel, it’s not very hard to see why producers chose to use it as the residence of the girl Page Six Magazine dubbed as “The New Carrie Bradshaw”. The building is the ideal home for a modern-girl-about-town. And I would just about give my left foot to live there! 🙂

Ironically enough, though, Whitney wasn’t too keen on the place when she first toured it with then-boyfriend Jay Lyons in the Season One episode entitled “The L Word”. Upon first seeing the apartment, Whitney said, “I kind of envisioned myself whenever I moved here that I would be, like, in one of those shorter brick buildings.” Um, you mean, like, a brownstone, Whitney? LOL LOL LOL Boyfriend Jay changed her mind, though, and later in that same episode Whit became a resident of the building, where she remained through the show’s first season. Or so MTV would have you believe. But we know different, don’t we? 🙂

As you can see in the above screen capture, the balcony of Whitney’s apartment doesn’t look at all like the balconies of the building shown in the show’s exterior shots, which is how the bloggers over at Curbed were able to figure out that MTV was trying to pull the wool over its viewers eyes. The building Whitney actually lived in is located less than a mile away from her “fake” building and is called the Elektra. Sadly, I was not able to stalk that location during this year’s trip, though. 🙁 And, as fate would have it, during The City’s Second Season, which just premiered last month, Whitney moved out of her hi-rise digs and into a “shorter, brick building” somewhere in Greenwich Village. And while I have not figured out the exact location of that spot yet, I definitely plan to stalk it during next year’s New York trip. 🙂

Whitney’s “fake” building, which was designed by architect Stephen B. Jacobs, is fairly new to the New York skyline. The property was just recently completed in 2006 and is comprised of 390,000 square feet of living space which is divided into 250 individual condominium units. The building features a 24-hour doorman, a concierge, a lobby, a garage, a business center, a gym, a yoga room, a massage room (and here I don’t even know what a massage room is!), a sauna, a residents’ lounge complete with fireplace, a children’s playroom, a conference room, and an indoor pool and spa. Individual apartments in the building boast floor to ceiling windows, marble baths, hardwood floors, sweeping views, and private balconies.

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A side note about my photographs – I accidentally took the above pictures from the opposite end of Fifth Avenue from where the The City’s set-up shots were taken. If you want to snap a pic from the exact spot where the screen captures were taken, head over to the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 32nd Street. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Whitney Port’s “fake” apartment building from The City is located at 325 Fifth Avenue. In reality, Whitney lived at a building named The Elektra, which is located at 290 Third Avenue.

November 16, 2009November 16, 2009

Bethesda Fountain and Terrace

Just around the corner from the Central Park Boathouse Cafe, which I blogged about on Friday, is another New York landmark known as Bethesda Fountain and Terrace. Because the area is one of my favorite places in all of New York, I’ve actually stalked it numerous times during my many trips to the Big Apple, but, for some reason, never thought to blog about it. Which is actually quite ironic being that the fountain has been immortalized in countless movie and television productions over the years. So, with the mindset of ‘it’s better late than never’, today I thought I’d give it a go. 🙂 The first time I visited Bethesda Fountain and Terrace was back in 2004 during my very first trip to Manhattan. My fiancé and I happened upon the fountain while walking through Central Park and I immediately recognized it from an episode of fave show Sex and the City and just about flipped out. Since that time, I’ve made it a point to visit the area at least once whenever I’m in New York. On a side note – Due to the below freezing temperatures, fountains in Manhattan are turned off during the winter months, which is why Bethesda Fountain is not running in the above photograph which was taken in December of 2004.

Bethesda Fountain, which measures 26 feet tall and 96 feet in diameter and is one of the largest fountains in New York, was the only sculpture that was included in “The Greensward Plan”, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s original design blueprint for Central Park. In the plan, the fountain and terrace area were intended as a gathering place for park-dwellers, a picturesque spot for Manhattanites to congregate and socialize.

The statue that flanks the top of the fountain is named “Angel of the Waters” and was designed by Emma Stebbins, sister of Central Park Commissioner Henry G. Stebbins. The statue, which was built in Germany, took over seven years to construct and wasn’t unveiled until 1873, an additional five years after its completion. The idea behind the neoclassical statue was based on “The Pool of Bethesda”, a man-made bath in Jerusalem, which, as legend had it, was often frequented by angels who could cure the ailing. The fountain was built in commemoration of the Croton Aqueduct, Manhattan’s very first fresh water system, which had been completed thirty years prior. The statue’s largest angel measures eight feet tall and holds a lily in one hand symbolizing the purity of New York’s water, while blessing the waters of the fountain with her other hand.

The four cherubs which stand beneath the main angel represent Peace, Purity, Temperance, and Health.

British architect Jacob Wrey Mould designed the two large staircases which flank the terrace, as well as all of the area’s ornamental details, which include wildlife carvings and over 16,000 intricate Minton tiles.

The Terrace and Fountain area quickly became the focal point of Central Park and even boasted an outdoor restaurant at one time. But during the 1970s, Central Park fell into a terrible state of disarray and, sadly, remained that way for over a decade. When my parents checked into the Plaza Hotel during their very first trip to New York back in 1980, the concierge told them in no uncertain terms NOT to enter the Park under any circumstances. Today, Central Park is so incredibly beautiful and picturesque, that it is EXTREMELY hard for me to imagine it ever being a scary place. During that time, Bethesda Fountain became a haven for the homeless and drug addicted of New York and was even given the nickname “Freak Fountain”. It wasn’t until 1980, when the Central Park Conservancy stepped in with their plan to restore the Park to its original grandeur, that things began to change. The Conservancy’s first step was to renovate the fountain, which had actually been left dry for over a decade. A few months after the fountain was restored, the Terrace area was also renovated. Today, Bethesda Terrace is so grand and so tranquil that it’s hard to believe at one time it was one of the most dangerous areas of the park.

Because it is so incredibly picturesque, Bethesda Terrace is one of the most photographed areas of Central Park and has long been a favorite of movie producers. As mentioned above, I first recognized the area from a Season 2 episode of Sex and the City. In that episode, which was entitled “The Freak Show”, Carrie meets a “normal” guy while sitting by the fountain one spring day and, in an unprecedented move, gives him her unlisted phone number.

In Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, Kevin is chased onto Bethesda Terrace by Harry and Marv, aka the “Sticky Bandits”. He just narrowly escapes them by hiding in the trunk of a horse drawn carriage.

Not only does Nate run near the fountain in the Season 1 episode of Gossip Girl entitled “Poison Ivy”,

but in that very same episode the fountain shows up as the spot where Serena and Blair have a much needed heart-to-heart.

The Terrace is also the site of the grand finale of the “That’s How You Know” song and dance number from the movie Enchanted.

In Elf, while Will Ferrell is trying to save Christmas, Santa’s sleigh knocks off the tip of the “Angel of the Waters” statue and almost crash-lands on the Terrace’s top level.

The fountain is also the location of the New York City Junior Science Fair from which Mel Gibson and Rene Russo’s son is kidnapped in the 1996 movie Ransom.

It’s also the spot where George Clooney, Michelle Pfeiffer, and their two children frolic in some puddles while on their way to a soccer game in the movie One Fine Day.

The music video for the They Might Be Giants song “They’ll Need a Crane” was also shot in its entirety at Bethesda Fountain.

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The fountain has also been featured in the movies The Producers, The Way We Were, Deconstructing Harry, Sunday in New York, Eyewitness, Stuart Little 2, Hair, Godspell, Everyone Says I Love You, Angels in America, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Tommy Boy, Bullets Over Broadway, It Should Happen to You, It Could Happen to You, Madigan, Green Card, and The Manchurian Candidate, and in episodes of TV’s The Amazing Race, Law and Order, and Lipstick Jungle.

Bethesda Fountain and Terrace is an absolutely beautiful spot and I honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough! It has long been considered “the heart of Central Park” and is definitely a New York must-see!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Bethesda Fountain and Terrace are located just off of 72nd Cross Street Drive in Central Park.

November 11, 2009November 10, 2009

Richard Wright’s Rooftop Pool from “Sex and the City”

Another Sex and the City locale that I stalked while in New York last month was the Greenwich Village building where Samantha’s Season 4 boyfriend, hotel magnate Richard Wright, lived on the series. I found this location thanks to fave book Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell, and since fellow stalker Owen, my fiancé, and I were already doing some stalking in the area, I just had to run by to see it. Ironically enough, though, the exterior of Richard’s building was never actually shown on Sex and the City. So, why would I want to stalk the place, you ask? Because a scene from the Season 4 episode entitled “The Good Fight”, in which Samantha and Richard enjoy a little midnight swim, took place at a spectacular pool located on the building’s roof. And while even I will admit to the fact that it is a little silly to want to stalk a filming location of which the only area that appeared onscreen is not visible to the public, because said location was featured on fave show Sex and the City, I just couldn’t resist! 🙂 And, besides, isn’t that what aerial images are for? 🙂

Richard Wright’s building, which in real life is known as “The Dandy”, was originally constructed in the early 1900’s and at the time consisted of just ten floors. In 1997, Israeli venture capitalist Jonathan Leitersdorf purchased the entire structure and completely renovated it, converting the interior into nine different full-floor condominiums. He kept the top level for himself and transformed it into a spectacular penthouse, which was originally composed of just one level. In later years, Leitersdorf added two additional stories to the space creating a massive five bedroom, five bathroom, 11,000 square foot penthouse consisting of 13 to 17 foot ceilings, two separate kitchens, more than 50 windows!, a panic room, a “forest”, and of course, a remarkable rooftop pool boasting stunning 360 degree views of Manhattan. For a time, the penthouse also doubled as an events venue named Sky Studios which hosted such fêtes as the wedding of Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld, a birthday party for Chelsea Clinton, and numerous photo shoots for Ralph Lauren’s clothing line. In 2002, Leitersdorf decided it was time to move on and put his apartment on the market for $27.5 million, where it sat for the next five years. In September of 2007, the property was finally sold for a cool $17.5 million to supermarket mogul Ron Burkle. Don’t go thinking Ron got the place for a bargain, though, as his monthly maintenance fees are $7,836. LOL LOL LOL In an ironic twist of fate, my dad actually knows Ron Burkle, so I almost fell out of my chair today when I found out that he owned the penthouse! I so have to get my dad to set up a tour of the pool for me during next year’s New York vacation! 🙂

In “The Good Fight”, it is at the penthouse’s amazing rooftop pool, with Sade playing in the background, that Samantha finally lets go of her fears and insecurities and allows herself to fall in love with Richard, only to have him break her heart just five episodes later. That’s Sex and the City for you, though!

And, as you can see in the penthouse’s MLS listing photographs which are pictured above, the pool truly is quite remarkable in real life. Can you even imagine owning something like that???

And, while the interior of Richard’s penthouse existed only on a soundstage at Silvercup Studios where Sex and the City was filmed, as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph from the MLS listing, the design was based on that of the real life penthouse. So cool! 🙂

On a very sad side note, at the time that “The Good Fight” episode was shot, the Twin Towers were still standing and were visible in the background behind Samantha and Richard in the scene pictured above. But by the time the episode was set to air, the towers had already been destroyed and the producers had to digitally remove them from the scene. 🙁 According to executive producer Michael Patrick King, that was the only time in Sex and the City’s six year history that something had to be digitally removed from the background of a scene.

And in an ironic side note, the kitchen of Richard’s penthouse was also used – long before Richard came on the scene – in the Season 2 episode of Sex and the City entitled “Evolution”. In that episode, the kitchen belonged to Charlotte’s gay/straight pastry chef boyfriend Stephen. Executive producer Michael Patrick King first saw the penthouse’s rooftop pool while filming “Evolution” and thought it was so spectacular that he made a mental note to write it into a future episode, which he did about a season and a half later. 🙂

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Richard Wright’s Building and rooftop pool, aka The Dandy, is located at 704 Broadway in New York’s Greenwich Village. You can read more about Ron Burkle’s purchase of the property here.

November 9, 2009November 8, 2009

The “30 Rock” Building

One of the locales at the very top of this year’s New York vacation’s must-stalk list was the main building featured on my new favorite television show 30 Rock. For some reason, until we rented the series earlier this past summer, neither my fiancé nor I had ever seen even a single episode of the NBC comedy. For years we had both heard how great the show was, but, for some odd reason, had never tuned in. So, when we finally sat down to watch Seasons 1, 2, and 3 in early June, I must say I had some pretty high hopes. And, to be honest, I really didn’t get what all the hoopla was about . . . until we watched the fifth episode of the series which was entitled “Jack-Tor”.! In the episode, GE Microwave Division executive Jack Donaghy (aka Alec Baldwin) tries to film an informational video about product placement for his staff to watch and, I swear, I don’t think I stopped laughing once during the show’s entire 22 minute duration! It was ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS. From that moment on not only did I completely love the show, but also one of its main actors – Alec Baldwin – which is something I NEVER before would have thought possible. Who knew Alec Baldwin was so funny?? Anyway, for those of you out there who have yet to see an episode of the series, I offer this piece of advice – you simply must tune in!!!! 🙂 Every episode is laugh-out-loud HILARIOUS – and, let me tell you, there is nothing I like to do more than laugh out loud! 🙂 So, while in New York last month, I, of course, just HAD to stalk the GE Building where Jack Donaghy, Liz Lemon, and the rest of the 30 Rock gang work on the series.

Because the GE Building (pictured above) is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza it has been dubbed “30 Rock”, which is, of course, how the show got its name. And while the GE Building is, of course, famous in and of itself and has appeared in countless movie and television productions over the years, for today’s post I thought I would focus solely on its role in 30 Rock. The series, which was conceived and created by comedienne Tina Fey, centers around a group of writers and actors and their weekly struggles in putting together the fictional television show TGS with Tracy Jordan. TGS is based on the real life sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live, on which Tina Fey worked as an actor and head writer for over seven years. Because SNL is filmed each week on a soundstage inside of the GE Building, Tina decided to set her fictional series in the exact same location. In reality, though, while the GE Building is used for all exterior set-up shots on the show, 30 Rock is actually filmed inside of a soundstage on the Silvercup Studios lot in Queens.

Several different areas of the GE Building are featured prominently in the opening credits of 30 Rock (which you can watch here) each week and it was those areas that I set out to stalk while in New York last month. Ironically enough, though, because Rockefeller Center is so darn huge, I actually had a hard time finding the particular locations I wanted to stalk and had to ask a nearby policeman for help! LOL Thankfully, though, he was also a big fan of the show and was able to point me in the right direction. The first locale I wanted to stalk was the ornate gold-plated 30 Rockefeller Plaza sign that is shown towards the beginning of the opening credits. I wasn’t even sure where to begin looking for that particular placard, though, and had incorrectly assumed it would be located somewhere on one of the building’s exterior walls. In actuality, the sign is located on the ground just outside of the GE Building’s main entrance – and it’s absolutely HUGE in person!!! I had no idea it would that big! LOL It was so large, in fact, that we couldn’t take a very good picture of it as we couldn’t get the whole thing to fit in our camera lens. LOL

The next spot I wanted to stalk was the gold lettered “30 Rockefeller Plaza” sign with the grey marble background that quickly runs from right to left across the screen at the very end of the 30 Rock opening credits. It turns out that the sign is located just to the left of the GE Building’s main entrance and is extremely hard to see in person. The policemen actually pointed out the sign to me no less than four times before I could actually see it! LOL He actually had to walk up and physically touch it before I realized what he was talking about. LOL The sign is actually much smaller than I expected it to be and is very hard to see from far away, thanks to the reflection of the sun off its marble background.

And because we didn’t get very good photographs of it the first time around, we had to actually head back there the very next day to take some additional pictures, which is why I am wearing a different outfit in the above pic. 🙂 But you can tell how hard it is to see the sign from far away in the above photograph.

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And where is the GE Building’s side entrance which is also sometimes featured on the series? It’s actually just around the corner from the building’s main entrance and the two “30 Rockefeller Plaza” signs I talked about above. The side entrance is actually the main entrance of New York’s NBC Studios and is featured quite frequently on 30 Rock. Besides being shown regularly in establishing shots, the side entrance has also been used in the actual filming of certain episodes, as was the case in the Season Four opener entitled “Season Four” – LOL- in which Kenneth the Page leads his fellow pages along with a group of mall santas, horse whisperers, bucket drummers, and TGS’ two lead actors – again LOL – in a mass picket outside of NBC studios (pictured above). The demands of that picket, you ask? That GE exec Jack Donaghy sign a piece of paper stating “I am a big, old liar.” LOL LOL LOL

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I cannot tell you how cool it was to finally be able to stalk the various locations featured each week in the opening credits of 30 Rock! I could NOT have been more excited! 🙂 And for those of you out there who have never seen the show, you really need to start tuning in! However, I’d really recommend renting Season 1 and watching the series from the very beginning.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: As its name implies, the 30 Rock building, aka the GE building, is located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York. Both of the gold-lettered “30 Rockefeller Plaza” signs can be found at the front entrance of the building. The first one is located on the ground directly outside of the building’s front doors and the second is located on the wall just to the right of the main entrance. The NBC Studios entrance can be found on 50th Street between Rockefeller Plaza and 6th Avenue. Liz Lemon’s apartment building – which I unfortunately did not stalk while in New York – is located at 160 Riverside Drive in New York’s Upper West Side.

October 30, 2009October 29, 2009

The King of Queens House

As mentioned in Wednesday’s post, I have many stalking adventures to share from the day my fiancé and I spent with fellow stalker Owen in New York City, including one that actually led us off the island of Manhattan and into the Garden State, aka New Jersey. In all of my many trips to the Big Apple, I have only actually been off the island once and even then I only ventured as far as Brooklyn. So, leaving Manhattan to head to an entirely different state was quite the stalking endeavor for me! The location that led us to such uncharted territory, you ask? The home where the Heffernans lived in the Kevin James/Leah Remini sitcom The King of Queens. Owen had actually tracked down this location back in August, after what he described as “the longest, most headache-inducing search for a location that I’ve been through”. LOL Oh, I’ve so been there!!! 🙂 Owen’s quest for The King of Queens house actually began ordinarily enough, with him contacting numerous people who had worked on the series, from production designers all the way up to the Vice President of Sony’s Media Relations! Not kidding! Unfortunately, they all came back with the exact same answer – they had absolutely no idea where the Heffernan house was located. Owen certainly had his work cut out for him on this one. I mean, if a production staff doesn’t even know where one of their filming sites is located, how are any of us stalkers ever supposed to find it??? One of the crew members did remember one pertinent piece of information, though. He said that the establishing shots of The King of Queens house which were used throughout the series nine year run had been found in the Columbia Television (now Sony) Stock Footage Library shortly before the pilot first aired. No one on The King of Queens staff knew who had taken the footage or what production it was originally used for and in the nine season run of the show, no one had ever come forward to claim the house as theirs.

For those not familiar with Hollywood lingo, stock footage, or archive footage as it is sometimes called, is basically a video image of a location that is not taken for a specific production, but is instead cataloged in a studio’s stock footage library to be used on an as-needed basis. Footage that has actually been used in a specific production can also very well wind up in a stock footage library. Using stock images ends up to be much cheaper for a production than actually sending a crew out to shoot establishing shots of each different locale needed for a particular show or movie. So, in essence, footage originally shot for, oh say, a car commercial, may wind up being used regularly on a hit television series almost a decade later. Which is pretty much exactly what happened with The King of Queens house. Anyway, once Owen found out that the images of the Heffernan house had been procured from the Sony Library, he went through the painstaking task of searching through all of Sony’s archives until he came across the right video. But, amazingly enough, his quest didn’t end there! All Owen was able to gather from locating the footage of the Heffernan house was that it had originally been shot in 1991 for use in a production entitled SIBS II. Because he had never heard of SIBS II and because that production is not listed in the IMDB database, thought his search may have suddenly hit a brick wall. Until an idea struck him. Owen decided to rifle through some of the other stock footage that had been taken for the mysterious SIBS II production and eventually stumbled across this video, in which a clapboard with two crewmember’s names written on it was visible in the opening frames. Employing a bit of internet savvy, Owen somehow managed to track down one of the crewmembers listed and sent him an email asking if he remembered the location of the Heffernan house. Here is the crew member’s response, “You should work for the FBI. I’d be delighted to answer your question, if I can find the info. But hopefully you’ll be kind enough to answer mine: How in the hell did you find me?” LOL LOL LOL

The shocked crew member said he had the address of the house written down in one of his files and promised to dig through them to find it. As promised, just a few days later he emailed Owen with an address, FINALLY putting to rest the mystery of the Heffernan house location! 🙂 And because Owen knew that I would be coming to New York just a few weeks after he had received the address, he promised to wait to stalk the house until I arrived. YAY! So, on October 2nd, Owen, my fiancé, and I ventured across the Hudson River to do some King of Queens stalking. And, let me tell you, seeing the Heffernan house in person was extremely exciting, especially considering the long road that got us there!

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A big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location and for waiting to stalk it until I could join him! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The King of Queens house is located at 519 Longview Avenue in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. If you plan to take a cab ride from Manhattan to the Heffernan house, be forewarned, even though it is only about a ten mile ride, it will cost you upwards of $45! Not kidding!!!! I would suggest taking a bus there instead, as it is the much cheaper option.

October 27, 2009October 27, 2009

Grand Central Station

Yet another Gossip Girl filming location that I stalked a few weeks back while vacationing in Manhattan is the train station known as Grand Central Terminal. But being that Grand Central has actually been featured in more than a few hundred productions since it first opened in 1913, it’s not really accurate to refer to the place simply as a “Gossip Girl filming location”. Truth be told, being that the building is a National Historic Landmark and has been in operation for close to a century now, it’s really not fair to refer to the place as a “filming location” at all. The fact that the station has been immortalized in countless films and television shows over the years is more of a side-note than anything else. Truth be told, Grand Central Station, or Grand Central Terminal as it is officially called, is not only the largest train station in the entire world, but is also a marvel of modern-day architecture and one of the cornerstones of New York History. The terminal, which boasts 44 platforms and 67 different tracks and covers over 48 acres of space!!!, first opened on February 2, 1913 after a staggering ten years of construction. The Beaux-Arts style building was actually designed by two architectural firms – the firm of Reed & Stern handled the engineering, while Warren and Westmore conducted the aesthetic composition. And the place truly is a site to behold! The station’s main concourse is absolutely breathtaking – I mean my breath was literally taken away the first time I saw it! Seeing the huge shafts of sunlight stream through the concourse’s many window panels, as Hal Morey captured so beautifully in this photograph, is something everyone should experience in person at least once in their lives. The main concourse’s Grand Staircase which is made of marble and which was modeled after the main staircase in the Paris Opera House, is flanked by three beautiful – and HUGE – 75-foot tall leaded glass windows (pictured above).

On a side note – The Grand Staircase is also, coincidentally, where I took one of my very favorite photographs of New York (pictured above)! LOL LOL LOL

But my favorite part of the terminal’s main concourse has to be its ceiling! Oh, the ceiling! Grand Central’s beautiful, vaulted ceiling, which features a mural of Zodiac signs painted backwards was designed and created in 1912 by artist Paul Helleu and contains over 2,500 stars which actually light up. The reason for the backwards Zodiac depiction, you ask? The mural is supposed to represent the view of the stars a god would see while looking down upon planet Earth through the heavens.

The exterior of Grand Central Station is also quite remarkable, as you can see in the above photograph.

In 1914, while the station was under construction, French sculptor Jules-Alexis Coutans designed a 48 -foot tall statue of the Roman gods Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury which was to sit sentinel above Grand Central’s 42nd Street entrance. The statue, which was carved by the John Donnelly Company, also boasts a central glass clock measuring a whopping 13 feet in circumference. The clock was designed by none other than Tiffany & Co. and represents the largest example of Tiffany Glass in the entire world.

At night, the exterior becomes even more spectacular.

As you can see in the above picture, Grand Central is usually bustling with commuters and visitors alike! In fact, more than 500,000 people walk through the terminal’s doors EACH DAY!!!! (No, that’s not a typo – I really meant EACH DAY!) According to this fabulous article, in the year 1947 alone over 65 MILLION people visited Grand Central – an amount which equaled 40% of the entire popular of the United States at the time!

Which makes it all the more amazing that the station’s doors were almost shuttered in the 1950s. Due to the decline of railroads as a popular means of transportation, the terminal faced demolition on numerous different occasions beginning in the year 1954. Thankfully all such plans were subsequently thwarted, until 1967 when Penn Central Railroad announced its plans to tear down Grand Central and replace it with a sixty-plus story office building. Thankfully, New York preservationists, most notably former First Lady Jackie O., stepped in to stop the project. Jackie’s efforts took her all the way to the United States Supreme Court, where a ten year battle was fought over the station. Penn Central eventually lost the case and Grand Central was awarded landmark status, eliminating any further possibility of it ever being destroyed or changed. In 1994, the terminal was taken over by the Metro-North company, who subsequently began an extensive renovation process, restoring the terminal to her original glory to the tune of $250 million. Today Grand Central is as beautiful, and as busy, as ever. Besides being simply a commuter hub, today’s Grand Central Station also boasts fifty different retail stores and five different upscale restaurants, including the world-famous Oyster Bar which has been in operation since the station first opened in 1913. And, of course, as I mentioned before, the terminal is also a frequent filming location!

Grand Central has been featured in two different episodes of Gossip Girl – the Pilot episode and the Season Two episode entitled “Oh Brother, Where Bart Thou?”. In the Pilot, It-girl Serena van der Woodsen is spotted at Grand Central while making her infamous return to New York after a year spent in a Connecticut boarding school.

In that same episode, Rufus Humphrey picks up his kids, Dan and Jenny, at Grand Central after a weekend spent with their mother.

And yet again in that very same episode, Grand Central’s famous Campbell Apartment Bar, which I have blogged about once before, shows up at the site of Nate and Serena’s illicit tryst.

In the “Oh Brother, Where Bart Thou?” episode, Rufus confronts Lily about the child she never told him about while standing in the middle of Grand Central’s main concourse.

The Campbell Apartment also shows up in that episode as the spot where Chuck Bass hires a private investigator to look into the background of his deceased father’s widow.

Grand Central, as well as its flap-board destination sign, figure prominently in the end of fave teeny-bopper movie Just My Luck.

Other movies that have filmed at the terminal include North By Northwest, Armageddon, Carlito’s Way, Hackers, I Am Legend, K-PAX, Men In Black and its sequel Men In Black II, Midnight Run, Old Dogs, Party Monster, Revolutionary Road, The Bone Collector, The Cotton Club, The Fisher King, One Fine Day, Conspiracy Theory, Midnight Run, Loser, Falling In Love, The Prince of Tides, The Freshman, The Perfect Score, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, and Unfaithful. And, Grand Central replicas have even been built on studio soundstages when filming on location at the actual station wasn’t feasible, as was the case with Superman, Twentieth Century, Going Hollywood, The Thin Man Goes Home and Beneath the Planet of the Apes.

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On a “must-see” side note – One of Grand Central’s most famous spots, an area which I, sadly, have yet to visit, is the Whispering Gallery, which is located in the station’s Dining Concourse. As the name suggests, thanks to the laws of physics and the Gallery’s domed ceiling, two friends can stand at opposite corners of the room, face the walls, and whisper to each other and those whispers will be carried, quite loudly, from one corner of the room to the other. How amazingly cool is that? Fellow stalker Owen has even tested out this marvel of science and says it really does work! I absolutely cannot wait to try it out myself next year!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Grand Central Station is located on 42nd Street, in between Lexington and Park Avenues. Docent-led tours of the station are given each Wednesday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. by the Municipal Arts Society. The Whispering Gallery is located in the station’s Dining Concourse near the world-famous Oyster Bar. The Campbell Apartment is located at 15 Vanderbilt Avenue, just off Grand Central’s main concourse area. Sadly though, the bar has recently come under new ownership and the dress code has been changed. And, for some incredibly odd reason, it seems no one on the Campbell Apartment staff knows exactly what the new dress code entails. When we called the bar to inquire about the dress code prior to our arrival, we were told that jeans and tennis shoes were permissible. But when we showed up we were denied entrance . . . due to our jeans and tennis shoes. LOL Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind a place upholding a dress code, at all. In fact, I quite like it. But if you’re going to do so, the staff should darn well be able to tell patrons CORRECTLY what that dress code is!

October 22, 2009October 22, 2009

Blair Waldorf’s Gossip Girl Apartment Building

Well, it must be Gossip Girl week here at Iamnotastalker.com because here I am once again blogging about yet another location from the ubiquitous CW series. While in New York two weeks ago, one of the locales at the very top of my stalking list was the Upper East Side building where Queen Bee Blair Waldorf lives on my new favorite show. I found this location, once again, thanks to FanPop’s awesome Gossip Girl page and, because I love me some BW, I just simply wasn’t leaving New York until I had stalked her place. So, after dropping my best friend, his girlfriend, and his mother off at the Guggenheim Museum – because as I’ve mentioned before, I don’t do museums 🙂 – I dragged my fiancé just a few blocks North to do some stalking of Blair’s pad. On a side note: While doing research on Blair’s apartment building for today’s post, I came across this ABSOLUTELY AMAZING website, which lists pretty much EVERY SINGLE location ever featured on Gossip Girl! And, let me tell you, I almost fell off my chair while looking at it! HOW IN THE HECK DID I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS SITE BEFORE I LEFT FOR NEW YORK! UGH! 🙁 I could have spent my entire trip stalking Gossip Girl!!!!! LOL Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to set that as my goal for next year’s trip! 🙂

On Gossip Girl, Blair Waldorf lives in the Penthouse apartment of the ultra-exclusive Fifth Avenue building pictured above. The 15-story building, which houses 43 different apartments, was built in 1925 by architect George F. Pelham, Jr., who also designed the Castle Village apartment complex in Hudson Heights and the residential building located at 1120 Park Avenue. A two-bedroom unit in Blair’s building, which you can take a look at here, is currently for sale for the bargain price of $2,695,000! Besides views of Central Park, the building also boasts a full-time, white-gloved doorman AND a full-time, white-gloved elevator operator. That’s just so Blair Waldorf, isn’t it? 🙂 So love it!

Blair’s building has been featured regularly in establishing shots throughout the series’ two and a half year run. Filming also took place there for the Season One episode entitled “Victor, Victrola”, in which Nate Archibald and his father get into a fistfight on the sidewalk out in front of the building (pictured above).

In the Season Two episode entitled “In the Realm of the Basses”, Blair receives an invitation from the elite Colony Club in which the actual address of the real apartment building used for the filming is displayed. Love it!

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According to fave book Manhattan On Film: Walking Tours of Hollywood’s Fabled Front Lot, Blair’s building was also used in the 2001 Chris Rock movie Down to Earth, as the residence of Charles Wellington, whose body the spirit of Chris Rock inhabits after his untimely demise. The building also has a bit of celebrity history, as well. During their marriage, Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid owned a seven-room unit on the building’s 12th-floor, which they sold in March 2002, almost a year after their divorced was finalized, for a cool $6.5 million.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Blair Waldorf’s apartment from Gossip Girl is located at 1136 Fifth Avenue, on the corner of 5th Avenue and 95th Street, on New York’s Upper East Side.