television – Page 14 – IAMNOTASTALKER

August 2, 2010August 3, 2010

Jim and Pam’s Wedding Hotel from “The Office”

Now that I have watched all six seasons of The Office, I can honestly say that my favorite episode hands down has to be the Season 6 episode titled “Niagara” in which Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) and Pam Beasley (aka Jenna Fischer) finally get married. I loved the episode for two very different reasons – one, because Jim and Pam’s relationship is so incredibly sweet, and two, because it so perfectly captures what it is like to plan a wedding. Whoever wrote “Niagara” must have gone through the ordeal that is planning a wedding just prior to penning it, because, let me tell you, they got things absolutely, one hundred percent SPOT ON! And right now I can TOTALLY relate. Yes, planning a wedding is fun and exciting and heartwarming, but, at the same time, dealing with people is just not my forte. I honestly want to call up some of our guests and/or vendors and scream, “NO, I will not provide you with shade during the ceremony, NO, I will not pick you up from the airport on the morning of my wedding, and NO, it’s not OK that you RSVP-ed yes, but are now backing out even though I have already given my caterer the final head count!” – all of which were recently said to or asked of me and my fiancé! Sigh! The scene in which Pam says to Jim, “Everyone’s driving me crazy. This is supposed to be our wedding day! Why did we invite all these people?” especially resonated with me when I watched the episode and I can’t tell you the number of times since then that I’ve seriously considered jumping on a ship to tie the knot sans guests just like Pam and Jim eventually did. 😉 Anyway, while watching “Niagara”, I immediately recognized the hotel where Jim and Pam’s guests stayed during their wedding as the historic Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City. So, I dragged my fiancé right out to stalk it when we were in the area two weekends ago.

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The Sportmen’s Lodge Hotel has been around since the early 1880s, but at the time it was named Hollywood Trout Farms thanks to the fact that it was surrounded by a series of man-made lakes and piers from which guests could fish for trout which would then subsequently be cooked and served to them for dinner by the staff at the main restaurant. In 1962, a new, larger hotel was built on the property, which had since been re-named the Sportsmen’s Lodge. It is that structure that still stands today.

And while the trout lakes have long since been removed, the hotel now boasts an Olympic-sized swimming pool, numerous ponds and waterfalls, and eight picturesque acres of land. Due to its proximity to the Hollywood studios, the Lodge has long been popular with movie stars, including Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, Doris Day, David Lee Roth, Billy Bob Thornton, Trisha Yearwood, Spencer Tracy, Lauren Bacall, Tallulah Bankhead, Lena Horne, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Katharine Hepburn, and Bette Davis, all of whom have been spotted there at one time or another. In 2007, the hotel was purchased by real estate developer Richard Weintraub who set about extensively renovating the property. And, unfortunately, along with that renovation came quite a bit of change. 🙁

In The Office’s aptly named “Niagara” episode, Pam and Jim head to Niagara Falls to tie the knot. And while the interior scenes were filmed at the Sportsmen’s Lodge, as I mentioned above, the exterior shots were filmed at an actual Niagara Falls lodging named the Red Coach Inn. And, as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, the two hotels look nothing alike.

The Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel actually has two lobbies, and it is the back lobby, which is located off of Coldwater Canyon Avenue, that was used in the episode. Unfortunately, as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, that lobby looks MUCH different today than it did when The Office was filmed. During the recent remodel, all of the back lobby’s wood was covered over with white paint, making the space appear much less lodge-like.

Gone, too, is the hotel’s former stone-covered fireplace, which has been revamped to look like an ordinary, everyday fireplace. Such a shame! The hotel, which used to have a very kitschy feel to it, now appears traditional and run-of-the-mill. I am actually quite surprised that Weintraub had the place remodeled in such a way, as I am sure that it is no longer quite as appealing to producers and location managers.

And I have to say here that I absolutely LOVE the scene in which Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) shows up to the hotel’s front desk and informs the clerk that he doesn’t have a reservation because Jim and Pam have “blocked” rooms for their guests. LOL LOL LOL Man, I can SO see that happening in real life! I don’t know what it is about a wedding that renders seemingly normal, intelligent people into helpless, self-absorbed morons, but, let me tell you, it happens!

Several of the Lodge’s hotel rooms were also featured in the “Niagara” episode, including Room 642, where Pam’s grandmother, Meemaw, stayed;

Room 644, where Pam stayed;

Room 641, where Dwight stayed;

and Suite 639, aka the “Honeymoon Suite”, where Andy stayed.

All of the rooms featured in the episode can be found in the same hallway, which is located on the hotel’s second floor, directly above the main lobby.

I could NOT for the life of me find the ice/vending machine closet where Michael spent the night in “Niagara”, though. Oddly enough, according to the housekeeper that I spoke with, the hotel only has one ice machine area and it is located next to the pool. I checked it out, though, and it looks nothing like the room pictured above, which leads me to believe that producers either created a fake room in one of the hotel’s storage closets for the filming or that the ice machine room where filming took place was removed during the recent remodel.

The very same back lobby which appeared in The Office was also the site of the graduation dance in the Britney Spears’ movie Crossroads. I obtained this information from a crew member while I was working as an extra in the movie and I actually thought it was a bit odd being that a vast majority of the flick was lensed at the now-defunct Ambassador Hotel. It seems like it would have been a whole lot easier to just shoot the dance sequence in one of the former hotel’s many ballrooms since the cast and crew were already filming on location there, but, then again, what do I know? 😉

And, of course, I just HAD to pose on the Sportmen’s Lodge’s stairwell since Britney had once been there. 🙂

The actual dance scene in Crossroads was filmed in the Lodge’s Starlight ballroom. And, as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, the room’s light fixtures and the banister surrounding the dance floor still look the same today as they did in 2002 when Crossroads was filmed. YAY!

The hotel was also where Lynette Scavo (aka Felicity Huffman) stayed after leaving her husband Tom (aka Doug Savant) in the Season 2 episode of Desperate Housewives titled “Remember (1)”.

And if you look at the room where Lynette stayed in that episode, you will notice that it is a perfect match to the room Lucy Wagner (aka Britney Spears) and Henry (aka Justin Long) rented after the dance in Crossroads, which is extremely odd as I would have guessed – once again – that that scene would have been filmed at the above-mentioned Ambassador, as was the case with all of the other hotel room scenes in the movie. So odd!

The front entrance of the hotel also appeared in Crossroads.

The wedding from the end of I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry was filmed at the Lodge, in the hotel’s lagoon area, and, according to a staff member I spoke with, the movies Leverage, Made, and Day the World Ended, and episodes of the television series Reno 911, Columbo, and Falcon Crest were also all filmed at the Sportsmen’s Lodge,

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Sportmen’s Lodge, aka Jim and Pam’s wedding hotel from The Office, is located at 12825 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. You can visit the hotel’s official website here. In the “Niagara” episode, Pam stayed in Room 644, Dwight in Room 641, Pam’s Meemaw in Room 642, and Andy in Suite 639. All of the rooms that were featured in the episode are located in the same second floor hallway of the hotel, directly above the main lobby. The back lobby, which appeared in the both The Office and Crossroads, can be reached via Coldwater Canyon Avenue.

July 29, 2010July 29, 2010

David Wallace’s House from “The Office” – Part II

Another filming location from The Office that I dragged my fiance out to stalk two weekends ago was the large Colonial-style estate belonging to Dunder Mifflin Paper Company CFO David Wallace (aka Andy Buckley) on the show. This is not the same Pasadena-area property that stood in for the Wallace residence in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Branch Closing” that I blogged about two weeks ago, however. For an unexplained reason, after shooting the “Branch Closing” episode, producers chose to use a different, but similar-looking home located in the Encino-area, to stand in for the Wallace residence. I found this location, as usual, thanks to fellow stalker Owen, who tracked down a slew of Office filming locales long before I ever even watched the show. So, thank you, Owen!

Owen had warned me before I stalked the house that the property was not only gated, but set quite a ways back from the street and was most likely not at all visible to the public. I am very happy to report, though, that the stalking gods were smiling down upon us when we arrived to stalk the house because miraculously the front gates were standing WIDE OPEN! YAY! I am also happy to report that the home looks exactly the same in person as it did on the show.

I honestly can’t get over how large the Wallace residence is! The place is absolutely gargantuan! And it is currently for sale! According to its real estate listing, the home, which is currently being offered at $4,998,000, boasts 6 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, 6,000 square feet of living space, and sits on a whopping 3 acres of what the listing describes as “park-like” land. The home also features a separate 700-square foot guest house, working horse stables, a tennis court, a pool, and a spa.

The home first appeared in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Cocktails”, in which David Wallace and his wife, Rachel, throw a party at their house for all of the Dunder Mifflin managers.

And, as you can see in the above screen captures as compared to these interior photographs of the home, the real life inside of the house and even some of the actual furniture was used in the filming of that episode.

I have to say here that I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the scene in “Cocktails” in which Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) turns to a party guest who is eating shrimp and says, “You know that line on the top of the shrimp? That’s feces.” LOL LOL LOL That scene especially resonates with me because someone once told me that very same thing when I was a little girl and I have NEVER forgotten it and now can’t eat shrimp unless that “line” has been removed.

One VERY odd anomaly that I noticed while watching the “Cocktails” episode today was that the trash cans pictured in the background of the scene in which Michael and Dwight trade shirts were all spray-painted with the number “1485”. And while the home where that episode was filmed is numbered “5133”, the Pasadena residence that stood in for David Wallace’s house in the previous “Branch Closing” episode was in fact numbered “1485”. I don’t even know what to make of this development, as that shirt-trading scene was obviously not filmed at the Pasadena location. I guess I’ll just have to chalk it up to being a very, very bizarre coincidence.

David Wallace’s house also appeared in the Season 6 episode of The Office titled “Sabre” in the scene in which Michael goes to David’s home to get some advice on how to deal with the new corporation that has just taken over Dunder Mifflin.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: David Wallace’s (second) house from The Office is located at 5133 Louise Avenue in Encino. You can visit the home’s real estate listing here.

July 23, 2010July 22, 2010

Michael Scott’s Condo from “The Office”

I am very sad to report that early last week I finally watched the Season 6 finale of The Office and am at this time all caught up on new episodes of the show. I am not quite sure what to do with myself now and am seriously considering watching the entire series over again, even though it’s only been about three weeks since I began watching it the first time. What can I say – I am absolutely obsessed! Unlike me, though, my fiancé was extremely happy when I finished watching the series because as he said, “Yes, it’s a great show, but not when you are playing it on a 24-hour loop in our apartment.” He was on so much Office-overload, in fact, that he had actually taken to watching random movies on his laptop computer every night while I commandeered our TV. Poor guy. Anyway, because there are no new episodes for me to watch, in order to satisfy my Office fix I spent this past weekend dragging my fiancé all over the Valley to stalk a bunch of locations from the show, the first one being the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania- area condominium where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) lives. I found Michael’s residence thanks, once again, to fellow stalker Owen who was able to track the place down via a lucky Google search. Thank you, Owen!

While watching the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Dream Team”, Owen noticed the above-pictured “Exit on Laura Lane” sign displayed on a fence near the front of Michael’s house and figured it might just be an actual sign posted near the actual property. He then simply used Google to search for a Laura Lane in Los Angeles and it wasn’t long before he stumbled upon one located in Reseda and, sure enough, just around the corner from it was Michael’s condo. YAY!

Before stalking the place, Owen had warned me that Michael Scott’s condo was located inside of a gated community and that it was most likely not visible to the public. I am very happy to report, though, that Michael’s particular unit is the second house in from Wyandotte Street, which is a public road, and that it actually can be seen from the street! YAY!

Sadly, Michael’s front door, which appears quite often on the series, is not visible, though.

But, I was able to spy the front door of a different unit while I was there and I am very happy to report that it looks JUST LIKE Michael’s front door. 🙂

Michael first purchased the condo in the Season 2 episode of The Office titled “Office Olympics”. It is while he is buying the residence that he gives this sage piece of advice to the audience: “There’s a basic principle in real estate that you should never be the best-looking person in the development. It’s just sort of common sense because, if you are, then you’ve got no place to go but down.” LOL

In that same episode, when Michael first points out his new condo to Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) he mistakenly shows him the wrong unit, which is located directly across the street from the one which he has actually purchased.

The condo has been featured in several episodes of The Office over the course of the series’ six-year run, including the Season 4 episode titled “Dinner Party”, in which Michael invites all of the office couples over to his house for dinner.

And, as you can see from these photographs of another residence in the same development, the real-life interior of the home was actually used in the filming of that episode.

Michael’s condo was also featured in the Season 5 episode titled “Dream Team”, as well.

My favorite part about this location is that if you look at it via Bing Maps, you can see several production trucks, star trailers, and craft services tents set up, which means that they were actually filming an episode of The Office when the aerial images were taken!! SO DARN COOL!

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On a side note – I recently got a Brazilian Blowout treatment done to my hair and I have to say it was the BEST DECISION I EVER MADE! While I’ve never had particularly difficult or unruly hair, it is very thick and very curly and because I’ve been growing it out recently for the wedding, it has become rather time-consuming to style. My mom told me about the Brazilian Blowout treatment a few weeks ago after she heard it supposedly shortens the time it takes to straighten one’s hair. I was leery to try it as not only is it very expensive, but I was afraid it might fry my locks. I finally bit the bullet, though, last Wednesday, and, let me tell you, I am SO GLAD I DID! It is no exaggeration to say that the treatment has been life-changing! While it used to take me 90 minutes to blow-dry my hair straight, it now takes me 20! NO JOKE! And I no longer need to use any sort of product to style it – that’s right, no balm, no cream, no gel! If you have been trying to decide whether or not to try the Brazilian Blowout, I honestly cannot recommend it enough! I’ve gone from being so frustrated with my hair that I was ready to shave it all off ala Britney Spears to being a wash-and-go type of gal. LOVE IT!!!! LOVE IT!!!! LOVE IT!!!!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Michael Scott’s condo from The Office is located at 7303 Bonnie Place in Reseda. The condo which Michael mistakenly thinks is his in the “Office Olympics” episode is located at 7302 Bonnie Place. Both residences are located within a gated community, so please be respectful and do not trespass.

July 12, 2010July 22, 2010

David Wallace’s House from “The Office”

Fellow stalker Owen and I recently set out upon a mission to try to track down the Colonial-style residence belonging to David Wallace in the Season 3 episode of The Office titled “Branch Closing”. This proved to be a rather difficult find for us, though, being that we had virtually nothing to go on – no house number or street sign was visible in the background of the episode and neither Owen nor I had any idea of which city the house might be located in. We figured that unless we were able to get ahold of a crew member and gather some inside information, we would never be able to track the place down. That is until last week, when I stumbled upon this fabulous filming locations database, which, lo and behold, had photographs of the exact property which we were looking for! And not only did the database state that the house was located in Pasadena, but it also gave us an address number – 1485. YAY! I immediately emailed the link to Owen and the two of us set about using Google Maps to search every 1400 block in the Pasadena area. Three minutes later I got a text from Owen with the address. And while he says that this one was a team effort, my hat is definitely off to him because there is absolutely NO WAY I ever would have found the place as quickly as he did. So, THANK YOU, OWEN! 🙂

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In the “Branch Closing” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) come up with a plan to save the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company’s Scranton branch by driving to New York to make a personal face-to-face plea to CFO David Wallace (aka Andy Buckley) at his home, the address of which Dwight has stolen off of the company Christmas card list. Because Wallace is not at home when they show up to confront him “Michael Moore-style”, they are forced to wait outside on the sidewalk all day and into the night with only a bottle of Gatorade to sustain them. And while Dwight and Michael never end up getting the chance to confront Wallace in the episode, the Scranton Branch does eventually get spared from closure.

I am VERY happy to report that the Wallace residence looks much the same in person as it did onscreen. In fact, the only difference I noticed was that the bronze eagle that was affixed to the round portico above the front door in the episode was not there in real life. Otherwise, though, the house looks exactly as it did on the show. Love it!

As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, producers even went so far as to have the house’s real life “San Marino Security” sign covered over with a “Mount Vernon Security” sign for the filming, which is so darn cool!

And, of course, I just had to sit in the spot where Dwight and Michael were sitting at the end of the episode. 🙂

On a side note – for whatever reason, in the episode of The Office titled “Cocktails”, which aired during the very same season as the “Branch Closing” episode, a similar-looking, but obviously very different, home stood in for the Wallace residence. Have no fear, though, Owen also found that property, so I will be stalking it soon!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: David Wallace’s house from the “Branch Closing” episode of The Office is located at 1485 Lomita Drive in Pasadena.

July 8, 2010July 7, 2010

On the Set of “Mad Men”

This past Tuesday, I received an email from one of my fellow stalkers alerting me to the fact that the hit AMC television series Mad Men was going to be shooting on location in Pasadena the following day at Don and Betty Draper’s house, which I blogged about last June. And even though I don’t really watch the show, I just had to venture out to stalk the set – with my camera in hand, of course! 🙂 Unfortunately though, not a whole lot was going on while I was there and the filming only lasted a few short hours. The scene being shot was a very short little driving scene involving actor Jon Hamm, who plays advertising executive Don Draper on the show. And sadly, the crew, while nice, made it very clear that they did NOT want photographs being taken of anything – the set, the filming, the actors, etc., etc., etc. And while I was in no way going to let that stop me ;), the only pictures I could take were on the down low, so I didn’t get very many good ones. I did manage to snap the above photograph of Jon as he was leaving the set after shooting had wrapped, though, and let me tell you, I was completely floored about that! 🙂

Jon seemed super friendly and waved to me and another stalker who I was hanging out with from his van as he was being driven away from the set. I so would have LOVED to have gotten a photograph with him, but unfortunately he was shuttled away from the premises rather quickly as he was due in Downtown L.A., where more Mad Men filming was taking place.

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After Jon Hamm was driven away, I stuck around for a bit to watch the crew members strike the set, a process which I find incredibly interesting. I always love to see what aspects of a property are changed for a filming and which are left the same. One altered aspect of the Draper house that I knew about prior to my set visit yesterday was the color of their front door. As you can see in the above photograph, which I took when I stalked the property last June, in real life the home’s front door is painted blue.

But on the show, the Draper’s front door is painted a bright red color, and, let me tell you, when I set out to stalk the set yesterday, I was most excited over the prospect of seeing that red door in person – even more so than I was about the prospect of seeing Jon Hamm. 😉 And I was even more excited when I was able to snap the above photograph of it! YAY! I found out from a crew member that the home’s real life front door is actually painted red each and every time they film at the property! I had mistakenly assumed that set dressers had a special door that they installed during each filming, but in reality, someone is actually brought in the day before shooting to paint the real life door red and then, after shooting wraps, he or she paints it back to its original blue color . . . every single time they film! Isn’t that incredible? I mean, I realize doors are expensive and all, but it seems to me that it would be a whole lot more cost effective and a whole lot more timely to simply switch out the real door for a red one. Not to mention the fact that there now must be over a dozen layers of paint on that door! I swear, I’ll never understand Hollywood sometimes!

Set dressers also install a fake light post (which you can see laying on the ground in the above photograph) each time filming takes place, which was incredible to see. They actually dig up a part of the home’s front lawn in order to bury the base of the light each and every time they film! With all the filming that takes place at the property that poor lawn probably never has time to grow back! They also bring in a slew of potted plants (which you can also see in the above photograph) which are placed on the front porch for each filming.

The coolest thing for me to see, though, was the fake street sign that was put up for the scene. The signs above which read “Shady Lane” and “Bullet Park Road” normally spell out “El Molino Avenue” and “Arden Road”. So darn cool! According to one of the crew members I talked to, the fake sign was so realistic that it caused a bit of confusion for a passerby who was driving around, trying unsuccessfully to find Arden Road. LOL

Set dressers also covered up the above-pictured stop sign with a fake 50’s style stop sign, but unfortunately I didn’t get a photograph of it. In fact, I didn’t even notice it was a fake sign until one of the set dressers removed it after filming had wrapped. I SO wish I had gotten a picture of it! UGH! I am SO blonde sometimes.

Ironically enough, my fiancé and I were watching the 1995 movie Outbreak a couple of weeks ago and I was floored to discover that the house belonging to Robby Keough (aka Rene Russo) in the flick was none other than the Mad Men house! So cool! You can see some great interior photographs of the home here. And, according to one of the crew members I talked to, some Mad Men filming does actually take place inside of the home.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Don and Betty Draper’s house from Mad Men is located at 675 Arden Road in Pasadena.

July 7, 2010July 22, 2010

Jim and Pam’s House from “The Office”

One location that I stalked back in April while fellow stalker Lavonna and her daughter Melissa were in town was the house that Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinksi) purchased for his fiancé Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer) in the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Frame Toby”. At the time I had never actually seen an episode of the series despite the fact that pretty much everyone in my life (from fellow stalker Owen to my best friend Kylee) had been telling me how fabulous it was. But then, a few weeks ago, I finally took the plunge and rented the show’s entire first season on DVD, and, let me tell you, once I sat down to watch it I simply COULD NOT STOP! It practically became an addiction! They say that laughter is the best medicine and from what I’ve experienced watching The Office that sentiment is absolutely true. I started viewing the series during a particularly stressful time in my life and it brought me so many much-needed laughs that I was lifted right out of my funk. In fact, I can honestly say that never IN MY LIFE have I laughed out loud at a show as much as I have these past few weeks while watching The Office. It’s absolutely hilarious! For those of you holdouts who have never watched the show, you simply must start! But I digress. Anyway, last night I finally saw the “Frame Toby” episode in which Jim and Pam’s house is first shown, which meant that I could finally, finally blog about the place!

On The Office, Jim and Pam’s house actually first belonged to Jim’s parents. He buys it from them as a gift for Pam because, as he says, he wants to help his parents out and because he was able to “save on closing costs”. So darn cute! 🙂 I have to give major props to Owen on finding this location as producers actually changed the property’s address number in the episode in order to throw us stalkers off track!

As you can see in the above photograph, in real life the house is numbered 13831.

But, as you can see in the above screen capture, producers had the second “1” digitally removed from the scene. UGH! I SO hate it when they do that! Changing address numbers has to be my biggest stalking pet peeve! Thankfully though, Owen, acting on a tip from a fellow stalker, started searching the neighborhood surrounding the studio where The Office is filmed and found the house a mere two miles away. YAY!

And I am very happy to report that, aside from the address number, the property looks very similar in person as to how it appeared in the “Frame Toby” episode. Producers very obviously roughed the house up a bit for the filming (i.e. the broken roof gutter, the leaves on the front lawn, and the overgrown foliage), but I am guessing that in the episodes to come, Jim will be shown fixing up the place for Pam. I can’t say that for certain, though, as I am currently only halfway through Season 5, so I’ve still got some viewing to do before I catch up with the current episodes. I’ve actually had to considerably slow down my Office-watching habit this past week, though, because I am absolutely DREADING having no more new episodes to watch. I honestly don’t know what I’ll do with myself when that happens!

The home’s garage area, which on the show Jim converted into an art studio for Pam . . .

. . . is sadly not visible from the street.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Jim and Pam’s house from The Office is located at 13831 Calvert Street in Van Nuys.

July 6, 2010July 5, 2010

Will Rogers Memorial Park from “90210”

As I mentioned yesterday, my fiancé and I spent quite a bit of last weekend making up for lost time, so to speak, by catching up on all of the stalking that I had been putting off over the past few months while my dad was ill. The location that I was most excited about seeing in person was Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, which was the spot where Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes) and Liam Court (aka Matt Lanter) took a dip in a fountain in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “Multiple Choices”. And while I haven’t exactly been a huge fan of the CW series this past season, I have absolutely loved watching the friendship between Liam and Annie blossom and change in the most recent episodes, especially in the fountain scene (which is vaguely reminiscent of the Carrie/Big fountain scene from Sex and the City). Add to that the fact that I have a massive crush on actor Matt Lanter and I just HAD to stalk the park where filming took place. 🙂 It is at this point that I should confess that I had no idea whatsoever where Annie and Liam’s fountain might be located, despite the fact that I’d actually driven by it more times than I’d care to admit. Thankfully though, the Grim Cheaper pays closer attention to things than I do, because he recognized the park immediately while watching the show. Thank you, G.C.! As it turns out, Will Rogers Memorial Park is located on Sunset Boulevard, directly across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel, one of my favorite places in all of L.A. How I had never seen the park during one of my many visits to the Pink Palace is absolutely beyond me! Ugh, I am such a blonde sometimes!

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The five-acre parcel of land that currently makes up Will Rogers Memorial Park originally belonged to the Beverly Hills Hotel and served as its front lawn area. In 1915, the hotel decided to donate the land to the City of Beverly Hills and it became known as Sunset Park, the city’s very first municipal park. Thirty-seven years later, in 1952, the City renamed the property in honor of legendary actor/humorist/cowboy Will Rogers, who had been dubbed “Honorary Mayor” of Beverly Hills while at the park in 1926.

Will Rogers Memorial Park is an absolutely GORGEOUS place, with a huge central fountain filled with Koi fish, sweeping lawns, and countless palm trees which dot the property. I honestly can’t recommend stalking it enough.

In the “Multiple Choices” episode of 90210, Liam takes Annie to the park to get her mind off of her parents’ recent marital troubles. While there, Annie announces that she wants “to kick something or scream or just, you know, run away” before impulsively jumping into the park’s large fountain. When Liam later tries to pull her out, he accidentally falls into the water himself. It’s a super cute little scene and was the first time that either Annie or Liam acknowledged to themselves that they might have feelings for each other.

You can watch the Annie/Liam fountain scene by clicking above.

Will Rogers Memorial Park has actually had quite a few brushes with fame. Its cinematic history first began almost nine decades ago, when it was featured in the 1921 Charlie Chaplin movie The Idle Class, which you can see a photograph of here. And according to the Seeing Stars website, in 1990 rocker Rod Stewart proposed to his one-time wife Rachel Hunter while at the park. The property is perhaps most famous, though, for a much less glitzy reason – it was in the park’s restroom that singer George Michael was arrested for performing a lewd act on April 7, 1998. And while my fiancé did use the men’s room while we were there, I felt a little odd about sending him in with a camera to take pictures of it. 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Will Rogers Memorial Park is located at 9650 Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills, directly across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel.

June 22, 2010June 21, 2010

Casey’s Irish Pub

One location that I have been wanting to stalk for what seems like ages now is Casey’s Irish Pub (aka Casey’s Bar & Grill), a historic Downtown Los Angeles watering hole that has appeared in COUNTLESS movie and television productions throughout its more than thirty year history. I first found out about the bar over six months ago while doing some online research on locales featured in the first X-Files movie and the place has been high up on my “To Stalk” list ever since. But until this past weekend, I had yet to make it there. My delay in visiting the bar was not for lack of trying, though, believe me. For some reason, every time my fiancé and I found ourselves in the area, Casey’s Irish Pub was, unfortunately, closed. I’ve lost track of the amount of thwarted Casey’s stalking attempts that were actually made, but, trust me, the number is higher than you can count on one hand. Thankfully though, this past Saturday night, fate finally intervened and my fiancé and I found ourselves just a few blocks away from Casey’s during a time when the bar was actually open! YAY! And, even though I was in a fairly bad mood at the time – unfortunately, there is still some health drama going on with my dad and I also recently found out that one of my closest friends is ill, so it’s not exactly a happy time for me – we decided to stop in anyway. And I am SO glad that we did, because my spirits were lifted almost immediately upon walking through Casey’s beveled-glass doors.

The two-story building where Casey’s now resides was first constructed in 1916 and originally housed a general store on its street level and a Turkish bath on its basement-level. In 1924, the general store and bathhouse were closed and an upscale restaurant named B&M Cafeteria was opened in their place. The former general store space was transformed into B&M’s main dining room and the former Turkish bath location became the kitchen area. In the years following, the restaurant went through numerous changes of ownership and several different restaurant incarnations, until 1969, when it took on the name of Casey’s Irish Pub. Casey’s owners had the two-level property completely revamped, most notably moving the entire structure thirty feet back from the street in order to make room for an enclosed basement-level patio. After changing hands – but not its moniker – a few more times, in 2007 Casey’s was acquired by the nightlife development company 213 – the very same company that was also responsible for restoring the popular Cole’s Restaurant a few years back. (Once again I must apologize for the ultra-blurry photographs that appear in this post. I STILL cannot figure out how to use my new camera and I am growing seriously annoyed! UGH!)

Casey’s Irish Pub is absolutely HUGE (over 10,000 square feet!) and features a gorgeous mahogany bar, hand-pressed tin ceilings, a live-music stage, a dart room, a billiards room, and several private event areas, including the “Captain’s Quarters” (pictured above). Not only is the bar’s ambiance fabulous and unique, but the food is also INCREDIBLE, despite what the reviews on Yelp state. As I’ve mentioned numerous times in the past, I am an INCREDIBLY picky eater, especially when it comes to chicken, and I have to say that Casey’s serves up some of the best food in L.A. My fiancé and I especially loved their famous pub fries – which are an absolute must-have while dining at Casey’s – and their Cobb salad. The staff there could also NOT have been nicer and one of the bartenders even went so far as to take me on a little mini-tour of the place, which is how I got the above-pictured photographs of the Captain’s Quarters. 🙂 Love it!

The thing I was most excited about, though, was the fact that Casey’s not only serves champagne – and good champagne, at that – but they serve it in old-school champagne glasses, ala the kind Marilyn Monroe was always pictured drinking out of. So darn cool! I honestly can’t recommend stalking Casey’s enough!!!! I can pretty much guarantee its a place that stalkers and non-stalkers alike will appreciate!

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Walking through the doors of Casey’s Irish Pub is truly like stepping back in time and it is not very hard to see why filmmakers have returned there again and again over the years to capture the place’s unique ambiance on film. And, thanks to the bar’s definite New York vibe, it is most often portrayed as being in a city other than Los Angeles. In 2002’s Mr. Deeds, Casey’s stands in for the New York bar where Babe Bennett (aka Winona Ryder) went to drown her sorrows after being rejected by Longfellow Deeds (aka Adam Sandler).

In the first X-Files movie, Casey’s appeared as the Washington, D.C. bar where cutie Fox Mulder (aka David Duchovny) met Dr. Alvin Kurtzweil (aka Martin Landau) for the first time.

Ironically enough, though, for the scenes which supposedly took place outside of the bar, producers filmed at a different location entirely, yet they chose to use the actual Casey’s name on the exterior signage. Casey’s real-life exterior is pictured above and, as you can see, it is located below street-level and looks nothing like the exterior shown in The X-Files.

In 2006’s 16 Blocks, Casey’s stood in for the New York bar where Detective Jack Mosby (aka Bruce Willis) celebrated his birthday.

In Charlie Wilson’s War, Casey’s was featured as the Washington, D.C. watering hole where Congressman Charlie Wilson (aka Tom Hanks) took his lady friend Joanne Herring (aka Julia Roberts) for a drink before leaving on a trip to the Middle East.

In Good Night and Good Luck, Casey’s pops up as the New York bar where Edward R. Murrow (aka David Strathairn), Fred Friendly (aka George Clooney), and their co-workers wait to read the reviews of their just-aired See It Now television special about Senator Joseph McCarthy. Ironically enough, according to the movie’s DVD commentary, Casey’s was one of only two non-studio locations used in the filming of Good Night and Good Luck – the other being the Masonic Temple in Pasadena.

In 1998’s Fallen, Casey’s stands in for the Philadelphia bar where John Hobbes (aka Denzel Washington) met up with his cop friends Lou (aka James Gandolfini) and Jonesy (aka John Goodman) after the execution of a notorious serial killer.

In The Deep End of the Ocean, Casey’s stood in for the Chicago, Illinois restaurant where Detective Candy Bliss (aka Whoopi Goldberg) took Beth Cappadora (aka Michelle Pfeiffer) for a bite to eat a few weeks after Sam, Beth’s kidnapped son, was returned to her. Both the interior and the exterior of Casey’s were used in the flick.

Casey’s has also been featured in numerous episodes of the television series Mad Men, including the Season 1 episode titled “The Hobo Code”, where it stood in for P.J. Clarke’s, the famed, real life 125-year old watering hole located in Manhattan.

Casey’s also popped up in the Season 2 episode of Mad Men titled “For Those Who Think Young”, as the spot where Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm) is shown eating a steak and eggs breakfast after learning from his doctor that he is not in the greatest of health. The bar was also apparently featured in an episode of CSI, although I am not sure of which particular episode.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Casey’s Irish Pub is located at 613 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. The restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. each Monday through Wednesday, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. each Thursday through Saturday, and from 3 p.m. to 11 a.m. each Sunday. You can visit the official Casey’s website here.

May 27, 2010June 16, 2011

The New York Public Library from “Sex and the City: The Movie”

In honor of today’s big premiere of Sex and The City 2, I thought I’d blog about a location from the original movie that I stalked this past October while I was in Manhattan – the New York Public Library. And even though I’ve actually blogged about this location once before, since I did not include any interior photographs, I thought the place was definitely worth re-visiting. In the original Sex and the City movie, Carrie Bradshaw (aka Sarah Jessica Parker) and her fiancé Mr. Big (aka Chris Noth) plan to hold their upcoming nuptials at the library because, as Carrie says, it is “the classic New York landmark that housed all the great love stories”. The New York Public Library was constructed during the years 1902 through 1911 on the site of the former Croton Reservoir and was designed by the architecture firm Carrere & Hastings. The Beaux-Arts structure, which is made of white marble and cost $9 million to build, encompasses two full blocks of New York City land and contains 88 miles of shelving which holds over seven million books. Amazingly enough, any one of those seven million tomes can be requested and delivered to the library’s main circulation desk within a period of ten minutes or less! The New York Public Library, which was named a National Historic Monument in 1965, is a truly amazing piece of architecture and, being that it is symbolic of the two great loves of Carrie Bradshaw’s life – New York City and writing – it is easy to see why producers chose it as the site of her ill-fated wedding.

The library shows up twice in Sex and the City: The Movie. It first appears in the scene in which Carrie, while returning the book “Love Letters of Great Men, Volume I”, spots a wedding being set up in the library’s mezzanine. She immediately decides the place is the perfect location for her own upcoming nuptials.

That first scene was shot in the extremely beautiful McGraw Rotunda, which is located on the library’s second floor.

The New York Public Library next appears in the big wedding scene, during which Mr. Big stands Carrie up at the altar. And I should state here that the wedding scene seriously annoyed me. I mean, honestly, how many times can we expect Big to screw up before Carrie leaves him for good???? The SATC writers really need to come up with a new way of creating tension, because the whole Big-breaks-Carrie’s-heart thing was already getting old way back in Season 3. We should be long past that storyline by now, but I digress.

According to the SUPER nice security guard I spoke with, producers had the McGraw Rotunda intricately decorated with thousands upon thousands of flowers and other adornments for the wedding scene, yet none of it was visible in the movie. The only time any of the wedding decorations can be spotted is in the above-pictured blink-and-you’ll miss it scene in which Anthony Marentino (aka Mario Cantone) tells an assistant to keep all of the wedding guests off of the main stairwell.

The scene in which Mr. Big tells Carrie via telephone that he “couldn’t get out of the car” and that he will not be going through with the wedding was filmed in the library’s Astor Hall area, just off of the main lobby.

Miranda (aka Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (aka Kristin Davis) immediately grab Carrie and rush her out of the library’s northernmost front door.

And, while I was stalking the library, I, of course, just had to reenact the scene in which a devastated Carrie drops her cell phone after finding out that Big has stood her up.

Sex and the City: The Movie was hardly the first production to film at the library, though. The building was also the site of the benefit gala in the Season 3 episode of Gossip Girl titled “Ex-Husbands and Wives”

In the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Paul Varjak (aka George Peppard) and Holly Golightly (aka Audrey Hepburn) stop into the library during their “things we’ve never done before” day. And while the real life exterior of the library appeared in that scene, I cannot say for certain that the actual interior was also used. The interior scenes quite possibly may have been filmed on a studio soundstage. The library also appeared in a later scene in the movie as the spot where Paul first tells Holly that he loves her. And I just have to say here that I find it absolutely amazing that Audrey Hepburn’s costumes are still stylish today, almost five decades after Breakfast at Tiffany’s was filmed! I mean, how adorable is the orange jacket pictured above? But, again, I digress.

In the original Spider-Man movie, Uncle Ben (aka Cliff Robertson) drops off Peter Parker (aka Tobey Maguire) at the library, where he is supposedly going to do some studying. Peter instead goes to a wrestling match dressed as Spider-Man. When Ben later comes to pick Peter up, he gets killed outside of the library’s main entrance.

Jenna Rink (aka Jennifer Garner) and Matt Flamhaff (aka Mark Ruffalo) stage part of their “Class of 2004” photo shoot in front of the New York Public Library in fave movie 13 Going On 30.

In 1997’s Picture Perfect, the library was the site of the Gulden’s Mustard party where Kate Mosley (aka my girl Jennifer Aniston) first becomes disillusioned with the advertising world.

And while a large portion of the movie The Day After Tomorrow was set in the New York Public Library, no filming actually took place there. Instead producers built a replica of the library’s interior on a studio soundstage that they later destroyed during the massive flood scenes. According to the security guard that I spoke with, set designers spent weeks taking measurements of the interior of the library so that it could be exactly replicated for the filming.

In The Thomas Crown Affair, the inside of the library stood in for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as the Met refused to let any interior scenes be shot on the premises.

The first Ghostbusters movie actually opens with a shot of the New York Public Library and its famous stone lions, who are named Patience and Fortitude. The library has also appeared in the movies On The Town, Pickup on South Street, A Thousand Clowns, The Clock, King Kong, and You’re a Big Boy Now, and in the television series Kings.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The New York Public library is located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 42nd Street in New York City. It is open to the public daily.

May 21, 2010May 21, 2010

The “FlashForward” FBI Headquarters Building

I was thoroughly disappointed to learn about the cancellation of the ABC television series FlashForward earlier this week, as the show was one of my favorites of the 2009 Fall Season. What makes the cancellation most heartbreaking, though, for me at least, is the fact that because the season finale was filmed long before the series was canceled, producers did not get a chance to wrap-up the show’s central mystery. I am afraid that unless a different network purchases FlashForward (which does happen on occasion), its fans will not be offered any sort of ending, resolution, or closure. Not only will it remain a mystery as to what exactly caused the two minute and seventeen second worldwide blackout, but we will also never know how the lives of the main characters turn out. UGH! So annoying! Anyway, a few weeks back, long before I left for Minnesota, I dragged my fiancé out to Downtown L.A. to stalk the John Ferraro building, which is used as the FBI Headquarters building each week on FlashForward. Oddly enough, even though the building looked familiar to me when I first watched the pilot episode of the series, I couldn’t figure out exactly where I had seen it before. Thankfully, though, fellow stalker Owen clued me into the fact that Gary, from the Seeing Stars website, was putting together a FlashForward locations page. So, I emailed him to ask where the headquarters building was located and he wrote back immediately. Yay! Thank you, Gary!

The John Ferraro building, which was originally known as the Department of Water and Power’s General Office building, took four years to construct at a cost of $30 million and was first dedicated on June 24th, 1965. The 17-story building, which was built entirely out of glass, steel, and concrete, was designed by architect Albert C. Martin of AC Martin Partners, an architectural firm who, according to a 1979 Los Angeles Times article, designed “more than 50 percent of all the major buildings erected in downtown Los Angeles since World War II”. Martin, who was apparently light years ahead of his time, incorporated many “green” elements into the construction of the building, including a system which used the property’s fountains to cool the interior and its lighting to heat it. Amazingly enough, that system is still in use today! On November 16, 2000, the City of Los Angeles renamed the Department of Water and Power building in honor of former L.A. Councilman John Ferraro, who at the time had dedicated over 50 years of his life to public service.

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I can quite honestly say that the John Ferraro building is one of the most beautiful structures in all of L.A. – and one of my favorites! With its 360 degree views of the Downtown Los Angeles skyline and ginormous fountain which surrounds its perimeter, the building is nothing short of majestic. If you haven’t had the chance to stalk the place yet, I HIGHLY recommend doing so. As was made apparent by the group of people enjoying a leisurely walk around the building, the photographers taking time-lapse pictures of the fountains, and the many couples just sitting and enjoying the unparalleled views, this is one building that can be appreciated by stalkers and non-stalkers alike. It’s simply breathtaking! And a place I never would have even known about had it not been for FlashForward!

In addition to being used each week in establishing shots of the FBI Headquarters on FlashForward . . .

. . . some filming has also taken place on location at the John Ferraro Building, including the fight scene between Detective Janis Hawk (aka Christine Woods) and Marcie Turoff (aka Amy Rosoff) in the episode titled “Queen Sacrifice” (pictured above) and the suicide scene of Agent Al Gough (aka Lee Thompson Young) in the episode titled “The Gift”.

The parking structure of the John Ferraro Building was also used in the big chase scene between Sarah Connor (aka Linda Hamilton), Kyle Reese (aka Michael Biehn) and The Terminator (aka Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the first Terminator movie. There are also some reports floating around that the John Ferraro Building stood in for both New York’s 14th Precinct on the 1980’s television series Cagney & Lacey and a Tacoma police station in the 1989 movie Three Fugitives, but that information is actually incorrect.

On a side note – For those who have yet to visit the Google website today, you really need to do so NOW! In honor of the 30th anniversary of PacMan,Google has implanted a fully-functional mini-version of the 80’s classic arcade game on their homepage. It is just about the coolest thing ever and I’ve already spent WAY too much time today playing it. Love it, love it, love it!

Big THANK YOU to Gary, from Seeing Stars, for finding this location. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The John Ferraro Building, aka FBI Headquarters from FlashForward, is located at 111 North Hope Street in Downtown Los Angeles.