The Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel from “90210”

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Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I stopped by a couple of weeks ago while doing some stalking in the South Bay was the Manhattan Beach Marriott, which stood in for the supposed-Beverly-Hills-area hotel where the West Beverly High Senior Prom was held in the Season 3 episode of fave show 90210 titled “The Prom Before the Storm”.  I found this location thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who was kind enough to put together an entire 90210-themed South Bay stalking list for me as soon as he found out that I was heading down that way.  Sadly, due to some major traffic that the GC and I encountered on our way down there (darn you, 405!), we were not able to spend as much time in the area as I had hoped and only managed to hit up a couple of locations, one of which was the prom hotel.  Ironically enough, not only had the GC and I actually stayed at the Manhattan Beach Marriott a few years back, but thanks to its appearance in an early episode of The O.C., I had even blogged about it.  So the fact that I did not recognize it when it appeared in “The Prom Before the Storm” episode is highly embarrassing!  I mean, what kind of a stalker am I???  Winking smile

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Only the exterior of the Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel was featured in the episode, in the scene in which Liam Court (aka cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!), Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord) and the rest of the West Beverly High gang arrive at their Senior Prom.  As you can see in the screen capture located on the bottom right above, producers put up curtains to block the interior of the hotel in the scene as it did not match up with the interior set that they had created at Manhattan Beach Studios where the series is lensed.

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That set, which was centered around Silver’s (aka Jessica Stroup’s) half-baked Cirque du Soleil prom theme, is pictured above.

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I am very happy to report that the hotel looks exactly the same in person as it did in the episode.  Ironically enough, the Manhattan Beach Marriott is eerily similar in appearance to the Universal Sheraton, where Brenda Walsh (aka Shannen Doherty), Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry), Donna Martin (aka Tori Spelling) and the rest of the original West Bev gang attended the spring dance in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 aptly titled “Spring Dance”.

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The exterior staircase located just east of the hotel’s front entrance also made an appearance in the episode as the spot where Ivy Sullivan (aka Gillian Zinser) caught her then-boyfriend, now-husband Raj Kher (aka Manish Dayal) drinking.

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As I mentioned above, the Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel was also featured in the Season 1 episode of The O.C. titled “The Debut”.  In the episode, the interior of the hotel masqueraded as the interior of Newport Beach’s Pelican Hill Country Club where the dance rehearsals for Marissa Cooper (aka Mischa Barton) and Summer Roberts’s (aka Rachel Bilson’s) Debutante Ball were held.

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Both the hotel’s Grand Lobby, which as you can see above has changed its color scheme drastically since the episode was filmed;

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and the Manhattan Ballroom, which was unfortunately closed when we showed up to stalk the place but which you can see photographs of here, were featured in the episode.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

90210 Prom Marriott stairwell

Stalk It: The Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel, from “The Prom Before the Storm” episode of 90210, is located at 1400 Parkview Avenue in Manhattan Beach.  The hotel’s main entrance and the exterior stairwell, which is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view and is located just east of the main entrance, appeared in the episode.  In “The Debut” episode of The O.C., the hotel’s front lobby and Manhattan Ballroom were featured.  You can visit the Manhattan Beach Marriott’s official website here.

The Warner Grand Theatre

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This past Saturday, my family and I returned from Catalina Island via the Catalina Express high speed catamaran that docks in San Pedro Harbor.  When the captain announced that we had finally reached our destination, I suddenly realized that a filming location I have LONG been dying to stalk was actually located in the very city where we now found ourselves!  The Warner Grand Theatre, where Rosalee Futch took Tad Hamilton on a date in fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, was in fact located just a few miles away from where our boat had just docked.  🙂  I have absolutely no idea why I hadn’t realized it sooner.  So, I begged my dad to drive me over to the theatre as soon as we gathered our luggage and, amazingly enough, he obliged.   Thank you, dad!

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Warner Brothers first opened the Warner Grand Theatre on January 20, 1931.  It was co-designed in an Art Deco style by architect B. Marcus Priteca, who also constructed the Pantages Theatre, and interior designer Anthony Heinsbergen.  Priteca and Heinsbergen had also created two other theatres for the Warner Brothers Company – one in Beverly Hills and one in Huntington Park.  Unfortunately, though, the Warner Grand is the only one of the three that is still intact.  In 1982, the City of Los Angeles declared the 1,400 seat theatre a Cultural and Historic Monument.  Sadly, though, in the 1990’s it fell into a serious state of disarray and was almost demolished.  The theatre was saved in January of 1996 when the City of Los Angeles stepped in and purchased it for $1.2 million and began a slow, painstaking restoration process.  It has since been named a National Historic Place.  The Grand is currently open for business, showing foreign and independent films on its fifty foot screen almost every weekend and showcasing various events including concerts, plays, and even graduations.  And it is also a frequent filming location!  🙂

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The Warner Grand actually shows up three times in Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, where it stands in for the local Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia movie theatre.  The movie’s very first scene takes place at the theatre, in which Rosalee, Pete, and Cathy watch Tad’s latest film entitled A Man Called Jackson.

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Later on in the movie, Rosalee takes Tad to the Warner Grand for their second date.

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It is at the theatre that one of my favorite lines from the movie is spoken.  In the scene, while walking by a poster for one of Tad’s movies, Rosalee says “You look so sad there”, to which Tad replies “Give me a break.  I just lost my wife . . . and my goat.”  LOL LOL LOL  

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The theatre last shows up in what was to be the movie’s original ending, which is shown in the DVD’s Special Features section.  In the scene, Pete, Cathy, Rosalee, and Rosalee’s father are at the Warner watching A Good Man is Hard to Find, Tad’s latest movie which tells the story of his relationship with Rosalee.

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The Warner has also been featured in countless other productions.  In the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor, the Warner Grand was the Oahu theatre where Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett watched the MovieTone News clip about the war. 

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Later on in the scene, they grab a bite to eat at the “Black Cat Diner”, which is located directly next door to the theatre and which, in reality, is an art gallery named the Findings Art Center.   Unfortunately, I didn’t snap any photos of the Black Cat location as I didn’t learn about its use in Pearl Harbor until after I got home and started researching the theatre.  🙁

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In the same scene, while Kate and Josh are eating inside the Black Cat Diner, their friend Ray proposes to his girlfriend Betty on the street outside the Warner Grand. 

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In the Season One episode of The O.C. entitled “The Proposal”, the Warner stood in for the Newport Beach theatre where Ryan, Seth, and Summer took Marisa to cheer her up after she had discovered that her ex-boyfriend, Luke, was sleeping with her mother.  Nice mom, huh?

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After seeing the movie, the gang heads over to a Jamba Juice located in the Arcade Building on Sixth Street directly across the street from the theatre, where they run into – you guessed it – Marisa’s mother and ex-boyfriend, Luke. 

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Because my parents were not too keen on waiting around while I stalked all of West 6th Street, I didn’t get to venture inside the Arcade Building. But I did manage to snap the above pic from across the street.

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The Warner has also been featured in the television series Cousin Skeeter, 7th Heaven, Melrose Place, Party of Five, and ESPN’s Reel Classics, and the movies Wharf Rats to Lords of the Dock, Worth Winning, Seabiscuit, Ghosts of Mississippi, Invasion Earth: The Aliens are Here,  and What’s Love Got To Do With It  (where it stood in for Harlem’s Apollo Theatre).

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The Warner is an absolutely beautiful place and I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally be stalking it!  Sadly, though, the lobby area wasn’t open while we were there, so I didn’t get to venture inside.  But you know what that means!  I’ll just have to go back to stalk the place again!  🙂  According to the Warner’s website, though, the theatre’s original seats were just recently restored, so the interior looks quite different now than how it appeared in the many movies pictured above.  🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Warner Grand Theatre is located at 478 West 6th Street in San Pedro.  You can visit their website here.   The Black Cat Diner from Pearl Harbor, aka the Findings Art Center, is located at 470 West Sixth Street, next door to the Warner.  The Arcade Building on Sixth Street, which was featured in The O.C., is located at 479 West Sixth Street, directly across the street from the theatre. 

The El Royale Motel

 

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A couple of weeks ago while doing some Valley stalking,  my boyfriend and I happened to drive by a small motel named the El Royale and I immediately recognized it from this page on the Seeing Stars website.   I didn’t watch the Fourth Season of The O.C. (even though I do love me some Benjamin McKenzie!), but apparently the El Royale Motel was used in the second episode of that season.  In the episode, entitled “The Gringos”, Ryan and Seth follow Volchok down to Ensenada, Mexico to try to avenge Marissa’s death.  While there they check into the El Royale.   

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Interestingly enough, though, it appears that the El Royale was used only for establishing  shots of their motel and that no actual filming took place there.  You can see in the above screen captures that the interiors of Ryan and Seth’s room don’t match the exteriors of the El Royale.  For example, when Ryan and Seth enter the motel room, you can see an interior hallway behind them.  The El Royale does not actually have any interior hallways.  Ryan and Seth’s motel room window is also small and flat and does not match the popped out picture windows that exist at the real El Royale.  My best guess is that the interior of their room was a set that existed only on a soundstage.

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The El Royale also made an appearance in the 1997 Marky-Mark film Boogie Nights  (pictured above).  It was used as the location where Duke and Reed plan the drug scam they are going to pull on Rahad.  In Boogie Nights, as with The O.C., it appears that only the exteriors of the motel were used, as once again, the interior shots don’t match up to what the motel really looks like. 

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The El Royale was also featured in the movies Angel  and  Fool For Love.  But since I have not seen either of them, I am not sure whether only the El Royale exteriors were used or if some interior filming took place there, as well.

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One of the few productions that did actually film inside of an El Royale Motel room, is the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.  In a Season 9 episode of the show entitled “Kill Me If You Can”, a woman is found dead inside of one of the El Royale bungalows, leaving behind a desert tortoise named Gareth as the only witness to the crime (pictured above).

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The El Royale is a very unusual little motel, with about 15 tiny bungalows situated around an empty cement lot.  Each bungalow has its own entrance and carport.    It is easy to see why the El Royale has been used so often in film and television productions as it definitely gives off a seedy motel vibe.   I do recommend stalking it, though, as it is such a unique spot and seeing it in person will make you feel as if you’ve stepped back in time to a different era. 

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The El Royale Motel is located at 11117 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City.

The Sunset Tower Hotel

One of my favorite places to visit in all of LA is the Sunset Tower Hotel, located on the legendary Sunset Strip in Hollywood. The Sunset Tower Hotel was built in 1931 by architect Leland A. Bryant for owner E.M. Fleming. The Art Deco building, which originally functioned as an upscale apartment house, was the very first earthquake proof property to be built in Los Angeles. While the hotel enjoyed some glory years during the hey dey of Hollywood, in the 1980s it fell into serious disrepair and was saved from demolition when it was purchased by London’s St. James Hotel chain. Peter de Savary, owner of the St. James chain, poured $46 million into restoring the Sunset Tower and renamed it the St. James Club. Since that time, the hotel has undergone several more renovations and name changes, until 2005 when it was purchased by New Yorker Jeff Klein, who restored the hotel to its original name and former grandeur.

During the hotel’s glory years numerous celebs called the Sunset Tower home, including Howard Hughes, Ava Gardner, Truman Capote, John Wayne, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Errol Flynn, Billie Burke aka Glinda the Good Witch, Mae West, Elizabeth Taylor, Conrad Hilton, gangster Bugsy Siegel – who was eventually evicted for running a gambling center out of his room, Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross, Tim Curry, my fave Marilyn Monroe, and Iggy Pop, who made a habit of jumping into the hotel pool from his apartment window. Today, the Tower is still popular with celebs. The hotel’s restaurant, the Tower Bar, is a favorite of Jen Aniston, who dines there regularly. Tom Cruise, Sean Penn, Posh Spice, Brian Grazer and Barbara Walters have also all been spotted at the Tower Bar grabbing a bite to eat. According to Wikipedia, during her pink-wig-wearing days, Britney Spears tried to book some rooms at the Tower. Hotel owner Jeff Klein reportedly said to the hotel manager “If that piece of trailer trash so much as enters my driveway, you are fired! She can’t come here with all my chic guests, she’ll ruin the place!” LOL Love it! It was during that same time period that the Bel Air Hotel also reportedly refused to rent rooms to BritBrit.

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The hotel’s poolside Terrace Bar, my fave place to grab a drink in all of LA, is also quite popular with the celebs. The first time I visited the Terrace, Kate Bosworth was there with her model boyfriend James Rousseau. I just had to go up to her, too, to tell her how much I loved Win A Date With Tad Hamilton. She ended up signing an autograph for me and seemed genuinely thrilled that I had such good things to say about Win A Date. Kate truly could not have been nicer and I can honestly say she was hands down the kindest out of all the celebs I have ever met. And her boyfriend was a total cutie, too!!!! 🙂 I took the above pic of her with my blackberry, but it didn’t come out very well. LOL

The legendary hotel has also been featured in countless television and movie productions, including The Player, Spinal Tap Goes to 20, Shadow Hours, Freaky Friday, Murder My Sweet, Get Shorty, Wayne’s World II , Strange Days, The Italian Job, and Rich Girls. In The O.C., the hotel stood in for Newport Beach’s Four Seasons Hotel which was owned by Ryan’s rival, Oliver, on the show. Only the exterior of the Tower Hotel was shown in The O.C. For the interior shots of the lobby and Oliver’s penthouse suite, a different hotel was used – one which I am still trying to locate.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Sunset Tower Hotel is located at 8358 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. I highly recommend stalking the Sunset Tower – the poolside Terrace Bar is a great place to grab a drink while enjoying one of the best views in all of LA.

More Charmed Locations!

My friend Chelsea is just about as obsessed with the TV series Charmed as I am with Beverly Hills, 90210. So while hanging out the other day she asked me to stalk a few Charmed filming locations for her. She was just dying to find Finn’s creepy looking house from the Season Four episode entitled “Size Matters”. In the episode Finn lives in a run-down, haunted-looking, Victorian-style home. The picture to the left is a screen capture of Finn’s house from the show. (I just learned how to do screen captures!!! YAY!)

As soon as I popped in Chelsea’s DVD of the “Size Matters” episode, I immediately recognized the house as what is quite possibly the most famous haunted house in the world. Turns out Finn’s house is the exact same house used in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video and I have visited it several times. In the Charmed episode the house looks a lot more run down than it actually appears in real life. I am not sure if the house was actually in a state of disarray back when the Charmed episode was filmed or if producers added a facade to make it appear more spooky. In any event, today the house is not quite as creepy as it was when it played Finn’s home. Ironically, the Thriller house is just a few doors down from the Victorian that is used as the Halliway Sisters’ home on the series.

The next location Chelsea wanted me to stalk was the tunnel used in the Season Six episode entitled “Forget-Me-Not.” In the episode, Piper’s toddler son Wyatt conjures up a dragon who ends up running wild all over San Francisco. In one scene, the dragon flies out of what Piper identifies as the “Presidio Tunnel”. The screen capture above shows the tunnel in the episode. I am so loving this screen capture thing! 🙂 Anyway, after doing a bit of Internet research I found this link on fave website Seeing Stars which led me to a tunnel in Griffith Park called the Mount Hollywood Tunnel.

I was very excited to learn that the Mount Hollywood Tunnel has quite a distinguished filming history. It was used in Back to the Future 2 as the “River Road Tunnel” where Marty tries to get his almanac back from Biff, in Who Framed Roger Rabbit it served as the entrance to Toon Town, in War Games it was the entrance to NORAD, Emma Roberts ran through it in the Nancy Drew movie, and it was also the location of the accident that killed Marissa Cooper in Mischa Barton’s final episode of The O.C. And after looking at the Seeing Stars page, I could immediately tell it was the same tunnel used in Charmed.

So yesterday I set out to stalk the Mount Hollywood Tunnel. I was excited to see that it looks pretty much exactly as it did in the Charmed episode. The only difference is that in Charmed signs were hung on the tunnel entrance saying “Presidio Tunnel”. Those, of course, were not there in real life. Also, for some reason, in real life cones have been put up running down the entire center of the tunnel. If you decide to stalk the tunnel for yourself, please exercise extreme caution! Cars barrel through it at about 40 mph, and I almost got hit while I was there. The tunnel is very dark and I don’t think drivers realize that there might be pedestrians inside – so be careful!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Finn’s house, aka the Thriller house, is located at 1345 Carroll Avenue in Echo Park, just down the street from the Charmed House, which can be found at 1329. Carroll Avenue is a historic neighborhood with a huge collection of beautiful Victorian homes. Walking tours of the neighborhood are conducted monthly and you can even take a tour of the interior of the Charmed house. The Mount Hollywood Tunnel is located in Griffith Park, just off Vermont Drive. Follow Vermont through the park, past the Greek Theatre. Once you pass the Observatory keep going straight on Vermont to where it turns into Mount Hollywood Drive and it will lead you right through the tunnel. Once you drive through the tunnel, there is small dirt parking lot where you can park your car and walk back to the tunnel entrance. The entrance near the parking lot is the side of the tunnel that was used in Charmed.

Sandy and Kirsten’s Berkeley House from “The O.C.”

dscn0350.jpg Thought I’d do a post tonight on another Craftsman style house – one that was featured on the series finale of The O.C. On the last show of the series, after the Cohen home is destroyed in an earthquake, Seth and Ryan hatch a scheme to buy their parents back the Berkeley house they spent the early years of their marriage in. The Berkeley house cannot really be found in Berkeley, though – it is actually located in South Pasadena, just a few blocks from the 13 Going On 30 houses.

I found this location thanks to my fave OC Stalking Guide and ran right out to stalk it this weekend. The house is very pretty in person, and is a great example of Craftsman style architecture. Although the house was only featured in one episode of The O.C., it played a pretty significant role and was shown many times throughout the finale. If you walk south past the house, you can even see partially into the backyard where Summer and Seth got married. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! : )

Stalk It: The “Berkeley House” is located at 1617 Marengo Avenue in South Pasadena. It is just a few blocks south of the Fair Oaks exit off the 110 Freeway. After stalking be sure to stop into Fair Oaks Pharmacy at nearby 1526 Mission Street for a homemade cherry coke. They make the best! Fair Oaks Pharmacy played the role of the soda fountain in Winona Ryder’s hometown in the movie Mr. Deeds.

Ah, How the Mighty Have Fallen!

This weekend for my boyfriend’s birthday I took him on a surprise little weekend getaway to Newport Beach. He was especially excited because I wasn’t aware of any filming locations in Newport and hadn’t planned any stalking for the weekend. But fate stepped in! While in our hotel room, I happened to open up a tourist book about Orange County which had a section on – you guessed it! – filming locations! And there was one location I wasn’t leaving Newport without stalking!

dscn0345.jpg While The O.C. supposedly takes place in Newport Beach, none of the show was ever actually filmed anywhere near Orange County. (You can view detailed information on every single O.C. filming location on my fave stalking site Seeing Stars.) But apparently fans of the show come to Newport in droves hoping to spot some of their favorite locales from the show. Thanks to the vast increase in tourism due directly to the show, on October 28, 2004 the mayor of Newport gave several of the cast members keys to the city and proclaimed the day “O.C. Thursday.” The cast members also had their hands immortalized in blocks of cement, for what was to be the beginning of Newport Beach’s very own Walk of Fame.

For some reason, the Walk of Fame idea never took off and the cement blocks sat in the lobby of the Newport Beach Conference Center and Visitors’ Bureau for a few years, but were eventually relocated. In an ironic twist, the handprints of the actors who depicted Newport’s most elite residents can now be found at the local Newport RV park. Yes, you read that right. After visiting the Newport Conference Center today and having no luck spotting the handprints, my boyfriend found this article which lead us to the Newport Dunes RV Resort.

dscn0343.jpg The cement blocks are hanging on a display on a wall in the main office of the RV park. When we arrived the display was actually hidden behind a large sign with a map of the park. The front desk clerk let me move the sign out of the way to take pictures. I asked him how in the heck the handprints had wound up in the rarely trafficked office of an RV park and he replied, “No one else wanted them, so we took them.” lol I can’t believe no one would want the handprints!! Heck, I would have taken them and put them in my room had I known they were up for grabs! 🙂 The front desk clerk did tell us that hundreds of people come by to see the handprints each month, though. I think Newport really missed the ball on this one – how cool would it have been to have a Walk of Fame right on the beach for all of us fans to visit? This is actually one location I wouldn’t really recommend making a special trip to stalk – unfortunately, there just isn’t that much to see. 🙁 I was super excited to be there, though, nonetheless – especially since I got to put my hands in Ben McKenzie’s handprints. I love me some Ben McKenzie! 🙂

Happy Easter and until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

dscn0346.jpg Stalk It: The O.C. handprints are located in the main office of the Newport Dunes RV Resort and Marina, which is located at 1311 Back Bay Drive in Newport Beach, just off Jamboree Road. I suggest parking on Back Bay Drive and walking into the RV park – otherwise you’ll have to pay to enter the area with your car.

"Welcome to Malibu, Bitch!"

img_1070.jpg Thanks to the ultimate OC stalking guide, I was able to stalk the ginormous mansion used as the home of Marissa Cooper on the second season of The O.C. In real life, the house is owned by NFL star Brian Bosworth and it isn’t located anywhere near the O.C. The mansion can actually be found on a gated road just off Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and it is every bit as beautiful (and huge!) as it looks on TV.

Even though Marissa’s mansion is located on a private road with no public access, you can still get a pretty good view of it from Pacific Coast Highway and I would definitely recommend driving by. Even for non O.C. fans (do any actually exist?), the house is definitely a site to behold! For an up close view of the house, you can always check into Promises Treatment Center, the rehab du jour for troubled celebs including BritBrit, which is located just down the road on the same gated street. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Marissa Cooper’s home is located on a private road at 6375 Meadows Court in Malibu. For the best views of the home, simply drive along Pacific Coast Highway to just south of where it meets Meadows Court and look east. Although PCH is a very busy road, in that area it is fairly easy to pull over and snap a few pics of the home.

Weekend in "the O.C.!"

laxmn_phototour02.jpg First, I must apologize for being so remiss in my blogging last week – my best friend in the world was visiting me from Switzerland and, while we did do a little stalking during his visit, I didn’t have time to write many posts. When my friend left to return to Switzerland on Saturday morning, I was completely bummed out, so my boyfriend told me to pack a bag and we took a spontaneous little road trip with no planned destination. Well, the stalking gods were definitely looking out for me because destiny led us right to the Marriott-Manhattan Beach Hotel, which just happened to be a filming location from the first season of The O.C.! Let me tell you, that cheered me right up! 🙂

dscn0308.jpg After checking into the hotel, I immediately logged onto the ultimate O.C. stalking guide, Seeing Stars, to see if any scenes had been filmed in the area. I almost fell off the bed when I realized The O.C. was filmed in the very hotel I was staying in! The Marriot-Manhattan Beach was used in the fourth episode of the very first season for the cotillion rehearsal scenes. The scenes were filmed in the Manhattan Ballroom located just off the lobby. Additional scenes were also filmed in the area just outside the ballroom, to the left of the lobby bar.

dscn0312.jpg But the stalking didn’t end there! Almost directly next door to the Marriott is Raleigh’s Manhattan Beach Studios, the very studio where The O.C. was filmed. The studio looks more like an office building complex than a movie studio, but many famous productions have been filmed there, including Ally McBeal, CSI:Miami, and Medium. Ironically enough, though, the studio appears to be leasing out office space to non-industry people. How cool to have your offices located right on a movie lot! I am going to have to talk to my boss about that! 🙂

dscn0310.jpg Stalk It: The Marriott-Manhattan Beach is located at 1400 Park View Avenue. If you decide to stay there, make sure to ask for the AAA rate – we got a great deal!! Raleigh’s Manhattan Beach Studios is located at 1600 Rosecrans Avenue. The main gate can be found on a side street called Redondo Avenue. Unfortunately, at this time, the studio does not offer tours. 🙁