Tom Cruise filming locations

August 15, 2012November 28, 2016

Griffith Park’s Pote Field from “Jerry Maguire”

Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked way back in early June (shortly before we stalked the legendary Perino’s restaurant, which I blogged about yesterday) was Pote Field in Griffith Park, which was featured in the closing scene of one of my favorite romantic comedies of all time – 1996’s Jerry Maguire. Mike had discovered this locale quite a few years back and while I was beyond excited about it and had immediately added the address to my To-Stalk list, for whatever reason, I had just never gotten over there to see the place. Then, in June, while we were in Griffith Park doing some stalking of nearby Harding Municipal Golf Course, which has appeared in several movies, Mike reminded me about Pote Field and I just about had a heart attack right there on the spot. So, we quickly headed over there to stalk it. Yay!

[ad]

In the closing scene of Jerry Maguire (which was easily one of flick’s cutest scenes), the film’s title character, who was played by Tom Cruise, is shown walking hand-in-hand with his new wife, Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger), and her son, Ray (Jonathan Lipnicki), next to a little league game taking place on Pote Field, when a runaway baseball lands in front of the trio. Young Ray picks it up and tosses it high over the fence back towards the waiting players. Jerry, who is a sports agent, is thoroughly impressed by Ray’s throw and says, “Whoa! Did you see?”, causing Dorothy to exclaim, “Oh no! Let’s go!” The three then walk off into the sunset as the strains of Bob Dylan’s “Shelter From The Storm” start to be heard over Jerry’s pleas to Dorothy to let Ray play baseball.

As you can see below, Pote Field, which was named in honor of Major League Baseball scout Phil Pote, looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in 1996 when Jerry Maguire was filmed. And while this stalker is not AT ALL into sports, I cannot tell you how excited I was to see this location in person. So incredibly cool!

And I, of course, just had to imitate Jerry walking and swinging Ray’s hand while we were there. Smile

Mike found the field thanks to the large hill that was visible in the background of the baseball-throwing scene. He had played ball at Pote several times as a teen and, as soon he spotted that hill while watching Jerry Maguire, he recognized the place immediately. Ironically enough, upon first moving to Southern California in 2000, I had attended a special exhibit on area filming locations at the Pasadena Central Library. One of the movies featured in the exhibit was Jerry Maguire and the display piece on it mentioned that some filming had taken place at Villa-Parke Community Center in Altadena. Well, as soon as I saw the word park in the write-up, I immediately assumed that the scene alluded to was the baseball-throwing scene and just about had a heart attack. I drove over to the park immediately upon leaving the exhibit (not kidding!), but when I got there nothing about the place looked familiar. After doing some cyber-digging later that night, I learned that Villa-Parke’s gym had been used in one of the movie’s auxiliary scenes (although I can no longer find any mention of that online, so now I am even more confused than I was before!) and not the closing scene as I had originally thought. So when Mike told me about Pote Field years later, I was absolutely floored!

I am fairly certain that Pote Field was also featured in Jerry Maguire’s opening montage as the supposed Indio, California-area baseball field where Jerry’s client Art Stallings (Jordan Ross) is shown swinging a bat. Because the shot is so incredibly tight, though, it would be extremely hard to verify that hunch, but, as you can see below, the scoreboard behind Stallings is a match to Pote’s real life scoreboard, as is the foliage visible in the background.

Pote Field also appeared in the 1991 flick Hook as the location of Jack ‘Jackie’ Banning’s (Charlie Korsmo) final little league game of the season – a game that his workaholic father, Peter Banning (Robin Williams), shows up extremely late for and winds up missing entirely.

On a Jerry Maguire side-note – a very young Emily Procter (aka CSI: Miami’s Calleigh Duquesne) was featured as one of Jerry’s ex-girlfriends in the mini-movie that was shown during the bachelor party scene. And, according to IMDB’s Jerry Maguire trivia page, the film was originally written with Tom Hanks and Winona Ryder in mind for the lead roles. All I can say to that is blech! THANK GOD that never came to be, because Jerry Maguire would have been just about the worst movie ever with those two at the helm!

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER and you can take a look at my latest post – about low-carb chicken noodle soup – on my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Pote Field, from the closing scene of Jerry Maguire, is located on Crystal Springs Drive, just east of where it intersects with Fire Road, inside of Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Jerry Maguire was filmed in the northeast section of the field, in the area denoted with a blue arrow above.

July 3, 2012July 2, 2012

A Free View of Universal Studio’s “War of the Worlds” Set!

Many moons ago, shortly after we first met, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took me to a place that quickly became one of my very favorite “only in L.A.” spots – a residential street from which the Universal Studios War of the Worlds plane crash set is visible. And even though I always make it a point to take visiting friends to the site (which is located on the 3400 block of Blair Drive in the hills just south of Burbank), I somehow forgot to add it to My Los Angeles Must-Stalk List back in May. I have since corrected the problem and figured that now was as good a time as any to blog about the location. (I also just turned My Must-Stalk List into a page on my site in order to make it more accessible to my fellow stalkers. I will be adding to the list as I discover more must-stalk locations, so check back regularly. Smile )

[ad]

When Mike first took me to the 3400 block of Blair Drive, I was absolutely aghast at both the fact that such an amazing set piece was so openly visible from a residential street and that it had not, for whatever reason, ever been written about in any of my L.A. guide books. That is the beauty of going stalking with someone born and raised in L.A., as Mike was. He knows the city – and all of its little hidden treasures – like the back of his hand. Mike had actually discovered this location back in the early ‘90s, before the War of the Worlds set even existed, while working for the radio station Power 106. When he first began his DJing job, the station moved him into a hill-top house with several other DJ’s. That house happened to be located on Blair Drive, directly across the street from what was then the site of Falls Lake – a 2.7-million-gallon water tank and green screen in the Psycho Flats area of Universal Studios. (Falls Lake was moved a few hundred feet west in 2004 to make way for the War of the Worlds set, but you can still see it in the background of the pictures below).

According to the fabulous The Studio Tour website, the War of The Worlds plane crash shoot took place on January 5th, 6th, and 7th of 2005 and the set was then left, virtually untouched, to be featured as one of Universal Studios’ backlot attractions. The only changes made to the set after the filming were the relocation of a few of the houses and the removal of some debris in order to provide a pathway for the tram to pass through during tours. Otherwise, though, the scene appears pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen. SO INCREDIBLY COOL! On a side-note, one of my favorite movie lines ever was uttered in War of the Worlds. When Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise – and I canNOT believe that he and Katie Holmes are getting a divorce!) begins making peanut butter sandwiches for dinner, his daughter, Rachel Ferrier (Dakota Fanning), informs him, “I’m allergic to peanut butter!”, causing Ray to laugh and say, “Since when?”, to which Rachel states, “Birth!” LOL LOL LOL

The War of the Worlds plane crash set is so realistic, it is almost unbelievable! I cannot even imagine living on Blair Drive back in 2005 during the filming and getting to witness not only the construction of the massive set, but the actual shoot. How incredibly cool would that have been?!?

It is actually quite surprising that I like this location as much as I do being that I am absolutely petrified of flying, but I guess that is the magic of the movies!

As you can see below, when the Universal Studios tour tram passes through the crash set, smoke begins to rise from several of the props.

The set features an actual Boeing 747 airplane that the production team cut up and distressed. Supposedly it cost $2 million in transportation fees alone to get the aircraft to the studio.

I visited Universal Studios way back in June of 2008 (you can read my post here) and snapped the below close-up photographs of the War of the Worlds plane crash set. As you can see, it is nothing short of incredible – no matter which vantage point you view it from!

From the 3400 block of Blair Drive, you can also catch a glimpse of one of the Whoville sets from the 2000 movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas;

the back of the house where Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) lived in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho;

the Old Mexico and Six Points Texas backlot areas;

and the Falls Lake green screen/backdrop.

Which I decided to have a little bit of fun with. Winking smile

Be sure to “Like” IAMNOTASTALKER on Facebook here and “Friend” me on my personal page here. You can also check out the IAMNOTASTALKER About Me page here and you can follow me on Twitter at @IAMNOTASTALKER. And don’t forget to check out my new blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The War of the Worlds plane crash set at Universal Studios can be viewed from the 3400 block of Blair Drive, just off of Barham Boulevard, in Los Angeles.

March 7, 2012March 7, 2012

The “Rain Man” Convenience Store

Back in February, while doing research on the Hollywood Hills apartment building where Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) lived in 1988’s Rain Man, I came across a September 2004 article on the Palm Springs Life website titled “Quiet on the Set” about filming in the Coachella Valley. And, let me tell you, I just about fell out of my chair when I read the (rather poorly written) words, “The wind energy farms on Interstate 10 are another popular attraction. Tom Cruise and Valeria Golino drove past the Palm Springs windmills in the opening minutes of Rain Man. Cruise exits from a convenience store at Windy Point on Highway 111 and puts sun block on the nose of his autistic brother, Dustin Hoffman.” Prior to reading the article, I had no idea whatsoever that any Rain Man filming had taken place in the area. So I, of course, immediately started searching through aerial views of Windy Point trying to locate the convenience store and, amazingly enough, it was not long before I found it! Yay! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place two weekends ago while on our way to visit my parents in the Desert.

[ad]

In Rain Man, Charlie and his brother, Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman), stop at the convenience store towards the end of their long cross-country road trip. It is there that Charlie puts sunscreen on Raymond’s nose causing Raymond to say that his face feels “very slippery”. LOL

Remarkably, the convenience store still looks very much the same today as it did when the movie was filmed way back in 1988.

I absolutely LOVE that the two poles which appeared in the background of the Rain Man scene are still there in real life, almost two and a half decades later! SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

While we were stalking the place, the GC and I ventured inside to see if any of the employees happened to know about the filming and, amazingly enough, the woman behind the counter did! She informed us that the signs that were posted on the store back in 1988 when Rain Man was filmed were still there until just recently, when the property’s new owner had them replaced with the “Food Shop” sign pictured above. Oh, why, oh why did I not know about this location sooner? Ugh!

On a Rain Man side-note – I am itching to track down the laundromat where Charlie made a phone call to his business partner, Lenny (Ralph Seymour), and learned that the four Lamborghinis he was trying to sell had all been repossessed. The GC has a hunch that it is located in Nevada, somewhere near Red Rock Canyon, and I think he might be right. I have not had time to do any research on it, though, but thought I would put it out there to my fellow stalkers. Does the location look familiar to anyone?

And on a Palm Springs side-note – while in the Desert last week, fellow stalker Kim informed me that a celebrity golf tournament was going to be taking place on Sunday, March 4th. So, much to the GC’s chagrin, I, of course, just had to stalk it. I ended up having an AMAZING time and really cannot thank Kim enough! The stars (all of whom were incredibly nice) that I met while there were scratch golfer Oliver Hudson (Kate Hudson’s brother and Goldie Hawn’s son), from Dawson’s Creek and Rules of Engagement;

Sam Page, from Shark (such a cutie!);

Patrick Warburton, aka “David Puddy” from Seinfeld;

Rob Morrow, from Numb3rs and Northern Exposure (SO amazingly nice – LOVE HIM!);

Richard Karn, aka “Al Borland” from Home Improvement;

Mike Inez, from Alice in Chains;

Christopher McDonald, aka “Shooter McGavin” from Happy Gilmore (it was so incredibly cool to see “Shooter” play golf in person!);

guitarist/songwriter/music producer Steve “The Colonel” Cropper (he was also a member of The Blue Brothers band in both the 1980 and 2000 movies of the same name);

Cheech Marin;

and Alice Cooper. Such a fabulous day! Thank you, Kim! Smile

You can check out a great article about several Midwest Rain Man filming locations that I stumbled upon yesterday while doing research for this post on the Road Trip Memories blog here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The convenience store from Rain Man is located at 60490 Overture Drive, about two miles south of where State Route 111 meets the Interstate 10 Freeway, in Palm Springs.

February 9, 2012February 8, 2012

Charlie Babbitt’s Apartment from “Rain Man”

A couple of weeks ago, I read on fellow stalker Lisa’s Finding the Famous blog that the apartment building where Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) lived in the 1988 movie Rain Man was located somewhere in the Hollywood Hills. I, of course, immediately started trying to track down the building’s exact location and fairly quickly found the information I was seeking thanks to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory. E.J.’s website has actually been on a “hiatus” since January 8th of this year, while it is being updated from its previous database of 20,000 movie locales and celebrity addresses to one of over 90,000. And while that all sounds well and good, this stalker has been simply lost without the website, as I use it almost daily as a resource. When I emailed E.J. to tell him of my plight, he immediately sent over an extremely large Excel spreadsheet containing all 90,000 of his extensively-researched addresses for me to refer to at will. Um, how do I even begin to say thank you for that??? Needless to say, the gesture was GREATLY appreciated. And while I have to admit that I am, for whatever reason, supremely Excel-challenged, I have been using his database regularly and was able to find the location of the Rain Man apartment building with sufficient ease. Thank you, “Ctrl-F” and thank you, E.J.! So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place this past weekend.

[ad]

Charlie Babbitt’s apartment building shows up only once, and very briefly, towards they end of Rain Man, in the scene in which Charlie brings his newly-found autistic brother, Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman), home to Los Angeles after a long road trip across America. It is at the building that Raymond freaks out after setting off the fire alarm while attempting to cook Eggo Waffles in a convection oven.

The area of the apartment building shown in Rain Man is not the front exterior, but the west side, which, thankfully, still looks much the same today as it did when the movie was filmed in 1988, despite the fact that almost two and a half decades have since passed. The only difference I could spot is that the chain link fence which once surrounded the pool has since been replaced with a wooden fence. But otherwise, the place looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen. So incredibly cool!

The front exterior of the building is pictured above. According to fave website Zillow, the dwelling was originally constructed in 1926 and measures 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and 2,201 square feet. And while I could not find much information about the place online, I am guessing that it is comprised of 3 separate apartment units. I also learned from E.J.’s extensive files that actor Brad Pitt once lived on the premises sometime during the ‘90s, so the property has quite an extensive claim to fame!

I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the building was also used in the filming of Rain Man, although I, unfortunately, could not find any interior photographs of the place online with which to verify that hunch. And, legend has it that a lithograph of Tom Cruise, that was given to him during the production, still hangs in the property’s laundry room to this day. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to get in there to see that!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Lisa, from the Finding the Famous blog, for informing me of this location and to my friend E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, for tracking it down. Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Charlie Babbitt’s apartment building from Rain Man is located at 8800 Evanview Drive/1599 Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollywood Hills. The area of the building that was shown in the movie can be seen from Evanview Drive, just west of where it intersects with Sunset Plaza Drive.

September 8, 2011September 7, 2011

Wattles Mansion from “Troop Beverly Hills”

After re-watching Troop Beverly Hills a couple of weeks back and subsequently stalking the mansion where the Nefler family lived, I became just a wee bit obsessed with tracking down some of the other locales featured in the 1989 flick. Thankfully IMDB had quite a few sites listed on its Troop Beverly Hills filming locations page, one of which was Wattles Mansion – a historic and oft-filmed at Hollywood estate that, amazingly enough, I had never before heard of. So I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place the following weekend.

Wattles Mansion was originally built in 1907 by Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, the legendary Los Angeles-area architects who were also responsible for designing the Ambassador Hotel, the Huntington Art Gallery, Pasadena’s Wentworth Hotel (now the Langham), Occidental College (aka California University from fave show Beverly Hills, 90210), the California Institute of Technology, and the Beverly Hills Hotel. The large Mission Revival-style dwelling was commissioned by a wealthy Omaha, Nebraska native named Gurdon Wallace Wattles to be used as his family’s winter residence. The estate, which sat on 49 acres and was called“Jualita”, featured 6,167 square feet of living space, seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a wood-paneled library with a hand-painted ceiling, black-and-white checkerboard marble flooring, a terracotta tile terrace, wood-beamed ceilings, and a full basement. The home’s extensive 5-acre formal garden area consisted of a Japanese Garden, an Italian Rose garden, a Spanish garden, an American garden, a palm court, sparkling ponds, and several fruit orchards. In an amazing show of generosity, Gurdon opened his beloved gardens to the public upon moving into his new home and it was not long before they became a wildly popular tourist attraction.

After Gurdon passed away in 1932, his widow, Julia Vance, and their son, Gurdon Wallace Wattles Jr., continued to live at the mansion. In 1968, they sold the property to the City of Los Angeles and the Department of Parks and Recreation subsequently took over. Sadly, the city lacked the money necessary to maintain the large estate and it quickly fell into a serious state of disrepair. Gurdon’s formerly glorious gardens were taken over by drug dealers, squatters, and vandals, and what they didn’t destroy, a series of mudslides in the 1980s did. Thankfully, in 1983 the Hollywood Heritage preservation group leased the property and began a massive restoration project before moving in and using the historic mansion as their headquarters. It was at that time that the abode, which is a City of Los Angeles Cultural Monument, became a popular filming location. For reasons that are not entirely clear, Hollywood Heritage was served with an eviction notice in 2008 and finally vacated the property in May of 2009. The mansion is currently being maintained by the Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation once again. (I snapped the interior pictures through one of the estate’s front windows.)

The piece of property, which you can see in the above aerial view, is now made up of three separate areas.

The section denoted with a pink square above, which measures 4.2 acres, was turned into a community garden in 1975 and has been continuously maintained by local residents. It is private and not open to the public. The middle section, which is denoted with a blue square, is a park known as Wattles Garden Park. It is open to the public daily from dusk until dawn. The mansion and formal garden area, which is denoted with a purple square above, is not open to the public, but is available for use as a special event and wedding venue.

And although the formal gardens are not accessible to the public, from what was visible from the park, that area once again appears to be in a sad state of disrepair. According to sign a posted on the premises, a restoration is currently in progress, so hopefully they will not look that way for long.

[ad]

Wattles Mansion actually stood in for two different locations in Troop Beverly Hills. It first appeared as the Beverly Hills Rest Haven where Phyllis Nefler (aka Shelley Long) and her group of Wilderness Girls performed their community service requirement.

While there, Phyllis and her daughter, Hannah (aka Jenny Lewis), taught a group of senior citizens how to do the “Freddy” dance, so I, of course, just had to do a little recreation of that scene while I was stalking the place. Winking smile

In a later scene, the northern-facing side of Wattles Mansion and the formal garden area were used as the location of the “khaki” fashion show that was hosted by Robin Leach and featured cameos by Pia Zadora and Dr. Joyce Brothers.

Wattles Mansion was also used extensively as the demon-haunted home inherited by Jonathan Graves (aka Peter Liapis) in the 1985 horror-comedy Ghoulies.

The real life interior of the mansion, including the kitchen area and the formal library, appeared in Ghoulies, as well. You can check out some great interior photographs of the place here.

Randomly enough, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’s Mariska Hargitay made her feature film debut in Ghoulies. She is pictured in the grey sweater above. The actress was just 21 at the time that the movie was filmed.

Wattles Mansion also appeared in Diana Ross’ ultra-weird 1985 music video for her single “Eaten Alive”, which was co-written by none other than the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson.

Eaten Alive Music Video–Filmed at Wattles Mansion

You can watch that video by clicking above.

In the 1989 movie Rain Man, Wattles Mansion stood in for the institution where the psychiatric evaluation of Raymond Babbitt (aka Dustin Hoffman) took place.

Wattles was where Jose (aka Jacob Vargas) first met Maria (aka Jennifer Lopez) in the 1995 flick My Family.

And finally, the mansion popped up in the Season 3 episode of The O.C. titled “The Man of the Year” as the supposed Montecito-area boarding school attended by Marissa Cooper’s (aka Mischa Barton’s) sister, Kaitlin (aka Willa Holland).

Until next time, Happy Stalking – and Happy Voting! Don’t forget to vote for me today to be the new face of About Me! Smile

Stalk It: Wattles Mansion, from Troop Beverly Hills, is located at 1824 North Curson Avenue in Hollywood. The interior of the mansion and formal garden areas are not accessible to the public, but Wattles Park is open daily from dawn until dusk. You can visit the official Wattles Mansion website here.

August 6, 2009August 5, 2009

The Jerry Maguire House

A couple of months ago, I gave Mike, from MovieShotsLA, the mission of locating Dorothy Boyd’s house from the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire. From a quick internet search, Mike was able to ascertain that Dorothy’s tiny yellow house was located in an area of Manhattan Beach known as the “Tree Section”. The home’s exact location, though, was not mentioned anywhere online and since Google Maps Street View is not available in Manhattan Beach, we were unable to locate the house using the internet. So, two weeks ago, Mike and I set about to stalk Manhattan Beach’s Tree Section in person. Our plan was to literally drive up and down each street in the neighborhood until we found Dorothy’s house. But, thanks to a very lucky twist of fate, it never actually came to that.

[ad]

The Tree Section of Manhattan Beach is thus named not because of an abundance of trees as one might guess, but because the vast majority of streets in the area are named after different types of trees, such as Palm, Walnut, Oak, and Elm. It is said that the Tree Section is one of the most sought after areas to live in Manhattan Beach due to its rural neighborhood feel which has been maintained thanks to extremely narrow streets, lack of sidewalks, tiny houses built in the ’40s and ’50s, and proximity to the beach. Oddly enough, though, when Mike and I arrived in Manhattan Beach, we could not find the Tree Section anywhere. After driving around in what seemed like circles for quite some time, we pulled over to ask a random woman to point us in the right direction. The woman immediately asked us, “Well, is there a particular street you are looking for?” We both pretty much started laughing and told her we had NO idea what street we were looking for. Thinking we were probably crazy, she then said “Well, what is it you are trying to find?” Figuring she would have absolutely NO IDEA what were talking about, we told her we were looking for the Jerry Maguire house. Well, lo and behold, she started laughing and said “Oh my God, one of my good friends from high school lived across the street from that house during the filming. I know exactly where it is!” Honestly, what are the odds???? The stalking gods must have been watching out for us that day, because of all the people in Manhattan Beach to ask for directions, we find the one who knows exactly where the JM house is! Our new best friend then gave us detailed directions to the house and Mike and I were on our way! YAY!

Before arriving at the house, Mike was worried that it may have been remodeled, as sadly that is fairly commonplace with the older Tree Section homes. So, we were both absolutely FLOORED when we pulled up and saw that the house looked EXACTLY- and I do mean EXACTLY – the same today as it did over thirteen years ago when the movie was filmed. It is absolutely incredible to me that virtually no part of the house has been changed in the almost decade and a half since filming took place. The paint color, the landscaping, even the house number plaque all the look exactly the same. HOORAY!

The only difference that I noticed was the tree in front, which used to have a second limb that crossed in front of the house. That limb has since been removed.

The Jerry Maguire house shows up numerous times throughout the movie, most notably in the scene when Jerry takes Dorothy out on their first date.

And I believe the real backyard of the home was also used for the filming of several scenes, including both Jerry and Dorothy’s wedding ceremony and their subsequent break-up.

And from what we could see of the inside of the house from the street, it definitely looks as if the home’s real life interior was also used in the film, most notably for the many “Divorced Women’s Group” meetings. A little bit of movie trivia for you – Winnie Holzman, the creator of fave show My So-Called Life, was one of the members of that “Divorced Women’s Group” (pictured above).

Which is extremely ironic to me, because in Jerry Maguire, Dorothy and Jerry have what I’ve always referred to as “their My So-Called Life moment” in the middle of the street out in front of Dorothy’s house. LOVE IT!

I highly recommend stalking the Jerry Maguire house for any fans of the movie, as, thanks to the aweome fact that its appearance has not been changed in recent years, it is one of the most recognizable movie locations I’ve ever been to! On a very sad side note, though, I drove by the 90210 house the other day and almost had a heart attack when I saw that it had been painted an entirely different color! It’s almost unrecognizable now! UGH! Such a tragedy!!!!! 🙁 That stuff should not be allowed to happen!!!!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Jerry Maguire house is located at 527 23rd Street in the “Tree Section” of Manhattan Beach.

July 28, 2009July 27, 2009

Paco’s Tacos Cantina From Jerry Maguire

Last Friday, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I spent an entire twelve hours stalking together!!! Yes, you read that right – an ENTIRE TWELVE HOURS!!! I’m not exaggerating!! The two of us literally drove from one end of L.A. to the other – we covered Pasadena, Redondo Beach, Eagle Rock, El Segundo, and even Santa Monica – and back again! It was FABULOUS! 🙂 One of the places at the top of our day’s stalking list was a little restaurant called Paco’s Tacos Cantina, which was featured in the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire.

Mike discovered this location back in the ’90s. At the time he worked just a few blocks away from Paco’s and used to frequent the restaurant regularly for lunch. One day he noticed a poster of Jerry Maguire hanging on the wall (pictured above) and asked the owner about it. Well, it turns out that a pretty major scene from the movie had actually been filmed at the Cantina. So, of course, I made Mike take me there for lunch so I could stalk the place! 🙂

In the movie, Paco’s Tacos Cantina is the restaurant where Jerry Maguire, aka Tom Cruise, takes Dorothy Boyd, aka Renee Zellwegger, on their very first date. It is before that date that Jerry says one of my very favorite movie lines ever – well, besides “You had me at hello”, of course! 🙂 When Dorothy walks out in her LBD (that’s Little Black Dress for all of you guys out there), Jerry says, “Wow! That’s more than a dress. That’s an Audrey Hepburn movie!” LOL Love it! Please excuse the above photographs as I wasn’t able to take them from the exact same angles from which the scene was filmed.

And, of course, Mike and I just had to sit next to the fish tank like Jerry and Dorothy did in the scene. 🙂

I HIGHLY recommend stalking Paco’s Tacos! As I’ve mentioned before, I am a VERY picky eater, but I have to say that I absolutely loved Paco’s! The tacos were to die for – with all white meat chicken, no less!!!! And the chips and homemade tortillas were pretty amazing, too! While there, Mike and I got to meet Paco himself, who really could not have been nicer! He was even sweet enough to pose for a couple of pictures with us. 🙂 Paco told us that his Cantina was also featured numerous times in the ’70s television series CHiPs.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Paco’s Tacos Cantina, aka the Jerry Maguire restaurant, is located at 4141 South Centinela Avenue in Los Angeles. You can visit their website here.