Tom Cruise – Page 2 – IAMNOTASTALKER

May 29, 2015May 29, 2015

Caesars Palace from “The Hangover”

My recent trip to Las Vegas with the Grim Cheaper was magical, due in large part to the fact that we stayed at Caesars Palace. Neither the GC nor I had ever stayed there before and, while planning our trip, I decided to see what the rates were. I happened to find a remarkably inexpensive one and booked it immediately. It was a fortuitous decision because the four nights we spent there were spectacular.

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As luck would have it, when we checked in we were given an upgraded room in the Palace Tower. It was absolutely gorgeous – and huge.

The bathroom was massive as well and featured a huge Jacuzzi tub and stand-alone shower.

We also had a pretty stunning view of the Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis area.

Construction on Caesars Palace began in 1962. The property was the brainchild of hotelier Jay Sarno, who also owned the popular Cabana Motel chain. According to this article, Sarno purposely left off the apostrophe in the resort’s name because having it “’would mean that it was the place of only one Caesar.’ He wanted to create the feeling that everybody in the hotel was a Caesar.” The site opened to the public on August 5th, 1966. You can read an extremely extensive history on the hotel here.

At the time of its inception, Caesars Palace consisted of a single 14-story tower with 680 rooms.

Today, the site is comprised of six towers, 3,960 hotel rooms, a 300,000-square-foot convention center, a 4,296-seat circular theatre modeled after the Colosseum in Rome, and a 636,000-square-foot shopping center known as The Forum Shops at Caesars. In short, the property is massive!

The front of Caesars Palace is marked by a 135-foot driveway flanked by 18 fountains.

In 1967, daredevil Evel Knievel tried to jump across the 141-foot long fountain situated directly in front of the hotel, but failed and wound up in a coma for the next 29 days.

You can watch that failed jump below.

In 1989, Evel’s son Robbie attempted the jump and was successful. You can watch a video of Robbie’s jump below.

Caesars’ humongous Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis was modeled after the Pompeii baths of ancient Rome.

Sadly, because the GC and I were in Las Vegas for a working trip and were busy most of each day, we were not able to partake of the pool facilities.

Caesars Palace has been featured onscreen countless times over the years – far more times than I could ever chronicle here, but I will name a few of its more notable appearances. The hotel’s most famous role was in The Hangover. It was there that Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms) and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) threw an epic bachelor party for Doug (Justin Bartha) in the 2009 breakout hit. The movie made extensive use of the Caesars property, including the front entrance;

lobby;

check-in desk;

(love the shot of the Wolf Pack below);

a hallway, which (according to Hannah Allen, the Director of TV and Film Production for Caesars Entertainment, who was nice enough to fill me in on the shoot) was a hallway on the 24th floor of the Augustus Tower;

the Augustus Tower’s 24th floor elevator bay (again, thank you, Hannah!);

an Augustus Tower elevator (once again, thanks to Hannah);

the roof;

and the Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis.

For the scene in which Stu, Phil and Alan take note of Doug’s mattress on the hotel’s roof, a fake statue was installed in the area noted with a pink arrow in my photograph below.

The hotel’s actual roofline is pictured below.

“Some guys just can’t handle Vegas!”

Sadly, the guys’ spectacular villa was not an actual Caesars room, but a set created inside of a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank. The set was modeled, in part, after the hotel’s lux Emperors Suite.

The casino where the Wolf Pack gambled in The Hangover was not located at Caesars Palace, but at the since closed Riviera, which, sadly, is set to be demolished in the near future.

Stu, Alan and Phil returned to Caesars Palace for 2013’s The Hangover Part III.

Thanks to Hannah, I learned that an actual Caesars suite was used in Part III – the Constantine Villa in the Octavius Tower –

which Stu and Alan climbed down to from Caesars’ roof.

The Constantine Villa also appeared in Think Like a Man Too.

The 2014 comedy gave audiences a much better view of the suite.

Think Like a Man Too was filmed almost exclusively at Caesars Palace.

Caesars also made an appearance in Rain Man. It was there that Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman) counted cards for his brother Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) in the 1988 classic (as Alan said in The Hangover, “He practically bankrupt a casino and he was a re-tard.”). The casino floor looks much different today, though, and is virtually unrecognizable from its appearance in Rain Man.

Hannah informed me that the escalator that Charlie and Raymond famously rode down in the movie was removed when Caesars’ convention center was remodeled in 2009. Such a shame!

Rain Man’s escalator scene was re-created in The Hangover, complete with “Iko Iko” playing in the background. Because the re-creation was shot at the Riviera, sadly, that escalator will soon be gone, too.

The suite where Charlie and Raymond stayed in Rain Man is an actual Caesars room, the Emperors Suite (which, as I mentioned earlier, served as the inspiration for the Wolf Pack’s room in The Hangover). It looks quite a bit different today, though. You can check out some current photos of it here.

The room, which is located in the Forum Tower, was numbered 7416 in Rain Man, but looks to be numbered 6316 today. It is an extremely popular room thanks to its appearance in the movie and is still referred to as “the Rain Man suite,” 27 years after the film originally premiered!

The scene in which Charlie lets Raymond drive took place in front of Caesars’ main entrance.

Isabel Fuentes Whitman (Salma Hayek) worked at Caesars Palace in the 1997 romcom Fools Rush In.

After getting married, she and her new husband, Alex Whitman (Matthew Perry), spend the night in the Rain Man suite.

Caesars Palace was also featured in the Coen Brothers’ 2003 dark romantic comedy Intolerable Cruelty.

Miles (George Clooney) and Marilyn (Catherine Zeta-Jones) also spend their wedding night in the Rain Man suite in the movie.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) gambles at Caesars Palace in the beginning of Iron Man.

In Ocean’s Eleven, Elliot Gould describes “the three most successful robberies in the history of Vegas,” one of which took place at Caesars in 1987.

Joyce Brewster (Barbra Streisand) and Andrew Brewster (Seth Rogen) spend a night at the hotel in the 2012 comedy The Guilt Trip.

One of the hotel’s real life rooms – one that looked very much like ours – was used in the filming.

Caesars Palace also made appearances in Godzilla, The Electric Horseman, Rocky III, Oh, God! You Devil, History of the World: Part I, The Sopranos, 21, Showgirls, My Giant, The Only Game in Town, 2012, and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Emma for putting me in touch with Hannah so that I could get all of my filming questions answered! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Caesars Palace (not the real one – Caesar never actually lived there), from The Hangover, is located at 3570 South Las Vegas Boulevard in Las Vegas. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

July 9, 2014July 8, 2014

Café Figaro from “Jerry Maguire”

Today’s post is a long time in the making. Off and on for years now I have been trying to track down the restaurant where Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) got fired in the 1996 romcom of the same name. I decided to actively revisit the search a couple of weeks ago and, this time, got Mike, from MovieShotsLA, involved. He wound up finding the place shortly thereafter. As it turns out, Jerry was let go from Sports Management International while at Café Figaro at 9010 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. Sadly, the eatery was shuttered in 1997, but Mike and I headed right on out to stalk its former location nonetheless.

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Mike pinpointed the locale thanks to the unique trees visible outside of the restaurant during the firing scene. Those trees can only be found on a few streets in the L.A. area, one of which is Melrose Avenue. So he began his search at the start of Melrose (just east of where it intersects with North Doheny Drive) and, sure enough, found the right spot within a matter of minutes. The only trouble was, the space had gone through so many iterations in the years since Jerry Maguire had been shot, that it was a bit of a struggle for me to figure out what restaurant had been in operation at the time of the filming. Finally (after scanning through at least 25 Google search results pages), I came across this 2007 article which stated that an eatery named Café Figaro had once been located at 9010 Melrose Avenue and that its walls had been covered with “ticky tacky newspaper decoupages.” Eureka! With that information in hand, I did a Google search for “Jerry Maguire” and “Café Figaro” and turned up this post which confirmed the find. Woot woot!

Café Figaro first opened its doors in 1969. (Apparently, Bill Cosby was one of the initial investors.) It was founded by Tom Ziegler, who, in the 1950s, had pioneered a coffee shop of the same name on the corner of MacDougal and Bleecker Streets in Manhattan. When a rent hike forced Tom to close that eatery in 1969, he packed up all of its interior decor and migrated west to Los Angeles where he launched a new, larger Figaro. You can read a 1970 news article about the L.A. site shortly after its opening here. (Interestingly, a man named Ben Fishbein re-opened the Manhattan Café Figaro in 1975, six years after Ziegler had been forced out. The re-vamp proved extremely successful and remained in operation until 2008. You can read more about the East Coast Figaro’s history here.)

Café Figaro closed down in 1997, a whopping 28 years after its founding. The interior of the space was subsequently gutted and the Kass Bah steakhouse, which you can see of a photograph of here, opened in its place. By the summer of 2001, the Kass Bah had called it quits. Following that closure, the property went through numerous iterations – it was the Parisian Room, then Santo Coyote and then Murano, prior to which it was completely gutted once again. When Murano shuttered, the site became The Artichoke’s Heart, then, after yet another remodel (this one not as major as the first two, which were complete overhauls), Smoke. Since Smoke’s closing in 2013, the venue has remained vacant. It absolutely boggles my mind that Mike was able to locate a spot that had not only changed hands no less than six times, but had been completely gutted twice. Hats off to him!

In Jerry Maguire, Café Figaro stood in for Cronin’s, the “crowded” restaurant where Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr) rather comically fired Jerry. During the scene, Bob delivered this diatribe, one of my favorite from the movie – “What about me? You know what I went through knowing I was gonna have to fire my mentor? Carrying that around in my head for a week! Could you get past yourself for a second?”

Not surprisingly, while the general structure and set-up remain the same, the restaurant’s interior looks completely different today than it did onscreen. You can check out some photographs of Café Figaro’s interior from the early 1970s here and here, though, and see that it did indeed match what appeared in Jerry Maguire.

Café Figaro’s exterior (which was only seen in a limited view in Jerry Maguire) has also been remodeled since filming took place, but is still somewhat recognizable.

Thankfully, the space across the street, which was a children’s gym at the time that Jerry Maguire was filmed, has not changed over the years and still looks pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen.

As does the building located next door to Café Figaro, which Jerry rushes by in the scene while on his way back to his office.

Mike and I were both floored to see that the manhole cover that was shown in the close-up of Jerry running was still there. Love that!

Me doing my best Jerry impersonation. Winking smile

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out 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: The former Café Figaro space from Jerry Maguire is located at 9010 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. The building that Tom Cruise runs by in the movie is located next door at 9006 Melrose Avenue. The manhole cover that he walks over can be found just east of that building’s front door.

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 )

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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.

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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.

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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 30, 2011September 29, 2011

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ Former Mansion

I recently finished reading Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography which was written by Andrew Morton, the legendary celebrity biographer who also penned Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words, and I have to say that it was absolutely FABULOUS! I honestly cannot more highly recommend it. Not only was the book, which became a 2008 bestseller, a fascinating read, but it also got me completely obsessed with Dawson’s Creek once again and I just started re-watching the series from the beginning last week. SUCH a great show and one of these days I have GOT to get myself to Wilmington, North Carolina to do some stalking of the locales, but I digress. Anyway, one of the locations talked about in Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography was the Beverly Hills manse that the actor called home when he first started dating Katie Holmes and which Katie also later moved into. So I, of course, just had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place as soon as I finished reading the book.

Sadly though, as you can see above, virtually no part of the mansion is visible from the street.

But, as I’ve said before, that’s why God created aerial views. As you can see above, Tom and Katie’s former house is absolutely gargantuan. In fact, it would be more appropriate to call the place a “compound” rather than a “house”. The English-Country-style abode, which was originally built in 1927, features a 6,685-square-foot main house with five bedrooms and five baths, a guest house which is comprised of three separate apartments, each with their own kitchen and bath!, a screening room, formal gardens, a sunken tennis court, a pool, a spa, and almost three full acres of secluded land. According to the Berg Properties website, Tom Cruise first leased the residence in 2001, shortly after his separation from then-wife Nicole Kidman. TomKat moved out of the home sometime in 2007, at which point it went on the market at a rental rate of $100,000 per month. Not kidding! According to fave website The Real Estalker, Russell Crowe may have lived there for a time after the Cruises left. And it appears that the property is once again available for lease. You can check out the real estate listing – and see some fabulous interior photographs of it – here.

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And, amazingly enough, not only was the abode once the home of one of the world’s biggest movie stars, but the place is also a filming location! In 2001’s Blow, the mansion was where George Jung (aka Johnny Depp) lived with his wife, Mirtha (aka Penelope Cruz). It was featured in the memorable scene in which George shows his father, Fred (aka Ray Liotta), his extensive collection of cars. The home was also where George was arrested by the FBI during his 38th birthday party.

The interior of the house was also used in the filming.

In the Season 3 episode of Californication titled “Wish You Were Here” the mansion was the residence of Dean Stacy Koons (aka The O.C.’s Peter Gallagher) and his wife, Felicia (aka Embeth Davidtz), where Hank Moody (aka David Duchovny) attended a dinner party.

The real life interior of the mansion also appeared in that episode.

And the mansion also shows up each week on the ABC Family series Switched at Birth as the residence of the Kennish family – Bay (aka Vanessa Marano), Toby (aka Lucas Grabeel), John (aka D.W. Moffett), and Kathryn (aka Lea Thompson) – and the Vasquez family – Daphne (aka Katie Leclerc), Regina (aka Constance Marie), and Adrianna (aka Ivonne Coll).

Although the interior is, I believe, just a set. As you can see in the screen captures above, it does not look at all like the real life interior of the former Cruise home.

But the backyard, pool, and guest house scenes all take place at the actual house.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ former house is located at 918 North Alpine Drive in Beverly Hills.

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.

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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.

November 17, 2010November 16, 2010

Paramount Studios . . . A Third Time

As I mentioned in last Thursday’s post about my second VIP Tour of the Studios at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, I also recently embarked on a third tour of the lot, along with fellow stalkers Lavonna, Debbie, Connie, and Beth, who were all in town visiting from Ohio this past October. And I am very happy to report that my third Paramount tour was just as fabulous as my first two. If you have yet to visit the famed Hollywood studio, all I can say is that you REALLY must! As I’ve stated numerous times in the past, it is simply the best studio tour Los Angeles has to offer. This time our tour group consisted of two guides, the five of us, and only one other gentlemen (who showed up in a business suit with the intention of handing out headshots to various studio executives that we might happen to pass along the way, which was extremely uncomfortable for everyone involved, but that’s a whole other story), so we were very lucky in that our group was not only smaller than normal, but our tour was also very much catered to the places on the lot that Lavonna and Co. were interested in seeing. I should mention here that Paramount guides are very good about customizing tours for each particular group, so if you do happen to embark on a visit to the lot, I highly encourage you to speak up and tell your guide exactly what it is that you are interested in seeing.

Our first stop, as always, was Lucy Park, the history of which I wrote about in last week’s Paramount post. One thing I forgot to mention, though, was that the Chevalier Building, which runs along the eastern side of the park, was used as Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Jefferson High School on the 1970’s television series Happy Days.

Directly across from Lucy Park is the Ball Building, named in honor of actress Lucille Ball, where Tom Cruise’s production offices were formerly housed. Tom’s office is the one with the large bay window denoted with the pink arrow in the above photograph, from which is a fabulous view of the Hollywood sign.

We were then shuttled by Stage 25, which is considered by many to be an extremely lucky stage being that two of the most successful shows in television history, Cheers and Frasier – both of which ran for eleven seasons and both of which starred actor Kelsey Grammar as Doctor Frasier Crane – were filmed there. Our guide told us that Grammar likes to joke that his short-lived television series Back to You, which was filmed elsewhere, would have been much more successful had it been lensed on Stage 25.

Next up was Stage 28 where the Nickelodeon Television series Big Time Rush is filmed. The exterior of that particular stage is used each week for establishing shots of the Rocque Records offices on the show.

Right next door to Stage 28 is Stage 27, where the Grim Cheaper’s favorite movie of all time, The Godfather, was filmed, so of course I just had to snap a photograph of it.

We were then taken inside the set of the apartment belonging to Alex (aka Elisha Cuthbert) on the yet-to-be released series Happy Endings. Alex’s apartment, which we unfortunately were not allowed to take photographs of, but which you can see in the above screen captures, is VERY reminiscent of Monica and Rachel’s apartment on Friends. It was absolutely amazing to be able to see the set in such an up-close-and-personal manner and to discover how truly realistic everything actually was. At one point Lavonna and I wandered into Alex’s bathroom – which according to our tour guide is not going to be used for actual filming but will only be seen in the background of certain scenes – and were shocked to discover how incredibly detailed it was. There was a huge make-up basket filled with actual make-up on the counter, there was a toothbrush and toothpaste by the sink, and the drawers were filled with hairbrushes and other beauty paraphernalia. The attention to detail was astounding, especially considering that the bathroom will only be appearing in the background, if at all! There were also real life bills being stored in Alex’s mail holder and actual books piled on her bookshelves. So incredibly cool!

You can watch the promo for Happy Endings by clicking above.

Up next was my VERY favorite section of the Paramount lot, New York Street, where filming for both Happy Endings . . .

. . . and Community was taking place. I happened to spot cutie Joel McHale walking around the Community set, but I couldn’t get my camera out fast enough to snap a photograph of him, which was so unbelievably frustrating I cannot even tell you! UGH!

Paramount Studios was used as the location of the Junior Prom in the Season 1 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Zero Tolerance”. In the episode, Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord) and Liam Court (aka Matt Lanter – sigh!) decide to take a break from the dance to walk around New York Street and they wind up sitting on a brownstone stoop where, in a drool-worthy moment, Liam finally admits to Naomi that he has actual feelings for her . . . and then, it begins to snow! So darn cute!

I was absolutely dying to take a picture while sitting on Liam and Naomi’s stoop, but unfortunately I could not remember exactly which one it was, so I ended up sitting a few houses too far to the north.

Liam and Naomi’s actual stoop is located on the Lower East Side portion of New York Street and is the stoop located closest to Washington Square and is denoted with the pink arrow in the above photograph.

The café from Spiderman 3, where Peter Parker (aka Tobey Maguire) tells Harry Osborn (aka James Franco) that Mary Jane Watson (aka Kristen Dunst) is in love with someone else, is also located on New York Street, in the Greenwich Village area.

Much like the jazz club from Spiderman 3 which I talked about in my previous Paramount post, the café is a “practical set”, which means that it is not just a façade, but that it also has an interior area where filming can take place.

We actually got to step inside one of the facades while we were on New York Street, which I had never done before on a previous tour. As you can see in the above photographs, the interior of the facade consists mainly of large metal beams, from which set electricians can hang lights, and open space, where background actors are sometimes held in between takes.

The “Schlemiel, Schlimazel, Hasenpfeffer Incorporated” segment of the Laverne & Shirley opening credits was also filmed on New York Street, in the Washington Square section.

Interestingly enough, the exterior of Rosalita’s Bar from Happy Endings was dressed a bit differently than it was the last time I visited the lot a few weeks beforehand.

The way it looked on my previous tour is pictured above.

Fellow stalker Beth also somehow managed to snap the above photograph of the interior of the soundstage where Happy Endings is filmed, the door of which happened to be open as we drove by. As you can see, the doorway and part of the exterior of Rosalita’s Bar has also been built inside of the soundstage, which was very cool to see!

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Next up was the famed Stage 14, where fave show Glee is filmed. Because Lavonna, Debbie, Connie, Beth, and I are all diehard Gleeks, we were hoping to have the same star-sighting luck outside of Stage 14 that I had on my previous tour, but alas, that was not to be.

We all just about died a few minutes after driving away from the stage, though, when who should we spot being shuttled around on a golf cart but Miss Lea Michele! I was beyond excited to catch a glimpse of Lea as I had only seen her for a split second during my previous Paramount tour and, aside from Will Schuester (aka Matthew Morrison), Rachel Berry is my favorite character on the show. Sadly though, the experience was not a good one. As Lea’s cart approached, the driver put her hand up to block the actress’ face from us, which was absolutely unbelievable! It’s rude enough when an actor puts up their own hand to block their face from fans, but to have an assistant do it for you is an absolute diva maneuver if I ever saw one! The whole thing was extremely disappointing for us as, prior to that, we had all LOVED Lea. Our tour guide on the the previous tour had told us that Lea was the worst one of the entire Glee bunch and that the studio staff had taken to humming the Wicked Witch of the West theme song from The Wizard of Oz every time she rode past them on her bike, but, even after hearing that, I had still believed she was nice. Sadly that did not seem to be the case, though. Such a shame.

Next up was the exterior of Stage 15 where NCIS: Los Angeles is filmed, which I was absolutely FLOORED about seeing (and which took my mind off of the whole Lea Michele debacle) as the outside of it is used for the filming of the exterior of the NCIS Office of Special Projects on the series. So incredibly cool!

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We were then taken to Paramount’s Production Park, where the Lubitsch Building is located, which was used as Westdale High School on fave show The Brady Bunch.

The Lubitsch Building is located on the east side of Production Park and the doorway which was used as the entrance to Westdale High is denoted with the pink arrow in the above aerial view.

Production Park was also recently used in the Season 1 episode of Rizzoli & Isles titled “Money for Nothing”, in the opening scene in which Detective Jane Rizzoli (aka Angie Harmon) and Dr. Maura Isles (aka Sasha Alexander) are shown stretching before a morning run.

The filming of an episode of Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush had just wrapped when we arrived at the park, which is what the sign reading “Palm Woods Park” was set up for. Filming had involved the cast of the show being in some sort of a mud pit and the crew was covering up the pit while we were there, which is what you see in the above photograph.

We also made a stop at the Paramount Studios Theatre and while we were there our tour guide mentioned that the theatre lobby had been used as a hotel in a certain movie, but when I sat down to write today’s post, I could not for the life of me remember which movie. Enter Lavonna, who CALLED UP Paramount to find out for me! Amazingly enough, who should answer the phone, but our actual tour guide who informed Lavonna that the movie he had told us about was Clear and Present Danger. Thank you, Lavonna! 🙂

Our final stop was the famous Paramount Studios water fountain, which was also featured in the “Zero Tolerance” episode of 90210.

Despite our disappointment over Lea Michele, the tour was still a FABULOUS, FABULOUS experience and I honestly cannot recommend taking it enough! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Paramount is hands down the best studio tour in Hollywood!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Paramount Studios is located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Tours are given Monday through Friday at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. and cost $40 per person. Reservations can be made by calling (323)956-1777. Parking for the tour costs $7 per car and the tour lot is located on Bronson Avenue, directly across the street from the studio’s main entrance. I recommend booking your tour at least a week in advance, as they tend to sell out quickly. You can find out more information about the Paramount Studios Tour here.

November 11, 2010November 11, 2010

The Paramount Studios Tour . . . A Second Time

Brace yourselves, my fellow stalkers, ‘cause today’s post is going to be a long one! Back in September, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I set out on our second VIP Tour of the Studios at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. We embarked on our first Paramount tour just over two years ago, in September of 2008, and I can honestly say that, for me, it was love at first sight! As I’ve mentioned previously on this blog, the Paramount tour is hands down my absolute FAVORITE studio tour in all of Hollywood. I love the place so much, in fact, that the Grim Cheaper and I seriously considered getting married there. Well, I should say that I seriously considered getting married there – the GC was against the idea from the start, as he didn’t think a movie studio would be an appropriate venue for a wedding. And while I can definitely see his point – the 62-acre lot is better suited to host a party rather than a wedding ceremony – because the place has such an incredibly rich cinematic history – it has been at its current location since 1926 and is the only major studio still located in Hollywood – for a movie-lover like myself, there is no more hallowed ground. So, when Mike called me up in early September to ask if I wanted to go on another tour of the place, I jumped at the chance.

As they say, no two studio tours are ever the same and I am very happy to report that that was definitely the case with Paramount. After paying for our tickets in the Studio Store, our small group of eight was given a brief history of the 84-year old lot before boarding a golf cart to begin the two-hour tour. Our first stop was the corner of Avenue A and 3rd Street, just southwest of Stage 23, where the ending scene of the final episode of fave show The Hills was filmed, which I blogged about back in September.

Just beyond The Hills finale location is Stage 24, which was home to fellow stalker Owen’s all-time favorite sitcom Family Ties from 1982 to 1989.

Each individual soundstage at Paramount boasts a large plaque which lists all of the major productions which have been filmed on the premises.

And, as you can see in the above photograph, Stage 23’s plaque is somewhat unique. According to our tour guide, actor Ray Romano was (jokingly) a bit bent out of shape that his new sitcom Men of a Certain Age wasn’t considered by Paramount to be a “major” enough production to be named on the plaque, so he took matters into his own hands and, using a label maker, printed out the name of the show and stuck it onto the sign himself. LOL LOL LOL Love it!

As always, the tour made a stop at Lucy Park – a small landscaped area named in honor of actress/producer Lucille Ball, former owner of the now-defunct Desilu Studios which was purchased by Paramount in 1968 and now makes up the western portion of the lot. Lucy had the park built as an exact replica of the backyard of her Beverly Hills home so that she could take publicity photographs there with her children without ever having to leave the lot.

The above-pictured facade, which runs along the northern side of Lucy Park, is an exact replica of the exterior of Lucy’s New York City apartment building, which she had constructed for the same purpose. We also learned that it was none other than Lucy, and her husband Desi Arnaz, who invented the live audience/three camera system that situational comedies still use for filming to this day. Apparently, Lucy much preferred acting before a live studio audience, which, at the time, was not common practice when shooting television shows. So, she and her husband came up with the idea of setting up the stage in the format of a theatre, with an open fourth wall facing the audience, and using multiple cameras to film each scene from different angles. That very system has been in use ever since. The powerhouse couple was also responsible for inventing what is known today as a “re-run”.

My favorite part of Lucy Park has to be its large central tree which was used in the Season 2 episode of The Brady Bunch titled “Where There’s Smoke” as the spot where Greg Brady (aka Barry Williams) smoked his very first cigarette.

You can watch that scene by clicking above.

According to our tour guide, Lucy Park was also used for the Season 2 episode of Glee titled “Grilled Cheesus”, for the close-up shot of Finn Hudson (aka Cory Monteith) cheering after scoring a winning touchdown.

Our next stop was the studio’s Gower Street entrance, which stood in for the entrance to the fictional Woltz International Pictures lot in the 1972 film The Godfather. That entrance and guard shack have, sadly, since been remodeled.

We then made our way over to Stage 31, which is the spot where the Joel McHale television series Community is filmed. It was extremely cool to see that particular stage, as it is one of the only stages on the lot that has a “dressed” exterior. As you can see in the above photographs, the facade of the fictional Greendale Community College Library has been constructed around the exterior of the building. So incredibly cool!

We also spotted Donald Glover, who plays Troy Barnes on the show, while we were there.

Up next was New York Street – my VERY favorite section of the lot and the spot where the Grim Cheaper and I were thinking about getting married. “Street” is actually a bit of a misnomer, though, being that the area measures a whopping five acres, is shaped like a square, and features numerous sections and blocks which were built to resemble different sections of New York, including Brooklyn, Greenwich Village, Washington Square, the Financial District, the Upper East Side, the Lower East Side, SoHo, a typical brownstone neighborhood, and, ironically enough, Chicago. Each time I walk through New York Street, I truly feel as if I am actually in the Big Apple. It’s amazing! Even small details like mailboxes and payphones (pictured above) are so realistic that someone on a tour once put a letter inside one of the fake boxes thinking it was real. 🙂

The Washington Square section of New York Street is featured regularly on the new TNT series Rizzoli & Isles, as the home of Detective Jane Rizzoli (aka Angie Harmon).

Washington Square also appeared in the Season 7 episode of Seinfeld titled “The Rye”, in the scene in which Jerry Seinfeld tries to throw a loaf of rye bread up to George Constanza (aka Jason Alexander) who is waiting on the third floor of his girlfriend’s parents’ apartment building.

The Boston Police Station from Rizzoli & Isles can also be found on New York Street, in the Brooklyn section.

The jazz club from Spiderman 3 is located in the SoHo section of New York Street and is what is referred to as a “practical set”, meaning that it is not just a facade, but also has an interior area which can be used for filming.

Pink’s 2008 Video Music Awards performance of “So What (I’m Still A Rock Star)” was also filmed on New York Street in the SoHo area.

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While walking through the Chicago area of New York Street, our tour guide pointed out the above-pictured building called the “Tin Shed” which he said serves as the dance studio for the cast of Glee. So incredibly cool!

At the time we visited the lot, the Chicago section of New York Street was dressed for the filming of the yet-to-be-released television series Happy Endings, which stars Elisha Cuthbert.

The facade pictured above, which is located at the corner of H Avenue and the Chicago section of New York Street, is being used as the exterior of Rosalita’s Bar, the Happy Endings’ characters’ main hang-out.

That very same facade was also used as the five-and-dime store where Holly Golightly (aka Audrey Hepburn) and Paul ‘Fred’ Varjak (aka George Peppard) stole Halloween masks in fave movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s. So, I, of course, just had to take a picture standing in the doorway!

We also got to see the interior set of Rosalita’s while we were on the tour and it actually reminds me a lot of Grayson’s bar from fave show Cougar Town. We weren’t allowed to take any photographs of it, unfortunately, but you can see what the bar looks like in the above screen captures, which I got off of IMDB.

Our next stop was the place I had been waiting all morning to see – Stage 14, where fave show Glee is filmed!

Amazingly enough, our timing could NOT have been more perfect, because right when we arrived at the stage several of the stars drove by on golf carts! We first spotted Harry Shum Jr. (pictured above) who plays dancer Mike Chang on the show. He was on a golf cart with Jenna Ushkowitz (aka Tina Cohen-Chang), who we unfortunately did not get a photograph of.

Immediately after that, a cart carrying Amber Riley (aka Mercedes Jones), Mark Salling (aka Noah ‘Puck’ Puckerman), and Chord Overstreet (aka Sam Evans) drove by. We also spotted Dianna Agron (aka Quinn Fabray) and Lea Michelle (aka Rachel Berry), but unfortunately we did not get photographs of either of them. Before spotting the Glee stars, our tour guide had warned us that the cast wasn’t known to be all that friendly or even particularly nice on the lot. According to him, they have all apparently gotten a bit too big for their britches in recent months. And, sadly, our experience definitely reflected that sentiment. When the actors drove by, our small tour group was the only group of people around. We did not in any way go crazy or walk up to them when we spotted them, but just politely stood in our places and waved. And I am sad to say that not a one of them waved back or even managed to crack a smile. In fact, as you can see in the above photographs, Amber Riley looked as if she wanted to throttle us! I’m telling you, if looks could kill, our entire tour group would have been dead! LOL Mark Salling was the only one of the bunch who had a smile on his face, but it was definitely not directed towards us. He was speaking with Chord Overstreet the entire time and did not so much as even look our way. The whole thing was HIGHLY disappointing and only got worse two weeks later when I spotted Lea Michele while taking the Paramount tour once again with fellow stalker Lavonna and her friends, but I’ll save that story for a future post. 🙂

Our next stop was the Paramount Medical Services building, the back side of which (where you can see the lattice in the above photograph) was supposedly used as Charlie’s (aka Kelly McGillis’) porch in the movie Top Gun.

The final stop on our tour was the famous 516-seat Paramount Theatre, which has played host to several Hollywood premieres and premiere after-parties over the years and has also been the site of some filming, as well.

Just outside of the theatre is the famous Paramount water fountain;

Forest Gump’s bench from the movie of the same name;

and the Bronson Gate – the studio’s former entrance, which was where Norma Desmond (aka Gloria Swanson) entered the lot in the 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard. Legend has it that rubbing one’s hands on the gate while uttering Norma’s famous line, “I’m ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille”, will bring luck in the movie industry.

And with that our tour was over. But just as we were hopping back on our golf cart to head back to the studio store to make our departure, I spotted one of my mom’s all-time favorite actors – David Strathairn – who was nice enough to smile and wave at us after he realized that we had recognized him. 🙂 So incredibly cool!

And while leaving through the lot’s main gate who should drive past us but Glee star Jenna Ushkowitz. You can just barely see her in the black car in the above photograph.

I honestly cannot recommend stalking the Paramount lot enough! It is, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, the best studio tour in existence and I absolutely cannot wait to go on it again!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Paramount Studios is located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Tours are given Monday through Friday at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. and cost $40 per person. Reservations can be made by calling (323)956-1777. Parking for the tour costs $7 per car. I recommend booking your tour at least a week in advance, as they tend to sell out quickly. You can find out more information about the Paramount Studios Tour here.

December 28, 2009December 28, 2009

Wollman Ice Skating Rink

I’m sticking with my Christmas stalking theme for one more day – even though it’s already December 28th – as I had originally intended to publish this post on Christmas Eve, but, unfortunately, ran out of time. As I’ve said many times before, though, it’s better to be late than never! So, here goes! One New York location that definitely belongs in any collection of Christmas movie locales is Wollman Ice Skating Rink, a spot which appeared in one of my very favorite holiday flicks of all time, Home Alone 2: Lost In New York. I had the pleasure of skating at Wollman Rink with my fiancé back in 2004 and absolutely fell in love with the place. With the Plaza Hotel and other New York skyscrapers towering in the background, the rink actually looks more like a picture postcard than a real life location. If you haven’t been there yourself, take my word for it, Wollman Rink is absolutely magical. 🙂

Wollman Rink was originally constructed in 1949 thanks to a $600,000 donation from New York philanthropist Kate Wollman. Kate had the ice skating rink built in honor of her parents, Jonas and Bettie, and her four brothers, William, Morton, Henry, and Benjamin. From the beginning, Wollman Rink was an immediate success, welcoming over 300,000 skaters in its first year alone. Today, it is visited by an average of 4,000 skaters per day.

Like practically everything else in New York, Wollman Rink is currently owned and operated by real estate mogul Donald Trump, who purchased and completely rebuilt the property back in the ‘90s. His name is displayed on almost every square inch of the rink, lest anyone ever forget who it belongs to. 😉 In the summer months, the rink is transformed into a small amusement park named Victorian Gardens. Wollman Rink is not to be confused with the similarly named Kate Wollman Memorial Rink, which was constructed in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park by the William J. Wollman Foundation upon Kate’s death in 1955.

Thanks to its picturesque appearance, Wollman Rink has long been a favorite of location scouts, appearing in countless movies and television shows over the years. In Home Alone 2: Lost In New York, Harry and Marv, aka “The Sticky Bandits”, plan their robbery of Duncan’s Toy Chest while skating at Wollman Rink. Ironically enough, though, before my first visit to New York, this stalker was under the mistaken assumption that the Home Alone scene had been filmed at the famous Rockefeller Center ice staking rink. It wasn’t until I started making a stalking itinerary for my first Big Apple vacation that I realized my mistake. As it turns out, New York has not one, but TWO cinematically historic ice skating rinks. But I’ll save the Rockefeller Center rink for a future post. 😉

Wollman Rink also appeared in the Season One episode of Gossip Girl entitled “Roman Holiday”, in the scene in which Blair Waldorf (aka Leighton Meester), along with her mother, her father, and her father’s new boyfriend go ice skating just a few days before Christmas.

On a side note – I am absolutely IN LOVE with the skates with the hanging pink pompoms that Blair wore in that scene!!!! I have GOT to get me a pair of those! 🙂

In Serendipity – one of my fave romcoms of all time! – Jonathan (aka John Cusack) and Sara (aka Kate Beckinsale) go for a late night skate at Wollman Rink after sharing a Frrrozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity 3 Restaurant.

After their skate, Jonathan draws the constellation of Cassiopeia on Sara’s arm while sitting on the rink’s benches.

And at the end of the movie, the two star-crossed lovers finally reunite at the rink. Wollman Rink has also been featured in Stepmom, Autumn in New York, Love Story, The January Man, The Devil’s Own, Odds Against Tomorrow, Carnal Knowledge, August Rush, A Journey That Wasn’t, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, and the 2005 version of King Kong.

Celebrities also often visit Wollman Rink. In December of 2005, Tom Cruise took his then-pregnant girlfriend Katie Holmes there to celebrate her 27th birthday.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Wollman Rink is located inside Central Park, near the corner of Central Park South and 5th Avenue, in New York. Follow the footpath from the Park’s 59th Street entrance over Gapstow Bridge and the rink will be visible on the west. Wollman Rink is open from November through March. You can visit its official website here.