Westlake Village – IAMNOTASTALKER

January 25, 2017January 23, 2017

Rod Tidwell’s House from “Jerry Maguire”

People often ask me about my most-wanted unfound locations. Currently, the one that tops my list is the mansion where this Beverly Hills, 90210 publicity photo was taken. But for several years, the locale that held that spot was the Mediterranean-style residence where Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his wife, Marcee (Regina King), lived in the 1996 romcom Jerry Maguire. Try as I might, I just could not seem to find it. Then last June, I finally decided to call in the big guns and asked my friend Michael (you know him from his many The Brady Bunch guest posts, which you can read here, here, here, here and here, as well as his columns on Too Close for Comfort, The Ropers, Life in Pieces, and Fuller House) for some assistance. Per usual, he was successful in tracking the place down. Quickly, too, I might add. While I covered the house in my The Complete Guide to Jerry Maguire Filming Locations post back in December, because the hunt for it was so lengthy (well, on my end, at least), I figured it was worthy of its own write-up.

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Though I had always wondered about its location, I did not actively begin searching for the Tidwell’s supposed Arizona-area home until June 2014, shortly after my friend Mike, from MovieShotsLA, tracked down the restaurant where Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr) fired Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) in the movie. Around that time, I purchased the Special Edition DVD of the flick to listen/watch the video commentary (which was fabulous, by the way – I’ve never seen a commentary done in such a manner before) with Cuba, Cruise, Renee Zellweger, and Cameron Crowe. During their conversation, Cuba mentioned that the Tidwell residence was located in the Thousand Oaks area. In lightening up a screen capture of the exterior of the house, I also noticed that a partial address number, ending in what I believed was “60,” was visible. It was also apparent from my numerous watchings that a very large, very unusual rock formation was situated behind Rod’s pad. I figured that these three clues would make finding the place fairly easy. I was wrong. While I scoured Thousand Oaks for a dwelling situated in front of a large rock with an address that ended in 60, I came up empty-handed.

Two years of searching later and I was still at a loss. So I decided it was time to bring in Michael. I emailed him the above screen capture as well as the three bits of information I had. The following day, he responded saying he had found some very similar looking homes in a Westlake Village development known as Crescent Oaks, which was established in the late ‘80s. You can check out one of those residences here. Though he couldn’t find Rod’s house in that particular community, he figured he was on the right track. From there, the two of us started combing through neighborhoods in the vicinity of Crescent Oaks (along with my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, who I also called in for an assist), but we could not find Rod’s pad anywhere.

Never one to be deterred, I moved on to a different tactic by tracking down Sascha Lorren, who played Rod’s niece in the movie, to see if she remembered where filming had taken place. She didn’t, but thankfully her mother recalled that the Tidwell home was located in the Thousand Oaks area, west/south of the 101. From there, Michael worked his magic and found the residence just a few hours later at 1760 Kirsten Lee Drive in Westlake Village.

How did he do it, and so swiftly, you ask? I wondered the very same thing. As he explained to me, “It was the second area I choose when looking at Google Maps. I was mainly looking for a lot of terra-cotta roofs, a layout of roads that felt similar to Crescent Oaks, and abutting mountains. I knew I was in the right area when I saw that rock. Then I came across an identical house just down the road. And then voila!” Thank you, Michael!

In real life, the home is part of the Three Springs development, which was established in the early ‘90s. As Michael said, “I guess there were 5 different developers for the different tracts. I’d be very surprised if they weren’t the same developers that did those homes in Crescent Oaks a couple years earlier.”

The 2-story dwelling, which was built in 1991, boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,649 square feet, a 3-car garage, a 1.09-acre plot of land, and a swimming pool.

The front exterior of the Tidwell house is only shown once in Jerry Maguire. As you can see below, the residence looks much the same today as it did when the movie was shot 20 years ago, despite the lack of the partially-completed garage addition and other construction paraphernalia, which were set pieces brought in for the shoot. (“Jerry, my house is falling apart. Nobody’s looking out for Rod Tidwell. We don’t know where we gonna live in a year. And I’m supposed to be a superstar, man!”)

Though the front of the dwelling only appeared once in the film, the interior was featured numerous times.

It was most notably the site of the famous “Show me the money!” sequence. Per my new friend Greg Mariotti of The Uncool website, that scene, as well as the rest of the Tidwell home scenes, were the last of the movie to be shot. (I cannot look at the images below without hearing Rod saying, “I am a valuable commodity!” – one of my favorite lines in the film. Makes me laugh every. single. time.)

The residence’s real life backyard also appeared in the “Show me the money!” sequence.

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

Big THANK YOU to my friend Michael for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Rod Tidwell’s house from Jerry Maguire is located at 1760 Kirsten Lee Drive in Westlake Village.

January 14, 2015January 13, 2015

Hyatt Westlake Plaza from “The Karate Kid”

2014 was definitely the year of The Karate Kid. Not only did the flick turn thirty, but two of its missing locations were finally found – Mr. Miyagi’s house, which I blogged about here, and the fictional Encino Oaks Country Club, which, as it turns out, was actually the Hyatt Westlake Plaza hotel in Thousand Oaks. The latter was only brought to my attention recently thanks to this June LA Weekly article. So while I was in the area one (very rainy) day a couple of weeks ago, I stopped by to investigate further.

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I had actually stalked the Hyatt Westlake Plaza once before, way back in February 2010, because of its appearance in the Season 1 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “Palm Springs Weekend.” (You can read that post here.) I later came to find out that the hotel was also used for some interior filming in the Season 5 episodes titled “P.S. I Love You: Part I” and “P.S. I Love You: Part II,” which were also set in Palm Springs. As I said in that post, which you can read here, Hyatt Westlake Plaza was obviously 90210’s go-to Palm Springs hotel stand-in. But more on that in a bit.

In The Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) heads to the Encino Oaks Country Club to pick up Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue) for a date. Ali tells Daniel that she will meet him outside at 9:30, but she winds up being late. According to the LA Weekly article, Daniel waited for her just outside of the Hyatt Westlake Plaza’s main entrance. Thankfully, that information was easy to verify as the hotel’s entrance looks exactly the same today as it did in the fall of 1983, when The Karate Kid was shot.

In the scene, Daniel stood in front of the easternmost beam of the hotel’s porte-cochère.

You can even see the Hyatt’s tiled lobby fountain in the background, which was also visible in the “P.S. I Love You” episodes of 90210.

Today, the fountain is no longer tiled, but its shape remains the same as it was when 90210 was filmed in 1995.

Once Daniel gets tired of waiting for Ali in The Karate Kid, he heads inside the country club to try to see what is holding her up. He sneaks in through the kitchen and eventually sees Ali in a luxe ballroom kissing his nemesis, Johnny (William Zabka). According to LA Weekly, filming of that scene took place in the Hyatt’s Grand Plaza Ballroom, so I headed inside to check it out. Sadly, due to the fact that the hotel has been remodeled several times over the past thirty years, it no longer looks anything like it did onscreen, which gave me some pause.

The most notable change was that of the chandeliers. In The Karate Kid, the ballroom chandeliers were made of ornate crystals, while the room’s current chandeliers are almost Mediterranean in style and feature iron accents.

I did notice that the ballroom’s recessed ceiling squares and positioning of heating vents did appear to be a direct match with what appeared in The Karate Kid. Despite that fact, though, I started to have doubts about the location. It was hard for me to believe that the hotel would do away with such fancy crystal chandeliers, especially considering that the new chandeliers make the room much less elegant and far more casual. I thought it was more likely that filming had taken place at a different spot, one that still had those chandeliers in place.

I also was unable to locate the set of double doors that led to the kitchen in the movie, which only gave me further hesitation that the Grand Plaza Ballroom was the ballroom from The Karate Kid. I know, I know. I was definitely nitpicking, especially considering that it has been thirty years since filming took place. What can I say? I don’t like to be 95% sure, or 99% sure, or even 99.9% sure about locations I present on my blog. Before reporting anything, I want to be 100% certain about all of my assertions.

This past Monday, I started searching for other ‘80s productions filmed at the hotel, hoping one might show the Grand Plaza Ballroom. If I could find some sort of image of the ballroom and those crystal chandeliers were indeed in place, then I could verify that it was the same spot used in The Karate Kid. Thanks to IMDB, I learned that Hyatt Westlake Plaza had been featured in two Season 6 episodes of Knots Landing, “Vulnerable” and “The Long and Winding Road.” The episodes were filmed in 1985, just two years after The Karate Kid was shot. I spent hours searching for them online, but, sadly, Knots Landing is not available to watch anywhere! I finally managed to find a (rather dramatic) scene from the “Vulnerable” episode on YouTube and, miraculously, it took place in the Grand Plaza Ballroom! Eureka! You can watch it by clicking below.

Maddeningly though, the cameras never panned high enough in the scene to show the chandeliers. I did spot some similarities between the Knots Landing ballroom and The Karate Kid ballroom, though. As you can see below, the single and double wood frame décor elements were present in both productions.

The chair railings that run across both rooms are also a match.

As is the shaping of the doorframes. The wallpaper also seems to be the same in both films, though it is hard to tell.

I still was not convinced that the two rooms were one and the same, though. I wanted to see an image of those chandeliers! That would clinch things for me. Then, like a lightning bolt, it hit me! I suddenly remembered that in “P.S. I Love You: Part II,” Donna Martin (Tori Spelling) made a speech to her fellow sorority sisters – wait for it – in a ballroom. I immediately popped in my DVD of the episode and, sure enough, the crystal chandeliers from The Karate Kid were visible! I finally had my confirmation!

While I was at it, I figured I might as well also chronicle all of the productions filmed on the premises. In the 1985 movie Tuff Turf, Hyatt Westlake Plaza once again masqueraded as a country club, this time the El Canyon Country Club that Morgan Hiller (James Spader), Frankie Croyden (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Kim Richards) and their friends snuck into. The front exterior of the property . . .

. . . and the lobby area were used in the flick.

Oddly though, the ballroom featured in the movie was actually the Riviera Country Club’s Crystal Ballroom in Pacific Palisades. You can see pictures of it here.

As I mentioned above, Hyatt Westlake Plaza appeared in two episodes of Knots Landing, Season 6’s “Vulnerable” and “The Long and Winding Road.” In the episodes, the hotel was where Mack MacKenzie (Kevin Dobson) and Karen MacKenzie (Michele Lee) confronted the shady Dr. Ackerman (Laurence Haddon) while he was participating in a bridge tournament. After the confrontation, Dr. Ackerman runs outside to the Hyatt’s parking lot and shoots himself.

In the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills 90210 titled “Palm Springs Weekend,” which aired in 1991, the Hyatt Westlake Plaza masked as two hotels. It first stood in for the Desert Palm Mirage, where Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) thought she was supposed to meet Dylan McKay (Luke Perry) for a romantic rendezvous.

“I had to sleep in a broom closet!”

And it also played the Desert Mirage, the hotel where Brenda later caught Dylan with another girl.

I so love that the elevators still look exactly the same today as they did when 90210 was filmed 24 years ago.

In Season 5’s “P.S. I Love You” episodes, the Hyatt was used as the interior of the hotel where the KEG/Alpha Convention was being held.

The Hyatt’s hot tub was also used in the scene in which Brandon Walsh (Jason Priestley) and Valerie Malone (Tiffani Thiessen) almost rendezvoused. The hot tub is denoted with a yellow arrow in the photograph below (which I got off of the hotel’s website). It is located just beyond the pool. As you can see, the tiered shaping of the top of the pillar visible behind Brandon on 90210 matches that of the Hyatt’s pillars. And the boulders situated near the pool are also a match to what appeared onscreen.

Hyatt Westlake Plaza has also appeared on The Bachelor. For a time, it was where contestants were put up prior to moving into the mansion. I do not believe that it has been used in the show’s more current seasons, though. The screen captures below were taken from the first episode of the series’ 14th season, which starred Jake Pavelka.

On a side-note – my dad has a couple of doctor appointments in L.A. this week and I am heading out there with him. While I will have a new Los Angeles magazine post for tomorrow, I will not have a new post for Friday.

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Hyatt Westlake Plaza, aka Encino Oaks Country Club from The Karate Kid, is located at 880 South Westlake Boulevard in Thousand Oaks. You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

September 17, 2010January 11, 2011

The “It’s Complicated” House

This past weekend, I dragged my new husband out to Westlake Village to see a home that I’ve been absolutely dying to stalk ever since I tracked down its location a little over two months ago – the adobe-style ranch where Jane Adler (aka Meryl Streep) lived in the 2009 Nancy Meyers-directed romantic comedy It’s Complicated. I have been absolutely obsessed with Jane’s little Spanish-style bungalow ever since first laying eyes upon it while watching the flick back in July. Nancy Meyers has a true gift for choosing only the most beautiful homes to showcase in her films – from Diane Keaton’s beachside abode in Something’s Gotta Give to Kate Winslet’s English cottage in The Holiday to Steve Martin and family’s iconic white colonial residence in the Father of the Bride movies. I don’t think there’s a director out there who is better at scouting movie homes and that talent is nowhere more apparent than in It’s Complicated. The movie’s production designer, Jon Hutman, is quoted in the production notes as saying, “Nancy, perhaps more than any director I’ve worked with, comes to the table with a clear and specific vision of the world in which the story takes place.” She ends up translating that world to the screen and it becomes a place that her audiences want to live in, too. Which is why I think I became so obsessed with the It’s Complicated house – it is exactly the type of place I’d love to own myself someday.

And I am not alone in my desire. Ask anyone if they’ve seen It’s Complicated and the conversation invariably turns to Jane’s wooded, Spanish-style residence. So, it’s no surprise that I began cyber-stalking the place immediately upon finishing the movie. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t find much information about the home anywhere. The only real clues I had to go on were from the movie’s production notes, which stated that in real life the property had been built in the late 1920’s, was located in Thousand Oaks, and had belonged to several celebrities over the years, most notably comedian W.C. Fields.

I had one other pretty big clue to go on, though – one that wasn’t mentioned in the film’s production notes. Throughout the movie, Jane’s house is shown to be surrounded by a long, white wooden fence. That type of fence pops up quite often in film and television productions and when it does, it is pretty much a dead giveaway that filming took place somewhere on Potrero Road.

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Potrero Road is an extremely long, meandering street that cuts through numerous ranch-style properties in the Thousand Oaks, Hidden Valley, and Westlake Village areas and, as you can see in the above photographs, is bordered on each side by low, white wooden fences just like Jane’s. So, I decided to begin my search there. And sure enough, about ten minutes into the hunt, I located Jane’s house! As it turns out, it is situated less than half a mile east of JMJ Ranch, which was featured in fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and the more recent Back-Up Plan with Jennifer Lopez.

Before stalking the house, I was convinced that some part of it would be visible from the street. As you can see in the above photographs, though, that was not really the case. Sadly, the residence is set quite a ways back from the road and is surrounded by massive oak trees which hide the home from view. 🙁 UGH!

But that’s why God created aerial images!

And while the aerial views of the home aren’t that great, as you can see in the above screen captures, the shape of the house and the shape of the pool match those of the real residence perfectly!

Only the exterior of the Potrero Road home was featured in the production. Sadly, the beautiful interior of Jane’s house was a set that existed solely on a soundstage at Brooklyn’s Broadway Stages. Nancy Meyers was so meticulously involved in the creation of the interior of Jane’s residence, though, that she even went so far as to hand pick the books that were stored on the character’s bookshelves. She says, “I’m very particular about what’s sitting on a table. I’ll walk around the set, saying, ‘Would she really be reading this book?’” It is that attention to detail that makes the home appear so warm and inviting. Sigh!

UPDATE – The It’s Complicated house is currently for sale. You can check out a YouTube video of it here.

On a side note – fellow stalker David from Spain recently alerted me to the fact that the Gene Autry Museum in Griffith Park is currently hosting an exhibit featuring clothing that once belonged to the King of Pop. The exhibit is entitled “How The West Was Worn, by Michael Jackson” and displays such iconic pieces as the silver-plated shoes he wore to the White House in 1990 and the guitar-clasp belt he wore on the “Beat It” album cover in 1982 (pictured above). You can find out more information about the exhibit here. Special thanks to David for telling me about this event, which I will, of course, be stalking! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The It’s Complicated house is located at 714 West Potrero Road in Westlake Village. JMJ Ranch, from Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and The Back-Up Plan, is located at 930 West Potrero Road in Thousand Oaks, just a half a mile west of the It’s Complicated house.

February 5, 2010February 5, 2010

The Westlake Village Inn

This past weekend, my fiancé and I decided to take a little “staycation” at a hotel named the Westlake Village Inn located about thirty miles away from where we live. I had read about the hotel while doing some cyberstalking a few weeks beforehand and because it was touted as a frequent filming location was absolutely dying to stay there. The Inn also looked like the perfect spot for a romantic weekend getaway and, thankfully, in person, it did not disappoint. The 17-acre hotel, which was originally named the “Westlake Motor Lodge”, was first opened in 1968 by Swiss born developer John L. Notter and consisted of 75 simple rooms. Today, the property, which was remodeled last year, is made up of seven different buildings which are comprised of 141 European-style hotel rooms, no two of which are exactly alike, and beautiful manicured grounds. Besides being a frequent filming locale, the Inn has also long enjoyed a rich celebrity following. Just a few of its famous past guests include Arnold Palmer, Hulk Hogan, Sean Connery, Tiger Woods, Julio Iglesias, and politicians Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, Nancy Reagan, and Ronald Reagan, who was a regular. The hotel even created a Ronald Reagan Suite at the behest of the nearby Reagan Library. The suite, which is decorated with the late president’s photographs and memorabilia, is available to all guests, but was created especially for visiting political dignitaries and even features a special adjoining room for secret service agents to stay in.

One of the most exceptional aspects of the Westlake Village Inn is its extremely reasonable room rates – according to Notter the hotel is underpriced by about twenty percent. Because Notter has owned the Inn for over 42 years, his debt is fairly small and he can therefore keep the rates substantially lower than his competitors. And thanks to those low rates, I was able to book one of the hotel’s 400 square foot “Business Suites” at a cost of only $150.00. Even the Grim Cheaper was amenable to staying in a suite at that low price. 🙂

Our room, which I absolutely LOVED, featured a sitting area,

a king size bed,

a fireplace,

a HUGE bathroom (with a TV!), and a private patio.

My fiancé and I spent quite a bit of time walking the manicured grounds of the hotel, which are truly beautiful with trellis-covered walkways;

landscaped courtyards;

rock waterfalls;

and large ponds.

The pool area, with its covered cabanas, is also extremely inviting, but unfortunately it was far too cold in Westlake last weekend – about 50 degrees Fahrenheit – to take a dip. 🙁 I was so tempted, though!

Upon checking into the hotel, the lobby of which is pictured above, I was asked to sign an agreement stipulating that I would not be throwing a party in my room that night. Being that I’ve never had to sign such an agreement, I found it a bit of an odd request, but didn’t think much of it . . . until about 2 o’clock the following morning, when the people above us returned to their room and screamed out “THE PARTY’S HERE!” I called the office to complain, but, unfortunately, it didn’t seem to do a whole lot of good as the noise continued until about 5am. It wasn’t just the people above us, either. Outside our patio, another group seemed to having a party, as did even another group still that was located a bit farther away. Come 2am, it seems, the place turns into one big party. The hotel is actually a very popular wedding facility and no less than three ceremonies were being held on the grounds during our stay. Weddings at the Inn have to conclude by 10pm due to noise restrictions, but there is also a bar/nightclub on the property named Bogies, which doesn’t close until 2. So, I am fairly certain that come 10 pm, wedding parties simply move from the reception areas over to Bogies to get their groove on. Then once Bogie’s shuts down for the night, groups move back to their hotel rooms to continue the party there. Being that I had to sign the “no parties” contract, I am guessing that what I experienced is a fairly common problem at the Westlake Village Inn. And, unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if they’ve figured out quite how to deal with it. So, while we had a nice time there and absolutely loved our room, I wouldn’t exactly recommend the place as a good spot for a quiet weekend getaway. 🙁

The Westlake Village Inn staff truly could NOT have been nicer to us, though, especially one of the front desk employees who answered all of my silly questions about the filming that has taken place there over the years. And, let me tell you, there’s been quite a bit of it. The Inn popped up in the Season Three episode of Desperate Housewives entitled “A Weekend In The Country” as the hotel where Gaby runs into her former lover John. The area used in that scene is the covered pathway located directly across from the hotel’s main entrance. The hotel room and elevator area where Gaby hides in a suitcase in that episode were filmed elsewhere, though.

Both the hotel’s pool . . .

. . . and its two story, 1,500 square foot “Villa Suite” were also used in that same episode during the scene in which Orson is daydreaming about his upcoming honeymoon with Bree. According to the hotel employee I talked to, another episode of Desperate Housewives was also filmed on location at the Inn. The episode consisted of one of the ladies kicking her husband out of their house, whereupon he checks into the Westlake Village Inn. Unfortunately I can’t figure out which episode that was, though. Does anyone out there remember it?

In the movie XXX, the hotel stood in for the Capital Country Club where Vin Diesel steals a member’s Corvette and then proceeds to drive it through a tiny covered walkway. XXX was filmed before the hotel’s recent remodel, though, so, as you can see in the above screen captures and photograph, the valet area looks a bit different today.

And according to the employee I talked to, a real life Corvette was actually driven down the walkway pictured above during the filming of that scene. Amazing!

The employee also said that producers brought in a new valet desk for that scene – even though said desk was only visible for a split second – and the hotel ended up keeping it and is still using it today. 🙂 So cool!

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The hotel was also used for a large car crash scene in an episode of the television series Eli Stone.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Westlake Village Inn is located at 31943 Agoura Road in Westlake Village. You can visit their website here.