The Mentalist

One of my favorite stalking stories involves the Grim Cheaper and Sex and the City: The Movie, which I saw right when it came out in late May 2008.  I was gifted Amy Sohn’s book about the film for my birthday just a few days later and while it did a fabulous job of breaking […]

I was incredibly saddened to learn of the passing of John Mahoney last week.  Not only did I love the actor in pretty much every role he played, but his Hollywood story is such an unusual and admirable one.  After graduating from college, Mahoney tried his hand at a few different occupations including teaching English […]

It’s five minutes until six and everybody’s favorite truant, Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), has to beat his parents home lest they find out that he has cut school for the ninth time! (“I don’t remember him being sick nine times!”) So begins one of the most famous sequences in all of moviedom, the race home […]

The Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles is a rare bird when it comes to filming locations in that virtually every square inch of it has appeared onscreen – and I’m talking in multiple major productions!  This factoid fascinates me and I thought it would be fun to cover in an in-depth article, so a few years […]

The name of my blog is (obviously) meant in jest.  I always feel a pang of guilt over having chosen it, though, when I think about Rebecca Schaeffer, the young actress who was gunned down in her doorway by a deranged stalker at the tender age of 21 in 1989.  My grandma and I religiously […]

As I mentioned in my December 12th post for Los Angeles magazine’s CityThink blog, I was heartbroken upon learning the news of Paul Walker’s death.  I met Paul on December 1st, 2012, almost a year to the day of his passing, and couldn’t have been more impressed with his down-to-earth attitude and kindness.  (You can […]

This past Saturday morning, the Grim Cheaper and I headed out to Simi Valley to stalk a location that he was actually excited about for once – the House of the Book building at the Brandeis-Barden Campus of the American Jewish University, which stands in for the Visualize cult’s headquarters on fave show The Mentalist.  […]

Because I encountered so much filming location misinformation while researching my post on Bob’s Big Boy Broiler in Downey last week, I decided that I just had to write a blog about the place’s sister eatery, the now-defunct Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, which has […]

You can watch the Just Go With It trailer, in which Casa del Mar is featured, by clicking above. The hotel also popped up in the Season 2 episode of The Mentalist titled “18-5-4” as the supposed San Francisco-area Tidewater Resort where Oliver Simon McDaniel (aka Evan Peters) hid out. For whatever reason, producers had […]

In , the former Bank of America building was the location of the “Girls Night Out” party, during which Jenna’s boss, Richard (aka Andy Serkis) complains that the guests are leaving far too early and if someone doesn’t do something to liven up the joint – and quick – then the entire magazine might go […]

Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked during our day in the the Valley together a few months back was the Fraziers Bottom farm that movie star Tad Hamilton purchased in fave film Win a Date with Tad Hamilton.  In real life, Tad’s property is named JMJ Ranch and it is not located […]

As I predicted a few weeks ago, getting engaged has opened up a whole new stalking world for me!  And even though I have known for years now the exact spot where I want to get married, I am fully planning on dragging my fiance from one end of L.A. to the other looking at wedding/filming […]

This past weekend, my fiance and I rented the movie Taken – which was phenomenal, by the way!!!! – and I immediately recognized a home featured in it that was originally used in a Season One episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210.  I have been dying to stalk the home for the past few years, but, unfortunately, it is […]

A few weeks ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, called me up to ask me if I knew that my latest Hollywood crush, Simon Baker, had one of his earliest acting roles in the 1997 movie  L.A. Confidential.  And I almost fell out of my chair!  Even though I’ve seen that movie about a hundred times, I never realized that SB […]

This weekend I dragged my boyfriend and my parents out to stalk a street that is known as the “birthplace of Los Angeles”.  The historic Olvera Street outdoor marketplace has long been a popular tourist attraction and filming location.  But its history began over 200 years ago when the area was built by early Spanish settlers.  At that […]

Another day, another motel location.  Today’s is one that has been covered on many other blogs, so I realize I am a bit late to the game.  I only just recently stalked it, though, and was shocked to discover that its most recognizable element had been removed!  I am talking about the Palms Motel where […]

Around this time last year, The Mentalist embarked on a huge change of course by having Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) and Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) leave the Sacramento-based California Bureau of Investigation and then join the Austin, Texas branch of the FBI.  So, of course, that meant that I had a new location to find […]

My friend Owen and I share an uncanny synchronicity.  The other night I received an email from him which said the following, “837 Beacon Ave., L.A.  You may want to stalk this place after you watch the Season 7 premiere of Parks and Recreation.”  I had yet to see the episode, but immediately looked up […]

Though I chronicled the main locations used on Parks and Recreation pretty extensively for Los Angeles magazine in March, I still have a few of the series’ less prominent locales stockpiled in my backlog and figured it was about time that I covered them.  While watching the Season 7 episode titled “Save JJ’s,” I became […]

I cannot wait for the Secret L.A.-themed February issue of Los Angeles magazine to hit newsstands!  The City of Angels is chock full of tucked-away gems and I absolutely love discovering them.  The Grim Cheaper and I just stalked one, in fact, that is also a filming location – St. Vincent Court, which appeared in […]

When Juan Pablo Galavis and Chelsie Webster went bungee jumping off of Pasadena’s Colorado Street Bridge in the recently-aired Season 18 episode of The Bachelor titled “Soccer Date,” I found myself wondering, “How did I miss the filming?”  Although it has been over a year now, I still have to remind myself that the Crown […]

One location that my good friend, fellow stalker Lavonna, asked me to track down eons ago was the shopping center that was featured in the Season 3 episode of fave show The Office titled “Women’s Appreciation”.  Because the series is taped in Van Nuys, I figured that the mall was located somewhere in the San […]

While watching the two-part Season 3 finale of fave show The Mentalist titled “Strawberries and Cream” a few weeks back, I just about died when I realized that the Burbank Town Center had stood in for the supposed Sacramento-area “Pinewood Shopping Mall” in the episode’s climatic final scene.  While Burbank Town Center is not actually […]

Located directly across the street from the Larry Crowne apartment building in Altadena, which I blogged about last Friday, is Charles W. Eliot (not Elliot) Middle School – a very unique and arresting structure that looms over the neighborhood thanks to its large fortress-like bell tower.  My veterinarian is located just up the street from […]

One location that I have wanted to stalk for almost two years now, ever since November of 2008 when it appeared in the Season One episode of The Mentalist titled “Seeing Red”, was the merry go round where Patrick Jane (aka Simon Baker) lured murder suspect Travis Tennant (aka Noel Fisher).  The only problem was […]

Got a challenge a few months back from a man named Glenn who wanted me to locate the house used as the Camden residence on the Aaron Spelling television series 7th Heaven.   Unfortunately, though, this challenge proved to be rather difficult as there are quite a few conflicting rumors about the home’s location floating around online.  The general consensus on most of the […]

I just about died this past Friday afternoon when my US Magazine  arrived in the mail and looming out at me was the headline “Is The Bachelor Fake?”   I have been absolutely enthralled with The Bachelor  this season – and not because I am a fan of Jason Mesnick.  I think the guy is pretty much a […]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I absolutely LOVE living in L.A.  You just never know what surprises lay around each corner here!  Yesterday, as I drove up to the Hollywood & Highland Center to meet my good friend Blaze for some coffee, I noticed quite a few of those yellow filming signs that I […]

My location obsession as of late has been the CBI Headquarters building where Patrick Jane and the gang report to work each week on my new fave show The Mentalist. I do love me some Simon Baker!  He’s such a cutie!  🙂   Being that it is quite unique in appearance, I had an inkling that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, might recognize the […]

Yesterday morning while doing some Downtown Los Angeles stalking, I happened to stumble upon a large film crew outside of Union Station.  I, of course, asked one of the background actors what was being filmed and almost fell over when she told me it was my new favorite show, The Mentalist!!!!   I asked if Simon Baker was on set and she laughed and said “Everyone’s been asking […]

One of my new favorite shows of the television season is the CBS series . Simon Baker’s acting on the show is truly incredible and I absolutely love watching his character! Anyway, while watching last week’s episode, I recognized not one, but two filming locations! The first location I recognized is a home that is […]

One spooky-type location that I have had on my To-Stalk list for just about forever now is the Macy’s department store located inside of the Burbank Town Center Mall, which was featured as a murder site in the Season 2 episode of fave show The Mentalist titled “Redemption”.  And while I had recognized the location […]

While doing some cyberstalking on fave website Virtual Globetrotting a few weeks back, I came across this post listing the address of a Santa Monica home which formerly belonged to cutie Mentalist star – and my latest celebrity crush – Simon Baker and I just about keeled over from excitement.  So, when my dad asked […]

I originally had more than twenty places featured on this list, but, to make it easier on myself, I decided to break up my Things To Do category into “Play” and “See.”  Today, I’ll be covering Play, aka Los Angeles activities and attractions that I recommend.  Enjoy! 1. Disneyland (1313 Disneyland Drive, Anaheim) – OK, […]

Out of all of the Salton Sea townships that I stalked while my best friend, Robin, was visiting in March, Bombay Beach was, without a doubt, my favorite.  Situated about twenty miles south of the North Shore Beach and Yacht Club (which I blogged about here), the tiny census-designated place is made up of about […]

If I had a nickel for every time a fellow stalker wrote to me asking for my top ten favorite locations in all of Los Angeles, I would have a whole lot more Louis Vuitton in my closet than I do right now. Over the years, in response to that repeated question, I compiled a […]