Month: August 2008

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The Other Corey’s House from “The Two Coreys”

Took a little stalking trip to Encino last week to stalk Corey Feldman’s house from the reality show The Two Coreys. I had found Corey’s address on fave website Virtual Globetrotting and even though I am so not a fan of the guy, I had to stalk it because like climber George Mallory said about Mt. Everest – “It’s there.” 🙂

Sadly, there’s not a whole lot of Corey’s house to see from the street as the home is located behind a gate, down a long, curving driveway and his property is lined with huge view-blocking trees. Even with the minimal view, though, the house is definitely recognizable from the Corey’s reality show. According to Zillow (which also has a good bird’s eye view of the home), Corey’s McMansion measures 4,400 square feet, is nestled on a 27,000 square foot lot, and has the following amenities: BBQ area, gated entrance, fireplace, garden, pool, spa and jetted tubs.

Also according to Zillow, the home was last purchased in 2005, which leads me to believe that it truly is owned by Corey Feldman and was not just rented for the filming of the show. While I was there, two guys were working on Corey’s front gate and I asked them if Corey did in fact live there. They told me they “weren’t allowed to talk about it” which pretty much answered my question. 🙂 LOL

One thing that you actually can see from the street is Corey’s mailbox. I honestly don’t know what it is with celebrities and their mailboxes, but it seems like every movie star house I stalk has a seriously hideous mailbox. LOL Maybe it’s a celeb thing and someday when I am rich and famous I’ll understand, but for now I just don’t get it. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Corey Feldman’s house is located at 16221 Elisa Place in Encino. As always, excercise caution when “stalking” and do not disturb the residents in any way.

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Brad and Angelina’s Malibu Manse

While partying with The Hills cast at the Project Beach House last Thursday, I got to do a little stalking of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s Malibu home. Brangelina’s place is located directly next door to the Project Beach House and being that there are no gates in between the two properties, I had a great view of the Jolie-Pitt’s manse. I have stalked the outside of their house before, but sadly no part of the home is visible from the street. So I was absolutely FLOORED at the up close and personal view of Brangelina’s that the Project Beach House afforded me. 🙂

Brad bought the house in March of 2005 shortly after he left Jen and long before he started dating Angelina Jolie (yeah, right!). Ironically Jen also moved to Malibu following their separation – I guess the two really can’t get away from each other. Brad purchased his five bedroom, three bath, 4,088 square foot home for $8,410,000 and lived in it only briefly. In 2006, Brangelina pretty much deserted the Malibu property and made Brad’s Los Feliz compound, which is located on a private gated road, their primary LA residence. I heard from a Malibu real estate agent a while back that the Jolie-Pitts were quietly shopping their Malibu house trying to unload it, but not having much luck.

According to one of my many star maps, the ultra modern home has a custom made sandblasted glass kitchen countertop, top of the line appliances, an outdoor fireplace and sweeping views of the Pacific. There’s even an adorable little lawn area below the house, set up with two chaise lounges which looks like the perfect place to spend a sunny afternoon. The house is really beautiful in person and – even though I am 100% on Team Aniston – I was still really excited to see it up close and personal!!!

Check out some great pictures of the interior of the house here and here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Brangelina’s Malibu home can be found at 32316 Pacific Coast Highway, directly next door to the Project Beach House which is located at 32340 PCH. I can’t say that I’d really recommend stalking either house, as there just isn’t that much to see from the street. I would suggest doing a little cyberstalking instead, as Zillow provides some good views of both houses. Click on the following links for the Zillow pages on Brangelina’s house and the Project Beach House.

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Watching The Hills Be Filmed!

Got one of the most exciting phone calls of my life on Tuesday! A good friend who has an in at the Project Beach House in Malibu called to invite me to a little shindig being held there yesterday, which would have been exciting news in and of itself. But what she said next almost gave me a heart attack – the event at the beach house was actually being held for a taping of The Hills!!!!! I swear I screamed so loud after hearing the news I am surprised my neighbors didn’t complain! LOL

So yesterday afternoon I headed out to Malibu to party at the Project Beach House. 🙂 In case you don’t read US Magazine, Beverly Hills PR firm Fingerprint Communications’ sponsored Project Beach House joined the ranks of other corporate sponsored celeb party houses in Malibu – ie. the Polaroid Beach House and the Silver Spoon Beach House. The Project Beach House is a $25 million six bedroom home, which was built by Frank Lloyd Wright, and sits on over four acres of land on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and El Matador State Beach in Malibu. The mansion has huge sprawling lawns, a koi pond, tennis court, pool, and even a helicopter landing pad! Not to mention a great view of Brad and Angie’s Malibu home, which is located right next door, but I’ll save those pics for a future post. 🙂

When we arrived there were huge luxury double size chaise lounges set up (which might as well have been outdoor beds, they were so comfy), models walking around in bathing suits and really high heels, a ton of really cool freebies, a Garnier Fructis facial station, a poolside hair styling station, a DJ spinning records, waitresses walking around serving delicious fresh baked appetizers, and two full bars. Just being at the Project Beach House would have been exciting enough for this stalker – the whole time I was literally thinking “How in the heck am I here??” I mean, who am I to be hanging out at the PROJECT BEACH HOUSE??? 🙂 So cool!

At around 3:30PM, in walked Lauren and Whitney and I just about DIED! You can see them in the above pic – they are on the very left. Lauren was not as thin as I expected her to be, but she was just as cute in person as she seems on TV. I was kinda bummed out, though, as she did not seem very friendly at all. I hardly saw her smile at all during the filming. After they arrived, Whitney and Lauren kind of hung out off to the side of the house waiting for the camera crew to get set up. The Hills is taped with three cameras set up on tripods that are actually set pretty far back from where the action is taking place. I was really surprised at how far away the cameras actually were. I always pictured the cameramen to be using handheld cameras and to kind of be right in the girls’ faces, but they weren’t. Taping of the sound is done wirelessly with the cast wearing wireless mikes, so the sound guy also stands pretty far away from the girls.

I must say that the entire experience was absolutely BIZARRE. I can’t put my finger on what exactly made the taping so surreal, but it was definitely wierd. Prior to the taping, I had always believed that the show was not really a “reality” show. I was convinced it was scripted and heavy influenced by producers. However, that wasn’t actually the case. But while the show is real, it is more of an altered reality, which is, I think, what made the whole experience so strange.

To start off with, producers picked the exact spot where they wanted Lauren and the gang to sit well before Lauren actually arrived. The spot they chose was actually the chaise my friend and I had been sitting on all afternoon and they made us move shortly before Lauren and Whitney arrived. I guess we had chosen the best seats in the house. LOL

To further the altered reality, the premise of the episode is that Lauren and Whitney attend a fashion event for a clothing company called “Tt”. While there was sort of a fashion event/party going on at the beach house, the whole thing was pretty much just set up so that The Hills could be filmed. I seriously doubt there would have been any party going on had The Hills not wanted to film at the Beach House yesterday. One of the party guests actually asked a worker at the house if there was a fashion show scheduled since so many models were walking around. The worker replied “Well, it’s sort of a fake fashion show.” LOL Everyone at the “party” also had to sign releases to be on camera.

Once the camera crew got set up, they let Lauren and Whitney walk on screen. The girls walked to the pool area and went straight to the producer-chosen chaise lounge. And then they pretty much just sat there. And sat there. And sat there. The whole time my friend and I were wondering when they were going to start filming and then we realized that they HAD BEEN filming the whole time! I’ve been on a few movie sets and usually during filming there is some sort of action taking place, SOMETHING is happening, but not in this case. At some points Lauren and Whitney were just kind of looking around the party, not even talking to each other. So in that sense, the show is truly “reality” – Lauren and Whitney really were just sitting and hanging out at a party. I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised at their inaction, as not much else occurs on The Hills besides a lot of sitting around and talking. LOL After about 25 minutes or so, She-Pratt and her new boyfriend came out to the pool to hang out with LC and Whitney. Stephanie was surprisingly really pretty in person – she has amazing blue eyes!

The Hills crew was super laid back and I was floored when I found out that they were allowing pictures to be taken of the filming. At first I was totally trying to take pictures on the down low, as cameras are usually not allowed on most movie and TV sets. But once I realized that it was OK to take pictures, I moved in closer to get some better shots. 🙂 And when I did so, I noticed Audrina standing off to the side of the house. She had apparently been there the whole time, but had to wait for the producer’s go ahead before entering the filming area. SO STRANGE. The same thing occured with Frankie Delgado and his friends. I am not sure what the reasoning on that was. I am guessing that the producers were waiting for things to get boring with Lauren and Whitney before letting other characters enter the scene.

What I was very surprised about, though, was how hands off the producers were. I was convinced they would be yelling “Cut!” and having the stars constantly repeat dialog, but that was not the case. A producer only interfered with filming once, and it was to tell Whitney, who had been laying down on a chaise, to sit up as they couldn’t see her through the camera. The producers also pretty much left the party-goers alone. I thought for sure we would be cordoned off and not allowed to get near the stars or the filming area, but nothing like that occurred. People were walking freely all over the place – in front of the camera, around the stars, etc. That was another thing that made the situation really strange. At one point my friend’s husband was standing right next to LC while she waited in line at the bar – and yes, I swear, she actually waited in line!

I am convinced, though, that some of the partiers were actually paid extras. There were two people, especially, whom the producers kept talking to and moving around, and I know they had to be extras. At certain times, too, the producers would tell partygoers to move around in the background or to go sit on the chaises near Lauren, JUST LIKE on a movie set. I guess there wasn’t enough going on in the background to make the party look realistic enough. More of that altered reality. Producers also asked the Tt models (clad in teeny tiny bathing suits) to play a little “impromptu” soccer game behind LC and friends during filming -and they looked absolutely ridiculous doing so! And not at all realistic.

Another thing I found strange was that while I was absolutely FLOORED to be there and it was one of the most exciting days EVER – I was also completely bored during the filming. As I said before, the cast wasn’t very interesting to watch at all – they pretty much just sat there for about three hours not really doing a whole lot. Audrina and her friends jumped into the pool for a bit and sat around drinking in there, but that was the only real action that took place. LOL I read an article yesterday, though, that said it takes Hills editors FOUR TO SIX WEEKS to sift through enough of the footage of Lauren’s daily life to put together ONE episode. So they must not really be all that exciting. LOL

The whole party had kind of a weird vibe, too. It seemed more like a Hills viewing party than anything else as everyone was literally sitting around JUST watching Lauren and the gang film. It was very obvious that most party-goers were there for the sole purpose of seeing The Hills stars live and in person. Like I said, it was bizarre. I must say, though, that I had a BLAST at the party and just being there would have been excitement enough for me for one day – but seeing The Hills cast in person and watching them film was truly the icing on the cake. I can die a happy woman now! LOL

The Hills new season premieres this Monday night on MTV. I am not sure when the Project Beach House episode will air, but I am guessing in about 6-8 weeks. I CANNOT wait to see it! All in all, the entire cast was there during the shoot, minus Speidi (who I would have loved to have seen!), Lo, and Brody Jenner. Otherwise the rest of the group was present – LC, Stephanie Pratt and what seemed to be her new boyfriend, Audrina and a new guy she was cuddling up with, Audrina’s tattooed sister and her boyfriend, Whitney Port, and Frankie Delgado. And even though the whole thing was a bizarre experience to watch, I still absolutely love The Hills. In fact I think I like it even more now. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Project Beach House is located at 32340 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. But sadly yesterday was the final day and the final party (until next summer, of course!) for the Project Beach House. I hear permanent residents are moving into the house next week.

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Corey Haim’s House from “The Two Coreys”

I returned home from Hawaii earlier this week and was absolutely floored to find three episodes of The Two Coreys waiting for me on my TiVo. 🙂 The Two Coreys is so my new favorite show. While I find Corey Feldman to be a complete and total douchebag – the Valentine’s Day song, anyone??? – I absolutely LOVE Corey Haim. I feel so bad for the guy and it breaks my heart everytime he falters on the show. Growing up my favorite movie of all time was License to Drive and I wanted nothing more than to be Mercedes Lane driving around in her white Cabriolet Convertible with Corey Haim for a boyfriend. 🙂 So Mr. Haim will always hold a special place in my heart.

So when I found the address of Corey Haim’s house from the show on fave website Virtual Globetrotting , I just had to run right out and stalk it. I am sad to say that my mom and dad both refused to go out stalking with me on this one – I think they have had just about enough stalking for both of their lifetimes – and since my boyfriend was at work, for Corey’s house I had to go it alone. 🙁

Before arriving at Corey’s house, I was convinced that like in most reality shows (ie. Scott Baio is 46 . . and Pregnant ), his home was rented solely for filming purposes and was not the “Haimster’s” actual residence. When I got to the house, though, the current (and super nice) owner was standing outside and gave me the scoop. She told me that while Corey does not live in the house anymore, that he actually did live there during the filming of the show. She even got to meet him a few times and said he was very nice. I knew it! 🙂

I am actually surprised they used the house for filming, though, as it is located waaaaaay up in the West Hollywood hills on a very narrow street. I have no idea how they had the room to film anything out in front of the house. I couldn’t even get a very good photo of the house, as the street was so narrow I could not back up far enough to get the whole house in the camera lens. I had to walk halfway down the block to get a pic. The house is a very cool place, though, and is located in a gorgeous neighborhood! I couldn’t believe the size of some of the houses I drove by en route to Corey’s. I highly recommend stalking it if you are a fan of the show.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Corey Haim’s house from The Two Coreys can be found at 1567 Viewsite Drive in West Hollywood. Keep your eyes peeled for all of the gorgeous houses on the up way to Corey’s.

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LA Not So Confidential

For years my mom has been begging me to do some stalking of one of her favorite movies, LA Confidential. Ever since the movie came out back in 1997 she has been obsessed with finding the various houses used during filming, but none more so than David Strathiarn’s character’s beautiful, ultra modern hillside abode. Luckily, the house was a snap for me to find as the address was given right on imdb’s LA Confidential filming locations page. 🙂 In the movie David Strathiarn plays Pierce Patchett, a very wealthy businessman who runs a high class prostitution ring, where all of the prostitutes are made up to look like famous actresses. Supposedly, the ring was based on a real brothel that truly did exist back in the hey dey of Tinseltown. In the movie, Pierce lives in an amazing modern looking manse built right into the side of a hill. In real life that house is called the Lovell Health House and it is just as breathtaking in person as it appears onscreen. The Lovell Health House, or Lovell House, was commissioned by doctor Philip Lovell and built by architect Richard Neutra. Construction began in 1927 and was completed in 1929. Health-nut Lovell was completely obsessed with diet and exercise and he wanted the house to be built in such a way as to benefit the health of its occupants, which is how the house came to be called the “Lovell Health House”. Included in the home was a swimming pool, an exercise room, an eight foot tall food cooler, a water purification system, juicing equipment and plenty of windows to allow the occupants to be close to nature. The unique home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Amazingly the Lowell family only lived in the house for one year before selling it to a different family.

Both the interior and the exterior of the house show up several times in LA Confidential and the home looks much the same in person as it did on the big screen. Unfortunately you can’t see a whole lot of the home from the street. If you want a more in depth view, I recommend renting the movie for your very own up close and personal private tour of the home.Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂 Stalk It: Pierce Patchett’s house can be found at 4616 Dundee Drive in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles. To see the garage area, where filming also took place, just drive a bit south of the house to the large concrete driveway and you’ll see the garage.

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JLo Has Left the Building!

OK, so while I know that this is old news and that I have blogged about this location once before, I just had to do a little post on JLo’s (former) restaurant, Madres. Way back in early July, I dragged my boyfriend out to Madre’s to grab a bite to eat as this stalker had yet to dine there since the restaurant’s 2002 opening. Apparently I was about four days too late, because there was a sign out front stating that on July 1st Madres had closed its doors for good. I guess I really shouldn’t have been surprised at the news as I had always heard that the food there was pretty terrible and way overpriced.

My boyfriend and I ventured across the street so that I could ask one of the local merchants about the closing of the restaurant and she told me that Madres hadn’t been doing well for quite some time. In the early years, though, the place was quite a hit and was even named Best Celebrity Owned Restaurant by City Search. Madres opened up in April 2002 to quite a bit of fanfare and hoopla. JLo hosted a star-studded grand-opening party for the restaurant, with guests Ben Affleck, Nicole Kidman, Jay Leno, Dave Navarro, Carmen Electra, Kobe Bryant and Christian Slater. I actually lived just a few blocks from Madres at the time and had NO idea JLo was opening up a restaurant. When I read about the grand opening party in the Pasadena Star News the following morning I was literally kicking myself for not having stalked it! 🙁 The restaurant was first run by Jen’s ex-husband Ojani Noa, but she fired him after only seven months, and put her father, David Lopez, in charge. Despite the initial hoopla, the restaurant seemed pretty deserted in recent years. But even with the rumored bad food, I am still pretty bummed that I never got to eat there. 🙁

Since JLo’s lease is not up for a few more years, she is apparently trying to sub-lease the entire place (furniture and fixtures included) for a new restaurant to come in. Right before I left on my vacation to Hawaii I happened to cut through the (former) Madres parking lot while doing some Lake Avenue shopping and noticed that all of the plants outside the restaurant were completely dead. So I immediately called up my dad and begged him to drive out and meet me there to snap some pics. 🙂 I was pretty surprised to see the place looking so run down, what with JLo trying to lease the space out. I mean, hello – where’s the curb appeal? 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It (while you still can): Madres restaurant is located at 897 Granite Drive, just off Lake Avenue, in Pasadena.

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The Oldest Restaurant in Hollywood!

Two weeks ago, while my mom and I were out stalking in Hollywood, we hit up Musso and Frank’s Grill, which has the distinction of being the oldest running restaurant in Hollywood. Opened in 1919, not only is Musso and Frank’s a top notch celeb hangout, but the restaurant has been featured in countless hit movies, including Ocean’s Eleven (pictured above).

Musso and Frank’s was started by John Musso and Frank Toulet. Ever since its opening almost 90 years ago, the restaurant has been hugely popular with Tinseltown’s elite. Back in the day Marilyn Monroe, Raymond Burr, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Cecil B. DeMille, Raymond Chandler and Clark Gable were all Musso and Frank regulars. Since its opening the restaurant has only been remodeled once – in 1937 – and it is still extremely popular with the rich and famous. Today you might spot Robert Dinero, Al Pacino, Brad Pitt, James Woods, Johnny Depp, Keith Richards, Leonardo DiCaprio, Drew Barrymore, Sean Penn, Madonna, Harrison Ford, or Francis Ford Coppola sitting next to you in one of Musso and Frank’s plush red leather booths.

My mom and I had an absolute blast dining at Musso and Frank’s!! The restaurant definitely projects an Old Hollywood vibe, with its large oak-paneled, red leather booths, wood beamed ceilings, and vintage style bar. Musso’s also serves up some really great food including chicken pot pie, filet minon, lamb, and cheese raviolis, but be prepared as it’s a bit on the pricey side. The price is worth it, though, as you are paying for the vintage ambiance as much as anything else.

I literally could have sat there all day listening to the stories our waiter had to share about his 40 plus years working at Musso and Frank’s. It seemed every waiter and bartender had a story to tell about the countless famous names that have dined at the establishment over the years and I have to admit I was completely mesmerized.

Besides being a celeb hangout, Musso and Frank’s is a frequent filming location, as well. The restaurant’s kitchen was featured as the kitchen in Disney’s Enchanted where Nathanial speaks to Queen Narissa’s reflection in a pot of soup on the stove.

The Grill was featured not once, but TWICE in Ocean’s Eleven. Both scenes were with Brad Pitt and George Clooney. The restaurant first shows up in the scene when Danny Ocean first tells Rusty that he is thinking of robbing a Vegas casino. That scene was filmed in a booth in the Grill’s front dining room. A bit later on in the movie, Rusty and Danny have a drink at Musso and Frank’s bar and Danny says his famous monologue about needing one more person for the heist – “Ten oughta do it, don’t you think? You think we need one more? You think we need one more. All right, we’ll get one more.”

The restaurant was also used in the movie Swingers during the parking lot fight scene. In the scene, Vince Vaughn and gang get into a fight with their rivals “House of Pain” in the parking lot behind Hollywood club the Dresden, but in reality filming actually took place in Musso and Frank’s back lot. Producers simply changed the awning over the back door of Musso and Frank’s to read “The Dresden.” Musso and Frank’s also showed up in Ed Wood as the location where Ed Wood meets Orson Wells. The restaurant has also appeared in numerous episodes of the TV show Shark.

Stalk It: Musso and Frank’s Grill is located at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard in Downtown Hollywood. I highly recommend stalking it for the great food, amazing ambiance, and the waiters’ legendary Hollywood stories!

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The Beverly Beat

Thanks to my good friend Mike over at MovieShotsLA I was able to stalk Brandon and Steve’s newspaper office from the original Beverly Hills, 90210 series. On the final years of the original 90210, Brandon and Steve ran their own newspaper called “The Beverly Beat” and the location of the newspaper office had eluded me for some time.

I had long been convinced that the Beverly Beat office was located above Louise’s Trattoria restaurant on Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena (pictured above), but since I do not have the final seasons of 90210 on tape, I was never able to confirm my hunch. Then I met Mike, 90210 stalking expert, who told me that Brandon’s office was actually located at the Baine Building right on Hollywood Boulevard. So, of course, I ran right out to stalk it.

The Baine Building was built in the Spanish Revival style by businessman Harry M. Baine and designed by architecture firm Gogerty & Weyl in 1926. Harry M. Baine, a prominent businessman and Los Angeles County Supervisor, was also the man responsible for the creation of the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade. During Christmastime in 1928, hoping to promote his business and drive sales, Baine renamed Hollywood Boulevard “Santa Claus Lane” and hired real reindeer to pull sleighs down the street. And thus a tradition was born.

The Baine Building is a beautiful building in Hollywood that I highly recommend stalking. I wonder if the builiding will make an appearance on the new 90210 series. The building was also replicated in Disneyland’s California Adventure Park, so you can also stalk it there. 🙂 lol You can read this interesting article about the Disney replication.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Baine Building is located at 6605 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, just a few blocks from the Hollywood & Highland Center. Just a half a block away at 6667 Hollywood Boulevard is Musso and Frank’s Grill, the oldest restaurant in Hollywood and a great place to grab a bite to eat! 🙂

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If You Two Ever Have Kids and One of Them Accidentally Sets Fire to the Living Room Rug . . .

My family and I were supposed to take the red eye home from Hawaii on Wednesday night, but en route to the airport we decided to turn in our tickets and stay a few more days. LOL It was a totally spur of the moment thing and SO MUCH FUN! I can’t even believe we’re still here. Anyway – I didn’t do any Kona stalking today, so thank goodness I have some locations in my stalking reserves that I can blog about. 🙂

Two weeks ago when I dragged my mom out for some Hollywood stalking, we hit up the Hollywood United Methodist Church. I had just discovered this fab website on Back to the Future filming locations and was floored to find out that the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance scenes were filmed at the church, so I just had to stalk it. Hollywood Methodist is pretty much closed to the public on weekdays, but we knocked on the office doors and the facility manager, Stephen, was nice enough to take us on a little filming tour.

The first place we stalked was the church gym, where the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance was filmed and where Marty’s parents finally get together and Marty rocks out to Johnny B. Goode onstage. Currently the gym is being used for rehearsals of Les Miserables, which is playing at the Hollywood Bowl this upcoming weekend.

The same gym was also used for the talent competition scene in That Thing You Do. It’s the location where the One-ders play their hit song “That Thing You Do” for the very first time. It’s not very hard to see why producers chose to use the United Methodist gym for both of these movies, as when you step inside the gym you definitely feel like you are stepping back in time to the 50s.

The scene from Back to the Future when Marty says goodbye to his parents and the year 1955 and says the famous line “If you two ever have kids, and one of the accidentally sets fire to the living room rug, go easy on him” also takes place at the church, in a stairwell leading off from the gym. When BTTF was filmed, the doors leading to the outside were double doors, whereas now there is just a single door. Otherwise the stairway looks exactly the same as it did during filming and I absolutely LOVED being there. 🙂

Besides Back to the Future and That Thing You Do, the church has also been featured in Jarhead, Domino, Anger Management, Big Mama’s House, Beautiful, A Civil Action, Super Mario Bros., Star 80, Imitation of Life, General Hospital, Murder She Wrote, Golden Girls, Jake and the Fatman, and The A-Team, among many others. The church kitchen and an anteroom were used extensively in the movie Sister Act, but the exterior of Whoopi’s church was not United Methodist. That church is actually in San Francisco. The Season 7 episode of CSI entitled “Double Cross”, where a woman is found dead inside a church in a false crucifixion pose was filmed inside of Hollywood Methodist.

Hollywood United Methodist Church, which was modeled loosely after Westminster Abbey in England, opened its doors on March 16, 1930. The church was made a historic-cultural monument in 1981 by the City of Los Angeles. United Methodist has long been supportive of those afflicted with the AIDS disease. While other churches turned their backs on those living with the disease, Hollywood Methodist became a safe haven to those afflicted. In 1993, on World AIDS Day, congregation members placed two large AIDS ribbons on the church tower, where they still stand today. The exterior of Hollywood Methodist often appears in television and film establishing shots of the Los Angeles area and no doubt you will notice it popping up time and time again on your favorite shows. The church is absolutely beautiful and the facilities manager Stephen could not have been nicer to us. I highly recommend stalking there if you find yourself in the area. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Hollywood United Methodist Church is located at 6817 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, about half a block away from the Hollywood & Highland Center.

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Whitney Houston’s Drug Bust

Back in January of 2000, Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown had a little scuffle with the authorities at Keahole Kona International Airport. So, since I just happen to be in Kona, I had to do a little airport stalking. 🙂 It seems Ms. Houston was departing from Kona after a vacation on the Big Island, when security noticed a total of 15.2 grams of marijuana – located in two small baggies and in three half-smoked marijuana cigarettes – in her carry on luggage. After being confronted by authorities, Whitney simply walked off, leaving behing her carry-on bag, and boarded her United flight headed to San Francisco. LOL The security agents called the police, but by the time they arrived Whitney’s plane had already taken off.

The Kona Airport is not your typical airport. It the smallest airport I have ever seen, and I hope it always stays that way. It is basically just little more than a carport, with no interior area whatsoever. It is adorable, I absolutely love it!! The airport doesn’t even have tarmacs – when your plane lands in Kona, they simply wheel a little staircase out to the runway for people to deplane.

Authorities never did press charges against Ms. Houston, but she did enter a drug rehabilitation facility later that year.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Kona Airport is located right on Highway 11, off Kaiminani Drive. Whitney ran into problems at the United Security Checkpoint, located behind me in the above photograph.