November 2008 – Page 2 – IAMNOTASTALKER

November 13, 2008February 15, 2009

Tori Spelling’s Dream House

Just found out that Tori Spelling is moving – and to “The Valley”, no less!! The reality TV queen recently listed her Westwood home for a cool $2,395,000. Now mind you, Tori and her husband Dean only purchased this home a short nine months ago, in February of 2008. Fickle, much? This is the same home that she had repeatedly described as her “dream house” on her reality series Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. (Yes, I watch Tori & Dean – I can’t help myself!) This is also the home she fought so hard to purchase, even though it was a bit out of their “budget” – they paid $2,275,000. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have guessed that Tori Spelling lived on a budget. LOL

Anyway, when I found out the house was for sale, I just had to run right out to stalk it! What’s interesting to note about this home, is that while the inside of it was featured prominently on Home Sweet Hollywood, the exterior was not actually shown. For that, producers apparently used a Woodland Hills house – probably to throw off stalkers like me. 🙂

Tori’s house, while in an adorable neighborhood, is just plain average on the outside. It is so strange to picture mega-millionaire Aaron Spelling’s daughter living here. It is such a normal house – with no gate, wall, or tall hedges to keep paparazzi at bay. Their street is really cute, though, and there seemed to be a lot of young families playing with their kids in their front yards.

You can see interior pics on the home’s real estate website. Those who watched Tori’s reality series will definitely recognize parts of the interior, such as the kitchen, stairwell, and living room. The interior of the home is a bit too ornate for my taste, and oh my gawd Baby Stella’s room look like a pepto bismol bottle threw up all over it, but it actually looks like exactly the sort of place I’d picture Tori Spelling to reside in.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Tori and Dean’s former home is located at 1955 Thayer Avenue in Westwood.

November 12, 2008January 18, 2012

The Largest Home in Pasadena!

If you thought the Benson mansion was huge, you ain’t seen nothing yet! 🙂 Just down the street is another immense property – one that actually has the distinction of being the LARGEST home in Pasadena!!! The 31,415-square-foot home has 15 bedrooms, 19 bathrooms!!!!!, and sits on close to five acres. I mean, come on, does any one person honestly need that much room???? 19 bathrooms???? When I first moved to Southern California, in the year 2000, this mansion was actually under construction. The building was finally completed about two years ago and has sat empty ever since. So strange! Sadly, the original residence that sat on this site, which was featured featured as the Clampett’s new upscale digs in the 1993 movie The Beverly Hillbillies, burned to the ground in a massive fire in 1998. The monstrosity pictured above is what was built in its place.

However, all is not lost, as the newly built mansion has a Hollywood resume of its own. Besides being featured in an LG commercial, the property showed up in a 2006 episode of CSI: Miami. I am fairly certain that the episode which filmed on the property was Season 4’s “Driven”, in which a group of rich women are robbed at gunpoint at an upscale hotel spa. I think the mansion’s indoor pool and spa stood in for the hotel and spa in the episode. It’s easy to see why producers chose to use this home as the hotel, as the mansion and surrounding property are so unbelievably huge and ornate that they could easily pass for a resort.

From what I understand the mansion has never been lived in and has been on the market for the past two years for the meager asking price of $52 million. You can take a look at its now-defunt real estate website here. According to this article, the mansion is one of the ten most expensive homes in the United States! And this article has some great pics of the unbelievable dwelling and its five acre property.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The largest home in Pasadena is located at 1288 South Oakland Avenue.

November 11, 2008April 27, 2010

The Governor’s Mansion from “Benson”

A few weeks ago while out stalking in Pasadena I stopped to take some pics of the mansion that was used as the home of Governor Gatling in the 1979 television series Benson. I had actually stalked this mansion eight years before when I first moved to Southern California, but had yet to blog about it. So here goes. 🙂 Growing up, Benson was one of my very favorite shows, but to tell you the truth it’s been so long, I barely even remember what it was about now! But I sure do remember loving it as a kid. 🙂 The series, which ran from 1979 to 1986, was a spin-off of the show Soap. Jerry Seinfeld’s very first acting gig was actually on Benson, where he played a character named Frankie. According to IMDB, Jerry was unknowingly fired from the show after three episodes. He apparently showed up to work one morning only to find out that he no longer had a job and that producers had forgotten to let him know! LOL Sounds like a plotline straight out of Seinfeld. 🙂

In reality, the Benson mansion is known as the Bundy House, named for its original owner, Harlow E. Bundy, inventor of the time clock. Harlow, a resident of Endicott, New York built the mansion in 1914 after deciding he wanted to retire to Pasadena. After retiring to the West Coast in 1915, he became involved (surprise, surprise) in the motion picture industry. Sadly, though, he passed away in 1916, a brief year after moving into his Pasadena mansion. The Bundy House is absolutely HUGE – almost unbelievably so! According to Zillow, the ten bedroom, ten bathroom home is a whopping 15,878 square feet and sits on an 87, 070 square foot lot. I highly recommend stalking the place as pictures just simply don’t do it justice.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Benson house is located at 1365 S. Oakland Avenue in Pasadena.

November 10, 2008February 11, 2009

The Liar Liar House

One of the movie houses I have long been obsessed with finding is the home from the Jim Carrey movie Liar Liar. The house in the movie is absolutely adorable, very picturesque and I so badly wanted to see it in person. I happened to mention the Liar Liar house to Mike, from MovieShotsLA,a few weeks ago and of course, he already knew exactly where it was. Duh! I should have asked him for the location right from the beginning. 🙂 LOL! Anyway, once I had the address, I dragged my dad right out to stalk it.

When I first saw Liar Liar, over ten years ago, I actually turned to my mom in the theatre and said “That house has to be in Pasadena.” The home just looked like a Pasadena house to me. And it turns out I was right! 🙂 In person, though, the house actually looks very different than it appeared in the movie. The entire color scheme of the house has been changed and the front door is now painted a bright red. But even though much of the house has been modified in the 11 years since filming took place, it is still very recognizable from the movie. And while the house is absolutely adorable in person, I actually much prefer how it appeared in the movie, with its soft green and taupe coloring. Ugh, why do people keep changing the exteriors of movie houses?? LOL!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Liar Liar house is located at 1004 Highland Avenue in South Pasadena, just around the corner from Lady Heather’s house from CSI .

November 7, 2008February 13, 2009

Donna Martin’s House

A few weeks ago, thanks to my new friend, the former 90210 location scout I met while stalking Ray Pruit’s house, I was able to stalk Donna Martin’s home from the quintessential 90’s series. This home was actually only used during the college years of the show; the house used during high school is another location altogether. Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I had been looking for Donna’s house for quite some time, and were both shocked to discover that it was located in the Encino area. It seems that every house we’ve found lately is located in Encino, so we’ve decided that, from now on, Encino will be our first stop when searching for movie locations. 🙂

Sadly not a whole lot of Donna’s house is visible from the street, due to the gate and large trees surrounding the property. But the green awning over the front porch is definitely recognizable from the show, as you can see in the above screen captures (provided, as usual, by Mike). 🙂 To me, Donna’s house doesn’t actually look like a Beverly Hills style mansion, so I am pretty surprised it was used on 90210. I am guessing that the main reason producers chose it is its proximity to the 90210 production studios.

I so LOVE the “One Way” sign in the driveway of the home. LOL Was there really that much traffic coming in and out of the driveway that a traffic sign needed to be installed? LOVE IT! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Donna’s house is located at 18515 Wells Drive in Tarzana.

November 6, 2008February 13, 2009

Audrina’s New Pad!

I have to admit that I shed a little tear during Monday night’s episode of The Hills as Audrina’s moving truck pulled away from the home she formerly shared with Lauren and Lo. With both Whitney and Audrina seemingly moving on from The Hills, I really hope this doesn’t signal the end of the my favorite reality series. I’d be absolutely devastated!!! I mean I get sad enough on Monday nights at 10:30 when The Hills’ ending credits start rolling, as I know I have to wait a full week before I can watch another episode. It’s sick, really. 🙂 Anyway, after watching Monday’s show, I decided I just had to stalk Audrina’s new pad. Thankfully, finding the location wasn’t too hard. I just called on the usual suspects – fave websites the Real Estalker and Big Time Listings – which both stated that the house was located on Bryn Mawr Drive in the Dell neighborhood of Hollywood. From that point it was just a matter of looking at recently sold homes on that street (there were only two) until I found Audrina’s. 🙂

But when I went to stalk Audrina’s pad in person yesterday there were cops swarming the place! I’m really not sure what the story was, and I didn’t stick around long enough to find out, but my best guess is that some Hills filming was taking place and a neighbor had called the police to complain – about what I am not sure. According to reports it seems that Audrina’s neighbors aren’t too happy that she moved into their normally quiet town. LOL The neighbors are upset about the noise and crowding of their small streets, but honestly had the cops not been there, I never would have had any idea that any filming was taking place. The street was quite and there wasn’t a film truck in site, or any other cars for that matter. Personally I’d love it if The Hills filmed in my neighborhood! I’d be out there watching everyday! 🙂

Audrina’s new house is a very cute, Spanish style home located on a very windy street high up in the Hollywood Hills. The house was just recently built and sits on a minuscule lot – according to Big Time Listings the lot only measures 0.09 of an acre – that’s 3,999 square feet!!! I mean most celebrity homes are bigger than Audrina’s whole property! LOL Ms. Patridge purchased the three bedroom, two and a half bath, 2,100 square foot home for $1,150,000 – which seems to be pretty low budget for a celeb, even for a reality star. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Audrina’s new house is located at 6393 Bryn Mawr Drive in Los Angeles. How I Met Your Mother’s Josh Radnor is next door at 6387 Bryn Mawr.

November 5, 2008January 3, 2011

Ashton Kutcher’s House from “A Lot Like Love”

My stalking hero Mike, from MovieShotsLA, has done it yet again! 🙂 The two of us have been looking for Ashton Kutcher’s parents’ house from my fave romantic comedy A Lot Like Love for a while now. I really had no hope of ever finding the home, as I had no idea what city it was located in and I couldn’t find any nearby landmarks, such as street signs or addresses, while watching the movie. But then last week, while doing some cyber-stalking, Mike found this article which featured a brief interview with Encino homeowner Ramona Hennesy, who mentioned that her home was featured in A Lot Like Love. Eureka! Once we knew the home was located in Encino, it was simply a matter of searching public records to find the address. And, voila – just a few hours later I was in my car headed to Encino to stalk the property. 🙂 YAY!

Unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot of the house to see from the street and it looks a lot different in person than it appeared in A Lot Like Love. In the article mentioned above, Ramona says that producers turned her carport into Ashton Kutcher’s bedroom during filming, so the home was definitely altered for the production. And to be honest, when I first arrived there, I actually wasn’t entirely convinced it was the same house from the movie. There is currently a wall of tall hedges surrounding the property that didn’t appear in the movie. But when I got home, I looked at some old Google maps images of the house and the hedges didn’t appear in those photos either, so it seems that they are new additions. Why, oh why, do these homeowners have to go and change things????

The Encino home was featured several times in the movie, most prominently in the scene when Amanda Peet’s character shows up at Ashton’s parents house to finally confess her love for him. When he asks her how she found his address she says “I had your number and I just called information and got your address.” LOVE IT! That’s so something I would do! 🙂 LOL!

As always, a big THANK YOU goes out to Mike!!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The A Lot Like Love house is located at 17050 Magnolia Boulevard in Encino.

November 4, 2008February 14, 2009

Dots Cupcakes!

Last week, on a whim, I ventured into Dots Cupcakes in Pasadena to buy some Halloween cupcakes for my boyfriend. While waiting in line I noticed a framed InStyle Magazine article sitting on a shelf in the tiny shop. The article detailed the June 2007 wedding of Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O’Connell, who rather than serving the traditional wedding cake at their nuptials, opted instead for country apple and red velvet mini-cupcakes from none other than the very bakery I was standing in! So of course I had to ask Dots owner and founder, Hyo Kwan, a few questions. 🙂

Kwan told me that she had no idea who the cupcakes were for until she arrived at the couple’s Calabasas ranch the day of the ceremony and met Rebecca Romijn. A few days later she had reporters from TMZ swarming her shop asking all sorts of questions about the celeb nuptials. She actually thought I worked for TMZ, too, with all the questions I was asking, and I had to convince her that I was actually just a stalker. 🙂 Since the InStyle spread, Kwan has been featured in several bridal and food magazines and I couldn’t help but think to myself how much I’d like to have her bake cupcakes for my wedding. 🙂 Dots will also be providing the desserts for Rebecca Romijn’s upcoming baby shower. Besides the O’Connells, other celebrity fans of the small shop include my fave Shannen Doherty, the Black-Eyed Peas, and Oscar De La Hoya- at least I think Kwan said Oscar De La Hoya frequents the shop. She mentioned some sports star with a multi-word last name, but once someone starts talking sports, I pretty much just tune out. LOL But celebs? Celebs I remember. 🙂 Kwan said that when Shannen Doherty stopped in, the shop was actually completely sold out of cupcakes! Shannen was very gracious, though, and did not throw any sort of hissy fit about not getting her cupcake fix. See, I knew she was nice!!! 🙂

Hyo, a former events manager for the L.A. Dodgers, was only 29 years old when she opened up Dots with virtually no baking experience whatsoever – just a love of cupcakes. An endeavor that began in her kitchen with a borrowed mixer has grown into a 5,000 cupcake-a-day business. And, after only a year and a half, Kwan is ready to branch out and will be opening up a second Dots location in Old Town Pasadena early next year. Kwan really could not have been nicer, entertaining me for a good 15 minutes with stories about her adventures baking for celebs. She even introduced me to a reporter for Pasadena Weekly Newspaper while I was there and told her about my blog. 🙂 You can read more of Hwan’s story here.

Dots cupcakes are FABULOUS and I HIGHLY recommend stalking the tiny shop! I have long been a fan of Magnolia Bakery in New York City – even though I am diabetic! LOL – so when the gourmet cupcake craze hit L.A. last year, I could not have been more excited. I swear I hit up every single cupcake shop in the greater L.A. area hoping to find a brand that could hold its own against my beloved Magnolia. Sadly, not a one of them was any good. Celeb favorite Sprinkles (pictured above), Yummy Cupcakes, Le Cupcake – they were all just mediocre. But on Thursday, as I bit into a Dots cupcake for the first time, I was floored! They are FABULOUSLY YUMMY and rank a very close second to Magnolia. I’ll definitely be satisfying my cupcake cravings there from now on when I can’t get to the East Coast. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Dots is located at 400 S. Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena. You can visit their website here. The bakery is open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 7pm. They are closed on Sundays. Dots new store will be opening up in the next few months on Fair Oaks Avenue in Old Town Pasadena, right next door to J. Crew.

November 3, 2008September 29, 2017

Halloween 2008

For Halloween this year, I desperately wanted my boyfriend and I to dress up like Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio. I know, total shocker. 🙂 It all ended up coming together quite perfectly, too, as earlier this summer I found a white dress a la Marilyn’s subway grate ensemble, that was super inexpensive. I also happened to have an appointment to get my hair cut on Halloween morning, so I asked my amazing hair stylist, Martina, if she could do me up Marilyn style. She happily obliged and even offered to do my make-up for me. Without even looking at a picture of the starlet for reference, she was able to whip my hair into a full-on Marilyn ‘do and apply my make-up perfectly! I was shocked! When I asked her how she did it without using a photo, she said “Honey, that’s what I do!” LOL I actually think the effect may have been too good, though, because I had FIVE people stop me and say “Has anyone ever told you that you look EXACTLY like Marilyn Monroe.” Even though it was Halloween, no one seemed to realize I was wearing a costume – they thought I just looked like Marilyn naturally. LOL That actually might be good news, though – as maybe someday I’ll get to play MM in a big screen biopic of the star. 🙂

Anyway, since we couldn’t find anything to do in L.A. for Halloween (we were literally all dressed up with no place to go!), I dragged my boyfriend to Downtown Palm Springs. We spent the evening walking around Downtown, barhopping, hanging out, and watching all the other people in costumes. We had a blast! And I even got stopped by a Japanese tourist who wanted her photo taken with me. 🙂

We ended up spending most of our evening at the Palm Springs Riviera Resort & Spa – a legendary Palm Springs hot spot from back in the 50s and 60s. The resort recently underwent a complete rennovation and has been closed down for the past year. It only just reopened two weeks ago and it is a very cool, very hip spot to hang out. The hotel has a 50s-modern style vibe to it, made complete with a large picture of Marilyn made out of Guatemalan coins hanging in the lobby, so, of course, I had to snap a photo of it. 🙂 And the Riviera is even a filming location! It was featured as the hotel where Connie Stevens stayed in the 1963 flick Palm Springs Weekend.

The poolside Bikini Bar, where we hung out all night, is fabulous with its large firepits and ultra-comfy lounge chairs. While there we ran into 90s actor Jeff Prettyman, who is currently retired and living in Palm Springs. Jeff acted in the movies Young Guns and Cheerleader Camp, so of course I had to take a pic with him. 🙂

The following morning, I was reading a Palm Springs magazine in our hotel room and I happened to spot a photograph of Marilyn Monroe posing at the Racquet Club of Palm Springs (pictured above), a place I had never heard of. So, of course, on our way out of town I had to drag my boyfriend to stalk it.

But unfortunately, when we arrived there wasn’t much to see as the area is currently a large constuction zone. The once legendary resort and Hollywood playground is currently closed and undergoing a $50 million rennovation with the surrounding land being turned into luxury condominiums and lofts. That was the plan, anyway. In 2004, architect Van Scott Jones and financial handler Michael Mueller purchased the land with big plans to restore the resort to its former grandeur. However, just a few days ago the property went into forclosure and the fate of the Racquet Club is now left up in the air. I truly hope someone comes in to rescue this piece of Hollywood and Palm Springs history. Oddly enough, for some reason the construction area was not entirely fenced in, and since there weren’t any “no trespassing” signs posted, my boyfriend and I ventured in for a little looksie.

It was very, very cool to be walking around a piece of property that holds so much history. While there, I could just imagine the screen legends of the day lounging poolside under the desert sun. You can see the now empty pool behind me in the above photograph.

The Palm Springs Racquet Club was opened up on Christmas Day of 1933 by actors Ralph Bellamy and Charlie Farrell, who wanted a place in the desert where they could play tennis. The resort became enormously popular with the celebs of the day – a playground to the stars, compete with tennis courts, a large swimming pool and a legendary bar named the Bamboo Lounge. The bloody mary cocktail was actually first concocted in that lounge. Apparently, Racquet Club guests needed a little “hair of the dog” each morning to cure their budding hangovers, so the Lounge chefs mixed together a few ingredients and, voila, the bloody mary was born. The owners of a New York bar named the 21 Club often stayed at the Racquet Club and fell in love with the new cocktail. They ended up bringing the drink back to their New York bar and the rest, as they say, is history. The Racquet Club didn’t fare quite as well as the cocktail created there, though, and due to dwindling profits, it was sold several times and quickly fell into dilapidation and disarray.

Among the stars who hung out at the Racquet Club in its heyday – Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Jane Russell, Bob Hope, Jayne Mansfield, Gregory Peck, Errol Flynn, John Kennedy, Bing Crosby, Lana Turner, Frank Sinatra, Spencer Tracy, Audrey Hepburn, Doris Day, Ronald Regan, and, of course, my girl Marilyn Monroe, who spent New Years of 1948 there with her agent Johnny Hyde (pictured above). Rumor has it that Marilyn was actually discovered by photographer Bruno Bernard while lounging poolside at the Club, but I am not sure how true that story is.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Raquet Club of Palm Springs is located at 2743 North Indian Canyon Drive in Palm Springs. The Palm Springs Riviera Resort & Spa is located at 1600 North Indian Canyon Drive, also in Palm Springs. If you need your hair styled like Marilyn – or if you just need a new ‘do in general – you can visit Martina Maina at T-Birds Salon, located at 1808 West Olive Avenue in Burbank. You can visit T-Birds website here. T-Birds is located right across the street from an oft used filming location – the Safari Inn – which was featured in True Romance and Apollo 13 .