George’s 50’s Diner from “A Cinderella Story”

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Another location at the very top of my Long Beach “To Stalk” list was the restaurant where Hilary Duff worked in fave teeny-bopper movie A Cinderella Story.  In real life, that restaurant is known as George’s 50’s Diner and it is one of the last remaining diners of its kind in all of California.  George’s Diner, which was originally named Grissinger’s Drive-In, first opened up in 1952.  It was designed by architect Wayne McAllister, who also designed the famous Sands Casino in Las  Vegas.   In 1963, the Grissingers sold the drive-in to new owners who expanded and remodeled the place and dubbed it Lyman’s Coffee Shop.  Shortly thereafter it was purchased by a woman named Terry, who re-named it Terry’s Coffee Shop and in 1974 made the fortuitous decision to hire as a chef a young man named George Alvarez.  George worked at the restaurant for over two decades and then in 1996, decided to buy the place for himself, upon which he restored it back to its original 1952 design.  He named the place George’s 50’s Diner, in honor of both himself and the restaurant’s original opening date.

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In A Cinderella Story, George’s 50’s Diner stood in for the restaurant first owned by Hilary Duff’s father and then later by her evil step-mother, who was played by Jennifer Coolidge.   Both the interior and the exterior of the restaurant were used extensively in the filming.   

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As you can see in the above photograph and screen captures, though, the place looks very, very different in person than how it appeared onscreen in the movie.  In fact, it almost doesn’t even look like the same place.  According to George and Helen, the diner’s INCREDIBLY nice owners, the restaurant was COMPELTELY remodeled for the filming. 

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A few of the changes made for the filming include: the interior walls being removed to make the diner appear much larger than it actually was, the real life counter being replaced with a new, much higher counter, all of the booths being covered over in fake pink and black leather, a false ceiling being installed, the ceiling fans being removed and new light fixtures hung, fake doors being added in numerous places, the entire kitchen being re-painted in a fake stainless steel color, and linoleum being laid over the restaurant’s real life carpet. 

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According to George and Helen, the interior and the exterior of the diner were actually remodeled  TWICE during the filming – first for the scenes in which the restaurant was owned by Hil D’s dad . . . 

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. . . and then again for the scenes in which it was later owned by her evil step-mother. 

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Producers also brought in the big pink “Fiona’s” sign that ends up falling on Carter’s dad’s Mercedes towards the end of the movie.  Phew!  Sure seems like a whole lot of remodeling work to do.  You’d think it would have been much easier to built a diner set on a soundstage somewhere in Hollywood for the filming.  Which, according to IMDB’s A Cinderella Story trivia page, is exactly what they did.   That information, however, is not accurate.  According to George and Helen, all of the interior filming of the diner scenes – which took just about two weeks to complete – did indeed take place on location at George’s Diner.  I’ll never understand Hollywood, I swear.  😉  Helen even has a scrapbook full of photographs of the filming, but unfortunately she didn’t have it on hand the day I stalked the place.  🙁  Oh well, I guess that just means I’ll have to go back to re-stalk it sometime!  🙂  

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And a little Cinderella Story trivia for you – not only did the movie star Madeline Zima, who now has a recurring role on Californication . . .

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. . . but it also starred Dan Byrd who is currently playing Courteney Cox’s son Travis on Cougartown

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A Cinderella Story is not the only production to have filmed at George’s, though.  Back when the restaurant was known as Terry’s Coffee Shop, the 1994 movie Corrina, Corrina  filmed on the premises.   It is at the drive-in diner that Whoopi Goldberg gets Tina Majorino to communicate with her for the very first time. 

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George’s also appeared briefly at the very beginning of the 2007 movie Zodiac, in the scene in which Mike Mageau and his girlfriend Darlene Ferrin drive by a diner, decide it is too crowded to stay, and leave, only to be attacked by the Zodiac killer minutes later.

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George’s 50’s Diner has also been featured in the movie The Real McCoy and in several episodes of the television series Cold Case.  And I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place enough!!!!  The food was A-MA-ZING – especially the French fries – the retro atmosphere was truly unique, and George and Helen honestly could NOT have been nicer.  I absolutely LOVED the place and will DEFINITELY be back!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: George’s 50’s Diner is located at 4390 Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach.  You can visit their MySpace page here.

Joe Jost’s from “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton”

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As I’ve mentioned countless times before, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton is one of my all time favorite movies.  And I have long been dying to stalk the restaurant which stood in for Lil’ Dickens, the Frazier’s Bottom bar where Rosalie (aka Kate Bosworth), Pete (aka Topher Grace), Cathy (aka Ginnifer Goodwin), and Tad (aka Josh Duhamel – sigh!) hung out in the flick.  In real life, that bar is named Joe Jost’s and it is actually located in Long Beach, California, a good 2,300 miles west of the real Frazier’s Bottom.  So, since we were in the area this past weekend, I just had to drag my fiancé right out to stalk the place.

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Joe Jost’s was founded in 1924 by a man named, you guessed it, Joe Jost, who was born in a small town in Yugoslavia.  At only 16 years of age, after a four year apprenticeship in a barbershop, Joe left Yugoslavia and immigrated to the U.S.  He first settled in New York City where he continued his work as a barber for a few years before moving to the West Coast and setting up a home in Upland, California.  In 1920, Joe opened up the first Joe Jost’s, a combination barber shop/pool hall/bar/restaurant, in Newport Beach where he sold such goods as candy, cigarettes, and because prohibition was in effect, a non-alcoholic drink known as “near beer”.  In 1924, Joe moved his unique shop to its current location on Anaheim Street in Long Beach.  It wasn’t long, though, before the Barbering Commission closed down the barber shop portion of the establishment, claiming that cutting hair in close proximity to alcohol being served was not “safe”.  LOL  So, Joe abruptly removed his barbershop chairs and installed booths – the very same booths where Joe’s customers still sit today!  So cool!  🙂  Joe’s enjoyed immediate success as a restaurant and even managed to sustain itself throughout the depression years.  To date, the place has served over 5,000,000 Joe’s Special Sandwiches, over 7,000,000 pickled eggs, over 15,000,000 glasses of beer, and over 1,800,000 pounds of Marmion’s peanuts!  Joe’s is such an institution in Long Beach, in fact, that a term known as “josting” has been coined.  Josting refers to the act of taking a photograph of oneself in different locations all around the world while wearing a Joe Jost’s T-Shirt.  And, let me tell you, the T-shirts have been EVERYWHERE!  Joe’s walls are literally COVERED in such photographs and I can’t tell you how incredible it was to be looking at the hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of said patrons – always with their backs to the camera so that the Joe’s logo can be clearly seen – in such far off places as the Pyramids in Egypt, Heidelberg Castle in Germany, Namoto Island in Fiji, and the Arctic Circle (not kidding!).   Most amazing of all, though, were the numerous photographs of soldiers currently stationed in Iraq wearing Joe’s T-shirts. Incredible!  What an unbelievably cool tradition!!!  

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Because my fiancé and I were first-timers, we had to try one of everything on the menu.  And I have to say that even though I am a horribly picky eater, I LOVED it all!   The pickled egg (pictured above) – which sounds disgusting, I know – was incredible, the Marmion’s peanuts were de-lish!, and the Special . . . oh my god, the Special!  What can I even say about it except that it was simply A-MA-ZING!  Joe’s Special consists of a homemade Polish sausage (made from their own secret recipe), a pickle, a slice of Swiss Cheese, and mustard smacked in between two slices of rye bread.  And, oh my lord, is it good! 

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Because Lil’ Dickens is the regular hangout of Rosalie, Pete, and Cathy, Joe Jost’s shows up quite a few times in Win a Date.  The areas used include the main bar;

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and the billiards room, which was decked out with tables and chairs for the filming.

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Sadly, though, Pete and Rosie’s dart board was just a prop that was brought in for the filming and is not there in real life.  🙁

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Oddly enough, the area of the restaurant that I was most interested in stalking was the men’s bathroom, not so much because I wanted to see it in person, but because I wanted to verify if it was really there.  As I had suspected, though, the Lil’ Dickens bathroom, in which Pete confronts Tad telling him that if he breaks Rosalie’s heart he’ll tear him to pieces with his “bare hands or vicious rhetoric” LOL, is not the real Joe Jost’s bathroom.  Joe’s men’s room actually consists of one single room with a toilet and a sink (yes, I actually sent my fiancé in there to report back to me!), and because the scene called for a considerably larger restroom with actual stalls, a set had to be built.  Interestingly enough, though, according to Dan, one of the SUPER nice Joe’s crew members that I spoke with, the Lil’ Dickens bathroom set was actually built right there on the Joe Jost’s property, in the back area of the restaurant. 

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The crew even ended up using the real Joe’s men’s room door, after making some small modifications, as the door of the Lil’ Dickens men’s room set.  So cool!!!! 

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The crew also modified the real life Joe Jost sign, which is located in the pool hall area of the restaurant, into a Lil’ Dickens sign for the shoot.  Love it!  🙂

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Win a Date  is hardly the only production to film at Joe’s, though.  The restaurant is also where Kevin Costner took Whitney Houston on a date in 1992’s The Bodyguard.

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And where they danced to John Doe’s version of the song “I Will Always Love You”, which Whitney calls “depressing” in the scene.  LOL  

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The interior of Joe’s also stood in for the bar where Angelina Jolie worked in Gone in 60 Seconds.

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The exterior of that bar (pictured above), however, was a different location altogether.

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Joe’s showed up twice in the 2007 movie License to Wed, first as the site of Mandy Moore and John Krasinski’s pre-marriage group counseling . . .

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. . . and second as the spot where John and his friend, DeRay Davis, grab a drink towards the end of the movie.

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Producers definitely took some liberties when filming the exterior scenes for License to Wed, though.  In the flick, it is made to appear as if Joe’s is part of a tall building located underneath the L Train somewhere in Chicago.  In real life, though, Joe’s is a simple, small, one-story structure located on a busy Long Beach street corner.  I SO love how they incorporated the real life Joe’s storefront into the digitally altered Chicago-area establishing shots, though, rather than using a real Chicago location for the exterior.  So cool!  Joe’s has also been featured in the movies Madison, The Vanishing, and True Confessions and in episodes of Chance of a Lifetime, The ‘60s, Roswell, Boomtown, Clubhouse, and Classmates.  You can see a full list of Joe’s Hollywood credits here.

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Joe Jost’s is a VERY cool place and I honestly can’t recommend stalking it – or ordering up one of its Specials – enough! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Joe Jost’s is located at 2803 East Anaheim Street in Long Beach.  You can visit their website here.

William McKinley High School from “Glee”

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My Hollywood obsession as of late is the new Fox musical dramedy Glee.  Actually, stating that I am obsessed with the series is a rather gross understatement.  To say it’s more of an all-out, withdrawal-symptom inducing addiction would be closer to the truth.  In fact, I don’t think I’ve been this enamored of a show since, dare I say it, high school when Beverly Hills, 90210  was on the air.  Let’s face it – I am ABSOLUTELY, WITHOUT A DOUBT, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT, HEAD OVER HEELS IN LOVE with Glee!   In fact, the “Sectionals” episode was so fabulous that I watched it three times in a row (not kidding!), mostly because of the big “My Life Would Suck Without You” grand finale number, which was just about the cutest thing ever – especially the kiss at the end! 🙂  To illustrate just how smitten I am with the show (and its leading man Matthew Morrison – sigh!), I’d like to share the following little anecdote with you.  This past Friday, my dad had a minor surgery in the West L.A. area and, being the nice daughter that I am, I volunteered to drive him to and from the hospital.  Well, I guess it’s true what they say about no good deed going unpunished because I later found out that Glee would be filming on location on Larchmont Boulevard that very same day.  Of all the bum luck!  🙁   Anyway, my dad’s surgery went off without a hitch and while leaving the hospital I realized that Larchmont Boulevard was (sort of) on our way home.  So – and I can’t even believe I’m about to cop to this in a public forum – I just HAD to stop by.  I mean, don’t I owe at least that much to you, dear readers?  😉  So, yes, while my dad was drugged out of his mind on anesthetic, sleeping in the passenger seat of my car right next to me, trying to recover from surgery, I drove over to Larchmont Boulevard to stalk the Glee set.  Unfortunately, because they were filming inside of a store, I couldn’t see a whole lot via a simple drive-by.  And while deciding if I should park my car – with my dad inside – to venture closer to where they were filming, my conscience got the best of me and I turned around and drove on home.  So sad!  🙁  Ironically enough, though, my mom, who is also a big “Gleek” and who knew about the filming, called me up about five minutes later to ask if I had stopped by the set.  When I told her that I just couldn’t do it because I was worried about my dad, she said, “Why??  He’ll never know the difference!”  LOL LOL LOL   As the author of the I Am A TV Junkie blog said recently of his own Glee addiction, “It’s becoming a little ridiculous.  I may have to join a support group.”  Well, if you find one, TV Junkie, please sign me up, as well!  🙂  Until that time, though, I figure if you can’t beat ‘em, stalk ‘em!  So, this weekend I headed down to Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School in Long Beach, which stands in for William McKinley High School on Glee. 

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Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School is featured extensively on Glee.  In fact, according to this article, filming takes place there on a very regular basis.  The areas of the school which appear in the series include the football field, track, and bleachers, which were unfortunately completely locked up at the time;

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the staff parking lot area, which is located directly in front of the gym;

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and the outdoor stairwell located just to the left of the gym. (Please excuse the above photographs – the position of the sun was making it very difficult to take pictures that day.)

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The Cabrillo High School location that I most wanted to stalk was the arched-over outdoor hallway where Emma and Will shared a brief chat in the episode entitled “Showmance”.  Ironically enough, that outdoor hallway can be found at the top of that very same staircase located to the left of the gym, but unfortunately, I didn’t realize that until after I got home and re-watched the episode. 🙁 

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While stalking Cabrillo, I was lucky enough to run into two teachers who could NOT have been nicer and even went so far as to point out all the areas of the school used on Glee.  Both teachers I spoke with were quite amused over my excitement at seeing the Glee locales in person, especially since one of the them had yet to ever even watch the show!  I tried to explain to him that not watching a series that regularly films at his workplace is tantamount to sacrilege in my eyes, but I don’t think he much cared.  🙂   Most of the filming of Glee is relegated to the one small section of Cabrillo High’s 64-acre campus (and no, that’s not a typo, the school actually measures a whopping 64 acres!) pictured above.  The football field, staff parking lot, and gym, which are all located near the school’s main entrance just off of West Willard Street, are denoted with pink circles in the above aerial image. 

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A more close-up view of the staff parking lot is pictured above.

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According to the teachers I spoke with, several interior areas of the school, which I unfortunately could not stalk, are also used on Glee, including the cafeteria;

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and the auditorium.  You can see interior photographs of the school here.

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From what I understand, though, McKinley High’s gym is actually located on the campus of another school altogether – Helen Bernstein High School in Los Angeles.

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And a little bit of Glee trivia for you – according to one of the teachers I spoke with, Cabrillo High’s real life steel drum band was featured in the series’ pilot episode in the scene pictured above.  So cool!  🙂 

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Besides regular episodic filming, a photo shoot with the cast of Glee was also recently held at the school, which you can watch a behind-the-scenes video of here.  Cabrillo High School has also been featured in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, an episode of the television series Bones, and both Cheaper by the Dozen movies.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo High School, aka William McKinley High School from Glee, is located at 2001 Santa Fe Avenue in Long Beach.  Please remember that even though Cabrillo is a “public” school, it is still considered private property.   Take good care not to trespass, especially when students are present.  If you do want to visit the school, I suggest doing so on a Saturday or Sunday, and always ask permission from a faculty member before gaining access to the property.

Dexter and Rita’s House from “Dexter”

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This past weekend, I dragged my fiancé out to Long Beach – or as Snoop Dogg calls it “The LBC” – to do some stalking.  My original plan was to book a room at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa – the spot currently standing in for the Beverly Hills Beach Club on 90210 – and spend the whole weekend down in the South Bay, but being that I could not find a room for under $270, the Grim Cheaper was having none of that.  🙁  So, I had to settle for spending only a single day in Long Beach, which actually worked out just fine as I managed to cram quite a bit of stalking into that 12 hour period.  🙂  And the first location I stalked?  Dexter and Rita Morgan’s new home from the fourth season of fave television series, Dexter

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In the premiere episode of Season 4, which was entitled “Living The Dream”, Dexter (aka Michael C. Hall) and Rita (aka Julie Benz) move into a new home together after tying the knot in the previous season’s finale. Ironically enough, though, until making screen captures for this post earlier today, I had never actually seen their new house onscreen.  Because my fiancé and I only just recently became Dexter fans, we have yet to see any of the series’ fourth season episodes.  In fact, we are just now beginning to dive into Season 3.  But even though we have yet to see the episodes in which the new home appears, I was still absolutely dying to stalk the place as I have a (very) small personal connection to it.  As it turns out, some good friends of mine who live in the Long Beach area happen to know the people who live directly across the street from the new Morgan residence, in the home pictured above which was actually featured very briefly in Dexter’s  Season 4 opener.  So cool!!!   Because my friends know my penchant for filming locations, as soon as they learned this information they passed it on to me, but sadly this was long after the filming of Season 4 had already wrapped.  I so wish I had found out about this location earlier in the year, as I would have LOVED to have stalked the place and seen Michael C. Hall in person.  I do love me some MCH!  🙂   Anyway, since we were in the area on Saturday, I just had to drag my fiancé out to stalk the home.

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And I am very happy to report that the Dexter house looks EXACTLY the same in person as it did onscreen in Season 4.  Even the address plaque and the mailbox are the same!  In fact, the only difference I noticed, besides the fact that the house appears a bit more pinkish onscreen, is the front gate.  On Dexter, the house’s front gate is made of polished wood, while in real life it is constructed of wrought iron.  The Dexter house is extremely cute in person and it’s not very hard to see why producers chose it to stand in for the Miami area residence of the series’ main star – the place definitely gives off a Florida vibe. 

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I did notice something quite interesting while stalking the place, though.  At first glance it would appear that Dexter’s home is a typical single-family residence, but while there I noticed that the curb out front had two address numbers – 3319 and 3321 – painted on it, as you can see in the above photograph.

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  So, when I got home I did some cyber-stalking and, thanks to Zillow, discovered that the property is actually a multi-family dwelling with one house located in the front and a second house situated out back.  You can see both houses in the above aerial images.  The front house, which is the one shown on Dexter, was built in 1922 and is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath dwelling measuring 2,219 square feet.

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Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that this same house is used on Dexter next season, as well, and that I’ll be able to make it out there to watch the show being taped live!!!  How incredibly cool would that be?  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Dexter and Rita’s new house from Season 4 of Dexter is located at 3319 East 1st Street in the Bluff Park neighborhood of Long Beach.

Katherine Heigl’s Apartment Building from “The Ugly Truth”

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A few months back I received an email from a woman named Marilyn (love it!) who wanted to know if I could track down the apartment building where Katherine Heigl lived in the 2009 romantic comedy The Ugly Truth.  But because I am not a big Katherine Heigl fan – I just think the girl has entirely too much to say about . . . well, everything – I had yet to see the movie and didn’t really plan on doing so.  So, I enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen in tracking this location down and, even though he had yet to see the movie either, he found the place in record time!  Thank you, Owen!  🙂  But then a funny thing happened.  Once Owen gave me the address and I started looking at aerial views of the building via Google maps, I became more and more intrigued by it until I finally broke down and rented The Ugly Truth.  And you know what? I absolutely LOVED it!  In fact, I watched it twice!!  🙂  The Ugly Truth is cute and funny and both Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler are fabulous in it!  Although, truth be told, I’m not sure if I liked the flick because it was actually a good movie or because my expectations were so incredibly low that I couldn’t help but be pleasantly surprised while watching.  Either way, I truly enjoyed The Ugly Truth and my opinion of its leading lady couldn’t help but be improved after watching it.  🙂  So, once I had seen the movie, I, of course, just had to drag my fiancé out to stalk the building where Katherine Heigl’s character lived.

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In The Ugly Truth, Katherine Heigl’s character “Abby” supposedly lives in the Sacramento area.  But in real life, her Mediterranean-style complex, which is named “El Mirador”, is located a good 380 miles south of the state capital in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.  El Mirador, which is not to be confused with the famous El Mirador apartment building in West Hollywood, was built in 1936 and consists of several privately owned townhomes.  The complex is truly charming in person and I absolutely fell in love with the place.  Although I must say I am rather surprised that it was chosen to masquerade as a Sacramento area residence in The Ugly Truth, as, to me, the place just screams Southern California.  The Ugly Truth complex is actually very reminiscent of both Le Borghese Apartments from the movie Mulholland Drive and the El Cabrillo Apartments from ‘Til There Was You and the television series Chuck.  In fact, El Mirador is such a typical L.A. area courtyard building that I can’t imagine it existing anywhere else.  But, then again, being that I haven’t spent all that much time in Sacramento, maybe there are similar style buildings located there, as well. 

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Sadly, not much of El Mirador can be seen from the street thanks to a large grove of trees planted along the perimeter of the property.  But thankfully there is a little window in the complex’s front gate, through which I was able to take the pictures you see in the this post.  🙂

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After I sent Marilyn the address of The Ugly Truth building, she sent me back the images pictured above from a Craig’s List posting she had stumbled upon advertising the rental of one of the El Mirador Townhomes.  As you can see in the photos, while the interior of Katherine’s apartment in the flick was actually just a set built on a studio soundstage, it was, in fact, modeled after the real life interiors of the El Mirador.  🙂  So darn cool! 

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location and to Marilyn for sending me the Craig’s List images!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Katherine Heigl’s apartment building from The Ugly Truth is located at 1930 Rodney Drive in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.

The “Dude, Where’s My Car?” Houses

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About six or seven years ago, my best friend Robin came to visit me from Switzerland for a few weeks and one night we found ourselves renting the 2000 cult comedy Dude, Where’s My Car? Being that the entire premise of the flick centers around two guys who lose their car, I honestly didn’t have very high expectations for the movie, but, let me tell you, Robin and I were pretty much dying laughing throughout the entire thing.  And if I’m not mistaken, I believe we even re-watched it again the following evening.  🙂  What can I say – I’m a big fan of lowbrow humor.  🙂  Robin and my catch phrase for a good year or two after that was “And then?  And then?  And then?”  LOL  I should admit here that I’ve also always had a special place in my heart for Ashton Kutcher (even though it’s truly difficult to like anyone who Twitters as much as he does) thanks to a story told to me by an acquaintance who spent an evening with him about a decade ago.  According to my friend, who worked in PR at the time, back in the late 90s before Ashton had become a household name, she attended some sort of showbiz party with the rising star and a group of his friends.  After the party, the entire group ended up crashing at Ashton’s house.  The following morning, my friend awoke when Ashton Kutcher entered the room she had been sleeping in, pounced on her bed, grabbed her pillow out from under her head and proceeded to smack her in the face with it while screaming “PILLOW FIGHT!”  Well, let me tell you, my friend was NOT happy about her unexpected wake-up call.  Of the incident, she later said to me – and I quote – “All I could think was, did Ashton Kutcher honestly just pillow fight me????”  LOL LOL LOL  Needless to say, she and Ashton didn’t speak much after that, but once I heard the story I couldn’t help but love the guy.  If someone had woken me up with a pillow to the face like that, I can honestly say that they would have become my new best friend!  🙂  What can I say, I love childish antics!  Anyway, every time I see Ashton Kutcher onscreen now, I can’t help but think of my friend’s story and smile.  So, when fellow stalker Chas texted me to let me know that Robert Patterson – not to be confused with actor Robert Pattinson 🙂 – from the website Movie Locations and More had tracked down two of the main houses used in Dude, Where’s My Car?, I just about died of excitement and immediately ran right out to stalk both of them.  Thank you, Robert!   🙂

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The first Dude, Where’s My Car? location Robert tracked down was the house belonging to Chester and Jesse (aka Seann William Scott and Ashton Kutcher) in the flick. And as you can see in the above screen captures and photographs, the residence has been cleaned up quite a bit since filming took place there ten years ago.  I am not sure if the house was in a state of disarray prior to the filming and that’s why it was chosen or if producers had the place dressed down for the production, but either way it looks quite different today than it did when Dude, Where’s My Car? was filmed.   And while I would normally be upset over someone altering a movie house, being that the dudes’ home was pretty much in shambles in the movie, this is one case where I really can’t fault the owner for changing things around.   I am pretty sure I would do the very same thing.  😉  But even with a new walkway, new windows, a new paintjob, and new landscaping, I am happy to report that the Dude, Where’s My Car? house is still recognizable from the movie.  The porch steps, porch light, porch awning, and address plaque all still look exactly the same today as they did in the flick.  🙂   YAY!  (On a side note – I really have to apologize for the photos that appear in this post – they were taken right at dusk after a long day of stalking and unfortunately, due to the poor lighting, did not come out very well.)

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The second house that Robert located was the residence belonging to the Twins (aka Marla Sokoloff and a very young Jennifer Garner) in the flick. The Twin’s house also looks quite a bit different today than how it appeared in the movie.  And I have to say that I actually prefer the home’s movie appearance to the way it looks in real life, because, like all girls, I am a fan of Tiffany Blue and I just love that it was used as the house’s trim color in Dude, Where’s My Car? So darn cute!  Also missing in real life is the circular popped out window that is located above the home’s front porch in the movie – a feature that I am assuming was added solely for the filming and then later removed.  I am happy to report, though, that the white picket fence that got destroyed in Dude, Where’s My Car? is in fact a real feature of the house.  In real life, though, it’s in a bit better shape than how it was portrayed in the movie.  😉

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And a little bit of movie trivia for you – a pre-Bachelor Charlie O’Connell, brother of actor Jerry O’Connell, had a fairly large role in Dude, Where’s My Car? playing Kristy Swanson’s jerk boyfriend, Tommy.

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On a side note – For some odd reason, for the past few months I have been having a hard time responding to the comments on my blog and neither my fiancé nor I can figure out what the problem is.  So, if you’ve been wondering why I haven’t responded to comments lately, that’s why.  Hopefully we can get the problem worked out soon, but in the meantime keep commenting and I will try to respond when I can.  Thanks for your patience with this and thank you to everyone who has been responding to the comments for me.  I really appreciate it.  🙂

Big THANK YOU to Robert from Movie Locations and More for finding these locations!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Jesse and Chester’s house from Dude, Where’s My Car? is located at 4177 Bakman Drive in North Hollywood.  Wanda and Wilma’s house from the movie is located just around the corner at 4160 Klump Avenue, also in North Hollywood.

The Kenaston Residence

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Even though I have always been one hundred percent on Team Aniston – I even have the sweatshirt to prove it  😉 – while visiting Palm Springs during Halloween weekend a few months back I became a bit obsessed with stalking the home where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie posed for their famous “Domestic Bliss” photo spread which appeared in the July 2005 issue of W Magazine.  It all started a few days before Halloween when I came across the following People Magazine article while doing some cyberstalking of the Palm Springs area, trying to come up with a list of desert locations to stalk.  The article mentioned that Brangelina’s  controversial photoshoot – controversial because it occurred on March 25, 2005, the very same day that Jennifer Aniston filed for divorce from Brad – had taken place at a private residence located in Rancho Mirage.  And that was it for me!  The next few hours were spent trying to track down the exact location of the property where my least favorite celebrity couple had posed for their 60-page spread.  Being that I can’t stand either Brad or Angelina, I have no valid explanation as to why I became so darn determined to find the house.  All I can say is that when I get on a kick, I get on a kick and there’s absolutely no stopping me.  So, I was completely overjoyed when I was finally able to pinpoint the location of the house, which is known as the Kenaston Residence in real life, and I made my fiancé stop there during our drive over to Palm Springs, before we even had a chance to check into our hotel.  Not kidding.  🙂

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The Kenaston Residence was built in 1957 by mid-century modernist architect E. Stewart Williams for a Palm Springs resident named Roderick W. Kenaston.  Stewart Williams is perhaps best known for building Frank Sinatra’s desert hideaway with the piano shaped swimming pool, which I stalked a couple of years ago and the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway’s Mountaintop Station, which I have also stalked but have yet to blog about.  In 2003, after several different ownerships and re-models, a Los Angeles area art director and his wife purchased the Kenaston Residence and spent two years restoring it back to its original grandeur.  Sadly, out of the five Rancho Mirage area homes built by Stewart Williams, the Kenaston Residence is the only property that still looks the same today as it did when it was built.  The remaining homes have all either been altered or completely destroyed.  🙁 

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The U-shaped Kenaston Residence, which was built around a large square shaped swimming pool, features four bedrooms, 3.5 baths, over 5,000 square feet of living space, a media room, 50 palm trees!, a six car garage, an interior/exterior rock wall, a “floating fireplace”, floor to ceiling glass walls, mountain views, concrete floors, and a 17 foot long living room planter.  The house was built on a half acre of land and Williams even had the remarkable foresight to situate the home facing North, so as to avoid the extreme desert temperatures.   Besides the Brangelina shoot, the Kenaston Residence has also been the site of photoshoots for Madonna, James Blunt, the band Coldplay and has been featured in Italian Elle, Luxury Living, The London Independent, and on Bravo Television.  In 2007, the home was sold to new owners for $2,350,000.  I swear, if I owned a house like that, I don’t think I would ever be able to let it go.  Especially since, according to the previous owner, it earned at least $50,000 in photoshoot rental fees each year!  Cha-ching!  🙂  You can see interior photographs of the home from its 2007 real estate website here

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Brad and Angie’s “Domestic Bliss” photo spread, which featured the couple and several children acting out scenes of an unhappy family life in the 60s, made use of the entire Kenaston Residence, both inside and out.  According to this article, because Pitt, who actually co-created and co-directed the shoot with photographer Stephen Klein, was “tired of celebrity portraiture and always up for an artistic ‘jam sesh’”(UGH, gag me!), he came up with the unique idea of basing the spread on “unidentifiable malaise” in a marriage.  Speaking about what I can only assume was his union with my girl Jen, he said, “You don’t know what’s wrong because the marriage is everything you signed up for.”  You honestly don’t know what’s wrong, Brad?  Um, I think your wandering eye might have had something to do with it!!  The duo’s photo shoot took two full days to complete, during which time Angelina, who had brought along her then-only son Maddox, and Brad stayed in separate rooms at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel in Palm Springs.  So, I guess I am going to have to stalk the Le Parker in the near future, too.   Oh honey, I feel a trip to Palm Springs coming on!  😉

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The property is actually quite unassuming and non-descript from the street.  One could easily drive right by, without realizing the rich architectural history that lies just beyond the home’s walnut wood walls. 

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Amazingly enough, even though there is a large concrete wall surrounding the back of the property, much of the Kenaston Residence can still be seen from the street.  And because the surrounding wall is only about four feet tall, you can easily see into the backyard area, where the cover photo from Brangelina’s W Magazine issue was shot, as well.   Love it!

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Interestingly enough, photographer Steven Klein’s inspiration for the “Domestic Bliss” photo spread came from the photographs of legendary architectural photographer Julius Shulman.  One of the poses from the issue was almost a direct copy of a very famous photograph Shulman took of Case Study House #21, aka the Bailey House (pictured above).  I found this little bit of trivia out while doing some research on the Kenaston Residence and became absolutely fascinated by it, as I am a huge fan of Julius Shulman, who sadly passed away in July of this past year.  Those of you who read my blog regularly will remember the post I wrote about the tour of Case Study House #22 (aka The Stahl House) that I took in March of last year and Julius Shulman’s iconic photograph which led me to stalk the house in the first place.

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You can see the entire 60-page “Domestic Bliss” portfolio here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Kenaston Residence is located at 39-767 Desert Sun Drive in Rancho Mirage.  To get an overall view of the house, I would also recommend venturing  west on Mashie Drive and south onto Keenan Drive.  The Case Study House #21, upon which one of the Brangelina pictures was based, is located at 9036 Wonderland Park Avenue in Los Angeles.

The “Father of the Bride” Churches

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One location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like years now is the church where Annie Banks married Bryan MacKenzie in my all time favorite wedding movie, the 1991 classic Father of the Bride.  But, according to IMDB, two different locations actually stood in for Annie’s wedding church in the film – one for the exterior shots and a different one altogether for the interior scenes.  And I’d been longing to stalk both of them pretty much ever since I moved to the Southern California area.  What I didn’t realize at the time, though, was that IMDB actually got one of the churches – the one which they claim was used for the establishing shots – wrong.  Get out of here!  IMDB posted a bogus address??  Well, I simply don’t believe it!  😉  Thankfully though, fellow stalker Owen stepped in and decided to put the mystery of Annie’s wedding location to rest once and for all.  While doing some cyberstalking recently, he happened to stumble upon this blog in which the author randomly mentions that he lives down the street from the church used in Father of the Bride.  So, Owen contacted the blog author and asked for the name and address of the church, which he happily gave him and, voila, the mystery was solved!  YAY!  And once I had the correct addresses, I immediately dragged my fiancé right out to stalk both churches!

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Surprisingly enough, even though the church used for the exterior shots – which is named HOPE Christian Fellowship in real life – looks very much the same today as it did when Father of the Bride was filmed back in 1991, it wasn’t at all what I was expecting to see in person.  In the movie, the church, which is covered in snow thanks to an unprecedented Los Angeles snowstorm which takes place the night before Annie’s wedding, seems to be a charming, little small-town type of parish.  But in real life, HOPE Christian Fellowship is located on a very busy and very wide thoroughfare, which takes away from its small-town feel.  Other than that, though, I am happy to report that the church – and its bell tower – look pretty much identical in person to how they appeared onscreen in Father of the Bride.  🙂

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The interior scenes of the Banks/MacKenzie wedding were filmed at Trinity Church in Santa Monica (pictured above), which is located a good thirty miles away from HOPE Christian Fellowship.  Why the producers chose to film at two churches that were located thirty miles away from each other is beyond me, especially since the exteriors of both are quite similar looking.   I am guessing, though, that they wanted the exterior of Annie’s wedding church to have a quaint feel to it, and Trinity Church, while pretty, is anything but quaint.  You would think that producers would have been able to find a quaint church in the Santa Monica area to use for the exteriors, but I guess that’s Hollywood for you!  🙂 

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According to an EXTREMELY nice congregation member whom I spoke with named Bob, the Father of the Bride  producers had the interior of Trinity Church painted for the filming and it has not been repainted since!  So, in essence, the church still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did when the movie was filmed back in 1991!  How incredibly cool is that???  Sadly, though, Bob told me that there are currently plans in the works to paint the entire interior an ivory color sometime this year.  SO SAD!  I tried to talk Bob into leaving the church exactly as it appeared in the movie, but unfortunately, being that I am not a member of the congregation, I don’t think what I had to say had much merit.  LOL  So, if you are a fan of FOTB and want to stalk the church where Annie got married, I suggest you do so sooner rather than later, as Trinity may look a whole lot different in the coming months.  🙁  Bob, who was actually the very person who negotiated the deal for Father of the Bride  to be filmed at Trinity, also told me that producers had the crew lower the church’s overhead hanging lights for the filming, after which time they were returned to their normal height.  As you can see in the above screen captures, the lights do not hang quite as low in real life as they did in the movie.  The crew also brought in a red carpet to cover up the white tile located in the lobby’s entrance area and after the filming was over that carpet was gifted to the church.  In fact, that very same carpet is still used to this day when the church hosts special events such as – you guessed it – weddings!  🙂 So cool! 

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As you can see in the above screen capture, it also appears that producers covered one of the church’s side doors with a fake wall for the filming, to make it appear as though the lobby had an ante-room.  In reality, though, that area is little more than a hallway.  Other than the height of the lights, the lobby rug, and the covering of the side door, though, Trinity Church still looks EXACTLY – and I do mean EXACTLY – the same today as it did when Father of the  Bride was filmed there 18 years ago!  Love it!  Love it!  Love it!

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And, of course, I just had to take a picture sitting in the spot where George and Nina Banks (aka Steve Martin and Diane Keaton) sat during Annie’s wedding.  In real life, though, there is no barrier separating the first row of pews from the altar as there was in the movie.

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Trinity’s main entrance doors were also used in Father of the Bride, in the very brief scene in which Annie and her new husband, Bryan, exit the church immediately following their wedding ceremony.

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Trinity Church of Santa Monica is absolutely beautiful in person and the people I spoke with while there could NOT have been nicer to me or more informative!  I honestly can’t recommend stalking the place – or even getting married there – enough!  If I didn’t already have my wedding venue locked down, I would seriously consider Trinity Church.  I mean, how cool would be it be to get married in the same place where Annie Banks tied the knot?  😉

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding these locations!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The church used for the exterior shots in Father of the Bride is named HOPE Christian Fellowship and it is located at 6116 North San Gabriel Boulevard in San Gabriel.  You can visit their website here.  The church used for the interior shots is named Trinity Church of Santa Monica and it is located at 1015 California Avenue in Santa Monica.  You can visit their website here.

Simon Baker’s Former House

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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 if I would be able to take him to a doctor appointment in the Santa Monica area yesterday morning, I literally jumped at the opportunity and informed him that we’d be making a little stalking pit stop first.  🙂  Thankfully, since my dad is also a big Mentalist fan, he didn’t give me much grief about being dragged along on this particular stalking expedition. 

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My dad and I were both quite shocked when we pulled up to the residence and saw it in person, as it is a lot smaller than we had anticipated and looks like a fairly normal suburban home.  A very nice suburban home, of course, but still fairly normal, nonetheless.  My dad kept saying, “There is no way Simon Baker lived there!”  Thanks to the property’s ostensible lack of a front wall and exterior gate, it’s hard to imagine a celeb like SB ever calling the place home.  But I guess it sort of makes sense being that Simon lived in the house about nine months before The Mentalist hit the airwaves, turning him into a household name and creating the need for some sort of exterior wall to keep stalkers like myself at bay.  😉  

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SB and his wife, actress Rebecca Rigg, purchased the 2,394 square foot, three bedroom, two bath home, which was originally built in 1934, on December 13, 2006 for a whopping $2,626,000 and sold it just a little under 13 months later, on January 10, 2008, for a nice little profit at $2,895,000.  While living in the house, the couple remodeled and expanded the kitchen area and added a pool and spa to the backyard.  You can see interior photographs of the home at the time it belonged to SB here.  The area where the house is located – which just so happens to be one of the most expensive areas in all of Los Angeles County – is known as Gillette’s Regent Square and was developed by none other than King Camp Gillette, the razor blade magnate who also gave us King Gillette Ranch, aka the Biggest Loser Ranch, in Calabasas.  Amazingly enough, during the time that Simon lived in the house, my fiancé lived just a few blocks away  [in a much less expensive area, of course. ;)], yet we never ran into him!  How we missed each other is beyond me, being that Owen Wilson also used to live in that same vicinity (at 947 23rd Street) and my fiancé and I ran into him not once, but twice!!!!  Oh, SB, where were you hiding???  😉  According to fave website The Real Estalker, when SB sold this house, he purchased an even larger one also in the Santa Monica area.  So, you know what that means, don’t you??  Yessiree, there’s a whole other Simon Baker residence out there just waiting for me to stalk it!  🙂  YAY!

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On an interesting side note – Fellow stalker and Mentalist aficionado Liz recently alerted to me to the fact that Rebecca Rigg, SB’s real life wife and mother of his three children, played widowed actress Felicia Scott in the Season One episode of The Mentalist entitled “A Dozen Red Roses”.  So cool!  🙂

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Simon Baker’s former house is located at 534 20th Street in Santa Monica.  Owen Wilson’s former residence is just a few blocks away at 947 23rd Street.  Courteney Cox also owned a house in the area, at 606 Alta Avenue, during her Friends days.  Across the street from Courteney’s former digs is the 7th Heaven house, which can be found at 527 Alta Avenue.  Also in the area is Danny Devito’s house from Twins, which can be found at 323 11th Street, and Darrin and Samantha’s house from Bewitched, which is located at 267 18th Street.

Vertical Wine Bistro

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Even though I am not usually a going-out-on-New-Year’s-Eve type of girl, this year I wanted nothing more than to ring in 2010 with a glass of champagne at my very favorite restaurant, POP Champagne Bar in Pasadena.  But being that I am not now, nor never have been, a night person – I can’t tell you the last time I’ve actually stayed up past midnight on New Year’s Eve – my fiancé and I decided to head over to POP early in the evening, at around 5 p.m., so that we could grab an early drink and be back home, comfy mumfy in our pajamas, by 6:30.  Yes, I am that much of a dork!  😉 So, you can imagine my disappointment when we arrived at POP only to discover a note taped to the front door announcing that the champagne bar would be opening later than usual – at 7 p.m. – that particular night. 🙁  Such a bummer!  But, as fate would have it, as we headed back to our apartment, my head hung low, we stumbled upon a little place called Vertical Wine Bistro, which just so happens to be owned by movie producer Gale Anne Hurd, the mastermind behind such Hollywood blockbusters as Armageddon, Aliens, The Abyss, and the Terminator movies, and I immediately grabbed my fiancé’s hand and dragged him right inside!  I figured if I wasn’t going to be able to spend my New Year’s Eve at POP, I was at least going to get a blog post out of the evening!  😉

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Longtime Pasadena resident Gale Anne Hurd opened Vertical Wine Bistro back in October of 2006 after deciding that Old Town Pasadena was in desperate need of an upscale and sleek, but laidback wine bar where someone like herself could hang out.  She named the bistro in honor of a type of wine tasting known as “vertical” in which patrons sample different vintages of one type of wine from a single winery.  (In case you’re wondering, horizontal tasting, consequently, consists of sampling wines of the same vintage from a variety of different wineries.)  Vertical Wine Bistro features an eclectic menu and an extensive wine list with over 400 different wines by the bottle and almost 100 by the glass varieties.  And even though I’ve known about the restaurant and it’s celebrity connection since it’s opening three years ago, for some reason, until this past New Year’s Eve, I’d never ventured inside.  But I have to say that the place was definitely worth the wait!  Vertical is a very cool, very “New-Yorky” style bar, with a simply amazing menu!!  My fiancé and I chose to share the crab cake appetizer on New Year’s and just about died it was so good!  Our crab cake was flanked by a fennel cream and chanterelle mushroom sauce and it was so good, I honestly could have been given just a bowl of that and been happy!  I’m telling you, this stalker is all about chanterelle mushrooms from here on out.  🙂 

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I honestly can’t recommend stalking Vertical Wine Bistro enough!  And, who knows, you might even spot a celeb while doing so!  Besides Gale and her screenwriter husband Jonathan Hensleigh, other celebrities who have been spotted at the restaurant include former Bachelor Jason Mesnick and then-girlfriend Molly Malaney and Today Show stars Al Roker, Matt Lauer and Ann Curry.

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On a side note – I really have to apologize for the craptastic photographs featured in this post.  Because I hadn’t planned on stalking anything on New Year’s Eve, I left my purse (and the camera I keep inside of it) at home.  Thankfully, my fiancé had his iPhone on him, so we were able to take the pictures posted above, but unfortunately they aren’t of the best quality, which just proves what I’ve been saying for years – if you live in L.A., NEVER, EVER leave your camera at home!  😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Vertical Wine Bistro is located upstairs at 70 North Raymond Avenue in Old Town Pasadena.  You can visit their website here.