September 2011 – Page 2 – IAMNOTASTALKER

September 16, 2011September 15, 2011

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank from “Heat”

While doing some stalking in the Burbank area way back in November of last year, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Bob’s Big Boy restaurant on Riverside Drive to grab a bite to eat. And even though the eatery has quite a vast Hollywood history, is a filming location, serves fried food (my favorite!), and is currently the oldest remaining Bob’s in the entire restaurant chain, for whatever reason in my ten-plus years of living in Los Angeles I had yet to dine there. But, let me tell you, the place was well worth the wait! Both the GC and I absolutely LOVED it!

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank was originally built in 1949 by franchise owners Scott MacDonald and Ward Albert, and was designed by Wayne McAllister, the legendary Googie-style architect who also designed the Biltmore Hotel’s Biltmore Bowl ballroom, the Sands Hotel and Desert Inn in Las Vegas, and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Cinegrill nightclub. In 1993, after several changes in ownership and a few dining room remodels, the property was purchased by the MacDonald family, who immediately set about an extensive renovation in order to restore the Streamline-Moderne-style eatery to its original glory. The MacDonald’s also added a front patio to the premises, re-fabbed the famous exterior signage, and, best of all, re-instated car-hop service from 5 to 10 p.m. each Friday and Saturday night. So incredibly cool! In 1993, the restaurant was also deemed a California Point of Historical Interest.

Visiting Bob’s Big Boy, one is immediately transported back in time, thanks largely to its curved counter and open kitchen ;

cantilevered roof and petal-like umbrellas,

and commanding 50s-style signage –

the most impressive of which is the 70-foot-tall free-standing display sign pictured above.

And the food! Oh, the food! I ordered the chicken strips and they were absolutely out-of-this-world! And don’t even get me started on the ranch dressing! I was almost ready to start eating it by itself, soup-style, it was so good! The GC opted for the famous “Big Boy” double-decker hamburger, which he loved. The “Big Boy” was originally invented by Bob’s Big Boy founder Bob Wian in 1937 and was the precursor to the now-legendary McDonald’s Big Mac. He created the sandwich as a joke one night when one of his regular customers asked for a “different” kind of burger. And the rest, as they say, is hamburger history. Amazingly, Bob was also one of the very first restaurant owners to offer his employees a profit-sharing plan and medical insurance.

Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank has been a celebrity hangout since the very beginning. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there over the years include Bob Hope (who was a regular), James Dean, Mickey Rooney, Dana Andrews, Jonathan Winters, Alexis Smith, Debbie Reynolds, Craig Stevens, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Taylor Lautner, Tiffany Thornton, Tori Spelling, Melissa Joan Hart, David Henrie, Taylor Swift, Joey Lawrence, Cheech Marin, Selena Gomez, Jay Leno, David Lynch, Dennis Haskins, and Freddie Prinze Jr. During the summer of 1965, all four members of The Beatles famously dined at one of the eatery’s back booths, which is pictured above.

That occasion was marked with the gold plaque pictured above, which one employee told me has been stolen countless times over the years. I cannot tell you how much I hate hearing things like that! Apparently, the owners were sick of constantly having to replace the sign, so for a time they left the wall in that area blank. Thankfully though, the plaque was back in its proper place when I stalked the restaurant last year.

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And, as I mentioned above, Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank is also a filming location! The diner was featured twice in the 1995 heist movie Heat. It first popped us as the restaurant where a fresh-out-of-prison Donald Breedan (aka Dennis Haysbert) got hired as a janitor/cook.

Towards the end of the movie, it shows up once again in the scene in which Neil McCauley (aka Robert De Niro), Michael Cheritto (aka Tom Sizemore), and Chris Shiherlis (aka Val Kilmer) convince Donald to be the driver for their upcoming bank heist. Apparently there was once a plaque displayed in the booth where that scene took place commemorating the occasion, but it was stolen countless times as well and had yet to be replaced in November.

In the Season 8 episode of Dancing with the Stars, Derek Hough took Lil’ Kim to Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank to get her into character for their upcoming 50s jive performance. You can watch a clip of that segment being filmed here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the face of About Me! There are only five voting days left – you can vote once every 24 hours now through Tuesday, September 20th.

Stalk It: Bob’s Big Boy, from Heat, is located at 4211 West Riverside Drive in Burbank. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here. Priscilla’s Coffee Tea & Gifts, from Desperate Housewives, which I blogged about back in December of 2009, is located just across the street from Bob’s at 4150 Riverside Drive in Burbank.

September 15, 2011September 14, 2011

The “Beaches” Mansion

One location that I have been asked about repeatedly ever since I first started my blog almost four years ago (and I CANNOT even believe that it has been that long!!!) is the large Tudor-style mansion where Hillary Whitney Essex (aka Barbara Hershey) lived in the 1988 tearjerker Beaches. And while it had long been noted on various websites that the property was located somewhere in the Pasadena area, try as I might, I just could not seem to track the place down. Then this past January a fellow stalker named Alain who lives in France emailed me to ask about a mansion that had appeared in the Season 7 episode of Columbo titled “Try and Catch Me”. He mentioned that the same estate had also been used in Beaches. I explained to Alain that I had been trying to find that particular home for years, but had had absolutely no luck. Flash forward 9 months to this past Tuesday afternoon when I received another email from Alain, this one announcing that he had found the property! Whoo-hoo! How he managed to locate it while living thousands of miles away in France, when I failed to do so while living right here in Pasadena, is absolutely beyond me! My hat is most-definitely off to you, Alain!

So I, of course, ran right out to stalk the place early Wednesday morning. Sadly though, as you can see above, hardly any of the property is visible from the street.

But, as I have said before, that is why God created aerial views. In real life, the 7,479-square-foot, 8-bedroom, 4-bath home, which was built in 1916 by the noted Pasadena architecture firm Marston & Van Pelt (who also designed the Twins mansion), is known as the S. S. Hinds Estate. The property was named for one of its original owners, actor Samuel S. Hinds, who is best known for playing Peter Bailey, George Bailey’s (aka James Stewart’s) father, in the 1946 classic It’s A Wonderful Life. According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory, Hinds lived in the home from the 1920s until the 1940s. Ironically enough, Hinds was originally a very prominent attorney who lost his fortune in the stock market crash of 1929. He was able to keep his Pasadena manse during that difficult time by renting it out to various boarders. Finding himself destitute at the age of 54, he decided to abandon law and try his hand at acting and it was not long before Hollywood came a’callin’. Hinds went on to star in over 200 films before his death in 1948.

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In Beaches, the S.S Hinds Estate stood in for the supposed Atherton-area residence where Hillary lived both as a child and an adult.

The house’s front gate was used quite prominently in the movie in the scenes in which Hillary checked her mailbox in anticipation of receiving letters from her lifelong best friend, Cecilia “CC” Carol Bloom (aka Bette Midler).

And while the gate is thankfully visible from the street and still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did in 1988 when Beaches was filmed, sadly, as you can see above, Hillary’s mailbox is not there in real life. I am guessing that it was just a set piece that was brought in solely for the filming.

The real life interior of the property was also used in the flick.

Thanks to fave website OnLocationVacations, I learned that the Season 3 episode of Mad Men titled “My Old Kentucky Home” was also filmed at the S.S. Hinds Estate. In the episode, the property stood in for the country club where Roger Sterling (aka John Slattery) and Jane Siegel (aka Peyton List) hosted their Kentucky Derby party.

As you can see in the screen captures above, one of the hallways that appeared in Beaches was also used in Mad Men as the spot where Betty Draper (aka January Jones) first met Henry Francis (aka Christopher Stanley).

I am fairly certain, though, that the club’s bar, where Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm) spent most of his evening, is not actually located inside of the Hinds Estate, but is a real life bar somewhere in Los Angeles.

And again thanks to OnLocationVacations, I also learned that the estate was used as the Turnbill Mansion, which Leslie Knope (aka Amy Poehler) fought to save, in the Season 2 episode of Parks & Recreation titled “94 Meetings”.

Amazingly, the very same hallway that appeared in both Mad Men and Beaches was also featured in Parks and Recreation.

As was the stairway from Beaches.

And the front gate, which Leslie Knopes barricaded herself to, thinking it opened in the middle, on Parks and Recreation. LOL

A large painting of the mansion was created for the filming of Parks and Recreation, as well. Being that I doubt the painting would ever be used again on the series, I am wondering if the owners of the Hinds Estate got to keep it. So cool if they did!

Unfortunately, I was not able to find a copy of the Columbo “Try and Catch Me” episode anywhere, so I could not make screen captures of the Hinds Estate’s appearance in it for this post.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Alain for telling me about this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Beaches mansion is located at 880 La Loma Road in Pasadena.

September 14, 2011September 14, 2011

An Evening with “The Closer” at The Paley Center for Media

While perusing my Picasa photo account yesterday, I realized that I have been seriously lagging on my Celebrity Sightings posts, as there are numerous events that I have yet to blog about, most notably one that I attended well over a month ago – The Paley Center for Media’s An Evening with The Closer in Beverly Hills. As I have mentioned several times before, this stalker absolutely loves herself The Closer, so when I got an email from The Paley Center in July announcing that they would be hosting a screening and question and answer session with the cast and crew of the series on August 10th, I promptly bought tickets for me and the Grim Cheaper. For those who have never heard of the place, the Paley Center for Media is a library/museum/cultural center that houses a collection of over 120,000 television and radio recordings which can be viewed in various screening rooms on the premises. The center also hosts numerous celebrity events throughout the year, one of which I attended back in September of 2008 for fave show 90210.

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And while the 90210 event was an absolute BLAST with the celebrities in attendance mingling amongst the fans in order to sign autographs and take pictures both before and after the screening, sadly that was not the case with An Evening with The Closer. The first actor to arrive at the Center was Anthony John Denison, who plays Lieutenant Andy Flynn on the series, and when he walked into the lobby I, of course, went up to him and asked for a photo. Anthony could NOT have been nicer, gave me a HUGE smile, said, “Absolutely! You’re so pretty, by the way!” and then proceeded to put his arm around me to pose for the pic. Well, security took one look at us together and immediately came over and told John that he was not allowed to pose for any photographs. Um, a security guard telling a celebrity what he can and cannot do?!?! That was definitely a first for me! Anyway, John gave the guy a look, said, “I am going to take this picture!”, and smiled once again at the camera. After the GC snapped away, John introduced himself to both of us and shook my hand. SUCH an incredibly nice guy!

I was especially excited to get a photo with him being that the picture we took together at Kyra Sedgwick’s Walk of Fame Star Ceremony back in June of 2009 had been a major, major fail, as you can see above! Anyway, after John walked away, the Paley security guard told me that I was not allowed to ask any of the other stars for pictures, even though I was a ticketholder for the event. I asked if I would be able to take photos after the Q & A session was over and he told me that it would be very unlikely, which was shocking being that pictures have been allowed at every single screening I have ever been to. I mean, what other reason is there to attend? Ha! Winking smile

At that point, the GC and I decided to head outside to the public sidewalk in front of the venue where security would not be able to tell us what we could and could not do – although, believe me, they tried! Anyway, shortly after we walked out who should arrive but Miss Brenda Leigh Johnson herself, Kyra Sedgwick! I could NOT have been more excited to see Kyra in person and I am very happy to report that she was a complete and total sweetheart! As soon as she got out of her car, she headed right on over to the few fans who were waiting outside and signed a bunch of autographs. I was the only person who asked for a photo and she happily obliged. Besides being super friendly, Kyra is also BEAUTIFUL in person. Much prettier even than she appears to be onscreen.

Shortly after Kyra arrived, Robert Gossett, who plays Commander Russell Taylor on the show and is the real life cousin of Louis Gossett Jr., showed up. Robert also happily posed for a picture with me.

Due to the fact that security was being so incredibly anal, the GC and I decided to skip both the screening and Q & A as we figured we would have a better chance of catching the rest of the cast on their way out of the venue after the event was over than we would inside the theatre. And we were right! After grabbing a quick dinner at the Farm in Beverly Hills, which was FABULOUS by the way, we headed back over to the Paley Center and caught all of the other actors who were in attendance as they made their way outside, including Raymond Cruz, who plays Detective Julio Sanchez;

Michael Paul Chan, who plays Lieutenant Mike Tao;

Jon Tenney who plays Agent Fritz Howard;

Phillip P. Keene who plays videographer Buzz Watson;

Jonathan Del Arco, who plays Major Crimes Division coroner Dr. Morales;

and Mary McDonnell, who plays Brenda Leigh Johnson’s nemesis Captain Sharon Raydor. All of the cast members were extremely nice and I could not have been more floored to meet them! But I was a bit disappointed that we were not able to attend the screening and Q & A session as I had really been looking forward to hearing what the actors had to say about the series and it’s forthcoming spin-off, Major Crimes, which is set to debut sometime next year. The GC, of course, was extremely pleased to have avoided the Q & A, though, so I guess all was not lost. Winking smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the new face of About Me! There are only seven voting days left – you can vote once every 24 hours now through September 20th. Smile

Stalk It: The Paley Center is located at 465 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. You can visit the Center’s official website here.

September 13, 2011September 13, 2011

The Surfrider Foundation’s 6th Annual Celebrity Expression Session

This past Saturday, the fabulous Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, invited me and the Grim Cheaper out to Malibu to do a little stalking of one of her very favorite celebrity events – the Surfrider Foundation’s 6th Annual Celebrity Expression Session, an hour-long free surf contest which was taking place at First Point at Malibu Lagoon State Beach. Much to the GC’s chagrin, I accepted the invitation which is how the two of us found ourselves heading out to the ‘Bu bright and early Saturday morning. Although, as you can see in the above photograph, the word “bright” is somewhat misleading being that the skies were quite grey when we arrived on the scene. The day turned out to be one of the best of my entire life, though, and, in what can only be described as an amazing act of divine intervention, we were not only invited to visit and tour the residence used as the Cohen House on fave show The O.C. (on which the sets from the series were very closely based), but we also spent about five hours at the property! I promise to blog about that INCREDIBLE experience in the very near future, but, for now, on with the Surfrider event!

Joining me, Pinky, and the GC in our morning beach-capade were our good friends, fellow stalkers Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, and Scotty, or as Pinky likes to call us, the Motley Crew. Despite the fact that it started raining heavily while we were waiting for the celebrity surfers to arrive, we had an absolute blast hanging out together. As I have said on numerous occasions, when it comes to these types of events, which involve hours upon hours upon hours of waiting around, it is all about the journey. And I can think of no one else I would rather share that journey with than Pinky’s Motley Crew.

The first celebrity to arrive on the scene was Eric Avery from the band Jane’s Addiction.

Also in attendance was Jesse Spencer from House (SO cute! Sigh!);

Chad Lowe;

Eric Balfour from The O.C.;

Tate Donovan, also from The O.C. and also my girl Jen Aniston’s former main squeeze;

John Slattery, from Mad Men, Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City;

Brian Geraghty from The Hurt Locker;

Ross Thomas from Soul Surfer;

and Krysten Ritter – ALL of whom were so incredibly nice and friendly it was almost unbelievable! I felt like we all truly had a special little moment with each of them. Pinky and I got to chat with Chad Lowe about how much we both enjoyed his brother Rob’s autobiography; we joked with John Slattery about his – ahem – shower requests on Sex and the City; Ross Thomas took off his hat and sunglasses in order to provide us with a better photograph; Tate Donovan almost fell over when Scotty quoted several lines to him from Space Camp . . .

. . . and, as you can see above, Krysten and Pinky even spent some time hanging out together in the surf. Amazing, amazing day!

And Mikey managed to snap this super cute pic of me getting his prop “Victor Lang for Mayor” t-shirt from Desperate Housewives signed.

Our main reason for being there, though, was, of course, to see Pinky’s sweetheart, Sam Trammell, who plays Sam Merlotte on the hit series True Blood.

Sam spotted Pinky immediately and, of course, came right over to her to say hi. I cannot even imagine if one of my favorite celebrities knew me by name and regularly came up to me at events to say hi! I would absolutely DIE! Heck, if ANY celebrity knew me by name and came up to me to say hi, I would die!!! The kicker was when Pinky told Sam that she had finally found a job, he congratulated her and asked where she was working. The fact that he knew – and remembered – that she had been unemployed the last time they spoke was enough to make me gasp. SO INCREDIBLY COOL! That is Sam autographing some photos for Pinky in the above picture – all of which he signed with “much love” or “xoxoxo”. SIGH!

The entire event was extremely low-key and relaxed and all of the celebrities conducted their media interviews right there in the sand.

The surf contest got started at noon and I cannot tell you how much fun it was to watch them all suit up and head out. (As you can see in the photograph on the top left above, Baywatch star David Chokachi was also in attendance, but since I had already gotten a picture with him at the Pedal on the Pier 100 Mile-a-Thon in June, I did not want to bother him for another.)

Before hitting the water, the group posed for a few publicity shots and, thankfully, the GC got right in there among the press photographers and started snapping away. I’ve taught him well, folks.

Because the GC has gotten seriously into photography as of late, this was one celebrity event that he actually did not mind being dragged to and he managed to snap some pretty fabulous action shots while there.

My favorite being the one pictured above, which reminds me of the movie poster for The Endless Summer. So cool!

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the new face of About Me!

Stalk It: Malibu Lagoon State Beach, aka Surfrider Beach, is located at 23200 Pacific Coast Highway, just north of the Malibu Pier, in Malibu. You can visit the Surfrider Foundation’s official website here.

September 12, 2011September 11, 2011

The Cabazon Dinosaurs from “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure”

On our way out to visit my parents in Palm Springs two weekends ago, the Grim Cheaper and I made a little stalking stop at the Cabazon Dinosaurs – the two legendary roadside sculptures located just outside of Palm Springs which were featured in the 1985 movie Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, among countless other productions. And even though I had passed by the humongous prehistoric creatures countless times on my way too and from the Coachella Valley, for whatever reason, I had never thought to stalk them until just recently.

The infamous Cabazon Dinosaurs were originally designed by a Knott’s Berry Farm portrait artist/sculptor named Claude Bell who was looking for a way to attract diners to the Wheel Inn, his roadside restaurant which opened in 1958. He had visited Lucy the Elephant while growing up in Atlantic City and the image of the six-story tin elephant had stuck with him.

So in 1964, Claude set about building a 150-ton, 45-foot tall, 150-foot long Apatosaurus, whom he later dubbed “Dinny” (pronounced Dine-ee), directly behind his eatery. He first built a steel framework of the creature, then covered it over with a metal grid in the shape of a dinosaur, and then finally coated it all with spray concrete. Much of the materials used were procured from scraps left over from construction of the nearby Interstate 10 freeway. Legend has it that a friend of Bell’s painted the entire exterior of Dinny in exchange for $1 and a case of Dr. Pepper. And while I, too, love me some Dr. Pepper, I seriously doubt I would paint a 150-foot long dinosaur in exchange for a case of it. Winking smile

It took eleven years and over $250,000 to complete Dinny and, of his creation which housed a small gift shop, Bell said that it was “the first dinosaur in history, so far as I know, to be used as building”.

In 1981, Bell decided to give Dinny a friend and began construction on a 100-ton, 65-foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex, whom he named “Rex”. His original plans called for a large slide to be installed on Rex’s back, but that idea never came to fruition. Steps were built leading up into the inside of the Tyrannosaurus’ mouth, though, enabling visitors to climb to the top of the creature. Bell had plans to add more reptiles to his roadside creation, but sadly passed away in 1988 before he could do so. In the mid 1990s, his heirs sold the dinosaurs for $1.2 million to an Orange County developer named Gary Kanter, who, along with a pastor named Robert Darwin Chiles, immediately set about turning the spot into children’s exhibit and museum which would promote the theory of creationism. They added several more dinosaurs, some robotic, to the 60-acre site, as well as an open-air museum, a sand pit where children can dig for fossils, and a non-denominational church. And while I wanted to venture inside the museum and up into Rex’s giant mouth, the GC was, of course, having none of it.

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In Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, truck driver Large Marge (aka Alice Nunn) drops Pee-wee Herman (aka Paul Reubens) off at the Wheel Inn restaurant, where he discovers that he has lost his wallet and ends up having to wash dishes in order to pay for his meal.

The real life interior of the Wheel Inn was used for the filming of the scene.

And, amazingly enough, it still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did back in 1985 when Pee-wee’s Big Adventure was filmed.

It is while at the Wheel Inn that Pee-wee meets waitress Simone (aka my former acting teacher Diane Salinger), who invites him to watch the sun rise from the inside of Rex’s mouth. That scene was not actually shot inside of Rex’s mouth, though, but on a soundstage at Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank. You can see some great photographs of what Rex’s mouth actually looks like here. In real life, his mouth is not nearly as big as the set replica that Tim Burton created for the film, nor is there a large pink tongue on which to sit.

After watching the sun rise, Simone’s very large and very jealous boyfriend Andy (aka Jon Harris) shows up and chases Pee-wee around the dinosaurs.

Thanks to Diane, I actually got to meet some of the cast of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure a couple of years ago, while attending a screening of the movie at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Pictured above is Diane Salinger, Elizabeth Daily, and the man himself, Paul Reubens.

Thanks to Kim Potts’ fabulous write-up of the Cabazon Dinosaurs for the Moviefone website, I learned that the landmark was featured in quite a few other productions, as well. At the end of 1989’s The Wizard, while driving by the dinosaurs Jimmy Woods (aka Luke Edwards) recognizes them from a childhood visit and jumps out of his step-father’s car and up to Dinny.

The actual interior of the dinosaur was used for the filming of that scene.

Miraculously, little of Dinny’s interior has changed in the 22-plus years since The Wizard was filmed.

In 1984’s Paris, Texas, the Wheel Inn is the supposed-San-Bernardino-area restaurant where Travis Henderson (aka Harry Dean Stanton)and his son Hunter (aka Hunter Carson) stop to use a payphone.

The Cabazon Dinosaurs and Wheel Inn also appeared briefly in the 1985 music video for the Tears for Fears song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”, in the scene in which the band’s lead singer Curt Smith stops his Austin-Healey 3000 by the side of the road in order to use a pay phone.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World music video –Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

The dinosaurs were featured extensively in the music video for Tonio K’s 1988 single “Without Love”.

Without Love music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

They also appeared in the U.S. version of the music video for the 1994 Oasis song “Supersonic”.

Supersonic music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

And finally, they made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the 2009 music video for Brad Paisley’s song “Welcome to the Future”.

Welcome to the Future music video–Filmed at the Cabazon Dinosaurs

You can watch that video by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the new face of About Me! Smile

Stalk It: The Cabazon Dinosaurs, from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, are located at 50770 Seminole Drive in Cabazon. You can visit the official Cabazon Dinosaurs’ website here. While the museum charges an admission fee, the interior of Dinny houses a gift shop which is free to visit. The Wheel Inn restaurant is located directly in front of the dinosaurs at 50900 Seminole Drive in Cabazon.

September 9, 2011September 8, 2011

Castelli’s Ristorante in Palm Desert

Early last week, one of my mom’s friends told her about a Palm Desert-area eatery named Castelli’s Ristorante that he had just dined at the previous evening. While he was lauding the place’s authentic Italian fare, he happened to mention that its walls were decorated with hundreds upon hundreds of photographs of the various celebrities who had been spotted there over the years. Well, once my mom heard that she immediately called me up to see if I was aware of the establishment. Amazingly enough, I was not! I, of course, just about died of excitement upon hearing those two magic words – “celebrity photographs” – and quickly added the place to my Coachella Valley “To Stalk” list. And while we were in the area this past Sunday night, I dragged my parents and the Grim Cheaper right on over there to grab a cocktail.

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Castelli’s Ristorante is a very old school-style eatery that closely resembles my former San Fernando Valley-area favorite Vitello’s, which, as I mentioned last week, drastically changed its menu (and not for the better) earlier this year. But I digress. With its wood-beamed ceilings, dark lighting, lace curtains, Rat Pack music and painted frescos, walking through Castelli’s front doors I was instantly transported back in time and, like one reviewer on Yelp stated, I half expected to see Tony Soprano sitting at a nearby booth. The restaurant, which is owned and operated by brothers John and Michael Castelli, first opened over 23 years ago and, thanks to its authentic, fresh-cooked Italian cuisine, has been going strong ever since.

Since we had already eaten dinner at the La Quinta Cliffhouse shortly before hitting up Castelli’s, we sadly did not order any meals while there, but the menu looked absolutely amazing. And once I heard that the place served cannoli (I learned today that “cannoli” is actually a plural noun, the singular form of the word is “cannolo”), I just about died and promptly ordered up a serving. Amazingly enough, I had actually never sampled a “cannolo” until this past June and have been absolutely obsessed with the ricotta cheese-filled desert ever since. Because I am diabetic, I can only have them on special occasions, but, let me tell you, my cravings for them are so strong I feel like I a pregnant woman! Winking smile And I have to say that Castelli’s cannoli were some of the BEST that I have ever had. Oh my god were they good! My dad liked them so much, in fact, that he ordered up a second serving immediately after we had finished the first.

The best part about Castelli’s – even better than its cannoli – though, had to be its celebrity photographs. Oh, the fun that my parents, the GC, and I had roaming around the restaurant trying to figure out who was who in each of the pictures. We even had the waiters running around trying to help us out. Just a few of the luminaries who adorn Castelli’s walls include Martin Short, Bob Hope, Burn Notice’s Jeffrey Donovan, Kevin Nealon, Gary Valentine, Norman Schwarzkopf, Dick Cheney, Robert Wagner, Stefanie Powers, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Dick Butkus, Joe Pesci, Sylvester Stallone, Craig T. Nelson, Dennis Franz, Emmitt Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Gary Sinise, Jerry Lewis, Kurt Russell, James Caan, Dennis Farina, Hal Linden, John O’Hurley (aka “Mr. Peterman” from Seinfeld), and sportscaster Chris Berman. I think it goes without saying that I cannot more highly recommend stalking this restaurant! In fact, I think it is safe to say that the place is my new favorite Desert eatery.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Castelli’s Ristorante is located at 73-098 Highway 111 in Palm Desert. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

September 8, 2011September 7, 2011

Wattles Mansion from “Troop Beverly Hills”

After re-watching Troop Beverly Hills a couple of weeks back and subsequently stalking the mansion where the Nefler family lived, I became just a wee bit obsessed with tracking down some of the other locales featured in the 1989 flick. Thankfully IMDB had quite a few sites listed on its Troop Beverly Hills filming locations page, one of which was Wattles Mansion – a historic and oft-filmed at Hollywood estate that, amazingly enough, I had never before heard of. So I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place the following weekend.

Wattles Mansion was originally built in 1907 by Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey, the legendary Los Angeles-area architects who were also responsible for designing the Ambassador Hotel, the Huntington Art Gallery, Pasadena’s Wentworth Hotel (now the Langham), Occidental College (aka California University from fave show Beverly Hills, 90210), the California Institute of Technology, and the Beverly Hills Hotel. The large Mission Revival-style dwelling was commissioned by a wealthy Omaha, Nebraska native named Gurdon Wallace Wattles to be used as his family’s winter residence. The estate, which sat on 49 acres and was called“Jualita”, featured 6,167 square feet of living space, seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a wood-paneled library with a hand-painted ceiling, black-and-white checkerboard marble flooring, a terracotta tile terrace, wood-beamed ceilings, and a full basement. The home’s extensive 5-acre formal garden area consisted of a Japanese Garden, an Italian Rose garden, a Spanish garden, an American garden, a palm court, sparkling ponds, and several fruit orchards. In an amazing show of generosity, Gurdon opened his beloved gardens to the public upon moving into his new home and it was not long before they became a wildly popular tourist attraction.

After Gurdon passed away in 1932, his widow, Julia Vance, and their son, Gurdon Wallace Wattles Jr., continued to live at the mansion. In 1968, they sold the property to the City of Los Angeles and the Department of Parks and Recreation subsequently took over. Sadly, the city lacked the money necessary to maintain the large estate and it quickly fell into a serious state of disrepair. Gurdon’s formerly glorious gardens were taken over by drug dealers, squatters, and vandals, and what they didn’t destroy, a series of mudslides in the 1980s did. Thankfully, in 1983 the Hollywood Heritage preservation group leased the property and began a massive restoration project before moving in and using the historic mansion as their headquarters. It was at that time that the abode, which is a City of Los Angeles Cultural Monument, became a popular filming location. For reasons that are not entirely clear, Hollywood Heritage was served with an eviction notice in 2008 and finally vacated the property in May of 2009. The mansion is currently being maintained by the Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation once again. (I snapped the interior pictures through one of the estate’s front windows.)

The piece of property, which you can see in the above aerial view, is now made up of three separate areas.

The section denoted with a pink square above, which measures 4.2 acres, was turned into a community garden in 1975 and has been continuously maintained by local residents. It is private and not open to the public. The middle section, which is denoted with a blue square, is a park known as Wattles Garden Park. It is open to the public daily from dusk until dawn. The mansion and formal garden area, which is denoted with a purple square above, is not open to the public, but is available for use as a special event and wedding venue.

And although the formal gardens are not accessible to the public, from what was visible from the park, that area once again appears to be in a sad state of disrepair. According to sign a posted on the premises, a restoration is currently in progress, so hopefully they will not look that way for long.

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Wattles Mansion actually stood in for two different locations in Troop Beverly Hills. It first appeared as the Beverly Hills Rest Haven where Phyllis Nefler (aka Shelley Long) and her group of Wilderness Girls performed their community service requirement.

While there, Phyllis and her daughter, Hannah (aka Jenny Lewis), taught a group of senior citizens how to do the “Freddy” dance, so I, of course, just had to do a little recreation of that scene while I was stalking the place. Winking smile

In a later scene, the northern-facing side of Wattles Mansion and the formal garden area were used as the location of the “khaki” fashion show that was hosted by Robin Leach and featured cameos by Pia Zadora and Dr. Joyce Brothers.

Wattles Mansion was also used extensively as the demon-haunted home inherited by Jonathan Graves (aka Peter Liapis) in the 1985 horror-comedy Ghoulies.

The real life interior of the mansion, including the kitchen area and the formal library, appeared in Ghoulies, as well. You can check out some great interior photographs of the place here.

Randomly enough, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit’s Mariska Hargitay made her feature film debut in Ghoulies. She is pictured in the grey sweater above. The actress was just 21 at the time that the movie was filmed.

Wattles Mansion also appeared in Diana Ross’ ultra-weird 1985 music video for her single “Eaten Alive”, which was co-written by none other than the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson.

Eaten Alive Music Video–Filmed at Wattles Mansion

You can watch that video by clicking above.

In the 1989 movie Rain Man, Wattles Mansion stood in for the institution where the psychiatric evaluation of Raymond Babbitt (aka Dustin Hoffman) took place.

Wattles was where Jose (aka Jacob Vargas) first met Maria (aka Jennifer Lopez) in the 1995 flick My Family.

And finally, the mansion popped up in the Season 3 episode of The O.C. titled “The Man of the Year” as the supposed Montecito-area boarding school attended by Marissa Cooper’s (aka Mischa Barton’s) sister, Kaitlin (aka Willa Holland).

Until next time, Happy Stalking – and Happy Voting! Don’t forget to vote for me today to be the new face of About Me! Smile

Stalk It: Wattles Mansion, from Troop Beverly Hills, is located at 1824 North Curson Avenue in Hollywood. The interior of the mansion and formal garden areas are not accessible to the public, but Wattles Park is open daily from dawn until dusk. You can visit the official Wattles Mansion website here.

September 7, 2011December 6, 2013

Marilyn Monroe’s Former Palm Springs Home – Revisited

This past Friday afternoon the Grim Cheaper and I headed out to Palm Springs to spend Labor Day Weekend with my parents at their new desert abode. And even though most of our time was devoted to relaxing (and to watching Dance Moms, which has to be one of the most addicting shows I have EVER seen, but I digress), I was able to get a little bit of stalking in while we were there, including a LONG overdue visit to the Cabazon Dinosaurs which were made famous thanks to an appearance in the 1985 flick Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. But more on “Dinny” and “Mr. Rex”, as they are known, later. For today I thought I would write about one of my VERY favorite locations that I ever stalked – Marilyn Monroe’s former Palm Springs home, which I originally visited – and blogged about – back in March of 2008. Because I had lumped the dwelling in with several other properties in a post about Palm-Springs celebrity vacation homes and because I had only included one photograph of the place in that post, though, I figured that this was one location that was most definitely worthy of a re-stalk. So I dragged the GC right on over there on our way into town.

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I originally found out about Marilyn’s former desert oasis thanks to a Map of the Stars’ Homes that I picked up – for free! – at the Palm Springs Visitors’ Center on one of my very first trips to the Coachella Valley. And even though it was long before my MM obsession took hold, I absolutely fell in love with the charming little bungalow as soon as I laid eyes upon it. With its Spanish-tiled steps, black-and-white striped awnings, abundant foliage, and gold-trimmed wrought iron front gate, the dwelling just screamed “fifties” to me and I immediately envisioned the starlet tending to some flowers in her quaint little garden, all the while wearing a pink scarf in her hair. According to an article titled “The Road to Fame and Fortune”, which was written by Greg Archer and appeared in the September 2010 issue of Palm Springs Life Magazine, the exterior of the home still looks exactly the same today as it did back in the days when Marilyn lived there. LOVE IT! In the article Greg also states that the property is the “most beautiful house on the block”. I couldn’t agree more! In fact, I would even go so far as to say that it is one of the most beautiful houses that I have ever seen in my entire life. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to take a tour of the inside! Sigh!

Unfortunately, I have not been able to pinpoint the exact dates that Marilyn owned the dwelling as there seems to be a bit of conflicting information online. According to “The Road to Fame and Fortune” article, Marilyn owned the the four bedroom, three bath, 2,978 square foot bungalow from 1960 to 1961, but according to the home’s property records, which I found via fave website Property Shark, the place was not even built until 1961, so something is mixed up somewhere. UPDATE – fellow stalker E.J., of The Movieland Directory website, has done quite a bit of research on the home and has never been able to find any property records which tie it to MM, so he is guessing that she never actually owned the house, but may have rented it for a time.

As you can see in the above photographs (the one on the left was taken when I first visited the house in March 2008 and the one on the right was taken this past weekend), the foliage in front of the property has grown considerably in recent years, blocking quite a bit of the home’s exterior from view. It is still an absolutely adorable little abode, though, and I cannot more highly recommend stalking it.

On a VERY exciting side-note: This past Friday morning, the powers that be at the About Me website sent me a tweet alerting me to the fact that they had featured me on their “Spotlight Directory” page, which you can check out here. (I appear on a different portion of the page each time it is opened, so you may have to scroll through a bit to see me.) SO INCREDIBLY EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU, ABOUT ME! And thank you so much to everyone who has been voting for me to be the new face of the company! I appreciate it so much and, amazingly, I am currently in the top 5%! So please keep those votes coming, my fellow stalkers! You can vote by clicking on the green “Vote for this profile!” tab in the upper right-hand corner of my About Me profile. You can only vote once every 24 hours – and the voting clock does not reset at midnight, which means that if you vote at 2:31 p.m. on a particular day, you will not be able to vote again until the following day at 2:32 p.m. Annoying, I know.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Marilyn Monroe’s former Palm Springs home is located at 1326 Rose Avenue in Palm Springs.

September 6, 2011September 5, 2011

Grandma Bunny’s House from “You Again”

As I mentioned in last Friday’s post, the hunt for Aunt Mitsy’s (aka Kathy Bates’) house from Rumor Has It actually began when fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, asked for some help in tracking down the abode where Grandma Bunny (aka Betty White) lived in the 2010 flick You Again. I immediately got fellow stalkers Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, and Owen on the case, but even with their master stalking skills, for whatever reason, this particular location mystery took us quite a bit of time to solve. The one major clue that we had to go on was that the house appeared to be situated on some sort of slanted lot and was not perfectly parallel to the street. And while several crew members had informed Chas that the dwelling was located in Altadena, he had remembered seeing some slanted-type houses in the Monrovia area while he was searching for the Georgia Rule abode way back in March of this year, so he decided to begin his hunt there. Thank god that guy has a good memory! Winking smile

As you can see in the above screen capture, an address number of “240” was also visible in the background of flick, so Chas got started searching all of the 200 blocks on every “slanted” street he could find in the Monrovia area and, amazingly enough, it was not long before he spotted the right house! So I, of course, ran right out to stalk the place just a few days later.

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Grandma Bunny’s Victorian-style abode is actually only featured once in You Again and very briefly at that. It pops up in the scene in which Marni (aka Kristen Bell), her brother Will (aka James Wolk) and his new fiance/Marni’s high school nemesis Joanna (aka Odette Annable) arrive to pick up Grandma Bunny for a wedding dance rehearsal. It is there that, while helping Bunny put in her false teeth, Marni accidentally gets denture adhesive all over her hands and then winds up getting her hands stuck in her hair, causing Grandma Bunny to chop a large chunk of it off. (It pretty much goes without saying that You Again was not that great of a movie. Winking smile )

I am very happy to report that Grandma Bunny’s house, which was originally built in 1887 (the same year that Monrovia was incorporated) and is one of the city’s oldest surviving Victorians, is just as adorable in person as it appeared to be onscreen. At the time of its construction, there were only 164 homes in Monrovia and a scant 2,000 residents. According to the city’s Historic Preservation Group’s website, the Colonial Revival-style front porch is not original, but was added to the property in the early 1900’s. In real life, the charming little abode boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and measures 1,482 square feet, although its façade makes it appear to be much larger. Ironically enough, in a bit of foreshadowing the home’s actual owner described the dwelling as “everyone’s idealized version of grandma’s house” in a Los Angeles Times article that was published in January 1989. I guess the You Again filmmakers felt the exact same way when they scouted the property. Smile

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location. And you can check out Geoff’s, from the 90210Locations website, extensive You Again filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Grandma Bunny’s house from You Again is located at 240 West Hillcrest Boulevard in Monrovia.

September 5, 2011September 6, 2011

Happy Labor Day

I am taking the day off from blogging today to celebrate Labor Day with my family in Palm Springs, but I will be back tomorrow with a whole new post. I hope all of my fellow stalkers are enjoying a fabulous three-day weekend!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile