Alicia Silverstone locations

May 10, 2012May 9, 2012

The “Clueless” Party House

One location that I have been wanting to stalk for what seems like ages now is the party house from fave movie Clueless. Because the property is located in Granada Hills, though, and because I rarely travel that far deep into the San Fernando Valley, it was quite a long while before I finally made it out there. But make it out there, I did, one dark and dreary afternoon (as you can see above) back in March. And I can honestly say that this is one location that was absolutely worth the wait! I could NOT have been more excited to be stalking the house and was literally pinching myself the whole time! Not even the intermittent rain could dampen this stalker’s spirits on that particular day!

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In Clueless, Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), Dionne (Stacey Dash), Murray (Donald Faison), and Tai (Brittany Murphy) venture outside of Beverly Hills for the evening in order to attend a high school party being held at a house located in the dreaded “Valley”. As you can see below, the party house still looks very much the same today as it did back in 1995 when Clueless was filmed, minus the Christmas decorations, of course. Even the exterior metal stairway railing leading up to the front porch is still there! Love it, love it, love it! And, as fate would have it, I had a little Clueless moment of my very own right as we pulled up to the residence and I heard the thump-thump-thump of a nearby helicopter. If you’ll recall, a helicopter happened to be flying overhead during the Clueless party scene when Cher was on the phone with her father, causing him to ask if she was in Kuwait, to which she replied, “Is that in the Valley?” LOL LOL LOL Man, I love that movie!

While we were snapping pics of the house, the owners happened to come outside and were nice enough to chat with us for a bit. They informed us that the filming of the party scene took a whopping two weeks to complete and that the real life interior of the property, including the kitchen where Elton (whom I just realized was played by actor Jeremy Sisto!) revived Tai and the bathroom where Murray shaved his head, was used in the shoot.

The actual backyard and pool area also appeared in the movie. I was so hoping the owners would invite me inside for a little tour, but, unfortunately, that did not happen. Winking smile

An aerial view of the backyard, courtesy of Bing, is pictured below. As you can see, the green fence that once surrounded the pool is now, sadly, gone.

In real life, the Clueless party house, which was originally built in 1963, boasts 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2,716 square feet of living space, and 0.54 acres of land. The owners informed us that producers ended up choosing their home for the filming because they thought that it looked like the archetypal “Valley” residence. And I have to say that I agree with them. The Clueless party house is extremely reminiscent of another famous Valley dwelling – the home where Jan, Cindy, Marcia and the rest of the Brady clan lived on fave show The Brady Bunch.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Clueless party house is located at 16401 Knollwood Drive in Granada Hills.

June 21, 2010June 21, 2010

Brockton Point Lighthouse from “The Crush”

The third and final filming location that I stalked from the 1993 thriller The Crush while I was visiting Vancouver two weeks ago was the Brockton Point Lighthouse – the spot where 14-year old Adrian Forrester (aka Alicia Silverstone) tried to seduce Nick Eliot (aka Cary Elwes), the much older man who was leasing her parents’ guest house in the flick. I found this location, once again, thanks to fellow stalker Owen, who in turn tracked it down via one of the movie’s crew members. Thank you, Owen! Brockton Point Lighthouse is one of three lighthouses that currently serve the Port of Vancouver and is located in British Columbia’s extremely popular, 1,000-acre Stanley Park. The original Brockton Point Lighthouse tower was built in 1890, but it was replaced in 1914 with the tower that is currently standing today. The lighthouse was designed by Canadian Colonel William P. Anderson, a civil engineer who over his lifetime designed more than 500 lighthouses situated along the Canadian waterfront.

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Brockton Point Lighthouse only pops up in one scene in The Crush, but it is a rather pivotal scene which provides the movie’s turning point. In the scene, the seemingly innocent Adrian begs Nick to take her for a ride in his Valiant, claiming that there is a place she really wants to show him. That place is the Brockton Point Lighthouse and it is there that Adrian first confides in Nick, telling him that she has no friends and that most people treat her like a freak due to her abnormally high intelligence. When Nick promises to be a friend to her, Adrian immediately kisses him and the story takes off from there.

As I mentioned in last Thursday’s post about the Forrester mansion, while The Crush was set in Seattle, the entire movie was actually filmed on location in Vancouver, British Columbia. Ironically enough, though, when Nick and Adrian first pull up to the lighthouse, you can clearly see the word “Brockton” painted on the ground. I am very surprised that producers didn’t have the lettering digitally removed in post-production, being that the Brockton Point Lighthouse is a fairly well-known Canadian landmark. In fact, Stanley Park, where the lighthouse is located, is pretty much known as Vancouver’s number one tourist attraction and is visited by over eight million people per year.

Sadly, though, when we got there, we discovered that the lighthouse is currently fenced in and closed to the public while it undergoes an extensive, $2 million federal restoration project. And, while the lighthouse tower is still visible, the area where Adrian kissed Nick is, unfortunately, not. Such a bummer!!

Brockton Point Lighthouse features unparalleled views of Burrard Inlet and the Lions Gate Bridge and is a truly beautiful place. I so wish I could have seen it at night as the view of the lights of the North Vancouver skyline is supposed to be spectacular. In fact, I’m fairly certain that the lighthouse’s spectacular views are the main reason that it was chosen as the site of Adrian and Nick’s first kiss.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Brockton Point Lighthouse is located on Brockton Point at the far east end of Stanley Park, off of Stanley Park Drive, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Its exact location is denoted with the blue arrow in the above aerial map.

June 18, 2010June 17, 2010

Nick’s (Almost) Apartment from “The Crush”

Just a mile and a half away from the Forrester mansion, which appeared in the 1993 thriller The Crush and which I blogged about yesterday, is the supposed Seattle-area apartment house where Nick Eliot (aka Cary Elwes) tried to rent a unit after discovering that his current landlords’ 14-year old daughter Adrian (aka Alicia Silverstone) had developed a highly-inappropriate and psychotically-obsessive crush on him. I found this location, yet again, thanks to master stalker Owen, who had managed to track down one of the movie’s crew members who happened to remember the general vicinity where the apartment house was located. From there, Owen once again employed Google Street View to pinpoint the property’s exact location. And even though the building only showed up in two very brief scenes in The Crush, because of my Alicia Silverstone connection, I just had to stalk the place.

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I am very happy to report that Nick’s apartment house looks much the same in person as it did onscreen in The Crush, except for one pretty glaring difference – the building is now located in a different place.

Yes, you read that right – according to this Flikr website, Nick’s apartment house was formerly located just a bit north of where it is now, adjacent to a vacant lot, and was numbered 2132 (as you can see in the above screen capture). When the neighboring Reeve house, a historic property, was moved for preservation purposes in 1999, the Crush apartment also had to be moved a few hundred feet to the south to accommodate it. The Crush building’s address number was subsequently changed to 2156 and, because it had to be built into the side of a hill, appears to be a bit lower to the ground now than it was previously. Isn’t that incredible? I mean, I’ve heard of filming locations being torn down entirely, but I’ve never heard of one being moved from one plot of land to another! I’m so, so glad that the property was preserved, though, for all of us stalkers to continue to appreciate. You can see some great interior photographs of the building’s super-cute little front unit on a former real estate listing from 2008 here. I absolutely LOVE the built-in bookshelves next to the fireplace!! So darn cute! I am a little upset, though, that the real estate agent failed to make mention of the property’s cinematic history on the listing. Hmph!

On an interesting side note – While doing research on The Crush for yesterday’s blog post, I came across some information on IMDB which stated that the flick’s screenwriter/director Alan Shapiro based his screenplay on actual events from his life that took place while he was living in a guesthouse on the property of a wealthy Beverly Hills family back in 1982. And while I don’t know how much of the movie was actually based on fact and how much was embellished for dramatic effect, apparently Shapiro touted his production as being inspired by “real-life events”. Quite a bit of the story must have been factual, though, because after the movie premiered in April of 1993, Shapiro was sued by his former landlords over the fact that he had named his lead character “Darian” – the actual name of his former landlords’ daughter. The lawsuit was eventually settled and producers agreed to dub the name “Adrian” in for “Darian” in all future airings and DVD/VHS copies of the flick.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The apartment Nick unsuccessfully tries to rent towards the end of The Crush is located at 2156 Cypress Street in Vancouver, British Columbia.

June 17, 2010November 6, 2016

“The Crush” Mansion

Another Vancouver location that I stalked while visiting the Pacific Northwest two weeks ago was the supposed Seattle-area mansion where Adrian Forrester (aka Alicia Silverstone) lived with her parents in the 1993 movie The Crush. And while I can’t say that I was a huge fan of the thriller/drama, because Alicia Silverstone grew up in the same relatively small city that I did – a suburb of San Francisco named San Mateo – The Crush has always held a special place in my heart. Especially because it was one of Alicia’s very first acting roles.

Before landing her leading role in The Crush at the age of 15, Alicia’s only other major onscreen appearance had been a bit part in the Season 5 episode of The Wonder Years titled “Road Test” (pictured above). She was still attending San Mateo High School when her Wonder Years episode aired, but by the time she was cast in The Crush she had left school permanently to pursue acting and the entire city of San Mateo was abuzz with the news of the local girl who made good. I can still remember when the movie was released and the furor it caused in my hometown. Not only did Alicia fly her two best friends out to L.A. for the big Hollywood premiere (as detailed in a huge article in our local paper that I still have a copy of somewhere), but pretty much her entire class headed over to our local movie theatre, Fashion Island Cinemas, on the day the movie opened to watch. The theatre was completely sold out and there was a big party afterwards. From what I remember, Alicia was in attendance, as well. I went to a different high school, so I was not invited to the viewing, but one of my good friends, who knew Alicia fairly well, got to attend and I can distinctly remember calling him up later that night and pretty much hanging on his every word as he described the evening to me. Oh, how I would have LOVED to have been there! But I digress.

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So, when fellow stalker Owen mentioned that he had managed to track down several of the locations featured in The Crush, I just HAD to stalk all of them – in honor of my hometown. 🙂 And the locale that I was most excited about stalking, of course, was the ginormous mansion where the Forrester family lived in the flick. Owen found the residence thanks to one of the movie’s location assistants, who happened to remember the name of the street where it was located. From there Owen used Google Street View to determine its exact location. YAY! Thank you, Owen! In real life, the Crush mansion, which is known as “The Disher House”, was constructed in 1912 by British architect Paul Phipps. The home, which is absolutely beautiful in person, was originally built for a financier named J.B. Johnson, but is named after the Disher family, who lived there from 1916 through 1972. You can read more about the mansion in the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Guidebook for their 2003 Open Vancouver Heritage House Tour here. And you can take a peek at some close-up photographs of the home here.

I am very happy to report that the Disher house looks much the same in person as it did onscreen in The Crush, but unfortunately there is quite a bit foliage in the front yard that limits the view of the property from the street. Both the interior and the exterior of the residence were used in the flick.

Sadly, the apartment that Nick Eliot (aka Cary Elwes) rented does not exist in real life. Producers had it built on top of the home’s real life garage exclusively for the filming and it was subsequently removed after the filming had wrapped.

The Forrester’s neighbor’s pool, which shows up a couple of times in The Crush, is located in the backyard of the home that is directly east of the Crush mansion. Apparently, the pool was the site of a deleted scene during which Adrian and Nick take a midnight dip. That scene is later referred by Adrian when she is being examined by an officer at the police station after falsely accusing Nick of rape.

UPDATE – The Crush mansion is for sale! You can check out some interior photographs of it here.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Adrian Forrester’s house from The Crush is located at 1526 Angus Drive in Vancouver, British Columbia.