Ben Affleck – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 30, 2018July 29, 2018

The House from Ben Affleck’s “Men’s Journal” Photo Shoot

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times – I hate incorrect filming location information! I recently encountered some erroneous reporting which led me to stalk a site that, come to find out, does not actually have any movie or television connections (at least, none that I could dig up). Hmph! Because the property has played host to a couple of celebrity photo shoots, though, and is an absolutely stunning example of 1960s architecture, I figured it was still worthy of a blog post. So here goes. Back in June, a fellow stalker named Manon emailed me a link to a house featured in an online film locations database asking me to identify it. When I read in the description that the pad had not only appeared in the original 1960 Ocean’s 11 movie, but a James Bond flick from the same era, I just about hyperventilated. Images of the place showing the property in all of its retro glory, with decorative wood screens, bright orange front doors and a rock-walled fireplace, only served to further my intrigue. So I immediately set about tracking it down.

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Fortunately, finding this particular locale was a snap thanks to a street sign reading “Devlin Drive” that was visible in one of the images featured online. I simply headed to Google Street View, inputted “Devlin Drive, Los Angeles,” and began scanning through the various houses located there. I came across the right pad at 1344 Devlin Drive in Hollywood Hills West mere minutes later, promptly added the address to my To-Stalk List and visited it while in L.A. shortly thereafter, without doing any further research on the subject.

It was not until I sat down to start penning this post that I discovered the home was not actually featured in Ocean’s 11 – or James Bond.

Though the place would undeniably fit perfectly into either flick, I scanned through the original Ocean’s 11 TWICE and did not see it anywhere.

I also scanned through every 1960s James Bond flick that did any filming in California (as it turns out there aren’t many) and did not see the house pop up at all, so I believe that information is also incorrect.

I am still glad to have seen the striking pad in person nonetheless. Originally built in 1960 by Bray Architects, the gorgeous mid-century-style residence boasts 2 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,500 square feet of living space, a natural rock double fireplace, floor to ceiling glass windows, 0.37 acres of land, a terrace, and a garden.

Some of the interior is visible through the massive front windows and I was practically drooling upon seeing it.

The home is such a relic, I half-expected Don Draper to come waltzing into view casually sipping a martini.

Considering its authentic retro aesthetic, I am fairly certain the pad has appeared in a production or two at some point, but, surprisingly, I could not find any cinematic ties to the place in all of my research.

It has been the site of a few photo shoots, though. Ben Affleck posed at the house for the cover of the December 2017 issue of Men’s Journal magazine. The caps below come from some behind-the-scenes videos shot the day of the shoot which you can watch here and here.

Laura Dern was also photographed there for the May 2018 issue of Rhapsody magazine.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Manon for asking me to find this location.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The house from Ben Affleck’s photo shoot for the December 2017 issue of Men’s Journal magazine is located at 1344 Devlin Drive in Hollywood Hills West.

December 18, 2015December 16, 2015

The Old Towne Orange Starbucks from “Surviving Christmas”

There’s nothing this stalker loves more than a filming location that serves coffee. When that filming location is a Starbucks? Well, I’m in hog heaven! So when I spotted an Old Towne Orange outpost of the java giant pop up in the 2004 holiday comedy Surviving Christmas, I immediately added it to my To-Stalk Iist – and was especially excited because it meant another visit to the adorable town. I have never been shy about my adoration of Old Towne Orange. I first visited the historic city back in October 2013 and it was pretty much love at first sight. The quaint district is situated around a manicured circular park and boasts dozens of adorable boutiques and restaurants housed inside of charmingly aged facades. Being there is like stepping back to a simpler time and it is not hard to see why countless movies and television shows have been filmed in the area. You can read a few of my previous Old Towne Orange posts here, here and here.

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In Surviving Christmas, millionaire advertising executive Drew Latham (Ben Affleck) faces the prospect of spending the holidays alone. In the hopes of avoiding that isolation, he returns to his hometown of Arlington Heights, Illinois and proceeds to pay the Valco family – Tom (James Gandolfini), Christine (Catherine O’Hara), Alicia (Christina Applegate), and Brian (Josh Zuckerman) – who now live in his childhood house, a cool $250,000 to spend Christmas with them. The Grim Cheaper and I only just watched the flick for the first time two years ago, but really enjoyed it and have since added it to our regular holiday movie rotation. I especially enjoyed the fact that although set in Illinois, much of it was lensed in L.A. Old Towne Orange was featured in the scene in which Drew takes his rented family Christmas shopping in what is supposedly downtown Arlington Heights.

Upon arriving in town, Tom parks the family station wagon in front of a Diedrich Coffee shop situated in the southwest corner of Old Towne’s Plaza Square. Now you’re probably saying, “Wait a minute, I thought this post was about a Starbucks!” Well, at the time that Surviving Christmas was filmed, a Diedrich outpost was housed in that spot (you can check out a photo of what it looked like here), but in late 2006 the company sold many of its stores to Starbucks. The Old Towne Orange location was one of the casualties of that sale.

Thanks to the café’s unusual exterior, I recognized it immediately from our previous visits to Orange, despite the change in ownership.

The Old Towne Orange Starbucks is housed inside of the former Orange Daily News building, a Mediterranean-style structure that was originally built around 1920. There’s actually another unique Starbucks located right across the street that is also a filming location, but I’ll save that information for a future post.

Surviving Christmas utilized the entire southwest corner of Plaza Square.

The area was dressed considerably for the shoot with manufactured snow, prop awnings and embellished façades, and therefore looks a bit different in real life than it did onscreen.

Later in the scene, Drew spots Alicia and Brian walking across the street from him and he enthusiastically rushes through traffic to greet them.

That sequence was shot just a bit north of Starbucks, in front of Laurenly Boutique, which is located at 142 North Glassell Street. Though Laurenly is one of my favorite shops in the area (I purchased an adorable thumb ring there that I wear virtually everyday), I do not have any photographs of it, so you’ll have to make due with Google Street View images for comparison.

The Old Towne Orange Diedrich Coffee also masked as Village Java in the pilot episode of Ghost Whisperer.

The real life interior of the café was also featured in the episode.

You can read a really interesting article about the filming of Surviving Christmas here written by a man who lived in the Chicago, Illinois neighborhood where the Valco house scenes were shot. He does not paint a very good picture of Ben Affleck, saying “By almost every account, he was arrogant and scornful of his adoring fans.” I was surprised by the description. I’ve met Affleck twice, once around the time that Surviving Christmas was filmed, and found him to be exceptionally affable and courteous on both occasions. (He does not look particularly happy in the below photo, but I assure you, he was friendly and kind and happily posed for pictures with all of the fans who happened to be nearby.) If the stuff about the nanny is true, then the guy is obviously a cad in his personal life, but as far as his interactions with fans go, I’ve never heard of him being anything other than vastly accommodating. (Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, has like ten photos with Ben – no joke! – and only has good things to say about him.) While researching this post, I also came across a link to a book written by Affleck’s Surviving Christmas stand-in, John Wight. The author doesn’t seem to be a very positive person (he calls Orange “a suburban shithole of a small town”) and the tome paints a very sad picture of the behind-the-scenes goings-on (apparently, the director of photography was a nightmare to work with), but I am dying to read it nonetheless, especially since the movie’s locations are talked about throughout.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Surviving Christmas shopping scene was shot in the southwest corner of Plaza Square in Old Towne Orange. Tom parks in front of the Starbucks located at 44 Plaza Square in the scene. Drew later spots Alicia and Brian while standing in front of Laurenly Boutique, located at 142 North Glassell Street.

May 20, 2015May 19, 2015

The Last Bookstore from “Gone Girl”

I love bookstores – and books. Actual books, not the digitized versions. You will never catch me reading on a Kindle. I like the feel of a book in my hands, the physical act of turning the pages and the smell. I love, love, love the smell of books. The Grim Cheaper always makes fun of the fact that I am constantly smelling my reading materials and when we watched the Sex and the City movie for the first time, he turned to me laughing at Carrie’s “I love the smell” line (video here). So me! So when I discovered The Last Bookstore in downtown L.A. a couple of years ago, it was love at first sight. Not only is the shop a virtual work of art, with interesting details looming around each and every corner, but it carries unique and intriguing tomes (new and used) that you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else. Oh, and the place is also a filming location. Yep, right up my alley!

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The Last Bookstore was originally founded by Josh Spencer in 2005 as an online emporium that he ran out of his downtown loft. The young entrepreneur had an extensive background in selling books, furniture, records, clothes and cars via eBay, but had decided to focus solely on literary sales. He dubbed his new endeavor “The Last Bookstore.” The name was chosen ironically. As Spencer explained in a Southern California Public Radio interview, “I’ve always been into science fiction and post-apocalyptic things, so I always wondered what a cool ‘last bookstore’ would look like for some future civilization.”

The shop’s website further states, “The name was chosen with irony, but seems more appropriate with each passing day as physical bookstores die out like dinosaurs from the meteoric impact of Amazon and e-books.” Thankfully, The Last Bookstore seems immune to such a fate. By late 2009, Spencer had outgrown his loft and decided to lease a small brick and mortar site on Main Street. By June 2011 (the very same year that the Borders chain filed for bankruptcy), Spencer had outgrown that location, as well, and moved to the much larger, 10,000-square-foot lobby space of the Spring Arts Tower. It was only months before he needed to expand yet again and in February 2012 he began leasing the building’s second floor. Today, The Last Bookstore encompasses over 16,000 square feet – and every last inch of it is spectacular.

The 12-story Spring Arts Tower was originally designed as the Citizens National Bank Building in 1914 by John Parkinson, the same architect who, along with his son, was responsible for Union Station, Bullocks Wilshire, Los Angeles City Hall, and the Security Trust and Savings Bank (now The Federal Bar).

The building’s grand former lobby features mosaic tiled flooring, sweeping 25-foot-tall ceilings, and towering pillars throughout. The Art Nouveau-style space would be beautiful on its own, but Spencer decided to treat it like a blank canvas onto which he could create a work of art. The result is nothing short of incredible.

The Last Bookstore, which is California’s largest independent bookshop, houses an inventory of 250,000 new and used books, with stacks as far and as high as the eye can see.

Thanks to its whimsical displays, though, it is easy to forget the space is a store. The site seems more like a museum or a movie set or a scene from Alice in Wonderland come to life.

Unique design elements can be found everywhere you turn.

Even the bank’s old vault is utilized as display space.

My favorite décor element, though, has to be is what is called the “Labyrinth Above the Last Bookstore.”

The Labyrinth is absolutely overwhelming in person!

The best part is that The Last Bookstore employees won’t tell you where to find it – you have to go on a hunt to track it down yourself, which the GC and I had a blast doing.

Despite its incredibly unique interior, The Last Bookstore has not popped up very often onscreen, though it was utilized in a rather illicit flashback scene in Gone Girl.

The scene was filmed in the shop’s main room, in the northwestern-most aisle as you first enter the store (though the photograph below was taken from the opposite angle from which the movie was shot).

As I mentioned in this post, the exterior of the Spring Arts Tower appeared in one of my favorite movies, 2004’s Little Black Book, though that was long before The Last Bookstore was founded.

The exterior of the building also appeared briefly in the the Season 2 episode of Castle titled “The Fifth Bullet.”

In a 2011 Los Angeles Times article, Spencer stated, “I think there’s always going to be a great market for books, but it’s definitely going to shrink to those who value and enjoy the ritual of browsing through books and holding books and turning pages. That’s gradually going to become less and less, as the generations pass. This might be the last generation, I think.” If his prediction does someday come to pass, I sincerely hope I am not around to witness it.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Last Bookstore, from Gone Girl, is located at 453 South Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the store’s official website here.

January 15, 2015January 8, 2015

My Latest “L.A.” Mag Post – About Beso from “Gone Girl”

Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post here – about Beso restaurant from Gone Girl. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

December 25, 2014December 17, 2014

New “Los Angeles” Mag Post – About Cindy’s Restaurant from “Surviving Christmas”

I would like to wish all of my fellow stalkers a very merry Christmas today! You can check out my new Los Angeles magazine post here – about Cindy’s Eagle Rock Restaurant from Surviving Christmas. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.

October 17, 2011September 29, 2017

George Reeves’ Former Home

Another location that has long been woven into the fabric of Hollywood lore is George Reeves’ former Benedict Canyon bungalow, where in the early morning hours of June 16th, 1958 the Adventures of Superman star was found dead from a single gunshot wound to the head. The events surrounding his death have been the subject of much conjecture ever since. Did the 45-year-old actor commit suicide (as was the official finding), was his death accidental, or was he murdered by his vengeful ex-lover or her jealous husband? Conspiracy theories abound and Reeves’ death has remained the stuff of Hollywood legend for over five decades since. His passing even became the subject of the 2006 biographical docudrama Hollywoodland, in which Ben Affleck plays the Pasadena-bred television star. For whatever reason, though, in my ten-plus years of living in Los Angeles, I had yet to stalk the former Superman’s home. So I figured this was the perfect time to do so and dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there last weekend.

George Reeve’s former residence is rather small, especially by Hollywood standards. The brown-shingled bungalow, which was built in 1947, boasts 2 bedrooms, 3 baths, and 1,717 square feet. It was purchased for the actor at a cost of $12,000 by his longtime lover, MGM Vice-President E.J. Mannix’s wife Toni Lanier, whom the actor had broken up with shorty before his death. Reeves’ new girlfriend, who had since moved in, was a New York socialite named Leonore Lemmon, with whom he was rumored to be engaged. On the night of June 15th, 1959, Reeves and Lemmon went out to dinner and the two reportedly drank a great deal. When they returned home, they continued to kick back the alcohol until around 12:30 p.m., at which point Reeves retired to his bedroom. Lemmon stayed awake and about thirty minutes later three friends dropped by for a visit. Shortly after their arrival, Reeves came downstairs to hang out with the group and then once again retired to his room at around 1:20. A few minutes later a shot was heard and the foursome ran upstairs. The actor was discovered laying face up on his bed, naked, with a single gunshot wound to his right temple and a .30 caliber Luger on the floor in between his lifeless feet. Television’s beloved Superman was dead at the tender age of 45. Reeves was dressed in one of his character’s Clark Kent suits for the funeral, which took place two weeks later, on June 30th, 1959. His body was later cremated and interred at the Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, which I blogged about during my Haunted Hollywood theme last year.

Reeves’ death was quickly ruled a suicide, but some facts of the case appear to be murky at best. For instance, Lemmon and her friends pulled a Conrad Murray by failing to call the police until about thirty minutes after discovering the body, and each seemed to have a differing account of the evening due to their inebriated states. Reeves himself was also severely under the influence, with a blood alcohol level of .27 and, because the actor had long enjoyed playing with unloaded weapons, it was thought possible he accidentally shot himself while doing so. It was also widely believed that Toni, to whom Reeves bequeathed his entire estate, may have shot him in a jealous rage after hearing news of his engagement, or that her husband, E.J. Mannix, who had ties to the mob, had him “whacked” due to the affair. Whatever the case may be, no charges were ever filed and Reeves’ death remains one of the most talked about Hollywood scandals to this day.

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Amazingly, George Reeves shot part of a Kellogg’s Corn Flakes commercial (the cereal company was the sponsor of Adventures of Superman) inside of his actual Benedict Canyon home. The areas which appeared in the commercial include the den;

the master bedroom (where the actor died);

the kitchen;

and the backyard. According to Jim Nolt’s fabulous Superman-themed The Adventures Continue website, the house has remained largely unchanged since the time Reeves lived there over fifty years ago.

George Reeves’ Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Commercial–Filmed in his Home

You can watch George Reeves’ Kellogg’s Corn Flakes commercial by clicking above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: George Reeves’ former home is located at 1579 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills.

September 20, 2011September 19, 2011

Bob’s Big Boy Broiler in Downey from “License to Drive”

Hold onto your hats, my fellow stalkers, ‘cause today’s post is going to be a long one! Another Bob’s Big Boy location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked recently was the legendary Bob’s Big Boy Broiler, aka Johnie’s Broiler, located on Firestone Boulevard in Downey. I had been longing to stalk the historic restaurant ever since 1988 when it stood in for Archie’s Atomic Drive-In in fave movie License to Drive. Sadly though, shortly after I moved to Southern California ten years ago, the eatery shuttered it doors and was then later partially – and illegally – demolished. It was not until this past year that the place re-opened and I was finally, finally able to drag the GC out there to see it in person.

Johnie’s Broiler was first founded in 1958 by former Clock-Broiler-restaurant-chain-partner Harvey Ortner and his wife, Minnie. In 1950, the couple purchased a poultry farm located at the corner of Firestone Boulevard and Old River School Road in Downtown Downey and hired architect Paul B. Clayton to design a Googie-style coffee shop on the 2-acre site. According to Clayton’s 2005 obituary in the Los Angeles Times, the architect later called the restaurant “the most important commercial design of his entire career”. Harvey’s Broiler, as it was then-named, was an immediate success, sometimes attracting over 5,000 patrons in a single weekend. Much as it was depicted in License to Drive, the spot was a popular high school hang-out where teens would come to grab a bite to eat and show off their cars. In 1965, the Ortners retired and sold their restaurant to a man with the last name of Johnson. He changed the eatery’s moniker to Johnie’s Broiler. Shortly thereafter, a former Harvey’s chef named Christos Smyrniotis purchased the property. He still owns the restaurant to this day. And while it continued to be successful, especially as a filming location, for whatever reason Johnie’s closed its doors in February of 2002. It was then transformed into a used car dealership and the interior was heavily remodeled to suit the needs of its new tenant.

When the car dealership’s lease expired a few years later, a new tenant named Aras Yanik moved in. Yanik immediately filed demolition permits with the City of Downey, but those permits were rejected. Local residents and area preservations were horrified at Yanik’s plans to level the historic site and quickly took action, having the property declared eligible for the California Register of Historical Places, which protected it, in theory at least, from any alterations. But despite the historical status and the city’s rejection of the demolition permits, at approximately 3 p.m. on the afternoon of Sunday, January 7th, 2007, Yanik illegally began to demolish the restaurant. Police were called in and Yanik was slapped with three misdemeanor charges and his lease on the property was revoked. Sadly though, the damage was done. The beloved coffee shop had been almost entirely destroyed.

You can watch a video which features numerous photographs of the destruction by clicking above.

In April 2008, Bob’s Big Boy franchise owner Jim Louder signed a lease with Smyrniotis and, along with help from Downey’s Redevelopment Agency and the Downey Historical Society, set about salvaging materials from the wreckage site and rebuilt the eatery in its entirety, using the original Harvey’s blueprints. The restoration project won the Los Angeles Conservancy’s prestigious President’s Award and the new Bob’s Big Boy Broiler opened to much fanfare on October 19, 2009.

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Johnie’s Broiler has been featured in countless productions over the years, many more so than I could ever dream of chronicling here. But I will do my best to try. In License to Drive, Les Anderson (aka Corey Haim) and his buddies, Dean (aka Corey Feldman) and Charles (aka Michael Manasseri), get into a scuffle with some punks while dining at the fictional high school hangout “Archie’s Atomic Drive-In”.

In 1988’s My Stepmother Is an Alien, Johnie’s is where Celeste Martin (aka Kim Basinger) goes to find breakfast recipes.

In 1989’s She’s Out of Control, Doug Simpson (aka Tony Danza) takes his daughter Katie (aka Ami Dolenz) and her boyfriend Joey (aka Dana Ashbrook) to Johnie’s for a bite to eat.

In 1989’s Earth Girls Are Easy, Valerie (aka Geena Davis), Candy (aka Julie Brown) and their new alien friends, Mac (aka Jeff Goldblum), Wiploc (aka Jim Carrey), and Zeebo (aka Damon Wayans), drive by Johnie’s Broiler in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene.

In 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do with It, Johnie’s is where Ike Turner (aka Laurence Fishburne) and Tina Turner (aka Angela Bassett) get into a fist-fight.

In 1993’s Short Cuts, Johnie’s is the restaurant where Doreen Piggot (aka Lily Tomlin) works.

Johnie’s shows up twice in the 1994 comedy Reality Bites. It first appears as the spot where Lelaina Pierce (aka Winona Ryder) runs into Troy Dyer (aka Ethan Hawke) after her disastrous job interview during which she is unable to define the word “irony”.

It later pops up in my very favorite scene in the entire movie as the restaurant where Lelaina and Vickie Miner (aka Janeane Garogalo) discuss the television series Melrose Place.

In 1995’s Heat, Johnie’s Broiler is where Neil McCauley (aka Robert De Niro) tries to kill one of his crew members, Waingro (aka Kevin Gage).

In 1997’s The Game, a destitute Nicholas Van Orton (aka Michael Douglas) stumbles into Johnie’s to ask patrons for a ride to San Francisco.

In 1998’s Can’t Hardly Wait, Johnie’s is where Preston Meyers (aka Ethan Embry) meets The Angel (aka Jenna Elfman) while trying to call Barry Manilow on a payphone.

In the Season 7 episode of The X-Files titled “Orison”, which aired in 1999, Johnie’s stood in for a supposed-bus stop/coffee shop in Harrisburg, Illinois where Fox Mulder (aka David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (aka Gillian Anderson) search for a murder suspect.

In the 1999 movie Jawbreaker, Johnie’s is where Courtney (aka Rose McGowan), Julie (aka Rebecca Gayheart), and Marcie (aka a pre-Dexter Julie Benz) discover that they have accidentally killed their friend.

In my favorite scene from 2000’s Bounce, the diner was where Abby Janello (aka Gwyneth Paltrow) removed toilet paper off of the shoe of an unknowing woman.

Supposedly the restaurant also appeared in Mission: Impossible II, but I scanned through the movie earlier today and did not see it anywhere. It did however appear in Limp Bizkit’s 2000 video for the song “Take A Look Around”, which was featured on the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

Johnie’s was also used in the 2000 music video for the Bob Dylan song “Things Have Changed”.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

Johnie’s was also used extensively in the music video for the 2001 Staind song “For You”.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

It also popped up in the 2001 Kurupt “It’s Over” music video.

A cartoon rendering of the restaurant was even made for that video . . .

. . . which you can watch by clicking above.

The diner was featured in the 2001 music video for Madonna’s “What It Feels Like For a Girl”.

Which you can watch by clicking above.

It was also used in Knoc-turn’al’s “The Knoc” music video in 2002.

You can watch that video by clicking above.

In the ultra-creepy 2002 movie One Hour Photo, Johnie’s is the coffee shop where Seymour Parrish (aka Robin Williams) ate a late-night dinner after getting off work at the local photo lab.

Most recently, Bob’s Big Boy Broiler appeared in the Season 4 episode of Mad Men titled “Tomorrowland”, in the scene in which Sally Draper (aka Kiernan Shipka) spills a milkshake and her father, Don Draper (aka Jon Hamm), is shocked to discover that his girlfriend, Megan Calvet (aka Jessica Pare), is not upset by it.

That scene was shot in a booth located in Johnie’s side room, which was the same room that appeared in the Melrose Place scene in Reality Bites.

There is quite a bit of erroneous information out there about Johnie’s Broiler’s filming history. For instance, the 2003 flick Matchstick Men was not filmed at Johnie’s, but at KJ’s Diner & Restaurant near LAX; 1998’s American History X was not filmed at Johnie’s in Downey, but at the Johnie’s Coffee Shop Restaurant located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile District of L.A.; 1980’s Midnight Madness was also shot at Johnie’s Wilshire, not at the Broiler; as was the Sean Kingston video for the song “Beautiful Girls”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Voting – don’t forget to vote for me to be the face of About Me! Today is the VERY LAST day to vote, so please get those votes in! Smile

Stalk It: Bob’s Big Boy Broiler, aka Johnie’s Broiler, aka Archie’s Atomic Drive-In from License to Drive, is located at 7447 Firestone Boulevard in Downey. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

October 18, 2010October 15, 2010

The House Where Matt Damon and Ben Affleck Lived While Writing “Good Will Hunting”

A few months back, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, was doing some research on the town of Eagle Rock when he came across a Wikipedia page which mentioned that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck had lived in the Los Angeles neighborhood – in a home on Hill Drive – while writing the screenplay for their 1997 Oscar-winning movie Good Will Hunting. I found it a bit hard to believe that Matt and Ben, two twenty-something actors trying to make it in “the biz”, would have been living in a San Gabriel Valley suburb and not in the heart of Hollywood, but as it turns out Ben had previously attended Occidental College, which is located in Eagle Rock, for a brief period of time, so he would have been familiar with the area. According to IMDB, of his living situation at the time, Ben said, “I lived all over the place. I lived in Hollywood, then I moved. [Matt Damon] and I got money from School Ties and we blew it all in a couple of months. We made $35,000 or $40,000 each and thought we were rich. And we were shocked later on to find out how much we owed in taxes. We were appalled: $15,000! What? But we rented this house on the beach in Venice and 800 people came and stayed with us and got drunk. Then we ran out of money and had to get an apartment. It was like everything was exciting. So we lived in Glendale and Eagle Rock and we lived in Hollywood, West Hollywood, Venice, by the Hollywood Bowl, all over the place. We’d get thrown out of some places or we’d have to upgrade or downgrade depending on who had money.” So, while Mike and I were in Eagle Rock this past Monday, we decided to try to track down the exact house where they twosome had lived while writing their famous screenplay. As it turns out, it wasn’t too hard to locate. Using my Blackberry, I fairly quickly came across this Curbed LA Article about an Eagle Rock home for sale in which a reader had commented that it was “rumored to be the house where Matt Damon and Ben Affleck allegedly wrote Good Will Hunting”. I then Googled the property’s address and found countless other websites which further substantiated that the twosome had once called the place home. So, we immediately headed right on over to stalk the place.

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Come to find out, Mike and I had actually already stalked this location earlier that same day! We had come across the Tudor/fairytale-style home while driving to another locale in Eagle Rock a few hours prior and Mike immediately noticed its odd gate and even odder architecture, so he stopped to snap some pics. When we pulled back up to the property a few hours later after finding Matt and Ben’s former address online, we both just about died!

Matt and Ben’s former residence, which is known as both the ‘”Brauch House” and “Ma Castle” in architectural circles, was originally built in 1923 by the architecture team of Egasse & Brauch. Of the design, Brauch, who built the house as his personal residence, said, “In this particular instance, Norman lines, such as were left by the descendents of the Vikings, following their peregrination of the ante-medieval period, were the main source of inspiration.” Apparently, when it was first built, the interior of the home featured numerous wall murals depicting the Norse warriors in action. The Brauch House is actually made up of two separate dwellings – a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2,187-square foot main house . . .

. . . and a detached guest cottage which is located directly behind it. And while I can’t say with absolute certainty that Matt and Ben ever actually lived on the premises, it is my best guess that if they did, the two stars, who were struggling financially at the time, most likely lived in the guest property and not in the main house.

Matt had originally written Good Will Hunting as a play while in a creative writing class when he was a student at Harvard University. After landing a role in the 1992 film Geronimo: An American Legend, Damon dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career full time. He eventually moved in with his long-time friend Ben, at one point crashing on his couch for an extended period of time. One fateful night, Matt showed the play to Ben and the two decided to turn it into a movie in which they would star. They ended up selling the screenplay to Miramax a few years later for a reported $600,000 and the rest, as they say, is history! You can see some great interior photographs of the Brauch House on the Curbed LA website here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (supposedly) lived at 2327 Hill Drive in Eagle Rock while writing the screenplay for Good Will Hunting.

December 3, 2009December 2, 2009

Priscilla’s Coffee Tea & Gifts

Many years ago, I was enrolled in an acting school in Burbank that was located just down the street from a little coffee shop named Priscilla’s Coffee Tea & Gifts. I logged quite a bit of time at the coffee house, as my classmates and I would often grab a coffee and hang out there before and after class. So, when the place popped up in an episode of Desperate Housewives a few weeks ago, I literally almost fell out of my chair! Since I hadn’t been to Priscilla’s in almost eight years – and because I’m always on the lookout for any excuse to visit a coffee house – I decided I just had to stalk the place. So, yesterday I headed out to Burbank – laptop in hand – to spend the morning blogging and drinking coffee at Priscilla’s. And, let me tell you, the place was absolutely JAM PACKED when I arrived. There literally wasn’t an empty seat in the entire house. I was shocked that the the place would be so crowded on a weekday morning, but that’s a definite testament to how good Priscilla’s coffee is. 🙂 Anyway, after ordering my iced latte, I retreated to a nearby corner and waited around for a table to open up. Well, I wasn’t standing there more than 45 seconds when an extremely kind gentleman walked up and offered to share his table with me!! How incredibly nice is that? I almost couldn’t believe it, as people in L.A. aren’t usually that overtly friendly. But, from what I noticed yesterday, that’s just par for the course at Priscilla’s – people there are just plain nice! 🙂 So, my new friend and I sat there for a while – me blogging away on my laptop, him studying his lines for an upcoming addition, both of us enjoying some extremely good coffee. 🙂

Surprisingly enough, when I used to hang out at Priscilla’s many years back, I wasn’t a coffee drinker. In fact, until yesterday morning, I had never actually tasted any of Priscilla’s coffee and I honestly didn’t have high hopes that the place would compare to my beloved Starbucks. So, you can imagine my surprise when I tasted my latte yesterday morning and discovered it was JUST as good as Starbucks, if not better! It was so tasty, in fact, that as soon as I finished my first cup, I got in line to order another! LOL And it was while I was waiting for my second drink that I asked the barista if it would be alright to snap a few photos of the store. I really wasn’t sure how she would respond, because as I’ve mentioned before, for whatever reason, many restaurants in L.A. don’t allow any sort of interior photography. Well, not only did she tell me it was OK to snap pictures, but she also asked if I wanted her to take a photograph of me in the shop!!!!! I mean could this place be any greater???? The above photo is the one she took, and the other barista on duty even agreed to pose with me for it! LOVE IT! 🙂

Priscilla’s Coffee Tea & Gifts has actually been in business since the early 1970s, at which time it was operated out of a former gas station. In 1993, due to a growing demand, the coffee house moved to a larger location on Riverside Drive in Burbank where it has remained ever since. Besides coffee, Priscilla’s also serves up teas, pastries, sandwiches, salads, and even gelato. It’s also a great place to browse as they have numerous gift items and greeting cards for sale. And the fact that the place has free wi-fi and plays 80s music (including Michael Jackson!!!) is pretty much just icing on the cake! 🙂 Priscilla’s is a SUPER cute little coffee shop and I honestly cannot recommend stalking it enough!!!! In fact, I’m thinking of becoming a regular there! 🙂

Priscilla’s first popped up in the episode of Desperate Housewives entitled “The Coffee Cup”, which aired on November 15th. Quite a few scenes from the episode took place at Priscilla’s, which stood in for “The Coffee Cup Bakery & Cafe” on the show. It first appeared in the scene in which Julie Mayer (aka Andrea Bowen) has a highly awkward encounter with her married boyfriend’s wife, Angie Bolen (aka Drea de Matteo), while waiting in line for coffee.

Later in the episode, Angie confronts her husband Nick (aka Jeffrey Nordling) at Priscilla’s, after she sees him flirting with a Coffee Cup barista named Emily Portsmith.

And, finally, at the very end of that episode, Priscilla’s shows up once again as the spot where Nick makes a phone call to the police to let them know he is thinking of turning himself in for an as-yet unnamed crime . . .

. . . and as the spot where barista Emily is strangled.

And, in the following episode, which was entitled “Would I Think of Suicide?”, Priscilla’s shows up yet again! It is featured in the episode’s opening scene, in which the manager of The Coffee Cup enters the store in the early morning hours only to discover Emily lying dead on the floor.

In a subsequent scene, Julie Mayer and her friends discuss Emily’s death out in front of Pricilla’s.

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Besides being a filming location, Pricilla’s is also something of a celebrity hotspot, thanks to its proximity to the area studios. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there recently include Jay Leno, Ben Affleck and Kevin Connolly. Randomly enough, while I was attending acting school in Burbank, I happened to see a television show on the E! Network (for the life of me I cannot remember what it was called!) that featured paparazzi videos of celebrities performing day to day activities. One of the videos featured an old clip of my girl Jen Aniston during the early days of Friends grabbing a cup of coffee at Priscilla’s. And, let me tell you, when I saw that video I just about had a heart attack over the fact that Jen had visited the very same coffee shop that I was hanging out in at the time!! 🙂 What can I say, the girl’s got good taste! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Pricilla’s Gourmet Coffee and Teas is located at 4150 Riverside Drive in Burbank. You can visit their website here.

February 6, 2009February 13, 2009

The 90210 Pilot Church

A few days ago I sent Mike, from MovieShotsLA, a screen capture of the church featured in the pilot episode of Beverly Hills, 90210. I had a hunch he might know where it was located – and, sure enough, he did! He immediately called me and said “That’s the Spiderman church!” as it was also used in the filming of Spiderman 3. 🙂 God, he’s good! St. Brendan Church – or as Mike and I like to call it, the “pilot church” – was built in 1927 by Los Angeles area architect Emmett Martin.

In the pilot episode of 90210, Brenda, not wanting her new twenty-something boyfriend Jason to know that she is only sixteen years old and still living at home with her parents, lies and says that she is attending UCLA and living in a sorority house named Sigma Rho Tau. After their first date, Jason drops Brenda off in front of her fake sorority house, which just happens to be located next door to a church. That church is St. Brendan and that sorority house is not really a sorority house at all, but the church rectory. As you can see in the above screen captures, all the producers had to do was add a sign with the sorority’s name to the outside of the rectory and cover up the stained glass window with a bulletin board – and voila, they had themselves a sorority house!

While researching St. Brendan Church earlier today I remembered something very ironic from my past. I can’t even believe I’m admitting to this – in a public forum no less – but you only live once, so here goes! When I was in high school I receieved the Sacrament of Confirmation. At the time I was fifteen years old and deep in the throws of my 90210 obsession. So much so in fact, that I chose Brendan, after St. Brendan, as my confirmation name. In the Catholic faith, when ones receives the Sacrament of Confirmation, they are to adopt the name of a patron saint who is said to then guide and protect them. Confirmation candidates are supposed to study the history of the saints and find one that represents the type of Christian they want to become. But for me the choice was easy. Once I found out there was a saint named Brendan, that was it for me! Of course, the female version of the name Brendan is Brenda. 🙂 Yes, I was THAT obsessed. LOL Being that my mother wanted to kill me when she found out the saint name I chose, this little episode of my life has been a long running joke in my family. LOL So earlier today when I found out that St. Brendan was the name of the 90210 church, I just about fell out of my chair.

St. Brendan actually has quite a rich filming history. Besides the pilot episode of Beverly Hills, 90210, the church was also featured in Armageddon as the location of Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler’s wedding.

You can watch the wedding scene below:

It was the location of Stephanie Seymor and Axl Rose’s wedding in the Guns N’ Roses music video for the song “November Rain”.

On a side note – I must say that I absolutely LOVE Stephanie Seymour’s wedding dress from the video (pictured above). I am gonna have to get me one of those for my wedding! LOL As if!! 🙂 You can watch the “November Rain” music video below:

In the Season Four episode of CSI: Miami entitled “From the Grave”, my fave Horatio Caine confessed his sins at Saint Brendan.

The church was also featured in the 1953 version of War of the Worlds (as the location where the residents of L.A. gather during the final scenes of the movie), Spiderman 3 (the interior is where Topher Grace prayed for God to kill Peter Parker), Fight Club (Edward Norton’s cancer support group was held there), and an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. You can see interior pics of the church on the Saint Brendan website.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Beverly Hills, 90210 pilot church, aka St. Brendan, is located at 310 South Van Ness Avenue in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles.