The “One Hour Photo” House

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Today’s location is not spooky – at all, in fact.  It’s actually quite exquisite.  But it did figure rather heavily in the creepiest scene from one of the creepiest movies I’ve ever seen, so I thought it would only be fitting to include it in my Haunted Hollywood postings.  I am talking about the contemporary residence where the Yorkin family – Will (Michael Vartan), Nina (Connie Nielsen) and Jakob (Dylan Smith) – lived in One Hour Photo.  I first got interested in tracking down the ultra-modern pad after coming across this The Straight Dope message board while researching Lacy Park, another of the 2002 thriller’s locations.  In the thread, user Ins&Outs&What-have-yous inquired if anyone had any information on the dwelling, though no one seemed to.  Shortly thereafter, I found my way to this page on the FilmGrab site in which a commenter named Melissa also inquired about the Yorkin home.  Her query did not garner any responses, either.  So, since facts about the house seemed to be nil, I decided it was my duty to track the place down and blog about it come October.

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Finding this spot took quite a while, I am loathe to admit.  I knew from the movie’s production notes that the Yorkin home was located somewhere in Brentwood.  My first stab at tracking down its exact address was to do a Google search for “Brentwood” and “modern house,” which yielded a slew of links to a slew of gorgeous properties, but none of them were the Yorkins’.  I then added “filming” to the mix and scoured countless more links and images – so many that I ultimately do not remember the exact details of how I was finally led to the right place.  At some point, though, I came across the video below which showed the pad as it appeared in an episode of Californication.  The clip’s caption proved especially forthcoming, providing not only the property’s name, Benton House, but its architect, Ray Kappe.  From there, Google prompted me to 90210Locations’ Californication page which detailed the residence’s exact address –136 South Canyon View Drive.  Thanks, 90210Locations!  I ran right out to stalk the place shortly thereafter.

In 1989, psychologist/mom/architecture buff Dr. Esther Benton purchased a large home on a shaded plot of land in Brentwood with the intention of performing a vast remodel.  She commissioned Kappe for the job, but the incredibly prolific architect wound up razing the structure and rebuilding in his signature style instead, generating magic out of glass, wood and concrete.  His creation, which took three years to complete (from 1991 to 1994), was designed with the working mom in mind.  The residence boasts three large rooms, or “suites” as a 1998 New York Times article described them – a master bedroom suite, a suite for Esther’s daughter, and an office suite, which Kappe fashioned with a swiveling wall so that the doctor could “watch over the house without interrupting her time at work.”  The property is also fashioned with 20-foot ceilings, a large skylight, Douglas fir embellishments, multiple fireplaces, a sunken bathtub, a frameless glass shower, and a towering glass and steel staircase.  Zillow estimates the pad is worth a whopping $8.9 million today!  Though absolutely stunning, as you can see in photos here and here, sadly none of it is visible from the street.

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But, as I’ve said before, that’s why God created aerial views.

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For those who have not seen One Hour Photo, the movie centers on Seymour Parrish (Robin Williams), aka Sy, a Sav-Mart photo developer who becomes obsessed with the Yorkins, a family whose film he regularly develops.  Though things are definitely not perfect in Will, Nina and Jakob’s world, through Sy’s eyes, the family and their home is idyllic, arcadian and devoid of any typical everyday problems.  As Williams is quoted as saying in the film’s production notes, “In the outside world Sy stands out, especially when you get near the Yorkins’ house, which is very warm and incredibly beautiful, almost painfully beautiful because it is his idealized home.”  Production designer Tom Foden further describes the dwelling as “representing a place of dreams and ideals.”

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In the movie’s creepiest scene, Sy ventures into the Yorkins’ residence while they are away and proceeds to look through their things, put on their clothes, use their bathroom, watch their TV, and generally just make himself at home.  In the end, it turns out the experience was all just a fantasy taking place in Sy’s mind, but because Williams played the role to such creepy perfection, the segment is seriously disturbing.  The real life interior of the Benton House was utilized in the scene . . .

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. . . as well as throughout other portions of the film.

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When I first started looking into the Yorkin home, I couldn’t help but think about how much it resembles the residence belonging to Sebastian Stark (James Woods) on the television series Shark.  So I was not too surprised to discover during the course of my research that the Shark pad was designed by Ray Kappe’s son, Finn Kappe.  That property, one of my favorite TV homes ever, can be found at 2315 Live Oaks Meadow Road in Malibu.

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What I was absolutely bowled over to learn, though, was that the inside of the Benton House was utilized as the inside of Sebastian’s home in Shark’s pilot episode, which aired in 2006.  I had always assumed the Live Oak Meadows residence had been used for both interiors and exteriors!  You can check out photos of the inside of that property here.  As you can see, it looks nothing like Sebastian’s pad.

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The Benton House interior was later re-created on a soundstage for the filming of all of Shark’s subsequent episodes.  That set re-creation is pictured below.  (And yes, that’s a young Matt Lanter – my favorite actor – in the second screen capture!  <3)

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In the Season 1 episode of Californication titled “Girls, Interrupted,” which aired in 2007, the Benton House plays itself.  Well, sort of.  In the episode, Hank Moody (David Duchovny) takes his ex-wife, architecture enthusiast Karen (Natascha McElhone), to see the home of director Todd Carr (Chris Williams).  Though said to be in Bel Air and not Brentwood, the pad is described as a Ray Kappe house in the segment.

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The residence’s interior also appeared in the episode.

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Back in 1999, the Benton House popped up in Cruel Intentions as the supposed Long Island, New York-area home of Blaine Tuttle (Joshua Jackson).

As Geoff from 90210Locations also informed me, the Benton House portrayed the residence of Samantha Winslow (Susan Sarandon) during the fifth season of Ray Donovan.

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

Big THANK YOU to Geoff, of 90210Locations, for finding this location!  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Yorkin house from One Hour Photo is located at 136 South Canyon View Drive in Brentwood.

The “Empty Nest” House

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Today’s post is a looooooong-time coming, friends! Easily the location I get asked to track down most often is the supposed Miami, Florida-area house where Dr. Harry Weston (Richard Mulligan) lived on the television series Empty Nest. I have searched for the contemporary two-story residence off-and-on over the years, but never had any luck.  I even got fellow stalkers Mike, from MovieShotsLA, Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, and Michael, our resident Brady Bunch aficionado/guest poster extraordinaire, in on the hunt, but we were all at a loss. Until recently that is, when Michael did the impossible and found the house!  He was even nice enough to offer to write up the story behind the search for IAMNOTASTALKER – along with a few notes from me (they’re denoted in red).  So take it away Michael!

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I distinctly remember my inaugural viewing of The Golden Girls and Empty Nest. I was in the first grade and my bedtime had just been extended by an extra hour on the weekends. Looking back, they seem like both an unusual viewing choice for a six-year-old and maybe a little inappropriate, but hey, I needed something to balance out all those Brady Bunch reruns. Although the fourth season of The Golden Girls took up the first half of this uncharted hour of television for me, the second half was filled by a new sitcom, Empty Nest. Both fast favorites of mine, they’ll always be intertwined in my memory and evoke a time when there wasn’t anything quite as exciting as an extra hour added to your bedtime.

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With that said, it seems only appropriate that I begin this post not with the topic at hand, but a cursory look at the Golden Girls house(s). The Golden Girls, which premiered in 1985, originally used footage of a ranch-style house in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles to stand in for the girls’ Miami-situated home. Capitalizing on the show’s success, Disney replicated the Brentwood house on a new backlot in Orlando, Florida. Their theme park and production studio, part of Walt Disney World and originally known as Disney-MGM Studios, opened to the public in spring of 1989, but its backlot and Residential Street were already being used to film Splash, Too and Ernest Saves Christmas as early as 1988.

Also in 1988, the creators of The Golden Girls premiered their new show, Empty Nest. The sitcom, set in the same universe as The Golden Girls, would intermingle characters (simple, as they were all neighbors) and occasional storylines. Because Empty Nest premiered the same year that Disney-MGM Studios was constructed, along with its Golden Girls facade, I always assumed that the home shown in EN’s opening titles and establishing shots was only ever a studio-backlot creation. That turned out not to be the case. And It wasn’t until last year when Lindsay offhandedly asked if I’d ever researched the original Empty Nest house location, that I knew what I’d been missing—the exterior of a real house had been shown in the early seasons of the show and was eventually replicated on the Disney-MGM Studios backlot.

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Making up for lost time, I dove into research mode to fill in the specifics. Although the Golden Girls house facade was on the backlot on opening day in Orlando, the Empty Nest facade was added years later. An ad in the Orlando Sentinel confirmed that it wasn’t until January 24, 1992, during the show’s fourth season, that Richard Mulligan and Bear (the dog who played Dreyfuss) were on hand at Disney-MGM Studios for a ribbon cutting ceremony at the newly completed facade, followed by a parade, and a hand/paw-print ceremony in Disney’s version of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre forecourt. Then in 2003, Disney-MGM Studios, now known as Disney’s Hollywood Studios, demolished, among other parts of the backlot, the entirety of Residential Street, including the Empty Nest and Golden Girls facades.

Since Empty Nest isn’t available on DVD or streaming, I was limited to reviewing episodes on YouTube. But, as far as I could tell, the backlot facade was first seen in the late-season episode of the fourth season, “Charley for President.” Then, starting with the fifth season, the opening titles were updated with a shot of the Orlando replica.

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Disney did a commendable job recreating the exterior, but upon closer inspection I noticed a few differences. For example, the original house maintained some mundane elements that a backlot shell would have no use for, including a rain diverter and vent pipes on the roof. The backlot version also appeared to exclude a right-side balcony that that was just barely visible in some early-season establishing shots. Moreover, I’ve found the easiest way to tell the houses apart is by looking at the roofline on the garage; only the backlot replica had squared off the eave with a soffit.

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Establishing shots of the original house provided subtle clues to its location: a neighboring house to its left and a garage that opens to the right, suggesting the house was on a corner lot. Yet, most interesting to me was a shot framed to include a saucer-style street light in front of the house. It’s not a particularly common style and I hoped that would help me zero in on the neighborhood.

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Although Lindsay had seen a tip suggesting the home was in Bel Air or Beverly Hills, those neighborhoods’ scarcity of wide sidewalks didn’t leave me with many areas to investigate. Not only did the Empty Nest house have a sidewalk running in front of it, it had a strip of grass between the sidewalk and the road. I moved on and investigated as many neighborhoods with sidewalks as I could find, but always came up empty. Undeterred, I continued to search on-and-off for months. Then, last week Lindsay emailed me to say she’d met David Leisure, who played the Weston’s zany neighbor Charley Dietz on the series, at an event. And with that, I’ll pass the baton to Lindsay to fill in the, ahem, “dietz.”

Lindsay here. A couple of weeks ago, I attended a charity event in the desert and was beyond elated to run into David Leisure. Literally. While walking around a corner, I almost bumped into the actor and his wife and just about had a heart attack. While I asked for a photo and he happily obliged, I was so flustered over our rather abrupt meeting that I failed to inquire if he knew the whereabouts of the Empty Nest house. The Grim Cheaper was in the bathroom at the time and when he came out, I told him about my chance encounter and how upset I was that I failed to ask about the home. He immediately grabbed my hand, marched over to where David was standing and said, “My wife wants to ask you a question.” Leisure couldn’t have been more kind, once again, and when I brought up the Weston house, he immediately started laughing and said, “So you do know who I am! As soon as we walked away from you earlier, I said to my wife, ‘I wonder who she thinks I am.’” LOL Regarding the Weston pad, he said that he had never been asked about its location before, but found the query fascinating and thought it might be in the Hancock Park/Larchmont area. I immediately passed the intel onto Michael.  I’ll let him tell you the rest.

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Emboldened by the fresh tip, I surveyed Larchmont. Having no real luck again, I decided to do a little more research. This time, I came across a 1993 article in the Orlando Sentinel. In the article, a reader wrote in to ask about the exteriors shown on Empty Nest and Golden Palace (The Golden Girls’ short-lived replacement). The paper’s reply noted that the Empty Nest house used that season was located at Disney in Orlando, but the original was in Brentwood.

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Cautiously optimistic—I feared the author mixed up the original location of the Empty Nest house with the original Golden Girls house—I once again pulled up an aerial map of Brentwood. I’d already investigated the immediate area around the Golden Girls house, so I thought I’d try a different area and look near the border of Pacific Palisades and Brentwood. As I scrolled across the map, Paul Revere Middle School jumped out at me. I’d remembered the name of the school from the O.J. Simpson trial and never really knew where it was located. Looking at it, I noticed a clump of houses nearby that seemed a little less grandiose than many of the mansions winding through Brentwood, and most importantly, I could see sidewalks.

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To get a feel for the neighborhood, I plopped myself down in Google Street View and immediately noticed a saucer-style street lamp. Back on the birds-eye view, I started to look at homes on corner lots. Unbelievably, the first corner I zoomed in on, I found exactly the layout I’d imagined staring back at me.

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Dumbfounded that I’d finally rooted it out, I immediately sent Lindsay the details, and as luck would have it, she said she’d be in LA the following week and would be able to check it out in person. And without further ado, a final pass of the baton to Lindsay to wrap things up.

Me, again. I could not have been more excited as the GC and I pulled up to the home. I knew from looking at Street View imagery that virtually none of it had been altered in the years since filming took place, but being there was like a shock to my system. I felt like I had stepped right into my 1988-era television set.  The residence is completely frozen in time and brought to mind another classic TV home – that of The Golden Girls.  Ironically enough, that residence, too, remains absolutely pristine in its onscreen state. Two Brentwood properties, featured in classic shows created by same production team, preserved like museum pieces all these years later.

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Big THANK YOU to Michael for not only finding this location, but for writing up the story of the hunt!  Smile  You can check out his other guest posts here.

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

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Stalk It: The house from Empty Nest is located at 1457 Jonesboro Drive in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” Race Home Locations

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It’s five minutes until six and everybody’s favorite truant, Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), has to beat his parents home lest they find out that he has cut school for the ninth time! (“I don’t remember him being sick nine times!”) So begins one of the most famous sequences in all of moviedom, the race home from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Though said to take place in Chicago, Ferris’ race home – as well as the rest of the 1986 comedy – was shot in both Illinois and California. This past June I wrote about the film’s L.A. locales for Discover Los Angeles in honor of its 30th anniversary. While doing research for the column, I enlisted the help of my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, to track down some of the movie’s unknown locations. Along the way, the two of us somehow wound up on a hunt to pinpoint the various Chicago- and Los Angeles-area spots featured in the race home sequence. It turned out to be the most exhaustive search of my entire stalking career – not to mention the most fun! Email conversations, complete with arrow-laden screen captures and comparison street-view images, went back and forth between us for days. Unfortunately, I was only able to chronicle the SoCal locales for Discover L.A., so our hunt proved rather anticlimactic. The other day it occurred to me that I should write a post about our finds for IAMNOTASTALKER. Since Owen was so instrumental in the hunt, I thought it only fitting that he add notes to the column. His commentary is featured in the pink-lined white boxes below. So, without further ado, we present to you a breakdown of the Ferris Bueller’s Day Off race home sequence filming locations from beginning to end.

Whoa. Hold on. Don’t put the kibosh on the ado. There is ado anew, from someone new. It’s my ado debut. When Lindsay needs help, I show up. Unlike the subject of a certain water tower, I have an exemplary attendance record. We made a fantastic team tracking down these locations. We were like Ferris and Sloane. Ooh, I take that back. There was nothing amorous between us during our dalliance with one of the highest-grossing movies of 1986, and I don’t want to give the Grim Cheaper the wrong impression and have him hunt me down. Actually, as we retraced a truant’s dash home, Lindsay embodied Ferris and I was Cameron incarnate. So now, without further ado, is our breakdown.

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Sloane’s House (340 South Westgate Avenue, Brentwood)

It is while standing in the picturesque backyard of his girlfriend Sloane’s (Mia Sara) house that Ferris discovers the late hour via a peek at her Cartier watch. He quickly kisses her and bids her adieu before rushing back to his own home. Owen tracked down Sloane’s American Colonial Revival-style residence (it’s known as the Preminger House in real life) thanks to a helpful crew member who told him to search in Brentwood in December 2014, long before I ever pitched the idea of writing about Ferris locations to my Discover L.A. editor. I ran out to stalk the place shortly thereafter. You can read my post on the 1925 pad, which was also featured in the movie’s swimming pool/hot tub scene, here.

Lindsay ran out to stalk it. I’m assuming she didn’t run as far as Ferris. If he had been wearing an anachronistic Fitbit, the battery in it would have gone all Samsung Galaxy Note 7, because according to a cursory calculation I did on Google, Ferris ran 6,965 miles. Puts Gump to shame, huh? Ferris > Forrest.

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Jeanie and Katie Bueller Begin Their Drive Home (2194/2210 Greenview Road, Northbrook)

“Do you know what it’s like to be pulled out of work to pick up your daughter at the police station?” So asks Katie Bueller (Cindy Pickett) while driving home from the station with her daughter, Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), who was taken into custody for making a phony 911 call. (Don’t even get her started on the Vermont deal!) Owen and I only realized we were missing this site when we sat down to write this article. Thankfully, an address number of “2210” was visible on a mailbox that Jeanie and Katie drive by in the scene on the Ferris Blu-ray. We were fairly certain from the foliage and terrain that the street was located in either Winnetka or Northbrook, the Chicago suburbs where other portions of the race home were shot. We started searching those areas and Owen found the right spot fairly quickly by matching the placement of a fire hydrant (denoted with a number 1 in the graphic below), a speed limit sign (2), and a unique picket fence (3 – though this element can best be seen via alternate street views) on a tree-lined block of Greenview Road in Northbrook to what appeared onscreen. In the scene, Jeanie and Katie are driving north on Greenview in front of the houses located at 2194 and 2210. (As is the case below, because neither Owen nor I live in the Chicago area, we were not able to take photographs of many of these locations and therefore utilized street-view screen captures for much of our imagery.)

The phrase “fairly quickly” may be hyperbole. I was searching rather aimlessly for some time and started to wonder if, like Jimmy Hoffa’s remains, this spot would remain unfound. The breakthrough came when Lindsay managed to make out the “2210.” Blu-ray deserves co-credit honors for this find. And now, Katie, about the Vermont deal…

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Jeanie Almost Hits Ferris (455/477 Berkeley Avenue, Winnetka)

Jeanie’s luck takes a turn for the better when she literally runs into Ferris during his race home. Well, nearly runs into him. While driving, she unexpectedly and accidentally almost hits her brother with her mother’s station wagon in between the houses located at 455 and 477 Berkeley Avenue in Winnetka. This spot looks a bit different today. In fact, the trees have grown so considerably that the residence visible behind Katie’s car (477 Berkeley) can no longer be seen from the vantage point from which the footage was lensed. After coming to a screeching halt and locking eyes with Ferris, Jeanie speeds south on Berkeley Avenue and turns right (west) onto Cherry Street, running a stop sign in the process.

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Ferris then jumps into the front yard of the house at 460 Berkeley Avenue. The Tudor residence seen across the street from him is 455 Berkeley. These locales were found by Owen many moons ago and have long been documented online thanks to him.

Everybody has a favorite part of the race home, right? The trampoline scene is popular, and the bikini-clad sunbathers don’t attract Ferris only, but my favorite moments both involve the girl who also goes by the name Shauna. First is the intense, determined expression on her tilted head when she hits the gas, right after she almost runs down her brother. Second is the exasperation she displays moments later as she pounds on the steering wheel and screams at her mom, “I can’t drive while you’re yelling at me!” Ferris receives the race home accolades — it’s his movie, after all — but Jeanie shines brightest in this iconic scene. To me, anyway.

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Backyard #1 (1215 Cherry Street, Winnetka)

In a race now against time and Jeanie, Ferris cuts through two backyards. The first is that of a traditional gray clapboard home at 1215 Cherry Street in Winnetka, just around the corner from where he was almost hit by his sister moments before. The rear side of the residence has been drastically remodeled since filming took place, which made identifying it rather difficult. Owen first zeroed in on the property after pinpointing another race location just a few doors down. (More on that one in a bit.) Thankfully, Bing’s bird’s-eye view still shows the back of the house in its original state, and Owen was able to match certain elements to the home that appeared onscreen, including a small A-line roof on the property’s east side (1), a central section that popped out away from the rest of the structure (2), and a covered porch on the dwelling’s west side (3 – though this can best be seen from alternate aerial views). We also matched several features of the brick property located next door at 1209 Cherry Street. That home’s unique trim and chimney layout (4 – these can also best be seen from alternate views) are briefly visible as Ferris first steps into the backyard of 1215.

The chimney is what cinched it for me. Thank goodness a portion of 1209 Cherry St. was visible in the scene, if only for milliseconds. It was a small detail and, ahem, if you don’t stop and look around — or next door — once in a while, you could miss it.

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Backyard #2 (1223 Cherry Street, Winnetka)

No camera trickery was utilized in this portion of Ferris’ race home. As was depicted in the movie, the two yards Ferris is shown skirting through are actually located next door to each other. Backyard #2 can be found just west of Backyard #1 at 1223 Cherry Street. Thankfully, this house has not been remodeled and we were able to confirm its use in the scene by utilizing aerial views to match much of the window and door placement (1 and 2), as well as a peaked-roof extension on the west side of the home (3), to the property that appeared onscreen. The trim and windows of the residence located just to the west at 1229 Cherry (4) also directly correlate to what was shown of the neighboring residence in the scene.

I’m confident in our stalking abilities, but still, it was a Hughes success tracking down this backyard and many of the other race home locales. It wasn’t always easy, but it was always fun. The experience was some kind of wonderful.

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Jeanie Runs a Second Stop Sign (Ash Street and Hibbard Road, Winnetka)

Determined that her parents catch Ferris in the act of cutting school, Jeanie puts the pedal to the metal as she races to beat her brother home. In doing so, she plows through a second stop sign located at the intersection of Ash Street and Hibbard Road in Winnetka. As she turns north onto Hibbard, she catches the eye of a policeman, who attempts to pull her over. Nothing is stopping Jeanie, though! This location was another of Owen’s early finds that has since been well-documented online.

Owen found this; Owen found that. Oh, Lindsay, you’re making me blush. Stop exaggerating. Then again, exaggeration is the greatest thing in the history of the universe.

Jeanie Runs a Second Stop Sign Collage

Backyard of the Man Barbecuing

Unfortunately, the backyard where Ferris pilfers a Pepsi (not a beer as is commonly reported) from a man barbecuing is the one location we are unsure of. After speaking with a helpful crew member, we know that this site is located in Winnetka in the same vicinity as the other area locales used. Because there is so little to go on, though, and because identifying backyards via aerial views is difficult, the hunt for BBQ Man’s backyard has proven rather tough and we have not, as of yet, located it. If anyone happens to have any idea where this spot is, please let us know!

Let us know, yes, but don’t claim to know if you’re not 100 percent certain. I know we live in a “fake news” era, but I’ll never understand all the filming location misinformation on the Internet. Do people not care about accuracy, about proof? If I wanted to spend time reading things that weren’t true, I’d open the e-mails I get from Nigerian princes.

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House with Red Jeep (1229 Cherry Street, Winnetka)

After stealing the Pepsi in BBQ Man’s backyard, Ferris runs down the driveway of a neighboring home, eventually tossing the soda can into a garbage bin situated on the front lawn. That house is located next door to Backyard #2 at 1229 Cherry Street. Owen found this spot pretty early on in our hunt while searching Winnetka properties that were in the vicinity of other race home locales. This particular residence had some unique design elements that were visible in the scene, including a semi-curved brick window trim (1), a white gutter (2), and an in-ground light fixture (3) posted near the steps (4) leading from the driveway to the front door. In searching street views, he found aspects matching all of those items at 1229 Cherry. Pinpointing the site is what ultimately led us to finding Backyard #1 and Backyard #2. Not much of the property has changed in the 31 years (!) since filming took place, as you can see in the photograph below, which comes from a 2004 real estate listing.

Back to BBQ Man for a moment, if I may. Does anyone know what actor played that soda-drinking, meat-grilling part? I’d love to get in touch with him, if he’s still alive, but he’s not listed on IMDb, and finding him is proving more difficult than the time I had to let my parents know I was adopted.

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Start of Tom Bueller’s Drive Home (Cherry Street and Locust Street, Winnetka)

Ferris’ race home wouldn’t be nearly as tense without his father involved, which is exactly what happens about halfway through. As Tom Bueller (Lyman Ward) begins the drive from work to the Bueller residence, he is shown heading east on Cherry Street before turning left (north) onto Locust Street in Winnetka. This is one of the first spots Owen tracked down during our hunt. He already knew that Jeanie almost hit Ferris with the car on Berkeley Avenue near Cherry Street, so he began poking around that same area for the white clapboard residence that is visible after Tom turns. He found it on the northwest corner of Cherry and Locust. This spot looks a bit different today because one of the houses seen behind Tom as he heads onto Locust has been razed and replaced, but the white clapboard dwelling is recognizable (despite a few alterations), as are the two adjoining trees in its front yard (though those cannot be seen in the screen capture below).

I forgot to mention why I was stoked to help Lindsay find all these locations. Of all the movies with the word “Ferris” in the title, this one is my favorite.

Start of Tom Bueller's Drive Home Collage

Backyard with Sunbathers (1310 Milan Avenue, South Pasadena)

Ferris wouldn’t be Ferris if he didn’t stop to introduce himself to some sunbathing beauties he passes while running through yet another backyard during his race home. That scene took place at 1310 Milan Avenue in South Pasadena, a good 2,000 miles away from the previous backyards that appeared in the segment. During our hunt, I managed to track down a very helpful crew member who worked on the L.A. portions of the movie. He checked his notes and told me that two homes on Milan Avenue, easily South Pas’ most oft-filmed street, were featured in Ferris, one of which was 1310. Despite the fact that we had been provided addresses, piecing together what was shot at each location required quite a bit of detective work. With this locale, we were able to use aerial views to match the window placement (1, 2, 3, and 4) and second-story balcony (5) of 1310 Milan to what appeared in the sunbathing scene (though you will notice in the graphic below that an addition was put on the house since filming took place and it looks a bit different than it did when Ferris was there).

Lindsay’s right — this location involved a lot of work. I knew we’d find it, though. We always finish what we sta

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Jeanie and the Police Pass by Tom (Glendale Avenue and Cherry Street, Winnetka)

While being pursued by the police, Jeanie speeds around her father’s car, which is stopped at an intersection at the corner of Glendale Avenue and Cherry Street in Winnetka. In the scene, Jeanie and the cop head south on Glendale, while Tom pauses at a stop sign to search for a Tic Tac in his glove compartment.

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Though much of this location has changed drastically in the three decades since filming took place (countless trees have been removed, the sidewalk has been altered, and the stop sign configuration has been modified), Owen managed to identify it a couple of years ago by matching elements of the house at 436 Glendale to the home seen through Tom’s windshield in the scene, namely the second-floor dormers (1), the two-car garage (2), and the large bay window (3). The big multi-branched tree on the other side of the street (4) is also a match to what appeared onscreen. (Though there were two trees in that spot at the time of filming, one has since been removed.)

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION ALERT! I’ve written a couple of posts with a Ferris slant on my blog. You can read them here and here.

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Jeanie Finally Pulls Over (2117/2127 Glendale Avenue, Northbrook)

Many of the sites that appear toward the end of Ferris’ race home can be found in Northbrook, a Chicago suburb situated northwest of Winnetka. That includes the spot where Jeanie finally pulls over for the police. (“She got a speeding ticket – another speeding ticket – and I lost the Vermont deal because of her!”) In the scene, Jeanie and the policeman chasing her travel west on South Bridge Lane and then veer to the right (north) as it becomes Glendale Avenue. The two cars eventually stop in between the houses at 2117 and 2127 Glendale. Owen identified this locale a few years ago thanks to an address number of “2146” that was visible on a mailbox (1) in the scene. He searched 2100 blocks in both Winnetka and Northbrook for other elements that appeared in the segment, including a house with distinct half-brick, half-brown paneling (2), a “No Parking” sign (3 – though this can best be seen via alternate street views) and a fire hydrant (4) and, per usual, was successful in finding the right spot.

This location is a few blocks away from where Jeanie and Katie began their drive home, and it’s right around the corner from a few race home spots Lindsay will be writing about shortly. That’s a teaser, folks!

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Ferris Runs Down a Sidewalk (1326 Milan Avenue, South Pasadena)

For a very brief moment, Ferris is shown running down a leafy sidewalk. In John Hughes’ FBDO DVD commentary, he mentions that this scene always bothered him because a garbage can full of palm fronds is evident behind Ferris, tipping off eagle-eyed viewers to the fact that this portion of the movie was shot not in Chicago, but in Los Angeles. Armed with that bit of information (and in the interest of tracking down every single race home locale), I started searching on Milan Avenue for anything that might match the sidewalk shown in the short segment, namely what I thought was a “Neighborhood Watch” sign visible in the extreme background (1), a line of trees with odd trunks (2), and the overhanging branch that Ferris runs beneath (3). I wound up finding all three in front of 1326 Milan Avenue, just two houses south of the sunbathers’ backyard.

When I’m not busy helping Lindsay track down filming locations, I enjoy stealing “Neighborhood Watch” signs.

Ferris Runs Down a Sidewalk Collage

Tom Gets Caught Behind an Old Lady (2000/2100 Block Mallard Drive, Northbrook)

As Tom continues his drive home, he gets caught behind a slow-moving old lady who pulls out of a rather stately looking residence. The scene, as Owen discovered many years ago, was shot on the 2000/2100 block of Mallard Drive in Northbrook. Well, partially, at least. In the first two seconds of the segment, Tom is shown heading north on Hibbard Road in Winnetka before turning right (east) onto Oak Street. We can see a utility road leading into a park area and then the Winnetka Ice Arena outside of his car window before the scene magically segues to him turning right (south) onto Mallard Drive from Techny Road about five miles away in Northbrook. The old lady subsequently pulls out of the home at 2005 Mallard, and Tom proceeds to slowly follow her south before overtaking her in front of the house located at 2121 Mallard.

Remember that teaser? Dying of curiosity? Well, now you know. This is one of the scenes that filmed near where Jeanie was pulled over — and it won’t be the last. Tom is creeping along Mallard Drive, which is a mere two blocks away from the road where Jeanie was stopped.

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Ferris Skids Around the Side of a House (1310 Milan Avenue, South Pasadena)

The friendly crew member we contacted explained that many different sections of the two Milan Avenue residences were utilized for the race home segment, including backyards, side yards and front yards, and that shots were angled toward the houses and away from them, creating the illusion of a blocks-long run in a much more confined area. So near the end of our hunt, when Owen mentioned that one of the only sites we had yet to find was the home that Ferris skids around, I had an inkling that one of the Milan pads might be the place we were looking for. Inspecting both properties from different angles, I quickly realized that Ferris races around 1310 Milan, the same spot where he introduced himself to the sunbathers moments before. In the scene, he heads west down 1310’s driveway and then cuts sharply to the right (cue skidding sound effects) before heading north across the front of the house, surprising two young women sitting on the porch.

I recall this find coming near the end of a stretch during which we were picking off missing locations left and right, pulling them out as if they were pencils in a big head of hair. And these weren’t easy finds, mind you. We had little to go on in our search for random backyards and stretches of sidewalk and what have you. Heck, we weren’t even sure what state we should be looking in some of the time. But we did it. Diligently. Tenaciously. Together.

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Tom Passes Ferris (2115 Butternut Lane, Northbrook)

During the home stretch of his journey, Ferris almost gets caught by his father when Tom pulls up next to him while he is running in the middle of a street. The two travel adjacent to each other for a moment before Ferris ducks away and into a house. Though Tom looks at his son briefly and has an inkling it might be Ferris, he doesn’t ultimately realize it is him. The bit was shot on Butternut Lane in Northbrook. In the scene, Tom and Ferris are heading north, in front of the home located at 2115 Butternut.

More teaser fulfillment! I did say Jeanie was pulled over near a few spots. This is another, and so is the next one. That’s five parts of the race home filmed within a mile of one another. And all of them are right by Glenbrook North High School, the alma mater of one John Wilden Hughes Jr. and the place where a trench coat-clad Ferris picks up Sloane.

Tom Passes Ferris Collage

Ferris Runs Through a House (2067 Butternut Lane, Northbrook)

“No, don’t get up. Smells delicious. Dinner’s ready.” So announces Ferris to a family as he runs through their house in order to avoid his father. To shoot the scene, a camera was set up on a track along the west side of the residence located at 2067 Butternut Lane in Northbrook. The camera panned from the front of the property, past three side windows, to the backyard.

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Amazingly, the deck that Ferris jumps from in the scene is still intact, as is evidenced by the real estate photograph below, which I snagged from a 2009 listing.

Ferris runs over fences, through bushes, inside homes, in backyards, past sunbathers and down suburban Chicago and L.A. driveways, sidewalks and streets. From the moment he says, “I’ll call you tonight” to Sloane as he dashes off to the moment he lands on terra firma following his slo-mo trampoline leap (more on that to come), exactly three minutes and 41 seconds have elapsed. It took Lindsay and me slightly more time to find all those fences, bushes, homes and so on.

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Trampoline Backyard (1230 Milan Avenue, South Pasadena)

The spot where Ferris hops over a tree, runs up the slide of a jungle gym, and then jumps on a trampoline, propelling himself into his own backyard, was the most arduous to prove. Though we had been told by our crew member friend that 1230 Milan Avenue in South Pasadena was used in the race home segment, we were unsure which portion of the scene was shot there. Thankfully, a small structure was visible behind Ferris for a fleeting moment before he ran up the jungle gym slide. The coloring and siding of the structure, which we knew due to its small size was a guest house or garage of some sort, matched the exterior of 1230 Milan, so we had a pretty good feeling that the trampoline segment had been lensed there. Verifying our theory was another story. Unfortunately, aerial views provided no confirmation, so we turned to other productions filmed at the residence. 1230 Milan has appeared onscreen countless times, in such productions as Bringing Down the House, The Mentalist, Jurassic Park III, The Whispers, xXx: State of the Union, and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves. It also served as the Lawrence family home on the television series Family. Owen and I poured through virtually everything that was ever filmed on the premises and were finally able to substantiate our hunch thanks to the Season 2 episode of Family titled “An Endangered Species.” In the episode, a full view of the guest house that Nancy Lawrence (Meredith Baxter) lived in on the show was visible. It was an exact match to the structure visible behind Ferris. Danke schoen, Family!

This is the portion of the race home I was most excited to find. I figured the odds of us finding this backyard were the same as the odds of Ferris’ favorite team, the Chicago Cubs, winning the World Series. Oh, wait…

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Ferris’ Backyard (4160 Country Club Drive, Long Beach)

Though Ferris’ trampoline jump begins in South Pasadena, it ends a good 22 miles away in the backyard of the Long Beach pad that portrayed the Bueller residence in the movie. But I did not take that fact for granted during our hunt. Knowing that Hughes shot the race home sequence literally all over the place, I started having doubts that the backyard shown at the end was actually the backyard of the Bueller home. Thankfully, I was able to match the fenestration of the four second-story windows of the home next door at 4170 Country Club (1) to what was seen onscreen, as well as certain portions of the rear side of the Bueller dwelling. Though the back of the property has undergone some changes, a large portion of it remains untouched, namely the first-floor door (2), the window next to it (3), and the large second-story window (4).

Ferris' Backyard Collage

Both the interior and exterior of the stately Colonial-style residence were featured throughout Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and despite the backyard alterations, the place is still very recognizable from its onscreen stint. You can see a library of photographs of the home, including some of the backyard, here.

I always assumed Ferris landed in the backyard of the Long Beach house and never really questioned it. I shouldn’t have done that. Lindsay’s work confirmed my assumption, though.

Bueller House Exterior

Well, Ferris is finally home, his parents are none the wiser, Principal Rooney’s cheese has been left out in the wind, and our work here is done. (Mostly done, anyway – we’re still missing that darn BBQ Man’s backyard!) As I said earlier, this hunt, though lengthy and exhaustive, was a blast from start to finish. Much like Ferris’ race, actually. I’m a bit sad that it’s over but am already anxiously awaiting my next joint stalking venture with Owen.

I echo Lindsay’s sentiments. I melancholily miss working with her on FBDO, but we’ll ride again someday. Perhaps in a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California.

A huge THANK YOU to Owen for his partnership on both this hunt and this post. It is so thrilling to me that these locations have been identified, chronicled, and are now out there for other Ferris fans to enjoy!

Pfft. Your words are emptier than the seat on the bus next to the bespectacled girl with gummy bears. If you really want to thank me, use your filming location capabilities and connections to find the nursing home from the original Miracle on 34th Street. In all seriousness, thanks for letting me tag along, Cameron-style, on today’s post, Lindsay. I had so much fun retracing the race routes with you. Now, like the phony “Sausage King of Chicago,” I’ve gotta run.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

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You’re still here? The article’s over. Go home. Go.

Nicole Brown Simpson’s Gretna Green House

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You’d think I would be sick of all things O.J. by now, what with the recent airing of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and the many stalkings I’ve done of the various locations associated with it over the past few months (you can read those posts here, here, here, here, and here).  But when my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, mentioned a couple of weeks back that a new five-part documentary about the famous fallen footballer and the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, would be airing on ESPN, I immediately set my DVR to record it.  O.J.: Made in America did not disappoint.  The Grim Cheaper and I were glued to the TV for its duration.  After the airing of “Part Two,” Owen suggested I blog about Nicole’s former rental located at 325 South Gretna Green Way in Brentwood, which was featured prominently in the episode.  Shockingly, not only had I never stalked the residence, but I had never so much as even looked at it via Google Street View.  In fact, up until watching “Part Two,” I had been under the assumption that the place was Tudor in style.  I was shocked to see that it is actually Spanish!  I added the home to my To-Stalk List and was floored this past Monday when, in a random twist of fate, the GC and I happened to find ourselves in Brentwood passing Gretna Green.  So we headed right on over to finally see the house in person.

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Nicole moved into the four-bedroom, five-bath, two-story, 3,424-square-foot pad upon separating from O.J. in January 1992 and remained there through January 1994, at which point she relocated to a Mediterranean-style condo at 875 South Bundy Drive, where she would be killed a short six months later.

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In the spring of 1993, Brian “Kato” Kaelin, aka the world’s most famous houseguest, moved into the Gretna Green property.  (His unusual nickname is a childhood moniker apparently derived from the character played by Bruce Lee on The Green Hornet.)  Kato first met Nicole in December 1992 in Aspen, Colorado, where Simpson was vacationing with future The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Faye Resnick.  The two apparently hit it off and the following month Nicole invited Kato to a party at her Gretna Green residence.  During the soiree, he noticed the guest house on the property and asked if he could lease it.  Nicole agreed.  Kato paid a monthly rate of $500, which was offset by any time he spent babysitting the Simpson children.  When Nicole moved out of the home in January 1994 and into the condo on Bundy, Kato was set to move with her and live in one of the downstairs bedrooms.  O.J. apparently scoffed at the idea and instead invited Kato to stay in one of the guest rooms at his mansion on Rockingham, rent free. Kato accepted, thereby sealing his fate of being forever entwined with one of the most famous murder cases in history.

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The gate leading to the backyard, where the guest house is located, can be seen on the very left hand side of the photo below.

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Aerial views of the Gretna Green home are pictured below.  Kato’s guest house, which is located on the southern side of the property, is denoted with pink arrows.

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It was from the residence that Nicole’s infamous October 25th, 1993 calls to 911 were made.  On that evening at approximately 10 p.m., O.J. showed up at the Gretna Green house unexpected, apparently upset over Nicole’s relationship with Mezzaluna restaurant manager Keith Zlomsowitch, and kicked in the back door to gain entry, at which point Nicole called the police.  After talking to the dispatcher, she hung up briefly and then called back.

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That call was chronicled in the O.J.: Made in America episode titled “Part Two.”

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Several areas of the residence were shown in the episode, including the backyard, which provided us with a great view of Kato’s guest house.

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Though no filming took place inside of the home, we were given a glimpse of the interior through the back windows.

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I have to admit that I inwardly groaned when the camera ominously panned in on a large set of knives in the kitchen.

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It was also at the Gretna Green home that, according to O.J.’s testimony from the civil trial, Simpson watched Nicole through a living room window while she was being intimate with Zlomsowitch.

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Per Zillow, the 1937 residence, which sits on 0.17 acres of land, last sold in January 2000 for $630,000.  I think that number may be slightly off, though, being that when the pad hit the market five years prior in 1995, it was listed at $1.275 million.  During that sale, it was acknowledged that Nicole had made the infamous 911 calls from the property.  According to the real estate agent, this was done “not as a come-on, but in an effort to disclose information so as not to take the buyer by surprise later on.”

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You can check out some photos of what the house looked like shortly after the murders here, here, and here.

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

Big THANK YOU to Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, for suggesting I stalk this location.  Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Nicole Brown Simpson’s former rental is located at 325 South Gretna Green Way in Brentwood.

The “Life Goes On” House

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Some locations I spend ages upon ages trying to track down only to discover that, when finally found, they had been listed on another website all along.  D’oh!  Such was the case with today’s locale.  I’ve mentioned before that Life Goes On is one of my all-time favorite television shows.  It is pretty common knowledge amongst stalkers that the Cape Code-style home belonging to the Thatcher family – Drew (Bill Smitrovich), Libby (Patti LuPone), Corky (Chris Burke), Becca (Kellie Martin) and Paige (who was played by both Monique Lanier and Tracey Needham) – on the series is a façade located at Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank.  What is less common knowledge is that the Ranch residence was actually modeled upon a real life house that appeared in Life Goes On’s pilot episode.  I spent countless hours over numerous years attempting to track down that house, but could never manage to do so, mainly due to the fact that the clips of the show available on YouTube were of extremely poor quality.  Then, last month while writing my post on Warner Bros. Ranch for Mike the Fanboy, I decided to see if the series was available on DVD and, to my surprise, Season 1 was!  Figuring the quality of the episodes would be leagues better than their YouTube counterparts, I promptly ordered it.

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As soon as the DVDs arrived, I popped the one featuring the pilot into my computer and was floored to see a street sign reading “12100 W Banff Ln” visible near the house during the opening credits.  I did a quick Google search for “12100 West Banff Lane, Los Angeles” and pretty much immediately found the Thatcher home at 305 North Bowling Green Way in Brentwood.  I started doing research on the place right away, as I always do upon finding a locale, and was shocked to come across this page on my buddy E.J.’s The Movieland Directory website, which listed the home’s address and mentioned its appearance on Life Goes On.  #facepalm  All those hours spent looking for the place could have been avoided had I just stumbled upon that listing years ago.  Fail!

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In real life, the Thatcher home, which was originally built in 1941, boasts 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,000 square feet of living space, a pool, a detached garage, and a 0.16-acre plot of land.

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Amazingly, the residence still looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when the pilot first aired on September 21st, 1989, almost thirty years ago!

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Not only was the exterior of the home featured in the opening credits of the pilot, but in the opening credits of every single episode throughout the series’ four-season run.  You can watch (a very poor quality clip of) those credits below.  Try not to sing along!  “Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah, la la how the life goes on!”

 

A scene from the pilot in which Corky, Becca and Drew painted the home’s white picket fence was also lensed in the Brentwood residence’s front yard.

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The real life interior of the home was used extensively throughout the pilot.  Then, once the series was picked up, that interior was re-created on a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, where the show was lensed.  Several changes were made to the set re-creation, though.  Most notably, the kitchen was widened significantly, as you can see below.

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The family’s eating area was also moved from a dining nook located just off the kitchen to the actual kitchen.

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In a rather unprecedented move, the exterior of the Brentwood home was also re-created, not at Warner Bros. Studio, but at its sister facility, Warner Bros. Ranch.  To accomplish the feat, producers modified the façade of one of the lot’s existing houses, known as the Partridge House.  As the name implies, the structure was featured as the Partridge residence on the 1970 television series The Partridge Family.  After filming of that show wrapped, the façade was altered for its use on the 1983 series Scarecrow and Mrs. King and then again for its role on Life Goes On.

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Comparison images of the Brentwood residence and its set re-creation are pictured below.  As you can see, the roofline of the real house is much taller than that of the re-creation, which makes the Brentwood home appear to be much larger than its set counterpart.

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I have been lucky enough to visit the set re-creation on several occasions over the years and each time was honestly like a dream come true.  So you can imagine how exciting it was for me to finally be able to stalk the real house, as well.

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And let me just say here that I think it would be about the coolest thing ever to have my house re-created on a studio backlot!  I mean, can you even imagine?!?

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The Warner Bros. Ranch house did not make an appearance on Life Goes On until the fourth episode, which was titled, “Break a Leg, Mom.”  Only the garage area was featured, though.

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The structure went on to appear regularly throughout the series, though typically only tight, close-up shots of it were shown.

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On a side-note – Calling all Glee fans! GLEE: The Official Show Auction Part II, hosted by Invaluable and Profiles in History, will be taking place today at 11 a.m. PST.  You can find out more information about the auction and bid on the over 600 items up for sale here.

Glee Auction

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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Thatcher family home from the pilot episode of Life Goes On is located at 305 North Bowling Green Way in Brentwood.  The façade used in later episodes of the series is the Partridge House at Warner Bros. Ranch, which is located at 411 North Hollywood Way in Burbank.

Nicole Simpson’s Condo from “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story”

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Today’s location is one of the most interesting that I’ve ever uncovered!  As I mentioned in Friday’s post about O.J. Simpson’s mansion from The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (which proved to be rather timely considering the “buried knife” story that was released that same day), the Grim Cheaper and I are hooked on the new FX series.  Once I tracked down O.J.’s pad from the show, I set out to find the site that stood in for Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo.  And what I discovered turned out to be pretty intriguing.

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Nicole’s former Brentwood condo was located at 875 South Bundy Drive (the address has since been changed, but more on that in a bit).  It was there that her body and the body of her friend Ronald Goldman were found just after midnight on June 13th, 1994.  The site became an instant macabre tourist attraction and though put up for sale in October of that same year, just a few months after the murders, it lingered on the market until finally being sold in 1997 for around $590,000 ($200,000 under the asking price).  The new owner immediately set about remodeling the exterior of the 3,400-square-foot, three-story dwelling, which, according to a 1995 Los Angeles Times article, boasted 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 fireplaces, several patios, and a rooftop sun deck.  (The same article also states that Nicole put the property up for lease just days before her death, a factoid that was new to me.)  In an effort to detract tourists, the front gate, walkway and entrance were drastically altered and the address was renumbered from 875 to 879.  The condo was once again put up for sale in 2006 and sold for a whopping $1.7 million.

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You can see a photo of what the exterior of Nicole’s condo previously looked like here.  The residence is largely unrecognizable today, not to mention that the entryway is entirely covered over with foliage.

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The GC and I visited the site way back in 2006 (it was for sale at the time, as you can see below) and the entryway was much more visible, though we did not take many photos of it.

Yea, good luck with that!

Outside of Nicole Simpsons Condo Complex. The new owner completly re-did the front to disguise it

The door to the neighboring unit, which was also altered after the murders and matches the layout of Nicole’s, is currently visible.  You can see what it looks like below.

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Not only was the condo’s address changed and the front entrance remodeled, but the walkway (where Nicole’s body was found) was actually moved.  Comparison images taken of the walkway shortly after the murders in 1994 as compared to 2016 are pictured below.

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More close-up comparison images are pictured below.

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As you can see, the walkway was formerly situated just to the right of the large palm tree that stands in front of Nicole’s home.  Today, the walkway is located to the left of that tree.  The blue box in the lower photo denotes the previous site of the walkway.  As you can also see below, the drainage pipe and utility access panel are still located in the same spot in relation to the tree, which helps give a bearing as to the walkway’s prior positioning.

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A close-up view of the walkway’s former location is pictured below.

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Nicole’s rear gate, which is reached via an alley off of Dorothy Street and is where the killer supposedly entered and exited the property the night of the murders, has also been altered.

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The rear gate of the neighboring unit (pictured below) does not appear to have been changed, though, and remains, I believe, in the same state that it was back in 1994.

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I am guessing that the reason The People v. O.J. Simpson did not film at the actual condo was two-fold, due to both the alterations and the reticence of the current owners.

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So where did filming take place?  Thanks to a February The Hollywood Reporter article, I learned that “a house a block away from Nicole Brown Simpson’s home was used as a stand-in” on the series.  The walkway and entrance shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson were an exact match to those of Nicole’s former condo, though.  Being that the chances of producers finding a walkway/front gate so closely resembling Nicole’s less than a block away from her former home were most likely slim to none, I figured they had heavily altered an existing walkway/front gate to look like hers.  When I started looking along Bundy Drive, though, I could not find anything even remotely resembling what appeared onscreen.  So I instead started searching for the homes that were visible across the street from Nicole’s in the pilot episode and wound up finding them right away – in the exact spot where The Hollywood Reporter said I would, a block away from Nicole’s condo.

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Those houses can be found at 918 and 922 South Bundy Drive.

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When I looked at what was across the street from those homes, though, I did not find a Mediterranean-style condominium complex as expected, but a non-descript, one-story single-family residence addressed 917 South Bundy.  It wasn’t until I really started scouring Street View images of the property that I realized the entire walkway shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson was a fabrication constructed in the home’s driveway.

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Yes, you read that right – from what I have been able to gather, Nicole’s walkway on the series was built entirely from scratch in the area pictured below.

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Some heavy CGI and set dressing were employed to achieve the effect.  As you can see below, not only was the image of a tall condominium building digitally added to the property, but a front wall, gate, walkway, lamp post, and large amount of foliage were also brought in.

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In the images below, I’ve denoted the few things that were not altered.  The large palm tree located in front of the home is a direct match to what appeared onscreen (it’s marked with the blue arrow below).  The large pine tree behind the palm is also a direct match to what appeared onscreen (yellow arrow).  The tall skinny palm located towards the rear of the property also parallels what was shown on The People v. O.J. Simpson (purple arrow).  And you can even see where the dip of the driveway was temporarily filled in for the shoot (pink arrow).

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A clean view of those same two images is pictured below.  The whole thing is absolutely fascinating to me!  I cannot even imagine what it would have been like to see it all in person.

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I’ve got to give the production designer major props because the faux walkway is an exact replica of Nicole’s, which you can see an image of here.

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The street in front of 917 South Bundy got a lot of screen time, too.

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You can check out some interior photographs of the 4-bedroom, 2-bath, 2,154-square-foot home here.

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All interior filming took place at a building located just a couple of blocks away.

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That building can be found at 11978 Mayfield Avenue and it does bear a striking resemblance to Nicole’s actual former home.

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Nicole's Condo People v. O.J. Simpson

The interior of Nicole’s condo was shown in two episodes of The People v. O.J. Simpson, “From the Ashes of Tragedy” and “The Race Card.”  You can see photos of the inside of one of the Mayfield Avenue units here.

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

Nicole Brown Simpson Condo The People v. O.J. Simpson-14

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The exterior of Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo was recreated in the driveway of the house at 917 South Bundy Drive in Brentwood for the filming of The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.  Interior scenes were filmed at 11978 Mayfield Avenue in Brentwood.  Nicole’s real life former condo is located at 879 South Bundy Drive in Brentwood.

The “Lizzie McGuire” House

Lizzie McGuire House (9 of 9)

Though I am unabashedly a tween at heart, one show that I never got into was Lizzie McGuire.  I have always liked Hilary Duff, so I am unsure of why exactly the show remained off my radar.  Regardless, I was thrilled when a fellow stalker named Gina posted a comment on my site recently letting me know that she had tracked down the house where the titular character lived with her family on the Disney series.  I stopped by to stalk it two weeks ago while my friends Kim and Katie were in town visiting from Kentucky (that’s Katie in the photo above).

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Oddly, while I had heard that the house appeared regularly in establishing shots on Lizzie McGuire, I scanned through several episodes before writing this post and only ever spotted it in the Season 1 episode titled “Pool Party.”  (“Pool Party” was the series pilot, but, for whatever reason, was not the first episode to be aired.)  As you can see below, the residence looks very much the same today as it did when “Pool Party” was shot in 2001.

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Lizzie McGuire House (5 of 9)

The real life interior of the home was also used in “Pool Party.”   You can check out some photographs of that interior here.

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Once the series got picked up, a set of the interior of the McGuire home (one that did not match the interior seen in the pilot) was built inside of a soundstage for all subsequent filming.

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In real life, the Lizzie McGuire house, which was built in 1990, boasts 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 4,466 square feet, and a 0.22-acre plot of land.

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Lizzie McGuire House (1 of 9)

The interior of the same pad was also used as the interior of the Burnham home, where Lester (Kevin Spacey), Carolyn (Annette Bening) and Jane (Thora Birch) lived, in American Beauty.

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For exterior shots of the Burnham home, producers used the “Griswold House” at Warner Bros. Ranch, so named because it also masked as the Griswold family’s residence in Christmas Vacation.

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The Griswold house is regularly altered for film shoots and looks much different today than it did in either American Beauty or Christmas Vacation, as you can see below.

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Lester Burnham House American Beauty (2 of 2)

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

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Gina for finding this location! Smile

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Lizzie McGuire house is located at 11388 Homedale Street in Brentwood.

Liz’s House from “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”

Liz's House Jumpin' Jack Flash (17 of 18)

There are two kinds of people in this world – those who can watch movies over and over and over again and those who cannot.  I am in the former category.  During my teens and twenties, my parents owned a condominium in Hawaii.  We would vacation there every summer, along with other families who owned units in the same community.  Our condo was the kids’ hang-out spot (we had a VCR and large movie library) and, for reasons that no longer remain known to me, somehow a tradition began in which all of the youngsters would gather (usually a good four of five of us piled into the pull-out sofa bed) to watch Jumpin’ Jack Flash our first night together in Hawaii each and every year.  (Our second night’s viewing was always Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.)  Because of this, the film holds a very special place in my heart.  So when my friend Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, emailed me recently to let me know that one of his readers had asked for some help in tracking down the house where Liz Carlson (Annie Potts) lived in the movie, I ecstatically offered to lend a hand.

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He wound up not needing my help.  While watching Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Owen spotted an address number of “515” on the curb in front of Liz’s house.  Though the 1986 comedy was lensed in both New York and Los Angeles, he decided to start his hunt in L.A. and did Google Images searches for numerous permutations and combinations of “515” and “Los Angeles.”  When he eventually got to “515 Dr. Los Angeles, CA,” the very first picture to pop up was of Liz’s house!  The photo was attached to a Redfin page which listed the address as 515 North Bundy Drive in Brentwood.  Prior to finding the dwelling, Owen had asked me if I thought it was in California or New York, and I told him that my inclination was New York.  Ironically though, I kept having a nagging thought that the home looked a lot like Casa Walsh from the pilot episode of Beverly Hills, 90210.  I should have listened to my gut because the two properties turned out to be located about a mile away from each other.

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Liz's House Jumpin' Jack Flash (10 of 18)

In real life, the 1938 home was designed by Welton Becket, the prolific L.A. architect who also gave us the Cinerama Dome, the Capital Records Building, the Los Angeles Music Center and the Theme Building at Los Angeles International Airport.  Becket used the property as his primary residence through the 1940s.

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Liz's House Jumpin' Jack Flash (6 of 18)

The property boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,800 square feet, a 0.28-acre lot, 4 fireplaces, beamed ceilings, wood built-ins, French doors, a bonus art studio space and a kitchen with both a dining area and an office.

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Liz's House Jumpin' Jack Flash (7 of 18)

The residence appears twice in Jumpin’ Jack Flash (which just so happens to be the first movie Penny Marshall ever directed).  It first pops up in the scene in which Liz explains to Terri Dolittle (Whoopi Goldberg) that the man she is trying to save is being chased by the KGB.

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In a later scene, Terri goes to Liz’s house to ask her for more help, only to find the place vacant.

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Liz's House Jumpin' Jack Flash (9 of 18)

Thanks to the photos posted on Redfin, I learned that the real life interior of the home was also used in Jumpin’ Jack Flash.  Though the kitchen has since been updated, it is still recognizable from its appearance.  (That’s Life Goes On’s Kellie Martin in her big screen debut pictured below.)

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The living room was also featured in the movie (love those built-ins!).

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The Dutch doors are also pretty amazing!

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The dining room also made a brief appearance in the film.

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

Big THANK YOU to Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location!  Smile

Liz's House Jumpin' Jack Flash (8 of 18)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Liz’s house from Jumpin’ Jack Flash is located at 515 North Bundy Drive in Brentwood.

Hotel Angeleno from “Heat”

Hotel Angeleno Heat (3 of 19)

The Grim Cheaper and I travel back and forth to L.A. so often that sometimes I feel like I live in a hotel – which is not a bad thing, I ADORE hotels.  One that we checked into recently that I absolutely loved was the Hotel Angeleno.  Not only is the place’s architecture unique, vibe spectacularly retro and views breathtaking, but it is also a filming location!  I mean, come on now!  What’s not to love?

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Hotel Angeleno was originally constructed in 1970 as the Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel-Air.  Its cylindrically-shaped configuration was a popular one for the hotel chain.  The first of its kind was designed by architect Leonard Lundgren and still stands overlooking Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas.  Lundgren went on to design several similarly shaped structures for the Holiday Inn company, including the Brentwood/Bel-Air outpost.

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Hotel Angeleno Heat (5 of 19)

During its tenure as a Holiday Inn, the property offered mid-level lodging.  In April 2005, it was taken over by the Joie de Vivre hospitality company and a massive renovation process was started.  The site re-opened in February 2006 as the much more upscale Hotel Angeleno.

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Hotel Angeleno Heat (11 of 19)

Thankfully though, its unique exterior was left largely untouched.

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The 17-story structure sits above the Interstate 405, just north of the Sunset Boulevard exit.  Each room features a private balcony (as well as complimentary parking and free Wi-Fi), most of which offer amazing views.  Our room boasted views of the freeway and it was fascinating to watch traffic start accumulating on the northbound side at around 2 p.m. and remain at a standstill until well past 10.

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Our room also had a spectacular view of the Getty Center.

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Not to mention a vertigo-inducing view of the street below.  The GC is not a fan of heights and he couldn’t even bring himself to step out onto the balcony.

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Hotel Angeleno Heat (7 of 12)

Occupying the top floor of the Angeleno is the circularly-shaped restaurant West.

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We had the pleasure of dining at West while staying at the hotel and not only is the food spectacular, but the views are simply uh-ma-zing.

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Hotel Angeleno Heat (14 of 19)

The Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel-Air was most notably featured in the 1995 action classic Heat, as the spot where Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) moved upon leaving his wife.  Very little of the hotel can actually be seen in the movie, though.

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In the Season 1 episode of Starsky and Hutch titled “Death Ride,” which aired in 1975, Det. Ken ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson (David Soul) and Det. Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) stopped by the Holiday Inn to pick up a witness named Andrew Mello (Jeff Corey).

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Thanks to the Dear Old Hollywood blog, I learned that the 1976 film Two-Minute Warning opened with a scene of a sniper taking a shot from a balcony at the Holiday Inn Brentwood/Bel-Air.

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The hotel’s interiors were also shown in the movie, including a room;

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a hallway;

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the lobby;

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and the front desk.

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In the 2004 hit Sideways, Miles (Paul Giamatti) drove by the Holiday Inn on his way to pick up Jack (Thomas Hayden Church).

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There was even some filming going on when we were staying there!  Just as we were checking out, my mom spotted Justin Jedlica, aka the “Human Ken Doll,” filming a segment for a reality show.  So I, of course, just had to ask for a pic.

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

Hotel Angeleno Heat (1 of 19)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Hotel Angeleno, from Heat, is located at 170 North Church Lane in Brentwood.  You can visit the hotel’s official website here.

Inez’s House from “Chef”

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My favorite movie of 2014 was, hands down, The Other Woman.  Running a close second was Chef, which I am guessing many of you have not heard of.  Sadly, it was a bit of a sleeper.  Take my word for it, though, the flick is fabulous.  As are its locations!  But more on that in a minute.  The Grim Cheaper and I first heard about Chef thanks to Carson Daly who talked about it on his morning radio show on 97.1 FM a couple of months back.  Carson had just watched the movie the night prior and was mesmerized by it.  He even mentioned that it made him cry.  So when the GC and I came across the title when perusing the Instant Video selections on Amazon a couple of weeks back while spending the night at my parents’ house, we decided to watch it.  And we all had much the same reaction as Carson. Chef is heartwarming, funny and feel-good.  We absolutely loved it!  One thing that had us debating during our viewing and repeatedly pausing the movie (much to the GC’s chagrin), though, was the real life location of Inez’s (Sofia Vergara) onscreen house.

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Because of its Spanish-style architecture, my mom and the GC were convinced that the residence was located in Pasadena.  I had my doubts, though.  If a place of that massive size and spectacular beauty was actually located in the Crown City, I figured I most likely would have come across it during my ten-plus years of living there.  As it turns out, my instincts were right.  After some digging, I ended up finding the pad in Brentwood.

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Chef centers around Carl Casper (Jon Favreau, who produced, wrote, directed and starred in the movie), a high-end chef who loses his job after getting into a Twitter war with a food critic.  Following the advice of his ex-wife, Inez, Carl winds up purchasing an old food truck in Miami and refurbishing it, before driving it back to Los Angeles, selling his fare along the way.  His son, Percy (Emjay Anthony), accompanies him on the journey and their adventure is nothing short of magical.  Inez’s house in the flick is quite magical, as well.

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In real life, the residence, which was built in 1926, features five bedrooms, three baths and 6,430 square feet of living space.

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The dwelling looks just as spectacular in person as it did onscreen.

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The real life interior of the house, which you can see photographs of here, was also used in the flick.

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

Chef House (7 of 10)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Inez’s house from Chef is located at 250 South Bristol Avenue in Brentwood.