Chelsea Handler – IAMNOTASTALKER

December 15, 2009December 15, 2009

Chelsea Lately’s “The Case of the Douche Bag Actor”

Those of you who are regular visitors to my site will remember that, back in May, my good friend Blaze Foster was hired to be part of a “Detective Lately” skit on the Chelsea Lately show. His scene was originally scheduled to be filmed on May 8th and I, of course, tagged along with him to the set, where I got to meet Chelsea’s assistant Chuy Bravo and “Staff Homosexual” Guy Branum. YAY! As fate would have it, though, Chelsea and crew ended up running out of time that day and Blaze’s segment was shelved. And while Blaze was devastated over not being able to shoot his scene, I actually considered the whole thing to be a blessing in disguise – as they so often are! – as I had a feeling he would be invited back to do it all over again – with me tagging along! Which is pretty much exactly what happened! 🙂 Blaze ended up filming his Detective Lately segment just a few weeks later on May 27th, and I, again, accompanied him to the studio. I have yet to blog about my experiences that day, though, as I wanted to wait until the segment aired on TV, which FINALLY happened this past Thursday night – a full SIX MONTHS after it was actually taped! So, without further ado, here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the filming of Blaze’s segment, aka “The Case of the Douche Bag Actor”!

On our first visit to the Chelsea Lately set, Blaze and I spent most of our time in the show’s main green room. On our second visit, though, we were seated in the studio’s alternate green room, which I could NOT have been more excited about, as that meant that I actually got to see BOTH of the Chelsea Lately green rooms in person!!!! I mean, just how lucky can one girl get? 🙂

Chelsea’s second green room looks very much like her first and I, of course, had to take photographs of EVERYTHING, including the door, which had Twilight actor Peter Facinelli’s name written on it as he was the last actor to hang out there pre-show,

the modern-style couches and coffee tables, which hold several entertainment magazines for actors to peruse while they wait to go on camera,

the ubiquitous make-up chair,

and a large television set. I was actually most excited about the TV because an episode of Chelsea was being taped when we arrived at the studio and, thanks to a live feed, we were able to watch it as it was being filmed. LOVE IT! The guest that day was former Blossom star Mayim Bialik, but unfortunately we didn’t spot her at all while we were on the set. 🙁

Pretty much immediately after that day’s episode was finished being taped, Blaze was called into the studio. I, unfortunately, was not allowed to watch the filming and had to stay behind in the green room. Thankfully, though, the green room was situated just a few feet away from the Detective Lately set and I could hear almost everything as it happened. 🙂 Blaze was informed prior to the taping that the original mystery idea he had pitched – “Why Isn’t My Agent Getting Me Any Auditions?” – had been changed to “The Case of the Douche Bag Actor” LOL LOL LOL, in which Blaze would be hiring Chelsea to investigate his acting teacher to see if she was defrauding him. No script had been written for the segment and, although I am fairly certain that Chelsea and the writers had created a brief outline of what they wanted to occur during the scene, for the most part the whole thing was improvised. Blaze’s only instruction prior to filming was to play things straight and not to try to be funny. Because Chelsea is the star of the show, they didn’t want Blaze pulling focus away from her. Which strikes me as absolutely HILARIOUS because if anyone is going to steal the spotlight in a scene, it’s Blaze! I’ve been in acting class with the guy for over a year now and, let me tell you, pulling focus is just something he does. Blaze is very flamboyant, very hyper, very funny, and attention is just drawn to him naturally. So, they really couldn’t have picked a worse man for the job in this particular case!!!! I can’t tell you the number of times I heard the producer tell him to “Stop being funny!” during the filming. 🙂 I also heard the direction “Blaze, stop laughing!” on quite a few occasions. 🙂 Blaze said that Chelsea was absolutely HILARIOUS during the scene and that he had a very hard time keeping a straight face while filming with her.

The entire segment only took about 90 minutes to shoot. Because I had a sinking feeling that I wouldn’t be able to meet Chelsea while there, I was really hoping that Blaze would be able to pose for a photo with her after the taping had been completed. Amazingly enough, though, outside of the actual filming of the scene, Blaze had absolutely no interaction with Chelsea whatsoever! When he was initially brought onto the set, Chelsea was not yet there. The first time Blaze actually saw her was when she walked into the detective office at the top of the scene, after the cameras had already started rolling. She also left the set before filming had been completed. As soon as producers thought they had gotten enough footage of Chelsea, she was rushed off the stage and Blaze didn’t even get a chance to say thank you or shake her hand. After she left, Blaze had to stay behind to shoot some brief close-ups of him saying “Yes” and “No” to Chelsea’s empty chair. LOL Such a bummer, as I had so wanted a photograph of the two of them. 🙁 Randomly enough, though, Chelsea did poke her head into the green room to say “Hi” to me as she walked by on her way off the set. 🙂 It was a very quick exchange, but I was SUPER excited nonetheless.

Blaze’s skit, which you can watch above, was absolutely hilarious. I was really impressed with the amount of screen time he got, too. The only thing I was really disappointed about was the fact that my favorite line ended up on the cutting room floor. 🙁 At one point during the scene Chelsea asks Blaze, “What do you think, you’re some sort of Tony Danza?” to which Blaze says nothing. In reality, though, when Chelsea asked Blaze that question during the filming, he responded with, “Who’s Tony Danza?”, to which she said, “You know GOD DAMN WELL who Tony Danza is!” LOL LOL LOL I literally could not stop laughing when I heard her say that during the filming and was extremely impressed at how well she and Blaze played off of each other while improvising. I am not a person who thinks well on her feet, so I am always in awe of people who have the ability to be funny off the cuff like that. That’s why I was completely shocked when I saw the finished product and realized it was lacking Blaze and Chelsea’s little Tony Danza exchange. 🙁 I am guessing the reasoning behind the cut had to do with the fact that producers wanted Chelsea to be the one delivering the funny lines, so even though her line trumped Blaze’s, they just decided to cut out the entire segment. Such a bummer. Otherwise though, “The Case of the Douche Bag Actor” skit was great! And, for those who are wondering, everything Blaze said in the scene was true – he is 24 years old, he really did play a bad guy in The Brave One, and he also played a drug dealer in a commercial starring Carmen Electra.

On a side note – When my fiancé I watched “The Case of the Douche Bag Actor” this past Thursday night, one of the first things out of his mouth was, “How did Chelsea come up with the idea of making Blaze’s hair stick straight up like that?” Well, I just about fell off my chair laughing at his question because, in actuality, the There’s Something About Mary style ‘do just happened to be how Blaze was wearing his hair at that time. The guy is nothing if not flamboyant! 🙂 I can only imagine what Chelsea was thinking when she walked onto the set and saw Blaze – and his hair – for the first time. I’m surprised she didn’t bow down right then and there and start thanking God for bringing in an actor who had so much, er, material for her to work with. 🙂

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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Chelsea Lately is filmed at the Digital Media Center, which is located at 12312 West Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles. You can get tickets to watch a live taping here. If you don’t live in the area, you can still catch Chelsea weeknights at 11 p.m. on E! And you can watch Blaze’s skit, “The Case of the Douche Bag Actor”, here.

December 9, 2009December 8, 2009

Jay and Gloria’s House from “Modern Family”

Once fellow stalker Robert, from the website Movie Locations and More, tracked down Phil and Claire’s house and Mitchell and Cameron’s duplex from the new hit series Modern Family, I set my sights on locating the modern-style abode where Jay (aka Ed O’Neill), Gloria (aka Sophia Vergara), and their son Manny (aka Rico Rodriguez) reside on the show. For this task, I enlisted the help of fellow stalker Owen, who I am happy to report found the home’s location almost immediately, even though he had yet to ever watch even one episode of Modern Family! LOL All I gave him was the home’s street number and the general vicinity where I thought it might be located and, voila, just a few minutes later he texted me back with an address! So, I, of course, immediately grabbed my camera and headed out to go stalk the place.

Jay and Gloria’s ultra-unique home is MUCH bigger in person than it appears to be on Modern Family. For some reason, the establishing shots shown on the series only feature one angle of the residence. In reality, though, the home has a whole other half which has never appeared on TV. The house is so massive, in fact, that I couldn’t get all of if to fit in my camera lens, but you can sort of get an idea of its true size in the above photograph. According to Zillow, the residence boasts five bedrooms, six bathrooms, and a whopping 6,359 square feet!

The ultra-modern style home, which in real life is known as the Sinnot Residence, was built in 1992 by the architecture firm Abramson Teiger and, unfortunately, is not very visible from the street thanks to a large concrete wall which surrounds the property. But have no fear because I managed to find a few interior photographs of the home online, which you can take a look at here. 🙂 Even with the exterior wall, though, the house is still very recognizable from Modern Family. 🙂

Jay and Gloria’s house shows up each week in Modern Family’s opening credits . . .

. . . as well as in establishing shots which appear throughout the course of each episode.

Quite a bit of on-location filming has taken place at the residence as well. In the episode entitled “The Bicycle Thief”, Manny waits for his father to pick him up out in front of the house.

In the episode entitled “Coal Digger”, the entire family jumps into the house’s real-life pool fully-clothed.

And in the episode entitled “The Incident”, Mitchell has a heart-to-heart chat with his father by the very same pool.

On a side note – If you did not catch Chelsea Lately’s interview of Sophia Vergara which took place this past October, let me tell you, it is a MUST-SEE! In fact, I might just go out on a limb here and say that it is my favorite CL interview EVER – and being that I watch her show nightly, that’s saying A LOT. Sophia Vergara is absolutely HILARIOUS and to see her match wits with Chelsea Handler makes for some awesome TV!

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Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Jay and Gloria’s house from Modern Family is located at 121 South Cliffwood Avenue in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles.

May 18, 2009May 21, 2009

Rae’s Restaurant

Last weekend, while lounging by the pool in Palm Springs, I happened to open up People Magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful issue and almost fell right off my lawn chair when I saw a pic of my girl Chelsea Handler posing at fave restaurant Rae’s in Santa Monica. 🙂 Chelsea was featured as one of the magazine’s “Pretty Funny” people and her entire photo shoot (which you can watch a behind the scenes video of here) took place at a small 50s style diner that is no stranger to the silver screen. In fact, I’ve even stalked it once before!

Even though I have already blogged about Rae’s, because it is one of my favorite places in all of L.A. and because my girl Chelsea did her People photo shoot there, I just had to stalk it once again. 🙂 So, on Friday morning, bright and early, I dragged my dad out to Santa Monica to grab some breakfast at Rae’s.

Rae’s has been a Santa Monica staple since it first opened up in 1958. And it’s really no wonder why. The diner serves up some of the best food in all of L.A.!!!! And I am the pickiest eater known to man, so if I love the food, then you know it’s gotta be good. 🙂 Pretty much everything Rae’s serves is homemade on the premises using fresh ingredients, which is pretty unusual to find in a diner type setting. Especially when you consider the prices! Rae’s is extremely inexpensive – almost unbelievably so! The bill for my dad and my breakfast came to a whopping $5.30! I’m not kidding!!!! My personal favorite Rae’s meal, though, has to be their turkey dinner, which is served with fresh whipped mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing and gravy, and turkey that is cut right off of an actual steaming turkey right in front of you. Even my dad loved the place and is already making plans to bring my mom there in the near future. 🙂

Because Rae’s has such a unique look, location scouts have long been enamored with it. Rae’s has appeared in COUNTLESS productions over the years, including my fave Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, where it stood in for the Frazier’s Bottom diner where Tad and Rosalie grabbed a bite to eat;

Not Another Teen Movie, where it was featured during the “Prom Tonight” song and dance sequence;

Starsky and Hutch, where Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller ate breakfast after discovering a dead body in a nearby ravine;

Bowfinger, where Steve Martin and his film crew ate a celebratory dinner after filming a pivotal scene in their movie entitled “Chubby Rain” LOL;

True Romance, where Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater eat some pie after seeing a movie;

Lords of Dogtown, where Skip and the boys get into a food fight with a waiter;

The Next Best Thing, where Madonna eats a hamburger for the first time and realizes she might be pregnant;

the cover of Elton John’s “Songs from the West Coast” album;

‘N Sync’s photo shoot for the December 2001 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine; and the movies Book of Love and The Old Car. The diner has also been featured in countless commercials.

I honestly can’t recommend stalking Rae’s enough!!!! Love the food, love the atmosphere, love the service!!! You honestly can’t go wrong with this place! 🙂

On a side note, I am completely obsessed with the wishbone ring Chelsea Handler was sporting in her People Magazine photo shoot (you can just barely see it in the above photo). The ring is a Jennifer Meyer (aka Mrs. Tobey McGuire) design and even though I just received a pretty special ring last weekend :), I am so wanting it. LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Rae’s Restaurant is located at 2901 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica. Be sure to bring cash, as Rae’s does not accept credit cards. 🙂

May 13, 2009May 13, 2009

My Day on the Set of Chelsea Lately!

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, this past weekend was a complete whirlwind for me!! But getting engaged wasn’t the only exciting thing that happened. No, the excitement of the weekend for me actually started on Friday when I got to spend a day on the set of my new favorite show, Chelsea Lately!!! A few weeks back while my friend Blaze and I were waiting in line to watch a live taping of Chelsea’s show, one of her Production Assistants came outside to tell us about a new bit that was being added to the show that they needed volunteers for. The new segment involves Chelsea pretending to be a detective who solves weird and obscure mysteries. The P.A. wanted to know if any of us in the audience had any mysteries in our life that needed solving. Now, mind you, Blaze had spent that entire morning while in line complaining about the fact that his agent never sends him out on acting auditions. So, I immediately raised my hand and yelled out, “My friend here has a mystery that needs solving! He needs to know why he never has any auditions!” 🙂 The P.A. really liked Blaze’s “mystery” and took down his information and said she might be calling to book him for a segment. Sure enough, last week he got a call saying they would be filming his mystery on Friday if he was available!!!! And, being the nice guy that he is, Blaze asked the P.A. if I could tag along. She said that while I couldn’t watch the actual taping, I could hang out in Chelsea’s green room all day. So, of course, I did! And, let me tell you, I could not have been more excited!!!! I literally didn’t sleep a wink the night beforehand!!!!! LOL

Blaze and I arrived at the Digital Media Center, where Chelsea Lately is taped, at around 10:30 a.m. on Friday morning and were led immediately to the green room. For those of you not familiar with industry lingo, a “green room” is a sort of waiting room for performers. It’s a place where actors or musicians can hang out and relax before going on stage. Chelsea’s green room is not actually green, but silver, and I could not have been more FLOORED to be seeing it in person!!! I couldn’t help but think about all of Chelsea’s famous guests who had sat in that room at one time or another. The fact that I was now sitting there was mind-boggling to me! I mean, who in the heck am I to be in the green room of the Chelsea Lately show????

Since I knew beforehand that I would not be able to watch the actual taping of Blaze’s segment, the two of us decided to really live it up while waiting in the green room! And, of course, I just had to take pictures of absolutely EVERYTHING! 🙂

Sitting in the make up chair;

modeling with the celeb photographs on the wall;

a super cute pic of Chelsea and Chuy;

the green room door with Michelle Trachtenberg’s name on it (she was the celebrity guest the previous evening);

and just hanging out. 🙂

But my favorite part of the green room had to be Chelsea’s “guest book” – a little book which all of the celebrity guests sign before going on air to be interviewed.

I cannot tell you how much fun I had going through that book and reading all of the messages that celebs had written to Chelsea. Included in the book were messages from Jamie Kennedy, Roselyn Sanchez, Dr. Drew, Jenny McCarthy, Perez Hilton, Khloe Kardashian, Kris Kardashian, Taryn Manning, former Spice Girl Mel B, Vivica A. Fox, and, my personal fave, The Hills’ Lo Bosworth (pictured above).

At one point during the day, frequent round table guest and Chelsea Lately “Staff Homosexual” Guy Branum walked by the green room and I just about died of excitement!!!! I was too scared to talk to him, so Blaze ran outside and asked him to pose for a picture with me. YAY! Guy was super nice in person and actually ventured into the green room quite a few times during the day. 🙂

But the biggest highlight of the day for me was when Chuy, Chelsea’s assistant, visited the green room to introduce himself to everyone. Chuy was dressed up in a little policeman outfit for the segment they were taping and looked absolutely adorable!! Not only did he give me a hug, but he also kissed me on the cheek and I could not have been more excited! He seemed like such an incredibly sweet man! All in all, I had an ABSOLUTE blast spending the day at the Chelsea Lately show!! Ironically enough, though, Chelsea ended up running out of time and wasn’t able to tape Blaze’s segment. But you know what that means, don’t you??? Yes sir, we get to go back another day to do it all over again! YAY! My fingers are crossed that this time I’ll get to meet Chelsea!!!!!! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Chelsea Lately is filmed at the Digital Media Center, which is located at 12312 West Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles. You can get tickets to watch a live taping here. You can catch the Chelsea Lately show weeknights at 11 p.m. on E!

April 30, 2009December 14, 2009

The Chelsea Lately Show!

My celeb obsession as of late is the E! Channel talk show Chelsea Lately and its comedienne host Chelsea Handler. I only discovered the late night show about a month ago and I’d say it took me, oh, maybe one episode to become absolutely, one hundred percent addicted! I honestly do not understand how I was not watching this show from the very beginning!!! As Liz Smith recently stated in the New York Post, “Where have I been all of Chelsea Handler’s life?” She is HILARIOUS! I have never laughed out loud in my entire life the way I do while watching her show. In fact, one of my good friend’s husbands has banned her from reading Chelsea’s books in bed at night, because she cracks up so much that she shakes the bed and keeps him up. LOL LOL LOL I’ve even made it a goal to be a guest on the round table portion of Chelsea’s show before the end of the year. Hey, if Perez Hilton can do it, I sure can! Trust me, I’m a lot funnier than he is! Anyway, when I heard that audience tickets for Chelsea Lately were available online, I just had to sign up for some so I could stalk it! I enlisted my good friend, Blaze, to come along with me to the taping, as he is also a huge fan of the show. I mean, honestly, who isn’t?

So, bright and early Tuesday morning, Blaze and I headed out to West L.A. for the show. The taping was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. and we were informed to arrive at the studio early to ensure getting a seat. So, having the type-A personality that I have, I made sure Blaze and I arrived at the studio with plenty of time to spare. In fact, when we parked our car in the audience parking lot at approximately 10:30 a.m., I was afraid we were in the wrong place as there was no other car in sight (empty parking lot pictured above)! LOL As we walked into the studio lobby (three hours early), the guard on duty looked at us with confusion on his face. “You do know that you’re extremely early?” he asked us. “Usually people don’t start lining up until around 12:30 p.m.” LOL LOL LOL True to his word, Blaze and I were the only people in line until just around that time.

At just about 1:30 p.m., the security guard led us through a metal detector and then into the studio. Unfortunately, no cameras of any kind are allowed in the studio, so I had to settle for taking some pictures outside while waiting in line. 🙂

The studio is SUPER TINY, but otherwise looks pretty much exactly as it does on TV. There was only room for what looked to be about 75 audience members, so the whole thing was a pretty intimate affair. Every audience member had a great view of the stage, no matter where they were sitting. Because we were the first people in line, Blaze and I were seated in the second row. The first row is reserved for VIPs. Even though all of the seats in the studio are pretty much great, I was FLOORED to be sitting so close to the front. The show pretty much got started immediately after the audience was seated, which I was shocked about. It’s a VERY fast taping without a lot of waiting around, which is very different from how live tapings are usually done. I’ve sat in the audience of quite a few sitcoms in my day and the filming of those can take up to eight hours!!!!! The taping of Chelsea’s show took all of about 25 minutes. I’m not joking! Love it!

Chelsea’s round table for the evening consisted of comedians Sarah Colonna, T.J. Miller, and Josh Wolf and they were all brought out first .

Then, Chelsea’s assistant, Chuy, whom I LOVE, was introduced. Of course, Chuy is ADORABLE in person!!

Then, my girl, Chelsea walked out. In person, Chelsea is tall, but very thin, which I was actually surprised about as she is constantly joking about her weight. I thought maybe there was something we weren’t seeing on TV, but she’s actually quite thin in real life. And super cute! After Chelsea was introduced, she performed her opening monologue which she nailed in just one take! As an actress, I was really impressed with this, as I know sometimes it can take up to 30 takes to get a shot right.

After the monologue, Chelsea walked over to the round table and began filming the portion of the show where she and her comedian guests make fun of celebrities and pop culture. Which, in my opinion, is the best part! 🙂 The taping of Chelsea Lately is pretty much done in real time, as if it was being broadcast live. It was so weird to see. There were no “Cuts!” or re-shoots – Chelsea and her guests were pretty much just left alone to do their thing. And they were HILARIOUS! There was actually a comedian/emcee on duty, whose job was to tell us what was going on during the taping and also to tell us when to laugh. Before taping began, he said about a hundred times, “You really have to support Chelsea and her guests and laugh even if you do not think something is funny.” Does he not realize what show he is working for? It’s ALWAYS funny! Literally every time anyone made a joke, the emcee would mime laughing so that we would know what to do. LOL I really wanted to tell him, “Look, this is Chelsea Lately – trust me, we’re gonna laugh! You don’t need to do ANYTHING!” And that’s pretty much exactly what happened. Everyone in the audience was cracking up the entire time, but it sure wasn’t because of the emcee. 🙂 Note to the Chelsea Handler staff – if you ever need to cut costs, the emcee job is pretty much irrelevant. LOL

During the commercial break before the celebrity guest was introduced, Chelsea came out into the audience to sign books for anyone who brought one. Which I, of course, did! 🙂 Chelsea signed my book and was very nice, but sadly it was over too fast. I didn’t even get to tell her how much I love her show. 🙁 Blaze said to me “That’s the fasted I’ve ever seen anyone sign an autograph in my life!” LOL

Chelsea’s celebrity guest during our taping was My Name Is Earl’s Nadine Velazquez and, sadly, I wasn’t really impressed with her at all. I got the impression that she really thought a lot of herself and, to be honest, she was a boring interviewee. : ( Such a bummer!! Chelsea was hilarious, as always, but I wish we had gotten to see a better guest.

After what was about a six minute interview with Nadine, Chelsea performed her closing monologue (again, only one take!) and that was it. The show was over. As always, at the end of the taping, Chuy came out into the audience to shake everyone’s hand, including mine. 🙂 Chuy really seemed like a sweet, sweet man. I absolutely loved him! One girl in the audience asked if she could have a hug instead of a handshake and he happily obliged. It was really cute. 🙂

I HIGHLY recommend stalking the Chelsea Lately show if you are in the L.A. area!!!! Not only is it a great show to watch live, but the taping moves extremely fast, so it doesn’t take up your whole day, as the taping of other shows do. I would recommend booking tickets at least six weeks in advance, as it took me about ten attempts before I was actually able to book them.

You can barely see the back of my head in the above screen capture. LOL 🙂

UPDATE – This blog post was written over six months ago and I have heard that Chelsea Lately’s audience has grown significantly during that time. So, to be on the safe side, if you are attending a taping, I would show up at least three hours prior to showtime to ensure yourself a seat.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Chelsea Lately is filmed at the Digital Media Center, which is located at 12312 West Olympic Boulevard in Los Angeles. You can get tickets to a Chelsea Lately taping here. I’d recommend showing up about 1 and 1/2 hours prior to the taping to ensure yourself a seat. If you don’t live in the area you can still catch Chelsea weeknights at 11 p.m. on E!