Stu’s House from "Scream"

Stu's House from Scream (1 of 1)

At the risk of my October postings turning into a full-fledged Scream-fest (and there ain’t nothing wrong with that, honestly!), I’m coming at ya again with another locale from the 1996 horror flick – the Tomales-area farmhouse where Stuart Macher (Matthew Lillard) lived.  Situated up a long, winding driveway and barely visible from the road, the pad is typically off-limits to passersby.  But I had the amazing good fortune of seeing it up-close-and-personal during my 2016 visit to Sonoma County.  As fate would have it, I happened to drop by on a Saturday morning, at which time a wedding was being set up on the premises.  While I was posing for the above photo, one of the party planners pulled up, took pity on me and asked if I wanted to come onto the property for a better look.  I just about died right on the spot, stuttered out a “YES!” and promptly hopped in my car and followed her up the driveway, practically hyperventilating the entire way!  It was definitely a day for the record books!

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In real life, Stu’s house boasts 5,500 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 baths (3 with clawfoot tubs and marble counters procured from a hotel in San Francisco), a formal dining room, a library, 4 fireplaces (though one is covered over), 2 wood stoves, fir wood detailing throughout, a gourmet kitchen with a walk-in pantry, a grand staircase, rear and front foyers, a 3-car garage with a bonus room upstairs, 298 acres of land, creek frontage, 2 barns, 2 guest cottages, and a span of eucalyptus groves.

Stu's House from Scream (9 of 34)

I was a little uncertain about the home’s provenance when I originally published this post.  Thankfully, a fellow stalker named Mandy went on a deep dive into the nitty-gritty of the property’s history as well as that of its original owners and has filled in all the blanks!  Honestly can’t thank you enough, Mandy!  A real estate listing I came across early on in my research stated that the dwelling was built in 1991 by a Mr. and Mrs. McPhail, who were in their 70s, and was designed to match to the Victorian where Mr. McPhail’s grew up – a factoid that just about made me, ahem, scream!  A replica of Stu’s house existing somewhere in Marin County?  I couldn’t think of anything cooler!  As Mandy discovered, though, virtually none of the listing’s reporting was correct.  The property was actually commissioned by John (aka “Jack”) and Carolyn MacPhail, not McPhail, who were in their late 50s, not 70s.  A photo of a plaque displayed on the front of Stu’s house that was posted to Instagram by a guy named Ben who attended the Scream Comes Home event in 2018 further confirms Mandy’s information.  It also shows that the pad was completed in 1990, not 1991.

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But the erroneous reporting doesn’t end there.  Mandy further uncovered that John’s childhood home is located at 7 Marin Street in San Rafael.  That’s it below.  As you can see – and as I was sorely disappointed to discover – it looks absolutely nothing like Stu’s.  It’s not even a Victorian!

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Now, the house next door at 11 Marin Street, where John’s father was born and raised and where a cousin of the family lived during his childhood, does bear some resemblance to the Macher residence.  Some.  While it is Victorian and has bay windows and a porch overhang similar to the Scream home, that’s certainly not enough to claim it is a replica of it – or even that it was inspired by it.  So yeah, the whole story about the Tomales property being built to match John’s childhood home appears to be just that, a story – probably intended to make the history of the place more interesting and therefore more attractive to buyers.

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Per their obituaries, the MacPhails both passed away in their Tomales home in 1991 at the age of 59 – John from a “brief illness” on March 6th and Carolyn “after being in ill health for several years” on November 12.  Matthew Lillard discusses the deaths in an on-set interview that is included in the Behind the ‘Scream’ documentary featured in The Ultimate Scream Collection DVD box set.  He says, “It’s kind of, like, an eerie house.  Actually, two people have died in this house.  Literally – two people have died in the house.  So coming up the hill and you’re doing a Wes Craven film and somebody tells you, ‘Oh, by the way, two people have died in the house,’ it brings on an entirely new thing.”  Though both John and Carolyn passed away from natural causes, Matthew is right – it’s certainly eerie!

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Stu's House from Scream (4 of 34)

The MacPhails left the sprawling property to their children and it sat vacant in the years following, which I’m sure is a big part of how it came to be used in Scream.  A huge, deserted and unoccupied Victorian situated up a lonely dark road?  There’s no better spot to shoot the final sequence of a horror movie!  Of the find, Wes Craven said in a 1996 interview that my friend Ashley of The Drewseum was kind enough to email me a scan of, “We wanted Stu’s home to have elements of a dark and haunted Gothic house and it needed to be very isolated.  We looked a long time for some place that had all of those elements.  The house we found was actually brand new.  It had not quite been completed when both of the owners died, and the family of younger kids didn’t quite know what to do with it.  When we found it and offered to use it, they were very happy to let us.  The art department went in there and did an enormous number on the house.  We put in all sorts of beams, and stained-glass windows, darkened all the colors, and brought in all the set dressings.  It was done in a sort of farmhouse style, and we changed it into a Gothic farmhouse.”

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Production designer Bruce Miller furthers in the same article, “It just doesn’t make sense that in a normal American home, murders could be happening in the upstairs bedrooms, and people watching television downstairs wouldn’t know about it.  So the house had to be big enough, and the rooms had to be separated by enough distance, to convince the audience that these things could really be happening, without the other people knowing about it.  This particular house was perfect for that, because it was very convoluted, and kind of Victorian on the inside.  It was actually a little scary to some extent, and then we added big paintings and a chandelier.  Because the house was so Victorian on the inside, we didn’t want to fight that, but we didn’t want to over-stress it either.  We even put a volleyball net in the front yard, because it had to be believable that a normal teenager lives there with his parents, who just happened to be away for the weekend.”

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The production team must have really, ahem (again), screamed with excitement when they saw that the home’s garage is situated on the rear side of the property, not at all visible from the front, making Tatum Riley’s (Rose McGowan) death scene (which was a part of the original script) – as well as the fact that her body is never seen by any of the partygoers – all the more feasible.

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Stu’s house was put up for sale in November 2011 for $2,795,000, but there were no takers.  It was eventually removed from the market, then returned and finally sold in June 2014 for $2,820,000.  Today, it is known as “Spring Hill Estate” and, as I mentioned, serves as a wedding venue.  Despite being remote, isolated, situated on a lonely hill and the site of one of filmdom’s most famous horror movie sequences, it is nothing short of peaceful and pastoral, not to mention stunningly beautiful.  I can think of no better place to host a wedding in Northern California.  The nuptials we saw being set up, situated in one of the property’s barns, looked like something out of a magazine!  Rustic, inviting and lit with hundreds upon hundreds of twinkle lights, it was all I could do not to try to secure myself an invite!

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Scream’s epically bloody finale, which counts for a whopping 42 minutes of screen time, was comprised of one scene, Scene #118.  Broken up into more than 20 different parts, the sequence, titled “People live, people die,” makes up the entire third act of the film.  And all of it takes place at Stu’s house!  Pretty much every single area of the residence is featured, including the front exterior.

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Stu's House from Scream (1 of 1)

The pad looks exactly the same in person as it did onscreen, minus the large stained glass window situated over the front door which was a prop added for filming, I am guessing to give it even more of that Gothic Victorian farmhouse feel.

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Stu's House from Scream (15 of 34)

For the shoot, the home’s real life dining room was transformed into the Macher family’s TV room, where audiences were gifted with Randy Meeks’ (Jamie Kennedy) legendary break-down of “the rules” of horror movies.  As you can see in the MLS image below from the property’s 2014 sale, even without Stu’s red floral curtains and rust-colored couch, the room is very recognizable from its cameo.

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And the kitchen is even more so!  Looking at MLS images of it makes my heart beat a little faster!  The room is absolutely frozen in time from its big screen appearance!

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The only thing missing is a set of ceiling-mounted cabinets that ran along the edge of the space in Scream.  I am not sure if said cabinets were a real element of the house since removed or just set dressing, but I am guessing the former.

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The 2014 listing mentions that the home boasts “a kitchen desk and planning center” which cracked me up as that is the spot where Stu sits while speaking on the phone with Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell).  It is there that he utters his famous line, “My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me!”

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The residence’s breakfast nook also makes an appearance in Scream;

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as does the foyer;

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foyer

one of the bedrooms;

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the attic (of which, Wes Craven says, “The attic wasn’t very creepy, so we darkened it down, and filled it up with all sorts of strange stuff.”);

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and, of course, the garage!

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Had to do it!

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Stu's House from Scream (33 of 34)

As I mentioned earlier, the garage is situated on the back side of the house . . .

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. . . completely hidden from view from the front.

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It is in the middle garage door that Tatum meets her untimely end and from the dormer above it and to the left that Sidney jumps out of the attic and first sees her body.

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The finale sequence, which took a whopping 21 nights to shoot, was so grueling that cast and crew started referring to it as “the scene from hell” and “the longest night in horror history.”  It was not long before “I survived Scene 118” became a running joke and t-shirts bearing the phrase were made for everyone involved, as seen in the still from ’Scream’: The Inside Story below.

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All I could think while making screen captures for this post was how in the heck did they ever get the house clean again following filming?

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Stu's House from Scream (32 of 34)

Fun fact – Dewey Riley (David Arquette) was originally set to die at the end of Scream, but Wes Craven had a last-minute change of heart and shot the bit with the deputy being taken out of Stu’s house on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance on the final night of filming, as he had a feeling audiences were going to fall in love with him.  And he was right!  I can’t imagine the sequels without Dewey!

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Per the Spring Hill Estate website, Stu’s house is quite a hotbed for filming, with more than 15 productions lensed on the premises.  I was only able to identify 2, though.

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The interior is utilized briefly as the home where Sara Gold (Allison Paige) lives with her parents in the 2016 drama The Dog Lover.

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And Stu’s house also serves as the residence of Stella Davis (Dorian Brown Pham) in 2017’s Running Wild.

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Coincidentally, shortly after I began penning this article, the Grim Cheaper texted me a link about a Halloween party taking place at Stu’s house on October 31st, hosted by the same guys who put on Scream Comes Home.  Apparently, the homeowners have recently decided to move onto the premises and though the place will still be available periodically as a special event venue, this will be the last time it is opened up to Scream fans.  You can get your tickets here!  And if you are interested in checking out more interior shots of Stu’s house, the Real to Reel website has some fabulous ones from the Scream Comes Home event.

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Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Mandy for unearthing so much of this home’s history and to my friend Ashley, of The Drewseum, for sharing several articles about the property with me!  Smile

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: Spring Hill Estate, aka Stu’s house from Scream, is located at 3871 Tomales Petaluma Road in Tomales.  The home currently serves as a special event venue.  You can visit its official website here.  The residence is situated up a long private drive and only the back of it (which did not appear in the movie) is visible from the street.  (Pictured below is the view of it from the road.)  You can catch an up-close glimpse of it, though, by attending the Halloween party being held there on October 31st.  More information can be found here.

Stu's House from Scream (1 of 34)

The L.A. Filming Locations of “Scream 2”

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“Hello, Sidney.”  Two simple words, spoken by a gravelly-voiced serial killer shrouded by a Father Death mask in one of Scream’s early scenes, and the face of the horror movie genre was changed forever. An empty house and a ringing telephone suddenly had a much more sinister meaning.  Scream, which will be celebrating its twentieth anniversary on December 20th, went on to spawn three sequels, a 2015 television series, and countless imitations.  Though the original film was shot in its entirety in Northern California and Scream 4 was filmed in Michigan, large portions of 1997’s Scream 2 and all of 2000’s Scream 3 were lensed in Los Angeles.  I recently went on a trek to track down all of the franchise’s SoCal locales.  Today, I will be covering Scream 2 and on Monday, Scream 3.  Enjoy!

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1. Rialto Theatre (1023 Fair Oaks Avenue, South Pasadena) – Scream 2 opens upon a chaotic scene at a sneak preview of Stab – the franchise’s movie-within-a-movie – which is taking place at the supposed Ohio-area Rialto Theatre.  The historic 1925 venue is actually located in South Pasadena and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Though the exterior was dressed with an animatronic knife-wielding arm for the shoot, the Rialto is still very recognizable in person.  Don’t go hoping to catch a horror movie screening on the premises, though.  The 1,200-seat theatre, one of the last single-screen venues in L.A., was closed to the public in 2010.  Plans are currently in the works to re-open it, though.  In 2015, the Lewis A. Smith-designed property was purchased by a developer who intends to restore the site to its original glory.  In the meantime, fans can enjoy the venue via its many onscreen appearances in such productions as A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Modern Family (Season 6’s “Crying Out Loud”), The Kentucky Fried Movie, and The Player.  (You can read a more in-depth post I wrote about the location back in 2008 here.)

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2. Vista Theatre (4473 Sunset Drive, Los Feliz) – Though the lobby of the Rialto was utilized in the Stab sneak preview scene, the auditorium where the actual screening took place is located a good twelve miles west.  The spot where Maureen (Jada Pinkett Smith) met her rather public untimely end is the Vista Theatre in Los Feliz.  Another Lewis A. Smith creation, the single-screen venue features both Spanish and Egyptian detailing.  Originally opened to the public as the Lou Bard Playhouse on October 16th, 1923, the Vista still screens films today.  An onscreen regular, the theatre has also appeared on 90210 (Season 3’s Women on the Verge”), in the movies True Romance and Get Shorty, and in Pharrell William’s “Happy” music video.  [The unusual Egyptian-themed bathroom where Phil (Omar Epps) was stabbed to death is a spot I am still trying to track down.  It does not appear to have been a bathroom at either the Vista or the Rialto and, though several crew members have said otherwise, I am leaning towards it having been a set.]

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Vista Theatre from Scream 2-4516

3. Stab Casey’s House (5730 Busch Drive, Malibu) – “You know, I don’t even know you and I dislike you already.”  So says Casey (Heather Graham) to the Ghostface killer in Stab’s opening scene, which was shot at a sleek wood and glass house in Malibu Park.  The 4-bedroom, 3-bath residence was designed by Doug Rucker in 1961 and then once again renovated by the prolific Malibu architect in 1989.  It is in the home’s sprawling manicured backyard, underneath a massive tree, that Stab Casey meets her grizzly end in a sequence that mimics Casey Becker’s (Drew Barrymore) death from the original Scream.  Segments of the scene shot at the house also popped up in 2011’s Scream 4.  (I covered this location in greater detail and told the story of the hunt to track it down here.)

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4. Omega Beta Zeta Sorority House (2186 East Crary Street, Altadena) – While serving as a sober sister for the night (“Drink with your brain!  That’s our motto!”), Cici (Sarah Michelle Gellar) finds herself alone in the Omega Beta Zeta sorority house, where she becomes the third victim of the Ghostface killer, who stabs her and throws her off of a third-floor balcony.  Both the interior and the exterior of a large Victorian-style estate in Altadena known as the Crank House were used to represent the Omega Beta Zeta pad in the film.  Originally constructed in 1882 by a New Yorker named James Crank, the massive 7-bedroom, 4-bath, 6,450-square-foot property, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is not very visible from the road.  The stately manse can be viewed in countless productions, though.  The Crank House posed as the supposed New Orleans residence belonging to Roger Strong (Martin Sheen) and his family in Catch Me If You Can.  The location also served as Martin Sheen’s home in another production – on the television series The West Wing the interior was used as the interior of the Bartlett Family Farm in New Hampshire.  The Crank House is also where Donald “Ducky” Mallard (David McCallum) lives on NCIS and it belonged to Trunchbull (Pam Ferris) in the 1996 movie Matilda.  (You can read my previous post on this location here.)

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Omega Beta Zeta House Scream 2-1030105

5. Delta Lambda Zeta Sorority House (350 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena) – At the beginning of Scream 2, Hallie (Elise Neal) drags Sidney (Neve Campbell) to a “martini mixer” at Windsor College’s Delta Lambda Zeta sorority house.  While there, Sorority Sister Lois (Rebecca Gayheart) and Sorority Sister Murphy (Portia de Rossi) try to woo Sidney into joining their ranks by uttering such classic lines as, “Hi. No I really mean that. Hi.”  The Delta Lambda Zeta residence clears out once party-goers learn of Cici’s death and Sidney once again finds herself alone in a house, on the receiving end of a “Hello, Sidney” phone call, and eventually face-to-face with a masked killer.  Filming of the scene did not take place at a sorority house at all, but at an enormous 8-bedroom, 4-bath, 7,913-square-foot private residence located in Pasadena’s South Arroyo neighborhood.

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6. Kerckhoff Coffeehouse (Kerckhoff Hall, Level 2, UCLA, 308 Westwood Plaza, Westwood) – While at a Windsor College coffee shop over a couple of Baskin-Robbins sundaes, Randy schools Dewey Riley (David Arquette) on “the rules” of making a successful movie sequel.  “Number 1 – The body count is always bigger.  Number 2 – The death scenes are always much more elaborate.  More blood.  More gore.  Carnage candy.  Your core audience just expects it.  And Number 3 – If you want your sequel to become a franchise, never, ever, under any circumstances, assume the killer is dead.”  (The third rule is only heard in its entirety in the Scream 2 trailer.)  The rules segment was shot at UCLA’s first coffee shop, Kerckhoff Coffeehouse, originally established in 1976.  The charming café, which is open to the public, offers espresso drinks, pastries, soups, and sandwiches.  And while it did serve Baskin-Robbins ice cream at the time of the filming, sadly that is no longer the case.

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Kerckhoff Coffeehouse Scream 2-5004

7. Lecture Hall/Hallway (Humanities Building, A51, UCLA, 415 Portola Plaza, Westwood) – It is at a large auditorium inside one of the University of California, Los Angeles’ oldest structures, the Humanities Building, that Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey look through some of Gale’s crowd footage in the hopes of identifying Ghostface.  Though the two are first shown walking through a hallway at Agnes Scott College in Georgia (which was largely used to portray Windsor College in Scream 2) while looking for a room with a VCR to play the footage, the scenery then flips to Humanities A51, a vast UCLA lecture hall, where Gale and Dewey wind up rekindling an old flame.  It is not long before Ghostface shows up and destroys their rendezvous, though.  Gale is subsequently chased by the killer through a Humanities Building hallway and then into a large sound booth that was actually a set built at a recording studio in Burbank.

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Humanities A51 UCLA-1160260

Originally known as Kinsey Hall, the Humanities Building was shuttered for renovations in 2005 and renamed.  The exterior of the site was also utilized in Scream 2, in a later scene in which Gale rushes outside to make a frantic phone call to the police to announce that Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) is the killer, while Debbie Salt (Laurie Metcalf) looks on.

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Humanities Building UCLA-1160238

8. Officer Andrews and Officer Richards Death Scene (Green Street in between South Los Robles Avenue and Madison Avenue, Pasadena) – The harrowing scene in which Officer Andrews (Philip Pavel) and Officer Richards (Christopher Doyle) are murdered, leaving Sidney and Hallie trapped inside of their locked, crashed police car with Ghostface, was lensed on a quiet tree-lined stretch of Green Street in Pasadena’s Playhouse District.  After Sidney and Hallie escape from the destroyed cruiser by discreetly crawling over the unconscious masked killer, the two run east on Green towards South Oakland Avenue, whereupon Sidney decides to head back to the car to remove Ghostface’s mask and learn the killer’s true identity.  Ghostface has long since made his getaway, though, and as Sidney walks to the accident scene, Hallie is murdered while standing in front of the First Church of Christ Scientist.

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Officer Andrews Richards Death Scene Scream 2-1120910

9. Exterior of Windsor College Theatre (Kerckhoff Hall, UCLA, 308 Westwood Plaza, Westwood) – It’s back to UCLA for the start of the film’s climactic finale.  Kerckhoff Hall, erected in 1931, stands in for the exterior of the Windsor College Theatre, where Agamemnon, the play Sidney is starring in, is set to be staged.  In the segment, Sidney rushes through UCLA’s Election Walk . . .

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. . . and up the steps of the Collegiate Gothic-style building, though as soon as she steps inside, she is standing about 15 miles away at a theatre in downtown L.A.

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Kerkhoff Hall Exterior UCLA-1160227

The movie’s final scene, in which Gale forgoes her moment in the spotlight in order to accompany Dewey to the hospital, was also shot in front of Kerckhoff Hall.  The building is named in honor of William G. Kerckhoff, a businessman/philanthropist who was not only an original founder of Beverly Hills, but was also responsible for helping to develop hydroelectric power and founded the Southern California Gas Corporation in 1910.

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Kerkhoff Hall Exterior UCLA-1160218

10. Variety Arts Theatre (940 South Figueroa Street, downtown L.A.) – The interior of the Windsor College Theatre, where Scream 2’s bloody climax takes place, was portrayed by the Variety Arts Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.  It is there, onstage amongst the crumbling Agamemnon scenery, that the Ghostface identities are finally revealed and Sidney and Cotton form an unlikely alliance.  The Variety Arts Theatre was originally constructed as part of the headquarters of the Friday Morning Club, an organization for women, in 1924.  Designed by Allison and Allison, Architects, the five-story Neo-Italian Renaissance-style property, now known as the Variety Arts Center, is comprised of offices, meeting space, and two theatres.  It is the larger, lower-level venue, originally named The Playhouse, that was featured in Scream 2.  After remaining largely closed since the late ‘80s, the Variety Arts was leased by the Los Angeles branch of the Hillsong Church in 2015.  Renovations are currently underway and the Pentecostal organization is expected to begin holding services on the premises in 2017.  Because of the renovation, I was not able to get inside to take photos, but you can see some interior images of it here.  The Variety Arts Theatre also made an appearance in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

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The one location I have as yet been unable to track down (aside from the theatre bathroom featured in the opening scene) is the film theory classroom where loveable film geek Randy Meeks (Jamie Kennedy) discussed the inferiority of sequels with fellow film theory students Cici, Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) and Film Class Guy #1 (Joshua Jackson).  (How would Randy make sequels better? He’d “let the geek get the girl!”)  Originally lensed at Agnes Scott College’s Winter Theatre in the Dana Fine Arts Building, the segment was later re-shot in Los Angeles in order to give Sarah Michelle Gellar more screen time.  While I do know via several cast and crew members that the reshoot took place at UCLA, I have not been able to pinpoint exactly where.  One UCLA employee I spoke with thought that filming might have taken place in Moore 1003 in Moore Hall, but I was able to see that room in person a couple of weeks ago and it does not seem to be the correct spot.

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As you can see below and above, the two rooms do not appear to be one and the same.  Granted, the space could have been remodeled in the 19 years since Scream 2 was filmed, but there is just not enough that matches up structurally for me to believe it is the right spot.  I’d welcome any help any of my fellow stalkers can give me with this one.

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Stay tuned for Monday’s post on the L.A. locations featured in Scream 3!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

The American Cement Building from “Scream 3”

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While I am admittedly not a fan of MacArthur Park, there is a property situated on the border of it that I would absolutely LOVE to live in – The American Cement Building.  Mike from, MovieShotsLA, pointed out the dramatically stunning structure many moons ago during one of our very first stalks together and I have been obsessed with it ever since.  And while Mike also informed me that the edifice had appeared in the 2000 horror flick Scream 3, for some reason I never thought to blog about the place during my Haunted Hollywood postings.  That changes today!

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The American Cement Building was constructed in 1964 and originally served as the American Cement Company’s headquarters.  The Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall (DMJM) architecture firm designed the 13-story structure, which was, fittingly, manufactured out of reinforced concrete.

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American Cement Building Scream 3 (14 of 25)

The north and south sides of the building are covered in latticework comprised of 450 X-shaped pieces of precast concrete.  While the design adds beauty to the structure’s façade and is striking to look at, it serves a functional objective, as well.  According to the Los Angeles Conservancy website, “The primary purpose of the latticework is to provide external support for the structural system so the building’s interior can be free of columns.”

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American Cement Building Scream 3 (18 of 25)

The American Cement Building underwent a multi-million dollar renovation in 2002 during which time the office spaces were transformed into 71 live/work lofts.  You can check out some great interior photographs of the property here.  The units – and their views – are breathtaking!

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In Scream 3, The American Cement Building housed the office of horror movie producer John Milton (Lance Henriksen).

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At the time of the filming, the interior of the building was far less modern than it is today.

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I absolutely LOVE the fact that Milton had a diving board attached to his window in the flick.  Anyone care for a swim?  Winking smile

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The American Cement Building also appeared in Pharrell Williams’ music video “Come Get It Bae,” which featured Miley Cyrus.

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The building’s parking garage was where The Bride (Uma Thurman) learned how to wiggle her toe again in Kill Bill: Vol. 1.

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The Entourage movie also apparently did some filming at the building in March of this year.

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For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online. And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for telling me about this location!  Smile

American Cement Building Scream 3 (22 of 25)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The American Cement Building, from Scream 3, is located at 2404 Wilshire Boulevard in Westlake.  You can visit the building’s official website here.

Hotel Erwin from “Cougar Town”

Hotel Erwin Cougar Town (4 of 45)

I have never been a big fan of Venice Beach, but during my weeklong birthday celebration in L.A. my pals Lavonna, Kim, Katie, and Kaylee wanted to do some shopping, so I suggested hitting up Abbot Kinney Boulevard.  While there, Lavonna asked if I had any stalking to do in the area and a light bulb went on in my head.  I had long wanted to visit Hotel Erwin, where the Cul-de-Sac Crew stayed in the Season 4 episode of Cougar Town titled “Have Love Will Travel.”  Because I typically avoid Venice like the plague, though, I had yet to do so.  So the five of us headed right on over there.  (That’s Katie and Kaylee, Kim’s daughter and Lavonna’s niece, respectively, in the photo above.)

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Since Angelinos tend to be much friendlier toward tourists than locals (at least when it comes to stalking), I always utilize Lavonna’s thick Southern accent whenever stalking with her.  (She jokes that I just use her for her voice.  Winking smile)  This particular venture was no exception.  The area of Hotel Erwin that I most wanted to see was its rooftop lounge, High, which was featured in several scenes on Cougar Town, so I promptly sent Lavonna to the front desk to inquire if we could go up there and snap some photos.  Upon drawling to the concierge, “Y’all got a rooftop bar?”, Lavonna was informed that the lounge was closed, but that we were more than welcome to head up there to check it out and take pictures.  (See, that accent works every time!)  So we did just that.  And, let me tell you, the place is nothing short of spectacular.

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High Rooftop Lounge is absolutely HUGE, encompassing the entire roof of the Erwin.

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Glass walls surround the premises, allowing for stunning beach and city views from pretty much every seat.

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I mean, check out that scenery!  Uh-ma-zing!

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Hotel Erwin, which was built in 1967, originally housed the Best Western Marina Pacific Hotel.  In 2008, the Joie de Vivre Group took over management of the site and cut its name to the “Marina Pacific Hotel.”  A short five months later, management changed once again and an extensive, multimillion-dollar renovation project was begun, during which time an entire floor of ocean-view suites and new rooftop were added to the property.  You can check out a photograph of what the structure looked like as the Best Western here.  As you can see, the hotel lacked a fifth floor and rooftop lounge at the time and looked quite a bit different than it does in comparison to the pictures below.  The site was re-dedicated as the Hotel Erwin, named in honor of owner Erwin Sokol, in mid-2009.

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Hotel Erwin Cougar Town (7 of 45)

In the “Have Love Will Travel” episode of Cougar Town, which was the Season 4 finale and one of my favorite episodes of the entire series, Jules Cobb (Courteney Cox) and the gang headed to Los Angeles for a short vacation.  While there, they stayed at Hotel Erwin.  Quite a few areas of the 119-room property were shown in the episode, including High Rooftop Lounge, where the Cul-de-Sac Crew regularly hung out.

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A night scene also took place at High.  As you can see in the screen captures below, the bar’s views are even gorgeous after the sun sets.  Oh, Grim Cheaper, I sense a field trip to Venice on the horizon!  Winking smile

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Hotel Erwin’s front entrance was also utilized in the episode.

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It was dressed quite a bit differently for the shoot.  In real life, there is no furniture or concierge desk in that area.

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The entrance does feature a little outdoor lounge, though.

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The exterior of Hotel Erwin was also briefly visible in the scene in which Travis Cobb (Dan Byrd) and Laurie Keller (Busy Phillips) discussed the fact that fate seemed to be against them being together.

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The interiors of the rooms where the gang stayed in the episode were sets and not actual Hotel Erwin rooms.  Photographs of the property’s real life accommodations can be viewed here.  As you can see, they do not match up to what appeared onscreen.

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For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.  And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Hotel Erwin Cougar Town (3 of 45)

Stalk It: Hotel Erwin, from the “Have Love Will Travel” episode of Cougar Town, is located at 1697 Pacific Avenue in Venice Beach.  You can visit the property’s official website hereHigh Rooftop Lounge is open daily, starting at 3 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Hanging Out With the Cast of “Cougar Town”

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This past Wednesday night, fellow stalker and celebrity enthusiast Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, invited me to join her in doing a little stalking of a Cougar Town event in North Hollywood, which I could NOT have been more excited about as I am a HUGE fan of the show.  Pennnnnnnny Caaaaaaaaaaan, anyone?  Anyway, as is always the case with these types of events, we were not entirely sure who from the cast would be in attendance or if we would have any luck whatsoever in getting a photograph with the actors who did, in fact, show up.  As it turned out, though, the stalking gods were DEFINITELY smiling down upon us that night as we ended up getting a picture with EVERY SINGLE ONE of the series’ stars, including Monica Gellar herself, Miss Courteney Cox!  It was quite an evening, let me tell you!  I was so darn excited I am surprised that my head did not explode!

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When I first arrived at the event I spotted E! celebrity correspondent and frequent Chelsea Lately roundtable guest Michael Yo walking around and I just about had a heart attack!  I immediately ran up to him and asked if he would be willing to pose for a picture with me and he truly could NOT have been nicer about it.  Ironically enough, I was so floored over getting my photo taken with Michael, that I kind of figured I was done for the evening – I mean, how much celebrity luck can one stalker have in a day?  Little did I know what the universe had in store for me, though!  (On a side note – Michael Yo is TALL!  I am 5’4”, but I had 4 inch heels on last night and, as you can see in the above photograph, even with those monstrous heels on, he still towered above me!)

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The first Cougar Town star to show up was Ian Gomez who plays Andy Torres on the series.  Andy was SUPER nice and I cannot tell you how cool it was to hear him say “Pennnnnnnny Caaaaaaaaaan” in person and do the little dance right in front of us!  Love it!  And when we walked back by the venue later that night after the event was over, Andy was still there signing autographs for fans!  Such an incredibly nice guy!

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Josh Hopkins showed up next and I have to say that the man is ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE in person!  And super nice!  Sigh!

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I accidentally photo-bombed Pinky’s picture with Josh, though!  As Pinky would say, “Fail!”  Major fail!  I honestly was not trying to hone in on her picture, though – I actually thought I was out of the frame while it was being taken.  I swear, I am such a douche sometimes!

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Comedian Michael McDonald, who plays Cougar Town’s wine bar owner Wayne and who is also a producer/writer/director of the series, showed up next.  He was emceeing the event and I think he was slightly annoyed with me as Pinky and I had decided to exchange cameras at that point so that we could take photographs of each other and I could just not get hers to work right.  I know, I know – like I said, I am such a douche sometimes!

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Busy Phillips was up next and I was STUNNED at how STRIKINGLY BEAUTIFUL she was in person, way more so than she appears to be on TV.  She is honestly one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen in real life!  She is also much taller and thinner than I expected her to be.  I saw Neve Campbell filming Party of Five in Pasadena a couple of years back and had the exact same reaction.  While Neve appears to be very average-looking onscreen, in person she literally took my breath away!  It was absolutely shocking how GORGEOUS she was in real life!  And also VERY tall and thin.  It is amazing to me how the camera just does not do justice to some people for whatever reason.  But I digress.

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Dan Byrd, whom I absolutely loved in A Cinderella Story, arrived after Busy and he was also super nice.

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Because of a major camera fail on my part, Pinky and I ended up taking our photograph with Christa Miller together.  I was SO glad to finally get a picture with Christa, because I had actually met her back in January of 2009 when my dad and I watched CSI: Miami being filmed for the first time, but for whatever reason we did not ask her for a photo and I have been kicking myself ever since!

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Christa’s husband, Cougar Town and Scrubs creator/producer/writer Bill Lawrence, was also in attendance and he could NOT have been nicer!  Pinky immediately called out to him to ask him for a photograph and he said it was the first time he had ever been asked for a picture on the red carpet.  He said he had massive amounts of respect for any fan who not only recognized a show’s writer, but also knew his or her name.  Smile

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Brian Van Holt, who plays lovable dolt Bobby Cobb on the show, arrived next and he was also SUPER nice.  To be honest, the entire cast was incredibly nice and approachable as a whole, which was refreshing to see.

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And I just had to get a photo with Extra host Jerry Penacoli, who was also – you guessed it! – SUPER nice.  Winking smile

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Courteney Cox was the last of the show’s stars to arrive and when she pulled up, the autograph hounds went absolutely nuts.  For those who have never attended a celebrity event in Hollywood, there is a group of about twenty to thirty people who make a profession out of attending these events, getting stars to sign numerous (we are talking ten to twenty to thirty!) headshots or movie posters at a time, and then subsequently selling them online.  The problem with these hounds is that they are furiously aggressive (they love to push and shove) and by having celebrities sign so many autographs at once, they use up most of the star’s time and the actual fans in attendance, who are typically not as aggressive, often wind up missing out.  Well, the security team at the Cougar Town event was hip to these hounds and informed them that they could only have ONE piece of memorabilia signed by each actor.  The hounds, of course, ignored that request and after getting their first item signed would just simply move over to a different part of the crowd, push and shove their way to the front, and try to have additional items signed.  Sadly, by the time Courteney arrived, the security was seriously frustrated over the whole thing and removed the actress from the line after just a few minutes, before we had gotten a chance to meet her, which was a COMPLETE AND TOTAL bummer.

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As luck would have it, though, the hounds ended up leaving as soon as Courteney started walking the red carpet and only a small group of us was left waiting outside of the venue.  So, during a break in interviews, we called over to Courteney to ask if she would come back over to pose for a few photos and, let me tell you, I just about died when she told us to walk over to the red carpet area and that she would pose with us there.  The security team, of course, went nuts over that and told Courteney that we weren’t allowed near the press line, but she was pretty adamant about it and, after a few minutes of discussion, she finally got them to allow it.  How incredibly nice is that??????  Now that’s a celebrity who truly cares about her fans!

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And, as promised, as soon as she completed all of her interviews, she posed with each and every one of us!  SO INCREDIBLY COOL!  LOVE HER!  LOVE HER!  LOVE HER!

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Afterwards, Pinky and her friend Mike, from the Mike the Fanboy blog, who had joined us during the event, went out to Starbucks to grab some coffee and we had an absolute blast sharing our numerous celebrity stories.  All in all, it was a fab night!

Big HUGE thank you to Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, for inviting me to this event!!!!!  It was honestly one of the coolest nights of my life!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: There is no stalking location for this one, but you can catch Cougar Town each Wednesday night at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.

Marix Tex Mex Cafe – Jennifer Aniston’s Favorite Restaurant

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Two weeks ago, while out doing some Oscar Weekend stalking, I dragged my fiancé to Marix Tex Mex Cafe in West Hollywood, a restaurant which has long been one of my girl Jen Aniston’s favorite places to dine.  And while Jen has always been pretty vocal about her love of Mexican food and margaritas, I had never actually heard of the eatery until last year when a woman in one of my acting classes mentioned that she had spotted the actress there on numerous occasions.  Well, let me tell you, I just about died upon hearing that!  For whatever reason, though, I had yet to stalk the restaurant.  So, when I realized that my fiancé and I were in the West Hollywood vicinity this past Oscar Weekend, I begged him to make a little lunchtime pit stop at the Tex Mex hot spot.  It should come as no surprise that the Grim Cheaper was not AT ALL keen on the idea of grabbing a bite to eat at a place frequented by a famous actress, as he thought the prices would be outrageously expensive.  I am happy to report, though, that Marix was EXTREMELY reasonable and that even the Grim Cheaper enjoyed himself while there!  🙂

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Marix is an absolutely ADORABLE little restaurant tucked away off of Santa Monica Boulevard on a tree-lined side street in uber-hip West Hollywood.  The eatery is small, casual, and intimate and it’s not at all hard to see why Jen frequents the place.  Not to mention the fact that it serves up some fabulous food!  Like FABULOUS!  The chicken fajitas were A-MA-ZING, as were the tortilla chips and fresh salsa.  I literally gorged myself while there.  The Marix staff also could NOT have been more friendly and I am happy to report that the place lacks any of the pretentiousness that is usually prevalent in L.A. area restaurants.  I literally cannot say enough good things about the place and wish I lived closer so that I could frequent it more often.

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Marix Tex Mex Cafe has actually been a long time favorite of Jen’s and was even mentioned way back in December of 2001 in this People Magazine article about the star.  According to my friend from acting class, Jen can usually be spotted on the restaurant’s SUPER CUTE front patio which is pictured above.  I hear Jen doesn’t frequent the place as much as she used to, though, thanks to the paparazzi who discovered the celebrity hot spot a few years ago and have been a constant presence ever since.  Other stars who have dined at the eatery include Jessica Simpson and her BFF/hair stylist Ken Paves, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, and their daughter Coco, Kate Hudson, Oliver Hudson, Ian Ziering, Brad Pitt, Angie Everhart, Dexter’s Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter, Ron Livingston, Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale, Pamela Anderson, Michelle Rodriguez, Wanda Sykes, The Biggest Loser’s Bob Harper, and Wilson Cruz of My So-Called Life fame.

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And while we didn’t run into Jen while dining there, we did spot former Bachelorette contestant Jerry Ferris at the table directly in front of us.  I noticed Jerry pretty much immediately upon sitting down, but, while I knew he was famous, neither my fiancé nor I could place who he was.  I asked our waitress if she recognized him and she in turn asked the other servers on duty, but no one seemed to have any idea whether or not he was even famous.  Am I the only person who watched Season Three of The Bachelorette????  LOL  Anyway, by that time I was going absolutely crazy because I KNEW I recognized Jerry, but could not for the life of me figure out from where.  Then all of a sudden it hit me like a ton of bricks – sitting in front of me was the man who had stolen America’s heart (or at least mine) on Jen Schefft’s season of The Bachelorette.  I had absolutely LOVED Jerry on the series and was actually lucky enough to have met him shortly after his reality TV stint ended just about five years ago.  Well, as soon as I figured out it was him, I told my fiancé I wanted to ask for a photograph, but that I felt bad since he was eating at the time, to which the Grim Cheaper said, “You ALREADY have a photograph with the guy (pictured above) – please do NOT bother him again.”  LOL  Sadly, I listened to the GC and did not go up to Jerry (HMPH!), but I really regret doing so as he had been a TOTAL sweetheart to me when I met him back in 2005.  Ah well!  Maybe I’ll run into Jerry during my next Marix stalk.  😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Marix Tex Mex Cafe is located at 1108 North Flores Street in West Hollywood.  They also have a second location which can be found at 118 Entrada Drive in Santa Monica.  You can visit the Marix website here.

SpeedZone from “Guess Who”

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This past New Year’s, my fiancé’s entire family – including his two school-age nephews – came to town to watch the Rose Parade.  Before their arrival, he scoured the internet to find some fun places in the L.A. area to take the kids after the festivities were over.  One of the ideas he came up with was to spend a few hours at SpeedZone in the City of Industry – an amusement park of sorts which features an array of kid-friendly fun such as go-kart racing, miniature golf, and a large arcade.  I have to admit that I wasn’t actually too keen on the idea at first . . . until my fiancé told me that the place was an oft-used filming location, that is.  And then I was 100 percent on board with the venue and even tried to convince everyone that we should skip the whole parade and just head straight there instead!  🙂

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SpeedZone is best known for its four go kart courses, for which it recently won the LA Magazine “Best of Los Angeles 2009” – Best Go Kart Track award.  Those four tracks include the Top Eliminator Dragster, where racers drive authentic 300 horsepower NHRA dragsters on a mini-track reaching speeds of 70 miles per hour in less than 3.5 seconds;

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the Slick Trax – an ultra-slick polished surface course which encourages spinning and can accommodate up to 15 different drivers at the same time;

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the Grand Prix – a long, single licensed-driver course based on Formula 1 and Indy Car tracks which features tight turns and a speed timer; and the Turbo Track (which I unfortunately did not get a picture of) – a course which can accommodate up to twenty drivers at a time racing in high-torque one- and two-seater cars.     Not into go karts?  Well, that’s OK, too, because SpeedZone also features an arcade which boasts over 100 games including numerous video games, air hockey tables, and, my personal favorite, skee ball machines.  There are also two 18-hole golf-courses on the premises and a cafe which serves up pizza, sandwiches, burgers, and cocktails.  Yes, you read that right, the SpeedZone Cafe has a full bar, because adults enjoy go kart racing, too, you know.  😉

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While hanging out at SpeedZone, I raced on both the Top Eliminator Dragster course and the Grand Prix course and the Grand Prix was by far my favorite.  I had an ABSOLUTE blast racing and actually thought I was burning up the course the whole way through . . .

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. . . until I got to the end and noticed my pitiful time!  Yes, the 75.249 time is mine.  As you can see, two of the other racers noted on the board pictured above completed the race in almost half the amount of time it took me!  LOL  What can I say, I am cursed with having the opposite of a lead foot.  But I had an absolute blast being there and cannot wait to go back . . . and hopefully improve my time!  🙂

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SpeedZone’s most memorable cinematic appearance was in the 2005 comedy Guess Who in the scene in which overprotective father Percy Jones (aka Bernie Mac) challenges his future son-in-law Simon Green (aka Ashton Kutcher) to a little drag race on the Grand Prix track.  The two get into a bit of a scuffle during the race and wind up veering off the track, through a large hedge, and straight into oncoming traffic.

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Contrary to what was shown in Guess Who, though, SpeedZone does not allow two people to race on the Grand Prix track at the same time.  And don’t go looking for the archway pictured above, which Bernie and Ashton drive under in the movie, either, because I could not find it anywhere, which leads me to believe that it was either a prop brought in for the filming or that it used to be a real feature of the track that was removed sometime after filming took place.

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SpeedZone also stood in for Zany Town, the Chuck E. Cheese style arcade featured in the ultra-depressing Season One episode of CSI: Miami entitled “Broken”.  The episode was actually filmed almost in its entirety on the SpeedZone premises.

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The park’s golf area was also used in “Broken”, as the “Sir Golf-A-Lot” miniature golf course, where H and the gang finally apprehended the bad guy at the end of the episode.

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SpeedZone has also been featured in the reality shows Blind Date, Amish in the City, Average Joe, Who Wants To Marry My Dad, and Dismissed, on the game show Jeopardy, and it is set to appear in an upcoming episode of the new Melrose Place.  While I was stalking SpeedZone, I just had to ask one of the employees which celebrities had visited the theme park over the years and I just about died when he told me that Jennifer Aniston had been there!  Love it!  I was even wearing my Team Aniston sweatshirt at the time.  🙂  Courteney Cox and David Arquette have also raced cars at the park.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: SpeedZone is located at 17871 Castleton Street in the City of Industry.  You can visit their website hereGuess Who was filmed on the Grand Prix track and CSI: Miami was filmed in the Electric Alley arcade and on the Speedway miniature golf course.

Courteney Cox’s House from “Cougar Town”

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While on the West Side of L.A. doing some stalking this past weekend, I dragged my fiancé out to see a few of the houses featured on one of my favorite new shows of the fall season, Cougar Town.   Now I know I’ve used the word “favorite” to describe more than one new show recently, but in all honesty there are just SO many fabulous series on TV right now that I almost need two TiVo’s to keep up with them all!  Between my new must-sees like Glee, Modern Family, Cougar Town, and Flash Forward, and my old staples of 90210, The Big Bang Theory, Chelsea Lately, and Gossip Girl, my television viewing schedule is completely FULL!!  Anyway, for those who have yet to watch, Cougar Town is an absolutely HILARIOUS show, thanks mostly to the characters of Grayson Ellis and Bobby Cobb, played by Josh Hopkins and Brian Van Holt, respectively.  If you’re not watching it yet, you really must tune in!  So, when I found the address of Jules Cobb’s (aka Courteney Cox’s) house on the series, thanks to fave website Seeing Stars, I immediately dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place!

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On Cougar Town, Jules lives in a red-roofed house at the end of a cul-de-sac in the fictional Sarasota County, Florida suburb of Gulf Haven.  In reality, though, her house and cul-de-sac (pictured above) are not located anywhere near the Sunshine State, but right here in Los Angeles.  Well, in Culver City, to be exact, just around the corner from Sony Pictures Studios.  The neighborhood where Cougar Town is filmed actually reminds me a lot of a video game I used to play as a kid named “Paperboy”.   In the game, the player, acting as a paperboy, must deliver daily newspapers to a neighborhood full of homes that look exactly alike – there are maybe five different house styles that are repeated over and over again on each street.  And that’s pretty much what the Cougar Town  neighborhood looks like.  It is a labyrinth of countless cul-de-sacs containing very similar-looking red-roofed homes.  In fact, the streets are so similar looking in Jules’ neighborhood that my fiancé and I actually got lost while there.  LOL

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The Cougar Town cul-de-sac is featured weekly in each episode’s set-up shots and in the numerous scenes which are filmed on-location in the neighborhood.  In fact, filming takes place there so often that my fiancé was absolutely convinced that the entire cul-de-sac was a set that had been built inside of a studio soundstage somewhere in Hollywood. It wasn’t until we drove up to the actual houses and he saw them with his own two eyes that he believed they were real!  LOL  And I am very happy to report that Jules’ house looks exactly the same in person as it does on the show!  

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In fact, the only difference I noticed was her front door, which on the show is a single glass door, but in real life is a double wooden door.  My guess is that producers put a false front with a fake glass door over the porch area during filming.

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The house where Jules’ cutie neighbor, Grayson, lives also looks exactly the same in person as it does onscreen.  YAY!

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Eillie Torres (aka Christa Miller) and her husband Andy (Ian Gomez) live just down the street from Jules and Grayson, but unfortunately I didn’t snap a pic of their particular house because at the time I wasn’t sure exactly which one it was.  🙁  Oh well, it looks as if I’ll just have to go back and re-stalk the place someday.  🙂

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On Cougar Town, Jules’ backyard and pool area have also been featured numerous times. 

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But, as you can see in the above aerial image, the real life house does not have a pool.  So, I am guessing that the scenes in Jules’ backyard were either filmed at a nearby house that has a pool or on a studio soundstage where a backyard set was built for the filming.

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On a side note – Last week, while on an intense hunt for the circle necklace Kristin Cavallari recently sported in the episode of The Hills entitled “Can’t Always Get What You Want”, I came across a fab website named Seen On that I wanted to share with all of my fellow stalkers.  The website, which details where to purchase clothing and jewelry worn on popular television shows and movies and by your favorite celebrities, is simply A-MA-ZING!  I literally can’t get enough of it!   And I figured that if my readers were interested in stalking locations that appear onscreen, they’d also likely be interested in stalking clothing that has appeared onscreen.  😉  So, check it out!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Courteney Cox’s house from Cougar Town  is located at 4033 Lamarr Avenue in Culver City.  Josh Hopkins’ house is located directly across the street at 4034 Lamarr Avenue.  Christa Miller and Ian Gomez’s house is just down the street at 4027 Lamarr Avenue.

The Bedtime Stories House

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Got a challenge last week from fellow stalker Owen who wanted me to find Courteney Cox’s house from the 2008 movie Bedtime Stories.   And even though I had yet to see the movie, I was actually in luck with this challenge as one of my acting classmates had worked as a production assistant on the Adam Sandler flick.   So, I immediately called her up to ask her where the house was located.  But, sadly, as is often the case with this sort of thing, she could not for the life of her remember. UGH!  But she did tell me that she thought the home might  be in Pasadena.  So, I got Mike from MovieShotsLA in on the hunt and we started our search there.  And, as usual, it wasn’t long before Mike had found the house!  He’s so the man!!  🙂  The Bedtime Stories  house is actually located on a quiet, tree-lined street in South  Pasadena, a few miles south of Pasadena proper.   And yesterday, I ran right out to stalk it.  🙂  

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The Bedtime Stories  house is absolutely adorable and looks much the same in person as it did in the movie.  And, while I was there stalking the place, I was lucky enough to get to chat with the owner, who gave me some scoop on the filming!  🙂

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She told me that some filming actually took place inside of the house, too.   Filmed inside of her home were the living room scenes;

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the kitchen scenes;

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and the backyard party scene.  

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The children’s room where Adam Sandler tells his bedtime stories, however, was built on a soundstage at Universal Studios.  The owner said that producers changed the interior of her home quite a bit for the filming and that in real life it looks much different than how it appeared on screen.  All in all, filming at her house took just about two weeks to complete.  

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A few months after the filming had been completed, producers returned to the home yet again to film one more exterior set-up shot.  Apparently, long after filming had wrapped, it was decided that a shot of the home in the rain at night was needed.  So, they brought in a huge rain machine and set it up behind the house.  So cool!

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What I found most interesting, though, was that for the scene when Keri Russell and Adam Sandler meet, producers actually painted fake parking spaces up and down the entire street in front of the house!  Apparently, they so loved the idea of Adam taking up two parking spaces and Keri giving him a hard time about it, that they created fake parking spaces along an entire city block!!  LOL  When I watched that scene while trying to locate the house the other day, I remember thinking how odd it looked for a cute little house in a cute little neighborhood to have vertical parking spaces in front of it.  LOL  Ah, the magic of the movies!  🙂

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Amazingly enough, the lines from the fake parking spaces are still visible in front of the house!   So cool!!!

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Bedtime Stories  house is located at 800 Adelaine Avenue in South Pasadena.

Courteney Cox’s Former Malibu Beach House

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According to fave website Real Estalker, Courteney Cox and David Arquette have just sold their John Lautner designed Malibu beach home for a cool $33.5 million. I stalked this unique home a couple of years ago, back when I was trying to locate Jen Aniston’s beach house. I knew the Arquettes lived on Carbon Beach, the same small stretch of land where Jen’s house is located. While searching for Jen’s house, I passed by an extremely interesting home, unlike any I had ever seen before, and I knew it had to be the Arquette’s.

At first I thought the house was extremely weird and ugly, but I must admit it has grown on me. I am starting to really like John Lautner’s unique and dramatic style of architecture. His space age inspired homes have been used in countless movies, including Charlie’s Angels, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Lethal Weapon 2, Body Double and Diamonds Are Forever.

You can see pics of the inside of Courteney’s house here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Arquette’s former beach house is located at 22426 Pacific Coast Highway on Carbon Beach. While stalking that house, you can also stalk Jen’s former home, located just down the road at 22164 Pacific Coast Highway. The Arquette’s new home is located near Paradise Cove at 27460 PCH.