The Hyatt Regency Valencia from “Twilight”

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The other Los Angeles area filming location from Twilight that I mentioned in last Wednesday’s post is the Hyatt Regency Valencia Hotel.  In Twilight, the Hyatt stood in for the Phoenix area hostelry where Bella (aka Kristen Stewart), Alice (aka Ashley Greene), and Jasper (aka Jackson Rathbone) hid out while on the run from the evil vampire James (Cam Gigandet) towards the end of the movie.  In reality, the hotel is, of course, not located anywhere near Arizona, but instead can be found just about four miles away from the home that was used as Bella’s mom’s house in the flick.  So, of course, since I was already in the area last week, I just had to stalk the place.  🙂  I found this location thanks again to the link that fellow stalker Kerry sent me last April while the first Twilight movie was still in production.  Thank you, Kerry!  🙂

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The Hyatt is, sadly, featured only briefly in Twilight, but I am happy to report that it looks very much the same in person as it did onscreen.   In the scene featuring the Hyatt, Bella, Jasper, and Alice are first shown hanging out in a hotel room discussing their current predicament.  And while the exterior set up shots for that scene were indeed filmed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia, after looking at photographs of the hotel’s rooms online, I am fairly certain that the interior filming took place elsewhere.  My best guess is that the hotel room scene was either filmed on a soundstage or at a real hotel located somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, where the rest of the movie was filmed.

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We next see Jasper and Alice in the hotel’s lobby area waiting to check out.  And, as you can see in the above photographs and screen capture, that particular scene was actually shot on location at the Hyatt Regency Valencia and the lobby area still looks pretty much the same in person as it did in Twilight.  Even the red flower paintings hanging behind the reception desk are there in real life.  🙂  Love it!

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In a subsequent scene, Bella is shown rushing out of the Hyatt Regency Valencia’s main entrance and into a waiting taxi cab.    And that pretty much covers the entire Twilight segment that took place at the Hyatt!  LOL  All told, the scenes probably last a little under 45 seconds.  As I said in the previous Wednesday’s post, though, it’s better than nothing!  🙂

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While stalking the hotel, I happened to strike up a conversation with one of the bellhops who truly could NOT have been nicer to me.  He even took the photograph of me featured at the top of this post.  🙂  According to the bellhop, the Hyatt is actually an oft-used filming location and has been featured in such series as CSI: Las Vegas, NCIS, and the reality show Make It Or Break It.  The bellhop said that a scene from Twilight was also filmed in the hotel’s parking garage, but he wasn’t sure which scene.  He also informed me that Robert Pattinson actually stayed at the Hyatt Regency Valencia for a few days during the filming of Twilight.  LOVE IT!   The Hyatt Regency Valencia is a really beautiful hotel, with a large swimming pool, picturesque gardens, and a beautiful wedding courtyard (pictured above).  I highly recommend stalking the place or even staying there while visiting the L.A. area.  Who knows – you may even wind up in RP’s former room!  🙂

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On a very random side note: Earlier today, while reading the fabulous book Twilight: Director’s Notebook, I learned that the scene pictured above, in which Bella and Edward kiss for the first time, was actually filmed in Pasadena!  Apparently, the scene was originally filmed on location in Oregon, but director Catherine Hardwicke never ended up getting the exact shot she wanted.  So, a few months later, when the cast and crew was back in California, some reshoots were done, one of which was the Bella/Edward kiss scene.  For the re-shoot, a replica of Bella’s bedroom was built at the Elk’s Lodge in Pasadena.  🙂  So, as it turns out, there are actually three L.A. area locations that were featured in Twilight.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Hyatt Regency Valencia, where Bella, Jasper, and Alice hid out in Twilight, is located at 24500 Town Center Drive in Valencia.  You can visit their website here.  The Elks Lodge in Pasadena, where Bella and Edward first kissed, is located at 400 West Colorado Boulevard.  You can visit their website here.

Lady Heather’s House

On the second season of CSI: Las Vegas we were introduced to a character whom Grissom later became very fond of named Lady Heather. On the show Lady Heather, who was played by The O.C.’s Melinda Clarke, owns an S&M fetish club in Sin City which she runs out of her extraordinary home. Lady Heather first appeared as a guest star in an episode entitled “Slaves of Las Vegas” and has since reappeared on four separate occasions, becoming something of a cult favorite for CSI fans. Her unique home also appeared in all five of the “Lady Heather” episodes and, being that it is a pretty spooky house and fits in with my Haunted Hollywood theme for this month, I dragged my dad right out to stalk it.

Lady Heather’s house is an absolutely ginormous mansion (13,393 square feet according to Zillow!!) located on a large corner lot in South Pasadena. I found the home thanks to Scott’s LA Audio Driving Tour of Pasadena, which lists many great Pasadena filming locations. It is easy to see why producers chose to use this house for the filming of CSI, as it has a very looming and dark presence, most likely due to its sheer size. For the filming of CSI, producers brought in many Gothic decorations, like large candelabras, to create a more dark and spooky atmosphere. But when you see the home in person, it becomes obvious that not much had to be done in preparation for filming due to its naturally ominous look. In person, the home looks like it could be a real life haunted house. And it actually looks like it belongs on a bayou in New Orleans rather than in the middle of Suburban Pasadena. Unfortunately I don’t own CSI on DVD, so I couldn’t get very good screen captures of the home.

In the various Lady Heather episodes, the exterior of the home is shown numerous times, especially the front door and front porch area (which unfortunately I do not have any screen captures of).

A back porch area is also shown in a special 90 minute episode from Season 3 entitled “Lady Heather’s Box”. It is the location where Grissom and the dominatrix sit down for a cup of tea.

Lady Heather’s house is a very cool place to see in person. I highly recommend stalking it if you are at all a fan of CSI or if you want to conduct your own Haunted Halloween tour. 🙂

UPDATE – This very same house was also used as the haunted mansion in the recently aired Season 3 episode of The Mentalist entitled “Red Scare”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Lady’s Heather’s house is located at 929 Buena Vista St., at the corner of Buena Vista and Meridian Avenue, in South Pasadena.