The Mansion Where Brad and Jen Got Married

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There are some events in history that people remember as if they occurred just yesterday.  For instance, my mom remembers exactly where she was, right down to what she was wearing, on November 22, 1963 when she found out that President Kennedy had been murdered.  Well, I wasn’t alive when JFK was assassinated or when man first walked on the moon.  But I do remember exactly where I was and what I was wearing on July 30thof 2000 when it was announced that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston had finally gotten married.  🙂  Now, some may not qualify that event as being historic, or even memorable, but for me it was.   I was in Hawaii with my family at the time and the day beforehand I had found out that one of my closest friends had passed away.  I was absolutely inconsolable.  My parents didn’t really know what to do with me, so they decided to bring me down to the hotel bar in the hopes that a cocktail and a sunset might bring me some sort of comfort.  As we sat at that outdoor bar watching the waves crash on the sand, I heard Jennifer Aniston’s name on the television set behind me and my ears perked up.  The announcer stated that sources had confirmed that my girl Jen had married Brad Pitt in a ceremony on a Malibu bluff the previous evening.  And it was the first time I smiled in days.  🙂   So, a few weeks ago, when I found the location of the mansion where Brad and Jen tied the knot, I just had to go stalk it.

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I had read long ago that Brad and Jen had tied the knot at a five acre seaside estate belonging to television producer Marcy Carsey (of 3rd Rock From the Sun, Roseanne, and The Cosby Show fame) that was located on the 33000 block of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.  But I had no idea of the home’s exact location.  Until I found this fabulous website, which led me to the right spot.  🙂  Yay!  From what I can tell from the few photographs released of the couple’s nuptials, the actual wedding ceremony took place on the circular patch of lawn located in front of Marcy’s home.  Their reception took place in a large tent on an empty parcel of land located just south of the estate.  You can see the wedding set up in the above paparazzi photograph, which was taken the day of Brad and Jen’s wedding.

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Unfortunately, virtually none of the home is visible from the street.  🙁

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If you head a few hundred feet up nearby Decker Canyon Road, you can just make out the outline of the mansion’s roof . . .

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. . . and you can see the empty patch of land where Brad and Jen’s reception was held.  But other than that, sadly, there’s not a whole lot to see.  🙁

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Which is why God created aerial images.  🙂  LOL  You can see a great aerial photo of Brad and Jen’s wedding mansion here.

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According to People Magazine, Brad and Jen’s wedding cost over $1 million and featured 50,000 flowers, a 13 minute fireworks display, four live bands, and a gospel choir!  Their 200 person guest list was strictly A-List, and included Courteney Cox and David Arquette, Edward Norton and Salma Hayek (who were dating at the time), Cameron Diaz, Melissa Etheridge (who serenaded the couple), David Schwimmer, Kathy Najimy, Dermot Mulroney, Jon Lovitz, David Spade, and Lisa Kudrow.   During their vows Jen promised to always make Brad’s “favorite banana milkshake” and Brad vowed to “split the difference on the thermostat”.  Knowing how things turned out after that little homewrecker Angelina Jolie got her claws into Brad, doesn’t the whole thing kinda bring a tear to your eye? 🙁

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Located directly next door to the estate where Brad and Jen got married, is the 19,340 square foot mega-mansion originally owned by Verna Harrah, widow of William F. Harrah, who was the founder of the famous casino hotels of the same name.  In December of 1999, Verna sold her collosal mansion to Mark Reynolds Hughes, creator of Herbalife Vitamins, for a cool $27 million.  Less than six months later, Hughes passed away of an alleged prescription drug and alcohol overdose in the master bedroom of the home.  He was 44.   The manse was subsequently purchased by billionaire venture capitalist Howard Marks.

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And it looks to me as if Howard also purchased the once empty parcel of land where Brad and Jen held their tented wedding reception and which originally belonged to the Carsey estate.  As you can see in the above aerial photographs of the two neighboring properties, it looks as if the Howards moved their property line over quite a bit.

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Even though not much of Brad and Jen’s wedding mansion can be seen from the street, I was still floored to finally be stalking it.  And even though their wedding occured during a difficult time in my life and their marriage ended rather unamicably, somehow thinking back on the day when I learned about my idol’s nuptials still manages to bring a smile to my face.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Brad and Jen’s wedding mansion is located at 33148 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.  Mark Reynolds Hughes’ former house is located directly next door at 33064 Pacific Coast Highway.  For the best views of the homes, head a few hundred feet up Decker Canyon Road, which is located just south of the properties.

San Francisco City Hall

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I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’ve read just about every biography on my girl Marilyn Monroe that’s ever been published.   So, imagine my surprise when I came across an article the other day which stated that the starlet married her second husband, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, at San Francisco City Hall.  How in the heck did I not know this before???   I grew up in San Francisco for Pete’s sake!  City Hall was pretty much right in my own backyard!  In fact, I even stalked the place back in October, during my last trip to the City by the Bay.  I had yet to blog about it, though, because it was extremely windy the day I was there and I only got out of the car long enough to take one photograph – the one pictured above.  Check out my hair!  LOL  So, the other day, after reading about Marilyn’s San Francisco wedding, I sent my good friend Nat, who lives in the area, on a stalking mission to take photographs of City Hall for me, so that I could finally blog about it.  🙂  Here goes!

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San Francisco City Hall was built in 1915 by architect Arthur Brown, Jr., who also designed Coit Tower, the War Memorial Opera House and Pasadena City Hall.  The Beaux-Arts style building that stands today is actually San Francisco’s second City Hall.  The first, which was built in 1899 and stood at the corner of Grove and Larkin Streets where the public library is now located, was completely destroyed during the 1906 earthquake.  Rescue workers were able to salvage the statue that stood atop of the original City Hall’s dome and planned on placing it on the new building.  Unfortunately, the statue fell off the back of a flat bed truck while being transported to its new location and was destroyed.  LOL  LOL LOL  How’s that for irony??    The current City Hall measures over 500,000 square feet, takes up two entire city blocks, and cost over $3.5 million to build!  Over ten acres of marble were used in the construction.  The building’s dome stands at 307.5 feet tall, trumping Washington D.C.’s Capital Building’s dome by 14 inches.

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Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio’s wedding took place on January 14, 1954 in the third floor chambers of Judge Charles S. Perry, who was a close friend of Joe’s.   DiMaggio’s other good friend Reno Barsocchini and his former manager Lefty O’Doul were the couple’s only guests.  Sadly, the marriage was short-lived.  Marilyn filed for divorce only 274 days later.  City Hall is also the location where Mayor George Moscone and County Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot to death by Dan White on November 27, 1978.

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San Francisco City Hall has been featured in countless movies and television shows over the years. The interior of the building’s rotunda showed up at the very end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where it stood in for the Washington D.C. building where Indiana Jones agreed to let Marion Ravenwood buy him a drink (pictured above).  City Hall was also used in Bedazzled, The Rock, A View to a Kill, Dirty Harry, Milk, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, The Towering Inferno, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dharma and Greg (in the “Much Ado During Nothing” episode), Foul Play, and Bicentennial Man, just to name a few!

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I highly recommend stalking San Francisco City Hall.  It is an absolutely beautiful building and just seeing the dome alone in person is worth a drive by!  And, although I didn’t venture inside while I was stalking the place, the first floor area is open to the public.  Free tours are also given three times daily, Monday through Friday, at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., and 2 p.m.  San Francisco City Guides also offers free interior tours of City Hall every Thursday at 11:00 a.m.  You can visit their website for further details.

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Big THANK YOU to my surrogate stalker Nat who took all of the above photos.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: San Francisco City Hall is located at 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place in San Francisco. 

The House Where Britney Spears and Kevin Federline Got Married

Happy, Happy, Happy Halloween, everybody! As I have mentioned many times before, Halloween is my favorite holiday, so today I thought I’d post some pics of one of my favorite Halloweens ever – the year my boyfriend and I dressed up like Britney Spears and Kevin Federline.

This was back in 2005, the same year that Britters wore the now famous “I Have the Golden Ticket” tank top over her pregnant belly to the Willy Wonka premiere. Of course, I became totally obsessed with that tank top and got to scouring Ebay, where I found an exact replica and also some urban loungewear (yes, it’s actually called that!) a la KFed’s wedding ensemble. And voila – a costume was born. 🙂 For my pregnancy “bump” I just stuck a semi-blown up beach ball under my shirt. And it was so realistic that a lady in the bar I was at on Halloween night actually yelled at me for drinking while pregnant. LOL!!!! 🙂

Today I decided to stalk the house where Miss Spears and Mr. Federline tied the knot back on September 18, 2004. I realize that tying this location in with my Haunted Hollywood theme is a bit of a stretch, but I can justify it by saying that the union of Britney Jean Spears and Kevin Earl Federline was downright scary. 🙂 After watching BritBrit and Kevin interact with each other on their Chaotic reality TV series, I absolutely could not believe that two such complete morons managed to find each other. It’s almost as if they were tailor-made for each other. I’m actually really surprised the marriage didn’t last!! Anyway, I decided I just HAD to stalk the home where their marriage took place.

On September 18, 2004 Britney and Kevin invited 25 of their closest friends and family members to an impromptu wedding ceremony at the Studio City home of their wedding planner, Alyson Fox. The couple had planned on getting married at Bacara Resort and Spa in Santa Barbara, but due to the media frenzy surrounding the event, they decided to celebrate their union at this modest home in Studio City a few weeks earlier than expected. Stalking this location proved to be a tough one, though, as the only info I had on the house was the owner’s name and the general location. But thanks to master stalker E.J. over at the Movieland Directory, who offered me his help, I was able to located the address of the house and yesterday I ran right out to stalk it. 🙂 Thanks, E.J.! (The above scan was taken from the 2004 issue of People Magazine that covered BritBrit and KFed’s union.)

The home where Brit and KFed got married is a super cute, very picturesque, but also very normal looking house. Not at all the type of place I’d envision the pop princess tying the knot. But I also could have never pictured her walking into a gas station bathroom sans shoes – so go figure! Anyway, after doing some cyber-stalking yesterday, I discovered that Brit’s wedding house is currently for sale! For a mere $1,999,950, you can have the priveledge of owning the home where this blessed ceremony took place. 🙂 You can see interior pics of the home here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking and Happy Halloween! 🙂

Stalk It: Britney and Kevin’s wedding house is located at 4053 Farmdale Avenue in Studio City.