The “It’s Complicated” House

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This past weekend, I dragged my new husband out to Westlake Village to see a home that I’ve been absolutely dying to stalk ever since I tracked down its location a little over two months ago – the adobe-style ranch where Jane Adler (aka Meryl Streep) lived in the 2009 Nancy Meyers-directed romantic comedy It’s Complicated.  I have been absolutely obsessed with Jane’s little Spanish-style bungalow ever since first laying eyes upon it while watching the flick back in July.  Nancy Meyers has a true gift for choosing only the most beautiful homes to showcase in her films – from Diane Keaton’s beachside abode in Something’s Gotta Give to Kate Winslet’s English cottage in The Holiday to Steve Martin and family’s iconic white colonial residence in the Father of the Bride movies.  I don’t think there’s a director out there who is better at scouting movie homes and that talent is nowhere more apparent than in It’s Complicated.  The movie’s production designer, Jon Hutman, is quoted in the production notes as saying, “Nancy, perhaps more than any director I’ve worked with, comes to the table with a clear and specific vision of the world in which the story takes place.”  She ends up translating that world to the screen and it becomes a place that her audiences want to live in, too.  Which is why I think I became so obsessed with the It’s Complicated house – it is exactly the type of place I’d love to own myself someday.  

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And I am not alone in my desire.  Ask anyone if they’ve seen It’s Complicated and the conversation invariably turns to Jane’s wooded, Spanish-style residence.  So, it’s no surprise that I began cyber-stalking the place immediately upon finishing the movie.  Unfortunately though, I couldn’t find much information about the home anywhere.  The only real clues I had to go on were from the movie’s production notes, which stated that in real life the property had been built in the late 1920’s, was located in Thousand Oaks, and had belonged to several celebrities over the years, most notably comedian W.C. Fields.

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   I had one other pretty big clue to go on, though – one that wasn’t mentioned in the film’s production notes.  Throughout the movie, Jane’s house is shown to be surrounded by a long, white wooden fence.  That type of fence pops up quite often in film and television productions and when it does, it is pretty much a dead giveaway that filming took place somewhere on Potrero Road.

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Potrero Road is an extremely long, meandering street that cuts through numerous ranch-style properties in the Thousand Oaks, Hidden Valley, and Westlake Village areas and, as you can see in the above photographs, is bordered on each side by low, white wooden fences just like Jane’s.  So, I decided to begin my search there.  And sure enough, about ten minutes into the hunt, I located Jane’s house!  As it turns out, it is situated less than half a mile east of JMJ Ranch, which was featured in fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and the more recent Back-Up Plan with Jennifer Lopez.

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Before stalking the house, I was convinced that some part of it would be visible from the street.  As you can see in the above photographs, though, that was not really the case.  Sadly, the residence is set quite a ways back from the road and is surrounded by massive oak trees which hide the home from view.  🙁  UGH!  

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But that’s why God created aerial images!

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And while the aerial views of the home aren’t that great, as you can see in the above screen captures, the shape of the house and the shape of the pool match those of the real residence perfectly!

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Only the exterior of the Potrero Road home was featured in the production.  Sadly, the beautiful interior of Jane’s house was a set that existed solely on a soundstage at Brooklyn’s Broadway Stages.  Nancy Meyers was so meticulously involved in the creation of the interior of Jane’s residence, though, that she even went so far as to hand pick the books that were stored on the character’s bookshelves.  She says, “I’m very particular about what’s sitting on a table.  I’ll walk around the set, saying, ‘Would she really be reading this book?’”  It is that attention to detail that makes the home appear so warm and inviting.  Sigh!

UPDATE – The It’s Complicated house is currently for sale.  You can check out a YouTube video of it here.

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On a side note – fellow stalker David from Spain recently alerted me to the fact that the Gene Autry Museum in Griffith Park is currently hosting an exhibit featuring clothing that once belonged to the King of Pop.  The exhibit is entitled “How The West Was Worn, by Michael Jackson” and displays such iconic pieces as the silver-plated shoes he wore to the White House in 1990 and the guitar-clasp belt he wore on the “Beat It” album cover in 1982 (pictured above).  You can find out more information about the exhibit here.  Special thanks to David for telling me about this event, which I will, of course, be stalking!  🙂

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The It’s Complicated house is located at 714 West Potrero Road in Westlake Village.  JMJ Ranch, from Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and The Back-Up Plan, is located at 930 West Potrero Road in Thousand Oaks, just a half a mile west of the It’s Complicated house.

The Historic El Paseo Shopping Center from “It’s Complicated”

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Another It’s Complicated location that I stalked while visiting the Santa Barbara area a few weeks back was the historic El Paseo Shopping Center located in the heart of Downtown State Street.  In the movie, the Spanish-style marketplace stood in for the “Santa Barbara Medical Building” where Jane Adler’s (aka Meryl Streep’s) therapist, Dr. Allen (aka Peter Mackenzie), worked.  In reality, El Paseo does not actually house medical offices, but is in fact California’s very first and oldest shopping center.  I found the location thanks to this fabulous December 2009 Los Angeles Times article about the filming of It’s Complicated and even though I had yet to see the movie, I dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place pretty much immediately upon arriving in the area.

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  El Paseo Shopping Center was originally built during the 1920’s and currently houses several boutiques, restaurants, and independent offices situated amongst picturesque courtyards, sparkling water fountains, and wood-framed balconies.  The place is absolutely huge and, including its parking lot, encompasses an entire city block, which is how my fiancé and I ended up stalking the wrong section of it.  Because I had yet to watch It’s Complicated, I had no idea what particular part of El Paseo had appeared in the flick.  So, while the Grim Cheaper and I did walk quite a bit of the property and snapped photographs of what we thought was every square inch of the place, we somehow missed the back entrance – which, of course, was the only section of the center used in the filming.  Murphy’s Law strikes again!   

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Thankfully though, our good friends Chris and Amy, who live in the area, agreed to re-stalk the place for me this past weekend.  And even though the two aren’t stalkers like myself, they did a FABULOUS job of matching their photographs to the screen captures I had sent them.  YAY!  Thank you, Chris and Amy! 

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Filming of It’s Complicated took place at El Paseo’s east entrance, which can be reached via Anacapa Street.  As fate would have it, that area of the shopping center happens to be located directly across the street from the city’s main post office.  During the shoot, the entire stretch of road in front of the shopping center and post office had to be shut down to all pedestrians and traffic, which on an ordinary day probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal.  But the It’s Complicated therapist office scene was actually shot on April 15, 2009.  Yes, you read that right – the city actually shut down the street in front of its main post office on TAX DAY!  Someone in the SB Planning Department seriously dropped the ball on that one!  😉

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El Paseo’s main entrance is pictured above and, as you can see, looks markedly different from its back entrance.  So different, in fact, that I thought the Los Angeles Times article had printed erroneous information when it reported that filming had taken place at the historic shopping center.  It wasn’t until I did some cyber-stalking of El Paseo using Bing aerial maps that I figured out my mistake. 

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Amazingly enough, the It’s Complicated crew only filmed on location in Santa Barbara for a mere three days.  The rest of the filming took place in Los Angeles and New York.  According to IMDB’s It’s Complicated filming locations page, some of the flick was also lensed in Santa Barbara’s De Le Guerra Plaza.   From what I’ve been able to discern online, the Plaza was converted into a  Christmas tree lot for a scene that never actually made it into the movie.  You can see some photos of the filming and read a great on-set report on the Fussy blog here.

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Big THANK YOU to Chris and Amy for stalking El Paseo and taking the above photographs for me!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The area of El Paseo Shopping Center that was used in It’s Complicated can be found at 813 Anacapa Street in Santa Barbara.  De La Guerra Plaza, where the deleted Christmas tree lot scene was filmed, is located in front of the Santa Barbara City Hall, which can be found at 735 Anacapa Street.

The Santa Barbara County Courthouse from “It’s Complicated”

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Two weekends ago, my fiancé and I headed up to Santa Barbara to spend the Fourth of July holiday with some friends.  And just minutes before we left, fellow stalker Kerry texted me to let me know that the 2009 romantic comedy It’s Complicated had been filmed in the area, just in case I wanted to do some stalking while I was there.  Well, let me tell you, I just about died upon hearing that and even though I had yet to see the movie, I spent the entire ninety minute drive up to Santa Barbara researching It’s Complicated filming locations on my blackberry so that we could stalk them as soon as we arrived.  As it turns out, though, not all is at it seems, for while the movie was set in Santa Barbara, very little of it was actually filmed there.  Oddly enough, over ninety percent of the flick was lensed in New York of all places!  I was absolutely shocked when I heard that as I honestly can’t think of a place that is more diametrically opposed to Santa Barbara than New York City,  aesthetically speaking at least.  Anyway, one of the main Santa Barbara locations featured in the movie was the historic county courthouse, so I dragged my fiancé right over there pretty much immediately after we checked into our hotel.

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And I have to say that I just about died when I saw the place as it is absolutely GORGEOUS!  I’ve actually been to Santa Barbara countless times in the past as it is one of my family’s favorite vacation spots, but for some reason I had yet to ever visit the courthouse.  So, I am extremely grateful to It’s Complicated, because otherwise I might never have seen the place and it is definitely a must-see Santa Barbara attraction!  🙂  The Santa Barbara Courthouse was first dedicated on August 14, 1929 and was designed by William Mooser III.  It was built after the great 1925 earthquake completely leveled the county’s original courthouse.  Apparently, that first courthouse had been designed in the Greek Revival-style, which is mind-boggling to me as pretty much all of Santa Barbara is either Spanish or Moorish in design.  According to the National Historic Landmarks Program, the courthouse which now stands was the catalyst for the Spanish architecture that now dominates the area, so it is amazing to think about how architecturally different the city would have been had that first courthouse not been destroyed!  I can’t even imagine it!

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Inside, the building looks much more like a museum than it does an actual working courthouse.  In fact, when we first walked in, I was convinced that the property was no longer in use, but it actually still is!  Can you even imagine serving jury duty in a place that looks like that???  Would make for a much more enjoyable experience than serving at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Downtown L.A., I can tell you that!  😉  The Santa Barbara County Courthouse features vast archways and long sweeping hallways,

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intricate tiling with wrought-iron detailing,

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elaborately painted ceilings,

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and a HUGE sunken garden. 

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I was most taken with the property’s historic detailing, though, like its old-school “Quiet, court is in session” signs,

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wooden telephone booths,

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and colorfully-painted court directory signs.    LOVE IT!

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The courthouse also features an 85-foot tall clock tower which is accessible to the public.  The tower formerly housed the solitary confinement chamber of the now-defunct jailhouse which used to be located on the premises.  It now offers visitors unsurpassed 360-degree views of the city and Pacific Ocean beyond.  My fiancé and I almost neglected to visit the tower as we were feeling a bit lazy due to the heat and let me tell you what a mistake that would have been!  Take my advice – no stalk of the courthouse can be considered complete without a climb up to that tower!!!  The views are simply breathtaking!

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The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is actually only featured very briefly in It’s Complicated, in a scene in which Jane Adler (aka Meryl Streep) is shown shopping at a local farmers’ market while making a phone call to her ex-husband, Jake Adler (aka Alec Baldwin).  And when I say very briefly, I mean VERY briefly – the scene only lasted a scant 17 seconds.  Not kidding!  It is amazing to me that producers not only rented out the entire Santa Barbara County Courthouse, but also set up an elaborate set and hired a few dozen extras to film a scene that took up less than twenty seconds of film!  I mean, couldn’t Jane have made that phone call to her ex-husband from anywhere?  Did they really need to create the whole farmers’ market scenario?  But I digress.  Anyway, the It’s Complicated scene was filmed in the sunken garden area of the courthouse which, unfortunately, does not actually host farmers’ markets in real life.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Santa Barbara County Courthouse is located at 1100 Anacapa Street in Santa Barbara.  You can visit the Courthouse’s official website here.