Kim’s New House from “L!fe Happens”

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Once I had tracked down the main house used in L!fe Happens (you can read that post here), as well as Auntie Em’s Kitchen, which also appeared in the flick (you can read that post here), I became more than a little obsessed with finding the cottage that Kim (Krysten Ritter) rented towards the end of the 2011 rom-com.  Ironically enough, I didn’t even like L!fe Happens all that much, but it was filmed in L.A. and knowing that there are undiscovered SoCal locations out there just waiting to be unearthed is like kryptonite to this stalker.  So, once again, I found myself on the hunt.

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The bungalow only appears in a few brief scenes near the end of L!fe Happens, after (spoiler alert!) Kim decides to move out of the residence she formerly shared with her BFFs Deena (Kate Bosworth) and Laura (Rachel Bilson) and into her her own place.

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While Kim is out house-hunting, she is shown driving on a street that – thanks to its broadness, position at the base of a group of mountains and fact that it dead-ends into another road – I figured was most likely located in Eagle Rock.

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I was also fairly certain that the street sign that Kim passed in the scene said “Las Flores.”

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I also noticed an address number that I believed to be “5120” painted on the curb in front of Kim’s new house.  So I started searching all of the 5100 blocks of streets running perpendicular to Las Flores Drive in Eagle Rock.  Sure enough, it wasn’t long before I found the right place.  As it turns out, the address number is actually “5129,” not “5120.”  And they say close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades!

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In real life, the picturesque 1911 cottage features three bedrooms, 1 bath, 1,694 square feet, and a 0.17-acre plot of land.  It last sold in June 2012 for $565,000.

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The home’s actual interior was also used in the filming, as you can see in the screen capture/MLS photograph-comparisons pictured below.

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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

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Kim’s new house from L!fe Happens is located at 5129 Windermere Avenue in Eagle Rock.

Auntie Em’s Kitchen from “L!fe Happens”

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I recently re-watched the 2011 romantic comedy L!fe Happens and I have to say that I enjoyed it much more the second time around.  One of the locations featured in it – Auntie Em’s Kitchen in Eagle Rock – I had actually recognized during my first viewing.  I used to drive by the place frequently when I lived in Pasadena, but, despite hearing rave reviews, never dropped in.  So I decided that it was high time I did so and headed on over there a couple of weeks ago for lunch.

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Auntie Em’s owner, Theresa Wahl, was led to the food world in a rather circuitous way.  The former lead singer and guitarist for the all-female punk bank The Red Aunts, Theresa spent the better part of the ‘90s touring the U.S. and Europe.  During her travels, she discovered countless new recipes, as well as some modern twists on old favorites.  Upon returning to L.A., Wahl decided to put what she had learned to good use.  She retired from singing and focused her efforts on the culinary arts, opening up a catering company specializing in good old American comfort food.  Thanks to her music connections, she quickly landed jobs providing fare for bands and on music video and production sets.  Just a few of the famous names that Theresa has fed over the years include Jennifer Lopez, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rihanna, Brandy, Sheryl Crow, Carmen Electra, Dr. Phil, Lionel Richie, Alec Baldwin, Elton John, Ellen DeGeneres, and Cindy Crawford.  She even provided the catering for Rose McGowan’s October 2013 wedding to Davey Detail.

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In 2002, Theresa founded Auntie Em’s Kitchen, named in honor of the Auntie Em character from The Wizard of Oz.  Um, love it!  The place was an instant success and led to appearances for Theresa on the Food Network’s Throwdown with Bobby Flay and Sugar High.

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Auntie Em’s cheerful interior décor (which I somehow did not take any photographs of) is reminiscent of Monica and Rachel’s apartment on Friends – a bright mish-mash of colors and styles that merge together perfectly to create a warm, welcoming space.  The eatery also features a bakery (which, being diabetic, I, unfortunately, could not partake of) and a marketplace that sells gourmet foods and unique trinkets.  The place is pretty much the restaurant version of my favorite store, Lula Mae.  Of the fare, Wahl said in a January 2013 USA Today article, “We’re cooking up comfort food with attitude.  It’s just like Mom would make, if Mom had been a punk rocker with a baking habit. These are recipes that make me happy, and I love sharing them.”  All ingredients are fresh – she says, “If it can’t be found at the farmers’ market, it won’t be found on your plate” – and almost everything served is homemade on the premises.  What isn’t, is obtained from such high-regarded spots as La Brea Bakery and Strauss Family Creamery.  I opted for the Artisanal Cheese Plate for my lunch and it was fabulous!

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In L!fe Happens, Auntie Em’s Kitchen is where Deena (Kate Bosworth) writes her book and where she allows Henri (Justin Kirk) to hang out with her, as long as he adheres to her conditions – “no talking, no touching, no disturbing my work flow.”  Only the exterior of the restaurant was used in the filming and, as you can see below, two large foliage pieces were installed at either end of the property during the shoot, most likely to block the view of the prying lenses of the paparazzi.

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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.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Auntie Em’s Kitchen, from L!fe Happens, is located at 4616 Eagle Rock Boulevard in Eagle Rock.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

The “L!fe Happens” House

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While getting my hair blown out at the Pasadena Blo-Out Lounge (one of my very favorite places) a couple of weeks ago, I caught a portion of the 2011 romantic comedy L!fe Happens, which I had never previously heard of.  Thanks to its obvious L.A. locales, the flick piqued my interest.  A rom-com filmed in Los Angeles that I didn’t know about?  How is that possible?  I quickly amended the situation by forcing the Grim Cheaper to watch it on Netflix a few nights later.  And while I didn’t particularly love the movie, I did fall into a bit of lust with the unique Craftsman-style home where BFFs Kim (Krysten Ritter), Deena (Kate Bosworth) and Laura (Rachel Bilson) lived in it.  Having Geoff Stults in a starring role didn’t hurt, either.  This stalker absolutely loves herself some GS!  But I’m getting off track.

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The residence took quite a bit of sleuthing to track down.  While I originally thought that it was most likely located in Echo Park or Silver Lake, after a lot of digging I ended up finding it just off the I-10 freeway near Western Avenue in the Pico-Union area of Los Angeles.

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In real life, the home, which was originally built in 1905, boasts four bedrooms, two baths, 2,263 square feet of living space, and a 0.13-acre plot of land.  According to Zillow, it last sold in April 1999 for $150,000, which seems quite a bit low to me.  Maybe it was in very poor shape at the time, though.  It also appears to be undergoing some sort of renovation currently, as well.

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L!fe Happens centers around three friends who live together in what is supposedly Silver Lake.  A one night stand (before which, borrowing a storyline from Friends, Kim and Laura battle each other over the last condom in the house) results in Kim becoming pregnant.  She decides to raise the baby as a single mom, while still living with her friends, and the movie takes off from there.

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On a side-note – L!fe Happens borrowed another storyline from Friends – the “We both do that!” storyline from the Season 1 episode titled “The One with Two Parts: Part 2,” which you can watch below.  But, once again, I’m getting off track.

The house is featured prominently throughout L!fe Happens, although it is never mentioned how Kim (a dog-walker/personal assistant), Deena (a struggling writer) and Laura (who flits from job to job) can afford such an amazeballs residence.

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While I loved the home’s unique exterior (especially the pentagonal roof!) . . .

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. . . what I became most enamored with was its interior . . .

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. . . especially the open stairwell.

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I mean, could it be any more fabulous??  If I lived there, I would so be displaying books and picture frames on each step.  Love, love, love!

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While I originally thought that the interior was a set, after looking through these images, in which my beloved stairwell is visible in the background (comparison screen caps of that scene from the movie are pictured below), I now believe that the real life interior of the home was used in the filming.  Unfortunately, I could not find any photographs with which to verify that, though.  Either way, what I wouldn’t give to see the inside of that place!  UPDATE – I just came across this Curbed LA article which features photos of the property and the interior was indeed used in L!fe Happens!

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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.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The L!fe Happens house is located at 1802 South Oxford Avenue in the Pico-Union area of Los Angeles.

Joe Jost’s from “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton”

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As I’ve mentioned countless times before, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton is one of my all time favorite movies.  And I have long been dying to stalk the restaurant which stood in for Lil’ Dickens, the Frazier’s Bottom bar where Rosalie (aka Kate Bosworth), Pete (aka Topher Grace), Cathy (aka Ginnifer Goodwin), and Tad (aka Josh Duhamel – sigh!) hung out in the flick.  In real life, that bar is named Joe Jost’s and it is actually located in Long Beach, California, a good 2,300 miles west of the real Frazier’s Bottom.  So, since we were in the area this past weekend, I just had to drag my fiancé right out to stalk the place.

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Joe Jost’s was founded in 1924 by a man named, you guessed it, Joe Jost, who was born in a small town in Yugoslavia.  At only 16 years of age, after a four year apprenticeship in a barbershop, Joe left Yugoslavia and immigrated to the U.S.  He first settled in New York City where he continued his work as a barber for a few years before moving to the West Coast and setting up a home in Upland, California.  In 1920, Joe opened up the first Joe Jost’s, a combination barber shop/pool hall/bar/restaurant, in Newport Beach where he sold such goods as candy, cigarettes, and because prohibition was in effect, a non-alcoholic drink known as “near beer”.  In 1924, Joe moved his unique shop to its current location on Anaheim Street in Long Beach.  It wasn’t long, though, before the Barbering Commission closed down the barber shop portion of the establishment, claiming that cutting hair in close proximity to alcohol being served was not “safe”.  LOL  So, Joe abruptly removed his barbershop chairs and installed booths – the very same booths where Joe’s customers still sit today!  So cool!  🙂  Joe’s enjoyed immediate success as a restaurant and even managed to sustain itself throughout the depression years.  To date, the place has served over 5,000,000 Joe’s Special Sandwiches, over 7,000,000 pickled eggs, over 15,000,000 glasses of beer, and over 1,800,000 pounds of Marmion’s peanuts!  Joe’s is such an institution in Long Beach, in fact, that a term known as “josting” has been coined.  Josting refers to the act of taking a photograph of oneself in different locations all around the world while wearing a Joe Jost’s T-Shirt.  And, let me tell you, the T-shirts have been EVERYWHERE!  Joe’s walls are literally COVERED in such photographs and I can’t tell you how incredible it was to be looking at the hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of said patrons – always with their backs to the camera so that the Joe’s logo can be clearly seen – in such far off places as the Pyramids in Egypt, Heidelberg Castle in Germany, Namoto Island in Fiji, and the Arctic Circle (not kidding!).   Most amazing of all, though, were the numerous photographs of soldiers currently stationed in Iraq wearing Joe’s T-shirts. Incredible!  What an unbelievably cool tradition!!!  

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Because my fiancé and I were first-timers, we had to try one of everything on the menu.  And I have to say that even though I am a horribly picky eater, I LOVED it all!   The pickled egg (pictured above) – which sounds disgusting, I know – was incredible, the Marmion’s peanuts were de-lish!, and the Special . . . oh my god, the Special!  What can I even say about it except that it was simply A-MA-ZING!  Joe’s Special consists of a homemade Polish sausage (made from their own secret recipe), a pickle, a slice of Swiss Cheese, and mustard smacked in between two slices of rye bread.  And, oh my lord, is it good! 

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Because Lil’ Dickens is the regular hangout of Rosalie, Pete, and Cathy, Joe Jost’s shows up quite a few times in Win a Date.  The areas used include the main bar;

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and the billiards room, which was decked out with tables and chairs for the filming.

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Sadly, though, Pete and Rosie’s dart board was just a prop that was brought in for the filming and is not there in real life.  🙁

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Oddly enough, the area of the restaurant that I was most interested in stalking was the men’s bathroom, not so much because I wanted to see it in person, but because I wanted to verify if it was really there.  As I had suspected, though, the Lil’ Dickens bathroom, in which Pete confronts Tad telling him that if he breaks Rosalie’s heart he’ll tear him to pieces with his “bare hands or vicious rhetoric” LOL, is not the real Joe Jost’s bathroom.  Joe’s men’s room actually consists of one single room with a toilet and a sink (yes, I actually sent my fiancé in there to report back to me!), and because the scene called for a considerably larger restroom with actual stalls, a set had to be built.  Interestingly enough, though, according to Dan, one of the SUPER nice Joe’s crew members that I spoke with, the Lil’ Dickens bathroom set was actually built right there on the Joe Jost’s property, in the back area of the restaurant. 

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The crew even ended up using the real Joe’s men’s room door, after making some small modifications, as the door of the Lil’ Dickens men’s room set.  So cool!!!! 

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The crew also modified the real life Joe Jost sign, which is located in the pool hall area of the restaurant, into a Lil’ Dickens sign for the shoot.  Love it!  🙂

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Win a Date  is hardly the only production to film at Joe’s, though.  The restaurant is also where Kevin Costner took Whitney Houston on a date in 1992’s The Bodyguard.

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And where they danced to John Doe’s version of the song “I Will Always Love You”, which Whitney calls “depressing” in the scene.  LOL  

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The interior of Joe’s also stood in for the bar where Angelina Jolie worked in Gone in 60 Seconds.

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The exterior of that bar (pictured above), however, was a different location altogether.

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Joe’s showed up twice in the 2007 movie License to Wed, first as the site of Mandy Moore and John Krasinski’s pre-marriage group counseling . . .

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. . . and second as the spot where John and his friend, DeRay Davis, grab a drink towards the end of the movie.

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Producers definitely took some liberties when filming the exterior scenes for License to Wed, though.  In the flick, it is made to appear as if Joe’s is part of a tall building located underneath the L Train somewhere in Chicago.  In real life, though, Joe’s is a simple, small, one-story structure located on a busy Long Beach street corner.  I SO love how they incorporated the real life Joe’s storefront into the digitally altered Chicago-area establishing shots, though, rather than using a real Chicago location for the exterior.  So cool!  Joe’s has also been featured in the movies Madison, The Vanishing, and True Confessions and in episodes of Chance of a Lifetime, The ‘60s, Roswell, Boomtown, Clubhouse, and Classmates.  You can see a full list of Joe’s Hollywood credits here.

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Joe Jost’s is a VERY cool place and I honestly can’t recommend stalking it – or ordering up one of its Specials – enough! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Joe Jost’s is located at 2803 East Anaheim Street in Long Beach.  You can visit their website here.

JMJ Ranch from “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton”

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Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked during our day in the the Valley together a few months back was the Fraziers Bottom farm that movie star Tad Hamilton purchased in fave film Win a Date with Tad Hamilton.  In real life, Tad’s property is named JMJ Ranch and it is not located anywhere near Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia, but about two thousand miles West in Thousand Oaks, California.  As so often happens when searching for filming sites, I actually came across this one while looking for another location entirely.  After seeing the Season One episode of The Mentalist  entitled “Carnelian Inc.” earlier this year, I became absolutely obsessed with finding the ranch that was featured in it.   And it was while searching for that locale that I came across the website for JMJ Ranch and immediately recognized it as the one from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton.  YAY!  So, since Mike and I were in the area a few weeks back, we decided to drive by the property to see if it was at all accessible to the public.  And amazingly enough, it was!  Or so we thought.  LOL

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When we first pulled up to JMJ Ranch, the main gates were wide open, several people were horseback riding in the central ring, and there was no posted sign saying the area was private property.  Because I had read online that JMJ is an actual working ranch, I turned to Mike and said “OH MY GOD, I think it’s actually open to the public!”  So, of course, the two of us drove right in.  And, let me tell you, I almost had a heart attack I was so excited!  🙂

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I spotted Tad’s little white ranch house pretty much immediately upon entering the property and just about hyperventilated as we pulled up to it!  The fact that Josh Duhamel (aka the love of my life) had once been in the very spot I now found myself was almost too much for me to bear.  🙂  Now, I know that rumors of JD’s infidelity are currently flying around Hollywood, but I honestly have to say that I just don’t believe all the hype.  If the rumors do turn out to be true, though, and Josh really did cheat on his wife, then all bets are off – he’ll be dead to me, just like that little homewrecker Angelina Jolie!  But in the meantime, I have to say, my heart still belongs to JD.  🙂 

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I so love the above screen capture, by the way!!  Sigh.  🙂  But I digress! 

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Only one brief scene from Win A Date took place at JMJ Ranch.  After announcing that he has purchased a house, or as he says “it’s actually a farm, with a house, and a silo for my wheat” LOL,  Rosalie (aka Kate Bosworth), Cathy (aka Ginnifer Goodwin), and Pete (aka Topher Grace) show up to tour the property.  While there, know-it-all Pete attempts to give Tad some lessons in certain farming skills like milking a cow and chopping wood, but as it turns out, thanks to his training for various movie roles, not only does Tad know how to do said activities, but he can actually do them better than Pete.  LOL  

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JMJ Ranch is actually an oft-used filming location.  Besides Win a Date, the property has also been featured in Dynasty, Dallas, Knots Landing, Cracker, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, The Fall Guy, Picket Fences, Hot Shots Part Deux, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Route 9, and Private School

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The 300 acre ranch truly is a beautiful spot, with large open fields, towering oak trees, winding roads, and rustic barns, and as we drove through the property I got to thinking that it would be the perfect spot to host a wedding.  🙂  Being that filming locations often double as wedding venues, I thought there was a pretty good chance that the ranch might also be available for special events and made a mental note to find out.  Well, after driving around for about five minutes, a very angry woman on a tractor drove up to Mike and I and informed us that we were on private property.  WHOOPSY!  We apologized profusely and explained that we had been driving by, saw the open gate, and thought the area was open to the public.  I also told the woman I was currently in the market for a wedding venue and asked if the ranch was available for such occasions.  My question was met with an emphatic “NO!” – LOL – at which point, Mike and I thanked the lady for her time and quickly left.  So, unfortunately, I can’t recommend stalking JMJ Ranch as it is definitely NOT open to the public.  🙁  But at least you can live vicariously through the photographs I was able to take before being kicked off the property.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: JMJ Ranch from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton  is located at 930 West Portrero Road in Thousand Oaks.  The property is not actually open to the public, so please do not trespass.  You can visit the JMJ Ranch website here

The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton Grocery Store

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One movie location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like forever is the L.A. area grocery store that stood in for the Fraziers Bottom Piggly Wiggly Supermarket in fave romantic comedy Win A Date With Tad Hamilton.   Josh Duhamel!  Sigh! 🙂   I was so obsessed with finding this location, in fact, that a few years ago when I happened upon a real Piggly Wiggly store while visiting a small town in Arkansas, I just about died of excitement!  Because Piggly Wigglys can only be found in the Southeastern United States, I had never seen one in person before.  So, I immediately made my fiance pull the car over so that I could take a photograph out in front (pictured above).  🙂  Anyway, thanks to the production notes on my Win A Date  DVD, I knew that producers had used a 14,000 square foot vacant supermarket somewhere in Van Nuys to represent the West Virginia grocery store where Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace, and Ginnifer Goodwin worked in the movie.   With that information in hand, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I pretty much scoured the entire Van Nuys area looking for the store, but, sadly, came up completely empty handed.  I even went so far as to have my dad, who used to work in the grocery industry, call up some of his old business contacts to ask them if they knew of a Van Nuys grocery store that was used in the filming of a movie back in 2003.  Sadly, none of them did.  At that point I honestly thought the Win A Date With Tad Hamilton  Piggly Wiggly was going to be a lost cause.  Until master stalker Chas entered the picture and promised to help me locate the ultra-elusive store.  And locate it, he did!  In just a few short hours, no less! 

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 Since Chas knew that Mike and I had pretty much already turned the entire city of Van Nuys inside out looking for the Win A Date  store, he decided to disregard the production notes and begin his search just outside the city limits.  And it’s a good thing he did because it turns out that the Win A Date supermarket is not actually located in Van Nuys, but in the neighboring city of North Hills.  Today, the Win A Date  grocery store is actually a 99 Cents Only Store, but at the time of the filming it was a recently vacated former supermarket.  According to the DVD’s production notes, the crew decked out every square inch of the empty market with signage and props received on loan from the Piggly Wiggly Corporation.  The crew did such a good job of dressing up the store, in fact, that people from the neighborhood stopped in and actually tried to shop!   LOL Lucy Fisher, one of the Win A Date  producers, said “When we tried to explain that it was a movie set , they still tried to push their way in.  Everything looked so bright and shiny and delicious, but it was all fake.  Still there seemed no way to convince the neighbors that it was not a real market.”  LOL LOL LOL  Oh, how I wish I could have seen the store all dressed up as a Piggly Wiggly – that would have been just about the coolest thing ever! 

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I am very happy to report that, despite some changes, the exterior of the 99 Cents Only Store is still very recognizable from the film.  The Piggly Wiggly signage has, of course, long since been removed and a small facade has now been added to the market’s sloped roof, but otherwise it still looks pretty much the same as it did in the movie. 

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The only major difference I noticed while stalking the place is the fact that in the movie there were two sets of entrance doors, one located on each side of the market, while today there is only one set of doors, located in the center of the store.  I asked my dad about the change and he said that it is a fairly common alteration for grocery stores to make, as having only one means of exit greatly cuts down on the possibility of theft. 

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Although the interior of the market was used extensively in the filming of Win A Date , it, sadly, has been changed quite significantly since the 99 Cents Only Store took over.  In fact, it looks as if the 99 Cents Only Company had the building completely gutted and remodeled before they moved in.  🙁  While stalking the place, I actually walked around the entire store, hoping to find some small remnant leftover from the filming that took place there just six short years ago, but, unfortunately, there was not one single thing. 

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Even though the Win A Date  Piggly Wiggly looks considerably different post-filming and even though in reality it’s just your average, everday grocery store, I could NOT have been more excited to finally be stalking it!  I was literally pinching myself the whole time, as this was one location I never thought I’d actually find.  

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Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!  🙂

 Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton  grocery store is really the 99 Cents Only Store located at 8723 Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills.

The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton House

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I am forever indebted to fellow stalker Chas who has succeeded in finding a location that has eluded me for the past few years, a location that has been at the very top of my ultimate stalking list ever since the movie it was featured in first premiered in January of 2004.  The location in question?  Rosalee Futch, aka Kate Bosworth’s, charming little Craftsman home from fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton.  It was just a few months ago that I found out that Win A Date  had been filmed in its entirety on location in Los Angeles and since that time I have been completely obsessed with finding the main house used in the movie.  Unfortunately, though, I had absolutely no luck in locating it.  I even went so far as to contact Win A Date’s  location manager via Facebook, who sent me back a one line response saying “Long time ago – think house is in Melrose Heights”.   I had never heard of a place named “Melrose Heights” prior to that, so I immediately go to Googling and found out that an area with that name does actually exist in Los Angeles, but that it is a high-end shopping district.  Not to be deterred, I considered the possibility that the house was located near  Melrose Heights, and enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA .  The two of us set about searching any and all residences near the small shopping district, but came up empty-handed.  Just last week, fellow stalker Owen joined in the search and also combed the Melrose Heights area, just in case Mike and I had missed something.  They say two heads are better than one, but in this case even our three heads combined couldn’t find that house!  Until Chas stepped in, that is!

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Chas spent a full two days looking for the Win A Date  house (how do I even begin to thank him for that???) and eventually found it in an area of Los Angeles known as Melrose Hill.   Um, hello . . . Melrose HILL???  What happened to Melrose Heights????   In all fairness, though, I guess the location manager almost got the name right.  But, as we all know, “almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades”.  LOL  Mike, Owen, and I would now like those 80+ wasted hours of our lives back!  🙂

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I cannot tell you how darn excited I was to finally be seeing the Win A Date  house in person.  In fact, I am surprised I didn’t run my car right off the road on my way to stalk it – I was THAT excited.  🙂  And I am happy to report that, aside from a change in paint color, Rosalee’s house looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when the movie was filmed back in 2003.   It’s no surprise at all that this particular house was chosen as the residence of Rosalee Futch, the All-American girl with the All-American values.  It’s exactly the type of place where you’d expect to find her living.   The Win A Date  house is located on an adorable little tree-lined street that looks like it could very easily be found in a place called Frazier’s Bottom, Virginia, the town where the movie supposedly takes place.   The Melrose Hill Neighborhood is an absolutely charming place that was built between 1911 and 1926 and consists of only 45 homes.  One walk through the area’s tree lined streets and it’s not hard to see why Los Angeles Magazine  named it one of L.A.’s “10 Great Neighborhoods” in 2003. 

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Rosalee’s Craftsman house shows up repeatedly throughout the movie, most notably the front porch area, which, as you can see in the above photograph, has since been covered over quite a bit with foliage.

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And it appears that the real life interior of the home was also used for the filming of some scenes in the movie.

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Ironically enough, I think I was more excited about seeing the street light out in front of Rosalee’s house than the actual house itself.  While searching for the Win A Date  home, Mike and I had studied that darn street light for hours, trying to figure out where in L.A. it might be located.  Neither one of us had ever encountered a lamppost that unusual in all of our stalking adventures and I was beginning to think it was a fake.  So, I can’t tell you how excited I was when I saw those unique lights lining the streets of the Melrose Hill neighborhood.   It was validation for me that all of those hours we spent searching for the house weren’t for naught!  Those lights really do exist!  LOL   And now, if a location with those particular street lights ever comes up in a movie again, we will know exactly where to find it!  🙂

Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location for me! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It:  Rosalee’s house from Win A Date With Tad Hamilton  is located at 814 Melrose Hill Street in the Melrose Hill Neighborhood of Los Angeles. 

The W Hotel

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This weekend while out doing some stalking of L.A.’s Westside, I dragged my boyfriend to the W Hotel, which was featured in both fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and the new 90210.  I have wanted to stalk the W ever since I first watched Win A Date  over four years ago, but somehow never got around to it until this past Sunday.  I actually can’t believe that I waited so long to stalk the modern style hotel, but, as I’ve said before, in L.A. there’s just so much to stalk and so little time!   🙂 

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The W Hotel is actually featured quite a few times in Win A Date.  The poolside restaurant, named “The Backyard”, shows up in the very beginning of the movie as the location where Tad and his agents (who are both named Richard Levy) do lunch.  It is during this luncheon that Tad is told he must clean up his public image and thus the “Win A Date With Tad Hamilton” contest is born.

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The W also shows up a bit later on in the movie as the hotel where contest winner Rosalee Futch (aka Kate Bosworth) stays while she is in L.A.  The front entrance of the hotel is shown when she first checks in, as well as when she is picked up and dropped off for her dream date with Tad.

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The lobby area of the hotel and the stairway leading up to the pool are also both featured in the movie.

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On the new 90210, Naomi Clark, following in the footsteps of Dylan McKay from the original series, forgoes living with her parents to permanently check in to the ultra-trendy W.   In the episode entitled “By Accident”, Naomi moves out of her cheating father’s house and into Room 723 of the hotel.  The W has been featured on the series several times since then, most prominently in the Valentine’s Day episode entitled “Of Heartbreaks and Hotels”. 

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Many areas of the hotel were shown in that episode including the front entrance;

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the lobby;

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the hotel’s NineThirty Restaurant where Silver and Dixon share a Valentine’s Day dinner;

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the hotel’s coffee bar where Naomi first meets cutie bartender Liam (in real life the coffee bar is set up daily between 6 and10am  just outside of the NineThirty Restaurant, but sadly it had already been removed by the time we got there, so I didn’t get to snap a photo of it);

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the hotel’s Whiskey Blue Bar where Silver and Naomi grab some tea;

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and, just like in Win A Date, the hotel’s Backyard restaurant where Naomi gets stood up by Liam.

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I HIGHLY recommend stalking the W!  The hotel somehow manages to be ultra-trendy and ultra-modern, yet extremely welcoming at the same time.  The staff truly could not have been nicer to me and answered all of my silly questions about the filming of 90210  and Win A Date.  🙂   Since we were stalking the place in the middle of the day, though, we weren’t able to grab a drink in the hotel’s Whiskey Blue Bar.  But you can bet that is something I am going to do in the very near future.  I also must book a room and drag my boyfriend there for the weekend sometime!  Even though ultra modern hotels are usually not my thing, I really fell in love with this one.  🙂 

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The W Hotel is located at 930 Hilgard Avenue in the Westwood area of Los Angeles.  You can visit their website here.