“Smoke Gets In Your CSIs”

img_0320-800

A few months ago while doing some cyberstalking, I came across this fabulous blog post about a photographer named Rob Greer who was lucky enough to have my fave show CSI: Miami  film right in his studio.  So, of course, I just had to stalk the place.  🙂  Especially since the episode which was filmed at the studio, entitled “Smoke Gets In Your CSIs”, was one of my favorite episodes from this season!  In the episode, which aired in February of this year, the team investigates a physician who performs illegal organ transplant surgeries right in his own home.  The episode was pretty much a thrill a minute and I was literally on the edge of my seat the whole time – especially when Eric Delko finally professed his love to Calleigh Duquesne.  I have been waiting for those two to get together for YEARS!  🙂

img_0315-8001

screenshot872

img_0316-8001

screenshot871

In “Smoke Gets In Your CSIs”, Rob Greer’s photography studio was used as the Miami home of the episode’s renegade doctor.  Filming took place in both the interior and the exterior of the studio.  I actually find it odd that they chose this location to stand in for a physician’s home, as neither the interior nor the exterior look much like a home at all.  The place actually looks more like a warehouse than anything else.  But, due to the illegal surgeries that the physician was performing in the episode, I am guessing that the producuers wanted his home to have a cold, urban, industrial feel to it.   You can see some great photos of the photography studio here.

img_0319-8001

Rob Greer’s photography studio is located in the Los Angeles Brewery Arts Complex.  The complex, which can best be described as a sort of compound or artists’ enclave, is an eclectic mix of buildings, warehouses, and offices.  Apparently, the buildings house mostly live/work units and are available for lease to artists only – ie. graphic designers, painters, photographers.    The complex is located in an industrial part of town, out in the middle of nowhere, which led me to wonder how in the heck a location scout would even find out about it.  But my boyfriend said since the compound has such a unique look, it is probably used in productions all the time and therefore is well known in the scouting world.  The entire area is gated and not usually open to the public, but luckily when I showed up to stalk the place it was open for an art gallery showing.  🙂  Yay!  I can’t really recommend stalking the complex, though, because besides the fact that it is normally closed to the public, there also just isn’t really that much to see.

img_0317-8001

Rob Greer’s blog post about the CSI: Miami filming  is a great read with tons of pictures and I highly recommend giving it a glance.  According to Rob, set dressers came to his studio the day before the filming and spent quite a few hours dressing the space with living room furniture and a large chandelier so that it would look more like a home.  But the following morning, when the director arrived on set, he took one look at the living room set-up and wanted it all removed!  LOL Only in Hollywood!  Rob Greer’s experience with the cast and crew of CSI: Miami  was exactly on par with my encounter with them a few months back.  He said they were incredibly nice and friendly, especially David Caruso, whom he describes as “really warm and genuine”.  🙂  I’m telling you, the CSI: Miami  cast is like no other!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Rob Greer Photography is located at 678 South Avenue 21 in Los Angeles.  Be careful not to trespass on the property, though, because, as I mentioned above, the area is not usually open to the public.

The L.A. Confidential Liquor Store

screenshot804

img_1328-800

Got an email a few weeks back from fellow stalker Tracey who gave me the address of a film location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I had been trying to find for months – the liquor store from the 1997 movie L.A. Confidential!   Mike and I had known from doing some online research that the liquor store featured in the movie was not actually real.  Instead, producers had built a fake liquor store inside of a real storefront somewhere in the L.A. area.    According to this film locations book, that storefront was located somewhere on Larchmont Avenue, but as so often happens with location books, that information was not correct.  Mike and I had actually driven up and down Larchmont Avenue several times one  day looking for the storefront without any luck. We even stopped in and spoke with the editor of the Larchmont Chronicle to see if she knew where the filming of the liquor shop scenes had taken place.  LOL  It wasn’t long before we figured out that the L.A. Confidential  liquor store was not actually located on Larchmont Avenue and for a while the two of us put the liquor store quest on the back burner.

img_1325-800

So you can imagine how excited I was to receive an email from one of my readers named Tracey, who, after several years of being on the prowl for the elusive liquor store, had finally located it!   Turns out she had taken a surface street to work one morning hoping to avoid freeway traffic and, lo and behold, drove right past the liquor store and recognized it immediately!  Yay!  It’s amazing how often that actually happens.  You spend hours upon hours seaching high and low for a location, only to randomly drive by it one day.  In this city, you’ve just gotta keep your eyes open!  🙂  In real life the L.A. Confidential  liquor store is a furniture repair store named Ramon’s Cane Shop.  And it looks like it has been around forever.  (In the above photo I am actually standing in front of the wrong storefront.  I’m such a blond!  Although in real life both storefronts are occupied by Ramon’s Cane Shop, in L.A. Confidential only the middle storefront was used.)

screenshot805

screenshot807

The liquor store shows up twice in L.A. Confidential.   It is first featured in the scene when Bud White, while picking up some liquor for a Christmas party, first lays eyes on Veronica Lake lookalike Lynn Bracken.

screenshot806

img_1332-800

img_1335-800

After leaving the liquor store, Bud spots Pierce Patchett’s car with what appears to be a very beat up Susan Lefferts inside.  A brief fight ensues before Lynn Bracken walks outside and explains that all is not as it seems.  In the scene, Pierce’s car was parked in the driveway of a parking lot located just to the left of Ramon’s Cane Shop.

screenshot809

The liquor store pops up once again a bit later on in the movie, when Bud White stops by to try to dig up some information on Lynn Bracken.

img_1327-800

I must say it was VERY cool to be stalking the L.A. Confidential  liquor store, especially since – aside from the fact that it’s not really a liquor store – it looks pretty much exactly the same as it did onscreen.  Sadly, though, the shop was closed when we were stalking it, and since the windows were completely covered, I didn’t get to peek inside.  Looks like I’ll have to take another stalking trip out there!!  Big, big THANK YOU to Tracey for tipping me off to this location.  🙂

img_1326-800

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The L.A. Confidential  liquor store, aka Ramon’s Cane Shop, is located at 1279 South Cochran Avenue in Los Angeles.  The area where Pierce Patchett’s car was parked when Bud White confronts him is located just to the left of the cane shop.

Hilton Checkers Hotel

p1010033-800

A few months ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA,  scored the two of us invites to a party and silent auction being held by the Location Managers Guild of America.  We had a fab time at the party and got to meet many location scouts, none of whom had any idea that there were people like us out there obsessed with movie and television locations.  LOL  Anyway, the highlight of that evening was when I placed the winning bid on a one night stay in the Penthouse Suite of the Hilton Checkers Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles for the bargain price of $160!  I’m not kidding!  So this past weekend my boyfriend and I cashed in on our big win and spent a night in luxury at the historic boutique hotel. 

p1010032-800

On its website the Hilton Checkers Hotel touts itself as being Downtown Los Angeles’ only four diamond boutique hotel – and, let me tell you, it didn’t disappoint!  Checkers was originally built in the 1920s and was called “The Mayflower”.   The boutique hotel, which stands at twelve stories high, was built at a time when the City of Los Angeles did not allow any buildings in the Downtown area to have more than twelve floors.  In 1984, the hotel was completely renovated and remodeled and given it’s current moniker. For a time it was owned privately and then was sold to Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.  When it was purchased by the Hilton Hotel chain in 2002, it took on the name Hilton Checkers.

p1010028-8001

[ad]

Checkers Hotel has two Penthouse Suites – one each on its 11th and 12th floors – and I can’t tell you how excited I was to be staying in one of them!  Besides soon-to-be-famous actress Lindsay Blake :), numerous other celebs have stayed in the hotel’s Penthouse Suites over the years, including Jim Carrey (who lived in one while he was filming the movie Man on the Moon), Carol Burnett (who also resided in one for a few months during her stint at the Ahmanson Theatre performing in Putting It Together), Ray Charles, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith (who were recent guests), and Cher (who books a Penthouse each year when she’s in town for the Grammys).  

p1010016-800

p1010017-800

Both of the Checkers’ Penthouse Suites are identical in size and decor.  Each boasts two bathrooms, a separate bedroom with a desk and reading chair,

img_1155-800

a separate dining room with a marble table that seats eight,

img_1162-800

img_1163-800

and a large living room complete with a fireplace and big screen plasma TV.

img_1208-800

 Besides celebs, dignitaries have also been known to visit the hotel.  According to the book Hollywood & the Best of Los Angeles Alive!, in 1992 President Richard Nixon and Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev had a meeting in the Checkers’ Library (pictured above). 

screenshot709

And, of course, Checkers is also a popular filming location!  The hotel was featured twice in a Season One episode of fave television show Shark.  In the episode, entitled “Fashion Police”, Sebastian Stark dines at the hotel’s award winning restaurant, named Checkers Downtown, with the mayor.

screenshot710

screenshot711

p1010024-800 

Later on in the episode, Stark arrests fashion designer Z Pruitt (played by Diedrich Bader) at a lingerie party being held at Checker’s rooftop pool. 

img_1206-800

Other productions filmed at the hotel include  Heroes, which used Checker’s front entrance, and the now-canceled What About Brian, which  filmed in the lobby area.  In 2003’s A View From The Top, Checkers stood in for the Paris hotel where Gwyneth Paltrow stays on a layover.  Paula Abdul and a few of this season’s Idols   just recently filmed a segment by the hotel’s pool.   And Dancing With The Stars has also shot numerous segments at the hotel.    Just last week Carson Daily filmed a television interview about the birth of his son in the Checkers Lounge (pictured above).  And Stefanie Powers, of Hart to Hart  fame, has filmed numerous PBS specials onsite. 

I HIGHLY recommend stalking Checkers!  It’s a really beautiful hotel and I wouldn’t hesitate to stay there again.  And if you can swing it, I’d definitely recommend booking a Penthouse room!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Hilton Checkers Hotel is located at 535 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles.  You can visit their website here.

Flash Forward!

img_0936-800

img_0939-800

This past weekend, while out doing some stalking, my boyfriend and I happened upon a rather large film shoot that shut down an entire block in Downtown Los Angeles.  So, of course, we just had to pull the car over to find out what was being filmed.  🙂  Turns out it was the pilot episode of a new Lost-esque television series entitled Flash Forward  that is set to premiere on ABC this Spring.  The series is based on a science fiction novel of the same name written by Robert J. Sawyer.  While the crew members were pretty tight-lipped about plot details and the show’s cast, they did let me snap some pics of the production.  🙂 

img_0938-800

img_0934-800

img_0930-800

And what a production it was!!  I’ve don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie set that was quite so large or quite so involved.  And what amazed me the most was how realistic everything seemed.  It truly felt as if we were viewing a real life disaster area.  The scene being filmed centered around a major accident involving several overturned cars and two totalled buses.  If you look closely at the above pics, you’ll notice that both buses used in the filming feature advertising for ABC shows (Lost  and Desperate Housewives) on their sides.  LOL   Gee, I wonder what network this show will be airing on.  😉  

img_0943-800

img_0932-800

When I got home from stalking the Flash Forward  set, I did some cyber-research on the show and this is the info I was able to gather. The script for the pilot episode, which is entitled “No More Good Days”, was written by David S. Goyer (author of The Dark Knight  and Batman Begins  movies among many others) and Brannon Braga (co-executive producer of the series 24).  The show’s premise is this: at the exact same time all across the globe all of humanity loses consciousness for approximately two minutes.  During that brief period of time people everywhere “flash forward” to a moment exactly five months into their future to witness an unexpected event in their lives.  Sort of like what happened when the Ghost of Christmas Future visited Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.   🙂    Adding to the drama is that fact that during the worldwide black-out, chaos takes over the earth – there are plane crashes, car accidents, deadly falls, etc. – and 40 million people lose their lives.   Even though I am not a fan of the science fiction genre (I’ve never watched even one episode of Lost), I have to admit that Flash Forward’s  already got me hooked and I am for sure going to tune in!  The show stars Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, and Courtney B. Vance.  You can read a great article about the new series here.

 img_0937-800

And although I didn’t see any stars while stalking the Flash Forward  filming, I did spot an actor walking around in his tighty-whities (pictured above).  LOL   

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Flash Forward  was filmed on South Broadway in between 8th and 9th Streets in Downtown Los Angeles.  Look for Flash Forward  to premiere on ABC sometime this Spring in the time slot before Lost.

Meet Me At 3rd and Fairfax!

dsc00357-800
My boyfriend has some amazing celebrity karma!   He pretty much sees a movie star of some sort or another everywhere he goes.  And for some odd reason it seems his celebrity karma is especially strong when I am not with him.  It drives me nuts!!  Just a few of his celeb encounters that I somehow missed – he ate dinner once next to Calista Flockheart and Harrison Ford – and he didn’t even look to see what, if anything, Calista ate!!, he shopped for CD’s right next to Britney Spears at a Circuit City store, he sat next to Julia Louis Dreyfus during an outdoor theatre performance, and, my personal favorite, he stood behind Jennie Garth in line at a deli in San Ysidro.  Ugh!!!  Not that I am bitter about it or anything.  🙂  But I must say that the place where my boyfriend most often has a celeb sighting – I mean virtually EVERY SINGLE time he is there –  is the Los Angeles Farmers Market located at the corner of 3rd and Fairfax (pictured above – that’s me and my good friend Stephanie in the pic).
Scott Caan and me

So the other night, while my mom and I were walking through the Farmers Market after dinner, I told her to keep her eyes peeled for celebs.  “Here???” my mom asked me in disbelief pointing to the numerous outdoor tables and metal folding chairs.  “Yes!”, I told her.  “No, here????” she asked me again.  LOL  She could not believe that the popular, but by no means upscale or fancy, outdoor market was a celeb hot spot.  And wouldn’t you know it, just as we were having this little tete-a-tete, who should we walk by but Scott Caan – star of the Ocean’s 11 movies and son of movie star James Caan!   Due to my thrill over seeing him in person and the flurry over our slighty ill-timed conversation, I got just a bit flustered and immediately walked right into the men’s room which happened to be located straight ahead of me.  LOL!  I’m not kidding!   After I recovered from walking into the wrong restroom, I just had to ask Scott if he wouldn’t mind taking a pic with me.  He was super nice and friendly (even though he is not smiling in the above pic) and said he would be happy to pose for a photo.   After I got my pic and Scott walked away, I told my mom who she had just taken a picture of and she just about spazzed out at the fact that it was James Caan’s son.  LOL   See what I mean, you’ve gotta keep your eyes open!

img_0401-8001

The Farmers Market (no apostrophe) was the brainchild of businessmen Roger Dahlhjelm and Fred Beck who in 1934 proposed creating an open air market on a vacant 30 acre parcel of land owned by oil tycoon Earl Bell Gilmore.  During its early days local area farmers would pay 50 cents a day to park on Gilmore’s land and sell goods directly out of their trucks.  Those tailgate food stands became enormously popular and it wasn’t long before permanent stalls had to be created and, thus, the Los Angeles Farmers Market was born.  Today the Market is an L.A. institution, housing over 70 permanent stalls and shops, employing more than 700 clerks, and serving up over 16 different varieties of native foods to an average of 3 million yearly visitors!  Somewhere along the way someone coined the phrase “Meet me at 3rd and Fairfax” and it became almost as famous as the Market itself.  🙂

Farmers Market Entrance

A few of you have been asking me lately for some information on the best place to spot celebs in L.A. – and I promise to do a post on that subject very soon.  But for the time being let me suggest the Farmers Market, which the Los Angeles Times recently called “the number one place in L.A. to spot stars!”   If you are visiting Los Angeles and want to see a movie star, this is definitely one of the top places I’d stalk. 🙂  On a recent trip there I spotted the ENTIRE Wayans Family and on my last visit I saw David Edwards who starred in the Real World: San Francisco!   Also spotted at the Market and at the nearby Grove Shopping Center: my girl Jen Aniston, Jay Leno, Lauren Conrad and Steven Colletti, Jessica Simpson, Rihanna, Mischa Barton and Brandon Davis, Teri Hatcher, Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, and (sigh!) Luke Perry.  The Market has had some historical brushes with celebrity, too.  Supposedly on the morning of September 30, 1955 James Dean ate his last meal there.  And legend has it that Walt Disney did some of his original sketches for what would later come to be known as Disneyland while sitting at the Market’s circular tables.  Besides being a celeb hang out, the Market has also been featured in a few productions, including Body Double, Stigmata, an episode of Diagnosis Murder, and in the Season One episode of my fave The Hills entitled “Somebody Always Has To Cry”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Farmer’s Market is located at 6333 West 3rd Street, at the corner of Third and Fairfax, in Los Angeles.  I highly recommend eating at DuPars while visiting.  Tyra Banks, Teri Garr, and He’s Just Not That Into You author Greg Behrendt are all fans of the 70 year old restaurant.  For dinner you just can’t beat their “Beat the Clock” menu – a special menu where everyday between the hours of 4 and 6pm, the hour you arrive is the price you pay for your meal.  Yes, that means that if you arrive at 5:30pm, your meal (not including a drink) costs $5.30!  And the food is really good!  For slightly more money, head on over to Monsieur Marcel – a superb restaurant with great food and even better service.

“It Never Rains In Southern California . . . “

img_0349

As the old Albert Hammond song says “It never rains in Southern California, but girl, don’t they warn ya, it pours man, it pours!”  And pour it did almost all last week all over the normally sun drenched landscape of Los Angeles.  While on my way to stalk Burbank’s Handy Grocery Store in the pouring rain this past weekend, I happened to pass right by Walt Disney Studios on Buena Vista Street and was reminded about a story I once heard that seemed quite fitting of the day’s weather.

img_0345

img_0346

According to The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book, journalist Peter J. Boyer stated in a Vanity Fair article that Disney is “a place so reviled that even its architecture inspires nasty rumors, such as the apocryphal story that architect Michael Graves arranged the drainage system in the Disney headquarters building [aka the Team Disney building]  in such a way that the huge sculpted Seven Dwarfs atop the edifice would seem to be peeing on Disney executives whenever it rained.”  LOL  So, since it just happened to be raining at the time, I pulled over to see if Boyer’s story had any merit.  🙂  After seeing the Dwarfs in person in the pouring rain, I have to admit that I think the anecdote is somewhat of an urban legend, but it still makes for a great story and hopefully a great blog post.  🙂

img_0351

Walt Disney built his Burbank studio in 1940 after the enormous financial success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – the world’s first full length animated feature film.  At the time it was built the 41 acre lot was comprised of four full size soundstages (there are now six), a backlot that included a Western town, a town square, a residential street, and a small pueblo (the entire backlot has since been demolished), and recreation areas for employees which included ping pong tables and a volleyball court.  Over the years many productions have been filmed on the historic Disney lot, including That Darn Cat, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Absent Minded Professor, The Swamp Fox, The Princess Diaries, Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, Boy Meets World, Home Improvement, Lizzie Maguire, Less Than Perfect, and Mary Poppins.  Ironically enough, Mary Poppins was filmed solely indoors, using up all four of the Disney Studio soundstages.  Even the Cherry Tree Lane set where the Banks Family lived was built inside of a soundstage. Being a huge Mary Poppins fan myself, I was highly disappointed when I found this out as I had always hoped to one day see Cherry Tree Lane in person.  🙁  On an interesting side note, even though he passed away in 1966, Walt Disney still holds the record for most Academy Awards won by a single person.  In his lifetime, he won a incredible TWENTY-SIX Oscars!

img_0347

Unfortunately, Disney does not currently offer tours of its studio.  : (   But the good news is that the Team Disney building can be viewed from the street outside the studio gates.   If you are a big Disney fan, I highly recommend stalking the exterior of the building as it is very cool to see in person.  The Seven Dwarf statues are absolutely HUGE.  I was shocked at their size when I saw them in person as pictures simply do not do them justice!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Disney Studios is located at 500 S. Buena Vista Street in Burbank.  The Team Disney building, with its Seven Dwarfs facade, can be viewed through the main gate located just around the corner on Alameda Avenue.  Unfortunately the studio does not offer tours of its property. 🙁  But for $2,169 (per person!!!!!) you can purchase a 6 day/5 night “Hollywood and the Disneyland Resort” vacation from the Adventures by Disney Vacations company.  One of the days consists of a behind the scenes tour of Walt Disney Studios.

Quake!

img_0386

img_0397

screenshot506

The other night while driving home from the hospital – yes, my dad is in the hospital yet again – I happened to hit a red light at the corner of Green Street and Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena. The light took a really long time to change and while waiting I just happened to gaze off to my left. What I saw almost made me run my car right off the road! LOL Just down the street from me on Green Street, I saw what looked a whole lot like the exterior of Quake Restaurant from the television series Charmed. Even though I never watched Charmed while it was on the air, I have been slightly obsessed with finding Quake’s exterior ever since some Charmed fanatics challenged me to find it this past summer. And let me tell you, it was one difficult location to find!

img_0393

screenshot505

For Christmas Mike from MovieShotsLA bought me the entire Charmed series on DVD and I just started watching the first season last week. By scrutinizing some screen captures I could tell that the exterior of Quake was not the exterior of a real restaurant. Basically Quake’s entrance consisted of two pillars and an archway that producers spruced up a little by adding some foliage, potted plants, and a sign reading “Quake”. My best guess was that the pillars were the entrance to an apartment building or a commercial driveway of some sort. But trying to find two random pillars in L.A. proved to be quite difficult and to tell you the truth I had no idea even where to begin looking. Due to the vagueness of what was shown on TV, this is one location I had no hope of ever finding. Until Sunday night, that is!

img_0377

img_0375

What caught my eye as I drove by Green Street the other night were the twinkle lights covering “Quake’s” archway (pictured above). I’ve probably driven by this location about a hundred times in the past, but in the daylight I never really noticed it. At night, though, the bright twinkle lights caught my eye and triggered something in my mind. I immediately pulled off to the side of the road, snapped a few photographs, and sent them off to Mike. He called me back right away and said that the Green Street location was, indeed, Quake!!!!

img_0392

img_0394

img_0396

It turns out that in real life the exterior of Quake is the entrance to an office building named the Pasadena Livery Building. The lit archway in front leads to a small brick courtyard located at the Livery’s entrance. While the archway and courtyard area are very cute in person, I’m sure it will be pretty disappointing for Charmed fans to find out that in real life Quake is just a nondescript office building that one could easily drive right by without even noticing. LOL I was still SUPER excited to find it, though!!

Now that I can check Quake off my must-find locations list, I can pour all of my stalking attention yet again into finding the ever elusive Girls Just Want to Have Fun apartment . LOL For some reason not even Mike, master stalker, can locate that apartment building. But like I told him the other day, if we can find two pillars and an archway that were used in the filming of a television series over 11 years ago, surely we can find the Girls Just Want To Have Fun apartment!!!! LOL

And it’s definitely true what they say – every cloud does have a silver lining. Because while my dad might have spent all week in the hospital, had I not been driving home from visiting him late at night I never would have discovered Quake. Sometimes you’ve just gotta keep your eyes open to what the universe is trying to show you. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The exterior of the fictional Quake restaurant is really the entrance to the Pasadena Livery Building located at 101 East Green Street in Pasadena.

Pawn Shop to the Stars

img_0096

screenshot441

Another day, another pawn shop to write about. 🙂 Ironically, just around the corner from the now defunct Beverly Hills, 90210 pawn shop that I blogged about yesterday, is yet another local pawn shop that also has a filming history. Who knew that pawn shops were such popular filming locations?? 🙂 Angelo’s Jewelry and Loan Company, which touts itself as the “Pawn Shop to the Stars”, opened up in 1984 and has the distinction of being Santa Monica’s oldest pawn shop. Since it was around at the time, I can’t help but wonder why it wasn’t used as Dylan’s pawn shop in the “Anaconda” episode of 90210. Or why there would be two pawn shops in such close proximity to each other. Perhaps that explains why the “Anaconda” one is no longer in business. Anyway, even though the tiny shop was overlooked by 90210 location scouts, it did get featured just last year in the Owen Wilson movie Drillbit Taylor.

img_00981

screenshot442

screenshot443

In Drillbit Taylor, a group of nerdy teenage boys hire con man Owen Wilson to be their bodyguard. But instead of protecting them, Drillbit ends up robbing them blind and hawking their goods at a local pawn shop. That pawn shop was Angelo’s. And it looks exactly the same in real life as it did in the movie. According to the owner Angelo’s has also been featured in other productions over the years, but he was unable to recall which ones – which boggles my mind! LOL My guess is that Angelo’s has appeared in one or more of the L.A. based crime dramas such as Without A Trace, Cold Case, or the CSI shows.

img_0100

img_0099

I found this location thanks to Mike over at MovieShotsLA, but the truth is I really should have recognized it myself. For over two years I took acting classes right around the corner from Angelo’s and would pass by the shop at least three times a week on my way to grab a coffee before or after class. Every time I walked by I would laugh at the silly signs in the store windows (pictured above). So when Mike told me that my acting class pawn shop was the very same pawn shop featured in Drillbit Taylor, I had to mentally kick myself for not immediately recognizing it. And I call myself a stalker!! LOL Sometimes I really think all that blond dye goes straight to my head. LOL Thanks, Mike!

img_0101

According to this article, Angelo’s claim of being the “Pawn Shop to the Stars” is actually not a joke. Apparently movie stars do stop in to Angelo’s from time to time, although the owner refuses to divulge which ones. I didn’t see any while I was there, but who knows, while stalking the place you might end up spotting a celeb or two! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Angelo’s Pawn Shop is located at 206 Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica.

Beverly Hills, 90291

A few weeks back while I was out stalking the Californication house, Mike (from MovieShotsLA) and I set out on a mission to find Kelly Taylor’s house from the new 90210 series.

img_1329

screenshot3901

I had been searching for the house for quite some time and on this particular day I called Mike at work (poor guy!) and said “We are going to find that house today!” I’m nothing if not determined! Mike and I knew the house was located in Venice from an article that appeared in Entertainment Weekly this past summer, and since I was already in the area, I realized it was now or never! I was not leaving Venice without finding that house. 🙂

img_1333

screenshot392

Kelly’s house has appeared on 90210 quite a few times, beginning with the pilot episode. And each time it appears, a plaque with the numbers “2229” is clearly visible in the background. But neither Mike nor I could seem to find any area in Venice with house numbers in the 2200 range. We found blocks with addresses of 2100, 2300, and 2400, but for some reason 2200 was nowhere to be found. Mike had become convinced that the “2229” sign was just a prop added to the house for filming, but I held out hope. Something told me that sign was really there.

img_1335

Since Google Street View does not cover the Venice area, I acted as Mike’s eyes and ears driving around Venice while he sat in front of his computer at work looking at aerial maps. LOL My boyfriend always says how amazing it is that Mike and I managed to find each other. I mean who else in their right mind would do this stuff with me?? LOL Anyway, after driving around for a while I was just about ready to give up hope. Then all of sudden, an idea struck Mike and he told me to head to Glyndon Avenue. He had remembered working once in a quaint little section of Venice and thought it might be the area where Kelly’s house was located. So, using my trusty GPS, I drove over to Glyndon Avenue and sure enough, there was the house – “2229” sign and all. See, you should always trust a woman’s intuition! 🙂

screenshot399

screenshot400

img_1331

Many episodes of 90210 were filmed at the actual Venice Beach house and I also believe that some interior filming took place there, as well. This is apparent in both the pilot episode, in which fellow teacher Ryan stops by Kelly’s house, flowers in hand . . .

screenshot3911

screenshot394

img_1334

. . . and the episode entitled “Secrets and Lies” in which Silver’s house party gets slightly out of hand.

img_1328

Kelly’s house is very cute and very picturesque in person. In fact, it is just the type of house I would expect to find a grown-up Kelly Taylor living in. Especially since she is so obviously still carrying a torch for Dylan and this house is so reminiscent of Dylan’s Craftsman style home from the original series. 🙂 I absolutely loved stalking Kelly’s house. In fact, driving around Venice that day while talking to Mike on the phone will always be one of my fondest stalking memories!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kelly Taylor’s house is located at 2229 Glyndon Avenue in Venice.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller Zombie Dance Location

Last week, while cyber-stalking the theatre used in Michael Jackson’s Thriller , I read that the final dance sequence in the video was filmed on a street in Los Angeles named Union Pacific Avenue. So, of course, I immediately called up Mike from MovieShotsLA to let him know. Unfortunately, Union Pacific Avenue is a very long street and the two of us had no idea where the exact spot was that Thriller was filmed. But, as usual, Mike worked his magic and within about ten minutes he had found it! He is so my hero!! So, with only two days left to go of my Haunted Hollywood theme, this morning I dragged my dad out to Union Pacific Avenue to do some Thriller stalking.

I was EXTREMELY excited to see that the street looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1983 when Thriller was filmed! The wall that MJ and his fellow zombies dance in front of is still standing and looks just the same as it did in the Thriller days. In fact it was that wall that Mike used to figure out the location of the filming. Using Google Maps Street View, he went up and down Union Pacific Avenue on his computer looking for the wall, hoping it was still standing. And it was! I am absolutely amazed (and thrilled!) that the wall is still there for us stalkers to appreaciate all these years later.

It also looks like the very same company that inhabited the building where the dance sequence took place twenty five years ago, is still, in fact, stationed there. As you can see in the above screen captures, the company signage is still in the exact same spot and looks pretty much identical to how it did in the video. 🙂 I can’t tell you how excited I was to be standing in the exact spot where MJ danced twenty-five years ago! There were a few workers standing around eating breakfast at a food truck while my dad and I were taking pictures and they thought we were absolutely crazy! They were looking at me while I was doing my Thriller poses as if I was stark raving mad. LOL Love it!

Had to do it! 🙂

You can watch the Thriller video here. On a side note, this year is the 25th Anniversary of Thriller and Michael Jackson released a 25th Anniversary Special Edition Album for the occasion. How did I not know about this???? I mean Thriller is my favorite album of all time! The Anniversary Edition contains seven bonus tracks with special guest artists including Fergie and Kanye West, a promotional booklet, and a DVD of music videos including Michael Jackson’s legendary “Billie Jean” performance at the Motown 25 television special.

Big THANKS as always to Mike for finding this location – just in time for Halloween, too! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Thriller main dance sequence location can be stalked at 3701 East Union Pacific Avenue in Los Angeles, just outside the City of Commerce. The area is highly industrial and not in the safest part of town, so please exercise caution – especially if you visit it at night.