Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood

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Two weekends ago, while doing some stalking in the Hollywood area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Hollywood & Highland Shopping Center to grab a quick drink at Lucky Strike Lanes, an oft-used filming location and celebrity hot-spot.  While I had first heard about the bowling alley/lounge when it originally opened eight years ago and knew of its appearance on numerous reality series, for whatever reason I did not have much interest in stalking the place.  Then, a couple of months ago, fellow stalker Lavonna happened to tell me a little bit of trivia about the alley that had me absolutely chomping at the bit to go see it.

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Lavonna informed me that when the iconic Hollywood Star Lanes, which first opened in 1960 and was where the majority of the movie The Big Lebowski was filmed, was torn down back in 2003 to make way for a new elementary school, the owners of the soon-to-be opened Lucky Strike decided to purchase all of the wood that comprised Hollywood Star’s Lane #7.  They then proceeded to use that wood to construct the bar at their new establishment.  How incredibly cool is that?

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They also purchased the exterior neon signage from Hollywood Star Lanes to use as a wall hanging.  Love, love, love it!

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As you can see above, Lucky Strike Lanes is a VERY cool little spot.  Unfortunately, I have to say that I was not all that crazy about the food.  And sadly, the GC and I did not have time to do any bowling while we were there, but fellow stalker Lavonna has plans to hit the place up when she comes to visit L.A. in November, so you know what that means – I will definitely be doing a re-stalk!  Smile

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As I mentioned above, Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood is an oft-used filming location.  In the Season 6 episode of The Hills titled “The Elephant in the Room”, Kristin Cavallari, Brodie Jenner, Frankie Delgado, Stacie Hall (aka Stacie the Bartender), and Audrina Patridge and her new boyfriend, singer Ryan Cabrera, spent the evening bowling and flirting at Lucky Strike.

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Ryan Cabrera returned to the bowling alley to film the Season 1 episode of the ULTRA-stupid reality show Pretty Wild titled ”The Hearing”, in which he angers series star Tess Taylor by inviting a friend to accompany them on their date.

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Vinnie Chase (aka Adrian Grenier), Eric Murphy (aka Kevin Connolly), Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (aka Kevin Dillon), and Turtle (aka Jerry Ferrara) took their girlfriends, one of whom was Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester, to Lucky Strike for an evening of bowling in the Season 1 episode of Entourage titled “Date Night”.

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In the Season 11 episode of America’s Next Top Model titled “Fierce Eyes”, J Alexander hosted a runway challenge at Lucky Strike in which the models had to practice walking down the super-slippery bowling lanes while wearing high heels.

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In the Season 1 episode of No Ordinary Family titled “No Ordinary Sidekick”, Jim Powell (aka Michael Chiklis), along with his family, Stephanie (aka Dexter’s Julie Benz), Daphne (aka Kay Panabaker), and J.J. (aka Jimmy Bennett), and their friends Katie Andrews (aka The O.C.’s Autumn Reeser) and George St. Cloud (aka Romany Malco), spend the evening using their super-powers to bowl at Lucky Strike.

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And while I had originally believed that the Season 1 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Lucky Strike” was filmed at the Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood, as it turns out filming actually took place at the chain’s Torrance location, inside of the Del Amo Shopping Center.

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And the Season 2 episode of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County titled “Since You Been Gone” was filmed at the chain’s Block at Orange location.

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As I mentioned above, Lucky Strike Lanes is also a veritable celebrity magnet. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Drew Barrymore, Liv Tyler, John Mayer, Glee’s Cory Monteith, The Bachelorette’s Ali Fedotowsky and Roberto Martinez, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Rumor Willis, Geena Davis, Robin Williams, Paris Hilton, Nick Carter, Matthew Lillard, Fergie and Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas, Mandy Moore, Judy Greer, Vanessa Hudgens, Courteney Cox, Nicole Richie, Trevor Donovan, Jessica Simpson, and even my girl Jen Aniston.  I once spotted David Arquette walking into the bowling alley for some sort of celebrity event back in December of 2008 and while I tried to take the above photograph of him, as you can see, it did not turn out very well due to the bright lights on the red carpet. You can definitely tell it is him, though.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Lavonna for telling me about this location!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Lucky Strike Lanes is located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard, inside of the Hollywood & Highland Shopping Center, in Hollywood.  You can visit the bowling alley’s official website here.

Buy A Set From Laguna Beach!

Fave website Real Estalker just posted news that Lauren Conrad’s parents put their Laguna Beach dream house up for sale for a cool $17.5 million! You may remember that James Conrad built this house during the first season of Laguna Beach: The Real O.C. and LC and Ste-ven traipsed through the house during construction in the pilot episode. L.C. threw a few pool parties/BBQ’s there during subsequent seasons of the show and it was at one of those pools parties that her romance with Jason Wahler blossomed. I have no idea why the Conrad’s would sell this home – it is absolutely amazing!

You can read the entire Real Estalker article here.

Stalk It: The Conrad’s home is located at 29 Vista Del Sol in Laguna Beach. You won’t get past the guardshack located at 32350 Pacific Coast Highway, though, so you’ll just have to settle for views of the house from the road.

Go Team Kristen!

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Ever since Laguna Beach: The Real O.C. first came on the air, I have been a HUGE fan of Kristin Cavallari. So LOVE her!!! And tonight I actually got to meet her!!! I am still pinching myself! My boyfriend and I headed to Hollywood today because I was completely intent on going to celeb hot spot the Tropicana Bar at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel Pool for a drink. This is the very same bar and pool where all the stars go to get their drink on and their swim on. The episode of The Hills, when Brodi tells Lauren that Spencer “broke up” with him, was filmed at the pool, along with countless other productions.

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Due to the rain the Tropicana Bar was pretty much empty, except for a group of three girls sitting in a corner. We ended up sitting fairly close to them and I almost fell out of my lounge chair when I realized one of them was Kristin Cavallari. She got up to leave right as we were ordering our drinks and I knew I just had to say something to her. I mean I own a “Team Kristin” shirt for God’s sake! I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me by! So I went up to her and (dork that I am) blurted out “I love you!” LOL! Kristin could not have been sweeter! She shook my hand and told me that she “really appreciates” that I took the time to come up to her and “it means a lot” that I am such a fan. She was completely genuine and nice and I am an even bigger fan now than I was before! Sadly I did not get a picture as my boyfriend, who was absolutely convinced it wasn’t really her, stayed behind with the camera while I went to talk to her.

Stalk It: The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel is located at 7000 Hollywood Blvd., at the corner of Hollywood and N. Orange Drive. The Tropicana Bar and hotel pool is located directly off the lobby. Even after it started pouring rain, and we had to move to the covered part of the bar, it was still a really nice place to sit and have a drink. But, while the Tropicana Bar has some great food, if you are hungry, I would actually recommend going to the restaurant Twenty-Five Degrees, also located in the hotel, for a bite to eat instead. They make amazing burgers and hot-dogs and don’t even get me started on the fries! While the restaurant is pricey, it is well worth it! And if you happen to see a celeb while you are out and about in Hollywood, go up and tell them what a fan you are! You only live once, and I have found that, way more often than not, they sincerely appreciate meeting their fans.

Where It All Began

img_0986.jpg Since I’ve blogged about LC’s homes past and present for the last few days , I thought I’d come full circle and write about where it all began – LC’s home in Laguna Beach, California. One day last year, back when I was on Team Kristin, I dragged my boyfriend to Laguna Beach to stalk all of the Laguna Beach: The Real O.C. filming locations. LC’s house was pretty easy to find actually. We just stopped into one of the local motels in Laguna and I asked the front desk clerk, who was about 19, where some of the Laguna Beach filming spots were located. Turns out he went to Laguna Beach High with LC and the gang and he pointed me in the direction of a few of the locations, the best one being Lauren’s house.

img_0984.jpg He told me to just drive south on Coast Highway a few miles and that I couldn’t miss Lauren’s house up on the hill overlooking the Pacific. Sure enough, there it was! Lauren’s house is absolutely beautiful in person and incredibly huge. I can’t even imagine living there!! Unfortunately LC’s house is located on a private road in a gated community, so you can’t drive by it.

img_0987.jpg LC’s guard shack – the only thing that can stop a stalker.

img_0979.jpg Another location I was also pretty intent on finding was Golden Spoon, the frozen yogurt spot where Kristin and a friend met for dessert and she talked about the pasta she made Steven for dinner the night before and how it “smelled like feet.” I recognized this spot right away when we drove down Broadway to Downtown Laguna.

img_0980.jpg Pasta Pomodoro, the site of every single date that ever took place on Laguna Beach is located just a few blocks away on Forest Aveune. It must be the only restaurant in Laguna that allows cameras. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: LC’s guardshack is located at 32350 Coast Highway, at the corner of Vista Del Sol, a couple miles south of Downtown Laguna. I would recommend parking across the street and a little bit north from the guard shack for the best views of the house. The actual house is located at 29 Vista Del Sol. The Golden Spoon and Pomodoro are both located in Downtown Laguna, at 272 Broadway St. and 234 Forest Avenue, respectively.