AFI’s Warner Bros. Building – aka the Hospital from “The Artist”

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Another locale from The Artist that I found thanks to John Bengtson’s fabulous Silent Locations blog was the Warner Bros. Building on the American Film Institute campus in Los Feliz, which stood in for the exterior of the hospital where George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) was admitted after being injured in a fire towards the end of the Academy Award-winning flick.  Amazingly enough, despite the fact that I have lived in Southern California for over twelve years now, for whatever reason, while I had heard of the legendary film school, I had never before visited it.  So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place two weekends ago, shortly after we stopped by Red Studios Hollywood, aka Kinograph Studios from The Artist which I blogged about yesterday.

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The American Film Institute, or “AFI” as it is more commonly known, was founded in 1967 by the National Endowment for the Arts in order to “preserve the history of the motion picture, to honor the artists and their work and to educate the next generation of storytellers.”  Such luminaries as actor Gregory Peck, director Francis Ford Coppola, historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., actor Sidney Poitier, and longtime Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) president Jack Valenti sat on the organization’s original Board of Trustees.  The institute was first headquartered inside of the famous Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills, but moved to its current location, an eight-acre property which formerly housed Immaculate Heart College, in 1983.  AFI Conservatory, the establishment’s fully accredited graduate film school which, in 2011, was named the #1 film school in the world by The Hollywood Reporter, boasts such notable alumni as David Lynch, Edward James Olmos, Darren Aronofsky, Terrence Malick, Amy Heckerling (the writer/director of fave movie Clueless!), Marshall Herskovitz (one of the Executive Producers of fave show My So-Called Life!), Edward Zwick (another of My So-Called Life’s Executive Producers!), and Gary Winick (the director of fave movie 13 Going on 30!).  Talk about a Who’s Who of the film industry!  The Warner Bros. Building (pictured above) is AFI’s main facility and houses classrooms, a soundstage, screening rooms, computer labs, and production offices.

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Thanks to AFI’s hilltop location, the place boasts some rather incredible views of Downtown Los Angeles, as you can see above!

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The Warner Bros. Building only shows up once in The Artist – in the scene in which Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) arrives at the hospital to check on George.  According to the Los Feliz Ledger website, the short, one-day shoot took place on November 14th, 2010.

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Only the exterior of the Warner Bros. Building was used in the filming.  All of the interior hospital scenes were shot about four miles away at The Ebell of Los Angeles, a private women’s club that I have stalked twice, but have yet to blog about.  And while hundreds upon hundreds of movies have been filmed at the historic property over the years, for today’s post I would like to concentrate on The Artist.  A few different areas of The Ebell appeared in the flick.  When Peppy runs through the hospital hallway and asks a nurse where she can find George’s room, she is actually running through the site’s Garden Arcade.  And while I do not have a photograph of the actual Arcade, the area where it is located is denoted with a pink arrow above.  (You may recognize the courtyard pictured above from the prom scene in fave movie Never Been Kissed.)

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Peppy is then shown running through The Ebell’s Solarium Hallway into the 3rd Floor Terrace (both of which were also used prominently in Forrest Gump).

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John at Silent Locations was lucky enough to speak with Carol Kiefer, the Art Department Coordinator for The Artist, who informed him that The Ebell had also appeared in several other scenes in the movie.  The club’s Art Salon was used as the auction house where George sold all of his belongings after his career took a downturn.

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When leaving the auction, George is shown walking down The Ebell’s Lounge Stairway, followed by his loyal chauffer, Clifton (James Cromwell).

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The club’s Dining Room masqueraded as the storage room in Peppy’s mansion where George discovered all of his former possessions.

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And while the Dining Room was made to appear much smaller than it actually is for the filming and is virtually unrecognizable from its appearance onscreen, I recognized this location thanks to the unique circular-shaped decoration above the window that was visible in the background of the scene.

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Supposedly, the Kinograph Studios office of director Al Zimmer (John Goodman) was also located somewhere inside of The Ebell, but I did not see any areas of the property on either tour that looked even remotely like the screen captures pictured above.  So I am guessing that a room of the property was either completely redone for the filming or that that information is incorrect.

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The anteroom to Zimmer’s office is located at The Ebell, though.  In actuality, it is a small room located on the building’s third floor.

Big THANK YOU to John Bengtson, from the Silent Locations blog, for finding these locations!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Warner Bros. Building at the American Film Institute, aka the exterior of the hospital from The Artist, is located at 2021 North Western Avenue in Los Feliz.  You can visit the official AFI website here.  The Ebell of Los Angeles is located at 743 South Lucerne Boulevard in Hancock Park.  Sadly, The Ebell is not currently open to the public, but you can visit the property’s official website here.

Villa Sophia from the Final Episode of “Entourage”

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A couple of weeks ago, while the Grim Cheaper and I were out doing some stalking in the Hollywood area, I received an email from Constantine Vlahos, the owner of a Los Feliz mansion named Villa Sophia.  Constantine was writing to let me know that his home had been featured in the final episode of Entourage and that I might be interested in stalking it.  Now, I just have to say here that that was most definitely a first – a homeowner not only seeking me out to inform me of his property’s filming history, but also encouraging me to stalk the place!  Oh, how I wish more people would do the same!  And interested in stalking it, I surely was, so I dragged the GC right on out there later that same day.

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In real life, Villa Sophia is quite breathtaking.  And while the Mediterranean-revival-style mansion, which was originally built in 1927, appears to be absolutely gargantuan from the street, in reality it “only” boasts 3 bedrooms, 4 baths, and 4,525 square feet – which is large, don’t get me wrong, but from the looks of the exterior, I expected the place to be a whole lot bigger.

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As you can see in the above aerial view, the residence seems to be massive!

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Villa Sophia was originally designed by Henry Harwood Hewitt, the L.A.-area architect who also gave us The Ebell Club of Los Angeles (an oft-used filming location that I really should have already blogged about being that I have stalked it twice!), the L.A. County Hall of Justice (also an oft-used location that was featured in the television shows Dragnet and Get Smart), and Bob Hope Patriotic Hall (yet another filming location that appeared in the movies Patton and Flashdance).  Villa Sophia was commissioned by Clement E. Smoot, an Olympic-gold-medalist golfer turned industrial lighting manufacturer, and his wife, Margaret Miller Smoot.  During the 1930s, the property became home to James Whale, the famed British film director who made Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Show Boat, and The Man with the Iron Mask, and who was also the subject of the 1998 flick Gods and Monsters.  In the late 90s, the dwelling was purchased by Constantine, my new favorite homeowner Smile, who had spent years fantasizing about owning the place and who immediately began a massive renovation and restoration process, during which he added on a 15-foot retaining wall, a pool, a pool house, upper and lower rear terraces, a loggia, and a dining pavilion.  Constantine even rents the 750-square-foot pool house out to vacationers, so if you are in the area and would like to stay at an Entourage filming location, you can book a reservation here.  And you can see some fabulous close-up pictures of the home here.

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In the final episode of Entourage, which was appropriately titled “The End”, Villa Sophia was featured in the very last, post-credits scene in which Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) and his wife, Mrs. Ari (Perrey Reeves), are shown living their new life in Florence, Italy.  It is at the home that Ari receives a phone call from Time Warner chairman John Ellis (Alan Dale), who announces that he is retiring and wants Ari to take over his job.  Dun-dun-dun!  As you can see above, the landscape of Florence was digitally added to the background of the scene.

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Villa Sophia was also the site of a Victoria’s Secret “Bombshell Summer” commercial starring Candice Swanepoel, Chanel Iman, and Erin Heatherton that was filmed in May 2011.

Victoria’s Secret Bombshell Summer commercial filmed at Villa Sophia

You can watch a behind-the-scenes video of that shoot by clicking above.

Constantine also informed me that the home will be featured in the near future in a yet-to-be-released movie starring Kate Bosworth.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Villa Sophia, from “The End” episode of Entourage, is located at 4565 Dundee Drive in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.  You can visit the mansion’s official website here.  The Lovell Health House, aka Pierce Patchett’s home from L.A. Confidential, is located just up the street at 4616 Dundee Drive.

Dolly Green’s House from “Eye for an Eye”

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Taking a break today from my many Gossip Girl posts, I thought I would write about a residence that I stalked with fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, way back in mid-July.  While he was in town for a little Southern California stalking vacay, the two of us, along with his super-sweet mother, Cynthia, headed out to the Los Feliz area to visit the tiny Tudor-style bungalow where Dolly Green (aka Beverly D’Angelo, who will always be “Ellen Griswold” to me) and her husband, Peter (aka Darrell Larson), lived in the 1996 revenge thriller Eye for an Eye.  Chas had somehow managed to track down the property – despite only a small portion of it ever being shown – as well as all of the other locations featured in the movie, a little over a year ago.  And while I actually could not even remember what Dolly Green’s abode looked like before we arrived there, let me tell you, I absolutely fell in love with the place on site!

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Dolly Green’s little fairy-tale-like dwelling, which was built over the side of a cascading cliff on the winding Glendower Avenue high up in the hills of Los Feliz, is absolutely ADORABLE in person.  The abode is so quaint and charming that it looks as if it jumped right out of a Disney cartoon.  I half expected the Seven Dwarfs to come walking out the front door, marching along to “Whistle While You Work”, while we were there.

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Although calling the home “little” is a bit misleading.  While it does appear to be small from the street, the residence is actually quite large.  According to fave website Zillow, the dwelling, which was originally built in 1926, boasts 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, and measures 2,972 square feet.  As you can see above, though, most of that square footage is located on the back side of the hill, below street level and out of view.

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And speaking of views, the home boasts some incredible ones!  We happened to stalk the residence on a smog-free day and were able to see all the way to Downtown Los Angeles!  Amazing!

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Dolly Green’s residence only appears in one brief scene in Eye for an Eye, in which Karen McCann (aka Sally Field) and her husband, Mack (aka Ed Harris), spend the night at their friends’ house immediately following the murder of their teenage daughter, Julie (aka Olivia Burnette).  Now that I have seen the property in person, I am shocked that only a small portion of it was shown in the movie.  I mean, talk about curb appeal!  This place has got it in spades!  Why more of it was not featured is beyond me.  But then again, I am not a filmmaker, so what do I know?  Winking smile

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Sadly, I was not able to find any photographs of the actual interior of the residence, so I am not able to say whether or not it was used in Eye for an Eye, but I would guess that it was.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location!  Smile You can check out Chas’ extensive Eye for an Eye filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Dolly Green’s house from Eye for an Eye is located at 2757 Glendower Avenue in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.  Quite a few other filming locations can be found nearby – the Doppelganger mansion is at 2421 Glendower Avenue; Donna Martin’s house from the B.Y.O.B. episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 is at 2405 Glendower Avenue; the so-called “Los Feliz Murder House” is at 2475 Glendower Place, and the legendary Ennis-Brown house, which I have yet to stalk, is at 2607 Glendower Avenue.

The “Doppelganger” Mansion

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Another location from the 1993 thriller Doppelganger that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to stalk this past weekend was the mansion where Holly Gooding (aka Drew Barrymore) grew up in the flick.  I found this locale, once again, thanks to Tony, my friend and fellow stalker who has the amazing Flickr photostream which I mentioned yesterday.  Incredibly enough, Tony has somehow managed to track down almost every single location featured in Doppelganger and he was kind enough to share them all with me so that I could blog about them during my Haunted Hollywood month well, every location that is except for the supposed-Arcadia-area Our Lady of Mercy Psychiatric Institute which I have now become just a wee bit obsessed with finding.  But I digress.  Anyway, last weekend, after stopping by the apartment building featured in the movie, the GC and I headed a short two miles north to Los Feliz to do some stalking of the mansion.

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The Doppelganger mansion is featured twice in the flick.  It first pops up in the scene in which Holly and her new roommate, struggling mystery writer Patrick Highsmith (aka George Newbern), meet with Holly’s family lawyer, Mike Wallace (aka George Maharis), in order to get the keys to her former home which has been locked up and sealed since her father’s murder four years prior.  While there, Patrick says that the abode is “right out of a Bette Davis movie” – a line which I, of course, loved.  Winking smile

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The large, English-country-style abode later pops up in the movie’s climactic, rather odd, and definitely spooky final scene in which Holly returns to her childhood home in the middle of the night to confront her evil doppelganger and finally end the nightmare in which she has been living.

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Patrick, of course, follows Holly and, carrying a baseball bat, climbs up the side of the house and through a second story window in the hopes that he can save her.

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I believe that the interior of the mansion that was shown in the movie was just a set and not the home’s real life interior.

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According to fave website Zillow, the Doppelganger mansion, which was originally built in 1923, boasts 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 3,500 square feet of living space, although I would have guessed it to be much, much larger.  And amazingly, the property still looks almost exactly the same today as it did 18 years ago when Doppelganger was filmed.  Even the three large circular trees which flank the home’s front door and front window still look exactly the same.   Love it!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Tony for finding this location!   You can check out Tony’s FANTASTIC Flickr photostream, which features countless filming locations, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Doppelganger mansion is located at 2421 Glendower Avenue in the Los Feliz section of Los AngelesDonna Martin’s house from the B.Y.O.B. episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 is located just two doors south of the Doppelganger mansion at 2405 Glendower Avenue.  And the so-called “Los Feliz Murder House”, which I blogged about back in January, is located just around the corner at 2475 Glendower Place.

Figaro Bistrot from “Made of Honor”

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As I mentioned in my post about Le Petit Bistro back in early August, one location that I have been longing to stalk for quite some time now is Figaro Bistrot, an adorable little French cafe that has appeared in numerous productions over the years, most notably the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2009 advertising campaign which featured pop star Madonna.  For whatever reason, though, the Grim Cheaper and I had just never made it out there.  Until this past Saturday evening, that is, when we found ourselves in Los Feliz and I suggested stopping by for a cocktail.  The sandwich board sign out in front of the restaurant proclaimed that Figaro offered “the very best Happy Hour in Los Feliz” and, let me tell you, it was not an exaggeration!  Not only did the GC and I absolutely stuff ourselves silly, but we managed to get out of there for under $45!

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As you can see in the photographs above, Figaro Bistrot is an absolutely ADORABLE little spot.  Decorated with authentic French antiques, flower-shaped chandeliers, tiny sidewalk bistros, gilded mirrors, and a zinc-plated bar, the setting could not be more magical.  Walking through the front doors, one is immediately transported to Paris.  Not real life Paris, but a fantasy Paris – the Paris of the movies, the Paris that Bogey and Bergman so fondly reminisced about in Casablanca.  And the food!  Oh my god, the food!  It was quite simply out of this world!  The GC and I both ordered two items off of the happy hour menu, each of which were priced at around $5.  The GC opted for the Beef Carpaccio and Moules Gratinees aux Fromage (mussels gratin with parsley butter sauce), while I ordered the Mini Burger, which was quite simply the best burger I have ever had in my life, and the Croquettes de Crabe (crab cakes), which were also divine.  The GC was so insanely happy over the large portions, inexpensive prices, and fabulous fare that I can pretty much guarantee this is one spot we will be stalking again and again.

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The Spring/Summer 2009 ad campaign for Louis Vuitton, which was directed by fashion icon Marc Jacobs and shot by legendary fashion photographer Stephen Meisel, featured the café quite prominently, most notably the bar area and the red leather banquettes located in the rear of Figaro’s southern-most dining room.  And even though I am not a fan of Madonna – like at all – I have to admit that Meisel’s pictures of her are absolutely stunning.  (The photographs above do not belong to me, but are the sole property of photographer Stephen Meisel and Louis Vuitton.)

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As I mentioned in my post about Le Petit Bistro in August, the exterior of Figaro was featured in a brief establishing shot in the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “How Much is that Liam in the Window”.  It was used as the exterior of the French restaurant where Charlie Selby (aka Evan Ross) took Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes) on a date.  For some reason, though, the interior scenes were shot about six miles away at Le Petit Bistro in West Hollywood.

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Our super-nice bartender informed us that Figaro had also made an appearance in the 2008 flick Made of Honor and I just about died of excitement.  You see, I have always had a very special place in my heart for that movie because when I first asked my non-celebrity-obsessed best friend, Robin, who is male and lives in Switzerland, to stand up for me at my wedding, he sent me an email which stated, “I would do absolutely everything to be at your wedding.  I just don’t know what the best man has to do.  I’m not so familiar with the American rules of marriage.  I went to watch a really bad movie last Spring with Steffi [his girlfriend].  I, of course, don’t know the name of the movie or of the actor in it, but it was with the guy who plays the doctor in Grace [his spelling, not mine – love it] Anatomy.  Anyway, he had to organize the bachelor party for women and stuff like that.  So you will have to give me a summary of the duties of the bride’s best man.”  So incredibly cute!  I immediately printed out that email and have carried it around in my wallet ever since.  Smile The “really bad” movie he was speaking about was, of course, Made of Honor, which I had actually never before seen.  So after our dinner at Figaro, the GC and I headed right on over to Blockbuster to rent it.  And I have to say that it was not half bad.  It is not great, mind you, but it is a cute, little lightweight romantic comedy.  Anyway, Figaro Bistrot was featured a few times in the flick.  The exterior first pops up as the supposed Manhattan bakery where Hannah (aka Michelle Monaghan) tries to guess what dessert her best friend Tom (aka Patrick Dempsey – the guy who plays the doctor in Grace Anatomy Winking smile) is going to order.

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It later pops up in the scene in which Tom, who has since realized that he is in love with Hannah, takes a random date out for dessert and tries to get her to play the guessing game, which she fails miserably at.  While there, she also complains about the long line, to which Tom says, “This is the best bakery in the world!  That’s why it’s worth waiting in line.”

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And, finally, the interior pops up in the scene in which Tom, while eating two pieces of cake, thinks about Hannah, who is on a business trip in Scotland for six weeks.

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Figaro Bistrot is also something of a celebrity hot spot.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Katherine Heigl, Josh Kelley, Isabel Lucas, Lindsay Price, Jessalyn Gilsig, and Keifer Sutherland.  The GC and I also once spotted Archie Panjabi dining at one of the restaurant’s sidewalk tables while we were walking by after grabbing a bite to eat at nearby Fred 62.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Figaro Bistrot, from Made of Honor, is located at 1802 North Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.  Figaro offers Happy Hour from 5 to 7 p.m. daily, including Saturdays and Sundays!