InvenTORI – Tori Spelling’s New Store

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This past Friday afternoon, I just about died upon opening up the latest issue of US Magazine and reading in “The Records” section that, on Valentine’s Day, Beverly Hills, 90210-star Tori Spelling and her husband, Dean McDermott, had held the grand opening for their new antique store, InvenTORI (love it!), on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.  How in the world had I not known about this previously????  Ironically enough, fellow stalker Lavonna sent me a text just a few minutes after I had finished reading the US blurb in which she told me that I absolutely HAD to stalk Tori’s new shop.  So, much to the Grim Cheaper’s chagrin, I added the place to my To-Stalk list and dragged him right on out there this past Monday afternoon.  I was extremely sad to discover upon arriving, though, that the store was, in fact, closed.  Because no hours were posted, I am not sure if the boutique, which also sells products for children and pets, is shuttered each and every Monday or if it was closed due to the Presidents’ Day holiday.  Whatever the reason, though, I was not able to purchase anything while I was there which was a complete and total bummer!

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Thankfully though, I was able to snap a few pictures of the shop through InvenTORI’s front windows and, as you can see in the above photographs, while the store is extremely cute, the place seems to be rather sparsely stocked.  The GC and I were joking that for a place named “InvenTORI”, it certainly didn’t have a lot of it!  Winking smile  I was actually quite surprised that Tori chose Sherman Oaks as the site of her new commercial venture, as I would have figured she would be more inclined to open a boutique in Beverly Hills or on the uber-trendy Third Street in West L.A., but as she said in an interview with the ShermanOaksPatch website, “We love this neighborhood – it’s hip and happening.  We love the Valley – we’re family people, and we want everybody to come into the store.”  A few other celebrities besides the McDermotts own boutiques in the same area, including Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin who own Belle Grey, which is located just a few storefronts east of InvenTORI, and Claudia Wells, who played Jennifer Parker in the first Back to the Future movie, who owns the upscale Armani Wells men’s clothing store, which is located just about two miles east of Tori’s new shop.

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Tori has apparently been an antiques collector for much of her life and, as she recently told People Magazine, “I realized I no longer had enough space to keep up with all of my finds so that’s how I came up with the store concept of InvenTORI.  I can now share my collection with others.”  According to the ShermanOaksPatch, Tori will apparently be working at the store from time to time, because she is too much of a “control freak” to let anyone else take the helm.  So you know what that means!!!  I am so going to have to go back to re-stalk the place!  Smile  You can see photographs of InvenTORI’s grand opening, during which champagne and cookies were served (love it!), on the Imnotobsessed blog here.

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: InvenTORI, Tori Spelling’s new antique/children’s/pet shop, is located at 13826 Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks.  You can visit the store’s official Facebook page here.  Located just a block east, at 13812 Ventura Boulevard, is Belle Grey, the boutique owned by Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin.  And just a little under two miles east, at 12404 Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, is Armani Wells, the men’s clothing store owned by actress Claudia Wells, who played Jennifer Parker in the first Back to the Future movie.

The Street Where “The Hills” Finale Was Filmed

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One location that I have been on the lookout for for a couple of months now is the street where Kristin Cavallari said good-bye to on-again/off-again boyfriend Brody Jenner in the final scene of the series finale of fave show The Hills, which aired on July 13th of this year.  For whatever reason, though, I was having a heck of a time pinpointing the exact spot where filming had taken place.  Until this past Friday, that is.  Thankfully, fellow stalker “Diggy” posted a comment on that day’s blog post in which I wrote about the home where Kristin had lived during the last season of the show.  In the comment, Diggy stated that the final scene had been filmed on “Beachwood Drive, just north of Franklin”.  Sadly though, even with that detailed information, I was unable to find the right spot!  Enter master stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, who texted me later that same night with an exact address – 2107 North Beachwood Drive.  And sure enough, once I pulled up the location on Google Street View, I saw that he was right!  Thank you, Chas!  So, yesterday, after Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I finished our tour of Paramount Studios, we headed right on over to Beachwood Drive to do some Hills stalking.

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The Hills’ final scene centers around the premise that after suffering a broken heart thanks to Brody Jenner, series star and narrator Kristin Cavallari decides to leave Los Angeles to begin a new adventure in a foreign land because, as she says, “I feel if I’m really gonna move and do this, it needs to be a big change and I need to be completely uncomfortable and I need to be scared again and the only place I can really think about would be somewhere in Europe.”  When Brody finds out she is leaving the country, he heads to her house to say good-bye and just happens to catch her right as she is walking out her door to drive to what is presumably the airport.  In the scene, Brody pulls up and parks in front of the apartment building located at 2107 N. Beachwood Drive.

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Kristin subsequently walks out of the house located across the street at 2117 Beachwood Terrace, which is not where the reality star was actually presumed to be living on the show.  The house where Kristin lived during the series’ Sixth Season, which I blogged about last week, is located almost five miles away in West Hollywood.  Thanks to the tall hedges which completely surround both properties, though, the two residences do bear a striking resemblance to each other.

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Kristin then walks to her waiting limousine, which was parked in front of the home located at 2110 North Beachwood Drive.

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After Kristin shares a tear-filled good-bye with Brody, her limousine proceeds to drive south on Beachwood, presumably heading to the airport. 

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The camera then closes in on a distraught-looking Brody for a few poignant moments before the background behind him begins to move and it is revealed that he is actually standing on the backlot of Paramount Studios in Hollywood and that Kristin’s limo had only been driven a few feet off screen.  Brody then walks up to Kristin, hugs her, and says, “You outta here?” before the two nonchalantly walk off.  I found the ending, which was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that many viewers believe the show to be fake, ingenious.  What better way to acknowledge that some of the show was in fact “produced” than to have its final moments be shot on a soundstage?  Of the finale, Brody said, “I think the show has always battled with what’s real and what’s fake, and this ending was perfect because you still don’t know what was real, what was fake and it’s kind of like L.A. in a sense.”  And while the ending leaves no doubt (in mind at least) that the show wasn’t entirely “real”, some fans still swear up and down that it was.  But being that Kristin never in fact moved anywhere, least of all not to Europe, and that she later tweeted “I think I shld finally let everyone know I’m not going 2 Europe.  It was 4 the show.”, I think we can all rest assured that the reality series was most definitely manipulated, if not out and out scripted.  Which was the exact impression I got when I watched an episode of it being filmed back in August of 2008 – yes, it’s a “reality” show, but a heavily, heavily manipulated one.

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Anyway, because Mike and I were at Paramount yesterday, I just had to stalk the exact spot where the finale was filmed – which was at the corner of Avenue A and 3rd Street, just southwest of Stage 23, in front of the studio’s former film vaults.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, and fellow stalker “Diggy” for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The final scene from The Hills was filmed in front of 2110 and 2172 North Beachwood Drive in Hollywood.  In the scene, Brody parked in front of the apartment building located at 2107 North Beachwood Drive, Kristin walked out of the house located at 2117 Beachwood Terrace, and the two said good-bye to each other in front of the house located at 2110 North Beachwood Drive.  The scene which took place on the Paramount lot was filmed on the corner of Avenue A and 3rd Street, just southwest of Stage 23.