The Daily Grill at LAX from “Friends With Benefits”

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While watching Friends With Benefits this past July, I just about fell out of my theatre seat when I realized that one of the flick’s more pivotal scenes had been filmed at the Daily Grill restaurant inside of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport – an eatery that I am very familiar with.  As I have mentioned previously on this blog, my best friend, Robin, lives in Switzerland and comes to visit me just about once a year.  He always flies in and out of LAX and every time we take him to the airport for his return flight, we grab one final cocktail together at the Daily Grill.  The eatery long ago came to be known as “the sad restaurant” in my family’s lexicon, as, knowing that the hour to say good-bye is near, we are all invariably in tears by the time the check arrives.  Flash forward to this past November when, as I mentioned three weeks ago in my post about The Grill on Main in La Quinta, Robin’s mom, Doina, who is my mom’s best friend, flew out to America to surprise my mom on her 60th birthday.  At the end of her eight-day visit, we made our regular pilgrimage to the Daily Grill (that is me and Doina pictured above), which I was extremely excited about as it meant that I could finally blog about the place.

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The Daily Grill at LAX, which opened its doors in January 1997, is actually the largest full-service airport restaurant in the entire United States (it measures 8,300 square feet!!!) and features a full bar, a private dining room, and what are easily the best chicken strips I have ever eaten in my entire life!  In fact, on this particular visit, we ordered three servings of them (!!!!) as we could just not seem to get enough.  Best of all, unlike other airport eateries where a single slice of take-out pizza can cost upwards of $7, the Daily Grill is very reasonably priced.  (On a random side-note – while doing research for today’s post, I discovered that there are SEVEN Starbucks stores located inside of LAX!  SEVEN!  According to the Expect Delays travel blog, Starbucks outposts can be found inside of Terminals 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8!  Now, that’s my kind of place!  Winking smile)

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In Friends With Benefits, the Daily Grill appeared in the scene in which Dylan (aka Justin Timberlake) and his father, Mr. Harper (aka Richard Jenkins), grab a bite to eat – sans pants – shortly after Mr. Harper arrives at what is supposedly Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.  It is actually pretty ironic that the Daily Grill masqueraded as an East Coast location in the flick, as Friends With Benefits poked quite a bit of fun at movies that try to pull one over on their audience by having locales in Los Angeles stand in for those in New York.

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In the scene, Dylan and Mr. Harper dine in the northeastern-most section of the restaurant in the area overlooking the ticketing counters.

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That area is pictured above.

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And I, of course, just had to pose for a pic in the spot where Dylan and Mr. Harper sat in the flick.  Smile

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Our super-nice waitress answered all of my silly little questions about the filming of Friends With Benefits and even informed us that the filmmakers had covered over one of the Daily Grill’s overhead lights during the shoot and had forgotten to uncover it afterwards.  As you can see above, it is still covered over today!  So incredibly cool!

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According to the Friends With Benefits production notes, the scene in which Jamie (aka Mila Kunis) hops on a baggage carousel and starts handing out luggage to various travelers was also shot at LAX, although I am unsure of exactly where.

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Our waitress also informed us that a scene from the 2005 flick Rumor Has It involving my girl Jen Aniston had been filmed on the escalators located just outside of the Daily Grill, which I could NOT have been more excited about.  Our waitress was working during the time the scene was filmed and said she watched Jen ride up and down those escalators for pretty much an entire day!  How incredibly cool is that?  I would have absolutely DIED!

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The escalators have been remodeled since the time Rumor Has It was filmed and no longer have palm trees planted in between them, but otherwise look much the same as they did onscreen.

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And I, of course, just had to pose for a pic in the spot where my girl stood in the movie.  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The Daily Grill, from Friends With Benefits, is located at 380 World Way in Los Angeles, on the Mezzanine Level of the Tom Bradley International Terminal inside of the Los Angeles International Airport.  It is located outside of the security checkpoint, so you do not have to be traveling to dine there.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

Aunt Mitsy’s House from “Rumor Has It”

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One location that I have been on the lookout for for what seems like ages now is the home where Aunt Mitsy (aka Kathy Bates) lived in the 2005 movie Rumor Has It.  Even though I was never a particularly big fan of the flick, I pretty much fell in love with Aunt Mitsy’s adorable little bungalow – and her huge front porch – at first sight and have wanted to stalk it ever since.  Especially being that my girl Jen Aniston had filmed a scene on the premises.  Because no apartment number, street sign, or even a full view of the exterior of the property was visible at any point during the movie, though, I figured this was one locale that would be virtually impossible to track down.

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Enter fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who emailed me last week to ask for some help in locating the home where Grandma Bunny (aka Betty White) lived in the 2010 romantic comedy You Again.  Well, I took one look at the screencap he sent me (pictured above) and realized that, while it was not the same house featured in Rumor Has It, the two properties looked amazingly similar – which got me to thinking that they might just be located in close proximity to each other, quite possibly even on the same street.  So I immediately began searching for the You Again house and also got fellow stalkers Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and Owen on the case.

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As fate would have it, Mike happened to recognize the yellow Victorian-style home located in the background of the Rumor Has It scene and when he looked at that property on Google Street View, sure enough, there was Mitsy’s house right across the street.  Yay!

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Aunt Mitsy’s house was only featured in one very brief scene in Rumor Has It, in which Sarah Huttinger (aka Jennifer Aniston) asks Mitsy for information about her deceased mother.  It is there that Mitsy first tells Sarah about her mother’s affair with Beau Burroughs (aka Kevin Costner), at which point Sarah realizes that her family served as the inspiration for the movie The Graduate.  (Yeah, yeah – lame plot for a movie, I know.)  From its appearance in Rumor Has It, I had assumed that the home was an extremely small, one-story dwelling and searched for it as such.  As it turns out, I could not have been more wrong.

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In real life the house looks nothing at all like how I had envisioned it to look in my mind.  Not only is the place two levels, but it is also pretty darn huge!

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And furthermore, the property is actually an apartment building – not a private residence as I had originally thought!  As you can see above, the dwelling has several front doors and consists of at least three separate units.  This is one location that I can honestly say I NEVER would have found on my own.  Not in a million years.

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Thankfully, the front porch area looks pretty much the same today as it did back in 2005 when Rumor Has It was filmed.  There is currently much less foliage in place and the house is now painted blue instead of yellow, but otherwise little else has changed in that section of the property over the years and it still looks just as cute in person as it did onscreen.  Oh, what I wouldn’t give to sit on that porch in the same spot that Jen sat to pose for a pic!  Smile

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The other houses on the street that appeared in the background of the scene look exactly the same as they did in the movie, as well.  And, yes, we did also end up finding Grandma Bunny’s house from You Again – well, fellow stalker Chas found it – and I will be blogging about it soonSmile

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and to fellow stalkers Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, and Owen for all of the time and effort they put into this search.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Aunt Mitsy’s house from Rumor Has It is located at 485 Ellis Street in Pasadena.