Bowfinger International Pictures from “Bowfinger”

Bowfinger House (13 of 13)

I am a sucker for any movie about Los Angeles.  Coincidentally (or perhaps no so coincidentally), Steve Martin has written and starred in two of my favorites – L.A. Story and Bowfinger.  Two completely different takes on life in LaLaLand, but both equally valid and poignant.  Because I originally moved to Southern California to pursue an acting career, Bowfinger really hit home for me.  Especially the scene in which wannabe actress Daisy (Heather Graham) jumped off the bus that transported her from Ohio to Hollywood, suitcase in hand, and asked of random passersby, “Where do I go to be an actress?”  That was so me when I moved to SoCal – bright-eyed, full of dreams and so, so naïve.  Who am I kidding, that is still so me – the dreams have just shifted a bit.  So when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, told me years back that he had tracked down the bungalow that served as both the residence of Robert K. Bowfinger (Martin) and the headquarters of Bowfinger International Pictures in the flick, I immediately added it to my To-Stalk list.  Somehow, though, I did not make it over there until a couple of weeks ago.

[ad]

Sadly, the house has changed considerably since filming took place.  While the columned portico stationed around the front door was a set piece added for the filming and never an actual fixture of the property, the front door itself used to be in the same spot it was shown to be in Bowfinger, but has since been moved.

ScreenShot122

Bowfinger House (6 of 13)

Mike took some photographs of the residence a couple of years ago and, as you can see, the location of the front door at that time matched what appeared onscreen.  You can check out some other pictures of what the front door originally looked like here and here.

ScreenShot123

ScreenShot1598

The door has since been covered over and moved to the side of the dwelling, as you can see in the image below (which I got off of the Yelp page for the FunHouse 420 Café and Lounge which was formerly housed in the bungalow).

ScreenShot1596

Oddly enough, though, while taking a closer look at Bowfinger I noticed that an opening in that area was visible, so it seems that the home used to have two front doors.

ScreenShot124

ScreenShot125

Despite the front door alteration, the dwelling is still recognizable from the movie.

ScreenShot129

Bowfinger House (7 of 13)

The area surrounding it is not, though.  While the neighborhood used to be chock full of bungalows and apartment buildings, it now consists mainly of parking lots.  The Bowfinger house is pretty much the only home in the vicinity still standing.  And, sadly, it does not look like it will remain so for long.  The land the residence is located on is currently being offered for sale (for $5million!) for the purpose of building a high-tech storage facility.

ScreenShot126

Bowfinger House (2 of 13)

I am fairly certain that the interior of Bowfinger International Pictures was a set and not the bungalow’s actual interior, which you can see some photographs of here.

ScreenShot130

ScreenShot119

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.  And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location and for loaning me the picture that appears in this post!  Smile

Bowfinger House (12 of 13)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Bowfinger International Pictures from Bowfinger is located at 1621 Vista Del Mar Avenue in Hollywood.

El Cabrillo from “L.A. Story”

L.A. Story apartment building (6 of 8)

Last April, in the midst of my slightly-obsessive L.A. Story location-finding mission, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, tracked down a couple of the movie’s crew members for me, one of whom was extremely helpful.  After he assisted us in the finding the crash intersection from the flick, I inquired about the garden where Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) and Sara McDowel (Victoria Tennant) turned into children in one of the movie’s more fanciful scenes.  I was actually under the assumption that the locale was most likely a set, but the crew member advised me otherwise and responded that the scene was shot in “a famous old Hollywood courtyard building.”  Well as soon as I read those words, I knew exactly where filming had taken place.  It was a spot I had even stalked and blogged about before!  As it turns out, Harris and Sara’s garden is the courtyard of El Cabrillo, the condominium complex from both the television series Chuck and the 1997 romantic comedy ‘Til There Was You.

[ad]

El Cabrillo, which was constructed in 1928, was designed by prolific husband-and-wife architecture team Arthur and Nina Zwebell.  (The couple also designed Villa Primavera from In a Lonely Place and the Chaplin Court apartment complex.)  Legend has it that Cecil B. DeMille commissioned the structure as housing for travelling actors.  The two-story, ten-unit building features a central courtyard, a tiered Moorish fountain, wrought-iron detailing, carved fireplaces, Catalina tiling, and wood-beamed ceilings.  Luminaries such as singer Stevie Wonder, director Lowell Sherman, actress Ann Harding, costume designer Kent Warner, makeup artist Perc Westmore, and playwright John Willard all called the property home at one time or another.  In 2005, the building was renovated by designer Xorin Balbes and turned into condos.  A gorgeous, albeit small (if my calculations are correct, it measures 462 square feet) one-bedroom, one-bath unit (with no parking!) sold for $430,000 ($41,000 over asking price!) last June.  You can check out some pictures of it here.  The place may be tiny, but it is absolutely idyllic.

L.A. Story apartment building (11 of 16)

L.A. Story apartment building (6 of 16)

Sadly, El Cabrillo is gated and its gorgeous interior courtyard is not visible from the road.

L.A. Story apartment building (7 of 16)

I did manage to snap the picture below via a crack in the gate, though.

L.A. Story apartment building (1 of 8)

Even from the outside, El Cabrillo is an idyllic little spot.

L.A. Story apartment building (4 of 16)

Check out that balcony – what an oasis!

L.A. Story apartment building (4 of 8)

In L.A. Story, Harris and Sara are shown walking into a neon-lit store window on Melrose Avenue (you can read about that location here).  The window then turns into a magical garden, complete with flowers that bloom in an instant, statues that move, a sparkling waterfall, and the power to transform Harris and Sara into children.  Very little of the garden is actually shown in the scene, which is why I believed it was a set.

ScreenShot875

ScreenShot876

In the 1997 romantic comedy ‘Til There Was You, El Cabrillo masqueraded as La Fortuna, the bucolic apartment building where Gwen Moss (Jeanne Tripplehorn) lived.  And while the exterior of El Cabrillo was shown several times in the flick . . .

ScreenShot885

ScreenShot886

. . . I am fairly certain that the courtyard was a set.  As you can see below as compared to these photographs, while sharing similar elements, El Cabrillo’s courtyard is significantly smaller than the one that appeared in ‘Til There Was You.

ScreenShot883

ScreenShot887

El Cabrillo’s central fountain is also more ornamental than the fountain shown in ‘Til There Was You.

ScreenShot884

ScreenShot888

El Cabrillo was also where reluctant spy/Burbank Buy More employee Chuck Bartwoski (Zachary Levi) lived in the television series Chuck.  According to a 2007 The Hollywood Reporter article, Chuck producers were looking for a courtyard apartment complex “reminiscent of old Hollywood/Echo Park” for their hero to call home.  They ultimately decided on El Cabrillo.  Location manager Kelly Harris is quoted in The Reporter as saying that the Cabrillo “offered many interesting textures — concrete blocks, wood-spindle balconies, private balconies, an impressive interior courtyard turret and a courtyard fountain and provided an amazing background for our characters to interact.”  And while the pilot was shot on location at the actual complex, a replica of the building was constructed on a soundstage at Warner Bros. Studios for the remainder of the show’s run.  I got to see the set once on one of my many WB visits and it was absolutely amazing how real it looked.  The screen captures pictured below are from Chuck’s pilot episode and show El Cabrillo’s real life courtyard.

ScreenShot889

ScreenShot890

These screen captures are from the second episode of Season 1, titled “Chuck Versus the Helicopter,” and show the soundstage re-creation that was used throughout the remainder of the series.

ScreenShot892

ScreenShot893

A commenter on Hooked on Houses’ fabulous post about El Cabrillo stated that the building was also where Rupert Giles (Anthony Head) lived on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  I never watched the series, but fellow stalker Ashley, of the Drewseum, was a die-hard Buffy fan and had done some investigating on Giles’ apartment a few months back.  She was nice enough to share her findings with me.  As she discovered, the exterior of Giles’ building was actually El Pueblo in Los Feliz, the very same apartments used on Melrose Place, and the interior was just a set.  Ashley also sent me several screen captures of Giles’ pad and I almost fell over when I saw how similar it was to the El Cabrillo condo that sold in June.  Check out those matching arched stairways!  I have a feeling that the set of Giles’ apartment was modeled after a real life El Cabrillo interior.

Buffy Set

For more stalking fun, be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.  And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for helping me to find this location.  Smile

L.A. Story apartment building (11 of 16)

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: El Cabrillo, from L.A. Story, is located at 1832-1850 North Grace Avenue in Hollywood.

Franck’s Wedding Coordinator Shop from “Father of the Bride”

P1040087

When the Grim Cheaper and I first showed up to stalk Fig & Olive restaurant, from the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl commercial which I blogged about last week, I became absolutely enchanted with Melrose Place, the tiny tree-lined street on which the eatery is located.  Even though I had been a fan of the series Melrose Place back in the 90s, before tracking down Fig & Olive earlier this year I had no idea that the charming and idyllic little street, which runs a scant three blocks and is made up of mostly high-end boutiques, even existed.  In a recent About.com Los Angeles article, author Shana Ting Lipton calls Melrose Place a “hidden gem” and she could not be more right!  Because its name so closely resembles that of the neighboring, and far more well-known, Melrose Avenue, I believe Melrose Place often gets lost in the shuffle, which explains why this stalker had never before heard of it.  Needless to say, I absolutely fell in love with the picturesque little thoroughfare on the spot, as did the GC.

P1040097

While we were there, I happened to notice that the sidewalks on Melrose Place were extremely wide with brick ornamentation and my mind immediately flashed upon the shop where wedding coordinator Franck Eggelhoffer (Martin Short) and his assistant, Howard Weinstein (BD Wong), worked in fave movie Father of the Bride – a location that I had long been trying to track down.  For some odd reason, I had remembered that the sidewalk in front of Franck’s shop was also quite wide and lined with brick (I know, I know – my mind retains the oddest of information), so I snapped a quick pic of the Melrose Place sidewalk so that I could compare the two when I returned home.  Well, lo and behold, when I popped in my DVD later that night, I was able to confirm that the sidewalks were one and the same.  Yay!

P1040173

From that point, all I had to do was pinpoint the exact storefront where Franck worked and, being that Melrose Place is only three blocks long, the venture was an easy one.  Then, last Thursday, after I had figured out the correct spot, I dragged Mike, from MovieShotsLA, right on back out there to do some stalking of it.

[ad]

ScreenShot4389 ScreenShot4390

ScreenShot4391 ScreenShot4392

Franck’s shop shows up only once in Father of the Bride, in the scene in which George Banks (Steve Martin) begrudgingly accompanies his wife, Nina (Diane Keaton), and daughter, Annie (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), to meet the hard-to-understand wedding coordinator for the first time.  One of my very favorite lines in the movie is actually uttered during that scene – when George laments over the high price of the wedding cake, he says, “My first car didn’t cost $1,200!”, to which Franck responds, “Well, welcome to the ‘90s, Mr. Banks!”  Love it!

P1040160 P1040164

In the scene, George, Nina and Annie are shown walking east on Melrose Place in front of the building numbered 8420.

P1040161

And I, of course, just had to imitate them by posing for an action walking shot while I was there. Smile

P1040162 P1040181

I believe that the green “Antiques” awning that was visible in the background behind the trio was once attached to the building pictured above, which is located at 8422/8424 Melrose Place.  Fellow stalker Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, came across an article about the vacant property which mentions that it did, in fact, once house an antique store.  And, as fate would have it, back in 2007 the very same building was also the site of a Hanes Comfortique Event hosted by none other than Owen’s main squeeze, Jennifer Love Hewitt.  Talk about synchronicity!

P1040177 P1040179

P1040180 P1040178

The building that stood in for Franck’s shop, which was also an antique store at the time of the filming, is now home to the Zero + Maria Cornejo boutique.  According to the About.com Los Angeles article that I mentioned earlier, Melrose Place actually used to be known as “the antiquing street” thanks to the myriad of antique shops that were located there once upon a time.

ScreenShot4392 P1040173

And while the full exterior of the property was not shown in Father of the Bride, the door that Annie, George and Nina walked through still looks exactly the same today as it did back in 1991 when the movie was filmed!  Love it!

ScreenShot4393 ScreenShot4394

ScreenShot4395 ScreenShot4401

The real life interior of the store was also featured in Father of the Bride.  As you can see in these pictures, while that interior has since been remodeled, it is still set up in the same basic three-room configuration that it was during the filming.

Franck's Shop - Father of the Bride - 5

Even the ribbed pillars that were visible in the background of the scene are still there, as you can see in the main photograph featured in this RackedLA post.

ScreenShot4399 ScreenShot4397

ScreenShot4398 ScreenShot4400

In the scene, George, Nina, Annie, and Franck sat on a couch in front of the store’s eastern-most window.

P1040175

That window is pictured above.

Father of the Bride - Franck's Shop Franck's Shop - Father of the Bride - 3

It is thanks to that portion of the scene that I was able to pinpoint exactly where Franck’s shop was situated.  While looking for clues, I had noticed a few distinct architectural elements on the building located across the street, which was visible through Franck’s window.  From there I used Google Street View to search for those elements and, thankfully, it was not long before I found them.  As you can see in the screen shot and Street View image above, the arched window (denoted with a pink arrow), horizontal lip (denoted with a yellow arrow) and rectangular-shaped cutout (denoted with  a blue arrow) of the building located at 8417 Melrose Place all match up to what appeared onscreen.

P1040165 P1040166

Sadly, as you can see above, those elements are now covered over with large awnings and are no longer visible.  Thank God for Street View!

Father of the Bride - Franck's Shop - 4

I had also spotted a center island and a “Keep Right” sign through the window in the scene and, looking at aerial views, saw that that same island was located just east of the Zero + Maria Cornejo boutique.  And while the island still exists to this day, the “Keep Right” sign has since been removed.

P1040169

The Zero + Maria Cornejo employee that we spoke with while there could NOT have been nicer and was not only floored to learn that he worked in such a cinematically significant location, but also allowed Mike and me to snap some pics through the same window that Annie, Nina, George, and Franck sat in front of.

On a Father of the Bride side note – I just learned that the character of Franck Eggelhoffer was inspired by real life wedding planner Kevin Lee, who appeared on this past season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills as the wedding coordinator hired by Lisa Vanderpump.  You can watch a video clip of the “real Franck” by clicking above.  And yes, Martin Short had the guy down to a T!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Zero + Maria Cornejo, aka Franck’s wedding planning shop from Father of the Bride, is located at 8408 Melrose Place in West HollywoodFig & Olive restaurant, from the 2012 “Matthew’s Day Off” Honda CR-V Super Bowl commercial, is located just down the street at 8490 Melrose Place in West Hollywood.  You can visit Fig & Olive’s official website here.

The “L.A. Story” Gas Station

P1020582

Last week, while doing research for my post on L’Orangerie, aka Chez Quis restaurant from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I came across some information on The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations website about the Gilmore Gasoline Service Station on Highland Avenue in Hollywood – a very cool-looking, old-time gas station that appeared in the 1991 movie L.A. Story.  Thanks to the place’s unique, Art Deco architecture and historic feel, I became just a wee-bit obsessed with it and immediately added the address to my ever-growing “To-Stalk” list.

ScreenShot3117 ScreenShot3118

ScreenShot3119 ScreenShot3121

I think part of the reason that I became so enamored with the Gilmore Gasoline Service Station is that it reminded me of the circular, 50s-style drive-in restaurant that was used in Britney Spears’ “For Those Who Think Young” Pepsi commercial – which was sadly just a set that was built inside of a soundstage.  For reasons that are beyond my comprehension, I have long been obsessed with all of the Pepsi ads featuring Britney.  I honestly cannot get enough of ‘em.  In fact, I just watched about twelve different versions of both “The Joy of Pepsi” and “For Those Who Thing Young” videos.  But I digress.  Anyway, because he has an affinity for all things historic, I figured that the Gilmore Gasoline Service Station was one location that the Grim Cheaper would actually not mind being dragged to.  Sadly though, when we arrived, we found the structure to be in a pretty pitiful state.  Such a shame!

P1020579 P1020590

P1020589 P1020588

The Gilmore Gasoline Service Station has an absolutely fascinating backstory.  The structure was originally built for the Gilmore Oil Company, which was founded by one of the most influential and prominent families in Los Angeles history.  Arthur Freemont “A.F.” Gilmore, a dairy business owner from Illinois who migrated to Southern California during the 1880s, found fortune in 1903 when he accidentally struck oil while drilling a water well on some property that he owned in the Rancho La Brea area.  In 1919, after A.F. had passed away, his son, Earl, founded the Gilmore Petroleum Company, which later became the Gilmore Oil Company.  Their Red Line service stations, which bore the motto “Someday you will own a horseless carriage.  Our gasoline will run it.”, soon became common fixtures across all of Los Angeles.  The Gilmore family is most famous, though, for founding the Gilmore Bank and the world-famous Farmers Market at 3rd & Fairfax, and for building Gilmore Field – the now-defunct minor league baseball park that was once home to the Hollywood Stars baseball team.

P1020580 P1020581

P1020586 P1020587

P1020585 P1020583

The double-canopied Gilmore Gasoline Service Station was designed in 1935 by an engineer named R.J. Kadow.  It was one of the first Gilmore stations to be constructed and is now, sadly, one of the last remaining of its kind.  After the Gilmore Oil Company was sold in 1945, the station went through a succession of different owners and, in early 1990, after the then-tenant decided not to renew his lease, there was talk of possibly tearing the structure down.  Thankfully, the Melrose Neighborhood Association stepped in and, on March 23rd, 1992, the building was declared a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument.  Despite the station’s historic status, though, it has somehow been allowed to fall into disarray in recent years.  According to a November 1990 Los Angeles Times article, there were once plans to restore the building and open a snack shop/gas station/classic car rental on the site, but I am not sure if those plans ever came to fruition and, as you can see above, the place is currently in dire straights.  You can check out some photographs of the station taken during better days here.

[ad]

ScreenShot3113 ScreenShot3111

ScreenShot3114 ScreenShot3115

In L.A. Story, Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin) and Sara McDowel (Victoria Tennant) stop at the Gilmore Gasoline Service Station, where they ask for a “full service” treatment – their tank filled, car washed, and all four tires removed and exchanged LOL – before heading to a fund-raising dinner.  As you can see in the screen captures pictured above, at the time that the movie was filmed in 1991, the gas station was an incredibly cool little place.  I cannot express how disheartening it was to discover that a unique piece of Southern California’s history – one with historic cultural status, no less – has been allowed to deteriorate in such a way.  As I said earlier, what a shame!

Fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, also let me know that the station was featured in the 1982 movie 48 Hours as the supposed San-Francisco-area gas station where parolee Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy) told detective Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) where he had hidden the stolen money.

ScreenShot3106 ScreenShot3107

ScreenShot3108 ScreenShot3110

On an L.A. Story side-note – I would so love to find the supposed-Santa-Barbara-area El Pollo del Mar (the Chicken of the Sea – LOL) motel that appeared in the flick.  I know that the interior scenes were filmed at the since-demolished Ambassador Hotel, but I am interested in tracking down the exterior.  Does anyone happen to know where it is?

P1020592 P1020591

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: The former Gilmore Gasoline Service Station, from L.A. Story, is located at 859 North Highland Avenue in Hollywood.

George’s Side Kicks Shoe Factory from “Father of the Bride”

P1000162

Another Father of the Bride location that fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, tracked down recently was the Side Kicks shoe factory owned by George Banks (aka Steve Martin) in the flick.  And while I had been absolutely dying to stalk the place for what seemed like ages, I just could not seem to figure out where on earth it was located.  Then last month Chas managed to get into contact with several of the movie’s crew members, one of whom not only remembered the exact address of the warehouse (432 South Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena), but also informed him that while the building was vacant at the time of the filming, it was now occupied by Snyder Diamond, a high-end kitchen and bath appliance retailer.  And while I was BEYOND excited when Chas told me the news, because a new company had taken over the space, I did not have high hopes that it would be very recognizable from the movie.

[ad]

P1000151 P1000153 P1000154 P1000158

So imagine my surprise when I walked through the doors and discovered that the building looked almost exactly the same as it did when Father of the Bride was filmed over two full decades ago!  I just about died of excitement and then proceeded to walk almost every square inch of the place, soaking in the many memories of the movie that came flooding back to me.

ScreenShot410 ScreenShot413ScreenShot417 ScreenShot418ScreenShot419 ScreenShot420

As you can see in the above screen captures, the ceiling area, windows, interior pipes and brick walls all still look EXACTLY the same today as they did onscreen in 1991.  The only real difference is the fake kitchen and bath set-ups which have since been installed on the main floor.

ScreenShot412 ScreenShot416

I was most excited to stalk the warehouse’s upstairs mezzanine, which was used as George’s office in Father of the Bride.

P1000145 P1000146P1000148 P1000149

Sadly though, that particular area has been completely gutted and all of the interior walls, doors, and windows removed and now looks entirely different than it did when the movie was filmed.

P1000155 P1000156

A view of George’s office area from the ground floor of Snyder Diamond is pictured above.

ScreenShot414 ScreenShot415

The circular staircase leading up to George’s office has also, sadly, since been removed.

P1000161 P1060154

P1060157 P1060158

The exterior of the Snyder Diamond building, which was not shown in Father of the Bride, is quite beautiful.  The Tudor-style structure, which was originally constructed in 1922, is currently on the National Register of Historic Places.  As I mentioned above, the property was vacant at the time of the filming, which allowed producers to come in and dress it as they pleased.  Sometime after the movie was lensed, Thomasville Furniture moved in.  They vacated the property in 2005, whereupon it was leased by Snyder Diamond.  For whatever reason, when Father of the Bride Part II was filmed in 1995, location scouts found a different Pasadena area building to stand in for the Side Kicks factory.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for finding this location.  You can check out Chas’ Father of the Bride filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Snyder Diamond, aka George’s Side Kicks shoe factory from Father of the Bride, is located at 432 South Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena.

The “Father of the Bride” Grocery Store

P1060024

Due to my parents’ recent move and my dad’s recent hospital stay, I have sadly not had time to do much stalking as of late.  While in Palm Springs this past weekend my mom happened to ask me if I had some locations stockpiled (or should I say “stalkpiled”? Winking smile) for times such as this.  Well, as I explained to her, I have so many darn locations on my “To Blog” list that half the time I forget about them, which was the case with the spot I am writing about today – the grocery store from the 1991 movie Father of the Bride.  I stalked the market way back in early May and had completely forgotten about it until yesterday morning when I was going through my Picasa web albums and spotted the pictures I took while there.  So, don’t worry mom!  The problem lies not in there being a lack of locations to write about, but in me being able to recall them all!  Anyway, a couple of months ago I asked fellow stalker Chas, of the ItsFilmedThere website, to track down several locations from fave movie Father of the Bride, one of which was the grocery store where George Banks (aka Steve Martin) refused to buy “superfluous” hot dog buns.  Fellow stalker Owen had actually tried to find this location last year and had somehow managed to get into contact with actor Britt Leach who played the role of the assistant grocery store manager in the scene.  Britt, who has to be one of the nicest guys in the world, not only wrote back to Owen immediately, but subsequently wrote to me as well and did his best in helping us to find the place.  He informed us that the store was located in the Burbank area, possibly near the IKEA on North San Fernando Boulevard.  So with that information in hand, Owen and I tried to track the place down, but, for whatever reason, came up completely empty-handed.

P1060023

Enter Chas, who somehow managed to get in touch with a member of the Father of the Bride production team, one who not only remembered the exact address of the store, but who also informed him that it had sadly changed hands in recent years.  At the time of the filming, the market was owned by Vons, but the property was shuttered a couple of years back, whereupon it was purchased by Henry’s Farmers Markets and the interior was remodeled shortly thereafter.  Such a shame!  As you can see in these pictures of the former Vons location, though, the exterior, which was not featured in FOTB, still looks almost exactly the same today as it did before Henry’s took over.

P1060027 P1060029

P1060031 P1060032

The interior, however, is another story altogether.  While it is a beautiful grocery store, the interior is, sadly, completely and totally unrecognizable from its appearance in Father of the Bride.

ScreenShot337 ScreenShot338

ScreenShot339 ScreenShot340

In FOTB, George Banks heads to a local market in order to cool off after having had a bit of a meltdown over his daughter’s impending wedding.  While there, he has an even bigger meltdown over the fact that while hot dogs are sold in packages of eight, hot dog buns are sold in packages of twelve.  So, he decides to take a stand by ripping open packages to remove the four offending buns.  When a befuddled clerk tries to stop him, George says that the hot dog and hot dog bun corporations “are not ripping off this nitwit anymore, because I am not paying for one more thing I don’t need.  George Banks is saying ‘no’!”  LOL  He winds up getting arrested and is sent to jail, where his wife Nina (aka Diane Keaton) has to bail him out.

P1060034

And even though the store now looks completely different, I just had to find the hot dog bun aisle while I was there so that I could pose with a package of buns.  Smile

Father of the Bride hot dog scene–Henry’s Market in Burbank

You can watch the Father of the Bride grocery store scene by clicking above.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, for finding this location!  You can check out Chas’ Father of the Bride filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Henry’s Farmers Market, aka the Father of the Bride grocery store, is located at 1011 North San Fernando Boulevard in Burbank.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art from “My So-Called Life”

Urban-Light-LACMA-(35-of-41)

Since I spend the majority of my weekends dragging the Grim Cheaper out on various stalking adventures, this past Saturday, in honor of our first Valentine’s Day together as a married couple, I decided to create a scavenger hunt for him based on his many likes and hobbies.  I do have to admit that while most of our destinations were places that I had little to no interest in visiting, the hunt was not entirely an un-selfish endeavor on my part.  A few of our stops were, in fact, stalking locations – most notably the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, aka LACMA, which was featured in an episode of fave show My So-Called Life.  As I mentioned a few weeks back, I just recently started re-watching My So-Called Life from the beginning and I became just a bit obsessed with tracking down the museum where Angela Chase (aka Claire Danes) and the gang go on a field trip in the episode titled “Why Jordan Can’t Read”.  Because the series was filmed so prominently in the Pasadena area, I had a hunch that the museum used was the Huntington Library – a place where I just so happen to have a filming contact.  So, I emailed a few screen captures from the episode over to Dinah, my contact, to see if she could confirm or deny my suspicion.  As it turns out, though, my hunch was wrong – hey, it does happen!  Winking smile – Huntington was not the museum which appeared in the episode.  Thankfully though, Dinah knows her museums!  She informed me that she was 99.9% certain that filming had taken place at LACMA.  So, because the GC absolutely LOVES visiting museums, while I typically do not, I immediately added the place to his Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt and we headed out there this past Saturday morning.  And, let me tell you, once he found out that we would spending the day at a museum, he could NOT have been more excited.

ScreenCap419 ScreenCap420

ScreenCap421 ScreenCap432

In the “Why Jordan Can’t Read” episode of My So-Called Life, Angela and her classmates, Jordan Catalano (aka Jared Leto), Rayanne Graff (aka A.J. Langer), Rickie Vasquez (aka Wilson Cruz), and Brian Krakow (aka Devon Gummersall), spend the morning on a field trip at a supposed Three Rivers, Pennsylvania-area museum, during which Jordan is nice to Angela, as she says, “like out of nowhere!”

LACMA numbers 1 LACMA numbers 2

Because the museum has been remodeled in recent years and various artworks relocated to different galleries, it was quite difficult to pinpoint the exact spot where filming had taken place.  I had a few clues to help me out on my quest, though, most notably a set of numbers that was visible in the background of several scenes.  As you can see in the above screen captures, those numbers were all in the 200 range.

IMG_3891

Oddly enough, though, I could only find numbers like that in one area of the museum – on the third floor of the Hammer Building in the Art of the Ancient World section – yet those numbers were all in the 300 range, which left me completely puzzled.  As fate would have it, though, I happened to run into an EXTREMELY helpful and EXTREMELY friendly museum docent who became determined to assist me with my quest.  I had downloaded twenty or so screen captures from the “Why Jordan Can’t Read” episode onto the GC’s iPad – which he was gifted for Christmas from his boss and which is an absolutely AMAZING stalking tool – which I proceeded to show to my new friend.  After seeing those 200 numbers, he informed me that the third level of the Hammer building was actually known as the second level back in the ‘90s when My So-Called Life was filmed, and had only be re-numbered in recent years during the remodel.  Which meant that I was in the right spot!  Yay!

IMG_3895 IMG_3900

IMG_3918 IMG_3920

By looking at the screen captures, the docent and I were able to determine that all of the filming of the episode had taken place on the now third floor (former second floor) of the museum’s Hammer Building in the Charles E. and Flora L. Thornton Gallery and a few of the smaller galleries which surround it.

Wainscotting MSCL Wainscotting MSCL 3

As you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, the wainscoting on the gallery walls and the molding on the gallery entrances match up perfectly to what appeared onscreen.

ScreenCap423 IMG_3892

Once I figured out that I was in the right place, I then proceeded to go on a scavenger hunt of my very own to track down a few of the specific works of art that had appeared in the episode.  And, let me tell you, I had an absolute blast doing so!  In fact, it was quite possibly the most fun that I have had at a museum in my entire life!  A few of the works that I was able to locate include a Rembrandt portrait;

ScreenCap424 IMG_3893

a painting titled “Portrait of Cardinal Roberto Ubaldino” by Guido Reni;

ScreenCap427 IMG_3894

the sculptures that Angela, Jordan, and Brian looked at;

MSCL painting IMG_3908

the portrait that Angela and Jordan were standing in front of when he invited her to watch his band, the Frozen Embryos, rehearse;

ScreenCap431 IMG_3916

and the scary-looking sculpture that the camera panned in on towards the end of the museum scene.

ScreenCap433 IMG_3906

I was most excited, though, to spot the statute where Jordan and Angela first started talking in the episode.

ScreenCap434 IMG_3904

And I, of course, just had to re-create Jordan’s pensive stare after I found it, which the GC was NOT at all happy about.  Winking smile The statue is currently displayed on a much shorter base than it was when My So-Called Life was filmed, which is why it appears to be so much lower to the ground in my photograph than it appeared onscreen.

My So Called Life Sculpture IMG_3911

Sadly, the sculpture room where Sharon Cherski (aka Devon Odessa) and her boyfriend Kyle Vinnovich (aka Johnny Green) spent the majority of the field trip has since been dismantled.  Although I did manage to locate one of the sculptures which appeared in that scene.

ScreenCap430

Even sadder still was the fact that I could not for the life of me track down the display case where Rayanne inadvertently left Angela’s love letter to Jordan.

ScreenCap410 ScreenCap411

ScreenCap414 ScreenCap415

ScreenCap417 ScreenCap418

The very same area of LACMA also appears briefly in the 1991 comedy L.A. Story, in the scene in which Harris K. Telemacher (aka Steve Martin) roller-skates through a museum while his friend Ariel (aka Susan Forristal) video-tapes his exploits.

My So-Called Life picture

The “Portrait of Cardinal Roberto Ubaldino”, which appeared in My So-Called Life, was also featured in L.A. Story.

My So-Called Life statue

As was Jordan and Angela’s statue.  Love it!

ScreenCap438 ScreenCap440

ScreenCap441 ScreenCap442

LACMA was also the site of the black-and-white ball, to which superstar Cher wore red, in 1992’s The Player.

ScreenCap443 ScreenCap444

ScreenCap447 ScreenCap449

In the Season 4 episode of Melrose Place titled “Drawing Henry”, Brooke Armstrong (aka Kristin Davis) and Jack Parezi (aka Antonio Sabato Jr.) meet up at LACMA to discuss their burgeoning affair and wind up being spotted by Billy Campbell (aka Andrew Shue).

[ad]

ScreenCap409 ScreenCap406

ScreenCap405 ScreenCap408

Located in front of LACMA’s main entrance is the famous Urban Light display, which I blogged about back in April of last year after its appearance in a Vanity Fair photo shoot featuring the male members of the cast of Glee.  That very same light instillation was also used in the recently-released No Strings Attached, in the scene in which Adam (aka Ashton Kutcher) takes Emma (aka Natalie Portman) out on a Valentine’s Day date.  LACMA was also featured in Breaking All The Rules, Strong Medicine, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, Born Yesterday, The Rockford Files, From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Now You See It, Now You Don’t.

IMG_3879 IMG_3880

LACMA also has a few celebrity connections, as well.  There is a statue titled “Michael Jackson and Bubbles”, which was designed by artist Jeff Koons in 1988, on display in the Broad Contemporary Art Museum building.

IMG_3881

I so love that Mr. Koons captured MJ’s ever-present loafer-and-white-sock-combination so perfectly!

IMG_3924

And there is also a Tiffany lamp from Barbra Streisand’s personal collection on display in the Ahmanson Building.

IMG_3923

IMG_3922 IMG_3921

Also in the Ahmanson Building is an extremely ornate rosewood mirror which boasts an intriguing history.  The massive mirror, which was designed by New York’s Herter Brothers interior design firm in 1873, originally belonged to Milton Slocum Latham, a former U.S. senator and governor of California, and was on display in his 50-room Menlo Park mansion, Thurlow Lodge.  Slocum went bankrupt shortly after construction on his mansion was completed and then passed away in 1882.  His former home was demolished in 1942 and the mirror was subsequently transferred to none other than the prop department of a Hollywood movie studio – although I am unsure of which one – where it remained until 1991, at which time it became the property of LACMA.   So incredibly interesting!  I am going to have to keep my eyes peeled from now on to see if that mirror pops up in any movies that were made between 1942 and 1991!

IMG_3884 IMG_3913

For those fellow stalkers who are also interested in seeing works of art as well as filming locations Winking smile, the museum features some amazing pieces, including paintings by both Monet and Picasso.

IMG_3876 IMG_3877

There is also a great view of the Hollywood sign which can be seen from the top of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum building.

Big THANK YOU to Dinah, from the Huntington Library, for finding this location for me!  Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, from My So-Called Life and L.A. Story, is located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.  You can visit the museum’s official website here.  Both My So-Called Life and L.A. Story were filmed in the museum’s Art of the Ancient World section, which can be found on the third floor of the Hammer Building, in the Charles E. and Flora L. Thornton Gallery.   The works of art that appeared in MSCL are spread out among the different galleries located on the third floor of the Hammer Building.

The “It’s Complicated” House

Its-Complicated-House-16

This past weekend, I dragged my new husband out to Westlake Village to see a home that I’ve been absolutely dying to stalk ever since I tracked down its location a little over two months ago – the adobe-style ranch where Jane Adler (aka Meryl Streep) lived in the 2009 Nancy Meyers-directed romantic comedy It’s Complicated.  I have been absolutely obsessed with Jane’s little Spanish-style bungalow ever since first laying eyes upon it while watching the flick back in July.  Nancy Meyers has a true gift for choosing only the most beautiful homes to showcase in her films – from Diane Keaton’s beachside abode in Something’s Gotta Give to Kate Winslet’s English cottage in The Holiday to Steve Martin and family’s iconic white colonial residence in the Father of the Bride movies.  I don’t think there’s a director out there who is better at scouting movie homes and that talent is nowhere more apparent than in It’s Complicated.  The movie’s production designer, Jon Hutman, is quoted in the production notes as saying, “Nancy, perhaps more than any director I’ve worked with, comes to the table with a clear and specific vision of the world in which the story takes place.”  She ends up translating that world to the screen and it becomes a place that her audiences want to live in, too.  Which is why I think I became so obsessed with the It’s Complicated house – it is exactly the type of place I’d love to own myself someday.  

ScreenShot5463 ScreenShot5465

ScreenShot5469 ScreenShot5473

And I am not alone in my desire.  Ask anyone if they’ve seen It’s Complicated and the conversation invariably turns to Jane’s wooded, Spanish-style residence.  So, it’s no surprise that I began cyber-stalking the place immediately upon finishing the movie.  Unfortunately though, I couldn’t find much information about the home anywhere.  The only real clues I had to go on were from the movie’s production notes, which stated that in real life the property had been built in the late 1920’s, was located in Thousand Oaks, and had belonged to several celebrities over the years, most notably comedian W.C. Fields.

It'sComplicatedFence

   I had one other pretty big clue to go on, though – one that wasn’t mentioned in the film’s production notes.  Throughout the movie, Jane’s house is shown to be surrounded by a long, white wooden fence.  That type of fence pops up quite often in film and television productions and when it does, it is pretty much a dead giveaway that filming took place somewhere on Potrero Road.

[ad]

Its-Complicated-House-4 Its-Complicated-House-13

Potrero Road is an extremely long, meandering street that cuts through numerous ranch-style properties in the Thousand Oaks, Hidden Valley, and Westlake Village areas and, as you can see in the above photographs, is bordered on each side by low, white wooden fences just like Jane’s.  So, I decided to begin my search there.  And sure enough, about ten minutes into the hunt, I located Jane’s house!  As it turns out, it is situated less than half a mile east of JMJ Ranch, which was featured in fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and the more recent Back-Up Plan with Jennifer Lopez.

 Its-Complicated-House-7 Its-Complicated-House-8 

Before stalking the house, I was convinced that some part of it would be visible from the street.  As you can see in the above photographs, though, that was not really the case.  Sadly, the residence is set quite a ways back from the road and is surrounded by massive oak trees which hide the home from view.  🙁  UGH!  

ScreenShot5477 ScreenShot5479

But that’s why God created aerial images!

ScreenShot5472 ScreenShot5476

And while the aerial views of the home aren’t that great, as you can see in the above screen captures, the shape of the house and the shape of the pool match those of the real residence perfectly!

ScreenShot5466 ScreenShot5467

 ScreenShot5475 ScreenShot5474

Only the exterior of the Potrero Road home was featured in the production.  Sadly, the beautiful interior of Jane’s house was a set that existed solely on a soundstage at Brooklyn’s Broadway Stages.  Nancy Meyers was so meticulously involved in the creation of the interior of Jane’s residence, though, that she even went so far as to hand pick the books that were stored on the character’s bookshelves.  She says, “I’m very particular about what’s sitting on a table.  I’ll walk around the set, saying, ‘Would she really be reading this book?’”  It is that attention to detail that makes the home appear so warm and inviting.  Sigh!

UPDATE – The It’s Complicated house is currently for sale.  You can check out a YouTube video of it here.

ScreenShot5480

On a side note – fellow stalker David from Spain recently alerted me to the fact that the Gene Autry Museum in Griffith Park is currently hosting an exhibit featuring clothing that once belonged to the King of Pop.  The exhibit is entitled “How The West Was Worn, by Michael Jackson” and displays such iconic pieces as the silver-plated shoes he wore to the White House in 1990 and the guitar-clasp belt he wore on the “Beat It” album cover in 1982 (pictured above).  You can find out more information about the exhibit here.  Special thanks to David for telling me about this event, which I will, of course, be stalking!  🙂

Its-Complicated-House-1

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The It’s Complicated house is located at 714 West Potrero Road in Westlake Village.  JMJ Ranch, from Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and The Back-Up Plan, is located at 930 West Potrero Road in Thousand Oaks, just a half a mile west of the It’s Complicated house.

Griffith Observatory

Griffin-Park-Observatory-14

A couple of months ago I dragged my parents and my then-fiancé/now husband out to Los Feliz to do some stalking of the Griffith Observatory in Griffith Park – a place which I had never before visited despite having lived in Los Angeles for over a decade.  I had actually wanted to stalk the Observatory for close to 18 years –  ever since November of 1992, to be exact – thanks to the fact that it was featured in a Season 3 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210.  But more on that later.

Griffin-Park-Observatory-7 Griffin-Park-Observatory-24

 Griffin-Park-Observatory-8 Griffin-Park-Observatory-34

The land that now encompasses Griffith Park was donated to the City of Los Angeles by Welsh industrialist Colonel Griffith J. Griffith (and no, that was not a typo – the guy’s first name was actually the same as his last!) on December 16, 1896.  Griffith stipulated that the donated parcel of land, which measured 3,015 acres, was to be used as a public park.  He said, “It must be made a place of rest and relaxation for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people.  I consider it my obligation to make Los Angeles a happy, cleaner, and finer city.  I wish to pay my debt of duty in this way to the community in which I have prospered.”  When Griffith passed away 26 years later, in 1919, he bequeathed the majority of his $1.5 million estate to the city for the purposes of building a theatre and an observatory inside of the park.  Construction on the observatory, which was designed by architect John C. Austin and engineer Russell W. Porter, began on June 20th, 1933 and the building opened to the public just under two years later, on May 14, 1935.  

Griffin-Park-Observatory-3 Griffin-Park-Observatory-5

Griffin-Park-Observatory-29 Griffin-Park-Observatory-25

The Griffith Observatory, which sits high atop Mount Hollywood, features a 300-seat state-of-the-art planetarium, a 2,700-square foot multimedia theatre, a Zeiss refracting telescope, an exhibit hall, and, as you can see above, views which are nothing short of incredible.

Griffin-Park-Observatory-9

Hollywood location scouts took notice of the property right from the very beginning when it was chosen to appear in the 1935 movie The Phantom Empire shortly after its opening.  Since that time, the Observatory has been featured in hundreds upon hundreds of productions – far too many for me to be able to properly catalog here, but I’ll do my best to give my fellow stalkers a broad overview.

[ad]

ScreenShot5405 ScreenShot5406

As I mentioned above, the Observatory was featured in a Season 3 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210.  That episode was titled “Rebel With A Cause” and it was, ironically enough, one of my least favorite episodes in the entire history of the series.  The episode centers around the break-up of longtime couple Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry) and Brenda Walsh (aka my girl Shannen Doherty), immediately after which Dylan puts the moves on Brenda’s best friend Kelly Taylor (aka Jennie Garth).  Mind you, Dylan and Kelly had also been seeing each other behind Brenda’s back for an entire summer at that point in the series.  Dylan then decides to take Kelly out on a date – just two nights after his break-up with Brenda! – and when Brenda randomly catches the two of them together in a restaurant, she calls Kelly a “bimbo” and Kelly actually has the nerve to be mad at Brenda.  I mean, HELLO, Kelly!  Not only did you spend an entire summer making out with your BEST FRIEND’S boyfriend, but when said best friend and said boyfriend break-up, it’s not 48 hours later that you are out on a date with him.  With friends like that, who needs enemies??  Let me tell you, had that happened to me, I would have been calling Kelly a whole lot worse things than “bimbo”.  And yes, I realize Beverly Hills, 90210 is just a television show and that the “Rebel With A Cause” episode aired almost two decades ago, but the whole thing still seriously upsets me!  But I digress.  Anyway, in the episode, before taking her out to dinner, Dylan brings Kelly to the Griffith Observatory, where they watch a show in the planetarium.

ScreenShot5407 ScreenShot5408

ScreenShot5409 ScreenShot5410

After the show, the two little home-wreckers head outside for a heart-to-heart chat and, even though I was strongly opposed to the whole Kelly/Dylan romance, for whatever reason, it was the location of that chat that I was most interested in stalking. 

Griffin-Park-Observatory-44

I had a very difficult time locating the wall where Dylan and Kelly sat, though, as it is not in an easily-visible part of the building.  It actually wasn’t until we were heading back to our car that I finally spotted the right place.

Griffith Observatory 90210

As it turns out, Kelly and Dylan’s wall is located in the eastern-most section of the Observatory.  It is actually the wall to a ramp which leads to the back of the building and is located on the left-hand side of the Observatory (as you are facing it) and is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view.

ScreenShot5419 ScreenShot5424

 ScreenShot5422 ScreenShot5425

The Observatory’s most famous onscreen appearance was, of course, in the 1955 James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause, which, amazingly enough, I have never actually seen!  In the beginning of the flick, Jim (aka James Dean) and Judy (aka Natalie Wood), along with the rest of their high school class, go on a field trip to the Observatory where they watch a show in the planetarium.

ScreenShot5426 ScreenShot5427

And the very same wall from 90210 also appears in that scene. 

ScreenShot5428

Rebel’s final scene also takes place at the Observatory, but I do not want to post any screen caps of that scene as they would spoil the ending.

Griffin-Park-Observatory-22 Griffin-Park-Observatory-18

There is a statue of James Dean on display on the Observatory’s front lawn which commemorates the historic filming that took place there in 1955.  So darn cool!

 ScreenShot5382 ScreenShot5383 

ScreenShot5385 ScreenShot5386

Griffith Observatory was also the site of the climatic scene in 1999’s hilarious comedy Bowfinger, in which renegade, wanna-be movie director Bowfinger (aka Steve Martin) and his ragamuffin film crew secretly tape Daisy (aka Heather Graham) and Kit Ramsey (aka Eddie Murphy) fighting off a fictitious band of aliens.

ScreenShot5387 ScreenShot5389

In the first Transformers movie, Mikaela Banes (aka Megan Fox) and Sam Witwicky (aka Shia LaBeouf) are at the Observatory when they witness a group of Transformers crash landing on earth in the form of meteorites.

ScreenShot5390

In The Terminator, the Observatory is the spot where the Terminator (aka Arnold Schwarzenegger) first emerges from a time warp and begins his mission to kill Sarah Conner (aka Linda Hamilton).

ScreenShot5393 ScreenShot5394

ScreenShot5395 ScreenShot5397

In 2008’s Yes Man, the Observatory is the location of Allison’s (aka Zooey Deschanel’s) weekly jogging/photo class, during which Carl (aka Jim Carrey) crashes after drinking waaaaaaay too many Red Bull energy drinks.

ScreenShot5398 ScreenShot5399

ScreenShot5400  ScreenShot5404

It is also where Carl professes his love to Allison at the very end of the movie.

Yes Man Griffith Observatory

And it is during that ending scene that Carl and Allison run right by the exact spot where Beverly Hills, 90210 was filmed 16 years beforehand.  🙂

ScreenShot5413 ScreenShot5414 

ScreenShot5416 ScreenShot5418

The scene in which Natalie Cook (aka Cameron Diaz), Dylan Sanders (aka Drew Barrymore) and Alex Munday (aka Lucy Liu) discover that Madison Lee (aka Demi Moore) is actually a fallen angel in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle takes place at the Observatory.

ScreenShot5391 ScreenShot5392

The observatory was also featured in the music video for Paula Abdul’s hit single “Rush Rush”, which was an homage to the movie Rebel Without a Cause.

You can watch the full video, which starred Keanu Reeves, by clicking above.

Griffin-Park-Observatory-40

Griffith Observatory has also appeared in the movies Dragnet, Devil in a Blue Dress, The Rocketeer, House on Haunted Hill, Nancy Drew, and Earth Girls are Easy, and in episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles, 24, Star Trek Voyager, Alias, MacGyver, Melrose Place, Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Colbys.

Griffin-Park-Observatory-35

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Griffith Observatory is located at 2800 East Observatory Road, inside of Griffith Park, in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles.  You can visit the observatory’s official website here.  Admission is free.  The observatory is closed to the public on Mondays and Tuesdays.

The Historic El Paseo Shopping Center from “It’s Complicated”

DSC00509-1

Another It’s Complicated location that I stalked while visiting the Santa Barbara area a few weeks back was the historic El Paseo Shopping Center located in the heart of Downtown State Street.  In the movie, the Spanish-style marketplace stood in for the “Santa Barbara Medical Building” where Jane Adler’s (aka Meryl Streep’s) therapist, Dr. Allen (aka Peter Mackenzie), worked.  In reality, El Paseo does not actually house medical offices, but is in fact California’s very first and oldest shopping center.  I found the location thanks to this fabulous December 2009 Los Angeles Times article about the filming of It’s Complicated and even though I had yet to see the movie, I dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place pretty much immediately upon arriving in the area.

[ad]

   IMG_0566 IMG_0574

   IMG_0568 IMG_0573

  El Paseo Shopping Center was originally built during the 1920’s and currently houses several boutiques, restaurants, and independent offices situated amongst picturesque courtyards, sparkling water fountains, and wood-framed balconies.  The place is absolutely huge and, including its parking lot, encompasses an entire city block, which is how my fiancé and I ended up stalking the wrong section of it.  Because I had yet to watch It’s Complicated, I had no idea what particular part of El Paseo had appeared in the flick.  So, while the Grim Cheaper and I did walk quite a bit of the property and snapped photographs of what we thought was every square inch of the place, we somehow missed the back entrance – which, of course, was the only section of the center used in the filming.  Murphy’s Law strikes again!   

ScreenShot5111 ScreenShot5112

DSC00510-1  DSC00500-1

Thankfully though, our good friends Chris and Amy, who live in the area, agreed to re-stalk the place for me this past weekend.  And even though the two aren’t stalkers like myself, they did a FABULOUS job of matching their photographs to the screen captures I had sent them.  YAY!  Thank you, Chris and Amy! 

 ScreenShot5114 ScreenShot5115

 DSC00514-1 DSC00502-1

Filming of It’s Complicated took place at El Paseo’s east entrance, which can be reached via Anacapa Street.  As fate would have it, that area of the shopping center happens to be located directly across the street from the city’s main post office.  During the shoot, the entire stretch of road in front of the shopping center and post office had to be shut down to all pedestrians and traffic, which on an ordinary day probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal.  But the It’s Complicated therapist office scene was actually shot on April 15, 2009.  Yes, you read that right – the city actually shut down the street in front of its main post office on TAX DAY!  Someone in the SB Planning Department seriously dropped the ball on that one!  😉

IMG_0616

El Paseo’s main entrance is pictured above and, as you can see, looks markedly different from its back entrance.  So different, in fact, that I thought the Los Angeles Times article had printed erroneous information when it reported that filming had taken place at the historic shopping center.  It wasn’t until I did some cyber-stalking of El Paseo using Bing aerial maps that I figured out my mistake. 

IMG_0557

Amazingly enough, the It’s Complicated crew only filmed on location in Santa Barbara for a mere three days.  The rest of the filming took place in Los Angeles and New York.  According to IMDB’s It’s Complicated filming locations page, some of the flick was also lensed in Santa Barbara’s De Le Guerra Plaza.   From what I’ve been able to discern online, the Plaza was converted into a  Christmas tree lot for a scene that never actually made it into the movie.  You can see some photos of the filming and read a great on-set report on the Fussy blog here.

DSC00502-1

Big THANK YOU to Chris and Amy for stalking El Paseo and taking the above photographs for me!  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The area of El Paseo Shopping Center that was used in It’s Complicated can be found at 813 Anacapa Street in Santa Barbara.  De La Guerra Plaza, where the deleted Christmas tree lot scene was filmed, is located in front of the Santa Barbara City Hall, which can be found at 735 Anacapa Street.