Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ Former Mansion

tom-kat-house-9

I recently finished reading Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography which was written by Andrew Morton, the legendary celebrity biographer who also penned Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words, and I have to say that it was absolutely FABULOUS!  I honestly cannot more highly recommend it.  Not only was the book, which became a 2008 bestseller, a fascinating read, but it also got me completely obsessed with Dawson’s Creek once again and I just started re-watching the series from the beginning last week.  SUCH a great show and one of these days I have GOT to get myself to Wilmington, North Carolina to do some stalking of the locales, but I digress.  Anyway, one of the locations talked about in Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography was the Beverly Hills manse that the actor called home when he first started dating Katie Holmes and which Katie also later moved into.  So I, of course, just had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on out there to stalk the place as soon as I finished reading the book.

tom-kat-house-1 tom-kat-house-2

tom-kat-house-7 tom-kat-house-6

Sadly though, as you can see above, virtually no part of the mansion is visible from the street.

ScreenShot1329

But, as I’ve said before, that’s why God created aerial views.  As you can see above, Tom and Katie’s former house is absolutely gargantuan.  In fact, it would be more appropriate to call the place a “compound” rather than a “house”.  The English-Country-style abode, which was originally built in 1927, features a 6,685-square-foot main house with five bedrooms and five baths, a guest house which is comprised of three separate apartments, each with their own kitchen and bath!, a screening room, formal gardens, a sunken tennis court, a pool, a spa, and almost three full acres of secluded land.  According to the Berg Properties website, Tom Cruise first leased the residence in 2001, shortly after his separation from then-wife Nicole Kidman.  TomKat moved out of the home sometime in 2007, at which point it went on the market at a rental rate of $100,000 per month.  Not kidding!  According to fave website The Real Estalker, Russell Crowe may have lived there for a time after the Cruises left.  And it appears that the property is once again available for lease.  You can check out the real estate listing – and see some fabulous interior photographs of it – here.

[ad]

ScreenShot1302 ScreenShot1303

ScreenShot1304 ScreenShot1305

And, amazingly enough, not only was the abode once the home of one of the world’s biggest movie stars, but the place is also a filming location!  In 2001’s Blow, the mansion was where George Jung (aka Johnny Depp) lived with his wife, Mirtha (aka Penelope Cruz).  It was featured in the memorable scene in which George shows his father, Fred (aka Ray Liotta), his extensive collection of cars.  The home was also where George was arrested by the FBI during his 38th birthday party.

ScreenShot1306 ScreenShot1307

ScreenShot1308 ScreenShot1309

The interior of the house was also used in the filming.

ScreenShot1333 ScreenShot1332

ScreenShot1335 ScreenShot1345

In the Season 3 episode of Californication titled “Wish You Were Here” the mansion was the residence of Dean Stacy Koons (aka The O.C.’s Peter Gallagher) and his wife, Felicia (aka Embeth Davidtz), where Hank Moody (aka David Duchovny) attended a dinner party.

ScreenShot1337 ScreenShot1341

ScreenShot1342 ScreenShot1343

The real life interior of the mansion also appeared in that episode.

ScreenShot1320 ScreenShot1321

ScreenShot1325 ScreenShot1328

And the mansion also shows up each week on the ABC Family series Switched at Birth as the residence of the Kennish family – Bay (aka Vanessa Marano), Toby (aka Lucas Grabeel), John (aka D.W. Moffett), and Kathryn (aka Lea Thompson) – and the Vasquez family – Daphne (aka Katie Leclerc), Regina (aka Constance Marie), and Adrianna (aka Ivonne Coll).

ScreenShot1317 ScreenShot1318

ScreenShot1322 ScreenShot1323

Although the interior is, I believe, just a set.  As you can see in the screen captures above, it does not look at all like the real life interior of the former Cruise home.

ScreenShot1324 ScreenShot1330

ScreenShot1326 ScreenShot1327

But the backyard, pool, and guest house scenes all take place at the actual house.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ former house is located at 918 North Alpine Drive in Beverly Hills.

Crumbs Bake Shop from “90210”

P1050565

Another location that I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to see while doing some stalking in Beverly Hills two weekends ago was Crumbs Bake Shop, the popular cupcakery which appeared in the Season 2 episode of fave show 90210 titled “What’s Past is Prologue”.  Crumbs has been a veritable institution in the Beverly Hills area for quite some time now and, being that I do love me some cupcakes, I am absolutely shocked that it took me this long to finally stalk the place, especially since it appeared on 90210 well over a year ago.  As I have said before, though, there are just too many places to stalk and not enough hours in the day to do so!  Thankfully, Crumbs was well worth the wait!

P1050566 P1050569

The original Crumbs Bake Shop first opened on New York’s Upper West Side in March of 2003 and was founded by former lawyer Mia Bauer and her entrepreneur husband Jason.  Mia, who grew up on a farm in Israel, first started making coconut-flavored cupcakes for her family and friends when she was just a young child in the second grade.  When she made a batch for Jason, her then boyfriend, one day in 2002, an idea was born.  Mia left her law career behind shortly thereafter and, along with Jason, opened up her first cupcakery.  It became an instant success and the couple now owns over 35 stores in six different states, including one in Washington, D.C.  Today each shop offers over fifty different flavors of cupcakes daily, each of them made by hand.  Sadly, because photographs are not allowed inside of the store, I had to settle for snapping a few pics of the exterior only.

[ad]

P1050567

The GC and I opted to try one of Crumb’s espresso-flavored cupcakes and, let me tell you, it was A-MA-ZING!  I am pretty picky about my cupcakes and I have to say that Crumbs serves up some fabulous ones!  Loved, loved, loved them!  Because the GC is a big fan of Howard Stern, he really wanted to try the Artie Lange cupcake, which was created by Artie on the air during an episode of The Howard Stern Show back in 2008 and consists of a vanilla cupcake filled with chocolate cream cheese, topped with vanilla cream cheese frosting, dipped in chocolate fondant, and then sprinkled with chocolate and vanilla sprinkles.  We thought it might just be a wee bit too rich, though.  Winking smile  Artie Lange is hardly Crumbs’ only celebrity fan.  Brooklyn Dekker, Andrea Bowen, Alyssa Milano, Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Jason Alexander (the actor from Seinfeld, not Britney Spears’ ex), Tori Spelling, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Katy Perry, Russell Brand, Chace Crawford, Justin Timberlake, Lauren Conrad, and my girl Jen Aniston have all been known to sample the sweet treats.  In March of 2009, Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise stopped into the Beverly Hills Crumbs to get their cupcake on.  And in September of 2008, Crumbs unveiled a limited-edition Cosmo-flavored cupcake especially for the DVD release party for Sex and the City: The Movie.  Love it, love it, love it!

ScreenCap1481 ScreenCap1483

ScreenCap1484 ScreenCap1485

In the “What’s Past is Prologue” episode of 90210, Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord), and Erin Silver (aka Jessica Stroup) meet up at Crumbs to discuss Silver’s relationship with Teddy Montgomery (aka Trevor Donovan).

ScreenCap1488 ScreenCap1492

ScreenCap1489 ScreenCap1490

It is while they are enjoying their cupcakes that Annie notices her ex-boyfriend, Jasper Herman (aka Zachary Ray Sherman), sitting at a nearby table and finally realizes that he is stalking her.

P1050570 P1050571

Ironically enough, just around the corner from Crumbs Bake Shop is a Vietnamese restaurant named 9021Pho, which I think is just about one of the funniest names for a restaurant that I have ever heard!  The place cracks me up every single time I drive by it!

P1050568

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Crumbs Bake Shop, from the “What’s Past is Prologue” episode of 90210, is located at 9465 Little Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills.  You can visit the official Crumbs’ website here.  9021Pho is located just around the corner from Crumbs at 490 North Beverly Boulevard in Beverly Hills.  You can visit the official 9021Pho website here.