Tag: the new 90210

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Partying With the Kids From West Bev!

Thanks to a tip from Andrea Sachs who interviewed me a few weeks back for a Washington Post article, I was able to drag my boyfriend to a little shindig for the new 90210 series at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills on Saturday night.

The Paley Center, which was started in 1975 by former CBS C.E.O. William S. Paley, is a library/museum/cultural center combo of sorts dedicated to maintaining, preserving, and sharing media history with future generations. The Center, which was formerly known as the Museum of Radio and Television, houses a vast collection of recordings of over 120,000 television and radio shows – and all of it is available for the general public’s viewing pleasure – for free. The recordings cannot be taken off the property, but can be checked out and enjoyed at one of the Center’s many individual viewing consoles. It’s sort of like a ginormous Blockbuster Video store, where you watch television recordings right on the premises. 🙂 The Paley Center is an absolutely beautiful building, complete with a huge open air lobby, a rooftop terrace, and two full size movie theatres. And, of course, while there, I just had to snap a pic of the Candy and Aaron Spelling Trustee Reception Area. 🙂 LOL

Before arriving at the Paley Center for the 90210 Preview Party, I literally had no idea what to expect. I knew that the Center would be previewing both 90210 and Privileged and that there would be some sort of Question and Answer session involved. But I wasn’t sure what stars, if any, would be attending.

So I almost fell on the floor when in walked Lori Loughlin, who made her way over to the media line to answer questions from the press. Lori is absolutely beautiful in person – much prettier in real life than she even appears onscreen. I didn’t get very good pictures of her, though, as my view was was blocked by the mass of reporters in the media line.

But that’s OK, because who should walk in next but Jessica Lowndes, who plays West Beverly’s resident drug addict Adrianna, and Michael Steger, the West Beverly Blaze new Editor-in-Chief. I was absolutely floored when, after making their way through the media line, they agreed to pose for pictures with us fans. 🙂 YAY!

Jessica was very sweet in person and VERY tiny!!! I have to admit, though, that when I first saw her I didn’t recognize her at all and I actually thought she was Jessica Stroup, the actress who plays Erin Silver on 90210. LOL Jessica looks incredibly young in person, which struck me as quite ironic because the cast members of the original 90210 were always catching flack for looking too old. ; )

In person Michael Steger looks very much like Adrian Grenier from Entourage. He was also very sweet and very tall. He even went outside to sign autographs for fans who couldn’t get into the party. Awwww! Can you tell how excited I was to be taking these pictures? I could not have had a bigger, goofier grin on my face – LOL – what can I say, I am just incapable of playing it cool. 🙂

Also in attendance were Privileged stars Anne Archer and JoAnna Garcia. Anne Archer is absolutely stunning in person and VERY thin. JoAnna Garcia, who previously starred on the hit show Reba, was very cute in person and looked a lot like Isla Fisher. I really wanted to take a picture with JoAnna, but she arrived late and didn’t have time to take photos with the fans. 🙁

The Question and Answer session was also very cool to see. We weren’t able to watch it in the actual theatre where the stars were – that required special tickets. Instead, plasma TV’s were set up throughout the Paley Center, including in the main lobby and on the roof, for the viewing. My boyfriend and I opted to watch the Q&A on the roof, which had amazing views of Beverly Hills. While the session was fun to watch, nothing really earth-shattering or blog-worthy was revealed, other than the fact that Jessica chopped off a significant amount of her hair to play the role of Adrianna and that since landing his role on 90210 Michael has been receiving free clothes from designers.

I have to admit that neither my boyfriend or I wanted to stay to watch the actual TV shows. I wasn’t a big fan of the 90210 pilot when I first watched it last Tuesday, and the last thing I wanted to do was sit through it again. LOL So instead we headed out to a grab a bite to eat at a FABULOUS BH restaurant called Enoteca Drago. On our way out, though, I just had to snap a pic in the media line. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! : )

Stalk It: The Paley Center is located at 465 North Beverly Drive in the heart of Beverly Hills. There are more Fall Preview Parties happening all week, including celebrations for Chuck, Life, Lipstick Jungle, Gery Unmarried, The Ex List, Worst Week, The Mentalist, Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, and Eli Stone. You can view the entire lineup of television preview parties and reserve your tickets here. Enoteca Drago Restaurant is located at 410 N. Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. The food is amazing there and the service could not have been better! I recommend the chopped salad – it is soooo yummy!!! Don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for the many stars who dine there nightly.

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P.S. I Love You

In honor of the big 90210 v. 2.0 premiere that took place on Tuesday night, I just had to do a little 90210 v. 1.0 stalking this past weekend. Since my boyfriend and I were out in Palm Springs for a little Labor Day vacay, I dragged him to the Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa which was featured in the series’ Season 5 finale. In the episode, entitled “P.S. I Love You”, Brandon, Valerie and the gang head out to Palm Springs for an Alpha/KEG get together. The group stayed at the Rancho Las Palmas, which at the time was known as Marriot’s Rancho Las Palmas Resort. Two years ago the hotel changed ownership and dropped the Marriott from its name. One of the most famous scenes in 90210 history took place at this hotel – the scene when Ray Pruit pushes Donna down a flight of stairs. It is those stairs that I set out to stalk this past weekend.

Unfortunately, since the hotel has changed hands since filming took place, none of the new staff could give me any information about where filming took place. In fact, most of the hotel staff looked at me like I was crazy when I told them that 90210 had filmed there. LOL But the concierge, who used to work at the nearby Desert Springs Marriott, did tell me that the TV show Las Vegas(sigh – Josh Duhamel!) filmed over at his former workplace several times. Looks like I have some more stalking of that hotel to do! 🙂

Anyway, I had a pretty clear picture in my head of the stairs Ray Pruit – “spelled with one ‘T’ cause that’s all his momma could afford” – pushed Donna down from watching the episode way back when. I was shocked to find out that there are actually 120 sets of those exact same stairs on the hotel property – four sets for each of the hotel’s 30 buildings. So, while I did take a picture on one of the sets of stairs, I am not sure it was the exact one that was used during filming. I am planning on borrowing Mike from MovieShotsLA‘s DVD of that episode to try to pin down the exact filming location. Big THANK YOU to Mike, too, for making these screen captures for me. 🙂

Since being taken over by the KSL Resorts hotel chain, Rancho Las Palmas has been extensively remodeled, however it is still pretty recognizable from the 90210days. Unfortunately, though, the pool areas have changed dramatically since filming, so once again I wasn’t able to pinpoint which of the hotel’s three pools was used for filming. But, according to the concierge, even if I had been able to pinpoint the correct pool, it would most likely be unrecognizable. All three pools have been completely gutted and remodeled since the KSL takeover. BUMMER! In the picture above I am standing in front of the hotel’s adults only Tranquility Pool, which, judging by the surroundings, I am pretty sure was the one featured in 90210.

Even though this particular stalking adventure was kind of a bust, I would still recommend stalking the hotel as it was still very cool to be there. Rancho Las Palmas is absolutely gorgeous, and I am actually hoping to stay there on my next trip out to the desert. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa is located at 41-000 Bob Hope Drive in Rancho Mirage, just outside of Palm Springs. You can visit their website here. During the summer rooms will run you about $250 per night. The famous stairs that Donna was pushed down are located throughout the hotel property. The Tranquility Pool is located just off the main lobby.

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Break Out The Clicquot!

This is a post I’ve been itching to do for almost two weeks now, but had to keep mum on! Two weeks ago I was interviewed by Washington Post travel correspondent Andrea Sachs, who, based on the major hype of the upcoming 90210 v. 2.0, was sent out to the West Coast to do a travel piece on the world’s most famous zip code. Andrea contacted me to do an interview about the iconic TV series and also a little BH stalking. The article was finally published today and I could not be more excited!! My family and I just got back from celebrating with a little champagne. 🙂 You can read the article here.

When I first received Andrea’s email asking if I would have time to chat about my fave TV show for a newspaper article, I have to admit I thought someone was playing a joke on me. The name Andrea Sachs seemed extremely familiar and after doing a little Google research, I realized that I recognized it from the movie The Devil Wears Prada where it was the name of Anne Hathaway’s character. Besides sharing a name, the two also share a profession. In the movie Andrea Sachs is a budding newspaper journalist. So I was completely convinced someone was pulling my leg. But, it turns out that there is, in fact, a real life Andrea Sachs who is, in fact, a reporter for the Washington Post. And I was happy to discover that the real Andrea is much cooler and a hundred times more funny than her silver screen counterpart. 🙂

Andrea and I decided to meet up for a “power lunch” at the legendary Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel (where we spotted a very large Rob Reiner – I had no idea he was such a big man!) and we wound up spending the entire afternoon stalking. Andrea’s assignment – to report on both the Hills of Beverly and the legendary television show – had a built in challenge for me. Andrea was required to stay in the 90210 zip code and, ironically, there isn’t one filming location from the TV show actually located in Beverly Hills.So I had to think a bit outside the box for this one. 🙂 During our adventure we hit up Aaron Spelling’s manse (which is currently for sale for a reported $150 million!!!), the Playboy Mansion, the home where Shannen Doherty attacked then-boyfriend Dean Factor, and Brad and Jen’s former Beverly Hills love nest.

The last stop on our Beverly Hills stalking tour was Andrea’s inspired idea – the real Beverly Hills High School, upon which 90210‘s fictional West Beverly High was loosely based, but of course where no actual filming took place. Producers had originally wanted to film at the real Beverly Hills High, but the school board was having none of that. So producers created the fictional West Beverly Hills High School and set out for Torrance High School in the South Bay to film. Torrance High will also be featured once again in the new 90210 series.

Even though BHHS shied away from being featured in the 90210 series, it has been used in several other Hollywood productions including Anywhere But Here, The Beverly Hillbillies, Less Than Zero, the Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Taggat, Whatever It Takes, and the videos for Nickelback’s Rockstar and NLT’s That Girl. In the Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life, the school’s “Swim Gym” (pictured above) which features a basketball court that slides open to reveal a swimming pool underneath, was prominently featured.

Andrea had read about Beverly High’s “Hall of Fame”- a wall display featuring headshots of BHHS’ famous alumni and I was absolutely dying to see it! The display actually ended up bringing us full circle in our stalking adventure when we spotted Rob Reiner’s photo on the wall. Andrea took one look at Rob’s photo and said “You really didn’t realize he was a large man???” LOL As excited as we both were to see the Hall of Fame, it proved to be pretty anti-climatic. Sadly many of the most famous names were strangely missing from the display. BHHS’ famous alumni include Angelina Jolie, Tori Spelling, both Ephron sisters, Albert Brooks, 80s heartthrob Steve Burton, Cari Fisher, Bonnie Franklin, Gina Gershon, Nicolas Cage, Shaun Cassidy, Jennifer Grey’s father Joel, Brady mom Florence Henderson, Lenny Kravitz, Monica Lewinsky (LOL!), the Menendez Brothers, Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meister, Pauly Shore, Antonio Sabato Jr., Alicia Silverstone, and countless, countless others. I was most looking forward to seeing BHHS alumni David Schwimmer’s photo on the wall, but like many others it was absent. I mean, hello – where’s the Friends’ love?

In person the school has minimal resemblance to how West Beverly High was portrayed onscreen. For being located in the world’s most exclusive zip code, the school is actually quite unremarkable and ordinary. I really expected much more from BHHS. In reality the school looks pretty much like every other American high school I have ever seen. The interior leaves much to be desired, as well, and, in truth, looked pretty run down. Andrea and I were cracking up at the sad state of the hallway’s ceiling tiles (pictured above). I am happy to report, though, that both the students and faculty of BHHS could not have been friendlier to us as we wandered the halls. But all I kept thinking was how young the students looked compared with what was portrayed on 90210. I mean, there wasn’t a Luke Perry style receding hairline in the bunch!

I truly had a BLAST stalking with Andrea all afternoon and I cannot wait for her next West Coast adventure as I’d love to hang out again. And the article turned out fabulous – I really could not be more excited! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Beverly Hills High School is located at 241 Moreno Drive in Beverly Hills. You can read the Washington Post article here.