Ventura – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 15, 2009July 15, 2009

The Erin Brockovich House

Many, many months ago my very good friend and fellow stalker Kerry challenged me to find Julia Roberts’ house from the Academy Award winning movie Erin Brockovich. Kerry knew that the home was located somewhere in the Ventura area, but had no idea of its exact whereabouts. So, I, of course, enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA, who wound up finding the home’s location pretty much immediately! Flash forward to six weeks ago when my family and I took a little weekend vacay to Ventura. I managed to sneak in some stalking during our trip, as I always do when on vacation, but by that time had completely forgotten about the Erin Brockovich house. That’s the blonde in me!! Well, as soon as I got home and posted my first Ventura blog entry, I got a very excited phone call from Kerry, who wanted to know when I would be writing about the house that she had challenged me to find so long ago. Well, let me tell you, I almost fell out of my chair. I felt absolutely TERRIBLE that I had forgotten all about it!!!! And I felt even more terrible about an hour later when Mike called me up and asked me the very same thing! LOL LOL LOL So, this past weekend, when my parents announced that they would be spending a few nights in Ventura, I begged them to do a little Erin Brockovich stalking for me. Semi-begrudgingly they agreed. So, even though I don’t usually like to blog about locations I haven’t personally visited myself, I had to make an exception just this once, for Kerry’s – and Mike’s – sakes! 🙂

I am very happy to report that, although the paint color is now different, the Erin Brockovich house is still very recognizable from the movie. On a side note, my mom had actually offered to pose in front of Erin’s house for the above picture like I usually do in my stalking photographs, which I thought would have been absolutely HILARIOUS, but unfortunately she was having a bad hair day at the time, so she didn’t end up doing it. LOL

Located directly next door to Erin’s house is the residence that stood in for the home of her boyfriend George, who was played by Aaron Eckhart, in the film. And I am happy to report that it looks exactly the same today as it did when Erin Brockovich was filmed there back in 2000 – right down to its paint color! 🙂 I love it when that happens!!!

There has been one major change to the two houses since filming wrapped, though. In Erin Brockovich, Erin and George’s homes shared a large front yard area, but today there is a tall hedge separating the two properties, which changes their appearance quite significantly.

Quite a few scenes take place in that shared front yard area, including the FABULOUS scene when Erin and George first meet and she makes that GREAT speech about her telephone number! Love it!

The scene when Ed Masry gifts Erin $5,000 and a new car also takes place out in front of the home.

Some filming also took place in the backyard area of the two houses, and, I believe, inside of the homes, as well.

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Just around the corner from Erin’s home is the Main Street Restaurant and Steakhouse, which makes a very brief appearance at the beginning of the movie as the restaurant where Erin takes her kids for a bite to eat after finding a cockroach in her kitchen.

A little bit of movie trivia for you – the waitress in that scene was played by none other than the real life Erin Brockovich. Her character’s name in the movie? Why Julia, of course! 😉 LOL

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Erin Brockovich house is located at 545 South Emma Avenue in Ventura. George’s house is located right next door at 555 South Emma Avenue. Main Street Restaurant and Steakhouse is located just a few blocks away at 3159 East Main Street, also in Ventura.

June 3, 2009June 3, 2009

Watermark On Main

This past weekend, while in Ventura, my parents, my fiance, and I ate dinner at a newly opened restaurant named Watermark On Main. And, even though my eyes are ALWAYS peeled, I wasn’t exactly expecting to see a celeb during our meal. But, sure enough, we did! As it turns out, Watermark is something of a celeb hot spot. 🙂 So, I just had to blog about it.

Watermark On Main, which just recently opened last August, is located inside of the Theodore Groene/Brahn Jewelry Store Building, which is a City of Ventura Cultural Landmark. The Spanish Revival style building was originally built in 1928 and was designed by architects Frederick M. Ashley and John C. Austin, who also designed L.A.’s Griffith Park Observatory. The structure, which was marked by tiled curtained walls, hand-painted murals, and ornately decorated ceilings, was built to house the Ventura Guarantee Building and Loan Company, who had a large safe installed on the premises. In 1938, the building was sold to Theodore Groene, who subsequently covered up and painted over much of the structure’s ornate decoration and detail. The building had several different occupants following that sale, including the Brahn Jewelry Company, until March 16, 2004 when it was purchased by the Hartley Family. From March of 2004 to August of 2008, the Hartleys began the huge task of renovating the historic building. What they uncovered was a structure that can best be described as a work of art!

Working with artist Michael Kelly, the Hartleys painstakingly brought their historic building back to life. And it truly is remarkable to see! A few of the restaurant’s unique details include travertine floors, an onyx gold wraparound bar, ceiling murals, which were originally hand-painted by artist Norman Kennedy in 1928 (pictured above);

handpainted plaster ceilings;

and African mahogany woodwork throughout.

The Hartleys also added a third floor to the building, which required a 61,000 pound steel support structure to be built on top of the existing roof. The third floor now houses the restaurant’s rooftop lounge, named W2O.

I honestly can’t recommend stalking Watermark On Main enough!! The restaurant is beautiful, the service was superb, and the food! Oh, the food! It was simply A-MA-ZING. It was so good, in fact, that I scarfed down about three pounds of appetizers, bread, and salad making it virtually impossible for me to eat any of the actual meal that I ordered! I’m not kidding – I think I ate two bites of it! LOL Oh, well, that’s what to-go boxes are for. 🙂

And, oh, yes, the celebs! : ) The night we were there, actor/singer Kris Kristofferson was hosting a benefit concert for farm workers at the Majestic Ventura Theatre (pictured above), which just so happens to be located directly across the street from Watermark On Main. The concert pre-party was being held at Watermark’s lounge, W2O. And while I didn’t expect to see any celebs, before we knew it several familiar faces walked by. Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t place exactly who they were and my fiance, who is usually great at remembering names, wasn’t paying any attention whatsoever. UGH – I think I need to give the ring back. 🙂 LOL The one face he did recognize, though, was that of Stephen Root, aka the Stapler Man from fave movie Office Space. Love it! 🙂 Other celebs who have dined at Watermark include Kevin Costner (who held the premiere of his movie Swing Vote at the Majestic Ventura Theatre), Leann Rimes, Kenny Loggins, and singer Michael McDonald. Mark Hartley, the owner of Watermark, is also a big time country music manager who represents such stars as Brad Paisley, Leann Rimes, Colbie Caillat, and Vince Gill. Apparently, his famous clients stop into Watermark on a regular basis. Love it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Watermark On Main is located at 598 East Main Street in Ventura. You can visit their website here. Reservations are recommended. You can make reservations here or by calling (805)643-6800. Watermark also has a dress code – no shorts or flip flops are allowed and, for men, collared shirts are preferred.

June 2, 2009June 1, 2009

The Swordfish Hostage Scene

This past weekend, my parents, my fiance and I drove up to Ventura for a little weekend vacay. And I was absolutely floored to discover – thanks to my new favorite stalking book – that the hostage scene gone wrong from the 2001 movie Swordfish had been filmed in the coastal town! But, while my stalking book stated that all of the filming took place on Main Street in Downtown Ventura, it unfortunately didn’t specify exactly which stores were used in the production. So, me being me, I just had to stalk pretty much every shop and ask around until I found the right ones. 🙂 Filming of Swordfish took place back in October of 2000 and, all in all, three main stores were used. Come to find out, though, every single storefront featured in the movie was drastically remodeled for the filming and today they are all virtually unrecognizable. Such a bummer!!!!!

All of the filming took place on one of Downtown Ventura’s main street corners, where producers were lucky enough to find two vacant storefronts that faced each other. The first storefront, which was formerly the location of a used bookstore named Second Time Around, was where producers built the set of John Travolta’s favorite coffee shop, Traveler’s Coffee Company. Yep, that’s right – the ENTIRE coffee shop was just a set built solely for the filming!

Today, that storefront houses an American Apparel store, which looks nothing like the coffee shop in Swordfish. 🙁 Being the coffee fiend that I am, I was actually pretty bummed out when I learned that the coffee shop was a fake! I was really hoping to grab an iced latte there. LOL Thank goodness there was a Starbucks located just a few blocks away. 🙂 You can see some pics of the Traveler’s Coffee Company set being built here.

Directly across the street from “Traveler’s Coffee Company”, is the bank that John Travolta set out to rob. The interior and the facade of the building, which housed a restaurant named O’Brien’s up until a few months before filming began, were changed significantly for the filming.

Today, an upscale clothing store named Parts Unknown and a restaurant named Riviera Bistro call that space home. You can see some great photographs of the bank set being built here.

The final storefront used in Swordfish was that of Nicholby’s Nightclub, which popped up in the background of the hostage scene quite a few times. Producers built a fake newsstand on the side of the Nicholby’s building for the filming.

As you can see in the above photograph, that newsstand does not exist in real life. You can see pics of the fake newsstand being built here.

It is actually very surprising to me that producers used a real life street corner and real life storefronts to shoot Swordfish’s hostage scene. For action sequences of that magnitude, producers usually opt to film inside of studio soundstages. But because Ventura is a somewhat sleepy town, I am guessing it was fairly easy for them to take over a few vacant storefronts and close down a street corner. According to one of the business owners I talked to, production of the hostage scene took over two months to complete!!!! While the actual filming only took about three weeks, a significant amount of time was needed to both construct and dismantle the extensive sets. I can’t even imagine being able to watch all of that take place! It must have been an amazing experience for the Ventura locals. 🙂 Oh, how I wish I had been there!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The hostage scene from Swordfish was filmed on the corner of East Main and South Oak Streets in Downtown Ventura. Traveler’s Coffee Company is really the American Apparel store located at 391 East Main Street. World Banc is the clothing store named Parts Unknown, which is located at 394 East Main Street #A. Nicholby’s Nightclub, which can be found at 404 East Main Street, was the newsstand that showed up in the background of the scene.