Joe Jost’s from “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton”

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As I’ve mentioned countless times before, Win a Date with Tad Hamilton is one of my all time favorite movies.  And I have long been dying to stalk the restaurant which stood in for Lil’ Dickens, the Frazier’s Bottom bar where Rosalie (aka Kate Bosworth), Pete (aka Topher Grace), Cathy (aka Ginnifer Goodwin), and Tad (aka Josh Duhamel – sigh!) hung out in the flick.  In real life, that bar is named Joe Jost’s and it is actually located in Long Beach, California, a good 2,300 miles west of the real Frazier’s Bottom.  So, since we were in the area this past weekend, I just had to drag my fiancé right out to stalk the place.

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Joe Jost’s was founded in 1924 by a man named, you guessed it, Joe Jost, who was born in a small town in Yugoslavia.  At only 16 years of age, after a four year apprenticeship in a barbershop, Joe left Yugoslavia and immigrated to the U.S.  He first settled in New York City where he continued his work as a barber for a few years before moving to the West Coast and setting up a home in Upland, California.  In 1920, Joe opened up the first Joe Jost’s, a combination barber shop/pool hall/bar/restaurant, in Newport Beach where he sold such goods as candy, cigarettes, and because prohibition was in effect, a non-alcoholic drink known as “near beer”.  In 1924, Joe moved his unique shop to its current location on Anaheim Street in Long Beach.  It wasn’t long, though, before the Barbering Commission closed down the barber shop portion of the establishment, claiming that cutting hair in close proximity to alcohol being served was not “safe”.  LOL  So, Joe abruptly removed his barbershop chairs and installed booths – the very same booths where Joe’s customers still sit today!  So cool!  🙂  Joe’s enjoyed immediate success as a restaurant and even managed to sustain itself throughout the depression years.  To date, the place has served over 5,000,000 Joe’s Special Sandwiches, over 7,000,000 pickled eggs, over 15,000,000 glasses of beer, and over 1,800,000 pounds of Marmion’s peanuts!  Joe’s is such an institution in Long Beach, in fact, that a term known as “josting” has been coined.  Josting refers to the act of taking a photograph of oneself in different locations all around the world while wearing a Joe Jost’s T-Shirt.  And, let me tell you, the T-shirts have been EVERYWHERE!  Joe’s walls are literally COVERED in such photographs and I can’t tell you how incredible it was to be looking at the hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of said patrons – always with their backs to the camera so that the Joe’s logo can be clearly seen – in such far off places as the Pyramids in Egypt, Heidelberg Castle in Germany, Namoto Island in Fiji, and the Arctic Circle (not kidding!).   Most amazing of all, though, were the numerous photographs of soldiers currently stationed in Iraq wearing Joe’s T-shirts. Incredible!  What an unbelievably cool tradition!!!  

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Because my fiancé and I were first-timers, we had to try one of everything on the menu.  And I have to say that even though I am a horribly picky eater, I LOVED it all!   The pickled egg (pictured above) – which sounds disgusting, I know – was incredible, the Marmion’s peanuts were de-lish!, and the Special . . . oh my god, the Special!  What can I even say about it except that it was simply A-MA-ZING!  Joe’s Special consists of a homemade Polish sausage (made from their own secret recipe), a pickle, a slice of Swiss Cheese, and mustard smacked in between two slices of rye bread.  And, oh my lord, is it good! 

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Because Lil’ Dickens is the regular hangout of Rosalie, Pete, and Cathy, Joe Jost’s shows up quite a few times in Win a Date.  The areas used include the main bar;

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and the billiards room, which was decked out with tables and chairs for the filming.

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Sadly, though, Pete and Rosie’s dart board was just a prop that was brought in for the filming and is not there in real life.  🙁

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Oddly enough, the area of the restaurant that I was most interested in stalking was the men’s bathroom, not so much because I wanted to see it in person, but because I wanted to verify if it was really there.  As I had suspected, though, the Lil’ Dickens bathroom, in which Pete confronts Tad telling him that if he breaks Rosalie’s heart he’ll tear him to pieces with his “bare hands or vicious rhetoric” LOL, is not the real Joe Jost’s bathroom.  Joe’s men’s room actually consists of one single room with a toilet and a sink (yes, I actually sent my fiancé in there to report back to me!), and because the scene called for a considerably larger restroom with actual stalls, a set had to be built.  Interestingly enough, though, according to Dan, one of the SUPER nice Joe’s crew members that I spoke with, the Lil’ Dickens bathroom set was actually built right there on the Joe Jost’s property, in the back area of the restaurant. 

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The crew even ended up using the real Joe’s men’s room door, after making some small modifications, as the door of the Lil’ Dickens men’s room set.  So cool!!!! 

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The crew also modified the real life Joe Jost sign, which is located in the pool hall area of the restaurant, into a Lil’ Dickens sign for the shoot.  Love it!  🙂

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Win a Date  is hardly the only production to film at Joe’s, though.  The restaurant is also where Kevin Costner took Whitney Houston on a date in 1992’s The Bodyguard.

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And where they danced to John Doe’s version of the song “I Will Always Love You”, which Whitney calls “depressing” in the scene.  LOL  

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The interior of Joe’s also stood in for the bar where Angelina Jolie worked in Gone in 60 Seconds.

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The exterior of that bar (pictured above), however, was a different location altogether.

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Joe’s showed up twice in the 2007 movie License to Wed, first as the site of Mandy Moore and John Krasinski’s pre-marriage group counseling . . .

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. . . and second as the spot where John and his friend, DeRay Davis, grab a drink towards the end of the movie.

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Producers definitely took some liberties when filming the exterior scenes for License to Wed, though.  In the flick, it is made to appear as if Joe’s is part of a tall building located underneath the L Train somewhere in Chicago.  In real life, though, Joe’s is a simple, small, one-story structure located on a busy Long Beach street corner.  I SO love how they incorporated the real life Joe’s storefront into the digitally altered Chicago-area establishing shots, though, rather than using a real Chicago location for the exterior.  So cool!  Joe’s has also been featured in the movies Madison, The Vanishing, and True Confessions and in episodes of Chance of a Lifetime, The ‘60s, Roswell, Boomtown, Clubhouse, and Classmates.  You can see a full list of Joe’s Hollywood credits here.

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Joe Jost’s is a VERY cool place and I honestly can’t recommend stalking it – or ordering up one of its Specials – enough! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Joe Jost’s is located at 2803 East Anaheim Street in Long Beach.  You can visit their website here.

JMJ Ranch from “Win a Date with Tad Hamilton”

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Another location that Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I stalked during our day in the the Valley together a few months back was the Fraziers Bottom farm that movie star Tad Hamilton purchased in fave film Win a Date with Tad Hamilton.  In real life, Tad’s property is named JMJ Ranch and it is not located anywhere near Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia, but about two thousand miles West in Thousand Oaks, California.  As so often happens when searching for filming sites, I actually came across this one while looking for another location entirely.  After seeing the Season One episode of The Mentalist  entitled “Carnelian Inc.” earlier this year, I became absolutely obsessed with finding the ranch that was featured in it.   And it was while searching for that locale that I came across the website for JMJ Ranch and immediately recognized it as the one from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton.  YAY!  So, since Mike and I were in the area a few weeks back, we decided to drive by the property to see if it was at all accessible to the public.  And amazingly enough, it was!  Or so we thought.  LOL

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When we first pulled up to JMJ Ranch, the main gates were wide open, several people were horseback riding in the central ring, and there was no posted sign saying the area was private property.  Because I had read online that JMJ is an actual working ranch, I turned to Mike and said “OH MY GOD, I think it’s actually open to the public!”  So, of course, the two of us drove right in.  And, let me tell you, I almost had a heart attack I was so excited!  🙂

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I spotted Tad’s little white ranch house pretty much immediately upon entering the property and just about hyperventilated as we pulled up to it!  The fact that Josh Duhamel (aka the love of my life) had once been in the very spot I now found myself was almost too much for me to bear.  🙂  Now, I know that rumors of JD’s infidelity are currently flying around Hollywood, but I honestly have to say that I just don’t believe all the hype.  If the rumors do turn out to be true, though, and Josh really did cheat on his wife, then all bets are off – he’ll be dead to me, just like that little homewrecker Angelina Jolie!  But in the meantime, I have to say, my heart still belongs to JD.  🙂 

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I so love the above screen capture, by the way!!  Sigh.  🙂  But I digress! 

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Only one brief scene from Win A Date took place at JMJ Ranch.  After announcing that he has purchased a house, or as he says “it’s actually a farm, with a house, and a silo for my wheat” LOL,  Rosalie (aka Kate Bosworth), Cathy (aka Ginnifer Goodwin), and Pete (aka Topher Grace) show up to tour the property.  While there, know-it-all Pete attempts to give Tad some lessons in certain farming skills like milking a cow and chopping wood, but as it turns out, thanks to his training for various movie roles, not only does Tad know how to do said activities, but he can actually do them better than Pete.  LOL  

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JMJ Ranch is actually an oft-used filming location.  Besides Win a Date, the property has also been featured in Dynasty, Dallas, Knots Landing, Cracker, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, The Fall Guy, Picket Fences, Hot Shots Part Deux, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Route 9, and Private School

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The 300 acre ranch truly is a beautiful spot, with large open fields, towering oak trees, winding roads, and rustic barns, and as we drove through the property I got to thinking that it would be the perfect spot to host a wedding.  🙂  Being that filming locations often double as wedding venues, I thought there was a pretty good chance that the ranch might also be available for special events and made a mental note to find out.  Well, after driving around for about five minutes, a very angry woman on a tractor drove up to Mike and I and informed us that we were on private property.  WHOOPSY!  We apologized profusely and explained that we had been driving by, saw the open gate, and thought the area was open to the public.  I also told the woman I was currently in the market for a wedding venue and asked if the ranch was available for such occasions.  My question was met with an emphatic “NO!” – LOL – at which point, Mike and I thanked the lady for her time and quickly left.  So, unfortunately, I can’t recommend stalking JMJ Ranch as it is definitely NOT open to the public.  🙁  But at least you can live vicariously through the photographs I was able to take before being kicked off the property.  🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: JMJ Ranch from Win a Date with Tad Hamilton  is located at 930 West Portrero Road in Thousand Oaks.  The property is not actually open to the public, so please do not trespass.  You can visit the JMJ Ranch website here

The Warner Grand Theatre

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This past Saturday, my family and I returned from Catalina Island via the Catalina Express high speed catamaran that docks in San Pedro Harbor.  When the captain announced that we had finally reached our destination, I suddenly realized that a filming location I have LONG been dying to stalk was actually located in the very city where we now found ourselves!  The Warner Grand Theatre, where Rosalee Futch took Tad Hamilton on a date in fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, was in fact located just a few miles away from where our boat had just docked.  🙂  I have absolutely no idea why I hadn’t realized it sooner.  So, I begged my dad to drive me over to the theatre as soon as we gathered our luggage and, amazingly enough, he obliged.   Thank you, dad!

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Warner Brothers first opened the Warner Grand Theatre on January 20, 1931.  It was co-designed in an Art Deco style by architect B. Marcus Priteca, who also constructed the Pantages Theatre, and interior designer Anthony Heinsbergen.  Priteca and Heinsbergen had also created two other theatres for the Warner Brothers Company – one in Beverly Hills and one in Huntington Park.  Unfortunately, though, the Warner Grand is the only one of the three that is still intact.  In 1982, the City of Los Angeles declared the 1,400 seat theatre a Cultural and Historic Monument.  Sadly, though, in the 1990’s it fell into a serious state of disarray and was almost demolished.  The theatre was saved in January of 1996 when the City of Los Angeles stepped in and purchased it for $1.2 million and began a slow, painstaking restoration process.  It has since been named a National Historic Place.  The Grand is currently open for business, showing foreign and independent films on its fifty foot screen almost every weekend and showcasing various events including concerts, plays, and even graduations.  And it is also a frequent filming location!  🙂

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The Warner Grand actually shows up three times in Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, where it stands in for the local Fraziers Bottom, West Virginia movie theatre.  The movie’s very first scene takes place at the theatre, in which Rosalee, Pete, and Cathy watch Tad’s latest film entitled A Man Called Jackson.

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Later on in the movie, Rosalee takes Tad to the Warner Grand for their second date.

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It is at the theatre that one of my favorite lines from the movie is spoken.  In the scene, while walking by a poster for one of Tad’s movies, Rosalee says “You look so sad there”, to which Tad replies “Give me a break.  I just lost my wife . . . and my goat.”  LOL LOL LOL  

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The theatre last shows up in what was to be the movie’s original ending, which is shown in the DVD’s Special Features section.  In the scene, Pete, Cathy, Rosalee, and Rosalee’s father are at the Warner watching A Good Man is Hard to Find, Tad’s latest movie which tells the story of his relationship with Rosalee.

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The Warner has also been featured in countless other productions.  In the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor, the Warner Grand was the Oahu theatre where Kate Beckinsale and Josh Hartnett watched the MovieTone News clip about the war. 

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Later on in the scene, they grab a bite to eat at the “Black Cat Diner”, which is located directly next door to the theatre and which, in reality, is an art gallery named the Findings Art Center.   Unfortunately, I didn’t snap any photos of the Black Cat location as I didn’t learn about its use in Pearl Harbor until after I got home and started researching the theatre.  🙁

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In the same scene, while Kate and Josh are eating inside the Black Cat Diner, their friend Ray proposes to his girlfriend Betty on the street outside the Warner Grand. 

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In the Season One episode of The O.C. entitled “The Proposal”, the Warner stood in for the Newport Beach theatre where Ryan, Seth, and Summer took Marisa to cheer her up after she had discovered that her ex-boyfriend, Luke, was sleeping with her mother.  Nice mom, huh?

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After seeing the movie, the gang heads over to a Jamba Juice located in the Arcade Building on Sixth Street directly across the street from the theatre, where they run into – you guessed it – Marisa’s mother and ex-boyfriend, Luke. 

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Because my parents were not too keen on waiting around while I stalked all of West 6th Street, I didn’t get to venture inside the Arcade Building. But I did manage to snap the above pic from across the street.

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The Warner has also been featured in the television series Cousin Skeeter, 7th Heaven, Melrose Place, Party of Five, and ESPN’s Reel Classics, and the movies Wharf Rats to Lords of the Dock, Worth Winning, Seabiscuit, Ghosts of Mississippi, Invasion Earth: The Aliens are Here,  and What’s Love Got To Do With It  (where it stood in for Harlem’s Apollo Theatre).

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The Warner is an absolutely beautiful place and I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally be stalking it!  Sadly, though, the lobby area wasn’t open while we were there, so I didn’t get to venture inside.  But you know what that means!  I’ll just have to go back to stalk the place again!  🙂  According to the Warner’s website, though, the theatre’s original seats were just recently restored, so the interior looks quite different now than how it appeared in the many movies pictured above.  🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Warner Grand Theatre is located at 478 West 6th Street in San Pedro.  You can visit their website here.   The Black Cat Diner from Pearl Harbor, aka the Findings Art Center, is located at 470 West Sixth Street, next door to the Warner.  The Arcade Building on Sixth Street, which was featured in The O.C., is located at 479 West Sixth Street, directly across the street from the theatre. 

The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton Grocery Store

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One movie location that I have wanted to stalk for what seems like forever is the L.A. area grocery store that stood in for the Fraziers Bottom Piggly Wiggly Supermarket in fave romantic comedy Win A Date With Tad Hamilton.   Josh Duhamel!  Sigh! 🙂   I was so obsessed with finding this location, in fact, that a few years ago when I happened upon a real Piggly Wiggly store while visiting a small town in Arkansas, I just about died of excitement!  Because Piggly Wigglys can only be found in the Southeastern United States, I had never seen one in person before.  So, I immediately made my fiance pull the car over so that I could take a photograph out in front (pictured above).  🙂  Anyway, thanks to the production notes on my Win A Date  DVD, I knew that producers had used a 14,000 square foot vacant supermarket somewhere in Van Nuys to represent the West Virginia grocery store where Kate Bosworth, Topher Grace, and Ginnifer Goodwin worked in the movie.   With that information in hand, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I pretty much scoured the entire Van Nuys area looking for the store, but, sadly, came up completely empty handed.  I even went so far as to have my dad, who used to work in the grocery industry, call up some of his old business contacts to ask them if they knew of a Van Nuys grocery store that was used in the filming of a movie back in 2003.  Sadly, none of them did.  At that point I honestly thought the Win A Date With Tad Hamilton  Piggly Wiggly was going to be a lost cause.  Until master stalker Chas entered the picture and promised to help me locate the ultra-elusive store.  And locate it, he did!  In just a few short hours, no less! 

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 Since Chas knew that Mike and I had pretty much already turned the entire city of Van Nuys inside out looking for the Win A Date  store, he decided to disregard the production notes and begin his search just outside the city limits.  And it’s a good thing he did because it turns out that the Win A Date supermarket is not actually located in Van Nuys, but in the neighboring city of North Hills.  Today, the Win A Date  grocery store is actually a 99 Cents Only Store, but at the time of the filming it was a recently vacated former supermarket.  According to the DVD’s production notes, the crew decked out every square inch of the empty market with signage and props received on loan from the Piggly Wiggly Corporation.  The crew did such a good job of dressing up the store, in fact, that people from the neighborhood stopped in and actually tried to shop!   LOL Lucy Fisher, one of the Win A Date  producers, said “When we tried to explain that it was a movie set , they still tried to push their way in.  Everything looked so bright and shiny and delicious, but it was all fake.  Still there seemed no way to convince the neighbors that it was not a real market.”  LOL LOL LOL  Oh, how I wish I could have seen the store all dressed up as a Piggly Wiggly – that would have been just about the coolest thing ever! 

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I am very happy to report that, despite some changes, the exterior of the 99 Cents Only Store is still very recognizable from the film.  The Piggly Wiggly signage has, of course, long since been removed and a small facade has now been added to the market’s sloped roof, but otherwise it still looks pretty much the same as it did in the movie. 

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The only major difference I noticed while stalking the place is the fact that in the movie there were two sets of entrance doors, one located on each side of the market, while today there is only one set of doors, located in the center of the store.  I asked my dad about the change and he said that it is a fairly common alteration for grocery stores to make, as having only one means of exit greatly cuts down on the possibility of theft. 

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Although the interior of the market was used extensively in the filming of Win A Date , it, sadly, has been changed quite significantly since the 99 Cents Only Store took over.  In fact, it looks as if the 99 Cents Only Company had the building completely gutted and remodeled before they moved in.  🙁  While stalking the place, I actually walked around the entire store, hoping to find some small remnant leftover from the filming that took place there just six short years ago, but, unfortunately, there was not one single thing. 

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Even though the Win A Date  Piggly Wiggly looks considerably different post-filming and even though in reality it’s just your average, everday grocery store, I could NOT have been more excited to finally be stalking it!  I was literally pinching myself the whole time, as this was one location I never thought I’d actually find.  

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Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location!  🙂

 Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton  grocery store is really the 99 Cents Only Store located at 8723 Sepulveda Boulevard in North Hills.

The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton House

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I am forever indebted to fellow stalker Chas who has succeeded in finding a location that has eluded me for the past few years, a location that has been at the very top of my ultimate stalking list ever since the movie it was featured in first premiered in January of 2004.  The location in question?  Rosalee Futch, aka Kate Bosworth’s, charming little Craftsman home from fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton.  It was just a few months ago that I found out that Win A Date  had been filmed in its entirety on location in Los Angeles and since that time I have been completely obsessed with finding the main house used in the movie.  Unfortunately, though, I had absolutely no luck in locating it.  I even went so far as to contact Win A Date’s  location manager via Facebook, who sent me back a one line response saying “Long time ago – think house is in Melrose Heights”.   I had never heard of a place named “Melrose Heights” prior to that, so I immediately go to Googling and found out that an area with that name does actually exist in Los Angeles, but that it is a high-end shopping district.  Not to be deterred, I considered the possibility that the house was located near  Melrose Heights, and enlisted the help of Mike, from MovieShotsLA .  The two of us set about searching any and all residences near the small shopping district, but came up empty-handed.  Just last week, fellow stalker Owen joined in the search and also combed the Melrose Heights area, just in case Mike and I had missed something.  They say two heads are better than one, but in this case even our three heads combined couldn’t find that house!  Until Chas stepped in, that is!

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Chas spent a full two days looking for the Win A Date  house (how do I even begin to thank him for that???) and eventually found it in an area of Los Angeles known as Melrose Hill.   Um, hello . . . Melrose HILL???  What happened to Melrose Heights????   In all fairness, though, I guess the location manager almost got the name right.  But, as we all know, “almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades”.  LOL  Mike, Owen, and I would now like those 80+ wasted hours of our lives back!  🙂

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I cannot tell you how darn excited I was to finally be seeing the Win A Date  house in person.  In fact, I am surprised I didn’t run my car right off the road on my way to stalk it – I was THAT excited.  🙂  And I am happy to report that, aside from a change in paint color, Rosalee’s house looks pretty much exactly the same today as it did when the movie was filmed back in 2003.   It’s no surprise at all that this particular house was chosen as the residence of Rosalee Futch, the All-American girl with the All-American values.  It’s exactly the type of place where you’d expect to find her living.   The Win A Date  house is located on an adorable little tree-lined street that looks like it could very easily be found in a place called Frazier’s Bottom, Virginia, the town where the movie supposedly takes place.   The Melrose Hill Neighborhood is an absolutely charming place that was built between 1911 and 1926 and consists of only 45 homes.  One walk through the area’s tree lined streets and it’s not hard to see why Los Angeles Magazine  named it one of L.A.’s “10 Great Neighborhoods” in 2003. 

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Rosalee’s Craftsman house shows up repeatedly throughout the movie, most notably the front porch area, which, as you can see in the above photograph, has since been covered over quite a bit with foliage.

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And it appears that the real life interior of the home was also used for the filming of some scenes in the movie.

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Ironically enough, I think I was more excited about seeing the street light out in front of Rosalee’s house than the actual house itself.  While searching for the Win A Date  home, Mike and I had studied that darn street light for hours, trying to figure out where in L.A. it might be located.  Neither one of us had ever encountered a lamppost that unusual in all of our stalking adventures and I was beginning to think it was a fake.  So, I can’t tell you how excited I was when I saw those unique lights lining the streets of the Melrose Hill neighborhood.   It was validation for me that all of those hours we spent searching for the house weren’t for naught!  Those lights really do exist!  LOL   And now, if a location with those particular street lights ever comes up in a movie again, we will know exactly where to find it!  🙂

Big THANK YOU to Chas for finding this location for me! 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It:  Rosalee’s house from Win A Date With Tad Hamilton  is located at 814 Melrose Hill Street in the Melrose Hill Neighborhood of Los Angeles. 

Rae’s Restaurant

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Last weekend, while lounging by the pool in Palm Springs, I happened to open up People Magazine’s 100 Most Beautiful  issue and almost fell right off my lawn chair when I saw a pic of my girl Chelsea Handler posing at fave restaurant Rae’s in Santa Monica.  🙂  Chelsea was featured as one of the magazine’s “Pretty Funny” people and her entire photo shoot (which you can watch a behind the scenes video of here) took place at a small 50s style diner that is no stranger to the silver screen.  In fact, I’ve even stalked it once before!   

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Even though I have already blogged about Rae’s, because it is one of my favorite places in all of L.A. and because my girl Chelsea did her People  photo shoot there, I just had to stalk it once again.  🙂   So, on Friday morning, bright and early, I dragged my dad out to Santa Monica to grab some breakfast at Rae’s.

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Rae’s has been a Santa Monica staple since it first opened up in 1958.  And it’s really no wonder why.  The diner serves up some of the best food in all of L.A.!!!!  And I am the pickiest eater known to man, so if I love the food, then you know it’s gotta be good.   🙂  Pretty much everything Rae’s serves is homemade on the premises using fresh ingredients, which is pretty unusual to find in a diner type setting.  Especially when you consider the prices!  Rae’s is extremely inexpensive – almost unbelievably so!  The bill for my dad and my breakfast came to a whopping $5.30!  I’m not kidding!!!!  My personal favorite Rae’s meal, though, has to be their turkey dinner, which is served with fresh whipped mashed potatoes, homemade stuffing and gravy, and turkey that is cut right off of an actual steaming turkey right in front of you.  Even my dad loved the place and is already making plans to bring my mom there in the near future.  🙂

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Because Rae’s has such a unique look, location scouts have long been enamored with it.  Rae’s has appeared in COUNTLESS productions over the years, including my fave Win A Date With Tad Hamilton, where it stood in for the Frazier’s Bottom diner where Tad and Rosalie grabbed a bite to eat;

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Not Another Teen Movie, where it was featured during the “Prom Tonight” song and dance sequence;

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Starsky and Hutch, where Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller ate breakfast after discovering a dead body in a nearby ravine;

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Bowfinger, where Steve Martin and his film crew ate a celebratory dinner after filming a pivotal scene in their movie entitled “Chubby Rain”  LOL;

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True Romance, where Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater eat some pie after seeing a movie;

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Lords of Dogtown, where Skip and the boys get into a food fight with a waiter;

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The Next Best Thing, where Madonna eats a hamburger for the first time and realizes she might be pregnant;

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the cover of Elton John’s “Songs from the West Coast” album;

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‘N Sync’s photo shoot for the December 2001 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine; and the movies Book of Love  and The Old Car.  The diner has also been featured in countless commercials.

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I honestly can’t recommend stalking Rae’s enough!!!!  Love the food, love the atmosphere, love the service!!!  You honestly can’t go wrong with this place!  🙂

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On a side note, I am completely obsessed with the wishbone ring  Chelsea Handler was sporting in her People Magazine  photo shoot (you can just barely see it in the above photo).  The ring is a Jennifer Meyer (aka Mrs. Tobey McGuire) design and even though I just received a pretty special ring last weekend  :), I am so wanting it.  LOL    

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Rae’s Restaurant is located at 2901 Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica.  Be sure to bring cash, as Rae’s does not accept credit cards.  🙂

The W Hotel

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This weekend while out doing some stalking of L.A.’s Westside, I dragged my boyfriend to the W Hotel, which was featured in both fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton and the new 90210.  I have wanted to stalk the W ever since I first watched Win A Date  over four years ago, but somehow never got around to it until this past Sunday.  I actually can’t believe that I waited so long to stalk the modern style hotel, but, as I’ve said before, in L.A. there’s just so much to stalk and so little time!   🙂 

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The W Hotel is actually featured quite a few times in Win A Date.  The poolside restaurant, named “The Backyard”, shows up in the very beginning of the movie as the location where Tad and his agents (who are both named Richard Levy) do lunch.  It is during this luncheon that Tad is told he must clean up his public image and thus the “Win A Date With Tad Hamilton” contest is born.

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The W also shows up a bit later on in the movie as the hotel where contest winner Rosalee Futch (aka Kate Bosworth) stays while she is in L.A.  The front entrance of the hotel is shown when she first checks in, as well as when she is picked up and dropped off for her dream date with Tad.

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The lobby area of the hotel and the stairway leading up to the pool are also both featured in the movie.

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On the new 90210, Naomi Clark, following in the footsteps of Dylan McKay from the original series, forgoes living with her parents to permanently check in to the ultra-trendy W.   In the episode entitled “By Accident”, Naomi moves out of her cheating father’s house and into Room 723 of the hotel.  The W has been featured on the series several times since then, most prominently in the Valentine’s Day episode entitled “Of Heartbreaks and Hotels”. 

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Many areas of the hotel were shown in that episode including the front entrance;

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the lobby;

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the hotel’s NineThirty Restaurant where Silver and Dixon share a Valentine’s Day dinner;

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the hotel’s coffee bar where Naomi first meets cutie bartender Liam (in real life the coffee bar is set up daily between 6 and10am  just outside of the NineThirty Restaurant, but sadly it had already been removed by the time we got there, so I didn’t get to snap a photo of it);

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the hotel’s Whiskey Blue Bar where Silver and Naomi grab some tea;

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and, just like in Win A Date, the hotel’s Backyard restaurant where Naomi gets stood up by Liam.

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I HIGHLY recommend stalking the W!  The hotel somehow manages to be ultra-trendy and ultra-modern, yet extremely welcoming at the same time.  The staff truly could not have been nicer to me and answered all of my silly questions about the filming of 90210  and Win A Date.  🙂   Since we were stalking the place in the middle of the day, though, we weren’t able to grab a drink in the hotel’s Whiskey Blue Bar.  But you can bet that is something I am going to do in the very near future.  I also must book a room and drag my boyfriend there for the weekend sometime!  Even though ultra modern hotels are usually not my thing, I really fell in love with this one.  🙂 

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Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The W Hotel is located at 930 Hilgard Avenue in the Westwood area of Los Angeles.  You can visit their website here.

Tad Hamilton’s House

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Another day, another Tad Hamilton  location!  Last week while searching for the Sex and the City  honeymoon house I ran across aerial views of a Malibu home that looked very familiar to me (pictured above).  It didn’t take long before I realized the house was used as Tad Hamilton’s ultra-modern white mansion in fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton.  So, of course, I dragged my boyfriend right out to stalk it!  🙂

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When I first saw Win A Date back in 2004, I assumed Tad’s house was just a set.  I knew the pool area was most likely authentic, but the interiors seemed far too stylized to be real.  But it turns out that Tad’s house is actually a real home located right on the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.   

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In Win A Date, both the interior and the exterior of the real home were used quite extensively.  The pool area shows up most prominently in a scene that was deleted from the actual movie, but that is featured in the DVD’s deleted scenes section.  In the scene, Paris Hilton parachutes from an airplane into Tad Hamilton’s pool in an attempt to meet the movie star (pictured above). 

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Also featured in Win A Date  is Tad’s entryway;

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the front of the home;

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the living room area;

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and the wet bar. 

I can’t even imagine living in a place like Tad’s.  It’s just so modern and so . . . what’s the word I’m looking for?  Oh, yeah, “blue”.   In real life and in the movie the home has an odd blue tint to it, as you can see in all of the screen captures pictured above.  It does look like a great place to have a party, though.  🙂  And it’s not hard to see why producers chose it as the home of the gorgeous, but somewhat shallow and morally empty movie star Tad Hamilton. You can compare the above screen captures to these real life interior photos of the house.

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This same home was also featured in the 1991 movie  Terminator 2: Judgment Day  where it was used as the residence of computer scientist Miles Dyson and his family.  It is this home that Linda Hamilton shoots up in an attempt to kill Miles towards the end of the movie.  As you can see in the above screen captures, the interior of the home has been extensively remodeled since then and looks nothing like it did when Terminator 2  was filmed there over 18 years ago. 

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In fact, at first glance the Win A Date  house and the Terminator 2  house seem like different homes altogether.   But they’re not.  Although it is slightly hard to see, the above screen captures show that the stairs leading down to the living room area, the doorway leading to the kitchen, and the stairway and landing that lead to the second level are in the exact same position.  The house has been given a major facelift, but structurally it’s the same as it was all those years ago in Terminator 2.

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I can’t really say that I recommend stalking Tad Hamilton’s house.  The above photographs show what you can see of the home from the Pacific Coast Highway – which is minimal.  Aside from a white cabana-like structure, exterior pool lights, and a cement sign with the address number on it, virtually nothing is visible from the street.  So Tad Hamilton  and Terminator 2  fans will just have to be satisfied with cyber-stalking the home instead.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Tad Hamilton’s house is located at 30065 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton Motel

 

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I heart Josh Duhamel!  Sigh!  So, last week, on a whim, I decided to do some stalking of fave movie Win A Date With Tad Hamilton.  A few years back I had read on IMDB that Win A Date was shot almost entirely on location in a small town called Fayetteville, West Virginia.  But since I knew that at least one Win A Date  scene (the diner scene) was actually filmed in Los Angeles, I decided to do a little digging to see if I could find some other Tad Hamilton  filming locales in the L.A. area.  So I popped in my Win A Date  DVD and watched the special features to see if they uncovered any behind the scenes info.  And, lo and behold, according to the DVD’s production notes it turns out that the ENTIRE movie was filmed in Southern California.  Apparently, West Virginia was only used for a few brief set-up shots.  That’s the last time I ever listen to IMDB!  🙂

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Once I discovered that significant piece of information, I immediately began searching for the small motel Tad stays at while visiting Rosalee in the film.  I don’t know why, but it has always been a dream of mine to stalk that hotel.  I know, I know – it’s kind of a silly stalking dream being that the motel is small, old, and fairly dingy.  But ever since I first watched Win A Date, I have vowed to someday make a special trip out to West Virginia to stalk the Bide-A-Way Motel, as it was called in the film.  Well it turns out I didn’t need to go clear across the country to do so.  Like Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, my “heart’s desire was right in my own backyard.”  🙂

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While watching the movie I had noticed the address number 2413 on the front of the motel.  So I started googling “2413” and “Los Angeles motel” and almost immediately was directed to a small inn named La Crescenta, located in – you guessed it – La Crescenta.  And literally five seconds later I was in my car on my way out to stalk the place.  🙂  La Crescenta Motel, which was formerly known as the May-Lane Motel, was built in 1946 by an Indiana native named Glen Pine.  The Motel’s original name is a hybrid of Glen’s children’s names – Maynard and Alane.  The tiny motel was owned and operated by the Pine family for close to fifty-six years before being sold in 2002.  The current owner is currently courting plans to tear down the motel to make room for a two-story strip mall (just what L.A. needs – another strip mall!) and a 138-space parking structure.  Although many La Crescenta citizens are trying to stop the demolition of the historic inn, it looks like the hotel will most likely be leveled.  🙁  Such a bummer!!   

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I am happy to report, though, that the La Crescenta Motel looks exactly the same in person as it appeared onscreen in Win A Date.  Although, I did notice some inconsistencies while I was there.  For one thing, La Crescenta’s office doesn’t have a little orange door located right next to it, as the office in Win A Date  did.   (Don’t ask – for some reason I remember odd little details like that.  LOL)  Turns out that the little orange door is actually located right next to Room number 8 at the motel (pictured above).  So, apparently, the interior of Room 8 was used as the interior of the Bide-A-Way Motel’s office during filming. I could not for the life of me figure out why the producers didn’t just use the real motel office for filming.  But then my boyfriend suggested that most likely the real La Crescenta Motel office didn’t look exactly how the filmmakers wanted their Bide-A-Way office to look.  So, instead of remodeling the real office and having to shut it down for a week or two, they just remodeled Room 8 to make it look like the office of a small town motel.  Which makes total sense!  My boyfriend is becoming quite the little stalker.   🙂 

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What makes the fact that producers used Room 8 as the motel office even stranger is that Room 8 is supposedly the room Tad stayed in during his time at the Bide-A-Way.  LOL  But the exterior of the real Room 8 did not match up to the exterior of Tad’s room in the movie.   After looking around the motel it became apparent that the exterior of Room number 11 was used as Tad’s room.  You can compare Tad’s room to Room 11 in the above pictures.   

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And one final inconsistency – yes, I have way too much time on my hands LOL – the window location and position of the door of the exterior of Room 11 don’t match up to the way Tad’s room appears onscreen. So I am guessing that filmmakers used another La Crescenta room altogether to film the interior motel room scenes for Win A Date.  Or there is also the possibility that the interior of Tad’s room was filmed on a soundstage and not in a La Crescenta Motel room at all.  LOL  Confused yet?  Cause I sure was.  🙂  Why do filmmakers do this to us?  Just pick a room and stick to it!  Geez!  LOL  What’s even more ironic, though, is that apparently people from all over the world come to stay at the La Crescenta Motel just because it’s been featured in movies.  The most requested room?  You guessed it – Tad’s room – number 8.  LOL  If those people only knew that filming didn’t actually take place there! 

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La Crescenta Motel, which is a favorite of location scouts, was also featured in the Season 10 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 entitled “I Will Be Your Father Figure” where it was used as the Arizona motel Kelly, Matt, and Dylan stayed at while looking for Dylan’s father, Jack McKay (pictured above).  At that time it was still known as the May-Lane Motel.  La Crescenta Motel has also made an appearance in Heroes, The House of Sand and Fog, The Portal, and in quite a few episodes of fave show The X-Files.  I do love me some Fox Mulder!  🙂  Supposedly the motel was also featured in the 1946 Christmas Classic It’s A Wonderful Life, although I haven’t been able to confirm that.   You can read a good article on the history of the motel and the filming that has taken place there on this forum.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It:  The Win A Date With Tad Hamilton  motel, aka La Crescenta Motel, is located at 2413 Foothill Boulevard in La Crescenta.  If you want to stalk the hotel, do it fast as it could be torn down in as little as two months.  🙁

Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!

Being that I am completely obsessed with Josh Duhamel, one of my favorite movies of all time is (don’t laugh!) Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! In all honesty, the only thing I don’t like about Win A Date is the ending – Kate Bosworth so should have chosen Josh over Topher! 🙂 Otherwise it is a classic!

image047.jpg Sadly, most of Win A Date was filmed out of stalking range in Frazier’s Bottom, West Virginia, but I was absolutely floored to learn from IMDB that one scene was filmed right here in L.A.- at a little restaurant called Rae’s. Not ten minutes after finding out, I dragged my ever-patient boyfriend to Rae’s for a little stalking. We even sat in the same booth used in the movie!

Rae’s was used as the diner where Tad takes Rosalie to lunch when he first shows up in Frazier’s Bottom.

Rae’s serves really GREAT food at even more amazing prices. My boyfriend and I both ordered full meals and our check was less than $10.00! Rae’s certainly was a find and we have returned there time and time again!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Rae’s Restaurant is located at 2901 Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica. They serve great comfort food at incredible prices! Make sure you bring cash, though, as Rae’s does not accept credit cards. Rae’s has been featured in many movies, including Bowfinger, Lords of Dogtown, Book of Love and True Romance.