IAMNOTASTALKER

Year: 2008

  • Leaping Off Into The Great Unknown

    Trapeze Last week, I made a pretty big life changing decision and quit my job. I have decided to pursue acting (and, of course, stalking) full time – no more having a day job and fitting my acting pursuits around it. From now on I am going to pursue acting 100 percent. 🙂 I am extremely excited, but at the same time absolutely terrified! I told a co-worker the other day that I felt like I was jumping off a cliff into the vast unknown. So it was pretty apropos that I spent this weekend doing just that – leaping off a board 30 feet in the air while learning the flying trapeze!

    My good friend Nat had a birthday party this past Saturday at the Circus Center in San Francisco and we spent the entire afternoon trapezing and learning various other circus skills. I was extremely excited about the party, because ever since I saw the Sex and the City episode where Carrie learns to trapeze, I was dying to try it myself. In the SATC episode, Carrie repeatedly attempts to try a “catch” move, but she just can’t seem to let go of the bar to reach for her partner.

    I really didn’t think I’d be afraid to trapeze, being that I am not afraid of heights. But, let me tell you, when I started climbing up that 30 foot ladder, my knees started shaking and I became completely freaked out!! I so did NOT want to jump. But even though it was completely scary, I took the plunge and sailed through the air – three times! I never got to put my feet up on the bar and hang backwards like Carrie eventually did on SATC, but I was pretty proud of myself nonetheless. And even though I was petrified, I absolutely loved every minute of it! Which gives me a lot of hope for this new chapter in my life.

    At the end of the SATC episode, when Carrie finally tries the “catch”, she misses and falls, but realizes that she has a great safety net – her friends – who will always be there to catch her. I, too, have a great safety net – my friends and family – which makes this huge leap into the unknown just a little less scary. 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: TSNY (Trapeze School New York), where Carrie learned to trapeze, is located in the Lower West Side of Manhattan, in the Hudson River Park, on West Street at Houston Street, on top of Pier 40. You can visit their website here. Circus Center San Francisco is located at 755 Frederick Street. While not a filming location, if you are in the area, I HIGHLY recommend going! The staff could not have been nicer or more patient with all of us amateurs. Circus Center is an awesome place for a party! You can visit their website here.

  • Santa Monica Cop

    This weekend I dragged my boyfriend to stalk the mansion that Eddie Murphy and his new cop buddies storm at the end of the movie Beverly Hills Cop. The house is not actually located in Beverly Hills, but a good 20 minutes in Santa Monica. The home is absolutely ginormous – I mean the guard shack at the front of the property is easily bigger than my whole house!! 🙂

    While stalking the house, we met the man who lives in the home across the street and he told us some really good gossip. During the filming of Beverly Hills Cop, the man came home to find his car had been towed and his mailbox had been torn out and replaced with a new one – apparently neither his car nor his mailbox fit in with the image the producers were trying to portray in the movie! LOL According to the neighbor, the mansion is an oft used filming location and has appeared in several commercials, TV shows and movies. He told us the home is currently owned by director Herny Jaglom, but his ex wife lives there while Henry lives in a home up the street.

    Sadly, you can’t see very much of the home from the street. But you will immediately recognize the gates and the guard shack from the scenes in Beverly Hills Cop when Eddie Murphy stakes the place out. You can see better views of the house by cyber-stalking it on Zillow.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The Beverly Hills Cop mansion is located at 609 E. Channel Road in Santa Monica. After stalking the mansion, head over to the nearby Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica – one of my favorite shopping destinations. The Promenade is a large outdoor retail area with tons of cute shops, kiosks and restaurants. It’s also where Pee Wee Herman’s bike was stolen in the movie Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

  • How I Became Prince of a Town Called Bel Air

    Fresh Prince House? Got a challenge from Byron a couple of weeks ago to find the house from the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. According to several Hollywood tour books, including my fave, the location on the left was the home used in the filming of the TV sitcom. However, after watching a few clips of Fresh Prince on YouTube, I am not convinced that it is truly the house. It doesn’t match up perfectly. There are a few reasons why this might be. It is quite possible that the owners of the home changed the exterior after the filming took place and it is also possible that the producers actually changed or added elements to the facade of the real house during filming which changed its appearance. It is also entirely possible that the tour books might have just gotten the location wrong – which does happen on occasion.

    You can see clips of the Fresh Prince here and here and judge for yourself. But it looks like I have to do a bit more research on this stalking location. 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The supposed Fresh Prince house is located at 417 Amapola Lane in Bel Air. Amapola Lane is a very small street just off Copa De Oro Road. The house located at 363 Copa De Oro Road has been owned by several celebrities including Nicolas Cage, Tom Jones and Dean Martin. The Bel Air Hotel is not too far from this location. I highly recommend stalking the hotel – it is one of the most beautiful locations in Los Angeles.

  • The “You, Me and Dupree” House

    A couple of years ago, long before I had a blog to write, I set out to find the You, Me and Dupree house. While I was a big fan of You, Me and Dupree, the real reason behind my mission actually had nothing to do with that movie. What I was actually hoping to find was Jenna Rink’s pink dream house from the final scene of 13 Going On 30, which according to the trivia section on IMDB, was the exact same house used in You, Me and Dupree.

    Unfortunately, upon stalking the Dupree house, it became obvious that it was not the same location used in 13 Going On 30. Even so, the Dupree house is adorable and in a really cute neighborhood. It is also another fine example of that Craftsman architecture that filmmakers love so much. I must give props to Kerry, a fellow stalker, for getting the address of the Dupree house for me. I stalked this location so long ago (and failed to write down the address) that I couldn’t remember its exact location. Armed with only the picture I took of the house, which showed the house number, and knowing its general vicinity, she cyber-stalked the home and got the address for me! Thanks, Kerry! 🙂

    Side note – I still have yet to find the 13 Going On 30 house – if anyone happens to know where it is – Help me! Please!! 🙂

    UPDATE – Mike, from MovieShotsLA, found the 13 Going On 30 house for me a while back.  You can read the post I wrote on it here and you can see interior pictures of the house here.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The You, Me and Dupree house can be found at 2406 Gramercy Park in the historic West Adams district of Los Angeles, not far from the location of the Numb3rs house. Even if you are not a fan of the film, I highly recommend stalking the house, as it is located on an adorable street in a neighborhood chock full of beautiful, historic homes. As always, take care not to disturb the residents.

  • The Hills are Alive!

    FIDM I must say this season of The Hills is so much better than I ever could have hoped! Is it sad that I get a little depressed every Monday night at around 11pm because I have to wait a whole week until a new episode airs? LOL Anyway, on the show, Lauren (and now Stephanie Pratt) attend the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, and after last weeks’ episode, I decided I just had to go out and stalk it!

    FIDM is located in Downtown Los Angeles, just off the 110 Freeway. The Fashion Institute looks much like it does on The Hills, except that it is much smaller in person than it looks on TV. The campus is attached to a newly rennovated park named Grand Hope Park. It is a beautiful little park complete with fountains, trees, walkways, and benches to sit on and enjoy the sunshine. I was highly bummed that while we were there, I didn’t have any LC or Stephanie sightings. 🙁 Maybe next time!

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: FIDM is located at 919 South Grand Avenue, on the corner of West 9th Street and Grand Avenue, in Downtown Los Angeles. Grand Hope Park would be the perfect place to enjoy a summer picnic. You can visit FIDM’s website here.

  • Big Brother

    Big Brother Stage Last summer I was COMPLETELY obsessed with the reality show Big Brother 8 – like absolutely on-the-edge-of-my-seat hooked on the show! I loved me some Dick and Danielle! So when I found out that the Big Brother soundstage was located on the CBS Studio Center lot in Studio City and that it could actually be seen from the road, I ran right out to stalk it.

    The Big Brother set is immediately recognizable from the tennis court like fence surrounding the set’s “backyard” area. According to Joe “the Barkeeper” from “The Barkeeper” shop at Sunset Junction, who was the one who first told me where to find the Big Brother set, the area where the set is located was formerly the lagoon from Gilligan’s Island. The lagoon was demolished several years ago to make room for new soundstages, one of them being the Big Brother “house”.

    Unfortunately, other than the tennis court like fence, not much can be seen of the Big Brother house from the road. But, thankfully, cyberstalking at Live Search Maps provides a better view of the set. 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: The Big Brother set is located at the CBS Studio Center at 4024 Radford Avenue in Studio City. Unfortunately the studio is not open to the public and does not offer tours at this time. But you can get an up close and personal view of the lot on the CBS Studio Center website. For the best views of the Big Brother set, head on over to the Studio Village Apartments located on Colfax Ave., just off of Ventura Boulevard. Enter the apartment complex on Chiquita Street and walk to where Chiquita dead ends for a view of the Big Brother soundstage.

  • Without A Trace Update

    Just a quick update that the Without a Trace episode that was filmed at La Salle High School in Pasadena back on March 21st will be airing tonight on CBS at 10pm.

    You can read the full Without a Trace post about the filming at La Salle here.

    Happy Stalking! 🙂

  • Liberace’s Former House

    This weekend, while visiting the desert, and thanks to my friend EJ at the Movieland Directory, I got to stalk Liberace’s former Palm Springs manse. His home is an absolutely beautiful Mediterranean estate and there is no doubt whatsoever that it once belonged to Liberace. Besides the large candelabra located in front of the house, there are several “L’s” strategically placed throughout the exterior of the property – including on the garage doors, in the driveway, and in mosaic tiles in the cement in front of the side door.

    Before becoming Liberace’s home, the estate was a Palm Springs motel. Liberace named it “The Cloisters” as it reminded him of a monastery. The home was quite ornately decorated in Liberace’s day – he even had a “Safari Room” – and you can see pictures of the interior here. While you can’t tour this home, if you are dying to see the inside of it, you can see a re-creation of Liberace’s bedroom at the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. Sadly, this Palm Springs home is where Liberace lived his final days. He passed away on February 4, 1987.

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Liberace’s Palm Springs house is located at 226 W. Alejo Road, right on the corner of Alejo Road and North Belardo. The house is just a few blocks away from Frank Sinatra’s house.

  • My Kind of Town

    While in Palm Springs this weekend, besides stalking Mr. Barry Manilow, I also got to do some stalking of Frank Sinatra’s former desert retreat. I was given Frank’s address courtesy of my good friend EJ over at the Movieland Directory. According to EJ, not only did Marilyn Monroe have her very own special bedroom at Frank’s pad, but this is the same house where Old Blue Eyes once reportedly threw all of Ava Gardner’s belongings onto the driveway after she tried to catch him cheating on her with Lana Turner. That’s life! Franks’s house is a definite desert classic – it has that old 50’s style look to it and an old Palm Springs vibe. I would definitely recommend stalking this house – it’s gorgeous!!

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Frankie’s place is located at 1148 East Alejo, just east of Palm Canyon Drive. After stalking Sinatra, head to nearby Downtown Palm Springs – there are some really cute shops along Palm Canyon Drive, including Bella Fashions (114 N. Palm Canyon) which sells fab shoes, Shoe-La-La (275 S. Palm Canyon) which has awesome clothes, and of course no shopping trip is complete without my fave – Starbucks (101 S. Palm Canyon)! 🙂

  • More Desert Stalking!

    Barry Manilow\'s House Thanks to my good friend EJ over at the Movieland Directory I was able to do some more Palm Springs stalking this weekend while visiting the desert for a wedding. EJ was so kind as to give me the address of Barry Manilow’s desert home which I was just dying to stalk!! I do love me some Barry! Unfortunately, aside from the massive “No Trespassing” signs and security cameras you can’t see much of Mr. Manilow’s house from the road.

    When I got home I did some Zillow stalking of Barry’s place- and WOW!!! – the house is ginormous! I guess writing the songs that make the whole world sing pays really, really well! 🙂

    Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

    Stalk It: Barry’s house can be found at 2196 S. Camino Barranca in Palm Springs. The home’s address is unmarked, but you can see it by driving to where Camino Barranca ends and looking uphill to the left. You can’t miss the “No Trespasing” signs. 🙂