Month: March 2009

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Tom and Gisele’s Big Day

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Last Friday night while watching my new favorite show Talk Soup (why on earth I was not a regular watcher before is beyond me!!!!), a news flash splashed across my screen announcing that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had wed supermodel girlfriend Gisele Bundchen the previous evening.  According to reports the hush-hush ceremony took place on the evening of February 26th at Saint Monica’s Catholic Church in Santa Monica and only a few guests were in attendance.  Even though I am in no way, shape, or form a fan of Tom or Gisele, since I just happened to be in the area this weekend, I thought I’d stalk the church where their nuptials took place.  🙂

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I’ve actually been to St. Monica’s Church quite a few times over the years, as it used to be my boyfriend’s local parish.  It is an absolutely beautiful place, inside and out, and I am not at all surprised that Gisele and Tom chose it for their top-secret ceremony.  The church was established way back in 1886, but the church that now stands at the corner of 7th Street and California Avenue wasn’t built until 1926.  There is also an elementary school and a high school on the site.  Since it’s inception over 123 years ago, St. Monica’s has grown to become one of the largest Catholic congregations in the Los Angeles area.

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Saint Monica’s Catholic Church is no stranger to celebrity.  It was featured in both the 1956 film Full of Life and the 1944 Academy Award winning musical Going My Way.  Barry Fitzgerald, the lead character in Going My Way, was actually based on former  St. Monica Monsigor Nicholas Conneally.  Besides Tom and Gisele, other celebrities who are fans of the church include Martin Sheen, Brooke Shields, architect Frank Gehry, and Lawrence Welk.  Lucy Lawless aka Xena, Warrior Princess, was married at St. Monica’s in 1998 and the memorial services for both Chris Farley and Lucille Ball were held there in 1997 and 1989 respectively.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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Stalk It: Saint Monica’s Catholic Church is located at 725 Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica.

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“The Bachelor” Mansion

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I just about died this past Friday afternoon when my US Magazine  arrived in the mail and looming out at me was the headline “Is The Bachelor Fake?”   I have been absolutely enthralled with The Bachelor  this season – and not because I am a fan of Jason Mesnick.  I think the guy is pretty much a tool.  But there was just so much drama this season that I absolutely could not tear myself away from the TV.  And from the look of things, more drama is yet to come on tonight’s Final Rose Ceremony and After the Final Rose presentation.  According to this week’s US Magazine article, a blogger named Steve Carbone, from RealitySteve.com, blew the lid right off of tonight’s shows!  According to Steve (whose website I am now addicted to!) Jason is going to propose to contestant Melissa Rycroft at the end of tonight’s Bachelor  finale.  But (and here is where things get juicy!) during tonight’s After the Final Rose show (which was pre-taped six weeks ago) Jason is going to dump Melissa for second runner up Molly Malaney.  And, the icing on the cake, supposedly Jason has been seeing Molly behind Melissa’s back ever since filming was completed – not that he will ever admit to that!  What a snake!  Steve believes in his heart of hearts that ABC concocted this whole scenario to increase their ratings and I have to say I agree with him.  I started having my doubts as to the reality of The Bachelor way back during Season Two when my boyfriend’s boss spotted Bachelor Aaron Buerge on a date with contestant Gwen Gioia.  Apparently not only were make-up artists fixing Gwen’s hair and make-up during the date, but producers were constantly stopping the filming to re-shoot certain segments. LOL  Needless to say I cannot wait for tonight’s episode.  I am sure I will walk away from it thinking Jason is an even bigger douchebag than I did before.  LOL      

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Thanks to my buddy Whitney over at ZillowBlog, who alerted me to this article back in October, I was able to stalk the Bachelor  house this past weekend.   Ever since it was built in 2005, the Malibu area home pictured above has been featured on numerous seasons of The Bachelor.  The mansion’s front entrance was used repeatedly as the famous limousine drop-off area where the past few Bachelors and Bachelorettes have welcomed their contestants during the first episode of each season. In fact, not only was the mansion’s entrance the very spot where Jason first met Deanna last season, but it was also the same locale where Jason welcomed the women of the show this season.  The home’s living room area has also been the site of the numerous rose ceremonies of seasons past.  But this season, not only was the home used for rose ceremonies and the big limo welcome, but it was also where the women lived during the filming.  So I was pretty excited to stalk it!  🙂

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Orignally priced at $13 million and later dropped to $8,750,000, The Bachelor  house is currently for sale at the bargain price of $6,750,000.   Apparently being “The Bachelor  house” isn’t that great a selling point.  LOL   The six bedroom, nine bathroom Tuscan style manse measures a whopping 8,000 square feet and sits on almost ten acres of land!  The home has a four car garage, a gourmet kitchen, an infinity pool with a swim-up barbeque and bar, and a detached 4,000 square foot studio/office area!     To put it in Bachelor  speak, the house is simply “amazing”!  Ever notice how often they use that word on the show?  LOL  Somebody really needs to get the contestants a thesaurus – stat!  Unfortunately, not much of the home is visible from the street, but it was still extremely exciting to stalk it knowing all the drama that took place there back in November.   

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Be sure to tune into tonight’s Bachelor Season Finale.  It is sure to have “the most dramatic rose ceremony . . . ever”!  And if you haven’t yet, you simply must check out Reality Steve’s blog – it’s enthralling! 

UPDATE – This very same mansion was recently featured in the Season 2 episode of The Mentalist entitled “The Red Box” as the home of photographer Hopper Banks.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

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Stalk It: The Bachelor  house is located at 2351 Kanan Road in Malibu.  You can visit the home’s real estate website here.  You can also visit the owner’s website here.