July 2009 – Page 3 – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 3, 2009April 20, 2010

Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills

I was all set to publish a blog post today about the Old School house, but a drive through Burbank yesterday evening caused that plan to go awry. At around 7 p.m. last night, after running a random errand in Hollywood, I drove home via Forest Lawn Drive in Burbank and practically had to stop my car right in its tracks due to a virtual circus that was taking place out in front of Forest Lawn Memorial Park. Over fifteen news vans were parked on the side of the road and countless media personnel were milling about on the sidewalk in front of the Burbank area cemetery. I had heard rumors that Michael Jackson’s funeral might take place at Forest Lawn early next week, but I didn’t believe reporters would be setting up already. So, of course, I just had to pull my car over to find out what was going on!

According to the reporters staked out at Forest Lawn, there are numerous unconfirmed reports that Michael Jackson’s family is planning to bury the King of Pop in a private ceremony at Forest Lawn Memorial Park on Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. I asked one of the reporters why so many media vans were there if the funeral reports were not yet confirmed and he informed me that the cemetery, which goes by the full name of Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills, is their “best guess as to Michael’s funeral location”. Apparently, the reporters are camping out in teams for the next FOUR days until the funeral takes place. It is absolutely incredible to me that they are willing to actually camp out for over NINETY-SIX hours on the side of the road on the off-chance that Michael’s funeral might take place nearby! Unreal! Only time will tell if the funeral actually will take place at Forest Lawn, but if the media is willing to camp out there for FOUR full days, I am guessing they must have a pretty solid tip to go on. And I can only imagine what the place is going to look like in the days to come!

It seemed yesterday that pretty much every single news outlet imaginable was already on duty in front of Forest Lawn. Even Telemundo was there!

Apparently, CNN thought they could simply tape off a piece of the road to reserve their spot, in lieu of having their reporters camp out on-site. LOL If I was reporter for a competing station I’d so stand there and be like, “Um, sorry! You snooze, you lose!” 🙂

Most of the news vans on-site already had GINORMOUS satellite equipment set up so that they could broadcast live. It was absolutely incredible to see!

And although I have yet to stalk the inside of Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills, I promise to do so in the near future so that I can write a more complete blog post about the cemetery. Forest Lawn has long been popular with the rich and famous and Michael Jackson is hardly the first celeb to be buried there. Forest Lawn is also the final resting place for Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Ozzie Nelson, Freddie Prinze, Liberace, Telly Savalas, John Ritter, Sandra Dee, Steve Allen and the recently deceased David Carradine. Apparently, the Forest Lawn staff is remiss about divulging the location of star’s graves, but thankfully the Seeing-Stars website provides a plethora of information about the cemetery including a virtual map!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills is located at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in Burbank. Do not confuse this Forest Lawn cemetery with their other location named Forest Lawn Glendale, which is located just a few miles away at 1712 S. Glendale Avenue in Glendale.

July 2, 2009July 2, 2009

The Never Been Kissed High School

Yesterday, I dragged my mom out to a location I have been meaning to stalk for years now – the school that stood in for South Glen High School in the 1999 romantic comedy Never Been Kissed. In actuality, though, the school where filming took place wasn’t a high school at all, but a huge middle school named John Burroughs located in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. John Burroughs Middle School opened up way back in 1924 with a starting roster of only 400 students. Today, that student body has grown to include a whopping 2,300 Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth graders! John Burroughs, or “JB” as it is more commonly known, is absolutely HUGE in person, much larger than it appeared in Never Been Kissed. So large, in fact, that I couldn’t step back far enough to fit its whole exterior in the lens of my camera!! I so need to invest in that fish eye lens! LOL John Burroughs is a very beautiful, traditional style brick school that looks like it could be found in any city in America. Because of its All-American feel, it’s not hard to see why it has been featured in countless movie and television productions.

While my mom and I were stalking the school, we ran into a couple of faculty members who really could not have been nicer to us. They gave us a brief rundown of some of the filming that has taken place on the JB campus, but inronically it seemed that I knew more about the school’s filming history than they did. 🙂 LOL And, since school is not currently in session, they even let us walk around the campus to snap some pictures. 🙂 I am happy to report that John Burroughs Middle School looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen in Never Been Kissed. Both the interior and the exterior of the middle school were used extensively in the filming. Specific areas of the school featured in the movie include the exterior, where Drew Barrymore parked her brother’s car each morning;

the school’s entryway, complete with metal detectors, which were put there specifically for the filming;

the main stairwell;

the hallways;

and the main office, where Drew Barrymore got smacked in the face by a door.

From what I understand, some of JB’s classrooms were also used in the filming of the movie, most notably Room 108, which according to the faculty member I spoke with is a room which has been featured in numerous productions.

Burroughs Middle School also popped us as Reese Witherspoon and Tobey Maguire’s 1950’s high school in Pleasantville . . .

and as Michael J. Fox’s high school in Teen Wolf.

The exterior of the middle school was also featured in Teaching Mrs. Tingle, Rex Buster, The Samurai of Strongsville, Ohio, Rebound, Beauty Shop, Agent Cody Banks, Casper: A Spirited Beginning, and the television series Family Matters. The interiors of the school were used in The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Like Father, Like Son, and Meteor Man and its auditorium was featured in the movie Deep Impact. There are also reports that the school was used in both Pretty in Pink and A Nightmare on Elm Street, but I’m not sure that information is correct. Filming for both of those moves took place extensively at John Marshall High School in Los Feliz. That’s not to say, though, that some minor filming might have taken place at Burroughs Middle School, but so far I have not been able to verify that.

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Famous alumni of John Burroughs Middle School include Laila Ali (Muhammad Ali’s daughter), Tyra Banks, author James Ellroy, and American Idol’s Frenchie Davis.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: John Burroughs Middle School is located at 600 South McCadden Place in Los Angeles.

July 1, 2009July 1, 2009

Will Ferrell’s Streaking Scene

A few weeks ago, while out stalking in Montrose, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I decided to pinpoint the exact location where Will Ferrell went streaking in the 2003 movie Old School. Although it’s fairly common location knowledge that the streaking scene took place on Honolulu Avenue in the City of Montrose, I actually first heard that information straight from the horse’s mouth last July when I saw Will Ferrell speak at my acting school. During the question and answer session of Will’s presentation, one of my fellow students raised their hand and asked Frank the Tank himself where the streaking scene had taken place. Love it!! 🙂 Amazingly enough, Will remembered the general location where that scene had been filmed and ever since then I have been meaning to stalk it. So, a few weeks ago, Mike and I set out to do just that.

With our Blackberries in hand, the two of us walked up and down Honolulu Avenue watching Will’s streaking scene on YouTube while trying to find the exact location. And sure enough, we did! 🙂 We were actually able to pinpoint Will’s streaking spot by matching up the Montrose Shopping Park Directory sign . . .

and some windows that were shown in the background of the scene. YAY!

While we were stalking Honolulu Avenue, one of the super-friendly local shop owners informed us that the Montrose Bakery and Cafe, which is located just down the road from Will’s streaking spot, was also featured in Old School. The Cafe’s exterior stood in for the exterior of the University Cafe where Luke Wilson and his friends have a pow wow about how to save their fraternity. Interestingly enough, though, the Cafe’s interior was not used in the filming. The interior scenes were filmed at another location altogether.

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You can watch Will Ferrell’s absolutely hilarious – but NSFW – streaking scene here. “We’re going streaking! Yeah! We’re going streaking through the quad and into the gymnasium! Come on, everybody! Come on, Snoop, Snoop-a-Loop! Bring your green hat!” LOL LOL LOL

On a bittersweet side note, I dragged my mom out to Montrose earlier today to snap some more photos of the “streaking street” and we noticed the above tribute to Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett posted outside of a local shop named Pure Sunshine Beauty Supply. It seems everyone the world over is mourning Michael and Farrah’s untimely passings. 🙁

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Will Ferrell’s streaking scene took place on the block of Honolulu Avenue located between Market Street and Ocean View Boulevard in Montrose. Frank’s wife is driving East on Honolulu Avenue when she first spots Frank. She stops the car right around 2246 Honolulu Avenue to let him hop inside. Montrose Bakery and Cafe, aka the University Cafe, is located at 2325 Honolulu Avenue, also in Montrose.