July 2010 – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 30, 2010July 29, 2010

The Pasadena House Where the Prom in “Twilight” Was Filmed

One location that I have been on the lookout for for what seems like forever now is the Pasadena-area home where part of the prom scene from the original Twilight movie was filmed. I first found out about this location while browsing through Catherine Hardwick’s fabulous book Twilight: Director’s Notebook at my local bookstore. According to Hardwick, after filming of the 2008 flick had been completed, it was decided that an additional conversation between Bella Swan (aka Kristen Stewart) and Jacob Black (aka Taylor Lautner) was needed to complete the prom scene, which had been filmed at a picturesque hotel in Oregon named the View Point Inn (pictured above). Because the cast and crew had long since returned to Southern California, the movie’s location manager was called upon to find a property in the area that looked similar enough to the View Point Inn that a scene could be shot there without the audience realizing it was a different locale. He found that location at a private residence in Pasadena and filming took place there in late August of 2008. And even though I wasn’t a huge fan of the vampire movie, I was absolutely DYING to stalk the house. The only problem was that, for the life of me, I could NOT find it. Until I called in Mike, from MovieShotsLA, that is, who tracked down the property in record time – and without the aid of screen caps, I might add!

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Mike, who had yet to watch Twilight, knew that the prom scene had been filmed at a Tudor-style property with a long driveway, so armed with those two rather vague descriptions he went to work. Late Wednesday afternoon, he ended up stumbling upon some sort of Twilight message board where a girl had posted a comment saying that a scene from the flick had been shot in her neighborhood on Arroyo Boulevard near the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. From there, Mike used aerial maps to search the area for a Tudor-style house with a large driveway and eventually landed upon the right location. Yay! Thank you, Mike! And, as soon as he gave me the address, I ran right out to stalk the place. Sadly, though, not much of it can be seen from the road.

While not gated, as you can see in the above aerial images, the home is set quite a ways back from the street and is surrounded by a massive amount of foliage.

And while a bit of it can actually be spotted through the tall trees which line the front of the property, because the view is so limited, this house, unfortunately, makes for quite a disappointing stalk.

But that’s why God created real estate listings, which is where I snagged the two images pictured above. 🙂 The house, which was designed in 1915 by architect Stiles O. Clements, is currently for sale at a price that is only given “upon request”. The property boasts seven bedrooms, TEN bathrooms!, five fireplaces, a separate one bedroom, one bathroom guesthouse, and sits on over 3.5 acres of land. You can visit the home’s real estate listing and see a more close-up view of the property here.

The scene shot at the Pasadena house was a very brief one in which Jacob warns Bella upon entering the prom that her boyfriend, Edward Cullen (aka Robert Pattinson), may be a dangerous individual. Bella blows off his warning and then walks arm-in-arm with Edward around the corner and into the prom, at which point the location miraculously transforms into the View Point Inn.

The scene was filmed on the lawn in front of the north portion of the home’s wrap-around driveway, which is denoted with the blue “X” in the above aerial image.

I find it absolutely amazing that the location manager was able to find an area home that not only looked quite a bit like the View Point Inn, but one that was also situated in an Oregonian-like setting. When I first heard that the scene in which Jacob walks out of the woods to talk to Bella had been filmed in Pasadena, I wrongly assumed that fake trees had been brought in to make the property appear more wooded and forest-like. But in reality, the scene pictured above is what the grounds surrounding the house actually look like. It truly is an incredibly piece of property!

Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The house where the beginning portion of the prom scene in Twilight was filmed is located at 1200 South Arroyo Boulevard in Pasadena.

July 29, 2010July 29, 2010

David Wallace’s House from “The Office” – Part II

Another filming location from The Office that I dragged my fiance out to stalk two weekends ago was the large Colonial-style estate belonging to Dunder Mifflin Paper Company CFO David Wallace (aka Andy Buckley) on the show. This is not the same Pasadena-area property that stood in for the Wallace residence in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Branch Closing” that I blogged about two weeks ago, however. For an unexplained reason, after shooting the “Branch Closing” episode, producers chose to use a different, but similar-looking home located in the Encino-area, to stand in for the Wallace residence. I found this location, as usual, thanks to fellow stalker Owen, who tracked down a slew of Office filming locales long before I ever even watched the show. So, thank you, Owen!

Owen had warned me before I stalked the house that the property was not only gated, but set quite a ways back from the street and was most likely not at all visible to the public. I am very happy to report, though, that the stalking gods were smiling down upon us when we arrived to stalk the house because miraculously the front gates were standing WIDE OPEN! YAY! I am also happy to report that the home looks exactly the same in person as it did on the show.

I honestly can’t get over how large the Wallace residence is! The place is absolutely gargantuan! And it is currently for sale! According to its real estate listing, the home, which is currently being offered at $4,998,000, boasts 6 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, 6,000 square feet of living space, and sits on a whopping 3 acres of what the listing describes as “park-like” land. The home also features a separate 700-square foot guest house, working horse stables, a tennis court, a pool, and a spa.

The home first appeared in the Season 3 episode of the series titled “Cocktails”, in which David Wallace and his wife, Rachel, throw a party at their house for all of the Dunder Mifflin managers.

And, as you can see in the above screen captures as compared to these interior photographs of the home, the real life inside of the house and even some of the actual furniture was used in the filming of that episode.

I have to say here that I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE the scene in “Cocktails” in which Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) turns to a party guest who is eating shrimp and says, “You know that line on the top of the shrimp? That’s feces.” LOL LOL LOL That scene especially resonates with me because someone once told me that very same thing when I was a little girl and I have NEVER forgotten it and now can’t eat shrimp unless that “line” has been removed.

One VERY odd anomaly that I noticed while watching the “Cocktails” episode today was that the trash cans pictured in the background of the scene in which Michael and Dwight trade shirts were all spray-painted with the number “1485”. And while the home where that episode was filmed is numbered “5133”, the Pasadena residence that stood in for David Wallace’s house in the previous “Branch Closing” episode was in fact numbered “1485”. I don’t even know what to make of this development, as that shirt-trading scene was obviously not filmed at the Pasadena location. I guess I’ll just have to chalk it up to being a very, very bizarre coincidence.

David Wallace’s house also appeared in the Season 6 episode of The Office titled “Sabre” in the scene in which Michael goes to David’s home to get some advice on how to deal with the new corporation that has just taken over Dunder Mifflin.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: David Wallace’s (second) house from The Office is located at 5133 Louise Avenue in Encino. You can visit the home’s real estate listing here.

July 28, 2010July 27, 2010

The Tori Spelling “uncharted terriTORI” Book Signing

This past Monday night, former Beverly Hills, 90210 star Tori Spelling made an appearance at my favorite bookstore Vroman’s to do a signing of her most recent memoir, uncharted terriTORI. And even though I live very close to Vroman’s, I am sad to say that I almost didn’t attend the event. The sad truth is that I have yet to catch up on all of my wedding planning duties, or even my emails for that matter, ever since returning home from the Mayo Clinic with my dad this past May. So, needless to say I’m feeling just a wee-bit stressed out at the moment. I finally came to my senses, though, early Monday morning and realized that there was NO WAY in heck I could miss that signing! I mean, HELLO, I was like the biggest Beverly Hills, 90210 fan ON EARTH back in high school! Meeting the former Miss Donna Martin was just too big of an opportunity to pass up. So, this past Monday night at 6 p.m., I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Vroman’s to do some Tori Spelling stalking. Amazingly enough, when we first arrived there weren’t all that many people in line – I’d guess about 50 or so. And by the time 7 o’clock rolled around, only about a hundred more had shown up, which was shocking to me. I thought 90210 fans were die hards!

Because my fiancé has become quite obsessed with cameras as of late, he parked himself out in back of Vroman’s Bookstore with the three paparazzi who were on duty, which was perfect for me because it meant that while he was in position to snap the above photographs of Tori arriving on the scene, I got to hold my place in line. I must say he did a great job with the photos, too! They almost look like actual paparazzi shots! 😉 And while Tori looks painfully thin in the above photographs, she really didn’t look that way in person. She is definitely tiny, but I thought she actually looked quite healthy. And I also have to say that not only did Tori arrive to the event on time, but she was even a few minutes early! So not a diva! Love it!

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We had been told beforehand that Tori would gladly pose for photographs with her fans, which was awesome being that some stars at signings won’t allow people to take any sort of photographs at all. Again, love it! I have to say that Tori is VERY cute in person, much different than she appears on television or in pictures. She is also incredibly sweet. The girl ahead of me in line is one of Tori’s Twitter followers and, while we were waiting, she told me that she had, on occasion, Twittered back and forth with the star. Before the signing, she had Twittered Tori to let her know that she would be in attendance and that she would be wearing a yellow skirt. Well, sure enough, as soon as the girl walked up to meet Tori, the star looked at the yellow skirt and said, “Oh my gosh! You’re my Twitter friend!” Then, when the girl left, Tori said, “Thanks so much for Twittering with me.” So incredibly sweet! When it was my turn at the front of the line, Tori stuck out her hand and introduced herself, which the Grim Cheaper managed to get a photo of. Yay! (Those are the “Guncles”, aka the “Gay Uncles” – Tori’s good friends Bill Horn and Scout Masterson – who came along for the signing sitting next to her in the above pic.)

Tori seemed genuinely sweet and took time to chat with each and every fan who was getting a book signed. It was definitely a more personal experience than most of the other signings I’ve been to. I told her that I absolutely LOVED her haircut and she was like, “Oh really, you think? I’m not so sure about it.” 🙂 She was also laughing over my fiancé’s camera, as when he was taking the above photographs he had the shutter on a super-fast speed which allowed him to snap six pictures per second. I explained to her that he was doing that in case I blinked in one of the pictures and she said that she suffers from the very same problem of blinking in photographs. All in all, I am SO glad that I went to the signing and, looking back, can’t even believe that I was thinking about skipping it. If you are at all a fan of Tori or 90210, I HIGHLY recommend attending one of her book signings!

And not only did Tori sign the book, but so did the Guncles. Love it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. You can visit their events page here. And you can purchase uncharted terriTORI by clicking here.

July 27, 2010July 26, 2010

The Historic El Paseo Shopping Center from “It’s Complicated”

Another It’s Complicated location that I stalked while visiting the Santa Barbara area a few weeks back was the historic El Paseo Shopping Center located in the heart of Downtown State Street. In the movie, the Spanish-style marketplace stood in for the “Santa Barbara Medical Building” where Jane Adler’s (aka Meryl Streep’s) therapist, Dr. Allen (aka Peter Mackenzie), worked. In reality, El Paseo does not actually house medical offices, but is in fact California’s very first and oldest shopping center. I found the location thanks to this fabulous December 2009 Los Angeles Times article about the filming of It’s Complicated and even though I had yet to see the movie, I dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place pretty much immediately upon arriving in the area.

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El Paseo Shopping Center was originally built during the 1920’s and currently houses several boutiques, restaurants, and independent offices situated amongst picturesque courtyards, sparkling water fountains, and wood-framed balconies. The place is absolutely huge and, including its parking lot, encompasses an entire city block, which is how my fiancé and I ended up stalking the wrong section of it. Because I had yet to watch It’s Complicated, I had no idea what particular part of El Paseo had appeared in the flick. So, while the Grim Cheaper and I did walk quite a bit of the property and snapped photographs of what we thought was every square inch of the place, we somehow missed the back entrance – which, of course, was the only section of the center used in the filming. Murphy’s Law strikes again!

Thankfully though, our good friends Chris and Amy, who live in the area, agreed to re-stalk the place for me this past weekend. And even though the two aren’t stalkers like myself, they did a FABULOUS job of matching their photographs to the screen captures I had sent them. YAY! Thank you, Chris and Amy!

Filming of It’s Complicated took place at El Paseo’s east entrance, which can be reached via Anacapa Street. As fate would have it, that area of the shopping center happens to be located directly across the street from the city’s main post office. During the shoot, the entire stretch of road in front of the shopping center and post office had to be shut down to all pedestrians and traffic, which on an ordinary day probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal. But the It’s Complicated therapist office scene was actually shot on April 15, 2009. Yes, you read that right – the city actually shut down the street in front of its main post office on TAX DAY! Someone in the SB Planning Department seriously dropped the ball on that one! 😉

El Paseo’s main entrance is pictured above and, as you can see, looks markedly different from its back entrance. So different, in fact, that I thought the Los Angeles Times article had printed erroneous information when it reported that filming had taken place at the historic shopping center. It wasn’t until I did some cyber-stalking of El Paseo using Bing aerial maps that I figured out my mistake.

Amazingly enough, the It’s Complicated crew only filmed on location in Santa Barbara for a mere three days. The rest of the filming took place in Los Angeles and New York. According to IMDB’s It’s Complicated filming locations page, some of the flick was also lensed in Santa Barbara’s De Le Guerra Plaza. From what I’ve been able to discern online, the Plaza was converted into a Christmas tree lot for a scene that never actually made it into the movie. You can see some photos of the filming and read a great on-set report on the Fussy blog here.

Big THANK YOU to Chris and Amy for stalking El Paseo and taking the above photographs for me! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The area of El Paseo Shopping Center that was used in It’s Complicated can be found at 813 Anacapa Street in Santa Barbara. De La Guerra Plaza, where the deleted Christmas tree lot scene was filmed, is located in front of the Santa Barbara City Hall, which can be found at 735 Anacapa Street.

July 26, 2010July 23, 2010

Kurt Cobain’s Former House

While visiting the Pacific Northwest this past May, my good friend and fellow stalker Kerry took me to stalk a location that, at first, I actually wasn’t all that interested in seeing – the Seattle-area home where Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain passed away on April 5, 1994. I’d never really been into Kurt Cobain or Nirvana or the Grunge Movement as a whole – let’s face it, if it’s not sung by Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, or Michael Buble, I probably haven’t heard it 😉 – which is why seeing the Cobain home wasn’t really one of my top priorities while visiting Seattle. But I am so, so thankful that Kerry took me there, as Kurt’s former residence is an ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL place. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that it is one of my favorite places that I’ve ever stalked . . . ever! And that has nothing to do with the fact that Kurt Cobain once lived there, but is simply because the property is just that spectacular. I can’t even put into words my feelings about the place – it is just extraordinarily serene, quiet, and stunningly beautiful. In fact, the property is so peaceful that it is extremely hard to imagine someone like Courtney Love ever living there.

The Cobains first purchased the three-story, five bedroom, 7,808 square foot Cape Cod-style home, which was built in 1902 and is located in Seattle’s upscale Denny-Blaine neighborhood, in January of 1994 for $1.13 million. At the time, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz lived next door. Less than four months later, on April 8, 1994, Kurt’s lifeless body was discovered by an electrician in the greenhouse located above the property’s garage. The Nirvana singer was dead at the age of 27 from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The coroner later estimated that Kurt had most likely died three days earlier, on April 5. And while reports continually say that Kurt passed away in a “greenhouse”, I believe the space was actually more of a spare room or a gardener’s shed than it was an actual greenhouse. Sadly, Courtney had the entire garage and the room above it razed in 1996 after growing annoyed at the many stalkers who came by to take pictures of it. She later said that the garage had become “bigger than the Space Needle”. You can see a picture of what it used to look like here. Courtney ended up selling the home in 1997 to a non-celebrity couple and, along with daughter Frances Bean, relocated to Beverly Hills. According to the Cellar Door Blog, Courtney put a clause in the home’s sale documents stating that she would be allowed to remove a certain willow tree from the property at any future point in time should she so choose. Supposedly, some of Kurt’s ashes were spread at the foot of that tree, but it is unclear whether or not she ever returned to remove it.

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My favorite part about Kurt’s former home, and what I think makes the property so special, is the fact that it borders the absolutely gorgeous Viretta Park. In 1901, the 1.8 acre park was donated to the city by C.L. Denny, son of Seattle founder Arthur Denny, who named the space in honor of his wife, Viretta Jackson Denny. Supposedly, Kurt liked to walk the park grounds during the brief four months he lived next door and it’s not very hard to see why. The park has an incredibly calming affect – and that’s coming from someone who, admittedly, is a major Type A personality! 😉 I honestly can’t say enough about the place. The grounds are small and intimate, the foliage is lush and green, and the deep blue waters of Lake Washington are visible just across the road. It’s truly breathtaking.

Since Cobain’s death, the park has become a sort of unofficial memorial to the late singer, with messages scrawled to him on benches and trees. And while I normally wouldn’t like that sort of thing at all, in this case, for whatever reason, it seems to fit.

My fiancé was very proud of the above photograph which he took while we were there as he managed to get both the bench and Kurt’s former house in the frame.

When I got home from Seattle, I immediately purchased Ian Halperin’s controversial book Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain, which I had seen in a bookstore a few years before, but had never had any particular interest in reading. Until I visited his house, that is, at which point I remembered the book and knew that I just had to buy it. And I must say that it was FABULOUS! I literally could NOT put it down. I highly recommend it to everyone, whether you were a fan of Nirvana or not. I recently loaned the book to my friend Nat and she, too, said she could NOT put it down.

In an ironic side note – While Kurt’s former home is located at 171 Lake Washington Boulevard East, we mistakenly first stalked the property located at 171 Lake Washington Boulevard West. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones to ever make this mistake, either, because the owner of the property at 171 West has a sign in his front yard which points stalkers in the direction of the correct location. Love it!

Big THANK YOU to Kerry for taking me to this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Kurt Cobain’s former house is located at 171 Lake Washington Boulevard East in the Denny-Blaine district of Seattle. Howard Schultz’s former home is located next door at 120 39th Avenue East.

July 23, 2010July 22, 2010

Michael Scott’s Condo from “The Office”

I am very sad to report that early last week I finally watched the Season 6 finale of The Office and am at this time all caught up on new episodes of the show. I am not quite sure what to do with myself now and am seriously considering watching the entire series over again, even though it’s only been about three weeks since I began watching it the first time. What can I say – I am absolutely obsessed! Unlike me, though, my fiancé was extremely happy when I finished watching the series because as he said, “Yes, it’s a great show, but not when you are playing it on a 24-hour loop in our apartment.” He was on so much Office-overload, in fact, that he had actually taken to watching random movies on his laptop computer every night while I commandeered our TV. Poor guy. Anyway, because there are no new episodes for me to watch, in order to satisfy my Office fix I spent this past weekend dragging my fiancé all over the Valley to stalk a bunch of locations from the show, the first one being the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania- area condominium where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) lives. I found Michael’s residence thanks, once again, to fellow stalker Owen who was able to track the place down via a lucky Google search. Thank you, Owen!

While watching the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Dream Team”, Owen noticed the above-pictured “Exit on Laura Lane” sign displayed on a fence near the front of Michael’s house and figured it might just be an actual sign posted near the actual property. He then simply used Google to search for a Laura Lane in Los Angeles and it wasn’t long before he stumbled upon one located in Reseda and, sure enough, just around the corner from it was Michael’s condo. YAY!

Before stalking the place, Owen had warned me that Michael Scott’s condo was located inside of a gated community and that it was most likely not visible to the public. I am very happy to report, though, that Michael’s particular unit is the second house in from Wyandotte Street, which is a public road, and that it actually can be seen from the street! YAY!

Sadly, Michael’s front door, which appears quite often on the series, is not visible, though.

But, I was able to spy the front door of a different unit while I was there and I am very happy to report that it looks JUST LIKE Michael’s front door. 🙂

Michael first purchased the condo in the Season 2 episode of The Office titled “Office Olympics”. It is while he is buying the residence that he gives this sage piece of advice to the audience: “There’s a basic principle in real estate that you should never be the best-looking person in the development. It’s just sort of common sense because, if you are, then you’ve got no place to go but down.” LOL

In that same episode, when Michael first points out his new condo to Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) he mistakenly shows him the wrong unit, which is located directly across the street from the one which he has actually purchased.

The condo has been featured in several episodes of The Office over the course of the series’ six-year run, including the Season 4 episode titled “Dinner Party”, in which Michael invites all of the office couples over to his house for dinner.

And, as you can see from these photographs of another residence in the same development, the real-life interior of the home was actually used in the filming of that episode.

Michael’s condo was also featured in the Season 5 episode titled “Dream Team”, as well.

My favorite part about this location is that if you look at it via Bing Maps, you can see several production trucks, star trailers, and craft services tents set up, which means that they were actually filming an episode of The Office when the aerial images were taken!! SO DARN COOL!

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On a side note – I recently got a Brazilian Blowout treatment done to my hair and I have to say it was the BEST DECISION I EVER MADE! While I’ve never had particularly difficult or unruly hair, it is very thick and very curly and because I’ve been growing it out recently for the wedding, it has become rather time-consuming to style. My mom told me about the Brazilian Blowout treatment a few weeks ago after she heard it supposedly shortens the time it takes to straighten one’s hair. I was leery to try it as not only is it very expensive, but I was afraid it might fry my locks. I finally bit the bullet, though, last Wednesday, and, let me tell you, I am SO GLAD I DID! It is no exaggeration to say that the treatment has been life-changing! While it used to take me 90 minutes to blow-dry my hair straight, it now takes me 20! NO JOKE! And I no longer need to use any sort of product to style it – that’s right, no balm, no cream, no gel! If you have been trying to decide whether or not to try the Brazilian Blowout, I honestly cannot recommend it enough! I’ve gone from being so frustrated with my hair that I was ready to shave it all off ala Britney Spears to being a wash-and-go type of gal. LOVE IT!!!! LOVE IT!!!! LOVE IT!!!!

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Michael Scott’s condo from The Office is located at 7303 Bonnie Place in Reseda. The condo which Michael mistakenly thinks is his in the “Office Olympics” episode is located at 7302 Bonnie Place. Both residences are located within a gated community, so please be respectful and do not trespass.

July 22, 2010July 28, 2010

Wedding Planning!

Because I was out all day yesterday doing some planning for my upcoming wedding (it’s only one month away now!!!!), I was unable to write a new post for today. I promise to be back tomorrow, though, with a whole new stalking location. 🙂 Until then, Happy Thursday to all of my fellow stalkers! 🙂

July 21, 2010July 20, 2010

24/7 Restaurant from Glamour Magazine’s “Glee Gets Glam” Photo Shoot

One location that I have been ABSOLUTELY DYING to stalk for what seems like forever now is the diner-style restaurant where the girls from Glee – Lea Michele, Dianna Agron, Amber Riley, and Jenna Ushkowitz – posed for the May 2010 Glamour Magazine “Glee Gets Glam” photo shoot. After months of searching for it, though, and having absolutely no luck whatsoever, I had become convinced that the shoot had taken place on a studio set somewhere in Hollywood and not at an actual restaurant. And then last Sunday night fate stepped in and, as so often happens with stalking, I ended up stumbling upon images of the Glee diner while searching for another location altogether. Maddeningly enough, as it turns out, the Glee girls were photographed at a locale that I have not only been to several times, but one that I’ve actually blogged about before – the Standard, Downtown L.A. Hotel. I have a pretty valid excuse at to why I didn’t recognize the place immediately when I first read the magazine, though – the girls were actually photographed inside the hotel’s 24/7 Restaurant, a place which I had never before visited. So, I of course, dragged the Grim Cheaper right out to stalk it this past weekend! 🙂

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And the place did not disappoint! I honestly cannot say enough good things about 24/7! The restaurant’s hipster decor is a definite throwback to the 1950s and is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen in L.A. Apparently photo shoots and filming take place on the premises all the time and it’s not very hard to see why – the diner is bright and funky and completely unique. And the food is INCREDIBLE! As I’ve mentioned before, I am an EXTREMELY picky eater, especially when it comes to chicken, but, let me tell you, I ate up every last bite of my 24/7 Cobb salad. It was AMAZING! And the prices are extremely reasonable, as well, which pleased the Grim Cheaper to no end. To top it all off, the staff was also incredibly friendly and let me take all of the photographs of the place that I wanted. Yay! 🙂

Lea Michele and Amber Riley’s “Glee Gets Glam” photograph was taken in the center booth located just to the right of the restaurant’s lobby entrance.

Dianna Agron and Jenna Ushkowitz posed for their photograph in front of the windows which face 24/7’s patio area.

And, as you can see in this picture, the photograph of all four girls playing around in a bathtub was shot in one of the Standard’s hotel rooms.

And, much to the Grim Cheaper’s dismay, I just HAD to recreate Lea Michele’s pose from the issue’s contents page while I was there. I so wish I could have also been wearing her Marchesa dress while doing so, but unfortunately I didn’t have an extra $6,600 lying around! 😉 Sigh.

I honestly cannot recommend stalking the 24/7 Restaurant enough. For lack of a better word, it is just simply a cool, cool place to grab a bite to eat. 🙂 Note – The magazine images which appear in this post do not belong to me, but remain the property of Glamour Magazine and photographer Peggy Sirota (who also shot these fabulous Jen Aniston pictures for GQ Magazine).

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The 24/7 Restaurant can be found inside the Standard, Downtown L.A. Hotel, which is located at 550 South Flower Street. As the name implies, the restaurant is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can visit the official 24/7 website here.

July 20, 2010July 19, 2010

The Very First Starbucks Store

While this probably goes without saying, the location that I was most excited about stalking while vacationing in Seattle this past May was the very first Starbucks store at Pike Place Market. As I’ve mentioned countless times in the past – and as anyone who knows me even slightly well can attest to – I am an absolute Starbucks fiend! I visit my local branch at least twice a day and am on first name basis with all of the baristas who work there. Heck, some of them even read my blog! 🙂 So, when it was decided that the Grim Cheaper and I would be taking a mini-vacay to the Pacific Northwest to do some stalking and visit with our friends Kerry and Jim, I let it be known right away that there was absolutely no way I was leaving town without seeing the very first Starbucks store in person. And, let me tell you, I could NOT have been more excited about it. On the morning we were scheduled to stalk the store, my fiancé woke me and said, “Are you ready to visit your Mecca? Be sure to bring along a prayer rug or something so that you can pay your respects while there.” 😉 All joking aside, though, it really was a very special pilgrimage for me as I had always promised myself that one day I would get to Seattle so that I could stalk the store that started it all.

In the interest of integrity, though, I should mention here that the store which actually started it all is no longer standing and that the Pike Place Starbucks, which is generally touted as being the company’s first location, was actually the chain’s fourth. Confused? I’ll see if I can break it down. A couple of years ago I read a FASCINATING book by Taylor Clark called Starbucked: A Double Tall Tale of Caffeine, Commerce, and Culture. Besides sharing interesting tidbits, like the fact that “coffee is the second-most-traded physical commodity in the world” (oil being the first), the book chronicles the long and storied history of the now-ubiquitous coffee giant. The first Starbucks outlet was actually opened by three men – history teacher Zev Siegl, Boeing programmer Jerry Baldwin, and writer Gordon Bowker – on March 29, 1971 in Downtown Seattle’s Harbor Heights building, which used to be located at 2000 Western Avenue. And while the store did offer free drip coffee samples, the place was not actually a cafe, but a walk-up wholesale coffee bean vendor. There were no espresso machines, no comfy couches on which to linger, no pastries or desserts on offer in glass cases, and no music playing on the stereo. But even without all the extras, Starbucks was a success. By the time the owners of the Harbor Heights building decided to raze the property in 1974 (the building that currently stands on that site is pictured above), Starbucks had already opened two additional sister stores.

With their current location facing demolition, the original Starbucks store moved a few doors down to 1912 Pike Place (pictured above), making the first store the company’s fourth. I know, I know, it’s confusing. “Starbucked” author Clark explains it best: “The rundown building that once housed the first store was knocked down in 1974, so they built a new one a couple of blocks away, right across from the public market. But in the meantime, the three founders had opened new stores near the University of Washington and on Capital Hill in 1972 and 1973 – making what’s now called the “original” the fourth store by chronology.” Ironic, huh? Crazier still is the fact that Starbucks mega-mogul Howard Schultz didn’t come into the picture until 1981. He was working as a housewares salesman in New York at the time and had noticed that one of his customers, a tiny coffee chain in Seattle, was selling more of a certain kind of drip coffeemaker than Macy’s! He flew out to the Pacific Northwest to learn more about the then-unknown coffee company and was immediately taken with it. A year later, he left Manhattan and moved to Seattle in order to go to work for the small chain. The rest, as they say, is history.

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It’s amazing to think that a chain that currently boasts 17,743 different stores in more than 50 countries (there’s even a branch on the Great Wall of China! – not kidding!) started out as one tiny, little storefront in Seattle. Thankfully, that storefront has been left largely unaltered over the past 36 years and looks pretty much exactly like it did back in 1974 when it first opened. As Clark points out in his book, though, with its plank-wood flooring and weathered wooden countertops, the store more closely resembles a Peet’s Coffee shop than it does a Starbucks. There’s a reason for that, though. Dutch coffee roaster Alfred Peet, founder of Peet’s Coffee Company, actually helped Siegl, Baldwin, and Bowker get started in the business, and they modeled their first location after the original Peet’s store in Berkeley, California. I cannot even express how happy I am that the original store has been left untouched and was not remodeled to fit the cookie-cutter Starbucks mold over the years.

The Pike Place Starbucks also continues to use the chain’s original logo – that of a split-tailed mermaid with bared breasts, encircled by the words “Starbucks – Coffee, Tea, Spices” – an image which was deemed too risqué when the company went corporate.

To commemorate the store’s historical significance, there is also a brass post which reads “First Starbucks Store, Established 1971” on display at the front entrance. Love it! I wish they had a post like this on display at movie locations, as well!

And there’s even a map on the wall of all of the Starbucks locations worldwide.

But besides being the most unique-looking of all of the Starbucks stores, the Pike Place location is also the only one in North America which still hand-pulls its espresso shots, making for a more authentic coffee experience. (The other stores switched to automated espresso machines a few years back.) The Grim Cheaper was especially enthralled with watching the baristas craft the espresso by hand and took countless photographs of them. All of the baristas were also extremely friendly and knowledgeable about Starbucks – and coffee in general – which I absolutely LOVED. It was fascinating to speak with them about the history of the store and the company.

I absolutely cannot tell you how cool it was to be standing there ordering an iced latte at the very Starbucks store which started it all – definitely a moment I will never forget! And I have to say that even though the place was jam-packed with people, my drink was made in record time! I honestly cannot recommend stalking the first Starbucks enough! For those who don’t want to wade through the hordes of stalkers there, though, there is – of course – another Starbucks store located just around the corner from this one. 😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The first Starbucks store is located at 1912 Pike Place in Seattle. The location of the former Harbor Heights building, which housed the very first Starbucks store but has long since been torn down, can be found at 2000 Western Avenue.

July 19, 2010July 16, 2010

The Moonlight Mile Bar from “Beautiful Girls”

While going through my trusty stalking notebook this morning, I realized that I still have quite the backlog of Minnesota filming locations that I have yet to blog about. Not to mention the slew of Seattle locales that I haven’t even yet begun to post! I’m going to mix them all in with L.A. area locations over the next few weeks so that my fellow stalkers don’t get bored reading about the same city over and over again. But for today I thought I’d write about Minneapolis’ Nomad World Pub, the watering hole which stood in for the supposed Knight’s Ridge-area “Moonlight Mile” bar where Paul Kirkwood (aka Michael Rapaport) took Andera Womack (aka Uma Thurman) on a date in fave move Beautiful Girls. At the time, the bar was known as the 5 Corners Saloon, but ownership changed hands back in December of 2004 and so did the name. I found this location, once again, thanks to fellow stalker Owen and his highly-coveted Beautiful Girls master locations list! So, I, of course, just had to drag my parents out to stalk the place while we were in Minnesota this past May.

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In Beautiful Girls, Paul cooks up a ruse to bring “the lovely Andera” out on on a date at the Moonlight Mile bar for the sole purpose of making his ex-girlfriend Jan (aka Martha Plimpton), who hangs out there regularly, jealous. And I am very happy to report that even though ownership of the establishment has changed and over fourteen years have passed since Beautiful Girls was filmed, the interior of the Nomad still looks much the same as it did in the movie. YAY!

And, as it was portrayed in the flick, Nomad World Pub is actually a live-music venue.

Sadly though, the set of booths where Paul and Andera sat in Beautiful Girls, which used to run along the pub’s north side, have long since been removed. 🙁 I was seriously disappointed once I realized that as I had so wanted to sit in the exact spot where Michael Rapaport and Uma Thurman sat in the scene. UGH! Have I mentioned before how much I dislike change?? 😉

Even though little has been altered since Nomad World Pub took over ownership of the property, the former 5 Corners Saloon is apparently well-missed. There is even a Facebook page named “Remember the 5 Corners Saloon” that has been set up in honor of the historic former bar. So darn cool! You can see photographs of how the place used to look here.

For whatever reason, a different location entirely – a place known as Rich’s Health Shop in Stillwater, Minnesota – stood in for the Moonlight Mile’s exterior in Beautiful Girls. Sadly though, that building was torn down several years ago to make room for a new loft development, so I did not get to stalk it. And as you can see in the above photograph and screen capture, it beared little resemblance to the 5 Corners Saloon’s actual exterior.

Big THANK YOU to Owen for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Nomad World Pub, aka the Moonlight Mile bar from Beautiful Girls, is located at 501 Cedar Avenue South in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You can visit the pub’s official website here. Rich’s Health Shop, which was used as the exterior of the Moonlight Mile bar and has since been torn down, was located at 304 Main Street North in Stillwater, Minnesota.