July 2011 – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 29, 2011July 28, 2011

The Hartunian House from “Alpha Dog”

Another Palm-Springs-area locale that fellow stalker/location scout Scott Trimble, of the STS Locations website, helped me to find recently was the residence where Frankie Ballenbacher’s (aka Justin Timberlake’s) good friend/”Witness #11”, Susan Hartunian (aka Dominique Swain), lived with her utterly clueless and apathetic mother, Tiffany Hartunian (aka ER’s Alex Kingston), in the 2006 movie Alpha Dog. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about the Koerner House , while I did not exactly love me some Alpha Dog, darn if the flick’s location scouts did not choose some FABULOUS and COMPLETELY UNIQUE locales to feature in it, one of which was the exquisite, mid-century-modern-style Hartunian abode. So I, of course, just had to drag the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place while the two of us were vacationing in the Coachella Valley two weekends ago.

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As stated yesterday, Alpha Dog is based on the harrowing true story of the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz, whose brother, Ben, owed $1,200 in drug debt to infamous West-Hills-area marijuana dealer Jesse James Hollywood. During the three-day-long ordeal, which more closely resembled a vacation than a kidnapping, Markowitz hung out and partied with Hollywood’s small group of low-life cronies in the Santa Barbara area and was seen by no less than 38 witnesses, none of whom reported – or for the most part even realized – that anything out of the ordinary was going on. In the movie, the character of Susan Hartunian, who was based on 17-year-old Santa-Barbara-resident Natasha Adams-Young, was the only one of those 38 witnesses who expressed any sort of concern over the fact that the boy, whose character was named Zack Mazursky and who was portrayed by Anton Yelchin, had been kidnapped. She was also the one who finally reported the involvement of the Jesse James Hollywood character, Johnny Truelove (aka Emile Hirsch), and his best friend Frankie to the police shortly after Zack’s body was found. Susan’s incredible house was featured several times in Alpha Dog and both the exterior . .

. . . and the interior of the property were used.

In real life, the Hartunian residence is known as the Burgess House or the Bougain Villa house, a play on the term “bougainvillea”, which is the name of a hearty, brightly-flowering plant that thrives in hot desert climates. The Burgess House, which was originally built in 1958 and boasts 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 2,932 square feet of living space, is situated on a one-acre plot of land that is nestled into a rocky mountainside located about 200 feet above Downtown Palm Springs. The altitude of the lot affords for some amazing mountain and city views and architects Hugh Kaptur and William Burgess took advantage of the lot’s unique position by fashioning the home with huge, floor-to-ceiling windows made of mirrored glass which reflect the surrounding landscape. They also installed numerous sparkling pools and ponds, large boulders located both inside and outside of the residence, large open patios, and huge canopy overhangs, which protect the residence and its occupants from the desert’s intense heat. In 1986, Albert Frey, the legendary Swiss-born architect who is largely regarded as the father of the Desert Modernism Movement, added a large guest home to the property. Sadly though, as fabulous as the house is, as you can see above very little of it can actually be seen from the street.

But I did manage to spot the patio where filming took place for the scene towards the beginning of Alpha Dog in which Susan told her mother that she was heading off to a party at Frankie’s house.

Aerial views of the property, which are sadly not that great either, are pictured above. And you can check out some FABULOUS photographs of the place that Martha Stewart took – yes, that Martha Stewart – on a 2009 trip to the desert here. If you would like to read a more in-depth account of the Nicholas Markowitz murder, you can check out a fabulous LA Magazine article titled “The Last Ride of Jesse James Hollywood” here.

I would like to send out a very big HAPPY BIRTHDAY wish today to my dear friend and fellow stalker Kerry up in Anacortes, Washington. I hope you are having fabulous day! I love you, girl!

Big THANK YOU to Scott Trimble, from the STS Locations website, for finding this location! Smile You can follow Scott on Twitter, and learn all about his many location scout adventures, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Burgess House, aka the Hartunian residence from Alpha Dog, is located at 550 West Palisades Drive in Palm Springs. Palisades Drive is a private, gated road that is not accessible to the public, but you can catch some good views of the residence from West Tahquitz Canyon Way, just east of where it meets Palisades Drive.

July 28, 2011September 4, 2012

Frankie’s House from “Alpha Dog”

One location that I have been on the lookout for for what seems like forever now is the home belonging to Frankie Ballenbacher’s (aka Justin Timberlake’s) father, Juergen Ballenbacher (aka Chris Kinkade), in the ultra-dark and depressing movie Alpha Dog. As I have expressed a few times before on this blog, I was not at all a fan of the 2006 flick, which was based on the real-life kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz by Jesse James Hollywood and his group of drug-dealing cronies, as it was far too disturbing for my taste. But I did absolutely fall in love with the mid-century-modern-style abode where the teenaged kidnap victim, who was named Zack Mazursky (aka Anton Yelchin) in the movie, spent the majority of his imprisonment. I started looking for the Ballenbacher residence pretty much immediately after first watching the film and, even though I knew it was located somewhere in the Palm Springs area, try as I might, I just could not seem to find it. Then on June 1st, fellow stalker/location manager Scott Trimble, of the STS Locations website, wrote a comment on my post about the Caliente Tropics Resort, the motel featured in Alpha Dog, stating that he had actually worked on the movie. So I immediately wrote to him and enlisted his help in tracking the place down. And even though he had only worked on the portion of the movie that was filmed in Los Angeles and was therefore unsure of where the Ballenbacher home was located, he was instrumental in finally helping me to find it. Thank you, Scott! Smile So a couple of weekends ago, while out visiting my parents in Palm Springs, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place.

In real life, the Ballenbacher residence is known as the Koerner House and it boasts 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4,224 square feet of living space, and 1.1 acres of land. The abode was originally designed in 1955 by legendary mid-century modernist architect E. Stewart Williams, the very same man who constructed the Kenaston Residence in Rancho Mirage – the dwelling where Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie posed for their now-infamous July 2005 W Magazine photo shoot. As you can see above, the home is pretty darn incredible!

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In Alpha Dog, drug-dealing kingpin Johnny Truelove (aka Emile Hirsch) orders his friend Frankie to take Zack, whom Johnny is holding as a marker for a $1,200 debt Zack’s brother has incurred, to Frankie’s father’s house in Palm Springs to hide out for a few days. The vast majority of the movie was filmed at the dwelling and both the exterior . . .

. . . and the interior of the property were used in the flick.

And while the house is pretty darn incredible, it was actually the backyard area, which appeared quite frequently in Alpha Dog, that I became so enamored of. What an absolutely amazing piece of property! As you can see above, because it is so strikingly beautiful, it was rather difficult for me to narrow down which screen captures of the backyard to post.

While driving to stalk the Koerner House, the GC and I spotted several open house signs and, thinking that it might just be the Koerner House that was open and that I might just have the opportunity to go inside and see that amazing backyard in person, I almost had a full-blown heart attack! Sadly though, it was in fact a neighboring residence that was hosting the open house, so I guess, for the time being at least, I will just have to settle for looking at aerial views of the property.

Big THANK YOU to Scott Trimble, from the STS Locations website, for finding this location for me! Smile You can follow Scott on Twitter, and learn all about his many location scout adventures, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Koerner House, aka Frankie Ballenbacher’s home from Alpha Dog, is located at 1275 South Calle De Maria in Palm Springs.

July 27, 2011July 26, 2011

Cary Grant’s Former Palm Springs Estate

Another Cary Grant location (and I promise that this is the last of them for a while for those who are hoping for a change of pace) that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked while vacationing in the Palm Springs area two weekends ago was the “Cary Grant Estate”, aka “Las Palomas”, the Andalusian-style, U-shaped farmhouse that the actor called his desert home for nearly two decades. I came across information about the property, which is currently for sale for a cool $2,995,000, when doing some cyber-stalking while trying to track down the estate belonging to Charlie Rich, which I blogged about yesterday. And even though Cary’s daughter, Jennifer, never mentioned Las Palomas in Good Stuff, her newly-penned memoir about her late father, because we were in the area and because I have recently found myself just slightly obsessed with the movie icon, I decided I just had to stalk the place.

The Cary Grant Estate was originally built in 1927 and was commissioned by Dr. Jacob John Kocher, Palm Springs’ very first pharmacist. When Cary laid eyes upon the property in 1954, along with his then-wife, actress Betsy Drake, it was love at first sight and he immediately set about purchasing the place. He owned it for the next 18 years and, for a time at least, made the secluded sanctuary, with its large pool, sparkling fountains, trellised arbors, and towering palm trees, his primary residence. Cary nicknamed the property “Las Palomas”, Spanish for “The Doves”. Just a few of the luminaries who visited Cary during the nearly two-decades that he lived at the estate include Howard Hughes, Alfred Hitchcock, Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, and Katharine Hepburn. Grant, a longtime supporter of the U.S. armed forces, also made it a practice of hosting numerous events on the property for the Marine Corp soldiers stationed at the nearby Twentynine Palms military base. Sometime after Grant sold the home in 1972, it was purchased by professional bodybuilder and three-time-Mr. Olympia-winner Frank Zane. Upon Zane’s departure, the property fell into serious disrepair due to years of neglect. And then, in 1998, it was rescued by Jane Cowles Smith, an author/doctor who purchased the dilapidated estate and immediately set about a painstakingly-detailed and historically-accurate 11-year renovation process , during which she restored the dwelling to its original grandeur. She also had the property designated a Class 1 Historic Site by the City of Palm Springs. Sadly though, as you can see above, not much of the 6-bedroom, 6-bathroom, 6,000-square-foot, ultra-private abode, which sits on 1.54 lush acres of land, can be seen from the street.

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Something that can be seen from the street, though, is the estate’s mailbox (pictured above). When Grant first purchased the property, he commissioned his close friend, legendary Los-Angeles-area architect Wallace Neff, to build a second-story addition, consisting of two bedrooms and two baths, above the home’s garage. It is said that at that same time Neff also designed a small-scale replica of Las Palomas to be used as the home’s mailbox. I find it so incredibly cool that that mailbox is still there, almost six full decades later! LOVE IT!

Sadly, the aerial views of the property are not that great, but you can visit the home’s real estate listing and see some close-up photographs of the place here and you can read a more in-depth history of the estate here and here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Cary Grant Estate, aka Las Palomas, is located at 928 North Avenida Palmas in Palm Springs.

July 26, 2011July 25, 2011

Charlie Rich’s Former Palm Springs Estate

Another location that Jennifer Grant spoke fondly of in Good Stuff, the memoir about her late father, actor Cary Grant, was the Palm Springs estate belonging to Cary’s good friend, Las Vegas Dunes Hotel owner Charlie “Kewpie” Rich. Many weekends of Jennifer’s childhood were spent at “Uncle Charlie’s” lush, four-acre Coachella Valley oasis, which the Beverly Hills, 90210 actress described as “my adolescent wonderland” and a “desert Disneyland”. In the book, Jennifer writes, “Our number-one weekend getaway was to Uncle Charlie’s Palm Springs estate. Uncle Charlie was a staple in our life. Kewpie was maybe five feet tall, bald as they come, with a year-round tan (sometimes orange out of the Coppertone bottle – which Dad heckled him for) and a heart that never stopped giving. Uncle Charlie lived in a Spanish adobe on several acres of manicured, palm-tree-lined property. I learned to drive a golf cart and play putt-putt on that lawn. We stayed in the pool house, near the good-for-guppy-hunting pond and gorgeous rose gardens.” Well, as you can imagine, as soon as I read those words, I became absolutely obsessed with tracking the place down. And while vacationing in the Desert two weekends ago, I spent quite a few hours doing just that. I ran into a few snags along the way, though, as I was originally under the very incorrect assumption that Charlie “Kewpie” Rich, hotel owner, and Charlie Rich, country crooner, were one in the same. As it turns out, they are most definitely not!

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Charlie Rich’s Palm Springs House–Villa Paradiso

It was not until I came across the YouTube video posted above that I realized my mistake. Thankfully, said video lead me to a real estate listing for the estate formerly belonging to the correct Charlie Rich, complete with an address! Yay! So I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper right on our to stalk the place – in 108-degree weather, no less!

Charlie Rich’s former home, which Cary Grant dubbed “Villa Paradiso”, was originally built in 1928 and features 8 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms (not kidding!!!), 13,000 square feet of living space, a four-car garage, a climate-controlled fur-storage-closet (also not kidding!!!), a swimming pool, a pond, over one hundred palm trees, several eighty-year-old Cypress trees, sweeping mountain views, and 3 stand-alone guest houses, one of which was built by Uncle Charlie especially for Cary Grant. Cary’s guest house boasts a formal living room, a fireplace, a large bar, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and one large bedroom. A photograph of that guest house circa 1970 was featured in Good Stuff and I was absolutely FLOORED to discover a recent picture of the structure on the property’s real estate listing in which it still looks almost exactly the same as it did when Cary and Jennifer vacationed there. SO INCREDIBLY COOL! According to the real estate listing, Howard Hughes also spent quite a bit of time at the property.

Sadly, not much of the ultra-private estate, which is currently for sale for a cool $8,950,000, is visible from the street.

Thank god for aerial views! As you can see above, the place is pretty darn magnificent and majorly dwarfs everything which surrounds it. I cannot even imagine owning a home like that! Sigh! You can visit two of the property’s real estate listings and see some great close-up photographs of it here and here.

On a stalking side note – fellow stalker/celebrity enthusiast Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, her dog Sammy, the GC, and I were lucky enough to run into a few stars while hanging out together this past Saturday night in Beverly Hills.

While walking to our cars after grabbing dinner, Pinky happened to spot The Hangover star Ken Jeong, who could not have been nicer or funnier! He practically did an entire, private stand-up comedy routine for us, right there on the sidewalk. So incredibly cool! And he gave Pinky a kiss on the cheek after posing for a pic with her! How cute is that?

We spotted Kevin Nealon a few minutes later and he was also a total sweetheart and even remembered meeting Pinky at the Sundance Film Festival a couple of years ago.

And last, but definitely not least, we saw Ed Helms from The Office and The Hangover. I had previously heard that Ed is not especially fan-friendly, but I am very happy to report that that information is not accurate as he was super sweet to Pinky and me and happily posed for a picture with both of us. Mine sadly came out a little blurry, which I did not realize until after I got home. Such a bummer, but I am stoked nonetheless to have gotten a picture at all.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Charlie Rich’s former home is located at 457 West Hermosa Place in Palm Springs.

July 25, 2011July 18, 2011

Cary and Jennifer Grant’s Former House

As I mentioned last month, back on May 28th I attended the Jennifer Grant book signing for Good Stuff, the actress’ newly-penned memoir about her late father, movie star Cary Grant. Well, I finally finished reading the tome last weekend and I can honestly say that it is one of the best books I have ever read. What an incredibly touching gift Jennifer has created for her father – and for her father’s countless legions of fans. If you have not yet read Good Stuff, I cannot more highly recommend doing so. I literally could not get enough of Jennifer’s words and stories and was pretty much drowning in tears by the time I came to the end. Besides the heartfelt memories and sound fatherly advice from Cary that Jennifer shares in her book, my favorite aspect of Good Stuff has to be the fact that in it she refers to her childhood home by its street address – 9966 Beverly Grove Drive. Oh, THANK YOU, Jennifer! A woman after my own heart, I swear! How I wish more celebrity authors would do that very same thing when penning their own memoirs. Sigh! So while out and about in Beverly Hills a couple of weekends ago, before I had yet to even finish the book actually, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place.

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“9966”, as Jennifer lovingly calls her childhood home, is located high up in the Hills of Beverly, off of Benedict Canyon Drive, at the end of a twisty, turny, fairly remote street which overlooks pretty much all of Los Angeles.

Needless to say, the view, which is pictured above, is pretty darn majestic. Of it, Jennifer says, “We had a ‘You should see the view’ view. Stunning. From downtown Los Angeles all the way to the beach – oh, but please don’t. All my life we had looky loos parking outside the gate and peering in through the metal bars. Our home was on the Movie Star Maps. Can’t blame people for wanting to see, really, but it was a disconcerting inconvenience. People would park their cars in our driveway, just outside the gate. Then they’d stand and gaze in and around the gate, hoping to catch a glimpse of Dad through the windows or in the backyard. Dad, Barbara [Cary Grant’s fifth and last wife], and I likened it to being animals in a zoo.”

To poke fun at their seemingly zoo-like existence, the trio posed for the above photograph in 1983. Of it, Jennifer writes, “One of my favorite pictures of Dad, Barbara, and me is a spoof on all of this. In the midst of a rarely held family photo session (perhaps our only one), we decided to get a shot of us at the gate, mimicking our imagined status as displeased monkeys, our cheeks puffed and heads pressed through the bars. Of course, we did choose the outside of the gate as the imagined cave. We quite liked our own confines.” Love it!

That gate is pictured above. Sadly though, as you can see, little else besides the gate is visible from the street. And no, I did not try to venture up to it and peer in and around it to try to catch a better glimpse of the property as the looky loos in Cary Grant’s day did.

Of her 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom, 7,602 square foot childhood home, Jennifer writes, “There’s a beautiful symmetry to the number 9966, as if it were the end and the beginning of a quotation. The first time I remember seeing my father, and the last time I actually did see him, was at 9966. One of my father’s priorities was providing me with a sense of permanence and stability. The actual structure he chose was a farm-style house. Our home atop a hill.” According to Jennifer, while the house was luxurious, it was also “practical”. She says, “Dad used to say that the state of your surroundings reflected the state of your mind. Also, there could be an inverse correlation. A clean atmosphere provides space for thought. This has become a truism for me. During college exams, regardless of my lack of sleep, my boyfriend used to marvel at the way I had to clean my apartment before studying. A direct offshoot of 9966.” She also says, “Dad wasn’t a fan of overly lavish displays, at least not in the worldly sense. Our home was beautiful and not a mansion. What did we need with a mansion? Our parties were small parties. We had a white, modern-looking oval table that at most sat fourteen. You could see and hear everyone. The mood was festive and intimate. Barbara made scrumptious, home-cooked meals and decorated the table with her own arrangements of flowers. Dad was so proud. I understand why. Our home had love, warmth, and personal care. It was overflowing.” The home was so beloved by the Grant family, in fact, that not only was it the spot where Cary married Barbara on April 11, 1981, but it was also where Jennifer tied the knot with her now ex-husband, Randy Zisk, in 1993. When Cary sadly passed away in 1986, he left the property to Barbara and it appears that she still owns it to this day.

Again, I cannot more highly recommend reading Good Stuff. Just be prepared with a box of hankies when you get towards the end.

On a side note – Located due west of 9966, across Benedict Canyon Drive, is Villa Bella, the Italian-style monstrosity that was built on the site of the now-demolished residence where Sharon Tate was murdered in the early morning hours of August 8, 1969. The Tate house was leveled in 1996 by owner Alvin Weintraub, who subsequently built the ginormous 18,000-square-foot, nine-bedroom villa pictured above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Cary and Jennifer Grant’s former house is located at 9966 Beverly Grove Drive in Beverly Hills. You can purchase a copy of Jennifer’s book Good Stuff here.

July 18, 2011July 25, 2011

Taking the Week Off!

I will be taking a break from blogging this week as I will be visiting my grandmother in Reno, Nevada until Friday afternoon. And while I will not be posting any new locations for the next five days, I will definitely be stalking them! I packed my copy of The Misfits, which was primarily filmed in the Reno area, and will be watching it with my grandma and then dragging her out to stalk a few of its primary locations. I hope she’s up for it. Winking smile So until next Monday, Happy Stalking! Smile

July 15, 2011July 13, 2011

Mary See’s Former House

Another location that I was reminded of while taking the Scott’s L.A. Audio Driving Tour of Pasadena this past week was the Craftsman-style residence where Mary See and her son Charles, founders of See’s Famous Old Time Candies, lived in the 1920s during the time when the legendary chocolate company was first established. Because I practically grew up on See’s Candies – I can still remember my parents and grandparents taking me to the chain’s Hillsdale Mall outpost for a treat on an almost weekly occasion – I was absolutely FLOORED to discover that the See family had once lived practically right in my own backyard.

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Mary Wiseman See, who was born and raised in Ontario, Canada, first started making candy while living on Tremont Park Island where her husband, Alexander, managed a resort. When Alexander passed away in 1919, Mary decided to start anew by moving with her son Charles, his wife Florence, and their three children to Southern California, where Charles was seeking work as a pharmacist. The family settled into a Craftsman-style bungalow located at 462 South Marengo Avenue shortly after arriving in the area and sometime thereafter Charles decided to try his hand at selling Mary’s homemade chocolates to the public.

In November of 1921, the family set up their first See’s Candies store in a building located at 135 North Western Avenue in Los Angeles. That original store is pictured above and, amazingly enough, the building which once housed it is still standing to this day! You can see a picture of how the building appeared circa April of 2011 here. Charles designed the shop with a black and white motif and checkered floor to resemble Mary’s actual kitchen at home where her now-famous candy was first baked. That ascetic model is still used to this day, over nine decades later, for all See’s locations, as is the company’s original logo, which consists of a black and white photograph of Mary See. See’s Famous Old Time Candies became an instant success and by the mid-1920s, eleven more storefronts had opened. The chain’s second store was located at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood and the third was at 356 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. Sadly, the Pasadena building that once housed that location was torn down in the 1970s to make way for the now-defunct Plaza Pasadena Shopping Center. (In an interesting bit of trivia, according to the History, Los Angeles County blog, during the 1920s the company used custom-built Harley-Davidson motorcycles, painted with the black and white See’s insignia and fitted with a side-car, to make deliveries throughout the Los Angeles area. One of those motorcycles is pictured above.)

According to the Scott’s L.A. Audio Driving Tour, the kitchen of the See’s family bungalow was located toward the rear of the property, in what I believe is the area pictured above. I am not sure if it is this kitchen that Charles modeled the design of his stores after or if it was the kitchen at the home in Canada where he grew up, but oh, what I wouldn’t give to go inside and find out. Winking smile

Mary See sadly passed away on July 31st, 1939 at the age of 85. Charles continued to run See’s Candies until his death in 1949, at which point his son Laurance took over the reins. In 1972, Laurance sold the company to none other than Warren Buffett, who acquired it as part of his Berkshire Hathaway Corporation. See’s Famous Old Time Candies is still going strong to this day and now boasts over 200 stores in 11 different states, as well as locations in Hong Kong, Japan, and Macau. It was all started right here, though, in a little bungalow in Pasadena. The See home, which was originally built in 1903, is no longer a private residence, but now houses offices for various area professionals.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Mary See’s former house is located at 462 South Marengo Avenue in Pasadena.

July 14, 2011July 13, 2011

The “Bruce Almighty” Party House

Last week while going through the glove compartment of my car, I came across the Scott’s L.A. Audio Tour of Pasadena CD that I had purchased about seven years prior. For those who have never heard of Scott’s L.A., the family-owned company produces a series of audio driving tours of the Southern California area, all of which feature numerous famous locations, including quite a few that have appeared in movies and on television. Since I had not listened to the CD in years, I decided to spend a couple of hours re-taking the tour. And I am so glad that I did because there were a few locales mentioned on it that I had completely forgotten about, the most important of which was the party house from the 2003 movie Bruce Almighty. And even though I was not at all a fan of Bruce Almighty, because my girl Jen had filmed a scene at the house, I figured it was most-definitely stalk- and blog-worthy.

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In real life, the Bruce Almighty party mansion is known as the Stern House and it was originally built in 1938 by architects Garrett Van Pelt and Robert E. Alexander. The Mediterranean-style property, which sits on 0.83 acres of land, boasts 7 bedrooms, 9 bathrooms, and 7,146 square feet of living space. And even though the residence has a name and seems to be historic in some way, surprisingly I could not find any other information about it online.

In Bruce Almighty, the Channel 7 news team throws Bruce Nolan (aka Jim Carrey) a party at the supposed Vanderbilt Estate in New York in honor of his recent promotion. When Bruce’s girlfriend Grace Connelly (aka Jennifer Aniston) shows up at the party, she catches him kissing his co-anchor Susan Ortega (aka Catherine Bell) and a fight ensues out in front of the mansion.

And while I could not find any photographs of the inside of the property to verify this, I am fairly certain that a different residence was used to film the interior party scenes.

Ironically enough, while scanning through Bruce Almighty yesterday to make screen captures for this post, I noticed that the house belonging to Debbie (aka Lisa Ann Walter) in the flick is the very same property where the Simpson family lived in fave movie She’s Out of Control, which I stalked this past May.

I also came across this super-cute photograph on IMDB of my girl Jen and Bruce Almighty director Tom Shadyac which was taken out in front of the She’s Out of Control house. Love it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Bruce Almighty party house is located at 1395 Ridge Way in Pasadena. You can visit the Scott’s L.A. website and purchase the company’s various tour CDs here.

July 13, 2011July 12, 2011

Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood

Two weekends ago, while doing some stalking in the Hollywood area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the Hollywood & Highland Shopping Center to grab a quick drink at Lucky Strike Lanes, an oft-used filming location and celebrity hot-spot. While I had first heard about the bowling alley/lounge when it originally opened eight years ago and knew of its appearance on numerous reality series, for whatever reason I did not have much interest in stalking the place. Then, a couple of months ago, fellow stalker Lavonna happened to tell me a little bit of trivia about the alley that had me absolutely chomping at the bit to go see it.

Lavonna informed me that when the iconic Hollywood Star Lanes, which first opened in 1960 and was where the majority of the movie The Big Lebowski was filmed, was torn down back in 2003 to make way for a new elementary school, the owners of the soon-to-be opened Lucky Strike decided to purchase all of the wood that comprised Hollywood Star’s Lane #7. They then proceeded to use that wood to construct the bar at their new establishment. How incredibly cool is that?

They also purchased the exterior neon signage from Hollywood Star Lanes to use as a wall hanging. Love, love, love it!

As you can see above, Lucky Strike Lanes is a VERY cool little spot. Unfortunately, I have to say that I was not all that crazy about the food. And sadly, the GC and I did not have time to do any bowling while we were there, but fellow stalker Lavonna has plans to hit the place up when she comes to visit L.A. in November, so you know what that means – I will definitely be doing a re-stalk!

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As I mentioned above, Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood is an oft-used filming location. In the Season 6 episode of The Hills titled “The Elephant in the Room”, Kristin Cavallari, Brodie Jenner, Frankie Delgado, Stacie Hall (aka Stacie the Bartender), and Audrina Patridge and her new boyfriend, singer Ryan Cabrera, spent the evening bowling and flirting at Lucky Strike.

Ryan Cabrera returned to the bowling alley to film the Season 1 episode of the ULTRA-stupid reality show Pretty Wild titled ”The Hearing”, in which he angers series star Tess Taylor by inviting a friend to accompany them on their date.

Vinnie Chase (aka Adrian Grenier), Eric Murphy (aka Kevin Connolly), Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (aka Kevin Dillon), and Turtle (aka Jerry Ferrara) took their girlfriends, one of whom was Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester, to Lucky Strike for an evening of bowling in the Season 1 episode of Entourage titled “Date Night”.

In the Season 11 episode of America’s Next Top Model titled “Fierce Eyes”, J Alexander hosted a runway challenge at Lucky Strike in which the models had to practice walking down the super-slippery bowling lanes while wearing high heels.

In the Season 1 episode of No Ordinary Family titled “No Ordinary Sidekick”, Jim Powell (aka Michael Chiklis), along with his family, Stephanie (aka Dexter’s Julie Benz), Daphne (aka Kay Panabaker), and J.J. (aka Jimmy Bennett), and their friends Katie Andrews (aka The O.C.’s Autumn Reeser) and George St. Cloud (aka Romany Malco), spend the evening using their super-powers to bowl at Lucky Strike.

And while I had originally believed that the Season 1 episode of fave show 90210 titled “Lucky Strike” was filmed at the Lucky Strike Lanes in Hollywood, as it turns out filming actually took place at the chain’s Torrance location, inside of the Del Amo Shopping Center.

And the Season 2 episode of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County titled “Since You Been Gone” was filmed at the chain’s Block at Orange location.

As I mentioned above, Lucky Strike Lanes is also a veritable celebrity magnet. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Drew Barrymore, Liv Tyler, John Mayer, Glee’s Cory Monteith, The Bachelorette’s Ali Fedotowsky and Roberto Martinez, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Rumor Willis, Geena Davis, Robin Williams, Paris Hilton, Nick Carter, Matthew Lillard, Fergie and Taboo from the Black Eyed Peas, Mandy Moore, Judy Greer, Vanessa Hudgens, Courteney Cox, Nicole Richie, Trevor Donovan, Jessica Simpson, and even my girl Jen Aniston. I once spotted David Arquette walking into the bowling alley for some sort of celebrity event back in December of 2008 and while I tried to take the above photograph of him, as you can see, it did not turn out very well due to the bright lights on the red carpet. You can definitely tell it is him, though.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Lavonna for telling me about this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Lucky Strike Lanes is located at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard, inside of the Hollywood & Highland Shopping Center, in Hollywood. You can visit the bowling alley’s official website here.

July 12, 2011July 11, 2011

Falcon Lair – The Former Estate of Rudolph Valentino

Way back in December of 2009, I got an email from a fellow stalker named Todd who wanted to know if I had any information on Falcon Lair, the former Rudolph Valentino estate which he had heard was in the process of being torn down. Amazingly enough, before receiving Todd’s email I had never before heard of Falcon Lair, nor did I know much about its legendary owner. Rudolph Valentino, as it turns out, was the Brad Pitt/Johnny Depp – or, if you ask me, the Matt Lanter – of his day. The 1920’s Italian-born silent film star, who was dubbed the “Latin Lover” by the press, was so beloved by fans that on the day of his funeral in 1926 over 100,000 mourners lined the streets of New York near Saint Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church to pay their respects to the fallen icon. So after reading Todd’s email, I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place to see if it was still standing. Sadly though, it was pouring rain on that particular day and I was only able to jump out of the car for a brief moment to snap the above photograph and could not poke around the property to see if the estate had been razed. And even though the mansion had remained at the very top of my “To Stalk” list ever since, the GC and I did not make it back out there until two weekends ago.

Falcon Lair was originally built by Beverly-Hills-real-estate-developer George Read in 1923 and was purchased by Rudolph Valentino two years later for $175,000. Valentino dubbed the property “Falcon Lair” in honor of The Hooded Falcon, a never-completed movie the film star tried to produce with his wife Natacha Rambova in 1924. The isolated Benedict Canyon manse, which Valentino decorated with lavish antiques, fine art, and imported European furnishings, was to be the couple’s dream house, but sadly Natacha divorced him shortly after they moved in. Sadder still, Valentino died from peritonitis less than a year later, on August 23, 1926, at the tender age of 31. The estate was then sold and much of the land parceled off. After a succession of different owners, Falcon Lair was purchased by heiress Doris Duke in 1953. The reclusive Duke, who at birth had been dubbed “The Million Dollar Baby” thanks to her father’s extensive tobacco fortune, sadly passed away at the Lair on October 28th, 1993 at the age of 80. Her death became a scandal when it was uncovered that Duke had not only made her butler, Bernard Lafferty, co-executor of her will, a job for which he was paid $500,000 a year, but that she had also bequested him a whopping $5 million from her estate. Lafferty was eventually accused of playing a role in the heiress’ death, but those accusations were later proven unfounded. In 1998, the Doris Duke Estate sold Falcon Lair for $2,294,000 and in 2003 the new owners began an extensive restoration and renovation project to bring the mansion back to its original grandeur. Sadly though, and apparently due to bureaucratic red tape, the construction was halted and the house put on the market shortly thereafter. It was purchased yet again in 2006, at which point it was razed completely. And with that another important piece of Los Angeles history was wiped away.

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During the time that Valentino lived there, the 4700-square foot, two-level Falcon Lair boasted over 8 acres of land, 16 rooms, three master bedrooms, three baths, several fireplaces, a library, a detached four-car garage complete with a 120-gallon gasoline pump and upstairs four-bedroom servants’ quarters, a horse stable where Valentino kept his four Arabian horses, and extensive gardens filled with imported Italian trees. Upon moving in, the star also had to construct a 9-foot cement wall surrounding the perimeter of the estate in order to keep out his more aggressive fans, who would often try to sneak onto the property.

Sadly, all that remains of the original Falcon Lair today are the front gates . . .

. . . and the former garage/servants’ quarters.

If you head away from the property by driving west on Bella Drive and then east on Cielo Drive, you can see the retaining wall that Valentino had built to keep out his trespassing fans.

And if you position Bing’s aerial map of the property facing south, you can catch a glimpse of the mansion before it was torn down, albeit not a very good one.

You can also see an aerial view of the backside of the mansion on fave website Virtual Globetrotting.

According to fave book Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide, at some point in time the Falcon Lair stable was sold off and transformed into a private residence. I was unaware of that fact at the time I stalked the place, though, so I unfortunately did not get any photographs of it. An aerial view of the former stable/now house is pictured above. You can read a more extensive history of Falcon Lair, as well as see some interior photographs of the estate, on the Rudolph Valentino Homepage website here.

Directly across the street from Falcon Lair is the absolutely AMAZING John Lautner-designed Schwimmer Residence, where the Carter family (Backstreet Boy Nick and his siblings B.J., Aaron, Leslie, and Angel) lived during the filming of their short-lived 2006 reality series House of Carters. (I apologize for the crap-tastic screen captures, by the way. Unfortunately, I had to get them off of YouTube, which is why they are so fuzzy.)

Sadly though, none of the Schwimmer Residence, which was built in 1982 and boasts 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and almost 6,000 square feet of living space, is visible from the street. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see that house! You can check out some great photos of the residence on fave website Zillow here and on the Plan It Locations website here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Todd for asking me to stalk this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Falcon Lair, the former Rudolph Valentino estate, was located at 1436 Bella Drive in the Benedict Canyon area of Beverly Hills. Directly across the street, at 1435 Bella Drive, is the Schwimmer Residence where the House of Carters reality series was filmed. Rudolph Valentino’s former horse stables can be found at 10051 Cielo Drive, just down the road from Falcon Lair. And just up the street from the stables, at 10066 Cielo Drive (formerly 10050 Cielo Drive), is Villa Bella, the mansion that was built on the site of the home where Sharon Tate was murdered.