November 2011 – IAMNOTASTALKER

November 30, 2011November 29, 2011

Kathy Griffin’s House from “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List”

When fellow stalkers Lavonna, Melissa, Beth, Kim, and Sandy came to town from Ohio for a little stalking vacay two weeks ago, they scored four tickets to the November 14th taping of The Ellen DeGeneres Show and invited me to tag along. A few days before the episode was set to film, though, Lavonna learned that not only would the cast of The Twilight Saga flicks be Ellen’s guests for that particular show, but that the entire audience would be treated to a free screening of the series’ latest installment, Breaking Dawn. Because I am in no way, shape or form a Twi-Hard, I decided to sit this one out, as did fellow non-Twi-Hard Sandy, and the two of ended up spending the day together stalking from one end of Los Angeles to the other. One of the places we stopped at was the hilltop abode that belongs to comedienne Kathy Griffin and that is featured regularly on her Bravo reality series Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List. The only problem was that, as you can see above, I had the incorrect address written down in my trusty “To-Stalk” notebook and Sandy and I wound up stalking the wrong house! Not kidding! As Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, would say, “FAIL!”

I was informed of this location by a fellow stalker named Melissa (not the same Melissa visiting from Ohio), who had stalked the dwelling way back in the summer of 2009 and had emailed to tell me about it. Melissa is a huge fan of Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List and had scoured the internet looking for the comedienne’s home prior to a visit to Los Angeles. And while she could not find its exact address, she did manage to track down some photos of the house on a blog in which the street name was mentioned. She searched through the many pictures featured on the blog and, in true stalker fashion, keenly spotted an address number of “2968” on the wall of a neighboring residence. Love it! When Melissa emailed me to let me know about the property, she said that it was “across from 2968 Passmore Drive in the Hollywood Hills”. My blondeness must have been in full effect when I copied the information to my “To-Stalk” list, though, because I somehow failed to take note of the “across from” part, and Sandy and I wound up taking pictures in front of the house numbered “2968”. Doh! After realizing my mistake later that same week, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on back out to the Hollywood Hills so that I could stalk the right place.

Kathy’s 4-bedroom, 5-bath, 8,098-square-foot home was originally built by a former Los Angeles City fireman/actor named Bernard Subkoski and his wife, Celeste Dickinson. The couple purchased the half-acre vacant plot of land on which the dwelling now sits sometime during the late 1990s and construction on it took four years to complete.

Bernard and Celeste dubbed their residence “Wings”, as, according to Bernard, it very closely resembled a bird in flight. Due to medical issues, though, the couple was forced to put their dream home on the market shortly after it was completed and in April of 2004 it was purchased by Kathy for a cool $2.85 million. Kathy later sued Bernard and Celeste over some structural problems with the dwelling.

As you can see above, located just outside of the main gate is some sort of statuary that was built to resemble the house. I originally thought that the structure was a mailbox, but upon closer inspection it did not seem to have any sort of a mail slot, so I am unsure of what it actually is.

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The home, which in this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion is strictly A-List, is featured weekly on Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.

The interior is also shown regularly. Kathy temporarily moved out of the property in the Season 6 episode of the show titled “Toddlers and Remodelers” due to a massive remodel she had just commissioned.

The home was also featured in an April 2009 OK! Magazine photo shoot in which Kathy posed in a bikini. And it also popped up in the February 2006 issue of W Magazine, in the August 8th, 2005 issue of In Touch Magazine, and in an episode of MTV Cribs.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Kathy Griffin’s house from Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List is located at 2955 Passmore Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

November 29, 2011November 28, 2011

Willy Beachum’s House from “Fracture”

Back in early November, a fellow stalker named Eileen posted a comment on my site challenging me to find the residence where Willy Beachum (aka cutie Ryan Gosling) lived in the 2007 thriller Fracture, which is one of my all-time favorite movies. In an extremely ironic twist of fate, at the exact moment that my site sent me an email alerting me to Eileen’s comment, I was sitting in front of the TV watching Fracture and thinking that I should try to track down the hilltop abode! Talk about synchronicity! So I set right out to find the place that very night. I am leery to admit, though, that I actually “cheated” a wee bit in locating it.

Based on the views of Downtown Los Angeles shown from Willy’s home in the flick, I figured that the property was most likely located in the Echo Park area and spent more than a few fruitless hours searching for it there. Because this stalker is nothing if not impatient, though, after coming up completely empty-handed I decided to rent the film on Blu-ray as I had noticed a blurry street sign visible in the background of one of the scenes and hoped that I might be able to make out the name printed on it via high-definition. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love a good hunt as much as the next stalker, but sometimes I just want to just find the place already and call it a day! This was one of those times. Smile

And thankfully my hunch panned out. As you can see in the screen capture pictured above, “Minnesota St” is clearly visible on the street sign shown in the Blu-ray version of the movie. Yay! Once I learned the street name, finding the exact location of the house was a snap and I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place later that same week.

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The exterior of Willy Beachum’s home shows up quite a few times in Fracture.

It is most notably featured in the scene in which District Attorney Joe Lobruto (aka David Strathairn) speaks with Willy, his former deputy district attorney, about returning to the D.A.’s office. Oddly enough, while all of the other Fracture filming locations are talked about extensively in the flick’s production notes, nothing is said about Willy’s residence. I figured there would, at the very least, be a mention of the dwelling’s spectacular views, but, for whatever reason, filmmakers remained silent on the subject. The production notes did state, “[Fracture director Gregory] Hoblit likes to make movies that look as though they are set in Anywhere, USA so that audiences can more easily identify with the characters. He credits production designer Paul Eads and location managers Richard Davis and Mike Fantasia with helping to make that happen.” I found that sentiment to be a bit ironic, though, as, in this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion, Willy’s house in the movie could not have been more “L.A.” With its stunning views, hilltop location, and detached garage, the place just screamed “Los Angeles” to me. But what do I know? Winking smile

Because very few sets were built for the filming of Fracture, I would venture to guess that the actual interior of the property was also used in the flick, but, sadly, I could not find any interior photographs of the place to verify that hunch.

According to the Redfin website, the 3-bedroom, 1-bath, 1,248-square-foot home, which was originally built in 1904, sold this past February for $307,000. And I am happy to report that it looks very much the same in person as it did in Fracture.

As do the views, which are nothing short of spectacular!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Willy Beachum’s house from Fracture is located at 3101 Minnesota Street in the Lincoln Heights area of Los Angeles.

November 28, 2011November 27, 2011

Julia Harris’ House from “Horrible Bosses”

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I ventured out in the pouring rain to stalk two weekends ago was the ultra-modern abode where Dr. Julia Harris, D.D.S. (aka my girl Jen Aniston) lived in the (horrible) 2011 comedy Horrible Bosses. I was informed of this location via a text from fellow stalker Chas, of the It’sFilmedThere website, who prefaced giving me the address with the query, “Did you like Horrible Bosses?”, to which I wrote back, “Not at all!” When he asked if my dislike stemmed from the fact that the movie was “too crude”, I wrote back, “No! It stemmed from the fact that it was seriously stupid!” Winking smile The GC and I had gone to see Horrible Bosses on opening night in a theatre, as I do with pretty much every new Jen Aniston movie, and were both so bored to tears that we almost walked out! I just did not find the flick funny, like at all, and, for some reason, Charlie Day, who played Dr. Harris’ dental assistant Dale Arbus, seriously grated on my nerves, especially his gravely voice. It was like fingernails on a chalkboard to this stalker, but I digress. Anyway, I was extremely excited to receive Chas’ text, regardless of my feelings about the movie, as I am always, always up for stalking a location that has anything whatsoever to do with my girl.

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Julia’s house actually only shows up twice in Horrible Bosses – first in the scene in which Dale’s friend Kurt Buckman (aka Jason Sudeikis) stakes out the property with the intent of murdering Julia and later on in a flashback scene in which he describes what happens while there. According to the Horrible Bosses production notes, “The deviant doc’s house is stylistically similar to her office — that is, what can be seen of it through its wide street-facing picture windows, which afford her the opportunity to put on the kind of show she couldn’t get away with at work.”

In real life, the five-bedroom, four-bath, 3,906-square-foot home, which was completely rebuilt in 2008, is pretty darn spectacular! The property features a double-sided fireplace, a floating staircase, an open floor plan, Cherry wood and poured concrete flooring, exposed steel beams, a six-burner range, and three fireplaces. The property sold on July 22 of this year for $1.73 million. You can check out some great interior photographs of the place here.

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location. You can check out Chas’ extensive Horrible Bosses filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Julia Harris’ house from Horrible Bosses is located at 2361 Midvale Avenue in the Westside area of Los Angeles.

November 23, 2011November 28, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am going to be taking the rest of this week off to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family, but I will be back on Monday with a whole new location. I hope all of my fellow stalkers have a fabulous Thanksgiving holiday!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

November 22, 2011November 21, 2011

The Skyline Residence – Jacob’s House from “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”

Back in August, I received an email from a fellow stalker named Brandon who wanted to let me know that he had tracked down the ultra-modern abode where Jacob Palmer (aka Ryan Gosling) lived in Crazy, Stupid, Love. At the time I had yet to see the movie, but added the address to my To-Stalk list anyway and am so glad that I did because, as I have mentioned more than a few times before in recent posts, I have since become just a wee bit obsessed with the flick . . . and its cutie leading man. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to the Hollywood Hills to stalk the place this past Saturday afternoon.

Due to a slight snafu with my GPS, though, I was unable to get to the actual house and could only snap a few pictures of it from afar. While I always research locations to make sure that they are accessible to the public before leaving to stalk them and while Jacob’s house was visible on Google Street View, for some reason, my navigational system just could not seem to get me there.

It was not until I returned home that evening that I was able to figure out why. As you can see in the above aerial view, Skyline Drive, where Jacob’s house is located, dead-ends at a certain point and then picks up again a short distance later. My GPS, thinking Skyline Drive was a through-street, directed me to the wrong end of it, where the abode was nowhere to be found.

So the next morning, paper map in hand, I dragged the GC back on out to the Hollywood Hills to re-stalk the property. As you can see above, it was POURING rain at the time, which I was none too happy about. You see, there is nothing in this world that this stalker hates more than rain, except for maybe Kyle Richards. Winking smile But once I remembered that it was also raining in the scene in Crazy, Stupid, Love. that took place at Jacob’s house, me being there during a downpour seemed quite apropos. The GC could not stop laughing at me posing for the above picture, though, as he said that I looked as if I was dressed for “the tundra”. Hmph! I happen to like my rain coat, thankyouverymuch!

In real life, Jacob’s house is known as the Skyline Residence and it was built in 2007 by Hagy Belzberg, of Belzberg Architects, to be used as his private residence. According to this fabulous Architectural Record blog post, several previous owners had tried to build a home on the narrow plot of land on which the Skyline Residence now stands, but had not had any luck in securing permits. Belzberg said, “I decided that instead of trying to fight the topography I would work with it and create a very narrow building that sits lightly on the land with minimal to no grading.” The architect’s design called for a 20- by 120-foot structure made out of concrete, glass, marble, and wood.

As you can see above, the finished product is nothing short of magnificent! As Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, would say, it is “amazeballs”! Love it, love it, love it! The property is pretty much my dream abode.

From the view pictured above, which I got off of the home’s former real estate website, the dwelling is extremely reminiscent of the Stahl House, or Case Study House #22, which I blogged about way back in March of 2009. The Skyline Residence, which according to fave website CurbedLA was sold to new owners for a cool $5.995 million on December 21, 2009, boasts 4 bedrooms, 5 baths, a 1-bedroom, 1-bath detached guest house, a 65-foot long infinity pool, a spa, floor-to-ceiling glass windows, a large, open kitchen and dining area, outdoor terraces, sweeping views, and a whopping 5,200 square feet of living space!

My favorite aspect of the house, though, has to be the outdoor movie deck, which sits atop the garage and in which films are projected onto a wall of the detached guest house. How amazing is that???? A girl I was friends with in high school had an actual full-sized movie theatre located inside of her home and at the time I thought it was just about the coolest thing ever, but I can honestly say that this pretty much blows that right out of the water! I mean have you ever seen anything more incredible??? You can check out some more fabulous interior and exterior photographs of the Skyline Residence on The Contemporist website here.

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Jacob’s house only shows up briefly in Crazy, Stupid, Love. in one of the best scenes of the movie in which Jacob brings Hannah (aka Emma Stone) home and tries to seduce her by showing her his “big move”. Of the property, the Crazy, Stupid, Love. production notes state, “Jacob’s home also reflected his current lifestyle. To serve as his stunning, if stark, bachelor pad, the filmmakers chose the renowned Skyline Residence designed by internationally recognized architect Hagy Belzberg. Located off the Sunset Strip in the Hollywood Hills, the glass-enclosed, ultra-modern home is considered a prime example of world-class contemporary architecture. As no one was residing in the home at the time, it was easy for [production designer William] Arnold and his team to make the few necessary adjustments. ‘We just removed what we didn’t need, and put in a few of our own signature furnishings, leaving it somewhat austere,’ he says. ‘Jacob’s house is a comment on the character’s own emptiness, really. He rattles around in there; it’s very impersonal, yet very tasteful.’”

The main area of the property used in the film was the living room and it appears as if the home’s hanging Fireorb fireplace was removed for the shoot, which was a good call as I personally think the space looks much better without it.

The kitchen area also made a very brief appearance during the montage scene towards the end of the movie.

A photograph of that kitchen is pictured above.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Brandon for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Skyline Residence, aka Jacob’s house from Crazy, Stupid, Love., is located at 8520 Skyline Drive in the Hollywood Hills. A great view of the property can be seen from Crest View Drive, just south of where it meets Skyline Drive. As I mentioned previously, Skyline Drive dead-ends at a certain point and then picks up again a short distance later. Because of that, my GPS took me to the wrong location when I inputted the address “8520 Skyline Drive”. If you have the same problem, I would suggest inputting the intersection of Skyline Drive and Greenvalley Road into your navigational system and then following Skyline Drive west until it dead-ends. Jacob’s residence is the last house on the east side of the street.

November 21, 2011November 20, 2011

The Pasadena Recovery Center from “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew”

One location that I stalked with my good friends, fellow stalkers Lavonna, Beth, Melissa, Kim, and Sandy, while they were in town visiting from Ohio last week was the Pasadena Recovery Center from Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. And while I had never before actually seen an episode of the VH1 reality series, which just finished up its fifth season, Beth is a MAJOR die-hard fan of it and the treatment facility was the Number One location on her Southern-California-To-Stalk list. So after grabbing lunch at The Slaw Dogs – a Pasadena-area hot dog restaurant that has quickly become my most recent culinary obsession – the six of us headed on over to North Raymond Avenue to check out the famous rehabilitation center in person.

Before doing research on the Pasadena Recovery Center for today’s post, I had incorrectly assumed that it had been founded by Celebrity Rehab star/executive producer Dr. Drew Pinsky, but as it turns out I do not think that the “Silver Fox” (as Chelsea Handler likes to call him) has much to do with the place outside of the filming the show. In reality, the facility was started in 2001 by Dr. Lee Bloom, a former psychiatrist for the United States Air Force. When Dr. Bloom passed away in 2008, his son Michael and daughter Alison took over the center’s management and they continue to run it today.

I am very happy to report that the Pasadena Recover Center looks EXACTLY the same in person as it does on TV. Before writing today’s post, I sat down to watch a few episodes of the series and found it to be highly addictive (pun intended). It is a mesmerizing, compassionate look into the face of addiction and has made me more understanding of certain celebrities who I previously thought were pretty useless. Bai Ling’s storyline, for example, was especially heartbreaking and, where I had before thought the actress was out-of-her-mind crazy, after hearing about her childhood I feel nothing but sorrow and empathy towards her. That poor, poor woman. It is amazing she is even able to stand after what she lived through. Amy Fisher, on the other hand, is (in this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion) nothing but a heartless, sociopathic, spoiled brat who makes me want to put my fist through the TV, but I digress. Winking smile Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew is a fabulous show and I highly recommend checking it out.

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All five seasons of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew have taken place at the Pasadena Recovery Center, during which participants move into the holistic treatment facility for 21 days in the hopes of beating their various addictions.

The real life interior of the facility also appears regularly on the show. You can check out some photographs of that interior on the Pasadena Recovery Center’s official website here.

The backyard and pool area also show up quite frequently on the series, although there are, sadly, no images of those spaces featured on the facility’s website. Besides Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, the Pasadena Recovery Center also appeared on the WE tv series Secret Lives of Women.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Pasadena Recovery Center from Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew is located at 1811 North Raymond Avenue in Pasadena. Please remember that it is a working rehabilitation facility, with actual patients whose privacy needs to be respected at all times. You can visit the Pasadena Recovery Center’s official website here.

November 18, 2011November 17, 2011

The SAG Conversations with “Southland” Event

I would like to start off today’s post by announcing that my good friend, fellow stalker Owen, who is a copy editor by trade, has just started his very own blog which chronicles the various spelling mistakes and grammatical errors that he comes across in printed material on a daily basis. The blog is called When Write Is Wrong and, let me tell you, it is absolutely HILARIOUS! I strongly urge you to check it out and get your LOL on. You can visit When Write Is Wrong here. And now, on with the post!

Last week, I received an email from the Screen Actors Guild inviting me and a guest to a screening of the TNT television series Southland, followed by a Q&A with executive producer Christopher Chulack and cast members Lucy Liu, Regina King, C. Thomas Howell, Ben McKenzie, Michael Cudlitz, and Shawn Hatosy. And even though I had never before actually seen an episode of the show, once I saw the name Ben McKenzie I just about died of excitement! As I have mentioned several times before on this blog, this stalker absolutely LOVES herself some The O.C., especially its cutie former star, and I have been absolutely dying to get a picture with him for what seems like forever now! So I immediately RSVP-ed to the event and invited fellow stalker Mike, from MovieShotsLA, to be my guest as Southland is one of his favorite shows.

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The evening started out with a screening of the Season 3 episode titled “Fixing a Hole” and while my mom, who watches Southland religiously, had warned me that the series might be a bit too gory and gritty for my taste, let me tell you, I absolutely LOVED it. It was laugh-out-loud funny, extremely well-written and sharply poignant. I cannot wait to rent Season 1 and start watching from the beginning. Immediately after the episode ended, the stars of the show entered the room and my stomach literally did a flip-flop when Ben McKenzie came into view. He is even cuter in person than he appears to be on TV. Swoon! Because I am anal and always arrive at these types of events about 3 hours early, I secured some FABULOUS seats for me and Mike and we literally could have reached out and touched the actors. Sadly though, this particular venue did not allow any photographs to be taken during the Q&A, so I was unable to get any pictures of the actors onstage. But, let me tell you, the interview session was FABULOUS! The Southland cast is easily one of the most down-to-earth casts I have ever seen in person and, for such a dark, heavy show, the atmosphere between them all was extremely light and fun. They seemed to genuinely like each other and had an easy rapport. And although the jokes were flying out of everyone’s mouth, Michael Cudlitz (who plays Officer John Cooper on the show) was by far the funniest of the bunch. He is absolutely HILARIOUS in person – like stand-up-comedian funny. My favorite part of the Q&A, though, had to be when the actors talked about the fact that executive producers Christopher Chulack and John Wells do not allow any sides on the Southland set. For those unfamiliar with the term, “sides” are small portions of a script that contain only those scenes being filmed on that particular day and actors usually have them on hand at all times. John and Christopher banned the mini-scripts from the set from the very beginning so that the actors would be forced to do their homework and come to work prepared each day. The Southland cast all said that it was a phenomenal way to work and that they were better performers because of it. This policy especially resonated with me as it used to drive me absolutely batty in acting class when my fellow students would show up unprepared. Memorizing lines is the easiest part of acting, in this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion, and if you cannot even come to class with that basic part of your homework completed, how can you expect to be present and focused onstage??? But I digress.

Immediately following the Q&A, Mike and I, of course, approached all of the actors to ask for pictures and I am very happy to report that they could NOT have been nicer!! We met Regina King first and she was a complete and total sweetheart – a total 180 from the tough, brazen character she plays on Southland. Sadly, while we were talking to Regina, Lucy Liu walked by and because no one stopped her for a photo (most actors consider themselves to be above the whole fandom thing), she left before we could talk to her. As Miss Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, would say, “FAIL!”

After Regina, we hit up Shawn Hatosy whom I was familiar with from both Alpha Dog and Dexter. It is funny, but even though I had never watched Southland, I knew and loved each of the actors in attendance from other productions. Shawn was extremely nice and happily posed for photos with both Mike and me.

After posing with Shawn, I spotted Ben McKenzie and just about had a heart attack. Pinky Lovejoy had told me prior to the event that Ben was a total sweetheart and I am happy to report that she could not have been more right! SUCH a nice guy and, as I mentioned above, ADORABLE in person! SWOON! SWOON! SWOON!

After Ben, Mike and I got a pic with Michael Cudlitz, which we were both EXTREMELY excited about as he had played jock Tony Miller on fave show Beverly Hills, 90210. When I first walked up to Michael, I said, “You were Brenda Walsh’s prom date!”, to which he smiled and said, “That I was!” LOVE IT!

Last up was Ponyboy himself, C. Thomas Howell, who was a complete and total sweetheart! I chatted with him a bit about Rob Lowe’s autobiography, Stories I Only Tell My Friends (which is honestly one of the BEST books I have ever read – like in my entire life!!!!), and he told me that his wife had just read it and had also said it was one of the best books she had ever read. Ironically enough, a few minutes later Mike and I ventured into a nearby Starbucks (I know, shocker!) and who should be in front of us in line, but C. Thomas! He recognized us and I quickly said, “We are not following you, I swear!” I mean, I’m a stalker, but I’m not that bad! C. Thomas chatted to us again for a few minutes and then I headed off to use the restroom, but Mike told me that when C. Thomas left, he called out to him, “Later, bro!” and waved good-bye. How incredibly cool is that?? All in all, it was an AMAZING night and I am still pinching myself over the whole thing! As Pinky Lovejoy would say, “Win!”

And don’t forget to check out fellow stalker Owen’s new blog, When Write Is Wrong!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Unfortunately, there is no stalking location for this one, but you can catch Southland every Tuesday night on TNT. Season 4 is set to begin on January 17th.

November 17, 2011November 16, 2011

Another . . . Day . . . Off!

Because I spent all day yesterday with fellow stalkers Lavonna, Beth, Melissa, Kim, and Sandy, who were in town from Cincinnati for a little stalking vacay, and Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, I did not have time to write a new post for today. But I do promise to be back tomorrow with a whole new location.

So, until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

November 16, 2011November 17, 2011

The Grill on Main from “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”

Last month, while watching the Season 2 episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills titled “Game Night Gone Wild”, I just about fell over when sisters Kim and Kyle Richards (neither of whom I can actually stand) walked into The Grill on Main – a La-Quinta-area eatery that I had been to just a few weeks prior while visiting my parents for the weekend in the Coachella Valley. Well, been to and walked out of, I should say. Winking smile My parents, the Grim Cheaper, and I had headed to The Grill on Main one night to grab cocktails before dinner, but, unfortunately, the only champagne (my mom’s and my drink of choice) that the restaurant served was seriously terrible, so we ended up leaving and going to the nearby Hog’s Breath Inn instead. But I digress. Anyway, for my mom’s 60th birthday, which was last Monday, her very best friend, Doina, flew out – from Switzerland – to surprise her and we all spent the week together in the Desert. One morning during our stay, after grabbing coffee at the Old Town Coffee Company (which has recently replaced Starbucks as my favorite coffee house – I know, gasp!), I dragged my mom and Doina across the street to stalk The Grill on Main.

The Grill on Main, which first opened in December of 2010 and serves American-style fare, is a super cute little eatery. And, despite its lacking in the champagne department (which is odd being that the manager is a certified sommelier), my parents, who have dined there several times since, report that the food is quite excellent and reasonably-priced.

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In the “Game Night Gone Wild” episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Kim and Kyle head over to the The Grill on Main to grab lunch while they are on vacation in the Coachella Valley. During their meal, Kyle, as usual, tries to boss Kim around by telling her that she needs to move into a home that is closer to hers. Little does she know that Kim is actually planning to move in with her secret boyfriend of over a year. Ah, the drama!

While stalking the restaurant, I had incorrectly thought that Kim and Kyle had dined just to the left of the restaurant’s bar area and even took a picture in that spot.

But the sisters had actually dined outside, on The Grill on Main’s patio area, right in front of the fireplace. Ugh, I can be such a blonde sometimes! Winking smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Grill on Main, from the “Game Night Gone Wild” episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, is located at 78065 Main Street in Old Town La Quinta. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

November 15, 2011November 2, 2011

Larry’s Chili Dog from “The Office”

Because fellow stalker Lavonna has been in town for the past few days and I have been doing some major stalking with her, today’s post is, unfortunately, going to be a short one. Sad smile Sorry about that folks, but I do promise to be back tomorrow with a regular-sized write-up. And now, on with the post! One location that has been on my “To-Stalk” list since way back in early February is Larry’s Chili Dog – a tiny Burbank-area hot dog stand that was featured in the Season 7 episode of fave show The Office titled “The Search”. As I mentioned quite a few months back in my post about Kung Pao China Bistro, the Chinese food restaurant that was also featured in “The Search”, fellow stalker Owen tracked down every single location which appeared in the episode. And because, as I have also mentioned previously, this stalker absolutely loves herself some hot dogs, I was especially excited to stalk Larry’s, but for whatever reason had just never made it out there. So, a couple of weeks ago, when the Grim Cheaper and I found ourselves ravenously hungry after a shopping expedition at the Burbank IKEA, I knew exactly where to head!

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In “The Search” episode of The Office, after being left stranded at a local gas station sans wallet, money, and cell phone, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) decides to go on a “walkabout” through Downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania. He first hits up a pet store and talks to a few random animals about love, before heading over to Larry’s Chili Dog where he orders a hot dog. Because he has no means of paying, he tells the cashier that he will leave his “$45 watch” behind as a sort of marker, to which the cashier says, “We’re not a pawn shop.” Michael tries to barter with the cashier further, but he is having none of it and Michael ends up yelling “You’ve just lost my business” before walking away empty-handed. LOL God, I love that show! It has sadly gone downhill this season, but the reruns of the earlier episodes just never get old!

Larry’s Chili Dog looks much the same in person as it did on The Office and I am very happy to report that the owners truly could NOT have been nicer! They let me take all of the photographs of the place that I wanted and answered all of my silly little questions about the filming.

They also told me that Steve Carell was extremely nice and had posed for pictures with them during the filming. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Because the owners were so incredibly nice, it seriously pains me to say that I did not enjoy my hot dog all that much. It was of the snap-skin variety, which, for whatever reason, gives this stalker the major heebie-jeebies! As I have mentioned many times in the past, I am an extremely picky eater. The GC absolutely LOVED his hamburger, though, and the French fries and ranch dressing were both A-MA-ZING, so all in all our lunch was not a total loss.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Larry’s Chili Dog, from “The Search” episode of The Office, is located at 3122 West Burbank Boulevard in Burbank.