Your definitive source to filming locations and all things Hollywood!
I had to run a massive amount of errands and take care of some personal business this past Friday, so I was unfortunately not able to write a new post for today. But I do promise to be back tomorrow with a whole new location.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
This past (dismal and dreary) Sunday afternoon, after stalking the Jack & Jill house, which I blogged about on Tuesday, I dragged the Grim Cheaper a few blocks south to stalk a location that I had been wanting to see in person for years – the Howser residence, where teenage prodigy Dr. Doogie Howser (Neil Patrick Harris) and his parents, Katherine Howser (Belinda Montgomery) and Dr. David Howser (James Sikking), lived in the 1989 television series Doogie Howser, M.D. As Stephen Sondheim said, “a funny thing happened on the way to the forum”, though, because when we arrived at the site, the property did not look at all familiar to me.
The address of the Doogie Howser, M.D. house – 796 Amalfi Drive in Pacific Palisades – has long been listed in pretty much every filming locations book ever printed, as well as on every filming locations website that can be found online. I first discovered it, though, thanks to The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book by William A. Gordon. As you can see above, the property that stands at 796 Amalfi is a very large, very beautiful, wood-shingled, Hamptons-style residence, but the property that I remembered Doogie living in was a much more traditional, Colonial-style dwelling. I figured that my memory, which is usually like that of an elephant, must have been deceiving me, though, so I decided to snap some photographs of the place regardless. It was not until I got home and scanned through my Doogie Howser DVDs that I realized my recollection had, in fact, been correct. Thank God! I knew I was too young to be completely losing my faculties! 
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Screen shots of the actual Howser residence are pictured above. As you can see, the home is very traditional and Colonial in style, much as I had remembered, and looks nothing at all like the property that I had just stalked.
Upon doing further research, I discovered that the dwelling located at 796 Amalfi Drive was not constructed until 2006, a good 13 years after Doogie Howser, M.D. had gone off the air. Because author William A. Gordon obtained most of the information in his book from ultra-accurate “shoot sheets”, though, I was 99.9% certain that the address he had published was correct. For those not familiar with the term “shoot sheet”, up until September 11, 2001, anyone could walk into the EIDC Film Office in Hollywood and obtain a list of every production being shot in the area on any particular day, along with the exact address of where filming was taking place. Those lists were called shoot sheets. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have been living in Los Angeles at that time! I so would have been at that film office every single day to pick up a sheet so that I could follow around the cast of Beverly Hills, 90210 wherever they might be filming. As Gary states on Seeing Stars, “In short, it looks like 9/11 has produced another victim: the well-meaning tourist who used to enjoy watching movies being made on location in Hollywood, who will now have to do without the shoot sheets that were once his guide.” UGH! You can check out what a shoot sheet looked like on the Seeing Stars website here. Isn’t it just about the coolest thing ever? Sigh!
From what I had gathered online, I surmised that the Howser residence did at one time did stand at 796 Amalfi Drive, but that it was torn down sometime since the series ended and a new dwelling built in its place. Because I do not like to blog about a location unless I am 100% certain that the information I am giving out is correct, though, I wanted to see a photograph of the former 796 Amalfi Drive house before writing this post. Unfortunately, I just could not seem to locate one anywhere. Thankfully, fellow stalker Billy stepped in and gave me the idea to track down historic aerial views of the property, which I did using the Historic Aerials website. As you can see in the above (albeit blurry) images, which were taken in 1980 and 2003, respectively, the domicile which used to stand on the site does very closely resemble the Doogie Howser house. The residence’s general shape, the circular driveway, the two-tiered roofline, and the white fence surrounding the property all match up to what appeared onscreen. Voila!
So, even though the Doogie Howser, M.D. house is no longer standing, because there is so much misinformation about the property online and because the dwelling that was built in its place is pretty darn spectacular, I figured the location was still blog-worthy.
According to The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book, the Doogie Howser house was not-so-coincidentally located in the same neighborhood as that of legendary television producer/writer Steven Bochco, who created the series. Thanks to my buddy E.J.’s The Movieland Directory website, I found that address, as well. Steven Bochco’s former home is located at 694 Amalfi Drive, one short block away from the Howser residence. Unfortunately though, I did not stalk the property while I was in the area.
Ironically enough, in the Season 3 episode of Doogie Howser, M.D. titled “Lonesome Doog”, Doogie’s home address is shown as 1782 Amalfi Drive in Pacific Palisades. In reality, Amalfi Drive does not have any addresses in the 1700 range as the street dead-ends at the 1600 block.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Doogie Howser, M.D. house was formerly located at 796 Amalfi Drive in Pacific Palisades. Doogie Howser-creator Steven Bochco’s former home is located one block south at 694 Amalfi Drive. And the Jack and Jill house is located just a few blocks up the street at 1343 Amalfi Drive.
This past Saturday morning, I headed out to Burbank to attend the quarterly Hollywood Show, formerly known as the Hollywood Collectors Show. For those who have never heard of the event (like me, up until just recently), let me break it down for you. The Hollywood Show is a convention in which celebrities of yesteryear grant autographs and photo-opportunities, for a fee, to the fans who loved, and still love, them. As Chris Mann stated in his February 2010 Los Angeles Times article, “The quarterly autograph and memorabilia show — a retro nirvana for TV Land, VH1 and Turner Classic Movies fans and celebrity signature collectors — unites vintage Tinseltown idols and survivors with the people who made them as-seen-on-TV commodities.” Or as my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, likes to say, “It’s where celebrities go to die.” LOL Harsh, but kinda true. The show works like this – fans pay an entrance fee (of about $20, depending on how many days you want to attend the event and how early you want to be allowed in) to gain admittance to the convention hall, where they will find row upon row of fold-up card tables behind which celebrities are waiting to be paid anywhere from $10 to $150 for an autograph and/or posed picture. It all makes for a very weird, almost depressing set of circumstances and meeting the actors turns out to be more of a business transaction than a personal experience, but nevertheless where else can you find Susan Olsen from The Brady Bunch, the Von Trapp kids from The Sound of Music, and Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams from Laverne & Shirley all under the same roof?
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Pinky had been trying to convince me to stalk the Hollywood Show with her for months, but I was not too keen on the idea. That is until I saw that Aileen Quinn, aka “Annie” from the 1982 musical of the same name, was going to be there. Growing up, Annie was my movie! To this day, I can still quote the entire thing backwards and forwards. I watched the flick so often, in fact, that my VHS copy of it got warped and is now unwatchable. I even entered an Annie lookalike contest shortly after the movie was released and came in second place! Needless to say, you would be hard-pressed to find a more diehard Annie fan out there. So when I saw that Aileen would be attending the show I just about did a cartwheel right there in my living room and told Pinky to count me in! Joining us at the event were our friends Anushika, from the Mike the Fanboy website, and Cody. Being that my head was about to explode from excitement, the four of us hit up Aileen’s table immediately upon arriving at the show and I am very happy to report that she could NOT have been nicer. She was highly amused over how excited I was to meet her and how much I loved Annie growing up.
Aileen was nice enough to pose for two photographs, a close-up and a full-length shot, both of which Cody snapped for me. Thank you, Cody! I could NOT get over how recognizable Aileen still was from Annie, over three decades later!
At the Hollywood Show, celebrities have a stack of various 8×10 headshots at their tables that fans can choose from to be signed. Sometimes though, the actor will also have books, programs or memorabilia that can be signed in lieu of a headshot and, let me tell you, I just about died when I saw that Aileen had the original 1982 program from Annie at her table. Not only is the program a must-have collector’s item for any fan, but it also contains a plethora of behind-the-scenes information and an entire chapter on the movie’s LOCATIONS! Um, yes, please! Needless to say, this stalker was in absolute heaven! Not only did I get to meet one of my childhood idols, but I scored a fabulous piece of vintage memorabilia in the process. Aileen even drew me a little cartoon Annie on the program, to boot. 
LOVE IT! All in all, meeting Aileen was a FABULOUS experience for me and I really felt like I shared a personal, intimate moment with her, despite the chaos that was going on around us.
Because one could easily spend upwards of $300 at the Hollywood Show, I had made the decision prior to walking through the front doors that I was only paying for a picture with Aileen. But I had an absolute blast accompanying Pinky, Anushika and Cody to the tables of the various celebs that they had come to meet. Pinky was dying to get a photograph with Penny Marshall (pictured above) and Cindy Williams, as Laverne & Shirley was her favorite show growing up. You can read her write-up of the event and see her pictures here.
Anushika was there for the Von Trapp kids from The Sound of Music (you can read her write-up of her experience on the Mike the Fanboy website here) and Cody was dying to meet Tanya Roberts from That ’70s Show. I think it is so incredibly cool that we were all there (and were all beyond excited) to meet such different celebrities!
And I should mention here that while some parts of the Hollywood Show are awesome, some are most-definitely odd. There are several booths set up where one can buy movie memorabilia, props and costumes, which I loved. (That’s the Bride of Chucky puppet pictured above.) My friend Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, who was dragged to the show under duress by our mutual friend Duggan, showed me a very cool booth that was selling vintage magazines, some from as far back as 1983, which I also loved. But there were also some seriously random, Twilight Zone-worthy booths. Directly next to the Bride of Chucky table, a woman was selling fake Louis Vuitton purses out of a plastic crate, Canal Street-style. I kid you not! It was beyond weird, not to mention the fact that all of the purses were in really bad shape. Most had these odd red stains on them or had large tears through the fabric. I never did know quite what to make of that. All in all, though, I loved being there and am definitely signing up for the next show.
And we even spotted a few random celebrities while we were walking around, one of whom was Daniel Roebuck, from Lost, Matlock and The Fugitive, who was attending the show as a fan. Daniel was incredibly nice and happily posed for a pic with each of us.
When we were leaving, we also saw singer Jason Mraz who was rehearsing in a studio nearby. Jason was also incredibly nice and posed for photographs with our entire group. I was especially excited to meet him because “I’m Yours” was my wedding song with the Grim Cheaper.
Big THANK YOU to Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, for convincing me to come to this event!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: There is no stalking location for this one, but you can visit the Hollywood Show website here. The next Burbank show will take place on August 5th and 6th. If you are planning to attend, bring cash as credit cards and checks are not accepted.
A few months ago, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, posted some photographs on his site of Chateau LeMoine, an uh-ma-zing castle-like property that was featured in the Season 3 episode of Southland (his favorite television series, second only, of course, to Beverly Hills, 90210) titled “Cop or Not”. And while I have never watched Southland, I became majorly obsessed with the fabulously unique home. So, a couple of weeks back, while on our way to stalk Franc’s wedding coordinator office from Father of the Bride, which I blogged about in mid-April, I asked Mike to make a pit stop at the Chateau so that I could finally see it in person. And, let me tell you, the place did not disappoint!
Mike found this location thanks to a sign that read “LeMoine” that was visible in the background of “Cop or Not”.
He had also spotted an address number of “846” on the curb in front of the residence in the episode. A quick Google search of the terms “LeMoine”, “846”, “House”, and “Los Angeles” led him right to the Chateau LeMoine. Yay!
Chateau LeMoine was originally constructed in 1925 by French architect Earl LeMoine at a cost of $9,000. According to an article in the Larchmont Chronicle, LeMoine’s wife had fallen in love with the land, which contains a natural brook and waterfall, a few years prior and Earl had surprised her by building “a chateau resembling those in their native south of France” as a birthday present. After the death of Earl’s wife, the property went through a succession of different owners and eventually wound up in a state of disrepair. Until 2009, that is, when an architect named Dean Caldarelli and a real estate agent named Dmitri Chami purchased the dwelling and began an extensive renovation process, during which they widened doorways, fenced off the perimeter of the property, added interior archways, and built a large pool/”Baroque-influenced water feature” and garden area in the front yard.
An aerial view of the property pre-remodel is pictured above.
As you can see above, the property’s detailing is nothing short of spectacular. Sure, the place is a bit kitschy and over-the-top, but, then again, so is Los Angeles. 
Chateau LeMoine, which boasts five bedrooms, six baths, 4,510 square feet, 0.33 acres of land, a turret, a moat, four exterior courtyards (all with seating areas), a two-story wood-beamed living room with twenty-foot ceilings, and a one-bedroom, one-bath guest house, is currently for sale for a cool $2.475 million. You can check out the real estate listing here.
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In the “Cop or Not” episode of Southland, the Chateau LeMoine belonged to actor Billy Stearn (John Charles Meyer) and was where he was arrested for the murder of his estranged wife, Bethany.
The real life interior of the home, which you can see photographs of here, also appeared briefly in the episode.
A Ben McKenzie fan named Annie happened to catch the filming that took place at Chateau LeMoine and posted a great write-up of it, along with some fabulous photographs, on the Ben Support Live Journal website, which you can check out here.
Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Chateau LeMoine, from the “Cop or Not” episode of Southland, is located at 846 South Longwood Avenue in the Brookside area of Los Angeles, just south of Hancock Park.
This past Sunday afternoon, while doing some stalking in the Pacific Palisades area, I dragged the Grim Cheaper over to Amalfi Drive to stalk the main house used in the 2011 movie Jack and Jill. And I should mention here that while I did not have very high hopes for Jack and Jill before watching it a couple of weeks ago, both the GC and I ended up really enjoying it. Granted, it is by no means a classic, nor will it be winning any major awards any time soon, but it is sweet and funny and I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion. I also absolutely fell in love with the uh-ma-zing Mediterranean-style mansion where advertising executive Jack Sadelstein (Adam Sandler) lived in the flick and became just a wee-bit obsessed with stalking it. Thankfully, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, was able to track it down for me.
While watching Jack and Jill, Mike had noticed an address number of “343” visible on the curb in the background of the scene in which gardener Felipe (Eugenio Derbez) drove Jack’s visiting twin sister, Jill Sadelstein (who was also played by Adam Sandler), home from a party. Mike knew that the residence was located somewhere in Pacific Palisades thanks to an article on the Gambino Landscape Lighting blog and began searching aerial views of the area for Mediterranean mansions with a “343” in their number. Amazingly, it was not long before he found the right one. So I immediately added the address to my “To-Stalk” list and headed on over there on what turned out to be a very dreary and dismal afternoon, one which I did not dress at all appropriately for. I am surprised my lips are not blue in the first picture on this post. 
The Jack and Jill house was just recently built in 2005 and boasts 8 bedrooms, 8 baths, 10,160 square feet of living space, and 0.64 acres of land. As you can see on this Estately.com listing, a completely different residence once stood on the site, one that was built in 1948 and measured 3 bedrooms, 3 baths and 3,686 square feet, but it was sold in July 2002 (for a whopping $4 million, mind you) and subsequently torn down to make way for the Mediterranean manse pictured above.
Aerial views of the home show that there used to be a residence located next door, as well.
But that property has also since been leveled and its land now makes up the backyard of the Jack and Jill house;
as you can see above.
While we were stalking the house, a woman who lives in the area walked by and asked why we were taking pictures. When I told her that the home was where Adam Sandler lived in Jack and Jill, she got very excited and said she could not wait to tell her nieces and nephews the next time they came to visit. I SO love it when I inform random strangers about filming locations and they actually get excited, ‘cause, let me tell you, most of the time people (from L.A., at least) could care less. I am definitely an anomaly in this city.
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In Jack and Jill, the Mediterranean-style mansion was where Jack lived with his family – wife Erin (Katie Holmes), daughter Sofia (Elodie Tougne) and son Gary (Rohan Chand). The exterior of the residence was shown repeatedly throughout the movie.
Al Pacino, who played a crazy version of himself in the flick, even filmed a scene outside of the home’s front gate, which I somehow did not get a picture of. Fail!
The property’s real life backyard and pool area also appeared in the flick.
The interior of the Sadelstein house was just a set, though. You can check out some photographs of the property’s real life interior here and, as you can see, it does not match up at all to what appeared onscreen.
Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Jack and Jill house is located at 1343 Amalfi Drive in Pacific Palisades.
While out stalking in the San Gabriel Valley three Thursdays ago, on our way to visit Clark Magnet High School where Kris Witherspoon (my girl Shannen Doherty) went to school in the 1986 television series Our House (which I have yet to blog about), Mike, from MovieShotsLA, made a quick (pardon the pun) detour to Quick Stop Liquor, the very same liquor store that appeared in 1985’s Teen Wolf. Mike had found this location years beforehand, while searching for locales from the 1986 thriller River’s Edge, which was also filmed in the area. And even though I live fairly close to Tujunga, where the liquor store is located, for whatever reason I had never ventured out to stalk it. So, since we were just around the corner, Mike insisted we stop by. (On a side-note – I have been playing around with the colors and sizes of my photographs lately. Would love to hear what my fellow stalkers think! 
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Quick Stop Liquor, which was named Tony’s Liquor in the flick, shows up twice in Teen Wolf. It first pops up in the scene in which Stiles (Jerry Levine), donning a trucker hat, sunglasses and a shirt that says “Obnoxious: The Movie”, tries to purchase a keg of beer from the store’s curmudgeonly owner (Harvey Vernon) before heading to a house party, the location of which I blogged about here.
The liquor store’s real life interior also appeared in that scene.
Quick Stop Liquor shows up once again a few scenes later when Stiles convinces his best friend/teen werewolf, Scott Howard (Michael J. Fox), to attempt to buy a keg, using a water gun as intimidation, from the same curmudgeonly shop owner.
The shop’s real life interior was also used in that scene, as well.
It is while there that Scott has one of his very first experiences as a werewolf. After being denied the keg and being chewed out by the shop owner, Scott gets just a wee bit angry, his eyes turn red, his voice deepens quite a few octaves, and he utters the film’s famous line, “GIVE ME. A KEG. OF BEER!”
While the exterior of Quick Stop Liquor is now pink (although I am not typically a fan of change, pink is my favorite color, so I have to say, “Yay!”) and the sign and store name have since been altered, the place looks pretty much the same as it did in Teen Wolf, despite the fact that almost three full decades have since passed. So incredibly cool!
Sadly though, a building has since been constructed in the area directly next to the liquor store, where Stiles and Scott parked their cars in Teen Wolf.
While stalking the place, Mike and I ventured inside to ask the woman working if we could snap some pictures. And while she was reticent at first, once Mike showed her his Teen Wolf page on MovieShotsLA and she realized that Quick Stop had appeared in a film, she got pretty excited. I so love it when that happens! 
As you can see above, while the interior of the store has changed a bit over the years, it is still pretty recognizable from the movie.
The woman also confirmed for us that the store’s front counter had been shortened in recent years, which is such a shame! I so would have loved to have seen the place in its original form!
You can watch the Teen Wolf “GIVE ME A KEG OF BEER” scene by clicking above.
On a stalking side-note – fellow stalker Allen Fuqua, of the Movie Mimic website, recently contacted me to ask if I would like to reenact a scene from Fast Times at Ridgemont High with him. I, of course, readily agreed and this past Sunday afternoon, the two of us, Grim Cheaper in tow, ventured out to Van Nuys High School to attempt a Movie Mimic. The result is pictured above. I had an absolute blast movie-mimicking and getting to meet Allen and the photograph he created far exceeded my expectations. I highly recommend checking out Allen’s fabulous site, in which he travels to places ALL OVER THE WORLD (the guy has been EVERYWHERE, including London where he reenacted stills from my favorite movie of all time, Love Actually) and recreates iconic scenes from iconic movies. Love it! And, in an AMAZING twist, this past weekend The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences/The Oscars posted our Fast Times pic on their Facebook page. PINCH ME!
Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for finding this location!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Quick Stop Liquor, aka the Teen Wolf liquor store, is located at 6670 Foothill Boulevard in Tujunga.
Because I spent all day yesterday cleaning (once again – UGH!), I did not have time to write a new column for today. But I did get to meet actress Emma Roberts earlier this week, so I thought I would post the pic I took with her so that today’s blog would not be a total waste. 
I hope that all of my fellow stalkers have a fabulous weekend!
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
This past Saturday, after stalking the New Girl apartment building, which I blogged about on Monday, the Grim Cheaper and I decided to grab a bite to eat at one of the many Arts District (my new favorite neighborhood!) restaurants nearby. We ended up settling on The Novel Café, just down the street from the New Girl building, and after ordering our food, I asked the cashier if anything had ever been filmed on the premises. Well, let me tell you, I just about keeled over when she informed me that Little Black Book, one of my favorite movies EVER, had filmed at the eatery way back in 2003. As the lights started to go off in my head, I realized that I was actually standing in a location that I had been trying to track down for years – the supposed New Jersey-area coffee shop where Stacy (Brittany Murphy) met Joyce (Julianne Nicholson) for the first time in the flick. I cannot tell you the countless hours I wasted looking for that darn café online, all to no avail, and here the GC and I had just unknowingly wandered right into it. I so love it when that happens!
At the time of the filming, The Novel Café was actually a Groundwork Coffee shop, but, thankfully, virtually none of the interior or exterior was altered when the place changed hands.
As you can see above, The Novel Café is an adorable little coffee shop. Thanks to its exposed brick walls, industrial-style ambiance and New Yorky-vibe, I, of course, absolutely fell in love with the place on the spot. Oh, how I am missing Manhattan right now! But I digress. I am very happy to report that, besides being a cool hangout, The Novel Café also serves up some great food. I ordered a mushroom cheeseburger, which was phenomenal, and I am not even that big a fan of hamburgers. The GC opted for the tuna sandwich, which he also loved. Because of its almost hidden, out-of-the-way location, I would have guessed that the eatery would be a big-time celebrity hotspot, but the only celeb connection that I could find online was the fact that actress Emmy Rossum and boyfriend Tyler Jacob Moore were spotted there last June.
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In Little Black Book, Stacy sets up a meeting, under false pretenses, with her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend Joyce at the former Groundwork Coffee. Both the exterior . . .
. . . and the interior of the cafe were used in the filming.
Ironically enough, musician Gavin Rossdale played the very small role of the barista who gave Stacy a hard time in that scene. In the credits, his character is listed as “Random”. LOL
Thanks to fave website OnLocationVacations, I learned that the coffee shop was also featured in the Season 1 episode of The Nine Lives of Chloe King titled “All Apologies”. The exterior appeared in the scene in which Chloe King (Skyler Samuels) randomly runs into her crush, Brian Rezza (Grey Damon).
The interior was later used in the scene in which Chloe is late meeting her friends Amy (Grace Phipps) and Paul (Ki Hong Lee) for dinner.
Also thanks to OnLocationVacations, I learned that The Novel Café was featured (very briefly) in the Season 5 episode of Criminal Minds titled “The Internet is Forever”, in the scene in which a serial killer spies on his next victim at a coffee shop.
The area just to the right of The Novel Café’s entrance was used as the coffee shop where Alistair (Robert Miano) met with Lavinia (Meadow Williams) in the ultra-odd 2011 flick Mysteria.
The Novel Café also appeared in 2003’s The Shape of Things, but unfortunately I could not find any copies of that movie online, so I was only able to make a few screen captures from its preview on YouTube.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Novel Café, the former Groundwork Coffee from Little Black Book, is located at 811 Traction Avenue in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the café’s official website here.
While Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I were out stalking two Thursdays ago, I asked him to take me by the Hancock Park-area mansion where Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (the former Miss Kate Middleton), stayed while visiting Los Angeles last July. Mike had found the property a few months prior thanks to fave website CurbedLA, which had done extensive reporting on the Mediterranean-style pad shortly before the royal couple touched down in La La Land on July 9th, and had stalked it shortly thereafter. Not surprisingly, I had been absolutely drooling over the pictures he snapped while there and was dying to do some stalking of the place myself. So, on our way out to Franck’s wedding coordinator shop from Father of the Bride, which I blogged about last Thursday, we took a detour to the William and Kate house.
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William and Kate’s holiday homestead is known as the Erle M. Leaf House and it was designed in 1928 by Wallace Neff, the prolific Southern California architect who also designed the estate where Amanda lived in The Holiday, Villa del Sol d’Oro from Passport to Paris, and Viola’s mansion from Monster-in-Law, as well as countless other famous movie abodes. According to Zillow, the Leaf House, which sits on almost half an acre of land, measures 7 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, and 7,247 square feet. But there seems to be a discrepancy somewhere because the Ronald Chang Architecture team, who did a recent remodel of the dwelling, states on their website that, after the latest add-on, the residence measures 10,000 square feet. Either way, the property is quite gorgeous, but far more average than I had expected it to be.
It is amazing to me that the heir to the British throne and his new wife stayed in such a “normal” home while visiting L.A. Yes, it is a beautiful estate and quite large, but there is no gate, no wall, no tall hedges to block it from public view. Granted, the entire street and surrounding area was barricaded by police officers and private security during the Duke and Duchess’ three-day stay, but still. I would have expected a much more private and exclusive abode to have housed them. Being that the British government purchased the property in 1957 to be used as a residence for the British Consuls-General, though, I guess it makes sense. You can check out some fabulous interior photographs of the Erle M. Leaf House and its recent remodel here. As you can see, the “before” kitchen was pretty atrocious, but the new one is absolutely to-die-for.
On a random side-note – My girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, did some stalking of The Lucky One premiere this past Monday evening and who should she run into while there, but the love of my life, Matt Lanter (sigh!). Pinky asked Matt for a photo, to which he happily obliged (because he’s the sweetest!), and she then mentioned my rooftop encounter with him last April. Well, in an amazing twist, Matt said he REMEMBERED ME! UM, HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE???? DYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pinky then reiterated how much I loved him, that he is one of my “Top Three”, that I want to bear his children (just kidding about that last part 
) and he said to tell me “Hi”! Um, HI, MATT! When Pinky texted me the news shortly thereafter I just about hyperventilated from excitement and am still pretty much glowing over the whole thing! Best. Night. Ever.
Big THANK YOU to Mike, from MovieShotsLA, for taking me to this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The Erle M. Leaf House, aka the Residence of the Los Angeles British Consuls-General where Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, stayed in July 2011, is located at 450 South June Street in Hancock Park.
My good friend/fellow stalker Lavonna has been begging me to track down locations from New Girl for a good three months now, but because I had never seen an episode of the series I was unable to do so. Until last Monday evening, that is, when the Grim Cheaper and I finally sat down and started watching it from the beginning. Thank you, Hulu! I have to admit that I did not have very high hopes for the show as, for whatever reason, I am not that big of a fan of actress Zooey Deschanel (whose mom played Eileen Hayward on fave series Twin Peaks, but I digress). I ended up LOVING it, though, and both the GC and I are now absolutely hooked! After watching the first few episodes, I immediately started doing research on the warehouse-style loft apartment building where the New Girl gang lives (Lavonna’s most coveted locale from the series) and thankfully, Christine, over at fave website OnLocationVacations, had posted the address several times on her Daily Filming Locations page. So I dragged the GC right on out to the Arts District in Downtown L.A. this past Saturday afternoon to do some stalking of the place. (On a side-note, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, just taught me how to process my photographs using the soon-to-be defunct Picnik editing program, so I have been having a little fun with them today. Don’t mind me. 
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I had never before visited – or even heard of – the “Arts District” (or “Artists District” as it is sometimes referred to) until this past Saturday, but according to the Los Angeles Downtown Arts District website, the area is the site of an average of 900 movie shoots per year! Um, yes please – sign me up! It is basically a stalker’s heaven – and one of the coolest spots that I have been to in all of my stalking travels. The District became a haven for the artistically-inclined in 1976 thanks to the many affordable studio-type spaces available in the countless then-abandoned buildings and warehouses located there. Artists gradually began to take over the many spacious lofts, turning them into art studios and illegal living spaces (the area was not yet zoned as residential). In the 1980s, the Artists-In-Residence ordinance was passed which allowed lessees to use their flats as live/work spaces and, as a result, even more artisans flocked to the area. Today, the Arts District is a flourishing mecca of artists and hipsters and boasts fabulous brick buildings, sidewalk cafes and more galleries than you can shake a stick at. While there, not only did I feel like I had been transported back to my beloved Manhattan, but we ended up falling bass-ackwards into one of my most sought-after filming locations ever! But that is another story for another post.
In real life, the property where the New Girl gang lives is known as the Binford Building and it was originally constructed in 1906, but was not converted into a residential structure until the mid-1980s. The 36-unit domicile was the brainchild of real estate developer Michael Kamin, owner of the Mika Company, who, in a 1986 Los Angeles Times article said, “We wanted to make the building a statement and an art piece — something that says this is an exciting place to live, something to keep the focus on this street.” I would say he succeeded – in spades! The structure is definitely unique and the most eye-catching on the entire block.
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In New Girl, the Binford Building is where Jess (Zooey Deschanel), Nick (Jake M. Johnson), Schmidt (Max Greenfield), and Winston (Lamorne Morris) live. The exterior of the structure is shown weekly on the series.
The building’s main entrance has also popped up from time to time.
That entrance is shown above.
As you can see, the Binford’s real life directory and intercom are even visible on the show. Love it!
The interior of the gang’s apartment is just a set, though, located at Fox Studios where (I am fairly certain) the series is lensed. You can check out some photographs of the interior of an actual Binford Building unit here. As you can see, it does not look anything like the New Girl loft. I am absolutely IN LOVE with the group’s sprawling, FOUR-bedroom, industrial, brick-walled loft, by the way. The GC and I also live in a loft-style apartment that I ADORE, but it is 750-square feet, has no actual bedrooms and only ONE teeny-tiny closet! Yes, ladies, I have to share a closet with my husband – GASP! The GC recently commented that he has noticed his side of the closet getting gradually smaller over the years. Ha! And here I thought I was being all sly. 
So yes, I have been known to drool copiously while watching New Girl. I definitely have apartment envy!
I could do without their public-style bathroom, though, which is an aspect of the show that I still do not entirely understand.
According to a message board on the Animation Nation website, the premiere episode of the cartoon Family Dog (which was part of Steven Spielberg’s anthology series Amazing Stories) was created by animator Brad Bird in one of the Binford Building lofts. The family in the series was even named “The Binfords” in honor of the property. Traction Avenue, the street where the Binford is located, was also mentioned (and briefly seen on a freeway sign) in Bird’s 2004 hit, The Incredibles.
You can watch a video about the Binford Building lofts by clicking above.
Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Lavonna for asking me to find this location (and for turning me on to New Girl) and to Christine, from OnLocationVacations, for tracking it down!
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The Binford Building, aka the New Girl apartment building, is located at 837 Traction Avenue in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles.