Your definitive source to filming locations and all things Hollywood!
I will be taking the rest of this week off as my mom is having surgery and I will be helping with her recuperation, as well as celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. I hope all of my fellow stalkers have a fabulous holiday!
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
At one point last year, I mentioned that I would occasionally be blogging about stalk-worthy locales that do not have a film connection. Today’s post chronicles one of those places. A few months ago, fellow stalkers Becky and Anushika told me about Alfred Coffee & Kitchen, a quaint West Hollywood café that they thought I would adore. They were right. (To be fair, though, it was a pretty sure bet – I’ve yet to meet a coffee shop I didn’t like. 
) When I first set foot inside the eatery, I immediately fell in love. So I brought my friends Lavonna, Kim, Melissa and Maria there for a cup of joe while they were in L.A. two weeks ago visiting from Ohio.
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Alfred Coffee & Kitchen was founded in 2013 by real estate developer Joshua Zad. As a longtime area resident, Zad was frustrated that there was not a place to grab a coffee or baked good within walking distance of West Hollywood’s fashionable Melrose Place shopping district, so he decided to open one himself. He found the perfect site in a charming yellow-hued building situated on the eastern end of the tree-lined road. The entrepreneur had once lived on Alfred Street, just off Melrose Place, and named his new eatery in honor of his former address. It opened on January 23rd.
Thanks to its quaint charm and neighborhood-y feel, Alfred Coffee proved extremely popular from the get-go.
While the exterior of the eatery is absolutely adorable . . .
. . . it was the Manhattan-esque split-level interior that had me drooling! Upon walking in the front door, patrons are greeted with a huge “But first, coffee” sign, that I, of course, loved. Of being at Alfred, TimeOut Los Angeles said, “The experience is irresistibly Instagram-able (Seriously. That ‘But first, coffee’ decal should have its own handle.).” I couldn’t agree more – in fact, I did Instagram that very decal during my first visit to the café.
Alfred’s ground level boasts an intimate living room-like space for lounging, complete with a working fireplace.
The basement level features a seating area, as well as a large barista counter. Both floors are constantly jam-packed with patrons. One sip of an Alfred latte and you’ll understand why. The coffee is spectacular!
Alfred is most famous for its specialty espresso and macchiato drinks which come served in a four-ounce chocolate-dipped waffle cone cup.
While not a filming location, Alfred is a major celebrity hotspot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there include Vanessa Hudgens, Jaimie Alexander, Mickey Rourke, Dianna Agron, Jamie King, Jonah Hill, Jesse Metcalfe, Joe Jonas, (my boyfriend) Jerry Ferrara, Dolph Lundgren, Jennifer Meyer, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Ashley Tisdale, Emma Roberts and Camilla Belle.
My favorite blogger, Cupcakes and Cashmere’s Emily Schuman, even shot an outfit post at Alfred back in mid-2013.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.
Big THANK YOU to fellow stalkers Anushika and Becky for telling me about this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Alfred Coffee & Kitchen is located at 8428 Melrose Place in West Hollywood. You can visit the eatery’s official website here.
Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post – about Ben’s apartment from National Treasure. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.
I was saddened to learn recently that both Selfie and A to Z – two of my favorite new shows of the fall season – had been cancelled. If How to Get Away with Murder winds up on the chopping block next, the networks will be receiving a very strongly worded letter from me! While Selfie is (or should I say “was”?) both hilariously written and fabulously acted, it is the architectural house where Henry Higgs (John Cho) lives on the series that has me most obsessed. So while I was in L.A. last week (before I learned that the show had been canceled) with my good friends Lavonna, Kim, Melissa and Maria (that’s Melissa and Maria pictured above) who were visiting from Ohio, we headed out to Altadena to see the pad in person.
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Henry’s sprawling post-and-beam-style house is featured regularly on Selfie.
The residence looks very much the same in person as it does onscreen. I was shocked to discover while there, though, that the pad sits on a humongous piece of land. In establishing shots, only a small, tight-angle shot of Henry’s home is shown, so I never pictured it to be situated on such a massive lot, which, according to Redfin, measures 1.02 acres.
The tranquil property, which is located towards the end of a hilly, winding road, is extremely private and quiet.
The structure was originally built in 1949 by architect Robert F. Gordon. The entryway and living area were then remodeled in 1975 by Tim Andersen and in 2004 the husband-and-wife team of Fung + Blatt converted the home’s detached poolside stables into a guest retreat with a bedroom, kitchenette and bath. You can check out some photographs of the guest house remodel here.
In real life, the one-story residence boasts three bedrooms, three baths and 1,844 square feet of living space. Over the years, the stunning property has been featured in Sunset, Los Angeles and Atomic Ranch magazines.
I am fairly certain that the interior of Henry’s home is a mix of both the Altadena dwelling’s actual interior (which you can see photographs of here and here – LOVE the living room’s built-in couch and shelving) and a set located at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank where Selfie is lensed. I believe the room pictured below, which is the area of the house shown most often on the series, is a set.
But I think that the other sections of the house that appear onscreen are those of the real life residence. Henry’s kitchen, which is pictured in the screen captures below, is an exact match to the home’s actual kitchen, which you can see in this photograph.
On a side-note – I will be on The Bill Feingold Show Featuring Kevin Holmes once again this morning at 8 a.m. PST. You can listen in here.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Henry’s house from Selfie is located at 3705 Alzada Drive in Altadena.
My favorite location from the television series Revenge is Grayson Manor, the massive Hamptons estate that originally belonged to the dysfunctional Grayson family, but is currently home to Emily Thorne (Emily VanCamp). It seems that pretty much everyone who watches the show is as obsessed with the house as I am and there are countless message boards dedicated to its design. While most commenters stipulate that the dwelling is not a real place, but a CGI-generated property created by Revenge production designers, that information is actually incorrect. As I have come to discover, Grayson Manor is an amalgamation of several different residences – one of which is located in Malibu.
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As I mentioned in my recent post about Porter’s Stowaway Tavern, while Revenge is set in the Hamptons, the pilot episode was actually shot at several real locations in North Carolina. When the series got picked up by ABC, replica sets of the NC locales were built at MBS Media Campus in Manhattan Beach where the show is lensed. During my obsessive Revenge binge-watching in September, I set out to find the exteriors of the two main residences used in the series – Emily’s beachfront cottage and Grayson Manor, which are shown to be located next door to each other. I wound up tracking down the address of Emily’s home on fave website Hooked on Houses. In reality, it is located at 6249 Pebble Shore Lane in Southport, North Carolina. Despite a few alterations, it looks pretty much exactly the same in real life as it does onscreen.
I was absolutely shocked to discover via aerial views and the real estate listing photo pictured below, though, that Grayson Manor was nowhere to be found. In reality, Emily’s house is not situated next to the Grayson’s massive estate, but a small community center and pool.
The anomaly led many fans to believe that Grayson Manor was simply a CGI-generated residence that does not actually exist. Thanks to an intrepid stalker who commented on Hooked on Houses, though, I learned that there is a real Grayson Manor. It is located at 257 Further Lane in East Hampton, New York. A few changes were made to the façade for the series, including a lengthening of the house, the addition of Victorian Grayson’s (Madeline Stowe) infamous turret, and a relocation of the pool from the side of the property to the back.
Despite those alterations, the estate is still largely recognizable from the series. What I wouldn’t give to see it in person!
The inside of an estate located at 2340 Ocean Point Drive in Wilmington, North Carolina was used for the interior of Grayson Manor in Revenge’s pilot episode (pictured below). Once the series got picked up, an almost exact replica of that interior was built inside of a soundstage. You can see comparison photos of the real interior and the set on Hooked on Houses here and you can see some great pictures of the Wilmington residence’s actual interior here.
Once filming relocated to Los Angeles, producers needed a dwelling bearing a similar look to the East Hampton house to be utilized for on location exterior shoots. They found the perfect pad at 27720 Winding Way in Malibu. While much smaller than the home from the pilot (which is still used in establishing shots of Grayson Manor), it does bear a resemblance to it.
Fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, managed to track down this locale for me, after I had spent countless hours searching with zero luck. In real life, the Winding Way estate, which was built in 2007, boasts three stories, five bedrooms (three of which are en-suite), nine baths, 10,000 square feet of living space, a formal dining room, a chef’s kitchen, a butler’s pantry, a media room, a gym, a playroom, a gift-wrapping room (a la Candy Spelling), a 3,000-square-foot basement, 5.8 acres of land, a pool, a spa, a tennis court, an equestrian corral and a playground. Sadly though, the property is located on a private road and none of it (aside from a small portion of the roof) is visible to the public. You can check out some close-up photos of the house here, though.
The Winding Way house first showed up in the Season 1 episode of Revenge titled “Charade,” in the scene in which Emily and Daniel Grayson (Joshua Bowman) returned to Grayson Manor after a swim in the ocean.
The pad has popped up several times since, including in the Season 3 episode titled “Hatred.”
The same residence was also used as the Hamptons home of Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) in the Season 5 episode of Castle titled “Murder He Wrote.”
The house where Nolan Ross (Gabriel Mann) – my favorite character – lived during the first season of Revenge is located just up the street at 27326 Winding Way. That particular location has been featured in dozens of productions, including Brothers and Sisters and 90210. Unfortunately, none of it is visible from the street.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.
Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen, from the When Write Is Wrong blog, for finding this location! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: The exterior of Grayson Manor from Revenge is located at 257 Further Lane in East Hampton, New York. The estate used for the interior filming of the pilot episode can be found at 2340 Ocean Point Drive in Wilmington, North Carolina. The residence used for on location exterior shoots is located at 27720 Winding Way in Malibu. Nolan’s Season 1 home on the series is located just up the road at 27326 Winding Way. Unfortunately, both Ocean Point Drive and Winding Way are private roads that are not accessible to the public.
Be sure to check out today’s Los Angeles magazine post – about Lynn Bracken’s house from L.A. Confidential. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.
I will be spending the next week in L.A. with my good friends Lavonna and Kim who are flying out from Cincinnati for a visit. We have a ton of fun adventures planned, which won’t leave much time for blogging, but I will be back the week of November 17th with a whole slew of new locations.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
The Grim Cheaper and I recently became obsessed with Revenge. We randomly started watching the ABC series on Netflix one night in early September and could NOT stop. For the next three weeks, the two of us obsessively binge-watched episodes, to the extent that I’m kind of surprised no one staged an intervention. We headed to L.A. for a few days in the middle of our Revenge-fest and made sure to bring along our Apple TV so that our viewing would not be interrupted. And we ordered room service every single night while there so that we could stay in front of the television during dinner! I was relieved when we finally caught up to the series’ current season, as it meant I could go back to living a normal life. It also meant that I could finally stalk some of the show’s locations, the first of which was the storefront that masquerades as Porter’s Stowaway Tavern.
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Though the Stowaway is said to be located in Montauk, New York, the exterior of the watering hole owned by Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler) on the series can actually be found in a small shopping center named Fisherman’s Village in Marina del Rey.
The picturesque complex is made up of five brightly-colored New England-style buildings situated along a cobblestone promenade that lines the waterfront.
And what a stunning waterfront it is!
Fisherman’s Village is best-known for the tall blue and white lighthouse that sits at its center and houses a walk-up café.
Sadly, the 1.2-acre complex started to decline in popularity in the ‘90s and city officials are now looking at redeveloping it or possibly tearing it down and replacing it with a parking lot. I certainly hope that does not happen.
Though most of the shops were vacant, I found Fisherman’s Village to be extremely quaint and charming. I would love to see new businesses move in and revitalize the place!
Interestingly, the Revenge pilot was not shot in California, but at various locations in North Carolina. The Fishy Fishy Café at 106 Yacht Basin Drive in Southport masked as Porter’s Stowaway Tavern in the episode. (You can check out some photographs of the restaurant being dressed for the shoot here.) The exterior of the café (pictured below) does bear a striking resemblance to the buildings at Fisherman’s Village, so it is not hard to see why the shopping center was chosen for filming once the series got picked up and production moved to Los Angeles.
From the second episode of Revenge on, a building that stands in the middle of Fisherman’s Village has masqueraded as the Stowaway. In real life, the structure houses a bike shop named Daniel’s Bicycle Rentals & Sales, an ice cream stand named Daniel’s Ice Cream, and a few other small offices.
The two-story building is only used for faraway establishing shots, though . . .
. . . as well as some rare walk-bys.
All close-ups of the tavern’s exterior are actually shot on a set. I was so hoping to see the Stowaway’s entrance . . .
. . . and patio area, and was shocked to discover upon stalking Fisherman’s Village that they actually only exist inside of a soundstage at MBS Media Campus, where the series is lensed.
While typically only the western side of the Fisherman’s Village building is shown on Revenge, in the recently-aired Season 4 episode titled “Ashes,” in which the Stowaway catches fire, the opposite side was utilized.
The super-nice Daniel’s Bicycle Rentals & Sales employee that I spoke with even sent me a photo of the fire scene being set up. SO INCREDIBLY COOL! As you can see, a fake façade was put over a portion of the bottom floor of the building for the shoot.
For the filming of the pilot episode, the actual interior of the Fishy Fishy Café was used as the interior of the Stowaway.
A (much larger) set resembling that interior was then built at MBS Media Campus for all subsequent filming.
Revenge is hardly the first production to make use of Fisherman’s Village. In fact, it popped up in another of my favorite shows, The O.C. In the Season 1 episode titled “The Rescue,” the shopping center was where Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton), Seth Cohen (Adam Brody), Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie) and Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson) grabbed pizza after helping Marissa to escape from the hospital. The scene was shot outside of what is now the Hornblower Cruises & Events office.
Later that season, in the episode titled “The Ties That Bind,” Seth and Ryan hung out on Seth’s boat which was docked at Fisherman’s Village.
The center was also the site of Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana Stand on Arrested Development. On the series, the banana stand was situated directly in front of the Fisherman’s Village lighthouse.
And in the Season 3 episode of Greek titled “All Children . . . Grow Up,” Fisherman’s Village stood in for Myrtle Beach, where the CRU kids spent Spring Break.
On a side-note – I would like to wish my mom a VERY happy birthday today! I love you! xo xo xo
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Porter’s Stowaway Tavern from Revenge, aka Daniel’s Bicycle Rentals & Sales, is located at 13737 Fiji Way, in the Fisherman’s Village shopping center, in Marina del Rey. “The Rescue” episode of The O.C. was shot outside of the Hornblower Cruises & Events office located at 13755 Fiji Way. Bluth’s Original Frozen Banana stand from Arrested Development was situated in front of the Lighthouse Fountain & Grill, which is located at 13735 Fiji Way.
Don’t forget to check out my latest Los Angeles magazine post – about Zelda’s apartment from A to Z. My articles typically get published in the late morning/early afternoon hours.
Well, here it is – my final Haunted Hollywood post of 2014. Sad day! 
Last September, I stalked an abandoned mental health institution named Rockhaven Sanitarium where Marilyn Monroe’s mother, Gladys Baker Eley, spent almost a decade and a half of her life. Due to the fact that the place was gated and boarded up, I only got to see the outside of it, though. So when Friends of Rockhaven contacted me last month to ask if I wanted to attend a tour of the property, I jumped at the chance! And what better time to do it than the day after Halloween?
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I covered Rockhaven’s history extensively in my post about the place last October, so I will just give you the CliffsNotes version here. The sanitarium was founded in 1923 by a nurse named Agnes Richards. Agnes wanted to create a home-like sanctuary to treat women suffering from mental illness and found the perfect spot to start it in Montrose. She leased a two-story residence with a stone edifice and dubbed it “Rockhaven.” (Sadly, that original building was damaged in the Sylmar earthquake and was replaced by the one-story Spanish Colonial Revival-style structure pictured below in 1972.) Agnes originally took in 6 patients, but by the next year that number had grown to 24.
As her patient list grew, Agnes began to purchase neighboring dwellings and to construct new buildings on adjacent plots of vacant land. By 1940, the expanded 3.3-acre site was comprised of 15 structures, with facilities to treat over 100 patients, a small hospital, a dining hall and a professional kitchen.
Agnes believed that idyllic surroundings would aid in her patients’ healing processes, so she made sure that Rockhaven’s grounds, which boasted gardens, trees, ponds, fountains, flowerbeds, patios, and walkways, were meticulously landscaped.
Even today, after sitting vacant for eight years, the place still shows shades of its former tranquility and beauty.
Upon Agnes’ retirement in 1956, her granddaughter, Patricia Traviss, took over operation of the site. When Patricia subsequently retired in 2001, Rockhaven was purchased by the Ararat Home of Los Angeles and was transformed into a nursing home. Ararat found the property too difficult and expensive to maintain, though, so it was shuttered in 2006 and has been left vacant ever since. In April 2008, the city of Glendale purchased Rockhaven and there were plans to turn the site into a community center and public park, but as funds dried up, so did the plans. The facility’s fate is currently up in the air. Thankfully, the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley and Friends of Rockhaven stepped in to care for the place. Friends of Rockhaven also conducts monthly tours of the premises, which is what the Grim Cheaper and I embarked upon this past Saturday.
The tour, which lasted 90 minutes and consisted of about 25 people, was everything that I hoped it would be – and more! Our group got to walk through every square inch of the property – even through indoor areas, which I absolutely loved.
And yes, due to the peeling paint and stillness of the place, being there was definitely spooky, even in broad daylight.
When Rockhaven was shuttered in 2006, its buildings were left furnished. Seeing them in such a state was absolutely eerie.
Many patients’ belongings were also left behind. Clothes were still reportedly hanging in closets and framed photographs arranged on nightstands. When Glendale purchased the site, city workers put the mementos in storage, but Friends of Rockhaven retrieved several items to display, which made the experience of being there all the more creepy. Patients’ rooms appear to be frozen in time, still awaiting the return of their occupants eight years later.
Seeing notes to the Ararat staff still taped to the walls was particularly eerie . . .
as was seeing the former patients’ names written on closet shelves . . .
. . . and on beds.
During its Rockhaven days, Agnes had all of the patients’ rooms decorated by interior designers and many of those embellishments are still in place today, such as the curtain valances and colorful wallpaper border pictured below.
The bathrooms, which were all extensively wallpapered, were particularly enthralling.
Some areas of the property are still set up as they were when Ararat was operational, such as the hospital . . .
. . . while others are now used as storage for the various equipment that was left behind.
During the tour, we were also shown a dilapidated porch;
Murphy beds still in working condition;
eerily quiet hallways;
and the commercial kitchen . . .
. . . with its humongous walk-in refrigerator . . .
. . . and stove, which was in desperate need of a good scouring.
I was most excited to see The Pines building, though, where Gladys lived during her time at Rockhaven.
Gladys, who suffered from mental illness her whole life, was admitted to Rockhaven Sanitarium on February 9th, 1953. Marilyn paid the tab with a $5,000-a-year trust fund she set up in her mother’s name. And yes, the starlet would often come to Rockhaven to visit Gladys. (Pictured below is the hallway leading from the front door into The Pines building.)
The Pines’ green-hued common area is pictured below.
Gladys’ former room is located in the northeast corner of the building.
During her stay at Rockhaven, Gladys escaped from the facility numerous times. In 1963, she tied bed sheets together and climbed out of the 18-inch closet window pictured below. She then scaled a fence and walked 15 miles to Lakeview Terrace Baptist Church in Pacoima, where she was found the following day.
Our tour guides were very accommodating and allowed me to pose for a photograph in front of Gladys’ escape window. In a bit of an eerie twist, when the GC originally snapped my picture, he checked it and said it turned out fine. It was not until we left The Pines building that he looked at it once again and noticed that it had become mysteriously dark. Maybe Gladys did not appreciate the fact that I was photographing her closet!
Our guides found the whole thing very amusing and kindly took me back inside to pose for a second picture.
While in the closet, I noticed what appeared to be handprints leading up to the window and on most of the walls. SPOOKY!
Gladys was released from Rockhaven in 1967 and went to live with her daughter Berniece Baker Miracle, Marilyn’s half-sister, in Florida. She passed away in Gainesville 17 years later, on March 11, 1984, at the age of 81.
The guides also shared some tales of mysterious happenings at Rockhaven. The piano pictured below apparently moves to various locations on the property of its own accord. In fact, when one of the docents opened the garage during the tour, he was shocked to see that the piano was standing in the middle of the room.
Apparently, the previous evening it had been stationed against a wall, barricaded by three very heavy pots, which had also since been moved. The guides reported that most of the ghosts people have witnessed on the property appeared to be happy ones, though – spirits who obviously enjoyed their time at Rockhaven and want to remain there in the afterlife.
All in all, the tour was a fabulous experience and I could not recommend it more. You can find out information about Friends of Rockhaven’s monthly tours here.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Los Angeles magazine online.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Rockhaven Sanitarium is located at 2713 Honolulu Avenue in Montrose. You can find out more information about Friends of Rockhaven’s monthly tours here.