I spent pretty much all day yesterday doing some stalking of celebrities (one of whom was fellow stalker Owen’s – of the When Write is Wrong blog – girlfriend, Jennifer Love Hewitt 
) with Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, so I was unfortunately unable to write a new post for today. I hope all of my fellow stalkers have a fabulous weekend, though, and I promise to be back on Monday with a whole new location!
This past Saturday afternoon, a fellow stalker named “Pookie” posted a comment on my site in which she mentioned that the mansion where Steff (James Spader) lived in 1986’s Pretty in Pink was located just up the street from the the Residence of the Los Angeles British Consuls-General where Kate Middleton and Prince William stayed in July 2011, which I blogged about last month. As it turns out, Pookie’s parents live right around the corner from the Pretty in Pink dwelling and she was lucky enough to have witnessed some of the filming of the iconic 80s flick when it took place back in 1985. Well, as you can imagine, I was extremely excited about learning the location of Steff’s house, and, since we were only a few miles away at the time, asked the Grim Cheaper to take me right on over there to stalk the place.
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In real life, Steff’s house is absolutely stunning and looks like it belongs in a neighborhood somewhere on the East Coast and not in the heart of Los Angeles’ Hancock Park. The French chateau-style property, which was originally designed in 1927 by the Webber, Staunton & Spaulding architecture firm, boasts seven bedrooms, a whopping eight baths, 7,140 square feet of living space, over half an acre of land, four fireplaces, original chandeliers and wall sconces, formal gardens, a reflecting pond, a three-car garage, a separate guest apartment, and (according to a comment left by Evan on The Houses of Hancock Park blog) a third floor that inexplicably houses a disco. The mansion was recently sold, in May of last year, for a cool $5 million. You can check out the real estate listing here.
One odd thing I noticed about the house, though, was that one of its windows has been completely cemented over, as you can see below. Even odder still is the fact that the cemented-over space still remains flanked by shutters.
Most odd of all, though, is the fact that the window even appears to have been covered over way back in 1985 when Pretty in Pink was filmed. Why in almost three decades worth of time did the homeowners not remove the shutters? Or re-install the window? Very, very strange.
Steff’s mansion, which is supposedly located in Elgin, Illinois, shows up three times in Pretty in Pink. It first pops up towards the beginning of the movie in the scene in which Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) and Duckie (John Cryer) are shown driving through a ritzy neighborhood late at night. As Andie stops to admire the residence, she announces that it is her favorite on the whole street and then poignantly says, “ You know what the really sad thing is, though? I bet the people that live there don’t think it’s half as pretty as I do.“
The mansion next shows up in the scene in which Blane McDonnagh (Andrew McCarthy) brings Andie to a party at his best friend Steff’s house.
As you can see from the screen captures and photographs (which I got off of the property’s real estate listing) below, the home’s actual interior was used in that scene, as well. It is amazing how little the residence has changed over the past 27 years. Love it!
It even appears that the very same headboard that was used in the movie is still there in real life! So incredibly cool!
Finally, the mansion’s library area popped up towards the end of Pretty in Pink in the scene in which Steff tells Blaine that he will stop being friends with him if he continues to date “trash” like Andie. As you can see in the screen capture and photograph below, the very same curtains, chair, desk, and stool which appeared in the movie are still there in real life. INCREDIBLE!
Thanks to the Scarecrow and Mrs. King forum, I learned that Steff’s house also appeared extensively in the Season 1 episode titled “Waiting for Godorsky” as the supposed Washington, D.C.-area mansion of Princess Sophia Valosky (Hildegard Knef).
As you can see, the window was even covered over way back in early 1984 when the episode was filmed.
The interior of the mansion also appeared briefly in Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
Back in June 2010, the Before the Trailer website mentioned that Dior was filming at the residence and, after doing some digging online, I discovered that the filming was actually for the Miss Dior fragrance campaign that starred actress Natalie Portman. Ironically enough, while the spot was supposed to take place in Paris and the vast majority of it was, in fact, lensed in the City of Light, a small portion of it was shot at Steff’s mansion! As you can see below, the awning and wading pool which appeared in the Dior commercial match up exactly to those which can be seen on the home’s real estate listing, although a fountain was added to the pool for the shoot.
The statues affixed to the plant pots that can be seen in the background of the shoot also match up to the statues that appear in the listing.
And finally, the large swan statue that is visible in the background of the ad matches the one that appears in the home’s listing.
You can watch the Dior ad by clicking below.
On a Pretty in Pink side-note – my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, and I were lucky enough to meet James Spader a couple of weeks ago after we randomly spotted the star leaving a movie theatre. And while we had heard that he could be unfriendly, I am very happy to report that he was extremely nice and seemed quite amused at our excitement over seeing him.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Steff’s mansion from Pretty in Pink is located at 366 South June Street in Hancock Park. 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 right down the street at 450 South June Street.
Two weekends ago, as the Grim Cheaper and I were making our way home from the Hollywood Show, I decided to peruse through my Facebook newsfeed and just about died when I saw that a fellow stalker named Brittany had posted photographs of numerous Friends props and costumes on display at the Warner Bros. “Television: Out of the Box” exhibit at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. Before seeing the pictures, I had been completely unaware of the new exhibit. And here I thought I had my finger on the pulse of L.A.! As you can imagine, I just about had a heart attack over Brittany’s fabulous pics and begged the GC to take me right on over there that very minute. Unfortunately, because the exhibit closes at 5 p.m. each day and it was already well into the afternoon by that time, I was forced to postpone our excursion until this past Saturday. And, despite some minor snafus which I will get to later, it was worth the wait and I had an absolute blast while there! (As you can see above, the exhibit is interactive and visitors are encouraged to sit on set pieces to pose for photographs, which I, of course, ate right up!)
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The Warner Bros. “Television: Out of the Box” exhibit features memorabilia, costumes and set pieces from over 50 different productions, but I was, of course, most excited to see the Friends items, which included (what were said to be) parts of the infamous Central Perk set. I was a bit confused about what the Central Perk couch was doing there, though, as I was fairly certain that the iconic piece was on permanent display at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. When I asked one of the many docents on duty about it, he explained that there were actually four couches made for the series and that they would be swapped out periodically throughout the show’s ten-year run so that no one couch would be overused and appear old or worn onscreen. Which makes sense, right? Well, something felt off about the whole “set” to me and after I returned home I discovered that, according to The Paley Center website, the Central Perk display is actually “a replica”. Which begs the question, why were the docents (who work for Warner Bros. and not The Paley Center) not aware of this fact? (And I am still trying out the GC’s idea of posting the descriptions of my photographs above the photographs themselves. It is extremely foreign to me, but a lot of people seem to like it.)
As you can see below, while similar, the couch on display at The Paley Center is most-definitely not the actual Friends couch. The arms and back of the real couch are much more rounded and have much thinner wood detailing than the “Television: Out of the Box” couch.
As I mentioned above, the actual Friends couch is on display at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. A photograph of it from one of the many VIP tours I have taken over the years is pictured below.
The coffee table featured in the exhibit also does not match the one that appeared on Friends.
Nor does the bench/coat rack that is on display.
Most maddening for me, though, was the fact that a docent had told me to be sure to sit in the green Central Perk chair, as one is not allowed to sit on it during a Warner Bros. tour. Beyond excited over this fact, I sat right down and decided to re-enact the scene in which Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) waves to Isabella Rossellini in the Season 3 episode titled “The One with Frank Jr.”. Needless to say, when I got home and popped in my DVD of the episode and realized it was not, in fact, the actual chair, I was a wee bit peeved.
As you can see below, other than being green and quilted, the chairs in no way resemble each other, which seriously chaps my a** (as Sarah Jessica Parker likes to say). Hmpfh! So while The Paley Center website might call their Central Perk set “a replica”, it is, sadly, not a very good one. It seems that someone went out and purchased random, semi-similar looking furniture for the display instead of having actual replicas made. Not cool, Paley Center, not cool at all.
The actual green chair is on display at Warner Bros. Studios, as you can see in the photograph below, which Mike, from MovieShotsLA, took. The lesson here is this – if you want to see the actual Central Perk set from Friends, buy tickets to a Warner Bros. Studios VIP Tour and skip The Paley Center exhibit.
That all being said, “Television: Out of the Box” did have some cool (what I hope were) actual costumes and props on display. Some of the other Friends memorabilia at the exhibit included Ross Geller’s (David Schwimmer’s) leather pants from the Season 5 episode titled “The One with All the Resolutions” (notice the shirt does not match the one he wore in the episode, though);
Monica Geller’s (Courteney Cox’s) see-through karaoke outfit from Season 9’s “The One Where Monica Sings” [one of Chandler Bing’s (Matthew Perry’s) sweater-vest ensembles is pictured next to it];
one of Phoebe Buffay’s (Lisa Kudrow’s) outfits (I believe the coat was worn in several episodes, one of which was Season 7’s “The One with the Engagement Picture”, although the fringe on the sleeves seems to be missing), as well as one of her guitars;
the turkey Monica wore on her head in Season 5’s “The One with All the Thanksgivings” (the turkey looked so real, it was almost unbelievable!);
Chandler and Monica’s wedding vows (which both appear to have been written by the same person) and wedding rings;
Joey Tribbiani’s (Matt LeBlanc’s) shirt from the Season 7 episode titled “The One Where Rosita Dies”;
and a mash-up of two different outfits worn by Rachel during Season 10.
I originally thought that Rachel donned the schoolgirl-esque ensemble during the final episode of the series, but as you can see, while similar, it is not the same outfit.
Once I realized that it was not the finale outfit, fellow stalker Owen, of the When Write Is Wrong blog, and I went on a hunt to track down the episode in which it was worn. As it turns out, the ensemble is actually a combination of two different costumes. The shirt was worn in the episode titled “The One with the Late Thanksgiving”, while the skirt and boots were worn in two episodes (due to a continuing scene) – “The One with Princess Consuela” and “The One Where Estelle Dies”.
You can see below how truly tiny Jennifer Aniston is. I am a pretty small girl, but I look like an Amazon woman standing next to her costume!
Also on display was Ross’ “Science Boy” comic book from the Season 9 episode “The One with the Mugging” and his laminated “Freebie List” from Season 3’s “The One with Frank Jr.”, which, as any diehard Friends fan will notice, has a glaring mistake on it.
In “The One with Frank Jr.”, Ross’ Freebie List was said to be comprised of the following actresses: 1. Uma Thurman, 2. Winona Ryder, 3. Elizabeth Hurley, 4. Michele Pfeiffer, and 5. Dorothy Hamill. If you’ll remember, Ross removed Isabella Rossellini (#2 above) from his final list for “geographical reasons” and Vanessa Williams (#4 above) was never mentioned at all. I thought that maybe the card above had been made far in advance of the filming and that the script had, for whatever reason, changed at some point, and producers figured that because the laminated card would never be seen up close by the audience, it did not matter that an inaccurate one was being used. After I got home, though, I scanned through the episode to see if the list was ever visible up close and, as it turns out, it was! In the scene in which Isabella looks at Ross’ card, I saw that it was not, in fact, the same one that was on display at The Paley Center.
Just when I was about to lose all hope in the authenticity of the “Television: Out of the Box” exhibit, I decided to check out the scene in which Ross first presented his list to the group and, oddly enough, in that scene The Paley Card was used. As you can see, it does, in fact, have Isabella’s name listed on it, as well as Vanessa Williams’. Why there were two cards made and used is beyond me, but that appears to have been the case.
Other sets on display at the “Television: Out of the Box” exhibit included a Monk’s booth from Seinfeld (which after the debacle with the Central Perk set, I am doubting is even real);
as well as some costumes from the series.
There were also several props and costumes from The Big Bang Theory;
The Ellen DeGeneres Show;
Gossip Girl;
Gilmore Girls;
ER;
The O.C. (LOVE IT!);
The West Wing;
True Blood;
and The Mentalist, Southland, The Closer, and Cold Case (all pictured below).
And while I took over 150 photographs of the exhibit (no joke!), I obviously could not showcase them all here. Other productions with memorabilia on display include Full House, Family Matters, Supernatural, Perfect Strangers, The Vampire Diaries, and Two and a Half Men. Despite the faux Central Perk set, I had an absolute blast visiting the “Television: Out of the Box” exhibit and cannot more highly recommend it to others.
Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Brittany for telling me about this exhibit! 
Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Warner Bros.’ “Television: Out of the Box” exhibit is being held at the Paley Center for Media, which is located at 465 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. The exhibit will run through 2015 and is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students, and $5 for children under 13. You can find out more information about the exhibit here. Be forewarned, the Central Perk set on display at “Television: Out of the Box” is not the actual Friends set, but a poorly-executed replica. The actual Central Perk set can be viewed on the VIP Tour at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, which you can purchase tickets for here.
While doing research on the Harper House from Scream 3, which I blogged about in mid-April, I came across some information about an apartment complex – located on the very same street and designed by the very same architect – where my girl Miss Marilyn Monroe once lived. I was, of course, beyond ecstatic to learn about a previously-unknown Marilyn location and immediately added the building, which is named Romanesque Villa or Romanesque Villa Apartments, to my “To-Stalk” list. It was not until I dragged the Grim Cheaper out there just a few days later that I realized the complex is located directly across the street from Villa Primavera, the In a Lonely Place apartment building that I stalked last October. How I had been standing less than 20 feet away from Marilyn’s former home at the time without even realizing it is absolutely beyond me! The GC keeps saying that all of the blonde hair dye I use is starting to affect my brain and, in cases like this, I can’t really argue with him. 
On a side note – I am switching things up a bit today as the GC recently suggested that I post the descriptions of my photographs above the actual photographs themselves. And, even though he is almost never right , I thought I would try out his idea for a few days. Let me know what you think. And now, on with the post!
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The Romanesque Villa Apartments were originally constructed in 1928 and were commissioned by Michael and Isaac Mann. As I mentioned above, the garden courtyard complex was designed by none other than Leland Bryant, the very same architect who also gave us the Harper House and the Sunset Tower Hotel.
As you can see below, the architectural detailing of the Spanish Colonial Revival/Churrigueresque-style building is nothing short of spectacular. I literally could not take my eyes off the place while I was there.
And while the exterior of Romanesque Villa does not bear much of a resemblance to that of the Harper House, the interiors of the buildings’ actual units are almost identical, especially the bathroom areas.
You can watch a video tour of one of the Romanesque Villa apartments (in which the building is incorrectly identified as the “Harper House”) from the West Hollywood Patch website by clicking below. As you can see, the bathroom is pretty much an exact match to Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) and Christine Hamilton’s (Kelly Rutherford) bathroom in Scream 3.
Marilyn Monroe reportedly lived off and on at Romanesque Villa Apartments from 1950 to 1951. The starlet had previously been residing with her agent/purported lover Johnny Hyde, but when he passed away on December 18th, 1950, she decided to move in with her beloved acting coach Natasha Lytess, whom she had been studying with since the filming of Columbia Pictures’ Ladies of the Chorus in 1948. There seems to be a bit of confusion over Marilyn and Natasha’s exact apartment number, though. You can see a photograph on the icollector.com website here of a check written by MM on December 23, 1950 in which she lists her address as “1301 N. Harper Ave.” That same address is written on a photograph release form that Marilyn signed on April 26th, 1949, which you can take a look at here. But the very cool Marilyn and the Camera website has a check signed by the actress in which she notes her address as 1309 N. Harper Avenue. Despite the many conflicting reports, most written in the actress’ own hand, the majority of publications agree that MM lived in Unit 1309, which is pictured below. Legend has it that Marilyn, fraught with despair over Johnny Hyde’s death, also attempted suicide during her tenure at Romanesque Villa.
According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory website, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Anita Stewart, and John Welch also all lived at Romanesque Villa at one time or another. And fave book Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide states that upon first arriving in Hollywood, actress Marlene Dietrich moved into an apartment at the Villa thanks to some advice from the man who had discovered her, director Josef von Sternberg, who also lived on the premises with his then wife, Riza Royce. Rumor has it that an affair between Marlene and Josef heated up shortly thereafter. Josef eventually filed for divorce from Riza and she, in turn, slapped Marlene with two lawsuits, one for alienation of her husband’s affections and the other for libel. Both lawsuits were later dropped and Josef and Marlene went on to collaborate in a total of seven films.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Romanesque Villa Apartments, where Marilyn Monroe once lived, are located at 1301-1309 North Harper Avenue in West Hollywood. Villa Primavera, the In a Lonely Place apartment building, is located directly across the street at 1300-1308 North Harper Avenue. The Harper House, from Scream 3, is located just up the street at 1334-1336 North Harper Avenue. Pink Taco, aka the former site of the Roxbury, is also located just up the street at 8225 West Sunset Boulevard. And Pinches Tacos, from the “It’s On Bitch” episode of The Hills, is located just around the corner at 8200 West Sunset Boulevard.
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.