Beverly Hills – Page 4 – IAMNOTASTALKER

July 13, 2010July 13, 2010

The Beverly Hills Courthouse – Where Lindsay Lohan Was Sentenced

Last Thursday morning, my fiancé and I ventured out to the Beverly Hills Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office to obtain our marriage license. Because the license application listed the address of the office as “9355 Burton Way, First Floor, Beverly Hills”, I assumed we would be going to some sort of government building. So, imagine my surprise when we pulled up to the Beverly Hills Municipal Courthouse – the exact spot where Lindsay Lohan had been sentenced to 90 days in jail just two days prior! As you can imagine, I just about died of excitement! Not that I am at all a fan of LiLo or anything, I was just ecstatic at the prospect of our marriage license being obtained in a stalking location. I guess it’s really true what they say about the Laws of Attraction because it seems I find myself stalking even when not meaning to. 😉 Unfortunately, I was not able to get many photographs while we were at the courthouse due to the plethora of signs that were posted on the premises announcing that photography of any kind was absolutely NOT allowed. I don’t think those signs are usually posted, by the way, I think they were there solely due to La Lohan’s recent trial. According to one of the security guards we spoke with, the courthouse was absolute pandemonium on the day of Lindsay’s sentencing. He said there were news vans parked up and down the entire street in front of the courthouse and at least a few hundred paparazzi and fans staked out on the sidewalk. Oh, how I wish we had gotten our marriage license two days earlier! 😉

While we were waiting for our marriage license to be processed, I ventured up to the second floor of the courthouse to use the restroom. On the way back downstairs a few minutes later, I spotted the name of Lindsay’s judge – Judge Marsha Revel – on the court directory in the elevator bay and just about had a heart attack! I was absolutely DYING to snap a picture of it, but didn’t due to the aforementioned “NO PHOTOGRAPHS OF ANY KIND” signs posted all over the building and the “YOUR ACTIONS ARE BEING WATCHED ON CCTV” notifications. My fiancé told me I was being a “sissy-la-la” and should have just taken the picture anyway, but I would have felt like a complete and total moron if I had been arrested or had had my camera confiscated for taking a photograph of Lindsay Lohan’s judge’s name on a stupid sign on the same day I was getting my marriage license! I mean, how incredibly lame would that have been??? 😉

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You can watch La Lohan arriving at and leaving the courthouse for her sentencing hearing on July 6 by clicking above. (WARNING – there are some expletives yelled out as she leaves the building, so the video is definitely NSFW.)

You can also watch Lindsay’s little sister Ali going through the courthouse metal detectors that same day by clicking above. As silly as it may sound, I cannot tell you how excited I was to be going through those very same metal detectors just a few days later! I know, I know, I really need to get out more!

The Beverly Hills Courthouse is actually no stranger to celebrity and it’s also a filming location! Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt decided not to get married there in the Season 4 episode of The Hills titled “I Heidi Take Thee Spencer” (pictured above). Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, and Danny DeVito all served their civic duty at the courthouse – Danny DeVito on the very same day on which LiLo was sentenced. Other celebrity trials which took place there include Winona Ryder’s 2002 shoplifting trial, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s 1989 slapping-a-police-officer trial, and Lane Garrison’s 2007 DUI/manslaughter trial. Actors Jessica Alba and Cash Warren even tied the knot in a civil ceremony at the courthouse on May 19, 2008. Unfortunately, we did not have any star sightings while we were getting our marriage license, though.

On a side note – if any of my fellow stalkers live in the Los Angeles area and are in need of a marriage license, I HIGHLY recommend obtaining one at the Beverly Hills Courthouse. My fiancé and I first attempted to apply for ours a few weeks ago at the County Clerk’s office located on Cesar Chavez Avenue in East Los Angeles and what a mistake that was! We ended up leaving after a scant five minutes and decided to try the Beverly Hills branch instead. The Beverly Hills office was nothing short of AWESOME – the clerks were SUPER friendly and the entire process, from the time we parked our car to the time we started our drive home, took only twenty minutes. And even though no photographs were allowed in the building, one of the clerks was nice enough to snap the above photograph of the Grim Cheaper and me as we signed our license. 🙂 See what I mean – sooooo incredibly friendly! Not what you would expect from a government office.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Beverly Hills Courthouse – and Register-Recorder/County Clerk’s Office – is located at 9355 Burton Way in Beverly Hills.

March 22, 2010March 21, 2010

Marilyn Monroe’s Former Doheny Drive Apartment Building

Another day, another Marilyn Monroe location. 🙂 Last month, fellow stalker and major Drew Barrymore aficionado Ashley, from The Drewseum website, tipped me off to The Marilyn Monroe Collection Blog which had just published a post about an apartment building where my girl had lived at two separate times during the 1950s and 1960s. Amazingly enough, for whatever reason, I had never heard of that particular apartment building in relation to Marilyn Monroe before and I immediately added the address to my list of must-see locations! So, while were out in Hollywood doing some Oscar Weekend stalking earlier this month, I finally dragged my fiancé right over to Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills to stalk Marilyn’s former residence. YAY!

I was especially excited to stalk this particular former residence of Marilyn’s because The Marilyn Monroe Collection Blog had posted a photograph of the actress which had been taken while she was parked in front of the building! So darn cool! As you can see in the photographs above, while there have definitely been some changes to the property since the picture of MM was taken – including the addition of garage doors and the removal of the vent-like structures above the carport area – the building is still very recognizable from the time when the actress lived there. Love it!

Marilyn first moved into the Doheny Drive apartment building, which had been constructed just one year prior, in 1953 and lived there for about a year before marrying baseball legend Joe DiMaggio on January 14, 1954. The actress, who was already wildly popular at the time thanks to starring roles in both Niagara and Gentleman Prefer Blonds, lived in Unit #3 of the building, a one bedroom, one bathroom dwelling which measured a scant 648 square feet! It is incredibly hard to imagine one of the world’s most popular movie stars living in such tiny digs, but she must have liked the place because in April of 1961, after her divorce from playwright Arthur Miller was finalized, the actress left New York and once again leased the very same unit in the very same building. She stayed there until March of 1962, at which point she moved into the Brentwood area home she had purchased a few months prior, the same home in which she would sadly pass away on the night of August 4th, 1962 (or in the early morning hours of August 5th, 1962, depending on which report you believe). Marilyn’s former apartment building is now a made up of individually owned condominium units.

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According to my buddy E.J. over at The Movieland Directory, Marilyn’s former building, the front entrance of which is pictured above, is no stranger to celebrity. Other stars who have lived on the premises include actor James Coburn, pinup girl Jeanne Carmen, French actress Bella Darvi, and actress Viola Mertz.

Big THANK YOU to Ashley from The Drewseum for tipping me off to this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Marilyn Monroe’s former apartment building is located at 882 North Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills. The actress lived in unit #3.

March 18, 2010March 17, 2010

Mia Wallace’s House from “Pulp Fiction”

A few weeks ago, fellow stalker Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, set his sights on tracking down every single location featured in the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction. Well, as soon as I found out about this bold undertaking, I begged him to find the ultra-modern abode belonging to Mia Wallace (aka Uma Thurman) in the flick, which was, of course, the location I was most interested in stalking (besides the ‘50s inspired Jack Rabbit Slims restaurant, which unfortunately doesn’t exist in real life). And, sure enough, he did! Chas somehow managed to track down a crew member from the film who remembered that Mia’s residence was located somewhere in Beverly Hills a few miles north of Sunset Boulevard. So, Chas immediately got to cyberstalking and I am happy to report found the abode fairly quickly. And once he gave me Mia’s address, I dragged my fiancé right out to stalk the place. Sadly, though, the gate pictured above is pretty much the only part of the property that is visible from the street. 🙁

I was so hoping to see the home’s main entryway, as that is the area of the house that is most recognizable from Pulp Fiction, but alas that was not to be. 🙁

You can catch a slight (very, very slight) glimpse of the residence if you drive a bit north of the property . . .

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. . . . and another slight view of it if you drive a bit south of the main gates. Aside from those two limited views, though, there unfortunately isn’t a whole lot to see at this location. Such a bummer!

But that’s why God created real estate listings! While doing some research on the property earlier today, I not only stumbled upon a real estate website advertising the home (which is currently for sale at a price that is only made known upon request – yikes!), but a YouTube video, as well (see below)! Score! And, as you can see in the above photographs and screen captures, it seems that the real life interior of the residence was also used in the filming of Pulp Fiction. So cool!

Even the home’s real life bathroom was used in the scene in which Vincent Vega (aka John Travolta) tries to talk himself out of wanting to get together with Mia. So cool!

In real life, the home, which was built in 1960, boasts three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, measures 4,015 square feet and sits on almost a full acre of land. And while the real estate listing does boast that the “gated celebrity view estate” (and I’m not even really sure what that phrase means!) features an infinity pool and “state of the art electronics and security systems”, for whatever reason it fails to mention its cinematic cameo! If I was the property’s real estate agent, you can bet its appearance on the silver screen would be my main selling point! Hello! I mean, that’s bound to drive the price up at least a few dollars. 😉

Big THANK YOU to Chas, from ItsFilmedThere, for finding this location! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Mia Wallace’s house from Pulp Fiction is located at 1541 Summitridge Drive in Beverly Hills.

June 18, 2009June 16, 2011

Il Cielo

Looking at wedding venues is so darn fun that, I swear, I think I would be happy just remaining engaged forever. It could be my full time job. What do you do? Oh, I’m engaged – full time! 🙂 LOL On Tuesday, my wedding venue expedition led my mom and me to a little restaurant in Beverly Hills named Il Cielo. And I have to say that the place was downright amazing!!! So much so that it’s at the very top of my very narrowed down list of possible locations. Because I am such a picky eater, for years I’ve been steadfast about serving a buffet at my wedding, as opposed to a set menu. Il Cielo doesn’t offer a buffet – they only do sit-down dinners – yet they are STILL at the top of my list! Now, that’s saying a lot! 🙂

Il Cielo, which means “the sky” in Italian, was opened up in 1986 inside of a tiny Beverly Hills bungalow by a man named Pasquale Vericella. In the 70s, that bungalow was the home to another Italian restaurant named En Brochette. A frequent visitor to En Brochette, Pasquale adored the intimate, homey feel of the restaurant and decided it was just the type of place he himself wanted to own someday. He was so adamant about opening his restaurant in that exact spot, in fact, that for years he begged En Brochette’s owners to sell the restaurant and the bungalow to him. They finally relented in 1986, and Pasquale opened up his own Tuscan-style restaurant, featuring his mother and grandmother’s traditional family recipes. I had the pleasure of meeting Pasquale yesterday and of course asked him all sorts of questions about which celebrities had dined at Il Cielo. He quickly brushed off my queries and said “When you get married here, the only celebrity we are concerned with is YOU!” 🙂 So cute!!!!

Il Cielo has been voted “the most romantic restaurant in Los Angeles” numerous times by numerous publications. It has also been named “one of the top five places to get married in the country” – yes, the COUNTRY – by The New York Times. Those are some pretty amazing accolades! The restaurant has hosted over 1,500 weddings in its 23 year history. According to the restaurants’ events manager, Fabio, Il Cielo’s philosophy is service first, food second, and ambiance third. And from what I witnessed yesterday, all three of those seem to be top notch, especially the service. When I asked where the bar gets placed during a wedding reception, Fabio looked at me with confusion on his face. Then, realization dawning, he explained, “Oh no, we do not do waiting in line here. Our servers walk around taking drink orders, so that your guests never have to get out of their chair!” OMG LOVE IT! Even better than that, after the reception ends, guests are served lattes, cappuccinos, and biscotti out on the sidewalk while waiting for the valet to retrieve their cars. SO LOVE THAT! I mean, this place is downright A-MA-ZING.

And, of course, there’s also the celeb factor! Google the words “Il Cielo” and “celebrities” and a list of a hundred well-known names will pop up, including Christian Bale, Nancy Reagan, my girl Jennifer Aniston, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia De Rossi, Robert Redford, Rod Stewart, Colin Farrell, Claudia Shiffer, Ali Larter, Brandon Routh, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Nikki and Cathy Hilton. Lesley Ann Warren was married at Il Cielo and (that little homewrecker) Brad Pitt took Gwyneth Paltrow there on their first date.

And, of course, Il Cielo is also a filming location. At the beginning of Legally Blonde, it’s the restaurant where Elle Woods’ boyfriend, Warner, does not propose. When Warner first announces he is taking Elle to Il Cielo, she says “Oooh, I love that restaurant. I heard Madonna went into labor there.” LOL LOL LOL

Il Cielo’s patio area stood in for the patio of Adam Sandler’s restaurant in the 2004 movie Spanglish. The exterior of Adam’s restaurant (pictured above) is actually the exterior of the Hal Valentine Hair Salon, which is located directly next door to Il Cielo.

On the Season Three episode of Entourage entitled “Strange Days”, Ari Gold re-proposes to his wife after 15 years of marriage with a ginormous diamond ring on Il Cielo’s back patio. The restaurant has actually popped up in Entourage no less than three times!

In the Season 3 episode of The Hills entitled “A Date With The Past”, former flame Ste-phen Colletti takes Lauren Conrad out for a “strictly platonic” dinner at Il Cielo. Smart move, Ste-phen, bringing a girl you just want to be friends with to the most romantic restaurant in all of L.A.! LOL Il Cielo was also featured in the Season Five opener of The Simple Life entitled “Welcome to Camp Shawnee” as the location where Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie finally bury the hatchet and become friends again over an Italian lunch.

I honestly can’t recommend stalking Il Cielo enough – either as a wedding venue or for a romantic dinner!!!! This place is truly one of a kind!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Il Cielo is located at 9018 Burton Way in Beverly Hills. You can visit their website here. Il Cielo is closed on Sundays.

February 25, 2009August 20, 2013

The Robinson House from “The Graduate”

A few weeks back fellow stalker Scott, from the Film in America website, asked me if I knew the location of the Robinson house and the Braddock house from the 1967 movie The Graduate. He told me that he feared the locations of those homes were lost to history being that the movie was filmed over forty years ago and the addresses didn’t seem to be posted anywhere. So I just had to get Mike from MovieShotsLA on the case – and sure enough he found the houses. Well, the house, actually, but I’ll get to that later. 🙂 While doing some cyberstalking Mike came across this Wikipedia article stating that the Robinson home was located on North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills, and after a quick search of Google Maps he found the house, right where Wikipedia said it would be. 🙂

The Robinson house looks much different today than it did back in 1967 when The Graduate was filmed. At the time of filming, the home had an all white exterior while today it has a red brick facade. My initial belief was that the brick exterior was added to the house sometime after filming had been completed, but after seeing the above screen capture, I realized that, in actuality, the home has always been brick. When The Graduate was filmed the bricks were just painted white. 🙂

Because the Robinson house looks so very different today than how it appeared onscreen forty years ago, I was shocked Mike was able to locate it. But he found two “landmarks” of a sort on Mrs. Robinson’s house that he used while searching Palm Drive. The first landmark was the wierd brown wooden design that appears to the left of the front door. The second was the house’s small peaked roof area. Both are pictured above. But here’s where things get really weird!

While looking at aerial images of the Palm Drive house, I realized that the pool area and backyard looked a whole lot like Benjamin Braddock’s backyard from the movie. Armed with a pretty big hunch I grabbed my Graduate DVD and fast-forwarded through the entire thing. And sure enough, my hunch was correct – the front of the Braddock house is never shown in the Graduate – only the backyard is shown. And after looking at all of the Braddock backyard scenes one more time, I realized that the Braddock house and the Robinson house were one in the same! LOL

So last week I dragged my boyfriend out to Beverly Hills to stalk the (one and only) Graduate house and while I was there taking photographs the owner happened to drive up. So, of course, I just had to talk to her! 🙂 I asked her if she lived in the home at the time The Graduate was filmed and her mouth pretty much just fell to the floor and she said “HOW did you know this was The Graduate house?” LOL I told her that my friend Mike was a master stalker and that he had found the house by doing some cyber-stalking. She confirmed that her home was indeed used in The Graduate, but said that she didn’t live in it at the time. She said that when she purchased the house about twenty years ago, the real estate agent was marketing it as “the Robinson house”. LOL Then I asked her if her backyard was in fact Benjamin Braddock’s backyard and once again her mouth just hung open. Apparently she didn’t realize who she was dealing with! LOL She told me that, in actuality, Benjamin Braddock’s backyard existed only on a soundstage, but that his backyard and pool area were indeed modeled after hers. I’m not sure she’s entirely correct on that, though. While I have no doubt that her backyard was re-created on a soundstage and that most of the filming probably took place there, if you watch some of the Graduate pool scenes closely it becomes obvious that at least some filming did actually take place at the Palm Drive home.

So, there you have it, the mystery of The Graduate houses is finally solved. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Graduate house is located at 607 North Palm Drive in Beverly Hills.

October 10, 2008September 29, 2017

The Witch’s House from “Clueless”

One of my favorite sites to stalk in all of Beverly Hills is known simply as “The Witch’s House” and it just so happens to fit in perfectly with this month’s Halloween theme. Although not really a filming location, the house is a Beverly Hills landmark of sorts. Known formally as “The Spadena House”, after the Spadena family who lived there in the 1930s, the house did show up very briefly in fave movie Clueless, during the scene when Alicia Silverstone is “totally buggin'” about Ty’s crush on Josh (pictured in above screen capture).

The home was originally built on a silent film studio lot in Culver City known as Irvin C. Willat Productions and was used as an office/dressing room. It was designed by the very first art direction Oscar Winner, Henry C. Oliver, in 1921. Willat Productions was sold in 1926 and the house was purchased and later moved to its current location in the heart of Beverly Hills, where it was turned into a private home for the Spadena family. No one can say for sure how the house came to be called “The Witch’s House”, but mention the words to any Beverly Hills native and they will know exactly what you are talking about. Personally, I believe the house got its nickname due to its resemblance to the witch’s home in the fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel”.

In 1998, a real estate agent named Michael Libow was hired to sell the house. Apparently he became frustrated that all prospective buyers planned to demolish the property, so he took matters into his own hands and purchased the home himself for $1.3 million. He is currently restoring the property to its original state, along with the help of art director Nelson Coates. For the past few years the two have painstakingly rennovated the home, even re-creating the original moat which once surrounded the property. The Witch’s House is still currently under rennovation, so unfortunately a large chain link construction fence blocks some of the view from the street. But hopefully in a few years the rennovations will be complete and the house will be even more spectacular for us stalkers to view.

Because it is so truly unique, I am actually very surprised that the house hasn’t appeared in more Hollywood productions. Besides Clueless, the Witch’s House was also featured in the 1965 movie The Loved One, as the home of Sir John Gielgud’s character, and in the 1957 horror film The Undead. Supposedly, during its time on the Willat lot, the home also appeared in a quite a few 1920s silent films, as well.

The Witch’s House is simply a must see for all Beverly Hills tourists, especially during the Halloween season, and it is a beautiful example of Storybook style architecture.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Witch’s House is located at 516 N. Waldren Drive, at the corner of Walden Drive and Carmelita Avenue, in Beverly Hills.

August 30, 2008February 13, 2009

Break Out The Clicquot!

This is a post I’ve been itching to do for almost two weeks now, but had to keep mum on! Two weeks ago I was interviewed by Washington Post travel correspondent Andrea Sachs, who, based on the major hype of the upcoming 90210 v. 2.0, was sent out to the West Coast to do a travel piece on the world’s most famous zip code. Andrea contacted me to do an interview about the iconic TV series and also a little BH stalking. The article was finally published today and I could not be more excited!! My family and I just got back from celebrating with a little champagne. 🙂 You can read the article here.

When I first received Andrea’s email asking if I would have time to chat about my fave TV show for a newspaper article, I have to admit I thought someone was playing a joke on me. The name Andrea Sachs seemed extremely familiar and after doing a little Google research, I realized that I recognized it from the movie The Devil Wears Prada where it was the name of Anne Hathaway’s character. Besides sharing a name, the two also share a profession. In the movie Andrea Sachs is a budding newspaper journalist. So I was completely convinced someone was pulling my leg. But, it turns out that there is, in fact, a real life Andrea Sachs who is, in fact, a reporter for the Washington Post. And I was happy to discover that the real Andrea is much cooler and a hundred times more funny than her silver screen counterpart. 🙂

Andrea and I decided to meet up for a “power lunch” at the legendary Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel (where we spotted a very large Rob Reiner – I had no idea he was such a big man!) and we wound up spending the entire afternoon stalking. Andrea’s assignment – to report on both the Hills of Beverly and the legendary television show – had a built in challenge for me. Andrea was required to stay in the 90210 zip code and, ironically, there isn’t one filming location from the TV show actually located in Beverly Hills.So I had to think a bit outside the box for this one. 🙂 During our adventure we hit up Aaron Spelling’s manse (which is currently for sale for a reported $150 million!!!), the Playboy Mansion, the home where Shannen Doherty attacked then-boyfriend Dean Factor, and Brad and Jen’s former Beverly Hills love nest.

The last stop on our Beverly Hills stalking tour was Andrea’s inspired idea – the real Beverly Hills High School, upon which 90210‘s fictional West Beverly High was loosely based, but of course where no actual filming took place. Producers had originally wanted to film at the real Beverly Hills High, but the school board was having none of that. So producers created the fictional West Beverly Hills High School and set out for Torrance High School in the South Bay to film. Torrance High will also be featured once again in the new 90210 series.

Even though BHHS shied away from being featured in the 90210 series, it has been used in several other Hollywood productions including Anywhere But Here, The Beverly Hillbillies, Less Than Zero, the Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, Taggat, Whatever It Takes, and the videos for Nickelback’s Rockstar and NLT’s That Girl. In the Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life, the school’s “Swim Gym” (pictured above) which features a basketball court that slides open to reveal a swimming pool underneath, was prominently featured.

Andrea had read about Beverly High’s “Hall of Fame”- a wall display featuring headshots of BHHS’ famous alumni and I was absolutely dying to see it! The display actually ended up bringing us full circle in our stalking adventure when we spotted Rob Reiner’s photo on the wall. Andrea took one look at Rob’s photo and said “You really didn’t realize he was a large man???” LOL As excited as we both were to see the Hall of Fame, it proved to be pretty anti-climatic. Sadly many of the most famous names were strangely missing from the display. BHHS’ famous alumni include Angelina Jolie, Tori Spelling, both Ephron sisters, Albert Brooks, 80s heartthrob Steve Burton, Cari Fisher, Bonnie Franklin, Gina Gershon, Nicolas Cage, Shaun Cassidy, Jennifer Grey’s father Joel, Brady mom Florence Henderson, Lenny Kravitz, Monica Lewinsky (LOL!), the Menendez Brothers, Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meister, Pauly Shore, Antonio Sabato Jr., Alicia Silverstone, and countless, countless others. I was most looking forward to seeing BHHS alumni David Schwimmer’s photo on the wall, but like many others it was absent. I mean, hello – where’s the Friends’ love?

In person the school has minimal resemblance to how West Beverly High was portrayed onscreen. For being located in the world’s most exclusive zip code, the school is actually quite unremarkable and ordinary. I really expected much more from BHHS. In reality the school looks pretty much like every other American high school I have ever seen. The interior leaves much to be desired, as well, and, in truth, looked pretty run down. Andrea and I were cracking up at the sad state of the hallway’s ceiling tiles (pictured above). I am happy to report, though, that both the students and faculty of BHHS could not have been friendlier to us as we wandered the halls. But all I kept thinking was how young the students looked compared with what was portrayed on 90210. I mean, there wasn’t a Luke Perry style receding hairline in the bunch!

I truly had a BLAST stalking with Andrea all afternoon and I cannot wait for her next West Coast adventure as I’d love to hang out again. And the article turned out fabulous – I really could not be more excited! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Beverly Hills High School is located at 241 Moreno Drive in Beverly Hills. You can read the Washington Post article here.

May 18, 2008February 13, 2009

"I am a Spring Princess!"

One of my favorite lines of all time from Beverly Hills, 90210 was said during the Spring Dance episode from the show’s first season. In the episode, Kelly gets nominated for Spring Queen making her a “Spring Princess” in the interim until the awards are announced. When Kelly arrives at the Walsh’s house on the night of the dance, she finds that she and Brenda are wearing the exact same dress. A fight ensues and Brenda tells Kelly to go change her dress to which Kelly responds “Brenda, I am a Spring Princess!” Love it! Now whenever my boyfriend asks me to do something I don’t want to do, like clean the dishes, I always say “I am a Spring Princess!” LOL

Anyway, the store where Kelly and Brenda first find their matching dress is located in a small section of Rodeo Drive called Rodeo Collection. The Rodeo Collection is a specialized outdoor mall of sorts, although it doesn’t much look like any of the malls I frequent. Rodeo Collection is a five story, 66,000 square foot conglomerate of high end stores and it is set up in the style of a European Piazza. There are meandering walkways, gardens, and terraces mixed in with some very ritzy boutiques. Rodeo Collection was actually only used for the exterior of Brenda and Kelly’s prom dress shop; the interior looks like it was most likely just a set built on a studio sound stage. Rodeo Collection was also featured each week during the opening credits of 90210. It was also used quite a bit in the movie Body Double.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Rodeo Collection is located at 421 North Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. If you get a chance, after stalking the Rodeo Collection, go visit Crumbs bakery at 9465 Santa Monica Boulevard for some yummy cupcakes! 🙂

May 11, 2008February 13, 2009

Charlie’s Angels

$Charlie\'s Angels$ I must admit that I absolutely loved the first Charlie’s Angels movie, so when I found the location of the headquarters of Charles Townsend Investigations in my stalking tome last weekend, I just had to stalk it. This same location was used in both the filming of the Charlie’s Angels television show back in 1976 and the more recent first Charlie’s Angels movie in 2000. In the movie, Townsend Investigations is actually blown up by the evil Eric Knox, but for the big blow up scene, producers built a replica of the headquarters building on a studio soundstage.

Townsend Investigations looks much the same today as it did in 1976, except that now a Miele store occupies the space. Miele is a high end German appliance store.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Townsend Enterprises is located at 189 Robertson Boulevard, on the corner of Clifton Way and Robertson Boulevard, in Beverly Hills. A few blocks South of the Miele store is the chic, celeb favorite shopping district of Robertson Boulevard which is home to Kitson, Lisa Kline, the Ivy restaurant, and the MAC Pro Store. Robertson is a shopping haven for celebs and paparazzi can often be seen milling around outside of the many high-end stores located there.

May 7, 2008February 13, 2009

Greystone Mansion

While most mansions in Beverly Hills are well hidden from prying eyes thanks to tall gates and large trees, there is one that is open to the public on a regular basis and it’s called Greystone Mansion. The 46,000 square foot mansion was commissioned in 1928 by millionaire Edward L. Doheny as a gift to his son Edward “Ned” Doheny, Jr. Ned only lived in the home for four short months before he was found dead in his bedroom, along with his secretary Hugh Plunket, on February 16th, 1929.

There has been much speculation surrounding the deaths of Ned and Hugh – some believe it was a bizarre murder-suicide due to a lovers’ quarrel between the two, others believe Hugh asked Ned for a raise and became enraged when he was denied and subsequently shot Ned and then himself, and still others believe Hugh suffered from a psychological disorder and shot Edward during a mental breakdown. Whatever the case may be, after his death Edward’s widow continued to live in the mansion with their five children for the next 26 years until she sold it to a man named Henry Crown. Henry wanted to tear down the mansion, but the city of Beverly Hills stepped in and purchased Greystone from him in 1965, turning it into a public park several years later.

Greystone sits on over 16 acres and is an amazing piece of property. I highly recommend stalking it. Everyday from 10am to 5pm the public is given free reign to walk around the beautiful grounds and get an up close and personal view of the exterior of the mansion. On occasion, there are times when one can tour the inside of the mansion as well. Greystone has also been the filming location of hundreds upon hundreds of movie, TV, print, and commercial productions. Just to name a few – it was featured in Entourage as the location of Anna Faris’ photo shoot, it played Nicolas Cage’s home in National Treasure: Book of Secrets, it was the British Embassy and ball location in Jumpin’ Jack Flash with Whoopi Goldberg, it played a restaurant in The Holiday, and it was featured each week as Rory Gilmore’s school in Gilmore Girls. It also figures prominently in one of my favorite books The Prada Paradox by Julie Kenner.

While I was at Greystone this past weekend, a production crew was setting up for a film shoot (they wouldn’t say which film) and unfortunately much of the mansion was blocked off. But a very nice security guard happened to let me in to walk around and my boyfriend snapped a pic as I stalked behind the film crew’s signs. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Greystone Mansion is located at 905 Loma Vista Drive in Beverly Hills. It is open everyday from 10am to 5pm. You can visit Greystone’s official website here.