Little Dom’s Restaurant from “90210”

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This past Saturday night, I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to Los Feliz to stalk Little Dom’s – an Italian eatery owned by Warner Ebbink and Brandon Boudet of the Eat Heavy Restaurant Group, the very same team that was responsible for founding the 101 Coffee Shop that I blogged about yesterday.  The GC and I had actually breakfasted at the Los Feliz-area establishment once before a couple of years ago, but at the time I had no idea the place was a filming location or a celebrity hotspot, so I, unfortunately, did not take any photographs while there.  Well, imagine my surprise when just a few months later the restaurant was featured in a Season 2 episode of fave show 90210.  I recognized the place immediately, and, let me tell you, just about fell out of my chair.  And then this past September, I just about had a heart attack when the eatery appeared on 90210 yet again.  And then, last week, when I came across these November 4th paparazzi photos of the cast of Glee – including Lea Michele, Dianna Agron, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, Harry Shum Jr., Kevin McHale,  Jenna Ushkowitz, Naya Rivera, and Chord Overstreet – dining at the restaurant, I just about died and immediately informed the GC that Little Dom’s was where the two of us would be spending our upcoming Saturday night.  

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Little Dom’s first opened in January of 2008 on the corner of Hillhurst Avenue and Avocado Street in the heart of Downtown Los Feliz in the space that previously housed the French bistro La Belle Epoque.   Warner Ebbink, who so ingeniously designed the 101 Coffee Shop interior, completely gutted the former Epoque property and created the Manhattan-esque decor of his new Italian eatery from scratch.  The interior designer/restaurateur searched far and wide, and I mean that literally, for the items that now make up his eclectic establishment.  He purchased and then transported the wooden bar, which dates back to the 1930’s, from a former saloon in Eaton, Pennsylvania; he found the authentic leaded-glass windows, which now make up some of the restaurant’s interior walls, at an about-to-be-demolished building in New York City, and the picture of Yosemite National Park which hangs above the bar area was requisitioned from none other than Warner Brothers Studios.  As the Eater website so aptly stated in their January 2008 review of the restaurant, “Warner Ebbink is an ace at making an entirely new space feel like it’s been there forever.”  I couldn’t agree more!  Sitting at the antique bar and looking around at the dimly-lit, tin-ceilinged space, I found it very hard to believe that the place had not been around during the heyday of Hollywood catering to members of the Rat Pack. 

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Besides the spectacular ambiance, Little Dom’s also serves up some fabulous food!  I absolutely gorged myself on the Brussels Sprouts with Shaved Parmesan side dish and the Truffled Chicken Salad with Arugula Sandwich entrée – both of which were divine!  And I just about died from excitement when I saw that they featured my very favorite dessert, Affogato – vanilla gelato with a shot of espresso (pictured above) – on the menu!  I never actually knew that my favorite dessert had a name, nor had I ever actually seen it featured on a restaurant menu before, but I have been ordering a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso on the side as dessert for just about as long as I can remember.  So, the fact that Little Dom’s had it named on their menu was simply amazing to me!  The restaurant also breaks down their wine list into three sections – ”Tried and True”, “Your New Best Friend”, and “Go Out on a Limb” – which I thought was just about the cutest thing ever.  The eatery’s prices were also extremely, extremely reasonable, which, needless to say, the Grim Cheaper was thrilled about.  We both absolutely LOVED the place and cannot wait to go back there for another stalking/culinary adventure.

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It should come as no surprise that, in the three short years that it has been in operation, Little Dom’s has become a big time celebrity hot spot.  Just a few of the stars who have been spotted there recently include Drew Barrymore, Jason Segel, Katherine Heigl, Josh Kelly, Rachel Bilson, Joe Jonas, Pixie Lott, Conan O’Brien, Ryan Reynolds, Megan Fox, Kate Walsh, Zachary Quinto, Michelle Williams, Spike Jonze, Vince Vaughn, Gisele Bundchen, Ron Livingston and, as I mentioned above, most of the cast of Glee.  And while the GC and I, unfortunately, did not spot anyone famous on this most recent trip to the restaurant, we did see actor Michael Cera, who played Paulie Bleeker in the 2007 movie Juno, during our first visit there.

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And the place is also a filming location!  Little Dom’s appeared in the Season 2 episode of 90210 titled “Women’s Intuition”, in the scene in which Debbie Wilson (aka Lori Loughlin) confronts Sasha (aka Mekia Cox) about what she suspects is her fake pregnancy.  That scene was filmed in the booth located closest to the restaurant’s front door.

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Little Dom’s was also used in the Season 3 episode of 90210 titled “2021 Vision”, in the scene in which Mr. Cannon (aka Hal Ozsan) “accidentally” bumps into Erin Silver (aka Jessica Stroup).

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In the scene, Silver sat in the booth located third in from the restaurant’s front door.  That particular booth was, sadly, occupied while I was stalking the place, so I had to settle for taking a photograph in the one directly next to it.

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Silver’s Vespa was parked just outside of the restaurant, on Avocado Street, in the scene.  And I just have to say here that I am absolutely hooked on 90210 this year.  The series started getting pretty good last season, but I think it is just now finally beginning to hit its stride and I absolutely love it, love it, love it.  Especially the brewing romance between Liam Court (aka my latest celebrity crush Matt Lanter) and Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes).  Those two are SO darn cute together!!!

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Little Dom’s also appeared in the 2010 movie The Kids Are All Right, in the scene in which Nic (aka Annette Bening) and Jules (aka Julianne Moore) discuss the fact that their children’s biological father Paul (aka Mark Ruffalo) is now a part of their lives. 

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  Smile

Stalk It: Little Dom’s restaurant from 90210 is located at 2128 Hillhurst Avenue in Los Feliz.  You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

The Paramount Studios Tour . . . A Second Time

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Brace yourselves, my fellow stalkers, ‘cause today’s post is going to be a long one!  Back in September, Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I set out on our second VIP Tour of the Studios at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood.  We embarked on our first Paramount tour just over two years ago, in September of 2008, and I can honestly say that, for me, it was love at first sight!  As I’ve mentioned previously on this blog, the Paramount tour is hands down my absolute FAVORITE studio tour in all of Hollywood.  I love the place so much, in fact, that the Grim Cheaper and I seriously considered getting married there.  Well, I should say that I seriously considered getting married there – the GC was against the idea from the start, as he didn’t think a movie studio would be an appropriate venue for a wedding.  And while I can definitely see his point – the 62-acre lot is better suited to host a party rather than a wedding ceremony – because the place has such an incredibly rich cinematic history – it has been at its current location since 1926 and is the only major studio still located in Hollywood – for a movie-lover like myself, there is no more hallowed ground.  So, when Mike called me up in early September to ask if I wanted to go on another tour of the place, I jumped at the chance.

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As they say, no two studio tours are ever the same and I am very happy to report that that was definitely the case with Paramount.  After paying for our tickets in the Studio Store, our small group of eight was given a brief history of the 84-year old lot before boarding a golf cart to begin the two-hour tour.  Our first stop was the corner of Avenue A and 3rd Street, just southwest of Stage 23, where the ending scene of the final episode of fave show The Hills was filmed, which I blogged about back in September.

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Just beyond The Hills finale location is Stage 24, which was home to fellow stalker Owen’s all-time favorite sitcom Family Ties from 1982 to 1989. 

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Each individual soundstage at Paramount boasts a large plaque which lists all of the major productions which have been filmed on the premises. 

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And, as you can see in the above photograph, Stage 23’s plaque is somewhat unique.  According to our tour guide, actor Ray Romano was (jokingly) a bit bent out of shape that his new sitcom Men of a Certain Age wasn’t considered by Paramount to be a “major” enough production to be named on the plaque, so he took matters into his own hands and, using a label maker, printed out the name of the show and stuck it onto the sign himself.  LOL LOL LOL  Love it!

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As always, the tour made a stop at Lucy Park – a small landscaped area named in honor of actress/producer Lucille Ball, former owner of the now-defunct Desilu Studios which was purchased by Paramount in 1968 and now makes up the western portion of the lot.  Lucy had the park built as an exact replica of the backyard of her Beverly Hills home so that she could take publicity photographs there with her children without ever having to leave the lot. 

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The above-pictured facade, which runs along the northern side of Lucy Park, is an exact replica of the exterior of Lucy’s New York City apartment building, which she had constructed for the same purpose.  We also learned that it was none other than Lucy, and her husband Desi Arnaz, who invented the live audience/three camera system that situational comedies still use for filming to this day.  Apparently, Lucy much preferred acting before a live studio audience, which, at the time, was not common practice when shooting television shows.  So, she and her husband came up with the idea of setting up the stage in the format of a theatre, with an open fourth wall facing the audience, and using multiple cameras to film each scene from different angles.  That very system has been in use ever since.  The powerhouse couple was also responsible for inventing what is known today as a “re-run”.

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My favorite part of Lucy Park has to be its large central tree which was used in the Season 2 episode of The Brady Bunch titled “Where There’s Smoke” as the spot where Greg Brady (aka Barry Williams) smoked his very first cigarette.

You can watch that scene by clicking above.

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According to our tour guide, Lucy Park was also used for the Season 2 episode of Glee titled “Grilled Cheesus”, for the close-up shot of Finn Hudson (aka Cory Monteith) cheering after scoring a winning touchdown.

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Our next stop was the studio’s Gower Street entrance, which stood in for the entrance to the fictional Woltz International Pictures lot in the 1972 film The Godfather.  That entrance and guard shack have, sadly, since been remodeled.

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We then made our way over to Stage 31, which is the spot where the Joel McHale television series Community is filmed.  It was extremely cool to see that particular stage, as it is one of the only stages on the lot that has a “dressed” exterior.  As you can see in the above photographs, the facade of the fictional Greendale Community College Library has been constructed around the exterior of the building.  So incredibly cool!

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We also spotted Donald Glover, who plays Troy Barnes on the show, while we were there.

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Up next was New York Street – my VERY favorite section of the lot and the spot where the Grim Cheaper and I were thinking about getting married.  “Street” is actually a bit of a misnomer, though, being that the area measures a whopping five acres, is shaped like a square, and features numerous sections and blocks which were built to resemble different sections of New York, including Brooklyn, Greenwich Village, Washington Square, the Financial District, the Upper East Side, the Lower East Side, SoHo, a typical brownstone neighborhood, and, ironically enough, Chicago.  Each time I walk through New York Street, I truly feel as if I am actually in the Big Apple.  It’s amazing!  Even small details like mailboxes and payphones (pictured above) are so realistic that someone on a tour once put a letter inside one of the fake boxes thinking it was real.  🙂

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The Washington Square section of New York Street is featured regularly on the new TNT series Rizzoli & Isles, as the home of Detective Jane Rizzoli (aka Angie Harmon).

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Washington Square also appeared in the Season 7 episode of Seinfeld titled “The Rye”, in the scene in which Jerry Seinfeld tries to throw a loaf of rye bread up to George Constanza (aka Jason Alexander) who is waiting on the third floor of his girlfriend’s parents’ apartment building. 

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The Boston Police Station from Rizzoli & Isles can also be found on New York Street, in the Brooklyn section.

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The jazz club from Spiderman 3 is located in the SoHo section of New York Street and is what is referred to as a “practical set”, meaning that it is not just a facade, but also has an interior area which can be used for filming.

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Pink’s 2008 Video Music Awards performance of “So What (I’m Still A Rock Star)” was also filmed on New York Street in the SoHo area.

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While walking through the Chicago area of New York Street, our tour guide pointed out the above-pictured building called the “Tin Shed” which he said serves as the dance studio for the cast of Glee.  So incredibly cool!

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At the time we visited the lot, the Chicago section of New York Street was dressed for the filming of the yet-to-be-released television series Happy Endings, which stars Elisha Cuthbert.

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The facade pictured above, which is located at the corner of H Avenue and the Chicago section of New York Street, is being used as the exterior of Rosalita’s Bar, the Happy Endings’ characters’ main hang-out.

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That very same facade was also used as the five-and-dime store where Holly Golightly (aka Audrey Hepburn) and Paul ‘Fred’ Varjak (aka George Peppard) stole Halloween masks in fave movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s.  So, I, of course, just had to take a picture standing in the doorway!

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We also got to see the interior set of Rosalita’s while we were on the tour and it actually reminds me a lot of Grayson’s bar from fave show Cougar Town.  We weren’t allowed to take any photographs of it, unfortunately, but you can see what the bar looks like in the above screen captures, which I got off of IMDB

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Our next stop was the place I had been waiting all morning to see – Stage 14, where fave show Glee is filmed!

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Amazingly enough, our timing could NOT have been more perfect, because right when we arrived at the stage several of the stars drove by on golf carts!  We first spotted Harry Shum Jr. (pictured above) who plays dancer Mike Chang on the show.  He was on a golf cart with Jenna Ushkowitz (aka Tina Cohen-Chang), who we unfortunately did not get a photograph of.

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Immediately after that, a cart carrying Amber Riley (aka Mercedes Jones), Mark Salling (aka Noah ‘Puck’ Puckerman), and Chord Overstreet (aka Sam Evans) drove by.  We also spotted Dianna Agron (aka Quinn Fabray) and Lea Michelle (aka Rachel Berry), but unfortunately we did not get photographs of either of them.  Before spotting the Glee stars, our tour guide had warned us that the cast wasn’t known to be all that friendly or even particularly nice on the lot.  According to him, they have all apparently gotten a bit too big for their britches in recent months.  And, sadly, our experience definitely reflected that sentiment.  When the actors drove by, our small tour group was the only group of people around.  We did not in any way go crazy or walk up to them when we spotted them, but just politely stood in our places and waved.  And I am sad to say that not a one of them waved back or even managed to crack a smile.  In fact, as you can see in the above photographs, Amber Riley looked as if she wanted to throttle us!  I’m telling you, if looks could kill, our entire tour group would have been dead!  LOL  Mark Salling was the only one of the bunch who had a smile on his face, but it was definitely not directed towards us.  He was speaking with Chord Overstreet the entire time and did not so much as even look our way.  The whole thing was HIGHLY disappointing and only got worse two weeks later when I spotted Lea Michele while taking the Paramount tour once again with fellow stalker Lavonna and her friends, but I’ll save that story for a future post.  🙂

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Our next stop was the Paramount Medical Services building, the back side of which (where you can see the lattice in the above photograph) was supposedly used as Charlie’s (aka Kelly McGillis’) porch in the movie Top Gun

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The final stop on our tour was the famous 516-seat Paramount Theatre, which has played host to several Hollywood premieres and premiere after-parties over the years and has also been the site of some filming, as well.

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Just outside of the theatre is the famous Paramount water fountain;

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Forest Gump’s bench from the movie of the same name;

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and the Bronson Gate – the studio’s former entrance, which was where Norma Desmond (aka Gloria Swanson) entered the lot in the 1950 movie Sunset Boulevard.  Legend has it that rubbing one’s hands on the gate while uttering Norma’s famous line, “I’m ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille”, will bring luck in the movie industry.

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And with that our tour was over.  But just as we were hopping back on our golf cart to head back to the studio store to make our departure, I spotted one of my mom’s all-time favorite actors – David Strathairn – who was nice enough to smile and wave at us after he realized that we had recognized him.  🙂  So incredibly cool!

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And while leaving through the lot’s main gate who should drive past us but Glee star Jenna Ushkowitz.  You can just barely see her in the black car in the above photograph.

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I honestly cannot recommend stalking the Paramount lot enough!  It is, in my never-to-be-humble opinion, the best studio tour in existence and I absolutely cannot wait to go on it again!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: Paramount Studios is located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood.  Tours are given Monday through Friday at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. and cost $40 per person.  Reservations can be made by calling (323)956-1777.  Parking for the tour costs $7 per car.  I recommend booking your tour at least a week in advance, as they tend to sell out quickly.  You can find out more information about the Paramount Studios Tour here.

24/7 Restaurant from Glamour Magazine’s “Glee Gets Glam” Photo Shoot

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One location that I have been ABSOLUTELY DYING to stalk for what seems like forever now is the diner-style restaurant where the girls from Glee – Lea Michele, Dianna Agron, Amber Riley, and Jenna Ushkowitz – posed for the May 2010 Glamour MagazineGlee Gets Glam” photo shoot.  After months of searching for it, though, and having absolutely no luck whatsoever, I had become convinced that the shoot had taken place on a studio set somewhere in Hollywood and not at an actual restaurant.  And then last Sunday night fate stepped in and, as so often happens with stalking, I ended up stumbling upon images of the Glee diner while searching for another location altogether.  Maddeningly enough, as it turns out, the Glee girls were photographed at a locale that I have not only been to several times, but one that I’ve actually blogged about before – the Standard, Downtown L.A. Hotel.  I have a pretty valid excuse at to why I didn’t recognize the place immediately when I first read the magazine, though – the girls were actually photographed inside the hotel’s 24/7 Restaurant, a place which I had never before visited.  So, I of course, dragged the Grim Cheaper right out to stalk it this past weekend!  🙂

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And the place did not disappoint!  I honestly cannot say enough good things about 24/7!  The restaurant’s hipster decor is a definite throwback to the 1950s and is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen in L.A.  Apparently photo shoots and filming take place on the premises all the time and it’s not very hard to see why – the diner is bright and funky and completely unique.  And the food is INCREDIBLE!  As I’ve mentioned before, I am an EXTREMELY picky eater, especially when it comes to chicken, but, let me tell you, I ate up every last bite of my 24/7 Cobb salad.  It was AMAZING!  And the prices are extremely reasonable, as well, which pleased the Grim Cheaper to no end.  To top it all off, the staff was also incredibly friendly and let me take all of the photographs of the place that I wanted.  Yay!  🙂

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Lea Michele and Amber Riley’s “Glee Gets Glam” photograph was taken in the center booth located just to the right of the restaurant’s lobby entrance.

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Dianna Agron and Jenna Ushkowitz posed for their photograph in front of the windows which face 24/7’s patio area.

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And, as you can see in this picture, the photograph of all four girls playing around in a bathtub was shot in one of the Standard’s hotel rooms.

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And, much to the Grim Cheaper’s dismay, I just HAD to recreate Lea Michele’s pose from the issue’s contents page while I was there.  I so wish I could have also been wearing her Marchesa dress while doing so, but unfortunately I didn’t have an extra $6,600 lying around!  😉  Sigh.

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I honestly cannot recommend stalking the 24/7 Restaurant enough.  For lack of a better word, it is just simply a cool, cool place to grab a bite to eat.  🙂  Note – The magazine images which appear in this post do not belong to me, but remain the property of Glamour Magazine and photographer Peggy Sirota (who also shot these fabulous Jen Aniston pictures for GQ Magazine).

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: The 24/7 Restaurant can be found inside the Standard, Downtown L.A. Hotel, which is located at 550 South Flower Street.  As the name implies, the restaurant is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  You can visit the official 24/7 website here.

Oscar Weekend 2010

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The celebrity sightings during Oscar Weekend 2010 started a bit early for me this year when Mike, from MovieShotsLA, and I accidentally stumbled upon the filming of CSI: Miami in Altadena on Friday morning.  But I’ll save that story for tomorrow’s blog post.  Today, it’s strictly all about Oscar, Oscar, Oscar!  And, let me tell you, it was another amazing Oscar Weekend for me.  Man, I love awards season!!!!  🙂

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Anyway, after hanging out on the CSI: Miami set for a few hours this past Friday, Mike and I made our way over to the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood to check out the Academy Awards preparations at the Kodak Theatre and to take a little walk on the most famous carpet in the entire world.  My fiancé and I usually hit up the Kodak Theatre each year on the Saturday morning before the Oscar ceremony is held and, amazingly enough, the place is usually not all that crowded.  But when Mike and I showed up early Friday afternoon, the Hollywood & Highland Center was absolutely JAM PACKED.  So much so that they actually had to CLOSE the parking garage there as it was completely full!  If you’ve ever been to that parking garage, you know what I mean when I say it is absolutely GINOURMOUS, so the fact that it was FULL was mind-boggling to me!  Even with all the traffic and throngs of people, though, we finally managed to make it to the Kodak.  And I can’t even tell you how exciting it was to be standing there in the middle of it all!  Being that this was my fourth year stalking the Oscars, you would think that I’d be at least a little tired of it by now.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  I was absolutely ESCTATIC to be seeing it all in person once again.  I still have to pinch myself every time I am there.  Unbelievably, this was actually Mike’s very first Oscar stalk, though!  For whatever reason, even though he grew up in the Los Angeles area, he had yet to ever visit the Academy Awards red carpet in person, so it was extremely exciting for me to be sharing that experience with him.  And it got the Grim Cheaper off the hook of having to take me there on Saturday morning.  So, it was definitely a win-win situation for all of us.   😉

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I have to say that it was very cool to be stalking the Oscars a day earlier than usual, as Mike and I got to see quite a bit of the red carpet set-up taking place, including one of the Oscar statuettes being brought into the theater on a golf cart . . .

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. . . and part of the red carpet being rolled out.

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Thanks to the massive rain-storms that have been plaguing Southern California as of late, many of the Oscars were actually covered over with plastic tarps;

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and there was also a rain tent set up over the red carpet.  Which got me to thinking, why does it always seem to rain on Oscar Night?

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As usual, the actual carpet was also covered over in tarping to prevent the awards crew from trampling on it pre-show.

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And, even with the tarping, I, of course, just had to get a picture of myself standing on it.  🙂

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For those who have never visited the Kodak Theatre, it is located inside of the Hollywood & Highland Center, which is, for all intents and purposes, a mall.  So, when the stars walk down the red carpet on Oscar Night, they are actually walking right through a bunch of shops.  It’s pretty hard to imagine, I know, but you can kind of see the set-up in the above photographs.  The windows to the right and left of the carpet area are actually stores.  Whenever I take out-of-towners to the Kodak Theatre and explain that it is where the Oscar Ceremony is held each year, I invariably hear the following sentence, “But this is a mall!”  LOL  Anyway, the red carpet goes right through a stretch of the mall which houses such stores as MAC, Louis Vuitton (sigh!), Sanrio, Sun’s Up sunglasses store, the Gateway Newstand, and Kelly’s Coffee & Fudge.  I swear, if I was an actor walking the red carpet, I would so be tempted to stop into Kelly’s Coffee for a quick latte before making my way into the theatre.  😉  To prevent this, though, the stores are actually required to close during Oscar Weekend, beginning on the Friday evening before the ceremony.  Mike and I happened to stop into one of the stores on the red carpet to do some shopping while we were there and the clerk told us that she was getting ready to close for the next few days and that security was just about to do their final check of the premises, along with their bomb-sniffing dogs who roam each store to make sure that no explosive devices have been left inside.  How crazy is that?

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EXTREMELY bright (like absolutely BLINDINGLY so) lights were set up all along the perimeter of the red carpet.  One is pictured above and even via photograph you can tell how darn bright it is.

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Some of the Oscar statues are unbelievably HUGE, especially the one located at the corner of Highland Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, which is where the red carpet begins.  As you can see in the above photograph, even the base of that statue is taller than me!

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I was just itching to jump up on the above pictured press stage to snap a quick picture, but the security guard standing in that vicinity did not look at all friendly so I didn’t want to risk it.   He probably would have ended up banning me from the Hollywood & Highland Center for life.  😉

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While hanging out on the red carpet on Friday, Mike and I ran into this enterprising young woman who was holding up a homemade sign asking Matt Damon to be her date to the Oscars.  😉  Love it!

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While walking around Hollywood, we also spotted this gigantic movie poster for Sex and the City 2 on the side of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and I just had to snap a pic of it!  Love it!  Love it!  Love it!

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As much fun as Mike and I had on Friday, I must say that there was even more fun in store for me on Saturday.  Beginning early Saturday morning and ending very late Saturday night, I dragged my fiancé from one end of Los Angeles to the other to do some major star-gazing.  Sadly, though, due to the rain and the Independent Spirit Awards’ change in venue (while they are usually held on the beach in Santa Monica each Saturday before the Oscars, this year they took place on Friday evening at the much less accessible Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Downtown Los Angeles), my celeb sightings weren’t as numerous this year as they were last, but I still managed to have an ABSOLUTE BLAST.  In fact, I am still pinching myself this morning.  I even got to meet up with one of my readers, a super sweet fellow stalker named Kendall, at one point during the evening. And while I didn’t spot my girl Jen or crooner Michael Buble (whose sightings were the highlights of my Oscar Weekend last year), I did manage to stalk quite a few celebs.  But because hotel security is very tight during Oscar Weekend, I, unfortunately, didn’t get to snap any pictures of them.  🙁

So, without further ado, here is “The List” of celebrity sightings from Oscar Weekend 2010.

1. Jerry Ferris – from Jen Schefft’s season of The Bachelorette

2. Jamie Foxx

3. Lenny Kravitz

4. Aaron Eckhart

5. Benjamin McKenzie – At one point in the evening, I noticed Ben standing next to my fiancé at a valet stand, so I leaned over and said “Hi, Ben!”  He looked over expecting me to be someone he knew, got a blank expression on his face, and then smiled a big smile when he realized I was just a fan and said “Hey, how are you doing?”  SIGH!

6. Elizabeth Banks

7. Dennis Haysbert (from 24)

8. Ben Stiller

9. J.J. Abrams (the producer of Lost)

10. will.i.am (from the Black Eyed Peas) – He seemed super nice and waved at us.

11. Ed Westwick

12. Jessica Szohr

13. Jake Gyllenhaal

14. Maggie Gyllenhaal – She is extremely taaaaaaaaall in person.

15. Rashida Jones

16. Katie Couric

17. Zachary Quinto

18. Morgan Freeman

19. Jason Reitman

20. Steven Spielberg

21. David Spade

22. Leonardo DiCaprio

23. Halle Berry

24. B.J. Novak

25. Kevin Connolly

26. Sofia Vergara (Gloria from Modern Family)

27. Jesse James

28. Sandra Bullock

29. Ryan Reynolds

30. Ryan Seacrest – He is so not as short as everyone makes him out to be.

31. Jon Hamm

32. Jennifer Westfeldt

33. Jimmy Kimmel

34. Anna Kendrick

35. Christian Slater – Was super friendly and waved at us.  🙂

36. Meg Ryan

37. Ron Livingston

38. Jemaine Clement (from The Flight of the Conchords)

39. Colin Firth

40. Taylor Lautner – He looks VERY young in person, but is VERY cute.

41. Fred Savage

42. Kristin Davis

43. Kate Beckinsale

44. Eddie Murphy

45. Matt Damon

46. Luciana Barrosa

47. Tina Fey

48. Jeanne Tripplehorn

49. Gina Gershon

50. Stanley Tucci

51. Robert Downey Jr.

52. Susan Downey (Robert’s wife, who is a big time producer)

53. Jeff Bridges

54. Winona Ryder

55. Mariska Hargitay – She is STRIKINGLY beautiful in person!

56. Rich Ross – The new chairman of Walt Disney Studios, who I actually served on jury duty with once.  😉

57. Julie Bowen (Claire from Modern Family)

58. Ty Burrell (Phil from Modern Family)

59. Elton John – We ate dinner just a few tables away from him and in what was an absolutely surreal moment, the musician working at the restaurant started playing Elton’s 1970 hit “Your Song” with him sitting just a few feet away.

60. George Takei and his husband Brad Altman – My fiancé said he was actually star struck for what was probably the first time in his life over seeing the two of them, not because he is a Trekkie, but because he is a fan of “The Howard Stern Show” on which George is a frequent announcer.

61. Carrie Underwood

62. Eric Nies

63. Brian Grazer

64. Felicity Huffman

65. Eric McCormack from Will and Grace

66. Jeff Prettyman

67. Dianna Agron (Quinn from Glee)

68. Mark Salling (Puck from Glee) – He is SUPER cute in person and also waved to us.

69. Vera Farmiga

70. Amy Adams

71. Carey Mulligan

72. Peter Sarsgaard

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But the highlight of the evening for me had to be when I got to see my latest celebrity crush, Mr. Schuester himself, Matthew Morrison from Glee!  Sigh!  Ironically, earlier in the day, I had told my fiancé that of all the people I was hoping to see this Oscar Weekend, Matthew Morrison was number 1!  And then it happened!  I got to see him – and better yet, he even did a little Glee-style spin and turn in front of us when he walked by.  SIGH!  I literally almost had a heart attack right there on the spot!  Truth be told, though, I was SO completely starstruck over seeing him in person that I didn’t even notice his little dance routine.  I must have blacked out from excitement or something, but it wasn’t until fellow stalker Kendall mentioned something about it that I even realized he had done it.  LOL  Anyway, Oscar Weekend 2010 was INCREDIBLY exciting and I CANNOT wait to do it all again next year!!!!!   But for now, I am absolutely exhausted, so I am going to go park myself on the couch and spend the next few hours recuperating.  😉

Until next time, Happy Stalking!  🙂

Stalk It: I stalked so many hotels and bars this Oscar Weekend, that there are far too many to name here. For a detailed list of places to go to see movie stars on Oscar Weekend – or any weekend, for that matter – check out this blog post that I wrote last year.