famous places – Page 60 – IAMNOTASTALKER

February 17, 2009February 17, 2009

Meet Me At 3rd and Fairfax!

My boyfriend has some amazing celebrity karma! He pretty much sees a movie star of some sort or another everywhere he goes. And for some odd reason it seems his celebrity karma is especially strong when I am not with him. It drives me nuts!! Just a few of his celeb encounters that I somehow missed – he ate dinner once next to Calista Flockheart and Harrison Ford – and he didn’t even look to see what, if anything, Calista ate!!, he shopped for CD’s right next to Britney Spears at a Circuit City store, he sat next to Julia Louis Dreyfus during an outdoor theatre performance, and, my personal favorite, he stood behind Jennie Garth in line at a deli in San Ysidro. Ugh!!! Not that I am bitter about it or anything. 🙂 But I must say that the place where my boyfriend most often has a celeb sighting – I mean virtually EVERY SINGLE time he is there – is the Los Angeles Farmers Market located at the corner of 3rd and Fairfax (pictured above – that’s me and my good friend Stephanie in the pic).

So the other night, while my mom and I were walking through the Farmers Market after dinner, I told her to keep her eyes peeled for celebs. “Here???” my mom asked me in disbelief pointing to the numerous outdoor tables and metal folding chairs. “Yes!”, I told her. “No, here????” she asked me again. LOL She could not believe that the popular, but by no means upscale or fancy, outdoor market was a celeb hot spot. And wouldn’t you know it, just as we were having this little tete-a-tete, who should we walk by but Scott Caan – star of the Ocean’s 11 movies and son of movie star James Caan! Due to my thrill over seeing him in person and the flurry over our slighty ill-timed conversation, I got just a bit flustered and immediately walked right into the men’s room which happened to be located straight ahead of me. LOL! I’m not kidding! After I recovered from walking into the wrong restroom, I just had to ask Scott if he wouldn’t mind taking a pic with me. He was super nice and friendly (even though he is not smiling in the above pic) and said he would be happy to pose for a photo. After I got my pic and Scott walked away, I told my mom who she had just taken a picture of and she just about spazzed out at the fact that it was James Caan’s son. LOL See what I mean, you’ve gotta keep your eyes open!

The Farmers Market (no apostrophe) was the brainchild of businessmen Roger Dahlhjelm and Fred Beck who in 1934 proposed creating an open air market on a vacant 30 acre parcel of land owned by oil tycoon Earl Bell Gilmore. During its early days local area farmers would pay 50 cents a day to park on Gilmore’s land and sell goods directly out of their trucks. Those tailgate food stands became enormously popular and it wasn’t long before permanent stalls had to be created and, thus, the Los Angeles Farmers Market was born. Today the Market is an L.A. institution, housing over 70 permanent stalls and shops, employing more than 700 clerks, and serving up over 16 different varieties of native foods to an average of 3 million yearly visitors! Somewhere along the way someone coined the phrase “Meet me at 3rd and Fairfax” and it became almost as famous as the Market itself. 🙂

A few of you have been asking me lately for some information on the best place to spot celebs in L.A. – and I promise to do a post on that subject very soon. But for the time being let me suggest the Farmers Market, which the Los Angeles Times recently called “the number one place in L.A. to spot stars!” If you are visiting Los Angeles and want to see a movie star, this is definitely one of the top places I’d stalk. 🙂 On a recent trip there I spotted the ENTIRE Wayans Family and on my last visit I saw David Edwards who starred in the Real World: San Francisco! Also spotted at the Market and at the nearby Grove Shopping Center: my girl Jen Aniston, Jay Leno, Lauren Conrad and Steven Colletti, Jessica Simpson, Rihanna, Mischa Barton and Brandon Davis, Teri Hatcher, Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, and (sigh!) Luke Perry. The Market has had some historical brushes with celebrity, too. Supposedly on the morning of September 30, 1955 James Dean ate his last meal there. And legend has it that Walt Disney did some of his original sketches for what would later come to be known as Disneyland while sitting at the Market’s circular tables. Besides being a celeb hang out, the Market has also been featured in a few productions, including Body Double, Stigmata, an episode of Diagnosis Murder, and in the Season One episode of my fave The Hills entitled “Somebody Always Has To Cry”.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Farmer’s Market is located at 6333 West 3rd Street, at the corner of Third and Fairfax, in Los Angeles. I highly recommend eating at DuPars while visiting. Tyra Banks, Teri Garr, and He’s Just Not That Into You author Greg Behrendt are all fans of the 70 year old restaurant. For dinner you just can’t beat their “Beat the Clock” menu – a special menu where everyday between the hours of 4 and 6pm, the hour you arrive is the price you pay for your meal. Yes, that means that if you arrive at 5:30pm, your meal (not including a drink) costs $5.30! And the food is really good! For slightly more money, head on over to Monsieur Marcel – a superb restaurant with great food and even better service.

February 13, 2009February 17, 2009

“It Never Rains In Southern California . . . “

As the old Albert Hammond song says “It never rains in Southern California, but girl, don’t they warn ya, it pours man, it pours!” And pour it did almost all last week all over the normally sun drenched landscape of Los Angeles. While on my way to stalk Burbank’s Handy Grocery Store in the pouring rain this past weekend, I happened to pass right by Walt Disney Studios on Buena Vista Street and was reminded about a story I once heard that seemed quite fitting of the day’s weather.

According to The Ultimate Hollywood Tour Book, journalist Peter J. Boyer stated in a Vanity Fair article that Disney is “a place so reviled that even its architecture inspires nasty rumors, such as the apocryphal story that architect Michael Graves arranged the drainage system in the Disney headquarters building [aka the Team Disney building] in such a way that the huge sculpted Seven Dwarfs atop the edifice would seem to be peeing on Disney executives whenever it rained.” LOL So, since it just happened to be raining at the time, I pulled over to see if Boyer’s story had any merit. 🙂 After seeing the Dwarfs in person in the pouring rain, I have to admit that I think the anecdote is somewhat of an urban legend, but it still makes for a great story and hopefully a great blog post. 🙂

Walt Disney built his Burbank studio in 1940 after the enormous financial success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – the world’s first full length animated feature film. At the time it was built the 41 acre lot was comprised of four full size soundstages (there are now six), a backlot that included a Western town, a town square, a residential street, and a small pueblo (the entire backlot has since been demolished), and recreation areas for employees which included ping pong tables and a volleyball court. Over the years many productions have been filmed on the historic Disney lot, including That Darn Cat, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Absent Minded Professor, The Swamp Fox, The Princess Diaries, Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, Boy Meets World, Home Improvement, Lizzie Maguire, Less Than Perfect, and Mary Poppins. Ironically enough, Mary Poppins was filmed solely indoors, using up all four of the Disney Studio soundstages. Even the Cherry Tree Lane set where the Banks Family lived was built inside of a soundstage. Being a huge Mary Poppins fan myself, I was highly disappointed when I found this out as I had always hoped to one day see Cherry Tree Lane in person. 🙁 On an interesting side note, even though he passed away in 1966, Walt Disney still holds the record for most Academy Awards won by a single person. In his lifetime, he won a incredible TWENTY-SIX Oscars!

Unfortunately, Disney does not currently offer tours of its studio. : ( But the good news is that the Team Disney building can be viewed from the street outside the studio gates. If you are a big Disney fan, I highly recommend stalking the exterior of the building as it is very cool to see in person. The Seven Dwarf statues are absolutely HUGE. I was shocked at their size when I saw them in person as pictures simply do not do them justice!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Disney Studios is located at 500 S. Buena Vista Street in Burbank. The Team Disney building, with its Seven Dwarfs facade, can be viewed through the main gate located just around the corner on Alameda Avenue. Unfortunately the studio does not offer tours of its property. 🙁 But for $2,169 (per person!!!!!) you can purchase a 6 day/5 night “Hollywood and the Disneyland Resort” vacation from the Adventures by Disney Vacations company. One of the days consists of a behind the scenes tour of Walt Disney Studios.

February 10, 2009February 13, 2009

Top of the Tower

While there are several restaurants in New York that I LOVE, there is one in particular that stands out far above the rest. That restaurant is named the Top of the Tower and it is located on the 26th floor of the Beekman Tower Hotel. Although the Top of the Tower has been one of my favorite places in all of New York for several years now, I had yet to blog about it because up until a few weeks ago, I didn’t realize it was a filming location – in one of my dad’s favorite movies no less! Two weeks ago, while looking at the Top of the Tower website, I noticed a small section mentioning that it had been used in film and video shoots. So I asked Mike, from MovieShotsLA, to call up the hotel to ask what exactly it had been featured in. For some reason making phone calls like that absolutely terrifies me. I love speaking with people face to face, but phone calls – ugh. Mike, on the other hand, dreads the face to face, but likes making phone calls. LOL What can I say – we make the perfect team. 🙂 So anyway, Mike called up the Beekman Tower for me and found out that among other things, the exterior of the hotel was featured in the Matt Damon flick The Bourne Supremacy. And voila, a blog post was born. 🙂

The landmark art deco style Beekman Tower Hotel was built in 1928 by John Mead Howells. The building’s many ornamental Gothic details were designed by sculptor Rene Chambellan. The building, which was previously named the Panhellenic Tower, was originally built as an affordable apartment complex for recent female college graduates belonging to the Greek, or Panhellenic, system – hence the name. According to the book One Thousand New York Buildings, the Panhellenic instantly became a landmark building as it was “a perfect example of vertical force”. The twenty-six story building housed 400 separate living spaces, a roof solarium with 360 degree sweeping views of Manhattan (that space is now the Top of the Tower restaurant), and a cocktail lounge. Not bad for affordable housing, huh? 🙂 The Greek Alphabet, which was carved just to the left of the building’s entrance, is still visible to this day. In 1964 the Panhellenic was sold to a private company who turned it into a regular apartment building. In the early 90s the building was sold once again and was completely renovated and remodeled and turned into the upscale, all suite Beekman Tower Hotel. You can view some great photographs of the Panhellenic Building here.

The Beekman Tower has had several brushes with celebrity. Katharine Hepburn’s sister was a resident of the Panhellenic Tower in its early years and Ms. Hepburn visited the building frequently. The photo shoot for Jennifer Hudson’s March 2007 cover story for Essence Magazine took place at the Top of the Tower. You can see behind the scenes pics of that photo shoot here. In November of 2008, a party to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Miles Davis “Kind of Blue” album was also held at the Top of the Tower. And as I mentioned earlier, the exterior of the Beekman was used in the filming of The Bourne Supremacy.

I really can’t recommend stalking the Top of the Tower enough! The food is amazing – the mashed potatoes and mushroom risotto are some of the best I’ve ever had! – the art deco ambiance is beautiful, and the service is perfection. But more than anything else, it is the breathtaking views that set this restaurant apart. The Top of the Tower has some of the most amazing views I have ever experienced in my life – especially at night when the city lights make New York extraodinarily spectacular and romantic. If you only have one night to spend in Manhattan, the Top of the Tower is the place I’d spend it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It:The Beekman Tower Hotel is located at 3 Mitchell Place, at the corner of 1st Avenue and 49th Street, in New York City. You can visit their website here.

February 8, 2009February 13, 2009

Only in L.A.!

The other day while I was on my way to acting class I experienced one of those “Only in L.A.” moments that I love so much. 🙂 While walking past Lucky Strike Lanes Bowling Alley on Highland Avenue in Hollywood I noticed a vending machine selling Movie Star Maps and I just about died laughing. LOL You gotta love it! I mean in every other city in America there are plenty of street-side vending machines selling newspapers, local publications, and maybe even the occasional apartment locator magazine. But L.A. is unique. L.A. is special. Here, right on the street smack dab in the middle of Hollywood, we have a vending machine which sells maps with the addresses of all of your favorite movie stars for the bargain price of $5. God, I love L.A.! 🙂

Even though the Movie Star Maps vending machine is not a filming location – that I know of! – I still just HAD to blog about it. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Movie Star Maps vending machine is located on North Highland Avenue, in between Hollywood Boulevard and Yucca Street, just a few feet north of Lucky Strike Lanes Bowling Alley.

February 5, 2009February 15, 2009

The Father of the Bride Apartment

I must bow down yet again to Mike over at MovieShotsLA for finding a filming location that has eluded me for years! Ever since seeing Father of the Bride Part II way back in 1995 – has it honestly been that long??? – I have been obsessed with Kimberly Williams’ Spanish style apartment building from the movie (pictured above). I can still remember sitting in the theatre thinking that one day I wanted to live in an apartment building just like hers! So the other day when Mike called me and asked if there were any locations I was currently stumped on, I remembered my obsession with the Father of the Bride apartment and enlisted his help in locating it. Sure enough, not even an hour later I got an email from him with a link to the address! I am telling you, the guy is unbelievable! So, bright and early the following morning I ran right out to finally stalk Annie’s apartment building. 🙂

The small building, named La Casa Torre, is located in Pasadena and actually consists of eight condominium units situated around a picturesque central courtyard area, complete with a fountain. The complex was built in 1927 by renowned Pasadena area architect Everett Phillips Babcock, who is famous for designing numerous Spanish style residences in the San Gabriel Valley. Babcock started off his career working for prominent Los Angeles architect Wallace Neff, who just happens to have designed the famous French Normandy style home Brad and Jen lived during their married years. In his design of La Casa Torre, Babcock implemented numerous Italian, Spanish, and Moorish details and each apartment boasted a real wood burning fireplace, mahogany floors, and travertine walls. Adding to the building’s charm is the fact that no two units are alike. La Casa Torre was featured in the 1996 book Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles and is currently under evaluation by the City of Pasadena to receive historic landmark status.

Although it has been over fourteen years since Father of the Bride Part II was filmed at this location, the building looks very much the same today as it did in the movie. The foliage is somewhat overgrown now and the courtyard is not quite as picturesque as it appeared onscreen, but for all intents and purposes La Casa Torre hasn’t changed much since filming took place. And I can’t tell you how excited I was to be seeing it in person!

Ironically, it turns out that I used to work just down the street from Annie’s building and must have driven past it about a hundred times, but never recognized it. In reality, the central courtyard is located behind and off to the side of the main building and therefore the complex doesn’t look like your typical couryard apartment building. So I never stopped to check it out. LOL La Casa Torre is located just down the street from the house that was used as Steve Martin and Diane Keaton’s home in both Father of the Bride movies. Looks like when Annie moved out of her parents’ house she didn’t go very far. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Annie’s apartment building from Father of the Bride Part II is located at 611-627 California Boulevard in Pasadena. Annie lived in Unit 619. Remember the building and courtyard are private property – while it is OK to look, it is not OK to trespass. 🙂

February 2, 2009August 10, 2023

The Marilyn Monroe Theatre

UPDATE: Want to see the story of Marilyn Monroe live on stage? Marilyn Theater Tickets are available from BarrysTickets.com now!

A few weeks ago while out driving, I pulled my car to a screeching halt when I noticed a large sign reading “The Marilyn Monroe Theatre” on the side of a building in West Hollywood. I had never heard of a MM Theatre in Los Angeles before, so of course I just had park my car to go investigate. 🙂 It turns out that the theatre is part of the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. For non-Marilyn fans, Lee Strasberg and his second wife Paula were MM’s beloved acting teachers and private acting coaches for the seven years leading up to her death. While Marilyn never attended the Los Angeles branch of the Actors Studio, she did study at the New York studio beginning in March of 1955.

By that time, Marilyn was already a huge celebrity with 26 films under her belt. The already famous actress, who once said about acting “I am not interested in money. I just want to be wonderful.”, enrolled in regular classes at “The Studio”, studying alongside far less successful performers than herself. During class, due to her severe shyness and stage fright, Marilyn often sat in the very last row of seats in the very back of the room. I find it so admirable that a star of her caliber at such a high point in her career would be humble enough to study in a regular acting class. You don’t see many stars of today doing that! While at the studio, Marilyn studied alongside the likes of Eli Wallach (with whom she would later star in The Misfits), Kevin McCarthy, Maureen Stapleton, and Kim Stanley. Of her acting Lee Strasberg said “I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of actors and actresses, and there are only two that stand out way above the rest. Number one is Marlon Brando, and the second is Marilyn Monroe.” It is so sad to me that while outsiders could see and appreciate Marilyn’s immense talent, she was never able to recognize it in herself.

When Marilyn passed away in 1962, she willed the bulk of her estate to her beloved acting coach and his wife. Paula Strasberg died only four years later and a short year after that Lee Strasberg met and married a woman named Anna. The two remained married until Lee’s death in 1982, upon which Anna inherited Marilyn’s vast fortune and control of her image. In an ironic twist of fate, because Lee didn’t meet Anna until 1967, some five years after Marilyn’s death, the image and estate of one of the most famous stars in Hollywood history is controlled by a woman she never even met.

In 1969, as a present to her husband, Anna purchased the property where the Marilyn Monroe Theatre and the Los Angeles branch of The Actors Studio now stands. In the theatre’s early years, Lee’s acting classes were held there. As time went on, though, the theatre became one of the most prestigious stage venues in Los Angeles. And while Marilyn never set foot inside of the theatre that now bears her name, over the years it has premiered many revered plays and has also played host to many famous actors and actresses including Sally Kirkland, Rebecca DeMornay, Joe Mantegna, Amy Madigan, Andrew Prine, Renee Taylor, Joseph Bologna, Burt Young, Kim Cattral, and Boy Meet’s World’s Ben Savage. Movie screenings are also often held at the theatre. Actors who have participated in screenings at the MM Theatre include Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, John Voight, Bridget Fonda, Claire Danes, Martin Landau, Lesley Ann Warren, and Robert Wagner.

Of course, I highly recommend stalking the Marilyn Monroe Theatre. Any fan of MM will definitely appreciate being there. 🙂 On a side note while researching the theatre, I happened upon a link with an address to a Marilyn Monroe Memorial Theatre located in San Francisco. I am DEFINITELY going to have to stalk that the next time I am up there!!

UPDATE:

Marilyn Monroe fans visiting the L.A. area will be excited to hear that tickets to a new stage show chronicling the starlet’s life are currently available at Barry’sTickets.com. Marilyn – the Story of the Silver Screen Goddess, A Dance Musical, comes to Los Angeles from London’s West End and recounts the tragic behind-the-scenes life of the world’s most iconic blond. The musical, which was choreographed and directed by the Oliver and Evening Standard award-winning director Peter Schaufuss, provides audiences a glimpse of the private world Marilyn rarely shared with the public – the world of a woman who achieved every success imaginable, except for true happiness. The show features a cast of fifteen remarkable actors and showcases fifteen lively song and dance numbers including Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind”, which the singer originally wrote in honor of Marilyn in 1973, “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” from the hit movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” from the 1960 movie Let’s Make Love. Don’t miss Marilyn – The Story of the Silver Screen Goddess, A Dance Musical.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Marilyn Monroe Theatre is located 7936 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. San Francisco’s Marilyn Monroe Memorial Theatre is located at 96 Lafayette Street. The Actors Studio in New York where Marilyn once studied is located at 432 West 44th Street.

January 30, 2009February 13, 2009

Pawn Shop to the Stars

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Another day, another pawn shop to write about. 🙂 Ironically, just around the corner from the now defunct Beverly Hills, 90210 pawn shop that I blogged about yesterday, is yet another local pawn shop that also has a filming history. Who knew that pawn shops were such popular filming locations?? 🙂 Angelo’s Jewelry and Loan Company, which touts itself as the “Pawn Shop to the Stars”, opened up in 1984 and has the distinction of being Santa Monica’s oldest pawn shop. Since it was around at the time, I can’t help but wonder why it wasn’t used as Dylan’s pawn shop in the “Anaconda” episode of 90210. Or why there would be two pawn shops in such close proximity to each other. Perhaps that explains why the “Anaconda” one is no longer in business. Anyway, even though the tiny shop was overlooked by 90210 location scouts, it did get featured just last year in the Owen Wilson movie Drillbit Taylor.

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In Drillbit Taylor, a group of nerdy teenage boys hire con man Owen Wilson to be their bodyguard. But instead of protecting them, Drillbit ends up robbing them blind and hawking their goods at a local pawn shop. That pawn shop was Angelo’s. And it looks exactly the same in real life as it did in the movie. According to the owner Angelo’s has also been featured in other productions over the years, but he was unable to recall which ones – which boggles my mind! LOL My guess is that Angelo’s has appeared in one or more of the L.A. based crime dramas such as Without A Trace, Cold Case, or the CSI shows.

I found this location thanks to Mike over at MovieShotsLA, but the truth is I really should have recognized it myself. For over two years I took acting classes right around the corner from Angelo’s and would pass by the shop at least three times a week on my way to grab a coffee before or after class. Every time I walked by I would laugh at the silly signs in the store windows (pictured above). So when Mike told me that my acting class pawn shop was the very same pawn shop featured in Drillbit Taylor, I had to mentally kick myself for not immediately recognizing it. And I call myself a stalker!! LOL Sometimes I really think all that blond dye goes straight to my head. LOL Thanks, Mike!

According to this article, Angelo’s claim of being the “Pawn Shop to the Stars” is actually not a joke. Apparently movie stars do stop in to Angelo’s from time to time, although the owner refuses to divulge which ones. I didn’t see any while I was there, but who knows, while stalking the place you might end up spotting a celeb or two! 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Angelo’s Pawn Shop is located at 206 Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica.