Lethal Weapon filming locations

Back in April, when fellow stalker Geoff, of the 90210Locations website, let me know that he had found the Fundraiser House from L.A. Story (which I blogged about here) at 3456 Via Campesina in Rancho Palos Verdes, I remembered that a few years prior I had tracked down a different Palos Verdes locale – the supposed Half Moon Bay-area mansion where Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner) lived in the 2005 romantic comedy Rumor Has It. Because I very rarely find myself in that part of town, though, I had never actually stalked it. So I moved the dwelling to the top of my To-Stalk list and headed right on over there while in the neighborhood visiting the L.A. Story pad just a few days later. And wouldn’t you know it – there was a truck parked right in front of the place when I showed up! Boo!

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The mansion appeared once in Rumor Has It – in the scene in which Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) woke up at Beau’s residence after spending the night with him – and, unfortunately, very little of the actual home was ever shown. The only areas of the property that appeared in the flick were the backyard –

with its gorgeous ocean views;

part of a back door;

and a tiny portion of a bedroom.

Despite the fact that I had so little to go on, though, this location was a fairly easy find. Thanks to the Rumor Has It production notes, I knew that at least one scene had been lensed in the seaside city of Palos Verdes and, because Beau’s manse was shown to be situated on a cliff overlooking the ocean, I decided to begin my search there. While watching the flick, I had noticed that the dwelling was located on some sort of a promontory that was directly across from another promontory. On that second promontory sat an immense Mediterranean-style mansion.

So I used Google Maps to search for that house, which I found fairly quickly thanks to its size, and from there tracked down Beau’s place. As you can see below, the residence sits perched above a site named “Honeymoon Cove.” Um, love it!

In real life, the mansion, which was originally built in 1973, boasts five bedrooms, seven baths, 6,126 square feet of living space, and a 0.59-acre plot of oceanfront land. The property last sold in October 1995 for $2.5 million.

Upon arriving, I was happily surprised to discover how much of the residence is actually visible from the street. I had not expected to be able to see any of it.

As the words on the two pillars that flank the front gate seem to indicate, the residence is named “Punta Vento”, which, according to Google Translate, means “peak wind” in Italian.

I was shocked to discover, thanks to the fabulous Seeing Stars website, that the same home was also used in the 1987 classic Lethal Weapon, in which it portrayed the mansion belonging to Michael Hunsaker (Tom Atkins). In the movie, a great exterior view of the property was shown.

The backyard and pool area also appeared;

as did a small portion of the interior of the house.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for even more stalking fun! And you can check out my other blog, The Well-Heeled Diabetic, here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Beau Burroughs’ mansion from Rumor Has It is located at 2817 Via Segovia in Palos Verdes.

Located just up the street from the original Barney’s Beanery restaurant in West Hollywood, which I blogged about last Friday, is the Emser Tile Building which appeared in a very memorable scene in the first Lethal Weapon movie. And even though I have never actually seen any of the four Lethal Weapon flicks (I know, I know – that has to be tantamount to stalker sacrilege or something!), because I was right there stalking Barney’s, I figured I might as well head on over to the Emser Building to snap some quick pics.

Surprisingly enough, even though the 7-story Emser building is quite unique and appears to be historical, I could find virtually no information about the structure online. All that I was able to discover was that, as you can see in this 1928 picture from The Bruce Torrence Photograph Collection, the building originally belonged to the Bekins moving and storage company. And thanks to the YouAreHere website, I also learned that it was constructed in 1925 by the architecture firm of Niebecker & Jeffers. The property now serves as the corporate offices of Emser Tile, a company that supplies natural stone and tile to commercial builders and contractors.

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In one of the most famous scenes in 1987’s Lethal Weapon, Martin Riggs (aka Mel Gibson) is sent by his new partner, Roger Murtaugh (aka Danny Glover), to the top of the Emser Tile Building in order to talk down a potential jumper.

Instead of talking him out of committing suicide, though, Riggs winds up handcuffing himself to the man and jumping off of the building with him, tandem-style, right into the safety of a police airbag. Sadly, Dar Robinson, the stuntman who stood in for the suicidal man and performed the actual jump in the scene (and yes, he really did jump off of the 7-story Emser Building for the filming!), was tragically killed a few weeks after principal photography on Lethal Weapon had wrapped. Dar, who was the holder of 21 different stunt records and was listed as the highest paid stuntman in the 1986 Guinness Book of World Records, had never so much as broken a bone in his 19-plus year career. But on November 21, 1996, while performing a routine motorcycle stunt in Page, Arizona for the movie Million Dollar Mystery, he accidentally lost control of his bike and careened off of a cliff at the tender age of 39. You can read a more detailed history of the legendary Dar, who was dubbed “King of the Stuntmen”, on the People Magazine website here.

And you can watch a short video in which Mel Gibson talks about Dar and the Emser Building jump by clicking above.

After Riggs jumps off of the Emser Building, Murtaugh pulls him into a vacant storefront where he chastises him for his dangerous behavior and suicidal tendencies. It is there that Murtaugh realizes that Riggs is not acting crazy in order to “draw a psycho pension”, but that he just simply is crazy.

Ironically enough, that storefront was actually vacant when I stalked it back in July, just as it was portrayed to be in the movie. Love it!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Emser Tile Building from Lethal Weapon is located at 8431 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. The storefront where Riggs and Murtaugh discuss the fact that Riggs might actually be crazy is located at 8441/8445 Santa Monica Boulevard. The original Barney’s Beanery restaurant is located just half a block west of the Emser Tile Building at 8447 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.

Tag: Lethal Weapon filming locations

Beau Burroughs’ Mansion from “Rumor Has It”

The Emser Tile Building from “Lethal Weapon”