movie stars – Page 4 – IAMNOTASTALKER

August 17, 2011April 14, 2013

Lance’s House from “Pulp Fiction”

Last month, fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, came to town, along with his super-sweet mom, for a little filming locations vacation, and the three of us spent a whole day together, stalking pretty much all of Los Angeles, from one end of the city to the other. For this adventure, Chas had compiled an extensively detailed list of various movie locales, along with maps to each and a driving timeline. I know – it was all so Monica Gellar of him. LOVE it! Smile Anyway, one of the locations on Chas’ list was the Craftsman-style residence where drug-dealer Lance (aka Eric Stoltz) and his wife, Jody (aka Rosanna Arquette), lived – and where Vincent Vega (aka John Travolta) saved Mia Wallace’s (aka Uma Thurman’s) life – in the 1994 black comedy Pulp Fiction. Chas found the house, thanks to a very helpful crew member, in early 2010 while attempting to track down all of the locations from the movie – an endeavor at which, I am very happy to report, he succeeded. You can check out Chas’ extensive Pulp Fiction filming locations page here.

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Because the Grim Cheaper and I had once dressed up as Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace for Halloween many, many moons ago, I was extremely excited to stalk Lance’s house. (Sorry for the poor quality of the above photograph – it was taken on actual film so I had to scan it in order to post it here.)

Lance’s house was featured in a very brief, but very memorable scene, during the “Vincent Vega & Marsellus Wallace’s Wife” portion of Pulp Fiction, in which after visiting Jack Rabbit Slims restaurant, which I blogged about back in March, Mia accidentally overdoses on some heroin that Vincent had stashed in his jacket pocket. When Vincent discovers Mia on the floor, unconscious and unresponsive, he drives her to his drug dealer, Lance’s, home in the hopes that Lance can help her. It is there that Vincent winds up giving Mia an adrenaline shot, saving her life.

In the scene, Vincent crashes his car into the front of Lance’s house, destroying the roof and part of the porch.

I am very happy to report that the residence’s roof and porch are currently intact and that, despite the property’s shabby appearance onscreen, as you can see above, it is actually quite adorable in person.

And while the apartment building across the street from Lance’s house still looks very much the same as it did in the movie;

there is now, sadly, a fence located on the eastern side of the property, which blocks the neighboring lawn that is pictured in the above screen capture from view.

And while I am fairly certain that the real life interior of the residence was also used in the filming, I, unfortunately, could not find any photographs online to verify that hunch.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Chas, from the It’sFilmedThere website, for finding this location. You can check out Chas’ extensive Pulp Fiction filming locations page here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Lance’s house from Pulp Fiction is located at 3519 La Clede Avenue in the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles.

August 15, 2011December 6, 2013

The Virginia Street Bridge from “The Misfits”

Another Marilyn Monroe location that I dragged my dad and grandmother out to stalk while visiting Reno, Nevada last month was the famed Virginia Street Bridge, aka the “Bridge of Sighs”, which was featured in the 1961 film The Misfits. As I mentioned in last Friday’s post about the Washoe Country Courthouse, during the first half of the Twentieth Century, Reno was known as “the Divorce Capital of the World” and the “Great Divide” due to its lenient divorce laws. People from all over the United States would temporarily relocate to the “Biggest Little City in the World” in order to be granted a quickie divorce, or to get “the six week cure” as divorces were dubbed in 1931 when residency laws in Reno were shortened to a scant six weeks. According to tradition, after receiving their final dissolution of marriage decree, which was also called “being Reno-vated”, newly-single female divorcees would leave the courthouse and immediately head one block north to the Virginia Street Bridge to toss their wedding rings into the Truckee River as a symbol of celebrating their new-found freedom.

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In The Misfits, immediately after being granted a divorce at the Washoe County Courthouse, Roslyn Taber (aka Marilyn Monroe) and her friend Isabelle Steers (aka Thelma Ritter) head to the Virginia Street Bridge where Isabelle tries to convince Roslyn to toss her ring into the Truckee River by saying, “If you throw in your ring, you’ll never get another divorce.” Contrary to what has been reported on countless tourism websites and in numerous filming location books, Roslyn does not in fact throw her ring into the river, but instead walks off to grab a drink at the supposed Harrahs Club (filming actually took place at the now-defunct Mapes Hotel Casino) with the band still safely encircling her finger. In the scene, Marilyn and Thelma stood on the southwest corner of the Virginia Street Bridge, facing the Sierra Street Bridge, which is pictured in the background of the above screen captures.

That same view is pictured above.

It is widely debated as to how the ring-tossing tradition began and some historians even believe the whole thing was quite simply a publicity stunt dreamed up by Reno officials hoping to lure divorce-seekers – and their money – into the city. The first known account of the Virginia Street Bridge ring-fling was depicted in a 1927 informational pamphlet titled “Reno! It Won’t Be Long Now: Ninety Days and Freedom”. The custom became more widely known when Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., who came to the Silver State in 1927 in order to obtain a divorce, penned his 1929 premiere novel Reno, in which one of his main characters throws his wedding band into the Truckee River. In October of 1930, a movie based on Vanderbilt’s book was released and the rest, as they say, is history. And while numerous historians were apt to dismiss the tradition as myth, the ring-toss lore became inexorably woven into the pages of Reno’s history and in 1976, three fortune-seeking citizens who were searching for coins in the Truckee River wound up excavating more than 400 wedding bands from the area directly underneath the Virginia Street Bridge, forever quieting the legend’s many naysayers.

No matter how the tradition began, whether a legitimate custom dreamed up by newly-minted divorcees or a marketing tool created by city officials, the Virginia Street Bridge is an ABSOLUTELY gorgeous place to visit and I cannot more highly recommend stalking it! The structure that stands today was originally built in 1905 by San-Francisco-area architect John B. Leonard. Amazingly enough, the span was actually the fifth to be constructed in that particular spot linking Virginia Street above the Truckee River. The first bridge was engineered in 1860 by a man named Charles W. Fuller and was known, appropriately, as “Fuller’s Crossing”. The wooden and log construction could not withstand the strength of the Truckee, though, and was sadly washed away in a flood in 1861. Four replacements followed, the last of which is the Beaux-Arts-style structure pictured above.

As you can see above, the area surrounding the Virginia Street Bridge, which includes a “River Walk”, a public park, flowing waterfalls, and outdoor restaurants, is truly breathtaking and my dad absolutely fell in love with the place. While there, he kept enthusing, “I cannot believe I never would have known this area existed if not for you and your stalking!” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – stalking is the VERY best way to discover off-the-beaten-path, not-in-a-guidebook type spots. So I guess I should be saying, “Thank you, Marilyn!” for this one!

While there, I just had to make my grandma – who at 86 years old was still up for walking miles around Downtown Reno to do some Misfits stalking with me – pose for a pic. The woman absolutely rocks my world and I can only hope that I am in half as good a shape as she is when I enter my golden years! I love you, Grandma!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Virginia Street Bridge spans the Truckee River on South Virginia Street, in between Island Avenue and Truckee River Lane, in Downtown Reno, Nevada. In The Misfits, Marilyn Monroe and Thelma Ritter stood at the southwest corner of the bridge, near where Island Avenue meets South Virginia Street, in the area depicted with a pink circle in the above aerial view.

August 10, 2011August 10, 2011

“The Perfect Age of Rock & Roll” Premiere

As I mentioned yesterday, I was unable to stick around to watch much of the Parks and Recreation filming at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena last Wednesday afternoon as I had promised Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, that I would meet her at Laemmle’s Sunset 5 theatre in West Hollywood that evening to do some stalking of the premiere of The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll. As fate would have it, this particular event turned out to be a pretty fortuitous one for us because Sunset 5 is located right next door to Crunch Fitness, which is apparently a big time celebrity hot spot. So not only were we keeping our eyes peeled for stars dressed to the nines heading towards the theatre, but we were also keeping our eyes peeled for those dressed in work-out clothes entering and exiting the gym. Pinky, who pretty much has superhero powers when it comes to spotting celebrities, caught sight of comedian/actor Dane Cook walking into Crunch while we were eating dinner a good 300 yards away. The girl has got MAD skills, I tell ya! And while she ended up catching Dane on his way out of the gym about an hour later, the guy was NOT nice AT ALL and not only refused to take a picture with her, but would not even make eye contact, which resulted in her bestowing him with the “Douchebag of the Day” award on her blog later that week. Pinky also had this sage piece of advice for the surly actor, “If you don’t want to be recognized, don’t walk right through a movie premiere!” LOL LOL LOL I did not even attempt to approach Dane as he did not in any way, shape, or form seem friendly. Truth be told, he kind of scared me. I am very happy to report, though, that it was all uphill from there as shortly after Dane shot Pinky down, she spotted Rufus Sewell, who played Jasper Bloom in fave movie The Holiday, heading into Crunch. Rufus could NOT have been nicer and posed for at least a dozen photographs with various fans – and even agreed to pose for a second one with me after the first one we took failed to turn out. Rufus was so sweet, in fact, that he asked me to make sure our second picture was to my liking and even waited around while I did so, before heading off to the gym. Swoon!

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While I was posing with Rufus, Jason Ritter showed up and was absolutely mobbed by fans and the numerous “graphers” who were in attendance. Luckily enough, Pinky has known Jason for quite a long time and is actually sort of friends with the actor, so he immediately walked through the crowd and right up to her to say hi. I am sad to say that I had a major blonde moment while meeting him, though, as I had been planning on asking him if he happened to know where the apartment building from the opening credits of Three’s Company was located. Fellow stalkers Chas, from the ItsFilmedThere website, and Owen and I have been looking for that blasted building for quite a while now and I figured that if anyone would know its location, it would be Jason. But I got a bit flustered while speaking with him and the whole thing COMPLETELY slipped my mind! MAJOR FAIL! And big apologies to Chas and Owen! Jason could NOT have been nicer, though, and even though there were at least fifty people mobbing him, he stayed around to take pictures with and sign autographs for absolutely everyone who wanted one.

Taryn Manning arrived next and I was absolutely FLOORED to get a photograph with her as I have extremely fond memories of the actress from my time as an extra on the movie Crossroads. Taryn was easily the nicest of all of the Crossroads stars and, for whatever reason, remembered me each day that I was on set and would go out of her way to say hi. She also remembered me when I attended the movie’s wrap party, a week after filming had been completed, and walked up to me to say, “I’m so glad you were able to come to this.” So incredibly sweet! When I told her how nice she had been to me during the Crossroads shoot, she started laughing and said, “Aww. Well, I haven’t changed, I’m still very nice, I promise.”

We also spotted DJ Qualls, who played Kyle Edwards in 2000’s Road Trip, at the premiere . . .

. . . and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past/Grey’s Anatomy/The Devil Wears Prada star Daniel Sunjata, who was leaving Crunch Fitness – both of whom were extremely nice.

Also in attendance was Easy Rider himself, Peter Fonda, along with his much younger-looking wife, Margaret DeVogelaere. Sadly, Peter would not take any pictures or sign any autographs due to the fact that he was running late. And while we could have hung out and waited until the premiere was over to get a pic with Peter, I just really did not feel like doing so. If it was Matt Lanter, Michael Buble, or Joel McHale, I would wait around all day for a photo, but Peter Fonda? Not so much. 😉 All in all it was another FABULOUS celebrity-filled stalking adventure, though – save for the minor setback with Dane douchebag Cook.

Big THANK YOU to Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, for inviting me to this event!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Laemmle’s Sunset 5 is located at 8000 Sunset Boulevard, inside of the 8000 Sunset Strip shopping center, in West Hollywood. You can catch The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll in theatres now.

August 4, 2011December 6, 2013

Twin Palms – Frank Sinatra’s Former Palm Springs Estate

Another Palm-Springs-area location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked two weekends ago while vacationing in the Coachella Valley was Twin Palms, the former desert home of legendary crooner Frank Sinatra and his then-wife Nancy Barbato. And while I have actually stalked – and even blogged about – this location once before (way back in April of 2008!), since it was in the very early days of my site, it was an extremely short post that did not include any of the property’s vastly fascinating history. So I decided that the estate was most definitely worthy of a re-write.

Apparently, on May 1, 1947, Frank Sinatra, who had just signed a highly profitable movie contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, wandered into the offices of newly-founded architectural firm Williams, Williams, & Williams. At the time, now-legendary architect E. Stewart Williams, who designed Frankie’s house from Alpha Dog which I blogged about last Thursday, was a novice who had just joined his father’s firm and had yet to design a private residence. Frank, who was holding an ice cream cone and wearing a sailor’s hat, informed the team that he wanted them to design and build a huge Georgian-style estate by Christmas, in time for a party the singer was hosting. And even though the desired finish date was only seven short months away, Williams, Williams, & Williams took the job. Apparently, Frank was a difficult man to say “no” to. E. Stewart came up with two designs for the singer, one in the Georgian-style that Frank had originally envisioned, and another in the mid-century-modern-style, which Stewart would later become famous for. Sinatra liked the modern design and the rest, as they say, is history. E. Stewart’s partner and brother, Roger, later said, “We’d have been ruined if we’d been forced to build Georgian in the desert.”

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The four-bedroom, five-bathroom, 4,500-square-foot estate, which was built fully air-conditioned at a cost of $150,000, was completed in time for Frank’s party. The property was nick-named “Twin Palms”, thanks to the two large palm trees which flanked the home’s piano-shaped swimming pool. The estate, which is currently used as a vacation rental and filming location, currently boasts authentic period furniture, countless Frank Sinatra memorabilia, the original Valentino sound system on which Frank used to cut his records, a pool house complete with his-and-her bathrooms, and a full library of the iconic crooner’s music.

Frank and Nancy divorced in 1948 and Frank’s mistress and future wife Ava Gardner subsequently moved in. Of her time in the house, Ava said, “It was the site of probably the most spectacular fight of our young married life, and honey don’t think I don’t know that’s really saying something . . . Frank’s establishment in Palm Springs, the only house we really could ever call our own, has seen some pretty amazing occurrences.” Indeed! According to the home’s rental website, one of the sinks in the master bathroom bears a crack from a champagne bottle that Frank threw at Ava during one of their legendary brawls. You can see a photograph of that crack here. Frank also reportedly once threw all of Eva’s belongings into the driveway of the home after she had attempted to catch him cheating on her with actress Lana Turner. It was also in this house that Frank kept a room for his friend and my girl Marilyn Monroe, who was a frequent guest. In 1957, after filing for divorce from Ava, Frank sold the property and moved to a new home in nearby Rancho Mirage. Today, Twin Palms is a Palm Springs Class 1 Historical Site and is featured regularly in photo shoots for fashion magazines, including Men’s Health, Town & Country, Palm Springs Life, Sunset, German Elle, and Vogue. And the dwelling is also a filming location! Apparently Frank allowed the exterior of the property to be featured in the 1950 movie The Damned Don’t Cry, which starred Joan Crawford. You can see some fabulous interior photographs of the estate on the Rearranged Design website here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Twin Palms, Frank Sinatra’s former desert home, is located at 1148 East Alejo Road in Palm Springs. You can visit the property’s official website here. Tours of the estate are conducted on a semi-regular basis and private tours, for a minimum of 20 guests, can also be arranged by clicking here.

July 27, 2011July 26, 2011

Cary Grant’s Former Palm Springs Estate

Another Cary Grant location (and I promise that this is the last of them for a while for those who are hoping for a change of pace) that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked while vacationing in the Palm Springs area two weekends ago was the “Cary Grant Estate”, aka “Las Palomas”, the Andalusian-style, U-shaped farmhouse that the actor called his desert home for nearly two decades. I came across information about the property, which is currently for sale for a cool $2,995,000, when doing some cyber-stalking while trying to track down the estate belonging to Charlie Rich, which I blogged about yesterday. And even though Cary’s daughter, Jennifer, never mentioned Las Palomas in Good Stuff, her newly-penned memoir about her late father, because we were in the area and because I have recently found myself just slightly obsessed with the movie icon, I decided I just had to stalk the place.

The Cary Grant Estate was originally built in 1927 and was commissioned by Dr. Jacob John Kocher, Palm Springs’ very first pharmacist. When Cary laid eyes upon the property in 1954, along with his then-wife, actress Betsy Drake, it was love at first sight and he immediately set about purchasing the place. He owned it for the next 18 years and, for a time at least, made the secluded sanctuary, with its large pool, sparkling fountains, trellised arbors, and towering palm trees, his primary residence. Cary nicknamed the property “Las Palomas”, Spanish for “The Doves”. Just a few of the luminaries who visited Cary during the nearly two-decades that he lived at the estate include Howard Hughes, Alfred Hitchcock, Grace Kelly, Sophia Loren, Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, and Katharine Hepburn. Grant, a longtime supporter of the U.S. armed forces, also made it a practice of hosting numerous events on the property for the Marine Corp soldiers stationed at the nearby Twentynine Palms military base. Sometime after Grant sold the home in 1972, it was purchased by professional bodybuilder and three-time-Mr. Olympia-winner Frank Zane. Upon Zane’s departure, the property fell into serious disrepair due to years of neglect. And then, in 1998, it was rescued by Jane Cowles Smith, an author/doctor who purchased the dilapidated estate and immediately set about a painstakingly-detailed and historically-accurate 11-year renovation process , during which she restored the dwelling to its original grandeur. She also had the property designated a Class 1 Historic Site by the City of Palm Springs. Sadly though, as you can see above, not much of the 6-bedroom, 6-bathroom, 6,000-square-foot, ultra-private abode, which sits on 1.54 lush acres of land, can be seen from the street.

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Something that can be seen from the street, though, is the estate’s mailbox (pictured above). When Grant first purchased the property, he commissioned his close friend, legendary Los-Angeles-area architect Wallace Neff, to build a second-story addition, consisting of two bedrooms and two baths, above the home’s garage. It is said that at that same time Neff also designed a small-scale replica of Las Palomas to be used as the home’s mailbox. I find it so incredibly cool that that mailbox is still there, almost six full decades later! LOVE IT!

Sadly, the aerial views of the property are not that great, but you can visit the home’s real estate listing and see some close-up photographs of the place here and you can read a more in-depth history of the estate here and here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: The Cary Grant Estate, aka Las Palomas, is located at 928 North Avenida Palmas in Palm Springs.

July 26, 2011July 25, 2011

Charlie Rich’s Former Palm Springs Estate

Another location that Jennifer Grant spoke fondly of in Good Stuff, the memoir about her late father, actor Cary Grant, was the Palm Springs estate belonging to Cary’s good friend, Las Vegas Dunes Hotel owner Charlie “Kewpie” Rich. Many weekends of Jennifer’s childhood were spent at “Uncle Charlie’s” lush, four-acre Coachella Valley oasis, which the Beverly Hills, 90210 actress described as “my adolescent wonderland” and a “desert Disneyland”. In the book, Jennifer writes, “Our number-one weekend getaway was to Uncle Charlie’s Palm Springs estate. Uncle Charlie was a staple in our life. Kewpie was maybe five feet tall, bald as they come, with a year-round tan (sometimes orange out of the Coppertone bottle – which Dad heckled him for) and a heart that never stopped giving. Uncle Charlie lived in a Spanish adobe on several acres of manicured, palm-tree-lined property. I learned to drive a golf cart and play putt-putt on that lawn. We stayed in the pool house, near the good-for-guppy-hunting pond and gorgeous rose gardens.” Well, as you can imagine, as soon as I read those words, I became absolutely obsessed with tracking the place down. And while vacationing in the Desert two weekends ago, I spent quite a few hours doing just that. I ran into a few snags along the way, though, as I was originally under the very incorrect assumption that Charlie “Kewpie” Rich, hotel owner, and Charlie Rich, country crooner, were one in the same. As it turns out, they are most definitely not!

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Charlie Rich’s Palm Springs House–Villa Paradiso

It was not until I came across the YouTube video posted above that I realized my mistake. Thankfully, said video lead me to a real estate listing for the estate formerly belonging to the correct Charlie Rich, complete with an address! Yay! So I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper right on our to stalk the place – in 108-degree weather, no less!

Charlie Rich’s former home, which Cary Grant dubbed “Villa Paradiso”, was originally built in 1928 and features 8 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms (not kidding!!!), 13,000 square feet of living space, a four-car garage, a climate-controlled fur-storage-closet (also not kidding!!!), a swimming pool, a pond, over one hundred palm trees, several eighty-year-old Cypress trees, sweeping mountain views, and 3 stand-alone guest houses, one of which was built by Uncle Charlie especially for Cary Grant. Cary’s guest house boasts a formal living room, a fireplace, a large bar, a kitchen, two bathrooms, and one large bedroom. A photograph of that guest house circa 1970 was featured in Good Stuff and I was absolutely FLOORED to discover a recent picture of the structure on the property’s real estate listing in which it still looks almost exactly the same as it did when Cary and Jennifer vacationed there. SO INCREDIBLY COOL! According to the real estate listing, Howard Hughes also spent quite a bit of time at the property.

Sadly, not much of the ultra-private estate, which is currently for sale for a cool $8,950,000, is visible from the street.

Thank god for aerial views! As you can see above, the place is pretty darn magnificent and majorly dwarfs everything which surrounds it. I cannot even imagine owning a home like that! Sigh! You can visit two of the property’s real estate listings and see some great close-up photographs of it here and here.

On a stalking side note – fellow stalker/celebrity enthusiast Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, her dog Sammy, the GC, and I were lucky enough to run into a few stars while hanging out together this past Saturday night in Beverly Hills.

While walking to our cars after grabbing dinner, Pinky happened to spot The Hangover star Ken Jeong, who could not have been nicer or funnier! He practically did an entire, private stand-up comedy routine for us, right there on the sidewalk. So incredibly cool! And he gave Pinky a kiss on the cheek after posing for a pic with her! How cute is that?

We spotted Kevin Nealon a few minutes later and he was also a total sweetheart and even remembered meeting Pinky at the Sundance Film Festival a couple of years ago.

And last, but definitely not least, we saw Ed Helms from The Office and The Hangover. I had previously heard that Ed is not especially fan-friendly, but I am very happy to report that that information is not accurate as he was super sweet to Pinky and me and happily posed for a picture with both of us. Mine sadly came out a little blurry, which I did not realize until after I got home. Such a bummer, but I am stoked nonetheless to have gotten a picture at all.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Charlie Rich’s former home is located at 457 West Hermosa Place in Palm Springs.

July 25, 2011July 18, 2011

Cary and Jennifer Grant’s Former House

As I mentioned last month, back on May 28th I attended the Jennifer Grant book signing for Good Stuff, the actress’ newly-penned memoir about her late father, movie star Cary Grant. Well, I finally finished reading the tome last weekend and I can honestly say that it is one of the best books I have ever read. What an incredibly touching gift Jennifer has created for her father – and for her father’s countless legions of fans. If you have not yet read Good Stuff, I cannot more highly recommend doing so. I literally could not get enough of Jennifer’s words and stories and was pretty much drowning in tears by the time I came to the end. Besides the heartfelt memories and sound fatherly advice from Cary that Jennifer shares in her book, my favorite aspect of Good Stuff has to be the fact that in it she refers to her childhood home by its street address – 9966 Beverly Grove Drive. Oh, THANK YOU, Jennifer! A woman after my own heart, I swear! How I wish more celebrity authors would do that very same thing when penning their own memoirs. Sigh! So while out and about in Beverly Hills a couple of weekends ago, before I had yet to even finish the book actually, I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place.

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“9966”, as Jennifer lovingly calls her childhood home, is located high up in the Hills of Beverly, off of Benedict Canyon Drive, at the end of a twisty, turny, fairly remote street which overlooks pretty much all of Los Angeles.

Needless to say, the view, which is pictured above, is pretty darn majestic. Of it, Jennifer says, “We had a ‘You should see the view’ view. Stunning. From downtown Los Angeles all the way to the beach – oh, but please don’t. All my life we had looky loos parking outside the gate and peering in through the metal bars. Our home was on the Movie Star Maps. Can’t blame people for wanting to see, really, but it was a disconcerting inconvenience. People would park their cars in our driveway, just outside the gate. Then they’d stand and gaze in and around the gate, hoping to catch a glimpse of Dad through the windows or in the backyard. Dad, Barbara [Cary Grant’s fifth and last wife], and I likened it to being animals in a zoo.”

To poke fun at their seemingly zoo-like existence, the trio posed for the above photograph in 1983. Of it, Jennifer writes, “One of my favorite pictures of Dad, Barbara, and me is a spoof on all of this. In the midst of a rarely held family photo session (perhaps our only one), we decided to get a shot of us at the gate, mimicking our imagined status as displeased monkeys, our cheeks puffed and heads pressed through the bars. Of course, we did choose the outside of the gate as the imagined cave. We quite liked our own confines.” Love it!

That gate is pictured above. Sadly though, as you can see, little else besides the gate is visible from the street. And no, I did not try to venture up to it and peer in and around it to try to catch a better glimpse of the property as the looky loos in Cary Grant’s day did.

Of her 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom, 7,602 square foot childhood home, Jennifer writes, “There’s a beautiful symmetry to the number 9966, as if it were the end and the beginning of a quotation. The first time I remember seeing my father, and the last time I actually did see him, was at 9966. One of my father’s priorities was providing me with a sense of permanence and stability. The actual structure he chose was a farm-style house. Our home atop a hill.” According to Jennifer, while the house was luxurious, it was also “practical”. She says, “Dad used to say that the state of your surroundings reflected the state of your mind. Also, there could be an inverse correlation. A clean atmosphere provides space for thought. This has become a truism for me. During college exams, regardless of my lack of sleep, my boyfriend used to marvel at the way I had to clean my apartment before studying. A direct offshoot of 9966.” She also says, “Dad wasn’t a fan of overly lavish displays, at least not in the worldly sense. Our home was beautiful and not a mansion. What did we need with a mansion? Our parties were small parties. We had a white, modern-looking oval table that at most sat fourteen. You could see and hear everyone. The mood was festive and intimate. Barbara made scrumptious, home-cooked meals and decorated the table with her own arrangements of flowers. Dad was so proud. I understand why. Our home had love, warmth, and personal care. It was overflowing.” The home was so beloved by the Grant family, in fact, that not only was it the spot where Cary married Barbara on April 11, 1981, but it was also where Jennifer tied the knot with her now ex-husband, Randy Zisk, in 1993. When Cary sadly passed away in 1986, he left the property to Barbara and it appears that she still owns it to this day.

Again, I cannot more highly recommend reading Good Stuff. Just be prepared with a box of hankies when you get towards the end.

On a side note – Located due west of 9966, across Benedict Canyon Drive, is Villa Bella, the Italian-style monstrosity that was built on the site of the now-demolished residence where Sharon Tate was murdered in the early morning hours of August 8, 1969. The Tate house was leveled in 1996 by owner Alvin Weintraub, who subsequently built the ginormous 18,000-square-foot, nine-bedroom villa pictured above.

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Cary and Jennifer Grant’s former house is located at 9966 Beverly Grove Drive in Beverly Hills. You can purchase a copy of Jennifer’s book Good Stuff here.

July 12, 2011July 11, 2011

Falcon Lair – The Former Estate of Rudolph Valentino

Way back in December of 2009, I got an email from a fellow stalker named Todd who wanted to know if I had any information on Falcon Lair, the former Rudolph Valentino estate which he had heard was in the process of being torn down. Amazingly enough, before receiving Todd’s email I had never before heard of Falcon Lair, nor did I know much about its legendary owner. Rudolph Valentino, as it turns out, was the Brad Pitt/Johnny Depp – or, if you ask me, the Matt Lanter – of his day. The 1920’s Italian-born silent film star, who was dubbed the “Latin Lover” by the press, was so beloved by fans that on the day of his funeral in 1926 over 100,000 mourners lined the streets of New York near Saint Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church to pay their respects to the fallen icon. So after reading Todd’s email, I immediately dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place to see if it was still standing. Sadly though, it was pouring rain on that particular day and I was only able to jump out of the car for a brief moment to snap the above photograph and could not poke around the property to see if the estate had been razed. And even though the mansion had remained at the very top of my “To Stalk” list ever since, the GC and I did not make it back out there until two weekends ago.

Falcon Lair was originally built by Beverly-Hills-real-estate-developer George Read in 1923 and was purchased by Rudolph Valentino two years later for $175,000. Valentino dubbed the property “Falcon Lair” in honor of The Hooded Falcon, a never-completed movie the film star tried to produce with his wife Natacha Rambova in 1924. The isolated Benedict Canyon manse, which Valentino decorated with lavish antiques, fine art, and imported European furnishings, was to be the couple’s dream house, but sadly Natacha divorced him shortly after they moved in. Sadder still, Valentino died from peritonitis less than a year later, on August 23, 1926, at the tender age of 31. The estate was then sold and much of the land parceled off. After a succession of different owners, Falcon Lair was purchased by heiress Doris Duke in 1953. The reclusive Duke, who at birth had been dubbed “The Million Dollar Baby” thanks to her father’s extensive tobacco fortune, sadly passed away at the Lair on October 28th, 1993 at the age of 80. Her death became a scandal when it was uncovered that Duke had not only made her butler, Bernard Lafferty, co-executor of her will, a job for which he was paid $500,000 a year, but that she had also bequested him a whopping $5 million from her estate. Lafferty was eventually accused of playing a role in the heiress’ death, but those accusations were later proven unfounded. In 1998, the Doris Duke Estate sold Falcon Lair for $2,294,000 and in 2003 the new owners began an extensive restoration and renovation project to bring the mansion back to its original grandeur. Sadly though, and apparently due to bureaucratic red tape, the construction was halted and the house put on the market shortly thereafter. It was purchased yet again in 2006, at which point it was razed completely. And with that another important piece of Los Angeles history was wiped away.

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During the time that Valentino lived there, the 4700-square foot, two-level Falcon Lair boasted over 8 acres of land, 16 rooms, three master bedrooms, three baths, several fireplaces, a library, a detached four-car garage complete with a 120-gallon gasoline pump and upstairs four-bedroom servants’ quarters, a horse stable where Valentino kept his four Arabian horses, and extensive gardens filled with imported Italian trees. Upon moving in, the star also had to construct a 9-foot cement wall surrounding the perimeter of the estate in order to keep out his more aggressive fans, who would often try to sneak onto the property.

Sadly, all that remains of the original Falcon Lair today are the front gates . . .

. . . and the former garage/servants’ quarters.

If you head away from the property by driving west on Bella Drive and then east on Cielo Drive, you can see the retaining wall that Valentino had built to keep out his trespassing fans.

And if you position Bing’s aerial map of the property facing south, you can catch a glimpse of the mansion before it was torn down, albeit not a very good one.

You can also see an aerial view of the backside of the mansion on fave website Virtual Globetrotting.

According to fave book Hollywood: The Movie Lover’s Guide, at some point in time the Falcon Lair stable was sold off and transformed into a private residence. I was unaware of that fact at the time I stalked the place, though, so I unfortunately did not get any photographs of it. An aerial view of the former stable/now house is pictured above. You can read a more extensive history of Falcon Lair, as well as see some interior photographs of the estate, on the Rudolph Valentino Homepage website here.

Directly across the street from Falcon Lair is the absolutely AMAZING John Lautner-designed Schwimmer Residence, where the Carter family (Backstreet Boy Nick and his siblings B.J., Aaron, Leslie, and Angel) lived during the filming of their short-lived 2006 reality series House of Carters. (I apologize for the crap-tastic screen captures, by the way. Unfortunately, I had to get them off of YouTube, which is why they are so fuzzy.)

Sadly though, none of the Schwimmer Residence, which was built in 1982 and boasts 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, and almost 6,000 square feet of living space, is visible from the street. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to see that house! You can check out some great photos of the residence on fave website Zillow here and on the Plan It Locations website here.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Todd for asking me to stalk this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking!

Stalk It: Falcon Lair, the former Rudolph Valentino estate, was located at 1436 Bella Drive in the Benedict Canyon area of Beverly Hills. Directly across the street, at 1435 Bella Drive, is the Schwimmer Residence where the House of Carters reality series was filmed. Rudolph Valentino’s former horse stables can be found at 10051 Cielo Drive, just down the road from Falcon Lair. And just up the street from the stables, at 10066 Cielo Drive (formerly 10050 Cielo Drive), is Villa Bella, the mansion that was built on the site of the home where Sharon Tate was murdered.

July 7, 2011July 6, 2011

Barneys New York from “Just Go With It”

This past Friday night, the Grim Cheaper and I sat down to watch Just Go With It on DVD and I have to say that I loved the flick even more the second time around! I honestly think it is my girl Jen’s best movie yet! Although I did seriously love me some Office Space, but I digress. So while the GC and I were in the area doing some stalking last Sunday afternoon, I just had to drag him out to stalk the Women’s Shoe Department at Barneys New York department store on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, where, in what turned out to be one of my favorite scenes in the film, Jen’s character, Katherine, tried on some expensive kicks at the behest of her boss/pretend soon-to-be ex-husband, Danny Maccabee (aka Adam Sandler).

Before arriving at Barneys I was a little apprehensive that the store would have a no photos policy, but amazingly enough I ended up chatting with a super nice saleswoman who not only showed me the exact spot in the shoe department where filming had taken place, but also told me that I was free to take all of the pictures that I wanted. Yay! The woman also informed me that she had once waited on Jen and that she had been incredibly nice and down to earth. Sigh!

The Just Go With It scene was filmed in the very center of Barneys’ Women’s Shoe Department, in the area that features a square-shaped couch. I was especially excited to see that the couch pillows that appeared in the scene were actually there in real life, as well! Love it!

And OH MY GOD do I LOVE me the shoes that Jen tried on in the scene!!! What I wouldn’t give to have a pair of those!!!! (They are made by Tabitha Simmons and they are called the “Bailee Suede” for those who are interested and have an extra $882 lying around. That’s the sale price, by the way, they originally cost $1,470.)

Just Go With It–Barneys New York in Beverly Hills

You can watch the absolutely hilarious scene that took place at Barneys by clicking above.

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The saleswoman that I spoke with also told me that Jen’s ex, Brad Pitt, filmed a very brief scene for the 1999 movie Fight Club at Barneys, in which his character, Tyler Durden, and “The Narrator”, who was played by Edward Norton, sell soap to a high-end department store.

The store was also where Turtle (aka Jerry Ferrara), Vincent Chase (aka Adrian Grenier), Eric Murphy (aka Kevin Connolly), and Johnny ‘Drama’ Chase (aka Kevin Dillon) shopped for pajamas for the annual Playboy Mansion Lingerie Party in the Season 2 episode of Entourage titled “Aquamansion”.

Barneys New York in Beverly Hills is also a major celebrity hot spot. Just a few of the stars who have been spotted shopping there in recent months include Courteney Cox, Lauren Conrad, Kate Bosworth, Audrina Patridge, Ashley Tisdale, Lindsay Lohan, Rihanna, Dakota Fanning, Nicole Richie, and Jessica Alba. Barneys was also where Victoria Beckham and Katie Holmes famously shopped for shoes together back in 2006. In fact, the above photograph was taken in the exact same spot where Just Go With It was filmed. And the last time that the GC and I were at Barneys, we spotted Jessica Lowndes, aka Adrianna Tate-Duncan from 90210, doing some shopping with a friend.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Barneys New York, from Just Go With It, is located at 9570 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. In the movie, Jennifer Aniston shopped in the very center of the Women’s Shoe Department. You can visit the official Barney’s website here.

July 5, 2011July 5, 2011

The “Horrible Bosses” Movie Premiere

Last Thursday afternoon, fellow stalkers Mikey, of the Mike the Fanboy website, Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, Scotty, CB, Anushika, and I all headed out to Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Downtown Hollywood to do some stalking of the world premiere of my girl Jen Aniston’s latest movie Horrible Bosses. As amazing as it may sound, prior to that day, I had never before stalked a movie premiere. While I randomly found myself at the premiere of He’s Just Not That Into You back in February of 2009, I was only able to stick around for about ten minutes or so, and while I attended the premiere of Friday the 13th, also in February of 2009, I actually had tickets to that one and watched the movie from inside the theatre. So this was the first time that I would truly be stalking a premiere, i.e. showing up hours early and standing along the fan barricade on Hollywood Boulevard. Both Pinky and Mikey had warned me that not only were premieres not the greatest place to get photographs with celebrities, but that Grauman’s was the worst, least fan-friendly venue of them all. Because I suffer from eternal optimism, though (it’s something I get from my mom), I headed out there on Thursday afternoon emboldened with extremely high hopes. In fact, Mikey suggested I might want to take some sort of pill to calm my spirits. Winking smile

Adding to my optimism was the fact that I had asked my dad to overnight me his camera for the event (his is far better than mine) and when it arrived, I opened up the box to find the above-pictured note from my mom. Smile See, in my family we just can’t help but be positive!

Because of some obligations I had to take care of in Santa Monica that morning, I could not get to Grauman’s until 3 p.m. on Thursday, but thankfully CB headed out there bright and early at 10:30 a.m. and saved me a spot along the barricade. THANK YOU, CB!!!!! Oddly enough, there were not a whole lot of people there when I first showed up and I couldn’t help buy wonder why Pinky and Mikey had been so negative about the place. Oh, how naïve I was!

I had asked Pinky to bring her super cute dog, Sammy, to the premiere as Jen is a big dog-lover and I figured that if I was going to try to get a picture with the star, I would need all of the help I could get. Which also explains why I was wearing my “Team Aniston” sweatshirt, despite the 90-degree heat. Winking smile

The celebrity arrivals did not begin until 6:30 p.m. and, as always, we all had a FABULOUS time hanging out beforehand. In fact, I enjoyed that portion of the day much more so than I did meeting the various celebs who were in attendance. Needless to say, Pinky has the absolute BEST group of friends!

At around 6 p.m., the professional autograph seekers (aka the “graphers” as Pinky likes to call them) showed up and it was at that point that things started to head south. The crazies also started to show up around that same time, including this guy, who was absolutely convinced that Jen had made him homeless. Um, OK. At one point he got into a VERY heated argument with someone about his claim, although he was, not surprisingly, entirely incoherent. When I heard him yelling, I turned around and saw his “Jen, You Made Me Homeless” sign and asked Mikey, who, due to his height, had better room to maneuver in the fan pit than I did, to snap a pic. Mikey’s response, “Oh, I already did!” LOL Love it!

Anyway, once the graphers showed up, our little group (whom you can see above) got completely squished up against the barricade. Pinky graciously allowed me to share the stool she had brought to stand on, so I had a good vantage point from which to take pictures, but unfortunately the people standing behind me were pressed up so close against me that I literally could not move. Or breathe! At one point I told Mikey that I was fairly certain I had dislocated my hip. It was NOT FUN!

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Jason Sudeikis was the first Horrible Bosses’ star to show up and he came right over to sign autographs and take pictures.

Jason was SUPER nice and spent a LOT of time signing autographs for people and taking photos, but sadly there was a big ol’ shadow across my face on the one that he took with me.

Jason Bateman arrived next and also came over to sign autographs, but he seemed very reluctant about it and was not at all friendly, which shocked me.

Jason signed a fair amount of autographs (not nearly as many as Jason Sudeikis did, though), but flat-out refused to take any pictures. UGH!

Jamie Foxx arrived next and literally JUMPED out of his limo and IMMEDIATELY started walking over to the fan barricade to sign autographs and take photos. How incredibly cool is that??

Because I was so squished up against the barricade, I could not get my camera in position to take a picture, so Pinky took one of the three of us. It didn’t exactly come out (you can just barely see me in the bottom of the frame LOL), but I was floored nevertheless just due to the fact that Jamie had been so darn friendly and nice. There’s something seriously unbalanced in the universe when Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx is taking pictures with fans, but Jason Bateman is refusing them!

Jesse Metcalfe arrived next and Pinky and I went absolutely batsh*t over him, much to Mikey’s dismay. Winking smile We immediately called for Jesse to come over and he yelled back, “I don’t think I can!” and pointed to the countless cars zooming across Hollywood Boulevard in front of him. He didn’t realize that there was a security team in place ready to walk the stars across the street via a nearby crosswalk. When he spotted Jamie Foxx signing autographs, though, I guess he decided to go for it, because the next thing we knew he was running across four lanes of rush-hour traffic right towards us, sans security! LOL

And what a sweetheart Jesse turned out to be!!!! He signed countless autographs and posed for countless photos.

Including one with me! Smile And he even thanked Pinky and I for calling him over. Sigh.

Joey Lawrence showed up next and Pinky started screaming for him (and singing the words to his latest single), but he flat out refused to come over. When he yelled over to us, “I can’t!”, a security guard walked up to him and said she would escort him across the street, but he turned her down. Sad smile

My girl Jen was the last to arrive and, let me tell you, I have never in my life experienced anything like what happened when she got out of her car. It was as if the entire crowd moved forward in a wave and the volume in the area increased about one hundred decibels. The people behind us began to very aggressively push us forward and the barricade we were standing against started to give way and tip forward. There was a massive amount of screaming and, although I tried yelling at the people behind us to stop pushing, not only could they most-definitely not hear me, it was fairly obvious they would not have cared even if they had heard. The barricade kept tinkering farther and father forward and came thisclose to toppling over entirely. One more millimeter and I am fairly certain that our entire little group would have fallen right into the middle of Hollywood Boulevard – and either right on top of Jen or right under several moving cars. It was one of the scarier moments of my life and I was crushed so strongly against the barricade that I could hardly breathe.

I managed to snap a couple of pics of my girl amidst the chaos and while Pinky kept yelling out, “Please take a photo with my friend, she’s your biggest fan!”, the screaming was so loud that Jen did not even hear her. And sadly, in chaos such as that, there was absolutely no way in heck that anyone could have gotten a picture with the star. Such a bummer! I have to say that Jen looked ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS, though! It is mind-boggling to me that she is 42!!!! Sigh!

Jennifer Aniston signing autographs at Horrible Bosses premiere

You can watch a video that Mikey took of the Jen madness by clicking above. As you can see, Jen had a security team of no less than six people surrounding her at all times and, due to all of the pushing and shoving, they would not let her get within five feet of the fan barricade.

After the celebrity arrivals were over, I was thoroughly beat and pretty much intent on heading straight home. I felt like I had been through a war! LOL But Pinky convinced me to stick around for a couple of hours to try to catch some of the celebs leaving the premiere and I figured since I had already come that far, I may as well stay. And I am so glad that I did as, shortly after the movie ended, we ran into Zachary Levi, from Chuck, who was a complete and total sweetheart! Not to mention a total cutie!

We also saw Oscar Nunez from The Office . . .

. . . and Joey Lawrence, who was sadly not as friendly as I assumed he’d be.

Ioan Gruffudd, from Fantastic Four, also walked by, but he was ABSOLUTELY mobbed. He is standing somewhere in the middle of that mass of people pictured above, so I did not even attempt to get a photograph with him. Pinky, who always gets her man, still had the strength left to brave the masses, though, and did get a picture! What can I say, the girl has got mad skills. We also spotted Trevor Donovan from 90210, but he FLAT-OUT REFUSED to take a picture with us. Pinky and I were the only ones who even approached him, but he still turned us down big time! Ah well. All in all it was a fun night, but I don’t know that I would ever do it again. It was just a bit too crazy and out-of-control for me. Sad smile

You can check out Mike the Fanboy’s write-up of the Horrible Bosses premiere and see some videos he took of the event on his website here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Grauman’s Chinese Theatre is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. You can visit the theatre’s official website here.