Your definitive source to filming locations and all things Hollywood!
Holly Golightly’s (Audrey Hepburn) legendary brownstone from Breakfast at Tiffany’s is featured briefly on the new Amazon Prime series Wilderness. Check out my latest reel for all the details!
TL; DW – The gorgeous brownstone, which appears in the fourth episode of Wilderness as the home of Cara (Ashley Benson), can be found at 169 East 71st on New York’s Upper East Side.
“Yes, Virginia, there is!” They are some of the most famous words ever written! Find out where young Virginia O’Hanlon penned the 1897 letter that led to the landmark New York Sun editorial in my latest Reel.
Those who find themselves in New York at Christmas will inevitably hear about the exceedingly decorated Rolf’s German Restaurant in Gramercy Park. But is a meal there really worth all the hype? Watch my latest reel to find out!
Locations have been making impressions on me for ages, long before I even knew stalking was a thing. Case in point – way back in 1997 while watching The Ice Storm, I became fixated on the ornate stone staircase Libbets Casey (Katie Holmes) walked down in an early scene. Even though I only saw the movie once, those stairs were ingrained in my head. So when I started location hunting years later, I, of course, put some time into searching for them. Though I knew they had to be in New York or Connecticut, where the bulk of The Ice Storm was shot, I came up empty. Then, shortly before my April 2016 trip to the Big Apple, I saw the stairs pop up in an episode of White Collar and decided to revisit the hunt. Once again, I was unsuccessful. So I called in my friend Owen for an assist. And while I had yet to send him screen captures of the steps, he miraculously wrote me back in a matter of minutes saying he had come across a mention on the White Collar TV Live Journal site that noted the show did some filming at Union Theological Seminary in Morningside Heights, which he thought might be the spot I was seeking. One look at photos told me it was! I also quickly gleaned that while the school is closed to the public, it is available for special events. So I wrote to an events coordinator on staff, explained my fascination with the staircase, and asked if I might be able to tour it while in NYC. I was thrilled to receive a response shortly thereafter with a date and time to show up!
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As my tour guide explained, the staircase used in The Ice Storm is known as The Rotunda in real life. It is situated in the John Crosby Brown Memorial Tower, just beyond the campus’ main entrance.
Situated at the corner of West 120th Street and Broadway, the sprawling English Gothic-style campus is actually Union Theological Seminary’s third location. The Christian school, which educates those wishing to lead a life dedicated to the church, was initially established in a small building in Lower Manhattan in January 1836. With space for only a scant thirty pupils, it was not long before the need for a new, larger facility arose. Union Theological Seminary first re-located to Lenox Hill in 1884, but by the 1890s that site had been outgrown as well. So in 1904, a 36-lot plot of land in Morningside Heights was secured for a new school location. Architects Francis Richmond Allen and Charles Collens were tapped to design it. Construction began in 1908 and was completed in 1910.
As professor emeritus Daniel Johnson Fleming said of the new campus, “The Directors of the Seminary had as one of their aims that the very buildings should become an element in the education of those who live and study within its walls.”
I’d say Allen and Collens certainly delivered on that goal.
The Rotunda, constructed of marble and featuring a vaulted ceiling with rosette detailing, is literally breathtaking.
The three-story vestibule, which serves as Union Theological Seminary’s entrance hall, boasts fan tracery ornamentation that culminates in a central point showcasing the shields of the University of Edinburgh, the University of Cambridge, the City of Geneva, and the Westminster Assembly.
As I explained in my email plea for a tour, “I have to admit that I did not even like the movie The Ice Storm. But I took one look at Katie Holmes walking down the curved staircase and thought it was one of the most beautiful spaces I had ever seen.”
In person it was even more striking!
I literally couldn’t stop taking photos of the grand space.
It is not at all hard to see how The Rotunda wound up onscreen.
Because Union Theological Seminary itself is such a prolific film star, I decided it best to just focus on The Rotunda’s many onscreen cameos for this particular post.
I’ll cover the school as a whole in a future article.
It is on The Rotunda stairwell that Paul Hood (Tobey Maguire) attempts to make a connection with Libbets over the writings of Dostoyevsky at the beginning of The Ice Storm. Hauntingly beautiful, it is no surprise that the space stayed with me all these years.
As I mentioned, The Rotunda also popped up in an episode of White Collar. In Season 3’s “Upper West Side Story,” which aired in 2012, Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) and Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) walk down the staircase while investigating a case at what is said to be Manhattan Prep.
Our tour guide was kind enough to fill me in on several of The Rotunda’s other cameos.
Claire (Mimi Rogers) walks through The Rotunda with her sister, Rose Morgan (Barbra Streisand), on the way to her wedding ceremony in the 1996 dramedy The Mirror Has Two Faces.
Detectives Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) descend the staircase and walk through the halls of Union Theological Seminary, which is standing in for The Crestborne School, while investigating a former teacher in the Season 2 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit titled “Abuse.” The episode, which aired in 2001, features a very young Hayden Panettiere in a guest role.
Interestingly, Benson and Stabler briefly revisit The Rotunda (the bottom level of it is visible behind them in the cap below) in another episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that guest-starred Hayden Panettiere – Season 6’s “Hooked,” which aired in 2005.
The duo once again heads to Union Theological while investigating the murder of a student at the fictional Morewood School in the Season 10 episode of SVU titled “Hothouse,” which aired in 2009.
Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts) is told by President Jocelyn Carr (Marian Seldes) that she has gotten complaints regarding her teaching methods while in The Rotunda in 2003’s Mona Lisa Smile.
Max Carrigan (Joe Anderson) and his friends slide down the bannister of The Rotunda stairs in the 2007 musical Across the Universe.
In 2010, The Rotunda popped up very briefly in the Season 4 episode of Gossip Girl titled “Goodbye, Columbia,” in the scene in which Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) talks with her minions about the teaching assistant job she is hoping to land.
Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) closed a case in the grand space in the Season 3 episode of Blue Bloods titled “Higher Education,” which aired in 2012.
The Rotunda appeared in the pilot episode of Masters of Sex, which aired in 2013, as the spot where Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) registers for classes at what is supposedly Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
Jason McCord (Evan Roe) gets into a fistfight with a fellow student in The Rotunda in the Season 1 episode of Madam Secretary titled “The Ninth Circle,” which aired in 2015.
Beck (Elizabeth Lail) talked to Professor Paul Leahy (Reg Rogers) on The Rotunda staircase before class in the Season 1 episode of You titled “The Last Nice Guy in New York,” which aired in 2018.
And Abe Weissman (Tony Shalhoub) chased Simon (Michael Countryman) up The Rotunda stairs, supposedly located at Columbia University, in the Season 3 episode of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel titled “Marvelous Radio,” which aired in 2019.
Big THANK YOU to my friend Owen for tracking down this location! 
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Until next time, Happy Stalking!
Stalk It: Union Theological Seminary is located at 3041 Broadway in Morningside Heights. You can visit the school’s official website here. The Rotunda, from The Ice Storm, can be found just past the main entrance. Please keep in mind that the seminary is closed to the public and that I was only able to see it via a pre-arranged tour.
One of the things I love most about L.A. is the direct access the city has to a myriad of unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Case in point – Essentially Marilyn, The Paley Center for Media’s latest exhibit featuring costumes, personal artifacts, clothing, and memorabilia from none other than Miss Marilyn Monroe herself, including the starlet’s personally annotated script from The Seven Year Itch AND a replica of the infamous dress she wore in the 1955 movie’s iconic subway grate scene. (If you feel like going down a rabbit hole of information regarding the legendary frock, check out these fabulous articles on The Marilyn Monroe Collection website here and here.) Fingers crossed I make it out to see the exhibit before it closes on September 30th. In the meantime, I thought I’d blog about an MM locale I stalked back in April 2016 while in New York – 36 Sutton Place South, aka the building where Pola Debevoise (Monroe) lived with her BFFs Loco Dempsey (Betty Grable) and Schatze Page (Lauren Bacall) in How to Marry a Millionaire.
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Though Marilyn’s performance in the 1953 comedy definitely plays to type, it is one of my favorites of hers. Legend has it that when she asked director Jean Negulesco about her bespectacled character’s motivation, he replied “You’re blind as a bat without glasses. That is your motivation.” The advice led to some of the best comedic moments of her career, in my opinion. For those who have never seen the film (and you really should), it centers around three bachelorettes who, hoping to land millionaire husbands, sublease a penthouse apartment in a tony Manhattan building. To portray the girls’ fancy digs, producers looked no further than 36 Sutton Place South.
Originally built in 1949, the 17-story complex boasts 101 units.
Consisting of a brick and limestone façade with glass balconies, the place has something of a postmodern feel.
The white-glove building, which became a co-op in 1962, features a canopied entrance, a doorman and a concierge, an on-site gym and laundry room, and a rooftop deck with a garden and river views. You can see some interior photos of the property here.
36 Sutton Place South only actually appears twice in How to Marry a Millionaire, first popping up in the movie’s opening scene in which Schatze arrives at the building to sublease the unit.
It is then featured in a later scene in which the unit’s owner, Freddie Denmark (David Wayne), returns home and attempts to retrieve a document he has stashed away inside. Only the exterior of the property was utilized in the filming.
All interiors were part of an elaborate set built at 20th Century Fox Studios in Culver City, including the building’s lobby;
the inside of the women’s apartment;
and their balcony, which does look very much like 36 Sutton’s actual rooftop deck. You can see photos of it here and here.
I am fairly certain that close-up shots of the building’s front doors were also shot on a set.
Though the entrance shown in How to Marry a Millionaire does look a lot like 36 Sutton’s actual entrance, the complex’s real life doorway is much larger than its onscreen counterpart. The window that should appear in the right-hand portion of the frame below is also missing and, while the bottom part of the planter to the left of the main doors is slanted in real life, it is flat in the movie. Though these elements could have been changed in the 65 years since filming took place, I do not believe that to be the case.
How to Marry a Millionaire is not 36 Sutton’s only claim to fame. During the 1950s, Joan Crawford and her husband, Pepsi-Cola Company chairman Alfred N. Steele, made the place their New York home.
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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The How to Marry a Millionaire apartment building is located at 36 Sutton Place South in New York’s Sutton Place neighborhood.
I have never been a film location purist. I am just as happy visiting spots that have appeared onscreen as I am touring those that have provided inspiration for sets – as evidenced here, here and here. So while in New York in April 2016 I just had to pop by McGee’s Pub, aka the watering hole that MacLaren’s Pub from How I Met Your Mother was based upon. I first learned about the place and its small screen cachet while penning this article for Los Angeles magazine in 2014 and promptly added it to my NYC To-Stalk List. Though I later discovered that Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor), Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan) and Barney Stinson’s (Neil Patrick Harris) favorite hangout was actually modeled after four different Manhattan bars, since McGee’s is the only one still in operation today (well, in its original state, at least) and the one most often associated with the show, I figured it was worthy of its own post.
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How I Met Your Mother was the brainchild of producing partners Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, who, like main characters Ted and Marshall, met while attending Wesleyan University. After graduation, the duo moved to New York together and landed a gig writing for the Late Show with David Letterman in 1997. During their five-year stint there, they would often grab drinks at McGee’s, located right around the corner from the Ed Sullivan Theater where Letterman was lensed. In 2002, the two headed to Los Angeles with the hopes of helming a television series. They pitched How I Met Your Mother to CBS in 2005 and the rest is history.
In a 2016 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bays explained that he and Thomas followed a common adage when penning the series – “Write what you know, not what you think you want to see.” As such, they based the two main characters on themselves – Ted is modeled after Carter and Marshall after Craig – and styled their regular hangout like several places the duo patronized while living in NYC. As chronicled in an April 2008 CBS Watch article, McHale’s (a Times Square favorite at 750 8th Avenue that closed in 2006 – you can see photos of it here and here) “lent its dark atmosphere,” Chumley’s (a beloved onetime speakeasy at 86 Bedford Street in the West Village that suffered severe structural damage in 2007, was gutted, redesigned, and finally reopened 9 years later looking much different than its original self) “inspired some of MacLaren’s more rustic touches,” Fez (an Upper West Side Moroccan eatery at 2330 Broadway that shuttered in 2006) “gave the writers the idea to put a few round booths at the back of their TV bar,” and McGee’s “features the model for MacLaren’s WPA-era mural on its back wall.” (McGee’s mural and the one it inspired are both pictured below. Surprisingly, they don’t really resemble each other at all.) Bay and Thomas named their fictional watering hole after Bay’s production assistant, Carl MacLaren.
McGee’s Pub and Restaurant, christened in honor of Ed Sullivan Show cameraman Willie McGee, was originally founded in a small space on the bottom floor of the Ed Sullivan Theater at 1697 Broadway in 1983. You can see what it looked like at the time here. (That site is now home to Angelo’s Pizza.) When Letterman moved into the venue, the theater was extensively renovated and, in conjunction, McGee’s was forced to vacate in July 1995 in order to make way for a more high end restaurant. Owner Pete Fitzpatrick subsequently found a new, larger space right around the corner at 240 West 55th Street.
Though the more ritzy eatery brought in to replace McGee’s folded in a scant 22 months, McGee’s is still going strong today. The 3-story restaurant boasts 22 TVs, 2 bars, an internet jukebox, and a private events suite known as the Symphony Room.
While the bar’s exterior looks nothing like the exterior of MacLaren’s Pub (which was just a façade on the 20th Century Fox Studios backlot in Century City) . . .
. . . the interior of McGee’s is very reminiscent of its onscreen counterpart.
While not exactly carbon copies, MacLaren’s and McGee’s have a decidedly similar atmosphere.
Thanks to its red booths, low lighting, and heavily adorned walls, I truly felt like I was hanging out at Ted and Marshall’s favorite place while at McGee’s. Though I have to say that the original Chumley’s was a place I visited regularly when it was in operation and it, too, had an extremely similar ambiance to MacLaren’s. So Carter and Thomas did a superb job of incorporating the aura of both sites into their set design.
For those location purists unlike me who think a visit to McGee’s is a waste of time being that How I Met Your Mother never actually filmed on the premises, there are countless photos displayed of the cast hanging out at the bar (like the one below which comes from the restaurant’s Facebook page), autographs and clippings galore, as well as a myriad of HIMYM-inspired menu items, such as The Accidental Curly Fry Basket, The Bro Code Combo, and the Suit Up Sandwich, to satisfy any true fan.
On a How I Met Your Mother side-note – Thanks to my friend Marie, I got to visit 20th Century Fox Studios back in November 2014. The lot isn’t typically open to the public and being there was definitely one of the highlights of my stalking career thus far. During the tour, we were even taken by the MacLaren’s exterior. Though the series had ceased filming almost a year prior, I was thrilled to see that the façade still looked much the same as it did onscreen.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: McGee’s Pub, which served as the inspiration for MacLaren’s Pub on How I Met Your Mother, is located at 240 West 55th Street in New York’s Midtown West neighborhood. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.
I know I am in the minority when I say that I don’t think Amy Schumer is funny. And it’s not for lack of trying on my part. I first learned of the comedian when she appeared on Kaitlyn Bristowe’s season of The Bachelorette and found her schtick to be a bit annoying. Despite that, I have since seen all of her movies, including 2015’s Trainwreck, 2017’s Snatched and 2018’s I Feel Pretty. The latter is the only one I remotely liked, though I thought it could have been so much better – and a little shorter. I guess I just don’t get Amy’s humor. I was still thrilled to learn while touring The Pierre’s Cotillion Ballroom during my April 2016 trip to NYC, that the hotel’s Grand Ballroom was utilized in a prominent scene in Trainwreck, and ran right over to the space to snap some pics. Since returning home, I’ve come across a couple of the venue’s other onscreen cameos and figured it was high time I blog about it.
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I covered The Pierre’s history in my recent post on the Cotillion Ballroom, but figured a brief recap is in order here. The extravagant hotel was designed by the Schultze & Weaver architecture firm in 1930 for restaurateur Charles Pierre. The opulent property has defined luxury lodging in New York ever since. Known for its lavish décor and large public spaces, The Pierre is one of the city’s most popular event venues, thanks in large part to its Grand Ballroom.
Per The Pierre’s official website, the 86-by-86-foot space is the “largest pillarless ballroom amongst all five-star properties in NYC and offers uninhibited views.” The 7,500-square-foot venue also boasts 20-foot ceilings and a 1,500-person capacity. In 2005, the hotel underwent a four-year, $100-million renovation, during which The Grand Ballroom was overhauled by interior designer Alexandra Champalimaud. The result of her efforts is a sprawling room with a bowed ceiling, richly-colored draperies, gilded mirrors, and sparkling chandeliers hung from chains designed to resemble bows, which I was completely enamored with.
Even the stairs and hallway leading to The Grand Ballroom are stunning.
I mean, check out that ceiling!
In Trainwreck, Amy (Amy Schumer) attends an awards luncheon in The Grand Ballroom in which her new boyfriend, Dr. Aaron Conners (Bill Hader), is honored.
During Aaron’s acceptance speech, Amy takes a work call and winds up having to leave the venue – a huge no-no. Did she not learn anything from Mr. Big in Sex and the City’s “The Chicken Dance” episode?
The hallway leading to The Grand Ballroom is featured in the scene, as well.
As is the hotel’s Regency Room . . .
. . . which we also got to check out during our April 2016 tour.
The Grand Ballroom is also the spot where Ramona Singer and friends (well, all friends except for Kelly Killoren Bensimon) attend a fundraiser in the Season 4 episode of The Real Housewives of New York City titled “March Madness,” which aired in 2011.
In the Season 2 episode of Jessica Jones titled “AKA Start at the Beginning,” which aired earlier this year, Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor) and Griffin Sinclair (Hal Ozsan) are shown walking down the steps leading to The Grand Ballroom after attending a literacy fundraiser.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Pierre is located at 2 East 61st Street on New York’s Upper East Side. You can visit the hotel’s official website here. The Grand Ballroom can be found at the rear of the property, east of the Rotunda, on the 2nd floor.
Nothing makes me miss New York more than photographs of croissants. That’s a weird sentiment, I know – especially considering I don’t even really like croissants. But during one of my first trips to the Big Apple, I dragged my family to Upper East Side café Via Quadronno for breakfast after coming across a brief mention of the place and its fabulous cappuccinos in Real City: New York City (Real City Guides). Though I opted for a liquid meal consisting of a creamy iced latte (which was absolute perfection) that morning, my mom ordered a croissant and, upon biting in and proclaiming it was one of the best she’d ever had, implored me to taste it. I indulged her and was shocked at the outcome – the flaky pastry was one of the most delectable treats I’d ever sampled. I promptly ordered one for myself and then proceeded to head right back to Via Quadronno the following morning and every morning the rest of our trip – and every subsequent trip, as well, including my 2016 visit to the Big Apple with the Grim Cheaper. I cannot get enough of the place! So even though I briefly blogged about the charming eatery way back in 2008, I figured it was most-definitely worthy of a redux.
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Via Quadronno was originally founded by Italian native Paolo Della Puppa in 1999. A music publisher by trade, Puppa relocated to NYC in 1983, but continued to run his Italian-based company, Anyway Music, from afar. After about a decade abroad, he found himself falling victim to poor conversion rates and in need of a new vocation. So he turned to fellow Italian expat Hans Pauli, owner of the popular Sant Ambroeus café chain and former proprietor of the popular Milan paninoteca Bar Quadronno, which, thanks to chef/baker Giuseppe Tusi, became known for revolutionizing the panini.
Paolo trained under Hans at Sant Ambroeus for several years before the two eventually partnered up to establish Via Quadronno, which opened its doors on September 9th, 1999. Giuseppe was, of course, on hand to teach the staff his magical version of panini-making.
It did not take long for the cozy, intimate spot (the seating capacity is only 40!) to become a neighborhood icon with locals, tourists and celebrities alike all popping in for freshly baked goods, steaming cappuccinos, and those famous paninis. Just a few of the stars known to frequent the eatery include Katie Holmes (along with Suri Cruise), Aviva Drescher, Christine Baranski, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Martha Stewart, Dylan Lauren, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, Kelly Rutherford, Jerry Seinfeld, Sean Connery, Madonna, Robin Williams, Scarlett Johansson, Alex Rodriguez, Tom Hanks, and Matt Dillon.
It is not very hard to see why Via Quadronno has become such a local favorite. Not only is the dining room one of the most adorable in New York with tiny wooden tables and chairs, cheerful murals, and Italian posters dotting the walls, but the restaurant’s offerings are out of this world! It is no surprise that the place has won countless “best of” awards over the years. Heck, Martha Stewart even headed there when she wanted to learn how to make the perfect cappuccino.
Via Quadronno is also a filming location – from two of my favorite shows, no less!
In the Season 1 episode of Sex and the City titled “Models and Mortals,” Skipper Johnston (Ben Weber) forces Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) to call Miranda Hobbs (Cynthia Nixon) while standing outside of the restaurant to find out if he still has a chance with her.
At the time the episode was shot in 1998, the Via Quadronno space housed a sweets shop named La Maison Du Chocolat, which opened on the premises in 1990. Despite the change in tenancy, the site is still recognizable from its onscreen stint. I find it incredible that Reinstein|Ross Goldsmiths, the fine jewelry store situated next door to the café whose signage was visible in Sex and the City, is still alive and well and operating in the same location twenty years after the fact!
Via Quadronno also popped up on Gossip Girl. In the Season 2 episode titled “Remains of the J,” which aired in 2009, Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) heads to the café to pick up breakfast for Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), whom she has just secretly started dating again, and narrowly misses running into Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively).
The Season 10 episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee titled “Kate McKinnon: A Brain in a Jar,” which hit Netflix earlier this month, was filmed at Via Quadronno’s other location at 1228 Madison Avenue in NYC’s Carnegie Hill neighborhood (which Yelpers are reporting is now closed).
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: Via Quadronno, from the “Models and Mortals” episode of Sex and the City, is located at 25 East 73rd Street on New York’s Upper East Side. You can visit the eatery’s official website here. The Via Quadronno outpost from the “Kate McKinnon: A Brain in a Jar” episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee can be found at 1228 Madison Avenue in NYC’s Carnegie Hill neighborhood, though per Yelp that location is now closed.
For someone who is so well-versed in all things movie-related, I know very little about Old Hollywood – a fact my mom often admonishes me for. Case in point – though A Perfect Murder has long been a favorite thriller, I have never seen Dial M for Murder, the 1954 Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece from which it was adapted. Truth be told, up until doing research for this post, I had no idea that the 1998 flick had been based upon anything. (Insert monkey-covering-face emoji here.) Sadly, my ignorance didn’t end there. Somehow I also failed to realize that three different spots were utilized to represent the Manhattan penthouse where Steven Taylor (Michael Douglas) and his wife, Emily Bradford Taylor (Gwyneth Paltrow), lived in the film. The mashup included a studio-built set and two adjacent Upper East Side estates – the Otto Kahn Mansion at 1 East 91st Street and the neighboring James Burden Mansion at 7 East 91st. Prior to writing this post, I had only been aware of the former, which I learned of via the book New York: The Movie Lover’s Guide shortly before my 2016 trip to NYC. So I, of course, ran right out to stalk it while in town.
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The neo-Italian Renaissance-style Otto Kahn Mansion was designed by architects C.P.H. Gilbert (who also gave us the Harry F. Sinclair House from Cruel Intentions) and J. Armstrong Stenhouse for wealthy banker Otto Kahn and his wife, Adelaide Wolff. Otto was once quoted as saying, “It’s a sin to keep money idle” (Why oh why can’t the Grim Cheaper share that belief?), so money was no object when it came to the property’s construction which began in 1914 and took four years to complete.
The 80-room manse was modeled after Rome’s Palazzo della Cancelleria and boasts an oak-paneled library, a garden, a Caen stone entry and stairwell, a large inner courtyard, an enclosed driveway (to keep away prying eyes), a reception room, a ballroom, a music room with parquet floors and an Adams-style ceiling, and accommodations for a staff of forty!
The property’s French limestone exterior is actually rather non-descript and belies the utter extravagance and opulence of the interior, which you can see photographs of here, here and here.
When Kahn passed away in 1934, Adelaide sold the massive home to the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private Catholic all-girls school.
Six years later, the Convent of the Sacred Heart purchased the James Burden Mansion next door and combined the two sites. While I did not snap any photographs of that property, you can check out what it looks like here. The 1901 estate was designed by the Warren and Wetmore architecture firm (who also designed Grand Central Station and the New York Yacht Club) and is just as palatial and lux as its neighbor with a grand Hauteville marble spiraling staircase situated underneath a Tiffany glass skylight, a banquet hall lined with Campan vert marble, and an extravagantly-arched carriageway. You can catch a glimpse of its striking interior here.
The Otto Kahn and James Burden Mansions pop up numerous times throughout A Perfect Murder. For exterior shots of the Taylors’ upscale apartment building, the estates were made to appear as one singular property, as you can see below.
The James Burden Mansion’s carriageway . . .
. . . as well as its rotunda and central staircase portray the apartment building’s entrance and lobby . . .
. . . while the Otto Kahn Mansion’s rooftop masks as the Taylors’ private terrace.
The interior of Steven and Emily’s massive penthouse cannot be found in either mansion, though. Per the film’s production notes, their apartment was part of a massive 11,000-square-foot set built at the Jersey City Armory in New Jersey.
A Perfect Murder is hardly the first production to make use of the two properties.
In the 1946 noir The Dark Corner, the James Burden Mansion pops up as the Cathcart Galleries.
The two estates together portray the building where Ingrid Everly (Dyan Cannon) lives, which Robert ‘Duke’ Anderson (Sean Connery) sets out to rob, in 1971’s The Anderson Tapes.
In the 1982 drama The Verdict, the Otto Kahn Mansion masquerades as a Boston archdiocese.
The James Burden Mansion plays the Union Club, where Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) and Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford) crash a wedding in the 1988 comedy Working Girl. Only the interior of the property appears in the scene, though. The building used for exterior shots is the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (aka the British Consulate from Jumpin’ Jack Flash) located directly across the street at 2 East 91st Street.
Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) heads to the Otto Kahn Mansion to pick up his son, Nick (Jake Cherry), from school only to learn upon arrival that he has missed Parent Career Day in the 2006 comedy Night at the Museum.
The James Burden Mansion’s Dining Room and Music Room mask as the Rome hotel suite where Ray Koval (Clive Owen) and Claire Stenwick (Julia Roberts) stay in the 2009 thriller Duplicity . . .
. . . while the Otto Kahn Mansion’s stairwell and foyer simulate the outside of the suite in the flick.
The Otto Kahn Mansion’s courtyard and the James Burden Mansion’s ballroom mesh together to portray the Roland family estate, where Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) and Peter Burke (Tim DeKay) head to authenticate a will, in the Season 3 episode of White Collar titled “Where There’s a Will,” which aired in 2011.
The exterior of the Otto Kahn Mansion portrays Harry Osbourne’s (Dane DeHaan) house in 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, though interiors were filmed elsewhere.
For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Otto Kahn and James Burden Mansions, aka Convent of the Sacred Heart school, aka the A Perfect Murder apartment building, are located at 1 East 91st Street and 7 East 91st Street, respectively, on New York’s Upper East Side. You can visit the properties’ official website here. Right across the street at 2 East 91st Street is the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, aka the British Consulate from Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
They say revenge is a dish best served cold. Well, I think revenge movies are a dish best served with a side of comedy. The Other Woman? 9 to 5? The Sting? The First Wives Club? All perfection! The latter is one of my ultimate favorites, so when I saw the address of the spectacular Upper East Side townhouse where wealthy socialite Gunilla Garson Goldberg (Maggie Smith) lived in the 1996 flick listed in the book Manhattan on Film, I promptly added it to my To-Stalk List for my April 2016 trip to the Big Apple. The Beaux Arts-style structure, known as the Benjamin N. Duke House in real life, turned out to be even more stunning in person than it appeared onscreen. It is easily one of the prettiest pads I have ever laid eyes upon!
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The Benjamin N. Duke House, also known as the Duke Semans Mansion, was originally constructed as part of a spec development of four adjacent Fifth Avenue estates. Brothers William W. and Thomas M. Hall commissioned the Welch, Smith & Provot architecture firm to design the elaborate dwellings. Sadly, the Duke house is the only one that remains standing today.
Completed in 1901, the 8-story property boasts a stately limestone and brick edifice, a French Renaissance interior, hand-carved wood paneling, trompe l’oeil accents, plaster friezes, a 5-story staircase, hardwood flooring, 12 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, 2 rooftop patios, 11 wood-burning fireplaces, 3 elevators, a whopping 20,000 square feet of living space, and views of Central Park and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The pad even has a separate penthouse level complete with a private entrance and staircase.
Though the townhouse fronts Fifth Avenue . . .
. . . it is its 82nd Street side that is most impressive. The building reminds me quite a bit of the Cravens Estate in Pasadena, but on a much grander scale.
Shortly after its completion, the 100×27-foot property was purchased by American Tobacco Company founder Benjamin N. Duke.
The manse continued to be owned by members of the Duke family for more than one hundred years. It was not until 2006 that Benjamin’s granddaughter Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans (hence the name Duke Semans Mansion) sold the townhouse to real estate mogul Tamir Sapir. The purchase price? A cool $40 million!
Sapir subsequently sold the pad in 2010 to the richest man in the world at the time, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim, for $44 million. Five years later, Slim put the residence on the market with an asking price of $80 million (!!!), but it does not appear that there were any takers.
The Benjamin N. Duke House is not only listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but is also a New York City Landmark.
Sadly, there are not many photographs of the mansion’s interior floating around online, but you can catch a glimpse of a few here, as well as watch some videos that show portions of the inside of the structure here and here.
In The First Wives Club, Shelly Stewart (Sarah Jessica Parker) heads to the Benjamin N. Duke House for a “super social luncheon” with Gunilla.
I am unsure if the actual interior of the mansion was utilized in the scene, but I do not believe so. None of the photographs of the inside of the townhouse that I have come across match what was shown onscreen, so I am guessing that interiors were filmed at another Manhattan estate or on a studio-built set.
The First Wives Club is not the only production to feature the Benjamin N. Duke House.
In The French Connection, the property portrays an apartment building where actor Dom Ameche and a criminal named Weinstock (Harold Gray) are both said to reside.
The mansion looked quite a bit different when the Best Picture-winning thriller was shot in 1971 than it does today, as you can see below.
The townhouse also portrayed the home of Henry Turner (Harrison Ford) and his family in the 1991 drama Regarding Henry.
Scenes taking place inside the Turner residence were shot elsewhere, though, on what I believe was a studio-built set.
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Until next time, Happy Stalking! 
Stalk It: The Benjamin N. Duke House, aka Gunilla’s mansion from The First Wives Club, is located at 1009 Fifth Avenue on New York’s Upper East Side.