Tag: Pasadena filming locations

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That Thing You Stalk!

That Thing You Do has always been one of my very favorite movies. Liv Tyler could not have been more adorable in that movie! The scene where she is running down the street screaming with joy while listening to the Oneders song on the radio for the first time is one of my favorite scenes in all of moviedom! And I do love me some Tom Everett Scott, too. 🙂 So when I read on Pasadena’s Filming Website that a house on Prospect Boulevard in Pasadena was used in That Thing You Do, I, of course, ran right out to stalk it.

I must say that working backwards, or stalking backwards I should say, ie. trying to find the scene in a movie where a certain home or place was featured, proved to be almost as difficult as normal stalking. I had to fast-forward through That Thing You Do twice before I spotted the house in a scene. In actuality only the garage of the home was used, and it was only used briefly in the very beginning of the movie. The home was featured in the scene when Guy Patterson practices with the rest of the band for the first time. It is in this scene that Liv Tyler comes up with the name for the band – “The Oneders”.

I actually had to go back and stalk this house a second time, as the first time I stalked it I didn’t get a photo of the garage, which was the only part of the house used in the movie. The front of the home is never actually shown. The clapboard-style residence is super cute in person and was very reminiscent of the Father of the Bride house, but on a slightly smaller scale. I am actually very surprised the front of the house was not shown in the movie. You’d think that since they were already there filming in the garage, they would have taken some stock footage of the front of the house to use in the movie.

The Prospect Historic District of Pasadena, where the That Thing You Do home is located, is a beautiful neighborhood with absolutely gorgeous homes on tree covered streets. The neighborhood, which was started in the year 1906, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. One of the homes on Prospect, number 657, is known as the Bentz House and was built by the famous architects Greene & Greene, with whom Craftsman style architecture is most commonly associated. Greene & Greene built the Bentz House in 1906 and it still stands today. Jennifer Lopez’ dream house from the movie Enough can also be found in the Prospect Historic District. It is pictured to the left. According to Pasadena’s Filming Website the Enough house was also used in That Thing You Do, but I never saw it. Quite possibly only the interior of the house was used, and therefore I didn’t recognize it, or, also quite possible, the Pasadena website just got it wrong.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The That Thing You Do house is located at 490 Prospect Boulevard. The garage that was used in the movie is to the left rear of the house and is very visible from the street. JLo’s house from Enough is located right around the corner at 445 Prospect Square. The most famous Greene & Greene home, the Gamble House, is located just off of Prospect Square at 4 Westmoreland Place. The Gamble House was used as Doc Brown’s home in the movie Back to the Future, but I’ll save that one for a future post. 🙂

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The Cravens Estate

Just purchased Scott’s LA Audio Tour of Pasadena, a CD driving tour which is absolutely chock full of filming locations!! Loved it!! I was especially excited because one of the locations visited on the audio tour was a mansion named the Cravens Estate which was used in one of my favorite TV shows. Besides currently housing the Pasadena headquarters for the American Red Cross, the estate is practically a Hollywood backlot. Countless productions have filmed there over the years, but most significantly Cravens Estate was featured each week as JAG Headquarters on the television series of the same name. I do love me some Commander Harm Rabb! 🙂

The Cravens Estate was built in the 1920s by John and Mildred Cravens. It is one of the last remaining mansions on what used to be known as Millionaires Row (Orange Grove Avenue) in Pasadena. The 25,000 square foot French Chateau style mansion was donated to the American Red Cross in the 1960s. The red brick exterior of the estate is absolutely gorgeous and the mansion really looks like it could be found in Washington D.C. Apparently, fans always used to write to JAG creator Donald P. Bellasario telling him that they stalked the town of Falls Church. Virginia (where JAG supposedly takes place) looking for JAG Headquarters only to find out that the builiding was actually located in Cailfornia. 🙂

Both the interior and the exterior of the Cravens Estate have been used as filming locations over the years. On the TV show Commander in Chief, starring Geena Davis, the kitchen of the estate was used as the White House kitchen. Other productions filmed at the estate include Enemy of the State, Traffic, Murder She Wrote, Rush Hour 3, The Practice, Swordfish, Judging Amy, The Lyon’s Den, 24, and Beverly Hills, 90210. (I wish I knew what it was portrayed as in 90210!!!! Does anyone know???) The estate is also often used for weddings and special events.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Cravens Estate is located at 430 Madeline Drive in Pasadena, just off of Orange Grove Avenue. You can purchase Scott’s Driving CD’s here. Although the CD’s do move a bit too fast on occasion, they are lots of fun to take a tour with. Currently Scott has audio tours of Pasadena, Hollywood and Los Angeles available.

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Tom C. Ruz

During high school I was completely and totally head-over-heels for Tom Cruise. Let me clarify that I now think the man is an absolute loon, but back in the day I thought Tom Cruise was the bees knees. 🙂 Each week in my high school Spanish class we were assigned three 5 minute conversations, to be conducted outside of class entirely in Spanish. We were required to keep detailed logs of when, where and with whom these conversations took place. My girlfriends and I would always sign at least one conversation each week with the code name “Tom C. Ruz” in honor of our movie star crush. Looking back, I am pretty sure our teacher knew exactly what we were up to, but we thought we were hilarious. 🙂

So when I found out, while browsing the Internet this week, that the Tom Cruise movie Valkyrie – under the code name “Rubicon” – was being filming at a church in Pasadena on Thursday, my inner-high-school-girl forced me to do some stalking. I was also really hoping to spot Katie Holmes, who has really been growing on me ever since she cut her hair. 🙂 So, at around lunch time on Thursday, I headed to the Valkyrie set. Between the hours of 12 and 1PM is usually the best time to stalk a film set, as the actors usually break for lunch around that time and you have a good chance of spotting them walking from the set to their trailers.

I am very sad to report that even though I spent a good 4 hours on the set!!!!!!, I did not get to see Tom OR Katie (who was there WITH Suri). 🙁 Apparently, Tom never comes outside during film shoots. One of the crew members told me that he wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. Ruz had an underground tunnel built from the church to his trailer so that he wouldn’t have to set foot outside! LOL All was not lost, though, as I did get to see Bill Nighy, who walked right past me on his way to lunch. Bill played musician Billy Mack in the movie Love Actually, one of my favorite romantic films of all time. Bill was very friendly and even said hi and saluted as he walked by (he was in military costume at the time). 🙂

Even though there was no TomKat sighting, it was still super exciting to be on the set. And let me tell you, it was quite a production! There was even an on-set barista, making mocha’s and frappaccino’s for the crew all day long. 🙂 Most of the crew was extremely nice and friendly and I even got to snap some pictures of the filming, which is usually a big no-no on movie sets. I was surprised at how laid-back the set actually was, being that the biggest movie star in the world was there.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Westminster Presbyterian Church is located at 1757 N. Lake Avenue in Pasadena. The church has been around since 1928 and is a frequent location for weddings. The movie American Wedding filmed just across the street froom Westminster Presbyterian at Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, which is located at 1879 N. Lake Avenue, on the corner of Lake and Woodbury. The picture to the left is of Saint Elizabeth’s.

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Stumbling Upon Sarah Silverman

Yesterday, I happened to stop into my favorite bookstore on the planet – Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena – and was floored to see a sign on the door saying “Filming in Progress”. I couldn’t believe my luck and I rushed inside to find out what was being filmed. Turns out it was The Sarah Silverman Program and Sarah Silverman herself was actually there! What was even more exciting was that they did not close any part of the store down for filming and you could literally walk right through the scene as long as you didn’t “look directly at the camera.” I parked myself in an aisle right near filming and just watched as Sarah performed take after take. As an actress, it was fascinating to observe.

In the scene, Sarah confronts a man who she believes is her father. He tells her that he is not her father and she says “Well if you’re not my father, then it would not be wierd at all to make out right now.” They kiss and both get grossed out and the guy admits that he is her father. The picture to the left is a shot of them filming and that is Sarah in the blue and white stripped baseball style t-shirt. I only had my blackberry on me at the time, so the pictures didn’t turn out great. Sarah Silverman was absolutely adorable, though – one hundred times cuter than she appears on screen and a lot taller than I imagined. She looked to be about 5’7″. She seemed very nice and friendly, too, although I did not go up and talk to her.

Vroman’s is a fabulous bookstore and I highly recommend stalking it. I could literally spend whole afternoons just browsing the shelves there. It is a great store not only for books, but for fine stationary, scrapbooking supplies, and gifts. The people who work there are highly knowledgeable about books, too, and I absolutely love that. You can literally go in there and say “I just heard about a book that’s about a girl, but I don’t know the title or the author” and they will find it for you! They’re great!! They were also recently voted Bookseller of the Year 2008 by Publishers Weekly. I’ve blogged briefly about Vroman’s once before in my 40 Year Old Virgin post, as it was used as the interior of the bookstore where Beth works in the movie.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. You can visit their website here to view upcoming events and signings.

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The Chinese Food Restaurant from “A Lot Like Love”

After what seems like months of searching, I have FINALLY found the Chinese Food restaurant from my fave romantic comedy A Lot Like Love. For the past few weeks, I have dragged my poor father to literally every single Chinese and Japanese restaurant in the greater Pasadena area, because according to the director’s commentary on the A Lot Like Love DVD, the restaurant used was his “mother’s favorite Chinese food place in Pasadena.” But the director didn’t specify the name of the restaurant, which means that this stalker had her work cut out for her! The hostess at one of the restaurants I stalked said I was actually the third person in the past few months who had stopped into her restaurant to ask the exact same question! 🙂 LOL

Then last week, while walking around Old Town Pasadena with my boyfriend, when I had just about given up hope, we happened to walk by Vive Lounge on the corner of Raymond Avenue and Union Street. I peeked in the windows and immediately realized I had found my location! We went inside and asked the restaurant manager, Randy, if the Lounge had in fact been used in A Lot Like Love. He wasn’t sure, so he called up the owner for me who confirmed it! Yahooooooooo! At the time of filming the restaurant was actually a Chinese-Malaysian fusion place called Nonya. Nonya closed down two years ago and Vive Lounge opened in its place. While the decor is a bit different, it is definitely recognizable as the restaurant where Amanda Peet and Ashton Kutcher spit water at each other while enjoying a New Year’s Eve dinner. 🙂

Last night we were finally able to return to Vive to grab a drink and a bite to eat and I am happy to report that we had a fabulous time! The food was amazing (especially the shrimp spring rolls!!!), the atmosphere was very New York-y complete with an exposed brick wall, and the service was spectacular! Jim, the bartender (a cutie for all you single girls) and Randy, the manager, spent most of the evening chatting with us, discussing Pasadena history, wine and champagne (Randy is somewhat of a wine connoisseur), and of course, filming locations. I was amazed to discover that neither man had ever seen A Lot Like Love!!! I tried to explain to Randy that he needs to tout Vive as the restaurant featured in A Lot Like Love and that stalkers everywhere would flock there, but I am not quite sure he believed me. 🙂

Vive is a great place to spend an evening, and I highly recommend stalking it! On weekdays, the place has a laid-back, relaxed feel (which I actually prefer), but on weekends the vibe changes and becomes more of a dance club/lounge. And every Sunday night, the restaurant turns into a salsa lounge complete with free salsa dancing lessons. Rob Schneider even showed up for some salsa dancing a few weeks ago. 🙂

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Vive Lounge is located at 61 N. Raymond Avenue in Old Town Pasadena. You can visit their website here. A meal there will cost you about $30 per person. The bar also features a great nightly happy hour with super reasonable, really tasty hors d’oeuvres.

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Daddy Day Care

While out and about with my dad this week, I decided to stalk the home used in the Eddie Murphy movie Daddy Day Care. Since my dad just retired, he has been recruited to be my new stalking side kick! I think he loves it about just as much as my boyfriend does. 🙂 Anyway, my fave stalking guide provided me with the location of Eddie Murphy’s house in the movie, so, of course, I had to run right out and stalk it.

It is an absolutely adorable home and I can totally picture a day care center being run there. The house is HUGE – a lot bigger than it appeared in the movie, but otherwise it looks just like it did onscreen. From what I remember of the movie, much of the backyard of this home was used for filming, as well. I definitely recommend stalking this location – even if you’ve never seen the movie – because the house is just that cute!!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Daddy Day Care house is located at 351 N. Congress in Pasadena.

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24

Today while driving in Pasadena, I happened to pass by one of those yellow filming signs I am so fond of seeing, and it turns out that the TV show 24 was filming at Saint Luke’s Hospital. So I immediately parked my car and ran onto the set in the hopes of seeing Keifer Sutherland or one of the show’s other stars. Unfortunately I didn’t see anyone famous, but I did get to hang out for a bit and watch some of the filming. The scene being filmed showed a large tank full of Army men pulling up to the side of the hospital and all of the army men running out of the tank.

Saint Luke’s is actually a former hospital and is not currently in use. It closed its doors in 2002 and is now used strictly as a filming location. The fireman and security guard that I hung out with on the set today gave me a lot of history of the filming at St. Luke’s. Kill Bill, In Her Shoes, Rush Hour 3, Las Vegas, and Something’s Gotta Give were all filmed at the hospital. 24 films there almost every week, as does Desperate Housewives, which used the hospital for the scenes when Mike was in a coma, when Carlos’ mom was in a coma, and when Carlos went blind. Geez, is anybody ever healthy on that show?! 🙂

The fireman on duty also told me that he also worked during the filming of Something’s Gotta Give starring Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, and Keanu Reeves. Apparently the movie was being filmed during the Laker playoffs and everyday at precisely 4:30pm, Jack Nicholson would leave the set to head to Staples Center to watch the game. Like clockwork, no matter what was going on or how mad the director would get, Jack was out of there at 4:30pm. LOL I guess no one comes between Jack and his Lakers.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Saint Luke’s Hospital is located at 2632 East Washington Boulevard in Pasadena. Chances are if you drive by the hospital on a weekday, you will see film crews set up there. Pasadena film crews are notoriously friendly and will most likely fill you in on what is being filmed and even let you hang out and watch. 🙂

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The “Guess Who” House

Guess Who House Thanks to fellow stalker Mike over at MovieShotsLA I was able to stalk the house from the Ashton Kutcher movie Guess Who today. I was extremely excited to stalk this house because I just found out that the back of it was used as the back of Steve Martin’s residence in the movie Father of the Bride. The front of the Father of the Bride house can be found in Pasadena, about 5 miles away from the Guess Who house location. I guess the backyard of the Pasadena house wasn’t exactly what the filmmakers were looking for, so they ventured to Alhambra and used this location instead.

This puts to rest a long-standing argument between me and one of my mom’s good friends. She insisted that the Father of the Bride house was located in Alhambra, while I believed it was in Pasadena. Apparently her friend lives near the Alhambra house and saw Father of the Bride being filmed there. Well, it turns out we were both right! 🙂 All of the backyard scenes were indeed filmed at the Guess Who house, including the basketball scenes and the BBQ scene. Annie’s basketball hoop from the movie is still standing and you can see it in the picture to the left.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Guess Who house is located at 500 N. Almansor Road in Alhambra. It is just a few blocks South of Huntington Drive and not too far from the 13 Going on 30 houses.

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Mr. and Mrs. Homewrecker

It’s no secret that I am a HUGE Jen Aniston fan and so NOT a fan of Brangelina – but my boyfriend did manage to drag me to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith while it was in theaters. So when I found the address of the house from the movie in my fave stalking book, I just had to stalk it. In the movie, Brad and Angie live in a really pretty white clapboard residence that reminds me a lot of the house from the movie Father of the Bride. And it just so happens that both houses are located in Pasadena.

The restaurant where Brad and Angelina dance in Mr. and Mrs. Smith is called Cicada and can be found in Downtown LA. Cicada is actually an oft used filming location – it was the very same restaurant where Julia Roberts flung an escargot across the room in the movie Pretty Woman. At the time it was known as Rex II Ristorante. Cicada was also featured in Bruce Almighty, Final Analysis and Indecent Proposal. While I have never dined there, I’ve heard that it is absolutely amazing!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: The Mr. and Mrs. Smith house is located at 1565 San Pasqual Street in Pasadena. The restaurant from the movie can be found in the Oviatt Building in Downtown Los Angeles at 617 South Olive Street.

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Without A Trace Update

Just a quick update that the Without a Trace episode that was filmed at La Salle High School in Pasadena back on March 21st will be airing tonight on CBS at 10pm.

You can read the full Without a Trace post about the filming at La Salle here.

Happy Stalking! 🙂