Pretty in Pink – IAMNOTASTALKER

January 28, 2019November 5, 2019

The Millennium Biltmore Hotel’s South Galleria from “The West Wing”

The Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles is a rare bird when it comes to filming locations in that virtually every square inch of it has appeared onscreen – and I’m talking in multiple major productions! This factoid fascinates me and I thought it would be fun to cover in an in-depth article, so a few years back I pitched the idea to my editor at Discover L.A. who told me to run with it. Though I chronicled ten areas of the vast hotel in the column, which was published in 2016, due to length concerns there were a few spots I had to leave out including the South Galleria, an ornate hallway that was most famously featured in Pretty in Pink. I had planned on writing about the beautiful space on my own site as a follow-up to the article shortly thereafter, but never got around to it. Then, last week, while watching an early episode of The West Wing (which the Grim Cheaper and I just started binging and are absolutely obsessed with!), I spotted the Galleria and decided it was high time I finally dedicate a post to it.

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The South Galleria, which is situated along the southwest edge of the Biltmore, connects the hotel’s South Grand Street entrance to its Main Galleria and provides access to the Heinsbergen Room, the Regency Room, and the Biltmore Bowl.

The gilded hallway, inspired by the opulent Roman villas of ancient Pompeii, boasts an intricate Beaux Arts-style vaulted ceiling featuring bucolic frescoes hand-painted by muralist Giovanni Smeraldi.

The dramatic space is also flanked by elaborate friezes, carved columns, and sweeping archways.

The gilded gates situated on its south side . . .

. . . lead to an equally grand stairwell that heads down to the Biltmore Bowl and the Regency Room.

Being that the South Galleria is situated in a tucked away area on the side of the hotel, it would, sadly, be quite easy for visitors and guests to spend ample time at the Biltmore and not even realize the impressive space exists. If you happen to find yourself on the premises, do not make that mistake. The striking hallway is not to be missed!

In the Season 1 episode of The West Wing titled “Let Bartlet Be Bartlet,” which aired in 2000, the South Galleria portrays Washington D.C.’s Old Executive Office Building (now known as the Eisenhower Executive Office Building), where President Jed Bartlet’s (Martin Sheen) speech to the United Organization of Trout Fishermen is moved at the last minute due to some unforeseen rain.

Producers cheated a bit with the locale in the scene by shooting from both ends of the Galleria in order to make it appear as two different hallways that the President has to walk down on the way to deliver his speech. The West Wing does love a good lengthy walk-and-talk segment!

John Norman Howard (Kris Kristofferson) gets into a fight with the paparazzi during the Grammy Awards at the top of the staircase/escalator leading down to the Biltmore Bowl in the 1976 version of A Star Is Born.

In the 1986 classic Pretty in Pink, Andie (Molly Ringwald) trepidatiously ventures alone down the South Galleria on her way to her Senior Prom (which was held in the Biltmore’s famed Crystal Ballroom) . . .

. . . only to find her BFF Duckie (Jon Cryer) waiting for her at the other end.

Though Richard Alleman asserts in his book New York: The Movie Lover’s Guide that “James Caan, as the novelist in Steven King’s Misery (1990), celebrated his latest best seller” at Tavern on the Green, I discovered that information was incorrect while doing research for my June 2018 post about the famed NYC eatery. In actuality, at the end of the film, Caan’s character, Paul Sheldon, shares a celebratory lunch with his agent, Marcia Sindell (Lauren Bacall), at none other than the South Galleria, which was dressed to look like an upscale Big Apple restaurant.

The South Galleria also posed as a restaurant in Atlas Shrugged: Part I. In the 2011 drama, it served as the spot where Dagny Taggart (Taylor Schilling) confronted Francisco D’Anconia (Jsu Garcia) about his shady copper mine investments.

But the South Galleria’s noted onscreen appearances don’t end there! The space also pops up as a Beirut hotel hallway in the Season 7 episode of The Mentalist titled “Orange Blossom Ice Cream,” which aired in 2014.

And Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) and Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) have a terse conversation in the South Galleria during an awards ceremony in the Season 1 episode of The Morning Show titled “A Seat at the Table,” which aired in November 2019.

Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) is also shown walking down the Biltmore Bowl staircase on her way to the ceremony in that same episode.

For more stalking fun, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Los Angeles magazine and Discover Los Angeles.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles is located at 506 South Grand Avenue in downtown L.A. You can visit the property’s official website here. The South Galleria, from the “Let Bartlet Be Bartlet” episode of The West Wing, can be reached via the hotel entrance situated just north of and adjacent to Coffee on Grand at 530 South Grand Avenue.

May 3, 2012May 2, 2012

Steff’s House from “Pretty in Pink”

This past Saturday afternoon, a fellow stalker named “Pookie” posted a comment on my site in which she mentioned that the mansion where Steff (James Spader) lived in 1986’s Pretty in Pink was located just up the street from the the Residence of the Los Angeles British Consuls-General where Kate Middleton and Prince William stayed in July 2011, which I blogged about last month. As it turns out, Pookie’s parents live right around the corner from the Pretty in Pink dwelling and she was lucky enough to have witnessed some of the filming of the iconic 80s flick when it took place back in 1985. Well, as you can imagine, I was extremely excited about learning the location of Steff’s house, and, since we were only a few miles away at the time, asked the Grim Cheaper to take me right on over there to stalk the place.

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In real life, Steff’s house is absolutely stunning and looks like it belongs in a neighborhood somewhere on the East Coast and not in the heart of Los Angeles’ Hancock Park. The French chateau-style property, which was originally designed in 1927 by the Webber, Staunton & Spaulding architecture firm, boasts seven bedrooms, a whopping eight baths, 7,140 square feet of living space, over half an acre of land, four fireplaces, original chandeliers and wall sconces, formal gardens, a reflecting pond, a three-car garage, a separate guest apartment, and (according to a comment left by Evan on The Houses of Hancock Park blog) a third floor that inexplicably houses a disco. The mansion was recently sold, in May of last year, for a cool $5 million. You can check out the real estate listing here.

One odd thing I noticed about the house, though, was that one of its windows has been completely cemented over, as you can see below. Even odder still is the fact that the cemented-over space still remains flanked by shutters.

Most odd of all, though, is the fact that the window even appears to have been covered over way back in 1985 when Pretty in Pink was filmed. Why in almost three decades worth of time did the homeowners not remove the shutters? Or re-install the window? Very, very strange.

Steff’s mansion, which is supposedly located in Elgin, Illinois, shows up three times in Pretty in Pink. It first pops up towards the beginning of the movie in the scene in which Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald) and Duckie (John Cryer) are shown driving through a ritzy neighborhood late at night. As Andie stops to admire the residence, she announces that it is her favorite on the whole street and then poignantly says, “ You know what the really sad thing is, though? I bet the people that live there don’t think it’s half as pretty as I do.“

The mansion next shows up in the scene in which Blane McDonnagh (Andrew McCarthy) brings Andie to a party at his best friend Steff’s house.

As you can see from the screen captures and photographs (which I got off of the property’s real estate listing) below, the home’s actual interior was used in that scene, as well. It is amazing how little the residence has changed over the past 27 years. Love it!

It even appears that the very same headboard that was used in the movie is still there in real life! So incredibly cool!

Finally, the mansion’s library area popped up towards the end of Pretty in Pink in the scene in which Steff tells Blaine that he will stop being friends with him if he continues to date “trash” like Andie. As you can see in the screen capture and photograph below, the very same curtains, chair, desk, and stool which appeared in the movie are still there in real life. INCREDIBLE!

Thanks to the Scarecrow and Mrs. King forum, I learned that Steff’s house also appeared extensively in the Season 1 episode titled “Waiting for Godorsky” as the supposed Washington, D.C.-area mansion of Princess Sophia Valosky (Hildegard Knef).

As you can see, the window was even covered over way back in early 1984 when the episode was filmed.

The interior of the mansion also appeared briefly in Scarecrow and Mrs. King.

Back in June 2010, the Before the Trailer website mentioned that Dior was filming at the residence and, after doing some digging online, I discovered that the filming was actually for the Miss Dior fragrance campaign that starred actress Natalie Portman. Ironically enough, while the spot was supposed to take place in Paris and the vast majority of it was, in fact, lensed in the City of Light, a small portion of it was shot at Steff’s mansion! As you can see below, the awning and wading pool which appeared in the Dior commercial match up exactly to those which can be seen on the home’s real estate listing, although a fountain was added to the pool for the shoot.

The statues affixed to the plant pots that can be seen in the background of the shoot also match up to the statues that appear in the listing.

And finally, the large swan statue that is visible in the background of the ad matches the one that appears in the home’s listing.

You can watch the Dior ad by clicking below.

Natalie Portman Dior Ad Filmed at Steff’s Mansion from “Pretty in Pink”

On a Pretty in Pink side-note – my girl Miss Pinky Lovejoy, of the Thinking Pink blog, and I were lucky enough to meet James Spader a couple of weeks ago after we randomly spotted the star leaving a movie theatre. And while we had heard that he could be unfriendly, I am very happy to report that he was extremely nice and seemed quite amused at our excitement over seeing him.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Steff’s mansion from Pretty in Pink is located at 366 South June Street in Hancock Park. The Erle M. Leaf House, aka the Residence of the Los Angeles British Consuls-General where Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, stayed in July 2011, is located right down the street at 450 South June Street.

September 26, 2008February 11, 2009

Stalking In Pink

Got a challenge the other day from Niki all the way over in Greece to stalk some of the locations from her favorite 80s flick Pretty In Pink. I have to admit that before I got the challenge I had never actually seen the movie, so this week I made a special trip to Blockbuster to rent it. After watching it I was in shock that I had somehow missed seeing this movie during the 80s – Pretty In Pink is pretty much right up my alley and I have no idea why I had never watched it before this week. Better late than never, though, right? Anyway, thanks to Mike over at MovieShotsLA, who located all of the Pretty In Pink locations long ago, I was able to stalk one of the houses from the movie yesterday.

In Pretty In Pink, Molly Ringwald plays Andie, a girl who is literally from the wrong side of the tracks. In the movie, Andie’s tiny home is located directly next to a set of train tracks supposedly in the Chicago area. In reality, her home can be found just outside of L.A., in South Pasadena, right next to the Metro Gold Line tracks. Andie’s train tracks looks much the same today as they did back during the filming of the movie. I was actually pretty surprised to discover that the majority of the filming of Pretty In Pink took place in Los Angeles, as John Hughes usually prefers to film on location in Chicago.

Anyway, I was absolutely amazed to discover that Andie’s house also looks EXACTLY the same today as it did back in 1985 when filming for Pretty In Pink took place. The only major difference I noticed is that there is now much more foliage located in front of the house than there was 23 years ago. Otherwise the home is exactly as it was portrayed onscreen. It is always amazing for me to stalk a location from a movie or television show that was filmed over two decades ago only to find that little to nothing has changed over the years. I’ve never been a big fan of change. : )

Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂

Stalk It: Andie’s house is located at 1010 Hope Street in South Pasadena. Literally directly around the corner from Andie’s house is Michael Meyer’s house from the original Halloween movie.