television characters – Page 3

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 6, 2011July 5, 2011

The Haunted Mansion from “The Three Sisters” Episode of “Knots Landing’

Way back in January of this year, a fellow stalker named James posted a comment on my site challenging me to find the haunted mansion which appeared in the Season 3 episode of Knots Landing titled “The Three Sisters”. James had found an interview on the Knots Landing website in which Kim Lankford, who played Ginger Ward on the long-running nighttime soap, stated that the estate featured in the episode was located somewhere in Pasadena. And even though I had never seen “The Three Sisters” episode, nor any episode of KL for that matter, I figured that because the house was so large and historic-looking, it would not be that hard to track down. Oh, how wrong I was! I cannot tell you the countless hours I spent looking for this place, all to no avail! Then last Thursday morning, I decided to enlist the help of fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, and, amazingly enough, he was able to track the place down in thirty minutes flat! Halleluiah!

Geoff said that he vaguely remembered coming across aerial views of the mansion while looking for a different location a few months prior and figured that since I had already conducted an exhaustive search within the city limits of Pasadena, that the property must be located in a neighboring environ. He decided to begin his hunt in Altadena and, after noticing the large palm tree denoted with a pink circle in the above screen capture, realized that there were only a couple of places in the Altadena area where the home could be located. And, sure enough, he was right. Yay! Thank you, Geoff!!!

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So I ran right out to stalk the place the very next morning. And I have to say that the mansion is pretty darn majestic in person! According to Zillow, the estate, which was originally built in 1915 and sits on over half an acre of land, boasts 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, and 7,176 square feet of living space.

As you can see in the above aerial view, the mansion is so huge that it pretty much dwarfs everything which surrounds it. And while I was fairly certain that the property had to be historic in some way, amazingly enough, I could find absolutely no information whatsoever about the place online. I did manage to find some fabulous interior photographs of the property, though, which you can check out here.

In “ The Three Sisters” episode of Knots Landing, realtor Laura Avery (aka Constance McCashin) takes the Seaview Circle wives, including Ginger, Val Ewing (aka Joan Van Ark), Abby Cunningham (aka Donna Mills), and Karen Fairgate (aka Michele Lee), to look at an estate that she is currently selling that is rumored to be haunted. After touring the property and becoming quite spooked, the women get back into their car to head home only to discover that it will not start. They are subsequently forced to spend the night in the house, whereupon strange things begin to happen. It is absolutely AMAZING to me that the mansion still looks EXACTLY the same today as it did almost three full decades ago when the Knots Landing episode was filmed. So incredibly cool!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker James for challenging me to find this location and to Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for being the one to find it! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The haunted mansion from “The Three Sisters” episode of Knots Landing is located at 1366 East Palm Street in Altadena.

June 30, 2011June 29, 2011

The Jennifer Grant “Good Stuff” Book Signing

Back on Thursday, May 26th (I told you I am way behind in my reporting! Winking smile ), Vroman’s Bookstore welcomed Jennifer Grant for a signing and discussion of her new book Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant which chronicles the actress’ experiences being raised by one of the most iconic movie stars of all time. And while most of the people attending the event were fans of Jennifer’s famous father, I have been a long-time fan of Jennifer herself, ever since she appeared as Steve Sander’s (aka Ian Ziering’s) longtime girlfriend Celeste Lundy during Seasons 3 and 4 of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210.

Jennifer also made an appearance as Nina Bookbinder, the girl Chandler Bing (aka Matthew Perry) couldn’t fire, in the Season 1 episode of Friends titled “The One With Two Parts: Part I”. But I digress.

Because I have never actually seen a Cary Grant movie, before attending the reading I did not have much interest in reading Good Stuff. My only reason for going to the event was to meet and, of course, get a photograph with Jennifer. But, let me tell you, all of that changed as soon as I started looking through the memoir. As I have mentioned before, I am just slightly anal, so I arrived at the signing about 3 hours early. Well, not only did those three hours ensure me a front row seat, but they also gave me time to peruse through the book and I was immediately mesmerized. Cary Grant was not only an amazing man, but an amazing father! He retired in 1966, the same year that Jennifer was born, so that he could devote all of his time to being a dad. Because Jennifer’s mother, Dyan Cannon (whom the actress is the spitting image of!), was at the height of her career at the time and often on location filming movies for months on end, most of Jennifer’s childhood was spent with her father. And Cary wanted to document his only child’s early years as best he could. Not only did he save and catalogue ever single letter ever exchanged between the two and every single photograph ever taken of them, but he also made hundreds upon hundreds of audio recordings of their time together, many of which are transcribed in the book. Sweetest of all, though, was the fact that, on the mornings when Jennifer was not staying with him, Cary would wait along the sidewalk of her bus route just to wave to her as her bus passed by on the way to school.

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The event began right on time and I just about died when I caught my first glimpse of Jennifer as she looks almost exactly the same today as she did eighteen years ago when she was on 90210. Jennifer started out the evening by reading a few passages from her book and I have to say that she is a fabulous writer and a fabulous speaker. Her voice has an almost lyrical quality to it and I was absolutely mesmerized listening to her. I was completely shocked, though, when she adopted a British accent to read her father’s words! Prior to that evening, I was unaware that Cary Grant was British!

Jennifer then opened up the session to questions from the audience and, even though A LOT were asked, for once they were actually well-crafted. I should explain here, to those who do not regularly attend book signings and television screenings, that people at these events usually ask the most asinine questions imaginable and it absolutely drives me mad! If you have the chance to ask a question of an actor, author, or director, make it a good one, people! And, for the love of God, do NOT ask the celebrity to get you a role in a movie or TV show! And yes, that has been asked at almost EVERY SINGLE EVENT I have ever attended! Most of the questions asked of Jennifer, though, were about what it was like to grow up with such a famous father. In answer to those questions, Jennifer told numerous anecdotes and, as amazing as it may sound, it seems she had a very normal childhood. The two often squabbled about Jennifer’s choice in music and boys, they took frequent outings to the Fox Hills Mall – one of Cary’s favorite haunts – and played regular family games of Trivial Pursuit. She said she never viewed Cary as a celebrity, but, while she knew he was special and certainly different than her friends’ fathers, to her he was always just “Dad”.

When it came time for the signing portion of the reading, the Vroman’s coordinator asked Jennifer if she would be willing to take posed photographs with those in attendance, to which the actress gave a puzzled look and said, “Of course I will!”, as if she could not figure out why anyone wouldn’t take a picture with their fans. LOVE IT!

When it was my turn to meet Jennifer, I told her what a huge fan I had been of Beverly Hills, 90210 and she said that the show was actually the very first acting job she had ever had and was one of the best experiences of her life. She told me that all of the actors were extremely nice and welcoming and that she looks back on that time with incredible fondness. She took quite a bit of time to chat with me and I even got to tell her about my experiences as an extra in the final episode of the series and that the 90210 theme song was still the ringtone on my cell phone. Smile Jennifer was so abundantly sweet and warm, it was almost unbelievable.

As I was leaving Vroman’s, I opened the book to read what Jennifer had signed and almost died over her inscription. It reads, “To Lindsay, Thank you for watching 90210 – your smile is infectious. Jennifer Grant” OMG nicest inscription EVER! Especially considering that so many celebrities will not even personalize books at their signings! Meeting Jennifer was such an incredible experience and I love her even more now than I did before! And while I have not started to officially read Good Stuff yet, it is the next book on my “To Read” list and after I do so, I will most definitely be stalking the many locations mentioned in it.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: You can purchase a copy of Jennifer Grant’s book, Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant, here. Vroman’s Bookstore is located at 695 East Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. You can visit the store’s official website here. And you can check out Vroman’s upcoming author events here.

June 29, 2011March 11, 2018

The Envelope Emmy Week “Geek TV” Event

Another Envelope Emmy Week event that Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, told me about was the “Geek TV Roundtable”, which featured a panel discussion with actors Jayma Mays (aka Emma Pillsbury from Glee), Johnny Galecki (aka Leonard Hofstadter from The Big Bang Theory), Michael C. Hall (aka Dexter Morgan from fave show Dexter), Sam Trammell (aka Sam Merlotte from True Blood), and Joel McHale (aka Jeff Winger from Community and the host of fave show The Soup). Well, let me tell you, I absolutely LOVE me some Joel McHale, so when I saw his name on the list I just about had a heart attack right there on the spot and immediately signed up to attend. Because so many big-time celebs would be appearing at this particular event, I knew that getting a photograph with any of them would be extremely difficult, so I made the sign pictured above, which read “I

Almost all of my new stalking friends were in attendance for the event, including Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, Anushika and Scotty, who both write for the Mike the Fanboy website, and Duggan. (Anushika, Pinky, and Scotty are pictured above). The only person missing from our little group was CB, who was attending the Super 8 premiere in Westwood that night. And I have to say that we all had an ABSOLUTE BLAST hanging out together. Yes, getting photographs taken with celebrities is extremely fun, but so is the hanging-out-and-waiting part, as long as you are doing so with a great group of fellow stalkers. And Pinky and Mikey have some AMAZING friends!!! I feel so incredibly lucky to have met them and that they have embraced me as they have and allowed me to tag along with them on so many of their celebrity adventures. Love you guys!

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Now I should mention here that this particular event took place at Regal Cinemas L.A. Live, directly next to the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles, on Wednesday, June 8th, which just so happened to be smack-dab in the middle of the weeklong E3 Expo, the LARGEST annual convention held in L.A. So to say that Downtown was swarming with people would be a gross understatement. Not only that, but at 4:15 p.m., just around the time that the GC and I were arriving in the area, there was an explosion in a trash can on Broadway and 4th Street, just a few blocks from the theatre, which resulted in the police SHUTTING DOWN a huge portion of the central part of Downtown FOR HOURS. Between the convention, the explosion, and the normal, everyday urban madness of L.A., Downtown on that particular evening was a complete and total sh*tstorm! The Grim Cheaper and I were stuck in our car in the same exact spot for over an hour and it was at that point that I just broke down in tears due to sheer frustration. I don’t think I have ever been that frustrated in my entire life! Sadly, the explosion and subsequent street closures also made it so that most of the actors were late in arriving to the theatre, which greatly lessened our chances of getting pictures and autographs as they were all immediately rushed inside as soon as they got there. UGH! Actor Sam Trammell was the first to arrive (he miraculously showed up about an hour before the event was due to begin) and he was absolutely SWARMED by people as soon as he stepped out of his car.

I had the GC take the above photograph so that my fellow stalkers could get a sense of what trying to get an autograph or picture at one of these events is like. Sam Trammell is buried somewhere in the middle of that huge, chaotic mess of thirty-some-odd people pictured above. Needless to say, getting an autograph or photo requires quite a bit of effort, determination, and maneuvering!

Now Pinky is easily Sam Trammell’s biggest fan and not only has she met him on several occasions, but the actor even knows her by name! So incredibly cool! Sam immediately walked right up to Pinky to say hello and to pose for a picture with her, and Pinky also gave him two blue blankets she had knitted for Sam and his girlfriend as they are currently expecting twin boys.

Pinky has long been telling me what a super-nice guy Sam is and, wow, was she ever right! Sam has got to be one of the nicest celebs I have ever encountered! Even though he was, as you saw above, absolutely swarmed by people, he stuck around to sign autographs and take pictures with absolutely everyone who wanted them, even me! Yay! Smile

The next to arrive was Michael C. Hall from Dexter. As I have mentioned quite a few times before on this blog, I absolutely LOVE me some Dexter, but I have to say that I love me some Joel McHale more. So before we arrived at the event I laid out some ground rules for the GC. I told him that he must at all times keep his eye on the prize and that prize was a picture with Joel. My number two goal for the evening was to get a picture with Michael C. Hall. If I somehow managed to get photos with any of the other stars, well that would just be icing on the cake. I had to lay out these ground rules because oftentimes at these events several celebrities will show up at the same time and I did not want the GC to get distracted and not be in a position to take my picture with Joel. It was really funny because all throughout the night the GC would point to me from across the way and say, “Eye on the prize, Lin! Eye on the prize!” LOL Because Michael C. Hall showed up just a few minutes before the event was to begin, he was rushed straight inside and was not able to sign any autographs or pose for any pictures. UGH!

Next to show up was Johnny Galecki and he was also rushed straight into the theatre as he arrived a few minutes after the panel was set to begin. He apologized to us stalkers for not being able to sign, but promised to “make it up to us” on his way out. Nice! Security informed us that Johnny was the last celeb to arrive, which meant that Joel McHale had driven himself and therefore entered through a different door. Sigh! How cute is that! It did make me feel like a bit of a tool, though, as I had stood out on that sidewalk holding up my sign for a good two hours. LOL

Even though we all had tickets to the event, we decided not to go inside as we figured we would have a better chance of getting pictures and autographs if we caught the actors as they left the venue. Thankfully we were right. Smile The roundtable panel was fairly short, just about 45 minutes, and after it ended all of the actors, except for Jayma Mays, walked outside together, which, as you can imagine, caused sheer and utter chaos! I had my eye on the prize, though, and as soon as that back door opened I held up my sign for Joel to see, which he did! He immediately started laughing and walked right outside, right through the crowd, and right up to me! Sigh!

Joel thanked me for coming and posed for the above photo and, let me tell you, I just about died of happiness right then and there. It wasn’t until Joel had already gone back inside, to take pictures with some of the audience members, that I realized the picture did not come out! UGH!

And while Pinky had managed to snap a super cute picture of us from farther away, I was still pretty bummed that the one the GC took did not come out. Here I had kept my eye on the prize, made a sign even, and my photo turned out horribly! What kind of luck is that? I really need to learn to trust in the universe, though, because that little mishap turned out to be a blessing in disguise. But more on that later.

Michael C. Hall was absolutely swarmed as soon as he came outside, but he stuck around for a REALLY long time to sign autographs and snap pictures with people. I, sadly, had the same issue with my Michael picture that I had with the one of Joel. According to our wedding photographer, Rob Greer, whom I sent the photograph to, the problem is called Lens Flare and it is extremely difficult to fix, even for professional re-touchers. Such a shame! Ah well, I will just have to stalk him again sometime! Smile

I was also lucky enough to get a pic with Johnny Galecki, which I was floored about! Johnny is super-nice, but is so unlike his Big Bang character, Leonard Hofstadter, it is almost unbelievable! He is NOT AT ALL dorky, awkward, or shy. Quite the contrary, in fact! He seemed to be extremely self-assured and out-going. The guy is obviously an AMAZING actor! As I mentioned above, Jayma Mays was the only one of the group to exit out of a different door and we never caught even a glimpse of her, which I was not all that disappointed about because I have heard from several people that she is not the most fan-friendly celeb. What is it with these Glee actors???

After everyone in our group got pictures with and autographs from Johnny Galecki, Michael C. Hall, and Sam Trammell, Duggan, Scotty, Pinky, the GC, and I headed inside the theatre where Joel McHale was talking to some of the event coordinators. When Joel spotted me, I explained to him that our photograph had not come out and he immediately smiled and said, “Well, then let’s get this right!” and posed for the above pic with me. He also thanked me profusely for being a fan, for coming out to see him, and for making the sign. Sigh!

Because Joel often jokingly signs autographs “Ryan Seacrest”, I told him that I really should have put Ryan’s name on my sign and Joel immediately yelled out, “Anybody have a pen I can borrow?” He then set about crossing out his name and writing in Ryan’s on the sign. Pinky and Scotty were nice enough to snap the above pics of me and Joel while he was writing on the sign. (Thanks, guys!!!!) Joel also posed for pics with Scotty, Pinky, and Duggan. Sigh! What an incredibly nice guy! Easily one of the NICEST celebs I have ever met! Love, love love him!!!!! And this experience was a definite reminder that I really need to trust in the universe more. I was so incredibly bummed when my original photograph with Joel did not come out, but look at it what that camera fail ended up leading to! An even better, more personal experience with one of my favorite stars! It is definitely true what they say, every cloud has a silver lining. And now whenever I get discouraged over something in life not turning out the way I had expected, I will remember this moment and the silver lining that this particular cloud brought me.

My Joel McHale-altered sign is pictured above. Smile All in all it was a FABULOUS night and a FABULOUS fan experience. One of my best yet!

AND, after the event was over, Sam even tweeted a thank you to Pinky for the blankets! How awesome is that???? LOVE IT!!!!

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, for inviting me to this event! You can read Mikey’s write up of the evening here. And you can read Pinky Lovejoy’s write-up here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Unfortunately, there is no stalking location for this one.

June 24, 2011June 28, 2011

A Q & A with the Cast of “White Collar”

Last Monday evening, my good friend Mikey, of the Mike the Fanboy website, invited me, along with fellow stalkers Pinky, of the Thinking Pink blog, Duggan, and CB, to a SAG screening/cast Q & A of the USA Network television show White Collar featuring co-executive producer Mark Goffman and series’ stars Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay, and Willie Garson. Well, as you can imagine, as soon as I heard that Willie Garson – who is best known for playing Carrie Bradshaw’s (aka Sarah Jessica Parker’s) BBF Stanford Blatch on fave show Sex and the City – was going to be there, I just about died of excitement and told Mikey to “count me in!” My good friend Steffi, who lives in Switzerland, is just about as obsessed with SATC as I am, if not more so, so before leaving for the screening I printed up a still of Willie Garson and Sarah Jessica Parker with the hopes that I could get Willie to sign it. I was so intent on getting that photograph signed for her that I was even willing to forgo getting a photograph with WG myself if worse came to worse.

CB and I were the first to show up to the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood where the screening was being held and just a few minutes after we got there, who should walk up but Willie! The two of us immediately ran up to him and after CB had him sign a White Collar poster, I gave him the picture I had made for Steffi. I had put a post-it note on it reading “For Steffi” (a little trick that I learned from my good friend and fellow stalker Anushika which greatly increases the odds of getting a personalized autograph at these types of events), and Willie immediately signed it, writing “For Steffi – All the Best! Willie Garson”. I was SOOOOOO incredibly excited over getting that autograph that my hands were literally shaking for about ten minutes afterward! I may love stalking more than just about anything else in life, but obtaining really special gifts for my loved ones ranks a very close second. Smile

Willie could NOT have been nicer and even though there were quite a few of us who wanted his autograph and/or picture, he was happy to pose with and sign for everyone who asked. YAY! What a complete and total sweetheart!

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The event got started right on time with a viewing of the Season 3 episode of White Collar titled “Where There’s a Will”. Prior to that time I had never before seen the show and I have to say that I immediately fell in love with it! The Catch Me If You Can-esque series centers around FBI agent Peter Burke (aka Tim DeKay) and his partner Neal Caffrey (aka Matt Bomer), a former con-man/art thief who has been given a reduced prison sentence in exchange for helping the FBI catch white collar criminals. The series is one part caper mystery, one part crime drama, and one part comedy, and reminds me quite a bit, in tone at least, of The Mentalist. The Q & A session got started immediately following the screening and the entire cast was absolutely hilarious! At several times during the evening they all broke out into song. Not kidding! LOVE IT! I could SO see myself hanging out with these guys! Smile Of the many anecdotes told that night, my favorite was that people on the island of Manhattan, where the series is lensed, apparently get VERY testy when the filming of the show gets in the way of their daily life. Matt Bomer said that he wishes the crew would put together a compilation video of the expletives that are yelled at them by angry New Yorkers on a daily basis. He explained that a typical day involves the filming of a scene in front of an apartment building whereupon one of the building’s residents will invariably arrive home and want to get inside. A crew member will ask them to wait until the current take is complete (which is usually only about 45 seconds to a minute), but without fail the resident will walk right through the scene, screaming, “I’m not going to &*$^#** wait for *#&$*& anything!” Ah, you gotta love New Yorkers!

SAG had once again set up a cocktail party immediately following the Q & A session and Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay were nice enough to attend. The actors were ABSOLUTELY bombarded by people wanting pictures and autographs, which shocked me because, as I have explained before, most actors consider themselves above the whole fandom thing. This particular crowd was made up of mostly teenage girls, though, (I am fairly certain that White Collar has a very large teenage girl fan base thanks to cutie Matt Bomer) and they all wanted to meet the stars. Matt and Tim were SO incredibly nice, despite the hysteria surrounding them, and stuck around for HOURS taking pictures with and signing autographs for absolutely everyone who asked. Thankfully fellow stalker Duggan, who is not only a complete sweetheart, but is built like a linebacker, got us right up to the front of the crowd and snapped the above photograph of me and Matt. So cute!!!

Because of a major camera fail on my part, poor Tim DeKay ended up having to pose for THREE different pictures with fellow stalker Mikey, but he was TOTALLY cool about it!!! What an amazingly nice cast!!!! As soon as I left the event, I got on the phone with the Grim Cheaper and told him that we HAD to buy Seasons 1 and 2 of White Collar on DVD, which we did that very weekend. We are now about half-way through Season 1 and are absolutely hooked. SUCH A GREAT SHOW! If you have yet to see it, I highly recommend doing so!

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, for telling me about this event! Smile You can check out Mikey’s write-up of the evening, as well as some videos he took of the Q & A session, on his website here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: There is no stalking location for this one, but you can catch White Collar each Tuesday night at 9/8 Central on the USA Network. You can also visit the show’s official website here.

June 23, 2011June 23, 2011

The Pedal on the Pier 100 Mile-a-Thon

This past Tuesday night after my parents moved to Palm Springs, the GC arrived home from a late-night meeting with a box of chocolate-, vanilla-, and pistachio-flavored macaraoons in hand, so that I could drown my sorrows the Blair Waldorf way. And I have to say that while I am still depressed and missing my parents like crazy, the macaroons (along with about twenty episodes of The Office) did bring a bit of a respite from the sadness. So thanks, GC!

Anyway, as I have mentioned a few times before on this blog, my parents and I have been huge fans of actor David Duchovny ever since the early ’90s when he played the role of cross-dressing DEA Agent Dennis (“Denise”) Bryson on the television series Twin Peaks. When The X-Files premiered a few years later, we all immediately became “X-Philes” and my dad quickly adopted the moniker of “Mulder” to use as his Starbucks name. (Yes, my dad is a bit of a character.) On one particular occasion, he used the name while ordering a meal at an In-N-Out Burger and the perplexed cashier mistakenly spelled his alias “Molder” while typing it into her register. The receipt from that In-N-Out visit, with the words “Guest: MOLDER” typed onto it, was tacked onto my bulletin board for many years after that. Smile I even dressed up as Dana Scully for Halloween one year while in college, but pictures of that costume are sadly packed away in a box somewhere at my parents’ new house. Anyway, when the fabulous Pinky Lovejoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, invited me and the Grim Cheaper to do some stalking of the Pedal on the Pier 100 Mile-a-Thon benefit, at which David Duchovny was scheduled to be a participant, I just about had a full-blown heart attack! The GC was not nearly as enthusiastic about the invite, though, as it meant that we had to get up at around 7 a.m. on a Sunday so that we could be in Santa Monica by 9, when the event was scheduled to begin. Ah, men!

The Pedal on the Pier 100 Mile-A-Thon, which was sponsored by the 100 Mile Man Foundation (try saying that five times fast!), consisted of 100 stationary bikes positioned on a wing of the Santa Monica Pier. Those bikes could be “bought” by individuals or groups who would then ride a total of 100 miles in order to raise money for the Harold Robinson Foundation, an organization that sends under-privileged children to camp each summer.

When we first arrived on the pier, I spotted the above-pictured woman and immediately turned to the GC and said, “Oh my god, Joan Crawford is here!” And then when Pinky arrived a few minutes later, one of the first things out of her mouth was, “That woman looks EXACTLY like Joan Crawford!” LOL LOL LOL We are two peas in a pod, I tell you! Smile

I was extremely excited to learn that several actors from the television series Baywatch, including Alexandra Paul, Kelly Packard, and David Chokachi, had purchased a bike for the event. The three former co-stars showed up to the benefit together and they literally could NOT have been nicer. When I asked Alexandra for a photograph, she immediately stuck out her hand to shake mine and said, “Hi, I’m Alexandra. What’s your name?” SO DARN NICE!

Alexandra was absolutely GORGEOUS in person! Much like my girl Jen Aniston, Alexandra is definitely someone who just seems to get prettier and prettier as the years go by. Oh, how I wish that same thing will happen to me! Smile She looks better now at the age of 48 than she did at 29 when she starred on Baywatch. And she is in AMAZING shape, to boot. Look at those arms!

When I asked David Chokachi, who played Cody on Baywatch, to pose for a picture, Alexandra immediately got out her camera and told the GC, David, and I to hold our positions so that she could get a picture of the GC taking a picture of David and me. So cute!

Kelly Packard was also SUPER sweet and SUPER cute in person.

David Duchovny showed up shortly after the Baywatch gang and walked right over to Pinky and me to snap a few quick pics. And while he was VERY nice, he seemed a bit reserved (not in a mean way, he just came off as a bit reticent and shy), so I did not bring up the fact that he had served as the inspiration behind my dad’s Starbucks name.

As you can see above, David is JUST as good-looking in person as he appears to be on screen. Drool!

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Now as fate would have it, Pinky had been stalking a different celebrity event a few days prior to the Pedal on the Pier benefit and just about died when she spotted David Duchovny filming a scene for Californication at a nearby hospital. (And meeting DD twice in one weekend is something that would ONLY happen to Pinky, by the way! The girl has some AMAZING luck! While she was stalking an event featuring Cameron Crowe recently, who should she spot leaving a restaurant across the street from where she was standing, but two-time-Academy-Award-winning actress Hilary Swank! Hilary immediately spotted Pinky’s adorable dog, Sammy, and ran right up to start petting him. Then she posed for a bunch of pics with Pinky, and fellows stalkers Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, and Scotty, who were with her. They also all got their pic taken with Cameron Crowe, by the way. I mean how lucky is that????? You can read about Pinky’s Hilary Swank encounter here.) Anyway, Pinky managed to catch David Duchovny just as he was leaving the set and DD was nice enough to stop his car and pose for the above photo with her. And I have to say that it is easily one of the CUTEST celeb photos that I have ever seen! I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I jokingly told Pinky that I was going to superimpose my face over hers and pretend that it is actually me in the picture. Smile

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Pedal on the Pier 100 Mile-a-Thon took place at the Santa Monica Pier, which is located at the end of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica. You can find out more about the 100 Mile Man Foundation here and the Harold Robinson Foundation here.

June 21, 2011June 20, 2011

The Envelope Emmy Week “Mad Men” Screening

Ever since fellow stalker Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, invited me to be his plus-one for the SAG screening/cast Q & A of the FX television series Justified back in late May, I have been all about attending similar-type events. So when he told me about an Envelope Emmy Week screening/roundtable of the television show Mad Men, featuring series’ creator Matt Weiner and series’ stars Jon Hamm (who plays Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce advertising executive Don Draper), Christina Hendricks (who plays secretary Joan Harris) and Kiernan Shipka (who plays Don’s daughter, Sally), I jumped at the chance to attend. Because Mad Men is one of the Grim Cheaper’s favorite television shows, I mistakenly assumed that he would also jump at the chance to be my date for the evening, so imagine my surprise when he told me that he would rather sit at home and watch paint dry! I mean, I understand not having an interest in attending some random screening, but when the opportunity comes up to see in person – and possibly meet – several actors from one’s favorite television show, I just do NOT understand turning that opportunity down. Men! Winking smile It all turned out alright, though, as Mikey invited fellow stalkers CB and Anushika, who are both contributors to his website, and we all had an ABSOLUTE BLAST hanging out together. Not to mention that we were also all given free popcorn and soda to enjoy during the screening! Celebrities and popcorn? What more could a stalker ask for?

The event got started right on time with a screening of the Season 4 episode titled “The Beautiful Girls”. Before the screening, I had never actually watched an entire episode of Mad Men and I have to say that I was most pleasantly surprised. I absolutely LOVED it and am now itching to watch the series from the very beginning. Anyway, Matt, Jon, Christina, and Kiernan were brought out shortly after the episode was finished and I have to stay that Jon Hamm is MAJORLY good looking in person! Like drool-worthy good looking! I had seen him once before, while watching an episode of the series being filmed in Pasadena last July, but because I did not get very close to him at the time I had no idea what a cutie he actually was! Sigh!!

Christina Hendricks was also GORGEOUS in person! With her striking red hair and bright red lips, she looked exactly like what one would expect a movie star to look like. She is also much taller in person than I had expected her to be.

Pretty much everyone in the audience was most taken with 11-year-old Kiernan Shipka, though, who has got to be one of the most adorable little girls that I have ever seen in my entire life! Kiernan is extremely poised, talkative, and wise beyond her years and reminded me a LOT of Dakota Fanning. At one point, the moderator asked her if mimicking the mannerisms of TV-mom January Jones, which Kiernan apparently did a lot of this season, had been her idea or that of Matt Weiner, and both Matt and Kiernan explained that it had been her idea and that she had started doing it spontaneously, without any sort of outside direction. Kiernan said that she out of the blue one day realized it would make sense to start “channeling” January’s habits, traits, and voice inflections so she began to carefully observe her while on set and then mimicked a few chosen behaviors during filming. This is an 11-year-old, people! Unbelievable!

All in all, it was a fabulous screening and the cast seemed to get along remarkably. As you can see in the above photographs, there was a LOT of laughing and joking around going on and the actors were all very complimentary of one another, especially Jon of Christina and Kiernan.

Because this screening was put on by the Los Angeles Times and Envelope Emmy Week, it was handled a bit differently than most SAG events and, sadly, audience members were not allowed to venture up to the stage to meet the actors after the Q & A had ended. So, Mikey, CB, Anushika and I literally RACED out of that theatre as soon as the event was over in order to try and catch the cast before they got in their limos. I really, really, REALLY wanted to get a photograph with Jon Hamm and, because fellow stalker Pinky LoveJoy, from the Thinking Pink blog, had informed me that Jon is always INCREDIBLY nice to his fans, I had very high hopes. Unfortunately though, Jon had already left the premises by the time we got outside, as had Kiernan. Christina Hendricks was, thankfully, still there, though, and was nice enough to sign a TON of autographs and take photographs with everyone who wanted one before leaving. Love it! Even though I did not get my picture with Jon Hamm, all in all it was a FABULOUS night and just the first of many screenings that I have attended over the past few weeks, but have yet to blog about. So stay tuned . . . Winking smile

Big THANK YOU to Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, for telling me about this event! Smile You can read Mikey’s write-up of the evening, as well as check out some videos he took while there, on his website.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: There is no stalking location for this one, but you can catch Mad Men each Sunday night on AMC. Season 5 of the series is not scheduled to begin airing until sometime in 2012.