television stars – Page 4

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.

June 20, 2011June 20, 2011

The Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel from “90210”

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I stopped by a couple of weeks ago while doing some stalking in the South Bay was the Manhattan Beach Marriott, which stood in for the supposed-Beverly-Hills-area hotel where the West Beverly High Senior Prom was held in the Season 3 episode of fave show 90210 titled “The Prom Before the Storm”. I found this location thanks to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, who was kind enough to put together an entire 90210-themed South Bay stalking list for me as soon as he found out that I was heading down that way. Sadly, due to some major traffic that the GC and I encountered on our way down there (darn you, 405!), we were not able to spend as much time in the area as I had hoped and only managed to hit up a couple of locations, one of which was the prom hotel. Ironically enough, not only had the GC and I actually stayed at the Manhattan Beach Marriott a few years back, but thanks to its appearance in an early episode of The O.C., I had even blogged about it. So the fact that I did not recognize it when it appeared in “The Prom Before the Storm” episode is highly embarrassing! I mean, what kind of a stalker am I??? Winking smile

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Only the exterior of the Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel was featured in the episode, in the scene in which Liam Court (aka cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!), Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), Naomi Clark (aka AnnaLynne McCord) and the rest of the West Beverly High gang arrive at their Senior Prom. As you can see in the screen capture located on the bottom right above, producers put up curtains to block the interior of the hotel in the scene as it did not match up with the interior set that they had created at Manhattan Beach Studios where the series is lensed.

That set, which was centered around Silver’s (aka Jessica Stroup’s) half-baked Cirque du Soleil prom theme, is pictured above.

I am very happy to report that the hotel looks exactly the same in person as it did in the episode. Ironically enough, the Manhattan Beach Marriott is eerily similar in appearance to the Universal Sheraton, where Brenda Walsh (aka Shannen Doherty), Dylan McKay (aka Luke Perry), Donna Martin (aka Tori Spelling) and the rest of the original West Bev gang attended the spring dance in the Season 1 episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 aptly titled “Spring Dance”.

The exterior staircase located just east of the hotel’s front entrance also made an appearance in the episode as the spot where Ivy Sullivan (aka Gillian Zinser) caught her then-boyfriend, now-husband Raj Kher (aka Manish Dayal) drinking.

As I mentioned above, the Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel was also featured in the Season 1 episode of The O.C. titled “The Debut”. In the episode, the interior of the hotel masqueraded as the interior of Newport Beach’s Pelican Hill Country Club where the dance rehearsals for Marissa Cooper (aka Mischa Barton) and Summer Roberts’s (aka Rachel Bilson’s) Debutante Ball were held.

Both the hotel’s Grand Lobby, which as you can see above has changed its color scheme drastically since the episode was filmed;

and the Manhattan Ballroom, which was unfortunately closed when we showed up to stalk the place but which you can see photographs of here, were featured in the episode.

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Geoff, from the 90210Locations website, for finding this location!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Manhattan Beach Marriott Hotel, from “The Prom Before the Storm” episode of 90210, is located at 1400 Parkview Avenue in Manhattan Beach. The hotel’s main entrance and the exterior stairwell, which is denoted with a pink arrow in the above aerial view and is located just east of the main entrance, appeared in the episode. In “The Debut” episode of The O.C., the hotel’s front lobby and Manhattan Ballroom were featured. You can visit the Manhattan Beach Marriott’s official website here.

June 16, 2011June 15, 2011

Chili’s Grill & Bar from “The Office”

Another location that the Grim Cheaper and I stalked two weekends ago while in the San Fernando Valley was the site of the former Black Angus Steakhouse in Panorama City which masqueraded as a supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area Chili’s Grill & Bar in two different Season 2 episodes of fave show The Office. I first found out about this location from fellow stalker/Office aficionado Snidley Whiplash who posted a comment about it on my site a little over a year and a half ago and, even though the structure was unfortunately torn down shortly after The Office episodes were filmed, I was absolutely dying to stalk the place. For whatever reason, though, the GC and I just never made it out there. Then, when I was randomly asked about the restaurant on three separate occasions over the past two weeks, I decided that I had best get a move on and stalk it, which I finally did two Sundays ago, shortly after grabbing lunch at Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant which I blogged about on Tuesday.

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The Panorama City Black Angus Steakhouse was first featured in the Season 2 episode of The Office titled “The Dundies” as the site of the Dunder Mifflin staff’s 2005 Dundie Awards ceremony. The real life restaurant had shuttered its doors shortly prior to the filming, making it easy for the production staff to come in and dress it to look like an actual, working Chili’s. In TV Guide’s Office Gossip blog about “The Dundies” episode, series stars/co-executive producer/writer B.J. Novak, said, “In the show, the awards ceremony takes place at a local Chili’s restaurant, which we thought would be fun and true to the show. We didn’t want to invent a fake, similar-sounding restaurant, like “Peppers,” or “T.G.I. Wednesday’s.” Since this is supposed to be a realistic show, about realistic offices, we thought setting [it in] a place like Chili’s would be refreshing. We got permission from Chili’s and spent weeks, with their help, reconstructing with painstaking detail a Chili’s restaurant in an empty abandoned building.” The results of their efforts are pictured above.

Both the interior and the exterior of the former Black Angus appeared in the episode.

And it was there that Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), after consuming far too many margaritas, spontaneously kissed Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinski) for the very first time. Sigh! So cute!

A few weeks later, the very same former Black Angus masqueraded as the Chili’s where Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell) and Jan Levinson (aka Melora Hardin) took prospective Dunder Mifflin customer Christian (aka Tim Meadows) for lunch in order to woo him in the Season 2 episode titled “The Client”. Of the restaurant, Michael says, “Chili’s is the new golf course. It’s where business happens.” LOL

And while I was hoping that some portion of the former steakhouse would still be standing, that was sadly not the case. As you can see in the above photographs, the area where filming took place is now just a large vacant field sandwiched between two strip malls in the middle of Downtown Panorama City. I am not sure why the building was torn down and not just leased out to a different restaurant chain (like maybe Chili’s Winking smile ), but I am guessing that the vacant land must have been worth more than the lease for a new restaurant would have been. Such an incredible shame!

Amazingly enough, though, as you can see above, the former steakhouse is still visible on Bing aerial maps.

It is also still visible on Google Street View, as well. And while I had originally assumed that the restaurant was painted red while it was still in operation, I happened to stumble across this Facebook page about the former eatery in which the structure is shown to be brown.

Which got me to thinking that the restaurant must have been painted red solely for the filming and, sure enough, while poking around on Google Street View, I noticed that only the front and side of the eatery were red, while the backside was left the original brown, as you can see above. It is so incredibly cool that the building was captured by the Google Street View camera while in its filming state! Oh, how I wish I could have seen it that way in person, too! Sad smile

And on an Office locations side note – sweetheart that he is, fellow stalker Owen recently tracked down one of the series’ crew members who informed him that the interior of Louis Vople’s Italian Restaurant, where the Season 7 episode “Michael’s Last Dundies” was filmed, was in actuality just a set that had been built at Chandler Valley Center Studios where the show is filmed. So that mystery is finally solved! Thank you, Owen! Smile

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Snidley Whiplash for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Black Angus restaurant which stood in for Chili’s Grill & Bar in the Season 2 episodes of The Office titled “The Dundies” and “The Client” was formerly located at 14640 Roscoe Boulevard in Panorama City.

June 14, 2011June 15, 2011

Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant from “The Office”

One location that I have been on the lookout for for quite a few weeks now is the Italian restaurant where the Dunder Mifflin gang hosted the annual Dundies Awards ceremony in the Season 7 episode of fave show The Office titled “Michael’s Last Dundies”. I had an inkling that the eatery was most likely located somewhere in the Van Nuys area, near Chandler Valley Center Studios where the series is lensed, so one of my first lines of attack was to do a Google search for the terms “Italian restaurant”, “Van Nuys”, and “filming”. My query kicked back numerous results, most of which pointed to an eatery in Valley Glen named “Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant” and when I looked at an exterior image of the place on fave website LA Time Machines, I saw that it indeed matched up perfectly to what had appeared on The Office. So I dragged the Grim Cheaper right on out to stalk the place and grab some lunch two Sundays ago.

Barone’s Famous Italian restaurant was originally founded way back in 1945 by brothers Tony, Frank, and Mike Arpaia, all of whom had just returned home after finishing a stint in the Air Force during World War II, and their sister, Josephine Barone. The siblings purchased a defunct eatery named Barto’s at the corner of Beverly Glen and Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks and, in order to to save a bit of money, simply dropped the “T” and added an “N” and an “E” to the former restaurant’s exterior signage, thus creating “Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant”. The establishment became so popular that just four years later the family was forced to move it to a larger space located at 14151 Ventura Boulevard, where it remained until 2006, at which time it was moved to its current home on the corner of Oxnard Street and Mammoth Avenue in Valley Glen. It was that Valley Glen location that I set out to stalk two weekends ago.

Barone’s Famous Italian restaurant, which has served such luminaries as Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Lucille Ball, John Wayne, and Jane Russell, is still family-owned and operated to this day, 66 years after its inception. The eatery has long been known for its rectangular-shaped pizzas, an idea which was born out of a need to fit more pies into the restaurant’s tiny oven, but because I am diabetic and have to stay away from carbs, the GC and I were unfortunately not able to sample any. I instead opted for the Chicken Marsala entree, while the GC sampled Barone’s “Famous Stuffed Mushrooms” and a Caesar salad, and, sadly, I have to say that none of it was especially tasty. Sad smile I had such high hopes for the place, too! Being that we saw no less than thirty pies make their way out the door for delivery in the short time that we were dining there, though, I am guessing that it is the pizzas that have kept people coming back to this place time and time again for over six decades.

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In the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, Michael Scott (aka Steve Carell), Deangelo Vickers (aka Will Ferrell), Pam Beesly (aka Jenna Fischer), Jim Halpert (aka John Krasinksi) and the rest of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton Branch employees gather at the supposed Scranton, Pennsylvania-area Louis Volpe’s Italian Restaurant to celebrate the 2011 Dundie Awards. Chaos, of course, ensues and they all end up getting kicked out of the establishment by the restaurant’s manager after Deangelo screams out the word “vomit” numerous times during his acceptance speech.

Upon entering the restaurant, though, I was shocked to discover that it looked NOTHING at all like what had appeared on the show. From what I was able to discern after talking to the restaurant’s super-nice hostess, while the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode did use the exterior of Barone’s for some filming, all of the interior scenes were filmed elsewhere – at a location that I am unfortunately still on the hunt for. UPDATE – fellow stalker Owen recently tracked down one of the series’ crew members, who informed him that the interior of Louis Volpe’s was in actuality just a set that was built at Chandler Valley Center Studios.

Some filming has taken place inside of the Barone’s space over the years, though. The eatery was the spot where Mark “Rat” Ratner (aka Brian Backer) took Stacey Hamilton (aka Jennifer Jason Leigh) out on a date, for which he forgot his wallet, in the 1982 movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. At the time, the restaurant was a German establishment named Hoppe’s Old Heidelberg, which was originally founded in 1958.

Thankfully, as you can see in the above screen capture and photograph, even though the establishment has gone through several ownership changes throughout the years, very little of the interior has been altered since Fast Times at Ridgemont High was filmed almost three decades ago. So incredibly cool!

In 1995, Hoppe’s Old Heidelberg was sold to a new owner, Switzerland native and Chef-of-the-Year-awardee Ueli Huegli, who renamed the place Matterhorn Chef and gave the menu a Swiss flair. In 2005, the restaurant was featured in the Billy Bob Thornton movie Bad News Bears.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant, which served as the exterior of Louie Volpe’s restaurant from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located at 13726 Oxnard Street in Valley Glen. You can visit the restaurant’s official website here.

June 10, 2011June 14, 2011

The Figueroa Hotel from “90210”

A couple of years ago, while perusing through an issue of AAA’s Westways Magazine, I spotted an article about Southern California’s nicest most reasonably –priced hotels and, because I was dating the Grim Cheaper at the time, I figured I’d best read through it. Of the ten properties featured in the column, the Moroccan-themed Figueroa Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles immediately caught my eye and I dragged the GC right on over there to grab a cocktail just a few nights later. The two of us pretty much fell in love with the place’s unique architecture and exotic décor on sight and have returned there a couple of times over the years to grab a drink or just hang out. So imagine my surprise when the Fig, as it is commonly referred to, popped up on fave show 90210 as the Cabo San Lucas resort where Liam Court (aka cutie Matt Lanter – sigh!), Annie Wilson (aka Shenae Grimes), and the rest of the West Beverly gang spent their Spring Break in the recently-aired Season 3 episode titled “The Enchanted Donkey”. Because I had not taken many pictures of the hotel during our past visits, I immediately added the place to my Re-Stalk list and dragged the GC right on back over there this past weekend.

The Figueroa Hotel, which was designed by Stanton, Reed, & Hibbard at a cost of $1.25 million, was originally built in 1925 by the YWCA as a hotel/residence for businesswomen and their families. Shortly following the Great Depression, the 12-story, 409-room structure was turned into a public hotel and it later served a brief stint as housing for troops during World War II. The property fell into disrepair in the years following, until the late 1990s when it was purchased by Uno Thimansson, who immediately set about renovating the place, giving it a Moroccan theme. And, let me tell you, he did an incredible job. Walking through the hotel’s front doors, one is quickly transported from the busy streets of Downtown L.A. into a Casablanca-esque oasis. Every time I am there, I half expect to see Sam tickling the ivories while Bogie puffs away on a cigarette somewhere nearby. True to Westways Magazine’s word, despite the hotel’s fabulous ambiance and location directly across the street from Staples Center and L.A. Live, it still boasts extremely reasonable room rates. And while the reviews on Trip Advisor and Yelp are quite mixed, in this stalker’s never-to-be-humble opinion, the Figueroa looks like an extremely cool place to vacation. Not to mention that the poolside bar is something of a celebrity hotspot, with everyone from Keanu Reeves to members of Depeche Mode dropping by for a cocktail throughout the years.

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The Figueroa Hotel was used quite extensively in “The Enchanted Donkey” episode of 90210 in which it masqueraded as the “Hotel Burro Encantado” (aka the Enchanted Donkey Resort) in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Areas of the hotel which appeared in the episode include the main entrance;

the poolside bar, where Teddy Montgomery (aka Trevor Donovan) met up for drinks with former schoolmate Tripp Wallison (aka Alan Ritchson);

and the pool area . . .

. . . behind which producers had an image of the Cabo San Lucas skyline superimposed. In reality, the Figueroa Hotel pool boasts views of several massive Downtown L.A. skyscrapers. I was literally cracking up taking the above photograph while envisioning the way the pool appeared on 90210. Winking smile

And while I had assumed that one of the hotel’s real life hallways had been used in the episode, the GC and I ventured upstairs to take a look at one and, as you can see above, it does not at all match up to what appeared onscreen. It seems that producers built a fake hallway set for the filming.

I had also assumed that some of the Figueroa’s actual rooms had been used in the episode, as well, but as you can see on the hotel’s website, that does not seem to be the case.

The super-nice front desk clerk also informed us that the Figueroa’s lobby restaurant, the Fig Street Café, stood in for a supposed Cuba-area eatery in the Season 7 episode of fave show CSI: Miami titled “The Deluca Motel”.

The hotel was also featured in the Season 4 episode of Chuck titled “Church Versus the Seduction Impossible” as the Marrakesh, Morocco-area hotel where Chuck Bartowski (aka Zachary Levi), Colonel John Casey (aka Adam Baldwin), and Sarah Walker (aka Yvonne Strahovski) were sent to rescue Roan Montgomery (aka John Larroquette).

In the Season 2 episode of Make It or Break It titled “Worlds Apart”, the Fig stood in for the Rio de Janeiro-area hotel where Kaylie Cruz (aka Josie Loren) and the rest of her teammates stayed during the World Gymnastics Championships.

In the Season 2 episode of NCIS: Los Angeles titled “Harm’s Way”, the Figueroa stood in for the Blue Oasis Hotel in Sana’a, Yemen, where Sam Hanna (aka LL Cool J) and G. Callen (aka Chris O’Donnell) stayed while trying to capture the leader of a terrorist group.

One of the hotel’s real life rooms – one that the GC, randomly enough, just so happened to snap a photograph of – also appeared in the episode.

I find it highly ironic that NCIS: Los Angeles filmed at the Figueroa as I have always thought that the hotel’s lobby bears a striking resemblance to the NCIS headquarters on the series.

Some filming of the yet-to-be-released James Cameron flick Battleship, which stars Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard, and Brooklyn Decker, also took place at the Figueroa Hotel this past February.

And on a Matt Lanter side-note – a couple of weeks ago the cutie actor tweeted that he was going to be featured on the cover of the June 2011 issue of Metro Magazine. Well, I took one look at that tweet and ran right over to Vroman’s Bookstore to purchase a copy. Sadly though, Allen, the man who runs the Vroman’s newsstand (and yes, I know his name because I shop there FAR too often) told me that not only did the store not carry Metro Magazine, but it was apparently not even available from their distributors. So I marched on home and started searching for the publication online, but came up completely empty-handed. I could not find it anywhere and I am a pretty good Googler! Over the past few weeks I have also visited several newsstands and bookstores in search of the mag, but no one, it seemed, had ever even heard of it. Flash forward to last night when the GC came home from work with the above pictured laminated photograph in his hands. My birthday is today and he has been gifting me with little presents every night this week. Last night’s present, as it so happens, was a copy of Matt Lanter’s issue of Metro Magazine. As it turns out, Metro is published in the Philippines and not only was the GC able to figure that out, but he somehow managed to track down a man in the Philippines via eBay whom he had go purchase a copy for him! It is currently being shipped to me and I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on it! When the man heard why the GC had gone to such trouble to purchase the magazine, he said that he had inspired him to be a better husband. How cute is that???? Best.present.ever! Thank you, GC!

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: The Figueroa Hotel, from “The Enchanted Donkey” episode of 90210, is located at 939 South Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. You can visit the Figueroa’s official website here.

June 9, 2011June 8, 2011

Darryl’s House from “The Office”

This past weekend I dragged the Grim Cheaper out to the San Fernando Valley to do some stalking of the home belonging to Darryl Philbin (aka Craig Robinson) on fave show The Office. Fellow stalker Owen had actually tracked this location down well over a year ago and it is, ironically enough, located directly next-door to the abode where Meredith Palmer (aka Kate Flannery) lives on the series, which I blogged about a few weeks back. And even though I had the address written down in my trusty stalking notebook and even though Owen had reminded me that the two dwellings were located right next door to each other, for some reason I completely forgot that fact when I went to stalk Meredith’s house in early May. Yes, I am most definitely a blonde. 😉 As soon as I realized my mistake, Darryl’s house was moved to the very top of my To-Stalk list and I dragged the poor GC right on back over there this past Sunday afternoon to finally snap some pics of the place.

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Darryl’s house was actually only featured in one episode of The Office – the Season 6 episode titled “The Meeting”, in which Dunder Mifflin paper salesman Dwight Schrute (aka Rainn Wilson) convinces human resources director Toby Flenderson (aka Paul Lieberstein) that warehouse manager Darryl is lying about his claim that he injured himself while standing on a ladder at work. In order to prove his case, Dwight persuades Toby to conduct a stakeout of Darryl’s home. While on the stakeout – during which Dwight invites Toby to someday visit his “run-of-the-mill-slaughterhouse” where he is currently restoring a life-size train LOL – the two are parked in front of the residence located next door and to the west of Darryl’s.

The two then spot a rather large individual wearing a sports jersey and carrying a humongous bag of dog food whom they assume is Darryl. Dwight immediately pulls his car up to the front of Darryl’s house in order to confront him, while Toby yells out, “Hey you, a**hole! You gonna eat all that dog food yourself?” As it turns out, the person whom they thought was Darryl is actually his younger sister, who was played by actress Jahmilla Jackson.

Once they realize their mistake, Dwight and Toby panic and Dwight tries to drive away quickly, but ends up plowing his car into Darryl’s garbage cans. Interestingly enough, Meredith’s house can be spotted in the background of that part of the scene.

I am very happy to report that Darryl’s house looks pretty much exactly the same in person as it did onscreen.

Even the two blue Adirondack chairs which were situated on the front porch during the episode are there in real life!

Interestingly enough, in the Season 7 episode of The Office titled “Search Committee”, Darryl is shown typing up his resume, on which his home address is visible. It reads “14152 Emelita Ave, Scranton, PA 18505”. In real life, the address of the house used as Darryl’s is 14152 Emelita Street in Van Nuys. SO INCREDIBLY COOL!

Big THANK YOU to fellow stalker Owen for finding this location! Smile

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Darryl’s house, from “The Meeting” episode of The Office, is located at 14152 Emelita Street in Van Nuys. During their stakeout, Darryl and Toby are parked in front the residence located at 14156 Emelita Street. Meredith’s house, from the “Michael’s Last Dundies” episode of The Office, is located next-door to Darryl’s at 14142 Emelita Street in Van Nuys. Toby’s house from that same episode of The Office is located just around the corner at 5752 Calhoun Avenue, also in Van Nuys. And Jim and Pam’s house is located just a few blocks northeast at 13831 Calvert Street in Van Nuys.

June 6, 2011August 6, 2018

Kyle Richards’ Former Palm Springs House

Last weekend, the Grim Cheaper and I once again headed out to Palm Springs for a little weekend getaway and while there I, of course, just had to drag him out to stalk the vacation home formerly belonging to Kyle Richards and her husband, Mauricio Umansky, which was featured in the Season 1 episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills titled “Chocolate Louboutins”. I found this location thanks to a Real Housewives message board on the Survivor Sucks website and wrongly assumed that it was going to be quite the easy little stalk. And I should mention here that I absolutely CANNOT stand Kyle Richards (I think the woman is just a big ol’ bully who completely manipulates her older sister, child star Kim Richards), but because I love the show, I was absolutely dying to stalk the residence. So, the GC and I headed right on over there while killing time before grabbing dinner with his boss our first night in the Desert. Things did not turn out quite as planned, though, as we arrived at our destination only to discover that it was located inside of the private and gated Indian Wells Country Club! Yes, this particular stalk was a definite fail!

As you can see in the above photographs, the only part of the neighborhood visible from the street is the guard shack.

Sadly, not much can be see via aerial views, either.

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In the “Chocolate Louboutins” episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Kyle and Mauricio invite their friends Lisa Vanderpump and Ken Todd, as well as Kyle’s sister Kim and her four children to spend Easter Weekend at their family home in the Coachella Valley. And while it is stated in the episode that Kyle’s house is located in Palm Desert, in actuality, the property is located just east of Palm Desert in the city of Indian Wells, directly behind the Indian Wells Resort Hotel, which, as it just so happens, was founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, but that is another story for another post. Winking smile

In the episode, Kyle says that the 3 bedroom, 2 bath house, which was built in 1985 and measures 1,503 square feet, originally belonged to her mother, but that it is now used as a family home. There has been much speculation online, though, that it was possibly this residence that Kim was referring to in the Season 1 finale episode titled “Unforgivable” when she screamed at Kyle, “You stole my god-damn house!” According to some of the gossip on several Real Housewives message boards (and please keep in mind that it is just that, gossip, and that I have no idea whatsoever if any of it is true), Kim at one time owned the Indian Wells house and that somehow Kyle got the rights to it after their mother passed away or possibly that Kim paid for property with her childhood earnings and then when the mother passed away, the home was divided up among all three Richards sisters. Who knows what the actual story is, but let me tell you, I am absolutely DYING to know! You can check out some of the message board gossip about the house here and here.

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: Kyle Richard’s former vacation house, from the “Chocolate Louboutins” episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, is located at 45389 Club Drive in Indian Wells. The home is located inside of the Indian Wells Country Club, which is a private, gated community, so please do not trespass.

June 3, 2011April 5, 2013

A Q & A with the Cast of “Justified”

Last Tuesday evening, my good friend Mikey, from the Mike the Fanboy website, invited me to attend a SAG screening/cast Q & A for the FX television series Justified at a venue in North Hollywood. Now I should mention here that I have been a member of SAG for just about nine years and, while the union hosts screenings on an almost weekly basis, this was the first time I had ever attended one. You see, the only screenings I had ever heard about in the past featured Q & A sessions with writers, producers, and directors and, as I was explaining to Mikey, the last thing I want to do is sit around for an hour listening to some random production’s creative team wax philosophical about their “process”. Winking smile But once Mikey told me that the actual actors would be in attendance and that they typically pose for pictures and sign autographs after the events, I just about died of excitement! HOW IN THE HECK HAD I NEVER HEARD ABOUT THESE TYPES OF SCREENINGS BEFORE?????? Needless to say, Mikey has opened up a whole new world to me and not only did I attend a screening for Mad Men on Wednesday night, but I am also signed up for one next week, as well. The Grim Cheaper is SO not happy about this development, by the way! Winking smile Anyway, because SAG events are seated on a first come/first serve basis and because I am just a wee bit anal, I showed up three hours before showtime. Not surprisingly, I was the fourth person in line and when we were let into the theatre, I immediately snagged two front row spots for Mikey and me – which was great for the Q&A session, but not so much for the screening. As you can see in the above photograph, we were seated EXTREMELY close to the screen! My neck was absolutely KILLING me by the time the credits rolled on the episode that was shown. LOL

After watching the episode, which was titled “Bloody Harlan”, the cast members were called to the stage. In attendance was (from left to right in the above photographs) Natalie Zea, who plays Winona Hawkins; series star Timothy Olyphant, who plays U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens; series creator/executive producer Graham Yost; Margo Martindale, who plays criminal matriarch Mags Bennett; Walton Goggins who plays bad boy Boyd Crowder; and Erica Tazel, who plays Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks.

I have to say that the Question and Answer session was extremely interesting – far more so than I had imagined it would be. Graham Yost, Margo Martindale, and Timothy Olyphant were all absolutely HILARIOUS and had the audience LOLing throughout most of the evening. One interesting tidbit that we learned about the series was that it was actually based upon two novels, Pronto and Riding the Rap, and the short story “Fire in the Hole”, all of which were written by Elmore Leonard, the legendary American novelist who penned the tomes which inspired the movies Get Shorty, Jackie Brown, Out of Sight, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Big Bounce .

Ashley Hebert Meets Ryan M.

After the Q&A segment, most of the cast hung around to sign autographs and take pictures with the fans. Because most actors consider themselves above the whole fandom thing, very few audience members tried to approach the stars. I was obviously not one of those people. Winking smile On a side note – I don’t know if any of my fellow stalkers are watching The Bachelorette this season, but in the premiere episode contestant Ryan Miller hopped out of the limo upon first meeting Bachelorette Ashley Hebert , with camera in hand, and promptly asked her to pose for a picture with him. After she did, he then said, “Later, I can get one with Chris Harrison, as well, that you can take, hopefully.” LOL LOL LOL That would SO be me if I was ever on that show! You can watch that scene by clicking above.

Anyway, Mikey and I first approached actor Timothy Olyphant, along with five other fans, all of whom wanted an autograph. Timothy signed the five autographs and then it was my turn. I asked him if he would take a picture with me and he said, “No, I’m not doing photos tonight!” And he then promptly left! Mikey turned to me and said, “Ouch! That really sucked!” And it did. I mean, I could understand him saying no if there were a bunch of other fans hanging around hoping to get a photograph as well, but being that I was ONLY one asking, I thought it was a pretty douchy maneuver on his part. The following day I found the above-pictured button at my favorite store, Lula Mae in Pasadena, and I just about died laughing. The GC said I should purchase a bunch of the buttons and hand them out to any actor who turns me down for a photo. Winking smile

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We next hit up actress Margo Martindale, whom I absolutely LOVED on Dexter, and I am very happy to report that she could NOT have been nicer! She really took her time speaking with the fans who approached her and signed all of the autographs and took all of the pictures people asked for. ABSOLUTELY LOVE HER!

Walton Goggins was also INCREDIBLY nice and happily posed for photos and signed autographs with his fans. He was so sweet, in fact, that after we took the above picture, he mentioned that my flash had failed to go off and asked if I wanted to take another.

Which we did. Smile SUCH a sweet guy!

And when I later found out that he had guest-starred as frat boy Mike Muchin on the Season 2 episode of fave show Beverly Hills, 90210 titled “The Pit and Pendulum”, I just about had a heart attack!

SAG set up a small cocktail party after the event and while Mikey and I were walking around (eating way too many of the AMAZING chicken strips that were being served!), we spotted Erica Tazel. I was dying to get my pic taken with Erica as she had guest-starred on two of my very favorite television shows – Sex and the City and The Office! Smile

On SATC, Erica played Charlotte York’s (aka Kristin Davis’) dance teacher, Grace, in the Season 4 episode titled “Baby, Talk is Cheap”.

And in the Season 5 episode of The Office titled “Lecture Circuit: Part I”, she played Julia, one of Stanley Hudson’s (aka Leslie David Baker’s) clients whom Andy Bernard (aka Ed Helms) very unsuccessfully tries to hit on. All in all it was a fabulous night and I, for one, cannot WAIT to attend more events just like it!

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

Until next time, Happy Stalking! Smile

Stalk It: There is no stalking location for this one, but you can catch Justified each Wednesday night on FX. And you can visit the show’s official website here.