Thursday, January 29, 2009

Here are some of the most well-recognized filming spots around Southern California

The Beverly Wilshire hotel is perhaps most famous for standing in as the grandiose exterior and lobby in "Pretty Woman." Tony Reeves, author of "The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations," writes via e-mail that "the rooms were a set built at the Disney studio in Burbank and bear little resemblance to the real thing." The movies "Bulworth" and "Beverly Hills Cop" also made use of the hotel's luxe décor.
(Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

Built in 1924 for Mabel and Charles Ennis, Frank Lloyd Wright's one-of-a-kind concrete block house was featured in 1959's "House on Haunted Hill" and 1982's "Blade Runne." It was also a vampire lair in the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" TV show. The exterior is photogenic, but the interior is not open to the public.
(Dale Kutzera / For The Times)

The domes and telescopes of the Griffith Observatory will always be associated with James Dean's iconic "Rebel Without a Cause" knife fight in 1955. Though it's featured in major motion pictures such as "Transformers," restrictions and fees make the observatory difficult for television shoots, according to "Entourage" location manager Bob Lepucki.
(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Hotel del Coronado is the "Miami hotel where Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis hide out in drag with Marilyn Monroe in the classic 'Some Like It Hot,' " author Reeves writes, in an e-mail, of the San Diego-area luxury hotel, which has offered high rollers a bit of R&R since 1888. This is also where L. Frank Baum wrote at least three of his "Wizard of Oz" books. (The novelist also designed the chandeliers in the hotel's Crown Room.)
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

If it's a freeway chase scene, chances are it's this quarter-mile stretch in Long Beach, says "Criminal Mind's" Spellman, who recently used Shoreline Drive for a freeway in Orange County and as a location for a pivotal freeway driving lesson scene in the Alicia Silverstone movie "Clueless." It's also credited in the movies "Speed" and "Iron Man." Spellman says it helps that the city is so cooperative with film crews. It should be used to them: "CSI: Miami" and "Dexter" both shoot in Long Beach.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

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