Part 3

The actual Southern California locations where
the 2007 movie "Knocked Up" was filmed.

Knocked Up: For Angelenos, there’s an added layer of authenticity, as the movie filmed at real locations all over Los Angeles, from Cafe Pinot and The Pantry in Downtown to Apostrophe Books in Pasadena.

Basking in the temporary glow of their possible future together, Alison & Ben go out looking at
baby items. So, next we see a montage of shopping scenes. The first stop is a baby store
where Ben goofs around and puts on a baby hat & bib, telling Alison that this (see above)
is what she should expect their baby to look like.

This scene was shot at "Jacadi", a children's apparel store in the Paseo Colorado shopping mall,
at 380 E. Colorado Blvd in in Pasadena, CA. (Yes, that's the same Colorado Blvd where
the famous Rose Parade takes place each New Years Day.) Jacadi is located
on the ground level of that mall, at the east end (near Macy's), in space #145.

The shopping montage continues with a visit to a book store, where they pick out books
about what to expect from childbirth. (This comes back to haunt Ben later, when Alison
discovers that he hasn't read the books.)

That bookstore was actually "Apostrophe Books", at 289 E. Green Street, inside the same
Paseo Pasadena mall at the Jacadi store. But Apostrophe is located towards the
west end of the mall, next to Camille's Sidewalk Cafe.

The shopping montage culminates with a shot of Ben and Alison walking down the mall,
feeling good, when she reaches out and takes his hand.

As you can probably guess, that mall scene was shot inside Paseo Colorado, in Pasadena.
The film-makers used this mall often in the film. (The camera is looking east, towards Macy's.)

Built in 2002, Paseo Pasadena replaced an older enclosed mall (named Plaza Pasadena),
and was an attempt to capture the outdoor, European ambiance that had made The Grove
such a success. Paseo Pasadena is bounded by Colorado Blvd on the north,
Green Street (and the Pasadena Civic) on the south, Los Robles Ave on the east,
and Marengo Ave on the west.

My Favorite Locations by Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow

Director

Due to a lack of imagination, I try to write about things that I know. In some ways I guess Knocked Up becomes some sort of specific L.A. story, because that's where my experience lies. I will never write my Lord of the Rings cycle.

So when we were doing The 40-Year-Old-Virgin, I thought, 'Oh, Steve [Carell] could live in North Hollywood, because I lived in North Hollywood.' Then, when we were doing Knocked Up, I thought, 'Well, I guess the couple should live in Brentwood, because I live five minutes away in the Pacific Palisades.' And maybe all the guys [Rogen and his slacker friends] live deep in the valley, like I used to. So that was Northridge.

I have a new practice, which is: How close to home can we find the locations? And I say that to everybody: 'Seriously, find the locations close to my house.' I realized that you don't have to drive far in L.A. to find a filmic neighborhood. You can do it in Brentwood. And you can do it on the same street that [former L.A. mayor] Richard Riordan lives. He may never let you do it again, but for a week you can. It's just nice to be able to wrap at 7 p.m. and get home at 7:04.

Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl at the Geisha House. (Copyright, Universal Pictures)

Hollywood Hang-Outs: Geisha House, Las Palmas Nightclub and Miceli's
OK, let's face it: I don't go nightclubbing, because I'm a nerd. So I need someone to tell me what the cool places would be. Geisha House is a popular place (which Wilmer Valderrama owns apparently). For the nightclub on Las Palmas in Hollywood, we created a fake sign. It's just a door. We shot the interiors in another nightclub. And Miceli's on Las Palmas is one of the great places to go for dinner in Los Angeles, and they serenade you at your table. It's apparently L.A.'s oldest Italian restaurant. I used to go to the one in the Valley, on Cahuenga. It's always fun to personalize it that way.

Swingers Cafe, Santa Monica
I eat breakfast at this local 1950s diner every single weekend. It's the site of the "morning after" breakfast where Katherine (Heigl) gets to know Seth (Rogen). We were trying to think of a cool diner, and I said, 'Just go to Swingers. I'm there anyway.' So that location was a fun one for me.

Del's Saloon, West Los Angeles
This is a perfectly random neighborhood hangout next to a bulk grocery store on Santa Monica Blvd. [where Paul Rudd meets Seth Rogen for a beer and compares "marriage to an unfunny version of 'Everybody Loves Raymond'"]. It's a traditional wood-paneled bar and we had fun shooting there. I can't say that I know this place too well...because I'm not an alcoholic.

Cafe Pinot, Downtown Los Angeles
This cosmopolitan downtown restaurant, next to the Central Library, is where Katherine meets with her mom. It's part of that Patina chain and they have beautiful restaurants. I used to go to the Pinot Bistro in the Valley. In fact, I shot at the downtown Cafe Pinot once before, when we did The Cable Guy. It was a scene with Leslie [Mann] and Jim Carrey which got cut out of the movie. It was about a tape from Matthew Broderick's character about how to fix your lisp. The scene started with Jim sitting alone, just saying, 'Saaa-mon? Saaa-mon [salmon]'

Katherine and Seth check out baby clothes at Pasadena's Paseo Colorado Mall.
(Copyright, Universal Pictures)

Apostrophe Books, Pasadena
My wife and I like to take our two daughters to Pasadena to do some shopping and we'll tool around there because it's different. It actually feels like a mini-getaway. And Apostrophe Books is just a really interesting looking bookstore we found in a little mini-mall. We also shot in a baby clothing store right around the corner. We walked up to this guy who worked there and asked him to be in the scene and try to sell Seth some clothes. There was some pretty funny stuff.

Record Surplus, West Los Angeles
I used to go there all the time. It's one of the last great places on L.A.'s Westside to get vinyl. It was really fun shooting there, because one of our grips - Jeff [Wilson] - was in the band, Pure Prairie League. When we were shooting the scene, we found his record, and he was wearing very, very tight pants. We did a bunch of jokes where [co-star] Paul Rudd was holding his record and commenting about the bulge. He said, 'Check out these guys, they look like they should be at a party at Don Henley's house, snorting coke over Linda Rondstadt's ***.' Those jokes were wrong for the scene, but we kept the record in the shot - you can see the record in the background, on the right.

Seth and Paul Rudd take a road trip to Vegas to see Cirque du Soleil.
(Photo courtesy of Treasure Island)

Cirque du Soleil at Treasure Island, Las Vegas
Cirque du Soleil was fantastic to us. I've written Cirque du Soleil into movie scripts before, and for one reason or another, it never seemed to survive the rewrites. And I always knew there was a great comedy sequence to be done with the Cirque du Soleil. I was kind of surprised that it hadn't already been done. There are very few things that are fresh that are that popular. So when we sent them the pages, they were very, very receptive, and they got the joke and they were very comfortable with it. It is about guys [Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd's characters] doing mushrooms at Cirque du Soleil, but it didn't seem to bother them.

We went to all the shows and tried to figure out which show would look right for the sequence, and they performed the show just for our cameras, and about 900 extras. It really couldn't have been easier. I found out that the Cirque du Soleil woman, who was in charge of everything, babysat me when I was eight-years-old. She remembered me, due to my childhood antics. I'm sure I gave her lots of problems. I'm really proud of the sequence because it gets really big laughs. So I'm very thankful to my former babysitter.