Tom Brady may be considered the GOAT of American football, but the seven-time Super Bowl champ’s new movie, “80 for Brady,” stars four GOATS from a very different field. The heartwarming sports comedy, which debuted earlier this year at the 34th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival and is now available for at-home viewing via video-on-demand, sees Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Rita Moreno and Sally Field (Hollywood royalty, all!) as Trish, Lou, Maura and Betty, respectively, four octagenarian football-loving best friends who plan a trip to Super Bowl LI in 2017 to watch the famed quarterback lead their beloved New England Patriots to victory in person.
Directed by actor/writer/producer Kyle Marvin, who is perhaps best known for his role as WeWork co-founder Miguel McKelvey in the 2022 Apple TV+ series “WeCrashed,” the sweet tale is loosely based upon the Over 80 for Brady club, an actual group of five elderly Patriots fans, including the now 94-year-old Betty Pensavalle, who started getting together weekly to watch games following the deaths of their husbands. While the quintet never made it to the Super Bowl in real life, their longtime friendship inspired Pensavalle’s grandson, who works in Hollywood, to pitch their story as a potential movie. Brady got wind of the idea and promptly jumped on board as a star and producer, with the title becoming the first feature released via his new content company, 199 Productions.
Though set in Massachusetts and Texas, filming of “80 for Brady” primarily took place in Southern California, an option that proved far more economical and convenient for the cast and crew, especially amid the pandemic. Standing in for Houston’s NRG Stadium, where the bulk of the action takes place, is Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and BMO Stadium, two area arenas situated adjacent to each other just south of Interstate 10 in Exposition Park. And Guasti Villa, a Jefferson Park estate originally erected in the early 1900s by wealthy Italian-born vintner Secundo Guasti, also makes an appearance as the spot where the ladies attend a pre-Super Bowl party.
The historic mansion, which stands on a broad street-to-street parcel set far back from the road barely visible to passersby at 3500 W. Adams Blvd., is a true hidden gem, with most Angelenos completely unaware of its existence. As noted by the L.A. Times, “You might think you’re hallucinating when you see, in the middle of yet another faceless suburban area, Secundo Guasti’s palatial Beaux-Arts residence with its gated driveway, balustraded roof and sculpted lions guarding the front entrance.”
Currently serving as the home of the Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens, the manor is open to the public, granting interested parties the unique opportunity to catch an up-close and personal view of a pristinely preserved turn-of-the-century chateau.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Guasti rose to prominence upon founding the Italian Vineyard Company on a rural 5,000-acre parcel of land in the Ontario area, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, in 1904. The winery went on to become the largest in the world, with Secundo erecting a sprawling company town in the immediate vicinity to house his plethora of workers, complete with a store, a school, a post office, a bakery, a railroad station, a church and a firehouse. Although since annexed by the City of Ontario and largely redeveloped, some of the original Guasti Village buildings still stand today.
Following his massive success, the vintner commissioned Frank Dale Hudson and William A.O. Munsell of the Hudson & Munsell architecture firm, who were also behind the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, to design an ornate Italian Renaissance Revival-style dwelling on a large plot he had purchased in Jefferson Park, then one of L.A.’s toniest enclaves. Construction on the expansive residence began in 1910 and lasted four years, with virtually no expense spared or detail overlooked.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt The Peace Awareness Labyrinth and Gardens website reports that Guasti, “homesick” for his native Italy, “wanted to create a grand Italian Villa.” As such, “he and his wife imported art and invited artisans from Europe to complete the mansion.” The result is a virtual work of art in and of itself.
Replete with elaborate carvings, exquisite carpentry and ethereal murals and friezes, the estate is impeccably fashioned from top to bottom. A breathtaking grand ballroom stands at the center of it all, serving as a formal entry hall and architectural showpiece, with a hand-painted ceiling, fine wood paneling and a curving staircase beckoning guests inward.
Additional first-class amenities enjoyed by Guasti and his wife include a formal dining room, gentlemen’s and ladies’ parlors, a hydraulic elevator, a carriage house and a multitude of fireplaces.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Following Guasti’s passing in 1927, his widow continued to live on the premises until her own death a decade later, at which point the villa was sold to Busby Berkeley for $200,000. The famed Hollywood director/choreographer moved into the palatial property along with his mother, who “furnished it with her collection of antiques, an extraordinary jumble that included an Early American four-poster, rococo chairs and mirrors, an intricately carved neo-Gothic table, a white-and-gold Italian chest,” according to the Los Angeles Times. During his tenure, Busby also had the basement wine cellar transformed into a screening room.
Unfortunately, while Berkeley was an undeniable genius in the world of film, music and dance, finances were not his strong suit and he was forced to sell Guasti Villa amid a mountain of debt in 1946. The manse was then acquired by the Los Angeles County Physicians’ Aid Association and converted into a retirement facility for local doctors and their widows, with two large residential wings added to its rear side. By all accounts, the place was an idyllic spot to live out one’s golden years, though it did fall into quite a bit of disrepair throughout the Aid Association’s ownership.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Enter the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA), a religious group dedicated to Soul Transcendence through meditation founded by John-Roger Hinkins, which purchased the mansion in 1974 and revamped it into a headquarters and learning center, painstakingly restoring the property in the process.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt In 2002, the group added extensive meditation gardens to the premises, turning the grounds into a veritable urban oasis with 16 fountains, a koi pond, a myriad of trees and plants, countless tucked-away spaces and a hand-carved travertine labyrinth. Measuring 40 feet in diameter with a footpath spanning a third of a mile, the latter was modeled after the famous winding walk at Chartres Cathedral in France.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt A stunning example of both restoration and adaptive reuse, the mansion and its gardens are open to the public daily, with the official website stating, “While you are here you can ‘unwind your mind’ walking the labyrinth, reflect in the meditation garden, letting sounds of running water restore you, take a tour and learn about the beautiful historic villa, or try a workshop or class. As you explore, we invite you to tap into the awareness of the peace that’s always present.”
Numerous spiritual-based events and retreats, also open to the public, are held regularly on the premises, as well.
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Image Credit: Lindsay Blake for Dirt Considering its opulent aesthetic and grandiose trappings, it is no surprise the pad was tapped to masquerade as the plush Houston mansion where former football player and two-time Super Bowl champ Dan O’Callahan (Harry Hamlin) invites Trish and her friends to attend a swanky pre-game soiree in “80 for Brady.”
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Image Credit: Paramount Pictures The estate is featured extensively throughout the party scene, with the ladies accidentally partaking of some “high-dosage” marijuana gummies in the grand ballroom, Lou and Betty dancing the night away atop the labyrinth and Maura engaging in a high-stakes poker game with Billy Porter, Patton Oswalt, Marshawn Lynch and Retta in the wood-paneled dining room.
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Image Credit: Pathé Exchange “80 for Brady” is hardly the first production to make use of the property. In fact, the residence is a true cinematic stalwart, its alluring façade, unmistakable wood carvings and manicured grounds providing a picturesque backdrop for numerous films and television shows. Incredibly, the manse’s resume dates back a full century to 1923 when a partial view of its exterior was featured briefly in Hal Roach’s silent comedy short “White Wings,” which starred Stan Laurel.
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Image Credit: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer The comic genius returned to the property in 1930, this time with pal Oliver Hardy to shoot “Another Fine Mess.” Playing the home of Colonel Wilburforce Buckshot (James Finlayson), said to be at 1558 Pointsettia Ave. in Beverly Hills, it is at the immense pad that the legendary duo hides out from the police in the short.
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Image Credit: NBC Big Jack Hemmings (Robert Ridgely) lives on the premises in the season three episode of the television show “Hunter” titled “Hot Pursuit: Part 2.”
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Image Credit: Virgin Meat Loaf’s 2006 “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now” music video was shot extensively throughout Villa Guasti.
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Image Credit: HBO The property plays the Georgian palace of Murman Shalikashvili (Eugene Alper), where Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) attends a reception while in town as an official observer of the country’s first “free and open election” in the season six episode of “Veep” titled “Georgia.” It is in the confines of the villa’s dining room that Shalikashvili offers Selina a $10 million “donation” towards her presidential library, leading her to later state, “The poisoning and the torture and the death squads aside, I think Murman is really good people, honestly. And he’s a hell of a storyteller.”
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Image Credit: HBO The gardens later pop up in a flashback scene in “Veep’s” season six finale titled “Groundbreaking,” posing as the Sedona spa, ahem, mental health facility where Selina checks in upon losing the presidential election.
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Image Credit: Apple TV+ And Guasti Villa pulls double duty in the season one episode of “Truth Be Told” titled “Live Thru This,” playing both the New Soul rebab center where Erin Buhrman (Annabella Sciorra) was once a patient as well as the spot where investigative podcaster Poppy Scoville-Parnell (Octavia Spencer) later interviews Erin’s sober coach.