Los Angeles Cameo: The Grove on "Modern Family"

While the media world was abuzz with questions over the iPad placement on Wednesday night's "Modern Family" (turns out Apple didn't pay for the appearance, they just loaned the device), I was just as intrigued over the episode's other major product placement.

I'm talking about The Grove. The Fairfax district shopping center was name-checked on Wednesday night's episode, as Claire (Julie Bowen) specifically announces her intention to buy an iPad at the Grove's Apple store.

Here's the weird part: Up until now, "Modern Family" has existed in Anywhere, USA. The show has definitely shot at L.A. area locations, such as the Century Plaza Hotel and the Santa Monica Pier -- but they've never actually identified where they were. The Pier could have been any pier (although we Angelenos clearly knew where they were), and the Century Plaza could have been any hotel.

That's why it was particularly strange that the characters made a point of specifically saying which shopping center they were heading to. Are they suddenly coming out as a show set in Los Angeles? Or was the Grove namecheck a sort of "thank you" for allowing the producers to shoot there?

AdAge estimates that the value of iPad's "Modern Family" appearance may have been worth $1 million to $2 million. The Grove didn't get nearly the same amount of attention on the show... but it still definitely got some nice publicity on one of TV's hottest new shows.

Rick Caruso strikes again!

Relive 2000's Florida Voting Mess at the Grove

(Flickr pic by Moz1.)

To promote HBO Films' telepic "Recount," the pay channel has set up 12 actual Votomatic Florida voting machines -- the ones used in the 2000 Presidential election -- at the Grove today, starting at 10 a.m. According to the network, people can "re-enact the actual voting process and determine if they would have voted for their intended candidate and if their vote would have counted."

I'm guessing the answer is yes, since you'll be fully aware at this point of the confusing nature of the ballot. The point in 2000, of course, was that it was older folks who were confused, and whose votes -- in the thousands, enough to tip the election to Al Gore -- were miscounted. Eight years later, it's still pretty upsetting to think about.