Hollywood Calling!

Award Winning Fatal Attraction Featured in Hollywood Productions
By Bob Newcomber, SoCal Chapter

In November 2009, I attended a workshop at Robinson Restorations in Fallbrook, California, when Tim Robinson called me aside and showed me a loose-leaf notebook that had details of a boat for sale. Tim knew I was looking for this exact model of a Chris-Craft, and his advice was get over there fast, as it was priced right. Tim knew the boat well, as he and his son Brian had owned and restored it in the past. I bought it the following day, and boy was I lucky, as there was another person ready to buy right behind me.

Fatal Attraction is a 1957 Chris-Craft 20-foot Continental with a PCM 351 Ford engine. I purchased it for a very modest price, particularly as the boat was in very good condition and required little work. Just varnish on the covering boards, gold leaf for the name, and wheel bearing lube, which was completed by Dave Wright of Wright Restoration, also in Fallbrook.

Since then, a complete restoration has been undertaken including a new bottom, new upholstery, a rebuild of all gauges, fabrication of a new mahogany engine box and complete varnishing. Most of the major work was done by Robinson Restoration, (the best in the business, in my opinion). John Maddox refinished the ceiling boards and repaired several other items. These included hanging the tandem axle trailer vertically so they could paint the undercarriage with a special coating and replacing all the bunk boards (he also did excellent work).

Fatal Attraction is my second Chris-Craft; the first being a 19-foot Capri with the name of Chili Pepper. Chili Pepper made her TV debut in a show titled “Bones”

I have been boating since I was 16 years old when my best friend took me to Lake Havasu on the Colorado River between California and Arizona and taught me how to water ski behind a 16-foot Wolverine wooden boat with a 25hp Johnson outboard. When I came home, I was able to talk my dad into buying a boat (he couldn’t swim), and by the following Presidents’ Day, we were back at Lake Havasu.

Fast forward to 2009, my wife Glenda and I would go to the big car show called “Hot August Nights” in Reno, Nevada every year and then drive up to Lake Tahoe for the annual Concours wooden boat show. After the third year, I was hooked on wooden boats and bought the 19-foot Capri, Chili Pepper. I did not know what I was getting into!

Fatal Attraction, purchased in 2009, has been a great pleasure to own, not only from a family perspective but we have made many friends through the Southern-California (SO-CAL) Chapter of ACBS. Financially, I have earned enough from the film business to cover most of the costs of upkeep, repairs, and storage.

The boat has been in several movies and TV productions such as the Netflix series “Inventing Anna” (still on Netflix), Modern Family, Rizzole & Isles, and several TV commercials including one where it was towed by a Chevrolet Truck, and a couple of others where it was towed by SUVs. Fatal Attraction has also been featured in fashion shoots, including for Michael Kors, in Glamour magazine, Golf Digest, and Speedboat Magazine.

I got into the movie/TV business purely by luck when a production company photographed Chili Pepper at an ACBS in-water boat show. This happens, at least in California, with some frequency, as producers and scouts are always on the lookout for boats to fill current needs or boats that might be of interest in the future. 

Fatal Attraction has won several awards over the years, the most prestigious winning third place in its class at the 2024 Lake Tahoe Concours d’ Elegance Boat Show and Best Utility at the 2026 Lake Arrowhead Show. She continues to be a pleasure to own!