Tonight's Law and Order: Special Victims Unit

TWO STRIPPERS ARE MURDERED, BUT WAS THE PRIME SUSPECT FRAMED? - Rebecca De Mornay, Chris Potter and Betty Buckley Guest Star - When the body of a young woman is found murdered in her apartment, Detectives Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Stabler (Chris Meloni) discover she's a successful attorney - and stripper, which is apparently unknown to her fiancé and boss...

And, as a special bonus, it was filmed at this famous Essex County landmark.

(Thanks to Sharon Gill for the heads up.)

February 7, 2006 in Lights! Camera! Craft service! | Permalink | Comments (11)

A tip from Conan the Autumnarian --- avoid Bellevue Ave, between Park and Grove in Montclair. The area promises to be the scene of lots of rubbernecking as a film crew assembled early this morning with trucks galore sets up shop.

November 4, 2005 in Lights! Camera! Craft service! | Permalink | Comments (2)

Is getting paid not to cook breakfast, or even make coffee. That's the scenario over at One 15 Cafe, (renamed "Coffeehouse Cafe" for today) while folks film a Folgers Coffee commercial and delay French toast gratification. We learned that the commercial will play on the concept that the Folgers coffee you brew at home is better than what you can buy at all those trendy coffee houses. Inside...

A suggestion to have the actors spit out the coffeehouse swill in disgust was met with blank stares. More scenes from the commercial.

Overhead during filming: Actress: What's my motivation?

Director: You're waiting to get your coffee.

We want this guy's job; he gets to sit by the window reading the paper the entire time.

September 16, 2005 in Lights! Camera! Craft service! | Permalink | Comments (29)

Talk about culture shock. Yesterday, a Sopranos sighting at a rally at Washington Square Park to save CBGB (snapped by Warren Levinson, capturing an in-your-face moment between Joe Pantoliano and Tony Sirocco). Tomorrow, it's on to Montclair.

Look for your favorite family this Friday, at 10 Madison Avenue in Montclair, as HBO films scenes for "The Sopranos" from 7 am to 9 pm.

September 1, 2005 in Lights! Camera! Craft service! | Permalink | Comments (4)

Is it becoming the most photograped house in Montclair? Remember the red wallpaper hullabaloo when this house at 363 Grove Street was featured on Moving Up? Yesterday, the home was again the scene of cameras and crew (and major rubbernecking along Grove Street) when a commercial was being filmed. Hey location managers, share the wealth. Maybe the rest of us would like having grips trampling our lawns, too. Backstory: the current owners, Glenn and Lisa from Brooklyn, bought the house, one of Montclair's original Victorians for $726,000 in August 2004.

June 24, 2005 in Lights! Camera! Craft service! | Permalink | Comments (15)

... for money to fix the decrepit auditorium at Ridgewood Ave. School, where all the plays in Glen Ridge are performed. Cruise is shooting "War of the Worlds" in the Ironbound section of Newark, and the Newark scenes wrap at 5 pm today!

Cruise, who is said to have been discovered by an agent attending his Glen Ridge High School performance as Nathan Detroit in "Guys and Dolls," has been "charming the socks off Ironbound residents by signing autographs, posing for pictures, and smiling and waving at fans," according to the Star-Ledger. Hey, sounds like he's in a good mood.

Meanwhile, here's a little preview of what's going to be playing on that stage tonight: "Musical Comedy Murders of 1940," presented by the Glen Ridge High School Drama Club. It may not have Tom Cruise, but there are lots of secret passageways.

November 12, 2004 in Lights! Camera! Craft service! | Permalink | Comments (1)

Legend has it that Lana Turner was discovered at Schwab's drugstore on Sunset Boulevard. Could you be discovered tonight at Just Jakes on Park Street? According to the sign, they're having mini-auditions there tonight, 6-7:30 pm.

September 23, 2004 in Lights! Camera! Craft service! | Permalink | Comments (0)

Volunteers from WBMA Channel 35, the cable public access channel for Bloomfield, had cameras rolling at last night's town council meeting, where they also gave a demonstration on how they want to fix the channel's problems. But don't expect to see the meeting on TV today, or any time real soon. Channel 35 has been airing the same old tapes for months, because, sources say, Paul Kelm, who has been the chief volunteer for the station, was angry at the mayor. Kelm, in a phone interview yesterday, denied any controversy and wasn't even aware that a presentation was planned for the council meeting.

"We have had kind of a breakdown," said Tom Lawton, another volunteer, told the council. Darryl Love, another Channel 35 volunteer, who does video production for NBC sports, said the station's control room is in such a mess he can't even figure it out.

Acting town manager Louis Palagano said that locks on the studio are being changed today. She expects last night's council meeting to air within a week or two.

September 21, 2004 in Controversy, Lights! Camera! Craft service! | Permalink | Comments (0)

We can't wait to see if the cameras are rolling at tonight's town council meeting in Bloomfield. Among the things on tonight's agenda: the service that they've been getting, or not getting, and possibly will get, from local-access Channel 35. Word on the street is that someone involved with the cable channel had a little tiff with the mayor, and as a result none of the Bloomfield council meetings were aired for months.

Paul Kelm, who has been involved with Channel 35, shrugged off talk of a controversy and attributes any lapses in coverage to the fact that the channel is volunteer-run. Tom Lawton is scheduled to give the presentation on behalf of Channel 35 tonight, which is to include all kinds of new plans for the cable local-access channel.

September 20, 2004 in Buzz, Lights! Camera! Craft service! | Permalink | Comments (5)

Kendra Urdang, a 2004 Montclair High School graduate, discovered that she was going to be featured on the HBO show "Def Poetry" tomorrow night by accident. "I only found out because I was reading the line-up and my name was on it," she said. Urdang, who we talked to by phone on the campus of Bard College, wasn't even sure where she would watch the show (her dorm doesn't have cable) or which poem they chose (she recorded two back in February.)

Still, it's not all that surprising that she's making it to national television. Kendra is something of a rising star in the hip-hop poetry world, having studied in a workshop run by Def Poetry master Russell Simmons when she was a junior in high school, and having continually done well in competitions, or slams, since. One poem, "Go Blue!" -- a powerful indictment of hypocrisy in her hometown -- was featured in "Echoes of Brown: 50 Years Later," a poetry and dance performance inspired by the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education last year.

If you need further proof of how serious Urdang is about this Def Poetry stuff, you only need to call her cell phone when she in class and can't answer the phone. The greeting isn't her voice at all but that of hip hop artist Mos Def rapping a poem by Langston Hughes. Although she's a little embarrassed by it, and says her mother complains, it does fit. "If you know me, then you know that it's me," she said.

Urdang is white; her mother is from South Africa (one of the two poems she recorded is about a South African friend); but she says that she's found the rap-influenced world of Def Jam poetry incredibly welcoming. "It's the most open community I've ever met," she said.

"Def Poetry" airs on HBO Sunday at 11 pm.

September 18, 2004 in Lights! Camera! Craft service! | Permalink | Comments (20)