out and about
Added: September 25, 2008, 4:13 pm	Share    Print    Email

Lights! Cameras! Action! That old saw, Hollywood on the Atlantic has never been truer than now. In recent weeks, we've had Southampton in a tizzy with the PYTs - pretty young things - from "Gossip Girls" strolling our streets and hanging out in local hotspots. And in the last few days, you would have thought the Hamptons International Film Festival had already rolled into town what with all the celebrity sightings and camera crews hitting the streets.

Greg Kinnear and Lauren Graham at the "Flash of Genius" premiere. Photos by Wire Image

Don't complain, as Martha used to say, "It's a good thing". Now that the summer colony has packed up our local businesses can sure use the shot in the arm that a film or TV crew brings. Think approximately 100+ folks for each production in need of hotel rooms, food and drink, the occasional gift for the folks at home and you have a perfect antidote to post-summer depression. Both The Enclave Inn and Southampton Inn are literally bursting at the seams with wait lists, thanks to this recent flurry of film activity.

East Hampton's superstar director/writer/producer/actor and jack-of-all-trades Barry Sonnenfeld (who just nabbed an Emmy for my fave new show "Pushing Daisies" - as I predicted months back) has been putting his "Suburban Shootout" cast through all the paces - including an explosion on Bridgehampton's Main Street. With his great eye for comedic talent, Barry pulled together a terrific line-up including Kelly Preston, Judy Greer, Mary Birdsong, and up and comer Michael Weaver.

"Royal Pains," a potential new series has also brought their trailers into the Hamptons for scenes for this show that focuses on a doctor who gives up a city practice to tend as a sort of "concierge doctor" to the wealthy Hamptons community. We spotted the delightful Christine Ebersole outside of 75 Main in Southampton during the filming.

Working my way down Jobs Lane with some friends last Sunday, we ran into Caylin Sanders, with her crew from EscapeMaker.com, the Internet specialists in weekend getaways around the country. Caylin and her team were doing several "Agri-tourism" pieces focusing on the farms and wineries on the North and South Forks. The slow food movement, Caylin says, is attracting more and more folks to areas where they can purchase or dine on really fresh local produce. No surprise they had already covered most of our favorite spots including some we really didn't want to share with the world - oh well.

Want more inside skinny on the film scene here, then head further East to Montauk, where Kieran and Michele Mulroney will start lensing their new flick next week, "Paper Man" starring Jeff Daniels. The writer/director team has just finished the script for this tale of a washed up writer who forms an unlikely friendship with a Long Island teenager. "Friends" fans can get a look at "Phoebe" a/k/a Lisa Kudrow who co-stars along with hunky Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds will next be seen playing Deadpool in "X-Men Origin: Wolverine" with co-stars Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, and Dominic Monaghan due to hit the theaters in May 2009.

On a more local note, the production manager for "Paper Man" is Sirad Balducci, daughter of Montauk residents Carolyn Balducci, a writer who coordinates Montauk Library arts programs and Gino Balducci, professor at SUNY Stony Brook and a member of the Suffolk County Film Commission.

Working behind the scenes to see that filmmakers are accommodated and residents are not discomfited in any way is Michelle Isabelle Stark, Director, Suffolk County Film and Cultural Affairs who truly has her finger on the pulse of the film community and has made Suffolk County the first choice for location scouts seeking just the right atmosphere. Kudos Michelle!

If you missed any of these stars, take hope, the Hamptons International Film Festival kicks off on Oct. 15. There are sure to be scads of famous faces flooding our villages including Greg Kinnear, Alan Alda, Lauren Graham, Dermot Mulroney, and Frances McDormand who are all rumored to be attending.

Actor Josh Lucas attends the 2008 New Yorkers for Children Gala at Cipriani's 42nd.

More big news from the film/TV world comes from East Hampton's Jonathan Tisch who announced the formation of Walnut Hill Media, LLC, a privately held company backed by Tisch. The co-founders of Walnut Hill Media are Tisch, whose role as Chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels remains the same and Jeffrey Stewart. Stewart will serve as the company's primary managing executive. Walnut Hill Media will act as a catalyst investor for selectively evaluated media deals.

If you like to see your favorite stars close up and in a comfy theater seat, now is the time to check out Broadway and its increasingly more popular (price does make a difference) sibling Off-Broadway to catch some great talent doing what they love best - live theater. (Be sure to jump on the Hampton Jitney for a comfy ride - they have great theater packages!).

The current theater ads read like an A-List Hollywood party. Check this: Josh Lucas of "Incredible Hulk" fame along with Noah Emmerich, Dominic Fumusa, and Jennifer Mudge star in Naked Angels' off-Broadway premiere of "Fault Lines", a new play by Stephen Belber, directed by former "Friends" star David Schwimmer.

Frank Langella leads a stellar cast in the revival of "A Man for All Seasons", a timeless exploration of politics, religion and power. Robert Bolt's classic drama is based on the fascinating true story of English Chancellor Sir Thomas More and his moral objection to King Henry VIII's plan to leave the Catholic Church. "A Man for All Seasons" is now in previews and will be a limited engagement through Dec. 7.

If you can squeeze past the syrupy sweet placard carrying Scientologists with their "We love You Katie " signs, you might want to catch Mrs. Cruise in her Broadway debut. Katie Holmes-Cruise stars with Broadway stalwarts John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, and Patrick Wilson in the new Broadway production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons".

Of greater interest to theater goers is the return of two much loved and admired performers. Tony Award winners Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons are coming back to Broadway to star together in the world premiere of "Impressionism," a new American play by Michael Jacobs. The production, which will be directed by Tony Award-winner Jack O'Brien, will come to Broadway in the spring. The production will mark Allen's first return to Broadway since "The Heidi Chronicles" in 1989, and Irons' first time on Broadway since "The Real Thing" in 1984. "Impressionism" is the story of a world traveling photojournalist and a New York gallery owner who discover each other and also that there might be an art to repairing broken lives.

John Lithgow and Katie Holmes at the preview of "All My Sons" on Broadway.

Fans of "The West Wing" character Abigail Bartlett will be thrilled to learn that
Stockard Channing, long missed on the New York stage, is slated to star in the classic musical "Pal Joey". Set in Chicago in the late 1930s, "Pal Joey" is the story of Joey Evans, a brash, scheming song and dance man with dreams of owning his own nightclub. Joey abandons his wholesome girlfriend Linda English, to charm a rich, married older woman, Vera Simpson (played by Stockard) in the hope that she'll set him up in business.

An insane, comic satire of Hollywood pathology, the play is a journey through the American psyche that includes "hot" movie stars, seduction, power, greed, and ambition and stars Jeremy Piven of HBO's "Entourage" and Raúl Esparza.

The theater community is also celebrating a very big money award that will become an annual event. I'm talking about the "Mimi" Award recently announced by The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, in New York They have established the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, which trust officials said they began to make people aware of the importance of the theater to society.

"Angels in America" author Tony Kushner, the multi-award-winning playwright who quite frankly has spent much of his time in recent years writing Hollywood scripts, is the first recipient of a newly created $200,000 prize for playwriting, by far the largest theater award in the nation, and one of the biggest cash awards in any of the arts. It was created with an eye towards attracting talented playwrights and bolstering the status of their profession say the trust folks who wanted "to create something that was really significant, like the Pritzker Prize in architecture or the Pulitzer in journalism".

FYI, the Pritzker carries a $100,000 cash prize and a Pulitzer is worth $10,000. Well, Tony already has a Pulitzer and they don't give a Pritzker prize for tweaking the design of a stage set but he does have an enormous body of work and hardly seems to need encouragement to keep writing. I mean he did the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's "Munich" which I am sure carried a bigger fee than the Mimi gift.

So what's the deal? Deserving as Tony is for every award imaginable, it seems to me that it would be far better to give the bucks to some brilliant genius talent who is toiling away in an East Village flat surviving on Doritos and Diet Coke - but that's just me.

From serious to frivolous, some fashion dish. Southampton's Ann Dexter Jones' new jewelry line isn't even ready for shops yet, but when Brooke Shields saw the prototype rock bracelets of lapis or onyx with diamond studs she asked if she could wear one on "Lipstick Jungle." Also, my spies picked this up at the book bash for "Sex and the City" creator Candace Bushnell at a chic soiree for her new book, "One Fifth Avenue." Andrew McCarthy, Andre Balazs, designers Cynthia Rowley and Nicole Miller, Ross Bleckner, and Karen Duffy were also on hand.

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