“The Good Wife” filming today at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens
Jul 20, 2010 Around NYC
This morning while driving back from my kids’ summer camp I stumbled upon the unmistakable sight of dozens of large trucks lining the street, setting up for a movie or TV shoot near the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. It turned out to be CBS’ The Good Wife, my new favorite show from last season. The Good Wife has an amazing cast of powerhouse actors, including Julianna Margulies 
(ER), Chris Noth (Sex and the City, Law & Order), Josh Charles (Dead Poets’ Society and the completely underrated and overlooked Sports Night) Christine Baranski (Cybill, Mamma Mia, and sucky secret-keeping), and Alan Cumming (X-Men and the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret). Plus a couple of fantastic cast members who were previously unknown to me, Matt Czuchry and Archi Panjabi, who TV Guide’s Matt Roush referred to as a “Super-Hero Mystery Sex Goddess.” I went to a panel discussion a few months ago to hear several members of the cast discuss the show, and it was really fascinating.
Anyway, I wish I had time today to wander around the Botanic Gardens hoping to run into Julianna Margulies and gush about how amazing she is on the show, but I had to take my dying Saturn in to have the AC fixed. And as huge a fan of the show as I am (and as much as I’ve been neglecting Filming In Brooklyn), broken AC during a heat wave trumps fawning fan-girl adventures every time. This especially sucks because when I went to that panel discussion and had the chance to ask a question, I very self-servingly told the cast about Filming In Brooklyn and begged them to let me on-set should I ever show up while they were in my borough. Matt Czuchry said OK, but I’d have to wear the same lime-green raincoat I wore to The Paley Center that night. But at least I’m sitting comfortably on my couch right now instead of standing in the blazing sun in a bright coat trying to explain myself to a disinterested production assistant.
The “set” signs point to an entrance on Washington Avenue near Crown Street, and the trucks line several blocks of Washington Avenue as well as a couple of side streets. I hope for the cast’s sake that they’re not stuck in coats today filming a Chicago winter scene. There isn’t enough Kleenex in NYC to blot those foreheads fast enough.
“The Good Wife” at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens [Filming In Brooklyn]
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information. Amy also blogs at Filming In Brooklyn, Behind the Screen, and Momtourage.
Tags: Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, Filming In Brooklyn, Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
A “Nightmare” of a meal at Mojito
Feb 28, 2010 Around NYC
Back in May of 2009, Kitchen Nightmares – one of my favorite shows – filmed an episode in my neighborhood, at local Cuban restaurant Mojito. It’s never a good sign for a restaurant to make it onto the show, and I felt glad that I had never eaten there before. I’ve seen plenty of episodes with rotting food and bug-covered kitchens, and I’d told myself more than once that if I ever found out I’d eaten at one of the Kitchen Nightmares restaurants, I would promptly make myself throw up just for good measure, no matter how long ago the meal had been. Seriously people, kitchens crawling with bugs; food older than my kids; staff members that act so cringe-worthy on camera I can’t even imagine how much worse they are off camera.
But my love for my websites was apparently greater than my fear of food poisoning, because I managed to snag a reservation one of the nights they were shooting and convinced The Ass to go with me. I was hoping to write it all up for Filming In Brooklyn, but of course the production made me sign so many papers I decided in the end it wouldn’t be worth the headache and kept quiet (online, anyway) about our little adventure. So, basically, we paid a babysitter to watch our kids while we paid to go eat in a restaurant that we knew to be so incredibly bad it had made it onto Kitchen Nightmares. We did this willingly, enthusiastically even.
If you ever get a chance to eat during the filming of one of these shows, you want to do it on the last night – after Chef Gordon Ramsay has worked his magic and brought the restaurant around. We were definitely not there after the make-over. The food was pretty bad. But of course, we weren’t there for the food. We were there to see the show get produced, maybe hear a few expletives straight from Ramsay’s mouth, and perhaps even get on TV.
We were seated against the back wall of the restaurant, which gave me a good view of everything that was going on, and gave The Ass a great view of the back wall and the giant boom mic that would occasionally hover over my head. I would know it was there because we’d be talking about something personal – the kids, gossip, it was a date after all! – and all of a sudden The Ass would ask me how my food was, out of nowhere. That was the only way I knew we were on camera – the cameras were zooming in on us from across the room.
The cameras got close to us only when I sent something back. Sending something back is something that I hardly ever do. I mean, something has to be just downright awful, or simply the wrong order, for me to send it back. I’m more likely to leave hungry and never ever return. But we had been told on the way in that if we didn’t like something, we should let a producer know. I let the producer know that my rice and beans were pretty gross (come on, how do you mess up rice and beans?), and I would absolutely not say that I was pushed to send them back, but I was encouraged. Or rather, the producer looked so hopeful that I would send it back that I just couldn’t let her down. So I sent it back, and got something new, and that was that. The rest of the meal wasn’t great, but wasn’t worth sending back either.
The whole time we were there, we didn’t hear any shouting, didn’t see any drama, didn’t get to watch Chef Ramsay foam at the mouth. No staff members fled in tears. All in all, kind-of a let down. Chef Ramsay did wander through the dining room a couple of times but never came to our table. This was his night to observe, to see how the staff and owners do on their own before getting his help. No fireworks.
The episode finally aired this week (you can watch the Mojito episode of Kitchen Nightmares here) and while we don’t appear in it for even a split second, it’s a good episode, you should watch. It’s fun seeing how shows are made (and I really wish I could find a way to resurrect Filming in Brooklyn without giving up on sleep entirely), so if the show comes to your town you should try to get in. But remember, if you actually want good food, try to get a reservation for the last day!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Chef Gordon Ramsay, Clinton Hill, Filming In Brooklyn, Kitchen Nightmares, Mojito
Filming In Brooklyn in The NY Daily News
Nov 16, 2008 Self-Promotion
So the NY Daily News article that I’ve been mentioning has finally hit the paper and their website. There’s also this, plus six of my favorite pictures from FIB’s short history (my God, Salma Hayek is hot).
The only small problem I have with the article is the very end:
“It’s a bit of an annoyance,” said Brooklyn Heights resident Cormac McEnery, 58. “I think it’s great that films are being filmed in New York, but it can be done with a little more consideration [for the community].”
Oztan wasn’t surprised by his sentiment.
“It’s one of those things: Either you love it or you don’t,” she said. “Either you don’t mind six blocks being taken away for a couple of days because you love seeing the excitement or you just think it’s a big nuisance and you don’t see any benefit whatsoever.”
Not only was my quote not in reaction to his quote, but I didn’t even see his quote until I read the article online. Putting my quote after Mr. McEnery’s makes no sense, since he falls into neither category that I’m talking about. I was referring to the people I generally encounter near film shoots, either gawking fans taking pictures or disgruntled residents yelling at PAs because they have to wait 30 seconds to cross the street. I sent Mr. McEnery an email stating this because the article made it sound like I was dismissing his opinion.
But regardless, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, including the rather unflattering picture of me that takes up a half a page in the print version (I’ll scan it in later, I’m not getting up from the couch anytime soon). But really that’s the best there was that day. I had helmet hair, and we were getting rained on. I doubt if there’s anyone reading the article saying “Hmmm, I’m interested in Filming In Brooklyn, and would have visited the site, except for that picture…” 
Originally posted on Selfish Mom
Tags: Filming In Brooklyn, NY Daily News
