I decided I’d make the most of the warm fall temps and walk from Grand Central to work this morning.
I encountered a movie set right across from the Terminal, at 41st and Park. A couple leading-men types were unwinding after a shot. Both were wearing dark suits. The tall one lit up a smoke and the shorter one had a prop gun strapped to his chest–an interesting sight with much of the Grand Central region under serious security lockdown with those world leaders in town.
I grumbled about the jam-up ahead at the corner of 40th, where some P.A.s instructed us luckless pedestrians to loop around some of their gear.
It was a pretty big production, maybe 60 crew members massed on the corner.
I was about to cross 40th when a large black SUV stopped in front of me, and who gets out but Frank the Tanchorman himself, Will Ferrell. Nice suit, looking relaxed, not as freakishly tall as his vertically challenged co-stars might make him look–6′ 2″ or maybe 6′ 3″. Will walked past and was approached by a large man from the set–either security or some production lackey.
“Hey–how ya doin’?” said Will with a smile.
Stay classy, south of Grand Central.
I had to drive down and pick up my wife at work tonight at rush hour – Will and Mark Whalberg were shooting a scene across the street from her office:
http://twitpic.com/iw61h
Between that and the UN being in session, it was a a fun ride.
I also need to have to have a talk with the 4 cops they put at each intersection for the UN security directing traffic.
At two different blocks, the cops directed traffic to move forward until the intersection was blocked – they just weren’t paying attention.
In one case, the cop stuck a double-length MTA bus in the middle of the intersection for two light cycles.
Hello? We can do better ourselves with just the traffic lights!
Not to mention that the 4 cops get bored and like to just wander around the middle of the intersection in 4 different directions creating a human obstacle course.