For two weeks this summer our neighborhood was transformed into a movie set once again as Nia Vardalos and John Corbett of My Big Fat Greek Wedding were seen daily on Prospect Park West shooting scenes for their upcoming movie, I Hate Valentine's Day. 
Production began at Terrace Bagels, a neighborhood standby that stayed open to the public so that I was able to get my morning coffee with the minor inconvenience of having to step over a power cord. The next day, however, after picking up my dry cleaning, I nearly tripped over a boom when Nia came storming down the sidewalk shouting reasons why she hated Valentine's when I realized the bum I had taken for granted on my way in was actually an actor.
Up close, Nia was thin and reaping the benefit of her professional hair and make-up and I wondered how I might look if a team tended to my appearance with such care, surely better than the usual cross between Charlie Brown and Bob Dylan, who, as it happens, will be performing at Prospect Park this summer, too.
At times the line between illusion and reality was blurred. There was a buzz in the neighborhood when a sign above the old pet store read: Get on Tapas. We all rushed to see the menu posted in the window with a four-star review pasted by its side, only to find out that it was a set.
As the days wore on, Nia and John were at home among the Windsor Terrace faithful and even left autographs for nearby proprietors, which the crowd at Farrell's had seen before when Dog Day Afternoon, Smoke, As Good As It Gets and an episode of Third Watch were filmed on the same stretch of Prospect Park West, south of Bartlett Pritchard Square.
The shoot culminated one night with the lighting of a Christmas Tree on Prospect Ave. across from the Regina Bakery, where extras huddled around in winter coats and wool hats while my wife and I shopped at a nearby market for sunscreen in our t-shirts and flip-flops.
The next day the show moved on and the neighborhood returned to its regular busy-body self where a nice woman was murdered opening her store and a quiet skateboard punk was stabbed in the shadows of noisy little league games and the rowdy families gathered outside Lia's for ice cream.
Production began at Terrace Bagels, a neighborhood standby that stayed open to the public so that I was able to get my morning coffee with the minor inconvenience of having to step over a power cord. The next day, however, after picking up my dry cleaning, I nearly tripped over a boom when Nia came storming down the sidewalk shouting reasons why she hated Valentine's when I realized the bum I had taken for granted on my way in was actually an actor.
Up close, Nia was thin and reaping the benefit of her professional hair and make-up and I wondered how I might look if a team tended to my appearance with such care, surely better than the usual cross between Charlie Brown and Bob Dylan, who, as it happens, will be performing at Prospect Park this summer, too. At times the line between illusion and reality was blurred. There was a buzz in the neighborhood when a sign above the old pet store read: Get on Tapas. We all rushed to see the menu posted in the window with a four-star review pasted by its side, only to find out that it was a set.
As the days wore on, Nia and John were at home among the Windsor Terrace faithful and even left autographs for nearby proprietors, which the crowd at Farrell's had seen before when Dog Day Afternoon, Smoke, As Good As It Gets and an episode of Third Watch were filmed on the same stretch of Prospect Park West, south of Bartlett Pritchard Square.
The shoot culminated one night with the lighting of a Christmas Tree on Prospect Ave. across from the Regina Bakery, where extras huddled around in winter coats and wool hats while my wife and I shopped at a nearby market for sunscreen in our t-shirts and flip-flops.
The next day the show moved on and the neighborhood returned to its regular busy-body self where a nice woman was murdered opening her store and a quiet skateboard punk was stabbed in the shadows of noisy little league games and the rowdy families gathered outside Lia's for ice cream.