Great Post-Gazette Article on Love and Other Drugs

I'm a big fan of Ed Zwick, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway and Hank Azaria and am glad it sounds like the filming is going well. I would have liked to have been an extra, but between getting a contract job and being away, I missed the extra call for the Civic Arena last week.

The Three Rivers Film Festival Announces Its Schedule

Every year, I intend to see something at the Three Rivers Film Festival. Last year, I got to see The Passion of St. Joan of Arc, but that's because I was in the choir singing the accompaniment.

This year, there are some small local films and many foreign films. It would have been nice to have seen one of the film shot here last year, like In Northwood, Shelter, or The Road, but none of them are in the schedule.

The festival does include Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus with Heath Ledger and many others and Young Victoria with Emily Blunt and I might try to go see them. I hadn't heard of any of the other movies being shown except for Precious...et.c. which was the People's Choice winner up at the Toronto Film Festival.

Is Liam Neeson Coming to Town?

Russell Crowe has been seen about Pittsburgh, working on his thriller The Next Three Days with Elizabeth Banks. Liam Neeson has apparently signed on to join this movie.

Three Rivers

Back in March, I was one of a bunch of extras who worked on the pilot for Three Rivers. We spent a very long day at a piece of the Convention Center that overlooked the Allegheny River, walking back and forth as hospital employees. Well, I made a day's pay and walked for probably six of the fifteen hours I was on site. I met Beth and Jojo that day, and heard that Chad was there on another day.

Everyone kept saying they were sure that the pilot would get picked up and that it would be filmed in Pittsburgh.

*sigh* I wish I'd taken a bet with everyone who said that. I thought the show might get picked up, but I knew it was going to be filmed in Los Angeles.

So, since the filming of the Three Rivers pilot in Pittsburgh, the doctor in charge was recast, and the pilot was reshot at least twice in Los Angeles. The show itself is being shot in LA. While there are some very lovely aerial shots of Pittsburgh in the show, as far as I can tell no one from Pittsburgh had anything to do with the show as it was broadcast.

I'm glad that the show was at least set in someplace other than New York or LA. But I think it'll be a lot like Grey's Anatomy in that you have one shot that screams SEATTLE and no evidence that the writers know much about the city.

I have mixed feelings about the show. On the one hand, the issue of organ transplantation is an important one and it's shocking how many people ignore it. So to have a TV show that discusses it every week is an interesting choice on CBS's part.

On the other hand, it's a tough issue to dramatize. Usually, one person dies (except in the case of kidney or partial liver transplants) and one person lives (unless they have major rejection or infection issues). So how can you dramatize this issue without coming off as being hopelessly manipulative? I hope they find a way.