Greenpoint Begging Hollywood for Mercy
Neighborhood drowning in film and television shoots
By SCOTT ROSS
Updated 7:30 AM EST, Tue, Jul 7, 2009
After more than a half-century of befoulment courtesy of oil companies, a new terror is soiling Greenpoint: TV and movie crews shooting on location in the small Brooklyn neighborhood.
"The thrill is gone. As far as I'm concerned, this is a nuisance," shopkeeper Larry Moore told The New York Post. "This is of no benefit to anyone around here."
Moore and his neighbors have reached breaking point this year as one crew after another has set up shop. During one recent week, "The Bounty," starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler, Disney's dance romance "Step Up 3-D" and Martin Scorsese's HBO pilot, "Boardwalk Empire," all snarled the streets of Greenpoint.
Not only are locals feeling put upon, some claim they were lied to, as well. Aniston's shoot set up for a spell on the block Jimmy Conti has called home for 32 years. He says the production crew went door-to-door signing up folks to be extras for $75 a day.
"But no one called," Conti said. "They brought in their own people. They had the audacity to come into our homes (and) play us like fools so we'd shut up."
Sounds like the people of Greenpoint are thrilled the city's tax credit plan for film and TV production was revived in May.
First Published: Jul 7, 2009 6:01 AM EST
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