- Jersey Girl has finished filming in the Philadelphia and Paulsboro area, and has moved to New York City to finish up production this month. The Philadelphia Inquirer of course had the report:
After weeks of filming in Phila. and N.J., “Jersey Girl” is gone.
By Michael Klein
The lights and cameras are packed and gone. So are Ben Affleck’s computer, director Kevin Smith’s comic-book collection, even Jennifer Lopez’s chartreuse chaise longue.
Gone, too, are the paparazzi.
The movie Jersey Girl left yesterday after 10 weeks of filming in Philadelphia and Paulsboro, Gloucester County.
Jersey Girl is a story about the bond between a father and his daughter. For Philadelphia, it was a story of love and stardom, tabloids and money.
The money part is eye-opening. According to what city film-office head Sharon Pinkenson yesterday called a conservative estimate, the production had a regional economic impact of $35 million. (Coincidentally, the film’s budget also is $35 million.) The impact includes the spending generated by such things as rents, meals, and salaries of 150 Philadelphia-based production workers over 10 weeks. Philadelphians represented three-quarters of the crew.
For the love, stardom and tabloids, we turn to Affleck and Lopez, who play husband and wife on screen and play house off-screen.
As Jersey Girl hit town in August, tabloids were buzzing over the It Couple, the hunky Affleck and the glamorous (and still married) Lopez. The Star paid a Northeast Philadelphia father big bucks for photos of the couple holding his babies on the set. Us magazine bought candid shots of the couple buying lingerie at the boutique Platinum on South Street.
Though Affleck and Lopez were spotted having dinner twice at Alma de Cuba on Walnut Street, they managed by and large to keep a low profile. (Wednesday night, for example, while producers and crew celebrated at a wrap party at the Old City restaurant Tangerine, sources said at least Affleck stayed in.)
Whenever they filmed on location, they drew autograph-seeking crowds and long-lens-wielding shutterbugs. Observers point to 1995 as the last time the region was caught in such a media frenzy; Brad Pitt arrived in Philadelphia to shoot 12 Monkeys just days after he was named People magazine’s sexiest man alive.
To while away their off-camera hours, Affleck, 30, and Lopez, 32, rented a penthouse suite on the 16th floor of the Phoenix, a ritzily renovated – and secure – apartment building in the former Insurance Company of North America building at 16th and Arch Streets.
Their assistants stayed in an adjoining 2,700-square-footer listed at $8,000.
The Phoenix, whose penthouse suites command views from the Ben Franklin Bridge to the Parkway from their terraces, comes equipped with marble-manteled fireplaces, hardwood floors, high ceilings, and doormen with amnesia.
According to those who visited, the Lopez-Affleck accommodations included plenty of white candles and family photos to provide a feeling of home.
Among the suite’s modern furniture, rented from Cort, was a chartreuse chaise longue. (All the better to match the chartreuse-and-chocolate-brown color scheme.) There was a large-screen television that glowed late into the night, particularly when Lopez was out of town.
A stream of staff – masseuses, drivers, makeup artists, personal assistants, hair stylists, manicurists – visited under the eye of Lopez’s bodyguard. The couple’s personal chef shopped at a Whole Foods store and prepared their food on Corian countertops. Affleck’s friend Matt Damon and Jersey Girl costar Liv Tyler visited for dinner. The couple’s guilty pleasure: Twizzlers.
To keep fit, they had a personal personal trainer. Gunnar Peterson, the Los Angeles-based trainer to the stars, moved East to work out with the actors at local gyms.
About 200 people – including Smith and producer Scott Mosier and their families – joined the Philadelphia crew at Wednesday’s wrap party. Tangerine – its chairs and tables cleared out in favor of a pool table and dance floor – served miniature crab cakes, petite filet-mignon skewers and tomatoes stuffed with lamb. Party planners hired a tarot-card reader and set up a photo booth while a New York disc jockey spun records.
Jersey Girl will do final shooting in Highlands, N.J., and New York. It is due in theaters in November 2003.
Meanwhile, the film office’s Pinkenson is scouting for more work. Philadelphia’s sole big-budget project is the new CBS series Hack, which this week got the go-ahead for a full season. Pinkenson said the 22 episodes would have an economic impact of $60 million on the city.
Pinkenson said she planned a trip to Hollywood next week to woo a television series and two feature films. “But I may have to postpone,” she said. Next week, film producers are due to tour Philadelphia. “How can I go out there if someone’s coming here for us?”
Kevin Smith’s hetero-lifemates have made a career move and proudly display their new skills on the Jay & Silent Bob Bookends. Sculpted by Jon Matthews based on designs by animator Stephen Silver, these bookends are the sweetest thing you’ll ever see. Limited to just 1500 sets, each sculpted bookend measures roughly 4” wide, 7 1/2” tall and 6” deep. They look good solo, but put together they’ll tickle your fancy!! The bookends are sold as a set that includes one Jay and one Bob packaged in a full-color protective box. Supplies are limited and are subject to allocation based on orders received. Scheduled to ship January 2003.
