Hey, kids, I finally joined a fraternity! Have you ever heard of Phi Nu Alpha, one of the rowdiest, beer-soaked fraternities at Yale? Oh, didn’t I tell you that Kendall, Leah, Charlie, and I have moved to New Haven, Connecticut? Okay, fine…but our house has. A film crew descended on our home this week to transform it into a nonexistent Yale fraternity for the pilot episode of a show that will be airing on TBS.
Unlike our previous filming
adventures, our house will get a nice chunk of screen time on this episode since they shot in three different rooms as well as our front lawn. I always find it
great fun when Hollywood takes over the premises. I’m fascinated by all the
people (and time) it takes to create the “magic.” A few years ago, the
production designer who transformed our living room into a London saloon circa
1900 for “The Prestige,” was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the film.
He also got a nod last year for “The Dark Knight.” While this was only cable
TV, we were lucky to have another Academy Award-nominated production designer
work in our house. He’s done many films, such as “A Beautiful Mind,”
“Mars Attacks,” and all of Spike Lee’s. But since we were just a modern-day
frat house this time around, the period furniture and cool antique props were
replaced by liquor bottles, beer kegs, rock posters, a
disco ball, and a statue of a naked lady. Oy.
The show, called “In
Security,” is about two sisters (played by Constance Zimmer and Kat Foster) who
take over daddy Hal Linden’s private security company and become bodyguards to
the rich and famous. In the pilot they are protecting a Lindsay Lohan-type
movie star who, against all advice, escapes to the debauchery of a Yale frat
party and gets into all sorts of trouble. Also on hand in the show is the new
Superman, Brandon Routh, who promptly beats up a bunch of drunken frat boys on
our front lawn. What fun! The director is Peter Segal, a
wunderkind who has 11 films in development.
Needless to say, I never went near a fraternity when I was a student at Northwestern. I don’t recall Northwestern as having as big a Greek presence as many other schools and, in fact, neither does Yale. Still, I’m sure both campuses have their fair share of drunken beerfests lasting until all hours. Of all my regrets about not being more engaged during my college years, having never attended such a party is not one of them.
Kendall absconded to her
mom’s with our dogs for the duration of the filming but Leah, Charlie, and I
braved the crowds and came home from exile at about 10 pm last night. They were
filming a scene in our front hall, under the giant buffalo head they nailed to the wall, so we had to wait until a break in the action
to scoot upstairs out of camera view. There were 56 extras carousing on our
porch and inside our house, 28 “coeds” who all cooed at Charlie as we flew by,
and 28 frat boys in various stages of fake (I hope!) intoxication. Kat Foster
was chasing after the movie star, played by actress Betsy Beutler, and Brandon
Routh was beating up frat boys on our lawn. We had to run past extras on our
stairs and pop into our rooms as quickly as possible.
First, Leah and I felt like we were hiding in Anne Frank’s attic since we couldn’t use the bathroom for fear of making too much noise. Then, when Charlie started crying, we felt like the Von Trapps hiding in the cemetery at the end of “The Sound of Music” trying not to make a peep so as not to tip off the Nazis. Not that I’m comparing the cast and crew of this TV show to Nazis, they couldn’t have been friendlier. Luckily, Charlie didn’t ruin any of the shots, one more bottle and he was sound asleep for the rest of the night. Good thing, too, since the fight scene they were filming lasted until almost 2:00 am.
Because today is Good Friday, followed by Easter weekend, the production company told us they couldn’t strike the set until Monday. This morning I awoke to a house full of empty beer cups and other frat house accoutrements. Leah was particularly fascinated by the hazing paddle sitting on our mantle next to some sports trophies and a lava lamp.
Anyone up for an Easter kegger at our place?