Chace Crawford stars in the upcoming film Twelve.
During a walk through Central Park at 11 tonight, the city felt eerily magical. The air was thick with a fine mist; the park was hushed; the newly-blossomed trees stood perfectly still. In the distance, the historic buildings along Central Park West glowed with unusual intensity, like pale ghosts emerging from a fog.
“Look at the skyline,” I said wistfully to my husband. “It looks like a movie set.”
Then, we exited the park at 77th Street and literally stepped onto a movie set. Seriously, only in New York.
Gossip Girl cutie Chace Crawford stood near the Fourth Universalist Society church, artfully disheveled hair in his face and black trench coat hiding his thin frame. Dozens of crew members surrounded the Gothic building holding clipboards and speaking worriedly into headsets. An enormous crane loomed over Central Park West, illuminating half the block with fantastical light. They were shooting a scene for a movie called Twelve, due out next year.
In a departure from Nate, his sheltered Gossip Girl persona, Chace plays a young drug dealer whose high-rolling life falls apart after his cousin is murdered and his best friend is arrested for the crime, reports imdb.com. In the scene I stumbled onto, he stands on the church steps dazed (high?), staggers into the street, and looks down at his cell phone. And cut.
This Medieval-style church, built in 1898 on the UWS, is a backdrop for the movie Twelve.
The crews stopped traffic, filmed the scene, huddled over monitors to review footage, and repeated the process several times. An impatient cabbie ruined at least one take by shouted “F– you!” so loudly he might as well have been miked. I think they should leave that in for the authenticity, if not the humor.
After wrapping up the scene, the entourage headed inside for more filming. Director Joel Schumacher put his arm protectively around Chace as they walked inside, preparing him for the next scene.
Costars Kiefer Sutherland, Emma Roberts, Ellen Barkin, 50 Cent (yep), and Rory Culkin weren’t around. The most thrilling part was seeing a beautiful street lit up in the middle of the night and spotting Schumacher, who has directed The Lost Boys, St. Elmo’s Fire, Flatliners, Batman Forever and The Phantom of the Opera. In a year, we’ll see if his latest effort stands up to those heavyweights.
Speaking of fossils, the day after I visited the dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History, Joan Rivers showed up to win The Celebrity Apprentice finale.
After the taping, black limos parked on side streets and the party let out for cocktails in the back foyer. Beneath a giant poster about climate change, the Donald set up a table with hundreds of copies of his latest book, Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education In Business and Life. An odd pairing indeed.
