Leslie Across the USA

Boulder and all the pretty people part 2

So there I was, walking up a hill towards where they were filming a movie with Jennifer Garner. I was worried that I was not supposed to be walking on the set, and sure enough, a production assistant wearing a headset started walking towards me. I expected her to ask me to leave, but instead she said brightly, "Do you want to hang out and watch?" When I said yes, she said, "Cool! Just make sure your phone is turned off and you don't use a flash when you take pictures." I got a good spot sitting under a tree in the shade where I could see everything going on. There were a few others watching, including an excitable group of little girls and their even more excitable mother. I think that mother would have trampled over everyone to get a picture, and she was kind of obnoxious. After a bit, the girls were getting bored, and one of them kept asking, "When are we going swimming? I'm hot!" The mom or whoever she was kept ignoring her and then saying, "Oh did you just say something?" The little girl always said no, and then she would try asking again a few minutes later. I mean, this mom HAD to have heard her. I heard her! Plus, we were all being really quiet because they were filming and they asked us to be "quiet on the set." This mom was too much - if that were my kid, I would not force her to sit there so that I could get a glimpse of Jennifer Garner's pregnant belly. We watched them film the same scene for about 30 minutes and then the director came over to us and told us we couldn't take any pictures. I had already gotten a few, but they weren't that good. Oh well, I was just happy to sit back and watch the movie making process. It was so interesting, especially that they needed about 60 or 70 people doing all kinds of different stuff just to film a minute of a movie. Then, they moved us to the other side of the set so that they could film the scene from the other character's perspective. When they were finished, Jennifer came over to us and chatted and signed autographs for every single person. She was soooooo nice! She is very pretty in person, of course, and her dimple is quite prominent. She is definitely pregnant, although I could not tell if she is supposed to be pregnant in the movie. She couldn't comment on the movie at all, and she was sad that we couldn't take pictures of her. They said it was for copyright reasons. Most people were really cool and excited to meet her but there was one lady who her bodyguard had to ask to leave because she had a whole stack of professional photos of Jennifer and she wanted her to sign all of them. She kept saying it was for her daughter, but the bodyguard was like, "Look, I know they're not for your daughter and I already had to ask you to leave yesterday so did you not hear me the first time or do I have to remove you again?" He said something like that anyway, and the whole time he was really calm and he had a smile on his face. She left. He was very effective.
After she signed an autograph for me, I decided I didn't really need to hang around there anymore, so I bought a glass of lemonade from a very smart and cute kid named Aidan who had set up a lemonade stand in front of his house which was right next to where they were filming. The kid was totally raking in the dough. I gave him a dollar and told him to keep the change, and he said, "Everyone keeps telling me that!" He was so cute.
I returned to my hotel and spent the afternoon out by the pool swimming and reading and relaxing. It was great. I went to an open house at Jessica's parents' house that night and met lots of other relatives and friends. It was lots of fun, and afterwards, some of us went out to Pearl Street again and had some drinks with Flavio and Jess at a bar.
One of the things I noticed about Boulder is that it is really progressive with an eclectic mix of people living there (thanks in part to the University of Colorado and the Naropa Institute, which is sort of Buddhist), but I would not say it is really diverse. It's really clean and swanky, especially on Pearl Street, where everyone kind of looks the same (tall, fit, and attractive). The neighborhood where they were filming the movie is called "The Hill," and it's near the University. The houses are modest but nice. I noticed a few for sale, and one of them was going for 1.3 million dollars! It only had one level and two bedrooms - no garage or anything and it was that expensive! I didn't see any slummy parts or anything, but I don't know for sure if they have any problems with poverty and such. I'm sure they do - everywhere does, but for the most part, it appears that most folks in Boulder are pretty well-off. It is a lovely place, and I would love to go back there someday and spend more time. I don't think I could live there, but it is a great place to visit and get away from it all.
(photos: Jennifer on set - I swear that's her, and her autograph to me!)

posted by Leslie @ 11:27 PM