And now for something completely different!

Today was an unusual day here at 83 Durant. Some of you may know that recently, some movies have been filmed in Lowell. A while back, Ricky Gervais and a whole bunch of other actors we love (Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, Martin Star, Jeffrey Tambor) were in town to film The Invention of Lying. There was all kinds of craziness around town, and we saw the film trucks and lighting equipment at times. We talked about walking downtown and trying to get ourselves into a scene, but never did it. I did, however, go to the post-strike warehouse sale, where they sold all of the props and set dressings from the movie. Some of you may recall that I bought some pillows, a lamp, and a dress and a sweater. You may recall that I refer to this sweater as my "Tina Fey sweater" because I like to imagine that Fey wore it during the movie. Though I know it's far more likely that an extra wore it, still, it was a nice dream. Soon, we will get to watch the movie and see who (if anyone) is wearing the sweater. Also, it looks like it will be pretty funny.

But until now, aside from my Tina Fey sweater, the movie industry had sadly ignored the lovely residents of 83 Durant. Hard to believe, I know. You've seen the Flickr pictures and videos of Lucy and our dog. There's tons of potential there. Finally, it seems that we've been noticed.

A movie called The Fighter is currently being filmed in Lowell. There's a lot of info about the filming at this site. We knew it was going on, and that movie is about local boxing legend Mickey Ward (played by Mark Wahlberg) and his brother, also a boxer, Dickie Elklund (played by Christian Bale). But we didn't think much about it. Until today.

Yesterday, while we were walking by the reservoir, we noticed all kinds of signs and way too many cars, and lots of big trucks. We asked this young guy, who looked somehow official (he had a name badge on) what was going on, and he said "construction." Whatever. He was totally lying. We walked up and realized that they were filming right up the street. Cool! But we didn't stick around.

This morning, the same dude who told us it was "construction" looked at me and said, "hey, do you want to be in a movie with your dog?" Surely he was joking. He wasn't. He was talking a mile a minute to both me and to the people at the other end of the ear piece he was wearing. He asked me to get into his car with him and go to the set, and I said, uh, ok. Yes, I got in a car with a complete stranger who lied to me the day before, and who was now claiming that I could bring my dog and be in a movie. Hrm.

The guy is super excited. He pulls up at the top of the street where they're shooting (it's like two blocks from where he told me to get into the car) and insists to other dudes with similar name badges that Carter is THE dog. There is some back-and-forth among these guys (they're called, as I learned, PA's), who it seems, have some sort of bet going on the dogs that, from what I understand, involves $5 and a steak dinner. He gets the go-ahead, and tells me that he's taking me to wardrobe. Wardrobe! Seriously. Keep in mind, please, that I was out to walk the dog. I had not brushed my hair. I actually had not even brushed my teeth. I had no plans to be in a movie.

The wardrobe place was in a series of trailers set up in the parking lot of the local elementary school, the same elementary school, in fact, where we go to vote. Waiting for the wardrobe folks, I met another woman with a couple of dogs, and we were both looked over by someone I assume to be a costume/wardrobe person, who thought the other woman's outfit (tank top and shorts) was fine, but said that my capri pants and slides had to go. I was a bit mortified, until I realized that the reason was that the movie is set in 1990, so my clothes would mark me as way too fashion forward. I was asked to wear a short blue jean skirt and some blue cloth ballet flats. The other woman had to trade in her flip flops for an AMAZING pair of white vintage Reebok high-tops, the kind with laces at the bottom and velcro at the top. NICE. Then they drove us back to the set.

I should note that through all this, Carter was with me. He was amazing. He got a bit barky at a few of the other dogs, but he was great, hopping into and out of vans, and generally have a fine time being fawned over. Also, while hanging at the wardrobe place, I borrowed a PA's iphone to call Jake and let him know that I had not been kidnapped, but that I was going to be in a movie. He was surprised, to say the least.

Next, a bunch of us local folks -- maybe 8 or so people -- waited with our dogs at the top of the street where the filming was happening. At this point, the general sense was that somehow, they were going to use all of these dogs. That seemed pretty weird, but I have no idea how movies are made, and thought, well, maybe we each just parade down the street while they film, and whatever one of us gets into the scene gets in. That is not how movies are made, as I now know. In any case, there was a lot of excitement among the dogs and the dog owners. We saw a friend of ours who we walk dogs with, and she was trying to get me to take her dog, Ginger, with us. I would have, but Carter was getting to be a bit anxious, so I worried, but then a PA grabbed her and had Ginger join the gang. Hooray!

Finally, after much milling about (movies are a whole lot of "hurry up and wait") we were told to walk in a line down to the set, which was in a large house with a huge front porch. We walked down in a somewhat orderly fashion, about 8 people (I think) and 10 or so dogs (at least 2 women had 2 dogs each). We stood there, not really knowing what was going on, but sensing that something was up. I heard the word "Spaniel," then I saw the PAs looking upset and saying, "you mean all of them?" and then realized through various half-heard responses that in fact, only one dog was going to be in the movie, and all the rest would be sent home.

And more importantly, I realized that the one dog who was going to be in the movie was the spaniel. Carter.

O. M. G.

They sent all the rest of the dogs back up the street, and the PA's informed me that they didn't know there was only going to be one dog, and they all congratulated me, and then asked if I could stick around until about 3 or so. Many of you know that in fact, I had no business hanging out on a film set all day, and that by all rights, I should have been in front of this very computer, working on my book. But how often does a chance like this come up? I said yes, I could totally stay for the day. Then they asked whether Carter would walk with someone other than me, and if I was willing to let him walk with someone other than me, and basically, they said, the director has a friend he wants to feature as the dog walker, so would it be OK with me if I wasn't in the film, but my dog was? Yes. Totally fine. But could I please change out of my weird 1990s wardrobe? Sure....eventually. OK, let's go.

And immediately the star treatment began. Carter being the star. They actually called him "the talent." I kid you not. What does he need? Here's some water. He's so sweet.....and on and on and on. I have to say, everyone was so incredibly nice. I really couldn't believe it. There were something like 8 or 10 different PAs who would come by and ask if we needed anything, and make sure everything was fine. It was really interesting to be hanging around the set, watching SO many people working on every detail.

Next, we met the dog walker, a local priest who is a friend of the director, and then the priest and I were brought over to talk with David O. Russell, the director. He explained the movie and the scene to both of us, and talked about what we should do, and was really very nice. His attention was mostly focused on the priest, which is totally understandable, but he was very nice to Carter, and I learned that it was Russell himself who had picked out Carter from the line-up on the street. Wow.

I signed some papers saying I wouldn't disclose all the secret details of the movie, so I won't go into the details of the scene, but it involved Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Mark Wahlberg. So I sat and watched the three of them (most of the scene was Bale and Adams) do their scene over and over again, with the technical crew setting up all kinds of different angles and equipment and whatnot. It was amazing. Every so often, Carter was called upon to do his thing, and he did it very very well. He was incredibly well behaved. Occasionally, he had a hard time walking away from me, so they kept moving me to the opposite end of the set so that he would walk towards me.

I don't want to give anything away here, but at one point, Christian Bale (well, his character) NOTICES Carter and TALKS ABOUT HIM. In the movie. Or at least, in the filming of the movie, who knows what will happen once things are cut.

We worked on the scene until about 3:30, then there was a lunch break, which involved being shuttled back to the elementary school and eating a really very good meal in the gym. I was sitting with a bunch of guys who were there because their cars are being used in the movie. Wow. Everyone fussed over the Carter and offered him food, and was having a grand time of it.

Then we went back to the set to do a few more takes, and we were out of there around 5pm. It was a long, hot day of sitting around in the sun, waiting to be told to wait somewhere else. Carter had many admirers, and Amy Adams actually walked across the street to come over, say hi, and ask questions about Carter. She gave him some love and was really very very nice. The thing that struck me about all of the stars was how very SMALL and very normal they seemed. Bale has apparently lost a lot of weight for the role, but really, all of them, just seemed so much more normal and human-scale than we see on the screen or TV or tabloids or whatever. Also, they weren't all glammed up, since the movie is supposed to have these gritty characters from real-life Lowell. In fact, when the actors started rehearsing the scene on the porch, I actually thought (and actually said to someone else) "those must be the stand-ins for the actors" because these people did not look like famous people. I felt a bit silly when I realized that the weird skinny looking dude was not just some random stand-in, but was, in fact, Christian Bale. He was Batman. And now he looks like this.

Carter is actually going to be paid for his work, too. I had to fill out paperwork for him, so he'll be showing some bling once his check rolls in, I'm sure. We had a long, exhausting day, but it was incredibly exciting. I never could have imagined something like this happening, but there it is.

Special thanks to Jake and my Mom for taking care of Lucy and everything else so that I could go hang out all day.