Schenectady The Far Side Of Hollywood

I live in upstate NY in the tri-city area of Albany, Schenectady and Troy.   Even though Albany is the capital of New York State life in general is pretty quiet here, but in the summer and fall of 2009 Hollywood came to sleepy little Schenectady in the form of the movie The Place Beyond The Pines.

   
Most of the movie was shot in Schenectady, not far from where I live.  All that you heard about for months on the news, from friends, neighbors and coworkers were about the movie.  There were sighting of the stars constantly.  A friend of mines aunt who lives in the Stockade area of Schenectady was walking her dog and a nice looking guy approached her and jokingly said that he was renting the house across the street, so if she saw him, coming and going please don't call the police on him.  He introduced himself as Bradley.  She obviously was not a movie watcher and did not make the connection.  A few days later when she mentioned it to my friend, my friend started to scream and spent many hours that summer and fall camped out on her aunts front steps hoping to get a glimpse of Bradly Cooper, but Bradley had others things to do and she was never able to catch him coming or going.

My encounter with one star of the movie was kind of a miss.  After an appointment one weekday morning in Schenectady my husband wanted to get some breakfast at Denny's.  As we were walking to our table I could see a large group of people sitting to my right.  I really did not pay much attention.  We took out seats in a booth.  I sat with my back to the large group, my husband sat facing the group.  Now my husband is one of those people who always thinks someone looks like somebody famous.  We could be in a store and he will say, I just saw a guy who looks like Stephan King.  He will drag me up and down the aisle stalking the poor guy and so I can see if in fact by some crazy chance it is Stephan King.  When we finally find him, to me, he looked more like Larry King and nothing like Stephan.  So this particular day when I found him starring at this group of people in Denny's and saying that one of those guys over there looks familiar, I paid no attention and told him to stop starring.  I never even made and attempt to turn around.  After the large group left the waitress came over and asked if we got to see him?  Him, whose him???  Well Ray Liotta was sitting right over there she said.  So for once my husband did see the real deal but for whatever reason he could not place him.  YIKES.  Who would think that Ray Liotta would be eating breakfast at Denny's on a weekday.

So I guess from now on when my husband says he just saw Pamela Sue Anderson in aisle 6 at the grocery store it just might be her but then again, probably not.