Roosevelt Island Film Shoot With Sarah Jessica Parker At Southpoint Park - Can The Movies Save Southpoint From Kahn/FDR Memorial Boondoggle?

Image of Sarah Jessica Parker in Have Your Heard About The Morgans from Celebbuzz

On Location Vacations is reporting that the film Did You Hear About The Morgans starring Hugh Grant and Roosevelt Island childhood resident Sarah Jessica Parker will be shooting scenes for the movie on the Upper East Side this week. Curbed reported today (UPDATE 3/19 - Via blogger Construction Graffiti) that the movie was shooting at the Mark Hotel and an On Location Vacations commenter (at 4:33 PM) indicated that:

they’re be filming on Roosevelt Island on Thursday (3/19)

I inquired of RIOC President Steve Shane:

I understand that a Roosevelt Island movie shoot will be occurring this week, possibly Thursday March 19. The movie, Have You Heard About The Morgans, stars former Roosevelt Islander Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant.

Is that true? Any more information available as to when and where the shoot will take place?

Mr. Shane replied:

My advice from our permitting department:

03/17/09: Update on the film shoot:
-Tomorrow- WHYoming Productions will be coming to the island to pre-rig one of their scenes taking place at 30 River Road. Vehicles will be loading and unloading in front of the building, but will not be parking. Manhattan Park management is well-aware of the production schedule and will be monitoring the crew between 9am and 6pm tomorrow.

-Thursday- Crew and vehicles arrive around 7am at Southpoint Park. That will be their basecamp. Parking will be limited to the east roadway south of the smallpox hospital, and a row of trailers against the inner-eastern fence parallel to the east roadway. There is a possibility that they will need about 75 feet of roadway along the road parallel to Southpoint Park's main fence. I will have a clear answer first thing in the morning. First half of the day will be a shoot at 30 River Road, no parking there- just dropping off. If everything stays on schedule, the second half of the day they'll be shooting in Southpoint Park (beginning around 4pm). Shoot will wrap around midnight.

-Friday- De-rig at 30 River Road, Manhattan Park is completely in the loop and no parking is necessary.

Although Mr. Shane did not specifically confirm that the movie being shot is Did You Hear About The Morgans, I have independently confirmed that it is the movie being shot on Roosevelt Island at Manhattan Park and Southpoint Park.

Don't know if Hugh Grant or Ms. Parker will be on Roosevelt Island but this is what Ms. Parker had to say of her time on Roosevelt Island:

...Parker arrived from Cincinnati in an overcrowded red VW van -- a poor kid with seven siblings who hovered on the border between theatre gypsy and welfare case. Her family camped out on Roosevelt Island for a time: "It was meant to be a Utopia," she says. ("It was slightly like a penal colony," recalls her brother Pippin, a playwright and director.)...

Did You Hear About The Morgans may be one of the last films shot at Southpoint Park that will be able to showcase the beautiful panoramic 360 degree views of the New York City skyline and East River waterfront currently available if the proposed Louis Kahn Memorial (oops, I mean the supposed FDR Memorial) is ever built. Views like this:

Southpoint Park Wedding Image from Jerry Yoon Photography

Will be destroyed and replaced with a granite and cement mausoleum box.

Death Box Image from Village Voice Runnin Scared Blog

and Southpoint Park will look like this:

Image from NY Times

The Conditional Designation Agreement for the Kahn/FDR Memorial, essentially merely an agreement to agree in the future, between RIOC and the Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt Institute is here as is the proposed construction phasing of the project.

There is still plenty of time to stop this NYC and State public taxpayer financed boondoggle from destroying the magnificence of Southpoint Park. Maybe the Movie Companies and former Roosevelt Islander Sarah Jessica Parker can help?