Film Crew

A Baltimore police officer who was killed in October when his cruiser slammed into the back of a fire engine was speeding at 71 mph and most likely was distracted by a film crew on the opposite side of a highway, the final investigative report concludes. Officer Thomas Portz Jr., 32, did not suffer a medical problem, and officials found no mechanical defects in the police car, a 2009 Chevrolet Impala. The report says Portz, a 10-year veteran assigned to the Western District, was not wearing his seatbelt.

Sculptor Toby Mendez, the man whose bronze statues immortalized Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken Jr. and four other Orioles greats in Camden Yards ceremonies spread over the past six months, has certainly enjoyed his time in the spotlight. But now it's his dad's turn. The exploits of the elder Mendez, Tony, are at the center of the movie “Argo,” about a daring CIA-Canada rescue mission that got six Americans out of Iran during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis by convincing authorities they were part of a Canadian film crew.

All the Peabody Conservatory library had to do was look its elegant self yesterday while a film crew set up lights, cameras and microphones to shoot a romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.The landmark on tree-lined Mount Vernon Street was the centerpiece for two scenes with Ms. Ryan, who plays a reporter at The Sun destined to meet Mr. Hanks, an architect in Seattle, at the end of the movie.The crew will be filming "Sleepless in Seattle" in Baltimore through Thursday. Mr. Hanks is not in town.

Baltimore Councilman Nick J. Mosby has Tweeted himself into a movie role. He'll be playing himself -- a guy who Tweets a lot. With just over 500 followers, the District 7 representative might not be the biggest presence on Twitter. But he's apparently being followed by the right people. He'll be one of 140 personalities from the millions on the social media site included in a documentary called "Follow Friday. " The documentary portrays filmmaker Erin Faulk as she travels the country to meet and interview 140 of the people she follows on Twitter.

In what New York City officials are calling a first, the city police department and Mayor's Film Office have paved the way for Columbia Pictures' big-budget "Money Train" to shoot in Times Square on New Year's Eve.Approximately 300 extras will be joining the 300,000-plus throng of revelers and multitude of news and broadcast crews expected tomorrow night at one of the world's most celebrated NewYear's Eve gatherings.The shoot won't involve the film's stars, Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, but will capture footage for a key chase sequence at the end of the film when Mr. Snipes, a good-guy decoy cop, chases his adversaries on a motorcycle.

Only in the film industry do four days equal 15 minutes.Filming on a 15-minute Internal Revenue Service video, designed to help small-business owners understand their tax obligations, wound up in downtown Westminster yesterday.Cast and crew from Action Productions Inc. of New York, Cooper Productions of Columbia and Steve Yeager Films of Baltimore began work on the project Monday."It's sort of like watching grass grow," the sound technician commented as the cast and crew taped a three-minute scene for the fourth time at the law offices of Lennon and Miller on Main Street.

SHARPSBURG -- With musket barrels gleaming and flags flying, a long column of blue-clad soldiers snaked down the hillside, then paused at the edge of a country lane.Lying in heaps on the road before them were the bodies of the "dead" and "dying," alongside guns, canteens and haversacks. "Wounded" men writhed on the ground.And the cameras rolled, capturing scenes for a movie that will be shown at the national historic battlefield and will be part of a television documentary.No one had seen that sight in 135 years - not on this once-blood-soaked Civil War battleground where more American casualties occurred than on any other single day in U.S. military history.

Tony White paces across the back of the Baltimore Convention Center, flipping open his cellular phone to call his office. "Carol," says the spokesman for Mayor Martin O'Malley, "have you heard from the NBC people?" Today is a big day for the O'Malley administration. A television news crew is en route from Washington to film a profile of Baltimore's boy wonder politician to air next month on the "Today Show" during the Democratic National Convention. The piece is one of several that will highlight future players in each political party.

Sculptor Toby Mendez, the man whose bronze statues immortalized Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken Jr. and four other Orioles greats in Camden Yards ceremonies spread over the past six months, has certainly enjoyed his time in the spotlight. But now it's his dad's turn. The exploits of the elder Mendez, Tony, are at the center of the movie “Argo,” about a daring CIA-Canada rescue mission that got six Americans out of Iran during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis by convincing authorities they were part of a Canadian film crew.

Bending over backward to accommodate Hollywood, Baltimore plans to close the Hanover Street bridge Saturday and possibly Monday so a production company can stage a scene in which a boat appears to land on the structure. The city's Department of Transportation announced yesterday that the bridge between South Baltimore and Cherry Hill will close at 3 a.m. Saturday to allow Los Angeles-based Revolution Studios to film a scene for the movie XXX: State of the Union. The span - formally called the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge - will reopen from 6 a.m. to midnight Sunday for Ravens game traffic, but then could close for another 24 hours if the film crew still needs the bridge.

Matters of faith continue to divide people in dreadful ways, but there has always been at least one thing that religions have in common - the urge to express belief through art. That's a point driven home in a sumptuous 90-minute documentary by Baltimore filmmaker Robert Gardner airing this week on PBS. "Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World," narrated by Susan Sarandon, provides a welcome look into a cultural legacy little known and little...

Baltimoreans and Marylanders have become blase about actors being in their midst, along with bellowing directors, film crews, blocked-off streets filled with Hollywood's iconic caravans of trucks, trailers and spotlights, and sidewalks choked with zig-zagging electrical cables. We've finally caught up with Los Angeles, where locals consider it exceedingly bad form to stop and gawk at a film shoot or pester celebrities. In Baltimore, first it was Barry Levinson who aroused our interest in filmmaking when he turned back the clock to 1959 during the filming of his comedy-drama "Diner" here in 1982, filling the streets with vintage 1950s cars and actors in period clothing.

In this video, President Obama and Maryland's senior  - sorry, make that junior - senator, Ben Cardin, pop into the Texas Ribs and BBQ in Clinton. You can read more about the president and senator's visit on the always informative Obama Foodorama website. At just about 1:05 in the video , a woman starts barking for some people to push some back some other people, including the Secret Service. Is she with the president, the restaurant the film crew?

If you've seen a black SUV getting towed up Charles Street Tuesday with an attractive brunette and driver still inside, rest assured they are not the latest victims of Baltimore's municipal towing scandal . That's Julianne Moore in the back seat, playing former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in "Game Change," an HBO movie about the 2008 presidential election being filmed in Baltimore . The actor who plays her driver can't be trusted to...

A Baltimore police officer who was killed in October when his cruiser slammed into the back of a fire engine was speeding at 71 mph and most likely was distracted by a film crew on the opposite side of a highway, the final investigative report concludes. Officer Thomas Portz Jr., 32, did not suffer a medical problem, and officials found no mechanical defects in the police car, a 2009 Chevrolet Impala. The report says Portz, a 10-year veteran assigned to the Western District, was not wearing his seatbelt.

A 250-year-old farmhouse, stuck at the end of a long, rutted driveway, with creaking doors, splintered stairs, snakeskins in the basement and a mysterious gaping hole hidden beneath one of the outbuildings. Sounds like the perfect setting for a horror film, right? That's what the makers of "The Possession" thought, too, when they first saw the Hagerstown home that location scouts found for their 20-day film shoot, wrapping this weekend in Western Maryland. And they were right. "This house had its own creepy kind of things that it brought along," says director Eduardo Sanchez, a Marylander who shot to fame as the first-time writer-director of 1999's "The Blair Witch Project," which brought in more than $140 million at the U.S. box office.

In this video, President Obama and Maryland's senior  - sorry, make that junior - senator, Ben Cardin, pop into the Texas Ribs and BBQ in Clinton. You can read more about the president and senator's visit on the always informative Obama Foodorama website. At just about 1:05 in the video , a woman starts barking for some people to push some back some other people, including the Secret Service. Is she with the president, the restaurant the film crew?

A Baltimore police officer died and four firefighters were taken to a local hospital Wednesday after the officer's car rear-ended a parked fire engine on U.S. 40, officials said. Officer Tommy Portz, a 10-year veteran and married father of three, was pronounced dead while being taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, officials said. The 32-year-old is the third active city officer killed in less than a month. Fire Chief James Clack said that Engine 8 was dispatched to a report of an injured person in the median area of Calhoun and Franklin streets but could not locate a patient.

A Baltimore police officer died and four firefighters were taken to a local hospital Wednesday after the officer's car rear-ended a parked fire engine on U.S. 40, officials said. Officer Tommy Portz, a 10-year veteran and married father of three, was pronounced dead while being taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, officials said. The 32-year-old is the third active city officer killed in less than a month. Fire Chief James Clack said that Engine 8 was dispatched to a report of an injured person in the median area of Calhoun and Franklin streets but could not locate a patient.

Robert L. Oatman does executive protection - and no, he isn't a beefy, brainless bodyguard. He is a fit, trim and congenial figure who likes to wear crisp suits and who works with his team to draw up complex plans for shielding people they're paid to protect. It's a point of professional pride that none of his clients have ever been attacked on his watch over the past 20 years. "If you've got to touch your gun, it means you've made a mistake," said Oatman, 62, whose R.L. Oatman & Associates Inc. is based in Towson.