STRICTLY ON BACKGROUD, PT. 48: "GOSSIP GIRL"

 I admit with no pride I've always had an affinity for gossip, which reflects badly more upon me than those being gossiped about. 

 Not badly enough, however, to refuse two days' work last June on the HBO Max series Gossip Girl  playing an Upscale Party Attendee. Upscale gossip is perfectly acceptable. 

Unlike most of my background jobs, there was no need to take the subway or ferry to a studio. We were filming at the Ukraine Institute at 2 East 79th Street, across from Central Park, an easy 25 minute walk from our apartment. This was one of the few times I was booked to play an Upper East Sider. Finally, someone thought I looked the part.

Outside the NYU Institute of Fine Arts,
6/16/22. Judging by the wrinkles under
my eyes, it appears I've been there since
it was built.

Our holding area was New York University's Institute of Fine Arts at 1 East 78th, around the block from the set. It was originally the home of railroad baron Henry H. Cooke at roughly the same time of the Ukraine Institute's construction. So for two days I luxuriated in 19th-century splendor. (The first floor entry area of the NYU building was featured in The Greatest Showman as the home of P.T. Barnum.) 

Since seven months passed between the time the episode filmed and aired, my memories of those two days are a little hazy. What I remember best is that there were a lot of young people there, far better looking than most of us oldsters. Oh well -- what we lack in beauty we more than make up for in... age.

On the far left, deep in faux conversation.

The scene was filmed on the second floor of the Institute, going back and forth between the two rooms and the hallway that linked them. The faux champagne and cocktails flowed like the real thing, but you didn't want to drink them. 

As I watched my scene, it was obvious Gossip Girl was an HBO series. As with all major cable and streaming platforms, there are twice as many extras than you would see on regular commercial network. That can mean getting lost in the shuffle. In this screenshot, I'm near the entryway in the room facing Central Park. Of the two seconds I'm onscreen, I'm hidden behind someone for half of it.

In the center background, turning on the charm
for a paycheck.

 And then -- hey, I'm on the opposite side of the room, talking to people who were likely in another area a moment earlier. We had been given a head's-up that there would be a kerfuffle between two young women. I wasn't sure what it was about then, and I wasn't when I watched it when it aired.

My concern radiates off the screen like a
dirty bomb.

I reacted as instructed. And isn't all acting really reacting? I dunno, that's what I hear. But there I am, reacting to the hoo-hah that's just getting started. My hands are in my pockets because a college friend told me they looked I had Abraham Lincoln's disease. What the hell, at least I'm almost dead center in the shot. 

And again, smack-dab in the middle of the
screen. Somebody up there in the editing room
likes me.

Then, in the blink of an eye, I'm in the other room  hobnobbing with yet another group of people. I don't have this many friends in real life, although I can often be seen with a drink in my hands if you drop by the house any evening.  Just don't expect the kind of charm I exude at upscale parties like this. That costs money.

 

                                                                   

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