All The News That Fits On A Print

By Steven Zeitchik

Maybe it's because it takes us back to when a certain male-centric HBO Hollywood comedy shot at the offices of an entertainment trade we once worked for, but we're always amused when a newsroom is invaded -- um, graced -- by a film crew.

There's a certain irony, if not an outright culture clash, in seeing news reporters and film crews try to inhabit the same working space; both our camps, after all, have the irksome propensity to act like the fate of the universe depends on our getting our work done in exactly the right environment at exactly the right moment. And we can get uppity when our delicate habitat is disturbed.

Reactions from staff members in these situations tend to run the gamut. Some sit quietly doing their work. Others jostle for air time. But the most telling responses are from those who are annoyed by the presence of all the actors, grips and directors.

Apparently that annoyance is growing visible at the journalistic confines of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, where Fox 2000 and David Frankel are shooting the bad-dog tale "Marley and Me." (Frankel, who directed "The Devil Wears Prada," is practically an honorary reporter for all the time he spends in editorial offices; guess when you grow up as the son of a New York Times legend you don't escape so easily).

Frankel chose to shoot at the newspaper's actual offices, instead of recreating a newsroom on-set, because he wanted more authenticity, and his choice has apparently engendered some authentic grumbling from staff, who say, essentially, that a daily newsroom is a place where stories are broken, sources are forged, truths are revealed (and columnists write about their dogs). It's not a place where actors prance and directors give orders.

Of course you can't really fault the production. Fox/Frankel admirably realized that when you try to make a newsroom seem real on a Hollywood lot you end up with a really bad simulation --that is, you end up with "Superman Returns." When you shoot in an actual newsroom, on the other hand, you get the rhythms of the place, the colors of the walls, the smell of the newsprint, the temperaments of the staff.

And with Owen Wilson playing the lead, you capture exactly the look of most newspaper columnists.