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Actor Crowe to be in lockup
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By Tim Puko, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, October 6, 2009

* Mon-Fayette Expressway closed for taping of movie.

Russell Crowe is planning to spend some time in the Allegheny County Jail this week. No bellhops are expected to be hurt.

Once facing seven years in jail for assaulting a hotel clerk -- something he admitted -- Crowe is in town as part of the cast of the upcoming movie "The Next Three Days," which films at the county lockup Thursday and Friday, Maj. James J. Donis said.

It will be one of several appearances around the region for the crew, which is remaking a French film about a husband and wife trying to fight her wrongful murder conviction, according to Internet reports and county officials.

The crew will shoot in the jail lobby and visiting area, so operations can continue as usual, with only family visits canceled for the two days. The crew will shoot inside the County Courthouse next month when the building is closed on Election Day, said Kevin Evanto, spokesman for County Executive Dan Onorato. The county has never charged film companies for using county property, he added.

"Obviously this production is going to be here for several months," Evanto said. "They're employing lots of local people, spending money and so forth, so there is a benefit to the local economy."

A section of the Mon-Fayette Expressway in Fayette County was closed Monday to accommodate the film crew.

The movie is one of three filming in the area. "Unstoppable," a $100 million action film starring Denzel Washington and Rosario Dawson, started this summer at Mogul Mind, a converted steel mill along the Allegheny River. Filming for "Love and Other Drugs," a drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, is scheduled to run until December at Island Studios in McKees Rocks.

Production at the jail starts at 5 a.m. both days and likely will continue all day. Inmates are not allowed in the film and might not even know about it. The production crew is bringing its own extras but invited jail workers to participate. They will have to take vacation time to do it, Donis said.

"They can't double dip," he said.

Crowe, who won a Best Actor Oscar for "Gladiator," pleaded guilty in 2005 to an assault charge after hurling a telephone at a New York City hotel clerk while there to promote "Cinderella Man."

He will return to Pittsburgh in November to shoot scenes in one of the courthouse's renovated courtrooms and might be featured in shots on the Gothic-style courthouse's iconic main staircase, Evanto said.

The production company provides its own security and covers the costs of upgrades it needs or damage it causes during filming, Evanto and Donis said.

"The Next Three Days" is scheduled for release in 2011. It also stars Elizabeth Banks, Brian Dennehy and Olivia Wilde.