How unusual of me - a celebrity post

I don't read tabloids or watch celebrity related shows on TV unless I am really depressed and feel the need to get my mind off about how miserable my life is by paying attention to the life of others. Lucky me, that does not happen too often. Even now the only reason for me to mention Angelina Jolie is that she has been shooting her movie in Budapest for weeks, sometimes not far from the place I live, and now she took her crew to my hometown for a few scenes.
I used the opportunity to see what a real movie set looks like and took a walk around town. Part of Esztergom is on a Danube island, you may remember the air shots I shared during the flood. Now one of the two main bridges  is shut down. There are some building under construction there and it  probably seemed easy for the movie people to make them look like they are halfway destroyed instead of halfway built. They just attached fake surfaces to the walls that are "decorated" with fake bullet holes to make them look like war-torn buildings.
You can see more on-set photos if you click on this site. Click on the photo to see the gallery in a pop-up window. I even found a short video footage of what the place looks like now.
They also added other props too, of course, some barricades, tanks and burnt-out cars. Actors and maybe extras are walking around with machine guns and coffee cups. :) I was only hanging around for a few minutes, so I haven't seen any filming or the director on the set, because frankly, I am not that interested. Unlike the paparazzi, they are on the spot with their long lens cameras. And I googled the production, the tabloids still claim Jolie shoots in Budapest. There is only one town in Hungary worth remembering, didn't you know?
My favourite tidbit: the three trees that are nearest to the bridge and that will probably be in the shots have been equipped with fake foliage. The movie people cut the yellow leaves all off and tied lush green branches on them. One of the security guards said that if he didn't see it happen, he would not have believed it. It seems part of the story is in the spring or summer, and part of it is in the winter, because when I googled the story, I found pictures of them shooting in snow a few days ago. The reporters even commented how awful it must be for the crew to work in the cold. Just to let you know, this past week was sunny and warm with 15-18 degrees (Celsius) and we are yet to see the first snow of the winter, so all of that was fake as well. That's Hollywood for you I guess! :)

Alice

I mentioned fairy tales in my post yesterday. I love them. I love them all. I have some favourites, but I love fantasy stories in general, and tales are just fantasy for kids. One of my favourite authors is Lewis Carroll, I truly admire his imagination and literary skills. Did you know I used to know the Jabberwockey poem by heart when I was little? I learned it in Hungarian because I didn't speak English yet. I can still recite the first two verses!

I am also a big fan of Tim Burton. I always loved this unique style and vision. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear of his interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. I counted the days until the premiere and it is the only movie to date that I have watched in 3D.
No wonder the story and the visuals have inspired Susan in Maryland to create a truly fantastic piece of fabric art to honour the complexity, creativity and depth of the story. I have been following her progress for quite some time, and meant to blog about it, as she is truly gifted and creates magic with her needle. Please follow this link to see how this amazing masterpiece was born! I wish I could do something like that!

Also, following the link here you can find some truly breathtaking photos by my favourite photographer, Annie Leibovitz. She sent her Alice through a wild ride in the crazy world of fashion and the result is funny, breathtaking and inspiring at the same time. As it should be.