Published Thursday, June 25, 2009
Movie-shoot dropped at gym
The Times-Herald
While filming for "Drop Dead Diva" continues around the Atlanta metro area, Lifetime Television crews will not be filming scenes this week near downtown Newnan as originally planned.
The Sony-produced series is scheduled to debut on Lifetime network July 12 at 9 p.m. The drama/comedy is reportedly about a blonde model who dies in a car accident and comes back to Earth in the body of a plus-sized, highly intelligent attorney. Scenes were filmed last week in downtown Senoia.
Crews recently approached Newnan City Council for permission to film a scene for Episode 7 at the Wesley Street gym. Filming was tentatively scheduled to take three days and occur sometime between June 15 and today.
However, the film company canceled the Newnan shoot and filmed the scene elsewhere.
"We changed our strategy last minute," Mitch Harbeson, location manager for the project, explained Wednesday.
Production officials had been looking for an ideal setting to film a high school reunion. The Wesley Street gym was selected.
"The gym was beautiful and had lots of personality," said Harbeson. However, "when doing a TV show, you don't have the ability to go to a different location to get a scene."
He decided to consolidate multiple scenes in one location to film more efficiently. They settled on Starr's Mill in Fayette County because they could marry a hospital scene with a school scene, he said.
Their crew filmed scenes for another episode of "Diva" in Newnan's Oak Hill Cemetery on June 1. Before that, these crews filmed for Lifetime's "The Wronged Man" around Newnan's Court Square.
"We make sure we're doing this proper so we're always welcome to come back," said Harbeson.
Harbeson said that crews "planted" the series in the metro area rather than in Atlanta so they could take their pick of film locations in Newnan, Tyrone, Peachtree City, Fairburn and Griffin to "create something" and "not have to be sitting in [Atlanta] traffic every day."
"We're certainly enjoying it," he added. "It's nice to be able to get off work and go do things around here. We definitely have intentions of coming back."
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On the web: www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/shows/drop-dead-diva