Andie MacDowell�s Apartment (& Greenhouse!) from �Green Card�

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on NOVEMBER 7, 2011

The 1990 romantic comedy Green Card is an example of a movie that is kinda cute, kinda funny, and would be kinda forgettable if it hadn�t been for the apartment that Andie MacDowell�s character Bront� lives in.

Until I watched again recently, I couldn�t recall much about it other than the basic plot�woman marries Frenchman so he can stay in the U.S. and they (spoiler alert!) fall in love. But who could forget her New York City apartment with the lovely greenhouse and rooftop garden?

In this scene Bront� is leaving her apartment building and we get a glimpse of the outside of it:

It�s known as the Aylsmere in Manhattan and was built in the 1890s (the architect was Henry Andersen). Here�s a photo of the front entrance to the building today:

You can see more photos of the Aylsmere at Landmark West.

According to On the Set, it�s �a grand 56 unit pre-war apartment building with an onyx lobby and marble floors throughout, located in the heart of the Upper West Side� (60 West 76th Street and Columbus Avenue in Manhattan).

It sounds like the movie was actually filmed inside this building, too. On the Setreports, �The apartment building was used for interior and exterior use.�

According to IMDb.com, the entire movie was shot in New York City, and there�s no mention of a separate soundstage being used. (If anyone knows differently, fill us in!)

G�rard Depardieu played the Frenchman Bront� marries so he can get his green card and she can get her greenhouse. She�s a horticulturist who has found the perfect apartment in Manhattan with its own conservatory.

You�d think money would be the problem in securing a place like that�especially for someone who works with plants for a living�but no. The building is for �marrieds only,� so she needs to find a husband, and quick. (Don�t you hate when that happens?)

This is how the apartment looks when Bront� first gets a look at it:

Thank goodness she took down the sheers that covered those glass doors because now you can see through them to the greenhouse:

Bront� checks out the greenhouse on her first visit and sees all the work that needs to be done out there:

She doesn�t waste any time in getting started.

Love this old fountain:

Not to mention the skylight:

Looking from the conservatory into the living room:

When I realized I forgot to take screenshots of Bront�s bedroom, I searched for them online. Found these in a post that Susan did about the apartment over at Between Naps on the Porch, and she has more photos from the movie you can check out there.

Georges sits at the writing desk in the living room, writing �love letters� that will hopefully fool the INS into thinking they�ve had a real relationship that spans morethan a few days together:

Looking into the kitchen:

It�s tiny but so charming!

As if the greenhouse isn�t enough, there�s a door in the kitchen that opens up to a rooftop garden:

Green Card Set Decorator John Anderson also worked on the �Gilmore Girls,�and you can see some of the same soft, feminine, and vintage look to them. (I wrote about theGG houses here if you missed it! Love that show. I own all the seasons on DVD and just started watching them all over again from the beginning.)

As nice as the greenhouse is, I think I�d spend all my time right here on the roof. Gorgeous.

There aren�t as many great apartments in movies as there are houses, that�s for sure. I think I�ve only featured a few of them, like Jennifer Aniston�s in The Break-Up, the girly retro apartment from Down with Love, and Doris Day�s in Pillow Talk. Do you have a favorite?

P.S. In real life, Andie MacDowell lives in a storybook Tudor in North Carolina.

The Pierre Penthouse, Manhattan, New York

THE ULTIMATE PENTHOUSE IN THE SKY � Manhattan NY
$45,000,000For Sale
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 5+1
Waterfront: No
7500
School District:
MLS Link:
MLS info:



Description


THE ULTIMATE PENTHOUSE IN THE SKY
A glass-encased triplex penthouse sixty stories high, it�s the crown atop Manhattan�s most luxurious new high-rise. This is the ultimate penthouse in the sky, boasting over 7,500 square feet of unsurpassed details such as a separate 800 sq ft staff/butler residence, over 580 sq ft wrap-around terrace, 22' ceilings in the great room with a magnificent custom fireplace, and a grand master suite spanning an entire floor.
Entered through a lobby created by Pritzker Prize winning, internationally acclaimed architect Rem Koolhaas, One Madison Park is a world unto itself, a place where residents enjoy exclusive access to the Koolhaas-designed East Coast screening room of Creative Artists Agency, another 10,000 square feet of Rem Koolhaas designed amenities with floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking Madison Square Park at tree top level and first-ever New York restaurant by world-renowned chef Charlie Trotter. Life at the top is now available.

Interiors are customizable, designed by Thomas Juul-Hansen, interior architect.

The complete offering terms are in an offering plan available from Sponsor. File No. CD06-0603. Sponsor. (Park Madison Associates, LLC) Equal Housing Opportunity. Offering is made by prospectus only. Purchasers are cautioned to refer to the offering plan with regard to any representations, warranties or the physical aspects of this project. We are pledged to the letter and the spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. We encourage and support an affirmative advertising and marketing program in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin.

http://penthouses.com/featured/the-ultimate-penthouse-in-the-sky/

Mickey Rourke Picks Up A Rental �Bargain� In Manhattan

By Sarah Lin from The Wall Street Journal Asia

Mickey Rourke has taken on a rental loft in Manhattan for $19,800 per month, which is less than 50% of what the previous tenant was paying.

"The 5,000-square-foot loft has a private keyed elevator, four bedrooms, a media room and three baths. The full-floor apartment has blonde oak floors throughout and a sauna."

"A former tenant had rented the same apartment four months ago for $40,000 per month," says listing agent Frances Katzen of Prudential Douglas Elliman.

The actor, 56, won a Golden Globe Award this year for his comeback role as an athlete past his prime in last year's "The Wrestler."



This article has been republished from Wall Street Journal

�The Nanny Diaries:� An Upper East Side Apartment and a Nantucket Beach House

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on SEPTEMBER 19, 2011




Guess what. Being wealthy and privileged in Manhattan�or a wealthy and privileged kid in Manhattan�isn�t all it�s cracked up to be. And being that rich kid�s nanny can be pretty miserable, too. That�s what we learned in the 2007 movie The Nanny Diaries, anyway.

From what I can tell, the best thing about it are the digs you get to live in. In the movie, Annie the Nanny works for Mr. and Mrs. X on the Upper East Side in their luxurious 12-room apartment. Production designer Mark Ricker (who also worked on The Help) designed the look of both it and the X family�s Nantucket beach house.

Let�s take a look at the apartment first, where the tone is set with the front hall by the elevator:



Rickman and and set decorator Andrew Baseman wanted the rooms to have an upper echelon, �old money� look, according to an article in Traditional Home: �The apartment had to feel traditional, comfortable, and inviting, but also look striking and modern, reflecting Mrs. X�s taste as a former manager of the Gagosian Art Gallery.�



Scarlett Johansson played Annie, or simply �Nanny,� as Mrs. X charmingly refers to her.



The Living Room:



It may look like a real apartment, but Production Designer Mark Ricker says it would have been way too expensive and difficult to film in one. Ceiling heights are too low for lighting and the neighbors wouldn�t have appreciated all the noise and activity of having a film shooting in their building. So the apartment was a film set built on a soundstage at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.







The Kitchen:







Mrs. X�s Bedroom:



The movie is based on the 2002 tell-all novel by former nannies Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. I read it when it first came out and thought it was pretty entertaining, but the ending was so sad that it kind of spoiled the fun.

The movie changed the novel�s ending to make it a happy one, with Mrs. X learning her lesson and (improbably) transforming into a hands-on mom.



I like this photo of Laura Linney all glammed up as Mrs. X in a red dress (from Traditional Home):



Mrs. X�s Closet:





The Guest Room, which Annie initially mistakes for hers:



The actual Nanny Quarters, which aren�t nearly as nice:



�The pleasures and challenges in designing The Nanny Diaries were tied hand-in-hand with the fact that it was based on an enormously popular book,� Ricker explains.

�Because there are extensive descriptions, readers have expectations of what the place will look like in the film. The set would be seen on film not just as a background for the action, but as a featured element that emphasizes the indulgent lifestyle and misery of these characters and the humor that results.�

The X Family�s House in Nantucket:



As nice as the apartment was, what I really loved was the family�s beach house. It was supposedly in Nantucket but was actually filmed in the Hamptons.



Annie makes breakfast for the family in the kitchen:



I just finished watching the John Adams miniseries on DVD (which I loved), so I thought it was kind of funny to see that Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, who played John and Abigail Adams, had been cast as a totally different type of couple in The Nanny Diaries.



I love this dining room and wish we could have seen more of it!



Annie shares a bedroom with her young charge Grayson while they�re at the beach house:



Rumor has it that after the book came out, reading like a tell-all memoir by the two former nannies, Harvey Weinstein offered a $100,000 reward to anyone who could tell him who Mrs. X was based on. The New York Post suggested that it could be Lisa Birnbach, co-author of The Preppy Handbook, who once employed one of the book�s writers, but they insist that it wasn�t based on any single person.



Mrs. X confronts Annie on the porch and fires her, leading to the gut-wrenching scene where Grayson chases after her, crying for his nanny to come back:



Were you a fan of this movie? Of the sets? To see more photos, visit Traditional Home. Some of these are theirs, and the rest were screenshots from the movie.