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.

Jennifer Lopez�s Brownstone in �The Back-up Plan�

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on AUGUST 8, 2011

The 2010 romantic comedy The Back-up Plan starring Jennifer Lopez and Alex O�Loughlin didn�t get great reviews, but a lot of my readers gave the set design two thumbs up. I finally had a chance to watch the movie myself this weekend and get some photos of Zoe�s apartment in New York City for you.

First off, does the front of her brownstone look familiar?

According to On the Set New York, it�s only two doors down from Carrie Bradshaw�s apartment in �Sex and the City� (70 Perry Street and Bleecker Street in Manhattan).

The real interiors of this apartment weren�t used for the movie, though�they were created at Warner Bros. studios in California.

The Production Designer for this movie was Alec Hammond, and the Set Decorator was Kathy Lucas. Interestingly, the project Lucas worked on before this one was The Ugly Truth�another movie I�ve gotten a lot of requests for (and I�ll get to it eventually, I promise!).

It was great seeing Linda Lavin as Lopez�s �Nana� in this movie. I grew up watching reruns of her sitcom �Alice� that seemed to play on an endless loop in the afternoons (�Kiss my grits!�). Tom Bosley played Lavin�s boyfriend in the movie. This was his final role before his death last year at the age of 83.

When the camera pans up the exterior of the brownstone and looks through a window, we can see the sofa in Zoe�s living room:

The Back-up Plan was supposed to be Jennifer Lopez�s �movie comeback.� Her last one had been El cantante in 2006 with husband Marc Anthony (the couple recently announced their split). She had taken time off to be with her twins Max and Emme (you can see their nursery here).

In this shot of Zoe sitting in her dining room, you can see that it opens into her bedroom without any doors between the two (a reader points out that there were probably pocket doors that were just not used):

A quick shot of the fireplace in the dining room:

The kitchen seems pretty big for a city apartment. One thing I learned from this movie is that there must be a lot money in running an �ethical pet store� like Zoe does. 

Did you know Alex O�Loughlin is Australian? One of his first roles was as part of the �kissing couple� (that�s how he was billed) in The Holiday. Now he plays Steve McGarrett in the new version of �Hawaii Five-O.�

Zoe�s bathroom has blue and red tile:

Her bedroom has an upholstered headboard that I�ve gotten a lot of emails about�everyone seems to love it and want one just like it:

UPDATE: A reader found the bed at Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams. It�s called the Celina bed (thanks, Katy!):

At the end of the movie, we get a glimpse into a room off the dining room that I don�t think we�d seen before, which has now become a nursery for the twins:

What did you think of �The Back-up Plan�? Did you fall in love with her apartment?

P.S. If you missed it, take a look at Jennifer Lopez�s new house in California, where she moved after taking the job on �American Idol� last year (according to reports, she�s close to signing on for a second season).

The Beach House in �Something�s Gotta Give�

by HOOKEDONHOUSES on MAY 4, 2009

Afriend took me to see Something�s Gotta Give when it first hit theaters. I knew it was a Diane Keaton-Jack Nicholson romantic comedy. What I didn�t expect was to fall in love with the Hamptons beach house Keaton�s character lives in. I went back to see it again a week later, just to get a better look at that house.

It wasn�t until I started blogging that I realized I wasn�t alone in my obsession with theSomething�s Gotta Give house. For all of my readers who asked me to post photos of it�this one�s for you.

The exterior is a real house somewhere in the Hamptons (Long Island), but the interiors were all created on a soundstage.

The Living Room:

Here�s the living room, looking toward the entry, as shown in the film (above), and a shot of the set for Architectural Digest (below):

The movie was written by Nancy Meyers, who has had her hand in other great �house movies� I�ve featured, like It�s Complicated, The Holiday, The Parent Trap, Father of the Bride, and Baby Boom (click here to see photos from those movies, too).

This shot of the living room was featured in Architectural Digest:

The Production Design was done by Jon Hutman (who also worked on The Holiday), and the Set Decoration was by Beth Rubino (It�s Complicated).

Erica and Harry (Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson) in the living room at night�meeting up for a �pajama party:�

Don�t even ask what paint colors were used (I have already been flooded with e-mails on the topic). Set Decorator Beth Rubino says they were custom-mixed colors that were designed to look good on screen. The lighting is different on a set than it is in a house, so even we used the same paint, she says, it wouldn�t look the same.

You can listen to an interesting interview with her on the topic at The Skirted Roundtable.

The living room during a storm:

The Dining Room:

The Kitchen:

We were building our house when this movie came out. Thanks to Something�s Gotta Give, I�ve got a kitchen with white cabinets, black countertops, and dark floors. I copied as much of it as I could! I later found out I wasn�t the only one inspired by it. Every home show I went to the following year seemed to have its own version of this look:

Harry�s Guest Room in Erica�s House:

While We�re at It�a Peek at Harry�s Townhouse in New York:

Erica�s Bedroom and Study:

As a writer who works from home myself, I swooned over Erica Barry�s home office. Those windows! Those built-in-bookshelves! This is one of my favorite spots in her house:

Diane Keaton was nominated for Best Actress for this role at the 2004 Oscars and won a Golden Globe.

After Harry leaves her, Erica can�t stop crying�but she does get a lot of writing done!

Exterior Views:

The pool as photographed for Architectural Digest (above), and a production shot that shows how the pool and fake exterior really looks on set (below):

Erica waves goodbye to Harry as he drives away:

Jon Hutman received an Oscar nomination for Production Design because of this now-iconic movie house.

Is this one of your favorite movie houses, too?

More photos and information at Architectural Digest, Cote de Texas, and Silver Screen Surroundings. You might also enjoy the tour of Diane Keaton�s home.