Hollywood Takes Washington by Storm!

In DC, we're used to celebrity sightings. Sort of.

POTUS? Swoon. VPOTUS? Never seen a brighter pair of pearly whites. Our starlets go by the names Michelle, Hillary and Nancy. Sightings send the heart aflutter and the brain into a tizzy.

But in terms of Hollywood glamor, well, we don't see too much of that around these parts. So when large segments of Adams Morgan were shut down yesterday for filming of what www.IMDb.com calls the "Untitled James L. Brooks Project," Washingtonians such as myself didn't quite known how to deal with it.

Last night, I took part in my Thursday kickball ritual of tossing a rubber ball around briefly before heading to Morgan's bar on Adams Mill Road. But quite unlike past Thursday nights, yesterday I found myself amid a massive swarm of people hoping to catch a glimpse of Paul Rudd, who had been filming all day where Calvert Street turns into Adams Mill, right in front of Kogibow Bakery.

Along the Duke Ellington Bridge were parked several movie trailers filled with costumes, make-up chairs and perhaps the stars themselves. Though the project is officially untitled, each trailer was marked with the phrase "How Do You Know?" which I'm guessing will be the name of the film.

Members of the film crew were shepherding passerbys and encouraging my friends and me to keep walking as to prevent large crowds from building up. But I was still able to catch a glimpse a slightly ruffled, handsome man across the street. Oh. My. God. Suddenly, the twelve-year-old fangirl inside of me started giggling uncontrollably. IT'S PAUL RUDD! A friend of mine, much bolder than myself, shouted out, "PAUUUUL!" And you know what? He turned, smiled and waved. We all squealed simultaneously.

Yeah. He's just as good looking in person.

The crew member with a headset sighed. He'd obviously been seeing this all day, and I'm inclined to think that asking people to "move along" for hours at a time must go on record as one of the worst jobs of all time -- even if he gets to stand within 20 feet of Paul Rudd every day. Though something tells me that he doesn't get the same kick out of him as I do. As we walked off, he muttered to us, "Yeah, yeah. He's so cute. Don't you just want to pick him up and put him in your pocket?"

The city is apparently filled with other celebrities, but I have yet to see them. Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon and Jack Nicholson also co-star, but were absent from the filming in Adams Morgan yesterday. However, when I stopped for an iced tea at my local Starbucks in Woodley Park, the barista gushed to me that Jake Gyllenhaal and Reese Witherspoon had patronized the establishment only 5 minutes prior to my arrival. I had a mini conniption at the register. So who knows, perhaps I'll have another sighting in the near future.

Here's a picture of filming via Washington City Paper:

And via DCist:
Oh, Paul. You can stay in my city as long as you want. Need a place to crash?


UPDATE: Jack Nicholson has been spotted! He and Paul were apparently filming in front of 1666 Connecticut Avenue, which is a few blocks north of Dupont Circle. A friend of my coworker took this picture: