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Hotels Seeing Stars Many renowned movies use hotels as backdrops. Here are some of the more notable ones. Wednesday, November 25, 2009 Caryn Eve Murray

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The most glamorous, highest profile star in Brian de Palma’s 1983 “Scarface” is the same stellar name to wow audiences in 1992’s “The Bodyguard,” alongside Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston. No newcomer to the screen, this tall, elegantly curved celebrity also surfaced prominently as far back as 1964 with Sean Connery in the James Bond classic, “Goldfinger.”

In fact, when it comes to fulfilling its role as a movie set or location, there are simply no body doubles or stand-ins for the Fontainebleau Miami Beach. The 1,504-room luxury hotel and resort is as much a longtime star on the south Florida beachfront as it has been on movie screens. The hotel, according to public relations director Mabel De Beunza, has been a natural performer since it opened in 1954, and with good reason.

“Morris Lapidus, the resort’s legendary architect, always had a vision for the dramatic, and a flair,” she said. “When he created the Fontainebleau he wanted to create a stage, not one for acting but he loved the world of dreams and illusions and human emotions. He was actually a scenic designer originally.”

It’s no surprise, then, that “everything about the resort is designed in a sense not only to create a stage for people to play on but to fulfill [his interpretation] of what a set is.”

When any hotel gets a starring, or even a co-starring, role in a Hollywood film – whether by referral from a city’s film commission, mayor’s office or good old-fashioned research - the excitement, buzz and extra income is only part of the plus side. Ultimately, the good will and free, repeat publicity on the big screen (and maybe on Oscar night?) becomes the real payoff.

“It is PR that no matter what, even if we were not having economic difficulties like the rest of the country, we could not buy it,” said Marilyn Edwards, director of special events for the mayor’s office in Nashville, Tennessee, which helps with film bookings in that city. “We cannot reach the people that a film is going to reach. It is very valuable, absolutely” to a city or town when a film company selects a hotel site for a movie shoot on location.

And yes, even the older hotels are ready for their close-ups.

The notable Peabody in Memphis, Tennessee, had “The Firm” on location in 1993; the sprawling Grand Hotel on Michigan’s Mackinac Island was the scene for much of “Somewhere in Time,” in 1980; and New York’s Art Deco-style Waldorf Astoria has had everything from 1988’s “Coming to America” to the 2004 Jude Law remake of “Alfie,” reaching back to Ginger Rogers and Lana Turner in 1945’s “Weekend at the Waldorf.” With a title like that, where else could the film have been made?

As a seemingly forever presence on the Miami beach, it’s not like the Fontainebleau goes out hunting for the publicity or even needs it – or even the two or so movie gig bookings a year. The location fee – which De Beunza would not discuss except to say it is lower than the cost of an average wedding – hardly makes or breaks any given season. It’s all about the buzz that surrounds the production and is sustained in the years afterward.

Best of all, the Fontainebleau almost always gets to play itself – not some fictional hotel dreamed up by scriptwriters, said De Beunza. “This is a legendary hotel,” she said. “That would be like changing Frank Sinatra’s name,” she said.

When Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman costarred in Memphis with the iconic Peabody Hotel in 1993, the guests were delighted by all the excitement, said Kelly Earnest, the hotel’s director of public relations. The hotel was even more delighted later, with the Peabody’s big splash on movie screens around the nation. (Not to mention its perpetual presence on TV and DVDs.)

It’s a marketing bonus, Earnest said. The hotel usually advertises in bridal publications as well as regional and lifestyle magazines and meetings publications. “But this [movie role] represents unattainable exposure and it has such a great shelf life,” said Earnest.

“The Open Road,” a 2009 indie sports movie that brought Memphis’ own Justin Timberlake back to town to film with Jeff Bridges and Lyle Lovett, made good use of the guest rooms and other public spaces during filming in 2008 – making the film something of a showcase for the hotel. And yes, even for the hotel’s resident ducks, whose famous march through the lobby was captured on film during a key moment between Timberlake and Bridges. “It is sort of a pivotal point in the movie,” Earnest said, “and the climactic scene is the duck march at the hotel. You can’t knock that kind of publicity.”

For “Soul Man,” the 2008 film starring Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson, a little more finesse was needed in timing the shoot in the lobby.

“We negotiated with them that they would film in the lobby where people check in and go to the elevators, but they’d have to do that between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.,” when traffic is lighter, so as not to interfere with the busy times in the lobby, Earnest said. “The films we have done here in public spaces were done after 10 or 11 at night for minimal disruption to our guests. And guests who saw things going on, came down with their cameras, saw Justin Timberlake, saw Bernie Mac, and were intrigued. I think they appreciated it more than they thought it was a nuisance.”

An Esther Williams-Jimmy Durante 1947 classic, “This Time for Keeps,” and the 1980 popular romance, “Somewhere in Time,” featuring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, both helped solidify the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan, on the Hollywood map. In fact, said Ken Hayward, vice president of sales and marketing, the Reeve-Seymour film has probably done more for business and movie fandom than anyone could have ever expected. The hotel is a big hit, and a magnet, for the International Network of Somewhere in Time Enthusiasts, or INSITE.

The annual October INSITE gathering “has turned out to be a viable thing, a big event for us,” he said. “It is interesting because we are fairly regional in our draw, but in October, people from all over the country are there. . . . We also honor the movie by having a Somewhere in Time Suite in the hotel, and a Jane Seymour Suite.”

“The fan club comes to the hotel every year and every year we show it and invite the cast and crew, and of course the producer and director come,” said Hayward.

What it has done for business is perhaps something that even the Hollywood dream machine could never have dreamed. But as far as the hotel business is concerned, films such as these definitely win the award for their own best supporting role.