New movie's bra campaign needs support

Sunday, August 17, 2003

COLUMN: Bill Nemitz

WATERVILLE ‹ She's made many strange requests in her 12-year career as a set designer, but even Marie Nay admits this one is a bit, shall we say, over the top.

"Everything we do is best when it's reality oriented," Nay explained Friday amid the daily bustle throughout the production headquarters for the HBO movie "Empire Falls." "And the people up here have all been really nice. Everyone has been really helpful."

Still, this is a stretch. As local residents line up to offer their homes, their cars, even themselves as real-life backdrops for the movie that's taken Central Maine by storm, Nay last week offered women of every shape and size yet another opportunity to gain a little cinematic exposure.

"Bras needed for set dressing! Bikini tops too! Please drop here," reads the sign taped to the box that sits just inside the main entrance on Water Street.

First, a quick primer on set decorating. Nay's job is to read the script with an eye on the background, then go out and either find it or create it or, more often than not, a little bit of both. A principal's office? Scout out the local high school. A typical old, mill-town home? Check out that place just down Water Street.

Which brings us to the bar. A scene in the movie has Paul Newman calling Maine from Captain Tony's, a watering hole down in Key West renowned for the thousands of business cards stapled to its walls and rafters by men and the hundreds of bras similarly attached by women. The closest to Captain Tony's "Empire Falls" producers can afford to get is a bra-free bar down in Kennebunk - meaning Nay has some work to do.

It's hardly the first time she's had to improvise.

Once, while making a film in Atlanta, she needed to create a furniture builder's shop overnight. So she visited a local furniture maker, paid him to "go on vacation for two weeks," and moved his entire shop to her set. By the time he returned, the scene had been shot and he had his shop back.

Another film, about alligator poachers in Florida, proved more challenging. Nay needed alligator skins and carcasses to decorate a poacher's shack out in the middle of what looked like the Everglades (it was actually a flooded alligator preserve). Alligator parts are generally illegal contraband, so she had to tread carefully as she asked wardens and conservation types if they could help her out.

So did she get her gators?

"I did," Nay said cryptically.

How many?

"Several."

No surprise, therefore, that when she read the description of Captain Tony's, she figured a few hundred bras would be, well, a snap. She called the Central Maine Morning Sentinel to ask about placing an ad. She got it - along with the front-page headline "Wanted: Used, colorful bras."

The donation box went out Friday morning. While a steady procession of mothers and their aspiring-actress daughters came and went for auditions, it sat there - empty.

"I think it's going to take some time," Nay said. "I'm hoping this works. I really want it to."

She's considered her other options, of course. But the local Goodwill store isn't real big on used bras. And a bar full of new ones, well, it just wouldn't be the same. We're talking Captain Tony's here, not Kmart.

A sympathetic visitor suggested a little added incentive: Why not treat the bra donors just like the furniture maker? Once the scene is done, why not return each bra to its original owner, who can then puff out her . . . ah . . . chest and tell everyone she meets that this bra - this very bra - was in a movie scene with Paul Newman!!!

Nay thought about that one for awhile.

"I don't think we could return them," she finally said. "But I suppose we could leave them in a pile out back."

Now we're talking. And lest anyone think "Empire Falls" does not have the full-figured support of the women of Waterville, let the record show that by noon Friday, one plastic supermarket bag had been left in the box - tied tightly to discourage any perverts from pawing through the merchandise.

Here's what was inside: One lacy turquoise bra, size 36B. One blue Kathy Ireland, size 6. And one scene-stealing "18 Hour" model, all white, size 44B.

It's showtime.

emailtag Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6923 or at:

bnemitz@pressherald.com

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