Hollywood on Washington

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else.

Staffers and interns working on the new Hilary Swank movie Betty Anne Waters “moved in in October,” says dental technician Russ Collins. Collins has had his office on the building’s second floor since 1962; now, instead of dentists and doctors, his neighbors are staffers and interns for Innocence Productions. They dress like the construction workers, in jeans and hoodies, but work in offices labeled with taped-on computer printouts: “Extras Check-In,” “Production Department,” “Women’s Fitting Room”—the last, the building’s former pharmacy, its windows covered in brown paper. Around town, people compete to report Swank sightings—she was seen spinning on a stationary bike at Vie: Fitness & Spa!

Irony of ironies, Collins’s son, also named Russ, runs the Michigan Theater. In February the younger Collins had just returned from the Sundance Film Festival, where cutting-edge films are aired. His dad now has a front-row seat for the one and only Hollywood film being produced from Ann Arbor.