Hollywood or Blog!

Richard Baratta, center, co-producer of “The Taking of Pelham 123,” gets a boat tour of the region along with Amy Robinson, second from left, who worked on “Julie and Julia,” and Carol Cuddy, far right, who helped produce “The Departed” and “The Interpreter.” Eight well known Hollywood producers in all visited Sarasota in hopes of being able to deliver more of the kind of shots directors are looking for. Richard Barratta who produced the Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 with Denzel Washington and John Travolta; Carol Cuddy, who produced Rachel Getting Married and The Departed; Ron Bozman, who recently worked on The Tempest with Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons, and the earlier Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia were all on hand and were smoozed by Sarasota in hopes of bringing their business here. It’s a shame Governor Charlie Christ has no idea how bad he hurt Florida’s film industry with his crazy slashing of the State’s entertainment budget. But with big names like above visiting Sarasota, anything’s possible.

I currently live in Sarasota and it really does have a huge array of locations to choose from and all within minutes of each other. For instance, you can be sitting at the Ritz Carlton’s Beach Resort on Lido Key enjoying the beautiful white sands and emerald green water of the Gulf of Mexico then drive ten minutes north and you’d swear you were in South Central.

All in all, the greatness of Sarasota far outweighs the bad and you’re far more likely to see Bently’s whizzing by than bullets. If anybody’s interested, I’ll give them the real tour of the City. Let’s do lunch!

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