Cate Blanchett, 'Carol' coming to Maury's Tiny Cove
Some stars take top honors in their field and head straight for Disney World. Not Cate Blanchett.
After winning the Best Actress Oscar for "Blue Jasmine," she's going to Maury's Tiny Cove in Cheviot.
Blanchett is slated to shoot a scene for the 1952 love story, "Carol," at the venerable steakhouse April 1.
"That's April Fool's Day," Maury's owner, Matt Huesman, said. "But it's no joke.
"We'll be closed the entire day," he added. "They'll be shooting what amounts to the first date between Cate Blanchett's character, Carol, and Rooney Mara's character, Therese." Carol, a married New Yorker, is entering into the initial stages of a relationship with Therese, a department store clerk.
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Having Maury's play the part of a 1950s restaurant amounts to a neat bit of typecasting.
The steakhouse is as famous for its cuisine as it is for its classic decor. Maury's red and black Naugahyde booths, wood paneling and subdued lighting remain relatively unchanged, even after a recent makeover, since Maury's opened in 1949.
"They didn't want to use the front room of the restaurant," Huesman noted. "That's where we did a lot of our make-over with lights and pressed-tin paneling.
"So, they're shooting in the rear room or what some people call the red room."
That spot features roomy booths capable of being moved to accommodate all of the cameras, lights, cables and crew needed to make a movie.
Maury's has been in the running for months to play a part in "Carol." Members of the Greater Cincinnati & Northern Kentucky Film Commission scouted the place in October. Several upper echelon staffers from the film's technical side paid a visit in January.
It turns out, the Tiny Cove has been on the film commission's short list for years.
"They knew all about us and our decor," Huesman said. "They had been here before for another movie."
George Clooney considered shooting a restaurant scene at Maury's for his "Ides of March" movie in 2011. "But the crew felt our ceilings were too low to get the shots they wanted," Huesman said.
Apparently, the crew of "Carol" thinks otherwise.
"The film's crew members went nuts over the place," Huesman said as he stood by one of the restaurant's booths. They focused on table 11. That's in the first booth to the left of a small set of steps. That's where Blanchett and Mara are going to sit.
"I have a feeling a lot of people are going to be requesting table 11," Huesman said.
They also may be asking for the "Carol" special.
In the movie's restaurant scene, Blanchett's character orders "the creamed spinach over poached eggs. And a dry martini. With an olive."
Mara's character orders the same. Both women take drags on their cigarettes. Remember the movie is set in 1952.
Martinis are on Maury's menu. Scrambled eggs and creamed spinach are not.
"But we can whip them up," Huesman said.
"That won't be a problem."
What will be a challenge, he admitted, is if he has to serve the stars.
"That could be a bit nerve-wracking," Huesman said.
No doubt. It's not every day an Oscar-winner comes to Cheviot to make a movie at Maury's.