UPDATE: Julia Louis-Dreyfus and company are shooting on the "Meet the Press" set at NBC Washington during Tuesday afternoon and evening.
Also on set: Tony Hale, best known for playing Buster on "Arrested Development." Although we don't know anything about his new character, Hale is wearing a suit and tie with a satchel over his shoulder -- pretty standard D.C. work attire.
"Veep," the upcoming HBO comedy series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, is shooting in the District Tuesday and Saturday, the District's Film Office writes in a press release.
The show also filmed parts of its pilot in D.C. in March, but the production has been spending most of its time in Baltimore, thanks to a very generous package of tax breaks and credits from the state of Maryland.
So where are they filming this week? According to the Film Office's site, on Tuesday, Oct. 25, they're scheduled to shoot on Constitution Avenue NW between 12th and 14th streets until 11 p.m.
On Saturday, Oct. 29, the show is doing driving shoots all around town -- including close to the vice president's Residence at Observatory Circle.
You may remember -- and the D.C. Film Office is happy to remind you -- that back in July, Mayor Vincent Gray visited Hollywood and met with HBO executives. At the time, Arts Desk's Benjamin R. Freed wrote:
The three D.C. officials also sat down with HBO to discuss the possibility of basing more of "Veep"'s filming in Washington. [Film Office spokesperson Leslie] Green says the face-to-face meeting greatly improved the likelihood of that happening, based on an HBO executive telling Gray and [Film Office head Crystal] Palmer that their visit "clearly shows D.C. is engaged more than ever in attracting production."
Out of the gate, the show has a lot going for it: Its creator is Armando Iannucci, the Scottish director behind the merciless political comedy "In the Loop," and its channel is HBO, which probably means "Veep" will be very funny, very smart, and not especially feel-good. (That one of its executive producers is the New York magazine columnist Frank Rich leaves me agnostic.)
But does the show's Mary Sue-ish premise strike you as more appropriate to, say, the first season of "Felicity"?:
Centers on former Senator Selina Meyer who finds being Vice President of the United States is nothing like she expected and everything everyone ever warned about.
Veep Is Filming in the District Today was originally published by Washington City Paper on Oct. 25, 2011.
