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Hollywood Comes to Holly Springs

© Dorothy Hill

"I bet you he's one of them." The young girl behind the counter pointed at the stranger who had just entered the convenience store.

"I don't know," I replied. "He looks pretty ordinary to me."

"Well, I've got me a piece of paper right here just in case."

Hollywood has come to Holly Springs, Mississippi again, or at least a movie crew has. Some have talked about seeing Debra Winger, but, for the most part, most people have tried to act real cool about it. Not like last time.

When COOKIE'S FORTUNE was filmed in Holly Springs a couple of years ago, people shopped more in town than usual in hopes of getting a glimpse of Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Liv Tyler, Chris O’Donnell, Charles S. Dutton, Lyle Lovett, or Ned Beatty. More people suffered from strained neck muscles from star-gazing than any other ailment that fall. It was interesting how many people took up walking especially when their chosen path took them past one of the temporary homes of the stars.

The first time Hollywood came to Holly Springs was in 1989. Ally Sheedy was the star of the movie HEART OF DIXIE. When extras were needed for a crowd scene on the Square, my sister-in-law and I took our daughters to see how movies were made. The girls just knew that they were stars who just needed their opportunity to be discovered.

After a boring morning sitting in a parking lot, we finally got to make our grand entrance--again, and again, and again, and again. Then we got to enter the scene from a different direction to make the crowd look bigger. We spent the whole day as movie "stars", our pay was donated to charity, and, in true Hollywood fashion, our chance for fame was left on a cutting room floor. Needless to say, none of us have asked to be extras again. Oh, we did get to see Ally Sheedy--or at least they told us that the little speck on the platform that we were all supposed to be gawking at for the movie was her.

Mississippi has played host through the years to several movie crews. Some movies were filmed entirely in the state and some only partly. Some of the movies have been big names and big budgets; others quickly passed into oblivion. Following is a list of just some of the movies that were filmed in Mississippi.

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