We were in New Orleans for the last half of our honeymoon, walking through the French Quarter from our hotel. We had picked an old, picturesque, legendary New Orleans hotel, with a swimming pool on the roof.
The area was full of coffee shops and near all of those weird voodoo/tourist shops in that funky city. As we walked along, we started to see large black electrical cables running along the sidewalks. Soon, we approached an area with police barricades blocking the path. We could see a few movie cameras behind the barricades, and realized someone was shooting a movie on location. There was no choice but to turn around and go the other way to avoid the throng of people.
Later in the day, as we continued to tour the Quarter, this guy was walking toward us on the sidewalk. Immediately we could tell he had “an air about him.” (I mean that in a good way.) He was obviously “somebody.” But we weren’t sure who. It was the era of Miami Vice … and open collars … and pastel jackets … and five-clock shadow beards … and this guy was all about that. He was almost handsome enough to be Don Johnson. But he wasn’t. We were baffled. He knew we were trying to figure it out, and he just smiled as he passed us on the sidewalk.
When we returned to our hotel, we asked around and someone told us the area was a location for a film with Robert DeNiro, (the very hot at that time) Lisa Bonet … and a guy I had really liked in Rumble Fish. They were shooting the very dark Angel Heart that day. Anywho … Happy Birthday today — Mickey Rourke.
