Our Subway is Lame
Even fictional entities have to buy a farecard
No one -- no one -- admitted onto Metro without a Farecard! -- and that goes for you, too, Ms. Nicole Kidman!
The Aussie Oscar winner and the crew of the film she's shooting here learned this week that not even fictional characters are exempt from our subway system's zero-tolerance policies.
The script of "The Visiting" -- an alien-epidemic thriller due out next year -- called for Kidman's character to race into the Cleveland Park station, some kind of evil in pursuit, and hop the fare gates to catch a Red Line train.
Not so fast, said Metro -- that's against the rules! So after negotiations between transit officials and filmmakers, yesterday's shoot included a character newly added to the script: a police officer who says, "Ma'am, you didn't process your Farecard."
It was all about maintaining order, Metro explained. "We had to make them say something so people know they're not supposed to do this," spokeswoman Taryn McNeil told The Post's Lyndsey Layton.
Good thing Nicole's character didn't try to eat a french fry in the station. They'd have to add a scene in the D.C. jail.
I mean, I actually think a transit cop yelling at her adds a little realism (clearly something that is needed in an evil-alien flick) but "you didn't process your farecard?" They couldn't come up with something better than that?
No one -- no one -- admitted onto Metro without a Farecard! -- and that goes for you, too, Ms. Nicole Kidman!
The Aussie Oscar winner and the crew of the film she's shooting here learned this week that not even fictional characters are exempt from our subway system's zero-tolerance policies.
The script of "The Visiting" -- an alien-epidemic thriller due out next year -- called for Kidman's character to race into the Cleveland Park station, some kind of evil in pursuit, and hop the fare gates to catch a Red Line train.
Not so fast, said Metro -- that's against the rules! So after negotiations between transit officials and filmmakers, yesterday's shoot included a character newly added to the script: a police officer who says, "Ma'am, you didn't process your Farecard."
It was all about maintaining order, Metro explained. "We had to make them say something so people know they're not supposed to do this," spokeswoman Taryn McNeil told The Post's Lyndsey Layton.
Good thing Nicole's character didn't try to eat a french fry in the station. They'd have to add a scene in the D.C. jail.
I mean, I actually think a transit cop yelling at her adds a little realism (clearly something that is needed in an evil-alien flick) but "you didn't process your farecard?" They couldn't come up with something better than that?