The historic Marietta Square is among the locations you'll see when the Oprah Winfrey-produced movie "Selma" is released.
The biopic about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stars David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson, rapper-actor Common as James Bevel, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, Corey Reynolds as the Rev. C.T. Vivian, Andre Holland as former Atlanta Mayor and Ambassador Andrew Young, Stephan James as U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Colman Domingo as the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Omar J. Dorsey as James Orange and R&B artist Ledisi Young as Mahalia Jackson.
It is directed by Ava DuVernay, who was the first black woman to ever win best director honors at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival for her work on "Middle of Nowhere," which also starred Oyelowo.
Filming for “Selma” has been taking place at and around the Marietta-Cobb Museum of Art, at Atlanta and Anderson streets. A few area streets have been closed, but traffic hasn’t been impacted too terribly. (Just Kiln’ Time, a pottery painting place at 27 Atlanta St., notes that it is open for business as usual although its storefront has been done up to look like a vintage beauty parlor.)
Marietta has approximated Alabama before. Last year’s Hallmark Channel project “The Watsons Go to Birmingham” filmed there as well.
Buffett finds paradise in Atlanta
Jimmy Buffett, in Atlanta for a concert this week at Chastain Park Amphitheatre, sings about wasting away in Margaritaville but enjoyed slightly ramped-up accommodations while he was in town.
We're told he winged in on his private jet and stayed at the elegant St. Regis. In his free time, he brunched at the Ritz-Carlton and dined at Bistro Niko, where he posed for a nice photo with manager Jonathan Schechter. Steak frites in paradise!
Buffett’s long and enduring success follows an early struggle. As he shared with Chastain patrons, he once performed a show in Atlanta back in the day and “no one actually came.”
The 67-year-old beach rocker, who performed barefoot, also revealed to the crowd that “In my early days, my only cheeseburgers were from Krystal and the Varsity.”
Redford and Nolte wrapping up
The Robert Redford-Nick Nolte film "A Walk in the Woods" has been filming for several months in metro Atlanta but is just about ready to wrap up. No one will be sadder to see them go than the folks at Davio's at Phipps Plaza, where Redford has been been spotted a number of times. We're told he's been staying in a private residence nearby.
About the Author
