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Arts & Entertainment

Filmed In Brooklyn

A new tour reveals how Brooklyn neighborhoods increasingly have become TV and movie stars—although often the show is supposed to be taking place somewhere else.

There is no question that in the first “Sex and the City” movie, Mr. Big and Carrie get married in the Supreme Court building on Jay Street and then have their wedding reception at Junior’s on Flatbush Avenue. It is just as clear that Denzel Washington has his trial in that same Brooklyn courthouse in “American Gangster.”

What is up for debate is whether moviegoers are supposed to know that the scenes in these films take place in Brooklyn.

“People know Junior’s is in Brooklyn,” says Colette Harris, office manager for the iconic cheesecake and dessert maker.

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Others had a different take.

“My theory is that you are supposed to think it’s Lower Manhattan,” says Emily Sproch, a guide for On Locations Tours , which recently unveiled its Brooklyn TV and Movie Sites Tour.

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As for Denzel Washington’s scene in “American Gangster,” Pauline Gacanja, also of On Location Tours, points out, “He is supposed to be a Harlem gangster.”

Brooklyn has been a popular location for movies and TV shows for a long time, but its part as a star in its own right (or at least bit player) has never been greater. Frequently, though, its role is uncredited.

Brooklyn filming seems to fall into three categories. There are the movies set in Brooklyn that are actually filmed here. Examples include iconic Brooklyn motion pictures like “Moonstruck” and “Saturday Night Fever,” and anything involving the Brooklyn Bridge, such as the scene in that first “Sex and the City” movie when Steve and Miranda reconcile romantically in the middle of the bridge (even if, technically, they may not actually be in Brooklyn if they’re in the middle of the bridge.)

Occupying the second category are the shows that are supposed to take place in Brooklyn but were filmed elsewhere. The Huxtables of “The Cosby Show” were supposed to live in Brooklyn Heights, but their brownstone was in Greenwich Village. The 1954 film, “On The Waterfront,” was inspired by a series of articles about corruption on the Brooklyn docks—but instead of making a home in the county of Kings, Marlon Brando and company were filmed over 36 days in Hoboken, N.J.

Then there are the scenes that were filmed in Brooklyn but supposed to be somewhere else (or nowhere in particular). These are surprisingly common.

“Brooklyn often doubles as Philadelphia, Boston and Washington D.C.,” Sproch says. Over the course of a tour lasting more than three hours through Brooklyn neighborhoods, Sproch points out:

The Boston pub where crime boss Jack Nicholson hangs out in “The Departed” is actually Fernando’s on Union Street.

The Boston home where Tom Cruise carries the child in “War of the Worlds” is actually on Carroll Street.

The restaurant in Paris where Meryl Streep as Julia Child meets Jane Lynch as her sister in “Julie & Julia” is Café Moutarde on Fifth Avenue.

The HBO series “Boardwalk Empire,” which is supposed to take place in Atlantic City, N.J., is filmed throughout Brooklyn. A 300-foot-long boardwalk has been built in Greenpoint. The Boardwalk Empire casino is really St. Francis Xavier Church on Sixth Avenue. Other scenes take place in the Montauk Club .

Brooklyn Borough Hall has been used as a bank in a variety of films, including “Catch Me If You Can," and as an auction house in "Mickey Blue Eyes."

"Remember Me" starring Robert Pattinson (best-known for the "Twilight" series) was filmed partially on Cranberry Street, where his mother and sister are supposed to live.

That same street in Brooklyn Heights is the site of the house where Cher's family lives in "Moonstruck," a 1987 movie whose location in Brooklyn is essential to the story.

But what "Brooklyn" means has changed and diversified in the six decades between the seminal 1950s television series, "The Honeymooners," which is supposed to take place in Bushwick, and this season's new TV series, “2 Broke Girls,” which is set in Williamsburg. On-location shooting now takes place in neighborhoods throughout the borough. For example:

Fort Greene: “Bored to Death," the HBO television series, says Sproch, “is putting Brooklyn on the map.”

Park Slope: "As Good As It Gets," "Meet Joe Black," "Damages."

Brooklyn Heights/Cobble Hill: In a tiny scene near the beginning of "Eat, Pray, Love," Julia Roberts shops for self-help books in BookCourt. “It’s the only time they’ve ever closed the store,” says Adam Wilson, who worked there at the time. “Bored to Death has shot there a few times, but they kept the store open.”

Prospect Heights: Meryl Streep reads in the Brooklyn Public Library’s main branch in “Sophie’s Choice." Adam Sandler and Kevin James work in a neighborhood firehouse in “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry”

DUMBO: "Analyze That," "13 Going on 30," "Scent of a Woman," "Gossip Girl" and "The Forgotten"

Carroll Gardens: "Jack Goes Boating" and "Moonstruck."

"Moonstruck" was shot in several neighborhoods. Ryan Miller has watched the film hundreds of times; “It was a favorite of mine as a child.” He knows one of the locations in the film intimately, the Cammareri Bros Bakery, now called Maybelle’s. He owns it with his wife Sarah Lovett.

“People come here every day because of the movie,” Miller says, as he climbs down to the cellar with the (now unused) ovens where Nicholas Cage and Cher fought and fell in love.

Brooklyn TV and Movie Sites Tour leaves every Saturday at 11 a.m. from 130 Bowery in Manhattan. Cost for adults: $42.

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