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This article was published 15 year(s) and 11 month(s) ago

Actor Sandler makes Marblehead girl’s day

jbutterworth

August 19, 2009 by jbutterworth

MARBLEHEAD – Tuesday may have just been another hot August day for most on theNorth Shore but for Marblehead Neck teenager Sophia Goetz it was very, very special.”Today is the best day of my life,” Goetz told her brother, sister and friends – George and Mimi Goetz, Emma Barbera and Caroline Kliss – who set up a lemonade stand with her at the very strategic corner of Harbor Avenue and Harvard Street around 10 a.m.Nearby a crew the size of an Army platoon prepared to film scenes for the 2010 Adam Sandler film, “Grown Ups.”Their handmade sign advertised lemonade for 25 cents. It was on the back of another handmade sign with the Red Sox fan slogan “Pedroia My Boya.”Around 10:45, as Sophia sat at her stand alone, a dark hybrid SUV rolled by. From the passenger seat Adam Sandler looked out an open window.The Saturday Night Live veteran and star of nearly 30 films saw the stand. His face lit up with his trademark mischievous smile. “Lemonade,” he said. “So cool.” The SUV moved on toward the privacy of star trailers and a movie set at 100 Harbor Ave. Sandler was due for a basketball game and a day of filming.Sophia turned, eyes wide with disbelief, until a bystander confirmed what had just happened. “Oh my God, that’s great,” she said.It was the very latest example of a phenomenon that has been happening since the first motion picture stars nearly 100 years ago, but history alone can’t explain the effect it has on young people – or the shock that Sophia’s business partners felt when they found out they missed Adam Sandler by a minute or two.In its first hour of business the lemonade stand became the Neck equivalent of Rick’s Café in “Casablanca.” Everyone who came by had to stop and say hello. The police officer directing traffic purchased a lemonade refill for his water bottle, politely declining any gifts. Passing crew members jokingly tried to convince each other to buy a cup of lemonade for $25 instead of 25 cents. By 3 p.m., despite a move that took them out of camera range, the teens made $18.50. That included a 10-lemonade order purchased by one of Sandler’s staff.Reactions to the filming were diverse. There was the older man who stopped by and asked, “What are they doing, filming a movie? Is anybody famous in it?” Some neighbors thought all the extra traffic and extra vehicles parked in an orderly way along Harbor Avenue were, by comparison perhaps, “crazy.”Neck neighbor Brian Lucas was glad to see the activity. “What a novelty,” he said after purchasing a round of lemonade. He briefly considered taking a closer look, then headed back home. “Let them shoot their movie,” he said. “This is great.”The movie deals with friends who reunite 30 years after high school graduation. It also stars Salma Hayek, who was also on set, Gary Busey, Kevin James and SNL vets Maya Rudolph, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and David Spade.During shooting, which was scheduled to end today, movie equipment was parked at the Recreation and Parks parking lot at Riverhead Beach and crew cars parked at Marblehead High. Both the School Department and Rec and Park will receive a donation from the filmmakers in return for the use of their facilities, making Sandler and his movie a good temporary neighbor.But those brief personal connections are meaningful too. In less than a month Sophia will start Grade 7 at the Marblehead Veterans Middle School, and chances are she’ll still be thinking of that hot Tuesday morning when her favorite movie actor thought she was cool.

  • jbutterworth
    jbutterworth

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