From New York to Los Angeles.. We've got SPIDER-MAN set reports!!!

Hello, everybody. I'm Maximillian DuPont, and I'm Alexandra's little brother. Usually she doesn't like me to talk to other people, especially her friends. I have to keep quiet. She doesn't want me to "embarrass" her. But what she really wants to do is hog the spotlight. Has she ever told you that she has a brother who writes DVD reviews for a website? No! I'm her little brother and I was passed over. I'm smart! I'm not dumb, like everybody says. I'm smart.

But the news I have is so interesting that even she had to relax her so-called "standards" and pass this along. You see, I got onto the set of "Spiderman."

Yes, that's right. Hah, big sister, I got onto the set and you didn't! Nyannyanynannyanyanya! But here's the thing, sis: You COULD have got onto the set. Anybody could have. This set is wide open. All you have to do is drive up to the gate at the old MGM lot and say, "I'm with 'Spiderman'" and they wave you through!

So I'm pulling a Spielberg on the MGM lot and I'm terrified and looking over my shoulder and creeping around and trying to avoid everyone's eye, and here's what I see and hear.

For one thing, they've got an exterior inside an interior. What that means is that they've got the front of a 20 story building built inside the hangar-sized soundstage where "The Wizard of Oz" was shot. They are doing a lot of wire work there. A duplicate of the same structure also exists, but outside, on a lot a few miles away. If I followed what was going on right, this is the building in Manhattan where Mary Jane lives, and where the Green Goblin kidnaps her. In the scene I saw them shoot they were staging a stunt in which Mary Jane falls 20 stories. The set up is something like this. Spiderman (Toby Maguire) and the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) have squared off. GG has seized Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst). He is holding two cables. One is connected to a bus load of little kids. The other is connected to Mary Jane. He tells Spiderman that he has a choice. He can save the kids, or MaryJane. Then he lets go of both cables. Whom does Spidey save? Wait'll next year! They shot the fall of Mary Jane many, many times over.

So I'm walking around like I own the place, and it seems that I'm not the only one doing this. Last month some crew members saw a suspicious chick running outside the sound stage, and noticed that she was carrying two cans of film. They chased her. She ran off, dropping the cans. They never got her, but they got the film cans back, which were cans of "Spiderman" film (don't know if it was exposed or unexposed stock). However, what they haven't retrieved (yet, anyway) are the costumes that were stolen a couple of weeks ago. But then, people are always wandering on and off the set, and nobody knows who they are. Security is super-lax for a superhero film that everybody is curious about.

Willem Dafoe seemed like a nice guy. He's really short and has a huge head. Sam Raimi is also very nice. He has a goofy sense of humor, and wears clothes that are a couple of sizes too big for him. He likes to tease everyone. Kirsten Dunst is just a kid, a wisp of a thing, really. What she likes to do during an especially long, hot day of shooting is sneak down an alley and take off her __________ and air them out for a few minutes, then put _____ ____ __ back on. Must be a chick thing. Maybe they all do it.

Anyway, I'm not in L.A. anymore, so I don't have a chance to sneak onto the set again, and anyway the production is relocating to New York shortly. But I thought that everyone should know that, from what I saw, the film looks great. Cheers, Max.

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