Government

Showtime series, which caused stir last year, may return to film in Greenport

The upcoming Showtime series “Three Women,” which some residents complained created an inconvenience when it filmed in Greenport last year, has notified the village it may potentially film there again in February. 

Village clerk Sylvia Pirillo said at a board work session that the television network has indicated filming for the Shailene Woodley series will tentatively take place on Feb. 10 and 11.

“As always, we will not have firm details until approximately a week before,” she said. “The disruption to the village will be less than the last time they were here.”

Only one day at the moment, most likely Feb. 11, will impact the village, she said. The network asked to use the carousel, both inside and out, and Moore’s Lane as a staging area for trucks. 

“That’s all I know right now. They will of course, as they did in the past, contact every single business and mark deals with the businesses as they negotiate through the process,” she said. She’ll keep the board updated as more details become available. 

“Three Women” is adapted from a 2019 non-fiction book of the same name by Lisa Taddeo, with a focus on the sexual and emotional lives of women from across the country. Ms. Woodley plays the role of a writer persuading these three women to tell their stories. 

Greenport resident Bill Swiskey complained at a Dec. 16 village work session about a Showtime shoot from earlier that month “tying up the whole downtown” and blocking the local IGA, and questioned why the filming had not been discussed at previous meetings.

Mayor George Hubbard responded that it had been discussed in an executive session and the network had provided the village with details about a week before they started shooting, “so we didn’t have the timeframe to … go through the whole procedure that we did.” A film permit application filed Nov. 29 for filming from Dec. 6 to Dec. 8 was approved at a special meeting on Dec. 9.

Mr. Hubbard emphasized that the shoot had financially benefited the village, adding an additional $48,500 to general coffers. “They paid for the police protection, they paid for the hotels, they filled up restaurants, they spent $9,000 on lunches for all their 175 cast members,” he said. 

Trustee Mary Bess Phillips similarly emphasized that businesses benefited as well as the village.

“Maybe we as residents were a little bit inconvenienced because we couldn’t park right next to IGA to walk in there, but in all honesty Bill, I made it into IGA. Yeah, I walked a little bit, but I still honored the fact that I was going to shop in IGA in Greenport,” she said, adding that “it was a benefit for everyone.”

Showtime also filmed installments for the series at Peeko Oysters in New Suffolk in October. A last minute permit application for the one-day operation prompted amendments to town code on filming. 

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said at a subsequent town work session that while Showtime had been “very good to work with” and attempted to mitigate issues raised by the town, the plan had been “very overwhelming for a small hamlet like New Suffolk” and future applications need more thorough review.