Professor's son cancels plans to film scenes on campus
By Talia Brown, Managing News Editor
Thomas Bezucha, filmmaker and son of Professor of History Robert Bezucha, has been forced to cancel plans to shoot scenes of his latest film on the College campus and in the town of Amherst.

The College and the Town had planned extensively for the shooting, which was supposed to occur each day from April 6 to 14.

The film, "Hating Her," stars Donald Sutherland, Blythe Danner and Johnny Knoxville. All shooting will now take place in Los Angeles, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

Bezucha cited economic costs, as well as anxiety over travelling during the U.S.-led war against Iraq as primary reasons for cancelling the Amherst shooting, according to Stacey Schmeidel, who is the director of public affairs at the College.

"They told me they were not coming here because of cost considerations," said Schmeidel. "I think the real reason was anxiety about travel."

Schmeidel said that shooting in Amherst would have involved transporting approximately 70 people and keeping them away from home for an extended period of time.

"We are disappointed because the filmmaker is a local person and it was his vision to have it here," said Schmeidel.

"I wrote 'Hating Her' as specifically set in Amherst, and intended it as a valentine of sorts to the town in which I grew up," Bezucha wrote in an email to the Gazette.

Issue 21, Submitted 2003-03-26 14:05:33