Hollywood Goes Prairie for New Movie

It's time to roll out the red carpet in the Twin Cities because some big Hollywood hitters are coming to town and they're going to be here for quite awhile.

Filming starts Wednesday in St. Paul on "Prairie Home Companion" ? The Motion Picture. The buzz at the Fitzgerald Theater has always been about Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion.

Stillwater Hair Stylist Roxanne Wightman says it?s a positive buzz, ?I think it?s added something to our culture that is missing and it's good old fashioned story telling.?

It?s about to become modern day Hollywood.

Natalie Hale is a Woodbury Makeup Artist, who like Wightman, has been hired to work on the film, ?We have one actress in there right now and we met a couple yesterday and the rest will start coming through in the next couple days.?

?Saturday Night Live's? Maya Rudolph, expecting a baby in November, is one of many celebrities starring in the Prairie Home Companion Movie.

?I arrived last week and I really love it and its quiet and it's beautiful and I got to hear the sirens.?

Sirens for Monday?s fast moving thunderstorms, ?I thought the world was going to end so it was great I'm from California so we don?t get really serious weather like that.?

Lindsay Lohan, Woody Harrelson and Kevin Kline are also in the film as are Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin who are already in the Twin Cities.

Rudolph met Streep and Tomlin, her childhood heroes, for the first time the other day. She said it was exciting, ?So the two of them in one room was overwhelming. I think I kind of exploded a little bit.?

As for fans, it's pretty quiet around the theater. Rudolph says she hasn?t seen many gawkers, ?I had some girls laugh and kind of recognize me yesterday in the Mall of America but they were really shy so they said my name and then ran away.?

Rudolph plays the assistant stage manager in the movie. Garrison Keillor wrote the screenplay and he'll play himself. Filming starts Wednesday and should last about a month.

By Renee Tessman, KARE 11 News

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