Welcome To Hollywood...Cajun Style!

Louisiana has always been a culturally diverse state, even by our own standards. In fact, it is probably the MOST diverse area in the entire country! From the cajun French, to our traditional southern suburbia living, La is frankly just a cut above all else. We not only play host to the French Quarter down in The Big Easy, but also small town Friday night football and metropolitan night life. Crawfish etoufee', jambalaya, Mardi Gras and the mighty LSU Tigers, yes, Louisiana has definately got the hook.

Our Dirty South is also becoming increasingly popular with Hollywood's film industry, fastly approaching the number one "go to" hot spot for producers and directors alike! Chiseling out a nitch that offers the filming industry excellent incentives to bring celebrity entertainment and production down here to The Pelican State.

Having already played host to over 72 movie films and television shows post production, Louisiana offers what other states can not....stable climatry, southern hospitality, beautiful landscapes and a complete lack of paparazzi. Along with glamor and gumbo, we also lay claim to the best casinos this side of Las Vegas. Jessica Simpson, Katie Holmes, Kevin Costner, Sandra Bullock and Ashton Kutcher are just a tiny fraction of those A-List stars that have donned our local area with their celebrity status and suprisingly, have even offered up some casual conversation with us locals. Although Shreveport-Bossier is slowly getting used to our new turn of celebrity status, our love for anonymity is probably one of the most desired reasons that Hollywood starlets are eager to stop by and work a bit down here in Tiger Country. Because we leave them alone and mind our own business. Like we should.

But yes, admittedly, native Louisianians can, and do become star struck just like the rest of the fans out there, and of course we can feel slightly enamored after bumping into a Hollywood hottie every so often. But normally, we are in such disbelief that we stood in line at Target next to Jessica Simpson, that it usually renders us speechless. Stopped frozen in our tracks, we become dazed and confused. Simply left to question our own sanity silently as if such an occurance actually took place on aisle 7.  Did we actually see Miss Celebrity XYZ? We don't really know, we just silently stare and ponder at the thought. The good ole' southern hospitality we were all born and bred with would never allow us to be so brazen and approach a celebrity without first seeking permissable consent, no ma'am. Dirty South manners, at work in their finest traditional form, and yeah, we got 'em! On the other hand, us cajun folks know exactly how to party like a rock star, and could probably show those A Listers a thing or two about how it really should go down, but none the less, yeah...we'll still leave you Beverly Hills Kids alone to carry on with your moving making careers.

Honestly, in our true to form southern style, we like having our new found west coast California friends down here. We don't really want to talk to you too terribly much, or have some type of relationship with you people, but it does give us a splendid "story to tell opp" down the road a bit, in some future place or time. We don't feel the least bit guilty about using the stars for our own advantage and coolness factor. We don't even really mind if you close our roadways for several weeks at a time, or prevent us from entering our favorite businesses because of filming. Zyedeco folks are too laid back to let such trivial irritants bother us...we'll just find another way around to get where we need to be. Besides, swamp natives really love to go off-roadin' and we'll snag any excuse we can find to violate traffic laws and drive in the dirt!

After Hurricane Katrina slammed into our fantastic state leaving it in total devastation and in shambles, movie production headed north (along with everyone else!) to Shreveport Rock City. Once legislators realized the opportunity and quickly seized it, they pounced on the chance to do everything necessary to secure our number 4 spot in Movie Maker Magazine. (2008) Shreveport-Bossier soon became Anywhere, World. By offering the most aggressive tax incentives in the country, local officals wasted no time brokering deals to ensure streamlined paperwork and permit processing rushing. Thus, cajun country, where we take off the long O's and replace them with an "eaux" began it's treck to legendary status as the "Hollywood South".

Our small town USA has been transformed into places such as NYC, Paris, Alaska, Africa, Guantanamo Bay and Amsterdam. Celebrities are everywhere....in our bakeries, grocery stores, local malls and hardware stores. Although it can be seemingly hard to recognize them at times without their 21 car paparazzi procession following (I mean, stalking) them. The only real difference between our before and after, is no local resident dare leaves home without their camera in tow. You just don't know who you'll brush elbows with!

Last week, Mayor Cedric Glover announced the new "Shreveport Bossier Film Trail", which leads you down a 21 stop path at the numerous spots in our area that are already featured on the big screen....local architecture can be seen in such movies as "Mad Men", "Disaster Movie", "Premonition", "W", and "The Mist". More recently filmed, was the newly released "My Mom's New Boyfriend", and I have to say, I heard it wasn't too bad. In all honesty, we don't really care if they are heading straight for a nomination, or if it has complete box office flop written all over it, yep, we're still going to watch them, and we're going to watch them all. Because, well, heck yea....they're filming them in our backyards, and frankly it's pretty cool. It's crazy really, seeing all this Hollywood ho hum buzz around our home town, in the places we work, shop and play. But I suppose, if we're being somewhat realistic, these Los Angeles guys have been here for a few years now and truthfully, we like it well enough!

'Cause it's Louisiana ya'll! The home of the Big Easy, of groove and gumbo, LSU football (Geaux Tigers!) and now, obviously Anywhere, World..... and it's seriously flippin cool.


I saw them filming "Battle: Los Angeles" the other day. I have to say, quite impressive really. So here's to you, Sandra, Denzel, Kevin, Ashton and Samuel L....Welcome! Welcome to Hollywood, CAJUN STYLE!