Inqlings: Overbrook Farms starring again

Hollywood has returned to Overbrook Farms, and the cinematic results again won't be cheery.

In 2007, director M. Night Shyamalan shot a chilling hanging scene on a front lawn near City Avenue for The Happening.

Friday night, Law Abiding Citizen director F. Gary Gray used the Overbrook Avenue home of Aaron and Ann Selkow to film violent scenes with Gerard Butler, his character's wife (locally raised actress Brooke Stacy Mills), and their young daughter, played by Ksenia Hulayev. The action was the setup for LAC's plot: Butler's character exacts revenge on the district attorney (Jamie Foxx), who allowed his family's killers to walk.

Gray and his team watched monitors in Aaron Selkow's walk-in closet. The crew "couldn't be nicer," says Selkow, who moved with his wife and 6-year-old daughter into a hotel while set designers turned their green walls gold and moved around their stuff.

"We thought the idea of seeing our house in the film would be neat," he says, adding that they were "happy to make a couple of bucks" for the inconvenience.

Another Overbrook Farms family will lend its house this month to serve as the house of Foxx's character.

Law Abiding Citizen, due in theaters March 26, 2010, did a night shoot Thursday into Friday in Center City. Butler, who was not even working, showed up and took photos with well-wishers. Foxx was spotted in a car with Colm Meaney, who plays a detective.

Lisa Acker Moulder and crew at the Betsy Ross House in Old City are on edge over March 11's episode of the Sci Fi Channel series Ghost Hunters. The Atlantic Paranormal Society visited in December to check out paranormal occurrences, especially in the basement and the upstairs office (where a director once climbed out the window after feeling a hand on her back). The same episode features a spooked family in a pre-Revolutionary War house in Glen Mills. The usual: apparitions, mysterious voices, vibrating bed.

Pettiness has crept into a cancer fund-raiser.

Sports-talker Mike Missanelli of 950 ESPN says he was invited to be a panelist at March 16's tip-off breakfast at the Palestra for the annual Coaches vs. Cancer campaign and was asked to send his bio. Last week, he was uninvited.

It's because CBS Radio, which owns sports-talk rival WIP, signed an exclusive partnership with Coaches vs. Cancer, says Ruth Ann Bailey, the American Cancer Society's regional vice president.

Last year, 950 ESPN sent Jody McDonald to the breakfast as part of a working partnership, says the station's Mike McMonagle.

WIP's Howard Eskin was there last year, too, despite 950 ESPN's involvement. "It's a little disappointing they couldn't separate business from charity," Missanelli says of CBS, "but it's amusing how scared they are of us."

Marc Rayfield, who runs CBS Radio's Philly stations, says: "We take all competition seriously. Our relationship with Coaches vs. Cancer is cluster-wide and not specific to any station or personality."

Eskin, who happens to be Missanelli's competitor, will attend.

Coaches vs. Cancer - backed by Philly's six Division I men's basketball coaches (Phil Martelli at St. Joseph's, Fran Dunphy at Temple, Jay Wright at Villanova, John Giannini at La Salle, Bruiser Flint at Drexel, and Glen Miller at Penn) - has raised $4.5 million since 1996.

Majolica in Phoenixville, part of the crop of stellar mom-and-pop restaurants that opened amid the mid-2000s BYOB boom, closed this weekend. "We love what we do," says Sarah Johnson, who ran the 45-seater with her husband, chef Andrew Deery. "Our needs have just changed," she says, citing their year-old daughter, Lila, and nodding toward the economy, which has shaken the BYOB business model. They're not discussing their next move.

DJ AM - the Philly-born DJ to the stars who survived a horrific plane crash in September - is behind a nightclub planned for the space at Caesars in Atlantic City that housed Planet Hollywood, I hear. An announcement is expected within a month, and the club will open by summertime. AM (Adam Michael Goldstein), former fiance of Nicole Richie, also has a stake in the club LAX in Los Angeles. His rep did not return a call and e-mail seeking comment.

Haddonfield letter carrier Dave "US Male" Goldstein, 41, who lives in Voorhees, caused a stir at the 2009 Showboat Mudbug Eating Championship on Tuesday at the House of Blues in Atlantic City. (Mudbugs? Think crawfish.) Goldstein, who ate 4.99 pounds for the $1,500 prize, was ranked 28th by the International Federation of Competitive Eating. He outate three better-ranked eaters: "Humble Bob" Shoudt of Royersford (tied for fourth), Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas (sixth), and Eric "Badlands" Booker (13th).

WPHL has put "This TV" - a syndicated service that shows a random collection of old movies and TV shows (Safari 3000, Return of the Rebels, The Patty Duke Show, The Outer Limits) - on its over-the-air digital channel, 17.2. Comcast says it will pick it up but hasn't set a date. See programming at www.thistvnetwork.net.

Cheesesteak-baron/actor/writer Tony Luke Jr. says a deal is all but signed for The Nail: The Story of Joey Nardone, which director James Quattrochi filmed here over 18 days in June. He identifies Fox as the potential buyer; a Fox rep did not return a call for comment. Producer-actor Leo Rossi says the project got to the studio through Will Smith via Smith's father. The drama, about a boxer (Luke), will have its world premiere in March as part of Philadelphia CineFest. The diverse cast includes Tony Danza, Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, Dayanara Torres, Hugh Douglas, Joe Conklin and Kathy Romano.

Julian Schnabel's 1996 Basquiat is this year's "One Film, One Philadelphia," and the Greater Philadelphia Film Office sponsored an "Inside the Industry" panel Tuesday, importing producer (Randy Ostrow), production designer (Dan Leigh), costume designer (John Dunn), and wardrobe supervisor (Mark Burchard) to dish details at Moore College of Art. The audience learned details including how David Bowie (playing Andy Warhol) wore the actual wig, glasses, and jacket that Warhol had worn on the day he checked into New York Hospital before his death. Juicier stories - including how Courtney Love, lying on her back, spread-eagle, caused a car accident - came out over dinner at the Continental.

at 215-854-5514 or mklein@phillynews.com.