SALEM — There is Hollywood, Bollywood and, now, Witchywood.
Although we could be wrong, as we have been so many times before, the rumors are swirling that Witch City is about to become a movie set.
On Monday, some of moviedom's biggest stars could be pounding the pavement right here on the Essex Street pedestrian mall. Who are they, you wonder?
Well, how about Kate Hudson, Candice Bergen and Anne Hathaway — or some combination of those three?
They are the stars of "Bride Wars," the Fox comedy about two best friends who become bitter rivals when they schedule their weddings for the same day. It has been shooting in Boston and creating a big buzz in the big city.
Although nobody would confirm these rumors as of late yesterday, the story going around is that the movie crew is going to set up shop Monday inside the Peabody Essex Museum. One of the brides is supposedly looking for the perfect place to hold a wedding and decides on the museum — or so we're told by people who may or may not know what they're talking about.
We do, however, have a few facts.
The city has been contacted by an advance man for the movie and been told to provide parking along Essex Street and a police detail. As far as the city knows, this is going to happen.
"We're preparing for their arrival," is all we could get out of Ellen Talkowsky, who is in charge of special projects for Mayor Kim Driscoll.
So there you have it. Kate Hudson, or some other star, may or may not be here to shoot a film that just possibly, but maybe not, will take place inside the PEM someday next week.
You can take that to the bank.
Lunch on the rocks
There was a small event this week that didn't quite rise to the level of a news story.
On Tuesday morning, a restaurant did the impossible — it moved to a new location all by itself.
The Rockmore, the popular floating restaurant out in the harbor, briefly broke loose of its mooring and drifted about a quarter-mile across the cold blue water, settling in shallows near Forest River Park.
"Neighbors started calling Marblehead police because it was adrift," said Peter Gifford, the Salem harbormaster. "We thought it was going to go all the way to the Lead Mills."
Nothing was damaged, and nobody was hurt, but it was exciting for a few minutes. The restaurant, by the way, snapped a couple of chains that anchored it to the ocean bottom, according to Gifford.
The Rockmore, which will open for business soon, is one of the city's most popular summer spots. Customers board a boat in Pickering Wharf and ride out to this large bargelike restaurant for dinner and drinks.
Thank goodness it didn't drift away for good.
Magic behind bars
Turns out, this was a pretty good week for convicts in Great Britain — or at least for imprisoned pagan priests.
British inmates who practice paganism will now be allowed to keep magic wands and Tarot cards in their jail cells to express their religious beliefs, according to The Times of London.
And it doesn't stop there.
Hoodless robes, incense, religious jewelry, chalices and rune stones (small rocks with inscriptions) will also be allowed.
Because wine also plays an important part in pagan rituals, Britain is allowing inmates to have one — and only one — sip of red wine during these ceremonies.
A flexible twig can be kept as a magic wand. Tarot cards are allowed, but prisoners are forbidden from using them to tell the fortunes of other prisoners, according to the newspaper.
"It makes sense to me," said Jerrie Hildebrand, a Salem resident and Wiccan priestess. "Freedom of religion is freedom of religion. If you're going to allow one person to practice religion, you've got to allow everyone."
Hall of fame
There were two big celebrities in Lynn last Saturday.
Red Sox star Dustin Pedroia was there for the opening of a new branch of the Salem Five. One of the bank bigwigs who attended was Senior Vice President John Hall.
Around here, he's better known as Mr. President — Hall heads the Salem Partnership.
A gift from Salem
There was a nice ceremony this week at the USS Constitution Museum in Charlestown.
They unveiled their newest acquisition — four paintings of the legendary 1812 battle between the USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere, a British frigate. This is the battle when the Constitution earned the nickname "Old Ironsides." The paintings depict the demasting and burning of the Guerriere. Painted in 1813, they are among the earliest images of this famous sea battle.
We tell you all this because the painter, George Ropes Jr., was from Salem.
Ropes was one of nine children of shipmaster George Ropes. He was a brilliant artist and prodigy. Unable to hear or speak, he supported his family after his father's death by painting.
The paintings, which had been in storage at the Woburn Public Library, are on display in a free exhibit that runs until Nov. 14 at the museum.
Take a bow, Salem
The city should pat itself on the back for reaching deep last weekend. A record 27,000 pounds of canned goods and other nonperishable food was collected in the National Association of Letter Carriers' annual "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive. That was 7,000 more pounds than last year.
"The city really stepped up," said Eddie Lendall, the food drive coordinator for the local post office.
One more bow
Once again, Salem residents turned out in big numbers last Friday night for the presentation of the annual Salem Award, given this year to Eric Reeves, the college professor battling to end the genocide in Darfur.
Mayor Kim Driscoll, who helped make the presentation, paid her fellow citizens a high compliment.
"This is a real thinking community," she said.
Cruiser crash
There was a bit of commotion outside the Salem District Court Wednesday afternoon after a woman heading to court to pay her husband's court costs sideswiped a Lynn police car parked out front.
A routine fender bender turned into a confrontation after the woman, Valerie Plante of Wakefield, blamed the Lynn detectives who had been parked in one of the spaces for the crash. Her argument: The sign out front says "marked police vehicles only," and the car she hit, a Ford Crown Victoria police vehicle complete with a light bar in the back window and a whip antenna mounted on the trunk, was not "marked."
She told the detectives they shouldn't have been parked there and that if they hadn't been parked there she wouldn't have hit them. The detectives, who were at the court to testify in a proceeding, couldn't argue with her logic — they were too busy laughing.
Staff writer Julie Manganis contributed to this report.
