WestConn going Hollywood today
Scenes from 'The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2' to be filmed through Friday
By Eileen FitzGerald

NewsTimes Staff Writer

July 18, 2007

DANBURY -- Western Connecticut State University will become a movie set this week as scenes for "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" are filmed on campus.

Actress Alexis Bledel, 25, who plays Lena, will be on campus, and is expected to be joined by WestConn art students, who will be extras.

In the sequel to the 2005 film "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," the girls -- "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera, "Joan of Arcadia" star Amber Tamblyn, Bledel, and Blake Lively -- are in college and travel to Turkey, Greece, New York, Vermont and Providence.

Bledel's character is an art student at Rhode Island School of Design. WestConn will provide art class settings for the movie, which is tentatively set for a fall 2008 release.

"They came and scouted the college in April and called us last week to confirm," related Sherri Hill, assistant director of university relations. "It's really exciting to see how this was pulled together."

About 85 crew members and actors will be on the midtown campus from today through Friday with trucks and star trailers. The crew has filmed in other parts of the state, including Bridgeport, Kent and on the campus of Yale University in New Haven.

Hill said the crew plans to film two scenes in the art department in White Hall. The plan also calls for a walk and talk scene to be filmed on the quad between the biggest buildings on the mid-town campus.

Ann Brashares, the author of "The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants," grew up in Maryland and studied philosophy at Barnard College in New York City.

According to her Web site at Random House publishers, Brashares said the four women are composites of different people.

She ended up writing a series that began in 2001 with "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." That book was followed by "The Second Summer of the Sisterhood" in 2003; "Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood" in 2005; and "Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood" in 2007.

She also compiled "Keep in Touch: Letters, Notes, and More from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," which came out in 2005.

Contact Eileen FitzGerald

at eileenf@newstimes.com