Ed Burns Film, Miller By Marriage, Shooting At Historic Hoboken Home

HOBOKEN, NJ — Hoboken has been the site of several film and TV shoots this year, but the newest one is a bit of a stumper.

The movie "Miller by Marriage," directed by Ed Burns, started filming the mile-square city on Tuesday, March 26, and will remain there through Thursday.

Few references turn up around the web, except for job posts saying, "Miller by Marriage is a Tier 1A Low Budget Feature starting up in NJ."

Burns, a director and actor, has come a long way since his indie days. He wrote "The Brothers McMullen," a surprise hit, in 1995, and had a part in "Saving Private Ryan." He's also married to model Christine Turlington (not the Millers). He created the recent TV series "Bridge and Tunnel."

Meanwhile, one Patch reader spotted Jennifer Lopez eating lunch at the Elysian Cafe, not far from the shoot, but she may have been there in connection with "Kiss of the Spider Woman," which is set to film in Jersey City. See photos and more information about J. Lo's lunch here.

Filming At Former Columbia Club

"Miller by Marriage" doesn't seem small, with large film trucks parked at Tenth and Washington Streets and Eleventh and Bloomfield. Parking is restricted on the 1100 block of Bloomfield during the day through Thursday (see photo of signage above).

The locus of filming Tuesday appears to be a majestic condo building on 11th Street that was once the Columbia Club, a businessmen's social club founded in 1890 by, according to the New York Times, "100 of the city's wealthiest residents."

The building was constructed starting in 1891, then bought by the Free Masons in 1917 for a Masonic temple. It was turned into luxury condos during the gentrification of the late 1980s, with construction started in 1989.

You can see an old photo of the Columbia Club here.

The New Jersey Film & Television Commission's website lists the production company as having a headquarters in Jersey City, and filming in Morris County in March and April.

Signage near the site says, "Please know that the cast & crew have filmed in residential and commercial spaces throughout the country & are professionals. As guests in your neighborhood, we will make every effort to be respectful."

They also noted last year's writers' strike: "As we emerge from a length period of hard-fought & no work for much of the film & television industry, we're extremely excited to get back on sets and even more grateful for residential neighborhoods like yours for allowing us to be here."

In past years, residents in the area complained that the film companies weren't giving much back to Hoboken for taking up parking, particularly when the Justin Baldoni/Blake Lively rom-com "It Ends With Us" filmed on the busy corner of Bloomfield and Tenth Streets for weeks.

Uptown Councilman Phil Cohen sponsored legislation to demand more givebacks and notice.

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