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Tonight’s ‘Boardwalk Empire’ features scene filmed in Riverhead

MACALL POLAY COURTESY PHOTO | Jack Huston as Boardwalk Empire fan favorite Richard Harrow. Mr. Huston does not appear in the scene filmed in Riverhead.

Be sure to catch the season 2 finale of HBO’s hit show “Boardwalk Empire” tonight at 9 p.m. to catch some familiar sights in the background.

The show, which chronicles life in Prohibition-era Atlantic City, filmed a scene last summer for episode 24 “To the Lost” on a Baiting Hollow Farm off Sound Avenue.
The episode is directed by HBO veteran director Tim Van Patten and written by series creator Terence Winter.

Steve Buscemi, who stars as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson; Anthony Laciura, better known as Nucky’s trusted butler, Eddie; Victor Verhaeghe, who plays Ward Boss Fleming; and Kevin O’Rourke, who plays Mayor Edward Bader, were all on set in Baiting Hollow during filming Sept. 12, an HBO spokesperson confirmed.

The scene is of a meeting in a farm field, supposedly in New Jersey.

A description of the episode reads, “With Nucky’s trial looming, Jimmy looks to make amends. After weighing an offer from Esther Randolph, Margaret makes a decision that will change the course of her future — and Nucky’s.”

During the one-day shoot, signs directing cast and crew members to the set could be seen posted at a farm on the south side of Sound Avenue just west of the beginning of Baiting Hollow hamlet. There, in the morning, vans and trucks were directed down a long dirt road to a location obstructed from view. A Riverhead Town police officer was stationed near the road’s entrance at the time.

Riverhead Town was reportedly paid $156 per hour for use of police personnel as security on the set and $10 per hour for use of a police vehicle, for a sum total of $2,823, according to the town’s agreement with Bootleg Productions.

“Boardwalk Empire,” nominated for 18 Emmy Awards including best drama series, is about government corruption at the beginning of Prohibition in Atlantic City in the 1920s. The episode airs Dec. 11 at 9 p.m. on HBO. If you miss it, don’t worry. It will replay on HBO Dec. 12 at 10 p.m., Dec. 13 at 11 p.m., Dec. 14 at 9 p.m. and Dec. 17 at 9:45 p.m. It will also replay at various times on HBO2.

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