New York City Attractions From Your Favorite Films

I bought some sunglasses the other day with the brand name [Compare our prices to] Versace. They are very big and very dark, and I bought them so I could feel like a Hollywood star when I go to the grocery store. I tried Colgate toothpaste once because Brooke Shields told me to (on a commercial), and I won't have lived until I try a Gray's Papaya hot dog. The first two make sense I'm sure. But I don't think I'm the only person who does these things despite the fact that by admitting it and still doing it, I am perhaps the ultimate advertiser's dream. Face it, most of us are influenced by the entertainment industry.

The reason I want the Gray's Papaya hot dog is because in one of my favorite romantic comedies, Fools Rush In, Matthew Perry plays a character from New York City who raves about the Gray's Papaya hot dog. I saw the sign again in the movie You've Got Mail, and I simply had to have one of those famously inexpensive frankfurters. I've done some research on it since then. There are three locations. The "Papaya" is for the fruit drinks sold alongside the dogs, and the owner is opinionated about politics. Cool, eh? I decided to look up some more film locations in NYC, and I found a gold mine.

There is a company there who leads tours based on movie locations in Central Park, t.v. and movie locations around the city including the Friends apartment and Seinfeld diner, and tours highlighting locations from Sex and the City and The Sopranos.

I'd like to try the Central Park one for sure, and I'd love to sit on the steps of Cosby's famous townhouse. But I think I'll develop a movie tour of my own one day. I'll call it Nora Ephron's New York City. Ephron is famous - at least to me - for putting her favorite New York City locations into her films. I want to visit Cafe Lalo and the 91st Street Garden from You've Got Mail. I want to arrange to meet someone at the top of the Empire State Building a la Sleepless in Seattle. And I want to see the little cheese shop they had to use for the small independent bookstore in You've Got Mail because Barnes and Noble - I mean, um, Fox Books Superstore - shut down all of the actual small independent bookstores, such as Shakespeare and Co., which was featured in When Harry Met Sally.

You see what I mean? This city is loaded with entertainment history. New York City graduation trips would be perfect for the Central Park movie walking tour. And as for the other locations - and the hundreds I have not even mentioned, doesn't this bring educational tours to a whole new level?