Our first clue something was up came when Stephen Rea walked into Patrick Sullivan's Saloon for lunch last Thursday. Rea, if you'll recall, was the star of 1992's hit transgender thriller The Crying Game (you know, the one with the infamous "weenie scene"). Did the Irish film and stage star actually jet all the way to Knoxville for one of Sullivan's blue plate specials? No—but he did drive in from Blount County.

Filming is underway there on In Dreams (alternate title: Blue Vision), a movie helmed by Crying Game director Neil Jordan and co-starring Annette Bening (The Grifters, Bugsy), Aidan Quinn (Legends of the Fall, Benny & Joon), and Robert Downey Jr. (People magazine, on a regular basis). Labeled a "psychological thriller," the major film is being produced by Dreamworks SKG, the super-studio headed by Steve Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen (its first release was last month's The Peacemaker). The screenplay is by Bruce Robinson, who previously scripted The Killing Fields and Fat Man and Little Boy.

The Tennessee Film Commission would say little more than to verify what you see above, and Dreamworks' Atlanta PR agency Michael Parver Associates could only add that some filming will also be done in North Carolina. Word also has it that the production is based at Blackberry Farms in Walland and should be there a few more weeks. Whether or not the entire cast will be on hand for filming here hasn't been verified.

Keep your eyes peeled for Hollywood glamour, and so will we.

Orange and Whited

Jamie Whited hasn't exactly pulled a Salman Rushdie over the past few months, but she has understandably kept a pretty low profile. After it came out that the University of Tennessee had paid the athletic trainer $300,000 to settle a 33-count discrimination and sexual harassment complaint, Whited was reviled and besmirched on sports radio shows across the nation (while her allegations about Peyton Manning's locker-room behavior were forgotten as soon as the Heisman boy threw his first TD). But at least one local group thinks her cause is worth championing (no, it's not Florida or Alabama alumni)—the Knoxville chapter of the National Organization for Women will give Whited its "Courage Under Fire Award" at a ceremony Friday. "Most people in Knoxville probably know that Jamie Whited received a financial settlement, but they may not understand the tremendous amount of courage it took for her to file a complaint against UT," says Jeanne Kerwin, the NOW chapter president. NOW will hold a reception tomorrow (Nov. 14) for Whited at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Kingston Pike, starting at 5 p.m. The affair is open to the public, but, uh, you might want to leave those #16 jerseys at home.

The Door Revolveth

A stint at Channel 10 is quickly becoming the best way to land a high-profile government job hereabouts. The latest example, of course, is professional-voice-of-reason Gene Patterson, who's snagged an $80,000-a-year gig as Mayor Victor Ashe's new economic development director (he'll, uh, give Knoxville the highest morning ratings of any city in the Southeast). Others who have trundled through the WBIR revolving door include current news director Margie Nichols, who spent a year or so as County Exec Tommy Schumpert's PR guru; Sheriff's Department spokesman and former reporter Chuck Denney; and Foster Arnett, who went from Channel 10 to become the Knoxville Police Department's spokesguy, then returned to Channel 10 and then went back to the KPD. Whew. So how about Robin Wilhoit for County Commission?