Everyone wants a piece of a celebrity. Pierre is a political reporter, assigned to write a fluff piece on Katya (Sienna Miller), a blond who acts in slasher movies and a Fox show about single girls in the city. The interview, at a restaurant, goes badly: she's late, he's unprepared and rude. After leaving, he bangs his head in a fender bender and she takes him to her loft to clean the wound. Lubricated by alcohol and competitive natures, the interview resumes. She takes phone calls from her fiancé, Pierre reads her diary on her computer. They discuss wounds, he expresses concern, father-daughter feelings arise. Out come camcorders to tape their darkest secrets. Is friendship or more in the offing?

otsoNY Comments: Located in the historic 179 Franklin Street building in Tribeca, Thalassa has been a neighbourhood fixture since 2002. Once used as a warehouse for Greek olives and cheeses, the space, designed by renowned architect Jean-Pierre Heim, is now a spacious contemporary Greek Mediterranean seafood restaurant with a hard-to-get boutique worldly wine & liquor list as most rare Greek wines.

otsoNY Comments: The main characters are named Pierre played by Steve Buscemi and Katya played by Sienna Miller. In the original Dutch movie on which this remake was based, the main characters were also named Pierre and Katja, named after the actors portraying them which was Pierre Bokma and Katja Schuurman respectively.

Thalassa Restaurant, 179 Franklin Street (btw Greenwich and Hudson Streets) Manhattan.

Thalassa Restaurant, 179 Franklin Street and Greenwich Street, Manhattan.

otsoNY Comments: The woman who steps out of the limo at the end, almost walking into the distracted Pierre, is played by Katja Schuurman. She played Katya in the original 2003 Dutch version of the movie by Theo van Gogh.

otsoNY Comments: Most of the movie takes place inside Katya’s attractive loft, a conveniently open space, at least for a movie crew, which looks as if it was chosen to fit the production budget more than her high-flying character. Here, in between cigarettes, snorts of coke and many more swigs of booze, Pierre and Katya square off, moving from the kitchen to the living room and bathroom and back and occasionally hovering in and around the bedroom.

otsoNY Comments: When Pierre is looking around the apartment he stops briefly at a photo of a man and a woman. The man is Theo van Gogh - director of the original movie, and the woman is Katja Schuurman, the lead actress in the original.

otsoNY Comments: The actual building at 515 West 29th Street which was used for exterior and interior shots was partly demolished in 2015 and then rebuilt in between 2016 and 2017. In 2023, it is now a luxurious apartment building with glass facade.

Katya's Apartment, 515 West 29th Street (btw 10th and 11th Avenues) Manhattan.   Photo taken in October 2023 Photo taken in October 2023 Photo taken in October 2023 Photo taken in September 2016 Photo taken in June 2014 Photo taken in June 2011

West 29th Street (btw 10th and 11th Avenues) Manhattan.