This weekend, Hollywood delivered a misrepresentation of UW-Madison and it all traces back to two UW grads.
\Can you still smoke in the libraries?""
""Do people still go up to the library stacks to fool around?""
""Do they still call it Ogg?""
It's easy to tell that Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, writers of ""The Prince and Me,"" are a bit removed from their Madison days. And most UW students who saw the movie agree that while the movie is set here, the UW-Madison that Julia Stiles and company attend is different from the one we know. But don't blame Amiel and Begler. They were just trying to pay tribute to a town they love.
When Amiel and Begler first came on board, the story was set at Indiana University.
""The script already existed,"" said Begler. ""And Paramount [Pictures] called us in to take a look at the script.""
One of the first things the writers did was move the story's setting to Madison.
""We really started writing the world that we knew,"" said Amiel. ""There were a lot of things we took, like hanging out with friends, beer and pretzel rods at the Union and Leinenkugel's.""
Amiel and Begler first began writing together when they were both members of the Alpha-Epsilon-Pi fraternity. Both were largely uninvolved with fraternity life, but decided to contribute material to Humorology, the annual joint fraternity-sorority variety show.
""We got one look at the A-Chi-Os and thought to ourselves, 'This is a great opportunity,'"" Amiel said.
The two New York natives point to their time in Madison as a fun exercise in culture shock.
""We didn't know any Carls where we were from,"" Begler said.
""Everyone we knew,"" Amiel chimed in, ""Carl, Todd, Krista, Kristin, Crystal, Christie-all these healthy Scandinavians and Lutherans. It was great. Leaving the Northeast was the greatest decision we ever made.""
After graduating, the pair eventually reunited and wrote television shows together for nine years before moving into film. Their time in Madison still serves as inspiration, as they set most of their work in the Midwest.
""We still refer back to all the people we met in Madison and what an eye-opening experience it was for two sort of provincial New York kids to go to this place with just this incredible panoply of interesting and intelligent people. It changes your whole perspective,"" Amiel said. ""I think we both look back on it as some of the best days of our lives.""
But their tribute to Madison still went awry. While Amiel and Begler requested that the movie be shot in Madison, studio bosses decided to shoot in Toronto, where production would be less expensive. This forced UW scenes to be shot at the University of Toronto, which is noticeably different to any trained Madison eye, with its nicer library and inappropriately modern looking Rathskeller.
Amiel and Begler feel bad that the real UW is not featured in ""The Prince and Me,"" but they do deserve credit for ways in which they tried to compensate.
""There's a scene in the Rat, where someone yells out 'Minnesota sucks, Wisconsin rules,'"" said Amiel. ""And everybody screams about how much they love Wisconsin and hate the fucking Gophers. So we figured it's a microcosm of a football game.""
Maybe Hollywood is getting Madison wrong this week. Maybe Jack Amiel and Michael Begler haven't paid quite the tribute to Madison they intended. And maybe Rodney Dangerfield's ""Back to School"" will always remain the flagship of movies filmed in Madison.
But if these two can get Canadians to chant ""Minnesota sucks"" on camera, maybe UW students should be proud they have two of their own writing in Hollywood and helping the Badger cause.
