Hollywood loves New York City, as long as it's a cheap date.

The New York Times proclaimed that our metropolitan area has become the film and television production center of the nation. Like the real world, the make believe world would rather use the vitality of the city than the fake facades of a back lot. You can't beat the real thing.

However, if the honeymoon between that industry and our industry is to continue, the "dream, machine" better stop acting as if all the world's a stage.

For years, like many of you, I would occasionally get a call from a location scout asking about using a lobby or an apartment or a loft to shoot a scene. Opening lines would go something like this: "Hi! I'm Joe Blow and I'm working on the new Al Pacino movie. I saw your lobby and we would love to shoot some scenes there. We don't have much money budgeted for this..."

Why is it that in a budget of seventy million dollars they never have any money to pay for their locations? What do I care that Al Pacino is in the movie. Am I supposed to be awestruck and allow them to shoot for free? You can bet Al is not working for nothing. Why should I?

My entire experience with film and television production changed one day a few years ago. Out of the blue two women came into my office and wanted to rent 60,000 square feet and take possession that evening. They had just received the green light to film this sensational nighttime soap for a major network. An eminent star - the brains behind another lurid soap - would be in charge. No expense would be spared in this lavish production, etc...

A lease was drawn and faxed to the network in California. Some very minor changes were made, and four hours after walking into my office, the two women left with a signed lease. The lease was very favorable to us because the other thing I discovered about "show business" was that it needed to be instantly gratified. When something had to be done, it had to be done now. So they paid a premium price for that gratification.

The production staff moved in, along with the electricians and carpenters. These people worked day and night creating sound stages, make-up and wardrobe areas, and even a "hair dying area." The production people couldn't have been nicer and my building staff loved working with them.

Where the sets were built, we had just redone the wood floors. In fact one of the reasons I was told our space was so attractive was because of those beautiful floors. The set director, however, thought that they did not give the right look, so he ordered new floors to be constructed. When those floors were almost done, someone else discovered a flaw, so these too were ripped out and redone. Money was no object when it came to satisfying ego.

The show was about the glamorous world of magazine publishing, where treachery, deceit and debauchery were its real business. Greed was the guiding principal for characters who seemed to be wealthy. What good soap opera would not have sex as the preferred spoil of the inhabitants? It premiered, it bombed, it went through life support and it died.

My deal with the network was for 10 years, however they had the option to leave every year on the anniversary date of the lease. For this right they had paid a considerable sum of money to reimburse me for the basic white box with new bath installation. In return, for each year they stayed they would receive back a pro-rated amount of the cost they had paid. I thought since they would have such a huge investment in the space that even if this show flopped they could have another one slide right into it's production space.

At the same time the network was in the building, I had rented out other space to Warner Brothers to film a movie. I thought I had solved my building's vacancy problem.

Was I wrong!

The network - after spending a fortune to build a television production studio with all the ancillary necessities - left. It made no sense to me.

About once a week I still get phone calls from studios asking about the old network space. They want to rent it for six months or so to film a movie. Of course, they have a limited budget. I tell them that the old network space is partially rented and the rest I don't rent "short term" any longer. "Too bad," they say, "I hear it was a great space."