‘The Social Network’ Status Update: Filming @ Johns Hopkins Next Week

During my entire undergrad stint at McGill University in Montreal, the only film ever shot on campus (besides crappy student ones) was Abandon, that throwaway thriller starring Julia Roberts' ex-squeeze toy Benjamin Bratt, Katie Holmes before she was kidnapped by Tom Cruise, and Zooey Deschanel before me and every other guy who dances poorly to Passion Pit fell in love with her. The whole escapade was no big deal, and campus authorities felt no need to tell students that C-list celebrities were invading their campus. Not so at Johns Hopkins University, where a pretty big deal of a movie starts shooting on campus beginning November 2nd.

A memo on the Johns Hopkins website titled simply “Film Shoot on Campus Next Week” warns students not to be alarmed by the trailers, key grips, fill lights, and craft tables they might come across on their way to class. Oh, and if they see Justin Timberlake ignore him, too. Yes, the movie is David Fincher’s The Social Network, about the founding of Facebook, so there’s a good chance you’ll see BlackBook sweetheart Jesse Eisenberg on set too, decked out in full Mark Zuckerberg gear. Johns Hopkins will be filling in for Harvard, where Facebook’s genesis went down. And in addition to the privilege of having a former N’Sync member on campus, the three-day shoot will also single-handedly rescue Johns Hopkins and the entire city of Baltimore from economic calamity:

“Johns Hopkins is pleased to host the filming, in part as an economic recovery effort in collaboration with the Maryland and Baltimore film offices. The film industry in Maryland has been hard hit by the recession, leaving many local industry crews without steady employment.”

Cue meta status updates...now.