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Look closely at the background in TV shows and films shot in New York City and sooner or later you may learn to spot a familiar setting: the Union Theological Seminary in Morningside Heights, at 121^st Street and Broadway.

In “Gossip Girl,” the seminary’s hallways and inner garden have played a stand-in for Columbia University, where Serena Van Der Woodsen and best friend Blair Waldorf study.

That same Inner Quadrangle Garden, this time playing a private school, was where detectives in a “Law and Order” episode interviewed a piano teacher after a rape case. More recently, ABC’s new series “Pan Am” has filmed across the street from the seminary.

“It has a lot to offer in one place,” said film location scout Nick Carr of the seminary and its medieval architecture. “It has areas from church meeting halls, board rooms, cafeteria, and stage space. It also serves for, like, a British school, like Oxford, or Cambridge. We even scouted this for the medieval look for ‘The Smurfs,’” said Carr, a 2004 graduate of Columbia who studied film and has worked on movies such as “Spider-Man 3” and “War of the Worlds.”

The film industry contributes roughly $5 billion to New York City’s economy every year, according to Marybeth Ihle, press manager of the Office of Media and Entertainment in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office. Hundreds of directors use the city and its landmarks as backdrops for dramas, comedies, TV series and documentaries every year – making New York second only to Los Angeles as a film backdrop.

“There are approximately 100,000 New Yorkers who earn their living behind the scenes in film and television production,” said Ihle.

Most film producers who want to shoot in the city check in first with the Mayor’s Office of Film, Television and Broadcast. Starting with a $300 application fee, the office can help filmmakers get permits and services to shoot on city streets, sidewalks, and city-owned properties.

“We make it pretty easy for productions to enjoy the city,” said Habibah Love, who works in the film office permits department. “Only for parking privileges, or a light generator or light stands do you need a permit. Even a lot of students film without permits. We cater to everyone,” she said.

In the case of “Gossip Girl,” early episodes were shot at a Russian Orthodox Church in east Manhattan, a setting meant to represent Serena’s high school. When Serena moved from high school to Columbia University, the show initially tried to film on Columbia’s campus. But that idea was squashed when the school decided that having film crews around for weeks at a time was too disruptive.

So “Gossip Girl” began using other nearby sites as “Columbia” backdrops, including the Union Theological Seminary’s quad, library and social halls.

Old downtown buildings and other film locations provide plenty of quintessentially New York settings for film location scouts. But the Union Theological Seminary is often high on the scouts’ list precisely because it does not look like urban New York City.

“When you go into the grounds, you have this really non-New Yorky looking campus, like you’re in a private school upstate,” said Sam Rohn, another film location scout, who has worked on “Law and Order” and other TV shows that have used the seminary as a backdrop.

The seminary is an independent graduate school of theology founded in 1836. The original building was established in downtown Manhattan. During the late 1890s, the seminary needed to expand its roots by moving to a different location. They decided to rebuild and redesign it entirely, and move to upper Manhattan. In 1908, the cornerstone for the campus was laid down on Broadway and 120^th St. Nearly 300 students currently study there for master’s or doctorate degrees in divinity, social work, arts, sacred theology and philosophy. The seminary is closely affiliated with Columbia.

The seminary’s exterior and interior architecture still preserve some of the school’s original early 20^th century structures. Film scouts look for the particular appearance of a gothic revival style found in doorways, long narrow hallways, gigantic windows, or cloisters (the rectangular open space with walkway borders, forming a quadrangle garden). Scouts have promoted use of its dorm rooms and the courtyards, which resemble those of an upper-crust private school.

Film scout Carr said the seminary has something else going for it, too. “They are film friendly and always willing to work with the directors,” he said. “We don’t like to be anywhere we’re not welcomed.”

The process of choosing a film location can take months, and according to Carr, the general cost to use a location for filming runs $5,000 to $10,000 per day in New York, though some places -– like well-known restaurants -– charge more.

Wade Bennett, director of communications and marketing at the seminary, said directors who want to film at the school negotiate contracts with Michael Orzechowski, the director of housing and campus services. Bennett referred all further questions to Orzechowski, who said he would not be available to talk about the seminary and its use by filmmakers until January.

Carr is currently working with creator David Chase, of the HBO series “The Sopranos,” and his new film “Twylight Zones,” about a group of friends in a rock band growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s. A dorm room at the seminary was used in a scene in the movie.

Carr also used the seminary backdrop for the new detective drama “Unforgettable,” about a former police detective diagnosed with hyperthymesia, a condition that allows her to remember almost everything that has ever happened to her; she uses this rarity to help solve crimes.

Another plus for the seminary is that the building, wrapped around a courtyard, is relatively isolated from neighbors who might complain about noise or other disruption.

And unlike venues that get overfilmed -– and thus are so familiar directors don’t want to shoot there any more — Union Theological Seminary’s visual diversity means it should remain popular, said film scouts Carr and Rohn.

“Sometimes directors will say ‘I want to shoot at a location no one has ever seen.’” Carr said. Though Union Theological is popular, it hides its identity well, making it seem fresh with every appearance in another film or TV series.

This article was updated Dec. 19 to correct several errors. The seminary building was built in 1908, not 1836, making it the 20th century. The last name of the director of housing and campus services was corrected to Orzechowski, and the director of communications and marketing at the seminary is Wade Bennett, not James Kempster. And the spelling of “Spider-Man 3″ was corrected.

The Save Half for Later Campaign wants to help shrink northern Manhattan’s waistline, and more and more restaurants are joining the cause.

New York comedian George Carlin opening a comedy festival in 2007 (AP Photo/E. Pablo Kosmicki)

What was supposed to be the Uniform and Transportation meeting for Community Board 9, to decide whether it would support renaming 121^st Street for comedian George Carlin, took an unexpected turn on Oct. 6 when a group of priests and others from Corpus Christi Church, Carlin’s church as a child, appeared at the meeting.

“We have some problems,” said Carolyn Thompson, the head of the Uniform and Transportation Committee, as soon as comedian Kevin Bartini, who is spearheading the renaming campaign, walked in. This committee is responsible for deciding whether a recommendation to rename the street should be passed to the City Council.

As Bartini presented his case, he said, the church contingent was silent. But then one older churchwoman said she had lived in the neighborhood for 40-plus years and never even heard of George Carlin. Another said Carlin didn’t even grow up in the area, nor did he die there, or do anything for the neighborhood. Bartini said he was fuming.

“Carlin lived in the area for 20 years! Are they joking?!” said Bartini lividly. At the end of the meeting, no vote was taken. Instead, the members of the church, the people who live on that block of 121^st Street and Bartini set up a meeting where the community could voice their opinions on why they are for or against the name change.

The Rev. Raymond Rafferty of Corpus Christi Church declined an interview, but instead referred to a sample letter and daily flier that he and the church have distributed to oppose the renaming.

The memo said that people in the community are opposed to “Carlin’s anti-religious rants, his advocacy of substance abuse and his misanthropic tirade about being happy to see people suffering because of natural disaster.” Carlin’s comedy also based some jokes on his atheism and made a mockery of Corpus Christi, though that is not mentioned in the flier.

Sample letters are available in the church vestibule, where people can sign a copy or send one of their own.  The letter, which is supposed to be sent to the Rev. Georgiette Morgan-Thomas, the chair of Community Board 9, says that Carlin’s vulgarity does not make him a role model for the children who attend the Corpus Christi School on the block. The letter also states, “I know of no way that George Carlin has contributed to the community.”

For his part, Bartini needs more support from people on the block instead of fans across the world. Corpus Christi says that by getting signatures on the petition only from out-of-town fans, it is a “frivolous attempt by geographically dispersed fans of George Carlin to bestow upon him some sort of posthumorous honor.”

At a recent rectory meeting, Rev. Rafferty, Bartini, Randy Jurgensen and two other supporters of the street renaming met for two hours to discuss how to proceed. Jurgensen is a parishioner at Corpus Christi and went to school with Carlin.

“If George knew this was going on, he would be pissed off,” said Jurgensen.

Jurgensen says the school was run differently from the way other Catholic schools were run.

“We dressed in civilian clothes,” he said. “We entered into the same door and boys and girls sat alongside each other.”

Because the school already seemed so liberal, by Catholic school standards, Jurgensen said he doesn’t see how Carlin’s performances could create an uproar over the street renaming.

“I am in no way challenging the priests,” he said. “What I’m hoping to do is show them, in a proper way, the non-staged George Carlin that never forgot the neighborhood.”

Jurgensen said, for example, that when one of their classmates fell on hard times, “Carlin paid his rent for 22 months.” When that man, a New York City police officer, died, Carlin flew in and paid for the funeral, Jurgensen said. Carlin also flew another police officer classmate to California to see his own doctor about a heart problem, and supported a shelter for battered women, he said.

Bartini said he went to the meeting at the church not to fight them, but to hear them out. Rev. Rafferty expressed concerns that the church’s letterhead address would have to change because of the street renaming, Bartini said, but he assured the priest that it would not change the address: The street would still be 121^st Street, and Carlin Street or Carlin Way would be just a co-name.

“I pointed out that we are living in a democracy, and the majority are on our side,” said Bartini in regards to their meeting. “At the end of the day, it is a majority rules type of thing.”

But until Bartini can spread the word around that actual block and ask residents (not fans) about how they would feel about the street renaming, the vote will be postponed. They will regroup in January or February next year.

George Carlin grew up in Morningside Heights. Photo by Jeff Robbins/AP Photo

Community Council 9 in Morningside Heights will vote on whether to name a block of 121st Street between Amsterdam and Broadway after the late comedian George Carlin—who grew up there.

Erinn Cawthon reports.

UPDATE: Carlin Street Campaign Sparks Controversy by Erinn Cawthon, 11/11/11.

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