What if 142 million people "disappeared"?

Or, as the vivacious mayor of the fictional town might have put it: WTF DID THEY GO?

The premise for this HBO movie is that 2% of the people vanish from the face of the earth -no one knows where they went! But let's focus on how life goes on in a small village 3 years after the fact!??  The director's (Peter Berg) motivation speech to us extras was to make us think about 9/11.

 Peter Berg (possible resemblance to Jack Nicholson?)

Well... from my background-extra perspective at this production: there will be a Main Street parade in honor of those who disappeared, with cheerleaders, hippies, a uni-cycling clown, cult people, a couple of  bagpipers, barking dogs, crying babies, a gang of karate kiddies, and some townspeople.  If it gets picked up... it will become a TV series most likely continuing with its present title of The Leftovers.

Call time to holding was for 7:30 AM on this blistering hot day at Hastings-on-the-Hudson.  Wardrobe was nice to us, they did away with my blazer and told us drivers to remain in our polo shirts.  Makeup barely gave a glance to me but advised all of us to slather up with lots of sunscreen.  (Oh boy... I started to flashback on my second stint a month ago in the Amazing Spiderman 2 at the outside graduation scene: hundreds of extras sitting outside at a park-amphitheater in 90 degree direct sunshine while Peter Parker smooches with his girlfriend on stage after accepting his diploma. But the inspiring moment of that day was to see Sally Fields get a standing-O as she sat among us.)

I got lucky on sunny Main Street, since I was selected to be one of the parade vehicle drivers, most of my day was spent inside a hot van (the AC wasn't working) with one of my extra buddies.  We chatted it up throughout the day which made the heat bearable... along with the occasional breaks into the street-trees' shadows and the ever-present water bottles.  In one of the scenes, the police chief of the town, played by Justin Theroux, kept passing by our vehicle.

Justin Theroux

My buddy would razz him with "How come you guys have to walk in this weather?".  To which, Justin would crack up with a smile. According to the tabloids, Justin and Jennifer Aniston are engaged and I couldn't help wondering what it must be like to be Jennifer's guy...  lucky dude.   But enough of that reverie.

Jennifer and Justin (JJ's)

And on to the next one... I was hoping that the other major name associated with this project, Liv Tyler, would be here.  Alas, t'was not to be.  She wasn't in this scene. The other disappointment was the food: one choice of noodles and cheese, some salad and a brownie for us non-unioners.  The crew was munching on wraps and other goodies that made our mouths water. Suddenly I realized what The Leftovers were about.

I really need to join up! Where's my third waiver???