OK. Now we can say it's gone — we're talking, of course, about Brothers, the film that kept on filming from November until recently. Now that the Afghanistan-war flick is wrapped, though, we can reveal that star Tobey Maguire was an east-sider for the duration. He and his wife rented a house on a hill, enjoying Santa Fe atmosphere-plus. That included stopping for coffee, riding bikes and eating out. Renée Zellweger also stayed on the east side while filming last fall. When Tobey and wife were done, they packed up and said good-bye, shipping their bikes and other belongings back to Los Angeles.


From Tobey to Toby: Toby Keith, country star and fledging actor, is here shooting Beer for my Horses, the film based on his hit song. Sightings so far? The film was shooting on location in La Cienega and residents in the South Capitol neighborhood were warned that a very big light would be shining down upon them at night last week — a Hollywood version of beautiful moonlight. Interestingly, one of the houses being used for the Horses shoot is just two houses down from one used for Jessica Simpson's bomb, Employee of the Month. Let's hope Tobey's flick has better luck. Also starring in the film are rock star and bow hunter Ted Nugent, Rodney Carrington and Barry Corbin. You have to love a film where the stars are Rack (Keith), Skunk (Nugent) and Buck (Corbin). Carrington stars as Lonnie. Willie Nelson appeared in the video for the song, but he isn't on the Internet Movie Data Base casting list. Keep your eyes out, though, for the Red-Headed Stranger, just in case.


Beer for My Horses also will be filming in the Las Vegas, N.M., area, one of three films to be shooting in the Meadow City recently. Native Las Vegan Jim Terr points out that in addition to Horses, Not Forgotten and Brothers also filmed in Vegas in the past few months. He has put together an updated DVD of his 8-minute 1992 film, Las Vegas, New Mexico, America's Oldest Film Location, to be sent out to more than 75 film companies. It's an ode to the beauty of Las Vegas, as well as to its usefulness as a location spot. The city works for different types of films because it can be a college town, the Old West, Mexico, or even Kansas if you head toward the plains.

Right now, Las Vegas is waiting to see how No Country for Old Men fares in the Oscars later this month. A Best Picture nominee, Old Country involved many townspeople and locations, and even included a New Mexico premiere for the film.

As much fun as that was for the town, nothing today can beat the joy back in the '70s when Ernest Borgnine, Kris Kristofferson and Ali MacGraw descended on the town for the filming of Convoy. Directed by the legendary Sam Peckinpah, that was a movie.


The film industry is proving handy for area actors. University of New Mexico graduate Chad Brummett is Johnny Franks in Horses. Brummett has been in about every made-in-New Mexico film or TV show — he had parts in 3:10 to Yuma, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Brothers and the recently canceled Wildfire. He's also Drunk Fan in the being-shot Love Ranch and was Drunk Guy 2 in The Eye.


Speaking of The Eye, it opened to not-so-hot reviews for Jessica Alba, who had her own lousy reviews to share about the filming of the movie. "In Albuquerque there's really only one restaurant that's pretty good. You can only take Applebee's and Chili's so much. Our big day was hanging out at Wal-Mart for five hours. It was like, 'Yeah. Wal-Mart!' " We're wondering where she ate, and where she shopped, because she missed all the fun and good eats.


Above it all: Folks from The Today Show were in Taos last week, doing a story on the ever-present Taos Hum. Larry Torres, folklorist, professor and expert on Northern New Mexico, talked about the Hum for the show on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.

Send your news to elmitote@sfnewmexican.com.