Spielberg And The Bagel Cam

In the wonderful world of movies, there's movie security and there's movie security. At the lower end of the scale you'll find low-budget, no-star Brit flicks whose publicist wouldn't know on-set security if it came up and bit them, while at the other end you have the uber-security of Lord of the Rings that makes the inner workings of MI6 look amateur by comparison. Steven Spielberg's latest opus, AI, looks set to fall firmly into the latter top secret category, which means that most attempts to catch sight of filming are sadly doomed to failure. That's why film site CountingDown.com's Bagel Cam is so ingenious. (You knew we'd get around to the story at some point.) Bagel Cam is a webcam situated in the 'craft services' area of the AI set - or tuck shop to those unfamiliar with Hollywood parlance. Between 14 November and 17 November the camera will be providing live coverage of the stars of the film troughing down between takes. Already the camera has scored pictures of AI star Haley Joel Osment's stand-ins, and yesterday director Steven Spielberg toasted the camera with a cup of coffee. Everyone here at Empire Online was so moved by the purity of the idea behind Bagel Cam that we knew it should be brought to the attention of more people.