Between the Academy Award winning movie Argo and several other high profile films in recent years, Washington, D.C. has become a hot spot for filmmakers looking for a location for their stories.

Continue reading

But there are times filmmakers don't do their homework when it comes to the region. You could fill a book with all the mistakes movies make about the District, and local critic Mike Canning has in Hollywood on the Potomac: How the Movies View Washington DC.

Kevin Costner committed one of the great D.C. movie gaffes ever in No Way Out. He jumps from the Whitehurst Freeway, runs to the C&O Canal into Georgetown, where he hops the subway from a non-existent Georgetown station.

Canning's book is filled with these movie goofs.

He gives high marks to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, in which Frank Capra literally recreated the U.S. Senate chamber on a Hollywood sound stage. He also credits All the President's Men for using Washington locations correctly and for their recreation of the newsroom at the The Washington Post.

What's not so great? A shot of Peter Sellers in Being There walking down the median on North Capitol Street. By the way, don't try that in real life.

Canning will talk about his book March 5 at the Martin Luther King Library. The event will begin at 7 p.m.