Ah, if only. But shooting has commenced in LA for Notorious, the Biggie Smalls biopic slated to be released in 2009. Earlier today, the crew was working on the Sunset Strip near the Roxy, where a key scene occurs. It was kind of surreal cruising down Sunset in West Hollywood and seeing, during a break, actor Jamal Woolard (a.k.a. Gravy) casually strolling down the street in his full Biggie Smalls get-up. The dude's a ringer for the Notorious B.I.G., at least from twenty feet away.

A few minutes before, I was having coffee with Roxy owner Nic Adler, who had just walked down from the shoot. He told a cool story about actually seeing the real life Biggie cruising through Hollywood in a pimped out red Mercedes convertible on the day that he was murdered. Adler says that Smalls was rolling alone that day, at the top of his game, and looked like royalty. The film, which is being released by Fox Searchlight, is being directed by George Tillman Jr.

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