18 OCTOBER C R Y D E R P O I N T As Seen On TV: Fresh Meadows home filmed in ‘The Good Wife’ BY MELISSA CHAN An upcoming episode of a popular CBS drama will feature a Queens couple — or at least the house they live in. “The Good Wife” fanatics, Peter and Kathy Hart, played host to the show this Tuesday, lending their Fresh Meadows home to film crews and actors for a full day of shooting. “This is our 15 minutes of fame,” said Kathy, a Manhattan hair stylist. “We’re big fans of the show. I tell Peter not to talk to me until commercials.” Five actors, including two playing FBI agents, shot scenes in the couple’s living room, dining room, parts of their kitchen and on their tree-lined 183rd Street near Union Turnpike. “For Fresh Meadows, this is the most exciting thing,” said Peter, a realtor, who has raised three kids in the home in the past 25 years. The couple said a location scout knocked on their door about three years ago, came in and took pictures. “We don’t know why we let him in, but we let him in,” Peter said. “We got a call days later saying more people wanted to see the house. But they said they would keep us on file for future episodes.” Soon after, the pair picked up the remote, flipped to the show for the first time and got hooked while waiting for that “future episode.” And then that time came. About 21 more scouts working for the show showed up at their front door last week, they said. “They all had clipboards. All these neighbors thought we were selling the house,” Peter said. The couple was told to “empty the first floor” before film crews arrived at 6 a.m. on October 15. Workers were seen unloading furniture from moving trucks early Tuesday morning in the family’s front yard. “The experience is exciting,” Kathy said, “and we don’t have to do much but be quiet and not get in the way.” “The Good Wife” began its fifth season September 29. It airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. The critically acclaimed drama stars Emmy Award winner Julianna Margulies, who plays a wife and mother, who restarts her life as a defense attorney after her politician husband is jailed over a public sex and corruption scandal. Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared as himself in the show’s last season finale. “Now we have to put a plaque outside our house saying, ‘As Seen on ‘The Good Wife,’” Peter said. 18 cryder point courier | OCTOBER 2013 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM “The Good Wife” airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. TECH PROBLEMS PLAGUE OBAMACARE BY LIAM LA GUERRE Although it was created to solve problems, Obamacare has been through a rough couple of weeks following the marketplace launch. People have complained about website crashes and other issues on healthcare.gov, where residents can find information about the Affordable Care Act or sign up for new health insurance coverage. The website has suffered because of the vast number of people who browsed in the first three weeks, about 20 million, but the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is working to resolve the errors, said President Barack Obama during a speech at the White House on Monday, October 21. “The problem has been the website that’s supposed to make it easy to apply for and purchase the insurance is not working the way it should for everybody,” Obama said. “I think it’s fair to say that nobody is more frustrated by that than I am.” Obamacare was at the center of a congressional stalemate that shutdown the government for more than two weeks and nearly caused the country to default on its debt. And recently some people have complained about a phone number similar to the 24/7 healthcare hotline, which is actually a sex line. If someone dials 1-800-382-5968 (F--K YOU), a female voice prompts a list of choices. “If you are trying to reach Obamacare press one,” she says. “If you are not trying to reach Obamacare press two.” Anyone daring to try the second choice will be transferred to “1-888-FREE SEX,” where they will be given choices between straight or gay phone sex. The number is not connected to the healthcare marketplace hotline, according to representatives from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid that talked to The Courier. The agencies were unsure why the phone number issues that message and said residents trying to reach the hotline should hang up and dial the real number: 1-800-318- 2596. But despite all the issues, Obama promised the Affordable Care Act is benefitting “thousands” of people and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced on October 22 that a team of tech experts has been brought in to fix errors with the website. The national healthcare website has been giving trouble, but New York residents should visit nystateofhealth. ny.gov to purchase health insurance. THE COURIER/Photo by Melissa Chan Peter, Kathy and Ian Hart of Fresh Meadows pose in the part of their home filmed in “The Good Wife.” Photo courtesy of CBS BROADCASTING INC.
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