The last place one would expect to see a bunch of Hollywood starlets is at a commission meeting.
But yesterday, actors and producers - along with fans - pleaded their case for USA's Burn Notice remaining in Coconut Grove, where they currently film the show.
After catching wind that the Grove was planning on demolishing the Coconut Grove Expo Center, which serves as the show's production studio, to make way for a $165 million waterfront plaza (Bayside South?) the Burn brigade threatened to pack up their drama and leave.
Commission Chairman Joe Sanchez didn't like that idea one bit, and so he drafted a resolution to suspend the demolition, as the show brings millions of dollars into the city. Sanchez got his wish, the commission yesterday deciding that the show's $20,000 monthly rent payments will go toward improving the waterfront, an amendment pitched by Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff.
''Burn Notice is an infomercial for the city of Miami. It is telecast in 206 countries worldwide,'' William Talbert, president and chief executive of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, told the Miami Herald. "This is not a CSI: Miami where you look in the background and see mountains -- because it's really filmed in Los Angeles.''
