Reported by Donna Wilson, STATEWIDE Correspondent

You'll have trouble finding it on a lot of maps, but behind these withered posts stands a minuscule town called Loma, Nebraska. Loma's less than five blocks long and steps wide, but it's turning into a big deal ... A Hollywood deal.
[Donna Wilson:] "So is this a big deal, this movie thing?"
[Laura Cardwell, Loma, young movie hopeful:] "Yes, it's a big, big deal."
[Donna:] "How big?"
[Laura:] "Well, people come from all over Nebraska, come driving through town, stopping, taking pictures, and so it's a big deal."
Laura wants a part in the movie. That's right, movie. It's being shot in her Loma home where small Nebraska town meets tinsel town.
[Jerry Dubsky:] "They'd always kid us about putting Loma on the map. And I'd just laugh at them, you know, big deal. Yeah. It's on the map now, isn't it?"
Jerry Dubsky had never even been to Loma ... until now. Dubsky didn't like driving down Loma's one gravel road. He'll visit a little more now that the movies are here and all.
[Jerry:] "This is really something, you know. Take an old building like this and really make a store out of it."
Even folks who've always known about Loma are dumbfounded... like the folks at Ray's Cafe on Highway 92. They aren't knocking what the locals are starting to call Lomawood, but they still wonder.

[Cheryl Woita, Cook at Ray's Cafe:] "I kept wondering why would they pick Loma out of anywhere. Nobody knows Loma, and all of a sudden they found it. But they -- what I've heard is because they like the people. We're friendly. The view is real great from the top of the hill. You know, there ain't nothing blocking it."
This unincorporated town with an unconfirmed population has only one business. That's it, one -- the old Bar-M Corral. Maybe that's "M" as in movie? Lomawoodians never would have thought so.
[Connie Hannah:] "You guys want your picture taken with me?"
[Tourists:] "Sure."
[Connie:] "Okay."
Connie Hannah saw the beauty in Loma right off. She moved here nine years ago.
[Connie:] "Got tired in Lincoln hearing the sirens, the trains. Best part is probably meeting new people, new challenges, setting new footings in life."
Connie is firmly set here. She owns about a third of the town. That's three houses. And she's busy being the unofficial mayor of Loma. Meanwhile, the movie's crew stays busy making every other thing new old again. Scenic artists take their cues from what already stands in Loma.
[Jeff Glave, scenic artist:] "We're copying a lot of what's here. Everybody that's doing the metal keeps looking over at this old mill over here, and we refer to that quite regularly. And the old wood is everywhere to be seen. In fact, hey, look. Here's our model right here. So, you know, we can take the real stuff and copy it pretty well from the town. It's all right here already."
Native Nebraskans like Rob -- he's worked on movies and lived in New York -- wonder if the newness of the movies might not wear off real soon.
[Rob:] "It's going to be culture shock for them when the whole crew comes in. Right now it's almost behaving like a tourist trap. It's fun to see all the locals drive through and stuff and see how everything's being put up and painted. And this is totally foreign territory for them. And I think they're really enjoying it."

July, More Traffic
[Jimmy Peterson, Bar-M Bartender:] "Kind of going crazy around here now because there's so much -- well, I don't know...tension focused on it here. I mean, you got cars coming through here all the time. It's just -- it's crazy."
Loma resident Jimmy Petersen helps run the town's business, the Bar-M. He says business has tripled and tripled again since the movies came to town. So has the town's population.
[Donna:] "How many people are in Loma?"
[Jimmy:] "There is 26 if you count the dogs. Probably more than that."
[Donna:] "But now?"

[Jimmy:] "Count the cats and it's more than that too."
When production starts, Jimmy will stop working for a while. He and his mom will probably go to Vegas on the movie studio's dime. The bar will be used in filming. Until then Jimmy serves cold ones to folks like Bill and Betty. They run a farm out in Ulysses, but right now Bill's a starstruck farmer.
[Bill Tomes, Ulysses:] "I would accept an acting job. Something I think I'd really enjoy."
[Donna:] "Really?"
[Bill:] "Yeah, right. I'm not an actor, but I like to do a lot of things."
Ever-friendly Connie has mixed feelings about Loma going to the movies.
[Donna:] "What's a day like?"
[Connie:] "Very hectic. A lot of gawkers, a lot of rubberneckers or people that want to see what's happening. Curiosity seekers. And that's the way it's gone."
And now Lomawood is soon to hit the screen. If you've seen a movie lately, you probably seen this trailer --
[Audio from the trailer:] "Meet Vita Boheme."
[Patrick Swaze in drag:] "Why are you crying?"
[Wesely Snipes in drag:] "Maybe she just found out Menudo broke up."
[Narrator:] "Miss Noxema Jackson."
[Snipes:] "Jesse's daughter."
[Narrator:] "And their protege, Chi Chi Rodrigues."
[John Leguizano in drag:] "And you thought the dust bowl was over?"
In the background, glimpses of Loma.

Casting Call
[Casting Worker:] "Fill this out completely. You still need to wait in line to get your photograph stapled to this. If you're invited to do an acting role, then you need to go take your completed application into that line over there to go through the double doors. We're looking at probably a two-hour wait right now for speaking roles."
A cattle call, the ultimate movie making paradox -- organized chaos.
[Junior High Hopefuls:] "How much do you weigh?"
"Seventy."
"You weigh 70? I weigh more than you?"
"I weigh more than you."
Are Nebraskans being seduced by the prospect of fame? If the number of people who show up and give on-the-spot verbal resumes is any indication, maybe.
[Casting worker:] "What sort of parts have you had before?"
[Lalena Labat, Papillion:] "A whole bunch of different things. I've been a potato, a princess, an archeologist, an Indian, lots of different things."
Lots of different people answer the call, even thousands with lots of different reasons.
[Rob Harshbarger, Hopeful Actor:] "$65 a day on a job. That's why I'm here. Hopefully."
[Donna:] "It's the money and not the notoriety?"
[Rob:] "No, it's just the money. I need a job. I'm poor, broke."
Nebraska's amateur actors defend the Cornhusker state as rightful heirs to the throne of the big screen.
[Hopeful:] "Well, they've left us out all these years. Actually don't even know we're here sometimes. I hope so. I've lived here all my life. I think it's time that we're recognized."
[Young actor reading for audition:] "Hey, foxy mama, you sure look fine. I know what you need."
It's not easy being green, but inexperience doesn't make casting folks for "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar" cringe. They search for a look. You have to look like, well, Nebraska.
[Pat DiStefano, Casting Agent:] "We want people that are sort of rural -- that have a rural quality in them. But I don't mean that -- I don't think that's a negative thing. I think that's something that's indigenous to this particular part of the country is that there is a large rural community here."
[Tammy Hightower, Hopeful:] "I think that I might get called, yeah. I guess just because I'm optimistic, and I want them to call. I've got good karma."

August, Action!
When production in Loma begins, so does a press rush. The press waits to be bused onto the set, each with fact-finding equipment in tow. Then the dignitaries arrive for the press conference.
[Gov. Ben Nelson:] "What a view, just looking out over there and to the south, it's just incredible."
[Connie:] "It's what you call a million-dollar view."
The state estimates the movie's crew will spend more than a million dollars before leaving Nebraska. According to the crew, Nebraskans have already spent a lot on film.
[Wynn Thomas, Location Crew member:] "The street has been photographed more than any other set that I've ever worked on. Every farmer, every local seems to have their own video camera and comes up here and just photographs the streets all the time. It's amazing to see, in fact."
Since filming began, "To Wong Foo" has kept a very closed set. No press, no visitors allowed. Also no signs of movie stars. But the movies are still a good, albeit noticeable change to Connie and the movie's producer.
[Connie:] "It's been very profound, very interesting meeting new family, friends, new experience for me totally."
[G. Mac Brown, Producer:] "The question I'd like to ask them is that when that one van pulled up here four months ago, and these six people get out and say, 'We think we'd like to make a movie here.' And we try to warn people there's going to be a circus. And then they see all this. Is this what they planned on? 'Cause it's never what I plan on. [Laughs]"
After spending 70 years in Loma, retired farmer Frank Waiss hadn't planned on being in the movies, but he is.
[Frank Waiss, Loma:] "I'm going to be in that, too. I'll be in the moving picture."
[Donna:] "Are you excited, apparently, about that?"
[Frank:] "Not really."
[Donna:] "Not really?"
[Frank:] "At my age you don't get too excited."
Just like that, the movies have become just another part of life here in Nebraska.

Captioning by Nebraska Captioning Center, Lincoln, Nebraska .