John Adams, Erstwhile Citizen of the Old Dominion

This is just sad: According to the Associated Press, the new HBO miniseries based on the life of John Adams (to be titled, cleverly enough, "John Adams," and taken from the David McCullough book) is going to be filmed in ... Virginia.

Which is kind of funny, because apparently Adams never set foot in Virginia.

Now, as you all know, I'm a native Virginian, and I'm quite happy that my former home state stood in for New Jersey in the new War of the Worlds. (I admit it--I actually got a chuckle out of that.) And I'm downright relieved to hear that the new Terrence Malick film (yes, he's back!), called The New World, was filmed there, because ... it's about Virginia.

There are plenty of places in Massachusetts that are the equal of Virginia for beauty and historical authenticity. So when Massachusetts "aggressively vies" for the job of playing itself--AND LOSES--I think you can probably thank the Massachusetts Film Bureau . No doubt there are tax breaks and other business reasons for the shoot heading south, but let's face it, somebody dropped the ball.

(If I discover that we lost out because we weren't generous enough with the muffin baskets and Legal Seafood chowder for the producers, I'm going to be really, really upset.)