Hollywood on the Potomac

Add more film crews to the traffic obstacles of getting around DC, as more permanent street barriers go up and the White House is less and less accessible. In July, Michael Douglas and Kim Basinger will start filming a new movie, while the Pentagon will be the locus of one of three new TV shows centered in the District this fall. Filmmakers still love the elegant dark-paneled Hay-Adams Hotel, where presidents, heads of state, actors, and other notables have temporarily lived and retreated. Its charm and cache are fashionably discreet, but with the best view of the increasingly distant White House for filmmakers' cameras, it will always hold its own.