HBO Miniseries to Film in Merrick Gables

Kate Winslet is coming to Merrick.  

The Oscar-winning actress is among the cast of the HBO miniseries "Mildred Pierce," which will be filmed in part in the Merrick Gables within the next few months.

Several homes in the area will be featured in the series, something Gables resident Derek Donnelly said was a great chance to showcase the neighborhood.   

"It immediately struck me as an opportunity to promote the Gables area," said Donnelly, president of the Merrick Gables Association.   

Donnelly, who lives on Lincoln Boulevard, received a letter earlier this month from the HBO locations department that reads in part, "I am writing to you because we loved your roof, oddly as that may sound."

HBO sought Donnelly's advice on a local contractor to use to complete roof work on other homes in the area. 

"It's a free investment in the community," said Donnelly, who has lived in his Gables home, the same home his wife grew up in, for 14 years.

"Mildred Pierce," the story of a middle-class housewife's struggle to support her family during the Great Depression, is set in Los Angeles in the 1930s. 

Joe Guest, an HBO location manager, said the cable network had searched all over New York for a neighborhood that closely resembled that setting. 

"The Gables neighborhood has homes of a unique architectural style, matching California bungalow-style stucco homes of the 1930s," Guest said.  "We are thrilled with the positive local response and look forward to working with the residents and the Town of Hempstead to coordinate filming in the Gables."

A woman, who lives near Henry Street and Richard Street, said someone from the production recently knocked on her door and said they wanted to replace the tiles on her roof. 

"I was sort of surprised," said the woman, who would not give her name. 

The woman said she was told that along with minor landscaping in the Gables area, old-fashioned cars would also be parked in driveways as part of the shoot.

Filming in Merrick is expected for several days in June, Donnelly said.  The official word from HBO is that "Mildred Pierce" will begin filming in mid-April in locations throughout the state, including New York City, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties. 

Besides Winslet, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2008, the film will also star Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood and Melissa Leo.