Jodie Foster Directs Orange Is the New Black

Just when you thought your favorite Netflix series could not get any better!

Jodie Foster—Oscar-winning actress, director, producer and (sorta) self-proclaimed lesbian—directed scenes from an episode of the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black last Friday.

She, along with the show’s cast and crew, braved the bitter cold and commenced filming in front of Riverhead’s Suffolk Theater. Don’t you wish you’d been there? We do, too. The multi-talented Foster is directing part of the second season of OITNB, the hit series that has been looking lately for “scary-looking” extras for jail scenes.

Set in a women’s prison, where inmates wear orange uniforms, Orange Is the New Black is usually filmed at the Rockland Children’s Psychiatric Center in Orangetown, NY. None of the show’s better-known stars were on set in Riverhead, but Foster was working busily and had a prominent role in Friday’s filming. Spokesman Don Halcome unfortunately declined to let the public in on the scenes’ content, but did state that the episode is scheduled to stream later this year.

Orange Is the New Black has been on Netflix for only one short season. Yet it has captivated both straight and LGBT audiences, due to how captivating the story is and how relatable the characters are, even though they’re felons.

The strong lesbian themes don’t hurt, either.

Foster finally came out last year—seemingly reluctantly but quite publically—in her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. Why she chose that moment to unburden herself of Hollywood’s worst-kept secret is unclear. “I already did my coming out about 1,000 years ago back in the Stone Age …” as she put it. Then she thanked Cydney Bernard, her longtime ex-girlfriend, calling her “my heroic co-parent, my ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life.”=

Her current girlfriend is photographer Alexandra Hedison, who once dated Ellen DeGeneres. Their relationship became public last fall, but rumor has it they’ve been dating for almost a year. Although Hedison has been spotted recently in NYC, she apparently wasn’t on set with Foster. But several OITNB fans had flocked to the set. Tori Ireland from Mattituck was just one of the show’s devotees watching the filming. “I love this show!” she stated. “This is a lot of fun.”


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