South Jersey Movie Crew Still Owed Wages a Year Later

A movie starring Shirley MacLaine, which was filmed at various sites in South Jersey in 2024, is making headlines after the crew has gone unpaid for over a year.

Variety reports that Jeff Katz, the chief financier for Shirley MacLaine's movie, People Not Places, has refused to pay any of the crew members involved in the movie's filming.

The New Jersey Department of Labor obtained a $672,749 judgment against Katz in May.

Katz acknowledged the judgment in a recent interview with Variety, but said New Jersey is powerless to collect the debt

"They can't enforce a judgment against me", Katz said. "They can only put (liens) on things I have in New Jersey -- which I don't have."

 Movie Shoot Attracted Local Attention

Shirley MacLaine celebrated her 90th birthday on the set in Atlantic City while filming People Not Places, which also stars Stephen Dorff, of Blade and True Detective.

The movie was directed by Brad Furman, who also directed The Lincoln Lawyer.” It was written by Furman's mother, Ellen Brown Furman.

IMDb.com described the script as "a sprightly woman in her twilight years strikes up an unlikely friendship with a local homeless man while struggling to mend a troubled relationship with her son".

"It's a wonderful script", MacLaine told People at the time.

The movie shot scenes at several South Jersey locations, including White House Subs, Pancho's Mexican Taqueria, and Formica Freitag Bakery in Atlantic City.

Dino's Subs in Margate was the focus of one day of shooting, and Shirley MacLaine and company spent several days filming at United Methodist Communities in Ocean City.

Troubling News From Movie Shoot

As much as locals loved having Shirley MacLaine in town, most of the news related to People Not Places is troubling.

Some of the crew say that Mark Furman yelled at people on set, came in late, and caused chaos during the shoot. Furman denies the allegations.

Jeff Katz backed out of the project early on and blames Furman for letting costs spiral out of control.

The Department of Labor says 38 people are owed money for their work on the film.

A DOL investigation found that Katz's refusal to pay was "willful" and added a 200% penalty on top of the money owed to the crew.

The film was completed but has not found a distributor.

Given the financial problems and other issues associated with the move, we may never see the finished product of People Not Places.