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beach. “In Westport, there’s a feeling that you’re on vacation in your hometown,” she says. This being television, the show is not filmed in town. (The early spring day a camera crew arrived to shoot a few quick scenes for the pilot, a late snowstorm blew in.) But Kenny Schwartz, one of the executive producers, did grow up in Westport. He’s offered some childhood memories to help Westportize the show. Overall, Dunn does not think that a comedy once called “The

of the mega-mansions in Southampton – as well as several other properties, which viewers did not see during season one. (Season two of “Billions” will air on February 19, 2017.) Though Levien and Koppelman do not share Axelrod’s rarefied air, Levien says he and his co-creators/writers understood that although “these people are so influential in the world of finance,” they are also “moms and dads, people that you see in their daily life.” He believes “Billions” portrays “the ways in which they’re like everyone else, and the

“CLEARLY, WHAT’S THE POINT OF BECOMING A BILLIONAIRE AND HAVING TO COMMUTE? YOUMAY AS WELL SET UP THEWORLD TOWORK FOR YOU.”

Second Fattest Housewife in Westport” will be seen as bad or demeaning. In fact she says, “I think it will be good for property values. All the things people who live there like about Westport, I think viewers will too.” Property values – and all things financial – are on the mind of Bobby Axelrod, the ambitious, charming and ruthless manager at Axe Capital, the Westport-based hedge fund at the center of “Billions.” Of course, high finance is seldom divorced from the law. Or fromsex.The Showtime series has ample doses of both. Andrew Ross Sorkin created “Billions,” along with writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman. Levien – a Greenwich resident – says all three came up with the idea of setting Axe Capital in Westport. “We arrived at it because obviously, so many of the leading hedge funds are in Fairfield County,” he explains. “There are a lot of hedge funds in Manhattan as well. But we like the idea of it feeling like two worlds, in a way.” Downtown New York – the Southern District, with its courts and U.S. attorney (played by Paul Giamatti) – stand in stark contrast to “this more suburban place where all this great wealth is handled.” Koppelman lives in Manhattan. He says, “It’s understandable why people would want to be in the bucolic environs of Fairfield County. The fact is, why wouldn’t you want to finish your day being a mover of world markets, and then go and ride your horse on a beautiful horse farm? I mean, why isn’t that a perfect day?” Notwithstanding the fact that most hedge fund wizards seldom arrive home in time to

ways they are just different from everybody else.” So why is Westport – at least, the Westport of fat housewives and fat-cat hedge fund managers – on Hollywood’s radar? “We live on the East Coast,” Levien says. “That’s why we’re interested in writing about these settings. I don’t know what else about Fairfield County happens to be drawing Hollywood’s attention right now. Maybe there’s just this idea that in a lot of ways Westport is like this quintessential, well-to-do suburb in the mind of America.” In other words, just like in the days of Lucy, AS BOBBY “AXE” AXELROD, MAGGIE SIFF AS WENDY RHOADES AND PAUL GIAMATTI AS CHUCK RHOADES. PHOTO BY JAMES MINCHIN LEFT: KATY MIXON “AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE” ABOVE: SHOWTIME ORIGINAL SERIES “BILLIONS”. L-R: MALIN AKERMAN AS LARA AXELROD, DAMIAN LEWIS

ride a horse – or that there are nomore horse farms inWestport – Levien adds, “Clearly, what’s the point of becoming a billionaire and having to commute? You may as well set up the world to work for you.” It’s indicated that Axelrod and his family live in Westport. They have a home in the Hamptons – a way-larger-than-life house shown in the opening scene, which in real life actually does dwarf many

Willoughby, and “Bewitched.” Times change. But the Westport the rest of America sees on TV is still all black and white. --- Westport’s Dan Woog is the author of Westport’s popular blog, “06880.” *

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