The industry also has a small army of locale scouts empowered with platinum-level parking permits. And there's the rub: Ordinary New Yorkers with no less a talent for divining authenticity have been complaining about the loss of parking spaces to scouts who have City Hall tags to park ticket-free, on the job or not, blasé as diplomats.

And here's the happy ending: With the industry booming, enjoying tax breaks and creating jobs, the city decided it was wise to kill the parking perks for film scouts as of July 1. Call it Gotham Strikes Back.

This is a nice first step, but there is a long way to go to stem the tide of cars entering Manhattan everyday...