Smithsonian Featured in Get Smart—and Loving It!

Now that Carrie Bradshaw‘s desk and computer are safely back in the hands of the Smithsonian, the institution will enjoy more film-related buzz with a cameo in the new Get Smart movie, starring Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway as accident-prone Maxwell Smart and his cooing yet skillful sidekick, Agent 99. Opening Friday, the film features updated versions of the duo’s favorite gadgets (think dental floss detonator) and of CONTROL, the top secret U.S. government agency that employs them. Would you believe the Smithsonian as a front for spy headquarters? “In the TV series, when Max parked his car in front of that building and went in through that famous series of doors, they never said what the building was,” director Peter Segal told the New York Post.

We thought if we put our CONTROL underneath the Smithsonian, then we could have him walk though the displays. We have a museum guide saying, “This is an exhibit of CONTROL, a 1960s spy organization that was disbanded at the end of the Cold War.” So in there we put [Smart's] red Sunbeam Tiger and the shoe phone, and the Cone of Silence, and a few of the other things. There’s a scene later in the movie where he needs to borrow a couple of items from the display.

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