Advertisement

COVID testing site to remain open following snag with She's All That remake

FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti's office made the announcement on social media late Monday night following an uproar from the local community.

"Working with [the Los Angeles Fire Department], @Curative & [L.A. Metro], my team has worked to reopen testing at Union Station on Tuesday," Garcetti tweeted. "The 504 Angelenos who were scheduled for a test there can visit the kiosk as originally planned or any of the other 14 City sites, where we offer 38K tests daily."

A source close to Miramax tells EW the initial decision to cancel COVID testing appointments at the Union Station location was not a request from the studio "and since learning of the disruption, production has asked that the testing company resume its services at that location." The source adds that filming is not currently located near the testing kiosks.

A spokesperson for Curative, which operates the testing site, confirmed to EW that the Union Station testing site "will be opened today, Dec. 1, to all patients who have signed up for an appointment as well as any walk-up appointments that the site allows for." They added, "To clarify any previous confusion, we are confirming the site will be open for normal operation today."

Ktown For All, a homeless advocacy group, initially made note of an email sent out from Curative on Monday. The email mentioned the site had to "cancel all appointments for Dec. 1 due to an event being held at this location," though the kiosk would be "available for testing again on Dec. 2."

Days earlier, L.A. County enacted a new stay-at-home order amid more COVID-19 spikes in California. Garcetti made note on social media earlier on Monday that cases were "surging" and urged citizens to "take urgent action to flatten the curve."

According to The New York Times, the event causing the closure was He's All That, which stars TikTok personality Addison Rae, now in the Freddie Prinze Jr. role for the gender-swapped film. Cobra Kai actor Tanner Buchanan will fill the role once played by Rachael Leigh Cook in She's All That. The original movie saw a popular high school jock making a bet to transform a girl from the loser crowd into prom queen. The remake will now see a popular social media influencer (Rae) turning the biggest loser in school (Buchanan) into prom king.

A rep for the filming permit organization FilmLA did not immediately respond to EW's requests for comment. However, a spokesperson for FilmLA told Deadline, "Prior to this issue being brought to our attention, neither FilmLA nor the locations team for the production company had prior knowledge of a Covid-19 testing center operating on-site... Made aware of the testing site closure, production reps for the film offered to work with station representatives to restore access to the testing site tomorrow. The two uses of the facility may be compatible, based on the area to be used for filming and the production's interest in making it work."

This article has been updated with a statement from Curative and reporting on Miramax.

Related content: