“Lady in the Lake” star Natalie Portman joined her co-star and Baltimore native Moses Ingram to cheer on the Orioles at Camden Yards as the team took on the New York Yankees over the weekend.
Ingram, a graduate of Baltimore School for the Arts, threw out the first pitch at Saturday’s game before cheering in the stands alongside cast members, including the series’ director, Alma Har’el.
The cast was in town to celebrate the upcoming debut of the Apple TV+ series, which is based on the novel by Baltimore author Laura Lippman and was filmed in Baltimore. The series will premiere on Friday, when the first two of seven episodes will be released by the subscription streaming service. Those will be followed by one episode every Friday through Aug. 23.
Ingram posted a video from her Oriole Park visit on Instagram, sharing her love for Baltimore: “21215, 21216, 21229. Ain’t no place like home,” she wrote.
According to the Apple TV+ news release, “’Lady in the Lake’ emerges as a feverish noir thriller and an unexpected tale of the price women pay for their dreams.” The TV series takes place in Baltimore in 1966 and was inspired by two real-life killings.
The body of Shirley Lee Wigeon Parker (Cleo Sherwood in the book and Cleo Johnson in the TV series) was found June 2, 1969, in a fountain at the center of Druid Lake. Parker was a 35-year-old barmaid at the then-famous Sphinx Club.
Just three months later, 11-year-old Esther Lebowitz (in the novel, she’s named Tessie Fine) was killed in the basement of a popular local aquarium store. The girl’s badly bruised body was found two days later in a wooded area known as a local lovers’ lane.
In Lippman’s novel, both deaths are investigated by Madeleine Schwartz (Maddie), a housewife turned reporter played by Portman in the TV adaptation. Maddie’s perspective is challenged and at times contradicted by the voice of Johnson, who is portrayed by Ingram.
The miniseries had an economic impact of at least $100 million for Maryland, according to a July 9 news release from Gov. Wes Moore’s office, which said the production created 1,132 Maryland jobs.