White Plains, NY - Westchester is once more the site of a major movie shoot. This one is just a little closer to home than many of the others.

For a day, the county’s art deco office building turned ‘70s Pentagon for “The Hoax,” a movie based on the true story of author Clifford Irving, who sold a bogus biography of the reclusive Howard Hughes to McGraw-Hill in the early 1970s and almost pulled off a staggering hoax.

“We were glad they were interested in our building – it wasn’t a problem for us becoming the Pentagon for the day,” said County Executive Andy Spano. “I think just knowing that Richard Gere was somewhere in the building, working amongst us, added a little excitement to everybody’s day. Plus we made $16,000.”

The day-long shoot by Hoax Productions involves several scenes shot in different parts of the building. The basement was turned into the Pentagon entrance with French doors at either end and a security desk complete with a Pentagon wall plaque at the bottom of the stairwell. Upstairs, on the second floor, crews actually created an entirely new temporary office within the Risk Management department. They constructed new walls and doors, installed a tile floor over the carpet, hung old-fashioned blinds, changed the light fixtures, and brought in filing cabinets and drab furnishings complete with an IBM Selectric and dial phones.

Tony Arena, director of Risk Management, watched the transformation take place and said he was duly impressed.

“I can’t wait to sit in a movie theatre and point and say, ‘That’s my office’!”

Ironically, the production company is bringing in 40 extras to play government employees.

During the afternoon, Gere, who plays Irving, and Molina, who plays his counterpart Richard Suskind, did a scene in the basement where they entered the “Pentagon” and went through security. They then headed up to the second floor for a scene where they walked down the hallway and into an office to rifle through papers in search of secret documents. The scene on the outside steps shows them exiting the Pentagon.

Iris Stevens, the county’s Film Office director who arranged the shoot, said company representatives came to her looking for a 1940s or ‘50s building that was “gray and boring looking,” had little character, and could be made to look like the Pentagon when it was first built. They specifically needed a “very monotonous looking” hallway, she said.

“I immediately thought of the second floor of this building,” she said. “It’s exactly what they were looking for and I knew it. They flipped when they saw the (old) phone booth.”

The film is directed by Lasse Hallstrom (“Cider House Rules” and “Chocolat”). It’s expected to be released in 2006 and be distributed by Walt Disney Studios. The county’s Film Office coordinates the filming of more than a dozen major feature movies a year and brings in about $3 million in fees to the county, municipalities, and private businesses and homes. All told, given all the expenses involved in a major production (food, hotels, other expenses, etc.), film production brings in about $10 million a year.