
Allegation: Atlantic City Mayor Used ‘Strong Arm’ to Get Movie Role
A full length Motion Movie Picture was filmed in Atlantic City, called “People Not Places,” … starring the legendary Academy Award winning actress, Shirley MacLaine.
The movie was filmed this past Summer, 2024 over 6-week period.
The movie also starred another prominent actor, Stephen Dorff.
The two actors had great chemistry throughout the filming, which took place in the following Atlantic County, New Jersey communities:
- Atlantic City
- Ventnor
- Margate
- Ocean City
- Pleasantville
The movie created a lot of buzz during 6 weeks of filing in the Southern New Jersey area.
John Devlin has been a Teamster member for 32 years. He has worked on many Hollywood movies, including “Snake Eyes,” which was filmed in Atlantic City in 1988.
“Snake Eyes” was directed by Brian DePalma and the movie starred Nicholas Cage and Gary Sinese.
Devlin revealed for the first time, today, Monday, February 3, 2025, live on-air, on WPG Talk Radio 95.5 FM … that Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small pushed his way into receiving a small acting role in the “People Not Places.”
Devlin confirmed that the movie script was already written.
Devlin stated that he spoke directly with the film’s Director, Brad Furman, who asked Devlin:
“Let me ask you something … What is going on in your city? I ordered a police detail and I received a phone call redirecting me to a have a meeting with The Mayor (Small) at The Tropicana,” said Devlin … who was sharing the content of his conversation with Furman.
Furman allegedly told Devlin that Mayor Small advised that when a movie is made in Atlantic City, “I normally appear in a cameo,” … Small is alleged to have said.
Devlin told us following the on-air interview this morning that:
“When Brad Furman called for more police details, he was redirected to the mayors office. When speaking to mayor, he wanted a 10:00 a.m. private meeting with him at the Tropicana. He (Furman) was like "I have a movie to shoot!" Because they didn't want to cause waves they found a spot for him. The audacity of someone just to get a spot in the limelight. I mean I always knew he liked to be the center of attention, but when you basically strong arm someone to get a part in a movie is beyond my understanding and totally unethical!” said Devlin.”
About appearing in the movie, Small wrote on his Instagram account at the time:
immartysmall What an honor to meet the legendary Shirley McLaine on the set of her movie shot in The GREAT City of Atlantic City. The film is named People not Places...it's her final film and of course yours truly plays a part #teamsmall #mayorsmall #cityofatlanticcity #wealwaysworking #itsagreatdayhereinthecityofatlanticcity #canwesaygreatday #wejustgettingstarted #aintnostoppingusnow
Small posted photos of himself, posing with MacLaine and Dorff on his Instagram page that we do not have permission to publish here.
Here are some photos that are associated with the movie.
Devlin’s allegation sounds very similar to what developer Rocco Sebastiani said about Marty Small.
Sebastiani told us that Marty Small wanted a private meeting with him to discuss his permits to develop the original Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino.
Here is a link to what Sebastiani told us. The state of New Jersey recently made a decision to take away the supervision of Sebastiani‘s project away from the City of Atlantic City. The state is handling it themselves.
Here are the details:
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