The number of people at the corner of 18th and Columbia Tuesday night looked more like what you’d expect on a Saturday night. Except that it was as bright as day. From around 9 p.m. to well beyond midnight, a sizable crowd gathered on the sidewalks that weren’t in use by the teeming film crew to get a close-up view of the complexities involved in making a big-budget film.

The scene being shot directly in front of the Starbucks was an apparent break-up (or other form of unhappy separation), with Reese Witherspoon’s character abandoning Paul Rudd’s via a taxi which he hails for her.

Owen Wilson was not in the scene, but lurked in the shadows among the crew (Jack Nicholson was not present). Rudd crossed the street at one point to spend a few minutes chatting with the crowd face-to-face. He was apologetic for the inconvenience caused to the neighborhood, and stopped to pose for photos with a couple of fans, unleashing his killer smile a couple of times.

The as-yet-untitled movie is directed by James L. Brooks (As Good As It Gets, Terms of Endearment) and has been shooting around D.C. for the past couple of weeks.