Button Boat

Mississippi Ocean Springs Hollywood is full of stories about how stars got discovered. This one was spotted at a Boat Show.

by Jere Hough

Published: Tue, January 20, 2009 - 3:25 pm CST Last Updated: Tue, January 20, 2009 - 10:40 pm CST

Brad Pitt's new movie, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" was filmed by Lake Ponchartrain. And in the background there are boats...including this beautiful hand-crafted Bahamian style dinghy. And the hands that did all the crafting belong to Dr. James Alexander of Ocean Springs.

He explains its unusual shape, "It's a reproduction of a Bahama Dinghy...All of my life, every year or two, I've built some sort of a small boat."

The retired doctor estimates he's built about two dozen boats over the years, but this one he took to a boat show in Louisana, and it got discovered.
"They were making...just setting up the set and all to make 'Benjamin Button' with Brad Pitt within a mile or two of where I was, and they saw the boat and decided to use it."

In the story, it's the boat that accompanies Cate Blanchett's swim across the English Channel. However, it lost that role.
"Brad Pitt was to have rowed this boat, and I said, 'Well, I've been rowing boats all my life, and I can't row it, it's so heavy,'" laughs Alexander.
So, the boat just shows up in the background. Alexander was paid $1200 for the three days they used the boat.

Remarkably Alexander built the boat, by himself, in about nine months...including hand-hewing that mast from a massive salvaged beam. And bending the boards perfectly for the bow. He points out, "The lighter is cypress, and the darker is mahoghany."

It's role in the movie aside, this beautiful boat is, by itself, a real star.

Dr. Alexander was raised around Biloxi's waterfront. He practiced medicine in D'Iberville, Mississippi, for 47 years.

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