Woody Harrelson, Jennifer Lopez spotted in North Carolina as big movies film in mountains

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Monday, May 2, 2016
Woody Harrelson visiting downtown Asheville
Woody Harrelson visiting downtown Asheville
wtvd-Credit: Patrick Joseph Vermette via WLOS

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- With two movies filming in western North Carolina, actors are popping up in Asheville like spring flowers.

Woody Harrelson, already familiar with the western part of the state after acting in "The Hunger Games," was spotted Thursday playing chess in Pritchard Park, WLOS reports.

Viewers told WLOS the actor wandered around downtown for a few hours-and that he's a respectable chess player who won every game against the park's regulars.

Harrelson is in town filming "Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri," a big-budget movie shooting in Sylva. The billboards of the movie's title are set up in Black Mountain.

Actress and singer Jennifer Lopez also spent some time in Asheville to visit her boyfriend, Casper Smart.

Smart, 29, tweeted a photo of the two at the Omni Grove Park Inn.

Smart is in Asheville working on the new "Dirty Dancing" remake, along with Modern Family star Sarah Hyland.

And have the spottings barely begun? There could be more as the cast of "Dirty Dancing" also includes Debra Messing and Billy Dee Williams.