Over the years, Corcino and Lupo have done a lot of work with entertainment people. Sometimes they're princes. Sometimes they're jerks. (Washington, Lupo said, was "all right.") "When the first train rolls past them, they become a little more responsive and have, I guess, a different respect for what goes on down there," Lupo said. To get from a classroom in Brooklyn, where the course begins, to a working tunnel, where it ends, the students-outfitted in fluorescent vests and hard hats-ride the R train.

"People on the train will be like, 'That track worker really looks like John Travolta!' " Corcino said.

"It happened to me with Mr. Cage," Lupo said. He was referring to Nicolas Cage, whom he instructed for "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," which comes out next summer. "He was a nice man. He took pictures."

Alberteen Anderson, the agency's director of Film and Special Events, said, "Angelina Jolie was in for 'Salt' a few weeks ago, and she was really down-to-earth. You have other stars who are just so nasty to T.A. employees."

Lupo wanted to talk some more about Cage, whom he taught alongside Alfred Molina-"an even bigger star than Nic Cage if you look at how many movies he's made, and, you know, the whole 'Fiddler on the Roof' thing on Broadway." Lupo continued, "Cage was especially interested in the third rail. He had this big thing about the mystical power of electricity."

Lupo said that Cage had been a "big Brooklyn and Coney Island guy."

"Yeah, that was a thing with Travolta, too," Bress replied. "Taking the subway again."

Anderson added, "He was dancing on the tracks one night."

Lupo said, "When I did Cage, he suggested that I see his current movie, 'Knowing,' because there's a subway scene in it and it has a very horrific crash that was completely re-created in a studio in California." Lupo and his colleagues had found the scene dubious: people get sucked under the tracks ("Totally unrealistic"); the car body cuts loose from the wheels and slides along the platform ("That cannot happen"). Someone said, "Did anyone ask how the Pelham local got to Coney Island?" The instructors shook their heads, as if to say, Stranger things have happened. ♦