Last time we saw Marshall Mann, he was crying as his partner, Mary, was rushed to the hospital in the season-ending cliffhanger of "In Plain Sight."

Not breathing, with a bullet in her belly, U.S. Marshal Mary Shannon had been beaten by the bad guys and bopped on the brain in a local barrio.

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This is one we can really be proud of. Earlier this week, MovieMaker named Albuquerque the best place in the nation to live and work in the film business, and Los Angeles is happy about it.

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The trailers movie stars rent may look like the fifth-wheel Grandma and Grandpa take to Yellowstone every year. But, sorry Xzibit, they make your guys from "Pimp My Ride" look like rank amateurs.

 From a full galley, bedroom, bathrooms with showers and Internet connections, the trailers are an office, makeup studio, party pad and bedroom on the road.

 The pimped-out trailers from Star Waggons, housed at Albuquerque Studios, are specialty tools. The trailers have built-in makeup counters that rival anything backstage on Broadway.

 Pedro Valdez, the local manager of Star Waggons, said the company rents about 50 to 70 trailers from Albuquerque Studios at any given time. Some are local and some go to parts east, from Louisiana and Michigan to as far as Boston.

 But, man, it's worth the trip.

 The company's 47-foot, fifth-wheel trailer is, company President Jason Waggoner said, built to near-military specs so that it can be towed to any location without damage. Inside, once all the pop-out extensions are deployed and the power and water hooked up, it's almost 600 square feet of luxury. From 52-inch flat-panel TVs and massage chairs, to a kitchen designed for a professional chef, they've got it all. Stars live in style on the road.

 Valdez said trailers like this are usually for the big stars, those making at least $20 million a picture. The lesser stars get a two- or three-room version of the same trailer.

 Sure, the 47-foot trailer is the top-of-the-line beast, and the company offers several other smaller trailers that may be just as long, but they'll have two or three rooms crammed in.

 "This is for a star that's on the way up," Valdez said, opening the door to one, which shows a sofa bed, TV and makeup counter next to a bathroom.

 Star Waggons is the largest company of its kind in the business with almost 700 trailers of all varieties, Waggoner said, going to sets all over North America. The company, based in Burbank, Calif., rents makeup trailers, living quarters, mobile offices, schoolroom trailers for child actors, gyms, catering trucks and more.

 "When they set up, it's a small-scale military operation," Waggoner said.

 The company can design and set up a full town for movie sets. When "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" filmed in Roy, N.M., last year, Star Waggons designed a full encampment for the crew because the little town didn't have enough hotel rooms.

 The biggest stars, though, like Will Smith, have doubledecker custom tour buses that would put even the best apartments in Albuquerque to shame.

 Often, Valdez said, stars (and it's a shame he can't say which ones) trash a trailer. One big-name star sent back two trailers with busted cabinets, torn up beds and broken massage chairs and left garbage all over the place.

 "We're really concerned about the trash," Valdez said. "We know who was in there and for some people, that trash could be valuable."

Check it out

 Want to see a movie-star trailer from the inside? Click here for a quick tour.

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When "The Book of Eli" premieres Monday night in Los Angeles, a local face will be on the red carpet right alongside Gary Oldman and Denzel Washington.

Lora Cunningham, an Albuquerque native and New Mexico State University alumna, ended up with a major role in the new film "The Book of Eli," a role large enough that she earned a walk down the red carpet.

"I've been on the red carpet before," Cunningham said. "But this is my biggest one."

It doesn't get much bigger than Denzel and Mila Kunis. The film, directed by Allen Hughes ("Dead Presidents" and "Menace II Society") is expected to be a blockbuster when it opens Friday.

It's the story of a post apocalyptic nightmarish future in which everyone is a cannibal and Washington has the only copy of the book that can save humankind. The film was made last winter at Albuquerque Studios.

The first woman Washington meets on his journey is Cunningham, credited simply as Young Woman Hijacker. "I know that might sound nondescript," Cunningham said. "It's post-apocalyptic and we don't have names. None of us have names. We're all cannibals."

I suppose it's easier not to name your food, anyway.

But, Cunningham said, acting with Washington was certainly a treat.

"He is one of the most confident people. There is such a magnetism to that man. It caught me by surprise," she said. "He was everything I thought he'd be and more. He's the real deal."

Then, later in the film, Cunningham is featured in a scene opposite the film's other star, Kunis ("That '70's Show").

"She's a rascal is what she is," Cunningham said.

Though she's acted for several years in L.A., it's been back home where she's quickly landed several major roles.

Last week she shared camera time with Megan Fox and Mickey Rourke in "Passion Pit," which began shooting in Albuquerque last week.

Cunningham also will appear on the upcoming season of "Breaking Bad" as an emergency-room doctor.

Cunningham stumbled into acting, she said, in the early 1990s when she was the choreographer for NMSU's Sundancers dance squad.

"I got a call from a P.A., and I didn't know what a P.A. was," she said.

The production assistant introduced himself and said that he was working on a film in Las Cruces and wanted some of the dancers for a bar scene.

"I was young and I said, 'Can I do it too?' " Cunningham said. "He said 'Sure.' "

She auditioned for a role, got it and was hooked.

But, at the time there wasn't a movie business in New Mexico and she moved to L.A., where she was accepted into the American Academy of Dramatic Arts school. Though she's acting locally, she's also teaching acting classes at Albuquerque Studios.

"I've been finding my way back home," she said.

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