OTHER TECH

Architectural rendering, Larry Garrick Interior and design stylist, John Patrick

To enter the spanking-new house, you first have to get past Gort - no, not the 10-foot-tall laser-eyed titanium robot from the '50s sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still but the scruffy, hyperkinetic border terrier from the '90s comedy classic There's Something About Mary. You know - the one that's drugged, set on fire, thrown out a window, and ultimately entombed in a body cast.

Pint-sized Gort, you quickly find out, is the guardian of this domain, and his master is Charlie Wessler. Thanks to Charlie's decade-long collaboration with writers/directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly, he's one of the most successful comedy producers ever. The blockbusters Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary helped make Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller household names - and Mary made a lot of people think twice before reaching for somebody else's hair gel. Chances are good you also know some of the other howlers in the Farrelly/Wessler canon, like Me, Myself & Irene, Shallow Hal, and Stuck on You.

It turns out that, along with being a movie producer, Charlie is also a home theater nut. So I've come to his house in upstate New York's Hudson River Valley to see how somebody who loves to both make and watch movies went about creating a whole-house entertainment system.