Explore Long Island

Actress Naomi Watts was on Shelter Island Thursday filming her latest flick, "Funny Games," a remake of the 1997 movie about two psychotic young men holding a family captive in a lakeside cabin.

At first glance, it is just an old race car. Emblems, a cage around the driver and number 54. History is what makes it special.

OK, so nobody heads to the Hamptons for the history. But visitors who add museum-hopping to the usual whirl of sunning, shopping, dishing, noshing and star-gazing are guaranteed to encounter more celebrities (though granted, some may have been dead a century or two).

Each year more than 100,000 tourists from far and near scale the 137 tower steps at Montauk Point Lighthouse -- the equivalent of a spiraling 10-story trudge.

Infinitely farther from the Hamptons in temperament than in driving time, low-key Montauk has the easygoing aura of end-of-the-road resorts from Key West, Fla., to Homer, Alaska. One of the few indications it's even aware of its just-folks allure is the droll sign that's graced the window of Shagwong Restaurant about as long as anyone remembers: "Piano player wanted. Must have knowledge of opening clams.”