Is it over yet?

Ugh. this week.

Highlights were my Netflix delivery as well as my random Amazon deliveries (a Truman Capote collection, an old school Polaroid camera, and today, a book called The Man Who Fell in Love with The Moon, that Aysha blogged about).

I'm super in love with Hem this week. Guess I'm feeling a lil folky.

My story on my new friend David Denman aired today. You can check it out here.

So I'm on the night shift, which somehow this week has meant the early morning shift, a random Willem Dafoe midday interview, a 4 hour disorganized red carpet, and (tonight) a late night writing sesh so Gerrad can go out. (it's ok tho, because...IT'S JONATHAN'S BDAY!!! and if I, as his future baby mama option cannot be at his special celebration, his roomie G should be.)

PS Lauren informed Bob (our boss) that we have taken on the task of breeding our own family flicks families so we won't have to cast one. Weird is that Presley leaned over to me in the meeting yesterday and suggested her and I do the same thing. So I guess I better get busy.

I'd also like to give a shoutout right now to Crystal Light Wild Strawberry. It brought a smile to my face today.

Back to Willem Dafoe, he was cool and not as scary in person. I especially liked the Chateau Marmont suite we did the interview in (it was decorated just my style, O'Keefe and Merritt range and everything!). I also liked the way he told me "you did a good job, kid." at the end. I indicated in my shoot report that he quite possibly thought "Reelzchannel" was code word for "Community College Show About Movies."

Shoot reports. I always try to be funny in mine. Mostly because sometimes shoots suck and I have to make the reports entertaining. Here's an example. Last night's 4 hour shoot for the kickoff of the Beverly Hills Film Festival. I sent the following report (verbatim!) to a list of people that includes boss people. Luckily they appreciate my candid humor and lack of professionalism in emails.

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Bust…it’s not just a magazine that my friend’s charity is advertised in…

Seriously.

Well, at least we got off the riser/rizer? How ever you spell it, it’s a dumb place to put ENG crews that need to do interviews. Once I got her to move us down to the carpet, I also got her to realize that the print people could be moved to the end of the line on the opposite side because they didn’t need a background for their stuff to look good. She must have been running it alone because she also slacked in letting us know who people were. She was however good at giving us a heads up that Jessica Biel’s 50-50 shot at attendance was actually 100% not happening. Apparently she was circling in a limo with Andy Garcia and Brett Ratner and they all decided to go somewhere else instead.

Here’s who we DID talk to… (hold onto your pants!)

1. Rampage Jackson. Yep, the ultimate fighter. We talked about his movie Bad Guys. Acting vs fighting. How he got into acting after getting his ass kicked. Yep. We got an MFM…Not surprisingly it was Bad Guys…BECAUSE HE’S IN IT!
2. Clement Von Franckenstein. Gotta say, an attractive old guy. Looks, personality, accent. We talked about the film festival and why he likes it. Discussed his upcoming film Kids in America. We also talked about how much he loves ReelzChannel (it was funny, every old guy I talked to knew who we were, but Clement knew what channel we were on!) Even in his MFM he says how much he likes ReelzChannel (and Some Like it Hot) (his intv if you’re looking for it is around 1:04:40)
3. Danny Strong. He wrote the HBO Movie Recount starring Kevin Spacey. So we talked about it. We also talked about how film festivals help writers.
4. Art LaFleur. I think we talked about film festivals. I know we talked about Field of Dreams and why sports movies work so well. I think his MFM might have been Field of Dreams. Whether it was or not, he did talk to me about crying on set in Iowa.
5. Jake Busey. Talked about: the fest, he had a movie in it last year, now he has a producing partner and that’s what he’s doing. Discussed being in an acting family and going from actor to producer.
6. Jarvee Hutcherson. The cultural aspects of the BHFF.
7. Nino Simone (who started the fest) and some guy named Eric who was a presenter. Nino talked about why they started it and what we can expect from this year’s festival. (Stellar red carpets weren’t on the list.)
8. Harris Goldberg. Writer and Director of Numb (the Matthew Perry movie). Talked about what the autobiographical movie’s about, having Matthew Perry play him, and film festivals.
9. Danny Masterson. He remembered me which is always nice of someone who once kissed your cheek and invited you to play foosball. He really downplayed his part in the movie playing tonight, mostly because it is produced by his bro Chris and he didn’t wanna take away from that. I did talk about them working together and festivals and then I talked to him about Yes Man with Jim Carrey. He talked about a bar fight scene. With Bradley Cooper. Then he asked me if I ever saw Bradley with his shirt off and I was all, not in a movie…(wink!) He didn’t ask me to become a Scientologist.
10. Chris Masterson. Played off what Danny had said about working with him. Talked about producing, and being behind the camera. Also talked festivals.
11. Eric Roberts. Talked about BHFF movie Cookie Thief. (Movie’s director and a costar named Michelle were also there) Talked about the festival. Eating on camera. (He had to chew and spit out the cookies because he’s a vegan or bulimic or something and couldn’t swallow them). Talked about his part in Dark Knight @ 1:35:19 (He played out a scene). I then asked him about a family of actors (mentioning Emma not Julia) and he said @ 1:36:00 “Since I forged the way, it feels great!”
12. Kirsten Lea. She’s a Brit who’s in The Soloist. So we talked about it and working with Robert Downey Jr. And British vs American movies. And indies vs big budgets.
13. Danny Devito. It should be mentioned that I’m pretty sure he was drunk and it was kinda crazy the way the crews and photogs fawned and clamored over him. When you climax with Danny Devito, you know you’re having one heck of a night. I didn’t mean that in the way it reads, but it’s funny so I’m leaving it. He bounced around the red carpet. His goddaughter wrote the short he and Rhea are in so he talked about that. He talked about the festival and indie film. I also asked him about directing the upcoming “True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.” PS He is short. REALLY short. Which brings me back to my Kristin Chenowith conundrum which is what do you do when you interview short adults? It’s awkward to hold the mike down and look down. Luckily at one point it was so congested that it looked like I had to squat in order to peek through cameras. I was really hoping for a free bottle of his lemon-chello (sp?) but he wasn’t handing it out.
14. Rhea Perlman. I like her. She’s taller than Danny. Sweet lady. Talked about the festival’s proximity to their house and the movie and how it feels to help out a newcomer to the biz. I then asked her about the possibility of a Cheers movie. No I didn’t. But I am sure wishing I would’ve. (I didn’t think about it until just this moment.) Oh Carla.

In conclusion…I’ll write up a little something something and put it in working scripts and you guys can have a ball with it in the morning.

Thanks. I really had a blast. It’s nights like these that make me proud to be a field producer…and an American…that doesn’t live in Beverly Hills.
Good night.